Mind comes along.

Mind is confused. Mind questions.

Mind asks. Mind asks a lot. From the very first question, “Who am I’, to the last, “Why?”, mind cannot rest. Mind needs to rest. But mind wants to win.

Why am I in this piece of meat?

And why am at the top of that piece, and why cannot the rest of the body function without me?

Meanwhile the rest of the body, the organs, arms, legs, heart, and lungs. Liver. They just serve their purposes.

Mind can’t accept that.

Meanwhile, body needs.

Body needs a lot. Body craves foods, drinks, sleep and sex. Body is even dependent on the mind, for it is the sole meaning for the body to be controlled, to be regulated. Body needs sunlight. Body needs healthy food. Body needs regular exercises. Body needs routine. Body sees, body does. And most importantly, body needs rest too.

Mind asks and wants a whole more lot. Mind wants peace. Mind wants meaning. Mind wants self-expression. Mind wants imagination. Mind wants domination. Mind wants to ask. Mind wants confusion, but also reason.

Mind confuses.

Body reacts.

Mind is confused by body’s reaction.

Body reacts again.

And again. And again. Mind is frustrated. Body decays. They conflict. They fight.

Both body and mind, however, eventually come to a same understanding. They both need rest. They both need oxygen. And blood. They both need each other to thrive, and survive. Mind now loves body. And body, now can serve the mind.

But mind, again, confuses things up by the word “Why”. Mind enters the period of giving up on the body.

Body starts rotting.

Mind finds the need to ask “why do anything?”.

Body is idle. Body can’t function without the mind.

Mind can’t rest. Body can’t rest until mind rests.

Body starts to decay.

Mind keeps asking. And asking.

Eventually, mind goes insane.

Body starts to decay even more.

One day, mind stops asking, just for a moment. And takes care of the body.

But it’s too late.

Body has rotten, to the point of no return.

Mind has, also, then, lost.

A little story of the body. And the mind.

Minh Tu Le

Because once upon a time, I, as many of us did, had utter respect for the internet. The internet was, indeed, once a place that we WENT, somewhere, to gain access to, and with just a little bit of a learning curve, a mouse, a keyboard, a monitor and then voila — we are able to magically share our inner thoughts on platforms ranging from message boards, to fulfill our desire to communicate with one another (with “connection” being the main selling point and the ultimate buzzword, if you may call, that is associated with the internet).

Many people talk about the golden age of the internet, but the definitions of such terms vary drastically from person to person — that is, what can be defined as the “golden age” and within which what it contains? It’s simple, really.

Whether you’re a video game person (a player, or a gamer), or a full-blown computer geek, those times when you were interacting with the computer for the first time were absolute gold. We were at least on a subconscious level afraid of what the internet was capable of back then — the information that it was pumping to us at the tip of our fingers. A click of a button was all it took to make a change on a grand scale, as demonstrated as far away as 1983’s WarGames — one of the more popular examples, or, just pick any BBC news about the “computers” or the internet from the the 80s.

Those times were treasurable — it was the beginning of something new. Excitement arose. Scared, yes, but for the most part we just couldn’t wait to see what the internet would hold in the future. The next big thing. All the predictions were made. Books were written, movies were birthed, newspaper snippets and concept illustrations of life in the 2000s were widespread as early as the late 70s on the computer.

From indulging in the countless hours of video games, to exploring the depth of the clear net, the supposed darknet and of course the deep web which was a fad for quite a while.

The dynamic of the internet itself, seemingly, has changed.

In fact, the whole concept of the internet has shifted so much just within the last 10 years that we could hardly recognize the type of internet we used to frequent in the last decades. The internet used to be so mysterious — much like a forest that has not been explored yet. Anything that exists under the sun can happen — negative or positive — as long as we are having fun doing it. And the internet was fun, exciting, and at times even scary.

The internet has lost its sacredness, for lack of better words. Youtube once was a sacred place. So were once blog platforms which unfortunately saw their own deaths. So were, even, social media platforms.

Fifteen years ago, instead of Discord we would have IRC. Instead of Facebook, we would have blogs. Instead of Valorent, we would have San Andreas Multiplayer and DoTA.

Things felt authentic. Because they were. They were the peak of what the internet has ever had to offer. We could share things with each other freely from the music that we loved, the lores and stories we had without compulsory letting others know who and where we were. We could do anything, and our phones were just that — things we used to call each other’s numbers.

We could trace it way back to the year 2007 with the release of the iPhone which ignited the smartphone movement, but it is still rather difficult to pinpoint when it exactly happened, that is, “the loss of respect for the internet”.

