Are you experienced?
Are you experienced?
I ran into a fellow stand up comic at the airport yesterday, and he was there with his wife and his baby boy. Ever since my daughter was born I have acquired this immense fascination with babies. I see them everywhere, and I can’t take my eyes off them. I spot them all over the place, and occasionally these babies will be with a full grown human that I already know. That’s what happened yesterday at LAX.
I looked up and saw this cute little baby being held by one of the Sklar brothers, an LA comedy team of twins.
I wasn’t sure which twin it was, but they’re both really nice guys, so I’m equally happy to see either one.
“You made a person?”
“I made a person.”
“Wow. That’s awesome man, congrats. I made one too.”
And just like that, we were “those guys.”
We were the kind of men that I used to see in my younger days and shake my head in confusion. Two flowery, baby-loving weirdoes – wild eyed and intoxicated, tripping on the true opiate of the masses.
His wife came over and the baby love-talk escalated to the point where I started to feel light-headed. The three of us just sat there and expressed our new parent delight with each other in the presence of their beautiful, 6 month old boy like a trio of junkies waxing poetically on hitting the thickest vein with the sweetest smack.
Making a human is a truly surreal experience. It’s so titanically bizarre that I always compare it to a psychedelic trip, in that if it hasn’t happened to you there’s almost no way that I can accurately express to you what it’s like. You just have to experience it.
I used to dismiss a lot of experiences that I hadn’t had yet, simply because it’s easier to do than consider them or actually go out and have them. The world was confusing enough to me when I was a young man, and the last thing I thought I wanted back then was to have my ego obliterated by some monumentally humbling experience. Back then I just wanted to feel secure and get my life in order. I didn’t need more questions, I just needed a life.
Once I felt like I had some semblance of a life, then I started asking questions, and from there the true nature of this life began to slowly unfold. One of the craziest things that I’ve learned from any enlightening experience, it’s that every time I learn something new whatever knowledge I gain from it brings with it many, many times more new questions.
I remember my first mushroom trip. I was somewhere around 30 years old. I tried as much as I could to be a good person back then, but I was (and still am) very much a work in progress. I wasn’t sure what I wanted out of life other than to be happy, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to pull that off. I found a tremendous amount of people to be annoying, and I had to do my best to calm my natural tendency to be hyper-aggressive. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve always strived to be a good person and do the right thing in my life, but occasionally I struggled with douchy-ness.
Enter, my friend the magic mushroom.
They don’t taste like much. They’re almost like a slightly more boring version of some kind of hippie vegan rice cake snack that you might get at a local health food store. I bet if you could add some sort of a spicy, salty seasoning to them they could be even be quite tasty. You don’t do it, though.
Why? Because for some reason it just doesn’t seem right. It seems insulting.
Some people do change the flavor of it, and I’m pretty sure they still get there, but the way I’ve always looked at it is that if you’re really having that much of a problem with the taste, then you’ve either got some really weird taste buds, or you’re a whiny bitch that has a shitty attitude, and you’ll complain about just about anything, and that’s a terrible attitude to have going into a trip.
People on fear factor ate rotten animal dicks for a chance at $50,000 dollars and you’re telling me you have a problem eating bland fungus for a chance at contacting god?
Wait… Contacting who?
Now, if my young self had ever heard my current self saying something this crazy, I would have thought that I was a fucking crackpot, and I would have probably immediately dismissed me. I was far more convinced that I had the answers that I needed from life back then than I am now, and anything that challenged that perception was just labeled “bullshit” for my own protection.
I’ve had many intense psychedelic experiences, and one of the most profound effects of these trips isn’t just that the world feels strange when you’re on them, but that the world is forever changed once you’re back. Once the genie is out of the bottle it’s impossible to forget.
Mushrooms were the first real psychedelics that I tried, so I really had no idea what to expect. I heard that you “hallucinate” on them, so I expected to see a bunch of shit that wasn’t there. What actually happened was far stranger than that.
I didn’t see anything that wasn’t there, but I did see the things that have always been there in a totally different way. The first thing I noticed after I started to feel “funny” was that there seemed to be an underlying geometric pattern to everything that I could never see before. It was almost like I had put on some goggles that allowed me to see secret connections that everything shared.
