LSD and Magic Mushrooms case history

Preface This section is one of three on the issue of drugs, their effects on consciousness and the issues they present for Society. The first, “Human Beings, Nature Spirits, Mushrooms and LSD”, was written over 30 years ago. It is written in the ‘New Age’ style that was in vogue in the 1980’s. The second, “LSD, hallucinogenic revolution that never was” discusses the discovery of LSD and considers the affect the chemical has on the consciousness and the behavior of people who have ‘tripped’ earlier in life. The third “Amphetamines, Pervitin, Methamphetamine/Ice” describes the terrifying affect that Amphetamines and Methamphetamines have on consciousness, the brain and the body of users. It makes a point that these modern chemicals are on their way to destroying Australian Society. Human Beings, Nature Spirits, Mushrooms & LSD This article discusses the theory that magic mushrooms and LSD … in some cases allow access of Nature Spirits into people’s body and consciousness. It centers around a case study that I documented when I was working as a psychologist in a New Age clinic. Background Twenty nine years old Robert trained as an accountant. About five years ago he dropped out to spend more time playing music and surfing. For the first two years Bob lived in Sydney’s Northern beaches area sharing house rental with likeminded people. During this time Bob discovered the pleasures of the ‘alternative’ society. Brought up in a work ethic oriented, professional household, he had a revelation discovering that his body and mind could be a source of intense pleasure. Marijuana and Hashish were communally used in Bob’s life at this stage. The first tentative LSD experience was taken. Meditation was discovered and explored in a primitive, superstition shrouded version of an Indian form. So, set into the ways of the alternative society(but not accepting its responsibilities) Bob travelled north. He stopped off near Kempsey where friends shared a $20 per week shack. Life was physically tough in this household and people tended to freak out using drugs and music. In his short period there, Bob had more LSD experiences and his first ‘magic mushrooms’. Bob then headed further north to Nimbin, where he stayed on the farm of friends in a tent. By this time Bob was having strong psychic experiences. It is hard to unravel what were ‘genuine’ psychic experiences and what may have been internal hallucinations. I prefer to regard all Bob’s experiences as genuine and anchored in some ‘out there’ happenings. Robert recounted some of his experiences for me: Having the energy field in his body swell out to meters in size, giving him an incredible feeling of strength and wellbeing. Being in love with trees — more accurately the energy fields that radiate from large trees. Having the need to give healing force to people by letting energy flow through his hands and head. Robert’s experiences were compatible with “in common with the human race but unusual” . Similar reports can be found in Christian charismatic literature (where they are often called being filled by the “Holy Spirit”). Yoga manuals warn students that experiences similar to Bob’s are common on “the path”. These experiences led Robert to develop a values system oriented towards his internal personal satisfaction. He sat naked in public to welcome the joy of the morning sunrise; he openly hugged trees in crowded parks. First Understandings During the first few days of our contact Bob came across as helpful and intellectually competent. Slow, it was true; but persistent in what he did. Once started on a chore or a behavior pattern he would persist even past the point when the chore or behavior was appropriate. I have seen similar behavior in other ‘alternative’ people, mostly in less extreme form. It prevents many alternative people from doing anything really positive with their lives but allows them to survive by being passed on between caring friends. Our household has occasionally cared for other such injured people. Usually contact gave us a simple understanding of the cause of their slowness. With Robert it was hard to understand the cause. It was almost as if part of him was missing. We struggled to understand where the missing part could have gone. At this stage I got two extrasensory clues: One, the vision of a particular area of eucalyptus forest. Two, a Scottish figure; male, short and powerful, but not very clear. The Scotsman appeared to want to tell me something, an urgent message, that I had to receive by sunset. I failed to receive the communication. Over the days, our puzzlement continued. It became clear that Bob was lacking in many of the emotions that make for human communal life. We started to squabble amongst ourselves  —  meaningless squabbles set into a framework of family confusion. It took me a few days to work out that this came from the area around Bob. Bob creates an area around him of unreality. Being with him, and empathizing with him, takes you out of this physical reality. One needs to make a conscious effort to bring oneself back to the task at hand; one begins to talk to oneself… I’ll turn the car left here and then turn right at the next corner then I’ll… Bob was also draining energy from me. When this happened, he was faster and more alert. But I was getting drained faster than I could recharge. So I gave Bob a healing session, a thing I was reluctant to do, preferring to have a solid diagnosis to work from before attempting change. I lacked a concrete understanding, yet could stand the confused household and energy-theft no longer. In the healing situation it became clear that there was no link between Robert’s etheric and astral bodies. The astral body was there, but did not link into the etheric body and make it function. Yet Bob clearly had an etheric body and what seemed to be astral emanations. What was lacking was an outer shield on the astral body. By applying thought, will and visualization, I constructed a shield around the astral body. This astral shield was soon approached by what