There are a
variety of tools available to anyone interested in exploring altered
states of consciousness. Such tools include meditation, out-of-body
experiences, brain and biofeedback instruments, occult type rituals,
visualization exercises, and also in this category are
hallucinogenic drugs. Each of these tools provides a different
doorway into the inner spaces of our subjectivity and consciousness.
In this article, I would like to provide a brief overview of
hallucinogenic drugs as one means among many for achieving altered
states of consciousness. It is not my intention here to debate
whether it is right or not to use hallucinogenic drugs, whatever is
ones motive, though I will discuss the variety of opinions that
exist in this regard. My purpose here is twofold: 1.) to give a
broad overview of hallucinogenic drugs in general, and 2.) to show
how hallucinogenics can provide, if used reasonably and responsibly,
a valuable and substantial tool for exploring inner spaces.
The history of
mankind's involvement with hallucinogens seems to go back thousands
of years. Some modern scholars speculate that the soma of the
ancient Hindus was indeed a hallucinogenic substance that was used
for purposes of religious ritual and ecstasy. The use of opiates in
China and the Far East is well documented. The religious uses of
hallucinogenic mushrooms by Native Americans is also a well
documented fact, as well as being a point of controversy in modern
legislation.
However, the
modern West only really became involved with hallucinogenic drugs
after World War II. It was in 1948 that LSD was first produced from
rye mold by Albert Hoffman, who was at the time looking for
antibiotic substances in fungi. Also around this time, mescaline was
identified as the active agent in certain hallucinogenic plants.
Within a few years after being recognized, these substances began to
cause severe polarization in opinions about their use and benefit.
On one hand, there
were in the 1950s and early 1960s, small groups of avant garde
intellectuals who began to associate religious and mystical
qualities with the effects of these drugs on human perception.
Perhaps best known in this regard was Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of
Perception", which highlighted Huxley's personal experiences on
mescaline. Also in this vein was Alan Watts' "The Joyous Cosmology"
which also extolled the philosophical and mystical virtues of the
hallucinogenic experience.
On the other hand,
during this same period, hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and
mescaline were seen by the medical and psychiatric fields as being
agents that seemed to simulate psychosis. Initially, the term
"hallucinogenic" did not even exist. In the 1950s and 1960s these
drugs were generally called "psychomimetics", meaning that their
effects mimicked symptoms displayed by psychotics and paranoids.
Perhaps the crowning tribute to this view of LSD was the book "One
Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" by Ken Kesey, which reflected Kesey's
experiences as a volunteer in medical experiments on the effects of
LSD. Incidentally, Kesey, in the late 1960s went on to be one of the
leaders of the West coast psychedelic movement with his "Band of
Merry Pranksters" (as described in the book "The Electric Kool-Aid
Acid Tests")
So from the very
beginning the hallucinogenic drugs have been viewed from totally
opposite points of view: doctors initially equated the drugs'
effects with psychosis, and intellectuals equated the drugs effects
with profound religious experiences.
The story of
LSD climaxed in the early 1960s with the research of Timothy Leary at
Harvard University. Initially, Leary, who was a Harvard psychologist
researching the nature of personality, had only an impartial
scientific interest in these so-called psychomemetic drugs. He soon
found out however that their effects were so great as to cause him
to essentially abandon his roots as an elitist East coast
intellectual and to become the founding father of the psychedelic
movement in the United States. It was Leary's contention that
hallucinogenic drugs opened up to human perception things long lost
from Western tradition, things that were well understood in older
cultures and religions. Timothy Leary recognized, like other
intellectuals a decade before him, that these drugs have the
potential to cause profound religious and mystical experiences,
experiences that could easily be distorted and misconstrued by
Western reductionistic intellectuals as being symptoms of insanity.
Leary, like any other person made sane by LSD, came to the
conclusion that it was the modern West that was insane, not some
poor individual in a psychiatric ward who was experiencing visions
and hearing voices.
