Clearly the use of psychedelics is not widespread in classic Buddhism. Yet they do make the rare appearance in the form of the Amrita (and Soma) sacrament in ancient Tibetan Buddhism (and Hinduism). Descriptions make it sound likely that these were mushrooms, described as both "red" (likely amanita muscaria) as well as "blue throated" (likely psilocybe cubensis). These mushrooms have been associated with many other cultures and religions.
Adepts would go through a certain amount of meditation training before being presented with an initiation experience with the Amrita substance intended to provide a glimpse of the "deathless".
Psychedelics can be enormously helpful, but they should come with a big warning label. Pragmatically, anything that can amplify the underlying psyche, bringing our deepest psychological baggage into full, naked awareness, and/or destabilizing closely held beliefs about world views, should probably come with a few caveats and precautions.
In the same way, intensive meditation practice and intensive psychotherapy should come with similar warnings. The difference is simply that psychedelics can get you there quicker.
The general recommendation is that you would already have your stuff together psychologically and so forth before you embark. For the studies that have been done on psychedelics they typically screen out people with various problems, family histories of schizophrenia, etc. But the reality is that a far broader spectrum of people will be experimenting with these substances. While I would recommend starting a meditation practice as part of the preparation, I would say at minimum familiarize yourself with at least one of the many guides to tripping that are available.
Meditation and Psychedelics
Some initial research indicates some usefulness for meditation in conjunction with meditation. For example the paper, Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behavior.
“There was a participant in the study who had had an extensive, extensive practice, like tens of thousands of hours of meditation, which is an incredibly extreme amount,” said Frederick Barrett, PhD at the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “And she indicated after her psilocybin session that she relived all of the peak experiences she had ever had meditating. Wow.”
Similarity of the Brain on Psychedelics with that of Advanced Meditators
FMRI studies show substantial correlation in brain activity patterns between people using major psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin and that of advanced meditators. Both show a dialing down of the Default Mode Network (monkey mind). So it is plausible that this might be helpful with some kind of crossover or training wheel effect.
Seeing Things in A New Way
Psychedelics are a useful tool to see that there are alternatives to the way we usually experience the world. This can help us to open up to new ways of seeing things. While we humans are continual learners, I feel that once we reach a certain age it becomes maybe even more useful to begin to unlearn some of the stuff that we learned wrong the first time around, letting go of entrenched dogmas and psychological viewpoints that aren't helpful anymore.
Creativity
Openness
One of the ground breaking findings from research into psilocybin is that changes were observed in the personality domain of openness, one of five dimensions of personality that were thought to be relatively fixed by adulthood. As with other positive trait changes resulting from psilocybin, the effect was correlated with the degree to which the individual experienced a genuine mystical experience. From the paper:
The long-term positive impact of hallucinogens may depend on their ability to occasion profound insights and mystical-type experiences. The core features of mystical experience, are feelings of unity and interconnectedness with all people and things, a sense of sacredness, feelings of peace and joy, a sense of transcending normal time and space, ineffability, and an intuitive belief that the experience is a source of objective truth about the nature of reality.
Because such experiences appear to enable individuals to transcend their usual patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting, it is plausible that they could occasion changes in core dimensions of personality.
Offering A Glimpse
By offering people a chance of a mystical experience, there is a possibility to glimpse the kinds of insights that would otherwise be possible only after years of meditation.
Magnifying Glass
Psychedelics are sometimes described as a non-specific magnifier of experience. They can sometimes bring hidden issues to the forefront in clear detail.
Concentration Practice
The meditative absorptions known as jhanas or samadhi are easier to attain on psychedelics and more intense, this makes various aspects of jhanas clearer than they might be otherwise. Again, a training wheel effect.
Although controversial, I think a retreat practice that included some days of very low microdoses could be effective.
Oneness
The dropping away of the ego into pure consciousness or oneness is easier to stumble into. This could help with a training wheel effect or perhaps more realistically it simply gives one a better idea of the ultimate direction to lean into.
Psychological Healing
Under certain conditions psychedelics can help with the healing of difficult psychological problems. The use of MMDA for PTSD is relatively well established, now in stage III clinical trials, but this type of thing can happen with major psychedelics as well. The short version is that the challenging material needs to come up under the influence and be "allowed" without resistance.
Neurogenesis and Plasticity
There is some sparse evidence (studies on mice, I believe) that the major psychedelics enhance neurogenesis and plasticity, things that are beneficial for training and learning of all kinds.
On the other hand
Promotion of Delusion
Because things can seem more real under the influence of psychedelics, and the mind is particularly open and vulnerable to different ways of seeing things, strange beliefs and superstitions often arise. In the world of recreational psychedelics, pseudoscience rules.
Often doesn't make for Permanent Changes
Occasionally, yes, particularly under the right conditions, but as a rule, probably not so much. Spiritually, one gets a glimpse. All too often a person will simply fall back into their previous patterns. Can be very helpful, but the way it is typically used recreationally is not ideal. Used properly, and in combination with a good meditation practice, I think there are some real benefits.
Some Personal Experiences
Around 1980 or so, early in my twenties, I had my first psychedelic experience, with LSD. It was blotter with the image of something like a blue dove. Whatever it was, it was not weak. It was an interesting and surreal experience, but at the time, I didn't take it as much more than that. Looking back I can see there were a lot of important insights that I passed off as merely unusual.
