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  1. M

    Calling experienced psychonauts in the UK

    it will definitely happen at some point, ive been looking forward to it for ages, i have SO MUCH to talk to you about hehe. The force is strong in you, you are well and truly on the path of psychedelic mysticism 8)
  2. M

    On killing the ego

    If you follow through the line of argument that you are hinting at here ^, you end up with solipsism (the denial that other people have minds) which is an unsustainable philosophical position It is true that your pain is not my pain, because we are two different people, nevertheless 'pain' means...
  3. M

    On killing the ego

    If you were god and everything, then how could the military be controlling you?
  4. M

    On killing the ego

    why do you think that this particular trip is ego death? According to which definition of 'ego death' does this trip qualify as ego death? Did you think you had died? Did you think you would never stop tripping and return to normal? Did you feel like this trip profoundly transformed your whole life?
  5. M

    Calling experienced psychonauts in the UK

    Fran i have confirmed with my flatmate that he is cool to be in your project, but he works funny hours but it shuldnt be too difficult to arrange, and one other guy who lives outside of London but often comes into London for work said it would be cool if the timing is convenient for him
  6. M

    Calling experienced psychonauts in the UK

    Lazarus do you live in or near London? It would be very cool to get you involved, we could have a three-way :lol:
  7. M

    Calling experienced psychonauts in the UK

    Hey Fran!! :finga: very cool to see you on here, looking forward to Saturday xx
  8. M

    On killing the ego

    yes he did, several times, read it carefully exactly, which is why i said he should be more careful (the person who said ego death makes you "more responsible")
  9. M

    On killing the ego

    blimey you ought to be more careful! Especially on the road :wink: Altered state fear (fear of control-loss, the classic 'bad trip' experience) is the most profound and psychologically transfomative mental dynamic that psychedelic drugs open up. It is also the core referent of all...
  10. M

    On killing the ego

    i disagree with you on this point, i think it is incoherent to divide the 'self' into parts as you are suggesting. the self in one single indivisible thing (specifically, it is the agent who controls the thoughts and actions) put it this way, you are only one person, the name 'endlessentity'...
  11. M

    On killing the ego

    i used the example of car crashes as a paradigm case of a near death experience, of course there are many others, parachutes not opening, acute allergic reactions, cocaine overdoses, skiing accidents etc etc etc I have never had a near death experience (in the sense of physical death), I was...
  12. M

    On killing the ego

    it is necessary to distinguish between two different senses of 'ego death' in order to answer these questions. Firstly, you have 'ego death' as in 'thinking that you have died/gone permanently crazy/reached the end of time etc' Secondly, you have 'ego death' as in 'the permanent psychological...
  13. M

    On killing the ego

    It has nothing whatsoever to do with Freudian 'id', and generally speaking, Freudian psychoanalytic theory is not very helpful for understanding these psychedelic ideas (Freud was a million miles off of an understanding of mysticism and mystical psychosis) the ego is very simply the...
  14. M

    On killing the ego

    yes ego death is essentially a 'near death experience', of a very specific and special kind (because it is mental death, a opposed to physical/bodily death), and it has the same psychologically transformative nature, people will say something like: "i had this experience where i came face to...
  15. M

    On killing the ego

    there's only one Max Freakout :twisted: i talked extensively about these issues on the podcast, listen to the 2 episodes i recorded with 'Peacekeeper'
  16. M

    On killing the ego

    there are 2 distinct meanings of the word 'ego' which you are mixing up here ^. The ego which dies in ego death is the self-controlling homunculus which sits inside the head holding the personal steering wheel, in other words the agent who possesses the power of free-will. This is a different...
  17. M

    On killing the ego

    you ARE your ego ('ego' means the same as 'self'), it's the death of the thing that the word 'I' (or 'you') refers to ego death is when you trip hard and the voice in your head (which speaks your thoughts) says something like "oh shit i'm dead". Ego always reacts to impending death in exactly...
  18. M

    On killing the ego

    an encounter with death/ultimate doom is always going to be shocking and elicit a 'panic' reaction, simply because the human organism is innately programmed to try to cling onto life right to the very end. Death is something to be avoided at all costs, we do whatever we possibly can do to stay...
  19. M

    On killing the ego

    Ego death is ALWAYS a mega-shocking slap in the face, the kind of gentle, easy experience you allude to here is not going to cause ego to 'die', it is only going to reassure ego and the distinction between subjective and objective has no relevance whatsoever, since ego death is a subjective...
  20. M

    On killing the ego

    yes i am aware of that, but i dont think it has much explanatory relevance with regard to ego death, it is unnecessarily convoluted yes they have but it is very clear that they are not talking about the same thing and therefore there is no justification for using the same term (since they are...
  21. M

