I think psychedelics bring people closer to the center, a lot of Athiests will come out of a trip somewhat believing in a higher power, and a lot of Christians will come out of a trip rejecting organized religion and embracing personal spiritually.
I knew one Christian who said he met "what could only be described as the spirit of Jesus Christ.... the church is full of shit!" after a high dose trip.
Another after doing ayahuasca said it shifted his perspective to thinking of Jesus as the embodiment of love, grace, acceptance, etc. and the church's teachings have massively diluted it.
Christian here. I can echo both sentiments, but I wouldn’t say psychedelics have been the cause. They have been lubricant to my developing views, but I wouldn’t say they have molded them. I had done a lot of that already throughout my life during a multi-year long deconstruction, an ongoing reconstruction, and exploration of philosophy and world religions in my own personal and academic pursuits.
I believe there exists a spiritual component to the psyche that exists within us all. That component is vocal either in the conscious (active) or subconscious (dormant) levels of awareness. Effectively I’ve expanded on Jungian ideas to use as a scaffolding for some theories. Because psychedelics have the ability to alter consciousness, I believe it is possible those dormant aspects of our psyche may “wake up” in our altered conscious awareness.
This would be the result of cross communication between parts of the brain that don’t normally communicate, but because of the open state one may be in it could be very easy for them to identify it as God. This wouldn’t be surprising due to the mystical nature of these altered states of consciousness. That isn’t to suggest they are any less “real,” but rather our definitions of reality are somewhat limited. “As above, so below; as within, so without,” is somewhat applicable here, though I disagree with much of Hermes’ philosophical and religious conclusions.
It’s hard to ignore the separation organized religion causes in society though, when all religions arrive at the same place anyway. They just take different routes to get there
And the togetherness it causes. The Black Church, for instance, is credited almost universally by scholars as the major source of Black American resiliency and liberation.
The genocide in Gaza is not a religious war. It’s a war over over settler-colonialism. The IDF is made up of Christians, Druze, Jews, and even some Muslims. Various Palestinian armed organizations include Christians, secular people, and Muslims.
Meh I think it brings you closer to what you want to be true. I've stared a lot into the void and I just see nothing conscious or acting upon our world in any meaning full way. The best I can describe it is there is electricity running through everything making connections between people and things indiscriminately. It has shown me all we get is this one shot and upon death the electricity is returned to the collective for use in something else. Not all at once since most leave a body. The only thing sacred I see is that we get to be part of the cycle. Long story short, still very much an atheist. Psychedelics are just mirrors showing me everything in my heard
Those Christians take the wrong path, because faith (organized religions included) is as much social as it is personal. Personal spirituality should be explored and cultivated, but it's only through a shared rite and communal traditions where it can truly manifest itself. The most spiritual places you can find are surrounded by holy traditions, long established rituals, shared places of worship, shared customs, and mythologies that bind people and communities together.
It's one thing to question the massive and corrupted church organization and a well established dogma, and another to abandon the whole social aspect and just follow whatever personal delusions you feel like.
But yeah, I get your point and in a sense it's true, I just hate the new age individualist idea of "personal spirituality". Many people following organized religions are extremely insightful and spiritual, and conversely, many people who have their "personal spirituality" are just weed addicts who got stuck in the rabbit hole of "deep" stuff.
I would challenge you on that disdain. It is far easier to break down one’s delusions of egoic subjective reality than it is to teach someone to be open to spiritual ideas. I believe the church has been given milk rather than solid food for decades. The new age spiritualist movement and its recent increase in popularity often times is accompanied with interests in Jung and psychology. I think it’s very easy to blend the two together, which even Jung does at times (though I know he himself was not a professing Christian and was making parallels to archetypes and not a literal doctrine).
Not at all, in over 30 years of psychedelic use it has not moved the needle on the existence of gods/ghosts/aliens/magic/other assorted nonsense.
If anything I've worked to ensure my epistemological tools are sharper.
> If anything I've worked to ensure my epistemological tools are sharper.
I think that's the key to it all right there. Some recognize the nature of the human mind and the necessity of learning how to think critically. Others apparently see no issue with basing their worldview on the fabrications fed to them by their own subconscious minds.
It changed me from atheist to spiritual; I feel like I have a new respect for consciousness and the origin of life. I can also feel a higher self version of myself, and feel my connection to the divine.
I know there is a higher power, but psychedelics (among other things, but it was really the straw that broke the camel's back) have made me realize that organized religion is a scam. People trying to make a buck off other people's faith. I respect anyone that wishes to follow organized religion, and I respect anyone that thinks there are no higher powers, but I personally think it's a total scam.