Everything seemed to be made of these patterns, and despite the solid nature of the world I was looking at, it almost felt like what I was seeing was that everything that seemed separate was actually just one huge, all encompassing thing expressing itself in different frequencies.
As the trip got deeper the natural world around me seemed to be made out of thoughts, and as the effects of the mushrooms made these thoughts stranger and stranger, the world itself seemed to merge with these thoughts and become indistinguishable.
The hills were breathing. I watched them pulsate in and out in fascination, until I realized that it was my own breath that was making this happen. It was like I was now looking at the world as it was being projected onto a very thin screen, and every time I breathed it was teasing me with what was behind the screen like a hot chick wearing see-through lingerie.
By this time I was psychically naked for the first time in my life. I realized how much of what I thought of as “me” was just psychic armor that I had applied long ago and forgotten about. Social status, accumulated material possessions, accomplishments, friendships and feuds alike – all stripped away to reveal a core; a core with no language, no culture, and no fear.
Then this core was shown the true nature of this world, and I watched things that I always thought of as “normal” as if I was a visiting alien from another galaxy.
All the predetermined patterns of behavior that we follow were all revealed like tracks on a grid, and the more we follow these tracks the less we have to think. The tracks can be completely bizarre, but as long as they’re there even the most unlikely of patterns will be followed.
African women will cut their lips and stretch them out to fit plates. American men will wrap a traditional cloth around their neck and hang it in front of their chest in order to be taken seriously in a business meeting. It was all the same thing manifesting itself in different actions.
I saw the whole world like I would see it if I was an alien. Eventually I came back, and the world stopped breathing, and the mushrooms stopped talking to me – but I don’t think I’ve ever looked at anything the same way since.
I’ve always said that if we were seeing our world not even as an alien, but just from the perspective of people living a few hundred years ago it would seem almost impossibly bizarre. I have this routine that I follow where I hire a car to take me to the airport, and while he’s driving I sit in the back seat and get on the internet on my laptop.
Seems pretty normal and straight forward to most folks.
Now if you really think about it, just 400 years ago this “normal” routine that I have would have been the stuff of the strangest fiction.
I’m moving faster than a sprinting horse inside a big metal box that’s powered by tiny controlled explosions and we’re rolling over a hard, man made surface that’s interconnected throughout the entire continent. I’m typing away on a machine that is interfaced with the entire world through some invisible signal that almost instantly connects me to the entire current sum of accumulated human knowledge, and while all this crazy shit is happening, I’ll occasionally pull out something smaller than my hand, and I’ll use it to talk to people that are on the other side of the fucking world.
I will eventually get to a giant group of buildings where I will be scanned for explosives. I’ll then be strapped into a metal tube that’s also powered by explosions, and along with hundreds of other people I’ll be hurled through the sky so high that you can see the curve of the earth, and so fast that you literally go forward in time for the slightest fraction of a second.
What…
The…
Fuck.
To pay for all of this I don’t give them gold coins, or a goat, or even let them fuck me. All I have to do is let them hold on to a small card that I have, and then I’ll scribble something that’s supposed to represent “me” on a piece of paper. This stands as an agreement that I am willing to pay in the future for this experience, and I will use this strange method to aquire everything in my life.
At the end of each 30 days I will pay for the total that I owe by, wait for it… writing on a piece of paper. Most of my bills are paid online now, so in that case I’m not even writing anything. I’m just pressing on little buttons, and those little button presses support me and fortify my life.
That’s our everyday life, and if you lived 500 years ago and explained that this is what the future would be like there would be a very good chance that a group of people would burn you at the stake.
I’m sitting in a hotel room in Nashville right now finishing this up. I will copy and paste it into a location that my web browser is pointed to, and it will be read by thousands of people almost immediately. I’ll then head out to a club in town where people have agreed to come and listen to me make noises with my mouth that represent the focused thoughts bouncing around in my mind.
These thoughts will make people think, and by laughing at them, they will actually make people feel better.
I will never say that I truly understand this world, because the more I learn about it the more I feel that’s actually impossible.
What I can say though, is that as strange as it is, I appreciate every bizarre moment of it. I appreciate the freedom to think this way, and I appreciate the patience and attention of all you people reading and considering all this crazy shit.