I do not think
there is a need here to attempt to recount in full the story of
Timothy Leary. However, we will return to the contention that
hallucinogenic drugs cause religious and mystical experiences. At
this point, it is enough to say that Leary started something much
bigger than himself. The psychedelic movement gained much momentum
through 1965-1967, culminating with events like Woodstock. However,
quick as it came, it was gone. LSD was made illegal, Jimi
Hendrix and Janis Joplin died, Leary got off his soap-box, and the
United States, after failing miserably in Vietnam, drifted into a
depressing 1970s.
And here we are,
some 20 years later. LSD has not gone away, it is simply not talked
about anymore. The best of the actual psychedelic movement turned
into the Grateful Dead, who have been riding a successful music
career ever since. And the basement scientists who in the 1960s made
and sold LSD turned into the "designer drug" community on the West
Coast, giving us such wonderful poisons as "Ecstasy" (which causes
severe nerve damage if taken enough - so beware!).
Well, with this
bit of history under our belts, I'd like to discuss a little about
the hallucinogenic drugs themselves both in terms of what their
subjective effects are and also what is known about how they react
in the body. After that, I will then go into more detail about their
use as a tool for exploring inner space.
So
doctors call it insanity, and intellectuals call it enlightenment,
but really, what is it? What are the effects caused when on
hallucinogenic drugs?
In terms of
effects, one of the most important generalizations about these
drugs' effects was laid out by Leary when he spoke of "set and
setting". What he meant by this is that what an LSD user actually
experienced was critically dependant on the user's state of mind
(set) and where he was at and what company he was in (setting). This
fact is completely true. It is very difficult to classify the
effects of hallucinogenic because they *are* so dependent upon set
and setting. If the user is depressed and in bad company, the
experience will be vastly different than if the user is relaxed,
happy and in good company.
But, keeping this
idea of "set and setting" in the front of our mind, we can still
make some generalizations about the subjective effects of the LSD
experience. Some of the most commonly reported effects are:
-
Visual
hallucinations.
-
Audio
hallucinations.
-
Sensory mixing
(hearing sights or seeing sounds).
-
Weakening of
ego boundaries (a weakening or loss of sense of self).
-
Enhanced
ability to think abstractly.
-
The
uncontrollable urge to laugh.
-
Enhanced
ability to sense the emotions of others.
-
Inability to
maintain focus or concentration for long periods.
-
Feelings of
extreme joy
-
Feelings of
extreme depression and terror.
-
A direct
apprehension of God.
Now this list is
by no means complete. It only states some of the more commonly
reported effects. It is also important to state that not all of
these are experienced by a LSD user. As a matter of fact it is
possible that none of these effects will be experienced. It is
important to be aware that: THE EFFECTS OF HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS ARE
EXTREMELY UNPREDICTABLE. The rule of "set and setting" is the best
guide for anticipating what the effects of a hallucinogenic
experience may be. As a matter of fact, I have a close friend who is
quite experienced at the use of hallucinogens, and his rule of thumb
is the following: "if you have a garden in your mind, then you'll be
in it. If you have a garbage can in your mind, then you'll be in it".
This is very useful advice.
At
this point I would like to begin to discuss what it is that these
drugs are doing in the body. There is no question that hallucinogens
cause profound effects. The really key question is: where do these
effects come from?
To answer this
question I would like to lay out two very different theories of what
it is the hallucinogens are doing to the human being. We will see
that these theories are complimentary in that they both shed light
on mode of the action of hallucinogenic drugs. However, these two
theories I am about to discuss are products of vastly different
world-views that most people consider to be contradictory. In this
article, I take the attitude that we can learn from both. The two
views of how hallucinogens affect humans that I will now discuss are
the scientific view and the occult view. Both science and occultism
offer reasonable and useful views about the nature of the
hallucinogenic experience. However, what I intend to illustrate here
is that the occult view is simply better. Let us begin with the
scientific view. There are philosophical problems we must as well
address as we proceed.
