The first time in my life i smoked cannabis i saw entities. Cannabis is a very different substance than the classic hallucinogens (LSD, mescaline, DMT, etc) but it is a hallucinogen.
You can have powerfull psychedelic experiences with cannabis. The best experience with it, you get when you eat it.

On the other hand it is sedating as well, wich numbs you to an extent that you cannot really experience the psychedelic effect as deeply as with most of the other hallucinogens.

I would not place cannabis on the same level as DMT or shrooms, but it can be on par with LSD, though.
Visually it's inferior to most of the hallucinogens, but in mental effects, bodily sensations, perception of time and perception of sounds, it can easily rival with LSD if taken in the right amounts.

It also significantly boosts the effects of all the hallucinogens.

You cannot repeat psychedelic experiences with it though, because tolerance for it's psychedelic effects builds up fast.

As a psychedelic it is very valuable if you use it only a view times a year. If you start taking it more often, it becomes a habit and it's just like smoking cigarettes daily.

yes I agree but for me it's not always sedating..some strains seem actually over stimulating and make me pace around while tripping balls, vibrating at superspeed....I hate that feeling..

I never really found mj psychedelic (possibly due to being a daily smoker.) It could be euphoric, sedating, and really relieves tension in my shoulders and neck. For the first time last night though I noticed some CEV's. I was doing some mantra meditation, and in between 108 times id take a big hit, hold it, and be super still after exhaling. Mj helps to really help you sink into the moment, the cev's were very different than any other typical hallucinogen. They were cloud-like, forming shapes and patterns that passed by like clouds, very subtle though. I think it might of been from the combo of meditation and the MJ.

Definitely. When I first smoked weed, it was mind blowing for me at that time, it was the craziest thing I'd ever experienced. That was short lived of course, because I became I regular smoker for years and years and years.

I would wake up and skin up. Every time I went anywhere I'd have a smoke, it replaced cigarettes. Sometimes I'd be eating my dinner, and I'd put it down halfway through so I could have a spliff, then finish the dinner.

Every weed smoker will tell you, that it's original effects are non existant when you hammer it like that. It's got a better taste and bite than cigarettes, and feels better, but not mind altering.

Me and weed parted ways, I just started getting paranoid, and lazy, and depressed, and snappy. The whole reason I started in the first place was long gone, so I broke the habit, which was easier than I thought.

I had some weird dreams for the first few weeks, but after that I felt fresh and renewed. I no longer need weed.

Peace,

Macre.

P.S. You gotta watch weed. You think it's your harmless, trusty friend. But it can creep up on you; and stab you in the back. 3 years later, and my seretonin still ain't flowing right.

I could not agree more with this post. I find a lot of chronic weed smokers are very protective of it as well, in the sense that any criticism, however well put across, generally provokes an upsetting reaction, and one is deemed ignorant or they just believe that you don't know what you are talking about, and this is even when you can quite obviously see that the person ticks all the boxes for being paranoid, lazy, depressed and snappy. Indeed, after a short period of time those initial effects that were experienced the first time quickly dissipate, and it can be hard to reflect upon why one actually continues to smoke weed when it no longer produces the effects that made you continue to smoke it in the first place.

I might add that I'm not knocking anyone who does smoke MJ at all, merely some observations from my experiences.

Methtical

Macre

So true! I know a lot of people who smoke weed every day or all the time and it really affects them in such a negative way and often they don't see it at all and if you try to show them the light they get very snappy and defensive about the situation. I commend you on being able to break the cycle, I am told its a very difficult thing to do as in essence its just another addiction and crutch to get you through life which is never a positive thing. I don't smoke ganja at all, I only have a bit of hash now and then for meditative purposes.

I was never a big ganja smoker so its not hard for me to choose not to have it in my life. Sure i went through a stage in my teens where i would have herb very often but that was not for a long period of time. I have to much to get to and achieve to smoke ganja, so i have made the constructive choice not to smoke. Its hard being one of the only people i know who doesn't smoke weed any more but i would rather stick to my decision and be a strong person, spice has really given me that strength of character and i thank the spice for that.

Your P.S. "You gotta watch weed. You think it's your harmless, trusty friend. But it can creep up on you and stab you in the back. 3 years later, and my serotonin still ain't flowing right". Its so true. Thank you for this post my friend. :b


Much Peace and Understanding

I have had a weird experience through weed, but without having ingested any.

It was quite a few years ago, and it was my first time growing some. My approach with ganja is to only use that which I've grown...I never buy it anymore. And these days I don't grow much at all.

