Comments on the Psychonaut Website

The simple fact is, there are no free tickets to self development. It's the only thing that by definition cannot be sub-contracted, scammed, pretended or otherwise done "cleverly". Just as DNI and a physics chip might let you read with your eyes shut one day, but you still won't grok physics until you've reviewed the stuff and added the patterns to the Map which is you, so perception that you haven't worked up to is just a lightshow. Ouspensky records Gurdjieff saying that people in C2 can be brought into C3 or C4 with drugs, but cannot remember the experience afterwards. All that said, it does sound like this is a record of an experience of C4.

From another page:

Two weeks after my previous 5-MeO experience I decided to try it again. All day I had been dealing with an unpleasant situation in my personal life and it had me quite perplexed and in a somewhat down mood. I was planning on tripping mushrooms the next day and I didn't really want to go into that space with the negative energy I was carrying if I could avoid it. Although none of my previous 5-MeO trips had proved particularly insightful on a personal level, I thought it might help me sort out my feelings and figure out what I should do. If nothing else, I hoped it might alleviate some of the tension that had been built up and help me to relax.

A shroom is not a spaceship. A shroom is a fungus. Reality is there all along.

If I found myself doing one load of drugs in order to adjust my psychological state (instead of sorting myself out) prior to doing another load of drugs, I hope to goodness I'd stop myself! It's when people start doing that sort of thing that they lose the plot. Entertainment so long as it's fun and true development only!

In this case, the psychological confusion might actually have aided the writer in accessing C4. It seems to help to be pensive and distracted by multiple issues before an excursion to C4. I think it helps to preload the cognitive field. In the full "timeless" Hypertime model, this is also the accretion and knotting/unknotting and dispersal of structure.

As I loaded the 5-MeO in my pipe I was focusing on the day's events and asking for insight and suggestions for a resolution. I vaporized and inhaled the material in one hit, holding it deep within my lungs. As it started coming on I feared I hadn't gotten enough, since I was retaining awareness of the room. I was mistaken.

There should be no sledgehammers involved. No bogosity induced by the drug. One's awareness should not be diminished in any way. All that happens is that increased awareness makes the bits that have always been there proportionately less relevant.

Although I retained consciousness of my self, my thoughts expanded rapidly, running through memories and examining various aspects of my question with surety and speed. Hundreds of pieces of data were processed and considered and as I sat there, vibrating in tune with the universe. It felt like all angles of my quandary were explored and processed, leading inevitably to a solid conclusion. As I came down, some five or six minutes after takeoff, I had the answer to my question. Suddenly, the issue that had seemed hopelessly complicated was made simple. I also felt a tremendous release from the tension I had been feeling. All in all, I felt quite wonderful.

Yes. Every two points in the single huge Map of reality, at every level of abstraction and complexity, are joined. In C4 one can experience the All, and by remembering what one came for, and focussing on the perceived connection when retreating into C3, one can bring new concepts back. Aquaplaning between states seems to be more effective for this than total immersion, and you can only get what you can understand. The parallel between this section and "7: Magic" is striking. Moreover, the perceptions retrieved are novel and useful. As I have said, the R development was powered by several excursions to C4.

I decided that since my first trip had been so productive, and had freed me from the rather ego centered state of being I was in, that I would try another hit in an attempt to penetrate deeper into the experience. I loaded and smoked another hit of roughly the same size as the first and lay back as it came on.

This time, I felt as if I were being penetrated by energetic consciousness, spirits of some sort. They felt very distinctly Other, not me. This was a very interesting phenomenon, very similar to my last 5-MeO experience. Again, I felt compelled to move my body about in various ways, as if I was being manipulated to express these energies. The state of mind felt very tuned in to a racial consciousness, or collective unconscious. I had the feeling that these were some sort of ancestor spirits.

A lot of confusion here. The drug isn't doing it, he is. Reality is there, it is not an illusion. The Ghost Not has inverted his perception and he experiences the All as the Other.

Coming back from this I was amazed. Both jaunts had been entirely positive and fascinating in totally different ways. I decided that I would try a third and final experiment to see if I could penetrate deeper yet. Again I loaded a small amount, close to what I loaded on the previous trips, and smoked it in one hit, lying back as it came on.

