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Joe is entertaining to be sure, but if you want a podcast hosted by someone a little less agro and a little more composed, you should really try out the Tim Ferriss show. He interviews a lot of the same people and some other very fascinating characters.

• Paul Stamets

• Stan Groff, a Chech doctor who has administered 4500 doses of LSD in a clinical setting

You put into words exactly what I've thought for years. Two book recommendations based on your post:

>Is weed just a giant lesson about letting go?

I've actually said this exact phrase. I feel like weed taught me to surrender to life. I really liked the book Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by David R. Hawkins.

>I realized that there was more to life than being a "person identity" because I started noticing that I wasn't "me" when I was high. It's the thing that got me to obsess over the "who am I?"

This reminded me of the book Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle. Here are some quotes:

"In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are."

"When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice–the thinker–but the one who is aware of it."

no, i have no quantifiable and/or objective information to support my results. I'm now considering what can be done in order to gain this sort of information from my future processes.

Maybe letting a few people know what im doing, and then have them evaluate me each day, not knowing if im affected by them.

I've also considered doing tests on http://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/ both while on and off microdoses

"Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you’re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an end but a unique event in itself. This leaf has jagged edges. This rock looks loose. From this place the snow is less visible, even though closer. These are things you should notice anyway. To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here’s where things grow."

• Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

The Seth books by Jane Roberts are fascinating reads. I’d recommend starting with this one, The Nature of Personal Reality

Also, The Law of One, published by L/L Research. I even found PDFs of The Law of One for free by googling it, and I just saved to my kindle. I’ll see if I can find a link for you and I’ll post again if I can.

There are others, I’ve read so much that it all starts to blend together and I forget “where” I’ve gotten specific info. I’ll keep brainstorming and I’ll post more as they come to mind.

This is an interesting question.

Survey time!

Here are the results...males are in the lead already...

link to gallery with photos, they are wildly amazing!

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPX0SCl7OzWilt9LnuQliattX4OUCj_8EP65_cTVnBmS1jnYgsGQAieQUc1VQWdgQ?key=aVBxWjhwSzg2RjJWLWRuVFBBZEN1d205bUdEMnhB

Ayahuasca contains 2 key things. DMT, which has psychedelic properties, and a MAOI, which is needed for DMT to be orally active. This study proved that Ayahuasca can treat depression, but we already know that about MAOIs. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/maois/art-20043992 If they wanted to show that DMT helped depression, it would need to be administered another way without the MAOI. On the other hand, if the placebo also contained an MAOI, we would have some useful data to compare with to prove something about DMT.

Basically, if I gave you MDMA and told you to wash it down with a diet coke, I didn't really do anything to prove that diet coke makes people happy.

Read this and related so much before realising I know the writer who did it—met him a few years ago in Singapore, and we reconnected in Berlin last year. His name is Julian Gough, he's a wonderfully mad Irishman who lives in Berlin, and he has a wonderful novel called Connect which takes all the themes from this End Poem and turns it into a full book. I highly recommend it, it's the most psychonautic experience I've ever had reading a novel.

Not too long ago good old mary jane helped me discover a very important realization -- the key to happiness.

Not "ultimate" happiness in any grandiose, spiritual way. Just simple, practical, on the ground, day-to-day happiness. I shall reveal it here, now: pick one thing you want to change about yourself or your life. Anything. Large or small. As big as "I want to lose 50lbs" or as small as, "I don't want to eat Taco Bell anymore." It has to be real though. Something that truly weighs on you and has some degree of control over you. Take that thing and make the change to it in your life. Like, go to war with it and actually make the change. You can fail. You can regress. You can misstep. As long as you continue to go back into the trenches and keep doing battle until you've won.

When you do this, just as in your example of getting a job and turning your shit around, you plug in to the universal creative energy -- and it feels fucking amazing. It's like in this universe of duality, one of the more basic binaries is Entropy vs. Novelty.

When you're being a lazy fuck and stuck in a rut, you're in Entropy - you feel shitty about life and are a prisoner to your habits.

Conversely, when you get a job, start pulling your weight. Or take up a new hobby. Learn an art. Fall in love. Get in shape. The examples are endless... that's when you're happy -- you're in Novelty.

Anyway, keep fighting the good fight. And when your recent successes become so solidified that they become "normal" and you feel Entropy creeping back in, just find a few thing and go to work on it.

Also, check out The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Very much inline with this.

Cheers!

What was your original face, before you were born? How far back do you go? How far forward? What does that even mean ;-)

Death is the big one isnt it. I remember in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where Pirsig attempted to use his understanding of Buddhism to think away the pain of his son's death. I'm still reeling from my dad's death a couple years ago. Here is what I believe: Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. The big BE in being is transcendental which means it is beyond what we normally understand as being being. Or ising the isness. Verbing the universe into perpetual existence and destruction, both concepts are fundamentally interrelated and therefore both meaningful and meaningless. I am a pen. This is getting silly :-)

What's your favorite translation? I'm partial to the version by Giu-Fu Feng and Jane English read by Jacob Needleman. I quite enjoy Needleman's commentary after the reading.

Anytime I revisit the Tao Te Ching after having not heard it for a while I find new insights.

It's okay to not want to die. It's ok to feel this fight. Your brain is full of chemicals releasing terror-feelings at this knowledge. Your brain is operating exactly the way it was designed to.

I think accepting death is a lot easier when you are already 'dead' - which is why stuff like DMT works nicely, because, being 'dead,' you see it's not bad.

But of course it's bad if you're alive. Being alive means that you are fighting. I think it's inherent.

I can't imagine how this feels. I'm so sorry. I wish I could feel what you feel so deeply that I forget everything else, so that you aren't alone. I am trying.

There's resources to help. Of course maybe doing more psychedelics might help, but I also recommend the book Man's Search for Meaning, which was written by a very smart man who survived a concentration camp in the holocaust. He writes about the human experience of suffering and ways we can make it bearable.

The artist is Irina Ratry and this piece is called CONTACT. Some more of her art is visible on her facebook page in this gallery, which I believe is public. I'm PMing her to see if she'd be kind enough to provide a higher resolution copy.

