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New Psychedelics Are Transforming the Future of Spirituality |
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| What is God? Depends whether you take acid or DMT. | |
 by Jay Michaelson, January 7, 2008 |
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In 1954, Aldous Huxley published "The Doors of Perception," a famous essay observing that the effects of mescaline were remarkably similar to the unitive mysticism of the world's great religions, particularly Vedanta, the philosophical-mystical form of Hinduism which Huxley practiced. It caused an immediate sensation. 
Because He Got High: Aldous Huxley's classic essay, "The Doors of Perception"Many in the public were outraged by its pro-pharmacological spirit, and many in the academy accused Huxley (like William James before him) of flattening different mystical traditions, and of disregarding distinctions between "sacred and profane" mystical practice.
But many more were inspired. Huxley's essay, and other works like it, set the agenda for 1960s spirituality, and what later came to be called the New Age movement. He provided a philosophical explanation of what was important about mescaline—that our perceptive faculties filter out more than they let in, and that mescaline, like meditation, opens those doors wider—and a personal account of what a "trip" was like. He showed how entheogens (as they later came to be called) could be a part of a sincere spiritual practice. And he perhaps unwittingly imported a certain Vedanta agenda of what the "ultimate" mystical experience was like: union. As has been argued by many scholars over the last few decades, this claim of ultimacy—that unio mystica is the peak form of mystical experience, with others defined by how close they approach it—is actually a rather partisan one. Why is "union with the All" superior to, or more true than, deity mysticism, visions of Krishna/Christ/spirits, and the text-based mysticism of the Kabbalah? Sure, for Vedanta it is—but that's just Vedanta's view.
Two generations of spiritual seekers have been influenced, for better and for worse, by this hierarchy. From the naive hippie to the sophisticated yogi, Jewish Renewalniks to Ken Wilberites, hundreds of thousands of spiritual practitioners have implicitly or explicitly assumed the prioritization of the unitive over all else: the point is that All is One.
Most of these constituencies are also, like Huxley, influenced by the psychedelic experience, primarily that of mushrooms and LSD. While most contemporary spiritual teachers have long since given these substances up, in favor of meditation and other mystical practices which afford the same experiences in a more reliable container (and one greatly enriched by self-examination and introspection), if you ask them, as I have, they'll admit that the psychedelic experience formed an important part of their spiritual initiation.
Do You See God?: Psychedelic experience can initiate a lifelong spiritual journey Whether it's what got them on the road in the first place, or confirmed their earlier intuitions, psychedelics have set the agenda for a huge percentage of contemporary spiritual teachers, across religious and spiritual denominations, and many of their followers as well.
These two trends — that "all is one" is the point, and that it accords with the psychedelic experience—have occasionally led to a distortion of religious and spiritual traditions. In the Kabbalah, for example, unitive mysticism is only a small part of a wide panoply of mystical experiences. Yes, there are texts which speak of annihilation of the self (bittul hayesh) and a unification with God (achdut). But these are, truthfully, in the minority. Many more are visionary texts, describing theophanies of all shapes and sizes; or records of prophecy or angelic communication; or less explicitly unitive accounts of proximity to the Divine. Yet there's a sense, among teachers of contemporary Kabbalah —and I'm not referring here to the Kabbalah Centre (where Madonna goes), which does not teach Kabbalah proper, but rather a unique and sometimes weird synthesis of Kabbalah, the Human Potential movement, and New Religious Movements like Scientology—that unitive mysticism is the summum bonum, the ultimate good.
Some Kabbalistic texts agree, but many others do not. For example, Rabbi Arthur Green, today one of progressive Judaism's leading teachers, in 1968 wrote an article (under a pseudonym) called "Psychedelics and Kabbalah," explicitly analogizing the psychedelic experiences to aspects of Kabbalistic teaching—but selecting those aspects of Kabbalah and Hasidism which fit the experience. Naturally, Green was also influenced by the many forms of non-Jewish mysticism popular at the time, most of whom asserted that "All is One," but in that essay, he makes clear that the psychedelic experience affected how he understood Kabbalah. Green, and a fellow practitioner-academic Daniel Matt, have been enormously influential: their anthologies of Hasidic and Kabbalistic texts are read far more widely than the texts themselves, and are widely assumed to represent the mainstream of their respective traditions.
