psychedelics, consciousness and things of beauty

I feel like I missed out on something important. Not being born 10 years earlier.

Positive psychedelic experiences often reveal how wondrously at ease in the universe a human being can be

Legend of a Mind, Moody Blues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldSFuEOA9wc

Never get behind the wheel of a car

Seeking accomplishment in climbing on rock or high peaks delivers real high and real enlightenment.

LSD is just plain synthesized marijuana.

“The scare stories have been mostly from naïve people who took too high a dose the first time and the rest were cases of people who were fragile emotionally or mentally. If you’re fragile, or ready to tip over, then anything can send you off center: LSD or falling in love or losing someone or having a big fight with your father.

In the higher dose ranges, people who aren’t used to it sometimes feel they have less control than they would like. It simply has to be learned, like all psychedelics. Once you’re familiar with the quickness of it and realize you can control it whenever you decide you want to, there’s no reason for anxiety.”

Dose is also important. My housemates smoke stuff that would put me under the table, but a couple of hits is fine to study, write, climb, whatever. But not to argue with the ex-, thanks.

Ayahuasca users actually had increased their Serotonin receptor sites and decreased or cured depression

"...At the vanguard of this research is Charles Grob, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at UCLA's School of Medicine. In 1993 Dr. Grob launched the Hoasca Project, the first in-depth study of the physical and psychological effects of ayahuasca on humans. His team went to Brazil, where the plant mixture can be taken legally, to study members of a native church, the União do Vegetal (UDV), who use ayahuasca as a sacrament, and compared them to a control group that had never ingested the substance. The studies found that all the ayahuasca-using UDV members had experienced remission without recurrence of their addictions, depression, or anxiety disorders. In addition, blood samples revealed a startling discovery: Ayahuasca seems to give users a greater sensitivity to serotonin—one of the mood-regulating chemicals produced by the body—by increasing the number of serotonin receptors on nerve cells.

Unlike most common antidepressants, which Grob says can create such high levels of serotonin that cells may actually compensate by losing many of their serotonin receptors, the Hoasca Project showed that ayahuasca strongly enhances the body's ability to absorb the serotonin that's naturally there.

"Ayahuasca is perhaps a far more sophisticated and effective way to treat depression than SSRIs [antidepressant drugs]," Grob concludes, adding that the use of SSRIs is "a rather crude way" of doing it. And ayahuasca, he insists, has great potential as a long-term solution. ..

What I learned was that studies had been done on members of the UDV, one of the religions that use the tea as a sacrament, which indicated ayahuasca was a powerful anti-depressant which treated the cause of the condition rather than the symptom. In short, most depression is caused by problems with the way the brain processes serotonin, which could be called the “mood” neurotransmitter. Prescription antidepressants work by various means to keep serotonin in the synapses longer. Ayahuasca contains DMT, which bonds to the 5-htp receptor sites, the same sites as serotonin. The DMT bonds at a higher rate, and the body adapts to this by increasing the number of 5-htp receptor sites, making better use of natural serotonin levels.

The UDV studies stated regular drinkers of the tea were less depressed, more social and more organized than the control groups, and that there were no physical or mental side effects to long term use in healthy individuals. Ayahuasca seemed to be an anti-depressant that treated the cause, had a better psychological outcome, and no side effects. The final factor in my decision was some of the people who I met at the conference. Many of them were long term drinkers of the tea from countries where it has been legalized. I found them to be some of the most grounded, sane, kind, and generally healthy people I had ever met.

Maybe there is no straight up yes or no afterall.

The so called psychedelic experience and supposed enlightenment from acid, mescaline, mushrooms etc is bullsh#t. It's straight up poisoning.

I was led down that path as a youth and after much experience I came to the conclusion that it was a monumental waste of time.

Take a close look at anyone promoting these trips. Do you really want to be like them?

Absolutely no evidence of brain damage

I would suggest that those of us with self esteem issues or suffering from depression stay the f*#k away from psychedelics. Once you swallow the jagged little pill the self-exam won't stop for a very long time.... Sometimes too much personal information is just TMI, nawmean?..A little self delusion is good for the modern man.

DR, Karl, that's pretty good beta, too, don't you think?

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0603/features/peru.html[/quote]

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DR, Karl, that's pretty good beta, too, don't you think

It is an irony of life that a pathological condition in the brain like a stroke, for instance, or hypoxia can give us what we seek - (a feeling of) nirvana

the more long term affects on subtle things like patience.

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." — Stephen Hawking

The wheel is turning and you can't slow down,
You can't let go and you can't hold on,
You can't go back and you can't stand still,
If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will.

It's interesting that people on here say that evil scientists are out to debunk the benefits of these drugs.....did ya ever think the other way around in which some evil scientists are out to prove these drugs are actually safe?

How is it that the scientific community agrees that these drugs are harmful, yet everyone else that uses them think that they know better?

Chat me up at a campfire sometime and I'd share a couple stories. The Taco is not a campfire.

In the box score his name would be "Ellis, D." .. let that sink in

One summer he did the LSD free soloing trip every other night or so for a month or so.
He dropped the acid in the late evening.
Then disappeared to free solo something from midnight on.
Every morning I had to look for him to see if he's still alive.
Some mornings I could not find him.
I figured he's toast and will have to get the body bag and everyone will be sad.
Buuuuttttt he always appeared at some time later, his hair all over the place and his face had the look of a psycho .........

salvia is not kind or friendly.

, ,

"Were the eye not sunny,
It could never behold the sun;
If the power of the mind were not in matter,
How could matter disturb the mind.

it's role in limbic system dysfunction and development of central sensitivity syndromes such as fibromyalgia and multiple chemical sensitivity. Much of that will include the global manifestations of yin and yang in neuron cell membrane depolarization/repolarization, acid/alkaline, oxidation/reduction, sympathetic/parasympathetic, etc.

I kinda miss acid

Werner: Only lazy clueless people do psychedelics and think it increases consciousness. It takes real hard work not swallowing psychedelics ....