I would like to hone in on the notion of "escapism". It's the red flag that seems to go up every now and again around here, so I would like to take a little time to analyze the idea. When someone pulls the escapism alarm, there is this implication that the person is smoking DMT for the purpose of getting away from everyday life and its problems, and moreover that this is an inappropriate way to go about things. We have two components here: the assumption and the judgment.

It is first assumed that the DMT user is entering hyperspace in order to avoid "reality". This thought tends to be provoked by what the accuser views to be "overuse" which is again a subjective judgment and often as a product of psychological projection in which we discover more about the accuser than the accused. People with different personalities, biochemistry, and tendencies for experiencing hyperspace vary widely when it comes to those who smoke DMT. Some people may simply be more psychologically suited to "frequent" use than others. I think it can be likened to some extent to horror movies in the sense that there are people (like me) who would prefer to watch 0-1 horror movies in a week (leaning toward zero) whereas someone else may watch a horror movie marathon. In this analogy, we're watching the same movie(s) unlike in hyperspace where the "movie" is completely random, but nonetheless, one person feels like one was enough and is compelled to avoid such an experience for a certain duration of time where another person is eager to see another. In such an example, I could imagine myself saying to another, "why would you want to do that?!?!" to which I'd expect an answer such as "because I like them!" Since I know that horror movies make me feel bad, I end up projecting onto others that they must feel similarly and should react as I do, but this would be inappropriate. The overuse aspect to this argument is funny because it implies that assuming you are just entering hyperspace "for kicks" that there's some magical number of times you can enter with such intentions without it being considered escapism...

I think a lot of thoughts and emotions from which feelings of overuse stem are a result of this idea that there must be a period of integration to be allowed for. I feel that this kind of thinking doesn't allow for the fact that not all DMT experiences are made equal. Out of x times that one may travel in a week, so many of those times could be "duds" or just "more of the same ole". Perhaps I simply contrast with the orthodoxy opinion that every experience needs integration. For the record, I'm not advocating overuse - I encourage "safe" and responsible use on everyone's behalf - but what I am saying is that there is no objective number you can place on how many times is too much. People and DMT are just too variable with idiosyncratically unique circumstances that whatever may happen to work for you isn't necessarily right for someone else.

There is another assumption in calling escapism that posits consensual reality as the "primary" one. If we were to believe (as some DMT users do) that hyperspace is real (and significant) then the whole escapism argument could be turned on its head by saying that people do meaningless things in life to avoid the reality of hyperspace. In fact, this is one of the primary motives of those who avoid trying/doing DMT. In the light of hyperspace (possibly) being a primary reality, it would be those people who actively avoid doing DMT who would be the escapists.

Furthermore, pulling the escapism card makes assumptions and judgments on a person's motives. For example, if the user is smoking DMT for spiritual purposes - to connect with the divine - then it should seem wildly out of place to call that person an escapist should he choose to venture more often than you would. If we were to have someone who wants to go to church everyday, it would just seem silly to call them escapists for doing so, yet if a psychonaut decides to go to hyperspace on a similar schedule, with similar intentions (getting closer to the divine), he may be called an escapist. It all just seems pretty silly.

I would like for you to pay me a new brain because you sir just blown my mind.

You have a beautiful mind. This is a very intellectual, honest, open, piece of writing that people need to read.

I find that most folks that judge those who do use DMT more frequently than others are just dumbfounded how some of us can use it so frequently.

DMT is a personal quest. It is up to the user whether or not they are using it to escape.
Personally, there are many, many other drugs better suited for escape......
DMT is a drug that helps me ARRIVE!

When people use to escape, they don't just want to escape for 15 minutes, they want to escape entire days, even weeks, sometimes years.....

anyway, great write, thanks for your thoughts. I believe this to be spot on accurate.

I think your right on many points here, so to say, every one has a different chemistry. Although I can't remember any specific topics where this has happened, just raising the escapism alarm because of the frequency of use that is.
Most times there are other signals that a member is having more and more difficulty handling his use and life.
The topics that do pop to mind are for example the jobono topics just before his departure.

