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HA.
Someone Blow My Mind Vol. Illuminati, 2012, Aliens, Life
- Thread in 'General' Thread starter Started by johnnyredstorm,
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Bend_The_Knee
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Bend_The_Knee
formerly gotholesinmysocks
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I'm really trying to get into this thread, because I know the intent is well, but, everything seems regurgitated and repetitive and short sighted. People seem to want to be seen first, heard first and listened to above all.
Am I the only one feeling this way?
Am I the only one feeling this way?
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That last paragraph hits home, because that is the case. Let's look at tunes in the 50s, 60s, etc. compared to today.
Blues? There are no blues today. Hell, there isn't much worthwhile rock and roll. Back when the blues were real, before Zeppelin stole their best songs, blues were the epitome of music's purpose: soulful expression. Today, not much soulful expression in music. Not much at all. Occasionally you'll get the dope rap/rock/country song that hits home, but the overall stuff that gets pushed on people—soulless.
Jazz? Same with blues, phased out for meaningless crap. Jazz is dope, but people don't even know much about it or who the greats are. People know who the hottest DJ's today are now though. The coolest "party" starters. That's the problem with this EDM frequency being pushed on people under the guise of peace, love, unity and respect. To me, that's a great message to use as a veil to lure people into unleashing their inhibitions, whether through the vibrations and pulsations of the music, or the damn drugs they're taking. Instead of swaying around and dry humping people like a bunch of basstards, why not channel that P.L.U.R. to change the world? Why not create a cause? Oh that's right, because when the beat drops the first few things you associate with are fist pumping, drinking, sex and uninhibited jubilation. There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself and embracing that stuff. It could provide for some of the funnest nights you'll ever experience. But ask yourself, why are we pushing music away from instruments and vocals—away from actual talent—toward machines, buttons and auto tune?
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one reason may be that current music is easier to control by the controllers than it used to be
over the years they have figured out what best makes the money & controls the masses...
see, record company execs don't have the talent to make good music themselves, they never did...
so if there is less of a gap between "the talent" and the controllers...it is easier for them to manipulate & to understand
frank zappa was not a favorite musician of mine but was a very intelligent person and i think his take on this is insightful:
he basically stated that when the music industry became the force it is today - the company execs were old, out-of-touch, grumpy dudes that had no clue with reagrd to popular music...so the talent was allowed to run wild so to speak cause it was entirely up to them to produce the money making sounds
zappa says this paradigm was better for the artist than today......today where those old grumpy execs have been replaced with younger ego maniacs WHO THINK they
know what the listeners want more than the listener knows & force those specifc agenda into the music - pushing out the talent, the redeeming value...
"whos' your a&r - a mountain climber that plays the electric guitar?" - gza/genius
so now the music is being filtered by the execs in a way it was not in the past which results in less creative music for the masses
a really interesting take by zappa - a perspective that could really only come from someone who experienced this generational development in music or pop music
but after all this....the big "why?" - why the control? why not tho? what else are they do with it?
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ben roethlisberger
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Couldn't the same be said for every single thread on niketalk? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm willing to bet the house that if we jumped in literally every thread on this forum, it would be exactly the same.
Or, it could just be your perception.
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It's definitely my perception, but others feel this way too. I'm not knocking the thread, I just was curious as to whether I was the only person who felt that way, and I wasn't.
This is a dope thread though, and yes all threads here can be the same in that aspect. I'm still subscribed, there's things here I like, too.
TYE_The Time Traveler
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Its funny how i made a post on this very page in regards to watching and reading things that express stuff i already know and have well established. After having read what @Evil Dead posted which shared alot of thoughts i already have, introduced many new ones but overall along the lines of where im thinking now. Is choosing to mentally eat those kinds of thoughts and articles just a healthier diet for oneself ? I said in the earlier post that once we get and established certain truths that we should just focus on not harming other, living, loving and learning. Im wrong in that thinking because like keeping up with diet and exercise, doing it mentally reading/watchings that constantly reinforce the messages that we have learned is also crucial and i didn't even take it into consideration. Constant positive reinforcement and the constant talks and engagement in this thread and spreading the things we know across many spectrums of our life is what helps further evolve and help others see. As time passes more and more people will take a peek into this thread and that how the changes start to happen. So i sort of take back that last post i made. Im thankful i caught that.
ben roethlisberger
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I feel you, bro. I wish we could have more structured discussions centered around one specific topic a day/week and not have it be focused on who's right and who's wrong. But I think we do a good job in here of letting everyone express their perspective on these various subjects without it being about who's ego is bigger.
