From: mikel@cctech.com (Mike Lasmanis)
Subject: A non-users opinion
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 1995 10:26:13 -0700 (PDT)
I saw the drug user thread and thought that I would share my non-user opinion on the matter.
IMHO...
First, I went through an phase where I ended up doing most drugs that were available. You name it, there is a good chance I did it. I merely state this to avoid the "You've never done it so you wouldn't know" shouting matches.
I have just found for me that music alone is enough to lift me to a higher plateau. I get myself so worked into the beat, I end up half hypnotized. At times I have gotten so lost, that my friends would swear that I was on something. It is an awsome feeling to get into this state and then feel the endorphines and adrenalin racing through your system. My body feels so alive and full of energy. I can feel my nerves just reaching out, grabbing hold of the universe and carrying me away. The ride is as much driven by you as it is your surroundings and environment.
For me, however, it is much harder to reach that state when under the influence of some other substance. While the rush/high is usally really good, I personally get more out of the natural high I get from music and dancing (couple it with an outdoor location and I am in heaven....). Not to say that if a good batch of shrooms were passed my way that I wouldn't partake, I just choose not to as a general rule.
The point: For me and my friends, this works out real well. I can share in their experiences and they can share mine. I feel that the state I reach is compatible and on the same level as their's. We trip together, it is just induced my another means. But when the shit goes down, they also know that there is a sober person around to help them out (rides/crashes/bad trips/etc).
In my mind, it is not important how you reach a plane of higher consciousness, just make sure you visit it every so often. If you find it through exercise, music, drugs, go for it. Just make sure you can also find your way back home.
Party safe, responsibly, and most importantly OFTEN!
hugs
mike
--
Mike Lasmanis | "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing mikel@cctech.com | new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 95 12:09:03 PDT
Subject: Re: First E
...there are two ways to go now. go crazy and take E all the time looking to replicate the experience (aka screwing up your life - a recipe for disaster) OR my choice.....occassionally return to E for inspiration and then try and bring the joy of into your normal life.
Now I find I get high totally on the music alone.
I am really right with these two posters. It seems to me that drugs have such effects because they interact with natural occuring systems in your body. For a start, lots of people talk about natural opiate-like substances and there is obviously your adrenaline to give you the speedy highs. If doing drugs occasionally helps you awaken to these sensations in your body then you really are growing from them.
This is why I love to rave. It is a really powerful body and mind awakener. When I am moving hard, trancelike, and ecstatic I feel the thrill of translating the aural sensations and the accompanying bass resonances that you feel from a kicking system into your own movements. This really awakens a feeling of my presence in the perceived world whirling around me and soon enough it evokes really out of body lucid floating mind, which I assume is part of an endorphin high. When I stop my body is racing and it always takes me hours to leave a club --- I am hooked. Hovering around the entrance I always have to go back for one more dance. I assume that it is this that brings us all together to rave.
I would be interested to know if this is the experience of lots of other ravers. For me it has been the most amazingly positive thing to learn to be able to switch myself on, and I feel really free now to be just able to decide to have fun. When I was younger I so often went out and got really down and felt inadequate, just searching for fun.
Cheers,
Andrew