While I was writing down my thoughts the other day about “the great game” of our physical reality, it dawned on me that there was another great analogy to why the psychedelic experience is so effective at opening a person up to seeing the “spiritual” world.
When you go to see any movie at the theater, what happens just before the movie is about to begin? First, we often get a reminder to silence our cell phones and to take noisy children to the lobby so as not to disturb the experience of others. Then, the lights go down and music comes up and we are, for a moment, transported into a new reality. The dimming of the lights, the putting our phones on silent, the reminder not to talk or let children make noise are all preparing us to temporarily “forget” that we are in a movie theater with 50-60 other people. For two hours or so we experience the movie one on one. We are fully immersed in the movie and we keep our mouths shut until the movie is concluded. Only at the end are the lights turned back on and we become aware again that we are in a movie theater, checking our watch to see what time it is and remembering now that we have to get the kids home before bed.
This, to me, is an apt description in a way of what a psychedelic does. When we ingest the “medicine”, it puts the “world” to sleep for us. Effectively our phones are silenced, our mouths are shut, and the lights go out. We are no longer focused on the world around us and the “experience” becomes just us and it. Our full attention (or as close to it as possible) is on the experience and watching what it has to offer. Only when the experience is over do the “lights” slowly come back up and we are again reminded that we are “in the theater”.
Now here is the real mind bender. Imagine if you will that we all REALLY live in the spiritual realm. THAT is our theater with the “lights on” is at. But, when we come into this physical reality we silence our cell phones in the spiritual realms. We make sure to shut our mouths and remove all distractions. While we are with others, we remind each other that we will not speak during the “film”. Then, we dim the the lights and for the space of a human lifetime we “forget” that we are really somewhere else. We become immersed in the stage of “life”, sucked into the roles and characters playing out before us. We feel the pain of imaginary characters, empathizing with “actors” who we temporarily forget are not “real” but merely playing a role in a movie. We become immersed in the experience and feel all the joys and tribulations of the “actors” until at last it is over and our lights come back on and we remember that the entire thing was just a “movie” and we have other shit to do.
I hesitate making this addition but it seems the right time. I have often wondered why it is so few of us “remember” where we really are even when we try. We reach out to “talk” to others but there is no answer most of the time. Why is that? Perhaps because WE all agreed before the film began to remain silent so as not to ruin the experience for others. If, as the skeptic would like, we just opened our mouths or turned on the lights in the middle of the film, the movie would be ruined for everyone. So, as part of OUR agreement before the film begins, we agree to remain silent. Sure, some people don’t obey the rules and those who speak during the film are usually are looked with at scorn by others for ruining the experience of those who want to ‘enjoy the movie’.
I feel the same thing happens for “spiritual” beings.
MOST of those beings in the spiritual world remain silent to us. This may explain why we reach out to “God” but “God” never seems to answer us so clearly as to ruin the “movie”. Spiritual beings may refuse to show themselves to us because that would, in effect, ruin the film for everyone else. But, like humans in a theater, every so often one of those beings can’t help themselves and whispers through the film to the person beside them. They have, in essence, ruined the experience a bit for that person because now the person is trying to both listen to the person beside them and still remain immersed in the “film”. Similarly, I wonder, if those of us who have made contact with non-physical entities are like those who talk during the movie. We perhaps are robbing ourselves of the immersive experience because we cannot both fully immerse in the film and pay attention to what is being whispered in our ear.