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Psychedelics as part of life as we get older

Panpsychic

Panpsychic

Titanium Teammate
So I wanted to start a discussion about psychedelics and how our relationship to their use changes, or perhaps doesn't change as we get older. I'm not exactly 'old', early 40's but certainly for a lot of people I know psychedelics are something they did in their more youthful years alongside partying or festivals etc, with maybe for some the odd occasional use every few years.
For some people it was very meaningful and opened them to a spiritual life. For others it was maybe also significant but then as they got additional responsibilities like work or family the psychedelics slipped by the wayside. Still others took on these responsibilities and still have intermittent or even semi-regular use.

So how have you found your use, and your integration of psychedelics has changed as you have gotten older, if indeed it has?
How have those of you who still use them regularly incorporated them into a psychedelic life as you age? How have they influenced and continue to influence your perspective on life itself as time has passed?
 
I'm 68 years old and I've gotten back into psychedelics to a degree after decades of non use.
I'd been doing my Pedro a little and finally got to try DMT.
I am in a super busy and stressful time of my life which will not change soon. People I can't get out of my family home, so courts and cops. My brother has serious cancer. My ex just died of cancer and I was the caregiver for a time. I am being tested for and discovering heart issues (film at 11. We'll see)
Anyway, no sympathy needed. Life is coming along but I will need to be functioning at 100% for some time to come.

And DMT entered just when it needed to. Psychedelics have always been a reset button for me. Used responsibly, they can give a new outlook. We all know the drill.

I've been using lower doses. I'm an early riser and I can get up, have a journey, and be fine to function before the rest of the world wakes up. It keeps me not craving Cannabis much at least (and has been more than that)

I've tried for breakthrough twice. Once, I just couldn't get there and the other time I have no memory of the experience.
Mostly I just get to a place where the visions are just starting to break through slightly with my eyes open, although I generally lay back and close them. It's still tripping harder than I ever used to on traditional psychedelics but just for a few minutes. About how many milligrams is that probably?

Lately, I've come to much prefer pre-dosing with smoked Harmalas. It definitely lengthens things.
Caapi is the "mother" and Rue is the "father". Mom nurtures and heals and dad is a stern teacher. Intent before a journey goes a long way.
I've done the Harmalas while getting to my normal level plenty but lately have discovered that it also useful to get as much of the Harmala in me as possible and do just a little bit of DMT occasionally.
You can still "see" and sense things but they are not "in your face". Good for meditation and questioning.

So, I feel weird sometimes chiming in with you folks exploring the breakthroughs when I'm doing what I'm doing. I definitely want to break through eventually. I've heard people say they don't fear death after. But, not for a while. My lesser forays are even getting occasional (just for now).
They're a force I am grateful for.

So, my psychedelic use has changed back to where it started as a 15 year old. Trying to find meaning.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"
T.S. Elliot
 
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brokedownpalace10 said:
I'm 68 years old and I've gotten back into psychedelics to a degree after decades of non use.
Click to expand...
As a young person myself, this is inspiring in a sense. It's incredible how people can go through so much stuff in their lives, see so much, deal with so much nonsensical human crap, so much grief, and then use psychedelics to send themselves into a state of mind where it all seems so inconsequential, yet so incredibly relevant. I admire your outlook on life and the purpose of psychedelics in it.

Love that quote from T.S. Elliot, and await the time when it becomes truly relevant for me, when I can really understand it. Best of luck.
 
I did psychedelics in my late teens and 20's strictly socially (Grateful Dead tour) and recreationally.

I wound up having a very very difficult experience and took a break close to 20 years.

I came back in my 40s and new things were available that yielded truly immersive visionary experiences, like salvia divinorum and DMT. I began a program of rather heavy use/abuse.

"Everything is fun and games until someone looses an I," wrote @Ringworm. Truer words were seldom written here.

I had a solid, textbook mystical experience. I didn't even know what had happened due to lack of vocabulary/knowledge. But everything changed. I was no longer an atheist and psychedelics had become entheogens.

