My interest in the use & effects of psychedelics is pretty well known by long time visitors to this forum and its predecessors. Overnight radio talk show host Art Bell interviewed Dr. Rick Strassman two nights ago. Strassman authored the book DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. On several previous occasions Art had Terrance McKenna, perhaps one of the most intriguing of psychedelic researchers of the past century, on his show. Fantastic listening!

I replaced the use of psychedelics with meditation, chanting and the like approximately a decade ago. Reasons for doing so included legal implications, difficulty in procurement of psychedelics and their dubious purity, as well as a desire to treat my body with more regard than I had in the past. Psychedelics can take a physical toll, amplified by impurities added by the synthesizer/seller of the given drug.

On a previous thread several posters displayed at least a tangential knowledge of various psychoactive substances such as 'window pane', blotter, 'orange sunshine', microdots and the like. I'm wondering if any of you might wish to share your experiences using psychedelics.

A few issues you might address:

Which substance(s) have you used?

What was your aim in using these substance(s)?

Were you aware of the importance of set and setting to the psychedelic experience? If so, what conditions and mindset did you create to enhance the event? If not, did you at anytime during or subsequent to the event come to realize their importance?

Any spiritual experiences during and/or after the event?

What portion of the experience did you enjoy the most? Which the least?

How did your experience effect your outlook on life?

Sum up beneficial and detrimental effects of your usage, if applicable.

Have you sought other vehicles to similar experiences; i.e. meditation, Tai Chi, long distance running, Tantric Yoga, eating hot peppers (really!), whirling…?

-- Rich (living_in_interesting_times@hotmail.com), June 08, 2001

Answers

I basically ignore posters who use unfamiliar handles and fake email addresses as a matter of principle. However, I understand that the nature of this thread is quite personal, I ask for information regarding personal use of illegal substances, and therefore will read and consider the offerings of all who adopt pseudonyms.

Thanks in advance.

-- Rich (living_in_interesting_times@hotmail.com), June 08, 2001.

Let's try that link again:

Dr. Rick Strassman

-- Rich (living_in_interesting_times@hotmail.com), June 08, 2001.

On a previous thread several posters displayed at least a tangential knowledge of various psychoactive substances such as 'window pane', blotter, 'orange sunshine', microdots and the like. I'm wondering if any of you might wish to share your experiences using psychedelics.

Since one of them thar posters to which you refer happens to be me, I feel obigated to respond. Can't let a good thought process I helped trigger go to waste.

Which substance(s) have you used?

Within the time-frame of the 60's and 70's, a better question would be "What drugs HAVEN'T you used?" The answer would be heroin. Never went near that Bad-Boy, although I had fringe acquantainces who did. The potential for addiction and the accompanying slide into seediness was too terrifying for me to open Pandora's box. I thought better of myself than that.

What was your aim in using these substance(s)?

Aim? There was supposed to be an aim? Hell, it was the thing to do if you wanted to paaaaaaar-tay! It was revolutionary, dangerous, hip, dancing with taboos, breaking stereotypes, on the "edge" and beyond. It was thrilling to see and do what others dared not. It was an adventure without having to leave home.

Were you aware of the importance of set and setting to the psychedelic experience?

Naw. Anywhere was okay. There was always the "challenge" of seeing what new and diverse situations you could handle and successfully evade detection. Rock festival, basement, backyard, carnival, middle of class (poor timing on THAT one...got some wicked-ass "trails" as the teacher wrote on the blackboard. lol)

If so, what conditions and mindset did you create to enhance the event?

Never really gave it much thought. Did the drug then waited to see what came up. Rolled with the punches, not really expecting anything in particular and hoping it would be a good, fun trip rather than a bad one.

If not, did you at anytime during or subsequent to the event come to realize their importance?

At the time, the fun was in the adventure and it was all just fine the way it played out. Got some ggggreat stories I could tell.

Any spiritual experiences during and/or after the event?

