Get High, Get God...It's All Up to Your Ego

I remember years ago reading about Richard Alpert, assistant 'acid master' under the tutelage of the real 'master' Timothy Leary at Harvard Univ. Alpert reported experiencing the same wild, flying through consciousness , world-love, experiences in India with his chosen guru, as when he was daily experimenting with LSD at Harvard U.


He came back from his Indian induction as Baba Ram Dass. In several books, most famous “Be Here Now,” Ram Dass asserted that through 'natural’ meditative practices he achieved the same ‘higher states of consciousness’ that he experienced through LSD and Psilocybin (mushrooms) while at Harvard.

I've had some profoundly interesting experiences many years ago while ingesting various chemicals. I have also had very similar experiences through my own past meditation practices (through the American Med. Society, which teaches a form of TM only with a personalized mantra provided by the guru or guruic representative). This is commensurate with the claims of Ram Dass, Terrence McKenna, and many others.

So what’s the difference between the drugged experiences and the reported "pure" experiences of meditation?

The difference seems most likely (speculation, open for questioning) in the paradigm through which the experiences are interpreted (of course, this is also Ken Wilbers claim). Ram Dass’s guru taught ‘service’ and Ram Dass returned to the states with that learned goal clearly reinforced by the intense "superconscious," or altered state, experiences he acquired. If the egoic paradigm supports God, nirvana, enlightenment, etc, then clearly the altered psychic state will be interpreted by the ego in just that way.

The egoic paradigm is paramount and serves to filter any profound psychic experiences. Thus, without the learned paradigm, the experiences, such that Alpert had at Harvard, were useless since the paradigm or model which made the interpretations, while on acid, was grounded in the world's value system.

The meditative psychic experience is filtered through what the ego-self considers as pure and unadulterated eastern paradigm. Although both may be the exact same states of consciousness, it is the egoic self which makes the determination as to value and worthiness in order to be accepted as 'awakening' or 'enlightenment.' The experience is real (whether through drugs or meditation) while the interpretation is purely ego-self, "wow, that was great! It must've been the enlightenment they told me about."

Ram Dass needed, in his opinion, the correct paradigm or teachings before he could adequately process the psychic states. The states then supported and reinforced the paradigm. (if you read Castenanda’s “Don Juan” you’ll see these same egoic interpretations of higher or altered states throughout the narrative, but note that psychedelics were used to attain the states).

My assertion is that through these states or neurochemical alterations, the ego constructs interpretations that it has learned from other teachers that simply serve to reinforce the ego from those interpretations. The interpretations will be formed from the paradigm that the ego-self has determined are worthy of adoption and this occurs long before the experience is encountered, otherwise the experience must be processed through whatever paradigm or model exists within the ego belief system.

Yet, the ego can even go back and re-evaluate past states and thus make a consideration of "awakening.'

The question is, does the fact that the states are interpreted and defined by the ego lessen or diminish the psychic states? Do we need to have neurochemical imbalances and alterations to reinforce ego-self belief systems? Recall that severe bipolar neurochemical imbalances also result in altered psychic states, but we tend to refer to this as mental illness.

If superconsciousness or awakening is nothing more than an egoic interpretation of "superconsciousness," what does this say about the whole awakening premise or paradigm which is based on ego transcendence?

If the mental state requires ego interpretation, how could it ever signify a state of egolessness?

This tends to stand the usual argument of "you can't understand unless you have the experience" on its head. It seems the real story is that you can't understand the experience until you have the correct paradigm through which to interpret the experience.

Possibly the real experience, or Truth of the matter (cap T) is that you will need to smash all paradigms through which your ego has been taught to interpret experiences.

Maybe by preparing yourself for SURPRISE, with no paradigm attached or associated, will you then have an experience unclassifiable by your ego. Until then you will simply interpret your supposed superconscious psychic states based on how you were taught to interpret them.

And because of this, we have the wonderful "awakening" industry....

But, how can this be Truth? (cap T)