Do you need psychedelics to wake up? 

I've taken my fair share of psychedelics and had some amazing experiences. But all they really showed me is that mind/consciousness has more nuance and depth than I was aware of before. For me, enlightenment occurred when all that dropped away and all I was left with was the "realization" that this is it. There is no better version of myself to achieve, no cosmic perspective to become aware of or some story or myth I need to buy into. Just this. This moment. This feeling. This personality. This experience. It is it. Nothing to do. Words fail completely. It sounds insane. Just the awareness of this personality experiencing this life at this time and that it is all just part of the unfolding of the cosmos through me and around me. But there really isn't a me other than a story. Ugh! Language! I think you get it.

I sat for10 years in our forest. 3 plus hours a day 7 days a week. I sat on the ground completely sober. Then after 10 years I wanted to see if psychedelics would be the same or different from simple soto zen sitting.. My son in law gave me some LSD, and while the colors were different, (almost cartoon like) , I didn't care for the speed effect, but not even close to sitting in the forest. Then I tried 5 grams of mushrooms, and that was closer to some of what I experienced in meditation, but still lacking compared to my sitting practice. So that was the end of my psychedelic experience. Of course, while the sitting was much more profound, it did take 10 years of constant sitting which most folks today might not have time or patience for. So if drugs work for folks, go for it. just my personal experience as an old fart.

I found it through playing the cello 😅! I was practicing and thinking about technique but realized: it’s not about certain parts of the body -but about BALANCE. Between Arm,shoulder, back,string, bow, finger head, earth, sun …. And than understanding kicked in that it is ALL about balance 😆. And it’s so interesting that quantum „mechanics“ seem to tell the same story I was FEELING. That potentiality shows the blooming of events through balances

I ate mushrooms last winter to help me get over the cognitive impairment of my first COVID infection. It really helped. Why did It really help? Hard to say, but one thing I know for sure, is that it helped me not think about COVID for a solid 2 hours. For 2 hours I listen to the same two songs on repeat and visualized every lyric. I had not had a moment in the present in a long time. It's like shortcut meditation.

Hey Z. I stopped by to say hi. I’m glad you’re well. 💙

I've been watching a lot of testimonies from people that have experienced a Near Death Experience (NDE) and I'm thinking that enlightenment in the physical form shouldn't be a primary focus. It seems to me that the true enlightenment comes after this physical experience. Find out what your passion is and go for it and try and experience as much as possible in this physical world. BTW, if you want to watch a wild NDE, look up Dr Mary Neal's NDE story.

Psychedelics are sacred and should be treated with reverence and taken in a ceremonial setting with a knowledgeable person of integrity holding the space energetically, imo. What is seen is symbolic and energetic archetypes-only pointers to ineffable living truth. Great lessons in surrender can be learned as well.

Ram Dass gave his guru in India a large dose of LSD in 1967. His guru didn't seem to be affected by it either way. This is what his guru said: "To take them with no effect, your mind must be firmly fixed on God. Others would be afraid to take. Many saints would not take this.” And he left it at that. When I asked him if I should take LSD again, he said, “It should not be taken in a hot climate. If you are in a place that is cool and peaceful, and you are alone and your mind is turned toward God, then you may take the yogi medicine.” As a hippie child from the '70s I have toyed with psychedelics. It did open my mind back then, but you must still do your spiritual journey and it may take many turns along the way.

Some people set alarm clocks.

i think psychedelics will be a necessary step in the current evolution of medicine...which has become exhausting and meaningless. Our foray into psychedelics (again) is an attempt to re-connect with the sacred, intuitive, and loving dimensions of healing

Awakening is like realizing you are dreaming. You were always dreaming. Nothing you experienced was not the dream. And even the realization that you're dreaming is part of the dream. And yet you know that it is a dream and that changes everything while changing absolutely nothing.

Right on Doc

I'm not sure what awakening or enlightenment truly is but I know I've had to me, what I call, doors opening in my mind. I think of this as realizing a fact and being able to accept that thought. I had this when I was raving and doing acid when I was 19. The door that opened for me was thinking that I will succeed but I will work hard. It was something that happened after my trip and early in the morning but I felt like I got a path set in my life even though I didn't feel like I succeeded until 20 years later. Actually, from that point on I did work really hard at work, just not at school. It wasn't until I felt like my career had capped out, that I had another realization that pushed me to jump careers. That was to me another door that open without drugs.

References you may/not be aware of: Robin Carhart-Harris’ work with depressed people. Aldous Huxley’s “reducing valve” idea. There’s more, not all of it conclusive,but a clearer picture is emerging. (Ventilators! Mount up.)

I think maybe we all need them.

Maybe , but its not that simple , for instance whos idea was it to wake up ? Was it yours ? The curiosity needs to be in you already , psychedelics dont actually ' give ' you anything , they merely offer up a powerful mirror of your soul / psychology / current personal state / current environment for you to make that deep special connection with the self, the experience will involve a spiritual insight but only if sought genuinely , this is what ultimately gives the momentum towatds lesson learning within psychedelic experience. Then you have to consider safety , of yourself and others , and beyond that ' the set and setting ' has to be considered vital , beyond that , its up to you but infinite understandings can be recieved through the magical nature of that deep connection with everything in the universe where everything makes sense , around within and without , might sound wooooo but its true . The trick is you have to stop indulging in the trip momentarily at times to punctuate into memory what you have learned , otherwise you will have trouble digging it out later .

Sure, if I want to induce schizophrenia

Watching multi-colored cobwebs form and dissolve to an Enya soundtrack had nothing to do with my waking up. Mostly slept through my second try. And my initial awakening looked like nothing I expected. So subtle and quiet.

Wake and bake

Trauma, woke me up.

How about ketamine treatment

So, is Z-Dogg saying he’s on psychedelic drugs and he’s digging it, and you can, and maybe should, get on psychedelic drugs and be digging it too, but just be careful kids? So we’ve gone from “why would a CHF patient eat Kentucky Fried Chicken” to “eat all the KFC you want as long as your psychedelic guide tells you to?”

I recommend changing the title, I almost didn’t click on the video because I thought it was about literally waking up from bed. Loved the video in the end! Super insightful

Hey Zubin, let me tell you: Propofol did more for "me" than any psychedelics ever did! Two surgeries and a half a year later, what began as a newfound deep sense of relaxation (after facing a visceral fear of death) turned to full-blown, hyperspace kensho. 🎉🎉🎉😂😂😂 For this character at least. "You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep!" 😅