This thread may be unpopular; so be it. If I reach a single person, that is enough.
Seven years ago, I discovered my life's purpose -- but didn't realize it at the time. I had discovered Buddhism, and this notion that one could attain perfect happiness without a single material possession instantly lifted up my spirit from the depths it had remained in since childhood, since I had learned of death, and had heard those stories of children who become orphans from a plane crash, knowing that the only thing separating us from them is a stroke of luck. And that chasing any happiness in this world is to embrace a dice roll with a good probability of immense suffering. You can call it silly, but to single-digit-age me, consigning yourself to fate like this was more or less insane, and that was only confirmed by the large quantity of childhood suffering outside of my control. So from there I ducked out of (most) socializing to learn everything I could, unconsciously in response to this issue.
When I discovered Buddhism, I was truly elated for the first time in years, to this doctrine promising everything that I had desired. But as I dug deeper, I encountered problems with this scripture, and meditation and so on that could only build to one conclusion: Enlightenment is not real. The pieces building up to this conclusion are too numerous to list, but essentially there is little evidence to believe in a state of enlightenment qua profound transformation of your moment-to-moment experience where the problem of change is solved. What does happen though is a non-dualist revelation analogous to the mystic experiences of all religions. In fact, for the Hindus and Jains it was this experience that led to liberation in the next life. Nothing came afterward. Now consider that yoga and meditation were practiced in India for a solid millennium before Buddhism, and if such a state existed the Hindus and Jains would have surely noted it. So this revelation is quite achievable, but it is functionally the end of the mystic path. There is almost no evidence to suggest otherwise.
Now, why am I writing this post...? Because I can't accept that outcome. I refuse to believe it simply ends there, and we have a healthy amount of evidence that is largely ignored which gives us reason to be skeptics. Here's a brief list:
- Meditative jhanas exist, and they are (allegedly) the most pleasant sensation a human can experience, they can be sustained for hours, and demand very little energy. These show up on brain scans.
- You can take drugs in a lucid dream, and this produces the effects of the drug (for the majority). What's more, if you imagine a drug you've never tried, it will match whatever you expect to occur.
- The human body functions remarkably well on drugs, or in other altered states of consciousness.
- LSD has been observed to produce virtually any symptoms imaginable, or even no symptoms at all.
- LSD-like effects may be obtained easily through hyperventilation, at no cost to oneself (save a little energy).
- I have myself replicated some effects of alcohol and cough syrup through meditation.
- Predictive processing is a fact at this point; we humans play an active role in constructing our perceptions.
- Meditation has effects on the parasympathetic nervous system we did not know were possible until recently. Wim Hoff and Tummo do as well.
Hence the following conclusion:
- There is little reason to believe in the "No free lunch" theory of human happiness, that is to say, that our good must be obtained at some expense.
You can take a very, very tentative stance that our body's homeostasis lends itself to survival by default, but that perhaps by some mysterious process this homeostasis may be changed, and so effects that are normally won through bitter exertion are now had easily.
I am aware this is fringe -- probably too fringe for here, honestly. But be aware you are my best shot. The Buddhists are too dogmatic, the dreamers are too "spiritual". There is clearly something worth investigating here, but apparently nobody is doing so. My tag is crashestoearth on discord, but I'm responsive here as well. Add me if you're curious, and skeptics too please chime in. If you are a Buddhist dogmatist though I'm not interested. Thanks for reading.
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Notes -
Yep. Here's the initiation ceremony for Saiva Tantrikas, for example.
Try holotropic breathing. Like meditation or psychedelics it gets stronger across consecutive days.
Non-dual perspectives are fine, but we need to draw a distinction between metaphysical truths on the one hand, and perceptive shifts on the other. You can make yourself believe in any religion you'd like, it's easy, happens all the time.
The brain is trying to maintain homeostasis at all times, and part of that homeostasis is a consistent world-view, which is why a huge fraction of the pain when something horrific happens isn't just the pain, but the fact it wasn't supposed to be this way! yet it is. There's basically a high floor of cognitive dissonance that you, I, and everyone else are operating on at all times where we assume that certain very bad things in this world simply won't happen to us. Other people get ball cancer, but me...? Nah. You rejoinder Oh that would be a waste of mental energy, duh, we're just being practical! but the point is we don't have a plan for when things go really south, which is why most cases of psychosis happen precisely because our mental models are exploded, and it's why the zenith of LSD experience is the whole universe aligning to a single purpose, while the nadir of LSD is a total fracture of your world view, like "Oh shit I was a chair rotting in an abandoned factory for 20 years and my previous life was a lie!". We're the only species that has psychosis, and the only one that has "world views". Your body will do some truly impressive shit to maintain homeostasis, which is the premise behind meditation, and this thread. Including the placebo effect. This is an area that's not being explored.
Wanna try an experiment? Do some heavy thinking during sex, and pay attention to your thoughts during orgasm. There should be a brief, brief period of ecstasy where your thoughts connect and everything naturally clicks into place. It's very neat.
Curious, I'll look it over.
I mentioned Krishnamurti downthread; this is probably how he achieved his "calamity". For any worries about going insane, I'd like to suggest the likelihood of going insane from any altered state of consciousness correlates with the amount of thinking you do during the state. Doing heavy thinking while deep in meditation is essentially screwing with the wiring of your perception, you are almost definitely in over your head, while Zen-style "no-thoughts-head-empty" is harmless if you have the discipline to do it properly.
Tantra and Tibetan practices are the most confusing side of Buddhism, and I've yet to find a good resource on it. So yeah, sorry. I really need to get back into looking around.
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