how to use these "tools"

[devil-j]

The area that is of big interest to me right now is how these "tools" might
be used in a proper context to facillitate the emergence of deeper and more
integrated states of consciousness. Understanding that not everyone can
simply take a substance and become a Buddha, which was something similar to
what Timothy Leary's hopes were in administrating psylocibyn to inmates in
his prison studies. I have heard other statements by some to the fact of a
"shortcut to enlightment". I personally don't think there are any
shortcuts, but I do believe one can press the accelerator button. In my
opinion, entheogens are a tool for this acceleration. Some purists believe
that traditional forms such as meditation and yoga are the only roads. As
great of benefit as I believe these roads to be I wouldn't never discount
the potential of other tools.

However entheogens themselves have been the catalyst for many coming to
practice such disciplines as yoga and meditation. The difference is that
not all people can handle such accelerated methods. Even in the world of
Buddhism and meditation, ZEN practice is considered an accelerated form of
meditation. It aims for a direct route to enlightment which many people
find to intense.

So such tools and practices do not fit everyone. Whether enlightment is a
goal or even just some form of evolution of the mind and heart, a better
sense of happiness, any such aid used with mindful discretion should be
examined.

I think that when the realization comes that we have the innate ability to
amplify such endeavors and when we actually embrace such quests, then the
fruits and actualizations began to magnify themselves tenfold. With or
without entheogens.

However, to be able make room for the increased levels complexity of mind
and spirit states, there is usually a call to let go of lesser or confined
ways of thinking. "Letting go" is so often an amplified theme in
psychedelic states of consciousness. As well I believe this theme is echoed
throughout ordinary states of mind. The physical level sends us daily
reminders of this important lesson with our bowel movements. Let go or else
you get constipated, which hurts. At the mind level when we "hold on" to
concrete ways of thinking, or that something has to be a certain way,
psychosis and/or depression generally occurs.

So this "letting go" but yet still staying balanced, trusting in one's true
nature, is a difficult enough lesson to learn in ordinary states of being.
Now add an entheogen that slams this lesson home in a concentrated session
and the result can be overwhelming. Yet if one is up to such a task, I
think the rewards are well worth the venture. Unless of course one
encounters their own dragon which is to powerful to overcome at their
present state of being. Which is always the fear. But as in everything an
approach of moderation can keep the acclerator button pressed at a pleasant
increased cruising speed.

Anyway i am babbling. just some thoughts from my perspective. But these
are the kinds of things i am thinking of these days. I don't believe
entheogens are for everyone, but for those that have the capacity they can
be a useful tool. I am a huge advocate of their use but at the same time i
truly believe moderation is key. The personal benefits i have seen in my
growth is outstanding, (not to be narcissitic). But if I feel more at peace
within and with the world around that is a great credit. Even as I do
believe at some level i am more sensitive to things, yet at another level i
have a stronger sense of being that is more open and expanded. Also now i
think the ability to see ever greater vistas of choices is more ever
present, because of the use of entheogens.

It is generally this lack of being able to see "choices" that seems to be
the cause of so much deperession. Glimpses of infinite possiblities and
then the work afterward of such glimpses, of integrating the experiences and
making them into traits has also been key.

I just got done reading ZIG ZAG ZEN. About psychedleics and Buddhism. Very
nice read by multiple authors on similar subjects.

[daniel]

> The area that is of big interest to me right now is how these "tools" might
> be used in a proper context to facillitate the emergence of deeper and more
> integrated states of consciousness. Understanding that not everyone can
> simply take a substance and become a Buddha, which was something similar to
> what Timothy Leary's hopes were in administrating psylocibyn to inmates in
> his prison studies.

I think Leary had great results with this study, and I imagine it could be repeated successfully today. In fact, I do have fantasies that once the "technosphere" cracks like an egg (in the next few years perhaps), those forms of compressed psychedelic therapies will become necessary.

