3 ms·

The best qualitative thing I've seen on the state space of drugs is this selection of self portraits: http://bryanlewissaunders.org/drugs/ http://bryanlewissaun

by glup 10y ago

The best qualitative thing I've seen on the state space of drugs is this selection of self portraits: http://bryanlewissaunders.org/drugs/ http://bryanlewissaunders.org/drugs/. Special mentions for meth, lithium, and bath salts. Ooh boy I don't want bath salts.

Alex3917 10y ago
This is the best resource that I've seen that covers the possible qualitative effects of different drug classes: http://disregardeverythingisay.com/post/9331287956/the-visual-components-of-a-psychedelic-experience http://disregardeverythingisay.com/post/9331287956/the-visua... The one drug-related thing that's been bothering me the last couple weeks is just how many native psychoactive plants have virtually zero writeups on Erowid: indian tobacco, sweet flag, mugwort, mulberries, indian pipe, etc. At least in New England every single park, even in Manhattan, is pretty much an all-you-can-eat buffet of psychoactive plants and yet there is very little information about the safety and efficacy of most of them, or even a quorum of anecdotes for that matter.
GuiA 10y ago
I guess it's sort of a cool art project? But it doesn't seem that useful as a data point. Mostly because the artwork is likely affected by the expected outcome more so than the actual experience, and that experiences can vary wildly even with the same substance, and varies wildly amongst people. I.e. from this guy's self portrait with absinth you'd imagine that it makes you sad, but that's never been my experience with it. More than anything it's a nice showcase of the artist's stylistic range.
- chestervonwinch 10y ago
  Agreed, and more generally, how do you say attribute different artistic stylings as due to a drug vs. all other factors (e.g., expectations of the drug, mood, social setting, etc.). I would imagine this has been studied in perceptual psychology (or some related field) in a more controlled fashion.
sneak 10y ago
Wow, that guy is an idiot.
- adrusi 10y ago
  Why?
  - sneak 10y ago
    Look at the incredibly dangerous/unsafe/unfun drugs he did in that list. Duster, meth, huffing naptha... I mean, I'm all for self-experimentation but we know certain things are incredibly damaging to human beings.
    - adrusi 10y ago
      Very few drugs are significantly physically dangerous when not used chronically, as long as you're careful with dosage. Even volatile solvent inhalants, easily the least-safe commonly-used drugs, simply can't do that much damage without becoming a habit. The cases of people dying on their first use of inhalants are either overdoses (not hard to overdose on inhalants) or the result of blowing pressurized gas directly into the throat, causing a dramatic drop in temperature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intoxicative_inhalant#Sudden_sniffing_death_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intoxicative_inhalant#Sudden_s... I imagine that this project had a net-negative effect on his health, but calling him an idiot assumes that he didn't weigh the risks. I get the impression that he has done more research on the topic than we have.

by glup 10y ago

Alex3917 10y ago

This is the best resource that I've seen that covers the possible qualitative effects of different drug classes: http://disregardeverythingisay.com/post/9331287956/the-visual-components-of-a-psychedelic-experience http://disregardeverythingisay.com/post/9331287956/the-visua... The one drug-related thing that's been bothering me the last couple weeks is just how many native psychoactive plants have virtually zero writeups on Erowid: indian tobacco, sweet flag, mugwort, mulberries, indian pipe, etc. At least in New England every single park, even in Manhattan, is pretty much an all-you-can-eat buffet of psychoactive plants and yet there is very little information about the safety and efficacy of most of them, or even a quorum of anecdotes for that matter.

GuiA 10y ago

I guess it's sort of a cool art project? But it doesn't seem that useful as a data point. Mostly because the artwork is likely affected by the expected outcome more so than the actual experience, and that experiences can vary wildly even with the same substance, and varies wildly amongst people. I.e. from this guy's self portrait with absinth you'd imagine that it makes you sad, but that's never been my experience with it. More than anything it's a nice showcase of the artist's stylistic range.

chestervonwinch 10y ago
Agreed, and more generally, how do you say attribute different artistic stylings as due to a drug vs. all other factors (e.g., expectations of the drug, mood, social setting, etc.). I would imagine this has been studied in perceptual psychology (or some related field) in a more controlled fashion.

sneak 10y ago

Wow, that guy is an idiot.

adrusi 10y ago
Why?
- sneak 10y ago
  Look at the incredibly dangerous/unsafe/unfun drugs he did in that list. Duster, meth, huffing naptha... I mean, I'm all for self-experimentation but we know certain things are incredibly damaging to human beings.
  - adrusi 10y ago
    Very few drugs are significantly physically dangerous when not used chronically, as long as you're careful with dosage. Even volatile solvent inhalants, easily the least-safe commonly-used drugs, simply can't do that much damage without becoming a habit. The cases of people dying on their first use of inhalants are either overdoses (not hard to overdose on inhalants) or the result of blowing pressurized gas directly into the throat, causing a dramatic drop in temperature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intoxicative_inhalant#Sudden_sniffing_death_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intoxicative_inhalant#Sudden_s... I imagine that this project had a net-negative effect on his health, but calling him an idiot assumes that he didn't weigh the risks. I get the impression that he has done more research on the topic than we have.