David Pearce on Hedonism.

Shawn

Nowadays life seems to be not about work; but, making it more enjoyable.

As some of you may know, I have been a very avid nootropics and life enhancement enthusiast. I can disclose a fundamental reason towards to this source of motivation. Namely, as simply as put, I want to enjoy my life rather than wallow all the time. There is a fantastic website made by David Pearce and his sort of manifesto towards this sentiment entailed through much more work and research into the topic than what can be possibly describable or fathom.

I suggest taking a look at this awesome guy's landing page.

I would like to frame the issue as best I can towards the issue of drug addiction. People experience stress, and stress causes a desire towards its abatement or relief from this dysphoric mood. Most people have their everyday workings in order; but, I was born with a very strong ADHD tendency towards the relief from stress from my own disorder. Fundamentally, this entails that I am driven towards a lot of stimulus to keep myself constantly calm and comforted. However, such a life with a constant drive towards the desire for new sensations and stimulus is really awkward in maintaining. This sort of life manifests in either two ways at polar ends. On the one end a person, very easily, falls into an inescapable trap towards some economic activity, and enriches him or herself, whilst becoming a sort of money junkie, which I am. On the other hand, which I have also maintained, and am now striving towards, or as a natural occurrence of the process of aging, is the fulfillment of sort sort of life of tranquility, harmony, and dissipated order.

OK, back to the topic. People who live with too much stress or are confronted with the constant barrage of stress face a fundamental obstacle. Namely, this obstacle, is that of drug seeking. It is estimated that a large percentage of people seek stimulation in terms of either opiodergenic, dopaminergic, or serotonin inputs that calm the mind. Too many people struggle with insomnia, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, and the whole host of issues due to not being able to maintaining a stable mindset in a chaotic and ever changing world.

I can disclose that the drug of choice for people, is namely, nicotine, alcohol, benzodiazapines, antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, attention deficit disorder drugs for hedonistic inputs, and the deluxe. People do not necessarily need hedonistic drugs, and the purpose of this thread is not a goal driven desire towards more sensation, input, and stimulation; but, rather the need for homeostasis.

Let me elaborate. The drug levels of therapeutic efficacy is very nuanced and highly variable for each individual. For example, 15mg of Methylphenidate may not be enough for a male, whilst for a female, might be all too much. This leads to a promotion of hedonistic tendencies, due to an indeterminate dose of a drug, that always builds up tolerance towards its effects. I have wailed over this fact that drugs cause a person to ever-so increase their dose. I admire people who can maintain a dose in the therapeutic efficacy despite what ailment or predicament they may feel towards their own dysphoric moods or non-regulated homeostatic states of being.

Now, with all that said, this is the purpose of hedonism, which has often been so confused and convoluted about its imperative. It is NOT to achieve some higher states of being; but, rather (very fundamentally) to become satisfied within one's own self or "skin".

I would not like to propose a drug, that I am currently on that is called JDTic. This is a drug, that relieves a person from the aforementioned desire for more stimulus. It relieves, the coke, amphetamine, caffeine, and nicotine urge to redose', and allows a person to enjoy themselves without a minimum threshold of stimulation that constantly needs to be maintained or increased. Such a state can mathematically, or formally described as homeostasis.

I now welcome some discussion on how a person may want or desire to enjoy themselves without a threshold that is desired or needed to be maintained or increased.

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

*(David Pearce offers JDTic in small amounts for a very reasonable price from the UK) - I even take some, and enjoy my life even more!

Shawn

Really awesome schtuff:

https://www.abolitionist.com/transhumanism/empathetic-superintelligence.pdf

Pfhorrest

I didn’t read this thread before, but came here from your suggested David Pearce interview thread, and along with completely agreeing with that Hedonic Initiative you linked, this quoted bit really stands out to me:

allows a person to enjoy themselves without a minimum threshold of stimulation that constantly needs to be maintained or increased. — Shawn

I’ve always been the kind of person who never gets bored, because my own mind is full of my own interesting thoughts to entertain me. I’ve also pretty much never even been tempted to do recreational drugs. Most all of my suffering in life has come from negative stimuli, not any absence of positive stimuli.

Most of 2019, I found myself suddenly and inexplicably struck with existential dread the likes of which I had never experienced before. It was only then that I understood what people talked about when they searched for a “meaning of life”. To me that had always seemed like a non-question, but suddenly I understood it, the feeling like there's some bottomless hole in one's soul that needs to be constantly filled by... something. From my perspective, it seemed the usual hedonic order had been flipped around: instead of feeling fine by default as long as nothing awful was happening, I felt awful by default unless some positive stimulus pushed me out of it, temporarily filled that hole inside of me, the hole that had never been there for my entire life before.

The thought that for a lot of people that empty feeling, the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life, is their normal, is terrible, and I’d love if something could be done to alleviate it for them.

I’ve also thought before that introversion and extroversion might be related to this, since from my introverted perspective, it seems to me like introverts are people who neither need to dump their excess emotions on others nor charge up on others’ emotions, maintaining emotional homeostasis alone, whereas extroverts need other people to give or take stimulation from them in order to achieve emotional balance.

Shawn

↪Pfhorrest

Yes, it's interesting to note that for most people, hedonism is associated with this notion of drug craving or seeking. It's interesting to note that many people need peak experiences in life to endow it with meaning. Drugs like hallucinogens or cannabis can alleviate these feelings of lack of meaning in life sometimes. I also know that in 12 Steps from the AA book, it's meantioned that spiritual experiences are worth having to shift one's focus from a drug like alcohol to something more beneficial.

Mostly, that quote I made, is definitely due to addressing the misconception that drugs are needed to "boost" or constantly increase some neurotransmitters in the brain to enhance one's life.

I haven't been too active recently with drugs, as I seem past that novelty seeking behavior in a manner.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing from David Pearce.

Pfhorrest

It's interesting to note that many people need peak experiences in life to endow it with meaning. Drugs like hallucinogens or cannabis can alleviate these feelings of lack of meaning in life sometimes. — Shawn

Yeah, even though I'd never experienced existential dread until 2019, I had had plenty of peak experiences here and there throughout my life, all naturally without drugs or anything, and while I really enjoyed them, I never found them like, religiously significant or anything. I did find them very useful: I could be very productive and come up with a lot of really good creative thoughts while having such feelings. Interestingly, friends I know who have done drugs like that and attained peak experiences that way would sometimes tell me that I sounded like someone who had just come back from a "really good trip" when I described the ideas I'd come up with.

David Pearce on Hedonism.

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