bmcnicho

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About bmcnicho

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  1. @ZenSwift Yes, that’s the right kind. I took 2 capsules, because they found that produced full effects, such that taking more would only make it last longer. Taking just 1 should have enough of an effect to be noticeable though.
  2. This is different from regular bacopa. This nootropic contains ebelin lactone, which is a positive allosteric modulator for the 5-HT-2A receptor, which is largely responsible for the effects of serotonergic psychedelics. I tried taking it with mushrooms, and the trip lasted 8 hours instead of the usual 5 hours. So the effects are similar to harmala alkaloids (maybe not quite as potent, it’s hard to say from only one experience), but due to a different chemical mechanism, there aren’t the same dietary restrictions as harmala, and the mild physical side effects I get from harmala were also absent. It also significantly increases the strength of lysergamides. I tried it with Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds (LSA), and the first half of the trip was much stronger than normal, although the total duration was unchanged. Cognance also about doubles the potency of cannabis, and has interesting effects when taken by itself, similar to a psychedelic microdose.
  3. I know that theoretically no matter how deep and crazy a trip gets, normal mental functioning is supposed to reassert itself when the chemical is no longer present. There may be lingering destabilization in some cases, but you’re supposed to resume existing as a human, because when used responsibly these substances are physically safe. But I’m wondering if it’s possible for your consciousness to be permanently severed from the regular causal processes of this world, such that you go somewhere else and never come back to this human life. Yesterday, I took 3 grams of golden teacher mushrooms with 200 mg of harmine hcl. Things started off similar to previous trips, but then at the peak I blacked out for about 5 minutes and it felt like being erased from existence. Waking up from that is extremely strange, because while my memory returned quickly, it seemed like a bunch of stories I had in my head that I had no connection to. There was a discontinuity from my past self, as if I had just emerged in that moment from the cosmic void. I’ve done about 20 trips so far, and it seems like my sensitivity increases a bit each time. Maybe the experience of death and rebirth is a key component of higher dose mushroom trips, but it’s very unsettling and terrifying for me. Maybe the key is to surrender completely, while I always want to maintain an aspect of stability. So is coming back guaranteed? Because it actually feels like ceasing to exist rather than simply memory loss, falling asleep, or the classic ego death where you feel at one with the landscape. Maybe I should lower my doses for awhile, and focus on practical insights, because I still have a lot more to learn.
  4. @Razard86 For me it was on ayahuasca a few months ago. The meanings of all words became identical with their opposites, so language was no longer useful for understanding anything. I also was opened up to the fact that whatever it is that’s actually going on with this reality is so much larger than anything that can be conceptualized. It’s like my internal ability to imagine the possible scale of things was increased by over 100 times.
  5. @SQAAD I don’t think the sedative aspect of certain psychedelics is necessary negative, putting aside personal preference. I’ve found that sedation can work in my favor by quieting down the parts of my mind that would resist, making me more open to insight. The sense of self, being an illusion, has to be actively perpetuated, so it might be essential to how these substances operate. But I agree that mushroom sedation, for example, is a lot easier to handle and feels pleasantly dreamlike while you still have energy to function. I haven’t tried any stimulating psychedelics yet, so I don’t know what my preference would be.
  6. @SQAAD I’ve taken them 6 times so far, at doses between 6-12 seeds. Only one of the trips was partially negative. In general, I think this substance is largely overlooked, for me it’s been as powerful as anything else. It’s missing the visionary component of classic psychedelics, but it provides strong cognitive enhancement and has led me to intense spiritual realizations.
  7. @SQAAD The seeds do contain some toxins, but nothing of particular concern unless you have certain medical conditions. Some people take them regularly for years and don’t seem to have any problems. The benefits vs potential harm need to be weighed, but I think they can be a useful tool. It’s not my main substance, I’ll probably cut down to like twice a year now, mainly due to the sheer cognitive intensity it can have.
  8. @SQAAD LSA is pretty strongly sedating. It makes sense that taking it while sleep deprived would make it much more so. Feeling like you’re dying in a negative way (not in the spiritual awakening sense) is fairly common during bad trips. The idea that the plant was “trying to kill you” may have been psychologically present during that particular experience, but I wouldn’t assign too much weight to these ideas, as they can be self-fulfilling. Usually if you try again under better conditions and mindset, then the effects will be positive again, unless there’s something deeper psychologically going on.
  9. I would support increasing standards on homeschooling to make sure that actual education was taking place. But regulations shouldn’t be so strict to prevent meaningful alternatives to the public system. Religious homeschooling is a large problem that unfortunately I don’t see good ways of preventing. The public system also has lots of problems, but of course any attempts to substantively improve education would result in giant culture war backlash. The best solution I can see is that at some point Artificial Intelligence could take over education. But because we have compulsory schooling, homeschool can’t be banned. Otherwise children would effectively be enslaved to the state.
