cultural shock – amnesic return – integration - extended experience

[hypertestudo]

Challenges with trips include cultural shock and amnesic return in order to integrate the experience afterwards.

The standard trip is so rich even though it is fairly short, it is incredibly difficult to put into words or visual representation afterwards. It is literally lightning-landing in a foreign culture where the experience is somewhat if not fully unfamiliar with the language or culture, but has a basic sense of some understanding for some telepathic-like communication during the trip. At the moment the psychonaut might start to get their bearing, the experience fades, and the psychonaut returns.

Further, amnesic return is common, where upon returning from the trip, memories of it commonly dim quickly afterwards.

Both cultural shock and amnesic return together can make integrating or journaling the experience afterwards challenging to the deliberate psychonaut, especially if one is not an exemplary writer or artist.

Due partly to the challenges, emotional response tends to be more pronounced than coming back with the cure for cancer or lotto numbers.

A typical response would be: extend the trip! Using MAOIs or DMTx is sought for that purpose. Supposedly practice makes perfect. DMTx seeks to sort of “map” hyperspace. Perhaps, other logical purposes in trips would be to: 1) identify and retrieve a Rosetta-stone of sorts to assist with deciphering the alien symbols or signs some psychonauts experience; and 2) develop means to reduce or mitigate amnesic return in order to bring back the meaning or intelligence experienced during the trip.

For those who extend their trip with MAOI or other means, does extending the trip help you reduce cultural shock and amnesic return? What other technique do you use to enhance the trip for this purpose?

Without improving ability to understand and bring back more of the experience, the trip (standard short or extended) seems to leave the psychonaut along for the ride with the depth of meaning as an infant at a rendition of Miserere Mei Deus in the Sistine Chapel on Easter day. How to integrate or journal the massive amount of content from an extended trip, when even a standard short trip is so rich in content?

 

[Pandora]

hyperstestudo,

Interesting post that raises some very valid points about the DMT experience.

I have written elsewhere on my technique for remembering DMT trips. It is fairly effective and is similar to dream journaling.

Extending the stay with MAOI and/or continual DMT dosing can provide just as much (if not more) shock and problems with memory as single vaped trips in my opinion. It kind of depends on the emotional interpretation/impact of the trip as far as I can tell.

Another factor can be how much "I" is held on to. If one lets it all go memory is challenging. If one hangs onto a shred of "I" then one can work on memory consolidation DURING the trip. That is an interesting space - having a tiny shred of "I" left in a space where one is as psychically naked as can be. I believe the DMTx experiments put subjects at this level which allowed them to report back while being actively in the space.

I LOLd when you wrote, "Due partly to the challenges, emotional response tends to be more pronounced than coming back with the cure for cancer or lotto numbers," Right on. When I do it right, I come back both laughing and crying at the same time.

As far as journalling goes, it is just an adjunct to memory. If there are no memories, there is nothing to journal. If one recalls only feelings, then that can be a start for a journal entry and as one proceeds through the ensuing hours and days other things may come up that are relevant and worthy of journalling. But yes indeed, the most profound, fantastic, detailed descriptions of hyperspace tend to just kind of circle and spiral around the concept without being able to actually touch/portray it.

 

[premeditated]

I believe the amnesia is the beauty of the experience. If I remembered everything idk if I would be so excited for the next session. If the body high, glow and extreme love faded fast...that would be a problem.