“The Christian hope of the future is that … the true message and meaning of the Incarnation will come to be more deeply understood: and the demand on man’s worshipping love and total self-offering, will receive a more complete response – a response stretching upward in awe-struck contemplation to share that adoring vision of the Principle which is ‘the inheritance of the saints of light,’ and downwards and outwards in loving action, to embrace and so transform the whole world. When this happens, Christian sacramental worship will at last disclose its full meaning and enter into its full heritage. For it will be recognized as the ritual sign of our deepest relation with Reality, and so of the mysterious splendour of our situation and our call: the successive life of man freely offered in oblation, and the abiding life of God in Christ received, not for our own sakes, but in order to achieve that transfiguration of the whole created universe, that shining forth of the splendour of the Holy, in which the aim of worship shall be fulfilled.”

Evelyn Underhill

According to Shin Buddhism, we humans have the capacity for Buddha Nature, but typically express Bombu Nature. The usual translation for Bombu is “a foolish being of wayward passion”. Human beings, in their unregenerate state, are foolish beings of wayward passion.

What is “wayward passion”? Anger, hatred, jealousy, fear, lust, greed. In the Wheel of Babylon, derived from the Tibetan Wheel of Life, these emotional states are personified in three archetypal figures, namely, the Demon, the Victim and the Addict.

What is “foolish being”? Willful ignorance, self-righteous delusion and conceited arrogance. These states are personified in the upper three archetypes of the Wheel of Babylon, that is, the Muggle, the Muppet and the Diva.

According to Shin Buddhism, the only way to overcome our ingrained Bombu Nature is by throwing ourselves on the mercy of the Cosmic Buddha, Amida Butsu, since nothing within the closed system of the Wheel of Life can liberate us from it. We cannot pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Thus Shin is known as the Buddhism of Faith.

The Way of the Holy Mushroom is also a Way of Faith, and for exactly the same reason, which is simply that There Is No Other Way. Either you give up tying yourself up in knots with the endless twists and turns of the ego, or you don’t. Either you “die before you die” (which is to say, die to your self), or you don’t. Either you have faith and surrender to life unmediated by foolishness and wayward passion, or you don’t.

Paul Tillich writes of the need for the existential courage to despair and the need for absolute faith in the face of meaninglessness beyond the dishonest but comforting half-measures and cop-outs of the ego. The courage to be holy is the courage to despair of Babylon and put all your trust in the power of Being-itself. Whether you call it “the love of Amida” or “the love of God” doesn’t really matter. Just have faith, absolute faith.

“Love breaks down the barrier that shuts most of us from Heaven. That thought is too much for us really, yet it is the central truth of the spiritual life. And that loving, self-yielding to the Eternal Love – that willingness that God shall possess, indwell, fertilize, bring forth the fruit of His Spirit in us, instead of the fruits of our spirit – is the secret of all Christian power and Christian peace.”

Evelyn Underhill

These little blogs are crumbs that have fallen from my table. They will help you find your way through the psychedelic forest.

You can follow if you want, it’s up to you. But unlike Orpheus, I’m not looking back.

The Way of the Holy Mushroom combines outer alchemy (“waidan”) with inner alchemy (“neidan”). The psychoactive psilocybin brew is the “external elixir” which, in conjunction with special meditation techniques (mantras, breathwork, metanoia, etc.) produces the mysterious “golden elixir” that heals and rejuvenates body and mind.

The alchemy is effected through the skillful use of religious formulations (“holy magic”) and the interplay of consciousness and energy (“Shiva” and “Shakti”). The enormous amplification in the natural levels of bio-electricity in the body (“Qi” in Chinese) triggered by psychoactive compounds such as psilocybin can then be harnessed in the service of physical, emotional and mental well-being.

Recent scientific research on bio-electricity has shown it to have both restorative and regenerative properties. However, science has yet to catch up with the ancient arts of inner alchemy, and has no clear understanding of the relationship between consciousness and energy.

Hermetic discipline (quarantine from worldly distraction and rumination) for example, has long been advocated by spiritual masters as essential for the cultivation of Qi, as it is the only way to free up consciousness from the monopoly of the mind. Sustained attention or mindfulness is also essential. As an old Chinese adage has it, “you cannot cook golden rice in a leaky pot”.