I am not taking a position on whether this "distortion" is for good or ill; in my own practice, the nondual/unitive perspective plays a central role, and I am grateful for it, whatever its sources. But I have a hunch that it is about to change.
The reason it is changing is that more and more Jewish spiritual seekers are pursuing non-unitive paths. This includes earth-based ritual, shamanic ritual, and other disciplines which, while they may hold the view that "all is one," provide experiences of differentiation (energies, elements, visions, etc). But perhaps more importantly, it includes drinking ayahuasca, smoking DMT, and visionary shamanic-entheogenic practices which offer different experiences from the unitive one. The ayahuasca trip, unlike the mescaline one, is not especially unitive: indeed, one of its hallmarks is the sense of communication with other life forms or consciousnesses. And while a sense of "all is One" is sometimes reported in the midst of the ayahuasca experience, it's more common to read reports of visions of phenomena—manifestation, not essence.
Some of these accounts are strikingly similar to texts from the Hechalot and Merkavah schools of Jewish mysticism, which flourished between the second and ninth centuries. In the texts from this period, we read detailed accounts of heavenly palaces, Divine chariots, and angels; of ascents to other realms which seem somehow to be in outer space or an extraterrestrial locale; of a sense of great danger, but also great awe, beauty and love; and of beings which travel on some kind of cosmic vehicle. The descriptions are visionary and auditory, much like the accounts of ayahuasca visions. They are "shamanic" journeys, both in the sense of being journeys of the soul to other realm and in the sense of a transformation of the self. They yield information, prophecy, revelation, theophany. And they are not really about "all is one."
Hechalot and Merkavah mysticism is studied in the academy, but it is little known in the contemporary spiritual world. It's complicated, arcane, and literally other-worldly. But just as the unitive moments of Hasidism appeal to those who have had a unitive experience on mushrooms, so too the visionary aspects of Hechalot and Merkavah mysticism appeal to those who have had a visionary experience on ayahuasca. The similarities are striking.
What's more, Hechalot and Merkavah mysticism, related as it is to gnosticism, provides one of world literature's richest libraries of other-worldly mystical experience. It's eerie how similar some of these millennia-old texts are to the records contemporary journeyers provide of the ayahuasca trip: the sense of being in "outer space," the tenuous links to consensual reality, the sense of danger, and above all the colorful descriptions of chambers, angels, songs, palaces, ascents, descents, fire, music, and so much more. It also provides a sense of history, context, and "belonging" to those who affiliate with Judaism, Christianity, or gnosticism; like unitive experiences, non-unitive visionary/ ecstatic experiences have a lineage within these traditions. Perhaps, too, it might offer guidance for those seeking to integrate such experiences into their lives.
To reiterate, I am taking no position on whether unitive or non-unitive experiences are "better," and see nondual essence and dualistic manifestation as two sides of the same ineffable unity. My point, simply, is that much of contemporary Western spirituality derives from a particular psychedelic experience and a particular form of mysticism it approximates. With the increasing popularity of ayahuasca and similar medicines, the former element has changed — and I think the latter will too.
In the esoteric world, this kind of change and interchange has always been with us. Hechalot mystics learned from the gnostics, who learned from the Jews, who learned from the Babylonians. Medieval Kabbalists learned from the Sufis, who learned from the Hindus, who learned from the Buddhists, who learned from other Hindus. One need not make the facile, and false, claim that all mysticism is the same thing in order to recognize that mystics across space and time have understood themselves to be gesturing toward the same truths, albeit in very different ways. And those differences advance, not obstruct, the progress of realization. After all, when one can ultimately know nothing, it helps to learn from everything.
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NEXT: Drugs mix with spirituality. But can they mix with parenting?
