red22
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Advocates of psychedelics have painstakingly tried to integrate them into spiritual circles, so, it's always interesting when spiritual/new age people give their opinions on psychedelics. Let's use this thread to collect those opinions.
Throughout history, human beings have often used one type of consciousness-altering substance or another as a way to access the spiritual dimension. In my generation, many people found an initial spiritual opening through the use of marijuana, LSD, and other mind-altering drugs. While drug use can be a very powerful and effective way to open up the spiritual level of our being, it is, of course, fraught with danger. While a drug may initially help one find the path to an expanded consciousness, the real challenge is to find that path again and again, without relying on external help. Unfortunately, it is extremely tempting for many to keep using the drug as a crutch, which leads to dependency and addiction, eventually resulting in further soul loss, rather than soul retrieval.
Shakti Gawain. The Four Levels of Healing. 1996. 2. Healing the Spiritual Level
I also feel it is important to let you know that I do not take drugs; my experiences are not augmented by any kind of controlled or uncontrolled hallucinogenic substances. While I have experienced various extra-sensory phenomena throughout my life, I consider myself to be a very practical, organized person, not someone who is carried away by flights of fancy.
Cynthia Sue Larson. Reality Shifts (1999). 1. Introduction to Reality / My Background & Beliefs
Thankfully, Cynthia has shifted her opinion about this subject. I noticed that she uploaded a Terence McKenna recording to her YouTube channel, and, naturally, I challenged her by posting the above quote on the page and this was her reply:
Yes, indeed! And while this works for me, I see many people seem to benefit greatly from assistance from the plant world on their journeys.
Terence McKenna - First trip to Amazon, Part 1. @CynthiaSueLarson, Feb 26, 2022, YouTube. Comment was posted in 2023.
LSD as a Spiritual Experience - Deepak Chopra. FORA.tv, Oct 29, 2009, YouTube
Deepak Chopra also made a very positive comment about psychedelics in the documentary, The Reality of Truth (2016). He was asked if everyone in the world should be brought down to the Amazon for an ayahuasca ceremony and he said he thought that would be a good idea (something like that). Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa also briefly appears in this documentary and conveys that she advocates the use of LSD.
I also made a thread the other day where I posted a chapter from an Indian guru's book that focuses on psychedelics: Living with Siva’s chapter on psychedelics. It's a negative viewpoint, but it's still interesting and it's not extremely negative, even includes two or three positive comments.
Another Indian guru makes a point of mentioning psychedelics in the middle of this video:
Technow Savvy Programs for Progress in Meditation: Are They Effective? (1:57). Anandmurti Gurumaa, Jul 9, 2009, YouTube
Entire books have been devoted to this subject, such as Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (2002). the Buddhists scriptures do not say anything about drugs, contrary to popular belief, only alcohol ("surā-meraya-majja", which is Pali for alcohol; it's only new age morons who stretched it into an anti-drug decree). Datura and strychnine-containing herb(s) may have a history of use by Buddhists; strychnine has been described as similar to a non-hallucinogenic dose of LSD (traditional practitioners seek to decompose the strychnine to less toxic form(s), i.e. genostrychnine; see my recent posts about this intriguing subject*).
Important poisonous plants in tibetan ethnomedicine. Ma, L., Gu, R., Tang, L., Chen, Z. E., Di, R., & Long, C. 2015. Toxins, 7(1), 138–155. DOI: 10.3390/toxins7010138
This post of mine on reddit also contains good info relevant to this subject (also see the comments): the connection between ayahuasca and meditation
One of the most remarkable contributions to that page:
This is a book about psychedelic experience and about babies. The material in this book developed out of the distribution of approximately twelve thousand, 250-microgram doses of LSD over a period of ten years. This distribution was worldwide and included the following cultures:
1. Judeo-Christian: upper and middle classes, peons, dropouts, prison and jail inmates, and mental patients;
2. Moslem: middle and lower classes;
3. Hindu-Buddhist: middle and lower classes, yogis, and monks; and
4. Animist: no class structure.
Members of the community that produced this book have altogether ingested LSD on approximately four thousand occasions in every life situation imaginable. This amounts to a depth and variety of LSD experimentation that no other research venture has approximated. The conclusion of this experimentation is that the LSD experience reactivates the space-time reality and sense perception awareness of childhood, infancy, and interuterine existence. Moreover, the degree to which an LSD user's experience is traumatic is the degree to which the user experienced trauma while in the womb, during birth, and in early childhood.
