Merkabah
- Thread starter Skarekrow
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KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
I tried that already, didn't take. I think it may have just gotten angrier
Now for a quite strange study.
It is however fascinating and is one of my “power animals".
Enjoy!
(I thought it was Octopi, but apparently both are correct)
When humans take the drug MDMA, versions of which are known as molly or ecstasy, they commonly feel very happy, extraverted, and particularly interested in physical touch.
A group of scientists recently wondered whether this drug might have a similar effect on other species—specifically, octopuses, which are seemingly as different from humans as an animal can be.
The results of their experiment, in which seven octopuses took MDMA, were “unbelievable.”
Just think about an octopus—other than their impressive intelligence, they have little in common with humans.
We’ve been heading along different branches of the evolutionary tree for 500 million years.
Rather than one localized brain with a cortex, or a highly folded outer layer like our brains have, an octopus’s decentralized nervous system includes control centers for each arm in addition to a brain.
Given how different we are, Gül Dölen and her colleague Eric Edsinger wondered whether the chemistry behind human social behaviors—the system controlling the serotonin molecule—also existed in the solitary, asocial octopus.
They began by analyzing the octopus genome, and found that octopuses, too, have genes that seem to code for serotonin transporters, proteins responsible for moving serotonin molecules into brain cells.
Serotonin is the molecule generally considered to be responsible for feeling good.
When humans take MDMA, it binds to serotonin transporter proteins and changes the way serotonin travels between brain cells, likely producing the warm and fuzzy high and perhaps the increased extraversion that the drug is known for.
The fun began when the researchers gave MDMA to seven Octopus bimaculoides octopuses inside laboratory tanks.
They hoped to test whether the animals behaved more socially after receiving a dose of MDMA—a sign that the drug bound to their serotonin transporters.
After hanging out in a bath containing ecstasy, the animals moved to a chamber with three rooms to pick from: a central room, one containing a male octopus and another containing a toy.
This is a setup frequently used in mice studies.
Before MDMA, the octopuses avoided the male octopus.
But after the MDMA bath, they spent more time with the other octopus, according to the study published in Current Biology.
They also touched the other octopus in what seemed to be an exploratory, rather than aggressive, manner.
The scientists took this to mean that despite our vastly different brains, social behavior is built into the very molecules coded by our DNA, Dölen explained.
“An octopus doesn’t have a cortex, and doesn’t have a reward circuit,” Dölen, assistant professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, told Gizmodo. “And yet it’s able to respond to MDMA and produce the same effects, in an animal with a totally different brain organization. To me, that means we really need to appreciate that the business end of these things is at the level of the molecule.”
You’re probably curious: did the octopuses freak out?
The scientists didn’t discuss such behavior in the paper, because it’s hard to quantify without anthropomorphizing the octopuses—Dölen warned me that the following is anecdotal evidence and not scientific observation.
But yes, the octopuses acted like they took ecstasy.
At first, when they received a little too much MDMA, they breathed erratically and turned white.
But on lower doses, one animal “looked like it was doing water ballet,” swimming around with outstretched arms.
Another spent part of the time doing flips, and another seemed especially interested in minor sounds and smells.
“This was such an incredible paper, with a completely unexpected and almost unbelievable outcome,” Judit Pungor, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. “To think that an animal whose brain evolved completely independently from our own reacts behaviorally in the same way that we do to a drug is absolutely amazing.”
There are limitations to the study, of course.
Dölen pointed out that seven octopuses isn’t a large enough sample size to show differences between how males and females react to MDMA.
She’d like to further test the changes in behavior, as well as what happens if they block the serotonin transmitter before giving the MDMA.
Such a test would convince Dölen that she was really seeing the affects of MDMA on serotonin transporters.
Pungor also wanted to test whether the drug would have different effects on octopuses of varying ages, or whether an octopus’s upbringing changed its sociality.
It’s clear that psychoactive drugs like MDMA, LSD, and magic mushrooms are going through a scientific renaissance—they’re being studied as potential treatments for depression and PTSD—and as their stigma decreases, scientists are more open to studying them, and more research funding becomes available.
This could be important for our understanding of animal and human brains.