Edit: She sent me a high-resolution version, but asked me not to put it up on any photosharing sites nor to use it for any commercial purposes. So, if you would like a copy, PM me an e-mail address and I'll send it to you, but please don't be a dick and post it on imgur or anything. =)

Also, she said she's planning on opening a website soon where you can buy posters and such, which she's started making.

You want to go to Nepal. Check out Poon Hill on the Annapurna trek. Nepalese hash is quite amazing. See my Sadhu post on r/eldertrees http://wikitravel.org/en/Nepal_Trekking

I doubt if you will be able to find a 'shaman' in Asia, they are very secretive. http://www.hotelnepal.com/nepal/program.php?pro_id=33 I've heard that there are some places for opium in Laos, but have no info. I'm heading down to SA to do ayahuasca in a few months.

lol, downvotes? Get a grip, r/Psychnoaut

And er, seriously? Just google it. Look at the types of pages that come up.. "prison planet" "space collective" (and NOURISH your DNA? lol) "miracles and inspiration" "david icke" .. It's complete crap.

Google Search Results: decalcify pineal gland

Your pineal gland can calcify with age, but if you'd taken Biology and Biochemistry you'd know that there's not some way you're going to decalcify it with some mystery chemical that's not going to leech calcium from other areas of your body as well..

There's been several posts about this recently, one guy said tapping on the back of your head would decalcify it. Give me a break.

Island - Huxley

Ishmael - Quinn

Tao Te Ching

Baghavad Gita (spelling... ?)

Walden - Thoreau

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Siddhartha - Hesse

That should keep you going.

If anyone knows the artist - please provide their name in the comments! I tried Google's reverse image search and Tineye's too, but the only other version they returned were Russian (de?)motivational posters and I didn't understand a word, no matter how much damn vodka i knocked back.

edit: Mute2120 found the info we need: "The artist is Irina Ratry and this piece is called CONTACT. Some more of her art is visible on her facebook page in this gallery"

Close, but individual only comes from two component parts, not three. In- for "not" and dividuus for "divisible." The last syllable just makes it the English version of this word and holds no independent meaning. Anyway, you don't pronounce it in-divi-dual do you? In-divid-ual

Yes I am but not in the way you're describing. I don't really trip anymore but when I did it was always with other people that were taking it with me. I used to view myself as a somewhat quiet, introverted person in my early to mid 20's but tripping with other people I trusted would bring out the funny, sociable part of me. It helped me see another part of myself that I've since grown into as I've gotten older.

In the past 5 years I've started a couple of networking groups through meetup.com and now it's basically my job to go out and be social so I can meet people and do business with them. I wasn't the best at this for the first few years but now I'm a lot better at it and can make everyone at my events feel comfortable. I'm not sure how much I can credit to psychs and how much is just getting older but they definitely helped me see a different part of myself that helped frame my current life.

Whawhat you're experiencing is True Self. There is no "you". You are a multitude of millions of different events, thoughts, processes. I'll admit I'm not he smartest one on this subject, but I highly recommend reading Waking Up by Sam Harris. I think it'll clarify a lot for you.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It's framed as a man on a road trip with his son, and along the way he teaches him a lot of philosophical thinking exercises.

One of the central themes of the book is an excellent, excellent question that I had never considered before: "what is Quality?"

Another element that stuck with me is that he used some great metaphors to represent how the same "real world object" can be looked at from numerous perspectives.

If you think that is cool check out Space Engine, its a universe simulation using real data from NASA and randomly generated graphics for the places we cant see. You can explore entire procedurally generated planets, moons, asteroids, etc. Did i mention its all made by one Russian guy who offers all his work for free?

Since you (and u/lonebluespirit and u/strongshieldman )posted this, I just wanted to say that Giulio Tononi (from OP's quote) is a mathematician and neuroscientist who has developed one of the only really plausible (and mind-boggling) coherent theories of consciousness.

It's called Integrated Information Theory

If you don't want to visit the link, the abridged version is basically that it is a form of pantheism, in that any set of elements with a cause-effect relation can produce a certain amount irreducible information—meaning that a huuuuge number of things not thought of as "conscious" actually do have a low level of consciousness.

It's pretty cool, you should check it out

Here's a few that I really like:

• LSD Psychotherapy by Stainslav Grof (plus all of his other books)
• Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer by John C. Lilly
• LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann
• The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts
• In My Own Way: An Autobiography by Alan Watts
• The Way of Zen by Alan Watts
• The Wisdom Of Insecurity by Alan Watts
• Become What You Are by Alan Watts
• Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart by Ram Dass
• What Makes You Not a Buddhist by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse
• Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha by Thích Nhất Hạnh
• The Sun My Heart by Thích Nhất Hạnh
• The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thích Nhất Hạnh
• The Way of Liberation by Adyashanti
• True Meditation by Adyashanti
• Falling Into Grace by Adyashanti
• Emptiness Dancing by Adyashanti
• Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
• The Doors Of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
• Moksha: Aldous Huxley's Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience by Aldous Huxley
• The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley
• The Divine Within by Aldous Huxley
• Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé
• Illuminating the Path to Enlightenment by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
• Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice by Shunryu Suzuki
• True Hallucinations by Terence McKenna

Read Mindfulness in Plain English. Establishing a solid meditation regimen is probably the best thing a psychonaut/person can do for himself, even more so than psychedelic use I'd argue. There's not a soul out there who could not benefit from regular meditation, IMO.

It's weird seeing this, considering another movie of the same caliber actually had a kickstarter fund it:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/240762048/imaginatrix-the-terence-mckenna-experience/posts

Wonder if each creator is aware of the other..

Here you go mane

If the title to this thread is something you're really interested in exploring, watch that movie. I don't mean that somewhat cryptic and ominous statement to imply that I believe any of this to be true, but I don't mean to imply that I don't either. Belief is a whole ordeal I don't fuck with, but I do fuck with this movie, and whether aliens or superhumans or anything else is secretly dominating us, movies like this can radically shift one's perspective and clear away their numbed acceptance of the alluring idea that the current manifestation of our species habitat is "normal" (in a way comparable to psychedelics). Everything we're doing, down to the finest detail, is a meme we've passed along as a species. Many of those memes are used by profiteers to profit, even down to the finest detail. Whether they're a conspiratorial cohort or disparate assholes over the centuries, the techniques have only been refined and made more insidious and acceptably entrenched in our routines.

