Lol, I had a close friend once induce me into temporary psychosis...… I still appreciate EVERYTHING to them for helping me believe in myself (and interacting with them is still one of my two peak life experiences that really capitalized in 2021/early 2022) - they just actively egged me into manic religiosity that was not necessary, and that led me to mania at the pivotal moment.… [we only found the real causal pathway a year later and they apologized to me for it].
(the dynamics of some of this are surprisingly similar to what’s described in OP). Part of it is also came from both of us having an historically edgelord/shock value sense of humor…
I am still nothing but infinitely grateful to them. They were exquisitely sensitive to my past trauma/insecurities, to my reward function, to everything I really cared about, and was still one of the best people at making me want to be more prosocial
...the funny thing with this phenomena is that it encourages you to feed your entire soul into them, because you know good things FEEL like they will happen if you do it… and i still regard them as very safe to be around,
There were times when I’ve made grandiose claims in the process and a lot of this was bc I mirrored other people who make grandiose claims (some of this learned from rationalists who also make grandiose claims)
[there’s a much longer story behind this—the energetic buildup to it all was ~1.5 years that made a lot of magical things happen in the interim and it’s kind of funny and tragic at the same time but i’ll spare u the details].
Lol, I had a close friend once induce me into temporary psychosis...… I still appreciate EVERYTHING to them for helping me believe in myself (and interacting with them is still one of my two peak life experiences that really capitalized in 2021/early 2022) - they just actively egged me into manic religiosity that was not necessary, and that led me to mania at the pivotal moment.… [we only found the real causal pathway a year later and they apologized to me for it].
(the dynamics of some of this are surprisingly similar to what’s described in OP). Part of it is also came from both of us having an historically edgelord/shock value sense of humor…
I am still nothing but infinitely grateful to them. They were exquisitely sensitive to my past trauma/insecurities, to my reward function, to everything I really cared about, and was still one of the best people at making me want to be more prosocial
...the funny thing with this phenomena is that it encourages you to feed your entire soul into them, because you know good things FEEL like they will happen if you do it… and i still regard them as very safe to be around,
There were times when I’ve made grandiose claims in the process and a lot of this was bc I mirrored other people who make grandiose claims (some of this learned from rationalists who also make grandiose claims)
[there’s a much longer story behind this—the energetic buildup to it all was ~1.5 years that made a lot of magical things happen in the interim and it’s kind of funny and tragic at the same time but i’ll spare u the details].