A drug such as LSD
offers a severe challenge to the conventional scientific wisdom.
Science tells us that our consciousness is somehow the product of
our brain; that our psychology is the software, and the brain is the
hardware. At first glance, the LSD experience seems to completely
support this view for we have eaten a chemical that severely alters
the hardware, and thus, expectedly, alters the software (i.e. our
thoughts and perceptions). For the moment, let us just accept this
contention and work with it.
Modern
scientific investigations into the structure of the brain shows that
it is made of lots of different layers of tissues such as the
cortex, cerebellum and others. These tissues in turn are, in total,
made of some one trillion cells. These cells are called neurons.
Neurons look a lot like tree branches, branching off in myriad
directions touching many, many other neurons. And the neurons align
themselves like fibers, making thick tracts of cable throughout the
brain. It is well known that neurons conduct electricity along
themselves. This electricity is created by salts like sodium and potassium,
chloride and calcium. And these salts
act in the cells, much like the salts in a battery work to make
electricity.
Now it is also
well known that neurons do not touch each other directly, but that
there is a small space between adjacent neurons. This space is
called a synapse. Now the way neurons conduct electricity from one
to the next is that, the electrical impulse travels the length of
the first or sending neuron until it gets to the synapse. At this
point, the electricity at the synapse causes the first neuron to
release chemicals, called neurotransmitters, into the synapse. these
neurotransmitters float across the synapse where they then encounter
the second or receiving neuron. Depending on the nature of the
second neuron, once the neurotransmitters contact it, it will either
continue the impulse (and this then would be an excititory neuron),
or it will not conduct the impulse (this is an inhibitory neuron).
It is important to appreciate that there are two types of neurons in
the brain, excititory and inhibitory. This is important for
understanding how science explains the mode of action of
hallucinogenic drugs.
As it turns out,
the chemical structure of the hallucinogenic looks very, very
similar to the chemical structure of the neurotransmitters in the
brain. Scientist therefore conclude (and quite reasonably) that what
happens when you take a hallucinogenic drug is that the drug gets
into the brain and interferes with the normal operation of the
neurotransmitters. The hallucinogenic drug fools the neurons into
thinking it is a neurotransmitter and it then disrupts the normal
flow of business in the neurons. Now the specific details of how
this happens do not exist. Yet, because the hallucinogens expand the
activity in ones consciousness, scientists believe that whatever
hallucinogens are doing in the brain, ultimately they are disrupting
inhibitory synapses. The idea here is that inhibitory synapsis serve
a filtering function in the brain and that unwanted or unnecessary
stimuli are inhibited. If hallucinogens disrupt this filtering
function, then one would expect an increase in the "noise" level of
the brain leading to such activities as hallucinations or even
delusions. Thus, the effects of hallucinogens are generally seen by
scientists to be "noise" (similar to static on a radio, for
example).
There is no
question a certain degree of merit to this hypothesis. However, one
could ask as well: are there perhaps latent functions in the brain
that are turned on by hallucinogens? This point of view has not been
well addressed by scientific research for the simple fact that, how
can you look at something if you don't know it exists? If there are
functions turned on by hallucinogenic drugs in the brain that do not
normally operate in our usual states of consciousness, then
scientists have nothing to compare these states to, and thus are
affected by a blind spot. Still, though this question of turning on
latent functions is not easily addressed in terms of scientific
thinking, we shall see below that occult views provide us a basis to
reasonably address this question.
In spite of any
hypothesis scientists may provide as to the operation of
hallucinogens in the nervous system, we must put this discussion in
its proper perspective. Whatever scientists may profess to know
about the activity of hallucinogenic drugs is colored strongly by
the fact that the current scientific understanding of how the brain
and nerve cells work is highly incomplete.
