I dropped acid a few times when I was a young man, but all the trips eventually went bad. This could have been because I didn't completely trust the people I was with, or maybe the acid I took was not pure and contained other chemicals like amphetamines, or maybe it was a combination of these things. The trips always started off nice, music was incredible, and the taste of things was fantastic, and I gradually became aware of my body, and realized that I was a chemical factory where things were going on internally all the time that I never noticed before. Before long, things started to sparkle and colors got bright and when objects moved they left trails hanging in the air. It was all fun and beautiful like an old Technicolor movie, until I realized that it wasn't a movie where I could just get up and leave and then everything would be normal again. I was stuck in it, it was becoming my life and I wasn't sure how long I had been stuck in it, and then the panic would set in. I became consumed with fear that I'd never be able to come down. At that point, things would get out of control, and everything started to melt and run together, and it was scary, and it seemed to go on forever and there was no way to get out. On one trip, I saw a friend of mine slowly transform into the devil right before my eyes. I fled to the bathroom, but there were strange snake creatures slithering in the toilet bowel, and the towels started to breathe, and the walls started to close in, and then I made the mistake of looking in the mirror. Never look in the miror on a trip. Eventually it would all dissolve and I would find myself floating in space, and all I could see were giant, colored, geometrical shapes rotating over my head, they seemed to be the size of planets, but they were made of cubes and pyramids, and strange glowing crystals. Sometimes these trips would last for more than 24 hours. I did learn some things from those trips; I found out what it feels like like to go completly insane. I learned that a hallucination is not just a visual thing... I believed those things I saw were completely real at the time. And I got an insight into how the human mind works. When tripping, I began to like people that I normally disliked and dislike people I liked, because I saw another side of their personality. I began to see how superficial I was when it came to picking friends. And, when I was tripping, I could sit for hours like a baby or small child, just looking at simple things, like a flower, or the veins in my hand. I think I know why I did that now, because I've had years to analyze those experiences. It's all about creating symbols in the mind. I haven't done LSD in many years, and I doubt if I will ever do it again, but I'm actually glad I did it, because I know first hand what that experience is all about. No matter how much you read about the experiences of other people on acid, you have to experience it yourself and live through a trip to understand what it's all about. And then, you sitll won't know, because the experience on acid defies the way we think in the everyday world.

The only thing that scares me more than death is the thought of eternal life. That idea totally terrifies me. Everything eventually dies, not even the stars are eternal. Our own sun will eventually burn out, so any eternal humans will have to find another planet orbiting another star, until that star either burns out, or explodes in a supernova. And then, we will have to find another place to go, moving from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy over billions of years, until there's nowhere left. According to the second law of thermodynamics, which is the foundation of modern physics, disorder (entropy) increases with time. That means the universe is expanding, getting colder, and it will eventually be a cold dead void, with no stars providing heat and light. The expanding universe is not a theory, it has been confirmed beyond any doubt by astronomical observations of the red shift and measurement of the cosmic microwave background. And, if we do manage to hang around for the final act, then what the hell are we going to do with nowhere left to go? We are eventually going to die anyway, so why prolong the inevitable. The cycle of life and death is what powers evolution, if we interfere with that, then the human race will stop evolving and stagnate. My personal belief is that the human mind and body are incapable of going on indefinitely, even if it turns out to be possible. And, supernatural ideas about us having an immortal soul are just speculation in my opinion. I'm not signing up for anybody's idea about a life after death that doesn't include a physical living body, and no physical living body can outlive the universe. As far as I'm concerned, what we do with the time we have on earth, is much more important than how much time we have. Death is not to be feared, death is what makes life precious.

I'm happy to see that many folks on here see failure the same way I do. It's impossible to learn without making mistakes, some people call these mistakes failures, I just call them the steps that are necessary to reach success.