Psychedelics being pushed today from multiple vectors.

[Candice]

If I may...

This seems to be a slightly sore spot for you; just to be clear, you don't need to parole anything from me or I should think anybody here.

That’s ok, it’s not really a “sore spot” for me. I took Ayahuasca only three times and that was ten years ago. I’m merely sharing my experiences.

I used the term 'Druggie' to invoke a very specific, and I hope, somewhat universal image for the sake of convenience...

I know exactly what type of archetype you meant. I tend to avoid people like that so I don’t meet them often. My theory is that specific archetypes we keep running in to are trying to teach us something.

In reference to my earlier post. I was trying to clarify that users of hallucinogens exist on a spectrum. Not all fit into the cliche “druggie” archetype. Like we had already discussed, it’s now intellectuals and normies who are experimenting. And with these types I have not witnessed them transforming into glassy eyed ditzy types. They’re their exact same normie selfs. I only added this anecdotal observational evidence for a more nuanced perspective on the new interest in hallucinogens, especially ‘plant’ types we are seeing.

 

[bekac]

I have found that lecturing people not to play in the mud doesn’t really keep anyone from playing in the mud.

I know this from myself trying to warn others but I also know that I was warned by my father and I too in the end didn’t listen.

My father experimented a lot as a teenager, in order to keep me going out to experiment too he shared a lot of his experiences with me. He shared how so many of his friends had either died or ended up in psychological institutions. He shared his negative experiences. He never lectured me from some higher moral soapbox, he knew that wouldn’t work. Luckily I listened and never experimented as a teenager.

But even with all his stories and advice I later on in my late twenties decided to play in the mud. Only after that did everything he tried to tell me have an “aha moment”. I had a breakdown of sorts, a period of disintegration. At the time I called it a ‘dark night of the soul’.

I had to experience playing in the mud myself and learn the hard way. Do we not learn through suffering?

Very hard lessons but without them I may not be on my current path. Those lessons led to me asking the universe for help, which led me to reading Laura’s books and ultimately this forum and hopefully on my path of redemption.

The thing is I’ve tried warning people from doing Ayahuasca ceremonies by telling them my experiences. Unfortunately no matter what I say it falls on deaf ears and they just get more excited to try it. It’s nuts. They’ve been programmed that because it’s a plant concoction and if administered by a Shaman that no harm can befall them. They will NOT listen to anyone who says anything against this.

I realized it doesn’t matter, there is nothing anyone can say to deter someone who is determined to play in the mud.

However can we try to talk about this subject in an objective manner? And leave the sanctimonious preacher tone at the door. It will not convert

Back to the original topic. I think the reason Intellectual types are being drawn to psychedelics is they have hit a wall where it comes to finding answers through the normal ‘scientific’ means. So one can either choose to find these answers through doing the Work, meditation, gathering knowledge or you can choose the shortcut. The thing is that psychedelics don’t provide answers, their only benefit if one is aware is they have the capability of performing a ‘reset’. But what are the trade offs for this reset? The only time that maybe it’s worth it is if you’re a serious drug addict. However the reset isn’t permanent. You still need to use your free will to choose to remain on your new path. Lots of hard work.

I know people who have done Ayahuasca over 50 times. With very few observable negative or positive changes. I’ve only met one other person who experienced what I experienced but she still advocates for it. I only know one person who appears to have changed their lives around for the good. I don’t know anyone who has come out of it with real tangible knowledge, just subjective word salad nonsense. They just keep chasing the high.

I’m not sure if I added anything of value to this conversation. I debated even entering the fray. I realized I once again got triggered by one of my programs that ‘I must be innately bad for having played in the mud in the past’. Which is just not true. We all are playing in the mud to some extent otherwise we’d all be in 4D already. Some people choose to learn lessons the hard way. Some appear to enter their 3D lives as fully formed Saints. Kudos to you. Doesn’t matter which you are. You're here learning lessons, may that be as swamp creature or Saint.

The path to redemption, towards knowledge, light, unconditional love is always there. Yes it’s there even for those who have been playing in the mud. It’s a choice. Maybe THE choice.

