PSYCHONAUTS vs DRUGGIES

[B9]

true drug users of this type will only try a certain drug a couple of times to get a feel for it, but then they get bored and move on. though they may enjoy being high, the main purpose of their drug use is to examine themselves, their minds, and their surroundings while in an altered state of consciousness. an example of such a person would be the great chemist and philosopher alexander shulgin.
ove.

Are you certain about this?? Coz i'd contend that Shulgin used drugs for pleasure after he'd "assayed" them, not to the excessive levels of the thrill seeking abuser. To say he used them only in a scientific sense is a misnomer, IMHO.
zophen

 

[fastandbulbous]

Psychonaut = If you don't use drugs exactly like I do, you're inferior.

As sad as it is, that's pretty much the way it comes across

As long as you're using them responsibly (both yourself and giving them to others and not causing any hospital admissions, breakdowns or anything that could be classified as 'bad karma'), it's not for anyone else to judge your motives. Applying those sort of judgements does start to look like elitism.
My use goes from simple social interaction/having a good time right through to exploring, to use Douglas Adam's phrase,'Life, The Universe & Everything'. As long as I don't cause anybody any problems because of my association with drugs, I think trying to classify what I do is rather pointless.

 

[J. Alfred Prufrock]

then there are some, though very few, people who use drugs almost as a scientific experiment. these people are often highly intelligent, often spiritual, and doing drugs is about expanding their boundaries and their concept of reality. true drug users of this type will only try a certain drug a couple of times to get a feel for it, but then they get bored and move on. though they may enjoy being high, the main purpose of their drug use is to examine themselves, their minds, and their surroundings while in an altered state of consciousness. an example of such a person would be the great chemist and philosopher alexander shulgin.

I would agree with this. I saw Shulgin speak at the last Mindstates conference and after his talk, I asked him about this very point. My question was "at what point in your exploration of a compound do you move on?" He said what motivated him was discovery. When he felt he'd learned about a drug's properties, it was on to the next possible discovery he could make.

I myself would rather try something new than to try something I know very well. And I've devoted countless hours studying certain drugs I actually have little interest in trying. I think that makes me more of a scientist than a psychonaut. And I think that applies to Shulgin also.

 

[gloggawogga]

Discovery is fun. Just do it. Screw labels.

 

[frizzantik]

Psychonaut = Pretentious Druggie

 

[retarded ape]

Psychonauts silently hunt and eat Crack Niggers.
It is true.
Happens every day.

Military service is also something what they all have done.

 

[DillyDally]

As long as I don't cause anybody any problems because of my association with drugs, I think trying to classify what I do is rather pointless.

Exactly...

 

[Toltec]

A Psychonaut = A person that thinks about personal growth.

And a Druggie= A person that thinks very little, except how to find ways to scrap up money to pay for more drugs.

Although a Druggie thinks that the Psychonaut is a nut case.
In turn the psychonaut thinks that the druggie is the example not to fallow!

 

[OVERdose713]

pshconaut hands down

 

[crOOk]

Typical druggie excuse. I'm dead serious, you're just lucky or in denial (remember the girl that said she could manage coke a few weeks ago?). Try to quit using psychedelics and all other drugs for a few years.

Gathering vast amounts of knowledge about these kind of things and preferring drugs that are not physically addictive like psychedelics or just switching your drug of choice constantly doesn't make you immune to addictive patterns that will sooner or later form. Your brain will make this connection between pleasure and substance and recreational use is just seems like lots and lots of luck to me. Just my 2 cents, please don't take it as an offense.

crOOk

 

[orbital_forest]

if ya gotta put a label on me its psychonaut....i do love the whole air of running experiments on yourself lol,it gives the psychedelic experience that geeky feel that i just love lol...

 

[Trey]

Why one and not the other?
can a "Druggie" use psychadelics to look inward on one's self...
and can a "Psychonaut" use other drugs to feel good or w/e...

Labels = dumb. People are themselves. I use drugs recreationally (opiates, pot, etc), but when i use psychadelic drugs (LSD, shrooms, occasional salvia) i definately (especially on acid) have strong, profound, great experiences. with a lot of introspect. and its usually a great "teacher" or something along those lines

So you label me... am i a "druggie" or a "psychonaut"?

I, too get pissed when people call me a druggie... just because of all the stereotyping that goes along with it. I wouldnt say that i'm a junkie fiending in the streets for a bag of H, so that i can sleep tonight. And that just so happens to be what a lot of people consider a druggie... a fiend (big difference). atleast for non-bluelighters... and straight edge people.

