Psychedelics and Mystical Experiences

After decades of searching I am satisfied, I can get results, I can touch the face of divinity and awaken the divine within. Not many can say the same.

What some here are saying is no you can't.

They are wrong. I know they are wrong. Not only does my experience show that, but also modern science is beginning to explore that, making the same conclusions, and it just so happens to be at the foundations of the ancient mystery schools.
Yep. Though TBH whether status-quo science gets to that or not is irrelevant to me.
 
Yep. Though TBH whether status-quo science gets to that or not is irrelevant to me.

Yeah that aspect from science is not nescessary IMO either, they can only say so much. And there is lots of other profound changes in people science has not got around to clinicaly supporting yet either, but only for lack of research. Although given the tabboo subject it almost immediately becomes non status quo if you get my drift. There are lots of areas to study and I do find it interesting. Even John Hopkins university has done tests on the spiritual experience invoked with psilocybin, with as many as a third of the subjects claiming it as the single most significant spiritual experience of their lives. This is no surprise to me. Also using it to treat death anxiety in the terminally ill, also by way of the mystical experience I would imagine as confronting death is a common theme. Symbolically it is a death and rebirth of sorts. Some shaman refer to it as practise for dying.

Lots of others on various aspects in numerous scientific fields much of it extremely positive, but not nearly enough research done, it was neglected for some 40 years. It really is ripe for the picking.
 
My challenge to the mystics, 50mg of DMT. Then you will see what mystical means!

I'm enjoying this discussion all!

In regards the above quote, "someone I know" who believes they have both had a powerful kundalini awakening (whatever that is), experienced the full "enlightenment" spoken of by people like Nisargadatta, and all today's neo-advaitists, spent many thousands of hours in meditation (reading scriptures, doing "service" and devotion etc etc), has had numerous experience with lucid dreaming, astral projection etc, as well as LSD, MDMA, Salvia etc - has managed to procure some DMT is precisely preparing for a 50mg dose of DMT, not for the kicks or the fun of it, but purely to compare his experiences prior with what he considers to be remarkably similar reports to his own experiences during the peak of his kundalini awakening.

Someone I know is himself very interested in the outcome of this experiment, seeing as he has known about DMT for 10 years, read several books & seen numerous documentaries/youtube experiences, and has always been agnostic as to what is claimed about it, even though struck by the similarities.

I will post someone I know's experience on this thread, as someone I know doesn't really have anyone or anywhere to share this with, as in real-life he keeps his ideas entirely to himself!! (actually, there is one person who he knows by email, whose experiences & insights he enjoys and would understand the subject matter in context of mysticism, but asides from that......)

Cheers all, thanks for the thoughts!
 
I'm enjoying this discussion all!

In regards the above quote, "someone I know" who believes they have both had a powerful kundalini awakening (whatever that is), experienced the full "enlightenment" spoken of by people like Nisargadatta, and all today's neo-advaitists, spent many thousands of hours in meditation (reading scriptures, doing "service" and devotion etc etc), has had numerous experience with lucid dreaming, astral projection etc, as well as LSD, MDMA, Salvia etc - has managed to procure some DMT is precisely preparing for a 50mg dose of DMT, not for the kicks or the fun of it, but purely to compare his experiences prior with what he considers to be remarkably similar reports to his own experiences during the peak of his kundalini awakening.

Someone I know is himself very interested in the outcome of this experiment, seeing as he has known about DMT for 10 years, read several books & seen numerous documentaries/youtube experiences, and has always been agnostic as to what is claimed about it, even though struck by the similarities.

I will post someone I know's experience on this thread, as someone I know doesn't really have anyone or anywhere to share this with, as in real-life he keeps his ideas entirely to himself!! (actually, there is one person who he knows by email, whose experiences & insights he enjoys and would understand the subject matter in context of mysticism, but asides from that......)

Cheers all, thanks for the thoughts!
Looking forward to the report!
 
I'm enjoying this discussion all!

