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PocketLady said:
About a week ago I started learning chakra meditation.  A few days later I noticed that when I smoke weed I get the sensation of pressure or energy in my head, particularly around the 3rd eye and crown chakras.  Am I right in thinking the weed is stimulating the chakras?  I'm very aware that they need to be kept balanced so I am concerned that by smoking weed I will be overactivating the higher chakras, which I don't want to do.

Secondly, I took some mushrooms on Friday night, and although my boyfriend and I took the same amount the experience of the first hour or so was INCREDIBLY intense for me, but my boyfriend said he could have done with taking more.  For the first hour I felt immense energy bursting out of my chakras, again especially in the upper chakras, but I felt the others too.  Although mushrooms are always quite intense for me I've never really felt this intense sensation of energy before, or perhaps I have not known what to look for.  I'm thinking that the feeling of clarity and cleansing that a mushroom trip leaves you with is something to do with it clearing the chakras? 

I'd be really grateful if someone with knowledge of the chakras could tell me if my suspicions are correct?  I am seriously considering giving up the weed as I keep getting the feeling it's going to hinder my spiritual development and have heard that they cause cracks in auras too, but I'd like to be able to have a mushrooms trip once in a while as long as it's safe now I am working with my chakras.

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Well, I wrote a doctoral dissertation on the chakras, which utilized the Tibetan Buddhist model as taught by Lama Anagarika Govinda in his book Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, with the permission of Lama Govinda. In the Tibetan system, the upper two centers and the lower two centers are combined, yielding five chakras, and corresponding to the five colors of their prayer flags (Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space). At any rate, in the Buddhist model, there are 3 levels of the chakras: the naturalistic level, corresponding to physiological processes, the astral level which corresponds to the Hindu subtle body, and the causal level, in which the unregenerated chakra motives of survival/sex, power, compassion, communication, wisdom/union all become transformed into the Wisdom of the Dhyani Buddhas. I will assume that you are using the Hindu model, but unlike the 'one way' up the spine model in Hindu Yoga, the Buddhist model follows a 'shepherd's crook' form, with the 'Ascending Path Towards Unification' (symbolized by the syllable OM and Brain Center, which is at the beginning of the Buddhist mantras), and the'Descending Path Towards Realization,' (symbolized by the syllable HUM, and the Heart Center). OM is when the individual 'I' dissolves in the Infinite. HUM is more than OM. It is the Infinite arising in the finitude of the HUMan Heart. It is the esoteric meaning of Incarnation  of Christ in Greek Christian thought). The up-down movement is referred to in alchemy as 'Solve et Coagula' - dissolve and coagulate. It is Jacobs dream of angels ascending and descending a ladder in Genesis.

Bottom line: We ARE our chakras, on all levels - Physical (organs), psychic (astral or subtle body), and Spiritual (human motivations). Salt-Sulphur-Mercury in alchemy, respectively, or in India, Tamas-Rajas-Sattva in Yoga, Body-Soul-Spirit in various Christian, Jewish, Islamic theologies. Physical sensations belong to your physical body - the biochemical interactions between a plant and your physiological processes. If cannabis effects your subtle-astral level, it may well have physical sensations in the astral nerves (nadis), but in order to realize a model (like chakras, Kundalini), visualizations must be willfully made to guide the sensations. The result of Psychical-Astral chakra experiences, include the arousal of the Kundalini-Shakti, enhanced Psi functions (clairvoyance, telepathy, etc.), and astral projections. At the highest level, one's identity is shifted from being a Human Being having a Psychical or Spiritual experience, to a Spiritual Being who is having a Physical and Psychical experience. One then Realizes that we are essentially Consciousness - Consciousness of our identity as body, soul, and spirit (the old fashioned word for consciousness). One must not confuse one's Psychical being as being the Spiritual being. Both are invisible, after all.

