Anandamide and (some) mystical experience

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Anandamide is an endocannabinoid, which means it's something that acts like marijuana, but is produced by the body itself. I was skimming Wikipedia articles on the topic and got to wondering: would there be mystical traditions that had unknowingly stumbled upon concentration loops that could be used to (in a way) intentionally trigger abnormally intense bursts of anandamide and related synthesis in the brain? (One article said that endocannabinoids are synthesized "on demand," meaning here and there, not maintained like serotonin or adrenaline or something; so an on-demand control of this on-demand mechanism is what I'm considering.)

Although stoners are regularly derided for memory problems, anecdotally speaking this has not been the case for me. I did, at a relatively early age (c. 15 years old I think) learn extremely effective mnemonic "tricks" so my memory has never really been an issue anyway, and though sometimes when I'm blazed I might not remember everything altogether too clearly, generally my experience has been dramatic mnemonic amplification while under the influence of THC and like compounds. My neophyte computer-programmer's kind of take on the phenomenon is that the THC/similar crystals form a grid in the brain (along bound-to receptor fields) that generates a special, and if harnessed correctly very useful, information state-space. Like plugging a lot of little USB drives into a computer to boost its RAM (random access memory(!)). So, when I'm blazed, I have a feeling of "everything being connected" on some "deeper"/"higher"(!) level. Parsed spiritually, the feeling is of a transcendental unity or oneness to things. Focusing on this unity then "pulls" parts of disparate thoughts together, allowing for example extremely easy acts of lexical coordination (e.g. virtually endless exercises in assonance).

For someone with a more traditionally religious bent, if one knew a method of thinking that corresponded to some autonomic anandamide feedback loop or whatever you'd call it, would the results of meditation in that form of thought, resemble the purported contents of certain states of "mystical" consciousness? (Of course there could be interrelations among anandamide feelings and acetylcholine/serotonin/etc. systems, ones that resulted in different "mystical" feelings, and hence different religious traditions would include different "contents" or "revelations" in the deliverances of their mystical faith. For example, a highly serotonin-charged mystical feeling might be analogous to being on the drug ecstasy, with an attitude of beatific love recommending itself under the circumstances, whereas a more acetylcholinergic experience would represent the conceptual austerity of Buddhist nirvana, perhaps (a neuroscience-buff coworker of mine told me that acetylcholine is associated with concentration/attention and I have a theory that nirvana results from focusing on one's ability to focus, so much that one "intuits" the phenomenological emptiness of the attentionality function.)

There have been two instances in my life now, where I felt blazed, but not because of having done THC. Although THC use was in the temporal vicinity of these episodes, there was some other cause, even if an overdetermining one in the second case, of the total depth of the episodes. There seems to be some (sub-)cognitive system that I activated, to abruptly generate an enormous flare of anandamide; at least, that's my hypothesis at this point. When I read philosophy articles/books/the like, I also often feel "stoned," and this was true even before I had ever smoked weed (in fact, the feeling I had from philosophy was one of my major comparison classes for analyzing my newfound stoner emotional/intellectual universe). Certain forms of philosophical judgment played into the two cases of possible voluntary anandamide flaring, inasmuch as I was asking (and trying to answer) certain philosophical questions, during these episodes.

[Avatar]

Meh, I just smoke when I want to get stoned.

--A

[Hashi Lebwohl]

In the future we will use electromagnetic stimulation of the brain to directly cause these sorts of circuits to fire, giving us varying states of consciousness without the need for lengthy breath control/meditation techniques or chemical alteration.

I do not think that these alternate states are possible for non-organic brains so if we digitize our minds we will rule out the possibility of attaining those states altogether. The benefits still outweigh the downsides, though--perfect memory recall, faster processing time, accuracy, etc.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

If dark matter can form molecules (I have no idea if it can), then is it possible that every human brain has an unseen dark-matter component, such that part of the mystery of the mind's relationship with the brain, might have to do with this component?

I ask this because I'm wondering whether producing AI, will mean reproducing the human brain, artificially. It might be that computers made of metal just can't be self-aware or whatever; only computers made of organic molecules might have this capacity.

Then again, I don't know if there is or could be such a thing as organic metal. I mean, I suppose there are metallic elements in us (e.g. iron in our blood? is that the right way to look at the fact?) but...

EDIT: Also, consider the string-theoretic/related possibility of space substantivalizing itself over a fourth- or other higher-dimensional range. There could be, then, maybe (just maybe!), a structure, rotated in a higher dimension of space, so that at no angle in the third dimension can it be seen face-to-face altogether, yet certain surfaces of this structure are contiguous/intersect with, say, human brains. (I really hope I'm not butchering the hypothetical geometry of this situation.) Then all human brains will be their own individual thing, except linked, in a higher dimension, to a single structure/object (like the universal Agent Intellect of philosophical yore), and this linkage would be relevant to the existence of consciousness or whatever.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

Wild Speculation Mode Activate!

So, if I remember what I read about anandamide correctly, calcium is used in the synthesis of it. So, suppose that a very, very, very long time ago, in pre-Vedic India, mystics would drink milk sacramentally or as part of a religious diet or some such thing. Suppose pre-Vedic meditation traditions connected milk to spiritual intuition and named the connection under the banner of the legendary "soma." After the wars (supposing there were these) between the pre-Vedic and Vedic periods, much of this tradition was lost and survived primarily in the "soma" mystery and the obscure decision to venerate cows especially.

Like I said, more or less guessing all that, but then anandamide is named after "ananda," an Indian word for bliss.

[Cord Hurn]

Then again, I don't know if there is or could be such a thing as organic metal. I mean, I suppose there are metallic elements in us (e.g. iron in our blood? is that the right way to look at the fact?) but...

Such a thing as organic molecules containing atoms of metallic elements like iron? Yes. Organic metal? No, because to be organic it has to be carbon-based, and carbon isn't a metal. And organic refers to molecules and mixtures, not to non-carbon elements such as metals.

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/organic