do you find psychedelics going hand in hand with career fields like psychology, therapy, social sciences, and other fields of science? if you work on a field or engage in science that requires observation; how in your opinion has psychedelics affected this? do you observe more detail? do you process what you observe more effectively? do you find it has rekindled your relationship with making observations? etc/vise versa?

any thoughts?

very interesting. i noticed psychedelics allowedd me to realize bias and confidence wasn't the same thing as truth.

What is "Truth" and how did you realize the above? I understand bias and confidence but Truth? That's a slippery one.

Is it just me or are those trees swaying in a peculiar way..

Psychedelics have profoundly reminded me to see beyond the illusions of my own thoughts, awareness and inner systems. To see our much greater, all encompassing, universal existence and potential.. whatever that shall be or already is. Psychedelics didn't influence my perspective within observation, but rather they enhanced it. In a way it is an influence. Especially during the onset and afterglow state of the experience. Between that is just an unfathomable mystery we are all apart of and connected to.. and it IS beautiful.. deconstructing, enjoying and learning through this life.. now I'm just attaching meaning to our subtle yet paradoxical lives.

Observation is simply a practice I've been constantly and directly engaged with.. until I realized there was nothing I was engaged with and that I already was. We simply cover over everything that is unknown to us with things that are known to us to live comfortably. Ever since realizing the big picture, which I'm sure many Nexians are already aware of, life just seems to lift one up outta the chained mind and into the deep, bright ocean of ourselves.. our true selves.. our hearts and spirits.

thats some really interesting insight! also by "truth" i guess i just meant what seems true of reality and society. but truth is interpretable so what i see as true of reality and society could be false to someone else.

Truth is only a word. Use it enough and it looses its potency and novelty. Just like everything else. What one thinks and feels can only be seen as their truth, yes, with the respect of other peoples truths. By abiding and being true to oneself is already being true to all that is in existence. You and we are enough.

In all seriousness.. I went to Teknival in Czechia in 2005 (I don't even like tekno "music" but this festival was just great, for various reasons) and on the last day, after fighting off a migraine attack in my tent for two days, the sun came out, the atmosphere felt really good and I thought "what the heck, if there is ever a good opportunity to really do lsd, it must be now." Coincidentally, there was some lsd to be had in the tent next door.

After dropping the tab, I sat there, waiting for what was going to come.. Then, when it hit me, I was utterly amazed. "Wow, this is just.. ME!!"

Instead of some alcohol or cannabis-like intoxication that I already knew, I was overwhelmed with what the world was like when I was still a child.

My second thought after, "wow, this is just.. ME!!" was: for such a long time I have been wondering "what is a hallucination" and now I see it: I have been hallucinating al my life, it just took a tab of acid to see it.

The whole day long I sensed, laughed and danced in the immediacy of the universe that I almost had forgotten. I danced like a dervish, barefoot from sharp rock to sharp rock, joyful over my body's acute sensitivity.

Somewhere on that day it dawned on me that part of my life was a pretty bad trip, but that it is in fact possible to change your trip. This changed my life.

I've since had some more great realizations on psychedelics, but that day in Czechia is still unforgettable.

"Its never too late for a happy childhood" -- Willem de Ridder

It's an inner celebration I swear.. I agree that these different substances deliver IT. However it isn't just IT, IT IS! It's alive! Breathing! Pulsating and beating to the very rhythm of our temporary bodies that are constantly adapting and adjusting to.. to what? I don't know. But I feel it awaits us and needs us.. nobody really knows. Knowing isn't always mental. Nobody has or ever will know.. but we feel it. And that is the beauty of it.

As they say.. dance the dance of life.

JSK and subsequent posters, Cool question and insights. Familiarity with psychedelic altered states of consciousness(ASC), when used with intention and a bit of wizened humility, CAN remind us of the subjective nature of our observations/"knowledge" gleaned during consensus reality consciousness(CRC). The dramatic shift in perspective often engendered by "medicines" reminds us that our access to "objective knowledge" is rather provisional. Our observational apparatus(senses and awareness) indeed process something real out there, but what that something "is" must be filtered through our senses, THEN projected upon/onto our awareness/CRC. It can't get anymore subjective than that(see Kant). We NEVER have direct access to the true nature of the thing/material world. In fields reliant on careful observation/analysis of material data(science, engineering, medicine, every day life) a sense of humility and skepticism re "observer bias" is useful. On occasion, during deeply mystical intervals, our usual sense of, self/other, subject/object, matter+energy/awareness, diminishes or softens to the point that DUALITY vanishes="ego death". This mystical insight, when gained by a reasonably grounded/prepared psyche, CAN have a profoundly humbling effect on ones sense of certainty in any observations made thereafter. A DEEP respect/reverence for the GIFT of our body/mind/awareness reality that allows us access to our unique perspective, grows. The absolute fragility and sacredness of our every day selves and observational mechanism is often brought into keen focus via, la medicina.

I don't have time to go through the above posts, so excuse me if what I say overlaps. I find that a common feature in psychedelics in enhancement in pattern detection. They train the mind to see patterns that are perpetually present both in hyperspace and waking life, and one learns to detect these patterns even in the absence of any psychedelic. These patterns can be visual, audible, cognitive, metacognitive, etc...I feel that a big reason why people who take psychedelics tend to have an increase in synchronistic situations is because I believe those situations would have taken place with or without the psychedelics, but it is the enhanced pattern detection that allows the individual to recognize a connection between the two otherwise unrelated events in time and space.

IME they help me to observe things without feeling the need to filter it through my mind. My thoughts are no longer bound to English. Like how babies think before they knew how to speak. Its a funny thing when that little voice in your head goes away and you realize you are the thing that is listening, and then you turn your conciousness inward and observe the observer.