Psychedelics!

First, a caveat: psychedelics are not for everyone.

 

The babble of god and other palaver

“I used the smoke-able version of DMT and God himself showed up. After 3 large consecutive puffs. DMT is found in all life and occurs natural in your pineal gland. (the 3rd eye(!)) it's in every living plant and animal….also known as the spirit molecule or the God particle. I was instantly transported before I let the third puff out. I saw red and had thought I was dead. I saw a time lapse of my life over one spot. Through God’s eyes. God had giant, invisible hands and moves so quick and showed me how ‘he’ was always there and from above us. I thought in my head, ‘how is this possible?’. Then I thought it must be God showing me. No possible way. I seen (sic) a male type figure with a hammer just pounding away at the table. All that came from every smack was more creation. Like clockwork. All that came out was good and perfect. Was the ultimate being. Then God spoke through me and told me when I go back just to tell others he existed. That was it. I woke up on the ground and it immediately started to rain. I was reborn. I can already hear the ‘coincidence and I was just high bs’ now but I guess you would have to feel and see to really know. That's my story. Hope you enjoyed it and get something out of it.”

'The transcript of a caller into the Atheist Experience relating his ‘personal revelation’ under the influence of DMT' 

 

Nota bene: DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is one of the most powerful naturally-occurring psychedelics on the planet. When smoked, it only lasts about 20 minutes, but the experience can be intense and life-changing. Some users report vivid hallucinations like fractal-filled chambers or encounters with "beings" that can feel like a near-death experience.

 

The Atheist Experience; 21.14 with Matt Dillahunty and Tracie Harris;

Caller: ‘Well, I believe in god…because…I had an experience…on mushrooms.’

Host 1: ‘How did you know that was god?’

Caller: ‘Because it has to do with equilibrium…connectivity, oneness… um…I’m trying to find the right words. This is a little hard. 

Host 2: (laughs) ‘True.’

Caller:  The reason I brought up words in the first place was because was… like I said, I’m an artist. I write, so the way I think about things…  like, uh, everything around us is a noun. Ummm… noun, verb, you describe nouns, verbs using archetypes.

Host 1: (interrupting) Okay, okay. No, we’re not going down this road…

[Cross-talk] (Caller talks about verbs, nouns, adverbs, archetypes and god as the Hosts try to break in.)

Host 1: ‘God is a noun?’ God is a noun. 

Host 2: …and sometimes a pronoun…

Caller: (blathers on incoherently about adverbs and verbs and archetypes and god.)  ‘At the end of the day, when you write it on paper; it’s all yin and yang.

 

Clear as day, or mud. 

 

An analysis of mummified heads and cadavers discovered on the Southern coast of Peru has pushed back the earliest known date of psychedelic cactus use and other psychoactive plants. Toxicology reports on five individuals who were ritually executed between 500 to 2100 years ago revealed the use of coca leaves (which contain cocaine), hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus and Banisteriopsis caapi, a plant often used in the psychedelic brew, ayahuasca. Mescaline, which naturally appears in many different cacti, is especially associated with peyote, a small cactus that has been used for religious purposes for thousands of years before Jesus was born.

When a Believer has backed themselves into a corner on explaining why they believe, it seems they will invariably – and rather sheepishly – claim that they had a ‘revelation from god’ or that the Holy Spirit entered them and guided them on the ‘path of righteousness’. Sometimes, the Believer will relate a dream they had which they take as the direct contact from god.

It’s so common to hear ‘Believers’ justify their Faith in god with ‘personal revelation’, often during periods of emotional stress, expressing baloney like that written below:

‘But I felt it! It was so real. I felt like there were more dimensions than we can know in real life! It was supernatural. I’m sure of it because it felt so real. I saw a vision in my head; there was a figure who spoke to me telepathically! I can’t explain it but it was so moving! I was so real! I knew that it was from god.’

Wah-dee-doo-dah. Nice story, dude!

Having experienced the vagaries of perception which I witnessed when I was 19 in LSD trips, I could not accept the vagaries of ‘Faith’ as inviable reality. Nor would I allow myself to be englamoured by the personal revelation and confusion of what others deemed ‘profound’. Quite typically, the revelation/dream/Holy Spirit/vision will be extremely mundane and unremarkable to any but the most sympathetic fellow Believer.

I contend that the Believers who have had ‘personal revelation’ had ‘fugue-state’ experiences that are akin to psychedelic episodes. If they had had true drug-induced psychedelic episodes, they would realize that such departures from reality were not unusual or supernatural but are not only natural but common-place. Then they would realize that the ‘revelation’ was nothing more than a passing brain state, devoid of supernatural intent or spiritual content.

What is to be understood is that the brain functions electro-chemically. When a mind-altering chemical is introduced to the chemical mix of the brain, the brain functions differently, as it must. That simple fact is too often over-looked; the resultant dysfunction due to the use of mind-altering substances is falsely interpreted as ‘supernatural’ or ‘meta-physical’ or ‘spiritual’. 

 

It is a falsehood to contend that there’s nothing to learn from psychedelic drugs. It would compound the error to assume that psychedelic drugs provide a ‘supernatural’ or ‘spiritual’ experience. Dr. Jordan Peterson, claims that everyone who takes them (i.e. DMT, psychedelic drugs) “under reliable settings, generally comes back and claims the presence of a mystical experience.” 

 

First, his assessment is filled with weasel words such as ‘generally’ and ‘under reliable settings’. He also alludes to unfounded, unsupported claims; ‘claims the presence of a mystical experience.’ Moreover, Peterson asserts that they (the DMT users) ‘come back’. Really from where do they return to make the claim of ‘mystical experience’? The phrase ‘mystical experience’ holds no real meaning at all, to my mind. 

 

What is ‘mystical’ after all? A ‘mystical experience’ is an unfalsifiable claim and is thus invalid for evidence. Peterson has demonstrated again and again that he is a polix, bloviating tosser of word salad; a bombastic, obtuse obfuscator who strives to baffle and disarm the listener with utter bullshit and non-sequitur.

However, there is something to be learned from psychedelic experience, though that experience is not a mystical, supernatural or spiritual one.