i took >1g around 09:00 this morning, and had one of the more unusual trips i can recall, principally because, when they first started coming on, i went and laid down, and quickly realised that my feet were cold (i wasn’t wearing shoes or socks), so i covered them, which quickly resulted in covering my whole body, and i remained there until 13:00 or so, when i got motivated to write stuff down.

most of what i experienced was pulsating lights in various intricate geometric patterns (the expected stuff for hallucinogens in general), but, along with it was a very distinct and directed train of thought, that, ultimately, boils down to this… “thought experiment”?

imagine you have been born with some physical deformity: missing a part of an arm or leg, or something like that. now, imagine, that, as an adult, you are given the opportunity to visit an “imaginary place” (a “holo-deck” or something like it), and, while in that “imaginary place”, you are given surgery to correct whatever physical deformity you had. at the end of the surgery, you are a complete, whole, human being, with no deformity… but you are in an “imaginary place”. when you come back to “reality”, you still have the deformity. if you re-enter the “imaginary place”, you are a whole human being, but only when you are in that “imaginary place”. once you return to “reality”, you have the deformity.

in such a case, would the psychologist’s job be to convince you that you did, or did not have the surgery?

now, imagine that you have been born with a mental “deformity”: you are depressed, or manic, or narcissistic or something like that, which develops over many years. the same situation: as an adult, you are given the opportunity to visit this “imaginary place” and get surgery (or whatever) to completely cure whatever condition you may have had. in the “imaginary place” you are a whole human being, but in “reality” you still have whatever mental problems you had previously.

in such a case, would the psychologist’s job be to convince you that you did, or did not have the surgery?

my answer is a neon green combat boot: