Balls and Wheels: February 2023

"It would be more surprising to me if DMT produced wildly different visions in each person who tried it (as LSD tends to, which I find infinitely more fascinating)."

"The exposing of the deeper fabric of reality that we don't normally see is the big secret of the DMT (and other psychedelic) state. This is a product of the amplified mind exploring the nature of hard reality. The quantum levels of flux become apparent and the "hardness" of reality disappears into a vibrating mass of infinitely deep energy, which it actually is. The profundity of this realization is very heavy, yet it is nothing that we do not already know. It is just that quantum nature of our world made manifest for our limited senses."

"My conclusion is that the things we see in the psychedelic state are a confusing mixture of a "deeper hidden reality" that is there all the time (the product of amplified senses), plus detailed imaginal renderings of our own subconscious desires and fears (made manifest by an overstimulated brain imposing order on chaotic patterns)."

" If you want to talk about total delusional immersion in a hard imaginal world, you need to get into the kind of experiences people have on Datura and the like. These substances can make you think you are standing in line at the grocery store when you have actually walked into your own coat closet. These are what I refer to as "concrete" hallucinations that are fully immersive. In contrast, the DMT visions appear as "perceptual distortions" which produce stylized renderings of the reality that is in front of us. Close your eyes and you get a swirling, highly detailed alien landscape. Open them and you see a very distorted view of the space in front of you overlapped with these same swirling geometrical lattices, with the occasional "hard" object such as an elf or something popping out of the mix."

"I think in general people like to romanticize the DMT state and make it more than it is because they desperately want there to be a hidden hyperspatial world filled with mischievous sprites and god-like entities. However, when one closely studies the experience over and over again over time you come to see that a lot of the romanticized notions are not what is actually happening in the state, and people tend to "editorialize" the content of the experience in hindsight in order to make it into something more than what it actually is

Simon Posford

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ja9iv/hi_i_am_simon_posford_of_the_group_shpongle/

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Nick Cave

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you-have-hope/

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/i-just-listened-to-your-interview-with-the-justin-welby-archbishop-of-canterbury-i-cant-work-out-whether-you-believe-or-not-did-you-have-a-conversion/

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/what-makes-you-happy/ morning swim in icy water

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/god-and-i-have-always-been-very-tight/

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/they-say-never-meet-your-heroes-i-met-you-in-a-cafe-when-i-was-travelling-in-london-in-the-early-nineties-and-you-were-pretty-terrifying-but-unexpectedly-kind-to-me-and-funny-have-you-ever-met-a/

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/my-wife-and-i-are-expecting/

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/how-do-you-reconcile-your-faith/

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/why-are-you-so-convinced-god-is-a-he/

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/somewhat-cathartic-for-you/

"Some of the letters sent to The Red Hand Files are so raw, and their details so affecting, that they can indeed take their toll, and so I try to exert a certain self-protective remove when answering them. I suppose I do this by practising compassion rather than empathy – being moved by someone’s suffering and wanting to help, rather than putting myself in their position and feeling their pain. Standing a step away and seeking to assist someone in need, rather than being disabled by their despair, seems to be the way to manage these things. I have found this works, as Bob Dylan poignantly sang, ‘most of the time.’

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/communication-dream-feeling/

It seems to me, that if we love, we grieve. That’s the deal. That’s the pact. Grief and love are forever intertwined. Grief is the terrible reminder of the depths of our love and, like love, grief is non-negotiable.

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/thoughts-about-loneliness/

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

CIA Reading Room

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/

MK-Ultra etc.

LSD in Czechoslovakia quite common from 1952 to 1974. Exported a lot to West until production was banned in 1974.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/lsd-acid-black-history/ 174 days

Al Hubbard introduced aprox 6K to LSD 2 a devout Catholic. Timothy Leary was the populist - Hubbard had a top-down approach. Energy Transformer allegedly worked with Tesla for a short time. admitted device was powered by Radium in 1920s early computer scientists introduced by Stolaroff who was introduced by Hubbard. Built Seattle's first radio station. Introduced LSD to Aldous Huxley.

The Search for the Manchurian Candidate (pdf) WP review US thought Soviets bought 50M doses (something still repeated today) - actually 50. US rushed to Switzerland to buy 100M doses - couldn't because they didn't have that much. Also - continued interest in 1970s.

Wiki

History

https://mikejay.net/the-acid-farmers/ More details about Sandoz

https://druglibrary.net/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/CU50.html very good resource. Most LSD given straight to psychiatrists etc by Sandoz. As of 1970, most of British LSD smuggled from USA.

further: Hazards of LSD psychotherapy not inordinate, but there. How the hazards of LSD were augmented, 1962-1969

very good "LSD, mind control, and the internet" cybernetics CIA sponsored electroshock/LSD on children