HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

#39 Principle of Humanity - reminds me of "The Egg" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

Kurzgesagt's short video is great too, it's (quasi-)verbatim, but the music, animation and narration makes it quite poignant.

The idea behind the story is quite fascinating to me. If simulationists are right, it's as good or better of a "why" as "origin seeking" IMO. Not that I believe one way or the other, I just think the idea's interesting to ponder on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

Indeed. Beautifully animated by Kurzgesagt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

There's this really good animation on The Egg made by Kurzgesagt:

https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ AndrewVos

Wow I didn't realise that Andy Weird wrote the short story behind this! Great job by Kurzgesagt - it was really moving.

you might find my last * point interesting about the thesis for multiple selves: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31204611&p=2#31213841 however the fact there is no criterion for delineating the soul to a volume of matter makes me strongly believe that the rational belief is that we are living a sandboxed illusion and that there is only one decentralized being in the universe. We are the same soul talking to itselfs via the prisms of siloeds lifes, and when you hurt someone, you do in fact, hurt yourself. related: https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ Agamus

I like this - a new perspective. I sense this is compatible, but I lean toward Heraclitus, in that I see (the illusion of) order manifesting from decentralized flux - e.g., quantum fluctuations in empty space. Our best bet to understanding this is quantum field theory, which makes much of my own book redundant, (except the half of it concerning the consequent metaethics). The unity of fields could overlap with your perspective on a cosmic scale.

I want to believe, but I suspect that most 'thinking humans' still (erroneously) subscribe to the general idea of individuation: material atomism and the assumption of individual, existing parts. We have a long, long way to go - the work of metaphysicians has not yet begun, and even scientists are still making the same error in the face of their own evidence (think: the phlogistonistic 'string' theory). Wittgenstein was correct to note that most questions in philosophy have not been sensible questions. The underlying reason is that they have assumed individuation, as a core axiom - a vulnerability in the bare-metal layer. We have assumed this because it is contrary to our observations and (most of) our common experience to do otherwise; it took hard science to demonstrate alternatives, and only 'recently'.

Am I right to say that we both seem firmly planted in a paradigm beyond individuation - even as your view unifies the 'everything' into an individual? Methinks we have different lenses gazing upon the same essence.

My recent scribblings and bibblings are on 'cosmic significance', which may bridge our two compatible views. One question I have is, assuming quantum field theory, and assuming consciousness is a very natural 'thing' in the cosmos, how, if at all, are these associated? The possibility that they are seems more and more reasonable to me, even required, but in ways that I suspect will rightly never match the criterion of the scientific method (at least in my lifetime).

I try to maintain a solid sobriety when dabbling in metaphysics, but these questions persist, and seem reasonable. While I'm sure there are many professionals working on these questions - I'm also sure it is quite clear that I not a professional. However, my mind is quite professional at wandering off into these topics, to return to OP's question!

The Egg- Kurzgesagt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ jdlshore

animated by Kurzgesagt, but written by Andy Weir (of "The Martian" fame)

Someone made a really good 8 minute animated video of The Egg:

https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI

A perspective that may be interesting to you - all those successful around you are you, as well as the billions less fortunate - they are also you.

"The Egg"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

I know you had a bad day today Richard Socher. I am sorry for that.

Reading through these comments must have hurt, and in some strange "The Egg" [1] way hurt me too. I felt as everyone that left a bad comment, and I felt as you, receiving all this. And all that after finally releasing the beta of your product, having worked very hard for that.

I am impressed by your stoic attitude and not caving in under all this pressure (this was probably as far as 'blood baths' on HN go). Truly remarkable, even though you obviously made a product marketing mistake here.

I encourage you to keep going and carefully read all the advice you got here today, for free. This time, let it all in. The cause is still good, the execution is clearly suboptimal. It's on you to get there.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ richardsocher

Thanks a bunch.

We had so much positivity on all other platforms but things here did get very toxic and personal - which was a first for me :(

We still listen to our users and dropped the extension requirement.

Folks assume a lot of bad intent from us even though Chrome clearly states that the extension only has write access to one field and no other permissions.

