It’s 1:51am LA time as I write this, and as I sit at my desk my body is covered with the white, dried Epsom salts that are 800lbs thick in water of my isolation tank.
Normally I take a shower as soon as I get out or I’ll get itchy, but tonight I didn’t give a fuck. I just dried off and put my clothes right back on and hurried over to the computer.
I just went through what was easily the most powerful and insane tank experience I’ve ever had, and I wanted to get this out before any of it slipped away.
Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the concept of an isolation tank or how it works, please read this blog entry and watch the video about it. (By the way – yes, I gave away my old tank. I’ll have a blog entry up about it and a video eventually. Congratulations, Dave Callans!)
To describe a typical tank experience for me it’s generally a two-part process. The first part is invariably self analytical. I take a deep, and occasionally uncomfortable look at every facet of my life when I’m in there.
Every time in is different but tonight was a great one, in that the whole session was entirely positive. I’m in a really good place in my life right now, so nothing was really fucking with me while I was in there. Because I was in this really positive state, instead of the experience correcting me it played it self out as a lesson trying to open up deeper and deeper levels of personal understanding. The whole experience was a reinforcement of one of the main principles I try to live my life by, and that is the importance of being positive. Being friendly to people and spreading positive energy is what I believe to be the most important ingredients in having a happy life.
And it’s one of the least understood as well. Being nice to people is not just as simple as extending a courtesy, I think there’s something else going on with it. It energizes you. It removes stress for both people. We can make each other feel better.
It doesn’t just make them feel better; it makes you feel better too for doing it.
I think we are connected in ways we don’t really understand.
Ever think about someone and they call you? What the fuck is that about?
It’s almost like we have this incredible thing in human consciousness, but we don’t have a manual for it, so there’s all sorts of features that we’re not aware of, and we’re not really sure how to operate it correctly, but one of the most important things about this incredible consciousness is that it feeds off of positive energy.
The more I’m in the isolation tank the more that point is hammered home to me.
That’s the key to happiness. It’s not financial success – it’s having good friends and spreading positive energy. As long as the basics are taken care of; food, shelter, employment, sex, etc – as long as that shit is all in order, all you really need in life to be happy is positive energy and positive people around you.
That’s the key to having fun and enjoying life. You can be rich and successful as all get out, but if you don’t have good friends in your life I can guarantee you’re a miserable fuck.
I’m certainly no perfect person, and like all of us I’m a work in progress, but this has been an incredible point of evolution in my own life. It’s changed the way I think about stand up comedy too. I have always loved to do stand up. I’m a huge fan of the art form, and it’s just a really fun and challenging way to make a living, but over the last few years I’ve started to view it from a different perspective. Of course it’s an art form, but it’s also equal parts mass hypnosis and some sort of a mass energy exchange.
I mean when you break it down, what the fuck is funny? What makes laughter? What is laughter?
It’s energy. It’s a positive reaction that feels good, and the way for me to get it to you the most effectively is for you to think the way I’m thinking. I’ve got to tune you all in to the way I think, and that’s where the craft of stand up comedy comes in.
The thoughts have to be delivered with honesty, and with the right economy of words and the right humility, and enough intelligence that you trust your thoughts to my direction.
And when this clicks together perfectly, the audience laughs and they actually feel better. It changes their physical state and releases all these positive chemicals in their brains.
The comic feels great because they’re enjoying it, and we’re exchanging this positive energy on a mass scale.
That’s the beautiful thing about comedy, and that’s the beautiful thing about being nice to people. It’s the same thing; it’s an exchange of positive energy.
I’m really still learning how important a factor this is in life, and because I’m focusing on it so much, it feels like I’m moving into a deeper place in my tank experiences. It’s like I have less holding me back.
It’s very hard to describe what I experienced in the tank tonight, but to try to put it into words it was as if in this meditative, sensory deprived state I had tuned into a way of thinking that was “alive.” It was a stream of consciousness, a path of positive thinking that I reached in my own mind, but when I tuned into it I felt like it was a living thing. It felt like it had independent thought, and that it was separate from whatever “me” is and that the right thing to do was to just surrender my consciousness and tune into it. Become a part of it.
I had tuned into a certain frequency in my mind where it felt like I was tapping into this living thing, this roaring supply of positive energy. It was literally making my body pulsate with energy.
I know this sounds completely fucking bonkers and at least 45% gay, but it’s just what happened, and there’s no other way for me to describe it honestly.
