Trippy Fruit Slices – Psychedelic MRI Art Gallery

Trippy Fruit Slices - Psychedelic MRI Art Gallery | Third Monk image 5

Garlic axial

Magnetic Resonance Imaging allows us to see some awesome stuff! Andy Ellison has taken it a step farther by taking images of fruit to create MRI Art.

MRI’s allow the viewer to visually experience these 3-D images of fruit in slices, which creates a pulsating psychedelic effect that is hypnotic and beautiful.

The image Above is Garlic, the view is Axial. Enjoy the other Images Below along with a link to Andy Ellison’s page. Peace.

MRI Art – Fruit Imaging

Pomegranate

Pomegranate

Strawberries

Strawberries

Pineapple

Pineapple

Peach

Peach

 Onion

Onion

Tomato

MRI Art

Lettuce

MRI Art - Lettuce

 Corn

Corn

 Celery

Celery

Banana

Banana

Garlic (Coronal)

Garlic coronal> Andy Ellison | Inside Insides

Impermanence – Surreal Portraits Made With Fungus, Art Gallery

Impermanence - Surreal Portraits Made With Fungus, Art Gallery | Third Monk image 4

The symbiosis between film matter and organic matter resulted in this conceptual body of trippy art.

In his series Impermanence, South Korean artist Seung-Hwan Oh creates surreal distorted photographic portraits by growing emulsion-eating fungus on his film.

Oh first allows the fungus to partially destroy the developed film in a process that takes months or even years. He then digitally prints the distorted images (the film is too fragile to print in an analog process).

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Psychedelic Vintage Collage Art by Eugenia Loli (Gallery)

Psychedelic Vintage Collage Art by Eugenia Loli (Gallery) | Third Monk image 5

Collage artist Eugenia Loli uses photography scanned from vintage magazines and science publications to create psychedelic visual narratives that borrow from aspects of pop art and traditional surrealism.
Dimitri and Spirit 12670698583_8a35f87479_b large_Eugenia-Loli-thumb loli-2 The Conquest of Nature 7511815476_9f1ae46b40_h loli-7 eugenia_loli6-650x974 Cosmic Float Unrequited Fantasies

Loli gives much of her work away as high-resolution files which you can download and print directly from her Flickr account for personal usage. She also has a collection of official, signed art prints available here.

Smarter People Stay Up Late, Do More Drugs, and Have More Sex (Study)

Smarter People Stay Up Late, Do More Drugs, and Have More Sex (Study) | Third Monk image 2

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Sex. Drugs. Late nights.

You may be reading the first four words of my memoir. Or you could be simply listing three things that show signs of being a genius, according to various studies. There’s evidence that shows that if you’re spending less of your nights hitting the books and more time smoking weed and getting laid until 3am, then you’re probably wiser than the rest of us.

Researchers in England have found that students studying at prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge spend more on sex toys than their peers at other universities. Cambridge and Oxford’s sex toy sales on just one website (Lovehoney.co.uk, who funded the research) totaled a staggering $31, 461. No word on what products they ordered, nor whether they kept their glasses on while they used them.

“The correlation probably has something to do with the open-mindedness that comes with intelligence,” says Annalisa Rose, 23, who works at Honey, a high-end sex shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I think that the ability to engage in an open sex life comes with the abilities of introspection and logical thought, and those require some level of intelligence. If we’re talking about an open sex life that comes from an emotionally healthy place, sexual mores are mostly made up anyway and intelligent people can rationalize past them. – Annalisa Rose

hunter-s-thompson-sex-drugs-hunter-thompson-fear-and-loathin-demotivational-poster- smarter people

The 2nd part of our “genius trifecta” is drugs.

Smarter people are more likely to smoke pot or do a line than the average simpleton. This is because, according to many studies, a smarter person isn’t more likely to choose the “smarter” choice of not doing drugs but is instead more likely to pursue the more evolutionary novel choice, one that would inherently expand their horizons. Smarter people don’t necessarily ‘think smarter’ – they simply rationalize where they’re supposed to “feel.” So while a less intelligent person is less likely to pick up a heroin habit in the first place, the more intelligent person will rationalize it. (This explains every good jazz album ever made and also every Christian rock album ever made in the same sentence.)

So while a less intelligent person is less likely to pick up a heroin habit in the first place, the more intelligent person will rationalize it. (This explains every good jazz album ever made and also every Christian rock album ever made in the same sentence.)

