Enlightenment Trippers

I am currently reading up on the early days of LSD, after quite an interesting trip last week. Over the years it has become abused by people just like you and me who primarily induce it to get, 'fucked up'. But last week as i sat in my car, parked outside the club, i got that little tap on the shoulder. Only someone who has delved deep into the grasps of Lysergic Acid would understand this. As i sat there, its as if i could see a crack in a unpenetrable doorway. Through that crack filtered light. I believe that the light was that mythical 'plateau' that many have spoke of...in simple terms, the place where in your mind, the answers are available.
Now this post may not appeal to many. But i know that it will appeal to a few who through personal experience know what i am trying to communicate. It's just so hard to put into words.
If you've been 'touched' by LSD please share... and, even if you've been molested by acid i want to know too!
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You can kick the monkey all you want...but what do you do when he wakes up?

^^^ that's why i wish to try LSD...

everyone should have this happen to them at least once in their lives. its part of being human, or at least what humans should be.
but another part of being human is the desire to get "fucked up". don't disregard that desire in yourself or others. reality can be painful, and we all need our escapes, it's just some of us don't treat that with respect.
i'd write more but im a bit fucked up right now....

I believe two things about acid: Everyone has the right to do with it what they want, and it demands a high level of respect. So in other words, if you want to get fucked up off acid then by all means go nuts, but don't ask me to join you. In my opinion there's plenty of drugs to "fuck you up", so I'm saving acid for the deeper experiences.
The one time I've had acid, I've seen something like what you described - and I intend to seek it out again. But only when my set and setting are right.

acid, where to begin??
I started taking trips when I was 15yrs old. The first trip I had was a Hologram and I giggled for 7 hours straight (much to the dismay of my comrades!) and regularly indulged in never less than one full trip at a time for the next 6 years.
I've fought the devil for my soul. what fun that was.
I've been so far 'above' reality that I whited out. I was several layers above everything, just watching people play the game of life, like pawns in a chess game, and anticipating everything and everyone's next move. i couldn't communicate with anyone, because they were a part of this game and wouldn't understand. that was pretty chaotic.
I have sat in the grandstands at the Big Day Out and watched Rage Against the Machine play to a field full of massive neon flowers, swaying in the breeze.
I have sat on a step and seen life swish past me, as if I was on a rollercoaster and life was one big ride.
I've had lots and lots of experience with acid. I stopped taking it 3 years ago cos it just wasn't fun anymore. All i'd do was question my life and my relationships. not a happy flash.
However, at a doof about a month ago I decided to candyflip and it was one of the most beautiful, spiritual and enlightening experiences of my life. probably wasn't actually candyflipping, as I had the acid well after I had dropped my second cap. but from sunrise onward I experienced a changing. For the first time ever I felt completely content with myself and my surroundings. There I was, in the middle of the beautiful Australian bush, sunlight dappling through the trees, gentle breeze blowing, bellbirds singing, sylky psytrance pumping through my mind and body, bare feet stomping on the earth, surrounded by friends and positivity. I felt really connected. I experienced a perfect moment in time. i know that it was primarily drug induced, but since that morning I have found a new calm, a greater inner strength and fuller self awareness. I feel more grounded, yet freer. I'm even more content to be myself and love who I am. Don't worry I haven't gone loopy - I know there is more to it than drug-related delusions of grandeur.
don't get me wrong, I'm still moody and irrational and impulsive and neurotic, but these things are fleeting and whimsical - if I look inside I can find everything I need.
I have found acid again. the 3 year break gave me the opportunity to grow and strenghten and find myself and gain the maturity to use acid for more than just "getting fucked up"
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ad summam virtutem
~reach for the highest stars~
[This message has been edited by flashfire (edited 31 August 2001).]

The reason I got into drugs in the first place was for enlightenment, or in the very least to allow the psychedelics to give me a free perspective with which to examine and remedy the problems in my life.
Of course things like ampthetemines and MDMA are just for fun. but WHAT fun!

Acid is a wonderful thing. You can learn a lot about yourself and the people you are tripping with if you are willing to "go there" in the trip. If you don't at least occasionally use acid to be insightful then you really are wasting probably one of its most alluring powers - the power of insight and revelation.
Everyone has things "revealed" to them, there is a lot of insight to be had from taking acid and thinking through some problems. Unfortunately, this is where most people fuck up, and sometimes it can be hard to stop this side of the trip turning sad/introspective and dominating the "fun" visuals/auditory hallucinations.
But, if you can't take something profound and almost life-changing away from your acid trips, then (i'm not going to call you an idiot or anything) you are missing out on possibly the best part of tripping.
If you dabble in high doses of acid/mushrooms - it is highly likely that you have experienced something similar to moocho .
just my HO. Psychadelics provide the "serious" side of drugs, where it doesn't have to be all about getting fucked up. MDMA can be there as well, but things like ghb and amyl are just designed to get you fucking messy.
[This message has been edited by SupaspeeD (edited 31 August 2001).]

