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!

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.

Six Months with Furthur & Other Blog Business

August is Furthur's sixth month in operation, and it's been growing exponentially. I've had almost 3,000 views, which is way more than I ever hoped to achieve. You guys are obviously great, and I hope you continue to stick around! Let me know how I can facilitate that. :)

I'm so glad that I started blogging, because in addition to teaching me some really cool things in a variety of fields, it's really satisfying knowing that the information I'm providing is helping people out there. There's one memorable case where I got to talking to a guy around my age on a different site, and the topic of LSD came up. He was planning on trying it soon, but had a lot of questions and was having trouble finding reliable answers. I directed him here and he reported back that Furthur had really helped him out. (Shout out to you, dude! Let me know how it goes!)

In case you were curious, I haven't been posting much lately because of my four thousand other writing projects. In addition to a novel (in the works) and a book of poetry (trying to get it published) I recently started up two other blogs on Wordpress (which, I must say, is much cooler than Blogger). Don't fret-- I'm gonna start posting more regularly. I haven't forgotten you guys!

If you like Furthur, you can check out my Youtube account minna420 or find furthurxfuture on Twitter.

Once again, I invite you to help me make Furthur about you guys. PLEASE COMMENT! Ask me questions, give your opinion, share stories. Pass a joint! We're all friends here at Furthur!

A cat and some dank shit. Probably two of my favorite things in life.

Disturbing YouTube Trend

Frankly, there are a lot of stupid people. And very few of them are inherently stupid-- most people just don't think before they act, and they don't realize how far-reaching the consequences of their actions can be.

Something that I've found extremely irritating recently is those particular idiots who video tape themselves acting like fools while on Salvia and post it on Youtube. Apparently it's quite a trend.

This is a horrible way to keep Salvia legal for everyone who would use it responsibly. The uninitiated would find it very tough to tell what is a side effect of the drug, and what is pre-existing stupidity. Many hysterical parents and sensationalist journalists have cited these videos as reasons that Salvia is the scourge of teenagers and should therefore be illegal.

Our culture does not know how to use psychedelics correctly. In societies where use is common, it has become ritualized, and there are methods of dealing with the experiences. I'm not saying that anyone who wants to trip should find a guide or join the League for Spiritual Discovery. But I am saying that when people trip for "kicks," they will get more than they bargained for.

Politically, I consider myself pretty far to the left. I was raised by a devout union man and self-described commie (although that tag isn't quite accurate), and I can't help but love when the government helps people and makes sure that greedy corporations don't exploit us humans. Taxes are cool with me. But what I hate is when the government gets into peoples' personal lives to supposedly protect them. Some forms of protection are not actually protecting anybody-- like the campaign against marijuana. And other things, like helmet laws and heroin use, should be common sense. If somebody wants to risk splitting their head like a melon in a motorcycle accident, or facing a lifetime of addiction, it's their own problem. So is eating too much junk food. Well-meaning sensationalists and their quest to protect everyone from everything is completely inappropriate and steps on the rights of every single citizen. I'd rather we just be treated like adults.

If you are inebriated (on any substance) and happen to think it would be a really great idea to tape yourself and post it to Youtube, think again. There are so many videos of people freaking out or acting like idiots, and none of people laying peacefully in the grass or calmly explaining their new revelations to their friends. Don't be part of this problem please.

The Spirit Molecule, & Personal Thoughts on DMT

Now that it's gotten around that I'm planning on trying DMT, I've gotten some mixed reactions. One friend reports that his trip aged him fifty years, and that he regrets ever having done it. Another friend that I spoke to is planning on trying it as well, and referred me to this documentary so I could "get excited" like he was. Take a look; the full documentary is in one piece on Youtube. In it, they ask some really vital questions, like why are we wired to accept chemical experiences like this? This documentary shows how science has fused with spirituality, which is at once fascinating and unsettling. But all in all, I feel pretty honored that I'm going to get the chance to try what's got so many brilliant and creative people interested.

I'm still pretty nervous. Like most people, one of my great fears is going mad, and one of the best ways to do that is to experience something that you can't handle. I know it's irrational, and probably won't happen, but because of its entirely encompassing nature, DMT seems like the most likely chemical that could bring you to that point. So I feel like if I can pull this off, I'll be able to handle anything. It's making it a little easier on me to remember that I subject myself to that every night when I go to sleep. Dreaming is one of my deepest pleasures, because they are so strange and yet so vital to our waking mindset. Is a waking DMT trip so different? I don't know, but I'm going to tell myself it isn't.

