Hi Nexians!
Autobiography is a meaningless exercise, whether as an explicit piece of writing or as an implicit process updating and maintaining our sense of self (a habit I'm working on kicking). But here are some bullet points:
- About 10 years of mostly mindful and serious experimentation with psychedelics. By fifteen I was well acquainted with 5-MeO-DMT, but it was only last year that I had the fortune of getting to know the star molecule of the show.
- Have been lurking and reading old gold on the Nexus for about six months now, and have been handsomely rewarded by following the advice to use the holy trinity of GVG + Arc + copper mesh. (Apologies to anyone who finds the fanfare over these devices elitist -- count me a member of the cult
)
- Studied philosophy in college, which has proved tremendously useful to me in navigating the epistemological Pandora's box that DMT keys open.
- Also studied neuroscience, and am currently working in a post-baccalaureate cognitive neuroscience research unit, with aims to begin carving out my own projects in a graduate program two years from now. Some of my DMT experiences have directly led me to develop new hypotheses about perception and decision-making that I've gotten strongly positive feedback about from more "sober" colleagues. And it goes without saying that these experiences have also challenged the stock I placed in the reductive materialist assumptions at the core of my academic discipline, but --
for now -- I'm comfortable with playing out a relatively more mainstream role in the scientific community until the time is right for more surprising research.
- Was compelled to quit smoking after my second DMT experience. The impression I got, coded in a not-so-subtle vision blocking my entry beyond a glowing veil, was that before I could see more of the beauty and bounties beyond I had to muster and demonstrate the maturity needed to reorient myself away from an entropy-facing path that I had been conditioned to sleepwalk down. After that experience, cigarettes tasted awful to me and I no longer had any cravings for the little monsters.
- Began to feel a powerful visceral pull towards Buddhism - particularly the Dzogchen path - after my ninth or tenth DMT journey. What I had previously understood only at a heavily abstracted level about Buddhist epistemology and metaphysics has become very palpable to me and DMT has been helping me recognize some overlooked seams that actually hold Western science and Buddhism together in a coherent framework.
I'm interested in simulated games of life and their Easter Eggs, seeing the stage and remembering the joke, pineal photoreceptors, Baroque architecture, challenging electronic music, tribal revival, and maximizing the net quantity of conscious pleasure across time in our known universe.
For now, I hope to contribute with discussion about some of the more recent research on DMT neuropharmacology and about the epistemic confusion regarding the "improbability of hyperspace." When I feel comfortable, I may write and share a report or two about my experiences.
You guys are truly a special bunch, and I hope to see you on the other side!
Love and illumination,
s1r