But, if we assume that other animals are conscious, then shouldn't we be able to piece together something of an account of its evolutionary history? Then combine that with what makes our brand unique, like our skills at abstraction, for a complete picture. 
Well, there you go then - the effect of LSD on cognition is functionally compromising. It's not a value judgement to point this out, nor does it dismiss any profound, significant, or just enjoyable, experiences some us have had on LSD.Rum wrote:I don't see how you can use value judgments about various forms of consciousness as above. Altered consciousness as experienced with LSD and similar substances are I will accept 'disabling' in the sense that one can't generally function properly in terms of survival, work and purposeful activity.Brian Peacock wrote:Wiithout an explanation for how those 'unnatural connections between parts of the brain that don't normally speak to each other' might be inheritable and persist across generations it remains in the realms of a good idea for a story.Rum wrote:Even if it is impossible for psychedelics to actually spark evolutionary development there is a lot of evidence that they create 'unnatural' connections between parts of the brain that don't normally 'speak' to each other. It is conceivable, at least that such a process kick started some form of consciousness hitherto not experienced by primitive hominids.
I know that I experienced other forms of consciousness - ones I could never begin to describe while smashed out of my gourd. I brought at least some of that back with me to the 'real world'.
As for 'other forms of consciousness', I think we use language like that to bridge the gap between indescribable experiences and the so-called 'real world', but it's not an 'other' kind of consciousness in the discrete and unique sense the words imply, just the disruption and dissolution of normal cognitive process brought on by induced changes in brain chemistry. To this extent, a trip is a functionally impoverishedd, inferior, or compromised state of cognition when compared to our everyday experience.
I'd agree. The propensity for LSD to induce a bombardment of disjointed perceptions and random associations, with all that that leads to when layered up with our pattern-seeking brains and our emotionally laden responses to stimuli can lead one to places one wouldn't have travelled to otherwise. My point is that language which presumes that LSD-type compounds somehow offer us a personal gateway into 'other types of consciousness' that 'expand our mental function', as if these 'altered states' exist in and of themselves as discrete but otherwise inaccessible 'higher' regions or realms, is misleading with regards to the nature of LSD-type tripping. In essence I'm disavowing notions that LSD-type compounds give us common access to profundity - if we find anything profound when we're tripping then that's something we've brought to the party ourselves.Rum wrote:But some of the experiences I had were without doubt and expansion of my mental function in some way - making new connections, conceptually, cognitively and even emotionally now and again.
Indeed, it is conceivable. Let's also remember that psychoactive compounds have been used for religious purposes across history and that a great number of societies and communities have used them in conjunction with mythical narratives in an attempt to explain reality (whatever that is) and the world around them.Rum wrote:It is conceivable that cave men tripping out on ergot or mushrooms could have had experiences that led them to new ways of conceptualising the world around them.
The study of epigentics is showing us that exposing one generation to certain environmental factors can have a direct effect on the gene expression of subsequent generations - but as yet I don't think we can say that re-wiring your brain on acid falls into that bracket.Rum wrote:How of course that could affect them at the level of DNA is another matter.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/consci ... y-suggestsConsciousness Depends on Tubulin Vibrations Inside Neurons, Anesthesia Study Suggests
Anesthetic alterations of collective terahertz oscillations in tubulin correlate with clinical potency: Implications for anesthetic action and post-operative cognitive dysfunction Craddock TJA, Kurian P, Preto J, Sahu K, Hameroff SR, Klobukowski M, Tuszynski JA.
I think this also highlights the fuzziness, and the failure, of language when it comes to talking about such things. It makes parsing statements like the one above rather tricky.DRSB wrote:You can be aware of things and not be conscious of them, or you can be conscious of things you are not aware of, and of course you can be both aware and conscious of something at the same time like you can be neither aware nor conscious. (This is a hypnotic induction).
Which makes me think that there is a handy German word we could apply when talking about LSD-type experiences: the psychedelic gesalt! In fact, LSD-type experience ram home the fact that, at some fundamental level, we operate by drawing out meaning from the chaotic, disparate artefacts of our perception, and as if by magic still manage to make a coherent whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. 
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