When you're done with that and you want something to take you even further, check out Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain.

So far, my favorite psychonaut type book has been Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Willson, available here.

Sounds like a blast. If I were you, I'd x-post this over in /r/meditation and grab a book or two on meditation and/or yoga.

Have fun, stay safe!

It's a common question. Check out the search.

I still wrote ya an answer.

In no particular order...

Prometheus Rising - Robert Wilson (a book on self-programming)

Food of the Gods - Terrence McKenna (human psychedelic history and culture)

LOTR - John Tolkien (you need a good story, exercise your imagination)

Out of Your Mind - Alan Watts (a CD, not a book, but it's structured like one. Alan explores... well, everything.)

Mindfulness in Plain English - Henepola Gunaratana (easy to find PDF, best book I've read on meditation and mindfulness)

Edit: The Four Agreements - Don Ruiz (easy to find PDF, all about ways to treat yourself (and others) with compassion)

I also like Existentialist authors. Kierkegaard is a little much for me, but Nietzsche is wonderful. He presents some truly confounding perspectives. I like Albert Camus' works, and I have a Sartre book I've yet to start but I'm excited for.

>Could there perhaps be a conspiracy to affect the etymology of the word?

Ah, the old "this word doesn't have the accepted meaning I want it to have, so they must have changed it" gambit.

You've proposed this before, for the word "psychedelic." You wanted the word to mean "soul/spirit manifesting." When provided with sources that showed Humphrey Osmond, who coined the term, said it meant "mind manifesting" you blamed "information manipulation" for altering the definition, and only backed down when provided with a video of Osmond explaining the word's meaning.

well... not personally , but this i find pretty inspiring http://www.openculture.com/2011/10/aldous_huxleys_lsd_death_trip.html

Weird people on here. Talking to themselves ;D [edit] I will be there. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/timezone/utc

... and also I would go so far as to say that everyone will be there. There is only I... only non-dualisticly self aware consciousness as soon as you meditate, right? We are all it, so to speak?

Fish oil is a nice and natural antidepressant and mood stabilizer, I'm both bipolar and high functioning autistic and use it and meditation instead of the masses of poisonous sedatives many recommend. It causes the body to produce more serotonin, you could easily be deficient after tripping, just google "fish oil serotonin" or something for more info, there are loads of peer reviewed studies around. I take around 9 grams a day to keep my mood swings under control.

gnaural is a nice free binaural beat generator I use to guide my meditation, here is a list of what different frequencies have been reported to do in different people.

Get out and about, go for a hike or something or visit a friend in another city.

I love my meditation but I would take any "research" on TM with a grain of salt since they have their own research groups which are not exactly known for scientific rigour.

However there exists a great deal of studies on non-TM meditation. I collected a bunch of papers here:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6EZPgmIFpDsNjM5Mzg0ZDMtMjUyYS00YWEwLTg3YWItYjVmYzE4ZWEyMTg4&hl=en

r/Tantra

https://www.amazon.com/Tantra-Illuminated-Philosophy-Practice-Tradition/dp/B01ACM8BHE/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Tantra&qid=1622674712&sr=8-2

​

That's a great Academic read on what the history of Tantric Philosophy. Taoism, Buddism, Yoga, and Hinduism have roots from that Philosophy.

If that's the case then I highly recommend this book. It will deepen your knowledge and love for the American psychedelic underground and it's influence on pop culture. Truly a great history

https://www.amazon.com/Heads-Biography-Psychedelic-Jesse-Jarnow/dp/0306822555

I’m a vet, non-combat...but I’m also a nurse. I have been studying the science behind entheogenic medicines for the past few years now. Cannabis is a great start to entheogen medicine. I tell all my patients that it is not a one size fits all scenario.

Why are you mixing the cannabis with the tobacco? I’ve heard of people doing it, but as a nurse I caution this process due to the known carcinogens in Tobacco.

It’s also important to understand that Cannabis inhibits other agents, meaning it will make whatever you’re consuming work better. It tends to increases the effectiveness of things like caffeine, opiates, blood thinners etc, making a little go a long way usually. Which could be problematic depending on what meds you are on etc. I encourage you to look deeper into the science supporting Cannabis as medicine and learn more about your Endocannabinoid system as well in the process.

I would never sanction street weed, as you don’t know it’s growing environment and you could potentially be taking in molds etc. that could further deteriorate your health. I would always suggest getting it from either someone you trust wholeheartedly or a medical dispensary. I don’t know where you live but it may be who’ve you to research other opportunities to more freely medicate yourself.

Personally, I ingest edibles (gummies and capsules) and dose that way. (I meditate to control my epilepsy and chronic pain). I do consume smoked and vaped flower as well when I need relief faster.

I have always been a firm believer that when it is time, the plant will find you. (Psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, etc). Do your due diligence and dig into the research. It will open your mind to many different opportunities.

If you haven’t read this book by Michael Pollan I highly recommend that you do so.

Michael Pollan

Well, first I would like to say congrats on doing it for the right and highest reason, namely 'growth/enlightenment'.

Second I would advice you to make sure you are in a environment without judgement, so no parents, toxic friends etc. and where you don't have any obligations, (even coming home to your parents hours later might after the experience may be hard and unwise).

Third, I would highly advice you to research eastern spiritual philosophy, as their generations have spend lifetimes on coming to know who and what they are. I would say know the basics of it, namely that you are not your thoughts, emotions, body and mind but peaceful formless awareness, this of course can't be done mentally alone but must be integrated.

I say this because the western mind is so caught up in life and false identification with the mind and body which causes a lot of stress, fear and depression and shrooms could amplify that, so if you know deeply all of that will pass and all of that is not you it could ensure a smooth ride, lasting a lifetime.

