I'm curious if or how anybody else integrates their DMT and other psychedelic experiences through the arts. Whether it be artistic expression or impressions. How has it helped you integrate your experiences? Have the arts helped you integrate godhead experiences?
While all of the arts have been amazing for my integration, music has always had a major role in my life and has likely developed many aspects of myself. Some of my history/perspective... (apologies for the length, TL;DR=music helped me integrate)...
Since I smoked weed for the first time I felt music was enhanced and I would "vibe" with certain songs. Lay in bed late at night after smoking 2-3 hits of cannabis in the backyard and somehow walking my majorly-stoned self past my parents, to my bed, one step and 10 paranoid thoughts at a time.
Shut off the lights, get cozy, turn on the tunes. I can still vaguely picture some of the intense closed-eye visuals I would get to the music. Radiohead - Electioneering performing live in my head at the most incredible show I'd ever imagined but never attended. One night I remember listening to a Red Hot Chili Peppers song followed up by Tool - The Patient and whatever visuals I was seeing made complete sense and I could swear that these two songs were talking to each other.
Just a couple of the many experiences. At the time I was 13 so I wasn't even very familiar with myself and now was processing being "high" was so this didn't provide any personal revelations about the nature of the visuals or anything of that sort. It was just weird, fun, stigmatized in my schools in a way that broke a worldview when I smoked it for the first time, and that got me really curious.
Getting to the point, I listen to a crap-ton of music and have done so since before I smoked weed. I always liked certain songs because they made me "feel good," they were my "style," and I felt I could relate to something even though the context appears to not always fit. I felt the music had soul.
What I've found very interesting along my psychedelic journey is how my perspective on songs changed in various ways. Specifically in relation to the use of the terms: I, you, me, Him, Her, mother, father, etc.
With all of the recent godhead threads and some personal psychedelic experiences integrating together in some way, "I" kind of started looking at it like "my" perspective is rooted at the godhead("me" ) with branches extending outwards from any decision "I" have made (I acknowledge there maybe more to it, not my focus here) and towards a new point. I've been looking at these new points as infinite potential (moments to be, my future) and I have labeled them as uncertainty points (or infinity jesters) to avoid applying any certainty to them. Considering "I" am created by this infinite potential, each branch of my decision tree can grow, mature, connect with another point, create a new idea, develop a form, pattern, entity, city, world, universe.
Since taking this perspective a lot of songs have been making a whole different sort of sense. The kind of sense that makes you smile and dance and laugh and love life. It may be because these artists are "on drugs," but I prefer to think of it as in contact with themselves. Especially since as a child I had less rigid worldviews and no drug experience and I could feel these songs make sense to me then on a deep level. Also what came to mind was that one night I remember listening to a Red Hot Chili Peppers song followed up by Tool - The Patient and whatever visuals I was seeing made complete sense and I could swear that these two songs were talking to each other.
I also completely perceived a number of the songs on a language level incorrectly, however. Mistook expression of joy for fear/sadness/paranoia on a number of occasions. Sounds unbelievable and I can't believe I did, but it is what it is.
Anyways, a lot of songs that have started making more sense by overlaying them with my current perspective on the godhead. This in turn helps me understand myself better. If you are looking for a route for integration, I would certainly recommend checking out the arts and the reflection on yourself.
The song that made me finally post this: Elliott Smith - Junk Bond Trader
I used to see Elliott in a light very unfitting for him. He helped me through many hard times, but I didn't understand him.
I think this song is about the godhead/uncertainty points/infinity jesters, the dangers of assumptions, and the power of acceptance, loving yourself and expression.
Elliott Smith - Junk Bond Trader wrote:The imitation picks you up like a habit
writing in the glow of the TV's static
taking out the trash to the man
give the people something they understand
A stickman flashing a fine line smile
Junk bond trader trying to sell a sucker a style
Rich man in a poor man's clothes
The permanent installment of the daily dose
And you tell off when you tell it like it is
Your world's no wider that your hatred of his
And you tell off when you tell it like it is
Your world's no wider that your hatred of his
Checking into a small reality
Boring as a drug you take too regularly
The apple needs to laugh, the broken crutch
The first true love that folded at the slightest touch
Brought down like an old hotel
People digging through the rubble for things they can resell
"Happy holidays," said Sid the Saviour
Believe in love I still favour
I won't take your medicine
I don't need a remedy
To be everything i'm supposed to be
I don't want nobody else
I can do it by myself
We're meant to be together
Now I'm a policeman directing traffic
Keeping everything moving, everything static
I'm the hitchhiker you recognize passing
On your way to some everlasting...
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
Better sell it while you can
I think this may sound familiar for some.
Elliott Smith - Memory Lane wrote:this is the place
you'll end up when
you lose the chase
where you’re dragged against your will
from a basement on the hill
and all anybody knows is
you're not like them
and they kick you in the head
and send you back to bed
isolation pulled you pass a tunnel to a
bright world where you can make a place to stay
but everybody's scared of this place
they're staying away
your little house on memory lane
the mayor's name is fear
his force patrols the pier
from a mountain of cliche
that advances everyday
the doctor spoke a cloud
he rained out loud
you’ll keep your doors and windows shut
and swear you'll
never show a soul again
but isolation pushes you ‘til every muscle aches
down the only road it ever takes
but everybody's scared of this place
they're staying away
your little house on memory lane
if it's your decision
to be open about yourself
be careful or else
be careful or else
uncomfortable apart
it's all written on my chart
and i take what's given to me
most cooperatively
i do what people say
and lie in bed all day
absolutely horrified
i hope you're satisfied
isolation pushes past self hatred, guilt and shame
to a place where suffering is just a game
but everybodys scared of this place
they're staying away
your little house on memory lane
your little house on memory lane
Just a small selection from a single artist. I never understood the beauty of these songs in their fullness (or fuller-ness), it's a trip. Almost anything by Aesop Rock will fit the bill, Jay Munly, The Faint, Tool (pushit), etc, etc (artists. Interesting perspective to look from. Honestly, it appears every song I "vibe with" has this connection of (mis/proper) association. Like the godhead was expressed well enough to maintain some of its infinite perspective from the roots of being. It just feels more physical and real hearing it in many songs than the concept of oneness I had hanging around in my mind before.
I'm not really sure where to go with this perspective, but it has been very interesting and I may follow it around a bit. Physical templates of experience take a load off the mind. The atmosphere of music and direction of vocals lets my thoughts flow.
Has anybody had similar experience? Or another story to share?
The inner soul is full of joy. Reveal my secrets and sew me whole. With each day, "I" heeds your call.
You may not care the slightest and may not be the brightest, but from here "I" sees you're mighty for you created it all.
And the jumbling sea rose above the wall.
Through this chaos comes the order you enthrall.