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Jay Michaelson is a columnist for the Forward, Zeek: A Jewish Journal |
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invisible_hand
first off, it should be noted that rabbi green has retracted the "pro-pharmacological" stance he proffered as "Alter Itzik." his more updated approach can be found in his book EHYEH.
i think it's awfully strong to label what rabbi green and dr. matt do a "distortion." their scholarship is consistently top-notch, and they do a great service providing access to difficult texts for Jews without huge learning backgrounds. additionally, you make the implicit claim that since they came up in a time period when Jewish spirituality was influenced by the western import of eastern thought, it makes their theologies less worthwhile, less Jewish even. what must be noted is that Kabbalah itself is a prime example of a form of Jewish spirituality that was heavily influenced by surrounding religions. a good iteration of this phenomenon is Chovvot HaLevavot, a work many have called "Jewish Sufism." Another good (scholarly) example is Rabbi Dr. Green's work on the matrona and the Shekhinah.
Lastly, Gershom Scholem's position on a "Gnostic" Jewish mysticism as found in Merkabah texts is woefully outdated.
MaxKohanzad
Hi Jay Michaelson,
A Burner friend of mine did mention you years ago and I have looked at your website on and off over the years.
In my mind unitary and the multiple/dualistic Kabbalistic worldviews are, as you said, "two sides of the same ineffable unity", as one early Kabbalistic work explains: "and all these rivers and tributaries are one river, one water flowing in them" - or something like that.
The point i'd like to make is that, when you truly experience non-duality, the ONEness of ALL Existence, and completely loose your sense of self, bittul ha metzius, whatever it is that you are left with, not experiencing or experiencing, within God and as a mini God, gives you the permission to be, united and individual, oscillating between being and non-being, microcosm and macrocosm, ultimately everything is an expression of the divine, everything can be used to help us to reveal / realise this divinity within our consciousness.
Drugs are godly, however not everything godly is good for us.
From the Divine perspective life and death are equal - but as mini gods, as miniature refractions of the great unknown, our ability to do this is limited, and in fact arguably God might want us to "choose life" -
I personally don't think that drugs are the answer, the human mind can, if it is trained, produce more interesting drugs, insights, ecstasy, bliss, visions, than any plant or pharmaceutical company.
So although in theory i have no problem with drug taking as a part of divine service - i think most people are slightly self-destructive and not able to truly put the lights of tohu into the vessels of tikkun.
Ultimately each one of us is responsible for our own personal redemption, each one of us our own judge, but personal redemption if it is to be complete must continue on to include other people, to find and discover the divine within them, not a drug induced 'love' - but a deep down heart felt warmth and love for all existence.
So that deep-ecology become deep-humanity - it is in our experience of duality that the greatest revelation of God's Essence takes place!
Drug use is a part of almost all spiritual traditions, even the non-dualistic - but the question we must ask ourselves - is this an honest celebration of life, or an excuse for not taking the long - internal road towards enlightenment and personal development?
MaxKohanzad
What about Timothy Leary ?
Jonathan
I agree with Max when he said "So although in theory i have no problem with drug taking as a part of divine service - i think most people are slightly self-destructive and not able to truly put the lights of tohu into the vessels of tikkun"
My personal experience and observation is that most of us are more likley to "shatter the vessels" with drug use....
Peter Bebergal
...has also been troubling.
Huston Smith, who was one of the people that participated in the infamous Good Friday experiments (When Leary and Walter Pahnke gave divinity school students psilocybin during a Good Friday service in an attempt to produce a mystical experience) went on to do some important work on the relationship between psychedelics and mysticism. He described the psychedelic culture as creating a "religion of religious experiences." While these kinds of experiences can be powerful and transformative, they often don't lead someone towards a moral or ethical religious life. Having a religious experience does not make someone religious, and I have seen (and experienced) a kind of compulsion to be in the altered state over and over again, without then forming a religious attitude that is strong enough to withstand the world without the drugs. This is not to say that these drugs are not efficacious. I believe they have also helped many people for the good. Nevertheless, Huston Smith also quotes Alan Watts who said, "When you get the message, hang up the phone."
