Science: psychedelics heal mind and body

Eric Ralls (Earth via MSN, 3/8/24; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

• What's Toad talk without Family Guy's explanation?

But what if my "ego" temporarily dies? Ego-death, it sounds too risky. How would I carry on?

Psychedelic compounds secreted by toad skin greatly improve cognitive functioning (Earth)

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What would Shiva, the Destroyer, do?

A combination of two psychedelic compounds (entheogenic substances) demonstrated significant efficacy in treating a range of symptoms, including depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairments, in U.S. special operations forces veterans [presumably suffering from severe PTSD due to all of their immoral deception and covert militant activity involving killing and subterfuge].

This novel approach [taking drugs to treat the head and heart] might offer a beacon of hope for many veterans who do not find relief in traditional therapies.

The government tricked me into becoming a killer

Which psychedelic compound was used? The treatment regimen combined two psychedelic drugs.

The first, [Iboga] ibogaine hydrochloride, is sourced from the West African shrub called iboga. The second, [Bufo] 5-MeO-DMT, is a substance secreted from the [Mexican] Colorado River toad.

Both these substances are categorized as Schedule I drugs under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, a classification reserved for drugs with no current accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse [which is a disgusting abuse of the law as no one abuses these entheogens for mere recreational use because they have the tendency to cure addiction as well as giving life-changing trips].

This research, spearheaded by The Ohio State University (osu.edu), discovered not only alleviation in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [Aha!] but also a noteworthy improvement in cognitive functions related to traumatic brain injury. [Entheogens heal both matters of the heart and body? PTSD is a mental disorder, whereas TBI is physical damage to an organism's brain or cranial contents, such as feeder veins and capillaries.]

The latter finding was especially unexpected and sheds new light on the vast potential of psychedelic treatments.

• The science of psilocybin (magic mushroom entheogen) and its effects on the brain

Unique challenges in treating veterans

I was raped by my C.O. He called it 'friendly fire'

Alan Davis, the lead author and the director of the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education (CPDRE) at Ohio State's College of Social Work, emphasized the unique challenges faced by special operations forces veterans.

"Their routine exposure to traumatic events often results in a mix of problems including traumatic brain injury, which predisposes them to a plethora of mental health challenges," said Davis.

He noted the most "striking results" were the observed improvements in cognitive functioning linked to brain injuries.

• VIDEO: Psychedelic mushrooms have potential to help Americans overcome numerous ailments: Ashley Troxell (FOX News)

How the study was conducted

Most of the veterans in this study involving psychedelic drugs had been on active duty post the 9/11 tragedy. They sought care for a gamut of issues ranging from memory problems, depression, PTSD to sleep disturbances, fatigue, and anger.

An astounding 86% of these veterans had experienced head injuries, attributing many of their symptoms to these past traumas.

To measure the efficacy [effectiveness] of the treatment, 86 veterans were asked to complete pre-treatment questionnaires that gauged various mental health symptoms.

The treatment protocol involved administering a single oral dose of ibogaine hydrochloride and inhalation doses of 5-MeO-DMT on separate days.

These drug administrations were flanked by preparation and reflection sessions [in consideration of set and setting, which are essential to successful psychedelic experiences].

Therapy results from psychedelic drugs

The results were indeed promising. A month after the treatment, the veterans reported significant improvements in symptoms of PTSD, depression, anger, and insomnia.

Moreover, there was a substantial uptick in their life satisfaction. These benefits remained consistent even at the three- and six-month post-treatment check-ins.

Furthermore, the veterans experienced improvements in disability, post-concussive symptoms, and showcased tremendous growth in psychological flexibility and cognitive function.

The latter, improved cognitive function, piqued Davis's interest. He believes further investigation is needed to discern whether this improvement stems from a reduction in mental health symptoms, biological alterations in the brain's signaling, or a combination of both.

Insightful and mystical experiences reported

Man, it was great. The whole world was peace

Moreover, Davis highlighted the association of psychological flexibility with insightful and mystical experiences induced by psychedelics [which should now be called entheogens, as they are not recreational drugs like LSD but rather shamanic substances inducing life-altering spiritual experiences].

"The higher one's psychological flexibility, the more probable is the reduction or mitigation of one's mental health symptoms," he explained.

