Philosophical Speculations

I understand why Bernardo brings up the experiments with psychedelics that show an increase in complex experience with a decrease in brain activity. But doesn't idealism (especially his model, which I adhere to) predict that eventually we probably will have instruments that pick up brain activity t...

So again, I've put this to the forum participants, and asked if there were any concerns about requiring that such pieces being posted as topics of discussion actually articulate some nuanced metaphysical focus and intention written into them, and no-one has voiced any objection to this. Therefore I...

All of this can be investigated now with science and some people are trying to do it with little success. The Victorian investigators into mediumship were pretty successful. In modern times, Rupert Sheldrake has done good work, though few scientists follow him because he is dismissed as being full ...

On the other hand, what does idealism add to science? I can't see that it adds a single thing It would do so, if accepted. So-called paranormal experiences involving expanded and nonlocal consciousness could be scientifically investigated (telepathy, ghosts, remote viewing, channelling, automatic w...

What is the point of materialism? What does it explain? How does it help us understand the world? Have you ever met a materialist who has the slightest grasp of how to solve metaphysical problems? I think a pragmatic materialism is at the core of science. It starts with the idea there is something ...

I've no idea what prior experience might have conditioned that experience. I only really know that going by trip reports of the psychonauts, there are striking similarities. We can imagine, however, there could be a lot of influence of prior experience. If we compare the indigenous expectations and...

To go beyond the anecdotal accounts of participants here, some of the best trip reports I've come across are recounted in the book The Toad and the Jaguar , with an excerpt detailing Stan Grof's experimentation with 5-Me0-dmt ~ he surely being one of the most extensive and incisive investigators of...

Once you completely lose concepts and just have a full feeling of the "All" it changes how you see things. Beware of set and setting. A lot of how you interpret what you experience is what you want or expect to experience. The set and setting hypothesis basically holds that the effects of...

There is no direct connection between idealism and psychedelics. Take it from Timothy Leary, author of https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-God-Timothy-Leary/dp/1579510523 “The level of intelligence has been tremendously increased, because people are thinking and communicating in terms of screens, and ...

Dave, For many years it has been understood that slow waves are associated with deep sleep and faster waves are associated with wakefulness. Dreaming sleep actually also involves faster spikes in certain brain regions. Deep sleep is similar to the effects of anesthesia. So nothing is surprising that...