2.

PSYCHONAUT

(PART III of V)

Many addicts are psychonauts: (psych: soul/spirit/mind.  nautes: sailor/navigator)

“But,” said Alice, “the world has absolutely no sense, who’s stopping us from inventing one?”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland 

 

 

PSYCHONAUT QUALIFICATIONS

 

Many addicts are psychonauts.

Not everyone is a qualified candidate for being a psychonaut, any more than any average person is cut out to base-jump or competitively snowboard.

 

Never mind training:

athletic aptitude and ability are needed to be an extreme-skier.

 

There are people born with physical limitations that prevent them from doing an extreme sport they may long for and there are also those born with mental and/or emotional limitations which disqualifies them from extreme-consciousness exploration,

especially with drugs.

 

The risks are many when using substances in psychonetics:

addiction,

mental or

emotional dysfunction,

brain-damage,

disorders and trauma,

just to name a few.

 

Because drugs are available to nearly everyone and there is no required test to qualify candidacy to experience them, tragedy abounds.

 

Unfortunately, drugs get blamed for these events.

 

It reminds me of the saying that guns don’t kill people, people do.

 

Guns are dangerous in the wrong hands and it certainly seems that a large percentage of gun owners are the wrong people to own them.

 

Drugs are like this too.

Drugs don’t kill people,

people kill themselves with drugs!

 

With education, understanding, limited availability and intelligent regulation drugs can be safer than they are now

(not safe, just safer!).

 

You will never stop people from shooting other people and

we will NEVER cure or stop addiction or death or destruction to lives as a result of drug abuse. 

 

 

I make this prognosticating declaration:

there will never be a cure for addiction in the span of humanity regardless of how long humans exist and science marches forward. 

 

Addiction is not exclusive to drugs or to a set of behaviors or to a certain faction of the population.

 

It is a component of the human condition that is dormant in many,

but present in absolutely everyone in the simple truth of desiring.

 

 

 

WE ARE DESIRE MACHINES

 

We form endless streams of needs and wants from our minds.

 

If we are awake, i.e. conscious, we are forming desires.

 

Some large and potent desires and some small and insignificant.

 

Addiction is more than a specific disorder or pathology, it is simply an expression and manifestation of the basis of human nature:

we want. 

 

We want

comfort,

peace,

love,

respect,

status,

power,

validation—

we want pleasure over pain. 

 

Wanting is the source of addiction:

 

the need for more and the basic human nature to pursue pleasure and avoid pain.

 

The only relief from this is total liberation from our own minds

OR DEATH

(and that’s no relief!).

 

We seek.

 

And that seeking will NEVER end until we achieve a final,

ultimate,

perfect

and absolute experience

of pleasure/bliss/peace

that is never ending and exponentially increasing.

 

Until then, we will always want fries with that,

extra-cheese,

a few more dollars,

another channel to choose

and on and on and on.

 

 

DON’T CONFUSE THE INTENT

 

This text is not designed to encourage drug use or abuse.

 

This author does not believe that drugs are a path to liberation or enlightenment as he once considered or suspected in his ignorant youth.

 

Most drugs are dead-ends (sometimes literally) and, at most, they can serve as an indicator—

 

Like a finger pointing the way—

alluding and hinting at something for you to discover.

 

But it is essential not to confuse the finger

for what it is pointing to.

 

In other words, what you seek is not the drug itself, neither is it the drug experience.

 

You seek and desire to be liberated from the trappings of the human condition and its inherent limitations. 

 

Instead, the drug feeling is,

at best,

merely a sign:

an intimate view or glimpse into what is possible.

 

Like an appetizer or an enticement to look further and seek the real thing.

The real thing is the absolute pleasure/bliss/peace experience that is available to all who seek it organically and purely; but not with artificial means. 

Many addicts are psychonauts but get lost in the pleasure component of their searching.

 

Drugs give you a clue—

a hint—

at something sublime,

but they give nothing more than a hint.

 

They are a tease and like any tease…

they inevitably conclude in disappointment.

 

 

 

BRAIN ON DRUGS—DRUGS ON BRAIN

One of the more fascinating features of drugs and sensual pleasures is that “they”,

in and of themselves,

don’t DO anything to you.

 

All drugs do is cause chemicals,

molecules

and neurotransmitters

that already exist within your brain

to increase or decrease.

 

Drugs block or enhance the production of neurotransmitters that you already own and possess.

 

They don’t add anything new to the equation that isn’t already there,

they simply alter the equation to one end of the spectrum or the other,

stimulating the increase or decrease of specific neurotransmitter production.

 

A common myth is that humans only use 10% of their brain.

 

While this is far from accurate, there is some truth regarding untapped potential.

 

Neuroscience tells us we actually use all parts of our brain.

 

It is impossible to quantify what brain percentage is unused, dormant or is simply unknown to us

(we don’t know what we don’t know).

 

But the evidence seems clear that,

while we are using all portions and sections of the brain,

we are not accessing its total capabilities.

 

Clearly, we can observe the difference between intellectual levels;

some people are simply smarter than others.

 

If we use an fMRI to map the brain activity in 2 different people doing algebra math problems

we will see them “using” the same neurons and sections within the brain.

 

Yet, one subject will solve the algebra with those neurons and the other may not be able to solve simple division.

 

Therefore, we see that everyone “uses” the whole brain, but to different potentials and capacities.

 

TENACITY vs GENIUS

Einstein said the only difference between himself and others was that he stayed with a problem longer,

implying that his tenacity was the real source of his genius.

 

That may be true, but how did he stay with it longer?

 

What was he accessing that allowed him to concentrate on a problem with the same level of focus a Zen master uses to enter into Satori

(a sublime state of consciousness)

for long periods and why can’t I do it?

 

We may all be using the “whole” brain, but it obviously works at different intensities and efficacies for different people.

 

A common feature of many deranged or mentally ill people is a super intellect in areas that most cannot conceptualize.

 

Savants are people with extraordinary and prodigious abilities in areas like art,

calculations,

musical talent

or memory

yet many of them cannot tend to their own basic needs of hygiene or tie their own shoes.

 

When I say they demonstrate “extraordinary” talents,

I mean that many are not only up to par with genius’ in similar areas but far exceed them and with no training or teaching.