Is there a valid Hallucinatory ingredient to Spirituality?

From the tales of the transfiguration, to the visions of the Shamans, what is the interface of spirituality and seeing things that are not there?   SannyasNews thought this blog from the Emphiphenom website is of interest. (Thanks for Vartan for the idea)

Do Hallucinations + Happiness = Spirituality?

Many highly spiritual people report experiences that are akin to mild versions of psychiatric illnesses. That’s not terribly surprising because, as researchers have learned, hallucinations and such like are actually a rather common part of the human experience.

Probably 70% of people experience some form of ‘unusual experiences’ at some time in their lives.

Now, you might think that hallucinations would be distressing, but people often report them to be quite pleasant. What’s more, spiritual people often report being happier than average.

James Schuurmans-Stekhoven, at the Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, Australia, speculated that that the two might be causally related. In other words, he thinks that when basically happy people have ‘unusual experiences’ like auditory hallucinations, it inclines them to a spirtual worldview.

To test this, he surveyed 485 Australians (average age 37 years) about their spirituality, their unusual experiences, and their positive affectivity (or mood).

What he found was quite a complicated relationship.

As you can see from the figure, as happiness and unusual experiences increase, so to does spirituality.

But if you look at the people with the lowest levels of unusual experiences (-3 on the graphic), then changing levels of positive affect has basically no effect on their spirituality. These people are not spiritual, regardless of their happiness levels.

And if you look at those with the least positive affective (the least happy), well their spirituality actually decreases slightly with increasing unusual experiences.

Schuurmans-Stekhoven says:

…spirituality might be the misattribution of pre-existing positive affect to odd stimuli that arise from odd perceptual events that happen to co-occur with free-floating positive affect. Such experiences are likely to differ from clinical delusions and obsessions in that despite lacking external correspondent value, spiritual aberrations are pleasurable.

Maybe there’s even a reinforcing effect at work. So if you’re feeling in a good mood, then experience something weird, that gets interpreted in a spiritual way that lifts your mood even further!

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96 Responses to Is there a valid Hallucinatory ingredient to Spirituality?

  1. Preetam says:

    Hallucinations are a result of lies, beliefs and confusion – truth is the result of self realizing what contains ecstatic and Visions. To meet God is quiet ecstatic and different, him and it self are “Light” carrying the same information of Freedom.

  2. dominic says:

    “…spirituality might be the misattribution of pre-existing positive affect to odd stimuli that arise from odd perceptual events that happen to co-occur with free-floating positive affect. Such experiences are likely to differ from clinical delusions and obsessions in that despite lacking external correspondent value, spiritual aberrations are pleasurable.”

    Brainiac food. Writing like this is such a turn off to me, that i lose interest. Makes Shantam appear almost lucid and poetic!
    Clinical Diagnosis for Schuurmans-Steakoven in Bathurst –
    Dissociated, anal-retentive, dysthymic, endogenous, ideational, obsessive-compulsive, enmeshed hypomania with blunted affect on an autistic spectrum with knobs on. :roll:

    • frank says:

      quite right dom.

      if I catch up with that jimmy steakoven guy, I can assure you that he wouldn’t misattribute a positive affect to the odd stimuli that would be arising from an odd perceptual event that would co-occur with my unusually heavy boot interacting emphiphenominally with the rear end of his eliminatory apparatus!

        • Lokesh says:

          Seeing as how I am DJing a Flower Power event down on the beach every Tuesday night I am considering reintroducing the electric cool aid acid test. Unfortunately I’m missing an important ingredient. Contributions welcome.
          Everyone is hallucinating. Unfortunately most of the lucys are pretty watered down versions unless you want to drink jungle juice up in the hills and sing along to Portugese hymns with a Brasilian shamen doing the honours…well at least in these cosmic parts.
          An old head, I’m more interested today in who or what it is that is entertaining hallucinations. Nonetheless, I reckon the roots of spirituality are firmly grounded in the psychedelics…as in some pro-magnon decided to try the gold tops and once the ball got rolling it was only a few steps to hallucinating gawd.

