Those that have awakened or had flashes of "oneness" realization..., page 2

As a young man in the late 60's and early 70's I experimented with all of the mind-altering hallucinogenic substances that were available at that time. I had the pleasure/pain of taking real '___', which seemed to dredge up all of my young adult mental issues and manifest them in bizarre and, sometimes, cathartic ways. I did peyote, which brought forth vivd hallucinations of my Nordic past. I am reminded of Karl Jung's notion of a collective racial memory when I think about those experiences. I also tried psylocibin mushrooms and they honestly blew my mind away. There were probably 15 or 16 of us gathered at that lakeside hunting camp that night. The evening was clear and the sky ablaze with stars. We were all partying pretty hard with beer and pot at first, and then the mushroms were brought out. Not everybody chose to partake but I eagerly accepted the hallucinogen.

It was maybe a half an hour later that the drug really bgan to kick in and i became aware of the fact that I really couldn't make a lot of sense out of what my compadres were saying or doing. I left the cabin and wandered down to the dock on the edge of the lake. I took a seat at the end of the dock with my bare feet hanging into the water. At this point my buzz was increasing exponentially and I was becoming acutely aware of everything immediately surrounding me. At some point I bacame aware of the sky above and all of those stars and I then started to realize that there was really a very complex exchange going on between my physical being and the world around me. I became aware of the fact that there was a consistant exchange of gases between me and the universe thru my constant and deliberate breathing. I bacame aware that the light from those very disttant stars was also a message. "I'm here" it said, "I'm here". "I exist."

As i gazed into the water that gently lapped the dock i began to percieve the very water molecules themselves, constantly changing in relation to each other and to the resst of the world, vibrantly interacting with everything around them in some kind of strange and enchanting dance. In some sense they semed alive to me. There was definite action and rection in their movements. As i focused on this amazing interplay I bagan to lose myself in it all. The final culmination was a complete loss of consciousness itself and a joining with the dynamics of the universe. My last recollection of the experience was of a sense of dynamic acceleration into the void and a feeling of being joined with everything.

I came back around 9 or 9:30 the following morning. My legs were still dangling in the lakewater and I was still sitting in the very same place I'd squatted on the night before. My return was gradual and I remember once again seeing those water molecules dance together while the sun directed its energy straight into the heart of them. I could see them react in kind.

This experience changed my life for the better. Since that party I no longer fear death. I feel I died that night, in a sense, and experienced what we all must experience when we finally "shuffle off this mortal coil". That wonderful night I rejoined the cosmos from which I sprang. I clearly saw the dynamic interactions that make make us and everything else a reality. I touched Satorii, where there was no longer any division between me and anything else. I was back to square one.

I have no recollectiions of what I experienced while reconnected to the cosmos. But I can assure you that I came to feeling completely refreshed and invigorated. I was excited to be alive. All in all it was a very positive experience.