We'll improve and learn from this. We're a super small team and are just launching our v1 beta. Better, better, never done :)

⬐ bigwavedave

> We had so much positivity on all other platforms but things here did get very toxic and personal - which was a first for me :(

It would appear that a community is now considered toxic when not blindly swallowing rhetoric from a founder who gives blatantly false reasons[1] for user hostile practices, who asserts that they're going to replace Google even though they have no profit model, and they pinky swear they care about protecting user data but can't be arsed to address legitimate technical concerns[2] that show their service is anything but privacy focused. Now, that could simply be because you don't have the technical background to address these things; if that is the case, just say so- that buys a lot more goodwill than bad guesses and strawmen. There's probably a joke in there somewhere about how not even Rumpelstiltskin tried spinning strawmen into gold, but I'm too tired to find it.

Look, as I've said in another comment directly to you that (ostensibly) you read because you made a reply: stop. You are the wrong person to do PR. If that feels personal, good, because it is; like it or not, as CEO you represent your company and you are the one choosing to engage with our community this way- why are you surprised that it feels personal? You may have the best intentions and you may be the chosen one who can destroy the One Ring and slay the Jabberwocky and save Narnia from Khan. But that is meaningless if the only way you engage with your target audience is with responses that ignore addressing legitimate concerns in favor of mentioning the extension size (which you wisely listened to feedback on and dropped entirely- thank you, well done), your company's mission, how much Google is worth, and various gaslighting tactics.

You seem surprised that these tactics have not been well-received; I'm not sure HN is the toxic part of this engagement.

Just gonna leave a couple specific links here. Don't mind them, these are just for other members of your target audience who deserve to see the full context.

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29169565

[2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29173242

⬐ jjulius

>Folks assume a lot of bad intent from us even though Chrome clearly states that the extension only has write access to one field and no other permissions.

No, it's that we see similarities to that which has burned us before.

The insistence on an extension is one example, sure, but there's also the lack of clear answers to questions people have posed about how you intend to handle monetization/selling of user data in the future (and the wording you've used so far regarding it), questions around data currently being sent to third-parties while using You's "private mode", and that you essentially tried gaslighting a community of people that would know better[1].

I'm not saying your intent is bad, I'm saying you came to a community that is inherently less trusting about this kind of tech and while they may have shot from the hip (albeit with valid questions/concerns), you haven't done much to assuage those concerns.

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29169565

⬐ 0des

Let's just call it what it is, HN is stocked full of people who are smart enough to know better before being placated by a nobody with 20MM in debt trying to profit off of us ostensibly by using our community as a soap box. Do not forget this is a community built on VC.

In my opinion, there is zero tech in Richard, he's all suit. Someone who wanted to be a CEO, and now they're a CEO on full display.

Video adaptation: https://youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ ColinWright

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=galactanet.com

https://xkcd.com/1053/

And in Kurzgesagt video form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

somewhat related to your second point https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI (egg theory)

> People aren't "gifted" with technology

I used the words "humans having been gifted digital technology" as I am a marxist and I believe that all the technologies and scientific knowledge that we reverse engineer from nature is gifted to us by a higher power. Others talk about the brilliance of human minds, yet since I see us as a part of nature, there's no distinction in that for me. Another reason I say it that way is because unfortunately the 'great man theory/myth' still reigns supreme in the tech industry [1]. I think though that this 'brilliant mind' story that is commonly told in the west seems to have often justified detrimental and destructive human supremacy/domination over the rest of nature (also leading us to the edge of the cliff now with global warming).

Anyways, I think that we all tell ourselves different stories and this is one of mine. This is another story I tell myself because it is ridiculously beautiful to me: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html or Kurzgesagt version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

> I was privileged enough to have my mother sacrifice everything(her property, her life, her family and her homeland) to pull me out of a warzone to provide for me so I would be in a position to be able to build these skills.

That sounds incredibly difficult and distressing for her (and possibly for you too). Thank you for sharing this personal story here.

> Just calling the whole thing privilege is such a disservice to all she had to sacrifice for me to be able to be in this position.

That isn't what I am referring to as the 'privilege' here though.

I am saying that the property system is the problem. The system makes it so that there are very few knowledge workers. Big capitalist firms, together with the capitalist nation state, control where and when research and development is to be done, and by whom (by enclosing/owning the systems that control the flow of information).

