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Comment by mapcars | Hacker News Reader

From my experience, everything mentioned in the article can be "treated" with meditation. I say treated in quotes because all this is self-caused and treatment is only to realize that it's actually me is the one who is causing stress and anxiety to myself. Once this is realized these things disappear in a matter of days.

Meditation is long-established, safe, legal, available to everyone regardless of any status or condition (excluding only severe damage in brain/spine areas) and does not require billion dollar research.

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Have you tried it? Perhaps there words aren't doing justice to the experience and what you're writing off as the same as some other act might be missing the target.

For example, having never tried meditation nor psychedelics, both yours and ops experiences seem barely believable. But I haven't tried either so I wouldn't go out and say that.

Yes, I'm saying this only because last 1.5 years I'm doing my kriya practice which includes meditation, breathing technic and few other things and it has been working wonderfully - since I "got it" I never had a single bad day. I am comparing this to having occasional bursts of depression, loneliness, self-doubt for a few years before.

I did not try strong psychedelics but the problem with them as with any kind of drug is the effect wears off inevitably. If you feel great for some time, going back becomes even more terrible than staying there, because now you know there are better states. What sets meditation apart is that it is a process which (at a certain level) lasts through the day and even becomes permanent. This is something you can not get with outside help because you will just become dependent on the source of that help.

>I did not try strong psychedelics but the problem with them as with any kind of drug is the effect wears off inevitably. If you feel great for some time, going back becomes even more terrible than staying there, because now you know there are better states.

This is hard to claim if you've never tried it. Personally when I do a shroom trip I don't even feel like doing it again until months later. I've done it like 8 times in my whole life, usually for fun with friends but it always ends up enlightening and spiritual. The effects are permanent in a very good way. It's a trip, same as you travel to a different exotic country and explore a different world, the memories, the feelings you experienced and the knowledge you gained will stay with you.

>The effects are permanent in a very good way. It's a trip, same as you travel to a different exotic country and explore a different world, the memories, the feelings you experienced and the knowledge you gained will stay with you.

You just said yourself that effect is not permanent

As a long-time meditator and psychedelic user, I disagree. People can get attached to beautiful states in both cases, and both can trigger permanent insights. I haven't felt the need to use psychedelics in years, but the realizations are still there, as strong as any I've had from meditation.

I'm not talking about insights but the effect.

First, I've never heard of anyone feeling "terrible" because the effects of mushrooms wore off. Second, if one does meditation for its effects, trying to make them permanent, then one is still just chasing highs. States always wear off. At least, this is the Buddhist perspective. Having been raised Hindu, I know their take is different.

They're tools to achieve altered states of consciousness that can help you change the way you view yourself or your experiences. I meditate daily and have also used psychedelics recreationally in the past (this was a couple years ago, before I really took meditation seriously). I have problems with paranoia and OCD, and meditation has been incredibly helpful for learning healthier ways to deal with my emotions, along with improving my ability to focus in general.

With that said, I'm skeptical of the way the article approaches psychedelics as something of a cure-all for mental health problems, rather than a way to change your perspective. The Silicon Valley techie approach seems very narcissitic and performative, and I'm not sure that mass production by pharmaceutical companies will be a good thing.

Treatment that is 100% effective when properly administered but has a 5% chance at being properly administered is still not a very good treatment. These two routes are not mutually exclusive.

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