Happiness May Lie in Our Relationships
nautil.us
nautil.us
Other human beings are a subset of your environment. So you may ask "How can I improve my perception of my environment?". This is (only) 1 of the many benefits of the experience you live through when you ingest the substance LSD: Handled the right way, you can experience the most awe inspiring moment of your life, you can not just see beauty, but live it, be immersed by it and be a part of it. You're likely to ask yourself over and over "why was this hidden from me all those years?". You can literally feel your entire environment in a very positive, magic and vibrant way (hint: find yourself an isolated place in nature that you like and listen to your favorite music). And part of this feeling is very likely to stay with you, after the experience. It may be subtle, but a very subtle positive change in the way you feel and perceive your environment can change your thoughts dramatically and therefor your general behavior. You can become very positive.
This is why it's completely wrong for humanity to keep this substance illegal. This substance can lead to a whole new appreciation for our Planet, the Universe and for the human beings around us.
(Of course, "follow the money" seems to apply here as well, when I think how this molecule seems to be able to replace heavy side-effect ridden anti-depressant therapies which are of course one gigantic cash cow for the pharma industry.)
Note: It is absolutely mandatory to educate oneself about the substance as much as possible beforehand and to prepare one's experience by respecting all the rules that apply (and: there are a couple of medical conditions which make the substance very risky for you, should you suffer from one of them knowingly or unknowingly).
The mind races here and there, you have terrible (and wonderful) fantasies, you think about the future (personally, I love imagining giving lectures). The mind rebels, sometimes very strongly indeed and in all kinds of ways, against the act of simply observing the breath (or any other single object). Eventually, if you stick with it, something good may happen, and the experience will stick with you for a lifetime - and you can protect that experience with daily meditation.
And it physiologically rewires your brain - for the better, as you can read here: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to...
I tried meditation as an experiment after reading about how it helped people - and from day one I was hooked. As soon as I realized it was possible to 'slow' the mind and take control of your thoughts it was like an epiphany. Realising that all this stuff that was making me anxious was just made up stuff in my head, and meditation gave me the power to observe these thoughts as if they were not a part of me, has completely changed my life.
It's quite amazing to be in a situation where people are looking at you (social groups, doing presentations etc) and have zero anxiety - instead you're just one with your mind and feel so relaxed and natural about the whole thing. I recommend it to anyone has suffered anxiety and can't find a way out.
I'm certainly not advocating for the status quo, but if things like pot, shrooms, or MDMA or even LSD become legal, there needs to be strict age and dosage limitations. The idea that they're a "fix all" is dangerous and disingenuous to me. Maybe in a clinical and controlled setting there could be realistic positive outcomes, but certainly not in a recreational one.
Meditation is safer but takes more effort than eating blotter paper. As a long time meditator, its raised my quality of life significantly. Sadly, when I try to sell this onto some of the people mentioned above I get nods of approval and then a "Let me get high first before I try it," comment which pretty much invalidates whatever benefits you can get. To them, drugs only make things better, in fact, life is kinda terrible sober. Not to mention, I've never had a 'bad trip' or paranoia or anything negative with meditation. Its incredible that we have this simple tool available to us at all times, but dismiss it because its weird or because people think they can take a shortcut to retraining their minds with drugs. Hint: you can't. Everything worthwhile takes some level of labor. Instant fixes don't really exist.
Sometimes I wonder if baby boomer drug liberalism has cost us a few Einsteins and Newtons. Or what wonderful things John Lilly or Tim Leary, both men who I consider near-genius level, would have come up with if they didn't go down the burn-out path. Its a scary thought. The entire boomer drug experiment didn't pan out, did it? By the time Leary and Lilly were in their prime years, they became obsessive weirdos going on about trans-dimensional aliens and such and morphing into empty-suited but profitable celebrity caricatures. What a waste of two fine minds.
From a philosophical perspective I have absorbed some Eastern concepts that I probably wouldn't have without exposure to mediation and the various Eastern philosophies and religions that influence it. I pretty much accept that life is unsatisfactory in general, so I try to not beat myself up when I realize I'm, say, doing worse than my peers financially or whatever. I also stopped believing in the myth of progress, that humanity is on this course to utopia. I'm at peace with things being cyclical - the rise of liberal democracy is temporary and dictatorial autocracy will once again take over, then back again, etc. Today might be good but tomorrow might be bad. Everything is temporary really and there's no permanent fix to anything. I will die someday and it shouldn't be that big of a deal, etc.