Post-treatment feedback also revealed intriguing insights into the veterans' personal experiences. Almost half described their psychedelic experience as the most spiritually significant or psychologically insightful of their lives.

However, a smaller fraction (17.1%) also found it to be the most challenging experience they ever encountered. [Beware the potential for freaking out, panicking, or having a nightmare tour of the dark recesses of the mind and memory banks from this and/or past lives and other dimensions. Set and setting and a good guide are vital elements to include in any treatment.]

To ensure the integrity of their findings, Davis and his team adopted a conservative data analysis approach, accounting for the possibility that non-respondents might not have derived the desired benefits from the treatment.

The positive outcomes of this research emphasize the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies, particularly for veterans with intricate trauma histories.

This underscores the need to further explore psychedelic therapies in U.S. clinical trials. Notably, Ohio State is already diving deeper into the realm by studying psilocybin-assisted therapy for PTSD treatment among military veterans.

For those keen on delving into the intricate details of this study, it's published in the esteemed American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

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Psychedelics cure drug addiction: Dosed (film)

DosedMovie.com; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Xochitl (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Directed by Tyler Chandler. Director of Photography: Nicholas Meyers. Produced by: Tyler Chandler, Nicholas Meyers. Trailer music by soundcloud.com/nilshoffmannberlin.

DOSED: official teaser, trailer HD

(Dosed Movie) Rent or own the full documentary at DOSEDMOVIE.com, where 10% of each purchase goes towards coronavirus disaster relief (matched dollar for dollar by Facebook) until April 2, 2020. Social media @DOSEDMOVIE on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. 💙

🍄 SYNOPSIS: After many years of prescription medications (toxic allopathic pharmaceuticals) failing, an addicted and suicidal woman turns to underground healers to overcome depression, anxiety, and pharmaceutical opioid addiction with illegal entheogenic-psychedelic medicine, like magic mushrooms and the African root iboga. Adrianne’s first dose of psilocybin mushrooms catapults her into an unexpected world of healing, where plant medicines are redefining the understanding of mental health and addiction.

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Entheogen cures opioid addiction (video)

Ibogaine movie; GlobalPost, PRI.org; Seth Auberon, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly

Shamans cure to heal illnesses. Pharmaceutical companies "treat" illnesses to make money.

Opioid addicts are turning to a clinic in Mexico to break their addiction because the cure is illegal in the US

My drinking and smoking soothe my pain.

Iboga (which contains the entheogenic alkaloid ibogaine) is a powerful "hallucinogenic" drug that has been shown to have surprising success in treating addiction.

It is not a drug that produces imaginary hallucinations. It is an entheogen herb that reveals the mind-making divine within.

But because it works by actually curing people -- which is not good for the pharmaceutical industry, alcohol sales, or government-aided street drug dealing -- it comes with risks that, so far, have made its use illegal in the US. More

Iboga cure in Thailand

Alex Golovalev (email: contact@yourselftherapy.com)

Want to be free from depression or cocaine, heroin, marijuana addiction?

Iboga therapy and treatment is available in Buddhist Thailand. Contact to order a complete treatment dose, rapid detox, and guide book: yourselftherapy.com

The documentary above is about the most promising treatment modality available for drug dependence. It is the only substance we know of that is capable of blocking acute withdrawal in opioid addicts as well as  abusers of cocaine and alcohol.

Although the FDA decided in 1993 that ibogaine showed enough promise of effectively treating addiction, there is no money in it: This naturally-occurring plant molecule cannot be patented as a synthetic drug.

Therefore, there is no profit to make it worthwhile by our drug system that hates herbs that no one can own and loves patented synthetics. So it is no use for as a very profitable "maintenance drug" with addictive properties like trading heroin addiction for methadone addiction. The pharmaceutical industry wants profit by selling ongoing "treatments." A "cure" is the end of profits!

Therefore, drug companies will not invest in its development. Educate yourself about this tool. Many lives will be saved from chemical dependencies. But a movement is only as strong as the people who support it: ibogainefilm.com. Take action now! Ibogaine treatment is available in Thailand.

Aware Project: rethinking psychedelics

Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ash Be (Meetup), AwareProject.org

Is that safe? Studies show you need a professional psychologist or researcher present.

