Cohesion. There was a nifty definition. “Physics The intermolecular attraction by which the elements of a body are held together”. No, no, more to do with a description. Or something. Was it important, having to do with reality at all. Is it what the body does; something it does very well, it makes sense of nonsense. Is everything nonsense. Are you just the eye in a cyclone, something around which molecules can structure themselves like so much debris…



I’m not sure I got it, that book Valis by Philip K. Dick, maybe it’s about not getting it. Not getting what. There’s this thing about what reality is, is it what it is. I mean generally speaking, people seem to have got it down pat. Apparently we actually haven’t got it down pat at all. What happened to Philip and what he writes about in Valis kind of has to do with that. But I got that. Maybe what I didn’t get was what all the hype was about. Was there hype. Did someone say the book was worth a read. Worth reading or worth buying. Well, it’s available online, pretty much for free, I guess it’s worth a read if you have the time.



There were a couple of lines I enjoyed to read, like “What we have here is a Zen paradox. That which makes no sense makes the most sense.”. Maybe the uncertain bit involves whether it dented my worldview at all, or gave me enough to go on so as to prove a useful guide in the event of finding myself in a similar dilemma, or even being in hot pursuit of warping that deceptive reassurance inherent to our physical (or physiological) composure; that which pertains to just what constitutes reality. I know, I know, thems exist that might wonder why you might want to mess with that. It has something to do with not being satisfied with it, feeling it probably interferes with learning anything constructive about that which is “beyond” here.



It would make sense that a default reality construct would be one that most resonates with physical (or physiological) survival. Of course “beyond” here is not the realm of physical (or physiological) survival. That might be “why you might want to mess with that.”. Sure thems exist that feel the tools they employ to navigate reality being as successful as they are entail being adequately equipped to deal with anything beyond here. For others this logic might be a bit faulty.



Maybe the issue is not that a default reality construct is merely that, a default, implying it is something that can be changed, improved upon maybe. Maybe the issue is a limited perception of what can be gained from that, even if it involves any progress made learning anything about that which is beyond here, beyond life. Not enough can be gained from learning about that, to warrant messing around with how you perceive the universe works.



“prove a useful guide” Valis did not. In a way I get the feeling the hype about it is not from it being a really fantastic piece of literature, or that the “science-fiction” like concepts in it (if that is what they are) are so awesomely mind boggling, neither that the storyline or plot are complex or deeply satisfying. Maybe it’s more to do with the semi-realness of the events and in being real, are quite incredible. I didn’t feel particularly persuaded though, of any massive impression these events left on Philip, it felt like it was partially left up to me to feel as impressed.



There’s enough in the book to be intrigued though, enough to create a bit of curiosity about the other books Philip wrote, the other two books in particular which apparently make up a Valis trilogy. Or to do some mucking about on the internet, find a bunch of stuff to flesh out the book, flesh out the author. You might stumble on some kind of link to another two people this way, being Robert Anton Wilson and John C. Lilly. I picked up Roberts Cosmic Trigger after Valis, and so far it seems to feel like a bit more of a rewarding read.

I guess a continuation… smoking powdered Amanita with plain leaf Salvia, and it’s impact on dreaming. Too early I guess to proclaim being over the moon with results at this stage, but as much as I can be allowed to feel it, that’s how I feel. A tentative validation is in receiving the same response from B. Having smoked the blend about five times now over two or three weeks, there have been a few remarkable dreams, and a generally improved ability at dream recollection. Dreams seem to be having a different kind of atmosphere as well, weirder, but not off the wall weird.



I had an experience last night that convinced me of the potential of this blend, it will be interesting to see where this goes going forward. It started off with me sort of returning to consciousness after having been asleep, and not quite allowing myself to return completely, to remain sort of detached and relaxed, floating in a kind of reverie. To help with this I focused on my breath for a while. After focusing on it for a while I was able to kind of induce a kind of feeling of my body, a not feeling it feeling, as if it were not there. There was something about breathing in a way that made it feel like the body did not exist.



At some point I was in a dream that did not feel like a dream. Like whatever it was I was doing was being done in that place as if it was reality. What I was trying to do there was similar to what I was doing in reality proper. Trying to induce an exit from myself; astral project. The environment there was similar to here, I was in bed sleeping next to B, but not in a house like we are in now, it was more like an apartment on an elevated floor in some kind of residential building.



There was something going on there, some kind of situation, I could here a song playing, Whitney Houston maybe, I wanted it softer or turned off altogether because I found it distracting. Also something to do with the power being off, I had a sense of candlelight coming from the window of another apartment. And also, at some point the memory of trying to switch the lights on and them not working.



In my dream bed trying to exit from my body by feeling it levitate I realize I am levitating, and think this is not right, the exit I desire is not meant to result in a physical levitation. I kind of float back down and try again but this time to feel something inside of me levitate instead of doing it in “reality”. There is something going on about heavy breathing, maybe worried that it will disturb B’s sleep, and feeling reassured because she seems to be breathing heavily as well.



It does happen, I can feel a separation, something inside of me floating outside of my dream body. Because I am lying on my back it is the opposite wall that is the floor and I can see it a few meters beneath me. I feel really heavy, somewhere in my mind I’m thinking this has to do with close proximity, that it will feel lighter if I can get further. I wonder a bit about feeling energy and it comes, an electric feeling spreading throughout my fingertips, hands maybe. Maybe I am processing too much information because I start to feel myself returning to consciousness, and so I remember what was just happening.



Afterwards there was a bit of like a recalibration thing going on, feeling pleased at what had just happened, great joy at being able to remember it all, and a sense of conviction that we had a winning formula in the blend being used. That it would only be a question of time and a bit of persistence before finally managing to learn the fine art of astral projecting. I can feel myself starting to consider what the implications of this might be.

Feels like forever since I’ve had any significant success at dream recollection. In what can best be described as something that blew up in my face, using Salvia x10 extract whilst goofed seemed to result in the exact opposite of what was sought, leaving me high and dry instead of with a dreamlife that was renewed and reinvigorated. At that point I had managed to establish frequent recollection of lackluster dreams that were missing the so-called “x factor”.



About 2 weeks ago I started to work with some Amanita we found out here. Apart from the traditional tea and drinking of urine part of it, there is talk of being able to get effects from smoking it. I smoked it on 3 occasions recently, so far the preferred preparation is to mix it in powdered form with crushed Salvia (plain leaf) in a spliff. Plain leaf Salvia by itself does not seem to produce any significant effects for me. The light burning leaf seemed to be a good choice as a carrier for the heavier burning powdered Amanita. I have yet to try making a smokeable resin from the plant material by mixing it with alcohol and evaporating.



The smoke does make me feel a bit stoned, but isn’t as intense for me as MJ is. But a possible and most welcome side effect appears to have manifested after falling asleep – impacting on my dreams/ dream recollection. Here’s a little one I had called “Significator”. (One who, or that which, signifies. In this diagram there was one significator which pressed remarkably upon our astrologer's attention. - Sir W. Scott.). I guess it’s relevant because I bought a Tarot card deck earlier that night. Well, cashed in a gift voucher really, which I got way back in February. Around about the same time as when my dream life took a nose dive…



I’m in the nature, on a hike, there’s a mountain, veld. I set up a circle for ceremony somewhere close to a large bush maybe, not quite a tree. I light up a smudge stick, creating sacred space etc. Then commence with drumming to journey. The sound of the drum goes weird, the tempo increases impossibly, I think it’s thanks to an electronic intervention or something? It starts going so fast it’s less of a tempo now, more of a droning. The smoke goes weird as well, not disappearing, it creates a mist that envelopes everything. I’m dancing now (well, sort of) in my circle, the native American Indian chants from one of those Sacred Spirit cd tracks fills my ears.



Sound is something that gets messed with when you smoke this stuff.