The above attitudes really have been the only things to significantly help my depression. I think being at peace with some of this stuff and having realistic expectations in life goes a long way towards good mental health.
Afterwards, I couldn't work out what it was. For many years, 5 or so to be exact, I've worked backwards from there with much though, research into religion and spirituality, meditation and mindfulness. This also includes several other doses of LSD between then.
The last dose was profound and shared with my soulmate. We lay on our bed, with soothing, space-like/new age/dreamscape music in the background, this was a perfect soundtrack for the experience. The feeling of closeness was immense. Everything melted away, it was as if we had direct access to each other's minds and emotions as though there was no body to separate us. I remember crying genuine, gushing tears of joy at the overwhelming sense of love for her. I don't see anything metaphysical about it but that last experience offered insight into the realisation during my first time and is also an event I look back on positively.
From what I've worked out, I explain the realisation that we are all connected as one like this:
The universe is a beautiful, immense whole composed of vast celestial bodies and ourselves, as part of that. Everything we see on earth is the universe. What is most interestng and profound is the idea that we are a part of the universe than can observe itself in it's wonderful entirety. From this, you realise the folly of violence, wars and how our world currently works. By hurting others of allowing them to get hurt, we are hurting ourselves.
From my study of religions, I can fit this idea in quite well. This includes new thought, Buddhism and even Christianity. With Christianity in particular, seeing Jesus as someone who got this but had to explain it in terms of the framework of understanding of his day masked sense. It also shows how modern Christianity has moved far and away from this idea.
I don't really share this as it's an untestable and perhaps laughable idea but it has bed a profound spiritual journey for me that has provided a lot of inner value.
I think the best way to handle this dilemma is to try to sense which of your friends and family members are most open-minded and to start with those. (Personally, I feel like once you've experienced it, it becomes some sort of responsibility to create awareness about it, because the benefit for everybody is just to big to keep quiet.)
It is a process though. I get angry, upset and do, on occasion, cause suffering in response to those emotions. What I am able to do is realise that I can observe this emotions as I do the universe, as it's all the same. By disconnecting from thoughts and emotions and observing them, they have much less effect. I can then use my thoughts as tool to analyse the situation and choose the appropriate path that will lead to a peaceful, beneficial resolution for me and others.
This does not happen every time, I still fall and slip. With repeated application, it will become a solid habit.
It's obvious and 'trivial' that negatively responding to negative emotional states will produce a negative outcome for myself, increasing my own suffering. This obvious fact fits within my insights, which is most important to me.
My experience and thoughts exactly.
Now remember the fact that the US military budget is bigger that the sum of the budgets of the 10 next biggest nations, then look up what "military industrial complex" means and you know why LSD was wiped under the carpet. If you take away so much cash flow, you take away extreme amounts of power. And those in power have no interest whatsoever to ever see that happen.
To others, it comes off as another kind of immature selfishness. Like obsessively doting on a lover. It's not a bad thing, but it's not going to transfer to others, and you can't expect others to tolerate it when there are important things to do.
I also think you have assumed a bit too much about me and how I treat other people. I said I don't share it. That does not mean I have tried and failed. I have shared my experiences with close family members. I have never preached and never will.
The emotional connection and understanding connected to these ideas are exactly what makes them important. To dismiss emotional insights as unimportant is to make emotion a second-class citizen in a world that is actually driven in a big way by emotion.
For example, the phrase "the dog is running across the main road" is a trivial fact when you see a dog run across a main road. If you're the owner, the emotions are what differentiate it from mere triviality. For the owner, the panic of their dog running across a road off leash is not emotionally trivial.
Back to my comment, I merely stated that the emotional value of these ideas is hard to convey without such experiences.
I'd beg to differ about the abilities enabled by my experiences. For one, I can relate to them ok an emotional level, which I cannot have done before. Second, it is clear to me that this particular journey has encouraged exploration and insight into my thoughts and emotions on a deep level. Before hand, I would not have bothered.
Could I have achieved this with a different set of experiences? It's probably. Does that discount the emotional value of those experiences to me? No.
What you are doing is trying to discount the emotional value I place on my own experiences, which is all I have talked about plus the difficulty of discussing the emotional insights from my experiences with those who haven't had them. There isn't really anything to object there.
