Voluntary Human Extinction

Fascinating!

There was an article in the NY Times recently about the founder of this movement.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/climate/voluntary-human-extinction.html

This is the website:

https://www.vhemt.org

I had not heard of this movement before…  

All you have to do is choose not to have children (or limit the number?)…  

Interesting to me as I have 2 sons, one son is married, and they have no interest in having children.   

My other son has a long-term girlfriend, living together for some time, might as well be married, who, to my currently knowledge, are “on the fence” about having children.  

I won’t list what I think is going on through their minds, I assume they have at least some of the same reasons that are foremost concerns for many of their currently fertile generations: 

1 – Kids are expensive, estimated lifetime costs of $250-500,000, including childcare costs and scarcity, various costly lessons kids take part in, possibly sending them to college, and all the more worrisome, within a climate of repeated episodes of economic uncertainty.  

2 – Both partners may have fulfilling career paths, and neither wishes to curtail a career with primary childcare responsibilities.  

3 – Worries that climate change, and resultant dangers of fire and flood, may create a world that would be unsafe for their children.  

4 – Having a child is just not an interesting endeavor.  To bring up children well, takes a lot of time, along with both physical and emotional energy.  

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-millennials-birth-fertility-rate-declining-fewer-babies-2022-1#others-just-arent-interested-in-having-kids-a-sentiment-thats-become-a-lot-more-socially-acceptable-in-recent-years-5

I’ll add here another that I have witnessed in others:

5 – Family history of abuse or neglect, or history of medical or psychiatric problems, worries that they might perpetuate these behaviors or pass on risky genetics.  

More here:  

https://defendernetwork.com/lead-story/intelligent-reasons-millennials-arent-kids/

To be a little more revealing, I had these 2 sons with my first wife.  My current wife has 2 daughters.  My wife’s 2 daughters each have a child, so, how nice for me, I get to be a grandfather to them.  

Also, for the past 2 years my wife and I now have a surrogate “child” together, also known as a dog…  

My wife takes lead responsibility for the pup, by mutual agreement.  

Dogs also are expensive and take a lot of time and energy to bring up correctly.  

Like right now, when he is whining for attention.   

I asked my wife for a list of what she thought were reasons currently fertile adults do not wish to have children, perhaps not that different from above:  

1 – Fear of the unknown, lack of hope for the future, the world is unsafe, effects of climate change, social violence.

2 – Some level of narcissism, or perhaps self-centeredness.    

3 – History of parental abuse or neglect, with fear of not knowing how to create a loving family.  

4 – Family history of medical or psychiatric conditions.  

My wife always knew she wanted to be a mother…  

I grew up feeling I was supposed to have kids…  

Perhaps I listened to my parents…  

Both my parents were survivors of the Jewish Holocaust, I heard them say that surviving and having children were their revenge on the Nazi’s attempt at annihilating the Jews.  

As I have written previously:  

“I like to think of myself as a meliorist, one who believes that the world becomes better with time and humans can aid in its benefit.” 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/04/conversations-with-dog-chapter-10.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meliorism

I feel that we are an embodiment of Source, we are the hands and eyes of Source…

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/12/what-is-consciousness.html

Maybe I am being a little more snarky here:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/05/our-vision.html

I believe that when we have children, we embody more of Source.  

My wife added, “we also get to witness more Source!”

You can argue with me, that is not necessarily a good thing… 

I respect that.  

That is the argument of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.  

I can only reiterate that I believe deeply in the potential for the best parts of human existence.  

I believe we have the potential for ever increasing kindness and compassion, and that the continuance of human existence will be more beautiful over time…    

Namaste  

A Reinterpretation of “The 5 Aggregates”

Perhaps can be seen as a blasphemous effort, if you are a strict Buddhist.   

But then again, I am a self-designated Heretic…  

Reading this quarter’s Tricycle, Winter 2022, page 47, on Annatta. 

There is a Hindu concept of Atman, “the essential part of the self” that “is immaterial and indestructible.”  Buddhism, rejects this concept, “and posits instead a foundational concept of anatman” (in Pali annatta) or non-self.   That “The functions associated with a self, such as thoughts and emotions, “exist” in the sense that they happen, but it is a projection of our language and imagination to say further that a solid entity, a spiritual essence, an unchanging substance or a transcendent energy therefore “exists” as something beyond these occurences.”  

No augment there, I’m a big fan of that concept that there is no clear existence of a “small s self,” i.e., my interpretation is there is only a “Big S Self,” as in “All-That-Is” and “All-That-Is-Not.”  

So, what are the 5 Aggregates?  

According to this article, and I have not read widely in the Buddhist literature about these Aggregates, relying on this article alone… 

1-Bodies unfold, as a transient material configuration, within a changing material environment.  

