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I was intrigued by this kind of stuff so I took LSD. I enjoyed it and I felt it improved my mood temporarily but I don't believe it changed me permanently in a

I was intrigued by this kind of stuff so I took LSD. I enjoyed it and I felt it improved my mood temporarily but I don't believe it changed me permanently in any way. As far as I can tell (which may not be that far), reading Chomsky as a teenager, Plato in college and Kant after that were much more significant events in terms of my political views.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
esperent 6y ago
Psychedelics don't tend to cause permanent shifts in people who already know themselves quite well, especially people who have explored their world view, read philosophy and psychology and so on. It's more likely to have that effect on people who were already in denial, of their belief system, or relationship, or political views, because it often forces you to confront the hidden/denied parts of your psyche. This can be incredibly liberating for some people, scary for others, while for people with latent mental health issues it can be downright dangerous. For this reason, I would usually recommend mdma as a first drug experience since it has a similar liberating effect for many people but also makes you feel loved and at one with the world.
- fogihujy 6y ago
  It's possible. The combination shrooms/weed definitely turned me around on the spot, and while I can't say if the trips changed me, or if I just learned more about myself, or if I just got lucky, but the result was clear; I went from being on my way back into a deep depression with occasional suicidal thoughts, and into a more positive person with a bright outlook on life. Or it might just have been me trying to do something about it, and it was all placebo. Regardless, I'm happy it worked.
- Malician 6y ago
  I had a really tough time taking MDMA for the first time, much tougher than the last times I took psychedelics. I think it came down to expectations, though.
__blockcipher__ 6y ago
IME psilocybin is far better at catalyzing transformative experiences. LSD is really fun but the experience is more visual and kinesthetic than it is internal-self-reflection oriented, relatively speaking
- luckylion 6y ago
  From my experience, that also depends on what you do. Putting on a blind fold and ear plugs leads to more introspection, putting on music gives me more of a fun trip.
0xdeadb00f 6y ago
As someone who's done LSD numerous times; it is no miracle "change your life and all your opinions on everything" drug like some make it out to be. It can be extremely introspective and eye opening but pretty much everything on LSD feels this way. Something you've thought of on it that seems so profound and deep can seem silly and naïve once you're sober again. That being said, it obviously still can have a life changing effect on people. You pretty much just have to be willing to change as well - it depends on the person mostly. Some people say they've strengthened their relationship with god (both Abrahemic and otherwise) after/while using LSD and others say that have become atheist after doing it.
- m12k 6y ago
  As far as I understand LSD greatly increases neuroplasticity, your brain's ability to form new connections between neurons. You temporarily reset the weights in your neural network, so you get a chance to "jump out of the groove you're in". Whether that leads to a permanent change probably depends on what your patterns were before, and what new ways of thinking you come across during your trip. Basically were you in a local optimum before, and did you happen across a better (maybe even global) optimum during the trip instead?
cblum 6y ago
> reading Chomsky as a teenager, Plato in college and Kant after that were much more significant events in terms of my political views I can relate a lot to this. I'd say my formative reads were: - 1984 and Brave New World. The former should be mandatory reading for everyone, everywhere. - The Bible. Going from "I was raised Christian" to "I'm gonna read this and ask myself if I really believe this stuff" (I do, but in general I deviate massively from mainstream evangelical Christianity). - Dune. Yep, profoundly transformative. I'm bummed that some people I've recommend it to don't seem to have had the same experience as I had reading it.
- gautamcgoel 6y ago
  It would be pretty ironic if we made it mandatory to read books like 1984.
  - thu2111 6y ago
    Actually in a lot of schools, it is mandatory to read it! At least I recall being required to read it at high school. Honestly, I never appreciated the irony at the time, I suppose because the people in 1984 weren't really encouraged to read about alternative political realities. But you're right. That was pretty ironic.
  - irrational 6y ago
    I grew up in a very liberal part of the country and I’m pretty sure I had to read every single book on the most banned book lists. I honestly don’t remember anything about any of them. I think it takes more that having to read the book and take a test or write a report about it to have some sort of effect.
    - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
      >I grew up in a very liberal part of the country and I’m pretty sure I had to read every single book on the most banned book lists. I honestly don’t remember anything about any of them Not surprising. What do you remember? Probably mostly the stuff where your teacher knocked it out of the park and did their best work. 1984 is a cautionary tale about communism but it applies to authoritarianism in general. A very left leaning state is simply going to have less people equipped to teach this lesson well than a right leaning state. It's really, really hard to do a good job teaching something that is ideologically uncomfortable. Say you have two english teachers, one grew up in the suburbs of NYC and one grew up in the Virginia panhandle. Who do you think has better odds of being able to knock a lesson about authoritarianism out of the park? Education systems are the average of the people that make them up. If you grew up somewhere where the dangers of strong government was the local ideological blind spot you probably didn't get a good education on the dangers of big government. The kids growing up in the Virginia panhandle have blind spots in their education too, just different ones. Don't expect kids growing up in the plains state to get too good of an education on the Indian wars. Don't expect the kids in the bible belt to spend much time talking about evolution. Obviously there's always outliers but education is a product of the states that make the curriculum and the teachers who teach them.
marcus_holmes 6y ago
I'd taken LSD a few times in my 20's. Fun, but nothing amazing (though it did spoil all other social drugs for me - what's the point of getting high if it's not at that level?) Then 10 years ago (so in my 40's) I took it again at a bush rave. At the time I was in a deep clinical depression, regularly feeling suicidal, fighting alcoholism, it was a tough time. During the trip, I saw a vivid vision of a version of myself as I could be if I got my shit sorted out and sobered up. I really liked that vision/version of myself, and it stuck with me afterwards (unlike most of the stuff on acid trips). That vision became my beacon. It took me another 5 years or so to work through the depression with therapy. I still struggle with the booze (but it's much, much more manageable now, and no psychotic episodes any more, yay!). But knowing that there was a "healed" version of me, and what that looked like, and that I could be that person. That was powerful. Literally the light at the end of the tunnel. So yeah, that's my "hallucinogens helped my mental health" story :)
- tyre 6y ago
  Hey that's really awesome to hear. Congrats! I'm happy you're doing well :)
- bayesianbot 6y ago
  Same is true for me, I did some lsd trips but didn't really change me that much. Then one time tripping it all clicked, I could see my options for the future, and I knew what to do. I was struggling with alcoholism back then and slightly sometime also now, but the will to drink is 10% of what it used to be, as I've seen the path I can take without drinking. Made me much more happy and social also
psychoslave 6y ago
Wait, you mean LSD doesn’t actually stand for Lucrece, Spinoza and Deleuze? I mean, my friend told me to mix LSD and ELP, might have I misinterpreted? ;P

