Sam Woolfe

Schopenhauer and how to overcome your negativity bias | Sam Woolfe

My latest article for @iai.tv

“Just as we do not feel the health of our whole body, but only the small spot where the shoe pinches, so we do not think of all our affairs that are going on perfectly well, but only of some insignificant trifle that annoys us.” - #Schopenhauer

Apeirophobia in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 'Pulse' (2001) Pulse (Kairo) is a 2001 Japanese techno-horror film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. After having watched Kurosawa’s 1997 psychological thriller Cure (Kyua), widely regarded as a masterpiece, I was keen ...

I recently watched Pulse, and it's definitely one of the creepiest #horror films I've seen.

A lot has been written about how the film reflects societal fears about the internet. Here, I focus on its exploration of apeirophobia (the fear of eternal life).

AI Should Be a Writing Tool, Not a Ghostwriter In a few previous blog posts (see here, here, and here), I discussed the pitfalls of AI-generated written content. I’ve taken a pretty anti-AI stance in that respect. When I see this kind of content o...

While the influx of AI-generated content is a net negative in many different ways, this doesn't mean AI has no legitimate uses in writing.

Here, I look at some of the ways AI can act as a writing assistant (and help improve writing skills, rather than stunt them).

How Do Psychedelics Interact with Antidepressants? If you’re considering using psychedelics for therapeutic reasons – in the form of psychedelic-assisted therapy or a psychedelic retreat – then it’s vital to know how these compounds can interact with ...

An article I wrote for Numinous Ways on combining psychedelics with #antidepressants.

It seems the risk of serotonin syndrome is low (unless an MAOI is involved); not all psychedelic effects are blunted; and the combination doesn't stop people from enjoying mental health benefits.

And one final thought: Ozzy going out after giving an emotional final performance that raised a ton of money for charity is more spiritually uplifting and did more genuine good than anything any televangelist and religious grifter who railed against him ever did combined.

Why the antagonism over the rise in autism diagnoses? It’s actually good news | Gina Rippon A ninefold increase is the result of huge advances in our understanding – and brings the hope of fulfilling lives to many more people, says author Gina Rippon

While bad actors catastrophize about the increase in autism diagnoses, it "is actually a long-needed correction of a longstanding bias, which had overlooked many in need of support." And do we really want to go back to blaming autism on "refrigerator mothers"?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How Young is Too Young to Use Psychedelics? For those who want to join a psychedelic clinical trial, psychedelic therapy session, or psychedelic retreat, you have to be a legal adult. For many clinicians, therapists, and retreat organisers, thi...

My latest blog post explores traditions in which psychedelics are used by children and adolescents, as well as researchers' views on the potential risks of psychedelic use for young people.

Hamptonese: The Asemic Writing of James Hampton James Hampton (1909–1964) was an American outsider artist. He worked as a janitor, and in his spare time, in secrecy, he built a large assemblage of religious art, made from scavenged materials: cardb...

I wrote about the strange writing made up by outsider artist James Hampton, which researchers have referred to as "the written equivalent of 'speaking in tongues'."

Alasdair MacIntyre and the virtues of pickleball Plus Stephanie's story of recovering from four years of post-psychedelic difficulties

"You could argue, from an Aristotelian view, that ecstatic experiences are not essentially moral, rather they can be guided towards virtues and character-building, or they can also contribute to the growth of vices and character-dissolution." - @philosojules.bsky.social

How Do Psychedelics Affect Musical Ability? Listening to certain music while on psychedelics can be a highly memorable and therapeutic experience. Since the 1950s until the present day, the presence of a carefully curated playlist has been trea...

Many musicians have performed live while tripping, including Carlos Santana, the Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison, Syd Barrett, and Maynard James Keenan. In this blog post, I explore the effects of psychedelics on musical ability.

Can Psychedelics Heal Intergenerational Trauma? Intergenerational trauma (also known as generational trauma or ancestral trauma) refers to the idea that trauma can be passed down through the generations, affecting those who didn’t directly experien...

In this article, I look at the science behind intergenerational trauma and how psychedelics may be helpful in treating it.

Can you see circles or rectangles? And does the answer depend on where you grew up? | Anil Seth We may believe we see the world exactly as it is – but as studies of optical illusions show, it’s far more complex than that, says cognitive and computational neuroscience professor Anil Seth

Do you see circles or rectangles? How culturally dependent is perceptual experience? Inspired by two recent studies, I wrote this for today's @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Timothy Leary: The Embodiment of the Trickster Archetype The psychologist Timothy Leary was (and still is) a controversial countercultural figure. He can be credited with introducing many young people to LSD and mind expansion, but this spelled good news to...

Don Lattin describes Leary as an "Irish rascal" and "trickster"; Ralph Metzner said he represented the "court jester"; and Leary referred to himself as a "trickster guru".

Here I look at who Leary was, and what he did, through the lens of the trickster archetype.

Project Overview ‹ Your Brain on ChatGPT – MIT Media Lab Check project's website: https://www.brainonllm.comWith today's wide adoption of LLM products like ChatGPT from OpenAI, humans and businesses engage and u…

Using #ChatGPT to write essays is linked to cognitive debt:

"the #LLM group's participants performed worse than their counterparts in the Brain-only [non-ChatGPT] group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring."

