Effects of psychedelic substances on the human psyche

[Dave V]

Throughout SWIM's time of using psychedelics SWIM has come to the conclusion that they are not merely tools to help with realization, but that they also have a driving force behind them that makes the user aware of his/her ability to either accept these realizations or try to change them; in essence changing themselves if they chose the latter and vice versa.
(this might be why people seem to change after using psychedelics; becoming more accepting of things, or completely changing their personalities.)
What SWIM wanted to know from the rest of the users on this forum is; what have the effects of psychedelics been on your personality, how have they affected your view of the world, of other people and of yourselves?

SWIM will start off by listing two of SWIM's "subjects" who have given their consent to post SWIM's findings on this website.

*Subject 1 INTP
(suffered from depression and anxiety):
After the use of psychedelics has accepted the problems within himself as being a part of himself; anxiety and depression have decreased, but is struggling to fit into society. The subject doesn't seem to have a problem with this, although he is frustrated with his fellow humans who,as he calls it, are "spinning in circles".Subject suffers mild sleep deprevation and HPPD.

*Subject 2 INTS
(suffered from depression and anxiety):
After the use of psychedelics is trying to accept the problems within himself, but finds it hard to come to terms with the shift in his personality (from an extrovert to an introvert); anxiety and depression have increased, is also struggling to fit into society. The subject seems to have a problem with the fact that he can't communicate with people as he used to; he feels they don't understand what he is talking about.Expects a person's complete attention or else he gets agravated. The problems that have been accepted were an immense "weight off of his shoulders."
Subject suffers sleep deprevation and HPPD.

This is merely a personal study of the effects of psychedelics to help the psychonautic community.
INTP and INTS reffer to the Jungian theory of personality archetypes.

Links:
Jungian typology - Online personality test based on Jung and Briggs Myers typology

 

[ophiuchus]

well, i wasn't very outspoken in my younger years. always with an "i don't know" when asked what i preferred. now i am a creator, though i am very aware of how i speak, how i act. i have always perceived how others acted (minding their consequences when they often did/do not), but psychedelics have helped me to turn inward and cast this gaze upon myself as well. since then it has been my journey to makes this my advantage. so far so good.

 

[drizzit]

I was learning disabilled throughout all my school years. I couldn't learn quick but I was always the most enthusiastic and ready for anything I tryed pot at ten then started smoking regularly at thirteen that was about the same time I moved from ny to fl for about six months then came back. Ny failed me when I came back because fl had me learning decimal's in the eighth grade... Anywho I droped out at sixteen I was supposed to be graduating at 16 but they had held me back so I gave up (wish I didn't) around that time I had been useing mushrooms a lot then buy eighteen I graduated to lsd and dabbled with molly. I had tryed drinking and hated it, I still do. My friends got cought up in heroin crack or coke leaving me as someone who smokes pot as there main drug (I hate uppers I hate coke and heroin I hate alcohol) I started tripping alone and learning shit myself. Iv been to the realm of the shamen and iv danced with the moon and sun. I'm even as lucky to tripp with old friends at points but regardless of any of that I still feel lost. Iv never been able to enter a meditation yet that would even come close to that feeling (not trying to set a bar for my meditaion iv just never been able to reach the state everyone claims, iv been meditating for almost four years) and I feel like I have major anger issues(unable to control bottled rage) but at the same time I feel feelingless as in, to each there own. so I sit in the gray watching the world work out its day to day problems while I try to figure out how to navigate my own mind while trying to make everyone around (household) happy and accepting but non of this exploration seems to help me coop and I whole hartedly want nothing more but death at points (to much of a pussy to do anything when it comes down to it) and I can't seem to find a way to stay happy unless my mind is not its own Sry for the long post. But don't worry when I have the funds I plan on trying a shrink.

 

[undertr]

I honestly don't know how much change in my life I can attribute to psychedelic usage considering change is inevitable regardless.

I would say they probably made me more interested in philosophy though

I would also say they made me more open to different potentials. I have become more aware of how my belief systems shape my perception of reality and how they are mostly all based on assumptions. This has somewhat revitalised me to seek new paths with the hope of new experiences and the potential for less suffering.

 

[zezt]

Sorry to hear that drizzit. be wary of seeing a shrink. They aint called 'shrinks' for nothin! lol Their worldview is mechanistic and they view us a chemicalized robots that need maintainance with their psych drugs that as it happens also makes their wages shoot up pushing them for the pharmaceutical industry, and please do some research about the 'mental illness myth'.

