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 MarkostheGnostic
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 July 1st - My Acid Anniversary 
#715334 - 07/01/02 08:58 AM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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I just felt like sharing. Today, July 1st, marks the 30th anniversary of my 1st LSD trip. This has been a significant day for 26 of those years, when I realized an interesting and meaningful coincidence. That was, I went through the 'acid test' on July 1, 1972, and four years to the day later, on July 1, 1976, I went through the initiation of Christian baptism. Between those two dates were sandwiched the most ardent spiritual seeking of my entire life. Before 7/1/72, I had used cannabis for 3 years, taken Sandoz psilocybin once, and had a visual trip with 200 Heavenly Blue Morning Glory seeds, but that first trip on windowpane LSD showed me so many things in one day, that I am still processing them!
A few nights ago, the friend with whom I shared all of the above experiences called me out of the blue. We haven't seen each other since he helped hold the canopy over me and my ex-wife at our marriage in June '83. He designs microchips and is an inventor of filtration equipment used on oil rigs. His name is Ken, and he never pursued the use of psychedelics, or psychospiritual development, but he was a good friend during those adventures. He must have thought me quite mad while I morphed from home-lab scientist and pre-med student to temporary drop out, then philosophy student, followed by seminarian, and then graduate student in human development and psych. All the while experimenting with ceremonial magic, then Zen, and Yoga (with celibacy and vegetarianism, for years), serious Christianity, and then absence, as we grew apart geographically and personally.
Advice to a new generation of entheogenic enthusiasts comes down to this: More is not necessarily better. It is infinitely better to 'burn in,' than to 'burn out.' To 'burn in' means to be filled inwardly with a passion for Truth, with enthusiasm ["enthousiazein: irreg. fr. entheos inspired, fr. theos god : strong warmth of feeling : keen interest : fervor" -Merriam-Webster]. Trip by design - Everything Else is 'By Design.' Thanks for 'listening.' Shalom. Salaam. Shanti. Pax. Peace.
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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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 RebelSteve33
Amateur Mycologist
Registered: 05/28/02
Posts: 3,774
Loc: Arizona
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Happy anniversary Markos!
I was just wondering... You said you went through the 'acid test' on July 1st, 1972... Are you speaking of the actual Acid Tests that were held by Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters?
I read about them, but I forget the actual years that they occurred, so forgive me if this is a stupid question!
-RebelSteve
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Namaste.
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MarkostheGnostic
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Posts: 14,279
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 Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: RebelSteve33]
#715377 - 07/01/02 09:20 AM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Thanks for the congrats. Not a stupid question at all. This was on the East coast, Kesey was on the West coast, and in light of the well known Trips Festival, we still used the jargon. Kesey's Acid Tests were held prior to June '66 (6/66) when LSD was still legal in California.
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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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Anonymous
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Nice post. So, what is the meaning of life?
Truth, Light and Peace,
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MarkostheGnostic
Elder
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 Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: ]
#715528 - 07/01/02 10:50 AM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Theosis, my friend. 
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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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Anonymous
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Why?
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World Spirit
PNW
Registered: 07/27/01
Posts: 9,817
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Deleted by admin
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Anonymous
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: World Spirit]
#715594 - 07/01/02 11:24 AM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Theosis is a Greek word rich in meaning. It was a term used by the desert fathers over the centuries, and more recently by the Greek-Cypriot mystic and healer, Stylianos Atteshlis, known as Daskalos. Theosis is translated as 'deification' or 'to become one with the divine'. Daskalos spoke of it as a state akin to 'enlightenment' and 'self realization'. Our gradual and inevitable entry into theosis is both the promise and the purpose that we were given in Eden; that we would 'be as gods, knowing good and evil' (cf. Gen. 3:5). Theosis is a process of the ever-increasing individuation of the self, culminating in the 'I AM I' consciousnesswhich Jesus of Nazareth fully embodied and imbued. In the mystical Christian tradition the path to theosis is daily life (work, family and friends), through which the soul reflects itself in Creation that it may know itself in all its ways. And the vehicle for this reflection, for the awakening of the self, is the Human Form (as body, thought and emotion).