 

I was meditating when I realized...

The aim of The Aware Project is to balance the public conversation about psychedelics, spread accurate information, and give a new face to psychedelia.

This change in impression will occur through connection and relationship, one individual at a time. The project is calling on everyone whose lives have been improved through the mindful use of psychedelics to educate themselves and become ambassadors for the psychedelic experience.

Ambassadors can show everyone around them that people who mindfully and thoughtfully use psychedelics -- which will soon become legal in California -- cross all social, racial, economic, and political lines.

The Aware Project organizes events in Los Angeles and San Diego to educate and connect the psychedelic community.

Stained glass simulates psychedelic experience

There is a monthly speaker series called the "Psychedelic Awareness Salon" as well as screenings of psychedelic related movies and documentaries.

The schedule is speaker or movie, questions, and unstructured mingling time.

• Website: awareproject.org
• Facebook: facebook.com/awareproject
• Upcoming events: awareproject.eventbrite.com
• Meetup: Aware-Project-Rethinking-Psychedelics-Meetup 

"Huachuma, Ayahuasca, and the Plant Medicine Healing Process" with Javier Regueiro, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017, 7:00-10:00 PM, Au Lac DTLA, 710 W 1st St., LA, CA (map) More

 

Not to be confused with TheAwareShow.com (KPFK W/Th, 1:00-2:00 PM)

Addiction: Indonesia and Iboga (video)

VICE/HBO; Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (ATS), Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Gabor Mate

The world's biggest Buddhist temple is in Borobudur, Indonesia. It is a mandala shaped like a pyramid topped by stupas or reliquaries and strange "bells" with Buddhas inside, similar to German Die Glocke time-travel technology from WW II (Wisdom Quarterly).

NICOTINE: Tobaccoland

Shamans can cure (I-M)

The dangers of smoking are no secret in the U.S., but in Indonesia, the tobacco industry goes virtually unregulated. The result? Over two-thirds of all males are smokers and tobacco (nicotine with sugar used in curing the leaves, a preservative that makes it much more addictive than in its natural form) addicts. It is commonplace for children as young as six to take up the habit and buy cigarettes legally. Tobacco is a $100 billion industry here, with TV and print ads everywhere. Investigating this phenomenon in Malang, VICE visits a clinic that promises cures to a plethora of modern ailments using tobacco and smoking -- with an intrepid correspondent getting the full "smoke-therapy" treatment.

IBOGA: Underground Heroin Clinic

Heroin is one of the most easy-to-become addicted to substances on Earth. While it cannot be said to be addictive itself, according to Dr. Gabor Mate, many susceptible individuals certainly do become addicts, utterly dependent on it even as it brings about their ruin. ["Addiction" is the interaction of susceptibility from childhood trauma and introduction of the substance to the nervous system, usually for self-soothing rituals]. Some people will do anything to kick the habit.

Enter Ibogaine -- a drug made out of the African iboga root (T. iboga), whose intense, entheogenic and hallucinogenic properties make it a Type-A felony drug (Schedule 1, regarded as having no medicinal or redeeming qualities by the Big Pharma-influenced medical industry as part of the "military-industrial pharmaceutical complex" that pushes artificial, for-profit chemicals and allopathic "treatments" rather than any actual cures).

Bamboo bridge and waterfall (sun-surfer.com)

But many swear iboga is the most effective way to kick heroin and other substance addictions like alcohol -- especially when combined with shamanic rituals that involves a human guide who enters into trance, interacts with the spirit world, does face painting, chanting, and engages in other traditional practices. VICE follows the journey of one heroin addict who travels to Mexico, where Ibogaine is legal, to finally quit drugs.

• Addiction? (recovery)
• Buddhism: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
• Mind/Body Health
• When the Body Says No
• Childhood Development & Parenting
• AD(H)D (attention deficit)
• Scattered Minds
• Hold On To Your Kids
• Bon Shaman Buddhism: Ven. Wangyal
  

Investigation: LSD cures Alcoholism? (video)

Dev goes into the Hood (Westside!) for a Wisdom Quarterly INVESTIGATION

WARNING: Vulgar street language throughout video and article with gratuitous references to dookie and un-medically supervised drug use.