I can hear voices now, people approaching. I start to gather my stuff, wanting to avoid any awkward encounters. I had my smudge stick, and that which I used to beat the drum with, some third thing as well. But it’s too late, the group of people are upon me. The protective cloak of smoke has vanished, everything is alarmingly clear. I have no shirt on, I absently note that my body looks different to how it looks usually. As odd as things appear I decide to just greet them as they pass. They are young woman, American maybe, tourists. They pass and sort of double back above me, as the path sort of bends that way going forward. They stop there and marvel at something going on in the distance, a leopard is chasing two wildebeest…



At first this is an awesome spectacle to behold. Everyone is quite impressed. There doesn’t seem to be a need for fear, this does not feel like it is near. But then the buck dart towards us and before we know it they are here, with the leopard in tow, she turns on us now. The girls huddle in a group, I try herd them towards the face of a large flat rock, backs towards it we might stand a chance to fight the wild animal off. One of the girls get singled out by the large cat, she has a bit of a run in with it. I am overcome by an instinctual protective urge and intervene…



The stick I use to beat the drum with becomes a much more solid thing, an adequate weapon, quite capable of inflicting a great deal of damage. I parley with the beast, there’s a moment a look in it’s eyes seems familiar, and a moment of feeling recognition. I return it’s lunges at me with swipes at it’s muzzle with my weapon. I can see she’s getting hurt. Eventually my defense becomes an offense, and I think this continued until she was dead. No more a threat I return to the girls and check that they are alright. I hug the one that was singled out and tell her she must hike more and loose weight. It was more a lighthearted thing than demeaning.



There was something about needing to do something to respect the spirit of the deceased leopard… I woke up and felt like this was a profound dream, and grateful for whatever it was that was responsible for it. I was convinced that the experience was some kind of initiation.

Man, there’s so much to get out of the way before most people could pick up something like this. Its so weird how much of a different space a person can get themselves in compared to someone that wouldn’t get involved with this kind of stuff. A space where they couldn’t see things the same anymore like how everyone else sees them. I guess it’s a separate discussion altogether, a lengthy preamble that wouldn’t really go anywhere anyway.



There might be other better places to start if you still need to be convinced that drugs [as entheogens are controversially described in general] have any useful purpose to serve. If you’re in a situation where you find yourself needing to fight off a bunch of thoughts that balk at the idea of disturbing your safe, stable and sane understanding of how things work, then that might be a good place to start. Get yourself to a point where you can suspend disbelief, even just for a short while.



In fact, maybe that’s a good description of what this subject is all about. Recognizing how convinced you are of how things work. Recognizing how unprepared you are to shift your perceptions. Are you able to loosen them up just a bit. Can you handle turning your world (view) on it’s head. Not only is the earth not flat, it’s also not quite the right way up.



So what is there in this that someone who is prepared to take that step might find here that could be quite useful? Maybe it’s a complicated subject, and fraught with peril. It’s a strange situation sort of like when you’ve taken a drug and got to a point that you would like to make sense of your experience with it. It may have felt like it’s not quite what you were told it was, that there might actually be just a little bit more to it than getting trashed.



Sure there is the crowd that does this and feel it is what it is. Maybe even at some point feel the exercise has become a bit too disruptive. Its like you know what; this is not actually always that pleasant, in fact, its downright messed up. From there I guess theres a bunch of possibilities. You could turn to those that do subscribe to the current prevalent model of reality to help you deal with a bad habit. You could mnage to disconnect from it independently altogether. You could explore the subject a bit more and see what other have to say about it.



Fortunately there are people that have gone to the effort of making something available if you decide on this last option. Not that I think they would pretend to have all the answers, just that they might be able to provide a bit of direction. This context seems to fit best. It’s not 100% about convincing anyone that they need to take drugs, you would probably [need to?] have been doing that already. It’s also not 100% about saying here are all the answers and you need to take drugs to achieve understanding them.



No… it’s more like the answers were always there already anyway. The important thing is to understand that part of the answer requires a degree of effort on your part. That there are a variety of tools and resources available to you that can be used to help out in this process. If you feel comfortable including drugs as a tool then I guess this is the kind of book you might find quite useful.

One post about The Fountain – a movie I got the dvd of recently. I thought it touched on some pretty deep themes and from what I’ve read about it on the net, it’s meant to do just that. I think it probably deserves it’s own entry and maybe once I’ve summoned enough strength to watch it again it will get one. The other post is a couple more cents worth of thought on the Salvia videos being made available online. It’s (encouraging?) to see other people in the entheogenic community also getting bent out of shape about this issue. I would wager a guess that the people that make these videos available are mostly not the same people that you find online discussing them. They do not seem to be the same people that are trying to achieve anything with them other than trying to draw attention to themselves. In that sense, they deserve just as much attention as someone recording themselves falling off a skateboard, or being kicked in the face by a horse. Why anyone would want to watch that kind of stuff is beyond me...



Re: The Fountain movie.....

"Read about it somewhere that someone was talking about Apocalypto, I think because the common theme was Mayan. Anywhoo, looking into it a bit I decided this was a DVD I needed to get imported (it probably wouldn’t make it on the circuit here, and wouldn’t be stocked in the shops either). I watched it last night and woah, it is one seriously intense emotional movie. It seemed to contain some pretty profound insights and would help me put a face on some things that might otherwise be quite difficult to grasp.



The dude in the bubble with a tree is on some kind of journey, he might be like God or something – or a higher self of somebody, on his way to complete disintegration…? The bark of the tree he chomps is medicinal in some way (entheogenic?). It takes him to a time he was someone else, living another life, in which he had a difficult situation to deal with – the immanent death of his spouse…



Cut back to him and the tree and he needs to reassure himself that this is what he wants – to relive this experience – that he will be strong and go through with it. There are moments when he comes out of it and its too intense – he wants it to stop/ for her to leave him alone! And in the end it’s something that I think he learns to come to grips with – he lets go and is able to (enter the light…?).



The experience might be like a necessary cleansing that a soul needs to undergo before being able to move on. This could be like soul retrieval, where a part of yourself gets so traumatized “it stays behind”, leaving you a bit less complete than you could be. It would manifest in another incarnation as some kind of mental or physical aberration – karma like maybe.



This movie can have a big impact on you. I think people that are slamming it might be finding it hits a bit too close to home. That maybe they are not in a position right now where they feel very comfortable having to deal with the reality of death. That they would rather spend their money on stuff that will carry on distracting them from it? I for one am very glad I got it, and think it will come in very handy going forward on my journey."



Re: Get Salvia Videos Offline

"How many people are using Salvia with honourable intentions...? Does the number of people using her irresponsibly/ recklessly/ DISRESPECTFULLY far outweigh the rest? At this rate so it would seem. More and more I see people on the internet pointing out that entheogens ARE just another get-high quick-fix (see "Non believer that plants teach") - it re-enforces the perception. If this is the way it is maybe these things should be made illegal? What is the point of going to any effort to defend it if the majority who disrespect it stand the most to benefit?



Maybe a Friends of Responsible (Salvia) Use Society should be created which you have to be a member of before being allowed to use or buy Salvia. If you get bust not being a member you are breaking the law? If you are a member and get bust making stupid videos or being irresponsible with it then your membership gets revoked? I don't know.



What I do know is these videos are definitely getting some people upset about Salvia being legal. I got my ass whipped on someone's blog trying to defend Salvia being legal. I tried the cant let some stupid people mess it up for the some not so stupid people argument - you can find that blog on this link. (And I'm not supplying it for you guys to go there and cause trouble okay?).



Maybe when our knights in shining armour this side approach the people that post these stupid videos it can be with examples of where these videos are causing more harm than good? One thing I doubt is that they are posted with an intention to further Salvia's cause, it all just seems like adolescent attention seeking to me. A thread created here by someone that made one of these videos categorised it as "Entertainment" on youtube - not educational, started this thread with...



Quote:

Originally Posted by Carijok

I had two sitters, and they still couldn't stop me from breaking my furniture... (haw-haw)

My Salvia Trip



...? haw-haw.



Then tried proclaiming her innocence as intending to educate by stressing "the importance of having a *competent* sitter and being in an environment free of obstacles you might hurt yourself on." only once the heat got turned on (I didn't see anything about this before that). If they are meant to add value at all they really should come with some kind of commentary on what was experienced and/or what insight was gained. Okay, so that was the post making pro-Salvia videos solution, which I think is a great idea, did it get taken any further?"

My last experience with Syrian Rue left me feeling having no desire at all to dip my toes back into the water of altered states of consciousness. At least, not until I manage to make a bit of progress on the diet front, and maybe even a bit on the energy work front. This could also be from a couple of other things as well, like it being the middle of winter now and also us having a bit of an upheaval to deal with, as in having to sell the house and move to another town on the other side of the continent. It's been really weird watching as things progress on this. From it becoming a possibility, to it becoming a reality, and all the little bits in-between. There's no way we could have expected everything involved to run so smoothly especially trying to squeeze it all into such a small amount of time, and yet… It wasn’t all that long ago that B and I were saying there's no way something like this could happen, and if it did it had to be with some kind of divine intervention. One thing is for sure and that is both of us feel an increasing need to acknowledge the impact (spirit?) can have on your life.



