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   CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:32:18 JST CJ Bellwether

   I watched the documentary on Alexander Shulgin, the grandfather of MDMA, and he said something that struck me

   We have receptors in our brain for psychedelic drugs. We don’t actually have psychedelic drugs inside of us, but why do we have the receptors, but not the drugs?

   Perhaps at one time, we DID have the drugs — as part of our metabolic process, we generated the drugs and maybe the psychedelic state was THE natural state.

   If the psychedelic state was THE natural state, these people would then see the tooth of a saber tooth tiger and say “oooh look at the pretty designs of this tooth,” and as a consequence of dropping their defenses against an enemy, be removed from the gene pool.

   And a day or few later my mind got to thinking about why trans people are, in nature. Not what makes us trans, but why that part that makes us still is here.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:35:40 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     Why when the Fairy Balls and Drag Masquerades were happening in Harlem, why were straight people so drawn to it that families were bringing their dinners to watch from the galleries.

     What makes that movement of gender something that is magnetic to humanity, friction, lightning, explosion.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:42:17 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     love to love, love to hate, hate to love

     everyones stuck on those fairies.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:46:10 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Alex von Kitchen

     @Dangerous_beans gonna have to go with the eminent pharmacologist and biochemist on this one.

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     Alex von Kitchen (dangerous_beans@aus.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:46:11 JST Alex von Kitchen

     in reply to

     @siege WTF? it binds to serotonin receptors, which is a neuro-transmitter
     the fact that some other chemicals other than the specific chemical the receptor has evolved for will interact with receptors is entirely expected based on how biochemistry works

     that argument is garbage. it's like saying that the fact that tetrodotoxin interacts with sodium channels shows that we evolved to have tetrodotoxin in us

     drugs are just poisons that have interesting effects in low doses. and people who are into them recreationally should stop trying to make it sound natural, spiritual, or whatever other BS they are on

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:51:35 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     rhetorical, please.

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     Alex von Kitchen (dangerous_beans@aus.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:57:23 JST Alex von Kitchen

     in reply to

     @siege I wouldn't, he is obviously wrong. Just cause there's a biological effect doesn't mean it exists for any reason. Biology is fucking messy
     If you look around I'm sure you can find someone with the relevant PHDs who has dealt with the claim

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 12:57:23 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • Alex von Kitchen

     @Dangerous_beans im not looking to litigate it

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 13:06:07 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • <eleanor>

     @root we are talking about a statement by the einstein of pharmacology here. i have no expertise on serotonin 2A receptors but im going to go with his ruminations for the point.

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     <eleanor> (root@elle.systems)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 13:06:08 JST <eleanor>

     in reply to

     @siege

     it's a real fun idea, but in reality, we don't have receptors for psychedelics to begin with. they're just doing their own regular function related to normal brain behavior which just so happens to be for brain behavior related to sight or whatevs. what happens after that is usually through testing for something unrelated, it's discovered that a newly invented or discovered chemical just so happens to fit one or more of the existing receptor sites and affect us in an unusual way.

     Polychrome :blabcat: likes this.
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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 17:40:21 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • KawaiiPunk

     @kawaiipunk yeah, i spent a lot of my twenties partying heavily with a friend who ended up deciding to pursue a full doctorate or whatever it is in pharmocology, specifically going into a line of work looking at these drugs in particular, and ended up the only person in her team who had done them. It's amazing to hear her talk about like having to translate for the other scientists what certain reactions are, like thats not distress, they're just having a lovely time in another dimension right now.

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     KawaiiPunk (kawaiipunk@sunbeam.city)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 17:40:22 JST KawaiiPunk

     in reply to

     @siege Shulgin is a fascinating character

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     KawaiiPunk (kawaiipunk@sunbeam.city)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 17:40:23 JST KawaiiPunk

     in reply to

     @siege very cool

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Mar-2024 17:57:35 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • KawaiiPunk

     @kawaiipunk and yeah shulgin ellicits the same feeling for me, oh finally someone sensible in a sea of ignorance.

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     CJ Bellwether (siege@octodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-Mar-2024 18:17:38 JST CJ Bellwether

     in reply to

     • <eleanor>

     @root yeah it was a part of Shulgins efforts to look at and work through all the psychoactive drugs in the MDMA area, like 2CB etc and proactively test results from each at different doses in terms of results towards a future where we could either find one that worked as a replacement to SSRIs or find a way to alter one into a new formation that could do the same.

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     <eleanor> (root@elle.systems)'s status on Thursday, 07-Mar-2024 18:17:43 JST <eleanor>

     in reply to

     @siege talking about emotional receptors, notably the different 5-HT receptors, reminds me how fucked up SSRIs are. it's the best we have, and yet it can cause irreparable brain damage to serotonin receptors causing emotional and sexual blunting. the care for doing any of it can just completely stop if they don't work for you as expected.

     if nothing else, reading the research i have on ssris, depression, anxiety, and the brain, it makes me realize how much we don't know and it kinda sucks lol

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     <eleanor> (root@elle.systems)'s status on Thursday, 07-Mar-2024 18:17:49 JST <eleanor>

     in reply to

     @siege yeah! it's really cool, but also the same reason why medications like ssris can fuck up stuff like mdma and lsd since they target the same receptors for serotonin ^^

     i know that from personal experience lol :( so i dont get to psychadelics XD