ACID=Enlightenment?

the environment that you trip in is pretty important. and i don't mean because of black lights or posters. about your level of "safety." are you alone, and comfortable with being so...or are you with loved ones or close, trusted friends? that's the only way to do it. not at a party with random people. you just have to be comfortable in your surroundings, and not have responsibilities interfering.

setting = where you trip.
SET = your mood or emotional state. your MIND set

you could easily be talking about the delusion of day-to-day life

 

Enlightenment is in the eye of the beholder.

Acid is a personal journey that may be spiritual or trippy or just whatever. What you take from that journey and leave behind is up to the person under it's influence.

Don't anticipate a full on revelation of any kind OP...but then again...you might just tap into the galactic.

:hippy:
-Peace-

 

Setting is less about the things around and more about the vibe of the place. Peaceful, safe, beautiful are some of the attributes you might look for. Friendly-feeling woodlands and meadows are good as is a park or other natural setting.

Inside I think windows are good, things like a flower or rock or piece of beautiful wood are good, comfort sitting or lying down is good, a mirror is good... or at least interesting. It's always good to have some water around - especially like in a clear glass bowl. Personally I don't care for music throughout. I can't imagine TV or video games.

Set is enhanced by intentionality. For example, here is something sent out ahead of time from a gathering that I'm leaving for tomorrow:

We encourage everyone to bring something to place on the altar. Crystals, flowers, pictures; anything that has positive energy in it. Whether it's from the earth or from you doesn't matter. What matters is the intent.

Also take some time to develop an intention for the experience. Set your sights on what you would like to take away from it, and how that would make you feel. If you can put yourself in that feeling, then you are doing wonders for setting yourself up to be successful in seeing your intention through. We have been building positive energy into this weekend long experience for a long while. Please take the time to make the most of it.

I always have high and holy books around, like works by Alex Grey, Stephen Gaskin, Alan Watts, the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, and so on.

 

I remember feeling vibes in a whole new way. As if they literally exist.One of my trips I got the idea when my senses were syncing up, music would take part with your sight and feelings, I really felt the concept of vibes come into play, it was incredible! Something very important I plan to take into my trips

 

Quite true.

I think I'm reasonably aware of this, and reality's flimsy nature, though. The state I was talking about involves absolute sureness of these "realizations", often about god or jesus or whatever that individuals mental poison of choice is.

Then again, it also happens after a hit or two. But with nowhere near the same frequency as high doses. Especially high doses in someone who thought they could "take it", because their idea of taking psychedelics involved just trying to suppress/ignore them, and it always worked and friends thought they where so cool.

 

I'd say you're very much right. I also still haven't met Lucy yet, unfortunately. Got ripped off once, in fact.

But my shroom experience was similar to an intense high with a psychedelic layer to it, so-to-speak. Hard to explain. I've read other people have also described similarities with cannabis at low-medium doses.

Psychedelics can certainly be enlightening, and I hope they come your way, whether they're shrooms or acid. I'm hoping to delve further where I can experience a full-blown trip. Hopefully things work out.

 

If you hadn't noticed, the title ends with a question mark :2thumbsup:


Regardless, I do have this theory, which I would love to share; Let's say the world as you see it when you are sober is a single consistent perspective. When you alter your perception using a psychedelic drug like LSD (the actual mechanics of which RooRshack appears to be familiar with ) are'nt you gaining an entirely new perspective, from which you can literally re-learn or build upon every concept you normally only think about from the sober perspective? In this way, every time you alter your perception you gain a new tool to increase your knowledge in genuinely unique ways.

With this approach, I think over time a much greater level of knowledge and wisdom can be reached. Perhaps you may call this an 'enlightened state'.

 

:2thumbsup: You're definitely on the right path man. I need people like you to hang out with in my area. I'm in Illinois, though....

 

Ah dude, I love that documentary! I even torrented it and burned it on DVD.

Another one to definitely check out is the National Geographic documentary called "Inside LSD". I remember when that first came out a couple years ago. Quite a shock. It talks about recent studies and interviews psychedelic users. Very insightful and non-biased.

 

This is pretty good BL. Been reading a little? :2thumbsup: The psychological filter is a pretty powerful thing.

My classically trained musician mother had told me about how some religions of old only approved of mono-tone music with no singing, chanting only, because of the ability of complex chords and rhythms to induce emotions and therefore bad behavior.
I'm glad we live in different times.

In my experience, the first 2 times I had no particular "issues" I wanted to look at, but I wouldn't have been able to if I had. Those were many years ago though. It wasnt until about the third time that I could "explore" rather than just let it wash over me.
This year has been my first experiences in many years and a good part of my revisiting them has been for just that very reason. I can only speak for myself but I have found the way psychedelics, LSD in particular, open up the variety and vastness of the thought process has helped me quite a bit to gain a different, sometimes more compassionate perspective on a few things. One in particular was my relationship with my daughter and by proxy her mother, and its improved my peace of mind in a quantifiable way.
Your mileage may vary but I am absolutely fascinated by that quality of LSD to dissolve that filter or blockage that keeps me from seeing more angles on an issue.

