We've all had those "spiritual" experiences with weed. Sometimes our egos just vanish away and we feel connected to the world around us. These highs feel more "real" than what we experience when sober, energy-draining mental chatter dissipates and we're filled with love and energy. Of course we've also all gone through the opposite: onsets of paranoia, schizophrenic mind frames, negative thought loops. Inner fear takes a hold of us and we become lost and confused, unable to communicate or focus on anything. Personally I've felt very helpless in my quest for spiritual enlightnement... my experiences often oscillate in between these two extremes. I find that often when I try too hard to stay relaxed, my efforts capsize and I spiral into negative and debilitating mental turmoil. I often then emerge into the opposite state, and I feel refreshed and alert... almost as if I had burned away all the fear that I was capable of feeling. So to those of you who occasionally seek out a more deeply resonating experience with weed, how do you stay positive? What do you do to get that deeper feeling, to get all that good energy flowing? More importantly, what do you do to avoid The Fear? Buddhas and Bob Marleys of the forum: speak up!
well i avoid fear by seeing that it is a emotion that u create. yur heart can and mind can call these emotions forth but yur mind has to guide it. for example u mite see a scary movie and be scared but yur mind can say to yur heart or u can constantly remind yurself that this is just a movie. i apply that to my life and jus believe in love and hapiness. these emotions are just a state of mind. at first i used to get afraid wen i was hi becuz my heart would speed up and i saw it as fear. somewhere along the lines i realized that my heart was simply excited not afraid. i used to be afraid to talk to woman becuz of that same feelin in my heart but its jus excitement. relax be u give thanks and praises onto the most high and live!
Well you said it yourself. You cannot control your feelings, conscious or sub conscious. When we rationalize our thoughts, feelings, and emotions (especially when in another mindset) we tend to lose track of the bigger picture. What you CAN do is change environment. Environment is probably the biggest factor aside from yourself. Most people have spiritual experiences in churches, temples, the great outdoors, quiet rooms, etc. One question i have: Do you smoke pot solely to use it as a spiritual tool, or is there some of you that just likes to smoke and get high? You have to ask yourself why you do it, and what you intend to get from its use. You will escape negativity when you understand yourself and the weed, both how and why they mix i'm high. .....
Thanks guys, that's good advice that I really took to heart! theghost: You're totally right about the fear/excitement thing. Fear really isn't anything that is projected onto you, it's a state of mind that you generate. When you realize that, fear suddenly becomes insignificant and just fades away. TheColonel: Very insightful... I guess that I DO still smoke just to get high. Reminding myself of that really cooled me down. About rationalizing emotions: this is something that is applicable not only when you smoke but when you're tripping on mushrooms... this may sound obvious, but we really are only controlled by our feelings when we allow them to. If you pit your rationality against your swirling emotions, your rationality will lose and you'll start bad tripping. What you really have to do is take a step back, and imagine your consciousness as being some vast sea, with your stream of thought and feelings like just one small tornado lost in the great calm expanse. They're still there but instead of trying to rationalize them, just take a step back and notice them, and when you see them for what they really are, they'll lose their power over you.
man whenever i used to get mad fear i'd just think about how i smoked to have a beautiful/fun/humbling experience, not to freak out over somethin that really shouldn't be killing my high. i tell my friends this when they get the fear too and they all seem to take a deep breath and say man you're right and go right on chillin.
Hey. I was searching around online and found this 1989 article on erowid. the whole article can be viewed here
Hehe yeah I read that article a while ago, and it's exactly what made me search for different kinds of highs in the first place! Here's an online library of what the guy being interviewed has wrote: http://www.eoni.com/%7evisionquest/library.html REALLY interesting stuff!
yeah that site is crazy. I like the "bibles do not equal wisdom" article. Religion and tolerance? hmmm.....
I find a very peaceful place to toke, then just think about shit there, it's really amazing. It's usually a place with a lot of nature around it.
I am delighted to have you AndyPL on grasscity. From what I can see you have made great contributions already and I look forward to future posts/threads like this. I like to use herb for spirituality but I do enjoy just getting high with some friends. The party sessions are decent but I do not get as much self awareness when I smoke at a party or with a lot of people. I'd rather smoke alone or smoke with some1 like you and go into introspection and discuss philosophy,spirituality, world affairs, and much more. It is very pleasing. I also feel that cannibis has changed me into a better and more optimistic aware human. I would give you more plus rep but it won't let me. Very estatic to have someone like you on g-city.
Hehehe, well thank you very much! I'm flattered. I already love this forum, and am doubly pleased that there are so many other people willing to discuss things like these in an open and unpretentious way. Yeah of course I too got into smoking weed with my friends, and I would never trade all the good times I've had sharing a toke for anything in the world... but I guess that eventually we all get to a stage where we want something deeper in our lives. Eventually you can't just continue ignoring all the spiritual and philosophical questions hanging around in the back of your mind.
eventually there comes a time when weed and spirituality dont go together. like its a key, to open the door to spirituality. then theres the 'life flashing before my eyes' revelation. and the 'watching the universe be destroyed and come back together' revelation. which can be achieved with lsd/mushrooms/weed. even sober. then one seeks a guru. go to tibet.
Haha wow you can control your emotions, you can control you feelings. All you have to do is realize that they are just hormones and electrical signals interpreted by your brain. Then you can just say to yourself thats all it is, it's not even real. But you spiritual people, I dont think thats possible. You're more focused on what you feel without explanation and listen to your instincts. Oh well, nothing wrong with that, and if it makes you feel good then more power to you. But if you want to control your emotions, feelings, mindset in any situation, its just a matter if convincing yourself and will power.
Shit I barely even remember writing this topic... "my efforts capsize and I spiral into negative and debilitating mental turmoil" Hahahaha shit I sound like such a douchebag when I think too hard about what I'm writing. Hohoohohoho roofles I'm so baked. Woah. Please describe this in more detail.
its what gurus describe as trancendance. ive experienced it once, im prety sure it only happens once or never. ive read other experiences of trancendence and mine related almost exactly. i intended to trancend sometime and i knew it would be a drug induced experience. and i meditated and studied for quite a while on the subject. set and setting are important. my set/setting kinda sucked but it still worked out, i was prepared. when i did it i was on heavy doses of mushrooms and lsd. but i live in suburbia so its not something i can sit and work on for 20 years like monks do. its like flying through outerspace, going back in time and watching the big bang, everything got sucked back into a hole then exploded outward slowly. stars and fire were everywhere. like the death star exploding, but i was the death star and it was way more brilliant, radiant. first at the atomic level then growing. then watching all these planets/stars come together. then earth come together then humans come together. then myself come together. i was not even in my body for a while. the only thing i was connected to the world by was my 1) eyes, which were super tunnel vision. it was hard to even look at anything, i stared into space at one fixed location. 2) my sence of hearing, but i heard nothing but angels singing and playing music. i later realized that we were listening to thug rap. lol the feeling was the best feeling i ever had. better than all drugs. pure euphoria of mind/body/soul. ive tripped quite a few times. and this was something completely different. a normal trip things melt like in fear and loathing. but the visuals were pulsing and radiating/vibrating with light. a normal trip theres like a shady feeling sometimes, but the only feeling i felt was overwhelming love radiating from everywhere and myslef. my body felt like it had turned into shimmering gemstones. everything related to love, even war related to love. i felt no ego, no sence of possessing anything. my energy was fused with the energy of everything around me. yea it was a wild ride.