Now let me see--my first psychedelic experience was 15, and ever since it has been a n3ever-ending journey of dis-cover~y

After my first trips they were tied in with the ending of a dream I had had--to be a dancer, and that was traumatic enough. Also I ended up living rough and had to return home going on 17, and I just couldn't click with my old life and friends, I had been through *SOOOOO* much. Remember that these subtances are extraordinarily powerful for the bodymind and there was me this 15 year old kid with no real after-support for help with integrating my life-changing experience and also with all this other stuff, and dealing with adolescence which in itself can be very traumatic. But like you know drizzit, it is not about being a hero, it is we get up in the morning and carry on--the only alternative being suicide.

So I began searching for books to try and help me (at this time I was also suffering in a DREADFUL factory job where you are literally a cog in a machine) and I tried loads of authors, Casteneda, Gurdjieff (his books gave me terrible headaches lol), Nietszche, Yogananda, Leary, Herman Hesse, I even went through this born again Christian phase!! And at 17 I even joined the Hare Krishna cult --even leaving home to go to their temple, but thankfully that was only to last for a couple of weeks! etc, and then one day I found this little book by Alan Watts called Cloudhidden Whereabouts Unknown and it was like fresh water, it just refreshed me. He writes about how reality is polar~related, so for example you cannot have light without dark, you cannot know light without dark, and vice verse, and same is so with good and bad, life and death etc etc etc. This all written so eloquently and gelling with what I had experienced with psychedelics---in the book he also talks about psychedelics too which many of the other books didn't. So that was really the beginning of my journey which still goes on---always learning. I was to learn that Alan's insight are the same as the very ancient Goddess religious understanding. This was the time it dawned on me that most of the books I had were male authors, and I then found amazing books written by women who deeply helped me deconstruct the patriarchal matrix of his-story.

In your post drizzit it made me sad and mad because i am VERY VERY against the so-called 'education' system--I have a lot to say about this utterly fucked-up system (are you familiar with John Taylor Gatto ?) Where you have been nade to feel you were 'disabled', and 'couldn't learn quick' PLEASE man, do not believe all that shit. That is the State treating children as machines. Please trust me, or better don't trust me or anyone but just trust the pointers I am giving you and check them out. All the crap they internalize into you as a child can and does fuck you up because they make you feel --like you felt--disabled and slow learner, and they also call children 'ADHD', and 'maladjusted', etc---and as you know since the 80s they even force kids to take their drugs. So to empower ourselves, and remember who we are we must be very aware of the myths they have internalized in us and continue spinning in us, and a BIGGIS is their 'education' system which they force millions of children to attend from being very little.

You say you 'still feel lost'. Why? Do you think other people don't? Who knows where they have come from, why they are here, and where we are going? I sure don't. But I can explore what this feeling lost may mean in a deeper more mysterious way, and it involves understanding the dynamic of light and dark. Darkness is mystery---is the unknown, and it is ALWAYS with the known. So the thing is to embrace this and not imagining we can know-it-all

iv just never been able to reach the state everyone claims, iv been meditating for almost four years) and I feel like I have major anger issues(unable to control bottled rage) but at the same time I feel feelingless as in, to each his there so I sit in the gray watching the world work out its day to day problems while I try to figure out how to navigate my own mind while trying to make everyone around (household) happy and accepting but non of this exploration seems to help me coop and I whole hartedly want nothing more but death at points (to much of a pussy to do anything when it comes down to it) and I can't seem to find a way to stay happy unless my mind is not its own Sry for the long post. But don't worry when I have the funds I plan on trying a shrink.

'Everyone claims' ...A lot of what they claim is bullshit. For example in the New Age they cllaim all sorts of nonesense, about how they have ascended and talk to entities etc etc. It is crap. Don't believe it. YOU are sacred as you are. Do not let them CLAIM they have got somewhere. it is BS, truly.

