THE "HOLY MOMENT" AND THE SPIRIT EXPANDING EXPERIENCE
As the world plunges deeper into the darkness of illusion based on the material vision of life, this limited mentality is creating wars, poverty, exploitation of the earths natural resources, and damaging the essence of all life; the spirit. It could never be more pertinent than now, to awaken to the higher levels of awareness through initiating your own experience with the nature of spirit, and having your own direct experience. But how can we make this sacred and ancient connection during these modern technological times? What does it mean to have a mystical journey?
Many ancient cultures had an understanding of the immortal soul; the Egyptians, the Mayans, and the Hopi, from Tibet and India to South America, from the North Americas to the Far East. The idea is consistently reaffirmed that the conscious life force within does not extinguish upon the death of the physical vehicle, but rather that it transforms back into the universal energy and superconsciousness it came from. How have so many cultures shared in this understanding? How could they know this without a direct experience of consciousness crossing beyond the boundaries of the material body?
This understanding may be the result of the direct experiences our ancestors had, while traversing the permeable boundaries between life and death. This however is experienced and expressed in many various vernaculars. As people have these divine encounters with the spiritual aspects of consciousness, and near death experiences; they all come back saying the same thing--that life is not in fact over once we leave the physical vessel.
What is being experienced which leaves such a profound resonance as to inspire radical life shifts, complete revolution, even leaving a spiritual comprehension vastly matured? These sacred initiates come back completely changed, often with a new focus and a new mission, this has even become the foundation for some religions, spiritualities, and ideologies throughout history.
These direct experiences have been accessed through various methods, and this is the foundation of the dis-aggregation between various religions, spiritualities, and traditions. The Baptist religion for instance, draws on experiences of baptism as a sacred defining ritual, one which permits the souls salvation. Baptism in its original context consisted of bringing someone to a near death experience through near drowning. When performed correctly, this was a hugely trans-formative, however a perhaps archaic method for reaching this state of connection to the transcendent aspects of consciousness. There are similarly many other methods of achieving this same direct encounter with the divine experience expressed through this religion.
THE INNER PSYCHEDELIC
Meditation is a spiritual practice which allows for an individual to transcend the patterns of thought which often block our direct connection to the spiritual levels of awareness. For many people, meditation allows them to identify self defeating behavior and thought patterns, release attachments, and connect to the higher aspects of the divine and spiritual identity beyond the transient outer world. For some people who have become adept practitioners, meditation has given them access to levels of awareness comparable to what people describe when taking visionary plants such as Iboga or Ayahuasca, or the experiences described in various religions in connecting with the divine eternal. Deep levels of awareness, peace, bliss, and connection may be achieved as one goes more deeply within.
Tibetan Dream Yoga is perhaps the oldest version of lucid dreaming, created thousands of years ago by Buddhist monks. There are many spiritual goals aimed at through this method, however the main goal is to dissolve the illusion of the dream. Lucid dreaming may be achieved through many methods, whatever works for the individual. To awaken the dreamer and allow them to manifest higher levels of awareness using the dream as a kind of interactive training ground for the consciousness. Understanding the poetic metaphor we are faced with in comprehending what dreaming really is, is a mystical puzzle, as we may recognize how little the physical life differs from the supposed dream realm. These accessible layers of awareness, and the spiritual experiences described, correlate with those depicted in various religions and altered states of consciousness.
Dancing or even spinning has allowed people to enter lucid waking states of consciousness as well. In the Mevlevi order of Sufism, which was founded by the followers of a 13th century Persian poet named Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi (better known as Rumi), whirling is a spiritual exercise. In this particular sect, whirling dervishes spin in a dance which represents a mystical journey and spiritual ascent towards the truth, growing through love, deserting the ego and arriving at what is known to them as the “Perfect”.
An estimated 8 million people a year experience near death experiences (NDE) or out of body experiences (OBE). In both of these phenomenon, whether unintentionally activated, or purposefully, the experience is the same in that participants express an awareness of the life force/ spirit/ or consciousness from beyond or outside the physical body.
