S1 Ep16: The Underwater Trip

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With scratch-made marinara sauce, creamy mozzarella cheese, and no preservatives. It's high in protein, with 30 grams per serving. Marie Callender's. What having it all tastes like. Astonishing Legends. The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Dead Letter office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, the Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests. When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone. But trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends. And now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too. Join us weekly in the vault beneath Blanket Fortiana, which we call... The Astonishing Dead Letter Office. Tonight's episode, The Underwater Trip. Tonight's dead letter refers to the usage of DMT, or NN-dimethyltryptamine. In the United States, this is an illegal drug classified as a controlled substance. Listener discretion is advised. So, we had an abduction experiencer, Terry Lovelace, on the show several times over the years. And his appearances have struck a chord with more people than we would have thought. And not in the denial part or the ridicule part, but with the sympathizing and... I know what he's talking about. What about this part? So, including the author of tonight's letter, Jonathan. To be clear now, Jonathan's experience involves the use of the psychedelic drug DMT. And a lot of people will cast off whatever happened to him because of that. But his story is still pretty intriguing. And it crosses paths with something that happened to Terry Lovelace, who was completely sober during his similar encounter. It's about running into something omniscient. I want to preface this by saying, I am a very skeptical person who is grounded in logic and science as much as I can comprehend the latter. However, I have experienced things I can't explain and believe I am of sound mind to declare things as such. In the episode, Devil's Den, The Reckoning, Terry was talking about an entity that comprehended all he was and all he will be. And that really struck me. I have had a very similar experience with a being that could be described in the same manner. I'm not sure what to believe about DMT, but I had a complete paradigm shift after I had my first experience. This is as much as I can remember as it was years ago now. It was January, 2013. I was staying in Northern California for a month or so on a grow-op. And while I was there, I had gotten the opportunity to try DMT for the first time. Now, I will say that I am an experienced psychonaut to say the least, but had never gotten the chance to try DMT. My friend and I went out in the backyard, which was really just wilderness all around us in the mountains near Hornbrook, California. We sat in lawn chairs and blasted off. As I exhaled a few hits in, I just leaned back in my chair and in an instant after, I blasted off and immediately shot out of my body like a missile, heading south at what I can only describe as hundreds of miles per hour in the least. I had gone somewhere in Mexico, from what I can guess, seeing bright green light under a pyramid and similarly glowing guards and other people standing outside of the pyramid. I was floating around there for a few moments and then soared to where I could only describe as maybe another dimension or possibly outer space. I can't remember now what had happened between the pyramids and there since it had been years, but I was transported there and remember a tan green entity that at the time I could associate with looking sort of like a seahorse. It looked at me and I was frozen in my place. Its gaze piercing into my very soul and letting me know that I didn't need to say anything or do anything, it knows anything and everything about me and all possibilities of me and what I could become. I can only relate this to what an ant talking to a human would be like. Vastly powerful, all-knowing being. And I know I'm going to sound like even more of a crackpot, but it connected with me through my pineal gland psychically and told me not to say anything or stress out, kind of like, look, little creature, you have stumbled somewhere you can't comprehend. But don't freak out, because I know you won't. I've already seen it. So, after all this, I don't know what I believe. Was this an elaborate trip where my mind made it all up, or had I astral projected, possibly time-traveled, and met an interdimensional being? I felt like this experience had lasted years, and when I was done, I came back and only ten minutes had passed. I am a very skeptical person and don't really know what to believe, but what I experienced seems to be along the lines of what a lot of other people have as well. I know that until the day I die, I will always ponder just what that was exactly, and what does it mean? Is DMT an Easter egg from God, or is it just the human brain releasing chemicals? Or is it both? I love the way that skeptics reach out to us. They come to us, and I don't know how they're finding us. I guess SEO, Google, whatever. But I love when somebody who doesn't believe in this kind of stuff has an experience and somehow find their way to astonishing legends. And what's interesting to me about Jonathan being a skeptic is the crossover between being a self-described psychonaut, meaning experimenting with these kind of drugs and that sort of thing, and a skeptic. So he's like, he's going onto the edge of these unusual psychedelic experiences, but he's also skeptical about what's happening to him during these experiences, which is fascinating to me. And I confess, I don't know a lot of people that do this kind of stuff. So maybe a lot of them are that way, and I'm sure we'll be hearing from them at this point. But I don't know. What do you think about that? I find that interesting. In what aspect? Do you mean the journey of the skeptic to believe her or experience her? Well, I guess just the idea of not buying into other dimensions and different worlds and distorted reality or alternate realities, and then also seeking out DMT trips. Well, I think the one way to look at that is that you're seeking the truth. And so I give you a lot of respect and credit for that, in that you're not sure of it. Maybe you can call yourself an agnostic about all these types of metaphysical and spiritual ideals and experiences, but you're wanting to know more. You're wanting the experience or wanting to get at the truth. And now, of course, it's not a way that we would recommend getting at the truth. There are plenty of metaphysical practices that you can do that do not involve highly powerful and sometimes dangerous psychedelics because you can end up doing something that harms yourself or others. That's right. So we don't recommend that at all. I mean, but on the other hand, there are meditative practices and hypnosis, guided meditations and hypnosis that can perhaps spark an astral projection experience, an out-of-body experience