But anyway my first year growing I had grown a variety of different strains, with a variety of sativa/indica ratios. The plants were taken from the greenhouse around mid October, as a few specs of mold had been seen, and they were ready for harvesting...they smelt amazingly potent and fruity, and all the different plants had turned different colours, one was dark purple in particular.

Anyway I harvested the plants, and it took a long time to trim the buds off all of them, and I was doing that for a while, and my parrot, George, was enjoying exploring them.

At some point during the harvesting, I fell into quite a strange trance. Please note I had not ingested or smoked any cannabis...I wasn't in any rush, and wanted to cure it first. Every time I blinked, or closed my eyes, I would VIVIDLY see cannabis leaves, and buds, encrusted with trichome crystals, and in many different colours...blue, green, red, purple etc. Every time I would blink the leaves and flowers would spread out, growing across and enveloping my vision behind closed eye lids. I also felt like I was in a slight trance...a really weird experience. Maybe I inhaled or absorbed some THC, or maybe my senses were overwhelmed by all the plants and their powerful scent...I'm not sure.

I bet it had something to do with the intense concentration you were giving to the process of trimming, focussing strongly on the plants..

I get a similar reation to what you are describing after a long skimboarding session..when you skimboard waves it's just like surfing, except you find a real steep beach where the waves break right up onshore basically, called a shorebrek..so you really have to watch the waves, then run out and jump onto your board skim out like 20-30 feet and catch a wave..

After a long day of putting all my focus into watching for waves, when I close me eyes all I see is waves..even later that night when I try to sleep, my mind just sees waves..I think the wavesforming, breaking, lapping the shore over and over again put me into a waking-theta state or something and it leaves a residue for hours after if I do it for long enough..I once smoked DMT right after skimboarding and the waves were there behind my eyelids and they wrapped around me and I could feel the rythm of them and I broke through them like a veil to some strange ocean-blue energy dimension..

Yeah I like your theory. It is quite meditative trimming the leaves, and it did take a long time.

I agree with this also. I enjoy, and am a great believer in the benefits of both Anapanasati and Metta Bhavana meditation, and the mildfulness achieved therein.

If we're doing something repetitive or boring, (like stripping wallpaper or something) we tend to go onto autopilot; and our mind drifts. However when you were trimming your crops, this was a labour of love. Because of this your full concentration was warranted, without perhaps any strain in doing so. The same as when fractal enchantment is skimboarding.

The reason Anapanasati and Metta Bhavana are so effective, is because the mindfulness has a calming after effect, which lasts. It is probably the same after effect why you see leaves, and fractal enchantment see's waves.

Peace,

Macre.

P.S. Thank you to Aegle and Methtical, I too was one of those people who defended weed. When people used to say anything bad about it I would call them all manner of derogatory names. But alot of people have seen the light and share our view, that all is not always what it seems with MJ.

Gentleman please....MJ is what it is. I've always experienced a huge boost from the puff. Not always a good thing for most people. Mine is a love hate relationship with her. Love her most of the time but she can really toss the wheel as it goes. Not sure what to say in this thread, sorry as my love for Mary is tempered....but fucking awesome when paper is swallowed...

PT

Yeah, during the gathering season I see shrooms

a friend of mine about 6 years ago tried weed for 2nd or 3rd time and had a out of body experience. He thought that it was laced with something because nothing like that has happend before, however, others that took the same weed did not have the effects.

Now at present day, that same friend did DMT. Automatically brought up a deja-vu of that day.

He could've been anxious of the setting and people that were around and perhaps his brain reacted to the stress and released dmt, or the serotonin transmitters did a unprecedented weed induced 'cycle' of the same intensity of taking in dmt, i don't know. very interesting though.

definetly agree with aegle/merthical...for one who respects canabis a great deal and never smoked it like a drug the way so many do, and because I smoke rarely, the experience can be QUITE intense indeed!!! anyone who says canabis isn't a psychedelic has probablty just smoked way too much of it and or only treated it as a recreational drug.

I have had a few trips in the bathtub that were nearly as colorfull and complex as spice..seriously, meditation during that time helps of course, once had a experience where I "saw god" I had an OEB and was in space when I was hit with a very heavy trance that involved two different views. One of me in the bathtub seeing through my normal eyes, and the other it was as if there were an eye in every atom in the space I was floating in and I could see out of all of them fort breif moments. It was like a strobe light effect, I was switching between views very rapidly..faster and faster until one moment I lost the trance and was in the tub only.

I have a very strong relationship with plants in general, gardened since I was very young, grown alot of medicine that has literally saved my life..so perhaps this has made me alot more 'sensitive' to entheogens as aegle says.