Seeing faces

[Haelos]

First of all, I'm not insane. I feel like I need to say that sometimes.

Lately, I've been seeing faces in everything. It's not like, a paranoia type thing. They're just there.
Some of them are smiling, such as the faces in my bathroom floor. Some look quite sad, like the face on the side of the chinese food place.

It doesn't matter where I look. If I zone out staring in a direction long enough, my brain finds a face in whatever I'm looking at and highlights it.

Now, I have been experimenting with psilocybin mushrooms a bit for the past two weeks, but the really weird thing is, I was sober for several days before I noticed the faces for the first time.
In fact, when I'm actually on shrooms, I'm too elevated to even notice them. I don't zone out long enough for them to come into focus.

Out of curiosity, I decided to start talking to the faces.
Now, the actual face I'm seeing is fully on the physical plane. Maybe it's just a couple of funky looking rocks in a face shape, or some jagged cement cracks, or something. But it's always an actual physical *thing*. I could outline it for you and everything.
However, when I start talking to the faces, the expressions change, yet only on the mental plane.
Like, it is almost like a slight hallucination. I can tell that the moving parts of the faces are in the same location as where I visualize things with open eyes, and in the same place where hallucinations happen from psychedelics.

Really, I'm just curious to know... Am I going insane?
It's not even like, a weird thing to me, seeing faces everywhere.
I mean, I know for a fact *what* caused it. It was the mushrooms, without a doubt.
I'm really questing the *why* to it. Why the hell am I seeing goofy ass faces everywhere?
Most people who complain about this thing are in a constant state of panic and paranoia. Why?

[Ušušur]

First thing that comes to mind is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

Second, well... as you probably know, psy-mushrooms tend to re-structure some of the neurological network in our brains. I know a guy who cured his depression after years of meds and unsuccessful therapies just by taking shrooms for some time... it's random, but it worked for him.
Anyway, an answer to 'why' this happened to you could be related to this.

I wouldn't say you're going insane, but if you're asking yourself such questions, maybe you should stop experimenting with shrooms for some time and see if anything changes. Maybe faces stop showing up. Do you want them to stop showing up?

And... when you say you were experimenting... did you 'just' took the mushrooms or were you doing something occult-related along with it (spells, sigils, evocation etc.)?

[WillowDarkWytch]

Motumbá Àse

The brain is a sort of filter which "separates" the spiritual plane from the physical. Drugs and psychedellics used in abuse and in a wrong way tend to tear the membrane of chakras (which protects their core) and "break" the filter, i.e. Brain.

You should be careful with the experimentation. One thing is to be guided by a shaman in aritual ceremony with sacred plants and other thing is go guessing what to do with it.

Saravá,
Idansinají

[Kami]

First of all, I'm not insane. I feel like I need to say that sometimes.

Lately, I've been seeing faces in everything. It's not like, a paranoia type thing. They're just there.
Some of them are smiling, such as the faces in my bathroom floor. Some look quite sad, like the face on the side of the chinese food place.

It doesn't matter where I look. If I zone out staring in a direction long enough, my brain finds a face in whatever I'm looking at and highlights it.

Now, I have been experimenting with psilocybin mushrooms a bit for the past two weeks, but the really weird thing is, I was sober for several days before I noticed the faces for the first time.
In fact, when I'm actually on shrooms, I'm too elevated to even notice them. I don't zone out long enough for them to come into focus.

Out of curiosity, I decided to start talking to the faces.
Now, the actual face I'm seeing is fully on the physical plane. Maybe it's just a couple of funky looking rocks in a face shape, or some jagged cement cracks, or something. But it's always an actual physical *thing*. I could outline it for you and everything.
However, when I start talking to the faces, the expressions change, yet only on the mental plane.
Like, it is almost like a slight hallucination. I can tell that the moving parts of the faces are in the same location as where I visualize things with open eyes, and in the same place where hallucinations happen from psychedelics.

Really, I'm just curious to know... Am I going insane?
It's not even like, a weird thing to me, seeing faces everywhere.
I mean, I know for a fact *what* caused it. It was the mushrooms, without a doubt.
I'm really questing the *why* to it. Why the hell am I seeing goofy ass faces everywhere?
Most people who complain about this thing are in a constant state of panic and paranoia. Why?

No, you aren't going insane so long as you know that they aren't real of course.

Secondly...

I used to see things as a kid - as to what you described.

Only because I used to be able to almost instantly fall into a daydream.

I used to see the bathroom floor start moving as if I was a race car.

I would see shadows take shapes of things not anywhere remotely close.

I would see my top ramen noodles come to life and squirm around.

I even seen lasers being shot in the night sky.

And so much more for examlple:

One time when I was little,
I had seen big bird coming down stairs with a kitchen knife in his hand and he was calling out my name all creepy.

