A psychedelic prayer

[Ismene]

Whenever "The secret chief" - a famous psychotherapist who used to run psychedelic sessions was preparing someone for a trip he would ask them to real aloud this to put them in the mood:

Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of thee;
Thou only knowest what I need;
Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself.

O Father, give to Thy child that which
he himself knows not how to ask.
I dare not ask either for crosses or for consolations;
I simply present myself before thee,
I open my heart to Thee.
Behold my needs which I know not myself;
see and do according to Thy tender mercy.

Smite, or heal; depress me or raise me up;
I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them;
I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice;
I yield myself to Thee: I would have no

other desire than to accomplish Thy will.
Teach me to pray.
Pray Thyself in me.
AMEN.

- François de Salignac Fenelon
Archbishop of Cambray, 1651�1715, AD

 

[Jesusgreen]

That's quite interesting, and very appropriate. Although I'm not Christian I also value prayer as a way of getting a direct message to the subconscious, so it'd be very fitting prior to a trip. Maybe worth trying

 

[Pjkt2501]

^ Likewise.

It's very appealing in the afterglow of an LSD trip, so I'd say it's something I'm interested in starting an experience out with.

Much like having certain crystals on me, it sets a continuous tone however you go in.

 

[thoughtsUnThought]

I like that too..!
And I agree with Jesusgreen, regardless of the recipient of a prayer, they are very powerful. Something about turning intentions into tonal proclamation, or even mental proclaimations is very mantra-esque, even if its not all 'chanty' like a mantra lol.

I always feel safest and most 'right' entering a trip after meditative centering as well as a prayer for guidance and protection. Who do i pray unto? I,m not here to discuss my beliefs

What I will say though is that, regardless of who or whatever ones believes may hear or receive the prayer. I can feel the power in the prayer itself. Even if one believes that the only higher 'source of occurrance' is the physical whirlwind of subatomic particle virtual patterns collapsing into stable forms. The key IMO is acknowledging that there is much that goes beyond ones self, more that makes the sunrise than your morning yawn. whether you're asking your higher powers or just hoping physics throws you a bone, the acknowledging of occurrance 'out of your hands' and the practiced versing of your intentions and best wishes to come of those occurrances is a beautiful and from my exp, a very powerful act to engage in.

Pray pray pray, take a second from your couch time and pray, take a day off from church to pray just my 2cents

 

[thoughtsUnThought]

Also ismene, very mystically conducive post lol. I know you're a scientific kinda guy from your other posts, is this purely information to you, or do you also like the idea of psychedelic prayers??

 

[ColtDan]

i sometimes pray before hitting the DMT pipe. im not religious. get bad pre-flight anxiety, shits me up

 

[Ismene]

Also ismene, very mystically conducive post lol. I know you're a scientific kinda guy from your other posts, is this purely information to you, or do you also like the idea of psychedelic prayers??

I'm not too big on the religious connotations of it but I think if you visualise the "father" as the acid or the mushroom or even your inner self then there's a lot of comfort in itI think the secret chief himself was more keen on the idea of opening yourself up to the experience rather than it being strictly religious.

 

[thoughtsUnThought]

I can dig it

 

[webbykevin]

i sometimes pray before hitting the DMT pipe. im not religious. get bad pre-flight anxiety, shits me up

Totally agree with this, DMT scares the crap out of me too, It's not so much a prayer more a set of mantras, where as with the mushroom I address it directly before hand, something along the lines of Terence Mckenna's "please don't burn me".

 

[TheAppleCore]

Excellent.

This prayer conveys precisely the attitude with which you should enter a psychedelic trip. It's not a proclamation of intentions; it's a proclamation of a lack of intention, and this is why it is appropriate for psychedelic entry. The prayer says, "I desire nothing, and request nothing, because I know that existence is unconditional and unending perfection, and there is nothing I can say, think, or do to damage or improve upon this perfection. My upcoming trip, as a part of this perfection, will be exactly as it should be, regardless of how it may or may not conflict with my irrelevant desires, and indeed regardless of whether or not I say this prayer."

Before any psychedelic journey, remember that there is nothing you need to remember!

 

[swilow]

I find the wording of this prayer makes me feel uncomfotably submissive, but but changing the devotion of it to a more internal supreme being makes it feel more personal. For me, at least. If this prayer leads people towards a more positive and enjoyable trip, its actually quite pardoxical.

Though I tend to try an still all inner and outer voices when entering a psychedelic state, using things like breath meditation, mantra or drumming...

 

[TheAppleCore]

If this prayer leads people towards a more positive and enjoyable trip, its actually quite pardoxical.

The more I discover about the psychology of ecstatic or mystical experience, the more apparent its paradoxical nature becomes.

Meditation is the attempt not to attempt anything.

One must understand that nothing must be understood.

