Hello!

[psychedelico]

Howdy friends—I’m Daniel. I usually use the handle “Psychedelico” in online spaces, a word I thought I made up until I heard Terence McKenna use it in a few of his seminars. At least I’m following in the footsteps of a giant. Lol

I’m an archaeologist who’s worked in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific, as well as mainland North America. I have an MA in anthropology, but I’ve paused working toward a PhD, at least for now. But my psychedelic explorations influenced my academic interests in archaeologies of ecstatic and visionary experience in antiquity, ancient art and visual culture, phenomenology, and questions of time, memory, and identity, which I continue to pursue.

I’ve had many, many beautiful (and not so beautiful) experiences with mushrooms. These days, I primarily grow Panaeolus cyanescens, which, to me, is the quintessential psychedelic mushroom. Lately, though, I’ve felt a strong calling to DMT. I’ve done a few successful extractions, but I started low and I’m going real slow getting acquainted with this molecule. There is no guiding principle to my psychedelic explorations, other than a supreme curiosity. That is my motivation with DMT, too.

In fact, I consider my psychedelic journeys (and to communicate what I’ve seen and learned in them) to be the great work of my life. That seems kind of strange to say, but it makes perfect sense, if you place any stock in astrology. My natal Sun in Capricorn and my Mercury in Aquarius are both in the Twelfth House—aka the house associated with the subconscious, dreams, and secrets; sometimes it’s called the “unseen realm” or the House of Self Destruction. Psychedelics are the perfect gateway into the unseen realm, and as we all know, destruction of the self can be one outcome of using them.

I’ve dipped in and out of these forums over the years, so I finally wanted to introduce myself. I have questions that I’d like to get feedback on, but I’ll post those elsewhere. In the meantime, I appreciate everyone who’s shared their knowledge and perspectives here—it’s helped me a great deal, and I know it’s helped many others, as well.

PS—I’m pathologically unable to write without sounding like I have an academic stick up my ass, but I’m working on it.

 

[FlagellaStink]

PS—I’m pathologically unable to write without sounding like I have an academic stick up my ass, but I’m working on it.

Welcome to the club!

Seriously though, it's fascinating to hear the broad range of interests the Nexus attracts, and archaeology is certainly one of the most fascinating to me. Forgetting the baffling mysteries of the psychedelic experience itself, I think the ancient history of psychedelic use (and more broadly the mystical experience) is one of the most puzzling yet interesting mysteries the world has to offer. The bible, in a way, is what initially got me interested in psychedelics. And it was just that, the visionary mystical experience, which I wanted an explanation for. Surreal and psychedelic writing and art from ancient times remains one of my biggest obsessions.

In another life I'd love to pursue archaeology, but I don't think I'd have the patience. It's such important work though, and great to hear that there are those who are passionate about it. Welcome to the Nexus!


Might I ask how you got the psychedelic calling? Everyone's got a unique story

 

[Kalitechnik]

Hello fellow traveler. Nice to have you around.

 

[psychedelico]

Welcome to the club!

Thanks!

Seriously though, it's fascinating to hear the broad range of interests the Nexus attracts, and archaeology is certainly one of the most fascinating to me. Forgetting the baffling mysteries of the psychedelic experience itself, I think the ancient history of psychedelic use (and more broadly the mystical experience) is one of the most puzzling yet interesting mysteries the world has to offer.

I agree. I'm a materialist; I approach it from the standpoint that everyone who ingests a psychedelic molecule will react to it in more or less the same way. They will generally have the same physiological response to it, and the visionary content will generally be the same. How one interprets the visions is culturally determined and can vary a great deal and in many surprising ways.

The bible, in a way, is what initially got me interested in psychedelics.

It's interesting you mention the Bible. I had a high dose mushroom experience last summer where I encountered what I perceived to be a "Living Creature" (cherub) described in Ezekiel and elsewhere in the Bible. In my vision, it didn't remotely resemble the four-faced, four-winged angels described in Ezekiel 1, and yet it did. Similar to what I was saying before, I interpreted it as a Living Creature, which had appeared from the rapidly changing bright green and blue background of my closed eye visual space, while also being part of it. It was quite profound.

And it was just that, the visionary mystical experience, which I wanted an explanation for. Surreal and psychedelic writing and art from ancient times remains one of my biggest obsessions.

Exactly—I remember another mushroom experience where I was sort of covering my eyes, but with my eyes open, and watching the visions on my palms. I said to myself, "WTF is this?!" becuse it was just so incredible and sublime, actually. I just truly want to understand it, just like you.

In another life I'd love to pursue archaeology, but I don't think I'd have the patience. It's such important work though, and great to hear that there are those who are passionate about it. Welcome to the Nexus!

It has its ups and downs, just like anything. I pefer the more theoretical aspects to going out into the field, and I'm transitioning to museum archaeology as we speak, in order to work on NAGPRA-related repatriation issues.

Might I ask how you got the psychedelic calling? Everyone's got a unique story

Well, the short version is that I first read a little book called Les chamanes de la préhistoire (The Shamans of Prehistory) as an undergrad years ago that posited that ice age cave images in France, Spain, and elsewhere in Europe were the result of altered states of consciousness. This fascinated me, and of course it makes perfect sense, and I started to read all kinds of modern drug literature about psychedelics. Unfortunately, I had no way to try them for myself at the time. Not long after, I was suffering from daily migraines, and I read that microdosing LSD could help. Well, I had no idea where to get LSD, but that rekindled my fascination in psychedelics.

Fast forward to 2018, and I wanted to get in on the microdosing craze, so I learned all I could about growing mushrooms. I had a wildly successful first crop of Golden Teachers that I grew using the PF tek. Funny thing is, to this day I've never microdosed anything. The full experience is so profound and sublime that I just continuned to go deeper and deeper using higher and higher doses—and never looked back. Eventually, I did figure out how to get my hands on acid, but it's not my favorite. I also experimented, fairly unsuccessfully, with pharmahuasca once or twice. I have some San Pedro that I'm saving for the right time. And as I said, DMT has been calling me quite strongly more recently, so I'm answering the call, but carefully and respectfully.

Obviously, there's a lot I left out, haha. I'm going to start a blog one of these days where I document my trips (they're already in my notebooks and journals), and explore some of the insights I've had. Lately, too, I'm interested in psychedelics and the erotic—not so much overt sexuality, but eroticism as a concept.

 

[psychedelico]

Hello fellow traveler. Nice to have you around.

Thanks! I'm glad to be here.