Philosophy Discussion Forums

GE Morton wrote: ↑February 23rd, 2023, 10:44 am Brain changes due to ingested substances can be considered "natural and normal" if those substances are common in the environment and the brain has evolved adaptations to them, means of accommodating them or neutralizing them. Novel substances will have unpredictable effects, some of which may be harmful, others not. A substance would be harmful if it rendered the brain less able to maintain the organism or respond to common environmental threats.

Pattern-chaser wrote: ↑February 24th, 2023, 8:51 am This appears to lead you into a position whereby psychedelics derived from mushrooms are OK, but chemically-derived LSD is not?

GE Morton wrote: ↑February 24th, 2023, 2:41 pm I made no judgments about whether any of them are "Ok." The question was just about whether they are "normal and natural."

Psilocybin-containing mushrooms, while natural, are probably not common enough that most animals have been regularly exposed to the them for a million years.

You just changed the constraints so that they are in agreement with what you originally said. First you referred to "natural and normal", now you say that most animals must have been "regularly exposed to the them for a million years" before the substances in question might be considered "natural and normal". Presumably, if I offer another empirical observation, you will tighten the constraints further?

GE Morton wrote: ↑January 8th, 2023, 2:01 pm

JackDaydream wrote: ↑January 8th, 2023, 6:35 am In this thread, I am opening up discussion of what do psychedelic experiences show about the nature of 'reality', the brain and the nature of 'mind' and its healing?

In a word, nothing.

Brains are electro-chemical data processors. The transmission of neural signals from neuron to neuron depends a upon a variety of specific chemical substances, and those transmissions can be disrupted by the introduction of antagonistic chemicals into the system. Leary's pitch resonated with college freshmen beguiled by the prospect of attaining instant wisdom by taking a hit of LSD. But all the chemical does is block or misdirect or garble neural communications, producing a variety of phantasms, delusions, and hallucinations --- the diametric opposite of "enlightenment." Not a single worthwhile insight into the nature of "reality" has emerged from an LDS "trip," or from ingestion of any other "psychedelic" substance. They are the equivalent of throwing sand into a gearbox.

(This is not to deny some other benefits some of those drugs may confer, such as pain relief or control of epilepsy. But "enlightment"? No.)

The great scientists in history where not materialists and that was for good reason. Major break throughs in science happen with a paradigm shift, to view things from a completely different perspective. Psychedelics significantly raises the brains capacity to make new connections and explore ideas, its not only used for having crazy new age experiences.

Its also in the nature of a paradigm to believe that some truths are unknowable, when does truths exist outside of the box.