In some aspects things have happened that are just too damn convenient, events have played out in such unlikely ways to suit us, they border on being creepy. We had thoughts in our minds of needing to put a deposit down on a new property development that would only be ready to occupy from 2010. As impossible as this might have been we found such a place which is fine, pretty close to where we are moving to. What made it unusual was it has the same name as another complex that we bought our first unit in going back 6 years. The day we applied to purchase it we got a buyer for our house - which we needed to find a buyer for before we could bother trying to apply for a bond to buy another place. We got a buyer for our house within 3 weeks of putting it on the market, which in some circles could be considered a small miracle in and of itself.



4 weeks ago we sighted an old friend (J) we hadn't seen in a while. I almost walked into his brother (B) 3 weeks ago - also an old friend. 2 weeks ago we bumped into N - also an old friend we hadn't seen in many years (5+). Then this past weekend sitting at a restaurant another old friend (G) joined us for a while. All these people we haven't seen for very long times, and we knew all of them from when we first started getting established in Johannesburg. There seemed to be little chance of seeing any of them ever again, let alone see them all in the space of a month, 2 months before we leave. When B and I chatted about it we thought maybe what's happening is things are being made so that we can get to say goodbye to all these people before we leave. B was so moved by this that after talking to G she actually broke down and cried - happy tears - something special was definitely going on. Then I got an invitation from a colleague I used to work with over 10 years ago. These people I used to work with when I first got here are arranging a reunion for next month, where I will get to see a whole bunch of people I haven't seen for a very long time - and get to say goodbye to as well - in about a month before we leave for Cape Town… weird.



I have backed off on the psychedelics for a while, but have played with MJ a couple of times. Going back a couple of weeks we got a movie called "The Fountain" in the mail. While it might be quite popular overseas it's still relatively unknown over here. From some of the stuff I read it did seem like it might be worth a watch (maybe), but nothing could have prepared me for what happened when we put it in the dvd player. So I light up a small one and check out one of the special features - Life on Ship? The dude basically goes through a mushroom cultivation tek (that I would love to have a go at doing myself), and I gather trips out on shroom tea when he sits in the lotus and meditates. The movie itself moved me to tears, and I'm not one to cry very easily. I was overwhelmed as the story unfolded, and I couldn’t believe that what I think are some pretty profound truths/ principles, could be contained in any movie, yet here it was. I am eternally grateful for the experience.



I passed the dvd on to a colleague at work, who promptly gave me two books to read (and keep!) after having watched it - Galactic Alignment and Maya Cosmogenesis by John Major Jenkins. I had had my eye on them for a while but never got a chance to order them yet - finances are taking strain, but it seems I was destined to read them one way or another and they elaborate nicely on the theme (from the dvd). At this stage half way through the one I can hardly believe some of the stuff I am reading - how important it all seems and how much sense it all makes. On a hike through the Botanical Gardens last weekend I lit up another small one, and had one of the most illuminating conversations with B about it all. In fact, it was getting so illuminating I was starting to feel like I was triqping, rather than being just a little st xx ned. In fact, with all the stuff that seems to be going on and how strange it all seems, it's starting to feel like I am triqping permanently. I am starting to think of having a bit more respect for MJ after this experience.



A while ago I read (and posted a "review" of) a book called Astrotheology and Shamanism, which basically punts (the return of) these two practices as (inevitable?) integral to the future (spiritual?) evolution of our species. It brought the subject up of it seeming like what Christianity was is based on very early traditions involving worship of the sun, moon and stars. It felt like this was more about making it evident that things are not quite what they may seem, and less about providing some kind of direction to help you pursue the subject further. I made a mental note about it and wondered where a good place to start on this might be, that is, to learn more about the worship of the sun, moon and stars. To be quite honest, all I felt was it being a bit of an anticlimax, and a bit of relief at thinking oh, so that's what it was all about then - no biggie. I mean, just how big of a deal can you make a system of belief out to be if all it is about is the position of stars and planets etc. in relation to each other? I'm not really sure you feel the impact of what this might mean from reading just Astrotheology and Shamanism.



In the books by John Major Jenkins I think you get that impact. You get to understand just how big a part (astrotheology) played in our ancient history, enough so as to make it entirely believable how derivative Christianity is. Not just that though, you get to learn what the logic is of why these things were so important. The impression I get is an entirely new impression of things beyond the physical, and it's beyond the physical I think you need to go to understand the full scope of what (astrotheology) is all about. Suddenly, whereas before, exploring the inner realms felt entirely a subject restricted to what I could achieve from a this body perspective, it's become a matter of being able to step outside myself and into the universe to learn about portals and passageways, metaphysics and perceptions. It feels like this is definitely something worth learning, and that it is definitely the right direction to go in. If I am going to journey significantly again sometime in the foreseeable future, it's going to be with a head filled with these things, and it will be outside at night, underneath all the stars, just like they did it back in the good old days...



As it is, in Cape Town we will be bunches closer to a place called Sutherland. It turns out they’ve built a massive observatory out there. Apparently it's one of the best places on this planet that you can get a decent view into outer space from.

We had a bit of snow to wake up to this morning. The last time it snowed here was in 1981.

:o|

My contribution to a thread on the entheogen.com forum - linked here. Maybe bothered with just as much to convince myself as to try convince the sceptic? Although in this particular case I don't think the source made a very solid case against the ability of entheogens to teach, at the end of the day I think more and more people are starting to point out they do not feel the same way about them as some of us do, which I guess could be construed as a bit airy-fairy. I think these opinions are a bit self serving, as in it does not make the user feel obliged to use them in any more of an honourable context other than to "party it on down dude". Perhaps this is preferable to a more noble reason because it would require time, effort and energy. And it would. Because ideally I think it would involve needing to commit to things that might encroach on an otherwise undisciplined lifestyle, needing you to commit to things like meditation, energy work, dream work, and a whole lot of reading/ learning. It might even interfere more with things like your diet, and what other substances you involve yourself with - and I would venture a guess that anyone with a use entheogens to party on down mentality are quite familiar with other non-entheogenic mind altering substances that do more harm than good. To start subscribing to a more noble approach to entheogen use would probably mean having to sacrifice these other things, and some people might not want to do that. Anyway, moving on, here is a copy of my post, #168.



Wow. Fascinating thread - thanks to all! Apologies to drag it out a bit, I just feel obliged to add my 1.98c worth!



Personally I am not very comfortable with the idea of using the teacher plants recreationally and if that was what the intention of protecting them or legalising them I think you could count me out - I would much rather be interested in making them available only for much more noble intentions. In fact I can only guess that this attitude is a pain in the ass to anyone going to the effort of trying to make them legally available. It's a sad situation that those with the least motivation stand to benefit from the efforts of someone whose life was touched by these substances enough so as to spur them into action.



As to whether its possible to gain insight into the nature of reality by using them you might instead ask if something that can provide insight into the nature of reality can also just provide an escape from reality? If you understand just how illusory reality is then perhaps an escape from it is exactly what equals exposure to the truth of it, or at least, an increased chance of an encounter with it. If you understand even just a little bit of how these things work then you must know that entheogens do not teach, so much as help you understand something you are trying to learn. In this sense where you are in your life and what you surround yourself with makes a big difference in what your experience of them might be.



If you *ask for* an escape from reality and you are inclined to just party all the time and you are just young and happy and free the odds are your experience of the teacher plants will emphasise these kinds of things. However, if you are looking at a complex situation and are putting effort into gaining an insight the odds are this might be what you manage to achieve. You do need to challenge yourself and you do need to try harder. Sitting back and just being critical of the efforts of those around you might not work. Not putting effort into it and waiting for someone to give you all the answers might not work. Expecting a teacher plant to teach you something when there is nothing you are willing to learn might not work.



Returning to the concept of reality; having to deal with death is a very real thing - just like you sitting at your computer and staring at the screen. Whether it is your own death or that of a close relative it is something that can be real. Perhaps if you found yourself at the mercy of a chemical induced addiction wanting to overcome it that is also a real thing. Another very real situation is needing to come to grips with yourself in some or other psychologically complex fashion, in fact, perhaps psychology is another language you are very interested in learning. It is intangible yet it does exist, the implications of it are that obvious. Just like we are aware that something like psychology exists is not so much from its tangibility as much as from the effects it has on reality, so too the principle might extend to spirituality. The point is, in all of these areas the effects of entheogens has been one of a very effective "teacher".



