I'm going to preface this by saying that I started using drugs far, far, too early. I was already doing psychs by my early teens.
This is largely in part to the DARE program. I had a few friends that were smoking weed when I was in 6th grade, a year after we got drilled with DARE. When they didn't lose their minds and murder their families, and told me they just had a great time, I decided to join in when they offered. I was immediately blown away by how hard I'd been lied to. Cannabis wasn't a gateway, the realization that adults were deliberately lying to me was. At that point I needed to know what else I'd been lied to about...
LSD is my one true chemical love. Will try oral DMT at some point, and have only one night's worth of smoking DMT, but hot damn I can't wait to get back there. I had been drinking after a shift and wound up at an after party and spent a good chunk of time blasting off here and there, but will for sure be going back sober next time. Ketamine gets a ****** rap because of the way some folks use it, but is a wildly powerful experience, especially when paired with LSD. Low dose shrooms are great fun, but I haven't gone heroic with them in a very long time. They were just too confusing and I never walked away with things to work on like I did with L. I was also a much bigger disaster back then though, so I'm eager to dive deep with a better head.
regarding the mythical ego death. this is where you end up if you take a lot of/too much of, i guess, any psychedelic.
its gets weirder and weirder until it just overloads your mind. and from what i have read, its the state where you simply stop understanding that you are who you are, or a human at all, you simply dont know/understand that you exist anymore. so for all practical purposes you think you are dead. i dont even know if one can "think" in the regular sense at that point. you might just be able to observe. i have also seen it described as "the void".
i think other drugs are capable of this too. different sleeping pills and similar stuff. it might not have any kind of healing effect after though.
This is nothing even remotely close to ego death (as was mentioned dissolution is a much better term) in my experience(s). It's the exact opposite of confusion. This isn't to say that you suddenly have all the knowledge or something, it just ceases to matter. What makes you you, the self,
your consciousness melts away and what's left realizes its actually part of
the consciousness. It's not that you can't think, but there's no need. There's no reason to ponder anything when you can just be, free of any need, want, desire, worry, anything. It's like being part of a stream of pure energy, and that energy is thought. Not specific thoughts (what's that, who am I, what's the definition of the word is, etc), but thought as existence. The same experience can be reached through meditation according to many, just in a slower non rocket ship way. This is obviously my subjective take. It's the most beautiful, calming, and comforting experience I've ever felt.
The attempts to get there in my late teens were anything but..my self did not want to let go, and that's the scary part.
So yeah, I guess for me it doesn't occur when you take too much, it's when you take just exactly enough, and have your **** together enough.
Bill hicks summed it up super succinctly in his bit on drugs in the news.
i dont think ketamine is the right tool for the job. its a "dissociative" made for knocking out horses
if they just want a compliant subject just give them ambien. and they will tell you everything you want to know too.
Ketamine was developed for, and it's most widespread use has always been, humans. It was an alternative to PCP with far less undesirable qualities. It's still the primary anesthetic for children and the elderly due to its physical safety. Ever been put under for any surgery? You almost certainly had Ketamine in the cocktail they used.
Yes, it's used for vetinary purposes as well, but it wasn't developed for that.
Sounds crazy to me.
As you allude to, lots that can wring from a safety point of view.
There are alsoalso stories of gangs taking K before a fight because the analgesic effect makes them feel invincible.
Due to the massive motor function issues that come with basically any effective dose of K, I can't see this being useful in any way. It's literally the last drug I can imagine helping in a fight lol
LSD, macro or micro depending on situation) is by far my favorite "drug"...p cubensis, and mj are also very good. Legalize it...
As to weed getting stronger, I call bs. First I smoked in the 70's was Columbian gold, Panama red, black Jamaican...new strains can be high thc but most are bred for terpines nowadays. Legal here recreational and medical. Genetics are good but folks have no clue about the curing process...I ***** all the time. Will say that prices here are low...oz's at 150 down to 1/8's for 25. Don't so much care for all the concentrates but they've got the edible thing figured out.
People are breeding for terps now, but that's the last what...six years, maybe? Three that it's blown up? You look at many years before that that selective breeding was done primarily with potency as the end goal. This isn't to say that landrace sativas aren't out there dropping dicks in the dirt, but those were also strains getting their full expression in their natural habitat. Most people in the states aren't ever going to experience a real true sativa (or narrow leaf drug variety if we're gonna get real), regardless of what the bud tender tells them it is. No one is commercially pumping out 16+ week NLD varietals, and in the states it's all hybrid at this point.
I grew for a few years, and will be getting back to it soon, but I think it's far less about people understanding about curing, and more about them just jot giving a ****. I watched so many growers rush through a quick dry/cure just because they wanted money by the time harvest was up, and knew if it looked good it would still sell.