| Author
|
Common Cognitive Missteps Within the Psychedelic Experience
|
Pauldo
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
11
Posts :
155
Posted : Oct 19, 2010 06:47:44
|
The following I wrote out in an email with a friend regarding common cognitive missteps people make within the psylics experience. It's a concept-in-progress that I will def need to work on if I plan to make it a publishable writing someday.
>>Hhhmmm...possibly I'll write such an article someday as I return to school soon, will eventually move on to post-sec, conduct research, etc. I would very much like to use psychedelics in my own therapy practice eventually. It would be professionally irresponsible to not address the common and inherent missteps that come with the use psychedelics. Some of the missteps that I'm trying to define and express are things like increased grandiosity during and lingering after an experience, misjudged boundaries and relatedness with others, self-importance, fractured ego, a sense of oneness/we are all just one/everything is connected, gullibility and a preponderance to automatically accept as true things they learn/encounter during an experience, suspension of critical thinking, simple auditory and visual issues, how one assigns meaning to their experience, how one's "meanings" of an experience are derived from their already pre-existing psychology that they brought to the experience.
One of the first examples of these kinds of cognitive missteps that I encountered when I was active in the rave community years ago is a term coined E-love. E-love being the propensity of romantic partners who met while both were having an MDMA experience to over estimate the empathy and love they actually have for the other person. Resulting in break-ups the weeks after the inherent empathetic effects of the MDMA have worn off or after the couple have stopped taking MDMA on a regular basis which was keeping the empathetic feelings at an artificial level for an extended period. Couples "waking up" years after they met their partner at a rave and realizing there wasn't any validity to the relationship.
The other drive for my thinking about this topic is that for years now I've been trying to speak out/express just exactly what it is that bothers me so much about the different psychedelic communities I've been involved with over the years and some of the common belief systems that get passed around those communities.
The one belief system that people in psy communities hold today which I have the most trouble with is Mayan 2012 related thinking; believing it to be either an apocalyptic event or a time of great human transformation and evolution, thus salvation from the human condition. Why do people think we are any more correct that "our time" is the period of apocalypse or great transformation more so than the all the other cultures throughout recorded history who thought their time was "the time" and they were the "chosen ones" to experience something extra-ordinary? The great transformation version of 2012 is the one I see running more throughout the Burning Man and psychedelic trance communities. Thrown in is usually a belief that the universe was created for our benefit, that there is an inherent benevolence to the universe or that there is a benevolent being...or beings that are looking out for our own best-interest and will bring about this great transformation.
It seems awfully egotistical to me to think that the Universe is here just for us and that our generation is the one that will experience extra-ordinary events. Why have the psytrance and BM psychedelic communities embraced this 2012 transformation belief so deeply? Perhaps they are not accounting for the inherent effects on ego that come with the use of psychedelics? Those effects being an increased grandiosity about our self-importance in history and in regards to the Universe, misjudging our relatedness to the Universe in thinking that it has love for us, not accounting for the gullibility and suspension of critical thinking during their experiences when later determining the validity of the thoughts and ideas they were introduced to by other, possibly more mature community members which occur mostly during and around the time of psychedelic festivals, when the use of psychedelics occurs en masse, and new thoughts/theories/beliefs are passed on and adopted en masse...hence why BM and psytrance communities have adopted 2012 en masse.
I am seriously concerned that these communities are making some major cognitive missteps and passing them on as true and accurate to younger/newer/inexperienced members of their communities. I'm worried that the negative aspect of these incorrect belief systems will effect all of the positives that come from the use of psychedelics as well as the BM and psytrance communities themselves, of which I have a great affinity for and am still a huge proponent of regardless of my disagreement with these beliefs. Why can't they see 2012 as just another variation on the same old apocalypse/transformation-salvation theme that has run through all of recorded history in every generation and culture? Certainly there's historical precedence of psychedelic communities making major cognitive mistakes. The psydel culture of the 60's thought their generation was the one that was going to completely transform society. That the ideals and institutions they were against would be completely replaced through their efforts, within their lifetimes and they would be fully free from the human condition. The reality being that the ideals/institutions they rallied against still firmly exist today. Nor was their young idealism above the human tendency to become more conservative with age, a greater concern for career, wealth and material possessions. Did their use of psychedelics lead to a grandiosity/inflated ego about their ability to fully transform society in their lifetimes, overshooting the reality of the time it takes to replace deeply entrenched institutions/ideals, thinking themselves above the human condition and the concerns of the material world?
