I had a similar experience with dancing though. Thought I hated it, and I always had to force myself to do it, until I started (modestly) drinking alcohol. My body would dance for me and I would enjoy it. The effect more or less stuck around and I even genuinely have days of more confidence after a night with alcohol.

All of this is mildly depressing though. It feels as though we are just our brains (maybe obviously), but just that we're the strange effects of the functions of a non-magical/soul-less organ in our heads primarily just meant to steer our bodies. Those thoughts make drugs both existentially liberating but at the same time also "imprisoning" for me

That is certainly one way of looking at things, and one of the more frequent perspectives I harbor. But I've also had enough trips down the rabbit hole to realize there's more to it than that. Way more to it.

We are definitely strange effects for sure. We are haunted atoms that formed in the core of a dying star. Weird, right? If you find that worldview imprisoning, I encourage you to question it. Magic is often simply what you need it to be, no need to get hung up on whether magic is "real" or not, because that doesn't actually matter.

Check out Discordianism if you haven't already. It's kinda like hot swapping reality tunnels. No need to commit to one ontology all the time :).

>I probably have to go on a psychadelic trip to rewire my brain to be able to show my interest romatically to others

u wot m8

Do you really need the permission of drugs to do what you want?

You already have your outcome. You know where you are. To what end do you need the drugs?

Let's say you do this trip.. and it turns out the thing blocking you from dating is that you were molested at a young age. Those memories come flooding back to you at 2am while you're sweating like a pig and vomiting repeatedly.

Is that the right outcome? Is that the outcome you want?

Worse yet, what if there is no deep seated reason why you're afraid of intimacy and dependence? What if you are just scared of it for no reason?

There is no secret enlightenment to be had. There is only you and your fear blocking the door, and the fear isn't real.

If you just mean "try random things to see how it helps", I suppose you could start by finding Jesus or licking a cattle prod. Why limit yourself to just a few methods of magic insight?

> We’ve got a crisis of unhappiness in this country and psychedelic therapies are absolutely a powerful tool we could use to help people find themselves.

But our blues haven't appeared from nowhere. We have significant cultural institutions that function primarily by dividing the populace against itself. Getting healthy likely means waking up to the fact that we're under attack and doing something other than "self care" about it.

So I disagree with:

> the structures of power are so solidified I’m not sure there’s really much actual risk to them from drug legalization.

They seem pretty shaky to me. Which is for the best. Being powerful should come with a fear of the people you have power over. If you're one weird trip away from a revolution then it's probably time to start treating your people better.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#:~:text=Overall%2....

I pretty strongly disagree with this sentiment. The vast majority of misery in this country is self-inflicted from buying into a worldview and lifestyle that is inherently unfulfilling. The self care of conferring oneself from that mindset goes a long way.

Being bought in means that we're afraid to talk to our families or neighbors about certain topics for fear of things getting too spicy in one way or another, it keeps us divided. Apply self care (psychedelic assisted or otherwise) for long enough that we're not afraid anymore and maybe you've achieved your mental health goals, but now you're having the kind of conversations that change things.

That's a complex question and I probably don't have the perfect answer. If I were to take a stab at it I would say the top causes are consumerism, politics, and trained helplessness are at the top of the list.

As for who's selling it; basiclly everyone is. Individuals and companies want you to think that whatever they are selling will make you happy. Politicians want you to think you need them to do good in the world. Your neighbors want you to be impressed with their good values and status.

In my experience and opinion, once people escape, the behavior changes in that they start actually doing things that make them happy, opposed to things that they are told should make them happy. This can take an infinite number of forms. It might mean going out and helping your neighbors instead of watching political news. It might be going for a walk instead of watching Netflix. It might mean reading a book instead of browsing twitter.

> A crisis of unhappiness in this country

I think he was right to say "this country". I've been places where, by all objective measures, the people have it much worse, but I don't get the sense that they're unhappy the way that we are.

> As for who's selling it; basically everyone is

If that we're the case, it would be happening everywhere. We'd just call it the human condition. The contrast upon returning to the US wouldn't feel so stark.

I think there is a relatively small demographic who is selling the uniquely dissatisfying American worldview much more strongly than the rest of us are. And conscious or otherwise, they have their reasons.

If we start ignoring the programming en masse, I expect they'll switch to less subtle means of control.

