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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 8, 2013 9:11:03 GMT -5
Regardless of my previous post, karlsie, did you ever get around to trying some ayahuasca tea?
I think ayahuasca is a great and indispensable supplement for health and all-around well-being. I don't mean tripping hard or anything like that, of course strong psychedelic doses are quite healing also, but so is a very small amount, just one time. If you're into "indian medicine" (as opposed to white-man deranged medico-pharmaceutical complex) this is the fix-all, cure-all if there ever was one. It's no drug, I tell you, diazepam (a synthetic) and morphine (a naturally occurring) are drugs. As far as I'm concerned, ayahuasca is medicine, it's the spirit vine. And it's very likely the safest medicine on earth. A little research will reveal that no one has ever died or been injured from approaching ayahuasca respectfully, responsibly and with the intent to heal. On the contrary, it heals them. I've seen people come out of ayahuasca's grip completely reborn, which is like having everything that was ever wrong with you fixed, and stay fixed for as long as you can stay away from the habits and behavior patterns that were causing the problem in the first place.
Just so you don't get the wrong idea, Karla, ayahuasca is who I would introduce my mother and sister to if they weren't feeling well, because I love them and I wan't them to be strong and happy. Incidentally, they're both MDs, as is my aunt (dad's sister) here, and they all shudder at the mere thought, because it goes against everything they know about the practice of medicine.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Jan 9, 2013 15:28:55 GMT -5
ADP- I want to tell you, you are a writer. You communicate clearly and paint a picture and when creative draw alternatives out. It is a talent you definately have. I think so many people feel that what they write is "not good enough" or "up to snuff" both because they have been wounded by teachers/parents/well meaning friends or because when we read published writers, writers we love, what we are seeing is finely polished work. The end result of labor, editing, tears, loss of sleep,doubt, more writing and more editing. No writer is a perfect writer. I have yet to meet any writer who doesn't hate some or all of their work. There has been very much that you have written here in notes that could be easily lifted and stitched together with very little editing.
So, if you are interested or willing, let us know. In fact if I find a long thread that weaves well I may just ask you.
As for ayahuasca, I myself have never tried it. I stopped using drugs experimentally and medicinally before it became popular and more available here. Sometimes I do wonder about it as the psychadelics were the most enlightening and helpful for moving me through issues in my young life as well as inspiring me.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 9, 2013 16:07:45 GMT -5
Grainne, I'd love to find some focus, to concentrate my effort on something productive. Because I don't live here, whenever I visit I'm just all over the place, since I have nothing fixed and specific to do. I have no routines here, and pretty much everyone I knew in the city has moved abroad. So, every year I have to try to find something worthwhile to do all over again. So, how do I say this.. You point, and I'll shoot. OK?
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Post by grainnerhuad on Jan 9, 2013 16:58:34 GMT -5
Very many things you write about are thought provoking and interesting to me. I will have to think how to narrow down the subjects so they aren't so overwhelming and huge in scope.
But I find it interesting the celibacy debate-even if I don't agree entirely.
I would love to know more about Iran.
The idea of being at loose ends in a city that is the supposed modern epitome of efficiency and yet being at home and busy in the desert is also a good subject to delve into.
And your return to Iran, you mentioned on another thread that your friends thought you were crazy. I am interested in why they thought that and what drove your decision to return.
Those are just off the top of my head from what I have commented on in the past days. I'll give more thought to it. And Karla may have ideas too.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 10, 2013 5:23:43 GMT -5
Very many things you write about are thought provoking and interesting to me. I will have to think how to narrow down the subjects so they aren't so overwhelming and huge in scope. But I find it interesting the celibacy debate-even if I don't agree entirely. I would love to know more about Iran. What would you like to know? (That I haven't already mentioned last year.) Well, I guess you pretty much summed it up right there. Oh, it wasn't just my friends, but everyone I knew, and most of all my family. My parents basically gave me an ultimatum at the end: "If you go, you are no longer our child." And I haven't spoken to them since. In order to really understand where I'm coming from, you'd have to know all about the circumstances of my life, which is a very complex story, and it would just bore you. But the reason everyone was opposed to my decision (my friends weren't really opposed, they just made fun of it a lot.) well.. it's actually really obvious. There was a war raging in Afghanistan and Iraq at the time, and the general western mindset in regards to Iran was that it was just another version of Iraq; a poor, dirty, undeveloped country where the level of "culture" and technology was negligible compared to the states, and no young person could possibly have a future there. I mean, hell every young person in Iran would gladly trade their kidney to get away from here. (EVERY YOUNG PERSON.) -- Because they're all brainwashed into thinking there are more opportunities and possibilities for someone living in the west. (If you ask me, personally I think more opportunities and possibilities exist out in the desert (or the mountains, the rainforest, etc.) as opposed to routine lives in big cities where every day is identical to the next ad infinitum. In the desert every day is different, uncomparable to the day before or after it. Just my 2 cents.)