Maybe you should first demonstrate that that the world should be driven by emotion before you object to that kind of dismissal.
>What you are doing is trying to discount the emotional value I place on my own experiences
No, I'm explaining why other people don't value your experiences. Just because you have an emotional experience doesn't mean anybody else is obligated to respect that. They have an obligation to make good decisions. If you want people to listen, you have an obligation to demonstrate that taking LSD is a good decision, not simply that you felt good about it.
I never said that the world should be driven by emotions, just that emotions, in some way or form, drive a lot of people.
I'm not sure why you are explaining why people don't value my experiences? I shared my experiences in a discussion about experiences. I'm not asking anybody to value then? How can they when they haven't had them? This thread might show you that others who have had similar experiences do value them and that is who I am conversing with.
If you don't value my experiences, that isn't a problem to me? I don't preach or try to force the beliefs shaped by my experiences on anybody that don't want to hear them. I'm not sure why you would believe otherwise?
I'm not obligated to explain why one of my experiences was a good decision to you. I feel it was a good decision and I don't have regrets. Why do I need to explain it?
You said this:
>To dismiss emotional insights as unimportant is to make emotion a second-class citizen
Pardon me for drawing the obvious conclusions.
I don't mean that the world SHOULD be driven by emotions. I'd hate to think what the world would look like if it was. I meant that it is a big part in what drives people I.e people make decisions based on emotions, some more than others. Emotions are an important part of the psyche - they are a central part of many therapies, for instance.
What I'm trying to say is that my personal emotional insight is important to me because I develop the skill of observing my emotions and thus become that bit LESS driven by emotion.
I'm not saying that my love got my partner is because of taking drugs. It just allowed us to express it in a novel way.
I'm not saying that you should take drugs, especially not for marital purposes. LSD has the unfortunate effect of turning negative emotions and creating a nasty experience out of them.
The love already needs to be there to experience what we experienced. That and a whole lot of trust, in the very least.
A memorable moment: I'm walking on the beach (in real life) and the sand is bubbling up with skeletons (clear as day). Then I look at this huge cliff wall to my left (the cliff wall is real), and a huge totem pole head emerges from the cliff face (as part of the cliff, it is the cliff).
This totem pole head then proceeds to tell me that it's seen millennia of people walk along this beach and the universe is very old and etc. And I look up (and it was really sunset) to a crazy universe explosion of activity in the sky. This went on for another few hours. In the end, I'm left with this feeling of connectedness and awe that I can kind of hold on to.
Logically, I learned nothing new. I got a feeling based on... my self's inner interpretation of a unique drug enduced brain state? I'm not sure I could get there without drugs, the brain is unable to produce the proper chemical composition and set of signals unaided.
Now to be fair, I didn't go home that night, sit down, and produce a treatise on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. But I certainly don't regret it either.
This is the biggest issue, to me.
I've heard some fantastic claims about meditation, but it seems to require a lot of work (and even then doesn't 'work' for everyone)-- also, it's never going to be exactly like the experience of ecstasy, shrooms, LSD, various herbs, etcetera.
Each of the more mind-altering substances has a unique way of interacting with the brain, and I wouldn't trade my experiences with them for anything. They're one of the greatest things I value in life, honestly, as I'm not entirely sure I understood what being fully alive even really meant until after they crossed my path.
I don't want to pry, but what makes you say this?
Furthermore, and with absolute respect, the majority of people who have expressed similar views to me were doing so because they were afraid of drugs, whether or not they professed of that, rather than due to having any specially inherent depth of experience.
Personally I am a bit suspicious of shortcuts, in general. If I had to choose between drug use on the one hand and meditation and other approaches to 'enlightenment' (in an admittedly vague, broad, rather personal sense), I'd choose the latter any day.
But with my limited experience of the former, I consider it quite valuable, albeit sometimes risky.
EDIT: to name one example. I remember reading about a guy who had severe trouble connecting with others and making friends. After using MDMA once, and having the 'forced' experience of loving everybody around him, it was as if this unlocked his ability to make and maintain friendships. My personal experiences are similar.
It's a poetic thought, but why should your personal take on Jesus's philosophy be given more weight than the Bible's?
