I'm new to the psychedelic arts in some respects, but I'm an "old pro" in others. When I was young I was always asking fundamental questions about the nature of reality, human life, society and its rules, religion and so forth. I was not well-received. Even so, there were those who occasionally did take well to me, they are my mentors throughout my life, whether they know it (sometimes) or not (mostly). Indeed, the final phase of this process to date has been to take everything within me and without me as my "mentor", which is fairly radical, especially if you consider that this became the case most truly before ever getting "breakthrough" results from Cannibis, and was simply cemented into place as my central paradigm after receiving those blessed breakthroughs. Seems like if you keep asking "why" long enough, you WILL get an answer.

This is why I say I'm an "old pro" at psychedelics, even though I haven't used anything beyond Cannibis, and that barely over 10 times in 34 years (beginning with my first rather unpleasant although interesting experience at 13). I've come to the conclusion that my brain, indeed anyone's brain, is naturally psychedelic. Sure, we have experiences that we call normal, but that doesn't mean that we aren't "tripping" on a daily basis. Indeed, some very smart and happening people throughout history have said that life precisely IS a trip, a sort of very prolonged (seeming) dream. I agree with them, but this raises a lot of questions about what a dream is versus what isn't a dream!! It threatens to invert our meaning of the term, and perhaps to our overall benefit. But that is a philosophical topic I'll reserve for another occassion. I mention it here only to underline the perspective that I have grown to develop concerning life and my psychospiritual place in it. If the arts and sciences of psychedelics involves the ingestion of "drugs", which should be better called "medicines" or "helps" when done properly, I'd have to say that this definition is far too narrow. I believe my first "trip" began when I came into this world, and has continued ever since. I have been modifying the set and setting of this trip while embedded in it ever since (and sometimes while NOT so embedded in it...).

One way that psychedelics (as an art or science) properly transcends the ingestion of strong chemical substances is when it is understood that the results of the experience transcend the medium of the experience. For if we look at the results, we see changes in the person which run the gamut of the sorts of changes he also is able to experience by way of many other methods not involving the ingestion of a single chemical substance other than basic air, water, and food. Take a very basic one: Sleep. It is automatic in its occurrance, and it is a profoundly "altered state" of consciousness. It contains many stages and subsets of consciousness, to include REM sleep. When I was young I'd had such wonderful and meaningful dreams that it was a sort of crisis for me that they could not be suitably captured in the language I had available to me at the time, and I prayed there was a record of them somewhere in the universe. I thought that if the universe were so generous as to supply such experiences and then so stingy as to let them be so easily forgotten, possibly erased, then it would really be a petty sort of place after all. We all dream don't we? Well, those of us who do are some rather EXPERIENCED trippers I must say...

Thinking, in and of itself, is a trip, and for me a very psychedelic one. When I began thinking as a child, I was thinking about why this universe was so wonderful, why it was even here, why was I here and why was I me rather than anyone else in particular. Wow, kind of sounds like I came right out of a strong Salvia Divinorum session! In theory, I did, but before I explain that, more examples are in order.

Upon thinking about issues such as God, the onotology of the universe that it is rather than isn't (and that God was rather than wasn't), that such things could even be thought by a mind and that "I" happened to be the seemingly precarious owner of such a mind, that others who seemed to have minds seemed to be involved in very DIFFERENT and comparativelyl MUNDANE speculations by comparison to these, gave me a sense of isolation and worry, and I began to have neurotic experiences where my heighetened sensitivity to order, pattern, sensation and perception, emotion, ideation, all sort of converged on a temporary catharsis of nervous activity in the form of dreaming about VERY high numbers in my sleep, and being awakened by a concerned mother as I folded and refolded my blanket over and over again into the night. Strange? And people who willingly put themselves under weirder experiences are not MORE strange? We are all tripping in some way, its just a matter of how we choose to do it, whether we have a choice over our set and setting, and how we exercise that choice in our lives. I found that when I grew up and was able to remove myself from harmful settings, my "trip" in life has rather dramatically improved. I've found that the attitude I take into my choices of paradigm and action repertoire in daily life, especially when unhampered by those who would claim responsibility for me, has increased by "many fold" (pun not intended, but subconsciously provided...) the quality of my trip I call my life and mind here on earth. It all boils down to responsibility in the end, being responsible for your trip and its quality. I haven't done anything as neurotic as that little kid ever since.............. or have I? Wait, pursuing perfect grades in college for 4 straight years.... 4.0 all else be damned... like folding my grades over and over again until some divine order says "Ok". Reminds me of folding a blanket perfectly over and over.... I don't know, but they seem similar in a way. Who's standards am I really living up to in either case? Looks like as recently as a year ago I came off of a four year trip that makes a few childhood episodes of neurosis look like like a toy in terms of expenditure of psychical energy, time, irreversible decision-making consequences, etc., which are involved in the "Perfect Scholar" trip, at least for my deeper and richer value system which resents that lifestyle. Looks like there's a "trip" of some sort wherever you look for a mind living a life. There's also a consistent theme of taking vs. abdicating of responsibility for the quality of our trips in this broad sense of the term.