Anonymous
Jay,
I think your distinction between unitive and non-unitive mystical experience, and your pointing toward the primacy of the non-unitive or visionary experiences (other worlds, other beings) in ayahuasca and some other shamanistically used entheogens are both very interesting and accurate. I agree from my own experience that while a successful LSD experience tends to land one in the unitive "clear light," ayahuasca seems to reveal visionary dimensions of diversity. It also , often, fosters profound ethical self-examination. Will the growing popularity of shamanic entheogen use inform or even increase interest in visionary Jewish mysticism? Intriguing possibility. Ayahuasca's propensity to give visions of palaces, temples, and other unearthly architecture, as well as divine beings and nature spirits has already helped to form several syncretic blends of christianity and shamanism in Brazil. Unworldly architecture may be seen as the temple of Solomon; unfolding narratives seen as time travel and glimpses of previous incarnations, e.g. in biblical scenes with biblical personages; other worlds as levels of heaven, etc. I can't think of anywhere else I've seen discussion of the two kinds of mysticism as they relate to different entheogens, and the potential implications of this, and I'm happy to see it here.
Lawrence Bush
The distinction drawn between "unitive" experience and "manifestations" seems a bit artificial — perhaps not within the context of kabbalah, but within the context of psychedelic mysticism. In my book, Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist, I report on interviews I conducted with several innovators in Jewish life about how psychedelics shaped their theologies. For instance: "B., a Jewish educator and day school principal, told me that she took psychedelic drugs about a dozen times, 'always with a sense of spiritual mission.' She remembered with particular fondness a Shavuot . . . some thirty years ago, when she and three other women, all prominent in Jewish religious life today, 'borrowed' a Torah scroll from a day school, took it to a state park, ate hallucinogenic mushrooms and spent the day 'reading Torah along with woodland creatures, frogs and deer' who 'came out and participated.' B. admitted that 'the fact of connectedness or oneness that the Shema expresses first became clear to me on LSD." Continuing: "F., a successful writer and editor of religious books, told me that he had numerous psychedelic experiences in the 190s. 'I look back on nearly all okf them with great awe and respect,' he said. 'Each time was a "big occasion" with a consistent teaching: that there are all kinds of things going on in the spectrum that our normal waking consciousness doesn't pick up. It's like a dog whistle.Your ear doesn't hear all the frequencies. But with each 'awakening,' there is some residue left in the senses."
Nu, are these unitive or manifestation experiences? A key question, it seems to me, is whether there's a difference in which parts of the brain are lighting up.
But the more important question is how such experiences affect our lives and life choices. In the magazine I edit, Jewish Currents, I interviewed five researchers who are studying psychedelic drugs today. Dr. Charles Grob noted that psychedelics "were catalytic in fostering opposition to the Vietnam War — and their role is very underappreciated." And Rick Doblin, who directs MAPS (a psychedelics research organization), observed that "large scale social change can be motivated by that unitive mystical experience, because once you have identified 'across boundaries,' it's less possible to get involved in scapegoating or demonizing others, or in wars that rely upon religious or national hatreds. That's why I would say that my work with psychedelics was motivated primarily as a response to the Holocaust."
In a world that desperately needs NEW cultivation and practical application of the unitive experience, discussions about how to site psychedelic mysticism within the architecture of Kabbalah, whilevery interesting, feels to me like spinning the merkavah wheels . . .
arthur cravan II
"Who lives longer: the man who takes heroin for two years and dies, or the man who lives on roast beef, water, and potatoes till ninety-five? One passes his twenty-four months in eternity. All the years of the beef-eater are lived only in time." a. huxley
bugger religon. huxly is cool though...
Anonymous
Without going into details of the how who and why I can tell you DMT make me a much more spiritual person than I was before I tried it. Particularly those with experience with lsd and mushrooms, dmt is quite extraordinary.
MaxKohanzad
Look Anonymous - there are a lot of things i could try to get me to altered states of consciousness - like falling off a building, like pulling out all my hair, like electrocuting myself, like drinking glass cleaner, like smoking dung, like not sleeping for a year, like eating carrots for 3 weeks, like saying 'peanut-butter' 26,000000000000000000000000000 times, like eating 12kg of Dark Chocolate in an hour, but hey - f*cking fresh air and healthy mindbody works just as well.
