So, I finally finished reading Journeys Out of the Body by Robert Monroe. It's triggered all sorts of memories. Like when I was in high school, I was really into reading about lucid dreaming and out of body experiences, because I've always had vivid dreams, and still to this day remember dreams I had in my childhood forty years ago.
At one point I actually considered attending the Esalen Institute. Glad I didn't though, because it's a fucking cult, and a recruitment channel into other nefarious activities, much like the Freemasons and the Church of Scientology.
Anyway, as a child I had dreams of flying, dreams of jumping with legs like rubber bands, dreams of floating up into outer space and viewing the constellations up close. Yeah, I've probably been traveling outside of my body for most of my life.
The point I'd like to highlight though is a part of the book toward the end when the author talked about experimenting with inhalants, such as ether and nitrious oxide, used in the context of facilitating out of body experiences. He mentioned an example of people being employed on gasoline tanker ships, who became addicted to getting high off the fumes. Much like winos, they'd be found passed out next to the gasoline storage tanks after a long night of huffing. I had never heard of that before. It never occurred to me that some people employed in certain industries where they are exposed to toxic chemicals, may actually be enjoying the experience, and are there specifically for it, where they perceive it as a job perk, even though it's causing irreversible brain damage and killing most of them prematurely with cancer.
It reminded me of where I live, where currently all of the maintenance men are Hispanic, and English is not their first language. The painters, the carpet layers, the landscapers, and the people who resurfaced the tennis court, none of them in all the years I've lived here has ever visibly worn any personal protective gear, such as respirator, ear plugs, eye protection, etc., when dealing with volatile chemicals, toxic fumes, paints, solvents, etc..
And when I first noticed it, I was like these people are fucking dumb. Dumb Mexicans. They're retarded zikaheads. But then I thought maybe they are exploited. You know hired for the job but never warned about its dangers. If they were given the accurate information, surely they'd care, and do the right thing.
Well, that might be true for some, but unfortunately around here is not true for most. I'm finding that many of them actually like breathing in the fumes, and it's probably the highlight of their day. The landscapers running leaf blowers for hours at a time, not because they are actually doing anything useful, and not because they are just going through motions of working, but actually they are intentionally getting high off the fumes.
For example, I've seen the maintenance man repeatedly painting the same flag pole, not because it needs to be done, not because he is just killing time at the end of his shift, but because he's getting high off the fumes. There's no other explanation. I've seen it in their eyes. The forever smile, the eyes that always sparkle. You ask them a question requiring reasoning, and they just laugh, and act like it's something that only they know, and is outside your understanding. Those are the eyes of the Mexican man addicted to huffing solvents and paint.
The Mexicans resurfacing the tennis court where I live, I watched them near the end, lying directly on the court, literally lying on their backs, laughing and smiling like little boys, even though they were probably in their 20s or 30s, high out of their minds off of the volatile chemicals. And it's something they do on a daily basis. I wonder how many IQ points drop per year of doing that? No wonder Mexicans have a reputation for being lazy and stupid, if anyone of any race huffed enough toxic fumes you'd be a brain damaged Zika head too.

