National Geographic - Inside LSD

[duck]

I think you're mistaking chronic weed smoking or over-indulgence in hallucinogens as a cause of being out-of-touch with reality and generally retarded for general disparities in the population of people who can think like they're not a fucking retard, and people who are just so stupid through their own laziness.

I know PLENTY of long term LSD and THC users who are in-touch with the world, and I have plenty of straight friends who are completely lost and generally retarded. Some people are just retarded, ya know?

[More Feen]

Originally Posted by duck

I know PLENTY of long term LSD and THC users who are in-touch with the world, and I have plenty of straight friends who are completely lost and generally retarded. Some people are just retarded, ya know?

Agree ^^^

I've seen a lot of "straight arrow" types who've bought into the whole "Money = Good" and "More $$ = Better" and many are miserable, empty people.

You know having enough money is important, but when your whole life has been devoted to making cash by any means, at some point you're going to reflect on just how vain & meaningless your life is, well maybe you will.

I do understand what Suboxer is saying, and I agree that I'd prefer not to work with many potheads/ & wasted acidheads. With acid/shrooms and maybe mescaline use, one often reaches a point where further tripping is not really going to add anything of significance.

In that sense, these drugs can limit their use, or help the person understand that you've received all of the insight that these drugs can offer.

If this is NOT a revelation that comes to the user, then they will indeed burn-out, I mean how many times can you sit around your pad for 12 hours watching the walls melt listening to Sgt. Peppers'?

Then again, the closed-eye visuals and brilliant, enhanced imagination--the immaculate details of some of those visions and the power of your thoughts coming to fruition (at least visually, tactilely, audioly (?? you know what I mean) can make the occasional trip worthwhile. I dunno....

Now at crucial points in a person's life, additional use/tripping may be helpful to overcome psychological hang-ups, and can help a person get over a particular hurdle (divorce, death, illness, etc...).

There are people who flat-out hate tripping (never gonna do THAT again) and those that absolutely love it.

Its been too many years since my last venture, writing this post has rekindled my interest. I think it might be a good time to revisit an old friend.

M F

Sorry long post--just a rambling on.... .. . . . . .. .. . ... . . . ... ... . . . ... ... . . . ...

[digby]

Originally Posted by Suboxer

And that's exactly why I stay away from the god damned hallucinogens. It's not an expansion of consciousness, it's self-delusion. Hallucinogens don't damage society as much as other drugs, as they are not conducive to crime: but they damage the mind and ego of the individual consuming them more than any other, and destroy relationships the user has with "normal" sane, non-burned out people (as jacky mentioned, "acid-head fallout") just as efficiently as hard drug addiction. Dealing with an obvious long-term pot smoker is one of my worst nightmares at work, and I can tell by speaking to someone for two sentences if they did too much acid "back in the day." There are probably tons of people out there who didn't get fucked up by it, but there are plenty that did. They are off in space, believing what they want, and, in a word, annoying. The ones that obviously smoke daily or did too many hallucinogens are a pain in the balls. The ones that aren't obvious about it aren't: but, with the percentage of people that ARE obvious, I don't think there are many more hardcore potheads around, unless America is 10% daily smokers/burned out hippies.

I tend to be more often annoyed by the ones that didn't do enough hallucinogens rather than those that did too many. As far as hallucinogens causing self-delusion, that may be one of the most self deluded statements I have ever heard. People may not always respond well to the doors that hallucinogens open, but they are almost invariably doors being opened, not being shut.

Alchohol, speed and opiates on the other hand tend to close doors more often than open them - but for some these drugs can also open vistas previously unavailable. But just like life, everyone experiences drugs and drug experiancess differently so the height of delusion in my book would be to assume that everyone had the same experiences as you did while under the influence of near identical drugs.