On a side-note: Would you rather be called a "drug-user" or a "druggie"?

 

[mongo_the_bad]

As sad as it is, that's pretty much the way it comes across

As long as you're using them responsibly (both yourself and giving them to others and not causing any hospital admissions, breakdowns or anything that could be classified as 'bad karma'), it's not for anyone else to judge your motives. Applying those sort of judgements does start to look like elitism.
My use goes from simple social interaction/having a good time right through to exploring, to use Douglas Adam's phrase,'Life, The Universe & Everything'. As long as I don't cause anybody any problems because of my association with drugs, I think trying to classify what I do is rather pointless.

I gotta agree with ya, labels are simply a way for those who are unable to recognize the individuality and the sameness of society to make sense of it all. We may all use these substances for the different reasons, but none of us have the right to judge one another. Thats all labels do is judge, all these terms psychonaut, druggie, stoner, etard, coke head, they are all just cop outs. Its like we are to lazy to recognize a person for who they are and so we slap some generic brand name on them. We are all guilty of it sometimes, i know that I am, but the fact of the matter is that all these terms do is perpetuate the stygmas and ignorance of society with the connotations theses words bring.

I would agree with this. I saw Shulgin speak at the last Mindstates conference and after his talk, I asked him about this very point. My question was "at what point in your exploration of a compound do you move on?" He said what motivated him was discovery. When he felt he'd learned about a drug's properties, it was on to the next possible discovery he could make.

I can't say that I personally know Shulgin, but discovery is what motivates him. The synthesis of new chemicals, the testing of the unknown, this is the path that he has chosen in his time on earth (or has been chosen for him if thats what u believe) but it does not make him anything other than himself, Alexander Shulgin. It doesn't make him better than anybodyelse, it doesn't make him less than anybody else, its just his path.

There are people who choose to use substances in a fashion that I consider reckless and those who choose to use substances that i consider pointless, but I do my vary best to neither label these people nor judge these people, because those two thought processes go hand in hand. It is an undeniable fact of human nature that we feel we must label things in order to grasp a sense of order in our feeble reality.

 

[B9]

^I'm pretty sure that Shulgin uses chemicals for personal exploration as well(at least as far as phikal/tikhal are to be believed) as researching their "chemical properties".

zophen.

 

[bluedolphin]

If you ask me both of these terms are just labels.

To make the distinction that there are varying degrees of "druginess" or "psychonaut-ness" is to make the distinction that people can and should be labeled along a spectrum.

The problem is, no person is so simple and one-dimensional that any label, no matter how refined it attempts to be, can be accurate except in its inherent purpose: to simplify someone's life, nature, and existence down to that of a single word.


....

I'm sure some people would call me a druggie, and others would call me a psychonaut.

I am some of both, and a lot of other things as well.

 

[quartzitefungus]

I think this difference should be recognized!

why does this need to be recognized. if you can explore yourself and beyond and not be concerened with social categories and labels, who cares what people call you? i have many friends who are the same way. but if i were to seperate myself from them and call myself superior because of my way of looking at drugs, they would be alienated. i would be acting on ego and not according to my integrated self and that right there is basically the main difference that seperates the so called "druggies" and "psychonauts". you don't need a label man, just keep exploring! And, even if for just a moment, try to bring a few of your friends with you - help show them the beautiful endless complexities and potentials of their mind and world not only on drugs, but every moment. but in my experience, words only go so far. the best way i've found is just living by example.


peace

 

[quartzitefungus]

oh and without a doubt, every drug user has his/her moments of being both. if you use drugs as much as "psychonauts" do, then you can't help but become a druggie at some point. for instance, i've taken acid 4 times in the last 2 weeks. i've learned a whole fucking lot, but i'm still abusing the drug. to all the alcoholics i'm just a tripped out druggie who can never remember where he put his car keys. its just important not to convince yourself that what your doing is perfect.

 

[B9]

Drugnauts or psychodruggies must surely be part of the equation somehow. Hmm I think I fancy being a drugnaut, I like the ambiguity of the term.


zophen(the worlds first drugnaut)

 

[nanobrain]

a druggie is a psychonaut who used his PiHKAL pages as blunt wrappers?

 

[chasseur]

One could say that, by definition, a psychonaut would be dedicated to exploring his/her own mind and become satisfied and fulfilled with this. The argument that I find most fascinating, though, that one's own mind, as displayed in quantum physics, is the tool by which one constructs his/her own reality. If everything is assembled in the mind, then becoming a psychonaut would involve the immense challenge of exploring everything that one considers to be real to them. My fascination with this concept would probably give me a psychonautic status.