It would be a lot easier to understand what the fuck I’m talking about if you did some mushrooms. Or had a baby. Either one, really.
Mad love to you all.
Fucking awesome read
Wow Joe!
You are my mushroom man, even though that sounds gay. The way you’re describing things. You’re really making me smarter!
Fuckin’ amazing Joe. You’re a great writer too. But, I need to stop complimenting people because I’ve realized it can be confusing. Anyways, I understand everything you wrote here. Stay secure and healthy, bro. Peace from Russia!
Yo. Long time fan and Joe-Rogan-blog-reader, but first time I got my lazy ass around to posting a response. This article meant a lot to me because I’ve always been greatly infatuated with what an outside party would think of our present day world, even before my hallucinogenic experiences. Ive always believed that hallucinogens open up your mind to the knowledge you already secretly possess, and the dreams, insight, and aspirations that you unknowingly desire. Anyways, before i start rambling about psychedelics and what-not, this whole thing reminded me of an article or something of that nature that was similar to this scenario. It was written about a tribe called the Nacirema (American backwards), and the strange culture they developed as observed by one who was completely ignorant of their ways. Your blog really reminded me quite a bit of it. So i thought it would be worth it to say hey, if you ever get a chance, you may be interested in checking it out. Word.
Wouldn’t it be a trip if your baby grew up to be one of the future 2 girls 1 cup players? And you posted your reaction to it, sending it out to thousands of people around the world instantly? Wow, what an amazing path that would be. “The tracks can be completely bizarre, but as long as they’re there even the most unlikely of patterns will be followed.” Let’s hope so.
It’s not only the drugs Rogan. It’s the people/energy we gather from experiencing life’s simple mysteries. I haven’t done mushrooms since high school and when I did them I certainly wasn’t getting the same trip that I can associate you having with them minus the geometric shit. I’ve taken a decent amount of time to be open to suggestion (I’m sure the weed helps me be more patient then I’d ever be “sober”) , but through people like you, hicks, carlin, stanhope, louis ck, life becomes a lot easier to quantify piece by piece. Good comics aren’t just funny, they’re prophets of modern day unorganized religion
yeah that was really cool
been reading these posts for the last year or something,
this one stands out to me as particularly insightful and interesting to read,
so i find myself writing a response here to express my enthusiasm.
i think, for wahtever its worth, that if one attempts to question, explore and manages to avoid being held back by all the emotional and psycholgical issues that can arise along the way, then there is this msg that forms and you, it seems to me, are just preaching the msg, what exactly it is though, is difficult to explain. anyway, i like it.
this has nothing to do with making people…..I would like to see Machida vs Bisping….could you make it happen?
I think you’re weird.
Wisest is he who knows that he knows nothing.
Said the Oracle of Delphi.
Hello Mr Rogan, I am from India but I have travelled a lot and right now I am here in America , learning as much as I can about your country. Your comedy shows are quite the unique experience I must say atleast from what I have seen online as of now. Watching you Live is now one of my missions before I leave America.
Your post resonates. While in undergrad I had done mushrooms from Kodi (South India). My experience was quite to similar to yours. I didn’t hallucinate per say but I saw patterns within patterns. I remember sitting in my room with a friend who was sober and I kept pointing at my rugged wall and the poor guy just saw the cracks and torn of paint on the wall. I on the other hand saw a whole display of the universe on the wall. I saw George Bush, the map of the world, faces talking to me but I couldnt make out what they were saying. My friend got sick of the wall tripping and we headed out and it was raining with wind blowing. All the trees on campus had their leaves dancing to the wind which in turn became horses. I saw horses “in” the trees jumping from one tree to another. It was so beautiful. My mind was like a rocket thundering up the sky, breaking one inspiration barrier after another. What a trip.
I want to do DMT sometime. Most Americans call the experience of meeting other beings as meeting extra terrestrials or aliens. The Hindus on the other hand have another take on this. Since I haven’t done DMT yet, this is but a theory as of now. We believe in spirits that roam around and you said you saw a being of light which I guess would be a good spirit. I have heard of experiences where darker spirits ask people if they can enter you which is very dangerous, according to the Gurus. Some people meet these beings and have a conversation and once the trip is over the conversation is forgotten. When they redo DMT after years they meet the same very beings who continue that very same conversation they had years ago, almost as if the trippers never left the conversation.