My favorite teachers have been Ramana Maharshi and Echkart Tolle's book 'The Power Of Now', maybe read up on them a little bit. I made a more detailed post on how I think psychedelics should be used in relation to spiritual here

Have fun!

The more I meditate, the more useful I find it becomes...done occasionally or haphazardly, it's not very helpful. But strong intention and dedication to the practice have made it very, very powerful for me, to the point that I really don't feel the need to use psychedelics except on special occasions at this point. It can be really powerful and cathartic to have these intense experiences of 'self-acceptance' or 'love' or 'transcendence,' but as you've already found, they don't last. It's not that they're not valid, or not real, but I think a daily contemplative practice of some kind is an absolute NECESSITY in order for those experiences to take root and start to yield fruit. I'm learning that real self-acceptance is not an event that occurs at a specific point in time, but a daily, moment-to-moment practice of recognizing what's happening, inside and outside, and allowing it to unfold.

There is a free ebook called 'Mindfulness in Plain English' that is a very nice introduction to Vipassana meditation. Joseph Goldstein has also written a number of practical books on the subject, 'The Experience of Insight' is one I have on my bookshelf.

Finding a group to sit with can be very helpful...see if there is a local Insight (Vipassana) or Zen group in your area. They're pretty different approaches in terms of technique, but one may click with you more than another.

I also really recommend taking some time to go on a meditation retreat at a center somewhere. I learned more in a week than I did in the previous 2 years of practice. It can be intimidating at first, but there were some people on my retreat who had never meditated at all before, so don't think it's only something for advanced practitioners.

This is really wild. I feel like eventually Finnegan's Wake will be seen as an instance of the 'unknowable other' (what Mckenna might have called the eschaton) leaking into our side of reality. The amount of effort that went into writing it is staggering, anyone who tells you it's all gibberish is wrong, check this out to see what I mean.

(Rap genius is annotating classic novels now?)

> the brain releases huge amounts of DMT

This is incorrect, or at the very least based on pseudoscience, so to is the belief that DMT causes dreams.

This was the most relevant article I could find on it unfortunately, but I'd recommend giving it a read (at least the results section). Basically what is known is that small amounts of DMT are endogenous to humans but this does not mean, or hasn't yet been shown, to actually have any real effect on human functioning. Also consider DMT's ROA, it has to be smoked and consumed with some form of MAOI, this is because the MAO enzyme so efficiently breaks it down.

This is complete speculation but Melatonin can eventually become DMT, so it's possible the trace amounts of DMT are due to Melatonin being activated and deactivated and is simply one neurologically inactive step on the serotonin/melatonin pathway. Of course there is no evidence of this but I personally find it more convincing than the idea that DMT mediates NDE's, death, and dreams.

The last time I ate mushrooms, I put on this Tibetan Throat Singing Generator and everyone agreed that this was a perfect sound for the experience. We even let it play the whole trip.

I don't think the natural approach is the best way to go about it. You can dip your toes into it if you're naturally predisposed to being able to do it. Meditation is also really hard to reach the higher levels of it. So I personally wouldn't try to go all the way naturally, but the techniques are worth investigating.

It's really hard to put into words the processes behind achieving the same meditation results. I also don't know the level of meditation that you can personally achieve.

What I personally do to achieve psychedelic effects is to focus while taking thc edibles. I also have some help by watching this in fullscreen by pressing F11. Then I play some good music and then switch over to some binaural beats.

These might help you out. Be sure to focus on the middle of the picture and zone out. That might get you where you're wanting to go. But you can achieve a much higher level if you add thc or psychedelics to the mix.

I agree. It's trying to make sense of shapes, lines and hues and each "check" along the chain replicates this 'detect lines, shapes, hues' command. What I find interesting is its want (for lack of a better word) to create eyes and attempt to extrapolate faces.

The whole gallery is- I'm not even sure of the word. Actually seeing the mechanical brain process to perceive sight and its attempt to make it recognizable all replicated via computer is just fascinating.

TL;DR version: Just the pictures, in hi-res

Tripping computers are creepy.

> You will realize your flaws but unless you fix them outside of psychedelics, you are not benefiting from it.

<yawn> .. this is called "integration" and you took a long time to talk about something that is very well known in the psychedelics field, never once used the term in all of these paragraphs.. so you've never heard of it until your realization of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Psychedelics-Integration-Handbook-Ph-D-Westrum/dp/173387660X ... lots more books on the subject there too.

You're welcome.

So let me guess; you've tripped a few times and then you realized that there were lessons to learn outside of the trip experience and now you "feel more enlightened and better than everyone else who hasn't figured it out and doesn't understand psychedelic healing like you do. You know something that they don't. They are somehow lesser than you for not having such an evolved understanding of everything as you." ... something like that?

There's a book called "Be Here Now" by Ram Dass. He was a another harvard professor who explored psychedelics and went to India. The middle (brown paper) section of the book is hand illustrated and is meant to be read while tripping. It is by far the best book I've ever tripped on and I'm not the only one. Here is the Amazon link if you're interested.

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Blackwater is a private "security" firm that essentially is a tool of the CIA/US military. I'm also reading The Art of War and a collection of other books relating to the Eternal Tao.

Check out Mindfulness in Plain English for a great start on Vipassana. Then check out The Ten Stages of Meditation for some good input on not striving for more than what's in front of you. And mastering each aspect, one at a time.

There's... a point of perspective through which everything becomes clear. Train your mind to be stillness, awareness without attachment, yet focused.

Read the right books, then go out there and have life experiences for yourself. The information from the books will change your perspective of life experiences and you will gradually awaken to the reality of the present. Try and pick books from a lot of different subjects because this will open your eyes to the bigger picture and you will see the interconnectedness of all things. Some great spiritual books that put me on the right path are, The untethered soul, Waking Up by Sam Harris(any book by this man in my opinion is worth reading), The power of Now by ekhart tolle(just like sam harris in that you should read any of his books), books by Thich Nhat Hanh, books by paulo cohelio. I gave you many books from different religious/spiritual perspectives. There are many paths to enlightenment, some say pick one, I say pick them all.

