I was responding to someone in another thread re dmt-virgins never being able to fully 'prepare' for the first experience regardless of how much they have read about it. It really got me thinking of all the terms we kick around here and wondering how closely the meanings really are person to person.
For background of what I want to discuss here, the small snippet:
vineseeker wrote:
But its a problem to make people understand this if they havent tried dmt before.
Also these books and hyped reports DONT HELP!
friken wrote:
I agree, trying to understand DMT/aya before experiencing it is self defeating. I would even go a tad further than and say the more one reads books, watches documentaries, trip reports, etc, the more difficult the first experience(s) can be. It creates expectations and self fulfillment. Meaning you are expecting something insanely powerful (pre-fear of the unknown), to see entities (maybe good or EVIL, add some more fear), expecting to feel death (who doesn't that scare?), go to 'hyperspace', see crazy crap, etc. All of that pre-paints experiences you have yet to have. Then you return using terms you read about that don't quite fit your own experience but are 'close enough'. Terms like ego death.... lol <guilty> void of nothing <guilty>, hyperspace <guilty>, self-dribbling jeweled basketballs <no guilty yet>.
It is a very hard thing though to come back and NOT want to talk about it, write about it, and use any means possible to come to terms with the experience. So goes the pros and cons of a wonderful community like the Nexus! :>
When using terms to describe the indescribable and intensely varied, I think we do a good job... or do we? It isn't like describing an egg.... anyone (most) can just go to the store, buy an egg, hold an egg, crack an egg, eat an egg, and when discussing an 'egg' mostly agree on what an 'egg' is.
Just to get the conversation started, here are a few terms I'm guilty of using and (as best I can) a quick description of what they mean to me.
ego death - experiencing a reality without the separation between other and self. Losing memory or concept of an identity.
Hyperspace - This is an example of one that I don't use much because I'm unsure if I have experienced it yet. If I have, I would describe it as animated fractal patterns of immense complexity. Even though the fractal patterns were unrecognizable, thought would match descriptive names to the pattern meaning. Like once I KNEW the fractal imagery was an insect... locus/mantis/grasshopper like.
The Void - this has been called other things like 'nothingness', black hole, waiting room, being denied access, etc. For me it was my first aya experience of 10g mimosa tea. After 'ego death' there was nothing. no more pretty lights, color, no body, no sight, no sense of I, no entities, nothing. The only thing that existed was an echo of the fear experienced in 'death' and a sound. The sound was a deep tone hum/buzz. The only thing that brought the sound into existence was when it stopped there was deafening silence. The concept that something changed was required to even know there was sound then silence. Then the only thing that existed was a memory of sound, a current silence, and echo of fear. In that place eternity passed. It was without time or form.
Please add some terms here along with your best stab at descriptions from your direct experience. Don't worry about duplication, as that is the point -- to compare experiential meanings of the terms. How different will our descriptions be? Potāto, Potäto, or Mango? This should be fun