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

esperent 6y ago

Psychedelics don't tend to cause permanent shifts in people who already know themselves quite well, especially people who have explored their world view, read philosophy and psychology and so on. It's more likely to have that effect on people who were already in denial, of their belief system, or relationship, or political views, because it often forces you to confront the hidden/denied parts of your psyche. This can be incredibly liberating for some people, scary for others, while for people with latent mental health issues it can be downright dangerous. For this reason, I would usually recommend mdma as a first drug experience since it has a similar liberating effect for many people but also makes you feel loved and at one with the world.

fogihujy 6y ago
It's possible. The combination shrooms/weed definitely turned me around on the spot, and while I can't say if the trips changed me, or if I just learned more about myself, or if I just got lucky, but the result was clear; I went from being on my way back into a deep depression with occasional suicidal thoughts, and into a more positive person with a bright outlook on life. Or it might just have been me trying to do something about it, and it was all placebo. Regardless, I'm happy it worked.
Malician 6y ago
I had a really tough time taking MDMA for the first time, much tougher than the last times I took psychedelics. I think it came down to expectations, though.

__blockcipher__ 6y ago

IME psilocybin is far better at catalyzing transformative experiences. LSD is really fun but the experience is more visual and kinesthetic than it is internal-self-reflection oriented, relatively speaking

luckylion 6y ago
From my experience, that also depends on what you do. Putting on a blind fold and ear plugs leads to more introspection, putting on music gives me more of a fun trip.