The only rule is that there are no rules.

etc.


If you're in the business of mystical experience, you really have to, at least temporarily, let go of the constant need for everything to be consistent, logical, and rational. You have to be completely comfortable in the total absence of intellectual understanding. You even have to become content with blaring logical flaws and paradoxes.

Terence McKenna had a cool quote that backed up PRECISELY my point, but sadly I can't find it now. Grr.

 

[burn out]

I find the wording of this prayer makes me feel uncomfotably submissive, but but changing the devotion of it to a more internal supreme being makes it feel more personal. For me, at least. If this prayer leads people towards a more positive and enjoyable trip, its actually quite pardoxical.

Though I tend to try an still all inner and outer voices when entering a psychedelic state, using things like breath meditation, mantra or drumming...

Why does it make you feel uncomfortably submissive? One of the wonderful things about prayer, is that it helps us to submit which is the way to peace. Failure to submit tends to result in suffering - when we want things to be different from how they are or can be. In my opinion, the ego, the sense of identity most people have, is unreal but it blocks awareness of the true self which is one with God. Thus, the purpose of submissive prayer is to help one lay down his or her ego. To state and realize its inferiority openly and recognize that God is the only one who can actually do anything. All the ego does, is get in the way of God's work. So by letting go of the ego, by seeing it for what it is, it vanishes leaving only God or the Self. From this state of consciousness, even other people are seen as a part of the one Self and this is how it is possible to love ytour neighbor as yourself as Jesus commands (because your neighbor is your self).

Personally, I always pray before and after and during every psychedelic experience. I like to ask for protection from the evil forces which can sometimes take hold of us during a psychedelic experience.

 

[Survived Abortion]

I can hardly think of a more horrible way to start out a trip than with a christian-based prayer. The religion contains poisonous ideas, and outright lies, and is definitely not the right thing to have going around in your head as you embark on a mind-manifesting experience. I definitely am not going to pray to a demented masculine god at any time, most especially before I embark on an inner voyage with psychedelics.

Belief combined with the philosophies of christian salvationism is one of the most destructive forces of humanity's collective consciousness. It's not a good idea to be encouraging those ideals to grow within the great potentials of psychedelic consciousness. Forget all the religious nonsense.

I find the wording of this prayer makes me feel uncomfotably submissive, but but changing the devotion of it to a more internal supreme being makes it feel more personal.

Agreed.

Why does it make you feel uncomfortably submissive?

I'll give an answer, from my perspective. The Apple Core says of the prayer:

My upcoming trip, as a part of this perfection, will be exactly as it should be, regardless of how it may or may not conflict with my irrelevant desires, and indeed regardless of whether or not I say this prayer."

This is not true surrender. This is surrender to an egotistical father-god, giving away your personal sovereignty and power of co-creation. True surrender is not giving up the power of your true self and handing it over to an institutionally instilled notion of deity just to watch the show. Surrender is actually opening your awareness to the divinity within and without, inviting it's power in to your being, and giving up your ego in order to participate on exactly equal terms with it.

I ask the majestic feminine divinity (Sophia/Shakti - whatever you like) for wisdom and light, but when I surrender I am not asking "her" to control me as if I were a puppet separate from the universe that she can have fun humiliating, and that I can enjoy being strewn around as her submissive pet. I am not asking her to breathe for me, I am asking to breathe with her in perfect unity. (I breathe the universe, the universe breathes me). I am inviting my present awareness in to hers (or hers in to mine) to participate equally with the pure creation of every moment. Practicing this is the practice of handling power without desiring it. This is tantra, and it is true surrender.

see and do according to Thy tender mercy.

Smite, or heal; depress me or raise me up;
I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them;
I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice;
I yield myself to Thee: I would have no

other desire than to accomplish Thy will.

Smite or heal? Thy will? These are not the qualities of an unconditionally-loving, ego-less supreme deity of creation. These are the qualities of a judgemental being with desires and plans. Again, the christian philosophy asks you to give up your role in all of existence. It asks you to accept that you were fashioned as a permanant object at the will and mercy of it's creator.

 

[Termino]

I can hardly think of a more horrible way to start out a trip than with a christian-based prayer.

Agreed!


But then, to each his own. Those who accept Christianity may feel comforted by this prayer, while those of us who do not will be uncomfortable and rather offended by it. My own preparations are, of course, closely aligned with my beliefs and practices. I prefer to enter a spiritually directed trip with a basic intention or statement of Will, invoking the proper god(s) to help realize this intention. Once completed, I open myself to the experience, relinquishing lust of result.

Then again, sometimes I trip just for fun.


I also like TheAppleCores approach to a state of openness to the universe...

