If a person is smarter, do they have more interesting trips?

[angryteabag]

If you are more knowledgeable and understand all sorts of concepts I.e. religion, history, politics, architecture, etc. does that influence your trip?

I have recently dipped my toes into the world of psychedelics and realised i am just one of the self-centered new-age youth. I dont know much about history, politics or any of that and i think, consequently, my trips revolve around me and how i feel rather then inspiring new thought about interesting things.

What do you think?

 

[TearItDown]

I'll return your question with another. Do you think that in order to trip, you must be intelligent?

 

[Sandozer]

In my experience yes it does. There are stupid ass people who take psychedelics just to get "fucked up". I remember when I first used psychedelics and was unwise about them and very unwise about life in general. I've learned a lot since then and now my trips are fucking insane! They were metaphysical in nature to begin with but for now my trips are beyond words, until I expand my shrinking vocabulary.

Psychedelics send you a message and you can either receive it or not. People who don't receive the message tend to be ignorant, in my experience at least.

Criticize away.

 

[angryteabag]

I look at some of the things people imagine up and wonder if i am even capable of conceiving that kind of thought. although ive recently gained a thrust for knowledge and am looking into egyption, myan and aztec mythology. i was never forced to study and do find it really weird now, but it interests me, it never did before.

I do remember, before i took my first dose of mushrooms, i went hunting for them and was almost obsessed with how they affect the brain, their stories, what they looked like. uptill then, i didnt know very much about mushrooms or chemicals in the brain. when i tripped i saw a lot of mushrooms and the trip felt to me like it was a bunch of chemicals in my brain if that makes sense. could it have been influenced by what id learned?

I think that you dont need to be intelligent to trip. it doesnt take a smart person to take drugs. I do think that they can be a gateway to knowledge if you choose to see it, but does intelligence inspire a trip?

 

[she phoenix]

In my experience yes it does. There are stupid ass people who take psychedelics just to get "fucked up". I remember when I first used psychedelics and was unwise about them and very unwise about life in general. I've learned a lot since then and now my trips are fucking insane! They were metaphysical in nature to begin with but for now my trips are beyond words, until I expand my shrinking vocabulary.

Psychedelics send you a message and you can either receive it or not. People who don't receive the message tend to be ignorant, in my experience at least.

Criticize away.

I agree with this, but I think it depends on personal choice. I've taken mushrooms in a room full of people I don't really like just sitting there, playing horrible screamo music which haunted my eyes, fighting, shouting, taking meph and just being antisocial. It was a horrible trip. I couldn't talk to anyone because no one understood the places my mind goes when it's tripping. I felt isolated in abstact thought while everyone else's minds were securely grounded into that little smokey room.
On the other hand, one of my most fondly remembered drug experiences is when me and one other friend took some mdma and mushrooms. We were of course a bit silly, but most of the night was a beautiful, spiritual, educational and actually quite serious journey which we took together because we're on the same wavelength and we understand each other.
I choose who I use drugs with more carefully now.

 

[RainbowWarrior]

i don't believe that there are persons smarter than others... so: no...

though i do believe that there are persons who are more inspired / awake / aware / interested, and i do think that those people have more interesting trips... the basic difference between the two concepts is: with the first you just are smart or you are not, with the second you decide how "smart" you are

it's very easy to find out yourself... just occupy yourself with studying a complex topic you know nothing about for let's say a week, after that you take a trip - in most cases the subject of study will find it's way into the trip as a theme and you will gain a new perspective by combining your studies with the psychedelic experiences...

to give some examples: my psychedelic experiences helped me a lot in better understanding Saussure's concept of "the sign", same with the concept of "the mirror" established by foucault in the essay "other spaces", etc

it's all about wanting to understand!

 

[angryteabag]

it's all about wanting to understand!

I want to understand! i just dont know how to! when i was in school everything was presented in predigested form so that we could quickly pick and work on a subject. even then i never paid attention. now that i feel fascinated about things i dont know where to look or where to start and find it hard to comprehend the simplest of concepts.

 

[RainbowWarrior]

the more interesting question for me is: can psychedelic use make people "smarter" (more inspired / awake / aware / interested)?

because my experiences not only helped me understand some complex theoretical concepts, but tripping in a foreign language helped me a lot in mastering the language, it also brought back interest to study art and music intensively (which i also understand as languages)...