No-Self
For example, seeing that everything was happening, without "me". There were clearly many experiences like this during the trip, but I find it fascinating that it didn't really impress me as mind blowing or anything. I think the basic problem was that I was still living with a very solid assumption of self. And I had not really considered the notion of ego-death, if I had even heard of it at all at that point. Frankly, if you had asked me if ego-death had happened to me, I would have said no. And I did not release into what I would call pure consciousness. That would be decades later for me.
I did a little bit of drawing with a sketchpad, and I noticed that the drawing was just happening. I wasn't controlling it or guiding it, or cognizing about it as I usually might. No lining things up or checking angles or proportions, rather it was just flowing naturally and the pencil was moving as if by itself. I was just watching.
A friend took me to a video arcade where I played the game Asteroids. As I played, it was as if I wasn't doing anything, but again, just watching it happen. Like the sketching, I wasn't trying to direct or control anything. My hands were moving by themselves and stuff was happening on the screen. I ended up with a score that was about 10% higher than I had scored before or since. I would say this is primarily because "I" got out of the way, perhaps in the same way that Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter while high on acid, or when Jimi Hendrix knocked out that incredible set at the Monterey Pop Festival.
Being very purely in the moment
We then went to a repertory showing of the Beatles movie "Let It Be". This became very strange, because I lost the ability to understand music. My experience was so intensely, concretely, so hard into the present moment that it was as if the past and future didn't exist. With no past and future, only the present moment, there was no continuity of sound and therefore no "music". In that context, all I could perceive was the fundamentals of sound in each moment, each happening in an utterly independent way, with no connection to the next or previous moment. Just isolated, random sounds, with no perception of melody. I'm not sure if I could perceive harmony, but there was certainly no enjoyment or appreciation of what we would call music. It was just sound. In the hearing was just hearing.
I also lost some ability to distinguish visual objects at times. I can remember being unable to separate the microphone from Paul McCartney. It was as if it was one object, microphonepaulmccartney.
Thoughts Are Just Happening
Winding down at the end of that evening, as I fell into bed and maybe for the first time relaxed and went within (something that decades later I wished I had done from the start), I was noticing my thoughts, and what was peculiar is that it was as if they weren't my thoughts. It was as if I was separate from the thoughts and I had no connection with them. Once again, they just seemed to be happening.
All in all, that one experience on LSD was jam-packed with insight. I feel fortunate to have gotten so much, but it changed my life almost none. Only years later, with extensive meditation, did it all come together for me.
5th Jhana
Many years later, the first time I experienced 5th jhana, which is a meditative absorption with the predominate feature of "infinite space", was while taking psilocybin. It blew me away. This was a bit of a game changer because, for me, it was such an unusual distortion of my normal reality in a way that was inescapable. And since it was repeatable, I couldn't explain it away as imagination, suggestion or whatever. The fact that it plays on the primary sense of vision as well, making whatever space you're in look and feel enormously big and sometimes expanding, wow. This is an example of the way that psychedelics are what I call spiritual steroids, they allow you to go beyond your cutting edge and see a bit more. Within weeks I experienced it in normal meditation.
At the time, I didn't know it was 5th jhana. I didn't know enough about jhanas to know that. But I did guess it was one of the higher jhanas, and afterwords I pulled a book off the shelf with some descriptions and found out what it was. I was almost disappointed it was "only" 5th. Hah, the ego.
5th jhana on psychedelics holds a special place for me, not only because of that first experience, but there was something about continually experiencing that, and expanding out to infinity, it kind of literally opened me up, it was as if it physically connected me to all things, to all people. Literally expanded my world.
Fading out of Senses
On many other occasions with psilocybin and various combinations I have experienced the loss of one or more senses while on psychedelics. Most commonly the sense of hearing. Sometimes sound became distorted like the clipping of an overdriven amplifier, more rarely it would drop out completely, sometimes turning off and on as if someone was flicking a switch. And, one time, on my highest dose, I experienced a void where there really weren't any senses. I didn't know where I was or what was happening, and my cognition was very limited. Might have been something like a hard 8th jhana.
Bright White Light
I have also experienced a significant brightening of the visual field on many occasions. I sometimes would use a light and sound machine for the entrainment and entertainment of flashing lights. On the most extreme occasion I can think of, the white brightness of my visual field became so intense that I couldn't even make out the LED's on the light goggles that were flashing directly over my pupils. I remember resignedly taking off the goggles muttering to myself, "well this is pointless".
Caution and Final Words
These personal stories are some of the more extreme experiences of someone who, for a period of about 5 years in particular, was something of a psychonaut. This is the cream of extreme out of hundreds of experiences, although I can't even begin to do justice to them, and the hundreds of other insights that came along the way. Out of all those experiences, I should mention that there were maybe 3 sessions that were substantially challenging, one particularly so. That's going to happen at some point, although the most difficult experiment resulted from too high a dose in combination with an mao inhibitor. Not a good choice, stay away from both, and work up slowly. The other two difficult experiences were a result of tripping while experiencing a lot of unsatisfactoriness. Again, not a great choice, although the underlying psyche can be difficult to read.
Also, that first experience on LSD had a segment of very intense paranoia. For me, it took a long time to get past that paranoia, and I encountered it a little bit on every trip for a while. Then, perhaps starting a dozen trips down the road, I started to finally be with that paranoia, allowing it to be there, allowing the underlying part of me that I was resisting to just be what it is, accepting it, making peace with it. That process played out over about 5 trips for me and ended up being the most important therapy of my life. It fixed me. I really want that for everyone, but, you know, be careful, be prepared.
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