LOS ANGELES, California - I was straight trippin with my main man, Og, a knuckle dragger from around the way, not to be confused with Gog or his homey Magog.

And I'm like "G, did you hear that trippin on acid can cure alcoholism?" He look at me all like, "Girl, you trippin right now!"

And I go, "Naw, Dawg, straight up!" Of course, he wanted to see the clinical evidence. So I'm all like, "I ain't got that sh-t! But give it up to your girl for the narrative details, hizzy:

"Ya see, it turns out these studies were laid down like, I don't even know, years ago. But the lab coats are all like, 'I ain't riskin my rep on this hippie huh-hizzy, hell no! I gots like a family to feed and what not.'" But somebody pulled top gun and cranked out a meta analysis or sumthin.

They put together a new analysis of older studies and saw at least a correlation establishing a link. Exposure to certain levels of lysergic dimethylamide (blaze) in randomized controlled studies led to a reduction in alcohol cravings."

"Trip out!" Og exclaimed then blew my mind by telling me his own story:

Below: Peace Buddha (Papercraftsbyk/flickr.com)

"That study doesn’t really surprise me one bit. I finally got sober for good after trippin my b-lls off on shrooms in the middle of a hardcore coke [I'm pretty sure he meant Coca-Cola] and booze bender in diddy-town.

"I left so demoralized and beaten BUT with the clear insight that I could no longer keep using anything that took me out of the present moment. [It was] an unshakable insight."

Bam, the mo-fo was cured! That sh-t's real, dog, backed up by compassionate Canadian caregiver Dr. Gabor Mate, da bling in "Zeitgeist 3: Moving Forward." [He makes the case most powerfully in his Buddhist-inspired book on addiction, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, and more recent talks on capitalism, childhood, and addictive personalities.]

Dr. Mate on childhood trauma (stressful environment), addiction, and brain development

The doc says the Native Americans had all kinds of hallucinogenic plants [entheogens] and after the Spanish even some kinds of alcohol. But they weren't addicts. Addiction is a function of capitalism. Naw, for real.

• 2012: Capitalism Makes US Crazy (radioproject.org)
  

Psychedelic plant products like iboga, ayahuasca, mushrooms, peyote, mescaline, harmaline, cactuses, datura, and others -- while toxic and NOT recommended for uninitiated or recreational use -- do not lead to addiction. They cure it.

Plant helpers, bhumi devas, spirits attached to plants, like dryads, help: They facilitate the life-review, reset receptors, and disrupt harmful patterns that sometimes extend even to past lives.

Native kids did not sneak away from the teepee to smoke out or go on Vision Quests. They did it in ceremony under a shaman, as a rite of passage, with the purpose of expanding consciousness not of obliterating it, as Dr. Mate warns we all too often do in the West.

The iboga cure for addiction offered at a Canadian clinic

Mainstream Media Report
HealthLine via Yahoo Health
In a truly mind-bending acid flashback, a new study reports that LSD could help alcoholics kick their addiction.

Based on of six randomized controlled trials from the 1960s and 70s, and published in The Journal of Psychopharmacology, researchers from Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Harvard University found that a single dose of the hallucinogen “had a significant beneficial effect on alcohol misuse” for up to 12 months.

• VIDEO: The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide
  

Dropping acid on a one-time basis also “compares favorably” with the effectiveness of such daily treatments for alcoholism as the FDA-approved addiction-fighting drugs [toxic pharmaceuticals] naltrexone and acamporosate, the researchers report. Overall, 59 percent of the 536 study participants treated with a single dose of the psychedelic drug showed improvement in their alcohol habits, compared to 38 percent of those who didn’t take LSD.

Why would a hallucinogenic drug help?

The researchers point out that,“LSD is well-known for inducing spectacular and profound effects on the mind,”and “can help prevent a relapse of alcohol abuse…by eliciting insights into behavioral problems and generating motivation to build a meaningful and sober lifestyle.” More

Straight up what I was tellin Og. And we're talkin the pachucos at Harvard, eh. No tellin what else they found. Like seeing alien greys on DMT or communicating with plants or li'l green eses. Lotsa studies on PK and anomalies sh-t at Princeton found ESP in controlled scientific setting.

