Comments on: God is a drug addict…

By: madhat

madhat — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:07:54 +0000

slowly could focus for a long time on things that interested me.

I envy you!

By: madhat

madhat — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 03:38:35 +0000

seriously, I do not think drugs can expand your perception. They definitely can increase your imagination and that is partly because drugs like LSD mess up with the chemicals that your brain cells rely on and you experience something that is akin to a malfunctioning robot. If God is in malfunction,… umm… that kind of makes sense.
I suppose there is nothing wrong with drugs if they did not have such a destructive effect on people who get hooked on to them. LSD is supposed to be non-addictive and that you cannot OD on it but heroin is not and heroin addiction is bad.

By: gaddeswarup

gaddeswarup — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 03:27:46 +0000

In India people of my calibre are dozen a dime. At some stage, I developed a passion for mathematics and slowly could focus for a long time on things that interested me. My standard opening sentence in my classes used to be “If I can understand some thing, anybody can”.
I think that I browsed through a book called “The doors of perception” long ago.

By: madhat

madhat — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 01:59:15 +0000

@swarup: :O Did the world lose a genius? Just kidding…
time slowed down considerably and when I listened to music, I could hear every note
perhaps that is the reason for why musicians and music lovers like to smoke pot?
the ‘doors of perception’… Are you referring to the book?

By: gaddeswarup

gaddeswarup — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:14:52 +0000

Madhat: I smoked ganja for about an year (1970. May be 30-40 times). The effect I clearly remember is that time slowed down considerably and when I listened to music, I could hear every note. It was wonderful but going down the stairs was not. I found that I was getting depressed the next day and stopped. Generally some of these drugs are supposed to have different effects on different people. But they may open some ‘doors of perception’. I thought that was the point about Suresh’s post but I may be wrong.

By: madhat

madhat — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 21:51:56 +0000

@krish: everyone is entitled to their opinion, arnt they?

@swarup: the popular opinion on the effect of smoking ganja on brain cells is that it destroys them and dumbs you down. Maybe, you need to be dumb to reach God? :) Not sure “Empathy is a drug addict” would work though.

@Bangalore photo blog: They are not. Our rishis and sufi saints have been using them for a loooong time. btw, you have some really good pictures on your blog.

By: Bangalore Photo blog

Bangalore Photo blog — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:28:20 +0000

Drugs a not so original excuse to reach something that does not exist

By: gaddeswarup

gaddeswarup — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:51:44 +0000

I may be leading with my chin here; I am just guessing. I think that one can replace god in the post with some concept like empathy. I think that both chemicals and practice (of things like music, yoga etc) can change the brain map in terms finetuning the responses of certain neurons to specific stimuli as well as increasing their number ( some times on long term basis or even permanently). Even atheists like me sometimes use expressions like ‘it is a gift from god’. May be, the post can be read in terms of some aggregate of feelings like empathy, …. I am not sure Just an attempt to understand.

By: Krish

Krish — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:51:26 +0000

I really don’t understand why they need this to reach something that doesn’t exist in the first place.

By: madhat

madhat — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:02:02 +0000

yes, it is..

By: Alex M Thomas

Alex M Thomas — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 06:31:53 +0000

A very interesting post.