51–60 of 74 posts
I have had derelization from acute stress but it was never disturbing to me and it went away when my environment changed Through the years I have dabbled with psychadelics with no downsides or upsides untill I decided to smoke cannabis for the first time , I had a very strong reaction that put me in depersonalization hell, it lasted 4 years , thankfully this was a few months before the lockdown . I was surprised to l…
This effect is not uncommon with respect to powerful psychedelics but it does have a mechanistic neurological explanation which in turn helps explain the psychological (or spiritual if you like) knock-on effects. It's really the same kind of thing underlying optical illusions, such as the dancing grid dots illusion: https://mathworld.wolfram.com/ScintillatingGridIllusion.html Fundamentally your brain is interpreting…
If anything, the most at risk are those that have a greater understanding of reality and the superficiality of it all. You can't go through a door if you don't know its there. So in that sense, if you haven't explored the existential depths of your own consciousness, you're much less likely to get lost.
I've spent entirely too much time in my head, and I've put a lot of systems in place to help me reconnect, but I certainly know better than to test those systems too thoroughly.
To me, the interesting question is whether this special mix of new-age spiritual bullshit and two-points-make-a-line, post-hoc reasoning is caused by psychedelic-use or if people who think this way are merely attracted to drugs. Or both. Further research should hone in on this important question.
That happened to me, only I was 16, and it was before Google was around to tell me what happened. I would later come to find it was some form of ego death; though I've never heard it put the way the interviewee puts it, but he describes it well. It messed me up for almost a decade. It was this immediate change, not unlike when someone dies, only no one else believes that person is gone, only you realize it; for every…
It's not actually that "self" that dies, though, just the associated narrative. You can still get emotional rewards of that flavor, just not from that narrative. Your other two "selves" have essentially voted it out and will no longer play along with it. The narratives can be as simple as I'm invincible or I have a special role to play in society which of course psychedelics can break apart.
Nobody wants to discuss potential harms in a grassroots advocacy movement for legalization or normalization - we saw the same thing in decades past with cannabis. The reasons are understandable, but the results aren't great. I would rather see more openness up front even at the cost of complicating the message, than see folks end up with this kind of trouble because advocates chose not to be as honest about the risks…
For what it's worth, I know hundreds of people who have done DMT and none of them have had the long-term effects described in the interview (not to negate that person's experience though, just to provide context about how rare it might be) I personally have more negative long-term effects (maybe a mild, persistent derealization and depersonalization, but also a complete lack of ability to think clearly) from LSD. I h…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s it like to experience derealization? For some reason I’m reading about it twice in a week suddenly, and I was never aware such an experience existed; I read a story about someone who slowly started suffering from derealization more and more, and was having trouble dealing with it after several years. It sounds frightening.
It is frightening, or more like just anxiety inducing ya know. I've only had it a couple times, the worst of which was withdrawing from cigarettes. It's like you suddenly realize your experience of reality has changed. Like just now you can see the frame around your existence, like your watching through a window and not just being in it. Except that that analogy only addresses visual acuity which the full experience…
Later I took a much smaller dose of salvia and I didn't hallucinate but still got the strong feeling of derealization. It's so hard to describe but everything seemed "fake" or "plastic". Like hollow and so lonely. Maybe, I guess, what looking at a scene through VR would look like. The sun didn't feel warm, the grass I was touching had no feeling of comfort with it (?). Ah, I thought I could describe it but it's so hard to describe, I give up.
If you take a small dose of salvia you can understand what it feels like. Definitely don't recommend but as far as I know, it's harmless and (for me) impermanent.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what it's worth, I know hundreds of people who have done DMT and none of them have had the long-term effects described in the interview (not to negate that person's experience though, just to provide context about how rare it might be) I personally have more negative long-term effects (maybe a mild, persistent derealization and depersonalization, but also a complete lack of ability to think clearly) from LSD. I h…
Outside the US? How were the experiences?
I'm not the person to ask whether it's a good thing for you, my own experience has been that people have almost always enjoyed having tried it, and often felt like they were benefitted by it
Is it just me or does DMT have one or the worst tastes / smells that exist?
Yeah, tryptamines and indoles in general tend to have really nasty aroma. I think one of the reasons is that they're chemically similar to skatole, which is an indole chemical that's one of the main components of the odour of faeces. Skatole can also build up in the meat of pigs, especially male adult ones, which is why some pork meat doesn't taste right. This is probably true for other meats as well. I've certainly…
That happened to me, only I was 16, and it was before Google was around to tell me what happened. I would later come to find it was some form of ego death; though I've never heard it put the way the interviewee puts it, but he describes it well. It messed me up for almost a decade. It was this immediate change, not unlike when someone dies, only no one else believes that person is gone, only you realize it; for every…
The issue with psychedelics is that they induce these perspectives, but without an understanding of what they mean and/or why they are beneficial. What Buddhism teaches us (and what each meditator has to prove to themselves!!) is that the nature of reality is not what we think. In fact, (1) nothing is permanent, (2) nothing has substance, and (3) nothing is in control of anything else.
These three characteristics of reality are so far away from and in such contrast to our normal, everyday conception of reality, that you can witness these characteristics directly and still not believe them. It's because you are believing your thoughts instead. And that's normally fine, because they are naturally trying to protect you from what you don't understand.
Your thinking is what make the "emptiness" terrifying. That's why most meditation practices focus (albeit not always explicitly) on a balance of insight into emptiness with more happiness and peace-oriented practices such as lovingkindness and samatha. That way, when you have insights into things not being as real as you thought, you know that it's okay, but you also feel that it's okay.
It's really unfortunate for Matias, but perhaps some insight into the theory behind meditation is actually what is needed here. The thoughts about the experience are the problem, not the experience itself. The correct solution is of course whatever Matias intuitively feels is best. Perhaps this state of consciousness can never be healed/harmonized, but correcting the problematic habits of thought (not following those three characteristics) may be easier than trying to undo the entire state of consciousness. I am certainly wishing him the absolute best :)