Astral Projection - A Personal Project

Astral projection is a subject that seems like a no-brainer for someone like me to be interested in. For me, the interesting part is how hard it's been for me to get much experience at all with this phenomenon. Most other mystical or esoteric phenomena I've made an effort to accomplish came comparatively easy with a little focused intent and study, but astral projection is one of those things that is almost infuriating in how hard it is for me to do it.

I've read book after book, tried the standard techniques, tried to develop my own theory and methods, and yet I've had very limited success. Part of my problem is that I seem to only ever have time or desire to try it out after I lie down to go to sleep for the night which is a huge no-no for conscious astral projection. To date the best I've ever been able to accomplish are some lucid dreams and some false awakenings and even those were entirely by accident. Typically what happens is I lie in a trance, experience vibrations and sensations of motion, maybe feel my limbs floating about, but I just never seem to be able to make it completely out of my body.

Instead of giving up like some people might, I'm actually going to pick astral projection back up after many months of disinterest. This is actually the project I mentioned in my last post regarding getting back into doing stuff. My thinking is that if I continually study astral projection, make an effort to practice some standard techniques, and get my mind right as to how I think it works then maybe I'll get lucky one of these times and go zooming out amongst the cosmos.

So the first part of my project is a formal statement of intent here. Maybe with it written for all to see I'll have a little more motivation to get it right this time. This will also be a way for me to eventually give some kind of progress report or at least relay what I've learned. Anyone that has any advice or experiences is more than welcome to share them below in the comments. Wish me luck.

The Tepaphone - Black Magic Meets Technology

I learned of the tepaphone while reading a novel that mentioned it in passing but it was one of those things that I forgot about for years until I reread the book a few months ago. Curious about the word, I decided to look it up online and what do you know? The tepaphone is a real (and perhaps very dangerous) piece of occult lore.

The tepaphone is essentially a black magic psychotronic death ray. Using magic to hurt people is probably as old as magic but leave it to the Germans to build a machine to optimize the whole ordeal. Conceived of by a secret German occult order, the tepaphone is supposedly a combination of wire coils and lenses used to project some kind of energy onto a target that would harm them greatly. Now, when I hear about this my mind goes spinning, dreaming up explanations for how this type of device works from an occult perspective (and I do have a few ideas) but without actually seeing one I'm not sure I can know for sure.

Having taken a professional interest in optics as of late I find it fascinating that lenses are at work in this device. I wonder what effect they produce while also considering the symbolic power of something that can bend the path of light or even split it into its constituent parts. I guess I'm mostly interested in the possibility of combining something from my mundane life with something from my magical life to get a powerful effect at the end. I wouldn't think this type of device would be limited solely to hurting people either, if it were modified.

I don't know if I'll ever build a tepaphone of my own but it has definitely sparked my imagination to maybe try some new things when it comes to magic (or even psychotronics/radionics). If my surmising of the principles behind the tepaphone is correct then I'd think one wouldn't need to salvage an old magic lantern to build a rough replica to experiment with. It could be as simple as a consecrated flame and a way to creatively direct some intention.

The articles below will more than whet the appetite of any interested occultist. Credit to the respective authors for inspiring this post and my explorations into this area of the mystical.

Tepaphone – The Magickal Death Ray
STRANGE MACHINES
Oh Tepaphone, Oh Tepaphone

Doing Stuff

A problem that I encounter a lot in paranormal or occult groups is a that there is a lot of discussing and philosophizing but not a lot of practice. Granted, it's difficult to do any sort of group practice when the group is hosted on a message board or chat server. However, I feel it's important to guard against armchair occultism which is too easy to fall into. Day-to-day life tends to get in the way of metaphysical efforts but recognizing this is the first step in doing something about it.

Lately I've found myself invested in mundane concerns with not a lot of time to devote to occultism. When I do find time I usually spend it on the computer or in front of the television. Recognizing this, I'm going to make more of an effort to actually do something in the realm of the paranormal and occult. This may start as just reading another book for inspiration but I have a project in mind and a goal I want to work toward. I'm sure that I'm not the only occultist that has had this happen to them. I think that taking a break from occult or spiritual projects is sometimes necessary in order to rest and gain some perspective.

