Recreating effects...

[Cypherks]

I've read for many years, many books and articles about the psychadelic/shamanistic experience. Try as I might, I just couldn't get my brain all the around what people were writing about. Then, one day, after having a certain experience involving some wonderful mushrooms, I suddenly understood it all. Especially why Shaman's Drum is called 'a journal of experiential shamanism & spiritual healing'.

So now the big question - I chased after this experience/emotion/change of perception for years, most of the time with nothing too exciting happening.

I'm curious what, if anything, anyone has used to recreate those experiences without the help of plants. Can it/has it been done? I'm not anti-anything natural, but just wondering.

The closest thing I've experienced is a very real expansion of perception using some of the Monroe Instiute tapes - the Hemisynch process.

Part two of this post - what's the general thought amongst you folks - are we tapping into another conciousness/reality or is it all in our heads?
I know people from both sides of the camp. Personally, I'm still finding my way.

[Lynx]

Recreating "these experiences" without the help of plants? The closest I've come is by spending between 10 and 12 days in isolated wilderness with no contact with human civilization except the equipment I carry such as tent and waterproof clothes.

On these trips I'm either canoeing or hiking, usually with a small group of people, and there is a lot of very hard physical exertion, lots of pure, fresh air, and sometimes a bit of sleep deprivation... After about 3-4 days my state of consciousness has changed completely. I am no longer the same person I was when I left the city. I am natural, the way human beings are supposed to be. No stress, no neuroses, the only concerns just surviving and staying full of food, warm, and undrowned or uneaten by bears....

Anyway, the point is that this state of consciousness is a lot like the psychedelic state of mind brought on by ingesting certain substances...I must point out that not many other people on these trips with me know what I'm talking about; they just ask me if I'm "on drugs" or something..... (no, I'm not...)...

The first time I had this experience, coming back to civilization was a huge shock that blew my mind. Everyone looked dead, zombified, tired, stressed, not alive. I am sure I looked completely drugged out or in a cult....It was a real revelation to me.

While in this wilderness altered state of consciousness, I always feel very connected with the oneness of the universe, and with the earth, and everything on it.... It's pretty cosmic.

I hope this answers your question a little...I'm also wondering if anyone else on this board has had these kinds of experiences in the wilderness.

Thanks! Glad to finally stop lurking and say something here..... - L.

[Halfglass]

Cypherks: Hello. I found Monroe's "Journeys out of the Body" one day in the mid-ninties, in a used book bin. I had never heard of self-induced OBEs (only NDE's). I read it. At the time I was having great luck with long lucid dreams (I had been keeping a dream log for four straight years). I am certain that the break in my belief system--a small leak--that was saying, "Maybe this guy is for real" allowed me to actually begin to have full-blown OBEs from a waking state about six months later. (I'd been having the "vibrations" and mind-hiss and such described by Monroe leading up to my first.) Sadly, strangely, I stopped being able to have them, aside from rare vibrations or projections from the dream state that are questionable--that is, unlike the OBEs from a waking state (early in the morning before I had moved at all after sleep) these are more like lucid dreams, as if the Barrier in place to restrict my entry into the OBE, steers me into the lucid. Cypherks: I am a huge fan of the mountains in Western Pa. I know what you mean. On the outskirts of the mind or of the populated mess of cement and brick, these are similar areas for me. The edges....

[tesseract]

Hi Cyph,

I have found that if I carefully retrace my steps through a particular journey, during relaxed concentration/meditation, I often end up reliving the experience to some degree. Many times even the waves of physical ecstasy actually come back. If I begin to recall the prominent visualzations that I had during the intoxication, they will begin to unfold themselves and further develop (or deconsrtuct) into new visual forms, just as they did under the instruction of the plants (not just slide-show memories, but the vision-stream). The ideations and emotions that had accompanied them will follow, and subsequently manifest in the physical...now you've got the makings of a whole new trip on your hands.

After special journeys you have to make notes and sketches, and try to recount the experience to someone; it is crucial that you express them somehow. I have some artwork that is very useful to me for this purpose of reliving (I suppose they've become my own Icons). During the creation of the images I sort of fought to render them as faithfully (according to the vision) as possible and still deal with the aesthetic difficulties imposed on them by the plastic arts. But most importantly, during the process I repeatedly relived and re-experienced those visions through the forming illustrations, and I believe this has invested those pieces with significant powers to reignite the experience I had in that very moment, and more.

Think of your powerful experience(s) as a seed, and see if you can't grow some more.

peace.

[xxx]

Not to be too big a jerk about it, but we can't have any experience without plants. They provide our oxygen, our food, hold the earth together.

I'm a city guy. I like sidewalks and buses and bars and art galleries and book stores.

When I went mountain climbing in British Columbia, just outside of Vancouver, I was completely amazed by the plant life living in clouds. An herb 50 feet down was in a completely different state when elevated. Witches Butter - a fungus which looks like melted cheddar was all over logs.

Foliage was mesmerizing. Ferns are a state of consciousness. Picked Chanterelle mushrooms. Pounds. Better than filet mignon by a long stretch.

I worked with a young man with autism this past summer. He didn't know what to do, so when I moved my right arm, he moved his right arm. When I stood up, he stood up. I scratch my left ear, he scratches his. Very unsettling.

[jezebelle]

I do TaiChi, which if I am lucky, I catch the chi. The idea of Burning-Man cafes around - for people to catch, would be so fun!
About 30 years ago, I had a landlady who kept a beautifu house and was a lovely person. She used to feel that cleaning her home, was like cleaning her soul. A Goddess. I have a celler project that needs me to "become-one" with.