Psychedelic compounds can create feelings of euphoria, a loss of your sense of self, and as various treatment studies demonstrate, cause a transcendent experience so deeply moving that it helps people kick heavy burdens like depression and alcoholism—at least temporarily. And after ingesting a psychedelic, your brain might even feel like it’s connecting to the “Ultimate Reality,” according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Compounds like psilocybin attach to serotonin receptors in your central nervous system. However, neuroscientists still don’t understand what links the resulting hallucinations and reality altering sensations to the broader sense of spiritual connection that some users have reported experiencing, such as “seeing God.” But combining therapy, brain scans, and controlled doses of psychedelics could provide a firm roadmap for the scientists trying to unravel the mystery.
A 2019 research survey, centered on a detailed questionnaire from Johns Hopkins’ Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, probed 4,285 healthy people about their out-of-body experiences of God, or a higher “Ultimate Reality.” The volunteers included both users and non-users of classic psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, and DMT. The psychedelics users were most likely to choose what they felt to be “Ultimate Reality,” out of a choice between “God,” “Higher Power,” “Ultimate Reality,” or an “Aspect or Emissary of God (e.g., an angel),” according to the results, published in the journal PLOS One. Users said they felt a presence that could affect their reality, and that they had a decreased fear of death. The survey noted that related studies had shown similar experiences in people who had taken the same psychedelic compounds.
As far back as 2006, researchers at Johns Hopkins found that a dose of psilocybin, a psychedelic compound from certain species of fungi, caused about 60 percent of healthy volunteers to have a “complete” spiritual trip. Participants having a spiritual experience said they felt a kind of unity of everything, without a physical form. They called it “pure consciousness.”
For Buddhists who may wonder if using psychedelics violates the Fifth Precept of Buddhism, please see: Are We Misunderstanding the Fifth Precept? wherein it is argued that the Fifth Precept clearly refers to alcohol and not psychedelics. I do not mean to encourage the use of psychedelics, but research on psychedelics has shown they confer many benefits on users. I support legalizing, while also guaranteeing the purity of, beneficial psychedelics for adults. ABN
American Buddhist Net 