Really thought provoking piece. There is a tendency in tech forward culture to glorify altered states as something worth finding and trying. To know something new is to gain. Huffing, particularly gasoline huffing, is an area I only know through humerus Always Sunny bits, never really contemplating the very real addiction and psychotic damage it causes. Im blessed to be insulated and unaware of what sounds like a painful problem in parts of the world. I think what hit me the most is the impact of reading a single book in highschool. On the early internet I hunted for and read any esoterica I could find. Secrets hidden in secrets, a gnostic cult of my own creation. It was fun, thrilling, to find a new blog to read about experiences I only could hope were truthful. Erowid filled that treasure for me in real ways. I don't know what to make of the negative impact a book and the right conditons made on the author. As my children get older I hope I can balance their desire to learn and self discover with safety. I learned more about what I don't know or understand in reading this. Powerful piece and a great share.
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