This isn’t directly relevant, but hopefully helpful.
Another way to look at suffering is that all suffering (psychological) is made of thought. There are a variety of simple mechanical exercises accessible to any somewhat serious person which can reduce the volume of thought, and thus suffering.
What often happens is that we suffer, and then we start thinking about it, trying to figure it out, regretting it etc and that generates more thought, fueling the suffering.
Suffering is made of thought. Worth investigating.
I did a lot of psychedelics in the sixties, and while I don’t regret those experiences, most of us from that era moved on after a couple of years and converted to softer more natural kinds of experiences.
That said, I have seen documentaries where seemingly credible researchers claim lasting benefits to their patients from psychedelic experiences.
DMT is a very interesting substance which you might investigate if you haven’t already. It’s not really a happy drug though, more of a profoundly philosophical drug, as I understand it from a distance. Look for a documentary called “The Spirit Molecule” which tracks a DMT clinical trial conducted by a scientist.
Thanks for the comment. I will watch that documentary. I did watch “How to Change Your Mind” though and it did seem great—may I ask why you and your friends moved on from psychedelics then, aside from the much-quoted legal/cultural issues?
Ah, great. In my previous post I had wanted to aim you at that documentary, but at the moment I couldn’t remember the name, or find it on streaming. So I’m glad you already have it.
Here’s a link to The Spirit Molecule:
To try to answer your question...
For me, the sixties was high school, so my psychedelic use was pretty immature compared to what it might be today. You know, we’d buy LSD on the street and never give a thought to who actually made it. Not very bright!
My memory of why I moved on was that, while I enjoyed all my LSD experiences, it just began to feel like too powerful a drug. Not that the experience was too strong, or unwelcome, but more like the drug being a pollutant. The fact that we were taking street drugs might explain some of that.
Another factor for me personally was I grew up, went on to college, and for awhile was trying to be serious and um, become a drone slave of the corporate gulag :-) which is how I might have expressed it at the time. I got over that and returned to a more hippy philosophy and lifestyle, but didn’t return to LSD.
Another factor at the time was that the entire hippy wing of my generation migrated from psychedelics to natural foods, meditation, back to the land, and other more wholesome approaches to life, which was a good thing.
One life lesson I remember learning from LSD was to roll with it. You know, once you take LSD you’re off on a trip that will take you where it will, and there’s no turning back. So you learned not to try to drive the bus, and instead “go with the flow” and accept whatever was happening in the moment. It was the folks who fought it that tended to get in to trouble.
I’m not at all cynical about LSD, and MIGHT take it again the right circumstances, but it seems I’m not motivated to find those circumstances.
I still smoke pot, which I find to be very useful. But I smoke only the tiniest fraction of what I once did long ago. A hit or two on the pipe once or twice a month, and I’m good.
Finally, I can’t quite calculate the impact LSD had on my relationship with nature, but that relationship has become a very big factor in my life. I lived a block from the beach during the time I was doing LSD, and was an avid surfer, and these early influences probably had something to do with the fact that I spent most of my time in the woods today.
So that’s enough memory lane for now. If you have some other questions you’d like me to address feel free to ask. If I somehow miss your reply, feel free to PM.
Good luck with your project, pretty darn interesting!
This isn’t directly relevant, but hopefully helpful.
Another way to look at suffering is that all suffering (psychological) is made of thought. There are a variety of simple mechanical exercises accessible to any somewhat serious person which can reduce the volume of thought, and thus suffering.
What often happens is that we suffer, and then we start thinking about it, trying to figure it out, regretting it etc and that generates more thought, fueling the suffering.
Suffering is made of thought. Worth investigating.
I did a lot of psychedelics in the sixties, and while I don’t regret those experiences, most of us from that era moved on after a couple of years and converted to softer more natural kinds of experiences.
That said, I have seen documentaries where seemingly credible researchers claim lasting benefits to their patients from psychedelic experiences.
DMT is a very interesting substance which you might investigate if you haven’t already. It’s not really a happy drug though, more of a profoundly philosophical drug, as I understand it from a distance. Look for a documentary called “The Spirit Molecule” which tracks a DMT clinical trial conducted by a scientist.
Thanks for the comment. I will watch that documentary. I did watch “How to Change Your Mind” though and it did seem great—may I ask why you and your friends moved on from psychedelics then, aside from the much-quoted legal/cultural issues?
Ah, great. In my previous post I had wanted to aim you at that documentary, but at the moment I couldn’t remember the name, or find it on streaming. So I’m glad you already have it.
Here’s a link to The Spirit Molecule:
To try to answer your question...
For me, the sixties was high school, so my psychedelic use was pretty immature compared to what it might be today. You know, we’d buy LSD on the street and never give a thought to who actually made it. Not very bright!
My memory of why I moved on was that, while I enjoyed all my LSD experiences, it just began to feel like too powerful a drug. Not that the experience was too strong, or unwelcome, but more like the drug being a pollutant. The fact that we were taking street drugs might explain some of that.
Another factor for me personally was I grew up, went on to college, and for awhile was trying to be serious and um, become a drone slave of the corporate gulag :-) which is how I might have expressed it at the time. I got over that and returned to a more hippy philosophy and lifestyle, but didn’t return to LSD.
Another factor at the time was that the entire hippy wing of my generation migrated from psychedelics to natural foods, meditation, back to the land, and other more wholesome approaches to life, which was a good thing.
One life lesson I remember learning from LSD was to roll with it. You know, once you take LSD you’re off on a trip that will take you where it will, and there’s no turning back. So you learned not to try to drive the bus, and instead “go with the flow” and accept whatever was happening in the moment. It was the folks who fought it that tended to get in to trouble.
I’m not at all cynical about LSD, and MIGHT take it again the right circumstances, but it seems I’m not motivated to find those circumstances.
I still smoke pot, which I find to be very useful. But I smoke only the tiniest fraction of what I once did long ago. A hit or two on the pipe once or twice a month, and I’m good.
Finally, I can’t quite calculate the impact LSD had on my relationship with nature, but that relationship has become a very big factor in my life. I lived a block from the beach during the time I was doing LSD, and was an avid surfer, and these early influences probably had something to do with the fact that I spent most of my time in the woods today.
So that’s enough memory lane for now. If you have some other questions you’d like me to address feel free to ask. If I somehow miss your reply, feel free to PM.
Good luck with your project, pretty darn interesting!
Cool, thanks for the interesting perspective!