the altered state of consciousness thread

[Vimana]

I can't really do anything but drink anymore. After doing psychedelics a lot, I couldn't help but notice the changes in my body and mind while doing them. The same thing happened with weed, too. I couldn't help get uncomfortable knowing things like that my veins were tightening and my brain chemistry was changing.

On alcohol, though, my brain's slowed down enough I can't even think about it. I've been drinking more than I should be lately. It's nice to have my mind stop wandering for once without the effort meditation takes, but I am going to quit at some point. I gradually get more and more uncomfortable with the idea that certain kinds of entertainment require substances with bad side effects.

Last drug I did besides alcohol was shrooms, and I freaked out because for a moment, my brain went totally robotic and I saw my own joys and passions the same way I'd see a lizard sticking its tongue out at a cricket. It's obviously a sign of hunger, but I have no connection to it. It means nothing to me other than that it is an interesting thing to occupy my time. My emotions were just a meaningless piece of nature, an animal function that had no greater meaning. After that moment, though, I felt like everything was worthless and started screaming, but luckily, my friend was with me and played devil's advocate to my apathy and I became happy again. Still, that's a place I know my mind should never go.

 

[monoxide_child]

Has anyone dabbled in research chemicals?

yes

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Last drug I did besides alcohol was shrooms, and I freaked out because for a moment, my brain went totally robotic and I saw my own joys and passions the same way I'd see a lizard sticking its tongue out at a cricket. It's obviously a sign of hunger, but I have no connection to it. It means nothing to me other than that it is an interesting thing to occupy my time. My emotions were just a meaningless piece of nature, an animal function that had no greater meaning. After that moment, though, I felt like everything was worthless and started screaming, but luckily, my friend was with me and played devil's advocate to my apathy and I became happy again. Still, that's a place I know my mind should never go.

That sounds like an authentic epiphany. You're far less different from a lizard than you probably pretend to be on a daily basis.

 

[Vimana]

I think about humans in a purely zoological way on a regular basis, but that was the first time I felt like there was nothing special about my own emotions, not just thinking that. I got past the freakout later by realizing that freaking out in the first place meant I cared about feeling a sense of meaning in the meaning I find/create in my animal brain.

On second thought, this trip further shattered the logic/emotion dichotomy I often see all over the place. Emotion is the driving force of logic, but it does not necessarily equate to motivated reasoning. It takes emotion to want to figure out the truth in a purely objective way, but it takes a desire to believe a preconception to delude oneself. Logic has felt much less robotic ever since this trip, mostly because I realize on another level what it means to choose what is meaningful or not.

It's a matter of choice between focusing my mind entirely on a phenomenon, or using part of my mental faculties to compare it to a grand scheme, something so grand and beyond my current understanding that I cannot measure it, which would render anything meaningless.

Edit: But getting back to your point, it gets annoying when people act like humans are divine to the point of being beyond the realm of circumstance and cause and effect. Our brains are reactionary machines just as much as a lizard's, but ours react in much more complicated ways. That's not to say human brains aren't amazing, though.

 

[monoxide_child]

I think about humans in a purely zoological way on a regular basis, but that was the first time I felt like there was nothing special about my own emotions, not just thinking that. I got past the freakout later by realizing that freaking out in the first place meant I cared about feeling a sense of meaning in the meaning I find/create in my animal brain.

On second thought, this trip further shattered the logic/emotion dichotomy I often see all over the place. Emotion is the driving force of logic, but it does not necessarily equate to motivated reasoning. It takes emotion to want to figure out the truth in a purely objective way, but it takes a desire to believe a preconception to delude oneself. Logic has felt much less robotic ever since this trip, mostly because I realize on another level what it means to choose what is meaningful or not.

It's a matter of choice between focusing my mind entirely on a phenomenon, or using part of my mental faculties to compare it to a grand scheme, something so grand and beyond my current understanding that I cannot measure it, which would render anything meaningless.

Edit: But getting back to your point, it gets annoying when people act like humans are divine to the point of being beyond the realm of circumstance and cause and effect. Our brains are reactionary machines just as much as a lizard's, but ours react in much more complicated ways. That's not to say human brains aren't amazing, though.

maybe this discussion should be moved to the philosopher's forum

 

[monoxide_child]

just found out my roommates are actually growing all the weed that they smoke

 

[damnromulans]

Your lies are falling apart, you're supposed to live under a bridge

 

[monoxide_child]

Your lies are falling apart, you're supposed to live under a bridge

yes
i'm living under a bridge in a spot with six other people living in the same spot

we're inside a walled-in spot where we have to climb over rocks to get in there
it's a pretty big area
it's a spot that's designed to stay dry durring a flood

 

[Nephilim96]

Where do you post from? You have a computer in that hole under the bridge?

