Psychedelics and Comedy (with Sarah Rose Siskind)

1. Utilize Psychedelics for Neuroplasticity

Understand that psychedelics can enhance neuroplasticity, which may aid in breaking compulsive patterns and reforming behaviors associated with various mental health issues like rumination, OCD, and addiction.

2. MDMA for Trauma Processing

Understand that MDMA can chemically reduce fear by lowering amygdala activity, making it easier to discuss and process traumatic incidents without the usual fight-or-flight response.

3. Reset Behavioral Patterns

Leverage the neuroplasticity induced by psychedelics to “snow over” old, ingrained behavioral patterns, creating an opportunity to establish new, healthier ways of thinking and acting.

4. Use Psychedelics as Mental Alibi

Utilize the “alibi” effect of psychedelics, where the drug experience provides a mental excuse to explore difficult thoughts or express silly ideas, thereby lowering psychological barriers.

5. Cultivate Childlike Perception

Embrace the childlike perception induced by psychedelics to deconstruct familiar objects and ideas, seeing their component parts rather than applying preconceived models, which can lead to new insights.

6. Deepen Empathy, Reassess Worldview

Allow difficult personal experiences, like depression, to deepen your empathy and prompt a re-evaluation of individualistic philosophies, recognizing the reality of unequal opportunities and the importance of collective well-being.

7. Embrace Unconditional Love

Recognize that love can be unconditional and not merely a conditional fulfillment of preferences, challenging purely logical or objectivist understandings of human connection.

8. Practice Accepting Stranger’s Kindness

Practice accepting kindness from strangers, as this can be a transformative experience that makes it easier to, in turn, offer unconditional love and support to others.

9. Utilize Community for Coping

Seek and engage with community support as a vital coping mechanism and pathway out of depression, recognizing the power of collective assistance.

10. Challenge Societal Norms

Reflect on alternative societal models like Burning Man to challenge assumptions about human nature and societal structures, recognizing that different norms of giving and community support are possible.

11. Avoid Psychedelics with Psychosis History

Avoid or tread extremely cautiously with psychedelics if you have a history of mania, bipolar, psychosis, or schizophrenia, as they may trigger mental health problems.

12. Test Psychedelics for Purity

Before ingesting psychedelics, use a drug testing kit to verify quality, purity, and absence of contaminants, as doubts about the substance can exacerbate a difficult experience.

13. Avoid Mixing Drugs Inexperienced

Exercise extreme caution when mixing different substances, especially if inexperienced, as chemicals can interact synergistically and lead to unpredictable and dangerous outcomes.

14. Defer Major Decisions Post-Trip

Do not make major life decisions (e.g., open marriage, driving) while on psychedelics or immediately after, as they can impair judgment and lower inhibitions.

15. Choose Flexible Trip Companions

Choose companions for psychedelic experiences who are flexible and can meet you where you are emotionally, as feeling abandoned or mismatched intentions can lead to upsetting trips.

16. Navigate Bad Trips Empathetically

When supporting someone on a bad trip, avoid denying their perceived reality; instead, work within their experience and gently guide them towards comforting or positive interpretations.

17. Seek Online Trip Support

In case of a difficult psychedelic experience without adequate in-person support, utilize online resources such as tripsit.com for assistance from experienced individuals.

18. Wait Two Hours for Boosters

If considering a booster dose of any substance, wait a minimum of two hours, as individual metabolism rates can vary and delay the onset of effects.

19. Trip with Trusted Friends

For your first psychedelic experience, avoid doing it with complete strangers; it’s safer with new friends if you also have trusted old friends present.

20. Manage Psychedelic Expectations

Approach psychedelic experiences with hope for a specific outcome (e.g., therapeutic insight) but avoid rigid expectations, as the experience may manifest differently (e.g., physical high, recreational).

21. Address Unseen Problems with Psychedelics

Be open to the possibility that psychedelics might address underlying issues you weren’t consciously aware of, even if the experience doesn’t align with your initial intentions.

22. Curate a Grounding Playlist

Prepare a diverse playlist, including psychedelic music from the 1960s, as it can provide grounding and comfort by spanning various emotions during a psychedelic experience.

