Best Psychedelic Tumblr: "Disregard Everything I Say"

I'm not a huge fan of Tumblr. Most people aren't creating original content; they're just reblogging the same things everybody else does. One human, however, is really leaving everyone in the dust (including me!) when it comes to producing original content. His Tumblr, Disregard Everything I Say, is a great mix of both fact and really insightful opinions. I've read almost every single one of his posts, and I can't get enough. I'll give you a quick run-down on my favorite posts by him, so that you can go check him out yourself. :)

The Visual Components of a Psychedelic Experience
This is a comprehensive review of common visual effect categories resulting from the ingestion of psychedelics. Each entry includes a description, the intensity of the trip during which these visuals usually appear (rated out of five), and really accurate pictures recreating each effect (which you can see over there to the right). He's made a really thorough survey and does a great job describing each type. This is by far my favorite post on his site. If you read nothing else of his, read this.

The Mental Components of a Psychedelic Experience
Like in the last link, he describes many types of psychological effects that psychedelics can cause, to help you understand what to expect. Equally valuable as the last one, but without the pretty pictures. :)

(Untitled Picture)
His visual representation of what it is like living with HPPD (Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder).

Drug Induced Happiness vs Genuine Happiness
A really vital distinction. Many drug users don't understand the difference and therefore end up abusing the euphoric potential of certain substances, while many people with an anti-drug stance believe that drugs completely prevent true happiness.

How to easily avoid freaking out and having a bad trip
He offers both general statements that quell most neophyte psychonauts' anxiety ("you are not dying!") and also states his opinion on how to create the best set and setting.

Let's all begin testing the existence of DMT entities
His (admittedly cannabis-produced) idea of how to verify or disprove the actual existence of the alien entities often encountered during DMT trips.

Simple Mushroom Growing Technique
A basic but thorough guide. In my opinion, better-organized and more informative than the classic Erowid guide.

Simple DMT Extraction Technique
For all those eager to have the legendary DMT experience. No previous chemical expertise needed.

The Subjective Differences Between LSD, Mushrooms, and Ayahuasca
The first article I read from his site, and definitely one of the most insightful. I have only done mushrooms once, and ayahuasca never, and I never really assumed that they were too much different in quality. However, this guy disagrees and lays out for us the specific differences and similarities in a variety of categories. Also contains lots of pretty pictures!

Simple Ayahuasca Brewing Technique
Another really great guide.

Update: The Vaporgenie and DMT

According to a friend, the Vaporgenie (watch my video review) is also the piece of choice for using DMT. My first DMT experience was a bust and it was most likely due to incorrect smoking, so now when I get ahold of it again my smoking method will be fool-proof!


If you've ever done DMT using the Vaporgenie, let me know how it went in the comments!

Do you really need a grinder?

The short answer is no.

After all, what does a grinder do? The simple variety does just that-- grinds up your weed into more manageable shreds. This is convenient, sure, but not particularly necessary. Grinders with more than one layer also do you the courtesy of filtering out stems. Nice, but still nothing you can't do by hand.

Never buy a one-stage grinder. They are just a waste of money.

However, I love my grinder. I use it every time I smoke, plus to store my weed (which I generally buy in small quantities at a time). That's because in addition to the grinding convenience, it has a third layer, divided by a screen, that acts as a kief catcher-- all the pollen off the weed in the upper chambers falls down through the screen, becoming a powder you can smoke on its own.

I love kief. It's like a delicacy. While it can sometimes be harsh and hard to smoke out of bowls (you have to sandwich it in between two layers of bud), it is so tasty and the high feels so clean. And a grinder is the only way to separate the figurative wheat from the chaff. It improves my mood to look in my grinder and see a sand-castle of kief piling up, which I save to smoke with my closest friends.

Only buy a multi-stage grinder, and only if you're as into kief as I am.

If you're an elitist like me, by all means buy a grinder (the multi-stage kind advertised as having a "pollen catcher"). If not, don't waste your money because you don't need it.

