Entheogens and mystical experience
In the No.12 issue of "Shift" there is a short article in "World Transforming" relating psilocybin to mystical experiences. I want to enter a note of caution about correlating "psychedelics" or entheogens to true mystical experiences.
At the age of sixteen I spontaneously entered into "kensho" or cosmic consciousness, some also describe it as a kundalini awakening, depending on your orientation. I base this not only on the undeniable truth of my experience, but also the criteria of Richard Bucke in his book "Cosmic Consciousness". Also James H. Austin in his book "Zen and the Brain" he lays out 18 traditional criteria for kensho. Based on those criteria I experienced all eighteen 100%, plus some.
Over subsequent years I have experienced the effects of LSD, psilocybin and mescaline literally hundreds of times. At no time did any of these experiences reproduce my initial experience. Yes there are intense perceptual changes and there can be related deep emotional and psychological insights. To the "newbies" and uninitiated these may seem profoundly "mystical", but they are not the same as entering into the "clear white light".
For researchers who have neither used entheogens or experienced kensho/cosmic consciousness the confusion is understandable. As one zen roshi quipped "kensho is an accident, meditation makes one more accident prone". Perhaps we might think of psychedelics and entheogens as making us more accident prone, but not identical to true "mystical" experiences.
