To: twc-l@halmarax.demon.co.uk
From: 100621.17@compuserve.com
Subject: Re: A few thoughts on terminal Wing-dings!
In-Reply-To: <960705201252_100621.17_BHL79-1@CompuServe.COM>
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 1996 17:34:12 +0100
In message <960705201252_100621.17_BHL79-1@CompuServe.COM> you wrote:
> agno429@acs.bu.edu said:
>
> >your message sounds like 'the spirit medium preparing his death.'
>
> Well, you may as well do a good job of it. I have no plans myself
> to die just yet. Then again, I may well have to help a friend
> with it in the future. We have similar views. Then again, she
> keeps putting it off - she's got far too much to do at the
> moment! ;-)
>
> >i haven't been on an astral journey of my mindscape in a long
> >time,but thinking about them hasn't helped my self esteem much.
>
> What's the problem?
>
> >i am just reminded that my destiny is to die and to go from
> >there. whether i must carry on, who is to say?
>
> It probably depends if you want to go on or if you've had enough.
> Then again it may also depend on whether there's anything left
> to do. Unfortunately life (and death) doesn't come with a user's
> manual. It would be helpful. You could just turn to page 253 for
> the answers instead of trying to sort them out as you go along.
>
> Anyway, death is certain for everything - including stars and
> universes. All you can do is put it off. That's the absolute
> best you can do. In traditional martial arts this is something
> you learn early - that you could die at any time; maybe even
> in the next second (in combat that's true). So you consider
> yourself already dead. The fear goes when you accept it and,
> oddly enough, life becomes sharper. You see things you
> otherwise missed or took for granted and you leave very little
> undone. Most of the reasons why people are upset at funerals
> are down to what my father calls 'unfinished business'. Things
> were left unsaid that should have been said, undone that should
> have been done or said and were never unsaid. Now it's too late
> and you never get the chance to put things right.
>
> Me, I've been to a lot of funerals. I very nearly know all the
> funeral services by heart. I don't leave unfinished business
> behind - especially when I get the feeling that it's the last
> time I'm going to see someone.
>
> >i'm not into hallucinagens, because my personal delusion is
> >goodly messed up as it is.
>
> Good idea in those circumstances.
>
> >I think reindeer are rather partial to A muscaria & will happily
> >forage for it... then it's just a matter of scooping up the snow
> >where they urinate... obviously a seasonal activity :)
>
> I had a vision of gnomic characters pursuing highly puzzled
> reindeer over the countryside clutching pots and pans!
>
> Fly agaric was also used to kill flies, hence the name. Did
> the flies hallucinate just before they died? If so, I wonder
> what a fly's hallucination of a reindeer would be - something
> with compound eyes, six legs, antlers, wings, brown fur and a
> red nose? Then again, are bad trips the result of picking up
> other species hallucinations? I think the fly's idea of a
> reindeer might give me pause for thought!
>
> weed (Chris Whitehouse) said:
>
> >Am I wrong in assuming that everyone on the mailing list accepts
> >without reservation that psychedelic drugs are sacraments, and
> >that even should they not always succeed in providing mystical
> >experiences, they invariably produce visionary ones (using
> >Aldous Huxley's definitions of the terms "mystical" and
> >"visionary")?
>
> No idea what Aldous Huxley's definitions were. No I never saw
> much point in necking a load of pills just because it was
> Saturday and you were bored. Anyway, I have an unconscious
> habit of fighting any chemical that gets into my body, including
> alcohol. I usually require double the dose of even local
> anaesthetics.
>
> I have tried a few herbal hallucinogens when familiarising myself
> with the overdose properties of a plant. It generally takes a
> higher dose to affect me than it does other people and I seem to
> have a capacity to 'off' it unless it's too powerful. Then I have
> to 'send the children off into another room to play' until it
> wears off. Don't ask me how I do that. I've no idea - I just do
> it. And no, I don't like the effects much. However as a herbalist
> I won't use a plant on someone until I am completely familiar
> with all its properties - which may mean experiments like this.
>
> By the way, the same effect applied to lysergic acid ethylamide.
> It might be a good idea to bear this in mind with the terminally
> ill. A very small minority may be either resistant or not like
> the effect. Resistance to LSD-25 has been in studies even at
> massive doses. This has ranged from reduced effects to absolutely
> no effect whatsoever at any dose. There's never been any
> explanation as to why some people are resistant. I suspect that
> it's less to do with differences in brain chemistry and more to
> do with how that particular person's brain works.
>
> I much prefer the traditional tribal view of hallucinogens.
> Recreational use is a peculiarly western phenomenon! However,
> from my point of view drugs aren't particularly controllable. I'd
> rather spend the time and learn a non-drug method.
>
> >Given the casual attitude that enables people to wipe out
> >thousands of insects with a few squirts of insecticide, or
> >destroy millions of organisms with the testing of a new bomb, it
> >is strange the value we put on our own lives, as if somehow they
> >are of more importance...
>
> It's occasionally struck me that the rest of nature might heave
> a huge sigh of relief if we wiped ourselves out and then get on
> with evolving something with a bit more intelligence and wisdom!
> :)
>
> Anyway, that's it for now
>
> Kevin
>
>
>
>
>
-- MicA