2-Feelings, of pleasure and pain, arise and fall away, due to circumstances (whatever they mean by “circumstances”).  

3-Mind, perceptually interprets the information flowing in on the senses, to create stories. 

4-Emotional responses take place at every moment, resulting in volitional actions.  

5-Awareness of this unfolds in a stream of conscious moments.  

I agree in general, however, seems a bit too complicated and redundant.  

As I am a fan of parsing concepts down to three’s, let see what I came up with…

I won’t change number 1, much, I like that in general, will just change the wording:   

1-Bodies Change.  They are a constantly changing material configuration, within a changing material environment.  

We will refrain for defining what is this “material.”   We can talk about scientific observations that support the existence of concepts such as “molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles,” but we and everything may actually just be a holograph:

https://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8847863/holographic-principle-universe-theory-physics

https://www.quantamagazine.org/symmetries-reveal-clues-about-the-holographic-universe-20220112/

2-Mind Interprets.   Sensations arise in the body, from internal and external stimuli, which are then interpreted in the mind as feelings and emotions.  The mind then makes up stories, and the body performs actions based on these stories.  

Many studies support this concept.  The simplest example is the clinical use of propranolol, a beta blocker, to relieve anxiety, such as before public speaking.  Propranolol only blocks the increases in heart rate and peripheral shaking which occurs when people are fearful, by stopping the body reactivity, the mind feels it is less anxious.   

3-Awareness Occurs.  

There is only Pure Awareness.   

Everything else, are just made-up concepts, such as “The Witness,” or that we think we have a “self” that has awareness of felt sensations in the body and awareness of emotions and feelings in the mind.  These are just the flow of Pure Consciousness, “All-That-Is” and “All-That-Is-Not,” as is interpreted by this animal brain-body.  

So let us summarize:  

1-Bodies Change.  

2-Mind Interprets.   

3-Awareness Occurs.  

Now isn’t that simpler….

Time to meditate further 

        washing away all concepts 

                                basking in 

Pure Awareness…  

Namaste  

The Three Levels of Psychedelic Experience

Those who have read my past Bloggins’ know I love threes…  

Masters and Houston, in their book “The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience” (p.110) outline these 3 levels. 

Level 1 – Is the “Sensory Realm” where images appear, often geometric and colorful, there may be sensory distortions of time and of any of the senses, including synesthesia’s.  These also fall into so called dissociative experiences, at least as measured by the CADSS. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2022/05/proposal-labeling-psychedelic-medicine.html

Level 2 – Is the “Recollective – Analytical Stage” where unconscious information may arise up into conscious information.  They write that this stage can also be a place where people can also get into “mind loops.”  And, more positively, can sometimes see their life as a myth or legend.  This is the stage where I believe psychedelics act as “Integratives” (see link above).  

Level 3 – Is the “Integral Level” where people may have a feeling of “Oneness with the Universe,” where they may have a feeling of “Total Understanding.”  They also write that this level may be more likely with preparation such as meditation or yoga practices.  This is what then Mystical Experience Questionnaire attempts to identify.  

They also write (p 141) that perhaps the “Recollective – Analytical Stage” is where “Instant Psychotherapy” may occur, where long standing neuroses seem to resolve spontaneously.  

What is interesting is that in meditation all three of these levels may occur.  The flashes of color may not be a vivid or a geometric, but they do occur.  The “Recollective – Analytical Stage” is a very important part of how meditation can be helpful.  And the “Integral Level” is often what people try to achieve in meditation, and, interestingly, "trying to achieve" this feeling of oneness, just chases it away.  

These 3 levels seem to be most associated with the classical psychedelics, mescaline, psilocybin, LSD, DMT.  Each of these psychedelics can have perhaps a different flavor of experience in general, and can also vary for each individual, and can vary for each session.  Always keeping in mind proper Set and Setting.  

Ketamine is interesting in that it tends to be less colorful, and there may be a feeling of descending into the so called “K Hole.”  

MDMA, is not a psychedelic, often labeled and empathogen, often prominently allowing unconscious information to arise, perhaps more “Recollective – Analytical Stage,” less experiences of Levels 1 and 3.  

So, what are the purposes of these levels?  

Level 3, the so-called Mystical Experience, seems to be highly correlated with “good outcomes.”  Particularly, lessening of depression and anxiety.  

Level 2, where unconscious information may arise up into conscious information, seems to be central to the healing process as well.  

But, what is the importance of Level 1?  Is it simply a stage that shows us that the mind is unwiring, and/or rewiring?  

Is it just telling us that “We are not in Kansas anymore?”  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMhrpapLTZM

We really do need to further explore these levels, there are a lot of PhD theses that need to get written!  

I am hoping that we can get psychedelic therapy legalized, sooner rather than later, there is such need for these therapies.  