          • dominic says:

            When Gawd takes gold tops does he hallucinate people?
            ~ from the silly ‘sigh’ bin.

          • bodhi vartan says:

            Lokesh says:
            >> I reckon the roots of spirituality are firmly grounded in the psychedelics…

            I don’t disagree with you but I also feel that that some psychosomatic sensations linked to ‘epilepsy’, ‘sleep paralysis’, and ‘extreme
            stress’ can also produce out-landish feelings that may be interpreted on the spiritual scale. Meditation can be viewed as a mild out of the body experience … (especially with Osho’s active versions).

            • frank says:

              it reminds me of a story in one of the partyline books, maneesha`s,i think.
              it turned out that sheela had spiked a load of the attendees of one of oshos original small talks when he came out of silence on the ranch with a dose of downers.
              maneesha said she thought that oshos energy had sent them very deep that night.
              so she had interpreted a big whack of downers (barbs or -azepams?)as being deep meditation and buzzing with the master.

              like some wannabe hippies from the middle of nowhere back in the day who couldn`t get any acid so started having religious and psychedelic experiences with car-sick pills!

              maybe imagination is the biggest drug of all.

          • Preetam says:

            What is the Motivation for Meditation? Finding our root perhaps.

            I would say the Head is Hallucinating, but the Heart don’t hallucinate it melts with his root.

    • dominic says:

      Professor Batwurst Steakoven goes on a date night….

      Steakoven: “Perhaps it was the pheromones in your urine or increased freefloating dopamine cortisol levels, at the perceptual event of your perfect hip ratio of 0.7. But the positive affect of heightened oxytocin and increased bloodflow to my genitalia, predisposes me to the distribution of genetic material and more data collection in our co-occuring laboratory. Such an experience may differ from previous attempts of my odd stimuli and despite lacking external correspondent value may eventually prove pleasurable.
      Mrs Steakoven: (losing the will to live) “Oh no not again…”

  3. frank says:

    any survey about spirituality that bases its findings on the musings of
    “485 Australians,average age 37″ has to be taken pretty seriously,obviously for some of those guys, “an unusual experience” was probably not watching sport on tv for a couple of hours, or even being sober for a while.
    to be fair,they are a happy lot.
    amazingly,when interviewed, 100% were found to have no worries,mate.

    in an as yet unpublished study, prof bruce steakpie of avinabarbie and crackinatinny university discovered that the idea that created the largest measurable positive affect and surge in spiritual excitement in these same 485 Australians was the possibility of having a girlfriend who was 3 feet tall,had no teeth and a flat head to rest their beer glass on…

    • dominic says:

      Good onya ya pommy b’stard, put a smile on my dial. That wooly woofter prof showoff stakeout doesn’t know if he’s arthur or martha. What dribble shit. Wouldn’t know if his arse was on fire. Bloody oath, things people do for a crust, ay?
      Up with the sparrow’s farts this morning, just popped down for a coldie, cos I’m drier than a nun’s nasty, then off to bed mate for a spiritual with me bonza’s bearded clam. No wuckin furries. Hoo roo.

  4. Parmartha says:

    Some theologians reckon the “transfiguration” was Jesus’ greatest miracle. It sure is up there with anything that Don Juan laid on for Carlos Castenada.
    But the three disciples, one of whom was his brother “choosen” to secretly witness these powers of JC were not really up to it… … or its interpretation.
    (It sure beats Gurdjieff’s being able to kill a sheep with a look at 100 yards. )
    For me an hallunication is a bit of a misuse of a term. It is when one sees what is “the real” behind everyday reality, in the case of the transfiguration that when realised we become beings of intense and endless light.

    • frank says:

      hallunication ?
      i like the sound of that.