23. Embrace All Trip Emotions

Embrace and allow yourself to experience all emotions, including sadness, during a psychedelic trip, as cathartic emotional releases can be profoundly valuable.

24. Consider Underdosing Risks

While common wisdom suggests starting with a low dose, be aware of the risk of underdosing causing disappointment; consider your body size and plan for a booster after at least two hours if needed.

25. Explore Psychedelics for Depression

If you have depression and 23andMe results suggest low SSRI responsiveness, consider alternative therapies like psychedelics, as they may be helpful.

26. Leverage Desperation for Openness

Recognize that desperation from mental health issues can lower risk aversion, making you more open to trying new, potentially helpful, experiences or therapies.

27. Monitor Ambien Use Closely

If taking Ambien, videotape yourself or have someone watch you to ensure you don’t lose your mind and forget about it, as it can induce unremembered hallucinations and bizarre behavior.

28. Adjust Ambien Dosage for Women

Be aware that traditional Ambien (zolpidem) dosages of 10mg may be too high for women or smaller men; a 5mg dose is often more appropriate due to physiological differences.

29. Guard Against Epistemic Drift

Be cautious about the epistemic risks of psychedelics, as they can challenge traditional ways of knowing and potentially lead to adopting unusual or unsubstantiated beliefs.

30. Master Unexpectedness in Humor

Understand that the core mechanism of humor is unexpectedness; jokes and sketches work by upending audience expectations.

31. Utilize Benign Violation Theory

Apply the benign violation theory to understand humor: it often stems from an unexpected event that initially seems threatening but is quickly revealed to be harmless, leading to relief and laughter.

32. Apply Humor as Medicine

Employ humor as a form of medicine, especially in difficult or sensitive contexts like funerals, by focusing on deeply human, funny stories or the absurd circumstances, as it aids in the grieving process.

33. Gauge Humor’s Punching Direction

When using humor for criticism, be mindful of your platform and influence; a joke intended to “punch up” can inadvertently become “punching down” as your social status or audience grows.

34. Use Comedy as Social Conduit

Leverage comedy as a powerful “backdoor to consciousness” and an “ironclad alibi” to discuss sensitive societal issues, speak truth to power, and challenge norms in ways other forms of communication cannot.

35. Adjust Humor for Empathy, Absurdity

Adjust your comedic approach based on character empathy and the show’s universe; humor can be enhanced by a lack of empathy for characters or by embracing an absurd, non-realistic setting where consequences are temporary.

36. Balance Absurdity and Truth in Humor

Recognize that humor effectively operates through two seemingly opposite mechanisms: presenting something so absurd it’s a release, and revealing something so unexpectedly true it resonates deeply.

37. Leverage Robot Expectations for Humor

When creating comedy with robots, leverage audience expectations and fears (e.g., robot uprising, malfunction, single-purpose absurdity) to generate humor.

38. Distinguish Market from True Value

Be critical of the conflation of market value with true societal value, recognizing that companies can make money while causing harm (e.g., through imperfect information, exploiting irrationality, negative externalities).

39. Recognize Exploitative Business Practices

Be aware of how businesses can exploit human irrationality, such as addiction, difficulty with small probabilities, or emotional states like grief, to generate profit.

40. Spot Negative Sum Business Models

Identify negative sum games where a company’s profit comes from helping one party at a greater net expense to others, such as spam software or test prep for fixed-slot competitions.

41. Address Negative Externalities

Acknowledge that negative externalities, such as pollution, are a significant market failure often overlooked by purely free-market approaches, necessitating solutions like Pigovian taxes to internalize costs.

42. Assess Regulation’s Dual Impact

Understand that while regulations can sometimes hinder progress or create unintended consequences, they are often a necessary response to market failures like asymmetric information, where sellers have more knowledge than buyers.

43. Counter Market Inequality

Recognize that a free-market capitalist system inherently tends to increase wealth inequality, suggesting that some form of redistribution may be necessary to ensure broader societal well-being.

44. Balance Wealth Taxation

When considering taxation of the wealthy, be mindful that excessively high rates can incentivize tax avoidance through relocation or asset manipulation, potentially making the policy self-defeating.