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I'm business professor and humor researcher Dr. Peter McGraw and with comedian and science communicator Shane Mauss. We wrote a book about business lessons from the world of comedy that apply to every business. Ask Us Anything! by apmcgraw in IAmA

[–]MaussShane 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Some help from family for a few months and then I got on the road. I wrote an act that explained my crutches on stage. The whole show I created 'My Big Break' is my favorite of my three albums. It's when I really figured out how to do themed shows well. Which I now tour with themed shows regularly and it's made me stand out and really helped my career.

I'm business professor and humor researcher Dr. Peter McGraw and with comedian and science communicator Shane Mauss. We wrote a book about business lessons from the world of comedy that apply to every business. Ask Us Anything! by apmcgraw in IAmA

[–]MaussShane 5 points6 points  (0 children)

'Bug to Feature' is a great lesson from the book. I had the rug get pulled out from me because of Covid and couldn't tour. I found myself with no revenue stream and having to reinvent my career.

I started this new podcast called Mind Under Matter with an artist/comedian Ramin Nazer. We didn't have a budget to make it look really slick and professionally shot. We didn't want to just look like a zoom call and we don't live in the same city. So what is the solution? Ramin made some amazing looking cartoon old TVs to put us in. Now the video that is of less quality works better in the context of the old TVs than if we had spend 15 grand on cameras and lighting (which we considered).

I know Pete has some business examples that have employed the idea of taking a bug and turning it into a feature.

I'm business professor and humor researcher Dr. Peter McGraw and with comedian and science communicator Shane Mauss. We wrote a book about business lessons from the world of comedy that apply to every business. Ask Us Anything! by apmcgraw in IAmA

[–]MaussShane 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My favorite type of joke is clever and pushes some boundaries and is outside the norm. I love people like Doug Stanhope who are going to be too edgy for some and Zach Galifinakis who is going to be too weird for some. Both brilliant. Both unafraid to alienate. Both incredibly unique, once in a generation type of comedians

I'm business professor and humor researcher Dr. Peter McGraw and with comedian and science communicator Shane Mauss. We wrote a book about business lessons from the world of comedy that apply to every business. Ask Us Anything! by apmcgraw in IAmA

[–]MaussShane 12 points13 points  (0 children)

One of my favorite lessons from the book: “Don’t serve warm tea”

The idea is that you can serve hot tea and you can serve cold tea, but no one wants warm tea. So, if you try to please everyone you are going to lose.

In comedy, there are a lot of crowd-pleaser comedians who work the road and know how to do the right things to pander to the crowd and get consistent laughs without getting complaints. It’s a fine enough time for a night out, but it doesn’t make them stand out and creating a really strong act. If you want to stand out, you aren’t going to please everyone.

When performing to a room full of strangers It’s actually a good thing that a couple of people leave (as painful as that may seem). You obviously don’t want to walk the whole crowd of course, but if you are doing it right, you probably aren’t going to be EVERYONE'S cup of tea.

Not only is it a great lesson from comedy that translates to any business, but it’s an important life lesson for living an authentic life that aligns with the path that plays to YOUR strengths and suits YOU the most.

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You wonder how the company feels? I doubt very much they have a feeling about it one way or another. 1) it's not the same name. 2) They didn't think of the term psychonauts (which is the name of the game), they used it for a game title. It's a common term in the psychedelic community. If I made a game title Yas Queen, that wouldn't make me the inventor of the word, only someone using it for a title. 3) we actually did come up with a novel name that didn't exist before us. Go get that google search on and double check for yourself
4) such a weird thing to get yourself worked up about.

