The first time I read The
Psychedelic Experience, was when my son died and my
husband was trying to show me the different levels of death
via this book.
Like The IChing,
The Psychedelic Experience was a completely different
language - a language I could not understand at that time
- 'The Primary Clear Light', 'The Secondary Clear Light',
'The Third Bardo', 'egoloss', 'game ecstacy' - O...M...G!!!
Even so, I was very lucky
to come across such a book because I now had a blueprint
to the many paths of death, only I didn't know it at the
time.
As I read, I learned that
The Psychedelic Experience was written by three college
professors - Timothy Leary (whose ashes were
sent into space on a rocket along with those of Gene
Roddenberry [creator of Star Trek], and one or two others),
Richard Alpert (who became known as Ram Dass after his
spiritual journey to India), and Ralph Metzner (founder
and President of the Green Earth Foundation). These
professors invited over 200 students to take part in an
experiment (within a controlled environment), that involved
taking the synthetically manufactured hallucinogenic drug
- Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD).
I think The Psychedelic
Experience is a combination of both the methods used
for this experiment and The Tibetan Book of the Dead
- the latter is read to the dying or dead for 49 days because
it is believed that it takes that long for the consciousness
of a person to leave one body and take on another. If you
would like a copy of The Tibetan Book of the Dead,
I have included a copy in the eBook
section that was translated into english by Lama Kazi
Dawa-Samdup.
There are many different
ideas about what happens to us when we die and The Psychedelic
Experience is one such idea. We must remember that the experiences
described in this eBook were from students who were under
the influence of a powerful hallucinogenic drug, so it is
highly unlikely that the average 'Joe Blogs' (you and I),
will experience any of the Bardos to the depth described
therein.
Having said that though,
the verses represent very real occurrences in our lives,
and are valuable lessons to learn.
