Should Stoics get puppies?

Plus the shroom-connection in the Luigi Mangione NY hit-job story, and my unexpected debate with Rick Doblin on psychedelic cultiness

‘My name is Musonius Rufus, and I will have my treats in this life or the next’

Welcome to the Tuesday Brunch, the weekly (or sometimes fortnightly) round-up of ecstatic and psychedelic stories from around the web. Today I’m going to talk briefly about Stoicism and puppies. After the paywall, a whole lot of psychedelic news, including Luigi Mangione on shrooms and a debate with Rick Doblin on psychedelic cultiness.

My partner and I got a puppy two weeks ago, a three-month-old Havanese Bichon boy who we have called Rufus.

Not after the Stoic philosopher, Musonius Rufus. But after an imaginary dog my Irish grandmother invented. Whenever we visited her, she would say ‘you just missed Rufus’. She was an eccentric type.

It’s amazing how rapidly you bond with a puppy and they imprint on you and you on them – within 24 hours they have decided you are their safe space and they’re following you around like one of Konrad Lorenz’ ducklings.

Rufus is absolutely adorable. Dogs evolved as symbiotic companions for humans, designed to manipulate our emotions ruthlessly (or rufusly) to secure their needs. They even evolved eyebrows, purely to manipulate us and make us more likely to feed and take care of them.

I nicknamed him the ‘stochastic terrorist’ because when you get a puppy (and I imagine far more when you have a baby) they invade and colonize your home, your emotions, your brain, your life.

My nervous system has sometimes felt overwhelmed this last two weeks – there’s this small creature dependent on me, 24/7.

I had post-psychedelic PSTD for a few years in my early 20s, the main symptom being severe anxiety, and my coping technique was self-isolation and Stoic self-reliance (as I discussed in this TEDX talk).

I didn’t have a serious girlfriend for most of my 20s, and when I started dating properly in my 30s I needed a lot of personal space. My present partner (now my fiancé) is the first time I’ve ever lived with a girlfriend, and even then, we slept in separate rooms for the first year, as my nervous system got used to living with someone else.

And now there’s this tiny, fragile, vulnerable creature that we need to care for.

That gives me anxiety – what if something happens to him in this world of suffering and death? Because it will, eventually. That’s the nature of this existence – we’re all in the jaws of Mara. How will this small fluff ball cope in the ecovillage jungle where we’re moving in a year? Well, at least he will have a man-bun to fit in.

Ready for 5 Rhythms in the yoga chala

My usual stoic coping technique for attachment anxiety would have been to avoid attachments. In the words of Simon and Garfunkel, I am a rock, I am an island. I have my books and my poetry to protect me. A rock feels no pain, and an island never cries.

But being a Stoic citadel turned out to be a bit lonely, so I have slowly tried to lower the drawbridge, let others in and allow attachments.

Be more Aristotelian or Christian – for whom attachments are a big part of the meaning of life. Dogs are Aristotelian pack animals – big on social virtues like loyalty and playfulness. What is life if not a life shared and celebrated with others?

I wonder – should Stoics own puppies? You can’t see Marcus Aurelius, that cold marble statue of a man, hugging a puppy.

On the other hand, dogs do feature in Stoic philosophy a little.

Seneca praised animals for their ability to live in the present moment. He wrote: ‘Animals run from the dangers they actually see, and once they have escaped, they worry no more. We however are tormented alike by what is past and what is to come.’

Diogenes the Cynic – in some ways the grandfather of Stoicism – developed a whole way of life based on being ‘dog-like’, ie living in nature, feeding on scraps, having no false sense of civility, and being dependent on no one.

But in fact, that’s not ‘dog-like’ at all – dogs love being dependent on others. They are not solitary individualists like he was.

There is something about the relationship between a human and a puppy which is somewhat like a Stoic mentorship.

Ryan Holiday, founder of the Daily Stoic, bought a puppy which required some training, and it turns out his puppy trainer was also a Stoic and used Stoic principles in their dog training – control the controllables, have patience, and learn how to develop good and wise habits in your dog over time.

Dogs are bundles of habits. That’s it. Every habit gets stronger or weaker each day. It’s never personal, it’s just habitual. It’s up to their owner to steer them towards pro-social habits.

It’s the same with humans. Every day, strengthen good habits and weaken bad habits. Train your inner puppy, help them adapt to the world.

OK, thank you for indulging me. Now, some psychedelic and ecstatic news links. First ones is free, the rest for paid subscribers only.

• First, here’s a new paper from CPEP , the first to drill down and examine the varieties of post-psychedelic difficulties people experience, how long they can last (existential confusion and sense of diminished self lasted the longest in this data set), how severe they feel (anxiety and paranoia caused the most suffering) and what different coping techniques seem to work for different symptoms. Useful info for anyone struggling, and for those paid to help them.

After the paywall, media and social media try to associate New York assassin Luigi Mangione with psychedelics (unfairly?), I debate psychedelic cultiness with Rick Doblin, and how the fall of Assad in Syria has impacted global sales of amphetamine.