>In a message dated 97-07-19 19:51:12 EDT, you write:
>
> >I definately believe this. The psychoactive chemical in mushromms,
> >psilocybin, has a tryptamine base molecule, the same as serotonin, the
> >leading neurotransmitter in our brains. This opens up a doorway into
> >hyperspace, into our minds and souls. A place to explore, experience,
> learn,
> >and rediscover ourselves and our universe in exctatic trance. I
>believe(as
> >well as many) that psychedelics are the missing link.
> >
> *Why* do you believe these things, may I ask?
> > >> >>
>Why do you *not* believe them? Or do you and you just want more of my
>opinion on them?
>
I didn't say I don't believe them - I haven't really made up my mind on
the matter. I used to believe it more than I do now. But lately, I
have come to believe that psychedelics just give you a whole load of
what I call 'meaning hallucinations' - i.e. under their influence, your
brain generates all kinds of significances, meanings, etc., to try and
explain to itself what the fuck is going on. Now perhaps *some* of
those meanings have some basis in reality, and perhaps even point to
some weird shit's being true. But there's nothing in the experience
itself - nothing in *any* experience - it seems to me, that guarantees
its own truth, that wears its truth on it's face, so to speak.
Experiences must be matched against each other, tested against each
other, before you can hope to come close to the truth.
Now, I enjoy my experiences as a kind of 'trip', really just a sort of
roller coaster ride, in which I get all sorts of notions. I don't take
any of them seriously *at the time*; if any of them stand out, I note
them for when I'm straight, and test them when I'm straight, against my
accumulated experience, and the accumulated, tested experience of
humanity in general (science).
I'm not totally hostile to such notions as you put forth. In fact, one
of my favourites (going back to the McKenna thing) is the notion that
psylocybin mushrooms are a kind of travelling alien entity. It kind of
makes sense in an Extropian context, that genuine ETs might not look at
all like what we would expect them to look like, and their technology
might appear incomprehensible to us. In an Extropian context, you could
say that perhaps psychedelic mushrooms are a Power!
My worry was that you just seem to be a wee bit hostile to, and
uncomprehending of, science. You see, it's not that scientists are
trying to spoil anything or get one over on you, it's that they want to
get things right, and the best way to do that is to test, criticise, and
test again. This may *seem* destructive, but in the end, it is
destructive only of falsehood.
Guru George