Yes. Was quite atheist as a teenager until mushrooms and LSD put certain ideas in my mind that I came to discover were close to Buddhism and eastern philosophy in general.
Brought up JoHo, but rejected it at the age of about 9.
Adamantly wanted nothing to do with religion after that.
After using psychedelics and having a particularly strong connection to ayahuasca I am definitely much more spiritual.
I Still reject many religions, but oddly enough many have certain aspects that do fall within what I've come to believe on my own.
I had the same experience. I had one high dose trip that kinda led me more spiritually. But a year later I took 6g and sat in the woods, that was the most spiritual experience of my life. I was athiest/agnostic, now I consider myself a very spiritual person. I dont really subscribe to any religion, its more of personal beliefs I found during the experience. But the more I learn about Buddhism the more it lines up with my beliefs.
However during that trip I had an experience with Jesus. As I saw the universe for what it is, I found myself on a mountain side and I sat with him. I understood in that moment that what I was experiencing is what he did, he was an enlightened being just as the Buddha and Muhammad. Now I believe in Jesus for who he was, an enlightened being trying to spread the word as Siddhartha had, not for who the Christians see him as. He was a man, not a god. He was the son of god, just as we are all the children of god, he was just to deliver the message. God is not a man but a word for the universe, for everything, for the oneness that binds us altogether, for love.
I also came to believe in reincarnation, seeing through the eyes of past lives. Seeing life as a chapter, death is just the end and birth is the beginning of a new one.
After that experience I discovered Ram Dass, as iv listened to his teachings everything he says makes sense. Im not sure it would have before that trip. If you have not, I encourage you to listen to his lectures, I found him through the documentary Becoming Nobody. Another person is Yogananda, a guru who came to America in the 20's to teach Yoga. Watch the documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda.
Also, I made a post in this sub awhile back asking about this question, if you are interested in more responses you can look through my posts and find it. I had alot of interesting feedback.
I'm not sure I agree with this framing of atheism vs. spirituality. Spirituality is a very broad term with a very fluid definition. I don't feel that being an atheist means ignoring anything that might be called spiritual. Nobody is 100% rational 100% of the time. We all fall victim to our heuristics and biases. Everyone has their own unique experience of reality, because no two people perceive the world exactly the same. That individual truth doesn't have to be rational, because it applies only to the individual. Individual truth doesn't have to be divine, either. It's simply one's subjective perception of reality.
I grew up in a borderline fundamentalist Christian home, and considered myself atheist by age 22. Psychedelics did not provoke this change, but they have solidified my stance. My experiences have shown me the capabilities of the human brain, not some higher truth. Today I don't wear a label. I don't feel a need to be a "something." I trust in demonstrable evidence, I strive to think critically, and I live my life with no thoughts of a divine being.
I agree with you, dude.
Also, I’m a materialist/ naturalist with a ‘spiritual’ side.
I wish there was more of an appreciation for psychedelics, other spiritual experiences or a sort of ‘spirituality’ *without* any of the religious dogmatism, pseudoscience, science denial or the abandonment of critical thinking and evidence. But you don’t always get what you wish for, right? 🙄
Was raised fundamentalist evangelical Christian, but eventually I became athiestic-leaning agnostic once I removed myself from that environment. Tripping only reinforced my atheistic leanings. I've had a few full-on, terrifying ego death experiences. I listened to the message and put down the phone. Showed me the harsh reality that it's all in our heads and is nothing more than that.
Psychedelics deeply affected my sense of the spiritual aspect of life and my position in it. I didn't know how profound the word "awe" was until every cell of my being was filled with it.
I experienced an ego death on magic mushrooms. It was the most important day of my life. Words cannot explain what I went through. The most intense fear I have ever experienced, it was absolute terror at one point. I know to the second when I died the moment was like the mind completly shut off and became so quiet and still. At one point I thought I was in heaven but still in my house. Like I was in another dimension that normal perception cannot perceive. I felt this intense presense encompassing everything and that I thought it was God at one point. It was the most beautiful experience a human being can experience in my opinion.
😮holy shit bro! Omg That’s an insane amount. I’ve done like a quarter and I thought I took waaaaay too much lol. Dam u went all in man I respect the courage you had to do that, did you mean to do that much or by accident?
It was an accident. I only wanted to take 3.5 but I was trapped in a thought loop and couldnt stop eating them while being aware that its a bad idea at the same time. I literally thought I over dosed and killed myself. It was 26.7g total. Had ptsd for like 8 months, to this day im afraid to take them anymore. Ive switched to lsd to have a more controllable experience.