By no means am I discounting all the great things that came from those of the 60's. They really made great transformative radical changes in society, greater than any changes that came before their time, set an example that current psydel communities hopefully aspire to. I wouldn't want to live in a world where the 60's didn’t happen. Foolish if we don't continue tending to the seeds they planted, must keep up a gentle but firm push on those old institutions and ideals, keep the push up even during the ebb and flow between the old ways and the new ways that has continued in the decades since the 60's. Shame on us if we forget the lessons of the 60's, repeat their mistakes, not improve upon what they started. (FYI for anyone that reads this...I may totally be talking out of my ass re: the 60's, myself having been born in 1970. My beliefs about the 60's just comes from any reading or media I've absorbed over the years. I would have to do a lot more intentional research on the 60's if I ever intend this to be a publishable work).
Are they not aware of the historical precedence for mankind en masse to make major cognitive mistakes about how the natural world works. The Earth was once thought to be flat, we are at the center of the Universe with everything revolving around us, unique and not-often-occurring astronomical alignments that result in apocalypse/transformation, there's a benevolence to the Universe...what other things are we completely wrong about and are even completely blind to being wrong about it? It would be foolish for any individual, community or society to not concede that they hold beliefs that are completely wrong or are not inline with how our natural world actually works. I'm never too egotistical to think all of my beliefs are 100% right on target and that I'm above pondering, imagining and uncovering the beliefs that I am wrong about. I think today's psydel communities and it's individual members need to make an honest self-inquiry into what they are just completely wrong about. Hopefully they'll make this a regular contemplation personally and in their communities. Making this honest self-inquiry gives an individual confidence about the beliefs that hold up to the inquiry. Communities and organizations that practice self-inquiry gain a greater credibility and validity of arguments with the greater world at large. |
|
|
Maine Coon
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
1659
Posted : Oct 20, 2010 00:37
|
Well done.
There is a big difference between being hopeful or even romantic, maybe even mystical, and being delusional. I am glad at least somebody pointed that out.
This write-up seems like a good summary for a bigger (and deeper) review article, worthy of an academic journal (once it's researched and written  ). Too many sentences end in prepositions, but that's not a crime for a sketch like this.  |
|
|
|
Xolvexs
IsraTrance Senior Member
Started Topics :
241
Posts :
2848
Posted : Oct 26, 2010 17:22
|
there are never misteps in a psychedelic experience..there are only expereiences...how you percieve them is compleltely upto you..your reaction is based on the conditining you have gone through since childhood..you see the earth round because your eye balls are round
..heck you can train your mind to see the world as a triangle or an pentagon..no misteps..just illusions..to scared to take chances..falling in the hole spirialing down or upward doesnt matter as long as short.
no need for balance no need for stability, only need for control with control psychedelic can be power...
My mind is gun powder+°
My tongue is a trigger
My crainium is full of enriched uranium
There is nuclear fission in my head
Sonic Boom all the time
Blow Your mind
  When death comes to your doorstep, make sure you are alive |
|
|
|
Pauldo
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
11
Posts :
155
Posted : Oct 30, 2010 09:22
|
Quote:
|
On 2010-10-26 17:22, Xolvexs wrote:
there are never misteps in a psychedelic experience..there are only expereiences...how you percieve them is compleltely upto you..your reaction is based on the conditining you have gone through since childhood..you see the earth round because your eye balls are round
..heck you can train your mind to see the world as a triangle or an pentagon..no misteps..just illusions..to scared to take chances..falling in the hole spirialing down or upward doesnt matter as long as short.
no need for balance no need for stability, only need for control with control psychedelic can be power...