But those vatos ain't touching that with a ten-inch pole. No way, man. Scientifically establishing the supernatural is gettin 'em in enough trouble. But it's there; they talk about it amongst themselves, when they're shootin the sh-t, and at conferences with hip audiences.

F'rinstance, studying "remote viewing" then suddenly creepy crawlies start goin on around the lab. It happens all the time, ese, all the time. The pineal gland is like that.

Humans are capable of so much more than they ("The Man," the establishment censors, the consensus reality filterers), tell us. Keepin us down, keepin us away from da whole truth. Maybe we can't handle that truth. But who are they to decide for me?

Recommended?

WE DO NOT RECOMMEND any pharmaceutical drug, even pharmaceutical-grade acid. Synthetics are by nature harmful and detrimental to the healing process.

Acid (LSD) is a fungus that grows on rye grain. And unless it is sourced naturally from there, it should be avoided. Natural cures come from nature. They are not synthesized and made into "bio-identical" petrochemicals stripped of co-factors.

Want a quick cure in addition to recovery?

Try iboga (not the derivative chemical ibogaine) in ritual use as a plant and plant-spirit product under the care of an experienced traditional medicine person. They can be found in Brazil, Africa, Asia, even in Tijuana.

If some mushrooms can cure, it is not the chemicals found in these plant pharmacies responsible for curing. It is the intelligent energy integrated in living systems manifesting in plants.

As Og and iboga patients soon learn, it is INSIGHT that liberates one from bad habits. Such insights are accessible through meditation. It is no magic pill, but the results last a lifetime -- when the real work of recovery is added.

• Kevin Griffin: A Buddhist Approach to 12-Steps
• Dr. Fadiman: The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide
• VIDEO: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
• Scattered: How ADD Starts and What To Do
  

Iboga: the Search for Self in Africa

(Africa Teacher) — BBC adventurer Bruce Parry goes on an adventure to live with the Babongo, a Congo Basin forest tribe in Gabon risking life and limb to go through a cleansing Iboga ritual. He does not trivialize the experience but fully immerses himself in the experience for our vicarious education.

The Babongo of Gabon have an expertise and knowledge of the forests and are unique in their use of Iboga. Iboga is a powerful hallucinogen that lies at the heart of Babongo culture and the Bwiti religion, famous throughout Gabon. The Babongo have recently changed from being nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled villagers with subsistence agriculture supplemented by hunting.

Bwiti is an animistic West Central African religion practiced by the forest-dwelling Babongo and Mitsogo people of Gabon (where it is one of the three official religions) and the Fang people of Gabon and Cameroon. Modern Bwiti is syncretic, incorporating animism, ancestor worship, and missionary Christianity into its belief system.

Bwiti uses the hallucinogenic root bark of the Tabernanthe iboga plant, specially cultivated for the religion, to induce spiritual "enlightenment," stabilize community and family structure, meet religious requirements, and to solve problems of a spiritual and/or medical nature. The root bark has been used for hundreds of years as part of a Bwiti coming-of-age ceremony and other initiation rites and acts of healing, producing complex visions and insights anticipated to be valuable to the initiate. The root bark or its extract is taken in doses high enough to cause vomiting and ataxia as common side effects.

Tabernanthe iboga or Iboga is a perennial rainforest shrub and hallucinogen native to Western Central Africa. Iboga stimulates the central nervous system when taken in small doses and induces visions in larger doses. In parts of Africa where it grows, the bark of the root is chewed for pharmacological and ritual purposes. Ibogaine, the active alkaloid, is used to treat substance abuse.

Normally growing to a height of six feet, T. iboga may eventually grow into a small tree up to 33 feet tall, given the right conditions. It has small green leaves. Its flowers are white and pink, while its elongated, oval-shaped fruit are orange. Its yellow-colored roots contain a number of indole alkaloids, most notably ibogaine, which is found in the highest concentration in the root-bark. The root material, bitter in taste, causes an anaesthetic sensation in the mouth as well as systemic numbness to the skin.

The Iboga tree is the central pillar of the Bwiti religion practiced in West-Central Africa, mainly Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo, which utilizes the alkaloid-containing roots of the plant in a number of ceremonies. Iboga is taken in massive doses by initiates when entering the religion, and on a more regular basis is eaten in smaller doses in connection with rituals and tribal dances, usually performed at night.

