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> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. This, I believe, is one of the most powerful and profound lessons hallucinogens can teach us. If y

> Just "feeling sure" isn't enough to certain of something. This, I believe, is one of the most powerful and profound lessons hallucinogens can teach us. If you can experience, first hand, that even the sensory input from your eyes and ears can not always be trusted, then it tends to make you very, very skeptical of things that are held as immutably true beliefs.

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
It would be hilarious if math, science, and logic turned out to be consensus hallucinations that were not only incomplete but could not make more than limited patches of sense.
- nabla9 10y ago
  It's possible to give a person posthypnotic suggestion that number four does not exist, for example. When they try to count their fingers, hilarity ensues: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. WTF! 11 figers, this is wrong. I try to count fingers in both of my hands separately and sum them together. 1,2,3,5,6 and 1,2,3,5,6. 6+6=12 WTF, now I have 12 fingers. If math and logic were hallucinations, they would lead into contradictions.
  - cgriswald 10y ago
    The existence of contrary hallucinations does not imply that all hallucinations are contrary.
  - pault 10y ago
    You could just keep adding spatial dimensions until 12 fingers are predicted by the theory. Of course, everybody knows you have both 11 fingers and 12 fingers, depending on how the hand is observed.
- CuriouslyC 10y ago
  There's an old saying, if a problem seems insoluble, perhaps you are asking the question the wrong way. It ties (ahem) in with the parable of the Gordian knot. We've got a few seemingly insoluble questions (such as the nature of consciousness, the unification of gravity and quantum theory, etc) that are just screaming at us.
dpweb 10y ago
Everyone knows that we inherit physcially from our ancestors going back millions of years, but why not psychic inheritance. for instance, children are afraid of the dark. dont forget for thousands of years prehistoric animals killed humans in the dark. i believe we inherit from our ancestors and this explains some of our current psychology. wouldnt be surprised if dmt is halping the mind tap into some human psychological archetype, the insects repesenting something in the numan experience. of course, also, maybe we are a huge experiment by extraterrestrial aliens and they examine us, block our minds from this and dmt is an antidote! the point is, were trapped in our conciousness its all we know.
- _red 10y ago
  There is an idea known as "morphic resonance" which encapsulates this idea. Another sideline issue that this idea addresses is: how did the cells of your ear know to grow into that shape. Obviously we know that stem cells are the base building blocks that can be 'reprogrammed' to become various parts of the body -- but how specifically do the cells know how to arrange themselves to make the specific 'ear-shape'? The proposal morphic resonance states is that somehow those cells become in tune with some specific frequency and that frequency controls the growth rate. Almost as if nature has a wifi network that holds the 3D CAD files that cells use to organize themselves. Obviously pure speculation, but fun to think about nonetheless.
sli 10y ago
In the same vein, after a couple experiences with hallucinogens, I've started having some amusingly pedestrian reactions to some of the effects. I still enjoy them all the same. For example, when I look at a tree and notice that the clumps of leaves all have the same shape, I'll just immediately blurt out something like, "Well that doesn't seem correct," almost as a reflex. They keyword of course being "seem." There's no reason those clumps of leaves can't all be the same shape, but my brain seems to want to reconcile what I'm seeing with what I know is pretty unlikely, but not impossible. I've had similar reactions to leaves on the ground arranging into gridlike patterns at first glance. I see no reason why the leaves can't naturally fall into a grid pattern, and I likely won't notice minor variances in how they're spaced out if they actually were in that pattern. All in all, some of the most positive and personally insightful experiences I've had.

TheOtherHobbes 10y ago

It would be hilarious if math, science, and logic turned out to be consensus hallucinations that were not only incomplete but could not make more than limited patches of sense.

nabla9 10y ago
It's possible to give a person posthypnotic suggestion that number four does not exist, for example. When they try to count their fingers, hilarity ensues: 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. WTF! 11 figers, this is wrong. I try to count fingers in both of my hands separately and sum them together. 1,2,3,5,6 and 1,2,3,5,6. 6+6=12 WTF, now I have 12 fingers. If math and logic were hallucinations, they would lead into contradictions.
- cgriswald 10y ago
  The existence of contrary hallucinations does not imply that all hallucinations are contrary.
- pault 10y ago
  You could just keep adding spatial dimensions until 12 fingers are predicted by the theory. Of course, everybody knows you have both 11 fingers and 12 fingers, depending on how the hand is observed.
CuriouslyC 10y ago
There's an old saying, if a problem seems insoluble, perhaps you are asking the question the wrong way. It ties (ahem) in with the parable of the Gordian knot. We've got a few seemingly insoluble questions (such as the nature of consciousness, the unification of gravity and quantum theory, etc) that are just screaming at us.

dpweb 10y ago

Everyone knows that we inherit physcially from our ancestors going back millions of years, but why not psychic inheritance. for instance, children are afraid of the dark. dont forget for thousands of years prehistoric animals killed humans in the dark. i believe we inherit from our ancestors and this explains some of our current psychology. wouldnt be surprised if dmt is halping the mind tap into some human psychological archetype, the insects repesenting something in the numan experience. of course, also, maybe we are a huge experiment by extraterrestrial aliens and they examine us, block our minds from this and dmt is an antidote! the point is, were trapped in our conciousness its all we know.

_red 10y ago
There is an idea known as "morphic resonance" which encapsulates this idea. Another sideline issue that this idea addresses is: how did the cells of your ear know to grow into that shape. Obviously we know that stem cells are the base building blocks that can be 'reprogrammed' to become various parts of the body -- but how specifically do the cells know how to arrange themselves to make the specific 'ear-shape'? The proposal morphic resonance states is that somehow those cells become in tune with some specific frequency and that frequency controls the growth rate. Almost as if nature has a wifi network that holds the 3D CAD files that cells use to organize themselves. Obviously pure speculation, but fun to think about nonetheless.

sli 10y ago

In the same vein, after a couple experiences with hallucinogens, I've started having some amusingly pedestrian reactions to some of the effects. I still enjoy them all the same. For example, when I look at a tree and notice that the clumps of leaves all have the same shape, I'll just immediately blurt out something like, "Well that doesn't seem correct," almost as a reflex. They keyword of course being "seem." There's no reason those clumps of leaves can't all be the same shape, but my brain seems to want to reconcile what I'm seeing with what I know is pretty unlikely, but not impossible. I've had similar reactions to leaves on the ground arranging into gridlike patterns at first glance. I see no reason why the leaves can't naturally fall into a grid pattern, and I likely won't notice minor variances in how they're spaced out if they actually were in that pattern. All in all, some of the most positive and personally insightful experiences I've had.