Of course it isn’t the same, but i would argue that watching TV isn’t the same as playing a videogame --the feedback between the interface and the nervous system is greater, i think. We can argue too that “shamanic dimensions” are a feedback between the envirorment and the nervous system. I made this connection after having some trips in which i could move my vision just like in quake.

Also, it’s well know in psychiatry that hipervigilance --which I think that great videogame players develop-- causes altered states. There were studies linking videogames with enhanced visual capacities--the same that mckenna arguing with psylocibin enhancing visual accuity.

Not saying of course that shamanic experiences and videogames are the same, but i really think that videogames could be wiring new generations for that kind of experiences.

I read that article and surely I’ll made a “tribute” of that in my blog --also with the one of Yoshiro Nakamura.

And, hey, the quote of “chronon” was actually from mckenna, but not in TIL: it was near the end of True Hallucinations, which i’ve been re-reading this day. For me, the best book ever.

Hmm.. what about games, made by nintendo, that are designed to make your brain work on math skills, for example?

Also, game play seems to be different for different people.  Some are very robotic in their play style; exact and consistent.  Most are not as accurate and appear to be easily distracted.  I flux between these two states.  If I go a week with out playing a game like Counter-Strike, for example, I will end up being much more accurate, robotic, efficient, deadly, etc.  If I play daily for more than about 3 days, I become very bad at the game.  I think this is due to my brain re-adjusting and interpreting the game as a benign source of stimulation, rather than a serious situation to work through and out of with exact maneuvering.

Regardless, I think you all may be entertained by the movie “Network” which came out in the… 70’s? (maybe it was the 80’s)
It deals with the idea of people becoming so hopelessly addicted to TV that they become inactive and unable to do anything active for change of the better.

Peace!

If it really is in True Hallucenations, that’s execptionally weird, becuase I remember coming downstairs and typing it out of Invisible Landscape.  Also complicating issues is the fact I don’t have a copy of True Hallucenations and haven’t read it in years.

I think I have a copy on my floor.. or it’s in the mail.. I forget.. but either way, I can look it up if you would like me to.

I just realized this topic has gone way away from concentration problems.. heh.

I’ve got some of the same problems, my concentration level and attention span has radically declined over the past few years and i’m really not sure why.  Once in a great while I great glimpses of extreme mental clarity, but they soon leave me as quickly as they came.  Meditation and/or hypnosis seem to help a little, but I haven’t found anything to help with that significantly.

btw Graham Hancock’s latest book covers shamans in great detail, it’s been a great read so far.  From what I’ve read about visions of shamans, I don’t see the connection with video games.  Their visions usually aren’t violent.

Anything in large doses can not be good for you at all; moderation is one of the cornerstones of wisdom. I’ve gone a good month or so without any real internet access, and only having read a few books. Now I’ve come back to the internet and books and I feel that I can get a lot more out of them after such a break. Especially since I was outside pretty much 24/7 and living in a tent in a river bottom.

To really learn you have to use a variety of different methods. Reading, discussion, introspection (drug-induced or otherwise), meditation, hands-on application/manipulation, etc.

And even then you don’t really ever “learn anything” in the sense that you truly know anything, you are just stimulating your mind to be able to react to new and different situations. Cultivating your brain as if it were a farm, in a sense.