A Critical Perspective on Psychedelic Use

[Oeaohoo]

I’m currently researching psychedelics as I plan to experiment with them more rigorously in the future and I came upon this interesting essay which criticises their use from a Perennial Traditionalist perspective:

https://charles-upton.com/2018/02/25/on-psychedelics-and-or-entheogens-drug-induced-mysticism-revisited/

I’m not posting this because I agree with everything he says, nor do I imagine any of you will. Let me know what you think of it!

[Oeaohoo]

The very end of this essay felt particularly relevant to the mistakes I have made on my own spiritual journey:

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Furthermore, those who are brought so near to the mysterium tremendum while being denied the final consummation may be subject to Luciferian temptations that the rest of us will probably never encounter, chief among them being the temptation to embrace a Luciferian consummation in a counterfeit Absolute designed in the infernal regions. Anyone who succumbs to such a temptation (which will most likely be presented to him or her in the deep unconscious regions of the soul), or is even confronted with it—assuming that the victim is not able to allow God to heal the psycho-spiritual damage that makes him or her susceptible to it—may effectively be denied Union with Absolute Reality for the remainder of this life, and possibly also the next.

[Oeaohoo]

I thought this part about the UFO phenomenon was very interesting:

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Question: You have undertaken an in-depth study of UFO phenomenon in light of traditional metaphysics in your book Cracks in the Great Wall (2005). There are numerous writers and researchers within the psychedelic world who claim that there is a connection between the psychedelic experience and UFO’s sightings and/or abductions, especially for those who use the substance DMT (dimethyltryptamine). To many this might be the siren call or the advent of the New Age, but to the exponents of the perennial philosophy this has the characteristics of the Kali-Yuga written all over it. Could you please speak to this?

Answer: As I see it, the UFO “aliens” are denizens of the intermediary or psychic plane, what Muslims call the Jinn. So it is not surprising that the use of psychedelics could make one more vulnerable to incursions from that world. René Guénon in The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times [1953] spoke of “fissures” appearing in the “Great Wall” separating the material plane from the intermediary plane, fissures that open our world to “infra-psychic” forces; to me the UFO phenomenon is a perfect example of this process. These fissures appear due to cyclical degeneration and the approaching dissolution of our world, but they are further widened and exploited by human activity, sometimes unconscious, sometimes deliberate. I believe that such things as the spread of the electronic media, including the internet, the liberation of nuclear energy, the use of psychedelics and the general fascination with psychic powers and the paranormal continue to widen the cracks in the Great Wall, which, since it acts as the border between the material and the psychic worlds, can be affected by both material and psychic means; the very fact that such powerful psychic experiences can be produced by a material substance like LSD undoubtedly furthers this process. And it is interesting in this context that, according to Timothy Leary [1920-1996], LSD was not “activated” as a psychedelic until the first atomic bomb was detonated in New Mexico. (On the material side, this border apparently has something to do with the electromagnetic spectrum, which is why automobile engines will often die and electronic equipment malfunction in close proximity to a UFO.) Furthermore, those people Guénon called “agents of the Counter-Initiation” are working to widen the cracks in the Great Wall consciously and deliberately.

The case of pioneer rocket scientist Jack Parsons [1914-1952] comes immediately to mind. Parsons was a follower of black magician Aleister Crowley [1875-1947] and an associate of L. Ron Hubbard [1911-1986], another follower of Crowley, who founded the Church of Scientology and who also (according to my correspondence with Beat Generation writer William Burroughs [1914-1997] in the late 1960’s, when Burroughs was in the process of breaking with Scientology) had a background in Naval Intelligence, something confirmed by Peter Levenda in his trilogy Sinister Forces: A Grimoire of American Political Witchcraft. Parsons, according to UFOlogist Jacques Vallée [b. 1939] in his book Messengers of Deception [1979], claimed to have met a “Venusian” in the Mojave Desert; according to Levenda he performed Pagan rituals at his launchings. He went on to co-found both the Aerojet Corporation and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; a crater was named after him on the dark side of the Moon. Parsons openly stated that he was working to open a “door” into another dimension; it was shortly after his Mojave Desert rituals that the first major post-WWII civilian sightings of UFOs occurred in North America, through of course there is no way of knowing if the two are related. (In the careers of Crowley, Parsons and Hubbard we can see clear indications of the action of the Counter-Initiation.) So conscious or unconscious “invocations” of the Jinn appear to be a major factor in the breakdown of the energy-wall between the material and the intermediary plane; such invocations are undoubtedly inspired by the Jinn themselves, specifically the kafir or unbelieving Jinn (the demons, that is; the Qur’an teaches that some of the Jinn are unbelievers and some are Muslims). In other words, the kafir Jinn are working to break down the Great Wall from their side as well. When the Wall finally crashes, our world will end.

This reminds me very much of Twin Peaks: The Return, especially the 8th episode about the nuclear explosion, a vivid depiction of how dark forces have taken over the world. I know that Mark Frost was interested in Kenneth Grant so that makes sense…

This is the water And this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within.

Edited 20 hours ago by Oeaohoo

[Oppositionless]

22 hours ago, Oeaohoo said:

The very end of this essay felt particularly relevant to the mistakes I have made on my own spiritual journey:

Sounds like it's just not talking about not wanting to fully awaken. Doesn't seem like it has much to do with psychedelics , unless the "non awakening" awakening psychedelics produce is particularly seductive. But the idea that you will permanently be unable to awaken if you momentarily succumb to an imitation of it is pure fear mongering, in my opinion. When I trip it's with the intention of lasting change , the momentary glimpse is secondary.

I spent several years experiencing this so called luciferian imitation of awakening, via cannabis, but that had no impact whatsoever on my ability to experience real awakening via 5 meo and later kriya yoga .

There's a lot of paranoia among spiritual people. "Conspirituality" is a term for it. It's a trap. Psychedelics increase full brain communication and decrease activity in the default mode network. That's it. The spiritual mind loves elaborate spiritual stories . But it's bullshit, realize you're God, that's spirituality.

 

*** okay maybe that's not all psychedelics do. But as a counterpoint to new age paranoia I said that.

Edited 11 hours ago by Oppositionless