In regards the above quote, "someone I know" who believes they have both had a powerful kundalini awakening (whatever that is), experienced the full "enlightenment" spoken of by people like Nisargadatta, and all today's neo-advaitists, spent many thousands of hours in meditation (reading scriptures, doing "service" and devotion etc etc), has had numerous experience with lucid dreaming, astral projection etc, as well as LSD, MDMA, Salvia etc - has managed to procure some DMT is precisely preparing for a 50mg dose of DMT, not for the kicks or the fun of it, but purely to compare his experiences prior with what he considers to be remarkably similar reports to his own experiences during the peak of his kundalini awakening.

Someone I know is himself very interested in the outcome of this experiment, seeing as he has known about DMT for 10 years, read several books & seen numerous documentaries/youtube experiences, and has always been agnostic as to what is claimed about it, even though struck by the similarities.

I will post someone I know's experience on this thread, as someone I know doesn't really have anyone or anywhere to share this with, as in real-life he keeps his ideas entirely to himself!! (actually, there is one person who he knows by email, whose experiences & insights he enjoys and would understand the subject matter in context of mysticism, but asides from that......)

Cheers all, thanks for the thoughts!

Look forward to it. Hope he gets a breakthrough. To add to the question I would ask does it give clarity to his existing framework? Does it enhance his understanding and his practise. Although I am betting his previous experience already has.

Rick Strassman is a buddhist, some of the volunteers were practising buddhists, some from other religious faiths. It seems it were these people that benifited the most. A small number did develop some psychological problems from not being able to properly intergrate the experience most probably due to a lack of framework. It was his interest in precisely this similarity of experience that resulted in his experiments. His hypothesis is that the states without drugs are induced from endogenous DMT.

That is why it is sort of false to say this vs that or one is better than the other. As a tool it can cut both ways. How you use it is what matters. Even traditional practise in dharma can result in negative psychological effects. Such as the feeling of superiority of knowing that emerges from all religions and pits them against each other.

Buddhists might object, but what if we can cure addiction, chronic depression and anxiety? And even stimulate spiritual awareness? From that point of view we become negligent. Not enlightened.
 
You are such a gentlemen Don.

Happy to talk about the cultural aspects, although it is a bit of a sidetrack.

I would like to clarify my position a bit between psychedelics and meditation techniques before we go further. There are some similiarities. And there are distinct differences.
I do not know of anyone who claims to be able to reproduce the effects of an ayahuasca journey without the use of ayahuasca.

Meditation can develop certain aspects that just using entheogen can't. Psychedelics reveal things that meditation does not. There are places were the similarity stops. They are in effect different tools. So when you say 'better' we have to ask better at what exactly. I use both.

Now the thing is, the state of mind I am thinking of does not always happen under psychedelics. Quite often you do not get there, you don't reach the complete shift of consciousness. LSD, although I have a had many tabs and sugar cubes over the years they never ever produced the state that took me quite some time to attain. It just is not strong enough. The only way I got close was through potentiating the effects with meditation, and if I get close it is just fleeting, just a little glimpse.

A good question is what would a true master of meditation make of a DMT breakthrough?
because although I can attain a trance by meditation, I certainly cannot propel myself into another dimension.

Now the problem is knowing that we are talking about the same sort of experience, it does not come easily even with chemicals. And how can we know we are referring to a similar state? It just does not happen everytime. It may seem somewhat cliche, but I would describe this state as like being in the pressence of God. I kid you not. I believe it is the state of mind the ancient mystery schools aspired to attain. I don't believe too many have actually experienced it, but I know for sure some have, when they attempt to describe it I recognize the awe.

I really don't have any words for it that can do it justice. Even thinking of it now gives me goose bumps.

Cheers.

That is kind, Sir: takes one to know one! :) I do not mind continuing on this thought. It is very challenging.

First, yes, they are different tools. But in what sense? For sure, these various tools illustrate the tremendous flexibility or plasticity of the mind, that it can assume so many diverse forms.

The similarities and differences is something I have thought a lot about. There must be a common basis to the resulting experiences because they all start with a human being. It is as if each "tool" opens the mind into different "directions". Sometimes there is overlap, sometimes not. The mind opens to these other directions and gets glimpses, or more specifically, different cross-sections. Like the blind men feeling the elephant.