Whenever I come across a comment being made that doubts the deep impact an entheogen can make the first thing I wonder about is what that persons experience of them has been? The second thing I wonder about is what effort that person is making to help put them to some kind of constructive use? I'm not saying I have all the answers (and I hope my tone is not self-righteous or that intimidating), but I am trying to learn. Learning takes time and effort and I am prepared to make that sacrifice. My experiences so far might be as superficial and meaningless as yours, but at this stage I am quite prepared to abstain for a while from doubting or criticising their abilities, and the profound insights, the life changing experiences they have supplied to a countless number of people.



I guess at the end of the day, you get out what you put in.



In this light, some comments made on the posts in this thread:::



(post#3 by AloneNotLonely0...When using an entheogen and lets say you see an ancient woman explaining how small robots control humans and now only that you have used this plant can you be free and fully understand life. This was not an actual experience I just made it up to explain my views. Many people talk of such experiences and believe them. I can not to me it is crazy and loads of fun, but nothing more it can not be real. It is completely ridiculous to me. I have a question for those who do believe their experiences like this. How can you go on living in reality if you really believe some of your outlandish experiences and learning's as fact?)



Language can be quite a barrier sometimes. I would try interpret something like this from a personal perspective and the subconscious. The experience could make a lot of sense if you thought maybe there were impersonal things (machines) that affected how humans behave. In a sense this is what astrology is all about. If you mean on a molecular level it makes sense too - your body is full of systems and mechanisms that affect your behaviour - sometimes something *as simple as* hormones have a much bigger say in how you react to a situation, as opposed to where the intellect fits in. Coming to realise something like this whilst under the influence seems totally possible to me. The question is what are you prepared to hear? What are you prepared to believe? Is it wise to always take people so literally when they are trying to explain something?



(post#6 by Burning_Copal...but by either tilting the glass , or changing what the light is filtered through further, we can understand it differently, see it differently...)



This post reminded me of the idea of how set in a way a person can get when it comes to how they are willing to experience something. Over time it is so easy for this willingness to be restricted to some degree, depending on the effect of past experience, your upbringing and mental conditioning. These things can and do act as the stained glass that we see things through, turn an object on the other side of the glass into something that it is not. Whilst being under the influence might not necessarily help you see the candle as it truly appears (or maybe it will), it can help you to experience something differently to how you are used to. Depending on how set in your ways you were before, this flexibility could be quite refreshing - and significant enough to be construed as a valuable "lesson".



(post#9 by scyhop:per… This would support the claim that the big-bang created 4 dimensions, 3 of which we can readily observe with the naked eye, the 4th being time or gravity, I dunno, and the other six 'folded up', whatever the hell that means)



Its easy to get caught up in the idea of multiple dimensions, without really getting a handle on what that means. I found the following way of trying to understand it quite helpful, I just wish I could remember where I came across it::: 1 dimension - a point on a screen can only experience itself - it could not experience what a line does. 2 dimension - a line can experience the length of itself from end to end - two points at the same time - but it could not experience what a square does. 3 dimension - a square can experience all points at each end of the length of itself, plus each of the points at its breadth. Now consider that the experience of the square was invisible to that of the line, and that the experience of the line was invisible to that of the point, what does that mean to the square? That the experience of it is conceivable in dimension 4, but that dimension 4 is invisible to it. Would it really have been wise for the point to write off the possibility of the experience of a line, just because it could not experience it directly itself? Well, that’s what we appear to be doing where it concerns dimension 4+ in dimension 3.



(Bleh. That sounds awful I know).



(post#28 by Anima...If I had a nickel for every time I listened to some burned out hippie spew absolutely nothing whilst mentioning energy, spirits, and good vibes a dozen times in the course of some crap manifesto he came up with while tripping)



My experience with teacher plants has kind of fell short of convincing me that anything exists on this level as well. I put it down to what I was prepared to believe, and that I had a paradigm or two to shift before I could have luck with it. Lucky for me it's not just burnt out hippies into tripping that talk about energy though. Energy forms the premise of both yoga and tai-chi disciplines. Proponents of astral projection count energy as key to facilitating this practice too. Various mystic faiths all suggest a practice that increases your level and sensitivity to energy. The point is that you can subscribe to the idea of it without being considered delusional or misinformed from overexposure to entheogens. I think that most of us neglect this aspect of ourselves and write it off as beyond our control or scope of comprehension. The rest of us are just too lazy to bother with it. Are these really such good reasons to be critical of the idea of it?



(A number of posts by a number of people, on the whole plant consciousness and science thing.)



Hmmm, tricky. I think it's quite amazing that we struggle to give the rest of what constitutes life on this planet even an iota of respect considering it would not be possible for us to exist in the first place without it. To add insult to injury we are willing to draw conclusions about the rest of life around us about it's mind, body and spirit - even though we are quite prepared to admit that the tools that we measure these things with are really quite limited. The most we can say at this point is yes, physically there is a difference between us, and them. We use this difference to gather that well, in that case, it is inferior, or not capable of anything other than taking up space. Consider this, it is possible that other dimensions exists that we are inherently blind of. That life in this dimension is quite possibly merely a consequential manifestation of the workings in those other dimensions. That in those dimensions the necessary may exist for what produces the rest of life here to be considered our equal, or even better, superior to us. Now if this was the case, might not our conclusions be a tad hastily produced? I mentioned before some very real subjects that the contribution of entheogens might be considered teachers in. I think our disrespect of life around us and the environment is another good example - the adjustment of this attitude of those / some that use teacher plants could be another tangible lesson learnt that does indeed have an impact on reality.



(A number of posts by a number of people as well, on how valuable science is. Or is not.)



Science is quite valuable, and you certainly can use it to a very large degree to measure why something is the way it is or works this way because of that reason or whether the why of something is this or that because hard evidence exists to say it is so. On the other hand is it fair to deprive or limit or discredit or doubt your understanding of something that everyone is still busy trying to get to grips with, at least from a westernised mind perspective. I think the general pattern usually in these circumstances is to for this thing to be got to grips with first - let it exist first then we dissect it. Once we are much more literate in this area is when it will exist, and then might be a better time to explain it from a scientifically measurable perspective. In this sense perhaps the entheogen community are pioneers of something they can eventually help science begin to understand - one day. Lets just hope it doesn’t involve incarceration and a scalpel.



I don’t really have anything to say about the last bits involving love, except that whether it is measurable or not, I really really hope it does exist. I also really hope that in some small way, I have helped to persuade AloneNotLonely0 even just a little bit, that entheogens can and do help people to see things differently and change how they react to those things back out here in reality. In that sense that they are worthy of being deemed teacher plants.

Is it possible to achieve what needs to be achieved without guidance from mother nature? Why is it that the use of entheogens is frowned on by those punting the mystery traditions? Perhaps for this reason my opinion is swaying, or maybe it's just I can feel a new wind blowing... Cape Town beckons... In a few months I will flee from here, and embrace the arms of the mother city. It's been 14 years of landlocked overcrowding tooMUCHcrime and pollution - the fruits of privileged class competitive labour\ self-righteous snob behaviour.



In Cape Town Dream Herbs are dished up standard with every toasted cheese and tomato, the whiff of DiMiTri wafts in from every blade of grass so temptingly always within reach. Not that using them will be at all necessary...! With change comes opportunity. It's a chance for a new leaf and perhaps even synchronicity, a feeling that the coincidences are symptomatic of something much larger at play. It's this something larger the plants have managed to identify to us, and so there is more than enough to go on from here...



And so an end to my (fictitious) endeavours involving psychoactive sacraments. I feel there is something missing at this point involving them anyway. I think going forward I need to emphasise a few other things for a while - dream work, energy work, exercise and diet. I look forward to increasing the scope of what I write about here to include what is probably going to be quite a turbulent period, uprooting from Johannesburg and relocating to Cape Town. With a bit of luck the change of scenery will coincide with a different way of living, I guess at this point its a wait and see situation...

