Heresy

[Bekah]

I think this boils down to how close an "idea of what it's like"  has  
to be to the experienced reality.   No words and photos can reproduce  
reality about anything (as far as I know,  but ...)

Reading about something yields a closer idea than no idea at all.    
Being around people who are using it at the time gets you much closer  
to knowing.    (We had  "guides,"  but I was in the kind of earlier  
days of harder stuff - none of this psychedelic speed which I hear is  
peddled now.)   It's like being "in love" -  You can know from hearing  
and reading about it, even having your best friend experience it -   
but  until you're there -  the phrase  "in love" is  just words.   But  
even they're  "just words"  you do get some idea of what being in love  
is going to be like.   Nevertheless,  when you're there it's "an  
experience."

Bekah


On Sep 13, 2009, at 1:07 AM, John Carvill wrote:

> 2009/9/12 alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>:
>> John Carvill wrote:
>>> One thing that absolutely *can* be articulated about LSD is this: if
>>> you haven't taken it, then you have no idea what it's like.
>>> Consequently, you have no real basis for judging what (or whether)
>>> insights can be gained from taking  it.
>>
>> No. This is false. Humans don't need to have experiential knowledge  
>> to
>> have an idea of what another human with such knowledge has
>> experienced.
>
> With LSD, yes they do. You can't know LSD without first-hand
> experience of taking it. That's an axiom.

http://web.mac.com/bekker2/