What does this all mean? It means you and I are mystics. Whether they be aliens or not there are other forces at play. Maybe they influence you when you sleep. Maybe its not all brain chemisty. Maybe the spirit has more to say.
this was awesome. some of the psychedelic experiences you’ve described and the wisdom that follows them sound amazing, but to be honest i’m fucking terrified of trying psychedelics. some of my friends have and they’ve all struggled to describe it other than it being the most intense and life-changing experience in the world.
all of this makes me think…what if i have a bad trip, i mean a BAAAD trip. every day i’m saturated by unbelievably graphic and disturbing stories on the news about babies being thrown out of moving cars and fathers locking their daughters in a cellar for 24 years. as well as all the neuroses and self-loathing of any adult male. all of this is stored in my brain somewhere, in a part i can’t access, the most powerful and uncontrollable part, and i really don’t want to fuck around on top of that trap door.
i’ve heard stories of friends of friends who unlocked repressed memories while on DMT, and it makes me think, as sophisticated as our brains are, would it really know the difference between a repressed memory and some horrifying shit i saw on tv as a child? like maybe i walked in on a movie playing on tv where a child is being raped, and through taking drugs my mind discards the details and presents me with a strange blurry memory where I’M being raped, the feeling of fear/confusion/wrongness i felt when watching the movie is suddenly evidence of ‘how i felt when it was happening’. ask any police officer how reliable memory is when recalling past events, this is the kind of thing that puts me off, and i think going into a trip with this anxiety would make it even more likely to be a bad trip.
have you ever had a bad trip? if so, i think you should write about it to show both sides of the story.
Yo last night something happened to me and today I was just thinking MAN GOTTA TELL JOE ROGAN. Alright Ive listened to all those videos on youtube and shit about your experience on DMT. So last night I smoked soo so soo o much weed and i decided to go home at 2:30AM. I watched TV for half an hour and then it hit 3 AM. I started to meditate thinking about my pineal gland and stuff. I then went into this crazy trance where I saw all the geometric patterns in like a portal right in front of me. All the walls were like pulsating and moving and I could like feel them somehow IDK! It felt like a minature DMT trip. Like dude its fucking possible to do that shit in real life without smoking it. Im just pumped now seeing how far I can go now. Lata my intergalatic brotha
Hey Joe, first time poster on either your blog or forums.
Now I must preface this that I usually come from an LDS perspective, yes LDS not LSD, LOL…
Latter Day Saints, AKA Mormons, ya I guess those crazy religious people.
But ironically, from listening and being enlightened by your radio interviews and blog posts, I bet you and me think much more alike than you an the avg agnostic.
I have never done a drug, besides the doctor prescribed poison and your caffeine and sugar, etc and I have never had any alchohol besides cough syrup but the reason I keep listening to you is because I agree and have felt and feel the same as you about 95% of the time.
A reason for this is because I am Mormon, a religion I encourage anybody who likes psycadellics and thinking about the possibilities to check out the doctrine.
I feel like I am on similar trips that you describe all the time when I sit quiet and meditate about this flying rock through space and the endlessness of the universe.
Even in the Mormon circles , I have a hard time talking with people about this stuff cause we are conditioned as a society to not think, regardless if your religious or not.
But I am a LDS doctrine based guy that says the truth, regardless of what it is, is the most important thing to obtain, whether good or bad.
Now, imagine believing the things like you, multi-verses, multi-dimensions, pre determined patterns, we are freaking evolved apes, we both are similar to the Alex Jones thinking about the world elite etc, and your analogy about if an alien looked at this planet and saw a beautiful lake then LA, yeh it would think LA is the cancer, that’s right on.
Now take all this and so much more, now add the fact that our pure existence is for a specific purpose.
Now of course you have heard this before from all religions right? And some I say very perverted ones, but what if there was one that was pure in its intent, cause I agree that 99.9% of religion is used to close minds and stop that search for truth out there.
But man, what makes me a Mormon are these simple things ( to me) but yeh maybe to you or most people sound like a freaking whack job DMT trip…
1. Intelligence always existed, there was no beginning, God eventually evolved as an intelligence and there could be trillions of Gods, universes, etc out there.
