>"The researchers say this isn’t the case because people who are into environmental issues are not more likely to indulge in other drugs, whether it's tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, or recreational illegal substances."<p>Ok, but it still could be the case that people who are into environmental issues are just more likely to be into LSD.<p>Actually, from my own personal experience this makes sense. People I've known who prefer hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and shrooms tend to fit into the 'hippy' personality type, which seems to exist antecedent to their drug use and is accentuated by it rather than being caused by it. Again, just personal experience here, but people who really like hallucinogens tend to be 'seekers' who are disillusioned with the human world and so idealize nature.<p>Other drug users who dislike hallucinogens and instead prefer drugs like cocaine, heroin and MDMA are less hippies and more partiers who like drugs because they make them feel good rather than giving them access to some spiritual connection with the world, or any other hippy trope.<p>So that this study claims "people who are into environmental issues are not more likely to indulge in other drugs" doesn't surprise me.
Psychedelics are also called entheogens ("generator of the divine within"), because
one common trait of a psychedelic 'trip' is experiencing the nature of the divine, but also the divinity of 'life' in all living things when 'tripping'.<p>The realization that plants, animals, water, air, are all part of one whole living system of which we're just cells, just like the cells within us, ...<p>In other words, the realization of the divinity of nature.<p>Most people tend to treat divinity with respect hence the link.<p>I personally think everyone should have at least one psychedelic experience, especially in this age that we're in right now.
Number people who drowned by falling into a swimming-pool correlates with number of films Nicolas Cage appeared in.<p><a href="http://tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=359" rel="nofollow">http://tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=359</a>
Roland Griffiths, PI for psilocybin research at Johns Hopkins:<p>> Frankly, I can’t think of anything more important to be studying. As I’ve said, the core feature of the mystical experience [that we can now occasion with high probability] is this strong sense of the interconnectedness of all things, where there’s a rising sense of not only self-confidence and clarity, but of communal responsibility – of altruism and social justice – a felt sense of the Golden Rule: to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. ... Understanding the nature of these effects, and their consequences, may be key to the survival of our species.
Interestingly their survey was conducted using Mechanical Turk.<p>It struck me as highly dubious they could possibly control for the myriad dimensions of personality and social background with any statistical significance with a sample of 1487, of which, what, 10% would have taken psychedelics? Turns out it was 26.9%, versus a background level of 13.6% found in some larger study.<p>So I think one thing we can safely conclude is that that taking psychedelics tends to turn people into Mechanical Turks. Or the other way round?
People who take Psychedelics<p>People who go outside<p>People who spend some time in a forest<p>People who have had at least 1 close pet<p>People who got to study leaves in the middle of winter as a classroom activity<p>People who look at the stars at night with awe<p>Psychedelics is not the only way to remember where we came from.
I sense a lot of dismissive response, mostly it seems from people who didn't read the article. For what it's worth, of my friends who did psychedelics, they were much more likely (even the fairly strong-minded ones) to come out of the experience trying to articulate the following ideas:<p>- Everything is connected
- I'm a piece of the larger system
- Inanimate objects have feelings / matter<p>Of course I reject all of these notions as clumsy to absurd.
Some people here seem to suggest that people who care about environment have a hippy mentality and hence are open to consume LSD b/c the real hippies in the sixties chose accidentally LSD as their drug. As if Cocaine or Heroin could have just as well ended up as their medication. Well - Cocaine's affect would have certainly not supported what hippies do stand for - Cocaine makes over-confident, un-self-reflecting and numb. LSD on the otherhand raises empathy, self- and environmental awareness.<p>Also everybody with relevant experience in the field of psychedelics know that the by far most interesting environment for a trip is the nature, a field, a forest. Why - b/c green looks awesome and fractal shapes on plants become alive.<p>So - LSD might be consumed for whatever reason - it will make you empathic - and that might be the reason to take it. So the choice of LSD by some people is for a reason and LSD will also foster this particular motivation.
I know good ol' boys who stick to beer, whiskey, and a little weed who regularly cull the duck, quail, deer, and wild pig populations to keep them from overbreeding. Mostly, they leave the coyotes alone because they keep the rabbits and prairie dogs in check.
<i>The study did not look for a causation, yet it hinted "there is strong reason to believe that psychedelic substances increase nature relatedness as a function of their ego-dissolving effects."</i><p>This is not science, this is academic rubbish. The only thing they have a strong reason to believe is that a correlation exists.<p>Maybe people who walk in forests are more likely to pick mushrooms and take them? I wish universities were held to some sort of scrutiny, instead they pollute the pool of human knowledge with rubbish.
The actual article may be less garbage than the headline of the news post suggests:<p>Our model controlled for experiences with other classes of psychoactive substances (cannabis, dissociatives, empathogens, popular legal drugs) as well as common personality traits that usually predict drug consumption and/or nature relatedness (openness to experience, conscientiousness, conservatism).<p>(that's from the abstract)<p>Of course we won't know for sure – all praise the paywalls of science!
Plot twist: the popularity of LSD in the 70's was a CIA operation to prepare the public for the global warming hoax (among other things).<p>/s although stranger things have happened.