It's a shame that these substances are demonized in our country, there is lots of potential for therapeutic use yet research on these chemicals is very limited due to it being illegal (schedule 1) in the US.
This reminds me a bit of the short film "Kid's Story" from The Animatrix. It revolves around a teenager who is waking up to the possibility of the matrix who finds himself alone in a world full of people unaware of its existence. He seeks the help of those who are woken up, specifically, Neo. In a way he is like these children, aware of the fleeting nature of life, waking up to these issues.
I recently had a psilocybin mushroom trip that resulted in a bit of temporary derealization during which I needed one of my friends to hold me just so that I knew I was real. It was one of the most intense experiences of my life, but through it I learned that our existence in this world is entirely a perception of the mind, and that we create our reality through each and every action we take and each thought that we make. Particularly one of my most profound insights was that the concept of time is irrelevant, for there is only the now, and when one is able to perceive the now, then one can be free from the grasps of what if and can one see what is.
I find it difficult to convey these feelings with other people, as I often find them saying things like "yeah, that's interesting", but I can see that they do not truly understand. There are some that do however and for those who do I am grateful. For the children and those of you who find yourself in this "existential depression", I can only offer this...
Create. Create art, create music, create life. If you can leave something behind for the rest of the universe, then your life was not for nothing, for you created something, were a part of something. This at the very least is all that we can do, and that is okay, for even if all you can do is make someone smile, you have created a ripple in the world that will manifest itself as a wave in the lives of those who carry on.
I find this quite amusing. Yes, it was out of place for the kid to deface the wall. Yes, he should have thought twice before proceeding with his actions, but at the end of the day, this is nothing more than a material object.
People are so quick to bash on somebody, as evident in the comments on the article. This raises the question of whether the true issue is that the kid did something that was immoral, or that these commenters and those other people who are lashing out in anger in response to this are merely using this as a way to feed their ego, or possibly as a way to justify something that they've done, that caused others to consider them to be "stupid, "irresponsible", etc.
My heart aches for each time I see a child, and often an adult, kill, a living creature. Something even so small as a fly, killed just because the fact that it is a fly and considered "annoying". Everyone has a right to life, a scratch in some 3.4 thousand year old limestone wall is not going to hurt anybody. In fact, three millennia into the future, people might regard that very same scratch to be of important historical value. The fact that people are focusing so much anger and hatred to this naive child, instead of focusing on something more important such as spreading peace and love, saddens me. And how ironic, that the very same people who are so against graffiti, graffiti on something themselves.
The reason that these artifacts exist is to tell a story, the true value in these is not the material aspect of this artifact, but the informational value. The information, although now slightly altered, is not destroyed. This is what is important. And I don't doubt that there is photographic evidence of the egyptian glyph in it's preexisting form archived somewhere, possibly in a library.
If you really wanted to deface it, you'd need to find a way to remove it from history. Only then will it's true purpose, historical archive of an important message, will be defeated.
And think about this, for everyone complaining about him defacing the artifact, wake up, you probably deface the oldest artifact in existence every day. The earth itself.
There's informational value, sure. Historical value, aesthetic value, certainly some material value. And, sure at the end of the day, it's one small scratch on one artifact in one small part of the world. But if this kid's behavior is okay, then where do you draw the line? Can everyone etch their names in ancient sculptures and artifacts? Why not take some of it home with you? (After all, removing one stone out of thousands hardly affects the historical value of a site, no?)
You see where I'm going with this. We react so strongly to one small incident of graffiti because it's simply not sustainable. I'd like my kids (and their kids) to be able to visit sites like, say, the Acropolis in Greece and find the Parthenon (which was historically subject to a ton of looting and careless damage) as well-preserved as possible.
One could always make the case that it's not worth preserving these sites at all, but that's a different argument, and those of us who are interested in the historical value would certainly beg to differ.
Over here in Austin at the Austin Hackerspace there are two 3D printers available for use, I've also seen another 3D printer that was printed from a 3D printer that one of the members had constructed, pretty neat eh?
I'd be interested to see the results of this study if the participants were exposed to ambient drone music, such as sounds of a didgeridoo or a Steve Roach piece, that music often consists of long drawn out tones that don't fluctuate frequently and often lack a "melody". For me, it puts me a deep trance like state of mind that is very calm and peaceful. Humming along to the long tones also feels good, it's like your body resonates with the music.
The answer is immersion. Live and breath music and music theory. It won't come to you overnight but if you have been playing guitar for 15 years, I feel as if you'll keep going for at least another.