2. A specific God ( our father ) had children ( us ) and set up sort of a learning period.
A. Now why are things so cruel? Well, now imagine before coming here actually seeing God, and comprehending that you are an eternal intelligence and the possibilities, yeh, in comparing that to a little beat of a hearts time here, it’s prolly not that scary from a pre mortal life point of view and won’t be after we die.
B. Why send us here, well for experience of course, dude, imagine being a super intelligence , your telling me there wouldn’t be times where you wish you could have a brief period where you could see things from a mortals perspective and have that experience, geeze, to me, this sounds like a Gods psycadellic trip to be mortal.
C. Another reason we needed this experience cause it’s part of the order of the Gods, in order to become one you have to live as a mortal and experience things from not knowing and see what kind of character you really got, now of course in the moral trip things are not fair, so a Son of God, established a way for things to be fair eventually and a way for you to be a good person and have an easier path to Godship.
D. Now why Lucifer (Satan), etc. Well, in any place where you get your choice, you have dissenters, I mean , imagine agreeing to this trip, I bet you and me were like , yes, let me be challenged, what better way then to allow those who didn’t believe in this doctrine or good to prove God and Christ wrong, and of course God knowing full well of what it’s all about and the purpose, its a perfect piece to learning, being challenged by adversity.
So in conclusion to this part, we are here to experience and discern truth from fiction, good from bad, righteousness from evil, to be a good person and not a bad person basically.
I believe your DMT trips etc are real, I also believe you have certain beliefs based on your experiences of life and in depth feelings from them that only you can understand why.
I guess that’s why I am Mormon too, I seriously considered the doctrine and teachings of Joseph Smith, who we revere as a just Prophet (but prolly most important one), because if you read them with open mind and just take it as philosophy on life, it is unreal.
IMO, psycadellic fans should have posters of this guy on there walls in admiration of where he went with his mind and his connection with the universe.
The purpose you do this is trying to meet God, well , what if a guy did and wrote down his experiences? lol..
That is my position, this guy actually saw God and Jesus , actually had a conversation with him and angels, and these people actually had a work for him to do.
Psycadellic peeps should be able to understand this, lol.
The basic central things of Mormonism is truth, that how Joseph Smith defined Mormonsim, we only want the truth, now yeh, you talk with the avg member today and they are a dunderhead but man, thats like relating a close minded tripper to a guy like you.
Joseph Smith might be the king of all trippers or just had a mind that didn’t need the key and just had it.
who knows, but you can’t unless your willing to think about things right? seriously consider than ask the hard and deep questions,
and then ask yourself
Are you experienced?
Take care, odds that you read this rant, 10%, lol….. But thats Mormonism 101 by passing the religious stuff…
BTW, your correct IMO about the pre determined patters, its actually a Joseph Smith teaching that blessings a predicated based on actions, meaning there is a pattern to what happens.
peace.
wow, that last message was almost more of a trip than reading about your trip.
Damn, Rogan, you are awesome. Do more episodes of Adam Carolla’s podcast because you two are legendary, And maybe you have talked about this before but check out Ray Kurzweil and the ideas of singularity, Jacque Fresco and the Zeitgeist Movement, and read “Ecotopia.” Sure, you’re a Gaian mind, but you are also a futurist Joe.
never think your bigger then the mushrooms your taking.
this 1 time i was in holland staying in/on a hippy camp. my girlfriend at the time had an uncle that lived there so we got a coach over.
the 2nd day there was a friday and they told us cos it was a full moon they we setting up a week long outdoor rave. so during the day i went into the city and obviously sampled their herbical delights.
as the day drew on we chose to head back to camp but not b4 i thought id get some mushrooms. i was a big pillhead at the time but didnt trust any of the street dealers who walked down prozzy ally saying “E’s, coca. E’s coca?” as they went. so i got a party pack of mushrooms designed for 4.
we got back to hippyland and after sampling some of uncles homegrown, he had shoeboxes with a year on them eg 1998 2003 etc. and they were full of his annual crops sampled like wine. why im a criminal 2 want 2 do this is beyond me. anyway we started hearing a bassy, thud thud thud thud and it was time to check it out and therefore mushroom time.