    • Preetam says:

      My view, as long one has not realized “the real” he is hallucinating. If one has realized “it” the expression becomes inspiration. Inspirited / inspired by the ongoing realizing of him self. Belief and Trust change into apodictic certainty.

      Here perhaps Lie, Fake and Confusion have its cause. A few have the desire being authority over the others and starting impresses the masses to become a worthy authority… King or Queen by the grace of God.

    • dominic says:

      Getting fcuked by religion is hallunifornication, whether cross or crescent moon.
      Tagline: “Hallo Sin Nation are we guilty, shamed, screwed, violent, perverted,….. (add your own)….enough yet ?.”
      Hallunication 1.0 is the default OS, available everywhere or so Morpheus tells me.
      “Reality is a crutch for people who can’t handle hallucinogenics.”anon

    • dominic says:

      “It sure beats Gurdjieff’s being able to kill a sheep with a look at 100 yards”.
      So that’s where “the men who stare at goats” comes from. Maybe he was trying to cover his tracks after…you know… Ram D’ass.

  5. Kavita says:

    Probably A & J has saved humanity from one future natural disaster ! LOL

  6. dominic says:

    ” It is when one sees what is “the real” behind everyday reality, in the case of the transfiguration that when realised we become beings of intense and endless light.”
    In which case “ordinary reality” is the hallucination, generated by mind and senses and appearance of physical objects. We know that different species have different senses or supersenses and thus experience reality quite differently to us. We know that matter is largely empty and energetic.
    Everything is backwards, looking inside a deeper reality emerges… How strange it all is…madder than a box of frogs.
    The transfiguration a la jodorowsky (with frogs)
    http://youtu.be/HHiA3w6Y3KA

    • Arpana says:

      Vis a vie the awesome video you have linked to.

      I could imagine acting in, participating in an event on stage like
      this, but watching anything like this has always made me feel terminally uncool, especially when I surreptitiously glance round and see al the cool people getting it; although I can see, the trailer certainly, as a surrealist painting these days.

      People who dig this man, must be really deep. Veritable Franks imho.

      • frank says:

        man,if you don`t dig jabberoffski then you just aint on the bus….
        sounds like you need to score some sandoz with get out of your straight-jacket kick off your cardigan and slippers and let it all hang out mr. square terminally uncool snodgrass..
        peace…

        • frank says:

          transfiguration means `off your face` in latin.
          not a lot of people know that.

          • bodhi vartan says:

            ‘Off your face’ in peasant Cypriot means to be standing outside of your head and it’s very funny

            What does transfiguration actually mean? Does anybody know anybody who’s done it, or are we talking chinese (again)?

            By the look of the word it feels like an old version of shapeshifting.

            • dominic says:

              “What does transfiguration actually mean? Does anybody know anybody who’s done it, or are we talking chinese (again)?”
              Google is your friend
              ~ Yu Dum Gai
              *Poonam, gangaji have had facelifts and are shapeshifters. :eek:
              (Not “off your face” but your face off.)

              • Lokesh says:

                I thought transfiguration had something to do with hallucinations brought on while undergoing a 5 week rotten turnip weight loss diet.

              • bodhi vartan says:

                dominic says:
                >> “What does transfiguration actually mean? Does anybody know anybody who’s done it, or are we talking chinese (again)?”
                Google is your friend
                ~ Yu Dum Gai

                I did google and wikipedia it … it says “Jesus begins to shine with bright rays of light” which it has been said before. There is an an ancient greek word ‘thambos’ which is the feeling one has in the presence of divinity, and it relates to ‘a sudden blinding’ due to the bright light that the divinity somehow shines with.

                I couldn’t understand why Parmartha was placing so much importance to the ‘transfiguration story’ as evidence of hallucination.

                • dominic says:

                  Wai So Dim says there are four stages of understanding.
                  1.You don’t know.
                  2.You don’t know you don’t know.
                  3.You know you don’t know.
                  4.You know “I don’t know” is all you need to know. ;)

      • bodhi vartan says:

        Arpana says:
        >> Vis a vie the awesome video you have linked to.

