I will preface this post by saying that I have not taken any psychedelic substances before. I have, however, become interested in the spiritual applications of DMT and psilocybin.

While I once was a diehard atheist, I had a spiritual revelation of sorts towards the end of my teen years. I know there are many who were not spiritual prior to using DMT or other psychedelics, and many who still are not afterwards. However, I would like to ask a few questions to other forum users who were spiritual/religious prior to their DMT experiences.

How did your existing spiritual or religious stance impact your experiences? Do you believe that, had you taken DMT as a "blank slate" (that is to say with no spiritual beliefs at all) your experience would have been different?

People often refer to the experience of DMT as one that completely shatters your worldview, was this the case for your religious beliefs, or did using entheogens confirm your belief system/build upon it?

Do you believe that the way "entities" have been manifested in your experience (if you have met any) were based more upon your preconceived notions of the spiritual/metaphysical, rather than how they should "actually appear"? (For example, a Christian seeing Jesus, a Pagan seeing one of the gods of their pantheon, or an atheist with a belief in extraterrestrial beings seeing aliens).

Forgive me if some of these questions seem rather naïve, I am just particularly interested in the experiences of others regarding this matter.

I was brought up "Christian".

This is hard to answer as my beliefs starting changing around a decade ago when I first did Salvia. They've been on a continual journey since then and I'm sure I'm still finding my truth.

DMT alone has had me on a roller-coaster, I've no idea what the reality is or what's true for me, in fact I'm probably more unsure now than ever.

I will say that everything I have seen in trips in no way at all matches up with judaeo-christian theology.

Thank you, that is very helpful!

May I suggest reading the link in this thread:

Survey of entities.

There are some interesting results. In particular, how a considerable amount of atheists and agnostics changed their opinions after the DMT experience.

Personally speaking, I believe I met the Hindu God, Lord Ganesh during my earliest breakthroughs. Actually, I met Him twice. Considering I didn't know much about the Hindu faith prior to this, I thought it was interesting that I would encounter a Hindu God. Many people meet Him during their breakthroughs. However, He usually appears in His traditional form of an elephant. In my case, He was a two-dimension entity that could change His form in order to move up into higher dimensions.

Also, when I asked for His name, He gave me a name I never heard before. He also explained how He has many names. I was amazed to discover the name He gave me was linked to Lord Ganesh and that he has many names. He is known as the God of beginnings and the remover of obstacles. Considering I encountered Him during one of my first DMT experiences and that He had told me He has many names, it was hard to ignore this. Even remover of obstacles made sense because I saw Him in a two-dimensional form that could move up into higher dimensions.

Ultimately, I have never been religious. I was raised to be a Catholic but after 8 years in a Catholic grammar school run by vicious nuns and 4 years in a high school run by brothers, I turned my back on organised religion for good reason. The nuns and brothers used to beat us and one of the brothers (head of guidance) tried it on with a few of my classmates. The school swept it under the rug and he was never charged with the crime. Instead, he disappeared and we were told he had a "breakdown". Four years later, I heard he was back at the school again. This made sense since anyone who was at the school during the scandal would have graduated by the time he returned.

That said, I never had a crisis of faith. I lost faith in organised religion, not the Divine. In the end, I realised we don't need religion to touch the Divine. Religion and dogma block your path to the Divine, I believe. I must be correct about this because it's precisely how I have found the Divine. All religions more or less believe in the same thing. God. So, it doesn't matter HOW you touch the Divine, what matters is your pursuit and it should be a personal journey. I firmly believe we are all hardwired to detect the Divine force and instinctively know when we are following the right path. If someone is telling you how to worship, they're usually telling you how THEY worship. Stick to your own path and respect the chosen path of others, I say. I think people should look at faith like they do when they use the toilet. A very private affair done behind a locked door.

Peace.
DD.

Thanks Duncan, that study is very interesting.

Naturally, your post raises more questions than answers. That is appreciated, and to be expected really. Thanks again!

I was raised Catholic and that organized religion crushed/obliterated any sense of spirituality I had slowly and relentlessly over 15 years. I turned to science and believed in little outside of that for the next 25 years.

Then, mushrooms came along and in a mere 5 hours they both (1) shattered the mental walls science had built and (2) healed my lost spirituality. Since then, by being present in the moment and admiring the beauty in nature with gratitude, I feel the divine.

Each person's experience is unique. This is just my personal story.

Berrypicker.

Happy to offer my perspective. By the way, welcome to the forum. I'm still fairly new and I like it. Everyone has been respectful and mature. There's a wealth of information available here.

Loveall.

It's a good feeling to reconnect with the Divine, without religion. There's something pure and unclouded about it. Gratitude is also something I feel. In fact, I make sure to pause at least once a day to give thanks.

Peace.
DD.