When I reached the typical teenage crises stage of life (we all remember THAT trip, right?), I did lots of trippy things for lots of trippy reasons (like most do). I didn't get on the valedictorian trip, but did the loner drop-out trip. I hated school, and I loved skateboarding, as well as studying mathematics, logic, philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, politics and law, religions other than my family's favorite... wow, what was I ON, you might ask, WHAT was I SMOKING? Well, cigarretes and cigars, as well as a pipe. OF WHAT? Tobacco, unfortunately. Then again, nobody stopped me on the street in concern for my health or my well-being, nobody cared, and it seemed like everyone was doing it.... what trip are we all on, anyway? Hypocricy, confusion, disorientation, conceptual decoherence, poor organizational skills (look at our school system and government, not to mention economy in the U.S., and tell me someone isn't having a VERY bad trip right now...). No one helped me with my smoking habit, or my soda habit, no one but me that is. Also, no one helped me with my thinking habits, my voluminous reading habits, my habit of being concerned for myself, my fellow man, and my country. No one was able to listen to me when I explained the problems with fiat money in a fractional reserve banking system pyramid scheme gone out of control. No, they thought I was tripping on some bad ideological hash in a too-young brain. Well, what are they thinking now? "What is going on in our country today, our economy? Who is responsible for this? I need someone to blame!!" What a bad trip it has been for them to be hypocritical in their economic theorizing or lack thereof, their way of judging others for having different views than they have, their way of projecting and displacing their issues. Now it is all coming back to them like a nightmare, like a really bad trip.

I continued with my own trip, not letting others dissuade me that the lone path I was one was worse for being lonely, regardless of what "truths" I might find. I preferred facing my trip and trying to be constructive with it, not huddling with consensus trips where people would cling to each other in fear and resent outsiders for not adding an extra layer of "skin" to their fragile psyches. Nope, I was the "radical philosopher" always pushing the limits. I was the "weird soldier" who all the other soldiers in my platoon kept around as a mascot of "otherness". I was a living stalk of some psychedelic "man-plant" that was feared, misunderstood, and on rare occasions indulged in by the appreciative few. Those few were always rewarded according to their approach. Seems that one can even BE psychedelic as others experience one socially.

