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Miscellaneous Psychedelic Abuse ~ a compulsion toward escapism ~ the swirling paradigm

with psychedelics alone, and nothing else, there really is some potential for compulsive experimentation.
but
the tolerance issue makes abuse very hard to manage, and the results of frequent very high dosage is unlike any addiction; though it is a sick behavior (kinda disrespectful to the potential for the drug). i.e. out of balance. i.e. not exactly functional.
 
theparists who use to give and take lsd 3 times a week in the 1950's all ended up fine though. Once you do take a break you can recover quite well.
 
@Chris Timothy
In the case of Allan Watts' hypocrisy, the bottle was a closer metaphor to a phone than psychedelics (unless he was treating alcohol as a substitute (really some people do use alcohol shamanistically)), there might be a message for you some place in there.

with our streams of consciousnesses and intelligent banter, we can only beat around the bushes near the place psychedelics and meditation can go. Sometimes it is like managing phone calls, i.e. you are too busy with other messages so don't even pick up the phone. let some messages spool into the service. Ordinary messages.

the stuff we seek with psychedelics is extraordinary, and there is no end to that, unless you put up a habit of rational resistance which will block it out effectively, we are good at blocking messages even very good messages that can be very personally beneficial. There is always more.

Well if Alan's drinking was shamanic then it wasn't truly hypocrisy, was it? People dying for their arbitrary political borders are heroes, people dying for their art are despicable failures. That's the world we're perpetuating. A typical talk of his depended on a bottle of vodka, and I'm sure you know they could get to that shamanic place. Though that doesn't necessarily imply it was a substitute. Because that's assuming the Alan Watts act would have worked equally well on psychedelics. If it had I reckon he would have naturally made the transition.

Care to elaborate what message for me you're talking about? Or are you just rubbing in the fact I can't use substances anymore?
 
@Chris Timothy So sorry, not intending to ring your phone that way. I do not have any message for non-tripping members of this community, except for the question, what is your story. Your interest in Watts seems sensible. Like I said
@bongdong Alan Watts was my sweet gumdrop introduction to Buddhism, and I will always appreciate him for that.
A close second was Philip Kapleau - all neck and neck with Lobsang Rampa, Padmahansa Yogananda, and Kahlil Gibran AND last but not least, Carlos Castaneda.
Each with a firm and compelling grasp upon the ineffable, and each, while offering gems, posing as authority in a realm that remains largely uncharted.

Take no offense that he failed to hang up the bottle and messed up in life, his gumdrop version of Zen did a lot of good IMO.
his gumdrop version of Zen is very palatable.
 
My primary exposure thus far to Alan Watts is arty YouTube videos with voiceovers, and I must say I am a fan of his message, or whatever fragment of it I've been exposed to.
Zen is a state of non duality that is also found within Hinduism. Only can be taught via silence I like watts. The it he refers to is universal consciouness or brahman in hinduism or buddha nature in zen
 
I think its a mistake to try and force man-made religious ideas onto the psychedelic experience. All man made religions are the same old bullshit - psychedelics are something different.

Whenever anyone says you can know what a trip is like by discussing it with a vicar or a "buddhist" my nuts shrivel.
 
@Vastness that message -whichever you are getting- would probably not be about hanging up the phone, which is more of an anti-message with a clever sound to it..

True. It's a shame it has been taken out of context like it has. But so harping on it is bashing a strawman. Have at it as far as I'm concerned, no historic statement is a hill worth dying on. It's just that it flags unnecessary defensiveness, which might not help your case.
 
The word addiction is so loaded, so I'll leave that to the side, but a big yes to this thread.

Personally I have struggled tremendously with this stuff (and still do). This has much more to do with my own psychology than with anything inherent in psychedelic drugs themselves, but that's a bit besides the point.

For myself (and I know for a lot of others here), so much good has come from my psychedelic explorations (and continues to). Still, I feel regularly compelled to dose when body wants and needs a break. I feel compelled to dose when my mind could do with a large span of sustained sobriety. I feel compelled to dose when I feel that I am not who I wish to be. How ironic that these drugs then tell me: "Why don't you take care of your body? Why are you ignoring your mind? Why aren't you accepting yourself for who you are? The universe is complete! The challenges of this world are workable! You are ok, and you have nothing to run from."

I have much to learn still. I am sure that some of this learning will come from psychedelic explorations, but I am also sure that my compulsions must subside as I integrate and become the wisdom that I brush against in my gifted moments of freedom and grace.
 
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