i asked my girlfriend if she wanted any n she said no so i had to workout how many i should have. i tried to sum up the amounts by thinking 1st im skinny so dont need as much as some1 of a larger size but 2nd i was used to english mushrooms which are tiny and you need bout 30 for a good show. so ate them all. they were dried up and had a yellowish tint to them. they had the taste of dry mud but when your used to the chemical nailvarnishy taste of mdma it was like burger king.
we set off to the rave and after an hour or so they started kicking in. i was tripping my tits off at 1st it was class and similar to what you put, these amazing symmetrical patterns but with a tint of yellow. i remember thinking to myself as i stood watching, so thats where the beatles nicked their idea for yellow submarine and how all this shit my dad told me as a child allllll made sense i.e how life was a ride and how most never get to see etc.
2 or 3 hours in things started getting well strong and my ego started conflicting with my consciousness. this caused me to start blacking out which started to make me freak the fuck out so i went to uncle for help/advise. he took me to the sidebar. the sidebar was how you imagine bars in the wildwest. it was made from bits of scrap timber and metal sheeting wallpapered in duthch newspapers. when i went in there was ppl kinda yeee haar danceing on the tables a guy with a fiddle and every1 clapping along. he sat me at a table and introduced me to his friend pete. as my name is also pete i felt instant connection. uncle then left me with him and told me “if you do mushrooms you must sit up/stand straight”. i did as he said and it worked, i asked later why it did and he explained how hallucinogenics lower circulation of blood to the brain so if your if your crooked it can stop supply. i never had any trouble after that and stayed in bar with pete.
pete was an old skool hippy who seemed in his 60s. he had long grey hair to his shoulders and wore 1 of those 70’s headbands.
i remember talking too him for ages but only really remember 1 conversation about how because england is an island it made it very hard to concur and hasnt really since 1066. as a result of this the population has been inbreeding more then any other western nation making british population so fucking ugly. if ugly genes fuck the genes of their ulgy daughters and mothers for a 1000 years you get fucking ugly people. if you go from england and compare the average attractiveness of nations to it we’d be at the bottom beyond the fuglyness of flid babies.
this pete never really spoke about himself so b4 i left back to england i asked uncle what his story was. he told me and that he used to be the Chauffeur for john lennon and yoko ono when they traveled across america but never liked to talk about it cos he hated how ppl changed once they knew and was sick of all the questions. because the fact he didnt boast, was a hippy and uncle had no reason to lie leads me to believe it was true.
this experience changed my whole perspective of things and there after i never thought i was bigger then the mushrooms ive taken and had the best experiences since i defo recommend mexican blues theyre well giggly.
dude…look at how you inspire people to think. 6-5 is my boy’s 10th birthday , and i end up reading here you entry about how thrilled with fatherhood you are…to think i flipped over to you blog after you called a cut on a fighter’s face a goat vagina on an old ufc match i was watching…dude
glad you are here in the broad sense of the meaning
maybe
Wow is all I can say – For a writer, reading the sentence “The three of us just sat there and expressed our new parent delight with each other in the presence of their beautiful, 6 month old boy like a trio of junkies waxing poetically on hitting the thickest vein with the sweetest smack” is the equivalent to a seismologist cumming in their pants when an earthquake hits. It’s THAT rare- it’s GOLDEN!
Anyone that doubts that Rogan isn’t the most introspective writer of his time is as gay as someone wearing a fanny pack that’s not Rogan himself.
Congrats on fatherhood! Maybe there’s hope for someone like me afterall.
I never thought that I would be a mom but here I am 4 boys later. It is an amazing feeling to give birth and to push out twins was no easy task. It’s sweet hearing you talk about how you see babies and then I think of all those jerks who just skip out (like my older son’s father) and lose out on the most precious times in their lives. What a lucky little girl she is!
Hello and thank you for taking the time to share this intimate look into the way perception gathers itself after a *peak* psychedelic experience. Congratulations on the baby
I am also a new father, with an infant daughter and a 3 year old son. So I can fully appreciate your mentality in that regard. Watching your woman give birth to your child is very, well,…humbling.
