Isn’t it interesting that whenever people report experiences of meditation, trance, altered consciousness and the like– whether through deliberate self-inducement, drug use, or something else– there is almost always some reference to feelings of “everything being alive” and “becoming one with the universe”? Encounters with fond and friendly creatures who wish to help people reach a “higher state of being” or just show affection are also common. It interests me that the creatures in this encounter were indentified perfectly by the wise woman whom the author visited thereafter, that through drugs and meditation respectively both were put in touch with a very similar phenomenon.

I am, for future reference, not one to approve of chemicals as a way of seeking the spiritual, though I respect people’s right to use them. The times I have tried alcohol it has always made me feel more out of touch with existence than in touch with it, and as such I don’t drink. To be disconnected from feeling my place in existence is frightening, and since I am perfectly capable of having experiences of greater connectedness without drugs I do not see fit to put myself through experiences I feel might mangle this communication as much as, or even more than, they enhance it. That is just personal preference, but it feels like the way I am meant to approach things, and so I do. However, that does not keep me from finding what happens to people during these experiences interesting, from a spiritual perspective.

(To note, I did not set out to write this essay as an argument for or against drug use; you may certainly feel free to discuss it, but it was not my intention in writing it, so I hope it doesn’t overshadow the main point– that is, that people approaching the transcendent from wildly different pathways often seem to find the same core experiences. My disclaimer was purely that, a disclaimer that I do not endorse these things, though neither do I censure them.)