So the question is how do you identify the true Source of that unconditional love some of us have felt either on psychedelics, through meditation or even spontaneous experiences? Is this feeling of “unconditional love” always from those evil forces that want a free snack? How do we tell the difference between that and from the DCM itself?

From what I’ve gathered is that one always must remain skeptical, that as long as we are in 3D we can never be sure of our subjective experiences. May that be our thoughts, feelings, ‘psychic experiences’, intuition or hallucinogenic visions.

You are most likely still a machine, you aren’t in control of any of these experiences. So why skip the basics straight to ‘shaman level’?

And for those still choosing to play in the mud even though you know better. Why? Why are you so confident that you have full control of your machine? Why choose the shortcut fraught with unknown dangers to your wellbeing? I ask these questions not from a point of judgment, I hold no judgement. But because I’m curious.

I don’t think this renewed fascination by humanity with hallucinogens will be fading anytime soon. So many feel empty and have a need to forget reality or to fill the inner void with pseudo-spiritual experiences. The intellectuals appear to have run out of new avenues to explore. And of course I think the PTB have been dabbling for decades. I wonder will they link AI with tripping to hook in the new era of tranhumaism? Will the new entertainment be communicating with trans-dimensional denizens with a fusion of hallucinogens and VR tech?

Curious individuals are contribution to any topic. There is definitely a limit within shrooms ( I have no other drug -stimulant experience ),and could be danger for psychologically fragile.
The effect of influence eventually wain, otherwise we would not be able to function in our 3D world. Meditation is much milder, and can't be substituted by ,,short cut''. Blocked intellectuals and drug addicts are probably main beneficiaries, as well as unsettled souls on palliative care. For me personally key benefit is the reference point I could not achieve otherwise. Even the best shaman I know concluded that shrooms bring more insight than other methods ( she used them only few times in very long career). I had 4 experiences altogether, and have no need to repeat it . Before the first experiment, I was long time initiated and read Ra material several times. Some level of maturity is possibly necessary for positive experience. I was not motivated by entertainment, so find no mud on myself after all.

 

[iamthatis]

I have found that lecturing people not to play in the mud doesn’t really keep anyone from playing in the mud.

I know this from myself trying to warn others but I also know that I was warned by my father and I too in the end didn’t listen.

My father experimented a lot as a teenager, in order to keep me going out to experiment too he shared a lot of his experiences with me. He shared how so many of his friends had either died or ended up in psychological institutions. He shared his negative experiences. He never lectured me from some higher moral soapbox, he knew that wouldn’t work. Luckily I listened and never experimented as a teenager.

But even with all his stories and advice I later on in my late twenties decided to play in the mud. Only after that did everything he tried to tell me have an “aha moment”. I had a breakdown of sorts, a period of disintegration. At the time I called it a ‘dark night of the soul’.

I had to experience playing in the mud myself and learn the hard way. Do we not learn through suffering?

Very hard lessons but without them I may not be on my current path. Those lessons led to me asking the universe for help, which led me to reading Laura’s books and ultimately this forum and hopefully on my path of redemption.

The thing is I’ve tried warning people from doing Ayahuasca ceremonies by telling them my experiences. Unfortunately no matter what I say it falls on deaf ears and they just get more excited to try it. It’s nuts. They’ve been programmed that because it’s a plant concoction and if administered by a Shaman that no harm can befall them. They will NOT listen to anyone who says anything against this.

I realized it doesn’t matter, there is nothing anyone can say to deter someone who is determined to play in the mud.

However can we try to talk about this subject in an objective manner? And leave the sanctimonious preacher tone at the door. It will not convert anyone. It just keeps anyone like myself from even entering the conversation. It reminds me of those morally superior individuals who get triggered by the sex scenes in the romance novels.

Back to the original topic. I think the reason Intellectual types are being drawn to psychedelics is they have hit a wall where it comes to finding answers through the normal ‘scientific’ means. So one can either choose to find these answers through doing the Work, meditation, gathering knowledge or you can choose the shortcut. The thing is that psychedelics don’t provide answers, their only benefit if one is aware is they have the capability of performing a ‘reset’. But what are the trade offs for this reset? The only time that maybe it’s worth it is if you’re a serious drug addict. However the reset isn’t permanent. You still need to use your free will to choose to remain on your new path. Lots of hard work.

