So here is the experiment and all of its facets.
So first I must introduce to you the specific context of what the group is and what seemed to me, it’s primary focus.
So this group I had been invited to was a group of which people would talk about their psychedelic experiences, posting images, stories, and more specifically, talk about their speaking to “entities” of which sometimes were depicted as “jesters” sometimes as “aliens” like the greys, sometimes as “gnomes” and even other deities in our own history, like odin, etc.
So I had noticed one day there was this girl who posted a picture of a rock with a face on it and talked about going to go do dmt, I noted that this seemed like worship and of religious elements, of which they all claim to be “spiritual” when in fact, placing value on something in reality and attaching fantasy or the identity of which the subconscious appears as, is religious, which the image is an illusion for a specific reason (one may only be able to understand or know through being humble, so the identity shows up subconsciously of whatever one deems more powerful than them self for this very reason). I noticed she had attached significance to a rock, just because it had a “alien face” on it and that is associated with the drug or “trip”…
so let’s take a look at the definition of what worship technically is to determine if it is indeed worship, which I still think it is.
“wor·ship
/ˈwərSHəp/
noun
1.
the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.
“the worship of God”
synonyms: reverence, revering, worshipping, veneration, venerating, adoration, adoring, -olatry, devotion, praise, thanksgiving, praising, praying to, glorification, glorifying, glory, exaltation, exalting, extolment, extolling, homage, respect, honor, honoring, esteem; More
verb
1.
show reverence and adoration for (a deity); honor with religious rites.
“the Maya built jungle pyramids to worship their gods”
synonyms: revere, reverence, venerate, pay homage to, honor, adore, praise, pray to, bow down before, glorify, exalt, extol; More”
So yes, under the definition of what ‘worship’ is… it was attributing value to a rock of which she was tying to an entity of which she deems more powerful than herself, otherwise where is the value in an alien shaped face on a rock? Glorifying a rock in the guise of an alien, could be considered worship. It is at the very least bearing religious elements.
So I Criticized this post and I had stated such, that it seemed religious and that it is mysticism and not to get lost… I was attacked ferociously with ad hominem… The classic “You’re a narcissist” or “You’re full of ego and not spiritual”… those were the most used attacks. Whenever I brought up that they were using ad hominem, they would only continue and not care to see their own errors.
So I had a clever idea you see… Dedicated based off of the song “Us and them” by pink floyd… I posted a thread with several images, I will upload the images and the original written post as well.
I intentionally posted from what would seem to other members in the group, an authoritative stand point or of a standpoint with an understanding… It was criticism aimed at no one specific, but towards the group in general… I had showed a series of educational images including the definition of ad hominem so the members would be able to read and avoid it… The test was to see who was insecure with them self and would assume based off of their ego being in control of them… The old test of “A Fool speaks because he has to says something”. A few people commented and tried to understand further, they were humble and understanding… A guy even commented “Wow this is brilliant dude! It is actually hilarious to watch others negative comments because it is obvious they missed the sentiment”… So after it was posted, a moderator came and muted me for 12 hours after I had responded to them, never using any ad hominem but defending myself against their ad hominem. They stated the classic “You’re egotistical” “You need to be more spiritual”, for my criticizing and trying to improve them. You see, I never mentioned anyone specific, but -they- still assumed I was talking about them, this is a very obvious insecurity in their own character that I may observe based off of their responses. The ones who assumed I was speaking of them are the ones who feel they are being criticized, because they have something to be criticized about, so they try and defend such without knowing how to defend through logic/reason, so they resort to classic ad hom.
This psychological experiment cost my membership of that specific group and me being hated by individuals in it, (I left the group) after they deleted my post and the work that it showed.
So the simple but hard fact is, the psychedelic community, most of them are not interested in actually learning, but only escaping reality, as Pandora had stated… Psychedelics may be dangerous to those who do not wish to actually understand, due to it granting a harder trap to escape because of the whole attaching an identity of which an individual deems higher than them self to the subconscious, so the conscious mind may communicate with the subconscious mind. Imagery must occur for this, if one does not seek to understand the imagery, truly… based off of the laws of reality/philosophy and avoidance of logical/rationale fallacies, then one will get lost in mysticism and become religious, which is opposite to spirituality. It’s based off of a systematic faith, of which is invoked by this attributing power to imagery/idea.
To avoid becoming religious due to taking psychedelics, one must follow the rules of understanding… the same rules we follow here in discussion philosophically… The model of thought must be based on logic/reason with the following of the rules. So we may avoid this transition from spiritual to religious via psychedelics, by education in more psychology to the general public or very aware and psychologically experienced guides to explain to people what they see, when they see it… on a trip.
I hope this makes sense, if anyone needs me to elaborate further… I will. I am going to post the images and original written post below on imgur, feel free to check it out.
The bottom post is the original thread post. the rest of the images are all of the educational images I had posted so others would have the tools and much beyond the tools necessary to avoid ad hominem or fallacy (attacking me), but as you can see, they did not use the tools (education) due to being more blinded by ego and needing to attack me with self projection, despite their being “Enlightened” by psychedelics and “spiritual”… that’s laughable, I know the very definition of spirituality and definitely in comparison to religion, let me tell you.
imgur.com/a/etQv5fu