It felt like I was laying on the bed of some psychic creek and this positive consciousness was washing over my body like the cold water of a stream. It was just hitting me with these waves of energy that felt fucking incredible, and there was this internal struggle as to how to ride these waves correctly, because I would start to think how crazy this experience was, and then I would start to lose it. What I was experiencing was that the only way I could tap into this frequency is if I didn’t think of “me” at all. As I’m having this crazy this experience, I instantly start thinking things like, “Ok, what is the best way to describe this?” Then it starts to fade on me a little, just sort of letting me know that to continue this experience you can’t think about “you.”
You have to surrender to an experience like this. You can’t control it, and you can’t freak out about it and start analyzing it on the spot, you’ve got to empty yourself and go with it 100%. It’s very hard state of mind to maintain.
For one thing, you just can’t believe that this is actually happening to you, so you start thinking about the fact that “you’re” having this experience, and as soon as you do that it starts to slip away. It’s the weirdest fucking thing.
If you try to hang on to any of your ego it slips away. To maintain this incredible rush or positive energy you’ve got to get to this rare neutral zone where you’re just completely empty. No fears, no resistance, no expectations, just open. A pure Zen state.
I was wobbly with it a little at first because it was such an incredible feeling it was hard not to acknowledge it, but then I started doing some deep breathing exercises and I used them to manage my state of mind and ride out the experience.
I just concentrated on the breathing, and being empty, over and over – the breathing and being empty – and eventually they merged into one indistinguishable thing and I surrendered to the waves.
It was absolutely fucking incredible. The experience at it’s peak was probably the most intense thing I’ve ever felt in my life.
I maintained that frequency for about 15 minutes but it was so overwhelming I almost felt like that’s all I could stand. It was just so mind blowing that I couldn’t resist the impulse to think about it, and as soon as I committed to doing just that it stopped.
It was really, really intense. Easily my most powerful tank experience ever.
I think I can get back there and do it longer next time. That’s usually how it is with these states, as long as I get back in within a day or so I can kind of pick up where I left off, and hopefully next time I’ll be able to relax for a little longer.
I’ve got to be honest though, at one point in time it was so intense I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to make it back from there. It was so insane it felt like it could override this life completely and I would exist there as a part of this gigantic, living thought for the rest of eternity.
Maybe that’s exactly what happens. Either way, this is an exciting turn of events and I have a feeling much more is to come.
Definitely. The journey has only just begun…
Joe, first off – I rank your stand up “comedy” higher than any other thought driven comedian – (well not that Carlins gone). But I had a question about the distribution of your 2005 video.
Currently, there is a video on video.google.com of a full routine you did in 2005 (the Showtime one?), I was wondering if you indeed own the rights to that video and sanctioned the release of it online?
If so, I would love to start publicly promoting the video, as I find myself continually showing it to my friends who are need of a new view on life.
Thank you Joe, your insightful and deep analysis on life is fucking refreshing.
Pretty interesting stuff joe. I just saw the movie “Altered States” this past weekend and it was intriguing to say the least. You think if you get into a deep enough state of trance, you can actually visit past lives, as crazy as it sounds?
Did Joe Rogan just achieve enlightenment?
Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. As far as my material online, I support free downloads of everything I do.
I feel like if people appreciate what you do they’ll buy it if they can afford it, and with something like my 2005 DVD it’s been out for a while now, and I’ve moved past any of that material so I like the fact that people can just get it online anytime they want.
Whenever I do a CD or a DVD I do it to archive the material, I do it so that people have something to enjoy, but I also do it as an advertisement to get people to see me perform live. I think people that are against free downloads are very short sighted. For me at least it’s all about reaching as many people as possible, and there’s no better vehicle for that than the internet.
Hi Joe Rogan, your blog is great! You are a cool consciousness, man. Very cool.
Have you ever heard of Carlos Castaneda? After reading all his books many times over, and practicing some of the things he talks about (within my own limited scope), I’ve come to the SOLID AND CONCRETE CONCLUSION THAT THERE ARE OTHER WORLDS IN FRONT OF OUR EYES AND THEY ARE ALL A PART OF THIS ONE. lol
I don’t care if people out there say he made it all up, for all I know his “proof” of his experiences were compete bullshit, BUT…the techniques and psychology he presented for manipulating awareness, for me, have worked to a provable degree.
Here is something I wrote after some time in dreaming…
“I cannot describe for you in words or pictures the world we know is there.
It can only be communicated…articulated… via our language of directly shared experience.
This is not a limitation, as the word “only” makes it sound…but rather a doorway, a window, to affirm the reality of our dreaming.
In looking for a soul to share the history of that magic – that beautiful wonder, the feeling of a shared shield against the terrible beauty of this universe – I have been met with monumental questions I thought were only answers…answers to an enigma I could only propagate, and never duplicate…
Stay true, man!
