The world would be a better place if everyone ate magic mushrooms in the wilderness on a camping trip as part of outdoor ed. in school.
If you've never experienced it, you probably won't understand.
Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
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Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I experienced ego death and it brought me out of my very depressed state. I felt so centered and driven afterwards and that feeling lasted for months. It might've been a gamble but I'm absolutely glad that I took it.
After reading your term 'ego death', I'm reminded of a particular time that I used LSD, and am starting to wonder if that's what brought me out of my depressive state. About three months later I graduated undergrad and started a new job, which transformed my life for the better.
I think it’s certainly possible that it brought you out of your depressive state.
LSD-25 will show you certain truths within yourself and your subconscious; these truths can be negative or positive in nature. It took me months to fully integrate the experience, though. I’d argue the integration period after the trip is as important as the trip itself.
Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#53Im a stable, sane, not depressed or anything person. I once took LSD (mixed with other things aswell...) and had a trip during which I spoke to God, Satan and various other imaginary beings. It was not a fun experience - I'm a man of science, but the feeling/perception was so real, my entire world view was shattered. It stuck with me for months after. I've gone from someone who 100% believed in evolution and a materi…
You got it all backwards. What you think is a crack in sanity is actually a crack in the illusion that the physical world is all there is.
But to each their own.
Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I experienced ego death and it brought me out of my very depressed state. I felt so centered and driven afterwards and that feeling lasted for months. It might've been a gamble but I'm absolutely glad that I took it.
I've only experienced that ego-death through meditation (twice while I was in high school.) Just wanted to mention that it can be achieved without psychedelics. The easier to describe experience consisted of 'me' as a tiny speck of dust floating in a featureless, dimensionless void. As I tried to grasp a frame of reference I snapped back to my normal reality. I did not meditate much after that, mostly because I felt…
Ego death and then you felt good that you accomplished something? That is the ego being satisfied.
There is no ego death. It's part of us.
Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#55> The way [psilocybin is] being used is in a very controlled or guided setting. ... They don't just give you a pill and send you home; you're in a room. You're with two guides, one male, one female. You're lying down on a comfortable couch. You're wearing headphones listening to a really carefully curated playlist of music — instrumental compositions for the most part — and you're wearing eyeshades, all of which is t…
The podcast goes more in depth. There is preparation before the trip specifically to address any 'bad trips' and the guides are there to calm you down in case that happens.
As side note, this reminds me of the episode of Mad Men where Roger takes LSD [0]
Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm a man of science, but the feeling/perception was so real, my entire world view was shattered. Something maybe similar happened to me after being with my grandfather while he died peacefully at home. It doesn’t take drugs to change a personal narrative that might be stuck in certainty, life can do that too, nor is it necessarily a bad thing in my mind.
Is it related to feeling your grandfather's presence, when he was about to die. I have heard 2 of my friends saying they experienced this.
Yes, that would be a way of describing it. I don’t know what I felt, and I can’t say there weren’t physical signs and just a rush of emotion being mistaken as something spiritual, but it seemed to happen out of the blue and my brother who was there later asked me tentatively if something weird had happened to me too. In my dogmatic past I’ve mentally dismissed other people’s stories like this as improbable or exaggerated or superstitious. But it was unmistakably strong and I’ve lost my surety.
Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#57The world would be a better place if everyone ate magic mushrooms in the wilderness on a camping trip as part of outdoor ed. in school. If you've never experienced it, you probably won't understand.
Maybe not everyone - I think there are some people who already have fuzzy boundaries and for whom boundary-dissolving compounds are not the best medicine.
But yes, most people. :-)
Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#58The world would be a better place if everyone ate magic mushrooms in the wilderness on a camping trip as part of outdoor ed. in school. If you've never experienced it, you probably won't understand.
I feel like this comment right here is what everyone who has taken psychedelics (and had a positive experience) want to say. But nobody does because they don't wanna seem "crazy" or strange. As someone who never even touched alcohol until 18 or so, I never ever thought I'd be the one saying the entire world needs to try LSD
Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#59Im a stable, sane, not depressed or anything person. I once took LSD (mixed with other things aswell...) and had a trip during which I spoke to God, Satan and various other imaginary beings. It was not a fun experience - I'm a man of science, but the feeling/perception was so real, my entire world view was shattered. It stuck with me for months after. I've gone from someone who 100% believed in evolution and a materi…
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Re: Michael Pollan reluctantly embraces the 'new science' of psychedelics
#60Im a stable, sane, not depressed or anything person. I once took LSD (mixed with other things aswell...) and had a trip during which I spoke to God, Satan and various other imaginary beings. It was not a fun experience - I'm a man of science, but the feeling/perception was so real, my entire world view was shattered. It stuck with me for months after. I've gone from someone who 100% believed in evolution and a materi…
> I once took LSD (mixed with other things aswell...) You should disclose all the substances you took for your comment to have any validity as anecdata. Your story is very different whether the “other substances” were “marijuana and theine” or “datura and cocaine”.
They were other recreational drugs - N2O and Marijuana