Just today, I made a psychedelic decision. I was on this very forum chatting with one "rOm" in a private chat, when we sort of both "had to do other stuff", you know, but we both enjoyed our chat. We said our goodbyes, and then I was still online taking care of this or that trifling errand that could be done any other time (such as looking for this nursery forum). I had a job to be at, and it was approaching critical whether I would make it on time or not, which would be an irreversible/irretrievable decision. Coming back on here and finding this nursery area could be easily arranged at a LATER time, which would allow me to be on time for work AND do this. Doing it the other way would be less satisfying on both counts (not able to really get into a hastily found nursery AND being late for work). Knowing this, I found my hands and heart still pounding hypnotically at the keyboard. I new the pathway to the bustop I needed to reach, I knew the distance from my then current location, the effort it would require to move my body there, the time it would take, and the nervous energy it would build as I experienced the cognitive dissonance of reaching the destination possibly on time, possibly not on time, even with maximum optimality for all conditions, even if I decided to go right away. Yet, this was an epheral consideration, since the very real chance of reaching a bus just in time was still there if and ONLY if I acted as soon as possible in proportion to that soon-ness of action. I did some magical thing called "making a decision in spite of a strange irrational lethargy" and engaged the process. I began a new trip of taking positive action in spite of cognitive dissonance that could not be resolved, but which still offered a challenge to my creativity in somehow making the most out of that very irresolution. I pretended that it mattered, that every second mattered, especially since the envelope of procrastination that I was pushing was measured in seconds now, not minutes... I flew, my thoughts flew with me, my heart finally caught up and it was gasping at me and my thoughts with "what the hell are you two doing?" I got the tactically important street corner which let me see the bus of choice on the way such that while I missed the earlier stop it had just passed, I could STILL try to run ahead of the bus to the next stop. If traffic continued to be as congested as it seemed, and if there was maybe someone who would call the bus to stop (either to get off or to get on) at the next stop, then I MIGHT, emphasise MIGHT make it. I was bemused by my cardiovascular reluctance to continue with the cognitively dissonnant, "might" ridden prospect of catching this timliest possible bus with the least "lateness for work" attached to it, but that's all a part of my creative trip at this point. I take another hit of cardio, running two city blocks with only a 50/50 chance of making it. I made it with not one second to spare. The driver was very impatient when he waited a whole second for me after the lady who called him to stop got on.... As I sat down in a thankfully empty seat in the back, I noticed the stressed out feelings I had been feeling since I began this heroic attempt to minimize my lateness for work being transformed slowly into a rather pleasant "glow" of well respirated and circulated body feelings, I was feeling good, exhausted yet blissful. I just took a rather good hit of "cardio" it would seem. The effects on my nervous system were unmistakably psychedelic. The effects of my wierd mentation throughout the trip no doubt played their part in the psychosomatic aspects of the adventure, and so my thoughts and my actions combined to form a kind of "cardio-cognitive" high. Save the breakthroughs with Cannibis one year ago which I will describe below, I have had no psychedelic medicines since six months ago when I ingested a rather mild brownie. Yet, "dry" as I am (what a joke, my brain and lifestyle are a psychedelic rainforest) I seem to be seriously tripping everyday! Seems I make a lot of people happy by doings so, including myself, so maybe I'm learning something about how better to manage this great trip called life by way of my occasional medicinal comforts when things need to be altered more radically now and then.

This is not unlike what I would have expected, because these experiences are all "in my brain" anyway, if we shall be provisionally physicalist about the matter just for the sake of argument. Here I am having experiences which I set up for myself from the beginning, and now living them out. This experience shows me in a tangible, qualitatively appreciable form just where I stand in life with my habits, my decisions, my methods, both physical and mental, for being in this world. It shows me with experiences that affect my body and mind which I will remember, which will help me decide more about what I want to do with my life, but now with the added grist of a concrete example packed with rich experiences, both realized and very possible yet narrowly missed. Seems if I hadn't lived my life the way that I did up to that point, none of this would have been possible. The activity involved triggered experiences already set up by my body-brain-mind complex. To say that my "running" did this or that my "imagination" did this, as if disconnected to all the habits and choices that led up to it would be to basically define life as the most recent thing I did rather than everything I've been up to until the recent "critical" highlight. That's what is so "psychedelic" about Cannibis to me. I had been living my life a certain way, and so I had set up my body-brain-mind complex in a certain way, so that every day I ended up in more and more insidiously difficult-to-detect feedback loops between my ego-structure and the world which were getting more and more malignant every day. I was easing into a bad trip. Then when I was 15, I toked on some Cannibis with some rather dangerous people and barely got away from having a VERY bad trip with them. I walked home with some strange visuals and a lot of paranoia. I was a vulnerable boy in a dangerous world, and I had to learn not to expose myself that way, the Cannibis was highlighting to me, magnifying the intensity of the undercurrents of my situation that I had been up to then bumping into sort of blindly. It was giving my life and brain an "extra pain nerve" that it needed to think stuff out. About 3 years later a better set of friends introduced me to Cannibis again, and this time things were much better. I was a different man by then, no longer a lad, and I was calling massive shots in my life with a lot of consequences that have shaped me to this very day. I needed to ease up, let off some seriousness, Cannibis told me, I was doing good, but I was constricting, becoming too tight. life put some less tight people in front of me, and they put some Cannibis in front of me. I laughed at EVERYTHING as i had never before (think Salvia trips as seen on youtube by the typical experimenter youth). I needed that, and twasn't a damn thing else that could get that experience to me, no comedian with divine enough humor or well-timed enough for me to experience it, at least not as funny as being in a car with three guys who had up to that day fancied that they were so much less of a tight-ass than I was, the overly serious philosopher, as I laughed my ass off hysterically at everything they did and said, everything that happened in our immediate vicinity, everything basically. What an intense feedback loop burining off issues no method short of true madness could have, and perhaps at some point soon WOULD have, were it not for the timely intervention of the Dr. Green.

