Hey everyone! After quite a while of casually viewing forum threads from afar I've decided to take the plunge and join the community!

A little background about what led me to this: I grew up in a very religious and conservative home (rhymes with normon), then in my early twenties went through a faith crisis which ultimately resulted in me leaving religion altogether. The process of questioning my beliefs opened me up to a whole another world of experience, and not all for the good.

I graduated from college and began my professional life, and engaged in the typical heavy binge drinking that happens as a result of being young and immature and when you haven't dealt with many of your issues. I was drinking more than I wanted to and found several discussions about how psychedelic experiences have helped a lot of people with similar backgrounds to mine. By happenstance I stumbled upon some LSD and the experience changed me. I stopped binge drinking and generally my outlook on many things improved.

I very much view myself as a traveler now and feel a kinship with like-minded individuals-- and therefore finally wanted to connect and become part of such a wonderful, open, and understanding community.

If you got to the end then thank you! I enjoyed writing it! And I'm happy to be here!

Hey therealludo!

I feel like I have a lot in common with you! Like you, I also grew up in a very strict religious household( my family are Jehovah's Witnesses, so somewhat similar to Mormons), except my becoming disillusioned with the religion was a moar gradual process. I never really believed what they said, it just took me a while to get to grips with the fact that I was in a cult. It has only kicked in recently, at around the same age as you, actually.

I also got involved in drinking at university. It was never a problem, though. It was only on occasions. Weed was moar my thing, and even then, only when it was around. I never craved it or anything. I've not had weed or alcohol in months, and I have no problem with that.

The ability of psychedelics to heal addiction is amazing. Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, wanted to include LSD as part of the twelve step program. That didn't happen, obviously.

You'll definitely find a community of like-minded people here, no need to worry about that! This forum is fantastic!

Welcome to the Nexus, brotha!

Welcome to the Nexus!

I can definitely relate to growing up in a religious household. I eventually left the church to find may own way in life and psychedelics truly opened my eyes to new perspectives, which I am very thankful for. For some time I was destroying my life with booze and hard drugs, aimlessly wandering through life with no ambition or willpower. Psychedelics (mainly mushrooms and DMT) helped me turn my life around completely. Ever since the first time I grew mushrooms, my life was forever changed in the most positive and profound ways. Anyway, welcome once again and may you find what you are seeking here on the forum.

Have a good one!

My addiction used to be cocaine, and still is nicotine (I vape). I know psychedelics helped with getting through my cocaine abuse. Welcome and thank you for being so candid, it helps others to feel comfortable being as open as you.

I used to binge drink when young also. That turned into pretty heavy but "controled" drinking as I got older. Horrible hang overs, bad arguments, meanness, etc. I'd get drunk and passionately yell at some pointless sport on TV. I also felt introverted and shy and alcohol eliminated these uncomfortable feelings (note that I was not truly aware of this until one day a mushroom helped me come to terms with myself and truly internalize these feelings).

All that alcohol fueled darkness is gone thanks to nature's mushrooms. They helped me see how negative all those behaviors were. I find myself hardly touching alcohol now. I see conciousness as a great gift from the universe, and I have deeply felt a sense of gratitude for the stuggles that previous life forms had to go through to deliver this gift of conciousness to us (during another mushroom teching class). I now greatly enjoy the company of others much more when sober, with my old akward feelings gone. I have realized that at our core we are loving beings, each of us a miracle. This realization has made me appreciate others as the miracles that we all are, insights that I think alchohol was blurring me from.

Thanks for the reply! It's cathartic to meet people with similar experiences/views.

Thank you for the kind words! It's amazing to me the change in perspective that I've gained already. I kind of feel like I have training wheels on in a way, but I joined the forum because I don't want to just casually experience psychedelics-- rather I want to continue to learn and grow and use them to help learn (if that makes sense)!

Thank you for the reply! I don't know why but I feel very uninhibited (even more than the anonymity of the internet would suggest). I look forward to learning from everyone and contributing!

Wow, that was very insightful. I have never tried mushrooms, but definitely look forward to having that experience. I'm really just confused at that anti-pot/plant propaganda, and how accepted it is by society as a whole. Everyone I talk to psychedelics with have such a weird reaction, but don't understand how enlightening it is-- and how going out and getting smashed hammered is the real social danger. Then again, I don't think people using psychedelics irresponsibly would be a good thing either, but if everybody could embrace it like how I believe people on this forum have-- we'd be living in a very very different world.

You could say we are victims of our culture, but I don't really understand how western society is so arrogantly disconnected from nature. I'm not inmune to culture and for some time in my life (before the benevilent mushroom helped see what was inside of me), I accepted it all Some cultures embrace psychedelics and have been around a lot longer than some countries lie the USA. In general I believe humans can have a healthy relationship with nature's gifts if the culture is sensible/reasonale enough. Good things happen when we are connected to nature in my opinion and in this recent example.