First time doing acid my compadre in crime started talking about something related to right-handed and left-handed amino acids on the moon. It made perfect sense at the time and in a flash I understood that there was more, lots more "out there" and that all things were intricately interconnected. I felt as though I had grasped the secrets of the universe and had peaked behind the veil so many were afraid to lift. I guess I saw the world differently after that. Like I knew something other people didn't.

What portion of the experience did you enjoy the most?

ALL of it!

Which the least?

Feeling like a dirty dishrag dragged by a semi down the interstate for several days afterward. Drugs just knocked the stuffin' out of me and it took awhile to feel sober and straight again.

Have you sought other vehicles to similar experiences; i.e. meditation, Tai Chi, long distance running, Tantric Yoga, eating hot peppers (really!), whirling…?

Nope. The trips were the trips and can't be duplicated by any other activity in any other place and time. Yes, I've tried meditation, yoga, etc but for their own merits and not as a substitute for the drug experience. I find it's easy now to slip into alternate universes quite easily and when inspiration needs to come, it finds its way into my knowingness spontaneously and without effort or seeking. Having once seen the crack in reality, I'm more open to the flashes of creativity that bubble to the surface, accept them graciously and thankfully, and move with the flow the universe has initiated.

-- 1 (2@3.com), June 08, 2001.

Some folks use drugs to enhance reality, others to escape from it.

The bigger question is ‘which camp did you sleep in?’

-- Telinet (like@it.is), June 08, 2001.

Some folks use drugs to enhance reality, others to escape from it.

I understand what distinction your question is designed to elicit, but if we really wanted to get philosophical, the question represents both sides of the same coin. In order to enhance reality you must, on some level, escape from the ordinary and mundane.

-- 1 (2@3.com), June 08, 2001.

Shits and giggles,strictly shits and giggles : )

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), June 08, 2001.

Within the time-frame of the 60's and 70's, a better question would be "What drugs HAVEN'T you used?"

Same here, different era. I never used heroin, but took Demerol in pill form several times. Very enjoyable but so unproductive I've steered clear ever since.

The subject of combining multiple drugs is a fascinating one. I found smoking a joint before the onset of the effects of psychedelics such as LSD and mescaline made the transition smoother. Not so much with psilocybin mushrooms, as their effects are so benign dealing with the initial mind-body response was a snap.

I found tolerance to booze escalated drastically when tripping. Drink a case of beer? No problem. Stupid as hell looking back on it. Pounded my body for no good reason at all.

Aim? There was supposed to be an aim?

ROTFL! I guess I've looked for a deeper purpose for doing most things for as long as I can remember. Always questioning 'why?'. I became tired of 'getting wrecked' but continued doing so for far too long. Marijuana opened the door for me to the concept that some chemicals offer a great deal more than advertised by our social babysitters (READ: governments and their enforcers – cops).

There was always the "challenge" of seeing what new and diverse situations you could handle and successfully evade detection.

Yup. Always love a challenge. Last one standing was a badge of pride I wore regularly. Dumbass. Drove cars while on psychedelics several times. Dumbass. No accidents. Somehow. No busts while tripping. Somehow.

I learned pretty quickly set and setting played critical roles on a trip. Dr. Andrew Weil wrote about this issue at length in several books.

Feeling like a dirty dishrag dragged by a semi down the interstate for several days afterward. Drugs just knocked the stuffin' out of me and it took awhile to feel sober and straight again.

This is where adulterants and combinations of drugs play a part, IMO. Mushrooms produced no lasting negative physical effects in me. In fact, they left me energized for days after a trip. Mescaline (microdots) often took quite a toll on me physically. Who knows what the hell I was swallowing/snorting? Also, alcohol was usually involved in a trip. The body pays a huge price for using that nasty drug.

