Death: Have drugs made you more comfortable?

[augentier]

It seems that so many people here who have tripped and saw "the other side" have a firm idea of what is waiting for us after we die. I've heard people say that DMT is released in the brain when the body is dying, or thinks it is, so the effects of DMT is what we'll experience right before leaving the body (not saying that this is what really happens as i, obviously, don't know :P )

So to those who have experienced these things or believe these things..are you afraid of death? Are you afraid of what comes after this life or have you become comfortable with it as a result of any trips you've had? There are times when SWIM has tripped (though SWIM has never had a godly, mystical experience) where life feels "right", the way things are are the way they are because that's just the way things are. Death is not scary, it's the next step. SWIM has felt as if she has had a NDE (not drug-induced, though) and in that moment the thought/feeling of dying was not scary, it was almost relieving. Those who have tripped/had NDE will probably know what SWIM is talking about.

Anyway, basically I'd just like to know if any of you have become more comfortable with the idea of death and the afterlife as a result of the ways in which you've altered your mind

[Solidly-here]

Am I afraid of Death?

Ha ha.

Well, most of my Life I was Depressed. During those many years, I prayed for Death to come (any time would be fine). One way to make me Happy was: Pretend I was going to die. Anything was better than the severe emotional pain I was in.

The last several years I have NOT been Depressed (thanks to a mind-blowing experience discussed in another Thread). I have progressed along the Spiritual Path, thanks to Meditation, prayer, and Spiritual gatherings.

I still do not fear Death. Truly, I mostly fear getting a Disease that will rot my body apart for several years (or a Stroke, where I cannot move, and live 10 years -- slobbering and wearing diapers -- in a rest home).

I have felt the "Other Side" . . . I know that it's there.
I am (reasonably) sure that I am living a good-enough Life to get a good spot on the Other Side.

[Alicia]

Swia and her monkeys would agree death is just a part of life, In someways swia has no real deep dread of death, If anything during certain parts of swia life she would of welcomed it. However she just sees death as being released from the outer shell. So you never die really just the outer shell can be destroyed.

[MrG]

As you state in your first post, when ingesting substances that recreate NDE's you are only proving that it is simply that - a chemical being released into the brain to make you feel a certain way which you then choose to believe is an insight into the "afterlife".

SWIM took heroin for a very brief period a long while ago and found that it gave him the same "spiritual" sensations that he had achieved through long meditative sessions previously. This simply proved that the sensations he experienced while meditating were not mystical "insights" but were, infact, nothing more than the brain releasing endorphines as a result of deep breathing exercises.

"But why do so many people experience the same NDE?" - Because the human brain is pretty much the same design for all of us!

I used to have an agnostic belief in that I actually believed that there was something after death but now I am a proper Atheist as years of experience have proved that there is, in fact, absolutely NO evidence of there being a way for "ourselves" to survive brain death.

Does it scare me? Sometimes. But mostly I am still perplexed at the whole pointlessness of it all and hope that, over time, I will either come to terms with it or be proven wrong.

Reputation Comments on this post:

well written

[upperdecker]

SWIM isn't a heavy psychedelic user but has had one life changing experience which felt like he was waking up for the first time in his life. Everything was so clear now. At that point on SWIM knew there was something beyond this life and when SWIM gets there it will be something so amazing to describe. So yes, I'd say that drugs have made SWIM more comfortable with death. SWIM randomly wishes for death anyway so it doesn't even matter.

[ArEyOuAnYwHeRe?]

I have recently lost a really close friend who i had known many years. He was also a real good smoking buddy. He hung himself for a reason no one knows. I believe that smoking marijuana does make me somewhat comfortable but it isn't at a point where if I think a second about it, it doesn't make me want to smoke and roll into a depression fest.

[El Calico Loco]

Swim made his peace with Thanatos years before he tried any psychedelic. He figured that all things pass, so there's no use worrying about it. He was going to die someday. Was there another life after this one? He hoped so, but didn't see the point in fearing death either way. It happens whether one likes it or not.

He has had many spiritual experiences with psychedelics and dissociatives since. He has visited other realms, spoken to The Others on several occasions, and even seen the face of GOD. He has died and been reborn more than once.

Is it real? He doesn't know. He remains agnostic. One can never prove an objective fact via subjective experiences. At the same time, the fact that an experience is subjective doesn't make it meaningless.

Final thoughts? He would like to believe there is an afterlife, but feels there are no guarantees. He doesn't mock others for being theists or deists or atheists. He does mock those who demand that others be like them, regardless of where they fall on the spectrum.

Even in his most atheist/materialist moments, however, he doesn't fear death. Einstein tells us that time is just another dimension, no different than the three spatial dimensions. He is not concerned by his finite height, width, or depth...why should he be concerned about his limited duration? He might as well be upset that he's not one million meters tall.

In some sense, he will always exist, because he exists at this point in spacetime. Forever.


ECL

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Nice.
	deep, and very comforting idea

[dancingbear]

SWIM was a quite strict atheist before encountering psychedelics. Certain life-changing experiences with certain substances, however, changed his attitude. Why be sure there is nothing beyond us when you cannot be sure?

