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CarlosB's avatar

Great article! Thank you for writing it !

I've heard (can't verify) that a lot of the mood altering medications use lithium and with the governments pushing so hard for electric vehicles ( another dumb flop ) they're aiming for something to supplement the mood altering medications

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Grampa's avatar

I have watched as government continues to grow by creating new appointments that "REGULATE" for our protection. regulations by people unelected and many times unqualified to make the choices they impose upon us.

All too quickly the regulations are now mandates and mandates are laws that carry fines and criminal penalties. All imposed by people that are under government umbrella that remove accountability. I have seen the time when many drugs were available without perscription. Yes we had drug abuse. abuse that lead to death. deaths caused by their own ignorence. Is it up to government to protect us from our own ignorence?

They dont seem to be doing a very good job. the product of our schools are a testamony for the choices and now mandates imposed on our children. where did it all start? well it is easy to see if we just stop and examine how it was done.

As it always starts as a crisis that was created by government. people told that the money wasnt distributed fair so they need to LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD. they would give money to the poorest schools Well this sounds great doesnt it. remember what I said early in the post. these gifts had strings attached. demands that improvments in test scores were needed to keep the money. many found that the teachers they had couldnt get jobs in the better schools.

The answer is toss money at it. even if paid more their abilities didnt improve. Their answer is more money and better "regulations" and the regulations turned to mandates. because they still couldnt improve the test scores, the answer is change the tests because they are all based on the WHITE school problem. they complied because they needed the money.

When I had my buisness I hired a young black man who had a diplomia that couldnt read or write. Government blames being poor as the problem. I came from one of the poorest areas in Detroit. we had every race, religon, ethinic background in our area. we didnt have a drug problem even when they were available off the shelf. unimployment was high but we all pulled together and helped each other out. Today we see drugs as the answer.

Crime is rampid wit centering upon young black men. they die in greater numbers. Yet gov tells us that it is from white gun owners that murder these young men. yet if we look at government data we see the facts. The demand to legalize drugs has only made things worse. look on Utube at any major city and they have hords of homless and addicted people standing about some lay dead or dying. people just stepping over them like any piece of trash.

clearly government isnt the answer. yet as we speak up in public forums we are silenced and arrested and banned from attending. Even if Trump wins today he cant perform miricles. yet if his magic wand doesnt fix everything in a day they will impeach him again. The left will take our nation to ruin. If harris wins it will just make things worse.

America will be the result of its own ignorence. I am no longer able to fight. my days are numbered and it will be my grandkids and great grandkids who will now suffer. My voice wasnt strong enough. I was too buisy making a good life for my family.

Your efforts will now be directed at survival which is what government wants. no longer able to control them you are destened to be slaves of the dollar you must have to exist. So sorry.------ I, Grampa

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Thank you grandpa...what you describe here is really the crux of the problem. It is one thing to have government modelled after a caring and loving parent. Parents are, for the most part, good for their "ignorant" children...they guide them, they teach them, they support them all with the intention of making them develop into decent and healthy adults who can think for themselves.

If we had government like that, MAYBE it would work for a while (I don't think for long) and it certainly would be better than what we've actually got. Instead, we have government that pretends to be "the good parent" but instead they are for the most part evil, selling their vulnerable and gullible little children into slavery.

They are corrupt parents who are only looking out for themselves and whatever agenda they have devoted their greedy lives to...an agenda that promises to look out for their own desires such as more money, more power and more sex.

THAT is the problem. And that "corrupt parent" has convinced us again and again that they are "good" "joyous" "uniting" "caring" "looking out for the marginalized" "constitutional" "fair" "loving"...on and on...and they are in fact NONE of these things.

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Freeq O’Nature's avatar

I think they're only doing it to be able to regulate the crap out of it and tax it. Then they'll turn it to synthetic copies, just like they did to all natural medicines. Think fentanyl from opium. And all based on petroleum by-products just like everything else.

Weed back in the 80s was natural and smelled great. Weed now being legalized, regulated, taxed and filled with chemicals smells like dead skunk. The nose knows.

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

I wonder if the new craze to synthetic insulin, called "biosimilars" is something to be wary about.

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Grampa's avatar

As I said earlier all medication will become mandates. Mandates that will be required to restrict your travel and even employment. with each new crisis will bring tighter controls and then penelties imposed by unelected agiencies created to protect. what they do is control. Thanks for keeping all informed but your voice is one and drounded out by misinformation----------I, Grampa

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Yep...that is clearly (clear to us) where it is headed...and I would be blown away if it did not end up where you say...it is already there to quite an extent.

