Altered States of Consciousness

[dsyfer]

Hi guys, Warped post on Charles T Tart got me thinking, as I studied a bachelor of psych for a couple of years, I have access to the psych library, so I looked up thei Tart fellow, well I came accross this book "Altered States of Consciousness" which is basically a collection of research papers and essays related to experiments carried out in the 60's & 70's by psychologists. The book deals with Marijuana, Nitrous, inhalation(glue, solvents), LSD, some natural psychedelics, as well as dreaming, hypnosis and meditation.

 

So what I thought I would do for anyone that is interested, is to post any interesting passages or sections that I really enjoyed reading or that gave good insights into the human mind..

 

Just tell me to shut up if you don't want to hear it.

[Guest Eikel]

Sounds good to me Dsy

 

Don't think anyone would care if you posted the info, providing the forums didn't get spammed all of a sudden - I mean, you don't click a link unless you want to read whats in it

[dsyfer]

The first quote that I really love, is said because of some studies that were conducted by government labs that were intenionally biased where the subjects were given rather large doses, and had bad experiences:

 

" Added to this was the fact that multitudes of people who were not ready to have their ordinary consciousness destructed took the drugs and had unpleasent or destructive experiences. These were highly publicized: a "Drug Using Hippie Runs Amok!" headline always sells more newspapers than a "Philosopher Sits Quietly, Contemplates the Meanig of Life, and Smiles" one."

[dsyfer]

The next one comes from the introduction to the marijuana section.

 

"The use of marijuana has mushroomed since this book was compiled only four years ago. Marijuana will probably be legal by 1975, as it is a middle-class habit now: you can't keep putting the sons and daughters of influential and monyed people in jail, much less the parents themselves. The scientific evidence to date cannot justify the current legal status of marijuana, for verifiable undesirable effects are rare..."

[dsyfer]

My favorite so far.

 

"I believe we should carry out the needed researchand have the social instruments to try to maximize every person's potential functioning, using whatever means research finds to be effective and reasonable safe. I have met people who did not have the relatively advantaged backgrounds, but benefited enormously from altered states of consciousness, often drug induced."

[dsyfer]

And one for a laugh, this is the ramblings while the writer was on nitrous oxide, in the writers head life and it's meaning were so easy to understand and that the following thoughts had so much sense and meaning:

 

 

"What's mistake but a kind of take?

What's nausea but a kind of -ausea?

Sober, drunk, -unk, astonishment.

Everything can become the subject of criticism - how to criticize without something to criticize?

Agreement - disagreement!!

Emotion - motion!!!!

By God, how that hurts! By God, how it doesn't hurt! Reconciliation of two extremes.

By George, nothing but othing!

That sounds like nonsense, but it is pure onsense!

Thought deeper than speech...!

Medical school; divinity school, school! SCHOOL! Oh my God; oh God; oh God!

 

There are no differences but differences of degree between different dergees of difference and no difference."

[Doob]

:: im going to try and find that book, sounds very intresting

[Infinitee]

Sounds like a great book, dsyfer :smoke keep 'em coming.