Opium Den

"Which one truly lasts longer? Is it the guy who uses heroin for two years and then passes away, or the man who eats nothing but roast beef, water, and potatoes until he's 95? One spends twenty-four months existing in eternity. All the years the Beefeater lived only in time"
Aldous Huxley

What’s your take on using psychedelics or other substances (LSD, ecstasy, MDMA, weed, heroin...) as a way to expand your spiritual horizons? Anyone here have personal experiences they're willing to share?

The point was... I think it really messes with meditation 😉
plus how the mind functions "normally"

Going "vegetarian" on the road to enlightenment..😁

The grass is always greener 😁

Man, I totally saw through everything when I was on ex.
Before that, just rolling on weed... there wasn't even much to realize, you know?
And after that, there’s no point lying to yourself about weed either.
Then there's the whole thing where you shouldn't be mixing drugs while you're tripping.
And... yeah. That's it. It's been a long, long time since then.

mistyfox812 said:Once I hit the ex, everything just clicked—I finally saw it all.
Before that, weed felt like there wasn't even anything worth figuring out.
Afterward, you can't lie to yourself about how much weed sucks.
And then once you're on a trip, you realize you shouldn't be doing drugs at all.
And... that's it. It's been a long time since then.

I took one little pill once and instantly saw people for who they truly were—right at first contact—plus my hearing was absolutely insane😁

but still—drugs.👎

nimblecobra79 said:I popped one little candy once and suddenly I could see people for who they actually were right away, like, instant clarity, plus my hearing was absolutely insane😁

but, uh, yeah... drugs.👎

Just like anything else, getting hooked is a total nightmare. But in this place? The danger hits different.

I saw the kind of person I’ve always wanted to be while on ex🙂
Sometimes, it felt like life was laying out perfect little puzzles right in front of me on the grass, pieces that usually stay just out of reach
On a trip, I finally realized just how ridiculous we all actually are😁
And on heroin, I realized that the problems I deal with are actually pretty, pretty relative😁

So then I headed out to spend some time in the commune🙂

I was absolutely on fire when I wrote my best posts🙂

After my first rebirth session, I realized there’s something way beyond this world.
Then came that Excalibur course—it hit me that the physical world is just one perception, not some rigid reality we're stuck in.
Surviving sexual abuse taught me that grief and pain are built into being alive, and showed me just how deeply the body and spirit are wired together.
When my dad ended up in the hospital, everything else I was stressing about suddenly felt incredibly small.
Hitting an existential crisis actually helped me see who my real friends were, and honestly? It made me realize how ridiculous I was being.
When my long-time friends walked away, I learned you can't lie to yourself.
Getting hit by a car while out on my bike... yeah, that was a brutal reminder of how fragile life really is.
Meeting my current boyfriend made me face how rigid I can be and how much work I still have to do on myself.

Paul Campbell3 said:After my first rebirth session, I realized there’s definitely something beyond this world.
Then, after taking that Excalibur course, it hit me that the physical world is just one way of perceiving things—it's not nearly as rigid as we think it is.
Going through sexual abuse taught me that sadness and pain are just part of being alive, and showed me how deeply the body and spirit are linked.
When my dad ended up in the hospital, I realized just how relative all my own little problems actually are.
Whenever I fell into an existential funk, I finally saw who my real friends were... and I actually started finding myself kind of hilarious.
When long-time friends walked out of my life, I learned that you just can't lie to yourself.
Getting hit by a car while I was out on my bike made me see how fragile life really is.
And meeting my current boyfriend? That was when I truly realized how much work I still have to do on my own rigidity and how much more I need to learn about myself.

👍

I’m just not into altered states of consciousness triggered by any kind of opiates.

Sure, I’ve smoked a few joints in my life, but I never used weed as a tool to expand my spiritual horizons.
Nowadays, I don't even touch spiritual techniques because I've learned that weed is exactly like those practices: if the spirit isn't ready, you're basically committing a violation.

Life's processes need to flow without being forced.
That’s just my experience, and everything I say here is strictly based on what I've lived through—I really hope nobody takes this as some kind of, God forbid, moral lecture.

The thing is, when a spirit isn't prepared, altered states of consciousness have one pretty "problematic" side effect: the struggle to assimilate once you come back down.😁

And that's where addiction starts. An addiction to a "state" we reached through one way or another, a state that isn't actually our "real life" reality.

I remember my first time doing rebirthing; my very first thought was: Holy crap, what a state of peace, calm, and universal love—I want to go baaaaaack!
The guy leading the session just looked at me deadpan and said: Earn it.

Furthermore, I think experimenting with drugs can only have positive effects for people who actually have self-control and have reached a certain level of self-awareness. I mean, shamans and medicine men often use various plants or dance rituals to enter altered states, but they do it with a specific purpose.

Most people I know who smoke have zero goal other than hitting an altered state just to "escape" this one.

And they all claim they aren't addicted and that it's all just for some sort of spiritual insight. 😁

But most of them can't even handle basic existential issues, their relationships with others, or even themselves.
So I always wonder: what's the point of getting high and chasing altered states if it doesn't help you fix the mess inside you and around you when you're sober?

If I can't handle the "ecstasy" that daily life throws at me—without needing perfection or grace to expand and understand myself—then neither a trip nor weed is going to help me out.
If there's a party and some booze involved, maybe I'll light up something just for kicks; though honestly, a glass of red wine is more my speed anyway.😉

Life is ultimately about integration—merging what's inside you with what's outside. And that happens gradually, through hard work and discipline, without skipping steps. To me, opiates are just a one-way ticket.

