Hmm I must say I never really had visuals on meditation nor did I try to have them but I was referring to the ego transcendence which was pretty effective with meditation and it made me realize I had the same experiences on psychedelics but was then too young to understand.

First off I must say that when I was younger I experimented a lot with different psychedelics (mostly mushrooms and LSD) and was inspired by the accounts of people who had experiences of oneness, or finding the God within. Now I must say I was pretty young when I used them (15 to 20) and when I...

I have been interested in this topic for some time and have come to the conclusion that there is no free will. Even if we consciously make decisions, which can be doubted as you said, these decisions are based on what you think is best according to the things you value the most which is the...

my guess is that it's from one of the plane's where shaman's go to (underworld, upperworld, and middle world). These are said to be realms where you can access the collective unconscious and the things you see are symbolic representations of certain things that happen here which can have an...

Okay, I guess you are right. One questions remain's though... If it isn't a disease and why the western society views it as dangerous because it is afraid of alternative states of consciousness, what could the possible benefit of having a psychosis be? I would say, being "trapped" into your...

Regarding shamanism, what I meant is what I learned in the shamanic training I am doing now is that you go to the 'underworld' which is another name for the collective unconscious. I think in a psychosis you enter the same realm. And with the proper techniques you can choose to get in the...

Yeah it crossed my mind before that people may unconsciously choose to get into this state of mind. However this is still different than actively taking a substance for example. So the chance of a 'bad trip' so to say is larger, but I think, like psychedelics a bad trip can still have beneficial...

It is an interesting viewpoint that a psychosis is a spiritual crisis. However most people who have a psychosis are suffering from it. Guess you can compare it to a bad trip, but then a bad trip from something you didn't know you took it because people in a psychosis don't choose to get one. If...

I think you have a point there, but I don't think I entirely agree. When you're in a psychosis you don't rationally think "hey, that person is the devil" for example, your brain forces this conviction onto your conscious mind so you have to go with it. And often the person in a psychosis doesn't...

Psychosis is a phenomenom shared by different psychiatric disorders, such as manic depressive, schizoaffective and schizophrenia. Although it is said to be true that a schizophrenic psychosis is different from a manic depressive psychosis, it isn't necessarily true that when one has...

@BrainEater: I do think you're confusing schizophrenia with psychosis. Schizophrenia means nothing more than that you are vulnerable for psychosis. I have schizophrenia, but I feel more sane than ever before so it doesn't have to say that you're struggling with psychotic thoughts or symptoms...

It's a simple question, I don't think it requires much elaboration. So, what have you gained from using psychedelics? Discuss.

Well since I have schizophrenia myself I should be able to see for myself whether or not there is a link between shamanism and schizophrenia. I recently started a course (is that the right word?) in shamanism from a dutch guy through the internet. The goal we had until now was to always live in...

I certainly get drunk differently on beer, wine, or spirits. I always thought that was because of the herbs they put in beer and wine. Hop in beer, but I don't know whether they put herbs in wine. Come to think of it, I don't think they do. Could also be the rate of absorption of alcohol in the...

Not as good as most of the stuff posted here, but here is my latest creation: