(format is messed up cause I copy and pased out of a txt file then tried to fix it =/ ) I was staying up late and thinking about all the different things in life that we can't come close to imagine, think, and understand. I am talking about stuff like physicsand math. Because thats what really pushes the limits of thinking as we know it. Like is space infinite in every direction? There is a lot of stuff that completly does not make sense...like for example imagine infitiy of something, like time or infinite amount of space. If you really concentrate on it it tickles your mind because I guess we as humans its hard comprehend such concepts. Which brings to my next point. I don't think many of us realize how much of a slave we really are to our mind. Our minds make us do and feel things that are basic instincts for our own survival. Like reproduction...our minds go thru so much trouble to make people mate with each other. Look at a picture of a super model, looks good right? But why? Why does he/she look good? Think about it. Your brain is just trying to trick you to have sex basically, and yes I know how lame that sounds. Now it gets more complicated. Because of all these pre programmed things that we carry are we truely free to think what we want to think? I'll take an example...the greatest thing that human minds have achieved is "math" compared to other animals its really amazing that we can understand that 1+1=2. We take for granted that we know how to count and even created a number system. If you take another living thing lets say a fish, a fish has no idea about numbers and such. If a fish sees 3 other fish it cannot understand the amount of "3". Unlike us...we go as far as even understanding that if you take 1 fish away you only have 2 left! A fish does not need math, they live simple lives where they eat, breed and die. So here comes my next point. We are basically fish, compared to all the other knowledge that we cannot understand. Think of all other concepts that we are missing out on. Maybe there is a completly different form of math and a completely different way to count things. But we cannot even begin to imagine it, because evolution only gave us features that help our own survival. So put it together...things like infinity has almost no meaning to us. Because we CANNOT imagine infinite of ANYTHING. We are missing out on a lot, we don't even understand our own existance and overal purpose of everything. now the drugs come in drugs re-wire our brain to make us feel and understand things completely differently, I will go as far as saying that a new dimension is reached in thinking because under drugs you are no longer within the limits that your brain sets. I think in the future all our knowledge and understanding will go only so far until it hits the limit where you cannot think beyond that. And when the limit is hit(if it already has not been hit) drugs will have to be taken to understand and learn further. And this will be like a new evolution only in the minds. So in the future, you can fully understand EVERYTHINg by simply taking a drug. Additionally, I dont have experience with many other drugs besides marijuana. I don't know if there are drugs that come close to *opening doors* in your head. But we already know that marijuana can open your mind to new ideas and give your original ideas. Some people are gonna say "I took heroin and I perfectly understood everything". I wouldn't know anything about it. But I am pretty sure that many of the drugs today are not it, cause they would be picked up by scientific community(musicians already discovered marijuana!) It will be interesting if chemists and scientists will study drugs that people usually use for recreation. Imagine what other kind of drugs can be developed to re-wire your brain into a hardcore thinking machines. But for now the society sees drugs as something that soil your mind. And that might be true cause some drugs are pretty bad. But then again, respectable scientists around the world are *not* working hard to create drugs that do not soil your mind and give you new ways of thinking. think. Because...drugs are bad right?
You may feel that marijuana opens doors in your mind, and helps you understand and think at a higher level. It can be used as a tool but still the leg work can be done on your own. Monks though mediatation strive to live in this higher level state, this mild form of nirvana, this feeling of enlightenment. You never have to rely on the drug the power is in your mind. The ganja can just be the training wheels. =) Z
Wow, IceCreamKidd, I got completely lost in the thoughts and questions of what they truly do experience in that state. They're literally trying to get rid of individual consciousness to achieve nirvana. If they even get close, then how intense could that be? I couldn't imagine. Especially not in our busy world. But it sure puts life into a different perspective...if only for a little while. Thanks!
Sure we have math, and from math we've develpoed sciences and technology. But we're stil no more advanced than fish. We still basically just eat sleep sex and die. The human race gets more advanced technology wise, but where is it leading? We feel so advanced but we havnet changed anything in reality. We've made our lives more comfortable and more stressful atthe same time. we've created amazing medical breakthroughs, and we've created weapons of mass destruction. All of our technological advances are for nought if we cannot rise above this rut of eating sleeping and sex. But where to go?
all thats something to think about, see i truely belive life is pointless, basicly because of whut you said. Were born to die, thats it, so i belive there has to be some sort of after life that isn't pointless, or something. I'm not high so i don't know whut i'm saying.
i remember reading somewhere that our sense of 'free will' is merely an illusion, and that every emotion we feel is simply based on the chemical reaction that just happens to be going on in our brains at that point in time.. on a related note, its pretty strange to just think about the absurdity of existence in general.. life seems so determined to reproduce and expand, but WHY? why do we even posess these instincts? why does it matter whether our species dies out or not, and why do we seem to be so hardwired to affect things outside of our own frame of existence? why do we even care happens to humanity after our own lives end?? its pretty perplexing to think about- there doesnt seem to be any underlying purpose to anything in nature.. while we assume that everything we (and all living things) do is done with some sort of underlying goal, these goals are all fundementally absurd.. there is no real significant 'purpose' to our lives, besides to make our pointless existences as comfortable as possible during the short time we have, and to obey our natural instincts (only in order to recieve rewards from our brains, of course, as these insticts are basically pointless in terms of the 'big picture'). i think at our roots, we are all self-centered: we only help others because it gives us some kind of satisfaction, either in the form of a mental reward (i did the right thing), or an expected retaliation- as we all know it 'returning the favor'.. also, when someone close to you dies, do you greive over the actual death, or YOUR personal loss? is it even possible to greive over the physical process of death, which is a fundemental fact of our lives and is constantly happening all around us, to all living things?? what is morality, and what is the purpose behind being 'moral'? if it is not to help someone else, somewhere in the world, then any law or moral code is useless to us personally, and as humans. why should we abstain from sex? and just why shouldnt we use drugs, if neither of these actions are harmful to others (and therefore to us)? after all, we are nothing but blobs of protein, expressing through our computers the random chemical reactions going on inside our bodies.. kind of puts things into perspective.
Another little thought: Reality as we know it only appears this way to us because of the chemical balances and reactions in our brains. Why is a drug reduced reality any less real? It's just different chemicals in our brains. You could be born producing some of these chemicals we ingest, would your reality be any different. It's hard to get my point across here but you may understand what I'm attempting to say here.
I totally get what you're saying. It's a controversial issue, because are you REALLY yourself when you're on 10 hits of acid and jump off a cliff? Maybe, at that fleeting moment, you were finally discovering your own TRUTHS and it was finally the REAL YOU being unleashed, or is it the drugs? Kind of an extreme example, but what about anti-depressants such as Prozac (I am reading Prozac Nation right now, EXCELLENT book)? You can argue that Prozac is correcting the brain's seratonin imbalances, but Prozac takers often complain of not feeling like "themselves" when on it, and feel more themselves when NOT on the drug. Some people would rather deal with their depression than the emptiness Prozac provides (such as a very good friend of mine, who, trust me, is better off). Should we rely on pills to fix our problems, and just bear with the side effects, or should we try to fix our problems w/ therapy and new ways of thinking? anyway sorry a little off topic i think but along similar lines. xo~