My mind is gun powder+°
My tongue is a trigger
My crainium is full of enriched uranium
There is nuclear fission in my head
Sonic Boom all the time
Blow Your mind
|
|
and what are you gonna do with all this power from control over psylics? I think that would be a common cognitive misstep many people make within the psylic experience...a grandiose sense of power.
Enjoyed your words and view although I may not agree. |
|
|
|
Xolvexs
IsraTrance Senior Member
Started Topics :
241
Posts :
2848
Posted : Nov 3, 2010 16:06
|
you right about that...i paying a huge ass price for that..i wish i never learnt english and never had damn computer keyboard..i assume psylics are psychedelic lyrics..
i'm just about clinging on to the door knob of sanity
When death comes to your doorstep, make sure you are alive |
|
|
|
Axis Mundi
Axis Mundi
Started Topics :
75
Posts :
1848
Posted : Nov 4, 2010 01:48
|
|
Common misstep: Thinking one's psychedelic experiences empower people to be able to learn something that they don't have the ability to learn on their own.
|
|
|
|
Pauldo
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
11
Posts :
155
Posted : May 30, 2011 15:49
|
Not sure if anyone will care but I'm going to toot my own horn on this. What I wrote on this topic which is the first post of this thread made it's way to a well known psychedelic author and professor of psych at a major university where he trains future therapists. He said I was absolutely right about cognitive missteps within the psychedelic experience not being taken into consideration by the psychedelic community and within a therapeutic setting. He said he's incorporated some of my ideas into his training for therapists.
toot! toot! I knew I was on to something. |
|
|
|
Vermeee
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
1069
Posted : May 30, 2011 18:29
|
Quote:
|
On 2010-10-26 17:22, Xolvexs wrote:
there are never misteps in a psychedelic experience..there are only expereiences...how you percieve them is compleltely upto you..your reaction is based on the conditining you have gone through since childhood..you see the earth round because your eye balls are round
..heck you can train your mind to see the world as a triangle or an pentagon..no misteps..just illusions..to scared to take chances..falling in the hole spirialing down or upward doesnt matter as long as short.
no need for balance no need for stability
|
|
+ 1
as much as those Cognitive Missteps Within the Psychedelic Experience are ilussions , all those sense of reality are ilusion as well imho
nobody can change society but everybody can change themselv... a comon mistake in revolution and rebelions thought...to think u can change society....
but a comon mistake in conservative or criticals thought, to think that to try to change something is morale agressive and desilusional
u cant control what other people think ...
so obviously all the hippies failed as much as gandhi or as much as the psytrancers who think they will transform society or as much as che guevara and fidel castro failed...
imo society is a living thing that transforms itself based on the small living things that lives inside it...
but u also have total power on urself to make change in patterns from what u see and believe... so u total can change UR rules..but remember..not from the next..
also u dont need to change ur self , and those who seek change aint special..
some prefers the strugle but security of shenanigan reality , others prefer the chaotic but variety of an unformed reality.
some prefers to live doin , doesnt matter what type of surround they have choosen ( unformed or formed reality ), but other prefer to live judgin , also same condition...
its all choices... there s no right or wrong out of ethic..and ethic s no rule...unless u choose to be..
and certainly those little chooses i have pointed aint only splited in 2 from the many possibilities i can see ( not considerins the ones i cant )....
and imho and personal choices its sad that i see people poiting fingers and doin judgements from other peoples choice...
but i also cant ignore that i also make choices and point fingers anyway... we are always choosin sides...
in the end it s all part from the novel we live in planet earth....
some will be born to degusti the light others will be born to endless night...
some who borned to degusti the light will wish to have lived in the night and vice versa...
all this drama all this joy , i thank the gods whoever/whatever/whichever/wherever are them...
http://soundcloud.com/bgos |
|
|
|
|