My question is, why?
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Smack31
Stranger
Registered: 06/17/02
Posts: 10,681
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happy anniversary!
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hongomon
old hand
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: ]
#715724 - 07/01/02 12:38 PM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Bom aniversario, Markos.
Maybe a better question would be, "What is the meaning of your life?" (or, when asking oneself, "What is the meaning of my life?") This way, it's easy to explain why--it's a voluntary choice. One can't explain why a particular life purpose applies to everyone without being dogmatic, right?
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MarkostheGnostic
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: Smack31]
#715738 - 07/01/02 12:50 PM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Thankyou Smack31, hongoman, and the silent ones who still chose to read my post.
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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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Anonymous
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: hongomon]
#715740 - 07/01/02 12:54 PM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Talk about a difficult answer to reply to!!! There are so many different philosophical presuppositions in your terse answer that a person could easily write several books debating the various points.
Certainly in some sense your question is a better one but the problem is that it is a different question. When a person asks, "what is the meaning of life?" they are specifically looking for an answer that applies to the vast similiarities that occur among all human beings. Being dogmatic about certain truths is actually a good thing when those truths are correct. And yes, there are overarching truths that have been with us for a very very long time. That does not mean that we shouldn't question them. There is a difference between dogmatism that is born of questioning pre-established truths and blindly asserting and following a supposed truth without questioning it.
Free will, choice, or volition have been debated for centuries without any consensus among the disputants. Much of what we have learned is incorrect about the nature of the universe and man. But I am not here to teach what I have learned as much as I am here to learn.
Otherwise, how will I improve?
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MarkostheGnostic
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: ]
#715807 - 07/01/02 01:37 PM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Special thanks to you for an eloquent rendering of theosis, for anyone who is interested and for those whose word search did not turn up a definition.
Why did I name theosis as the meaning of life? Because it is THE Metamotive - The motive that guides, organizes, directs, balances, contains ALL other human motives. Because the words of Irenaeus were the words that made sense to me about the central place of Jesus Christ in the cosmic scheme of things: 'God became man, in order that man may become God.' Or again, since it is worth repeating, this time in the words of Athanasius: "For He has become man that He might deify us in Himself."
Unlike Origen, who stressed that Christ was to re-establish man to his original [i.e., sinless] state, according to Athanasius, Christ brings to man the grace of divinization which is an advance upon the original state of man. Besides, from a personal choice, Origen emasculated himself hoping that it would stop his incessant sexual fantasies. It did not work. It is difficult for me to accept that kind of unnatural and cowardly answer to the management of sex.
Now, I am not an expert in Patristic theology, but it is the ONLY real place where someone who has decided to be a Christian AND who has had life-changing Entheogenic Experiences, can make intellectual as well as spiritual progress, IMHO. How many 'trippers' from my generation abandoned their Christian faiths and even moreso their Jewish faiths to pursue Eastern faiths because they foolishly didn't know that Enlightenment was to be found right in their own faith? Droves of people left. I left, but I returned.
In my Highest, Most Profound visionary states, I See and understand, for example, why builders of Gothic cathedrals built the vaults, arches, butresses, rose windows, etc. the way they did - even if it took 300 years. I see those structures in visions of multicolored light for which I have no vocabulary to describe. To translate those visions, which I believe is a shared Treasury, into stone and glass absolutely staggers my mind. These visions come with emotions so ecstatic and sublime as to be very rare and very precious. I do not see lotus blossoms, nor do I see specifically Oriental patterns and motifs. My soul is incorrigibly Western. I am not churchy, nor was I raised Christian. I am a hybrid - a Jewish Christian - a philosophically Hellenized Jew - whatever. Theosis is the doctrine that I have discovered within Orthodox Christianity that can account for Entheogenic Experiences. Have I answered your question "Why?" By Hermes I hope so!
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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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Anonymous
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Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
Having a similiar background as yourself I asked the questions because I am curious how similiar our paths might have been. There are places where they converge and places where they diverge. As I passed through the entheogenic experiences I landed in Rationalism. Now I am unconvinced that the mystics knew the truth. I place my trust in God and the power of my rational mind. It was His greatest gift to me.
