@ Geines
I would like to nip this in the bud, because these discussions and debates are a constant theme here. No one ever gets swayed to change their beliefs based on something written on a website. We might fine tune our thoughts on a subject by debating, and we can come to appreciate the personalities of our friends here, which brings us together as a community... a family even... but we are not going to browbeat each other to modify a lifetimes worth of experience and contemplation.
As such, you will never convince those of us who feel we have had direct experience of (pick one or more) gods, angels, spirits, actual higher dimensions, elves, or even G*d almighty that we are crazy. I can't speak for the rest of the crew here, but I personally don't want to convince you of anything... I don't see anyone else here trying to do much more than get you to open your mind a bit, and be a bit friendlier perhaps, either.
So, I offer you an olive branch and an opportunity to say live & let live. I can see by your link that you have had some fairly horrific experiences which color your view of the spice and what it shows you. It is probably best if you don't believe in Hyperspace being real... and avoid such deep entheogenic experiences, at least for the time being.
But I will take a moment to point a few things out to you... feel free to ignore me.
Geines wrote:It's theoretical. The information is out there, and I'm no neuroscientist so I don't have archives or the stuff. If you want to believe fairies from another plain is controlling your mind, well good luck with that.
I don't think anyone here said this... I certainly didn't.
As for the information being out there, I have never read a single neuroscientist's work where they even claim that they have a working model of consciousness. It may happen one day. There is plenty of correlation work between emotional and psychic states with activity in certain areas, but this is huge leap from saying that the brain is the source of consciousness.
Quote:How is calling people crazy not disrespectful?"
Because I said no disrespect. If you choose to think someone calling you crazy because you're doing something odd is bad then deep down you're insecure with your actions. If you thought what you was doing was right you wouldn't be offended even if I was trying to offend you.
Saying something disrespectful and qualifying it with "no disrespect" doesn't make it less disrespectful per se... it is merely an acknowledgement that you are engaging in behavior that many people would find disrespectful. Your posts here have shown that you know you are being disrespectful and bellicose, but that you feel it is your right to be so.
While I support your right to speak how you see fit, and even have no problem with people going beyond the Attitude guidelines here... I will just say that your arguments and opinions would carry more weight if you were more measured and friendly. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
As for me being offended... I am not. You can not offend me. A cursory look at the forums here will show you that I am especially
thick skinned and
hard headed. You are not the first person to cast aspersions at me or sit in judgment as to the rationality of my opinions. Your insults and jibes are rather tame TBH. But
my being offended or not doesn't constitute the definition of disrespect. You can show less respect for me and others than is considered par for this website
without me taking the slightest offense whatsoever.
Quote:"And, even if I were pronouncing things you disagree with (or simply have no direct experience of), your attitude here seems immature and judgmental."
Are you unaware you're judging me? I know I'm judgmental, but you don't even know what you're doing.
Informing you that your
attitude seems immature and judgmental is a rather weak form of judgment... and it is not
you that I was referring to, but how your self-expression here
seems from the other side. Calling someone crazy multiple times in multiple ways is many orders of magnitude more judgmental than informing someone as to how they are coming off... in your opinion.
But it is clear that you don't feel that judgmental posts are uncalled for or counter-productive, so the finer points of this are irrelevant, as is whether I am actually judging you or not... and my level of awareness on this topic.
Quote:
"These are your conjectures. You can't hope to verify this, so you are sure of all this... how?"
And you can't hope to verify you're not dreaming because the only way to know is to wake up. Why try to go down this road. You're brain works, you take a drug, your brain now works differently. Is taking heroine shooting magical balls of living euphoria into you red blood cell traffic highway? If you choose to question reality in such a way, why not question biology. Your outlook on reality ultimately makes up whats inside of it, including me and biology.
I am the first one to point out that we can not prove that we are
not dreaming... I say it frequently. However, as a daily lucid dreamer, I will take issue with your assumption that the only way to know when we
are dreaming is to wake up... You
can know you are dreaming without waking up, and, in fact, it is only in these lucid moments that you truly
know you are dreaming.
When you wake up from a dream, you could still be dreaming. All you can say for sure is that what you just awoke from was a dream, as well as you are able to remember it. False awakenings, dreams within dreams, and even more esoteric phenomena are quite common in Oneirology. With lucid dreaming, you can know 100% you are dreaming and use this knowledge to practical advantage.
My thoughts on this are that since we can prove dreaming regularly and surely, but we can't prove not dreaming... ever... we must leave open the idea that perhaps there is no such thing as not dreaming. Perhaps all of existence is of the nature of dreams.
Quote:"I realize that you are ridiculing us" You assume incorrectly, I fear for you. I don't want people to go through what I did. I know it's like telling people to not have intercourse because they might catch AIDS, all I'm trying to do is give you a condom.
You may, in fact, fear for us. But calling someone ridiculous is the definition of ridiculing them... you can do both.
I often take this stance with people here in what I consider a harm-reduction advice. I'm still learning to state my concern for others in a way that remains as friendly as possible.
Quote:"As for dangerous... you could make the opposite argument just as easily."
Perhaps, but being ignorant is way better than being absurd.
Your opinion. Both as to the idea that the opposite argument is absurd... and that it is better to be ignorant. (I prefer absurd people to ignorant people, personally... fools are much more fun to hang out with.)
Quote:The fact that drugs in general produce the same effects is escaping you. That fact that I never saw those is coincidental but funny that it doesn't help your case.
It doesn't escape me that drugs produce similar effects. The fact that you never saw any of the entities that are commonly reported actually argues against
your idea.
When talking about typical acid or shroom hallucinations, it is easier to buy into the whole "these are just the effects of a drug" argument. With heavy entheogenic experiences, however, it is pertinent to recognize that these are not alterations of sensation or thought processes, nor are they synesthesia or other effects that can be explained by the model of a chemical reaction altering the neurochemical firings of neurons.
People are
independently (and without prior knowledge of other experiences) encountering beings that have basically
identical appearances, methods of communication, and even
content of communication. Furthermore, this communication often goes well outside of what might be considered information that the psychonaut might already have stored in their subconscious somewhere. And, most importantly IMHO, the information that they are apt to download to many of the most intrepid explorers tends to include things that can be verified later on by the psychonaut... not usually of the variety that would prove anything to a skeptic, but more than enough to convince the person who received the transmission and later was presented with the validity of it.
At any rate... I am not perturbed how you choose to take any of this. I am not invested in what you believe or think you know to be true. It would be nice if we could do these fencing matches in a civil and courteous manner... but this is not always easy even when the participants are trying to be nice.
Be well my friend. I wish you well.
HF
"Curiouser and curiouser..." ~ Alice
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." ~ Buddha