What was once considered a fad has overstayed its welcome — Tiktok. In fact, it has taken over everything. Everywhere we go, there is a TikTok short, or a variation of a TikTok short. Everything we are capable of thinking of, there is a TikTok short describing it and at such, too, a rapid speed. So fast that our brains can barely comprehend before moving onto the next reels — like cattle waiting to get fed what’s on the table.

Information perhaps is more accessible than ever, sure, but with that comes the decline in quality — such as the nature of all things. And that is the saddest part — to let what was once the next big thing become the last big thing that we could hold dear in our heart.

So here’s the post dedicated to all the message boards, all the blog posts that ever shaped me into the person I am today, and here’s to all random people I ever encountered online that I shared all my secrets with whom I’d probably never meet in my lifetime.

I love you all. Thank you and so long.

Minh Tu Le

Your last sip of alcohol. Your last piece of fried chicken. Your last line. Last anxiety pill. Last piece of muffin. Last can of coca-cola. Last dose of heroin.

That pack of cigarette. That oz of weed. Those pills. That piece of cholesterol-inducing 12-muffin box. So damn delicious, you’d be willing to do anything, even if you were to drive dozens of kilometers across town just to get it, or lying to your parents about what you’re going to do with the money that you’ve been given: “i’m gonna have some plans for my garden, I have cooking schedule, or I have a cat to feed”.

Oh, the plans that never existed and will never exist.

It will be so worth it, so comfortable, through all the deceit of others, once you get home, and you open up the box, then you start munching on your favorite, filled-with-disease food, and a glass of vodka by your side. And a joint. And some powder for your nose.

Life is beautiful, just for a moment. All the noises in your head are cleared out. You feel alive, finally.

And then all of the sudden, that one last hit turns into the first hit again. It’s so relieving to finally get what you’ve been waiting for. You don’t have to suffer anymore. You don’t have to be in agony anymore. You are contended. Like a little kid with its toy.

But as soon as the pleasure comes, and then goes eventually (such as the nature of life), you are then sent back to reality.

Here comes the craving. The God-awful sleepless nights without your doses. The cramps. The joint pains. The suffocation. The helplessness. The need to get rid of the pain away. Just one more time, you tell yourself. Afterwards, you’ll change.

One more hit.

Come on!

One more bite.

Come on!

One more line.

One more can.

(and then you’ll be clean, you promise. Pinky promise).

That chanting voice at the back of your head. The good old friend of yours. It wants to see you fall, and fall, and fall flat on your face. Again and again and again. Until your liver rots, and the rest of the organs fallen apart, your eyes are all bagged, your body has become a parody of itself. Your mind has shattered into pieces, and you are still trying to piece them together while being pushed and pulled by intrusive thoughts.

And then you realize, finally, what you’ve become.

Just somebody in desperation.

An addict. Occupied.

With one more hit.

Minh Tu Le

The purpose of writing, of course, is to convey ideas and meanings, sticking words together and getting them to get the point across as direct and/or as flowery as possible in different manners and styles.

Or with fiction, writing can create an imaginary world out of thin air. Writing is, in my opinion, along with music, one of the rawest forms of self-expressions — there’s little to no filter, no smokes and mirrors when a thought is written down. Your first draft is almost always what you meant to say deep inside at the time you wanted to say it.

Almost any art form that involves a storyline, starts with writing.

Alternatively, you can go with the higher road and believe that, like with any other medium, the ultimate artist draws for themselves, the ultimate musician makes music for themselves; therefore, the ultimate writer writes for themselves. For their own amusement, for the expression of their own pleasure and suffering, to become their own therapist.

Through words, self-actualization manifests. Through words, the writer can become more of themselves, and become more and more of the character that they’re striving to be in their own lives. With each article, the writer understands their own writing better, therefore knowing the deep lying unconscious ideas that they didn’t even know to possess. I didn’t know that I had these ideas within me until I write it down — hence, that is why diaries are so important — the more you write, the more you learn about yourself.

That leads me, as the person writing this (to you) to a question: Who are we without our readers?

What is an orchestra without an audience? What is a piece of art without an outsider witness that has a different perspective from the one who originally created it?

If, then, at the end of the day, no one heard you play that song at that one pub asides from yourself, is it mental masturbation or you’d reached your ultimate goal, that is, to satisfy your own desire of creation for the sake of creation?

This has been a topic of debate for centuries, I am very much aware. It is just so fun to me to think about, akin to the dilemma of a tree falling down in a forest and no one to witness it, did it ever happen at all? Does anyone ever write just to write?

Let me know your thoughts on this!

Minh Tu Le

Up until 4 or 5 years or so, I did not realize my unconscious tendency to observe and analyze people.

As much and as frequent as my tendency to dive deep into movies or music, or books after finishing any of them. I see people, their stories, what kind of emotions they have gone through their lives, the people they have met, the adventures they have embarked on throughout their lives, as engaging as any work of art I’ve ever experienced.

