I smoked weed for 12 years, gave it up about 7 years ago. I started taking LSD about 4 years ago and have probably tripped 40 or so times, and experienced ego death a good 4 or 5 times. I've smoked some heavy haze today and I'm baked out of my eyeballs.
What I'm saying is I'm not hugely experienced but I've had a quick tour, and I'd appreciate feedback from users who have seriously studied/investigated the psychedelic experience to point me in the right direction in terms of books or references that help to disprove/prove my theories (the following drivel).
This article prompted me to post something:
http://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/does-marijuana-make-you-more-creative?page=1 This says that weed only gives you the perception that you're more creative (testing user's divergent thinking)
It got me thinking about the similarities in the psychological effects between weed and lsd. My opinion is that both heighten your senses/awareness, and that heightened state of awareness is the originator of most other effects.
For example, paranoia is a well-known side-effect of weed. What if this paranoia is brought on by you suddenly feeling quite naked (too aware), and not being equipped/experienced in handling that level of awareness and vulnerability?
For me, weed only takes me this far. It reminds me of the coming-up phase of LSD before breaking through. Your awareness is heightened but your ego is still present, and it brings along for the ride all of your ego-based behaviour.. again, for me, this means all of my negative thinking, my social anxiety, self-esteem issues etc.. it makes me feel worse, and it's the reason I stopped taking it. - today I can see that I've never dealt with those issues. The weed is making me quite aware of that.
As I say, on LSD, I feel like this is the middle ground between ego and ego death. I usually go through the above process, albeit quite rapidly (30 or so minutes), on higher doses of LSD. But then I breakthrough and experience an ego-less awareness, and with it all of my personal issues fade. Perception of time disappears and I feel newborn.
Another theory that I believe is that ego is related to language, and ego death is a place where your language centres cut off and your mind can no longer perpetuate this concept. There is a fantastic talk on TED about a scientist who had a stroke and experienced ego death.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight?language=en
Anyway, I'll stop there! Hopefully this will stir some kind of thought on the matter. Just a few ideas, and I'd love some feedback on any great material that would help me build on my understanding of the psychological effects of psychedelics. I guess I'd have to go back to old research papers/books?
-------------------- Revolution is the only solution
Edited by ThePrototype (08/16/15 02:13 PM)
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