[sammalloy]

I understand what you are saying in this comment. I agree with you, unity and interconnectedness is the sine qua non of the psychedelic experience, along with a description of what is called nonduality. I’ve also found that when you talk with religious people, they describe this very thing, but know it using other words and concepts, like for example, god. The only person I’ve ever heard that addresses this shared experience within the gulf between atheists and believers is the author Brian Muraresku, but I’m not all that certain of his credibility or expertise. All I can say is that he at least got this right. In other words, when you give LSD to an atheist and a believer, it isn’t that they both come away believing in the idea or concept of god, it’s that they both experience a unitary experience of nonduality but interpret it differently. The atheist might say that they now understand the cosmic perspective that Carl Sagan always talks about. The believer might say that they have experienced what it is like to understand the mind of god. The atheist and the believer are talking about the same thing but are using different concepts and ideas to describe it, much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant. It should also be said that in the eastern tradition, atheism is historically more accepted as a legitimate path to wisdom than it is in the west, for example in the Rig Veda. I think it would be great for Christianity and Islam to moderate and liberalize enough to accept that atheism is a legitimate POV within their own traditions, but that might be asking and hoping for too much, too soon.

[qroolen]

i do not think an atheist perception of unity is about the same theme of a religious person. as far my empirical experience goes, atheists vary a lot how they felt it. (mine for example was in a dark room with P. cubensis that i could only hear my heartbeat, then i accessed, in my perception, unity; which was a white slightly blue orb of energy [something that all organic life can access or have in it perception]) religious people most of the time believe in the same thing. and considering the hypothetical (and not theoretical) state of explaining how life appeared or was formed, is at least curious that a vast majority of people interpret these questions the same way.

but as an atheist myself, you probably know my repulse towards a belief in a god, specially if it mimics or mirror itself in humans...

off topic: i am reading a book about elements on periodic table and the author mentions at some point about people observing that a mass extinction happens after 20 million years or so... and if we can prove it, it makes the existence of life way more interesting. as nowadays, i think the more we get closer to god, or a divine, unity thing, more i believe we should trust the scientific method, and go look for a sustainable way to get out of this solar system, secure, and maybe find some relatable life that maybe believe in something closer of what we have today: a god or entity that made this all possible

edit: i am drunk and it is new year eve... take it with a dose of compassion :P

[sammalloy]

That’s a fair assessment. To paraphrase Haldane, the universe is not only stranger than we imagine; it is stranger than we can imagine. Religion and religious people have a tendency to narrow this perception of majestic strangeness because they tend to be wary of uncertainty. Atheists on the other hand tend towards embracing uncertainty and like to revel in the strangeness. In my opinion, of course.

Happy new year!

[detourdog]

Some religions try not to use the term g-d simply because it is to literal.