the_gay_blade
Ex-Bluelighter
Not all sects declare themselves to be the one true church. A lot of Protestants believe in an invisible church that accommodates all believers. But for the record, it's the little shack in Rome. 

Uh-huh. Vatican II and certain strains of scholasticism were the clinchers in helping me to understand how I could come back to the fold. I really, really needed the blunt instrument of DMT in order to catalyse, however.
But it's world's apart from being told 'why' by a rich and powerful organisation who's only motive is to control the masses and further their own agenda...
I don't think I've ever broke through on dmt. Maybe once, I felt like I was in a temple of some sort, with these alien creatures meditating, however I'm sure if I wasn't concentrating I'd have been able to see the real world
DMT was the most humbling experience of my life, that made me at least reconsider my nihilism.
I need another blast.
Anyone who has had DMT aint going to buy into Christian dogma. It definitely makes many take a spiritualist outlook but makes you look at organised religion and laugh. It certainly had that effect on me.
I've inferred that DMT is a very stark form of Spiritualism. That the chemical reaction inside of the brain, actually works as a summon for entities outside of earth who seem intent on using the experience to impart spiritual knowledge.
From Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism
"Spiritualism is a belief that spirits of the dead have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. The afterlife, or "spirit world", is seen by spiritualists, not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to evolve. These two beliefs: that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans, leads spiritualists to a third belief, that spirits are capable of providing useful knowledge about moral and ethical issues,"
Cannabis, Mushrooms and LSD are also forms of spiritualism [which, for me throws in another aspect as to why the government are so keen to prohibit them] though DMT appears to give the most intense spiritual experience.
I believe in Spirituality but do struggle with how one can claim to see spirits etc from the consumption of drugs. Surely it's hallucinations that people are having? ...
It could be but it is so immersive and incredibly interactive i think there is more too it than that. Its way beyond being called an hallucinatory experience. Its beyond description. I would certainly put more faith in my many life changing experiences each one unique on DMT than some book of fairy tales with rubbish like Noah and his Ark and the animals two by two.The same can be said about people who see/talk to spirits but don't take any drugs - but it's probably more worrying than the drugs in most cases - seeing that sort of stuff when you take psychedelics is pretty 'normal' (but be warned: being the fickle mind, if you go in wanting spirits, you're as likely to come across devils or souless robots or nothing at all (the mind's like that - like trying not to think about elephants)
Also, as i understand it spirituality doesn't really mean that you specifically believe in individual spirits that go somewhere after death (that's spiritualism i guess). My view is i believe in the soul/spirit, but there's only one and we all share it (i could just call it 'life' or feynmans single electron (or brahman)) - this is a pragmatically chosen belief (albeit influenced by intution, psychedelic experience and my hippy/buddhist parents) it matters not how 'true' it is.
Faith can be a dodgy one: faith in a person is one thing (a big component of love), similar to faith in humanity - but faith in a written dogma or an authority can't logically be required of any putative 'loving god' when that very loving god is meant to have created the curiosity and thirst for knowledge that questions the basis of the faith in the first place. If there is a creator god of that sort, the critical thinking, questioning, iconoclastic, rebellious aspects of our nature would be some of her best works - only a non-loving god would have made that as a trap for those not sufficiently pious (bit like sex really). Faith that 'everything will be alright in the end' is better, but faith in some divine plan that everything happens for a reason risks a person not doing stuff they might have otherwise - unless you say the plan already included you making your individual decisions (which makes it no plan). Sorry Evey that wasn't a rant at you - you were just my theological jumping off point
...
Consumer: Occams razor pulls me toward the mind being the source of the DMT experience, but to me that doesn't diminish the magicalness of it at all, considering that if you follow Kant (and neuroscience) the entire universe in any way we can know it is effectively in there to start with.
Cue popular REM songThe Bleak Future for Religion in the UK in 5 Charts
New poll puts Brits with "No Religion" ahead of describing themselves as "Christian" for the first time. The other charts are also not great for religious believers. Increasing numbers of people "losing" the religion they were born into, ever-dwindling church attendance, ever-ageing Church attendees. All seems pretty self-evident to me but they managed to find some religious folk to say that it doesn't suggest any of that at all. Obviously.