You say you find it hard to neditate because you have bottled rage? Listen--for get all that meditation shit--what is real is how you feel. Not sitting like a stone buddha pretending you are a buddha--all that to me is phony crap. You feel rage at times, and that is natural. From what you say I am not surprosed you do because you must have had a shit time at school being made to feel lesser than ther other kids, and then later in life you meet your peers who CLAIM they are more advanced than you. Other stuff of this life that can drive us mad too----So for me ---I HATE that word 'meditation' because it is such a loaded term now. All it means is this. This is the etymology:
c.1200, "contemplation; devout preoccupation; devotions, prayer," from O.Fr. meditacion "thought, reflection, study," and directly from L. meditationem (nom. meditatio) "a thinking over, meditation," noun of action from pp. stem of meditari "to meditate, think over, reflect, consider," frequentative form from PIE root *med- "to measure, limit, consider, advise, take appropriate measures" (cf. Gk. medesthai "think about," medon "ruler;" L. modus "measure, manner," modestus "moderate," modernus "modern," mederi "to heal," medicus "physician;" Skt. midiur "I judge, estimate;" Welsh meddwl "mind, thinking;" Goth. miton, O.E. metan "to measure;" also see medical).

So there's all these different definition, and the Eastern version is trying to get to a state of NOT thinking. But I say this: just be yourself. Feel how you feel, and that is enough

HOW do you feel? Are you aware that other peoples stories may have gotten inside your head--like the school-story you had to live through, and the 'meditation' story your peers claim is so, and all the other stuff? What I try and do is look at these myths and see if they are real or phony. HOW do they make me feel alive? Do they dull me or eliven me? The prevailing myth of this so-called modern age is this: you are a robot, and live in a meaningless dead nature. Now if that isn't desgned to deaden us I don't know what is!

So I explore who and why these myths have been pushed. Who does it suit that we should feel like this. Know what I mean?

 

[superflu]

Before trying psychedelics, i was already aware of a lot of things, and without being a good or bad person, I always have been really objective in my way of thinking. So I can't say that it changed me. However, i know that before trying mushs i thought it was drug, such as Heroin or crack. What I realized then, was that it isn't drug, it is earth's presents. And the society lied to me, so it helped me distinguish the reals and the fakes every states try to input into their citizens brain.

Sorry for the english skills.

 

[drizzit]

when i say the shrink part i just don't want to make people worry about my well being after readin that. i enjoy putting my opinions on this site and i do enjoy the feed back especially when some one really takes the time to care. thank you zezt. i never knew about the 'mental illness myth' . i feel iv done alot of discovery as well and completely agree with there having to take the good and the bad. the universe is all balance i believe, and we cant be a hero like everyone tells us we can as a child.

i too had a terrible factory job, they paid me less then when i roofed,lumber milled or contracted and i worked harder and more hours for the factory then the other jobs :/ . i started getting into books around 16-17 as well this was the time i was beginning to read well (started playing WoW) i still suck at spelling an what not although id love to be a writer i started reading (drew karpyshyn)'s darth bane - path of destruction - my father left at a young age but stayed close so i could visit an stuff, he helped me fall in love with starwars, he moved to fl when i was around nine same time my father figure grandfather was starting to pass. my tattoo artist uncle became my father figure he always treated me great an he was the cool dude obviously we still maintain this relationship to this day. my mother is agoraphobic so he would always live close by or have us move wear he was going after all my mom is his sister. i also have two younger brothers one of whom along with my uncle were reading the star wars multiverse and my uncle had played D&D in his youth and my younger brother had started playing 3.5, my brother started reading R.A Salvitoer's Drizzt trilogy. i had a best friend who chilled day in out still a best friend to this day but less chilling the friend worshiped drizzt but nether of us played D&D so we started buy makin up are own shit based on video gaming then graduated to real D&D. I then started reading Drizzt myself i like how you wrote about women's books being in-lightning through all my readings in D&D mostly forgotten realms iv found Elminster when he became a wizerd was transformed into a women to better understand magic this all comes from ancient tales of odin the Norse God dressing like a women to practice magic. my point being i wanted to harness the force and become a wizerd in my older times >.> sorry im writing so much that being said im not about to dress as a women to practice magic... i can practice it in the cloths im wearing now fine but through video games and D&D i found out who i was and how to learn before all this i was a kid running around thinking i was a ninja using drugs (i love booking through the woods on shrooms to this day) but i also gained a religious point of view the gods in D&D are vary real and are all there to keep balance throughout there multiverse thats where alignment comes in neutral,good, chaotic,evil,lawful ext. and being able to mix them all as in lawful-evil like a devil .

im 22 btw.

when it comes to the education i just want that pieces of paper that will let me get employment in something i can enjoy and be passionate about. i want to be a stoner/psychonaut but that docent mean i don't want to help my country or pay taxs. i want to help people and myself i want to be able to function with the world. i feel when i dropped out and started my gaming was when i really started learning.

