perpetualdawn
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It's pleasant to see this discussion, that could have descended into a spiritual pissing match, wind up with respectful understanding.
psychedelic enlightenment my experience
- Thread starter Mackrul
- Start date
I'm not sure that's what happened.
perpetualdawn
Bluelighter
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Way to burst my rosy bubble.
psychoblast
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This thread is right up my alley 
Here's my personal experience with this:
About 10 years ago, I knew practically nothing about Buddhism or enlightenment but what an average American gets from mainstream movies/tv. Well, I did foxy one night (5-meo-dipt), an average dosage (8-10mg?). Now, I'd done this many times and it was never anything spiritual. It had always been a very physical, visceral type of trip. Well, after about 6 hours in the trip (smoking weed periodically), I was coming down and ready for bed. I decided to shower first. I got into the shower and it felt great, but I was tired, so I sat down and let the shower hit me. I wound up sitting cross-legged in a sort of meditative pose, I guess, and just let the water cascade on me. The foxy heightened my awareness of these sensations, and I think that feeling so many drops hitting me all over at the same time, with such intensity, created the mechanism for my "expansion." One minute, I'm just sitting there, then I feel like an energetic rocket is running up my spine from sacrum up through and blasting out of the crown of my head, I feel this fundamental connection to EVERYTHING and my personal ego disappeared.
At that moment, I knew without doubt I was connected to everything, a cell (perhaps a neuron?) on the body (brain?) of the Universal Consciousness that I think is closest to the real God. I felt loved and protected by this larger consciousness, and that it would steer to me anything I needed. In return, my only desire was to serve this consciousness. In my limited human capacity, that felt like I should nurture life. However, I'm sure others could feel the connection and feel steered to other forms of service.
Anyway, at the moment of that enlightenment, I remember thinking with certainty, "This is what enlightened Buddhists are talking about. This must be Buddhism. I'm a Buddhist!"
In addition to feeling this connection, I also felt universal love for everyone, a peace and contentment that was rock solid. Note, this feeling lasted for about 3 days and then gradually faded as I returned to "normal." So it lasted long after the foxy had worn off, and I did not new drugs during those days. In fact, doing anything that was not nurturing life was unthinkable for me. I craved to nurture life. This translated in numerous ways. For one, when I got hungry, I thought of the life of my body's cells and I wanted to support and nourish them, so I sought out the healthiest foods I had -- raw fruits and veggies, steamed rice, etc. The thought of eating a greasy burger (which I had loved) or fried chicken was unthinkable, and not just because it meant slaughtering an animal, but because I knew it was not the highest good for my body.
Interesting side note: During these days, my personal ego was gone with all of its "monkey chatter" of the mind. My whole, united mind was focused on whatever I was doing, I was totally in the moment. This had some really surprising aspects to it. Like, I made a meal of steamed rice and then I sat down to eat it. Now, I was totally sober at this time. But the rice tasted like the greatest flavorful feast I ever had. Because with 100% of my attention on each bite, I noticed infinite nuances in the subtle flavors of the rice, the textures, etc. I realized that in "normal" life, we are so wrapped up and distracted when we shovel food in our faces that we focus like under 10% of our attention on eating. In the place of total unity of mind and mindfulness and living in the moment, you can live on nothing but rice without feeling or being in any way deprived of the sensual pleasure of eating sumptuous meals because that level of attention turns even the simplest of meals into a feast.
In the days and weeks and months following this experience, I read more on Buddhism, and because there are Buddhist sects that seem closer to mythic doctrinal religions (like Christianity or Islam), I was not thrilled with that label, and I found that the more I read on Taoism, that seemed closer to the mark. You can find Buddhist "religions" in parts of the world where it's a full blown religion as unenlightened as Christianity, but you can also find Buddhist teachings that have nothing to do with that, and instead they teach that Buddhism is a quest for truth, like a scientific examination of spirituality using internal exploration of the mind (meditation) as the research method.
The average Western view of the self and the world and spirituality is like a circle with self-awareness at the center, looking outward at the world, looking for spirituality, and not seeing God so we either go atheist or feel we need "faith" to believe. However, the flaw in this is that for 99% of us, our self-awareness is not the center of the circle. It is a ego-ring that surrounds the center. It's like we're on planet Mercury looking only outward in the solar system saying, "I am looking everywhere, but I see no Sun." With meditation and other mindfulness practices (e.g., yoga), you learn to look inward from this ring to the true center that is within and then you not only can see God, you connect to God, because for each of us, our true center is a direct connection to everything including God. As you learn to look inward, you can move inward and become more enlightened. Going back to the Solar System analogy, you are moving closer to the sun (more light, more enlightened). It's not necessarily black and white, there are infinite gradations of gray as you move further to the center.
Anyway, I was in the center for about 3 days, then my ego slowly reasserted itself and I now am very normal. Oddly, I can intellectually recall the experience and recognize it's truth, but that does not put me back in the center-mind, and I would not consider myself particularly enlightened at present. I have not tried to recreate this experience, as I think drug-induced movement to the center is often yo-yo like. I think to move there for keeps you need to do it through sober means (meditation, yoga, etc.)
Those who are skeptics / doubters, highly intelligent, scientifically minded, often have a tough time with spirituality because they cannot conceive they are not at the center of their mind and so they refuse to consider searching INWARD for spiritual truth.
