Hi dude,

It depends on how this lecturer defines “fun”, “discipline”, “progress” and “spiritually”; and how you personally define them. There are many many different definitions of each of these terms. Some people fnd discipline fun, for example, which makes it difficult for them NOT to have both at the same time.

We have to understand exactly what people mean before deciding whether we agree. We can never assume other people mean the same as we do, because everyone's associations are different; you, me, the dude in the all night garage, the dalai lama, we all have our own personal ideas of what is fun... If 'fun' had some measurable scale like 'serotonin release', then I'd be able to answer.

I'm not really in any position to judge 'spiritual progress' in any case! I do know that we need both sponteneity and control, both N5 and N4, to fully develop intelligence, just as we need both strength and endurance, both noradrenaline and acetylcholine...but that's not at all the same thing as spiritual development (by my definition) so maybe not helpful...?
Best,
AR

Yes, spot on  :  )

With regard to play I couldn't agree more. With regard to discipline,* we've all seen young animals and children get over-excited and end up falling ass-first into or over something, then bitterly complaining about it  :  ) Discipline is putting the brakes on. Controlling your own hormones & neurochemistry in ways that enable you to calm it down or slow things down when necessary, and being able to focus.

'Discipline' in NH terms is focus, order and self control, as in 'order out of chaos'. We have to be able to focus and ignore distractions, if we get too caught up in too many things it becomes confusing, health suffers and perception gets cloudy. On the other hand if there is not enough new stuff to play with, it becomes boring, health suffers and perception gets cloudy. The green zone is always in the middle.

I guess its like saying we need an accelerator AND a brake  :  )
The 'accelerator' is modulated by norepinephrine, the 'brake' is modulated by acetylcholine.
...So eating eggs helps discipline? Theoretically it should. If you like eggs, feel free to try the experiment!
Best,
AR
*(not 'discipline' as in "Hot Helga's FunHouse of Correction")

Fractal Wrote:
lol, so which neurotransmitters are involved in BDSM?

S/M folks have exactly the same transmitters all of us do. Input preference (no pun intended) is literally a matter of association -whatever blows your hair back, man.  Some of us get our dopamine hit from fondling breasts or penises, some from dressing up as batman or wearing handcuffs or eating yogurt off each other, but obviously not all of us do. It's exactly the same as some of us liking certain foods that others find repulsive.

Some prefer an endorphin-laced high, others prefer a long period of dopamine, others like a lot of oxytocin with their sex, others want a fast acetylcholine hit, and we engage in different activities accordingly. The details don't matter to biology, it will happily adapt to get erotically excited or hungry over pretty much anything if the associations are right. Even household electrical appliances can give some people a double polaroid*

The basics remain the same. Everybody needs dopamine and noradrenaline to want sex and acetylcholine to have an orgasm in the same way everybody needs hydrochloric acid to digest their food.

When the opportunity for willing sex arises, regardless of what details our individual conscious minds decide is sexy, unconscious biology thinks, “Fuck the details; let's dance”.
Best,
AR

*Reference: See: Red Dwarf/DNA

Hi dudes,

Some input preference is hard wired, for example initially we prefer quiet sounds to loud sounds, soft warm furry things to hard cold things. But most input preference parameters are (or rather should be) calibrated at birth. We're looking for signals for every sense, to first boot the systems up and then calibrate them. The examples we are given are taken as the baseline defaults. Those are our basics. From thereon in we compare everything against those and assume it will have enough points of similarity to make sense.

Biology is expecting particular inputs; for sound, a human heartbeat; for taste, human breast milk; for sight, a human face, for touch, human skin and for smell, healthy human. If these signals aren't given, the systems don't boot up or calibrate accurately and our 'tastes' are no longer set to be optimal for our wellbeing. (We can set them up again later, so no worries)  :  )

The basics are hardwired: we are preprogrammed to communicate, but we must hear language if we're to communicate in language. The details (which particular language) are not hardwired; a kid raised by wolves will happily adapt to communicating in wuffs, howls and barks, but the intent to communicate is hardwired and will not go away.

All main neurotransmitters are involved with memory; not just ACh. I take ACh receptor triggers as nootropics, but for clarity & focus; not memory.

I, too, had a thing about the 'learning' term bcause of bad experience in school. Try replacing the concept with 'playing' or 'exploring', because really all natural learning is this.
Because there are a limited number of NTs, many are going to be involved in diverse activities that don't themselves seem related.

...Or are they? Someone needs to do the experiment of using an orgasm as a method of weighting important information and see if they remember it any better...if it works, exams of the future could be very noisy and held in private booths...
Best,
AR