Hey DMT-Nexus peeps! I haven't been here in awhile, but my sixth sense told me that some of you may be able to offer useful advice.

About eight or nine years ago, I had my first LSD trip. Now, at the age of 22, I'm fairly confident that psychedelics are a lifelong path for me. However, for obvious reasons, living with my parents in Los Angeles, who don't understand or respect psychedelics, is pretty limiting for someone in my situation.

Right now my plan is to pick a town to find affordable housing, and a simple job (cashier, waiter, whatever) to pay the bills while I pursue my spiritual and artistic passions, which hopefully will turn into a fulfilling career someday.

To me, being close to nature is very important. I could never picture myself living in a crowded, urban environment. The dream scenario is to live in a quiet, suburban / borderline-rural area, with lots of trees, and possibly even good hiking trails within a short distance. Does anyone have any pointers for U.S. towns that might fit my description? I was recommended Asheville, NC, and Ashland, OR. I have some family in Iowa City, IA.

I would warn you that simply working a dead end job as a cashier and tripping a lot does not pan out into a career. You need to invest in some sort of higher education (even a 2 yr degree at community college will uplift you out of eternal poverty if you let it) if you wish to make this work long-term. Speaking from experience here

EDIT: Also, it's not just what you learn in college, but who you meet. Those connections propel your career forward both in the short and long term regardless of your profession, and those are connections you wouldn't have made flipping burgers and dropping acid. It is, after all, much easier to devote time and money to spiritual growth when you have extra time and money.

Ashland, Oregon is a very nice spot...however I suggest looking into the Oregon coast..Florence and Cannon Beach are two of my favorite locations.

I would avoid getting stuck working some crappy job. In the end, it leaves you struggling to live and pay rent etc on min wage and you become like a slave living paycheck to paycheck. The key is to find some kind of balance, so you can direct your life and pursue your dreams, and still be able to pay rent if you like, say get sick next wednesday for 3 days etc...

Thanks for the advice, folks.



I've been through a few semesters of community college, and freshman year of college, and hated it. Maybe someday I'll finish a degree, but not at this point.



Yeah, the crappy job situation is only meant to serve as a temporary means of surviving while I develop my higher skills to the point where I can find better employment.

Theres parts of texas that are so awesome

I'm sorry but you won't develop any skills working a minimum wage job. Unless you count staying poor a skill. You're extremely lucky to be in a position to be able to attend any sort of college, so take advantage of it. Anything worth having takes hard work. The key is to learn to enjoy what you do, not the other way around. Please consider our advice, some of us have even lived through it.

And btw, if you hated freshman year of college... welcome to the club! If you stick with it, by the second semester of sophmore year you will feel very differently. It is very normal to not enjoy taking prerequisite course, however it is necessary to move on to the meat and potatoes of the meal, so to speak. If you think you hated freshman year, just wait till you're flipping burgers and have to choose between buying food and paying rent.

Yea man try to find a job that balances your time for other passions with some reasonable pay and hopefully some skills or fun to boot.

Don't be a masochist and purposely get some "lowly" job. It will keep your ego small to easily jump off into trips. But a wise man once told me, "To fly higher, plant both feet firmly on the ground."

When you have a real ego in the real world with real connections letting go of that stronger ego makes the trip so deeper than, "O I'm just a dishwasher, SPIRITUAL ORGASM TIME!"

I learned the hardway that a rich deep regular day to day life supports a spiritual/psychedelic practice more than hanging on to the edge of society making just enough to get by.

When I was 22 I did exactly what you said, [make enough to get by with restaurant jobs and trip every weekend or every few days] and just kinda thought tripping and music would pan out for me with little focused effort on my part. It didn't and I kinda got bored with life, felt really isolated from society and others, and eventually had some addictions[stemming from disasstisfaction with my job/future prospects] to deal with and couldn't trip for a while.

Now at 26 I'm aiming for a more balanced life. Have an interesting job that pays a reasonable amount. [Having 2-5 easy or generally interesting part time gigs is a life alot of psychedelic people I know enjoy.] Keeps things alot more interesting than one 40 hour a week job even if the different part time gigs wouldn't be that fun alone.

IF you wanna go waaaay off the edge go travel or live at an intentional community for a while. Making ends meet and tripping balls all weekend is only fun for a while.

Believe me zooming through the spirit realms all weekend and then returning to your kitchen/waiting/cashier job that offers you no benefit except a small wage SUUUUCKS!

with "higher skills" you mean what exactly? Tripping a lot for spiritual purposes will not make you more employable. It might help if you are thinking about becoming a New-Age Guru of some sort, but I don't know if that is what you're after.

If you enjoy nature why not consider finding a way to work with it?

Each job you take, each move you make, should be a kind of stepping stone to get you closer to where you want to go, even if you don't exactly know where it is. This means it has to give you more than minimum pay to survive - it has to give you at least some kind of experience that can help you grow or get a perspective etc. E.g. find a job in a different country, or find a job where you can actually acquire some skills that will be useful. Or, if you can't manage any of those, find a job where you have plenty of free time on the job so that you can spend it learning something useful.