So I have no doubt that your mother/caretaker(s) sacrificed a lot. No doubt about that at all.

Professor Jakob Rigi does a good job of describing what I am trying to explain, maybe I will let him do the talking. Excuse this long quote by him yet I hope the clarity of his message makes it worth it.

“Digital piracy and the digital copying of cultural products for private use is a refusal to pay rent-tribute to knowledge capitalists. Therefore, piracy is miss-naming of the phenomenon. The sea pirates take away by force others' properties. The digital “pirates” only use universal commons which have been artificially fenced off. They just remove fences, and by doing so they do not take away knowledge, because, knowledge cannot be taken away. They use something which by its nature belongs to the whole of humanity. The producer of knowledge uses knowledge, as “raw” material, which is part of the general intellect of humanity as a whole and the produced knowledge itself becomes immediately part of this general intellect. Therefore, the fencing of knowledge is, essentially, more similar to the traditional piracy. The knowledge capitalist fences off, with help of the force of law, universal commons that does not exclusively belong to her/him. Therefore, s/he robs commons.

To put it bluntly, digital piracy takes back that which has been stolen from the public. Therefore, although illegal, it is morally and ethically justified. The very fact that public ethics and the bourgeois property rights contradict each other on this matter evidences that such rights are superfluous in our era of digital technology. In this way, the digital piracy and digital counterfeiting is an important economic-social movement of our time.

This movement is expressed in various ways including the following. First millions of individuals around the world, understanding and believing that they are not involved in theft, copy things for individual uses. The historical, cultural and political significance of this practice can hardly be exaggerated. It undermines the moral and ethical legitimacy of the bourgeois intellectual property in the very pours and veins of everyday life. Digital piracy is a major force of the growth of knowledge and culture, on the one hand, and the self-improvement of the individual on the other. Second, “pirate” activists, so-called crackers, illegally copy fenced off knowledge and make it available for a global public on the net. A good example was Gigapedia digital library on the net, which was created by activists who scanned books. These activists are either from poorer countries or classes or our era’s Robin Hoods from privileged countries and classes. Aaron Swartz was one such Robin Hood. The very massive and online and off line protests against SOPA in the USA and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ) in the European Union, and their temporary success, are evidence of the moral legitimacy of digital piracy and digital counterfeiting." [2]

Or as another author puts it:

"The current political economy is based on a false idea of “immaterial scarcity.” It believes that an exaggerated set of intellectual property monopolies – for copyrights, trademarks and patents – should restrain the sharing of scientific, social and economic innovations.3 Hence the system discourages human cooperation, excludes many people from benefiting from innovation and slows the collective learning of humanity. In an age of grave global challenges, the political economy keeps many practical alternatives sequestered behind private firewalls or unfunded if they cannot generate adequate profits." [3]

So where does that leave us? I believe that the most powerful leverage point we have available to us is being explored by the http://valueflo.ws project, in tandem with the http://metacurrency.org project. Those projects meet in the middle in a third project called hREA or holoREA [4]. I've written about them in previous comments:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25845914

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26587791

[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/08/04/166593/techs-end...

[2] https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/download/4...

[3] http://wealthofthecommons.org/essay/peer-peer-economy-and-ne...

[4] https://github.com/holo-rea

I’ve taken mushrooms quite a few times.

With a light dose, it’s just been mild, being silly and giggling at colors and nature. Pleasant, but just kind of a fun drug honestly.

With a moderate dose, you tend to be introspective and consider your own life and relationships in different ways. Feels like therapy to be honest. Hard work. Emotionally draining. There’s usually a lesson at the end. Overall it is good for me and makes me a better, more empathetic person.

With higher doses in a so-called bad trip, it’s sometimes been just extremely confusing and not at all fun, to the extent that I’d forget my own name or what I’ve taken and basically just all memories. It’s very frustrating to be in that state, constantly trying not to fly away but not able to ground yourself. It’s a little disturbing, but not horrific. I think the reason for this is that I am afraid to lose my ego, or die, and I would actually benefit from a slightly higher dose so I'm unable to resist.