Things got toxic on several fronts which necessitated another break, this time 7 years.

I am back in my mid-50's. Life is an unending tsunami of stressful crises as I care for my severely disabled husband and try to support him, my brother and three cats as well as do everything at home. I find myself as worker, nurse, coach, PT therapist, drill seargeant, memory adjunct. full time maid, cook and caretaker. These time realities make DMT absolutely IDEAL.

And yet, the things I took in during the 7 years of integration (and total abstinence from visionary drugs) have served me well. In that time I have completely self transformed both my attitude and outlook but also my work career path. I have learned tremendous resilience as well as humility around issues of my lack of control in situations. I have to say the work with DMT, in particular the harrowing bad trips, showed me the way. I am THE person you want in a crisis. I get it done and fast. My best example is the successful reversal of two Fentanyl OD's.

These days I dose low. Something has happened. Either I am so old or I changed my brain with all that (ab)use in the past. I find DMT to be about 3x as strong as it was. 10 mgs slams me to the bed, makes me begin to loose touch with my body, immerses me in a 3D vision space and guarantees entity contact. Mushrooms are also crazy visionary and immersive at low doses these days.

Also, I am finding integration, including of rough rides/material, to be a much smoother process these days. I am so comfortable with all this stuff now. Sure the intensity can be challenging but if dark or disturbing material happens to come up I view it as an opportunity to learn.

DMT feels like a sacrament. Why am I there? To surrender. Why am I REALLY there? To learn & to grow.
 
In my humble opinion, psychedelics are infinitely better with age. Please excuse me for being very rudimentary with neuroscience, but I'll explain why below.

The mind has two polar opposite "states" - entropy and order. A healthy mind is in the center of the two poles. When you drift toward entropy, you manifest psychosis such as schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and manic states. When you drift toward order, you manifest rigid, compulsive behaviors such as addiction (alcoholism, etc), obsessive compulsivity, rigidity of thought, and other "autopilot" symptoms.

As children we basically start out as little psychosis machines full of entropy. We see things that aren't there, we express our emotions without filter, and we have to focus intensely to get anything done at all. As we age, our brains naturally become more ordered. Skills and activities that were so hard, like balance while walking, go on autopilot. This progression toward order goes on until we die.

Psychedelics inject a massive dose of entropy and neuroplasticity into our minds. Because of the lack of entropy in older minds, psychedelics are incredibly helpful toward restoring a healthy mind balance. They keep you creative, break addictions, and disrupt compulsive behavior.

When a young person does psychedelics, it introduces entropy into a rather already-entropic mind. The benefits are not as stark, and the drawbacks are more pronounced, as they descend further into entropy. Deep entropy can induce euphoric and creative states, so it is attractive to many young people.

Once again, I apologize for the distillation of neuroscience into such simplistic terms and metaphors, but I think you get the point. Psychedelics are best experienced in middle age and beyond, or when you've established enough order in your mind.
 
@Panpsychic thank you for this thread!

@Pandora and @brokedownpalace10 I really enjoyed reading about your experiences and insights. I haven't had a lot of opportunity to spend time around "elders" on the Entheogenic path outside of a few encounters at burns/festivals; it's a gift to the community to have the insights and lessons you have learned over time, using the medicine for extended periods, in different chapters of life, and for different reasons as you've continued to go deeper. We know where to go to find spiritual teachers associated with the various religions and spiritual paths of the world; finding an entheogenic teacher is not as easy.

I am 30 now and my son is six; I started using psychedelics at 18, and even in just this time I feel as though I've become more sensitive to all medicines. Ironically, too, as I often imagined in my younger days that by now I would be inclined to take 2-3 doses of LSD for a night trip, whereas reality looks more like a half to a whole dose at most.

I will echo the value of integration. There have been a few 1-2 year periods in my life where I gave myself space from any substance and just digested what I had on my plate. It seems the right substance always manages to find it's way to me at the right time and the right chapter of my life. Sometimes a secondary experience with the same or a different substance a few days or weeks later helps me, I find at present.

