how does it affect you academically / intellectually?

Intellectually, my thought process and worldview has completely changed. And always continues to. The fact that I hadn't had a set in stone worldview before I took psychedelics has definitely affected me differently. I mean, the people who are developed and taking these substances have their entire worldview changed, for the most part. Taking these drugs as while developing has definitely had a really interesting impact on me as a person.

I can try and put it in perspective, but here are some thoughts i've had. Please note there are official scientific and philisophical terms for what i'm talking about, I just hadn't used them when writing this.

""Magic isn't real, and neither are mystical or religious things, at least in my eyes. When I trip, I often think about how the brain works through evolution and biology. I'll put it simply, nothing is "real" in a sense, and reality is entirely subjective.

When life began to evolve millions of years ago, it started to adapt and change according to the environment around it. As this happened, the planet also changed, and in turn, so did the life that lived on it. Over millions of years, a diverse array of complex organisms came to inhabit almost every corner of the planet, and continued to diversify over eons, constantly changing and adapting to the world around it. In order for life to effectively survive and reproduce, it had to have a system that was able to make distinctions in it's environment. So, life developed senses, sight to see the world around it and etc, hearing to protect itself and communicate, etc, taste and hunger to drive it to eat food and gain energy to survive, etc (Sugar tastes sweet because it's energy to us, rotting food tastes bad because it isn't good for us, etc) Scent to hunt, protect ourselves, mate,etc, and touch so our body avoids things that could harm it through pain, along with pleasure to encourage you to reproduce, and etc. There are also so many more factors involved that go on in the brain and body connected to behavior and emotions.

Every life form is experiencing reality in its own unique way, which is dependent on the specific species brain and biology. Brains are pretty interesting, and what basically happens is that the existing reality projects itself through us by using our senses, the brain then "decodes" this sensory information into a form that you can understand, and then projects its own filtered version of reality, which would be what you are experiencing right now. Every single creature sees color differently, experiences sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste in a completely unique form. All of them live in vastly different environments, all with different adaptations suited to there physiology and psychology. The experience a bat has would probably feel alien to us, if we could ever experience exactly what that was like. Experiencing what it's like to be a dolphin would be entirely foreign to us, exactly what would it be like to live underwater and use echolocation? Even the reality cats experience is very different, having night vision and incredible hearing, smell and agility. Every life form is experiencing its own filtered version of what reality actually is, a filter that slowly developed over millions of years through evolution, only existing in order for life to survive and reproduce. But the reality every life form experiences isn't actually what reality is like, you can think of it like wearing virtual reality goggles, the only difference being every living things goggles are glued on, molded into us through our biology. Without eyes, there's nothing to experience color or light. Without touch, how do you differentiate between hot and cold? Without taste, bitter and sweet lose there meaning. Without hearing, sound is irrelevant, and it would all just be vibrations (Which you wouldn't even be able to feel without touch)

This essentially proves that reality is a subjective experience. And I feel it gets even more complex when projection is applied to humans and our belief systems. The way the brain filters reality is a great survival technique, basically a necessity in order for life to exist as it does now. But something happened when humans became sentient and developed complex thinking. Humans have the unique ability to think about the world around them, form ideas and opinions on whatever we want, and we also conform to our own biases based on whatever we believe in, which is formed by your upbringing and your path through life. Any religious person will view reality very differently than an agnostic scientist would, and that's because the brain projects you're beliefs onto the reality it's creating. If you believe in God and that the world is only a few thousand years old, your brain will project its reality to you in that way, and it will even disregard conflicting information so it stays in line with your world view. Your brain will basically filter the reality it's projecting to fit with your beliefs and opinions. We all do this, it isn't limited to religious folks and scientists.

When people believe they are speaking to God, or the Universe, or any mystical higher being, I don't believe that's the case. When people speak to God or the Universe, I think that it's just our subconscious interacting with us in a way. Your brain projects your beliefs onto its version of reality, and we often draw unwarranted meaning from it and fit it with whatever we believe in, an example being synchronicity. People attach meaning to a specific number, say 11:11, and then they begin to see it on the clock more often. Not only that, but you'll be thinking about something, and then you'll see it written down somewhere, or hear it mentioned in a TV show or song, or a friend will say something similar to it. A fair amount of people tend to think that these are signs of the Universe communicating with us, but I believe that it's just our minds attaching meaning to these instances. If you have 11:11 in your mind, you'll notice it more often on the clock then other times. I don't have an explanation for weird connections regarding things you're thinking about and then it showing up in reality, but I'd like to say it's coincidences that our mind draws meaning from. But honestly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with believing in any of these things, as the experience is yours to live. If you believe that crystals help your mood or that Zodiacs are a real thing, or if you believe in God and religion and it works for you, stick to it. Personally, I think it's all created by the mind, but I also believe that it doesn't make it any less real in a believers eyes.

So, what you believe in is what reality will look like to you. But, this doesn't really mean any view of reality is inherently wrong. If reality is entirely subjective, and not even just from an individual persons experience and beliefs, but across different species, then whose to say what reality actually is, who's to say what's real or not regarding personal beliefs and experience? I believe everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, even if it can't be entirely proven. As long as it isn't completely moronic or/ and harmful to other people.

We'll never know what an unfiltered reality is actually like because we'll never be able to turn off the brains filter and still be aware of the world around us. Nobody can know what reality is actually like without a filter, and we all have conflicting worldviews and belief systems that other people would disagree with. A lot of people will think your crazy because of what you believe in, I think certain religious fanatics are crazy, and I'm certain anyone who isn't versed on drugs would think I'm insane. But since what people think is insane is entirely subjective, it loses its meaning, doesn't it? What I think is crazy, and what you think is crazy, and what everyone else thinks is crazy is all completely different, so what's it matter? I say just don't lose your mind for real, think as rationally as possible, and try not to worry about what other people think."