Omg man that’s some serious shit. I’m sorry you had to go through that man. That sounds like a nightmare. I’ve heard about these thought loops from an interview with Paul Stamets talking about this guy getting fucked up from that thought loop after eating aminita mascara and he got seriously injured. Thank god u made it out man. Have u done another shroom trip since?
Dude after what you been through I don’t blame ya at all after that night. I pretty much only mess with lsd too. Have you ever had flashbacks to that night?
All the time but ive managed to let go of most of the fucked up parts. I see it as the mushroom needed to show me what I truly am. Ive spent over 2 years researching wtf happened that night. I got into spirituality and non duality. I learned to meditate and im trying to wake myself up. Im pretty sure my experience was a spiritual awakening.
Psychedelics widened my horizons of spirituality and reality after an unguided childhood surrounded by a wide variety of organized religious peddlers, D.A.R.E., and other assorted groups, organizations, or cults. Lucky me. ODD.
I was brought up in a largely atheist family, my grandma being the sole exception as a devout Christian. She was one of the most humane people I've ever known, and in her deathbed, she was completely at peace with herself. My local church was also very nice, and had the right combination of modern tolerance, progressiveness and acceptance, and adherence to tradition, prayer and ritual. So I never had much ill-feelings towards Christianity, I just had never seen or felt God in my life, and quite frankly, it always felt a bit ridiculous to me as a kid.
I hate to say psychedelics made me become anything, but I guess they did work as a kind of a catalyst that helped me approach these concepts before I would've otherwise. The psychedelic experience, and the realization how one piece of paper can completely shatter everything one considered the baseline of experience, really got the wheels turning. I guess the experience also confirmed the existence of a higher power, in a form of whatever fabric it is that everything is based on and what guides every inch of how we and the world around us functions. After all, the fragility of your experienced normal became very apparent, when a piece of paper shattered it. The fabric of reality broke apart, and you ALMOST saw the ultimate answer, but not quite. It's an eternal paradox.
Over the course of years, after a bit of meditation, a bit of maturing with my values, a bit of more psychedelics, a lot of reading about occultism, theology, the holy books, hermeticism and traditions, I kind of just arrived to the conclusion that religions are a valid channel to observe the world. We can never observe, experience or simulate the entire fabric of existence, so we might as well conceptualize it as "God". Sort of rational irrationality. Others call it the big bang, others call it God. Others call every deity a god with one king of Gods, others call these deities angels and the king of gods "the God". I think all existential philosophies and different faiths circle around the same big "unknown" we are all aware of, and they could all learn a lot from each others' theologies and concepts.
And you might as well do some offerings for it or pray, after all, what's the harm? If god exists, he will be pleased and good things will come your way. If he doesn't exist, nothing will happen. Rationally, adopting a faith is the wisest course of action. Then there's also the social aspect... Huge temples. Shared moral fabric and values. Yearly holy days with their own communal ceremonies. All just trying to manifest the all seeing God, with a social effort that surpasses the individual ego, in a tradition that has spanned for millennia, surpassing any individual lifespan. You will communally pursue something greater and transcendent, which surpasses all your material and physical considerations around you.
Absolutely. I felt like i was exposed to the inner workings of my conciousness and my emotions. Everything felt so simple and broken down into its simplest form.
I also have started to believe in "energy" inside us, the duality of man, and many other eastern philosophies. Changed my life for the better for sure!
It's very interesting hearing about people's experiences in this thread. There are religious people who are renouncing their faith and others who's faith strengthens.
I was in two Catholic schools for primary and secondary school (6-18yrs). I had doubts when I was 9 yrs old when I asked the teacher if Noah's Ark actually happened and she said "yes".
So like, my Atheism was there for many many trips, even my first trips. I never met entities on Shrooms, LSD, Ketamine, DXM or DMT (only brokethrough twice).
It's not until I was in my late 20s until I became Agnostic instead. I was stoned one evening and thought "Who's to say there *isn't* a creator but maybe organised religions have got it wrong". So now I'm on the fence with it all now. Either there's a God or there isn't, hopefully we all find out someday lol
I wonder what it'd be like to be a hardcore Christian tripping balls thinking about Moses or the evil snake, you know?
Yes. But then my views changed after my cardiac arrest last year. I used to believe in reincarnation but now I think it's just nothingness. I was clinically dead for 40 minutes.
No. Not really. Still an atheist, but I would consider myself very spiritual, and I have no doubt that there is much we don't know yet about the universe yet. I think whatever is going on, is so complex that we just have no clue.
Doing psychedelics actually made me realize that a lot of people having religious experiences were probably just hallucinating because of substances or other mental issues. It reinforced my atheism.
