Paying attention to set and setting can help avert a bad trip. Before tripping, be aware of your mental state over the past few days, and how this might influence your trip. Never take a high dose of psychedelics during a period of emotional turmoil. Pre-loading your brain with pleasant images (eg seeing nature videos or taking a walk outdoors) before tripping can help ensure a positive mindset. Performing ritual for a day or more before a powerful trip can also be useful; some suggest fasting or meditation. As for setting, its most important to be in a safe and pleasant place with people you are completely comfortable with, and who you can count on to provide assistance if neccesary. Indoor raves (as i've learnt, the hard way) are not particularly good places for high doses. Having a sober sitter who is experienced with psychedelics is ideal.

When caught in a bad trip or negative thought loop, its important to be able to consciously divert yourself from the cause of the negative trip. This can be done by changing setting (ex going to a quiet area) or consciously redirecting your thoughts. Here are two of the common negative thoughts associated with bad trips, and how I avoid them:

Negative thought loop: Beleiving that you're going crazy or that something terrible will happen.

Solution: Remind yourself that you've taken a safe dose and that the effects are temporary. Don't try to fight the effects or maintain control.

Negative thought loop: Worrying excessively about the things that have happened in the past or that may happen in the future.

Solution: Focus on the present moment. Remember that the ego is but a fabrication of the mind. Being fully aware of one's moment by moment state of existance is the true goal.

happy happy birthday!

awww i wish :)

Awesome post! I'm gonna take the time to respond to some of the issues you've raised, unfortunately right now my brain is fried from studying statistics, so I'll have to get back on writing a proper reply later.

At 8:30 in the evening, I hear a faint knock at my door. Anya has come to play with me! But first I have to do my homework: she tells me what words to write down, and then draws little hearts if I've spelled them correctly. After I finish my homework its time to go to church!! ...so we run endlessly back and forth down the halls, spinning, shouting, and laughing.

Yes she really is the most adorable little kid :)

Showing? Bahaha. I dunno if theres any showing, only telling.

yeah she's hot with a cigarrete, but how much hotter would she be with a CRACK PIPE?

I was raised in a Jewish family, and some of my family members are still pretty religious. At the age of 17, I went through a conversion to Islam while in Egypt, though I wasn't completely serious at the time - it was more like a way to break off my ties to Judaism. For the past few years I've been agnostic, with a strong interest in the philosophies of Buddhism and Taoism.

actually, very few have considered me a geek because i do not fit the steotypical depiction of one. but to not expose my inner geekhood would be to deny a part of myself. so, got any live chickens?

this thread reminds me of why I can't fathom the idea of having a normal job

I, poisoned candy, am a geek. And for the sake of improving understanding between the geeks and non-geeks of this planet, I'd like to clear up a few common misconceptions of exactly what it means to be a geek.

myth #1: geeks are obsessed with math and/or computers and/or technology

wrong! yes many geeks do fall into this category, but there are all sorts of geeks. like movie geeks, sports geeks, or rock geeks.

myth #2: being a geek is the opposite of being cool

On the contrary! Most geeks are actually much cooler than your average non-geek. Yes, there are some non-cool geeks, and these are the steorytical geeks that you see in unfunny television sitcoms. But these represent a small minority.

so, what exactly is a geek then?

Being a geek is all about approaching an interest with more devotion and intensity than the average person would. I choose a stereotical geek interest, computers, to illustrate: non-geeks are content just to mess around on a computer without really knowing or caring about shit, while a geek sees a computer and HAS to know how it works and why. The geeks will take a computer apart, learn all about it, and do things on it the average person can't...this is just an example of approaching an interest with far more intensity than the average person.

I, on the other hand, am not a computer geek, but currently am, among other things, a drug geek. That explains why I devote much more interest and intensity to trying exotic drugs than the average drug user. So that concludes my little rant on being a geek.

Much of the harm associated with illegal drug use (both to the user and to society) occurs precisely because of prohibition. As soon as our governments abandon the paradigm of using violence to try to prevent drug use, we can collectively begin to formulate effective solutions to some of the problems of drug use.

hehe i think i heard that story :) idunno check the free papers for listings

in theatres...i saw it at cinema du parc

ooooo hayley burned scotty

bump

That's true in a sense, but often the subject's old personality will gradually re-assert itself just as it was before the LSD treatment. I think psychedelics open a window of oppurtunity where real change IS possible, but its up to the person to take advantage of that window and actually make the changes that will alter the course of their life.

haha damn right!

don't actually diagnose yourself with an illness. just insist that you are feeling terrible, you have an unbearable headache, etc etc. if they can't diagnose it, its THIER problem not yours

*cough* drug induced delusions *cough*

hey whateee, i mean jesus, can you cure my cough? actually never mind, i just noticed i have several bottles of cough syrup nearby

repressed oedipus complex? nah nah j/k

lol there is something about sex! ya gotta read it first

country~boy nailed it on the head. after all, you can't STOP taking drugs untill you've STARTED :)

When a child is still in the womb, there is no seperation between self and other. The ego does not exist. There is nothing but peace, universal belonging, and tranquility.

Can we recapture this feeling? Prisoners of our egos, our individual subjective experiences erect boundaries between the self and the other, between one person and the next, between the individual and all of humankind.

I remember that as an early adolescent, I used to lay awake and dream about this crush I had at school. I would wonder what she would be feeling, or thinking, at the exact moment that I was laying there. Would she be dreaming? Chatting with a friend? Watching television? I wanted our individual consciousness to become one. I wanted to merge with her and become one consciousness.

Sex is probably the most obvious and common technique by which the boundaries between two people become dissolved. At the moment of mutual orgasm, in an entaglement of flesh, the subjective experiences (and thus consciousness) of the man and woman have become one. Still, sex is limited because even at its most effective, it only involves the merging of two people, far from the universal sense of belonging felt in the womb.

