[Solosophy] What is real?

get comfy, its about 10-15mins worth of reading, and then of course you need to please leave me a comment xD

Gday guys, this is my first in a series i have wanted to do for years called Solosophy, 

let me know what you think!

if we havent met yet, you can check out my little intro here ^_^ https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@sols/introduction-sol

thanks for stoppin in, i included a track for you, to help set the mood :)

p.s sorry for the huge size of the embed, i'm still suck at html.

 so..... getting right into it then...

another scorching hot summers day, I can feel my sweat building up under my backpack as I stand in the congested train cursing the air-conditioning. It's so hot, I feel dazed and sleepy I cant even remember how I got here, I must have been walking on auto-pilot again. the train slows as it reaches my stop and I nudge ever so slightly closer to the door anticipating its opening. "Pshhhhhhhh" the automatic doors release their lock and I'm hit in the face with the hot humid air of the outside. It seems that shitty air-conditioning was making a difference after all... stupid, shitty air-conditioning...

I make my way down the stairs, through the ticket gates and start to head home from the train station. I only live about a kilometre from the station and I'm usually so eager and impatient to get home that I walk faster and faster with each step until I'm practically running, but in this heat and with this heavy bag on my back I don't seem to be gaining any momentum, my friend starts to get impatient with me and asks me to "please walk faster", huh? Dan!?, holy shit! I didn't even notice he was here, I must not realise how tired I am, he's visiting from another country and I am making a fool of myself. I'm actually kind of upset he is getting angry with me and I feel so embarrassed to inconvenience him but I can feel a burning sensation in my legs, I'm trying desperately to fight it but the road has a slight uphill gradient and it seems to be working against me, as if pulling me back just far enough that it offsets my area of gravity and I lose momentum with each step until I'm barely moving forward at all, just lifting my legs becomes difficult as if the weight of each foot has increased an order of magnitude. Out of desperation I reach my arms forward and latch on tightly to the railings, using them to pull myself up the road. " Just a few more metres... just a few more metres", I try to reason with and motivate myself, reminding myself that I only have about half kilometre remaining and that I will be going downhill in just a few more metres and it should get much easier.

I make it to the end of the turn, its all downhill from here, just one obstacle, I need to cross this road, which means I need to let go of this rail. Hmm, I take a deep breath to build the courage and.. whoops, a bit shaky at the knees... "snap out of it Sol", i third person myself to let me know I am serious. I get my attention and straighten up, the road is clear, I reach out my leg and shift my weight across and.. "hey, that's not so bad", I'm actually doing ok, I just take it one step at a time, one step at a time and *BEEP BEEP* I turn to my side and am greeted by a large moving mass with an angry expression at the wheel "get the flippidy flop off the road you flamin malaka"

the possibly greek probably angry bus driver yells out the little window of his not so little bus as the giant metal mass he controls continues to approach my fragile fleshy form, I try to hurry across the road but the heat and the weakness in my legs. he's getting closer and I'm getting more desperate, I project myself forward as much as I can but my legs give out and I begin to fall *BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

thud!?

I woke up in shock, and to the sound of my alarm... "what in the flippidy... that was a 'dream'?, whaaaat!? I could have been dreaming about anything! but my brain chose to make that up instead?, I could have seriously been doing anything else, why not on a tropical beach somewhere, rockin out at a concert to millions of screaming fans or maybe even a divine orgy with Venus, Aphrodite and the other super babe goddesses. But instead I choose to dream about getting hit by a bus, and wait a minute, was Dan there?, wtf is he doing in my dream, and being a dickhead at that, flippin dickhead of a Dan

When I woke up, I realised the heater was on full blast and the only window in my room was closed, it was the middle of winter. The air in the room was getting so stuffy that I was "experiencing" it as a hot day, the heat that had built up caused me to sweat quite a bit, or was it the almost getting hit by a bus?, I mean, it felt like I almost got hit by a bus, my heart was still racing

we usually associate experience with the first definition, "practical contact", which we may then associate with only the "actual doing of something", not just the mental excercise but some form of physical expression, like eating a sandwich and not just imaging eating a sandwich, right?. but what if imagining eating that sandwich would make me feel less hungry?,

there just so happens to be some dreams, some thoughts, that have a profound lasting experience. For example, there exists an interesting ancient shamanic medicine from south america, which is still used today, the legendary "Ayahuasca" which induces vivid hallucinations and recollection of previous memories with "increased receptiveness"

there are still people who visit cultures Ayahuasca shamans today, to take a "spiritual journey" as a therapy, using Ayahuasca as a sort of Medicine which they claim has life-long lasting effects

this powerful brew, said to have been gifted by the gods(some variations of the myth even suggesting alien intervention and its possible claim as an evolutionary trigger to first man) though powerful, may leave a lot of you skeptical about my argument and you have a point, since well, your introducing all these extra things into the body and of course your going to have some reaction and a "drug" should be void as an argument. and as I said you have a point. But, what if you could induce a state yourself?, without the need for any physiological effect caused by some foreign substance entering our bloodstream and into our brain!

the psychoactive compound responsible for the vivid hallucinations is called Dimethyl tryptamine or DMT and is suprisingly quite common in the world especially considering its a schedule 1 illicit drug. DMT is produced by many plants and animals and is even produced in small quantities by the human body!

it was nicknamed the "spirit molecule" by researcher Dr. Rick Strassman who has been studying the compound since the 70's who was drawn to it in his search for a biological explanation for spirituality and spiritual experiences. he explains the remarkable similarity between accounts of DMT users and meditation practitioners in a "trance state"

Dr. Rick Strassman theorized that the body may be producing it in higher volumes during certain times such as the deep meditation or in R.E.M sleep may be when we are in our dream state.

Another method gaining more and more traction is a way of promoting the mind and body to enter the meditative trance state. this is done with the use of a "sensory deprivation" or "float" tank. These intimidating chambers are essentially a soundproof, usually completely dark tank filled with warm water with hundreds of pounds of dissolved salts. the salt helps to the body to float and when the person is left alone for a little while, in a space where none of their senses are being stimulated, the brain begins to hallucinate.

so admittedly there is still alot we dont know about how the brain performs these processes and their true significance, but then again, are we completely sure we arent dreaming right now?

if you would like to see more, you can find a pretty cool documentary on DMT here

"One persons craziness is another persons reality"

-Tim Burton

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here's another super cool take on the idea by the guys from Rik and Morty, definitely check it out if you haven't already