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It was enlightening, but what I mean is that I simply lack the language skills to adaquately describe it. Can you describe a rainbow to a blind person? Sort of:
by Moodles 8y ago
It was enlightening, but what I mean is that I simply lack the language skills to adaquately describe it. Can you describe a rainbow to a blind person? Sort of: you might try to explain it in terms of sounds being next to each other, but we lack the language to do it adequately.
My original post is sort of the best I can do I think. It’s not like “enlightening” like knowledge I learned. It was just enlightening in a kind of spiritual way, to feel that way. To know I’m capable of feeling that at peace and empathetic, I guess? Doesn’t give it justice but that’s an approximation.
Certainly true you can come out and say some stupid, non-profound things when on drugs though :-)
- lostmsu 8y agoOne can definitely describe a rainbow to a blind person. Your explanation is perfectly valid. Does that mean, that before that experience you never felt at peace or empathetic, or were you just enlightened, that you can induce that feeling by drugs?
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoSure, you can describe it in a technically correct way, maybe even provide an analogy, but what you can't provide is the context for understanding the experience of seeing the rainbow.
- lostmsu 8y agoThe context being "being on drugs"? How is it related to enlightenment?
- Moodles 8y ago> One can definitely describe a rainbow to a blind person. Your explanation is perfectly valid. My explanation is just an approximation though isn't it? It doesn't help the blind person to actually see the rainbow, just to get a sense of it. > Does that mean, that before that experience you never felt at peace or empathetic, or were you just enlightened, that you can induce that feeling by drugs? No. But the mushrooms caused a difference experience that I can only explain to you like I can only explain a rainbow as sounds to a blind person. Of course I feel empathy to people without drugs.
- lostmsu 8y ago> My explanation is just an approximation though isn't it? It doesn't help the blind person to actually see the rainbow, just to get a sense of it. What you are talking is physical experience. And I doubt drugs somehow give you that. How is it different from "a sense of it", except you being very excited about it by a drug?
- Moodles 8y agoIt's just a different kind of experience. Psychedelics gave me this particular one. But plenty of other things, like having eyes or skydiving, give you a different experience too. You get a pretty accurate idea of what skydiving is like if you bungee jump, but nothing really compares to psychedelics so it's very difficult to explain, like explaining a rainbow to a blind person. Because no experience is really similar, words feel especially inadequate. It doesn't make me better than anyone else because I took some shrooms. I'm not sure what you're arguing with me about.
- Analog24 8y agoYou can describe anything to anyone but that doesn't mean they'll actually understand it. A blind person who has never seen anything, let alone colors, will never be able to comprehend what a rainbow looks like.
- technotony 8y agoIt's not that you lack the language skills to describe it, it's that you accessed a state of consciousness that exists before/beyond language. This is a state that has been extensively explored through meditation by yogis and which the foundation of Vedantic teachings if you want to learn more. The way I (poorly) understand it is that language is part of the veil that separates us from Source. You can't communicate what lies beyond the veil because the tool of communication is of the veil.
- lostmsu 8y agoSo, basically, some unscientific bullshit, that probably has no real effect, except the bragging rights?
- rocgf 8y agoIt's astonising to see what lengths people will go to in order to dispute something they simply don't comprehend because of pre-existing bias. It's a bit like trying to explain what being in love is like or what you feel when your child is born and he grabs your finger for the first time. You could just as easily dismiss those two, despite the fact that they are some of the most beautiful life experiences for any human. It doesn't really matter if one writes a sentence or a novel about a psychedelic experience, you won't be that much closer to understanding it either way.
- lostmsu 8y agoI am not trying to understand the experience. I am trying to understand if it actually provides any enlightenment apart from "wow this brain failure mode is fun to experience".
- Moodles 8y agoYou probably won't understand by reading our HN comments. You come across as quite argumentative and not really ready to listen to a contradicting view. Maybe you're offended by the word "enlightening". I don't know why that's such a big deal? I suggest you either try some mushrooms to understand for yourself, or chill out.
- saiya-jin 8y agoI can attest to this 'enlightening' on mushrooms too, experienced when coming down from height of the trip. I am not spiritual at all, but spending months in buddhist places like Ladakh or Nepal made me realize I was closest to that compared to say christianity. It is some sort of unity with whole universe, living or not, profound and deep peace of mind with whatever life will throw at you, because in grand enough scheme of things it won't matter and its OK that way. These are mere words that can't describe the actual state, but the whole experience is still in some ways part of me and makes me a better person overall.
- lostmsu 8y agoI can understand "a speck in a grand scheme". But how exactly the experience is making you better person? I know some people who do psychedelics, and they seem quite like anybody else. Sort of a foresee: a philosophy of "won't matter" is definitely not the one driving the personal growth.
- Moodles 8y ago> But how exactly the experience is making you better person? Look at the original post: The John Hopkins study. This seems really trivial to argue. Look at the studies. Yes, there needs to be more, but the evidence looks promising. You arguing back and forth with everyone here is clearly going nowhere.