Hesh
The Rabbis taught: Four [Sages] entered the
Pardes [literally "the orchard."] Rashi explains that they ascended to heaven
by utilizing the [Divine] Name, i.e., they achieved a spiritual elevation (Tosafot,
ad loc) through intense meditation on G-d's Name]. They were Ben
Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher [Elisha ben Avuya, called Acher -- the other one --
because of what happened to him after he entered the Pardes] and Rabbi
Akiva. Rabbi Akiva said to them [prior to their ascension]: "When you come to
the place of pure marble stones, do not say, 'Water! Water!' for it is said, 'He
who speaks untruths shall not stand before My eyes' (Psalms 101:7)." Ben
Azzai gazed [at the Divine Presence - Rashi] and died. Regarding him the
verse states, "Precious in the eyes of G-d is the death of His pious ones" (Psalms
116:15). Ben Zoma gazed and was harmed [he lost his sanity -- Rashi].
Regarding him the verse states, "Did you find honey? Eat only much as you
need, lest you be overfilled and vomit it up" (Proverbs 25:16). Acher cut
down the plantings [he became a heretic]. Rabbi Akiva entered in peace and left
in peace.
Translated and edited by Rabbi Moshe Miller from Pardes Rimonim
MaxKohanzad
who needs drugs when life itself is the BIGGEST TRIP!???!
We are all now in Pardes! that's what 'Moshiach Now!" means!
Anonymous
Good attitude I guess but clearly lacking any slight idea of the profound and incredible power of DMT...which is really more a neurotransmitter than it is a drug seeing as it is part of our own brain chemistry.
DMT holds the truth. It will be released in large quantities when you die. Everyone will die eventually, thus everyone will eventually know the truth.
Anonymous
that last post was a different anonymous than before by the way.
MaxKohanzad
Normal
0
For me if you're looking for the truth, looking for God looking to
understand the meaning of life-the-universe-and-everything then why is it the
quick and easy way that people choose?
Drugs DMT LSD etc... tell me one thing,
they tell me the person taking them is part of the PUSH-BUTTON society - probably
of American influence that grew up with a remote control in their pre-pubescent
hand. and believe that anything and everything can and should be accessible
now, i want bliss now, i want the answers to the universe now, i want to
experience the TRUTH now - god etc... –
Fundamentally it an egotistical - BOOMER mentality - which is childish and
ego-centric. There is a reason why DMT is left for you to experience when you
die.
But i believe that you can access DMT - opiates, LSD type chemicals INTERNALLY
- without the use of external stimuli - through meditation and USING and being in touch with YOUR
BODYMIND!
Timothy Leary was wrong when he said that "only a few great
mystics" can ever experience the same level of mystical insight that drugs
can give. (The politics of Ecstasy)
Everyone has the ability to experience LSD, DMT Opiate type visions and
experiences - BUT THEY ARE LAZY!!
Simple - drugs are to the mystical experience what masturbation is to
sex.
Stop f***ing yourself up and go out and get the real thing!
Peace & Blessings
Chimales
Drugs DMT LSD etc... tell me one thing,
they tell me the person taking them is part of the PUSH-BUTTON society
I personally spent many years playing with ethenogenic plants in some sort of misdirected spiritual quest, personal favorites being Salvorin and the tryptamines. At any rate being splintered or unified, visions or communion, it all comes back to one thing. The only truth in life is going to be found by living it. Getting out there, sweating it, loving it, feeling the pain, the joy, the ups the downs. Drugs can only give you 'instant' karma. There is no truth to be found amongst the elves of DMT or the absolute ego shattering of a profound salvorin trip. They are just that...trips. You are taking your wetware on vacation. Sooner or later you have to come back and figure out what you are going to do with it.
In the Huxely quote given about the superiority of living two years of eternity rather than 95 in real-time... do you honestly believe that? 95 years of live well, good and hard living can give one the type of wisdom that will never come from using drugs. Truth and beauty require discipline. No way around it.