These are not for everyone, but there is much suffering that could be relieved…  

Namaste

Human Domestication

On weekend mornings we usually take our dog, Zev, an almost 2-year-old standard poodle, to the dog park.  Gets him running around, good socialization, and tired for most of the rest of the day.  

It is an interesting place to watch, both dogs and people.  

Dogs are so tuned to each other’s body language…  

Sometimes there is growling, usually in play, occasionally a vocal warning to keep away…  

There is sometimes whining, particularly to encourage a human to throw a ball…    

People watching is fascinating as well.  

Some people love and try to pet all the dogs, some small children too.  

Some people have small dogs, and some, seem to be fearful of the larger dogs.  

Zev has to greet every dog and every human, but he is not one to jump up on adults or children.  

But he is pretty tall, and does weigh almost 70 pounds. 

He does not have fancy poodle cut, he gets a “sport cut,” some mistake him for a doodle…  

I recently was reading an article about a guy in Russia who was domesticating foxes, they seem cute, however, apparently, their urine really stinks, and they can be very difficult.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox

http://crittercamp.weebly.com/pet-foxes--the-truth.html

Apparently, foxes may be becoming semi-domesticated naturally as well: 

https://www.science.org/content/article/urban-foxes-may-be-self-domesticating-our-midst

Watching our domesticated dog and his canine companions, I wondered about us humans…  

What a different life we lead from our early ancestors.  

Hunters and gatherers… perhaps that has morphed into shopping…  

Some do still hunt, and not only for sport, for food as well… 

Many garden, some farm, sometimes for subsistence…  

And there was early art and music, perhaps, grown more complex over the ages..  

So, have we humans been domesticated? 

There seems to be social and genetic evidence to this possibility…    

https://www.science.org/content/article/early-humans-domesticated-themselves-new-genetic-evidence-suggests:  

“When humans started to tame dogs, cats, sheep, and cattle, they may have continued a tradition that started with a completely different animal: us. A new study—citing genetic evidence from a disorder that in some ways mirrors elements of domestication—suggests modern humans domesticated themselves after they split from their extinct relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, approximately 600,000 years ago.

Domestication encompasses a whole suite of genetic changes that arise as a species is bred to be friendlier and less aggressive. In dogs and domesticated foxes, for example, many changes are physical: smaller teeth and skulls, floppy ears, and shorter, curlier tails. Those physical changes have all been linked to the fact that domesticated animals have fewer of a certain type of stem cell, called neural crest stem cells.

Modern humans are also less aggressive and more cooperative than many of our ancestors. And we, too, exhibit a significant physical change: Though our brains are big, our skulls are smaller, and our brow ridges are less pronounced. So, did we domesticate ourselves?

As for why humans might have become domesticated in the first place, hypotheses abound. Wrangham favors the idea that as early people formed cooperative societies, evolutionary pressures favored mates whose features were less "alpha," or aggressive. "There was active selection, for the very first time, against the bullies and the genes that favored their aggression," he adds.”   

A more in-depth analysis here:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00134/full

“In summary, we regard the social, gene-cultural evolution of humans as more similar to the social evolution of other highly social mammals that display enhanced cognitive and affective plasticity and sophisticated social structures, than to the evolution of socially impoverished domesticates. These similarities however, pale in comparison to the unique features of human social evolution, which has been guided by cumulative cultural changes that led to increased cognitive and affective plasticity, allowing feats of saintly cooperation and sadistic cruelty that go far beyond those of any other animal.”  

Speaks to the evolution of multiple intelligences…  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-1.html

Perhaps some of our failures are related to living in groups that might be too large.  

Perhaps, so large that people get lost, do not feel seen, valued, loved…  

As for me, I am most interested in how we could evolve further… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

Perhaps some methods here:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/enlightenment-part-5-final-secret.html

and here:

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/06/so-you-want-to-become-integralist.html

Seems that we, as a species, still have a long way to go…  

Namaste  

 

The Balkanization of America?

 I have spent time in thought…  

After this Roe v Wade debacle…

The potential for the slow dismantling of our constitution…  

It does feel like These United States, are less and less acting as United…  

I blame all sides…  

Therefore, I must be at fault as well…  

I read a few articles, some of these linked below, some will piss off both liberals and conservatives…  

I think that is a good thing…  

We all should be thinking more deeply,

More widely, 

With more compassion…  

https://www.nationalwriterssyndicate.com/balkanization-of-america-accelerating-faster-than-expected/

https://medium.com/politically-speaking/the-balkanization-of-america-1b794e9c309a

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/stop_the_balkanization_of_america.html

https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/11/rhetoric-violence-and-civil-war-the-balkanization-of-america/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/he-saw-americas-crackup-coming-in-2011he-says-its-worse-now?ref=scroll