I'm not trying to say that my personal view should be everybody's view or the canonical view. I'm just giving an example of how my view was shaped by certain experiences. I also highly value opinions on my experiences and views - it allows me to see things from alternate perspectives.
Sorry if I wasn't clear!
It sounds like you're interested in Christian philosophy about The Universe and Everything. It is believed that the apostle John wrote his gospel as an answer to questions revolving around the nature of Christ and His theology.
It's a little dense, but read up a bit on the concept of "logos" in Greek philosophy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos
Then read John 1 (at least to verse 18), substituting "the Word" with "logos", as that was the word used in the original Greek: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=...
It's clear reading John in the context of contemporary Greek philosophy that God is the point of everything, including everything in the universe. With all that in mind, the Biblical view is that if you want to know about the nature of the universe, ask Him. God likes to work in personal spiritual experiences and He might choose to talk to you through one. Also read through the Bible (again?), but not like you'd read a novel. Read through it like you're trying to find out about its Author... the way you'd try to understand Churchill or Lincoln by reading their writing and letters.
Keep at it!
Same way our forebearers did: drink.
I'm not discouraging psychedelics a few times in life... they do quickly break through habitual patterns of thinking exposing a deeper reality, but I wouldn't encourage their use either. I don't think they are the answer.
What I would recommend is a couple of hours in a sensory deprivation tank from time to time. I personally have gotten a lot out of these sessions and believe it to be a much more "truthful" method of self exploration. Do at least two hours in a session. At the end of hour one the mind is still letting go... at least in my experience.
1 - it's incredibly hard to produce.
2 - it's incredibly hard to ensure something is pure LSD.
Those problems are not there for psilocybe mushrooms, for which the LD50 has never been found (read: it's totally safe).
Do you guys know of any effective methods for getting out of hormone related mood funks?
I find that a few days a month I just feel really sad. Every little mistake I make feels like the end of the world. I feel like a failure.(I imagine this is similar to what clinic depression feels like.)
The other 95% of the month, I feel great. Happy just to bask in the glow of the sunshine.
During my down days, I've tried everything from doing activities that make me really happy, letting myself indulge in foods I like, etc. but nothing helps. So far, I just tough it out but it sucks feeling like this, even if only for a few days.
Any advice?
Imagine your 'mood funk' as sulfur buildup in a water heater. Your water's going to smell awful until you burn out all that sulfur. The same applies with mood and exercise. This is an abstract illustration—however there are physiological / chemical benefits to exercising that affect mood directly.
Proper sleep.
Once you get into a sleep deficit, you're a walking shell of your true self. Adjust your schedule so that you get to bed early and wake up without an alarm. This makes a world of difference for me, and it's necessary for your exercise to deliver its best benefits (feeling energized and de-stressed).
As a side note, I think a healthy mental approach is important. Many people become fixated on some end goal, be it money, love, fame, etc. Focus instead on the process and the enjoyment you get from improvement or making progress. When friends ask for input, I tell them to only focus on the next 2%, regardless of what they're working on. I've found that mental framing to help people better prioritize and—more important—to drop the stuff that doesn't actually matter.
I do pushups + cardio - it doesn't quite help when I'm really down but it does give me a burst of energy the other days.
I get 7-8 hrs of sleep every night so this isn't an issue for me. Overall, I lead a healthy lifestyle so my body isn't really an issue.
One of the tricks that kind of alleviates my occasional depression symptoms is just reminding myself that I don't have to believe whatever thoughts or feelings is passing through at this moment.
Just because my brain is screaming right now "Why did you just do that? Idiot!", it doesn't mean it's true. Or that I have to listen to it.
I try to drown it out with the facts:
a) I know I feel depressed a few days of the month - I shouldn't trust any of my negative thoughts during this time
b) Most humans have a negative bias. It's important to experience the full extent of any negative emotions when something bad happens so you remember deeply not to repeat the same mistake again (if you're at fault).
But it's also very important to let it go so you can have a clear head going forward to make good decisions. And not turn a "don't do that again" reminder into a fear of going anywhere close to a similar situation again.
Test getting more sleep to see what happens—doesn't hurt to test! I have a friend who requires 9 hours a day to feel fully rested.
I neglected to mention diet previously, but make sure you regulate your calories and macro-nutrients, and take a multi-vitamin (I take Optimum Nutrition's Opti-Men) and a fish oil (I take Minami's MorEPA).