And this point
leads us back to philosophy. Because, on one hand, scientists like
to believe that the brain creates consciousness, but on the other
hand, scientist have only a partial and incomplete understanding of
how the brain works. This seems like putting the cart before the
horse to me. It is possible that science will come to understand in
very full detail how the operation of the brain leads to memory
formation and other psychological phenomena. But the point is, they
only have a partial understanding at this point. If you took a brain
scientist (a neurologist, or neurochemist, or whatever) and sat them
down and asked; "How does the brain create consciousness?" They'll
either B.S. you with a bunch of details and never directly answer
your question, or they will out right honestly admit that this
question simply cannot be answered with current knowledge (if you
can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit!). So,
the bottom line is, that science's contention that the brain creates
consciousness is more belief and dogma than it is cold, hard,
provable fact.
Now it's important
to appreciate this situation, because what it does is leave the
doorway open for alternative explanations. And in this quest for
alternative explanations, we do not have to take an attitude that
science is wrong and the alternatives are right, or vice versa. We
can take a more balanced and reasonable attitude and realize that
different explanations will give us a broader scope on the issue and
therefore, in the end, make our understanding fuller than if we
defensively or dogmatically cling to only one view of things.
So having said
this, let us turn to an alternative explanation of LSD's effects
(and any other hallucinogen for that matter), and this is the
explanation given by occultists.
Occult Explanations Of
Hallucinogenic Effects
Now occultists
have a much different world-view than scientists, but as a
world-view it is no less complex. For our purposes here what we must
realize is that occultism teaches the opposite of science and that
is that our consciousness is independent from our body. According to
occultists, our body (and therefore our brain as well) is but a
temporary vehicle that houses our consciousness in the span of our
life in the physical world. Occultism also teaches that there are
worlds other than the physical and these worlds are called "planes".
Only four of these planes are significant to humans. These are the
physical, astral, mental and buddhic planes. According to occultists
we also have vehicles or bodies for each of these planes. Thus each
of us has an astral body and mental body and a buddhic body.
It is by this
theory that occultism explains the plain facts of our lives.
Occultism teaches that our emotions are our astral body, that our
mind is our mental body, and that our soul or conscience is our
buddhic body. Thus, right from the start, occultism does not bother
with the idea that our physical body creates our mind, emotions or
soul (and this idea of "soul" incidentally, is something science
likes to deny). Instead, occultism claims that all of these vehicles
overlap and interact and create our life and experience as we know
and understand it.
Now it is not my
intention here to judge occult theory, or the validity of these
ideas. To an explorer of inner space (especially one who frequently
experiences out-of-body states) this theory is perfectly obvious.
For someone with no comprehension of inner realities or experiences
with altered states of consciousness, all I can say is, this article
is not for you. Go read Carl Sagan or something.
To return to the
point, occult theories detail very carefully the manner in which all
the vehicles interact. The interaction of the vehicles is explained
by the theory of the chakras. The chakras are seven (or a couple
more depending on the scope of the occult theory) vortex like
depressions in the astral, mental and buddhic bodies that serve as
energy channels between the bodies. The chakras are energy
processing centers that hold the bodies together and unify mind,
body, emotion and soul into the one framework of our direct
experience. Any meditators out there probably have had direct
experiences with their chakras. As it turns out, the location of the
chakras in our other bodies, line up in a line with the spine of our
physical body and they are located wherever there is a nerve plexus
in our physical body.
Furthermore,
occultism teaches that there is an intimate feedback and interplay
between all of the bodies, and this feedback is effected through the
chakras. Our physical body also has chakras, but these are invisible
to our physical senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and hearing.
Our physical chakras are made of a type of radiation that is
invisible to our sense (this radiation is called "etheric matter" by
occultists), but they exist nonetheless, and serve as the bridge
between our nervous system and our astral, mental and buddhic
bodies.
Chakra theory is
very complex. Each chakra serves a variety of specific functions.