A 2010 study that ran in Psychology Today (what, you don’t subscribe?) also states that those with an IQ of 125 or higher are exponentially more likely to use drugs. Says the study:

Net of sex, religion, religiosity, marital status, number of children, education, earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, social class at birth, mother’s education, and father’s education, British children who are more intelligent before the age of 16 are more likely to consume psychoactive drugs at age 42 than less intelligent children.

…there is a clear monotonic association between childhood general intelligence and adult consumption of psychoactive drugs. “Very bright” individuals (with IQs above 125) are roughly three-tenths of a standard deviation more likely to consume psychoactive drugs than “very dull” individuals (with IQs below 75).

Late nights, too, play a leading role in that of the smart person: an academic paper entitled “Why The Night Owl Is More Intelligent,” published in the journal Psychology And Individual Differences, says that for several millennia humans have been largely conditioned to work during the day and sleep at night.

Those that buck the trend, the paper suggests “…that more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences than less intelligent individuals.”

The paper goes on to say that those who are more liberal and more inclined towards atheism are more likely to be intelligent, too.

Essentially, if you’re more of a forward thinker, if you’re trying something new and pushing your boundaries, you’re most likely more intelligent. This doesn’t mean that Toronto mayor Rob Ford is some kind of lucid genius, however. It merely suggests that smarter people are more likely to have more sex, do drugs, and stay up late.

So if you’re getting laid at 3am on Sunday morning and have a full bowl packed beside the bed and you aren’t going to church the next day, you’re probably a genius.

Either that or you’re incredibly good at living your best life.

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> Smarter People and Their Habits | Esquire

Neuroscientist Paints Sumi-e Style Brain Art (Gallery)

Neuroscientist Paints Sumi-e Style Brain Art (Gallery) | Third Monk image 1

Neuroscientist Greg Dunn decided to trade in his microscope to become a professional artist. 

He still uses a microscope in his art though. Meta much? What gives! Greg is an interesting dude, and his brain art offers deep food for thought when it comes to interconnectivity and the fractal nature of the universe.

The patterns of branching neurons he saw through the microscope reminded him of the aesthetic principles in Sumi-e art, which he admires. Dunn realized neurons could be painted in this sumi-e (minimalist ink wash painting) style to wonderful effect.

The microscopic world belongs in the world of Asian art. There’s no distinction between painting a landscape of a forest and a landscape of the brain. – Greg Dunn

Enjoy his beautiful creations!

 Sumi-e Style: Brain Art

Cortical Columns

Cortical-Columns[4] Brain Art

It’s almost a zen quality to the branching pattern of a neuron that I was interested in capturing initially. – Greg Dunn

Basket and Pyramidals

Basket-and-Pyramidals-small[1] Brain Art

Gold Cortex II

Gold-Cortex-II

Cortical Circuitboard

Cortical-Circuitboard[2]

Electron Micrograph of Micro-etching

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Brainbow Hippocampus in Blue

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The image above was inspired by the Brainbow process, a neuroscience technique for coloring neighboring neurons by combining colored fluorescent proteins.

Brainbow Hippocampus Variations

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Glia and Blood Vessels

Glia-and-Blood-Vessels

Glial Flare

NG2-flare Brain Art

Spinal Cord

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 Art has the power to capture people’s emotions and inspire awe [in a way] that a lot of charts and graphs don’t have. – Greg Dunn

Dazzling Images of the Brain Created by Neuroscientist-Artist | Live Science

The Ecstasy of Curiosity and Insatiable Drive for Knowledge – Jason Silva (Video)

The Ecstasy of Curiosity and Insatiable Drive for Knowledge - Jason Silva (Video) | Third Monk

In this Shots of Awe episode, Jason Silva talks about the fundamentals of the cognitive ecstasy we experience from the chase of knowledge. Knowing provides closure, but the mystery of not knowing inspires curiosity, wonder and a shared quest for answers.

To entertain such ontologies is to re-contextualize one’s self as a marvelous conduit in a timeless whole, through which molecules and meaning flow, from nebulae to neurons and back again. – Tim Doody

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Timelapse Earth – 4K Edition (Video)

Timelapse Earth - 4K Edition (Video) | Third Monk image 2

Timelapse Earth in 4K resolution, as imaged by the geostationary Elektro-L weather satellite, from May 15th to May 19th, 2011.