With really high doses though, it’s been a truly beautiful, enlightening experience. I still think of it sometimes. It’s very difficult to really explain in words, but it feels like kind of extreme empathy with all life. Buddhists would call it going egoless. I just felt very at peace: we all live, we all die, and it’s all okay. I’m not particularly religious or spiritual at all but that experience really changed me. It feels like life is in all these different forms, and you just happen to be one particular variation of it, but you could easily be any other living thing, so you just feel love and empathy for all life. And you know it’s finite and you’re not afraid of death. I would still attempt to avoid death, but I was just at peace with it if it was inevitable. Also, when you come back to reality you’re utterly, utterly convinced that you’ve experienced something profound, possibly, despite all your rationality, there’s a message form god inside this mushroom. It's so strange coming back, because you have to repiece together your life: "I am... a human... I live in a city called San Francisco... I am an engineer...". It’s almost like the mushroom is laughing at you: “good luck going back to your normal life now.” You’re left with “wow? That was that?!” It’s annoying honestly, because I’m not religious at all and I know it sounds crazy to even say that out loud. Of course, that feeling does slowly fade away like a distance dream or memory.

I think in general mushrooms strip away your individual sense of self and zoom out your perspective, which is why with a small dose you consider your relationships and with a larger dose you can sometimes get scared because you lose your sense of self but you're still trying to cling on. But with an even larger dose (obviously it's not necessarily the dose, but it's a rough correlation) you blast through even further, and the distinction between you and everything else melts away, which is a truly profound spiritual experience. In all cases though, seeing fractals and cool stuff is very unimportant.

A great story it reminds me of is “The Egg” by Andy Weir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ shp0ngle

I don't really got great experience with mushrooms. Every time I took them, I just... have a hole in memory. I have no idea what I do or did, and suddenly it's 2 hours later and my head hurts. (And it got repeated multiple times when I tried them, so I stopped trying.)

So, it's not a bad experience, but not a great experience either.

LSD got similar feeling to me that you describe. Maybe more colorful and time warping, I don't know.

It's still drug induced state though. You don't see profound reality. You see what the drug is making you see. IMO, better to focus on the reality in front of you rather than something that is effectively a hallucination. Just my opinion though.

⬐ LocalH

Psychedelics are some of the most personal substances to exist. Your experience, while completely valid, is not everyone's experience. For me, while I haven't gone as deep as some with mushrooms, I find that I remember quite a bit about my mushroom experiences. The only time I've ever had such a "time hole" was when a broken finger was operated on and I was placed under anesthesia.

It may be a "drug induced state", but the power of that state can be amazing.

⬐ paraph1n

> It's still drug induced state though. You don't see profound reality. You see what the drug is making you see. IMO, better to focus on the reality in front of you rather than something that is effectively a hallucination. Just my opinion though.

This last paragraph you wrote demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the mind, chemistry, and reality.

The drug is a mere simple molecule. It does not contain any hallucinations or video recordings or instructions. It's a chemical that tweaks the parameters of your neurons, causing them to fire in patterns different from those they typically fire in. That's why it affects different people very differently: because the experience is created by the brain, not the drug. And although we might all take the same drug, we've all got different brains.

Anything you see/feel/hear/experience on the drug came from your own mind or its sensory input. It did not come from the drug. You may not have had those experiences without the drug, but the drug itself is not the origin of those experiences.

Your final comments about how it's "better" to "focus on reality" rather than a "hallucination" also screams that you are simply jealous of those who claim to have had profound experiences with these drugs. The people in this thread citing profound experiences are largely explaining how the drug actually helped them to better focus on reality. They aren't talking about how they spend day-in-day-out taking these drugs or thinking about them.

We're all hallucinating all the time. Our mind is constantly autonomously filling in the gaps left by our sensory system with "hallucinations". Certain drugs may cause your hallucinations to diverge farther from rational/empirical truth, but to be clear, most people aren't very rational/empirical to begin with.

⬐ shp0ngle

OK, good for you then.

⬐ throwaway9391

Posting with a throwaway because...well... shrooms are still illegal and I'm an upstanding dude in my society! I took em exactly two times, and to me that's enough for one lifetime. It's not like I didn't like it, it's just, well, it doesn't seem necessary now. Not sure if that makes sense. Both times I had pretty much the same kind of trip. Not good or bad, just strange and a huge, permanent perspective shift. I'm not a drug guy so I don't know if how much I took was a lot or not, but it was always in a decent setting with a trusted "babysitter" to prevent me from getting into trouble. That's pretty important when you're going to remove yourself from reality for about 12 hours.

