SaWaSaurus

Try cooking and gardening. You can cook what you grow

Most people see caffeine is virtually harmless, but is that really the case? Sure it isn't as harmful as harder drugs like alcohol, but what are the physiological effects of daily long-term caffeine use?

boxed in for 7 hours a day 5 days a week learning what to believe, and you better believe it, or else. Does that really sound like freedom?

Michel Foucault - history of sexuality Currently it's on my to-read list. If you decide to read it let me know how it is.

@Angelite what were your spiritual practices?

I like something Terrence Mckenna said about psychedelic practice vs traditional spiritual practices: traditional spiritual practitioners are always looking for a way to speed up the process - new techniques, a better guru, etc.. With psychedelics, it's more like you're scrambling to find the breaks on the whole thing because the psychedelic experience can take you from 0 to infinity in a few minutes. So if you're looking to speed things up... psychedelics.

I'm posting this discussion here rather than in the sexuality subforum because this deals more with the philosophy and morality of sex rather than the act of sex. I'm coming from the perspective of having grown up in the USA. There's always been a very funny vibe surrounding sexuality. A mixture of fear, guilt, and shame, embarrassment. Sex is seen as dangerous and sinful. Things like orgies or polygamy are thought of as obscene or immoral by the bulk of society. The counter culture -- the free love movement of the 60s, Osho's ashram, or Huxley's Island, offer an alternative view to sexuality where it's not suppressed but is encouraged as a healthy outlet. Certainly there are concerns about sex... STDs, pregnancy, sex addiction, but what's with the incessant moralization? Some people act like having sex is somehow adding to their negative karma, or like god isn't going to be happy with them. I don't get it, but maybe there's something I'm missing here so if that's the case please let me know. I'm interested in tracking the moralization of sexuality through history. It seems clear to me that Christianity was the driving force behind the moralization of sex. The idea that sex should be abstained from until marriage, and then only done in the most vanilla way solely for the purpose of pro-creation... that's obviously a Christian idea. This idea also shows up in Orwell's 1984 as a means to better control the herd. Is that what Christianity was doing by moralizing sex, controlling the herd? Or was there some other reasons for moralizing sex? We no longer live in a society where Christianity is the prevailing paradigm, but we do still feel the momentum of the most influential ideology of the last thousand years. Culture has its roots in a Christian philosophy of sex, though that's philosophy is eroding. I get the feeling that if people had healthier more fulfilled sex lives, we'd be a hell of a lot happier. Mental illness would likely plummet, and society as a whole would be much happier. Looking forward to hearing what you all think about this.

What is it we're accelerating towards? Terrence McKenna would put it like this - evolution is a novelty conserving engine, where matter gets more and more complex over time, from simple molecules to more advanced molecules to polymers and DNA... until where we are now (human beings). Where do we go from human beings? Now with the direction of technology, are we maybe heading to the point where the line between technology and biology becomes blurred? Would love your thoughts!

I'm always moved by his speaking. Watched this the other way - such a beautiful expression of non-duality

I love you

Contemplate life purpose/destiny and your own death during the trip. Lose yourself in the flow of your contemplation.

ITS TOO MUCH FOR ME TO HANDLE IM GOING TO EXPLODE ITS JUST WAY TOO FUCKING MUCH it's dying by knowing this it's death breath is guiding me how to take it in stride? how to walk with death? I feel already falling asleep again it's too much to look at is it ok for me to be here????? im unworthy the moment before death is alweays now it's so great that i want to forget the inner calm that's always there you are alone, there's only me i was never dead to begin with right... im death itself to die and to live are the same thing

Psychedelics have been my primary tool for self-actualization thus far, and they've helped me dig myself out of a hole I was in. Shortly after my psychedelic pursuit, I discovered the benefits of other self-actualizing tools like meditation and breath-work, along with actualized.org. Lately however, I've been hearing about the downsides of relying on psychedelics for awakening experiences. Do you think the use of psychedelics is a hindrance in long term spiritual growth? What are, if any, the downsides of psychedelics? Below I'll give a couple arguments I've received when talking about psychedelics for spiritual growth:

I've been experiencing some major ego backlash ever since the experience. Depressed mood, alcohol, oversleeping, skipping daily self-actualizing routines, too much video games. I'm aware of it now though. The ego wants to maintain homeostasis. I'm sure our pre-human ancestors benefited from this ego mechanism, whereas they'd find a way of life and just hunker down. I'm sure it was beneficial for their survival, but for us modern humans there is no need - our survival is taken care of for the most part. This monkey mind of ours is incredibly powerful I must say... for me to experience something so incredibly profound and freeing one day, and the next day be enslaved once again... outrageous. Three weeks ago on a NN-DMT trip, I'd experienced something rather peculiar which wasn't present on other DMT trips. I experienced considerable discomfort as it felt like I was being crushed by g forces. I felt short of breath, but I muddled through to see where the trip would take me. It didn't go anywhere unexpected and I opened my eyes with an eerie sense of connectedness. I felt a profound sense of interconnectedness within the structure of reality. I felt like I was close to breaking through to some other dimension so I planned on smoking again some time. Three weeks later... My body knew something I didn't. Fidgeting, increased heart rate, gulping, anxiety. I'd never been even close to this nervous for a trip. I was considering smoking some NN-DMT, which I've smoked maybe four times before. My previous four trips were rather uneventful, though profound in their own right. The shapes and patterns of course brilliant, but nothing even close to what my body knew was going to be a wild ride. Perhaps the last time my body felt like it was going to die, that's a definite possibility. I was genuinely perplexed by my nervousness. I was scared. Then I remembered something from Carlos Castaneda, "fear is the first enemy of a man of knowledge.". I knew how beneficial these psychedelic trips have been and so I had faith that the DMT spirit would grasp me gently. I smoked the substance despite my fear. I heated my vape pen up with the DMT and inhaled, 1... 2... 3... 4... exhale. I took a second hit and exhaled as well, then fell back onto my bed and shut my eyes. The usual magnificent shapes and patterns and colors appeared instantly along with a very audible sound which I guess I'd describe as a consistently repeating low-tone error sound. This time there wasn't any lung crushing g force, and I'd seemed to have broken through almost instantly. What happened next was by a wide margin the most bizarre, profound, mesmerizing, incredible, miraculous, terrifying experience I'd ever had. All the sudden my mental picture felt crystal clear, and the barrier between dream and reality dissolved. The whole world around me was collapsing. It was like a constant death and rebirth cycle. I was shocked, dumbfounded. My sense of self became quite unclear. It was like the universe was inverted, flipped inside out. As I walked around my room I felt as though I was outside of my body, merging with all of reality. I felt like I was dead, and that I'd always been dead, just dreaming, and I knew it all along but had forgotten. I was in a realm of other, not life and maybe not death, and this was a great shock to my ego. My ego would fight back to pull me out of this incredible dimension, but I probably experienced it off and on for a good 4 minutes. All is one, strange loops, infinity. This all made incredible sense at the time. I knew it to be true, although now I'm back to conceptualizing. It's like having amazing sex - you can remember back on it but your memory only serves as a conceptual placeholder for the real thing, and thus impossible to understand without direct experience. The experience ended and I was left in shambles from what was a monsoon to the soul. We know so little about the True nature of reality. Our egoic belief systems put a constant shade over the light of Truth. Still it's always there shining, we just need to know how to look. Our battles for Truth may be treacherous, but battle on, it's worth it, because I am the master of the universe, and so are you.

sorry wrong section, could a mod move it for me?

Hey everyone, never had DMT but I'd like to. I'm experienced with LSD and want to explore further. Would you recommend I take some other type of DMT and build up to 5-MeO, or just go straight to 5-MeO?