“There is but one salvation for all mankind, and that is the life of God in the soul. God has but one design or intent towards all mankind, and that is to introduce or generate his own life, light, and spirit in them, that all may be as many images, temples, and habitations of the Holy Trinity. This is God’s will to all Christians, Jews and heathens. They are all equally the desire of his heart, his light continually waits for an entrance into all of them, his wisdom crieth, she putteth forth her voice, not here, or there, but everywhere, in all the streets of all the parts of the world.

Now there is but one possible way for man to attain this salvation, or life of God in the soul. There is not one for the Jew, another for a Christian, and a third for the heathen. No; God is one, human nature is one, salvation is one, and the way to it is one; and that is, the desire of the soul turned to God. When this desire is alive and breaks forth in any creature under heaven, then the lost sheep is found, and the shepherd has it upon his shoulders. Through this desire the poor prodigal son leaves his husks and swine, and hastes to his father: it is because of this desire, that the father sees the son, while yet afar off, that he runs out to meet him, falls on his neck, and kisses him. See how plainly we are taught, that no sooner is this desire arisen, and in motion towards God, but the operation of God’s Spirit answers to it, cherishes and welcomes its first beginnings, signified by the father’s seeing, and having compassion on his son, whilst yet afar off, that is, in the first beginnings of his desire. Thus does this desire do all, it brings the soul to God, and God into the soul, it unites with God, it co-operates with God, and is one life with God. Suppose this desire not to be alive, not in motion either in a Jew, or a Christian, and then all the sacrifices, the service, the worship either of the law, or the gospel, are but dead works, that bring no life into the soul, nor beget any union between God and it. Suppose this desire to be awakened, and fixed upon God, though in souls that never heard either of the law or gospel, and then the divine life, or operation of God, enters into them, and the new birth in Christ is formed in those who never heard of his name. And these are they ‘that shall come from the east, and from the west, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, in the kingdom of God.'”

William Law (from The Spirit of Prayer)

The spirit of the Holy Mushroom only reveals itself in its full power and glory when approached with due reverence and humility and with the true spirit of worship.

This is only possible with religious training, that is, with the acquired capacity for heartfelt worship and prayer.

Take inspiration from the monastics, the world experts in devotional prayer. It’s never too late or too early to learn bhakti yoga. The Mushroom is patient. The Mushroom will wait.

O worship the King

All glorious above;

O gratefully sing

His power and his love:

Our Shield and Defender,

The Ancient of days,

Pavilioned in splendour,

And girded with praise.

O tell of his might,

O sing of his grace,

Whose robe is the light,

Whose canopy space.

His chariots of wrath

The deep thunder-clouds form,

And dark is his path

On the wings of the storm.

Paul Tillich and Rudolf Otto get to the bottom of what it means to tread the Way of the Holy Mushroom in their classic works, The Courage to Be and The Idea of the Holy. When you understand the radical, existential nature of courage and faith and the radical, supernatural nature of the numinous and the holy, you understand how the ritual, sacramental use of psychedelics makes for a strong, faithful and holy people.

The courage to be Holy is the courage to despair of Babylon and to put all your trust in the power of Being-itself. Beyond the wisdom of the world and the morality of the world, beyond psychedelia and mysticism, beyond duality and non-duality, there is the immutable and infinite holiness of God, the source of all holiness.

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.

Matthew 20:22

The Holy Grail is a mythical cup which confers eternal youth to whoever drinks from it. The knights of the round table of Arthurian legend are sent out on a quest to find it, as it is the only thing that can heal the stricken king.

What is the Holy Grail?

It is a cup filled with the blood of Christ, which is the spirit of God (some might say, filled with an entheogenic elixir). In Kabbalah, this “saving cup” is the Kli, the spiritual vessel for the divine light. In Christianity, it is the body of Christ, the Word made flesh, containing the spirit of Christ, the eternal Logos.

If we can’t stand the power of this spirit in the psychedelic experience, if we cannot “bear the beams of love”, we will either close down, batten down the hatches and block the influx of psychic energy, or we will shatter into pieces: Shevirat haKeilim. And without a solid container, the life-giving spirit will be lost, as if we were to pour water into a cracked vase.

