Why do you feel to always bring up Terrence McKenna and the Grey family. You mention once that we are in line with them... great. Beyond that, what do I care what these people think?

I'm bringing up the Grey family because they've spoken on these issues before... I bring up Terence McKenna because he's been such a big influence on my life. I've basically been "out of the loop" of the psychedelic community since a couple years after Terence's death, right before Professor Fanaticus got busted. These writings are my reference point. They're what brought me to this forum in the first place. To me, Terence is kinda like my psychedelic patron saint... Not in the sense that I worship him or pray to him or something, but in the sense that I would like to model myself after him in the way that he had his mind and his hands and his spirit into so many different aspects of this thing... The guy was a "Renascence man" in the vein of Leonardo or John Dee. He gave this little talk on "Finnagans Wake" which inspired me to read all the James Joyce I could get my hands on. My best friend ended up doing recordings of himself reading The Wake.

I guess you don't have to care what these people think about any of this stuff, but as an academic, I tend to work by referencing and building on what others have said and done before. That way, we're not starting from scratch every time we try and do something. Also, to some degree, these folks are the "elders" of our community. Maybe you don't think we have or need elders who deserve respect, maybe you don't think there is a "community" of any real sort... I don't know. All I know is that I like what you're saying about parenting. I think you've made some good points. I wonder why the negativity about my referencing the thoughts and opinions of those who have gone ahead of us in these things...

Simple. Sure I read and saw all the stuff. I respect those that went before. But going back to them for everything slows progress. These kids on this forum have made AMAZING leaps in these fields specifically because they were very raw.
When climbing a ladder, you can appreciate the rungs that got you half way up. Constantly going back to them does not get you closer to the top.

As an academic, you'll notice that McKenna broke the ice, but he was also misleading and/or incorrect on many subjects. I did this myself on many things I wrote 15 years ago. The information was raw and no one knew anything. Now, reflecting I can see the errors I made and adjust as needed, but to cling to the old information is an error.

Just wanted to say a word of appreciation for this thread. Thanks .

RW I remember you from the old edot days or was it yage.net? (I had a different username then.. rk I think.)I have kids of my own now and a wife who does not parttake and am pondering how to honourably negotiate re-entry to the plant path in those circumstances. What you've said has been really helpful.

ahh yah, Rk (rk commander? RKundalini? if so thanks for the dig music cd's!!!) or something maybe? I can't recall, but I remember some. I was with edot 96-99 and yage.net till the present, coulda been either of them.

In my case, when the kids were born I went on a psychedelic fast of sorts so I could focus on getting us to the level of economic stability. The distraction of questioning the nature of life and our origins isn't very helpful when you are needing to focus on other things.
My daughter was born in 2001, my son in 2004. I maybe did psychs 4-5 times from 2002-2010.

In my case I presented the thought to the wife that I wanted to reenter psych usage as an aid in further growth. I made the case that I could do the spiritual growth in other manners but it would require me to spend less time and energy with them. She has a history of psych usage and we both felt that a few times a year it's important to reboot the mainframe, ya know?

Coming back into it in my 30's has been awesome. In order to succeed in modern world I had to adopt some level of materialism. This was detrimental to my spiritual and mental health. It made my enormously successful monetarily however. It's impossible to rise on this material plane when you are at one with everything, the system only works because you are not content.
1-2 hard trips showed me that it all doesn't matter (which I knew, but I didn't KNOW). At this point I've been able to integrate the two... I can take or leave material life, but I recognize the need to do certain things to remain productive.
Anyhow, it really helped break my bad thought patterns that I incurred.

good luck bro,
rw

Thanks mate - my Mrs, unlike yours, is scared of psychoactives -- but is out there enough anyway that I think she is partly relieved to see me return to a spiritual path. She basically trips all the time anyway, no substances required . (Funny... I just caught myself wanting to put quotes around spiritual. The hard trips and realisations are yet to come for me... the time is yet to present itself for anything other than a calibration dose. )

It's pretty uncanny how much of the rest of your post reflects my own experience - apart from the enormous monetary success haha. Then again, maybe it's not so uncanny... there is probably a whole wave of us out there... the 90s alt.drugs.psychedelics revival now 30-something parents .

