Spiritual - Questions About the Psychedelic Experience

[Swimster]

Swim wants to try boomers for the first(hopefully not last) time. He's never used a "real" psychedelic before. Only 2nd plat DXM and twice 3rd plat(long time ago though).

Anyway, swim has a number of questions, regarding rather he should use them or not.

This whole "doors of perception" concept. Can someone describe what it is? Iv'e heard "once you open the doors of perception, you can never close them again". My guess is that it is thruth we hide from our "egos". If the doors are blasted open, does this mean one sees every truth of his true-self? I heard many people can't handle the truth. That to some, it is too much for them to handle. What is there to be afraid of? feeling like an ant?

Swims just wondering if he should "learn" on them. He dosn't want to have suicidal tendencies after an experience.

Also, what is the way swiys live life(especially after an experince)? Act like a kid again?

Does one Feel that "everyone" and everything is a creation in their own mind? When you talk to someone, it's to yourself? I've read some phisiology about how we "create our own realitys", is this the truth? If so.. Can you litterally change what you see. I imagine it is hard to judge someones personality like normal people tend to do.

Like when smokeing pot around people and it is really hard to place them.

Also, is it true that all "problems" will be gone?

Please respond, and thanks in advance...Swimmer #07

[Heretic.Ape.]

Psychedelics are not a guarenteed glimpse into the ultimate truth of existence. Many people who take them feel that they gain great insights into the workings of their own minds and the artificial construction of society. This can be revolutionary and radical; being either very liberating or rather disturbing. Usually this depends on whether the trip goes in one of the two routes I call the Satori route or the Nihilistic route.
For example, an individual might be confronted with aspects of their ego personality that are not all too flattering (we all have plenty of these), and may see the intrinsic lack of substantiality in the socially created world as denoting an over arching lack of meaning and goodness in themselves and the world.
However if a person manages to make it through that phase, there is frequently a breakthrough into the Satori stage, where there is an ineffable sense of selfhood as something beyond the personality and of priceless worth, and that the socially fabricated nature of reality implies the ability to change that reality by who you hang out with, how you view things and how you act in life. This makes everything meaningful and worth celebrating, frequently leading to a child-like wonder at things, wearing new senses.
Of course a great many people experience no such thing on psychedelics and simply see "trippy shit" and pretty colors. Just remember what the term psychedelic means: mind-manifesting.
Best luck to your friend on his journey through the doors of perception

Reputation Comments on this post:

Great post

[Swimster]

So, you are talking about the variety of different masks people wear depending on who they are around, socially? And that once one finds the real self they quit limiting themselves to expectations of others?

What do you personally believe in, Satori, or Nihilistic

sorry, but i can't quite understand your post. I never went to college or paid attention in english.

[Heretic.Ape.]

By socially constructed reality I was referring to how much of our world view (reality) is sociologically constructed, and how much of what we take for granted as "the way things are" is simply due to people acting the way they do. Though, of course, it is interwoven with our own identity which has been influenced by pop culture (yes, even yours, I say to all you "hip" alternative living types, lol), by where we are, where we've been, even what language we speak.
I personally fall into the Satori camp. When all things are equally uncertain and relative, would you rather believe everything is all wrong or full of great possibility? If reality is so beyond such value judgements as to make you laugh out loud at the absurdity of posturing yourself as being able to ecapsulate it in that little lump of gray matter in your skull, you become the knowing creator of your own world rather than being swayed by (fully, or perhaps so extensively) unconscious reactions and other peoples views (that are just as limited as yours).
Don't know if that makes any sense, I'm ranting again. Ah well

[Swimster]

^^Good point. Thanks for your wisdom HA.

stay good, man...

[Shroomtastic]

when your on mushrooms you realize everyone in the world and the world itself are all one being, and that material possessions mean absolutely nothing in the end. you get an intense connection with what some people call "God" and you understand everything around you is only what you perceive it to be, everything you've learned is in fact just learned not true, and everything breathes and lives together.


i suggest listening to bill hicks talk about mushrooms, he influenced my views greatly. just Google bill hicks mushrooms and you'll find it

[Phungushead]

Mushrooms break down walls, between what is "absolute" and the distorted reality of the individual. The results of this can be positive and negative at the same time - giving glimpses into the workings and mechanisms of the planet, society, and the soul. Tripping can also bring out true demons that are normally hidden, forcing one to face fears, losses, or trauma from the past.

