Thread: Jan 1st experiment.

I found the concept of your experiment most fascinating, while not wishing to participate at this time, I shall follow any results with great interest.

For years I have ignored this rabbit and engaged in various states of altered consciousness: drugs, alcohol, nicotine, Simpsons, orgasm, holding my breath till I pass out... etc.[/b]

the simpsons? what the hell is wrong with the simpsons?

This is rather funny because I was just about to go and bump the old one(hopefully I'd be thanked for reminding people and not called a post whore).Any I'm redy for the experiment and and have already implemented some of the elements (and I feel great too). I haven't done anything from part 3 yet.

I encourage others to check in and/or participate so me and loose id are not alone. And if your sketchy about wanting to participate you should consider that just by a little bit of this you'll feel great.

Good luck to all!

Originally posted by justme

For years I have ignored this rabbit and engaged in various states of altered consciousness: drugs, alcohol, nicotine, Simpsons, orgasm, holding my breath till I pass out... etc.

the simpsons? what the hell is wrong with the simpsons?[/b]

just a little absurdist humor. didn't mean anything by it.

Just a tip to those (including Lord C) who are partaking. Drink lots and lots of water. I've been refilling my water bottle 10-12 times a day. I've found that this has kept me from eating too much, and it has qualmed my yearning for caffeine. One of my friends told me about this tip; he said it had helped him quit smoking. I find it does have some benefit. It does have a downside though. For every two times I fill my water bottle, I visit the little boys room. That's gotta freak out my coworkers, ya know, visiting the 6 times a day. I'll just tell them its my IBS flaring up again.

Just a tip to those (including Lord C) who are partaking. Drink lots and lots of water. I've been refilling my water bottle 10-12 times a day. I've found that this has kept me from eating too much, and it has qualmed my yearning for caffeine. One of my friends told me about this tip; he said it had helped him quit smoking. I find it does have some benefit. It does have a downside though. For every two times I fill my water bottle, I visit the little boys room. That's gotta freak out my coworkers, ya know, visiting the 6 times a day. I'll just tell them its my IBS flaring up again.[/b]

I fill my nalgine (or how ever you spell it) bottle about 2-3 daily. I actually discoverd that a large amout of america is dehydrated because lots of us only drink soda coffee or pure sugar. When your dehydrated you can actually gain weight because your body can't all of your food into energy.

Forget the diet pills grab some H2O!

Its true.....the recomendation of an acceptable level of water intake is to take your body weight and divide it by 2. The result in ounces is how much you should drink.......thats alot of water to drink, but you do not get full. In general, sugars are more complex and are harder to break down and it takes your body longer to process an 8 oz Pepsi than it would a 16 oz bottle of water. Hence why 30 minutes after you pound a Coke, you still are not really that thristy and get to feeling very full if you try to pound another. Before I changed my diet I could not imagine putting down 32 or 48 ounces of soda in one sitting, but water goes down like....well, water! (it comes out just as expeditiously)

On topic, I been doing alot of the experiments components already, but not with the intention to achieve the goals you have mentioned, loose id. The diet and kicking the bad habits I did for the obvious reasons. While phase 3, with the exception of the uberman sleep stuff, has been a part of my life since I was a teenager. Particularly in the artistic endeavors....writing and composing music. The only thing that I have not done at all is the diet catered towards the lycopene and other dream benefactor substances.

I think that I have accidentally done somethings in my life that have helped me immensely, and I can say that I really, really know who I am. Suffice to say, I am very intersted in your progress because this is a designed experiment that can help me in the assesment of my own ethology. I will be lurking for your next post!

BTW (In regards to theory you mentioned laid out by Nietzsche, I can attest to its validity. When I am really working on completing a song or attempting to finalize something I have penned, I abstain from the sexual encounters with my wife. Not long, two days seems to do the trick. My music is so much more fluid and accurate in depiction. If we get our freak on and I try to play my guitar or bass...... no bueno... )

Thanks for the post Recom... very interesting stuff.


I jumped ahead a little bit in this experiment. I've been abstaining for sexual release for a little over a week now and it, in combination with the diet modification, is putting some very interesting thoughts/questions in my mind. Here's a couple I thought everyone might want to chew on:

1) If you had the choice to be a living diety, capable of doing practically anything you want, to have the adoration of millions... but you were unable to have sex for your entire life, would you? Once again, as a living god, the possibilities are endless, except for sex.