“People are beginning to recognize that these drugs are powerful tools for understanding how the brain evolved,” Dölen told Gizmodo. “They’re such strong activators of these behaviors. It’s not subtle.”
[Current Biology]
It is however fascinating and is one of my “power animals".
Enjoy!
(I thought it was Octopi, but apparently both are correct)
When humans take the drug MDMA, versions of which are known as molly or ecstasy, they commonly feel very happy, extraverted, and particularly interested in physical touch.
A group of scientists recently wondered whether this drug might have a similar effect on other species—specifically, octopuses, which are seemingly as different from humans as an animal can be.
The results of their experiment, in which seven octopuses took MDMA, were “unbelievable.”
Just think about an octopus—other than their impressive intelligence, they have little in common with humans.
We’ve been heading along different branches of the evolutionary tree for 500 million years.
Rather than one localized brain with a cortex, or a highly folded outer layer like our brains have, an octopus’s decentralized nervous system includes control centers for each arm in addition to a brain.
Given how different we are, Gül Dölen and her colleague Eric Edsinger wondered whether the chemistry behind human social behaviors—the system controlling the serotonin molecule—also existed in the solitary, asocial octopus.
They began by analyzing the octopus genome, and found that octopuses, too, have genes that seem to code for serotonin transporters, proteins responsible for moving serotonin molecules into brain cells.
Serotonin is the molecule generally considered to be responsible for feeling good.
When humans take MDMA, it binds to serotonin transporter proteins and changes the way serotonin travels between brain cells, likely producing the warm and fuzzy high and perhaps the increased extraversion that the drug is known for.
The fun began when the researchers gave MDMA to seven Octopus bimaculoides octopuses inside laboratory tanks.
They hoped to test whether the animals behaved more socially after receiving a dose of MDMA—a sign that the drug bound to their serotonin transporters.
After hanging out in a bath containing ecstasy, the animals moved to a chamber with three rooms to pick from: a central room, one containing a male octopus and another containing a toy.
This is a setup frequently used in mice studies.
Before MDMA, the octopuses avoided the male octopus.
But after the MDMA bath, they spent more time with the other octopus, according to the study published in Current Biology.
They also touched the other octopus in what seemed to be an exploratory, rather than aggressive, manner.
The scientists took this to mean that despite our vastly different brains, social behavior is built into the very molecules coded by our DNA, Dölen explained.
“An octopus doesn’t have a cortex, and doesn’t have a reward circuit,” Dölen, assistant professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, told Gizmodo. “And yet it’s able to respond to MDMA and produce the same effects, in an animal with a totally different brain organization. To me, that means we really need to appreciate that the business end of these things is at the level of the molecule.”
You’re probably curious: did the octopuses freak out?
The scientists didn’t discuss such behavior in the paper, because it’s hard to quantify without anthropomorphizing the octopuses—Dölen warned me that the following is anecdotal evidence and not scientific observation.
But yes, the octopuses acted like they took ecstasy.
At first, when they received a little too much MDMA, they breathed erratically and turned white.
But on lower doses, one animal “looked like it was doing water ballet,” swimming around with outstretched arms.
Another spent part of the time doing flips, and another seemed especially interested in minor sounds and smells.
“This was such an incredible paper, with a completely unexpected and almost unbelievable outcome,” Judit Pungor, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. “To think that an animal whose brain evolved completely independently from our own reacts behaviorally in the same way that we do to a drug is absolutely amazing.”
There are limitations to the study, of course.
Dölen pointed out that seven octopuses isn’t a large enough sample size to show differences between how males and females react to MDMA.
She’d like to further test the changes in behavior, as well as what happens if they block the serotonin transmitter before giving the MDMA.
Such a test would convince Dölen that she was really seeing the affects of MDMA on serotonin transporters.
Pungor also wanted to test whether the drug would have different effects on octopuses of varying ages, or whether an octopus’s upbringing changed its sociality.
It’s clear that psychoactive drugs like MDMA, LSD, and magic mushrooms are going through a scientific renaissance—they’re being studied as potential treatments for depression and PTSD—and as their stigma decreases, scientists are more open to studying them, and more research funding becomes available.
This could be important for our understanding of animal and human brains.
