Hello all,

For those of you who are or were psychonauts, and can reach the higher jhanas (5-8), I have a question about altered states of consciousness you get into while on LSD.

I haven't taken it, and I probably won't soon, but I've heard people (who don't meditate) describing states under LSD such as "and then I felt like I was the entire universe" or "I felt unified with a cosmic consciousness", etc. Are these experiences just describing very very hard forms of 5th and 6th jhanas, respectively? Are there any other states that correspond to jhanas? What about ones that don't?

I ask because I feel like if they do correspond, it might be beneficial to be able to explain meditation in terms of that with people who are experienced with it... like "it's like on LSD when you feel your boundaries disappear, except not as intense for me (yet)".

Feel free to PM if you don't want to post publicly.

As I understand, Kenneth Folk should at least know a little about this. I'm pretty sure he reads this forum, but he has "his own" forum.

Thanks for this tip! I've made a post over there as well.

either those jhanas respectively, or likely involving elements of those immaterial jhanas (the sensations which imply 'boundless space' and 'boundless consciousness') in their experience.



jhanas vary greatly in the way they present to different people. from an insight-oriented perspective, their value lies in what they can reveal about the nature of all experience, not in their taxonomy.

that is to say, whatever state you find yourself in is a state which can lead to awakening.



it will be interesting to see the results of your experiment in explaining meditation in those terms to people you know who are thus experienced, should you find cause to conduct it.

tarin