I will not speak to the effectiveness of exotic substances to help us enter the Fifth Dimension. I have not used them, and am thus disqualified even to assess the testimony of them who have. I understand that exotic substances, such as LSD, mescaline, and even alcohol will only send the user the experiences and expectations they already are prepared to meet. The discipline and talents that masters school into the student so that peyote may have the desired effect can help a person have that journey without the peyote. It may take a little longer. Yet it will avoid two problems associated with exotic practices. A favorite employment of Magic lays in finding a favorable parking spot, or in making traffic lights turn in our favor. In either case, the drug would impair safe driving, and would be entirely too much for such a small effort. The most common use of drugs is in the Grand (ceremonial) Magic. The hope is to liberate the mind for the full mystical experience. Too often, the drug is the mystical experience, and the psychedelic expressions are only the drug speaking to us. Then, because hallucinogens tend to be very toxic, the chance that the mystic will not return is ever present.
We may classify Psychedelic Experiences into one of four categories, each more involved than the others. They are, from lest complex, to the most involved:
Abstract or aesthetic experiences:
These are the most superficial, in the sense of easy availability for an average human. They apparently have no specific symbolic content related to the personality of the subject and we can explain them in terms of the anatomy and physiology of the sensory organs.
With the eyes closed, most subjects have incredibly colorful and dynamic visions of geometric designs, architectural forms, kaleidoscopic fireworks. These increase in lucidity, saturation, and complexity. We may see various ordinary elements of the environment transformed into fantastic animals, distorted faces, or exotic sceneries. Hallucinations may involve other sensory systems (rarely more than one). In addition, synaestyesias may occur.
Psychodynamic Expression
Psychodynamic expression in the psyche results in the biographical, recollective experience. This involves a complex reliving of emotionally relevant memories from various periods of the individual’s life. We can decipher some symbolic experiences as variations on, or recombinations of, biographical elements in a way quite familiar to dream work described by psychoanalysis. Ones Shadow, or anti-ego, may open her secret chest and show you what is within. With that, socially unacceptable notions may show themselves, and we may let them out for some fresh air, using the mental state to justify what comes with that. Memories associated with trauma, which we normally repress for mercy sake, are easily accessible in this stage. If approached carefully the guardian of these memories may soon be relieved of his or her duties.
Perinatal Experiences
Perinatal Experiences are memories generated during the birthing experience. The brain remembers everything to which existence exposes it. Only physical damage will erase memories. The reason many of us feel we forgot to load film into our photographic memory is the process of recall. To often we just don’t pay attention to what is happening, or we just don’t want to remember what happened. This is the case with trauma, and there are few traumas as great as being born. On top of that, we are usually only born once into each life time, despite what my mystic colleagues would like to believe.
During the Perinatal Experiences a person may regress to the postnatal (or even pre-natal) memories. Because death is intimately involved with birth, one may even experience a symbolic death, which may be influenced by that of a previous life. I expect that to a prenatal person, the act of becoming born maybe as terrifying as death, and may even seem like death. It certainly ends the new born’s previous existence, and awakens the child to a whole new world where he or she is not the whole universe. The gates to death and birth are the typical Shamanic gates, where by "astral travel" or "skrying" begin to rise above pretense or simple hunches. It is at this stage when the personal consciousness encounters the impersonal, or group, consciousness, and may actually encounter autonomous psychological complexes of both types. Still, at this level of the psychedelic journey, we still see the impersonal consciousness and its complexes in person, we just meet it as though through a window, tenuously maintaining our own identity.
Transpersonal Encounter
Transpersonal encounter comes when, in one’s struggle to exist, the person reaches out of themselves to find a solution. The individual awareness melds with the quantum universe where the process transcends time-space, and the regular "Newtonian" awareness of the Universe miserably fails. One may become aware of quantum, atomic, molecular, planetary, stellar, galactic, and even universal processes that ordinary human awareness. In addition, the person may become aware of others in the world, and even those who have died, or not been born.