So in those cases where there are more an more signals of a member geting increasingly unwell I think raising the escapism flag does not have to be an issue. People raising the escaping argument are most of the times genuinely worried about the other person.(nothing wrong with that) on the other hand the way they sometimes raise the issue could go better though.

So if someone thinks that the pattern of use is worrisome (and not helping the OP)its very legitimate to just ask a question. Something like; are you running away from everyday life? or are you trying to solve your very real problems by taking more and more dmt ?

The OP can reflect on that and dismiss it or take a lesson from it(no harm done). Not asking those questions is in my opinion worst then asking them, and in that way fall in the harm reduction category.

take care

Yes, yes, and yes.

I always resonate with everything you say, to my delight.

Seeing people use psychedelics to escape their daily lives seems trivial to me because I believe I'm having this human experience to escape the boredom that can arise from an endless eternity.

I'm reading a book right now and this passage rings nicely with me; it implies for me that a harmonious life regards the 'every day mundane' just as much as the mystical fantastic:




It's amazing, really, because as experienced psychonauts, we inherently know when journeying that we are trying to 'bring something back'; some piece of knowledge, or some feeling. Inversely, the goal of life in my opinion would be to 'bring something back' from this material realm to the mystical realm.

Many times the things that are most beautiful when journeying are also the most simple.

--

And of all entity contact the thing they are screaming at me most often is 'live in the moment'. It's visualized as a vortex where these two realms meet.

Thanks for your post.

Accusing of escapism is positing guilt.
To posit guilt to someone is such a farting code of conduct.

And, of course people do escape reality (BTW wft is reality?), that happens somewhere to someone, sure. Just like the one who posit guilt to another being, (s)he's probably as much escaping reality (here is that word again) by nagging about it.

I second that!

Using DMT to escape sounds counterintuitive to me.
In my experience, DMT shoves everything about you and a lot of new stuff in your face and doesn't let go of you till its done. If anything its the opposite of escape, its sort of like sitting down and giving your mind a serious dose of "here is everything you have ever been, here is everything you are capable of, and you have about this much time to absorb it" and then poof, you are back, thinking HOLY COW!
This is not escape to me, this is the interrogation room of psychoactive substances. DMT is the thug with the phone book on the other side of the insanely bright lite who wants you to answer a few questions.* The funny thing is you are your own thug. You walked into this room deliberately, a rather brave thing to do in my opinion. People trying to escape from something try to get away from it, DMT does not permit that or at least it didn't permit me anything like that, it gave me something to think about for many years. It taught me things I didn't want to know and some of it hurt. Escapists don't do things that hurt unless they need endorphins, and that is a whole different subject.
I could cheerfully escape into a forest with a supply of MDMA and forget about everyone and everything and become a very happy little animal shuffling about in the moss, I would love to do that, on MDMA I can see the soul of the moss and know that its fond of me. This is is nice and would be a peachy escape. DMT might allow me to think for an instant about moss but its not going to let me screw around for any length of time, with DMT there is stuff to get done, and not much time to do it in.
Escapism by its very nature is something that helps release one form the perceptions of responsibility or the rigors of stress (I think, well, something like that anyway!) and allows them to indulge in something less strenuous, stressful or even just boring. In my case I used to smoke tobacco, now I have a glass of wine or three. Opium dens are not only on the other side of the world, they are also, as far as I know, in the somewhat distant past.
So to me the idea of telling someone they are using DMT to escape makes me wonder what in the world is going through the head of the person saying it. Or, if they are correct, how astonishing the mental state of the person they are accusing must be! Of all of the people I have seen do DMT all of them, good people, bad people, smart people and stupid people, all have stoped when they were done, without exception. All of them. Interestingly the bad people turned later into stupid people (and went away which was nice). The people who I thought of as stupid blossomed into something quite different and I can no longer think of them as anything other than remarkable. The smart people seemed taken aback and spent a bit more time looking at things than they already did. The good people, well they are still good not surprisingly. Not one of them escaped anything.
What could you escape from with DMT?

