Meditation vs DMT?

Yogic meditators often disparage those who believe the responsible use of DMT and other entheogens can lead to spiritual growth. Paley Burin, a member of this online community asked me a question about this earlier in a post on my "wall". Since it occurs to me that this is a subject worthy of wider discussion I am posting my answer to Paley here followed by his original post:

Graham Hancock response to Paley Burin:

Hi Paley, thank you for your detailed, thoughtful and important post. As I mentioned in my reply to your personal message, I am under huge writing pressure at the moment and don't have the time to devote to as detailed a reply as I would under other circumstances wish. But, in brief, I am not a fan of that rather pompous and self-satisfied faction of yogic meditators, or for that matter Buddhist practitioners, who so often despise, condemn and generally put down the use of DMT and other visionary allies from the plant kingdom. It was Buddhists who gave Rick Strassman such trouble over his important work with DMT.

Basically I am out of sympathy with any individual or group who claim their way is the only way to enlightenment while despising and pouring scorn on other people's methods, notably the use of plant allies which are (weirdly!) often referred to as unnatural. I do not put down meditation. On the contrary I practise meditation myself, I believe it to be a very valuable tool and I honour anyone who chooses to use it and to work at developing high-level skills as a meditator. But meditators should honour and respect other methods as well.

There is no one "way" and the mistake that pompous, self-satisfied meditators make is, I think, to confuse the means used to achieve a particular end with the end itself. I think the means used (meditation etc, DMT etc, or both) are the least important aspect of all this. What matters is what you do with visionary experiences once you have had them, how you integrate them into your life, what lessons you learn from them and how you act on those lessons.

When I hear meditators and yogic practitioners being judgemental about the means used by others it suggests to me that those meditators and yogic practitioners have NOT done well at integrating whatever lessons they have been offered by their experiences. Surely the first and most important lesson is humility?

My own view, for what it's worth, is that human society is presently in a very bad place and these messengers from the plant kingdom, notably DMT -- perhaps particularly in its manifestation through the Ayahuasca brew but in its pure form as well -- and psilocybin, are reaching out to help us. Many in the modern world are so deeply conditioned into mental slavery towards the materialist model (i.e. the notion that there is nothing more to life than our material, physical existence presently promulgated by many scientists, by all corporations, by politicians and by the media) that a huge kick up the ass is needed to break free. The plant allies provide this kick up the ass, remove the scales from our eyes, cleanse the doors of perception and offer the opportunity to see things as they really are -- infinite, to paraphrase Blake.

Once that new perception becomes available to us the next step is what we do with it? That is where the real WORK begins -- and what I see all around the world is people waking up thanks to experience with visionary allies from the plant kingdom, people doing the work and integrating what they have learned into their lives in a new, more open-minded, kinder, more loving and more nurturing approach to other humans and to the realm of nature as a whole. I'm not saying this is true for everyone who has worked with smoked DMT, Ayahuasca or psilocybin -- or other visionary agents. There are plenty of self-satisfied, pompous, judgemental idiots in the psychedelic community as well. But I do think it is true for the majority, at least in my experience. Hope this in part answers your questions.

End of response by Graham Hancock

And here is Paley Burin's original post:

Ok, so this is a serious question and I'd like to know what Graham and others think. Kind of a long post, but I encourage you to read the whole thing and comment with your own opinions. That's why I'm posting it here.

I preface this question by stating that I've smoked DMT maybe 7 or 8 times in my whole life, all within the past two years, and I was deeply changed by the experiences for the better. So I am not at all against the use of DMT for spiritual growth, or I would not be in this group.

But I've been thinking, and talking to some of the monks and yogis in my own spiritual practice of Tantra yoga, and they have offered some interesting and thought-provoking perspectives that I've been grappling with as of late. These unanswered questions seem to stand in the way of me smoking DMT again, at least for right now. So that's why I'd like to hear other opinions, so I can come to some sort of conclusion for myself, so I can feel a little more comfortable continuing to explore uncharted psychic territory.

I'm sure to most of you the concept of karma is pretty familiar. It seems to only be superficially understood by most people in the West, but for the sake of just getting to the point and not getting too deep into Tantric philosophy and all of that, let's just assume that karma means simply that all of our actions, even thoughts, have some sort of residual impact on ourselves and possibly the lives of others, too. The term "samskara" in sanskrit refers to the imprints that our actions leave on the subconscious mind. The accumulation of these "samskaras" influences our behavior, for better or for worse. In a sense, all the "negative samskaras" that we have accumulated in this and previous lives, all the "bad karma" that we have set into motion, needs to be gotten rid of before we can clearly perceive ourselves and our external reality for what it truly is. A lifting of the veil, so to speak, by removing our samskaras through spiritual exercises, needs to take place before we can understand the divine truth of existence. (In so many words. I'm no expert in Eastern philosophy. But that's the jist of it.)