The Book of the Mother. Shivalila (Children’s Liberation Front), 1977 (Introduction)
I'll be adding things to this post.
The co-author of this article is Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist and someone who was billed as the happiest man in the world:
It is known that the use of certain drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline provoke temporary states of modified consciousness in which individuals sometimes have the feeling of losing their self-boundaries, and experience mystical and spiritual states (e.g., Pahnke & Richards, 1966). Borg, Andrée, Soderstrom, and Farde (2003) have argued that this same serotonin system may serve as a biological basis for spiritual experiences. It is possible that the use of certain drugs occasionally generates what we call selflessness. Such experiences are temporary, as they depend on the psychopharmacological actions of the substances. Nevertheless, as suggested by psychedelic research (e.g., Walsh & Grob, 2005, 2006; see also James, 1936/1958), it seems that such experiences can effect lasting modifications (e.g., understanding of the nature of the mind, interest in spirituality, meaning in life, etc.). Whatever the case, it seems that there is a possible psychoneurobiological basis for the experience of selflessness as well as for its plasticity.
Dambrun, M., & Ricard, M. (2011). Self-Centeredness and Selflessness: A Theory of Self-Based Psychological Functioning and Its Consequences for Happiness. Review of General Psychology, 15(2), 138-157. DOI: 10.1037/a0023059. Special Life Experiences / Mind-altering drugs, pg. 151
https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/a...d-review-of-general-psychology-2011-vol-15-n/
The Dangerous Influence of New Age Spirituality, and How it is Ruining Ayahuasca. @Illumignostic, May 19 2023, YouTube
Throughout history, human beings have often used one type of consciousness-altering substance or another as a way to access the spiritual dimension. In my generation, many people found an initial spiritual opening through the use of marijuana, LSD, and other mind-altering drugs. While drug use can be a very powerful and effective way to open up the spiritual level of our being, it is, of course, fraught with danger. While a drug may initially help one find the path to an expanded consciousness, the real challenge is to find that path again and again, without relying on external help. Unfortunately, it is extremely tempting for many to keep using the drug as a crutch, which leads to dependency and addiction, eventually resulting in further soul loss, rather than soul retrieval.
Shakti Gawain. The Four Levels of Healing. 1996. 2. Healing the Spiritual Level
I also feel it is important to let you know that I do not take drugs; my experiences are not augmented by any kind of controlled or uncontrolled hallucinogenic substances. While I have experienced various extra-sensory phenomena throughout my life, I consider myself to be a very practical, organized person, not someone who is carried away by flights of fancy.
Cynthia Sue Larson. Reality Shifts (1999). 1. Introduction to Reality / My Background & Beliefs
Thankfully, Cynthia has shifted her opinion about this subject. I noticed that she uploaded a Terence McKenna recording to her YouTube channel, and, naturally, I challenged her by posting the above quote on the page and this was her reply:
Yes, indeed! And while this works for me, I see many people seem to benefit greatly from assistance from the plant world on their journeys.
Terence McKenna - First trip to Amazon, Part 1. @CynthiaSueLarson, Feb 26, 2022, YouTube. Comment was posted in 2023.
LSD as a Spiritual Experience - Deepak Chopra. FORA.tv, Oct 29, 2009, YouTube
Deepak Chopra also made a very positive comment about psychedelics in the documentary, The Reality of Truth (2016). He was asked if everyone in the world should be brought down to the Amazon for an ayahuasca ceremony and he said he thought that would be a good idea (something like that). Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa also briefly appears in this documentary and conveys that she advocates the use of LSD.