When you get to sit with a person, preferably with a beer or two, and really, I mean, really, engage with them, you are in for a completely fresh journey into their souls. When you look into a person’s eyes and with a tiny little sense of instinct, you just know wholeheartedly that they lived through it — whether it was the moment they got their heart broken for the first time, or the moment they finally broke out of their comfort zone and felt a sense of relief afterwards.

If it is not shown on their faces, then it is through their movement. If not through their movement, it is through their tone of voices, their overall behavior. Their clothing color of choice. Or simply, their being there.

As if, for a moment, you catch a feeling of having experienced all of their joys and pains through their vessels; by just a sentence, or a mere word at the right time during the conversation, or one movement indicating their utter frustration after a hard day’s of work, you are in their shoes just for a glimpse, and this glimpse sometimes can have an impact hours or days afterwards.

Each time two, or a couple of trustworthy people decide to hang out, I see it as a “swap party” of personality traits between people. You get to learn about yourself more when you express yourself. And when you learn about the other person, in a paradoxical way, you get, also, to learn about your own self. And vice versa.

And the more you hang out with a person, most of the time, you’ll catch yourself later on using the phrases they have always used while talking to you, or how they make eye contact, and such, a part of them has become a part of you. You have successfully swapped a couple of the pieces from their Ship of Theseus to yours.

And voila! Isn’t that party a meaningful work of art, for so many (as we indicate) meaningless and pointless interactions we have on a regular basis, for so many things going on in our busy life of chasing and trying to define the purity of “art”, and what it means, whereas human beings, some unrecognized and obscured and some you only meet once in a lifetime, are some of greatest movie scenes, watercolor paintings or musical arrangements you have, or will, ever encounter in your lifetime?

Cheers for that!

Minh Tu Le

As a kid, every Sunday my whole family would gather together to watch the television.

Everything that was on we would watch from morning until lunchtime comes, while the TV was still on. Dad would then read the newspaper for about thirty minutes waiting for his food to digest, then we would turn our eyes onto the television again to see what else would be next.

No planning, nothing: we were in awe of every single thing, from the crappy drama shows to the brilliant comedy skits on VTV, to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. We watched so much stuff, the we felt like we knew the actors on a personal level.

Then almost always, at some point, someone would reach for the remote control trying to change the channel, and the rest would be voting for or against it. Like a game of democracy.

There was a sense of connection between each family member. Glued to the screen, bonding at its finest, without a single distraction by the latest reels about some celebrities that are irrelevant in our lives that are forgotten after about 10 seconds.

It was magical, the way how sacred movie-going used to be. The way my sister and I would look at each other after a character in the movie saying something age inappropriate. The way dad used to stare and the ladies on the screen and mom would point it out and scold at him for doing so making me burst out in laughter.

Call me old-fashioned (by this point, I’m already used to criticism), but I really do miss those times. If you will, a time of innocence, that has been lost when the smartphone came along, and of course, Netflix. The death of TV gatherings saddens me, that we’ll never get those times back, and that with advancement comes the the decay of a ritual that was once essential to our daily lives, now just an echo and vague memories of how things used to be.

Sure, Netflix (or insert any streaming service that comes to your mind here) is extremely convenient. Yet, it’s rather, dare I say, too convenient for our own sake. We can choose whatever we want to watch, whenever we want at little to no cost. But the real cost is its sacredness.

The magic is in the not knowing what to expect. The magic of getting a new television, also, was much more grandeur. Who buys a TV anymore these days? Back then, having two or three TV’s in a household was a flex. It was a sign of prosperity at that time.

But I guess the real flex nowadays should be that magical feeling being honed. Whether it’s through a television, or a movie screening — we watch movies and tv shows not just because their content: we go to the movies and we watch the TV’s because it reminds us that we’re on the same boat, that at the end of the day we are a family that cares about each other, sharing the same love for an incredibly great medium of expression.

And for each other.

And I will fight until the day I die for this spirit that is decaying day by day to live on.

Minh Tu Le

There are certain moments in life when decisions cannot be made. In technicality, they can, but no matter how much effort you put in to analyze the processes and the outcomes, it will almost always come out negative.

Let’s take an example.

Imagine you’re in a scenario where you’re very, truly, achingly, hungry as fuck and it’s been raining hard outside for the past two hours. No sign of stopping either. It just keeps going on and on. You look up the weather forecast on your phone, (which you personally don’t trust in yourself. Who does in these kinds of days anyway?) and it says it’s going to keep raining for the next five hours. There’s a storm coming. You look inside your fridge and there’s literally nothing left besides a bottle of water and an egg.

