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The Corroboree

chilli

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Posts posted by chilli


  1. well apparently whether your asleep or awake is determined by eeg... so i assumed it was relevant.,,

     

    So are you saying your EEG results were the same sleeping and waking? EEG taken during REM phases can appear similar top waking states.

    unless we should just take your word for it? does sound cool, but wow, been there done that hehe

     

    You don't have to take anyone's word for it, you can test it for yourself right now. It is not something someone just made up, it is the result of a lot of people's research into sleep and dreams.

    Like I said earlier, regularity and continuity are features of waking life that dreams do not share. These reality checks exploit that difference.

    Been where done what?


  2. well the simple fact is you can't tell if your asleep or not...

     

    Hardly a simple fact. There are many ways you can tell, I just listed 10. If you try the things on that list in a dream vs real life, there will be noticeable differences.

    For example, try flying right now. Oh you can't? ok you are probably not in a dream then.

    If you can fly, you're dreaming.

    Or look at some text, look away and then back again.

    Is it the same? not dreaming.

    Did the text change in some way? You are in a dream.

    Lucid dreams are based around the idea that you can become aware of the fact you are dreaming. This is why getting in the habit of doing these reality checks works. Sooner or later, you do it in a dream and you get a different result and you realize it is a dream and become lucid. Usually, even just wondering if it is a dream is enough to make me lucid.

    I am not sure what EEG has to do with this?

    Sorry if I missed your point.

    • Like 1

  3. There are many ways to tell if you are in a dream.

    If you practice them regularly and seriously enough in waking life you will greatly increase your chances of having a lucid dream:

    1. Breathe - Can you hold your nose and mouth shut and breathe?
    2. Jump - When you jump, do you float back down?
    3. Read - Can you read a sentence twice without it changing?
    4. Look - Is your vision clearer or blurrier than normal?
    5. Hand - Can you push hand through a solid surface?
    6. Time - Can you read a clock face or digital watch?
    7. Fly - Can you will yourself to fly or hover above the ground?
    8. Palms - Do the palms of your hands look normal close-up?
    9. Mirrors - Does your reflection look normal in the mirror?
    10. Math - Can you add up two numbers for a correct answer?

     

    http://www.world-of-...ity-checks.html


  4. waking life is different to dreams in the way it has continuity and regularity

    sometimes dreams overlap and you go back to the same places or meet the same characters etc, but there is rarely continuity unless you master lucid dreaming, but then you are conscious.

    Some dreams seem more real than waking life, and in a sense dreams are real. the parts of the brain that create the dream world also create the real world. the subjective self witnesses both data from the real world and data from the dream world. the butterfly is symbolic in both worlds

    it seems the prefrontal cortex is mostly offline during dreaming, unless one becomes lucid when the 'higher' parts of the brain kick in..

    interesting because lucid dreaming by definition means that one has become conscious of the fact that one is experiencing a dream, some say enlightenment is the recognition of the same in what is commonly considered real life, and some say true enlightenment occurs during the deepest part of sleep, so in a sense we mediatet every night

    some studies have shown most people have negative dreams: anxious, angry and confused in nature, so it would be no wonder some people dread sleep, or sleep poorly.

    maybe the continuity of waking life is an illusion constructed by the supposedly logical parts of the brain and all of reality is subjective in nature

    as you say qualia, exercise and good sleep hygiene will probably go a long way to solving your problem. exercise is the easiest one to nail first


  5. And if you are going cross culturally and historically, what about the ancient greeks and their same sex unions? how about the asian and indian ladyboys and their relationships [as old as the kama sutra]? and the 'third sex' in hawaii?

     

    Don't forget the Two-Spirit people of the Native Americans.

    *facepalm*

    So much fail in this thread, I don't even know where to start.

    I might write up a proper reply once I get over the insanity of how bigoted people are and can muster the energy.

     

    Don't stress too much. Unprejudiced readers are also going *facepalm* and bigots won't be convinced by any amount of reasoned argument anyway.


  6. Yip yip its an incredibly slow-grower though.

    Will be a real looker in ten years.

    Shame i won't be getting progressively more beautiful over the next ten years too :-(

     

    Haha I can relate to that, I'll be well into my forties by then! You can always get more beautiful on the inside though (which rules me out :P)

    Have you seen the huge monstrose L. schottii at Castle Rock nursery? If you haven't already, I recommend checking it out next time you're up that way.


  7. I think maybe people were put on the defensive by the confrontational title topic? 'You think your life is bad?' implies that people here have nothing to complain about compared to these poor souls. I think probably many people here have had a life as bad or worse than a lot of the folk writing in that suicide forum, but they handled it differently and so are moving on with their lives instead of wallowing in despair.

    We have all lost people, and life is often painful and unfair, and the pain those people are going through is real, but if the pain becomes how you define yourself and you give up hope, things are only going to get worse. Sometimes, people who see only pain in life seem to have suffered far less than someone who looks for the good in life, so I think that shows that there is much more to this issue than a competition to see who has had the worst life. To me it seems like it doesn't matter how many bad things have happened in our lives. I think the crucial factor is in the way we look at those things, how we respond to them, how we learn from them and grow through them.

    Good to hear you are doing well BoP, and that this is not a reflection of your own emotional state. Losing people before their time is painful, but the best thing you can do for all those people is to choose a different way of dealing with pain, and live your own life, which is what you seem to be doing. :)

    • Like 1

  8. if greg loses or messes thigns up or gets on the wrong side of some crusading media prick, then he will be painted as a lone fruitloop. However if he wins then we all get to enjoy the fruits of his efforts.

