I have started this new thread because there are some new style webpages that are anti-drug but not as bombastic as the previous batch like ADHDFRAUD.com and RITALINDEATH.com.


These new sites are slicker and they have spent a lot of time and a lot of money. But lets be clear, they still have a strong antidrug message. I believe they are from the same old antipsychs like Breggin and Scientology.

For example look at -> http://www.biopsychiatry.com/
The text starts out to be informative with facts and links but then it changes tone. You have been sucked in with information and then they spring misinformation on you. In the text on the second quote below, "Ill effects" is highlighted and when clicked, a full screen image of crack cocaine comes up. We also get moralizing tidbits like....

"One spectacularly incompetent route to a lifetime of happiness involves taking unsustainable psychostimulants such as cocaine or the amphetamines. In the short term, their activation of the sympathetic nervous system tends to elevate mood, motivation and energy. Users tend to talk a lot. Self-confidence is enhanced".

and

..."Some people continue to take psychostimulants casually for years without serious harm. Yet the potential risks of adverse physical, psychological and social ill-effects are high. Hence their use is best discouraged".


The first four pages of the www.amphetamines.com webpage is up close pictures of stimulants. You can't roam...you have to go from one page to the next. It is a biased and controlled message, all stimulants are dangerous drugs. The last page is the "ice" page. -> http://amphetamines.com/ice.html. It looks scientific but reeks to high hell. There are links to pages that look like scientific studies and in fact some probably are. Yet, I'm certain that they are taken out of context and that no respectable scientist would want their work in what looks to be an elaborate deception. The whole thing(Amphetamines.com/ BLTC / the studies/ biopsychiatry.com/ ) is one LARGE connected piece of propoganda.

Some of this info was posted on a previous thread but I felt the info deserved it's own seperate thread and the info was also off topic. You can go back to the source here @ ->http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17435

Yes, this is all an excellent reminder to "consider the source." Personally, if I want to cite studies, I'll search medline or pubmed. Another thing to consider are the credentials and reputation of the poster. I'm not a health professional, nor am I studying to be one, nor do I play one on TV, but I do try to keep myself informed by reading all the prescribing info on any med I am prescribed, and checking out that same info for new meds that come out, and I'm certainly no anti-psychiatry poster boy.

This is a large set of sites under better the Better Living Through Chemistry domain http://www.bltc.com/domains.htm

Both www.erowid.org and leda.lycaeum.org (pro-drug ethnobotanical tripper/smart drug groups) link to sites in the BLTC domain. But BTLC rarly links to sites outside it's own domain, except for references.

Because of the quirky, obsessive style and bizarre utopian/dystopian message throughout, I suspect BTLC is ALL one person (David Pearce) who has lots of time and a little money. The sites that I've looked at never solicit donations, they don't list sponsors nor do they link to internet pharmacies, ethnobotanical retailers or smart drug suppliers.

Also, DP is certainly not anti-drug, such a stance would be too coherent. He does seem to like some drugs, such as modafinil and pot.

It all reads as if Timothy Leary was ghost writing for Ted Kaczynski. (http://www.adrafinil.com/adrafinil.html)

I have been curious about this guy after I wandered into his Provigil write-up last year.

Pearce was co-founder (with Nick Bostrom) of the World Transhumanist Society. He is currently the director of BLTC Research. I don't think this is related to the Church of Scientology.

Thanks for the links!

So you think one man with little money is responsible for all this?
http://www.hedweb.com/paradise.html

Geesh just seeing paradise in the link above gives me shivers.
What I think is that you have a well funded organization that has created all of these links to frame the contempary conversation on loads of hot button topics. Suck them them all in and then you can influence their mind. Who is their target audience...teenagers for sure. Take a look at the Hashish page and drugz page ( http://www.drugz.com/ http://www.hashish.co.uk/ ) ...informative but again framed knowledge. They give you information, a HOOK if you will, but then as you dig further and explore... the link is back to the BLTC.

And there is a strong antistimulant message in this grouping, don't ignore it!
Thats why my first assumption is some antipsych group like Scientology.
Who else but organized religion or a political group could fund, research, and continue to pay for all this?

Think about it: is this one offbeat loner guy or an organization that wants greater influence in this world? I have found what looks to be connections back to Scientology. I'll post again with further info.

I agree with Stanzen - at least that's my own "picture" of him in my head. He's English - but I guess they have scientologists in England too - but I still don't see the link - he's really not selling anything except his own opinion on drugs - and I still do think that he's talking about recreational or experimental - non-medical anyway - use of drugs.
"It all reads as if Timothy Leary was ghost writing for Ted Kaczynski." That's hilarious - and right on the money Stanzen!

