Several months ago I was in the midst of a spiritual crisis. Having set aside a year for the sole purpose of finishing another musical work, I found myself unable to write anything. I tried many conventional solutions: psychiatry, prayer, meditation, psychoanalysis. I even visited a shaman. I hadn't taken any psychoactive substances for over thirteen years, (having struggled as a teenager with insane behaviors drugs and alcohol had only seemed to compound), but decided that perhaps a psychedelic experience or stimulant of some sort might help me with my block. I remembered, as a teenager, SWIM taking LSD, and what a life changing experience it was. I read about Shuglin, Hoffman, Huxley, Benjamin, and other intellectuals who swore by these experiences as profoundly helpful and spiritual and decided that perhaps such pursuits ought not be dismissed outright as a lack commitment to the world. I began researching RCs, and other legal ways of obtaining psychoactive substances, and finally stumbled upon the Nexus and the world of home extractions.
Thus far, the most exciting part of my psychedelic endeavors has been the chemistry. SWIM has completed three or four unsuccessful spice extractions, and three or four unsuccessful mescaline extractions. SWIM learned much from these failed attempts, first and foremost, to respect the danger of flammable solvents. He made the very same idiotic and unforgivable mistakes every sage on the Nexus warns against, but he learned from them. Finally, SWIM managed a successful spice extraction using an STB tek from the Nexus. Also, SWIM is in the presently in the middle of what he is sure will be a successful (STB) mescaline extraction, and has managed to pull a dish of beautiful LSA crystals.
The appeal of the Nexus over other threads is its coherency, and, as someone said elsewhere, its presupposition that we all don't have access cyanogen bromide and a full lab. In other words, that we all don't know what "tautomerization" means. (Although, I am interested in eventually working my way towards various synthesis). I have found the Nexus' visitors to be friendly and helpful; enthusiastic about sharing information: Endlessness and his wonderful encyclopedia of alkaloid properties, 69ron and his clear and concise extraction teks, and so on. As I said, the most exciting aspect thus far hasn't been found in the consumption of any psychoactive substances, but rather in the wonderful alchemical poetry of chemical extractions and their processes.
I would very much appreciate a full membership on the Nexus. Right now, I am interested in the LSH controversy and whether or not a scientifically assured tek can be developed for the conversion of LSA. I am interested in preparative chromatography and the development of teks (for amateurs) which involve its use. I am interested in new ideas and new alkaloids no one has yet fully explored. I would like to ask about all of this as well as share my own findings on the full member threads. I am in the midst of developing my own wiki, along the lines of Endlessness' alkaloid properties thread, and cannot wait to share the results with all of you.
I hope you will consider my request and invite me to join you. Aside from my recent interest in chemistry, I've spent years studying and teaching Western (continental) philosophy, a discipline surprisingly mute when it comes to psychedelics. My Master's and Ph.D are in philosophy, having taken a Bachelor's in music. I would be more than happy to explore its relevancy and ramifications as involves our mutual aims on this thread. I have spent a great deal of my life working "professionally" with music, art and aesthetics. And, as I said, it was precisely through my struggles with these (not by any means yet resolved) that I found my way here. Anything anyone here has to say on the subjects of imagination, inspiration, and the sublime are of great interest to me.
Okay... Thanks everyone. I hope to be "officially" speaking with you all soon.