psychedelics affecting brain ?

[levani]

I've been having a conversation with one of the moderators and they've said thay psychedelics mess with cognition, memory, organisation skills and overall thinking abilities after using them

 

How true is this for you personally ? And do the benefits outweigh the risks for you ?

[marinaaniram]

have nothing to answer but i really believe that they DO mess with the brain especially on regular based use

[levani]

@marinaaniram which have you done and how many times ?

[Consilience]

For me I've noticed they both deepen, but actually disrupt meditation and mind in the days following a session, possibly weeks. It's something I've only recently noticed because it's at an INCREDIBLY subtle frequency of mind. Only in the past 3 months or so with a pretty big jump in meditation ability have I been able to experience these disruptions of mind. 

So far it's been nothing crazy. It's basically just a very subtle level of dis-ease, micro-fluctuations of attentional scattering, kind of like the mind becomes subtle less unified and harmonized, more agitated at frequencies typically below the threshold of conscious awareness. Yet on the other hand, psychedelics provide really great direction for where to take practice. So the insights you gain from psychedelics start to take root, grow, and blossom within a mind that meditates rigorously. It's a weird trade off and one I'm still learning about for myself. 

I've noticed most people on this forum, at least as far as I can tell, don't have a rigorous meditation practice so this topic is hardly discussed at all. Maybe I'm just not finding these threads? Currently I've been meditation 2 hours a day on average (some less, some more) and it was only until I bumped my practice from 1 to 2 hours did I start to have the sensitivity towards mind to see the disruptive effects of psychedelics following a session.

Just want to emphasize, these effects are VERY subtle and difficult to discern from the normal fluctuations of mind from daily living and the fluctuations specifically from substances. More easily discernable substance-mind interactions are from substances like alcohol or cannabis. In otherwords, these drugs have a grosser level of dis-ease associated with their use. Yet because psychedelic provide such spiritually significant experiences and just the nature of how they affect the mind in general compared to other drugs, noticing these disruptions takes a very sensitive awareness and attention. Moreover, I would say that for most people psychedelics actually provide more unification and harmonization of the mind than a disruption. My guess is that they create this disruptive effect only for people who have a serious meditation practice. Most people who take psychedelics usually have minds who are bombarded with cultural/societal bullshit without a meditation practice to counter balance, or they don't meditate enough to train this sensitivity to mind. 

It's a very interesting topic and probably very individual. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Consilience

[levani]

@Consilience interesting

[Egzoset]

Fuck moderators if those are the same i've observed practically everywhere else...

[Forestluv]

4 hours ago, levani said:

I've been having a conversation with one of the moderators and they've said thay psychedelics mess with cognition, memory, organisation skills and overall thinking abilities after using them

How true is this for you personally ? And do the benefits outweigh the risks for you ?

Psychedelics have altered my brain, yet not in the ways you describe. 

At the human level, the upsides outweighed the downsides. 

[Moon]

@Egzoset No thanks 

@levani I've only tripped once on LSD. I actually tripped a day earlier than I was supposed to, because I wanted to finish my uni assignment on Friday then trip on Saturday. I changed my mind, tripped on Friday and finished my uni assignment on the Saturday and I felt like I studied better post-trip- felt clarity and it was pretty fun 

Can't speak long term.

 

[electroBeam]

11 minutes ago, Moon said:

@Egzoset No thanks 

You haven't reached stage green polygamy then

Which is ironic because Moon is green.

[AtheisticNonduality]

10 minutes ago, electroBeam said:

You haven't reached stage green polygamy then

Which is ironic because Moon is green.

"Poly" as in multiple people????? Ha! 

 

[levani]

@Forestluv yo forestluv thanks for replying bro, And what were they for you the ups and the downs if I may ask

@Moon very interesting, haha I guess they impact different people differently

@dflores321 bro that sounds epic, I guess it's kind of like what Frank yang explains with his fisheye lens camera that he kind of feels like that post Enlightment

@electroBeam what are you ? haha i'm guessing green ?

 

[levani]

@dflores321 And if you were to compare this suffering in the fisheye lense awareness versus the normal lens prior to that what would the difference be ? 

 

 @moon the latter i hope ?

Edited December 21, 2020 by levani

[electroBeam]

4 minutes ago, Moon said:

I meant declining that user's offer.

Now I'm confused, this has moved on quickly to marrying the other mods? Dunno about that mate, don't think I'm that committed yet ??

Tsk Tsk Tsk, all I have for you is:

 

[levani]

@dflores321 fascinating bro, thank you

[Loving Radiance]

12 hours ago, levani said:

I've been having a conversation with one of the moderators and they've said thay psychedelics mess with cognition, memory, organisation skills and overall thinking abilities after using them

 

How true is this for you personally ? And do the benefits outweigh the risks for you ?

You are less attached to thoughts. Less of believing them to be true.

You temporarily loose a sense of what a thing/sensation is: You recognize its being but cannot put a label on it. However you can put a label on it that it has no label compared to before (comparison with memory feels like deja vu, you cannot put your finger on it because it is still fluid, still a wave).

You feel your emotions more fully. There are less layers to feeling your emotions. Highs and lows are amplified. (this is also maybe bc of spiritual practice, dunno about that one)

Childlike curiosity. Wanting to play & explore the world, to appreciate the glory of this thing called earth.

[Egzoset]

Euh...

 

Fuck love-haters/hate-lovers too, and their colourblind fanboy friends with it.

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by Egzoset

[Arcangelo]

On 12/20/2020 at 2:23 PM, levani said:

psychedelics mess with cognition, memory, organisation skills and overall thinking abilities after using them

Only if you take them weekly or something like that.

 

On 12/20/2020 at 2:23 PM, levani said:

How true is this for you personally ?

Not true

[abrakamowse]

There’s no brain