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Freeq O’Nature's avatar

I’d be wary of synthetic anything, to be honest. To my thinking, they see what insulin (or vitamins or minerals or whatever) do in the body and come up with a chemical concoction that simulates the same effect then palm that off as an alternative. Because how exactly do they extract vitamin C from an orange and replicate it in pill form? How would they extract insulin from the pancreas and replicate it? As a chemical?

My opinion only.

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The Watchman's avatar

Good article Todd, I would tend to agree with the comment from For the Love of Freedom.

I myself, have tried this a few times back in the early 70s and never really found it to be what it was suppose to be cracked up to be. To me, one must face reality on it's own terms.

Do psychedelics give one the edge to do so, I'm not sure it does. To me it's a crutch, but then again some people need a crutch. However, for just as many as it may possibly help there are just as many if not more whose lives have been destroyed by the use of psychedelics . I remember seeing that far away look in some people's eyes back in my college days and you knew right away they had done way too much.

As far as use in psychology and therapy, I am sceptical. I had a BA in psych back in the day and remember that there were always different types of therapies they were trying, even then. It was one of the reasons I never pursued the field any further I didn't care for the flavor of the month approach when it came to helping people. Linking as usual @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Yes...now after reading a lot of these comments I don't feel so square for not trying some of this stuff...I didn't touch pot until I was in my early 50's, and it did absolutely nothing for me...I didn't even feel a buzz, and I smoked a lot of it just to say I did it! Nothing...

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Eleanor's avatar

I tried it in my early 20s while seconded (from Rome) to work in Turkey in 1966 for six months. It was plentiful in Rome and I was always dying to try it but, knowing my addictive personality was afraid I'd get hooked so, my stay in Turkey being finite I tried it there... and, almost 60 years later, I still remember the buzz!!!

I personally think it is an indictment on society that we cannot support those going through/with challenges and instead medication always seems to be the first port of call. I have a son with ADHD, who was a nightmare to me and his teachers, but despite pressure (not from teachers, who were amazingly supportive) to medicate him with Ritalin, I refused... I liked to think of him as a hunter in a gatherers society! As an adult, he is an energetic(!) hard worker.

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

When you say "you tried it" do you mean the psychedelics, or just pot?

ADHD, in my opinion, is a Big Pharma concoction, taking symptoms due to diet, environment, etc and labelling them a psychological chemical imbalance they can medicate. I do believe the symptoms are real, but the solution is not. I can't say what the solution actually is, other than the obvious, get the kids out of the environment (school, cell phones, indoors, video games, etc) and feed them right. Not saying I know for sure that would work, but probably would. And of course, just my opinion.

Typically boys need to be boys, and that is not really an embraced truth these days. Check out this guy's work if anyone is interested...

https://www.michaelgurian.com/

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Eleanor's avatar

Just pot... and many thanks for interesting link

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

It is interesting to me what a drug prude I was in college (when I was in my early 20s in the mid '70s.) I didn't try anything...the biggest drug I ever tried was pot in my 50's...Percoset, Vicodin, was prescribed for kidney stones so I know what that feels like (but not recreationally). So I am a real drug nube.

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Eleanor's avatar

Maybe you were better off 😊

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Betsey's avatar

"Reputable institutions such as the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, Imperial College London Psychedelic Research Centre,"

These two institutions are some of the biggest players in the coronavirus hoax. Remember, the CIA created MK-Ultra made LSD on there way to learning how to mind control humanity. These institutions are pure evil, working for the globalist agenda.

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Yeah, I use words like "reputable" to indicate what the mainstream thinks about it. I have to say I doubt if I believe any medical institution to be reputable. I did the MD Anderson run when my wife had cancer, it was like "Disneyland for Cancer"...I remember everyone there was so impressed with the medical technology. They had 8 MRI machines at a time when you might have to travel 500 miles to get to ONE...I remember a cancer patient there after getting an MRI said when he was in the machine he was so moved he felt like he was "in the lap of God."

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FortheLoveofFreedom's avatar

Anything that the state is involved in raises red flags for me. I would much prefer to deal with life as it comes. It has worked for me thus far and I have had some very challenging things, like most people do. I have never used drugs so I also would be concerned about habitual use or overuse and let's face it, we have seen how far the pendulum can swing with these things.

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The Watchman's avatar

Very good reply!!

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Absolutely...