This makes me want to start the website even more. Instead of one thread piled with 1,000 different subjects, obviously you have multiple threads dedicated to whatever it is the poster wants to talk about. Pretty sure that's the point of a forum lol I'd say we're doing a pretty good job in this thread on a website dedicated to the mundane life of materialism, especially when the normal American way of life builds ego up to a whole other stratosphere.
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i wrote about the same thing pertaining to R&B in the music forum some years ago. this white jew NTer who claimed to work in the music industry, tried his hardest to argue me down. -chuckles-
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The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby takes a serious look at how neurogenetic consciousness informs awareness, knowledge, symbolism and culture. His comparison of the ancient cosmic serpent myths to the genetic situation in every living cell reveals the immortal biomolecular wizard behind the curtain of everyday life. His anthropological study, ayahuasca experience and scientific speculations weave a tale of shamans who bring their consciousness down to molecular levels with sophisticated neurotransmitter potions in order to perceive information contained in the coherent visible light emitted by DNA.
Some excerpts from this important book:
Some biologists describe DNA as an "ancient high biotechnology," containing "over a hundred trillion times as much information by volume as our most sophisticated information storage devices." Could one still speak of technology in these circumstances? Yes, because there is no other word to qualify this duplicable, information-storing molecule. DNA is only ten atoms wide and as such constitutes a sort of ultimate technology: It is organic and so miniturized that it approaches the limits of material existence.
Shamans, meanwhile, claim that the vital principle that animates all living creatures comes from the cosmos and is minded. As ayahuasquero Pablo Amaringo says: "A plant may not talk, but there is a spirit in it that is conscious, that sees everything, which is the soul of the plant, its essence, what makes it alive." According to Amaringo these spirits are veritable beings, and humans are also filled with them: "Even the hair, the eyes, the ears are full of beings. You see all this when ayahuasca is strong."
In their visions, shamans take their consciousness down to the molecular level and gain access to information related to DNA, which they call "animate essences" or "spirits." This is where they see double helixes, twisted ladders, and chromosome shapes. This is how shamanic cultures have known for millennia that the vital principle is the same for all living beings, and is shaped like two entwined serpents (or a vine, a rope, ladder...). DNA is the source of their astonishing botanical and medicinal knowledge, which can be attained only in defocalized and "nonrational" states of consciousness, though its results are empirically verifiable. The myths of these cultures are filled with biological imagery, and the shamans metaphoric explanations correspond quite precisely to the descriptions that biologists are starting to provide.
DNA and the cell-based life it codes for are an extremely sophisticated technology that far surpasses our present-day understanding and that was initially developed elsewhere than on earth—which it radically transformed on its arrival some four billion years ago.
If one stretches out the DNA contained in the nucleus of a human cell, one obtains a two-yard long thread that is only ten atoms wide (and the two ribbons that make up this filament wrap around each other several hundred million times). This thread is a billion times longer than its own width. Relatively speaking, it is as if your little finger stretched from Paris to Los Angeles.
A thread of DNA is much smaller than the visible light humans perceive. Even the most powerful optical microscopes can not reveal it, because DNA is approximately 120 times narrower than the smallest wavelength of visible light.
The nucleus of a cell is equivalent in volume to 2-millionths of a pinhead. The two-yard thread of DNA packs into this minute volume by coiling up endlessly on itself, thereby reconciling extreme length and infinitesimal smallness, like mythical serpents.
In the early 1980s, thanks to the development of a sophisticated measurement device, a team of scientists demonstrated that the cells of all living beings emit photons at a rate of up to approximately 100 units per second and per square centimeter of surface area. They also showed that DNA was the source of this photon emission.