Now I'm ready to pick it back up again. Ready to do more rather than just talk about doing more. Hopefully this can serve as some inspiration to my fellow occultists out there that are tired of just learning stuff and now want to do stuff. Thanks to the people that have stressed doing stuff in the past and tried to get all of us lazy occultists motivated again. You know who you are. So what are you waiting for? Go do something.

2012 Scenarios Debunked

2012 Pictures: 6 Maya Apocalypse Myths Debunked

This is something to think about for anyone feeling on edge this year. This debunking says nothing of unforeseen supernatural influences but it does give a little more insight into the date and the theories that are getting passed around. There are, of course, many more individual theories of apocalypse as well as theories of transformation.

I don't worry about it too much. Whatever is coming, if anything, is totally beyond my control. An event of this magnitude is on a scale so large that my worry and fear will do absolutely nothing to thwart it. As such I don't worry about it. I just go on with my life. If this really is the last year then I'm going to live it how I want, not cowering in fear of something I have no control over. Live life to the fullest whether the world ends tonight, tomorrow, in December, or never.

A New Year of Weird Stuff

The New Year is upon us and it should be an interesting one. The culmination of this 2012 business along with the usual paranormal news should keep seekers of the strange busy. Stephen Wagner over at the Paranormal Phenomena section of About.com has compiled a recap of 2011's paranormal news stories and events, some of which I shared here over the course of the year.

Top Paranormal Events of 2011

Reading through the list made me realize how many strange things actually occur that see some kind of news exposure. Speaking of strange things and news exposure, there's already been a strange event similar to one that happened a year ago: another New Years bird die-off in Arkansas.

What a way to start off the year.

Falling Fruit and More Spontaneous Human Combustion

Apples fall from the sky over Coventry

Mysterious Man Bursts Into Flames At Swedish Train Station

Just a couple of weird news stories for you this week. As the Holiday Season ramps up I'll have less time to work on this blog so it may be 2012 before I can post an update. I wish you all good will into the new year and hopefully 2012 will bring good fortune for us all!

Ghost Hunting Apps

I recently downloaded a "ghost detector" application for my Android phone. I had previously heard of these apps and didn't really think much of them but I downloaded one of the many free ones out of curiosity. After looking into how they work and playing with this one for a little while I've decided that it's probably not a reliable tool for paranormal investigation but it is something to get you thinking and hopefully doing.

The particular app that I downloaded has three features. One is a "ghost radar" that uses an algorithm to process faint sensory data and then tells you where spirits may be around you on a classic radar screen, the ghosts represented as white dots. I've noticed that this feature seems to really love background noise and that seems to be the main way it establishes where spirits may be from my observations. I can't say for certain that it doesn't detect ghosts, just that it seems like it would give a lot of false positives.

This app also has an EMF detector. It utilizes the phone's built-in magnetometer to detect fluctuations in the electromagnetic field around the phone. This functions as a basic metal detector as well as a gauge of EMF levels (and indeed metal detector apps also detect changes in EMF). This may be the coolest part of the whole app in my opinion but I found the readout to be really basic. It will only tell you on an arbitrary scale of one to ten how high the activity is. I much prefer a metal detector app I have that gives you the readout in microteslas with a graph of activity over time. That said, the ghost detector app got me interested in experimenting with EMF and paranormal phenomena.

The third and final feature the app offers is an "EVP" mode which appears to show you random words based on some mysterious algorithm. I think it's supposed to function like a K2 meter but I'm not sure. I'm thinking that it just processes subtle auditory data and then churns out something but I don't really know. I've not played around with this feature very much.

All of this from an app that didn't cost me a thing. Keeping this in mind I would encourage anyone interested to try one of these free ghost detecting apps out if they have the interest. Aside from the novelty factor it's got me wondering about what would happen if an EMF detector was set up during an evocation, or the "ghost radar" for that matter. I also wonder if the EMF detector could be influenced by psychic phenomena such as psychokinesis or could be used to test the claims of SLIders. I mostly just want to see if there really is any correlation between EMF disturbances and the paranormal.

Feel free to comment about your own experiences with these types of apps and how you feel about them in general. I'm thinking that some of the apps that cost money probably have more features of better quality but the free ones are all I'm willing to work with at the moment. Happy hunting!

Has the Voynich Manuscript finally been cracked?

