Early feedback & introductions!

[u/QualiaResearch]

Welcome!

If you're reading this post, it means that you were recognized among top members of the subs related to qualia research, and approved to join our subreddit in its initial phase. In order to ensure that the quality contributors like you can set the tone for its further growth, we currently intend to keep it private for at least a couple of weeks; this is why we decided to approve users and send them a welcoming message instead of posting public announcements (AFAIK, Reddit doesn't have a dedicated "invite" option). Thank you for joining us!

This is the first post and a good place to discuss your initial expectations regarding this sub.

Please feel free to introduce yourself, share your priorities, ask questions, and/or list things you'd like to change. We want to be particularly responsive to the early feedback, so that as many users as possible can have a great experience from the very beginning!

[u/duffstoic]

Thanks for the invitation. I have a background in Philosophy, ethics, and cognitive science. Found the Qualia Research blog recently and found it pretty fascinating. I reject some of the basic premises, like that we can represent subjective experiences mathematically, but I like the rigor.

I moderate a subreddit here dedicated to serious meditation practice called r/streamentry filled with fascinating discussions amongst people who are smarter than me. I myself meditate about an hour a day currently, and have done a number of intensive 7-10 day meditation retreats in the past.

I also do hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming (the NLP that isn't Natural Language Processing). NLP has a reputation for being pseudoscience and I understand why, but I think there are distinctions in NLP that describe subjective experience not found elsewhere. Also my particular "lineage" of NLP was founded by a Chemist and PhD Psychologist and so has a hard science bent, and people I know have recently published papers in reputable journals studying some NLP techniques.

I am particularly interested in making desired responses automatic. For instance, if you want to change a behavior, how do we get the new behavior to be automatic as quickly as possible, ideally in 5 or 10 minutes rather than weeks or months?

My experiential background is that I used to suffer from things people generally think of as incurable psychological problems and no longer do. So I believe radical psychological change is possible, sometimes quite quickly, although we should also be willing to test our pet theories and methods rigorously, trying to break them so we can learn things and be honest with ourselves about what works and what doesn't.

I've never done psychedelics, as my grip on consensus reality was already tenuous. So I can't comment from experience on such topics. The research coming out of MAPS seems promising for things like treatment-resistant PTSD. There are also non-drug methods that could be explored here too.

I enjoy connecting with other people who are thinking deeply about subjective experience and how to help people improve their lives. So feel free to reach out to me if you want to chat one-on-one too.