Many people's trips had a death theme. Either I am naive and don't truly understand death, or the year I spent contemplating suicide desensitized me, but I'm not scared of death. I'm scared of pain, and I'm scared of being forgotten after I'm gone, but I have no fear of what lies in wait for us at the end of our lives. Mainly because I think it's probably just oblivion, which seems like a welcome respite, like sleep at the end of the day. So even if my trip does lean that way, I don't think I'd freak out, just be curious. On that count, I think I'm okay.

One thing that threw me off was the spiritual experiences that the interviewees reported. It seemed a unanimous part of the experience. They all talked about the entities that they saw as if they were real. I am more inclined to believe that something is a psychological phenomenon, rather than objectively true. As Hunter S. Thompson said, "All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel." I'm an atheist, and I have been all my life. Though I do look to psychedelics for secular insights, and to expand how I experience the world (especially for the sake of my writing) I've never had an experience that I would describe as spiritual, and can't imagine how I would react if I did. I'm not saying that it's impossible that I could convert to some form of spiritualism. I'm interested spiritual matters, but I'll never believe in a christian Wizard in the Sky, or really any supernatural being that watches over us. It doesn't make any sense to me. Will DMT change this perspective?

I kind of hope that it does, because sometimes I wish I had the trust & faith that it takes to believe in a religion. Lately, the ideas of Hinduism have been making more and more sense to me, partly because it recognizes that each person needs a different path (or combination of methods) to reach enlightenment, which, in a very earthly way, is one of my goals. But I can't get behind that reincarnation thing. Possibly, it might make sense if every being was really the same being reincarnated again and again and again, like in this story, but I just don't think I can teach myself to have faith in something invisible when I haven't had any my entire life. I could even deal with the various incarnations of the Hindu god, as symbols of various aspects of life. But for reincarnation to exist, someone would have to be judging & deciding who becomes who, and to care about the fate of humanity, and to originate the system in the first place. I can't even pretend that that makes sense to me.

Also, this documentary got me thinking about what if everyone in our culture did DMT, or at least psychedelics. It would change a lot, right? We might not necessarily all turn into hippies, but we'd be a lot more respectful towards our environment, and a lot less interested in the rat race. It so happens that there are cultures, in South America & the southwest U.S., where that dream has come true. It would be so interesting to grow up in a culture like that. Maybe someday, it'll be acceptable once again.

First Post: A sort-of Introduction

Is that you?

I bet you identify with them at least a little. Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke is rightly hailed as classic comedy that really, for drug users, never gets old. (In case you haven't seen it, here's the original trailer on Youtube.) And I think part of the reason we are so enamored with Cheech and Chong and their ilk (like Pineapple Express and Knocked Up) is the mouth-watering depictions of the truckloads of drugs they always seem to have. But we also laugh, almost nervously, when they get pulled over by the cop and have to dispose of the drugs-- by swallowing them. We've been there. Possibly in the unfortunate situation of getting busted, but more optimistically that first-trip anxiety. When Cheech first figures out that what he swallowed is LSD, he panics and babbles, “It's going to make me freak out, man. I've seen those guys that had too much acid. Their heads look like a pumpkin, man.” Hopefully, we know what we're taking, but we can never be truly prepared. We drug-users laugh along-- we love these movies because, despite the lack of realism, we understand the characters and their desire for awesome drugs.

But unfortunately, Cheech and Chong are also a perfect example of the negative stereotypes attached to drug users. They are portrayed as bumbling hippie vagabonds who smoke weed like it's their job-- because they don't have one. Are stereotypes like these valid? Occasionally, yes. However, drugs like marijuana, LSD, and shrooms also attract successful and intelligent people, from writers and artists to Harvard scientists. Have you seen or read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? The author, Ken Kesey, was inspired to write his classic novel by a peyote trip, and now it's read in English classes. And one of the prime proponents of the hallucinogenic movement of the 1960s, Timothy Leary, was a highly educated psychology professor. That's not even including the many musicians, like the Beatles, who decided to enhance themselves with substances. (I'll go into furthur detail about these important figures in future posts, because they're some of my heroes.) An underrepresented group continues to trip in the same spirit of these pioneers, but this is something the world seems to have forgotten.

I know I'm not the only person that feels this way about hallucinogens. We, as users, have been portrayed as wacked-out and brain damaged, but I disagree wholeheartedly. So finally, we have arrived at my statement of intent. I'm writing it for the smart people who appreciate the artistic and visionary potential of hallucinogens, who expand their brains instead of dulling them. Topics will include pertinent science, laws, literature, music, and other fun stuff for smart hippies.

Until the next time I post, have fun and happy tripping!