Nicotine Patches and Vivid Dreams

[lightspeed]

For the past few nights, I have been slapping nicotine patches all over me before bed.

1.) 1: 21 mg patch on the neck
2.) 2:14 mg patch on lower left arm
3.) 3: 14 mg patch on lower right arm

note: I am a heavy weight who usually smokes upwards of 3 packs a day. This is an extremely high dose. Don't kill yourself!

The box clearly warns about vivid dreams. Stephen King was reported to use them to induce nightmares to inspire novels. I find the best way to have them is to stay up until extremely tired (this helps you fall into REM faster), then put your patch(es) on and have a something to write with, and on near.

I'll share a bit of one...the rest I'm saving:

I had a bag of "Universal Candy". I pulled what appeared to be a starfish shaped blue tart and put it in my mouth. I was told by some unknown voice that the candy not only tasted the way I wanted it to, but made the universe fit my tastes. I remember it tasting like a sweet tart at first, and then I wished to be financially rich. Milliseconds later in my new mansion, I was throwing a money giveaway party...AND EVERYONE SHOWED UP! Can you believe that?

Fun times...


Anyone else use patches?

 

[Ermine]

Sorry, I don't do drugs, illegal or otherwise. Interesting idea though.

 

[lightspeed]

Sorry, I don't do drugs, illegal or otherwise. Interesting idea though.

True, it does have all the makings of a drug experience. Good you notice that legality does not determine drug/non drug. If I can teach my kids anything, it will be to keep a clear and sharp mind, atleast until it's fully developed. It's too late for me!! I am my own lab rat to produce anything even remotely creative.

A wise man told me that anything obtained from drugs, could be obtained elsewhere. That wise man is around here somewhere.

 

[loveofreason]

Since no one's asked and I'm curious: are you giving up or just experimenting?

What would happen to a non-smoker if they used patches?

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

a big old nicotine rush.


Drugs can help creativity AFTER their affects wear off, or when used lightly, like a nicotine patch. And doing them constantly is not a good idea either because the reason a high is enjoyable is that it is different. This vivid-dream thing sounds very useful. That one of yours in particular could give a massive insight into your personality.

The nicotine relaxes your body giving you a deeper sleep and therefore a deeper trance.
This is a view I'm taking after having studied and performed hypnosis, which only works, by the way, if the subject believes you can make them do things within reason. The trance gets more powerful as the subject becomes more and more relaxed. When they are practically sleeping, they are pretty much completely suggestible. I think that this is due to the letting-go of barriers that surround the inner thoughts and halt truth getting out, no matter how twisted and metaphorical. Or, if you like, metaphysical, aha. Because of the hypnosis. And magic. Right.
So the more relaxed you get, the more ready you are to allow your mind to slip into randomness.

LSD works completely differently, by creating uncommon connections in the brain which cause things to be other things that look like the original things. Hands up if you're confused. For example, how often do you think, 'wow, that looks like...'? That would turn into 'that's a...'

 

[Wisp]

Eww... so you'll look into the sky and the clouds will all look like random objects, the sky would like an actual ocean, etc etc?

 

[loveofreason]

I think most of the human populace is practically sleeping 24 hours, and utterly suggestible to all the cultural hype that tells what to think and do .

But... ahem. Back to the topic.

I find the range of altered states that humans can experience is a fascinating wellspring of creativity. The astounding things that rise from the subconscious...

Is this all part of the INTP love-affair with mystery; with the ultimate inscrutable system that never completely yields to understanding?

I had a hard time giving up smoking some years ago, and I doubt I would ever go back now just to explore the particular focus that nicotine brings to the mind. I've explored quite a few altered states, and learned much - including the fact that without the right mentor or respect for both the mind and metaphor, and my health when it comes down to it, that for the time being I must remain enchanted with the sobriety of my conscious mind.

I simply don't trust enough to permit myself to undergo hypnosis, though I am attracted to the idea. I have seen someone elsewhere comment on the fundamental internal/intellectual wall that INTPs use to keep themselves safe from the world. Attempting to transcend that barrier is a task that calls me back and back.

*That sounds spot on Wisp! There are also fascinating parallels between synaesthesia and the LSD induced state that involve a very primitive portion of the brain.

 

[Wisp]

Oh god. Now I don't have to take LSD, I can simply look at the sky and let my imagination loose... not that I've done LSD... *looks around furtively*.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

yes, it is.

I smoke a cigarette a month. I enjoy the nicotine rush, and you don't get it if you're a heavy smoker.




Everyone has a barrier, INTPs are just more realistic about it and can actually shut themselves off completely.


I do enjoy the altered states, but mildly. I never fancied myself as a massive drug user out to see god in his own morphine-clouded mind. But I think LSD would be a great learning experience, to sink in the message conveyed in the matrix, among others, that what we see, feel, hear, taste and smell is what is real to us, but may not be the truth. For example, on acid things may seem real, but are merely mirages formed by unusual connections in your brain.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

that was to the one before the one before, by the way.

 

[Wisp]

I've always been very reluctant to use any sort of drug on myslef, regardless of any sort of altered state I'd experience. The price of addiction is too high.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

It's not addictive. Like I said, one cigarette a month. I could easily become the most sober person in my social ring, but I don't feel like it just yet.

