“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Genesis 3: 22-24

Who are the Cherubims guarding the way back to the garden of Eden? Embodiments of cynicism and fear.

Cynicism arises as a consequence of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But it is a far bigger problem now than it ever was when Genesis was written. You might go so far as to say that it’s a defining characteristic of modernity and postmodernity, especially in the West. On a psychological level, it manifests as an aspect of what Freud called “the Superego”, or as a subpersonality, variously called “the Cynic”, “the Critic”, “the Scoffer”, “the Know-It-All”, “the Blackadder”.

The adult ego is adept at dismissing anything that challenges its control and authority as infantile and silly. Freud himself fell under its spell when he dismissed religion as regression to a primitive state of childish dependence. Jung, on the other hand, didn’t fall for such rationalist cynicism.

Where the Cynic relies on ridicule and mockery to circumvent any perceived threats to the controlling ego, the Frightened Child just runs away and hides under the covers. At the first sign of danger or difficulty, it shuts down in a kind of psychological narcolepsy.

Cynicism results in ironic detachment. Fear results in dissociation. Thus it is the Cynic and the Frightened Child that stand guard at the gates of Eden and bar the way to the Tree of Life, maintaining our pathological disengagement with life.

The Happy Child, on the other hand, is full of life, energy, courage, curiosity, innocence, imagination and trust, qualities that the cynical and frightened adult ego has lost. Which is why you won’t get far with psychedelics until you connect with your inner Happy Child.

The Psychedelic Way is a way of magic, adventure, playfulness and wonder. It is the way of the little heroes of children’s fiction, of Alice, Christopher Robin, Peter Pan, Momo and Chihiro.

“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18: 2-3

Remembering God means awareness Here and Now of the presence of God.

And awareness of the presence of God depends on your presence Here and Now.

An intellectual grasp of theism or enlightenment is beside the point.

Remembering God Here and Now is the same thing as remembering Zen.

So Wake Up.

Be Here Now.

Even though remembering is more fun when you forget

(And the Prodigal Son is celebrated more than his brother)

Keep your forgetting short.

Don’t let it last a lifetime.

Keep remembering.

And if you can’t remember,

Remember the magic plants.

They are more than happy to remind you.

The French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a play called Huis Clos, No Exit, about three characters trapped in a room for all eternity. The most famous line from the play is “l’enfer, c’est les autres” or “hell is other people”.

Not everyone shares Sartre’s apparently misanthropic sense of the hellishness of society. He was clearly something of an intellectual snob for a start: “I found the human heart empty and insipid everywhere except in books”. But many people are uneasy to varying degrees, which is why the perennial problem of the right relationship between the individual and society never goes away.

Sartre was obsessed with the idea of authenticity, a preoccupation shared both by the psychoanalysts and cultural Marxists of the time. Erich Fromm is the figure who best exemplifies both these approaches, most famously in his book The Fear of Freedom, originally published in 1941, just three years before Sartre’s play was first performed.

Sigmund Freud believed that civilization depended on the ability of individuals to conform, but that this was achieved at the cost of neurosis: “when an instinctual trend undergoes repression, its libidinal elements are turned into symptoms, and its aggressive components into a sense of guilt.” (Civilization and Its Discontents). Freud’s thesis is very much in line with Jean-Jaques Rousseau’s famous dictum that “Man is born free and everywhere is in chains”, except that for Freud the chains are internalised, more akin perhaps to Blake’s “mind-forg’d manacles”.

The Muggle answer to the problem of Sartrean social discontent is to try your best to fit in. But that solution has already been ruled out by the existential demand for autonomy, freedom and authenticity. Also, conformity may have some merit in a sane society, but what if the society itself is unhinged? As Jiddu Krishnamurti put it, “it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.

