Looking at photos from your childhood under psychedelics

[BristolRob]

I've been trying this - sometimes easy to go back, sometimes easier to dissociate from them - any thoughts? ever tried?

 

[Clusterone666]

I do it all the time especialy on high doses of LSD, seems to help a lot to get me in a better state of mind when i trip on my own

 

[burni]

i really enjoy looking at old pictures of mine, i had an enjoyable childhood...but i think it might help also if your childhood was not as nice as mine in a therapeutic (spelling?) way...but in order to do this help from a professional would be needed

 

[Newbierock]

I Had a brilliant childhood, but this doesn't work for me. Last time I tried was last year on shrooms and it just made me feel really really bad, like i'd gone from innocent sweet child into this....

That was a bad day I tell thee.

 

[Transcendence]

I kind of want to watch old home movies under a psychedelic, but I'm not sure if I could handle it.

 

[PepperSocks]

I Had a brilliant childhood, but this doesn't work for me. Last time I tried was last year on shrooms and it just made me feel really really bad, like i'd gone from innocent sweet child into this....

That was a bad day I tell thee.

Me too. I'd rather not look at pictures while tripping. If I get flashbacks that's one thing but to look at pictures just makes me feel weird and dissociated.

 

[respect authority]

What's interesting is that when I take shrooms I tend to feel VERY childlike, almost as if my 24-year-old experience and intelligence is combined with a 6 year old's excitedness and contentedness. The trip is often very nostalgic in terms of how I feel, bringing back vague memories of good feelings from fun times in my youth.

That said, I find old photos overly nostalgic to the point of being a little saddening. It's just not enjoyable for me - perhaps partly because I had a carefree and enjoyable childhood and am now weighed down by adult-concerns and stresses. Mainly when I'm tripping I'd much rather focus on the immediate. That part of tripping appeals to me the most - the wave of thoughts, impulses, and stimuli coming into my mind at once - rather than dwelling on the past.

 

[PepperSocks]

What's interesting is that when I take shrooms I tend to feel VERY childlike, almost as if my 24-year-old experience and intelligence is combined with a 6 year old's excitedness and contentedness. The trip is often very nostalgic in terms of how I feel, bringing back vague memories of good feelings from fun times in my youth.

That said, I find old photos overly nostalgic to the point of being a little saddening. It's just not enjoyable for me - perhaps partly because I had a carefree and enjoyable childhood and am now weighed down by adult-concerns and stresses. Mainly when I'm tripping I'd much rather focus on the immediate. That part of tripping appeals to me the most - the wave of thoughts, impulses, and stimuli coming into my mind at once - rather than dwelling on the past.

Bingo.

 

[delsymfan]

Thats really an interesting idea.

I have really no photos of my childhood. I have very strong memories, and I have held on to those. My house burnt down a few years ago so we lost all our pictures. And of course that was before the digital era.

I agree with uniter though, I'd probably long for the simplicity of youth without responsibilities or complicated relationships or bullshit.

 

[PepperSocks]

Even just looking at pictures from my childhood sober will bring that heavy nostalgia feeling. The photo albums are there but I like to just leave it be.

You don't need to be tripping to get that feeling while looking at childhood photos. It's above the tripping state IMO. Childhood memories run as deep as it comes.

 

[delsymfan]

Very true.. its some heavy shit.

But sometimes it is good to dwell on deep things, especially with the aid of a chem.

 

[Extasee]

I feel child-like on drugs. I think... I've been a bit more child-like ever since tripping.

i'm the same with rolling lol

 

[iwasinthepool]

i usually just stare at my hands for hours...maybe next time i will try this

 

[malakaix]

Even just looking at pictures from my childhood sober will bring that heavy nostalgia feeling. The photo albums are there but I like to just leave it be.

You don't need to be tripping to get that feeling while looking at childhood photos. It's above the tripping state IMO. Childhood memories run as deep as it comes.

Agree.

I can barley look at photo's from my childhood even sober anymore.. it's like looking at a different person, i don't remember that person, i dont know that child, that personality, that carefree.. completely blissful time.