    On killing the ego

    ego death is ego death, it's when you trip too hard and freak out, the 'eastern methods' are no different from the western methods, ie DRUGS. Any experience that doesnt involve freaking out and losing control is only going to strengthen and reassure ego, certainly not cause it to 'die' in the...
  22. M

    On killing the ego

    there is no such thing as a 'boring trip', tripping is the ultimate thrill ride, if you feel bored it just means you havent taken enough drugs :shock: the subjective/objective distinction isnt really relevant to the process of ego death, just like andy trip, ego death is an EXPERIENCE, and...
  23. M

    On killing the ego

    ego death is just like any psychedelic trip, it is a private (ie subjective) experience, as opposed to public, it happens to each person individually
  24. M

    On killing the ego

    im using the dictionary meaning: ergonomic - designed to minimize physical effort and discomfort, and hence maximize efficiency
  25. M

    On killing the ego

    i said the same thing to another poster earlier in this thread, you are misusing the term 'ego death' to refer to something completely different from what i am using it to refer to when i talk about 'ego death' i am using this term to mean the same thing that the psychedelic theorists such as...
  26. M

    On killing the ego

    but you can talk about what happened in your ego death experience to other people, and agree with other people who have had the same experience that you have experienced the same thing. So in that sense, ego death is intersubjective, as opposed to being purely subjective, ie it is something that...
  27. M

    On killing the ego

    by 'ergonomic' i just mean 'safe and effective', they are used by humans, but designed by evolution or God psychedelic drugs are the safest and most effective means to trigger the mystical altered state
  28. M

    On killing the ego

    yes exactly, with drugs it is very easy and convenient to trigger altered states the natural/synthetic distinction isnt relevant, drugs are drugs, LSD (synthetic) and mushrooms (natural) both equivalently trigger altered states
  29. M

    On killing the ego

    i think this ^ is a fair assessment of me :lol: I am very obsessive about this whole psychedelic thing
  30. M

    HPPD

    This is amazing, not long ago the loudest voices on this forum were insisting (despite the vast weight of evidence to the contrary) that HPPD simply didnt exist (see this thread: post-33398.html?f=39&hilit=HPPD ), it's good to see things have changed 8) the definition of 'disorder' is a very...
  31. M

    On killing the ego

    tryptonaut this is an excellent post thankyou :D This is a typical, precise report of an ego death trip, you trip too hard and slip into the perpetual insanity vortex which permanently reconfigures the mind Every religion and every myth is based around this experience, it is the most...
  32. M

    On killing the ego

    you misquote me, that ^ is meaningless it is a fairly common experience to go temporarily crazy when you trip hard, that is why LSD was at first labelled a 'psychotomimetic' drug, psychosis and tripping both share the common feature of loosening cognitive association matrices it is very easy...
  33. M

    On killing the ego

    i take the entheogens and that is what im talking about here, the drugs that induce the religious/mystical altered state, im very thoroughly acquianted with that state having tripped hundreds of times, however only a small number of trips are required to trigger the full range of psychedelic...
  34. M

    On killing the ego

    That ^ is a muddled and incoherent statement, a mystical experience is a profound altered state experience, but the term 'profound altered state experience' is a superficial and vague way to describe the type of experience, you would need to clarify what you mean by 'profound' and 'altered'. The...
  35. M

    On killing the ego

    you certainly can do that if you have HPPD, but for the vast majority of people, tripping on demand without drugs is practically impossible the visual aspect of a trip (ie the perceptual level) is only the most superficial part, what is really deep and important in a trip is what goes on at the...
  36. M

    On killing the ego

    the OEVs and the loss of connection with reality are practically the same thing, - you lose connection to external physical reality because the OEVs make the world seem less 'real' and more like a mental projection, so you lose the ability to believe in the mind-independent status of the...
  37. M

    On killing the ego

    Drugs are the only safe, repeatable, reliable, controllable way to trigger temporary mystical state experiences (in short, they are the only ergonomic tool for altering consciousness). Schizophrenic people cannot control entry and exit from the altered states as trippers can, instead...
  38. M

    On killing the ego

    i know from having done yoga myself that it doesnt trigger an intense altered state, and i know from having done drugs myself that they do trigger these altered states, 100% guaranteed and also, i have never heard anyone seriously claiming that yoga is a means of altering consciousness...
  39. M

    On killing the ego

    How exactly do you distinguish between a 'profound altered state' and a 'mystical state'? - The 'profound alteration of consciousness' just IS the mystical state. The recent study by Roland Griffiths confirmed this: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/bin/s/m/ ... ocybin.pdf psilocybin typically...
  40. M

