CONTEMPORARY MYSTICISM

         It should be obvious by now that the mystical experience is not an isolated or necessarily rare event. It is historically well documented both from the East and West, and recognized as an honorable, noble, and sacred activity that has for its object nothing less than contact with the Divine.

         While mystical union may appear to be a universal phenomenon, its methodology is not. Theistic and Eastern experiences are seemingly brought about by an extreme effort of self-directed willpower. Intense meditation and concentration seem to be the keys, but the Saints of the West and Holy men of the East seldom tell us their personal methods, including Plotinus. Quite possibly, it is more a matter of psychological processes at work rather than anything deemed miraculous. Skeptics contend that these mystics are doing no more than psychically tuning their body chemistry thereby inducing altered states of mind. The Hindus of the East take pride in their mental feats, such as raising and lowering their own blood pressure, so intense self-control is a big factor. The Saints of the Catholic church, focusing their mental powers inwardly, force the Self or ego to merge with the infinite. In other cases, as with Saint Teresa, it is said that she could maintain this state for weeks at a time, although it is difficult to see how she performed her daily activities in a state of constant ecstasy with her mind empty of all content. Loyola could supposedly maintain the mystical state for months, even longer as he became older, in some sense his life became the experience.

         If it all boils down to biochemistry of one form or another that leads to mystical experiences, then it should not be any surprise to learn that Mother Nature has provided various naturally occurring substances that can be found growing throughout the plant kingdom. Mushrooms have always been a source of food for our ancestors living in caves, but eating the wrong ones brought death; other varieties offered miraculous revelations of paradise, or visions of terror. Some anthropologists believe that psycho-tropic mushrooms developed into the notion of fertility gods because of their distinctly phallic shape and association with life-giving rain, which caused them to spawn. Religious rites within various cultures added to the belief that they were the flesh of God.

         The contemporary mystic is no longer bound to spend years in a monastery, retreat, or cave in constant prayer and meditation to achieve enlightenment. Instead, they choose their own setting, and time, relying on personal beliefs, values, and ideals to lead them into the clear light of the Void, cosmic Consciousness, divine Union, or the higher Self. Whatever one calls it, these experiences are basically similar, but unique to the individual.

         In his book Astral Doorways, J. H. Brennan writes: “That these are genuine keys [psychoactive plants] is a statement that will not sit easy with the romantic. They can be extremely dangerous keys, but that is neither here nor there. They unlock the inner levels efficiently and easily. And if their use seems a far cry from spirituality, I know no better answer than that once given by Aldous Huxley: ‘In one way or another, all our experiences are chemically conditioned, and if we imagine that some of them are purely spiritual, purely intellectual, purely aesthetic, it is merely because we have never troubled to investigate the internal chemical environment at the moment of their occurrence. Furthermore, it is a matter of historical record that most contemplatives worked systematically to modify their body chemistry, with a view to creating the internal conditions favourable to spiritual insight.’ ”

         Unfortunately, any induced method of mind alteration by outside substances is potentially dangerous, and should not be attempted for the sake of curiosity or thrills. Current laws restricting their use make this apparent.

Alcohol and Anesthetics

         This may sound odd to hear that alcohol has anything to do with the mystical experience, but it does alter consciousness. Whether having a few drinks and getting tipsy, or drowning in the bottle, alcohol is a drug, and its abuse causes serious problems, not only for the abuser, but society as well. It is also one of the few ‘drugs’ that doesn't require a prescription, so it is up to the individual drinker to determine what is safe and sane to drink. The problem with alcohol is not knowing when to slow down or stop; the abuser drinks into a stupor, and the only mysticism he or she experiences is delirium tremens. On the other hand, there is a point that can be attained resulting in a relaxed and open state of mind that could turn thoughts to a higher level of contemplation. William James seems to think so as he writes in his book: The Varieties of Religious Experience:

         “The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the “Yes” function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth. Not through mere perversity do men run after it. To the poor and the unlettered it stands in the place of symphony concerts and of literature; and it is part of the deeper mystery and tragedy of life that whiffs and gleams of something that we immediately recognize as excellent should be vouchsafed to so many of us only in the fleeting earlier phases of what in its totality is so degrading a poisoning. The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of that larger whole.”

