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Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

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Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#21

Post by endianswap »

dougk16 wrote: post #20
exodust wrote: post #12

"Perhaps they ARE all 'within the brain' as skeptics say". Right, so it's only "skeptics" who point out the bleeding obvious? I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. That's what the drug is directly influencing, and as a result your mind goes over the waterfall and you are forced to just go along with it, or suffer if you put up resistance. The problem with long term fans of DMT, cannabis…

> I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. Occam's razor says you're probably right, but personally I'm holding out the slim hope that there's something much cooler going on, call it primitive telepathy or whatever. The next few decades will hopefully tell. > But you shouldn't need to go to Brazil for that and drink sewerage tasting cocktails of God-knows what and vomit your guts up. That…

Fuck that drug. I'm currently on 37.5mg every 4 days in an effort to taper down to nothing. I feel nothing but sympathy for those who have been taking 150mg+ daily doses, I was only on 75mg a day for a couple weeks before I thought it prudent to read stories of the drug online, which terrified me and pointed out some of the same effects I had been having but had assumed was coincidental. I took cold medicine with DXM in it, for example, and it made me feel worse than I felt just being sick. I didn't immediately realize DXM is on the lengthy list of contraindications, and found out that explained a terrible "trip" I had a week before during the night on a single normal dose of Vicodin.

One of the remedies I've been using to help with the side effects of kicking this, interestingly enough, is medicinal cannabis edibles, which has also helped with a gastroenterological problem I have.

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#22

Post by davidtanner »

exodust wrote: post #12

"Perhaps they ARE all 'within the brain' as skeptics say". Right, so it's only "skeptics" who point out the bleeding obvious? I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. That's what the drug is directly influencing, and as a result your mind goes over the waterfall and you are forced to just go along with it, or suffer if you put up resistance. The problem with long term fans of DMT, cannabis…

Castaneda was a fraud.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda#Reception

http://www.amazon.com/The-Antipodes-Mind-Phenomenology-Exper...

It's rigorous. It has tabular data. It's about ayahuasca phenomenology.

Why is it that so few here actually research psychedelics seriously?

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#23

Post by DigitalJack »

endianswap wrote: post #21
dougk16 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. Occam's razor says you're probably right, but personally I'm holding out the slim hope that there's something much cooler going on, call it primitive telepathy or whatever. The next few decades will hopefully tell. > But you shouldn't need to go to Brazil for that and drink sewerage tasting cocktails of God-knows what and vomit your guts up. That…

Fuck that drug. I'm currently on 37.5mg every 4 days in an effort to taper down to nothing. I feel nothing but sympathy for those who have been taking 150mg+ daily doses, I was only on 75mg a day for a couple weeks before I thought it prudent to read stories of the drug online, which terrified me and pointed out some of the same effects I had been having but had assumed was coincidental. I took cold medicine with DXM…

You should really talk to a doc about how to come off that. Or maybe you have.

What I've often heard is a good route is a couple of tablets of prozac. The half life is on the order of weeks, and so you can take these for a few days, instead of the venlafaxine, or maybe with (whatever your doc says).

Then, after building some up in your system, you can just stop. As you go through the half life decay, it's a built in taper, and it's slow enough to limit side effects.

Naturally don't take my word for it, talk to a doc.

I've considered it myself, because if I miss a dose of venlafaxine, I get terrible vertigo. really bad. But I do suffer from an anxiety disorder and it definitely has made a difference in my life.

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#24

Post by davidtanner »

dougk16 wrote: post #20
exodust wrote: post #12

"Perhaps they ARE all 'within the brain' as skeptics say". Right, so it's only "skeptics" who point out the bleeding obvious? I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. That's what the drug is directly influencing, and as a result your mind goes over the waterfall and you are forced to just go along with it, or suffer if you put up resistance. The problem with long term fans of DMT, cannabis…

> I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. Occam's razor says you're probably right, but personally I'm holding out the slim hope that there's something much cooler going on, call it primitive telepathy or whatever. The next few decades will hopefully tell. > But you shouldn't need to go to Brazil for that and drink sewerage tasting cocktails of God-knows what and vomit your guts up. That…

The physical action of the drug on the brain is obvious and should be researched further. It may be that certain psychedelic/entheogenic states of consciousness offer internal, subjective evidence of a nonmaterial, transcendent aspect of reality. It may be that the majority of psychedelic experiences(especially low dose) do not, and are reducible in principle to physics.