If you find a good link to Scientology, please post.

BTW: There really is a World Transhumanist Society: http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/faq/

with international conferences, dedicated websites, and degreed members from Oxford and Yale.

But they don't seem to be activity involved with Pearce, nor he with them anymore.

The chair of WTA:

Nick Bostrom Ph.D. is a philosopher at Oxford University. He founded the WTA in 1998 (with David Pearce) and is a frequent spokesperson and commentator in the media. Dr. Bostrom’s research interests are in philosophy of science, probability theory, and the ethical and strategic implications of anticipated technologies (including AI, nanotech, genetics, etc.).



David Pearce is mentioned by the WTS, but not as an active member:

The Hedonistic Imperative. Another transhumanist current is represented by advocates of “paradise-engineering” as outlined in David Pearce (2003). Pearce argues on ethical grounds for a biological program to eliminate all forms of cruelty, suffering, and malaise. In the short-run, our emotional lives might be enriched by designer mood-drugs (i.e. not street-drugs). In the long-term, however, Pearce suggests that it will be technically feasible to rewrite the vertebrate genome, redesign the global ecosystem, and use biotechnology to abolish suffering throughout the living world. Pearce believes “post-Darwinian superminds” will enjoy genetically pre-programmed well-being and be animated by “gradients of bliss”.

IMOHO: David Pearce, brilliant graduate student, after one final, earth-shattering foray into transhumanistic acid-trip exuberance has stalked off to live in a shed somewhere in Wales where he writes his manifestos and posts them to the web-- having decided the internet is more effective than mail bombs.

OR is David Pearce a neo-Templar? Screaming from the wilderness that he's found the old HG (Holy Grail)! David Pearce=DP=Divine Presense.

And is it time for us to found the World Trans-ADHD Society for Babbling In-Your-Face and Incessantly about Future Dopaminic Receptor Enhancements, Blessed by Our Lady of Eturnal Wellbeing and the Good Times Ahead?

Cheers,

And is it time for us to found the World Trans-ADHD Society for Babbling In-Your-Face and Incessantly about Future Dopaminic Receptor Enhancements, Blessed by Our Lady of Eturnal Wellbeing and the Good Times Ahead?

Cheers,


Now that is funny :D

You could spends days, weeks, following all the links. I have spent a few hours and that is enough. I will admit that is hard to make connections between BLTC and any organization, it is like they/it doesn't want any association to anything.

Perhaps this is one giant web ring organized by David Pearce. The breadth of this thing is truly amazing and that is why I don't believe that he did this by himself. If there is no Scientology connection I would suggest that he has been influenced by the organization.

Here is what I have found. Ecstasy seems to get plenty of attention in this ring. Here is the link to that webpage on that drug.

http://www.mdma.net/

Way down this lengthy web page we have this, "On MDMA, one can love thy neighbour as thyself; and the lion can lie down with the lamb. Feelings of hostility, bigotry and intolerance evaporate. Competitiveness is replaced by love, tolerance and respect".

The word lamb is a link and goes here. -> http://www.games-theory.com/

The picture and link is strange enough. But I did a web search just on games-theory and found this.

http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fun/scn/books/vosper/02.html

The physical universe is inferior since not, of itself, animate. The presence of Thetans within it is explained by the fact that in the beginning of the universe, variously stated by Hubbard to be seventy-six trillion, 142 trillion and 320 trillion years ago, we were all "young" Thetans who had nothing better to do than construct a universe for ourselves in which to have a game. Hubbard explains at great length, but with no great lucidity, in his version of "Games Theory" that there must be barriers, freedoms, rules, intentions and willingness to participate for any game to exist. Ludo, for instance, has these ingredients and is therefore a compact version of life as Hubbard sees it.

I'm not a Scientologist so the above doesn't make a lot of sense to me beyond the clear relationship between Hubbard who was the founder of Scientology and "games theory".

Is that enough of a smoking gun for you?

David Pearce is, as far as I can tell, a website-creating fiend. I found out on this wikipedia link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pearce), that he mantains over 2000; and since they link to each other they get bumped up in google quite a bit.

Guy is certainly flakey, though. Out there. Some of his philosophical ideas have merit, but then when you go through his actual stuff, it's disjointed and bizarre. He's sneakily captured a lot of google market share by sprawling himself all about... which is smart, I guess, but annoying.

He's got a knack for really twisting stuff around and stating things in bizarre and overly dramatic terms. He really likes to make up terms when he doesn't have any real ones; and his body of work always seems vaguely out of touch with reality.

He seems like the type to start his own religion and attract a cult following, if he had his stuff together. As it stands, he doesn't. All he really has is a very optimistic message that gets lost in... reality. And thousands of websites.

