FROM: heron74@...
TO: alt.oneirology.entheogens
SUB: The Earnestness of Our Conversion

How each of us came to be oneironauts has been on my mind recently. I know we used to have a thread where we asked all new members to introduce themselves, and write a little bit about how they came to see the light. Back in the day when we were a bit closer, and not hiding behind avatars and aliases. I know, I know, "back in my day, sonny, we used to ingest our drugs by eating toxified meat or making out with venomous snakes."

But we used to celebrate why we came here. We used to talk about the doors of perception, the astral veils, and the Akashic Records. We used to be interested in bettering not just ourselves, but all of humanity. We wanted to make a difference. Right?

No one belittled the experience of another. No one doubted what another member might have seen or done. We were all rebels; each of us had committed heresy in the eyes of whatever religious upbringing they had had. None of us were sinless, so there was never any point of us casting stones.

Nor am I now. I'm just wondering what has happened to us. What has happened to make us so afraid?

Meme: Could you retrieve that introductory thread from a few years ago? No, I'm not trying to start that conversation again. I've known you a long time, and all those public denials aside, I know you are a pack rat. This is beyond all the bullshit that went down back then. I know why you said the archives were gone, and I came to an understanding of it then (I was disappointed, sure, but I know why you took the stance you did), but I think this is a good time to dispense with the polite dissembling.

We're proponents of illegal narcotics, people. We take chemical agents in combinations and doses that would make pharmacists shit themselves, and we do it because the reward is worth the risk. We've all cheated death (and jail time) at least once already. Taking that first dose takes some resolve. It takes some spine.

So where did all our backbone go?

- (pk)

"We'd all be taken more seriously if we had black halos." —Jerry McElholn