Elektro-L is located about 40,000 km above the Indian ocean. It orbits at a speed that causes it to remain over the same spot as the Earth rotates.

The satellite creates a 121 megapixel image (11136×11136 pixels) every 30 minutes with visible and infrared light wavelengths. The images were edited to adjust levels and change the infrared channel from orange to green to show vegetation more naturally. The images were resized by 50%, misalignments between frames were manually corrected, and image artifacts that occurred when the camera was facing towards the sun were partially corrected. The images were interpolated by a factor of 20 to create a smooth animation.

Timelapse Earth 1

Timelapse Earth 2

Timelapse Earth 3

4 Scientifically Proven Positive Psychological Benefits of Meditation

4 Scientifically Proven Positive Psychological Benefits of Meditation  | Third Monk image 2

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Speeds Up Brain Processing Potential

According to a research journal article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in February 2012, meditation can alter the geometry of the brain’s surface. There was a study done at UCLA involving 50 meditators and 50 controls that addressed a possible link between meditation and cortical gyrification, the pattern and degree of cortical folding that allows the brain to process faster. This study showed a positive correlation between the amount of gyrification in parts of the brain and the number of years of meditation for people, especially long-term meditators, compared to non-meditators.

This increased gyrification may reflect an integration of cognitive processes when meditating, since meditators are known to be introspective and contemplative, using certain portions of the brain in the process of meditation.

Loosens Our Neural Pathways

4 Best Scientifically Proven Benefits Of Meditation

Rebecca Gladding, M.D. explains in an article published in May 2013 Psychology Today, how the brain functions better with meditation, and the positive affects it has on the brain, the longer you meditate.

Basically, Gladding explains how the brain can be molded by meditation. Specifically, the connection to our fear center and our “Me” Center (place where the brain constantly reflects back to you) wither away by meditating on a regular basis.

This loosening up lessens our feelings of anxiety, because the neural pathways linking our Me Center to our fear decreases. The unhelpful feelings of anxiety become regulated, meaning, sufficiently ignored, which enhances better neural pathways to form. New neural pathways include improved assessment and empathetic responses. The important thing that Gladding also mentions is that to maintain the benefits of meditation, you must keep meditating because:

the brain can very easily revert back to its old ways if you are not vigilant.

Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease

4 Best Scientifically Proven Benefits Of Meditation (1)

A large cardiovascular study was done and published in November 2012, in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

There were 201 people with coronary heart disease given two choices:

(1) Take a health education class promoting improved diet and exercise.
(2) Take a class on transcendental meditation.

Researchers studied these participants for five years and discovered something interesting. Those that chose (2) the meditation class had 48% reduction to the overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death.

Meditations Improves Memory Recall

New research shows that meditation can further enhance the abilities of memory recall.

Catherine Kerr is a researcher at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the Osher Research Center. She has found that those that practice meditation could adjust their brains waves better. They could screen out distractions and increase productivity faster than those that did not meditate. Less distractions gives room for the brain to integrate new information. This slight change in brain adjustment can dramatically aid in memory recall.

Kerr explained more in an article called, Meditation’s Effects on Emotion Shown to Persist, published in June 2013 at Psych Central

Mindfulness meditation has been reported to enhance numerous mental abilities, including rapid memory recall. Our discovery that mindfulness meditators more quickly adjusted the brain wave that screens out distraction could explain their superior ability to rapidly remember and incorporate new facts. – Catherine Kerr

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> Proven Benefits of Meditating | Thinking Humanity

Terence McKenna at His Best: Drugs, Legality, and Love (Interview)

Terence McKenna at His Best: Drugs, Legality, and Love (Interview) | Third Monk image 1

Terence McKenna is one our favorite psychedelic luminaries. Here is a short interview of his where he talks about many ideas concerning drugs, legality, and love that are increasingly becoming commonplace among a larger and larger portion of our global populace.

Ideally, we’ll look back at this time in history and laugh at our collective foolishness and hubris.

shroom spiral - terence mckenna

My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with facts. – Terence McKenna

Terence-McKenna-1976

Artist Draws Psychedelic Self-Portraits While On Different Drugs (Gallery)

Artist Draws Psychedelic Self-Portraits While On Different Drugs (Gallery) | Third Monk image 17

Bryan Lewis Saunders likes to take drugs, both legal and illegal, and then draw pictures of himself. The results are strikingly different from drug to drug, and they vary from beautiful to grotesque, abstract and just plain bizarre.

