Simple enough question.

I was talking to a friend about my studies in neurotheology and she (a very devout baptist, to my eternal disappointment) asked if it had informed my personal views on the nature of God. I told her that I tried not to have too strong an opinion on the theological side of things, to which she replied:
"That's bull and you know it. Everyone's a theologin," which struck me as very profound.

So I got to thinking about my 'relationship' with the begin I think of as 'God' and how it had evolved over the years.

I'm still not sure if there is a God, or anything like it, but after starting to experiment with DMT, my philosophy changed from "I don't know anything, but it's probably a big meaningless void of nothingness," to "I don't know anything, but it sure is beautiful and will probably turn out alright in the end."

How about you guys? No one can say they never think about, or have thought about God (or The Goddess or The Gods or whatever). So where do you stand? And how has DMT affected it?

Blessings
~ND

Psychedelics in general completely changed my worldview and the role of "God" (if that's what you feel comfortable calling it) in my life. I considered myself pretty atheist for quite some time--though I'm not sure I ever really bought it; I just don't think I could ever quite convince myself that there wasn't anything more. I guess that's why 'isms' are dangerous! Granted, my current concept of what "God" might be probably would not have been comprehensible to me before I ever partook in psychedelics...but who knows, maybe I'm underestimating my younger self. I'd like to think of myself as having been an open minded fellow.

But to fully answer your question--DMT in particular has challenged me intellectually and spiritually more than any other entheogen. I have yet to have an overtly negative experience with DMT, but I've definitely been through the loop with other psychs--DMT challenges me because many of the experiences, at least for me, can be somewhat difficult to integrate into a lifestyle or a spiritual practice. This said, DMT has definitely broadened and deepened my understanding of God. I would say that DMT has reinforced my spiritual beliefs despite the challenge; but I think that's all part of it. If anything DMT has taught me that there are no limits. There are no limits to what you can do with your mind. There are no limits to time and space. There are no limits to experience. There is nothing outside of yourself, and there is nothing you cannot do. There is nothing that cannot happen; there is nothing that will not happen. I'd even go so far as to say that there's nothing that has not happened.

I don't even know to be honest. Maybe DMT has just made me more confused and slightly more spacey than before. I don't think anyone knows really; but DMT has shown me that everything really is endless; and that whatever "everything" is, it's weird as hell.

i allow the possibility.

something i did not do before.

but i claim to knowledge either way

I still believe I saw God it was a lot more then your typical "seeing" as you who have been to these realms know. It was during an aya experience and it was like this force of love greater then anything I could have previously imagined just rolled up smiled at me and disappeared. It was a ball of light with a face and it was not a he or she it seemed to be in perfect sexual harmony though. Total perfection. Anyways it was accompanied with the Om sound/energy and was without a doubt the best, most moving, beautiful, cool, amazing experience of my life. God kind of looked like a hyperdimensional smiley face. hahahaha

before that I was nihilistic . I am now a believer. The thing that frustrates me a bit is I started vaporizing dmt to get back to that and instead been shown the realms of alien mantids, and dancing elves. I still don't really know what to make of the fact that I exist other then try to love it.

So to answer you question, big YES. Since my experience of "God" my existential anxiety has mostly disappeared.

I could write for ever on that experience and not scratch the surface so ill stop here. After all it may have been just an illusion

"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine; but stranger than we CAN imagine."
-J. B. S. Haldane

The only sure thing is that any concept of god exposed by the so-called "experts" in christianity, buddhism, islam, etc. is as close to the truth as a mentally retarded child trying to explain the workings of a jet engine.

When you realize this it becomes very easy to ignore the fevered rantings of our religious leaders as they spout their idiotic dogma.

Now I find that extremely interesting. Do you feel like having the existential certainty of 'God' has improved your quality of life even in non-spiritual matters. Eg. getting out of bed and going to work is easier, you can shrug off smaller annoyances, things like that?