I’m not sure who deserves a bit more scorn, a bit more ridicule. I thought I would take a stand on an entry at another blog by fracas called “Have you heard about SallyD?“ that seemed pretty alarmist in its tone concerning Salvia Divinorum. As it is videos are being posted on the net of people floundering around whilst under the influence of SD. Some of these involve those of us more endowed with an infinite supply of wisdom – youngsters; teenagers; or in another word, freaking idiots. So how do you expect a parent to react when they stumble across something like this? Is it really such a big surprise that they want this stuff taken off the street? Exactly how do you defend the legal status of an entheogen, if this is what it does and this is what it is being used for?



My stand was you cant throw the baby out with the bath water - that you cant let irresponsible use by some mess it up for responsible use by others. Except, its complicated. First up, whether the use is responsible or not, is there anything anyone can hope to achieve with it that for all intents and purposes, is nothing more than a narcotic buzz? I mean, all you are doing with this stuff is messing up your body right, I mean, at least that’s all you can gather from what can be seen in these videos. So you reply that no it’s something you can use to access a mystical state, and throw in a big word like “spiritual”. Is it really surprising that this can prove to be quite a weak argument, in an age when “spiritual” is quite easily confused with “religious”. How spiritual is someone behaving when they use an entheogen to help them make America’s next funniest home video? Not very. Not to me.



The next big question is, compared to all the idiots competing for the prestigious asshole of the month award, how many people consider their involvement spiritual? It’s not rocket science to figure out on all the available forums more people seem to be using entheogens just for the hell of it. If this is the case, is fighting for legalization really worth it? It might very well be, but not for any noble cause that I might have thought of, it’s really just to get a bunch of what I would normally think of as idiots a get out of jail free. At this point I cant argue against pissed off parents, not to defend people that act like this.



On the blog I did take a stand. It was easy to point out that Salvia wasn’t really the enemy. That it isn’t fair to categorise it alongside other drugs like meth, speed and cocaine (or heroin). That for some an entheogen induced altered state seemed a more effective mystical experience than any that a bastardized religion could offer. But just as convincing is the extent of human stupidity, and the more you give them, the more stupid they get. The more I look for someone that I feel is on some kind of constructive path the more I find someone that’s involved with entheogens like it was some kind of toxic industrial cleaning agent that can make your eyes bleed and throw your body into convulsions, look mom, fried meat... As if to add insult to injury defenders of the cause that came after me on this particular entry made just as much sense as see-through coffee beans. As much as I might have been tempted to carry on trying to make sense I ran out of steam when I saw the direction it was going in. The contributions were appearing so ludicrous I was even tempted to point out they must have been fabricated as a way to validate what the author was saying, or maybe generate a bit of obvious controversy... bumping the thread etc.



At the end of the day it all seemed pretty pointless anyway. I feel like I need to put distance between this and me. I only feel obliged to put on record that no, I don’t think entheogens should be made legal. That I think people are too stupid to expect them to act responsible. That if you are under 18 or use drugs recklessly you are not welcome here. All I can do is hope that anyone that does use them ends up directing the relationship in some kind of constructive manner, one that affords entheogens the appropriate respect, one that doesn’t make the rest of us look like idiots (okay, I think I’ve used up my quota on use of that particular word). Another thing that comes into the equation is the whole spirituality thing. I got the idea from the entry and it’s comments that people can have very different ideas on what it is actually. I found it quite ironic that looking after your body is what was construed as spiritual, as opposed to messing it up with (drugs).



What people seem to forget is just because you eat something that doesn’t alter your state of consciousness – it does not mean it is good for your body. It is rich coming from someone that probably gorges themselves on fast food, that they are spiritual because they do not consume things that mess their heads up. I find that from my exposure to them, entheogens amplify my sensitivity to how much I eat and what it is I am eating. One thing is guaranteed and that is if I do eat crap before I alter my state, the resulting experience is all the more worse for it. But no, I don’t agree anyway that the emphasis in spirituality is about looking after your body, maybe just a little bit. To me it feels more like it’s about learning things that are beyond the physical, and maybe the integration of that knowledge back into day-to-day reality. Anyway, the point is that there is a lot more to it than what I think is the general perception. That it’s too easy to get caught up in the tangled web that is religion and mistake any progress with it as then being spiritual. More than this will have to be it’s own entry.



There was something on my last experience (psilocybin combined with an MAOi) that I forgot to mention and it sort of ties in with the whole what to use entheogens for argument. Being as normal as I think I am it’s not easy to start subscribing to things that are not quite all that normal, you know, all that warm and fuzzy over the top esoteric stuff. It wouldn’t be difficult for me to join in on the laughter and finger pointing of the general public at the new agey wannabe Buddhist types chanting Aum in their luxury accommodation at an exotic location. It would be easy to dismiss it all as a fad and unworthy of any further exploration. I would give it oh, say two weeks before I started to feel no benefit and too self-conscious to bother continuing. Even if I did manage to stick with it for a bit longer, how long before my practice started to feel bland and uninteresting, something I did without putting my heart into it? I put my practice together to create a framework within which I could explore entheogens. Now it feels like actually, I am using entheogens to explore that framework. My last experience left my practice feeling rejuvenated, something I was inspired to continue working with, even if on an every day basis. It was like if it was feeling a bit stale, entheogens introduced a breath of fresh air.



The rest of what I had forgotten to say involves my impression of using an MAOi with psilocybin, compared to using shrooms by themselves. Well, there could have been other factors that resulted in this, but I felt the Rue softened the experience somehow, took the edge off a bit. It made the altered state feel less erratic, none of this waves that come and go business, the state felt more consistent. Also, more visuals, intricate and colorful patterns, what felt like a more mature effect on the mind and on the eye. The dose was quite low though, or low for someone that does not seem to be all that sensitive, unless I wasn’t sensitive because I had eaten the day before. My next adventure should be this weekend, and I need to try eating less beforehand, or maybe upping the dose a bit.

I am still trying to establish why it is anyone might feel compelled to post an entry on what music they might have. In particular, why I would feel compelled to do so and whether it really pertains to the subject matter that I have emphasised in this diary. All the while at the same time whether I really need to bother with worrying about these things - probably not. In any event, the compulsion is because I really enjoy it, and who knows, you might too. Also, music can be made a very big part of psychedelic self exploration, and this stuff tends to feel especially suited to that task. So, in this post, probably the first of many, is about the following cd's that I enjoy, with extracts and links to what some other people have had to say about them:

Cell - Phonic Peace; Various - Portal of Perceptions; Various - Chilling Goddess; Puff Dragon - Sazanami & The Kumba Mela Experiment - East of the River Ganges.



For the really green and more curious amongst you, the following extract from the (ever evolving) description in Wikipedia under Psybient:::

"Psybient, also known as "ambient psy", "ambient Goa" and more commonly within the Goa/psytrance scene as "psychill", is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of psychedelic trance, ambient, world music, new age and even ethereal wave. It often has many dub influences and can also sound somewhat like glitch. Psybient pieces are often structured around the concept of creating a "sonic voyage" or "musical journey"."



Some Resources:::

Psymag; their Chillout Releases Archive has the most comprehensive listing of psychill i've ever seen. Release notes are attached to each release.

PKS/ chilltriberecords; writes a lot of reviews - available @ Discogs. Discogs is a nifty site that you can use to keep track of what cd's you have and/or want etc.

Psyshop; well, is actually a shop. World and Chillout music available from here. They ship quite fast internationally and accept credit cards etc.

MORPHEUS; the reviews you find here are quite surreal, they tend to limit themselves to the more ambient/ downbeat.

DeathPosture; writes an awful lot of reviews. This is a link to his blog which has links to all the reviews he's written. Check him out @ Discogs as well. DP normally review a cd track for track which is quite helpful.

Psynews; forums on all things psy, cd reviews by year released.

PSYREVIEWS; should speak for itself. Their reviews are quite... colourful, mostly involve psytrance releases.

Last.fm; somewhere that you can listen to this kind of music on an audiostream.

Isratrance; also forums on all things psy, cd reviews by most recent post, interesting to watch people fight with promoters when crap cd's get good reviews.

IDSpiral; get your psychill here if Psyshop don't stock it, the shop is just a part of it though - IDS presents a few variations on the theme... "A journey to the core of chill is as much a journey to the core of each and every one of us in the minds of the creators behind IDSpiral.



Chill, however, is not simply relating to a moment of relaxation, much rather it refers to a deeply insightful place of reflection and realization, a space we too often go amiss in the western world, governed by fast fading desires and the breathless pursuit of our wants.".

