Describe Your Tobacco Trance

[GothPiper]

We all know that modern society does not look kindly upon our treasured leaf. Even so, I was astounded by what I read (or more accurately, didn't read) in my recent attempt to familiarize myself with more of the history of tobacco.

Any online search will inevitably bring up mostly health related articles (which of course never draw any distinction between cigarettes and any other kind of consumption of the plant). But I noticed that even those that detail the history of tobacco always seem to leave out one key piece of information: not one of them ever mentions how tobacco makes the user feel.

It's as if there is a prohibition on ever mentioning the effects on the mind. Hell, even articles on heroin mention the euphoric feeling that the drug induces. But with tobacco, it's completely verboten. All you ever hear is that it's addictive. Surely if humans have been enjoying this plant for thousands of years, there must be a pleasant effect on the mind and/or body.

For me, I describe it as a stillness, a silencing of all thoughts, a wonderful paralysis that keeps me mostly glued to my chair. There's a sharpness to it; a feeling of hyper-reality.

So I wanted to know: how would folks here describe the feeling of the tobacco trance? What do you feel in your mind & body, if anything, from the pipe?

 

[mortonbriar]

There is plenty written about the enjoyment, and feelings related to tobacco use, it is just in the print form, pre internet and also, for the most part, pre- health concerns. You can find poetic tributes from quite a few of the big hitters of 19th century literature, and early 20th century too.

 

[Chasing Embers]

?‍It's just something I do when I'm working.

 

[anotherbob]

normal. It makes me feel normal. The first time I smoked a cig I felt normal. Centered, focused, euphoric.
If you look at what effect tobacco has on the user the degree of effect is comparable to something like heroin or cocaine, but in ways that are more subtle externally speaking.
Another thing though and this is really big. Tobacco changes the way the brain functions but the specific process isn't as centered as most things. Like those baddies I mentioned change one or two specific brain areas and processes. Like the part of the brain that processes pain. Nicotine changes the way the brain distributes certain neurotransmitters. So to put it more simply it makes the brains' natural processes run more smoothly and efficiently meaning instead of having a few specific effects it has a very wide and variable list of effects that change not only from person to person but also effects one person differently at different times. Another simple example of that is your pipe will help you wake up in the morning and also help you fall asleep at night. It makes both processes easier to transition into. My point? Well my point is one reason you don't see so much about the effects of nicotine on the user and it's positive benefits is just that they're more subtle and less clearly defined than other substances.
A well documented effect of nicotine is that it helps schizophrenics gate. What is gateing? You know how if there is construction going on outside of your apartment that first banging noise startles you but after a while those bangings start sort of fading from your attention. Well gateing is that process. Schizophrenics don't do that each banging noise is as attention grabbing and startling as the first. If they have nicotine in their system those noises do start fading into the background. And that's a big hint on how to find more information about the effects of nicotine.
Oh another neat thing about the effects of nicotine. We've all known that person that smokes only in certain situations. When drinking or cramming for finals or when life dumps massive stresses on them. All of those people suddenly are in situations where nicotine's effects are helpful to them.

 

[STP]

I must be smoking the wrong tobacco because I’ve never felt a “trance” as described by the OP. I smoke mostly aromatics, which typically have low nicotine, so perhaps that’s why it has little effect on me.

Is there a particular blend that gives you a feeling of hyper-reality?

 

[mortonbriar]

@STP I get the feeling it is more of an art than a science...like if someone who has had a life changing experience looking at a Van Gogh painting in a gallery, and the next person comes along and thinks "Hey that reminds me, we are out of butter, I better pick some up on the way home".

My point is, someone else's particular blend might not be the ticket to a hyper reality show for you.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Is there a particular blend that gives you a feeling of hyper-reality?

 

[warren]

how tobacco makes the user feel.

Without getting too deep into the science, the nicotine has a salutary effect on the brain whether the smoker feels or admits such. Call it what you wish, it's simple science well documented. Nothing arcane about the leaf.

It's as if there is a prohibition on ever mentioning the effects on the mind

The effects of nicotine are well mentioned and cited in various places. You're just, I'm guessing here, a bit new to this and trying to cloak smoking as some sort of mysterious activity. It's not! Millions of people smoke. Pipe, cigarette, cigar or chew ... the nicotine is pretty much all the same, enjoyable.

All of those people suddenly are in situations where nicotine's effects are helpful to them.

Purely, for the most part, anecdotal. People tend to find reasons for unhealthy behavior so as to justify their choices. I've yet to see a reputable study indicating anything efficacious with regard to the use of tobacco. And, please do not cite the study which speaks to "medical grade" nicotine. Not one and the same as what is found in general use tobacco.

Just enjoy the pipe folks and quit trying to justify it to yourself. Load a bowl, kick back or, work, whatever and enjoy the wee vice you are still, maybe a bit uncomfortable with. Embrace it and enjoy.

