A Selection of Short Accounts from Responses to the Survey

The Light

I took acid with 4 of my friends. It was my first and only trip. My friends have never had any spiritual experiences, despite the fact they had tripped several times before. They are much more interested in the fun part of the acid experience (listening to music and enjoying the mental videos).
The room was quite ordinary, I didn't prepare myself for a spiritual experience at all. No incenses, no candles. We watched computer demos on PC for the first hour, then moved to another room, laid down onto the floor, closed our eyes and tuned into the music of the Ozric Tentacles.
On the peak I left nearly every aspect of my earthly ego behind me, and met God (the Light). I felt a traction, this Light called me, wanted me to rest in Him. I was very close to unity with this Light, but something in my mind rang the alarm bell in the last moment and I "realised": oh man, if I let it go I will die. So I jumped up (physically) and started to walk around the room in circles, and was rather unsure about me being dead or alive. So I fucked it up for sure. But I'm slowly getting ready for the next meeting.
I didn't prepare myself. It was simply my set. It seems to me that I have a "trippy" mind construction which lets me fly away. I just have to "go with the flow". And it leads me to the End. (LSD)

 

A Grand Celebration

The most common spiritual experience is an overwhelming joy at the wonder and splendour of all that surrounds me. A grand celebration of life, death, the universe and everything. Raves are great for this kind of experience. Alone I tend to be more apt to explore the workings of the cosmos and the nature of life and death. With friends, it can vary wildly, but it tends to include sharing my experience whatever it may be. But I feel it is important to note that I never really know what is going to happen. I can guess with accuracy, but there have been time that that guess was way off.
(LSD, DMT, 2-CB, ketamine, psilocybin)

 

Message from Ecstasy

I have entheogenic experiences primarily with my eyes closed in an inner environment i.e. not whilst socialising. The situation that most stays in my mind was when I was trying to sleep once while I was still high on E. I closed my eyes and found myself in a scene. It was an old lady and an old man in a house. I was watching from above. The old man started to have a heart attack and was about to die and the old lady was panicking. Though I was watching from above, I was actually, in a way, the old lady though her actions were her own. She was trying to phone for help, for an ambulance. I could feel her fear as though it were mine and her helplessness. I could also feel the old man dying. It was too late for him. But then, beyond the feelings, I knew that he was dying from a heart attack due to smoking cigarettes all his life and it was as if that was a message to me... through the floods of pain that I felt and the hopelessness and the life of the old man slipping away. It could have been my imagination conjuring it up, but I opened my eyes wide awake and just thought MY GOD. At that very point I was in no doubt that it was supernatural the feeling was so strong. I didn't give up smoking immediately (though I did stop for two weeks after the "dream") but in the months since I have given up for good.
(ecstasy)

 

Australian Night

I was standing on a hill overlooking Byron Bay, the most easterly point in Australia, a clear and quiet night with a million stars, a big moon glinting off the ocean, and a breeze blowing up the hill. There was a fire from burning sugarcane off in a distant valley.
After this experience I came away with one clear tangible message that would help me experience my life in the way that I saw in the great rush of the experience.
(LSD and nitrous oxide)

 

Spiritual Telepathic Experience

My friends and I went to a really seedy nightclub early the next morning after a big night out. We were out of place and I felt very uncomfortable. I decided to leave on my own if my friend didn't come soon. Now, I'm not a religious man but in that place, after I was being touched up by old men, I decided to pray. I asked "God" to let my friend just realise, find me, and leave. In a couple of minutes he was there and we left. Once we were out he told me that he was on the dance floor but felt uncomfortable, and then when he closed his eyes he saw an image of Jesus. Now, I'm no church goer and am somewhat agnostic, even after that experience. I believe it was more a telepathic experience than anything else. Since my group of friends have been together for a decade we do have an extremely fraternal closeness which ecstasy made us acknowledge existed, although we always realised it was there. This was the most obvious "telepathic" experience I've had but we always have these little experiences and on ecstasy when our emotions and souls seem to become more fluid and it seems that several people can enjoy the feeling of being part of a single entity. I always joke that my friends and I suffer from Single Personality Disorder.
(ecstasy)

 

Going Up

There are two things I am aware of when using ecstasy. Firstly, it opens up a new echelon in life that can be accessed upon demand whereby all constraints and restrictions are banished. Secondly, the Hebrew word for 'going up' is 'aliyah'. To some this means being called upon to read the Torah in synagogue and to others the process of emigrating to the promised land, Israel. To me, ecstasy use is aliyah whereby I transfer from the known world to an unknown one.
(ecstasy)


Out of Body Experience

The experience which had the most impact on me took place one night in the middle of winter, when I was out with some acquaintances at Chaos, a lounge/bar in Manhattan. To make a long story short, I literally left my body and was watching the whole entire scene from a different vantage point. I had no feeling, but yet I knew I was there and was extremely aware. I saw myself without any biases and was disgusted by my values and priorities at the time. I could hear everything that everyone was saying and it was so obviously apparent to me, what was lies and who was ridiculous (something I had always had a hard time telling when not in this state and still sometimes do). I saw everyone I know and all of a sudden I was overcome with how ridiculous it all was...how ridiculous we all were. I was completely disgusted and for the first time saw the extreme shallowness and seriously skewed sense of priorities that I was living with and contributing to. It blew my mind...I have never seen things the same. I have a few different experiences of varying degrees, but this was the one I think that impacted me the most.
(ecstasy, ketamine)

 




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