(I was going to post this in the General DMT forum, but if this mistake isn't indicative of the type of naivety that belongs in the Welcome Area, then I don't know what is)
Last night, I was with a few friends and I was telling them about how incredible the DMT experience is. I never should've brought it up. After a while, one of the friends said she wanted to try it. She offered to reimburse me but I declined her money. I was careful to emphasise that it's a mind-blowing experience: Pure madness, at times. I should've known from the beginning that it was foolish to think that everybody should partake of this experience. She asked things like "Am I going to freak out?", my answer being, "Not as long as you're ready and willing to face anything that you experience during the trip". What I should've said was that that's the point: That the point of using DMT is to experience something so abstract and unfathomable that the only sensible reaction is to freak out (a reaction that we learn to suppress through acceptance of the experience).
In the bedroom, holding the machine, she asked if she could walk outside if she felt too weird during the experience. I tried explaining to her that DMT isn't something that you do before going for a walk, the experience happens in the mind, not in this reality. I should've known then and there that the full-blown beauty of the DMT experience would be lost on this person, but I didn't have the good sense to call the whole thing off. She couldn't seem to hold it in for long enough, or maybe she just didn't want to. I took a miniscule hit to demonstrate how to clear the machine and how long to hold in the hit. This was a bad idea, of course, because there's no way to show somebody else how DMT is smoked without accidentally dipping your toes into hyperspace. "That doesn't look like fun", she remarked while observing me observe the onset of a slight DMT experience.
It wasn't a remarkable experience for me. I spent it being the object of several people's curious gazes, and I realized that some people aren't cut out for experiences like "this". I realized that experiences like DMT can't just be handed to a curious friend. You have to come to it like any other stepping stone in your life, and if you don't have the patience and dedication to spend a few days doing your own extraction and building your own machine for such an experience that only lasts 15 minutes, doesn't taste particularly good, and doesn't allow you to go out partying at the same time, then you are a recreational drug user, and you have no business exploring advanced realms of consciousness.
This was my realization. It was followed by a lot of shame for having thought that everybody would embrace pure psychedelic experience with the same exuberance and sense of appreciation that I do. I've always assumed that every recreational drug user is a potential psychonaut, but I don't think I believe that any more. Some people have ties to their normal everyday lives that are so strongly engrained in who they are that there may be no hope of waking them up to the true meaning of consciousness. I was foolish to think that I could so easily share the experience that comes so easily to me. I think I now have a better idea of what type of people are not capable of appreciating experiences like that brought on by DMT, as well as a better idea of the consequences of trying to introduce people to it instead of letting those who are worthy (I hate using that word) seek it out for themselves.
Lesson learned.
All in all, I don't feel good about saying that some recreational drug users shouldn't try to use psychedelic drugs, but I think that this attitude (in me, at least) stems from the fact that I've done psychedelic drugs with many others who seem to just be weekend philosophers; people who do it for fun and don't particularly care about any of the spiritual implications/benefits. I guess this type of abuse (as I see it) degrades the public image of such drugs that otherwise have tremendous potential for life-long positive impact. If I want any type of response to this post, it's input on how other psychonaut's on this forum view recreational drug use; Is it degrading to these sacramental drugs or is necessary in order to weed out the spiritually fit? Are there lost causes, or does everyone have the potential to deeply appreciate psychedelic experience.
Last night, I was with a few friends and I was telling them about how incredible the DMT experience is. I never should've brought it up. After a while, one of the friends said she wanted to try it. She offered to reimburse me but I declined her money. I was careful to emphasise that it's a mind-blowing experience: Pure madness, at times. I should've known from the beginning that it was foolish to think that everybody should partake of this experience. She asked things like "Am I going to freak out?", my answer being, "Not as long as you're ready and willing to face anything that you experience during the trip". What I should've said was that that's the point: That the point of using DMT is to experience something so abstract and unfathomable that the only sensible reaction is to freak out (a reaction that we learn to suppress through acceptance of the experience).
In the bedroom, holding the machine, she asked if she could walk outside if she felt too weird during the experience. I tried explaining to her that DMT isn't something that you do before going for a walk, the experience happens in the mind, not in this reality. I should've known then and there that the full-blown beauty of the DMT experience would be lost on this person, but I didn't have the good sense to call the whole thing off. She couldn't seem to hold it in for long enough, or maybe she just didn't want to. I took a miniscule hit to demonstrate how to clear the machine and how long to hold in the hit. This was a bad idea, of course, because there's no way to show somebody else how DMT is smoked without accidentally dipping your toes into hyperspace. "That doesn't look like fun", she remarked while observing me observe the onset of a slight DMT experience.
It wasn't a remarkable experience for me. I spent it being the object of several people's curious gazes, and I realized that some people aren't cut out for experiences like "this". I realized that experiences like DMT can't just be handed to a curious friend. You have to come to it like any other stepping stone in your life, and if you don't have the patience and dedication to spend a few days doing your own extraction and building your own machine for such an experience that only lasts 15 minutes, doesn't taste particularly good, and doesn't allow you to go out partying at the same time, then you are a recreational drug user, and you have no business exploring advanced realms of consciousness.
This was my realization. It was followed by a lot of shame for having thought that everybody would embrace pure psychedelic experience with the same exuberance and sense of appreciation that I do. I've always assumed that every recreational drug user is a potential psychonaut, but I don't think I believe that any more. Some people have ties to their normal everyday lives that are so strongly engrained in who they are that there may be no hope of waking them up to the true meaning of consciousness. I was foolish to think that I could so easily share the experience that comes so easily to me. I think I now have a better idea of what type of people are not capable of appreciating experiences like that brought on by DMT, as well as a better idea of the consequences of trying to introduce people to it instead of letting those who are worthy (I hate using that word) seek it out for themselves.
Lesson learned.
All in all, I don't feel good about saying that some recreational drug users shouldn't try to use psychedelic drugs, but I think that this attitude (in me, at least) stems from the fact that I've done psychedelic drugs with many others who seem to just be weekend philosophers; people who do it for fun and don't particularly care about any of the spiritual implications/benefits. I guess this type of abuse (as I see it) degrades the public image of such drugs that otherwise have tremendous potential for life-long positive impact. If I want any type of response to this post, it's input on how other psychonaut's on this forum view recreational drug use; Is it degrading to these sacramental drugs or is necessary in order to weed out the spiritually fit? Are there lost causes, or does everyone have the potential to deeply appreciate psychedelic experience.