[I’m most interested in] things that are still a mystery to us all. – Bryan Lewis Saunders

Bryan devised an experiment in which every day he took a different drug and drew himself under the influence. These psychedelic self-portraits are a window into Bryan’s different states of mind.

For more of Bryan’s self-portraits make sure to check out his website. Enjoy!

Psychedelic Self-Portraits

Abilify/Xanax/Ativan (dosage unknown in hospital)

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Psilocybin mushrooms (2 caps onset)

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1 sm glass of “real” absinthe (not the fake crap)

absinth

10mg Adderall

adderall

10mg Ambien

ambien

Bath Salts

BathSalts

15mg Buspar (snorted)

buspar

Butane honey oil (cannabis)

ButaneHoneyOil

1/2 gram cocaine

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1 “bump” of crystal meth

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1 shot of Dilaudid/3 shots of morphine (in the ER with kidney stones)

dilaudid

DMT (during and after)

DMT

Hash (cannabis)

Hash

Heroin (snorted)

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7.5mg Hydrocodone/7.5mgOxycodone/3mg Xanax

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Marijuana

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Morphine IV (dosage unknown)

drug

Nicotine gum (after quitting smoking for two months)

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20mg Valium

Valium

Salvia Divinorum

salvia

Nitrous Oxide / Valium I.V. (doseage unknown in hospital)

morphine

 

After experiencing drastic changes in my environment, I looked for other experiences that might profoundly affect my perception of self. – Bryan Lewis Saunders

30 Self-Portraits Drawn While the Artist Was Under the Influence of 30 Drugs | Alter Net

Study Confirms: LSD Still Awesome

Study Confirms: LSD Still Awesome | Third Monk image 1

LSD

The incredible therapeutic properties of LSD have once again been confirmed in a recent Swiss study.

The first therapeutic study on LSD to take place in 40 years specifically focused on treating anxiety associated with life-threatening illnesses. Psychotherapy was also used in conjunction with LSD to treat participants’ anxiety.

Amazingly, every single participant (out of 12) reported experiencing major decreases in anxiety levels due to the LSD-assisted psychotherapy. These decreases in anxiety persisted even 12 months after being administered the LSD. Furthermore, no negative effects were reported by any of the participants. The study was led by Peter Gasser, M.D., who stated:

…we had in 30 sessions (22 with full dose 200 μg LSD and 8 with placebo dose 20 μg LSD) no severe side effects such as psychotic experiences or suicidal crisis or flashbacks or severe anxieties (bad trips)…That means that we can show that LSD treatment can be safe when it is done in a carefully controlled clinical setting.

Subjects receiving 200 µg LSD and psychotherapy, compared to an active placebo of 20 µg LSD, experienced a reduction in anxiety. Because the reduction in anxiety was still present at a 12-month follow up, Gasser believes that LSD has incredible potential for treating a whole array of psychological conditions.

Researchers noted that one of the most important aspects of the study was that the participants were able to freely contemplate and discuss their experiences while under the effects of LSD, as well as after the trip had ended.

Psychedelics such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin do not cause brain damage and are considered by medical professionals to be non-addictive.  Over 30 million people currently living in the US have used LSD, psilocybin, or mescaline.

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was discovered accidentally by Albert Hofmann on April 16, 1943. He had actually unintentionally created it 5 years prior while attempting to synthesize potentially medicinal active constituents from ergot fungus, a fungus that grows on rye. For 5 years the synthesis collected dust until he decided to reexamine it. While reexamining the LSD a small amount was absorbed into Hofmann’s fingertip.

Last Friday, April 16,1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away. – Albert Hofmann

Hofmann was intrigued, and three days later he tried it again, marking April 19, 1943 as the first day a human being ever intentionally consumed LSD.

Hofmann-LSD-bicycle-day

This day is now known as “Bicycle Day,” because Hofmann rode his bike home while he was tripping. Hofmann and his wife spent the rest of their lives advocating the use of LSD, psilocybin, and other psychedelics in the field of psychotherapy.

Below is a documentary on LSD which focuses on Albert Hofmann.

Hofmann’s Potion – Albert Hofmann LSD Documentary

By the mid-1950s, LSD-research was being published in medical and academic journals all over the world. It showed potential benefits in the treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction, and other mental illnesses. This film explores those potential benefits, and the researchers who explored them.

> Effects of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide 100% Positive | Wonder Gressive