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Old 08.10.2016, 10:36 AM   #72
Severian
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What I think is happening here is that you're reading "toxic" as "bad." But it's valueless. Again, it's a cold, clinical word.

And you have to remember that the scientific and medical communities don't operate under the presupposition that mushrooms are **spiritual. When talking about the pharmacological effects of a substance in the body, there is a taxonomy in place to categorize and define the effects of substances. You have to be open to the fact that the established scientific view of mushrooms is irrevocably tied up in the legality of their consumption. Therefore, what we call a "high", or you call a "quest", is in cold laboratory terminology, called "toxicity." The people who study these drugs and establish these terms view the mushroom "highs" you and I have had — the ones we cherish in our memories — as BAD things.

You seem to have a lot of extremely one sided views on a lot of topics, SFAD. I respect your position here, and I understand where you're coming from, because frankly, in my personal experience, mushrooms have been largely a ton of fun, but that's not how the medical establishment or scientific community views them, or their effects.

By arguing so intensely against the words I've used, you've managed to sound rather egocentric, as though your experience is THE experience. But most of the world still views these things as highly illegal, dangerous, and yeah, toxic drugs. You can't reasonably punish me for using the sci community's terminology, and you certainly can't reasonably call my intelligence into question for doing so.


(** I could argue just as tirelessly against this adjective as you have against "toxic," only my argument would make sense. What is "spiritual?" (Don't actually answer that... please) ... What evidence supports this word being used as an operational definition of the properties of psilocybin? Saying they're "spiritual" only muddies the waters further by assigning a whole lot of unmeasurable significance to a fucking fungus. I'm not saying they're NOT spiritual (or, rather, that they don't have a history of being used in a spiritual or meditative capacity by cultures and individuals), but you can't have a scientific discussion and then start bandying about words like that. If you want to have a cultural or philosophical discussion about mushrooms, then we can talk about spirituality. But for Christ's sake, choose a door and walk through it!
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