Date: Mon, 08 Jul 96 18:02:43 EDT
From: Kevin Jones <100621.17@compuserve.com>
To: Subscribers to the maili <TWC-L@halmarax.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: A few thoughts on terminal Wing-dings!
Chris Whitehouse said:
Kevin(?) (yes it is Kevin!) said:
>> I don't leave unfinished business behind - especially when I get the
>> feeling that it's the last time I'm going to see someone.
>The good sense of this is so obvious once it's too late.
So you live your life like that. That way you don't have
that problem. Of course, it does help if, like me, you get
a feeling that it is time to say goodbye. Useful that.
It's 27 years since I've been to a funeral wishing I'd had the
time to say or unsay something. There's been a fair number
since then - bike crashes, accidents, old age, terminal illness,
suicide etc.
>> No idea what Aldous Huxley's definitions were.
> "Visionary experience is not the same as mystical experience.
> Mystical experience is beyond the realm of opposites. Visionary
> experience is still within that realm. Heaven entails hell. and
> 'going to heaven' is no more liberating than is the descent into
> horror. Heaven is merely a vantage point from which the divine
> Ground can be more clearly seen than on the level of ordinary
> individual experience."
("Heaven And Hell" - Aldous Huxley)
In which case my experiences are mainly mystical. I've generally
found considering things as opposites rather than different and
complemantary faces of the same coin unhelpful when it comes to
either learning or understanding.
>> Resistance to LSD-25 has been in studies even at massive doses.
>Would be grateful if u cd email me any refs.
I wish I could. I ran across the subject while researching stuff
for a book on phytopharmacy. Just to make me a bit busier I was
also reading up on a mixture of Craft and transpersonal
psychology! If you get the idea that I'm a prodigious reader,
slightly workaholic with an enormous range of interests, you
wouldn't be far wrong! Anyway, there were some experimental data
on the effects of LSD dating, I think, from the 60's and early
70's, principally done by universities (most often psychology
depts.)and pharmaceutical companies. I'm not entirely sure about
the 70's date. I've also heard accounts from private sources
about military experiments to check it's possible use as an
incapacitant (it was judged too unreliable). However it was not
germane to my research so I merely filed the info away without
references. As I recall, total resistance at any dose was an
extreme rarity but it did appear in a couple of cases. Various
degrees of partial resistance, particularly at lower doses, was
more common but it was still only exhibited by a small minority.
There were no explanations for this though it was postulated at
the time that a mixture of expectations, attitude and the way
that that particular person processes information or otherwise
uses their brain was responsible for this effect. there was great
surprise that it was observed at all since LSD-25 is regarded as
one of the most potent psychoactive agents going (I have been
told of one that is more active but I've forgotten what it's
called. It was experimental). Unfortunately all research was
forbidden shortly afterwards.
Oddly enough, traditional Craft techniques for 'travelling'
and visualisation seem increase resistance to hallucinogens
from my observation, possibly because you are more in control
of your internal landscape. On the other hand, they can
reduce tolerance to alcohol. It would probably make sense. It
is likely to be a function of higher CNS activity, which is
precisely the bit alcohol shuts down.
Tony said:
>Surely when our rulers get to know us, they will come to love us
>and trust our judgment in these matters.
Call me an old cynic but the sort of person who wishes to become
a politician is convinced that he or she knows better than
anyone else. You could call it a sort of perversion to want
power and control over others. However, it's one that society
approves of.
I prefer the system suggested by one American journalist. Anyone
who wished to stand for public office should be automatically
debarred for life precisely because they want to stand. The ideal
canditate (completely unwilling!) should be dragged kicking and
screaming to the Whitehouse or 10 Downing Street to start his
term (sentence?) of office and is given time off for good
behaviour.
Regards
Kevin