I've had a few difficult experiences, entheogenic thought-loops, "Am I dying?" moments, and heavy moods inside the expanded space. They were all more mild than my imagination lead me to believe a psychedelic crisis would be. And indeed, as many folks will mention, these experiences often came with intensely helpful lessons. Almost always, the remedy was surrender. I think having lived through these experiences has greatly lessened any fear I have of having difficult experiences; though, like anyone, I still get little pre-trip jitters and occasionally wince at the possibility of seeing demons, devils, or hells. Obviously not the experience anyone wants. But I've lived enough now to know even the spooky stuff is God, and it is before me to teach a lesson and help me remember myself as Love.

I like DMT most as my chemical teacher at this point in time, whereas the past 10 years have been filled predominantly with entheogenic (and party-setting) use of LSD more than any other substance. LSD will always be near and dear to my heart, especially because of the role it played in healing some pretty intense disenchantment with life and suicidal apathy in my early 20's. But an acid trip is a big investment, of both time and energy.
DMT takes me to space very akin to an acid peak, and I find I have gleaned as much in a mid-dose spice journey as I might have in a day(or night) long LSD trip. The full day experience has its own value and beauty, and I am indeed often drawn to it, but there is something profoundly mystic and healing about the relative brevity and intensity of DMT. I find it acutely works on the Anahata (Heart) Chakra when I need it most.

As I’ve grown into full manhood, I find myself less inclined to pursue “exciting” substances like MDMA, 2c-b, or cocaine, and instead favor more relaxing substances like ketamine, generally speaking.
I'd also like to mention cannabis in an entheogenic context. Pot has been my daily companion since I started experimenting with entheogens, and our relationship has only grown over time. Though my use more often is for physical and mental wellness, rather than as a spiritual aid, I find that the herb maintains in me a strengthening of the subtle undercurrent of compassion, joy, and understanding that laces human interaction. It is easier to see things from someone elses point of view when I've been smoking. It softens the heart.

Thanks again for a great thread.
Peace 🖤
 
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OK. This thread sending me on a trip down memory lane, I decided to go searching into the nether regions of my basement as well as the Attics Of My Life.

Decades ago, when I was 19 or so, I lived with a somewhat crazy, older, artist lady. Her main talent was making clay pieces by hand. Not mold made, she made busts, figurines, and such from clay by hand, then fired them. We did some art shows every year and, of course, I got her into making pipes to sell at those shows and at concerts, etc..

At the time, Syrian Rue was becoming available on the legal highs market (which was pretty sad at the time).
We didn't know much about Rue. Didn't know about potentiation of tryptamines, etc.. Just thought you could get a psychedelic high from a bunch of it. I tried to get enough down orally but never did enough to get a strong high. So, of course I tried smoking it.

I found I could get a calming and somewhat psychedelic high from smoking a bunch of it. It was nice before pot.
It always did feel like there was a little something more around the corner.
When my artist squeeze gave me a few overstock pipes, I picked one for the Rue.

So, I went digging in my basement. 🎵 Bell Bottom Blues

p.jpg


Never smoked anything but Rue out of it and it just seemed to fit. Even back then.

p1.jpg



There's still a little bit of Rue in this pipe after all these years. I'll let you know how it goes when I get around to using this. Kinda funny when T.S. Elliot can be your guru. And so it goes.
 
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I do agree with you @Panpsychic in the sense that I was very hedonistic in my drug usage when I was in my teens and 20s. Don't tell me about microdosing or taking it slow because I always wanted to go all out. I like @Metatronology take on the neuroplasticity of the brain. At times I feel as though my early drug usage was beneficial in my teens in some respect because of all the serotonin flooding my system in any case, thus the highs even from cannabis were intense and very spiritual. In other ways the early drug usage in my teens probably Ied to me easily being happy with quick dopamine fixes.