I know people who have done Ayahuasca over 50 times. With very few observable negative or positive changes. I’ve only met one other person who experienced what I experienced but she still advocates for it. I only know one person who appears to have changed their lives around for the good. I don’t know anyone who has come out of it with real tangible knowledge, just subjective word salad nonsense. They just keep chasing the high.

I’m not sure if I added anything of value to this conversation. I debated even entering the fray. I realized I once again got triggered by one of my programs that ‘I must be innately bad for having played in the mud in the past’. Which is just not true. We all are playing in the mud to some extent otherwise we’d all be in 4D already. Some people choose to learn lessons the hard way. Some appear to enter their 3D lives as fully formed Saints. Kudos to you. Doesn’t matter which you are. You're here learning lessons, may that be as swamp creature or Saint.

The path to redemption, towards knowledge, light, unconditional love is always there. Yes it’s there even for those who have been playing in the mud. It’s a choice. Maybe THE choice.

So the question is how do you identify the true Source of that unconditional love some of us have felt either on psychedelics, through meditation or even spontaneous experiences? Is this feeling of “unconditional love” always from those evil forces that want a free snack? How do we tell the difference between that and from the DCM itself?

From what I’ve gathered is that one always must remain skeptical, that as long as we are in 3D we can never be sure of our subjective experiences. May that be our thoughts, feelings, ‘psychic experiences’, intuition or hallucinogenic visions.

You are most likely still a machine, you aren’t in control of any of these experiences. So why skip the basics straight to ‘shaman level’?

And for those still choosing to play in the mud even though you know better. Why? Why are you so confident that you have full control of your machine? Why choose the shortcut fraught with unknown dangers to your wellbeing? I ask these questions not from a point of judgment, I hold no judgement. But because I’m curious.

I don’t think this renewed fascination by humanity with hallucinogens will be fading anytime soon. So many feel empty and have a need to forget reality or to fill the inner void with pseudo-spiritual experiences. The intellectuals appear to have run out of new avenues to explore. And of course I think the PTB have been dabbling for decades. I wonder will they link AI with tripping to hook in the new era of tranhumaism? Will the new entertainment be communicating with trans-dimensional denizens with a fusion of hallucinogens and VR tech?

It's always a good reminder to be wary of preaching and lecturing. That comes from self importance. So thanks for that.

However, the reminder to not preach or lecture can also come from self-importance. This can function to shut down honest debate, squanders the potential for people to stand by their principles when there is a disagreement, prevents full communication of what they are Seeing, and as such denies the friction-based alchemical potential of conversations. There are other aspects at play, too - fear of conflict and backslide into the postmodern 'my-truth' subjectivism.

I had a girlfriend once who was very heavily involved in rave culture. She was planning to attend a rave in Northern Canada - named 'Astral Harvest'. I kid you not. Astral. Harvest. She assumed I would want to go. I declined, and gave my reasons, sharing with her what I'd been learning by reading The Wave - the information we're discussing here about psychedelics, spirit attachments and the dangers of playing with forces we do not understand. She got quite angry, and claimed that I was 'casting a bad spell' on her trip. I said that pointing to a potential danger doesn't mean that I am creating the danger. If there has been an active Grizzly bear in an area where you plan to go camping, and I ask you to be careful, I'm not creating the Grizzly bear, and I'm not creating negativity. I'm offering some objective feedback about the reality of the situation on the basis of care. She interpreted this as moralizing, or a lecture.

The sharing of objective Knowledge can always be interpreted as a lecture, or moralizing. Probably most of the 'corrective' posts in this forum could be interpreted to be doing just that. It all depends on what programs are running in the background, and who is Seeing what.