I’m a Baptist pastor and regular psychedelic user. It taught me to somatically accept what I know intellectually. Christ is risen. I am loved. Death is dead. Sin is conquered. I am being remade into the divine nature!
They are a tool, much like any we use.
Yes. They impacted my path. Helped break me out of some old habits.
Yes, I had full ego death. It was ....weird.
I left Evangelical Christianity in my early 20s and started trying psychadelics in my late 20s. It has definitely not swayed me back toward organized religion. If anything, it showed me how much that kind of strictness and fear based faith damaged me. I do know I will never again follow any teaching that says I deserve eternal punishment for simply being myself.
I feel like I'm still figuring out what I do believe tbh. I think that the world and life on this planet is very interconnected and that there's lots we don't really know or understand for sure, and I don't really feel ready to say I personally understand it. I guess at this point, I'd be considered more Agnostic, atheist leaning than anything so far, but I am a curious person and never really consider my growth in anything finished. Have not tried a massive dose yet, though, so who knows. I haven't got a specific plan to yet either, but perhaps when it feels right, I'll try it and see what happens.
On one acid trip I found pantheism, and directly related to that acid trip, a later mushroom trip turned me vegan for life.
I'm astonished that there's not been a single mention of pantheism here - maybe the term is simply not well known enough yet!
Ive had multiple ego deaths now. The last few 5g+ trips I could feel the separation from my ego. Like another person fading into the room, if the room was my head. This has helped because it feels like I have someone to push back against and simply meditate waiting for the shrooms to take me. Then it’s inter dimensional travel time. It’s cured me of my very ego centric perspective of spirituality and I simply now remain open to what life is like outside of our experience here on earth. I still don’t believe in a silly human created concept of god.
It definitely strengthened my spirituality. I was raised Catholic, and was devout when young, but grew away from it around 15. I wouldn't say I was an atheist, but spirituality was not a thought/concern at that time. I started exploring psychedelics at 17, and it helped me reframe these spiritual concepts that seemed self evident within my own unique framework; as opposed to the dogma of organized religion, which I did not and still do not appreciate.
I've always been spiritual. Certain trips have definitely solidified that there's more to this ime. Albeit, I still don't have a certain denomination (written by man) that I follow. I'm definitely not atheist though.
Went from atheist, catapulted to eastern religions (Hinduism mostly with yoga and meditation), to being largely agnostic. I have appreciations for Zen Buddhism, Taoism, cultural animism as well as shamanism, but not landing anchor into anything.
I’ve seen and met too many older hippies that fried their brains on acid and now believe in Jesus to a more spooky degree than my catholic family members.
I believe in the power of human, and the invisible power at play is determinism, effort and sometimes elbow grease. People have the capacity to be great or shit.
Previous Agnostic here. I was introduced to a spiritual path a trip at a time, like chapters of a book unfolding. I have walked with the source, an immensely humbling experience.
Yes I live with ongoing pshycosis and I have had to developed my own spiritual beliefs with the aid of phycadelics in order to keep me grounded with the chaotic mind that is mine
Tripped about a 150 times and I am still a atheist.
One thing has changed. A few years ago I have started a regular meditation practice. Eventhough I had some experiences that can rival my most intense psychedelic experiences, my practice is still secular.
I haven’t had psychedelics yet. I’m a materialist and I think my version of ‘spirituality’ (okay, so it’s more like a brain-based naturalistic version of it) aligns with the non-dualistic ‘ego death’, especially when some say after psychedelics (or certain spiritual/mystical experience) ‘we’re not separate from nature’.
The days after, I could not help but feel the flow of things. In time I would learn about Daoism. It has pieced together something which was quite obvious, if I was paying attention earlier on.
I think psychedelics bring people closer to the center, a lot of Athiests will come out of a trip somewhat believing in a higher power, and a lot of Christians will come out of a trip rejecting organized religion and embracing personal spiritually.
I knew one Christian who said he met "what could only be described as the spirit of Jesus Christ.... the church is full of shit!" after a high dose trip. Another after doing ayahuasca said it shifted his perspective to thinking of Jesus as the embodiment of love, grace, acceptance, etc. and the church's teachings have massively diluted it.
