Joe,

You've been honestly one of the people that I grew an affinity for in terms of reading your threads and posts. I vibe much with your perspective, and many of your psychedelic experiences you've described including your various meditation practices that mirror very closely my own experiences. I sure hope you come back man, for real. But I realize what you've got to do, as I myself am in a very similar position right now.

I remember you saying in a thread awhile back to the effect of "Once you have a Godhead experience there's no denying it". And that is completely true in my book. I won't go into detail regarding this because that's not what this post is about, but just know....I understand what you've said and where your at.

See you down the road brotha.... Tat Tvam Asi

Take care and be well friend - that Alan Watts quote hits the nail on the head.

Blessings

Inspiring stuff. I think many of us get stuck in the belief that these substances are the only consistent way to get there, some taking it to the extreme of 'the only way to get there' - but they are as you say powerful, yet fleeting. They are way showers, not the way its self.

I wish you all the best brother.

Joe, I too will miss new posts and your presence here on the forum, but thankfully, your past posts are here for us to consider, your wisdom will remain endless, and you will still be inspiring others on a spiritual path.

Peaceful travels, thank you for being true to your Self.

Julz

Wow... where have I been? I had wondered why I had seen so little of your posts, recently. Admittedly, I have likewise been kinda scarce myself. Also, since I am "real life" friends with you, my brother, we communicate as one reflection of soul to another soul, on a fairly regular basis. It's kinda sad to hear you are departing the Nexian community. I sincerely hope you will be an occasional guest.

I believe it is of utmost importance to keep in mind that we are all aspects of consciousnesses awakening to it's very own existence. For myself, entheogens have been paramount to many new insights into myself and the universe I am a fellow cohabitant within.

It has also been a spiral, ascending stairway. One which has led me to new levels of being and new aspects of mind and also no-mind. Entheogenic immersions have shaken my mental fixation so vigorously, I was introduced to something wholly Sacred, existent already inside of me, that had patiently awaited my notice. That aspect of self which is at one with all else it perceives, as it is all else. It is all being. This is light, this is love.



Sacred Medicines can often facilitate significant shifts in our paradigmatic panoramas and are themselves, very great teachers. But Alan is quite correct, they are not the reality we seek... they are the messengers. True "enlightenment" is a constancy of awareness/consciousness. Awake or dreaming, doing, undoing or not doing... all the play of mind and heart.

We are witness to all of this and still, we are each far more than our brief reflection in the mirror of humanity. We are essentially the Omniself. We are Divine Mind noticing our interaction within all we intuit, for we are one, singular entity. We are that which initiates quantum fluctuations and that which silently witnesses the infinite possibility within this very moment. Tat Tvam Asi.

Psychs can surely gift states of consciousness which brought me to that still, centered point when I come to realize that I do not exist as a constant or never-ending mental headset... I have been dreaming my whole life. My isolated vantage point ifs not the totality of my awareness, it is the very surface of it. Deeper within this pattern are states of mind and being which bloom to revel an interconnection with the whole of being... "The Omniverse" (as our far out brother Hyperspace fool likes to call it).



Psychedelics or no psychedelics... if we aspire to live in the present moment and expand our awareness, we need to cultivate more and more acute degrees of perceiving that state we encounter when we are in altered states of consciousness, one fashion or another, one path or another. The journey never really began nor will it ever end. It is itself the destination. Enjoy your new horizon line, your unfolding road, my good friend.

As many of you folks know already, after being involved with LSD, psilocybin mushrooms and mescaline occasionally, I took a long hiatus from entheogens myself, for nearly 18 years. I understand joedirt very well. There is a time and a season for everything.

Always one must walk the path they are drawn towards. It's a beautiful thing, really. Honestly, I may never trip again. that being said, I may trip this weekend. In my present phase, there is no opening or closing of the door. I am always centering and re-centering my mind upon meditation, to one degree or another and there are no distinctions. I may feel slightly differently, momentarily, so let us celebrate new beginnings and never endings!

There is no past, no future, no other place but right here & now. This is a wonderful place to be. Here we are... and it is such a grace to be able to share it with each other. Right?



We have an organic predisposition to desire a union within the vortex of our own internal focus, an emptiness so full... it can only be vainly named and labelled as, The Godhead. A level of existential reality in which we shift from our habitual modality. It's only natural to desire getting high without an external chemical aid, regardless of the undeniable chemical changes which occur in conjunction with the higher states of meditation and spiritual attunemnt.

Samadhi-Satori-Divine Rapture. Meditation is a pathway leading to right here & now. It is a perfect companion for the flight of the psychonaut or the sobriety of the life of disciplined and self-directed Sadhana.

We are assuredly something deeper than our day to day persona. Yet still, the dream and the dreamer awakening from it's transitory slumber, are one phenomenon, despite the illusion that they are divided aspects or events manifesting. We are something awakening effulgently, from a plane of being that includes all other minds and hearts, all other forms of matter, antimatter, what exists and/or what is unborn and wholly insubstantial in it's eternally mysterious nature...void of all features.

I sure hope you drop by and offer your cool clarity and level-headed wisdom, from time to time. Please? For many of us here, you are like family and your insights are truly ones which stimulates much to reflect upon and so, gleam further insight from. Be well on your journey of awakening, dear comrade and friend. Let's not say, "Goodbye", rather, shall we instead say something like, "Until we meet again"?

And to use an old colloquialism, "Don't be a stranger."

As an "Entheogenic University" (newly re-emphasized with subtitles and banners!) our school explores the role of entheogenic substances along the many paths of consciousness expansion. So while the joedirts of our world may no longer partake for various reasons - and I've been through a couple of stages like that myself over the years - their continually unfolding experiences and knowledge will continue to benefit all of us. It is indeed a blessing to have a community like this that can share an ancient knowldege that is nonetheless modern and personal-experience based. In some ways it is internet-as-guru.

A few books I've read in the last year autobiographically describe the paths undertaken by well-known spiritual psychonauts over the last 1200 or so years whose writings survive today and aid 21st century fellow travelers on this path. You can find references in these texts to Datura, Amanita, and a variety of other psychotropic plants used in meditation practices. And of course in all these cases, these substances were used only in a certain phase of their "spiritual path". Comparing joedirt's recent experience with something along the same lines I've been through, it's clear these substances played an important role in aiding these people to arrive at their destination. I imagine the "other side" of partaking in entheogens on one's path is, as you get closer to the "endpoint", even more wonderful than with them.

I'm positive that if joedirt continues to share his experiences and insights into what is going on here with us, it will be more helpful than before!

Joe, I'm sorry I never got the chance to interact with you while you were still active on the site. I read this post and immediately recognized, based on your descriptions of how your meditation developed leading up to that major experience, that you've hit what Mahasi Sayadaw's Progress of Insight model refers to as "Knowledge of the Arising & Passing Away". It's a major landmark in any serious meditators practice, but I would highly recommend checking out a site called "The Dharma Overground" and getting some advice on how best to orientate your noting practice.

The game changes from here on in, it's the point of no returns in meditative terms and puts you firmly on the Path to awakening. It's now a matter of momentum and accuracy, but it sounds like you're someone who's already on the verge of untying the perceptual knot. Apologies if this post comes off as preachy or anything, but this is territory I know very well and have worked with intensively so I hope you'll be able to avoid the potential pitfalls along the way.

Peace.