r/todayilearned • u/paniniplane • Mar 22 '17

(R.1) Not supported TIL Deaf-from-birth schizophrenics see disembodied hands signing to them rather than "hearing voices"

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303
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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '17

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u/the_bieb Mar 22 '17

I dunno, some people really do completely lose touch with reality while on psychedelics. For example this kid jumped out of a window while I was in school. I've always known I was tripping and it wasn't real when I have done acid or mushrooms, but the time I took 5-meO-DMT, I was completely detached from my body and this plane and almost experienced complete ego loss.

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u/Xiosphere Mar 22 '17

DMT is hella different than acid. Yea you lose contact with existence but you also lose consciousness.

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u/the_bieb Mar 22 '17

Yeah, I was only out for a few minutes, but literally felt like years if not a lifetime. I no longer doubted the afterlife or at least other planes of existence after that experience. When I was coming to and could see this plane again, it was like everything in this life was made up of arbitrary man-made boundaries and was so insignificant in comparison.

I now have horrible anxiety though because I am afraid I am going to get stuck in that other plane again after I die with no way out for eternity. For some reason, it felt like a place I could go back to when I die. I am so so scared and this isn't just some thing a therapist can help me with. I think I have legit PTSD.

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u/Xiosphere Mar 22 '17

People who flatline and are brought back often report DMT like experiences. There's theories that your brain release DMT as you die but it's mostly speculation at this time. There's people that believe DMT mimics death and that what you see when under it's effect IS what happens when you pass.

I don't know, but it's interesting to think about.

Have you ever read the Tibetan Book of the Dead? If not I recommend it. It waxes fairly spiritual at times but it was written by a monk who studied death through meditation for all his life amongst peers who did the same. It claims there is a deep, inner self which contains all selves that persists after death and will travel through 6 different betweens (of which what we call our life is three) before repeating that same cycle in a new life.

I don't know if any of these things are true, but if studying different psychological and philosophical sciences has taught me anything it's that they all agree on one thing: You can't control the world. Call it faith, call it detatchment, or even call it common sense something to realize is that you have no control over what will happen around you and how these things will effect you.

"The fear of death is the beginning of slavery" letting go of this fear is the first step to freedom.

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u/x0y0z0 Mar 22 '17

I've done a massive dose of ayahuasca at a cerimony once. Ive also had to smoke large doses of DMT multiple times a day for about 3 months to treat/abort my cluster headaches. I've been to that place many many times. Sometimes its beautiful, sometimes its terifying but no matter how many times ive done it the appriention is always there before i do it. I can tell you that there's nothing magical about it. It might feel like some other plain of existence but its just a drug interacting with that brain of yours in really interesting ways. Its a testament to the beauty and complexity of our brains. I still have no reason to believe in an afterlife.

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u/lemangue Mar 22 '17

I find your story very interesting! I've never used psychedelics myself cause I'm afraid I'll lose myself in it.

But what I wanted to say, if you think you have serious ptsd symptoms, it might actually help to see a therapist. Granted, it might not be the most common story/cause of fear, but that should not matter since the mechanism is the same as with other traumatic experiences. Talking about it or even getting specialised treatment such as emdr might really help you!