Are Mind-Altering Substances Required for Deeper Insight?

I'm serious.

I think it's very difficult for people to understand the nature of their own minds without understanding how the mind can be affected by various substances. Here are a few points:

1. First, how can you possibly claim to have any insight into reasonable drug policy if you have no idea how they work, the side effects, etc.?
2. You don't understand how your own mind works, in relation to the natural world, if you've never experienced an altered state of conscience--this is not something that can be understood abstractly.

I have a lot of arguments with people on here that pertain to human consciousness, and I always leave with the impression that those who have never done any drugs just don't have much self-knowledge.

Thoughts?

 

The brain is ruled by chemical reactions in terms of reward. The brain has a pretty strong reward center that involves dopamine. Cocaine is pure dopamine when it's taken into the body, which floods the brain, giving a sense of painlessness, euphoria, and intense pleasure, as the reward of dopamine is supposed to do. Nicotine similarly causes a reaction which releases smaller amounts of dopamine into your brain. Heroine acts similarly to cocaine as it relieves pain and causes feelings of euphoria. But these aren't the only things which release dopamine mind you. Studies have shown that someone who is devoted in their faith in a religion, dopamine is also released in their brain.

Along with this there are chemicals like DMT which is produced in your pineal gland, which also handles flight or fight responses. DMT is also the most potent hallucinogen known to man, and it's what causes dreams. When close to death, at least in the perspective of your brain, it releases mass amounts of DMT. Softer hallucinogens like LSD impacts the visual and auditory portions of the brain, I forget now the actual term for it.

PS: When I mentioned the studies about religious people, I meant that dopamine is released when they act in or think about their faith.

 

Have you done cocaine? It's not very intense. It certainly feels good, but I'd say it's just a step above coffee. Cocaine is no where near as powerful as it's made out to be, and I've done very good cocaine. Prescription amphetamines are better for what you were talking about.

Heroin is nothing like cocaine, at all. I've ingested (not shot) both methadone and morphine, which are very similar to heroine--it's not even comparable to cocaine, which is a stimulant.

I've done mushrooms plenty of times, and salvia once (horrible experience, never try it). Read a little bit about DMT and want to experiment, though I've heard it is NOT a recreational drug and should be taken very seriously.

Agree with everything else you say. It's pretty interesting that DMT is released at death...

 

I've done cocaine in highschool, when weed was laced with it so I may have a skewed view on it. DMT is definitely not typically for recreation as it can really mess with you if you're not careful. It's convinced thousands of people that they saw Jesus because they nearly died. I think the disparity in the experiences of cocaine and heroin in terms of pharmaceuticals is that since the markets for both drugs are illegal, it's generally not the purest form. Morphine is definitely more pure than street level heroine. I'm talking about the extraction of the source materials of course. Prescription amphetamines are definitely more potent than say meth, due to purity, no adulterants to make the product stretch. If I recall, salvia has small amounts of DMT.

That's what's fascinating to me about the brain. So many chemical reactions can be had that you can't say you're truly self aware until you've altered your reality and studied whether or not you the concept of you maintained through out.

 

Many religious ceremonies involve the use of psychoactive substances. They use repetitive chanting to influence the effect. Maybe they know something we don't. It's a very ancient practice.

Parts of the Bible read like they were influenced by drugs, especially Ezekiel and Revelations.

 

Yeah, weed screws up just about every other drug. I can't think of any drug that really goes well with it.

Salvia is beyond intense...STAY AWAY. It's too hardcore. I would be fine with making stuff like that illegal immediately--it's just too hardcore. I bought 10x back when it was legal at a head shop and...holy (*)(*)(*)(*), stay away from it. I think something else is going on with salvia, additionally, because it is extremely intense.

The concept of "me" was nearly destroyed lol. I think it might have been.

 

Ecstasy and LSD are my 2 fave drugs to use when having a mutually-using hot partner for sexcapades.

I think everybody should (at least) try X and acid one time.

 

Totally agree. I'm sure they know a hell of a lot more about it than we do. Evidently, Salvia was used by central American civilizations. It was always treated with respect and taken seriously. I did it when I was 18 in a room full of idiots just like me. So bad...lol. i'll say that it makes LSD and shrooms seem like coffee by comparison.

