undeather

Nobody argues that the pharmaceutical complex has its examples of unethical, profit driven behaviour over the years. So does almost any other huge company around the earth by the way. And yet, if you suffer from an heart attack, you will receive drugs in the emergency room that will save your life - produced by Pfizer & Co! You dont need to trust them in any way or form. At this point, after delivering billions of dosages - there has been an overwhelming amount of data which is independent on Pfizer or anyone else. Its literally all in front of your eyes, you just need to look at it. Also, everyone has skin in the game - all the scientist, all the doctors, all the CEO's and managers, everyone who knows something about biochemistry and data - they are for the most part, all vaccinated. Do you really think they would harm themselves or their loved ones if there was big doubt about it? No of course not. 1/5 - really? I got my third Pfizer-shot recently. I have propably vaxxed hundreds of people myself at this point. My whole family is vaccinated. All my collegues, hundreds of doctors, nurses, students & other workers in my hospital are of course vaccinated. All my friends and family got at least 2 doses. There wasnt a single severe side effect in that huge sample! I know 1 case of a friend who felt something like OP described in his post (weird heart issues which subsided after a week) Our emergency room isnt flooded with people who have vaccine side effects - this DID happen during Astra/J&J - period! This is the lived experience of every doctor I know. Remember - this is the first hand experience of someone who sees sick people every day. Not some vague theory on the internet. I agree with you that Omicron isnt really serious though! Not everyone should get the booster in my opinion - but in general the vaccine IS safe.

Sigh. Corona really was the perfect scenario to proof the reality of a sensemaking crisis. Robert Malone is clearly a bad faith actor. If you cant see this, then your mind is playing tricks on you. He is lying, wherever possible, about his credentials as the "creator of the mRNA vaccine", a huge part of his claims are outright ridoicolous and the evidence he cites is laughable. The same goes for Peter A. McCullough. And yes, even Fauci & the CDC have proven to be a bad faith actors in some sense. Most people are "anti-meanstream" because it feels good to be in that camp nowadays. I am not saying that you cant possibly come to conclusions that go against the present narrative, but the work you need to do is just not something the average joe is willing to put up with. No, your gut feeling and "intuition" aren't enough to understand the complexity of the situation, I am sorry. This is pre-rational thinking, a basic misunderunderstanding of what it means to be intuitive, per definition not an integral view on reality - therefore reductionistic, incomplete and far away from second tier dynamics. If you have learned anything from Leo, then remember the fact that the primary role of the mind is to deceive itself. Intuition can change in a heartbeat and I have seen this so many times in my patients. Do you know how often I have heard that "It doesnt feel right-argument" in the last year? Its SO common and in almost every case its simple fear & inability to deal with uncertainty hiding behind the construct. Guess what, I too had a "bad feeling" about the vaccination when I first got it. Real intuition is a skill that takes years to hone. Its when the car mechanic instantly knows where the problem lies without even opening the engine cover. Its what makes the nurse has a 6th sense about a patients condition. Its about really great doctors almost "smelling" the diagnosis. People are not "waking up" - its the same shitshow on both sides of the narrative spectrum. Here is a little piece of advice: If you want to get out of your blind spot, ditch both extremes and focus on the middle. If you find yourself drawn to any extreme - i.e "The vaccine is dangerous"/"We should vaccinate even small children" - you are most likely wrong. Analyzing scientific literature is not like reading a book. Its takes years to learn. If you want to cite the scientfic study as evidence for a certain argument, then you better know what kind of biases there are that might influence the outcome or certainty of that paper. The deceiving quality of the mind is really strong in those cases.

Yeah, thats absolutely possible - there are 3 distinguishable ways an intolerance can manifest: - Congenital complete genetic defect (very rare) - Primary: Usually decrease in lactase activity in childhood/adolescence (only affects adults) - Secondary: As a result of a small intestine disease (e.g. celiac disease ; transient after gastroenteritis) The frequencey varies enormously worldwide: lowest prevalence in Northwestern Europe, rates incline across southern Europe and the Middle East and are highest in Asia and most of Africa! @Shiva99 : Easy way to find out! Iam 95% sure its just a simple lactose intolerance, which can develop throughout your life (as mentioned above). Get tested at your local general practitioner!

Hmm, how do you know that you are not lactose intolerant? This sounds like a med-school exam question of someone who is lactose intolerant because bloating/cramps are textbook typical for that haha!