With supplements, you get what you pay for; if your multi-vitamin serving is only one pill, it's probably not a very high quality. You don't have to go on a "diet" really, but keep track of what goes into your body and over time you'll get a bearing for what makes you feel best—added bonus is that the act of tracking nutrition typically causes people to eat a bit healthier. Sounds like your diet isn't bad though.
Mentally, I approach a "bad day" by taking a step back (sometimes literally) and telling myself the chemicals in my body are a bit off. A vast majority of the time, this is enough to calm down the dissonance in my head that can lead to lethargic or aggressive behaviors. Sometimes it's because I need to eat or hydrate; other times a 15-30 minute walk 'resets' me mentally.
Worth noting: a poor night's sleep can affect me personally for 2-3 days afterward. Sometimes I feel perfect the day after, only to feel a massive drop in energy the next.
It's amazing how powerful acknowledging cognitive dissonance is for eliminating said dissonance.
Finally, there's also the possibility you are carrying a disease or disorder you're unaware of. I personally have an auto-immune disease which caused me to feel very lethargic in spite of being athletic and having a clean diet and sleep schedule. As soon as I got my thyroid in check (hypothyroidism, or 'Hashimoto's Thyroiditis'), the lethargic spurts dissipated.
Then learn how to manage your emotions, read "The Chimp Paradox".
One thinks of Brave New World.
Articles, that speculate on a bit of everything, and just might not have one true statement in the entire article? I guess it benefits Nautilus.something? A website I'm seeing too much here?
Why do I feel 90%, of just HN readers, have been duped/doped by these scientists/Psychiatrists hoping to find a cure to their misery? Yea, maybe I'm throwing the baby out with the bath water--just warn me a little before I dive into your speculations? Maybe like the the first sentence should be, "Reader, most of what you are about to read is basically speculation. Read it at your own peril? And please don't quote this material as fact."
As someone who has looked for happiness through at least 10 drugs, and hours of various Therapy; I sometimes wonder if I wasen't constantly told by media/scientists--including Psychiatrists, just how miserable my life is--maybe my life would have been lived differently, and I wouldn't have been aware of my own melancholy?
As a middle aged male, if I could do it over again; I would never read/take one of these articles/studies/therapy sessions/drugs on happiness/anxiety again. I just think they made things worse?
The more I push myself away from mental health professionals; the better I feel? Yes, the better I feel. It's a liberating experience. Now, if I could just ween myself off my addictive prescription drugs without dying, or becomming homeless? With my cocktail--belive me, the risks are real. Oh yea, a lot of Professionals will say differently, but they don't know my health status, and it seems like professional deniability is at an all time high? (My point is I don't want to put my body through a detox, but if I was to do it over, I don't think I ever would have refilled a prescription?) I don't blame my Doctors for any of my ailments. My doctors are well vetted. I picked the right guys! Taking the drugs for as long as I have was my fault completely. I just felt I needed them. I definetly think I need them after all these years!
Did you ever think they have a conscious/subconcious addenda in the world of Psychology? Tell them they are unhappy, or insinuate they are unhappy, and poof--they are buying my Product--whatever that product may be?
(Sorry about my grammer--it's late, and I woke up at 3 a.m. I was told it was a symptom of clinical depression by someone, somewhere? Maybe I just don't sleep like I used to? Who knows?)
Oh yea, the bit about Facebook,
"Facebook, he argues, is fundamentally changing the nature of relationships in ways that have been lost since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, when people began leaving their native villages behind to head to cities for new opportunities, and lost contact with the people they grew up with. “Thanks to social media, those types of relationships are persistent,” he says. “Now we may be connecting with people over the course of life that we didn’t before.”
Personally, I use a pseudonym on Facebook. I try to avoid it because it makes me depressed. I look at all the people I used to know, and it's just kinda depressing? It seems like everyone is being so fake? When I do go to the site, I go to my only group--an Amish group. I eagerly read the posts. I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off in an Amish society?
Self-reflecting based on this: I should have started by saying that I probably have a bias for humility because it seems that the more I learn, the more I feel I was poorly prepared when I was younger by adults with their often grandiose, myopic, and uncomprehensive explanations about life, and I think this did me great damage. Alternatively, it's difficult to summarize many different viewpoints or give much context without too much detail. Nevertheless, it seems worth trying.