Lex Fridman: recommendation

Transcript context

…For me, it’s a very creative drug. But for other people, it might not be, you know? So I cannot advertise it, because also if you have a psychological problem, maybe it’s overwhelming. Yeah, that’s actually a good thing to say at this moment. From my perspective, and maybe you can comment on it. In general, when people ask me, because I’ve done psilocybin a few times and I did Ayahuasca and I’ve talked about it, when people ask me if I recommend those things, I, as a general statement, I say no. You know, to the general population. And then as a second step, if I’m talking to specific people on a case-by-case basis, I can just discuss my experience and let that be an inspiration. Because I’m very hesitant to recommend a thing that could be so powerful. Because I don’t know- Like I had a tremendously positive experience and I was sure I would be meeting some demons. I thought I would have some demons in the basement or something, but I didn’t meet them. Not yet. But people might have some demons. That they meet and then it might destroy them or it might change them in a way they don’t like. And actually, it’s a good question for me whether it’s good to do psychedelics when you’re in a good place in life or in a bad place in life. Because I know that, you know, even scientifically there have been studies where psilocybin helps with extreme sort of, with depression and PTSD and all these kinds of things. But I’d be very nervous about that too, because the mind is such a powerful thing and it’s such a complicated thing that with these really powerful tools, it’s unclear where it’s going to take you. But I have heard a lot of stories of people have taken incredible journeys, sometimes difficult journeys, with psychedelics and have come out much happier and much freer and have healed some of the things they have been going through. But when people ask me to recommend or not, I’m just too afraid to say yes. I think the right thing is always just in general no. Be very careful. Yeah, I think it would be irresponsible to recommend it to people you don’t see.…

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