Cell - Phonic Peace I was impressed by Cell who appeared on a compilation called A Magical Journey. Phonic Peace really has its moments and the last track "Orange" is one of my all time favourites. I thought the PSYREVIEWS review was a bit harsh and if "the much cleverer and more rewarding stuff out there than this" is the likes of Gaudi or Blumenkraft I would not be convinced - this sounds like an entirely different style compared to their output. To be sure there is plenty of foreign vocal warbling and an excessive amount of tabla, but this is quite distinct from track to track. The 4/4 track - White Call - is not really that impressive, but not so bad as to give the cd a 3/10. From "PKS" @ Discogs::: "Track 5 goes even deeper and more mystic. Here we get some down tempo beats and a quite dark sound picture. Still, totally relaxing, with flute sounds, ethnic voices etc. Track 6 has the sound of water, an owl, flute, tribal drums and deep, floating vibes. Some of you will probably recognise the flute in this one from other tracks. Very tribal, beautiful track that will do good in the chill out areas this summer. Track 7 takes another direction. This one has a very atmospheric vibe, and it builds up to a stumping trance track. Still it is very relaxing. Chill out you can dance to... Track 8 slows down again, and we get a beautiful floating journey with a really nice, little melody, which Cell has proven several times that he is really good at. The last track on this album is also one of the most beautiful chill out tracks I have heard by this guy. The Indian vocals are melancholic, and we get som breaks and a totally relaxing melody." Promotional Text taken from @ Psyshop::: "Indica Music presents the first long awaited album from Cell, aka Alex Scheffer. With many tracks already released on top ambient compilations from recognized labels, he's one of the most talked about chill out artists in the scene nowadays.We can describe his music as a mixture of acoustical instruments and ethnical rhythms with electronic beats and digital loops." Review taken from PSYREVIEWS::: "While the whole chilled-psychedelia market is kind of saturated at the moment, stuff has to distance itself by being very different (Gaudi, for instance, or Chilling Matenda, or even Blumenkraft in its day) or by being very good as a package (the Floating Point and Mountain High records for starters.) Whether Phonic Peace will do it for you generally depends on your tolerance for sampled peasants wailing and tablas. Yes, it’s hippy chill alright. It works best on Lord Of Silk, which actually progresses into a decent tune in and of itself, rather than disappearing into sample-CD-heavy ‘authentic’ instrumentation. But for the rest of it, it’s repetitive and self-indulgent, with identical themes and sounds cropping up all over the place. This whole thing of bringing eastern sounds into music isn’t big and it isn’t clever; the Beatles were at it forty odd years ago, it was almost shit then and it’s definitely shit now. Cell’s stab at 4-4 (White Call) is shambolic and sounds like something Roy Aquarius did in 1997, and while the deeper chill tunes may be immaculately-produced and sound amazing in the small stoned hours (Phonic Peace For Tibet, Magic Karma) you can’t help but feel a little patronised by it all. Why are we being doled out this National Geographic musical orientalism? Are you preaching to me? Are you coming over all Baraka on my ass? Nine tracks of tabla’s and wailing with a variety of different beats whacked underneath them. There’s much cleverer and more rewarding stuff out there than this. 3" Review taken from MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS::: "Tracks interfade creating a flowing whole where the mood is consistently Asian but always evolving with new shades and fresh nuances. Classical male Indian singers and chimes interlace cutting edge programming and production. Crystalline arps and crisp beats accompany lush flutes and tablas - electronic drones and pulsing basslines lurking beneath. Cell presents a softer side on Phonic Peace than you may have heard on a number of previous compilations and this is very welcome. The final track 'Orange' is one of my favourites where flickering d'n'b loops creep imperceptibly in over a bed of chilled melodic electronics and the semi-classical voice of Meena; building in intensity hurried tablas keep pace all the while until the concluding dissipation when the lazy pace of the opening returns once more." From "BrettFromTibet" @ Isratrance::: ""Phonic Peace" takes us on a holographic carpet ride from North Africa to Tibet via the Middle East and India. The mystic moods and sensual atmospheres that are evoked during this journey feel even richer than the ones on French ambient classics such as Saffi Brothers’ "Mystic Cigarettes" or Toires’s "Qued". The mastering on this disc is absolutely perfect. It comes out of the speakers so crystalline clear, warm, and vast -- it feels easier for me to ‘‘disappear inside’’ than any other music in my collection. I highly recommend listening to this during a sophisticated chill-out session, yoga, or meditation. Cell’s music does more than just give me great pleasure when I listen to it. There is a rare quality to this album that is both other-worldly and soothing; it actually liberates me on a spiritual level. I feel deeply inspired, comforted and completely unafraid of life whenever this is playing on my headphones or Hi-Fi. It’s as if these sounds are a glimpse into an ethereal paradise that I am eventually destined for. Just listen deeply enough, and you too will experience this glorious state of "Phonic Peace."

Various - Portal of Perceptions I was lucky enough to pick this one up locally - Psyshop never seemed to get it in stock. It gets two big thumbs up from me - if you stumble across it be sure to pick it up. Promotional Text taken from @ Psyshop::: "Compiled By Pete Pan and Wabi with a gentle mix by Aes Dana. Just relax and let Celestial Dragon take you on a journey through the various styles of modern chillout mastery." Review taken from PSYREVIEWS::: "There’s something very different about this album, it manages to get a journey from start to finish and it manages it well. All the bases are covered, and the flow from each tune into the other is impressive, making this a worthy investigation for late night laid back herbalism. 8"

Various - Chilling Goddess Peak Records put out an interesting psytrance compilation cd called Peaking in Tongues. I was so taken by it that I decided to try their chillout compilation. I was quite happy that I did. Last week I got their more recent release Chillogram, and at this stage it seems to have been an even better buy. From "PKS" @ Discogs::: "There are mostly quite unknown artists on this compilation, but first out is an artist that most people who follows the chill out marked these days should know about, Aes Dana (Vincent Villuis) from France. Aes Dana has released several strong albums on Ultimae Records, but here he gives us a new, fresh floating track. Totally chilled abient with some whispering voice samples. Track 2 is by a new artist called Astral Waves from the US. Here we get Asian vibes, with some sitar, chilled drums and some praying vocals. Nice and ethnic. Track 3 is by another fresh artist called Capsula (Yosi Shamay). Here we get some relaxing guitar vibes, chilled beats and some nice psychedelic swirling sounds. Track 4 is by the compiler himself, Master Margherita (Moreno Antognini). Here we get several humming vocals and some guitar. Mystic vibes all the way through. Then we get a track by an artist who has a pretty cool name called Lucid Picnic (Serhan Berberoglu). Here we go even deeper into mystic vibes. This one sounds a bit darker, mostly floating all the way through. Track 6 is by a guy who is getting a very good reputation for his chill out tracks these days, Cell (Alexandre Scheffer) from France, here in a collaboration with someone called Kalifrogz (E. Brandy & C. Fabulet). This is a really deep track, with the sound of water, spacey sounds, relaxing down tempo beats and a beautiful melody. My favourite track on this compilation. Great one! " Promotional Text taken from @ Psyshop::: "A springtime celebration conceived by the Swiss labels crew and compiled by Master Margherita, 'Chilling Goddess' is a glimpse into the lighter side of Peak, inviting you to kick back, suspend your worries and float for a while Whether you like slow dreamy pads, that shpongly sound, the ethnic vibe or powerful chill beats, this compilation will delight you with its broad range of music and intelligent evolution. Mastered by Aes Dana, 'Chilling Goddess' is a carefully selected chill odyssey featuring well-known artists and and upcoming talents." Review taken from MORPHEUS MUSIC REVIEWS::: "Otherworldly astral chillout - dark in places, soft and caressing in others - but consistently emotive and evocative. Peak Records have put together an album that takes us on a journey through strange and foreign terrains - where unusual synth voices, tribal pulsings and rhythms, ethnic flutes and psychedelic sensibilities work together to send our imaginations reeling." From "DeathPosture" @ Psynews::: "Well, I must say that Peak Records again surprise me positively… Last years full-on compilation Peaking in Tongues was an instant smash, and now the Swiss collective have proven that they also can put together high quality chill compilations… Besides from a couple of the really dark, minimal tunes in the second quarter of this CD, I like most of the tracks here… The diversity is rich, and we get a taste of most kinds of chilled music… From dreamy beatless chill-out, over dark gloomy ambient, to trippy tribal ethno dub... A diversity that should satisfy most fans of rich chill-out music… Diversity rules! I’m really looking forward to the next chill compiliation from this magical Swiss collective to grace our ears… And I do not hesitate to recommend this to fans of chilled, mellow soundscapes… Enjoy!"