Thank you Global for getting me thinking about this. Escapism is an interesting thing, in the case of DMT if you are using it to escape you could very well wind up somewhere quite unexpected. Like right where you were sitting a few minutes ago!

One thing about people avoiding hyperspace as its called here:
saying that they are avoiding it, when they haven't experienced, it implies some knowledge of and thus fear of it.
This in itself is a fascinating concept:
How do they know to be frightened?
Are they also the bulk of the people claiming other people are using these things to escape?

The primary reality question is fascinating as well:
Where does that put sleep?

Ok now Im starting to babble.....
Thanks again Global!

Cheers!
Mealea

Thank you Global for helping explain this phenomenon , I was really starting to wonder if they where right !!

How can any of it be right? Is there a book written called "Right and Wrong things to do."?? No, they are all just opinions developed from the individual trying to cast their ideas in a manner. Its just a misunderstanding that needs to be understood by the accusing party.

Global hit the nail on the head with this one with a 30 lb. sledge....

Good post Global!!

yessssssssssssss

I guess I would like to keep the discussion alive, so I'll try to bring a contrary argument...

There's a lot of ways to escape from things that we don't want to face in our lives (I'm avoiding speaking of reality, because that's not necessarily the point here). DMT could be one of them. It's about attention and action - you turn your attention elsewhere than where it's needed, and you are escaping from your responsabilities. You become obsessed with something while you are supposed to be working on something else - you are escaping. I used to do this a lot when I was working on my thesis, which in the end I was able to escape from for good. People do this with relationships, kids, work, school, decisions, memories, whatever. Sometimes it involves drugs, sometimes video games, sometimes relationships, or other habits, or the internet... I think it's not far fetched that an obsession with DMT could be used in the same way.

Now of course escaping from something that is doing you harm or at least not doing you any good would be considered a good thing, while escaping from something that you would potentially benefit from, or escaping from something by which you are hurting others, could be considered something less good. It also depends on where you are escaping to? Of course this requires judgement, and judgement isn't a bad thing. We judge all the time, and most of the times it's what gives us the capacity to make decisions for ourselves. This apple looks better than that apple, this information seems more trustable than that information, this situation is better than the alternative etc.

Is my fascination with DMT detracting from other areas in my life that I value and should spend more attention on? Am I using my fixation on DMT in order to not make a decision that I fear? These are valid questions IMO that we should ask ourselves from time to time - and not just with DMT, but with any kind of fixation we have.

We are good at tricking ourselves. DMT is great for revealing stuff that we hide from ourselves, but I'm not sure it's quite as good in revealing, as we are at hiding stuff. I don't think DMT is an apropriate tool to escape from reality as a whole - so Global's arguement is valid - but I do think that it can be used to avoid certain things, especially if one both consciously and subconsciously tries to avoid whatever it is. DMT might even - in its twisted and strange way - keep showing me how I ought to do somethign specific, but if I refuse to decipher this message, I can continue to ignore it and keep obsessing over hyperspace, thus escaping from this issue.

In my case for example my fascination with DMT helped me "escape" from my thesis and mind numbing work. With DMT and the rest of the psychedelics, at least I had something interesting to investigate, explore, research - stuff that I should have been doing for my project, but it was (or seemed to me) a real dead-end kind of thing. I let my fixation with psychedelics distance me from my project psychologically and also in a work-load sense. Until at some point I HAD to make a decision to either get my shit together and finish or to abandon. I chose the latter and have not regretted it. Ever since then strangely I am much less fixated on DMT or other psychedelics.

Enoon, very nice post and particularly interesting perspective on the issue.

Talkin 'bout controversial perspectives:

The bigger someones intention to use dmt as an escape from daily life, the bigger the boomerang effect will be of dmt hitting you on the head and telling to to get a grip and keep on living.

