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Can We Talk About Why Ordinary States Of Consciousness Are So Suffocating?

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fathomlessness

fathomlessness

Rising Star
I put forward the question to you all of: how have psychedelics enabled you to manipulate your ego awareness to make changes which are sustained and lasting throughout the day? IE Have they helped you to be more grateful and play in this machine of life and nature rather than just get by in the droning monotony that is the common state of sanity?

I, like most of you, know the value and relief of returning to the comfortable plateaus of ordinary ego awareness. It is familiar, it feels like home, it is easy, but simultaneously it can very easily become boring, monotonous, suffocating. I feel it is intuitive to say that most humans subconsciously feel the same at some latent level without them even knowing it (primitive cultures excluded). It doesn’t take a genius to see this, just one quick look at any motorway in nearly any country and we can see a whole lot of disgruntled and straight-faced people who are apathetic or somewhat frustrated about their predicament of what conscious awareness is for a human on any given day. This intuition is informed both by:

A) How society is driven on and fueled by distraction from self-awareness and contemplation with media (ie Materialism, Social Media, Netflix, Colloquial Language/Thinking).
B) A misappropriated sense of identity created from a societally influenced paradigmatic education which reinforces fallacious worldviews and misconceptions of consciousness and identity.

This feeling of inherent psychological boredom (or rather, a kind of ‘dissociation’ in to a lack of appreciation and gratitude for the enormously bizarre nature of sensory experience and that we even exist or are even aware at all - something psychedelics reveal even at low doses) becomes sublimated subconsciously in to a societally accepted paradigm of: “that’s just how things are”, predominantly because that is the way their experience of life has always been for them. But perhaps its not that simple, and it is more along the lines of what Ernest Becker talked about in his book “the Denial of Death”, that it is an apathetic acceptance of a lack of amazement or appreciation of the world that is created out of disinterestedness, and this disinterestedness is just the exterior expression in subjectivity of a subconscious sense of existential confusion, estrangement from the world, or even fear of death (fear of complexity/unknown).

This common human adaptive mechanism I am describing is pathological. It is suffocating. I describe my ordinary state of consciousness as a mental prison or straightjacket. Acceptance and gratitude being the only way to co-exist without making it an enemy.
 
there is no ordinary state of consciousness, its just you trying to maintain yourself in a maelstrom of chaos, which is a trivial effort
also, alot of what you describe sounds like the side effects of constipation on the brain
 
It is a very complex subject. It's hard to deny that it's a modern problem, and more common to Western societies.

One thought I have is that: since there is no longer a real need for collaboration for the sustenance of life, interest in others and in life itself can only go down.
Add also overpopulation and globalization, which has slowly destroyed any sense of human community.
We, therefore, feel alone in the midst of millions of people, without the slightest need for any of them (since our primary needs are now satisfied almost automatically).

An another thing: the basic functions of society have now passed to a structural control that removes any level of individual perceived merit. When you shop, in your mind you are buying from "supermarket x" and not from "John the cashier". Your consideration of John is equal to that of any machinery that works in the warehouse, it is an integral and dehumanized part of the structure.

The last thing: we all live in complicity with the shit that happens in the world, and we don't do anything to change it. You know very well what's behind the production of smartphones, but you use it. You know very well how bad plastic is for our planet, but you take the bag to carry the shopping anyway, because you don't want to carry everything very inconveniently by hand... All this, also because we are convinced that our actions are not that decisive on what happens in the world, and when you think that what you do has no value, it is difficult to have enthusiasm for life.
 
Definitely a huge subject, and something I think about constantly.

There's a lot of art made about this. The movie Koyaanisqatsi and the song "Pardon Me" by Incubus come to mind. But really there are countless.

What to do? If you rage against it, it rages back, and it's definitely bigger than you.

Make peace with it, but not ultimate peace, because there is certainly something terribly wrong with the general current state of affairs in the world.

It's a sneaky game. Hold your highest vision inside, and wait for those opportune moments when dreams and reality align, and go in for the kill! I mean, go in for the peace! For the love! Or whatever dreams you hold inside.

Also, Charles Eisenstein is a great person to listen to about this subject.