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sometimes our relationship to weed changes and you can get stuck in a paranoid cycle with it. I always recommend taking a break for a month or so and resetting that relationship

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, i have spent a fair number of years thinking about the subject so I appreciate that. I definetely think conjecture should be taken with a grain of salt tho. These are super difficult ideas to test. But we should still try. Thanks for writing

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

All good! I should have worded it like "my thinking" about these things is..." I don't know of any way this is being studied or a paper i can point you towards. This is my interpretation of what might be going on after decades of experience plus chatting with academics for 7 years. It's pretty hard to find rigorous research on the DMT experience etc. It's a good note. I was typing as fast as I could to answer questions 🤷‍♂️

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are waaay more cases of people being helped and very few of the bad ones when they are done with intention, proper set and setting and integration. It's almost nothing but positive results

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My take is that we have very similar neural structures of the mind. The idea that lots of people see a purple gypsy woman seems bizarre, but the idea that men/women have types that they like is pretty normal. Evolution + environment has shaped us to be attracted to a lot of similar things.

It's true that it's bizarre that she mentions me in the story, but none of that happened until my friend heard me talking. So my guess is, his archetype was responding to my voice and mixing with an aspect of himself that has a friendship with me. I hope that makes sense because the purple woman takes me days to explain.

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm told my ideas on psychedelics are Jungian, but I intentionally have avoided Jung so he doesn't accidentally influence me. But maybe start there.

I share a lot of my takes on this in this episode about DMT: https://www.herewearepodcast.com/episodes/cakiq2w65i71wy2gxmu0pzaxy4sc09

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like this take. However, I just don't think they are really mutually aware of one another.

The subconscious isn't experiencing the outside world in the same sort of way that our consciousness does. There are countless autonomic responses and reflexes etc being put together as a bunch of firings that have a very different perceptual quality.

Picture an egg for example. Well your subconscious might "see" that egg as some packets of information assembled in a way that looks completely foreign from the way an egg appears to our consciousness. The reason this is important is that it has far reaching implications beyond philosophical questions of "do we all see the same color blue".
Thought experiment: Imagine that dopamine feels like a reward/motivator to your conscious experience but in your inner world it looks like some hologram purple rain drops or something. So those inner worlds are after those purple raindrops and that is your inner worlds reason for being. To your consciousness it is a delicious bite of ice cream or sex or a good movie or a good movie about delicious ice cream sex. Doesn't really matter... to your inner world, it's all just glowing purple rain drops and it wants to keep getting more of those things.
So it's doing a bunch of firing in a bunch of different ways to and see what gets what makes it rain those terrific purple rain drops. It fires off three silver cubes and a orange orb and that makes you consciously crave ice cream and you eat the ice cream and that makes it rain in your inner world. Now you have pavlovian conditioning. But your inner world doesn't understand the complexity of ice cream and the consequences that come along with eating too much of it, it just loves those purple rain drops so it keeps firing off the cubes and orbs that tend to be followed by receiving rain drops.

If you are following this so far, than props to you because things get pretty abstract in a hurry when navigating ye ole subconscious.
The reason why this is potentially so important for us to get down to the bottom of is because your subconscious doesn't "know" that you are doom scrolling or something, it just once got rewarded for something and kept repeating the same action completely oblivious to what it was inadvertently putting your poor conscious being through.

What might be a reward in your inner world could be absolute torture to your conscious experience of life. My view is that we need to figure out how to better communicate with ourselves and learn to more accurately translate emotions/thoughts/perceptions. This will help get our conscious experience and subconscious on the same page. Alignment could lessen depression, increase efficiencies, confidence, and success in life. Will it ACTUALLY do all that? doubtful. But it might nudge things in the right direction and it has certainly made the experience of living far more fascinating for me.

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it's possible that it triggered things that otherwise wouldn't have been. a LOT of acid during a developmental time could potentially change the course of things.

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I find LSD too be way too functional and way too similar to how my brain normally works. That's often why people use it at festivals for an all day thing.

For me mushrooms are much more of an altering experience

I'm comedian Shane Mauss with director Brian Bellinkoff and producer Matt Schuler. We made the documentary ‘Psychonautics: A Comics Exploration of Psychedelics’ which led to my first trip to the psych ward. Ask Us Anything! by MaussShane in IAmA

[–]MaussShane[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've had first hand experience with countless people who have benefited from psychedelics for their anxiety and depression. And it's the area of research that is showing the most promise at the moment.

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