Quote (Makemetalmusic @ Feb 4 2012 02:22am)
I never knew about that place
There aren't really many online psy communities. I've been thinking about this lately as well. There's certainly enough of us to form one, I think it's just a lack of funds, really. The biggest ones currently are probably shroomery, erowid, and dmt-nexus. The thing is, most of these seem to be more centered around trip reports than community. Don't get me wrong, trip reports are incredibly important, but what I would like to see is psychonauts coming together to discuss ideas, music, meet each other, etc etc. Because frankly, we're a very, very small percent of people, and I think if any subculture needs an online community, it's us. Psychedelic experiences aren't anything you can discuss with the majority of people around you. If you attempt to speak to most people, they'll think you're some kind of crazy druggie who's lost his grip on reality, which is profoundly sad. Psychedelics have been demonized to such an extent, I think they have a reputation on par with drugs like meth and heroin. If we could come together, I feel we could create a much more positive change. As it stands, the only information the rest of the world receives on psychedelics is from the government, which is quite awful really, since they lie through their teeth about psychedelics to keep people afraid of them. I mean, sure there's valid information the general public sees, like certain documentaries, and books, but they aren't exactly something you'll see a commercial for, ya know? It's all kept very hush hush. Every time I take psychedelics I find myself wondering how it's even possible what they do is this big secret, you'd think something like this would be studied, explored, celebrated, but it's the opposite. We definitely need to find a way to center our community and psychedelic society, if we can't, there is no hope. We no longer have any psychedelics heroes, we have no voices. We need to let people know what they do, and reach out to those individuals who do know, and feel alone because of it.
Regarding music production, I've gotten very into it too, lately. I think I've finally found the sound I'm after. I can hear it in my head clearly, and I know exactly what I want to do now. I'm just missing a few pieces of gear, and money. I'm about to start college again, but I'm only taking 3 classes so I'll hopefully have the time to spend on my music. I'm also trying to get a job over here so I can afford my projects, gear is expensive!
Sorry to take sooo long to reply, I've been busy as hell the past week or two but I'm on my first break now so all is good.
I recently joined Isratrance instead of just lurking but I don't see myself posting massive amounts there yet because there are tons of people with better answers than I would have to a lot of technical problems. For now, it is a resource for me until I have expanded my knowledge enough to go there and help others effectively. There are some pretty great Ableton tuts on there by a guy named PsiloCybian which is great because I've recently switched to Ableton and it's amazing.
As for broader psychedelic communities, yeah, they don't exist in the same fashion as many other subcultures. In a way I think this is a result of the values that psychedelics promote, such as not be a follower etc. but I don't think a community has to be about conforming. It could be the opposite. So yeah, I'm still very interested in pursuing this, I'm glad to hear you've been thinking about it as well. I'd be interested in creating a place that had a core interest, such as psychedelics in general, and then maybe focusing some arms off of that such as psychedelic expression through musical techniques and production, psychedelics on humanity, use of psychedelics concerning the global dilemma, and things like that. Maybe focusing on a certain number of sub-categories which are, in themselves, also quite broad, but still narrowed down from the idea of psychedelics.
I think this way we could create a bigger community, because there would be more common ground to share, beyond just making music or taking psychedelics or talking about the effects of it on society, etc, and it could turn into a place where all these ideas come together to form a working model of human existence in relationship to psychedelics. I think for me, that's what it's all about. The deeper understanding that I've gained from psychedelic exploration is one that is very rooted in the idea that all things are connected and I want to emphasize that through organization of information and communities. Not that we have to organize and maintain some artificial idea of what a community should be, moreso that we encourage all avenues of life to explored and seen in context of everything else. I think a huge part of our downfall as a society has to do with our faith in science and taking specific scientific instances as absolute truth when the reality is that science holds merit but it also is part of a bigger picture that expands beyond science. So you get this type of thinking where people run around making things out to be black or white, right or wrong, good or evil, etc. And this whole division of your entire life's model becomes fragmented because you start seeing the world as separate instances of separate phenomenon. So I think visiting a certain place for music and certain places for experiences and a certain place for anthropological effects etc. all add to that division. I feel that bringing them altogether in a common space creates a unity and it also encourages people who might only be familiar with one topic to expand their horizons and grow. On that note, there also might be a place that centers around self-growth and improvement but to be honest a lot of these subgroupings would be very subjective in terms of what the words actually mean to each individual. Anyway, I'm rambling pretty hard here but I've definitely put some thought into this and I want to share my ideas and get feedback from those who are also interested.
I guess I just feel like I live my life and I try to do the best I can at what I do but sometimes I feel that I need to just get up and do something that will get the attention of a larger community. For me, music and art have always been the path I followed to end there but I think this is another interesting way to do something about what I feel passionately about instead of just wishing that this kind of place existed. A teacher of mine was telling us how he went to help with some activism with a group of people, I totally forget what for or who they were, and he would come to them and have all these ideas saying like "You guys should do this" or "Why don't you do this?" and he said he would always get these strange looks from them. Then after some months he realized one day that what that strange look actually meant was "Ok, good idea, why don't you do it? I'll support you if you bring the idea to me and make it accessible." And I kind of feel like if you want to get people involved in something, you have to bring it to them and those who share your passions will want to be part of it, well, maybe, but how else would you know!