Certain molecules can change our “ultimate reality”, which means certain molecules can change our “ultimate reality”. Religion can do the same thing as can a good movie. I can remember watching a good Bruce Lee flick as a kid and coming out of the movie feeling empowered, as did many other patrons. We would imitate Bruce’s moves outside the cinema feeling like a million dollars, but the fact was, we had not suddenly become martial arts experts, we were just kids on an emotional bender. I have known “THE TRUTH” with absolute certainty while under the influence of certain molecules, but after a day or two, life sets in, and just like a Bruce Lee movie, you discover that you are not a spiritual Kung Foo master after all. I tell lies from time to time, as do a bunch of folks, but what I both love and hate about this community is that bullshit is sniffed out very quickly. Back when I was a Christian, bullshit was embraced as long as it supported the cause. Being honest is tough, and is a painful process, but it is something this forum is teachig me.
I was an adult when the Bruce Lee flicks came out. My utter favourite at 11-12 was a Saturday matinee of 20 cartoons.I would leave the cinema, with my eyes feeling like pinwheels, my reality changed for a few minutes.
Of course I wasn’t a complete Philistine. From that time my favourite films were “Land Of The Pharaohs” and the immortal classic “Robby The Robot Meets The Invisible Boy”. A very close third was anything staring Mario Lanza, arguably the greatest tenor of his generation. I got goose bumps listening as I was transported by that amazing voice. The Italian kids adored Lanza.
Just a taste. There’s heaps on Youtube.
And this turned up in my news thingy today…Venomous Yellow Bellied black sea snakes are turning up on the shores of New Zealand that like Ireland have no native snakes. The reason involves changing temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.
Gee, we are soooo lucky that human caused climate change is a hoax. Otherwise we’d be in deep doo doo.
Many years ago I watched Midnight showing of “Enter The Dragon”, in the middle of the Chinese community. Packed, full capacity. It was a very fun and interesting experience. And yes, as the patrons streamed out of the theater, it broke out into a huge kung-fu melee, but no one made any contact, just a lot of moves by a lot of fans.
Certain rolling pins have that exact same effect on me.
I’m wondering how anyone would know the difference between a true celestial experience and a brain construct. I mean you can only perceive with your brain right? There are colors of light that only a camera can see. Are those real?
Since they have momentum; they had better be real.
Correct, those two are personal experiences that only the affected individual had. Personal testimony is unfalsiable, one can claim a jesus experience or an alien adbuction.
The electromagnetic spectrum is a very wide one, and what the human eye can detect is an incredibly small fraction. They are very real, it is just the limitations of our eyes that make it difficult for us to comprehend.
I’m wondering what objective evidence can be demonstrated that a “celestial experience” is even possible? I’m prepared to believe a brain construct is possible, as this can be amply demonstrated
Try taking a walk through the territory of a hunting pride of lions in the dark, and see if not seeing them makes them not real.
An interesting psychoactive molecule is found in the kava root.
The high of kava is one part body stone; one part heightened sense awareness; and zero parts paranoia or delusional thought.
The mental aspect of a kava high is on par with everyday thinking and evaluation.
The issue with any hallucination is perception - seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting.
The primary quality of a person in psychosis is that they haven’t matured to embrace their perceptions or their environment. They inevitably turn introvert, which leads to paranoia, and then finally when they’ve reached the stage where they are so far removed from reality that instead of looking outwards with equanimity they look at objects with a belief that they can effect them with as much a just a thought.
This is the rabbit hole most gooddown on their way to full blown psychosis. And it starts in adolescence with some kind of inability to come to terms with their own sense perceptions and/or environment.
The experience of a schizophrenic for example is beyond current expression. It’s causes may have been narrowed down to a few hundred genes; a probability of reoccurrence with affected parents; and poor upbringings - but the overall experience of the schizophrenic defies logic. Their entrance into the religious/demonic realm of experience is a sort of “survival of the fittest” in a spiritual sense.
Us schizophrenics endure so much persecution from our voices. But we’re also allowed hints from our tormentors regarding how to outbest them. In fact, they don’t care if you outbest them. They want you to outbest them. The only other option for them is to drive you to the point of taking your life. The suicide rates among schizophrenics are shocking. The recovery rates after the age of 40 are also revealing.
My point is that for your average person who has transitioned through adolescence into adulthood successfully the idea of religion is unnecessary. Even a sort of popular “philosophy” like Buddhism appeals less to an atheist since the premise “life is suffering” as the most fundamental truth of Buddhism is questionable.