Mysterious Manuscript's Code Has Been Cracked, 'Prophet of God' Claims

I find the Voynich Manuscript to be fascinating. It sends the imagination running wild with possibilities of what it says and who wrote it. Now a self-proclaimed "Prophet of God" claims to have deciphered the manuscript. If you don't really know what the Voynich Manuscript is then take a look at this article on Wikipedia.

I have this hope that the Voynich Manuscript contains arcane knowledge from the distant past but I acknowledge that is wishful thinking. Without being able to read the manuscript it appears to be a book on herbalism. However, it seems that most of the plants that are illustrated do not match known species. This leads me to think that maybe the book has a deeper, more intuitive meaning. The "prophet" claiming to have deciphered the text seems to have a similar idea, claiming that the language is a channeled language.

The ultimate test for this translation will probably be whether the information can be corroborated in some way. It would be especially interesting if an eventual computerized translation ended up saying the same thing as this translation by a "Prophet of God". My own views on the Voynich Manuscript as of this time are that the book may be some kind of allegory pointing toward deeper occult truths. I have no real evidence to support this view, only the knowledge that the plants shown don't seem to match known species of plants and the language used (if a language at all) has withstood all attempts to decipher it in any objective kind of way.

More evidence for a 2012 apocalypse?

2nd Mayan Tablet Linked to 2012 Apocalypse

I don't think that there will be a literal end to the world on December 21st, 2012. I think that the Maya were probably using metaphor to describe the cycles of time as they saw them. The cycles of nature are evident all around us and were more important to our ancestors than they are to us now. The imagery of large-scale destruction followed by rebirth shows how seriously our ancestors took the cycles that govern our existence as well as how closely they were paying attention to the world around them.

I can only hope that we enter some kind of golden age at the end of next year. However, Nature teaches us that destruction and creation are two sides of the same coin and one begets the other.

Scientific Mediumship and Weird Stuff in the Desert

Can Mediums Really Talk to the Dead?

This is a transcript published in the Noetic Now Journal that discusses the scientific efforts to determine whether mediums can really talk to the dead. I found it very interesting, especially the part about certifying that the mediums tested have actual ability. This is definitely something to keep an eye on in my opinion.

Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert?

I'm not even sure what to say about this particular story of strange structures in the Chinese desert. There seem to be as many theories as there are strange designs cut into the sand. Theories range from targeting grids for weapons to a device like the HAARP array in Alaska. I think that it's probably something mundane relating to satellites but the designs are very eerie indeed.

Magical Squares

I had been exposed to magical squares before but only recently have I come to understand their history or their significance. For those of you that don't know what magical squares are there is a decent explanation here.

I'm following author Renna Shesso and making a distinction between magic squares and magical squares here. A magic square is a recreational thing whereas a magical square is used for, well, magical purposes. An example would be using a magical square as a talisman or to produce an abstract sigil. Magical squares have deeper astrological and mythological significance which make them something special when compared to any old arrangement of numbers that do neat math tricks.

The book Math for Mystics by Renna Shesso is an excellent resource for starting out in the area of magical mathematics. I've found it to be helpful in showing me why certain things are the way they are in occult lore and I'm not even finished with the book yet. I will certainly keep reading because this book has shown me that math can be so much more than just equations and frustrations. If you are looking to incorporate numbers into your practice or are curious why certain numbers or geometric figures are so prevalent in occultism then I highly recommend checking out this book.

I'm certainly looking at the world in a new, more numerological way now. Math has a deeper, more esoteric side and I'm loving what I've learned so far. The prospect of using the planetary squares to make talismans or for other mystical purposes opens up new avenues of magical exploration and thought. I encourage anyone interested to explore this fascinating facet of metaphysics alongside me.

Broadening Our Horizons

Lately I've been looking into areas of mysticism that I normally wouldn't consider digging into. An example is sacred geometry. I recently picked up a book about sacred geometry and numerology and I've been slowly working through it. I was inspired to look into the subject because it's not something I've been exposed to a lot. In occultism there are a lot of geometric figures and sacred numbers but it isn't always obvious why those are important. I felt that I owed it to myself to gain a deeper understanding of why those things are fundamental to certain practices.

This brings me to something I feel is important in all areas of life whether you're interested in mysticism or not. We should always be broadening our horizons and learning new things. We should always be striving to experience and understand things. Life is about learning and we should never stop learning. Sometimes this means getting outside of our comfort zone or forcing ourselves to tackle something that is difficult for us. In the end we will most likely benefit from the experience of learning a new skill or studying a new subject.

