tbastos's comments

Buddha himself was clearly against faith and dogma, and also considered metaphysics irrelevant to the human condition. If you consider Buddhism to be the original teachings, then it's obvious dogma has no place in it, and a person afflicted by dogma could always be pointed to the original teachings. More religious branches of Buddhism exist, but they are blatant bastardizations of the original teachings. This is very different from the situation in other religions, where the original scriptures are the main sources of dogma galore.

Just goes to show his honesty :-) "One is not to trust my teachings implicitly but to test them oneself and evaluate their effects." — Buddha (thus making Buddhism perhaps the only "religion" not plagued by faith and dogma, and kind of disseminating the scientific method)

Well, I have the exact opposite experience. I've always had pleasant trips with shrooms (over 10 trips) but at my first DMT trip I experienced some anxiety (didn't break through)... nothing traumatic but I could imagine it going much worse. Because of that I went on to read "The Psychedelic Experience" as it contains lots of advice on ego death trips, and if you read it you'll realize bad trips on DMT are just normal.

If you smoke DMT and don't have a breakthrough you may feel a lot of discomfort, which may cause anxiety. That's exactly what happened the first time I tried DMT, and I was already pretty experienced with other psychedelics...

Related topic: I just finished reading "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion" by Sam Harris and it has become my book recommendation for people that don't understand psychedelics or meditation. Sam talks about both in the most lucid way possible. Highly recommended!

You don't seem to know what you're talking about... the chance of bad tripping with DMT is about the same as with other psychedelics. It's just waaay more intense and has a shorter duration. And actually, most people argue that Ayahuasca is more likely to give you an easy ride than pure DMT, which can be "just too crazy".

Psychedelics make you learn stuff that you cannot easily "unlearn", like any major life experience. It expands your awareness in ways that sometimes are not pleasant (very often, "ignorance is bliss"). That's the reason most psychedelics are not recreational, but rather "spiritual" drugs. They are self-development tools, and like any tool you must know how to use them.

It's totally possible to be enlightened by a bad trip, rather than traumatised. It all depends on your outlook on life, how you instinctively react to adversity. You should see everything under the self-development lens, where everything is an opportunity for growth, and never feel victimised. Your goal after a bad trip should not be just "to recover", but rather to become your best yet. Much like a muscle that grows stronger after you strain it at the gym, psychedelics exercise the mind, and can make you mentally stronger. However, like in the gym, the recovery periods are essential, and over-exercising is detrimental.

In answer to the people who always bring up the subject of psychosis: any extremely stressful event can trigger psychosis in people who are prone to have it (for example a divorce, or any big loss). As a rule of thumb, if you're close to 30 and you've been through tough times and feel fine, you're safe. I personally believe that if you're a lucid, clear minded person, looking for self-development, psychedelics are for you. If you're an easily scared person not interested in self-development, psychedelics are definitely not for you.

Yes, I share your belief in collective consciousness. I think there's little doubt we'll find they do exist, once we find a testable definition of consciousness.

BTW one doesn't even need to take acid to realize this. Humans have thought this for thousands of years. It's a common belief of ancient eastern philosophies (metaphysics) such as Taoism and Buddhism, that "we're one consciousness". Our egos just don't think about it, much like a cell of your body operates in another (lower) level of consciousness, where it thinks it's "independent of you".

Even though capnproto would be our first choice, the lack of support for Windows/CMake is kind of a party killer. FlatBuffers doesn't offer everything we need either, but its codebase is simpler to grasp and hack, so it may end up being the safer choice... which is unfortunate

And then go on a honeymoon...

Just because money isn't a priority for you, it doesn't mean you'll refuse it. He got the best of both worlds by letting other people run the business to focus on what he really wanted (indie dev). Believe me, it's MUCH easier to be creative and work on indie projects when you don't have to worry about your bills and your future...

Seems like the perfect engine for a remake of Ultima Online... the best MMORPG ever nostalgia

Of course it had to be Microsoft's fault... they used to have no clue about UX design.

And why did you assume I would be the one to pick a fight? Even though I'm a peaceful person who never ever assaulted anyone, I've been assaulted several times for no reason, and in different countries. Friends of the aggressor can testify against you and then you're in trouble. I picked club fights as an example, but the point is that bad luck can put innocent people in trouble with the law in any setting...

Sure, there are problems everywhere, but you cannot compare the level of bullshit in the states. Just look at the statistics on Wikipedia, and the many documentaries on YouTube and newspaper articles on it.

Yeah if you're poor and vulnerable you're screwed anywhere in the capitalist world. But in the states you're screwed even if you are middle class (absurd bails) and have a good lawyer, because the government is so over its head that they will jail you with fabricated evidence and then give you no chance of justice.

True, the UK is not much better than the US. But otherwise many countries in Europe are incomparably safer. If not because of more reasonable justice systems, just because people are more laid back and sane here than in the states.

Exactly! I think I can only visit the states again after I'm married and with kids, to go to Disneyland... it seems the only safe venture. I mean if you're single, go to a club and get into a fight, that would probably be enough to make your life hell already... going there is like russian roulette

I hope the kid wins a shitload of money in a lawsuit against the state... and the cops get punished. Now what's the chance of this happening?

I propose we call it a Techno-Militarized Surveillance-and-Incarceration Pseudo-Democratic State. Here are the basics on how to create one:

1) Education: provide a relatively weak public education system that teaches patriotism and not a lot about the rest of the world, so the masses are easier to fool. At the same time, have the best graduate schools in the world so you can have the best scientists and engineers (and technology).

2) Media: have a few corporations control 90% of your media. Make them work for you by providing news and shows that distract the masses from political topics, and at the same time instil fear in their hearts. Fear is very important for mass control. If possible, promote capitalist ideals such as meritocracy, free market, working hard, consumption, etc. through your media and school system.

3) Industries: your most important industries are armaments and defence technology, though your prison industry also plays a strategic role. Focus on having a steady flow of wars, preferably in unfamiliar faraway countries. But throw in a few domestic wars too, especially on "drugs"---to promote fear, help you with your prison industry and keep the masses away from the dangerous "psychedelics" that could make people question things. Use fear to gain power and reduce civil rights, then use your more rigorous laws and militarized police to keep the people in line and the prisons full.

4) Intelligence: your intelligence agencies work behind curtains to keep the system working in harmony and further the "national interests", using surveillance and their access to power---and the tools of fear, ignorance and propaganda---to make the masses work for the system while believing they are free and living in a true democracy. Beautiful.

Of course, these are not an US exclusive, many other countries are trying the same tricks, but it seems the US is far in the lead...

LOL as a Brazilian, that was my first thought too! The most skilled developers will continue to use the global SO and only the "pesky" will move to the new site. The only real drawback is for the youth who doesn't speak english well yet, and now has one more incentive to never really learn it.

+1 for meditation. The magical thing about meditation is that it fixes a lot of things all at once, and without you even trying... all you have to worry about is to meditate daily, to harvest the results. You will feel less stressed, more creative, compassionate and happier, not to mention smarter. No wonder it's a central tenet of Taoism and Buddhism. The world would be a better, happier place if more people meditated.