Take the following story - someone who is covered in mud. They come into this forum - this House - ostensibly looking for Objective Knowledge. They begin to advocate for being covered in mud, saying it is a very important spiritual path. There are others, already residents, who have been covered in this 'very important spiritual mud' for a long time in the past. They noticed that it severely curtailed their ability to function in the world - the mud was in their eyes and ears, even in their brains and their hearts. Noticing this, through the help of research and networking and sheer painstaking effort, they have managed to get themselves somewhat clean. They are not pure, no - but they on their way to cleanliness of heart, mind, and body. These 'cleaning-in-process' residents disagree with the spiritual mud advocates, offering some examples from their lives as well as research about the deleterious effects of mud in the eyes, ears, hearts and brains for normal human functioning. Then someone else, motivated by what is called nowadays 'compassion', makes the claim that no judgment should be rendered to the muddy. "We are all unclean," says this person, "and so we should all be careful to not lecture the muddy, for they are also of God." Another resident pipes up, saying, "Isn't it just plain common sense to be quite direct with someone who enters your house with muddy boots on, walks all over the place, and advocates for others to do so as well? Unless, of course, we choose to spend a good deal of our life energy cleaning up the messes of those with no clear wish to learn."

 

[Lyndi]

Can't say i see more psychedelics in mainstream. Maybe i'm not mingling enough. In the hood, keta is popular, first with east europeans. Morbid fantasies. Angrier and noisier then before. Maybe it fits with the depressing times? But it is nothing new.

I did, however recognize some early 80s type music being made again, and sphere come back, you know, before-the-bomb falls nihilism.

You know where psychedelics show up? New companies getting major funding for using psilicybin (sp), and others substances to alleviate PTSD, fear of death in terminally ill patients, and so on. So since I consider the 60's a kind of plot by the CIA to subvert the brightest and best from waking up and smelling the coffee, I have a distinct anxiety about this direction. Taking anything to leap over developmental steps seems bad, like missing the lessons you signed up for and so are failing to understand the real nature of consciousness.

 

[cope]

You know where psychedelics show up? New companies getting major funding for using psilicybin (sp), and others substances to alleviate PTSD, fear of death in terminally ill patients, and so on. So since I consider the 60's a kind of plot by the CIA to subvert the brightest and best from waking up and smelling the coffee, I have a distinct anxiety about this direction. Taking anything to leap over developmental steps seems bad, like missing the lessons you signed up for and so are failing to understand the real nature of consciousness.

Agree. But. Maybe i'm fooling myself, but because of using psylo's extensively, i lost most of the fear of death.
The church makes you fear death, the psylo's make you feel nature is ok. I believe i once helped someone let go. Or was that wrong?
fear of death in terminally ill patients should that be overcome by themselves?
This happened before finding Cass knowledge, didn't use any since.

plot by the CIA to subvert the brightest and best from waking up
I remember being very intelligent, but not having emotions, knowing most of what was offered to learn, but being bored by it.
There was however a factor of chance or chaos, which was very interesting for my overly analytical mind.

 

[Candice]

Then someone else, motivated by what is called nowadays 'compassion', makes the claim that no judgment should be rendered to the muddy. "We are all unclean," says this person, "and so we should all be careful to not lecture the muddy, for they are also of God." Another resident pipes up, saying, "Isn't it just plain common sense to be quite direct with someone who enters your house with muddy boots on, walks all over the place, and advocates for others to do so as well? Unless, of course, we choose to spend a good deal of our life energy cleaning up the messes of those with no clear wish to learn."

Thank you for this reminder. In the future I will keep what you have said in mind as the ‘cleanliness’ of the house is of utmost importance.

 

[Roadhizzy]

Looks like you're advocating for playing with forces about which you know very little.

Before you continue to do so, I'd highly suggest you read (1) the book 'Masquerade of Angels', (2) Laura's Secret History series, with particular focus on the section about spiritual drugs and neurochemicals, and (3) this thread discussing Graham Hancock, ayahuasca and 4D STS interference.