I ask myself, what is the composition of the ego? What components of the mind keep us apart? I beleive there are two components: (1)the awareness of sensory perception experienced in the moment, and (2) the interpretation or subjective experiencing of that sensory input contingent upon past experience, beleifs, personality traits, and so forth. Thus, when you watch a movie (or look at a painting, or so forth) with someone, the first component is satisfied, because you are both experiencing nearly identical sensory input - but alas each individual will interpret this input differently, based on the factors mentioned above, so there is no merging of consciousness.

Let's hypothesise what sort of ideal situation would result in the merging of a large number of people, for the sake of dissolving the boundaries of the ego and attain union with the universal consciousness. Such a situation would require:

(1)a large number of people, in close physical proximity to one another,
(2)a means of ensuring that each individual's sensory input is identical (or as close to identical as possible) and
(3)some means of ensuring that every individual's subjective feelings, emotions, and interpretation of their sensory input is identical

If these three conditions are achieved, then the individual egos cease to exist and merge into one consciousness. There become just one heartbeat, just one being, made up of all the individuals present.

It is my experience that a rave can satisfy all three conditions mentioned above. The first two are obviously satisfied: there is a large number of people, and the music and lights ensure a common sensory experience.

But what about the third condition? How can one ensure that the subjective awareness experienced by all those present will be identical? One word:

ECSTASY.

Under the influence of MDMA, at least for the first few experiences, it doesn't matter who you are, what you've experienced in the past, or what your beleifs are. You will feel love, acceptance, and empathy. Now get a whole bunch of people on this drug together, and everyone is on the same wavelength. Every smile or glance between strangers carries this one message: i'm feeling the exact same thing as you, and I'm loving it!

You see it every time a thugged-out street kid forgets he has to be tough and dances with reckless abandon to trance. You see it in their eyes.

Of course, the main drawback to the rave-MDMA technique for the purpose of merging of consciousness is that it is temporary, fleeting, and cannot be returned to indefintely. It is a gift, a stortcut to something that is possible without drugs (but takes much, much more work).

Still, I am grateful for MDMA. I am grateful for what it has shown me. And someday, perhaps not until death, I know that once again I will experience the same feeling as I did in the womb.

i took that pic :)

This film by Bernard Bertolucci really captured my imagination. Though not quite a great film, "The Dreamers" nonetheless presents a dazzling portrait of youthful playfullness, sexuality and idealism against a backdrop of Paris in the late '60s.

In the film, an American exchange student befriends a French brother and sister, and quickly moves in to their Parisien apartment while the parents are away. The three share an immense passion for cinema, and wile away the days dreaming, discussing and re-enacting their favorite movie moments. Soon the games give way to an intricate three way love triangle, as the brother-sister incestious relationship expands to include the naive American. All the while, the street begins to explode with riots against the government and Vietnam war.

"The Dreamers" truly does an excellent job at capturing the free-spirited excuberence of the three main characters. Oh yah, and the sex is hot. So check it out :)

clot

fo sure!

^^nah nah i was still sober then ;)

End of last summer, I showed up in Montreal straight from Bolivia with exactly one day to find a place (and no contacts) or I would be sleeping on the street. In that one day, I found an awesome plateau apartment that I lived in for 6 months. So don't stress too much about finding a place, something always comes up at the last minute.

tsk. tsk. do you really think you're father who art in heaven would approve of this thread?

in the game of life, there are winners, there are loosers, and then there are whateees

awww nimi you know you loved it ;0

OMG i just noticed in the 4th picture is my staff! *poke poke*

flinstones, of course. but I thought you knew that already.

JESUS SAVES!!

thanks for posting this, its awesome! haven't seen it in awhile either

oh and i'm not presently on hallucinogense either hehe

haha can you turn some vitamin pills into amphetamines for me whateeeee?

Very interesting article. I will be writing a paper on ibogaine for one of my classes, it has alot of potential IMO

Growing up, I spent winters in Canada speaking English, and most summers in Israel speaking Hebrew with the other half of my family. I began to notice that the way I spoke with and interacted with other people in Israel varied greatly with how I did so in Canada. It seemed like I had two selves: my identity while in Israel was completely seperate of that in Canada, and I switched between identities whenever I switched between countries.

This realization has troubled me ever since I first became aware of it. Don't I have only one true personality? Why can't I be the same person across different environments? I have wondered about this for along time, and I think I have come across at least part of the answer, and it relates to the cultural differences embedded in the language of each country.

Words are nothing more than symbols which communicate a shared meaning between two or more people. Language in itself is just garbled monkey sounds; it is their symbolic meaning that makes words important. Taken together, this set of shared meanings communicated through language provides the basis of culture. Thus, when moving across a language barrier, one has no choice but to leave behind the symbols of one culture and to adopt the symbols of another.

While to a certain extent one can string together words that carry some measure of personal expression, this is only possible within the confines of the recognized shared meanings of words that exist within a culture. Language is at once liberating and confining. Most of us do not invent words or meanings, rather we must adopt the pre-existing defined symbolic meanings of words in order that our message be understood.

Furthermore, I feel that when making use of the linguistic symbols of a particular language, our personality and memory is altered by defining our subjective experience in terms of the words we choose to express these experiences with. Putting these ideas together, it suddenly made sense to me why I felt like different people in different language environments. Without a set of shared symbols between the people of Israel and Canada, I was forced to define myself alternatively using the different set of meanings employed by the two languages, English and Hebrew.

Hope this makes any sense to you, and I would love additional input / comments / thoughts in regards to what you think about this topic.

hehe cathou is awesome!!