I briefly encountered psychedelics in my 20s with some very profound acid and mdma trips. But truly into my 30s I started to explore DMT , Ayahuasca, salvia, psilocybin and mescaline more. These really freed me so much in the sense that the I rarely partake in them now as with the frequency I initially did when encountering them. But I was absolutely smitten, infatuated and a little bit obsessed, researching methods and ceremonial ways of working with the sacraments. So much so that for a while that's all I did or wanted to do.

Now in the beginning of my 40's I am more cautious and my trips are more in line with dieta and I try to ensure I fully prepare physically and mentally with enough time away from work to do it. Added to this is having a young family and parental responsibility and the time and sessions one has available to journey on heroic doses or even medium doses becomes harder to find. It is still very much in my mind though but not all encompassing as before.

So thus microdosing helps alot and has become beneficial to me but the urge to go deeper is always there. Psychedelics has truly help me become mature in both mind and my usage of the sacraments. Throw in a few hyperslaps once or twice and then the respect and need to thread carefully is another factor. Also I guess if you have friends or a community who you are physically able to plan trips together with and feel safe with probably helps too in having more trips together. So a long answer to your question my usage has definitely tapered off a bit, because I am mostly solo journeying these days and very conscious before I partake in the sacrament (perhaps too respectful if that's even a thing?) But I am still actively growing (see post The effects of growing entheogens without ingestion ) and researching entheogens even if I am not ingesting all the time. I also find in a way that the usage of entheogens previously and the memory of them still remains with me and it has allowed me to slip into a meditative space more easily even if I am not ingesting. So grateful, and still looking forward to the upcoming adventures...
 
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Wow. I totally missed this thread. What a great read, and way to get to know some of the older members better.
I'm in my 50's and prior to joining this forum had no experience with psychedelics.

I posted my story in the 'Introduce yourself' section so I'll summarize. Left a very religious and abusive home young, joined military, had kids, did life (with a constant feeling of guilt and self hate programmed into me), threw myself into work to provide for my family, roller-coaster of very difficult times, rediscovered religion that makes sense recently, which took me on a journey of discovery that landed me here.

Ultimately, I believe that the closer to the origins of man our ancestors were the more easily they connected to the spiritual realm. I don't know if over time, we have lost this because the DNA isn't as potent or perhaps the diets and activities we participate in simply calcified or 'blocks' whatever natural ability we have to connect. I believe humans were indeed an experiment in which DNA of God (alien or whatever it is) was used to give us consciousness (spirit), and ultimately make humans immortal in a mortal shell (and probably why our ancestors were so infatuated with astronomy). We may not have even needed to speak (or have writings) to connect. I think some of the celestial and immortal "heavenly" beings did things with humans they should not have which set us on a path of corruption resulting in a flood (and several other humanity resets) over time. I think we have been resilient in somehow surviving these disasters, however, we are destroying the earth which is the place in which our consciousness dwells until such a time that God is ready to reap up the souls that have proven to be acceptable to the greater good of a new earth, and serve this new place well. What I am unsure of, is if souls are recycled into new human bodies as they become available. Seems unlikely, but the Rosicrucian and others seem to believe in reincarnation. In fact, it's likely that all of the answers are within each continent (tower of babel story) and within different religions, and was intentionally broken up in an almost ironic fashion of a hourglass of time passing by with an expiration date and a lesson of "Get it together, stop killing each other and the answers will become obvious if you combine your knowledge..", which we cannot seem to get right over all this time.

I know what all that sounds like. A whole lot of hoo-ha and magical nonsense, but it's what makes sense to me. I think the smarter we think we are, the dumber we actually look to the beings that actually know how things in the universe actually work.

