caldwell.the.great wrote:At first the whole "see God and aliens!" crap really appealed to me, if only because I thought altered states of consciousness were interesting, especially where they intersected with religion. I guess that's still somewhat the case, but now I'm also curious about what it means to "alter" perception. What does that feel like?
Luke I just wrote you a massive response then the computer froze in the home stretch... so here's condensed version of my anecdotal report:
- deeply philosophical, more than anticipated
- mental reservations dissolve, self-awareness diminished
- I was able to focus on positives, just letting negative thoughts float by
- examined my station in life and came away feeling
![Image](http://i48.tinypic.com/szh0mq.gif)
- had visual moving sculpture fantasy art while my eyes were closed, this had great meaning
I think it's for you, man. Just get outdoors with someone you feel comfortable with and set aside 6 hours or so. There are studies that show that people basically DON'T have bad trips if they're high the right environment. I will find these for you if you like. Basically there's been a resurgence of study into psylocibin's use for legit therapeutics.
Here's a post from before, hopefully not too redundant:
Necrometer wrote:I just tripped on mushrooms and there's still no god - take that, assholes!
Necrometer wrote:thürstön.3®®0® wrote:you know ross, you'd either be the best or worst possible person to trip with. either way, i bet it'd be worth it.
hahaha, the most interesting point was ... well first of all having no mental inhibitions means you're more animal-like, right? definitely i could sympathise with a dog chasing his tail because WHY NOT. so yeah, the mushroom kingdom is a more animal, less "human" place because the self-awareness drops away. and then at the same time i felt my internal laguange devolving into pure abstract thought - symbology instead of articulated things, poetry as #1 mode of thought. and i realized that this abstract/symbolic/poetic mode of thinking - it's the essence of art. at its essentual core art is really just a purely symbolic language to convey correlations, emotions, etc - right? so - here i am thinking purely artistically, in a sense. but going in, I definitely considered art as a human singularity - something animals don't/won't/can't make or appreciate. so even though my self consciousness is stripped and I am less human, i am helpless but to think in this hyper-artistic and hence hyper-human mode of abstract poetic symbology. i thought it was a conundrum, but... maybe it all adds up. maybe art is cherished by man because it is a reversion to the symbolic language that is the most advanced mode possible for non-human animals. i think dogs/cats/birds/whatever can see/comprehend these symbolic connections -
image = food etc etc etc... if you are not self-aware and sentient, this correlation that
image = food must remain abstract. but for us it's concrete. and we strive to make concrete so many things ... EVERYTHING! so maybe art speaks to that abstract and fundamental animal language that we've suppressed/ignored/whatever.
also there was a anti-getting-sunburnt sign that said "SLIP on a shirt" and someone stuck a BANANA BOAT suntan lotion sticker next to it - i was absolutely delighted by the idea of banana shirts for people to slip (i.e. trip and fall) on.