Patanjali's yoga provides a map, a picture of the elephant, against which I can compare my personal experiences with altered states. For whatever reasons, its the map I resonate with best. But many such maps exist (Theosophy, Samkya, Vedanta, tantra, Buddhist, just to name the ones I am aware of), and it is relatively easy to bridge amongst them. So picking one map over another is not particularly significant.

When you ask if they are the same sort of experience, this implies having a map of all possible experiences and seeing if a given "tool" reproducibly leads to the same "place" or "places" in the map. I use "reproducibly" very loosely, in the sense of getting back to the same RANGE of mental states.

It may be possible to construct such a map with words and language. Look what we have done with chemistry in just 400 years. Imagine how confusing the physical world was before chemistry. It is similar today, with so many different "maps" of the inner structures of the mind. The map schemes listed above provide a rough sketch of the elephant. Even the modern psychological approaches are on the same intellectual plane: they are qualitative. If there was a strong concerted effort, I don't see why a "scientific" map could not be constructed.

Now, you might object that chemistry is limited in its applications, like for instance, in modern medicine where we are seen to be only (to use Alex's term) biological robots. But there is nothing in the language of chemistry that says we have to interpret it like this. The interpretation is a philosophical outlook that permeates society, subject to change, as it always does. I would suggest our scientific languages would work just as well in a "spiritual" philosophy as they do in a material philosophy. In fact, most of the geniuses that created modern science worked in a mystical or spiritual framework.

Nonetheless, envisioning a "map" is an exercise in optimism. As things stand now, it seems like an impossible task. But think of all the centuries alchemists spent trying to convert lead to gold. But we can do that today. So, there is reason to be optimistic.

Anyway, the questions you raise all seem to revolve around having a systematic framework by which to make sense of these experiences. I don't have a direct quote, but can paraphrase from Hermann Weyl. He said that philosophers were too impatient, each hoping that by himself he could construct truth. But science (the best of the tradition, mind you) shows that it takes time and patience, and the combined work of many, many people.

Will stop here for now. Again, LS, thank you for the challenging conversation.

Best,

Don
 
Some nice thoughts Don. I have been considering the questions raised here over the last couple days. There is no doubt some danger involved in using psychedelics, and used irresponsibly could be disastrous. Sometimes the experiences can be unsettling, being torn apart by wild animals for example.
There is a special sort of fear that goes along with the fear of losing your mind.

So I think they are more than complimentary or can be depending on the individual. The process of ego death can be an ordeal. The focus of meditation can give an anchor. Doing it as as part of a ceremony with the experienced and with reverence will give completely different results than just ingesting and seeing what happens, this is also important, it is not just about a substance, it is the framework here also that has a major effect. My personal framework came over time, and I think some sort of disciplined approach or framework is quite essential for the long term but more importantly actually impacts the experience.
 
Some nice thoughts Don. I have been considering the questions raised here over the last couple days. There is no doubt some danger involved in using psychedelics, and used irresponsibly could be disastrous. Sometimes the experiences can be unsettling, being torn apart by wild animals for example.
There is a special sort of fear that goes along with the fear of losing your mind.

So I think they are more than complimentary or can be depending on the individual. The process of ego death can be an ordeal. The focus of meditation can give an anchor. Doing it as as part of a ceremony with the experienced and with reverence will give completely different results than just ingesting and seeing what happens, this is also important, it is not just about a substance, it is the framework here also that has a major effect. My personal framework came over time, and I think some sort of disciplined approach or framework is quite essential for the long term but more importantly actually impacts the experience.
Yes, the questions have been bouncing around in my mind too. The hallmark of a good and penetrating conversation. The challenge is healthy for both of us. It is good to have two experienced "users" compare notes. Not necessarily easy, but the fruit of the effort is rewarding. We seem to have hammered each other into a mutual understanding of each other's positions; always the best outcome in communication.
 