Caffeine is primarily metabolised in the liver by cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are responsible for more than 90% of caffeine clearance. The enzyme responsible for metabolism of caffeine is coded for by the gene CYP1A2. So if you want the drink, get the positive benefits while getting away from the potential side effects you mentioned, a more active CYP1A2-base is the way to go. Most of the data regarding coffeine clearance (the rate you metabolize the molecule) through enzyme induction is highly theortical and the general evidence is low. However, this is what you could potentially do: - Consumption of broccoli and brassica vegetables in general increase caffeine clearance. - High doeses of Vitamin C supplementatin seems to increase metabolism as well - L-theanine supplementation seems to counterbalance the agaitation a bit - Avoid foods high in quercetin right before coffee consumption ( https://www.webmd.com/diet/foods-high-in-quercetin#1 ) - Start smoking (no joke!), almost doubles coffeine clearance ;D - Avoid grapefruits & alcohol - Certain adaptogens (like ashwagandha) could pontentially counteract some of the negative side effects - BUT, this could also go into the other direction and cause paradox effects. Some of those supplements could actually compete with coffeine for metabolisation, increasing the effects in the process. Since there is a lot of complexitiy involved, there is no way around trying what works for you individually! The first and propably most common alternative is green tea. When my patients ask me what they could do when they still want some of the positive effects, I tell them to switch to green tea. Or...you could play biohacker and try the things mentioned here

This is the book I recommend to my patients if they want an easy/science based summary on healthy nutrition. Its not perfect, but one of the best I have personally come across. Amazon-link

Research on NMN is highly inconclusive in a human model, thats everything you need to know at the moment. There was a huge hype about this some time ago because Dr. David Sinclair promoted it on JRE among other podacsts. I personally dont have too many positive things to say about this guy, since he obviously cant even interpret data very well (some of his tweets just make me cringe). There is some preliminary data from animal studies that are high quality and reproducible - some of which show decent effects on aging and metabolism. I personally dont recommend it to my patients at the moment - just wait 2-3 more years for more human data!

The actualized.org forum is not a very good place to debate the validity of spiritual claims since a lot of members pride themselves in being anti-intellectual and "beyond science". The weird thing is that at the end, they are right in their basic ontonlogy - but most of them got there skipping the rational part. There is an argument to be made which is completely rational, to the ground and actually much more likely than "the nihilistic materlistic paradigm" - and it has been made for thousands of years. I also disagree with Leo on a lot of his views because some of them are just wrong - which is okay, because he is a human too. That said, he is also right in a lot of important ways. If you want, we can discuss this in priavte (per PM). Oh and by the way - Ich bevorzuge dabei Deutsch

This is so full of assumptions, misunderstandings and strawmanning - I dont even know where to begin..... I am in contact with Bernardo and I will invite him for a debate - lets see how he reacts!

After watching this podcast with Lex, Harris lost a lot of intellectual respect in my book. I mean, he holds a bachelor degree in philosophy from Stanford but doesnt understand the position and implications of idealism at ALL. Its a complete strawman. I mean come on - Schopenhauer, Hegel, Kant, Spinoza.. Iam sure he at least read some of them. On the other side, he and his wife have strongly promoted the possibility of panpsychism, which of course is utter nonsense because there is no way of ever reconciling the combination problem without making HUGE loops and assumptions. I still enjoy the making sense podcast and especially his political/societal commentary - but on a metaphysical level, he is just wrong in my opinion. You also have to take into account that a massive part of his audience is deep into the stage orange framework of seeing the world. He is a skeptic and hardcore atheist after all, so thats exactly the audience you would expect - any step towards acknowliding mysticism would be career suicide.

@MovForward I once had the opportunity to talk with Daniel Schmachtenberger about this. I dont know if you know him, but he is - for me at least - the clearest communicator I personally know. The way he presents his arguments and answers is just one beautifully strung together thread that makes perfect sense and keeps listeners interested. Here is what he told me: "Practice writing your ideas on things. Take the time to refine your writing to be as clear and precise as possible. Then have conversations with people about the topics after you have clarified good ways of expressing them. The writing will also make sure your understanding is clear. Clear communication arises from clear thinking. It is the process of transferring your clarity to another."