The next one with these same characters was not so good, and I was scared off from marijuana and ALL drugs (except tobacco and alchohol, the nontransformative,relatively unhealhty, and very accessible ones...), and remained scared off for over 13 years. I didn't like having my long-term memory beyong 10 minutes ago taken away from me, and I didn't like my knowledge of the cityscape I had grown up in and thoroughly knew like the back of my hand erased sans a three block radius... and I didn't like my attmepts to lay back and relax thwarted by my head simulating what it would be like to lay back and relax 50 times in a few seconds somewhere in the nerve fibers of my cochlear tubes. I know the Green Man was trying to turn me on to some new wisdom and that this had to be the beginning of that learning, but I wasn't ready for that, so I backed away. Then again, maybe that is what He wanted for me. He wanted me to grow more on my own so we could have something to talk about....

I read hundreds of books, joined the army and "did" three years of infantry (lots of trips involved, physical, emotional, and other), moved to my mentor's new city of residence away from my home city when I dischared (honorably, if headily), and began a new life, and in that 13 years I touched not a bit of weed though I had plenty of chances too. I didn't sense any need to though, as I was tripping every time I read a book, fell in love, lost something of value, found a new friend in an unexpected way, learned what others REALLY thought of me, learned new abilities and transcended false economies of power and knowledge, my own and others'. Still, 'nature called, and so my next experience did come. It was heady rather than giggly, as all these years later some new friends (always three at a time so far) let me in on some hydro. I was a blood cell in my own blood, careening through my own body as my body did tornado kicks out of the door of our hosts' apartment, and on down the walkway to the stairs... I was a non-stop talking machine in car-ride home, but I was an empath too, so I was able to partly control my flood of outbound insights with periods of silence couched with an occasional "sorry guys, it's just so much". I learn so much about myself, how other minds work, how my mind works, how the universe works, in that 15 minute car ride, that I pretty much staved off the worst aspects of a persistent and non-diagnosed Asperger's Syndrome right there (whatever the REAL nature of that condition is, social vs. neurological, probably some of both, and probably not so much a problem as a difference branded as a problem. I would never be the same, and all in positive ways. It was a strategically valuable experience, but I wouldn't indulge again for another year or so, when I met a very beautiful lady, half-mexican and half-german, her name akin to an Aztec Goddess of beauty and enlightenment. In entranced her with my evolving and involving theories of magic and life and poetry, things I would possibly known next to nothing about had I not been influenced by DOPE all these times, and we finally were on her couch one day. My reward for being the relaxed and humorous, not so much neurotic and paranoid guy that I was included sitting with her on her couch, enjoying a comedy show with her, laughing with her, and all this before she was sitting real close to me offering me some bud that I by then knew well better than to refuse. She opened up more "bud" for me not long after that, and I can only imagine the infinitude of benefits which have been bestowed upon me by her Cannibinoid-enriched love, though I could feel their full force at that time for sure!!

These experiences were all sort of "sub-breakthrough", and could have only been possible had I been the sort of person I was, although the sort of person I was had also already been greatly expanded beyond my own culturally-corroded potential by the benign galvanizations and rejuvenizations offered by Cannibis at key times in my life's trajectory. Surely my several years of martial arts training had also helped, built on a foundation of three years of running for miles almost every day in the Army. But hey, that being what it was doesn't mean Cannibis isn't the PSYCHEDELIC CATALYST that it also was, was to be, and still is and will continue to be thoughout the rest of my life. A later episode 3 years later involved the highest quality bud I had ever had access to, provided in a remote and very secure environment, with only sympathetic persons around who all respected and used the herb. The breakthrough finally occurred. All of my philosophical loose ends were tied, all the issues in my life resolved, all the decisions I needed to make in the short and long term clearly understood, all in the timeless Cannibinoid space of 30 earth minutes, with a continued blessing of blissful energy to carry me through many more realizations. NOW I was interested. I managed to develop my metaphysics and psychology not only in response to the apparent and "active" changes in my mind from these uses, but also from the anomolies that had been heretofore misinterpreted by thinkers in the past. I knew I had found the philosopher's stone, and it was me. Me, that is, when balanced in my hemispheric functions so that higher-dimensional energy (anti-entropic to this dimension) could flood in and correct and balance my brain were the Cannabis left off. Now MY WORLDVIEW was the mere catalyst to a very natural and automatic process, and I was more watching it and learning from it than snapping off a meager piece of it into my ego that I could handle (or not). Now I was REALLY growing, because I was in line with nature's way, and this was due to my good friend Cannibis.

