I Asked Peter Ralston About Psychedelics, Here Is His Response...

[Anon212]

So I asked Peter about pyschedelics and this is what he shared with me. Let me know your thoughts.

"I can’t speak authoritatively about other 
teachers and what they think. I can say that psychedelics do not lead to enlightenment. I’m  afraid that is just a mistake born of having had  moving experiences and dramatically unusual 
changes of state. But chemicals and altering the brain can’t produce enlightenment. Because such consciousness is direct. That means there 
is no process, it is your true nature being 
conscious of your true nature. No experience, and no chemical can do that, since the only thing that can be done to the brain is to alter its activity, and so change your state. No state is direct consciousness, it is only a state, no matter 
how grand or exciting or mind blowing it is. No perceptive-experience is enlightenment and psychedelics are chemicals that act on the brain, 
this can only change what the brain does, and so can create perceptive states or altered states of mind. This is not enlightenment no matter how much people want it to be. You may wonder how do I know psychedelics can’t produce enlightenment. Hard to communicate, but it's very clear to me. It’s not that I haven’t done them, lots of them. After all I 
was a young man in the late 60’s and early 70’s in the San Francisco Bay Area, the mecca and origin for many such things. But I don’t base my response on my experience with drugs. I base it on my direct consciousness! And I understand what it is and that no drug, process, 
or any alteration of the brain or experience can ever produce it. Just not possible. Doesn’t work that way. It may be possible to have a direct consciousness while on some drug, but the drug 
doesn’t do it. Only you can. Just like it may be possible to have an enlightenment while contemplating, but the method doesn’t do it, you do."

[Yimpa]

Basically what he’s saying is to stop offloading Consciousness onto something outside of Yourself. Whatever method brings you closer to Truth, use it, but don’t claim that something outside of YOU is responsible for direct experience.

Also,  spoiler alert: He is You 

[Holykael]

Psychedelics are not working on the brain, that's complete materialistic horseshit. There are no chemicals in the brain, it's a complete fiction.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Holykael

[Osaid]

What was your initial question? How was it worded? What is he responding to?

Edited August 2, 2023 by Osaid

[Breakingthewall]

what he says is an absolute lack of understanding of what reality is. psychedelics are not something external that gives you great states as he says, psychedelics are reality,  psychedelics are been created by reality, so i, just like everything else, all reality is one thing, and peter ralston has a limited understanding about reality

Edited August 2, 2023 by Breakingthewall

[Sincerity]

In case someone has further interest in this, we have another 3 threads discussing Ralston's stance on psychedelics:

Just throwing it out there. 

[Carl-Richard]

@Sincerity Haha I was about to ask: aren't there a million threads about that already? ?

[OBEler]

I didnt know that Peter Ralston is a materialist

[Breakingthewall]

8 minutes ago, OBEler said:

I didnt know that Peter Ralston is a materialist

He is, the same as all the enlightened masters. they are all fake. people who dedicate themselves 100% to spirituality, but they will never try 5 meos or high doses of any psychedelic, and they will also say that this damages your energy body and your karma. 

[OBEler]

@Breakingthewall exactly. It is total crazy that Leo is so far the only one  right now on youtube who uses psychedelics in terms of enlightenment in a highly professional way. Frank Yank and so on are just playing with it l. 

In terms of sadghuru, he gives credit to psychedelic. His Talent in spirituality is so high he is good with his own techniques.still would be great to see when he would try 5 meo malt one day (which will never happen) 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by OBEler

[undeather]

17 minutes ago, OBEler said:

I didnt know that Peter Ralston is a materialist

9 minutes ago, Breakingthewall said:

He is, the same as all the enlightened masters. they are all fake. people who dedicate themselves 100% to spirituality, but they will never try 5 meos or high doses of any psychedelic, and they will also say that this damages your energy body and your karma. 

lol, Ralston is not a materialist of course.
Conciousness as absolute truth is the main tenet of his teaching. 

He is at worst a dual-aspect monist. 
"Psychodelics working on brain chemistry" is just the conveyance of a proposition which could potentially work under any ontology.

 

[Anon212]

58 minutes ago, Holykael said:

Psychedelics are not working on the brain, that's complete materialistic horseshit. There are no chemicals in the brain, it's a complete fiction.

Lol if they are not working on the brain, what are they working on? Your d*ck?

[Anon212]

54 minutes ago, Osaid said:

What was your initial question? How was it worded? What is he responding to?

It was a long winded question about many things but the psychedelic question was essentially this: can psychedelics produce enlightenment or genuine enlightenment experiences? That was his answer ^

[Anon212]

45 minutes ago, Sincerity said:

In case someone has further interest in this, we have another 3 threads discussing Ralston's stance on psychedelics:

Just throwing it out there. 