“I can make a boiled egg!” you think to yourself with a sense of relief. After all, boiled eggs can fill your stomach pretty well with almost zero preparation. Boiled eggs are also very nutritious. And didn’t you know, they are yummy!

But as soon as you pick up the egg, the only one left out of the tray, a huge wind knocks it the fuck onto the ground. The egg gets smashed.

“Fuck!”

Outside, you’re left with a mess on the ground.

Inside, you are saddened to no end. You’re disappointed. You want to bawl your eyes out. You want to punch the refrigerator so hard that it breaks, that will make you forget about your hunger.

You are then left with three options:

1. Get your raincoat or umbrella, or both, some massive dedication and go to the nearest grocery store to buy something to cook or to a local restaurant. By the time you get home, you will get wet and might even get sick, but at least your stomach won’t beg for anything anymore.

2. You try to order some food through your phone, then you find out that there are zero drivers willing to drive in this kind of rain. And if they do, you might feel guilty for making them drive in this weather while you’re chilling at home with blankets, tucked in, Netflix on and music blasting…you spoiled brat. Not to mention that the prices are three fold in this kind of weather. Not a good option.

3. Be hungry for the rest of the day, possibly until you sleep because life is a bunch of sufferings after sufferings.

There are no best options. Only the least worst.

Here’s where I think the example given kind of resembles the Murphy’s Law in a way to me.

It’s not, to be specific, that something that can go bad, will go bad. It’s just that once in a while in life, whatever decision you may choose when you’re faced with two, or even three of them, you will get a bad ending NO MATTER WHAT.

And it’s been said before: life is a bunch of roads you take on. But just what if most if not all of them shall lead you to the cliff?

What if, whatever you do in certain situations, will always lead to a bad ending? What if, with or without free will, you will face the events you do not desire anyway?

You WILL be hungry again after you eat. Just like the fact that your parents WILL get old.

You WILL lose your money. You WILL lose your fame and attention.

You WILL get a minor to major injuries at some point in your lives.

You WILL face pain.

And free will or no free will, there’s no debate. You WILL face death. You WILL lose your loved ones.

Now that’s something to contemplate about on a stormy day.

And please, stay safe everyone.

One last thing, don’t forget: You WON’T be here forever.

So enjoy the decisions. Even the bad ones.

Minh Tu Le

Every single day I would wake up to my dad reading to me a new segment he had come across when having his coffee first thing in the morning.

Every day, I’d learn something new. And if it was not something new, it would be a new figure — you know, a new statistic/number that would blow my dad and my tiny little brains out — like the world’s smallest insect in size, or learning about the tiniest measurement that is a Planck (and then I would wonder, what if you were to divide a Planck into half? Debate goes on until this day. Please let me know in the comment section provided there is a definite answer of the possibility of half or a third or a fourth of a planck), the tallest human in all of history, the tallest building, mountain, biggest penis etc.

The knowledge of figures would bundle up and up. I kind of think it had exceeded ten thousand times I’d learn about a new fact regarding the tallest, highest, shortest or longest things… How many people that have been alive and death. How many things are there. How many atoms the universe.

Alternatively, I’d be curious about anything from the start of time to the end of time. That Betty White was older than sliced bread (the math checks out). Or the fact that we are closer to the death of Cleopatra than Cleopatra was to the pyramids.

Let’s say 10.000 times, approximately, I’d have my mind blown away (aha moment) That’s about four zeroes. Significant yet cute, close to almost nothing compared to what I was about to learn later on in life.

Who else (doesn’t) remember those snippets of facts in magazines you found in your family’s closet which they had specifically told you not to touch because there were so many hot babes which could potentially ruin my youngster’s brain, sans for the scientific, informative sections which 1. Either bore you to death or 2. Would interest you so much you’d give up everything else including your favorite tv show and snack to acquire/absorb such knowledge in the shortest amount of time possible.

I was on the latter boat (which did explain my being teased throughout elementary and middle school). Either way, my mind was ruined forever.

Of course, at one point it did manifest as my love and on more than one occasions daydreaming of having an enormous amount of money. Like a trillion dollars. Who wouldn’t want to have a trillion dollars (sans those unfortunately living in Zimbabwe)? Or a trillion billion dollars? And thinking about the wealth spread throughout the world alone is enough for me to get both depressed and relieved that all that money and still we can’t get along — at the same time, all that money and still those wealthy fuckers can’t find happiness — a cope to pat myself on the back whenever the amount of zeroes in my bank account is less than 3.

Moving on.

There are about 100 billion stars in our Milky Way. Freaky isn’t it? What is more absurd is that there have been 436,117,076,600,000,000 seconds since the beginning of the universe.

