DOSE:

1 tsp

oral

Cannabis

(dried)

BODY WEIGHT:

50 kg

ASTROLOGY AND PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCES
The night of 20th February was Mahashivaratri - the Hindu festival, night of the Great Shiva. On this day bhang (dried female shoots and flowers of Cannabis) are taken as prasaad. From the overwhelming spiritual nature of the trip I had on this day, I now suspect that astrology and especially the position of the moon also influence the nature of the trip that one gets on Bhang/Cannabis. The Hindu calendar is partially Solar and Lunar based and Mahashivaratri invariably falls on the night previous to a Amaavasya or New Moon. I still must look up whether shamans and spiritual practitioners in other parts of the world consulted astrology to time their psychedelic rituals.

CONSPIRACY TO KEEP PEOPLE ASLEEP
One of the overwhelming feelings throughout this trip was there was some kind of conspiracy to keep humans asleep/under illusion/under the grasp of Maya. However, it was unclear as to who was behind this conspiracy - was it our own ignorance and/or hostile forces that Sri Aurobindo talked about in his 'Letters on Yoga'. Could this feeling be the source of all kinds of conspiracy theories by people who perceived the original truth in a distorted way and came up with all kinds of beliefs of government cover ups, alien abductions, alien invasion etc. Are there people among us who are 'awake' yet are silent witness to the play - lila (Divine play according to Hinduism) of the world? Are there others silently doing their work, making subtle attempts at 'waking' people up, leaving signs for people who are partially awake to tell them that they are not alone and that they are not under some sort of delusion?!!

I very strongly had the 'feeling' that the esoteric and mystical texts and poems left by sages and seers in the past are a kind of symbol/code language for those of us who are partly awake, to guide us and to show us the Way. There could be three reasons why this message is given in a code/symbolic language:
1. Those who are yet asleep do not get alarmed and confused.
2. To prevent the message from going into the hands of ignorant/hostile people who could misuse this knowledge.
3. Most importantly, to a person in an altered state of consciousness, metaphors and symbols make more sense than ordinary language because the experiences during a 'high' can be best described in symbols and metaphors.
It was very clear, however that most of humanity is asleep or under some kind of a spell and all the sages and mystics of the past have been trying to break this spell and awaken the slumber of humanity.

LOSS OF SENSE OF TIME
The passage of time, on this trip was remarkably erratic. At some point it appeared to speed up, on another occasion slow down and at times, come to a standstill.

ACCESS TO UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE
I felt as if I could access universal knowledge simply with the effort of will and focus. Comprehension of ideas/concepts and phenomena was almost effortless. Was this the reason why some governments had banned Cannabis for their 'subjects/citizens’?!!

SANITY AND INSANITY, DREAM AND REALITY
I felt as if I was living with insane people and once the effects of Cannabis wear off I will slowly slip back into a similar kind of insanity. A kind of insanity in which you take a 'make believe world' created by the ignorance of your mind as 'reality'. It felt very similar to the concept depicted in the film 'Inception' where they show a group of people asleep and a man in charge of that place tells Leonardo DiCaprio that this is the place where they come to 'wake up' to their 'dream reality'. I felt that I too would wake up to a 'dream reality' once the effects of Cannabis wear off.

CANNABIS AND ESP: SUBTLE SMELLS
I felt as if I had developed the ability of sensing subtle smells. I could 'smell' my younger son's indigestion (it wasn't very pleasant !!). At another point when I was roasting egg plants/brinjals, one of them smelt different and unpleasant. When I cut it open I found a small rotten patch inside. This ability continued for the next few days and then slowly faded out.

DIRECT COMPREHENSION IN WAVES
Concepts and ideas would initially float in front of my mind's eye, like a wave hitting the shore gently, rise and then fall back to be replaced by another wave....
Lord Shiva is believed to be the Lord of Destruction (destroyer of ignorance ?) and the Lord of the Underworld. His abode is Mt. Kailash which is a part of the great Himalayas.
The Master will come when the Disciple is ready

It dawned on me that the above saying was not to be taken literally. Under Cannabis, I become receptive to 'higher truths' and insights and this higher/divine knowledge is the Guru or the Master that comes when one is ready. The Master may not necessarily be a person. One becomes one's own master/guru in a 'high' state. Evil is not an external entity, it is one's own ignorance. The message of the Sufis came to my mind - 'you stand between yourself and God'. Here God means enlightenment, you imply your ignorance. The words and spiritual compositions of great seers and sages were written in a similar state of high which they achieved through non-chemical means. Taking of such psychotropic plants is perhaps a short-cut, and that is the reason why its effects are short-lived.

