How do psychedelic elevate consciousness?

[TheSelf]

On 4/19/2021 at 8:21 PM, Unio said:

How do psychedelic elevate consciousness?

By aiding you on the process of opening & clearing energetic pathways and energy centers known as chakras.

 

Edited April 21, 2021 by m0hsen

[Unio]

3 hours ago, outlandish said:

And then you might get the idea that maybe you can grow your sink, and you have a better grasp of which way to go, and what that might look like.

So your sink won't expand after a trip automatically, rather you just know what to strive for?

[Unio]

2 hours ago, Forestluv said:

Imagine living in a town your whole life. You've never left the town or seen anything outside of the town. One day you climb up an mountain and look down on your town from above. This is a very different perspective. In one sense, it is "higher", yet it's not a "better" perspective. Than that a "higher" view, I'd prefer the term more "expansive" view, because "higher" has a connotation of a hierarchy and being "better".

Yet, you would be amazed by this view. For the first time, you would see how all the roads, houses, shops, parks etc are all inter-related within the town. You would be able to see how your town relates to neighboring hills, mountains, forest and other towns in the distance. This would massively expand ones mind. . . 

When you return to the town, it may be hard to make sense of it all. Was the mountain view a dream? Was it real? What does it mean for my everyday life experience within the town?

wow! You really nailed it with that explanation. I really get it. I've read it multiple times and it really cleared up the fog perfectly. thx. 

[outlandish]

8 hours ago, Unio said:

So your sink won't expand after a trip automatically, rather you just know what to strive for?

No not automatically, psychedelics aren't mechanical in that way. Although if you trip a bunch you probably can't help but make some changes.

I don't want to make it seem like psychedelics are just self-help tools here, but there's definitely that element to them.

8 hours ago, Unio said:

wow! You really nailed it with that explanation. I really get it. I've read it multiple times and it really cleared up the fog perfectly. thx. 

Yes! I'd say Forestluv really nailed it there too! That's a great analogy.

[Unio]

On 2021-04-21 at 0:58 PM, Nahm said:

@Unio

Can you describe what you meant by baseline consciousness a bit? 

Ok, so the best definition I could come up with was: the avarage level of ego development that you are at in your day to day life. Assuming that there is some sort of consistency there. And in this I also avarage out the different variables of how one can be emotionally, socially or philosoficly developed to varying degrees. Maybe some poeple might view those as the same. Just wanted to clarify. 

[Nahm]

@Unio

Sounds great. Those pesky assumptions though. Seem to come back around again & again. Maybe that’s just me though. 

[Carl-Richard]

There is this analogy I stumbled across 5 years ago that also Leo has used to describe how psychedelics work. Imagine you have a mixing board of the kind used in music production: 

Each dial represents one phenomenological quality, and the entire board makes up everything you could possibly experience (technically an infinite amount). Examples of some very broad categories could be the experience of colours, edges, sounds, tactile sensations etc. Each dial goes from 0-100 in intensity. 

Let's say your "baseline experience" is when all the dials are sitting in neutral position (50/50). Depending on the dose, psychedelic drugs will generally push most of the dials close to 100, however there are different types of psychedelics with slightly different effects and therefore different settings/configurations.

Some psychedelics tend to be more visual than others (e.g. DMT), some tend to have a stronger capacity of inducing ego death than others (e.g. 5-MeO-DMT), and some are outright crazy (Salvia Divinorum). Every drug will always show a somewhat differentiated pattern, but serotonergic psychedelics will frankly always show a general increase (unlike say sedatives, hypnotics, tranquilizers and anti-psychotics which tend to dial things down).

There seems to be an afterglow effect like you're suggesting for most psychedelics, but they rarely last longer than a month unless you had some deep awakening experiences during the trip (it also depends on the individual). The greatest changes tend to happen not as a result of the afterglow but rather as you start uncovering things about yourself and the world that you never thought were possible.

One critique of the analogy could be that subjective experience cannot be quantified in any shape or form and that the idea of a positive or negative is somewhat arbitrary. For instance, who is to say that sedative drugs cause a dialing-down effect and not just a "change" in experience? Then again, it's just an analogy

Edited April 22, 2021 by Carl-Richard