I said all of that to say this. DMT seems 'ancient' to me. Something that allows us to light up something in our consciousness that can receive signals from another place/time/and entities that are trying to tell us the answers to the question of "Why am I here?". It's not great for the people who want to enslave the mind for reasons of greed, capitalism, taxes, politics, etc if we ever collectively find the answer to that question, and therefore all substances that may allow people to tune into that message are banned. Perhaps DMT is a look into the place called 'Paradise' (which seems to be a different place than heaven) in the Bible, and perhaps a 'bad' trip is the other side of that divide (Think Lazarus and the rich man story). I think this is my fear of breaking through, in that I don't know which side of the divide I'll show up in, or if that course is correctable....

...or maybe it's just the rambling of an aging mind with bad programming. ;)
 
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@DexterMTripp I find it particularly interesting that you chose DMT as your starting point; I journeyed with LSD countless times before I found the courage to approach DMT. I think having a little fear breaking through for the first time means you understand what a potent medicine you are working with :)

I am very excited and curious to see how your above opinions, theories, philosophies, and questions change over the course of your journey with DMT. Knowing your background from your introduction, it seems that you are vigorously exploring new ideologies and philosophies that were previously "taboo" - a good sign of a flexible and heathy mind! I am looking forward to any trip reports you will come to share with us 😁

Peace🤍
 
Very beautiful post @Panpsychic

I had searched for a similar topic on the net after I read a guy on shroomery said "Old guys tend to avoid psychedelics as they grow sensitive to it" and since I was on a similar path I wondered how it affected others as they grow old in the modern world.

Though I have mushrooms with me now, I haven't tripped in a long time, sort of because my life is kinda unstable at the moment(always has been perhaps lol). Tripping on mushrooms is 'work'. (recently I took 3 grams of mushrooms in my hand, and as they were a few centimetres away from my mouth I discarded them). Hence I'm leaning to procure DMT again, because of its short period. And I also believe too much importance need not be given to set and setting for a DMT trip. Though I have no idea on the repercussions of my future DMT trip because I have become 10x times more sensitive than I was during my first DMT trip. But TerenceM is of certainty that DMT is 'life reaffirming' (which I too agree but then again he seemed to be way more grounded than me) and any other way to put it is just bad PR, so I am keeping my hopes out and fingers crossed.

I am pampering myself with the wonders of the material world at the moment. I also practice a lot of sober spiritual practices and they have their own ecstasy and mystery to them. Maybe the psychedelic Gods know that's all I can handle at the moment
 
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Subtlevibrations said:
@DexterMTripp I find it particularly interesting that you chose DMT as your starting point; I journeyed with LSD countless times before I found the courage to approach DMT. I think having a little fear breaking through for the first time means you understand what a potent medicine you are working with :)

I am very excited and curious to see how your above opinions, theories, philosophies, and questions change over the course of your journey with DMT. Knowing your background from your introduction, it seems that you are vigorously exploring new ideologies and philosophies that were previously "taboo" - a good sign of a flexible and heathy mind! I am looking forward to any trip reports you will come to share with us 😁

Peace🤍
Click to expand...
Hey @Subtlevibrations
Yes. It's become apparent from comments and my reading on this site that it is an unusual first step to see someone come in with no experience and go directly to DMT.
Everything just kind of fell into place from my search for answers. Like perfectly aligned dominoes.

Not in a million years would I have considered that a prayer to find answers with "If you are there God, please give me answers", would ever have led me to here, and maybe this isn't the final destination, but I'm here.

