Greetings all,

I stumbled upon this forum while looking for information on the Santo Daime Church. My path has been a winding one, beginning in High School when i left my traditional, rural, Garrison Kellior-style liberal upbringing to look for a more direct experience of God. I began with exploration of Neo-Paganism, and had my first personal encounter with the Divine during a solitary full moon ritual where I literally felt like the earth made love to me. Later, in the late 1990's-early 'auts, I discovered Terence McKenna and began my descent into the void and my introduction into hyperspace. Throughout my college years, I grew Psylcibin mushrooms and experimented with ever-increasing doese, culminating in an experience my senior year where I ate 8 grams, then smoked a very large joint at the peak of the experience and finally found the entities that Terence had been speaking about in all those talks. It swarmed around me, speaking in a language I could hear audibly and understand telepathically. I demanded it speak to me in human words, and it insisted that this was more fun, and compelled me to sing along with it. I sang and sang.

In later years, I was introduced to Yoga and meditation and left hyperspace behind. I was initiated in to deep states of mediation and contemplation and joined a cooperative community dedicated to spiritual growth. Certain experiences in that community left my trust injured and my faith in the teachings harmed. I went on pilgrimage to Italy and rediscovered Christianity through mystical Catholicism. I have now been a practicing Roman Catholic for 5 years, but once again find myself longing for Hyperspace. In college, DMT was the holy grail that we were never able to find, but the teks here and other places I've seen seem to promise that it is right at hand, if only I am brave enough to perform these sacred alchemies again. I believe I am.

I feel very interested in Santo Daime church, and its integration of the use of Ayahuasca with Christian forms and would like to connect with members of this group in the USA, hopefully culminating in an opportunity to experience their sacred rites. Anyone with a connection to this movement in the Midwestern USA, please contact me with more info!

In Search of Christ and Truth,

CatholicPsychonaut

Welcome!

Interesting to hear from a Catholic psychonaut. Ha. Always something new. If I'm reading your story correctly you haven't taken any psychedelics since rediscovering your faith? I'd be very curious to hear how your experiences turn out.

..welcome CatholicPsychonaut, pleased to have you here..
..i recall that the infamous Timothy Leary did an experiment in the late 60s in which a dozen Catholic priests ingested LSD..nine or ten of them felt that it brought them closer to God or Christ..three had profound mystical experiences..this was one of the better contributions of Leary to society..
..ayahusaca and plant derived DMT are of course here as god or nature intended..i do believe the kingdom of heaven can be experiencedon earth..

very much looking forward to your perspective..while i am not a christian, i find good concepts within it's more progressive branches..there is a good video posted of a progressive catholic bishop John Spong here: https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/d...osts&t=25524&p=1
..i'm curious what you think of the 'gnostic' 'Gospel of Mary Magdelene' [see https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/d...aspx?g=posts&t=28303 post#11] as it appears to be a genuine early-christian work..
.

Thank you for the warm welcome. To answer your question, onethousandk, I have used Salvia D since my conversion, but didn't experience anything at all. Seemed to have no effect at all. I haven't even used Cannabis due to working in a job with random drug testing. I have tried some of the synthetic cannabinoids that were making the rounds a couple years ago, but was less than impressed and found the experience to "feel" synthetic.

To respond to your question, nen888, I actually credit gnostic teaching with at least part of my journey back to Christ. When I was first feeling a call back to Christianity, I tried out of few different Gnostic groups, but found most of them to have too much "cult of personality", which was something I was trying to get away from in the Yoga community of which I was a part at the time. I think someone interested in gnosticism and the plurality of the early Church should read stuff by the UNC Chapel Hill scholar Bart Ehrman. All his books are great, and I usually snatch them up as soon as the next one comes out. I haven't read the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, but I have spent much time doing Lectio Divina (an ancient Christian technique of meditation on scripture) with The Gospel of Thomas and find its insights to be as deep as the ocean.

Due to my intense work life and the fact that I'm supporting three kids and a wife, I don't delve too deeply into hyperspace these days, but The Other is calling me back, thus my introduction here.