Howdy folks. Happy thursday. Its been quite a while since my last time posting. And after recieving my herbs for my electric sheep cjanga i have been overwhelemed with excitement, and this excitement has ttansforned and transcendes in many different aspects of my life. Saddly i lack many like minded or open minded people around me to share and express all this excitement with. So i figured what better place to converse with like-minded folks?! I thinj its safe to say all of us hete have a deep love, connection, respect (or whatever youd like to label it) for psychedelics, entheogens, altered states of consciousness and such..bit i was curious as to what else makes You, You.what are some aspects of your life you wouldnt be the same without or couldnt imagine your life without?

For myself, it is music. Music has been apart of my being since before i can remember (and ive got the home videos to prove it haha). I once heard a quote (and im.about to butcher it/paraphrase it) that said something along the lines of, "music is what language could/should be" thoigh thats not the exact wuote it conveys the message. Music, even without words, can evoke an entire spectrum of moods and emotions by mere sound. Music is just as much a universal language, in my opinion, as math. Music can have the ability to "transport" you back to a distant memory as if you were there or could smell it. Its absolutely mystifying! In my young adult life mysic (particularly thenmusic of Phish) has brought me to see 98% of the USA that i have seen thus far. And meet folks from all walk of life all over the country, all broight together by music 🤗 i cant imagine a world without music.one of my favorites, Frank Zappa has a song "watermelon in easter hay" of his album joes garage which is a rock opera the tells the story (abreviated version coming) of a boy, joe who after starting a band, and joing the church of appliantology, and having sex with female robotic home appliabce ends up in jail. Upon his release, music has been made illegal. Joe, now releases wanders the streets playing his last "imaginary guitar solo" in his head. It is one of the most beautiful and saddening pieces of music i have ever heard (and often in the rotation of "blast off" music i play, if music is played, whilest smoking dmt. I, like the fictional Joe, would be lost to wander, should music not exist. Music, to me brings meaning, and much more, though life surely has meaning without it, it surely makes it more enjoyable.

What makes your heart swell up with so much joy it aches? If music, which artists?

Some of my favorite musical acts/artists are as follows:

PHISH
TV Broken 3rd Eye Open
Grateful dead
The Doors
NUJABES
DJ Okawari
Fats Waller
Hank III
Ott
Desert dwellers
Frank Zappa
Talkibg Heads
BILL FRISELL
TOOL
and countless others... always looking for and taking suggestions as well

Music is a great passion for me as well. Like you, i also love the music of Zappa (as well as that of his 'protegé' steve vai).

The thing with music is...there are so many ways you can listen to it and enjoy it. Very often if people say that they don't like a certain type of music, they just haven't learned how to enjoy that particular sort of music yet.

Some music transports you to other worlds. Other music makes you wanna move. And there's music that can bring you to tears. You cannot compare one to the other, because it realy ís like comparing apples and oranges.

btw..if you like zappa, you might also like oingo boingo.

I think music for a lot of us will be something extremely important. It has been part of my teens and shaped the way I am, guided my evolution - thank you Jimi Hendrix for leading me toward psychedelic freak out with mythological bliss of eons passed. I used to play guitar a lot and passed on to singing for meditation mostly, it is tremendously terrifying to know you can love an object so much and enter such deep state of fusion ... I wish we were all taught to sing with our voices, however false they may ring together they create an harmony unlike any other. That's really something I would like to see, people gathering spontaneously and singing together, without the need of organization or "savoir faire".

One thing that was amazing to me was to hear the music of the world. Every tree has a rhythm and a funk and you can feel it dancing. Same for all living beings: all are dancing. Being part of music festival in nature is a must - though they often get a bit loud - or just hearing nature's concerto is quite unlike anything else. It definitely takes us back to old roots and are important things to feel - which is the best way of remembering.

Before language was rational, it was symbolic. And before there was language, there was music. Before music there was breath.

Breath and music never lies.

In no particular order my big loves that always destress me or relax me:


Weight lifting
Calisthenics
Taking long walks
Running

Daylilies aka Hemerocallis
Hybridizing
Grafting

My pack

Comedy
Music

Build rather large RC scale replica of WWII planes
Build and race FPV drones

Fibfab I could give you a list of music for miles! lol

I enjoy painting... in particular I enjoy painting space scenes.. nebulas, moons, planets and stars. There is something very calming about painting. I can disappear into the flow of it. It feels amazing!

I play guitar and can disappear into the flow of that too although I hit a wall recently and have not been playing as often as I used to. All is good though. It is the ebb side.

I meditate every night. I look forward to it and miss it quite a bit if I skip a day. This has been a daily practice of mine for many years. It brings me peace!

I like to hike and get out into nature. I hike 14ers in particular in the warmer seasons. I am gearing up now to knock a few more off my list this year.

Fun thread...no particular order....Also note that my favorite things these days are any activities that also get our teenage daughter enthused...

Baseball playing, watching,listening......GO O's!!!!!!
Playing frisbee
Music: playing, listening. Mostly GD/JGB. Guitar, djenbes, or just about anything i can bang on
Roller skating
Handball....love me some handball
Weightliftimg...plan on entering a PL meet after i can get my numbers up a bit
Sarcasm
Awkward silences
Awkward conversations
Awkward noises
Learning new things

Yet to read through,anxious to respond.

For me, I couldn't live without my past. Sounds dumb maybe, but my past used to be nothing but something to be ashamed of. Years of addiction, self imposed and otherwise traumas, it was something I ran from.

I've documented a long slow process here, with the help of psychedelics and lots of work, of falling in love with myself and understanding that my suffering is the gift that my life gave me, in order to find my purpose and the gift I have for the world.

I love allot of the things people mentioned here, listening to music, creating art, those things make life more full but it's service work that makes life fulfilling.

I do all those other things to get out of my head, but they all are temporary. Trying to align my actions with love seems to create the closest thing to permanence I've perceived in this temporal reality.

I saw power lifting and had to post as I know what you mean about wanting to go to meets/compete. I started lifting weights more seriously when I couldn't put in the mileage to run 5 minute miles anymore. Going to races would exhilarate me and motivate me to run more. I loved the camaraderie of running with others. Suffice it to say, competing is something most do against themselves. Always striving to improve and perform better than you did before. For me, it is often too steps forward one step backwards and sometimes even two steps backwards. Frequency is key as they say and taking too many days off can upset your gains as you well know.

At any rate, my long winded way of saying cool beans and I wish you the best on your first meet.

Some of my favourite things in this world:
My fiance - we share a love so deep it has no words
Walking in nature - It is amazing how calm this makes me, no matter how much stress is in my life
Mountainbiking (in nature) - Similar to above, + super fun, exciting, challenging and exercise...
Exercise - I've been studying/working in clinical exercise for many years, so it is literally my bread and butter. I love how I feel after exercising, I love using exercise as medicine, I love how other people feel when I get their exercise program right.
Scuba Diving - If I could scuba dive in tropical oceans for a living (and earn decent money) I probably would. It is the closest thing to flying around on an alien planet as you can get (Well maybe DMT can also do that).
Traveling - I have done some extensive travel and I love everything about it. Foreign lands, new people, new smells, food, sights, ways of living. I love the different headspace and perspective on life it gives me.