As these maps show, these is no easy separation of areas that so differ in political leanings into separate states, much less into some sort of connected states…  

Map of the 2016 Election Results by County

 This is interesting as well:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaregions_of_the_United_States

Mostly liberal smaller heavily populated areas are surrounded by largely conservative larger rural areas…  

Maybe this is a good thing…  

There is no easy way to Balkanize into individual separate states or regions…  

Perhaps, we might have to work together…  

However,  

I am reading that people are steadily moving into politically like-minded areas…  

Maybe Balkanization will arrive with a slow migration…  

We shall see what will unfold…  

Namaste

I Drank Too Much Wine Last Night

Well, not so much that I had a headache this morning…  

3 small glasses is a lot for my never very alcohol tolerant genetics…

Stress drinking…  

WTF…

How did We, as in “we the United States of America,” get to a point of de-evolution towards the 1950s?  

What is clear is that the Republicans have been doing an excellent job of political maneuvering, working together, while the Democrats have been squabbling amongst themselves, overall losing at almost every turn…  

Now We, as in “we liberal-type thinkers,” will be paying the price…  

Between legal changes toward voter suppression, packing the Supreme Court, and The Electoral College, minority rule is likely to prevail, likely for the rest of my lifetime, if not my kids’ and grandkids’ lifetimes…  

Of course, me and my wife, and my kids, financially at least, will be pretty much OK…  

It is the poor who will suffer the most…  

Roe v Wade decreased abortions, made abortions safer, and allowed people the choice to decrease untenable financial burden, when another child was not in the plans…  

Not to mention the, in my opinion, the clear moral choice of letting women control their own bodies… 

According to Clarence Thomas, contraception should be the next to go…  

WTF!!!!

So, how do I reconcile, my oft repeated statement that, “Whatever happens, is exactly what needs to occur…”  

I guess I can only come up with what I’ve written before:

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2022/02/economic-inequality.html

Figure out an economically feasible plan to “Provide everyone with basic living conditions, eliminate homelessness, dire poverty, fear for personal and family safety, opportunity for education and economic advancement.”  

The Democrats have to capture the minds and hearts of the everyday person, not just the most downtrodden…  

Then the Democrats can get the votes to overcome this radically conservative agenda at the heart of the Republican agenda...  

I am usually an optimist…  

These days I do not feel so optimistic…  

Namaste

 

Now “THEY” Can See What You Are Thinking!

I am a fan of Ken Wilber’s 4 Quadrant model, I won’t get into the details right now, lots of introductions online.  

As cited here:  “The Upper-Left (UL) quadrant is called the Individual-Interior quadrant. It’s also known as the “I” quadrant and uses “I language”, as Wilber would say.  This includes all subjective experience. For humans, this means emotions, thoughts, body sensations, meditative states, dream states, and so on – the phenomena that you alone experience.”

https://thegreatupdraft.com/ken-wilber-fundamentals-the-four-quadrants-for-newbies/

When I would teach about this model, I would say that the upper left quadrant is the place where you have to ask someone what they are thinking or feeling, and they can lie.  I would actually use the example of asking a person if they were a Democrat or a Republican, and they could lie.  

Apparently, that is no longer true.  

From the June 6th Ironic Times, page 2, (my favorite Monday morning read!)

Study: Brain Scans Can

Reveal Person's Political

Party Affiliation

https://www.ironictimes.com/1131-p2.html

I often find things I’ve not heard about elsewhere in this 3-page satire…  

So, I searched the above title in Google and found the following:  

“Functional Connectivity Signatures of Political Ideology,” 2022

https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/advance-article/doi/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac066/6590843?login=false

Then following further links found these:  

“Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults,” 2011

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092984/

“Conservative and Liberal Brains Might Have Some Real Differences,” Scientific American, 2020: 

On the whole, the research shows, conservatives desire security, predictability and authority more than liberals do, and liberals are more comfortable with novelty, nuance and complexity. If you had put Buckley and Vidal in a magnetic resonance imaging machine and presented them with identical images, you would likely have seen differences in their brain, especially in the areas that process social and emotional information. The volume of gray matter, or neural cell bodies, making up the anterior cingulate cortex, an area that helps detect errors and resolve conflicts, tends to be larger in liberals. And the amygdala, which is important for regulating emotions and evaluating threats, is larger in conservatives.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/

Now in that 2022 study, they did need to use a current supercomputer to analyze the fMRI data.  

But then again, we now pretty much all carry what was a former supercomputer in our pockets, we call it our “phone.”  

So, who knows how long it might take to be able scan people with a pocket device and get some idea of what they are thinking, technology accelerates, often, exponentially…  

Maybe not in my, or my kid’s, or grandkids, lifetimes, but, if it can be done, someone will try to do this…  

Perhaps very scary…  

Namaste

Proposal: Labeling Psychedelic Medicine Therapy as “Integratives”

Another interesting conversation with my wife this morning.