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Studying Indigenous Medicine

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE -- The Amazon has a long history of human set-tlement. Contrary to popular belief, sizable and sedentary societies of great complexity existed in the Amazon rainforest. These societies produced pottery, utilized sections of rainforest for agriculture, and managed forests to optimize the distribution of useful species.

The notion of a virgin Amazon is largely the result of the population crash following the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth century. Studies suggest that 11.8 percent of the Amazon's terra firma forests are anthropogenic in nature, that is, resulting from the careful management of biodiversity by indigenous people.

However, unlike those using current cultivation techniques, these Amazonians were attuned to the ecological realities of their environment from five millennia of experimentation, and they also understood how to sustainably manage the rainforest to suit their needs (jacksbromeliads.com).

INDIGENOUS MEDICINE -- The documentary segment concerns the therapeutic use of an ancient tribal medicine prepared by shamans known as Ayahuasceros. Its principle ingredients are a vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and leaves (that act as an MAOI like Prozac). The active molecule may be DMT. But study has been banned, perhaps due to pharmaceutical company intervention. It is of no use to "cure" when it is so possible to "treat" chronic illnesses like depression.

B. caapi -- also known as Ayahuasca, Caapi, or Yage -- is a South American jungle vine of the family Malpighiaceae. It is used to prepare Ayahuasca, a decoction that has a long history of entheogenic uses as a medicine and "plant teacher" among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Rainforest. It contains the beta-carboline harmala alkaloids and MAOIs harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine.

The MAOIs in B. caapi allow the primary psychoactive compound, DMT (which is introduced from the other primary ingredient in Ayahausca, the Psychotria viridis plant), to be orally active. The stems contain 0.11-0.83% beta-carbolines with harmine and tetrahydroharmine as the major components.

Drugs to Enlightenment?

OPINION

The fifth Precept in Buddhism runs, "I undertake to abstain from intoxicants that occasion heedlessness."

• Reaction: Supreme Court rules Church can serve Hallucinogen (ABC News)

Generally this is taken to mean alcoholic beverages, which cause one to engage in behavior that violates the first four Precepts: to refrain from taking life, taking what is not given, taking liberties with regard to sexual conduct, and taking liberties with the truth.

It is not clear if entheogens would be barred. Do they occasion heedlessness with regard to the Five Precepts? That is, when one is utilizing a "mind expanding" substance, is one engaging in unskilful behavior one would regret and not otherwise engage in?

If the answer is yes, then in no way can entheogen use be justified. However, with the right intention (with a motivation to expand consciousness, tap intuition, open up and become more receptive and skillful in meditation) some may undertake this dangerous path without compromising virtue. Ultimately, like the choice of upholding the Five Precepts, one has to weigh the benefits and choose.

WQ has reported that in the past there may have been Buddhist "cults" or splinter groups who engaged in sacramental use of Soma and Amrita/Ambrosia. What were they? These were legendary substances, presumably derived from mushrooms or herbs, known as the "nectar of the gods" (when "god" is understood in the ancient Greek and Indian sense of deva).

There is no doubt that such groups existed in Hindu, Christian, and indigenous or Native European circles. The most popular entheogen in this regard, as has been reported in WQ, seems to have been Amanita muscaria (Fly agaric mushroom).

Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the sacramental use of Ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi, yage, natema) tea. This was done in accord with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Is it safe? Will it be useful in one's spiritual quest and personal growth? Will it lead to a deterioration or an enhancement of virtue, concentration, and wisdom (sila, samadhi, and prajna) -- the three cornerstones of Buddhism?

Can "drugs" (herbs, vines, mushrooms, entheogens, sacraments) lead to enlightenment? Not directly. Can they lead to better concentration? Possibly. Can they be any worse than liver-damaging synthetic chemicals and pharmaceuticals? Probably not. They may help but must be respected, just as shamans have respected them for countless centuries. Take the case of Iboga as a powerful example.