“People are beginning to recognize that these drugs are powerful tools for understanding how the brain evolved,” Dölen told Gizmodo. “They’re such strong activators of these behaviors. It’s not subtle.”
[Current Biology]
Last edited:
- Sep 28, 2008
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Crazy!I actually JUST pinned this like an hour ago
Awesome pic!
Can you imagine if you went outside one day and looked up in the sky to see this coming at us...lol.
Wild.
Now for a quite strange study.
It is however fascinating and is one of my “power animals".
Enjoy!
(I thought it was Octopi, but apparently both are correct)
When humans take the drug MDMA, versions of which are known as molly or ecstasy, they commonly feel very happy, extraverted, and particularly interested in physical touch.
A group of scientists recently wondered whether this drug might have a similar effect on other species—specifically, octopuses, which are seemingly as different from humans as an animal can be.
The results of their experiment, in which seven octopuses took MDMA, were “unbelievable.”
Just think about an octopus—other than their impressive intelligence, they have little in common with humans.
We’ve been heading along different branches of the evolutionary tree for 500 million years.
Rather than one localized brain with a cortex, or a highly folded outer layer like our brains have, an octopus’s decentralized nervous system includes control centers for each arm in addition to a brain.
Given how different we are, Gül Dölen and her colleague Eric Edsinger wondered whether the chemistry behind human social behaviors—the system controlling the serotonin molecule—also existed in the solitary, asocial octopus.
They began by analyzing the octopus genome, and found that octopuses, too, have genes that seem to code for serotonin transporters, proteins responsible for moving serotonin molecules into brain cells.
Serotonin is the molecule generally considered to be responsible for feeling good.
When humans take MDMA, it binds to serotonin transporter proteins and changes the way serotonin travels between brain cells, likely producing the warm and fuzzy high and perhaps the increased extraversion that the drug is known for.
The fun began when the researchers gave MDMA to seven Octopus bimaculoides octopuses inside laboratory tanks.
They hoped to test whether the animals behaved more socially after receiving a dose of MDMA—a sign that the drug bound to their serotonin transporters.
After hanging out in a bath containing ecstasy, the animals moved to a chamber with three rooms to pick from: a central room, one containing a male octopus and another containing a toy.
This is a setup frequently used in mice studies.
Before MDMA, the octopuses avoided the male octopus.
But after the MDMA bath, they spent more time with the other octopus, according to the study published in Current Biology.
They also touched the other octopus in what seemed to be an exploratory, rather than aggressive, manner.
The scientists took this to mean that despite our vastly different brains, social behavior is built into the very molecules coded by our DNA, Dölen explained.
“An octopus doesn’t have a cortex, and doesn’t have a reward circuit,” Dölen, assistant professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, told Gizmodo. “And yet it’s able to respond to MDMA and produce the same effects, in an animal with a totally different brain organization. To me, that means we really need to appreciate that the business end of these things is at the level of the molecule.”
You’re probably curious: did the octopuses freak out?
The scientists didn’t discuss such behavior in the paper, because it’s hard to quantify without anthropomorphizing the octopuses—Dölen warned me that the following is anecdotal evidence and not scientific observation.
But yes, the octopuses acted like they took ecstasy.
At first, when they received a little too much MDMA, they breathed erratically and turned white.
But on lower doses, one animal “looked like it was doing water ballet,” swimming around with outstretched arms.
Another spent part of the time doing flips, and another seemed especially interested in minor sounds and smells.
“This was such an incredible paper, with a completely unexpected and almost unbelievable outcome,” Judit Pungor, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. “To think that an animal whose brain evolved completely independently from our own reacts behaviorally in the same way that we do to a drug is absolutely amazing.”
There are limitations to the study, of course.
Dölen pointed out that seven octopuses isn’t a large enough sample size to show differences between how males and females react to MDMA.
She’d like to further test the changes in behavior, as well as what happens if they block the serotonin transmitter before giving the MDMA.
Such a test would convince Dölen that she was really seeing the affects of MDMA on serotonin transporters.
Pungor also wanted to test whether the drug would have different effects on octopuses of varying ages, or whether an octopus’s upbringing changed its sociality.