Life is psychedelic, and what sort of trip it is depends on set and setting. The more actively the experiencer of life takes responsibility for those factors depends on their knowledge, talent, virtue, and help from others. They must make decisions, but there is no such thing as a good decision that is not guided in some way. Culture is not always the best setting in which to have a life, and sometimes it is very piss-poor guidance proffered to us by society, even those closest to us as friends and family (or should I say especially as friends and family...). We need catalysts to proceed forward with our otherwise very natural and normal psychedelic process which is called the maturation of mind and spirit in the bodily life and beyond. When culture and society fall short, we must breakthrough on our own as much as we can, but there are still others who will conspire to help us and can do so fruitfully. We run into them because of our synergetic life paths, and we cannot but be aided greatly by each others' company. Some of these friends, these powerful psychedelic catalysts, are synchronistic experiences in our daily lives that shed new and strange lights on matters, situations of serendipity. Some are our own epiphanies, our brains and minds conspiring with nature and the spirit world to keep us growing. Some of these catalysts are humans of a similar path in some way. Some are animals who come along and grace us with their unique wisdom and grace, or plain old silliness. Some of these are wise, some are foolish. Some of these are plants and fungi, minerals and other compounds of substances. They also come in all manner of angle and energy. They are catalysts. They help us smooth out or ratchet up or greatly alter the scope or direction of our already existing trips as human beings. They are NOT responsible for our trips, and they do not cause them. They are facilitators, instigators, triggers, catalysts, but not causes and not definitive of the contents of our psychedelic existences, not chronically or acutely. Our character, our decisions, our chosen thoughts and feelings, our physical make up and what we make with it, these are the factors that are primarily responsible for our psychedelic trip called life. These cannot be replaced by our facilitating helps, and in the end we must learn what we need to learn so that some day we could exist with all the benefits of a healthy and vital and wonderful psychospiritual existence without even the theoretical need for such helps, though I think by then we would be God, and even God seems to be tripping on something, perhaps us.

So keep tripping, and find what helps work for you. Know that you are responsible and that the help cannot replace the work which you alone do, which you alone create and are responsible for creating. Since I've had my Cannibis breakthrough last summer, I have made the integrative breakthrough of stably bringing many of those insights into my life in solid ways which were mainly locked in that trip as a very active potential yet to be fully implementally realized. Now I feel the dross coming over me again, in spite of my best efforst. I see that my trips are getting ironic on a daily basis, and my life trip is feeling cranky and out of sorts, unconnected with higher order in spite of all that I know, do, and have done about it up to now. This can become a negative spiral if not treated by the appropriate medicine. This is what medicine is for, and this is how I use it. This is why we NEED it. We are continually under assault by the psuedoorderliness of our cultures and societies, and whatever enviroment of utility and stability they provide for our development, I'd say it is rather unideal in the worst way and I have lots of reasons for saying so, the illegality of Cannibis in most lands being a very BIG indication of this, given what a value it is and has been!! So it is clear that the medicines of this sort are all the more needed for their being withheld, and we must know how to relate to them responsibly and wisely. It is not surprise that the more readily available psychedelic catalysts are the least effectively used by those who are most common in their ability to grow and make use of them, the steady base of society, the masses that the overclass beings must keep at the base of their pyramid of spiritual sloth paid for by the spiritual misery and perpetual death of those said masses, as well as the scapegoating and martyring of the many sages who have stepped out of line, mainly due to the fear that they might encourage others to do the same. That is why Cannibis is so hated: IT IS SO COMMONLY TOLERABLE AND USEFUL. It leaves you in this world in proportion to your use, so that conscious breakthrough states can be carried, guess what, THROUGHOUT YOUR DAILY LIFE. Yes, this is not liked by those who want you cramped and Divinor's Sage and Spice, Myconic magic not yet downed by law, and others that are kindly provided by mother nature and father spirit. This is what has brought me to this forum, my need to research pychedelic processes in general, but especially in terms of tactical and strategic medicinal facilitation.

