Much of it would be context/person dependent. Imagine they're "pretty good" on most traits and don't have any particular constraints. Health, relationships, money, all "pretty good".
What general methods, tools, approaches might you take?
Certain kinds of therapy, certain kinds of meditation, certain types of medication, certain types of coaching, certain activities, certain processes, and so on. Specific things, and/or meta things.
For constraints, imagine that you can spend 5 or 6 figures of US dollars per month, you're there in person full time with them. You don't know much about them, they don't have any notable medical conditions or past history. They're a mostly willing participant, but not entirely. You can try anything that exists as of May 2022.
In my opinion for a person that has it "pretty good" objectively, the limiting factor on their happiness is what the Default Mode Network (DMN) is (or is not) doing.
I think that at least part of it, can be roughly equated with what we consider the ego to be. It involves a lot of thinking about the past, planning the future, thinking about other people - but always in a self-referential mode. If the person is stressed and unhappy then the DMN is spending a lot of time [1](and the brain a lot of energy) on
What I think has the best potential of significantly increasing their happiness (actually the happiness of each human being) would be a transformative change in their relationship to themself. What we might call Self-Transcendence.
A couple of most promising interventions:
I think it's important that none of us actually want the brain to be spending energy on this stuff. I am aware of gratitude journaling but not of "fear journaling", "jealousy journaling", "inadequacy journaling" etc.
A single inhalation of vapor from dried toad secretion containing 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) in a naturalistic setting is related to sustained enhancement of satisfaction with life, mindfulness-related capacities, and a decrement of psychopathological symptoms
Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later
It is rare, but does happen, that using psychedelic drugs can trigger a psychotic episode. Even though it is rare, this is a such a bad outcome that it's worth taking into consideration.
My layperson's understanding of the risks and tradeoffs right now is as follows: I think that used as a treatment for a concrete and difficult problem like PTSD, psychedelic drugs seem like immensely useful tools that should be used much more.
But for just general self-improvement or self-actualization, using psychedelic drugs feels to me like "picking up pennies in front of... (read more)