Sex-positive, scientific psychonaut saying “Salutations, Steemit!”

in #introduceyourself7 years ago (edited)

(As promised) Salutations, Steemit! 

I am so happy to be introducing my blog to the community! I am a psychonaut scientist with passion for improving healthcare practices and education about healthy sexuality and I hope that through educating our community, we can do away with harmful stigmas that impede progress. 

That’s a pretty loaded introduction statement, so let me break this down into bite-size pieces.  

 I am a psychonaut…

 A “psychonaut” is a term, combining Greek roots “psych” (mind) and “naut” (sailor), for a person that uses altered states of consciousness to analyze and address our sensory perceptions and how we understand them. I, personally, have achieved this with the use of psychedelic substances, however this type of exploration may also include hypnosis, lucid dreaming, or deprivation of the senses, of sleep, of nutrients to assist in reaching states of trance or meditation. I hope to engage a community that participates in such activities to share anecdotal experience of such exploration, as well as much-needed [research](https://www.maps.org) to assist unfamiliar community members in making informed choices about maintaining good mental hygiene and the means to do so. I especially hope to support a community that connects experienced psychonauts with communities that are beginning to show the most promise for therapeutic psychedelic treatment including people with PTSD, anxiety, addictions.  

 *One of the first publicly announced recipients of an approx. $1M in crypto from the Pineapple Fund, MAPS is working toward “a world where psychedelics and marijuana are safely and legally available for beneficial uses, and where research is governed by rigorous scientific evaluation of their risks and benefits.”* 


  ...scientist...

I consider this not to be a role, but more of a filter through which I interact with reality. In a similar manner to calling yourself a “skeptic”(I’m one of those too!), identifying as a scientist says that regardless of what I thought I knew about a given topic, I have to be ready to toss it all out. This sounds like an easy task, however sneaky psychological biases make it **much** harder to practice. I will employ a scientific approach to my blog and will provide resources to assist anyone seeking to research the topics further to draw their own conclusions.


  …with passion for improving healthcare practices…

 I am a certified speech-language pathologist that provides service to my community by helping the adult population manage changes in communication, cognition, and swallowing function.

Source

This field is the perfect storm of my favorite subjects in school: language arts (I like learning big words and I took grammar WAY too seriously for any “typical” child), anatomy and physiology (more on that in the next point ;) ), and psychology. It is a profession with which people are generally unfamiliar, until they or someone they know needs us. As I said, I found this field to be the perfect fit for my personal academic interests, but the field and industry are far from perfect.  I want to highlight applications for the blockchain that are being developed for the global healthcare industry. I would also like to share promising research in the field of speech-language pathology (SLP), however will keep this to a minimum unless I can stir up an interested community. 


  …and education about healthy sexuality...

Sex is ingrained in human nature and that is a part I don’t want to miss out on! I was raised within a religious household that vilified the exploration sexuality—sexual contact was only for procreation and procreation was to create more “followers”; it was the reason for our physical existence. I dealt with a lot of internal struggle with my physical urges and learned association with shame. And most unfortunately, my situation is not unique. Sexuality is often considered as an indulgence with no additional value beyond pleasure, but science shows us that just isn’t so! I want to share how a healthy sex life can be celebrated and shared in a respectful, scientifically accurate way to help encourage safe practices as well as wider adoption of self-love or partner (s)explorations.

  Source Since 1947, the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University has been the “trusted source for critical issues in sexuality, gender, and reproduction.”

I am aware that this type of material is not part of every steemit users’ desired content. I hope that a focus on science as well as the creativity that sexuality thrives from will be a good interface for unfamiliar readers to explore the topic without excessively graphic material. I will be diligent with utilizing the NSFW tag, as I do plan on providing visuals that may include but is not exclusive to videos, images or artistic representations of anatomy or sexual acts. I believe that with utilization of the settings tab to choose your preference about NSFW posts will be sufficient for making sure that you only see the content that you wish to.


  …and I hope that through educating our community, we can do away with harmful stigmas that impede progress.

The accessibility of information that we have in our current times is unrivaled, however we have been fighting a battle with intentional misinformation that harms large communities for the gains of a few. I appreciate the value blockchain provides to information dissemination in that we will be held to acknowledge our previous statements and verify these exchanges. This renews the importance of considering what message we about to communicate to another user, another person like you. When we address our own biases and own errors, we are able to learn from and be more aware of these biases around us.  

