--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Hugo" <fintlewoodle...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: <snip> > No-one will ever see what I have and it's hard to take a > reductionist attempt to fit my experience into what is > already known. It doesn't stop me trying though, we are > so good at kidding ourselves we don't have to be "not the > faking type" to be the unintentionally gullible type > and being in a belief system like the TMO is surely a > headstart towards taking all sorts of strange stuff > seriously. Or is it, or isn't it?
I wasn't into any of the strange stuff part until I began having experiences I couldn't explain otherwise. And these were NOT experiences that had been "suggested" to me. They weren't even "flashy" experiences, just *novel* ones. <snip> > > I'm very dubious that anything we can map or measure > > scientifically will tell us whether all subjective > > experience is an illusion. (Just for one thing, it's > > other brains doing the interpreting of the data.) > > Brains thinking about brains. That is a wild idea. > Interesting that the brain doesn't instinctively know > what it is. Greek brains thought that it was for keeping > blood cool. One of the intersting bits of mind to observe > is that parts of consciousness do things that the other > bits aren't aware of. How does that work? How can part > of my brain conjure up nightmares. And why bother? Well, I was thinking more about the nature of consciousness, why we're not zombies (in the philosophical sense). Trying to figure out what consciousness is via the use of consciousness. <snip> > > > Been there, a wild ride, I travelled in time, met god, > > > became god, explored all past lives, and swam ina sea > > > of infinity more times than I could count. > > > > And where is all that stored in your brain? Where did > > the "data" of the experiences come from? > > I'd say it was invented in the same way that the dreaming > mind conjurs up all sorts of fantastic stuff. See, that's where I just get boggled. I see stuff in my dreams that I've *never* seen before, either "live" or in photos or drawings, haven't read about, etc. Plenty of what I see *is* familiar, but some of it simply ain't. (On the other hand...I just learned yesterday something I'd never heard, although apparently it's been public knowledge for awhile--that Francis Crick came up with the double helix while high on LSD. For some reason I get a huge kick out of that.) Except it > happens when you're awake. I'd always see greek gods in the > clouds for instance. Really beautiful living statues with > the same sort of religious awe you get when deeply transcending. > Why gods? Maybe that's the language of the subconscious. You > never see what you expect to see though, it's quite impressive > what you can come up with at a moments notice. But the brain > is like that anyway but with halucinogens it all gets turned > up to 11. > > The sense get crossed too, smelling colour that's an > interesting one. An illusion made out of illusions! But > very similar to the smell of bliss one gets after meditation > sometimes. There is so much interesting potential research > here. That's for sure. <snip> > > > It's the way we usually create the illusion within > > > ourselves of there being a three dimensional world > > > that gets changed, the contents are removed or altered > > > by the unconscious dreamscape taking over. > > > > No idea what you mean here--could you elaborate? > > Simply that the world we think we perceive is an illusion > created from sense data. A large part of mental activity is > in keeping this illusion accurate enough so we can get through > the day. Drop a hit of acid and it all goes haywire with > senses getting crossed and what seems like the part of the > brain that does vision playing around and seeing what it can > make of what's coming in. Gotcha. > And you get to know what goes on deep down in your mind by > the sort of things you see. There has to be an internal > predeliction for something for it to be chosen as resembling > what's out there and then the usual illusion gets transformed > into gods, devils, something funny or sexy. We all have a > different trip but it always sounds kind of similar, our > shared unconscious perhaps. The quality of it depends a lot > on how happy you are inside. I must've been very happy. I think you'll love this book. The author is very into finding common patterns behind psychedelic experience. He gets awfully heavily at times into using psychedelics to save the world, but you can skip over those parts. <snip> > > > > I'm pretty well convinced that the brain mediates > > > > consciousness rather than creating it, that the > > > > brain is a sort of "reducing valve," as Huxley put > > > > it, for something infinitely (you should pardon > > > > the term) vast. In this sense, "expansion of > > > > consciousness" is a matter of getting the brain's > > > > reducing function out of the way, neutralizing it, > > > > bypassing it, evading it, shutting it down. > > > > > > I instinctively agree with you but intuition is > > > absolutely the worst thing to rely on in matters > > > of the mind because it's our brains that control > > > it > > > > Circular reasoning here. You're assuming the truth > > of your conclusion. If it *isn't* our brains that > > control our intuition, the brain is the *last* thing > > we can rely on. > > Did I say it's our brains that control it? Yes, you did--see quote above, "because it's our brains that control it"! No more than > windows vista is controlled by the chip in this computer, > it allows it happen but doesn't know or care whether it > does or not. So where does that leave us? > Gut feeling is a bad thing to go on as we are too good at > kidding ourselves. Your analogy to Windows Vista sorta breaks down here, doesn't it? (Assuming the OS is functioning properly, that is.)