Just think about that for a second (which would make it 436,117,076,600,000,001). That is in-and-around 13.82 billion years.

What is more freaky is that the number of stars in the universe, in fact, is larger than the number of Rubik’s Cube permutations, grains of sand and the amount of tablespoons of water in the earth’s oceans.

There are approximately 100 billion galaxies in the universe, each with about 100 billion to 1 trillion stars. The Milky Way, for example, has about 300 billion stars, and Andromeda has about 1 trillion.

This gives us about 1023 stars in the observable universe. That’s a ‘one’ followed by twenty three ‘zeros’. That’s 100 thousand billion billion, or 100 sextillion.

Or, almost exactly equal to the number of cells in every living human combined.

That alone kind of explained the Fermi Paradox — a conflict between the argument that scale and probability seem to favor intelligent life being common in the universe, and the total lack of evidence of intelligent life having ever arisen anywhere other than on Earth.

Because there is no way that we are alone in this universe.

Absolutely no way.

And that is just the tippiest of the tips of the numbers of numbers out there. That is as entry as coffee to any drug under the sun, Christopher Nolan to Yevgeni Bauer, or Taylor Swift to whatever gem you stumble across on Youtube at 3AM that has approximately 20 views.

And obscure numbers (correlatedly, the larger the numbers the less frequent that they are talked about at parties) are fun to think about at night.

Googling (heh) the largest numbers ever certainly does not help with my arguably unhealthy obsession. Anything from a Googol to a googolplex get me down a rabbit hole of woah how long would it take to count all that.

Middle school came eventually, then I learned about girls. And Graham’s Number. And most people would freak out if they knew what a Graham’s number is. And for some weird reasons, the thought of Graham’s number interested me way more.

It is so large that the observable universe is far too small to contain an ordinary digital representation of Graham’s number, assuming that each digit occupies one Planck volume … But even the number of digits in this digital representation of Graham’s number would itself be a number so large that its digital representation cannot be represented in the observable universe. Nor even can the number of digits of that number — and so forth, for a number of times far exceeding the total number of Planck volumes in the observable universe.

A graham’s number is nothing short of a true nightmare. Not infinity. You can’t count to infinity anyway which makes it less impressive and more humorous to say, “to infinity and beyond” than “to the Graham’s number and beyond”. Virtually anyone would beat you to death if they knew what a Graham’s number is and you wish them to live to a Graham’s number for an amount of years. I bet you a millionth of a Graham’s number of money that the human brains aren’t even capable of perceiving, let alone living through that amount of tick-tacks, LET ALONE living through that amount of years. If I did win, however, I’d still be richer than any other person, or entity ever lived combined.

Money would have been meaningless.

In actuality, Graham’s number does not only exist, but it’s the largest number ever that was actually used in a serious scientific paper.

“He came up with the number in 1977, and it gained recognition when a colleague wrote about it in Scientific American and called it “a bound so vast that it holds the record for the largest number ever used in a serious mathematical proof.” The number ended up in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1980 for the same reason, and though it has today been surpassed, it’s still renowned for being the biggest number most people ever hear about. That’s why Graham’s number is a thing — it’s not just an arbitrarily huge number, it’s actually relevant in the world of math.”

I’ll leave you this tiny little link for y’all to figure out what a Graham’s number is, once again, by the wonderful human being called Tim Urban.

For now, I’ll contemplate about all the other zeroes in my life.

https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/11/1000000-grahams-number.html

Minh Tu Le

This is a part entitled “The Vietnamese Psychedelic Community” of my project “Fear and Loathing in Vietnam: My voyage into psychedelics”.

This section is me conducting interviews/conversations with people in the psychedelic scene and scenes which are closely associated with psychedelics. I, having been an editor for some outlets in Vietnam, am excited about doing this as much as I want to get the world to know about our place (Vietnamese) in the psychedelic world. Where we are, and where we are headed.

Psychedelics and spirituality have had a rather extensive history of relationship. And yoga, as with many other forms of spiritual practice, draws influence as well as influence from psychonauts. Mây Mộng is one of the leading figures of yoga in Vietnam, everything from yoga mats to courses on yoga and teachings of a better lifestyle for everyone. Here is my chance to interview her for the project!

How long have you been a “yoga therapist” and what motivated you to get into yoga?

What I’m doing is technically not “yoga therapy”. Because this is just one of the small branches of my field: Wellness. Coming from a medical background, I did not choose a hospital environment to engage in, I chose a more liberal environment. Gradually, life led me to work in the fields of: Spa Therapy, Healing, Yoga & Meditation.

