The two week limit

[Mr.Peabody]

I have been using various entheogens for a few years now. I have gone through many phases, including recreation, excitement, fear, spiritual, personal growth, and others. Each phase seems to have a fairly permanent fixture in how I view tripping in general. It's like I keep cutting new facets in what once was a rough diamond.

Anyway, something has been bothering me, as of late. I have made some real breakthroughs as far as becoming who I want to be. I have a clear goal of how I want to see myself and how I want to behave, and I think entheogens (mushrooms especially) have helped me greatly with this.

The thing I have noticed is that the real changes I like in myself seem to last about two weeks. The more I have observed it, the more it seems clear. Two weeks is the limit, and then my "old" self comes creeping back in. I believe I read a post from another person who noticed the same thing about them self.

So what should I do? One thing I have taken to heart is that there is no magic pill. While tripping is a very powerful tool, it will not magically change someone. One must want to change. One must be willing to put in the effort and sacrifice as needed in order to achieve their goal.

So maybe I am supposed to consciously hold on to the changes? I wonder if I should recognize them, and make a conscious effort to keep them. It's as if I'm being shown how to be, and being told, "Ok, it's up to you now. You're on your own."

Or, maybe I should just make sure to go on a trip every two weeks? I think I could live with that, but my life schedule really doesn't allow for it.

So, I guess I would just like to hear what others have to say about this. Does anyone else have this same two week limit? Does anyone have any valuable insight to share?

 

[cosmic butterfly]

hey mate, i also notice not after long back to my "normal" self, how long depending on the substance and lifestyle, but its natural, we are all victims of the same condition. i think theres also things u dont notice about yourself that change. Like few times people would tell me things that changed about myself long after a journey that i was completely unaware of. could b big or small like perception as u noted n we are all a sum of our experiences so more experience=more change. But i often notice in people these changes are not always for the good, y cant express enough the power n importance of intent. if theres things u learn on a journey that you should work on ofcourse best not to ignore that knowledge and integrate put it to good use, since indeed some changes u need n need to maintain take work n disapline

 

[DeDao]

It would be easy to make the decision to trip every 2 weeks. Some people can manage that. I am not one of them.

If I were you, I would see how much further I can push that "enlightened mind set" after the two weeks. Maybe the first time you only make it 2 days. Then the next time you make it to 3 weeks. Try to be conscious of the differences in your being and actions between the two states. Try to actively be that better version of yourself and don't rely so heavily on the psychedelics every time you act human.

:thumb_up:

I am glad psychedelics help to better you, as they do me.

 

[Infundibulum]

"yeah I should try to be less of an asshole..."

2 weeks later:

"damn I am that asshole again"

Maybe you should change your life in some (maybe radical?) way within these two weeks of epiphany so that when you get back to your "normal" you, the denominator is significantly different?.

What you say sounds like you paid enough attention to remember the lecture few hours past its end, but then you remember nothing at term exams? Can't sound right. If you take psychedelics in the context of personal development, don't you ought to take better notes?
Otherwise, what you describe sounds like you have a 2 weeks of "good-feel" afterglow (without you actually changing anything in you) and when the afterglow ends you just notice your asshole self from whose presence you were just distracted all that time.

 

[Mustelid]

Perhaps you could try to use psychedelics as a tool along with some self practiced Cognititive Behavioral Therapy.

The gist of this therapy is that we are partially products of our environment, but we can change, and our thoughts affect our mood.

You identify behavioral triggers and modify your reactions to them.

An idea would be to log what thoughts you have in a certain situation, like when dealing with a rude person. Compare your journal just after dosing and later, and decide what thoughts you would rather have after each trigger, and practice the thoughts you would prefer.

I'm not really scratching the surface, but there are a lot of books on the subjects, and internet resources as well.

 

[jamie]

life is like an endless river of metaprogramming..I trip every 2 weeks, often once a week..because while some aspects of my experiences have changed me for life reguardless of how much I do this kind of work, there is still the other world out there that impacts my head and it is unavoidable.