So here is a crazy story. When I first started this journey, and was pondering this issue of spirituality and again praying for answers with a 'just give me a sign that you're even there listening', I was walking through a wooded park that I like to travel. It has miles of trails with different markers for different difficulty of terrain. I suddenly had an "internal voice/push/thought (nothing audible)" that said "Go to the end of this long path at the junction, and there will be a sign." As I got to the end of the path there was a family there at the junction. They were on bikes and had children with them. I thought for sure the parents would say something to me so I smiled and said "hello" and they smile and rode on past on their bikes. Behind them were two other small children on bikes that also peddled past, and then one last child pushing a toddler on a stroller. I thought to myself 'Well it was odd that there was actually people at the end of this path, but ultimately no sign, so it's just a coincidence'. As I'm thinking this and looking down at the path in front of me, I look over at this toddler in his stroller and he stops looking at this toy, looks straight up into my eyes with these super blue eyes, points right at me and smiles and watches me the entire way past him, to the point that the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Now I could discount that to coincidence (kids act weird and point and smile every day), but I think as children, we are the closest to God and memories of pure un-corrupted consciousness. Basically, vessels. What do babies dream about if not their previous state of consciousness? At that point however, all of the dots started to connect, and I landed here after somehow forming a line from Sumerian texts all the way to the book 'DMT - The spirit molecule'. Maybe it's a detour. Maybe I'm nuts. I don't know, but...(there's always a but), what if I'm not and this is indeed going to end with answers? It's worth the risk. I'm not harming anyone. I'm not demanding people believe me and in fact suspect people will likely think I'm nuts. ;) It's just a personal journey, and if I do find answers at this junction, I'll pass them along to anyone who cares to know. There is a bible verse in James 1:5 that reads "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.", so that's what I did. Had some faith, and followed the text. Again, I'm not here to preach to anyone, but I'm giving 'backstory' to my thoughts. I am a deeply flawed human with no ability to point at and cast judgement on any other human, any other beliefs, any other things people choose to do, nor do I ever want to be the judge of another person. I don't have any more answers than anyone else. :)
 
Yes it is not so common to start with dmt but it was my first drug as well. I started with psychedelics when I was still a child at 13 with dmt, smoking low doses from a test tube converted to a vaporizer with a ballpoint tube as a mouthpiece. Really sketchy but I remember the feeling that it was so tantalizing and the mystery to be discovered pulled me into wanting to try other psychedelics as well. From there I moved on to mushrooms and tried weed even later. The mushrooms use then ended with a horrible bad trip that resulted into two year hiatus from al drugs. Then I slowly started with experimenting a bit more and now at a more healthy age I could process the experience a bit better.

Then when mimosa became available with postorder I got back to dmt. Somehow I feel it was meant to be part of my life, or part of my existence. Now fast forward more than 2 decades I’m in my 40ties and stil tripping with regular intervals. Mostly with dmt or aya, and sometimes with mescaline or 2cb. The experience has changed over time but still feels like a precious gift. Now my relationship with hyperspace and its inhabitants is more of a second world or home that I visit from time to time, a place of wonder and ineffable beauty.


Take care
 
Salutations,

Usually Egzoset and the guy behind will refuse to turn Egzoset and the guy behind into a discussion topic, but... There typically happens to be some exception(s) for every rule and today it's a pleasure for me, actually both of us (...), to add my our own grain of salt right here!

🍿🧂

Panpsychic said:
...meaningful... ...spiritual... ...integration of psychedelics...
Click to expand...

Very, yes. But cannabis is hardly "psychedelic" (to me anyway) and no crave for LSD persisted, simply because my needs were satisfied after memorable experiences i cannot regret in any manner, since that was a crucial phase of life and the environment wasn't exactly helping, so if i got regrets it's about "them" this invisible non-liable enemy. Prohibition! The fact remains the day after my world was flooded by a wave of serenity, i used to describe it as a « RESET »...

In retrospective, if i were a young man again i'd probably want to refresh my memory of precious LSD legacies i've once embraced dearly; but the observer was changed by the observation, so to speak... That desire to embrace is still present, just not the urge. It's called nostalgia! Other individuals might spontaneously instrumentalize it pretending to have entered into my head, serving their own interpretations from their own backgrounds, etc. Yano, the « Say No to Drug$ » of $elf-$erving politi¢ized predator$ {sound of accelerating engines in background}, the blood-sucking brain-sucking zombies {woups! That's an infaillible trigger, couldn't resist the sudden urge!!} and their multiple Hollywoodian friends of Halloween, euh... {Halloween in Hollywood, a favourite theme!}

