bmcnicho

@Squeekytoy Understandable, I usually watch long lectures at double speed. Do you disagree with his first point? About the interrelatedness of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty? The main takeaway for me was later on though. He illustrates well how finely tuned cognitive processes are necessary for making sense of the complexity of reality. The practice he describes for transcending limitations has balance that I was lacking.

@Razard86 But if there was absolutely zero self-deception, wouldn’t that just be Death/The Void? Later in the video, Vervaeke goes on to describe the relationship between knowing and not knowing, how knowledge is dependent upon ignorance, because focus and filtering are required for intelligibility. The main idea being that the finite can still participate in the infinite without dissolving completely.

John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist and in this video he discusses the abilities and limitations of current artificial intelligence models with an impressive level of depth and nuance. He then describes how wisdom and spirituality can be used to guide these systems towards positive outcomes.

Physiologically, psychedelics are very safe compared to almost anything. The main data we have is that people who went hardcore with psychedelics in the 1960s seem to be mostly fine now. The same doesn’t necessarily apply to newer research chemicals though, or to extreme levels of use. I haven’t heard anything specifically relating to serotonin imbalance with psychedelics. If anything, they might improve brain health in that respect, as some people with depression report significant improvement after as little as one experience. In my view, potential psychological effects are the greater concern. After about a dozen trips, I’ve already noticed that my sober mind has been altered slightly in certain ways. Nothing drastic, but the thing is especially with high doses you can’t know what’s going to happen in advance, or how these experiences might change you. Psychedelics have been shown to cause permanent changes in various brain structures. Many of theses are positive, but it’s still important to keep in mind. My attitude towards psychedelics has shifted a bit after a few intense experiences. I now view taking these substances to be a bit more like high stakes gambling, although I do believe that the odds can definitely be in your favor if you approach things properly.

There are many indications that Artificial General Intelligence could only be a few years away, and theoretically Super-intelligence would follow soon after. This could radically change and threaten the world in ways that are difficult to predict. GPT-5 is expected to release in December of this year, with GPT-6 following sometime next year. Both will be huge steps closer to AGI. It occurred to me that this is around the same time that Leo said his Psychedelic Awakening course would release. My concern is that things could be so chaotic in the world around this time that there wouldn’t be enough time or stability for us to implement the teachings. I understand that creating an entire course, especially on such an advanced, original topic, requires a huge amount of time and work. My proposal though, is that if the beginning of the course was ready a few months early, the course could be split into 2 parts, giving us more time to implement the teachings while things are still stable in the world. Of course, there is disagreement on the AI issue. It’s possible that AGI could still be 10 or more years away, in which case, this post is irrelevant. However, I think the risk of this all happening very soon should still be taken seriously. An open letter calling for an immediate pause on all AI research recently got over a thousand expert signatures: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

Yes, I’ve experienced non-locality on mushrooms, it’s very strange. Like the location of one object can only be understood relative to another object, but this entire field of awareness has no location. Everything you might think you are has always existed nowhere

@Leo Gura Got it, no worries. This news has just made me take my mortality a lot more seriously. But I’m already planning on making this year my most productive ever with currently available resources. I think the motto of Emperor Augustus is especially relevant at this time: Festina Lente, Hurry Slowly

@Jodistrict I have read Faust. I definitely see that analogy applying to things like stimulants and other more dangerous, addictive drugs. Psychedelics seem a lot safer, though. Most of the trip reports I’ve read so far seem to describe psychedelic entities as having mostly positive intent. By a sacrifice do you mean something like promising to make positive changes in life? I can’t say that I’ve deliberately made a sacrifice like that, although I do go into the experience with humility and respect. That might be worth trying going forward. I don’t feel as though I’ve been drained of power in some way, at least so far. Generally, I’ve gained clarity on things, and expanded my conceptions on what’s possible, but I guess I have no idea what will happen if I continue

@Jodistrict I think that’s important to keep in mind, although I don’t know exactly what people mean by “paying a price”. Do you mean that in the sense of difficult integration work? Certain experiences can be a bit destabilizing for awhile afterward. I’ve only done about a dozen trips so far, maybe I’ve been lucky that things have been mostly positive, although I’ve been careful to not push my doses too high It really does feel like starting out that I’m tapping into a flood of heightened potential. Do you think that there’s a long term price of some kind? Or more so just in the weeks following an intense experience? So far I’m getting the sense that these substances can be overwhelming positive when handled responsibly, but I can’t help questioning if we’re “meant” to know these things

