Comment · Thu, December 6, 2012 · Ceretropic
Why not meditate?
Original post in this thread
GuysRelax · 34 points
After reading through links and comments I find many people are concerned about safety. There doesn't seem to be a single substance that works on everyone so people are trying mixes. Some people are taking pictures posting to make sure their "substance" is legit. Apparently effects are subtle anyway. Some of the substances sold on amazon have either extremely positive reviews or extremely negative.
So after checking out the top posts, it seems about 10 months ago someone posted a study on meditation. Its the 9th top link of the year on this subreddit.
Of course I am speaking from an ignorant position having not tried nootropics but I would still like to reopen this comparison and ask if our goal is to enhance cognition and we have studies that show meditation does just this, why are we seeking substances?
Should I combine practices? Should we all?
What they were answering
therealcreamCHEESUS · 4 points
Because meditation does not advance our knowledge of how our brains work
Absolutely false.
Have you seen the number of studies on meditation and the brain?
Neuroscientists are seeking out meditation grandmasters all over the world to shove them into fMri machines and asking them to meditate.
We want to know why we got the results
Its all very well popping a tablet and feeling much smarter but to sit down and attempt to grasp the difference between the I and the Me? I have been trying to understand that for years. Some of the most insightful comments about human behavior and humans in general I have read have come from people who are wise in the ways of meditation.
The more knowledge we acquire, the more our curiosity grows
Meditation is attempting to expand awareness at the most basic level; sensory perception. Focusing on your breathing is not just a thing to do, it helps you root yourself into bodily sensations. If you expand the channel of awareness of your body and senses you are expanding the amount of information your higher conciousness recieves.
Enlightenment without understanding is merely a self-perpetuated illusion
There is no enlightenment without understanding and I do not mean intellectual understanding. I can intellectually understand the concepts but it has taken me years to get any grasp on implicit understanding of the concepts.
Nootropics are…
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
I have never had someone take my comment so out of context in my life. I'm not arguing against meditation. I was explaining the reasoning FOR the inclusion of nootropics. Perhaps it's because my comment was a response to OP's question, and not the title of the post, that the confusion is arising.
if our goal is to enhance cognition and we have studies that show meditation does just this, why are we seeking substances?
That is what I was responding to. I do not mean to belittle the benefits of meditation. On the contrary, I think meditation is key to complete control of one's brain. However, for me, my excitement come from the puzzle. It comes from the cellular and chemical mechanisms that control our every thought, movement, memory, and action. Focusing solely on meditation will not give me that. Until we can teach rats and mice how to meditate, then get brain samples, we won't fully understand cognition and memory formation from meditation alone. Perhaps the reasoning for why I'm here is not the norm. But inclusion of these substances provides me with the scientific data that excites me.
The power of the mind is amazing, and using meditation to harness that power needs to have legitimacy. But arguing for the exclusion of nootropics, is to show the same ignorance that you were claiming myself to have. The path to understanding can, and must, have many different routes. Nootropics bring us closer to the scientific knowledge of the cellular and chemical mechanisms that control our brains.