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Comment by bunkydoo | Hacker News Reader

As someone who has done their fair share of psychedelics - I would feel like a coward consuming these substances if I had a terminal illness. If I knew damn straight that I was gonna die, I wouldn't want to numb it up with a substance. I'd want every minute of pain, suffering, and emotional baggage to be taken on with a sober mind.

But that is my personal choice. I would say it's probably a very positive thing on the other hand for people like Patrick who never consumed these substances. DMT might be the best one for someone who is dying, as it is hypothesized that pineal gland floods an endogenous version of this chemical into your bloodstream upon death. Consuming it prior to death could potentially work as a "practice run" to help cope with the real thing as sad as it sounds.

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The whole "DMT release upon death" thing has very little supporting evidence. https://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/dmt_article2.shtml

Quite, pretty much zero supporting evidence.

I think you've got the wrong idea. It's not about numbing the individual from the suffering they are experiencing; it's about gaining a new perspective and transcending the part of you that perceives your impending death as a cause for suffering.

I had my back tatoo being done on 4 sessions, each was 4-hour long experience. It felt as a pizza cutter running here & there on my back, having areas around spine and sides much more sensitive and thus painful. I can guarantee you, after coulpe of hours of nearly-sustained pain, I was dumbed down to basic creature, which can say yes, no, left, right and that was about it. Imagining 2 years of it... you, not even me, have an idea how crippiling such pain long term is. I can see roughly your point - but it's a point made by boy who has no clue how crippiling constant pain is. Neither do I, but I had at least a glimpse. With pain level high enough, it would cripple your remaining days to drooling struggle to function like a human being. That's why most of those unfortunates end up on high doses of painkillers, which really dumb them down to semi-consious level. That's not what psychedelics do to you.

Why would you be a coward if you had a terminal illness? Because you want to transcend reality beyond your pain? If so, that's the same logic people use to discredit any psychedelic experimentation; saying that people who use substances (often only non state-sanctioned drugs) to alter their experiences.

>I'd want every minute of pain, suffering, and emotional baggage to be taken on with a sober mind.

Seeing the broad trend with end-of-life care is to numb this pain, it seems like you're coming from a place of muchisimo-ness. I've been in medical-grade pain before and there is nothing more in the world you care about than ending the pain.

I see where you're coming from, but then, I also don't think it's a fair judgment on yourself. Who gets to decide 'the amount of pain, baggage to be taken on'? Would you be okay with getting torture-level pain, instead of say, lesser pain? From the article: >Aldous Huxley concluded from his psychedelic experience that the conscious mind is less a window on reality than a furious editor of it.

What does it matter if your editorial is less strict about filtering reality in? Again, as the article asks:

>Psychedelics open the valve wide, removing the filter that hides much of reality, as well as dimensions of our own minds, from ordinary consciousness.

Is that really that much of cowardice?

The idea isn't to numb yourself or stay high the whole time. It's to take psychedelics once (or maybe several times) to gain a new perspective, well before dying.

I didn't find any aspect of psychedelics numbing. Rather the opposite for me.

exactly!

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