"I desire nothing, and request nothing, because I know that existence is unconditional and unending perfection, and there is nothing I can say, think, or do to damage or improve upon this perfection. My upcoming trip, as a part of this perfection, will be exactly as it should be, regardless of how it may or may not conflict with my irrelevant desires, and indeed regardless of whether or not I say this prayer."

...just trusting in the bliss of pure undifferentiated being.


There is no single 'right' path.
It's great that we can share our views and thoughts on this subject, and perhaps help each other get more out of our experiences.

 

[XxTwilightDashxX]

Religion and its veiws are only stronger means of continued prayer - but prayer itself requires no god, no prophit, in fact prayer doesnt require to pray to anyone. Only to talk to the universe in which we live in.

I believe in god, jesus, as well as fate and higher powers. I believe in evolution, science, and all that we have found proof of. but I also know that no one being can control everything - our universe is too great, and to vast to ever have a single source of power. So I pray to god, and jesus - and let them help me find the right choices. but as the flesh of free-will, it is up to me to make my own choices.

This prayer is very deep, and very meaningful - it has every element of guilt, as well as faith - it is no doubt one of the greatest prayers to have before diving into the unknown mind.

 

[Ismene]

I can hardly think of a more horrible way to start out a trip than with a christian-based prayer. The religion contains poisonous ideas, and outright lies, and is definitely not the right thing to have going around in your head as you embark on a mind-manifesting experience. I definitely am not going to pray to a demented masculine god at any time, most especially before I embark on an inner voyage with psychedelics.

I ask the majestic feminine divinity (Sophia/Shakti - whatever you like)

Is the Hindu religion any less poisonous than the christian? Look at the abominable treatment they dish out to the poor and helpless "untouchables" - the ones that the wacky Hindu creed believes are only fit to clean their masters shit off the toilet basin.

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

I can hardly think of a more horrible way to start out a trip than with a christian-based prayer. The religion contains poisonous ideas, and outright lies, and is definitely not the right thing to have going around in your head as you embark on a mind-manifesting experience. I definitely am not going to pray to a demented masculine god at any time, most especially before I embark on an inner voyage with psychedelics.

G-d is not considered gendered, in spite of the use of masculine pronouns to describe him. If we're talking Christianity, then obviously the human aspect of Christ is a dude. Saying a religion contains outright lies is going overboard, at the time it was formed inaccurate information was not definitively known as such, and the spiritual/metaphysical claims made be adherents are believed to be true by them.

Well, I've met very few Christians who believe in all (or even most) of the religion's major tenants. For a lot of people the religious self-identification is about paying homage to the spiritual traditions and mythology of their culture.

Belief combined with the philosophies of christian salvationism is one of the most destructive forces of humanity's collective consciousness. It's not a good idea to be encouraging those ideals to grow within the great potentials of psychedelic consciousness. Forget all the religious nonsense.

Hey, I dislike the excesses of organized religion as much as the next guy, and find some of the fundamental claims of Christianity to be unacceptable and abhorrent (in such a way I could never be a member of that religion, I don't hold anything against it, and am fond of numerous aspects). I don't even think religion is guilty per se of said excesses, in-group/out-group thinking and rigid dogmatism in general are to blame, and those happen plenty within secular realms as well.

That said, what does this vitriol from you accomplish? Are you helping the community of constructive forces on humanity's collective unconscious by hate-mongering? However you answer that I don't think it is helpful to our board here, and would prefer we keep our statements of disdain as tactful as possible, with well thought out criticisms of harmful beliefs/practices of religions/philosophies being preferred to value judgments stated out of nowhere as objective fact.

This is not true surrender. This is surrender to an egotistical father-god, giving away your personal sovereignty and power of co-creation. True surrender is not giving up the power of your true self and handing it over to an institutionally instilled notion of deity just to watch the show. Surrender is actually opening your awareness to the divinity within and without, inviting it's power in to your being, and giving up your ego in order to participate on exactly equal terms with it.

I ask the majestic feminine divinity (Sophia/Shakti - whatever you like) for wisdom and light, but when I surrender I am not asking "her" to control me as if I were a puppet separate from the universe that she can have fun humiliating, and that I can enjoy being strewn around as her submissive pet. I am not asking her to breathe for me, I am asking to breathe with her in perfect unity. (I breathe the universe, the universe breathes me). I am inviting my present awareness in to hers (or hers in to mine) to participate equally with the pure creation of every moment. Practicing this is the practice of handling power without desiring it. This is tantra, and it is true surrender.

Wow, you sure took down that strawman with great deftness. Congratulations.

A)Smite or heal? Thy will? These are not the qualities of an unconditionally-loving, ego-less supreme deity of creation. These are the qualities of a judgemental being with desires and plans. B)Again, the christian philosophy asks you to give up your role in all of existence.

A)The love of G-d is about justice as well charity. B) Um, no it doesn't...