Collectively known as Wellness Holistic — Health care for both physical and mental health. I started out as a spa therapist, then honed and learned the accompanying skills. I became a trainer and trained for 7 years in the industry. I have left the industry to work independently for half a year. I focus on Healing using the following tools: Yoga, Meditation, SingingBowl, Reiki, Coaching… It’s all about the guidance of the soul within, the inner voices urging, coming out, it manifests through search, action, and ultimately results.

As a user of psychedelics, do you see any similarities at all between yoga and psychedelics?

This question is interesting. First of all, to know if they share any similarities or not, it is necessary to be very clear about the concept of “Yoga”. This is a vast spiritual science system dating back more than 5000 years, it is not simply the twisting and bending movements as what the modern world sees today. Yoga is a system that is very scientific and extensive. This system aims to bring practitioners to health and happiness, inner peace, and ultimately enlightenment. So to say it is similar to psychedelic or not, it is not to me. With Yoga, it takes us many years or even a lifetime to discover a small part of the great vast philosophical treasure, with psychedelic one takes 4–6 hours to have a fleeting experience of “heavenly” feeling.

It’s like comparing a person exploring around the world by plane, to a person walking or cycling around the world on their own.A long way to go before they reach the point where they’re old, no longer able to walk, I can’t kick it, I’m dead…haha.

When we go with the so called “long and winding” route, we’re given a lot of skills to survive in a turbulent life, I personally appreciate this way of experience, because when life has problems, I have the ability to neatly handle them based on my own practical experience. Each means has its own merits. For me, psychedelics show me the big picture whereas yoga and meditation deciphered me in detail. Most especially, it helps me avoid falling into the illusion of what I already know, whether it comes from a paranoid mind or it comes from ancient knowledge.

It must be from someone who has experienced it over and over again to know how close to life the picture is. The deeper into that journey of discovery, the more the truth opens, the truth manifests without any attachment to any knowledge, then knowledge appears very close to the experience itself, it is living knowledge, because it’s no longer on the pages.

What’s your favorite psychoactive substance?

I love LSD and Ketamine. There are still many opinions stating that ketamine is not a psychotropic substance. For me, each person’s experience is different, so the judgment is also different. The most important thing is the intention we have in mind during the trip; the mind will lead us to that direction — that is how it works movement of the mind — a very basic psychological effect. You are body-oriented — Yes! It’s a request that your nervous system sends to the subtler mind. If you intend to be more spiritual then it could help you reach that state too! You will get there. A lot of things are very subtle, working inside our physical bodies, we can completely feel and navigate without having to depend or be led uncontrollably.

I’m impressed with both, hehe. Every trip is an indescribable time, words always become helpless when my mind is imbued with realms beyond words.

What’s your opinion on Vietnamese psychedelic scene 10 to 20 years from now and how psychoactives shall be be used for therapeutic purposes or maybe even coupled with yoga?

I think in the next 10–20 years the Psychedelic community in Vietnam will be much better. Since 2017 I no longer have the need to be active in psychedelidc events. The psychedelic group too, as in 2018 it was great, until now I still have excellent quality connections with some of the members back then, such as you hehe. As for the direction of applying psychedelics in psychotherapy, combined with Yoga and Meditation, yep, I am heading in this direction. The private therapy sessions are only for those who have search needs, like how you and I used to seek psychedelics. I also don’t expect it to grow wildly, just hope it develops discreetly, with quality, safety for all of us, and especially sustainable.

Can you elaborate on your work and lifestyle as of current?

Currently, I am teaching Yoga and teaching Zen in classical style and in the direction of healing.

I also vocationally train new coaches. In addition, I am a sound healer with singing bowls which follows the Nepalese healing method. My lifestyle is mostly experiencing life with nature, living next to a forest and near the sea, treating natural sounds every day: birds singing, insects calling, waves, wind, rain… I am on a 60% Raw Vegan diet, practice Yoga and Meditation, read and study every day.

At this stage, I no longer study with the aim to achieve something like when I was a child, but simply I learn for the sake of learning. My happiness hormones are circulated in moderation during the process of studying and reading. Learning should be like a weed joint for the brain every day. It brings my brain to a state of wakefulness every moment, intuition developed better, very focused but also extremely relaxed, happy and peaceful.

Thank you for the very open-ended questions. Hopefully, this sharing can help us understand each other better than ever, and also bring our psychedelic community a smooth and mature experience.

Wish you and the community a healthy, fresh body and mind every day.

Om… Shanti Shanti Shanti!

Minh Tu Le

This is a part entitled “The Vietnamese Psychedelic Community” of my project “Fear and Loathing in Vietnam: My voyage into psychedelics”.

This section is me conducting interviews/conversations with people in the psychedelic scene and scenes which are closely associated with psychedelics. I, having been an editor for some outlets in Vietnam, am excited about doing this as much as I want to get the world to know about our place (Vietnamese) in the psychedelic world. Where we are, and where we are headed.