So now that I've mentioned karma and samskaras, this is where my question about DMT comes in. Some of the monks I have spoken with are a bit leery about the idea of smoking DMT as a means of spiritual growth. Admittedly, some of this resistance is simply due to a lack of knowledge about psychedelic drugs, or an emotional bias regarding the use of "drugs" in general. (Why the blanket term "drugs" is still used to overgeneralize and stigmatize them as a category, basically lumping psychedelics together with opiates, and regarding them as such, even by highly developed spiritually aware beings such as meditating monks, is beyond me.) But there are also a number of monks and experienced practitioners that I've spoken to who are leery of smoking DMT for a different reason. Some of these guys do indeed recognize that it is a profound endogenous psychedelic, that it most likely plays a pivotal role in the function of consciousness, and that it clearly has an important function in meditative practice due to its correlation to the ajna cakra in the pineal gland, but many of them are strongly opposed to the idea of ingesting it externally, or "unnaturally". (Though I think referring to the act of smoking DMT as "unnatural" is debatable, let's just hear them out for the sake of the argument.)
Admitting that endogenous DMT likely plays a crucial role in states of deep meditation and devotion, that they themselves are, in a sense, most likely dosing themselves with DMT every time they do sadhana, these monks are still opposed to the idea of ingesting the drug spontaneously in its freebase form. The reasoning behind this is that, "we don't know the karmic effect of smoking DMT." In a nutshell, their argument is as follows: Given that DMT is clearly such a sacred component in spiritual practice, and because of its sheer power, we can't be sure what kind of impact it will have on our subconscious minds, on our accumulated samskaras, on our "karmic balance", if you will. The worry is shared by monks in other spiritual traditions like Buddhism. Terence Mckenna gave Tibetan Buddhist monks DMT and they confirmed that it brought them to a similar "bardo" state, or immaterial realm that we fall into between reincarnations. So it clearly has great significance to Buddhists as well. Yet, many of these people are not jumping in line to smoke DMT. Why? Not only is one "cheating" by smoking DMT, (again, debatable, and this is not my opinion, just the opinion of these yogis), but he is also producing an experience that his spirit may not be ready for. He may be effectively interrupting his own cycle of karmic evolution by subjecting himself to such highly charged, rigorously transformative spiritual experiences. Who is to say that, in the grand scheme of things, this sort of "skipping ahead" to experience a state of spiritual bliss that was not originally in the cards at that particular time for that particular person won't actually be detrimental to his spiritual growth? To draw a somewhat disconcerting but relevant comparison to Christianity, what if this freedom to indulge in the forbidden fruit (smoking DMT) is actually a sort of cosmic test like that of Adam and Eve? What if the repeated "unnatural" ingestion of this divine eye-opener actually has negative consequences?

Personally, I have quite a few bones to pick with the yogi's argument, the most important of which being, how could it possibly be intrinsically detrimental to one's spiritual journey to smoke DMT if the very act of smoking DMT can cause one to begin a spiritual search and overcome addictions and other animalistic tendencies, and to devote time and energy to a spiritual practice and the betterment of humanity? Perhaps DMT is not for everyone, and perhaps continually using it your whole life is not the wisest choice. But then again, perhaps it is. Perhaps That One has intentionally left us this tangible trace of divine transcendence, this spiritual rocketship, for exactly the purpose that I mentioned above. Anyone who is serious about his spirituality would be able to understand that using anything in excess is unwise, but to turn one's back on such a powerful spiritual catalyst altogether when it has proven to be the single most useful tool he has ever encountered seems to me to be outright foolish.

Having said all that, I do think we should really look at these experiences with more respect and humility. For me personally, I feel like there is still more inspiration and wonder to be derived from undergoing these experiences, and so it seems that I have answered my own doubt that I brought up in the beginning of this post. I do feel comfortable continuing my relationship with Dimethyltriptamine, but I approach that relationship with extreme reverence and an acknowledgment of the potential risks. I don't imagine this is a tool that I will need to carry with me to the grave. (Well, it most likely carries itself with us to the grave anyway via the pineal gland.) But what I mean is that I do think there is possibly a limit in terms of the utility of these experiences when they are produced externally. The question of "When does smoking DMT stop providing a spiritually uplifting and motivating experience?" is an interesting one. Do we really need to smoke this stuff all the time once we've heard its profound message and made the necessary changes in our lives that it demands? Is it really a good idea to keep subjecting ourselves to such a jarring experience simply to explore the antipodes of the mind? If there is no intention to grow spiritually, is smoking DMT really the right thing to do? These are important questions for any psychonaut to mull over. It's helpful that it's such a terrifying experience, which makes us less inclined to simply hitch a ride on the rocketship "just for shits and giggles. Just to see what the machine elves have to say to me today." That kind of mentality is not only stupid and profoundly disrespectful, but also a recipe for a mental disaster, especially if DMT is continually used that way.