Books that had the biggest influence on me & why: Viktor Frankl - Man's serach for meaning - Incredible story about finding meaning in difficult situations, just an awesome read in general The art of loving - Erich Fromm - Beautiful short book about learning to love Nassim Taleb - Antifragility - Understanding complex systems & antifragility, which are fundamental concepts in any integral worldview Your Unique self - Marc Gafni - Understanding the role of individuality in a nondual world More than allegory - Bernardo Kastrup - Chapter 3 is the most insane and interesting trip report I have ever read Bernardo Kastrup - All his books! - Best rational arguments for idealism(nonduality)/against physicalism available right now The war of art - Steven Pressfield - Overcoming resistance Passion of the western mind - Richard Tarnas - Intellectual-cultural development of the modern world view - super important to understand why we think what we think Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig - One of my alltime favorite books Siddharta - Herman Hesse - Beautiful little story about finding his own path to enlightenment Gödel, Escher, Bach - Douglas R. Hofstadter - Difficult to get through masterpiece about reality as a strange loop. Meditations on Moloch: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TxcRbCYHaeL59aY7E/meditations-on-moloch - Must read blog post about the functionalities of society Bhagavad Gita - I dont think I need to explain this one Tao Te Ching - Lao tze (Laotsi) - Ancient book, full of wisdom! Difficult to understand without explanations The master and his emissary - Ian McGilchrist - Masterpiece about how left/right brain dynamics shape our worldview Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century - Edward Kelly - The best, no bullshit summary of psy/parapsychology/mind-research I have read so far. Its a huge book and super expensive. I got the PDF - if you want it, just PM me. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - Grat book for money/happyness mindset Osho - Courage - little book about courage and fear, really enjoyed it! Kapil Gupta - Direct Truth: Uncompromising, non-prescriptive Truths to the enduring questions of life - Interesting book about all sorts of stuff, really apprechiate his perspective Ending medical reversal - Dr Vinay Prasad - If you are working in the medical field, this one is a must read in my opinion. Ken Wilber - A brief history of everyhting - Integral worldview must read Ken Wilber - Kosmic conciousness (audiobook) - Incredibly deep and enjoyable interview with Ken Wilber. Available on audible! Why most published reserach is wrong - John Ionnidis: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124 - Ground breaking paper about certain biases in the academic literature After - Dr. Bruce Geryson - Awesome, no bullshit summary of NDE reserach Daniel Kaneman - Thinking fast and slow - Super important framework for improvement in sensemaking Helgoland - Carlo Rovelli - Enjoyable beginner level book to quantum mechanics and the propably most substantiated interpretation we have of it: Quantum loop gravity! Its the one theory that fits like a glove with spiritual insights and is therefore an awesome framework to understand QM in a non-BS way. Models - Mark Manson - IMO the most important book you can read to get good with women Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda - Classic one! - bit weird and magical, but I really enjoyed it! Breath - James Nestor - Really cool and important book about the importance of proper breathing The Art of learning - Josh Waitzkin - Amazing book about someone who goes into into the nature of learning and backs it up with real results! Just to name a few

Yes, and like every other drug - SSRI's have their place in modern medicine. See, this is exactly what I was talking about - your previous comment implies that perscribing antidepressives is some sort of terrible thing to do. It implies that a system thinker would never do this - which is of course utter nonsense. Most people here who talk about medicine with this annoying "do/dont do"-tone never spend a day in their life treating patients. If a 53 year old women with a metastasized bile duct tumor suffers from the worst end of life anxiety/depression that you can potentially experiece - the humane thing to do is to pump her full of antidepressives/benzos as fast as possible. Anything other than than that is inhumane. Maybe in the future, this will change and we are allowed to give them psilocybin or similar substances - but its literally not possible in the moment. In such terminal cases you are also not aiming for some other form of long term therpy - she is is going to die soon, so the "quick fix" is the therapy of choice. The issue is the following: You dont have to deal wtih the suffering of patients on a daily basis - you never had to tell relatives, including young children, that we doctors are going to make it "as pleasent as possible for her/him". That lack of experience is the root fo your ignorance. This is just one example.... I get annoyed/angry pretty fast with such comments because it cuts REALLY close to my heart. This is not a personal attack against you - I hope you understand this. A good doctor will take as many variables a possible and find the perfect therapy for each individual patient.

I didnt bash any forum members, its just an ongoing observation that has been going on for almost 6 years now. You would not believe the private messages I get from somer users here, its outright ridicolous. People dont CARE about this kind of topics. A big part of the sensemaking happening on this forum is extremely juvenile and without any trace of humility. Thank god the moderators are for the most part really far in their developement and give decent responses. In fact...here we go again. Total nonsense:

Great, high quality post! Kudos to you! Sadly too sophisticated for this forum, since most people here dont care about developing their thinking in any fundamental way. I (personally) wouldnt include Bret Weinstein anymore since he hasnt shown any sign of system thinking in the last 12 months.

Ich wohne in Graz du?

Schön hier noch ein paar andere Österreicher zu sehen

Science communicators are usually not very accomplished scientists ;D

Good luck! I sincerely hope you reach your dreams!