Within seconds I was propelled to a deep, alien level of being. It was a strange, geometric level of consciousness. It felt very pristine, very true, like a dip into the well of the godhead. I felt completely suffused by this alien presence. On my previous trip, I felt like I was sharing consciousness with some Other. This felt like all the boundaries had been removed, and I stood revealed as a tiny part of what I might call Other, but was in fact One.

Aha! Geometric. The best way I could describe it was as the cutaway arm in Gray's Anatomy. Perfectly filling space at all times, but perfectly free to move. I wonder if the writer usually sees things organically. My tendancy is to see things geometrically, and although the arm metaphor has the necessary geometric properties, I know it came to mind because it was an organic metaphor. It is certainly a thing of utter elegance. The term "well", "going to the well", etc. has been used by many writers. It fits. I can't really describe anything more useful about the "well" term. It's the business of being the One that makes it so difficult to remember what "you" came for. Also, the One is a state rather than a process. You are a process. You have a thought, then you have another. You wish to recall, then you recall. It isn't like this in C4. You and the All - "It is movement, and repose".

This last trip felt completely alien and yet completely familiar. It was completely unlike what you could ever call human, yet it felt like a familiar and recognized state of being. It was a new lesson in infinity, cosmic, transcendent and alien.

Very busy, hummy, crackly, tense, full. Balanced.

After coming down I lay in bed for a while thinking about the experience and its implications. I was in a very positive state of mind. My first trip had been very personal, centered on my self and my day to day troubles. The second was racial, dipping into the collective unconscious and revealing something of our true nature to me. The last was completely transcendent, moving me out beyond any level I have previously experienced, into a unique and alien viewpoint. I slept well and had a fine day afterwards.

The effect of being in C4 and able to comprehend afterwards is very positive. Not that you'll necessarily be a happy chuckle head for no reason - an artifact of some drugs. I've returned to C3 worried, puzzled, and in other states one might not see as desirable. But in all cases these emotions were appropriate to what I'd brought back. And in all cases it is worth it. There is a real benefit to accessing C4, and this makes one feel positive. In the circumstance, which is getting on with it the emotional lift that one gets from learning more about how the universe really works and how much cooler a place than Ghost Not reality it really is, is secondary.

On another page he writes:

My breathing seemed to slow and deepen and my senses seemed sharpened and ready to recieve data. Everything around seemed suffused with depth and meaning. I felt the vibration I have felt before with this material and briefly wondered if it might be the carrier wave of reality.

More likely involuntary muscle tremor. The self really, really, really is more important than the drug, the drug rituals, or the lovingly recounted details of mixtures. (Ha! On another page we have:

I had some weird body effects intermittently. I experienced some muscle tremors and twitches similar to what I get on 2CB from time to time. These aren't unpleasant, just a little annoying.

Carrier wave of reality my bottom! Clear, critical, intuitive, open minds we need. Otherwise we become the "one sided mystics" of Steiner.)

It seemed like I was listening to each instrument seperately, but simultaneously.

This expansion of the cognitive field, the number of details that one can be simultaneously aware of discretely and in gestalt, is the key to it all.

I felt very "trippy" and altered, but in a way that is hard to define or pin down. Nothing seemed really different, it just got a lot more intense all of the sudden...

I'll get back to this...

The ceiling began to undulate and flow. I moved around in an attempt to align my body with the energies flowing around and through me. I could almost, but not quite, see them in the air in fron of me. The results of my adjustments (greater comfort and a sense of rightness about my body state) and the near visuals inspired me to move my arms about in the air on front of me. I saw definite trails as my arms traced patterns in front of my face.

I have never experienced visuals like this near C4. That said, I've only perceived intuitive data visually on two occasions anyway. I'm intruiged by claims of aura perception, but have never done it. So it might be a thing that happens on the way, for some people. The All experience could not be flattened to visual form - it's a direct experience that uses all of one's Map as a sensor and (seed?) datum.

After a few minutes I stopped and visualized myself lying on the floor. In a way that is difficult to explain, this felt very profound. My visualization seemed charged with mythical/archetypal symbols and power. When I sat up and looked around everything had an enchanted, magical feel to it. I have heard this reported with DMT and apparently it is possible on 5-MeO as well. Everything seemed to have an aura of significance to it.

