So, here’s the specific thing I can think of that seems like it might be helpful...
I try to be cautious about using meditation-based wire-heading or emotional-dulling, but at minimum, there’s a state one step down from enlightenment (equanimity) that perceives suffering as merely “dissonance” in vibrations. The judging/negative-connotation gets dropped, and internal-perception of emotional affect is pretty flat (Note of caution: the emotions probably aren’t gone, it’s more like you perceive them differently. I’m not 100% sure how it works, myself. While it might sound similar, it’s not quite the same as dissociation; the movement is more like you lean into your experience rather than out of it. Also, I read in a paper that its painkiller properties are apparently not based on opiods? Weird, right? So neurologically, I don’t really know how it works, although I might develop theories if I researched it a bit harder.).
Enlightenment/fruition proper doesn’t even form memories, although I’ve never been able to sustain that state for longer than a few seconds. But when it drops, it usually drops back into equanimity… so I guess between the two, it’d be a serious improvement on “eternal conscious suffering”?
Unfortunately, to get into Enlightenment territory, there’s a series of intermediate steps that tend to set off existential crises, of widely-varying severity. Any book or teacher that doesn’t take this and the wireheading potential seriously, is probably less good than one who does. That said, I still recommend it, especially for people who seem to keep having existential crises anyway. But it’s a perception-alteration workbench; its sub-skills can sometimes be used to detrimental ends, if people aren’t careful about what they install.
So, here’s the specific thing I can think of that seems like it might be helpful...
I try to be cautious about using meditation-based wire-heading or emotional-dulling, but at minimum, there’s a state one step down from enlightenment (equanimity) that perceives suffering as merely “dissonance” in vibrations. The judging/negative-connotation gets dropped, and internal-perception of emotional affect is pretty flat (Note of caution: the emotions probably aren’t gone, it’s more like you perceive them differently. I’m not 100% sure how it works, myself. While it might sound similar, it’s not quite the same as dissociation; the movement is more like you lean into your experience rather than out of it. Also, I read in a paper that its painkiller properties are apparently not based on opiods? Weird, right? So neurologically, I don’t really know how it works, although I might develop theories if I researched it a bit harder.).
Enlightenment/fruition proper doesn’t even form memories, although I’ve never been able to sustain that state for longer than a few seconds. But when it drops, it usually drops back into equanimity… so I guess between the two, it’d be a serious improvement on “eternal conscious suffering”?
Unfortunately, to get into Enlightenment territory, there’s a series of intermediate steps that tend to set off existential crises, of widely-varying severity. Any book or teacher that doesn’t take this and the wireheading potential seriously, is probably less good than one who does. That said, I still recommend it, especially for people who seem to keep having existential crises anyway. But it’s a perception-alteration workbench; its sub-skills can sometimes be used to detrimental ends, if people aren’t careful about what they install.