But everyone has to get there on their own.

The only other substances I think might actually help someone on a journey of self-discovery are LSD and mescaline. But honestly, they aren't for everyone—it’s definitely a high-stakes dance if you don't have a safety net...

If people are actually going to use drugs for self-discovery or "expanding their consciousness," they shouldn't be doing it solo. They need someone else running the show.
I'm telling you, having outside guidance is huge. You have to set actual goals, otherwise you're just drifting aimlessly into the void without a map.

I saw this happen once during an experiment—this girl we were with absolutely lost it. Total paranoia. She ended up cornering herself in the kitchen, grabbing a knife, and waving it at my buddy because she was convinced he was some demon trying to swallow her whole.

Look, if the goal is reaching altered states of consciousness, there are plenty of ways to get there that don't involve substances. Sure, drugs are the "fast track," but they're risky.😁

Paul Campbell3 said:...but I've never actually used weed to expand my spiritual experiences....

Well, me neither. Honestly, I just wanted to have a good time. You know? Like...
But then it just hit me—there’s this whole thing called "spiritual experience."
So, I started noticing it even when I was totally sober.
The thing is, I was just so closed off to all that stuff, and the drugs basically smashed through my "glitchy" ego. What I mean is, if I hadn't been so rigid back then, I probably wouldn't have needed any substances to realize these things.

mistyfox812 said:Well, I certainly wasn't looking to cause any trouble myself; my only intention was to seek a bit of diversion, a moment of genuine entertainment. But then, quite out of nowhere...
It has only just occurred to me, in a moment of profound and perhaps overdue clarity, that the very concept of a spiritual experience might actually be a tangible reality rather than a mere flight of fancy.
I have actually begun to notice him even when I am completely sober, without any assistance from the Opium Den.
The reality of the matter is that I used to be incredibly closed off regarding these subjects, possessed by a certain rigidity, but drugs effectively shattered that malformed, stunted ego of mine. I am inclined to assert that if I hadn't been so pathologically inflexible to begin with, I wouldn't have required chemical intervention just to grasp these fundamental truths.

I find myself taking the exact opposite stance on this matter. I once pursued certain individuals who fancied themselves spiritual gurus or some such nonsense, only to watch the whole endeavor descend into absolute chaos. In the end, I realized that while nothing catastrophic actually occurred, the entire experience was nothing more than a colossal waste of capital. It was a complete zero-sum game—purely throwing money down the drain for absolutely no return.

mistyfox812 said:Just like everything else in life, getting hooked is a disaster, but here, the danger feels uniquely personal.

The most egregious part of this whole mess is how every single user convinces themselves they are somehow an exception to the rule.

I mean, look, I am perfectly aware that people are destroying their lives with this stuff, and I certainly understand the biological reality that drugs wreck the human body... but I tend to view my own situation through a completely different lens than the rest of the crowd. To me, it transcends mere recreation... and because of that delusion, a person becomes utterly convinced they have some valid justification for their consumption, failing to realize that, in reality, they aren't any different from every other addict out there...

Dragonfly said:During one of these trips, a girl who was hanging out with us went into a total paranoid meltdown. She scrambled into a corner of the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and started waving it at my buddy, absolutely convinced he was some demon coming to swallow her whole.

The thing is, certain substances just act as a catalyst for suppressed emotions. For people who aren't ready to face what's underneath, that confrontation can be incredibly painful and jarring... but it can also be eye-opening.

Take someone who, say, doesn't identify as gay—the drugs might just strip away those defenses and let everything surface.
It’s those buried feelings (because, let's be real, everyone has a hidden side) bubbling up, leading to two main scenarios:

1. They freak out immediately and spiral into a terrifying bad trip.
2. They lean into those intense emotions, making the "come down" or the return to reality pretty brutal.

So, looking back at that girl cowering in the corner fearing a demon... it was really just a manifestation of repressed emotions she wasn't equipped to handle. It's a direct clash between the persona 😎 a person presents to the world and the raw, overwhelming emotions that threaten to shatter that image. 🙂 (That self-image is essentially the ego.)

Which is why... I totally agree that drug use isn't for everyone (and definitely not for anyone under 20—I'm speaking from personal experience there).
😁

Mljacko said:The absolute worst part is how everyone using drugs convinces themselves they’re somehow different from the rest of the crowd.

I mean, sure, I get that people are wrecking their lives and they know it's bad for them... but I look at it through a completely different lens than everyone else. To me, it’s more than just a recreational thing. Because of that mindset, he feels like he has a valid excuse for doing it—he doesn't realize he's falling into the exact same trap as every other user out there.

Besides, you can ruin your health eating nothing but greasy cheeseburgers too...😁

If you're moderate about it, drugs don't necessarily tear your body apart immediately... it's usually those weird cocktail mixes or going totally overboard that really hammers your liver and everything else. Most of what we hear is just a terrifying caricature created by society (think Sister Mary Clarence😁 & co.).

One person starts spiraling into total paranoia, someone else is running naked through the hotel halls, and then there’s the person trying to scale the walls... honestly, that's just how it goes. Once you're tripping, all that hidden madness finally decides to surface.

A very small number of people actually manage to use it for some kind of self-discovery, but for most folks, that’s not even the point when they decide to partake.

As for ecstasy, I have nothing but bad things to say about it—it usually feels like nothing more than overpriced junk. To be fair, I've never personally tried it so I can't say for sure, but it definitely doesn't strike me as a "spiritual" drug to me...