"Enlightenment"? 1950s housewife on LSD

Tech Step Doll, 9/27/12; Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Investigator Cohen administers extremely powerful psychotropic drug to an ordinary woman who is in the dark about its potential affects on and the possibility for permanent harm. This is rare footage of that white 1950s housewife tripping on LSD (full version). Music in this video... More

What must the direct experience be like?

One could believe within Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism that "enlightenment" (nonduality or advaita, satori, kensho, nirvikalpa-samadhi), means any trippy or awe-inspiring experience, the temporary loss of the sense of self, "oneness" with all, a profound epiphany, or any insightful understanding of something.

This is not enlightenment in the Buddha's Teaching. Bodhi (lit., "awakening") specifically refers to paths-and-fruits (magga-phala) related not to oneness (like the punchline "make me ONE with everything"), nonduality (advaita, nonseparation), mind numbing bliss (piti), empathy, communion, seeing GOD (Brahman, the "ultimate reality"), or having a near-death experience, or any kind of mind-expanding drug trip.

If it were that tangible, accessible, direct, and easy, the Buddha would have pointed the way to what's real as being through the consumption of soma (popular with the Scythians/Shakyians of Central Asia) or amrita ("ambrosia") popular in Vedic proto-India (Bharat, Mahabharat).

And if it worked, we would have tens of thousands of enlightened beings walking around after the Sixties. And they'd be easy to spot in psychedelic clothing, old blue jeans, linen shirts, and tie-dyed tees, paisley pajamas, fringe jackets, and bright colorful apparel.

The evidence that these entheogenic experiences or hallucinations or the flooding of the brain with DMT, alkaloids like mescaline or synthetic MDMA, is not enlightenment as the Buddha meant is the outcome:

• No glimpse or touching of nirvana
• No realization of what is path and nonpath
• No penetration of Dependent Origination
• No understanding of the Four Noble Truths
• No cutting off of or attenuation of defilements
• No comprehension of Dharma
• No recognition of the Three Marks of Existence
• No limiting of suffering (to seven or fewer lives)
• No uprooting of the things that lead to rebirth
• No cutting off of craving
• No understanding in line with the noble ones.