Weed with retro games.

[TheSonicRetard]

often

nope

[Tasuke]

I don't think there's anything wrong with saying you don't like it, but picking up eddiespruce's mantle and being adamantly opposed seems a bit ridiculous.

Are there a large amount of morons who drink/smoke? Yes. It's not really fair to generalize though. And it's not fair to demonize something just because you don't agree with it. I think it's best to just state your case and be done with it, as opposed to try and beat a dead horse by further reaffirming a stance everyone already knows that you've taken.

cool. i just feel that those who choose to imbibe should do so with UTMOST care and responsibility,
for the sake of themselves, as well as those around them they care about.

this is, after all, the kind of stuff that, if abused, and not kept under a strict modicum of self-control, CAN and WILL cause multiple forms of grievous damage
to an individual, and possibly, by direct extension, to their loved ones as well...

[Kamahl]

EDIT: I'm aware of that Knuckleduster, simply saying that the situation does actually happen. And in the situation of people using it as a crutch for their own failures, the weed doesn't help the situation. For example that person I mentioned earlier at this point has blown enough money to buy a small house on drugs.

No different from Alcohol, Tobacco or World of Warcraft.

[TVC 15]

Man, I can't handle more than 2-3 cups of tea a day (the hard english stuff) without getting disorientated from the caffeine, too much tea and then trying to play something with a 3D Z axis and I'm nauseous.

I tried pot once drunk after a night out and... proceeded to tidy my mates bedroom up for an hour before going to sleep.

Maybe I should do it more often, it made me quite productive that night.

[goldenband]

The worst thing I can say about pot is that it tends to encourage people to crawl up their own asses, metaphorically speaking. When certain of my friends get baked, they get this disconnected look in their eyes, and talking to them makes me feel as if, to them, I'm nothing more than an interesting bug under a microscope. It reminds me of certain sociopaths I've met over the years (but without the violent rages, malignant narcissism and so forth).

Having said that, give me a pothead any day over a drunk. I can hold my liquor just fine, and don't become a different person under the influence, but a lot of people become belligerent, maudlin, and/or destructive. In vino veritas, and you get to find out who's crazy after a few glasses of wine (or a few shots of tequila), but I'd rather minimize the crazy in my life.

BTW, to those who think that pot = becoming a do-nothing who lives in his parents' basement....um, Pink Floyd? Carl Sagan? There are shitloads of creative people who use it on a regular basis, since they find its effects help to stimulate the imaginative process and disinhibit their intuition. If it worked for me I might well do the same, but despite multiple attempts (many years in the past, mind) it seems to have absolutely zero effect on me. So mild sleep deprivation, lucid dreaming, and/or the occasional glass of Chartreuse do the trick instead.

[Kamahl]

lucid dreaming

Teach me master!

[goldenband]

Teach me master!

Ha! Stay up very late, and sleep very late. Or, take naps. Eventually you'll experience recurring hypnagogic states, and it's a short step from that to lucid dreaming.

Either way, it's the only time that I can turn on my mind's eye. I have a strong "mind's ear" and can imagine music and sound pretty fluently, but can't visualize worth a damn. I'm given to understand that some people can close their eyes and see a chessboard in their mind, or rotate an object in three dimensions, which is pretty much unimaginable to me -- except when I'm seven-eighths asleep.

[Kamahl]

Ha! Stay up very late, and sleep very late. Or, take naps. Eventually you'll experience recurring hypnagogic states, and it's a short step from that to lucid dreaming.

Man due to school I've been awake till 6-7am and then went to sleep like 4 days in a row, no lucid dreaming or whatever .

Either way, it's the only time that I can turn on my mind's eye. I have a strong "mind's ear" and can imagine music and sound pretty fluently, but can't visualize worth a damn. I'm given to understand that some people can close their eyes and see a chessboard in their mind, or rotate an object in three dimensions, which is pretty much unimaginable to me -- except when I'm seven-eighths asleep.

Yeah my "mind's ear" is pretty awesome too, let's just say I don't even need an mp3 player. I can visualize stuff but only very "low-def" and for only short periods. My mind shifts attention to the stuff in my eyes (when they're closed you see those weird moving things).

[Nunzio]

I recommend against practicing lucid dreaming. If you manage to become good at it you can literally sleep your life away playing God. And there is a really negative factor to going deep within your own subconscious, everything that happens up there is on you, and you can find out a lot of things about your true nature you wish you hadn't.

