Life changing experiences

[SugarShane]

Mind if I ask what the old job was and what the new one is?

Without giving too much away, old job was as an admin officer, new job is in purchasing with a computer shop. It wasn't so much the job itself that was the problem, it was the environment.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

For me the main deterrent of doing anything that would send me to jail, is hearing stories of people getting r*ped and stuff in there

 

[La Vache]

Supporting both my parents simultaneously in their respective battles with cancer have changed the way I perceive just about everything.

From 2005 when mum was first diagnosed, till January last year when she passed I saw in them every emotion that exists in a human. Months in hospitals, disfiguring and disabling surgery, hope, rock-bottom, the best of times (when given the all clear) and knockout after knockout blow.

2005 - Mum has throat cancer. Very aggressive and intense radiation and chemo treatment for months leaves her in a very sorry state and after a while I am having trouble coping. I arrange to see the counsellor at the Alfred and that morning I wake up when dad comes in and tells me he has lung cancer. For a few months they are both locked in their respective battles and dad is getting pretty crook.

2006 - Mum has beaten the cancer! Very mixed emotions about this as dad is still a concern but perhaps things are improving for him too. Later in the year he goes downhill and in December he dies. This is all a bit much for me and 2007 is a very difficult year emotionally. I inherit his flat and move in with a mate.

2008 - Mate moves out and I move in a nice Canadian girl and we get along. Two weeks later we are together and I am picking up the pieces. I console myself that if dad was still around I may never have been blessed with her presence.

2009 - We move to Toronto for a while so she can work after visa runs out. Mum is found to have cancer again and goes into emergency surgery immediately that means she will never eat or speak properly again, but hopefully will live. We immediately jump on plane for what seems like a mercy dash. The surgery is a success but mum is a mess and after a while my lady must go back so we are separated for a while. During these difficult times I see in her the type of devotion and love that is so hard to find.

2010 - Mum is doing well but life is tough for her and for all of us. She needs lots of checkups and care. And regular laser surgery to her throat just to cut out any rogue cells. We find out one day that it is well and truly back and there is nothing that can be done. Devastation.

2011 - We find out we are expecting and tell mum in January. I'll never forget that moment. In many ways it is a wonderful year with mum bustling around fussing about her first grandchild. She is deteriorating though. My daughter is born in August and the following months are magnificent. You can tell mum is fulfilled now and ready to die.

2012 - January 3 and mum passes away peacefully having spent five quality months with a grand daughter.

Every minute of those eight years has been life changing for me.

 

[Smoooothy]

beautiful stuff man

 

[Plugger35]

I can sympathise with what you went through La Vache, my mum was diagnosed out of the blue with an aggressive form of luekemia early in 2005 and after months of chemo treatment going in and out of hospital she passed away in October of that year.

It was an horrendous thing to go through, both for her and her family/friends but at least it was all over fairly quickly and didn't drag on for years with her suffering. It certainly changes your perspective on life as I'd never had any close family or friends die before. Until something like that happens you just take life for granted and don't realise how mortal we all are.

Reading this book as a 19/20yo. Seeing this television series around the same time. First time I dropped acid. Those are the main ones I look back on; as with most people there were infinite others.

I remember the first time I did an acid trip when I was at uni, it seemed like a mind blowing, life changing experience at the time but then it wears off and you have to go back to the drudgery of the real world.

 

[Smiling Buddha]

I remember the first time I did an acid trip when I was at uni, it seemed like a mind blowing, life changing experience at the time but then it wears off and you have to go back to the drudgery of the real world.

Topic probably deserves its own thread but I would argue that the beauty of acid, based on my own personal experience and from the accounts I have read of other peoples experiences, is that it reveals just how little we 'know' about reality and the emptiness of the 'real world' you speak of - for want of a more articulate description of the concepts I'm trying to convey.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Topic probably deserves its own thread but I would argue that the beauty of acid, based on my own personal experience and from the accounts I have read of other peoples experiences, is that it reveals just how little we 'know' about reality and the emptiness of the 'real world' you speak of - for want of a more articulate description of the concepts I'm trying to convey.

Or unfolds unused parts of the brain that serve little purpose, but with LSD, show amazing things and thoughts that are irrelevant to actuality and existence – y'know, the stuff that matters.