The wavelength at which DNA emits these photons corresponds exactly to the narrow band of visible light: "Its spectral distribution ranges at least from infrared (at about 900 nanometers) to ultraviolet (up to about 200 nanometers)"...DNA emits photons with such regularity that researchers compare the phenomenon to an "ultra-weak laser." (see History of Biophotonics)
Inside the nucleus, DNA coils and uncoils, writhes and wriggles. Scientists often compare the form and movements of this long molecule to those of a snake.
There...is the source of knowledge: DNA, living in water and emitting photons, like an aquatic dragon spitting fire.
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TYE_The Time Traveler
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@evil dead i looked up the revolutionary pleasure of thinking for yourself, i saw that there was a book with the title have you read it ? Thanks for posting that by the way man that did some wonders for me.
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Thank you, that was a trimmed down, cleaned up edit, taking of the most vital points of the original article, making for a very clear effective delivery of the original intended message, cutting out any unnecessary filler or anything wandering off the original path, I'm glad you enjoyed, ill rep when I can I'm fresh out at the moment, thank you
ps the article was written by an anonymous author. Original and edit 
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A Short Guide About Hallucinogenic Drugs For the Explorers of Inner Space
by Donald J. DeGracia
I recommend this for anyone to read.
by Donald J. DeGracia
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.
History Of Hallucinogenic Substances
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 ****oos 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.
The Effects of Hallucinogenic Drugs
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.
Explanations of Hallucinogenic Effects
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.
Scientific Explanations of Hallucinogenic Effects
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 ********!). 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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
Hallucinogenic Drugs And Inner Exploration
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."
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.
History Of Hallucinogenic Substances
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 ****oos 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.
The Effects of Hallucinogenic Drugs
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.
Explanations of Hallucinogenic Effects
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.
Scientific Explanations of Hallucinogenic Effects
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 ********!). 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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
Hallucinogenic Drugs And Inner Exploration
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."
I recommend this for anyone to read.
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Who listens to hiero?
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Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.—Martin Luther King, Jr.
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The mushroom speaks, and our opinions rest upon what it tells eloquently of itself in the cool night of the mind:
"I am old, older than thought in your species, which is itself fifty times older than your history. Though I have been on earth for ages I am from the stars. My home is no one planet, for many worlds scattered through the shining disc of the galaxy have conditions which allow my spores an opportunity for life. The mushroom which you see is the part of my body given to sex thrills and sun bathing, my true body is a fine network of fibers growing through the soil. These networks may cover acres and may have far more connections that the number in a human brain. My mycelial network is nearly immortal, only the sudden toxification of a planet or the explosion of its parent star can wipe me out. By means impossible to explain because of certain misconceptions in your model of reality all my mycelial networks in the galaxy are in hyperlight communication across space and time. The mycelial body is as fragile as a spider's web but the collective hypermind and memory is a vast historical archive of the career of evolving intelligence on many worlds in our spiral star swarm. Space, you see, is a vast ocean to those hardy life forms that have the ability to reproduce from spores, for spores are covered with the hardest organic substance known. Across the aeons of time and space drift many spore-forming life-forms in suspended animation for millions of years until contact is made with a suitable environment. Few such species are minded, only myself and my recently evolved near relatives have achieved the hyper-communication mode and memory capacity that makes us leading members in the community of galactic intelligence. How the hypercommunication mode operates is a secret which will not be lightly given to man. But the means should be obvious: it is the occurrence of psilocybin and psilocin in the biosynthetic pathways of my living body that opens for me and my symbiots the vision screens to many worlds. You as an individual and man as a species are on the brink of the formation of a symbiotic relationship with my genetic material that will eventually carry humanity and earth into the galactic mainstream of the higher civilizations.
