Still, DMT, mescaline, and psilocybin all provide extended stimulation and visual accuity, so they may have been used for these purposes in spite of the contrary effects. Like you said, it seems that the psychological effects are actually a hinderance to states like hunting and fighting rather than helping it.
Ehh I mostly agree except for psilocybin being stimulating, it typically makes me fairly lethargic - physically sleepy, rubbery and associated with a generally dreamy state. Also about DMT which is of course chemically similar, from what I understand it can be both stimulating as well as sedating, as is often the case in part depending on the dose. But if anything I think it typically floors people at psychedelic doses so I think ayahuascueros on the hunt would've either taken relatively low doses combined with much preparation and rituals to enhance the state and/or started their hunt on the tail end of the trip. I myself have not tried oral DMT yet, but with smoked DMT most of the times I cannot walk because I feel strapped to a rocket. Like there is immense pressure and gravity. I remember one specific occasion though when I was having both full-on effects but was also able to stand up and walk like nothing was the matter. I went to look outside and saw incredible things. :D
I'd also like to add to my above post in that I believe serotonin psychedelics and empathogens in general do naturally elicit feelings of love, well-being and empathy. I know that when serotonin levels in my brain are low, I feel depressed, snappy, irritable, and angry, blaming the external world for my bad feelings. When my serotonin levels are high I feel content, empathic, loving, and euphoric and connected with the world and myself. Thus it's pretty obvious that most psychedelics and serotonin releasers naturally produce these feelings. You'd have to work pretty hard against the grain to turn that around in to negative emotions.
This brings to mind a load of themes that I think people associate incorrectly with the psychedelic state.. The word psychedelic means "mind manifesting", if there is bloodlust in said mind I don't think its too far fetched to expect violence. I had a bunch of people tell me stuff like "Bro, what you had was not LSD, had to be DOx if you acted out violently. There is no way you can be violent on LSD" after I had a bad trip around like 60 people on LSD/2ci.. I ended up choking this one girl I know because her face got SUPER close to mine and it seemed malevolent. Of course I was totally blacked out at that point and really had relinquished all control over my actions. Charles Manson brainwashed people to carry out murder using LSD, I don't think its at all far fetched to wonder if the same could be repeated..
There is nothing inherently "peaceful" about using psychedelic drugs, to imply so is naive and fictional.
Hmm yeah.. I think LSD can catalyze both clarification and confusion. I have been at both ends of the spectrum in trips. Moments of crystal clarity have been astonishing and I'd say they bordered on the clairvoyant. I say border because I don't mean to say anything supernatural or paranormal happened but for example I have been able to augment my capabilities to render my mental image of my surroundings 3-dimensionally. What I think happened is that I combined visual information from multiple perspectives and created an integrated map that allowed me to look 'around' things, though not real-time of course.
About the confusion: I think that if we are conflicted rationally and emotionally, both can escalate on a drug like LSD. Where I agree with Survived Abortion is that I think fundamentally LSD and other psychedelics tend to move you to the cathartic, to allow you to release your conflicting feelings and soothe them and give them a place when the conflict and the relationship of the conflicting elements are understood. This cathartic release may come as an outburst of emotional energy, most often I think accompanied by feeling struck in your core being and crying and laughing, sometimes simultaneously. I've seen it happen to others, to my dearest friend(s) and to myself.
But there is only so much you can handle at once. The dosage should be adjusted to how much you can process and the triggered exposure to conflicting or confusing as well. Best, if possible, is to only be brought to remember conflict within yourself and not be forced to experience it directly. I think the latter is only helpful if someone is resistant to confrontation and needs a harder shove to be real about a conflict, like self-
In the case of overload, like a much too high dose for a person to handle (set) or tripping in a situation that is very difficult to cope with (setting) or both... yes things can easily get out of control.
Psychedelics like LSD can indeed be used for brain-washing (I read Robert Anton Wilson's "Prometheus Rising" twice who talks about imprinting and re-imprinting and methods like several psychoactives for at least one chapter but I think even more), but these are not typical circumstances. For this to happen someone would first have to be 'wiped clean' for example by forcing them to experience trauma and extreme dependency e.g. letting someone believe they would die, then that you saved them and they have nobody but you in the entire world to rely on. This explains further susceptability to brain-washing and reimprinting.
Normally people have a frame of reference that allows them to intuitively think about morality. Unless people have had abnormal experiences in the past I think the far majority of people would have a sense of injustice when bullies rob a weak person of something. Abnormal experiences would be for example having experienced similar things in the past and feeling a need for revenge.