The authors of the preprint do highlight several limitations with the study though.

Can DMT Cause Tinnitus? On the subreddit r/DMT, there are many posts from users who describe developing tinnitus after using DMT. This wasn’t a potential risk of DMT – or any psychedelic – I had considered. Admittedly, the l...

In this blog post, I look at cases of tinnitus following a DMT experience, including potential reasons for the link.

I'll be going here in October :) Also planning to check out the Roman theatres in Arles and Orange, and the Pont du Gard. Pretty cool to see sites like that without having to travel to Italy.

A trip too far: The LSD experience that blew up the Huxley family | Salon.com How Britain's most famous intellectual family hit the rocks one intense acid-drenched night in Connecticut

"But perhaps psychiatrist Sidney Cohen came closest to understanding what had really happened to the Huxleys when he wrote that “LSD does nothing specific … it springs the latch of disinhibition.”"

Cosmic Anxiety in 'Aniara' (2018) Aniara (2018) is a Swedish sci-fi film written and directed by Hugo Lilja and Pella Kågerman. It is an adaptation of the 1956 Swedish epic poem of the same name by Harry Martinson. It depicts a dystop...

My review of Aniara, with a focus on its depiction of 'cosmic anxiety', the antithesis of cosmic awe: feeling overwhelmed and panicked when faced with the vastness of space.

#film #filmreview #scifi #horror

Have You Met the DMT Jester? How Expectations Influence Entity Encounters One of the most popular blog posts on my site is my essay on DMT jesters and tricksters (a modified version of it became one of the essays in my book, which includes a new section about my personal ex...

My latest blog post is on the increase in DMT trip reports that mention jester entities. I look at how expectations and DMT lore (i.e. aspects of 'set') may influence the appearance of one kind of entity rather than another.

Got my copy of @samwoolfe.bsky.social’s book Altered Perspectives today. Looks great—eager to dive into it soon!

#psychedelics #BookSky

Schopenhauer's Insight Into the Psychology of Pain One of my favourite insights from the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer relates to the human negativity bias, that is, our tendency to focus on what bothers us. As he writes: Just as a brook form...

New blog post.

"Just as we do not feel the health of our whole body, but only the small spot where the shoe pinches, so we do not think of all our affairs that are going on perfectly well, but only of some insignificant trifle that annoys us."

On the Stigma Against Antidepressants in the Psychedelic Community On his site Ecstatic Integration, the writer Jules Evans published a post titled ‘Are you a psychedelic cultist?’ It features a ‘Psychedelic Cultism Questionnaire’ to help readers assess how ‘culty’ t...

My latest blog post is on how pro-psychedelic narratives sometimes involve stigma against antidepressants.

#1099 Manvir Singh - Shamanism: The Timeless Religion The Dissenter · Episode

Really interesting discussion on shamanism with @manvir.bsky.social.

Does Microdosing Enhance Neuroplasticity? It’s easy to find glowing accounts of microdosing. On psychedelic-related subreddits and forums, on social media, on blogs, and in real-life psychedelic circles, many people report incredible, life-ch...

Controlled trials have so far found that short-term microdosing performs no better than a placebo. In this blog post, I explore the idea that long-term microdosing may lead to the benefits that people report by increasing neuroplasticity.

Fire Kasina Meditation: A Non-Drug Method for Inducing Mystical Experiences Psychedelics are typically the fastest and most reliable way to induce mystical experiences. These are the types of experiences that people often consider highly meaningful, and which they credit with...

A study published last year found that intensive Fire Kasina meditation can "produce mystical experiences comparable in intensity and depth to those induced by psychedelic substances."

This article explores this research, alongside personal accounts from Fire Kasina retreat attendees.

People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies Marriages and families are falling apart as people are sucked into fantasy worlds of spiritual prophecy by AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT

This is wild.

Navigating groundlessness: An interview study on dealing with ontological shock and existential distress following psychedelic experiences Psychedelic induced mystical experiences have been largely assumed to drive the therapeutic effects of these substances, which may in part be mediated by changes in metaphysical beliefs. However, ther...

Here's the study:

Psychedelics and Ontological Shock During or after intense psychedelic experiences – typically elicited by taking a high dose, or a synergistic drug combination – one may find oneself in a state known as ontological shock. This is when...

Just published this post on psychedelic-induced 'ontological shock' (a term coined by the German-American philosopher Paul Tillich).

I include some findings from a new study on this by @eirini-k-a.bsky.social @philosojules.bsky.social @drdluke.bsky.social @rosmcalpine.bsky.social and others.

Ruth Chang on Making Difficult Life Decisions | Philosophy Break Contemporary philosopher Ruth Chang suggests if we’re stuck in a hard life choice, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking there must be a ‘best’ path; often there are simply different paths, which ...

"When we’re stuck in a hard choice, the decision is difficult not because it involves equality, but because it involves difference.

One option is no better or worse than the other, but they lead to different — often mutually exclusive — kinds of futures".

The Bad Trips of Early Psychonauts One thing that stands out about trip reports from early Western psychonauts is that they often involve unpleasant, uncomfortable experiences. Such experiences are still more frequently reported in Wes...

My latest blog post is about the negative psychedelic experiences that early psychonauts had. I include trip reports from Henri Michaux, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Walter Benjamin.