I'm imagining a hoard of angry Taoists led by the ghost of Le Guin very upset that the wisdom was not paid for in accordance with the inscrutable decisions made by capitalist lawmakers.
A complicated question. They assert copyright, but whether or not that would hold up in a court of law in any given jurisdiction is still largely an open question.
I will second using “the 36 questions that lead to love” to create close connections quickly.
Combine this with MDMA to supercharge the intensity and speed of connection. This can also be done with a group of 3 to create a tight group that instantly has each other’s backs.
It's true that the A in MDMA stands for amphetamine as noted below, but saying that people who use MDMA like amphetamines is like saying that people who use table salt like chlorine. It's the best kind of correct, but misleading.
Clean MDMA is increasingly hard to come by. If you have a good plug, consider yourself lucky. But in the year of our lord 2025, almost all crystalline or powder recreational compounds have been stepped on to an absurd degree.
1. Longevity. The longer you’ve been friends the more likely you’ll be friends in the future.
2. Trust. Trust in a relationship is anti-fragile. The more times trust is partially damaged but restored, the stronger it becomes.
3. Meaning. The story “we met while looking for friends to do MDMA with, and now we are attached” is cute when you’re 23. What those people mean to you is that you are lovable and able to form bonds out in the world. Good! But shallow.
TLDR; it may be an effective way to have intense but shallow and short-lived connections
Before I tried this process I would have agreed with you, however, we focus on longevity when it’s really intimacy that leads to deep lasting connections. It’s just that with the decades long friendships there is more time and opportunity for intimacy, vulnerability, and going through some shit together.
MDMA + the 36 questions is deep intimacy, vulnerability, and often going through some shit together.
We’re also not seeking friends to do MDMA with. On a few occasions, we’ve met interesting people that there is a strong initial spark of connection with and let them know about the practice. These friendships are now very deep and loving even if only a year or 3 old. They are anything but shallow.
As for short lived, only time will tell, but even if they were to end tomorrow I will have deeply cherished the present experience of these connections. I have one 10+ year friendship that is fading and while it breaks my heart from time to time, I still love this person and would do it all over again.
I am speaking from experience. The first conflict is always a picture of where a new relationship will lead, and each conflict after that determines whether the relationship will deepen or weaken.
I imagine it’s the kind of thing that has been studied!
> It seems like a really vapid unintentional and artificial way to do this.
It's not like that.
Roughly speaking, MDMA doesn't exactly create an artificial closeness, it's more like it breaks down artificial walls. The effects can last far longer than the high - if you're taking it in the right setting, with the right intention, etc.
> why not just be high on life and try it?
There's a lot to be said for living life drug-free. However, MDMA has genuine therapeutic potential. If a doctor prescribed your friend Prozac, would you say, 'Have you tried not being depressed?' - similar thing. (Yes, some doctors prescribe MDMA.)
This could be. At this point in my life I doubt I’ll become close with anyone who is incurious about psychedelics as there seems to be a strong dividing line in mindset between pre-psychedelic and post-psychedelic humans.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
There are 8.2 billion people alive on Earth ;getting drunk, high or otherwise taking psychoactive drugs is universal among human societies and you think no one has ever had a meaningful or enduring friendship result therefrom?
Do it during the day, properly dosed, don’t mix with alcohol, and get plenty of sleep that night and this is not a problem. The MAPS studies have shown this again and again that the Tuesday blues is related to partying and not intrinsic to the medicine.
there are reagents that can be used to test. I've never used one because I trust my vendor. LSD is almost never cut with stuff (the illegitimate listings usually completely replace with something stupid like NBOMe). Usually if you get real LSD it's not also adulterated. If my vendor were illegitimate I would have died by now since I've taken up to 16 doses at once before.
I would never put a drug ordered off the internet into my body. Pure lab grade LSD which has been tested in an NMR — I probably would. I only have one body and I wouldn’t entrust it to random people on the internet.
I think you could estimate the risk in micromorts from taking LSD from darkweb and find it’s not that different from other activities you do regularly (~multiple times a year, if not more)
You cannot estimate the risk of taking internet LSD, that is the problem.
There is also a history of cutting drugs with other substances to give them a unique effect which brings back return customers (i.e. cutting heroin with fentanyl).
And then there is the possibility that whoever produced the LSD screwed up and/or the end product is not pure.
Have you messed with using it as a virtual display?
I tend to find myself using that feature above everything else. It's been quite handy for traveling and it's enjoyable that you can set your environment and get away. In fact I'm using it right now in a virtual Joshua Tree scene.
It's definitely not for everyone though so I get it.
The latency over AWDL/WiFi is noticeable and I personally am pretty sensitive/intolerant of it. I despise using VNC for the same reason. I have a second Mac that I need to regularly switch between and found it easier to spend hundreds of dollars on video capture equipment than to use Screen Sharing over Ethernet.
I’ve been told the experience with the developer strap is better in that regard. I still would have to 3D print a new light seal that doesn’t block out my lower peripheral vision of the real world (where the fuck is my mouse? Where is the home row?, turns out I use my eyes to answer part of those)
I also never liked how Apple stubbornly doesn’t allow input passthrough. Just let me look and pinch to activate things on my Mac if I want to ( I wouldn’t for everything, but moving windows/files?). I have the same issue with using Sidecar. Like, here’s this device I *always* use touch input on, suddenly not able to.
And I’m sure Apple has some BS reason for it, but personally, I think it’s because they know everyone would realize that a touch screen Mac would work just fine, and they’d no longer be able to artificially segment their products/software fascism with a straight face anymore.
On a larger level, if the active & skilled people are taking the deal, doesn’t it mean they’re likely moving on to something that is a better fit and thus good for society anyway?