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 10, 2013 7:15:21 GMT -5
Just a thought, but I've noticed that on Internet forums, people somehow feel compelled to reply to posts that are highly controversial, deliberately provocative and an attack on peoples' popular beliefs. (not any specific person, but society in general.) I think people feel the need to defend their beliefs or something.
But anyway, before I came here I was on a huge forum with tens of thousands of users, over a hundred posts a day, etc. I got banned after about ~127 posts, because the moderators thought I was too provocative and my posts were dividing the forum into two warring groups. And man, it was really war! Some of the discussions became so heated and intense that the mods locked the threads and kept warning me to stop inciting discord or be banned. In the end, I got banned for 300 years. (The ban is set to be lifted in August of ~2300AD)
So, I took the hint and when I came here I tried to keep provocation to a minimum. I'm guessing that was a bad move, 'cause I feel I've lost my touch and become way too soft now.
Forum discussions are about making the other side wish they were never born. It's about riling the place up, getting everyone all worked up into a frenzy and then walking away with all their energy, leaving them feeling absolutely wrong and insecure about ever opening their mouths again. (I'm jk, of course ;D) For me, it's all about inspiring people to be great. That's what social life is all about for me. (At least, I hope so.)
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 10, 2013 8:13:31 GMT -5
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 10, 2013 12:38:16 GMT -5
And your return to Iran, you mentioned on another thread that your friends thought you were crazy. I am interested in why they thought that and what drove your decision to return. I have only one regret in life, and it's something that bothers me every waking moment. I need to get this off my chest. My parents, especially my mom, believed that I was throwing away my life, and any chance I had at becoming "someone," by going to Iran. I'm pretty sure I was always their favorite, and they had very high hopes for my future. I know that they were both hurt very badly by my leaving, but my mother was absolutely devastated. I go through each day knowing that I let my mom down, because they way she sees things, I turned away from a great future (where I could have become someone "important") in order to become an absolutely worthless nobody in some shithole third-world country she'd never be caught dead in. (My mother is Finnish.) Not a day passes by that I don't wish there was some way I could make her understand that my path and my fate brought me here and I just wasn't meant to live the same kind of life as my parents and siblings. I wish I could make her feel proud. I never meant to hurt her, or my dad, and I never meant to disappoint them so. I hope they can forgive me. This burden is crushing me, and I needed to get it out.
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Post by karlsie on Jan 10, 2013 19:20:45 GMT -5
Shh, in regard to your questions concerning my insomnia. No, I don't have restless leg syndrome, nor high blood pressure. I have a slow metabolism - an inherited trait from my mother - which consequently gives me low blood pressure. I drink too much coffee. I try to confine it to early day, but if I'm pushing a deadline for some paying articles, I'll drink coffee to keep my mind stimulated. I also find that if I eat anything sweet, I'll invariably drink coffee afterward to offset the sweetness. (I drink my coffee black. No sugar or cream.) I know the coffee is a major culprit, but I have been drinking it in large doses for years, and it never used to affect my sleep habits. Now, I have to struggle to keep coffee drinking confined if I want to sleep at night.
Even then, confining the amount of coffee I drink doesn't always work. Sometimes - often in fact - my brain clicks into high mental activity during the evening and simply won't turn off. I'll go to bed "hearing" voices compounded by more voices, so many I can't sort them all out. These voices seem to be arguing or suffering or merely anxious for a chance to be heard. They are most acute when I visit my son in the city, but can be just as annoying after a full day on the computer. I've always had a psychic link with different friends and family members; enough to feel when they are coming for a visit, are troubled and even, sometimes, to hold conversations with them when they weren't around. Some people may scoff at this, but the ones who share the link do not. Now, I fear I've linked to the sub-conscious rambling of the mass mind, which is confused, unhappy and somewhat angry.
I have not had a chance yet to try ayahuasca. I don't even know of anyone who has heard of it. This is not astonishing, considering the simplicity of Alaskan society. It is basically divided into four parts; stoners, drinkers, meth-heads, and people who use only their Christianity as a drug. There is not a great deal of inter-mingling with any of the above. The meth-heads are the most likely to have access to all drugs, from prescription to heroin, and are avoided like the plague by all non-meth users. Stoners have the greatest access to psychedelics, but these are generally mushrooms, peyote and acid; none of which circulate in great volume. Stoners do sometimes intermingle with drinkers, but bail out when the party becomes too inebriated. Drinkers are sometimes the repentant; go to church on Sunday types; but generally steer away from other drugs, unless they happen to be alcoholic meth-heads.
