Ken Wilber talking on Ayahuasca
“anything that has a beginning in time has an end in time”
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@NightHawk999 Nighthawk. I love it!
The Zen Master said it was a food! 
And yes, the psychedelic experience has a beginning, middle and end so it’s not it (the enlightened state). But in my experience it can point towards the enlightened state and give you a glimmer of what you are seeking.
And another point that Wilber doesn’t address here is that psychedelic medicines aren’t only about reaching an enlightened state. The ayahuasqueros in the Amazon don’t talk about enlightenment. They are healers. Traditionally people went to them to heal mental and physical conditions. The same with the Mazatec mushroom shamans. It’s about healing and getting connections with spiritual helpers. Shamanism is a whole different game than seeking enlightenment, but in the process you may have temporary states that point towards enlightenment. And contemporary psychedelic research is mostly focused on healing conditions such as major depression, PTSD and addictions. And I totally agree with him that those who get the most spiritually from the medicines are also on a meditation path. Those who just want to party don’t get that much from it usually. (Although there are cases where people thought they were just going to party and ended up going much deeper).
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Amen Brother
Excellent points!
Definitely agree with this, but also think they can be used for both healing, and a taste of awakening. In both cases I think a meditative background is monumentally important.
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An interesting summary of psychedelic “ego death” experiences.
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Enlightenment is the ultimate healing imo. I personally see a lot of overlap between them. Complete healing of the psyche would naturally lead to enlightenment. Both healing and enlightenment are salvific modalities and they complement each other. There may not be any language of enlightenment in the cultures that traditionally use these medicines. Nevertheless I feel they are treading similar paths. The goal is wholeness and harmony of self and other, that’s something both viewpoints share.
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@Bucket. Yes, the tastes of enlightenment that the medicines give you can be healing. And sometimes they can be healing even without tastes of enlightenment, as they also seem to balance and re-align the body’s energies and just soften the walls around a hardened ego structure. This in and of itself can be very healing. But what the ayahuasqueros do is even beyond that in terms of sophisticated healing work. The medicine allows them to see what is going on in the patient’s energy body and they can remove energetic intrusions and curses, sing healing icaro songs that call in the powers of various plant and animals medicines (a kind of sonic homeopathy) remove harmful spirits, etc. Even the purging (vomiting) that happens with ayahuasca is part of the healing as one can release old traumas, memories and negative energies. And yes, there can be moments of ego death where one can get brief glimpses of the enlightened state, although I’ve never heard an ayahuasquero talk about that.
I don’t normally recommend that people take these medicines in recreational settings, however, even there, unexpected glimpses of enlightenment can happen. A case in point is the famous psychedelic artist Alex Grey. As a young man he was about the graduate from art school and was very depressed with his life and had never done any psychedelics. One night he decided to commit suicide and was walking down the street thinking about that. Just then a car pulled up and a beautiful young woman from his art school was in the car and invited him to her party. He said, “What the hell, I’ll go to one last party and then if I don’t feel better I’ll kill myself.” So he goes to her party and someone offers him a tab of acid. He says, “What the hell, I’ll try the acid and if I don’t feel better, I’ll kill myself.” So he takes the acid, lays on her couch all night, has an ego death experience and then is no longer depressed. And he and the girl who invited him to the party got together and they are still together to this day and are both well known psychedelic artists (Alex and Allison Grey) and they both are into Vajrayana Buddhism and meditation as well. So I guess “Buddha works in mysterious ways.”
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Thank you for sharing this, great video!
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Amen Dear Sibling!
Very well said.
Amen Dear Brother
LOVED this story!
I have a friend who told me something similar, in their story though, they took a bag full of mushrooms. (Would not recommend this to anyone)
Long story short, the paramedics and police were called when a strange character was found running around naked in the dead of winter, and it took about half a dozen of these professionals to my friend.
Will have to ask them to repeat the full story and see if its cool for me to share it, but parts were so funny it had me and everyone else listening to it laughing almost to tears
(Could have ended really badly, thank God it did not)
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Yeah I’ve heard more than one story about people who suddenly felt divinely inspired to take off their clothes and run around naked on psychedelics. And in psychedelic festival settings, such behavior may be totally acceptable. But in other places it will land you in jail or the mental hospital. For more stories about (mostly) misuse of psychedelics that turn out in hilarious ways, see the Comedy Central “Tales from the Trip” videos on youtube.
My advice is to know your medicine and dose and create conscious and sacred ceremonies with intention. Our main model for altered states in Western culture is alcohol (which is the recreational drug that we’ve been using for thousands of years) and alcohol is about socializing, shedding inhibitions and (at higher doses) getting “f*cked up and acting crazy”. Not a good model for psychedelics which traditionally were sacred healing medicines.
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More from Alex and Allison Grey. Their contribution to the Comedy Central “Tales from the Trip.”
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I was told my mother did this on morphine during her last days in a hospice . . . .
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@_Barry. Go Mom! Free at last! 
When I was 13 years old, in the late 60’s in Seattle (the height of the hippie era), while walking home from school, I saw a hippie looking guy (long hair and beard) who was running around naked in the neighborhood and the police were there restraining him. He was freaking out and screaming. I assumed it was a bad acid trip. Or perhaps it had been a good trip until the police showed up. 
But this was one of the things that scared me away from psychedelics until my dreams led me to them in my late 30’s. In my case, I think, however, that it was good for me to wait until I had attained more maturity and I was introduced to them in a sacred ceremonial way.
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I do this while out camping, without the use of narcotics…
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I was very disappointed to learn that the FDA has rejected MDMA treatment for PTSD. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has been pursuing this goal by funding it’s use in treating PTSD since the 90’s. They finally completed phase 3 studies and got breakthough results. Most people were expecting this to be approved, so this is extremently disappointing.
An FDA advisory committee rejected it a couple of months ago. Seems like this committee really didn’t get many aspects of the study. I also suspect that there is a big influence of big pharma in rejecting this study as they will loose sale of their antidepressants if PTDS and other mental health problems are effectively treated with psychedelics.
Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPS has been the main guy funding and coordinating this research since it was made illegal in the 80’s. He is also pursuing a lot of other psychedelic research as well.
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So many drugs, so little time. And this is just a small sample of what is out there.
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BINGO
Very disappointed by this news too, and this was the first thing that came to my mind was Big Pharma made sure this was dead on arrival.
The Legal Mob is not the only one that profits for killing the FDA approval, the illegal MOB and Cartels will also lose market share.
And Business at the boarder has been booming under Biden, so makes me think these 2 legal and illegal drug dealers are (at least partly) pulling the strings of this puppet administration.
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Amen Brother
My favorite way to end a long day of hiking is a water bottle bath, with a campfire as a towel to dry off
4-6 bottles and a thumbnail of shampoo go a long way
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A talk by my friend, Gwyllm Flydd, of Portland, OR who is a graphic artist, student of psychechelia and psychonaut. Here he speaks about Fritz Hugh Ludlow’s book “The Hasheesh Eater”, originally published in the 1800’s. Ludlow, a 19th Century American writer, describes visionary states brought on by taking large oral doses of hasheesh. He was America’s first psychonaut and these are the first trip reports written in America. Flydd has re-published this book with his own visionary art as illustration. The book can be obtained at his website: The Hasheesh Eater 2nd Edition! - Invisible College Publishing
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