I also made a thread the other day where I posted a chapter from an Indian guru's book that focuses on psychedelics: Living with Siva’s chapter on psychedelics. It's a negative viewpoint, but it's still interesting and it's not extremely negative, even includes two or three positive comments.
Another Indian guru makes a point of mentioning psychedelics in the middle of this video:
Technow Savvy Programs for Progress in Meditation: Are They Effective? (1:57). Anandmurti Gurumaa, Jul 9, 2009, YouTube
Entire books have been devoted to this subject, such as Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (2002). the Buddhists scriptures do not say anything about drugs, contrary to popular belief, only alcohol ("surā-meraya-majja", which is Pali for alcohol; it's only new age morons who stretched it into an anti-drug decree). Datura and strychnine-containing herb(s) may have a history of use by Buddhists; strychnine has been described as similar to a non-hallucinogenic dose of LSD (traditional practitioners seek to decompose the strychnine to less toxic form(s), i.e. genostrychnine; see my recent posts about this intriguing subject*).
Important poisonous plants in tibetan ethnomedicine. Ma, L., Gu, R., Tang, L., Chen, Z. E., Di, R., & Long, C. 2015. Toxins, 7(1), 138–155. DOI: 10.3390/toxins7010138
This post of mine on reddit also contains good info relevant to this subject (also see the comments): the connection between ayahuasca and meditation
One of the most remarkable contributions to that page:
This is a book about psychedelic experience and about babies. The material in this book developed out of the distribution of approximately twelve thousand, 250-microgram doses of LSD over a period of ten years. This distribution was worldwide and included the following cultures:
1. Judeo-Christian: upper and middle classes, peons, dropouts, prison and jail inmates, and mental patients;
2. Moslem: middle and lower classes;
3. Hindu-Buddhist: middle and lower classes, yogis, and monks; and
4. Animist: no class structure.
Members of the community that produced this book have altogether ingested LSD on approximately four thousand occasions in every life situation imaginable. This amounts to a depth and variety of LSD experimentation that no other research venture has approximated. The conclusion of this experimentation is that the LSD experience reactivates the space-time reality and sense perception awareness of childhood, infancy, and interuterine existence. Moreover, the degree to which an LSD user's experience is traumatic is the degree to which the user experienced trauma while in the womb, during birth, and in early childhood.
The Book of the Mother. Shivalila (Children’s Liberation Front), 1977 (Introduction)
I'll be adding things to this post.
The co-author of this article is Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist and someone who was billed as the happiest man in the world:
It is known that the use of certain drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline provoke temporary states of modified consciousness in which individuals sometimes have the feeling of losing their self-boundaries, and experience mystical and spiritual states (e.g., Pahnke & Richards, 1966). Borg, Andrée, Soderstrom, and Farde (2003) have argued that this same serotonin system may serve as a biological basis for spiritual experiences. It is possible that the use of certain drugs occasionally generates what we call selflessness. Such experiences are temporary, as they depend on the psychopharmacological actions of the substances. Nevertheless, as suggested by psychedelic research (e.g., Walsh & Grob, 2005, 2006; see also James, 1936/1958), it seems that such experiences can effect lasting modifications (e.g., understanding of the nature of the mind, interest in spirituality, meaning in life, etc.). Whatever the case, it seems that there is a possible psychoneurobiological basis for the experience of selflessness as well as for its plasticity.
Dambrun, M., & Ricard, M. (2011). Self-Centeredness and Selflessness: A Theory of Self-Based Psychological Functioning and Its Consequences for Happiness. Review of General Psychology, 15(2), 138-157. DOI: 10.1037/a0023059. Special Life Experiences / Mind-altering drugs, pg. 151
https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/a...d-review-of-general-psychology-2011-vol-15-n/
The Dangerous Influence of New Age Spirituality, and How it is Ruining Ayahuasca. @Illumignostic, May 19 2023, YouTube
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