Is alcohol the only bacteria-based entheogen? All the others I know originate from plants and fungi.

I spent most of my money on booze and women...
The rest i just wasted.

Funny saying! I'm not advocating it, I just like the message- enjoy life.

nice dude

I don't like getting drunk or being around drunk people. I can always think of something better to do. The popular acceptance of the abuse of alcohol is pretty disgusting IMO. I've actually always found it a bit hypocritical and almost a "sell out" when people in psychedelic communities buy into that mentality. I get really turned off when reading trip reports which start with: "so I was wasted and decided to try (insert substance here)", pretty much a waste of my time to read that crap.

Zymurgy, on the other hand, interests me and I definitely think that, within that context, alcohol could be considered an entheogen. The process and art of creating and appreciating alcoholic drinks out of just about anything has a long history. Brewing your own beer, or tending a grape vine to make wine can be very rewarding. There is a plant relationship at work there with much to be learned.

Yeasts that produce alcohol are true fungi from the order Saccharomycetes. I hate to admit it but I would consider myself a maintaining alcohol junkie. As long as I have work responsibility and/or a significant other around I can keep my usage down to a few beers a day but if I'm home alone and don't have to go to work I'll drink way too much. At least I've been able to stay with beer which is a lot more forgiving than hard liquor but I do have a taste for most of the high quality spirits. There is nothing worse than bad hard liquor. I've been able to quit smoking tobacco which was very difficult but I haven't been able to quit drinking.

Yeast that is used to brew beer from grain (as well as the crude beer that is distilled to make whiskey/bourbon) is a fungus. Fungi are just amazing, is there anything they cannot do?

Wine on the other hand (and distilled wine derivatives like raki/tiskudia) and cider are a combination of random fungi and bacteria that reside on the skin of grapes or apples.

I'm quite drunk now, I think I'm gonna go pour some more from the kegs,

As much as I love drinking I agree with many that its unfair that alcohol is one of the only accepted forms on intoxication. There are so many weekends where SWIM would love to just take some acid and go listen to some music or something, but can't because all non tripper friends want to go to the pub or something, which is often fine, but SWIM prefers variety in life . Or do some other substance not necessarily psychedelic. I guess SWIM does that anyway but the point is SWIM can't be like hey who wants to go take acid with SWIM with his collegues or something (well some of them...) because its not socially acceptable or well understood.

I just wish using any substance was socially acceptable if used responsibly. I don't have a problem with people choosing to do hard drugs like heroin or cocaine if they are responsible, same goes for alcohol, and all other substances.

With all that said I am going to get raging drunk tonight SWIMs first scientific paper has been accepted for publication The world is doomed !!!!

This is quite a step. Congratulations!

Congratulations indeed!!!!!

When SWIM's first paper was accepted, he did all the drugs he could lay his hands on in a single night, hahahahaha

Alcohol is shit!

ILPT has been drinking every day and is glad he gave up a month ago. He will not touch that evil stuff anymore. He wasn`t drinking spirits regularly (he has weak stomach)but he loved the taste of beer(lager,ale, stout anything)and he was pissed quiet often from rose wine. It became habitual and that`s so bad. He didn`t even realize he has drinking problem unless his ex-girlfriend pointed on it. First week without booz was hell on the earth, ilpt is glad it`s all behind him and he is not thirsty anymore, phew!

He used to smoke cigarettes, he gave up over year and half ago and taht`s was easy!
Now it`s third day he is off the weed, so pleas thumbs up
Giving up with weed is the hardest, cos he really miss it`s psychedelic properties

He thanx to DMT, Harmalas, Psilocybine, Psilocine,LSA etc. to help him get rid of those nasty habbits

Only drug ILPT using every day is cup of tea or coffee or both
He also using St John Wort and drinking scullcap tea recently to beat weed withdrawal.

He would like to be free of any material stuff here on the earth so when he die his soul would be able raise higher then souls from addicted bodies (this is bit out of topic, sorry)

There is only one thing left, he`s addicted to. It`s sex sex,sex and is very hard to keep it under control. Good shag hmmmm with girl you love hmmmmm, pure heaven. NOTHING CAN BEAT THAT!!!

I'd go drop some acid with ya

And congrats on the publication

alcohol is no more evil than fast-food. it's people who can't control their cravings and associated behaviors, which are detrimental.

some people can have a glass of wine, or a beer, and stop. they really do use it for for relaxation (it is historically entheogenic..GABA modulator, and in higher amounts, NMDA-antagonist). others take it to the next level, to mask insecurities, escape depression, or what have you..those can obviously lead to a path of self-destruction

mmmmmm, Moylan's Kilt lifter Scotch-Style ale. Sooooo good, and I got a nice tall bottle. Gets tastier and tastier the warmer it gets.

Although alcohol isn't exactly my favorite intoxicant, or psychoactive... there is nothing in the world like a few nice cold brews after a long day.

I'm not a fan of being absolutely wasted, but I often feel much better with just a little bit of alcohol in me.

I'm a writer, and a lot of the times when I write sober I have a tendency to get writers block ALL the time, but surprisingly, after... maybe 3 or 4 beers (I weigh 140lbs) it seems that all of my creativity and inspiration just flow. There isn't any hesitation, and every sentence is just filled with deep, true emotion. Which for me, makes the writing that much better.

Interesting you should say that. I guess it's the confidence boost. Men seem to play pool better after a couple. And apparently my spoken French and German improves greatly when I'm drunk!

Also, I remember reading about 'studies' that found that men were more 'intelligent' after 1 beer. Whereas women went downhill after their first one, as do men once they've had their second. So man's brain needs a beer to function optimally... that would explain a lot! (sorry no source, treat as heresay)

I've never been a huge fan of alcohol. It makes me tired, irritable and takes away my capacity to think clearly (I'm talking about reasonably low doses here rather than being drunk). When I get drunker it makes me quiet and seems to actually take away my confidence.

It's an interesting substance. With the other subs "our friends" do (this is a generalisation) the more you do you usually push to a higher/better state. With alcohol the more you push it the more likely it is you'll end up in a heap on a floor being sick.

I've never felt as repulsed as I did a few months back when I was on acid and finely tuned into everything, thinking clearly, euphoric, the works, and around me there were leering greasy drunk people slurring and breathing all over me; "so tell us what acid's like then".

The answer was: "well it's amazing, what do you want me to say? What's the point of me even trying tell you because you'll clearly never try it."

To answer this:



I think it's partially to do with the fact that they're not open to the idea of doing anything else, through a combination of fear, stigma and their friends. It's even the case in terms of the people above who could have had the option to try psychedelics, they know no better.

---> The reason many people on here aren't fans of alcohol is quite simply why would they be? They've experienced things of a whole different scale. I don't think it's no coincidence that alcohol mixes badly with just about everything (another generalisation), although other subs interact very nicely with each other.

I do also want to point out that I really enjoy the social drinking in moderation, for the taste, for the feeling of being a bit tipsy, which is very pleasant, really opens you up to your friends, gives you a nice buzz. But after a certain point it's a waste of time imo.

From an English point of view, how else would I enjoy the football with my friends? I certainly wouldn't do a load of mescaline to settle in to it (some of you may disagree!).

Hey 40oz: I find that alcohol has the complete opposite effect on me. If I have a few beers and sit down and try to write I find I can't think coherently and my ideas are poor.

Actually, on another note, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on writing/psychedelics in another thread. How have they influenced/helped you? If you don't put it down and I have the time at some point this weekend I might start one.

Ernest Hemingway.
Need I say more?

The only difference between a drug and a poison is dosage.

The only difference between a drug and an entheogen is set/setting/intention/proclivity.

Since the terms "poison" and "entheogen" are simply conditional modifiers based on dose and idiosyncracy, I just call them all drugs

swim says - some substances are ego inflators (coke and alcahol scream to mind) and cause intoxication - swims not a fan of that - he's tried a lot of entheos and alcahol and its fx are just pathetic in comparison to the other options of say - cacti, mushies, spice, chronic, etc... which shrink ones ego.
swim doesnt mind drinkers - some of his friends enjoy it and its always funny to watch them slowly, over the course of the evening, start acting odd and abnormal, talking louder, thinking their funny, falling over shit, being sick, etc... also fun to shake them up the next day while they suffer
idk alcahol just seems to retard development - swim had his time stuffing around when he was a teenager but now swim just see's alcahol as just another usefull solvent for cleaning up extractions or isolating things that are actually usefull.

I really don't like alcohol, since I was a young boy.
I've tried to get drunk twice, but just vomit in less then a minute. And that's a great thing, I found very few drugs are stupid as alcohol.
Great body damage with no wisdom, and also about the pleasure I don't think it's that good... especially the day after

Surely I don't mean to condamn no one, everyone is entitled of his own body and neurons, that's just my opinion for myself