I was at a festival, on some extremely clean and potent LSD, and became involved in a drum circle.
I quickly went into a complete trance, where I let go control of my body with the rhythm of the drums.
I was looking at myself from above, seeing visions in my mind's eye.
I saw a distinctive red Mayan serpent flowing in my peripheral- it was flying around pulsing to the beats.


^^This is exactly what the vision looked like^^

At this point I was going into a drumming frenzy, beating my hands against the skin of my drum so hard that my right hand started bleeding a bit...
But I couldn't stop; my life depended on putting every ounce of my being into it, so I continued for an unknown amount of time.
I simultaneously felt that the blood was some sort of trans-dimensional offering to this entity.
I was not unsettled at this realization- I felt completely at peace.
I was shown that everyone present was all part of a different familial lineage, but we were all one human family, reuniting in this circle.
I could feel each person's DNA intermingling with mine, spiritually. I felt unbelievable unity and interconnectedness with everything around me.

So just today I decided to do some Google searches on bloodletting and serpent imagery, and I found what's known as the "Vision Serpent".

From Wiki:

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The Vision Serpent is thought to be the most important of the Maya serpents. During Maya bloodletting rituals, participants would experience visions in which they communicated with the ancestors or gods. These visions took the form of a giant serpent "which served as a gateway to the spirit realm." The ancestor or god who was being contacted was depicted as emerging from the serpent’s mouth. The vision serpent thus came to be the method in which ancestors or Gods manifested themselves to the Maya. Thus for them, the Vision Serpent was direct link between the spirit realm of the gods and the physical world.

The Vision Serpent goes back to earlier Maya conceptions, and lies at the center of the world as they conceived it. "It is in the center axis atop the World Tree. Essentially the World Tree and the Vision Serpent, representing the king, created the center axis which communicates between the spiritual and the earthly worlds or planes. It is through ritual that the king could bring the center axis into existence in the temples and create a doorway to the spiritual world, and with it power."

The Vision Serpent is prevalent in Bloodletting ceremonies, in Maya religious practices, Maya jewelry, pottery and their architecture.

Many have attempted to explain the manifestation of the Vision Serpent in association with Maya bloodletting. One conclusion is "that massive blood loss causes the brain to release an abundance of natural endorphins, which are chemically related to opiates. As the body goes into shock, a hallucinatory vision occurs." Once the actual bloodletting was over, the blood soaked ceremonial papers were burned, releasing a column of smoke. The smoke provided the perfect medium for the Vision Serpent to appear. Every major political or religious event involved bloodletting because it provided a medium by which the gods could be called upon to witness and actually participate in the ceremony. Sometimes the spirits of ancestors were also called upon to give guidance. The Hauberg Stela (A. D. 199) from the Maya Lowlands "is one of the first dated monuments that depict the Vision Serpent's connection to bloodletting".

One of the most common rituals associated with the Vision serpent involved invoking ancestral sprits. Especially during coronation rites, the kings would contact the spirits for guidance and blessings. It is the Vision Serpent who provides the medium for contacting these deities.

Remnants of the Vision Serpent have survived until modern times. Around 1930, J.E.S. Thompson noted in San Antonio, Belize, that the Q'eqchi' Maya still performed a ritual very similar to the vision quest of the classic Maya, although in a different context. The ritual marked the initiation of a new shaman for the village. The participant came into direct contact with a giant serpent, Ochan (Och-Kan). It was through this experience that he completed his initiation rites and gained the knowledge that is needed to become a powerful shaman.

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This is pretty crazy, because I didn't know of this prior to the experience.

I've had serpent-themed trips before, and actually seen visions of blood before, but never was actual blood involved.

I didn't feel like this entity was foreign... but somehow connected to me, and it was not unwelcome to encounter it.

Thoughts? 

Kickle said:

I'm surprised you saw as much as you did with such little blood sacrifice --

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Did you make any additional agreements for knowledge?

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And lastly, if I may, what is your lineage? From where do you hail?

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I have had a much darker trip where I saw the image of the Ouroboros (snake swallowing itself)

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Prolly like a week ago or so , i had  a dream where my pet lizard was eating his own tail.
Didn't really know what to make of it and didn't really think of asking.

It is well known that lizards store nutrients in their tale , so if i had to make any sense of it , it would be the idea that the lizard was hungry , being that i hadn't fed him for a couple days longer than usual.

Still confusing a bit..
but hey.. mystery is cool.


dono about ur experience tho..
i try to stay away from  festivals or big gatherings of people doing psychedelics.
i see them as feeding grounds literally.
too much energy released and too many noobs.

from my personal experiences with psychedelics the serpents mainly serve to distract.
they are the most common to encounter as you approach the limits of this realm , and if it takes intimidation , deceit , persuasion or simply pretty colors , they will use that and try to keep you within those limits.

many experienced ayahuasqueros  and elvish spice travelers will agree with this ..
although debates still go on.

i've found it a better route to not allow the workings of the mind to elude me ..
thats why i take mushrooms.
its a no brainer ..

