Psychedelic Experience and Meditation

[yelsew]

They are researching the similarities between taking psilocybin and deep meditation.

Personally I've been meditating pretty consistent for the last 2,5 years. Unfortunately I still have cluster headaches but I wouldn't say they've gotten worse. I'm sure meditation has some positive effect!

I'm not trying to convince anyone to start meditating, you'll know when you need it. Just thought it's interesting.

S. N. Goenka, who died just last year at 89 and popularised Vipassana meditation actually started the practice because he had a headache which no doctor could treat at the time. They don't say what type in the book though.

One story related to this; I'm sure some of you are familiar with Ram Dass. He made this trip to India in the 60's and met with a high spiritual man, Maharaji. He offered the man high doses of LSD. Maharaji took it and it had no effect.

http://www.ramdass.org/ram-dass-gives-maharaji-the-yogi-medicine/

Of course you can't know if this is true but it makes sense to me if you're already naturally high so to speak, the psychedelics don't have that big of an effect.

[MoxieGirl]

I meditate, although not as often or as deeply as I'd like. I find tripping to be a very similar experience, and often a catalyst to deeper trains of thought, or perhaps to just letting my mind go without any guidance. 

I find it very interesting that many people who take psychedelics report out of body experiences (OBE), and meditation is also a path to an OBE. Doesn't take a genius to notice some comparisons (I'm not a genius, and I noticed them).

I know of other ways to get into a very similar head space without the aid of drugs, but it might be a bit of an adult topic for this site.

MG

[DrTy2]

I've done some very deep meditation when I was younger (17 and 20 years old), and found that you can reach the "tripping point" if you go really deep. Shrooms and triptamines probably just make all this much easier, but all in all, it's the same road.

Still, meditation does not help CH in any ways: it's not the "mind trip" caused by shrooms that helps CH. It's some other chemical molecule that does the job.

[yelsew]

Thanks for the replies!

It's funny how the mind works that way. Different methods to get to similar states of mind. Haven't tried the adult topic way but it sounds appealing

Although there are similarities I do have to say recently when I busted again I got reminded how different it is as well. Closed visual hallucinations, distorted ideas and perceptions, etc which meditation does not produce for me.

@DrTy2 you're probably right about the chemical molecule. It's that big anti-inflammatory action we need.

I'm going to keep trying. Articles like this give me hope, http://www.news.wisc.edu/22370

[Dallas Denny]

In 1972, while touring SoCal with a Texas acid rock band named Orange Sunshine, I met a dude who was a practicing Buddhist ( and one hell of a drummer!). Over the course of several months we talked (actually, he was teaching) extensively about meditation, astral projection, and OBE.

So, one evening while alone in my apartment, I began meditating with a focus on enlightenment (knowledge).....one of the things he taught me was to concentrate my vision on an object (in this experience it was the doorknob on a closet)....in what seemed like just a few minutes, I saw a flash of bright lite and then found myself in a pure, white, place....there didn't appear to be a floor, wall, or ceiling, but directly in front of me was a door.... Standing beside the door was an entity with long white hair and a long white beard, wearing a blue robe and he was extending his right hand to me palm up.

His lips didn't move, but he told me that the knowledge I was seeking was thru the door....as I reached for the doorknob, I saw another flash of bright light followed immediately by what appeared to be a shimmering pool of black ink, and I could hear the entity calling for me to come back thru the pool and open the door....another flash of bright light and I was in a black place, again, no floor or walls but I was standing at the top of what appeared to be an incline, and an entity dressed in black with black hair and a black goatee was telling me that the answers I was seeking were at the bottom of the incline and began to reach his hand out toward me....I instantly got VERY cold and afraid....white light one last time and I was sitting in my apartment!!!

Several years later, I attended a lecture and workshop on self hypnosis and began to relate this experience to the speaker....as soon as I got to being in the white place with the door, he interrupted me and told me verbatim the rest of what I had experienced!!! 

OBE or whatever the experience was, it's still just as vivid in my minds eye as it was 40 some odd years ago!!!

On another note, our resident Buddhist Ron (Bonkers) told me a story early on in our friendship about attending a lecture in LA on LSD in the mid 60's..the speaker was Richard Alpert...before he achieved enlightenment and became Baba Ram Dass!!!

DD

[ThatHurtsMyHead]

DD,

Wow, very interesting story.  I have a story a little similar, but the entity said (without speaking) that he was too busy for me right then, to come back later (seriously)

I tried to come back later, but didn't make the same connection.

J

[MoxieGirl]

Wow!  I'm longing for an OBE, can't just quite get there.

They say that just before you leave your body, there is a vibration. I often experience an all over vibration when I'm tripping. I try to relax into it, but can't seem to escape the flesh.

:/

[yelsew]

Wauw! Intense experiences, thanks for sharing.

The deepest I have gone with meditation was when I experienced something called Kundalini. I never heard of it before I got it, I looked it up later to find out what the hell that was because it was a combination of sensations I never felt before.

It happened after I started meditating at 3-4 months, pretty consistent every day in the evening at least 20min in complete dark, absolutely quiet. It was like a burst of energy shot up my spine reaching my head, the third eye if you will, when it got there my whole body started vibrating not physically but energetically like electric and then I got really hot. Very strange experience but I'd take a Kundalini over an orgasm any day It felt that blissful!

Cool he saw Richard Alpert live. He's definitely worth listening too, you can find a lot of material on him on the internet. He know what he's talking about after hundreds of spiritual explorations