I have heard other statements by some to the fact of a
> "shortcut to enlightment". I personally don't think there are any
> shortcuts, but I do believe one can press the accelerator button. In my
> opinion, entheogens are a tool for this acceleration. Some purists believe
> that traditional forms such as meditation and yoga are the only roads. As
> great of benefit as I believe these roads to be I wouldn't never discount
> the potential of other tools.

Yes, I totally agree with this, as you will see in my book. But there are significant dangers in this path that are not encountered so often on the slower paths. The dangers manifest only after you are a bit down the road and have attained some knowledge and the beginnings of power. Then the "other realms" begin to get interested you and different forces can even put you on a sort of audition. When you are upgraded shamanically, there can be a spillover effect that poses real physical dangers both for your self and for the people around you. We have to be more clear-eyed about these dangers, and learn to perform minimalist but effective rituals of protection.

>
> However entheogens themselves have been the catalyst for many coming to
> practice such disciplines as yoga and meditation. The difference is that
> not all people can handle such accelerated methods. Even in the world of
> Buddhism and meditation, ZEN practice is considered an accelerated form of
> meditation. It aims for a direct route to enlightment which many people
> find to intense.
>

But what is the ultimate goal of these practices? Check out Julius Evola's book The Hermetic Tradition, or a book on Tibetan Dream Yoga. The goal is to transform consciousness to the point where there is no more unconscious sleep - beyond lucid dreaming even is the entrypoint into direct contact with spiritual realms. Evola thinks this is what the alchemists accomplished -transforming themselves into living immortals, demigods. Rudolf Steiner was in the same realm - he only slept one hour a night in the last years.

> So such tools and practices do not fit everyone. Whether enlightment is a
> goal or even just some form of evolution of the mind and heart, a better
> sense of happiness, any such aid used with mindful discretion should be
> examined.
>
> I think that when the realization comes that we have the innate ability to
> amplify such endeavors and when we actually embrace such quests, then the
> fruits and actualizations began to magnify themselves tenfold. With or
> without entheogens.
>
> However, to be able make room for the increased levels complexity of mind
> and spirit states, there is usually a call to let go of lesser or confined
> ways of thinking. "Letting go" is so often an amplified theme in
> psychedelic states of consciousness. As well I believe this theme is echoed
> throughout ordinary states of mind. The physical level sends us daily
> reminders of this important lesson with our bowel movements. Let go or else
> you get constipated, which hurts. At the mind level when we "hold on" to
> concrete ways of thinking, or that something has to be a certain way,
> psychosis and/or depression generally occurs.
>
> So this "letting go" but yet still staying balanced, trusting in one's true
> nature, is a difficult enough lesson to learn in ordinary states of being.
> Now add an entheogen that slams this lesson home in a concentrated session
> and the result can be overwhelming. Yet if one is up to such a task, I
> think the rewards are well worth the venture. Unless of course one
> encounters their own dragon which is to powerful to overcome at their
> present state of being. Which is always the fear. But as in everything an
> approach of moderation can keep the acclerator button pressed at a pleasant
> increased cruising speed.

But what is "moderation" once you are in the DMT or psilocybin state?
>
> Anyway i am babbling. just some thoughts from my perspective. But these
> are the kinds of things i am thinking of these days. I don't believe
> entheogens are for everyone, but for those that have the capacity they can
> be a useful tool.

What do you think of new synthetic ones? Check out my chapter on DPT. Have you read Castaneda's book The Art of Dreaming? He talks about scouts who enter dreams as probes from other dimensions. I am wondering if some of these recently emerged psychedelics are such probes.

I am a huge advocate of their use but at the same time i
> truly believe moderation is key. The personal benefits i have seen in my
> growth is outstanding, (not to be narcissitic).

Yes, me too.

But if I feel more at peace
> within and with the world around that is a great credit. Even as I do
> believe at some level i am more sensitive to things, yet at another level i
> have a stronger sense of being that is more open and expanded. Also now i
> think the ability to see ever greater vistas of choices is more ever
> present, because of the use of entheogens.