Puff Dragon - Sazanami Another release that I am really surprised never got reviewed by PKS, Morpheus, Psyreviews or DeathPosture, because it is a superb cd. It sort of reminds me a little of Cell's Phonic Peace but maybe a little more adventurous, if you need to choose between the two I would stick with this one. Promotional Text taken from Psyshop::: "This led to his new project, Puff Dragon, a more mellow, relaxed vibe that combined the crystal-clear production style that he'd picked up from trance with smokier, phatter beats and the endless echoes of dub. While still rooted in an electronic style, Puff Dragon tracks are notable for the live elements that carry the melodies, like the warm, breathy Indian vocals on 'Skin as Soft' (a remix of a Makyo track), or the ecstatic, ascending violin solo on 'Sazanami'. The album veers from the cinematic, epic rush of 'Qi Gong', all swelling strings and swooning Asian vocals, to the electro-dub echo-trip of 'Spacefunk', and the wash of electric piano and filtered breaks that closes things out on 'Shimmer'." From "abasio" @ Psynews::: "So to sum up, this is a really nice release. It's floaty and dreamy. The beats are really good throughout and each song's progression is patient. It never tries to do too much and so does so much more than some albums that try too hard. If you are a Dakini fan you will love this. If your not you might still love it. Because each song has a slow patient progression you might not like it from just hearing samples but I would recommend taking a risk if you like floating dream chill out music." From "derek" @ ethnotechno::: "For the most part Good does good. In fact, the layers of "Qi Gong" and the more techy "Chinese Radio" really explore his ambient mind, the use of Japanese stringed instruments and tricked-out flutes on the latter playing nicely within the more electronified synthesizers. He has a tougher time with "Marine Drive" and the opening "Sazanami," where beats lack significant structure, making 7-9 minutes a bit long."

The Kumba Mela Experiment - East of the River Ganges Has quite an epic feel to it this, complete with a pretty abstract initiation that feels like the begining of some kind of festival that builds up into when it finally starts to begin. Some serious dubbed out moments in an otherwise very cultural atmosphere, I like this cd a lot! The Dub Trees cd that Psyshop mentions is also a nice treat, although it seems to be a bit less accessable than this. From "bomble" @ Psynews::: "Every moment of this production is intricate and beautifully produced - there's never a 'filler moment' let alone a filler track. I caution anyone who doesn't like 1) Indian influenced music 2) Roots/dub 3) Trippy trippy samples ... that you won't like this either ! However if you like to take the journey - you like the dub trees/celtic cross albums or you just want to try something new then this is the one to get. I don't want to go into too much detail about the tracks - this review will get ridiculously long - but I really want to get across the splendour of this release as a whole. Briefly, track by track : 1) deep, mystical, eastern influenced, 2) funky, energetic & building, 3) dub & roots, blissed & tasting of Orb,4) check the Henry of Rawlinson sample probably the most amusing tune I've ever heard! 5) deep dub, full power dub trees style... oooooh!, 6) bit darker & slightly spooky - breaks & electro beats ..., 7) Indian & dub ...warm & psychedelic at the same time... total bliss !,8) crazy sample, big tough beats & trippy high frequency bits, 9) dub & roots style - sit back and sway ...,10) goodbye from Terence." Promotional Text taken from Psyshop::: "Following on from Youths acclaimed Dub Trees album of last year comes... ... the hugely anticipated 'East of the River Ganges', a sublime album of ten chilled out tracks from Youth and host of collaborators including - The Orb, Suns of Arqa, Tangerine Dream, Dreadzone and Uri Geller. Inspired by the awesome 'Kumba Mela' (the gathering of holy men that converge on the River Ganges every 4 / 12 / 64 years), the album was originally meant to be a loose soundtrack to a documentary being made on the festival." From "dimm" @ ethnotechno::: "If you're a Dub fan, you MUST have this cd. The quality of production and vision are unmatched by any other trance-dub effort to date, with only Shpongle coming close with their catalogue. Originally created as a soundtrack for a documentary about the Kumba Mela [at times the largest gathering of humans in one place at one time on the entire planet, able to be seen from outer space as a big brown dot...] the album has reached many more people than the film itself. With the vigorous pumping of hardcore basslines under ethereal ambiences, the Kumba Mela promises to take you to the actual event in your mind... as long as you hold that tab of acid on your tongue for ten more minutes before it completely dissolves...."

Linking up to various sites on the net that provide for some pretty interesting reading. As an example of the kind of stuff that you kind find there I included an extract from a page of each on The Council on Spiritual Practices, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Gnostic Media ("Astrotheology and Shamanism"), The Shroomery, The Psychedelic Library, Ego Death, the Lycaeum - Entheogenic Database & Community, Erowid & The Salvia Divinorum Research and Information Center. Enjoy!

Supplies are available from; Spirit Garden, I Am Shaman, or Ethnogens

The Council on Spiritual Practices (From "Entheogen Yoga: The Application of Yoga Meditation Techniques to the Use of Psychoactive Sacraments by Sri Brahmarishi Narad")::: "The goal of all Yoga practices is to discover and directly experience what the attention or faculty of consciousness in man is. The yogi seeks to know that principle by which all else is known. This goal is achieved by observing the observer or placing the attention on the attention itself. This may at first seem very abstract and hard to grasp in terms of practical application, but there are workable, time-proven methods for achieving this state of pure consciousness which when consistently applied and practiced are bound to yield results. It should be constantly remembered during a psychedelic session that whatever perceptions, thoughts and even hallucinations occur, they are all the creations of one's own mind and consciousness, and are filtered through one's own instrument of perception. These perceptions are patternings of our own psychic energy. We give energy to whatever thoughts and feelings we allow the attention to dwell upon. Wherever the power of attention is focused, it generates mental and emotional energy in the form of its own lower overtones, thus feeding and energizing the thoughts and emotions which the attention dwells upon. It becomes clear that the key to remaining in control of a entheogenic experience is in controlling the flow of attention. Distractive experiences can be avoided in the first place, and the flow of attention can be properly directed by the use of Raja Yoga techniques of meditation. The following is a description of several such techniques which can all be applied while under the influence of LSD, marijuana, mescaline, DMT, hashish, psilocybin or other consciousness-expanding drugs."

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) (From "Handbook for the Therapeutic Use of LSD-25")::: "The great value of LSD-25 lies in the fact that when the therapeutic situation is properly structured the patient can, and often does, within a period of hours, develop a level of self-understanding and self-acceptance which may surpass that of the average normal person. On the basis of this self-knowledge he can, with the therapist's help, clearly see the inadequacies in the value system which has underlain his previous behavior and can learn how to alter this in accordance with his altered understanding. So sweeping a claim must, upon first reading, seem like nonsense but a growing number of people have come to accept it as undeniable fact. These are the people who have tried the drug on themselves and on their patients. They are convinced that within the next two or three decades LSD-25, will be by far the most common adjunct to psychotherapy. They feel too that since the psychedelic experience can lead to a very high level of self-understanding, and since self-understanding is the key without which the doors to interpersonal, intergroup or international understanding can not be opened, its use as a catalyst in the development of better human relations will become almost universal. To reject the views of this group as being too extreme without investigating the matter seems a remarkably unscientific attitude. The fact that those who have tried it feel that it offers astonishing possibilities would, in itself, seem to be sufficient reason for a thorough testing of the claims made."

