Now I'm not saying I don't have friends, I definitely do, and am very happy with the relationships I have made.

BUT, (not trying to build myself up here at all) ever since I started using psychedelics I feel like I have become significantly more mature and have grown a lot in my mind.

When I go to class, or even just experience being around people my age on campus, the vast majority are just SO childish!

Again, I'm not saying at all that I'm better than these people in anyway, I just find it hard to relate or connect to people that aren't on the same page as me.

Anyway, does anyone else experience similar feelings?

It's normal,don't worry

Heh...welcome to college.

Psychedelics or no, this is how it is.

Now fast forward 5 years...or ten years...or twenty years...or zero years and ask yourself...

Could you not swap "college" or "on campus" with "earth" or "in government" or "in positions of power" or "in 'real' life"?

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.

I used to show up to college in the morning after tripping all night with the same mexican pancho on and moccasins every day, just after smoking a joint and another few grams in my pocket. Usually I would just sit there with my coffee baked. I got good grades but I definatily did not fit in with most people there.

I remember sitting in anthropology class beside one guy who just read nintendo magazines all day and never listened to damn thing in that class, and seemed about as smart and aware as a rock..with a jesus freak on the other side of me..I never could relate. Oh well, college is not different than anywhere else really.

had this experience during my time doing economy/computer studies. couldnt stand the talk about money, career, promotions and cars. all the time. switched to german literature :-)

You have more in common with these people than you realize.
Focusing on differences can lead to elitism and contempt, both of which I consider to be far removed from the spirit of psychedelics.

Awareness is a double edged sword.

I thought I made it clear that I don't have an elitest view towards anyone. I don't focus on differences, it's still the way it is.

There's a bit of contradiction here. I think the important thing to take away is perhaps trying to get some people on your page. Let them in on evidence for your beliefs. Make believers out of some of them and it can spread like wildfire.

Back in my early twenties I ran into the same problem... Being an artist and a denizen of the subculture can be isolating enough as it is, but then sampling the psychedelic awareness made it really easy to look at "common" people as being almost of a different species. I struggled with this dichotomy for decades- it's very hard to have meaningful relationships with the rest of the world when seen through this lens.

The thing that really shook me lose from this was becoming a parent. Now when I walk past another dad holding a baby, there is often this mutual glance of recognition, that smile/nod that embodies so much more... Doesn't matter that they may be totally square and I'm this scruffy tattooed cyberhippie looking dude... None of that matters in the face if our common recognition of shared humanness, a thing so huge as to make our petty differences irrelevant.

We are all family! Now let's educate the brothers and sisters...

I have the same problem, though I am not in college anymore I found college to be an extension of high school, no one wanted to learn just talk about their weekend.
It bugged the hell out of me, I wanted to learn! So I dropped out because I felt I could learn more doing my own research than I could with all the distractions of people around me.
Probably wasn't the best choice, but I am happy with how my life turned out so far.

I still don't "fit in" and I feel very socially lame.
I am able to recognize that we all have our differences and just because someone is childish doesn't make them wrong or any lower than me.
I look at personalities and peoples differences as something like race, just because we are different colors we are still people that have just as much worth, same goes for personas.

The problem I have is that even though I recognize and accept the differences I feel like I am an outcast, that I am the weird one that no one wants to talk to.
When I try to enter a conversation it just seems to dead end and I feel like I sucked all the life out of it somehow.

I don't think classifying the behaviors (at least those that I encountered) as childish is necessarily apt. I mean, it certainly is in some cases, but the issues, for me, were not so much relating to immaturity as much as they were relating to dreaming sheeple focused on ascending the ladder of a consumer culture while exemplifying no critical thought. Many children I've worked with, be it at summer camps or home contexts, were much more enjoyable and more easily related to than my collegiate peers in terms of the focus of their energy/lives.

I've always felt that I had a tough time " fitting in " but this has actually turned out as my strong point. I tend to stand out and think a little more openly, it helps a lot in work and in school tbh. And I've made a lot of unconventional friends by just being myself and at the same time showing interest and respect to others even when I think them to be a little cookie cutterish, that's just how society is, people will follow.