If that is the case, that is major evidence that psychedelic religious experiences could be highly effective antidepressents.

Blessings
~ND

From moment to moment I still struggle with the small things in life, and I still have trouble with balancing relationships, work, school, etc. But when things get stressful I just remember that experience and smile. So while it hasn't made me enlightened whatever that really means it definitely allows me to cope with many issues in life with a sense of humor.

Also psychedelics have been nothing if not medicine for me. I used to be very depressed, now I am probably the most optimistic person I know. It wasn't a magic bullet but they did help guide to a place of health and happiness.

I find the word "God" to be encrusted with layers of obsolete meanings.
I only use it in situations where it is carefully contextualized such that it will point
to ideas that retain a contemporary vitality.

That being said, DMT opens doors for some of us to experiences that have a compelling, cosmic dimension.

I have experienced myself to be bathed in torrent of absolute lovingness, the nectar at the center of a flower of infinite complexity and beauty beyond description.

I experienced the absolute conviction that this beauty and nectar of lovingness was existentially real, and that my soul is like a tiny dewdrop on this infinite flower.

Is that "God"?

Depends on what your definition of "is" is.

I was not aware that Bill Clinton was a psychonaut.
Doesn't surprise me though.

Blessings
~ND

Everything is God, even down to the smallest dance of particle.

At our core, we are not divided from God.

Atman = Brahman

Tat Tvam Asi


DMT has shown me the above. Everything (including ourselves) is one seamless unfoldment. An unfoldment of being. At the core of everything there is this unfoldment of being, just for the sheer thrill. DMT has dropped the guise and shown me this, the one face behind the many.

I always had an inkling of something greater, but would have never guessed it being this. The sacred dance of life itself. Like tops on a chessboard.

much love,
tat

I also tend to avoid the use of the G word. It requires too much prefacing and disclaiming most of the time IMHO, and in essence it means the same to me as less loaded words like The Infinite, The Universe, The Omniverse, and Endlessness.

I find all religions to be ridiculous, but unlike fastfred above, I don't think that all of the religious people are morons... and infinity is not a jet engine. It is at once more impossible to understand, but infinitely easier to feel.



I would say that that description qualifies as a theistic experience/ belief. No doubt. Most devout religionists would give their left nut to have that experience and would call it G*d in a heartbeat.


This.

People are turned off by the language, but nonetheless I find that even my most atheistic brothers tend to have some theistic beliefs. Often they simply didn't know there were branches of theism like pantheism and pandeism which tend to fit with their more impersonal concept of the Universe. Even just believing in forces of nature and natural laws unfolding like clockwork is a type of theism.

The really hard nut atheists are not really atheistic but anti-theist... which is different. It is as much a type of theistic belief as being a Satanist is a form of Judeo-Christianity. IMHO.

At any rate, DMT did change my views on all of this. Profoundly so. It has been the kind of direct revelation that you read about Prophets having. I can say that Ezekiel and Enoch have got nothing on me experience wise...

My entheogen use has actually gotten me to go back and reconnect to things I learned from sources as varied as Kabbalah, A Course In Miracles (surprisingly good and effective stuff), Vedanta, Taoism, Sufism etc. etc. It is not so much that the religions have got it wrong, but that language is an inefficient vehicle for the divine and infinite multi-dimensional truths simply won't language properly no matter how gifted one's rhetoric. The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao... and all that.

Whatever we can say about it is simultaneously true... and horribly false. Thems are the breaks though. You gotta experience it yourself.

As Bob Marley said "Who feels it knows it Lord."

In one aya trip i see the universe like something infinity .. no presense of any god...

In my last aya trip (two days ago) i felt a powerfull sense of lovey during the trip .... and think in the idea of God = Love very often ...

I think is contradictory the creation idea and a infinity universe ... that confuses me.

Beautifully said.

Yes.