Additional thoughts:

• If you do decide to buy a grinder of whatever variety, don't buy one made of wood or plastic. They erode quickly and all the bits that come off your grinder go into your weed. Always go with a sturdy metal one.
• To encourage kief to fall into the bottom section, put a nickel in the middle stage (in the above picture, the empty section at the top left). This will knock the particles down so they don't mix back in with your bud.
• I find my (really really blunt) pocket knife to be a great tool to use in tandem with a grinder, as a scoop. Some grinders come with a scoop for the kief, but I bought mine second-hand and I'm not sure if it came with one in the first place. Therefore, my pocket knife serves me just as well.

Vaporgenie Video Review

Check out the video I made just after I got my new Vaporgenie vaporizer!

Text recap:

I just got a Vaporgenie (Amazon, $59) and I rate it 5 stars. Portable, easy to use, stealthy, cheap. Cons: not always tasty, takes a few hits to work, really saps lighters.

Best Christmas Present Ever!

I suppose it's a little late to be buying it for any stoners on your list, but I really have to brag about this awesome Christmas present I received in a Secret Santa trading game.

No, it's not actually Dr Pepper. It's what I've dubbed the Stash Can-- it's meant to look and feel like a real, unopened can of Dr Pepper, but you can unscrew the top (as pictured below) and you can shove incriminating things in there. Like perfectly legal tobacco products.

In my opinion, this is a must-have stoner gadget, especially if you live in a communal, searchable place like a dorm. Just don't stick it in the fridge or someone might try to pop the tab and drink out of it...

For First Time Trippers

Erowid, which I'm sure you've heard of if you've found your way here, is the internet's encyclopedia of drug use. They've written an awesome and in-depth guide for first-time trippers which I highly recommend. I wrote a similar guide (you can find it here) but it deals more with the practicalities of tripping, whereas Erowid's has a lot about what to expect from the drug.

I whole-heartedly agree with a lot of its advice. It has an entire section on choosing tripping companions. I find that tripping with somebody can either create or enhance intimacy-- not necessarily sexually, but tripping makes you emotionally vulnerable, so choose companions that you are at least comfortable with and feel friendly towards.

Eating while tripping is a tricky issue. I always have the problem of getting super hungry while tripping but not being able to eat. So before a trip, eat something healthy and filling, like spaghetti with meat sauce or peanut butter sandwiches.

They corroborated the point I made here about citrus fruit!

They also have coined (as far as I know) the term "triptoys," which is going to become an indispensable part of my vocabulary. However, Jell-O is a really bad idea. My favorites include glow sticks and other lighting stuff.

I disagree with some of it, though, too. It recommends not going outside during your first trip, which is just insanity. Obviously, avoid busy parks and public places during your trip, and make sure you can find your way back to home base, but if you have an empty backyard or something at your disposal, rock on!

Their advice on trippy music is entirely wrong, unless you share their goal of an enlightening sort of trip (which is a very noble goal, but not one that most people share). Trippy music that I like when I'm sober (Black Moth Super Rainbow comes to mind) is just way too much when I'm tripping, and I'm not suddenly going to start liking drum music just because I'm inebriated. I recommend music that you usually like that isn't too abrasive.

Other than those two flaws, it's a great guide. If you haven't tripped before, you should read it (in addition to my advice) to prepare yourself a little bit and then TRIP. DO IT. :)

The Emperor Wears No Clothes

The legalization of hemp is generally viewed as a human rights issue, a constitutional issue, or a crime issue. Jack Herer presents it as an economic and environmental issue as well, in his history of hemp usage The Emperor Wears No Clothes. In it, he implores us to be like the innocent little boy from the fairy tale and expose the lies that the Drug War is built upon. In addition to supporting what I said here, he gives us lots of fun facts like:

• The word "Cannabis" has its roots in the world's first languages.
• The widespread use of hemp would solve many problems: it's more renewable than trees for paper, it lessens the need for petrochemicals as fuel, and it would provide jobs and preserve family farms.
• Before it was banned, cannabis was listed in marriage guides as an aphrodisiac.
• Ganja as a force for peace began as anti-communist propaganda. At first, weed was banned because of the supposed violence and disobedience it incited in racial minorities, but during the Red Scare it was treated as a communist plot to make us all indolent.
• Hemp seeds are one of the single most nutritious foods on the planet, and could be used like soy is now. Gruel is traditionally made from mashed-up hemp seeds.
• Chillums have their origin with Hindu priests.
• The fact that we have chemical receptors to which THC binds evidences an ancient symbiosis with this plant that humans have been using for 10,000 years.
• Temperance organizations, during the prohibition movement, recommended hashish as a substitute for the evil alcohol.
• Army tests administered over a span of two years show that soldiers who regularly smoke pot do not lose any performance or motivation.