Try yoga, meditation to keep what you call the "third eye" open after tripping.

Also yes you should be tripping in a more deliberate manner, I believe this manner should be of therapeutic nature. Read the acid test by tom shroder, realize how they use psychedelics to overcome trauma, find your own trauma in your own life, lower your dosage and let the psychedelic healing powers wash over you. Your memories are editable documents and when you rewrite them under psychedelics you have the potential to add a lot of novelty to your life which will carry over to your sober mindset. If you cannot accept your past you will never keep your third eye open. I also recommend if you have had any traumatic experiences to not undergo psychotherapy alone under the influence of psychedelic drugs.

I hope it helps. If you need any clarification seeing as I sort of just rambled through it just ask away. I'll be happy to to clarify.

Right now I practice basic Vipassana breathing meditation as outlined in "Mindfulness in Plain English". It's a great book, one I (and many other medditors) recommend here often. Meditating on drugs is interesting, but it's not real meditation IMO. Feel free to try it, but just know that it's a unique experience in itself. Ideally you want to meditate while sober so you can reap the benefits of your expanded awareness in sober reality, where it will be the most useful to you. Meditation is something that is fairly easy to pick up, but hard to "master". If I had to give you any advice, it would be to not go into the experience with any expectations -- just observe and see what happens. Good luck man.

Here's a PDF of the original http://www.filedropper.com/ricaurteretraction

It is from Science Magazine, Vol 301 12 Sept 2003 p 1479. Its crazy that this retraction doesn't get more publicity. I just found out about it a few weeks ago talking with a guy that does a lot of neurochemical research.

Yeah I know right. Imagine 4K, and with this on your monitor in a dark room.

Definitely not the only... In fact, I'd say all art is an expression that hints toward the ultimate truth. Even misguided, money seeking music that panders to the common sins of humanity is speaking towards that ultimate truth. Because what else is there to speak about? "When you know how to listen..."

That being said I've never heard this song before and I really enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing! I personally tend to connect with music that is less harsh, but I can't deny the powerful messages and feelings that Tool brings.

The last time I took DMT I started by listening to Cello Song by the Books and really connected with it.

And of course my namesake band, The Beatles, have a lot of songs about the spiritual path, like Within You Without You.

Wow, I'm realizing I could talk all day about spirituality in music. Where's that subreddit?! Haha. Anyways thanks again for sharing, peace and love <3.

https://archive.org/details/gd1984-10-28.aud.walker-cotton.miller.106167.flac16

Some background: The Grateful Dead's sound guy in the early days, Owsley Stanley, manufactured millions upon millions of doses of LSD in the 60's. If you were doing acid in California in the 60s and 70s it was probably made by this guy. He fueled the acid tests (whose house band was the Grateful Dead) put on by Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. And designed the infamous wall of sound. I think the Good ol Grateful Dead know a thing or two about making psychedelic music.

> I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it's so evil? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have ever confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey

Two suggestions

Himalayan Salt Lamps and f.lux

and I couldn't agree with you more. My brother on the other hand is a pretty materialistic person who loves brand names, fancy houses, and things along those lines. He needs bright and white lights in his house. It's overwhelming, and an interesting observation. Still love the guy though :)

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_zenabrillatol

More or less: fake drug to see if people are overstating their drug habits.

Man: Ever done ZB? Woman: Yeah, all the time. Im a huge druggie. Man: No you're not.

Heh, you should listen to some of Timothy Leary's audio files. https://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=ralph+timothy+leary+audio

I remember one where he's talking to Ralph (Ram Dass), guiding him. Cool stuff. BTW, Babaji won't manifest if you call him. :P

No one knows for sure, my guess is Amanita Muscaria if the Vedas are as old as I think they are (referring to times 12000 years ago and prior). I think it is a God that has roots in the Paleolithic. Many entheogens (cannabis, psilocybin mushrooms, some kind of ayahuasca) could have been used in the past, but Amanita Muscaria would be the ultimate symbol as it embodies many of the world's mythologies such as the world egg or the Pillar of the sky. Indeed the mushroom starts off as an egg and expands to a Penis shape (fertility symbols are associated with creation symbols) and then a "cosmic" dome that would be the representation of the stary night sky , or the sun when all the flakes have fallen. The fly agaric may have been the original Soma, it would have been the entheogen of choice during the Ice Age.

Two main books support this theory : Soma, divine mushroom of Immortality, by Gordon Wasson, the banker mycologist who introduced thanks to Maria Sabina magic mushrooms to the west

Astrotheology and shamanism, which is more interested in Christianity's Pagan roots, but describes well the importance of the motion of stars for the ancients, and the importance of entheogens as well.

And this is a paper I wrote on the subject if you are interested : https://www.academia.edu/13553885/The_evolution_of_the_Indo-Europeans_in_the_Upper_Paleolithic_through_the_Eye_of_Soma

I wrote an Essay on this which I published recently: https://steemit.com/writing/@eatmy/snippets-from-the-past-essay-on-reality-or-aspects-of-consciousness

Check it out. Would love to get some feedback from you guys.

https://medium.com/@jaschaephraim/seven-characteristics-of-emanationism-6f8697750357

We are all an emanation of one source. The source is undiminishing. The source is the totality of every hierarchy that stems from it.

I don't think we are more in tune than any other people. Perhaps the fact that we've had some novel inward journeying has caused us to seek answers in more places of wisdom than others. We're all trying to find answers, though it's a matter of how far the rabbit hole you're willing to go before you realize that it doesn't ever end.

I know you're looking for someone to talk to, but I won't be that person, sorry. All I'm willing to do is offer you something that I find very inspirational:

http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/kurt-vonnegut-urges-young-people-to-make-art-and-make-your-soul-grow.html

Art and creativity is from my experience the most reliable method of making sense of this world. It will inspire you and others, and help put your brain in a position of "can" rather than "can't."

That said, it's always easier said than done.

Related to this and for all of you that have a good enough graphic card I would like to recommend to check out Space Engine. It is amazing to explore the vastness of space with it and it looks incredibly gorgeous.