We are preparing to teach a weekend about psychedelic therapy, we use high dose psilocybin role play scenarios as central to teaching how to use these medicines. 

We were contrasting the various drugs used in so called psychedelic therapies, MDMA, which is not a true psychedelic, perhaps better labeled as an empathogen, ketamine which has been labeled a dissociative anesthetic, compared to the classic psychedelics, psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, DMT.  

Ketamine is being used with exponential growth as a therapy, as it is not in a schedule 1 category.  

Ketamine can be given orally, intramuscularly, and by intravenous routes.  

Ketamine differs from all the other drugs mentioned above by also having an anesthetic quality, at certain doses the body can feel wooden.  

My argument here is that ketamine is no more dissociative than MDMA, or any of the classic psychedelics. 

What is dissociation? 

“Psychiatry Separation of some aspects of mental functioning from conscious awareness, leading to a degree of mental dysfunction or to mental conditions including dissociative identity disorder.”

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/dissociation

Dissociation is central to what we are treating with psychedelic therapy.  

In PTSD, as well as in “normal neurosis,” parts of our experiences become unconscious, repressed, hidden away from our conscious day to day living.  We then “project” these hidden parts of ourselves onto others.  

“The term psychedelic, from the Greek for “mind-manifesting”, was coined by Humphry Osmond, a British psychiatrist working in Canada in the 1950s.”

https://www.newscientist.com/definition/psychedelic/

These medications seem to function to help make unconscious thoughts, feelings, experiences, accessible to the conscious mind, resulting in healing the dissociation.  

MDMA, seems to act through enhancing feelings of empathy and bonding to decrease the emotional flooding that originally prevented the unconscious from being accessed by the conscious mind.  

Ketamine may act in different ways, depending on route and dose.  However, at certain doses ketamine clearly can act in a similar manner to classic psychedelics.  

The CADSS looks at dissociative symptoms such as:

• Feeling like things are in slow motion or seem unreal.

• Feeling separated from reality.

• Feeling as if looking at things from outside the body.

• Feeling like you are a spectator or like you are observed.

• Objects looking different.

• Colors seeming duller or brighter than usual.

• Time speeding up or slowing down.

• Seeing things through a fog or having tunnel vision.

• Losing track of time or what is happening in the environment.

• Feeling as though your body has changed.

These are all effects that can be seen with the classic psychedelics…  

This article discusses that the dissociative effects, as measured by the CADSS, may not relate to the anti-depressant effects of ketamine:  

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20190-4

So, the dissociation, as measured by the CADSS, is clearly a different experience than the dissociation as defined by psychiatry.  

My argument here is that the dissociation, as defined in psychiatry, is what we are trying to break through, using these therapies.  

The dissociation that is defined by the CADSS is very different and is a reflection of the softening of the ego defenses, which prevent accessing the unconscious information needed for healing. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/10/psychedelics-meditation-and-death.html

Therefore, these medications, when used in the proper set and setting, are actually “integrative.”  

These methods lead to the integration of repressed unconscious information back into the conscious mind.  Resulting in healing.  

Hence, my proposal to designate these medications as “Integratives.”  

Namaste

Seeing

I’ve been fascinated by photography since young, noticing my father was always taking pictures of us kids.  

As a teenager I borrowed his camera, a circa-WWII rangefinder 35 mm with a Leitz-Wetzlar lens.  That lens company is now known as Leica, but it was not a Leica camera.  

He took amazing photos.  He was an artist, with an artist’s eye for line and form.  

I had early cheap 35 mm film cameras in my early years

In grad school I bought my first SLR, the diminutive Olympus OM1.  Took a lot of photos over the years.  And have bought and used several 35 mm film cameras culminating with a Canon EOS.  Subsequently entering the digital age with my first Canon digital SLR, all of 6 megapixels, using the same Canon lenses.  Then with have had several mirrorless micro 4/3 cameras with an array of lenses, and most recently a mirrorless full frame Canon R5.  

I also have had a number of small pocket-sized digital cameras.  

Yet, now, take most photos with my 12 MP iPhone XS, I am way behind on my phone upgrades, but the cameras have remained the same.  Until the upcoming 48 MP iPhones, not sure I need 48 MP phone camera, we shall see…  

Back to seeing…  

I am fascinated both by technology and the human being… 

Photography shows us how truly impressive is the human act of seeing…

When I walk in my office each morning, I often have a feast of seeing the Rocky Mountains.  

Sometimes, they are partially or fully obscured by clouds.  

But, being Colorado, we usually have sunny days, and every day gives a different view…

This is one example of a morning view:  

I also see this view:  

And I see this view:  

Very different from the camera, I see all these views at once.  