But what am I doing, telling you to consume more content about what you have expressed!? Surely your own creative expansion is more important in overcoming these feelings of ennui than ramping up your consumption. Even the consumption of information is part of the overall malady of overconsumption in this world. :!: :love:
 
I don't think you can say that this has anything to do with modernity. It only seems that way, because of the extent to wich cultural criticism has become a part of modern culture itself.

I personally find buddhism one of the most profound and sophisticated philosophies that has ever been conceived.

But buddhism is exactly about these issues. And it is a philosophy that is approximately 2500 years old. With that, it doesn't exactly predates western civilization, but it definately predates modernity.

Greek philosophy started in what is now the west of turkey, around the same time. It therefore is very unlikely that buddhism was in any way influenced by western philosophy.

Buddhism itself states that these problems are universal. And though ofcourse the fact that buddhism says it, doesn't automatically make it so, the fact that this problem was perceived to be universal 2500 years ago in a place, at that time probably free from western influences of any real significance, does seem to suggest that it is at least not confined to a very specific type of civilization only.

The question is whether we should see the ego as bad, and try to get rid of it, or whether we should simply be aware of what it is, and what it's shortcomings are.

I don't think the first option is realy possible to be honest. The moment you start believing that you've defeated your ego, it starts inflating like never before.

While realizing that you have an ego and that you are very attached to it, kind of automatically starts deflating it.

To contradict a little of everything i just said though, i do believe that social media do seem to make it worse. Partly because of how interaction on social media is limited to a screen. It is a less real form of interaction, and i find it sucks the life out of human communication.
And the algorhithms are self-learning to get increasingly better at triggering fear responses in people as well, because nothing fixates attention as effectively as fear.

We are programming ourselves to fear eachother by using social media. It brings out the worst in us. The DMT-nexus is a happy exception.
 
The condition of disconnection definitely is not confined to modern society, however it is true that general traditional cultures appear to cultivate connection and unity whereas modern society is the institutionalization of individualism in the form of isolated egos. "Becoming a tribe/community" is a dream of so many moderns, but with the paradigm of separation running so deep (social media is the tip of the tip of the iceberg in reference to this structure) this mostly stays as surface games, though it could have a long term influence and give a headstart to future generations of these subcultures. And a cheers for Charles Eisenstein!
 
fathomlessness said:
It is suffocating. I describe my ordinary state of consciousness as a mental prison or straightjacket. Acceptance and gratitude being the only way to co-exist without making it an enemy.
Click to expand...

If you have worked out that there is more to existence than netflix, un-needed material posessions and narcissistic social media use, then surely you shouldn't feel this way? You have found some answers. You are free...
 
Hmmm...for me what they've really provided me is an understanding, as in full comprehension not true understanding, of the infinite. To know that there is always more that I'll never see or even imagine...to really just be present and be at awe with the world. Although I admit I'm not quite where I still have farther to go.

My thoughts on the matter lean towards that monotony and discontent are less so a byproduct of modern society specifically, although it certainly exacerbates it. It's a cultural issue...and one that's existed for quite a while. Its perpetuated in most religions, encoded into our laws, in our idioms and so forth. While it seems like participation in these carousels may seem a requirement to live in our society, almost all are a choice if you will enough. While I can't say quite fully from personal experience yet, I'm trapped in my current life for the next while, but, its a product of living a life not meant for you.

I also think that people tend to avoid pain, including painful thoughts, which is why the majority of society tends to avoid these ideas. Not so say that's how will be...if you decide to change it ;)
 
Humans, as all life forms, are evolved to survive. Any perception which does not increase chances of survival will evolve out since it would be energy used which does not increase chances of survival.

This would explain why we would not perceive a lot of things, the beauty and truth of the universe aside. Things like more than three dimensions, etc..

What we, as humans, perceive might be far removed from "reality".
 
It's a great post, thank you. Touches very close to home for me. I believe we are in such a rapidly evolving transitional phase that our psyche has not caught up. We are still programmed the way we have survived for 100,000 years or perhaps much longer if we remove the separation between spieces considering all life on earth as taking part in one combined development.

In any case, some of us have brains that are wired to deal with threat, to actively fight to survive provides clarity and focus. Comfort and plenty only cause boredom and lethargy. We have food, shelter, people that love us. We should be happy. But it all just feels suffocating and pointless.

