Philosophy of Use: Tread Ahead and be Free from Fear

Since I cover psychedelics frequently and because I am active in the psychedelic community here, I often see people who talk about wanting to try these drugs for the first time but they say that they are hesitant to take that first step out of some fear. Sometime it is the strangeness of the experience that unnerves them. Others are reluctant because of the intensity of these substances. The "bad trip" concept drives more than a few people away from the inward journey. Fear of finding the truer "self" is what holds a few people more back. All of these concerns seem perfectly logical to the uninitiated but are they? Many of these fears seem to be based on a misunderstanding of what it actually means to trip. This is not surprising, of course. There is nothing quite like tripping on which a person can base his or her comparison. I, being the advocate that I am, would like to address some of these concerns because if one learns how to tread without fear and cross the psychedelic threshold which separates the conscious and the "under-conscious", he or she will have had one of the most rewarding and enlightening experiences a person can hope to have in his or her life.

A great deal of the fear which keeps people away from psychedelics can be traced back to the countless poor representations of tripping that are present in popular culture. Drug war propaganda has told society that these substances are dangerous or will drive a person mad. There is more at work here than propaganda, however. Often these drugs are poorly represented for entertainment purposes or because the person creating the representation does not understand what psychedelics actually do. If one sees a film where a character consumes a psychedelic drug, there is a good chance that trip which is represented is highly inaccurate. These trip scenes almost always include colorful cartoonish characters which are almost certainly absent from any real experience and, usually for comedic effect, they end with an over the top freak out. All of that is fine, of course. I like a lot of the movies that I have in mind as I am writing this but they do give people false impressions about these drugs and that leads to some unnecessary concerns.

Most of the people who I have seen express hesitation about trying psychedelics for the first time cite the intensity and strangeness of the of the trip as a reason for not treading into the deeper parts of their mind. It is true that these drugs are strange and powerful but they are perceived differently by one who is under their influence. If, for example, as I sat here (relatively) unaltered, my walls started to breath and my laptop began to melt, I would be a bit unnerved to put it mildly. To one who is tripping, on the other hand, those things seem to be perfectly natural. The walls are breathing because they are supposed to. One does not question the crazy things that happen during a trip (he or she may question many other things, though) because he or she is in a state of childlike amazement. The uninitiated may not understand this statement but I sometimes describe tripping as feeling like being in kindergarten. That is to say, you don't exactly understand why things are the way that they are but you are extremely enthusiastic about being a part of them.

I have written about "bad trips" on my blog before but I will touch on the subject again as they seem to scare off some would-be psychonauts. With the exception of when someone has unwanted contact with law enforcement or has an accident, the concept of a "bad trip" is highly flawed. It is more productive to think these kinds of trips as difficult experiences. They usually have a "cause" (some unaddressed emotion or something like that) and they can force one to address that "cause" whether he or she wants to or not. However, this is not a negative thing. The reason that the "cause" had such an effect on the trip is that it needed to be addressed. A person may not enjoy this process but its result is worth the discomfort. It can be seen as being akin to setting a broken bone. It hurts to do it but one is able to walk better in the end.

Fear of finding the true nature of the self saps some individuals' desire to try psychedelics. This is somehow both the most valid and the silliest of the things that stop from trying psychedelics. I understand the thought process. One may think that the journey of self-discovery will change who they are but he or she is the "self" waiting to be discovered. The trip will change them, true, but only in the sense that they will understand the "self" and it's place in the world more fully. There is nothing to fear here. The revelations, the "monsters," the "teachers," and all of the things that the user encounters already live in the darker parts of his or her mind. The drug merely shines its strange light on them so that they may be "seen" by the individual.

Rewards await those who can free themselves from these fears. The understanding which one gains through tripping is a treasure that can never be stolen. The intensity of the of the experience gives a person basis for comparison when he or she must deal with stressful situations. The strangeness of psychedelics can open ones mind to previously unthinkable possibilities and novel approaches to problem solving. There are countless other benefits as well. If you are thinking about trying psychedelics for the first time, purge these fears from your mind and the path inward will be open to you.

Peace.

This was another installment in my Philosophy of Use series of posts. If you liked this post, please feel free to check out my page for more similar content.

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