Some rules for psychedelic studies: (1) beware of built-in bias, which leads to self-fulfilling prophecies; (2) beware of pseudo-profundity that passes itself off as the real breakthrough insight thing. I recall a story about RD Laing from the 1960s… one subject excitedly wrote down his insight during a session… upon returning to the document, he was crestfallen to read “A door is a device for passing through a wall.”
And as my example suggests, you really don’t know what’s going to be revealed – a point related to what you’re saying. I think it’s a very bad sign that the researchers are already all soft and gooey about how it’s all going to be about yielding rich spiritual insight.
By the way: I sent the article describing the project to Marc Abrahams as an Ignoble nominee, and he wrote back right away, very appreciative.
Why priests, rabbis and bhikkhus? Call it the Reverend Lovejoy bias. Isn’t that like an experiment on the university using only VPs and deans? (Though I do like the idea of dosing the likes of them.)
July 10th, 2017 at 12:35PM
Some rules for psychedelic studies: (1) beware of built-in bias, which leads to self-fulfilling prophecies; (2) beware of pseudo-profundity that passes itself off as the real breakthrough insight thing. I recall a story about RD Laing from the 1960s… one subject excitedly wrote down his insight during a session… upon returning to the document, he was crestfallen to read “A door is a device for passing through a wall.”
July 10th, 2017 at 1:00PM
Barney: LOL!
And as my example suggests, you really don’t know what’s going to be revealed – a point related to what you’re saying. I think it’s a very bad sign that the researchers are already all soft and gooey about how it’s all going to be about yielding rich spiritual insight.
By the way: I sent the article describing the project to Marc Abrahams as an Ignoble nominee, and he wrote back right away, very appreciative.
July 10th, 2017 at 1:11PM
So Jesus thinks I’m a jerk? Why doesn’t he have a talk with his old man, that’s a jealous, petty, maniacal jackhole if ever I saw one….
July 10th, 2017 at 4:08PM
It’s all in the framing of the issues/questions, UD. Good luck with the Ig proposal – nice idea.
July 12th, 2017 at 1:58PM
Why priests, rabbis and bhikkhus? Call it the Reverend Lovejoy bias. Isn’t that like an experiment on the university using only VPs and deans? (Though I do like the idea of dosing the likes of them.)
July 12th, 2017 at 2:32PM
Jack: I know, I know. And that’s only a tiny bit of the bias.