Any activity that takes 100% focus, especially if there is some risk of injury or death, alleviates the drudgery for me. None of the social, economic or material games life offers keeps my interest. Hanging on by a thread is as happy as I can ever be.
 
I agree with the view of most ancient traditions. They did not have tales of humanity's slow, progressive advancement and increased intelligence as we crawled out of primitive levels of awareness. They almost universally speak of their ancestor's state of consciousness as being far more advanced, almost god-like in their level of connection to the cosmos, with their lives more simple, sustainable and in tune with nature. They described humanity as being on a long path of ever increasing delusion/degradation to the point where we can no longer even recognize how deluded we've become. Richard Heinberg has compiled an incredible book on how universal these traditions are.

We pat ourselves on the back as being the pinnacle of human evolution yet most people live fairly miserable, increasingly insane lives glued to their phone, health deteriorating as health issues are exploding, in a world built on exploitation and environmental destruction on the brink of global disaster due to our idiocy. We twist many of the few relics of genius we have left into things like military advancements designed to kill more humans. Our entire economic system propped up by defense budgets with the most deluded people at the helm of most political/corporate systems.

I think this is the altered state, and the most coherent sublime psychedelic states are now only distorted, small glimpses of what was once possiblely the norm. The yogic/meditation/plant medicine/etc traditions can be looked at as essentially treatments that attempted to slow this condition and regain partial access to what was lost.

Might sound crazy initially but everyone more or less agrees that humans are insane. We just haven't bothered to look and have run with the assumption that our perceptual equipment is in great condition. Yet we are building the most chemically sensitive and complex neural tissue in the known universe out of "junk" and expecting it to work. It is bad science to presume your equipment is fully functional without checking.

There seems to be quite a bit of evidence for 'post symbiotic asymmetrical reversion to type' IMO. Once you separate an organism from its symbiotic host, it begins reverting to its previous form. In our case a more primitive mammalian neural system characterized by aggression, hierarchy, lack of empathy, driven by fear, conditioning, and a need for control.

Anyways, I do think there is very clear methods to making lasting changes to our ordinary "sober" state of consciousness. I won't get into all that just yet, but there is quite a bit of information on this theory Here . And many more presentations and interviews online. I've attached a free .pdf of a previous edition of a book on this as well.
 

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MAGMA17 said:
It is a very complex subject. It's hard to deny that it's a modern problem, and more common to Western societies.

One thought I have is that: since there is no longer a real need for collaboration for the sustenance of life, interest in others and in life itself can only go down.
Add also overpopulation and globalization, which has slowly destroyed any sense of human community.
We, therefore, feel alone in the midst of millions of people, without the slightest need for any of them (since our primary needs are now satisfied almost automatically).

An another thing: the basic functions of society have now passed to a structural control that removes any level of individual perceived merit. When you shop, in your mind you are buying from "supermarket x" and not from "John the cashier". Your consideration of John is equal to that of any machinery that works in the warehouse, it is an integral and dehumanized part of the structure.

The last thing: we all live in complicity with the shit that happens in the world, and we don't do anything to change it. You know very well what's behind the production of smartphones, but you use it. You know very well how bad plastic is for our planet, but you take the bag to carry the shopping anyway, because you don't want to carry everything very inconveniently by hand... All this, also because we are convinced that our actions are not that decisive on what happens in the world, and when you think that what you do has no value, it is difficult to have enthusiasm for life.
Click to expand...

^^^^^

This. Although signs have been pointing towards a population decline in western society. We won't see the effects until the next generation of people. But fewer and fewer people are having children. The United States, UK, Australia and Japan are being hit the hardest with population decline.

So... there may be a resurgence for the need of community in future years.
 
Thank you fathomlessness for bringing forth a question that often I wonder about, I wanted to say a question that plagues me but it does not plague me as much as it has before, now I wonder about it. Especially after returning from a mescaline or psilocybin journey, I wonder how wonderful it would be to have this all the time everyday instead of operating on my "normal" level, a level which can slide dangerously to helter skelter if I let it. But because of the biological limitation of threshold levels I cannot do so, perhaps it is a way of integration a way of learning to live with the teachings. Then again what is normal? wouldn’t constantly being in dmt land become normal as well, the human mind being so fond of novelty.