Christian here. I can echo both sentiments, but I wouldn’t say psychedelics have been the cause. They have been lubricant to my developing views, but I wouldn’t say they have molded them. I had done a lot of that already throughout my life during a multi-year long deconstruction, an ongoing reconstruction, and exploration of philosophy and world religions in my own personal and academic pursuits. I believe there exists a spiritual component to the psyche that exists within us all. That component is vocal either in the conscious (active) or subconscious (dormant) levels of awareness. Effectively I’ve expanded on Jungian ideas to use as a scaffolding for some theories. Because psychedelics have the ability to alter consciousness, I believe it is possible those dormant aspects of our psyche may “wake up” in our altered conscious awareness. This would be the result of cross communication between parts of the brain that don’t normally communicate, but because of the open state one may be in it could be very easy for them to identify it as God. This wouldn’t be surprising due to the mystical nature of these altered states of consciousness. That isn’t to suggest they are any less “real,” but rather our definitions of reality are somewhat limited. “As above, so below; as within, so without,” is somewhat applicable here, though I disagree with much of Hermes’ philosophical and religious conclusions.
This happened to me. I experienced the Trinity first hand
I'd be interested in hearing about it
Little different than what the church says it is eh?
I could go on for hours.. days
I would actually be very interested in hearing your account if you felt like sharing
And lot of people, Christians or not, come out embracing organized religion AND personal spirituality!
It’s hard to ignore the separation organized religion causes in society though, when all religions arrive at the same place anyway. They just take different routes to get there
And the togetherness it causes. The Black Church, for instance, is credited almost universally by scholars as the major source of Black American resiliency and liberation.
There are literal wars still being fought over religion & the Black Church is only uniting if you’re a Christian
And Black Americans were almost universally Christian for a large part of their history. I don’t know of any religious wars happening at the moment.
You’re kidding, right? Does Palestine ring a bell?
The genocide in Gaza is not a religious war. It’s a war over over settler-colonialism. The IDF is made up of Christians, Druze, Jews, and even some Muslims. Various Palestinian armed organizations include Christians, secular people, and Muslims.
LOL you really think religion plays no role 😂
Tell me why Israel was created… then tell me it’s not a religious war
Meh I think it brings you closer to what you want to be true. I've stared a lot into the void and I just see nothing conscious or acting upon our world in any meaning full way. The best I can describe it is there is electricity running through everything making connections between people and things indiscriminately. It has shown me all we get is this one shot and upon death the electricity is returned to the collective for use in something else. Not all at once since most leave a body. The only thing sacred I see is that we get to be part of the cycle. Long story short, still very much an atheist. Psychedelics are just mirrors showing me everything in my heard
Those Christians take the wrong path, because faith (organized religions included) is as much social as it is personal. Personal spirituality should be explored and cultivated, but it's only through a shared rite and communal traditions where it can truly manifest itself. The most spiritual places you can find are surrounded by holy traditions, long established rituals, shared places of worship, shared customs, and mythologies that bind people and communities together. It's one thing to question the massive and corrupted church organization and a well established dogma, and another to abandon the whole social aspect and just follow whatever personal delusions you feel like. But yeah, I get your point and in a sense it's true, I just hate the new age individualist idea of "personal spirituality". Many people following organized religions are extremely insightful and spiritual, and conversely, many people who have their "personal spirituality" are just weed addicts who got stuck in the rabbit hole of "deep" stuff.
I would challenge you on that disdain. It is far easier to break down one’s delusions of egoic subjective reality than it is to teach someone to be open to spiritual ideas. I believe the church has been given milk rather than solid food for decades. The new age spiritualist movement and its recent increase in popularity often times is accompanied with interests in Jung and psychology. I think it’s very easy to blend the two together, which even Jung does at times (though I know he himself was not a professing Christian and was making parallels to archetypes and not a literal doctrine).
Not at all, in over 30 years of psychedelic use it has not moved the needle on the existence of gods/ghosts/aliens/magic/other assorted nonsense. If anything I've worked to ensure my epistemological tools are sharper.
> If anything I've worked to ensure my epistemological tools are sharper. I think that's the key to it all right there. Some recognize the nature of the human mind and the necessity of learning how to think critically. Others apparently see no issue with basing their worldview on the fabrications fed to them by their own subconscious minds.
I appreciate you. Sharp epistemological tools is exactly what’s lacking in most of what I see on this sub.
Influenced me to walk away from all that.
Spirituality or Religion?
Both? Well religion is out of the equation. If Zen Buddhism is spiritual then I'll be cool with that. Thanks for asking.
Human!
I have been an atheist for most of my life. After trying psychedelics, LSD, DMT, mushrooms and RC, that belief was reinforced.
Absolutely. I still identify with my catholic faith but I view it differently now and believe in Buddhism & Taoism
It changed me from atheist to spiritual; I feel like I have a new respect for consciousness and the origin of life. I can also feel a higher self version of myself, and feel my connection to the divine.