I now wish to begin exploring the different highs and lows of my true self through other medicines more readily available and legal, such as Salvia and, in some ways, DMT. I could begin to take dream herbs to get the most of out of my nightly DMT experiences during dreams, and perhaps to help me get more out of my occasional divinations by way of Salvia during the day (or night..). Perhaps DMT will become a player in the future, depending on time, place, availability, and utility, as with Cannibis. I'm looking forward to Myconic revelatory assistance, as well as the helps of other floral and herbal friends. Humor, good sex, the rare fistfight or near accident, funny moments both intended and accidental, good friends and food, good books and ideas, loving and helping others, teaching, good music, taking guitar lessons from a master, exercising, wow, all these medicinces also apply. Life is a medicine, and it must be good for the soul, or we wouldn't bother to be here. Existence must be doing something for God, or God wouldn't have bothered, with God's own existence or the multiverses'. It seems to be about the results, and not so much the means, though they are intriguingly related. Here's to good results, and a great adventure!!!

Phew. Quite intimidating, this wall of words.

I'm looking forward to your first DMT experience report.

In the meanwhile, have some Adyashanti:
http://www.adyashanti.or...ndex.php?file=watchvideo

And welcome to the Nexus.

Okay, let me preface this by saying that it's probably going to offend you:

You really don't have the tiniest clue what you're talking about at all. All your conjecture about the nature of the psychedelic experience is based on absolutely nothing. You're not well versed just because you dream or have an interest in ontology. Everyone dreams and lots of people are malleable in their beliefs. This doesn't make anyone an "old pro in the psychedelic arts" - and while it's true that an open mind is a most invaluable prerequisite to tripping, only a fool endeavors to explain a thing he's never experienced to a room full of people who have.

I mean, honestly, pal... did I really just read in another thread where you're recommending to someone that they up their dose? Really?? What exactly is your frame of reference? You've smoked weed 10 times in your life?? And broken through on it to boot??? You don't have ANY idea WHATSOEVER just what this material is capable of. Take the plunge, see for yourself, THEN come back and school us all. Until you do, your treatise and wind bag hypotheses are just so much unreadable wankitude.

Stopped reading after:

'Nuff said

agree :arrow: to above

This

I think i have read further than anyone so far, but I still couldn't finish it... WOW ARE YOU IN FOR A MOTHERFUCKING SHOCK. If you think you are tripping, look no further. It WILL be too much for you if ever you do. And i am sincere when I write this - stay away from this stuff, it is, IMHO, not for you.

Please be warned - read no further if you have a thin carapace:

As a former international athlete and a humble psychonaut, I feel qualified in saying that a 2 block adrenaline infused sprint to catch a bus is neither an athletic feat nor anywhere in the ball park next to the ballpark next to the town that has five ballapark's ballpark to even the most insignificant of psychedelic trips; as a writer I must also say that you are in desperate need of an editor, and that while part of me admires you for filling paragraphs about chasing down a bus, the larger part of me can't help wish there was an ounce of content in what you wrote... Please think about what you are writing, and think also of to whom you are doing so. To push the point made here ad nauseum further, would you, in a closed forum, feel comfortable recounting your jaunt to the bus to an auditorium filled with marathon runners, kinesiologists, physiologists and seasoned olympic trainers?

Sorry to sound so harsh, it's really not in my nature. But the PRESUMPTION is a little mind-boggling. A few tokes here and there of cannabis? While no one here would encourage a pissing contest, your complete inexperience would lead us to expect a strong tone of humility in your post, whereas I daresay the opposite seemed evident in troves...

This is a warm, welcoming, tolerant community, so I welcome you with warm tolerance. Just please skip the rhetoric and take US seriously if you expect the same in return.

Cheers,
JBArk

That post made me laugh!

Of course you are right Art, someone who hasn't experienced psychedelics has little to no clue about the psychedelic experience. However, when you say... "then come back and school us all"... I think that is a mistake. No one "schools" people just because they smoked a psychedelic. It doesn't make you a teacher or a reliable source of information. It can delude the fuck out of you. The things you acquire from a psychedelic experience can range from spiritual enlightenment to complete insanity and delusions. Whatever a man or woman using psychedelics says needs to be taken with a grain of salt (the same for people who don't take them, of course.)

Psychedelics don't make you a "good person" or an "intelligent person" just because. There are assassins who take/took psychedelics. There are rapers. There are thieves and there are people that are just plain fucked up in the brain. When someone has a DMT experience, the person KNOWS what it feels and what can possibly be seen. For example, many people say they see entities... so I suppose that it is possible to see entities. Many people say they are real and many people say they are only product of the imagination. Some even defend their position fiercely. No one knows what is really happening.

