Psychedelic Experiences
If you are using psychedelic drugs, then you should be aware of the levels that can be navigated. Most use them for "fun," but there is more to be aware of before hand, rather than when the experience gets larger than you expected or moves beyond what you thought you were in control of. Psychedelics are powerful spiritual tools period and you should be prepared for events that may get out of hand. There are important steps to take for your well being before using them. Psychedelics have the potential to free the imprisoned mind from the dysfunction that permeates all cultures. What begins to arise is authentic Being and the fathoms of its vast potential. Using Psychedelics Safely
The many will tell you that psychedelics are "bad" or "wrong" or "They will open up Pandora's Box and so should be avoided." In reality, Pandora's Box is nothing more than everything the various dysfunctional cultures deny in order to suppress individual consciousness or authentic Being. Cultures differentiate by altering and suppressing the fullness of consciousness. One can go to negative extremes of suppression and this is where humanity finds itself in this present time period. When one imprisons the mind, one imprisons the heart; there is no way around this truth.
The experiences that arise from psychedelics are important for integrating what has been suppressed within yourself. This is a monumental task in and of itself, since so much of what constitutes authentic Being has been buried and relegated to the underworld or unconscious. Psychedelics take you directly through the facades, masks, and walls that have been created to block out authentic spiritual Being; the unconscious becomes conscious to us. This is why Nature/Spirit created psychedelics in order to keep us in balance and harmony while incarnating into the material realms. The human species is extremely out of balance within, which is why the outer world is so dysfunctional, insane, and hence destructive.
Reality is created from within and if Soul/Authentic Being is blocked from expressing its authentic self, conflict arises. If this conflict is not resolved, then partitioning activates to accommodate the imbalance without your being conscious of it. Think of partitioning as it is used in computer hard drives, where one can split a hard drive to run on two or more different operating systems. This is also true of the psyche, where one has to act out a false role, and in order to do and retain authentic self, it splits so as to maintain the primary consciousness, while creating a secondary one to follow the cultural scripts of conformity. Partitioning can continue on indefinitely until a person finds themselves in a safe place to rebalance or when dis-ease or death occur.
Andrew Weil M.D./Ethnobotanist points out that psychedelics don't create the experience, they are only inactive placebos that merely open the psychic doorway to those aspects of ourselves that are disowned and to the greater reality of which we belong too. Everything is energy, plants have energy, and just as they can offer us energy for our bodies, they also can offer us energy to shift our consciousness, which is also energetic in nature as well. Everything is energy, so this should be no surprise to anyone. Laura Smith, a local Ayurvedic medicine practitioner states, "food is the fundamental tool for correcting imbalance and building health. Food carries the intelligence of Nature's elements that become the intelligence of our bodies and minds." Everything is energy, everything is food (intelligence) for another level of consciousness.
Human beings have used psychedelics for thousands of years as spiritual tools. As humanity has gotten further away from the Light/Spirit, drug use has become rampant, and problematic. Pharmaceuticals are drugs also and they are far more destructive than psychedelics. Addiction does not generally occur with organic psychedelics as it does with inorganic chemical compounds and derivatives. Addiction arises when a person uses to escape or to avoid pain and suffering. Psychedelics are never meant to be used for this purpose. If you understand plant medicine as plant consciousness, you will step firmly into a clearer understanding of what is involved here. CBC Radio One recently aired a special on Ayahuasca entitled "In Search of the Divine Vegetal" that explains this concept in detail:
Audio Downloads Part One - Part Two.
Everyone has a drug of choice that alters their consciousness. The legal one's are sugar, caffeine, work, material goods, money, power, television, food, and sex. If we were to truly look at the damage done by these to our health and well being, it would overwhelm the many, which is why they use them in the first place. Others who reach a point of no return cannot continue functioning being "partitioned" and are drawn to drugs as a short term fix. Addiction isn't just about avoidance, in the case of drug addiction, a person has experienced the feelings of peace, joy and bliss that are constantly being suppressed by culture. When they come down, they want to go right back up. What they are craving is a return to the Divine that has been suppressed.
Psychedelics as plant medicine/plant consciousness, have the potential wisdom to guide, teach, explain, and show how to bring about balance, harmony, and integration to oneself. Those who have become addicted, have not been taught the appropriate ways to use them to heal those aspects of themselves that are out of sync with the whole. Unfortunately, there aren't enough functioning authentic Beings with the wisdom to guide them how to use the plant medicine in appropriate ways to clear away the facades, masks, and walls that prevent access to authentic Being. Culture has made this sort of healing very difficult due to not wanting anyone to "be aware" of this higher state of awareness.
Higher states of awareness are not desirable to those who like to control the masses, which is why considerable effort is maintained in posting "Keep Out" signs every where and threatening people with imprisonment. However, with appropriate guidance, those who are addicted would be able to integrate the experiences, learn to navigate the ocean of their own inner realms to heal those aspects of themselves that have been partitioned off. There are some excellent organizations that have been doing research on the use of psychedelics for healing. I have listed those sites, along with forums, libraries, and other information sites on my web: http://shermanbuck.com/psychedelics.html
Beware means to Be Aware. If you feel you need to talk to someone, seek out appropriate guidance by those who understand their uses as spiritual tools and have used them in their own healing work. It's challenging enough to have to work through these experiences without dealing with closed minded unconscious people who profess to be healers. Having done my own deep personal work with plant consciousness, I can truly speak from the wisdom of knowing from direct experience.
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Updated: 11/11/09