
Psychedelics in problem-solving experiment - gasull
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelics_in_problem-solving_experiment
======
poke53281
Myself, I used LSD to learn calculus -- or rather, to overcome a lifelong
crippling phobia/anxiety of mathematics, which allowed me to rapidly learn
calculus. When I was 21, I encountered John Lilly's theories of cognitive
metaprogramming with psychedelics, and I designed a trip to convince myself --
at a really primal level -- of the fundamental beauty, power, and
accessibility of math. 12 hours after dosing, my fear of mathematics was gone
forever, and I spent the rest of the summer acing a series of intensive
calculus courses. 17 years later, I've co-founded three successful and highly
maths-intensive companies. I am certain that I could not have done this
without the drugs.

I do hope that some day the world will wake up and realise how much of a wrong
turn it took in banning psychedelic research; it has the potential to be a
power for good unlike anything else.

~~~
meowface
This sounds quite incredibe. In fact, very incredible, considering you just
registered that account and this is your only post. But I believe you may be
telling the truth.

Do you think the same could be applied for other disciplines, like programming
and computer science?

~~~
poke53281
Yes, this is a dummy account; my regular account here has 4497 karma, but is
linked to my real name. The conservatism of some of my clients -- and the
fairly public role I sometimes must play -- is such that I'd rather not have
my former illegal exploits broadcast quite yet. Hopefully you can understand!

In answer to your question: yes, I very much believe that it can be applied to
programming and computer science -- and in fact already has been. Much of the
early development of those disciplines was directly influenced by
psychedelics.[1] I personally haven't tried to apply psychedelics to
programming/CS in the same explicit way as I did for math, but I've found that
the general visualisation skills developed over about a decade of fairly
steady experimentation -- tripping about 3-4 times per year -- have been
invaluable in solving constraints problems, visualising codeflow, etc. But one
could argue, in that case, that I might have developed the same skills without
psychedelics, since it was a slow development over many years. Whereas in the
case of the "mathematics trip", the cognitive change literally happened
overnight.

1:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said)

~~~
moonlighter
Love the choice of your dummy account name!

I immediately remembered it from the C64 days. Used in a FOR loop, poke
53281,x would create some marvelous color loops.... almost psychedelic ;)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tar8kV39P2E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tar8kV39P2E)

~~~
poke53281
Nailed it! ;-)

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GuiA
If you're interested in the topic, I highly recommend the book "What the
Dormouse Said", which explores amongst other things the impact of psychedelics
on computing.

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said)

Timothy Leary also has a chapter in "The Art of HCI design" in which he
explores parallels between psychedelics and computer interaction.

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Human-Computer-Interface-
Desig...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Human-Computer-Interface-
Design/dp/0201517973/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1409428536&sr=8-4)

~~~
spiritplumber
If anyone cares, this is the complete Tim Leary photo archive. A while ago I
was asked to help curate it, and my payment was getting to keep a copy on my
site, as long as it doesn't show up on search engines.

[http://robots-everywhere.com/leary_gallery/index.php](http://robots-
everywhere.com/leary_gallery/index.php)

There's also a dosbox setup for Leary's Mind Mirror software.

[http://robots-everywhere.com/portfolio/games/mmirror_port/](http://robots-
everywhere.com/portfolio/games/mmirror_port/)

~~~
GuiA
Awesome! Thanks!

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ardemue
Some people have experimented with micro-dosing (~0.1 to 0.2g dry of)
psilocybin mushrooms at shroomery.org, especially:
[http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/17315584...](http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/17315584/fpart/1/vc/1)
. He seems to have observed an increase in focus and productivity at work
(editor of some kind). Unfortunately he stopped posting abruptly.

~~~
Theodores
> he stopped posting abruptly...

That is the slight problem, mega-dosing types have probably independently
arrived at some coherent theory of everything many times yet not got as far as
writing it down. The 'increased focus...' is probably comparing micro- to
mega- dosing, not 'reality'.

At least the Beatles were able to complete albums with words written whilst
off their trolleys, few others seem to manage it. Really if there is to be
research in the wonders of various psycho-active drugs, the hard part, writing
it down, in a form that makes sense in the 'real world' is where research
needs to be conducted.

~~~
ardemue
> The 'increased focus...' is probably comparing micro- to mega- dosing, not
> 'reality'.

A typical mushroom taker can only trip once a week or once every two weeks (as
tolerance builds up very quickly). That means one or two weeks of "reality"
between (mega-dose) trips.

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darkFunction
Googling around turned up some pretty interesting results from programmers
specifically:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Psychonaut/comments/1n93n4/the_lsd_m...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Psychonaut/comments/1n93n4/the_lsd_microdosing_experiment/)

~~~
im3w1l
Given the subtlety of the effects, I would like to see blinded washout
crossover.

~~~
adbge
Gwern did a convincingly rigorous self-experiment with LSD microdosing. [1] He
sums it up as, "No beneficial effects reached statistical-significance and
there were worrisome negative trends. LSD microdosing did not help me."

[1]
[http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing](http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing)

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codeshaman
Here is a very interesting talk about this study (and on the subject), by
James Fadiman, one of the researches on the team:

Scientific Problem Solving with Psychedelics:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtL5fafpRKc&list=SP4F0vNNToz...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtL5fafpRKc&list=SP4F0vNNTozFTJCv1cvvUyB11CRR62uee8)

From the talk:

"It's not 'take psychedelics and you can understand quantum mechanics'. But if
you understand quantum mechanics and you take a psychedelic, you may _really_
understand quantum mechanics"

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Energy1
Can LSD alter sexuality? Any studies on that one? Thanks.