I'm not saying we shouldn't do it. I think everyone should trip at least once precisely because it helps you cast off habits of mind that aren't serving you. But when that capability is in everybody's toolkit... Well I think it's going to be a bumpy ride. Worth taking, but bumpy.

When I say everyone is selling it, what I mean is that if they have bought into it, they are propagating it as a normative worldview. I think is accurate and the only way such ideas survive. It is systemic and relies on Broad acceptance. At the center, it depends on hundreds of millions of people believing in it.

It is helpful to step outside of that system and get a radically different perspective. Psychedelics are just one way to do this, and probably not even the best. The challenge is that even after experiencing that perspective, you step back into a world where everyone believes something different and you start to forget.

The solution is pretty simple. For one you have to make an intentional effort to be present in your life and live it in a way you find meaningful, despite external forces trying to convince you otherwise. Second, you have to surround yourself with friends and loved ones that reinforce this healthy world view.

In the end, I think I'm less cynical than you are. I don't think there are more powerful tools for mind control waiting to be deployed. I also don't think it would be a bumpy ride if more people took control of their lives to improve their happiness. Life and society would simply get better and better as more people did so.

Anti-drug fear mongering is a byproduct of few factors: ignorance (people confuse crack, LSD and say MDMA, labeling everything as drug), valid fears (LSD was legal while being underresearched and that lead to few terrible events), self-propelled drugwar cycle (drugs caused wave of fear, became a good target for politicians, that caused even more fear mongering and the cycle is closed), and valid historical concerns (many drugs are very bad and caused pretty terrible historical precedents like opium abuse in China).

People are getting more educated on drugs these days, and more questions arise in the society regarding if certain kinds of drugs like LSD should be more available. Though it would be a long road.

While I agree with everything else you said, this bit concerns me. I'm certainly in favor of using these tools to help anyone who needs help. But maybe we should start with a mirror, and collectively ask, "Why are so many so unhappy?"

These psychedelics can help resolve the symptoms, but what are we going to collectively take to address the root problem(s)? And when?

Because that's the default.. People haven't evolved to be happy; we have evolved to barely survive to have kids and care for them so that a few become adults. Being happy is the exception, you should ask how anyone manages that.

I can’t tell or teach people “how to be happy”. I’m not even sure that’s possible or if it’s something everyone can do or would really want to. But I do know that being hooked on a treadmill of pleasurable experiences isn’t it.

Seems like the entirely idea of happiness has been semiotically highjacked by marketing, morality, other things

When I mentally picture "happiness", all I really see is a bunch of behaviors that are frequently depicted as desirable in the aggregate by media and others

The Buddhists are a lot more sane about this than we are. Imo there's so much residue around the word "happiness", in order to achieve a sense of peace it's better to just throw it out and take each day at a time

Aristotle wrote a pretty solid book on the topic.

Maybe.

But this isn't a universal default. These escapes at this level isn't happening everywhere in every culture, is it?

How is this even supposed to be determined? It isn't like you can test for happiness like you test a pool for Ph levels. Assuming we can is optimistic

There are simple things, like the fact that we are isolated. This according to Noam Chomsky is an intentional and desirable outcome of a corporate mass media system that wants to keep us separated. And a nice psychedelic trip with friends is a great way to remember not just that you like being with your friends, but that the world that keeps you apart is genuinely inhumane, and we should start to look deeper at how to solve these issues.

Basically I think psychedelics can be a tool that leads to the collective action you have rightly pointed out is the ultimate solution.

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+opiate+of+the+masse...

In short, it's not to be read literally.

They're not a numbing agents, they're catalysts for change, that's why they're applicable to therapy in ways that opiates are not.

The difference really isn't all that much.

This is interestingly a great example of the point being made in TFA. That we need a new category for psychedelics because they are not anything like opiates etc.

My experience with psychedelic-assisted insight is not consistent with this. You have the right trip, identify some root-causes that you've been overlooking, and then sober-you has the rest of your life to do something with that new awareness.

They're not painkillers. If anything, they're the opposite. There are all of these rumors about LSD causing back pain because people who have been ignoring back pain trip and are suddenly aware of it again. Such an experience caused me to upgrade my chair and start practicing yoga, for instance.

In the traditional sense (e.g., alcohol, Oxycodine, etc) no they are not. But they are mind altering, literally. And that alteration is an opportunity to break patterns, unhealthy patterns. Being in that other state of mind shows you another state of mind can exist. You experienced it. So you take that away with you and ideally build new healthier paths.

