When I began the pipe I was overwhelmed with the hundreds of blends and pipes, and as I read the forums I was very happy to learn that this member loved Petersons and that member Ashtons, claiming to have had superlative experiences smoking them. But I was always curious to know in what way their favorite pipe delivered those superb smokes, and I still am, but find that such claims cannot be substantiated by them or by me, having smoked my share of better pipes.
To be blunt, I find no difference from one pipe to another. Since we are inevitably mind and body, no event can be claimed to be experienced by one or the other. In the same way the pipe experience begins from the moment I decide to smoke through the time when I choose the pipe and tobacco, through loading, lighting and smoking it. The subjective in this enters by my palate and continues to the pipe cradling the tobacco and the place where I am smoking. The experience is inner and outer, subjective and objective. As the two are inextricably mixed, there is no way to declare whether the smoking experience can be attributed to both or either.
Things are as we think they are and cannot be other. The observer of an experiment influences the outcome. Thinking that pipes do or do not significantly influence the pipe experience makes it so. Since my mind says they do not, they do not; but this is what my studied experience tells me.
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