        >> I could imagine acting in, participating in an event on stage like this,

        Are you trying to say that sannyas is like a Jodorowsky movie? …

        Ok, I’ll go along with that.

  7. shantam prem says:

    Forget all about psychedelic drugs to create hallucinatory effect and call it spirituality.
    Why not use more aesthetic means. I know they are bit too expansive.
    For example Complete Tantra Massage!

  8. shantam prem says:

    Today I have learnt a new word.
    It is called oshodontics.
    This is the website of Devageet.
    I am surprised with the contents and therapy models. I think I should pen down an article about the placebo effects of all these sannyas therapies.
    I think they have served the purpose in the context of the ashram quite well, but as an independent branch, i have serious doubts about their effectiveness.

    • dominic says:

      You’re right shantam! From off your face to off your head.
      More gobbledegook than a mind body spirit fest put through a blender, passed through an enema, and barfed up by E.T.
      Holy crap, Batman, it’s the latest greatest teaching from the master, right ?
      Oshodumbtics – “Finding new ways of milking the sacred cow”.
      http://www.croydonhall.co.uk/holistic/programme/documents/Devageet-Article.pdf

    • bodhi vartan says:

      shantam prem says:
      >> I think they have served the purpose in the context of the ashram quite well

      The only one who got any therapy was DG. Osho must have been wielding a large zen stick that day.

    • frank says:

      “i have serious doubts about their effectiveness”
      shantam.if nothing else,it seems you may be mastering the art of anglo-saxon understatement here!

    • dominic says:

      What DG workshop participants have to say…
      -I came high on hopium, got a full anaesthetic and didn’t feel a thing. Perfect!
      -Had some glum disease, so he gave me laughing gas from his large stash. Hysterical!
      -I counted 32 flossophies, one for each tooth. Bargain.
      -He told me to open wide, then gave me a good filling ~ Phil McCavity
      -Went in for a routine checkup, he found a lot of truth decay and performed a deep wallet extraction.
      -Ha ha ha…the Farce is strong with this one!

      • frank says:

        definitely channeling the farce on this one,bro`..
        you`re buzzin like homo novocanus,there.
        btw ,”open wide…”was it phil mccavity who said that ,or
        rammed ass ?

        maybe i`m suffering from hallunications,or my old starlight transomatic dialogue (STD) playing up,
        but isnt the man a dead ringer for captain birdseye.?

        • dominic says:

          Defo. A dodgy seaman with fishy fingers and (STD), though he’s covered his ending with a disclaimer. “Be warned, his enthusiasm is contagious.”

          Frank says -
          “btw ,”open wide…”was it phil mccavity who said that ,or rammed ass ?”
          To have his “Original Holeness” restored, Ram D’ass had the 12 dimensions deep root canal treatment on his posterior teeth, under anaesthetic.
          “Well Oral-B f….d”, he said when he came round, “I’ve been mol(ar)ested”.

  9. bodhi vartan says:

    Oliver Sacks, Exploring How Hallucinations Happen
    http://www.npr.org/2013/06/21/193925787/oliver-sacks-exploring-how-hallucinations-happen

    I had a personal auditory hallucination many moons ago … I could hear somebody clearly talking to me as was laying down on my side with my head on a pillow … and … it wasn’t until many years later that I saw it written down that when laying with the head on the pillow (ear down), the blood passing by the ear drum creates a sound that the brain interprets as speech.

    Independently to the above, Osho said not to pay too much attention to paranormal phenomena, and it is a viewpoint I also advocate.