So I think they are more than complimentary or can be depending on the individual. The process of ego death can be an ordeal. The focus of meditation can give an anchor. Doing it as as part of a ceremony with the experienced and with reverence will give completely different results than just ingesting and seeing what happens, this is also important, it is not just about a substance, it is the framework here also that has a major effect. My personal framework came over time, and I think some sort of disciplined approach or framework is quite essential for the long term but more importantly actually impacts the experience.

Haha!! What a waste of time! Is this a joke?! LoneShaman, Please.

I'm revitalizing the 9/11 thread soon. I'd better see you there.
 
Haha!! What a waste of time! Is this a joke?! LoneShaman, Please.

I'm revitalizing the 9/11 thread soon. I'd better see you there.

Hehe, No sexy. I am just trying to put things in perspective. It is easy for me to talk of all the benefits, and I am trying to think beyond my particular background and experience.
All I am saying is that while psychedelics can enhance meditation, meditation in turn give some sort of strength to deal with the difficult aspects of ego death.

Just considering in light of the fact a few people can go down a bad path with them. Which makes me consider that having something to intergrate the experience with is important. It does not have to be a pre packaged thing. Absorb what is useful remember. My framework is the shamanic one and certainly not a doctrine of any kind. At least that is what I think your comment was about.

I could be wrong, but I think it is reasonable.
 
Hi All. Someone I met on strawberry hill has just sent me the following report. On a personal level, he has no real interest to discuss or debate, or even share this any more really, but as he said he would and perhaps some would find it interesting, he said it can be shared here. He hopes everyone realises it's just his personal experience & understanding, and has no intention of offending or upsetting anyone :)

I want to type this up whilst I'm still undecided & unsure about this, as it may be interesting to look back at retrospectively when my thoughts have settled...

Preparation:

Hadn't used any psychedelics for around 10 or so years. So, I prepare for the DMT experiment by following my intuition. I intuitively ate very little for at least 7 days prior....typically one meal a day, which is very unusual for me. Stopped going online or checking private emails for about 3 days prior. Apart from going to work, my evenings were spent alone & in meditation or reading for 3 full days prior. For about 2 weeks prior, synchronicities and, I will have to say, without doubt "psychic" experiences were ramped up into overdrive (upto to 5 incidents an hour, and confirmed independantly by witnesses). Tell tale signs of my own "kundalini" (whatever that is) being unusually active for those 2 weeks too (stiff neck, head tremors, feelings of overwhelming universal love etc). All signs were positive and it felt like something important was imminent! Asides for tea, coffee & tobacoo, no other drugs or medication like alchohol or paracetamol were consumed for at least 5 days.

The experiences:

Having Saturday as the day of the "experiment", on Friday I decided to try a heroic dose of Salvia Divinorum, as I had heard it was also a powerful "ego shredder" or whatever. I had done this numerous times before 10 years ago but was not particularly impressed with the
benefits of smoking it (whereas the tincture is pretty beautiful & meaningful), so thought I would try one last time as a "prep" for Saturday's DMT. I had only used normal leaf before, but I had a 6x extract I hadn't ever used. So I smoked around .27g of this extract, 3 or 4 long tokes, and I'm in Salvia's World. Reality folds in on itself, thousands of pixies invade the landscape whilst a lovely Hansel & Gretel house is constructing itself behind me.

And I think "oh yeah, this again. So what?" Reality starts folding in on itself ever more rapidly, as if trying to impress me. I think "so what, is that it?". Then I can sense the female spirit of "Salvia" and she is talking to me (telephatically or whatever, no actual words), and I canse sense she feels hurt and disappointed with me, because I took this strong dose rather casually whilst I was actually all excited about the DMT for tomorrow! She was kinda trying to terrify me
and was saying "HOW DARE YOU THINK OF ME SO CALMLY!! SAY SORRY!! SAY SORRY! OR I WILL TWIST AND DISTORT REALITY TILL YOU CAN'T HANDLE IT!!! SAY SORRY!!". At this point, I felt compassion for the entity, and with a kind of shrug of the shoulders & cheeky smile said "okay, okay, I'm sorry!!". At that point I sensed her calm down, and a kind of hidden "behind the scenes" begrudging respect from her. The trip slowly started to de-intensify, and I was back to normal after a few more minutes.

