Drugs and the Meaning of Life

[MORG]

Sam Harris is one of my favourite writers and thinkers... so I was excited to learn he was posting a blog about one of our favourite subjects. He says it all so well and I'm glad the message will be delivered so coherently to those who would listen.

Read it here:

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/drugs-and-the-meaning-of-life/

And make sure to read the footnotes!

My favourite excerpts in case you're wondering whether to click through the link:

"I have a daughter who will one day take drugs. Of course, I will do everything in my power to see that she chooses her drugs wisely, but a life without drugs is neither foreseeable, nor, I think, desirable. Someday, I hope she enjoys a morning cup of tea or coffee as much as I do. If my daughter drinks alcohol as an adult, as she probably will, I will encourage her to do it safely. If she chooses to smoke marijuana, I will urge moderation.[2] Tobacco should be shunned, of course, and I will do everything within the bounds of decent parenting to steer her away from it. Needless to say, if I knew my daughter would eventually develop a fondness for methamphetamine or crack cocaine, I might never sleep again. But if she does not try a psychedelic like psilocybin or LSD at least once in her adult life, I will worry that she may have missed one of the most important rites of passage a human being can experience."

"Of course, the brain does filter an extraordinary amount of information from consciousness. And, like many who have taken these drugs, I can attest that psychedelics certainly throw open the gates. Needless to say, positing the existence of a “Mind at Large” is more tempting in some states of consciousness than in others. And the question of which view of reality we should privilege is, at times, worth considering. But these drugs can also produce mental states that are best viewed in clinical terms as forms of psychosis. As a general matter, I believe we should be very slow to make conclusions about the nature of the cosmos based upon inner experience — no matter how profound these experiences seem."

"These chemicals disclose layers of beauty that art is powerless to capture and for which the beauty of Nature herself is a mere simulacrum. It is one thing to be awestruck by the sight of a giant redwood and to be amazed at the details of its history and underlying biology. It is quite another to spend an apparent eternity in egoless communion with it. Positive psychedelic experiences often reveal how wondrously at ease in the universe a human being can be—and for most of us, normal waking consciousness does not offer so much as a glimmer of these deeper possibilities."

Edited July 6, 2011 by MORG

[ballzac]

Thank you so much for sharing this. I have thought about this stuff lots, and he has put into words a lot that I have not managed to myself. I really got a lot out of reading it.

[7baz]

that was a great read , i highly enjoyed that

[chnt]

awesome, thanks for posting these wise words, when i have time to read i will definitely check the blog.

thanks morg

[chnt]

finally read it, worth the read.

[santiago]

If we are organic beings whose purpose is nothing more than a imagined, visualised perception of what is the chemical composition of our very universe, hence being purely a part of the great vastness of the periodic table, space, light, time, gravity, elements, combustion- a very real force so great in its magnitude and strength that the god we seek is just a nickname for those combined forces which we commonly just call space. In that regard the drugs manipulate only the charade of what we visualise the world actually in absolute reality, which can easily be disproved by dreams. if i cant tell that im dreaming, if that reality is so real a organic mess of weird cells called me defines reality by what i see and what can be felt, then dreams must prove that reality too can and possibly is a perception-not a direct visualisation. which leads to life just being made up of individual atoms, such as the rest of the universe but not part of the whole system, then weird stuff like stars and planets actually having lifeforces, if taking drugs under an imagined reality such as the in-organic system as descibed above, then the reality isnt true reality initially, and thats the rabbit hole- nobody knows and it confuses us so much that we are in a state of constant denial. Every time i look at the moon or stars i dont visualise anything but impossibility, the vastness humbles me down to the pathetic human creature stuck here on a rock in the universe, where the fuck am i man.

or god himself did what we all think he did and create us, which means that its no accident he put drugs on planet earth. why did he give it to us...is it a gift or is it a temptation designed to test us spiritually. maybe god has a sense of humour and he just likes to watch people get wasted, maybe god enjoys the odd car crash or a teenager spinning out wasted playing playstation. maybe he put it here for us to use, maybe god knew that earth and human reality can at some times be plain and boring and it is simply a way to allieviate boredom in many forms, maybe the devil is tempting us with the gift of giving into evil and sin, maybe it is gods telephone or message provider to us, sending messages and keeping us in on his loop so to speak, perhaps god just didnt have enough time to make everything absolutely perfect and he put drugs on earth, much with the same regard as an apple pie. perhaps it is his gift also, like a thank you from the heavens for certain things, god shouting you a beer. unfortunately this scenario is weirder than the top one so im totally confused now but one thing is for certain- drugs are here for some reason,