    • dominic says:

      Musing along…
      Nothing really comes close to the intensity of mind expanding drugs, synthetic or natural, not that I’ve indulged for a loong time. Paranormal phenomena also might help to break up our normal mundane perception of reality. Bring it on i say, though people do seem to get hooked on a lot of ‘woo-woo’ in the new age (‘Be Weird Now’)as a flight from reality and it becomes just another distraction or addiction.
      Steakface doesn’t really define ‘spirituality’ and it’s a pretty loose term, just a sense of something greater and mysterious, feelings of awe and wonder (‘The Power of ‘Wow’) i suppose.
      The Enlightening strikes crowd and the duelling non-dualists might say that the greatest hallucination or trick of the mind is the sense of a seperate ‘me’, the default setting.
      Maybe one day when we reach puberty (or earlier) nice mums and dads will be making pukka buddha brew for mad hatters tea parties, and it’ll be ‘core’ curriculum at school.
      I can hallucinate, can’t I ?…

      • bodhi vartan says:

        dominic says:
        >> Musing along…
        Nothing really comes close to the intensity of mind expanding drugs, synthetic or natural, not that I’ve indulged for a loong time

        In the old days (say 3K years ago) the drug experience will be given under priestly guidance “once” to an individual. This will happen in an underground temple and in some cases there will be moving wooden statues on pulleys (plus a light show) to enhance the experience of something otherworldly. The experience was specifically ‘manufactured’ to be life changing. When E came into sannyas, that was probably the nearest we came to the old style religions, for 2000 years.

        Unfortunately today religious experience is not being manufactured and relies too much on faith.

        • satyadeva says:

          Sure, psychedelics can and have helped us to open up, to break up the familiar mental patterns and gain ‘in-sight’ – but they’re not essential.

          Especially with an energetic presence of an Osho (or any other genuine Master).

          Btw, Vartan, where’s the evidence for your historical comments? Just curious….

          • Arpana says:

            If psychedelics have given you clarity, you are the only individual I have met who has achieved that. Round Osho and otherwise. (No disrespect meant by this. )

            The best scenario for substance use, in my personal and observing experience, is that as long as you don’t over do it they can be fun.

            I’ve met a few individuals who believe/think psychedelics have given them clarity, but I don’t know anyone who would agree with them.

            • satyadeva says:

              For the sake of clarity, let me add that my own limited experience of psychedelics was basically not a lot more than just “fun”.

              By “we” I was referring to the human race in general, also specifically to the post-world war 2 generation.

              Also, please note I said ” can and have helped us to open up, to break up the familiar mental patterns and gain ‘in-sight’ “. Perhaps I should have qualified that by saying “some or a little in-sight”!

            • Lokesh says:

              Arps declares, ‘I’ve met a few individuals who believe/think psychedelics have given them clarity, but I don’t know anyone who would agree with them.’
              I might. Last night I attended a dinner party held for a visiting psychedelic shaman. Pretty cool chap if you ask me. Same goes for a quite a number of good folk I know, who trip the light fantastic from time to time. I call some of them ‘my friends’.Personally psychedelics no longer figure in my life. Somehow they were influencial it getting me to where I am now and I’m grateful to be here.
              Once in a while we need to make a judgement…nothing wrong with that, but if there is one thing psychedelics showed me it is this…you never really know what level of consciousness another human being is operating from, no matter what the external signals might indicate.

            • dominic says:

              The coolective is trying hard to embrace you in your hobbity house but you refuse the pumpernickel from the psyche Deli. So Zensible.

          • frank says:

            I wonder what percentage of satoris and spiritual experiences around osho and others have,in fact, been psychedelic flashbacks?
            another zen koan,i suppose.

            once you`ve blown the bloody doors of perception off your psyche with that stuff,theres no restore point,man…
            that’s a fact.

            • Arpana says:

              I’ve had at least a dozen sartoris, but, the experiences, were nothing like drug experience, although my experience of drugs is limited to dope and acid once.

