Nice to see you back For science. I can be pretty dense, when I put my mind to it. I wouldn't admit that I was in a cult til it got right up in my face. Then I couldn't deny it.
Maybe it was the LSD I took back when I was a hippie, before the local church. That's what led me to the LC in the first place. So watch out. LSD can be dangerous.
You see, I found something very profound on LSD. I called it God. In fact, I ended up out on the front porch, naked, shouting : I FOUND GOD.
But as the the trip continued, it turned very pensive, and introspective. I realized that I couldn't tell others that I found God, but it requires LSD.
So after that trip I decided I had to get serious about it, and find that experience without artificial means. It resulted in a convoluted journey from Detroit Michigan to California, to join the Rosicrucians. But they rejected me. Then me, and about a dozen other hippie friends from Detroit bumped into the LC in Santa Cruz. It didn't seem like a cult back then.
But as I said, I'm dense. It took me 10 years to figure that out. I'm glad it didn't take that long for you to figure it out.
LSD & the local church experiences -- both -- were life changing events in my life.
And ... Turns out that, "Turn on, Tune in, Drop out" was culture changing. That's why just one hit of LSD will get you 5 yrs in Federal pen, here in America.
Thanks for dropping in For science.
Your post left below :
-------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by For science
I posted earlier when lurkers were specifically invited to post, *even as guests*. I made a passing post, but I did not expect that a whole thread would be created. I am not looking to become a member or to participate in a whole discussion. Please don't find this as rude.
But to answer some questions, I consider it chanting as per the Oxford Dictionary.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/chant
chant. verb. say or shout repeatedly in a sing-song tone.
I am an Easterner typing from the East. I do know what chanting is quite well. I did not imply that chanting makes a cult, but that it is just one of many techniques used, both in religion and cults. However, I considered LSM a cult, based on my comparisons to other cults I do know from around me, all of them eastern. This is the sense I got when I unexpectedly attended an LSM feast and talked to people there.
I don't have anything to argue based on psychedelics beyond the state of science. Just go to Google Scholar and look up the top results on psilocybin & LSD in spiritual experiences. I don't have a personal opinion, but I read them as the scientific community considering these experiences as plain biology, not least bit suspected to be supernatural in origin. If you interpret the papers differently, that's up to you.
One thing to add though, reduction in sense of self and union with the world is just one aspect. People report several other very distinctly religious perceptions (sense of sacredness, truth conviction, angels, god etc) in their trips as well as other perceptions that are commonly given in religious accounts (eg. vivid colors and other sensory perceptions, altered sense of time, out of body experiences etc). |