Gnostic Media ("Astrotheology and Shamanism") (From "The Pharmacratic Inquisition video")::: "The definition of Pharmacratic Inquisition Pharmaco-, a combining form meaning drug, medicine, or poison used in the formation of compound words: pharmacology, pharmacy, etc. -crat, a combining form meaning ruler, member of a ruling body, or advocate of a particular form of rule, used in the formation of compound words: autocrat; technocrat. Cf. -cracy. Inquisition, n. 1. an official investigation, esp. one of a political or religious nature, characterized by lack of regard for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the examiners, and recklessly cruel punishments. 2. any harsh, difficult, or prolonged questioning. 3. the act of inquiring; inquiry; research. 4. an investigation, or process of inquiry. 5. a judicial or official inquiry. 6. the finding of such an inquiry. 7. the document embodying the result of such inquiry. 8. (cap.) Roman Catholic Church A. a former special tribunal, engaged chiefly in combating and punishing heresy. Cf. Holy Office. B. see Spanish Inquisition. Pharmacratic Inquisition nov. verb. - The Christian persecution of archaic religions based on sacramental ingestion of entheogenic plants and the consequent personal access to ecstatic states; whose first great victory was the destruction of the Eleusinian Mysteries at the end of the fourth century; which then reached a gruesome climax in the persecution of witches in the Middle Ages; and which continues in today's Pharmacratic State in the guise of a public health 'War on Drugs.' 1994 Ott Ayahuasca Analogues, 12. May the Entheogenic Reformation prevail over the Pharmacratic Inquisition, leading to the spiritual rebirth of humankind at Our Lady Gæa's breasts, from which may ever copiously flow the amrita, the ambrosia, the ayahuasca of eternal life! Source: The Age of Entheogens & The Angel's Dictionary by Jonathan Ott"

The Shroomery (From "The Mushroom and the Synapse")::: (Chapter 5, from the book The Psilocybin Solution) "At this point, consciousness lies at the centre of our inquiry. All our paths of investigation lead directly to it. The psilocybin cultural history covered in the first few chapters of this book arose solely because of the radical change in consciousness induced by the mushroom in the Aztec and Mayan psyche. The pre-LSD events at Harvard were likewise spawned by the psilocybin-induced state of consciousness. Indeed, the whole 60's thing happened, in part, precisely because of the new ranges of conscious experience originally kick-started into existence by the mushroom. The growing second wave of psychedelic research has likewise appeared on account of the compelling nature of entheogen-inspired states of consciousness. One cannot escape the mystery of consciousness. Psilocybin simply highlights the boundless nature and mystical potential of the human mind lest we allow this fortunate state of affairs to pass us by. As I pointed out at the very outset to this book, if we are interested in apprehending the ultimate nature of the reality process then it makes sense to home in on consciousness since consciousness represents the interface which links us to the 'world out there'. If we can understand what consciousness is, then we might also understand how consciousness is able to be transformed and whether such a transformation does indeed yield bona fide insights into the subtle nature of Nature. Nothing less than reality is up for grabs."

The Psychedelic Library (portal) "The Internet's most comprehensive resource for the literature of psychedelic drugs. Research reports, philosophical essays, articles, and complete-text books are available both for professional research and for general interest." (From "Peyote Wisdom"; Through The Lens Of Perception by Hal Zena Bennett)::: "I moved closer to the lens. Deep inside it I saw movement. What were these shapes? I saw many images from my childhood—my brothers, the house where I'd lived during my high school years in Michigan, my parents, my first lover. I thought about how people often reported seeing their lives flash before their eyes when they were faced with death. Could this be the case? Was I near death? I looked deeper into the lens, as though I might find the answer there. I saw a cat, a powerful mountain lion. There was also a giant bird. There was a groaning cave, and a beautiful sunset over the ocean. There was a rugged trail up a mountain, and a man. I looked more closely. It was Sen. He was sleeping by the rock, his head on his knapsack. I could not figure out where he was—in the lens, or beyond it, or both?."

Ego Death "Myth describes this mystic-state experiential insight and transformation. Religious initiation teaches and causes this transformation of the self considered as a control-agent, through a series of visionary-plant sessions, interspersed with study of perennial philosophy. Most modern-era religion has been a distortion of this standard initiation system, reducing these concepts to a weak interpretation that is based in the ordinary state of consciousness. The ego death theory is, specifically, the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence, and it incorporates the entheogen theory of religion." (From ; Wasson and Allegro on the Tree of Knowledge as Amanita by Michael S. Hoffman)::: "Introduction This article summarizes the theory that visionary plants play an instrumental role within Christian origins and the Bible, and helps straighten out the citations, issues, and relationships among John Ramsbottom, Erwin Panofsky, R. Gordon Wasson, and John Allegro, to clear up many of the inaccurate assessments and characterizations regarding their views on these hypotheses. More precision has been needed about exactly which arguments or issues were mentioned by whom, and what the reasoning and argumentation was, specifically. The treatment of the views of Wasson and Allegro has been too undifferentiated and careless. Scholars of Christian history have too readily utilized the mycologist Wasson to dismiss Allegro’s theory that there was no Jesus, that the first Christians used entheogens, and that the first Christians considered Jesus to be none other than visionary plants. Wasson’s dismissal of Allegro together with mushroom trees has thus proven to be important for the study of Christian origins, the ahistoricity of Jesus, and historical Judeo-Christian use of visionary plants. This detailed treatment shows examples of pseudo-arguments in disputes about religious history, and demonstrates point-by-point critical reading of a set of arguments. Even if the reader considers the interpretation of Christian ‘mushroom trees’ in art to be trivially obvious and to need no intensive point-by-point argumentation, or is uninterested in the subject of mushrooms in religious history, there are nevertheless interesting patterns of argumentation exposed and explained here. Recognition of these argumentation patterns is useful in other potential disputes as well, including the historicity of Jesus and the authenticity of all the Pauline epistles."

the Lycaeum - Entheogenic Database & Community (From "Confronting Teonanacatl - One of my favorite reports.. - Substances: Psilocybe cubensis, Peganum harmala")::: "Getting weirder - at the exact moment I had the "Galactic drama" revelation, there was a flood of noise - cars starting up and zooming off outside, a plane passing overhead, doors banging, toilets flushing... I believe someone on this list posted similar experiences. The galactic conspiracy theater worked its way down to the waste management industry. Apparantly, this "fluid" is contained in the waste we flush down our toilets, wash down our sinks and throw in our garbage - in our urine, on our bloody tampons, on our snot and semen soaked tissues, etc. I got image after image of some giant distillery somwhere employing thousands of government workers who were combing through tons of garbage and millions of gallons of waste-water just for a precious few tiny drops of this "life fluid". It was quite creepy and yucky. Too much for my tiny ape-brain to handle. I was losing voliton. My body was becoming heavy. I was yawning more and more. More tears. More fluid. I was creeped out and starting to pass out. I stumbled to bed."

Erowid (From "PERCEPTION AND KNOWLEDGE by FRANCIS VAUGHAN from: Psychedelic Reflections")::: "The world view that made most sense of this experience was clearly a mystical one. Neither the subjective nor the objective pole of experience could encompass the totality. The possibility of transcending boundaries between self and other, the illusory nature of ego, the interdependence of opposites, the relative nature of dualism and the resolution of paradox in transcendence became clear. All mental content was simply the play or the dance of life, and what could be known about consciousness became the focus of my attention. Psychodynamic material that came into awareness seemed irrelevant. My own personal drama was no more significant than light playing on a movie screen. Even feelings of joy, ecstasy, and liberation in letting go of attachments were less important than the insight and sense of knowing, or remembering, inexpressible truth. "Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" were the words that seemed best to capture the nature of my experience. I felt free to be exactly who I was, free of fear and social constraints, and filled with love and compassion for all beings. Although many of the insights that flooded my awareness were forgotten, many remained to influence my life. I felt I could see how much human suffering is self-imposed, how our beliefs shape our reality, and what it means to awaken to the realization that life is a dream of our own making. The dreamlike quality of existence, the unreality of past memories and future fantasies, and the acceptance of the interrelatedness of all things were insights subsequently confirmed as I learned more of the perennial teachings of both Eastern and Western contemplative traditions."

The Salvia Divinorum Research and Information Center (From "The Salvia Divinorum User's Guide")::: "Salvia divinorum is an extraordinary visionary herb. It is not a recreational drug. It produces a profoundly introspective state of awareness that is useful for meditation, contemplation, and self-reflection. Its effects are unique and cannot be compared with the effects of other drugs. The effects of Salvia do not appeal to many people (young or old). The people who are most drawn to it are both mature and philosophically minded. Beware of inaccurate information. There are many unethical vendors who try to lure naive customers by portraying the effects of Salvia as more appealing than they are. The news media often sensationalizes stories about Salvia, exaggerating its effects, risks, and popularity. Much of what has appeared in the popular press is inaccurate and misleading. Salvia is not "legal pot." It is not "legal acid." It is not a substitute for any other drug. Before trying Salvia, it is important that you know about its effects, appropriate uses, and the potential risks associated with irresponsible use."