I totally concur that Origen erred and that Athanasius was correct in his assumption of why God created us. But I place beside that God's desire that He be glorified in accordance with the Creed.
Hermes?!?!? Blasphemy!
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GRTUD
INFP
Registered: 01/30/01
Posts: 270
Loc: United States
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Carmelize for me, my good man! You have been a good friend to me and many here on the Shroomery. Much good advise and insight.
Happy Anniversary ! 
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"New shit has come to light..."
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Amoeba665
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Loc: a hidden microutopia at t...
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happy anniversary markos! i, for one, am very happy that you took that trip and ended up here, 30 years later, sharing your thoughts with us.
i would like to modify that previous question a bit and see what comes of it.
if theosis is the meaning of this life.. what is the meaning of the universe? is it simply to aid man in this goal, no more, no less?
i also have another question, which is a bit off the subject. i was recently introduced to the writings of two unusual fellows by the names of gurdjieff and ouspensky... are you familiar with them at all? and in particular, what is your response to their supposition that "man is in a bad place in the universe", meaning that comparatively in the universe, earth is one of the more difficult places to exist? and also their other claim that man is in prison and has to work towards the goal of awakening from his sleep, so that he can consciously evolve towards oneness, as demonstrated by the jesus christ of your athanasius?
sorry for these hard questions! but if i never ask i'll never get any input other than from books 
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hongomon
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: ]
#716959 - 07/01/02 10:33 PM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hi Mr Mushrooms,
Full of presuppostions? Without a doubt. In particular I knew I was taking a few things for granted when I wrote "voluntary choice."
I confess I don't really know how to avoid some amount of presupposition when I write. Even the question, "What is the meaning of life?" presupposes something.
But I think I misunderstood your pressing of the "why" to mean "Why do you think that that is the meaning of MY life?" Hence the modified, and admittedly very different, questions.
You don't suppose I am being dogmatic in my avoidance of the dogmatic...  I hope not, but I have struggled a lot with this concept:
"Being dogmatic about certain truths is actually a good thing when those truths are correct."
How do we verify that truths are "correct"? Or more importantly, how do we collectively verify it?
By the way, I enjoyed your definition of "theosis" and I think it's a fine concept. Have you read "Voluntary Simplicity" by Duane Elgin?
peace
hongomon
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Traveller
enthusiast
Registered: 04/13/01
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Last seen: 16 years, 6 months
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i have felt the same way looking at the kailash temple at the ellora caves, and many other shiva temples in india, bagan in burma...more recently in angkor although it felt a little like an imitation on a grander scale than the originals. perhaps not the architecture of the Most profound visionary states, a little more chaotic, warped, still architecture inspired by some awesome visions but almost insane, madness in the details.
congratulations on remembering the date of your first acid trip! mine was on a rainy day in winter only seven years ago....june perhaps, july?
did the gnostics really eat babies?
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MarkostheGnostic
Elder
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: Traveller]
#717324 - 07/02/02 05:01 AM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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LOL. No. the Gnostics ate no babies. The Cathars were alledged to have worn aborted human embryos around their necks. The greater sin was to entrap any more souls in prisons of flesh and blood.
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γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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Anonymous
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Re: July 1st - My Acid Anniversary [Re: hongomon]
#717333 - 07/02/02 05:10 AM (21 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hi Hongomon,
You asked, "How do we verify that truths are "correct"? Or more importantly, how do we collectively verify it?"
Most truths are doxa rather than episteme. Doxa is opinion (not to be confused with mere opinion) and episteme is that which is known with certitude. The law of non-contradiction in logic is episteme. It states that nothing can be and not be at the same time. It can also be applied to attributes of objects such as a glass of water cannot be sitting on a table and not sitting on a table at the same time. We verify these truths by objective public investigation. If you and I agree that we are looking at an object and neither of us is willfully lying then the object is said to exist.
I have't read it.
Thank you for your comments,
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