Nice to meet you, InLaKesh! I too came to a point in my life, when I decided that the lessons that had been taught to me, in my youth, were wrong. I had been trained in seeing from the perspective of a religious zealot, with many incorrect perceptions on various points of life. It would be far too ridiculous and pointless to list them all.
One life-changing trip I had, was in a completely sober mind, while meditating on answering the question: "if [the Judeo-Christian] God created us, who created him, and likewise, where did the universe come from?" I had to step out of what I 'knew' here on earth, and then what occurred next, was what I would later learn, is ego-death. I was trying to figure out how to figure out the problem, and as I looped back from creator to creator to the beginning of the time-cycle(infinity), I realized that I needed to solve the question from a different perspective. I needed to start with a blank slate. I then tried to define nothing and learned that I could only define it as a lack of something, and that proved that something exists, but how do we define that? After a series of complex journeys through duality, I learned that though there are dualities to every concept, it was the mixture of them all, that created the in-between, the 'reality' that we find ourselves in, is nothing more than a reiteration of the same question, asked from a different perspective, each time(fractals... I know, right?).
Soon after I had freed my mind from my religious predispositions, I was involved in an accident, which relieved me of a large bit of my frontal lobes. At first this injury was terrible, and it was indeed terrible, and I still have lasting symptoms I will probably spend all of my life shaking out, and fixing(though finally, the aftershocks of my depression and cognitive malfunction are slowing and decreasing in strength, by a marked quantity). As I mentioned though, I am fixing them. One thing that helped to at least speed up my recovery immensely, was being reminded of happiness by MDMA, though that was not enough. I had to take the experience of true, happy, community love with my friends, and learn that it was possible to create it outside of the MDMA experience(which I did, the very next day, all I needed was to be shown the stream, and I drank, heavily of the power of my own mind).
However, that lesson did not last long, as it had not permeated through my psyche enough, to last. When I experienced Lucy, particularly my third time, it was so intense, and I was forced to make a choice: be happy, or be indescribably anxious, depressed, unhappy. The shadows and tracers of the many points at which I had to make that decision to be happy, successfully, helped permeate my depressed pysche well enough to allow me to begin my own therapy(also I should mention that the reason I was able to take from this experience, was the advice of my cognitive therapist, and neuropsychologist, both of which taught me that I had the power to reprogram my brain, and helped to show me how, as well as my friend who taught me that to cure an unhappy psychedelic loop, was to remind one's self that it was the drug, and I was able to translate that to "If you're stuck in an unhappy psychological(IE, while sober)loop, remind yourself 'it's just life, breathe,' and then get to fixing the problem..."
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Without psychedelics, I would have taken a great deal longer to recover, and without the advice of my professional counsel, and my friends, I would not be nearly as well recovered, at this point. Honestly, I love psychedelics, because it is like live art, in first person, and like art, it is incredibly powerful at healing! Combining the two, increases the effect thousandfold, but if not treated with respect, that therapy, can also be destructive, and so I am glad to be meeting so many people, who like me, seek growth, knowledge and healing through these experiences.
One can only truly understand one's mind, if one makes the mind question itself, and I always seek to know more, as I hope to be a theatre designer. My profession will be to create entire new worlds for people to see though the perspective that I, and my colleagues choose to build. It is the responsibility of the artist, to see life from as many angles, as possible, to be able to properly construct the worlds we do in theatre. I suppose a comparison could be made with all other professions. Truly, art, science, philosophy, math, and indeed, all studies are inextricably woven, one with another, as when you get down to it, they're just different ways to look at portions of our lives, and likewise affect all of our lives.
I too hope to soon experience Aya and Changa, I hope we can speak of what we learn, in the future.
Namaste