Hey guys, SWIM is having some trouble. SWIM recently traveled back home to visit his family as he often does, and SWIM's family discovered that he does psychedelics. What actually happened was that SWIM's mom went into his travel bag to return some deodorant, and discovered some spice and a smoking device. The details surrounding that story are sketchy but that is not what's important. Now they've taken a reactionary stance. In their eyes, SWIM is harming himself and ruining his life. SWIM tries to explain to them that SWIM is in no medicinal danger and that these substances have actually helped him in his life. SWIM has only been able to talk to them over the phone but he plans to travel back home this weekend. Because SWIM is a hopeless believer in a human's ability to function and make decisions based on reason, and not emotion, he plans to sit down with his parent and address any concerns that they have. Obviously the legalities of the issue are undeniable, and while this will probably be their fallback, he wants to dispel their concerns about his mind and health through reasoning.

It will be up to SWIM to explain to his parents how psychedelics have personally influenced life, but here is how you guys can help me. If any of have any information or medical journals about the proven medicinal effects of halucinogenic drugs(DMT, mushrooms, and mescaline in paticular) that would be great. Is psilocybin a mutagen or carcinogen, you know, that type of thing. As far as I know, these substances have no recorded negative health effects, beyond the very very slight possibility of psychology damage. I just want to be able to logically reason, that beyond a shadow of a doubt, I am in no danger. If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong, I'm no doctor. But as far as I know, these substances deal no damage to the human body. So help me out guys, I feel like I got my back against a wall here.

man that is a tough one. best thing is to be totally honest with them. love and honesty can break the veil of fear. that is what you need to do. scientific papers, reports etc will help also.

those pdf's of Nick Sand papers were pretty good I thought (http://www.serendipity.li/dmt/nsand/), though i dont know if they will help your cause so much... depends how open minded they are I guess.

Good luck, its an important thing to do it the best way you can. I have yet to go through that one!

Hm.....this is the really tough part. SWIM knows many people who just have not the ability to talk with and understand reason. He knows people with whom he cannot discuss issues with the "standard reasoning format", i.e. argument-counterargument, second argument-counterargument, third argument-counterargument and so on.

SWIM's mother is like that - it's just not her way of making discussion. No matter how many arguments one will present, her opinion will be "drugs are bad because they are bad, period". His mother responds much better to statements like: "I do it because I like it and it doesn't harm me at all, my life is great anyway and I'm a big boy and I know what I do and you should not be worried about me because I love you and if I ever feel I have any serious problem you will be the first person I'll consult, promise"

So just tell SWIY to be prepared to face emotional arguments. circular arguments, fallacious arguments and so on.

Best lucks to you; there's no bad case scenario because it's better to discuss these things than just hide them.

I'd give them The Joyous Cosmology by Alan Watts to read. But I can understand their shock at finding implements that a crack smoker might use.

Yeah, this is gonna be a hard discussion I fear.

Be honest, tell them HOW it has improved your life. Explain to them that you are not abusing it, but rather taking it as a medicine for the body and spirit. If they are religous you can tell them it has brought you closer to god in many ways (if it has).

Best of luck. My parents have finally acknowledged that MJ is not the devil's weed and the worst thing about it is that it is illegal, but that took years of sending them research papers on the benefits of mj (parents are scientific in nature). Some unknown white poweder (to them at least) and a weird smelling/looking smoking devise might be a bit more difficult.

Its can be really hard to get people to really see it. I went through this when i was 19. I went to my family and told them what i was doing one day because I just could not live in the world anymore pretending to be something i was not. I was smoking tons of pot and eating mushrooms about 2 times a week and learning sooo much. I went to college(and still am) becasue of psychedelics. Withouth them I would probabily be working at mcdonalds, drinkning my misery away, feeling exactly how I felt before I experienced psychedelics. My first real mushroom and salvia trips changed EVERYTHING..

I have tried again and again and again to try to explain it from every possible angle i could to these people, but they dont get it..my dad does a bit I think..but it took him hearing it from his own cousin and childhood friend, who also revealed to him a few months ago she does partake of the entheogens..my mom still thinks i need to go to rehab, even though I dont smoke tobacoo, drink alchohol or partake of any other damaging or addicitive drugs..including foods.I actaully feel they do mush more harmful and addicting things than I do. It doesnt help that alcoholism "runs" in the family, as they like to put it. I kindly inform them that DMT, mescaline etc is NOT alcohol, but some people only have a one track mind I guess.