Both trips had four distinct phases. Never tried to put them into words before, but hey tonight I feel creative. First phase was kind of a fun, flexible feeling. A little euphoric. I remember thinking that things like math and physics were tangible objects I could touch and interact with. I could close my eyes and travel to distant planets, then open them and be back on earth. Could still recognize the friends I was with and the house I was in, but understood things were really out of whack. Pretty neat. Wish it would have just stayed that way honestly. Second phase I pretty much detached from reality. The visual and audio hallucinations were most vivid during this time. Felt like I was outside of myself sometimes and other times totally encased inside with no concept of "outside". Trying to do any kind of deliberate interaction with the real world (like picking up a glass or turning on music) was impossible. Third phase was scary because the logical part of me realized that I was totally detached from reality, and that in the actual reality I could be doing anything right now. Running naked in the street. Pissing on myself. Who knows, because I have no way of knowing what was actually going on. Pretty scary to not even be able to trust a single one of your senses and know you can't trust them. Didn't like it. Fourth stage is kind of hard to put to words. All concept of space, time and sensory input was pretty much obliterated. Especially time was totally screwed up. At the time, I had no idea whether I spent 100 milliseconds or 100 years tripping. Time didn't even seem to consistently go in one direction. A lot of things that in real life I was feeling anxious or fearful of, or even happy about, kind of just melted away because my entire sense of self melted away. My real life was like a distant memory, one that I wasn't sure ever even happened. Maybe I was always in this state! I spent most of the night like this, not sleeping (because, what was sleep even?), and finally slowly transitioned from it into reality as morning came and the effects wore off.

Overall, the experiences were not social ha-ha silly high times had with friends, they were deeply introspective and personal, and for the vast majority of the time spent under the influence, I didn't even realize my friends were around.

I think I got everything out of these trips that I needed to, and see no need to go on one again.

⬐ Hard_Space

Same for me - took them twice as a teenager. The first trip is as tangible to me now as a memory of an amazing journey or holiday. The second one was a kind of dud sequel. Never felt the need to return to them, but was glad to have experienced it.

⬐ Chris2048

had similar with weed. Problem is, after the effect wore off I was left with some memory of the "existential dread" feeling for month afterward, took a while for the confidence and general sense of life satisfaction to return. Didn't find the experience worth the hit.

⬐ Moodles

I just want to say, I know exactly how you felt. The confusion upon confusion. Is this everything? Forever? Panic. It's ok. A good trip is worth it. It all makes sense in the end. The "perspective shift" of which you speak is the perspective of everything, right?

⬐ mujina93

Yes. It's really a life-changing experience. One that I think everybody should have once in their life. I'm always amazed by the almost perfectly matching descriptions of such experiences from people living in different parts of the world. There really is something objective and true to what you described. I must say, having taken them multiple times in my life, and my mind being prone to surgically analyze every experience my brain has, I was able to "deconstruct" the experience quite a bit. I can tell you that I never had the god-like one-with-everything experience I had the very first time. I think there is a big factor of novelty to the experience that plays a big role (this is true for most things in life, I would say. When you experience something deeply new, you are naturally excited in addition to what the experience itself has to offer to you.). Another thing I noticed was that I realized I always was feeling physical pleasure during the "highs". Like a constant orgasm sensation that I could feel with all my body. And that is something I think a lot of people experience but don't actually realize, unless they force them to shift their focus from their spiritual breakthroughs onto on what they are physically feeling. I think that plays a big role in enhancing all the various beautiful sensations, thoughts, and almost religious realizations. In such a state of physical pleasure you would judge even a dog that pisses on your leg as something devine. I think there is much less "magic" to the experience once you realize these mechanisms. But, as I said, I still think everybody should take mushrooms at least once in their life (possibly in a nice, controlled setting. You don't want to waste it.). Other times I funneled all their "magic" into creativity, spending all the time of my trip doing my form of art, writing, and I was amazed at some genial things that came out. (Your art form could be different, for example one ex of mine, which is amazing at drawing, drew very cool things when she took mushrooms). I kind of "wasted" the experience in that I did not focus on me, or on enjoying the delight and the weirdness in any way, but I was hyperfocused on my writing, on describing every small bit of sensation that I was experiencing instead of living it and enjoying it. I won't make this post infinitely long. I'll just conclude saying that ultimately I stopped because they weren't giving me much. Like all people taking them, I agree that you get to feeling that you don't need to take them multiple times. They are a drug that basically communicates to you that you don't really need to take them ever again already the first time, given how big and life-changing the first experience is. If you do take them again, it's never on an addiction impulse, like (I guess) opioids would give you or like social media and notifications would give you.