         Anesthetics are another medium affecting the mind to the extent of inducing profound insights and visionary experiences. It is one of the few substances that give rise to a phenomenon known as astral projection, which is the experience of being out of the body. Patients undergoing operations often report floating above their bodies watching as their physical body is being operated on. Several experiments conducted in hospital operating rooms tend to affirm that the patient was out of body, but so far there has been no conclusive evidence to support this. From the “Varieties of Religious Experience,” JA Symonds wrote of his experience with chloroform:

         “After the choking and stifling had passed away, I seemed at first in a state of utter blankness: then came flashes of intense light, alternating with blackness, and with a keen vision of what was going on in the room round me, but no sensation of touch. I thought that I was near death; when, suddenly, my soul became aware of God, who was manifestly dealing with me, handling me, so to speak, in an intense personal present reality. I felt Him streaming in like light upon me. . . . I cannot describe the ecstasy I felt. Then as I gradually awoke from the influence of the anaesthetics, the old sense of my relation to the world began to return, the new sense of my relation to God began to fade. I suddenly leapt to my feet on the chair where I was sitting, and shrieked out, ‘It is too horrible, it is too horrible, it is too horrible,’ meaning that I could not bear this disillusionment. Then I flung myself on the ground, and at last awoke covered with blood, calling to the two surgeons (who were frightened), ‘Why did you not kill me? Why would you not let me die?’ Only think of it. To have felt for that long dateless ecstasy of vision the very God in all purity and tenderness and truth and absolute love, and then to find that I had after all had no revelation, but that I had been tricked by the abnormal excitement of my brain. Yet, this question remains, Is it possible that the inner sense of reality which succeeded, when my flesh was dead to impressions from without, to the ordinary sense of physical relations, was not a delusion but an actual experience? Is it possible that I, in that moment, felt what some of the saints have said they always felt, the undemonstrable but irrefragable certainty of God?”

         William James reported on his own experience with Nitrous Oxide, with a short commentary of his incident as follows:

         “Nitrous oxide and ether, especially nitrous oxide, when sufficiently diluted with air, stimulates the mystical consciousness in an extraordinary degree. Depth beyond depth of truth seems revealed in the inhaler. This truth fades out, however, or escapes, at the moment of coming to; and if any words remain over in which it seemed to clothe itself, they prove to be the veriest nonsense. Nevertheless, the sense of a profound meaning having been there persists; and I know more than one person who is persuaded that in the nitrous oxide trance we have a genuine metaphysical revelation.”

         Various substances, such as gas, often lead to various mental effects. To have a trans-personal experience on an elevated level should not be surprising, although such seemingly rare events are seldom reported. Maybe certain individuals are predisposed to react in unusual ways when under the influence of such substances. These experiences seem to come spontaneously, and are likely the result of an incidental or isolated event.

Cannabis and Peyote

         The most widely known and used of the natural hallucinogens are Indian hemp, or cannabis sativa, known throughout the world as hemp, cannabis, bhang, hashish, ganja, charas, marijuana, maryjane, reefer, pot, etc. It is one of the milder psycho-active substances, and unlike most of the others that are ingested, it is usually smoked. The active ingredient of this plant is from the female buds, while the male plant is sought for its tough fibers. The US government grew fields of hemp for rope during the second world war to tie up numerous ships being built for the war effort. Controversy continues today over the legal status of Marijuana for medical purposes to relieve pain and suffering.

         Cannabis, or hemp, was known to the ancient Chinese, Indians and Persians and is mentioned in Greek and Assyrian religious literature dating back to 1000 BC. The plant was regarded as holy in India. Brought from the ocean by the God Siva, it was widely used for religious meditation. G. M. Carstairs reporting on the use of cannabis in India quotes a Brahmin sage as saying: “It gives good bhakti. . . . You get a very good bhakti with bhang,” bhakti yoga being Hinduism’s devotion and love of God. The Muslims considered it an embodiment of the spirit of the prophet Mohammed. It was introduced into Europe about 1500 BC. Hemp is a hardy plant, and grows in most countries with a temperate climate.