Even in a relatively sane and healthy society, the Muggle Way is a satisfactory way out of Sartre’s existential discontent only for those who don’t feel particularly trapped in the first place. For those who feel it keenly, the Muppet Way seems more promising. If we really are in a profoundly sick society, then isn’t the correct response to either pursue socio-political reform, or else overthrow the whole rotten edifice and start again? The revolution versus reform debate simmers away continuously in the minds and hearts of political dissidents and discontents, but the Muppet Way is the way of permanent revolution.

Unfortunately, as the numerous revolutions of the twentieth century volubly attest, this usually simply fulfills the old adage, “out of the frying pan and into the fire”. It seems that the Utopian visions of revolutionary radicals don’t actually pave a way out hell but rather plunge us into a deeper one.

So what about the Diva Way? What about worldly success, fame and fortune? Can enjoying the best society has to offer reduce and even erase our discontent? Will a night at the opera with champagne and caviar do the trick? Apparently not. At least not according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled Don’t Envy the Super-Rich, They Are Miserable.

The Victim Way obviously won’t get you out of your existential discontent either. Impotently bemoaning your lot and blaming every man and his dog for it, although providing some psychological relief in the short term, inevitably ends up compounding your discontent. The only real practical utility is to provide more fuel for the Muppet Way.

The Addict Way similarly offers immediate relief with long-term negative consequences. In moments of weakness it may seem that the way out is at the bottom of a bottle, but it never is. And the Demon Way, the way of violence, murder and suicide, is best left well alone, for obvious reasons.

There is no way out of this closed room. There are no doors. Huis Clos.

Except upwards. For this is a room without a roof (Pharrell Williams) and the only way is up (Yazz).

In the Shamanic Christian Zen scheme, the Philosopher archetype is in the fifth position. It is preceded by the Mystic, Shaman, Warrior and Monk/Nun archetypes. The sixth position is held by the King/Queen archetype.

The antithesis of the Philosopher is the Muppet, which represents delusional thinking. The problem with Muppetry is that logic only works in a logical world. You cannot counter illogicality with logic. Thus the saying, “you can’t argue with a sick mind, so don’t try”. The same applies when you argue with your own “sick mind”. Both Freud and Jung understood this very well.

Sometimes is is culture itself which creates sick minds. Sometimes it is a subculture, as happens in the formation of cults. Joost Meerloo calls the systematic attack on people’s capacity for rational thought “menticide”, whether applied to one person in an abusive relationship, or to millions. In The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide and Brainwashing, Meerloo argues that the ground for totalitarianism, for example, is laid by engineering a confused and submissive population through various propaganda techniques, including carefully orchestrated waves of fear.

Once common sense has been sufficiently weakened, the would-be totalitarians can move in to establish some semblance of longed-for order amidst the chaos. And they can play fast and loose with the truth, moulding reality to suit their own agenda.

“Menticide” is also common among thinkers who have lost touch with reality for other reasons than cynical political control. Too much exposure to radical skepticism, moral and epistemic relativism, postmodern deconstruction and critical theory in a population can lead to a type of menticide, especially when combined with mind-bending drugs. Whatever the thinking, whatever the theories, however, once minds are severed from their roots in the body and reality, delusional thinking and mass psychosis become real and present dangers.

When it comes to thought control, menticide and brain washing, the trick is to circumvent the ground and foundations of thinking. In other words, you must erase the first four positions by encouraging dissociation from reality, sense, body and feelings. Someone firmly established as a Mystic, Shaman, Warrior and Monk-Nun, is immune to mental manipulation and cognitive distortion.

I cannot speak truth as a Philosopher aligned with reality unless I am grounded in mysticism, shamanism, body and feelings. And you cannot hear the truth I speak unless you too are so grounded. And vice versa. True speech, true understanding, true dialogos, is only possible when both parties are in the fifth position. Otherwise we are in Muppet Land clutching at the flotsam and jetsam of the shipwreck Reason … which is why I am no longer talking about anything (unless we are in the fifth position).