 

[Plugger35]

Topic probably deserves its own thread but I would argue that the beauty of acid, based on my own personal experience and from the accounts I have read of other peoples experiences, is that it reveals just how little we 'know' about reality and the emptiness of the 'real world' you speak of - for want of a more articulate description of the concepts I'm trying to convey.

You do think about the world differently on acid that's for sure, me and the two mates I did it with had all sorts of fantastic 'meaning of life' and 'why are we here?' type discussions but eventually you have to get back to reality. It was an enjoyable experience but not something I'd want to do too often as it would probably mess you up.

 

[CLUBMEDhurst]

Went to Werribee Tech.

Thankfully was able to rid myself of fluffy dreams such as academic achievement and becoming a captain of industry.

Oh, was diagnosed with MS in 2001

 

[Smiling Buddha]

You do think about the world differently on acid that's for sure

The point I am making is that for me personally and for many others too, you think about the world differently well after the LSD is 'out of the system'. Hence my post stating that it was 'life-changing'.

 

[Plugger35]

The point I am making is that for me personally and for many others too, you think about the world differently well after the LSD is 'out of the system'. Hence my post stating that it was 'life-changing'.

Those thoughts do stay with you afterwards but how much that actually changes your life is hard to tell.

The way I live my life, the people, comedy, tv, movies, music etc that I like has probably been influenced and shaped by my experiences with drugs over the years but I don't think it's changed me fundamentally as a person. I may still have lived my life and liked the same stuff had I not had those experiences with drugs. I can't untake those drugs and find out though.

 

[JD11]

The point I am making is that for me personally and for many others too, you think about the world differently well after the LSD is 'out of the system'. Hence my post stating that it was 'life-changing'.

Not for everyone IMO. Depends on the attitude of the person, some people can just drop tabs for a bit of fun and throw out the whole experience. I think the whole 'set and setting' thing is pretty important if the use is aimed at personal growth or development.

 

[Smiling Buddha]

Those thoughts do stay with you afterwards but how much that actually changes your life is hard to tell.

Not for everyone IMO.

Yeah, I'm not sure I've suggested otherwise to any of this. I thought the thread was about things that have changed our own lives, not things we think are guaranteed to change the lives of everybody who tries them.

 

[JD11]

I wasn't disputing what you said I was just expanding.

 

[Plugger35]

Yeah, I'm not sure I've suggested otherwise to any of this. I thought the thread was about things that have changed our own lives, not things we think are guaranteed to change the lives of everybody who tries them.

Yeah that's true, different people get different experiences out of drugs like acid trips, it might be a great, mind expanding experience for some people but a horrible, freaky experience for other people.

We didn't take acid to have a mind expanding experience, we just wanted to have fun and laugh at any hallucinations we had, which we did, but with a mind expanding experience thrown in as well. It was a hell of a trip.

 

[Gough]

Yeah that's true, different people get different experiences out of drugs like acid trips, it might be a great, mind expanding experience for some people but a horrible, freaky experience for other people.

We didn't take acid to have a mind expanding experience, we just wanted to have fun and laugh at any hallucinations we had, which we did, but with a mind expanding experience thrown in as well. It was a hell of a trip.

I've reconnected with acid recently after a 15+ year break and I dose myself mainly for the mind expansion, if I just wanted to get wrecked there are plenty of other drugs out there. I always have a pen and paper nearby and I like to write whilst tripping, it's amazing reading them when you do come down.
I've only ever had the horrors once and that was on a very hot day at the BDO, fortunately I had friends who were able to talk me down but it wasn't a lot of fun.

 

[Cruyff14]

It was 2006, Friday March 3. Had a great day that day, the sun was shining, was hanging out with friends outside the state library and we were all talking about how happy we were and how it was such a good day. Caught the train home, and on the train I got a phone call from another friend. She informs me that a guy from our year level (did year 12 the previous year), has died from cancer. He was 17, it was 15 days until his 18th birthday. It was literally the worst day of my life. I wasn't that close with him, but I'd known him since I was a kid and he was the guy that made everyone laugh and the kid nobody hated.