I like psychedelics, and I'm in the initial process of extracting DMT. But I know that these things are not all "good" or all "evil". And I've seen that even DMT-smokers post "treatise and wind bag hypotheses that are just so much unreadable wankitude" in this and other forums. Don't tell me all I need to do is to smoke DMT and suddenly all my shit will make sense and be something reliable or worth reading. Don't feel so special 'cus you have smoked DMT, there are all kinds of clowns out there that have done it also.

Remember my friend that we as humans are made entirely of chemistry, the most complex chemicals are being synthethized in your brain, so you cannot generalize entirely another person's experience just by using the "same compound" even if you did the same amount from the same batch in the same conditions and both of you are identical twins, the experiences will vary entirely. This is true with every factor of our lives, not just drugs, foods, medicines or whatever you like to call it. A more intriguing question would be... why is it different?, but at the same time has similar characteristics? That answer that eludes science is probably the best subject for research, because even the minimal gust of wind can change the direction of a glider. It is true for a mental glide too, as some people said: you go with the flow. Wich are those gusts that affect us? They could be social, psycological, sentimental, egocentrical or even physiological in some rare cases (zchizos 4 exampl) So you cannot really measure the quantities of the enzimatic cascade that takes place in your brain cells, but of course that also impacts the experience. The holystic approach for the pourpouse of ingesting DMT intrigues me and THERE is where the real trip resides. To realize that every living cell of your body could make a brutal difference to interact in your body's chemistry. (Cancer for example)

With all due respect, Art wasn't asserting this. (I don't believe, anyway). Nor was I. Just the tone of the OP suggested he was "schooling" us, so Art's point was simply if you are to presume to school someone in Karate, do your homework and learn Karate. Then "school" if appropriate.

BTW, glad to hear you are on your first extraction! Keep us posted. You, for example, are someone who has been here a while and exhibit the intelligence, curiosity and humility that most here with experience do. And you make valuable contributions by your probing, unassuming nature. I believe that yours is the attitude Art was hinting the OP adopt.

JBArk

Yeah, Clouds - I think you missed my point. In no way am I suggesting that smoking anything will fast track one to enlightenment - and yes, there are certainly windbags a plenty who have actually had the experience. But until you have, you're just not qualified to speak with any authority, and all I'm saying is (as in ALL walks of life) know of whence you speak before embarking on a lecture - especially when your target audience can actually smell the difference.

When I say "come back and school us all", well... that's just me being a dick. So, there you have it - proof positive that DMT won't make you walk on water.

This is not entirely true. Users of psychedelics DO have specific information/knowledge that non-users simply don’t have – they have knowledge of the experience of using particular substances. Now as far as interpretations of the experience goes, you’re absolutely correct.

So although we can’t “school” those unfamiliar with entheogens about the meaning of our experiences or the meaning of life, we certainly can school them about the physical and psychological effects of particular substances.

I recognize that I am an ignorant in many things regarding DMT (and many other psychedelics) since I have not smoked it. I also admit (reviewing my post) that what I wrote was a little off in relation to the response. I did project some frustrations hahaha. I just wanted to tell that one must analyze the situation from many points of views, not just "Hey I smoked it, I know whats true and you don't". However, yeah, I do think the OP is strange and needs to think again what he is writing and so on.



In most cases. But as you know, even that is subjective.

___

What I mean is that sure, smoking DMT will give you a particular experience. But that's it. It's an experience (that varies from person to person). There are commonalities and things that many people seem to see/experience repeatedly. And a healthy person most likely will have a nice experience that WILL change his/her life positively. DMT is wonderful, there are enough people that say that for it to be true enough. Honestly, I have no doubt that it is something to be respected. But hey, take it easy on the people who have not experienced it. I guess this last sentence is the essence of this little bitchy rant.

Hehe, thanks cellux!! I'm happy to be here. I tend to overkill on essays because I hate streamlining information, one of my more longlived habits, much to the rue of some of my professors back in college. I colored a few areas to highlight my attitude about psychedelics in both the broad and narrow sense of the word, so that it wouldn't seem like such a wall. Indeed, the hope was that it would be a wider window.

Thanks again for the welcome!!

Warning, you may be offended, Van D'Lay, due to the structure of your ego and the fact that my reply to your rant, more than it really deserves, may not soothe your bristly nature. It has a few things that need to be addressed which may help others not misunderstand me should they rely on you for making sense out of my short essay.



It didn't offend me. Let me explain why.



Actually, I do have a clue what I'm talking about. That is rhetoric which matches yours. Any real arguments? Let's see...