 

[monoxide_child]

Where do you post from? You have a computer in that hole under the bridge?

i post from the public library

 

[crimsonfloyd]

I think about humans in a purely zoological way on a regular basis, but that was the first time I felt like there was nothing special about my own emotions, not just thinking that. I got past the freakout later by realizing that freaking out in the first place meant I cared about feeling a sense of meaning in the meaning I find/create in my animal brain.

On second thought, this trip further shattered the logic/emotion dichotomy I often see all over the place. Emotion is the driving force of logic, but it does not necessarily equate to motivated reasoning. It takes emotion to want to figure out the truth in a purely objective way, but it takes a desire to believe a preconception to delude oneself. Logic has felt much less robotic ever since this trip, mostly because I realize on another level what it means to choose what is meaningful or not.

See, so as awful as the trip was when it was happening, you're a better person with a deeper understand of himself because of it!

Edit: But getting back to your point, it gets annoying when people act like humans are divine to the point of being beyond the realm of circumstance and cause and effect. Our brains are reactionary machines just as much as a lizard's, but ours react in much more complicated ways. That's not to say human brains aren't amazing, though.

Yes, it's pretty silly that people expect human action to just manifest out of the ether, as if it were magic. The real question is not will a causal factor dictate your actions, but which casual factor will dictate your actions.

I don't really like referring to human or animal brains as "machines" though, since machines are modeled after organic and biological entities, not visa versa. Also, humans and other animals have consciousness and in many cases meaning to their experience, which I think does count for something.

Back to drugs, my friend gave me some mild dissociative last weekend. Can't remember the name: I think it had three letters and started with an "M". Felt kind of like a soft and extended nitrous trip. However, when I went to sleep I had the most intense and visceral lucid dreams.

 

[monoxide_child]

my roommates

you live under a bridge

yes
i'm living under a bridge in a spot with six other people living in the same spot

we're inside a walled-in spot where we have to climb over rocks to get in there
it's a pretty big area
it's a spot that's designed to stay dry durring a flood

should i still refer to the people sleeping next to me as "roommates" even though the structure we're living in is technecly "outdoors"??

 

[Nephilim96]

I was watching a National Geographic show on Heroin, and in Canada, they have government ran places for Heroin uses to get free needles, and supervision while they shoot up. Fucking Canada!

 

[damnromulans]

Back to drugs, my friend gave me some mild dissociative last weekend. Can't remember the name: I think it had three letters and started with an "M". Felt kind of like a soft and extended nitrous trip. However, when I went to sleep I had the most intense and visceral lucid dreams.

Methoxetamine/MXE?

 

[Onder]

should i still refer to the people sleeping next to me as "roommates" even though the structure we're living in is technecly "outdoors"??

Cavemates.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Methoxetamine/MXE?

Sounds about right. I'll have to ask my friend next time I see him.

 

[SentinelSlain]

Monoxide Child, if you can actually read books then surely you have the skills to secure yourself some kind of a less meagre existence. I bet all the people you live with just stink of their socks that they've been wearing for weeks.

Right now I'm sat at a desk in my room in a house in a small town in a middle class white neighbourhood. I didn't do anything to get here other than minimise the amount to which I annoy my mother to a level that does not make her want to throw me out. I thought about moving out, but I'd end up in a city centre in a hell hole city and I really cannot deal with that, as a prospect.

I have declared alcohol to be haram after todays headache and last night's stupidity. Alcohol makes me to stupid to be safe, I could very easily end up in jail or dead after a certain amount of alcohol, say two bottles of wine's worth, if I drink it very quickly.

 

[monoxide_child]

Cavemates.

Monoxide Child, if you can actually read books then surely you have the skills to secure yourself some kind of a less meagre existence. I bet all the people you live with just stink of their socks that they've been wearing for weeks.

actually there is free laundry and showers here http://www.bridgenorthtexas.org/
and here
http://www.ourcalling.org/about/

 

[monoxide_child]

smoked "fake weed" for the 1st time last night, had a bad trip

i've done every drug i can name, but this crap was the worst trip i've ever had

http://www.askthejudge.info/is-smoking-incense-like-k2-or-spice-legal/

 

[Nephilim96]

The question is, how many drugs can you name?