I honestly cant remember what that feeling feels like, which is probably why it saddens me to look at photo's from that point in time. I think tripping and looking at the photo's would send me over the edge, as someone said above.. comparing that innocence to your current state of 'being' (on a drug). Interesting idea none the less, and i envy people who can use it for a positive outcome

 

[Dondante]

Interesting idea … I can relate to the sense of dissociation, which almost always seems to accompany self-reflection on psychedelics. Looking in a mirror is a predictably strange experience. Sometimes I feel like I'm thinking of myself from a third person perspective ... possibly because the perspective is so unfamiliar. The routine associations that accompany self-reflection, all the facets of my ego and the memories that help me define myself, are unavailable to conscious awareness.

Would you care to elaborate on your experiences? I can imagine that childhood pictures would stimulate some very interesting thought patterns. Judging by the impact that certain emotionally provocative stimuli have had on me in past trips (e.g. watching Planet Earth or reading excerpts of religious texts), it seems like a recipe for an introspective, if not transformative experience.

I think it could be therapeutic in some circumstances (tripping already helps me cultivate certain qualities, including a childlike appreciation for the world), but I also understand the concern for nostalgia and its potential impact in a highly impressionable state of mind. I suppose it depends on your set – your current perception of the world and your perception of yourself – as to whether or not this setting would catalyze a positive experience. If you’re satisfied with where you are in life, it would almost certainly be positive. If not entirely (who is anyway?), maybe it could motivate therapeutic changes in perception and behavior.

"I believe that if we are honest with ourselves, that the most fascinating problem in the world is, ‘Who am I?’ What do you mean, what do you feel, when you use the word I, because it’s so mysterious, it’s so elusive. What you are in your inmost being escapes your examination in rather the same way that you can’t look directly into your own eyes without using a mirror. And that is why there is always a profound element of mystery in the problem of who we are."

-Alan Watts

 

[MordecaiLives]

ive never looked at photos of myself, but once, while tripping in an empty mansion on cape cod, my friends and i found an incredibly old album, containing photos that must have been over a hundred years old. that was a fucken trip, man.

 

[tBirdee]

Tripping in an empty mansion with friends would be awesome!

 

[PepperSocks]

I just have to say that I absolutely love this thread.

I think it could be therapeutic in some circumstances (tripping already helps me cultivate certain qualities, including a childlike appreciation for the world), but I also understand the concern for nostalgia and its potential impact in a highly impressionable state of mind. I suppose it depends on your set – your current perception of the world and your perception of yourself – as to whether or not this setting would catalyze a positive experience. If you’re satisfied with where you are in life, it would almost certainly be positive. If not entirely (who is anyway?), maybe it could motivate therapeutic changes in perception and behavior.

I have never looked at childhood photos while tripping but I have looked at them in highly emotional states of mind.

It made me feel like I lost who I used to be. I was so much happier, and carefree as a kid and now I had accumulated a sad, depressed, and grumpy ego. It made me feel so bad; as if I had failed my true self.

It then made me cry my eyes out and made me feel like I had to change. I remembered who I used to be and I had to get that back somehow. But how? Then it made me feel like there was nothing I could do, all the responsibility and weight of the world and carrying my own weight had turned me into the way I was. I wanted to be the person I used to be but also had to be an adult. I'll never get my childhood back. It's gone, that's part of life and we have to deal with it. We have a beautiful childhood but then we have to grow up. Fact of life. The thing is we have to remember who we really are (our inner child). In childhood we form who we are and we can remember our childhood as adults and that's what gives us our base self-identity. That carefree child we used to be is still within us and still comes out to play every once in a while but it's when that inner child never comes out to play that the adult ego takes over and we forget who we really are. If the latter case happens, looking at childhood photos can bring you back, but it can hurt, but then it makes feel good that the child you used to be is still within you.

 

[theotherside]

This is a great thread as I often do this myself. One time on the come up of some mushies, I was with my brothers wife who popped in one of my families old christmas videos featuring me and my bro pre teen. I was brought to tears within minutes, and had to literally run out of the room to escape. The rest of my trip was filled with not just childhood memories, but actually "being" in the memories. Everything felt completely real....it was one of the most beautiful moments of my life.

 

[AndroidsDreamofBTC]

I've done this once on a strong 2nd plateau DXM trip. It was pretty weird, I didn't really get a 'typical' feeling of nostalgia (can you even understand something like nostalgia on dissociatives?), but I did wonder about how my life changed and where I was going. At times it would feel like I was almost in the picture, I guess the DXM made it a lot easier to project the images into your own head space.

I'd like to try this on shrooms or LSD, I think it would be fun to do.