I have to say, I was a little impressed with intensity. But I don't see anything "spiritual" here, imo. (well, either EVERYTHIN is "spiritual", or NOTHING is, but this is a relative statement that makes sense to ME personally)

Next day was the big day! I got up early, totally cleaned myself & the room, burnt incense, meditated, watched a random 1 1/2 tibetan buddhist talk (all intuitive acts). Think I ate 2 toast at 9am and a cup of tea, that's all. By 2.46pm, I had dosed up 50mg of, was holding the device which contained all the smoke. I took it one hit and held it for around 20 seconds. Within seconds of taking it in, I instantly recognised the state (in retrospect, it is very reminscient of the
peak of the large mushrooms dose I took, but also of peak LSD and Salvia, too. But there is also that weird element of "knowing" it but without knowing how or when) and thought "oh, this again, I remember". I got a high pitched ringing sound on my right hand side (which, actually, was just an extension of the ringing sound I can hear whenever I place attention there, as probably most/many people can...I remember hearing it in childhood, then forgetting about it, then it re-appearing during and ever since my "kundalini awakening" 13 odd years ago). The sound increased in intensity, I closed my eyes (I think) and I was in the tryptamine palace. The weird living hallucinations, the beautiful geometric patterns (which I'd never actually seen on anything else before, almost EXACTLY as they're depicted on CGI art!). I could sense beings around me, I saw a goblin like creature curled up in the arch of a church window sort of thing,
And other such general hallucinations. All very beautifull & pleasant. Interestingly, it also seemed to me as if Salvia had made an appearance during this trip, and she was kind of saying "see, you brought DMT into that trip last night by thinking about it, now I'm invading your DMT trip!!" It actually appeared to me as if Salvia was battling the DMT and was the more powerful....if that makes any sense! The device used was completely different, and salvinorum a shouldn't last in the system the 16 or so hours later I took the DMT, but there she was!!

All in all - I was completely and utterly underwhelmed by the experience. Beautiful - yes. Entertaining - yes. Spiritual - no. I'm sorry if that offends anyone. I've spent 10 odd years basically suggesting I think it may well be the "spirit molecule", with not a negative word about it. But here I was, completely underwhelmed by it. I must not of "broke-through" despite losing physical awareness, seeing the spinning disk, having a completely trippy "peak" which involved kind of inexplicable scenarious and "beings" etc? I was also surprised at how quickly the memories of all the details can fade, bit like dreams...

The rest of the day I was pretty euphoric from the trip, but completely underwhelmed at it's place in the grander scheme of things as I experienced/understood them. I just KNEW what the trip was, I knew it TOO WELL, and it doesn't impress me - or even remotely compare to what I personally consider "spiritual" experiences. Still, the euphoric trippy rest of the day was nice.

Next day, I increased the dose (60mg - perhaps wastage from my method I thought), and took 2 huge lungfulls before I again closed my eyes (I think). Didn't hear the ringing sound this time, but the room did kind of "tear apart" into the "tryptamine" zone, absolutely beautiful geometric patterns, then you're in a room made of living pink flesh, trippy swirls encompass your being, then, well, maybe, I don't know, you "break-through" (???) into the peak which is where I saw odd things that cannot be put into words (for eg. I saw a universe peak out from a crack in this universe!! Meaningless!), and I saw much more beings this time...but misty, whooshing past, kind of felt like they were avoiding me.

Not impressed.

Up the dosage 60-70mg, wait an hour - 3 huge lungfulls. Same as above, no ringing sound again, took slower to come on though, went through all the patterns, "break-through??" into the peak "past" those patterns, where the weirdness really goes on, and this time I saw much
more beings, and much clearer. The vast majority were slinking away in corners, hiding. I kept thinking "come on then, do something! You lot are nothing!!! Where's the astonishment? Stop hiding away like scared little things!!" There was one which reminded me to McKenna's "beings
made of language", as that's exactly what I thought when seeing it. The best "being", though, was one that looked identical to SSP's profile - seriously, IDENTICAL. It kind of grew out of the ground, and just stood there and looked at me. I was like "yeah, do something interesting then". Then I kind of got it, it was saying "we don't have anything to teach you, you know we are you, and you are we, that's all". I came down.

