random waves of intense pleasure?

[AExodus]

i come to you with something of a curious case. since doing ecstasy in what i believe was february for the first time, i have had spontaneous bouts of extreme pleasure, varying in intensity, usually about once every two weeks. i'll be walking around with my mind on other things when i suddenly become aware of how excellent it feels to move - for my muscles to contract, and release, contract, and release. as i focus more on this feeling, the waves of goodness slowly rise up my body, covering my thighs, groin, abs, arms, until finally even my head. physically, i feel fantastically amazing; this pleasure is not sexual in nature but rather just a total and complete flood of sensation. the only feeling i can liken it to is being on ecstasy - but it happens when i am completely sober. the empathy and unconditional love for surrounding people isn't there, just the physical jubilation.

what concerns me is that today, while walking in the grocery store, this intense pleasure came, and within five minutes i was almost on the floor, overwhelmed by the sensation, unable to properly function. it was too much. it felt gloriously godly, but it was too much.

so i ask you, what is happening to my brain? is this healthy? it seems good for mental health as it definitely relieved some built-up stress and tension but it i've never heard of such an occurrence in anyone else.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

It sounds to me like the accumulation of drug to have been experimenting with is beginning to affect your brain in a way that is no longer in your control.  Although some of what you've described is highly desirable and may be attained by various meditation techniques with or without drugs, the drug effect is now problematic for you.  I strongly suggest that you stop experimenting and give your brain a chance to rest and recover.

[Paxiled]

Can I have some of what you're smoking?

[AExodus]

haha, i wish paxiled.

after thinking about it more i think it could be an mdma flashback - rare and unsubstantiated as they are. even this is strange, though, as i have done mushrooms more than once and never once been victim to a flashback of the experience.

[Paxiled]

You know, I'm curious what the doctor has to say.  It almost sounds like you're having a spiritual experience such as experienced by Buddhists who don't eat for long periods of time in caves or American Indians involved in guided peyote rituals.  Except you don't have a guide, it's just happening.  Perhaps your experience is just teaching you how to achieve this state.  Traditionally, drugs were used only on rare occasions for spiritual growth; it took us modern types to use them regularly just for kicks.

[Jaquta]

Drugs can be extremely dangerous.  Please be careful.

J

[AExodus]

it's interesting to me that you mention that, paxiled, as the spiritual experience is exactly what i use mushrooms and other psychedelics for - introspection, mental and spiritual growth, and gaining entry into the previously inaccessible parts of my mind, which can be perceived directly in an altered state of consciousness.

in addition, it is only in the past six months or so that i have begun meditating regularly, so like you i wonder if there is a connection between my increasing spirituality and this curious phenomenon. it's an interesting matter.

thank you for your input, by the way, i appreciate your opinion as i have not considered that side of it prior to now.

[Jaquta]

My feeling was that it may have been a drug reaction but with other elements.
Perhaps it is due to a greater appreciation of awareness and feeling good.  I was wondering if what was happening was a form of self-hypnosis?? (in addition to the drug bit.  Why is it only affecting your physical being??)

I was just imagining monks withering is euphoria.  I haven't seen it happen so perhaps it isn't due to the meditation (or the monks are just better able to harness it??  Or I'm too socially isolated to have seen it happen??).

Could I challenge you on something?  Can psychological growth not be attained by looking within yourself (without the use of other sources, more specifically, drugs)?  I appreciate there are lots of different catalysts that people use (scented whatever, textures, music, hot/ cold baths/ showers, adventure activities, food, alcohol, etc).  Couldn't you learn as much about yourself and your mind from healthier (in my opinion) sources?

I read that there was a program available to help you meditate deeper than a monk (in a fraction of the time).  It's focus was on inducing specific brainwaves (similar to meditation and ?relaxation exercises).  

J

[Paxiled]

You're absolutely right.  All religions have a mystical side where they use meditations and chants and self-hypnosis of various forms to reach enhanced states.  Drugs aren't necessary.  However, if used on very rare occasions, they can be helpful in seeing the altered state so you kind of know what it feels like and looks like.  I must say, though, that I wouldn't personally trust human manufactured drugs such as mdma and ecstasy.  If I were going to do that, I'd use the ones nature put here, such as peyote and mushrooms.  On the other hand, I personally don't do them because I suffer from an anxiety problem, and anxiety and drugs don't mix.  But if you're a very stable person with the right personality, it can be done safely.  The problem is, how do you know if you're that kind of person?  We don't have shamans anymore guiding us.

