By “before blast off” I assume you mean immediately prior to breakthrough and not prior to ingestion/smoking. (If you’re seeing bejeweled alcoves and dancing aliens prior to smoking, then maybe you need a break!
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Most of the time, my entire field of vision is filled with a “thing” that has the texture of a cloud or smoke, but whose surface is incredibly detailed. This “thing” seems to have immense intelligence, so I guess I can properly call it an entity. It approaches me, moves closer and closer to me, and as it does, I can see more and more of the detail on its surface. It is in constant motion, billowing like smoke, and its color often is a good indicator of the type of experience I’m about to have.
Once it reaches me, one of several things can happen:
On rare occasions, it passes through me and “into” me. There is a kind of “transformative merging” which leaves me with an incredible euphoric feeling, but this feeling isn’t exactly euphoria. It is a feeling I’ve never experienced in ordinary life – it is very alien. The cloud is often shades of deep red when this happens, and the breakthrough is often very deep and spiritual.
On many occasions, the “cloud” passes through me without forming any kind of connection. The color is also usually red, so I don’t know if a “connection” will form or not until it passes through me.
On some very rare occasions, when the “cloud” reaches me it does not pass through because it is solid. It slowly comes into contact with me (it is a very tactile experience) and continues to move forward. It begins to crush me, but there is no pain. As it is crushing me, I can feel both my body and my mind/ego fade out of existence (no pain, but not a pleasant feeling at all). At some point, I eventually black out, and when I regain awareness I have already broken through. The color of the “cloud” in this case is usually blue or grey, so when I see a blue/grey cloud approaching, there is often some anxiety that I must deal with. This kind of experience is the closest I’ve felt to what I imagine it feels like to know you’re about to die.
On very rare occasions (maybe 2 or 3 out of hundreds), the cloud was bright orange, and moving very rapidly toward me. When this happens, I know I’m in for a rough ride. My last thought before it passes through me is “oh no! what have I done?!” These have been very difficult experiences.
In all cases, once the “cloud entity” passes through me, the journey begins.