 

[swilow]

Why does it make you feel uncomfortably submissive? One of the wonderful things about prayer, is that it helps us to submit which is the way to peace. Failure to submit tends to result in suffering - when we want things to be different from how they are or can be. In my opinion, the ego, the sense of identity most people have, is unreal but it blocks awareness of the true self which is one with God. Thus, the purpose of submissive prayer is to help one lay down his or her ego. To state and realize its inferiority openly and recognize that God is the only one who can actually do anything. All the ego does, is get in the way of God's work. So by letting go of the ego, by seeing it for what it is, it vanishes leaving only God or the Self. From this state of consciousness, even other people are seen as a part of the one Self and this is how it is possible to love ytour neighbor as yourself as Jesus commands (because your neighbor is your self).

Well, I am not christian and I don't actually believe in the existence of the christian god. But thats not the point really...

I don't see what is so sacred about surrender to an all powerful deity. At the same time, I don't see the point or benefit of resistance too, but I feel resistant when I think about christianity as it is relatively meaningless and depressing for me. It paradoxical to use surrender and submission to atain some form of (presumably) higher consciousness or connection with a higher power. The two ideals cancel each other out, to my mind at least...

I think that humans surrendering the capacity to think fully for ourselves has accidentally/clumsily released a whole lot of pain on earth; people that allow, and even expect "god", to control them have been responsible for way too much sufferring by presuming that they truly know the will or thoughts of god. Doing this idea of gods will has often been destructive. To be fair, it certainly hasn't always been so...

That said, I wouldn't ever actively destroy peoples right to believe and worship god, firstly because I respect human freedom and secondly because I think that the belief in god is starting to destroy itself. I simply hope that it doesn't destroy the whole world in doing so...

When it comes to the ego, I agree that it is beneficial to put it aside and not fight this process, but replacing it with a supreme deity is a cop out. Sometimes, the process of ego-loss and diminshment makes one aware that existence is a kind of 'front' for an actual emptiness or inner void or chaos (chaos in the cosmic sense of emtpiness/nothingness), and that there is more emptiness in the mind then many are prepared to accept. It seems that god is used replace the ego and I think that is quite foolish, and just another type of 'sacred egoism'. Going into a psychedelic experience with the intent or desire of surrendering to god or a higher/supreme being makes me uncomfortable because, when I am tripping hard, I find it virtually impossible to lie or deceive myself about anything, including the idea that god exists. It can sort of compound the isolation of ego-loss, because the fact that god does not exist in the personal manner of the christian god is glaringly obvious. I've known people to get very upset and panicked when they are undergoing this intense psychedelic experience because their pre-existing concept of christian god/yahweh seems to be absent or false and it frightens them, when the reality is that the god or supreme being that DOES exist is inside you, right now and always. You need to be open, resisting the urge to articulate/describe/categorise and/or reason out your experience, but stay aware and allow the basic knowledge or gnosis to become you (since it already is...) Non-dual surrender/resistance..

Agnostic or pantheistic people often have more rewarding or truer experiences; at least in my opinion they do..

THAT SAID, I do think its important to be able to FULLY surrender oneself if neccesary as it can be a useful and helpful defense against spiritual and existential crisis.

Loving your neighbour because they are "yourself" is pretty shallow. Why not love them because they are simply who they are?

Is the Hindu religion any less poisonous than the christian? Look at the abominable treatment they dish out to the poor and helpless "untouchables" - the ones that the wacky Hindu creed believes are only fit to clean their masters shit off the toilet basin.

I agree that Hinduism, in practise at least, can be pretty fucked up; but then, most tools that humans use can be corrupted to a certain degree. I see a difference between people that follow an interpretation of a religion, and the actual doctrine and wisdom of that particular religion. The enacting of jesus' teachings are very different to the simplicty of the teachings themselves. People who try to emulate god invariably get it wrong; I wonder why?

But either way, I'd say christianity is the most destructive relgious idea to ever exist. I say that for many reasons, not discounting the terrible transgressions of the past (crusades, witch burnings, inquisition, repression of scientific truth, violent discrimination of people, greed, etc) but also from extrapolation from the present. The world is troubled and seems to be heading towards a pretty dark future and there is no doubt a connection between that trouble and the major religions, with the most dominant being christianity (mainly roman catholocisim...) Maybe I am expecting too much from what should be a peaceful doctrine, or maybe I am painting the world as darker then it is, but either way, if a majority of people believe in acertain being and order their lives accordingly and there is also an abundance of pain, the link between the two is true enough (IMO).

 

[Ismene]

But either way, I'd say christianity is the most destructive relgious idea to ever exist.

Isn't that just because it happened to be the religion of the culture that made the fastest leap technology wise? If the muslim countries had developed as fast wouldn't they have been just as bad?