You are talking about potentially being hundreds of years ahead of our current scientific understanding, which is an inherently nonsensical statement. The ideas behing Yoga, Qigong or Reiki have in some cases been practiced for thousands of years - they are great teachings, but you are not doing anything "new" or particular scientific if you make a career out of them. Some ideas in those system stem from magical thinking paradigms that are well below stage orange from a sprial dynamic perspective. If you want to be more advanced than anyone else, than you need to pour your life into it. Otherwise, no chance. If you want to change society or the world for better - then you need decades of expertise in most cases. Reductionism is not a bad thing - in fact, the most respected theories in almost any field of inquiry are highly reductionistic. Neo adveita vedanta teachers like Jed McKenna or Rupert Spira are HIGHLY reductionistic in their spiritual approaches. What comes with a high level of reductionism is a high level of specificity. Its true that this can hinder progress, as we can see for example in modern medicine, but its also extremely usefull in a different regard.

@Tim R put it really well. As a scientist myself, let me tell you some words of caution: Doing actual science is extremely difficult, boring, repetitive, highly statistical and has for the most part nothing to do with the grandiose ideas you put forwards in your post. In fact, any reasearch faculty around the world will laugh at you if you come forward with such propositions. Can you do it without them? Propably not. Even if you could come up with the necessary financial support, your ideas just wont be taken seriously at all. So, either you are going to play after their rules, or you are not going to play at all. Also, what exactly do you want to work on? Science is an extremely broad term - like sports. Also, do you realize that futuristic science/conciousness science already exists? Psi-reaserach has experiments which are methodically immaculate, highly statistically signicant, repeatable ad infinitum - and are still, mostly ignored by the mainstream. Thats the behemoth you are up against. If you really, really want to double down on this (which is a great life purpose by the way) - then you just WONT get around recieving a degree from a decent university in that chosen field. By the way, with degree I mean that your name has to be followed by the suffix "PhD". Without that, no chance. I also wanted to change the medical field after realizing nonduality a couple of years ago. Let me tell you that it took a lot of sweat and blood to get where I am now and it will cost even more to actually change stuff. After years of doing slave-like work, starting in university, I slowly start be taken seriously by peers and financial supporters. I am nowhere near at enough reputition where I could put out ideas and concepts that really could change the medical system for the better. In fact any "woo" I put out now will come back to bite my ass in my later years. Still, the fight is worth it and lets see where it goes!

I have personally prescribed Venlafaxine (=Effexor) dozens of times in the last years. Not my go-to antidepressive, but definitely a good choice if SSRIs dont cut it. Tolerance is pretty high, I would say that around 10% get gastrointestinal issues - some men suffer from erectile dysfunction when actively medicated. Side effects disappear when you stop taking it of course. Look, there is only one to find out if its the right drug for you! Let me motivate you by saying that I have witnessed "miracle healings" after psychiatric patients found the one drug that helped them to turn their life around. Maybe Effexor can do that for you - maybe not! Its not at all a dangerous drug per sé - might cause some discomfort in the worst of cases. If thats the case, than you always have the choice to get off it.

1) An atom is a helpful abstraction we use to describe material phenomena 2) Any concept wording like "empty" or "field" will misslead you - they are concepts based on interactions 3) Mathematics is the language to understand what an atom "looks" like 4) Atoms aren't "mostly empty space," they are mostly the wave function of the electron 5) The best descriptions are based on quatum mechanics 6) Quantum mechancis is poorly understood at an ontological level and our best theories include the creation of a universe every single moment (many worlds) or relational turtles all the way to "nothingness" (Caro Rovellis Loop Qunatum gravity) If you talk about relative truth topics, keep yourself to the scientists who actually study the phenomena itself

Well it depends what you mean with "effectiveness". What disappears after roughly 6 months are primarly the so called neutralizing antibodies. Thats the first line of defense and the reason why a vaccinated person is less likely to transmit the virus to other people. The immune system is way more complex than that. B und T-cell immunity from 2 shots propably lasts way longer and could even persist up to decades. What comes with that is a pretty decent reduction in severe disease propability, even years after taking the vaccine - and thats what the developement was all about. The idea behind the booster is decreasing the likelihood of spread, plus a further decrease in severe disease propability. In my opinion, the vaccine is safe enough to make this a rational guideline. However, especially Omicron seems to be much milder (up to 90% less lower pulmonary tract infections/lung inflammation), so the risk/reward calculation changes drastically and we definitely need to take this into account. I would advice anyone to get the booster, but if you are unsure about the decision - below the age of 30 with no comorbidites, you could argue that the vaccinaton wont bring any personal benefits to you. HOWever, we live in a society and need to take care about the people around you. Thats a fact as well. Make of it what you wish.

Most bottled water ist severely contaminated with synthetic polymers (microplastic). Glass is an alternative. I always forget how bad tap water quality is all around the world. Where I live, the water that comes out the tap is literally filled into bottles and sold as "healing water" in other parts of Europe.