The Psychedelic Vision
Our senses present a universal appearance of the manifested world; tree, mountain or cat appears the same for everyone with a human brain. And yet when seen through a different lens of magnification such as an electron microscope, the structure of form appears radically altered. What is then perceived is existence operating at an abstract level of substantiality – the introduction to the psychedelic vision. The psychedelic level of the psyche provides a specific function in the spiritual process of self-discovery. When the mind becomes attuned to the more abstract realm of existence through the spiritual catharsis of self-dissolution, the conservation of the normal outgoing wastage of energy initiates a radical shift of perception.
When a psychedelic drug or substance is ingested within the body, the sensory perception is heightened through a psychic opening into the atomic structure of matter. The body system becomes the microscopic instrument of observation due to the enforced surrender of the normally fixed position of mind. This involuntary suspension of the mind’s normal activities instigates an inrush of pure psyche which gravitates to the nucleus of the psychedelic properties of the drug itself. The person, although conscious of the effects, functions primarily as a donor body for the psychedelic substance to experience its own reality. Whatever manifests in existence is governed by a compelling desire to experience itself at an ever deepening level of reality; this desire for knowledge is the impulse behind every action in existence. The vast body of humanity represents the pinnacle of conscious perception, not as any superiority over the other species but as the principle of Mankind imbued with the task to make life on earth ever more conscious of the source of its own intelligence.
When the perception merges with the psychedelic vision, one of the effects is to blend the sensory images into a more fluid and less substantial form. Freed of the restrictions of erroneous psychic forces, the ideas of existence can then appear more akin to archetypal images preserved as original perceptions of the structure of reality. In evolutionary time, these energetic symbols of the invisible realm reduced in potency. To preserve what had once been the direct knowledge of existence, words and language developed as a way to communicate in conceptual terms the original knowledge of life. The proliferation of the drug culture of the sixties instigated changes to the frequency of the world psyche, enabling those who followed in successive generations to realise the psychedelic reality as direct knowledge without the aid of external substances. In this way do all things serve the greater good, even though the external effects are often appalling from a worldly perspective, such as in times of war when the iniquities of humanity appear to serve no earthly purpose.
The naming process is so much a part of our living existence that’s it rarely examined from a basis of self-discovery. One of the effects of entering the psychedelic state (or any level of higher mind) is that the habitual naming process of the mind is temporarily suspended. As an exercise to become acclimatised to the higher state of consciousness, it’s a useful practice to look at the external world without naming what’s being seen. In the beginning it seems impossible, but when the breakthrough comes the world is seen in a vivid new light in ways not dissimilar to the drug induced images. But there’s an important difference in terms of self-knowledge. Whatever someone gains from taking any psychedelic substance as an insight into reality (although it can sometimes appear to be spiritually productive) there’s a price to pay for the privilege. This may not surface in ways that can be identified overtly such as periods of restlessness, frustration and irritability. It can often take many years for the human system to adjust in frequency to the psychic opening, particularly when induced before its time.
To even glimpse the reality of the world stripped of its formal appearance can be deeply unsettling and sometimes terrifying. The psychedelic vision serves to accustom the perception to the often strange and disorientating effects on the edge of reason when nothing relates to the cause and effect world of the senses. The vast spiritual system of reality creates ever finer gradations of existence in ascending levels, from the densest mode of material consciousness to ultimately merge with the original state of being. Without these levels of psyche, which function as necessary divisions of knowledge, there would be no way of realising the different aspects of reality before the individual consciousness was inwardly prepared. The integrity of life ensures that each of us, through each moment in existence, is inexorably becoming more conscious of our authentic spiritual identity.
To practice not naming and labeling – ie judging everything is such good advice. It enables us to tune into what is really going on behind the passing scene. To have the level of acceptance of the child where everything just is what it is! There are no short cuts – no jumping the gun – everything has a price especially when we presume before ‘our time.’