One of the reasons it seems that people like to take drugs, is to escape from the norm of your everyday mind, problems, society, etc. Sometimes, it shuts the constant chatter of your brain down or you feel more creative or other times, you do just feel like a complete idiot while high. Drugs have also been used for centuries in all sorts of religious and spiritual ceremonies, in order to achieve a certain experience, feel closer to ‘God’, or a variety of other reasons (both positive and negative). Now, the question begs, can you have a spiritual experience spurred on by drugs? Specifically, can marijuana generate an enlightened state?
Let me start out by stating that I do believe that certain psychedelic drugs can can take you into a space, that allows you to question, realize, and get a peak into a different interpretation of reality.
People have commented, that through drugs such as LSD, mushrooms, DMT, and the like; that they had life-altering experiences. Indeed, these trips could be classified as ‘spiritual’ in nature.
I too, have had amazing and really blissful states, that I got to through meditation and readings on philosophy/non-duality.
I’ve never done the aforementioned drugs, but I have smoked marijuana probably a dozen or more times in my life, and I never had a really profound experience while on it.
Not that it particularly matters, as if you read my other post, “How to Have a Spiritual Experience”…you will see that I don’t put much stock into these experiences, as they aren’t the end game and are often short-lived.
What about Weed?
Different drugs I’ve taken in my life, have obviously given me different experiences:
Ecstasy, made me feel a lot of joy for a night, during a time in my life when I was in a really depressed state and not yet ‘awakened’. It was more of a group experience, overall, with that drug.
Though, later in life, I really did achieve the same feeling of bliss/oneness, with only meditation and inquiry. This is without having to ingest, whatever extra chemicals, the drug dealers decided to add to the base MDMA.
Even my trials with 5-HTP, produced a lower level of this upbeat and positive flood of emotions.
Cocaine, was just awful. I did it once and never felt so supremely paranoid and egoic in my entire existence…not something the depressed version of myself needed. I don’t get the appeal of this drug at all. Maybe I’m not wired for it? However, I for one, think it sucks.
Marijuana Early Experiences vs. Present Useage
Marijuana, on the other hand, I enjoyed smoking. It didn’t give me a spiritual experience but what it did do was to allow me to feel de-personalization. These were some of my initial experiences with the ‘illusion of the self’, so to speak.
Like, for some of the first times in my life, I had experienced no thoughts rushing through my head. I felt like, I was nothing more than an observer in my own body. Just pure awareness.
Of course, that was only when I was sitting by myself after smoking. Once I started talking to other people, I felt much more of my normal experience of reality, at that time.
However, it wasn’t enough to have a spiritual breakthrough or anything like that…I didn’t have the tools at the time to make anything come from it.
Anyways, experiencing ‘no-mind’ is really more of a symptom (or a clue) of awakening, and lots of people would find that depersonalized state scary or confusing. Some folks, freak out on pot.
Recent Experiences…
Now that I’ve gone pretty deep with the meditation, non-duality, and have had the intense ‘spiritual’ experiences; being ‘awake’ is just sort of my default existence.
This state isn’t a perpetual bliss. There are days where that occurs, but most days are pretty mundane. Sorry to disappoint. We still have to exist within the context of the society we live in, with our biological needs/limitations, while being a part of the ‘universal’ perspective. This balancing act, really confuses a lot of people.
Anyway, my more recent experiences, have come in the form of edibles. When I have visited the states where it is legal, in the Western US, I always buy some marijuana gummies.
These gummies, along with the awakening to non-duality, do tend to produce a very close approximation to the more intense ‘spiritual experiences, I’ve had. They supply the physical/mental stimulation component, while I just sit back as pure awareness.
It’s cool. Definitely a fun thing to do on vacation. Book a tour, get taken to see nature, while in a completely blissed out state? Yes, sir.
Keep in mind, this is small doses of 5-10 mg, and not being blazed out of my mind.
Still, it doesn’t ‘reveal’ anything that I already don’t already fundamentally experience daily. Just adds an enjoyable physical component.
Final Thoughts…Will Weed Give One a Spiritual Awakening?
Weed definitely isn’t a requirement for any of these experiences and trying to chase a spiritual high, again isn’t an end goal…you will end up just chasing those experiences more and more, instead of just being content with what is.
No-mind can also happen, on a more biological level through sex. This is one of its appeals for people, even for those who are seeking anything. For a time, it’s forgetting all the rest of what is happening in one’s life.
Also, I’ve noticed it when I’ve been really sick, and the disorientation of nausea and vomiting creates an interesting (if physically unpleasant) state; where I’m just operating on pure biological reaction without thought. Same thing, just on the perceived negative side.
So, all in all, I wouldn’t say that marijuana is a good way to have a ‘spiritual experience’ or reach ‘enlightenment’. Those sorts of states just seem to happen at random for me, and any time that I used to make a concerted effort to get there, it would fail.
That kind of experience is really just like having your awareness be more open. Like, if normally the door of experience was only open a crack, and then it became wide open for a full glimpse. It’s certainly cool but it isn’t practical (or maybe even possible) to stay that way forever.