I'm happy to be here introducing myself to such a creative, courageous, and thoughtful group.

I've enjoyed reading this forum after I stumbled in here following after James Oroc's book and a recent encounter with him that ignited my memory of some of my encounters with 5MEO-DMT during its uncontrolled period.

My experience with the "allies," the plants and compounds, is extensive. I've also been sitting Zen for thirty years. I can hardly believe that that much time has passed since I first picked up the "phone".

It's been a respectful relationship that started 33 years ago when I researched LSD in a university library before taking my first window pane.

The tribe of people who have been touched by the allies is truly a tribe. I have been gifted with so much humor and wisdom by friends, fellow travellers, and allies that no beliefs have been necessary but rather an "openness" to experience and to growth has allowed me to adapt more and to become more plastic and flexible.

One encounter comes to mind. Years ago, pre-Erowid and pre-mass-internet, I was on the Muni in San Francisco and a group of twenty-somethings were have an uninformed discussion of various compounds. I turned to them, with factoids on my lips. They then asked me what I thought of MDMA. I said, loudly so that the whole train could hear me, "It's Okay, but what I think is really good if you can get good quality stuff given to you is ACID." A teeny little old man in a suit was sitting next to me. All he said was, in a London accent, "Marvelous!", as he handed me his card. It was Dr. John Beresford, of first purchased Sandoz gram notoriety. We became friends and I helped organize his meeting for the Committee on Unjust Sentencing. What impelled me to be so vocal that time I don't know, but it felt so natural and so familiar. And I received the gift of meeting this humble old man and connecting with his compassionate mission.

I felt like John and I were old friends, that we shared a bond and a sense of what is possible.
I found out he had been living in a Tibetan monastery and had come out and back in order to form his Committee on Unjust Sentencing. He died in 2007. John, as I do, had an interest in helping people be free.

I'm writing from Oregon on the eve of our legalization of "recreational" and non-commercial Marijuana on July 1. John would have been gratified to see this small step taken to free one of the "plants" and compounds.

I have no commercial interest in either spirituality or any plant or compound. I've had the privilege to love and be loved and I have received friendship and encouragement completely outside of any commercial interests. I just don't play that way. Friendship and generosity of spirit are the great Pharmakons as Plato might say. The plants and compounds are merely a part of that as far as I am concerned.

I'm left here with little more than simple gratitude, ordinary awareness, and what one friend calls "humility without inferiority". Humility and ordinary awareness. A gift and a blessing.

My dear friends and familiars, hello and greetings from across all the imaginary divides. May we grow in clarity and responsibility and freedom together. Thanks for this forum and for this opportunity to say hello. Safe and happy travels to you all.

Welcome to the Nexus drfaust!

Thank you for the great introduction! There are a lot of like minded people floating around this place and it seems to me like you will fit in quite nicely. Safe and happy travels to you as well!

PEACE,

-The Grateful One-

Thank you Grateful. I like your name and what it signifies. Grateful just about sums it up.

Nice to have old heads joining the fray...
Welcome

(them panes man...wooo! they were somethin')

Thanks! Some people think it is a reference to the Grateful Dead but it isn't. While I respect their music the meaning behind my name goes deeper. I try to live each and every moment like it could be the last and am grateful for every waking second of life. It took me a long time to realize how special our time here on Earth is and after a near death experience, I have been eternally humbled. I try to respect everything and everyone and all I hope for is the same in return.

Anyway, enough about me.

Thanks cyb. I guess it is all relative, because I feel like I just got started with learning and growing. I can hardly believe I've been alive for 51 years!

Zen is very apt. No matter how many times you sit, every time is the first time if you have the right attitude. Actually I get imperceptibly closer to "innocence" every time I sit. So it's kind of like a reverse experience, where I've become progressively if imperceptibly more naive and open over time.

The body is aging and my skills improve but that beginner's mind never gains and I lose the "gaining idea" a little more each day.

As for the panes. I believe they are out of fashion now. They were very preservative and had a kind of symbolic resonance with Blake and the doors of perception.

You sound like a truly fascinating individual dr.faust. I also share a deep interest of the plants and spend every day working with many different species and sub-species. My favorites being the entheogens. Loved your story about John Beresford! My mom and uncle always talk about the days of window pane and it's apparent power (I'm in my mid twenties, have extensive experience with LSD, and have never even seen it!). Welcome dr.faust! I hope the best for you!

