Posts Tagged ‘effects’
“Psychedelic experiences are notoriously hard to render in words”*…
… to categorize them, even harder. But Josie Kins (@Josikinz) and her colleagues at Effect Index are putting in the work…
The Subjective Effect Index is a set of articles designed to serve as a comprehensive catalogue and reference for the range of subjective effects that may occur under the influence of psychoactive substances and other psychonautic techniques.
The effects listed here are accompanied by detailed descriptions on the subjective experiences of them. They are written in a consistent and formal writing style that avoids the use of flowery metaphors or analogy; instead, they strive to use simple and accessible language. This is done with the hope that they will eventually serve as a universal terminology set that enables people to better communicate and share experiences that are, by nature, difficult to convey.
The Index is separated into 233 effects, which are organised into categories based on the senses they affect and their behavior. Many of these are further broken down into leveling systems, subcomponents, and style variations that may occur across different substances. Detailed image, video, and audio replications [like the one above] have been included wherever possible to supplement text-based descriptions…
Stanislav Grof, M.D has argued that “LSD is a catalyst or amplifier of mental processes. If properly used it could become something like the microscope or telescope of psychiatry.” Effects Index is attempting to build a database to help that process along.
* Michael Pollan
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As we tackle the taxonomy of trips, we might recall that it was on this date in 1842 that (modern) anesthesia was used for the first time in an operation– by Dr. Crawford Long. Long, a physician and a pharmacist, used diethyl ether in the removal of a tumor from the neck of James Venable in Jefferson, GA; given success with Venable, Long then used ether in other surgeries and in childbirths. He published the results of these trials in 1848 in The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal (an original copy of which is held in the U.S. National Library of Medicine).
It’s cool that Long is the subject of one of the two statues representing Georgia in the crypt of the U.S. Capitol. It’s cooler that Long was the cousin of Doc Holliday.
Crawford Long (source)
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak”*…
The Boeing airplane factory in Seattle got the “fake neighborhood” treatment. The women shown are walking on a suburban landscape made of chicken wire and planks, positioned over the roof of the factory. Underneath, B-17s were being built for the war effort.
Military forces have used camouflage of one sort or another since antiquity. But with the advent of the airplane and the rise of aerial warfare, camouflage (to hide targets) and decoys (to draw fire away from real targets or to intimidate the enemy) became bigger and bigger: “Massive Wartime Decoys and Camouflage Operations.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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As we misdirect, we might send convincingly animated birthday greetings to Raymond Frederick “Ray” Harryhausen; he was born on this date in 1920. A visual effects pioneer, he became a writer and producer of films featuring the stop-motion model animation technique, “Dynamation,” that he developed. He is probably best remembered for the animation in Mighty Joe Young (1949, with his mentor, King Kong animator Willis H. O’Brien), which won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects; The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958, his first color film); and Jason and the Argonauts (1963, which featured an amazing sword fight between Jason and seven skeleton warriors). His last film was Clash of the Titans (1981).
Harryhausen and one of the skeleton warriors from Jason and the Argonauts
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