 

[RainbowWarrior]

I want to understand! i just dont know how to! when i was in school everything was presented in predigested form so that we could quickly pick and work on a subject. even then i never paid attention. now that i feel fascinated about things i dont know where to look or where to start and find it hard to comprehend the simplest of concepts.

yeah that's exactly where schools (and other similar institutions) fail... first in transporting the message of interest / motivation, second in teaching the students how to study on their own...

but i suppose you know that there are big buildings filled with lots of books, which in themselfs are filled with lots of information - called libraries - you can go there and search for about any topic you are interested in, come on it's not that hard...

not to mention that these days you don't even have to leave your house to get information, it's all available online, the possibilities of learning have never been greater than today, sad that seemingly the interest to do so never has been smaller...


edit: if you want to try out what i wrote in my first post you may f.e. have a look at this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelbrot_set , also a topic i really enjoyed thinkin about while tripping

 

[ikkyu]

I've always maintained that getting your mind blown is more fun if you have more of a mind to have blown in the first place.

 

[Public//Enemy]

its more like a message that people decrypt in different ways.

 

[Black]

In my experience yes it does. There are stupid ass people who take psychedelics just to get "fucked up". I remember when I first used psychedelics and was unwise about them and very unwise about life in general. I've learned a lot since then and now my trips are fucking insane! They were metaphysical in nature to begin with but for now my trips are beyond words, until I expand my shrinking vocabulary.

Psychedelics send you a message and you can either receive it or not. People who don't receive the message tend to be ignorant, in my experience at least.

i tend to agree, but want to note that interesting and meaningful doesn't in any way equal more pleasant. in my circle of friends the more intelligent ones have had a significantly higher percentage of difficult trips that really got them questioning lots of things for months while the less intelligent have had mostly 'fun' trips.

 

[Roger&Me]

If you are more knowledgeable and understand all sorts of concepts I.e. religion, history, politics, architecture, etc. does that influence your trip?

I have recently dipped my toes into the world of psychedelics and realised i am just one of the self-centered new-age youth. I dont know much about history, politics or any of that and i think, consequently, my trips revolve around me and how i feel rather then inspiring new thought about interesting things.

What do you think?

I do not think knowledge is very important in the psychedelic realm, TBH. Psychedelics strip away those types of conceptual categories, so its natural for the trip to revolve around your own feelings.

Usually the most profound trips are when you're thinking about yourself, and then your perspective blows-out, and suddenly you realize you are everything.

Honestly I don't think knowledge of history or politics is important even in everyday life. Of much higher value are traits like perceptiveness, moral awareness, and fluid intelligence ("thinking on your feet", etc).

Love and gratitude, man, all that good stuff. That's what the psychedelic experience focuses on in its finest manifestations. Accumulating factual knowledge is just stamp collecting. Psychedelics are about what is inside of you that transcends all of that accumulated noise.

 

[Mjäll]

I do not think knowledge is very important in the psychedelic realm, TBH. Psychedelics strip away those types of conceptual categories, so its natural for the trip to revolve around your own feelings.

Usually the most profound trips are when you're thinking about yourself, and then your perspective blows-out, and suddenly you realize you are everything.

Honestly I don't think knowledge of history or politics is important even in everyday life. Of much higher value are traits like perceptiveness, moral awareness, and fluid intelligence ("thinking on your feet", etc).

Love and gratitude, man, all that good stuff. That's what the psychedelic experience focuses on in its finest manifestations. Accumulating factual knowledge is just stamp collecting. Psychedelics are about what is inside of you that transcends all of that accumulated noise.

I agree. Getting to know oneself is a fine balance but ultimately rewarding.

 

[californialove760]

the more interesting question for me is: can psychedelic use make people "smarter" (more inspired / awake / aware / interested)?

because my experiences not only helped me understand some complex theoretical concepts, but tripping in a foreign language helped me a lot in mastering the language, it also brought back interest to study art and music intensively (which i also understand as languages)...

Out of curiosity, what do you mean you tripped in a foreign language?


And more on topic, I'd agree that higher intelligence equals more interesting trips. "Intelligence" doesn't a very concrete definition though. I know people will that never score below an A- in any subject in school, but when it comes to philosophical thinking, or even just thinking outside the box, they fail miserably. While on the other hand there are people that are not the greatest students but can look past everyday petty problems, and look at the big picture.

