If you find this topic interesting ignore everything in the above post and get yourself a copy of: Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers by Richard Evans Schultes (Author), Albert Hofmann (Author), Christian Rätsch (Author)
Couple of additional great reads around the subject: The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley Food of the Gods - Terrence McKenna. And honestly reading Erowid trip report is super interesting/fun (especially DMT! Heh).
‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
101–110 of 121 posts
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#102People should be allowed to take whatever substances they want, as long as they stay away from my neighborhood. I’ve moved as far away from drug users as I could and it was the best decision to increase my productivity, lower my stress, and increase my physical safety I’ve ever made.
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#103People should be allowed to take whatever substances they want, as long as they stay away from my neighborhood. I’ve moved as far away from drug users as I could and it was the best decision to increase my productivity, lower my stress, and increase my physical safety I’ve ever made.
Which group of "drug users" must stay away from your neighborhood: recreational pot smokers, or those taking doctor prescribed opiods and adderall?
I'd like pot smokers to stay away from my neighbourhood, just like smokers of any other kind. But that's just because of the smell. If they want to eat their cannabis or vape their tobacco etc, I don't mind.
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#104People should be allowed to take whatever substances they want, as long as they stay away from my neighborhood. I’ve moved as far away from drug users as I could and it was the best decision to increase my productivity, lower my stress, and increase my physical safety I’ve ever made.
> I’ve moved as far away from drug users as I could and it was the best decision to increase my productivity, lower my stress, and increase my physical safety I’ve ever made. i'm honestly unaware of places without drug users, so honest question : did you move away from drug users, or did you move away from users of a specific drug? The only way I can fathom that someone may be truly away from drug users is that they'…
I say that unironically. I don't care what my neighbours do in the privacy of their own home, as long as it doesn't affect me. (Eg as long as tobacco or pot smoke doesn't waft over to me.)
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#105I recall Terrence McKenna (everyone's favorite historical psychonaut) saying "It's hard to do psychedelics". I agree with him. These things are dangerous when the set and setting is wrong, or if they're done at an off-kilter phase of your life, or that you simply over-indulge in them. I appreciate the mini renaissance period they're having these days, but these things need plenty of research before trying them. They'…
Your mind is a network of neurons, psychedelics make those neurons fire in unusual ways, that's it. What you should be learning from it is that your _ordinary perceptions of the world_ are nothing but a very convincing illusion created by your mind, and that you should not entirely trust what you believe you are seeing and hearing and feeling, because in a very real sense -- _none of it is real_. What you should _not_ be taking away from it is that anything you see or feel or think during a trip is the _true_ reality, any more than your ordinary waking life is.
Walk away skeptical, walk away confused, don't walk away from it thinking you've discovered the meaning of life. Everyone you know that doesn't do drugs will think you're being silly, because you are.
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which group of "drug users" must stay away from your neighborhood: recreational pot smokers, or those taking doctor prescribed opiods and adderall?
Not the OP: I'd like pot smokers to stay away from my neighbourhood, just like smokers of any other kind. But that's just because of the smell. If they want to eat their cannabis or vape their tobacco etc, I don't mind.
I even mind dryer scents; literally ANY unusual smell in the air. Unusually pungent foods, camp fire and BBQ smoke, any cleaning agents. IMO every house should have scrubbed exhausts and possibly also intakes.
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#107I see people giving prescriptions in this comment section. I am but a humble seeker. I can not claim to give anyone access to the best knowledge, or even lasting knowledge. Neither, I believe, can any of our fellow commenter. Anyone saying "you must integrate these lessons," or "ignore all else and read these books," are not wrong. They are giving advice that, to them, sounds good and wholesome. Perhaps they are. How…
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#108In case there's anyone skimming the comments and thinking that it seems everyone else is doing all sorts of drugs... you'd be getting a skewed perception. There are plenty of other people who are averse to drugs, so are less likely to be commenting on a post that appeals to enthusiasts. Personally, if anyone I work with is doing drugs, I hope they'll be OK, and that it won't make them ill, stupid, or flaky. BTW, if s…
I’ve had a few friends and acquaintances fall into problematic drug use.
The common theme among all of their situations was that they moved into social circles with a lot of drug users. When everyone around you is doing a lot of drugs it’s easy to start thinking that everyone in the world must be doing a lot of drugs. After all, that’s what you see all around you and what everyone you know is talking about.
This creates a second layer of hazard where the recovered people or even moderate users self-select out of the social circle while the social group starts accumulating up even heavier drugs users from people’s friends-of-friends who so drugs together. As this compounds, it becomes easy for people in the group to think that their own drug use is low because it’s not as bad as so-and-so, or they haven’t overdosed or developed major health problems (yet) like the guy in the friend group who is a complete wreck. They start losing touch with reality because the “normal” they surround themselves with is anything but.
I don’t think the average HN drug use commenter is at that stage, obviously, but I do pick up hints of this dynamic in a lot of comments. The way some people post “everyone’s doing it” type reasoning without a second thought is kind of weird to see, not to mention contradictory to actual statistics. It’s more telling about the commenter’s social circle and how entrenched they are in their bubble. If you really think everyone is consuming drugs frequently or that semi-frequent (yearly or more often) psychedelic use is “common” then you’re likely in a bubble.
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#109People should be allowed to take whatever substances they want, as long as they stay away from my neighborhood. I’ve moved as far away from drug users as I could and it was the best decision to increase my productivity, lower my stress, and increase my physical safety I’ve ever made.
> I’ve moved as far away from drug users as I could and it was the best decision to increase my productivity, lower my stress, and increase my physical safety I’ve ever made. i'm honestly unaware of places without drug users, so honest question : did you move away from drug users, or did you move away from users of a specific drug? The only way I can fathom that someone may be truly away from drug users is that they'…
When someone says there is a lot of drug activity in a neighborhood, they’re not saying that people are quietly consuming an edible in their basement every once in a while. Problematic drug use seeps into many aspects of social life.
And before anyone assumes that I’m referring to poor neighborhoods, I’m not. One of the most problematic and dangerous drug environments I ever witnessed (in my relatively sheltered life) involved some very well-off young people who got caught up in drugs, then dealing drugs, and then severe addiction that interferes with their judgment to the point that they were getting violent and threatening murder. This was in a well-off community where a number of families ultimately chose to move away to escape the parts of the community with a drug problem and had no regrets for doing so.
I’ve also crossed less dramatic situations where social groups went downhill due to less overt drug use: People who start using unnecessarily high non-therapeutic doses of Adderall to become energized (doesn’t last, causes weird problems over time), people who start using benzos with casual disregard (turns into a dependency very quickly), and even people who casually use opioids for recreation as if it’s a sustainable activity. In each case, the effects of excessive drug use start taking a toll on the person that extends to the social group. Getting away can be like a breath of fresh air.
Re: ‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I’ve moved as far away from drug users as I could and it was the best decision to increase my productivity, lower my stress, and increase my physical safety I’ve ever made. i'm honestly unaware of places without drug users, so honest question : did you move away from drug users, or did you move away from users of a specific drug? The only way I can fathom that someone may be truly away from drug users is that they'…
Out of sight, out of mind. I say that unironically. I don't care what my neighbours do in the privacy of their own home, as long as it doesn't affect me. (Eg as long as tobacco or pot smoke doesn't waft over to me.)