I know there is a higher power, but psychedelics (among other things, but it was really the straw that broke the camel's back) have made me realize that organized religion is a scam. People trying to make a buck off other people's faith. I respect anyone that wishes to follow organized religion, and I respect anyone that thinks there are no higher powers, but I personally think it's a total scam.
Yes. Was quite atheist as a teenager until mushrooms and LSD put certain ideas in my mind that I came to discover were close to Buddhism and eastern philosophy in general.
Brought up JoHo, but rejected it at the age of about 9. Adamantly wanted nothing to do with religion after that. After using psychedelics and having a particularly strong connection to ayahuasca I am definitely much more spiritual. I Still reject many religions, but oddly enough many have certain aspects that do fall within what I've come to believe on my own.
Congrats on getting out, hoping you have a good support network.
I had the same experience. I had one high dose trip that kinda led me more spiritually. But a year later I took 6g and sat in the woods, that was the most spiritual experience of my life. I was athiest/agnostic, now I consider myself a very spiritual person. I dont really subscribe to any religion, its more of personal beliefs I found during the experience. But the more I learn about Buddhism the more it lines up with my beliefs. However during that trip I had an experience with Jesus. As I saw the universe for what it is, I found myself on a mountain side and I sat with him. I understood in that moment that what I was experiencing is what he did, he was an enlightened being just as the Buddha and Muhammad. Now I believe in Jesus for who he was, an enlightened being trying to spread the word as Siddhartha had, not for who the Christians see him as. He was a man, not a god. He was the son of god, just as we are all the children of god, he was just to deliver the message. God is not a man but a word for the universe, for everything, for the oneness that binds us altogether, for love. I also came to believe in reincarnation, seeing through the eyes of past lives. Seeing life as a chapter, death is just the end and birth is the beginning of a new one. After that experience I discovered Ram Dass, as iv listened to his teachings everything he says makes sense. Im not sure it would have before that trip. If you have not, I encourage you to listen to his lectures, I found him through the documentary Becoming Nobody. Another person is Yogananda, a guru who came to America in the 20's to teach Yoga. Watch the documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda. Also, I made a post in this sub awhile back asking about this question, if you are interested in more responses you can look through my posts and find it. I had alot of interesting feedback.
I'm not sure I agree with this framing of atheism vs. spirituality. Spirituality is a very broad term with a very fluid definition. I don't feel that being an atheist means ignoring anything that might be called spiritual. Nobody is 100% rational 100% of the time. We all fall victim to our heuristics and biases. Everyone has their own unique experience of reality, because no two people perceive the world exactly the same. That individual truth doesn't have to be rational, because it applies only to the individual. Individual truth doesn't have to be divine, either. It's simply one's subjective perception of reality. I grew up in a borderline fundamentalist Christian home, and considered myself atheist by age 22. Psychedelics did not provoke this change, but they have solidified my stance. My experiences have shown me the capabilities of the human brain, not some higher truth. Today I don't wear a label. I don't feel a need to be a "something." I trust in demonstrable evidence, I strive to think critically, and I live my life with no thoughts of a divine being.
I agree with you, dude. Also, I’m a materialist/ naturalist with a ‘spiritual’ side. I wish there was more of an appreciation for psychedelics, other spiritual experiences or a sort of ‘spirituality’ *without* any of the religious dogmatism, pseudoscience, science denial or the abandonment of critical thinking and evidence. But you don’t always get what you wish for, right? 🙄
Was raised fundamentalist evangelical Christian, but eventually I became athiestic-leaning agnostic once I removed myself from that environment. Tripping only reinforced my atheistic leanings. I've had a few full-on, terrifying ego death experiences. I listened to the message and put down the phone. Showed me the harsh reality that it's all in our heads and is nothing more than that.
I'm not more religious but definitely more spiritual. Almost have developed my own belief system because of psychedelics.
Psychedelics deeply affected my sense of the spiritual aspect of life and my position in it. I didn't know how profound the word "awe" was until every cell of my being was filled with it.
I experienced an ego death on magic mushrooms. It was the most important day of my life. Words cannot explain what I went through. The most intense fear I have ever experienced, it was absolute terror at one point. I know to the second when I died the moment was like the mind completly shut off and became so quiet and still. At one point I thought I was in heaven but still in my house. Like I was in another dimension that normal perception cannot perceive. I felt this intense presense encompassing everything and that I thought it was God at one point. It was the most beautiful experience a human being can experience in my opinion.
I need that! How many mushies it take to get the job done my dude?
It was alot my friend over 20g, and I ended up in the ER.
😮holy shit bro! Omg That’s an insane amount. I’ve done like a quarter and I thought I took waaaaay too much lol. Dam u went all in man I respect the courage you had to do that, did you mean to do that much or by accident?