The descriptions for the experiences of each individual are unique and worth a look through. From a tarot reader (which in every town exists one set of them), to the founder of the largest psychedelic community of Vietnam from the 2010–2020s period.

The Vietnamese psychedelic scene, as with any other scene in Vietnam or the psychedelic scene in any country, is interestingly diverse in the sense that psychedelics are linked and also the link to almost anything else. When I was part of the psychedelic community (to be specific, Mind Hacker group) I could find all kinds of people there: from nightclub DJ’s, to acclaimed actors, to financers, to music/art enthusiasts, teenagers with an enormous amount of time on their hands and want to know what their friends have been hyping about when they talk about “drugs”.

It was not hard to make new friends using psychedelics or dissociatives as a social glue, or communicating with each other in general.

It is, naturally, linked including but not limited to the spiritual community, the mycology community, and so on. The links could be found by numerous means. One of my personal concerns is that it is not directly linked (which it should be) to the scientific community which indicates the absolute state we are in: not enough awareness in terms of science about psychedelics in Vietnam. Not enough research if any at all. In fact, not enough of anything, really. Psychedelia is still a relatively new phenomenon here which can be compared to America in the early 1960s (before the ban on LSD in 1966).

In Vietnam, there are no Youtube channels such as PsychedSubstance or DrugsLab to educate the youth on drugs, their effects as well as consequences of excessive use. Simply, there cannot be: it is illegal after all. Everything eventually boils down to words of mouth.

So let’s visit the psychedelic village, shall we? We, after all, really feel like a village in which all people know each other for their contributions to the scene.

The following people have been picked due to A. their contributions to the community and B. the relevancy/involvement of them in the use of psychoactive drugs.

1. Thỏ Trắng — Float Meditation, Mind Hackers Founder
2. Huy Nguyen — Triet Hoc Duong Pho (Street Philosophy)
3. Spencer Nguyen — Artist, musician
4. May Mong — Yoga Therapist

This article will be focusing on Huy Nguyen and his long-term project “Triet Hoc Duong Pho”.

“Triết học đường phố” which literally translates to “Street philosophy” was started in 2015 by Huy Nguyen as a project to promote mostly Stoicism and information that otherwise could not have been found elsewhere before — that is, sites under the Vietnamese government.

This is a page-website dedicated to writing articles on various subjects, ranging from spirituality, Eastern philosophy, Carl Jung and everything which warrants attention from people who have discovered recently the relationship between drugs and mindfulness, such as their ability to help the users more easily achieve certain states of consciousness that require altering natural brain chemicals* that would not have been possible otherwise.

*The alteration of such neurotransmitters as dopamine and serotonin play a huge part in the consumption of the most common psychoactive drugs.

After many years, the site turned its main subjects from psychedelics to Bitcoin and the risks of Artificial Intelligence.

Now, it would be an underestimation to say Triết học đường phố, along with Mind Hackers, did not have a major influence on the psychedelic scene. Immense, to say the least.

if I were to pinpoint the exact turning point between the world of, somewhere right after Triết Học Đường Phố was created would be it. They were the pioneers, also just happened to be the most controversial politically speaking.

• Hello Huy! It’s a pleasure of mine to be interviewing you for I have been myself a Triet Hoc Duong Pho’s contributor in the past. Can you tell us (me and the ones that are reading this) about Triet Hoc Duong Pho?

Hello brother! A pleasure of mine to be invited to contribute to your work. Perhaps the very first book written about psychedelics in English, by a Vietnamese living in Vietnam which also manages to be relatable to the average “street person” (where the term “Street philosophy” — name of Huy’s brainchild, which translates to Triet Hoc Duong Pho in Vietnamese came from). It’s been quite a while since my creation on the first of January, 2011. The project is with a slogan: Philosophy (the love for wisdom) is not found in an ivory tower, but in the street.

Throughout those years, THDP has created a significant number of articles which quite possibly amounts to dozens of books, with topics ranging from psychedelics, psychedelic experiences, self-realization, self-actualization, ancient wisdoms, spiritual practices, semen retention. Recently, THDP has dug into topics such as Bitcoin or even A.I.

An interesting fact is that THDP also has a community dedicated to crypto-tokens, first one in the history of Vietnam actually. It’s called PRANA, publicly traded on Polygon blockchain since August 15, 2021, with the market cap humbly sitting at around $130k USD (≈ 3,000,000,000 VNĐ) (June, 2023), 3x from the initial price.

Asides from being an enormous source of information, THDP is also a platform, a community which connects like-minded people. Our goal is to spread knowledge, truth, and alas, love to the most Vietnamese as possible.

