The relationship between death and hallucinogens

The other day I was having a pretty deep conversation with a friend about whether hallucinogens (acid in his case) are a useful tool in understanding and coming to grips with death, in my opinion they definitely are, but it depends on the user and their state of mind in the trip than anything. My friend says that acid for him didn't do much apart from make him think a bit more and see some flashy lights in the corner of his vision.

So here's my question, do hallucinogens help people understand death? Any opinions are welcome.

shrooms make me think about stuff that i never thought of, in a weird way though. like there's an answer and a solution for everything. and i have all the solutions to all the problems i have and the world is just very amazing and positive. i dont think death is the thing to think about when on acid or shrooms ;D

like you say it definitely depends on the person, but i can relate to this totally, when tripping on 2c-e/I (cant remember which hehe) i came to the realisation that the universe/ everything is just a manifestation of everything that is possible/impossible into mental and physical reality, and death is just another part of that, completes the circle of life, and in my head I saw hexagonal/circular shapes coming together completing eachother and then multiplying, which in my head represented the balance of life and death throughout the universe to keep existance whole yaknow, keep everything working, so in that sense I feel i sort of understand death a bit better in the sense that everything that everything is, is already perfect if you get me. obviously you know the score trips and the understandings you have on hallucinogens are near to impossible to recall and explain in detail which is why i think we ( i do anyway) spend so much time trying to make sense of everything. x

There's an ongoing study sponsored by MAPS and the Heffter Institute about this that is showing that psychedelics help the terminally ill make peace with dying.

well you can always superficially understand it in an infinte amount of forms as the brain can congure, but youll never KNOW what its like until you die lol personally, i think when I die I am gone. LIFE is where the actions at man. Shit maybe one day ill get a visit from my heavenly father but till the day he decides to show up then i aint beleiving in shit except the plain facts, and tripping/philosophising is just a bit of fun on the side

I think it does.. I watched american dad a few nights ago tripping and Steven's fat girlfriend said something like 'life is a buffet and death is dessert.' I thought it was awesome.

When I was way younger I would try to chug dxm until I died, having the thought that death probably brings better than all this bullshit even if it makes you non existent. Obviously that never worked haha

Eh, thinking about death isn't neccessarily a bad idea, but Its where it takes you if you aren't strong minded enough to ignore an unpleasant thought if it pops into your brain. Had a fun, deep conversation about death with a bud while frying, it was fun and we really got into it, but after we changed the subject I was staring at a fish that was jumping out of the water over and over in the middle of the river and my bud just starts crying quietlt to himself. What had happened is after we had a good talk about death, his wife and kids came rushing into his misfiring brain, and all of a sudden he wasn't so cool with death and what it brings for those left behind. Of course 30 seconds later I had him in the river trying to get him to get back into the good side of things. He said the quick temperature change took his mind elsewhere immediately, and all was good. But that dude had me worried cuz Ive never seen someone break so quickly like that before.

spandy said:

Eh, thinking about death isn't neccessarily a bad idea, but Its where it takes you if you aren't strong minded enough to ignore an unpleasant thought if it pops into your brain. Had a fun, deep conversation about death with a bud while frying, it was fun and we really got into it, but after we changed the subject I was staring at a fish that was jumping out of the water over and over in the middle of the river and my bud just starts crying quietlt to himself. What had happened is after we had a good talk about death, his wife and kids came rushing into his misfiring brain, and all of a sudden he wasn't so cool with death and what it brings for those left behind. Of course 30 seconds later I had him in the river trying to get him to get back into the good side of things. He said the quick temperature change took his mind elsewhere immediately, and all was good. But that dude had me worried cuz Ive never seen someone break so quickly like that before.

Click to expand...

i can relate to that and i think you hit it on the head there, if you aren't strong minded enough to ignore a bad thought then you will go somewhere bad but its all about concerntrating on the good while you still can nomatter what state of mind you are in x

take enough and you will die many times.

Very debatable, ANC, but then again, humans really know bugger all about death.

spandy said:

Eh, thinking about death isn't neccessarily a bad idea, but Its where it takes you if you aren't strong minded enough to ignore an unpleasant thought if it pops into your brain. Had a fun, deep conversation about death with a bud while frying, it was fun and we really got into it, but after we changed the subject I was staring at a fish that was jumping out of the water over and over in the middle of the river and my bud just starts crying quietlt to himself. What had happened is after we had a good talk about death, his wife and kids came rushing into his misfiring brain, and all of a sudden he wasn't so cool with death and what it brings for those left behind. Of course 30 seconds later I had him in the river trying to get him to get back into the good side of things. He said the quick temperature change took his mind elsewhere immediately, and all was good. But that dude had me worried cuz Ive never seen someone break so quickly like that before.

Click to expand...

Peoples minds are like grasshoppers, they're one place one second, then a totally different place the next.
Your mind tripping is like a grasshopper on speed, usually haha.

There's a book and a movie called called DMT: The Spirit Molecule by that suggests to the suggestable listener that a DMT experience may actually be a out of body experience. It's like the drug fools the brain for a few minutes into thinking you have died so the soul is free to go, and you do go. But as the drug wears off in a few minutes the brain pulls the soul back from the other side in the manner of a bungie jump. So you get a peek at the other side. If you are lucky you get to see angels and soul tenders. If you've lived a good life they may greet you with their infinite love and blessings.

Dr. Strassman has plenty of critics who call his work pseudo and junk science. I am keeping an open mind. I guess I'll find out when I do die, and then I'll come back and update this post.

Derple said:

Peoples minds are like grasshoppers, they're one place one second, then a totally different place the next.
Your mind tripping is like a grasshopper on speed, usually haha.

Click to expand...

And you don;t realize how true this is until you down those mushies and you lose the ability to control your thoughts.

Some shroomers say they can control their thoughts, but I can't. I just know how to disconnect emotion from random thoughts at will. I see scary stuff while shrooming I just go blank, I don't react, it goes away and then I turn the happies back on. I never know wtf is going to pop into my brain, but I know that once it's there I can either react to it, or just ignore it til it goes away. I get this feeling that evil is right in front of my face breathing on me, but I just stare back knowing it cant do shit unless I allow it to.

Being at peace with this evil that is right in my face gives me the feeling of being untouchable, like it should be scared of me if I opened my cage, and then it goes away and all is well.

I've come out of the body on LSD, travelled between my thoughts into my center of silence and light, and seen a vision of myself turning into shapes, and those shapes continuing after a shift which may hve been death. I don't know if I understand death any better, but I do believe our life force continues after death into something else.