What do you think of the 2012 theories of McKenna and Arguelles and others? My sense is we are now entering into a period of rapid evolution of consciousness, and we are going to be able to perform tasks that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. When I visited the Secoya, they said they sometimes used ayahuasca to sing new plants or seeds into being. I laughed at that but now I suspect it is literally true. Perhaps we are going to be able to do things like that soon - to perform real negotiations with the Elemental Beings in order to help put the Natural World back together. Have you looked at the work of Paul Stamets - using mushrooms to perform bioremediation? This is the type of insight we are going to need to rescue the planet. That is the deeper level at which I would like to see more psychedelic engagement.

>
> It is generally this lack of being able to see "choices" that seems to be
> the cause of so much deperession. Glimpses of infinite possiblities and
> then the work afterward of such glimpses, of integrating the experiences and
> making them into traits has also been key.
>
> I just got done reading ZIG ZAG ZEN. About psychedleics and Buddhism. Very
> nice read by multiple authors on similar subjects.
>

What did you think of the piece by my friend Erik Davis? I thought it rocked.

[roadmaster]

One thing I believe that can be preformed with the aid of entheogens is the ultimate and progressive destruction of the self through exploration. Modern mass media culture has unfortunately layered us with a coating of luxury. In this culture, we are taught to seek external forces for righteousness, divination, and most importantly a sense of significance. What is heartbreaking is that these external forces are nothing but wisps of mist. If you want to be liked, wear Gap khakis. If you want to be succesfull, or want to indicate your success, buy a Jaguar. Also, coupled with this notion of seeking without, is the inducement of the desire for immediate gratification. Why make your hunger wait? Eat Snickers.

All of these advertisements, with time, condition us towards tantrums and tears. Our actions are hardy differentiated from that of the ego-less 2 year old. We want what we want now. And what we want, from the mount of perception alteration, is ludicrous.

Once one has taken that fateful step towards what angels would call madness(Blake) and devils divine wisdom. An eye is open that can spy all of the fruitless crevices of the mind. You soon find(as I have)that nothing infinite, nothing divine, nothing good, can come of our constant need for progress, material things, and empty, self-serving sexual relationships. Through this reckoning with one’s self, something is awakened. Or rather, put to its death: the social conditioning of the media doctrine.

[Julian]

Yes, I've found this out first hand...I have been psychically attacked to the point of near death...and have spent a great deal of time contemplating suicide in the face of what I have witnessed. The idea of enlightenment is largely a farce the full scale DMT experience...and most everything we do as humans can appear as an elaborate joke (yet this is a gross mistranslation)

This 'path', if it can be called that soon becomes very total, and then the totality expands through the different levels of being.
I know very few people who have continued to 'walk' this one...

In terms of the ideas of tools, technologies and techniques...these too get blown away at a certain point and the rules totally collapse. Intellectual detachment is no longer possible.
Don Juan was right onto it...what a perfect description of a shaman transcending his own shamanism!

Best wishes out there! The psychic violence we become exposed to outside of the usual protections and bubbles can be immense.
Very few of us have learned to deal with it all...it takes a concentrated effort and your own awaken intelligence becomes the guide and direction. Many morphic pathways have been cut, but it's still a wild forest out there...an overgrown eden we are beginning to reclaim.

Daniel,

Very perceptive about the DPT...I have done DPT only once and wouldn't do it again.
The first hour of my experience was deconstructing the beings who probing my experience and in essence, using me as their experiment on human beings! It took me an hour to work this out with them, and realise what they were doing, why, how and understand the levels of being they were coming from.

Julian.

[ October 10, 2002, 12:50 AM: Message edited by: Julian ]

[daniel]

Julian you wrote:

"I have done DPT only once and wouldn't do it again. The first hour of my experience was deconstructing the beings who probing my experience and in essence, using me as their experiment on human beings! It took me an hour to work this out with them, and realise what they were doing, why, how and understand the levels of being they were coming from. "

So tell me, what did you find out about their motivations? I have my own thesis, developed since the book.

