Howdy from Texas/USA forum friends!
I haven't read anyone else's newbie essays but I have browsed the forums and found that I share common experiences with many members and enjoy the community's helpful attitude.
I would like to tell you a little story about my voyages beyond "normal" consciousness. I began to experiment with lucid dreaming and out of body experiences very early in life. While working a summer job at the local library I was tasked to remove every book from the shelves and inventory it. Being 13 and unabashedly open minded I would always borrow books about dreaming. I wanted more than anything to be conscious during my dreams and manipulate my surroundings. I also suffered from reoccuring night terrors, a primal instinct pulled at me, urging me to confront and combat my nightmares in dreamspace. I could not explain this compulsion at the time. But in my teenage years I learned to control my dreams and face my fears imagined or real. I experience lucid dreams through various techniques and would love to make a post with some tips on expanding unconscious awareness without the use of any substances.
My interest in lucid dreams lead me to LSD, Salvia, mushrooms and DMT for further experimentation in my early 20s. I prepare my voyages much like I prepared my lucid dreams when in training. I find this leads to more expansive and enlightening trips. I particularly like to connect with the ancient or ancestral for guidance. I truly believe that what I experience during these altered states is what lead ape/mankind out of the jungles and into the realms of abstract thought, art, language and technology we enjoy today. Accelerated Evolution baby! It happened and is still happening for those daring enough to adventure outside themselves!
PS: I am also looking forward to posting about hallucinogens and their role in developing abstract thought.
I can walk like an ape, talk like an ape, do what a monkey do, god made man, but a monkey supplied the glue! -Devo