I swear, one of the most import pieces of research that needs to be done on them is their capability to induce a false sense of the profound, and make people believe psychedelics will fix everything about the world.
Yes, they can be useful, they can make you see yourself differently and see people differently. But they can equally be a pretty blinkenlight show that makes you giggle for hours with friends. Or be distressing for people.
More than that, nobody has yet been able to tell me how this post-acid utopia is going to function any differently from what we have now.
There's a reason that the majority of post-summer-of-love communes failed.
It's so refreshing to see a critical take on psychedelics. While psychedelics can make you feel like some insight or thought is incredibly profound, often times it turns out to be incredibly banal when revisited with a sober mind. Don't get me wrong - I've some incredible trips on mushrooms and acid, some of which completely shattered my ego and made me see the world from in a totally different light. But when the afterglow wore off, my "insights" turned out to be really dumb. As in, "the whole world is connected" type of stuff... pretty bland.
About 5 years ago my friend tried acid for the first time and enjoyed the "profound insights" a little too much. I know this isn't common but he ended up getting addicted to acid, and proceeded to go on a 10 day long acid fueled frenzy. At the peak of his trip he believed that he was Jesus and that he was here to save mankind. Being the good modern Jesus he thought was, he proceeded to spread his Gospel by trying to friend EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON FACEBOOK. He at one point even posted his credentials online so that anyone and everyone could use his account to add more friends. His behavior was absolutely insane but the acid made him feel like it was "profound".
The point I'm trying to make is that while psychedelics can make you feel extraordinary feelings, there's no evidence that the insights gained from tripping have any use in reality.
One suggestion to increase potential practical benefit and decrease chance of "banal" generalities might be to go into the trip with a specific question or problem that you are working on.
Some examples from the recent CNN Money story about Silicon Valley executives who take LSD:
> An employee of one of the biggest Silicon Valley companies said he recently made a pivotal career decision while under the influence of magic mushrooms -- changing course from a management track and moving into product security.
> Meanwhile, in the late '90s, a former high level employee of a major software company (who asked not to be named) said he was taking psychedelics with the "specific intent of working on software problems." On one highly successful trip, he came up with design ideas, features and architectural improvements to a piece of software today used by millions.
Sorry to hear about your friend. It is very important to get some sleep if you feel manic. Also its a good idea to give yourself a few days or more to think before implementing any ideas obtained on psychedelics.
> one of the most import pieces of research that needs to be done on them is their capability to induce a false sense of the profound, and make people believe psychedelics will fix everything about the world.
Not only should that be studied, but it should be more generally studied in regard to anything. How often does a politician, company, or product make similar claims? How many people then believe those claims to be true, even if they can be demonstrably shown to be false?
There's a reason the majority of civilizations failed.
Yes, they can be useful, they can make you see yourself differently and see people differently. But they can equally be a pretty blinkenlight show that makes you giggle for hours with friends. Or be distressing for people.
More than that, nobody has yet been able to tell me how this post-acid utopia is going to function any differently from what we have now.
There's a reason that the majority of post-summer-of-love communes failed.