Pandora,
Thanks for the welcome.
Everything is a story, because most of the information that is handed down to us comes from stories. Maybe everything was not the right word to use, since it includes, well, everything. I probably should have used something else.
What I mean is that most (99+%) of the explanations that have been communicated 'down' to us (the individual 'us' ) , is by other people and are typically based on other peoples' perceptions. To make matters worse is that most of other peoples' perceptions are based on some sort of information-source (media) and not on personal experiences. The rate of misunderstanding goes up an order of magnitude if I have to guess.
Example:
- first-hand experience, correct interpretation 10% (if you're lucky)
- second-hand (friend) experience, 1% correct
- third-hand (friend of friend) experience, 0.1% correct
- X-hand (reading/hearing from stranger), 0.01-0.001% correct
-
media, ..... well..... I have lost all trust in the media.
I have learned this from observations of the world around me. When I had my first-born I was shocked at how little I knew/know about raising a child. And thus you start investigating, books, internet, etc etc. From there I learned that basically nobody knows how to "correctly" raise a child. And we have been doing this for how long? Many, many thousands of years. Combined by the fact that I had to "leave" my first-born at daycare in order to go to
my job and I needed my job to pay for daycare.... It felt wrong on a very deep level. My body was practically screaming at me. Those were the first serious cracks in my comfortable numbness.
Add the
political and financial shenanigans and all the peels of the societal onion came off one by one.
I agree that we should attempt to learn from our past mistakes. But it could also be that what we think was a mistake was just a mis-interpretation of our perception at that moment. In fact, when I look back on my own perceptive-being ten years ago I often find myself naive at that moment in the past. But I have also learned that ten years from now I'm going to look back on my now-being and find that I am naive right now. However I think that that will be a good sign, because that means that our perception keeps changing, as it should since this is part of the Flux of Life. It is this Flux of life that I'm seeking to investigate.
You are correct that I have not had induced DMT experiences. My only induced experiences are limited to cannabis, which only shifts the perception slightly. Most of my experiences are from life itself and the situations that come with it. Depending on your surroundings and state of mind they can be tremendously powerful. I have lived in several different countries and they all bring there own mind-opening experiences.
In the last couple of years I have been given many gentle bumps from Nature (Flux) around me. Some not so gentle, but that was because I was ignoring the signs. The wasp that stung me in my big toe, while walking though the grass with my head in the air, was less gentle. But necessary. The squirrel that leaves pine-cone pieces with very sharp points is a constant reminder. That same squirrel that keeps making attempts to drop half-eaten pine-cones on one of my cats, below the tree, is absolutely hilarious. The Flux is communicating and signs are everywhere, we just have to 'see' them.
My current project to explore the Flux is San Pedro. I have started the seeds and have a few cuttings that I am cultivating. But alas, they have to grow first, so it may take a bit before I can 'see' the fruits of my labor. I prefer to grow my own see-ers, since, in my current state of perception, this gives me the best relationship to the vehicle that could allow me to see. This way I hope to build my own wagon for the rest of the trip of my personal experience of the Life-Flux. Before I, myself, melt back into the Flux.
May the Flux be with you