This I have experienced. It happened about 20 years ago. There was no THC bearing material to be found, and a local witch became very popular because of her huge supply of "homegrown". For about a month the sneaky witchy subversive had a whole group of us smoking dutura plant matter! I didn't notice anything was odd until I found myself staring at a set of traffic lights one day, mesmerised by the geometrical beauty of the lights, the patterns of similar colour and colour changes, with my monitor shouting, "It's a traffic light! You've lost it! Somehow you have lost it!" There's a sense of living in a kind of higher resonance, symbolic world, that is hidden within the usual one. I don't think it's very useful. The universe is fractally self-similar, and the deep structure indeed crosses layers of abstraction. If you aren't used to noticing this stuff, something that gives you a hint of it can produce the symbol-world subjective experience, but all in all I'd say it is as obfuscatory as it is elucidatory. One cannot get detail to be understood. It doesn't provide useful results. The sense of weirdness comes because one is aware that there is a harmony, but can't see what it is! And the weirdness of the experience isn't even useful in its own right as a crude psychological explosive. It isn't another world. a hidden one or anything like that. It is a little whiff of reality. Unless a person groks that, they are going to call it another "subjective" - and hence false - impression. The old "there is no such thing as reality" Ghost Not problem. All through the Carlos Castenada compilations (his data are interesting although his sources have been jammed together) he goes on about another "spirit" or "dream" world like this. Just like quantum mechanics copping out with another "QM" reality. No, no, no! We must sort it out here. Now.

Another hole or two farther on we stopped to take a break. I passed around a jug of green tea and got out my nitrous cracker. I filled up balloons for both of my companions before enjoying one myself.

As I inhaled the last of the balloon and the effects were swirling up to surround me I opened my eyes and looked out over the park. Everything seemed to waver and shimmer and vibrate (a different vibration or frequency than the 5-MeO vibe). Two people were coming up the hill towards us and the sounds they made seemed to combine with, bounce off of, and be warped by the nitrous into a strange symphony. It seemed right and I felt totally tuned into everything around me. I had the distinct impression that everything was as it should be.

After the balloon wore off P produced a pipe and we all took a few hits of cannabis. This was my first time mixing cannabis with 2CB, and I was curious what effect it would have since I had heard both good and bad things about the combo.

This reads like an entertainment that treats sensory distortion caused by nitrous oxide and THC as equivalent to perception of the All - while retaining the pretence of sincere enquiry into states of awareness. They are different classes of experience. It looks to me like insufficient preparation has caused the writer to fail to realise the significance of the deeper experience. Call me a sanctimonious boring old fart if you like.

In the car on the way over I did another balloon of nitrous. Again I left my eyes open (I usually close them on nitrous). I had an interesting realiztion of our (possible) true nature. I conceived of us an essence that uses our bodies strictly to sense the world around us and communicate and interact with one another.

This is not actually so novel :-) Different classes of experience.

Another page:

As I set the pipe down I knew I had underdosed. I felt the rising energy and 5-MeO "hum", but subtly enough I knew I wasn't going to be catapulted into 5-MeO space. I closed my eyes and laid down anyway in an effort to go with it and see me how far it would take me. I got a hint of the elaborate geometric dimension that 5-Meo can allow access to, but just a hint.

I was disappointed at this largely failed attempt, and decided I might try again later.

For bringing concrete valuables back to C3, this aquaplaning is actually the most valuable skill to practice.

I was already seeing/feeling/experiencing reality as a set of folding "puzzles", each of which represented a certain vector of cosmic energy.

This kind of language has got itself a very bad name. The trouble is, knowing what he means one can applaud and say, "Good effort!" Not knowing, it's just so much abuse of sensible words :-( It's why I don't usually try.

There are not words for the experience that followed. At least, no words that I know. I was completely enmeshed in cosmic existence. There was no thought at all, certainly no thought of a human existence on an earthly plain. I was simply a spinning pattern of energy in an infinite sea of energy, experiencing everything, all at once without the intruding illusion of temporality or time. "Ah-ha, so THIS is how It is"

I think I remember opening my eyes, seeing the room around me and integrating it into my colorful spinning vision of Light. Sounds from outside and the other room played into my brain, becoming part of the infinite dance unfolding within me. My life seemed to make sense, discrete events falling into place as parts of a seamless whole. I glimpsed the master plan, seeing that it was good. I had this feeling that time and consciousness are two parts of a seamless whole, that "reality" is just one way of looking at a subset of available data. All this and more transpired in a space of time less than ten minutes.

