Psychedelic Drugs: Hallucinations or Hightened Consciousness
June 23, 2009 by natalina
Filed under Paranormal, Spirituality, The Unexplained
This debate is as old as the hills, but let’s explore it anyway. It’s a fun and fascinating topic, wouldn’t you say?
The question is, while under the influence of a mind altering substance, particularly mushrooms, Peyote, and for the purpose of this post MDMA (Ecstasy), is it more likely to have a genuine paranormal experience, or is the altered state of consciousness responsible for these otherworldly encounters?
Let’s do this by going through each of the above mentioned drugs, talk about the common effects, and then reflect on some paranormal claims made by those under the influence of the drug. I’ll try my best not to sound like an old hippie as I write this 
Magic Mushrooms
“Magic” mushrooms are fungi known for their psychoactive alkaloids or organic compounds such as Psilocybin, Psilocin or Muscimol. Mushrooms can be eaten or drank in a tea, and produce a powerful psychedelic trip. The effects of the trip depend greatly on the current mood of the individual taking the ‘shrooms. The trip is generally shorter than that produced by acid, but many claim that a mushroom trip feels more natural. Mushroom trips are about heightened sensory experiences. Colors are brighter, sounds are more melodic, and many users classify their trip as spiritual. That said, a bad mushroom trip can be a 9 hour journey through hell, bringing all of your worst nightmares into vivid reality. Users warn that it is important to insure that you are in a clear and upbeat state of mind prior to ingesting mushrooms.
Shaman and medicine men have been using mushrooms for millenia and beyond. Early cave drawings feature pictures of what are clearly magic mushrooms, and ceremonial ingestion has always been common. Visions and mystical otherworldly journeys are the sought after result of spiritual mushroom usage, and some claim that it can unlock doors to other dimensions and unseen realities. Even today, people claim that they have experienced heightened ESP and anomolous encounters while under the influence. A great place to read about personal paranormal experiences related to mushroom usage can be found here: http://gaps.net.au/index.php?showtopic=305 and http://www.mysticboard.com/paranormal_phenomena/22187-some_paranormal_magic_mushroom_experiences.html
I recently received a great DVD set from a friend of a show from the late 50′s early 60′s called One Step Beyond. It was a TV show that aired 96 episodes featuring real stories of psychic and paranormal phenomena. One of the great episodes was “The Sacred Mushroom,” which aired on January 4, 1961. I was excited to see that someone uploaded it, so I can share it with all of you.
Peyote
Sometimes known as “The Divine Cactus”, Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is a small, spineless cactus native to Texas and Mexico. Known for it’s psychoactive alkaloids, primarily mescaline, Peyote perhaps more than any other drug is used for it’s spiritual and transcendent qualities. The effects of peyote can last 10 to 12 hours, and create deep trance-like experiences, which is likely why indigenous people of the Southern U.S. and Mexico were known to use it in ceremonial activities (some still do).
Today, Peyote is sometimes used recreationally, but largely retains it’s reputation for being a spiritual gateway. There is even a movement of churches that have sprung up around the use of Peyote. One example is The Peyote Way Church, whose web site can be viewed here: http://www.peyoteway.org/
Watch this fascinating documentary about the use of peyote and persecution of members within the Native American community.
MDMA (Ecstasy)
This may seem like a strange choice for this list, but I am completey intrigued by some of the lesser claims by those who’ve used this drug. MDMA or Ecstasy, is a psychedelic amphetamine known to produce strong feelings of comfort, empathy, and connection to others. Although there have been reports of the negative MDMA experience, users generally claim that they receive and overwhelming feeling that everything is “right” with the world. The drug is known to heighten sexual feelings, as well as feelings of love and affection.
The paranormal or heightened consciousness aspect of Ecstasy that has me so fascinated are the claims by some that it can open up access to or awaken Kundalini. According to Erowid.org:
Kundalini is an evolutionary energy reportedly lying dormant in the perineum, and is often symbolized as a sleeping serpent, coiled silently in the root chakra at the base of the spine. The name ‘Kundalini’ is used specifically in Hindu and Buddhist Tantric tradition, but the energy of which it speaks has manifested in many different forms in different cultures throughout the globe….