It’s clear that psychoactive drugs like MDMA, LSD, and magic mushrooms are going through a scientific renaissance—they’re being studied as potential treatments for depression and PTSD—and as their stigma decreases, scientists are more open to studying them, and more research funding becomes available.
This could be important for our understanding of animal and human brains.
“People are beginning to recognize that these drugs are powerful tools for understanding how the brain evolved,” Dölen told Gizmodo. “They’re such strong activators of these behaviors. It’s not subtle.”
[Current Biology]
Wow!! What an incredible study! I haven’t read this one yet, so this is all incredibly new and fascinating to me.
I honestly do hope that this will potentially be a new beginning for treatment for depression and PTSD.
I'm glad you love it as much as I do!
Reminded me .....
- Sep 28, 2008
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My boi Cyclops takin' over the helm at the end there haha bad move Zeus.
I need to rewatch that, I have a much better understanding of all the mythology and symbolism than when I was 7 probably.
Nah, I already knew everything then too. More than I do now maybe
- Sep 28, 2008
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Hey, you best believe those dudes are not to be trifled with. Just sayin.
Idk why they gave him two eyes, but films end up with weird things.
Hey, you best believe those dudes are not to be trifled with. Just sayin.
Idk why they gave him two eyes, but films end up with weird things.
Hahahahaha!
- Sep 28, 2008
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What the.... fuck
Gator transformation love is true love, don't be hatin'
- Sep 28, 2008
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U guys shud stop the psychedelics
The only psychedelic I do is life
Speaking of which...
I had some great insights recently
I know that I’ve heard it all before but it’s another thing to have a change of perspective and my ego was totally blocking this.
That and I need to get better sleep...which I did last night for the first time in a while and I feel much better today.
(Not always possible due to pain)
Like I said a couple days ago...I feel like a previous version has been restored from before all this became a challenge for me.
But maybe I’m just remembering how it feels nix the normal stress and stressors, looped thoughts about my pain/illness on a constant basis driving me insane but not knowing how to stop it other than meditation or sleeping (or getting really fucked up on something but that is not a sustainable nor practical solution hehe), the physiology also seems to reset somehow, not sure how it all works, I just know it does.
Sleep habits, bowels, appetite, energy, etc. all seem to also be defragmented along with the brain...or course we have neurons all throughout the bowel, and even our heart, so it would effect anything containing them.
It’s strange to feel your “self” being taken apart piece by piece, and I found it incredibly funny when asked simple mundane questions as I saw the humor...the cosmic giggle if you will...that the universe has if we look with no ego - we are amazingly silly creatures when our ego is again driving so to speak, lol.
It was funny to see that with a severely impaired or barely there ego.
It takes a while to come to all the realizations that it gives you while it’s going on...and meditating on it days/weeks afterward is so important imho as the insights from an ultra-connective brain and the new perspectives gained take some time to fully reveal themselves...as often things are symbolic, or it’s as if programs are running in the background you were unaware of that all of the sudden pop up saying “Here is the answer you wanted.” and it very much comes out of nowhere and at anytime irregardless of what you are doing at the moment, it’s a strange but cool feeling.
So now part of accepting my pain (which was my original quest) is not to disassociate the pain from my “self” per say, because that seems like the wrong thing to do...but rather replace the negative aspects my ego relates to with more positive ones instead...and to also step back out of my head/ego as much as I have been (so easy for us INFJs lol) or to at least come to a more complete picture of how my ego and pain are intermingled...that I need to be kinder to my “self” (which I hope will further help disassociate the negative aspects just by having a greater perspective of it) and in so doing hoping to reach complete acceptance for the pain and illness, but I also realize I have a long and difficult way to go - worth every moment though hard at times.
Did any of that make sense to anyone other than me, hahaha?
Sorry if that is convoluted at all.
Much love...still figuring it all out, but feeling better and have blasted away the depression/anxiety for another 6 months or so.
