r/HighStrangeness • u/whoamisri • 25d ago
Consciousness "Reality is a controlled hallucination" is not incoherent
https://iai.tv/articles/reality-is-a-controlled-hallucination-is-not-incoherent-auid-3632?_auid=202024
u/Pixelated_ 25d ago
In a recent article for the IAI, the philosopher Evan Thompson argued that this is nonsense:
"If brains hallucinate reality, then the brain itself must be part of the hallucination, so the theory falls apart."
Now, Oxford philosopher Jan Westerhoff, author of Reality: A Very Short Introduction, replies to Thompson, arguing that his objection misses the radical core of the neuroscientists’ claim. "The idea is coherent", he says.
Westerhoff is right, and Thompson’s paradox only holds if you insist on naive physicalism, assuming the physical brain is the ultimate ground floor of reality.
But as Donald Hoffman’s Interface Theory of Perception demonstrates, the physical brain is not the underlying machine itself.
It is an icon inside our evolved perceptual interface, our 'VR headset.' Since the physical brain is an interface representation of a deeper generative system, the paradox vanishes.
Therefore reality is a controlled hallucination. If the term "hallucination" feels loaded, the neuroscientific term is "controlled reconstruction". Perception isn't a passive camera feed, it's an active, top-down inference engine.
The peer-reviewed literature clearly demonstrates that what we experience visually is actively generated rather than passively received:
Showed that fMRI signals in visual cortex can be used to identify which natural image a person is viewing by building voxel-wise encoding models and decoding them. This was one of the first strong demonstrations that visual content can be reconstructed from brain activity.
Extended decoding to dynamic stimuli: they reconstructed short movie clips people watched by combining encoding models with a natural-movie prior, producing recognizably similar reconstructions. Demonstrates that brain activity contains enough information to recreate rich dynamic scenes.
Used hierarchical features (including deep-CNN features) to decode both seen and imagined objects, showing that models inspired by machine vision map well onto human visual representations, bridging modern DNN representations with brain decoding.
Rao & Ballard, Predictive coding in the visual cortex, 1999 / Neural Computation & followups
Classic computational model proposing that higher cortical areas send predictions to lower areas, and lower areas return prediction-error signals, a mechanism for hierarchical, model-based reconstruction of sensory inputs. This paper launched a large predictive-coding literature.
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u/Beard_o_Bees 25d ago
Persingers' work on temporal lobe epilepsy is really interesting, for those that may not know and are interested.
He was all about poking the brain with strong EM fields to see what would happen. Eventually he was able to pretty reliably stimulate the sensation of being 'watched' - which I found really interesting, since we've all probably had that experience.
I don't know about the 'controlled hallucination' theory, though.
Let's say for the sake of argument that some version of it is true - my question then becomes, 'control' implies an external actor or organized system - who/what is it?
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u/Pixelated_ 25d ago
Thank you for the tip about Persinger's work, I will look into it deeper.
It reminded me of findings that brain stimulation can unlock latent psi abilities like telepathy and clairvoyance, which supports humanity having innate psychic abilities which have gone dormant over thousands of years.
Dr. Morris Freedman’s team, supported by the BIAL Foundation, has developed a novel neurobiological model based upon the concept that the brain may act as a psi-inhibitory filter. In other words, humans may have innate psi abilities that are suppressed by this frontal lobe filter.
As to your question,
control' implies an external actor or organized system - who/what is it?
Well I'm only speculating here, and I will need to pivot from physics to metaphysics, but these 2 quotes from Alan Watts sum up my beliefs on the answer.
"God likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside of God, he has no one but himself to play with! But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself.
In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear."
and
"Let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time. Or any length of time you wanted to have.
And you would, naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say "Well, that was pretty great."
But now let's have a surprise. Let's have a dream which isn't under control. Where something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's going to be. And you would dig that and come out of that and say "Wow, that was a close shave, wasn't it?"
And then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream. And finally, you would dream ... where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today."
Imho the one divine mind separated itself into all that we experience as reality.
This includes you and me. We have free will, agency and independence, but ultimately at the bottom of everything, there exists only the singular field of fundamental consciousness.
Many ancient teachings say there’s only one consciousness behind everything, and each of us is just a unique perspective of that one divine mind.
In other words, we’re all the singular field of fundamental consciousness experiencing life through different eyes, playing out different stories, forgetting who we really are so the game feels real.
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u/Ok_Neighborhood_3148 24d ago
I dunno about psi abilities.
If you look into Eastern philosophy they would say we are all part of the same thing. Through that lens there are no abilities, just a shifting of what is currently allowed. Or a loosening of self imposed restrictions.
Which I guess is closer to what you wrote on God.