[Jaquta]

Hey Paxiled

It's good to read your posts with your insights and understanding.

I guess I have had a rather boring and uneventful upbringing.  

I understand what you mean about being alerted to the different conscious levels.  I wonder, if with that new information you can ever really go back.
This is slightly different and on my mind at the moment.  What about ect?  That can alter your state but would you opt for that just to experience it?  One can never really be 100% sure about what the consequences of reaching that altered state will be.  Why would you chance it?

I guess you make a good point over natural vs manufactured.  I wonder if we should be taking St Johns wort over antidepressants.  Perhaps if we went back to nature we wouldn't be depressed in the first place?

Even stable people can lose perspective.  Stable people are probably that because they abstain in the first place.

I was just watching TV this evening.  I watched Medical Emergency and The Missing.  Medical Emergency had a patient with serious injuries but because he was Jehovah Witness refused blood or human products.  The Missing was about a person with paranoid schizophrenia living in our area who went missing over 20 years ago.

Sorry!  That doesn't clarify anything.  I was just wondering about moral and ethical dilemmas and ??  I'm not sure of the right word.  There was a discussion about homosexuality on this forum, but it could apply to any issue.  Why do we judge and what gives people the right to judge and have their perspective valued over another?
Why can a Jehovah Witness have their beliefs respected while a person with a psych disorder be shown none?
It can be so hard trying to understand and accept an alternative reality, or even belief and values system, to your own.
I can hate the behavior but still feel empathy for the person.

There is a strong racial divide in my country but because someone has a completely different view (and wants to claim ownership of every asset (even our foreshores and seabeds), have white and black universities (in fact, have no entry qualifications for black people), etc that doesn't make them right or wrong, good or bad.
(Except I have little empathy here and it leaves me feeling angry and frustrated).
  
I suppose we all have criteria (behaviors, beliefs, etc) which we are more or less flexible about.

J

[Paxiled]

I think it's a question human curiosity, which is what makes us tick.  I wouldn't go anywhere near ect, but others have been helped.  But I grew up in the Sixties in the US, and a lot of people did a lot of experimentation, in every different way.  Most turned out fine.  I think the worst part of today's world is that we are constantly exposed to all kinds of chemical assaults in our food, water, air.  The world was obviously much cleaner in that way in ancient times.  Now, we take drugs (in the form of pollutants) every minute of every day, substances that do subtle things and in combination not so subtle things.  It's my opinion that's why we have so much depression and anxiety and other illnesses now that were rare before.  On the other hand, I do believe people have to have morality to protect us and to protect the rest of life on the planet from us.  So there is right and wrong, though perhaps not in as many areas as people claim.  Discrimination, for example, against a race just limits the number of minds to apply to our problems, so even just in a practical way that's gotta be immoral.  Whereas taking drugs is an individual choice, and though it might have consequences, so does our choice of foods or beverages -- most pharmaceutical products have caused much more disease than marijuana, yet the latter is illegal.  As I say, I don't use drugs or alcohol because of my anxiety problem, but I wouldn't make them illegal, and they're certainly not immoral.  I believe they're made illegal because they cause people to think differently, question the way things are, and entrenched interests don't like that, and because illegal things are way more profitable than legal.  That has nothing to do with morality.  All tough questions, but what are we here for but to think about such things?

[Jaquta]

Most turned out fine, but look at their parenting skills if people of today are anything to go by.
I don't think that's the worst part, but it is a part.  We have chlorine added to our water and there is a big debate about folic acid being added to our bread (of which a person would need to eat 11 slices to get the recommended daily dose -go figure).
I think depression and anxiety are also brought about by lifestyles as well as by sociological pressures and expectations.
I think everything is just too PC.  We can't sing Christmas carols in schools, etc because it affects some religious minority in our country.  We can't compete because that is not PC.  At best we are allowed to participate.

Yes, there are always lots of consequences.  Most behaviors have a huge impact on our country, economy, health, etc.

I have rather stronger views about drugs although I try not to judge others who choose to participate in them legally.
We've had several police officers killed recently by individuals taking P.  I forget the number but we've only lost just over 100 police in the line of duty over a relatively long period (which is still 100 too many).

It just feels like one of those rat wheels which keeps going round and round (and round) sometimes.

Thank you for pointing out the other members issue.  I think they felt heard that you picked up on the thoughts being the problem.

Take care.

J