I searched frantically online to see if I had indeed "broken-through".

This experience was just so under-whelming, I rechecked if I was doing something incorrectly, and the "signs" of break-through. I was now very unsure, as all the indications were that I may well have done. Actually, I was beginning to wonder if it mattered - I instantly recognised the "tryptamine state", and it's just not what I consider "spiritual" or even "powerful" at all, really, however "intense" it gets. Pleasant distraction, perhaps. It may have it's benefit for those who cannot even conceive of an intense alternate state of consciousness, a "crack" through which external light can appear - but there are just so many sources of light, I begin to suspect that what we may have here is people mistakenly assuming the alternate tryptamine reality is some sort of higer level "spiritual" reality when it is, imo, less than 5% of the spectrum.....it made me sad to think this. I will share this online, but I will not argue or proselytise (especially in context of my years of suggesting DMT really is a kind of "spirit" molecule in discussions), we must each live our own lives and paths and realities.

Anyway, today, had day off work, upped dosage to 100mg, took in 3 deep., long held hits.

Nothing at all!! Unbelievable! Tolerance is not meant to be an issue, I've upped dose ridiculously, know I did it right as it wasn't burnt, smoke was filled, tasted right, 3 lungfuls held for 15 secs each - mild, mild, threshold effects barely noticable. Waited an hour, did another 100mg. Nothing!! What???? At least I got some sort of memorable trip off the 3 trips on the 2 days before!!

I've clearly built up some sort of tolerance - but I also wonder, and this is why I'm writing this now (some few hours after), if that in itself isn't all that I was supposed to learn from this substance? Yesterday, the trip was underwhelming, the beings were basically cowering away, and the main, "powerful" one just hinted at me that we've got nothing to teach you, pure neutrality extended from me to it and vice versa. Not impressed!

Anyway - the last few days have been interesting, and I do believe I've learnt a LOT - and I wonder if DMT was indeed a "spirit molecule", that it wouldn't in fact work on different dimensions appropriate to the individual other than just tripping and seeing magical things and perceiving "beings" (which I considered in all my experiences as, ultimately, projections of my "self" however much I play along...), and that the experiences I had weren't perfectly appropriate for me? This is my devil's advocate argument/thought.

Yet, I remain underwhelmed. Un-astonished. Un-impressed. I also feel a little saddened at the thought that people believe this "tryptamine" state of consciousness is as close to the "divine" (whatever that is) as is possible. Imo and ime, it is not even close, remotely. Almost infinite layers deeper it can go. The metaphor my own mind has created to make sense of the experience in words is that the tryptamine state is like a little box of experience lying in the infinite expanse of total reality. A box the takes up about 1% of the total space. And that is all that is being explored when on these substances.

Just imo. There are many ways to interpret my experiences, and I'm sure my own understanding will evolve over the coming days and weeks. I plan on taking one more 100mg dose next weekend, and then done with it. Actually, I feel done with it already, and I feel that it was these 2 huge doses that didn't result in any hallucinations which taught me that, ironically.

Perhaps it does work in mysterious ways!!
 
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Unfortunately he didn't get a break through. Not too surprising, it is not too easy. Sounds like his DMT lost potency, perhaps oxiidised.
I reccomend he finds someone experienced, better still a shaman or a active aya circle and try the ayahuasca route.

No offense but there are plenty of trip reports, equally unimpressed, does not sound like he got any where near the break through.
 
DISCLAIMER: Average user estimates are based on data from My MPG users rather than official sources. Since the source data cannot be verified, neither DOE nor EPA guarantees the accuracy of these estimates. Your milage may vary.
 
