To heck with it, I'm jumping back in.
aaalyafei said:
DMT unlocks something else and if you have done real dmt you will know what I'm talking about. I've done psychedelics, to even put this in the same category is ridiculous from an experience perspective.
Okay, yes and no. If you have done ayahuasca, you will know that there are different levels. Ayahuasca is quite similar to mushrooms, except you are far more sober minded, and the experience is much more inclined to be helpful. For me, anyway. I always know the ayahuasca is coming on when my bodily kinks and pains start resolving themselves... mushrooms, not as much. The thing about the breakthrough experience, is that none of the previous levels can prepare you for the breakthrough. It's like listening to the first 30 seconds of Dark Side of the Moon, and being like, "oh yeah, I have a sense of what's next". Nope, it doesn't prepare you at all. But, it is still indeed Dark Side of the Moon
I'd like to refer back to what I said before about fasting, because I'm still unhappy with the "malevolent" description here. I think caution's good, but jumping straight to "this is malevolent" is what I'm finding frustrating.
Ayahuasca heals me. Many years ago I fucked up my jaw when I took a lot of MDMA. This bone damage has since radiated out, and constantly gives me neck problems and other body issues. Ayahuasca, consistently, helps me. My jaw will snap in place, my neck will snap in place... it's really, really good for me, physically. And it helps me psychologically, too. I broke out of a 16 year depression after an ayahuasca trip, because I realized that love was the heart of meaning in life. So, when I hear "this stuff is malevolent", it really upsets me, because I would be in a much more terrible and impious place in my life without it. I studied theology because of this stuff.
That being said - I don't really want to deny that there can be bad experiences with DMT, whether smoked or in ayahuasca. So, I'll say it again: I think ingesting DMT is akin to fasting. It is good! It is a pious thing to do! BUT! It is well known in most traditions that if you undertake this pious practice, that it can lead you to come into contact with dark spiritual realities - because it makes you more sensitive to spiritual realities generally.
(For all the non-believers here, this model holds no matter how you interpret it).
Please consider this model of thinking about this, because again, DMT helps people, it's not a delusion, the kingdom of Satan is not divided against itself, nor is the kingdom of God. Fasting will make you sensitive and attuned, and will put you in contact with the world of spirits. In fact, in indigenous ayahuasca traditions, people often fast or at least consume ascetic diets!
I think you're sort of on board with this interpretation, just insofar as you are referring to the morally ambivalent jinn, and not evil demons full stop. Ultimately, this is where I come down on it: I think that this caution about moral ambivalence is probably correct, but I would strongly urge you to not for this reason consider DMT to be morally ambivalent or worse malevolent because of that. Fasting can do the exact same thing, but fasting is pious. Does this make sense? I'm upset, because it seems like you're just going, "you are deluded if you think this is good, something bad happened therefore it is bad!" But fasting is not bad! Fasting is pious! And the same type of scenario can occur, yet fasting is fundamentally a pious thing to do.
Check out Plato's Phaedrus, and the palinode for Love. Socrates gave a speech bashing love, because of how treacherous a spirit it can be - and then was ordered by a voice from heaven to apologize and make a speech in praise of love, because "the best things in life come from madness, when given as a gift from god". Love, madness, fasting... DMT. They can all be dangerous, they can all put you in contact with spirits, good and bad. And each of them is sacred, even though they can be dangerous.
Fasting, DMT - same fundamental risks and rewards and, in my opinion, ultimately pious character. I hope you will consider this model to think about it... because without DMT, I would be a far more damaged person, spiritually and physically. Yes, exercise caution, but.... I am mostly just worried that you might be slipping into impiety about this, and even might be encouraging an impious perspective. Was Christ wrong to fast? Was Muhammad wrong to fast? Was the Buddha wrong to take a single meal a day after his enlightenment? Each of these individuals communicated with spirits. I don't know about Muhammad, but I know Buddha and Christ both were tempted by arch-evil spirits. But I think all of them, were pious, and that their practice was pious, in spite of and, in Christ's case at least, even because of the confrontation with evil it allowed.
In addition, I will also say ayahuasca is much better to work with if this kind of thing concerns you. DMT moves quickly - not just temporally (5 minute trip), but, it also rides like a roller coaster. Everything moves fast. In ayahuasca, you see similar things, but it moves slowly. It's actually quite hard to do anything productive with smoked DMT, it does not lend itself to shamanic practice easily. Nick Sand seemed to manage it, but that dude had access to an infinite supply of it and lived the life of an underground acid chemist, so he could actually create continuity in lifestyle and use to do that... for the most part, smoked DMT is more like something that happens to you, rather than something you do - ayahuasca is much better, in my opinion, especially if you have worries like you have.