This is an example of the miracle of human seeing…

We receive photons that activate receptors in our eyes, similar to a camera, but our brains can translate these in a much more powerful fashion.  

It is only a matter of attention, which shifts our view.  

How very different from the limited views of the camera!

The first photo is taken at 10x, the 35 mm equivalent of a 258 mm “telephoto” view.  

The second photo is taken at an in-between magnification, the 35 mm equivalent of a 56 mm telephoto lens, usually labeled as a “normal” view.  

The third photo is taken at the 35 mm equivalent of a 26 mm telephoto lens, known as a wide-angle view.  

Now most of the gross information is present in the wide-angle view, but at a relatively low resolution. 

The following is taken from the linked web page:  

“The eye is not a single frame snapshot camera. It is more like a video stream. The eye moves rapidly in small angular amounts and continually updates the image in one's brain to "paint" the detail. We also have two eyes, and our brains combine the signals to increase the resolution further. We also typically move our eyes around the scene to gather more information. Because of these factors, the eye plus brain assembles a higher resolution image than possible with the number of photoreceptors in the retina. So the megapixel equivalent numbers below refer to the spatial detail in an image that would be required to show what the human eye could see when you view a scene.

Based on the above data for the resolution of the human eye, let's try a "small" example first. Consider a view in front of you that is 90 degrees by 90 degrees, like looking through an open window at a scene. The number of pixels would be 

90 degrees * 60 arc-minutes/degree * 1/0.3 * 90 * 60 * 1/0.3 = 324,000,000 pixels (324 megapixels).

At any one moment, you actually do not perceive that many pixels, but your eye moves around the scene to see all the detail you want. But the human eye really sees a larger field of view, close to 180 degrees. Let's be conservative and use 120 degrees for the field of view. Then we would see

120 * 120 * 60 * 60 / (0.3 * 0.3) = 576 megapixels.

The full angle of human vision would require even more megapixels. This kind of image detail requires A large format camera to record.”  

https://clarkvision.com/imagedetail/eye-resolution.html

576 MP!!!

What a wonder is human seeing.  

And, seeing is only one of our senses…  

I like this example because it is simple and accessible…  

This human existence is so deep and marvelous, and we are also embedded in this deep and marvelous, Earth and Universe…  

Within all of our worries of war and climate change, it is good to sit back and savor the miracle of existence…

Namaste

  

Smokable Tasks

My wife was reading the latest MAPS Bulletin, that is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies update, Vol XXXI, No 3, 2021, pages 3-4.  

She mentioned to me that Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director, in his “From the Desk of” mentions that in the detailed employment manual of MAPS corporation is a concept of “smokable tasks.”  

I quote “These are work tasks, different for each staff person, that they think, and their manager agrees, they do better while under the influence of marijuana.”  

He goes on to mention that “Smokable tasks for me primarily include strategizing, protocol design, and editing of regulatory submissions…”  

My first response was laughter…  

My second response was to think about this new concept…  

I then read his whole introduction to the current Bulletin.  

He outlines how they grew from 3 staff in the year 2000, feeling like a small family, to 15 staff members in 2011, and now to 140 full time staff, with another 100 part time therapists.  

He outlines how that are now a family of corporations, with standard operating procedures, career ladders, and human resource staff.  

He then relates that Smokable Tasks are one way to retain “the soul of MAPS...”  

The first thing that comes to my mind is who exactly is Rick’s manager, agreeing to his smokable tasks?  

Personally, I like the idea that people can regulate their drug use.  

We let people drink caffeine, often supplied as a perk of the workplace.   

As a teenage pothead myself, I always felt that cannabis was a much safer drug than alcohol.  

I do not advocate driving on cannabis.  It does impair your performance:  

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2788264

However, it felt to me that I was more likely to drive too slow than to drive too fast and recklessly, as one might with the use of alcohol.  

That JAMA article above also mentioned that at 1 hour and 30 minutes, people high on cannabis thought they could drive just fine, when they actually were driving impaired.  

I also remember from my youth, writing down something that I thought was profound, while high on cannabis, later to read it when sober, and thinking, “perhaps not so profound…”    

What is clear is that alcohol is the greater source of violence, especially a factor in domestic violence.  And you can’t die from a THC overdose…

https://drugabuse.com/blog/marijuana-vs-alcohol/

In one study:  “Subjective aggression significantly increased following aggression exposure in all groups while being sober. Alcohol intoxication increased subjective aggression whereas cannabis decreased the subjective aggression following aggression exposure.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4988999/

 We moved to Colorado, from Wisconsin almost 6 years ago, thinking that eventually we might use cannabis in a counseling practice, using cannabis in a protocol similar to the use of psychedelics.  

