Does anyone agree that the value of pot far exceeds all other psychedelics combined?

[Bagseed]

I had a lot of what I thought were profound realizations while being high on Cannabis, but the truth is that they always fade away when you come down. In my opinion, Cannabis can be a good cognitive modulator (for me being more focused, stimulating in the morning, sedating in the evening, etc (that being low doses, frequently administered)), but my psychedelic experiences on weed (which I had a lot when being new to it) have given me no real insight other than fun and massive appreciation for nature, art and music. Of course this is awesome too and I definitely took something of this mindset in my sober life, but in hindsight these were mostly hedonistic experiences with a touch of psychedelia.

One experience on 2C-E on the other hand made me accept and love my body, after many years of being overly self-conscious (I was overweight as a child and teenager, which caused me a lot of pain). I never had such a thing with weed.

 

[velmwend]

Effects of drugs differ from person to person but there is a general consensus, I suppose. Pot depresses me and makes me feel paranoid and neurotic. I avoid it like the plague.

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

I get the neurotic bit totally^
Pot just brings out social anxiety like mad, so much so that when I'm sober I wonder why the fuck I was so anti social

 

[BK Bonkey Kong]

I'm really surprised to see the responses in this thread. I definitely have found the most personal "spiritual" value in cannabis. Don't get me wrong, I love psychedelics, and a good trip every now and then can definitely give me new perspective and renewed spirit in life. Marijuana is more of a lifestyle for me however in that it allows me to channel a specific creative mindset on a frequent basis. Psychedelics I find are more good taken every so often to reflect over life a chapter at a time. Marijuana I find is better taken to reflect on the immediate situation, and is very helpful to use for this purpose. I regularly and reliably will have a stressful day at work and then come home and smoke and nuances of the situation will reveal themselves to me within minutes. In fact, I find that the both the "high" feeling and the "lazy, unmotivated" characteristic of marijuana comes from this effect-- marijuana makes people sit around and reflect about things in a different way, and that is what makes the experience enjoyable and makes users more complacent. This also explains the paranoia aspect.

 

[dancing_bear]

on the contrary pot has been the thing that has stopped me from making any progress all these years i have been addicted to it. i would always forget any insights i gained from it or anything else as my memory was clouded. also it made my thinking lazy and habit based. i finally stopped smoking anything at the start of this year and have never been happier. i finally figured some shit out i have been struggling with for over 15 years lol.

but if it works for you, go for it! i did abuse it a lot, it was my personal weakness, because it's an easy drug to do all the time if you have little self restraint.

 

[porkstock]

I would almost agree with psy997, however I don't want to denigrate what you claim to be an honest experience: if you believe pot is good for you so be it. However, I think you are still, as psy997 put it, looking for a drug to 'do the work for you'. It seems to me that you're presupposing (maybe this should be left for the Philosophy board) that there is a god/universal energy that can be connected to, and that such a connection is the definition of spiritual growth. And, moreover, that a mindless/ego-free state is what allows such a connection. I disagree with these notions - I think that spiritual growth takes the form of self awareness and understanding, which leads to a clear and happy mind in day to day life, contrary to the idea that losing ones ego for some time will help the mind. In fact, having self-awareness, that is, understanding the causes and conditions which make out mind what is is, seems to me to be very similar to ego loss; the existence of an ego depends on a conception of independent individual selves, existing apart from their causes. In this way, the 'high' state of mind that psychedelics cause, the divergence of thoughts, is much more beneficial for me in spiritual development. If pot makes you thoughtless and relaxed, I see little lasting benefit. For me, cannabis often causes delusional introspection, to the point where I over think simple things and end up more stressed than I was before. Sorry if I rambled

thanks a lot for that post, and please don't apologize for rambling

that really hit home with me - that you don't need to have ego death in order to grow from psychedelics. i feel that on some level i've always been chasing ego death because it's always hyped up as the LSD breakthrough or something like that.
i really like your take on self awareness as the was toward understanding.

I don't need to be doing something that will fuck me up more than I already am. ಠ_ಠ

do you take SSRIs?

 

[Crashing]

^ ya dude i'm a musician too and i'm WAY better sober than when i smoke weed.

