“ Life is too short to be small. ” - Benjamin Disraeli
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Albert Einstein
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” Aldous Huxley
“ Education should be "not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire." ” - William Butler Yeats
"There isn't any formula or method. You learn to love by loving - by paying attention and doing what one thereby discovers has to be done." Aldous Huxley
Sam Harris is ... Roland Griffiths is ...
Conversation link tweeted on 21st November ... 122.39 ...
35 min in ... MDMA/ecstasy ... yes does have a dopaminergic effect and can produce dependence?
Around 70 minutes indiscuss low dose psilocybin and meditation practice.
“ There is more to life than increasing its speed. ” - Gandhi
"And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been." Rainer Maria Rilke
“ The body is only as open as the heart; and the heart only as open as wisdom allows. ” - Anonymous
"Today we can walk around together, talk, eat, and be silent together. Later I believe we'll have the opportunity to act and suffer together. All that is necessary to 'make someone's acquaintance' as they say." Pierre Sogol, professor of mountaineering, speaking in Rene Daumal's book "Mount Analogue".
'Breaking Convention' - the fifth biennial international conference on psychedelics - took place at Greenwich University in London from 16th-18th August. There were apparently 1,200 or so attendees for the 6 concurrent programmes - academic, workshop, performance, cinema, entertainment & installations - as well as an art exhibition. I went primarily because it allowed me to hear pretty much all the relevant research groups in the UK present on their current findings. As you can see from the other quite extensive writing about psychedelics on this website, I'm very interested in the encouraging emerging research highlighting potential therapeutic value of psychedelics. Although I focussed on the academic programme, there was much too much even here to manage an ove
“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.
” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
" ... the current system for bringing promising biomedical research to the bedside is operating at an obsolete level of efficiency, causing great delay, and consequently resulting in the loss of many lives." Roger Rosenberg (JAMA 2003;289:1305-6)
"Any unexplained phenomenon passes through three stages before the reality of it is accepted. During the first stage it is considered laughable. During the second stage, it is adamantly opposed. Finally, during the third stage, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer
“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.
” - Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO
"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." Eden Phillpotts
"You'll never enjoy the word aright, until the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars." Thomas Traherne
“The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice
” - Martin Luther King
"To reach the other shore with each step of the crossing is the way of true living." Shunryu Suzuki
"My house having burnt down, nothing now impedes my bright vision of the moon." Zen saying
“Do you want to hear my favourite procrastination joke? I'll tell you later.
” - Piers Steel
"No man was ever wise by chance." Lucius Seneca
"Who will prefer the jingle of jade pendants if he once has heard stone growing in a cliff?" Lao Tzu
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as real strength
” - Ralph Sockman
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. J. K. Galbraith
It's important to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out. Traditional