However, I would go even further than this and say that this grounding in the Mystic, Shaman, Warrior and Monk/Nun archetypes (or in dhyana, kundalini, karma and bhakti yoga) crucially depends on the last of these, that is, the “grace of devotion”. Bhakti yoga is about the higher feelings and religious devotion. I would say that this is the natural emotional response to the lived experience of “remembering God”.

I identified six ways to remember God in the recent blog post of that name. They are: prayer, scripture, ritual, art, mantras and entheogens. All these are forms of bhakti yoga and belong to the fourth position, that of the Monk/Nun (with the understanding that “entheogens” here refers to the numinous-aesthetic-devotional element of the experience).

So I would make the stronger and obviously more contentious claim that, not only do we need to be grounded in mysticism, shamanism, body and feelings in order to think straight, but that our minds our ultimately unreliable unless and until we “remember God”. Jnana yoga requires bhakti yoga.

In psychedelic shamanic ceremonies it is customary to keep noble silence. In a Zen retreat or sesshin you are expected not to talk. Trappist monks keep their traps shut.

Ours is a very talkative culture. For many, retreats are a welcome break from all the blah blah blah. Places for the ten day vipassana silent meditation retreats notoriously sell out like hot cakes. You can find retreats of all kinds all over the country and they are increasingly popular.

But in the hurly burly of modern hyper-connected urban life, it is difficult to resist the draw of the jaw. “Not here, not here the darkness, in this twittering world”.

The Four Quartets is a love poem to Christian mysticism. T.S. Eliot was one of those sensitive poet who appeared to have been continually pained by the incessant vulgarity of the chattering classes. He could see that English culture was progressively losing its connection to its spiritual roots, which is what gives his poem its elegiac quality.

Mysticism is at root concerned with silence. Etymologically, it derives from the Greek verb muo, “to shut”, as in “to shut your mouth”. Historians have speculated whether this has something to do with the secrecy surrounding the Ancient Greek mystery cults. What happens in Eleusis stays in Eleusis.

Intense meditation retreats are designed to quiet the mind, especially the overactive verbal part, mainly associated with the left brain hemisphere. They are a training in mystical consciousness, releasing dormant powers of perception and insight normally covered over by layers of verbiage.

As I explain in my book, mysticism is a portal to deeper and wider realities. I quote Chuang Tzu, the Chinese sage from the 4th century BC, who said that “the portal of God is non-existence”. This is why the system I have developed begins with mysticism.

The system proceeds sequentially through a series of archetypes, representing specific faculties and capacities. First the Mystic, then the Shaman, then the Monk (or Nun), then the Philosopher and then the King (or Queen).

These archetypes are associated with different yogas: dhyana yoga for the Mystic, kundalini yoga for the Shaman, karma yoga for the Warrior, bhakti yoga for the Monk/Nun, jnana yoga for the Philosopher and raja yoga for the King/Queen. Dhyana yoga is about meditation; kundalini yoga is about energy; karma yoga is about action; bhakti yoga is about devotion; jnana yoga is about knowledge and raja yoga is about Self-realisation.

The idea is that we should move through all of these during the course of a psychedelic journey. First, we enter a state of mental quiet through meditation. Then we awaken our inner somatic energies as we “come up” on the psychedelic to energising shamanic music. Then we stretch and exercise the body in a flowing sequence of martial art movements. Then we adopt a devotional attitude by listening to sacred music. Then we work through and process our experiences in dialogue with others. And finally, we meditate on the essence of who we are.

Talking should be kept to a minimum until the jnana yoga stage, the “Philosopher” stage, which is the fifth stage. Crucially, you don’t talk until you have worshipped. Jnana follows bhakti. Otherwise the intellect suppresses the emotions and/or intellectualises them. Until you have acquired the grace of devotion, meaningful talk about serious questions inevitably rings hollow.

