Great article, I was an Acid house DJ in the UK and gradually fell in to a normal grown up life, after a few unforeseen dramas and my 50th birthday approaching I thought, like you, it might be time for a reset. I went to a underground Ayahuasca retreat in the UK and it was everything you could imagine it to be, scary but probably the most insightful thing I have done. I witnessed a couple of very damaged people completely change for the better over the course of three days, it was remarkable to see that in real time. Apologies for the waffle but I always feel the need to preach slightly. The "The Immortality Key" is also great on Audible and read by the author I think . Kind regards
The ego death, a change of perspective, dying to yourself, so to speak, without actually dying is the core of the Gospel and has those effect through the experience of revelation and the subsequent life lived by those who believe it in a measurable way.
Read this carefully:
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Ephesians 4:17-24 KJV
Respectfully, a trip does not result in an ego death, or putting off your old man and putting on the new, because it is the path of least resistance. Ego death is not contained in an experience to be had, over which you have little or no control, but in a disciplined life to be lived, wearing not the old man, or ego, but but the new man in the the likeness of Christ. I think you’re familiar with J.B Peterson’s work, so i’m sure the conceptualization of Christ as an ideal won’t be lost on you.
That, in politics, ended slavary, improved working conditions, produced equality before the law and institutions to maintain them all within the understanding that all men bear the divine image, where a ‘trip’ or the pseudo-religious meditative practices of Harris could not have possibly done so.
It’s also a well documented fact that church goers report much lower levels of depression and anxiety, recover from both much more quickly, commit suicide at much lower rates and report much greater levels of overall happiness or otherwise greater perseverance in suffering. That’s not nothing.
Sometimes when fishing for answers and coming up short, one must cast their net to the other side.
Why do you think people seek out and rhapsodize about psychedelic experiences when they are chemically augmented (LSD, psilocybin, and other psychedelics) but stigmatize and shun people who experience hallucinations and altered states as a result of their natural genetics?
Just curious. A friend who is schizophrenic created an artwork entitled "Ego Death" some time ago. It made me think of your piece.
Great article, I was an Acid house DJ in the UK and gradually fell in to a normal grown up life, after a few unforeseen dramas and my 50th birthday approaching I thought, like you, it might be time for a reset. I went to a underground Ayahuasca retreat in the UK and it was everything you could imagine it to be, scary but probably the most insightful thing I have done. I witnessed a couple of very damaged people completely change for the better over the course of three days, it was remarkable to see that in real time. Apologies for the waffle but I always feel the need to preach slightly. The "The Immortality Key" is also great on Audible and read by the author I think . Kind regards
At risk of preaching, let me put this to you.
The ego death, a change of perspective, dying to yourself, so to speak, without actually dying is the core of the Gospel and has those effect through the experience of revelation and the subsequent life lived by those who believe it in a measurable way.
Read this carefully:
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Ephesians 4:17-24 KJV
Respectfully, a trip does not result in an ego death, or putting off your old man and putting on the new, because it is the path of least resistance. Ego death is not contained in an experience to be had, over which you have little or no control, but in a disciplined life to be lived, wearing not the old man, or ego, but but the new man in the the likeness of Christ. I think you’re familiar with J.B Peterson’s work, so i’m sure the conceptualization of Christ as an ideal won’t be lost on you.
That, in politics, ended slavary, improved working conditions, produced equality before the law and institutions to maintain them all within the understanding that all men bear the divine image, where a ‘trip’ or the pseudo-religious meditative practices of Harris could not have possibly done so.
It’s also a well documented fact that church goers report much lower levels of depression and anxiety, recover from both much more quickly, commit suicide at much lower rates and report much greater levels of overall happiness or otherwise greater perseverance in suffering. That’s not nothing.
Sometimes when fishing for answers and coming up short, one must cast their net to the other side.
I hope this comment wasn’t an overstep.
Why do you think people seek out and rhapsodize about psychedelic experiences when they are chemically augmented (LSD, psilocybin, and other psychedelics) but stigmatize and shun people who experience hallucinations and altered states as a result of their natural genetics?
Just curious. A friend who is schizophrenic created an artwork entitled "Ego Death" some time ago. It made me think of your piece.