Honestly stuff this crap. Not psychonaut worthy. Learn to make your own. gnaural is a free and cross platform binaural beat generator, it can also do monophonic beats and isochronic pulses. And here is a listing of what various frequencies have been reported to do (I take no responsibility for what's listed there).

DMT hits on a very broad area of receptor sites (incl. serotonin 2) and therefore it seems that it's much more unlikely to enduce ego death. It seems to me that many people think they experience ego death with this compound which is understandable because you get "somewhere else" but there's still the experience of observer/observed. But because the experience is so intense, "other like" and hard to describe in regular terms a lot of people seem to go "oh wow that was just pure ego death". I would think such a statement would have more weight to it if the same person had experienced a break-through dose of 5-meo-dmt. Check out Thomas Ray, I think you will find some of the info you are looking for here. If you listen from 56:28 and for about 10 minutes: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/entheogenic/episodes/2012-09-27T15_51_53-07_00

I'm lovin' that piece. It surprised me b/c the chord progression at about 1:30, 2:15 and throughout sounds exactly like the one used in De La Soul's "Stakes Is High" (probably was an intentional nod), though for that track J Dilla samples Ahmad Jamal.

> i totally agree that shroom heads would never enslave each other for gold though, nor would they try to outrun the inevitable (death)

I would be careful with how certain you are of this. The Aztecs were known to use psilocybin mushrooms and that didn't stop them from waging war on nearby tribes, capturing their warriors and cutting their hearts out on top of a pyramid. They kept slaves as well, although the history suggests they were (generally) nicer to their slaves than the Europeans.

Here's a link to his book list http://www.librarything.com/catalog/TerenceKempMcKenna&amp;collection=254415&amp;deepsearch=

Also, I heard the the library burned above a quiznos sub restaurant. I didn't know DMK had been threatened about trying to receive his books although I did hear something about a will change. That's really messed up he deserved to have those books more than anyone else in my opinion, and why the will would change at the last moment? Really strange.

Look into /r/nonduality and, specifically, read "I Am That" https://www.amazon.com/I-Am-That-Nisargadatta-Maharaj/dp/0893860468/ref=sr\_1\_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=i+am+that&amp;qid=1625220984&amp;sr=8-1

Samatha vipassana is what I practice. It goes well with psychedelics, in fact I was taught it while in hyperspace. I later found out the technique I learned was samatha vipassana by reading a few books and websites, mainly Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha.

I think samatha practice is right up your alley. It is calming, steady, blissful, and insightful. The basis of it is concentration using a kasina, or object of meditation. As your concentration gets better you enter different states of awareness called jhanas or different states of meditative absorption. These states can be boundless, blissful, and healing, especially while tripping.

Vipassana can bring about it's own hardships that might not mix well with psychedelics. The Dark Night of the Soul is definitely a real thing that can last years. Your 'teachers' were right that mixing paths can be dangerous, not all the time but there will come a time eventually where they don't mix well.

Man's Search for Meaning by Victor E. Frankel. True story, autobiography of psychiatrists experiences and surviving Auschwitz, and then his psychological theory of existence after his rescue and freedom. He goes deep into transcendence, hallucination, and what motivates the human spirit. It's a short read as well. Maybe 115 pages? Anyone read this book?

And maybe its something that CAN happen, it's happened many times in the past. If you prove me wrong, all power to you. Its just that not only have I seen firsthand the damage that "enlightened" groupthink can produce, this type of thing always reminds me of what Rick said about the Council of Ricks in the first episode that they appeared: "You guys wanted to escape stupid governments so you all got together and made yourselves into a stupid government." I'm not even sure what the full answer is to that type of problem. But take comfort in the fact that the more you practice "magic", the more questions will appear no matter what and perfection is an impossibility. Continue to speak your truth with confidence and wisdom, expecting NOTHING in return, not even in the hopes of acquiring"converts" because your intent will already be corrupted at that point. Not seeing that change even in a years time will frustrate the ego and the body to no end, but your higher minds won't care one way or the other and not even in a nihilistic sense. Its all about maintaining the balance between Most Engaged, Least Attached and the continual asking of the Questions: Right Place? Right time? Cool that you've done all those different types of psychoactives and research! That's why John Lennon was absurdly correct in my opinion when he said "The more I know, the less I know for sure." For further reading,

On Truth: Stephan Molyneux Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes The Subconscious and Superconscious Planes of Mind: William Walker Atkinson The Power of The Other: Henry Cloud Meditations by Marcus Aurelius The Alchemist and Warrior of The Light:Paulo Coelho First Rate Madness: Nassir Ghaemi Influence: Robert Cialdini

Start by reading The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. You should be able to pick up used copies for cheap. Or maybe find a digital copy online if buying one is impossible.

I'm going to post a vid blog on this very topic in a week or so. At least an "intro" post to start with.

I'm reading Suzuki's classic "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" right now, and he has an interesting take on what sounds an awful lot like a solipsistic point of view.

He claims that we can recognize that everything we perceive is happening in our head, and this is an expression of "big mind"; that is, a recognition that your mind (or rather, perhaps, your consciousness) contains everything there is.

"Small mind", on the other hand, is to see yourself as a separate entity from everything else.

The big trick of Zen is to recognize at an experiential level that there actually is no separation of "big mind" from "small mind", that both are necessary and interdependent, that both exist as two sides of a single coin in a state of non-dual awareness!

Great book.

I've downloaded more than I can stomach, but here's the current lineup that I'm rapidly bouncing back and forth between:

• The Mind Illuminated - an in depth meditation manual
• Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind - a mysterious vague zen-y commentary on meditation
• The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich - how sexual repression may cause fascism
• Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach - accepting yourself as you are by a psych PhD and meditation teacher
• Wheels of Life - on chakras, been trying to get into this one for a while now
• Toward A Psychology of Being - Abraham Maslow on how to achieve self actualization
• Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzche - on audiobook for free!! Check out Librivox for free audiobooks of classics that are in the public domain.
• I am a Strange Loop - on consciousness and cybernetics (I can't describe how fascinating cybernetics is).
• Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia - a monster of a postmodern labyrinth that's been staring at me for a while now but I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to understand
• The Tao Te Ching

Now let's hope I can keep up with summer classes too.