As I said, we live in a very talkative culture. Our inner muggles like to natter, our inner divas like to pontificate, our inner muppets like to argue and our inner victims like to moan. Whether we are being sociable, wise, intellectual or just need to get something off our chest, we love to talk. And talk is cheap.

But it really is mostly a lot of hot air, unless we first pass through the Mystic, Shaman, Warrior and Monk/Nun stages. That is, unless we first practice dhyana yoga, kundalini yoga, karma yoga and bhakti yoga. Then you can talk. Then your words will carry weight. Then they won’t just be swept up in the general maelstrom of the collective unconscious meaning-generating-machine known colloquially as “the Matrix”.

“You must seek the grace of devotion with earnestness, ask for it with real desire, wait for it with patience and trust, receive it with thankfulness, keep it with humility, use it with diligence, and commit to God the time and manner of His heavenly gift. Above all, humble yourself when you feel little or no inner devotion, and be not too depressed or discouraged, for God often grants in one short moment what He has withheld for a long while. And sometimes He grants in due time what He delayed to grant at your first request.

Were grace always granted at once and to be had for the asking, the weakness of man could hardly support it. The grace of devotion must therefore be awaited with firm hope and humble patience. When it is not granted, or when it is withdrawn, regard this as due to yourself and your own sinfulness. Sometimes it is a small matter that hinders or conceals grace – if, indeed, it may be termed a small thing and not grave that delays so great a good. But once you have removed this obstacle, whether small or great, and have perfectly overcome it, you shall have your desire.

As soon as you shall yield yourself to God with all your heart, and seek nothing for your own will and pleasure, but place yourself without reserve at His disposal, you shall find yourself united to Him, and at peace. Nothing will afford you more joy and satisfaction than the perfect fulfilling of God’s will. Whoever, therefore, raises his intent to God with a pure heart, and disengages himself from all inordinate love or hatred of any creature, shall best be prepared to receive grace, and be worthy of the gift of devotion. For Our Lord bestows His blessing where He finds vessels empty to receive them. And the more completely a man renounces worldly things, and the more perfectly he dies to self by the conquest of self, the sooner will grace be given, the more richly will it be infused, and the nearer to God will it raise the heart set free from the world.

Such a person will overflow and wonder, and his heart will be enlarged within him, for the hand of the Lord is upon him, and he has placed himself wholly in His hand forever. Thus shall the man be blessed who seeks God with his whole heart; he has not received his soul in vain. When he receives the sacred Eucharist, he merits the great grace of divine union, for he does not look to his own devotion and comfort, but beyond all such devotion and comfort he seeks the honour and glory of God.”

Thomas à Kempis

Baptism is an initiation rite that uses water as the elemental symbol of spiritual purification.

The idea is that through baptism you are cleansed of your sins so that you can embark on a new spiritual life with a clean slate and a clear conscience. You are “born again” into a completely different mode of being. Symbolically at least, you are free of your besetting sins, whatever they may be.

You could say that the clinical use of psychedelics for the treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression or addiction is a kind of baptism by fire. It is an intense form of therapy whose effectiveness depends on the direct confrontation of the sufferer with his or her deepest psychological issues. Sometimes, it seems that water just isn’t enough, as John the Baptist indicated in his famous prophecy:

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”

Matthew 3:11

In the clinical context, it is primarily those issues around greed (addictions), fear and anxiety (a victim mentality) and depression and despair (inner demons) that the psychedelic therapists focus on. These are represented in the Tibetan Wheel of Life by the lower three realms, the hungry ghost or “addict” realm, the animal or “victim” realm and the hell or “demon” realm. The hope is that intense psychedelic therapy can go some way towards curing these seemingly intractable conditions.

In a spiritual context, there are also the higher three realms to take into account, namely the human “muggle” realm, the fighting spirit “muppet” realm and the heavenly “diva” realm. These must also be cleansed and purified before the neophyte can enter the Holy of Holies.

