TULIP is going steady, and by that I mean the gains are accumulating nicely and continuously. I do not part with my laser now... I even took it on holiday haha. I hit another phase shift in pattern recognition on a magic mushroom trip a few days ago, and the new-found abilities have remained, for the moment at least. Once they were metabolised and working their magic on my brain cells I was whisked onto the most intense thought train I have ever experienced. I had been loading my mind with wide-ranging and highly intriguing info from this book (buy it if understanding the world and the strange people in it piques your intrigue in the slightest) for a week or so beforehand, so there was an abundance of material floating about in my unconscious and waiting to be integrated. I felt the process of understanding constructing itself to an acute degree; what begins as Chaos in the form of confusion and seemingly disparate information becomes a higher synthesis of order when the wider Gestalt into which it fits is delineated. This process went on for hours and hours, all manner of floating thought forms being integrated into a grand edifice of understanding within my psyche. I am certain, since I have tripped before but never felt this, that the laser supercharged my neurons so that such connections could form spontaneously - the mushrooms providing the quantum leap to reach escape velocity and accelerated gains of intelligence. One widely accepted hallmark of intelligence is the ability to connect disparate pieces of information into a unified structure, to uncover (create?) the relationships between forms. In this sense the laser definitely shines (no pun intended). Another great thing is that I'm a veritable quote machine, stuff is coming to mind that I didn't even know was in there.
One thing that could trip me up if I was not as grounded as I am due to a few years of meditation practice would be delusions of grandeur. In the grip of a manic thought stream I feel almost Godlike, invincible and infallible. It is imperative to hold at the forefront of consciousness the fact that I do not have access to the fundamental ground of Being and therefore have no access to truth - what I 'see' and experience, perceptually is only a model, and what I 'experience' conceptually is but a model of that model. Truth cannot be gained from abstractions, let alone second order abstractions - this I must remind myself, so as to keep alert the healthy skeptic inside of me. For a really interesting medium length essay on these ideas see here. Anyway, one thing I have noticed is that people seem slower generally (hmmm Isochroma.. does history repeat itself?) and annoyance emerges if I am in a sleep deprived state. I want companions who can mirror and match the speed, intensity and depth of my newfound mental existence. Perhaps I need to learn to relate to people a little better - I am a highly cerebrally dominated person, I float in a sea of abstractions, which becomes a raging torrent under laser-guided energetic fluency. LF. I see you listed above as one of the points of improvement if one were to become a biochemist (or something along those lines) was to improve social skills and so on. Are there any particular resources you could recommend which might help in this?
In other news I am one of the beings who is on the NSI mailing list, and will therefore soon be combining TULIP with that drug. Updates will follow, at some time in the future when I have gauged the effects to a reasonable degree.
By the way LF, I was thinking about your plan to deliver true brain improvement to others and have a few questions...
how do you plan to go about delivering your findings to those outside the Longecity community?
how would someone not in a professional standing go about doing so?
what is the demographic you intend to reach?
Thinking about this got me interested also... imagine the advances in global consciousness and the diminishing of all related ills which would accrue from widespread use of something as potent as TULIP! Imagine the increase in ingenuity in every single scientific and philosophical discipline! Imagine the social connectivity! Not to sound too optimistic but I seriously wonder about the possibilities if this goes BIG. Yes, yes, optimism of the will pessimism of the intellect and all that. Still, I admire your commitment, and would like to help out any way I can.
Oh and by the way, how are you getting on with the addition of artichoke extract? Having been on holiday for a while I have yet to try it, am looking forward to it.
Opaque...great to hear from you man. I don't have a lot of time to write and I'll respond further to your awesome post, but I can't resist the opportunity to enjoy this moment a little. Here are a few VERY unscientific thoughts from me...very. (you get the idea, ha).
My visualizations too (mushroom-less), have been unreal. I can go into an almost altered state of concentration, build an image, and walk around in it like I'm there. The external world literally disappears and I'm...existing...in my own mental creation. Yeah, that's new for me.
You're exactly right...a huge part of intelligence (and creativity) is novel connectivity. I see connections and insights so 'effing quickly and consistently now that I can barely type fast enough to get them all down. Actually, I take that back...I CAN'T type fast enough. ha
I love that you mention quotes...isn't it amazing what's actually in our brains that we don't have access to? I can just reel off quote after quote after quote now and I'm not even trying to remember or memorize a thing. They're just there. My mom called me a 'walking encyclopedia' the other day and my sister said, 'holy crap, are you some sort of prodigy?" I enjoy the compliments...someday I'll tell them that I shoot a laser at my head every night. haha
I have SO many more stories about how this has already changed my life...acing job interviews (as far as I can tell), making REALLY hot girls laugh so hard that they introduce themselves to me at the end of the convo ("I'm Suzie, btw...what's your name?" = "I want to get to know you better"), reconnecting or deepening relationships with friends and family (it helps immensely to be able to remember hundreds of details about their lives and surprise them with random little bits of humor), etc. Um, yeah...I'm a different person.
I have noticed that I do need to slow down for people a little (I hope that doesn't sound conceited!). I can simply overwhelm them now with a blitz of ideas and stories and jokes. I usually take the deer-in-headlights look of fright on their face as a cue to back off a little. Tbh...it's one of my favorite problems that I've ever had. ha
Your thoughts on meditation and staying grounded are right on...more on this at a future time.
There's so much more to write (and I will), but I just want to say one last thing. The goal of all of this simple. In what is widely regarded as the greatest graphic novel of all time, Watchmen (major spoiler ahead!)....the 'villain' tries to create a common enemy for humanity in the form of a menacing extraterrestrial threat. This is completely unnecessary, imo. We already have thousands of common enemies...natural disasters, disease, disability, death, etc. 'IF' TULIP works as well for those of you reading this as it has for Opaque and I (nothing works for everyone), I would request that you use these newfound abilities to team up and contribute to battling these shared foes. We ARE going to win eventually...but the faster we can get there, the better.
Note 1: I could be delusional from taking a novel, untested supplement/device combo. I don't 'think' I am...but that is kind of what a delusion is. ha
Note 2: Is burnout/exhaustion coming? Not sure.
Note 3: Open question...does enhancing mitochondrial function in this manner accelerate aging? Maybe, maybe not. I don't currently have the answer. Regardless, there are certain quality of life trade-offs to consider here. For example...personally, I would be willing to live to 78 instead of 80 if it meant that I felt amazing to 78 while only average to 80. 75? I might go for this. 55? Probably not. There are MANY other ways to think through this problem, but that should give you an idea about the direction of my thinking.
Thanks for perusing my blatherings...be safe!
Oh, last thing...laser dosing and expectations. Please read the Naeser study to get an idea of how the effects gradually increase over time. ie. You're not going to morning dose on day 1 and prove the Goldbach Conjecture that night. =)
ebay laser output testing coming soon...promise. Also, if anyone else wants to test the laser/s and report back, please do! I wouldn't complain. Just google around to look for ways to do it.