….This energy, when lying dormant, is responsible for all the unconscious processes in the human body: eating, sex, desire, respiratory function, etc. When consciously awakened and risen up the sushumna nadi (energy channel) through the successive chakras, various powers or ‘siddhis’ are awakened, including creativity, productivity, reduced need for sleep, heightened intuition, various abilities that could be called psychic, healing powers, greater intelligence, increased sports performance, incredible states of bliss, and so on.
Many of the effects of MDMA mimic the awakening of the Kundalini, and some even claim that it is a gateway to this higher state of bliss. Not merely a chemical experience, but a metaphysical one. One such experience is related here: http://ecstasy.org/experiences/trip74.html
With the above information, we’re likely no closer to a consensus about whether or not drugs can enhance the paranormal or transcendent experience, or if they simply mimic such feelings and encounters. It is worth consideration however, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
If I were a wagering girl I would presume you know a bit more about this topic than a cursory exploration of second hand testimony. Is that right?
Great post! I found the stuff in regards to MDMA particularly fascinating … Thanks Natalina
Holly, Holly, Holly…why would you think such a thing about a sweet and innocent flower such as myself? I’m shocked! Thanks for stopping by my site, you silly thing. How are things in the big country? “I’m not expecting to grow flowers in the desert, But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime…In a Big Country, dreams stay with you, Like a lover’s voice fires the mountainside….”
I’ve missed you!
Bruno, thanks! It is interesting, isn’t it? People wouldn’t often put MDMA in the same category as the other two mentioned, but it certainly is known for creating an altered state, so I thought it would be appropriate.
I find this very interesting and have been searching for stories similar to my own experiences yes I said experiences, i had several occasions as to where I was certain I opened a doorway to something very very strange and scary…I was under the influence and had spent many years sadly abusing drugs and had just a handful of these experiences in the 10 years I abused drugs…these experiences included ghosts, tree like little people and some sort of troll….as much discredit as I may have considering my state of mind…I believe with all of my soul I opened some sort of gateway on these particular evenings…one of the evnts involving ghosts was similar to another time where I had come face to face with a shadow person while I wasn’t under the influence and long before I had ever learned spirits can take form in a shadow… I will believe in what I saw and experienced until the day I die, some of the experiences were of another person and I experiencing and seeing the same exact things!!!!
Thanks for reading….there is so much out there we simply can’t understand.
Sincerely,
A Believer
I too have traveled the world of mushrooms & mescaline…I believe these to be a gateway toward heightened consciousness & self awareness..a gift from God if you will…I continue every year, to look forward to the warm, rainy season that bring on the birth of our fungal friends…to once again take a journey that is always enlightening…and never the same.
As a lifelong student of the occult, as well as a psychic, I have always looked for ways to enhance my abilities. Never having any real luck with telekenesis, I tried to move something under the enfluence of crystal meth. I blew my mind when the open cupboard door i gestured at, and envisioned swinging shut, actually did!!! I dont know how i did it, and have never been able to since…but it is proof that drugs enhance psychic abilities. so imagine my delight when coming upon this site. Email me at elvampiro89@yahoo.com to talk
Hmm Well I was just searching on Google for some psychic readings and psychic articles and just came across your
blog, generally I just only visit blogs and retrieve my required information but this time the useful information that you
posted in this post compelled me to reply here and appreciate your good work. I just bookmarked your blog.
I am just thrilled that this article has attracted so many readers with interesting perspectives. I had hesitated initially because I wasn’t certain if the article would be received in the manner that it was intended… an analytic exploration of possibilities with regard to the above mentioned substances, not endorsement or advocating. It seems that the brilliant readers of E.I. got it
I hope that you all continue to share your thoughts with me on this topic, as I do think it will deserve further exploration in a future post. Cheers to all of you! Thanks for the compliments and for your interesting insights! Natalina ~ Site Admin.
