Shrooms and meditation

Rousseau Matt, modified 1 Year ago at 1/8/23 4:54 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 10/1/22 6:00 PM

Shrooms and meditation

Posts: 136 Join Date: 5/1/22 Recent Posts
Hi guys Matt here . I am basically  a natty meditator . I have a daily practice of about 1 hour a day concentration  practice (pa auk sayadow  tradition). I also do insight work based on the mahasi method.  I use MCTB as my basic text for development and to find info. I am not much of a psychonaut but I have experimented in the past with schrooms  and lsd years ago for recreation. It's generally not my thing  I have been reading more and more about the possibility of psilosyben  in facilitating  the A&P.   I was curious about  anybody  who has stories or personal experiences with this.  I have questions like....  did you hit the A&P by accident not really knowing what it was?    Did you use a high or low dose?   Did you have a meditation practice along with it?  How about meditation after a trip  or meditation before a trip. ? Was it guided ?   Also . Could you achieve stages  of Insight without the chemical after the initial realization?    Thanks matt
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 10/3/22 11:19 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 10/3/22 10:46 AM

RE: Shrooms and meditation

Posts: 2722 Join Date: 2/26/19 Recent Posts
I sometimes meditate on psilocybin. I find it helpful for accessing deeper psychological stuff, unconscious memories, old emotions etc. I use a relatively low dose because meditation itself amplifies the effects. If you try it I would start small (micro-dose) and only increase slowly, keeping notes of the effects and your experiences. I find that the psilocybin experience itself feels "guided", in the sense that it seems to tap into some part of my mind which knows what I need to experience to heal old wounds. But you need to be prepared for potentially challenging stuff to come up and have the attitude of surrendering to the experience - my mind knows what I need to experience even if I don't!

I can easily access the A&P anyway, although it is more intense on psychedelics. I basically use psychedelics like an exploratory tool to open up access to deeper strata of mind. Integration is important - the ability to access the new insights/experiences afterwards without the substance. I tried LSD when I was younger and had no ability to integrate the experience, so even if it was the A&P it didn't help me get any insight into how my mind was continually cycling in daily life.

I find THC helpful for working with physical and energetic processes. It used to give me anxiety and it was only when I started meditating on it that I realized the anxiety was the whole point of the experience - to be able to fully experience it and process it! On higher doses of THC I find it hard to maintain any consistent sense of self or time, although surprisingly if I need to do something then my body seems to know how to do it on autopilot. It can be a pretty intense and chaotic experience, so I wouldn't recommend it as a way of getting insights into not-self unless you are using measured doses and it is well integrated into your regular meditation practice. 

I didn't start experimenting with psychedelics again until after awakening, so I don't know how they would fit with the insight part of the path. I've read accounts from people here and elsewhere who seem to have benefitted from using them along the path, but they also had strong meditation and integration practices.
 
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J W, modified 1 Year ago at 10/3/22 1:37 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 10/3/22 1:31 PM

RE: Shrooms and meditation

Posts: 671 Join Date: 2/11/20 Recent Posts
+1 to microdosing and increasing slowly (if at all)

Just keep in mind that at higher doses psychedelics can throw you into mental states and other "stuff" regardless of whether or not you're ready for it.  So there is a risk there.

With psylocibin i've found that even smaller doses (<1g) the effects can be quite noticeable but are not as intense and don't last as long and so there is less risk.
Rousseau Matt, modified 1 Year ago at 1/8/23 4:54 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 10/8/22 8:01 PM

RE: Shrooms and meditation

Posts: 136 Join Date: 5/1/22 Recent Posts
Oh well . I tried it . Relatively  heavy dose. I tripped.  Whoopee .   Than I regretted  it. I do this every few years thinking g it will be different.  I don't think it's a good tool at all. 
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J W, modified 1 Year ago at 10/10/22 11:12 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 10/10/22 11:11 AM

RE: Shrooms and meditation

Posts: 671 Join Date: 2/11/20 Recent Posts
Sorry to hear that... hope you are feeling better now.

Anything you care to share about the experience and why it was not good?

​​​​​​​Were you engaged in a sitting meditation throughout the experience?
Rousseau Matt, modified 1 Year ago at 1/8/23 4:54 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 10/16/22 2:13 PM

RE: Shrooms and meditation

Posts: 136 Join Date: 5/1/22 Recent Posts
Nothing traumatic  happened. But  .the drug took away my will to sit or be mindfull. I would try again  but no time soon.  I actually seem to get better results meditating naturally.  Of coarse  I may be expecting  to much.  That old "magick bullet" story.  For some people psilosyben  can get them over a plateau