Hiya folks,

I've been lurking around the Nexus on and off for a few years now, I'd signed up about three years ago but ended up getting heavily involved with vipassana (insight meditation) and so my psychonautic adventures took off on a different tangent. During that time, I've continued to explore various chemicals and compounds, usually within a meditative context, as part of my overall practice and in the process of deconstructing this sensate experience, but I've found myself drawn back to DMT again and the whole subject of entheogens as part of the 'spiritual' journey.

I'm a fairly experienced psychonaut and have over a decade of different meditative, magickal and yogic practices behind me, although I continue to study, practice and learn; much as the bulk of my work and practice has been done within various spiritual models, I am essentially an agnostic and hold no fixed beliefs on anything. I find the Buddhist model to be the most phenomenologically accurate, in my experience so far, description of the process of awakening and so I tend to favour it as a my model-of-choice.

Anyway, enough preamble...

I'm extremely interested in the whole spectrum of entheogens, however DMT, bufotenine and psylocybin hold a special place in my heart and I'd like to work with them more closely. This site, since the first time I ever read it, has been instrumental in teaching me more and more about entheogens and the technical processes involved in working with these marvelous plants, and also demonstrates how a forum can be operated with true compassion and genuine care for each other. It's a wonderful place and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn from you all, and to help in any way I possibly can if required.

I'll sign off for the moment as I've just ingested a cheeky little tab of Sandoz' Cardboard Goodness and am off to do some exploring...

NDN

Hello Non Dua Natura,

Welcome to the Nexus. Sounds like you are already fairly familiar with this place. .

It's interesting that the materials you are interested in are obtainable from eating or extracting from entheogenic plants. In USA and other places, there is currently no access, no getting the MHRB over the border. Thus, folks are looking into other plants and extraction options and also purchasing seeds and beginning long term growing projects of entheogenic plants.

At least mushrooms and the seeds to extract bufotenin from are still fairly easy to access. . Unless you already have MHRB in hand you may have difficulty procuring any at this late date. Probably depends on your location.

Regardless, a warm welcome to you - take a good look around, there's a huge amount to see here.

A very well written introduction essay, your articulation is a great quality especially on a forum such as this. please share more about yourself. having a decade of experiences should warrant atleast another paragraph to satisfy my curiosity.

before i forget, welcome friend~!

Thanks for the welcome, I look forward to participating and interacting further!


No problem, feel free to ask whatever you like, I'll add a bit more in the meantime:

My background is in magick, mainly within the Chaos paradigm although with a foundation built on kaballah, Aleister Crowley and the symbolism of the western magickal traditions. I've experimented extensively with the majority of meditative and yogic techniques, as well as working with various spiritual models ranging from Christian mysticism to, at present, Tibetan Buddhism and Bön traditions. I've worked within the Buddhist models for the last few years and continue to do so as, like I said before, I find them to be the most useful and phenomenologically accurate in describing a hands-on approach to the process of awakening. It's the bare bones of this process, the techniques and how to actually apply them in real-life which interests me the most.

Ultimately, any and all paradigms, however beautiful and ornate, are simply conceptual models through which we try to communicate, as best we can and with as much clarity as we are able, in dualistic language and metaphor, our immediate sensate experience as it occurs; the experiences possible through the respectful use of entheogens, like some of the advanced meditative states found in Buddhism and other traditions, transcend language and involve a different mode of experiencing to the everyday perceptual baseline. While we can describe them sufficiently[1] to allow for sites like this to exist, the experiential aspect of them, the vividness and immediacy of it all, is non-conceptual; it simply 'is' and the world is seen with a freshness, a childlike newness untainted by conceptual thought or affective reaction. Words are mere symbols representing a dynamic flow of pure information, they're inherently devoid of meaning; empty boxes we fill with learned concepts then mistake for the processes they represent.

Psychedelics seem to allow one access to similar states as those encountered through intensive meditation practices, these 'non-conceptual spaces', as I'll call them for the moment, where the laws of space and time cease to operate.[2] Where language no longer sufficiently communicates experience and we are left, literally, at a loss for words, there is still this direct experiencing, this bare awareness, but it becomes difficult to (sensibly) describe what's going on for all manner of reasons.

My practice over the years would be best described as 'freestyle', in that I've adhered to no single tradition for any (major) length of time and have approached the idea of "enlightenment" or "awakening" in the spirit of an adventurer. I'm an experienced meditator and write on the subject within the pragmatic dharma community, but the spiritual journey in all it's aspects is my main interest in life and I spend the vast majority of my time engaged in related pursuits.

Outside of the psychonautic and 'spiritual' hilarity, I'm an average joe from outside of Glasgow who's got a kid and a mortgage. I produce a lot of music in various styles, although my preference is experimental and noise music. I also produce video and artwork, operate an online microlabel and have a number of creative projects on the go at any given time. I like to keep busy and creative, playing around with reality in whatever ways I can find and which allow for the most freedom.

Anyway, I've rambled enough...as you can see, I probably seem to write in an unusual way but it's not intentional. I apologize in advance if I come off as curt or overly serious, my style of writing has led to misunderstandings on other forums and I'd like to avoid this as much as possible. I'll be clear from the off that I never post maliciously or with ill-intent, my words can sometimes seem a bit pointed or upfront but I'd like to mention that I never mean to be insulting or condescending.

Thanks again!


[1] We can talk about these experiences but we usually need to use poetic language and metaphor. The problem occurs when relating the experience to someone who hasn't experienced the same thing, they have no conceptual point-of-reference in mind to refer to and so they fabricate an imagined version of something which is, by it's very nature, beyond imagination. They misunderstand and misinterpret the words, they see it through a tinted perceptual lens which hasn't been cleansed. If someone has experienced the same thing, they'll be able to understand more of the subtleties of your semantic representation and relate to it more easily.

[2] More accurately, since we can only ever speak from our own experience with this stuff, there can occur experiences in which there is no observable subjective passage of time and/or experiential existence of space; paradoxical non-experiences are also possible.

Non Dua Natura,

Thanks for that. That was a fascinating and very enjoyable read. I found your style of writing to be very informative and highly readable. And some of this stuff is very serious to many of us indeed, though we never hesitate to try to enjoy ourselves along the ride, . So again, don't be too hard on yourself. I felt it was a great read and very generous sharing.

Thanks Pandora, I appreciate your encouragement.

I've found a few sources of DMT and bufotenine in the U.K. (for the moment at least), and I've also found a local supplier of the majority of chemicals required for the teks who also sells to the public in convenient quantities. Serendipitous indeed, and so it looks like my entheogenic adventures will come along sooner than I thought!

Now, to source the hardware and build the THP!

Thanks again for the kind words and warm welcome.

you sound like a great new member to have around welcome to the nexus