i dont feel as if other people arnt lost i feel they can see ahead better then myself or have better odds then myself. but i do embrace this life for all i can and try to take every small step as some sort of victory.

the bottled rage docent really come with the mediation i exercise and eat right throughout the day before i meditate i do sometime meditate if im mad to calm down. i just get told of this state of mediation once you reach you can enter all the time and i just cant find it in my mediation. i dont try to be a still budda i just try to make my brain function inward trying to enter an almost sleep state to reflect on the day or current situation. iv tryed making my brain produce dmt but no luck so far >.> but i try to change the way im feeling through mediation i have no real religion i believe in the force from star wars and the gods of D&D / forgotten realms. i try to not think as well to let my mind just float. but iv yet to not feel like myself even in my most out of body experiences i still knew me, my name and how i got there (cant happen without help from a substance for me)

and your completely right i feel like we are trying to get programs forced into us to work a certain way to fit right in modern society. and most society docent care for nature they care for wall mart /puke (not you psychonaut's ) iv never had a better feeling then laying down under a western NY apple tree starring into the branches and beyond them into space eating golden apples while trippping face. no rhyme intended.

 

[zezt]

when it comes to the education i just want that pieces of paper that will let me get employment in something i can enjoy and be passionate about. i want to be a stoner/psychonaut but that docent mean i don't want to help my country or pay taxs. i want to help people and myself i want to be able to function with the world. i feel when i dropped out and started my gaming was when i really started learning.

I went back to education in my early 30s cause of pressure from the welfare. to get them offa ny back, because at that time I had THANKFULLY left that awful factory ordeal. I chose fine art, and got a first class hons BA. But the actual experience at art school was not cool because I had this psycho student on my case---long story. But I felt pround to get that recognition, and the actual experience of exploring art, images, the whole thing was AMAZING!
So I encourage you to find what you really wanna do and dive in. What are you passionate about---is there one thing, or a myriad of thing?

 

[drizzit]

Im delving into my passions now i just started mushroom hunting this summer but i think im ganna try some crappy jobs (janitor,pizza,) somthin so i can start some schoolin

 

[infinidev]

Ganja has its psychedelic properties doesn't it?

:tear:

 

[drizzit]

Yes

 

[hugspot]

Throughout SWIM's time of using psychedelics SWIM has come to the conclusion that they are not merely tools to help with realization, but that they also have a driving force behind them that makes the user aware of his/her ability to either accept these realizations or try to change them; in essence changing themselves if they chose the latter and vice versa.
(this might be why people seem to change after using psychedelics; becoming more accepting of things, or completely changing their personalities.)
What SWIM wanted to know from the rest of the users on this forum is; what have the effects of psychedelics been on your personality, how have they affected your view of the world, of other people and of yourselves?

SWIM will start off by listing two of SWIM's "subjects" who have given their consent to post SWIM's findings on this website.

*Subject 1 INTP
(suffered from depression and anxiety):
After the use of psychedelics has accepted the problems within himself as being a part of himself; anxiety and depression have decreased, but is struggling to fit into society. The subject doesn't seem to have a problem with this, although he is frustrated with his fellow humans who,as he calls it, are "spinning in circles".Subject suffers mild sleep deprevation and HPPD.

*Subject 2 INTS
(suffered from depression and anxiety):
After the use of psychedelics is trying to accept the problems within himself, but finds it hard to come to terms with the shift in his personality (from an extrovert to an introvert); anxiety and depression have increased, is also struggling to fit into society. The subject seems to have a problem with the fact that he can't communicate with people as he used to; he feels they don't understand what he is talking about.Expects a person's complete attention or else he gets agravated. The problems that have been accepted were an immense "weight off of his shoulders."
Subject suffers sleep deprevation and HPPD.

This is merely a personal study of the effects of psychedelics to help the psychonautic community.
INTP and INTS reffer to the Jungian theory of personality archetypes.

Links:
Jungian typology - Online personality test based on Jung and Briggs Myers typology

I was just thinking that maybe after using psychedelic, would it be better if a person undergo a personality test like MBTI which you mentioned above or similar tool such as Disc. This methodology can will help a person analyze his personality and behavioral styles. Thus, will help him discover his strengths and weaknesses. Click this for more info about this type of tool. After discovering such factors, one can be motivated to change and improve his or personality.