Great thread!
Wesmdow, I’d say the majority of users see psychedelics in a similar light. But that doesn’t mean you should close off the possibility that someday the drugs will catalyze a spiritual experience for you. My first few experiences were tremendously enjoyable, but extremely difficult to integrate. I initially thought of psychedelics as nothing more than an enjoyable state of drug-induced psychosis.
Any experiential events that did not sync with my worldview at the time, I dismissed as delusions. I have a report on 4-Aco-MIPT, where I comment on the feeling of being on the edge of a void, and being able to see slightly outside of this reality. I go on to say how that is impossible because there is only one reality. I thought I’d gone crazy! Now, I realize that my mind just didn’t know how to interpret that state of consciousness. What I experienced was a connection to the base substance of the universe; it was not a separate reality I was sensing. I’m not saying that I don’t get delusional thinking on psychedelics anymore, rather my worldview now permits me to explore the state further than I could previously.
After my 4-Aco-MIPT experience, I became incredibly interested in psychedelics. I started by reading scientific articles … neurobiology, theories on how psychedelics worked, etc. I eventually branched out to read books by Stanislav Grof (pioneer of psychedelic psychotherapy), Houston Smith (MIT professor of philosophy and divinity), and most importantly, Aldous Huxley. Reading the Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell caused a light to go off in my head … it felt like enlightenment; there was evidently so much more to reality than I’d ever fathomed. Since then, I’ve had an intense interest in eastern philosophy and its relationship with the psychedelic state.
So, wesmdow, I agree that the drugs themselves are not spiritual; they are merely tools which give the user a new perspective. But this new perspective often entails a feeling of connection to the universe, or a deep notion that all is one. This eastern philosophical notion is rarely contemplated in Western culture, but it’s one that’s becoming more accepted. One of the first in the West to espouse this heretical view was the philosopher, Baruch de Spinoza. A new pantheistic worldview often follows a powerful psychedelic experience, which is not necessarily a religious development, but still very spiritual. I suggest looking him up. I also found the work of Ken Wilbur very interesting, although there are more holes in his philosophy.
Consider this quote from the eminent biophysicist, Erwin Schrödinger:
“It is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling and choice which you call
your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically
one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings. But not in
this sense – that
you are a part, a piece of an eternal, infinite being, an aspect or modification of it, as in Spinoza’s pantheism. For we should have the same baffling question: which part, which aspect are
you? What, objectively, differentiates it from the others? No, but inconceivable as it seems to ordinary reason, you – and all other conscious beings as such – are all in all. Hence this life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of the whole; only this
whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance.”
The loss or loosening of the ego is an occurrence that doesn't happen in quotidian existence. Near death experiences, deep meditation, fasting, the psychedelic experience, etc. (all changes in consciousness) … provide a route to this change in perspective. Not everyone finds the new perspective particularly meaningful, but for a few, it is immensely profound and spiritual.
Keep this discussion going!!
8( 
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
