Searching "comments":
| # | Comment | Survey |
|---|---|---|
| 421 | No thanks. I don't want some, I've already had any.
It was an interesting novel of the dystopian genre. There were hints of the outline for it in Huxley's semi-autobiographical novel Chrome Yellow. Overall, the world he depicted in Brave New World would strike me as depressing. Of course, if I were decanted into that world, I would be conditioned to like it, wouldn't I? Hmmm..... | How would you feel about living in a world like the one in "Brave New World"? |
| 422 | > Just give me some Soma and I'll be happy.
Interestingly enough while the soma in Brave New World seems to resemble LSD or mescaline, it was published in 1932, long before Huxley's own experience with psychedelics. Doors of Perception was published in 1963, but Huxley's first experience with mescaline sulfate, on which Doors was based, took place sometime in the mid- to late 1950s, I believe. If you get a chance, you might want to read his novel Island. This was a Utopian novel describing a society which used psychedelics as a tool for education and self-realization. Huxley died of throat cancer in a hospital in 1964 I think. His last request was an intramuscular injection of 600 micrograms of LSD. Since LSD was still legal at the time, he got his request. He died with his wife holding his hand and talking to him in soothing encouraging tones, telling him how beautifully he was going to his last sleep. If you ask me, there are worse ways to go. | How would you feel about living in a world like the one in "Brave New World"? |
| 423 | Just did a little more digging. Apparently, The Doors of Perception was first published in Great Britain in 1954. The 1963 date I gave earlier was a later edition. I have a copy of it somewhere about, but I tend to be a bit disorganized. I got a couple of dates wrong apparently. The following passage is from an online version of the book:
"By a series of, for me, extremely fortunate circumstances I found myself, in the spring of 1953, squarely athwart that trail. One of the sleuths had come on business to California. In spite of seventy years of mescalin research, the psychological material at his disposal was still absurdly inadequate, and he was anxious to add to it. I was on the spot and willing, indeed eager, to be a guinea pig. Thus it came about that, one bright May morning, I swallowed four-tenths of a gram of mescalin dissolved in half a glass of water and sat down to wait for the results." The whole book is available online here: http://www.psychedelic-library.org/doors.htm | How would you feel about living in a world like the one in "Brave New World"? |
| 424 | No, I have not. But will give it a read. Probably not surprisingly, I have read a few books about psychedelics and the psychedelic experience. Varieties of Psychedelic Experience by John Masters, Ph.D. and Jean Houston, Ph.D and Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream by Jay Stevens being the two that come immediately to mind. | How would you feel about living in a world like the one in "Brave New World"? |
| 425 | > There's actually research being done at the moment into using psychedelics
> (I think LSD specifically) for patients who are terminally ill - not > as part of their end of life care, but as an intervention that may > allow greater acceptance of their situation around the time of diagnosis. > I'll have to see if I can track down the article I read about it... This idea has been around quite a while. I believe some suggestion like that was proposed by Masters and Houston in Varieties of Psychedelic Experience. I'm not sure, since it has been a really long time since I have read that book. But I have come across proposals like this here and there in my reading. | How would you feel about living in a world like the one in "Brave New World"? |
| 426 | If you are interested, there is this article I found on the net: http://www.psychedelic-library.org/dying.htm
You will note that the dose Huxley requested was for 100 micrograms, rather than the 600 I originally mentioned. Memory quirks and personal bias, most likely, as 600 micrograms is my own preferred dose. I once took 1200 micrograms, but that may have been a mistake. I'm not really too sure about that though. The experience, while frightening at the time, nevertheless has intrigued me over and over again. Sometime in the future, when I can shuck a few over-riding responsibilities for a while, I may go for re-run. | How would you feel about living in a world like the one in "Brave New World"? |
| 427 | Yeah, flu shots. I don't trust them. In the Navy I had to take to flu shots and they made me sick every time. I have not had a flu shot now since 1975, I won't take my son for one either. Some of this may be from the memory of problems with the swine flu shots in 1976 as well. | Have you ever avoided a vaccination for yourself or your child for fear of its possible side effects? |
| 428 | Driving through a construction zone and driving during rush hour are the options here I like best. Driving at night in the fog is the worst, though fog in the day isn't a whole lot better. At night during one of those heavy rains that's so bad you can't see past the hood of your car is about the same as fog at night. | Rank these driving conditions according to which you like least. |
| 429 | > Strangely, I didn't rank ice as being that bad. I suppose it depends.
> Extreme ice where no traction is possible is really bad, but that > almost never happens. Here in Hampton Roads, VA (the region formerly known as Tidewater) the worst thing about driving on icy roads is the rest of the Virginia drivers. Our winters tend to be relatively mild, we don't get a lot of snow. The bad thing about that is, when it does happen, no one knows how to handle it. You wouldn't believe it, we get an inch of snow, half the State shuts down. I'm so glad I learned to drive in New York (the State, not the city). | Rank these driving conditions according to which you like least. |
| 430 | > I understand this situation - it's not wrong to hide food! I hate
> buying something special, that is obviously for myself, only to find > a nempty wrapper when I go to eat it. Somehow, I have never had this problem. When I buy something special, just for myself, for some strange reason no one wants to touch it. When I find a jar of pickled lamb's tongues at the store, for example, I end up eating the whole jar all by myself.... | Do you think it is wrong to hide food? |