     

    Wow, sounds like a great deal. The only problem with your argument is the premise that Greg will be painted as a lone fruitloop. Who says this is the way it would be portrayed? Very recently the entire community was dragged into the spotlight in connection with SAB and made to look very sinister, so it doesn't seem inconceivable to me that something like this has at least as much potential to be presented in a way that will be damaging to the image of the entire community, in fact it seems very likely knowing what we know of the way the media always twists anything to do with drugs.

    I am not saying this whole forum or the whole ethnobotany community should align itself with his religion. I think that could be danerous.

     

    Good, because that is the kind of thing I have been voicing concern over all along. In any situation, I think it is unhealthy if everyone is expected to agree or see things the same way or support a particular action, and are dismissed or bullied into acquiescence or silence if they object. That is the hallmark of fucked up shit in society at all levels, not only the religious. A lot of people including Greg have demonized those who have raised objections, and seem to think that the only conscionable decision is for everyone to get on board and support this campaign, or to shut up and get out of the way.

    There actually seem to be a lot of people here laboring under the misapprehension that the support of the entire community is exactly what is needed for this campaign to be a success, including Greg himself who said for example in his original post in this thread: 'This action will not succeed without the support of the broader Entheogenic Community, so I'd hope that everyone will help in one way, or another.'

    As long as we as a group are not in control of his actions there needs to be enough of a divide to distance ourselves from his actions if the need arises. I am not joining his religion. I am not going to offer my services as a PR man either. But giving him in-principle support, some shifts at his strike location for moral and phsyical support, and some publicity, etc - that's all he needs right now.

    Even though you and I might see this as perfectly reasonable, you know how exaggerated things become in the media. Think about how you were so careful to be circumspect with what you said to the media recently, and how it was then distorted and misrepresented to the public. Couldn't your support be interpreted differently and presented as some kind of underground drug cult network propagating subversive, dangerous ideas through this forum? I find it strange anyone would dismiss this after the the recent Channel 7 story on you and SAB.

    As for a general backfire, I don't think that is likely either. Media is much more likely to pick this up when there is a hysterical angle to present, such as a hospital admission or a drug bust.

     

    :scratchhead: Or else... they find something far more unusual, colorful and newsworthy:

    MAN WHO CLAIMS TO BE GOD STARVES HIMSELF FOR DRUGS

    DRUG GURU REFUSES TO EAT UNTIL HALLUCINOGENS MADE LEGAL

    OZ RELIGION USES LEGAL PLANTS TO GET HIGH AND MEET GOD

    DRUG CULT WANTS TO MAKE LSD LEGAL

    :P

    To me there seems to be plenty of room for a hysterical interpretation of Greg's religion and campaign. Remember, the kind of people in media and government we have to worry about don't care about the truth or actual likely consequences, they just want drama they can turn into support for themselves, their political party or religious group.

    • Like 1

  9. You are perfectly correct that it turns the whole thing into a parody. The same way that the claimed separation of church and state is a parody, that the parliamentary policy stating all laws need to be in line with current scientific knowledge is a parody, and how the representation by the authorities that they have any impact on the drug trade is also a parody. Everything surrounding this issue is a parody, so why shouldn't we have our own? ;)

     

    That is an interesting angle, you've appealed to the postmodernist in me.

    I personally and this community have nothing to lose

     

    That is something I have been unsure about, whether there could in actually be negative repurcussions from something like this. For example, isn't there the potential for it to be twisted by spin doctors and used to gain support for even harsher laws like the recent (and probably soon to return in a modified form) attempts to legislate DMT and mescaline containing plants? Isn't there potential for such a dramatic public action like this to actually backfire and feed into negative outcomes?

    Maybe I just have too vivid an imagination, or more likely I am insufficiently knowledgeable of the way the legal system, media and society really work with regards to these matters, which is why I have appreciated your informative posts on legistlation Torsten. Like Greg's last post where he put personal feelings aside and explained his reasoning to me, I find those kind of responses very helpful and persuasive.

    • Like 3

  10. I bought a "female" rat a few weeks ago only to get home and find out it was male. I had checked when I bought her/him, but didn't see anything.

    Their balls must retract or something

     

    How old was he? The boys are cuddlier anyway.. nawww squishy ratties!


  11. I completely agree with Torsten that equal rights for marriage is about equal recognition and protection by the legal system. This actually matters in very practical ways to a lot of gay couples.

    While I am opposed to formal marriage (with any configuration of couples) due to it's origin in religion

     

    It is a common misperception fostered by the religious that marriage has it's origins in religion. Marriage takes many different forms in different cultures and predates recorded history.


  12. You were a softhearted kid bogfrog, that sounds slightly traumatizing. :)

    I remember playing with mice around that age, I grabbed one too hard and accidentally split its stomach open and it's guts spilled out and I just blamed it on my sister. :)

    Atom, not sure how they could get them mixed up, the males are very obvious:

    Male_and_female_rats.jpg

    :)

    • Like 1

  13. ...and scoop out turds in between...

     

    :blink:

     

    WIth one of these:

    3061658_f260.jpg

    Hopefully you flush the toilet regularly, and don't just let your turds pile up in there all week. :P

    By far the worst job is picking up the dog's shit, she sure pumps out a lot of poop.

    There sure are a crap load of words for number twos aren't there?

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