I am a photography student, we've recently been given the project title "Realism" I have decided to look at drug induced hallucinations and debate whether they are reality. A few questions it would be really helpful for you guys to answer is: How do drugs and reality relate to you? Why do you choose to take drugs? Has taking drugs changed your life for the better/worse? Do drugs inspire you in anyway? (E.g. art, poetry. Examples would be great) What has been your best/worst trip? I'm really grateful for any answers, if you can think of something relevant that I haven't asked i'd like to hear it anyway! Cheers guys!
How do drugs and reality relate to you? Why do you choose to take drugs? depends on the drug in questions, excluding ALL psychedellics, i choose to take drugs for the sole purpose of enjoying the high, and to be quite honest, a "drug" (use that phrase very loosely) high is so much clearer than stumbling around drunk, in terms of the psychedellics (of which i've only tried LSD but am completely motivated for, DMT in the next few months and Mushies and Mescaline when its available) my entire use of those substances are for (in no particular order), 1. enjoying the beautiful world it creates 2. the spiritual journey 3. they are definatly the most 'fun' you can obtain from any substance 4. the experience from start to finish, without a doubt is one which EVERYONE should have the chance to witness before they die. (there are plenty more reasons i could list without ranting about how much healthier in all aspects using this as suppose to alcohol) Has taking drugs changed your life for the better/worse? definatly for better, i have definatly matured faster than i would have without taking drugs, and the people you meet in my eyes are "true persons" Do drugs inspire you in anyway? (E.g. art, poetry. Examples would be great) yes without a doubt, poetry, musically, and in terms of how i wish to live my everyday life, there are an infinite number of lessons to be learned, and i will not learn them all before i die but i can do my best to learn them and live my life accordingly. What has been your best/worst trip? i've only tripped 7 times (i think maybe 8) of which 2 were good trips, (another 2 were privately at home, and i can't really distinguish whether they were good or bad) and the other 3 - 4 trips were bad, and i couldn't distinguish best from worst, they all have seperate messages and teachings and in my opinon the lessons learnt on a bad trip are far more powerful than what you can expect to experience on a good trip, both have their positives and negatives.
How do drugs and reality relate to you? I think the question is a little too broad because I percieve different things from different drugs, if you substitute the word LSD for Drugs though, my answer would be that LSD has had a positive effect on the way I view reality. Reality to me is perception and LSD has been a great gateway for me to question the way I perceive the world around me. I find things more vivid, the best way to describe it is that the filters are off and things that I have seen a hundred times before and taken no notice of, I will go back and take a second look at while on L. I almost always find something I hadnt noticed before. The change in perception (reality?) lasts even after the trip has worn off. One example is I have always loved nature, I appriciate it even more after having done L. Why do you choose to take drugs? When I was in my teens and 20's I took LSD socially and didnt view it as much different than alcohol or weed. It was just something to have a good time with. After a long drought I was re-introduced to LSD in my early 30's and the experience has been completely different. It is now something that I look at as bettering me. My perceptions have expanded, Im more aware of the enviroment around me, and I get a motivation that lasts even when the hits are gone. Not to sound corny but it has become an almost religious experience. Has taking drugs changed your life for the better/worse? I smoke a fair amount of weed and that has worsened my life in that it is expensive and I could probably better use that money towards other causes. I enjoy smoking though and only point out the cost issue for lack of a better 'made my life worse' example. In terms of LSD though, hands down, without a doubt it has changed my life for the better. I will cite the reasons already listed in my previous answers. Do drugs inspire you in anyway? (E.g. art, poetry. Examples would be great) My wife is a talented painter and we have experimented with LSD and art. I definately believe it can help drive the creative processes. We have dropped and then spent the evening playing with different techniques (mixed media & acrylics are her primary thing) The direct results arent always groundbreaking but the resulting shift in perception LSD can trigger has had a direct positive impact on her growth as an artist in my opinion. There are times when she is painting that the colors literally look like they come to life. What has been your best/worst trip? I have been lucky in the sense that I havent really had a bad trip to speak of. Each trip seems to be unique and I almost always come out of them feeling at peace and as if I have learned something new about myself. Best trips would have to be the quiet evenings with my wife, LSD is great as an icebreaker too. We have had some very deep conversations where the usual 'roadblocks' (ie embarassment, anger, bravado, whatever) have been non existant. If you search around a bit you will see that LSD is purported to have some positive benefits in regarding to psychology and I firmly believe this based on personal experience.
I want to have experiences I know I could never experience while not on a drug. And as an artist you will find this quote interesting- "I believe that drugs are basically of more use to the audience than to the artist. I think that the illusion of oneness with the universe, and absorption with the significance of every object in your environment, and the pervasive aura of peace and contentment is not the ideal state for an artist. It tranquilizes the creative personality, which thrives on conflict and on the clash and ferment of ideas. The artist's transcendence must be within his own work; he should not impose any artificial barriers between himself and the mainspring of his subconscious. One of the things that's turned me against LSD is that all the people I know who use it have a peculiar inability to distinguish between things that are really interesting and stimulating and things that appear to be so in the state of universal bliss that the drug induces on a "good" trip. They seem to completely lose their critical faculties and disengage themselves from some of the most stimulating areas of life. Perhaps when everything is beautiful, nothing is beautiful." - Stanley Kubrick
Fun fact for a photographer, when you're tripping, looking through the viewfinder on your camera will actually correct your vision back to basically normal.