See, that's what happens when EMANCIPATION has to be juxtaposed with 3rd-party contamination which i often recognize and tag as "YouYouMi" talk: a sign the main topic as announced ain't stimulating enough; at least that's often the way i perceive it. Now, talking about i us... LSD is very personal, that may be fun in company of others but i understand it can be compared to a sexual activity: not something to display in public - being quite aware it's not the same perception from inside than outside, especially dealing with non-initiated prohibitionnists. I us is are all in favour of "sitters", but... Why would i want to get distracted by external noise when my best experiences occured alone with no fears; as i pointed out i embraced it, every single time (says the guy behind Egzoset)... So much for the inferno spiral theories.

full
 
DexterMTripp said:
Hey @Subtlevibrations
Yes. It's become apparent from comments and my reading on this site that it is an unusual first step to see someone come in with no experience and go directly to DMT.
Everything just kind of fell into place from my search for answers. Like perfectly aligned dominoes.

Not in a million years would I have considered that a prayer to find answers with "If you are there God, please give me answers", would ever have led me to here, and maybe this isn't the final destination, but I'm here.

So here is a crazy story. When I first started this journey, and was pondering this issue of spirituality and again praying for answers with a 'just give me a sign that you're even there listening', I was walking through a wooded park that I like to travel. It has miles of trails with different markers for different difficulty of terrain. I suddenly had an "internal voice/push/thought (nothing audible)" that said "Go to the end of this long path at the junction, and there will be a sign." As I got to the end of the path there was a family there at the junction. They were on bikes and had children with them. I thought for sure the parents would say something to me so I smiled and said "hello" and they smile and rode on past on their bikes. Behind them were two other small children on bikes that also peddled past, and then one last child pushing a toddler on a stroller. I thought to myself 'Well it was odd that there was actually people at the end of this path, but ultimately no sign, so it's just a coincidence'. As I'm thinking this and looking down at the path in front of me, I look over at this toddler in his stroller and he stops looking at this toy, looks straight up into my eyes with these super blue eyes, points right at me and smiles and watches me the entire way past him, to the point that the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Now I could discount that to coincidence (kids act weird and point and smile every day), but I think as children, we are the closest to God and memories of pure un-corrupted consciousness. Basically, vessels. What do babies dream about if not their previous state of consciousness? At that point however, all of the dots started to connect, and I landed here after somehow forming a line from Sumerian texts all the way to the book 'DMT - The spirit molecule'. Maybe it's a detour. Maybe I'm nuts. I don't know, but...(there's always a but), what if I'm not and this is indeed going to end with answers? It's worth the risk. I'm not harming anyone. I'm not demanding people believe me and in fact suspect people will likely think I'm nuts. ;) It's just a personal journey, and if I do find answers at this junction, I'll pass them along to anyone who cares to know. There is a bible verse in James 1:5 that reads "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.", so that's what I did. Had some faith, and followed the text. Again, I'm not here to preach to anyone, but I'm giving 'backstory' to my thoughts. I am a deeply flawed human with no ability to point at and cast judgement on any other human, any other beliefs, any other things people choose to do, nor do I ever want to be the judge of another person. I don't have any more answers than anyone else. :)
Click to expand...

I really enjoyed reading this experience. I would encourage you to keep leaning in. Trust the process. Keeping it in the Christian vein, as attributed to Christ - "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Cosmic/Divine timing and synchronicity are a very real thing in my experience.
 
Metatronology said:
In my humble opinion, psychedelics are infinitely better with age. Please excuse me for being very rudimentary with neuroscience, but I'll explain why below.

The mind has two polar opposite "states" - entropy and order. A healthy mind is in the center of the two poles. When you drift toward entropy, you manifest psychosis such as schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and manic states. When you drift toward order, you manifest rigid, compulsive behaviors such as addiction (alcoholism, etc), obsessive compulsivity, rigidity of thought, and other "autopilot" symptoms.