This is indeed the full C4 experience. It is real, not a drug induced cognitive illusion. It takes R to explain it, and it explained R. Which is concrete and testable as spelled out on the Irregular Activities page. It really isn't like downing a bottle of vodka and waking up to find a note to yourself, "Leave out top biscuit so it won't break".

I came back completely awed. My earlier 5-Meo experiences had been only a teaser. Even my smoked DMT trip had only hinted at the complexity and scope of the full experience available through the tryptamine flash. I was literally blown away. Coming back was like being reborn, remembering that I existed as an embodied human being in a concrete universe. I was completely thrilled by the trip, and eager to share it. As soon as the body tremor subsided (which took another ten minutes at least) I loaded a big hit for my roommate to smoke. He did so and was pulled into an experience that he called "amazing". I smoked what he had left in the pipe, finding myself returned to a level higher than my first two attempts of the day, though no where near the ecstatic revelation of my previous hit.

After that I jumped into the shower to get ready. After all, I still had a Tool show to attend.

I do get the impression that these people think the experience is some sort of cute illusion. They have their fingers crossed behind their backs at all times. Deep grained Ghost Not denial of the All.

One last note. I am not sure I have mentioned it before, but 2CB seems to enhance my recall of events experienced under its influence. I can recall many details from all of my 2CB trips, and the memories are very vivid, almost as if I were there. This trip was no exception.

Hehe. In the Hypertime model, the authentic, useful data that can be obtained in C4 can be thermodynamically accounted for as an exchange of information and energy with the future. You don't just recall prior data - you can get future data too. Like I say, the All is timeless.

The pages indicate that the writer has done some background study, although not enough to appreciate what he's got hold of. Nevertheless, he does seem to have successfully accessed C4 much more easily than I managed to do it either without drug SRBs or using normal "recreational" doses of MDMA. As I've said, using MDMA recreationally - to get a lightshow - is something I reckon is very inadvisable indeed. But who can argue against the resistance built up to decades of packer government lies? Anyway, my default assumption would be that to be as powerful, his mixes would presumably be at least as dangerous.

Another point about "unearned" access to C4: You don't know what you'll get. Often people with Buddhist cultural backgrounds will say that drugs "make holes in your aura and let bad things in". Things perceived in C4 can reside in your subconscious and provide weird non-understood intuitive cues. People who go for the lightshow thus open themselves up to having less, rather than more, understanding of their own state. While there certainly are situations where "unmoderated" download can be necessary and appropriate, they are few and far between. In Reciprocality I've tried to construct an incremental bridge from science to magic, which recounts (in a linear form) the journey I had to take to create it. (Self-seeding!) If you take your time, use R as a skeleton and study the references and materials attached, you should be able to develop your own understanding to the point where you can access C4 when appropriate, understand what you get, and never throw up. You'll also know what I mean by "when appropriate".

My appreciation for raves grows with each one I attend. Although I do see some things that concern me, including a lot of reckless drug use, the overall scene is great. Most everyone I have met is friendly, there is little or no violence and people have a great time in a fairly healthy way. Plus, for some at least, it can be a place to experience the divine, opening their consciousness into mystic dimensions with the help of lights, rhythms and sacred psychoactives.

100% seconded! The party movement is a profound source of perception change, growing right in the middle of the biggest economic surplus and hence M0 peak we've ever seen. Anyone who has listened to Sufi arhythmic talking drum music (easiest way to do this if you never have is to listen to "Sat In Youir Lap" and "Get Out Of My House" on Kate Bush's "The Dreaming") will be able to hear that House has found the musical keys to the mind. It's one of the synchronistic threads that make me very confident that this one is going to break good, not bad.

On one page that featured the bucket rather a lot, the writer notes that he became very cold. He doesn't say that he became cold in the successful excursions to C4. If the r4 model is correct - he should have done. Maybe he was so interested in C4 that he didn't notice. This is something that I'm still angleing to test using thermal imaging. I just need to get the right bits together at the right time!

A final word from the writer, seconded by me 100%:

A word of warning: don't mix these drugs unless you are very experienced and comfortable with extremely intense experiences. I can easily imagine it precipitating a freak out in someone unprepared for the intensity.

Alan