Actually, I wasn't "conjecturing". I was defining my terms and applying them. Try that some time. Your ranting is what "means nothing". Nothing about me anyway, and everything about you.



One: I didn't say I was "well versed" because of the reasons you mentioned. If you had understood my essay half as well as you rant, you would have known that what I said about my dreams and interests was by way of self-introduction, and also in order to set the stage for my, as you call them, "conjectures". None of which, by the way, have you understood, and so have not addressed.

Two: I don't presume to be "explaining what I have never experienced". That's just a stupid thing to say, because I no where attempted to explain, per se, what I haven't experienced. I have attempted to explain my view on how psychedelic experiences produced by chemical catalysts acting directly on the nervous system are best understood TO ME (I don't know how you understand them, I wasn't addressing you per se, D'Lay). I understand all experiences in at least a general way, D'Lay, and my experience with psychedelics may be not anything like yours. How would you know what MY experience are like? Right, you wouldn't know. Seems like you are the one pretending to "school others" on what you yourself don't understand. You know nothing of my actual experiences, even as I have barely describe some of them in my first post here. How could you? Besides, this is very big "room" that you refer to, and I don't have time to find everyone and ask them if their feelings will be hurt before I express my views on something in a civil and polite way, unlike the response I got from you. I did think I was in the "big people" room, though... but you give me cause for doubt.



HEHE, this one is a blast. I did recommend to someone who was not getting a breakthrough that he increase his dose. That's not generally what people do? I don't know how much he has to do that, and I didn't pretend to know. I offered my opinion as to what he might do to get beyond the point he was at. It's probably what he might want to do if he really isn't breaking through on the dose he is consistently using which has been giving him the same unsatisfactory results. What would you suggest, that he use less? This is just a stupid thing to fault me for. Also, I had no intention of schooling anyone, once again, least of some disrespectful individual like you. I didn't come here to school, nor to be schooled. I came here to interact with others and share experiences in a mature way. You are incapable of that it seems. No reflection on me. And you did rather seek to insult. Why are you even a member here? So you can rant and bitch at the drop of a hat? Laughable. How can I take you seriously, D'Lay? You already refused to give any charity to my essay, which is standard, and not make assumptions about my tone, you failed to understand my points, and you misread most of what you think you did understand. You have done yourself an injustice presenting your flaws to me this way, don't expect me to respect you for it.

Hyperontosis, this is no contest, smoke some of this stuff and we'll talk. The "psychedelic" you are describing is certainly a part of stronger psychedelics, but there is more to it you just can't know.



No, not generally. Not breaking through can be due to other reasons like a faulty smoking technique or other more mental problems (not beeing able to let go etc).

You're right, I should have asked him if he knew what the heck he was doing in the first place, and did he know how to smoke it correctly. In that case, I have nothing to say, since I have not attempted to smoke DMT. Assuming he knew at least that much, I could only say that IF he were doing it right, he may need to up the dose. I understand that, thanks for the correction. To be fair to me right quick; if he blindly says "OK", then he shouldn't be smoking this stuff anyway!!! He's not a robot, and I don't have a remote control on him. But again, point taken. If his technique is messed up, then he may ALREADY be putting too much on his plate and not know it yet... scary thought. Scarier that he should up the dose and then accidentally do it right... Not what I would intend for him. This reminds me of weightlifting and other human endeavors... people don't stress form enough, and they keep slapping on more content to their peril.

See? I readily respond to what you say in correction, all without being offended that you assumed I thought this was a "contest". I'm rational, unlike some who have jumped on the "let's try to put this fucker in his place and make ourselves feel better after our venting trip" train. I didn't, and that was not the rhetoric to take with me. Why must folks here talk like they know where the other guy is coming from. Get to know me by more than a sentence or two, or 300, before assuming I think smoking this stuff is a GAME. Why do you think I haven't ventured to use it yet? I'm still investigating, staying on a great platform of my daily living experiences, occasionally augmented by some VERY good results from Cannibis which have obviated any need for anything more powerful as a substance. Still, I'm not offended, even if you were really assuming that. I mention it to show you the space between your assumptions about me and who I am. Again, thanks for the correction. Its lesson has become a permanent part of my repertoire.

But you see, this is the thing...

YOU HAVE NO EXPERIENCE.

None. Not a one. And yet you continue to bloviate. It's not an approach that's likely to win you a great many fans around here, but go right ahead and do what you do. I'm sure this is just the beginning.