Though this book was maybe a little dry, its nontraditional stance on the legalization of marijuana makes it an indispensable read.

The Doors of Perception

"Thus it came about that, one bright May morning, I swallowed four-tenths of a gram of mescalin dissolved in half a glass of water and sat down to wait for the results." And so Adolus Huxley, the classic novelist, begins his essay about a memorable mescaline trip. Though the writing style might be considered dry, it's a really short (and interesting) read-- I have a copy in PDF format, and it's only 24 pages. I recommend picking it up, especially if you are interested in the philosophical.

The title of the pamphlet is derived from a quote by the visionary poet William Blake, because throughout his trip, Huxley feels as though his senses have been stripped clean of their biological imperative of survival, and are allowing him to perceive the world as it really is. "This is how one should always see," he repeats.

Huxley reports that despite physical lethargy because of the dissociation, he was able to think perfectly straight, and his new lenses made everything around him mind-blowingly beautiful. Though the things that he observes (including flowers, a chair, his pant-leg, and a Cezanne painting) aren't extraordinary, he describes beautifully what was on his mind during his trip, and the philosophy connected with his thoughts. What interested me more than the description of his experience was some of the interesting conclusions that he drew, and observations that he made.

One of the joys of hallucinogens, according to Huxley, is being able to celebrate the "biologically useless." So much of our everyday experience has no survival value whatsoever: the music playing from your iPod, the stories brought to you by TV and books, the various adornments of furniture and fashion, and more-- and yet our senses are still set to only perceive the world in a practical way. We only notice what's likely to kill us, or what we can put to use, or where we're walking to. Hallucinogens can help us modify our senses so that everything we see becomes artwork, and a philosophical adventure. Huxley supports the purely aesthetic element of how psychedelics change our viewpoint, and thinks it's a valuable addition to our everyday lives. I definitely agree with him on this count-- we are allowed to do so many other things purely for the sake of pleasure (like art) and hallucinogens are less dangerous than junk food. If we all thought about it that way, we'd drop acid like we go to the theatre. And wouldn't the world be so much better?

He advocates psychedelics as the drug of the future, and discourages the use of tobacco and alcohol. Because science can do so much nowadays, he says (and I paraphrase), he was waiting for the day that someone would synthesize a chemical that lasts for a more manageable amount of time, and that wouldn't produce bad trips. In terms of time, we do have a few lesser-known options like DMT or salvia, or very very high quantities or marijuana, but everything has the risk of a bad trip. It interests me that he thinks of bad trips as a function of the chemical, and not as a normal part of the experience. In my opinion, bad trips must be as natural as dreams-- every human experience, whether it's a drug or a dream or a person or a really cute puppy, can cause different emotional reactions in different users. Also, I think that part of the value of any experience, including a drug experience, lies in the tension and discomfort it creates. That's how you learn from anything, is overcoming the negativity. Now, I've never had a truly nightmarish bad trip, but hanging out in a park definitely becomes less relaxing when the dead leaves leftover after the snow melts transform into tiny shrunken skulls. Even so, I continue to do drugs because, like work and love, the setbacks are made up for my the advantages. And how creepy would it be if hallucinogens only made you happy? They would be extremely addicting. Psychedelics would cease to have a "Vision Quest" element, and merely be trippy sedatives.

Finally, he leaves us with a question: once psychedelics have led us to these sorts of marvelous insights, what do we do? How do we integrate these experiences into our everyday lives? Very good question, Aldous. Hang tight for when I address it in a later post!