From: Hermit (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Wed May 15 2002 - 16:52:38 MDT
[quote from: michelle on 2002-05-15 at 16:07:42]
[.:bricoleur:. 1]
[Michelle 2]
[Hermit 3]
[hr]
[bricoleur 1] This, more than any other thing, is what psychedelics taught me. Still think its cheating?
[Michelle 2] Thanks for a really lovely post!!
[Hermit 3] I second that.
<snip>
[Michelle 2] There is no Path. There is no Destination. There is no cheating, either. I spoke hastily. But you concede that most people who use psychadelics use them in an infantile, reactionary way without the kind of thought that you've obviously put into it.
[Hermit 3] Very true.
[Michelle 2] The nice thing is that we hear a lot from the people who use them well because they're excited about the things they've found!
[Hermit 3] I'm unpersuaded that they serve a useful social function although they may be useful, and can be rewarding at a personal level.
[Michelle 2] Psychadelics are totally useful for breaking down barriers but they don't hold secrets, only keys. I have nothing against them, I only hope that most use them the way that you have.
[Hermit 3] Anecdotal evidence leads me to doubt this.
[Michelle 2] I am turned off by the theories that psychadelics are what made humanity out of animals - enabling language and such. Does that mean that we are inventing interesting new things to entertain ourselves with, or does that mean that we are tapping into something that does exist (and has always)? Are the drugs bringing out lovely & useful mental aberrations, or are they giving us a leg up to evolutionary destiny? That's the part where I am wary of drug-induced revelation - it's hard to know where the line between entertainment and enlightenment lies when you're stoned/tripping/whatever. I've had a lot of really amazing ideas while on drugs that don't fit when I'm not - but the residue of the feeling is totally real and valuable.
[Hermit 3] How we developed these abilities is far less important than the fact that they exist. I consider the arguments that psychadelics were a prerequisite to neurological development as dubious, and probably unproveable, although the development of self-aware AI may provide serious obstacles to this theory.
[Hermit 3] To paraphrase myself, I see drugs as one possible perceptual tool, with no mapping to reality except as in so far as seeing things differently may be useful in developing a full repertoire of analytical tools.
[Michelle 2] Am I being clear at all?
[Hermit] Delightfully.
Regards
Hermit
PS "psychedelics" not "psychadelics"
---- This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25462>
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