If he wrote sci-fi, he'd be better off. As it is, he writes as though we're about to have this massive revolution whereafter everyone is born perfect. Come on, David, I think we've realized it can't be that easy after all of human experience.

So what did you think of my link between Pearce and Scientology? Why the heck would he be making a webpage with an address www.games-theory and with a picture of a lamb and lion together? That stuff is bent, there is no logical reason for it's existence, except for my belief that he is promoting Scientology either subconsciously or consciously.

His websites do have a cultish religious flavour to them.

Cultish religious feel? Yes. Scientology? No. Scientology, as I recall it, doesn't believe in psychoactive meds AT ALL. David, on the other hand, seems to think we can achieve utopia by genetic engineering and pharmacology, which is rather the opposite track.

Hey, scuro, I thought the logo of COS was the lion and its cubs, not lion and lamb.

If this were a set of COS sites, it would be more focused and coherent, and would offer a way to become involved with some subsidiary of the church.

Here's a fan of David Pearce:

This is the second annual conference of the World Transhumanism Association. The second was held last year at Yale. That was where one of the two founders of this society, Nick Bostrom, taught philosophy (he is now a fellow at Oxford). I asked Nick several times about David Pearce, the other founder and author of the mind-opening Hedonistic Imperative[1], but he only provided vague confirmations of what I already knew: that David is shy but maintains his tremendous number of websites about narcotics, utilitarianism, and animal rights, among other things. I continue to miss the unique perspective he brings to the transhumanist movement."

http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=67&t=4127

Yeah, shy, for sure.

In fact, I'm becoming a fan of David Pearce! Perhaps he has transended the flesh and has parsed his consciousness onto the webring.

That would explain a lot.

People,

You have side stepped the point I was making. What is a very religious and symbolic image of a lion and lamb doing in David Pearce's webring? Better yet, why does he have a webpage http://www.games-theory.com/ with only a title and the picture of lamb and lion together? This does not fit with his other transhumanist stuff. If you click on the image it goes to chapter 4 of the Hedonistic Imperative. Here it talks about the game of life and changing the rules. The same game of life that the founder of Scientology, Hubbard talked about in his games theory.
http://thingy.apana.org.au/~fun/scn.../vosper/02.html Reading either manifesto is mentally taxing. They both write in a similar obscure pseudo-intellectual style.

Having said all this, is it not possible that David Pearce was influenced or is a Scientologist? Is it also not possible that he could be just as biased as Scientology and that his faulty message may have the same purpose?

David Pearce/and others(?) are making additions to his website. The bias becomes more apparent. He chooses articles to frame a viewpoint and then has links from ADHD to several pages about speed. As I noted in the previous post, there is religous slant, possibly a Scientologist twist to the website.

Here are the titles to some of the latest pages.
Worms on speed ->http://amphetamines.com/methamphetamine/iceworm.html
Prescribing of hyperactivity drugs is out of control ->http://amphetamines.com/adhd/overprescribed.html
Gentetics and the 7R allele->http://amphetamines.com/adhd/genetics.html
BUILT FOR SPEED?(is speed a sleepless dream or an addictive nightmare?)->http://methamphetamine.co.uk/meth/

I don't think he's a scientologist...for instance, the first page you linked to, the biopsychiatry page, he mentions Sasha Shulgin. I can tell you right now that no scientologist would link to Shulgin if his life depended on it.

Shulgin, for those who don't know, is an organic chemist and psychedelic counterculture icon. He works on novel compounds which have pronounced hallucigenic and psychedelic effects. He is a proponent of the philosophy of expanding consciousness through the use of mind-altering chemicals. This is about as far from Scientology as one can get. Also, unlike guys like breggin or baughman, Shulgin is actually a qualified researcher with real credentials, he even had a DEA C-I license (which allows chemists to research schedule I, or completely illegal compounds) until he published a popular book about his research into recreational chemicals.

The fact that Pearce is a Shulgin fan leads me to think that he's likely a hippy acid-head who's had one too many trips and never fully returned from lala-land.

You can google a person's name with the key words schientology, service, completion and see if the person has completed scientology classes through 2005. David's name is not on any of the lists.
HTH

From his Amphetamines Resource page.
http://amphetamines.com/resource/index.html

Near the bottom of the page is this reference Methamphetamine Addiction (Narconon)

Which goes to this webpage
http://www.methamphetamineaddiction.com/

Wiki on Narconon
Scientology's Narconon is an in-patient rehabilitation program for drug abusers in several dozen treatment centers worldwide, chiefly in the United States and western Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narconon



Granted, he links to many sites on that reference page but the question is, why would anyone link to a Scientology rehab site unless one thought that it could help? There were so many other rehab webpages that could have been picked...so many other great stimulant/ drug addiction information websites. Picking that site indicates that David Pearson sees nothing wrong with Scientology and how they "help" people. That, or he displays an ignorance that does not fit in with the intelligence he demonstrates in his building that massive web-ring of crafty propoganda.