Conceited divas are not fit for the spiritual life:

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Mark 10:25

Revolutionary muppets are not fit for the spiritual life:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Matthew 7:15

Reluctant muggles are not fit for the spiritual life:

“And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9: 59-62

Neither muggle, muppet or diva, nor addict, victim or demon is fit for the spiritual life. However, these ego structures are burnt up by the miraculous effect of the Holy Spirit in a psychedelic baptism of fire. Then, and only then, is communion of the soul with God in the psychedelic kingdom possible.

There are therefore two stages in Shamanic Christian Zen training: Psychedelic Baptism and Psychedelic Communion. And you can only partake of the second once you have undergone the first. As Thomas à Kempis, always succinct and to the point, said, “the reason why so few receive inward light and freedom is because they cannot wholly renounce self.”

Religions generally have four ways to remember God:

1. Prayer
2. Scripture
3. Ritual
4. Art

In Christianity, there are set prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Jesus Prayer, as well as petitionary prayers and “freestyle” prayers where God inwardly teaches the soul the right way to pray. The other three ways involve reading the Bible, especially the Gospels, attending a church service and/or taking Holy Communion and engaging in sacred art and music.

I have two other ways to remember God:

1. Mantras
2. Entheogens

I call my main mantra “The God Mantra” (see the blog post of that name) and I sometimes call psychedelics “entheogens”, which means “generators of God within”.

The distractions of everyday life make it difficult to keep your mind rooted in God, to practice the presence of God. It takes the same conscious effort as being in the here and now, or being aware that you are aware (Self-remembering). Ultimately these three practices converge in the same experience of Zen flow.

Religious people have access to the first four ways, and sometimes (Hindus and Buddhists for example) to the fifth. The rare religious believers with shamanic sympathies (or practicing shamans) who take psychedelics potentially have access to all six ways. SBNR (spiritual but not religious) people who take psychedelics have access to two or three at most, since they are unlikely to regularly attend religious services, read sacred scriptures or pray.

Non-religious people who take psychedelics may not have access to any of the ways, since they don’t regard psychedelics as entheogens, are unlikely to frame their experiences in an explicitly spiritual manner, and are unlikely to have powerful and compelling mystical experiences in the first place. (For some reflections on why this is so, see my post Why Naturalists Don’t Get High.)

Nominal Christians go to church once a week (usually less) and only occasionally read the Bible. They only pray in times of particular stress and mostly disapprove of psychedelics. So although they consider themselves to be religious, they don’t actually “remember” God very much at all. They are too busy with their lives. Their minds are on other things.

Religious, SBNR or atheist, most people don’t “know” or “remember” God at all. These are really just identity markers, which define people as members of particular social groups with particular views and tastes. Their predominant motivation in life is to be successful and respected members of their respective tribes.

Those who have had direct experiences of God or the Divine, however, have a very different motivation. They may have had one or several mystical experiences, but for them that isn’t enough. There is no resting on your laurels when it comes to the true, living God. The goal of the genuine mystic is to sustain the vision, to keep faithful to it, to keep the covenant and commandments, to remain in the presence of God, to pray without ceasing, to live a life of meditation and service, to worship, give thanks and praise, and do everything to the glory of God.

The Buddha taught that all suffering is ultimately caused by craving, tanha. He organised suffering into three types:

1. Suffering of suffering: birth, old age, sickness, death, coming across what is not desirable.

2. Suffering of change: not being able to hold on to what is desirable; not getting what we want.

3. All-pervasive suffering: general misery.

The general misery, or unsatisfactoriness, of the third type is related to our human-all-too-human failings and shortcomings. The Platonist in me recognises three types of “general misery”:

1. The inability to be good.

2. The inability to appreciate beauty.

3. The inability to apprehend truth.

Thus, when societies lose sight of the Good, the True and the Beautiful, the people suffer.

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son.

The Bodhisattva so loved the world, that he gave up his only chance of Nirvana.