Rod: Your dislike of the word "mysticism" is understandable, but I think its
just because of what the culture says about it. As with the Dharmakaya
light, the cultural immune system tends to filter it out. (Not to mention
the fact that the USA has more prisoners than any nation and 65% of them are
locked up on drug charges.) The big secret, however, is that the use of
entheogenic plants and animals goes way back into pre-historic times. Our
modern culture is actually the exception and their use is the rule. I've
even read speculation that mushroom use goes back some 75,00 years, just
about the time of that population bottle neck. Apparently there was a
massive die-off of trees at the time of the disaster and that organic matter
provided lots of food for the fungus. Elsewhere I've read that entheogenic
substances are at the root of all religion. Here are a few topical
Pirsigisms to ponder....
"current research and discussion are clouded by political and social
issues." P35
"...Indians who used it regarded it as a quicker and surer way of arriving
at the condition reached in the traditional "vision quest" where an Indian
goes out into isolation and fasts and prays and meditates for days in the
darkness of a sealed lodge until the Great Spirit reveals itself to him and
takes over his life." P35
Perceptual modifications follow,... Emotions are intensified... The
intellect is drawn to the analysis of complex realities and transcendental
questions. Consciousness expands to include all these responses
simultaneously. ...a feeling of union with nature...dissolution of personal
identity...beatitude or even ecstasy... terror and panic... P35
"Then the huge peyote illumination came: They're the orininators! It
expanded until he felt as though he had walked through the screen of a movie
and for the first time watched the people who were projecting it from the
other side." P40
"Americans don't have to go to the Orient to learn what this mysticism stuff
is about. It's been right here in America all along." "Phaedrus remembered
saying to Dusenberry just after that peyote meeting was over, 'The Hindu
understanding is just a low-grade imitation of THIS! This is how it must
have really been before all the clap-trap got started." P408
Rod had written...
I have always felt that mystical was shorthand for scientifically
unexplained, having said that I don't want you to think that I'm disagreeing
with your viewpoint exactly. As i said in a reply to John, I have more
questions than answers, but taking Peyote or any drug is hardly mystical.
What it certainly does do is allow you to see and experience things you
cannot, while fully alert. What these are I'm sure are different for every
individual, no two people will have the same experience, and no two people
will react the same, so it is logical to assume that this is to do with the
individuals state of mind pre-peyote.
Its the word mystical I really dislike, not the experience. Having thought
alittle more on this, I'm sure that yet again it is our senses which are to
blame. During everyday life they seem to only function at a third of their
true capacity, but during these trips, they become scarily powerful, they
don't blend together in a noisy mess in your head, instead they are like
multiple streams of highly detailed information, which you can tune into
individually, or more impressively, see everything as a whole symphony of
sound and light, every note of which is crisp and distinct...
Amazing certainly, mystical I just don't know
Rod
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