These I will only briefly outline here to the extent that it is
relevent to our discussion of hallucinogenic drugs. Here is a list
of the chakras by their common name (the Hindu names can be found in
any worthwhile yoga book). These will be listed from the bottom of
the spine up to the top of the spine, along with the corresponding
body locations:
-
Root chakra -
between the legs
-
Navel chakra -
at the waste
-
Spleen chakra
- over the navel
-
Heart chakra -
over the heart
-
Throat chakra
- over the throat
-
Third eye
chakra - over the forehead
-
Crown chakra -
top of head
So as not to keep
the reader in suspense, the reason I am going into some detail about
chakra theory is that we shall see that it explains much clearer
than science does what happens when under the influence of
hallucinogenic drugs. Now to go into this we need some understanding
of the functions of the chakras. These are listed briefly as:
-
Root - sex
energy, libido
-
Navel -
excretion (kidneys, liver), sensation in general
-
Spleen -
digestion, energy input, ability to dream
-
Heart -
circulation, empathy
-
Throat -
communication, speech, hearing, clairaudience
-
Third-eye -
sight, cognition, clairvoyance
-
Crown - brain,
thought, spirituality
What the reader
will notice about this list is that each chakra has not only
physical functions or organs associated with it, but as well
subjective and psychological functions associated with it. It is by
means of this theory that occultism explains the relationship
between mind and body and soul. All of these factors are
interconnected through the operation of the chakras. Even though it
may seem that we are getting unnecessarily complex here, we are
actually building a very powerful theoretical framework of how a
human is built and operates. Already at this point we have related
biological and psychological functions in one coherent theory.
Science, with its reductionistic mentality can offer us no
equivalent counterpart. Science, as mentioned above, cannot offer
any detailed understanding of how the subjective and objective
facets of our life interrelate. Chakra theory, and occultism in
general, does indeed offer this understanding. And what I shall now
illustrate is that occultism does not contradict or clash with
science in any way. Instead, it offers us an expanded viewpoint that
integrates the facts known to modern science into a larger view of
our total experience as human beings
So with this
minimal picture of occult theory in mind, let us return to the issue
of hallucinogenic drugs. Using occult theory, what we can say is
that hallucinogenic drugs severely affect the behavior of the
chakras. All of the subjective effects listed earlier in this
article can be accounted for as effects of hyperactivity in definite
chakras:
1. Thus, visual
hallucinations are in actuality the stimulation of the third eye
chakra, leading to some degree of clairvoyance, which is the
perception of the adjacent planes.
2. Audio
hallucinations are the stimulating of the throat chakra to hyper
activity. In this case, one begins to hear on, for example, the
astral plane.
3. The mixing of
sensory modalities is an effect of the crown chakra, which is the
site of integration, not only of sensory perception, but astral
perception (emotions), and mental perception (thinking). Thus, at
the point of integration (crown chakra) all separate modalities are
blended into a unified consciousness. This effect is enhanced under
hallucinogenics. And the hallucinogenic effect is even more
pronounced because of the fact that we rarely recognize this
integration to begin with. It is there all along but we don't see,
and when the drug stimulates the crown chakra and we are forced to
look at this integration of the modalities of our consciousness, it
seems surprising to us.
4. The weakening
of ego boundaries is again an effect of increasing the activity of
the crown chakra. In this case, it is not so much that the ego is
loosened but that the ego is seen in its proper perspective in the
totality of our organization as a human being. Again, this is an
effect of the integration function of the crown chakra. The ego
(which effectively is our personal identity) is but one facet of our
being. In our day to day life however, we tend to over emphasize our
ego at the expense of other facets of our being. Again, the
hallucinogenic stimulation of the crown chakra only serves to put
things in a realistic perspective.
5. Enhanced
ability to think abstractly. What is happening here is that the
hallucinogen triggers off such an enormous increase in libido energy
(which will be discussed below) that our mind is capable of
perceiving a much vaster range of the mental plane. This effectively
translates into broader, more sweeping and more abstract thoughts.
6. The
uncontrollable urge to laugh is a classic phenomena indicating
enhanced chakra activity. Laughter is a release of tension.
