Carl-Richard

I've been taking a steroid nasal spray for my sinuses, but I think I'll stop today. My ears are still clogged af, but it doesn't really hurt anymore. It is affecting me though. I can't really think straight and my energy is lower than usual. The hearing loss is so severe that I have to be careful when walking outside, and listening to music sucks because of the pitch change. I heard it takes weeks or months to see any improvements, and that's really not fun, especially right before exams.

A sequence can be anything. "Linear" means it goes in one direction, and when it comes to growth, it's from lower to higher. Structural stage theory 101: development is the movement from lower to higher complexity.

I'm a Big 5 guy. People treat MBTI like a fun hobby, like solving crosswords, not like a science.

He did something once and now you're questioning his personality? Type theory is so ridiculous.

Structural stage models are linear. There does exist good critiques of stage models (e.g. Barbara Rogoff), but I still think they're useful.

He doesn't believe in the concept of linear growth.

I think people generally don't like when somebody is preaching that they've found the ultimate truth.

@Egzoset ?

(Note: Do not rely on medical advice from online forums. Always consult a doctor before making any medical decisions.) When it comes to weed culture, there is one super-strong meme that is based on a blatant misunderstanding of health: "weed is not physically addictive, only mentally addictive." It's wrong on so many levels: it conflates dependence and addiction, it misunderstands what fundamentally drives addiction, and it wrongly assumes that mental side effects are somehow less important than physical side effects. Dependence and withdrawal Dependence (and subsequent withdrawal) is very predictable and is something that everybody goes through after discontinuing drug use. It's essentially the process of re-calibrating back to the type of homeostasis that existed before initiating drug use. This process produces side effects that are qualitatively speaking the opposite effects of the drug. So if the drug produces physical side effects (e.g. constipation), you'll experience the opposite during withdrawal (diarrhea). If the mental effect is euphoria, then the withdrawal effect is dysphoria. Addiction and cravings On the other hand, addiction as an overarching phenomena is not reducible to such symptoms. It rather has to do with a drastic change in behavior, psychology and overall life conditions. When it comes to drug cravings (arguably the driving force of drug addiction), the main factor is positive reinforcement, particularly evident in drugs that trigger the reward circuitry in various dopamine pathways (which cannabis does). Positive reinforcement is what makes you crave the specific drugs you've had experiences taking. Now, when you look at the symptoms of drug cravings, it's strictly speaking mental in nature. Cravings depend on thoughts, which are tied to previous drug experiences, and these thoughts (when unfulfilled) create feelings of mental distress. Therefore, the idea that "weed is only mentally addictive" is firstly, nonsensical, and secondly, an attempt to downplay weed addiction. All drug cravings, whether it's for opiates, amphetamines, cannabinoids or eating your sofa, are mental in nature. Saying "it's all mental" is not a way to downplay the problem. So what is the deal about physical withdrawals? Physical withdrawals are actually not the worst parts of quitting a drug. It's the cravings. Some people liken the physical side of heroin withdrawal to a weak cold. Of course, some physical withdrawal symptoms can be deadly, which is why it's perceived as a serious thing. Physical withdrawals from cannabis do exist, and I've experienced them myself (diarrhea, nausea, unable to eat food, stiff muscles, aches and pains). Stimulants like cocaine have very few physical withdrawal symptoms, yet they're still perceived as being highly addictive. There is of course overlap between all these things, but it's the most accurate way (that I know about) of talking about these things. One example is that cravings can be classified as a mental withdrawal symptom (as they tend to happen more frequently during withdrawal), but you also don't have to be in withdrawal to have cravings. You can for example take a hit of cocaine, feel the rush, and then want to take even more. Also, having cravings doesn't automatically mean you're addicted. It's only if the cravings (along with other factors) are strong enough to cause a detrimental impact on your life. Summary & tl;dr: The reason I'm writing this is because I see this misunderstanding everywhere, and it creates a harmful mentality around certain drugs and their addiction potential. The mental-physical dichotomy that most people hold in their minds is very inaccurate and is based on an intuitive understanding rather than a scientific understanding of the topic. The most important point is to distinguish between 1. withdrawal symptoms and 2. cravings. 1. Withdrawal symptoms are related to dependence, which can be physical or mental. 2. Cravings are related to addiction, which is fundamentally mental. There is of course overlap, but I think it's the most accurate way of talking about these things. Withdrawal symptoms seem to cause an increase in cravings, but they're also not fully dependent on each other, which means you can think of it like this: Withdrawal symptoms => Cravings => Addiction <= Cravings <= no withdrawal symptoms.

No. I used quotation marks for a reason.

I stopped searching for enlightenment because I'm not ready for it, so I just do everything I can to pull myself together if it happens. It's probably not a good idea to experiment with letting go while you're driving, but if you're indeed ready, then sooner or later you will enter permanent no-doership, and then you won't have to worry about having to watch yourself drive a car, because then it's the only option

That has nothing to do with what I said. My point is that you can't fool a Purple because they don't engage in the level of abstract thinking that is required to be fooled.

I experience this very often, especially while driving, and it's indeed scary. It's what happens when the self quiets down. if you're meditating every day for awakening, then this state of being is what you're searching for. Do you realize that? Now, are you able to accept this gift or will you shy away from it like me? This is what no self is: no control, no doing, no knowing, no nothing.

It isn't destroyed, only seen for what it is.

You're lying if you say you never entertain yourself.

You can't scam a rock either.

What a ToE seeks to do is to ground current theories in the same reduction base (a shared paradigm), along with the hope that some new answers will pop out from it (but that is not necessarily the case). To me, it looks like physicists have to learn from fields like psychology that having multiple paradigms is OK.

To get the feel for the limits of SD, you need to read about the basics like Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development or Kohlberg's theory of moral development. SD follows the same logic, only with a different construct (vMEMEs).

People who grow up in a Purple society.

You're conflating addiction and pharmacological dependence. The stats I've seen are 10% vs 20% chance of addiction for weed and heroin respectively. Here weed is 9%, cocaine is 17% and heroin is 25%: It should also be said that people who try hard drugs are already more likely to be addicts in the first place considering the gateway hypothesis, so that may skew the numbers.

LOL making history I recently discovered Kyle Dunningan, best comedian on YouTube.

I will agree that modern society clutters one's mind and that pre-modern environments are more conducive to spiritual growth, but people have spontaneous awakenings with or without guru transmission all the time regardless of culture. Cognitive ability is a bit broad, but if we're talking about abstract thought, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the utility of it. It lead to things like modern medicine, something a tribal shaman would die for.

One of my childhood friends that I haven't met in a while just became a father at 24. It's feels so weird to think about.

It's boundary dissolving, but in a murky way. It's like asking if bong water will hydrate you. Sure

That is the trade-off for complex division of labor, wealth accumulation and space travel. You start worrying about things that can go wrong