[robothanded]

Originally Posted by Suboxer

And that's exactly why I stay away from the god damned hallucinogens. It's not an expansion of consciousness, it's self-delusion. Hallucinogens don't damage society as much as other drugs, as they are not conducive to crime: but they damage the mind and ego of the individual consuming them more than any other, and destroy relationships the user has with "normal" sane, non-burned out people (as jacky mentioned, "acid-head fallout") just as efficiently as hard drug addiction. Dealing with an obvious long-term pot smoker is one of my worst nightmares at work, and I can tell by speaking to someone for two sentences if they did too much acid "back in the day." There are probably tons of people out there who didn't get fucked up by it, but there are plenty that did. They are off in space, believing what they want, and, in a word, annoying. The ones that obviously smoke daily or did too many hallucinogens are a pain in the balls. The ones that aren't obvious about it aren't: but, with the percentage of people that ARE obvious, I don't think there are many more hardcore potheads around, unless America is 10% daily smokers/burned out hippies.

That's quite the generalization. and how exactly do they damage the mind? and if anything, they bring relationships closer.. I'm not sure where you're getting your info from.. maybe "war on drugs" propaganda, but it's not true.

I've known a vast array of people who have delved into the world of psychedelia many times over, and are still as sane as the day they were naive, including myself. The only "threat" that hasn't even been proven yet, is that people with a predisposition to mental illness after taking a psychedelics may bring it about latently.

What scares you so much about people who are introverted?

[nodrover]

I watched this video on YouTube as soon as you posted about it (it's divided into 5 parts, about 8 min each). I found it really interesting.....I really hope they find something significant in their research; significant enough to spark the interest of other countries to conduct their own research.

And damn, when I saw that guy suffering from his cluster headache, I really felt for him. I had never heard of those before, and it looks fucking brutal!! I mean if the only thing that helps him is either Bromo or a hallucinogen, why not let him have it? Not a dose to trip him out, just enough to elevate the serotonin a little! Idk.......But yeah hurray for the comeback of LSD research!!!

[duck]

Originally Posted by More Feen

I've seen a lot of "straight arrow" types who've bought into the whole "Money = Good" and "More $$ = Better" and many are miserable, empty people.

And then you have the total schmucks like me who ate more than their fair share of hallucinogens and are still obsessed with money!

[30_Units]

Maintenance man just has his things with tripping y'all, go easy, don't forget, he was destroyed by a tactical hippy that dosed him (handed him) with the nefarious downs-inducing crystal!

[Thanat0s]

Originally Posted by Suboxer

And that's exactly why I stay away from the god damned hallucinogens. It's not an expansion of consciousness, it's self-delusion. Hallucinogens don't damage society as much as other drugs, as they are not conducive to crime: but they damage the mind and ego of the individual consuming them more than any other, and destroy relationships the user has with "normal" sane, non-burned out people (as jacky mentioned, "acid-head fallout") just as efficiently as hard drug addiction. Dealing with an obvious long-term pot smoker is one of my worst nightmares at work, and I can tell by speaking to someone for two sentences if they did too much acid "back in the day." There are probably tons of people out there who didn't get fucked up by it, but there are plenty that did. They are off in space, believing what they want, and, in a word, annoying. The ones that obviously smoke daily or did too many hallucinogens are a pain in the balls. The ones that aren't obvious about it aren't: but, with the percentage of people that ARE obvious, I don't think there are many more hardcore potheads around, unless America is 10% daily smokers/burned out hippies.

yeah.

[Suboxer]

Hell, tripping didn't make me realize that money wasn't worthwhile. In my tripping days, I had not one valuable insight gained through tripping, though some weird, fucked-up, and at the time, entertaining, times.

What made me realize money, and creature comforts, weren't worth a shit, was active opiate addiction. Even on maintenance I live on a barely subsistence diet, and don't spend much money on anything else - nothing really interests me. Money isn't worth a shit unless it's to feed King Kong: then it's worth the world and more.

I remember Maintenance Man from back before I was registered... I haven't liked tripping since high school and I've seen a couple people fucked up by it (who hasn't?), but something in that dude's head was seriously out of whack, infesting every thread on the fucking board with another of the same old diatrabes about how weed and "psychomimetics" were destroying good, moral, bread-and-butter Christian America. Preaching on about how paranoid and conspiratorial acid and weed made you: hell, he practiced what he preached! I think he's a good example of what I'm talking about here. Acid casualty in the first degree, with some schizophrenia sprinkled to taste.