Presumably your new path has something to do with a problem that you had. It's not helping you cope with having the problem, it's prodding you to solve the problem.

Anyway, since you were dancing, I assume you used MDMA which is much "less psychedelic" than acid or DMT (and much more of a stimulant). There's also more potential for misuse and addiction. Ketamine, too, turns out to be quite addictive by the way.

It seems clear that psychedelics are going mainstream and, unlike the 60s and 70s, they will be legal in some places. I'm not convinced that ths will be a net good, partly because it's not clear that it was a net good in the 60s and 70s, but we'll see.

That's not the same as good/bad experiences.

My anecdotal experience has been that the vast majority of people who have used DMT have not felt like a "new person", and the few that have, have felt so in a positive way.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-07-ketamine-addiction.ht...

I have done the medically assisted Ketamine trips. No sign them being addicting to me whatsoever. It didn't do a whole lot for me, but some of the other peeps in my cohort had amazing results working through old grief.

Interestingly enough though that first experience with psychedelics was the only one I actually found transformative. I did mushrooms maybe half a dozen more times afterwards and experimented with a few other drugs including LSD and MDMA and I never really felt like any of those trips gave me any deeper insights or changed the way I viewed things.

I mean if that works, sure. But what happens in the future if you latch onto some other insecurity? Will you just take a psychedelic again? Is that going to actually fix the problem?

I will certainly do psychedelics again tho. When done with intention and maturity they’re fun, harmless, and have generally always been positive and emotionally productive for me. Some years ago I had a mushroom trip that was emotionally challenging, but reminded me of the mortality of my aging parents. This led me to make more of an effort to see them and spend time with them. That’s a wonderful outcome.

The thing about psychedelics is that they basically work by loosening up your brain’s “default mode network” which is the set of pathways you use to make decisions. By loosening up this network you can find adjacent connections that were almost there but had not quite clicked. So they are a tool to help you find things you have been missing. This is something I will continue to explore. On a more basic level, I found that a small dose of LSD at a dance party is very enjoyable and way better for me personally than drinking alcohol or consuming marijuana. Not that I need substances to have fun, but sometimes that’s a fun way to spend an evening.

If taking a psychedelic on occasion is effective in combating people's insecurities that is almost certainly one of the most massive wins in the history of mental health.

I don't think it's nearly that simple but I am baffled by the idea of "taking a psychedelic cured you of this issue so what are you gonna do if you have another issue, cure it with another psychedelic, huh?" being some sort of negative thing.

Risk versus reward!

… but you don’t have to risk much, for your first time. Yes, tripping with your friends at a festival is great - but you can also do a little, on your own terms, to try it out, and get a feel for whether it’s the sort of thing you’re interested in.

Possible benefits of micro dosing notwithstanding, you won’t get the dramatic effects everyone tells stories about without taking a significant dose… but that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing arrangement. You can try a little, you can increase or decrease your dosage next time, you can take notice of the conditions surrounding your hood and your bad trips, and - I mean what I’m really describing here is how to learn to use a drug responsibly. It’s like any other powerful experience, you need to be smart about how you approach it.

I think people get suckered in by unnuanced anecdotes on either side - “it was amazing, it cured my depression!” and “it was awful, it escalated my schizophrenia” are on opposite ends of a spectrum. I always think everyone owes it to themselves to experience wherever along that spectrum they are comfortable going - not necessarily a psychedelic evangelist per se, just very much in favour of careful deliberate experimentation with your own brain and body chemistry.

Glad you had a good trip! Ones where you come away learning something about yourself are the best.

Without study and care and the ability to be Frank about such things as purity, setting and set, those people are going to fail to realize any “reward”.

> Risk versus reward!

Well something I did not say in my comment but I believe is very important is that it's not just "do drugs, win prizes" it's "take time over a period of years to learn how psychedelics work with your body, try some experiences in emotionally safe spaces, reflect on those trips with your friend and therapist, and develop some confidence to work your way up in dosage as you learn to understand how it works for you".

While some people may be able to randomly take a higher end dose and have a good result, I certainly advocate that people take their time to get in to these substances. I advocate for legalization because of what is possible with very careful use of them as a tool, but it takes some care to learn how to use them properly!