         Since LSD, the peyote cactus, and psilocybin mushrooms bestow virtually the same effects, it is common practice among those that use LSD to smoke cannabis during the peak period to enhance the auditory and visual aspects of the experience. Even though Cannabis is a true hallucinogen, it has never been regarded as important in the family of mind-expanding plants, that distinction belongs to peyote, and the so called “magic” mushrooms. Peyote is a spineless cactus (Lophophora Williamsii) that grows in the arid region that runs from north of the Rio Grande down into Central Mexico. The Indians above and below the border cut off the button-like heads of the low growing plant and eat them as part of their communal religious rites. The Spanish Conquistadores did their best to stamp out the use of the plant among the Aztecs and other native Indians. The Christian missionaries fought even harder to stop its use, but did no better than the Spanish soldiers. Peyote buttons were carried by the Mescalero Apaches out of Mexico during the Indian wars, becoming popular among the Comanches, Kiowas, and other American tribes. Its use in Indian rituals spread through the plains and up into Canada in the nineteenth century. The hallucinogenic alkaloid of the plant, mescaline, was isolated in 1896. There was much thought, discussion, and experimentation with the new drug as Sigmund Freud, William James, Havelock Ellis and others became interested in its mind-manifesting qualities.

         Indians never eat Peyote for ‘kicks’, but is always part of a religious sacrament. When a meeting is felt necessary, often for illness, death, or some other crises, members of the tribe assemble on a Friday or Saturday night in a tepee or hogan. They form a circle and spend the night in prayer, ritual singing and introspective meditation. The belief is held that Peyote is the mediator between the tribe and God, hence there is no use for ministers or priests.

          In 1918, the Bureau of Indian Affairs lobbied Congress to pass an “anti Peyote” law which led to the forming of an intertribal Peyotist association that could combat any such action. On October 10, 1918, the Native American Church came into being; because of religious and political opposition since that time, the American Civil Liberties Union made an appeal to the Supreme Court in the fall of 1960. In the following year, members of the Native American Church were granted national religious acceptance. The state of Arizona still had a law against the use and possession of Peyote. With the help of the ACLU, Mary Attokai, a Navajo woman, intentionally broke the law, was arrested, and convicted. She appealed to the Coconino Superior Court. Judge Yale McFate dismissed the case as he saw it unconstitutional. He wrote that:

          “The peyote rite is one of prayer and quiet contemplation. The doctrine consists of belief in God, brotherly love, care of family and other worthy beliefs. The use and significance of peyote within the religious framework is complex. It is conceived of as a sacrament, a means of communion with the Spirit of the Almighty, and as an object of worship, itself having been provided for the Indian by the Almighty.” Judge McFate also stated that peyote “is not a narcotic (and) it is not habit-forming.” The state of California has also repealed its laws allowing the Native American Church to practice its religion.

Mushrooms and Mysticism

          The use of psycho-tropic plants has been recorded from the earliest of times, and played a significant part in the religious life of many cultures and civilizations. Soma, also known as haoma and suma, probably came into India by way of the ancient Aryan invaders. According to the Rig-Veda, soma was drunk by the God Indra, which inspired him to create the universe. Nothing is known of the drug, except that it was fermented, mixed with milk or water, and strained through wool before it was swallowed. Soma may have been derived from certain mushrooms that grow throughout the world. One such variety known as the Amanita Muscaria, or fly agaric, is still used by some primitive peoples in central and northeast Siberia. The ferocious Tartars were known to use it, and some tribes among Norsemen. The mushroom has always been a thing of mystery; puzzled over by its manner of growth without seed, and the way it suddenly comes into being and then disappears. John M. Allegro states:

         “Every aspect of the mushroom’s existence was fraught with sexual allusions, and in its phallic form the ancients saw a replica of the fertility god himself. It was the ‘son of God,’ its drug was a purer form of the god’s own spermatozoa than that discoverable in any other form of living matter. It was, in fact, God himself, manifest on earth. To the mystic it was the divinely given means of entering heaven; God had come down in the flesh to show the way to himself, by himself.”