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Post by karlsie on Jan 10, 2013 19:33:28 GMT -5
Maybe it's because of our general personalities, which prefer discussion to insults and arguments, that keep us from generating a lot of feedback on Internet forums or even at our website. I have been in forums before that became especially energized once the mud slinging began, but I don't really have the appetite for them. I don't mind at all, taking part in controversial discussions, and will defend my point of view, but have no interest in trolls that are incapable of presenting intelligent counter-points and can only resort to name calling in their haste to present disagreement. Of course, this spoils their fun, but I would rather be among a few who civilly discuss things, then waste my time defending my character when my character traits were not the issue.
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Post by karlsie on Jan 10, 2013 19:42:34 GMT -5
I hope that at some point, your parents accept your decision to remain in Iran. Your views have opened my eyes a lot as to the economic/ political climate of Iran, and I hope to gain more understanding altogether. As far as Syria goes, I have read many opinions of the conflict there. They all differ, and none of them seem clear-cut enough to me to understand exactly why the country is in such a violent state of rebellion. My suspicion is that the Western world is using the conflict as a means of justifying their own intervention, which is typical, but the goals, policies, economic factors, etc., are not clearly stated by either side, so politically, I'm still mystified.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 11, 2013 5:16:40 GMT -5
Shh, in regard to your questions concerning my insomnia. No, I don't have restless leg syndrome, nor high blood pressure. I have a slow metabolism - an inherited trait from my mother - which consequently gives me low blood pressure. I drink too much coffee. I try to confine it to early day, but if I'm pushing a deadline for some paying articles, I'll drink coffee to keep my mind stimulated. I also find that if I eat anything sweet, I'll invariably drink coffee afterward to offset the sweetness. (I drink my coffee black. No sugar or cream.) I know the coffee is a major culprit, but I have been drinking it in large doses for years, and it never used to affect my sleep habits. Now, I have to struggle to keep coffee drinking confined if I want to sleep at night. Even then, confining the amount of coffee I drink doesn't always work. Sometimes - often in fact - my brain clicks into high mental activity during the evening and simply won't turn off. I'll go to bed "hearing" voices compounded by more voices, so many I can't sort them all out. These voices seem to be arguing or suffering or merely anxious for a chance to be heard. They are most acute when I visit my son in the city, but can be just as annoying after a full day on the computer. I've always had a psychic link with different friends and family members; enough to feel when they are coming for a visit, are troubled and even, sometimes, to hold conversations with them when they weren't around. Some people may scoff at this, but the ones who share the link do not. Now, I fear I've linked to the sub-conscious rambling of the mass mind, which is confused, unhappy and somewhat angry. karlsie, caffeine is definitely a factor here, but chronic insomnia commonly accompanies menopause for many white women. (I'm assuming this is the case because you're about the right age.) If you have not seen a doctor, I'll go ahead and tell you what they'd tell you: get more exercise during the day, don't drink tea or coffee in the evening, and as a last resort (if you can't get more physical activity into your daily routine) a mild sedative like oxazepam would be prescribed. HTH.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 11, 2013 8:16:31 GMT -5
And that article about Syria, well, I posted that mostly cause of the picture of Tehran enveloped by smog.
But the situation there is just as you said, karlsie. It's really not clear what the hell's going on. All I can say is, this could never happen in Iran IMO because the government is holding the country in an IRON grip. And I would say no one takes a shit in Iran without the Iranian intelligence agency recording the exact location, time and date. Only James Bond type super-spies could live off the grid here as of late. I'm worried that soon you won't be able to buy a bus ticket without showing ID. The cops have the right to ask you for ID on the street for absolutely no reason now, and if you don't have any kind of identification, they can arrest you.
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Post by karlsie on Jan 12, 2013 6:30:30 GMT -5
I've been controlling my coffee intake all this week and falling asleep has been easier. Also, it has been warm enough that I've been able to open my window a little. Fresh air always does help. Can you believe it? January is always our coldest month, yet this year it's stayed above 30 degrees f. while November and December had solid sub-zero temperatures. Climate change is bizarre.
I'm sorry to hear about the restrictions placed on Iran. Truthfully, the US isn't much better. I think governments in general have become afraid of their citizens as the world becomes more restless about their economic unhappiness. For people who have become to comfortable with life-styles giving them the benefit of certain amenities, and even the ability to save a little money here and there, it becomes frustrating to watch those savings emptied, even after cutting back on every frivolous expense and using the bulk of the income just to pay utility bills. Getting ahead is no longer an option. The best one can do is hope not to fall behind. It's a dangerous, explosive situation and the authorizes are well aware and prepared for it.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 12, 2013 7:48:07 GMT -5
I have to pay a short visit to my house. I'm leaving tonight and I'll probably be back in 24-48 hours hopefully. I love you guys. Don't go anywhere!
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