TheAlchemist

@Leo Gura does it feel lonely to be the only one who gets it? Is it frustrating that no one really understands? I imagine it might feel like that, but correct me if I'm wrong.

The animals are fed with plants so with meat eating there is a kind of double kill. Plant --> Animal --> Human vs. Plant --> Human. The plant is just filtered through the animal which transforms the plant into something else (meat). Also, there's an intuitive sense with most people that there is a difference between killing a plant and killing an animal, which we can highlight with an oversimplified thought experiment. Imagine you have a big bonfire, and you have three life forms. A plant, a jellyfish and a mouse. Which would you rather throw in the fire if you were forced to? For most people the plant would be easiest, the jellyfish maybe the second easiest and the mouse the hardest. Some might say that it is just bias to prefer one over the other, and that in the grand scheme of things they are all parts of the "illusion" so it doesn't matter. They may be right, but if one wants to live according to that principle in the relative domain, then there is no reason to preserve a human life either over any other life forms.

Bernardo's take: Main argument, some central points (by chatGPT): 1. Psychedelics have been found to reduce brain activity across the board, which is a robust and consistent finding across different groups studying psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and ayahuasca. 2. This reduction in brain activity contradicts materialism because if experience is correlated with brain activity, then an increase in experience should correlate with an increase in brain activity, which is not the case with psychedelic trips. 3. Efforts to find correlations between psychedelic experiences and brain activity may be misguided because even if something is found, it would contradict the rest of the body of work in neuroimaging, which finds correlations between experience and patterns of activation in the brain. 4. The lack of brain activity during psychedelic trips is unique compared to other experiences such as dreaming or looking at a picture, where scientists can predict what someone is experiencing based on patterns of brain activation. 5. The information content of a psychedelic trip is orders of magnitude higher than the information content of a brain scan, yet the brain activity of someone undergoing a psychedelic experience is lower than that of a control receiving a placebo, which is difficult to explain within a materialist framework.

Where did Schmachtenberger say we should have AI governing people? I'm suspecting there's more nuance to his point than that, if you have the link I would love to see the where he spoke on that topic. Here's one clip where he talks about collective/global governance:

@Leo Gura are you gonna have videos there that are meant to be watched under the influence of psychedelics? I feel like that would be giving a lot of power to you to influence people's mind, as people will be in a very vulnerable state. Not saying you would misuse that power but there are ethical concerns to someone having that much power or influence over anothers mind, if you see what I'm saying.

@LSD-Rumi are you still able to sit still in a quiet room not moving or doing anything?

How is death different from a state of general anesthesia for example? Both seem to include the disappearance of the physical body and loss of identification with a finite form. One could argue that the state of consciousness under general ansthesia is highly intelligent since it is unbound pure potentiality, lack borders and is not limited in that sense in any way. But I'm guessing you mean something different. Why do you see death as having this special status within consciousness?

Yeah there is a positive side to tiktok, also lots of mental health awareness, lgbt+ and body positivity stuff etc. seem to spread there which can have a positive impact on young people's well-being, at least if that awareness is channeled into action to solve those problems at both the individual and collective level.

That kind of makes sense. So wouldn't it apply to world peace as well? I haven't seen world peace so is that somehow excluded from "everything possible existing"? Why would war just be a thing that goes on forever if infinity is exploring all possibilities? Wouldn't it be reasonable to expect it to also explore a state of world peace? Also, why would infinity eternally "need" violence/war? It doesn't seem to need mass slavery anymore either..

If you can't move out, consider taking a trip out of the home for at least a few weeks. The sense of power she feels she has over you is likely connected to your lack of options. If you go away for a while, she might become more aware that if she wants to remain close to you she can't act any way she wants towards you. She's taking you for granted and abusing that power. There's a big power in saying no and in walking away. These are the types of situations where a bit of stage red energy can be very healthy.

These octopuses are completely bizarre and alien looking to me, and they are also quite intelligent. Blows my mind

This woman has a memory of three minutes, yet she seems quite happy and says "I feel quite lucky now, can't complain". How much of our suffering and discontent is due to our memory and the past that we carry with us?

Trading away my mortality would be like selling my soul. And besides, I'm out here just learning to savour playing as a mortal so don't tempt me with offers like this!

To see, hear, smell, taste and feel what you never before had in the field of your experience. So basically to expand the spectrum of experiences in your mind and to see what the world and reality is beyond the everyday buffet of experience that you're used to. With the proper intention these experiences can aid in understanding the Earth, including its diversity of cultures and people better. Also it has the potential to deepen self-understanding. I'm sure some really good VR tech could be used to achieve something similar but there your exposure would be limited to those environments that are available in the VR and to those people who have access to that technology. Also this came to mind: