Hi, everybody!
I am projecting myself into this forum from a basement in the supposedly cold country of Norway. It has been 8,421 days since I was brought into this world, for what it's worth, and I've learnt a great deal of things during these days and nights. I hope that my contributions here will be valuable to the rest of you, and perhaps most of all do I hope to learn from your experiences.
I consider myself a fairly experienced psychonaut in the sense that I am getting a grip on my method of approaching these various substances that alter the way I see myself and the Other.
And I guess I am not the only one here whose interest in altered states and the exploration of the nature of reality was largely sparked by people like Terence Mckenna, Alan Watts, Timothy Leary and various other proponents and tale-tellers of the psychedelic experience.
With me I carry a passion for language, and I do my very best to present my point of view in a humble and understandable way. In my opinion, a scientific, rational and fairly skeptical point of view is the correct way for interrogating the world as it is experienced. However, I have no more confidence in the statements of a scientist than in those of a priest, or in those of any of you. This means that your opinions as individuals is what I value the most, all professional statements are secondary to me. Also, I find any body of knowledge that considers itself conclusive in any matter to be outdated and uninteresting as anything else than a phenomenon.
I look forward to reading more of what you guys have to say, and it seems to me already that there is much one can learn from this community.
And this whole SWIM-thing... I won't go so far as to say I detest it, but it certainly seems ridiculous to me. Saying "I" would be a more discrete way of pointing the finger on oneself, and if our (I make the assumption that we are united in the belief in the right to do with ones own body and mind as one sees fit) beliefs are to be respected, the first step seems to me to be honesty.
The word 'IS' is (yeah, I know) one that I try to avoid. I think everybody gets along better, and that we fall victim to fallacy much less often, if we can abstain from concept of "is" in our language, and instead replace it with "it seems to me" or "I find it to be". Which words we use isn't really my point, but the general attitude of being less certain and ask more questions instead of making definite statements.
There you go; a piece of my mind! I believe that love is the logos, and I do find myself pondering questions related to eschatology and it's expression through art, science, society and religion over the years. So my interests are all these topics, and especially how they relate to each other and the process of history. And yeah... drugs!
Thanks for reading, I wish you a very nice day/evening!