opening towards beyond

"Many people who took LSD, mushrooms, and other psychedelics, often along with readings from The Tibetan Book of the Dead or some Zen texts, had the gates of wisdom opened to a certain extent. They began to see that their limited consciousness was only one plane and that there were a thousand new things to discover about the mind. They saw many new realms, got new perspectives on birth and death, and discovered the nature of mind and consciousness as a field of creation rather than the mechanical result of having a body. Some opened beyond the illusion of separation to the truth of the oneness of things. But in order to maintain this vision they had to keep taking the psychedelics over and over. Even though there were some transformations from these experiences, they tended to fade for a lot of people. Following that some people said "If we can't maintain the highs of consciousness that come through the psychedelics, let's see if there is some other way." And so they undertook various kinds of spiritual disciplines." (Jack Kornfield

"I don't see psychedelics as an enlightening vehicle, but I do see it as an awakening vehicle. I see them beginning a process that awakens you to the possibility. That's the way I'm using the word 'awaken'. It breaks you out, in the same way that trauma can do it, near-death experiences, and perhaps years of intensive meditation." (Ram Dass