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The purpose of psychedelics

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chickenclan

Greenlighter
Joined
Jul 22, 2013
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Yesterday I stumbled upon something Terence Mckenna said related to psychedelics, regarding their purpose. I watched the 2 minute video him describing what he thought was the purpose of psychedelics.
But anyway I am curious if people here that do psychedelics actually do it for the reasons he actually describes?
I just wanna hear peoples opinions on the video, here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alg8QXIz9SQ
 
I take psychedlics to escape from reality for a while (dissociatives are the only type of psychedlics I do these days really). Traditional psychadelics are far too unpredictable for my taste. I don't get any kicks really from paying for a horrible experience.
 
Toz said:
I take psychedlics to escape from reality for a while (dissociatives are the only type of psychedlics I do these days really). Traditional psychadelics are far too unpredictable for my taste. I don't get any kicks really from paying for a horrible experience.
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Do you think people should have a purpose when doing psychedelics?
 
chickenclan said:
U take psychedelics for the sake of bringing ideas back to the folks on shore?
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haha, I guess that I interpret what he meant by "the folks on shore" as my sober, conscious self. As in, something I can take away from the entire experience. So the folks on shore is personal, not actually talking about other people.
 
Toz said:
I take psychedlics to escape from reality for a while (dissociatives are the only type of psychedlics I do these days really). Traditional psychadelics are far too unpredictable for my taste. I don't get any kicks really from paying for a horrible experience.
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Sounds like you might have some inner conflicts going on man, as psychedelics are fucking great and blissful once you work through that shit.
 
I thought he was talking about other people. Haha, well at least I can interpret it that way as well, but is there a probability that he meant otherwise?
 
I'm not really sure to be honest, but everything is up to interpretation. McKenna was obviously a hyper-intelligent dude, so I'm not going to be able to fully grasp everything that he says (at least not in the way that he meant it), but everything in life is subjective anyways so it doesn't really matter.
 
Toz said:
I take psychedlics to escape from reality for a while (dissociatives are the only type of psychedlics I do these days really). Traditional psychadelics are far too unpredictable for my taste. I don't get any kicks really from paying for a horrible experience.
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Escape reality? Do you mean to like all the daily troubles and concerns, depression and anxiety stuff type of things?
 
I don't see how its strange. He said he wants to escape reality - meaning his reality must suck - or at least his perception of it. So rather than confronting these problems, he wants to run away from them/escape them - hence why he likes dissassociatives which allow him to "escape" his reality - and why he referred to taking a psychedelic as "paying for a bad expereince" - because psychedelics will force you to deal with these repressed issues rather than helping to escape them.
 
if you want to escape reality for a bit, I would think there are much better psychoactives than psychedelics .... weed and MDMA come to mind
 
I don't really think you should be telling him what he might have as the reasons he might find escaping reality comforting are gigantic. Personally I find it more pleasant to accept reality as is before taking any drug, as I know I will only be returning to fuck land if not getting in line with whatever is there in my sober state. You are just speculating over something you have zero knowledge of and you could just be planting a seed in his brain if he/she is personally unsure.
 
Magickduck said:
I don't see how its strange. He said he wants to escape reality - meaning his reality must suck - or at least his perception of it. So rather than confronting these problems, he wants to run away from them/escape them - hence why he likes dissassociatives which allow him to "escape" his reality - and why he referred to taking a psychedelic as "paying for a bad expereince" - because psychedelics will force you to deal with these repressed issues rather than helping to escape them.
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Exactly. My main problem is physical pain and the arrylcyclohexylamines doesn't just reduce it like opiates, they completely eliminate it. I know using drugs to escape is never a solution to any problem but untill I have found one, it helps to know that I at least have one pain free day to look forward to every week.

Magickduck said:
Sounds like you might have some inner conflicts going on man, as psychedelics are fucking great and blissful once you work through that shit.
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My experience differs though, I still think psychadelics are dangerous and unpredictable for ME. At the age of 18 I had a bad trip on LSD that left emotional scars to this day (6 years later). At the time of ingesting the acid I was not depressed, was not in pain and had a good life overall. Still it went to hell.

On the other hand, I took mushrooms last year when I was feeling more down than ever and had a great fun trip with lots of giggles.

TruffulaTree said:
if you want to escape reality for a bit, I would think there are much better psychoactives than psychedelics .... weed and MDMA come to mind
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Weed I already use daily mostly, screwing with my serotonergic levels when I'm already depressed is not something I think it's a good idea though. I used to use heroin but after being addicted to it for years I am tired of that whole charade too.

chickenclan said:
Do you think people should have a purpose when doing psychedelics?
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I think people should do whatever makes them happy and if that includes taking psychadelics spontanously then go for it, not everything in life has to have a purpose :)
 
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well it's a good thing you kicked heroin haha....but if you were using heroin and shit to escape reality, turning to other psychoactives is the lesser of two evils, but it's still probably not a healthy way to find peace, dont u think?
 
I take them because I feel I need a brain reset... from all the BS commercials bombarding everyone... 24/7
Plus it helps me with my art and my music immensely...
 
TruffulaTree said:
well it's a good thing you kicked heroin haha....but if you were using heroin and shit to escape reality, turning to other psychoactives is the lesser of two evils, but it's still probably not a healthy way to find peace, dont u think?
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I don't think he's trying to find peace so much as find a place without pain. It sounds like there's some sort of chronic pain going on, and opiates are the most effective drugs for most pain. But in this case apparently dissociative a aesthetics are more effective still.

I always get the feeling that its really hard for us without chronic pain to understand what life would be like if you had to suffer pain every minute of every day. It's really hard to conceptualize the attitude and radically different worldview that comes with suffering chronic pain if you're healthy and pain free.

Besides, what's unhealthy about using drugs as a tool to find peace, if that were what he was trying to do? You can use drugs as tools for any number of things: to grow as a person, or collect insight, for psychedelics, to have fun in the case of pretty much all drugs, or to help you be at peace with the world. Sure, it might be more effective in the long run, and I'm not really decided one way or the other, but I'm playing devil's advocate here, so what's wrong with using drugs as a tool to find peace or happiness?
 
Classic McKenna... I actually got to see him speak once when he came to my small rustbelt dump of a city. I was 17 years old and didn't really take it in like I would have today but....

80 percent of the time I take/took psychedelics I did so for fun. Nothing wrong with that IMO. Don't get me wrong, I had some profound moments. But mainly it was about getting into the music/dj and just letting it all go. Not that I would get out of control, but I just would be in the moment enjoy it with my friends.

I guess in a way that is my "therapy". I can be pretty stressed out and am very sensitive (things happening in the third world will upset me) and it was just a chance to be "me".

Anyways, the McKenna/Lilly/Shulgin (Shulgin to a lesser extent) train of thought was very prevalent when I first started taking psychedelics. It was kinda a neo-Leary type of outlook. So it did influence me in someways.
 
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