 

[burleybreath]

No enhanced reality for me, but lighting up tobacco makes my trigger finger stop twitching. Kind of a mellowing effect, I suppose you could say.

 

[Chasing Embers]

No enhanced reality for me, but lighting up tobacco makes my trigger finger stop twitching. Kind of a mellowing effect, I suppose you could say.

Many lives at work have been saved by my nicotine addiction being sated.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

When my brain, oh my poor brain, is unfocused and jumping about all over the place, tobacco calms me down.
When I'm feeling relaxed, I do get a certain trance like state. Can't describe it because it's always different.
End result is that, in any situation tobacco is just great.

 

[forloveoffreedom]

So to summarize, smoking pipes will lessen the voices, make me nicer and more proficient at loading the dish washer. Sweet, my wife will be ecstatic!

 

[fireground_piper]

I liken nicotine a lot to caffeine.

Studies seem to not want to make that connection too much because caffeine is perfectly acceptable and from a public health standpoint, they don’t want that connection to urge nicotine use but I think they deserve to be in the same sentence as far as effects go. Safety differences of consumption is valid, but purely from a physical impact after consumption, caffeine and nicotine have their similarities.

 

[anotherbob]

Purely, for the most part, anecdotal. People tend to find reasons for unhealthy behavior so as to justify their choices. I've yet to see a reputable study indicating anything efficacious with regard to the use of tobacco. And, please do not cite the study which speaks to "medical grade" nicotine. Not one and the same as what is found in general use tobacco.

Just enjoy the pipe folks and quit trying to justify it to yourself. Load a bowl, kick back or, work, whatever and enjoy the wee vice you are still, maybe a bit uncomfortable with. Embrace it and enjoy.

I could get into all the ways self medication while problematic is almost always medical. Junkies often do have intractable pain, not saying that their method of dealing with it isn't a piss poor one. Just saying that generally even if people don't look at it that way their behaviors are in a sense often treatments for their conditions. I've seen a number of studies done on nicotine and its effects including neurological ones. And a few that even use tobacco and not just nicotine. And it really makes it look like peoples behaviors match the data. People concentrate better and have better memory recall and imprinting with nicotine. That explains the guy that smokes while studying for finals. It helps the system deal with stress oh that's funny some people only smoke when highly stressed. It goes on like that. Where the best available explanation is the one I stated.

 

[anotherbob]

So to summarize, smoking pipes will lessen the voices, make me nicer and more proficient at loading the dish washer. Sweet, my wife will be ecstatic!

though if you gave her cocaine she'd probably be more exstatic though also far more likely to stuff you and the pipes in the dishwasher. So stick with the pipe.

 

[Morrison Jeremiah]

So to summarize, smoking pipes will lessen the voices, make me nicer and more proficient at loading the dish washer. Sweet, my wife will be ecstatic!

Once I gave up smoking entirely for 15 years, then one day feeling stressed out, I bought some baccy and rolling papers, went to a country hill side and had my first cigarette for 15 years.
It was wonderful. Everything was quiet, the voices had stopped.
Thing is, until then I didn't even know that I had voices.

 

[F4RM3R]

Well I’m no stranger to the trance state, as I’ve been playing music for many years and been to wonderland more times than I can remember. Tobacco definitely puts me in an altered state, and it’s a trance for sure. How to describe it? Hmm

Well I think that it’s considered a “thinking mans tool” because it sort of occupies the subconscious mind by smoking the pipe and gives the conscious mind a little more freedom from the constant information input from the subconscious. This could quiet the mind but also could give the conscious mind a little more easy access to certain areas of the subconscious.

I also think it pulls me in to the moment, and makes smoother transitions between being “in the moment” and being “in my head”. Normally I might be more fixated on a certain thought or emotion, but smoking seems to offer some detachment that can offer relief or a different perspective on a matter.

but it’s different for everyone and it’s what you want it to be as well. A pipe won’t make you a thinking man and it might not clear your head if you are one.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

Not sure "trance" is the right word. It is possible to enter a trance with tobacco, but it's probably not good idea unless you are a highly trained shaman.

For me, the effect varies.

If it is the morning, the smoke wakes me up, sharpens the mind, while giving a certain sense of calm.

If i am exhausted, usually around mid-afternoon, it serves as a pick me up, keeps me going.

In the evening, it relaxes me.

All of these different effects from the same tobacco (dark burley for me).

 

[Winterreise]

The only tobacco that put me in “trance” is Gawith Hoggarth Dark Plug when smoked in a large bowl , my eyes feel more heavy than usual , i love to read Poe short story in that state it really set the mood

 

[kcghost]

Not sure what you are after here but I don't experience anything like a trance when I smoke. But then I am not addicted to nicotine or caffeine.