I've found that everything is connected and not just in a mystical sort of way. In academia, fields of study tend to blend into one another. In the sciences everything interweaves to paint a bigger picture of how physical reality behaves. If you study something long enough it's likely it will lead you in unexpected directions. This being true, it's only a matter of time before your studies or practices lead you to something you normally wouldn't bother with or even consider. This is part of gaining a deeper understanding and should be embraced.

Follow your intuition the next time you're shopping for books or looking for a new hobby. You might be surprised at what you're lead to.

Halloween Linkdrop

I post a lot of links on my blog. I also save a lot of links with the intention of posting them and commenting on the stories in more depth. Sometimes I just don't get around to it though, life being what it is. So what I'm going to do is post a list of some of the links I've had stored away so that other seekers of the strange can enjoy them if they haven't seen them already.

What if E.T. thinks we're evil?
The aliens have landed: Amazing footage shows 'little green men walking about after UFO touchdown'... but why does it always happen in Siberia?
Fantastic Flying Folk!
"Creature" filmed in Brazilian rainforest
The real-life Blob: Is mysterious translucent jelly found in Cumbrian Fells from outer space?
Sally Morgan challenged to prove her psychic powers on Halloween

Hopefully you enjoy these stories I've been collecting for a few weeks. I'm really interested to see if anything comes from the Sally Morgan test. Happy Halloween!

The Book of Aquarius

I'm going to keep it short and sweet this week. I found this book online a few weeks ago and have been going through it in some of my spare time. I'm not quite finished reading it yet but I wanted to go on and pass it along.

The Book of Aquarius is an alchemical manual claiming to reveal the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone. A lofty claim but I suspended my disbelief and prejudice long enough to start reading it. It should be enjoyable to anyone interested in alchemy. Be sure to let me know if you succeed at the process the author gives. I may end up doing a deeper breakdown of the material once I finish the whole thing.

Are spirits real?

Spirits are a staple of mysticism and magic all over the world but our modern society tends to regard spirits as fantasy and delusion. This view of spirits and the spirit world tends to come down to the assumption that they just aren't "real." Of course when we say "real" here we mean it in the materialist sense of physical existence, strings and pulleys, visible causation.

What about the mind though? It should come as no surprise to any mystic or magician that the mind is the fundamental tool of the occult arts. The mind is also how we perceive and interpret our world. I think most people would agree that the mind is very real even though it's rather hard to quantify in the materialist sense. Does something happening in the mind or being perceived solely through the mind make it any less real? The mind has a level of "real" all its own.

Most spirit communication relies on an altered state of consciousness or a level of trance in order for it to take place. These very altered states that make working with spirits possible are the same things that make spirit communication seem so improbable to most people. We've been conditioned to believe that our minds are fallible, cannot be trusted, and are prone to leading us astray. All of this may be true to a point but it cannot be absolutely true as we experience everything through our minds and most of us have come to a consensus about things that are true and real despite being perceived through the mind. The fallibility of perception and the mind is an easy way to explain away things we don't want to exist or are difficult to accept while still relying on our perceptions to understand the more desirable parts of our reality or the things that just can't be ignored.

So do spirits need to have an objective material presence to be considered real? I would say not considering that the very label of "spirit" has connotations of an incorporeal existence in the first place. We've just been conditioned to accept anything not solid, material, and objectively verifiable as being false. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, this skepticism toward unverifiable claims or experiences. However, belief in objectively unverifiable phenomena or the belief that phenomena that happen solely in the mind are still real are not threats like they seem to be perceived in some arguments and debates.

In my opinion, just interacting with an entity or intelligence that could be considered a spirit, whether it exists outside of the mind or is just an expression of the mind, makes the spirit real. Charging a spirit with a task and then reaping the desired outcome makes the spirit real. Whether the outcome was coincidence makes no difference from a pragmatic perspective. This isn't going to satisfy staunch materialists but those are the types that usually aren't going to delve into this area of study in the first place.

Believing in a spirit world or in the existence of spirits does not undermine empirical evidence or scientific achievement. The very unverifiable nature of spiritual phenomenon, how illogical it seems to be, means that science and those that tout it as a superior epistemology shouldn't be all that concerned with it anyway. Whether it's "real" or not doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. People will continue to have experiences with spirits, work with spirits, and espouse the existence of a spiritual world whether the materialists like it or not. Hopefully this musing has given you something to think about.




