The unmoored mind

[scaleness]

Reading about Cary Grant's experience with LSD is a great way to disillusion yourself about LSD. Not that taking LSD was bad for Grant... if anything, it was a positive experience, freeing him from a lot of neuroses and probably making him a better artist. But finding out how narrow-minded he remained in many ways -- along with his sexism and

Comments

[_wastrel]

I'm afraid I'm still every bit as thanatophobic as I used to be... My life is too tied up with my situation in a way that's not conducive to detachment, and I'm... close enough to it that I keep needing to be reminded of why I should be afraid of it, if that makes any sense. But it's good to hear that getting out of it seems to have been mostly a positive experience for you, if it's serving as a buffer from existential horror that allows you to take a step back without feeling overwhelmed by it.

I'd never be able to teach the way you describe either, but I'd also love to hear about your experience doing so when you do. It may seem sentimental to you, but in addition to the specifics being interesting to me on their own given the sociolinguistic element, I've also come to like when people I know make long-term plans. It means that on at least some level they're planning to be around for a while, you know?

[scaleness]

Yeah, and that's another aspect of my situation... I have the luxury that my survival is pretty much guaranteed. When I think of it that way, it makes sense that I'd start to think less about surviving and more about what makes me happy in the immediate.

I hope I'm able to teach in the way I describe! :) Getting in front of a classroom is still an intimidating thought, but it's scary to be a university student, too, or at least I think so...

[_wastrel]

I think that humankind as a whole should be getting a chance to think more about what makes us happy in the immediate than about survival... I'd argue that the entire point of making survival concerns less immediate for most of us is that this is the right way to live. When we have post-scarcity, we can do things because we're compelled to, not because we're being forced to, which is a significant improvement. If we have a model for that, maybe we'll build on it.

Being a university student can be absolutely terrifying, I can certainly attest to that right now. :P But I've never been easy to get along with either, and I'd hug you through the screen in a heartbeat if there was such a thing, even sober. ^.^