Hello friends! I discovered this website yesterday and just wanted to come here to learn and meet some like-minded people. I took quite a bit of psychedelics in high school, heavily regretted it for some time, and over the past couple of years have been in deep reflection and self-examination. At 21 now, I'm working in kitchens while trying to pursue an internet education in all things psychedelics. After reading Brian Muraresku's "The Immortality Key" and hearing people such as Graham Hancock, Paul Stamets, Terence McKenna speak on power of psychedelics as a medicine, I've become quite interested in getting involved.
Outside of my interest in psychedelics, I enjoy hiking, music, reading, and watching podcasts. I'm a philosopher at heart, and spend way too much time thinking and not enough practicing. I struggle a lot with fear (mostly of failure) and trust; however, I've come full circle and am preparing myself for another trip to "Narnia" in hopes of fleshing out some direction on this path I've found myself on.

Anyways, that's a little bit about me and I look forward to meeting some of you folks!
-umlatr

Welcome to the community, umlatr! I hope you will find discussion that aid you on your path. There are lots of philosophical, both theoretical and practical, wisdom here. The consensus here seems to be that the best use of psychedelics is the use for one's growth.

Would you like to share some concepts or thinkers you are fond of?

Thank you, I'm glad I found this awesome place! My first experiences with psychs definitely confronted me with some heavy perspectives, all tools are hammers. Biggest impacts on my thinking would be "The Kybalion" (kinda cringe I know), Jordan Peterson, Carl Jung, and recently "The Immortality Key". I have a laundry list of future reading and not enough time in the day

Thank you for such a humble introduction. Inner work is big work. It's good work. I celebrate you being on your path.

Philosophy eh? That's my background, so count me in!

Learning how to fail gracefully is tough, but worthwhile. Failure is pretty much always an opportunity for growth I've found. The perceived implications of said failure is often what trips us up.

Have you visited Alexander Shulgin yet? If not, then there's another you'll probably add to your list. I found Mckenna (and many others is the psychedelic field) long after I started using psychedelics. I somewhat latched onto Mckenna, not so much out of agreement with his positions, but moreso the manner and method of thought that brought him to his conclusions. It was a familiar territory for me, being a skeptic in many ways myself, like he was. I also appreciated his many caveats about how he could be wrong, despite a prose of perceived certainty.

What's your favorite psychedelic.

Welcome to the forum, we're happy to have you.

One love

I came across Kybalion on YouTube. If I remember correctly, one of the key concepts was transmuting energy. I think this is pretty valid theme that is also important in Buddhism especially when dealing with emotions like anger, fear or craving.

I liked Peterson's new book Beyond order much more than the previous one. In this book Peterson seems to get a better grasp on how to deal with uncertainty in life. Still, Peterson's deals mostly with mundane things, that is, how to succeed in life and there is the tone that if you make mistakes you fail. I believe this book is good food for thought when raising children, but it's quite harsh reading for adults who have already failed many times in seeking the ideal life. My friend commented once that Peterson is borderline spiritual, he identifies many problems of the Western society, but his solutions are still in the same paradigm. Definitely worth a read though!

I believe reading philosophy and religion helps grasping many ideas that psychedelic experiences bring forth. The psychedelic experience in turn enables you to read these texts more critically as it gives you intuitive knowledge of many concepts that philosophers grabble with.

Anyway, I hope I see you contributing to the discussion and feel welcome here. 🙂