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Eleanor's avatar

In the mists of time, I seem to remember Jung saying something like - 'God is both good and evil, two sides of the same coin'... I might have dreamt it, but it does resonate with me

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

If God is the creator of all things, then God created evil as well. Although there are people who say this is not true. I think ACIM claims that the material world is an "error" and God is not in it (any ACIM folks out there please correct me if this isn't true).

Personally, I believe that evil, Satan, the Devil, whatever, is man made, so not directly made by God. But I also think a lot of things that people label as "evil" are not really evil but just an example of yin and yang...

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Eleanor's avatar

Ummmm... food for thought...

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Very brief comment on an extremely complex issue!!

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Eleanor's avatar

Perhaps a daft thought... one of God's creations are human beings - human beings with free will and a propensity for both good and evil...

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Dr. Cruces's avatar

"Considering the alternatives (conventional pharmaceutical interventions) I would say they are probably a far cry better." Yes. They will not kill your body but have a huge potential to kill your soul. It is the equivalent of building your muscles by the use of anabolic steroids instead of exercise. Your bones will not match their strength and snap. The state has realized that this is preferable to having subjects with natural strength who may grow unhappy with them. Yes, Soma.

Any value measured against infinity dilutes to zero. That's what would happen if we were certain. That's why the immortal Greek gods – capricious, quibbling and bored – behaved the way they did.

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

You have a very good point here...thank you.

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Candy's avatar

Well said

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Regina's avatar

Giant red flag when the state picks up on something. I think they like us dependent.

I sincerely hope people get the help they need, without it becoming some kind of program.

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Yes, that is indeed the biggest problem with this, is the state's involvement. Although as I read through these comments I see there is more to it than I even suspected.

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GABRIELE's avatar

Yes, and thank you for writing this article. As with all your articles, a very interesting topic. Because I am kind of a messed up person esp. psychologically and an addict to boot, I've always been drawn to read authors like Mate, van der Kolk and more to find insights into the condition called "me." They have shed a light on the why but the solution was always up to me. That meant doing the hard work and very likely for the rest of my life. I've dabbled in treatments of various kinds which never seemed to address the root causes. It's only by hard earned experience that I have made any progress. Sorry, there is no easy way out. The idea is but a phantom. Are there justifications for using psychedelics? Perhaps. But I am cautious when the solutions are sanctified by an "institution" and I don't agree with the often used "blanket" approach. It is always an individual matter.

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Absolutely...and a clear "yes" to your comment "there is no easy way out." Ain't that the truth.

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Patricia lucas's avatar

Hello Dr. Hayden,

I too appreciated this article. As a psychologist, I have also seen the rise in the popularity of use of these means to expand one's conscious awareness. I have colleagues and people I see that I deeply respect who have ventured in this territory. I was taught in my PhD studies by Stan Grof (I absolutely loved him and to be in his presence was a gift). My experience thus far is that these substances appear to be habit forming for those who take them. It is hard to resist the reach to them when one is feeling in distress after having worked with them. I have observed that it may be possible to train the human body to slip into these states more rapidly and I have experienced that people may find themselves in altered states without feeling as in control of the journey when they regularly dose with ketamine or mushrooms, for example, and this concerns me. I have a strong bias toward being careful with substances as I believe the body ingests the frequency of the origin of that substance and this is often not made aware to people (who made the substance, who grew and prepared the plant). I also feel that we have the ability to become aware of our fuller potentials through practicing transparency with ourselves and making room for stillness (which may be different from meditation). Thank you again for writing on this subject. It is an important one!

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Thank you so much for your informed input on this topic...you say some very important things here. One thing I hope I did comment on in the article is that at times these sorts of drugs may have their useful place, but I believe with any mind expanding substance or even non-drug technique, the person partaking must be "ready"—disciplined, and well prepared, and well integrated, for what it is they will experience with their expansion. Otherwise the drug or technique will only be a crutch and not ultimately beneficial.

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Patricia lucas's avatar

My apologies for the misspelling of your name! And yes your point did come across for me Dr. Hayen, and I agree, awareness and well preparedness are important! thank you for your good work!

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

The name is probably misspelled that way more often than not! I used to attribute it to the popularity of California governor Tom Hayden...but now that is clearly not the reason...!!

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Katherine's avatar

Just a gentle correction: Hayen...not Hayden.

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Dennis T.'s avatar

Great article Todd. I agree wholeheartedly. I think we need to be very cautious when the government gets involved. If one or two treatments/experiences with psychedelics works then it would be wise to stop there, and not become dependent or addicted to them. However that is rarely the case. We are all very susceptible to this and I agree that we should proceed with extreme caution.

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Todd Hayen, PhD, RP's avatar

Thank you!

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