Sam Harris

eucaryote - 10 April 2008 09:33 PM

Realize that drugs like psilocybin are not addictive and are not drugs of abuse. Compared with the common drugs of abuse, including nicotine and caffeine, it is relatively non-toxic.

I wasn’t making any such claims to the contrary about psilocybin. I simply have a strong emotional reaction to anything that can potentially alter my brain chemistry. I do not want to depend on anything outside myself (or anyone) to deal with angst or to achieve contentment, because I do not trust these to be reliable. I fear that I could become emotionally dependent on such things, regardless of any chemically addictive properties. To me these things represent a vulnerability. This isn’t a judgment of anyone else, but if I were to use these substances, I would feel like I was evading responsibility for my own equanimity. Anything that would alter my consciousness in any way would feel like vulnerability to me, like I may lose my individuality and personality.

Carstonio - 14 April 2008 01:45 AM

eucaryote - 10 April 2008 09:33 PM

Realize that drugs like psilocybin are not addictive and are not drugs of abuse. Compared with the common drugs of abuse, including nicotine and caffeine, it is relatively non-toxic.

Anything that would alter my consciousness in any way would feel like vulnerability to me, like I may lose my individuality and personality.

Well you said it, not me. Is it not precisely this fear, of losing your personality and indviduality, that lies at the heart of your fear of death? I hate to break it to you but any invulnerability you feel, along with your individuality, is almost entirely a fantasy on your part. In reality, you are a colony of cells, living in very close commensuration with other very similar colonies. I think that it is through losing this strong identification of self with some metaphysical being, rather than with this particular, transient, blob of protoplasm, that we become intellectually free and emotionally comfortable with our state of being in the world. As far as the drugs taking away one’s control goes understand that the point to deliberately altering one’s consciousness is to realize, (make real), the limitations of one’s consciousness. Having such experience even once can be trans-formative. It is precisely this perspective that researchers like Sam Harris seek through meditation. It’s not the drug or the technique that is transformative, it’s the experience and the perspective that it lends.

With respect to our mental health, I think that as Isocratic Infidel points out we would be happier if we could “Be like a bonobo”.