Nope. The trips were the trips and can't be duplicated by any other activity in any other place and time. Yes, I've tried meditation, yoga, etc but for their own merits and not as a substitute for the drug experience. I find it's easy now to slip into alternate universes quite easily and when inspiration needs to come, it finds its way into my knowingness spontaneously and without effort or seeking. Having once seen the crack in reality, I'm more open to the flashes of creativity that bubble to the surface, accept them graciously and thankfully, and move with the flow the universe has initiated.

Agreed!

I wish I had more time for this thread today. I'll check in again tomorrow at some point. Thanks for your input, 1. Hi, Capn!

-- Rich (living_in_interesting_times@hotmail.com), June 08, 2001.

I envision our little forum fruit fly ‘Rich’, breaking ‘poppers’ just prior to taking it up his ass.

-- Now (bend@over.bingo), June 08, 2001.

The only psychedelic I ever used was LSD on two occasions. The first time was enough to determine what the drug was capable of doing. The second time merely confirmed what I discovered the first time and to convince me I would never need to take the drug again. I haven't.

If someone offered me another hit of LSD I would politely refuse - not because I am afraid of it - there is nothing to fear - but because it would not enhance my life any further.

I had read a fair amount of literature about psychedelics before taking the LSD, including Doors of Perception by Huxley. I did not have a 'bad trip'. To me, the most interesting effect of the drug was to teach me the maleability of perception, that what I am accustomed to perceive is only one possibility within a much wider range of possiblilties. It taught me how much I rely on my senses to construct my sense of what is real.

LSD 'deranged' my sensory appartatus in a very literal way, in that my accustomed range of perceptions was overridden and replaced by an unaccustomed range of perceptions. I was walking about in my normal and 'known' territory, but perceiving it differently. This did not frighten me. It exhilirated me at first, but for a relatively short time - maybe the first hour or two of the first experience.

While this experience had very definite spritual implications that I rather quickly noticed (and thought about a fair amount afterward), I would find it hard to call the time during which the drug was active a spiritual 'experience' or 'journey'. It was more in the nature of a lesson. The second time reinforced the first lesson by repeating it. After that I figured I didn't need a third repetition to 'get it'.

The worst thing about it was the length of time the drug affected me. Once it was ingested, the effects lasted from 10-14 hours. I got pretty tired of tripping before the drug was fully metabolized and excreted. It really wastes your day.

To some extent, the drug taught me how to escape my normal perceptions simply by altering my mental perspective. When I do this, I replace the 'normal' with something that more closely resembles the perceptions I felt during my 'trips'. This helps to keep the lesson fresh.

I did not learn how to generalize this ability to change my perceptions in any direction I choose. I don't feel any great need to learn that. I am not sure what I would gain from it even if I could.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), June 09, 2001.

In light of this admission, shouldn't you change your posting handle to Little Tripper?

-- Purple Haze (sugar.cubey@oh.boy.com), June 09, 2001.

I once seemed to see the writing of the supreme being superimposed on the rug around me. I thought if I could find another person in the same state, we would share the same supreme mind and see from both our bodies at once. I found the most likely candidate I knew and woke her up. She said the state was familiar but had only happened with the help of drugs. My response was to go back to my room and spend a couple of hours deliberately leaving the state. Probably my efforts had nothing to do with returning to normal.

One time I found myself playing chess well enough that the others didn’t notice anything odd, when to me the tree of potential moves looked like an actual great green leafy tree with the pieces somehow behind it but accessible if I just put my hand forward.

I have lost the ability to understand speech; at another time to read. Both came from problems getting the signal; I could still visualize writing or oral sounds in my head and reason properly.

Contaminated and adulterated sources got to be a problem. Even the weed had PCP sprayed on it, terrible stuff which makes you stupid. By the midseventies, standard dosages were weaker (speaking second hand here).

-- dandelion (golden@pleurisy.plant), June 10, 2001.