0xdeadb00f 6y ago

As someone who's done LSD numerous times; it is no miracle "change your life and all your opinions on everything" drug like some make it out to be. It can be extremely introspective and eye opening but pretty much everything on LSD feels this way. Something you've thought of on it that seems so profound and deep can seem silly and naïve once you're sober again. That being said, it obviously still can have a life changing effect on people. You pretty much just have to be willing to change as well - it depends on the person mostly. Some people say they've strengthened their relationship with god (both Abrahemic and otherwise) after/while using LSD and others say that have become atheist after doing it.

m12k 6y ago
As far as I understand LSD greatly increases neuroplasticity, your brain's ability to form new connections between neurons. You temporarily reset the weights in your neural network, so you get a chance to "jump out of the groove you're in". Whether that leads to a permanent change probably depends on what your patterns were before, and what new ways of thinking you come across during your trip. Basically were you in a local optimum before, and did you happen across a better (maybe even global) optimum during the trip instead?

cblum 6y ago

> reading Chomsky as a teenager, Plato in college and Kant after that were much more significant events in terms of my political views I can relate a lot to this. I'd say my formative reads were: - 1984 and Brave New World. The former should be mandatory reading for everyone, everywhere. - The Bible. Going from "I was raised Christian" to "I'm gonna read this and ask myself if I really believe this stuff" (I do, but in general I deviate massively from mainstream evangelical Christianity). - Dune. Yep, profoundly transformative. I'm bummed that some people I've recommend it to don't seem to have had the same experience as I had reading it.

gautamcgoel 6y ago
It would be pretty ironic if we made it mandatory to read books like 1984.
- thu2111 6y ago
  Actually in a lot of schools, it is mandatory to read it! At least I recall being required to read it at high school. Honestly, I never appreciated the irony at the time, I suppose because the people in 1984 weren't really encouraged to read about alternative political realities. But you're right. That was pretty ironic.
- irrational 6y ago
  I grew up in a very liberal part of the country and I’m pretty sure I had to read every single book on the most banned book lists. I honestly don’t remember anything about any of them. I think it takes more that having to read the book and take a test or write a report about it to have some sort of effect.
  - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
    >I grew up in a very liberal part of the country and I’m pretty sure I had to read every single book on the most banned book lists. I honestly don’t remember anything about any of them Not surprising. What do you remember? Probably mostly the stuff where your teacher knocked it out of the park and did their best work. 1984 is a cautionary tale about communism but it applies to authoritarianism in general. A very left leaning state is simply going to have less people equipped to teach this lesson well than a right leaning state. It's really, really hard to do a good job teaching something that is ideologically uncomfortable. Say you have two english teachers, one grew up in the suburbs of NYC and one grew up in the Virginia panhandle. Who do you think has better odds of being able to knock a lesson about authoritarianism out of the park? Education systems are the average of the people that make them up. If you grew up somewhere where the dangers of strong government was the local ideological blind spot you probably didn't get a good education on the dangers of big government. The kids growing up in the Virginia panhandle have blind spots in their education too, just different ones. Don't expect kids growing up in the plains state to get too good of an education on the Indian wars. Don't expect the kids in the bible belt to spend much time talking about evolution. Obviously there's always outliers but education is a product of the states that make the curriculum and the teachers who teach them.

marcus_holmes 6y ago

I'd taken LSD a few times in my 20's. Fun, but nothing amazing (though it did spoil all other social drugs for me - what's the point of getting high if it's not at that level?) Then 10 years ago (so in my 40's) I took it again at a bush rave. At the time I was in a deep clinical depression, regularly feeling suicidal, fighting alcoholism, it was a tough time. During the trip, I saw a vivid vision of a version of myself as I could be if I got my shit sorted out and sobered up. I really liked that vision/version of myself, and it stuck with me afterwards (unlike most of the stuff on acid trips). That vision became my beacon. It took me another 5 years or so to work through the depression with therapy. I still struggle with the booze (but it's much, much more manageable now, and no psychotic episodes any more, yay!). But knowing that there was a "healed" version of me, and what that looked like, and that I could be that person. That was powerful. Literally the light at the end of the tunnel. So yeah, that's my "hallucinogens helped my mental health" story :)

tyre 6y ago
Hey that's really awesome to hear. Congrats! I'm happy you're doing well :)
bayesianbot 6y ago
Same is true for me, I did some lsd trips but didn't really change me that much. Then one time tripping it all clicked, I could see my options for the future, and I knew what to do. I was struggling with alcoholism back then and slightly sometime also now, but the will to drink is 10% of what it used to be, as I've seen the path I can take without drinking. Made me much more happy and social also

psychoslave 6y ago

Wait, you mean LSD doesn’t actually stand for Lucrece, Spinoza and Deleuze? I mean, my friend told me to mix LSD and ELP, might have I misinterpreted? ;P