I have a ton of personal experience and shared experiences with many others. Someone quoting books in lieu of experience and stating they have the superior position is quite comical

 

[Roadhizzy]

Agree. But. Maybe i'm fooling myself, but because of using psylo's extensively, i lost most of the fear of death.
The church makes you fear death, the psylo's make you feel nature is ok. I believe i once helped someone let go. Or was that wrong?
fear of death in terminally ill patients should that be overcome by themselves?
This happened before finding Cass knowledge, didn't use any since.

plot by the CIA to subvert the brightest and best from waking up
I remember being very intelligent, but not having emotions, knowing most of what was offered to learn, but being bored by it.
There was however a factor of chance or chaos, which was very interesting for my overly analytical mind.

To undo a lifetimes worth of religious indoctrination (hell, atheism's back void, etc) is a very steep challenge, especially when one is already wrestling to hold on to life. Yes, the natural way is often superior, but these gifts provided by Great Mother are also natural and offering Service. I think we often have too many prejudices regarding "drugs"

Hypnotics are the top tool for mind-control CIA stuff, they didn't latch on to psychedalics for long

 

[Roadhizzy]

That seems like a subsection of the, "Control Absolutely Everything" umbrella.

I can't even get raw milk without breaking the law. In fact, I'd bet that there is more authoritative vigilance wrt unregulated milk products than there is with mushrooms. You can get mushrooms any time you want, right? You know a guy? Try getting raw milk. It's really hard.

Of course, I'm joking (mostly) to make a point.

Insofar as the PTB fears people having freedom of any kind, I can agree that psychedelics are feared, perhaps in a category above that of raw milk and at least adjacent to healthy animal fats. Controlled substances have for a long time been a strict part of the legal system, and psychedelics probably occupy their own column.

But that's not how I see the term being employed by folks believing that the secrets to the universe are being suppressed and that mushrooms are The Way that the Man Doesn't Want You To See. I suppose I'm reacting to a different shading of the word, 'feared'. I just don't think there are any Agent Smiths out there specifically blocking access to mushroom products, (through which only kung-fu resistance fighters may enter.)

The REAL areas where blockages occur are to be found in Laura's work and other subjects covered by the SOTT team. There have be actual, terrifying encounters with the authorities and energetic attacks and everything in between. If the mushroom revolution had any real value, it would have encountered actual resistance and nobody would talk about it, certainly not on national radio. Except maybe to call it a cult, to scare people away from it using charged language rather than language which tantalizes.

Mushrooms were blackballed in the media & gov for half a century after the Hippie Revolution, only very recently has it emerged again in the cultural flow & in the black market. Easiest rationale would be that it is no longer possible to suppress all of the information. Many EU countries have laws that allow for research and publication (not Schedule 1) and that cannot be suppressed by North American media outlets/gov

I've spent half a decade researching Mycology and exchanging info on shroomery.org for cultivation and sharing experiences / experiments.

They massively increase perception. That's my understanding. What people end up perceiving is always still filtered through the many lenses / distortions of our unique perspective. That's why blanket statements will never be true & setting intention is super important.

It's always smart to have a sitter or a partner and partake in such gifts in a safe and comfortable setting. Some of the best deep-diving in Psychology can be done. I've ran through old lessons that kept rebounding and found what I has been too blind to see in the heat of the moment. Could it be done without? For sure. But the state of repressed Ego & 10,000' view allows for great inner work to be done imho

Meditation aids greatly, as does energy work like Qi Gong, Reiki etc

Much Love

M

 

[MatiaS]

I know this one guy who I've met various versions of. -Each version/clone/soul fragment I meet of this fellow (they look and act in very similar ways, have similar names, similar life patterns. Many of you have probably encountered one sort of archetypal person or another in your lives, so I hope you'll grasp what I'm talking about.)

I might be creating a bit of unnecessary off-topic noise with this but I just want to express the recognition I felt reading this. I know exactly what you mean by this and it's something I pay a lot of attention to. Aside from paradoxes, the so called 'archetypal energies' that we all are expressing are a big source of inspiration and interest for me. I can appreciate the uniqueness of all the people I meet in my life but there are so many blatantly obvious similarities between peoples behaviors, appearances, mannerisms etc., I don't see how more people don't notice it. I've tried talking with others about this and asking them if they are noticing repeating characters in their lives but 95% of the time it seems they don't really get how I mean it.