Thank you !

[LSD-Rumi]

Still better than Sadghuru's psychedelic will fk up your "energetic system" 

Edited August 2, 2023 by LSD-Rumi

[Jowblob]

Psychedelics literally change the reality/time and people in it, all done on behalf of god. Clearly he never took psychedelics before. God gave psychedelics on behalf of himself to literally guide/teach people to an ascended master level of understanding if necessary.

[Osaid]

51 minutes ago, Anon212 said:

It was a long winded question about many things but the psychedelic question was essentially this: can psychedelics produce enlightenment or genuine enlightenment experiences? That was his answer ^

Ah ok, thank you.

Also, this is the exact opposite of materialism, did anyone read the last sentence? Or any of the sentences? It's very succinct. 

"And I understand what it is and that no drug, process, or any alteration of the brain or experience can ever produce it. Just not possible. Doesn’t work that way. It may be possible to have a direct consciousness while on some drug, but the drug doesn’t do it. Only you can. Just like it may be possible to have an enlightenment while contemplating, but the method doesn’t do it, you do."

Essentially, he is saying that psychedelics are a part of the dream, so to speak. This is the exact same reason why Leo made the "We are not in a simulation" video. He is saying that you should not offload direct experience and enlightenment onto a process called "psychedelics", the same way someone would offload their direct experience onto a process called "simulation" or "virtual reality" or "simulation theory." 

Essentially, in my own attempt to reiterate his communication as accurately as possible, he is saying that enlightenment is not caused by drugs or psychedelics, but just YOU, directly experiencing yourself.

To clarify more, he is saying that the psychedelic high is simply a state which makes it easier to perceive enlightenment, but it is not enlightenment itself. Kind of like a finger that points to the moon and makes it easier to see the moon, but the finger is not the moon itself. The moon is a separate phenomenon from the finger. And so is the same with "psychedelics" and "enlightenment." 


 

[Inliytened1]

6 hours ago, Anon212 said:

So I asked Peter about pyschedelics and this is what he shared with me. Let me know your thoughts.

"I can’t speak authoritatively about other 
teachers and what they think. I can say that psychedelics do not lead to enlightenment. I’m  afraid that is just a mistake born of having had  moving experiences and dramatically unusual 
changes of state. But chemicals and altering the brain can’t produce enlightenment. Because such consciousness is direct. That means there 
is no process, it is your true nature being 
conscious of your true nature. No experience, and no chemical can do that, since the only thing that can be done to the brain is to alter its activity, and so change your state. No state is direct consciousness, it is only a state, no matter 
how grand or exciting or mind blowing it is. No perceptive-experience is enlightenment and psychedelics are chemicals that act on the brain, 
this can only change what the brain does, and so can create perceptive states or altered states of mind. This is not enlightenment no matter how much people want it to be. You may wonder how do I know psychedelics can’t produce enlightenment. Hard to communicate, but it's very clear to me. It’s not that I haven’t done them, lots of them. After all I 
was a young man in the late 60’s and early 70’s in the San Francisco Bay Area, the mecca and origin for many such things. But I don’t base my response on my experience with drugs. I base it on my direct consciousness! And I understand what it is and that no drug, process, 
or any alteration of the brain or experience can ever produce it. Just not possible. Doesn’t work that way. It may be possible to have a direct consciousness while on some drug, but the drug 
doesn’t do it. Only you can. Just like it may be possible to have an enlightenment while contemplating, but the method doesn’t do it, you do."

He is correct .they don't produce enlightenment... just like meditation doesnt... but they both may act as a catalyst.   Enlightenment can be also completely spontaneous as well, the catalyst being suffering, previous life experiences...or no catalyst at all.  Simply because enlightenment is fundamentally prior and all "causes" or held within it.  It is Absolute.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Inliytened1

[Jodistrict]

Most psychedelics just stimulate your imagination and may activate past trauma.  They still keep you in your mind.   In Latin America, the plant medicines are used for both physical and mental healing.   Martin Ball claims he experienced non duality with 5-meo and has written books on it.     
 

[Water by the River]

 

"Enlightenment is you yourself becoming conscious of what's true directly conscious of what's true like what you are or what existence is"

And that includes by definition the infinite potential for any possible form/appearance, arising in Absolute Reality.

So what is higher and better, or more valueable? What is worth of ones ultimate spiritual concern? Understanding ever more form/appearance (n+1 forever), or understanding once and for all the Absolute Nature of ones True Self and Reality itself? And stabilizing in that realization, that becomes always available once having realized it?

Not knowing ones True Nature is technically called Ignorance in many traditions, and leads to suffering. Waking up to ones True Nature ends the suffering.

Water by the River