I have too traveld on a wierd very deep spiritual wave and was abel to see and feel every little emotion and scenerie that this entire planet and galaxy can offer us i loved it and expierience it every other time again. But it is still so wierd how a little ammount of mushroomst can take you ona trip that …… unexplainable but great. A gift from mother nature. Thanks, Shane
I must say thank you, first of all, of putting MDMA in with this particular class of drugs rather than with stimulants. It is a much different type of stimulation, one that lets you know that we are all connected and feel that connection. My own personal experience has shown an interesting trend, these experiments were all done years ago, but close friends and I spent many hours duplicating them. What we found was that while under the influence of MDMA (in a safe environment, of course) one could read the mind of another.We kept the experiments simple. Thinking of numbers between one and ten, one and twenty, one and one hundred. The success rate when a specific level of influence was achieved was one hundred percent, regardless of range. This does not require both parties to be influenced, however, only the person doing the reading needs to have taken a dose. I have wanted more research (beyond what I’m credibly capable of) to be done, but don’t have the connections to make it happen. It does not change the results though, which were very real and unwavering. Hope this helps somehow, I think more people should know about the abilities of this drug.
Hmm Well I was just searching on Google for some psychic readings and psychic
articles and just came across your blog, generally I just only visit blogs and retrieve my
required information but this time the useful information that you posted in this post
compelled me to reply here and appreciate your good work. I just bookmarked your
blog.
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one time me and a friend dosed on acid. i probably didn;t have any more than 100-200 micrograms total in myself. throughout the night i told my friend that i felt as if something was listening to us. we left his room at 6 am after the acid wore off, and lo and behold the cat was asleep with it’s ear up against the wall. i shit you not!
x-is a physological stimulant .extensive dosage throws the body(i.e. lab mice into total hyperstimul.ergot and other organic hallucigons affect the body in a totaly different manner..to expand ones conceious can never be in err..life itsself is a trip,sit back ,enjoy.. from somewhere on the other end of the rainbow lol chucke
Well I agree that mushrooms definitely make you more spiritual and bring you closer to enlightment. I persnally used to be “addicted” to them and ate them nearly everyday (the cubensis species) and finally had a major overdose on them (because I knew you couldnt die from them) and ate over 3 lbs of fresh shrooms one night. I went into delirium (You can find my story on google by typing in 3 POUND SHROOM TRIP..make sure to type it exactly that way or it will not come up. I wrote the trip report back in 2000 but actually experienced it back in 95 or 96 so this was quite some time ago. But I also overdosed on MDMA and also was addicted to it. I can say I have psychic abilities and powers that most other humans do not. It’s nothing TOO spectacular..like I cannot guess loterry numbers unfortunately…but I have incorportated this “psychic” power into my poker game (I call myself The Poker Psychic) and I have been dominating and destroying ever poker player who steps in my path, across the globe. I make the “pros” look like bad players with my ability to predict the hands- I always make the right folds and calls. There is no pattern to my play, so nobody can figure me out. A curse had been holding me back all this time however as well so I eliminated that finally, as I found out what was affecting me…and how to fight it. Already things are getting better…and you will surely see me on TV at the final table of the WSOP or other major poker event. But I just learned about the Kundalini tonight…I had no idea it could be awakened through meditation and how powerful it was. I don’t believe MDMA could compare to this power from what I hear. MDMA is a great drug and there is no better feeling in this world (That I know of) but then again, I have not yet experienced the Kundalini which I hear is much more powerful than MDMA…so in summary to your question…There is no doubt in my mind that some drugs are spiritual and activate spiritual energy…(I have done enough of them to know this for a Fact) but I don’t think they could possibly activate enough of it to cause any truly remarkably unbelieavable effects. What I experienced was no doubt remarkable…but from what I am reading about the Kundalini, it sounds MUCH more so than just an MDMA experience. I hear you can even kill people while releasing the kundalini? I guarantee you would never kill anybody if you did mdma. So it’s got to be different. I’d like to hear the opinion of those who have done both (released the kundalini and have also experienced with MDMA)