| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Modeling: ?spiritual? experience |
| Posted by: | J Rose |
| Date/Time: | 22/12/2003 04:49:58 |
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If I may put in my two cents. No time for the type of explication that is normally asked for in this sort of discussion, but perhaps my comments will be just vague enough to stimulate a conversation- a conversation which just might plug in an occasional experiential referent. Perhaps. Drugs, undoubtedly, have the potential to 'open up' our awareness to higher/deeper dimensions. However, no matter what stage/level of spiritual experience gets 'opened up' it must be translated onto the stage at which the individual's everyday attention tends to focus. So, a person who is developmental trapped in some kind of narcissistic cycle may take a drug and experience something at the Subtle or Non-Dual level, but then, because his center of everyday gravity is where it is, he will tend to translate that experience of...(let's say) oneness narcissistically, thereby using it to feed his already enlarged sense of self-importance. Of course, this drug-induced experience also has the potential to catalyze the inner development of the individual...but it is not a given that it will act in such a manner. So this is a neutral comment on the possible role drugs may play in such 'higher' experiences. One potential negative side might be that drugs may set up a dependency cycle which would not only take away personal choice in relation to the developmental experience, but might also render the experience increasingly inaccessible. In many traditional cultures the use of substances to induce such experience is often embedded within a fairly deep wisdom tradition and is therefore very ecological. That is to say that the teacher is able to monitor and modify many of the potential pitfalls of such induced spiritual experience. This is what we can read in Canstaneda's accounts. I hope this at least approaches an helpful comment on your very interesting question. J Rose |