 

[Wisp]

Eh. But it could be. One never knows.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

i suppose. Well, let me tell you this: You don't know what you got till it's gone. Sobriety included. I'm always a good bit smarter after the effects of a depression session wear off.

 

[Wisp]

Could be true. The only altered state I need involves lots of caffeine, sugar, and very little sleep...

 

[WildC]

I follow the same approach as Wisp.

I've been through alcohol, like every other Dane above the age of 14 (sigh), but I don't really consider it interesting. It's more of a social thing, I drink because the people around me do and because it doesn't bother me too much. The "recreational drugs" and nicotine seem too harsh in terms of physical/mental addiction and short/long-term side-effects that I have never even considered trying them.
I think I am too much of an escapist to try the more "hardcore" drugs without entering an addiction.

 

[Wisp]

...I've made a resolution not to drink, ever. I hold my mind in too high regard to degrade it, even for an evening.

 

[WildC]

Sorry if I implied that that was not the case.
I spent a lot of time working against it, but I'm not a socially strong person and I decided in the end it'd be easier to just go with it than become even more of a weirdo in the eyes of others.

 

[Wisp]

Yeah, true. I wasn't trying to over react, but it's one of the few things I feel really strongly about. I understand about wanting to fit in, but I've never fit in entirely, so I have nothing to lose. Plus, my area of residence can be quite accepting, if only you can find the right people to hang out with...

 

[WildC]

Ah, the Danes are a vicious people in that regard though. If you don't drink, you're truly considered an outsider. The legal age for drinking is 16, but it's not really enforced and most 13-year olds have been drunk at least once.
High school was bad enough with just having the social ineptitude of an Asperger-person without having to subject oneself to more prejudice due to not taking part in such a grand "social event" as binge drinking.

 

[Wisp]

Ah, I feel for you. Out of curiosity, are you in a small town setting, where everybody knows everybody else? That would make life much more painful. I live in the suberbs where there is a large amount of people...

 

[WildC]

I used to be, sort of. The high school I went to had about 700 students, which is not really a whole lot as it's easily divided into smaller, more sociably manageable groups. My grade school class had a grand total of 9 people in it by the time we graduated though, which was.. special.
Either way, even the small groups I ended up in had a hard time accepting the sobriety thing, so eventually I just stopped bothering, after having read conclusive research reports that occassional heavy drinking did in fact not damage the brain.
These days, now that I don't live with my parents and am constantly exposed to that environment, I only drink small amounts when I meet up with friends, because the mentality is hardcoded into every single person around here.

 

[Wisp]

Mental persuasion: DRINK DRINK DRINK!!!!

 

[WildC]

Vicious! Maybe I'll go drink myself into a stupor now, just in spite. I bet my cold would be pleased too.
Sigh, mind-clouding compounds, the bane of the INTP.

 

[Wisp]

Yeah, I would imagine so, having resolved myself never to do more than that: imagine it.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

I just want to say that I've never done anything for social acceptance. There's no need. If they can't accept you as you are, then they can't accept you. Who wants to change for brownie points?

Drinking got dull when you realise all it does is slow you down. Other things make happiness, or silliness, or whatever. And that is fun. But never anything too strong and never too much. Oh, I forgot, over in america people smoke pure weed. We mix it with tobacco, generally, over here. But you probably don't care.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

I percieve, therefore it is.

-General human thinking.

 

[Wisp]

@quote: hahaha.

Weed is something I don't feel like doing either. All people do on weed is sit in a basement and laugh at nothing...

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

Not true. We have a garage. An we do laugh at things in particular. Friggin' funny things, although probably more funny than they would be when sober. Please, don't take your opinion of drugs from that type of anti-drug propaganda. But I'm not advising you to do drugs. Just don't let your opinion of it be spoiled by unexperienced nimrods.

 

[Wisp]

True, but like I said, I value my clarity of perception.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

Good for you. No irony there, by the way. Or there.

 

[mindovermatter]

True, but like I said, I value my clarity of perception.

wisp......you are very wise not to screw with your brain......
that's exactly why i never drank or used.....the possibility of not having complete and total control of my thought process was almost as frightening to me as dying......and just watching friends under the influence convinced me even more that i could never intentionally tamper with my most valuable asset

besides, my psychotic dreams are enough of a reality-distorting fare without the use of enhancement.....so i guess i have the best of both worlds without the danger of mind altering drugs

 

[Ermine]

Yeah, I don't get how people can get drunk and have fun with it. I'd freak out if I were doing stupid stuff and couldn't help myself. Not to mention I wouldn't be able to think straight. Above all else, I have to think straight at all times. I think, therefore I am. If I can't think, I am essentially dead.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

As the one here who is experienced in this sort of thing, I can assure you that I have never done anything stupid, never looked at myself in a dimmer light, due to alcohol or other drugs. I am able to keep up thoughtfull and reasonable arguments, albeit at a slightly slower pace, but that's okay, it gives you time to think. I laugh my ass off, and go about my day. No harm, no foul.