So many of the people in my life at this time, are like composite characters, possessing character traits and behavioral patterns of other people I've known at other points in my life. I think in a sense it ties into the mechanicalness of our world and to how many of us, even though having wildly varying backgrounds, have very similar and in a very real way, archetypal programs/energies running through us. Maybe this is self evident to people here but thought I would share anyways :)

 

[iamthatis]

I have a ton of personal experience and shared experiences with many others. Someone quoting books in lieu of experience and stating they have the superior position is quite comical

Your assumption here is that I have no experience with psychedelics. You about as wrong as can be on that account.

The primacy of 'my experience' is a symptom of our postmodern moment. You're speaking from a place of 'my truth' subjectivism.

Experience in itself isn't bad. But when we don't look at our experiences with a high degree of skepticism, we can slip into a narcissistic, or even solipsistic, pseudo-reality. This is Service to Self at its core.

Experience, however, can be balanced with research, and networking. It's only then that we can place our experiences in the proper context.

For instance, one of the main theses of The Wave is that we live a reality that is conditioned by unseen hyperdimensional forces. Your posts here are ignorant of this, and also the accumulated Knowledge amounting to many, many years of research. Have you read The Wave?

Anyways, laugh all you want. This is a research forum. You've been warned about the forces you're advocating. You've been given suggestions for research. Now the choice is up to you. Good luck.

 

[Olivierlejardinier]

From here, no surprise this is echoed in Israël...

Denver drops drug charges against ‘mushroom rabbi’ who promotes religious psychedelic use​

Ben Gorelick is the founder of Sacred Tribe, a multifaith community that integrates psilocybin use and ideas rooted in Jewish tradition.​

A Denver rabbi who promotes psychedelic use as part of spiritual practice will no longer face prosecution after Coloradans voted last month to legalize psilocybin, the chemical compound found in psychedelic mushrooms.

Denver’s district attorney’s office announced last week that it was dropping charges against Ben Gorelick, the founder of Sacred Tribe, a multifaith community that integrates psilocybin use and ideas rooted in Jewish tradition. A spokesperson for the office told the Denver Post that the move was “in light of the voters’ decision” to pass Proposition 122, which makes growing and sharing psilocybin and other related substances legal for adults over 21 in Colorado.

Gorelick had been charged in February with possessing a controlled substance with intent to manufacture or distribute it, a felony that carried mandatory prison time, even though Denver voters had already chosen to decriminalize psilocybin’s use.

“It’s been a long year for the community, it’s been a long year for us, and we look forward to getting back to practicing our religion, which is what the whole point of this is,” Gorelick told the Denver Post this week.

The charges had sidelined Sacred Tribe’s central purpose, although the group continued to hold Shabbat dinners and other activities for its roughly 270 members, who do not have to be Jewish. Gorelick, who was ordained in 2019 as a rabbi by the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, an online program, had sought publicity and funding to fight the charges on religious freedom grounds.

He argues that there is a longstanding tradition of psychedelic drug use within Judaism, which even other Jewish advocates of psychedelics as part of spiritual practice dispute. Those advocates told the Guardian last summer that Gorelick, who said he screened community members to make sure they sought psilocybin for religious use, had not been known to their tight-knit community before his arrest.

Jewish psychedelics advocates have become more organized in recent years. Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, who was ordained as by an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, founded a group called Shefa during the pandemic that aims to one day make chemically-assisted mystical encounters into a normative part of Jewish spirituality. Last year, the group held a first-ever Jewish psychedelics conference.

Psychedelics under intense research​

Long considered illicit in the United States, psychedelics have been the subject of intensifying research, including about their potential as a therapeutic tool for treating trauma. One of the groups promoting the research, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, was founded by a Jewish man who was inspired by a dream about surviving the Nazis to devote his life to promoting psychedelics as a cure for human ills and an insurance policy against another Holocaust.

“I’m one of the very few people who can say they’ve had a legal experience with psychedelics in this country,” Kamenetz said last year. “To be able to speak freely about it without the stigma — because it’s not just people talking about doing illegal things — it’s allowed people to start having a more open conversation about it. When there’s the opportunity to hear from someone who did this in a legal environment, people will listen more.”