Joe,
I am highly interested in your glimpses into ACTUAL reality. As a intelligent and influential person in society, you have the opportunity to share your experiences and undoubtedly promote truth and knowledge. While refraining from being too philosophical, there are CLEAR parallels in yours and many others experiences that while often described insufficiently have a single thread flowing through them all.
I am not sure if DMT will ever push us into the next level that we aspire to (in fact it undoubtedly won’t) but it is maybe the purest physical phenomena which puts the possessor of consciousness in an (for lack of better term) EYE-OPENING experience. Essentially, we are here for truth and knowledge and one must realize that time is an illusion (possibly easier to do when you’ve had a pure psychedelic experience).
I would love to have a conversation with you if possible. I find not too many people are prepared to look inside themselves or rather beyond themselves.
Hey Joe,
I’ve always known you as a TV personality and a comedian. I came across a small clip of you talking about DMT. I realized you have a lot to say, so I’ve been watching you on various videos. You should do more content on your view of life, I would love to hear more about what you have to say. Anyways, I love the fact that i found your site TODAY (i was floored that the post was dated today), this post that you wrote is exactly some of the stuff that I’ve been learning/discovering. I’ve never been on a psychedelic drug but the mental state you explain I can kind of relate to from when i remember as a kid just staring at the back of my eyelids while i went to sleep. Anyways consider me a new fan and look forward to checking back here.
[[[ Thank you Joe. I just sent the following email to my closest friends because I deeply resonate with the vibe of your experience. I am an ex-cop (7 years) who has been traveling the world for the last 6 years - soul searching - so as to somehow help our ailing society (and myself) 'evolve'. Thought you might resonate with my vibe, and like to hear that there are some people out here doing our best with this crazy beautiful scary Big Picture. Thanks, man. (Your 'color' really makes the UFC shine, by the way.) -Chris (cmchotmail@hotmail.com) ]]]
Rogan’s Feb. 15th blog entry is really cool.
What he’s describing is really similar in a big way – but loosely – to how tenuous and delicate and beautiful my personal experiences were with feeling/experiencing being tapped into The Source in Antigua and while apartment-sitting for my mom (which is when I discovered the ‘Conversations with God’ books, which were an important factor).
So much of who I am (for good and bad) is an analyzer and a mapper (I’m the kid who LOVES the amazing magic trick so much that I MUST figure out how it was done – and that applies to the magic of Life itself), and it was really difficult for me to ride the razor’s edge of that tenuous relationship with my ‘Godspace’/The Source…to be able to grasp it (partly, at least) so as to be able to bring it back to the ‘tribe’ in a way that I can articulate and explain…but without crushing it or causing the ‘butterfly to flit away’ by being too binary/digital/controlling. But both times I was able to stay in that space for days and days. I’d wake up in the mornings partly exhilarated by the instant recall of what’d been happening for me the previous day/s, but partly terrified that it was a dream or a craziness or just something fleeting and now gone. Sometimes it would take an hour of reading the right material, or sometimes it would just be in my body and come rushing back within a few minutes – but it came back day after day and almost every time it brought tears of joy and a fullness in my heart on a level that no drug or ‘love’ had ever even touched.
My vision for a summercamp/community/farm/village/MMA training retreat/ intentional community comes from that space. During those days I was able to so deeply synthesize the how and why of what was happening for me, holistically, and relative to the spectrum of experiences and observations that I’d made of myself and of humanity, that I had accrued over the course of my life up until that point. I feel that if there’s an afterlife and I were to somehow meet Einstein, we’d both be able to share the same fundamental sensation of what it is to synthesize/discover an “e=mc2″… him with general relativity/physics and me with cultural anthropology (that’s the best label I can put on it, at the moment, without sounding like I have a full-blown messiah complex).
The camp/community would be a physical/spiritual/pyschological ‘ecosystem’ that could sustain a way of life in which access to one’s godspace (on a community scale, for multiple individuals’ godspaces) is available and sustainable – a place where dozens of personal pan/multi-discipline “e=mc2″s can be discovered and can then even evolve. Relative to the current status quo, that sounds far-fetch, but I’m certain this WILL begin to happen for humanity, here and there – more and more – and it will happen fairly soon. It may not be me/us that kick it off, but it might as well be. As I continue to scour the planet for ‘signs of life’ on this scale, I’m not seeing anything happening anywhere yet. Separate chunks of this ‘grand unification theory’ have been popping up and refining (like the Heart of Now personal growth workshop, and media like CwG/What the Bleep/The Secret, and local/organic/permaculture ways of farming/diet), but I haven’t found any visions remotely synthesized holistically and sustainably. I Know, in my heart, mind, and soul, that I have a solid and healthy vision. (It has been a real bitch, however, to remain connected to it during these last couple/few years, as I’ve tried to juggle a semi-normal lifestyle inside of the ‘Matrix’/mainstream while trying to manifest clarity and progress. I’m on it, though.)
