Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: Cactusjoe on September 09, 2012, 01:01 pm
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Due to reading massive amounts of info on the web about MDMA and finding that I found it limiting in what it had to offer me I started to become curious about psychedelics. At first I was lead to believe that all psychedelics involved were pretty colours and potential mental issues. I wondered how on earth this could be true, how could literature such as 'The Doors of Perception' by Aldous Huxley, 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' featuring Ken Kesey and his pranksters and an entire social movement (I don't mean to say the movements in the 60s and 70s totally depended on LSD and other psychedelics, but they undoubtedly played a large part) come from a class of drugs that made you visually hallucinate.
I researched psychedelics and their properties to a greater extent, I stumbled across the fact they allow you to feel at peace and content with the world, to reassess your beliefs and to experience joy when you learn you're part of a bigger picture, one consciousness that subtly flows as one.
Other reading about the conscious mind has lead me to how our ego is understood. Sigmund Freud's idea's about the id and the ego fascinate me hugely, the notion that when you're born you see the world in it's true form. As of yet you have no experiences to craft what Freud calls the ego. Age brings experience and with experience you form an ego. This ego taints how you see the world, you gain expectations of what an activity you perform will be like and how you go about performing the activity in question will differ from another person's choices and path due to past experiences.
Does the ego really taint how we see the world? How different are the paths of two people through life?
Many people talk of Ego Death on psychedelics. Does this experience truly allow you to see the world in it's pure form? Is this oneness and connectedness with everything a truly real experience? Or does it occur because you are so drugged up you can't feel your own legs and are in a state of disillusion and confusion?
I'd love to hear peoples opinions and experiences, all answers are welcome :)
I'm relatively inexperienced with psychedelics (this may well come across to many) but I feel used correctly these natural and man made compounds have huge amounts to offer me and the world.
Thanks for reading :)
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I'm posting so I'll be subscribed to this thread, it should definitely spark some very interesting conversation. Regarding ego, I believe it certainly affects how we view the world, in combination with society / culture, as there is a sense of right and wrong, boundaries, etc that are defined by man. When ego death occurs, in my experience, it is a beautiful unfolding, a feeling of oneness with all and a sense of forever and infinity. I'm looking forward to everyone's thoughts!
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Well, Cactus, as I am currently under the influence of powerful psychedelic compounds, I am unable to form a coherent thought to discuss this, but I assure you I will be back once I am grounded to try to accurately explain my thoughts on this topic as it is very interesting. In the mean time +1 to you for adding depth to a rather mundane Sunday afternoon.
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Thank you both for posting :)
Mush, I definitely agree that society and culture has a massive influence on the way we behave and I would imagine that even if permanent ego loss was possible (apart from being totally lost in a world you no longer understood due to lack of experience) you would still be forced to act and behave in certain ways. I'm very jealous of your experience, I have some DMT and am gathering bitcoins to purchase some acid from SR and when the time comes I hope I can come to terms with some psychedelic ego loss and not completely freak :P
wretched, I hope all goes wonderfully for you and I look forward to your reply :)
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Yes... It's rather sad that with evolution there came ego. What I mean is that before we were defined as Homo Sapiens, we mostly concentrated on survival rather than other people's ideas of ourselves. Nowadays we're afraid to act or behave certain way, because we can feel abandonment if we do so. From a personal point of view, I've only done 1 psychedelic and those were shrooms, as it has been previously mentioned, the entire loss of ego would be drastic, but to be stripped of our ego for just a few hours, to see what life would and could be is really marvelous, but In my opinion complete lack of ego wouldn't also be the perfect scenario.(At least not in the modern days..) I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment, so I'll continue this, later.
~~sitamaja