Though what it did more so was make me think of my perception of God compared to others. Because what is God? To a super physicist that could be some ultimate construction of subatomic peices and some kind of string theory mumbo jumbo. To a mathematician that could be the 11th dimension. To a Buddist that could be enlightenment to a soul becoming one with everything. Personally I am a Panthiest. I think God is everything and in part we are all a piece if God. What all of that means in how I live my life, I have absolutely no idea.

Psychedelics have taught me how little I am capable of understanding God.

Not at all, no god for me.

Made me think even more there is no god.

The visions came and go, and we forget them...

Jox

Since the word GOD is such an ambiguous term and many here have a variance as to what the word actually implies, I want to say my above post, when I use the word GOD, I mean the whole of reality/life. GOD = reality/life itslef

We are not divisible from this sacred movement that we call life. Life and the beings that perceive it are literally one n' the same at the core. Surely, we are seperate on this level of existence, but behind the curtain....not so much hehe

much love,
tat

DMT , in particular out of all the psychs I've done, simultaneously completely shattered and destroyed all the concepts, which I had developed through years of conscientious study of varied spiritual schoolsand felt to be somewhat'advanced'spiritually,, and it also removed ANY doubt within my soul that 'god'exists, and while I don't have the time right now not do I think any of you want to read thousands of words about my ideas of the good that created or universe through a sophistic desire, to understand what it made, and we, as the'feeling organs' of God, are responsible for gods knowledge...

null24..... lol.... this was great!

Namaste, and a truly beautiful question,

Over the course of my life's path, entheogens and psychedelics in general have indeed changed my view on god. I was never a religious individual in the Judeo-Christian sense of the word but I viewed "God" as a term in the singular as their burden and beast to bear. During my years of Pagan study I came to believe in a great many deities, and during this time was the capital G a veritable bad word in my presence.

Then, when I was around 26 I stepped back to my roots of open mindedness (I had been raised to not be closed minded and had allowed myself to become so) and began searching for my own answers though reading, psychology, and delving into psychedelia as a tool to explore my mind and indeed my soul; and as I grew mentally and spiritually during this time, my world view shifted slowly but inevitably.

We are god.

Each and everyone one of us is a piece of the manifestation of source. Everything around is a manifestation of the same. Universal oneness is far beyond the limited view we have ascribed to it in general in the West where it oft dismissed it as "another religion's view of the afterlife". The games we allow ourselves to play with our left brains hinders the truth we know with our right. This truth is realized by the most spiritually enlightened people of our world time and again.

By studying mysticism first, religion second and finally coming around to spirituality I can only say that yes. DMT, LSD, Psilocybin, Mescaline and various other entheogens have certainly contributed to my ever growing understanding of God. For this very reason one of the most beautiful words on Earth to me is,

Namaste. That word is beautiful, both to say and mean. To salute that which is divine in everyone you meet while living what you believe by making it a part of your daily life.

A couple quotes about God from people you may or may not respect,

"I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us." -John Lennon

"Drop Out--detach yourself from the external social drama which is as dehydrated and ersatz as TV. Turn On--find a sacrament which returns you to the temple of God, your own body. Go out of your mind. Get high. Tune In--be reborn. Drop back in to express it. Start a new sequence of behavior that reflects your vision." - Timothy Leary

"Who are we? We are the life force power of the universe with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds; and we have the power to choose moment by moment who and how we want to be in the world. Right here, right now I can choose to step into my consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are, I am the life force power of the universe. I am the life-force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is..." - Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

"God, yes God is creation, it all that is. There is nothing outside of creation nothing outside of what you call God. It is you, it is the people around you, it is the chair and the air, it is everything. Everything is made of God experiencing itself as everything. That is the second law. The One is the All and the All are the One. Do you understand? Does that make sense?"- Bashar

I could go on and on with quotes but I will leave it at that cause Bashar is quite the interesting character and one of my favorite channels.

Namaste my fellows.