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The desire for differentiation is often an egotistical one. Just as some people choose to differentiate themselves by clothing and religion, many people here choose to differentiate themselves by use of psychedelics or participation in a psychedelic lifestyle.

I think it is hard for some people to deal with the idea of being generic while tripping or beginning to lead a spiritually fulfilling lifestyle. I say this from experience, as many of my original bad trips were based on a realization that I am not special, and things that I held dear were only special because they were mine. Other than a unique conglomeration of circumstances, which each human possesses to a different extent, I was not special. I finally understood what I loved hearing Tyler Durden say for years in Fight Club: "We are not special. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." I was hurt.

An all-too-easy and tempting way to backlash against this feeling is the kind of psychedelic/spiritual elitism that we take issue with. A good way to combat this, I have found, is to avoid making any generalizations, because they are very often misguided and/or outright false.

"All psychedelic users are better than all materialistic people" is an example of such a ridiculous, elitist claim. Just because someone pops a blotter in their mouth does not make them inherently "better," if there even is such a thing. There are psychedelic users who are extremely horrible people by societal standards and do not contribute a hundredth of what some non-psychedelic-using charity worker might. Also, using psychedelics is not mutually exclusive from materialism; I know some people who are very much into both things!

It is unfortunate that elitism appears on the Nexus, but we also have to be careful about generalizing about elitists or thinking we are elite compared to elitists. Maybe we should try to dismantle the systems that cause elitism!! I think a good first step to doing that is not claiming things are good nor bad, rather we should look at if they are justified or non-justified.

<blockquote data-quote="RAM" data-source="post: 3779261" data-attributes="member: 28282">The desire for differentiation is often an egotistical one. Just as some people choose to differentiate themselves by clothing and religion, many people here choose to differentiate themselves by use of psychedelics or participation in a psychedelic lifestyle.I think it is hard for some people to deal with the idea of being generic while tripping or beginning to lead a spiritually fulfilling lifestyle. I say this from experience, as many of my original bad trips were based on a realization that I am not special, and things that I held dear were only special because they were mine. Other than a unique conglomeration of circumstances, which each human possesses to a different extent, I was not special. I finally understood what I loved hearing Tyler Durden say for years in Fight Club: &quot;We are not special. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.&quot; I was hurt.An all-too-easy and tempting way to backlash against this feeling is the kind of psychedelic/spiritual elitism that we take issue with. A good way to combat this, I have found, is to avoid making any generalizations, because they are very often misguided and/or outright false.&quot;All psychedelic users are better than all materialistic people&quot; is an example of such a ridiculous, elitist claim. Just because someone pops a blotter in their mouth does not make them inherently &quot;better,&quot; if there even is such a thing. There are psychedelic users who are extremely horrible people by societal standards and do not contribute a hundredth of what some non-psychedelic-using charity worker might. Also, using psychedelics is not mutually exclusive from materialism; I know some people who are very much into both things!It is unfortunate that elitism appears on the Nexus, but we also have to be careful about generalizing about elitists or thinking we are elite compared to elitists. Maybe we should try to dismantle the systems that cause elitism!! I think a good first step to doing that is not claiming things are good nor bad, rather we should look at if they are justified or non-justified.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="RAM, post: 3779261, member: 28282"] The desire for differentiation is often an egotistical one. Just as some people choose to differentiate themselves by clothing and religion, many people here choose to differentiate themselves by use of psychedelics or participation in a psychedelic lifestyle. I think it is hard for some people to deal with the idea of being generic while tripping or beginning to lead a spiritually fulfilling lifestyle. I say this from experience, as many of my original bad trips were based on a realization that I am not special, and things that I held dear were only special because they were mine. Other than a unique conglomeration of circumstances, which each human possesses to a different extent, I was not special. I finally understood what I loved hearing Tyler Durden say for years in [i]Fight Club[/i]: "We are not special. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." I was hurt. An all-too-easy and tempting way to backlash against this feeling is the kind of psychedelic/spiritual elitism that we take issue with. A good way to combat this, I have found, is to avoid making any generalizations, because they are very often misguided and/or outright false. "All psychedelic users are better than all materialistic people" is an example of such a ridiculous, elitist claim. Just because someone pops a blotter in their mouth does not make them inherently "better," if there even is such a thing. There are psychedelic users who are extremely horrible people by societal standards and do not contribute a hundredth of what some non-psychedelic-using charity worker might. Also, using psychedelics is not mutually exclusive from materialism; I know some people who are very much into both things! It is unfortunate that elitism appears on the Nexus, but we also have to be careful about generalizing about elitists or thinking we are elite compared to elitists. Maybe we should try to dismantle the systems that cause elitism!! I think a good first step to doing that is not claiming things are good nor bad, rather we should look at if they are justified or non-justified. [/QUOTE]