Psychedelics & A Shift In Reality

Psychedelics

Raghu Markus introduces a talk given by Ram Dass, “Promises & Pitfalls.”

Ram Dass talks about the promises and the pitfalls of the spiritual path, and the shift of reality that happened in the sixties that was predicated by psychedelics. This shift blew apart the traditional religious systems that were in place at the time, and the psychedelics gave people a connection that they had never experienced before: a feeling that they were interconnected with the universe. When we see how much of our behavior is a defense mechanism to alleviate the pain of separateness, we begin to realize the importance of healthy intuitive and compassionate hearts.

Clip taken from the audio talk, “Promises & Pitfalls.” Purchase this talk for $9 as an MP3 Playlist to support the Love Serve Remember foundation.

1 thought on “Psychedelics & A Shift In Reality”

  1. Glad to see a resurgence of interest in psychedelics — after fifty years of a counterproductive War On Drugs, during which mind-expanding substances were lumped in with Schedule One narcotics, and considered to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

    My friends and I came of age in the late ’60s, early ’70s. Many of us are still in touch after all these years, and we share a special bond that most uninitiated people do not share and cannot understand. When we travel we are more likely to stay at each other’s homes, rather than go to a motel.

    However, I have noticed that most of us rarely speak of experiences that were so formative in our personalities. I think this is because many felt we were just having fun, going through a “hippie” phase before settling down to a conventional lifestyle.

    Very few actually did any reading or research about the human potential that can be unlocked by the psychedelic experience. And our parents had no advice to give us, since they were only familiar with alcohol, nicotine and caffeine.

    Consequently we had no rituals or traditions with which to honor the sacredness of the psychedelic experience. Moreover, because of the Drug War and its attendant propaganda with threats of ostracization and imprisonment, most people were uncomfortable talking about the subject or showing too much “deviance” in their public lives or at work.

    The result is that we failed to effect changes in our culture that would have made life on our gorgeous little Planet Earth more sustainable. For example, “plastic” was a pejorative term back then (listen to Frank Zappa or see “The Graduate” with Dustin Hoffman) but now the world is awash in plastic.

    It is encouraging to see scientists conducting new experiments — and rediscovering the treasure trove of research that was done in the ’50s and early ’60s before LSD was declared illegal. I just hope it is not too little too late.

    ☮❤🌏 tC

    Reply

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