APRIL 20 @ SPECTACLE

EUPHORICKNOWLEDGE

Did anyone backup the contents of the Euphoric knowledge forum? If so email me, it contained a lot of interesting, funny, and valuable information. 

HAMILTON MORRIS ESTUDA OS ESTADOS ALTERADOS DA MENTE

[via Google Translate]
RIO - At only 24 years old, the writer, chemist and Hamilton Morris documentary is already one of the best known psychedelic specialists today. Son of renowned filmmaker Errol Morris, he signed a controversial column in the magazine "Vice" and also runs a series of documentary videos on the site of the magazine: Hamilton's Pharmacopoeia (The Pharmacopoeia of Hamilton). In them, desbrava the world behind any phenomenon related to psychedelics - as, for example, the legend of Haitian zombies, people who are supposed to be placed in a vegetative state for years - without resorting to any kind of cliche and an admirable lucidity.

See the documentary Hamilton Morris

Performing a kind of gonzo journalism, combining scientific evidence with an extremely seductive narrative, he engages deeply with the culture and the objects of their research, often serving as guinea pigs in experiments crazy. Therefore, himself a psychonaut, someone who uses altered states of consciousness to investigate the mind itself.

We talked to Morris by e-mail about their projects and trips while he was preparing for one of his psychedelic research.

What type of project you're working on now?

HAMILTON MORRIS: I am investigating the mysterious murder of an expert on fungi of Texas and trying to organize a trip to capture, preserve and analyze a hallucinogenic fish in the western Mediterranean.

You've been through some kind of spiritual experience with any chemicals?

If you're talking about a magical realm of divine spirits, I never experienced anything like that. The world as we interpret it as a phenomenon is illusory, mediated by our sensory organs. What can there are variations of this illusion. The fact that a physical system as the brain could reach such a high level of complexity is something incredible. If there is anything that is worth to be worshiped is the variety - and depth - of illusions generated by the brain.

Do you think medical treatments that use psychedelics should be disseminated?

Depends on the treatment. Practically there is no evidence that psychedelics improve cognition. The performance on mental tasks most often decreases, but there is the tantalizing possibility of improving creativity, something that is still very difficult to quantify in a scientific study. It's always interesting to note that two of the most important discoveries in the history of biochemistry, polymerase chain reaction and the structure of the DNA double helix, were both made under the influence of LSD.

What was the biggest disappointment you've had in your research?

I really wanted to interview a named Zoe7 psychonaut, who claims to have solved the murder of JonBenét Ramsey (contestant beauty contest child died at age 6 in 1996) psychically to go back in time using a substance. But he never replied to my emails.

ROOMMATE WANTED

In keeping with the utilitarian purpose of this blog I am now look for a roommate. My luxurious pleasuredome/loft will have an open room beginning on the first of April. The rent is $1000/month and could be less depending on your educational background, potential roommates with graduate degrees in chemistry or any of the biological sciences, particularly neuroscience, will not have too much trouble bargaining me down a bit.

WITH A POLE?

ROCKWELL RETRO ENCABULATOR

ON ASKING OTHERS TO DO YOUR GOOGLING

When seeking answers use dictionary.com, weather.com, or Google instead of asking someone. If you ask someone there’s a chance they’ll need to Google it themselves to find the answer, making it a situation where you’re simply and belligerently telling people to do things for you. Refrain from utilizing someone as your “information desk” even if you plan on qualifying your request, in an inconsiderate attempt to convey you aren’t inconsiderate, with “I could look it up myself but I’m too lazy” or “I tried but gave up,” sentiments you should instead use privately as motivational statements to stop being lazy and stop giving up, rather than as “ends” to utilize as explanations to deliver, with what can seem like pride, to the people you’re targeting.

If you know the other person knows the answer to your question, and can provide it faster than the internet, it’s still recommended that you use the internet. People will appreciate you’ve considered their time, resources, priorities and chosen to refrain from interrupting their lives; these people, in the future, may appreciate your considerateness to such a degree that they feel the desire to preemptively ask if they can help you with anything—ultimately actually saving you time in the long-term (as a considerate person, however, you won’t care, ideally, about [saving time in a one-person situation], arguably an “inherently inconsiderate” concept).
Accepting no

Additionally, categorically eliminating [interrupt someone else's existence] as an option in your never-ending quest, as a conscious being, to get what you want can have the effect of increasing your levels of patience, self-control, acceptance—qualities that (1) can make it easier for you to be considerate (2) will ultimately increase your ability to get what you want.

Finally, it has been shown that with advanced forms of considerateness, often resulting less from wanting to be nice than from feeling bored by conventional goals in life, people will actually feel excited, or something like excitement—it’s been described by some, simply, as a feeling of “artistic satisfaction”—to successfully occupy a worldview that allows them to earnestly prefer [spending 90 minutes learning how to underline text in Photoshop] over [spending 30 seconds learning how to underline text in Photoshop] if the first option does not involve interrupting anyone else’s existence. (continued)

-Tao Lin