I'm not saying it needs to die or disappear. I mean, seeing things as, "you and the world". You are the world. You are me. We are I. I is god. When you die you are gone but your consciousness still exists. Being attached to your preception of yourself is what causes fear. All kinds of fear and pain. PLEASE read The Power Of Now.

I would take a look at this book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha if you want to understand the process required to really drive it in.

Insight meditation is a process that progressively unidentifies you with progressively more deeply held attachments. The final attachment is that "I am my perception". When you let go of that (what they call Fruition), you experience ego death and you go to the "other side" so to speak. I believe this is the same as what happens during an LSD ego death but obviously some levels are skipped.

On the other side you can't actually perceive anything with your "self" since the self no longer exists, but when you come back you have some kind of understanding of what you experienced and you can actually witness the "knot of perception" reforming itself. This is the key moment, if you can understand how it is forming you can somehow prevent if from tying itself up again and have it remain untied even tho you are still aware on this side. Because there is no more "knot" between you and the universal consciousness to identify with, you can then maintain your identity with everything. This is what they call opening the "Eye of Wisdom" and marks true permanent enlightenment.

I am not sure if this is possible using LSD, without the meditative training required to progress through the stages naturally. Personally I have used my LSD experiences as motivation to train myself to achieve this naturally. By training concentration, it is possible to have LSD like experiences (far better, actually) any time you wish by entering Jhana states without negative side effects. And when you apply this concentration to insight meditation, you can crack open your perception and start down the insight path described above towards enlightenment.

I enjoyed Waking Up by Sam Harris. Very colloquial, easy to read. He discusses mostly the idea of "self" and talks about retreats and stuff and what to be wary of with these things. I found it very rational and mind opening.

Fantastic! I've very recently started to work towards improving myself and one of the big things I've found over and over again is how we are all slaves to our habits, good or bad. Specifically I was listening to The Power Of Habit and had just listened to Think and Grow Rich as well as The Greatest Salesman In The World. All is which base their foundations on programming our brains through our habits to be the driving force of success. Thanks for the share, I'll def be looking into the Willpower book he mentioned.

Frederick Douglass was taught to read by a more humanitarian master, if you can call it such, and then I believe freed him. Douglass, unfortunately, was re-enslaved and had these sentiments you may related to: "The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery. I loathed them as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men. As I read and contemplated the subject, behold! that very discontentment which Master Hugh had predicted would follow my learning to read had already come, to torment and sting my soul to unutterable anguish. As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. it opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out. in moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me. There was no getting rid of it. It was pressed upon me by every object within sight or hearing, animate or inanimate. The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness. Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more forever. It was heard in every sound and seen in every thing. It was ever present to torment me with a sense of my wretched condition. I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm.” ― Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

It sounds like you could benefit from reading books to educate yourself on how to implement the knowledge you learn while high into your sober life. A lot of self help books and people who write on mindfulness could help you. Try The Power of Now, The Four Agreements, Peace is Every Step. These are some of my favorites. I also hiiiighly recommend reading books by ram Dass specifically his book Be Here Now. It has heavy psychedelic influences and it speaks on your dilemma as well (knowing everything while high, then going back to normal and dealing with those feelings).

Your psychedelic experiences will be very beneficial to you in life. Sometimes they can fuck with your head because everything is sooo great while on em but the magic doesn't necessarily go away when sober, it's just there in a different way.

Keep seeking, keep learning, keep moving toward. You're only 19 so you have tons more to discover. I'm excited for you.

Peace!!

> How the HELL do I shut this voice up?

That voice is your Ego, my friend. No need to shut it up: whenever you hear it pipe up, first listen to what it's saying, then question. When it says you're not shit compared to Kendrick, ask yourself: who is making that comparison? Is it you? Do you aspire to be better than Kendrick Lamar? Is that your goal for writing dope lyrics? To be the GOAT? To be famous? Or do you do it because you love hip hop and it provides you with a creative outlet?

Any time the Ego speaks, listen dispassionately--deliberately remind yourself that you are not your art or craft, and certainly not the thought-voice--then question what it is saying. You'll quickly realize that it's almost always full of shit.

> I've been trying to tell myself, "okay man, create for you. No one else. If it feels good to you, that's what matters. Publish it," but I always end up second guessing myself and letting the poem sit in my notebook forever.

I'm all too familiar with this. Speaking from experience, the best thing you can do is put it out there. It feels scary but then ask yourself, "What's the worst that can happen?" People hate it. And? Then what? Life goes on. And again, in my experience, you will get trolled and criticized and picked at: so what? This is a great way to cultivate humility, and also to become more resilient. Listen: you can't help what people like or don't like--all you can do is keep honing your craft and doing what you love.

One last thing: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield--read this book yesterday. It was written for you (and me, and others like us). It's not a long read but it will have a profound effect on you.

And if you're looking for an outlet, a place to share your stuff, PM me. I might know a guy ;)

>“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Not because it's trippy or has any heady philosophy or anything, but because "well... did you try meditation?" is so often the top comment responding to advice requests in here.

Just read this somewhere today about a book called "The War of Art."

"The amateur runs away from his calling and attempts to drown it out with addiction (addiction doesn't just refer to alcoholism or drug dependence, but to web surfing, texting, Facebooking, or any displacement activities). He runs away because he's afraid of showing his true colors and being judged for who he really is.

The pro, on the other hand, has finally stopped fleeing. Instead of running from his fears, he turns around and faces them. He finds direction and intrinsic value in pursuing the work that he loves to do. While the amateur expends all his energy on drama, denial, and distractions, the professional funnels that energy into doing his work.

That's it.

It's a matter of being true to yourself and channeling your energy accordingly. Do what makes you happy, not what makes you fit in."

This really resonated with me. After patially eliminating my cultural biases through travel and profoud experiences, my worldview continues to evolve into something I can have confidence in. Create your own roadshow. I always have to remind myself that I'm in control of my destiny and I'm able to make any one of my dreams into a reality.