We then explored the now legal use of cannabis, keeping our experience notes in a journal… 

When I was a teenager and through college, cannabis was my preferred drug.  

Within our recent explorations, I found I prefer a glass of a nice red wine after work to cannabis.  

Must be my aging brain…  

But, kudos to Rick and MAPS!  

As I have written before, I am an advocate of making all drugs legal…  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/addictions.html

Namaste

Semper Gumby

As I have said before, I read a lot, and widely, paper and online… 

How in 68 years have I never heard of this…  

Read this in The NY Times, article about the Mexican Army using this as an informal motto.  

Of course, I’ve heard of Semper Fi, Semper Fidelis, the motto of the Marines, Always Faithful.  

Apparently, Semper Gumby has a whole (short) Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semper_Gumby

Of course, this means Always Flexible, in “Dog Latin.”  

I assume everyone knows of the flexible green cartoon character, Gumby…   

Apparently, informally used by a number of armed forces, as well as FEMA and the Civil Air Patrol.  

True Latin would be Semper Flexibilis…  

I like it! 

Not that I was a big fan of the Gumby and Pokey show.  

I tended toward watching Bugs Bunny, Mighty Mouse, Flintstones, The Jetsons, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Popeye, Mr Magoo, Snagglepuss…   

I am sure I am forgetting some great cartoons…  

I like the underlying idea of being flexible…  

I feel that flexibility is so important for living well in this world.   

As well as being prepared.  

As I write, a great tragedy is unfolding in Europe, where Russia has invaded Ukraine.  

Someone wrote that perhaps war is obsolete in Europe:

https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/why_war_has_become_obsolete_in_europe

However, there have been a great many conflicts since 1945

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Europe

Most seem to be a fallout from the breakup of the former Soviet Union…  

Perhaps, this seems to be the most brazen move by Putin in many years.  

Although, he did annex Crimea in 2014…  

In 2013 I wrote about how we can no longer go to war:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-we-can-no-longer-go-to-war.html

Apparently, I was wrong (again!).  

Well, actually, this is what was the gist of that Blog: 

“My thesis is simple: We can no longer go to war because we have already evolved too far.  We cannot go to war without paying too huge a price of damage to our emotional and spiritual brain-bodies.”  

And I still believe this is true, these individuals, taking another’s life, will never be the same, most of them will become broken, in various ways…  

I see this in my clinic, as various manifestations of PTSD…

Those fighting for what they think is “just.”  Defending their country, and others who cannot defend themselves, may suffer less…  

I can imagine many of the Russian soldier invaders will pay an immense price…  

I am also worried that this will be an excuse for similar moves by China toward Taiwan.  

Then who knows what else.  

As far as being prepared…  

I actually ordered iodine pills for prevention of radiation effects on the thyroid.  

As I wrote previously, I have survivalist tendencies:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-you-survivalist.html

Perhaps I’ll have to add the Coast Guard motto, to Semper Gumby:  

Semper Paratus, Always Prepared, or Always Ready…  

I can only hope that we will never see a nuclear weapon used in war in our lifetime…

I do not have that much faith in humanity…  

I hope I am wrong, and that a nuclear weapon is never used again… 

Namaste

Economic Inequality

My nephew posted an interesting article on crackbook.  

https://www.deseret.com/2022/2/7/22918555/what-ski-towns-tell-us-about-the-countrys-inequality-crisis-affordable-housing-healthcare?fbclid=IwAR16sXEam2P5YHC1vbZIAoAv_IUPz4lRoS0Yj76bzZRfRjITtrHbz2O3trk

A few quotes:

“…a metric called the Gini coefficient that measures inequality by plotting dispersion of income. A Gini coefficient of 0 indicates perfect equality while 1 means total inequality.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent American Community Survey, the national Gini coefficient is .48. Aspen’s is .56.    …an indicator for how far apart the haves and have-nots are. 

Those disparities are wide and getting wider across the West. According to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy’s self-sufficiency standard published in 2018, in Aspen’s Pitkin County, a family of two (an adult and a preschooler) needs an annual income of $71,274 to make ends meet. That’s way above the 2021 federal poverty benchmark of $17,420 for a family of two, and the highest standard in the state.  …one in four families is struggling to pay their bills.”  

A very complex problem here.  

Do you do what you love, skiing, being outdoors, in a place you love to live, the Mountain West, and live in a rented hovel, because you can’t make enough money to live decently, or do you move to an area that is more affordable, perhaps doing a job that would make more money, but not be as much fun?  

It seems that the alternative, evolving to a more compassionate society, where the wealth is more equitably shared, is not going to happen anytime soon.  

I was lucky…  

I did delay gratification by investing in training longer and at lower wages, which enabled me to earn more later.  

But I was able to train in something that was both satisfying and relatively easy for me, first basic science and then medicine. 

