Intuition, Creativity Make Us Altruistic; Reasoning Selfish

[haidut]

I think this study supports Ray's ideas well. Too much analytical thinking is the hallmark of selfish, authoritarian thought and a symptom of defective metabolism. Creativity, altruism, trusting your senses and intuition is the behavior of "artists" and revered by the likes of William Blake, Peat, etc.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22996558

"...Our results provide convergent evidence that intuition supports cooperation in social dilemmas, and that reflection can undermine these cooperative impulses."

 

[Ben]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

Muscular tension and excitation increase the activity of the cold machine in your head (thinking). To slow it, practice relaxing your muscles and take relaxing supplements (like gelatin, magnesium, progesterone, etc). Excitation indeed has to do with excessive stress hormones, which often impair thyroid function. When you learn to stop labeling people or judging them, suddenly they are more "human" to you. The way humans have hurt each other was because of labeling each other based on race, tribe, country, etc. Being analytical is necessary for certain tasks and occupations, but it's only a tool, like a calculator. Meaning can't come from the realm of this empty machine.

 

[sm1693]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

Do you guys have any links to anything by Peat (or others) talking about creativity/intuition?

I think the idea of analytical thinking being a symptom of defective metabolism is absolutely fascinating!

It's obvious to me that the human being is most happy in a state of "engagement/flow/presence" while actively pursuing an achievable goal, and a human is most unhappy while brooding in analytical thought.

One of my main motivations to change my diet and start taking supplements is the belief that proper nutrition can return me to that child-like state of being engaged with life and open to the emotion of the moment.

Great unexplored topic!

 

[Blossom]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

I really enjoy these two: 1. pranarupawordpress.com 2. Vision and acceptance(website)
Sorry I can't link at the moment since I'm not on a computer but they both follow Peat's work and have interesting articles imo.

 

[Kasper]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

Hm...Are artists not the people that die early ?

Here are just a few famous names with their life span:

- Whitney Houston, 48
- Amy Winehouse, 27
- Michael Jackson, 50
- Elvis Presley, 42

And what about:
- Darby Crash (aka Bobby Pyn) 22
- Selena 23
- Andrew Wood 24
- Tammi Terrel 24
- Johnny Ace 25
- Tupac Shakur 25
- Gram Parsons 26
- Kurt Cobain 27
- Jim Morrison 27
- Jimi Hendrix 27
- Janis Joplin 27
- Big Pun 28
- Tim Buckley 28
- Bradley Nowell 28
- Shannon Hhoon 28
- Hank Williams 29

I study, mathematics, and I guess that most people there are pretty much reasoning all day long.
But I don't think mathematicians are really selfish kind of people.
They are certainly not that into social things, they don't seem to care much about social status etc. Maybe little bit geek like, who don't really care what other people think of them.
But if you ask them a question, they are happy to tell you everything they know.

My brother is very creative, sings in a rock band, and I love him, to make that clear.
He is the opposite of analytic thinking, does everything out of intuition.
But he is the most narcistic egoistic person I have ever met.

 

[j.]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

The problem is thinking selfishness is bad. Being selfish means taking care of yourself. Everyone here is selfish because everyone is trying to improve their health.

Preaching against selfishness works well for preachers, because when the community becomes unselfish, they're more likely to make unselfish monetary contributions to the preacher.

 

[Blossom]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

The problem is thinking selfishness is bad. Being selfish means taking care of yourself. Everyone here is selfish because everyone is trying to improve their health.

Preaching against selfishness works well for preachers, because when the community becomes unselfish, they're more likely to make unselfish monetary contributions to the preacher.

You j. are definitely not 'selfish'. You, I and almost everyone else on the forum is striving for better health but you also give back all the time by sharing what you have learned and what works for you. I think it's more of a balance really that we should all strive for and some people will always naturally be more creative and others more analytical. I personally think it works out great that way.

 

[paper_clips43]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

The problem is thinking selfishness is bad. Being selfish means taking care of yourself. Everyone here is selfish because everyone is trying to improve their health.

Preaching against selfishness works well for preachers, because when the community becomes unselfish, they're more likely to make unselfish monetary contributions to the preacher.

Objectivism?

 

[jyb]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

Hm...Are artists not the people that die early ?