Hey SuperSpeed,
I agree with you that the epiphanies and revelations from acid are indeed one of the most important gifts, however it needs to be said that not all of these revelations hold absolute truth.
For example, as i said in my initial post, I stopped taking acid because I was questioning (negatively) my relationships. In particular I was questioning the relationship I had with my partner - was convinced that he was a loser and I was wasting my life being with him. Acid told me this on a few occassions and it was really hard to deal with. I decided to stick out that relationship and we've now been happily together for nearly 7 years
In retrospect it was more than the acid providing the negative slant on the relationship - it had a lot to do with setting and company. the people I used to trip with were very judgemental and fickle; their thoughts on my relationship were projected and I fed on it. the fact that they were a large group of single males I had known for longer than I knew my partner probably had something to do with thier opinions and my subsequent questioning.
There's always a bigger picture. Acid can certainly provide insight and raise pertinent questions, but I think it's important to realise that sometime hallucinogenics can lie.
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ad summam virtutem
~reach for the highest stars~

Dont get me wrong - before when i spoke about getting fucked up, i didnt want anyone to take offence... at the beginning i would take acid to get 'fucked beyond belief'. But after my experience last week, i have literally seen the light. Well a bit of it at least. So now i plan on taking it (or mushrooms if i can find them) this weekend cause i cant wait to get back into my brain. LSD allows you to realise that the brain is the most complex and astoundingly beautiful machine in the world.
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You can kick the monkey all you want...but what do you do when he wakes up?

you people aren't good for my health. i'm steaming with anticipation regarding my first upcoming trip.
moocho, i'm comin' over
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wisest is he who knows that he does not know...
the not so artistic artist formerly known as nostalgic...

Yes, some acid trips certainly make you think don't they?
I've sometimes taken acid and just sat around thinking about the complexities of my life for an entire morning. It wasn't pleasant. The major issue being discussed in my head at the time was how much I was messing up my brain, and why on earth I was doing this to myself? But the next day, even the memories of these experiences have completely disappeared, and I look forward to doing it all again, albeit somewhere in the distant future.
Then there are other times when you take acid with a group of friends and generally laugh and do all sorts of crazy shit, and you realise that it's better to sort out your "acid problems" with other people and not concentrate so much on your own life.

Interesting that this topic happens to appear today, seeing I spent the whole day at "work" [cough] reading one of my old timothy leary books
Words can't begin to describe what LSD has done for me.. well, maybe they could if I was feeling creative, but I'm not, so.. hehe..
I would not be even a shadow of the person I am today if it wasn't for acid - it was the catalyst for _huge_ changes in my 'world view', and also for an extended period of horrific depression. That might sound like a bad thing (and it was at the time), but I've worked my way through the worst of it and, honestly, wouldn't change a thing that happened because it's eventually led me to where I am today. (Although.. try getting me to repeat that if I'm having a shit day.. the conviction might not be as strong )
Shit.. I could keep going for ages about the ins and outs of acid, but flashfire seems to have done that very eloquently already.
One thing I don't understand is the mentality of taking acid to get 'fucked up' .. unless the aim is to get fucked up in a bad way, which is pretty likely if someone goes into it with that attitude! Like someone else said, it's something that demands respect - not that other drugs don't, it's just that acid is very powerful and isn't something to go messing around with.. on that note, I'd recommend against tripping a week after tripping (!) .. although, technically, 'tolerance' should be pretty much gone after 7 days, personally I've found that the experience seems to lose a lot of its force if I try to pull it off within around 2 weeks of another dose. That won't necessarily be the same for all people, but it's what I find.. so.. yeah.
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Today a young man on acid realised that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration... that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively - there's no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we're the imagination of ourselves.. here's Tom with the weather!

Mmmm, tripping!
Try watching the tennis finals, Ivanisevic vs. Rafter and suddenly realising that there is no point to competition sport. Why are they doing it? So one can be declared the best? But why don't they just say so? Does it matter? I don't get it. Why are the crowd there? It's so pointless. Who's winning? But are they really winning? Why do they want to win? It's all so pointless!
Raaah, I drove my mum (huge tennis fan) nuts, I'm sure. Especially when I dropped a packed of Twisties on the ground and attempted to pick them all up, mumbling, "Ummm, OK, what would I do if I wasn't tripping? I think I can pick them up. I will... or... I won't! Or I will. But I don't have to!" <--- mushroom silliness.
However, whenever I'm coming down from acid/mushies, I'll often get the interior monologue, the "What am I doing with my life? Why am I coming down off mushies/acid right now when I could be doing homework [despite the fact that it's 7am]? Why am I fucking up my life like this? I'm gonna fuck up my VCE."
etc. It can be pretty damaging, you can get pretty negative. But I find the positives outweight the negatives. You definitely gain a sort of clarity, greater perception and different way of looking at life. Sometimes this is good, sometimes bad, because of the cliche "ignorance is bliss." It really does help to examine things in your life, and if you keep it all in perspective (ie. don't be too hard on yourself, it's just the nasty comedown talking!), it can help you to choose how to make a positive difference.
Ummm... I think that all makes sense.

Some of these responses are the reason I truly regret the circumstances of the taking of my first trip, and the inability of my mind (or more accurately, my ego) to handle the drug...

LSD is one of the few things im a bit tentative to try purely for the fact that they could completely fuck me up....in a bad way. Then again, it seems like one of things that everyone should try once

are u talkin about the place(feeling) where everything is explained. Where the entire world and existance makes sense or what?

prying open my third eye
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quick man, kick me in the junk

interesting comments Johnboy...coming from an administrator....???
real leader quality there!

yeah if i can get a hold of some cid i will, but i hear the placetime you do it can greatly affect how good your trip is

Its like all drugs with set and setting. I'm sure you'd rather being "coming down" off alcohol in bed with a lovely women/man rather than sweating it out in the holding cell at the watchouse.
Usually the most insight that comes out of acid, is that "i need to take a break from drugs man". Not that a break ever killed anyone.