-C
This is just a step along the path.
All is one AND all is different.
The place of pure joy lies beyond the opposites.
All is impermanent.
If life comes, there is only life.
If death comes, there is only death.
Light goes with darkness, as the sequence does of steps in walking.
From the very beginning, where could the self hide?
Man, wish I was heading out to Columbus one day earlier for your Spike filming – your routine you did up in Vernon Hills out here was one of the best I’ve ever seen. At least I’ll get to see it on TV though as will tons of other fight fans that probably have no idea how funny you are.
I had a question, a few actually, about the isolation tank.
1) Was this last experience, the most intense one, completely sober? If so/not, do you usually go sober or usually on something?
2) What tank do you have right now and do you know where I could get one?
-Mika
Congrats you’ve discovered your true state of being. The mind lies and distorts what really is because of past associations. This is why thought makes it go away. You are trying to rationalize something you can’t understand. The key is to realize that when you have an internal dialogue with yourself this is not really you. You are the presence listening but not the one talking. That is just the ego. Once the ego is shed you can truly be present. Absolute presence equates to what you experienced. Read Eckhart Tolles Power of Now. I think you will find it interesting. Check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPg9DnMP2D4
I can’t explain how unbelievably happy this makes me.
I’ve been through atheism, studied Christianity, studied and practiced Islam, and now I stumble on DMT trips. Your theory of humans being just a bacteria, a mold of sorts, blew my mind. You’re a smart motherfucker by the way
To think that everything in life could possibly be linked just to fulfill something we aren’t even aware of. Emotions such as love, and feelings such as loneliness all there just to keep us seeking a mate, leading to sex, ending in multiplication and growth of the human race. Wow.
Before I start talking about my next random thought, let me say I am not trying to bring religion into this too much, but trying to understand what went on through the minds of the great people in history.
Is it possible, that Moses, Jesus, Muhammed were all false prophets? Or did they truly see things that we don’t? We now know its definitely possible to experience a whole different reality thanks to DMT. Muhammad dedicated a large portion of his life to meditation, in a cave, on a mountain, facing the Kaaba, for many years, starting in his youth. Many years later he will conquer and unite all of Arabia, and have all the people circumambulate the very structure he faced for many years during meditation. Now I’m not saying Muhammad took DMT 1400 years ago, but what I’m saying is that he seen something, and he knew something.
Imagine this: You have a teenage son, everyday he walks a few blocks to the park and sits on a bench. He faces this certain building and “meditates”. 20 years later your once teenage son, has become CEO of a very successful company whose location is in that same building. If that shit happened to me, I’d flat out trip balls.
Muhammed had some type of connection with the “other side”. He was definitely waiting for something all those years in that cave, and it came.
There are also stories of how Muhammed traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem in a matter of seconds, then ascended to the heavens from there. The Dome of the Rock was built where the event happened.
I don’t even know if I’m asking a question or leaving a comment. Religion and spiritual things give me headache and make me sleepy, big time overload. Kudos to you Joe for being brave and being able to go deep into your thoughts and make a positive experience out of it. Not everyone can handle the tough questions of our existence.
There is so much shit my mind wonders about… What do the free masons really practice and why is it secret? Who built the fucking pyramids? How did they build them 12,000 years ago? Is there a hall of records underneath the Sphinx? is this super complex universe all an accident or is there an ultimate creator (for lack of better words)? Is there other life out there? How was the Qur’an coded with 19? Who wrote Genesis?
Good luck all!
Joe, you are living proof that the concept of the Celestine Prophecies is an absolutely real and ultimately attainable goal within our lifetime. The free giving of positive energy as opposed to psychic vampirism, the immediate reciprocation of that energy because of your giving, the brutally honest endeavor to identify your personal weaknesses and the drive to overcome them – in many ways your own insight have given more tangible credence to the concept of the Prophecies than James Redmond himself has been able to impart. To say that your spiritual journey is intriguing and humbly inspiring is a drastic understatement, but it will have to do for now.
Thank you for sharing your experiences – I hope that some of us (even a precious few) are able to let them light the way for our own endeavors to maximize the potential and purpose of the human mind and spirit.