Posted inMystics Psychedelics

The “God Molecule,” 5-MeO-DMT, points to divinity residing in the physical brain

My wife is an avid reader of Apple News. Today she sent me a link to a story in New York Magazine that she correctly realized I'd be interested in, "Who will own the 'God Molecule'?" Subtitle: Psychedelic devotees are racing biotech entrepreneurs to turn 5-MeO-DMT into a pharmaceutical.  It isn't possible for me to share the entire lengthy story, so I'll just talk about some things that struck me in the piece, along with some excerpts.  I experimented with psychedelics (LSD and mescaline, primarily) while in college during the 1960s. They were a big part of the flower power…
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Posted inPsychedelics Spiritual practice/meditation

Lessons for meditation based on psychedelic experience research

As a long-time daily meditator -- I've been doing this for 55 years -- I found an article in the October 2024 issue of Scientific American interesting both for what it says about the use of psychedelics like LSD, ketamine, and psilocybin, and meditation that doesn't involve any psychoactive substance.  The title of the online version of the article by Gary Stix is provocative: "What Makes a Psychedelic Experience? Not Always a Drug, it Turns Out." I'll share a PDF file of the article for non-subscribers.Download What Makes a Psychedelic Experience? Not Always a Drug It Turns Out | Scientific…
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Posted inPsychedelics Reality Religions

Why we’ll never agree about what is real, and what isn’t

Ooh. That's an ambitious title for a blog post. But since it came to mind, and it fits with some thoughts that have been rambling through my mind today, might as well stick with it -- even if what I write here doesn't really fulfill the ambitious promise of the title. I'll start with a brief letter to the editor in the April 10 issue of New Scientist magazine.  From Wolf KirchmeirBlind River, Ontario, CanadaIf we accept that our experience of reality is a simulation created by our brains, then the "self" must be part of the simulation. To ask…
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Posted inPsychedelics

Three takeaways from my not-so-trippy experience at Salem’s Psilocybin Center

This afternoon I had my first psilocybin (magic mushroom) experience in about 56 years. So, yeah, a long time, since my college days. I'm 75 now, not 19, a big difference.  Which helps explain why today's psilocybin experience was much less trippy than the psychedelics I used back when my hippie friends and I ingested LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin during some of the time I spent at San Jose State College in the Bay Area -- 1966-71. As I said in a post last month on my HinesSight blog, "The Psilocybin Center is open in Salem for psychedelic experiences," I'm…
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Posted inPsychedelics Reality Spiritual practice/meditation

Letting go is key in both meditation and psychedelics. Here’s why.

I decided to buy a book about magic mushrooms in anticipation of my mild/moderate 1 gram (totally legal) psilocybin experience this coming Thursday. It was a good choice, as I've enjoyed reading Michelle Janikian's Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion: An Informative Easy-to-Use Guide to Understanding Magic Mushrooms. Well-written, practical, nicely researched. Today I got to a chapter where Janikian talks about the relation between meditating and tripping on magic mushrooms. Since I've meditated every day for about 55 years, and used psychedelics (LSD, mescaline, psilocybin) quite a bit in college, I was struck by how "letting go" is a central aspect…
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Posted inPsychedelics

Here’s manjit’s informative, passionate comment in praise of psychedelics

Yesterday manjit left a marvelous comment on my post, "Psilocybin could be in my future, thanks to Oregon's legalization." It deserved more attention than most comments get, so I've copied it in below. There's a lot to appreciate in the comment. For now I'll simply note that manjit correctly draws connections between mystical experiences arising from meditation (often or usually) and psychedelic experiences arising from ingestion of a substance such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT, or mescaline. This is not at all a crackpot idea. The June 2024 issue of Scientific American has an article called "Beyond the Veil: What near-death…
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Posted inPsychedelics

The fallacy of believing psychedelics aren’t “natural”

Just as I hoped, my previous blog post, "Psilocybin could be in my future, thanks to Oregon's legalization," elicited some thought-provoking comments.  (Note: by legalization I meant that psilocybin is available through licensed service centers, where it has to be consumed. So it isn't legal in the same sense that marijuana is legal in Oregon, capable of being bought in licensed stores and then taken home to be used however you want.) One commenter's point is easily dismissed. They said that because I was initiated by a Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) guru in 1971, 53 years ago, I should…
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Posted inPsychedelics

Psilocybin could be in my future, thanks to Oregon’s legalization

Psychedelics were a big part of my college life for a few years, 1968-69. I took quite a few trips via the travel agents of LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin (magic mushrooms). So naturally in 2020 I voted to make psilocybin legal here in Oregon, under the auspices of licensed growers and providers of supervised psilocybin experiences. As I wrote about on my HinesSight blog a few days ago, "The Psilocybin Center is open in Salem for psychedelic transformation." It's taken several years to get psilocybin centers up and running because rules and regulations had to be developed after the 2020…
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