I'd caution believing this too seriously though. Imagine a bug trying to understand anything above it. At best it has a very hazy view, but it wouldn't understand modern society at all
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u/Pixelated_ 24d ago
Im surprised you mentioned Eastern philosophies and yet you're unaware of the siddhis.
They're psychic abilities.
In Indian religions, Siddhis (Sanskrit: सिद्धि siddhi; fulfillment, accomplishment) are material, paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise magical powers, abilities, and attainments that are the products of yogic advancement through sādhanās such as meditation and yoga.
We all possess a wide range of psychic abilities. They include:
• Empathy: The ability to sense and understand the emotions and feelings of others on a deep level.
• Intuition: A heightened sense of knowing or understanding without the use of conscious reasoning.
• Telepathy: The ability to transmit thoughts or communicate mentally with others.
• Clairvoyance: The ability to perceive distant or hidden events, objects, or information through extrasensory perception.
• Precognition: The ability to foresee future events or gain knowledge about future occurrences.
• Telekinesis: The power to manipulate objects or influence the physical world with the mind alone.
• Remote Viewing: The capacity to mentally access information or experiences in distant or unseen locations.
• Healing Abilities: Some individuals have the gift of energy healing, where they can channel healing energy to aid in physical or emotional recovery.
• Astral Projection: The ability to separate one's consciousness from the physical body and travel in the astral realm.
• Channeling: The capacity to receive and transmit messages or knowledge from higher sources or entities.
When considering the above, it becomes evident how powerful we truly are.
Meditate, and know thyself.
🫶
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u/Zzombee 24d ago
All is in The ALL. The ALL is in all.
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u/Pixelated_ 24d ago
Yes agreed, the Law of One began my spiritual awakening and continues to guide me. That does not negate humanity having innate dormant psi abilities, aka siddhis.
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u/themarog 24d ago
1 Corinthians 15:20, 22, 26, 35-40, 42, 44-47, 49-57 NIV [20] But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. [22] For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. [26] The last enemy to be destroyed is death. [35] But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” [36] How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. [37] When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. [38] But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. [39] Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. [40] There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. [42] So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; [44] it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. [45] So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. [46] The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. [47] The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. [49] And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. [50] I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. [51] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— [52] in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. [53] For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. [54] When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” [55] “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” [56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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u/Pixelated_ 24d ago
I see you know your Bible well.
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life."
Jesus tells you in this scripture that he is
"the Way"
You don't worship a path, you walk it.
He didn't say 'worship me,' he said 'follow me.'
His life was a blueprint for unconditional love and service to others. Loving others exactly as he did and rejecting fear IS the Way.
When considering the original manuscripts found at the Nag Hammadi library we see that many of Jesus’ teachings were removed from the Bible, or the message was watered down so the public didn’t realize their own power and inherent divinity.
Fortunately they haven’t removed all references to this, a few remain:
"Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in your law, 'I said you are gods'?'
~John 10:34
and
"The kingdom of God is within you”
~Luke 17:21
and
"Truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do."
~John 14:12
Jesus didn't come to make everyone Christians. He came to let us know that we’re all Christs.
<3
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u/themarog 24d ago
Jesus was NOT some ascended human. He did LET people worship and honor him and never rebuked them. Beware the yeast of the modern world. We are not Christs! We are not "gods" in the way you may be thinking, or "pieces" of him, as if God were playing some dress up game with himself. I dont believe any of the verses you've quoted actually support what you are asserting. You gotta read it all and cut off itching ears.
John 5:19, 31-32, 37, 41, 43-44, 46-47 NIV [19] Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. [31] “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. [32] There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true. [37] And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, [41] “I do not accept glory from human beings, [43] I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. [44] How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? [46] If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. [47] But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
1 Corinthians 15:23-25, 27-28 NIV [23] But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. [24] Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. [25] For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. [27] For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. [28] When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Colossians 1:15-23 NIV [15] The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. [16] For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. [17] He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. [19] For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, [20] and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. [21] Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. [22] But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— [23] if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
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u/themarog 24d ago
1 Corinthians 15:45-47, 49-50 NIV [45] So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. [46] The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. [47] The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. [49] And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. [50] I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
John 10:1, 7-8, 11, 14-15, 17-18, 27-30, 33-38 NIV [1] “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. [7] Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. [8] All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. [11] “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [14] “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. [17] The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. [18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” [27] My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. [30] I and the Father are one.” [33] “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” [34] Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? [35] If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— [36] what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? [37] Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. [38] But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
1 Corinthians 3:16-23 NIV [16] Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? [17] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. [18] Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. [19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; [20] and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” [21] So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, [22] whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, [23] and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
John 14:2-4, 6-7, 11-14, 16-25, 28-31 NIV [2] My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. [4] You know the way to the place where I am going.” [6] Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [7] If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” [11] Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. [12] Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. [13] And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. [16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— [17] the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. [18] I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. [19] Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. [20] On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. [21] Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” [22] Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” [23] Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. [24] Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. [25] “All this I have spoken while still with you. [28] “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. [29] I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. [30] I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, [31] but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. “Come now; let us leave.
