Triumphant Return From the Prox System (introduction essay)

[Palmer Eldritch]

Hello fellow travelers, I am Palmer Eldritch. You may have heard about me. Philip K Dick wrote a biography about my influence in the world upon my return from the Prox System. I encourage you to read it. It explores drug use and the nature of reality. One might think the substance I brought back from Prox could be quite similar to the spice.

A little more about me: I first explored the Prox System some 15 years ago when I learned of the spice and its properties that allow space travel. Since then, I've been on many journeys. My experiences with the spice and similar substances brought me to the Nexus many times. I've plundered the vaults for the precious knowledge, but only now am I joining the the first time.

I'm preparing to (possibly) take my final journey and wanted to share my experiences with the community here that's already given me so much. I have metastatic kidney cancer. Very low possibility of cure. Extremely poor prognosis, average survival is just a couple years. But I feel fine right now. Don't even have any symptoms. I'm not pessimistic about the reality of this disease. Just accepting of whatever is.

While this is only one part of who I am, I share this thoughtfully to provide context for my presence here. I'm not looking for sympathy or pity. Just want to connect with fellow travelers as I prepare for whatever the future holds and an eventual final departure, whether in two years or twenty.

Thanks for taking the time to read my introduction, and I look forward to learning more about you all as well.

 

[Pandora]

Palmer Eldritch,

Welcome to the Nexus. I'm so glad you decided to finally sign up.

That's a difficult diagnosis you're dealing with and I applaud your bravery for sharing your situation and thoughts with us. I am very happy to hear you are not currently suffering from it.

Our culture works hard to deny the fact that death is always just a potential breath away for any and all of us.

I think for those of us who are very thoughtful people as we get closer to that final day we find ourselves even more contemplative and trying to get close to the things that really matter.

Are you aware of the work being done at John Hopkins? They are administering psilocybin to people who are dealing with end of life diagnoses and they have developed a system some of which they have shared online for literally guiding people into mystical experience. They are having amazing results.

I do hope you will choose to be an active member of this community. Maybe check the chat out once in a while.

Again a warm welcome to you.

 

[Palmer Eldritch]

Thanks for the warm welcome Pandora. Thankfully, I feel like I was probably more prepared than most having spent most of my adult life exploring psychedelics and having a different frame of reference from most people. I feel more curious than afraid of death, but obviously not trying to speed up that process lol.

I had heard a little about the psilocybin research. There's a Netflix documentary about psychedelics I watched recently and they referenced that study. Had a little old lady with stomach cancer who enrolled in the trial and talked about her experiences. I wasn't aware that it was an ongoing study; I was unable to find it on clinicaltrials.gov. I'll have to dig a little deeper perhaps. In the meantime, I've got plenty of spice and hopefully some cactus extract soon.