Eventually my opinion of them began to change, and i stopped seeing them the way I did when i was younger. They are still my family, and I love them, but I dont expect them to ever get it..other than my brother, who has tripped and smokes cannabis, but he doesnt talk about it, and is def not into shamanism at all. Most of my family actually thinks I am insane I am sure.

THe funny thing is that my mom is actaully in part rsponciple for my taking of these plants. She chose to expose to wicca and witchcraft at such a young age, and continued to throughout my life. Later on I began to think that she was just kinda overly-romanticising the whole thing(which she was, like most wiccans) and had no idea what she was talking about. When I then read about entheogens and shamanism, It was like she didnt like it so dismissed it..pretending that it wasnt probabily the biggest factor in defining the worldview she seemed so interested in.I ate the mushrooms anyway and felt that i had found the holy grail of her wicca.. I resented my family for months after I told them, until I finally just moved out.

^^^That should be framed & put up in lights!!^^^
Well put man!!

fractal enchantment, I'm afraid that would probably be the reaction most people would get from their parents.
No matter what age you are, they don't stop being your parents & trying to protect you from the things they think & feel could harm you, or make your progress through this life harder in any way!
So don't be too hard on them...remember how & what they were taught growing up, there was no internet to flood yourself with the ideas & knowledge from accross the globe...much less the other side of the country!!
Even just 10 years ago the world was an infinity smaller place to gather information from!!
Not only that, but entheogens are not for everybody, we all have our own little plot of reality to farm for 80 years, not everyone's soil grows psychedelic plants!!

My mother is probably one of the most understanding people I know, but even still...at 34...she would freak out if she found something like this in my bag, while I was home for a visit!!
I feel for you man, but you never know, it could go well.
Gather some info on Ayahuasca and it's long history of helping & healing people from all over the world (not just jungle people... ) & from all walks of life!

Great resource:
Ayahuasca.com


WS

At the same time, I need to report on the bright side. Because of psychedelics, I have become closer to my uncle and 2 cousins, who all smoke cannabis, and both of my cousins are into psychedelics..one of them is jsut like me and into shamanism and loves to eat mushrooms and now we are getting even closer and closer. He lives in the woods in the middle of nowhere and grows cannabis and hunts with a bow. We are planning a trip in the fall where he will teah me to hunt, and I am going to stay in the woods of his 10 acre property in a tent and trip balls lots!..my job is to bring the cacti!

So I guess for me, it was sort of a trade off. I lost some peoples respect and gained others.

here are some studies that may be helpful...

http://www.ayahuasca.com/?p=44
http://www.neurosoup.com.../halpern.peyote.2005.pdf
http://www.hopkinsmedici...eases/2008/07_01_08.html

Thanks guys, those are encouraging words. SWIM just doesn't want to be dishonest with his family and say that he'll stop doing them. He is proud of his use of entheogens, because they have been a guiding force in his life. SWIM has wanted to tell them about his entheogen use for a while but didn't because he figured he would get the response that he is getting now. I see that the most important thing to emphasize with this is that I am not hurting myself with what I do, and that it is something that has helped me become a happier and better person.

And fractal enchantment, when you said had it not been for entheogen you'd probably be working at McDonalds and drinking your misery away, that really struck a cord because I was doing much of the same thing before I discovered entheogens. And I'd probably still be doing it too, if it wasn't for our fungus friend.

Well whatever you end up tellin them, good luck and i hope all ends well brother.

you need to wait some time, time can cure stuff i had a very tough time when my folks discoverd that swim was doing drugs they sent me to a rehab center years ago was a tough moment but know time has past and has accepted swim because one will always be there son thats the important thing, it will pass and be cool reallly now swim has a very good
relationship with his folks talk with them it takes some time

The thing is, I think that somewhere along the line, they do know what good it has done for me. I was never interested in science or math or physics, philosophy etc in high school. I barely graduated, all I did was skateboard..nothing else mattered.. I liked art but that was it..and I was miserable and melancholic about everything all of the time. I never felt centered so I was always looking outside of myself for some sense of security..I threw myself into this degrading scene of drinking and just basically being fucked up, and allowing myself to fall over and over into meaningless relations with girls I barely even knew..

