Invitations and Demands - - to Growth of Consciousness

Up meditating at 3 am… 

What came up for me was my overall current direction in this latest embodiment:    

1-To use Ken Wilber’s  AQAL model as a map for exploring the territory of growth of human consciousness. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

2-To explore Best Practice models for accelerating the growth of human consciousness. 

Recently I heard how MDMA, an empathogen, can be considered an “Invitation,” to open up access to hidden or frightful unconscious information. 

True psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, are a “Demand,” to open up access to hidden unconscious information. 

(Dr Richard Yensen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7J0RF3UODA)

This Invitation and Demand, both work through the same method, the full or partial dissolution of the protective Ego. 

 

Invitations are, in general, more gentle.

They invite you along for the ride…  

And you can refuse to go… 

Examples of Invitation level work include, meditation practices, depth psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork, shamanic journeying, micro-dose LSD and other psychedelics.   Low to medium dose cannabis likely can be placed in this category. 

 

Micro-dose LSD is currently a hot topic due to Ayelet Waldman’s recent book, “A Really Good Day.”

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/how-ayelet-waldman-found-a-calmer-life-on-tiny-doses-of-lsd

Demands, are just that… 

Medium to high doses of psychedelics will take most people “down the road.” 

Sometimes, kicking and screaming, literally… 

When you dissolve the Ego, and it’s defense mechanisms, the organism feels as though it is dying… 

That is why set and setting is so important. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_and_setting

Keep in mind that even the most gentle Invitations can tear you apart… 

Meditation, particularly at high doses… for example a 10-day silent retreat… 

Tore my Ego to shreds… 

All for the good… 

The Ego popped back together,

Leaving out stuff,

I no longer needed…

Can be pretty frightening for those with fragile Egos… 

That is why you need good support,… 

Guides who know the territory… 

Guides who have good maps… 

Invitations and Demands… 

Alternating Being and Doing… 

Developing Wisdom and Compassion… 

I invite all of you on this journey to explore these higher levels of consciousness… 

Disclaimer…  don’t do anything illegal… 

Namaste

Psychedelic Deficiency Syndrome (PDS)

Yes, you heard it first right here! 

The scourge of our lifetime…  

PDS can be:

1- A personal problem… 

2- A societal problem… 

Let me say up front, psychedelic experence is not for everyone… 

And recreational use of psychedelics can be a problem for some individuals:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269881116662634

But, the safety of psychedelic use, in the proper set and setting, is 100%,

And, can literally save your life… 

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0269881116675513

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0269881116675512

I’m not gonna get into the problems of the 60’s and 70’s that led to these lifesaving medications being placed into Schedule 1. 

I’m not even gonna get in to our current political climate… 

I am simply naming a new syndrome. 

So that, perhaps, the conversation can change. 

There are millions of individuals with depression, anxiety, chronic pain, PTSD, addiction disorders… 

Where one or more of these medications might save their lives… 

We are literally killing individuals by perpetuating this PDS… 

 

I see them every single day in my clinic. 

I’m sure you see them in your lives, in your coffee shops, and on the streets… 

Used correctly, these are not very fun medications,

they can send you to hell… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2017/01/resistance-and-existence.html

But, when you come back from hell,

you will feel a whole lot better… 

Yes, you can get to the same place with meditation… 

But, that takes time

And effort

Many people don’t have the time…  think cancer… 

Many people don’t have the effort… 

Many people may not have the cognitive or emotional intelligence… 

That the long road might take… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/helicopters-and-enlightenment.html

But, if they can glimpse the path,

they might develop what it takes… 

To get

To

That

Place

Of

Peace… 

Namaste

Resistance and Existence

Reading too much again… 

This time, James Bugental’s, The Art of the Psychotherapist, he has a great chapter on resistance in psychotherapy. 

Also, starting The Ketamine Papers, just published by MAPS.

Resistance is very interesting.  We go to a psychotherapist for help, yet we resist this therapy…  

And it can take years for us to realize why we are resisting. 

The answer is simple,

the path is not… 

We resist, because we have to die to our old self… 

We resist, because we will cease to exist… 

Well, that is what our Ego feels… 

And painfully so… 

Sometimes like being ripped apart… 

Often, just depressing…  

As, I’ve written, only 3 emotions… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-emotions.html

We are attracted to things that make us happy… 

We push away things that are painful, distressful… 

And the third is confusion and ignorance… 

A large part of psychotherapy is uncovering this confusion… 

This is often at the core of our distress… 

We don’t have any idea why we are in distress… 

Why we are depressed… 

And we develop addictive behaviors to sooth our distress… 

We love that serotonin/dopamine rush of positive reinforcement… 

Even if it is so simple as seeing that people liked our Face-Book posting…

They don’t call it Crack-Book for nothing…  

We drink alcohol too much, take drugs too much, eat too much, shop too much, look at our phones instead of connecting with the people at the same table… 

Resistance to Non-Existence… 

Makes perfect sense… 

We don't want to die… 

Our Ego doesn’t want to die… 

And that is the whole point to psychotherapy and meditation… 

Sitting still, accessing our inner thoughts, our desires, aversions, and confusions… 

Bugental talks about the mismatch between the world as it really is, and the world we think it should be… 

“Shoulding” ourselves again… 

We have to dismantle this Personal World Construct… 

And rebuild one that better matches reality… 

That is where we get back to Ketamine… 

A dissociative anesthetic… 

How does it relieve depression and anxiety, or help with addictions? 

I think it does so in a similar manner to the psychedelics. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/helicopters-and-enlightenment.html

There is some level of a near death experience, a partial dissolution of Ego… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/10/psychedelics-meditation-and-death.html

Low dose Ketamine is very safe. 

 

LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, ayahuasca, all very safe… 

In the right SET and SETTING! 

They can give blissful states… 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2015/10/bliss-and-enlightenmen.html

They can send you to the deepest darkest hells… 

That is why you need a good guide! 

Before you take this trip, during the ride, and after this ride is over… 

So you don’t start chasing the Bliss… 

So you begin to know what is the meaning behind the hell you just experienced… 

Psychedelics help us through our resistance by allowing us to die... 

Before we actually die… 

Allowing our Ego to die… 

Like the Phoenix, we can arise from those ashes,

as a new self… 

perhaps,

slightly more aligned,

with what is

True and Real… 

(And can someone tell me why Resist turns into Resistance, with an “a,” and Exist turns into Existence, with an “e?”)

Wishing you all the Happiest of New Years! 

Namaste