To see such a young and fun loving guy adored by everybody to have his life snatched away from him was terrible. I shudder to think how upset I would have been if it was a close mate. His house is (was?) in the same street as my hairdresser, think of him every time I get my haircut. Being older now, makes you really appreciate life.

Still can't listen to some songs because of the funeral/what I heard in the car that day on the way home.

 

[PP34]

Had a dog get very sick, found strength I never knew I had in making the last days as comfortable as possible.When the dog died I for the first time in my life experienced grief. Being numb from loss, is something I'll always remember. Having been threw some stuff that shouldn't of happened ,the numbness I experienced actually gave me confidence.

Its fair to say that slowly things have gone upward since, there really is life in death and death in life.

Lost my dog on ANZAC day. Without doubt it was one of the shittest experiences in my life. The next day I felt okay after burying him but later that night I realised how much I missed him.

I'm still close to tears when I watch videos or look at pictures of him. The facts that he was only 15 months and my first dog don't help either.

Losing two of my cousins both from the same illness due to a life long disease (14 and 20 respectively) has also changed how I value life.

 

[Zach Package]

collapsing in the middle of the VCE common room and having a (then unexplained) seizure.

that was hectic, everyone thought I was dead

 

[PP34]

collapsing in the middle of the VCE common room and having a (then unexplained) seizure.

that was hectic, everyone thought I was dead

Do you still suffer from them now? (if you don't mind me asking).

 

[Smiling Buddha]

Did the doctors come up with a possible reason as to what caused it?

 

[Zach Package]

Did the doctors come up with a possible reason as to what caused it?

Do you still suffer from them now? (if you don't mind me asking).

epilepsy in the end, so i'm medicated now, but initial tests didn't show it, so they dismissed it as a freak incident. I then had 2 more (one more at school) and finally got diagnosed after more in-depth testing.

interesting couple of moths to say the least, especially during term 3 of year 12

 

[Smiling Buddha]

Jeez, shit time for that to happen (not that there is ever a good time but you know what I mean).

I'll never forget the first time I saw an epileptic fit in real life. I was playing maybe my third or fourth game of senior cricket (F-grade) as a young fella, 14 years old, fielding at cover. The bowler seemed to be taking a long time to deliver the ball so I look to where he starts his run and just as I turn to see him, he falls face first onto the turf. Starts convulsing. His old man was on the same team (lower divisions of country cricket often have father-son combos on the same team) and knew how to handle it. He was eventually taken from the field.

So they need to throw the ball to somebody else to finish the over. 'Throw it to young Buddha' somebody suggests. Sure enough, they throw the pill to me and I get to bowl my first ever ball in senior cricket. Long story short, my first two deliveries were both wickets, broke a massive partnership with two ordinary seamers which both got hit straight to fieldsmen by batsmen who had obviously lost their patience/cool after what had just happened.

All because my teammate had an epileptic fit on-field. I was rapt (and he was fine). Boy did I have a good tug that night.

The end.

 

[Zach Package]

hahaha nice. As weird as it sounds, you don't remember anything of them, and in my case I woke up feeling pretty good every time aside from a decent headache.

The thing you've got to avoid is hitting your head, other than that it's pretty tame. Obviously it looks pretty bad (pretty sure one girl was on the verge of tears, and she didn't even know me that well), but the actual effects aren't serious.

 

[dumb]

still fresh and raw, end of a relationship about a month or so ago. or perhaps the relationship itself. over time i was called every name under the sun, other ridiculous things, and physical abuse was on the cards seeing as she had expressed at times she wanted to hit me and had gone on to threaten me. never clicked at the time, i figure that hindsight happens quite a lot in shitty and abusive relationships. somehow i feel like i've come out a much better person, despite feeling at times totally destroyed and ashamed. but my confidence and trust in relationships is boosted by the fact that plenty of people are better equipped to have a relationship than the girl i was with. i'm finding sympathy and understanding from people i have known that have gone on to divulge that they too, went through something similar. her family are aware of her 'aggressive streak' and sympathize as well. behind the friendly (and behind doors, angry) facade, is a miserable messed up girl who is destined to go through life blaming everyone else for her misfortunes in life and wondering why nobody stays close to her.