Much of what happens as we achieve altered states of consciousness involves the state of our brain waves; Beta, Alpha, Delta and Theta respectively. Each brain wave frequency is correlated to various states of consciousness; an awakened and alert state, a relaxed state, deep sleep, and dreaming or subconscious states. For instance through deep mediation one may achieve a deeper Delta or even Theta wave state. What this means is that consciousness is influenced by both external and internal factors.
More on brainwaves and consciousness;
http://www.hirnwellen-und-bewusstsein.de/brainwaves_1.html
THE COSMIC JOURNEY
We are each on a cosmic journey, however you define that to yourself, whether using the pattern and path form of a specific religion or spirituality, or developing your own path intuitively as more and more people are doing.
Every country and continent on earth has some form of visionary plant, also allowing for transformative consciousness expanding experiences. DMT is simple molecule present in nature and in fact in every human brain, it has often been referred to as the “spirit molecule”. This simple molecule has shown to have profound and life revolutionizing effects on consciousness. Dr. Rick Strassman has made some sensational discoveries in his work with DMT. He performed one of the first psychoactive research studies in decades; he studied multiple participants and the effects of DMT on both their physiology and psychology. The participants were measured for heart rate, respiration, and body temperature, along with being carefully monitored in a hospital setting. They recorded their experiences in journals and each expressed accessing other layers of reality through consciousness, it was essentially an out of body experience projecting them fully conscious, into higher realms of existence and oftentimes out directly into the multidimensional cosmos of the universe.
All organisms have the two enzymes which would synthesize DMT. This molecule is activated at the time of death which may explain some of the experiences perceived during NDE’s. However it is important to interject that as science comes to terms with the model of a consciousness based universe, rather than a material one, it may recognize, perception then becomes less of a variable and much more convoluted in determining what reality is real in the first place. What makes an experience valid is our perception of it, and perhaps that perception through our consciousness of it, is in fact eternal.
The DMT molecule is two steps away from the amino acid tryptophan which is also found in every living organism. DMT is also a messenger molecule in plants, used to mediate their relationship to other plants in their environment. It is universally present in nature and there may be reason we have coevolved with these plants after so many millenia. DMT seems to be a kind of common resonant molecular language capable of expanding awareness. This hormone arguably described by Jewish sage mystics in coded languages, is a kind of gateway hormone, facilitating the transition between the worlds of life and death, between body and soul. An endogenous compound which proves there is consciousness beyond the confining limitations of a transient body. It makes sense that something so essential to the nature of reality and so fundamental in accessing spirit, would be imbued in nature and within ourselves, to be accessed, and to expand our awareness of that reality.
During the 1960's coinciding with the introduction of popular drugs like LSD and "shrooms", there was an influx of access to higher states of awareness, peace and love, and a consciousness of oneness. However, this movement was not directed in its focus, and ultimately resulted in a convoluted perception in many cases. These initiates took part in a sacred and spiritual journey which was thousands of years old, but they did not have a direct connection to the lineage of those spiritual aspects, or shamans and elders to guide them. This is why it is so important to respect and appreciate the powerful influence these types of experiences may have, and that should not be taken lightly.
The discovery of LSD in fact coincided with an important discovery which has helped develop aspects of modern psychology, as the introduction of LSD also helped lead to the discovery of the neurotransmitter seratonin. As scientists had never considered that neurochemicals might affect behavior, this changed everything. We have receptors in our brain for many psychoactive components which suggest they are a part of our genetic lineage. This may mean that our ancient ancestors were making use of plants containing psilocybins; mushrooms, ayahuasca, peyote, iboga etc., and having spiritual experiences many thousands of years ago, even up until the most recent centuries, and in some shamanic communities they are still largely present in sacred rituals today. It is perhaps a valid consideration that these experiences are what ultimately lead early human consciousness into the awareness, or perception of, a God/ divine based reality, the appreciation of our spiritual nature, perhaps even leading to the abstract artistic and musical expressions which emerged some 17,000 years ago.
