Comments by "KGS" (@kgs2280) on "Do Psychedelics Make People More Left-Wing?" video.
-
@MW66VB, I couldn’t agree more. Psychedelics certainly opened and enlarged my mind (and I had a few “religious/spiritual” experiences, as in, I understood that I am God, but so are we all, and that all the energy of the Universe, especially creative energy, and love, along with us, and whatever other beings there might be out there, including all the animals and plants of any planets that might have those things, are what God is, and we’re all connected. That sort of thing…you know, the “simple” stuff, LOL) and certainly made me more open than I even was naturally. That and traveling, as you say. SO helpful! My father was an Air Force Pilot, so he was always off to some other country while I was a little girl, and when he was able to come home for some time, he always brought me a doll dressed in the cultural clothes from whatever country he had been in on that trip. He would also tell me stories about the people and the country, and even show me maps (and I became a huge lover of maps) and pictures of various places in that country (and I became a photographer for a while). My parents and my two older brothers lived for three years in Germany before I was born (I was born just a few months after they came back to the States. It still had a large effect on me as we had children’s and adult’s books for teaching German, and I learned a number of words, and my dad even used some at the dinner table, like “I love my schpargle” (asparagus), so I still call it that. Then, after I left university, I became a “hippie” (thank God!) and hitchhiked around the U.S and Eastern Canada. The next year I got a car and drove it from Orlando, Fl, up to Maryland to pick up my girlfriend then we drove all the way the way across the country to San Francisco, of course, then to San Diego for a few weeks, then to the Mexico City airport to pick up my boyfriend who worked, so he couldn’t take off three months for the stateside part of the trip, then drove all the way to the Yucatán Peninsula because I just HAD to see Chichén Itzá, and we found a number of other great archaeological sites, esp. Teotihuacán near Mexico City, which is one of my favorite places on earth. I definitely want to have some of my ashes sprinkled on the pyramids when I’m gone from this life (I think I lived a former life there). We spent about two weeks in Mexico, and met many people there (I was the translator for our group because I had taken three years of Spanish in High School, so that was fun). I’m in love with Mexico, and have been back there many times. Well, I didn’t intend this to be a dissertation, but I’ll chalk it up to being practice for when I write a book about that period of my life. I learned so much there, and the cultural differences are so hugely different, it’s also mind-expanding. And, as @diphenhydramine6072 said above, (and I also agree very much with him) that education also plays a big role in being open-minded, which often leads to more left-leaning thinking. As for psychedelic “trips” I can definitively say that I wouldn’t ever want to experience what the right-wingers experienced if it cemented the right-wing philosophy in their minds. I would consider that to be a very “bad trip” for me!😅 Again, sorry for for the probably overly long comment, but that was such a special period in my life, and I love sharing it, plus it fits in with the context of the video. Thanks for your patience.
4
-
2
-
@Pintheshadows Thank you for your very kind, and very honest, answer. I think we might be in the same age range, as I am also having some “memory issues”, especially when it comes to names of specific philosophies and such. (As the saying goes: “nouns are the first to go”). Yes, I think I very much lean toward a pantheistic view, and am very much influenced by quantum theory. I read a wonderful book about quantum theory a number of years ago, and it cemented much of my thinking. Of course, with quantum theory, nearly EVERYTHING can fit together and make sense, which can be a positive or a negative (lol). If I remember the name of the book soon, I’ll add it to this comment (see? Memory issues!) But it’s something about quantum theory and spiritualism, or psychic-type happenings, which I’ve also experienced a fair amount, and was probably the main reason I came to my belief system because they made me realize there’s something much “more” going on than we’ve been told by religions). I guess I could also agree with the philosophy of monism, because, as the spiritualists say, “we are all one”. And quantum theory gave me to understand that that “one” is energy. My personal theory of “god” is the sum total, and probably the original source of that energy. Many spiritualalists say that source or origin is love, which I’m not sure I totally agree with, but I think it is intelligent and creative. And when I learned about light being composed of many, many particles, or protons, that was how I came to think of us as individuals, as particles of the light which is the force, or substance of energy…yes, we’re still individuals to a degree, but, all together, we are part and parcel of the light. Yeah, it’s pretty much metaphysical thinking, but quantum theory explains it to a great degree. I hope this makes sense. I also simply can’t think of “God” as some old man with a beard, sitting on a cloud, surrounded by angels playing harps, and watching - and judging - every single thing we do, is such a ridiculous, and small, way of seeing “The Creator”, or “The Divine”. How small that “God” seems to me, not to mention, how self-involved that thinking is, as well as an insult when considering the entirety of the Universe and all life and all energy.
Thanks again for your comment. It got me thinking, and figuring out how to put into words my way of thinking.
The book I was referring to is The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot.
2
-
2
-
1