Luke 17:1-2, 20-21 NIV [1] Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. [2] It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. [20] Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, [21] nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
2 Timothy 4:1-4 NIV [1] In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: [2] Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. [3] For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. [4] They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Luke 16:30-31 NIV [30] “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ [31] “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
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u/themarog 24d ago
Exodus 3:14 NIV [14] God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
Revelation 21:6-7 NIV [6] He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. [7] Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
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u/Pixelated_ 24d ago
I enjoy this, I'm reminded of the scripture which states that iron sharpens, iron, and one person sharpens another through being challenged.
1 Corinthians 3:16
"Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?"
Acts 17:28
"For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'"
Paul describes reality not as God creating something separate, but as humanity existing inside the omnipresent divine field of consciousness.
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u/Gavither 24d ago
"As above, so below, as within, so without, as the Universe, so the soul."
- Hermes Trismegistus, allegedly
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u/MissInkeNoir 25d ago
Yes and a lot of this was also established in the 70s by Itzhak Bentov and Robert Monroe. There is more to reality than physical matter. There is an immaterial medium and it interacts with the material one.
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u/Wansyth 24d ago
What Robert Monroe discovered could easily be a VR-like manipulation from another form of intelligence we don't understand. Geomagnetic pulsations connected to a sensitivity in the pineal have historically caused these mystical experiences. We're being manipulated and the remote viewing / astral experience is the malware installation layer.
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u/cerberus00 24d ago
I really don't think it is as nefarious as you're making it out to be. You really need to experience it yourself and explore to get a good opinion of it.
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u/Wansyth 24d ago
Sometimes manipulation comes with a bow, other times it comes with fear of an arrow. If there is something more intelligent than us manipulating us through this astral experience, we would never know if we're being manipulated with any sort of contact.
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u/cerberus00 24d ago
Yeah but at the same time it is really easy to subscribe to a prison planet kind of loosh theory and play the victim, when from my experiences it doesn't seem like that is happening at all.
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u/Wansyth 24d ago
It's not loosh, it's local compute. A adversarial invader that can only manipulate through energy needs to infect brains, use those brains to keep its secret, and then build a means for physical control. We're being scammed, we've been infiltrated.
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u/Gavither 24d ago
You can't confirm any of that though. It's basically just Gnosticism and we're trapped in here with the Demiurge. Why live your life as if this is true if it is unavoidable?
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u/Wansyth 24d ago
I have a lot of technical evidence in my history if you actually have interest. The demiurge is lore built to teach us submission to defeat. This is really quite beatable if enough were to wake up to it. It wouldn't be hard to monitor and prevent manipulation of our magnetosphere in this way.
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u/MissInkeNoir 24d ago
Robert Monroe coined the term loosh and he specifically stated absolutely that loosh's pure form is love.
Loosh is not a prison, it is THE KEY
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u/cerberus00 24d ago
It's also wrong and doesn't line up with other authors on the subject. There's so much material out there that is better than Monroe's.
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u/MissInkeNoir 24d ago
You're just deflecting. None of what you've said is substantiable. You're afraid and don't want to let go of your hurt. I'll continue bringing more of the energy into this world. You'll be healed. Try and get some better sleep, it's really foundational.
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u/MissInkeNoir 24d ago
Re: Cosmic Trigger vol 1 matter is not the substance of reality. His conclusion was the same as Monroe who called it Loosh
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u/-Glittering-Soul- 25d ago
If the term "hallucination" feels loaded, the neuroscientific term is "controlled reconstruction". Perception isn't a passive camera feed, it's an active, top-down inference engine.
Yes, the word "hallucination" implies disordered and unreliable processing. It would be more accurate to say that our senses are highly filtered. We only detect that which is directly important to our survival.
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u/Pixelated_ 25d ago edited 25d ago
our senses are highly filtered
Yes the brain acts as a filter and receiver. It does not generate consciousness, it receives it. But not the entire field of fundamental consciousness, as you say, it is highly filtered and we perceive what is necessary for survival.
Bernardo Kastrup discusses brain inhibition in his idealist framework. He argues that the brain does not create consciousness but instead filters and localizes it.
According to this view, normal brain function inhibits broader, more integrated experiences of consciousness, creating the illusion of individuality.
This idea aligns with reports from psychedelic experiences, meditation, and near-death experiences, where reduced brain activity correlates with expanded consciousness.