I think it should also be noted that it's been one year to the day since I started this blog. Thank you to everyone that stops by to read my posts. It's the readers that have kept me going with this project whenever I'd thought I'd run out of things to say or when I wondered if it mattered at all. My only hope is that whatever I have to say gets others thinking about these subjects and maybe inspires them to take the information further.

UFO Alert in Missouri

The strange, glowing object that put Missouri on "UFO alert" this week

I'm not really much of a fan of the extraterrestrial hypothesis as an explanation for UFOs these days so I'm just going to get that out of the way before I continue. My impression of this is that it's some kind of secret aircraft being tested. Why populated highways would be chosen to test it I'm not really sure.

Thinking back on previous UFO tales I'm curious whether there were any radiation readings taken after these encounters. I wonder whether there were any radiation burns on the witnesses or any strange markings on the vehicles. I'm also curious if there are any military bases nearby that could support the secret test flight hypothesis. Maybe if this "UFO alert" continues we'll get some more interesting stories and pictures to scrutinize.

It may be pessimistic to say but I'm not confident that we'll ever really know what's going on with this case, much like most other UFO cases.

Spontaneous Human Combustion in Ireland and Wi-Fi Refugees

Spontaneous human combustion is one of those things that never seems to go away no matter how many "rational" explanations you throw at it. There are a lot of different theories as to what causes the phenomenon but no one seems to be able to explain it beyond a doubt. I bring up spontaneous human combustion because the first case documented in Ireland has apparently occurred.

'First Irish case' of death by spontaneous combustion

In other weird bodily phenomena we have those that claim extreme sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation. This seems quite similar to the phenomenon of electric or magnetic people to me except that instead of manipulating electrical devices or having objects stick to them these people become ill in the presence of electromagnetic radiation. Some have even gone so far as to seek refuge from EM radiation in the "Quiet Zone" that surrounds a major radio telescope.

'Wi-fi refugees' shelter in West Virginia mountains

I find both spontaneous human combustion and sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation to be interesting facets of the human condition. It suggests to me that we are more susceptible to the sea of energy around us and perhaps have something of a literal inner fire inside of us. We are biological beings but it would be ignorant to say that we are not also electromagnetic creatures. Our brains and nervous systems operate with electrical signals, we can look into our own behavior using machines that record our electromagnetic impulses, and our free will can apparently be usurped by moving a magnetic field over certain areas of our brains.

I think that there is some correlation between electromagnetism and the spiritual energy that so many mystics talk about. Perhaps they are just two different interpretations of the same thing? Maybe this plays into spontaneous human combustion somehow? There is a theory that SHC is caused by an uncontrolled awakening of the Kundalini energy within an individual. Hopefully this will give you something to chew on until my next post.

The Power of Belief

The Dark Side of the Placebo Effect: When Intense Belief Kills

There is a lot of New Age emphasis on thinking positively and believing in things to make them real. While a lot of this moves into the realm of visualizing yourself as rich and famous there seems to be a darker side to belief. Whether we think of it as a mystical technique or simple biology there is little argument that what we believe can affect us on a physical level. The placebo effect is a popular example of belief affecting biology. What about when placebo goes bad?

Depending on the specifics and the depth of belief, the nocebo effect can actually be deadly as is argued in the book discussed in the link above. As little as we understand the placebo effect we understand nocebo even less. Obviously there are ethical problems when it comes to testing the nocebo effect so it may be a long time before we get much understanding of it. I don't think we need to know the specifics to utilize the effect though.

Jumping back to the mystical side now, if we can cause bodily changes with our beliefs then this seems like a very useful ability worth cultivating. I think that anyone that has experimented with the vaguely-named practice of energy work can understand how a belief in an action can produce a physical sensation. This seems most useful in the form of the placebo rather than the nocebo, but these are just two sides of the same coin. If we can actively affect how our biology works with our belief then could we affect other aspects of the physical world? It might be something worth experimenting with.

What you could take away from the above article as well as this article is that what we believe has real consequences. Regardless of how superstitious or illogical a belief may be it can still have an effect on us. I have a feeling this applies to less superstitious and more logical beliefs as well in the sense that they could limit our potential in mystical or spiritual pursuits.