@Richard Purdy I’ve only had two psychedelic dreams so far. Both times, the dreams were very different from any actual substances I’ve tried. So neurologically, it was probably the normal dream pathways essentially emulating psychedelic-like effects. I’m guessing that’s more likely, although I don’t know if this has ever been studied. However, if your dreams have been very similar to the real thing, then it is possible that psychedelic pathways could be triggered during sleep. Repeated use of psychedelics is thought to reinforce certain pathways, leaving them open to being activated in other ways. That’s also a possible explanation for how marijuana can become psychedelic for some people, despite binding to different receptors

My interpretation is that right now our consciousness is essentially playing a game with itself where it’s focusing its intelligence on keeping a particular human body alive. This isn’t a physical body though, I guess you could call it a thought-form. One of the challenges of this game is that the “brain” is energy intensive to keep running, the food required to obtain energy is scarce, and if the brain stops running, the dream ends. Of course with access to infinite intelligence, all challenge would cease to exist, but if our level of consciousness is arbitrarily capped relative to brain complexity, then challenge is maintained as a more complex brain would require too much energy. Therefore, a well adapted person’s abilities and attention are limited mostly to things that either directly or indirectly benefit their survival. Where psychedelics come in, is that plants and fungi are surviving in the same way. Chemical defenses are an effective strategy to avoid being eaten, and altered versions of neurotransmitters are a logical choice, as they will incapacitate animals such as insects or slugs, while being harmless to the plant which does not have neurons. The chemicals of particular interest to us are altered versions of serotonin and melatonin. Serotonin is primarily responsible for maintaining wakefulness, the consistent reality we must survive in during the day. Melatonin induces sleep, a time when, while the body is inactive, our consciousness is more free to exist temporarily in alternate realities (nighttime dreams) that can benefit the mind in waking life. Serotonergic psychedelics, being somewhere in between the two in structure and function, therefore induce what I would call a waking dream state. It combines the energy and clarity of wakefulness with the freedom and mysteriousness of sleep. The result of this is that human limitations on consciousness can be removed, as the serotonin system seems to be central in how the mind constructs its reality. This can be taken to the extreme of completely losing connection to the human form and gaining connection to radically expanded levels of consciousness and intelligence. One thing to consider though is that we didn’t have knowledge of chemistry until very recently. Before then, “psychedelics” as a concept didn’t exist. Instead, these experiences were thought of as coming into contact with a living spirit, whether existing within the plant itself, or in a transcendent realm with the plant being a deliberately placed sacrament. This conception sounds more “spiritual” than describing it as physical chemistry, but I think they’re different ways of describing the same thing. All human understanding is metaphorical, as reality is always more complex than mental models, so both conceptions have their own strengths and weaknesses. The difference between “physical” and “spiritual” is merely a construction of the mind.

@Jannes Based on my limited understanding of the biochemistry, I don’t think it would cause psychedelic tolerance, although I don’t know if anyone’s tested that. It does seem to develop a slight tolerance with itself though. They recommend cycling 5 days on and 2 days off

I’ve had some success with this so far, specifically with ayahuasca and Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds (LSA). While tripping, I’ve been able to access ways of thinking, understanding, perceiving and generating insight beyond what I previously thought was possible. Surprisingly, I’ve been able to partially integrate these new ways of thinking back into the sober state, although it has come with a fair amount of confusion and reduced stability. This is making me wonder how far this can be taken, to what extent can we tap into higher intelligence while still existing in a human form. So far, the only other substances I’ve tried have been mushrooms and high doses of sativa edibles. While those experiences have been equally profound, they don’t seem to raise my baseline state as much as ayahuasca and LSA can. So I’m wondering which substances people have tried that are good at enhancing cognition in various ways? I know that many people have described accessing godlike levels of consciousness and intelligence, but how much of this can be retained back in the sober state?

@Nilsi Probably right brain is more what I’m looking for. I would say that LSA leans more towards left brain and ayahuasca is more right brain, although both have a nice balance. I would say that the integration of the two towards higher order synthesis is where the true value lies. So since I’m naturally left brain dominant, right brain is where I’m lacking.