You know, for me it was a conscious spiritual choice to immerse myself in parenting, and specifically in what I see as my role in it as father, as provider and protector. I entered that role as spiritual choice. Part of embracing that role in the physical, biological and social realms means being less inclined towards the "spiritual realm", and I have copped value judgements for that -- but you know what, fuck that... true mental and spiritual expansion surely means encompassing the biological and social realms, not abandoning them. There's a shitload more mindblowing things in a David Attenborough video than there are in a Deepak Chopra book for example...

ohh for sure. Calibrtion doses were what i was doing the few times during my psych fast.

It IS funny how many of us popped up at the same time. We all were kids playing with brain chems, we moved into establishing ourselves in the world, and now can come back with an enhanced view. Perhaps it is the 2012 thing? perhaps it is just part of our evolution in the age we are, I know not.


For sure. The thought that is held by some that we must all forget about the "here and now" world is a spiritually naive viewpoint. It appears very common in those that have just recently started climbing the ladder. Or those who have so little in the world that they are attempting escapism through dmt smoking. This is far too easy as dmt presents a very "this isn't real" mentality on our current plane of existence. It is a sad side effect that is very present in the nexus community, the nihilism is a very common philosophy here, but it is a dead end to any growth. We saw this in the 90's as well. Today's psychedelic escape artists are tomorrow's opiate addicts.

It isn't always about what you encounter in the other world, it is how you apply it in the here and now world.

I'm so glad I found this post! I've recently become a father to a beautiful baby girl who is now 6 months old (and also half English, half Finnish - does this make her 'Finglish'?? ). Some of you may know soulfood on here? Well, he's the godfather of my baby, and a damn fine one too !

Anyhoo due to my new responsibilities I've put DMT on the back-burner for a while now, though with all the things going on in my life - lots of stresses due to dramatic changes in mine and my wife's lives - going to be moving away from friends and family soon so I can take a masters degree in order to get myself out of retail and into a job I actually want to do and help me gain more stability for our family - I'm kind of feeling the call again! My wife and daughter have gone to see family in Finland for two weeks, so I'm considering trying to ease my way back in to DMT during this period. I'm a bit nervous to be honest, but am curious as to whether fatherhood will alter my trips at all!

I have found in the past that DMT has helped me gain perspective on things, make decisions and helps me deal with stresses (though I've never specifically used spice to help me with stresses)!

I've spoken to my wife about it and she seems quite keen on me smoking DMT if it's going to help me out at this period in time! Plus to be able to do my masters degree I have to take a pretty intense open university mathematics course first and I think DMT could be helpful; I used it whilst I was studying at University and writing my dissertation when I was completely stuck; I would smoke a little spice and when I came back around it was like my brain had been implanted with extra ideas out of nowhere, it also helped me to understand concepts that previously had me quite stumped! I got a first class degree too, so something went right somewhere! The ideas and understanding are always there, but sometimes they need to be massaged out of your brain I guess...

One of the many wonderful things about our baby is that we are co-sleeping as a family. Unless my baby is ill, she pretty much sleeps through the night as peaceful as an angel, waking only to feed. So, I'm not too worried about having a trip interrupted by a screaming baby, or being unable to deal with her due to being under the influence as my wife will be sleeping right next to her. Of course, if she was ill I wouldn't risk smoking spice at all!

Whether or not I will go through with getting back on the DMT train is yet to be seen, but it's certainly something I'm toying with in my head!

Anyways, great advice on here. I've only read a few posts so far, but I'll be reading through them with more care a bit later - too pressed for time now after writing all this. Hopefully then I can make a more informed decision as to what I think is right for me!