Taktiq

I can't really speak anything fluently other than English and, I can speak survival spanish...but: when I'm at work I assure you though that if I slam you to the ground in a hammerlock and slap some cuffs on you'll understand anything I have to say.

"TAKTIQ" is the name of a song by the band Society Burning...>Lyrics< Usually, I go by other names elsewhere.

Hiya! I'm Taktiq.... I'm 32 going on 8. I'm a dad of a wonderful little girl. I like psychology, myoozik, law enforcement, magic & illusions, the occult, smoking just so people will ask if I know that those things will kill me, challenging ideals and confort zones, the darker side of life and poking fun at people who take themselves or life too seriously...oh and I like to argue as an acedemic execise whether I have a stake in the arguement or not. I currently work in the private security field and was going to be a police officer until I got sick of dealing with domestics and assaults. Now, I'm planning on going to school and studying psychology to help people.

I'm not going to propose any theory because based on the data that exists about the afterlife (none or purely speculative), it would be just as retarded as how I run around telling people that Tool and Radiohead are overrated as bands. To state that it's unlikely anything happens after we die, beyond our bodies rotting and whatnot, is arrogant at best. Like I tell my mom...no one knows what happens until they die so quit telling me I'm going to hell. My personal view is whatever you believe, is what will happen. PROVE ME WRONG! "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." ~ Einstein or as I tell my daughter... "Never lose your imagination because if you do, life won't be fun anymore. Now, let's go swing!":-p Pfft...data. The OP asked what do you think? Not if there was any data.

Obviously, you either midread both of my responses or I didn't make clear what I was saying. I meant overall, drugs, legal and illegal, are usually, in comparison to the other means listed to induce hallucination (ie...sleep/oxygen deprivation, fever), the safest and easiest route. I already stated that, 1) meditation/ecstatic trance to induce a state usually requires large amounts of training and, 2) spiking of the body's temp has proven dangers. As far as meditation being dangerous, I personally do not find it to be as I have been a practitioner since I was 19 (I'm 32 now) nor did I ever state that I felt it to be dangerous. But as an aside, according some some, there are practices in meditation (kundalini rising) that have been alleged to be dangerous, but I was not including thoses views here.

I write poetry as well. Though I'm not sure what sort of contest you mean (slam?), you can post your stuff here and have it rated and even compete with it.

I don't know if anyone else saw this but, I just came across this article and found it quite amazing: "Mon Jun 16, 7:53 AM ET European researchers said on Monday they discovered a batch of three "super-Earths" orbiting a nearby star, and two other solar systems with small planets as well.... The planets are bigger than Earth -- one is 4.2 times the mass, one is 6.7 times and the third is 9.4 times. They orbit their star at extremely rapid speeds -- one whizzing around in just four days, compared with Earth's 365 days, one taking 10 days and the slowest taking 20 days." (Quote from article)

Well, it depends by what you mean "essential". Certain cultures do use hallucinatory or ecstatic-trance states to seek communion with the devine. Most tribal cultures do use hallucinogenic/entheogenic substances to reach these states such as the Mazatecs who use salvia, mushrooms and morning glory as a means to diagnose medical/psychological and spiritual problems with help from the "spirits of the plants". Shamanistic people from areas as far as Russia have used psilocybin mushrooms to commune with these alleged extraterrestrial beings/places. Then again religious groups such as pentecostals and the sufis (the famous whirling dervishes) and jewish mystics studying kabbalah (called merkabulim) use intense prayer/meditation to reach what could be potentially hallucinatory esctatic-trance states. It can be argued, like have stated here that meditation can induce these states and in some respects deep prayer can even be considered a form of mediatation. When considering the term "essential" in regards to these states, it has to be remembered in most cases, such as with these cultural uses, a large amount of training is involved. The exceptions to this are groups like the pentecostals and even vodouisants (vodou practitioners) where the subject tends to get caught up in the ceremony. Honestly (hopefully I don't get flamed for this)...I'm going to risk things and go out on a limb and say that you should just go for it if you want it this badly and I get the feeling you may just want everybody else to justify something you have already decided to do. Since I have done a number of narcotics to induce hallucinatory states, I cannot condemn but I also cannot condone any drug usage (which is the easiest and usually safest route). My advice is this: - Do research on any substance you possibly decide to do and make sure you know what to expect. LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN! - Have a sitter that you trust around to watch over you so that you will remain safe during the trip. - Allow yourself plenty of time to have the experience and then the comedown.

I was also diagnosed BPD back in 1995. Though I will concede I do have some major issues, possibly stemming from my father having bi-polar disorder, I have forever been at odds with the whole label of BPD in general and how psychiatry and society deals with these issues. Here's an article you should read. Personally, I feel that even if personality disorders, as opposed to mood disorders, do exist, the symptoms are no more than conditioned responses to external stimuli (think Pavlov) and can be easily unlearned once resistance to change has been overcome by the "sufferer".

In my opinion, based on personal experience...there is no safe and reliable means to induce a hallucinatory experience outside the use of narcotics. And even then, I would advise you to approach with caution. While one can argue for sleep deprivation, I experienced hallucinations due to this during my in-processing days at boot camp. Being a former raver and user of high-powered synthetic hallucinogens, I found the sensation (tactile and aural) that it was raining inside the quarterdeck to come nowhere close to what I had experienced while doing LSD, LSA, Salvia divinorum, psilocybin, etc. The use of a fever can and does induce hallucinatory states as well. I've experienced that too but, raising ones body temp to such a degree to induce that would be extremely dangerous physiologically. Just read the many stories of what can happen when body temp spikes either naturally (fever, heat stroke) or unnaturally (drug usage). The most legal means would be to take an overdose of diphenhydramine (benadryl), though I do not recommend this whatsoever. Not only can this cause a coma in large enough doses. It can also cause liver failure. Not to mention that doctors have yet to understand the leathal dose in human subjects. The hullucinations caused by this can be quite real and terrifying...I won;t go into specifics but I'll say that after years of ingesting LSD at parties, even I found this drug to be very unpredictable and harsh. My question to you is...what benefit will you get from experiencing a state such as hallucination?