What Quasimodo is saying about the trip in which people seemed malevolent, I know what you mean - most of all there was a trip in which a housemate of mine seemed to turn into a devilish figure. But could be very easily explained: his cheeks are naturally very red + he used to have this scary piercing intimidating (even agressive) look in his eyes + he and another guy were constantly trying to mindfuck me about every possible thing. It was my first trip ever, on mushrooms.
If it's just someone's facing getting too close I think it's a natural defense we have about our personal private space, she violated yours and apparently this manifested as her seeming malevolent. I think given the particular situation there was just no time for you to put things in perspective, to understand clearly that this was what bothered you - instead you acted in a reflex.
I believe this is what most often happens when we are tripping and we are unable to cope with something strong that we are unable to escape (in time) or we think we are unable to. Some defense mechanisms we have are physical like freezing up or lashing out and running away, others are psychological like denial, dissociation, displacement & projection, rationalization & intellectualization, suppression & repression. These can build up on one another can also feed on each other. If you have a hard time coming to terms with something you may try to suppress it, as a secondary reaction triggers that threaten to disturb this suppression may be rationalized away or completely denied, for example.
Anyway, the many examples we can imagine of regression are to me not evidence that in the end the thing we want is to resolve our issues. Therefore, given enough opportunity I believe that LSD and other psychedelics catalyze our inherent wish to be free from confusion. This is entirely logical, we do not wish to suffer.
Yet, we make ourselves suffer because of complicated fears. One major one I know I have is to actually resolve my deepest issues and freeing myself and feeling very happy about it, this may sound strange when I admit it and say it out loud... but I think I have a hard time accepting the uncertainty of things. And relieving myself would be both great but also somewhat unpredictable because I cannot really imagine how to handle such freedom and happiness. Therefore it is easier to intellectualize everything and promise myself that trying to understand everything or as much as possible will make me happy. It does, but in a relatively superficial way. I know there is something beyond it, the release of not needing to understand, analyze, predict and control everything but instead accepting that I could not possibly control everything that happens in my life. This is the primary thing I know I have to realize and get past. Knowing about this mechanism is unfortunately not enough to actually make it happen. I have to learn how exactly to make this leap of faith and I'm finding it very hard.
While this is mostly fantasy, I like to imagine that psychedelics could help in martial combat with the right training and mindset. Also, perhaps in a stealth scenario, I could imagine moderate doses of psych could enhance perceptual sensitivity and cautiousness. You know like a Hashishin.
Become the mantis. heh.
Hashashins, haha. I very recently saw the movie 'Prince of Persia' and there were hashashins in it coincidentally. Otherwise I would not have known about them. What can you tell us about them?
About using psychedelics in martial combat, I know this is not the same thing at all but I am a student of martial arts i.e. pencak silat. I can tell you that there is something tripping on acid, doing pencak silat and meditation have in common and I am sure other things like t'ai chi can also be included to have similarities.
The common thing is that with all of them it is important to clear your mind of thought patterns that are noise and not signal. I feel extremely focussed as a result of doing pencak silat. At the start of training there is even a part where you have to just stand in silent 'contemplation', not in order to think but to straighten out thought and letting it die down and slip, making way for getting into a "flow".
In combination with doing pencak silat, I have actually used at least 2C-B one time and another time LSD, perhaps more psychedelics on other occasions I'm not sure. It was great, just like with meditation it allowed me to take what is normally felt as a 'body load' and considered a burden or at least useless when we are not open to the phenomenon... and instead turn it into a body high I could use to let myself flow.
For example it became more apparent to me that you can do efficient 'energy work' with your body and also inefficient. Efficient work is seen when people on LSD dance, it's very liquid and movement is constantly 'transformed', not suddenly stopped and abruptly started.
With Pencak Silat I felt like the same principle is important: for example when you crouch and do a sequence of punches, left-right-left-right-etc ... You can force bursts with every separate punch... but what is better is to combine pulling back your shoulder after a punch to change it into a rotation that starts whipping out your other arm and almost causing you to punch with it doing only that: the timing of the momentum whipping it forward as a result of the rotation followed by whipping it back again with the pull of the shoulder can cause it to be concentrated very locally. This is what you see with a whip: all the forward movement is put into a powerful blow by timing it so at the maximum velocity the movement is reversed.
Punching like that limits unnecessary changes of momentum, the only change is expressed and use as a punch, the rest is a fluent sequence of movements where you try to maximize transmission of movement into another form of movement.
I am not very good yet, but I know the difference between times when everything flowed and when I have trained with awkward and abrupt movements, with uncertainty like attempting a kick but not be daring enough yet to do a complete one all the way. And also to complete it and let it follow by effective retraction, all the while maintaining stability in stance.
When everything flows, I feel a very deep peace like it is a gift to work efficiently with kinetic energy, also I become much less tired when I train or spar efficiently.
