If you have been listening to my podcast, you'd know that I went on a trip recently. One that doesn't require travel on a plane or a car but instead a travel inward to the vastness of inner space.
Consciousness.
That little chestnut that has been plaguing scientists for millennia but embraced and understood by mystics, gurus and healers since the beginning of time.
Why do the latter have more of a grasp around this topic than those who base their opinions on intellect alone?
Probably because the intellect is so insignificant in comparison to the expanse of consciousness that using it to figure out something so boundless is like asking a toddler to patiently count each grain of sand on a mile long beach to give you an accurate total.
When you can sit with yourself for extended periods of time, allowing yourself to be open, without judgement or distractions, insights hit like a dew drop hitting the ground after accumulating on a leaf over night into the early morning light.
Sometimes, it's a few drops all at once.
The knowledge that transpires is not something from the intellect or information you gather from outside of yourself but from the great store of information that every one of your cells and consciousness (you) has access and is also directly connected to.
The only way to access it is to go in. One direction to find answers, many ways to access them.
One of those ways is meditation.
The very act of quietly observing your mind and body objectively, gives rise to the gold stored within. Sometimes it takes years of practice to access it, and sometimes it comes to you straight away. I guess it depends on the purpose of your journey as a human in this time.
Another way, (and generally quicker) is by using the potent gifts that nature provides, by which I believe, are here and available to us for this very reason.
Psychoactive compounds can be found in bark, leaves or roots of particular trees, seeds from flowers, also in many fungi, plants and even in animal secretions.
Many of these are part of spiritual, shamanic and religious rituals because they are seen to help the consumer access other planes of existence, other dimensions, wisdom, glimpses of the future or past, conversations with higher powers and convergence with the Absolute.
My personal experience was with the compound Psilocybin found in the cubensis mushroom.
Photo by Phoenix Han on Unsplash
I was guided by an experienced facilitator in an environment where I felt safe and held by both throughout the event.
Getting your "set and setting" right before your other worldly journeys are key for a successful trip.
"Set" is your mindset and "setting" is your environment.
[If you are considering taking a journey yourself, find recommendations by people you trust and make sure you've done some homework on the facilitator. They have the power to make or break your experience. Not because they want you to have a negative experience but maybe they just don't match where you're at right now or they're just not suited to the job. You need to feel comfortable and feel like you can be yourself around them. The less friction around you, the easier the journey.]
To say I had an incredible, mind blowing and awe inspiring journey would be a gross understatement.
As I said to a friend when they asked me how it went, "Words and language are lacking and nowhere near enough to accurately depict what I went through," or something along those lines.
This is why I don't really like to try and explain it because I'm butchering the shit out of it. To understand, you just need to experience it for yourself.
I did however find a blog piece by Loner Wolf which I felt was the best and closest explanation I could relate to when it came to describing my mystical adventure.
He wrote about 9 characteristics these experiences may produce -
"1. Conscious Unity
The boundaries of where you perceive your individual identity to begin and end completely vanish (otherwise known as ego death). Instead, you’re left with a boundless and infinite union with all that is around you.
2. There Is No Time or Space
With a lack of a definable identity or spatial recognition, your sense of time feels infinite. You go from perceiving time from moment-to-moment as a static individual, to perceiving it as a stream of eternal present moments.
Without time space is endless.
Because your sense of identity is gone, your ability to separate “your” (now non-existent) surroundings into individual “spatial” elements also disappears.
3. Objective Reality
Without a discernible identity comes a sense of greater “objectivity” as though you’re experiencing a much more intricate and profound reality. Everything doesn’t just feel perfect, everything is innately perfect.
4. Gratitude
Most of your ecstatic feelings stem from an immense sense of gratitude. This gratitude is an overwhelming sense of awe at “your” (now non-existent) insignificance in comparison to the vastness of existence.
5. Life Is Seen As Sacred
In fact, your sense of gratitude is so vast that you feel almost undeserving of having the opportunity to experience such a miracle. You develop a new sense of respect for the sacredness of life that allows you to be here.
6. You Understand Paradox
Our sense of self or identity creates duality in our perception of reality (“I” am separate from “That”). However, the moment this separation disappears, you’re left with a non-dual reality in which your intellect finds paradox after paradox (e.g., something is both light/dark, here/absent, human/divine, limited/eternal). In truly understanding paradox, you experience mind-blowing and expansive realizations.
7. The Experience Is Indescribable
The overwhelming magnitude of emotions and intuitive understanding that you embody makes the attempt to even describe the mystical experience feel limited by language. To try and put words to it feels insulting to the depth of the experience.
8. The Experience Is Temporary
The very nature of a mystical experience is its transience. Eventually, you end up returning back to your habitual way of life, but the experience changes something deep inside.
9. The Experience Is Life-Changing
After experiencing such a state, suddenly death isn’t as scary as it used to be, and the beliefs or ambitions that you once held to be so important immediately lose their meaning. In fact, the mystical experience often awakens a thirst to try to bring as much of that experience back into our regular day-to-day lives as possible. And so begins (or deepens) the spiritual awakening process."
How incredible is that?!
It was all that and more and I highly recommend it if you're feeling lost in life, are depressed or anxious, struggling with addiction/s, experience chronic pain or you just want some clarity on the mysteries of life.
There are numerous research papers outlining the profound results the effects of Psilocybin had on participants regarding the above mentioned. With a few clicks on Google, you can have a read through yourself.
Please note that it is illegal to consume, grow or supply Psilosybin mushrooms in Australia and in other parts of the world. Do your research before you take the plunge and make sure you know and are ok with the consequences if you choose to go ahead.
I find the profundity of these experiences make the legalities around such life changing and positively affecting substance, nonsensical. Especially due to the extensive research that has been conducted on psychedelics both previous to and coming out of the highly political "war on drugs" where the investigations describe the conclusive effectiveness of the compound.
I now consider myself a proponent of Psilocybin mushrooms and their incredible capabilities to bring peace, on many different levels, where there once was none and no hope of attaining it.
I also encourage anyone to do their research on the topic if they have tried many different tonics/modalities/"cures" for the struggles they go through and have yet to be victorious over.
These natural substances were put on this planet to help heal and guide us lost souls into the reality of our situation.
The reality is this - life or to live a beautiful one is incredibly simple, humans just tend to want to complicate it so that they can be matched to the productivity that they think is necessary to be a success.
The secret? You're a success already. The fact that you're alive means you're a success. Not what society deems to be a success but one the Infinite does.
I don't know about you but I prefer to be associated with the latter.
I'll leave you with a poignant quote by the late philosopher, Terrence McKenna on psychedelics -
"Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong."
Now go forth and melt away conditioning, unproductive patterns of behaviour, trauma and protective walls you've built over time so you can truly thrive!
Love from a fellow traveler.
Rx