I've been reading Walden by Thoreau lately and invisioning life when I'm out of school and really getting at the core of life.

Four steps ahead, three steps back. Repeat.

Emotions are tricky. If you don't know how to master them, you'll be mastered by them. If something goes a very high way up, it will come crashing down with the same intensity. This might be a backlash from your 4 month period of love.

You're not a failed psychonaut. PATIENCE. Learning takes time. You WILL eventually get out of this hell-hole. Stronger, more experienced, smarter.

Now, you have to do everything in your power to feel better. User Auraten already told you.

Most importantly though. Try to realize that all the pain you experience is IN YOUR MIND. It is not real. This pain does not exist in the present moment.

Download the audio book 'The Power Of Now' by Eckhard Tolle, it's a great support when feeling the way you do.

Love & Light my Friend!

I practice Vipassana meditation, it works really well for me. Mindfulness in Plain English is a great - free - book that goes through the mindset in very easy to grasp language.

If you're trip sitting for a first timer, you should stay sober. Maybe smoke some herb at the most. But no psilocin. You won't be able to give her your full attention should she need it. This isn't a game son.

Remember to stay positive at all times. Don't act sarcastically towards anything she says. Any negativity you express will be absorbed and magnified by her. Similarly, do not bring any music along that has negative undertones - despite how much you may enjoy it, harmonious 'mellow' music is the way to go to keep that tranquil state of mind.

No psilocin trip is the same. What she goes though this time may not adhere to what you're familiar with. That said, if she is interested in gaining the full potential of her trip, she's going to have to do something most trippers don't consider - sit down, be still, be quiet - meditate. Vipassana is great for this.

Psilocin, as you're probably aware, is a hell of a lot of fun. And most whom try it experience what they'd consider profound and meaningful experiences. However most trippers aren't aware of the duplicity of entheogens. With the right mindset; on the surface they can be colorful, wild, exciting and fun.

This represents the superficial aspects of tripping. Most of this is your own ego playing tricks on you, despite what you may feel at the time. While it may not seem as exciting at the time - meditating, and canceling out your Ego, is the only way to fly.

tl;rd Don't do psychedelics while trip sitting. For a meaningful experience, spend the latter half meditating. Mindfulness in Plain English

[edit] Bring along: Tissues, water, chewing gum, chapstick, blanket, and anything else you may need.

I applaud your desire to pursue meditation! Personally, the Buddhist path was found to be most insightful and practical. You can learn how to meditate for free by actual adepts at any legitimate Zen temple or Buddhist Center.

R/meditation has some great advice I'd highly recommend you browse.

The book "Mindfulness in Plain English" is a brilliant and practical short book giving you all the direction you need to begun a meditation practice which does, from personal experience, lead to where you seem to want to go.

If you're very serious you can sign up for a free ten day retreat at http://www.dhamma.org/ - They are legit.

You need to understand that meditation is not for the lazy. You need to understand that there are different types of meditation that do not all lead to the same results. Finally, you need to understand that this gets very real and is sometimes very difficult if you follow it far enough. This isn't a casual tool. It must be practiced long term for results and the results may change your life as much as psychedelics can.

I practice Vipassana meditation, it works really well for me. Mindfulness in Plain English is a great - free - book that goes through the mindset in very easy to grasp language.

For more questions, check out /r/Meditation

Books: Mindfulness in Plain English, Siddhartha
Films: Waking Life, The Holy Mountain

Also check out related threads: films & books

Books are an inert catalyst: The mind expands itself. Writing is of more use than reading.

But reading is still a good start. Prometheus Rising, Quantum Psychology, and Cosmic Trigger by Robert A. Wilson can be quite interesting. Mindfulness in Plain English is great if you want to practice meditation.

While it's been the most influential book after tripping, there are other books that help with the "nuts and bolts" of meditation. I recommend "Mindfulness in Plain English" for a guide on Vipassana meditation.

Anyone can do it. A basic mindfulness meditation session is very easy, just sit/lay down somewhere quiet and keep your back straight. Focus on the sensation of air moving in and out of your nostrils or your belly rising up and down as you breath. Try to keep your mind focused on your breath for as long as you can. Your mind will inevitably drift to something else, don't get frustrated by this, just accept it and refocus your attention to your breathing. Do this for 5-30 minutes, and slowly increase the amount of time spent meditating each week. Even 5 minutes a day of good meditation can do wonders for your mind.

If you want to learn more, I'd recommend reading a book such as Mindfulness in Plain English.

>Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as >an indicator of aspiration. It reflects love, love of >something we dream of doing, and desire, desire to do it. If >you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I >really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. >The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. >The real one is scared to death.

From Stephen Pressfield's The War of Art. Cannot recommend this one enough. Can be read here.

As well as checking out /r/meditation and reading Mindfulness in Plain English (Link is a PDF), I would highly recommend seeking out an experienced teacher who can guide you in the right direction. You can find a dharma center near you here, they might be able to help :) http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/

Good luck!

I haven't watched the interview (lol pop culture) but I've just started reading Jeremy Narby's "The Cosmic Serpent" and it's quite interesting. It's an anthropologist's experience with South American natives, their ~~Anahuac~~ Ayahuasca brew, and their communication with spirit and access to knowledge, otherwise unavailable to the western mind without instruments or experimentation.

I noticed you've been posting Psychonautical pdfs and wondered if you had stumbled across the aforementioned piece of literature yet. I've found one pdf, but it's a pretty bad print-to-text scan with many, many errors. I'll link the one I've found because it's better than nothin'!

Edit: https://archive.org/details/CosmicSerpent

Day to day I have no problem with jeans and khakies, but for tripping I'll usually rock some Thai Fisherman Pants. They're super baggy and pretty damn comfortable and if you're into stripping away complications when you trip they're damn simple. The one draw back (or advantage imo) is they don't really have pockets. If you're the kind of person that likes to carry a ton of shit with you tripping you'll need to have a bag or something, but I like not having pockets as it means I can't take a lot of dumb shit with me. Also, forces me to leave my wallet and phone in the house so I don't lose that shit in the woods or something.