I also spent 25 years in academic medicine, which pays about half of what I now earn in private practice…  

Still, I was paid a very decent living wage, had a house and helped put my kids through college…  

Many people to not have the skills and/or training to make enough money in our current society.  

It feels to me that most of us are living in challenging times…   

The rich keep getting richer, and the poor poorer…  

We seem to be sliding toward authoritarianism, worldwide…  

Through the years I often hear young people call for revolution, perhaps a violent overthrow of the world order and how it operates currently.  

Perhaps that makes the most sense for those who do not see a viable future for themselves…  

I do not believe that is the best way for anyone…

But, perhaps, some sort of shake up is needed… 

Drumpf did shake us up, some of us toward more compassion:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/08/trump-is-lsd.html

I am just not sure we were shaken up enough to change toward sufficient compassion…  

Change is difficult… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2022/01/methods-of-belief.html

I do not pretend to know what might be in the future…  

I can only hope that enough voters can feel that the road that we are traveling currently is not toward one of more compassion…  

And vote for those who can change society toward an increased sharing of wealth…  

As I’ve written before:

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/08/black-lives-matter.html

Provide everyone with basic living conditions, eliminate homelessness, dire poverty, fear for personal and family safety, opportunity for education and economic advancement,

And,

 

Give everyone a reason to exist, even if it is the smallest ability to help another…

Namaste

Methods of Belief

I’ve been worried about our country…

Feels to me we are heading down a path toward authoritarian rule…  

Perhaps I am too worried because I do not understand enough about history.  

Perhaps things were as bad or worse during the times of McCarthyism, with communist witch hunts…  

I remember as a teenager the strife in this country regarding the Vietnam war.  

At that time acting as a hippie, with long hair, smoking cigarettes and pot, taking LSD trips, marching against The War…  

Also rebelling by skipping my high school classes, and barely graduating…  

Inside, I still feel more hippie, rather than establishment.

I maintain responsibility for my patients, and economic responsibility for my family…  

However, I remain a heretic in my beliefs that our medical system is largely broken, particularly for those with chronic pain and psychological disease…  

What has most been troublesome to me is what seems to be a downward slide toward anti-science…  

Reading this morning an article in the NYTimes, an interview with Neal Stephenson, dated Jan 9, 2022.  

This was about his climate-change-focused book “Termination Shock.”   I ordered it, not read, as of yet, coming Monday…

He had an interesting take on methods of belief.  

He was reading a book from the 1870’s by Charles Sanders Peirce “The Fixation of Belief.”  

Peirce listed 4 methods of belief:

1-Tenacity – you decide what you believe, and stick to it, logic and evidence have no effect…  

2-Authority – you believe what someone “above you” tells you to believe…  

3-A Priori – peer agreement by consensus of people around you…  

4-Scientific Method – dating back to Hooke and Newton, where in the 1600’s for the first time persons starting using experimentation in order to gain information, pointing toward truth, and being willing to change belief based on the results of experimentation.  

I actually only see three methods of belief:  Authority, A Priori, Scientific method…  

I think of Tenacity as the strength of belief, and inability to change…  

As a scientist I have seen scientists fall for Authority and A Priori, due to Tenacity…  

Additionally, A Priori, or consensus building, is the basis of hypothesis development, which is the first step before Scientific Experimentation, where you then obtain evidence to support your hypothesis, or to refute your hypothesis…    

There was then a link to an article about Katharine Hayhoe, who is both a climate scientist and an evangelical Christian (NYTimes Dec 29, 2021).  

She spoke about Jonathan Haidt, who says that people make up their minds, and then find information to support what they believe, labeled as “Moral Judgment.”  

She brings up examples of people dying of Covid, denying that they have Covid.  And then relates this to persons rejecting relatively simple protection from Covid such as vaccination and masking.  

She then relates this to Climate Change Denial…  

Getting back to Neal Stephenson, he has an interesting take on the possible solution to addressing climate change, and that might relate to “Greed.”  

If persons can make money on methods to combat climate change, any of many possible methods, we might be able to get a hold of this problem…  

I feel that there are only a small percentage of people who can actually change beliefs, even when confronted with compelling evidence…  

Yet, contemplating these articles actually gives me hope.  

I do not think that people have changed for the worse, we are mostly a primitive, so far, poorly evolved species.  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

I feel that economic stress and the Covid pandemic has uncovered how primitive we are…  

We may have dug quite a deep hole with previously electing Drumf and similar politicians, and then packing the Supreme court with conservatives…  

This country may not be able to dig itself out in my lifetime..  

However, there will be those who are dismayed by this turn of events, and then, perhaps, pushed to evolving to a more compassionate level, hopefully, long-term, leading to a more just and compassionate country…  

Perhaps I am just a foolish optimist…  

I hope not… 

Namaste