[TheSonicRetard]

I've suffered from extreme sleep paralysis ever since I was little (I usually have it once or twice a month to this day). Lucid dreaming sounds like a blast, but it's pretty much the opposite side of the fence for me. I'd absolutely love to be able to lucid dream, but actions which invoke it can also invoke episodes of sleep paralysis for me.

Thus it remains a (tempting) forbidden fruit for me. Anyone who can experience it, especially at will, is a lucky individual. We're not all that fortunate.

[TheSonicRetard]

I recommend against practicing lucid dreaming. If you manage to become good at it you can literally sleep your life away playing God. And there is a really negative factor to going deep within your own subconscious, everything that happens up there is on you, and you can find out a lot of things about your true nature you wish you hadn't.

I don't personally believe in god, so that's no problem for me. Part of the reason I grew up programming and went and got my degree in comp sci is that I feel like I can play god within the context of the computer.

I completely know where you're coming from when you advise against going into the darkest regions of your mind, though. It's that reason that I wouldn't recommend mushrooms to everybody, because they will force you to fully confront and explore every facet of your being. For some people, that's just not advisable. For me, personally, it was incredibly eye opening and rewarding.

[Kamahl]

I recommend against practicing lucid dreaming. If you manage to become good at it you can literally sleep your life away playing God. And there is a really negative factor to going deep within your own subconscious, everything that happens up there is on you, and you can find out a lot of things about your true nature you wish you hadn't.

Dude you're only making me want to do it more! Go see that Tyrone Biggums video posted on the previous page to realize what you just did .
I have a friend that's a total master at it... but the guy quit school for a whole year (not due to lucid dreaming, he started trying it out since he had a lot of free time).

[goldenband]

Man due to school I've been awake till 6-7am and then went to sleep like 4 days in a row, no lucid dreaming or whatever

Some people suggest incorporating a recurring cue to habituate you, like a flashing light or a beep. I don't think there's anything magical about sleeping very late -- it's just that at that hour, there's likely to be sound or light in your environment that'll help bring you up to near-consciousness.

I recommend against practicing lucid dreaming. If you manage to become good at it you can literally sleep your life away playing God. And there is a really negative factor to going deep within your own subconscious, everything that happens up there is on you, and you can find out a lot of things about your true nature you wish you hadn't.

Heh, that reminds me of a passage in the fantasy series Twilight of the Gods by Dennis Schmidt (based on Norse mythology, obviously) where the hero has his eye ripped out...and put back facing inward. When he opens it, he sees himself committing every conceivable atrocity, and goes temporarily mad. But then he knows himself fully, and is no longer held hostage to those parts of himself he's afraid to face.

It's along the same lines as the quote by Goethe: "There is no crime of which I cannot imagine myself capable" -- a testament not to his depravity, but to the idea that we can recognize our destructive impulses without embracing them. In other words, we all have that capacity within us, but by acknowledging it we actually allow ourselves to master it -- whereas by trying to ignore or repress it, we risk having it burst out unpredictably.

EDIT: I've never had sleep paralysis, and yeah, I've worried that playing around with lucid dreaming might make it more likely. It sounds terrifying.

[Nunzio]

I don't personally believe in god, so that's no problem for me. Part of the reason I grew up programming and went and got my degree in comp sci is that I feel like I can play god within the context of the computer.

Thou art God. The ability to do anything and everything at the same time is too much for most people, I know it was for me. At least at this point in my life it is way too much to handle.

Sorry Kamahl. I might as well have handed you one of these

[TheSonicRetard]

EDIT: I've never had sleep paralysis, and yeah, I've worried that playing around with lucid dreaming might make it more likely. It sounds terrifying.

From everything I've read about sleep paralysis, it sounds like there is a strong genetic tendency. Tons of people in my extended family have it, so I'm inclined to believe it. Similarly, my older sister used to sleep walk, which is essentially the exact opposite of sleep paralysis.

It's terrifying, though. For years, and years as a kid I thought I was being visited by aliens. I'd wake up and start hallucinating bizarre terrifying faces in my window, unable to move. Actually, I can show you exactly what they looked like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kN8B...eature=related

EXACTLY like that. Note that I used to see those faces long before that game was released. When I stumbled upon that picture in 1993, I can't describe the terror it invoked in me. Probably the single scariest moment of my life.

I will say, however, that education on the subject has really alleviated the problem. The hallucinations and terror from sleep paralysis stems from panic, and I've learned to remain calm when it happens. If I just keep my eyes closed, and keep calm, I can control it all. Sometimes I even find it interesting. But it's still a concern.