appeared to be mainly nature spirits — almost garden fairies. I had no trouble keeping them off the shield. Bob may have been a little better after the healing, but it was hard to tell. He went off to sleep. The next morning Bob seemed much as always. The aura had a bit of edge to it but essentially, lacking a desire to change — no change had occurred. (Healing, as I understand it, can do no more than give the patient aid truly sought at least at some level of being). That day I left Bob with another healer in our group. Bob was in his presence for about six hours. Later, my associate told me he felt that: Part of Bob’s mind was “out past Pluto”. That Bob was essentially sane, but selfish —  the phrase “spiritual hedonist” was used. Bob had physical health troubles in the stomach to bowel area. Neither of us had a logical treatment system which we could use for Bob. So in the end we decided that all we could do was to just let healing energies flow through us and hope that something would happen. At this stage an aside: There are many magic mushroom and LSD users who display symptoms similar to Bob. Those worse than Bob end up at the bottom of waterfalls with their heads through rocks maybe imagining they are dewdrops. Those better than him often function fairly well but with their orientation towards the spiritual and nature kingdoms. This orientation makes life difficult for acid heads as, even in the alternative society, there are physical needs that must be met. Often helping these people is possible by steadying their aura and by opening new channels for energy flows where old ones have been damaged by acid. Bach remedies only rarely help, although homeopathic remedies do often help, applied directly onto energy areas. Much damage is done to magic mushroom and LSD users. Unprepared, they are suddenly exposed to the Kingdom of the Devas. Unaware of even the simplest occult rules, the victims create for themselves incredible problems. Leary, in his work on acid, talked at length about the critical importance of ‘set’  —  be fearful and you get a fearful trip. The occult rule covering this idea is the basic, ‘like attracts like’. Take an acid trip in the sincere hope that it will bring you knowledge useful to the world, and  you can find psychic guides who will help you; but take a trip for ‘kicks’ aid you attract beings who could just also enjoy kicks and their kick may be to kick you. Maybe this, I thought, is what had happened to Bob. His family and accountancy background left him unprepared and badly motivated for extrasensory experience. On top of this internal soul problem, apparently the mushrooms and acid had done major damage to Bob’s mind/electrical/etheric/astral-body systems. The astral body seemed the most damaged. As my time with Bob extended, I noticed a fascinating phenomenon: when Bob dozed (a thing he often did) he would be surrounded by any astral information that one wanted to find. ‘Look’ (i.e. sense) for the Scottish warrior and he was there. Look for a simple person, an aggressive person or an evil person and there they were.” This was new to me. Yet this is the sort of thing reported as happening in many séances where mediums are controlled by spirit beings. If a seeker asks a medium about “Uncle Alf” then “Uncle Alf” may appear just as the questioner remembers Uncle Alf. What is being seen is a memory duplicate  —  a playful spirit ‘reads’ the seeker’s memory of “Uncle Alf” and supplies a copy of what the seeker wanted. According to some sources, this sort of playful-spirit duplication occurs mostly in séances if the sitting lacks higher motives and the medium is untrained and/or inexperienced. Yet Bob was not possessed by a discarnate person. Possession by discarnate humans (individuals who live in the astral without a physical body) is common enough. With astral possession the discarnate astral person takes over the etheric and physical body of the incarnate person (incarnate = living in a physical body in the physical world). The normal schizophrenic has an astral body and usually has a strong, maybe confused, astral form. Schizophrenics are also notoriously unstable; changing personality as their emotions work through their identity as can happen many times in one day. Bob was stable, he remained ‘Bob’ over the time he spent with us and his parents reported that he ‘had not changed for years’. So Robert was not a normal schizophrenic because: He changed astral form to satisfy the observer’s thought. He lacked an astral body. He remained stable, if odd, over the years. Actually, within four days I knew what was wrong with Bob instantly, by inspiration, without all the above logical and deductive thinking. It was obvious Robert was possessed by a Nature Kingdom being  —  a Deva of some form or, as the Irish would say, “Begorra! he’s been blessed by the Fairies.” With the help of LSD, Robert had given his body to the fairies. Working from this hypothesis, many things could be made to fit. The mischievous sparkle in his eyes when he was happy  —  a sort of flower — like etheric twinkle that one does not see in human eyes. The early need Bob had to clutch and communicate with trees. Bob’s desire to (naked) greet the sunrise with exercises. Bob’s understanding of his body was also unusual  —  he was fascinated by its energy flows yet unable to use it in more than a clumsy physical fashion. Bob did not have ‘human’ emotions  —  the energy flows from his lower chakras was minimal little sex, no compassion and no love were the way Bob related to the world. These are human emotions that the nature kingdom does not have. Bob also had a lemming–like desire to return to the Nimbin forest… a need so great that it was the driving force of his personality during our time together. Another important aspect of Robert’s personality was the mischievous enjoyment he clearly got from creating trouble amongst the people he was living with. Robert was also draining to be with because he had an odd way of being able to read the human mind and rob its contents. Here is another aside, my discussion with a friend who was highly competent in psychic matters. We were discussing a young man who went to Switzerland and set himself on fire as a social protest on behalf a CIA inspired Indian religious cult. “…His parents keep asking me to check up on Herbert, their son who has recently been pushed into suicide. I had known him for years before he began using hallucinogenic drugs. Whenever I check up on how Herbert’s spirit is doing in the afterworld, I get a happy, contented image. Yet, when the parents ask mediums to check (there are two they use) they get reports of a twisted, suffering being. I’ve known that kid for years, and I’m sure of what I’m getting, so what are they getting?’ Recollecting my experiences with Robert, I offer the suggestion that the being who suicided was not Herbert at all, but a Nature Spirit. Herbert had left his body shortly after his first hallucinogenic ‘trips’. My friend stopped, meditated for a timeless moment, and said, ‘Yes, that’s it — he was already dead.” Back to Robert… Robert seemed so eager to gain an understanding of what humans were about that ‘he’ constantly watched what went through our human minds. This was both unnerving and exhausting. This raises a question that I pondered on for days: How was it possible, and why was it permitted, that a Nature Spirit could occupy human form? As for the HOW, I suspect that the mushrooms and LSD did so much damage to Robert’s astral body that it simply became uninhabitable to beings with astral components. This leaves the question of WHY. Maybe by getting access to a human body, Nature Spirits have a unique opportunity to gain understandings about human life and society. Nature Spirits, not having proper personal consciousness, are all interconnected in important ways (like a school of fish or a flock of birds.) So the Nature Spirit that took over Robert was able to radiate its experiences into some aspect of the shared Nature Kingdom consciousness, probably the Nimbin forest that Robert was so keen on returning to. Towards a Conclusion Perhaps the nature kingdom is now so discouraged over human ecological stupidity that it is interconnecting with humans to preserve wilderness areas, to prevent damaging Nature-Being homes, to help the physical world by the use of ‘aware’ human beings. Bob is not only ‘aware': he is an information collecting tool — but there are thousands of other ‘flower people’ walking the world today. The better functioning flower people are extremely environment conscious, fighting with panic and cunning — rather than rational action — human encroachment into the haunts of the nature kingdom. ********** So that’s what mushrooms and acid do: they open gateways that allow the nature kingdom access to the material, physical world of human actions. Bob was a case of complete +possession —  many others are just influenced in moments of reflection by the nature kingdom  —  but all, one could say, have been “blessed by the fairies”. The following quote from page 116 of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘The Fifth Gospel’ is an external confirmation that the removal of a human being’s ego need not result in the immediate death of the body. In the paragraph quoted below, Steiner is talking about the Solomon Jesus-boy’s body which formerly contained Zarathustra’s human ego:- “…It must be remembered that the possibility of life does not immediately cease for a human being who gives up his Ego, as did the Solomon Jesus — boy. Just as a ball will go on rolling through its own momentum, the force in such a being enables his life to continue for a time. And for those who cannot observe human souls with such delicate perception, the difference between a soul in which the Ego is present and a soul from which the Ego has departed is not very great. For when we encounter a soul in everyday life, the Ego is not working so very directly. What we experience in contact with a human being, what we become aware of in him, is in the very smallest degree a direct revelation of the Ego; it is a revelation of the ego through the astral body. This Jesus — boy, however, retained his astral body; and only those who can discern whether old habits, old thoughts, are working on in a soul, or whether something new is being received  —  and this is not easy to distinguish  —  can perceive whether the Ego is still present or not. But a decline sets in, a kind of dying, withering process. And so it was with the Solomon Jesus — boy.” Robert  —  what is his future? Well, Bob, as a feeling sensitive, thinking human being… is dead. The body we see and call Bob is really a zombie  —  the human soul having left. What remains is a physical structure and its etheric and other energy components. The mind inside the body, working the machinery, is some sort of eucalyptus forest Deva. To confirm this I was able to find Bob in the astral world (or what I perhaps wrongly identified as Bob). This Bob soul is happy; very content in the astral with no desire nor intention to reoccupy the human body that was left behind. Lacking the possibility of reintroducing Bob’s soul back into the body, I avoided repairing the astral body towards healing that would have contributed to Bob’s soul going back into its body. Such repair is likely to result in some discarnate human form taking Bob’s body —  not an exercise that I wanted any part of. So, for reasons of sympathy with the nature kingdom, I applied healing to improve Bob’s body, that the occupying nature spirit could gain some human compassion and love. I certainly achieved an improvement in the solar plexus and heart chakra areas and whether this improvement will remain and be used by the nature spirit I cannot tell; yet I hope so. These two human emotions are what separates us from the lower Deva kingdom. If contact between us and the Devas is to be extended, then their understanding of this humanity must be good. One more matter puzzles me: What were the reasons behind the phenomena of LSD, mind blowing and flower people? The days of nature fairies and flower people are surely with us!