Hiyo Quicksilver said:
Now, if you knew that the plant of psychoactive and you liked that about the plant, there might be some placebo or positive associations that would lift your mood, but that is almost certainly in your head.
~ND
Well, sure. You're correct... but you've also missed the mark of what I'm trying to say entirely. I can see how a chem-oriented, psychedelic-oriented person might get the impression that you've got to get the molecules lodged in the synapse gap to get anything similar to the effect of the drug, but this is an
entirely preposterous idea in terms of ways one might explore and seek altered states and gnosis (magic/k, mysticism, shamanism, hypnosis, energized meditation, etc).
If you have any doubt, feel free to peruse subjective reports of mugwort use. So far as I've found, it seems to have the most dramatic effect when used in this manner.
The idea behind it
is placebo effect... but it is generally done with awareness of this fact (barring perhaps some spirit-oriented paradigms in which one might believe to be the recipient of some subtle energy or action outside of material existence), and participation with the effects that manifest. In the same way that an experienced traveler can break through on a 5mg dose (and in decreasingly rare cases, with no dosage at all) by "opening up" the effects with their own mental energy and focus, anyone with keen senses, patience and a sincere appreciation for the living beings and task at hand can open a smell up into a trip. No, this is not our normal modus operandi here in the west or on the Nexus, but it is of use in the exploration of consciousness to the
skilled and attentive practitioner. If you need to put a dose of a drug in your body to achieve a significantly altered state, then
obviously this method is unfamiliar to your bang-zoom point of reference.
Now, if you're a Jungian (or hell, even a spiritualist) kinda guy, you can add in that through society and complex interaction resulting in subtle, non-objective information being shared and stored through communication, the result is an implicit library of related experience that is all accessed and correlated simultaneously through the common experience of that one smell/taste/sight/feeling. As you participate in the experience, more and more connections are made between artistically related fragments of information flowing mercurially through the parallel right brain and the sequential, objective left brain... Then all one needs to do is to passively observe this process itself unfolding or accelerate the process actively to the point of sensory overload... and there you have it: Gnosis in all its glory, with all the trappings, and all the utility. (And usually much easier to navigate without the chemical interference)
In fact, I'll argue that without actually imbibing the substance, the experience is much more valuable in the sense that the user knows exactly how the state came to be, and is not gawking in wonder and mystery after it has already done so without explanation.
So I ask: If the effect is the same, if the presence of spirit and manifestation of the mind are the same, if the intensity and and depth of the experience are the same,
and if the sensory and physiological symptoms are identical how can it be said that one way is bona-fide, and the other is "all in your head"? They are indistinguishable by Pepsi Challenge. It's two sides of the same coin... one way just requires work and skill (or sensitivity and serendipity).
If you're not willing to put in the work, you're going to
have to take the drug to achieve the state. If you've worked and succeeded at participating with the workings of the mind and body to the extent that its capabilities are at your immediate and voluntary disposal, then you are free to enter any state however you please. It doesn't matter whether it's calmly one one's ass or from the business end of a GVG... Gnosis is Gnosis. Do with it what you will.
