The "Reset Button" Effect, a.k.a. Psychedelics Catalyzing Lifestyle Changes

[Obelus]

haha i feel like 'integrate' is the magic word of this thread

 

[killo]

LSD and smoked salvia for some reason always reset me, but I don't recommend smoking salvia and neither will I ever again.

Do it orally, salvia isn't meant to be smoked hence why it's nothing but a bad experience generally.

 

[Listening]

Also, how can you become more than you are?

In one sense, clearly we can't: we are who we are (in that we are mostly chained to our physical body and we can't erase our history).

However, in a another very real sense, we can become more than who we are, and indeed those of us that "get it" have been overcoming who we are and growing consistently. I know I certainly have (and well before starting to use psychedelics).

Think of it as a maturing process: growing from a child into an adult. Except that the "ideal" adult (for you) is some unattainable goal - a seemingly unscalable mountain. If you "get it", you'll be scaling this mountain until the day you die. And at death you will be simultaneously humble (for the peak will still be distant) and a greater person than you ever imagined you could become.

At a personal level I've sensed all this intuitively (though not always clearly) from since I was a child. It has been a painful road, but following it has consistently made life better and I would never ever wish to lose what I have learnt along the way. And what about the stuff that I don't yet know or that I misunderstand? I imagine I'll feel the same about those things one day. And so I fight on, with psychedelics being but one tool in my arsenal of personal growth.

 

[cmeloni81]

What about Ibogaine, I have thought about the issue of psychedelics resetting the mind and I think that the reason heroin addict are able to take Ibogaine and experience no withdrawl symptoms is because the trip actually resets the mind to produce the proper chemical levels (i.e. dopamine). Cool topic though.

 

[Jamshyd]

Argh. It seems like every time I drop acid, I become convinced that I've finally been gifted with the inspiration I need to permanently change my life for the better. It feels like I'll never come down... and then I do. The problem is that the lifestyle changes I envision during the psychedelic experience demand a compassion and love for others, and a zeal for life itself, that is difficult for me to summon in sobriety.

I hate the feeling of a good dose of a psychedelic wearing off - it's like a cage being slowly constructed around my mind, of which I was so certain I was forever rid...

HELP PLZ. MAKE MY LIFESTYLE CHANGES 4 ME.


I really can't complain though - I'm pretty happy with the way I live my life. That, however, doesn't stop me from wanting to strive for something better!




Agreed - I often use the analogy of morning sunlight waking one from a nightmarish slumber to describe the psychedelic experience to novices.

First, I am very happy to see you're still posting

And second, I will tell you that I personally stopped taking psychedelics seriously for this very reason. Psychedelics are like binoculars - no matter how hard you stare at that mountain top, you'll never get there.

My last few experiments with psychedelics (DET) were pure curiosity.

---

Dissociatives (Ketamine in particular) on the other hand, are different. Ketamine does have a "reset button" effect for me, and this effect is so widely associated with this drug that it is even found in authoritative literature (cf. Jansen 2005).

Furthermore, the pharmacology of Ketamine differs widely from that of psychedelics, as it is capable of changing the very connections that neurons make with each other (Nestler et al, 2009).

 

[ikkyu]

Though it was LSD and mushrooms that gave me that "being woken up by morning sunlight" effect, it was 2C-E that allowed me to step back and examine my depressive thought habits from a neutral point of view and strategize about how to restructure those habits of mind. So with the former two the experience was one of an immediate "reset" effect (waking up to the beauty of being alive, etc.), whereas with the latter it was a more gradual process of resetting key mental and behavioral patterns over time.

I still haven't realized any of the metaprogramming/reset button potential of ketamine, and I'm beginning to suspect that dissociatives just aren't my thing. Something about them creeps me out. Who knows though, the next time I try (probably with a 5HT2a agonist) could very well change my mind about it.

 

[Delta-9-THC]

What about Ibogaine, I have thought about the issue of psychedelics resetting the mind and I think that the reason heroin addict are able to take Ibogaine and experience no withdrawl symptoms is because the trip actually resets the mind to produce the proper chemical levels (i.e. dopamine). Cool topic though.

Doesn't ibogaine actually cause permanent physical changes in the brain?

 

[TheAppleCore]

First, I am very happy to see you're still posting

And second, I will tell you that I personally stopped taking psychedelics seriously for this very reason. Psychedelics are like binoculars - no matter how hard you stare at that mountain top, you'll never get there.

My last few experiments with psychedelics (DET) were pure curiosity.

---

Dissociatives (Ketamine in particular) on the other hand, are different. Ketamine does have a "reset button" effect for me, and this effect is so widely associated with this drug that it is even found in authoritative literature (cf. Jansen 2005).

Furthermore, the pharmacology of Ketamine differs widely from that of psychedelics, as it is capable of changing the very connections that neurons make with each other (Nestler et al, 2009).

Great to see you posting here in PD as well, Jamshyd.

The binocular analogy strikes me as quite fitting - although I will concede that I've derived some long-term benefits from psychedelic usage, specifically with respect to shaping the subconscious functions of the mind in a healthy way, as opposed to catalyzing positive ~conscious~ change. I think one of the most noteworthy such effects would be an apparent expansion of my "musical palette". It seems like the usage of LSD has allowed me to express (and perceive) a wider spectrum of emotions through music, as well as allowing my playing to become more free by lowering "improvisational inhibition". Nothing radical, but a doubtless effect of the drug.

Regardless of whether I'll ever set foot upon it, I find that the beauty of the mountaintop vista itself is enough to justify the role that psychedelics play in my life.


For some reason I still haven't paid much effort to the acquisition of a proper dissociative, but the more I learn about them, the more my interest rises. Coincidentally enough, not too long ago I had recalled your advocacy of ketamine and made a mental note to start looking into it more seriously.

 

[perpetualdawn]

bump