In this section, Hecht examines the relationship between happiness and drugs and why it is "worth the struggle to rethink the whole subject." She discusses the complexities of risk/benefit analysis. She notes that we have "strong feelings that using happiness drugs of any sort at all" is bad and wonders "why?" She arrives at the conclusion that people who want to "know more about happiness" should consider using drugs, (though perhaps not illegal ones,) in that pursuit.
FQ: What experiment did Walter Pahnke conduct in 1963 as research for his Doctor of Divinity degree at Harvard?
The "Good Friday Experiment" gave psychedelic mushrooms to half a group of students and a placebo to the other half. Then Pahnke measured the mystical experiences the students reported.
DQ: "Keeping your mind in only one place is not a very assertive way to relate to life, to search it for happiness, or for truth." (p,127). So are drugs essential for this expansive experience of life/happiness?
Found this trailer for a movie about Pahnke and his experiment, but I am not sure the movie is available. Too bad...
i don't think that drugs are essential for an expansive experience. that being said, one can call their addiction to tea their "drug" so if you think of it that way, then we could all have our own "drug" that makes us happy.
ReplyDeleteFQ: which country is the largest per capita consumers of tea?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: Britian
DQ: do you feel as if we should align drugs such as caffeine with others? Personally I do think that being addicted to caffeine is certainly not a good thing, because when you try to stop you get the familiar headaches, bad mood and even sometimes the shakes, but I don't think it does the same harm physically to your body in the way that an addiction to meth or nicotine does.