The “set and setting” provide a container for the psychedelic spirit. The mantra and the music in particular act as vessels for the divine energies so that we can hold them and hold onto them, and channel them through our mortal frames without blocking or shattering. But so does our ability to endure, to stand firm and withstand “the slings and arrows” of the spirit world.

Taking our cue from Nassim Taleb’s work, the vessel which receives the devastating power of the psychedelic numen must be “anti-fragile”. Unlike a fragile wine glass that smashes as soon as it hits the hard floor, or a non-fragile plastic beaker that bounces back, it must be anti-fragile. Like our bones and muscles, which get stronger when put under stress, the soul of the shaman increases in resilience and power with each psychedelic onslaught.

The mystical elixir inside the cup fortifies and strengthens the cup itself. Although the ego may shatter, although the mind may shatter (the “shattering of the vessels”), the soul, which is the true cup, manifests ever more strongly. The golden chalice is not given to us, but must be found, must be alchemically created, out of the very golden elixir it holds.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but only if you have a good-enough container to start with. Strong psychedelic medicine is contra-indicated for emotionally unstable people with serious mental health problems, people with severe anxiety or depression, and people with a history of psychotic breakdown. (Psychedelic treatments can be enormously healing and beneficial for all sorts of conditions, but only within a supportive and carefully administered therapeutic context, with continuous professional care and attention during the experience, and lengthy preparation and integration before and after).

Although the excitable advocates for the psychedelic renaissance like to portray psychedelics as a miraculous panacea for all our problems, there is no magic pill, there is no short cut, and there is no free lunch. It’s bloody hard work. And it’s not for everyone.

Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.

Matthew 20:22

In his 1960 book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis explores the different manifestations of four distinct forms of love: storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (sexual/romantic love) and agape (charity). He makes the point that any one of the first three forms of love become corrupted and distorted if divorced from the fourth form, agape, which he calls “the love of God”. It seems that without this mysterious love of God, we can’t help making idols of one or several of the other loves, and that never ends well:

“The claim to divinity which our loves so easily make can be refuted […] The loves prove that they are unworthy to take the place of God by the fact that the cannot even remain themselves and do what they promise to do without God’s help.”

This is readily seen if we relate the first three loves to the different worlds of the Wheel of Babylon (see the Meditation page). Storge is associated with Muggle World, being the love of comfort and domesticity, family and familiarity. Filia is associated with Muppet World, in the sense that it creates a separate clique or elitist bubble which can foster collective delusions in relation to the rest of society. Eros is associated with Diva World, in the way in which it builds exquisite pleasure palaces for its blessed lovers.

To reiterate, C.S. Lewis is not saying that there is anything inherently wrong with storge, philia or eros. In fact, human beings cannot live happy and fulfilled lives without them. His point is, rather, that they can become distorted and inflated to the exclusion of the transcendent Source of Love and of each other. As soon as they “take the place of God”, they begin to sour and go bad.

When storge goes bad, the cosy, comfortable and familiar Muggle World degenerates to the point where it becomes indistinguishable from Addict World. Those loved things that habitually bring comfort, whether substances like coffee or alcohol, behaviours like shopping, socialising or watching television, change from Muggle needs to Addict needs. We find ourselves caught in an ever-tightening spiral of urgency and desperation.

When philia sours, the special bonds of friendship, cameraderie and solidarity turn into bonds of slavery, enmity and paranoia. Muppets in arms become Victims both of the (real or perceived) persecution of outsiders, and of each other. A cult mentality develops, where all sorts of abuses can flourish in an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion. Think of Stalin’s inner circle, or Osho’s.

Finally, when eros goes rotten, the delirious passions of sexual and romantic feelings quickly flip over into intense rage, jealousy and hatred. Divas in their Diva Heaven become Demons in Hell, ever discovering new and ingenious ways to torture each other.

Without agape, that endlessly self-giving fount of charity and eternal source of Light and Love, storge, philia and eros inevitably flounder on the rocks of selfishness and narcissism, making Addicts out of Muggles, Victims out of Muppets and Demons out of Divas, endlessly turning the Wheel of Babylon, until we finally find the courage to step off into the infinite ocean that is the love of God.