Key-hole view of Enlightenment
My direct comprehension of concepts/phenomenon was always in a visual form. However, the edges/margins of the visual were always hazy. I felt that I was getting a mere key-hole experience/revelation. As if I was peeping through a hole in a doorway, and the doorway led to a beautiful mansion with multiple rooms and stories. Christians saints and Sufis have often mentioned various stages/growth in spirituality and in order to reach the highest step of the ladder one has to be ready - purge/cleanse one's lower self. Perhaps the reason why a lot of people who take Cannabis do not get a spiritual experience could be because their intentions are not proper or strong enough, as mentioned in one of my earlier posts and secondly because their lower self has not been cleansed of ignorance. Esoteric literature from all over the world give you various ways and techniques to cleanse your lower self.

I am not a religious person i.e. I do not go to temples or perform regular worship or pray to a specific deity on a regular basis. However I do meditate and perform mantra jaap. However the overwhelming feeling that pervaded throughout all my recent trips was that I had been selected to be a part of some great Secret. I felt special. I felt Grace and blessings being bestowed on me, and the world appeared magical and bewildering. Perhaps this is how the world appears to a child before it is conditioned by the society !!

Cerebral Overdrive
This trip was intensely spiritual and cerebral. At one point I felt as if I could take in no more 'knowledge', and that my brain needed some rest. I also understood how knowledge could give a person pure pleasure/bliss and bewilderment. This cerebral pleasure (I call it thus for the want of a better word) was like a mental orgasm.

Following are some of the spontaneous ideas/revelations that dawned on me on this day. They may not be original and I am not the first to discover them, but in this state I could feel their meaning with my entire being and not just my mind:
It is clear that most of the humanity in 'normal' state is asleep and so do I slip into a kind of slumber when the effects of Cannabis wear off.
Silencing of mind and tongue prevents us from falling asleep, from getting lost into this illusory word. The key is mindfulness - be mindful to the people and situations in your life.. Do not get caught/seduced by the myriad of distractions/temporary pleasures that the world offers you. They are all meant to put you back to a kind of sleep - the sleep of ignorance. Negative attributes are like lullabies that put you to sleep.
Religion is for the masses, those who are asleep, to show them the way in the darkness; mysticism is for those who are partially awake.
The Spiritual Path is like a game of Snakes and Ladder, for most the path is long and cumbersome, but the fortunate come across ladders/Grace on their way to hasten their journey, and at times even 'angels' and saints fall when bitten by the snake of heedlessness.

The breathing exercises, rhythmic dance and zikr of the Sufis, after a certain stage of progress on the Path, are physical methods to get a 'high' - an altered state of consciousness when they can experience higher realities. These methods are long and laborious and require will and perseverance. However they are fool-proof, you cannot go astray. Shortcuts to achieving an altered state of consciousness like drugs and psychotropic plants can lead a lot of people astray if they take it without the right intention and also if their lower selves are not ready for it.
The 'door keepers' of mystical/hidden/secret knowledge are not some special people but our own egos, our lower selves. You can cross the threshold only if your intentions are pure and your hearts ready.
The demon Mara who tried to lead Buddha astray was a symbol for Buddha's own lower self, whom he finally vanquishes and attains Nirvana.
Negative emotions especially anger and hate, stiffen certain parts of your physical and psychological self, leading to various ailments.

Physiological Effects on the Body
My body temperature appeared to have risen slightly but not high enough to make me feel uncomfortable.
Could also sense a slight rise in my pulse rate and hear beat but this came in waves. I would also swallow more frequently.
Vision was not affected neither was motor function. However, like seeing shapes in random clouds in the sky, I could clearly discern humanoid faces and body shapes in inanimate objects.

Exp Year: 2011	ExpID: 111220
Gender: Female
Age at time of experience: 50
Published: May 2, 2019	Views: 678
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Cannabis (1) : General (1), Retrospective / Summary (11), Unknown Context (20)