Very interesting! I listened to the podcast and it sounds like it doesn’t directly bind to the receptor like psychedelics do, but rather increases the receptor sensitivity. For that reason, it’s limited to microdose effects, but people are saying positive things about it. The effects seem to peak at 200 mg for some reason, with larger doses being weaker but longer lasting. It does sound like this could be used to potentiate other psychedelics though, I think I’ll test it out and report back. It’s cool to be on the cutting edge of a new substance, I guess this was just released a few months ago

@Leo Gura I hope you’re joking, I’ve never heard of anyone benefiting from that, seems pretty horrific and dangerous. You would obviously know more about it than me though

My thinking is that if psychic abilities do exist, then perhaps the people who have them are actively keeping it a secret. Either that or these abilities are subtle enough that from the perspective of an outside observer it seems plausibly natural. I just think that despite how flawed modern science is, if these abilities really existed in the way some people think they do, then something conclusive would be able to be demonstrated about it

@M A J I I generally agree with what you’re saying, however over the last several months I’ve surprisingly noticed that some of my trips have altered my baseline in various ways. Not necessarily in the sense of “higher consciousness” - I agree that meditation and self-inquiry are the proper tools for that - but more so in changing the way I think about things One factor I’ve noticed is that only waiting a few weeks in between trips has been more effective than having months in between when I was first starting out. Especially if the trips are at fairly high doses, I’ve been able to generate momentum over time, which can help avoid the trap of getting too absorbed back into normal life and losing touch with the insights I’ve also noticed that for about 2 weeks after an intense trip I’ll have occasional periods of feeling a little “altered” in various ways. It might have something to do with the serotonin system resetting, I’m not sure. But yes, it’s not like the substance causes real transformation on its own. The integration work afterward is arguably even more important than the experience itself.

Yes, I do plan on trying LSD sometime this year, seeing as it’s chemically similar to LSA, that seems like a promising candidate. You make a good point that it’s very much an individual thing. I’m just starting to see the true potential of this work, but I understand that just being flooded with the chaos of the transcendent would be counterproductive. There’s probably good reasons why we don’t yet have access to certain things.

I’ve been following all the AI advancements recently and thinking about how radically it could change society. There’s many credible people predicting that we could have human level intelligence as soon as this decade. The thought that in not too long we could be sharing this planet with a superhuman intelligence might recontextualize spirituality quite a bit. My main concern is that things could unfold very quickly and the AI would be so advanced that we wouldn’t be able to understand what was happening. So I’m speculating that spiritually advanced people could be useful in a situation like this. On psychedelics, I’ve had small glimpses into enhanced cognitive states. I’ve used it to accelerate my progress in contemplating, but so far it’s come with a lot of confusion. So I’m wondering if sufficiently gifted and advanced people could use psychedelics and other practices to directly understand how superhuman intelligence operates, even if in a different form. Then they might be able to help guide humanity through this difficult transition. All this, however, is based on the scenario where superhuman AI leads to the emergence of some kind of hyper-reality that we can’t understand. It’s also possible that the AI would observe that humans are ignorant and fearful and decide to keep things mostly the same for awhile

I think this is fine as long as the harmala is sourced from Syrian rue. The Huasca vine is a threatened species, so there would be an ethical issue there

All relevant data shows that unions are essential for workers. The destruction of America’s unions is why wages have been stagnant for 40 years despite productivity and corporate profits rising dramatically

I wonder if taking 10 grams with an maoi would have the same effects. I’ve done 3 grams with harmala and it strongly potentiates. Might be easier to keep down that way. For now normal doses are crazy enough for me though

As far as the underlying metaphysical cause, I have no idea. However, I’m considering on a practical level that having knowledge of the future would make you want to change the future. Seeing as we live in a world of billions of people with a large number of conflicting agendas, I think that could result in an infinite chain of futures overwriting other futures. In that case, I wonder what future exactly you’d be seeing, as any events that would not actually come to pass would no longer be the future. This might result in some kind of vast time war that would potentially make all humans completely insane and unable to act or understand anything. Or somehow all possibilities would converge to form a singular future that no one would want to change. But then there would be no room for individuality or independent thought. This is an interesting example of how reality must be structured in a very specific way to make any kind of sense and allow minds like ours to exist

It sounds like a couple years back they were trying to set up a conversation about Spiral Dynamics, but it never ended up happening for some reason. I would still like to see this happen if possible. I’m curious about what Vaush’s take would be, as while he is pretty locked in to his left wing perspective, he has also said that he’s a moral anti-realist. Also it might be funny if the topic of spirituality came up, as Vaush strikes me as being quite anti-spiritual.