Plenty of reports here, the good and the bad.
https://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_DMT.shtml

Although the spirit molecule is the place to look, the whole basis for the experiments was to examine the link in mystical experiences. A fair bit of effort has already gone into this question. We already know that entheogens can produce life changing spiritual experience. Even modern science has shown it. Not everytime and not for everyone it would seem, I believe it gives you what you need to know and not what you want to know, you get what you deserve. And of course it is not without its perils partly for that reason.

Although at this stage I am completely lost as to what the question has now become.
 
This is one of the best presentations I have seen in a while. And why the scientific and common perceptions of our culture completely miss the mark.

The bottom line, you cannot be a tourist in the realm of the spirits. He talks of the fine line between shamanic healing and sorcery, between life and death, predator and prey, good and evil, the power to heal or to harm. You cannot be a tourist on the vision quest, you can't just ingest a substance and see what happens, this is not enough. It is not an easy path. Challenges have to be overcome, a mutual relationship must exist to be accepted by the spirits.

I highly recommend this for a perspective from amazonian shamanism.

 
Not only the ancient vedic traditions, but the ancient buddhist tradition as well. Probably to the great surprise of modern buddhists. Christianity, yep you bet ya. They all have roots in entheogenic sacriments.
Amrita, soma, ambrosia, the nectar of the Gods etc...

Secret Drugs of Buddhism is the culmination of over forty years of research by an ordained layman of the Kagyud order of Tibetan Buddhism into his own school of Buddhism, generally known as the “thunderbolt vehicle” (Sanskrit,vajrayāna). Also called the “tantra vehicle” (Skt., tāntrayāna) and the “easy vehicle” (Skt., sahajayāna), it is now known mostly from its presence in Tibet though Vajrayāna Buddhism originated in India and it is these Indian roots which are the book’s main focus.

While investigating the obscure origins of the Vajrayāna the author became intrigued by the pivotal role played by a ritual sacrament known as “the elixir of immortality” (Skt., amṛita). The Vajrayāna tradition makes extensive use of this sacrament: some form of amrita is consumed at the outset of all its major rituals. While modern “amrita” is an innocuous concoction of herbs, grains and saffron, the word amrita originally denoted a potion made from psychoactive mushrooms, most notably fly agaric and Psilocybe cubensis. By the time of the later Buddhist tāntras, a concoction of five psychoactive plants, known in Sanskrit as pañcāmrita, were being used as the sacrament.1 This work provides copious evidence that, in historical times, several psychedelic plants were used sacramentally within the Buddhist tradition.

1c862c148309c0659754b546567434d414f4141.jpg


http://secretdrugs.net

Buddha becomes enlightened under the Bodhi tree. The word bodhi means enlightenment.
The tree a symbol for the tree of life, also in other traditions. Amrita is referred to as the divine nectar. In sanskrit it means "immortality".

Amrita was the sacrament for communion with the gods to attain divine enlightenment.

And remember the Buddah only attained nirvana after dying from eating a poisonous mushroom!

There are definite connections from the vedic traditions to buddhism that even stretch to the other side of the world in pre columbian cultures.

Todays organised traditions are just empty shells of the past, sorry to say. Meanings have been lost and distorted. Culture has twisted perception. There are however some of the old archaic ways still existing in some indigenous cultures.
 
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Then there is the cognate to soma in the Iranian religious traditions called haoma. Most notably associated with zoroastrianism.
Some believe it was the harmaline syrian rue, also used to make dyes for rugs. So the magical Persian flying carpet is born. Others think it was ephedra, others again think cannabis, as used in the sufi tradition.

http://www.chymicalphilosophers.org/celestial-botany/

The world’s oldest religions clearly have a heritage of entheogens at their ritual core. While the debates and speculations will no doubt continue as to precise species or preparation, the role of these plants and their extracts becomes more and more selfevident. The pioneering research of various scholars have made very persuasive arguments for sacramental plant use in various cultures from Vedic Brahmins (Wasson 1968; Houben 1999) to Greek mystery religions (Ruck 1992) and Christian mystics and Manicheans (Allegro 1970; Ruck, Heinrich and Staples 2000; Hoffman and Ruck 2007). Researchers have further focused their attentions on various myths, folklore and art to articulate the central and ancient role of “magical plants” from an Irish Soma (Wilson 1999) to Tantric Buddhist sects (Hajicek-Dobberstein 1995, Crowley 2005, Strickmann 1966). This extends to the heirs of these ancient religions in such traditions as Islam 2 (Dannaway, Piper, and Webster 2006; Piper 2002) alchemy and Grail mythology (Heinrich 2002, Shelly 1995) and Freemasonry (Hoffman and Ruck 2002).

