I was listening to this lecture given about MDMA and the guy in it said that he believes what MDMA does over other drugs, that makes it so peculiar, so special, is that whatever circuitry it is in the central nervous system that creates fear, fight or flight response. MDMA suspends it, cuts it out. This to me makes alot of sense because, you can get just as much euphoria from other drugs without much trouble. LSD, mushrooms, mescaline are easily as euphoric. Even good marijuana can be as euphoric. But you can get fear on these, which lowers the euphoria, or your awareness of potential euphoria. Whereas MDMA, it prevents that, it's really just not possible to feel fear on MDMA I find and it is exactly that quality that makes MDMA what it is. And this aspect would also explain why exactly MDMA does what it does. Without fear, your perception of energy is wide open, your willing to feel other people fully, your willing to feel things energetically, your will to open up your intuition fully to feel energy is there in full. Which I believe you can get to this point sober through meditation, but people don't because it is scary to be that perceptive. So what I mean is that, MDMA doesn't actually make you more open and perceptive of energy, this is simply a by-product of having no fear. Now with that what I'm curious to know is. Do you think it'd be possible to learn to suspend this circuitry naturally through meditation. From a philosophical viewpoint, is fear even necessary?
i agree, and i think the most important thing the mdma experience can do for us is give us a glimpse of what life is like lived without fear. after we've felt it, we know that it's real and that it's possible and attainable. i think meditation helps move us toward being that way all the time, but we also need to constantly push ourselves outside of our comfort zone, take risks, do the things we're afraid of. we need to rewire our brains, to break the bonds that lock us into our habits, and build new ones, and reinforce those new bonds until what we used to run away from becomes something we do automatically. if you've always been afraid to dance in front of people and you go to a rave on mdma & for the first time feel free enough to let go and dance, it makes it easier to do it again the next time, whether you're sober or not. every time after that, it gets easier and easier, until there's no fear left.
I had really bad anxiety on e but it was probably a meth based pill, and I took a lot, like 4 and feared dehydration My jaw was constantly clenched and i had those small lumps on my tongue from dehydration even though I was drinking water like crazy
I think there would be other more specific chemicals that would generate a more psychedelic experience, without the comedown, but with the same trust effect. because serotonin's trust effect is in certain parts of the brain - it has another function when it comes to sensory processing, though this function is likely to be a neurological analogue of 'trust'. perhaps its 'acceptance' which is really the root of it all. When we get certain signals fomt he environment, we accept certain things, faiths, and this sustains our perception of certain features/qualities of the world. Taking ecstacy is a reuptake inhibitor which means in neurons that release serotonin, the effect is much greater and extended beyond the synchronisation of the originating impulse, which might have ended, while serotonin remains active. When serotonin is released it sort of brings the consciousness into the moment of the sensation and blocks out the super-ego's instinct to determine possible errors or inadequicies of teh situation. In the rolling person, everything around them which -could- stimulate serotonin influence all gets turned on and all the reuptakes are inhibited, so each individual signal that would normally occur and then fade instead all build up together so that the rolling person's consciousness is constantly drawn into all of the sensations that happen to somehow ilicit some feeling of safety or reliability in the world. when we take psychedelics however, these chemicals bind to various serotonin sites which pre-activates neurons so that we cannot be attatched to any single feeling of reliability about the world except that of the whole, because by preactivating neurons, the drug userps the requirements that normally would cue a serotonin release. But only in certain areas of the brain depending on the drug. When on ecstacy (as long as we are not so munted that we are a slosh), the effect of the drug allows us to relish in our indentitites and accept them, through ideas of clarity. but psychedelics blur the gaps seperating distinctions and thus we relish instead in the connexions between ourselves and other things/beings
I thought of something else in relation to this whole MDMA suspends fear circuitry thing. I remember on MDMA other people smell good to you. No matter what, everyone smells good, no one smells bad. I remember coming out of the rave one time and me and my friends are all sweaty and were like "we gotta smell like BO" and we quite literally then spent a good 5 minutes smelling each other up close and not a single one of us picked up a scent we did not like. We agree we all smelled good to each other. And being up in the sweaty front of the dance, I know that place has gotta smell like BO. But on MDMA... I never remember it. Honestly people smell good. Which I find it really interesting to think that, in a state of no fear whatsoever, people start smelling good to you. Revealing of very primal changes occurring there. Now for the record, I remember taking a shit on MDMA and that did not smell good. So no not everything smells good. Just that instinct of smell which would say 'steer clear of this person', completely subsides.
This isn't true, I've felt fear whilst on MDMA. Also, as humans we need fear, it stops us behaving in ways which are likely to cause us harm.
really... how much mdma though... I imagine you'd need enough to suspend fear completely? Because I've felt fear on it too. But that was like an hour and a half after the first pill and I had just taken a second. But by the time the second was kicked in, no fear really... then at the point when the third kicked in... definanetly no fear at all of course afterwards as it's wearing off I've had worried thoughts or anxieties come back... but not really while on it
I agree completely. After all love is the opposite of fear. I think is very possible to achieve this state through meditation, we can live with fear, we can live with love or with both, like I do and be confused all the time I've danced around the idea of rearranging my mind to be more in tune with love, something I've felt many times, but dont seem to keep in the forefront. I believe tonight Im being more honest and responsible about it. It has really become something I want to cultivate....hmm not cultivate, but genuinely accept, the constant love that is.