That being the case there is no better molecule to use than dmt for someone with escape tenancies. In the end you will find yourself closer to yourself than you could have dreamed. And realize that thats actually not a bad thing, from which you start to pick things up again. It should be a prescription drug to treat such illnesses. Oh wait a minute, Ayahuasca already is....

DMT as a means to escape = A okay!

I wish I had this, so I'd use it more

I have found that in my experience dmt can definitely be used as a means
of escape . In simple terms I have complex avoidance techniques. I believe obsessive behavior
Is a double edged sword that is necessary for mastering certain crafts . For me music
Is the main focus. this has included much obsessive practice almost to the borders of insanity . I believe
It's only in this territory just like dmt that the real work takes place . The key ingredient is integration
and the ability to return as fully as possible to our everyday functioning reality . This is very important to
me as I am dependent upon by family and friends. Taking responsibilities to family n friends seriously is
really an integral component to this whole thing .

The other part is with something so amazing and at times breathtakingly beautiful
How could it not be used for a certain level of escapism ? I think it's a personal thing and learning
When to back off as it can get really weird to the point of non- productive insanity.
I find that for the most part dmt makes me wasn't to be a better person all around and
Helps me in other ways as well . For me it's worth the occasional risk of
"Escapism" to the love circus once in a while .

Hmm I guess there is a difference between an abusive escapist and an insensitive user of psychedelics.
Sometimes the line between those 2 can be vague though. True escapists may abuse psychedelics like LSD or DMT once or twice, but it'll never be their first choice. True escapists will allways prefer Cocaine, Amphetamine, Opiates or Ketamine & similar dissociative drugs. Psychedelics are too confrontational for true escapists.


I have met a few people who smoalk loads of DMT often, but seem to be getting little from it;
The insensitive folks.

I have a friend who smoalks way more spice than I ever would.
I don't call him an abusive smoalker of spice, but I do see him as somewhat insensitive.
He's very intellectual, but is poorly in touch with his more intuitive, emotional & creative side.
Though he strives to get more in touch with these layers of himself, by painting, making music,
drinking mushroom teas & smoalking spice, some tough psychological barriers keep him from breaking through and flourishing.


This is most evident when we smoalk DMT together. We roll DMT/Cannabis joints with about 300 miligrams in each joint.
I take 3 hits, break through and travel hyperspace for up to 40 minutes. I come back to physica reality to find him
on the same coutch, having entirely finished his joint and still casually sitting there. I ask him what he experienced, but not much comes out. He had entire nights smoalking joint after joint of DMT, but admitted he never fully broke through.


We could argue this is a matter of chemical/biological sensitivity, but I feel quite confident that psychological
sensitivity, or lack thereof, is a much bigger factor in this. I seem a 1000 times more sensitive to DMT than he is,
but then again I am a 1000 times more sensitive to everything in life than him. He is very "sober minded" and has a thick psychological shield around him. It both protects & imprisons him. I am shieldless, which is what makes me sensitive. This makes me both vurnerable & free/open/receptive. This is why I feel I am so much more sensitive to DMT, inspiration, intention, light, sound...etc

Because my friend is so much less sensitive he is often left unmoved and seemingly untouched by DMT experiences.
He brags about this sometimes. About how much he can take without flinching, but not being able to reach a level where DMT just makes you want to crawl and shreek is really missing something fundamental and valuable: A complete breakdown of Ego. A proper humbling and transformative experience.


Because I am so sensitive, 3 tokes from a DMT joint will get me to that point, far beyond breakthrough level, evertime. Sometimes 1 toke can be enough. It will take me so deep, show me things so briliant, bizarre, beautifull, terrifying and symbolically ingenius that I'll need months to calm down and integrate that experience.

I'm not one of those saying that you're an Escapist if you smoalk high doses of spice frequently, but I admit I think
that people who do smoalk spice in heroic doses and frequently are missing the mark: They're not getting the most out of the experience. They seem not to be getting much from it at all. How can I tell? If you DO have a proper, deep spice experience you're hunger for otherworldy knowledge will have been fed. Your spiritual belly will be full and the thought of eating more otherworldy knowledge within the next 4 months will make you feel sick, so to speak.