I'm a musician and i'm way more creative/better at writing music under the influence of weed, but i don't smoke it heavily. When i would smoke it heavily the exact opposite would occur. Performance wise, i am undoubtably better after smoking weed. Rather than hearing the music with my ears, weed allows me to absorb the music with my entire being and therefore my sense of groove and dynamic touch increase dramatically - so says the band. In this sense weed has some very important, powerful psychedelic/spiritual attributes for me that i am quite grateful for, but again if i smoke at pothead status, these effects disappear within one day.

 

[treezy z]

^ya tbh i used to get that a few years ago, it went away though. also i'm a producer, i make full tracks which involves a lot of concentration and shit. guitar and such is a different story.

i sometimes combine drugs and music, but it's uppers downers, dissociatives or psychedelics.
usually i'm sober though, i don't want to become dependent on drugs for music.

since weed started making me anxious i can't get ANYTHING done on it.

 

[Crashing]

Hell no, pot is just a sedative that can help you sleep or relax, else it has no value imo.

If it makes you tired, so be it, but cannabis is a psychedelic.

 

[GolemGolem]

Weed certainly does things to my mind, and changes my perspective altering the way I process auditory stimulus. It deserves to be called a psychedelic, and surely the most popular, but not the best for me.
I've become a much more reliably somewhat competent guitarist/knob twiddler since starting to spend most my days sober a few years back. I can still find a flow state sober and just improv out somethings that are way above my ability to reproduce on demand, and play a hell of a lot better with other people. Daily weed made me too lazy to actually develop much, if I flubed a note a couple times that was it, nuts to working on that riff, here are some bar chords.
If there is a god of weed it must of made the high so unpleasant by insulting and threatening me that at the end that I would quit bothering weed god and get my head clear. I'm actually thankful for that.
Jamming and getting into the zone on +/++ trips is one of the best things in life, and I actually have brought a few snippets of things back with me. Speed, guitar, and learning a new technique is also a useful kick in the pants every once in a great while.

 

[Crashing]

^ya tbh i used to get that a few years ago, it went away though. also i'm a producer, i make full tracks which involves a lot of concentration and shit. guitar and such is a different story.

i sometimes combine drugs and music, but it's uppers downers, dissociatives or psychedelics.
usually i'm sober though, i don't want to become dependent on drugs for music.

since weed started making me anxious i can't get ANYTHING done on it.

I produce music as well, but only on an at-home basis. I find it beneficial to mix sober, then listen while high on weed and possibly make some adjustments. Make a back up and listen to both when sober again, i usually find the weed-mix to be superior especially in the realm of dynamics and compression. Without weed i tend to boost the bass too much and over compress everything because my hearing is muddled by what i think i know rather than taking the sound for what it is.

 

[howdoyouturnthison]

Weed has never really given me any insight. Some great stoner-moments, but that's it. Real psychedelics are far more rewarding insight-wise in my opinion. Both classic psychedelics, entactogenics and dissociatives have a great way of changing the way I think, both in the moment, the day after and in general.

 

[bloodshed344]

Drugs don't have much impact on the way I think (in the long run). It's true that DXM did forever change my religious views in an instant, and that psychedelic experiences made me more social. But I think what really changes a person is experiences, that skin tingling feeling of realization. That feeling that is so deep and euphoric and satisfying that you have to act on it.

I definitely believe weed can play a part in such experiences, but I don't think it's the easiest way to go about it. No matter what drugs you do, it is going to be this phenomenon that changes you. Even a sober person this applies to.

 

[rave_itsrealfun!!!]

burn out: nice post, I agree with you completely.

Psychedelics just fucked my body up with repeated use, therefore limiting my ability to transcend. I do not use them whatsoever anymore, and I used to have a big interest - that turned out to be incredibly unsustainable and just plain stupid to get involved in. Nowadays, I think they are sheer and utter nonsense. I regret even touching them. I learned nothing and my health took a big hit. I was responsible with them as could be (and I can be irresponsible as fuck with weed...). And that isn't even too uncommon of a reaction with this stuff. I will never understand how a human can screw their brains with hard psychedelics, while acting like they give a shit about their life.

Cannabis is everything to me: a no-nonsense (well, maybe a little) approach to spirituality, and vaporization can be quite complementary to a healthy, stable lifestyle. I have used it thousands and thousands of times, and I love it more than ever now. It promotes knowledge, sanity, truth, and self-confrontation in myself. Slow and steady wins the race.