And in the mean time, try to find out what kind of work will give you satisfaction. Do you like working with your hands? with wood? with animals? with plants? with computers? with people? with languages? sports? Once you know what you like pursue that - any way you can. College or less conventional ways, but learn. Use what you have to become what you want to and get to where you want to.

At least that's my advice. I would advise against a job that brings you nowhere. You might get stuck and have difficulties in moving onwards from there.

I wish I knew that I got more replies to this thread since I last checked. (Isn't there an option to subscribe to the thread somewhere?) Anyway, I knew DMT-Nexus would be an excellent source of wisdom.

I'm not arguing against you, but when you all say that working an unskilled job won't get me anywhere, do you mean to suggest that all of my time and energy will be soaked up by the mere struggle to survive, leaving me with no resources to pursue any higher goals? Because I do agree that flipping burgers and tripping balls on the weekend *alone* isn't enough to have a fulfilling life. My thinking was more that I would use an unskilled job to put a roof over my head and food on the table while spending my free time doing something productive like, for example, teaching myself a programming language.

The unfortunate reality is that I currently HAVE a soul-crushing minimum wage job, which my parents are making me work, and the soonest I can go to school is likely Fall 2016. My only other option is just to move, quit my job, and try to live off my savings until I can go to school. I agree that it would be preferable to have a higher paying job that teaches me important skills, but I doubt that my resume will get me one of those jobs.

Thoughts?

Striking out on your own with little to no guidance is extremely difficult. I understand you're interested in psychedelics, believe me but our culture and society don't. Unfortunately what it does understand is your soul crushing job, and attempting to squeeze in your pursuit of self betterment in the hours you have that you can stay awake when you're not at your soul crushing job or sleeping before you have to go to your soul crushing job.

I'm not sure about where you live, but LA is a pretty progressive city from what I understand, and where I live I see a lot of opportunities for people with creative ideas. Everything from arts and crafts, handmade supply manufacturing, Recording, printing, to coding and app building and that sort of thing.

Perhaps thinking of some skills, talent, and interest that you have been striking out in your community and finding people to network with maybe you can find ways to produce income that align more with your ideals and can help you work within them. And maybe through that you can identify more ways for growth and developing more ways for income and building more stability in your life.

I think it's good to be a dreamer, but looking to the stars you need to have your feet on the ground. And as far as psychedelic practice goes, I have found it to be far more beneficial and useful in so many ways when I engage in a conscious manner, not just tripping on weekends but in fact planning my experiences so that I can engage in them fully and get the most use out of them. I'm not saying that you don't, by being here you show some interest in that sort of thing, but maybe by seeking your inner guide with or without using psychedelic assistance you can find your next step on this path.

Also, low rent and cool, creative mecca do not go hand in hand. Low rent and bible belt conservatism do.

I have some experience with Asheville, NC, and it is does fit your description. Very cool town set in a gorgeous setting. I will say that rent there, while not ridiculously high in the grand scheme of things, is pretty high and rising at an incredibly fast pace. Expect to pay about $1 per square foot of space per month for nothing special. If you have a car and are willing to live about 5-10 miles out of town, it's cheaper. If you are seriously considering Asheville, send me a PM. I can give you some pointers.

Only being 20 myself, I perhaps don't have the knowledge or right to add my 2c, but...

When people say "do what makes you happy", I believe you have to take this not as the over-used cliche it is but as a way of living and seeing life. Unfortunately, unless you manage to successfully run-away and live off grid, you will always have to work for a roof over your head. Sad facts of life. However I think it's important to not just balance your passions and past-times with your career and 'work', but to actually let them be the drive in your life.

I decided to move out of home at the ripe age of 17, for reasons very similar to yours. Ultimately this was the wrong decision, and 3 years later I find myself back with my family (though not out of desperation...more-like escape). But in those three years I learnt so much about myself, my relationships, the work-force, real estate, the real world, independence! I worked part time at a large fruit shop to support my 'home'*, my girlfriend, my incredibly excessive weed and tobacco habit, my random psychedelic purchases and DMT extractions, and countless plants, seeds, ferts and bags of soil for gardening!

My point is, even working the 'dead-end' job I worked I still earnt enough money to support myself for the rest of my life easily, while being able to frivolously indulge in my passions and habits too. That's where the "do what you want" comes into it; I, personally, would be perfectly happy living the rest of my life going overseas once, living in a small, dingy cabin, eating homebrand food and tripping twice or thrice a month. I simply have absolutely zero desire or ambition to be rich or financially successful, and because of such an attitude have felt a great deal of relief.

I would say, from my limited life experience: By all means, find the job that's right for you and doesn't leave you hopeless at 9AM come start time. Find work that suits your passions and work hard - but don't get caught up in the finance of things if it's never been an issue for you before. People survive on government payments of $300 a week here, so what you want to do is entirely possible. Don't get trapped in a job you hate OR a life you hate...

*"Home" being an empty, old cabin in a caravan park. You can often get short term leases on these for $100-150 p/w, but you have to ask around. I'm not sure how things are in America but here you can also hire caravans for $80-100 p/w and then a powered site anywhere you like, really, for another $40 p/w.