It was an accident. I only wanted to take 3.5 but I was trapped in a thought loop and couldnt stop eating them while being aware that its a bad idea at the same time. I literally thought I over dosed and killed myself. It was 26.7g total. Had ptsd for like 8 months, to this day im afraid to take them anymore. Ive switched to lsd to have a more controllable experience.
Omg man that’s some serious shit. I’m sorry you had to go through that man. That sounds like a nightmare. I’ve heard about these thought loops from an interview with Paul Stamets talking about this guy getting fucked up from that thought loop after eating aminita mascara and he got seriously injured. Thank god u made it out man. Have u done another shroom trip since?
As of now no shrooms since that night. Its been 2 years. I only use lsd right now.
Dude after what you been through I don’t blame ya at all after that night. I pretty much only mess with lsd too. Have you ever had flashbacks to that night?
All the time but ive managed to let go of most of the fucked up parts. I see it as the mushroom needed to show me what I truly am. Ive spent over 2 years researching wtf happened that night. I got into spirituality and non duality. I learned to meditate and im trying to wake myself up. Im pretty sure my experience was a spiritual awakening.
everything. absolutely everything not a single thing stayed the same other than , well also everything, hehe :)
Oh yes. I was strictly religious. Now I am. That is all.
Psychedelics widened my horizons of spirituality and reality after an unguided childhood surrounded by a wide variety of organized religious peddlers, D.A.R.E., and other assorted groups, organizations, or cults. Lucky me. ODD.
I was brought up in a largely atheist family, my grandma being the sole exception as a devout Christian. She was one of the most humane people I've ever known, and in her deathbed, she was completely at peace with herself. My local church was also very nice, and had the right combination of modern tolerance, progressiveness and acceptance, and adherence to tradition, prayer and ritual. So I never had much ill-feelings towards Christianity, I just had never seen or felt God in my life, and quite frankly, it always felt a bit ridiculous to me as a kid. I hate to say psychedelics made me become anything, but I guess they did work as a kind of a catalyst that helped me approach these concepts before I would've otherwise. The psychedelic experience, and the realization how one piece of paper can completely shatter everything one considered the baseline of experience, really got the wheels turning. I guess the experience also confirmed the existence of a higher power, in a form of whatever fabric it is that everything is based on and what guides every inch of how we and the world around us functions. After all, the fragility of your experienced normal became very apparent, when a piece of paper shattered it. The fabric of reality broke apart, and you ALMOST saw the ultimate answer, but not quite. It's an eternal paradox. Over the course of years, after a bit of meditation, a bit of maturing with my values, a bit of more psychedelics, a lot of reading about occultism, theology, the holy books, hermeticism and traditions, I kind of just arrived to the conclusion that religions are a valid channel to observe the world. We can never observe, experience or simulate the entire fabric of existence, so we might as well conceptualize it as "God". Sort of rational irrationality. Others call it the big bang, others call it God. Others call every deity a god with one king of Gods, others call these deities angels and the king of gods "the God". I think all existential philosophies and different faiths circle around the same big "unknown" we are all aware of, and they could all learn a lot from each others' theologies and concepts. And you might as well do some offerings for it or pray, after all, what's the harm? If god exists, he will be pleased and good things will come your way. If he doesn't exist, nothing will happen. Rationally, adopting a faith is the wisest course of action. Then there's also the social aspect... Huge temples. Shared moral fabric and values. Yearly holy days with their own communal ceremonies. All just trying to manifest the all seeing God, with a social effort that surpasses the individual ego, in a tradition that has spanned for millennia, surpassing any individual lifespan. You will communally pursue something greater and transcendent, which surpasses all your material and physical considerations around you.
Absolutely. I felt like i was exposed to the inner workings of my conciousness and my emotions. Everything felt so simple and broken down into its simplest form. I also have started to believe in "energy" inside us, the duality of man, and many other eastern philosophies. Changed my life for the better for sure!
Oh totally. Moved from total Atheist/Nihilism to "yup, there's someone out there"
It's very interesting hearing about people's experiences in this thread. There are religious people who are renouncing their faith and others who's faith strengthens. I was in two Catholic schools for primary and secondary school (6-18yrs). I had doubts when I was 9 yrs old when I asked the teacher if Noah's Ark actually happened and she said "yes". So like, my Atheism was there for many many trips, even my first trips. I never met entities on Shrooms, LSD, Ketamine, DXM or DMT (only brokethrough twice). It's not until I was in my late 20s until I became Agnostic instead. I was stoned one evening and thought "Who's to say there *isn't* a creator but maybe organised religions have got it wrong". So now I'm on the fence with it all now. Either there's a God or there isn't, hopefully we all find out someday lol I wonder what it'd be like to be a hardcore Christian tripping balls thinking about Moses or the evil snake, you know?