But 1% of the population will not come to terms with perceptions and environment. And this one percent will bring about your Mansons and Kareshes of the world - suicide cults - your Oshus of the world - cults of all kinds - organized religions. Nut jobs. Etcetera.
DMT is structurally identical to serotonin with the exception of an OH group. It binds more to receptor sites - but theoretically should only produce results similar to serotonin. Psilocybin is no different. The real hallucinations are the result of a life time of denying the existence of an outer world.
This morning I was talking to my middle kid. Similar topic regarding this quote.
I compared it to when he was “Superman”. He tried so hard (with his older brother’s support age 5) at age 4 to allow him to use the ladder, go onto the roof of the house and jump off. He was wearing his “Superman” outfit, as was his older bro.
Magical thinking usually gets left behind.
Obviously I didn’t. He obviously laughed so hard now realizing that “reality” would have given them some hard consequences to a decision based in fantasy.
Ratty, You Stupid Shit Rat Bastard, Good to see you agtain. What moronic trend are you peddling now?
Ahhhhh. Altered brain states I see… and what idiotic shit are you going to assert this time?
Thank you Dr. Shit, or Ratty TAT TAT for short. Your expertise on this subject is appreciated. Were I not currently washing shit from a pair of diarrhea soaked longjohns I would clap for you.
The only thing schizopherrenic around here Ratty is you. You thought we didn’t notice. … Didn’t you?
I have never been shocke by a Schizophernic suicide rate and I have seen loads of them. I’ve got books full of them,. I’m touching one right now. Nope! Not shocking at all. You know. If you really want to experience something shocking, you could French kill a light socket.
As well as your Einsteins, and Tin Men. Face it. When you get right down to brass tax, Everyone on the planet is in a 1% category of their own. What in the fuck makes you think you are special. “I’ve got a problem so I am special?” Grow the fuck up! I got hairy feet and a rolling pin up my ass. You aint that special!
P.L.A.C.E.B.O. has the exact same effect as DMT if you know what the fuck you are doing. Do you know what the fuck you are doing… ON AN ATHEIST SITE?
You believe in tough love I see, quite literally…
AND I ain’t takin’ it out!
To hell with the rolling pin! Who gives a shit? Somebody just put Ratty on Cog’s back to get rid of that gawd-awful, pulsating, golfball sized TICK! Creeps me out every time I see it. 
Tough love? Hell, man, you should know better. That’s actually Cog being all mushy-soft, gentle, and caring. He ain’t being tough yet.
Hey… What happens in the Pug Pen, stays in the Pug Pen.
Edit to add: You have to admit, though, that’s one helluva saddle. With that large handle, I bet Cog has no trouble holding on while riding.
Indeed 
a warm welcome as always. 
Nothing, to be entirely honest. Getting high on kava root really helped me address some outstanding issues I had with perception in general.
As a schizophrenic, I’m not entirely comfortable with sight, for example. Because, for example again, my sense of smell is pathologically suppressed (most of the time unless I do something about it) - I have no grounding of where I end and start. And for that reason the prospect of having a physical effect on my environment simply through looking at it becomes a possibility (or ie. a paranoid delusion). Having grounded my self at my sense of smell, I am far more comfortable dealing with external objects beyond my reach (and by that I mean I can look without even a suggestion that my volition exists outside my body and can effect external objects).
Or maybe have some toast and butter with your bath?
I’m not special. I’m fucked up. I’m a poor example of a human being who didn’t transition properly through adolescence into adulthood and had to go on standby for four years while I learned how to wipe my own ass (proverbially speaking).
Do you know what the fuck you’re doing? I know.
There are roughly four categories of people in this world.
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those who sense and experience the world in a non fucked up way and have no care or interest or belief in God
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those who sense and experience the world in a non fucked up way and have hammered out a belief in God based on certain arguments, observations, assumptions, conclusions, etc. Like Einstein or Newton. Greatest thinkers of the 20th and 17th centuries (respectively) - both of whom had a belief in God. BUT (as far as we know) God did not ever talk back to them
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those with fucked up experiences of the external world who talk to God and get replies and on that basis believe in Him
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those with fucked up experiences of the external world who are more likely to believe that the American Government is monitoring their thoughts through the radio than to believe in God
So, what? I’m in categories 1 and 3. So, my particular position allows me to understand the non-delusional Atheist position and the delusional Theist position. That’s why I’m here. And for bananas. I hear you’re handing out bananas to every 100th user who replies to you.
And if that doesn’t make you laugh, I’ve forwarded a link for my nth prime approximations to Nyar in the hopes that there’s something of interest there. I’d like to get the opinion of a professional mathematician before I go spreading my jelly all over the walls (IYKWIM).