It is good to keep your head in check. You can also stay grounded in the world out here as well this way instead of trying to go live off in a monastary as a monk or something. Psychedelic medicines are great this way.

It would be hard for me to eat mushrooms or cacti that often though. Maybe ever 2 weeks but in reality it is less. DMT is ideal for this, for me.

 

[Jin]

personally my limit is 20 days ,

i still have no idea what to do about it , i trip once every month to keep evolving slowly , i have other times tripped literally for months , yet that was just insane , now i trip just once a month , very healing for me

 

[nexalizer]

I've noticed the same.

What helps for me:

- Writing during the trip (or if too hardcore, immediately after); nothing captures the emotions/mindstate better than that. Hopefully it will still make sense when sober.

- Review notes that night / next morning

- Begin changing now. Not in a few hours, not tomorrow, not next week. Start applying the lessons right now. When it's a trip with lessons and insights, I get the afterglow. By trial and error I found that unless I start applying/moving towards the ideal right away, it fades, and the afterglow fades. If starting right away though, by the time the afterglow is gone the process of changing is already in place and a habit being formed, so it's easier to keep on doing that.


I'm presently experimenting with a low-dose trip every other week or so do reinforce even more, but the above by itself has done wonders for me.

 

[hixidom]

nexalizer had some good advice about changing NOW.

What I find helps is to figure out how personality changes induced by psychedelics should manifest as behavioral changes. If nothing changes but your mindset, then the actual changes to your life are not very concrete and can easily be overthrown. If you feel that your personality or attitude has actually changed, then you should think very hard about what types of changes in physical behavior these changes in identity should result in, and then try every day to carry out those physical changes.

It may seem rather backward to say that one should change their physical actions before their mindset can change, but such is the nature of identity. Who we are is anchored in the physical world. If you do not change your behaviors and start building new physical habits around your newly-realized identity (as nexalizer recommended), then the changes in identity will fade. Who we are is wrapped up in our actions, and changes in one must result in corresponding changes in the other, in my experience, for either to hold.

 

[Guyomech]

Make a major piece of art during that two weeks.

 

[Mr.Peabody]

Wow.

It's times like this that make it so apparent just what a great site, and what a great group of people this is.

Thank you all, so much!

This sounds about right:

"yeah I should try to be less of an asshole..."

2 weeks later:

"damn I am that asshole again"

Maybe you should change your life in some (maybe radical?) way within these two weeks of epiphany so that when you get back to your "normal" you, the denominator is significantly different?.

What you say sounds like you paid enough attention to remember the lecture few hours past its end, but then you remember nothing at term exams? Can't sound right. If you take psychedelics in the context of personal development, don't you ought to take better notes?
Otherwise, what you describe sounds like you have a 2 weeks of "good-feel" afterglow (without you actually changing anything in you) and when the afterglow ends you just notice your asshole self from whose presence you were just distracted all that time.

So I think I'll counter it with this:

- Writing during the trip (or if too hardcore, immediately after); nothing captures the emotions/mindstate better than that. Hopefully it will still make sense when sober.

- Review notes that night / next morning

- Begin changing now. Not in a few hours, not tomorrow, not next week. Start applying the lessons right now. When it's a trip with lessons and insights, I get the afterglow. By trial and error I found that unless I start applying/moving towards the ideal right away, it fades, and the afterglow fades. If starting right away though, by the time the afterglow is gone the process of changing is already in place and a habit being formed, so it's easier to keep on doing that.


I'm presently experimenting with a low-dose trip every other week or so do reinforce even more, but the above by itself has done wonders for me.

and this:

Make a major piece of art during that two weeks.

And don't think that if I didn't directly quote a response that I didn't like it. I agree with everything here, so far. There's so much awesome advice here!

One of the tough things I've found is being dragged back down by life. I know I won't always be at my best when I've got a lot going on, but I want to be better. It's easy to be good when everything is going fine, but to be good when things are tough is a different story.

