Hi,

I have been interested in psychonautics for a few years now and will always have a place for it in my heart. The methods very, though the top and most easily accessible are psychedelics (I will admit I use them recreationally, too, but what's wrong with some fun?), next comes meditation, then binaural beats, and then lucid dreaming (which I still have yet to accomplish). The list of psychedelics that someone who probably isn't me have used are dmt (upward of ten times thus far), lsd (again upward of 10 times), mushrooms (close to five), 25c-nbome (between five and ten), 2c-b (once), amanita muscarias (three or so times), lsa (attempted multiple times, accomplished about .5 times), mdma (two or three times), salvia extract (two or three times), dxm (six or so times, but never again), and marijuana (every week or so)... but that person has it in their head that they'd like to experiment with mescaline, lsa again, ayahuasca, ibogaine, and ketamine.

That guy and one of his pals also just finished their first extraction of spice using acacia confusa. Obtained (mostly) nice white crystals. The yield was roughly (I think they decided) .6% (a little over 3 grams) using 500 grams of bark. Tested out and was wonderful. A successful first endeavor.

I love science (hope to study physics/astronomy or chemistry), music, and art. Friends and family are cool too.

Thanks so much for having me and I look forward to exchanging knowledge with the rest of the nexus.
The Mind Bender

congrats on your first extraction with acacia! sounds like a good yield and if the effects were good - way to go!

It looks like you have a firm interestd in altered states of consciousness - may I ask what your motivation is to explore these things? What do you believe is the point entering these altered states? Have your experiences so far reinforced this belief? What are your positive and/or negative experiences with these substances? What do you believe are their limitations?

Hope to see you around

cheers!

Thanks! We're definitely happy with it.

My motivation for seeking altered states, like everything else in life, is the desire for knowledge. I think there is so much potential deep inside of our minds, it's crazy... and the fact that psychedelics have been found to be very therapeutic makes me want to ingest them.

The point, in my opinion, is to let down your guard and learn to just not be in control. That's the first step in having a beneficial trip, I think, is to just go with the flow (a very Taoist philosophy). Once in the psychedelic frame of mind there is very little filtering between your brain and the outside world (or with ego death, no filter at all... you are everything and at the same time nothing at all), so one is likely to discover new (and powerful) things.

Meditation has definitely helped me relax and balance myself out. Psychedelics have shown me their potential, but so far that's about it... I haven't reached the point of psychedelia that I would like to yet; I'm still working my way to that point (practice makes perfect... right?). But, even with them just telling me, "Hey, look at the power we have. Look how powerless you are. We want to show you around..." they have opened my mind (what a cliche term, but the best one I can use). I wish for everyone to try a psychedelic at least once in their life... but only if they're mentally ready, do their research, and are responsible.

Every trip I've had has been positive except for two. One was on lsd, I tried going to sleep and obviously I couldn't. So I ended up talking to my alarm clock about how badly I wanted to sleep. The second was on dxm (a substance I won't be doing again) where... something private and embarrassing happened, but that event led me to believe I was having an allergic reaction (a friend and I were trying out something we had never done before: rapid melts). I told my friend I was having a bad time and went and laid on my bed. I really wanted to just go to sleep, but I thought I might die in my sleep so I stayed up until sleep came over me. Though it was awful at the time, that trip made me realize that I want to be conscious when I die (a nonpainful death of course), not sleeping.

And their limitations? Honestly, at this point I don't know. I'm still in the process of testing their full potentials.

Sorry everyone for the long messages; I just love discussing altered states, philosophy, and science.

Thanks

Since I started the discussion about the limitations let me say a few words about it. After eleven or twelve years of experiences with psychedelics, personally I've come to the conclusion that they are great tools but also very limited, or rather they are just as limited as you are.

In Matrix Morpheus says to Neo:
I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it.

Well psychedelics are almost like that with the alteration that they don't even want to free your mind. They just might give you the ability to do it if you are so inclined. But here of course we have to ask ourself what does that even mean? free your mind from what? what do we believe is oppressing us and is perhaps the belief that something is oppressing us the oppressor itself?

Furthermore given the nature of the experiences you have on them and the manner we interpret regular experiences every day and the fact that they are so different a lot of people come to very strange conclusions regarding their experiences. These conclusions are often neither beneficial for them nor do they have any basis in any sort of scientifically or rationally verifiable reality. Sometimes this can even be counterproductive for the people and their surroundings, but the feeling of authenticity of the experiences makes it hard to reason with them. Hang around here long enough and you'll come across one or two of them...

I'm sure there's more, but for now that's all I wanted to say.

godspeed

I agree. One rather obvious limitation is the physicality of the brain, in my opinion. But... the brain is such a complex machine that psychedelics, from what I can tell, will allow one to gain deeper access to the depths of the mind. Thanks for the response!

One major part to psychonautics, as I've been learning, is the ability of sound interpretation. If one's interpretations of their experience isn't sound then the knowledge you may have gained (without even realizing sometimes) will just slip out of our grasp.

..welcome TheMindBender..you sound look a good sort to have about..

..congratulations on the confusa extraction..it would be great if you could tell the nexus a little more about it (quality? tek?), as this is a plant we need to build our knowledge base on..look forward to your future contributions..

Thanks. Just posted a general extraction report