>>Both nitrous oxide and ether have been used medically² as anesthetics.
In Europe, nitrous oxide is heavily used in obstetric care. I realize that is not the case in the US, but in Sweden, where I live, nitrous oxide is offered almost every woman in labor. Basically, they say "take as much as you want, as long as you hold the mask with your own hands (if you take too much, you will pass out and drop the mask)". That way, a majority of Swedish women above a certain age have tried nitrous oxide. My guess is that many of us have also been high on it. I have at least twice. I recognize very little of the otherworldly experiences you write about above. Maybe not being in pain, not being scared and not being in a hospital helps.
I actually learned about the use of nitrous for women in labor while researching this article! Super interesting. I could definitely see the stress of the situation crowding out the hallucinatory experience.
I was raised a Catholic, so I spent about 25 years far away from any mind-altering substance. I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke tobacco, even coffee I seldom take. However, being a Brazilian, I came into contact with a group that does ayahuasca Rituals. I have been a member for the last 10 years and our group tends to attract all kinds of people, including psychonauts. I find it extremely interesting to learn of the experiences of other people using a range of substances to better understand this bizzarre reality we find ourselves into. Thanks for sharing.
I used nitrous oxide while giving birth and it fully believe it allowed me to experience so many spiritual things that I cant begin to explain it. I went in a spiritual person and I came out even more spiritual than I ever thought I could be. I saw so many different unexplainable things! I learned that the highest frequency of music to tune soothe ourselves to, is reggae and classical music. Something about those vibrations helps heal trauma and pain. I also learned that breath work is so incredibly important, everything is decibels. Every single thing. Pain is in decibels and we can breathe into the pain to match it. That is breath work. Match the frequency of pain with our breathing and you will no longer feel the pain but you will become the pain. I tried so hard to catch up with the decibel of the pain i was in but it was far too great and I was not prepared . I hadnt practiced meditation or breath work before this. Which is why I couldnt reach it. But humans are capable of this power. We just need to learn how to reach it through breathing and meditation.
Glad there are several people self aware enough to nope out of this but...nitrous sounds right up my alley haha. I have often fantasized about existing in a world of my own thoughts 😅
A good takeaway! Not for everyone for sure. One of my hesitations when writing this was the possibility of being too encouraging towards drug experimentation...glad it's also having the opposite effect!
>>Both nitrous oxide and ether have been used medically² as anesthetics.
In Europe, nitrous oxide is heavily used in obstetric care. I realize that is not the case in the US, but in Sweden, where I live, nitrous oxide is offered almost every woman in labor. Basically, they say "take as much as you want, as long as you hold the mask with your own hands (if you take too much, you will pass out and drop the mask)". That way, a majority of Swedish women above a certain age have tried nitrous oxide. My guess is that many of us have also been high on it. I have at least twice. I recognize very little of the otherworldly experiences you write about above. Maybe not being in pain, not being scared and not being in a hospital helps.
I actually learned about the use of nitrous for women in labor while researching this article! Super interesting. I could definitely see the stress of the situation crowding out the hallucinatory experience.
Wow, this is fascinating, I've never heard of this before.
I was raised a Catholic, so I spent about 25 years far away from any mind-altering substance. I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke tobacco, even coffee I seldom take. However, being a Brazilian, I came into contact with a group that does ayahuasca Rituals. I have been a member for the last 10 years and our group tends to attract all kinds of people, including psychonauts. I find it extremely interesting to learn of the experiences of other people using a range of substances to better understand this bizzarre reality we find ourselves into. Thanks for sharing.
I used nitrous oxide while giving birth and it fully believe it allowed me to experience so many spiritual things that I cant begin to explain it. I went in a spiritual person and I came out even more spiritual than I ever thought I could be. I saw so many different unexplainable things! I learned that the highest frequency of music to tune soothe ourselves to, is reggae and classical music. Something about those vibrations helps heal trauma and pain. I also learned that breath work is so incredibly important, everything is decibels. Every single thing. Pain is in decibels and we can breathe into the pain to match it. That is breath work. Match the frequency of pain with our breathing and you will no longer feel the pain but you will become the pain. I tried so hard to catch up with the decibel of the pain i was in but it was far too great and I was not prepared . I hadnt practiced meditation or breath work before this. Which is why I couldnt reach it. But humans are capable of this power. We just need to learn how to reach it through breathing and meditation.
Recent paper on false beliefs in psychedelics that seems relevant: The power of insight: How psychedelics solicit false beliefs
https://psyarxiv.com/97gjw/
This was a great read. You capture the state of being in a nitrous trip so well.
Glad there are several people self aware enough to nope out of this but...nitrous sounds right up my alley haha. I have often fantasized about existing in a world of my own thoughts 😅
My take away from this is that I shouldn’t huff Nitrous Oxide xD
A good takeaway! Not for everyone for sure. One of my hesitations when writing this was the possibility of being too encouraging towards drug experimentation...glad it's also having the opposite effect!
Interesting. Thanks for sharing. You might like the three-part meditation series (links to the first two at the top) https://www.mattball.org/2023/06/enlightenment-june-2023-coda-part-3-of-3.html
Take care.