If one looks at the spine as the Axis Mundi, or the Sacred Mountain, then the ascent to the Peak must first begin after one has left the 'base camp' at the lower chakras, and then, pitched a tent ('tabernacled') at a mid-point on the mountain, before one attempts the final ascent to the Peak. In other words, the highest centers are not open until one's identity has become established at the mid-point, which is the Heart Center, Qabalistic Tiphereth, the Sun.  At that transition, one has transcended one's identity as the body-personality comprised of chakra motives. In Qabalism, one has 'risen in the planes' from the Astral Triangle to the Ethical Triangle, before one is 'brought up' to the Supernal Triangle (Kether, Crown, Sahasrara). In other words, as in the Christian idiom, Jesus (as ego) did not 'Rise' from the dead (inert physical), Jesus was 'Raised' from the dead by the Transcendental (Self, God). Ego has no 'control' over opening the highest centers. Awareness of highest chakras 'results from' earlier transcendence of one's control or power motives (Manipura chakra psychology). HUMility is the quality of the transformed Heart Center, the death or crucifixion of one's ego, before one 'comes into the kingdom of Heaven,' and Realizes one's Ultimate Identity.

I hope that I have not been confusing, but a great many people speak of their chakras just as if one was talking about their physical organs. I don't HAVE kidneys, heart, liver, etc. at the level that such questions are being asked. At that level, I AM those organs and more. But, the inkling that we are NOT the body is the beginning of transcendence.



The Chronic's response reminded me that I had not addressed the mushroom and cannabis question, just the chakra issue. All I can say is that except for very rare 'field tests,' years apart, I have not used cannabis for over 30 years. I do use mushrooms, but not more than 4 times a year. I would use acid too, if I had access to some. It was psychedelics that led me to BE HERE NOW, a couple of 1 credit Hatha Yoga courses in college, and thence to a Yoga-based spiritual lifestyle. I could not imagine not using Hatha Yoga asanas while taking psychedelics. Even while tripping at Grateful Dead shows back in the day, I would ask to use someone's blanket for a few minutes while I smoothed out the prana pooling in the Manipura chakra - perhaps a Bow, and a Fish, was all I needed. Sometimes I needed to shut out the crowd, so I'd lock-n-load in Lotus position for a few minutes of Pratyahara (sense-withdrawal). 

For all the accolades about cannabis, while I appreciate its anxiolytic effect, I prefer to deal with anxiety without the numerous cognitive side effects that cannabis causes. I use L-Theanine, 100 mg/day for anxiety, quite effectively and without any deficit of memory, motivation, or processing speed. If I used cannabis at all, I'd use a vaporizer to minimize lung damage. When I realized that cannabis had hurt my undergraduate studies, I used it sparingly until the beginning of graduate school, and after I married my ex-wife, I stopped because she never used it, and I was working as a substance abuse counselor and I have never liked hypocrisy. I use smart drugs, noogenics, like Piracetam, Pramiracetam, Acetyl L-Carnitine, Modafinil®, and a host of antioxidants: Vitamins, A, B, C, D, E, K, Astaxanthin, Bilberry, Selenium, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Beta Sitosterol, and others, which not only facilitate healthy cerebral circulation, but have other healthy effects upon cholesterol, heart, prostate, blood pressure, etc. I am not into courting diminishment of cortical processes, or dementia. The Physical, Psychical, and Spiritual need to be cared for, and just because something feels or tastes good, doesn't mean that it is good for me. I seek calmness with clarity. I want my neurons to have the stillness of a deep, clear pool of water, not a pool that is still because it is clogged with mud. THC is fat soluble, tinges neurons amber, and slows processing speed. Not for me.
-MtG

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The Chronic said:
Don't allow other people to fill your mind with what they think, not to be ignorant of their advice but nobody can tell you how to work with your bodies energy, just take it slow & be aware, not 'beware!', just be, aware...

Please report back how you get on with all this

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PocketLady said:

Is it necessary to close the chakras again once they have been stimulated?  I have heard from some sources that you must close them back down, but others have said you don't need to, and to be honest I don't see the point in stimulating the chakras only to shut them down immediately.

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Seanfu said:
Some would say mushrooms overactivate those chakras as well as weed. This would explain why people say you get temporary powers and psyches create holes in the aura.

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