Time is needed to digest the heavy knowledge, before there is room for more, new knowledge. If you don't feel full, you didn't reach that knowledge. Smoalking even higher doses and even more frequently is not going to help get you any closer to that knowledge either. It would just continue to elude you.

I think the barrier that keeps you, as well as my spice smoalking friend, from breaking through deeply might be
getting stuck in the verbal analysis process of the mind. I've gotten stuck there sometimes too. The rational mind
is so busy trying to make sense of what's going on it absorbs ll your attention and none is left for imagery and insight.







Instead of smoalking moar spice, try to discipline your consciousness to ignore the verbal mind to instead
focus only on the experience; Save rational analysis for later, after the experience.

Try to remove the barriers in yourself. Erode them away slowly. Make a ritual out of smoalking spice.
Put on calm, ambient music/sounds, burn some incense, lay down a matrass and light a candle. Meditate
in any way you find effective to clear your mind and calm your heart/emotions before proceeding to smoalk spice.

Once the breakthrough starts, lay down on the matrass, relax and fully surrender to the experience.
No holding back. Your mind will wander, going verbally wild. Let it do that, but don't focus on it's rambling.
Instead focus solely on the imagery and what it may try to symbolically show you. You may find it tells a tale.

If you succeed in that you become free from most verbal thought and find yourself in a world of mostly imagery.
Proceed focussing on the story/information that the images seem to be communicating to you. You may then travel
even deeper, beyond imagery, into a world of mostly nonverbal ideas and insights.

It may be hard to not get distracted by the rambling mind, but discipline can get you that deep beyond it.
If you can learn to master that, you can take 5 tokes of a DMT joints and be spiritually and philosophically fullfilled for the next 6 months minimally.

strangely, Im not sure that 'escapism' really means attempting to escape something. At least it doesn't necessarily mean that.

In enjoying escapist movies its not as if Im really trying to escape reality or avoid anything. In escaping for an hour or two in the company of Indiana Jones Im not really passing judgment on my actual life. My actual life is fine, its just nice to pepper it with some adventure or season it with a little psychedelic whizz bang now and then.

Again, until I manage to harvest some plant matter and conduct some home grown extractions I can only really discuss shrooms and LSD but there is an extraordinary aesthetic aspect to such experiences which are just stunningly beautiful. The brazenly colorful and iridescent patterns one witnesses are beyond gorgeous. I do worry that people often miss the wood for the trees about this. One doesn't have to have introspective trips wherein lessons about the self are learned and truths about morality are seen. One doesn't have to take incapacitating heroic doses and be forced to confront unseemly and subconscious facts about oneself. We all have things about ourselves that are embarrassing or are inconvenient or that we don't like. The quicker one realizes that this is completely normal when tripping the quicker you can push all that introspection aside and get on with the good trip. You know the trip where you are barely aware of yourself because you are too busy gawping at the beauty of it all.

I think having fun is a legitimate and valuable way of using these substances. Sometimes, I think, doing things just for pleasure is good for the you. Its like french food. Theres way too much butter for it to be good for the body but it tastes so divine it can't be anything but good for the soul.

We all try to escape things. In fact, I think it is a healthy thing..more so than being content with states of dis-equilibrium. To wish for an escape out of the incoherence of the societal programming of the nervous system is not wrong. We should however, to try do such a thing as consciously as possible. Unconscious escapism can lead one farther down the rabbit hole of self projections that lack contextual coherence.

I've been thinking a lot about this.


This thread HELPED reduce some of my own insecurities about frequency of journeying, and personal use. I consider myself one who can take moderation, can take breaks, and can venture frequently - depending on the situation. The situation is ever changing

I enjoy the discussion that has ensued in this thread. I did not expect so many quality posts!