Mr. Middle said:

Funny, my last trip was all about the Ouroboros. Great story bro.

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lol

im a sagg

Mr. Middle said:

Funny, my last trip was all about the Ouroboros.

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Have you wrote of it? I'd absolutely love to hear about it, even through ..

StateOfMind404 said:

For the first part of what you said, that is a different part of the world, and a different lore.

The second part, "quetzalcoatl" is the feathered serpent, which differs from the vision serpent.

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Has anyone read 'The Cosmic Serpent' by Jeremy Narby? It is fascinating, I need to get another copy so I can read it again.

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The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby takes a serious look at how neurogenetic consciousness informs awareness, knowledge, symbolism and culture. His comparison of the ancient cosmic serpent myths to the genetic situation in every living cell reveals the immortal biomolecular wizard behind the curtain of everyday life. His anthropological study, ayahuasca experience and scientific speculations weave a tale of shamans who bring their consciousness down to molecular levels with sophisticated neurotransmitter potions in order to perceive information contained in the coherent visible light emitted by DNA.

Some excerpts from this important book:

Some biologists describe DNA as an "ancient high biotechnology," containing "over a hundred trillion times as much information by volume as our most sophisticated information storage devices." Could one still speak of technology in these circumstances? Yes, because there is no other word to qualify this duplicable, information-storing molecule. DNA is only ten atoms wide and as such constitutes a sort of ultimate technology: It is organic and so miniturized that it approaches the limits of material existence.
Shamans, meanwhile, claim that the vital principle that animates all living creatures comes from the cosmos and is minded. As ayahuasquero Pablo Amaringo says: "A plant may not talk, but there is a spirit in it that is conscious, that sees everything, which is the soul of the plant, its essence, what makes it alive." According to Amaringo these spirits are veritable beings, and humans are also filled with them: "Even the hair, the eyes, the ears are full of beings. You see all this when ayahuasca is strong."

In their visions, shamans take their consciousness down to the molecular level and gain access to information related to DNA, which they call "animate essences" or "spirits." This is where they see double helixes, twisted ladders, and chromosome shapes. This is how shamanic cultures have known for millennia that the vital principle is the same for all living beings, and is shaped like two entwined serpents (or a vine, a rope, ladder...). DNA is the source of their astonishing botanical and medicinal knowledge, which can be attained only in defocalized and "nonrational" states of consciousness, though its results are empirically verifiable. The myths of these cultures are filled with biological imagery, and the shamans metaphoric explanations correspond quite precisely to the descriptions that biologists are starting to provide.

DNA and the cell-based life it codes for are an extremely sophisticated technology that far surpasses our present-day understanding and that was initially developed elsewhere than on earth—which it radically transformed on its arrival some four billion years ago.

If one stretches out the DNA contained in the nucleus of a human cell, one obtains a two-yard long thread that is only ten atoms wide (and the two ribbons that make up this filament wrap around each other several hundred million times). This thread is a billion times longer than its own width. Relatively speaking, it is as if your little finger stretched from Paris to Los Angeles.

A thread of DNA is much smaller than the visible light humans perceive. Even the most powerful optical microscopes can not reveal it, because DNA is approximately 120 times narrower than the smallest wavelength of visible light.

The nucleus of a cell is equivalent in volume to 2-millionths of a pinhead. The two-yard thread of DNA packs into this minute volume by coiling up endlessly on itself, thereby reconciling extreme length and infinitesimal smallness, like mythical serpents.

In the early 1980s, thanks to the development of a sophisticated measurement device, a team of scientists demonstrated that the cells of all living beings emit photons at a rate of up to approximately 100 units per second and per square centimeter of surface area. They also showed that DNA was the source of this photon emission.

The wavelength at which DNA emits these photons corresponds exactly to the narrow band of visible light: "Its spectral distribution ranges at least from infrared (at about 900 nanometers) to ultraviolet (up to about 200 nanometers)"...DNA emits photons with such regularity that researchers compare the phenomenon to an "ultra-weak laser." (see History of Biophotonics)

Inside the nucleus, DNA coils and uncoils, writhes and wriggles. Scientists often compare the form and movements of this long molecule to those of a snake.

There...is the source of knowledge: DNA, living in water and emitting photons, like an aquatic dragon spitting fire.

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Adamist said:

Has anyone read 'The Cosmic Serpent' by Jeremy Narby? It is fascinating, I need to get another copy so I can read it again.

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