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The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

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Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#91

Post by whamlastxmas »

Kroniker wrote: post #53
yolesaber wrote: post #29

I run an ayahuasca clinic in Upstate NY. I make all my own preparations and tend to the ritual aspects as well as guide people on trips. I've been doing this as my profession for several years now, feel free to ask any questions

Wow! That must be an insane profession. I have a few questions for you: Firstly, how do you deal with the legal aspect of things? (If you can answer that, if not, I understand) Secondly, why take the potion instead of pure DMT? If that is the active ingredient (along with an MAOI), I'd imagine just taking the pure compound to be more efficacious. (And the trips last only 20 minutes or something- under an hour) Thirdl…

I think a lot of people view it as a spiritual or emotional thing. The potion is part of that process. If they just wanted to inject a drug to make themselves feel better, they'd go get something from a pharmacy or street dealer.

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#92

Post by metaphorm »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #61
steauengeglase wrote: post #36

While I don't doubt the psychological benefits of ayahuasca (or any hallucinogenic), the language of many of those advocating in the article set off red flags. "Format your harddrive", reminds of Arch Oboler's "Society of the Cosmos", something dreamed up by Evangelical hucksters who didn't see a future in peddling Jesus so they turned to techno speak to wring out the marks. "We manifest abundance wherever we go," so…

Is this the Hunter Thompson quote you're referring to? “We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks…

leave to Hunter S. Thompson of all people to throw a little __sobriety__ into the conversation. Somebody had to say it and he said it well.

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#93

Post by pazimzadeh »

notliketherest wrote: post #35

All of this "self exploration, cosmos consciousness, soul enlightenment" justification for using these drugs sounds to me like the promises of profit in Tim Ferris' 4 hour work week: 1) take drugs 2) ??? 3) Enlightenment. You know that Mt Fuji analogy whereby a hiker hikes to the top of Mt Fuji for enlightenment, choosing his path on the way? Well it seems to me like this people are looking for a quick helicopter rid…

Interesting that you used the helicopter analogy. I used the same analogy earlier this year when trying to convince someone to try LSD. In my analogy, the helicopter won't drop you off at the summit (LSD only lasts 12 hours), it will only help you fly around and see if there are any alternate paths that you could take. If you are already aware that there is a path up the mountain, then taking a helicopter up would be wasteful. But if you get stuck in a local valley and can't find your way up, you might despair and stop trying to climb. Once you fly around and find a plausible path, the helicopter drops you off where you started and it's up to you to climb up the mountain.

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#94

Post by trappedintime »

The experience you will have is tremendously dependent on a few things: your existing state of mind, the physical environment / location of the experience, preparations (if any) made for the experience, and arguably most importantly (IMHO), your intention or reason for seeking the experience.

If you go at it with the attitude that this is simply a reason to get high, or to observe visual disturbances for the sheer sake of hallucinating, there's a very good chance that will comprise your experience. Conversely, if you set an intention of learning about yourself, life, death, existence, the universe, etc., and approach it with regard, then there is a very good chance you will have that experience.

From what I have gathered observing myself and my friends, the latter can be quite transformative to the self. It can encourage profound positive changes in attitude and improve quality of life, increase spiritual awareness and feelings of interconnectedness, greatly diminish or eliminate one's fear of death, among other things. These feelings can last, sometimes for life, and it can take months to fully integrate the lessons learned and information gained after returning from the "journey". See the John's Hopkins study on psilocybin for more information.

Preparation and intent simply cannot be understated when it comes to the use of these substances. What the psychedelic enthusiasts refer to as 'set and setting'.

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#96

Post by dwaltrip »

metaphorm wrote: post #95
Kazamai wrote: post #90

Short circuiting your brain is not the path to spirituality, therapy or enlightenment.

is that what you think it is? have you ever taken a psychedelic drug?

Or perhaps more importantly, surveyed the unfortunately scant literature to understand how they work as well as any potential for harm.

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#97

Post by Analemma_ »

RankingMember wrote: post #16
bduerst wrote: post #5

Has anyone here actually tried ayahuasca and can share their experience?

Where's gwern to give us a writeup?

IIRC, gwern tends to focus on cognitive enhancers, or psychoactive drugs that could theoretically be used for that purpose (like the LSD microdosing experiment). I don't think he takes hallucinogens recreationally (or if he does, he doesn't write about it)

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#98

Post by jMyles »

yolesaber wrote: post #29

I run an ayahuasca clinic in Upstate NY. I make all my own preparations and tend to the ritual aspects as well as guide people on trips. I've been doing this as my profession for several years now, feel free to ask any questions

Huh. I had no idea such a thing existed in upstate NY. How can I learn more?

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#99

Post by severine »

stinkytaco wrote: post #72
fragola wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on the bullshit. I think this might have something to do with me growing up in a certain hippy town on the California coast, but I couldn't get through this article without a lot of eye-rolling. OK, let's just put the whole drug thing aside and call it a hobby. You can have a hobby without having a pseudospiritual and vaguely appropriative justification for it. Bodybuilders have a term that they use to describ…

Offtopic, but unfortunately broscience has extended beyond pharmaceuticals to training practice. This kind of thinking dominates the crossfit world with terms like "muscle confusion" and "failure". It's sad because I got into crossfit ten years ago because it was fun, something different every day kept me coming back. I didn't want to be a Navy SEAL, just to keep active, but the almost religious adherence to the trai…

Ping-pong is great, and sex.

Re: The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale

#100

Post by thescribe »

trappedintime wrote: post #94

The experience you will have is tremendously dependent on a few things: your existing state of mind, the physical environment / location of the experience, preparations (if any) made for the experience, and arguably most importantly (IMHO), your intention or reason for seeking the experience. If you go at it with the attitude that this is simply a reason to get high, or to observe visual disturbances for the sheer sa…

If the effect only manifests when you think about it correctly, is it a placebo?
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