Thus I love dragonriders response on how to use Buddhism to combat the listlessness and dissatisfaction of everyday life, a concern for many generations that preceded us. Previously I was so depressed by the way humanity destroys nature and continues to do so despite the best evidence that we are hurtling towards tipping points that I became filled with apathy and launched myself into more than a decade long abuse of cocaine, alcohol and sex or whatever else I could get my hands on, It didn’t help. It made it worse until I was rescued by the plant teachers.

Now the journey of understanding the plants and my own path is much more interesting to me. I am concerned about societies trajectory, but it truly isn’t in my control, and concern does not lead to obsession. What I can control is my attitude and my approach and hopefully my work will feed into this and help solve a few problems locally. I cannot solve the world’s problems and have no intention to, the saviour complex of the ego has long disappeared.

universecannon talks about ancient societies being more in tune with nature and simpler times. Well we are presumably in the kali yuga, in Hinduism this is known as the last age where the majority of humanity has sunk so deep into sense objects and materialism and ignorance (yes even in the information age) and despair is the order of the day. But there was another aspect to this which I always appreciated, there is a saying that in the kali yuga there would be a way for individuals to rise more easily into more enlightenment and out of the maelstrom. Hare Krishna’s believe that that way is in chanting. I believe it is in the plants.
 
fathomlessness,

Thank you for this great post.

I work on acceptance and gratitude every day. These lessons and others were hard won by life and psychedelic experience.

I fight the boredom by working too much in a service industry. People depend on me and my work and that keeps me engaged and not bored.

But, yes the ideas of the emptiness, of the distractions pulling us into false, media-created identities and so much more are very real.

I think the problem other than our general cultural toxicity and being at the end state of capitalism is quite simply people.

People are wonderful and they are no darned good. They can raise us up but they are very good at stomping us down. People want to be hierarchical by nature. Add to that violence and greed and what you see is the daily news.

I personally feel tempering greed is important to helping to create meaning and fend off suffocation. Also actively fighting against hierarchy.

I actually believe escape is one answer to letting in a little breathing space. Being able to take some time out of all of this and retreat to nature, being able to take a day or two out of this, trip deep and explore our own selves.

The hard part as you eluded to is "bringing it back." It is easy at first but then real life wears at us and it gets more difficult. The ego comes back strong. Perhaps that is The Call. Perhaps that is the time when one must get back to nature or into one's own psyche for just a short while to kind of decompress AND expand as well as defrag.

To try to remember what is important and lead a higher existence where one refuses to engage in surface level people hierarchical games when one knows others will be hurt.

I suspect this is at least part of one path that can lead people to a sense of being able to breathe and less suffocation.

I hope you find at least some of the answers you seek. You are well on your way by being willing to ask the questions.

-Pandora
 
Sobriety is overrated. Substance abuse is a problem. Balance is a key.

It seems there's an impulse within each of us, since time immemorial, that tells us "there's more going on." And by tuning ourselve in different ways, we can satisfy this impulse, whether the more that's going on is within us or outside us; we make contact. Sure, in many ways we've moved away from this, by using drugs and molecules for reasons removed from this impetus. But the core of this impetus remains.

No one knows what's going on, despite conviction and appearances.

[YOUTUBE]

Video is thanks to downwardsfromzero. Perhaps an existential stance to help us when issues such as those in question plague us.

One love
 
Although i recognize many of the sentiments expressed in this thread, i feel i have to ask:"but is it realy all that bad?". And then subsequently:"what happened then?"

Isn't the world also an exciting place full of beauty, full of great people, full of meaning and full of mystery?
 
When I eat food I am borrowing from nature with the intent to survive, be healthy, and see what contributions I can make.

When I consume psychoactive substances it is much the same subject. I live in a house inside my head and I want to make my way through doors and around the house so I can tidy up. Also open windows and arrange my surroundings with some feng shui. :)
 
dragonrider said:
Although i recognize many of the sentiments expressed in this thread, i feel i have to ask:"but is it realy all that bad?". And then subsequently:"what happened then?"

Isn't the world also an exciting place full of beauty, full of great people, full of meaning and full of mystery?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'm an appropriate person to answer this considering my situation.

However, I don't think it's about whether it is "good" or "bad" but instead how our perspectives influence us to see it. Through various kinds of input, the perspective to see things in such a way can get lost for many.

But, to directly answer the last question, yes it is. Just not always felt that way even if realized.

One love
 
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