Sometimes strange and unusual opportunities show up in our lives. We are free to ignore them and continue life as usual, or we may feel a stirring inside to answer a call to adventure. Like Alice we may choose to venture down the rabbit hole into strange lands. This is the beginning of the archetypal descent into the unknown depths of life; into the hidden unconscious aspects of oneself which lie outside the matrix or consensus reality that we have become habituated to. It is a journey from the limited individual mind, to the one mind.
The Gospel of Thomas says "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
I have had various psychedelic plant teachers show up on my path. I have never had a real interest in them, yet each time I have encountered them it is as if some mysterious force brought us together. These "entheogens" (entheos translates to English as "full of god") have served as a sort of permission slip for me to access the hidden recesses of my being, connecting to levels of the soul in which human and plant spirits are intertwined. What do I mean by "permission slip"? As soon as I decided to try the Iboga root, I started to experience the spirit of plant, or you could say I started accessing that part of myself that is typically revealed by the plant. Months before I actually ingested the plant, without any physical connection to it, the work began; it was as though I had given myself permission to begin a new level of self exploration.
Like meditation, working with an entheogen can help us make conscious the hidden dimensions and parts of ourselves that were previously unconscious, and untie the energetic knots that keep the self structure from developing and flowering. In the meditation world the path to liberation involves purifying oneself of sankaras (Pali) or samskaras (Sanskrit), which are the conditioned habit patterns of the mind that keep us identified with form. Through our meditation or self inquiry practice we make these unconscious sankaras conscious by allowing them to arise in consciousness without reacting to them in any way. We realize subtler and subtler aspects of mind, remaining equanimous with reality as it is, which leads to realization of the emptiness, impermanence and endless craving and aversion operating within the self structure.
The use of entheogens can greatly accelerate this same process which leads to liberating insight. They can also become a sideshow and distraction if we become attached to any phenomena or particular states that unfold. Experiences with psychedelics give us an opportunity to make deep discoveries about ourselves and patterns of behavior and at the same time show us the interconnectedness of all things, revealing that which transcends our separate sense of self; our center which is everywhere and nowhere.
"You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." ~ Morpheus, from the movie "The Matrix"
Not everyone is ready for, or interested in working with, plant helpers, but they can be profoundly helpful for some people who are drawn to them as a tool for accelerating progress on their path. Entheogens have been part of the human spiritual journey in countless cultures since the beginning of recorded history. The subtle and hidden layers and aspects of self can take a lot of meditation or self inquiry to reveal. The deep sankaras or conditioned patterns that bind awareness to identification with the self structure can take years or even decades to become free of through meditation. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will come, and that teacher can be in any form, within or without. Once the soul and higher intellect becomes awake in your life it becomes easier to access and integrate liberating wisdom. For many people it can take just one experience with plant medicines to make significant, permanent shifts in their life, but there needs to be a willingness – a fearlessness – around facing the often difficult truths the plant will show you. Do not expect entheogens to do the work for you; they may offer you clear insights and a sort of 'reset', but without following up with the sometimes challenging work of integrating, real change may not be lasting. The less you resist the truth that is revealed, the more your life will come into alignment with the spiral of life and your soul's purpose.
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bron: https://awakentheworld.com/follow_the_white_rabbit_entheogens_meditation_awakening/