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by Disruptive_Dave 2429 days ago
My two cents - psychedelics can open your mind to a new way of processing information and thinking about your daily existence. Anecdotally, it's happened to me over the last 11+ years (not through psychedelics, but through other spiritual practices like meditation). The result is that I'm less angry, less judgmental, less likely to fly off the handle. Much better at processing information, removing clutter (bullshit), and disassociating from perceptions and feelings that used to define me.

In a very practical manner, this has made my interactions with everyone around me much..."better" doesn't feel like the right word but I'll use it here anyway. This is very simple - I'm "happier" (again, not the right word, but it'll do for now), I end up treating others better, which in turn has positive impacts on their lives and hopefully the lives of others that they engage with.
2 comments
Nursie 2429 days ago
well firstly, as you said, you've done this without the aid of psychedelics, so I'm not sure it's exactly an answer to my question!

And secondly, well that's not exactly a societal change. Has it made you ready to ditch capitalism?

(edit -- I'm sure your change in mindset is a positive thing, I'm not disputing that. I'm also not disputing that psychedelics can have a profound effect on individuals. But as someone who has used a fairly wide variety of psychedelics over a number of years, I've also experienced and observed that they can induce a false sense of the deeply profound. They do also seem to leave people with this idea they could change the world, but they never really seem to know how)

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dwaltrip 2428 days ago
If they play an important role in reducing the prevalence and severity of mental illness by an order of magnitude, I think that would be a huge boon to society, human well-being, and the advance of civilization. There have been a number of very promising studies.

It's hard to fully capture the damage that is done by debilitating depression or anxiety, for example. I think the statistics are that 20% of the entire population will experience at least one episode during their lifetime. And that number has been increasing.

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yycfoofoo 2429 days ago
perhaps a "state of chill"? nothing fancier that to be kind, be cool, and be able to put yourself in others' shoes for a second.
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