         The Amanita, or fly agaric, with its white spotted red cap, is a dangerous mushroom; its near cousin the Amanita phalloides, or destroying angel, is almost always fatal. This knowledge alone should keep amateur mushroom hunters very aloof while in the field collecting mushrooms. The ancients knew this and the very act of pulling the mushrooms from the ground was accompanied by ritual and magic. The active ingredient in the fly agaric is muscarine, which was isolated in 1869; it is such a complicated substance that little information is known about it. Among the newer varieties of recently discovered mushrooms are those that have been traced back to Mexico and the sacraments of the ancient Aztec civilization.

          Word spread from visitors to the highlands in Mexico of a mushroom that possessed unusual psychic properties. An amateur botanist named Gordon Wasson heard the stories, and in 1953 set out to find the so called sacred mushroom. Wasson tried the mushrooms and publicized his experience in a series of articles. Sitting in complete darkness he describes his visions:

         To the Aztecs the sacred mushrooms were Teonanacatl, God’s flesh, and there were penalties for using it without good religious or ritual reasons. After the fall of the Aztec empire, the Indians continued to gather the mushrooms for religious purposes, and that included private trips into the mind. In the mid 1950's the active alkaloid of the mushroom was discovered; it was called psilocybin.

         In August of 1960, Dr. Timothy Leary, a 39 year old psychology professor at Harvard, lounged beside a pool at a friend’s villa in Cuernavaca, Mexico. There had been talk about a native mushroom that caused strange mental aberrations, and Leary, intrigued by the mind, requested that some of the mushrooms be obtained. Leary ate seven mushrooms, and for several hours later, “climbed into his own mind,” coming out a different person. Several years later he described his experience this way:

       “I realized I had died, that I, Timothy Leary, the Timothy Leary game, was gone. I could look back and see my body on the bed. I relived my life, and re-experienced many events I had forgotten. More than that, I went back in time in an evolutionary sense to where I was aware of being a one-celled organism. All of these things were way beyond my mind. . . . The discovery that the human brain possesses an infinity of potentialities and can operate at unexpected space-time dimensions left me feeling exhilarated, awed, and quite convinced that I had awakened from a long ontological sleep. A profound transcendent experience should leave in its wake a changed man and a changed life. Since my illumination . . . I have devoted most of my energies to try to understand the revelatory potentialities of the human nervous system and to make these insights available to others.”

         Leary went on to experiment with lysergic acid diethylamide, which became known as LSD-25, and to found a cult that became a national movement, until laws were passed banning the use of all psychedelics.

Mysticism and LSD

          LSD is short for d-lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate; it was created in a laboratory in 1938, and accidentally found to possess profound mind-changing properties five years later. It became the subject of experimentation in the mental health field for the next twenty years, amidst debate and controversy. LSD has virtually disappeared from the public scene. It is not a drug of choice today because of its often reported unpredictability, and availability for lack of demand.

          What can best be said about LSD is found in the “Tibetan Book of the Dead.” This ancient manual was written by the ‘sages of the snowy ranges’ as a help to the recently departed traveling through the after-death plane. It is believed that reading to the newly departed spirit would guide it to the realm of heaven rather than back into the cycle of birth and death. The guru of LSD, Timothy Leary, and his close associates, found in the book a description of not just after-states of physical death, but a description of what often occurred in transcendental experiences as death of the ego. The result of their studies was written into a manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead called: “The Psychedelic Experience.”

         The late Aldous Huxley, in “The Doors of Perception” wrote: “The literature of religious experience abounds in references to the pains and terrors overwhelming those who have come, too suddenly, face to face with some manifestations of the Mysterium tremendum. In theological language, this fear is due to the incompatibility between man’s egotism and the divine purity, between man’s self-aggravated separateness and the infinity of God . . . we may say that, by unregenerate souls, the divine Light at its full blaze can be apprehended only as a burning, purgatorial fire. An almost identical doctrine is to be found in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, where the departed soul is described as shrinking in agony from the Clear Light of the Void . . . in order to rush headlong into the comforting darkness of selfhood as a reborn human being, or even as a beast, an unhappy ghost, a denizen of Hell. Anything rather than the burning brightness of unmitigated reality–anything!”