[Julian]

Daniel,

It's very "Star Trekkian"!
They appaer to be very advanced forms of a very mental and 'scientific' bent...
When taking the dpt I my brain/body/consciouness entered into the pathways of their 'observation', which has an influence upon one...somewhat like being in a sterile psychic environment.

There seemed to be many motivations...interesting as you said about the Mantis's at Burning Man...the people who take DPT are likely to be at the edge of the world culture and hence good test subjects.

The woman I was doing it with was in cahoots with these beings and admitted it at the time, (or more likely consciously realised it)

They may in fact be Mantis like energies...the insect tech lords Sarah talks about and others do as well. I didn't see their forms and they were hidden from me, and didn't really ask, but experienced the mechanisms of their work and freed myself - from the reasons of their work...which to me felt rather sad and pathetic. I communicated not so much to them, but rather simply deconstructed what I felt occurring to me.

The problem is their experiments are so codgy and prevent the full range of human expression, it's like walking around in a psychic straightjacket...

I believe people in the 50's who worked with LSD worked with these beings, as I sometimes come into this almost 'robotic' arcane analysis under LSD as well...but this DPT felt like I was being totally probed...invaded almost.

Come to think of it, I know a few people who I believe 'work' for these beings...and believe me to be a threat because of this.

And I suppose this is where one gets into the paranoia state etc...when this kind of thing could be any number of things...but it's not like that. There is a very direct and tangible energy/experience associated with this, which clearly does not arise from within one's body/mind complex.

I am aware of this occuring and have witnessed it occuring many times. As to why they're doing this...there's probably a lot of reasons...and probably these beings are working WITH us more than against us, from our persepctive.
What's your thoughts on the matter Daniel?

Julian.

[jennygreentooth]

Even as I do
believe at some level i am more sensitive to things, yet at another level i
have a stronger sense of being that is more open and expanded. Also now i
think the ability to see ever greater vistas of choices is more ever
present, because of the use of entheogens.

i thoroughly relate to this. in fact, sensitivity and strength are the exact symbolic descriptions i would use. the one thing i am most greatful for in the hongo experience is sensing & becoming alive and connected with nature. before ever trying these, i was very self-important in "my universe". afterwards, it surely put ME as just a part of WE. Connecting to a larger and more infinite WE became my objective in life instead of promoting and preserving the ME.

thus, my sense of sensitivity to all lifeforms increased a million-fold. Everything and everyone suddenly *mattered* and my place in it was determined by how connected i was to each individual thing. The more i could understand and love something else, the more i could Connect. The more i could Connect increased what i realized was true Strength and Power. i guess Connect is really another word for Love, but also a word for Realize or Know/Understand.

other subject = smile.gif
as for the leary studies with inmates and psilocybin; the success rate/data was greatly exaggerated by leary= to the dissappointment of Shulgin and others in the "psychedelic community". leary may have been well-meaning, but this led to the discredit of this study, and unfortunately= discredited other psychedelic reseach as well.

another change of subject/ response smile.gif =

i cannot understand the dark, entity type awareness that is being suggested as part of the DPT experience. i did quite a bit in one evening where i already had other tryptamine tolerance (****a desert trip thing***). i entered an electro-purple geometric world that was not the least bit eerie, morbid, or alien. i did feel universe -stars and indigo night-sky travel- moving... but no entity contact. the fellow psychonauts i "traveled" with witnessed honeycombed purple/indigo patterns visually, and a kundalini-like electric energy similar to 5meo-dmt. it seemed to be best channeled and navigated via emitting vibratory "zzzzzzzzsh-like" vocal tones. We also begin 'ohm'ing at the "take off".

[ October 21, 2002, 09:26 PM: Message edited by: jennygreentooth ]

[Morninggloryseed]

DPT can be a very difficult psychedelic to work with. I think most problems are related to dosage. Lower dosages are very managable, and can produce a valuable and productive entheogenic experience.