I guess my goal is to just be a stronger person. I have a bit of weakness in me I have been trying to defeat, but man is it tough! Even with the tool of psychedelics, changing oneself is a monumental task.

 

[tango]

Epiphanies don't last. You can be miraculously saved from sure death today, and in a couple of weeks you'll start noticing again the traffic and the barking dog across the street, get annoyed, and forget all about the miracle of being alive.

As for holding on to those moments of what appears to be clarity, I don't know if you can do that (taking advantage of them by implementing big changes in your life may also backfire). Maybe just try not to have much of an agenda, and also don't count the days until the magic expires ))

The past experiences that shaped you into the person you are today (your regular self) won't just go away, but what you can do is revisit them every time you have an insight; eventually, you may be able to free yourself from the unwanted influences, so that the new perspective will stick.

 

[Parshvik Chintan]

i have found that after many experiences, my mind is more open to an entheogenic experience without the ingestion of any substance.
these i feel the need for quite frequently.

while my "molecule-facilitated" trips remain still fairly infrequent (once or twice every 3 months at most).

it can be hard to permanently integrate these experiences, but more and more i find myself being aware of how ludicrous i am, when i act inappropriately.

i like to think this is improvement.

 

[Guyomech]

The suggestion of writing during the trip has its merits. You can ramble in great eloquent tracts during the late comedown... Sometimes once it starts its hard to turn off. But writing during a significant peak is another story entirely.

For starters, if pen and paper aren't immediately handy, it probably won't happen. And the goal isn't to give detailed narration- you'll find that essentially impossible. But here's what's happened to me, more than a few times.

I'll be laying there on the couch or whatever, tripping out. And then it hits me: a phrase, or a sentence, or a short statement. Something specific and universal. A piece if truth, relative to my own personal perspective. Something I need, part of the understanding I lack. So I'll grab the pen and paper, scramble to turn on the light. Then I'll start writing. It's a different variation on my usual handwriting, a signature slant that when I see it later I know, Ah yes, wrote that on the fry.

The first part of the sentence goes easily enough, but as I get past the halfway mark my mind is trying to veer off in eleven different directions at once. By the end it's taken a lot of focus not to lose the last few words along with the original thought.

Once that thought, that specific linguistic key, has been committed to a physical medium (writing in my sketchbook), I feel that it's changed me in some real way each time.

 

[Michal_R]

There have been some good ideas in this thread.

I also like to write on a come-down, I always make sure I have something to write / draw on. A good method is also to have a voice recorder at hand, and just record your thoughts if you feel like to (sometimes I am still not able to write, yet I can already speak). Some of the better recording machines can be activated by voice without any necessity to turn them on.

Once I "talked" during the whole Mushroom trip, which was, retroactively, "guided" by my voice... it was a very interesting and strange experience, especially when I realised that it´s not really "me" who´s talking :? After that experience I went back to T.McKenna and re-listened to what he had to say about the "voice" and its role in the psychedelic Mushroom experience.

-------------------------------

And yes, my "limit" has also been around 2 weeks. Sometimes longer, sometimes shorter; depending among other things on the intensity of the last trip, on my willingness/ability to work on myself etc...

 

[Mr.Peabody]

It's a different variation on my usual handwriting, a signature slant that when I see it later I know, Ah yes, wrote that on the fry.

Is exactly what I noticed. I have done this once before, and I noticed my handwriting was write different. A little more aesthetically pleasing, in a more wacky sort of way. Very interesting.

And now that I think about it, I also had this happen:

Once that thought, that specific linguistic key, has been committed to a physical medium (writing in my sketchbook), I feel that it's changed me in some real way each time.

So what the hell, me? Why did I not keep writing during trips? The time I did this has left a solid mark on me, too. I even remember off the top of my head what it was about. It was when I fully realized anything worth doing will require serious work and dedication. Obvious knowledge, yes, but a major breakthrough for me nonetheless. It's something I've reminded myself of most days ever since.

I'm definitely using a notepad while tripping again.