Perhaps visits to other dimensions or parallel universes... perhaps entity contact. Perhaps it is "real", perhaps it is all in your head. We already have knowledge of all, it is just a matter of realization.

But no matter what is experienced by one under the influence of mushrooms, "once the doors of perception have been opened, they can never be truly closed again".

...okay, done rambling...

[Swimster]

I'm late to reply, but thanks alot! Everyone.

and

once the doors of perception have been opened, they can never be truly closed again

This is the quote I have read, but is this considered good? Does it it mean one can see the truth about their life being limited to what is realized (if that makes sence), because i have the idea of seeing past the doors, knowing my fate. We will all die. Ego is a waste, true?? When we die (very soon, inevitable) it is like waking up from a dream(that hardly "existed")?

...Thank you, all.

[Shroomtastic]

Everything you experience and see tripping on mushrooms is real. in its own sense. reality is 100% perception.

[Swimster]

ok, interesting...So what are some common perceptual changes?(in comparison to "normal-reality"[ignorance]) Or is this a useless question.

[FooManChoo]

There's a lot of self discovery to be had. You can find answers to things in one trip that you've been pondering on for years. And you really feel it. Revelations. And they aren't always rainbows and butterflies. Swim considers the shroom a great teacher and guide. Can be a bit sketchy if you've got skeletons in your closet though.

[Shroomtastic]

Originally Posted by Swimster

ok, interesting...So what are some common perceptual changes?(in comparison to "normal-reality"[ignorance]) Or is this a useless question.

Well the real basic ones are that you see color, like you've never seen color before. everything breathes, you live in the present, not the past or future, and for swim when he- looks at the sky he see complex geometrical patterns, kind of like a big snowflake.

[teddybearpicnics]

If swiy has used DXM, swiy will be fine on mushrooms, at least this is what swim thinks. Swim used DXM a lot during his psych-experimenting years, and found that a spiritual DXM trip is just as intense, if not more, than a trip on LSD or mushrooms. Unless you just got 'real fucked up' on DXM...then you might not like the emotional barriar breaking properties of mushrooms. The psychedelic world is very hard to explain in words. Swim has had such profound realities and answers to questions he had not even asked in his normal view, that he can't even explain them in words. Although swim cannot explain those things, they are engraved in his mind so clear and perfect. It's one of those things that you never can fully grasp until you have that part of your mind open. Fortuneately there are substances that open that part. Swim recommends that you try a small dose of mushrooms, around 2 grams. See how it treats you, be with good people, in a good place, pref outside. It's really hard to have a bad trip if you go into it wanting a good one. Make sure you have good music. A place with no threat of paranoia or anxiety is also ideal. Swim usually doses at his cabin with 100 acres where there is nothing but wildlife and friends. Just go for it, don't think about it too much, and then when it's over, then reflect. Swim has seen people be in the depths of their own minds, and then try and turn it off. That's when it goes bad, and that's when people have a bad time, trying to get away from it. That, is impossible. For swim, he wishes it would never end. It is so much fun and brings light to many questions. It is also a form of medication for the soul. Swim lost his best friend, his grandfather, last year...he went to his cabin with 3 close friends and dosed on lsd, it was such a spiritual healing that nothing else would have accomplished. Also when swim was battling herion addition he dosed on mushrooms at a concert, the next day, he would have woken up dope sick, was completely fine, and this continued for the next 4 days, but then swim used again and it got all fucked up. But swim is going to stop blabbing, he hopes he helped you though
.teddy

[Cryptic Concoction]

There is absolutely no way for anyone to definitively determine how drugs will affect another person. This is especially true for heavily subjective psychedelic experiences.

This is the quote I have read, but is this considered good? Does it it mean one can see the truth about their life being limited to what is realized (if that makes sence), because i have the idea of seeing past the doors, knowing my fate. We will all die. Ego is a waste, true?? When we die (very soon, inevitable) it is like waking up from a dream(that hardly "existed")?

Every question you posed is subjectively determined. It is my personal opinion that "good" and "bad" do not exist beyond your mind; it is merely a value judgment that you have prescribed to a raw concept.

No one here can unveil to you the fundamental nature of the universe and existence. We are mere cooing infants clawing our way through an undifferentiated stream of entropy.

I can tell you nothing other than my subjective understanding of the narrow band of the universe that I have been exposed to. I can not tell you if you should do anything or if anything will be or is good or bad. That can be determined by you, and you alone.