There is no doubt psychedelics and hallucinogens can yield "wonderful" experiences. An entire generation of Americans discovered that in the 1960s. However, does it lead to Buddhist "enlightenment"? No. Can it? Maybe.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Most people have very little idea what "enlightenment" (the Buddhist term bodhi) literally means. So they frequently fail to tie it to final liberation. What is final liberation? It is freedom from:

• ignorance (avijja, avidya)
• wrong-views (miccha-ditthi)
• delusion (moha)
• selfishness (lobha, the most common and harmful wrong-view)
• anger (dosa)
• suffering (dukkha), and
• continued rebirth (Samsara).

Does a drug/entheogen/plant lead to liberation from these?

Enlightenment comes in definite stages. And one may have many insights without being the least bit closer to enlightenment.

The most important insight to "enter the stream" (and directly see the Noble Eightfold Path that opens to the ocean of nirvana) is anicca, dukkha, anatta (the Three Marks of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, egolessness). This presumes a great degree of sila (or at least past good karma that gives its result as calm-concentration when it's needed). To become a Sotapanna ("Stream-enterer"), the first stage of enlightenment, it is essential to understand these Three Marks. Will drugs (even entheogens) lead to that understanding? For example, one is likely to feel "at one with everything." But that sense of oneness is not no-self; oftentimes it is an expanded sense of self. Previously one felt limited and apart, whereas now one feels (as long as the high lasts) unlimited and deeply connected.

The Three Marks (instability, distress, and impersonality) are tricky concepts even for the most sober individual. Failing to understand these fundamental principles, drugs of any kind are likely to worsen one's understanding. They are then likely to lead one on a downward spiral, particularly as one becomes attached to feelings and experiences in spite of one's deteriorating condition. Look at all the addicts around us (coffee, heroin, nicotine, worry, alcohol, synthetic medications). Insight into impermanence, misery and no-self is accomplished systematically:

First of all, one builds a skillful, moral base (sila, i.e., the Five, Eight, or 227 Precepts). This base leads to collectedness, non-distraction, tranquility, focus (a meditative calm-and-concentration known as samadhi). Both lead to "insight" (Pali, panna or Sanskrit, prajna). Insight in turn reinforces virtue and serenity. Once one is able to enter concentrated meditative states at will, one emerges purified and turns attention to insight-meditation objects. This is the gradual path of training.

Webs of spiders exposed to four common drugs

One person's entheogen (or sacrament) is another person's substance of abuse.

Will entheogens lead to more love (empathy) and the fundamental ethical principle of ahimsa (doing no harm to oneself or others)? Or do drugs weaken body, intellect, and sympathy?

Will entheogens lead to better focus, undistractedness, attention (free of thoughts and judgments), and concentration?

.

The Buddha defined samadhi ("concentration") as the Four Jhanas (or meditative absorptions). The first English translators (Pali Text Society, etc.) rendered the jhanas as "trances." This is because they look from the outside like unconscious states. They, however, are the opposite. They are one-pointed (ekagata) states of concentration, wherein the mind (full awareness and attention) is absorbed into a single object. (This is often spoken of without clarification as "non-duality," a state where there is no distinction between the observer and that which is being observed).

Finally, will entheogens lead to "wisdom"? Wisdom arises intuitively from direct observation of phenomena (as outlined in the Maha Satipatthana Sutra, the "Longer Discourse on the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness"). No amount of direct observation in the absence of sila and samadhi (undistracted concentration built on a firm base) yields liberating insight. (That's why Vipassana practice, as helpful as it is in relieving stress and directing one, doesn't pack an enlightening punch; the fuel, the catalysts, the intensifiers are missing). It is wisdom because it leads to more virtue and more concentration.

There is a famous saying. "Knowledge always leads to pride, whereas wisdom always leads to humility." That's the difference to look for in terms of whether one is progressing on a fruitful path of practice (drugged or otherwise).

A guide, at the very least a companion, is crucial. "The supreme life leading to enlightenment is not partly based on noble friendship (kalyana-mitta); it is completely rooted in good companionship and wise association." Also crucial is some purification (dietary, emotional, moral), a ritual (a set of behaviors to be engaged in when one is no longer in one's proper state of mind), and conducive surroundings.

You don't fly to the moon on a whim. If you do, you certainly don't expect to come back safely. Or as it is more commonly said, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

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