• Is Triet Hoc Duong Pho one of the first platforms to promote psychedelics and spirituality in Vietnam?

It’s not correct to use the word “promote”. Triet Hoc Duong Pho is to share information, knowledge and documents related to the subjects you mentioned above. In fact (a lesser known fact), the term “chất thức thần” (translated from the word psychedelics) was coined by me in one of my very early articles sharing with the public about this topic back in the day. One of the reasons for all of this was my admiration for Terence McKenna, a master of articulations, a legend in the community. I used to listen to his talks everyday. I used to translate a lot of Terence McKenna’s talks to Vietnamese.

Psychedelics-wise, Triet Hoc Duong Pho is proud to be the very first place to talk openly about them. Not so much with spirituality. Because at the core of all religions is spirituality. And religions are as old as humanity. THĐP has successfully clarified and rectified two widely misunderstood concepts in Buddhism and Christianity, namely anatta and reincarnation. Previously (before THĐP), individuals pursuing Buddhism in Vietnam (and potentially elsewhere) were often led to believe that anatta denotes the absence of a Self, which is not accurate. In essence, anatta signifies that something is “not Self” rather than “no Self.”

• How many members does THDP consist of and are you on the same page?

THĐP has only 2 core members: Me and my wife, who was also one of my earliest supporters in 2012. We just got married last year. The rest could be called community members. As for whether everyone’s thoughts are the same, there is no universal answer. What is more important is that everyone has the same direction, a living guideline.

• Upon THDP’s creation, what was your initial plan and did you think it’d get as successful as it is today?

At first, when I made THDP, I didn’t have any plans, just did it because I felt like doing those things, contributing my little effort to make the world a better place. Didn’t think it would turn out like it is now either. I don’t dare say “success is like now”, because “success” is a relative concept. What matters is what we do.

• How many people have “THDP radio” (the talk show) interviewed and who are the most memorable interviewees?

THĐP Radio has interviewed a lot of people, THĐP’s Spotify channel currently has more than 200 talk shows for everyone to listen to. Some of the most memorable guests include Nguyen Van Hanh, Johnny Tri Nguyen, Bone Ho, Wowy, Nah, Blacka, Nguyen Hong Huan, Dam Ha Phu, Steel Dinh, Sang Dang, Uyen Pu, Céline Nha Nguyen.

Have you had many experiences with psychedelics (including float meditation)? Which are the most memorable to you?

I define “many” as more than 10 times, if so, my experience with psychedelic substances cannot be called “many”, but can only be temporarily called enough to know how the psychedelic world is . Even I have never experienced some popular substances like ayahuasca, mescaline, ketamine… My favorites are shrooms and LSD.

I have tried float meditation twice. Once in America, once in Vietnam at Thỏ Trắng’s centre. But perhaps because my mind wa still in chaos, I did not reach the state of deep meditation that time. Looking forward to trying again one day.

The most memorable experience I ever had with psychedelics was the time I used LSD with my future wife at Son Tinh Camp in 2018, each taking half a tab. The details of the story were told in chapter 1, volume 1 of the story “Going to Da Lat”. Reading the story should give you a better overview than telling it here. The author of this story is Vu Thanh Hoa, mu wife. The entire first 15 chapters of volume 1 have been published in the Aloha magazine series of the LC, the remaining 15 chapters have also been shared with members of the Deep Club LC. Book 2 is shared exclusively in PRANA Circle (must hold > 5555 PRANA to join), chapter 16 is the latest.

• What’s the next move for THDP? What is the state of the psychedelic community in Vietnam? Do you think psychedelics will be used for therapeutic purposes in Vietnam?

I am planning to create a new website for THĐP. Using A.I., I will do everything from A-Z, frontend to backend, maybe later the code will be open source so anyone can contribute. Everything about LC will be displayed more clearly. All activities will be concentrated in one place. I have a lot of ideas for a new website. This is a big challenge for me, but I hope I can do it. Previously, this project was assigned to a brother and a few contributors, but in the end it was not completed and was abandoned. After all, perhaps it is God’s will.

The psychedelic community in Vietnam — personally would not dare to call myself a “member” in it. So my perspective is just from an outsider. I see that most of the community today is mainly sharing their personal experiences with psychedelics, in which many members see psychedelics as merely a tool for recreation, some people abuse psychedelics which can lead to the worst — entangled in the negative and dangerous downward spiral. In addition to THDP, I rarely see individuals or organizations that have content to share knowledge and research related to psychedelics. Perhaps what we are lacking are seriousness, professionalism, and methodicalness.

The application of psychedelics in psychological treatment in my opinion is possible, sooner or later. Vietnam has never been known for pioneering or reforming. This also depends on many factors. One of them is the ability, the fighting power of the intelligentsia.