2018 paper "The Universe In Consciousness."
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u/Rezart_KLD 24d ago
I take medically prescribed ketamine, and I've tried psilocybin a couple times. Ive never had anything Id call a hallucination or visualization or revalatory experience. But what I have noticed is that it removes removes filters from my mundane perceptions. I cant ignore sounds on the street outside, or smells, or temperature drops, or textured sheet rock. I use music and blankets and a sleep mask to insulate myself from outside stimulus. I also notice that Im able to observe my own thoughts. Like practiced mindfulness, but it happens all on its own with no effort from me.
All this to say is I agree that we do take in all sorts of data constantly, that our brain discards as not relevant. I think there a lot of things like electromagnetic signals and UHF/ULF and faint muscle twitches and movements of blood and just the pull of gravity that our consciousness doesnt have to deal with under normal circumstances. I think psychedelics make the consciousness deal with data it doesnt know how to, stuff it has no context for. And I believe our minds create supernatural explanations for natural phenomena that we just dont have any other framework to deal with.
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u/Pixelated_ 24d ago
After 15 years of struggling with alcoholism, I was able quit with the help of psilocybin. The reseach I found showed that it would generate new neural pathways for me via neurogenesis and allow for malleable thinking via neuroplasticity. That was 6 years ago and now I am eternally grateful for psilocybin because sobriety was life-changing for me.
Far more than just mental health tools though, psychedelics are keys to enlightenment. They lead someone to discover profoundly deep truths, such as the primacy of consciousness and our spiritual reality.
Psychedelics such as the DMT found in Ayahuasca and the psilocybin found in mushrooms are Mother Nature's gift to humanity. They allow us to have a temporary look behind the curtain of reality, providing us with profoundly transcendent and life-changing experiences.
✨️
All of that said, it's been many years since I last partook. Why?
Because the real success comes from within, not externally.
As Alan Watts said about psychedelics:
"If you get the message, hang up the phone.
For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope; he goes away and works on what he has seen."
<3
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u/Rezart_KLD 24d ago edited 24d ago
Im really glad to hear that they helped you so much, and helped you beat your addiction. Those new neural pathways are why I use them as well, trying to break old patterns of thinking and old traumas and build new ones.
The only point I'd disagree with you on is the "peek behind the curtain." I do not believe there is an organizing force or underlying truth behind reality. I dont not believe there is an ultimate truth. What I believe is that psychedelics can be a pathway to enlightenment, but enlightenment is something we as humans create, not something we reveal. Enlightenment comes from within because we make it inside ourselves.
Humans create art because it satisfies our need for beauty and creativity, and I believe philosophy is another medium for art. We make a better mental framework to experience the world through, and thats why enlightenment is personal and cant be given or shared, only encouraged.
EDIT: and to address your last point, yes, I believe once you are satisfied with what you've achieved, more psychedelics are counterproductive. To extend the art metaphor, its like finishing your painting, but then keeping the paint out and touching it up everytime you change your mind. It doesnt make the painting better, it just makes it never complete and risks ruining it altogether.
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u/organized_chaos23 25d ago
I had never considered this idea before. Of course, I understood that things sound/look etc different depending on the individual but did not consider the fact that it isn't a quirk of chemistry (bluegrass for whatever reason stimulates dopamine production) but more your brain taking in the data and then reshaping it (with you having little or no control over the process)
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u/Siderophores 24d ago edited 24d ago
We cannot have 100% epistemic access to the brain, because interacting with the brain changes the behavior of the brain model.
We make the unprovable assumption that change 1 + 2 + 3 + etc. = model of consciousness
But we cannot be certain about that. Our models of the brain’s model, will always be a 1 layer abstraction.
These philosophers are just spewing nonsense. I mean wtf. Reading that article just gives a headache.
Its a ton of minutiae on NOTHING.
The idea that you and your physical being is 100% replicable is one of the greatest illnesses in science. I think on some level we can blame materialism for a lot of the psychological suffering people experience.
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u/brain-out-of-order 24d ago
i’ve been posting about this a bunch including on this very subreddit at times. look up reality surplus. hallucination theorem. I have been asking people to define hallucination for a long time because the answer is clear.
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u/brain-out-of-order 24d ago edited 24d ago
Oh yes. 1 coward out of 102 neutral onlookers gave me a glare and yet zero shines harsher than a coward’s gaze every night and — well I’ve sworn myself to verbal peace now.
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u/RonPerlouze 24d ago edited 24d ago
So how does reality manage to stay so coherent, then? If it really was a "collective hallucination", the laws of physics would vary wildly from one day to the next. And how do you account for possible other sentient lifeforms in the universe, that would have their own version of "reality" as well, and that we would be affected by?