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#25

Post by friendly_chap »

davidtanner wrote: post #22
exodust wrote: post #12

"Perhaps they ARE all 'within the brain' as skeptics say". Right, so it's only "skeptics" who point out the bleeding obvious? I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. That's what the drug is directly influencing, and as a result your mind goes over the waterfall and you are forced to just go along with it, or suffer if you put up resistance. The problem with long term fans of DMT, cannabis…

Castaneda was a fraud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda#Reception http://www.amazon.com/The-Antipodes-Mind-Phenomenology-Exper... It's rigorous. It has tabular data. It's about ayahuasca phenomenology. Why is it that so few here actually research psychedelics seriously?

In the western world, researching psychedelics is a sure way to end one's scientific career. That's why.

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#26

Post by friendly_chap »

exodust wrote: post #12

"Perhaps they ARE all 'within the brain' as skeptics say". Right, so it's only "skeptics" who point out the bleeding obvious? I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. That's what the drug is directly influencing, and as a result your mind goes over the waterfall and you are forced to just go along with it, or suffer if you put up resistance. The problem with long term fans of DMT, cannabis…

You are, my friend, pretty closed minded. Not everyone taking DMT because their life is a mess, and they want to escape. There is alcohol for that.

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#27

Post by akavi »

exodust wrote: post #10
redwood wrote: post #6

A lot of the descriptions of Ayahuasca are similar to mushrooms (everything depends on dosage of course!) Truly life-augmenting experiences. As a 10 year pot smoker I stopped rather randomly about 4 months ago. I didn't do it for any reason besides respiratory health, and probably wouldn't have changed if I had a good vaporizer. It's fine not smoking but I drink more and find my mind moving away from the broad thinki…

Similar to mushrooms? Maybe the perception change, but as for... "a mixture of foot-rot, raw sewage, battery acid, sulfur and just a hint of chocolate. Within about 45 minutes of drinking it you frequently begin to suffer bouts of severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea." This is NOT anything like mushrooms unless you've taken the wrong kind.

I've consumed heavy doses of ayahuasca on three occasions, and never experienced diarrhea. Nor have my friends or any of the innumerable people who have posted experiences online.

You will vomit, however.

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#28

Post by [deleted] »

akavi wrote: post #27
exodust wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to mushrooms? Maybe the perception change, but as for... "a mixture of foot-rot, raw sewage, battery acid, sulfur and just a hint of chocolate. Within about 45 minutes of drinking it you frequently begin to suffer bouts of severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea." This is NOT anything like mushrooms unless you've taken the wrong kind.

I've consumed heavy doses of ayahuasca on three occasions, and never experienced diarrhea. Nor have my friends or any of the innumerable people who have posted experiences online. You will vomit, however.

[deleted]

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#29

Post by beatpanda »

sunyata wrote: post #8
virtualwhys wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to grad school with a guy who, while traveling in Brazil, encountered a shaman/teacher, and decided to take a so-called "heroic dose". Apparently the roof of the sky ripped open and voila, GOD. Was a bit much as he took 2 years to recover and, AFAIK, has been substance free ever since. Also know a guy who lived in the Amazon taking Ayahuasca daily for 6 months -- came back stateside completely & utterly beamin…

Some feel that psychedelics have had and continue to effect our industry?

Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison both publicly attribute(d) their success in part to psychedelics, so "some feel" is probably understating the case.

Re: Reflections on Cannabis, Ayahuasca and the mystery of plant teachers

#30

Post by beatpanda »

endianswap wrote: post #21
dougk16 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we can safely say it is most certainly all within the brain. Occam's razor says you're probably right, but personally I'm holding out the slim hope that there's something much cooler going on, call it primitive telepathy or whatever. The next few decades will hopefully tell. > But you shouldn't need to go to Brazil for that and drink sewerage tasting cocktails of God-knows what and vomit your guts up. That…

Fuck that drug. I'm currently on 37.5mg every 4 days in an effort to taper down to nothing. I feel nothing but sympathy for those who have been taking 150mg+ daily doses, I was only on 75mg a day for a couple weeks before I thought it prudent to read stories of the drug online, which terrified me and pointed out some of the same effects I had been having but had assumed was coincidental. I took cold medicine with DXM…

Here's a great guide to coming off of psychiatric drugs — http://theicarusproject.net/HarmReductionGuideComingOffPsych...

Good luck!

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