Perceptions of reality can be deceptive;
I had hallucinations the first and only time I tried marijuana.
I had what could be described asa ‘mystical experience’ around age 25. Hard to describe.I seemed to be hyper aware , of EVERY THING. The feeling lasted perhaps 10 minutes, faded away and has never returned.
The cause: I can’t be certain, but reasonably sure. The feeling /altered perception began immediately as I solved a zen koan, which had been in my head for abut 5 years. I was definitely not consciously thinking of the koan at the time. The answer was non verbal .Once the feeling had gone, I could not recapture the non verbal feeling, and have not, since that time
Today: I interpret the feeling as being in the same broad area as hypnosis and meditation . IE an altered state of consciousness, caused by the brain as the result of specific and perhaps unusual stimulus. This a physical experience, containing nothing 'mystical or ‘other worldly’ I don’t believe that mind is separated from the body or that the mystical or that the supernatural exists. REASON: Complete lack of proof.
I’m unable to jump into the sophistry in which Xain seems to have gotten himself enmeshed. It’s common in religious cults.*8 I’m finding it difficult to find a premise on which to base a response. Is there ONE starting place?
PS I have never been able to solve another koan.
PPS: LSD : I read in ‘The Lancet’ perhaps 30 years ago that it had been discovered that the cause of hallucinations from taking LSD is that the drug breaks down sugar in the brain. I don’t understand the process, I mention this for interest…
** “New Heaven New Earth” Kenhelm Burridge.