Yes. But then my views changed after my cardiac arrest last year. I used to believe in reincarnation but now I think it's just nothingness. I was clinically dead for 40 minutes.
No. Not really. Still an atheist, but I would consider myself very spiritual, and I have no doubt that there is much we don't know yet about the universe yet. I think whatever is going on, is so complex that we just have no clue.
Doing psychedelics actually made me realize that a lot of people having religious experiences were probably just hallucinating because of substances or other mental issues. It reinforced my atheism.
Yes, at first i thought i was athiest. After tripping i knew i was athiest
I’m a Baptist pastor and regular psychedelic user. It taught me to somatically accept what I know intellectually. Christ is risen. I am loved. Death is dead. Sin is conquered. I am being remade into the divine nature!
They are a tool, much like any we use. Yes. They impacted my path. Helped break me out of some old habits. Yes, I had full ego death. It was ....weird.
I left Evangelical Christianity in my early 20s and started trying psychadelics in my late 20s. It has definitely not swayed me back toward organized religion. If anything, it showed me how much that kind of strictness and fear based faith damaged me. I do know I will never again follow any teaching that says I deserve eternal punishment for simply being myself. I feel like I'm still figuring out what I do believe tbh. I think that the world and life on this planet is very interconnected and that there's lots we don't really know or understand for sure, and I don't really feel ready to say I personally understand it. I guess at this point, I'd be considered more Agnostic, atheist leaning than anything so far, but I am a curious person and never really consider my growth in anything finished. Have not tried a massive dose yet, though, so who knows. I haven't got a specific plan to yet either, but perhaps when it feels right, I'll try it and see what happens.
On one acid trip I found pantheism, and directly related to that acid trip, a later mushroom trip turned me vegan for life. I'm astonished that there's not been a single mention of pantheism here - maybe the term is simply not well known enough yet!
Ive had multiple ego deaths now. The last few 5g+ trips I could feel the separation from my ego. Like another person fading into the room, if the room was my head. This has helped because it feels like I have someone to push back against and simply meditate waiting for the shrooms to take me. Then it’s inter dimensional travel time. It’s cured me of my very ego centric perspective of spirituality and I simply now remain open to what life is like outside of our experience here on earth. I still don’t believe in a silly human created concept of god.
It definitely strengthened my spirituality. I was raised Catholic, and was devout when young, but grew away from it around 15. I wouldn't say I was an atheist, but spirituality was not a thought/concern at that time. I started exploring psychedelics at 17, and it helped me reframe these spiritual concepts that seemed self evident within my own unique framework; as opposed to the dogma of organized religion, which I did not and still do not appreciate.
Made me realize i was never an atheist and was just forcing it upon me due to the influence of my then philosophy teacher.
I've always been spiritual. Certain trips have definitely solidified that there's more to this ime. Albeit, I still don't have a certain denomination (written by man) that I follow. I'm definitely not atheist though.
Went from atheist, catapulted to eastern religions (Hinduism mostly with yoga and meditation), to being largely agnostic. I have appreciations for Zen Buddhism, Taoism, cultural animism as well as shamanism, but not landing anchor into anything. I’ve seen and met too many older hippies that fried their brains on acid and now believe in Jesus to a more spooky degree than my catholic family members. I believe in the power of human, and the invisible power at play is determinism, effort and sometimes elbow grease. People have the capacity to be great or shit.
Previous Agnostic here. I was introduced to a spiritual path a trip at a time, like chapters of a book unfolding. I have walked with the source, an immensely humbling experience.
Yes I live with ongoing pshycosis and I have had to developed my own spiritual beliefs with the aid of phycadelics in order to keep me grounded with the chaotic mind that is mine
Tripped about a 150 times and I am still a atheist. One thing has changed. A few years ago I have started a regular meditation practice. Eventhough I had some experiences that can rival my most intense psychedelic experiences, my practice is still secular.
I haven’t had psychedelics yet. I’m a materialist and I think my version of ‘spirituality’ (okay, so it’s more like a brain-based naturalistic version of it) aligns with the non-dualistic ‘ego death’, especially when some say after psychedelics (or certain spiritual/mystical experience) ‘we’re not separate from nature’.
It hasn't, no, but it made me more open to listen to the beliefs of others.
The days after, I could not help but feel the flow of things. In time I would learn about Daoism. It has pieced together something which was quite obvious, if I was paying attention earlier on.