Here are just a few famous names with their life span:

I think there's a major bias in your examples. Those are not just artist, but celebrities, with all the problems involved including drugs. You should be looking at the average artist to test.

 

[pboy]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

I don't think artistic, or even intuitive, is the right word to describe this phenomenon. Its more of an attitude of basing things on how they make you feel, and what you can see hear smell ect, before coming to a firm conclusion through analytical thought (usually someone elses words). Many people seem to live off of what is 'supposed to be' according to analysis done by other people, rather than witness their own experience and coming to their own conclusions based on results, response, and intuitive impulse. You can analyze it later, but be sure you witness it first

 

[fyo]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

Do you guys have any links to anything by Peat (or others) talking about creativity/intuition?

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/in ... edge.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/ad ... ance.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/se ... sion.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/trypt ... ging.shtml

In mice, chronic inflammation can cause depressive behavior (receding into darkness, lethargy, anti-socialness, etc).
In mice, a high-fermentable diet can cause anxiety. Bacteria eat the food, producing toxins in the process, helping trigger the serotonin cascade, and serotonin is anxiogenic.
In people, there's such a thing as 'serotonin syndrome', where an excess of serotonin causes irritability, anxiety, sensitivity, etc.
I think authoritarianism (as a personality-type) is anxiety manifested with a 'fight'-type response. Authoritarinism is often anti-creativity; pro-moralization reasoning.
Things like progesterone and LSD reduce or interrupt serotonin, and allow that 'flow state'. I think its pretty much like the solid flow of energy = 'flow state'.
Serotonin deactivates via melatonin, which causes sluggishness and torpor.

These things I see as relating to creavitity.

 

[haidut]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

Do you guys have any links to anything by Peat (or others) talking about creativity/intuition?

http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/in ... edge.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/ad ... ance.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/se ... sion.shtml
http://raypeat.com/articles/aging/trypt ... ging.shtml

In mice, chronic inflammation can cause depressive behavior (receding into darkness, lethargy, anti-socialness, etc).
In mice, a high-fermentable diet can cause anxiety. Bacteria eat the food, producing toxins in the process, helping trigger the serotonin cascade, and serotonin is anxiogenic.
In people, there's such a thing as 'serotonin syndrome', where an excess of serotonin causes irritability, anxiety, sensitivity, etc.
I think authoritarianism (as a personality-type) is anxiety manifested with a 'fight'-type response. Authoritarinism is often anti-creativity; pro-moralization reasoning.
Things like progesterone and LSD reduce or interrupt serotonin, and allow that 'flow state'. I think its pretty much like the solid flow of energy = 'flow state'.
Serotonin deactivates via melatonin, which causes sluggishness and torpor.

These things I see as relating to creavitity.

Just wanted to add that the "serotonin syndrome" if left untreated can kill a person pretty quickly. It doesn't just case anxiety, irritability, etc. That's what most of those people in 90s died from when taking tryptophan supplements, even though the official diagnosis was "eosinophilic myalgia" (EMS). And it is serotonin that actually does the killing, by destroying the nervous system together with histamine. So much for the "happiness hormone"...
Incidentally, Ray wrote in one of his articles that the official EMS diagnosis was wrong (or a fraud to conceal the danger of tryptophan and the questions that may raise about serotonin drugs). Recently (2005), it seems that the truth is starting to come out and point to the alternative that it was NOT the impurities that caused the epidemic but tryptophan itself by causing a histamine and serotonin overload. Here is the study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16307217

"...Overloads of tryptophan supplements cause - among other relevant side-effects - an increased formation of formate and indolyl metabolites, several of which inhibit the degradation of histamine. Moreover, (non-EMS) subjects with hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation have also manifested greatly increased sensitivities to incurred tryptophan and histamine."

High dopamine on the other hand, even if it produces something along the lines of "dopamine syndrome" (if there is such a thing at all), rarely results in hypertensive crisis that has the potential to be fatal. Also, dopamine itself does not kill your brain, AFAIK.

 

[Dayman]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

Also http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/wi ... lake.shtml touches on it

 

[Such_Saturation]

Re: Intuition, creativity make us altruistic; reasoning self

I know that amphetamines cause permanent memory ability loss, or something like that. Easy to fry those learning and reward circuits. Better leave our brains where they want to be, I think.

 

[Regina]

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