At a neo-pagan/psychedelic conference I meet a friend of a friend who has access to the rare and treasured sacrament DMT, of which I have only once partaken.
Baring gifts from my community, I travel to the southern metropolis where the above-mentioned "friend of a friend" makes his home, intending to return with the fabled "faerie dust." Before making my return trip I obtain a talisman in the marketplace which promises success in business and gambling ventures. The talisman apparently does its trick - I accomplish my mission with no difficulties.
The small neo-pagan community in the city where I live arranges a ritual commemorating the "Equinox of the Gods" where the sacrament will be consumed. In the weeks leading up to the event, I acquire a short text by Swami Muktananda entitled I Am That, which gives instruction in "the science of hamsa," a mantra meditation which accompanies the breath and can be practised continuously. I take up the "hamsa" practise in earnest at this time.
On the day of the event, I participate in a sufi dancing workshop, where we gaze deeply into one another's eyes while performing traditional dances and gestures and singing sacred phrases from various spiritual traditions.
That night, 7 of us gather at the tattooing and piercing studio where our ritual is to take place. A video camera is set up to record the event. Before we begin, the space, as well as each individual participating, is smudged with a burning sage bundle. Then, in honour of the prophet V.V.V.V.V., we chant the Gnostic mantra "IAO," vibrating each sound in successively higher chakras: "Oooooh" in the base chakra (belly area), "Aaah" in the heart chakra (chest area), and "Eeeeee" in the third eye (top part of head).
As the pipe is passed around, I watch the others make their forays into the Other World and return full of wonder and amazement. I am the second-to-last participant to hit the pipe. By the time it's my turn I am quite relaxed, as everyone who has gone before me obviously has had a positive experience. My chosen musical "soundtrack" (Shanti - soupdragon mix, by Banco de Gaia) is queued up on the stereo. I inhale deeply as another assists me by lighting the pipe's contents. A gong sounds as a voice on the record says "I have been waiting a long time for someone like you to record this message"....
Suddenly I feel myself unfolding like a flower in some higher dimension. For awhile there is a kind of creepy atmosphere, reminiscent of the bar scene in "Star Wars" - however, I remain anchored with the "hamsa" mantra, and pass through the spookiness without mishap. My next impression is of being in a temple. I am keeping an appointment made thousands of years earlier. The sacrament is the key to the temple.
The next portion of my experience is so all-encompassing that it really cannot be separated from what came before, or what has come after. The maha-mantra of the Siddha Yoga lineage, "Om Namah Shivaya - I Am That I Am NOW" becomes me, I become It, It is the entire Universe, and every living being throughout. I join in ecstatic erotic unity with every creature that has ever existed or could ever exist, in full consciousness. It is as if all of Life attained orgasm simultaneously in me.
And then it's over... I feel my consciousness in the bodies of the others around me, their bodies are my bodies, the erotic union lingers within the boundaries of the room. I light a clove cigarette. "So that's what happens when you get a good hit" someone remarks...
A Canadian man.
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