Agree, LN. An LSD trip lasts a long, long time. LSD stretches the perception of time, IME. One minute can seem like thirty. The inundation of sensory stimulation challenges the brain's capacity to process it. The trip can definitely grow old, almost boring. I would pass on an offer of LSD or mescaline at this point in my life.

I've toyed with the idea of growing my own psilocybin mushrooms often over the past decade and a half. Never have I gone through with it because of the legal ramifications. I’m not prepared to trade 20+ of my prime years for manufacture/possession of hallucinogens, that I may have a clean, controlled source of the tasty little gems.

The beshroomed experience is quite unlike that of LSD, IME. The effects are very gentle on the body. Onset is smooth and graceful, closer to a light reefer buzz than being shot out of a cannon as with LSD. One has much greater control over the duration of trip with mushies. They can be nibbled as desired to extend or escalate the trip.

There's one portion of every trip, no matter the type of psychedelic, which I absolutely love. That is the 'twilight time', when the deluge of sensory input noticeably lessens. An incredible peace descends. It is as if every cell sighs, catches their collective breath. The brain places on hold the processing of the megabytes of information which has been transmitted to it over the hours of heavy tripping. To be on a deserted beach with the promise of a glorious sunrise. Ahhhh! I've found this twilight time of a trip to be one of silence. One of no- mind, to put it in Buddhist terms. Practicing the presence of God is never so natural, so easy, as while in this state.

-- Rich (living_in_interesting_times@hotmail.com), June 11, 2001.

From In Pursuit of VALIS: Selections from the Exegesis of Philip K. Dick, page 26

Which causes me to ask, If as Meister Eckhart says, the Kingdom of God is within the Soul of each person (i.e., an entirely individual, inner event) then is not the entire realm of Parousia, all of it, within the inner individual soul of one person-at-a-time? But if so, then why do not other people report my experience as theirs?

Scurry over to my dictionary. Parousia--the presence in any thing of the idea after which it was formed.

PKD's Exegesis was 8000 pages of diary/commentary concerning his experiences of Feb/Mar 1974. The passage reminds me of my answer above.

-- dandelion (golden@pleurisy.plant), June 17, 2001.

LSD, twice. Mushrooms, once.

Mushrooms: Really don't remember... Far, far too much alcohol went down with them.

The first time I did acid was right before a rock concert in the late 80's. I remember laying on the floor of my apartment, staring at the ceiling, wondering if I had been ripped off. Then the ceiling moved.

The concert itself wasn't very fun. I began to get a little paranoid, and the music just seemed silly and repetitive (It was Van Halen and Metallica - I wan't a fan of either, but It was going to be a very boring weekend anyway.) A mentioned my paranoia to a freind, and he gave a couple puffs off a "one-hitter" and some Bacardi. That actually helped take the edge off a bit, and I did enjoy myself for about 45 minutes, until the Bacardi/pot coctail, mixed with the acid, made me start feeling dizzy and nautious. I left a little early and walked home. I remember walking around the stadium a couple times trying to find my bearings and direction back to my apartment.

The second time on acid was much better. It was a couple years later, and my soon-to-be SO at the time was feeling a little wild and wanted to do some acid and then go walking around campus at night. She, I, and my best friend then proceeded to do so. It was dark, there was a bright moon, and the campus seemed strange and unfamiliar. I remember her opening up a little spring-held garbage can lid and instructing us (somehow mischeviously, evily,) to "throw something away". I threw away a receipt or something, but my buddy didn't have anything in his pockets but lint and keys, so he threw away the lint, and then became mildly upset by this because it wasn't "enough".

Later that night we saw a pack of unleashed dogs running through a field by the river, no people in sight. I guess they were feral. They looked like they had an agenda and were headed somewhere in particular. This also bothered my buddy an inordinate amount.

Later that night, listening to CD's until dawn (the The, Mind Bomb, Pixies, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Sugar Cubes, Life's Too Good, others,) and having great sex with soon-to-be SO after my bud drifted off somewhere.

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), June 18, 2001.