I think psychedelics can help people become more "intelligent" (more inspired / awake / aware / interested, like RW said.. I'd personally add "curious" to the list) because of personal experience. Before psychedelics, I always kind of liked the idea of philosophy and thought it could be interesting, but at the end of the day I was just as shallow as anyone. Psychedelics (acid and mescaline specifically) helped me to get out of that

 

[solistus]

If you are more knowledgeable and understand all sorts of concepts I.e. religion, history, politics, architecture, etc. does that influence your trip?

I have recently dipped my toes into the world of psychedelics and realised i am just one of the self-centered new-age youth. I dont know much about history, politics or any of that and i think, consequently, my trips revolve around me and how i feel rather then inspiring new thought about interesting things.

What do you think?

I think intellectual curiosity is more important than knowledge, both "in general" and for having better trips in particular. The most interesting, 'deep' and rewarding lessons/messages/experiences that tripping has to offer are, IMHO, about you. Not in an egomaniac, you're the center of the universe sense, but in a more existential sense; thinking about your own existence, what it means to be alive in the world, and so on.

If you're into history and politics and all that stuff, sure, you may think about it a bit while tripping, but this is mostly valuable for the new perspectives you can gain, IMO, and you don't need to be a Ph.D. to take advantage of that. With politics, for example: you're not likely to think up the perfect solution to banking reform or some brilliant political strategy for the Democrats to deploy coming into the midterms or anything like that while tripping. More likely you would be struck by how bizarre and unnatural our social structures are, how funny/sad it is that billions of people live their lives stressed out about things that don't really matter instead of appreciating the beauty of existence.

If you've lived in the world and interacted with people, and remember some things about that life and those interactions, I'd say you have all the 'knowledge' you need to explore what tripping has to offer. Let yourself go, follow the unusual trains of thought wherever they flow. A good proportion of the stuff you think up will be silly nonsense that will lose all apparent meaning once you're no longer tripping, but every now and again you may stumble upon a life-changing epiphany, or at least a perspective-changing new outlook on things.

I see a lot of people using the word curiosity on this thread. I think that's at the heart of it. It's not the knowledge of a professor that you need, but the intuition of a child: to explore, to learn, to grow. Happy tripping!

 

[RainbowWarrior]

Out of curiosity, what do you mean you tripped in a foreign language?

I'm abroad for studies atm and spent 3 days tripping in the mountains with about 100 other people, all natives... so my baseline was already in that foreign language (spanish btw), therefor the trips also were spent in that mindset... for me as linguist that was a great experience... it once more let me get a glimpse of what language is and how it works...

one day i'll have to try tripping in english... haven't done that yet (if you haven't already noticed english is a 2nd language as well for me) but everything at it's time!

 

[whattodohere]

i don't believe that there are persons smarter than others... so: no...

though i do believe that there are persons who are more inspired / awake / aware / interested, and i do think that those people have more interesting trips... the basic difference between the two concepts is: with the first you just are smart or you are not, with the second you decide how "smart" you are
!

Really? So do you also believe that all people are equal physically, they just haven't trained enough or aren't into it enough? That's incredibly silly and naive


I think it is certainly fascinating to see the different ways psychedelics can influence people. I imagine that a more intelligent person would have more interesting trips if for no other reason than dynamics. I don't think that necessarily would give them a propensity towards good or bad trips though.

 

[RainbowWarrior]

Really? So do you also believe that all people are equal physically, they just haven't trained enough or aren't into it enough? That's incredibly silly and naive


I think it is certainly fascinating to see the different ways psychedelics can influence people. I imagine that a more intelligent person would have more interesting trips if for no other reason than dynamics. I don't think that necessarily would give them a propensity towards good or bad trips though.

i didn't state that they are physically equal... first you have to start out by defining, but bla bla bla, what should i explain to somebody posting in a smart people thread that he thinks i'm silly and naive, you wouldn't get me anyways...

i'm taking the silly and naive as a compliment btw, i very much want myself to be that way, thanks

 

[Taryth]

No, I don't.
Ever heard of the phrase "ignorance is bliss?"



The more you know about the world, the more you know of it's myriad flaws, and I believe this can turn any trip into a negative one with just a mental stumble down the wrong path. IME, all of my negative trips have sprung from thinking about how fucked up the world is, but I don't claim to represent all people, nor know all facets of psychedelics- that's just my opinion.