Perhaps the most enlightened period of my life was the two weeks after I first took psychedelics.
My biggest realization while under the influence was that my attention (and accompanying focus) was substantially similar to a laser beam: when directed to a single point, it could obliterate anything in its path. I also realized that I spent the majority of each day splitting this laser beam up into hundreds of smaller beams which had no ‘obliterating’ effect on the tasks they were meant to be ‘doing’.
For about two weeks afterwards, I had an incredibly Zen state of mind, where it became abundantly clear in every moment exactly what I should be doing. I would then do only that until it was done. The visual was always very clear — I was manifesting the superpower of fully directing the laser of my attention.
Somehow I lost that state of mind, but I am always seeking to reattain it. The ease with which I progressed through tasks during that period, and the amount that I accomplished was, and is, incomparable to any other period in my life.
Ever since, I’ve firmly believed that prioritization is the single biggest hurdle to getting things done. Effective prioritization is incredibly hard, and seems to require deep intuition. Prioritizing based on logical facts is near impossible, because you will necessarily spend more time deciding what to focus on than actually focusing on tasks. There is some trick that I believe incredibly productive people employ (whether consciously or not) that allows them to fully leverage their intuition for good prioritization.
When you really dig down into it, basically every business is simply a chain of priorities, and the businesses that prioritize better win in the long term. The same goes for scientific discoveries, and really any form of genius. The tricky part is innately understanding how to do prioritization without it taking up more time than the tasks you’re trying to prioritize, a gift, I was somehow temporarily granted by the mushroom.
I believe it's not often talked about how important intuition is, for everything in life, and this does include productivity. But I think for intuition to flourish you need a special type of freedom of thought and low stress, which might clash with certain work hierarchies and mindsets.
To satisfy my curiosity, have you taken mushrooms again to see if you can get that back? And have you tried microdosing?
I have taken them since, but I get something completely new and different each time.
The “lessons” are ephemeral and effortless. The work that follows the trip is very effortful: trying to repeatably (i.e. without drugs) attain what the mushroom showed was possible. That’s the hard part, but it’s also the real reason to do mushrooms — they are a kind of aspirational drug that leaves you searching — only you’re not searching for a new high, you’re searching for ways to apply what the mushroom taught you. It’s a very beautiful process.
Absolutely, the word is integration and it's not discussed enough. It can happen with LSD and other psychedelics too, but you have to be open to that and not consider them just party drugs, as many people do.
Very rewarding too if you can find a therapist that knows about these processes and can help you along.
My biggest realization while under the influence was that my attention (and accompanying focus) was substantially similar to a laser beam: when directed to a single point, it could obliterate anything in its path. I also realized that I spent the majority of each day splitting this laser beam up into hundreds of smaller beams which had no ‘obliterating’ effect on the tasks they were meant to be ‘doing’.
For about two weeks afterwards, I had an incredibly Zen state of mind, where it became abundantly clear in every moment exactly what I should be doing. I would then do only that until it was done. The visual was always very clear — I was manifesting the superpower of fully directing the laser of my attention.
Somehow I lost that state of mind, but I am always seeking to reattain it. The ease with which I progressed through tasks during that period, and the amount that I accomplished was, and is, incomparable to any other period in my life.
Ever since, I’ve firmly believed that prioritization is the single biggest hurdle to getting things done. Effective prioritization is incredibly hard, and seems to require deep intuition. Prioritizing based on logical facts is near impossible, because you will necessarily spend more time deciding what to focus on than actually focusing on tasks. There is some trick that I believe incredibly productive people employ (whether consciously or not) that allows them to fully leverage their intuition for good prioritization.
When you really dig down into it, basically every business is simply a chain of priorities, and the businesses that prioritize better win in the long term. The same goes for scientific discoveries, and really any form of genius. The tricky part is innately understanding how to do prioritization without it taking up more time than the tasks you’re trying to prioritize, a gift, I was somehow temporarily granted by the mushroom.