Because of the quirky, obsessive style and bizarre utopian/dystopian message throughout, I suspect BTLC is ALL one person (David Pearce) who has lots of time and a little money. The sites that I've looked at never solicit donations, they don't list sponsors nor do they link to internet pharmacies, ethnobotanical retailers or smart drug suppliers.

Also, DP is certainly not anti-drug, such a stance would be too coherent. He does seem to like some drugs, such as modafinil and pot.


The fact that Pearce is a Shulgin fan leads me to think that he's likely a hippy acid-head who's had one too many trips and never fully returned from lala-land.

Notwithstanding the "games theory" and Narconon connection, there seems to be little that connects David Pearce to Scientology. On the other hand, he is not some granola eating, fuzz brain, who is randomly spitting out thousands of webpages when he is not having flashbacks. There is a distinct purpose to these thousands of webpages, and that is to show that drug use in the past was bad, and that through technologies of the present and future, man will no longer suffer.

Okay, worthy goal if it's not just a pipe dream but what he has done is give a very distorted and biased view about current therapeutic drugs. Because, if current meds are positive, his utopian vision comes into question. Thus we see associations from his webpages that always put stimulants on equal footing with street drugs.

For instance his Adderall XR page has a study that basically states that the med controls behaviour in children.
http://amphetamines.com/adderall/adderall-xr.html
But then look at the links at the bottom of Adderall XR page.

Adderall
Dexamyl
Adderall XR
Adderall advert
Self-medication
Worms on speed
Dopamine uptake
Kids on stimulants
Adderall in the classroom
Amphetamines for aphasics
ADHD/psychopharmacology
Adderall versus methylphenidate
Amphetamine and the angry mouse
Food and drugs: Adderall v. Concerta for ADHD kids

So you go to the Amphetamine angry mouse page...
http://amphetamines.com/rage/index.html
and all of a sudden you have a study that has nothing to do with Adderall XR. I haven't read this study but I bet that the mice were injected with the drug which will cause the high and crash cycle of addiction. In addition, I also bet that the level of stimulants given to the mice was very high which also likely induced the behaviour changes.

By steering you to make a few very limited and hand picked associations that he places at the bottom of each of his thousands of webpages, he makes "Scientology like" associations between theraputic levels of stimulants and street drugs. Every page about meds is like this. Someone has put thousands and thousands of hours into the making of all of these webpages.

Here you will find another fine bit of propoganda. Try his amphetamines webpage and you will get this slide show.
http://amphetamines.com/index.html

Looks like he basically cribbed from Erowid, but left out the therapeutic stuff.

Keep in mind that scientologists aren't the only anti-med people out there. There are a number of other groups who often spout scientologist talking points without even knowing their origin. There's the insane 'geniuses" who believe that psych meds are a plot by The Man to make them think like everyone else, you've got misguided advocates who believe that we're pathologizing creativity by diagnosing or treating ADHD specifically, you've got the assorted chelation crazies and anti-vaxxers, and then you've just got the random immature morons who hear that we are prescribed amphetamines for medicinal reasons and get all kinds of ridiculous ideas.

Of course, there's also the DARE/anti-drug crowd who have been waging the war on minoritie...I mean, war on drugs. They may not care about the use of these meds, but they often publish information about how amphetamine will destroy your life if you even sit in a room with people who may have done it once, and they may mistakenly include "Adderall" and "Dexedrine" in the list of slang terms, or they may get all in a tizzy when they hear some rumor of kids illicitly obtaining ADHD meds for recreational purposes and decide that they have to do something. Lord help us from well-meaning people who want to do something, they're the truly dangerous ones.

Erowid at least makes no pretense about what it's trying to do. David Pearce uses the tactics of alternative religious persuasion, think of groups like Jehoahs Witnesses or Scientlogy. The window dressing that you see first, is not the message. The window dressing is a hook to make the message more palatable.

He has a massive link farm of many different and obscure websites. The purpose of these hook websites is to bring traffic in because once you are on one of his webpages, there are no outside links that will take you out of his web-ring. Each webpage limits you to a few prechosen links, and after surfing in this controlled enviornment, sooner or later the links to his Hedonistic Imperative webpages appear. David Pearce could be considered the Venus flytrap of drug addled surfing youth of the western world.

His link farm can be found here ->http://www.bltc.com/bltc-research.html