SWIM thinks that psychedelics have helped him to open his mind to possibilities that he wouldn't have thought of otherwise. Realistic or not.

Moreover, religion aside – as catalysts for philosophical thinking, SWIM thinks psychedelics are phenomenal.

[El Calico Loco]

If nothing else, psychedelics prove that one's senses can be deceived. That should be enough to shake anyone out of a narrow reality-tunnel, as it did for you and Robert Anton Wilson.

Atheist/materialist types think that it's the drug deceiving your senses, and they may be correct...but it is just as valid to say that your senses are normally deceived, and that certain drugs remove the deception.

It's not possible to definitively prove either case; which side one believes is a function of psychology, not reason. From a philosophical perspective, idealism is just as likely as materialism.


ECL

[Alicia]

People are born alone, they develop alone, they trip alone, they die alone.

everyones own experiences...in the final moments sense of time lost, time is meaningless as your brain floods with its remaining neuro-chems a sense of peace emerges. those in tears and dread over there demise gradually lessens as they are slowly released free from the world which in reality is hell. the only true peace people get is when they die.

a matter of perspective.

[stoneinfocus]

When swim was murder theratened and found him self with his thickest bones torn entwine in an "accident", he isn´t more comfortable with death (he´d be now with the death of some others as well as he´d enjoy seeing them suffer,... well, actually he thinks death is the best thing and he´s comfortable with it happening to anyone at any age, and ), but he´s a lot more comfortable with taking drugs, that might take away or serve to kill pain, if such things ever happened again, taking away th edge of it, or make dieibng faster, some things are just not worth to remeber or to survive them and remeber...

[The Doors]

When we are born, the soul enters the body, which to me, is God giving me life. Now, we go through a number of things during the course of our life to get where we are as a person and then once you get to that level, you begin to question yourself about what you are supposed to do on this Earth. I've reached this point but I think I question myself for the right reasons and right now I am trying to come together with death.

I am not afraid of dying, I just don't want to die young and I think that's my fear. There is still a lot of things that I and SWIM would like to experience in life, but at the same time, what if to accomplish soething greater you might sacrifice this lifetime. I believe in the afterlife and reincarnation, but I also think that the soul only comes back a number of times to find enlightment and to cross over, so what if this is my last time?

I want to accomplish something and feel as if I've done something to try and change things around but I want the pleasure of having a family and experiencing the many aspects life has to offers me.

Maybe I just need to stop thinking so much.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Good thoughts.

[dancingbear]

Yes, good points.

I suggest going with the flow and trusting the cosmos, hard as it at times feels. Trusting one's instinct and ethics helps.

[MrG]

Originally Posted by El Calico Loco

Even in his most atheist/materialist moments, however, he doesn't fear death. Einstein tells us that time is just another dimension, no different than the three spatial dimensions. He is not concerned by his finite height, width, or depth...why should he be concerned about his limited duration? He might as well be upset that he's not one million meters tall.

In some sense, he will always exist, because he exists at this point in spacetime. Forever.


ECL

Great quote and profoundly true.

Maybe, as living entities, we do spend too much time navel gazing.

[Heretic.Ape.]

My cat was telling me about an experience he had with mushrooms. It was a classic death/rebirth experience very similar, i found later, to various mystical traditions accounts. He thought he had poinoned himself because he had grown the mushrooms himself and thought he was dying. He was a little down about it because he felt bad that his roomate would find him dead and later his family would--he especiallythought of his poor mother, who he loves very much--have to go through not only the fact that he died but that he had done so "doing drugs" which would be hard for them (they are mormon). But these entities came to him and beckoned him on telling him to let go of life and not worry, so he went with them. I won't go into a detailed trip report because that's probably best posted under a different thread but the peak of the experience, after traveling through different areas of the "other side" lead him to a brilliant white light of infinite, eternal, consciousness/force/bliss and he felt that the best word to describe it was "god" and he realized that his ultimate nature or "soul" to use the usual parlance of such things, was the same as this god-light and was inexplicably one with it and death was simply a return to that wonderful source. Now my cat can be kind of, well, you know, mystical, but I tend to be a skeptic and figure it may have just been a matter of chemical reactions in his noggin. But he felt it was very profound and later found that it matched the reports of most mystical traditions, notably vedantic philosophy and the Atma/Braman.
Personally I am afraid of death even though I sometimes wish for it (I have bipolar and get a little down sometimes) but but i write that off mainly as being due to the whole self preservation instinct and what not and his conviction in the experience lends me a certain degree of guarded comfort with the notion of death being a return into a state of cosmic unity/bliss. That doesn't sound so bad, and I figure if that's not true then there's probably just nothing which won't mean anything for me because I won't exist so nothing to really sweat about.

[upperdecker]

SWIM has changed from believing in a higher being to being agnostic. There's no way to know if there is or not so alls I know is that right before I die I'm gonna ask god for forgiveness for my sins just incase he is real and there is a heaven and hell. It sounds silly but its what I'm gonna do, unless I'm suddenly killed in a car crash or something. SWIM hasn't tripped in a while, maybe he just needs to trip again to feel as he did before (being a believer).