    On killing the ego

    The psychedelic experience gives deep metaphysical 'insights', and the central, most profound and important insight is the illusory aspect of cross-time identity, - that is the insight which leads the mind inexorably into ego death When the point of view of timeless unity is revealed in the...
  41. M

    On killing the ego

    You are not talking about the experience of mystical death in the altered state, so it is pointless to talk in terms of 'ego death' since we both mean different things by this term. So dont think of it as 'experiencing ego death', instead think of it as 'experiencing temporary intense mystical...
  42. M

    On killing the ego

    Yes the intense mystical state is temporary, it lasts just until the drugs wear off. If this were not the case, ie so that the altered states re-occur uncontrollably during daily life, then the grip on reality is completely lost, the person is schizophrenic and will likely end up in a mental...
  43. M

    On killing the ego

    it seems there is some equivocation on what is meant by 'ego death' I am using this term to refer to the peak mystical experience of mentally 'dying' during an altered state experience, the 'self' which is conceived of primarily as the author of the subjective stream of thoughts, becomes...
  44. M

    On killing the ego

    i totally agree, without doubt some people do, rarely, profound mental transformation without the use of drugs however drugs are the *typical* cause of these kinds of experiences, drugs are the only reliable, repeatable way to trigger intense mystical/religious altered states of consciousness...
  45. M

    On killing the ego

    i have a masters degree in philosophy of psychiatry, and im currently writing a PhD thesis on schizophrenic phenomenology, what im saying here has nothing to do with psychoanalysis
  46. M

    On killing the ego

    Psychedelics are the typical cause of ego death, you trip too hard and go insane, your most basic ontological foundations completely dissolve Buddhism, gnosticism, christianity etc etc are all big arrows pointing towards the ego death experience, Jesus dying on the crucifix and being...
  47. M

    On killing the ego

    the ego death experience is the most extreme psychotic break with ordinary reality, schizophrenic people only experience this in the fullest sense during the 'peak' of a psychotic episode, they are not experiencing it all the time. Schizophrenic cognitive processing and psychedelic tripping both...
  48. M

    On killing the ego

    'ego death' means the same thing for everyone, it's an experience of mystical death and rebirth in the psychedelic altered state of consciousness schizophrenic people experience the same state of consciousness, broadly speaking, as trippers do, it's just that schizophrenics cant control entry...
  49. M

    On killing the ego

    You are talking about something different by suggesting that you can kill your own ego, ie by suggesting that you can control the process of ego death. That is a self-defeating definition of 'ego death' since 'ego' just is 'the controller'. sometimes when people trip too hard, they have the...
  50. M

    On killing the ego

    yes those unfortunate people are called 'schizophrenics'
  51. M

    On killing the ego

    ego death isnt something that a person 'does', as in "i want to kill my ego, im going to kill my ego" etc rather ego death is something that just happens, unavoidably, when you trip too hard
  52. M

    "Scientists say Free will isn't real, but urge "Believe!""

    determinism doesnt necessarily imply no free-will, depending on whether it is 'compatibilist determinism' or 'incompatibilist determinism'
  53. M

    Eckhart Tolle

    Tolle is very naive about drugs, the things he says about them in power of now are quite nauseating, but apart from that i think he is spot on, and a highly valuable spiritual teacher
  54. M

    Johnathan Ott's house (and lab) destoyed by arson attack

    there's a paypal link on his website to donate to him
  55. M

    Johnathan Ott's house (and lab) destoyed by arson attack

    http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/news/jonathan_ott_fund.htm In his own words: "[My] home was completely burned, destroying everything that was most important: laboratory, hydroelectric system, custom-built and -designed electric motorcycle and, for the crowning touch, [the arsonist] tried to...
  56. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    yes entheogens typically cause a kind of temporary psychosis, with sheer insanity at the extreme end. But 'insanity' probably isnt the most useful word to use, it would be more precise to say that entheogens cause some degree of disconnection from public/consensus reality, where insanity is...
  57. M