⬐ spaetzleesser

I am pretty new to mushrooms. What would you call a "high" dose? So far I have tried, 2, 3 and 4g dried. I definitely could feel it physically and became emotionally very sensitive but I didn't feel anything spiritual.

⬐ sheepdestroyer

Psilocybin content varies strongly from species to species. More problematically, it can also vary a lot in individual mushrooms in the same batch.

I would say that the best bet at consistency is to grind your whole batch to average the potency, then try a small dose to get a feel of your particular batch before proceeding.

⬐ drewmol

I'm not familiar but would an alcohol solution containing the ground batch, gently heated, then filtered, yield an even distribution of potency?

⬐ CuriouslyC

Alcohol (everclear) is a good long term storage medium for mushrooms. Tea (as suggested by another poster) works alright but loses some potency and doesn't store well.

One thing to be aware of is that you need a decent amount of everclear to perform the extraction, but once you've gotten everything out, you're going to want to reduce the alcohol by evaporating some of it so that you don't need to take several shots to get a good dose.

Also, boiling isn't a problem for mushrooms, psilocybin is heat tolerant to that level. Water, on the other hand, degrades psilocybin fairly quickly.

⬐ technocratius

No need for another solvent; simply making a tea with hot water does the trick. Not boiling hot though, as it'll degrade the active components to some extent. Aim for 70 degrC before adding the ground material.

⬐ saiya-jin

Generally the basic cubensis type, roughly 3g dried is considered a single dose, others are usually more potent. What I did (I think I've read it on erowid), was to mix dried shrooms with pure fresh lemon juice.

The result is properly disgusting (too sour and shrooms taste horribly and shrooms brought me almost to vomit), BUT - it makes the trips shorter (say 3 hours instead of more exhausting 6) and much more intense.

What OP describes with "really high doses", well, I went beyond with those 3g, not sure how much further. But there are few 'tricks' to make it happen. 1) be alone (so not good for those who are anxious and on first trip), so that nobody interferes with the experience and you can just go deeper and deeper if you want; 2) close your eyes, ideally laying on the couch/bed, having some relaxing soft music as a background (I had some shamanic sounds which were positively adding to the experience I believe). Visual sensory input and managing of the body is too strong for the brain to ignore, it will throttle the trip significantly.

After some time, losing gradually all my senses, losing any mental connection with all parts of the body, I ended up as a mist of atoms, egoless, just watching from distance, swirling in the music that was playing in the background although I didn't hear it directly (weird, I know, hard to describe). Imagine hot steam sauna, if you have light there you can see droplets swirling.

What was also impressive was coming down, since the process of re-discovery of my physical self, be it hand or breathing or eye muscles was more pronounced compared to losing it, one at a time. This part took easily 30-60 minutes if uninterrupted. And at the end the utter sense of peace with all universe. I am not spiritual/religious and this didn't change that, but I understood back then where religions come from and why they tell us more about ourselves rather than god itself (but that's my own conclusion). Profound, 1 in top 3 most intense experiences in life, repeatedly (didn't do it for last 10 years though, kind of took from it what I needed and could I guess).

Mind you, at any time, I could interrupt it and stand up, losing 90% of the current state. Maybe on higher dosages this wouldn't be possible so easily (but they say vitamin C or sugar terminates the trip pretty quickly, not sure never needed it).

Also, having issues, anxiety, going though harder parts of life ain't a good combination with any mind-altering drug, or any drug for that matter.

