So yesterday evening I went on my fourth trip, which was also my first
solo trip. My last trip was pretty intense towards the end (some
negative thoughts, brought up because of a negative confrontation with a
sober friend), so I wanted to take it easy this time, espacially
considering that I was gonna do it alone. Consequently the trip wasn't
as strong as my last one, I wasn't completely immersed in "the other
side" but the good memories from my last trip helped me get "there", if
you know what I mean: that strange, yet so familiar place that some call
the spirit world, others call it the level of pure consciousness, of
pure existence, anyway you wanna call it, those who have been there know
what I'm talking about, which brings me to my first point.
How
to describe the undescribable? How to put into words these moments of
pure experience during wich our connection with everything becomes so
self-evident that it surpasses all temptations to explain it? Words are
merely symbols for reality, for the reality of pure experience.
Unconsciously, we are constantly immersed in this reality, but we leave
it as soon as we begin to rationalize, to explain and categorize it
(consequently most of us only directly experience this reality during
the trip, when the rational, the "problem solving" functions of the
brain are bypassed). As soon as you try to put into words what you see
with your mind's eye, you build a wall between what you're trying to
communicate and between what is. Some "traditional" cultures still have a
common symbolism, a common lingo by the means of which they account for
their spiritual experiences. A symbolism which is deeply engraved in
their culture and in their understanding of the world. Although these
symbols stay a compromise and a substitute for pure experience, they are
a compromise which every member of the community shares, because every
member knows it to stand for something they experienced firsthand. In
our modern society the number of symbols which try to interpret the
experience of the realities we encounter during a trip are almost
infinite. As there is no fixed common lingo, no common metaphysical
language to account for these spiritual experiences, everyone has to
create their own, has to put together a new interpretaion in order to
perpetuate at least in their memory the spiritual connections with the
other side, that were revealed during the trip. This in itself is not a
negative process, it just makes the interpretation of the trip a little
more difficult, as this metaphysical symbolism isn't as profoundly
engraved in our memory as it might be in other cultures. I think this
poses a problem as far as communication is concerned, but doesn't in any
way reduce the value of the experience.
These are just my thoughts on the subjects. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think.
(For
those who wish to investigate this matter further, I can only recommend
Huxley's "The doors of perception" where the author explores the
problematic relation between word and reality in a much better way than
I'm trying to do here
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