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> I am wondering why anyone would think they are in an adequate position to write anything about a topic, even though they neither did proper research whatsoever on the topic nor have their own experiences in the matter.

I think everyone is in a position to write a post about why they themselves don't do something. It's his blog - he's a fairly well-known person who a lot of people are interested in, I'm sure he's been asked before about this topic, and he chose to answer it, on his personal blog. Who would be better positioned than him to say why he chooses to do (or not do) something?

He's not saying using psychedelics is wrong or that other people should or shouldn't use them, he's saying why he chooses not to use them.

Literally the first line is:

"I am not sure how many people should use psychedelics, and I do not wish anything in this post to be construed as advice."

lol like it never ceases to amaze me how differently we are all wired up inside from each other. His perspective feels depressing and counter intuitive to my own yet I don’t doubt that inside of his head for him it feels so clearly right and true.

Their POV is sadly a common one, though to be fair existence can be scary plus psychedelics do have their own pants-shittingly frightening dangers, but what sucks is how this line of thought continues to prohibition and punishment of so called users to try and make sure that no one gets to have any cool psychedelic experiences.

He's 61. It's very possible he's quite content with the worldview he has developed over the last 61 years.

Why would you create chaos for yourself when things are working just fine? Process is exactly how you get things done. I love running on chaos energy, but it only takes you so far.

It is is a structural problem that goes much deeper than what the author thinks. "Sticking to the process" is good and important to SOME (!!!) degree for sure. However, doing this blindly will (1) prevent further progress/advancements and more importantly (2) ignore existing problems. The issue with the latter is that one is deliberately ignoring (e.g. ethical) issues, because it's very difficult to unsee things, once they are seen. Furthermore, by being ignorant, one can easily withdraw from responsibilities (which one actually HAS but lies to themselves that they don't.

These are just a few though about the very complex topic ;)

> Having this mindset sets you up to a gloriously ignorant life. It is basically programming yourself to lie to yourself until you die and be happy with it.

Are you implying that people who have done psychedelics have somehow transcended ignorance? Seems kind of hard to believe

No, I was not trying to imply that. I was saying that praising to not want to change ANYTHING about the way a system works is a way of being happily ignorant. Psychedelics have a way of forcing you out of this ignorance and for some people this seems very scary (because it means change - and many people don't like change).

> No, I was not trying to imply that.

> Psychedelics have a way of forcing you out of this ignorance

Is there a contradiction here? You said that you weren't saying that they transcend ignorance, and then say that they force you out of ignorance.

Which one is it?

No contradiction.

"to have a way of" does not mean that something is 100% certain to happen but that it frequently happens.

But are you saying that in the cases where it frequently does happen, that the people who experienced it have somehow "transcended ignorance"? What does that mean in practice

One can be ignorant in different aspects. In various situations, one walks around with blinders on. One "only sees what one wants to see", because the brain filters out everything else that does not match ones world view - which is based on ones knowledge and, especially, beliefs. Psychedelics can act as a trigger (as can other things as well) to temporarily remove these blinders, making one able to see/feel/experience things the brain always ignored before, ONCE. Now, that one has "seen" it, one can choose to incorporate this into ones world view and daily life. There are many stages to this, which are part of the "therapeutic process" of psychedelics.

Indeed. I'm wondering if this guy avoids looking out windows too. God forbid you see something that changes your perspective...