For now, I rest in the comfort of knowing that a shot of spiritual inspiration and a touch of divine love is just around the corner, if I decide to load the pipe again. But to be honest, I feel like my meditation practice is also giving me that same divine love, but in a much more natural, gradual, predictable, healthy way, which I can rest assured will not jeapordize my spiritual evolution. But how did I come to practice meditation? DMT..credit should be given where it is due.

One last thing I would like to reiterate, to jump back a little bit, in response to the rigid criticism I've been given by some of the more advanced spiritual practitioners in my life:

In light of the current global crisis, it would seem all the more urgent for humanity to evolve spiritually. We desperately need to reconnect with ourselves and the planet.
To be brutally honest, I cared very little about the fate of life on Earth before smoking DMT. All the talk of the environment, politics, religion, civil rights, all of that was so utterly empty to me before DMT. I lived in my own little world, oblivious to the real problems facing humanity, self-medicating my wounded soul with alcohol and cocaine. Then came DMT as a fucking cosmic lightning bolt, a spectacle of infinite possibility and overwhelming wisdom, a divine tickle. Suddenly life was infused with ineffable meaning. Suddenly it became immoral to deliberately harm or upset another being. Suddenly the realm of spirituality and religion beckoned with unquestionable authority. My almost decade-long struggle with substance abuse and criminal activity vanished instantaneously. Petty problems became trivial. Serious problems facing the planet seemed a thousand times more urgent than they were before the DMT experience. And so I made the decision, as anyone in that situation would, to begin my spiritual path, with my newly found values, in an effort to improve myself and contribute to the evolution of humanity and planet Earth in any and every way I could.

Admitting that this is most certainly NOT going to be every person's experience with DMT, that some people may have terrifying and totally negative experiences completely void of any benign message, and that anyone who may be predisposed to manic states and other serious mental difficulties should avoid psychedelics entirely, it is still utterly inconceivable to me that a substance that could produce such a complete, positive transformation in me should be frowned upon, and that others who need a similarly powerful transformation should be told not to smoke it, simply because we don't know what kind of impact it will have on our spiritual evolution. While I deeply respect the wisdom of the yogis I have met in my life, and while I don't pretend for a second to call into question their knowledge, I also find myself asking, "Can we afford NOT to allow people to have this experience, given the current state of society, given the limited time we have to fix the problems that we've created for ourselves?" It seems inhumane to simply maintain that if we fuck everything up on Earth, we will resume our spiritual evolution perhaps in a different form on a different planet, which seems to be the response I get when I discuss the impending extinction of life on Earth with those who are learned in the Eastern texts. Is that really the fall-back plan, the cosmic cop out? To preserve our prejudices and biases against the combination of spiritual practice with psychedelic drugs, we would prefer to inhibit the acceleration of individual and collective spiritual growth on this planet, right when we need it most, by condemning the use of DMT as "unnatural" or "improper" or "spiritually cheating" or "playing Russian roulette with the mind" or "Disrupting the natural evolution of consciousness". That, to me, seems wholly immoral.

All of this without mentioning the undeniable fact that "Soma", the substance mentioned in some of the most ancient and influential Eastern spiritual texts, was undoubtedly a psychedelic substance, though not necessarily DMT, and that it was most likely used by the very sages that laid the foundations of these profound spiritual practices for the rest of humanity to use. Why not follow suit? If psychedelics in some way helped the spiritual evolution of yogis in the earlier days, who is to say that they couldn't be just as useful now, to kick-start the rest of humanity into a spiritually-aware state of consciousness, when the fate of all life on Earth rests entirely upon the actions that we make as a species in the years to come.

Thoughts? Objections?

End of Paley Burin's original post.

Always nice to read some Hancock.... Nail on head

Long story short,

not Meditation vs. DMT....

Meditation + DMT

I live under a rock (literally) so this is the first I've heard of gangam style. However, I kind of have a weird love for j-pop and k-pop.

Anyway, where/when did hancock get sniffy over gangam style?

All of this without mentioning the undeniable fact that "Soma", the substance mentioned in some of the most ancient and influential Eastern spiritual texts, was undoubtedly a psychedelic substance, though not necessarily DMT, and that it was most likely used by the very sages that laid the foundations of these profound spiritual practices for the rest of humanity to use. Why not follow suit? If psychedelics in some way helped the spiritual evolution of yogis in the earlier days, who is to say that they couldn't be just as useful now, to kick-start the rest of humanity into a spiritually-aware state of consciousness, when the fate of all life on Earth rests entirely upon the actions that we make as a species in the years to come.

DMT is one method, Meditation is another...they are not equivalent, but the more methods the stronger the spiritual path, imo
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