 

Hmm do you think it's possible that there was something about the 60s music itself then that really triggered an emotional response to the rebellion? The vibes I sensed from the Beatles later work really got into your head in a way I can't describe. But I really believe in this emotional energy shaping that time period, and lots of things shaped it: The music, rebellion and acid coming to the streets all happened at the perfect time for this energy.

Not to mention the governments attempt of control with acid!
"We must always remember to thank the CIA and the Army for LSD, by the way. Everything is the opposite of what it is, isn't it? They brought out LSD to control people, and what they did was give us freedom. Sometimes it works in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. But it sure as hell performs them. If you look a the government report book on acid, the only ones who jumped out of windows because of it were the ones in the Army. I never knew anybody who jumped out of a window or killed themselves because of it. … I've never met anybody who's had a flashback in my life and I took millions of trips in the Sixties, and I've never met anybody who had any problem. I've had bad trips, but I've had bad trips in real life. I've had a bad trip on a joint. I can get paranoid just sitting in a restaurant; I don't have to take anything." John Lennon

 

Interesting thought, I agree with you to an extent but I don't know if I agree with your example much. I'll point out that The Beatles are from the UK and while they were massively popular here in the U.S. as well, I don't think the UK and the UK invasion bands had quite as strong as an anti-establishment message going on during the 60's as we did here. Sure there was tons of cultural change in the U.K. during the era but if you are familiar with some 60's music, most the popular British bands: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Moody Blues etc. were nowhere near as politically charged as U.S. acts like: Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Country Joe, etc.

So I agree with your idea that music influenced some of the rebellious attitude but I think the fuel for that attitude was not so much the vibes The Beatles were sending out but what Bob Dylan was saying.

 

You know, there's alot to comment on there, hard to not just go on and on with opinion.
Ya, I do think music had a huge influence but it's a chicken/egg thing. Music changed and was shaped by society and the people of the times changed the music. This was solidly in place before LSD hit the scene. In that movie I linked in that other thread, there is a clip of a song that unless you know it wont mean much but it's called Rocket 88. It is considered by some to be the first rock n roll song. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_88 That's 1951.

My mom was in Cleveland studying music when Alan Freed started doing "rock n roll" shows
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Freed and told me stories about how parents and society went ape-shit over this stuff. When people talk about the ability of music to change things, its not bullshit. Our entire country began to change dramatically in the mid 50s. Most of the rock n roll scene was coming from black culture and music. Any correlation between that and the birth of the civil rights movement? Give that a little thought. Even the term rock n roll originated as slang for sex. Was rock n roll music connected to the womens lib movement? It's a simmering pot of stew with many ingredients.

About your second paragraph... in that movie Magic Trip, how Ken Kesey first got exposed to LSD is discussed. He volunteered for research going on at Stanford that was (secretly at the time) part of MK-Ultra. So, the governments secret research into LSD is what turned on one of the biggest radicals of the 60's. By the time Kesey, Alpert, Leary etc got through the government was shutting down LSD and the hippy scene exploded. MK-Ultra failed in every way possible. Instead of controlling people, using LSD as a weapon, they inadvertently "caused" the 60's.

So did music change society or did society change music? I'd say the answer is, yes.

 

I'd agree with that idea in the sense of what most of the UK bands vs the US bands of the time were saying in their lyrics... but the actual music of the times starting in the 50's was subversive by it's very nature.
Alot of the 50s rock n roll was a direct in your face affront to the sensibilities of the times, ala Elvis Presley rocking his hips, etc.
I think much of the UK invasion music of the times was less confrontational, I'd agree. I suscribe much of that to british culture. They were just less overt about things back then. But the music itself was still a way of thumbing their nose at conventional society.
An example of the music being just as powerful as the lyrics would be Jimi Hendrix performance of the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock.
That was one of the biggest "FUCK YOU'S" at "the establishment" ever, without one word being sung.
But again, that was in the US.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3JbKimTdMg"]Jimi Hendrix - Star Spangled Banner Live Woodstock - YouTube

Look at the shots of the crowd... they are simply blown away in stunned silence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ZYUaRKQkk&feature=related"]Interview with Jimi Hendrix on Star-Spangled Banner - YouTube

Last bit of trivia... What do Ike Turner and Jimi have in common? Ike was part of The Kings of Rhythm, which is the real band behind Jackie Brentson and his Delta Kings that did Rocket 88. Jimi played with Ike in The Kings of Rhythm for awhile before The Isley Brothers. Ike may have been an a**h*** but he was extremely influential in american music.