         The book of the dead is at least a thousand years old. In the original Tibetan the work is known as the Bardo Thodol, meaning “Liberation by Hearing on the After-Death Plane.” The purpose of the book was emancipation from the wheel of death and rebirth. The idea was to talk the dead person out of seeking reincarnation in a new body. Upon encountering the clear light of the Void, if Karmic conditions were satisfied, the soul surrendered its sense of individuality, merged with the Void, and entered Nirvana. But for a soul that is not ready, the Void is terrible to behold, and it wanders on the Bardo plane assaulted by visions both frightful and beatific–by wrathful deities and peaceful deities–then finally enters the womb to be born again.

         Huxley reported that at one point he felt himself on the verge of panic, terrified by the prospect of ego disintegration, and he compared his dread with that of the Tibetan dead man who could not face the clear light, preferring rebirth. Thus, the Tibetan Book of the Dead was inexorably linked to the psychedelic experience. Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert boldly offered their own interpretation of the ancient book: it had to do not with the death and rebirth of the body, but rather with the death and rebirth of the ego in mystical states of consciousness.

         Absorption in the clear light is nothing more than a good trip, in which the traveler feels himself united again with the ground of his Being. The peaceful and wrathful deities represent the hallucinatory period which occurs when one fails to achieve the central experience. A bad trip results when the subject refuses to face the clear light–resists the disintegration of his ego–and rather than seek a rebirth, pleads for a shot of Thorazine which will immediately bring him back down to the world of ego and ordinary sense phenomena.

         Generally the reports written of LSD making the headlines focus on the worst case scenarios, but what is seldom heard are experiences of just the opposite. This report is from a twenty-five-year-old advertising man after taking 400 micrograms of LSD-25:

         “. . . . I felt myself dissolving into the terrifying apparition, my body melting in waves into the core of blackness, my mind stripped of ego and life and, yes, even death. In one great crystal instant I realized that I was immortal. I asked the question: ‘Am I dead?’ But the question had no meaning. Meaning was meaningless. Suddenly there was white light and the shimmering beauty of unity. There was light everywhere, white light with a clarity beyond description. I was dead and I was born and the exultation was pure and holy. My lungs were bursting with the joyful song of being. There was unity and life and the exquisite love that filled my being was unbounded. My awareness was acute and complete. I saw God and the devil and all the saints and I knew the truth. I felt myself flowing into the cosmos, I levitated beyond all restraint, liberated to swim in the blissful radiance of the heavenly visions. I wanted to shout and sing of miraculous new life and sense and form, of the joyous beauty and the whole mad ecstasy of loveliness. I knew and understood all there is to know and understand. I was immortal, wise beyond wisdom and capable of love of all loves. Every atom of my body and soul had seen and felt God. The world was warmth and goodness. There was no time, no place, no me. There was only cosmic harmony. It was all there in the white light. With every fiber of my being I knew it was so. . . .”

Chemicals and Altered States

         The big question comes up: Is the psychedelic experience similar to the mystical experience? Walter Stace, professor emeritus at Princeton University, one of the leading authorities and scholars on this subject says: “It’s not a matter of its being similar to mystical experience; It is mystical experience.” William Braden adds: “In its broadest sense, mysticism refers to direct communion with the divine; to intuitive knowledge of ultimate truth; to the soul’s sense of union with the absolute reality that is the Ground, or the source, of its Being. And apparently it is impossible to distinguish this experience from the central experience produced by LSD and other psychedelic agents.”

         Back in the 1950s and 60s when studies were being conducted on the effects of psychedelics, Dr. Walter Pahnke, in his doctoral study at Harvard University, worked out a typology of religious experience based on the classic cases of mystical experiences as summarized in Walter Stace’s “Mysticism and Philosophy.” He then administered psilocybin to ten theology students and professors in the setting of a Good Friday service. The reports subjects wrote of their experiences were presented to three college-grad housewives who, without being informed about the nature of the study, were asked to rate the statements according to the typology of mysticism. The statistics showed that “those subjects who received psilocybin experienced phenomena which were indistinguishable from, if not identical with . . . the categories defined by our typology of mysticism.”

