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> Psychedelics allow people to more easily shift their perspective This is a fairly accurate summary, from my personal experience. Psychedelics help to partia

> Psychedelics allow people to more easily shift their perspective This is a fairly accurate summary, from my personal experience. Psychedelics help to partially peel back the immense layers of mental models and perspectives that we slowly build up over the many years of our life. These layers are usually fairly inscrutable -- most people don't think about them much. As the mental model of one's self is perhaps the most deeply rooted of them all, this process is how "ego death" occurs. It is possible to gain some insight into our deeply rooted mental structures through years of careful self-observation and/or meditation, but psychedelics are an incredibly powerful tool for getting a different view of your own mind in single day (integrating the experience takes much longer). I should say, though, due to the sheer power and novelty of the experience, it can feel as if the most simple thought is deeply profund -- so this is something one has to watch out for, if they care about genuine insight. Warning: Psychedelics should be used with great caution -- they are not toys, and can cause significant harm if used improperly or under the wrong conditions.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
> it can feel as if the most simple thought is deeply profund -- so this is something one has to watch out for, if they care about genuine insight. Maybe I've gone off the deep end, but I think a lot of the deepest and most meaningful truths I've realized are actually tautological. It's as though it's all just one giant circle, you start with a simple tautological statement like "it is what it is" and think it's silly, spend years thinking about, observing, and modeling reality, and come to the profound conclusion that it is indeed what it is. The only difference is that having walked the circle and observed the statement from all sides you finally understand what it means. I'm starting to wonder if all truths aren't tautologies. Take evolution: in very simple form it could be stated as "Things that self-replicate self-replicate. Things that are better at it are better at it".

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

> it can feel as if the most simple thought is deeply profund -- so this is something one has to watch out for, if they care about genuine insight. Maybe I've gone off the deep end, but I think a lot of the deepest and most meaningful truths I've realized are actually tautological. It's as though it's all just one giant circle, you start with a simple tautological statement like "it is what it is" and think it's silly, spend years thinking about, observing, and modeling reality, and come to the profound conclusion that it is indeed what it is. The only difference is that having walked the circle and observed the statement from all sides you finally understand what it means. I'm starting to wonder if all truths aren't tautologies. Take evolution: in very simple form it could be stated as "Things that self-replicate self-replicate. Things that are better at it are better at it".