I ate my first mushrooms at the age of 15, nearly 9 years ago. And what I find so interesting is that it took me over 6 years to make sense of what happened during the onset of exposure, I was watching television (yea yea) by myself in my parents living room and suddenly, I fully and emphatically *knew* everyone on the show, the commercials, etc. At first, I was confused, wondering “How the fuck do I KNOW these people?” but then my comprehension of reality was unspun into chaotic dying help me Im poisoned my heart stopped Hey God you are behind my quantum holographic mental field lol because not only did I *know* these people on television, I suddenly knew that I have always known these people, they are closer then family, closer then blood, they are me and I am they.
Only, to a 15 year old kid who thought he had taken a drug and was going to feel stoned and perhaps a bit goofy, naturally, I was thrown into a fractal geometric network which sort of resembled outerspace but the stars were my neurons and each zoom in brought out the ugly sides of my personality.
After this ended though, and I had some sense of solid ground and whatever dim awareness of my enviorment, I remember meeting God, beyond the supernatural imprints on the collective consciousness, it was fucking GOD, the end, and I also remember It showing me the beginning, the middle, and the end, and how this macro/microcosmic gesture is but one occurence in essence. And I find that presence, to this day (and obviously after several hundred more psychedelic dances lol) in every pair of eyes, in every action, every breath I take in I take in existence, every breath I let out I let it all drop away. Whatever ‘it’ is, who can know, can it be known? I dont think so. But I do think that the point of psychedelics has been entirely elucidated when we, as you say, can appreciate every bizarre moment of it.
Truly, whatever is going on, to our minds when not being strangled to death by mushrooms in the depths of THE peaks unfolding program, is far more absurd then we can ever suppose.
Much love and light -
whats with all the comedians? anyway, its awesome someone with all this knowlege gets a podium to spread the wealth to the rest of the world.
Long time reader, first time poster here.
Just want to keep it brief and say that this is your best blog yet. Please write a memoir some day; you’re a true inspiration to a lot of people.
Joe – Incredible fuckin read… Let me first say that I found your blog about a year ago, and love your writing – I have yet to see your standup (down here in south FL) but I almost feel as if we have some kind of mind-meld because I have such similar thoughts. I’ll get back to that though. Your reminiscence reminded me of several of the psychedelic trips that I’ve had in my time. I probably only do it (shrooms/acid) about 2 times a year, if that, and spread out too.
My first time tripping was off of a piece of chocolate that was mixed with grinded up mushrooms (ensuring psilocybin content) I was with my two best friends, conveniently both named Eric. I saved their lives that night, but that’s a whole other saga for another time.
I have been playing guitar and bass for about 7 years, drums for about 2-3 years. I’m 24 now, but this 1st experience was back when I was about 17. I don’t recall you mentioning that you play any instruments, but let me “wax poetically” (to steal your verbiage) about it for a second. Re: Playing guitar. Think about this: in your hands, you are holding an object assembled from a type of tree, shaped in a traditional body-neck design, that was, I assume, settled on after numerous attempts. On it are 6 metal strings, that are strung through, and with the right amount of tension, each can be assigned a certain timbre (or note with a name we have designated according to the alphabet that we made up) and they can be “tuned” to an infinite amount of combinations, from the most dissonant sounds imaginable, to a perfect array that will delight the small hairs in your ears so much that your skin gets goose bumps and a chill runs up the back of your neck. All of these sounds are “heard” by an electronic object called a pickup, and these signals are sent through a wire (or through the air) to a cone type object which then amplifies the sound made by the strings. Vibrations.
Memory is crazy in itself, but muscle memory is an entirely different beast. In my most recent ‘trip’ which conveniently was 2 weekends ago, me and 2 friends (who all play instruments) decided we were going to eat boomerz and jam for as much of the time as possible, with obvious smoke breaks when we felt it was right. We ended up with 6 distinct sessions (about 3 recorded hours) of complete improvisation ranging from absolutely mind-blowingly amazing to the trippiest shit your imagination can conjure up. It was great, weird, mind-blowing, epic, scary, and beautiful all at the same time. When I listen back, I don’t feel like it was “me” playing. More so, I feel like I was floating at about ceiling height watching it all go down from outside of my body. I wasn’t consciously playing the drums, but rather honing in on the ability of my muscles to reproduce movements that they had performed numerous times before. Whenever I would think about what I was doing, I would fuck up, but whenever I closed my eyes and went on autopilot, the muscles took control and did their thing while I spaced out on the geometric patterns on the back of my eyelids.