Increasing the activity of chakras is also a release of tension. The
increased chakra motion effectively burns up the extra energy. An
experienced LSD user is unlikely to have this laughter effect, only
a novice who is not used to the sensations of enhanced chakras would
express these sensations by uncontrollable laughter. This is very
similar to how people laugh when they are nervous or cry when they
are very happy. However, on the hallucinogen, the effect is greatly
increased.
7. The enhanced
empathic ability is mainly a function of the hyper stimulation of
the heart chakra. Our whole ability to be sensitive to the emotions
displayed by others resides in the heart chakra. The hallucinogenic
stimulates the heart chakra, so it is no surprises that a typical
hallucinogenic user is more sensitive to the feelings and attitudes
of others.
8. Inability to
maintain focus or concentration for long periods. Here we run into a
situation that is probably more a function of the brain than of the
chakra system. It should be pointed out that experienced
hallucinogenic users will report that this effect only lasts for a
small percentage of the time that the drug effects are occurring.
Probably what we are seeing here is the maximum effect of the actual
chemical in the physical body in which there is a maximum disruption
of the normal function of the neurons in the brain. Again, this
effect is short lived (usually about 30-60 minute). And often it
seems that this effect is a prelude to the effect of thinking
abstractly. It appears that we are dealing with distinct phases of
the drug experience here and with effect number 5, again, with
number 8 here preceding number 5.
9. Feelings of
extreme joy. This effect is literally the opposite of effect 10:
feelings of extreme terror and/or depression. What he have here is
an amplification of ones normal state of mind by the enhanced libido
of the drug. Whatever the user is feeling becomes greatly magnified,
so reports of extreme emotional states are common. Also, since
emotion is generally a function of the concerted (simultaneous)
operation of the four lower chakras, we find here evidence that the
hallucinogen is affecting not only the higher chakras (throat,
third-eye and crown) but the lower ones as well. Again, this will be
generalized below.
10. Finally, the
direct apprehension of God. It is in studying this hallucinogenic
effect that we can begin to tie together many elements of this
article. We have seen that intellectuals such as Huxley, Watts, and
Leary identified the LSD experience with religious experience. It is
also a common, though reasonably accurate picture that the guy in
the nut house thinks he's Jesus. Furthermore, all yoga texts worth
reading explain that the function of yoga is ultimately to transfer
all of the libido energy to the crown chakra at which point the yogi
achieves nirvana, or mystical insight, which, practically speaking,
is *the* total, integrative psychological event. One directly
perceives the unity of the cosmos, and ones place in this unity. For
all practical purposes, this is indeed seeing God. That Western
intellectuals have perceived this in a religious context, and
Western physicians have perceived this in the context of psychosis,
really tells us something about Western intellectuals and Western
doctors. All I can ask is: "Who would you invite over for dinner, or
have watch your kids?"
At this point, I
would like to attempt to generalize this picture of the action of
hallucinogenic drugs on the chakras system. One important facet of
occult teaching I have not explicitly stated yet, though I have been
using it, is the idea of "kundalini". Yogis and occultists teach
that housed in the root chakra is a fundamental energy called
kundalini. This energy is depicted as a coiled snake and it is the
goal of the yogi and occultist to, slowly and in a controlled
manner, release this energy. The purpose for releasing this energy
is to bring it progressively through the chakras, which in turn
confers the particular psychic abilities associated with that
chakra. This process is known as "awakening" or "vivifying" a
chakra. This energy is brought up the spine (or the etheric
counterpart thereof) and its final destination is the crown chakra,
which, upon successfully reaching, confers enlightenment, which is
the true goal of both yoga and occultism, as well as mysticism.
Bringing the kundalini to the crown chakra is exactly the method by
which enlightenment is conferred. This is a well known and well
accepted fact in Eastern cultures in which the yoga tradition is
kept alive.
Above I used the
word "libido", a word derived from Freud that loosely translates as
"sex energy". Libido is kundalini. However, the idea of kundalini is
much broader and clearer than Freud's concept of libido, so I will
now use the word kundalini from here on out.