@thedreamsteem aims to be a blog of open-minded exploration of how adopting a skeptic, scientific, sex positive, holistic outlook on health and existence can be beneficial for global adoption, particularly on the cusp of our blockchain revoltion! Do you also share identical, polar opposite (or somewhere-in-between) views on these topics? Comment about them early and often and share with the others that make their way into the community. We all do best to challenge any new concepts posed prior to adopting or rejecting them, so respect for all views shared is expected.


  And remember, the steem work makes the dream work! ;*

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Rock on. I've been following MAPS for awhile. Keep up the great work. -- I'm new here too by the way.🌙

I appreciate the warm support; I agree that they are a fantastic cause for meaningful mental healthcare progress. This platform looks like a great location for sentient crystals! ;) looking forward to seeing what you add to it!

MAPS is a wonderful organization and doing such important work. If you're interested in the psychedelic culture, you might find our page of interest - Psychedelics Today. Cheers!

Wow very interesting introduction and educational as well, best of luck to you and welcome to steemit.

Thanks for checking it out! Hope to become a reliable source of information that you and others can make use of in daily life!

Appreciate the information. I am still skeptical of certain holistic beliefs but this is def making some good points.

Fantastic, be skeptical always! :) your best bet for determining what current science understands about a topic is looking for peer-reviewed research articles and know your sources. Health is of the utmost importance to me, but the idea of health is so personal that we can't ever have a blanket plan for being healthy, it's up to each of us to find the information to achieve whatever we call "the good life"

Thanks for checking out my introduction, I hope that you will check out some of my other posts soon!

Thanks for the intro! It sounds like you are up to great work in the world. You might find our project of interest if you're a supporter of MAPS - Psychedelics Today. Cheers! And forward movement with the psychedelic movement!

Thanks for checking it out! Glad to see more psychadelic allies to help educate through evidence-based science about the benefits of exploring alternative consciousness for improved mental health and overall quality of life improvement.

I have followed and am looking forward to seeing more from y'all. I am interested in hearing more about your breathing techniques.

You had me interested at Lucid Dreams

Lucid dreams sure are cool, if you can pull it off! I, personally, have not achieved a lucid dream. I am becoming better at noticing, however; trying to run but not being able to increase my speed is the strongest indicator I've found so far. Are you a practicer?

Thanks for checking out my introduction, see you back soon!

Well met and thanks for stopping over at my page. You touch on just about everything I'm exploring, though not as a scientist. I'm currently reading Dr. Fadiman's book, the Psychedelic Explorer's Guide. Although I've been self-experimenting with psilocybin for a number of years, I've recently stepped out of the dark to share my own stories and experiences of coming to terms with combat/family related PTSD, and to shed light on a very misunderstood topic. Psychedelics. All based on science. And to show others that there are alternatives. I just posted an article on my microdosing experience, and am currently working on a few more. Already following though! I'd completely forgotten that you've already stopped on by. Hopefully, we can make some kind of difference.

Find the others.. the outsiders; i find myself and also found you!

Glad you did! From your introductory post, I can tell that we have common interests and views. Glad you found Blanca, she looks like a perfect co-pilot. Following to check out your adventures!

thedreamsteem!! Thank you, your Post.

interesante amigo

Awesome to see that you are a supporter of MAPS! :) It is awesome work!

Agreed @thedreamsteem people who want to outlaw or ban nature need to have their 🌝heads checked☁

Unfortunately I am a little late on seeing this post. But you and I appear to have a lot of the same interests ie. psychology, altered states of consciousness..etc. welcome to steemit. Followed :)

I liked your introduction post. I learnt new things. Looking forward to reading more of your posts.

I flippin' love everything about this introduceyourself post already!!!! Welcome, neighbor to the east!

I love this... from healthy sexuality to lucid dreams, I'm super glad you're in the steem community. I have a feeling this'll be a good follow :). A few years ago I worked on lucid dreaming for a month or so in a very non-dedicated way and didn't get very far, but it's on my list to resurrect. Do you by chance read fantasy novels? I see notes of lucid dreaming in Robert Jordan's stories.