For more on the spirit molecule, see this incredible documentary;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-9AHa9YXmM
There are many entheogenic (spiritually enhancing) plants present across the earth. Ayahuasca is a sacred plant which grows in the Peruvian and Amazonian jungles of South America. DMT is present in Ayahuasca and has been used for centuries as a part of certain sacred cleaning and healing rituals. DMT is not orally active due to an enzyme in our stomach which prevents absorption. However, the shamans of South America have found that when this medicinal bark is combined with another plant which acts as an enzyme inhibitor, this allows DMT to be ingested and activated by “switching off” the enzyme. This plant has allowed countless people to transform their lives, overcome alcoholism, depression, and various other seemingly incurable diseases. Ayahuasca also has a concurrent theme of rooting its initiates deeply back into the bond with mother earth, and the appreciation that this earth is a living entity who requires our cooperation in responsibly restoring the balance required to coexist. This is an essential message at a time where our beautiful sacred earth is wounded and hurting. Just like the spiritual nature of connecting with a higher divine presence (in whatever way we define that), it is equally important for us to make the same kind of connection back to the spirit of the earth with whom we are so closely tied.
There are many other natural sources like ayahuasca; the peyote cactus used in many sacred rituals, psilocybins which are the active alkaloid found in over 200 species of wild mushrooms across the planet. These naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloids have allowed millions of people worldwide and throughout history to have direct spiritual experiences. Psilocybins have also shown remarkably promising results treating many psychological diseases (like their counterparts found in DMT). And many decades after the failed and counterproductive “war on drugs”, it has been found through scientific studies that psilocybins in fact assist in the generation of brain cell tissue, rather than kill brain cells as we were taught. Due to the entheogenic properties of these alkaloids and their encouraging psychoactive healing affects, research has been reintroduced since the 1990’s, allowing for the development of psilocybins as a treatment for the more palpable aspects of terminal cancer, such as coming to terms with death, as well as having uses in treating a variety of psychological disorders. This has shown very positive results due to the awareness it allows of the spiritual continuance beyond the physical death, and the more complete healing balance these spiritual and mental experiences allow.
http://www.timewheel.net/Tome-Neuroscientists-Find-God-In-Psychedelic-Mushrooms
http://wakeup-world.com/2014/07/21/medicinal-mushrooms-ancient-knowledge-modern-healing/
There is no one path to reach this transcendent state. It is not a plant, or a specific method which gives you the experience. These methods simply provide a route for you to access these higher channels from within yourself. The experience is what is relevant; when we are able to access the super collective universal consciousness of All that Is, all Energy, all Light, the transcendent eternal moment. We may take many paths up the same mountain of truth.
These types of experiences have both interacted with and accelerated our conscious evolution. Whether found through a religious or spiritual pathway, whether a near death experience or being blasted beyond all space and time to be (as Terrence McKenna’s brother, Dennis McKenna put it) "smeared across the cosmos"; all initiates seem to return with a similar message which appears to be at the very bedrock of consciousness and the essence of spirit itself; our connection to each other, the vastness of infinity, the immortal soul, and consciousness beyond the death of the physical vessel, the beckoning to better ourselves through how we live our lives, to learn and share, to love, and to grow. The ineffable experience that is the raw and unfiltered coalescence into all; which is why it has been described in so many different ways.
In the most cutting edge fields of science, such as quantum physics, modern day scientists are finding what the ancient visionaries knew all along; matter is a result of consciousness. What then is an epiphany, a transcendent present moment of true awareness? It is the moment in which all the universe is created in a consciousness based universe. This consciousness is the essence behind life as we know it. Our consciousness acts as a gateway to connect us to the higher levels of understanding, and the divine experience. As our consciousness expands, we too expand our access to the infinite surrounding us. So as we appreciate that the universe and we ourselves are each in essence ubiquitous, and made of the same material, the same energy, and likewise the same consciousness, we might now recognize how connected we are to the divine universal. We are always connected, and it is through peeling back the layers of illusion of the perception of separation that we begin to experience the Truth. We are part of One Whole Experience in an Eternal Holy Transcendent Moment.
Namaste~
Author, Lisa Falcon G
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