 

It's probably true that it'd give a different perception. I've tried meditation to open up the Third Eye, and I can say I definitely felt something and I feel it could be something huge in human discovery. That's why I support legalizing soft drugs. We need to be able to find out what is and what isn't safe and what is or isn't beneficial.

 

Peyote and "magic" mushrooms are supposed to be an enlightening spiritual experience if that's what you're trying to get out of it. Although I've heard you can have a bad trip if you're not in the right head space. Marijuana makes you feel more creative and relaxed. It is interesting to read drug forums about trip experiences such as shroomery and bluelight.

 

Man, I still haven't tried X! I need to make a point to do that soon. I just want to make sure I don't get something with too much speed in it. I want as much MDMA as possible.

Frankly, I've never wanted to (*)(*)(*)(*) when on any drugs, aside from alcohol or weed. Maybe I'm missing out!

 

Oh yeah, you are missing out for sure.

My definition of X = 100% PURE MDMA.

I'm good like dat!

 

Here's what you've got to do:

1. Get 2 grams of lab shrooms
2. Go out into the country side (no interference!) and eat them on a light stomach with a few good friends.

That's enough to give you a mild psychedelic trip without high risk of a bad trip.

Marijuana is very mildly psychedelic. I avoid it, most of the time, because it makes me anxious, but it certainly makes watching sci fi better lol.

 

Yes, they take these ceremonies very seriously. Still practiced in many parts of the world.

Look to art to see the effects of drugs. I'm amazed at how many genius writers were stone cold alcoholics. Hemingway for example.

 

Yeah, you aren't the only person who tells me this. I'll get on it! I can get some drugs, but I'm not sure if I have a good X hook-up. I probably do, but I'll have to actually put some work into it lol.

You older folks get all the good stuff!

 

Yeah, from what I know of salvia, it's an opioid with DMT in it, I don't see how that would be a good mix. From what you're saying, it's not at all a good mix.

But! In terms of policy, I think it should all be legal. Let me explain why, lol.

Reasonable regulation for quality control would exist, limiting the sale to adults only, eliminate the demand for legal alternatives that are worse, like synthetic weed. This would also decrease the amount of people using drugs like krocodil, which has unfortunately found a market here in the US. There would be a lack of funding for gangs and the cartels and possibly terrorist groups that pay them to sell the drugs. I think we should handle these drugs the same way we handle alcohol really.

Now sure, short terms we may see an increase in gang violence as they and their puppeteers try to keep control of the market, which they have 100% control of now. We may see some "oh now I can get high!" increases in drug use. But overtime I think it will level out and if we use our current rates as the control, we'd see an overall drop in gang violence and drug misuse.

 

I almost forgot about X. I would stay away from it personally, Tachycardia.

 

P oh those with weak minds need drugs to gain deeper insight. If you keep your mind totally pure you can go to places drugs will never get you to.

It's a myth that drugs can help you escape, they actually limit the brains ability to meditate. Without drugs and with the proper technique your mind can be absolutely miraculous.

 

Drugs are merely there to cause the chemical reactions more quickly. Sure the brain is capable of it on its own through various stimuli that doesn't include drugs, but the result is the same.

 

I understand your angle, and I'm not unsympathetic to it, but Salvia is a very intense drug. It's intense enough to destroy an unsuspecting mind. I'd put it up there with sniffing paint--it's that bad.

 

Required? Not at all.

Effective for some? Certainly.

 

And you know this because you've never done drugs?

No, you can't reach the same states. That is utter nonsense. Try replicating even marijuana via mediation and see how far that gets you.

Yet another example of someone who doesn't get it.

 

Totally understandable. I don't do coke because it makes me feel invincible and violent in a way that other drugs don't. Tachycardia, a heart condition, would make me think twice even more.

Ehhh. I don't buy the arguments that you can alter your consciousness through will as much as through drugs--seems virtually impossible.

 

Oh yeah. Hell, Christopher Hitchens owned people on a daily basis while he was wasted lol.

 

Now that is really strange because I Don't know anyone who used acid in the sixties and seventies who used it as a sex drug. Just way too intense. Now maybe at the very end of the trip but never ever near the peak. Maybe acid today is much weaker than in the old days.