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Re: Recognising bad food and drink
With my diet I've been experiencing the same. There are foods that, apart from their little to zero nutrition value, they make your insulin levels fluctuate in such a way that it causes you to experience hunger more often and intenser, as well as acting in your brain the same way as some drugs: easy and quick and strong reward (feeling good, delicious taste, etc). It also leaves you tired, foggy; inevitably getting fat and unhealthy.
Now that I'm eating clean, I've had two instances were I had these treats: two small pieces of chocolate and, in another ocassion, 3 cookies. They do feel funny, but I guess as long as the quantity is relatively small it does not become a problem.
With alcohol I had the same experience as you, I hardly drink now. Never liked it and I mainly did it because of "social pressure" or "custom". Now I'm a proud water drink.
Though I have a weak spot for sake from Nagano....
Kotishka
Recognising bad food and drink
So after a couple of days ago trying that IJsbock beer, it reminded me why I had dropped alcohol a few years ago. My sensitivity to these things has become such that it just isn’t a pleasant experience to drink alcoholic beverages. If you really pay attention to it, there is a little rush when you start, then you feel a bit ill, then rather dull, then a long period of feeling somewhat unstable. The long tail of unpleasant feelings makes it not worthwhile to drink.
And last night, I had some espresso coffee at about 3 am, and was awake until 6 experiencing in extreme detail how coffee also produces a rush, and then a protracted period of inner energetic grinding. That’s not the first time I have noticed that, and it has put me in mind that really looking at what your body is telling you is a good guide for what is good and what is not. So I have resolved to go off coffee for a while as well.
It seems to me that as your mindfulness increases, you become more sensitive to these things.
Jeroen
Re: Funny Stuff
Our dog has us almost trained. She has been at it for quite some time and is doing remarkably well.
Lionduck
Re: The straightjacket of scientific thought
@Jeroen said:
@Sam8 said:
There are many reasons why the world might be doomed, but at the bottom of all of them is irrational thinking. This is why I'm not keen on "letting go" of science, of all things. In an age where climate change science is denied, flat-earthers and other conspiracy theories are on the rise, and truth is a matter of "whatever is good for my politics/tribe," I believe we need the scientific mode of thinking more than ever.What you are talking about is the morally bankrupt attitude of materialist thinking. Science is not the right tool to tackle that either, it is philosophy that is needed. Science itself can be twisted, look at Big Oil and climate science, if the core issue of principles and morals is not addressed.
It's not the attitude of "materialist thinking," it's the attitude of irrational thinking. Whether it's materialist or non-materialist doesn't enter into it. Sure, science can be twisted to suit a personal agenda - so can spirituality, by the way - but then it's not really "science," it's pseudoscience. Philosophy, especially moral philosophy, is indeed important, yet philosophy also has to be tethered to reality, and we can only know what what is real through science. Without it, everyone's just flying away into their own fantasties.
Sam8
Re: The straightjacket of scientific thought
@IdleChater said:
I've had some "profound" experiences with Psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and Cannabis. My meditative experiences were with Cannabis (the other 3 seem a bit too intense for that). I don't have any firsthand experience with Ayahuasca, but I am curious, and your post made it sound like you had. That's all.
No, I’m very much a newbie as far as psychedelics are concerned, I had cannabis maybe twice in my uni days and that didn’t do much for me. But I got interested in Terence McKenna a few years ago and since then have been doing a lot of research into psychedelics, especially ayahuasca.
I just find it fascinating — like a lot of people — that you can explore these different facets of your mind with just a substance. A lot of these magical and mythological ways of relating are so much richer than the mechanic’s approach of science.
I will admit to being a bit hidebound, these things have been in the public eye for a few years now, and I so far have been sitting on the fence. But something changed for me recently… the Gabor Maté interview gave me a bit of an insight.
What were your experiences like with psilocybin and LSD? In the Netflix docu series How to Change Your Mind they cite a study which says that out of 250 participants no less than 70% said that the psilocybin experience they had was in the top five most significant experiences of their life, next to things like the birth of their children.
Jeroen