Also... I used to wake up to something pulling my hair from behind the bed I was laying in,
It was ernie...
I heard him giggling underneath the bed.


...

There is probably more to share but as for now all that is all I have to share.

Now I wish to help you figure out what your brain is trying to do here for you.

1.) If you are seeing this because of the shrooms - then I suggest you stop doing shrooms for a while until we get this all figured out.

You should do some research on the subconscious mind and everything it could possibly be connected to.
Learn about neurons and what they look like and what they do and how they work and also - what stimulates them.

Learn about the dream world - and about lucid dreaming.

Impose your own theory on reality based of off another or not - and simply draw a conclusion and work off that.


Now to begin.

Isolate yourself from all other faces,
Keep only one face in the room with you.

Now mentally ask it questions,
Not loudly,
Just mentally.

Give it a method of replying to you if it does not reply.

This is very similar to my "better than a ouija board method" post because it deals with the subconscious mind and getting answers from it.

Usually... Spirits tend to excite certain areas of our brain in order to produce illusions that are synchronized with reality.

I have always been able to want to invoke illusions at will in order utilize them.

Don't be afraid,
Just know that you are developing into something amazing,
Something less human or less normal,
Which is a very good thing.

Who wants to be human - right?

Control your mind and you will see that anything you call crazy or insane - will turn out to be the best thing in your life.

Take synesthesia for example:

People who have this - are entertained and in love with their ability. ~

[Haelos]

And... when you say you were experimenting... did you 'just' took the mushrooms or were you doing something occult-related along with it (spells, sigils, evocation etc.)?

Alchemic experiments utilizing astrology and energy work.
Not at all "just eating mushrooms."

on a damn NDS and can't reply well.

[Haelos]

On a computer now. I can manage a good reply.

My ultimate goal with my alchemic tincture was to create a "mana potion", that would slightly enhance my magick abilities; visualization, energy control, etc.
I need to make it know that I really don't hallucinate on psychedelics, in the conventional sense. I've experienced so many different trips that I just don't get any of the flashy colors or crazy crap that is usually associated with mushrooms and acid.

About a week before I even consumed any mushrooms, I had a dream where I met the mushroom people and learned how they speak. In case you're wondering, it's super weird and cartoony.
I'd had my bag for about a month. Time just wasn't in my favor, and I planned my experiments to the astrological phases as well.

It was shortly after that I tried my first sample dose of my tincture. Essentially, the process was to simply soak mushrooms in ethanol for several weeks while I mediate over the process and imbue my intent into it.
I took out about 5 milliliters and sampled it, and it worked as expected, with some moderate side-effects, due to the influence at the time of bottling it.

It was in this time I started seeing the faces. I had no real correlation to it before, and didn't think the mushrooms were involved.

Then, on monday, I finished my batch, bottled it, and seperated the mushrooms used for future calcining (I have a nice crucible on the way).

On the same day, I also ate about two grams of dried mushrooms and had a nice time hanging out with some old friends, as well as an intense drive on the highway by an inexperienced driver, and with a loud distractuous person in the car.

I didn't see many faces while on a that real mushroom trip.
That experience was actually, also, timed up to be on the full moon, and I'd been meditating to raise energy throughout the few weeks before.

I still have my tincture, and I'm waiting for the proper time to use it.
I can say with all honesty that I've never been a more competent magician than in these past few weeks.
(alchemists do it with planetary tinctures; why can't I do it with a mildly Saturnic psychedelic plant?)

Again, I'm not actually worried about going insane, or even seeing the faces. And also, to some extent, some of them do seem to be "real", on some level or another. I'm just more curious, than anything. I've never heard about this kind of thing happening. Then, I also don't know very much about proper mushroom ceremony.

Trust me, I'm plenty initiated into the ways of dealing with substances such as Ayahuasca and Peyote. It's mushrooms and LSD that still elude me, to this day. And I've befriended them more than anything.
I've also never heard reliable experiences from magicians dealing with psychedelics. Most of the best magicians have always stayed away from them. The people who do use them in magick have no idea what they're doing.

I also had a dream just last night or the night before where I encountered a massive possibly-fly agaric mushroom, that turned into goop as the sun rose. It was super pretty, and unlike any of my usual dreams.
I often stay quite near to my body while dreaming, yet this one left me in an unfamiliar place in the dreamscape.
This was, currently, the end of my mushroom experience, until I calcine the leftover plantmatter and consume my spagyric in full.

Anyway, hopes that outlines some of my stuff for you better. I'm on a timelimit, and can't type much more though. Hope I get some good replies from you mates.

[WillowDarkWytch]

Trust me, I'm plenty initiated into the ways of dealing with substances such as Ayahuasca and Peyote. It's mushrooms and LSD that still elude me, to this day. And I've befriended them more than anything.