  10. @jdc7733 What I’ve experienced so far is phenomenon of imperceptible size, such that it could very well be finite, but I’m not aware of where its limits lie. In these states, the duality between nothingness and somethingness collapses and these things become metaphysically identical. Obviously, these states are very strange and difficult to describe using ordinary language. One time, I experienced a different but related state where the very properties of size and quantity either ceased to exist completely or just became unintelligible. I know from my intuition and other’s reports that psychedelic experiences can be much stronger and stranger than this. So I can’t see why someone in principle couldn’t have a truly infinite experience. However, your post does raise the tricky metaphysical question of how someone could actually know if their experience was infinite. Can infinity be cleanly distinguished from finitude? Could a finite experience merely seem infinite? Or would an experience of infinity be tautologically self-evident in a way that I can’t understand from my current perspective? Maybe the real answer is that whatever it is we’re actually dealing with here lies so far beyond the understandable meaning of these terms that the distinction becomes irrelevant.
  11. Basically back in 2016 I was a strict rationalist materialist. Some personal difficulties made me more open to other perspectives, which was right around when I discovered Leo. Following along with his teachings, along with listening to intellectuals like Jordan Peterson and John Vervaeke made me realize that rationality could be transcended. But a couple years ago, I realized that even these higher quality ideas had their own limitations. That’s when I got started with psychedelics. I’ve done about 25 trips so far, and been opened up to a lot of radical things. The problem is, I don’t seem to be naturally inclined towards radical mysticism as some people here seem to be. I have a fairly strong sense of identity, and need for control, and usually encounter quite a bit of resistance while tripping. I guess my question is, can a naturally anti-spiritual person still benefit from this work? Maybe I’m just wanting this stuff to be an intellectual abstraction, without it impacting my actual life and reality too much.
  12. @Jowblob What do you mean by this? I think this is true in the sense that your concepts about reality can be permanently altered, but are you suggesting the possibility of literally not being able to return to your body? From what I understand, after the chemical is fully metabolized, the effects end and you’re mostly back to normal. Even after very intense experiences, the mind has a strong tendency to reassert psychological homeostasis in the weeks that follow. I could see there being additional concerns for people already prone to mental illness though.
  13. This is a response to the following blog post: https://www.actualized.org/insights/actualized-quotes-043 Obviously, we have very little idea of what exactly Leo means by this just from one paragraph. However, it does seem to be a plausible result of pushing substances such as DMT, ayahuasca, or mushrooms to their ultimate extent. I’ve taken ayahuasca at moderately high doses 8 times over the past year, and there definitely is an alien strangeness to it that’s difficult to describe or contextualize within any sort of conventional understanding of reality. In one of my recent trips, I delved into the territory of what would be called “regular insanity”. It didn’t get to the point of full blown psychosis, but I did experience extreme confusion, an inability to understand basic concepts of reality, and a sense of radical expansiveness that made thoughts seem irrelevant. Insanity to almost anyone is a quite unpleasant experience, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it lacks value. A key component of generating new insights is first breaking down old frameworks. Ideally, one would strike a balance between chaos and order, such as what occurs in the flow state. This has also been called the zone of proximal development. However, the more radical psychedelic states require pushing further than this. It’s sometimes necessary to go too far to gain a broader understanding of what’s possible. During my trips, I think of this as dancing with the line between sanity and insanity. Even so, it’s difficult for me to think of complete insanity as being anything other than undesirable. If the goal is Truth, then Insanity would certainly be a large component. However, if Truth is Infinity, then your goal would be everything. Having Everything as a goal, though, isn’t a goal at all, it’s the same as not having a goal. Because having a goal implies there’s a difference between what is and isn’t desired. If the main purpose of actualized.org is still personal development, then spirituality can be thought of as self actualization taken to its ultimate extent. However, that would imply that there’s a difference between what can be considered developed versus undeveloped. Therefore, it would be possible for me to claim that Insanity (even of the “Alien” variety) is spirituality gone wrong if it leads to mental dysfunction. It may be foolish for me to ask if Insanity can be achieved “safely”, as it seems to be the precise opposite of safety. This comes across to me as an extreme form of nihilism, as I imagine that one could fully awaken to the fact that they were never a human, but still be content living out the rest of this human dream relatively normally. If Infinity is the Truth, then shouldn’t we try to cultivate the highest of what’s possible? Doesn’t that seem better than succumbing to cosmic madness? Because no matter how high of an awakening you reach, don’t you then have to come back to your life and do something with it?
  14. @Cocolove No, this website sells capsules, teas, and chocolate bars.
  15. Holy shit, that was a terrifying one! And that’s a perfect accent for narrating bad trips. My last 2 trips have been negative, but thankfully nothing close to that. I’ve taken a month off so far, and am considering getting back into it with a nice and easy low dose that will hopefully be positive again. I’m now imagining that very few of us have any idea how deep this can go.