Magnetic Children and Zombies in Ireland

I'm just going to make a quick post with some interesting links this weekend. Hopefully everyone is enjoying themselves. I should have something more in-depth up next week.

Serb Cousins Share Same Strange Attraction

I'm wondering if this isn't just a case of sticky skin. I've seen a lot of these "magnetic people" but I never see where they've been tested for actual magnetism. This kind of thing usually just disappears after it's reported. If these people really do have this ability then it should definitely be studied more closely.

Did Zombies Roam Medieval Ireland?

I thought this was just a new spin on ways of keeping vampires from rising by using the buzzword "zombies" but apparently this find is unique for a few reasons. The whole thing is interesting because it shows that stopping the living dead goes back farther than we thought.

Mind-Altering Substances and Spiritual Experience

The use of mind-altering substances in mystical experience has been with us probably since mankind first discovered these substances. I have no experience with mind-altering substances other than alcohol so I will be using that as the primary example. What I have to say most likely applies to substances other than alcohol but that is for you to decide.

Moving through the various literature or communities that discuss metaphysical or mystical experiences you will probably come across those that feel that entheogens and mind-altering substances are tools for experiencing spiritual reality. You will probably also encounter those that feel one should never use these substances because they will hinder ones abilities and progress or they will simply trick the person into believing they are having a profound experience when it was really nothing but the effects of a psychoactive substance. There are more complexities such as the legality and availability of certain substances, the culture that comes along with them, and the possible risks to health but for the purposes of this post I'll focus on the question of whether using substances makes an experience less real than not using substances.

Again, I speak only from the perspective of using alcohol but alcohol is considered to be psychoactive so what I say should be relevant to those that use other substances. I find that using alcohol for mystical purposes simply makes it easier to enter certain states of mind. If I am drunk then I am drunk whether I am being mystical or just watching TV. There is a certain baseline to the experience of drinking alcohol. Alcohol typically affects memory and motor function and usually will not make you experience profound spiritual truths without a little effort on your part. This has been my experience at least.

What I am trying to convey is that simply being inebriated has a character of its own just as being sober has a character of its own. One can choose to perform mundane activities or mystical activities in either state and aside from the obvious effects on memory and motor function there will not be a lot of difference in the experience. I have found that alcohol makes it easier to access the states of mind required for mystical experience, probably because of alcohol's famous ability to lower inhibitions all around. Alcohol also allows a person to relax which is, in my opinion, a fundamental prerequisite for altered states of consciousness.

Broadening the example a little bit we could ask the question: Does a mind-altering substance cause you to have a mystical experience or does the substance allow you to have a mystical experience? I'm sure there are as many opinions as there are people that possess them. I think that if a person has experience with a substance outside of a mystical context then they will be able to tell when they are simply under the influence and when something a little more out of the ordinary is going on. Just as we notice a difference from everyday consciousness when drinking alcohol because we are sober most of the time we will begin to notice when something goes beyond the effects of a substance if we have enough experience with that substance to know how it normally affects us.

This is not to say you should run out and buy drugs or alcohol because they might help you into altered states of consciousness. I'm writing this only to give my perspective on the entheogen debate. One does not have to use mind-altering substances to have spiritual experiences. I have had profound experiences while absolutely sober and to date nothing I've experienced while intoxicated has compared to my sober experiences. I only observe that alcohol helps me reach a calmer, more receptive state faster. It does have its drawbacks in that being inebriated can be distracting to ritual or other relatively complex mystical contexts. There seems to be a "magic" amount that gives you all the benefits with few of the drawbacks and this is probably different for everyone.

There you have it, my views on the use of mind-altering substances in a mystical or spiritual context. I could go on about the symbolism of alcohol or whether using these substances will actually hurt your spiritual progress but those are perhaps topics for another time. I do feel that some people probably should not use mind-altering substances because of personality flaws that could make them more susceptible to addiction or other problems. Not everyone is capable of controlling themselves and even the best of us can still fall prey to substance abuse so before using mind-altering substances for any reason, mystical or recreational, one has to examine themselves closely.

Ultimately the decision of whether to use or not is up to the individual and they must take responsibility for their choices and their actions. I'll say again that you can have intense spiritual experiences whether sober or intoxicated. For some people the use of mind-altering substances may be something they wish to explore. For those that want nothing to do with it then more power to you. I'm a firm believer that there are several paths to any destination and that all roads eventually lead to the same place.