Haelos, where are you from? ayahuasca is from the southamerica, amazonas, and for ritual work is prepared with other amazonian plants that activate its better influence. I find it difficult to properly consume it in other parts of the world, and that is prepared how it is supposed to be. Some mix it with "floripondio", another southamerican plant/flower and it's not adviceble, it really does damage the brain.

I've also never heard reliable experiences from magicians dealing with psychedelics. Most of the best magicians have always stayed away from them. The people who do use them in magick have no idea what they're doing.

I think the same. I also have worked with sacred plants but with prepared shamans and my experiences have been most spiritual and self-discovering.

I'm just not comfortable with untrained shamanic work. So I wouldn't be helping you with that. But, as a "friend" or fellow magician I'd tell you to go slow, with ANY plant. Their elementals not always react the same to us humans.

[Haelos]

Trust me, I'm plenty initiated into the ways of dealing with substances such as Ayahuasca and Peyote. It's mushrooms and LSD that still elude me, to this day. And I've befriended them more than anything.

Haelos, where are you from? ayahuasca is from the southamerica, amazonas, and for ritual work is prepared with other amazonian plants that activate its better influence. I find it difficult to properly consume it in other parts of the world, and that is prepared how it is supposed to be. Some mix it with "floripondio", another southamerican plant/flower and it's not adviceble, it really does damage the brain.

http://azarius.net/smartshop/herbs/ayah ... sis_caapi/

This is just one of many sites that sell the ingredients needed. Not to mention, you can get everything you need out of the common household backyard.
There are some who cultivate these plants in their own homes.
Sure, it doesn't have quite the same "nature" aspects in it, but it is a viable tactic nonetheless.

[WillowDarkWytch]

I don't agree.

I just checked that website and I find it very difficult to properly work with ayahuasca that has been altered for comercial uses. I really don't think it keeps its natural effects and you SHOULDN'T just use it with other plants to get "the results". That's just getting high, tripping, etc. It has nothing to do with the spiritual work that lies behind consuming ayahuasca.

When you go to Peru or Brazil, and consume it as it's supposed to be with fresh plants, prepared by real amazonian shamans, you'll see it has NOTHING to do. It has "ikaros", ritual singing, and ceremonies that take you (your soul) to places. It's no the same. You're using it as it was a mashroom, marijuana or anything that has passed by the hands of people not most adecuate for the ritual consume.

I don't agree, and as you say, serious magicians stay away from it and even more far if it is in those conditions. You would never consume a sacred plant bought from commerce... it's not sacred anymore. When you learn from real spiritual work with plants and their elemental, you'll know why I say this.

You might do all the experiments you want, but you cannot say that to consume fresh and well prepared ayahuasca is the same than the packed dried version of it, that might not even come from amazonia, that's where IT BELONGS.

If you don't do it well, it's just a trip, that might be mystical, just as happens with LSD, but you cannot claim work with elementals from that. this is not just "chemistry", it's a whole thing and the chamical effects are just one part of it, the less important part. So, no, is not viable as a real shamanic work.

Good luck with your experiments, hope to keep reading about it. I do enjoy to read about mashrooms and "city" experiences with drugs

Saravá,
Idansinají

[WillowDarkWytch]

PS: I'd like to add that is not that I think or see psychedelic/magick work as not valuable work or that I'm against it in anyway, me myself had worked with drugs and alcohol to do magicks. BUT I strongly feel and know that is pretty different to work with a plant as a psychedalic than with a plant in a sacred manner. It's spiritually different from its preparation to the energies it carries (that's its elemental energy). It's just not the same.

[the_spiral]

I don't think you're insane.

The most straightforward suggestion is that you're experiencing pareidolia as a side effect of your experiments with psilocybin. It's difficult to use LSD as a ritual tool, its effects tend to fragment the psyche which isn't conducive to the intensely focused entrancement needed for magic. As for the mushrooms, I think initiation is important (either formally by a vegetalista or informally by the plant spirits themselves) to work with plant entheogens effectively. Otherwise it's difficult to distinguish genuine ritual effects from alterations in brain chemistry induced by the trip.

May I ask where you got the idea for this work and what is your ultimate goal? Both would be helpful in interpreting the side effects. And no offense intended, but I'm not sure if I buy your explanation "to slightly enhance your magickal abilities" as there are much more direct ways to do this?

[EEHC]

I think the best advice is to drop the psychadelics for a while. Just tone it down and try to focus on other things. 'Magic mushrooms' are not supposed to cause long-term effects. So if the issue doesn't go away there probably is an underlying cause unrelated to it.

Nothing wrong in consulting a physician either, to make sure you don't have any health problem.