:3::3::3::3::3:
Bursting with sense. If I could paint, I'd turn this into a picture rather than respond in words - they cramp the meaning. It's as though you are growing the most incredible mystical pearl around the pain you are experiencing and it's helping take you places you wouldn't have got to without it. Words, words, words .... I don't mean pain is a blessing, it's foul, but it's far better as a servant than a master and it can open doors into new worlds for us that we might not have taken without it. I pray the spirits are gentle with you on your way my friend ....:rainbowheart:
MDMA in particular has proven to work particularly well on PTSD symptoms in people...they are doing a trial with combat vets right now to see if it’s viable, which could help a lot of people potentially.
They even ran a study with couples who were married for many years but had fallen out of love...they had a nasal spray form of MDMA and were instructed to take a spray every time the other spouse would make them mad or irritated or felt resentment.
100% fell back in love...a good portion of them said it was better than it ever had been.
100% is pretty damn good.
Beats any antidepressant we have now...blows it out of the water.
What the.... fuck
U guys shud stop the psychedelics
It would make perfect sense if you would just do some psychedelics...lol.
JK
No one here is doing anything of the sort Ren...I don’t know what you are talking about.
Thanks John that’s incredibly beautiful and kind to say.
I really do feel I’ve turned a corner...I mean, I have turned many corners before, but this corner turned opened up to a particularly nice park in middle of the city so to speak, haha.
Yes...pain in my life has been just about every type of emotional projection you can give it, positive and negative...but it helps me like you said such as letting me see so much more profoundly how much better I have it than others around the world and reassessing my place in it and the universe.
People would kill to live in the home I do (not that it is big or fancy, it is average), with clean water in the tap and a refrigerator full of food...some of which will spoil before we even eat it.
I mean literally kill me, haha...but also seriously.
My neighbor across the street whom we thought vanished due to a divorce just came home the other week in a electric wheelchair...head support and all...must have been a bad spinal cord incident is my guess...I keep meaning to go over there and talk to her about my Pain Group (we can stream it live to people who can’t physically make it), but she hasn’t been home that long and I don’t want to presume that she is unhappy in her new state, never knew her all that well before...though I know there has to be a certain amount of depression and loss...no one could not have such a life change without serious emotional trauma as well.
We’ll see.
Anyhow...it gives me more perspective to add in the positive tick-box (not that her problem is a positive for me, but as a reminder of my place - yes)...for every negative emotion I’m attempting to first recognize it in order to find the source, if it’s internal then I will TRY to figure out the proper perspective to try and maintain so that the new healthier neural pathways have time to become more traveled and maybe eventually take over for the negative.
Attempting to separate the ego and physical self...as in - I am not this body, I am not this mind, I am not this pain, I am not these thoughts even.
They are the physical manifestation of me in the physical world, but they are not ME, that is my ego (the self being altered by it’s current state of physical matter and the loss of open perspective as it’s filtered through the brain)...my egoic self is not ME...and a step further who is the one figuring out who is ME and not the SELF?
Who is observing that?
Simultaneously it is still all me and not.
You are right...though my pain has kept me from the surgical suite where I absolutely loved working...it has brought me perspectives and to places like my pain group and mind-altering meditations and otherwise that have shown me amazing things in other areas I would have never explored.
It has changed my core person...one could say that if all is God in this universe then so is my pain, or is at least the universe in motion.
It helps a bit to look at it that way anyhow.
Thanks again for all your kind words and support!
Much love!
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To get close to the sun .....
First thought is of some kind of device that shields you from it, but then all you get are second hand experiences that have diluted it to comfortable levels, and you don't get to experience it for real. Another possibility is that you are totally opaque, totally reflective - you can get very close that way, but you are completely in the dark just as if the sun doesn't exist for you - you'll probably never find it because you can't see it, but it's really there and if you fall in because you can't see it you'll be consumed. The third possibility is to be completely and utterly transparent; you can get very close that way and all the light will pass through you and it will be as if you are part of the light at its fullest intensity.
If you get close but are only partly transparent, it hurts like hell and you have to keep your distance - the love is overwhelming and filled with joy, but it's intolerable because you get to see all the nasty dark bits that it lights up very brightly, but you are so attached to them that you can't let go easily. But if you learn, and keep coming back, you start to get more and more transparent, a little at a time.
The metaphor breaks down quickly when you realise that the whole thing is filled with a glorious sense of humour which makes you see nothing, no-one is ever wasted, and the whole experience is pure gift.
