Hey everybody, my name's Brad, and I'm new to this board. Pretty much the whole site now i'm thinking about it. Well, anyway, I have a few questions that I've been wondering about after pretty much studying the whole site and reviewing the comments made by the users regarding transcendent consciousness as well as drugs aiding in such. Just bear with me

Okay, so . . . I see how everybody is so open with their experiences, so i think it's according for me to lay down some of my own for reference. I am very artistically minded and creative, constantly drawing mental pictures and composing everything from 808 drumtracks to scores for a symphony. I smoke weed two or three times everyday with my friends. I am off and on with antidepressants and such, but not nearly enough to consider my life in danger. And I am currently with the girl i plan to marry.

Now with that background, i need to find out some things. I have always been greatly interested in the "other". What else is out there and what i'm missing. The appreciation, the wonder, and such. Reading this site, i have found that plenty of the signs of expanding consciousness are occuring regularly in my life (the feeling of vastness, time dilation, etc . . .), but i know there's more. I have become increasingly interested in the use of psychodelic drugs, due to my friends constantly abusing the phenomenon, and i want to know what i have to watch for. What to expect, due to my already creative mind.

Also, in accordance, when doing so, what should i experiment with first when i trip? I've read what plenty of the experienced users on this site have said relating to the "set and setting" philosophy, and I have a firm enough belief that I am solely trying this to grasp that unknown boundary right outside of myself.

That's pretty much it. Thanx for reading all of that, and please give me some feedback. It will be very much appreciated. Thanx.

B2daRizzle

hi Brad. Have you read http://brainmeta.com/guide/guide/toc.html ? Keep an eye out for what Turner nicknames the "THE ULTIMATE PSYCHEDELIC JOURNEY".

Thanx Janus, i've already skimmed this section of the site, but I guess I will have to engulf myself in it's contents. Another question though, and if I may, receive many opinions so basing my decision will have more substance . . . would you rather trip alone or with friends when it's your first time? Thanx!

B2daRizzle

for first time, try alone. Make sure you're safe and that no-one can intrude on you. Lie down on your back, preferably in bed, listening to some music using headphones, in a dimly lit room with many shadows.

Depends on what you're trying. For something like E, you probably want to with friends. For others, you probably want to go solo, like ganji said. Pay attention to set and setting. Be fully rested, and choose a comfortable environment. I don't know if one with a lot of shadows would really be all that great. It really comes down to choosing whatever environment you're most comfortable in or that will facilitate your trip in a certain direction.

Hi Brad, my name is Suzette... I have read your post, and wanted to add a few lines of my own... not to condescend, or state a determination, but perhaps add a different view... use of psychelics to induce creativity,,, has the ability to make anyone "creative"-feeling... true creativity comes from what's inside, and the gifts we contain... as we get older, these gifts will expand, if we have allowed them to flow all along...
example perhaps: body-builders who use steroids,,, sure, they have muscles...
but so could anybody who took that route... the body-builders who put in the work, might not be the most massively sculpted, but within themself they will have
found the rewards of the hard efforts they put in... a rare precioussness...

the greatest rewards will come during the greatest challenges...

and in the process of the journey, I have found personally that when I expand my own consciousness through self awarness, following gut instinct, etc. ... my mind has been opening to greater things. I have had out-of-body experiences, dream communications, and more... without drugs...
althought I have experimented in the past ... I have found my consciousness has increased with age and simply paying attention to internal thoughts and signals.

We are also products of, and influenced by, our environment. Go to a shaman for a soul retrieval, have your tarot cards read, go to a body, mind, spirit expo, etc. You might not agree with some of the ideas, but ideas will be bouncing around in high energetic form.... also increasing self-awareness and creativity...

welcome, and good luck to you....

sbhenderson

Hey everybody, and thanx for the feedback, it's very much appreciated . . .

You want a roadmap to psychedelics and the mind...That's funny!
Sorry there is no guarantee and no map. Each person is different and drugs don't always coordinate with surface thoughts.
Sometimes they unlock buried thoughts of fantasy and fear. You can listen to a hundred different peoples experiences and never hear the same experience.

Put the bullet in the cylinder give it a spin and pull the trigger, what do you have to lose but pure innocense.

you have no personal map Joesus? I'm not being derogatory, but am curious to hear of your experiences.

I just shared it.

you said there was no personal roadmap but you never shared your own, so I guess you don't have one.

There is no road map with drugs, no guarantee and no consistancy in direction other than away from conscious awareness and stability. I have my own experiences with drugs and by my own experience they don't create a map to anywhere. If anything they take you on a sidetrip to nowhere until you stop taking them and get back on the road of life.
Fantasy is not real, it is entertaining but then eventually you have to bring yourself back into reality.
Any path that you choose to take in life requires focus and dedication. Time to master the path. Drugs cannot be mastered. They do not create any consistancy other than the consistancy of illusion and fantasy. This is not an evolutionary accomplishment, anyone can waste their time and that doesn't require any skill at all. What does is discipline and focus.
Drugs of any kind offer contrast to discipline and focus and if that is what one needs then that is what one needs to do. One can learn from another who has travelled that path but few do. Everyone who wishes to be different will do it anyway even if it means they come to the same conclusion, but this seems to be the way of humanity.
Life is a lot like a TV program, people sit with their finger poised over the same channel button on the remote thinking to themselves,"My parents and their parents watched this channel, in fact most of humanities ancestors watched this channel and they all died....... but I think I'll watch it too and see if something different happens to me."
Wisdom is not genetic, it is achieved through conscious choice, some still ride the short bus through their life, even though they could choose to do it differently.

Hey Brad hows it going,

I completely agree with what Suzette was saying, and to offer one more perspective...

If you wish to know something of the wonders/dangers of the effects of stronger drugs on the consciousness before taking them, and you feel you need an idea of what to expect. Can I recommend to you a book, and a film which had particular impact on me.

The book was The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley, and The film; Altered States starring William Hurt.

Of course these experiences are unique to the individual experimenter, like the guys have been saying, and I also have actually had better experiences without the use of drugs

On the subject of Pot, that too can bring on some excellent, although more subtle, experiences. May I recommend White Widow from Holland.

for some people, drugs can unlock deep things, and for others, it does nothing because presumably they have nothing deep to unlock. For better or worse, Nature is elitist. Not everybody has what it takes. Some people just know beforehand into what camp they belong. It's up to you to decide. What anyone else says means nothing.

Ergo, no road map. Fire when ready Gridley..

I had a thought once