[Desecrated]

Now, I have been experimenting with psilocybin mushrooms a bit for the past two weeks,

Well, that solved that problem.

[Nahemah]

Pscilocybin gives altered perception and this is taking form through outward projection from your mind, into a recognisable manifestation of emotional states: the faces you are seeing.

You are describing the faces from their expressions rather than their features, basically, which suggests to me that the emotions are the significant part of this trippiness, rather than the form that they are taking visually.

Might be worth exploring the relationship/ split between the acausal and causal that underlies this effect?

[WillowDarkWytch]

As for the mushrooms, I think initiation is important (either formally by a vegetalista or informally by the plant spirits themselves) to work with plant entheogens effectively. Otherwise it's difficult to distinguish genuine ritual effects from alterations in brain chemistry induced by the trip.

Agree. It's not just like sitting with weed and smoke it.

May I ask where you got the idea for this work and what is your ultimate goal? Both would be helpful in interpreting the side effects. And no offense intended, but I'm not sure if I buy your explanation "to slightly enhance your magickal abilities" as there are much more direct ways to do this?

Didn't buy it too. I feel it's like what Jonathan Strange in "Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell" was trying to do to contact the faery (I do recommend that miniseries, I liked it a lot).

I don't think it really matters though

[Haelos]

I think you guys need to take my words, and also life, a bit less seriously.

I've said many times I'm unable to manage good replies. You get half the words off the top of my head, and I intentionally leave out information you do not need.

@Willow, I just grabbed the first website that came up when I searched "caapi vine" on google.
I never claimed that's where I get my product from, and I never said I was or wasn't initiated formally by a guru.
I said what I said, and that's it.
I'm well aware of the many things to be said about hallucinogenic plants. I'd simply rather not spend the time saying them.


@spiral, You may surely ask, but I've already given out what information I feel comfortable with.
Yes, of course I have ulterior motives. None of these are important though.
For all the public needs to be concerned about, I'm using mushrooms as a "mana potion" in the conventional videogame sense of the word.



In my last alchemy thread, I posted a link to my experiments, if anyone wants to know more about my process.
You guys are all goofs.

[the_spiral]

Nobody here is taking anything too seriously, let alone your life, so don't flatter yourself. You posted in the "help" section asking for advice. People were polite enough to offer it based on the information YOU provided. Your experiences are neither special nor uncommon for people experimenting magically with psychedelics outside of a shamanistic framework. Sorry if that isn't what you wanted to hear. And nobody owes you their time to dig through your post history. If you feel something you wrote previously is relevant, link it. And if you feel nobody here has relevant advice to offer you, it's a big internet and you're welcome to explore elsewhere.

And as for your tendency to hurl schoolyard insults at other members when you don't like the advice YOU ASKED FOR, I'm sick of it. It's childish and unnecessary on a forum dedicated to occult discussion. It also violates the "Degenerative Language" section of our forum guidelines. Don't do it again.

Thread closed.

[WillowDarkWytch]

I think you guys need to take my words, and also life, a bit less seriously.

I've said many times I'm unable to manage good replies. You get half the words off the top of my head, and I intentionally leave out information you do not need.

@Willow, I just grabbed the first website that came up when I searched "caapi vine" on google.
I never claimed that's where I get my product from, and I never said I was or wasn't initiated formally by a guru.
I said what I said, and that's it.
I'm well aware of the many things to be said about hallucinogenic plants. I'd simply rather not spend the time saying them.


@spiral, You may surely ask, but I've already given out what information I feel comfortable with.
Yes, of course I have ulterior motives. None of these are important though.
For all the public needs to be concerned about, I'm using mushrooms as a "mana potion" in the conventional videogame sense of the word.



In my last alchemy thread, I posted a link to my experiments, if anyone wants to know more about my process.
You guys are all goofs.

If you know so much, then why would you post on "Help" a post on side effects you don't know WHY are happening to you?

Clearly you're not initiated into shamanism, herbalism nor whatever natural/plants/herbs oriented cult or system. You wouldn't be so cryptic about it.

I'm well aware of the many things to be said about hallucinogenic plants. I'd simply rather not spend the time saying them.

Then why do you ask us??? that's what I don't get.

Yes, of course I have ulterior motives. None of these are important though.
For all the public needs to be concerned about, I'm using mushrooms as a "mana potion" in the conventional videogame sense of the word.

So, you want our help, because you don't know wants going on, or at least our opinion about it, but you don't and won't tell us the real motives of your experiments because "we don't need to know"... but we should just refer only to answer... You're so wrong and rude.

You're enormously proud. That won't get you anywhere.

Sorry if I'm violating any rules, but I'm kind of tired of this "game" he has. It's not the first time I read Haelos post things and then when he doesn't like the answer treats us like we know nothing. It's annoying