I highly recommend playing music while under. If you never have, and this is for Joe as well as anyone else that happened to have come across this, next time you trip, have an instrument around. In fact, have several. There is no way to describe the audible sensation that is felt when you play a single note after having poisoned yourself temporarily.
Now, Joe, you talk about “contacting god” – that is one way to put it into words, but this is how I perceived it: When you really break it down what is really going on in this universe, and break out of that everyday shell where all you think about is your direct surroundings and hectic schedule, it is extremely overwhelming. We are all just star stuff. Chemical reactions and mutations. In my trips, and especially the first time (which alters your mindset and outlook forever), it really is like that scene in the Matrix where you can take the blue pill and transcend, or take the red and dismiss it “as bullshit.” Millions of people choose the red, not only to oppose psychedelics, but in education, in religion, essentially for life in general. Personally, I think it to be a shame to stop searching, to stop thinking, and to stop asking the question “why?”
Why are we here and actually able to wonder about why we are here?
Why do we sell our most precious asset, time, just to pay for things we would be better off without?
Why is the sun green, but looks yellow/orange to us?
Why did that brave first man (or woman?) dig into a heaping pile of lukewarm cow shit, and think: “Hey, lets eat these!”? (:: very thankful for hydroponics ::)
And most importantly, why aren’t cool ranch doritos considered an appropriate topping for a sandwich?!?
My first time, I began to see patterns in everything that I looked at. The world was broken down to me, in both its minutia and grandeur as all just patterns. Swirls, extrapolations of Pi. In a way, I had the feeling that I was everything, and everything was me. We are all the same people, just different circumstances. Everything was thoughts, vibes. You need to be completely comfortable with the people you take ‘trips’ with, as vibes ARE everything. You can sense them without even trying. They can sense you.
LAST THOUGHT::
Think about this: We all have a conciousness. We talk to ourselves, in our native language. A language invented and assembled before our time. I wonder, do people who speak several languages talk to themselves in just one, or several? If you break down consciousness to the core, what are we left with? Take away language, and how do we talk to ourselves? Its just thoughts. Vibes.
From Joe’s post: “Every time I learn something new whatever knowledge I gain from it brings with it many, many times more new questions.”
Keep asking, keep searching. I wish all you like minded friends the best, much love to you all, and keep transcending…
Check me out on twitter: @adammoskowitz
I’m a first time poster and reader here and absolutely had to come and express my interest over this post. I’ve seen you doing your UFC work and on Fear Factor of course but obviously was never really exposed to the real you. Just tonight, me and my friends caught your stand-up act on Spike and laughed our asses off for the entire thing, except for the seemingly shitload of commercials, and not just cause we were righteously ripped, that was some seriously funny shit. Anyways, I spent the rest of my night watching some of your vids and reading posts and was surprised not only by the fact that you’re a funny motherfucker but also a seriously deep guy with some really amazing ideas.
I really connected with this post because my first mushroom trip was very much similar to yours. I had a very similar mindset about the world as yours before my first psychedelic experience, confident about my place in our world and weary of any “bullshit” as you so elegantly put it.
Myself and 2 of my closest friends munched at my cottage and decided we would spend our time relaxing on the dock, enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery of a Northern Ontario lake on a summer day. We really had no idea what to expect and just plopped ourselves down and waited for what was to come. Within about a half hour I was truly enthralled by it all. The geometric patterns everywhere I looked, the intense feeling of oneness and connectivity to the world and every single thing around me, the massive mental revelations. I sat on that chair and hardly moved for 5 hours but it was the most engaging and joyful thing I’ve ever done. It was truly an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life, an eye and mind opening journey through my mind that every person on this planet should have. That day changed my life and exposed me to the true realities of the society we live in. I thank “god” everyday that I was able to have the curtain lifted from my mind at such a young age and I now have the rest of my life to live free from the confines of my mental conditioning.
Until reading your post, I really haven’t been able to put into words properly what I “saw” and what happened to me that day so thank you Joe Rogan for giving me the ability to at least somewhat convey to people what the fuck that trip was all about
You are an insightful and thought provoking guy with an amazing affinity for writing.
Our world, and especially your congress, needs a lot more people like you
JOE ROGAN FOR PRESIDENT (or prime minister)
peace and love