And here I am, back in the north, fresh from an interesting break in the Nederlands capital.
I am certainly no aficionado of ‘mind altering’ plants and the like, but when in ‘Rome’….
The onset seems to propel one along the well trodden foothills of the meditative mind; the boundary zone between one state and another. This is the realm of the rising surge. Periodic yet insistent waves of increasing intensity, moving upwards. They almost feel like a means of ‘travel’. Focussing on one, catching hold and going with it.
There is also an opening up of ‘the space’. The light is different. The visual scene appears more defined and real and yet at the same time there is also an air of unreality about it. This ‘lightness’ corresponds to a pressure inside the forehead. It is held there somehow by the intention of the breath. The ‘out-breath’ appears to provide the pressure. The feeling is analogous to the sensation you get when crossing your eyes. Further to that there is also something of the flavour of those ‘hidden eye’ pictures where the eyes are crossed to reveal a startlingly detailed 3D scene.
I mused on our usual, everyday predicament; It feels that ordinarily we are caught in the current of a stream, entirely submerged; We are in our world of ‘one thing follows from another thing’. Occasionally though we somehow spontaneously bob to the surface, into a moment of lucidity, which Ouspensky termed ‘self-remembering’. It is only during these moments that we remember the other times we have been thrust similarly out of the water.
After imbibing a certain substance this spontaneous surfacing became much more marked; The descent back into the stream also became more defined and felt quite akin to our nightly sinking into the world of dream. It seemed as though in this new induced state, we didnt quite belong in the old submerged world.
Time appeared very mutable; Passages of time when ‘submerged’ seemed interminably, creakingly and laughingly long and then when surfacing there seemed to be something closer to a timeless air.
Throughout the process the feeling of connectedness was very strong. It is perfectly understandable how the separated ego is liable to respond to this with paranoia and conspiracy theory; These are entirely true facts for it. All really is conspiracy and collusion. Reality is one. A hyper connected continuum where only the ego finds itself uninvited to the party. It resides in a state of privation.
It felt as though this substance speeds up some unknown observing part of ourselves. The transition period between different states appeared longer, easier to catch and prolong. Such as going to sleep and lingering in the hypnagogic state. You can feel the stream as it tries to take you and with this chemical stabiliser there is time to realise this and pull back from the brink. A sensation like perfectly balancing the accelerator and clutch.
I can see how creativity can be enhanced by such means. This experience is all about connections, correspondence and meaning; Creativity is about bringing this back, beneath the surface, where we ordinarily live and somehow trying to symbolically represent it with the limited tools we have available here.
All an intriguing business. Not to mention its clairaudient effect; Quite understandable though, when boundaries start to dissolve and previously unknown connections come into view.
