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Comment by MeImCounting | Hacker News Reader

This is pretty terrifying to me. As someone who messed around a fair bit with altered states in my younger years I can remember feeling very similar to whats described here and being stuck like that is terrifying.

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It's called De-realization, De-personalization.

Not fun.

"The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight."

Anyone who has trained in a mystic tradition knows that it too feels like drowning, it’s just drowning on purpose, but no less painful and terrifying

Not to be rude, but it is not possible to know what all other people have experienced. This is but one of many things you can learn from a deep study of mysticism.

Is it impossible to don't afraid of anything?

Or maybe even scarier / more powerful: is it impossible to simulate it, adequately?

You quoted a general statement on the psychotic vs mystic, but when I respond to that generalisation you accuse me of unjustly generalising. According to your statement here, we should also dismiss your quote, since “it is not possible to know what all other people have experienced”, so how can you generalise them?

Be wary of applying double standards here.

Im pretty sure everyone, "even here", applies double standards. It's human nature. You fail by your own criteria. Fwiw, I upvoted both generalizations, yours and waterlovers, but want to point out that not all generalizations are equal.

In this case the generalisation is identical though

This is so?

Mine was a ~famous quote, and I put it within quotation marks.

Also, note that it says "the" mystic, whereas your claim is "anyone who". You also made broad negative claims.

Mysticism is often counter-intuitive, and imho "woo woo" isn't genuine mysticism.

Absolutely.

I consider myself a bit of a "psychonaut" and occasional practitioner of meditation.

But I had to cultivate this appreciation. I believe the DR/DP was a manifestation of my self's resistance to a new way to see the world and a new way to relate with my self - or lack thereof.

I stopped resisting, DR/DP went away... easier said than done though, I know. And I'm sure my experience was unique to my own.

There is a big difference between someone who studied computer science and then worked for one year in the field before quitting, and someone who devoted their life to it.

So too with DP/DR.

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