Get used to it!

It sucks but it's awesome

Everyone has a sub-culture they feel most comfortable with, and some are just rarer than others. I honestly felt like I had nothing in common with anyone I met except some people online.

Once I started going to some EDM clubs and Hippie Festivals though.... that changed really quickly. I get along extremely well with DJs/LJs/Security and Event Production crews. Even there, the "masses" seem so... "foreign" to me, but the older crowd, I fit right in with. Basically, anyone that is the type to go to these events for years, and stick around, I get along with very easily.

Can even tell if they're the type even when it's their first time. Not sure exactly what it is, but everyone I get along with extremely well, loves that scene/sub-culture and sticks around.

Find your sub-culture, and you'll feel less alone.

Just by being a citizen of the same country, you share a culture with many of the people you go to college with. You'd feel far more alone in a foreign country.

Like the guy above said about fatherhood, the things that we have in common are what make us have bonds. Look for those who are most similar. The more rare your interests are however, the harder that will be to do.

It's probably safe to say that many of the participants here at the Nexus are here because we lack compatible peer groups in our everyday lives. As mentioned above, the more specific your interest, the smaller your group will be... Although this can feel isolating, it can also be downright exciting when you find your "tribe" and can connect on this kind of abstract, highly specialized level.

...and yes, we are surrounded by sleepwalkers. We have the choice to be one of them or not; we have the choice of resenting/ disdaining/pitying them, or not... We can also decide if and to what extent to try sharing our awareness. I don't think this is something we can do by going up to sleepwalking strangers and shouting enlightenment in their face... Or dosing their water supply, for that matter. But we can work in subtle ways through our art and music, through our unselfish acts, through our living well as an example. In the meantime we must be patient.

Dude... that was really profound. Thanks for posting that.

I went back to school to recently, after bouncing between various jobs since highschool. 24 now, I'm at a community college, so my experience may be different, but it seems like most people go to college because they are either trying to make money afterwards, or because they are told that college is what you do after highschool. The majority are not really interested in what they are studying. Psychology is a hugely popular major nowadays, same with Pre-Law. Many of the students I've met that are studying these subjects aren't really learned in either at all before coming to college. They're more attracted to the character of the psychologists or lawyers they see on t.v., and the big paychecks that they imagine come with it. They don't seem to realize that in order to excel in any field it is going to require some ingenuity and creativity. These are the cookie-cut people. I could be wrong, and it's only my perspective. I've got a close group of friends most of whom I've known since grade-school and most other people I tend to recognize as associates or second-hand friends, so this is coming from the perspective of a highly isolated individual hahahaha.

Don't fret though, imagination is such a rare commodity these days, and it will only become more important in the unmanifest future. It really is sad how institutionalized the "civilized" world is nowadays, but those who just want to sit back and dream other people's dreams are going to be paying those who imagine these dreams in the future. That or another dark-age. Not sure what I prefer.

Try not to let these perceptions get to you, there may be a difference in attitude and objective in life, it will eat you alive if you let it. Stay open and positive to what your peers can teach you about yourself. We are all in this together.
"There are two wolves inside us, one that feeds on positive, and another that feeds on the negative. Each one of us has to decide which one to feed"

Wow, I can really relate to your experiences, and the other ones in this thread.
These "feelings" and "thoughts" often grab to the fact of my use in psychedelics.
I really thought I alone had this feeling in the world.
This is one of the 2-3 reasons that I quit studying 2 months ago (product development).
I now work at a Tapas-bar and I'm doing that to do something, and not nothing. Tho I know it isn't my true "calling".

It makes me a bit sad that (hearing from you guys) this is not something that goes away with age, but is an invisible wall in my own head.

What caused us, Nexus'ers , that we can relate to this same psychic experience? Did all of us had a certain "trauma" from which we obtained this experiencing of misunderstanding towards us? Or them towards the world?

*Contemplative edit*: Maybe I shouldn't worry about that feeling too much, and just let it be and be myself at the same time.

Very much so.... consider yourself one of the enlightened few.