So with this
backgound, let us attempt to give a general explanation, in occult
terms, of the effect of hallucinogenic drugs on a human being.
What seems to be
happening during the hallucinogenic experience is that the kundalini
is spontaneously activated by the drug. How this occurs I do not
know. I can speculate that probably what happens is that the
hallucinogenic somehow affects the gland system of the body (which
is called the endocrine system and includes the adrenal glands,
thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary and pineal glands, among others),
not simply the brain. I make this statement about the endocrine
system because occultist often point out the crucial role played by
the pineal and pituitary glands in meditative practices. In a
fashion that is very ill defined both scientifically and occultly,
these glands play an intimate role in relation to the kundalini.
Unfortunately, not much more than this can be said.
Somehow, the drug
confers changes in the endocrine system of the body that result in
the stimulation of the kundalini. The kundalini becomes active in an
uncontrolled fashion, which is literally the opposite of yoga in
which kundalini is slowly and painstakingly controlled over years of
meditative practices. The onset of alterations in the LSD user's
perception corresponds with the onset of the kundalini release. As
this energy is released in a spontaneous and uncontrolled fashion,
any number of psychological and subjective events are possible that
would be completely dependent on the circumstances under which the
drug was taken. This then is the explanation of Timothy Leary's
notion of "set and setting".
At
this point we have completed our overview of hallucinogenic
substances. We've briefly mentioned the history, discussed the
subjective effects of these drugs, and gone into some detail of
scientific and occult explanations of why these drugs do what they
do to human beings. In this last section, I would like to try to tie
all of this together in terms of how these drugs provide a tool for
the individual interested in exploring his or her own subjectivity,
the inner spaces of ones being.
Going off on all
the occult chakra theory as I did above has one overridingly
important lesson to it, and that is the realization that
hallucinogenics do in one hour what yogis spend their lives trying
to accomplish. The release of the kundalini energy is no small or
trivial matter. My friend that I mentioned earlier likes to compare
LSD and related substances to nuclear bombs. Both are immediate,
almost uncomprehensively powerful, and can kill a lot more readily
than they can heal. LSD is something to be respected, if not
revered, because it is indeed a doorway to many divine things. I
would not discourage one from taking the drug. However, I do not
advocate the careless use of the drug either. If one is interested
in using it as a tool for experiencing realities that current dogma
tells us do not exist, well, I recommend that the explorer exercise
respect for this particular tool. And then, as an explorer, you can
see that current dogma is simply wrong.
Another purpose
for going off on both scientific and occult theory is to show that
there is way more going on here than meets they eye. In this regard,
I have a favorite quote by Leadbeater that says it all: "We must
beware of falling into the fatally common error of supposing that
what we see is all there is to see." LSD, and hallucinogenic drugs
in general, can be used as a tool to give concrete substance to
Leadbeater's statement. The watchful and attentive hallucinogenic
user will learn many things about the hidden worlds that we cannot
perceive with our physical senses, ranging from things as
unbelievable as seeing the cells inside your brain, to seeing atoms
and molecules, to readily perceiving abstractions so glorious as to
defy your very being, all the way to -dare I say it -seeing God
first hand, and allowing God to talk through your mouth. On this
note, I'd like to end this article with a quote by Aleister Crowley,
(taken from "The Book Of Wisdom Or Folly) that absolutely captures
the spirit of this article:
"Concerning the
Use of Chymical Agents, and be mindful that thou abuse them not,
learn that the Sacrament itself relateth to Spirit, and the Four
Elements balanced thereunder, in its Perfection."
- appropriated
excerpts from those 20th century pioneers of
high weirdness:
E=±mc²=Thé
Ðëòxÿríßøñµçlëìç HÿÞêrdïmèñsîøñ
original
disclaimer: Please direct your questions and/or comments to:
Don DeGracia, CIS address: 71331,3517
