I’d like to share a recent anon Email followed by my reply:

Hello Charles,

Your site is a very interesting read, on the same level as fiction books in terms of engagement level, and I don’t mean that as an attack but genuine compliment – your writings are engaging.

Unfortunately due to your sheer level of ‘bullet proof’ rationalizations I don’t feel comfortable discussing things with you further as you seem to be stuck in your ways, but this is just my dopamine denial right?

All I see is ‘comments are disabled’ which screams to me someone who is so afraid of opposing opinion that he has buried himself deep into denial. Interestingly this fits your ‘denial’ theory on dopamine like a glove.

Can you not see the futility of your exercise? Until tablets are developed to complete suppress dopamine we can never move on as a species from the current paradigm. Unfortunately that would render us all into zombies who would have no drive to make the paradigm shift to begin with and we would all regress into a ‘barely does anything until death’ society which would render the human race extinct.

Our less than perfect world is preferable to extinction perhaps.

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Hello Friend,

I normally ask permission before incorporating correspondence into Dopamine Dialogue posts. Since you went to great lengths to remain anonymous, I hope you don’t mind a public response to your Email.

First off, thank you for the feedback, for taking the time to share your thoughts, and even for the (backhanded) compliment. I’m especially grateful to you for convincing me to work on a future post explaining why a nobody was able to figure out an earth-shattering phenomenon most geniuses don’t want to understand – even after it’s explained to them.

I’d like to start my response to your critique by correcting a key misinterpretation.

“All I see is ‘comments are disabled’ which screams to me someone who is so afraid of opposing opinion that he has buried himself deep into denial.”

Comments were disabled due to dopamine-induced frustrations. I was tired of wasting time checking for legitimate comments in a spam queue flooded with gibberish, pingbacks, and links to knock-offs and nonsense. I figured anyone interested in writing would figure out s/he could contact me the way you did.

Thanks to you, I will add a note about my decision, at the end of new posts, to help visitors who jump to wrong conclusions when their dopamine flow is threatened.

Re: “Interestingly this fits your ‘denial’ theory on dopamine like a glove.”

If you were correct, it would fit my dopamine-induced denial theory like a glove. But that’s OK, your Email provides plenty of examples, including…

Re: “Unfortunately due to your sheer level of ‘bullet proof’ rationalizations I don’t feel comfortable discussing things with you further as you seem to be stuck in your ways, but this is just my dopamine denial right?”

I happen to disagree about me being stuck in my ways and totally agree about your denial.

For the record, I normally avoid internet debates because it’s simply too easy to hide behind keyboards, sarcasm, dismissals, rationalizations, and flimsy contentions (to protect dopamine flow against bulletproof arguments).

Face to face communication is another matter. I’ve discussed the concepts on this site with experts and layfolk, geniuses and dolts, MDs, PhDs, professors, lawyers, drug counselors, honest, dishonest, recovering and out-of-control addicts, name it.

They don’t all end up agreeing, but most give me a lot more credit for (at least possibly) knowing what I’m talking about than you seem to.

I’m open to being proven wrong but, like you, nobody tries because nobody can. I suspect it’s because most realize (at least unconsciously) their attempts will backfire by revealing addictions (to safety, power, acceptance, approval, attention, esteem, and/or status) they don’t want exposed.

This site is the result of a unique ability to admit to being scared.

In my early twenties a series of events left me drowning in irrational fears. The only thing that helped me cope was admitting to a long list of insecurities I was doing a poor job hiding from.

Acknowledging fears made it possible to admit to mistakes, to being wrong, to not knowing what I was talking about, and to changing my mind, which is why I don’t get stuck in my ways.

In other words, I’m an honest coward who finds it relatively easy to admit (to myself and others) when my dopamine flow is threatened. Honestly admitting to being threatened, as opposed to attacking threats to dopamine flow, is a prerequisite to understanding how incredibly powerful and manipulative dopamine is.

Sad but true, that’s something very few can do.

Which brings me back to you.

If you did feel comfortable discussing things further (in person) here’s what would most likely happen. With your help, it wouldn’t take long to figure out why you’re so threatened by the information on this site. From there we could explore the unresolved neurological developmental issues responsible for how you maintain dopamine flow.

While I can’t guarantee you’d ever agree with me, the odds are we’d both learn a lot and end up with a sense of mutual respect.

Re: “Can you not see the futility of your exercise?”

I accepted the futility years ago. Most Emails (from supporters and skeptics) remind me I’m doing a terrible job. In my defense, I’m trying to explain extremely dopamine repellent concepts long before the first wave of early adopters find the courage to jump in.

For example, you seem like a reasonably intelligent individual, capable of grasping neurocentrism, and yet your response was one more reminder of what Jerry Garcia meant by, ”You ain’t gonna learn what you don’t what to know.” Which is fine, since convincing you wouldn’t make much difference, except for you.

If it were possible to help tens of thousands understand, little would change since there would still be hundreds of millions with a shared vested interest in not knowing they don’t want to know.

I keep plugging away because it’s fun. As a bonus, knowing I beat the international scientific community to a major breakthrough is a genuine boost to esteem and dopamine flow.

As I’ve written many times, dopamine isn’t about rewards, it’s about expectations. I get off on expectations of my rationalizations flipping from too absurd to consider to too obvious to deny. When that occurs, I’d like to receive my share of credit and the posts on this site, dating back years, will help document my being first to identify unacknowledged addictions as the source of every man-made problem.

Then there’s the possibility a smart, aware, brave billionaire will take me up on my offer.

The Dopamine Project Is Looking For One Smart, Aware, Brave Billionaire.

Re: “Until tablets are developed to complete suppress dopamine we can never move on as a species from the current paradigm.”

I’ve never suggested, nor believe, any solution involves tablets. The place to start is with honesty.

Under the current dishonest paradigm, environments, economies, species, and lives are being decimated by addicts’ failed attempts to end their misery. Nothing is going to change until enough people learn to admit to the illogical behavioral addictions responsible for their unhappiness. Once they do, they can work on giving up counterproductive addictions by substituting logical, healthy, productive dopamine-triggering behaviors.

Re: “Unfortunately that would render us all into zombies who would have no drive to make the paradigm shift to begin with and we would all regress into a ‘barely does anything until death’ society which would render the human race extinct.

Our less than perfect world is preferable to extinction perhaps.”

Our less than perfect world is already being destroyed by mindless dopamine zombies cheating, stealing, killing, and rendering the human race extinct to score a powerful neurotransmitter in their primitive brains.

Dopamine Zombies: How to Spot Them, How to Deal With Them.

That’s why I call it the perfect pandemic – an obvious, widespread, debilitating brain disorder that keeps sufferers complaining about the wars, conflicts, pollution, and destruction caused by the disease while disliking, distrusting, dismissing, ignoring, mocking, critiquing, and even attacking anyone who tries to help them understand they’re suffering from a serious mental disorder.

Thanks again for giving me an excuse to vent. Feels good.

I hope you’ll feel free to identify yourself and help me understand why you found it necessary to hide your identity. Do I know you? Were you afraid I might try to hunt you down?

Inquiring minds want to know…

Sincerely,

Charles