    Anxiety

    BUT how can you control surrendering? :shock: :twisted: :wink:
  58. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    this is an important point, psychedelic trips typically don't have a permanent psychological effect, but rarely they do, and ego death theory is about those relatively rare times when they do. Ego death and subsequent ego transcendence is a permanent mental-model transformation, ego death is a...
  59. M

    inbox offers

    it is not 'legit' to send anonymous messages to people which are suggestive of dealing drugs
  60. M

    i got a random message from 'Chucktye' about research chems

    this member with zero posts just sent me the following unsolicited message: this poster is obviously trouble......
  61. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    the point is, the concept of 'exorsism' is primarily intended as a metaphor for this 'jumping' from the ordinary state of consciousness to the entheogenic higher state, and from the naive egoic worldmodel to the entheogen-informed transcendent worldmodel the 'exorsism' is a total, permanent...
  62. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    im very strongly inclined towards transcendental idealism/radical subjectivism, i think consciousness is absolutely primary, matter is secondary. Tripping has convinced me of this, psychedelic visuals and HPPD combined with basic reasoning can make a concrete philosophical case for a radical...
  63. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    I cant explain this any clearer, if you cant count to 2 then you wont get this, - there are TWO situations being compared and contrasted here: Tripping and not tripping, taking entheogens and not taking entheogens. Whether you want to call that a 'polarity' or a 'duality' or a 'pair' or...
  64. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    Michael has said that 'prophecy' is merely irrational thinking, so the same applies to what you mention here ^ to the extent that these practises are about 'seeing the future' in a practical everyday sense On the other hand, these practises like 'tarot' and 'i-ching' which 'see the future' can...
  65. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    the basic point here is that for the purposes of ego death theory, there are fundamentally TWO different states of consiousness being compared and contrasted, the ordinary non-tripping state, and the mystical intense-tripping state the theory doesnt 'create' a duality, rather the duality...
  66. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    references to the intense mystical state can be found EVERYWHERE, not just rock lyrics it wasnt Ozzy who was enlightened in this case it was Bob Daisley
  67. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    Ah thanx i hadnt seen that I would recommend Douglas Hofstadter but im sure you already know about his books :lol: Both books by Louis Sass are very awesome indeed, 'madness and modernism' and 'paradoxes of delusion' 'the hero with a thousand faces' by Joseph Campbell is awesome 'infinity...
  68. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    where is that? I have read his book reviews on amazon but i cant find anything else
  69. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    This question isnt really relevant to the conversation, but yes i have lost a very good friend in a road accident a few years ago, and no i havent had anyone murdered in front of my eyes The important point is, neither of these 2 experiences are mystical altered state experiences, the kinds of...
  70. M

    WHY?

