DwayneHoover
Bluelighter
I gave him the benefit of the doubt and took it as a delicious pun, actually. :D
Keep in mind that often people posting on bluelight have had a joint or two or whatever, and are just shooting the shit in a friendly way most of the time. Spelling errors aren't any type of valid indicator of age or intelligence. That's just silly, there are tons of people who are brilliant and quite capable but not gifted in linguistics.
As an extreme example, one of my professors is a world-renowned polymer chemist that is so dyslexic he often misspells the word 'polymer'! (in all sorts of different goofy permutations). :D But despite his linguistic handicap, he has impeccable visuospatial ability and has the ability to think about problems in very unique ways. I'm sure he would never trade his personal strong suit for an ability as common as accurate spelling.
I guess my point is this: it's easy to sound intelligent on the board by writing eloquently and whatnot-- but what really matters is the content. In the OP's case, I think the question was thought-provoking and valid-- so let us forgive him of his minor spelling mistake and make the best out of this thread-- it seems to have a lot of potential for interesting discussion.
I was just giving him a little ribbing... I realize to complain about spelling is especially shallow. (Although "l" is quite far from "e" on the keyboard so it was definitely not a slip of the finger, I'm sure he meant to use "roll"... I don't think a buzz would result in that error either... that's why I suggested maybe English being a 2nd language... homonym substitutions being very common in such a circumstance when writing is involved... oh crap, here I go again, sorry! I guess actually I find the error interesting... I'll presume it was an intended pun)
Not to throw cold water on what, you are right, is a very interesting question.
My view on their "roll" is that psychedelics are like molecules of a chemical catalyst, which usually need only tiny amounts to speed up a large volume of chemical reaction.
Our minds normally fixate on certain patterns of seeing things and believing things and functioning in general. Which would lead to an extremely rigid, angry, punitive society that would try to punish those who saw or believed differently.
But psychedelics loosen thing up in the few who do them, allowing much more flexible ideas and attitudes. Since we are such an intensely social species, others see these "Far Better Ideas" that those with freed thinking have had and they spread like wildfire.
Not just better ideas had during the experience, but in creating a more expansive view of things, they engender more flexible thinking patterns after coming down. They make you smarter and more LIKELY to have good ideas.
I also recall the huge power of the Sense Of Wonder effect. Before, I was just plodding along my path in life, but the experiences showed me so much about how miraculous our existence is, that I emerged with a far greater enthusiasm and energy.
I also grew a new level of empathy and compassion for the suffering and feelings of others.
In all these ways, the Awakened, Psychedelicized individual becomes much more creative and dynamic and open to new ideas and new ways of being, plus more accepting of others' differences.
Then, being such a social species, the Far Better Ideas that sprout from us take root in others and spread, affecting everyone without their even realizing it.
ALSO: I think they have been around so long that they must have had a major effect on us as a species. SOOOO many great new viewpoints and ideas, our culture would be a far more boring, fascistic place without them. But also I think we would have physically evolved differently.
Some animals do not appear to respond to psychedelics, hence one could suggest it is a response that evolution learned. Those populations whose brains did not respond to them were possibly more stupid and rigid, being without the synergistic benefits of even a few people using them then spreading their superior ways of thinking, and died off.
Didn't Terrence McKenna propose that mushrooms may be responsible for kindling the very development of language itself?
I saw on some nature special that it is believed an exceedingly tiny number of homo sapiens made it thru the last great ice age... they found artifacts in some caves in the cliffs of one of the few areas that would have remained temperate. Maybe a mere few thousands of us. So perhaps as it started getting colder, a small population of homo sapiens who had become more creative thinkers due to exposure to mushrooms had enough clever ideas to live thru the ice age. Also obviously the survivors had developed language, maybe due to psychedelics, necessary to think and plan and especially communicate "Hey Ogg... it's gotten alot colder since my grandfather was around... maybe we better start making plans and preparations to move south... Oh and go tell that other tribe across the valley what we're doing and suggest that they move too."
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