When I took mushrooms, I swear in one year I became obsessed with spirituality and theosophy, biology(I did work at the aquarium here back in grd 10 in a program for marine biology, but had dropped it later and forgot about it)..I began reading physics books and medical books..everything I could find.

I also saw the material world for what it was..and took it upon myslef to inform anyone and everyone who would listen(or not!!)..I think this made the whole conflict worse..I would hear over and over again from my mother about why could I not just suck it up and worry about myself?? or that I was being overly dramatic and that thats the wy the world works and I needed to live "in reality" as she would put it haha..

But you are right warrensaged, I know that they were only worried for me, and I began to see that eventually. I went through a Tim Leary sort of period where I though that everyone needed to be dosed.. and was really quite angry still and had loads of resentment. Somewhere along the lines I just saw it from others perspectives, how they are looking out through suck a thick lens of lies that it's not really they're fault..this is why I feel so completely grateful for these things ever falling into my lap, I used to be totally anti-drug as well in high school, beside very occasional cannabis(never even drank until I after high school), so it amazes me that I actually came at it the way I did..anyway, I feel taken care of

There is one big thing that all of this trying to convince other has taught me...that it is impossible to teach anything to another person..all you can do is set up the situation in which they may or may not see it for themselves.

Psychointegration check this out...
http://www.maps.org/media/winkleman-spring03.html

That was a good read LLB, thanks.

I think I am VERY lucky on this matter. My parents allow me to do what I do, they allow me to explore Spice. But at the same time they disagree with what I do, and I am fine with that. And I know why it's so hard for them to understand as well.

Not long ago, my sister was effected by Ice, and other drugs. It was hell with my sis, and at some point, I honestly gave up on her. Not the best thing to say, I understand if others cannot understand this. Lucky she pulled her self out of this, and she is doing very well these days. So this is one reason (more with my dad) that they was so competently against my interest in psychedelics. They Don't want to put up with me if I go "bad". They don't want to go through what my sister put us all through, all over again with me.

On top of this, my mum a very long time ago. Her 1st time with LSD was a bad experience, and she never touched the stuff again. She could not go to the hospital, I cannot reveal the reasons for this. Yet, my mums different to my dad. My dads more irrational -.-".

As fractal rider sead, you need to wait some time, time can cure stuff. It will pass and it will be cool. This is basically what happened with me. Although I don't/cannot speak about my interests to much with them, as it is simply not there interest. They just don't want to know of such things. Yet that's completely fine.

Its hard to explain really. They approve, yet they don't approve. Ah, other then all this, my sister is the MOST understanding. She also dose not really want me to explore DMT, because she has not even known about such a thing. So it's natural for she to be concerned about me. But I can talk to her about my interests, and she is happy to listen.

Good luck mate. the first step, is the hardest. Over time it will calm down.

place 80 mg of mesc in their coffee and say see I told you so.

Thanks not good advice!!

WS

To address your first paragraph, fiashly, I had the spice with me because I was going to introduce a close friend and fellow psychonaught to it.

I also went through troubles about 6-7 years ago when I was an adolescent when I was using addicting and harmful drugs. I'm sure my family remembers those times and they fear a return to my scheming and dishonest ways. My parents used addictive and harmful drugs also for years and years and they finally kicked the habit sometime back. Along with those drugs they also used psychedelics. Yet they make no differentiation between addictive and harmful drugs and entheogens. How they do this is beyond me. I guess really it was their attitude towards any substance they used. Their attitude was always, "I wanna get high and fucked up and party". Be it coke, meth, alcohol, or LSD; that was their attitude. I guess the biggest gap between them and I is that I do not approach these substance with that attitude, and I think my approach to psychedelics is beyond their understanding. So I think I need to work hard to bridge that gap in understanding.

Things seemed to have turned out alright. Seems like it just took that extra week for my parents to chill. Although they are still worried and nervous. But I just want to thank you guys for all the good words.