tag > Experience
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For centuries, the essence of great cities was shaped by offline experience: places, walks, noise, presence. Then came online-everything. What’s left barely holds memory.
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ALEPH-7 - 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-n-propylthioamphetamine - Alexander Shulgin, Pihkal
EXTENSIONS AND COMMENTARY: This drug was the first definition of the term, Beth state.
There is something of the Fourier Transform in any and all drug experiments. A psychedelic drug experience is a complex combination of many signals going all at the same time. Something like the sound of an oboe playing the notes of the A-major scale. There are events that occur in sequence, such as the initial A, followed by B, followed by C-sharp and on and on. That is the chronology of the experience, and it can be written down as a series of perceived phenomena. The notes of the scale. Black quarter notes, with flags at the tops of their staffs, going up the page of music.
But within each of these single events, during the sounding of the note “A,” for example, there is a complex combination of harmonics being produced at the same time, including all components from the fundamental oscillation on up through all harmonics into the inaudible. This mixture defines the played instrument as being an oboe. Each component may be shared by many instruments, but the particular combination is the unique signature of the oboe.
This analogy applies precisely to the study of psychedelic drugs and their actions. Each drug has a chronology of effect, like the notes of the A-major scale. But there are many components of a drug’s action, like the harmonics from the fundamental to the inaudible which, taken in concert, defines the drug. With musical instruments, these components can be shown as sine waves on an oscilloscope. One component, 22%, was a sine wave at a frequency of 1205 cycles, and a phase angle of +55°. But in psychopharmacology? There is no psychic oscilloscope. There are no easily defined and measured harmonics or phase angles. Certainly, any eventual definition of a drug will require some such dissection into components each of which makes some contribution to the complex whole. The mental process may some day be defined by a particular combination of these components. And one of them is this Beth state. It is a state of uncaring, of anhedonia, and of emotionlessness.
Many drugs have a touch of this Beth state, ALEPH-7 more than most. If a sufficient alphabet of effects (I am using the Alephs, Beths, Gimels, and Daleths of the Hebrew as token starters only) were to be accumulated and defined, the actions of new materials might someday be more exactly documented. Could depression, euphoria, and disinhibition for example, all be eventually seen as being made up of their component parts, each contributing in some measured way to the sum, to the human experience? The psychologists of the world would be ecstatic. And drugs such as ALEPH-7 might be useful in helping to define one of these parts.
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This is your reminder to embark on your own adventures. It’s not about how grand they are—it’s about taking that first step and embracing the journey over the destination.
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Recently trip-sat a loved one with terminal cancer trying psilocybin for the first time. An incredibly intimate, challenging & rewarding experience. While i support the re-integration of plant magic into western culture, I oppose it being through medical/scientific institutions.
RE: The end-of-life patients finding solace in magic mushrooms: ‘What life after life could be like’
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In 1947, Perls introduced what would become the cycle of experience. He called it Organismic/World Metabolism as a description of the process underlying the achievement of internal balance. He believed that there exists an instinctive cycle which reflected the “cycle of the interdependency of organism and environment.” (Perls, 1969, 44; 69)
This cycle was a self-regulating experiential cycle that maintained the internal equilibrium of each individual. Because self regulation for human beings involves some form of consciousness that includes moral regulation, the moral regulation, by it’s very nature, “must lead to the accumulation of unfinished situations in our system and to interruption of the organismic circle. (Perls, 1969, 45) Hence, we have an instinctual cycle that seeks to complete itself. However, through internal and/or outside influences, the completion of this cycle can be short-circuited, creating an incomplete cycle. This incomplete cycle, if necessary to return the organism to equilibrium, will continue to recycle until the original need is satisfied. Such situations result “in a ‘fixed Gestalt’ or ‘unfinished experience/situation’ which interferes with good contact with self, others, or the environment in the present.” (Clarkson, 2000, 7)
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Just learned that a wise senior lady I visited in the swiss mountains a few times, who taught me a lot in a short time, has passed away. Reminded me how precious life is and that we should cherish each day. Carpe diem.
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An obsessive focus on product can be valuable, but it often obscures essential truths: The medium is the message, and the journey is the destination.
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Was surrounded by raw beauty in a tranquil Japanese countryside rose garden today. Nature's sensory wonders left a deep impression, especially the intoxicating scents. Was reminded how odd it is that we spend so much time in digital spaces that are totally void of smell.
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I wish you all a very happy, healthy and successful month of May!
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Lion's Mane Dreams
Lion's Mane Mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) can have profound effects on sleep, leading to vivid and lucid dreams that involve extended periods of flying with pristine control - an awe inspiring experience that surpasses any computer-generated simulation.
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From Artefacts to Experiences and Transformations
#Comment: If you want to know what A.I will automate first, follow this spectrum from left to right.