2) Is it possible that your body can go on functioning without your conscious effort? Today I had a flashback to a soccer match I played in when I was in junior high. Just prior to the game I had this fuzzy feeling in my head, and the next thing I could recall was picking up a slow roller about five minutes from the end of the game. I found we had lost 1-0, but my teammates and my father kept telling me the whole ride back from the game that I had played an amazing match. I had a great deal of difficulty remembering it. My thought was that my conscious thoughts sometimes interfere with my physical functioning, the best games I played and the best wrestling matches I can remember were ones that I felt fluid, as if my body was doing the work and I was simply watching. Another example is yesterday I drove to work (this is what spurred this question) and I was thinking about some of the people I haven't seen since high school, and I got lost in these memories, thoughts, emotions, etc... and the next thing I know, I'm pulling into the stop light in front of my office. Almost as if my body was on autopilot and my brain was allowed to wander aimlessly.

I do feel these questions are somehow relevant to this experiment (which starts tomorrow ), and I would be interested in seeing some of your thoughts on this.

In depends on what you mean by functioning of the body. If you mean complex functions, such as walking around and doing chores, then I would say you need consciousness. However, if you mean just to keep itself alive, then no, consciousness (you), are not required. It's called a coma.

I believe, as well as most people, that the 'I' or 'me' am separate from my physical self. You can tell people believe this by how our culture words things and expresses itself. The 'I' is always expressed as separate from the body.

What I would like to know is: What is "this", as in, what is this reality? What am I? Whats my purpose? WHO am I? (because I dont seem the same person continually).

I've meditated on those ideas numerous times, but always go in circles. I always get back "the answers are in the experience."

Good luck with your experiment.

I'm going to try a few of the goals of your project, and a few of them adapted for personal reasons.

It shall be interesting to see the effects.

hmm I think I may try to implement some of this (as much as is possible, without overly disrupting my schedule)

I've always basically been done Phase 1. I was raise vegetarian, and still am.. the only thing on your list that i eat is dairy, and salt. which, wouldn't be hard to eliminate, since my sister is lactose intolerant, so we constantly have dairy alternatives available. I think however, i'll try to stray towards less processed foods. (whole weat bread, and oatmeal, type foods, instead of boxed cereals, and white bread.)

I think, instead of focusing on eliminating poor foods for stage 1, I will focus on doing at least moderate exercise. that way i can gradually build up towards stage 2, since i've tried the whole no-orgasm thing before and it's frickin' hard (for me personally). However, i agree with you loose id, that it makes you wonder about things you'd never have even thought about before.

anyway.
Best of luck to all!

Well... It's Jan 1st.

Let us begin.


Personal note: New Year's Eve was very difficult for me. The entire night I was drinking water and many of my "friends" were acting very awkward around me. I haven't told them about the experiment, but I told them that I am done drinking for a while. Pretty much every discussion concerning this went as follows:
Person: "What's with the water?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Person: "Are you DD'ing tonight?"
Me: "Sure if you need me to."
Person: "Is that why you're not drinking?"
Me: "Naw. " (I shoulda just said "yes")
Person: "Why aren't you drinking."
Me: "I'm just gonna lay off for a while..."
Person: "Why?"

Damn people. There's a hundred reasons why you shouldn't drink, but there's only a minute amount of reasons why people don't drink. If I were to explain to these people that I want to clear my head for a while and improve my mental functioning they would look at me as if I pooped on the rug. But if I were to say that I was on probation, I got arrested, someone I know was killed by a drunk driver... if some tragedy were to befall me, then it would be an exceptable excuse to quit (or drink heavily, depending on who you're with).

This is what we're going to be up against for the rest of our lives. People have a natural disposition against improving themselves. They'd rather be the flock, rather than the shepard. Being the shepard requires a lot of responsibility, a lot of time alone, and a lot of difficulty dealing with unruly sheep. Why live and dream lucidly when you can just float through life like leaves on a river? Why go to the gym everyday when you can sit at home and pacify yourself with the television? Why try to find love when its so easy to hate?

Their battle cry is "why bother?" Our retort is "That's what I'm trying to figure out."

It's Jan 2, 2005! Are you still master of your domain?

Still...

master...

of my...

domain.

Whew boy.

If you ever go 2+ weeks without any sort of "release", you get a severe case of beer goggles, without the dizziness or inflated sense of self esteem.

It's like I have to face exactly how low I would stoop in the "last person on earth" scenario.

*shivers*

But, thus far, the experiment is a sucess. My focus and energy is through the roof. Even without caffiene I can be wired, talkative, and driven. Huh, who'da thunk it?