during your sleep, but also while you're awake. So you can look that up on YouTube, plenty of those meditations. And some people, I think, already know of practitioners that try that in their different various methods. And speaking though, about seeing these beings as a psychonaut, you know, Jonathan may know that I think it was the brother of Terrence McKenna that there was a book I think called The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss, My Life with Terrence McKenna by Dennis McKenna. And I hadn't read it, but I had heard of the interviews with people that have guided others on ayahuasca trips and these other psychedelics and they're more of the natural things. And there's that artist that does these really far out paintings that are day glow, I think, and just kind of wild. The point being is that there are supposedly common entities that people see, and I'm talking about different people tripping on the common or the same psychedelics, but they end up seeing a collection, a certain number of these same entities during the trip, which I find interesting. Now, is that just part of the playback file when the human brain experiences DMT and other psychedelics? One involves the squeezing and the glands behind a frog's eyes. I also don't recommend hurting frogs at all or any animals for this being a little flippant here, but the idea is that you are seeing the same beings. So is that just, again, that's one of those files that's buried in your head and you're going to see the same stuff? Or are there a handful of entities waiting for us on the other side that just hang out there? What I've heard from astral projection as well is that there are beings, and now this is kind of, it's always fascinating to me. I've not had an experience yet. I am interested in perhaps pursuing some kind of sleep astral projection experience because it's described as safe, but also people will say like, you need to create a white light bubble of protection around yourself because there are entities there that are neutral, just doing their own thing, having their own astral projection. They could be creatures, other humans, animals. That's interesting. Or they could be helping you. Some could try to guide you. And then the third group are ones that mean us no good will at all. They want to harm us. But it's like nature. It's like being out on the street in Manhattan or anywhere else for that matter. There's good people, there's a lot of neutral people, and then there's people that want to hurt you. And you have to be aware. So it's just like anywhere else. But there's also governing bodies that regulate behavior on these astral planes. I find that concept fascinating is that, yeah, there's people that are around all the time and they're making sure you don't violate the rules of the other side. Oh, that's like the TVA or the- Exactly. A little bit like that, sure. Or maybe, I'm on the way back machine here, Q from Star Trek to next year. Exactly. Another order of watchers or the folks from the other side who meddle in things, but also kind of keep things running. But one of the scariest concepts, perhaps, is that there are other beings or creatures that know every thought of yours, everything you did in the past. They're omniscient about who you are and what you are and what you're thinking at the moment. Yeah, because that's what he says. Quoting him again here, he said, this thing said, look, little creature, you have stumbled somewhere you can't comprehend, but don't freak out because I know you won't. I've already seen it. You're right. I love that. Can they see in the past, in the present, in the future all at once? Yeah. They know these things, but just to know that much about you and not have any privacy against that, that's frightening. We're not used to that. Yeah. Yeah. Because that requires a different way of living. That's right. Well, that's something that Alan Watts talked about in the distant future, perhaps. If we're all psychic, there are no secrets or that you share a common mind that you know everybody else's thoughts. Imagine that and you have no privacy anymore. It requires a different way of living and attitude and mindset. The internet is already doing that because people immediately went on it and overshared like crazy and then didn't realize that it could still be dug up even after they canceled their Facebook profiles. It's like, it's all out there. There is far less mystery to many folks than there used to be. Can they connected ones anyway? Well, that's the thing is you hear this a lot from people who describe it about themselves as a virtue. And it's a good thing, I think, in a lot of cases, as long as you don't dole out too much, but they'll say like, I'm an open book. Ask me anything. I'm just, I'm totally open. And that's great. But what if you can't close that book? That's the problem. Yeah. So yeah, the eternal question here is, is it an Easter egg from God, the universe, or just your brain short-circuiting? I mean, whatever it is, humanity has been having these types of experiences one way or another as long as we've been around. And you only have to look at monuments like Gobekli Tepe to know that these plants and substances were discovered a long, long time ago, and people have been using them for that mystical spiritual connection since the beginning of people. A couple of things I want to point out for people who have not listened to the main Astonishing Legends podcast, which is longer and more in depth. We have done a series on Gobekli Tepe. If you haven't ever heard of that, look it up, G-O-B-L-E-K-I. And we've also done a series on the Nazca lines. Both fascinating and both have connections to what Forrest was just talking about. Also, I want to address a rumor that I saw circulating online that said that Gobekli Tepe was being buried and there were buildings on top of it. And I just wanted to let you know that I was freaked out as anybody when I saw that, and it is not true. It's BS. So don't worry about that. It's not happening. Well, Jonathan, when we started the Astonishing Dead Letter office, we didn't have encountering an all-knowing seahorse in a Mexican pyramid on the bingo card. But we'd like to meet the dude. The Astonishing Dead Letter office is hosted by Scott Philbrick and Forrest Burgess and is executive produced by Tess Feifel. The show is edited and mixed by Sarah Voorhees-Wendell at VW Sound. The theme is based on the Astonishing Legends theme by Judson Crane at Founder Music, arranged by Alan Carissia, who composes all the other music in the show. Tommy Beaver Design created the logo. The announcer is John Bolan. That's me. Stories are lightly edited for length, content, and readability, but otherwise presented as they're sent to us. We're always looking for more dead letters, so if you have a story of your own you'd like to share, email it to deadletteroffice at astonishinglegends.com. Please include how you would like to be credited. 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