As children we basically start out as little psychosis machines full of entropy. We see things that aren't there, we express our emotions without filter, and we have to focus intensely to get anything done at all. As we age, our brains naturally become more ordered. Skills and activities that were so hard, like balance while walking, go on autopilot. This progression toward order goes on until we die.

Psychedelics inject a massive dose of entropy and neuroplasticity into our minds. Because of the lack of entropy in older minds, psychedelics are incredibly helpful toward restoring a healthy mind balance. They keep you creative, break addictions, and disrupt compulsive behavior.

When a young person does psychedelics, it introduces entropy into a rather already-entropic mind. The benefits are not as stark, and the drawbacks are more pronounced, as they descend further into entropy. Deep entropy can induce euphoric and creative states, so it is attractive to many young people.

Once again, I apologize for the distillation of neuroscience into such simplistic terms and metaphors, but I think you get the point. Psychedelics are best experienced in middle age and beyond, or when you've established enough order in your mind.
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Very well put 🙏
 
Panpsychic said:
So how have you found your use, and your integration of psychedelics has changed as you have gotten older, if indeed it has?
How have those of you who still use them regularly incorporated them into a psychedelic life as you age? How have they influenced and continue to influence your perspective on life itself as time has passed?
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I'm 35 and have been using psychedelics since I was about 19/20.

Back in college, I'd go very deep (7g of mushrooms or more). While epic and meaningful and fulfilling, the insights are hard to consciously remember. They're just a part of me now. However, nowadays, I do psychedelics a great deal more, but my journeys have been milder overall. This is somewhat on purpose. For one, I don't feel like I handle deep dives as well as in my youth, perhaps because my prefrontal cortex fully developed. I also rarely do psychedelics "recreationally" or with others. It's often for meditation and even in those times where I choose to watch movies or play video games, It's often in solitude. It's a little harder to go as deep when solo (though I've had some heavy dosed solo mushroom trips in my 20s which made me fall in love with solo tripping, despite some self loathing.

This could be due to lighter journeys, but I integrate faster. It could be part of the developed skillset as well. I've been feeling the inclination for deeper dives again, so we'll see how my integration progress goes with those.

As a regular user, they help me get by. The world has a lot of brutal aspects. Psychedelics help me to be able to be with that and be resilient to it as well as to be able to see the beauty in the mystery of life. It's a nice constant reminder. As a philosopher, psychedelics also help keep me in that vein of deep and critical thought and "fundamentals" of our ideas and concepts about a variety of things, as well as going beyond that. They help me work on myself and my mental health as well as the totality of my being.

One love
 
I’m 43 and have only begun on my psychedelic journey, well, kind of.
After about 6 years of study I finally was found by a flush of Gymnopilus that took me to the place I had been seeking for so long. That was just over 6 months ago.


I found that the journey toward psychedelics, to be honest, has been just as important as the Psychedelics themselves.
The path has taught me how to make sense of myself. To comprehend my cycles and predict my emotional landscape in order to hone my actions in the most efficient way possible.
It has also taught me how to be open and honest with my loved ones about this medicine I hold so dear.
- Something I have always struggled with, specifically with cannabis, which has for the most part, always given me deep insights into myself and the world. I’ve always been the deeply spiritual Alan Watts kinda guy.
In tripping for the very first time I learned how to dive deep into the machine and understand its workings, learning how to make adjustments for the benefit in sober life.

I trip once a month under the full moon as well as solstices and equinoxes. I’ve learned that my internal landscape is intricately tied to the shifts of lunar/ solar energies.
These points are times for me to assess and amend whatever may surface- In order to be the best I can be for myself and my family.
Being on the on the witchy/druid end of things (though not classically) it’s deeply meaningful that I have found the medicine so far, straight from the earth.
Mushrooms and tobacco have both found me when the time was right.
Learing to grow other entheogens like cacti, mushrooms, tobacco, datura, cannabis, phalaris and psychotria have also taught me patience, planning and “long gaming it”.
Structure is something I never had growing up.
 
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