 

[benkostka]

Mikhaila Peterson just found “god” through the use of psychedelics. I didn’t catch what type she used, but she was having a conversation with a guy who was using the “God uses all experiences for his good” logic.

She’s been forced to turn off her comments on Instagram. There’s certainly good things to glean from her life, how diet has reversed her chronic health problems and also the dangers of SSRIs and the long detox process.

 

[Turgon]

I'll admit when the research a few years back started coming out about the possible beneficial effects of psychedics on dealing with depression and anxiety, offering a reset of sorts and ayahuasca being advocated by Gabor Mate, and even recently seeing an interview with Bessel Van Der Kolk who advocated for MDMA as being an effective treatment for trauma, was tempted to try mushrooms again. Although knowing what I know now, won't. I had tried a few different types of hallucinogens during my druggie/partying heydays and kind of enjoyed the experiences for the most part. Although they weren't taken because I was in search of some spiritual 'truth' or understanding, mainly I was bored and they were an escape. If I had a far out 'trip', all the better! I didn't know anything about attachments and don't remember coming out of those experiences any worse off then going into them. Although if I did, how would I know?

But there was a certain innocence about it. I discovered something new and novel - drugs - and I liked being high a little too much. Kind of like false knowledge is worse than no knowledge at all. I didn't have a preconceived notion of some great truth being expressed to me by taking drugs (or plants), but once in a while the force of a veil being lifted would happen unexpectedly, where I would see and realize something that seemed profoundly true but never considered before. However, this never affected any significant change in my life or behaviour that I could tell, other than 'holy s***! How did I never see this before?' and I'd eventually start chasing the high to reexperience whatever that profound insight/experience brought with it. The added conundrum being whenever I sought that out, anticipated a profound event, it NEVER happened and would often enough turn out to be a negative experience. In hindsight, I believe the anticipation is what led to the more negative bent.

So, I have to wonder about the push for psychedelics by the IDW, or whoever. Now they have microdosing which has become very popular. But part of what I see being a potential issue is that seeking some sort of deeper truth or understanding through drugs/plants doesn't seem to actually have the intended effect. And maybe that anticipatory intent in itself is a clue and mechanism that closes down possibilities. I'm speculating of course and judging from my own experiences with drugs that all these people being influenced by Rogan, Hancock, Mate, and now Mikhaila Peterson, are anticipating some amazing experience. And that they aren't going to get what they have bargained for.

I know of two people who recently took psychedelics in the hopes of some profound change and from what I've observed, one person hasn't changed much at all since going on her Shaman guided ayahuasca trips, and her life seems just as chaotic now as it was a year ago before she decided to embark on these trips. I haven't seen her in person since then so can't say more. The other person I work with and he ingested psylocibin/shrooms. He is prone to depression and anxiety, and had actually stopped smoking pot for several months, was doing well, but got it stuck in his head he wanted to try hallucinogens. Probably from Rogan, who he listens to. I didn't know that he had taken it, and it took me a while to connect the dots because he seemed more anxious, stressed out, afraid, a lot of pacing back and forth and being very unsettled in himself which I could feel and pick up on. I finally realized and asked him if he actually did try shrooms and yup, it had a marked change in him and didn't do him any good. I suggested if he was gonna go ahead with it, to at least go to a park or get out into nature on a beautiful day, attach the experience to something life-affirming, instead he did it in his basement listening to podcasts...

 

[Ryan]

I suggested if he was gonna go ahead with it, to at least go to a park or get out into nature on a beautiful day, attach the experience to something life-affirming, instead he did it in his basement listening to podcasts...

As they say... "set and setting!" I hope his basement was at least well lit and comfy. Unfortunately, it seems that many urban-dwelling western people nowadays are quite afraid of being outside, and doing shrooms in the basement probably just represents another desperate attempt at escaping oppressive circumstances that would be better handled by self-observation and self-challenge. But it's very hard to give up that idea that there's "one thing" that can somehow take all the pain and struggle away, if only it could be found.