I do not vibe with psychedelic users. Many of them seem to be letting their egos get the best of them in a really dangerous way. Taking psychedelics in copious doses even a handful of times is a big risk to your mental and physical health - if you don't see that then seriously what planet are you living on, take a second look - and as a chill stoner content with the way things are unfolding I simply have no use for that junk.

 

[bloodshed344]

burn out: nice post, I agree with you completely.

Psychedelics just fucked my body up with repeated use, therefore limiting my ability to transcend. I do not use them whatsoever anymore, and I used to have a big interest - that turned out to be incredibly unsustainable and just plain stupid to get involved in. Nowadays, I think they are sheer and utter nonsense. I regret even touching them. I learned nothing and my health took a big hit. I was responsible with them as could be (and I can be irresponsible as fuck with weed...). And that isn't even too uncommon of a reaction with this stuff. I will never understand how a human can screw their brains with hard psychedelics, while acting like they give a shit about their life.

Cannabis is everything to me: a no-nonsense (well, maybe a little) approach to spirituality, and vaporization can be quite complementary to a healthy, stable lifestyle. I have used it thousands and thousands of times, and I love it more than ever now. It promotes knowledge, sanity, truth, and self-confrontation in myself. Slow and steady wins the race.

I do not vibe with psychedelic users. Many of them seem to be letting their egos get the best of them in a really dangerous way. Taking psychedelics in copious doses even a handful of times is a big risk to your mental and physical health - if you don't see that then seriously what planet are you living on, take a second look - and as a chill stoner content with the way things are unfolding I simply have no use for that junk.

Don't come to this forum inciting trouble like that. I have tripped almost 100 times in the past 2 years, I started psychedelics when I was 18. I may have even tripped more than 100 times, I don't keep count. The point is? I'm more sane than you, I'm more rational than almost anyone I meet. My flaws? I'm lazy... That's about it. Just because you're CRAZY doesn't mean psychedelics are bad. It's not very uncommon because there happen to be a good bit of CRAZY people. They can't handle psychedelics too well. I've never even had any form of delusion, delerium, or psychosis in any of my trips.

Your words are untrue and relate only to your personal experience. Furthermore, you're a jerk.

 

[psy997]

and as a chill stoner content with the way things are unfolding I simply have no use for that junk.

Exactly, weed makes you content. Psychedelics show you what you can and/or should change to make life better for you, and those around you.

You are severely deluded if you believe psychedelics are a harm to both mental and physical health.

I would guess that you tripped lots while in a bad place in life (not putting effort into what needs to be done, not being emotionally/spiritually fulfilled/etc.) and had horrible times, which is to be expected, and have thus cast off psychedelics for the long run. You're running away from the truth.

 

[TheAppleCore]

Your words are untrue and relate only to your personal experience. Furthermore, you're a jerk.

QFT. Burn_out's opinion was stated in a respectful way. It's another kettle of fish to come here and tell us that we're "screwing with our brains" with "junk" drugs.

 

[Morninggloryseed]

Weird because I consider pot the 1st psychedelic and the insights I have obtained with it are often far more 'accessible' and translatable to daily life. If it means anything, I have a close friend who never saw cannabis as an entheogen until he started smoking with me....suddenly he has psychedelic expeirences on pot. More than anything I think it is safe to say the effects of pot vary with set, setting, and intent...like any psychedelic actually.

Weed has never really given me any insight. Some great stoner-moments, but that's it. Real psychedelics are far more rewarding insight-wise in my opinion. Both classic psychedelics, entactogenics and dissociatives have a great way of changing the way I think, both in the moment, the day after and in general.

 

[fluffypenguinz7]

The best thing psychedelics have taught me that weed never did was to love n care for anything n everything no matter what :D

 

[Morninggloryseed]

The best thing psychedelics have taught me that weed never did was to love n care for anything n everything no matter what :D

I think I could fully agree with that. There are (seemingly) certainly lessons the 'real' psychedelics being to the table that I've never really picked up with cannabis....but that could very well be to set, context, etc.

Exactly, weed makes you content. Psychedelics show you what you can and/or should change to make life better for you, and those around you.

Well I disagree...I think that is more personality related...a lot of lazy content people smoke marijuana. But I will agree that being content does not tend to led to self improvement and striding for something better.