⬐ CuriouslyC

Try 8+ grams dry plus 250mg of harmala extract. You will commune with the goddess, then realize you are just another facet of her, and your reality is just play in a daydream of the infinite.

⬐ h2odragon

Some people take things differently. Some folks are pleasantly couchlocked for an evening at 5g and re-evaluating life at 10g, and some are fine with 30+g and going hunting in the swamps on a full moon.

I'd suggest you try ~12g next; with knowledge it might be a bit too much but some comfort you know what itll be generally from the smaller doses. if thats not what you're after, then maybe steps at 18 and 24g.

Do pay attention to frequency warnings and such commonly cited; too much too often is a waste of good shroom. Also consider extracts, I personally found the larger doses hard on the stomach, even powdered, compressed, and rendered easy to swallow with honey. Vodka is a great solvent and can be evaporated back off.

⬐ mujina93

It really depends on the species. For most mushrooms I wouldn't go beyond 5g. Suggesting 12 or even 24g to me sounds like suggesting to drink 12 or 24 bottles of wine at the same time (if I think of the type of mushrooms I often took. For truffles maybe that's ok).

⬐ freshpots

Are you talking wet or dry? Those are massive dry doses:

https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_dose.shtml

⬐ hisnameismanuel

Agreed with the other commenter - your dosage recommendations are highly specific, but we don't know your context or what you're taking.

I'm in Australia and 5g of dried mushrooms does not leave you pleasantly couchlocked, as you say. On 5g, you will have a massive, epic trip.

I have taken shrooms three times. My biggest dose was 3.5g. This was a transformative experience with ego dissolution and a thorough, extended series of interactions with my sub-consciousness and all of its complexity.

⬐ h2odragon

My context was dried, fresh cubensis of varied strains, and some years of enjoying them. Yes I'm talking insane doeses for some people, but that wasn't "high" doses for me; and i've never had "visuals" or many of the other effects that other get from psilocybin.

I think my biggest single does was about the equivalent of 4oz dried; great trip but the hangover was way too long.

⬐ Moodles

It varies on the individual, probably due to body mass and so on. Even then, it's not like a certain dose will guarantee a certain experience. I'm a ~72kg man and I'd say 3.5g is a normal dose and 4.5g is verging on high. The most I ever had was around 5g.

The two truly profound spiritual experiences I've had were actually 22g "High Hawaiian" magic truffles (not mushrooms, but similar), and around 5g cubensis magic mushrooms, though I did eyeball it so it may have been more or less.

And the ever relevant video version by School of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

Jean de Florette (1986) and its conclusion Manon des Sources (1986), great 80s French movies, top notch cast you would even recognize in the US. Also Le château de ma mère (1990) and La gloire de mon père (1990). I haven’t watched the second pair since I was a small boy, but I remember being captivated.

A complete tangent is this Kurzgesagt video on YouTube where they consider the possibility that you will be every human and live every life. I can’t stop thinking about it. https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI

Closely related, especially given the context of consciousness, one of my favorite stories: "The Egg" (http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html, or if you prefer read by Kurzgesagt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI).

⬐ Ruphin

My favorite version of this story is told throughout Logic's "Everybody" album. I highly recommend it.

⬐ buckminstrix

Really profound content from a great channel. Another channel with related insightful content is "The School of Life" https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog

Panpsychism needs a new name. That word sounds quite alien. But the concept is familiar to humans in their "raw" state.

Young children sometimes befriend rocks, elder people sometimes talk to their plants, and some tribes and pre-modern cultures widely believed there was life inside everything. It's a little disappointing the "Wikipedia" article on it does not mention: Australian aborigines, Amazon tribes, Hindus and more.

⬐ mercer

Possibly interesting fact: the writer of The Egg also wrote The Martian. Haven't read the book, but the film was great and much funnier than I expected.

You might enjoy this[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ kfrzcode

I love to share the text: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

Here's kurzgesagt's rendition of "The Egg": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ Future95

Thanks for the a-ha fact.

⬐ Future95

You must be a philanthropist. I utterly agree to your opinion.

⬐ lobo_tuerto

Very happy to see one of my very favorite short stories turned into a short video animation by Kurzgesagt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

⬐ sidcool

Healthy dose of existential crisis. Sunday is a good day.