Each experience is yours and only yours, and no person can dictate how you interpret it. I seek an understanding of the perception of others only to divine the prodigious limitations of subjective understanding.

ok, interesting...So what are some common perceptual changes?(in comparison to "normal-reality"[ignorance]) Or is this a useless question.

It is impossible for me to describe to you "common" perceptual alterations as I have never experienced the perception of another human. www.erowid.org should offer some generalizations...

I also do not consider the conception of "normal reality" to be ignorance. I see it is a different understanding of the universe that exists in equal validity in its own context.

[Swimster]

When you say DXM is just as intense, i dont know about swims experiences. He only has been going on high second plateu highs. Although he remembers the 3rd to the last experience had an intense peak. Where his mind couldn't really comprehend. Felt like he should of tried harder to understand but couldn't. He was sat still, which probly did it.

DXM: Anyway, swim actually took more than a gram, started to get pretty messed up, tried to lay down and comprehend 'fear and loathing in las vegas' (was playing on dvd) which he could not. Layed back. He felt a little fear come on durring take-off, then calmed down, but then it sucked because he must of fell asleep or unconcious or similar, or forgot the whole trip the next day.

Would it be adviseable to take around a gram of DXM(or less; 3rd plateu [700 +]) to understand intensity similar to psilocybin. Also though, wouldn't this be totally different though, seeing as how it dissociates the hell out of one.

Swim heard that dxm can open the doors, true?

dxm Qeustion: Can dxm cause perceptual problems? Swim has used a number of times, now feels perceptually weak.

his cabin with 100 acres where there is nothing but wildlife and friends.

I wish swim had a cabin. Must be great for an experience! fire.

Anyway, you helped alot, and everyone, thanks.

[Phungushead]

DXM and mushrooms are two totally different experiences.

SWIM has done a lot of both and finds that while DXM is great for deep introspection on a personal level, shrooms will bring on thoughts that are way more profound...

For example, on DXM, SWIM will usually think a lot about work, friends, drug use, etc. (and usually in a very megalomanic way, hehe)...

On mushrooms, the thoughts can start out as the above and then move on to alien existance, mind-body relationship, death, time-space, and other similar topics all the way up to total revalations...

Of course, every SWIM's results will vary

Just SWIM's 2¢

[Shroomtastic]

Personally my mustache thinks that shrooms aren't even comparable to DXM.
you just feel messed up on it, and if you've ever watched someone on it, you would realize that. Shrooms are holy, and are a gift from a higher power.

[teddybearpicnics]

swim agrees that they are completely different substances, but someone who can stomach a hardcore dxm trip will be able to handle a mushroom trip in swims mind. Swim also thinks that DXM was very profound and that swims experiences were nothing but profound. The thought processes that happened and the major understandings swim experienced on high doses of DXM were never recreated.

on the other hand, swim thinks that trying to prepare for a mushroom trip is impossible, they are different substances, and swim also thinks that you are trying too hard to prepare for something that doesn't need preparing for. mushrooms are a beautiful gift, and while they should be taken seriously...the best advice swim can give, is to eat them, and then forget swiy took them. don't hype it up, and don't play it down...just let the experience come and take swiy where it takes swiy. hope it helped.
.teddy

[thealmassi1]

Honestly, everyone's experience is different. SWIM has done DXM 18 times over the past 15 months and shrooms 8 or 9 times over the past 2 years, and he can tell you that shrooms and DXM are VERY different drugs. SWIM finds shrooms makes him philosophize about life and the world, while DXM is more of a drug that produces intense euphoria (especially when combined with marijuana) and is far more recreational. SWIM becomes optimistic about life after both a DXM and shroom experience, but with DXM, over time SWIM finds he becomes depressed. After shroom trips, the positive outlook on life remains the same and the epiphanies can change one's life. Almost every time they have been very positive influences on SWIM's life, although the great majority of them are forgotten immediately after the trip.

SWIm highly recommends the drug, but MAKE SURE that SWIY has no guilty conscience or underlying issues that are unresolved because shrooms forces SWIY to evaluate one's life and problems. At least it does for SWIM and many of his friends. This is the reason why many people cannot handle shrooms/acid.

They are both intense drugs, eventhough SWIM finds a 3rd/4th plateau dose of DXM removes SWIMself from reality far more than a high dose of shrooms. Do not try too hard to get a good trip and just go with the flow.

Have fun