    there are 2 possible answers either 1. No reason, existence is existentially meaningless or 2. Because God made it this way for a divine reason
  71. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    We do change all the time during daily life, but that is a very different thing from mystical-state ego death. Ego death occurs when you think you have died during an intense mystical experience, that is not something that 'we all experience all the time', it is actually a fairly rare experience...
  72. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    why should it be the case that a god "by their very nature" be loving and creative? This goes against the religious view of what 'god' it, because every religion contains the idea of a dual-aspect god, - the compassionate/loving/creative god and the vengeful/punishing/destructive god...
  73. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    This ^ doesnt make any sense, ego death is an experience, it is 'only possible' when you experience it the theory doesnt require that you agree or disagree with it, because all it is doing is explaining the ego death experience This is an important point, there are all kinds of crisis events...
  74. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    No this isnt an interpretation of 'psychedelic experience', because that is too broad. This is an interpretation of the ego death experience in particular, which is not broad, it is one specific kind of experience - namely the experience of taking drugs and then experiencing dying or going...
  75. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    Right yes how you act physically is really just a reflection of what is going on inside your mind, and Hoffman says that it is actually uneccesary and counterproductive to channel the internal mental conflict of ego death into external psychotic acting-out, what is really important is what...
  76. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    It is crucial to understand that there is a distinction between what seems to be the case, and what actually is the case, the distinction between appearances and reality, seeming and being. Reality is ontologically primary, appearance is secondary I certainly seem to exist (where the word 'I'...
  77. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    yes this is a very important point, the 'ego' is the steersman behind the flow of thoughts, it is right at the core of the sense of self-identity (it is the principle: "i am the controller of my thoughts") which is so familiar to you in the ordinary everyday state of consciousness that you take...
  78. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    yes that's moreorless right, but you should be careful with the word 'superior', it's a very strange kind of superiority, does realising that you dont exist make you superior to someone who thinks they do exist? nobody is making this presumption so this ^ doesnt apply to anybody the 'never...
  79. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    control loss just means losing control it doesnt add anything to that explanation to change the wording ( you could say loss of free will, loss of autonomy, loss of causal efficacy etc but these all amount to exactly the same thing, it's an experience where the sense of self-control is...
  80. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    Hoffman has talked a lot about Watts' alcoholism, it is likely that Watts' deep insight into the problem of self control was down to his alcoholism in the first place. Drug addiction is a perfect example of why self-control is deeply problematic, Watts is bound to have been intimately aware of...
  81. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    the phenomenology of a classic good trip is also fully mapped out by the theory 'bad' and 'good' or 'negative' and 'positive' are misleading words in this context, it should instead be 'difficult' and 'easy' The theory comprehensively maps out the entire range of mystical state phenomenology...
  82. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    he never mentions his own experiences of tripping, not once, i tried asking him about that when i interviewed him and he just avoided the question it is a theory about tripping in general, not one or another person's experiences of tripping. The theory is full of examples of the kinds of...
  83. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    what do you mean by this, examples of what? The theory comprehensively lists every example of altered-state phenomena you see in trip reports, and also gives hundreds of examples of the way mythology describes these phenomena. What else do you want examples of? So for example he gives the...
  84. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    ego death is an experience where you take drugs and think you are dying ego death theory is a phenomenological model of that experience and the psychological re-structuring that it causes
  85. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    zest since you wont actually answer my posts it is impossible to communicate with you, if you want to continue this conversation send me a pm
  86. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    as i said, i assume that you want to know about Hoffman's theory, otherwise i dont know why you would post in this thread. Therefore when you post something which indicates that you havent understood the theory, I can only respond to it and clarify your misunderstanding to you. Every link you...
  87. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    zest your post has no connection to anything i am saying, all i am trying to do here is to explain ego death theory and transcendental psychedelic insight. I assume, rightly or wrongly, that you want to understand what im talking about, because why else would you be posting in this thread? (ie a...
  88. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    another random, irrelevant link!!!! the hero's journey/monomyth and the perennial philosophy are not the same thing, they are loosely related but not in any sense which that article addresses. The issue Eldritch was raising is the applicability of the perennial philosophy to the psychedelic...
  89. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    I suppose it is the fact that these concepts are 'perennial' that gives them their universal validity, and the fact that they are (arguably) based primarily on the altered states in the first place. So it is giving you a greater range of imagination, but at the same time it is a kind of...
  90. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    it isnt a point about one drug or another, all the entheogens do the same essential thing The 'deeper way' in which you perceive reality when you are tripping is not shared by other people who are not tripping, therefore you are disconnected from the way other people perceive reality. In the...
  91. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    to be absolutely specific, it is disconnection to CONSENSUS reality, intersubjective reality, shared reality. The psychedelic experience and schizophrenic psychosis are both PRIVATE experiences It makes no difference what you 'call it', what really matters is what it actually IS, when you trip...
  92. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    As i said in my last post, the term 'drug-induced psychosis' in that article you posted is not referring to tripping, it is referring to "prolonged psychoses", in other words, psychotic episodes which last beyond the duration of the trip itself. That is not what i am talking about, i am only...
  93. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    I am always responding directly to what you are actually saying, it certainly isnt my intention to distort what you are saying i just want to understand exactly what you think so that i can respond to it accurately and meaningfully, so ignore the quotes and just focus on my responses to them...
  94. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    None of this ^ has any connection at all with anything im saying i am talking about a phenomenological characterisation of psychotic and psychedelic states of consciousness your use of the word 'thus' doesnt make any sense because what you say here ^ doesnt follow from the random unrelated...
  95. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    My point was just to make the connection between tripping and psychosis. In the psychiatric literature 'psychosis' means disconnection from reality, delusory beliefs and hallucinations. Ego death theory gives an ultra-clear definition of precisely what psychosis is 'loosened cognitive...
  96. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    No that's not what i meant, im not talking about suppressing entheogens, im talking about tripping, it is a kind of temporary psychosis, that's why before the word 'psychedelic' was coined, psychiatrists were calling LSD 'psychotomimetic'.
  97. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    that can certainly happen to highly suggestible (ie gullible) people I assume it has happened to him but i have no idea because he doesnt talk about his own experiences in that way, it has happened to me some years ago. But the theory is a general model of what happens in the ego death...
  98. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    you arent finding any real, genuine faults with the theory, as i said before you are poking non-existent holes in non-existent parts of the theory just for the sake of it (so it seems), you will never understand it if you insist on doing that. And it makes no sense to find a fault with the...
  99. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    You seemed to think that the comment about robots and aliens was some kind of judgement about people, when it wasnt, and that is a misunderstanding. It is a comment about levels of intelligence and thought-loops it has nothing whatsoever to do with judging other people. He doesnt deny being a...
  100. M

    what's happened to Michael Hoffman from egodeath?

    I agree but this is not a bad thing, i wouldnt use the word 'brutal' as it has negative connotations, so i would rather say that the theory and its terminology are 'explicit', 'concise', 'direct', 'unambiguous' etc. that is one of my favourite episodes also 8) Hoffman doesn't try to...
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