In this article I hope to clarify and demystify the out-of-body experience (OBE). Out-of-body experiences are phenomena which have been given many names and attributed many beliefs throughout the centuries, spanning many cultures – think Muhammad’s night journey, shamanic soul flight and contemporary alien abduction phenomena.
Shamans are those learned in the ability to heal themselves and their communities. Shamanism is not a culturally specific or arbitrary concept but “a specific complex of characteristics found in magico-religious practitioners of hunter-gatherer and simple pastoral and agricultural societies around the world” – from the Amazon to Africa to Siberia and East Asia.
I smoked tonight and decided to meditate. It was my first time smoking in a few weeks; three hits off the blunt and I was ripped.
I sat down in meditation and began to follow my breath. I picked up right away on my ego trying to disguise itself as some sort of meditation phenomena. The inner dialog began. I became aware that I had said "Your ego." I turned my attention to this notion.
20 mg 2-CI 4:00 PM Ingestion
A few minutes after ingestion I started to feel mildly displaced. The feeling is hard to explain, and it could be nothing more than a placebo effect from taking the chemical. Reading and typing became increasingly difficult.
A central idea to Buddhism is the concept of emptiness. In understanding emptiness, which some traditions view as an ultimate or fundamental reality to which matter owes its existence, one begins to view their self and their world in an entirely different light.
"Banish the word 'struggle' from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we have been waiting for." — Hopi elders
