BrainMan

BTW- Given the possiblility of reducing or preventing brain damage (along with relatively few side effects and/or hazzards known), I would normally say that people should take Prosac- just as DanceSafe advocates. But this is certainly not true of all antidepressants.

Yep. I think the most common advice is to take prosac AFTER the ecstacy high, actually. Here is an article on the issue: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/addiction/2002-02-24-ecstasy.htm Don't let the title fool you. Read the actual words.

To be honest, I think all the superscripts in the problem here is making it harder to read rather than easier. Here is the problem stated wihout the use of superscript: x^x^[a^(a+1)] = a. I dont know. Use whichever seems easiest to look at.

Given a>0 solve the equation: xx[a(a+1)]) = a.

Meditation?

I believe they are untechnically called "tracers" and I have only seen mention of this is relation to LSD. Ever taken LSD? Many people that have can continue to experience these tracers beyond the normal level due to receptor changes induced by the drug in the visual pathways of the brain. If you have used LSD, then it is normal for you to still see the tracers sometimes- along with the slight color effects you describe. Look up HPPD if interested. If you have not taken LSD (or other hallucinogens of a similar sort), then it is probably still normal- just an exageration of how the visual system normally works; you are in that small percentage of the natural variation in the population. This is simply a guess...I don't know. I suppose it could be involved with the eye itself, but I am not sure how.

Yes, most deaths associated with use of MDMA is due to dehydration, as pointed out earlier. I also like to spread the word that nearly every major problem with the drug from a psychological point of view is due to brain damage (every major problem that isn't desired... I hate how people like to use scare words like "disorientation" and "confusion" when these are exactly the effects people are going for). Brain damage caused by MDMA appears to drop to zero when the drug is used in conjunction with SSRI's, like prozac. I hear that it doesn't reduce the high either. These results are from animal studies, but it is a good bet that popping a prozac before taking ecstacy would eliminate the brain damage problems (which is basically the only strong fact the scare programs have for the drug at the moment...that and dehydration).

As a modern twist on the idea, however, it might be interesting to note that people tend to be more attracted to members of the opposite sex that resemble thier parent of the opposite sex (but not the same sex parent). This research was done in the context of evolutionary considerations, so "what causes it" might be answered by an appeal to natural selection.

From what I understand, DMT actually competes for serotonin receptor sites rather than blocking reuptake. It works on some of the same sites that other hallucinogens (like LSD) do- 5-HT2 being the most prominant one. But LSD does all sorts of other things as well that make the drug so damn hard to understand. Activating the receptors leads to a dramatic reduction in the number of receptors in the brain. This, in turn, presumably leads to the disinhibition of visual senations and visual memory. This is where we get "tracers". The images from moments ago are not properly inhibited, so they are interposed over current images (sort of, this is a crude explanation). The decreased receptor number can remain for long periods of time after the drug has not been used anymore, which is where many residual effects and flashbacks come from. It is also the basis of HPPD (hallucinogen perceptual persisting disorder) where people continue to experience the visual effects of a trip either permanently or for long periods of time. That is one type of hallucination partially explained. I don't have a clue about many other hallucinations caused by LSD. One of the most common hallucinations reported by everyday people are auditory hallucinations (like voices). Hearing voices is also the most common hallucination for schizophrenics, and we now know that schizophrenics are generating speach themselves, and they just dont recognize that it is themselves they are hearing. Some hallucinations can be induced by stimulating the brain with magnets, but this really only gives us a rough idea of what some brain areas are doing. Does any of this help?