         At Princeton, students were shown accounts of a religious experience and a psychedelic experience, and two-thirds of the students identified the psychedelic experience as the religious one. Masters and Huston stated that “religious-type” experiences were reported by 32 to 75 percent of subjects who received psychedelics in “supportive” settings, and by 75 to 90 percent of those who received them in settings that included religious stimuli.

         William James observes: “One may say truly, I think, that personal religious experience has its roots and centre in mystical states of consciousness.” If psychedelic experiences through theo-botanicals lead to mystical states, then they may be a source of mankind’s religious practices from the earliest stages of his evolutionary development. Gordon Wasson also believed that mushrooms might well have been a “mighty springboard” which first planted the idea of God into men’s heads, and he speculates that mushrooms may have been used during the rituals practiced by the ancient Greek mystery cult of Eleuses.

         How far can the chemical explanation of mystical experience be taken? William Braden formulates the question as follows: “Did the saints owe their visions to some biological short-circuit which caused them to experience spontaneously what LSD cultists achieve with a chemical? Can their mystic raptures be traced to a malfunction of the adrenal glands? Is the religious experience as such nothing more than a fluke of body chemistry?”

         It has been known for centuries that the ecstatic process can be produced by techniques which alter body chemistry–fasting, contemplative focusing of attention, optical alterations, yoga exercises, sensory deprivation, and the ingestion of certain plants. The saints were probably influenced to some extent by their environment in the monastery: choral and organ music, chants, light through stain-glass windows, flickering candles, incense, and prayer.

         So what is going on with this experience called mystical? To an extent we can say that it involves bio-chemical reactions. There is little doubt that mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD create a chemical interaction that produces a religious experience similar to the Eastern mystic. Zen Buddhists practice the same techniques, although usually in a monastery. The saints of the Catholic church also lived the monastic life, exclusively for the sake and love of God. It seems that in both Theistic and Eastern mysticism, the experience is deliberately sought; that is, individuals compel their minds through willpower inducing bio-chemical processes.

         The real mystery is with the nature mystics. Their experience is spontaneous, unsought, and usually not expected. What kind of chemical process is happening here? Could this really be an experience brought on by the grace of God? St. Paul was on the road to Damascus, not cloistered in a monastery praying. Others report being out walking the hills on a warm sunny morning when out of nowhere they are in the deepest trance-like state of ecstasy and rapture, or as with Dr. Bucke, riding to his lodging in a carriage late at night, mulling over conversations of philosophy with friends, when suddenly caught in the deepest beatific visions imaginable. One of the greatest and most profound of all the mystics of the Catholic church was nowhere near a monastery, but sitting by the river Cardoner on a bright sunny day. Saint Ignatius Loyola was fully aware of his surroundings, and his perceptions tuned to the environment when his moment of ecstasy and rapture came upon him. His visions never left him until the day he died. One has to wonder how much chemicals had anything to do with it.

         Knowledge comes by probing the unknown, and there is always an inherent danger in the probing. Rigorous study by competent people offsets the danger. After four decades, psychedelic research is finally, but slowly, making a come back. The emphasis now is on difficult to treat psychic suffering, such as trauma, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a wide range of other mental problems, including the care of terminal cancer patients. In an article by Linda Mansa appearing in Discover magazine June 2008. Pg. 55, we read:

         “That first acid trips sparked an explosion in experimentation by psychiatrists, intellectuals, artists, spiritual seekers, and even Nobel Prizewinning scientists including physicist Richard Feynman and Francis Crick, who reportedly admitted before he died in 2004 that he had visualized the double-helix structure of DNA while under the influence of LSD. In the heady postwar years, hundreds of promising studies were conducted in the United States, Canada, and Europe on the use of LSD and other psychedelics, like peyote, to treat such psychiatric maladies as schizophrenia, autism, drug addiction, alcoholism, and chronic depression.”

         When a world society dawns on the age of enlightenment, which comes by default to a world at peace; what is best in itself adds to the universe the Spirit that gives life back to worlds yet to come.