(no subject)

[kalibex]

'Gerin oil (or Geriniol to give it its scientific name) is a powerful drug which acts directly on the central nervous system to produce a range of characteristic symptoms, often of an antisocial or self- damaging nature...'

Comments

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

You ought to crosspost this to [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]. It was a very interesting article.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

My mind kept wanting to read that as "Geritol" that vitamin-iron supplement.

On a more serious note, it would be interesting to do a study of devout religious fundamentalists to see if there is something like a drug induced high going on in their brains (if we could get scientists brave enough to dissect that sacred cow).

Though I have two general observations: 1) All of the protests I've seen from atheists about the dangers of religion seem to focus exclusively on the Abrahamic faiths of the Middle East, as if those three were representative of all religion throughout human culture; and 2) I find, personally, staunch atheists to be just as annoying as devout religious fundamentalists -- both suffer under the conviction that "Those who dare disagree with me are either stupid or manipulated."

Ann (born-Again Agnostic)

[samantha2074.livejournal.com]

Dawkins is full of eht tish.

[samantha2074.livejournal.com]

I know someone who's into hard-core BDSM who claims that he can self-induce (or someone else can induce in him) hallucinations, speaking in tongues, euphoria, etc via application of certain physical stimuli (or in some cases through sensory deprivation). While I'm not convinced his brain chemistry would be considered 'normal' (if one can define such a thing), his experiences clearly suggest a physical component to religious ecstacies.

I wouldn't be surprised if some research hadn't been done in this regard, but not gotten much press.