For the past several days I have been drifting in and out of consciousness, sleeping more than not.
Don’t be fooled by the title of this essay. My “experience” is completely natural and not the result of any drug experimentation (unless it is the result of our government’s worldwide network of biolabs). I have no idea what has brought this on, this state of mind, this melding of reality and dreams.
But I have no intention of going to see a doctor unless my weight drops dangerously. I have found that almost any human contact leaves me feeling ill and suffering from flu-like symptoms.
I went to the gym four days ago. My workout was boring and I left after thirty minutes. Maybe that’s where I caught a bug. Who knows? Who cares? Maybe, after being crushed by two years of government and MSM lies, I have become a hypochondriac.
Again: who knows and who cares?
Outside of the stomach distress, it’s not been a bad week. It’s possible to live on dry toast, vitamins, and water. At least for awhile.
When we are isolated, even for short periods of time, we become aware of how our thoughts create our world.
Recently, there has been a craze developing among those who would discover a greater reality (or escape from one they are uncomfortable with): psychedelic tourism.
Licking the skin of psychoactive toads has been a passing fancy among young people for decades. Apparently, some entrepreneurs have discovered the means of extracting the poison from these toads and turning it into a crystal that can be smoked, leading mind-adventurers with a near-death experience and insights into the universe. Unless I am mistaken, the drug being ingested is called 5-MeO-DMT. People are spending thousands of dollars to travel to tripping lodges in Utah and elsewhere to have mind expanding fun. Maybe it’s dangerous. Without question, there are already politicians working to make the experience illegal.
From the beginning of time, people intentionally or unintentionally stumbled upon psychoactive substances and found themselves in unexpected places. The government and religion, of course, have always frowned on such experimentation and have made it socially unacceptable and illegal whenever possible.
Terence McKenna wrote extensively about primitive shamanic practices and in his books suggested that the ancient tribes (now lost to history) that practiced the ingestion of natural substances for transport to other worlds inside their minds were destroyed by those who believed in a monotheistic god who, alone, could connect humanity with the Creator and the larger reality of Creation.
Maybe the manna that kept the nomadic followers of Moses alive contained psychoactive substances. The world will never know.
Those of us fortunate enough to live back when LSD was legal experienced that wonderful drug. I’ll never forget watching music float up the walls in all its colorful splendor and wading through rivers of geometric patterns that came and went like “floaters” in the eyes. I’ll never forget how time seemed to stop or how the entire universe seemed to be part of a giant quilt that my mind, my life, and my total experience were somehow a part of. Was I seeing the waves of energy that make up our illusionary world?
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end.
There is a peculiar breed of Americans alive in the 21st Century; boring, stupid creatures who cannot accept that God exists and that He put certain natural and inalienable rights in our hearts and minds. Immortal Truths. The concepts that people are free and yet at the same time are pre-determined to be either male or female. Societies were built on the concept that intact nuclear families with shared values created safety and structure. All this is being challenged, now. There is even a group of fools that belong to something called the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
While I could go on for days discussing the difference between religion and having a spiritual relationship with God, I am suddenly feeling drowsy.
Day after day, the old Peter Gabriel song HUMDRUM runs through my mind. Indeed, what could be more humdrum than endless strip malls, Dollar Stores, and the growing demand for tedious rock concerts disguised as churches throughout the United States?
I’m tired of it all, aren’t you?
One final thought, for those who might consider following a spiritual path: Don’ t expect your life to change miraculously, despite whatever enlightenment you imagine you’ve found. Shunryu Suzuki’s book ZEN MIND BEGINNERS’ MIND is probably the best thing I’ve ever read. In it, his wife is quoted as joking with an interviewer. Master Suzuki was asked why he never wrote about samadhi. His wife piped up with, “That’s because he never experienced it”. That, as Joe Biden says two or three times in every speech, is a joke.
Suzuki sums up his life as a simple, peaceful monk, as just this: Before enlightenment, picking up sticks and carrying water. After enlightenment, picking up sticks and carrying water.
PEACE
Love Suzuki's book and teachings. Good song.