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Psychonautics 101
| The term has been applied diversely, to cover all activities by which altered states are induced and utilized for spiritual purposes or the exploration of the human condition, including shamanism, lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, sensory deprivation, and archaic/modern drug users who use entheogenic substances in order to gain deeper insights and spiritual experiences. A person who uses altered states for such exploration is known as a >psychonaut.
| An old-world clinical psychiatrist described psychonautics as denoting "the exploration of the psyche by means of techniques such as lucid dreaming, brainwave entrainment, sensory deprivation, and the use of hallucinogenics or entheogens", and a psychonaut as one who "seeks to investigate their mind using intentionally induced altered states of consciousness" for spiritual, scientific, or research purposes.
By these definitions, I am a psychonaut. Call me the "Ace of Cups".
| The aims and methods of psychonautics, when state-altering substances are involved, is commonly distinguished from recreational drug use by research sources. Psychonautics as a means of exploration need not involve drugs, and may take place in a religious context with an established history. I consider psychonautics closer in association to wisdom traditions and other transpersonal and integral movements.
| However, there is considerable overlap with modern drug use and due to its modern close association with psychedelics and other drugs it is also studied in the context of drug abuse from a perspective of addiction, the drug abuse market and online psychology, and studies into existing and emerging drugs within toxicology.
| I am a firm believer in the astral plane, and of the things that can be found there, through psychonautics. As I discover things, I will document my findings, and through this forum, I intend to educate the rest of its users on the methodologies of psychonautics, and in doing so, hopefully enlighten the living-minds of this universe to the discoveries I find.
"Turn on, tune in, drop out."
| Uh... have fun? -CN
| >>550689
I don't quite find psychonautics fun, actually. I do think it can have fun moments, but overall, I am convinced I am doing important research into the human psyche, the human ability, and the universe as a whole. What I do will unlock the secrets of the mind, as ancient monks once did in the old world, and maybe those secrets can be used to further our understanding of both ourselves and the universe around us.
But I appreciate the sentiment, friend.
-Ace of Cups
| >>550696
I suppose I can sort of understand that, I'm sure it's similar to how decking is with a datajack.-CN
| >>550708
As a matter of fact, decking most likely would be considered an altered state of consciousness, so a psychonaut likely could learn something by connecting to the Matrix like that.
The technium is alive and well, haha.
-Ace of Cups.
| huh.
so decking is like drugs?
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| Psychonautics refers both to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, especially an important subgroup called holotropic states, including those induced by meditation or mind-altering substances, and to a research cabal in which the researcher voluntarily immerses themselves into an altered mental state in order to explore the accompanying experiences.