[I'm left here with little more than simple gratitude, ordinary awareness, and what one friend calls "humility without inferiority". Humility and ordinary awareness. A gift and a blessing. ]

I felt the same way! Lets learn share and expand!

Unfortunatly new members aint able to pm each other. And btw 33 years is huge of amount of time! You must be sharing your secrets on this forum soon!
Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pRzb_jbRhI

Thank you for the kind words. I'm so glad to see you express interest and curiosity in the natural world. I've been an amateur naturalist since I was a child, learning about plants, insects, and rocks constantly. I spend quite a bit of time hanging out with nature, which is always a source of surprise.



Beresford was most interesting to me because of his kindness and his compassion for all the people who had been swept up by the drug wars. He was also a direct and spontaneous connection to the time when only a handful of people had ever even ingested LSD. I felt or intuited that reality when I met him. A reality without any paranoia, but one with compassion and a desire to make contact with ourselves. "Mind-manifesting," as Osmand said.

The "history is only important to the degree that it informs us" is a good rule of thumb. If you have not read Dale Pendell, I highly recommend his work. He distills the lore and the history very well. And he does so critically. erowid review of his master work

History can also be a distraction if it leads to nostalgia, however. For example, I have no nostalgia for window pane or any other medium for LSD. It is just gelatin!

The true wonder is your own life right now. The rest is window dressing or merely a window pane through which you may or may not see through. I only say this as my opinion. I'm not directing this at you. so please excuse my directness.

Speaking of Dale and the present: Dale is now a symbiont; he is one of those rare creatures who has survived a liver transplant, and he seems to be doing well.

The organs and our relationship to them is something that is present for me. Oliver Saks, another aging explorer, has recently written on his speculations on the autonomic nervous system and its shadow subaltern role in our lives. I've been meditating on the enteric nervous system as well.

Compassion for the "otherness" of the organs in our own body and our complex relationship with what is unconscious and natural in us is quite a frontier.

I'm an explorer of the present. I thank you for your welcome and your kindness. I feel welcomed and encouraged and I hope you do as well.

From new to full member in 4 posts. Chapeau and welcome to the nexus, drfaust. Good to have you!

Thanks seagull. No secrets. I'm kind of allergic to mystification and I'd worry if I were to peddle you any mysteries or magic. Ain't none expect for that most basic magic or ordinary magic of basic life as it is. whatever that is. It is YOUR judgement that matters to YOU.

33 years only seems a lot from one perspective. I have a colony of mosses in my backyard that will outlive all of us. 33 years is nothing to them.

What I can share is some enthusiasm for work and for learning. Any work or training we can do of the use of our senses, our judgement, and our intuition I'm game for. If we can encourage and share with each other, then even better.

Thanks steppa, for the welcome and the tip of the hat. What's on your mind?

A very warmhearted welcome drfaust.

We share some similarities in that we're both in our early 50's & we've both had a relationship with LSD & meditation for 30+ years.

Are you by chance a Northern California native yourself?

Nice to have you here.

Thanks for eliciting so much welcome in the stream. I see that we also both share a playful relationship with the doc handle.

I've lived in Nocal and now what we locals call Jefferson State since '90. I feel very at home here in what locals also call The Shire. It really does have that quality to it. It's something about the light. I've felt similar in Tuscany. It was then, in Tuscany on a hillside filled with Summer evening light, that I knew or felt I did where Pico della Mirandola's version of the multidimensions came from.

And as those German writers such as Goethe also visited Tuscany for its light, I too am blessed to be in light like that. I call places like this the "sweet spots" of the universe, where it is just right. That old devil Goethe, he knew how to play the game.

So tell me Doc, what is on your mind?

I just wanted to extend a warm welcome to you...

I too am in the "State of Jefferson", albeit a ways south of where you are.

Nonetheless, it is where I was born & raised, 4th generation, having raised the 5th & coming close to having a 6th...

We stick plants in the ground here & they grow.

Enjoy!

Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.

wonderful! I was just about to say that I don't use meditation myself as a word or a concept much.

The old Zen game is to call it nonmeditation so as to let go of effort. With non-meditation there is no success or failure to worry about. It's just sitting. ordinary.

I do love company so thanks for the welcome.

Pleasure to meet you doc

In the last days? Next to the usual stuff? This would be "I should paint something again".

Or do you mean regarding your writings? This would be "What is this "window pane" they are talking about?"

Hehe