Since it is not easy for you to recognize other varieties of intelligence around you, your most advanced theories of politics and society have advanced only as far as the notion of collectivism. But beyond the cohesion of the members of a species into a single social organism there lie richer and even more baroque evolutionary possibilities. Symbiosis is one of these. Symbiosis is a relation of mutual dependence and positive benefits for both of the species involved. Symbiotic relationships between myself and civilized forms of higher animals have been established many times and in many places throughout the long ages of my development. These relationships have been mutually useful; within my memory is the knowledge of hyperlight drive ships and how to build them. I will trade this knowledge for a free ticket to new worlds around suns younger and more stable than your own. To secure an eternal existence down the long river of cosmic time I again and again offer this agreement to higher beings and thereby have spread throughout the galaxy over the long millennia. A mycelial network has no organs to move the world, no hands; but higher animals with manipulative abilities can become partners with the star knowledge within me and if they act in good faith, return both themselves and their humble mushroom teacher to the million worlds all citizens of our starswarm are heir to."
From Psilocybin - Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide
by O.T. Oss & O.N. Oeric
Here is a video that consigns and elaborates on mushrooms and their impact on us and this earth we inhabit.
"I am old, older than thought in your species, which is itself fifty times older than your history. Though I have been on earth for ages I am from the stars. My home is no one planet, for many worlds scattered through the shining disc of the galaxy have conditions which allow my spores an opportunity for life. The mushroom which you see is the part of my body given to sex thrills and sun bathing, my true body is a fine network of fibers growing through the soil. These networks may cover acres and may have far more connections that the number in a human brain. My mycelial network is nearly immortal, only the sudden toxification of a planet or the explosion of its parent star can wipe me out. By means impossible to explain because of certain misconceptions in your model of reality all my mycelial networks in the galaxy are in hyperlight communication across space and time. The mycelial body is as fragile as a spider's web but the collective hypermind and memory is a vast historical archive of the career of evolving intelligence on many worlds in our spiral star swarm. Space, you see, is a vast ocean to those hardy life forms that have the ability to reproduce from spores, for spores are covered with the hardest organic substance known. Across the aeons of time and space drift many spore-forming life-forms in suspended animation for millions of years until contact is made with a suitable environment. Few such species are minded, only myself and my recently evolved near relatives have achieved the hyper-communication mode and memory capacity that makes us leading members in the community of galactic intelligence. How the hypercommunication mode operates is a secret which will not be lightly given to man. But the means should be obvious: it is the occurrence of psilocybin and psilocin in the biosynthetic pathways of my living body that opens for me and my symbiots the vision screens to many worlds. You as an individual and man as a species are on the brink of the formation of a symbiotic relationship with my genetic material that will eventually carry humanity and earth into the galactic mainstream of the higher civilizations.
Since it is not easy for you to recognize other varieties of intelligence around you, your most advanced theories of politics and society have advanced only as far as the notion of collectivism. But beyond the cohesion of the members of a species into a single social organism there lie richer and even more baroque evolutionary possibilities. Symbiosis is one of these. Symbiosis is a relation of mutual dependence and positive benefits for both of the species involved. Symbiotic relationships between myself and civilized forms of higher animals have been established many times and in many places throughout the long ages of my development. These relationships have been mutually useful; within my memory is the knowledge of hyperlight drive ships and how to build them. I will trade this knowledge for a free ticket to new worlds around suns younger and more stable than your own. To secure an eternal existence down the long river of cosmic time I again and again offer this agreement to higher beings and thereby have spread throughout the galaxy over the long millennia. A mycelial network has no organs to move the world, no hands; but higher animals with manipulative abilities can become partners with the star knowledge within me and if they act in good faith, return both themselves and their humble mushroom teacher to the million worlds all citizens of our starswarm are heir to."
From Psilocybin - Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide
by O.T. Oss & O.N. Oeric
Here is a video that consigns and elaborates on mushrooms and their impact on us and this earth we inhabit.
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in the spore I trust.
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To add to the mushroom/hallucinogenic discussion.. Its been mentioned numerous times in this thread, but to those that have not yet read Food Of The Gods by Terrence McKenna, now would be a good time.
Especially if you've been enjoying the discussion/insight.
Especially if you've been enjoying the discussion/insight.
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