~psychoblast~
Here's my personal experience with this:
About 10 years ago, I knew practically nothing about Buddhism or enlightenment but what an average American gets from mainstream movies/tv. Well, I did foxy one night (5-meo-dipt), an average dosage (8-10mg?). Now, I'd done this many times and it was never anything spiritual. It had always been a very physical, visceral type of trip. Well, after about 6 hours in the trip (smoking weed periodically), I was coming down and ready for bed. I decided to shower first. I got into the shower and it felt great, but I was tired, so I sat down and let the shower hit me. I wound up sitting cross-legged in a sort of meditative pose, I guess, and just let the water cascade on me. The foxy heightened my awareness of these sensations, and I think that feeling so many drops hitting me all over at the same time, with such intensity, created the mechanism for my "expansion." One minute, I'm just sitting there, then I feel like an energetic rocket is running up my spine from sacrum up through and blasting out of the crown of my head, I feel this fundamental connection to EVERYTHING and my personal ego disappeared.
At that moment, I knew without doubt I was connected to everything, a cell (perhaps a neuron?) on the body (brain?) of the Universal Consciousness that I think is closest to the real God. I felt loved and protected by this larger consciousness, and that it would steer to me anything I needed. In return, my only desire was to serve this consciousness. In my limited human capacity, that felt like I should nurture life. However, I'm sure others could feel the connection and feel steered to other forms of service.
Anyway, at the moment of that enlightenment, I remember thinking with certainty, "This is what enlightened Buddhists are talking about. This must be Buddhism. I'm a Buddhist!"
In addition to feeling this connection, I also felt universal love for everyone, a peace and contentment that was rock solid. Note, this feeling lasted for about 3 days and then gradually faded as I returned to "normal." So it lasted long after the foxy had worn off, and I did not new drugs during those days. In fact, doing anything that was not nurturing life was unthinkable for me. I craved to nurture life. This translated in numerous ways. For one, when I got hungry, I thought of the life of my body's cells and I wanted to support and nourish them, so I sought out the healthiest foods I had -- raw fruits and veggies, steamed rice, etc. The thought of eating a greasy burger (which I had loved) or fried chicken was unthinkable, and not just because it meant slaughtering an animal, but because I knew it was not the highest good for my body.
Interesting side note: During these days, my personal ego was gone with all of its "monkey chatter" of the mind. My whole, united mind was focused on whatever I was doing, I was totally in the moment. This had some really surprising aspects to it. Like, I made a meal of steamed rice and then I sat down to eat it. Now, I was totally sober at this time. But the rice tasted like the greatest flavorful feast I ever had. Because with 100% of my attention on each bite, I noticed infinite nuances in the subtle flavors of the rice, the textures, etc. I realized that in "normal" life, we are so wrapped up and distracted when we shovel food in our faces that we focus like under 10% of our attention on eating. In the place of total unity of mind and mindfulness and living in the moment, you can live on nothing but rice without feeling or being in any way deprived of the sensual pleasure of eating sumptuous meals because that level of attention turns even the simplest of meals into a feast.
In the days and weeks and months following this experience, I read more on Buddhism, and because there are Buddhist sects that seem closer to mythic doctrinal religions (like Christianity or Islam), I was not thrilled with that label, and I found that the more I read on Taoism, that seemed closer to the mark. You can find Buddhist "religions" in parts of the world where it's a full blown religion as unenlightened as Christianity, but you can also find Buddhist teachings that have nothing to do with that, and instead they teach that Buddhism is a quest for truth, like a scientific examination of spirituality using internal exploration of the mind (meditation) as the research method.
The average Western view of the self and the world and spirituality is like a circle with self-awareness at the center, looking outward at the world, looking for spirituality, and not seeing God so we either go atheist or feel we need "faith" to believe. However, the flaw in this is that for 99% of us, our self-awareness is not the center of the circle. It is a ego-ring that surrounds the center. It's like we're on planet Mercury looking only outward in the solar system saying, "I am looking everywhere, but I see no Sun." With meditation and other mindfulness practices (e.g., yoga), you learn to look inward from this ring to the true center that is within and then you not only can see God, you connect to God, because for each of us, our true center is a direct connection to everything including God. As you learn to look inward, you can move inward and become more enlightened. Going back to the Solar System analogy, you are moving closer to the sun (more light, more enlightened). It's not necessarily black and white, there are infinite gradations of gray as you move further to the center.
Anyway, I was in the center for about 3 days, then my ego slowly reasserted itself and I now am very normal. Oddly, I can intellectually recall the experience and recognize it's truth, but that does not put me back in the center-mind, and I would not consider myself particularly enlightened at present. I have not tried to recreate this experience, as I think drug-induced movement to the center is often yo-yo like. I think to move there for keeps you need to do it through sober means (meditation, yoga, etc.)
Those who are skeptics / doubters, highly intelligent, scientifically minded, often have a tough time with spirituality because they cannot conceive they are not at the center of their mind and so they refuse to consider searching INWARD for spiritual truth.
~psychoblast~
I don't know what a jhana is but I often drift into hypnagogic states when I'm lying in bed at night with my eyes closed. It's a deeply relaxed state of consciousness where I'm not asleep but not fully awake either and basically getting high off my own supply of DMT.
It starts off with mild closed-eye visuals, which intensify rapidly. The nature and quality of the imagery is the same as what I get from a strong psychedelic trip. Sometimes it ends there and I fall asleep.
After a while of seeing pretty patterns I get to a stage where I have out-of-body-experiences where I feel like I'm floating above my body. I literally go places in my head - landscapes form behind my closed eyelids and I often end up thinking I'm chilling in my garden or round a friend's house. Sometimes I'm so out of it I totally forget I'm still lying in bed with my eyes closed.
I can achieve these states sober but drugs do make it easier. It doesn't even have to be a psychedelic drug - cannabis and opiates help a lot. The key is you need to be extremely relaxed.
You'd need an MAOI for that AA, and there isn't enough DMT in your body to trip on anyway. Otherwise everytime anybody popped an MAOI antidepressant they'd start tripping balls. It's just your imagination.