It really is quite fascinating, they are connected. They all have roots in sacramental plants, but today it is denied and demonised. Too bad anthropology is giving up the secret while at the same time modern science acknowledges they do in fact produce spiritual experiences.

And so all of this religious nonsense begins to make sense. Especially in light of the actual experience.
 
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This is a fascinating piece on Mithraism, christianity and freemasonry.
I do like my iconography. The phyrgian cap, or "liberty cap" atop the spear is a extremely widespread image. I will post some more on it.
Here is the run down on the symbology.
http://www.entheomedia.org/freemasonry.htm

freemasonry_1.jpg


At the visual focus of this illuminated document (and its copies), and set apart with striking contrast, we find a familiar Mithraic motif—a red Phrygian cap set atop the shining white steel of a weapon, itself braced vertically, Excalibur-like, into the presumed bedrock. Should one doubt the symbolic significance of this spear and its Mithraic equivalent, the sword or harpe, attention is directed to the fasces, or barsom, (its Persian equivalent, an assemblage of herbal stalks reminiscent of the Dionysian thyrsus, ostensibly a symbol of strength through unity, although not devoid of a basic botanical significance5 ), which otherwise would remain inexplicable in this context. Also, the red tassel situated above the fasces is an important Masonic symbol for the ‘Mystic Tie’ that binds Masons, although they might be of diverse opinion and perspective, into a sacred band of Friends and Brothers; the knot or tie, however, is a more ancient symbol of cosmic trans-terrestrial Union.

Together, the cap and spear form a remarkable homologue of the fly-agaric. Unlike the Mithraic versions, of the Sword of Accord discussed above, the various illustrated versions of the Déclaration, in both the use of colors and in other revealing details, leave little room for doubt as to exactly what entheobotanical Mystery is being depicted. Thus, the skirt-like remnant of the mushroom’s shattered universal veil hanging down atop the spearhead is explicitly depicted, as well as its otherwise incongruously bulbous base.

For additional clarification, the upwardly thrusting mushroom is identified with a sacred garland of evergreen boughs, and remains concealed, albeit just barely, beneath the illuminated capstone of the Déclaration. The evergreen (usually the Attic acacia) is a well known Masonic symbol derived from ancient sources whose esoteric mythos is intimately connected to the obligatory mycorrhizal relationship between evergreen trees (among others) and the entheogenic mushroom that they host. One might only expect the fly-agaric to emerge, as it is about to do in this image, amidst an evergreen-strewn forest floor.

A final element is added to make the esoteric intention of the scene blatantly obvious. Even the most obtuse and profanely-minded viewer would have recognized the ouroboros as the preeminent symbol of the Hermetic Mysteries. For initiates, however, the circular serpent represents far more specific and practical truths. Aside from the well known association of snakes and mushrooms, and the probable allusion to the wheel-like circular cap (notice the serpent’s lowermost extremity corresponds exactly with the bottom of the Phrygian cap), there is an additional reference to the widely documented practice of filtering and fortifying the entheogenic properties of the mushroom as the urinous metabolite by means of passing it through the human body. Thus with the ouroboros—the “tail-eater,” (more correctly translated as “urine-eater”6)—the cycle of the Mystery comes full circle in this masterwork of esoteric visual encryption.

Capping the scene, Libertas on the left informs herself by means of Divine Illumination, while on the right Reason makes ‘eye contact’ with the viewer and beckons attention to the revelatory Light (with her right hand) and its as yet unrevealed earthly source (with her left), the alchemical Son of the Sun, the sacred mushroom sacrament.
 
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