              Everything seemed incredibly clear and harmonious,. Everything seemed to have a place, although trying to describe the experiencings any more is mnnj!!!?@:L,m

              • frank says:

                I have had a few sartoris myself.
                I felt that everything was in its place,a kind of bespoke sense that the world was made to measure.
                existence fitted me like a glove.
                what did that chinese master of wisdom, lao gok wan say?
                “if the shoe fits,wear it”
                that is just soooo true….
                I`ve had quite a few off the peg sartoris too,but then,who hasn`t?
                I used to get sartoris regularly when I had a tantric girlfriend who always managed to give me a perfect fit for my inside leg.
                mind you,when it comes to women,sartoris can be a tricky thing

                my girlfriends always ask me “does my om look big in this?”
                and I`ll tell you one deep truth,my friend.
                when you get to our age.
                it doesnt matter how many sartoris you`ve had….
                like our master said
                sometimes a lie is truer than the truth…….

                • Arpana says:

                  What a fantastic tool for existence to express itself through you are.

                • dominic says:

                  A most elegant and stylish post from our in-house Sartorist.
                  Loving it, it’s sooo you. Great hair, great extensions, should be in the DhammaPrada.
                  A little black on white with red highlights. Sophisticated but so simple and an absolute classic!
                  Thx for glamming up our day. You ARE fashion! You are Coco!
                  I can sooo see Giselle Bundchen wearing this on the Kat(mandu)walk, with a couple of topless prayer wheels.
                  Suits you sir!
                  Just like the man with five penises whose pants fit him like a glove.
                  Armani Padme Hum…etc

              • Lokesh says:

                Sounds like collecting satoris is some kind of new-age hobby…a step up from collecting beer bootle caps, stamps, porno mags, packets of chuddies and Benny Hill videos. In other words its a fucking joke.

                • Arpana says:

                  Whereas telling everybody you met Jimi Hendrix forty odd years ago, is like, really cool, ‘man’, like really transcendent, ‘man’.

                • Lokesh says:

                  Well, Arps, it was pretty cool meeting Jimi, if only in a passing moment. In another time it might have been roll over Beethoven. Besides, your dozen satoris have seemingly left you uptight and outtasight, man. Not so groovy. I suggest you stick with Benny Hill, at least he made people laugh.

                • Arpana says:

                  You didn’t have a ONE
                  LMAO

                • bodhi vartan says:

                  Having found his inner female he had MULTIPLES instead.

          • bodhi vartan says:

            satyadeva says:
            >> Btw, Vartan, where’s the evidence for your historical comments? Just curious….

            http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjameslewis/sets/72157603707388889

            +The Oracle of the Dead ruin in the province of Preveza, Greece.

            +Also known as ‘The Nekyomanteoin of the Acheron’. The oracle of the dead is dated 2000BC.

            +Pilgrims looking to consult the Oracle of the Dead would have to offer valuables to the priests as ‘votive offerings’ in order to be allowed contact with the dead.

            +They were then given hallucinogenic potions to aid their journey into ‘death’, walking the labyrinth which they believed were the streets of the kingdom of Hades.

            +In the main room hidden priests operated machines lifting wooden statues to look as if flying. Incense was burned including cannabis and through the smoke the hallucinating pilgrims believed they were seeing dead relatives.

            +Previously, the priests gathered information from the pilgrims while stoned. So when pilgrims asked questions of the dead they would get answers based on what the priests had gotten from them earlier.

            +They eventually pass out and are taken to wake up on the banks of the River Styx, warned not to tell anybody about their experience, otherwise they would be killed.

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necromanteion
            http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/1235225

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  10. frank says:

    oshodontics is bit of a laboured neo-logism.
    all sounds a bit oshodox ,to me.

  11. shantam prem says:

    A few weeks before Osho left his body he told me that he had “gone into” his body and found “for the first time in the history of Man” that it contains memories, that “the body remembers everything from the beginning of evolution. You will find a way for meditators to release their ancient memories, and this will have two profound effects for each person; firstly, their body will be healed from all the wounds it carries, and secondly, their meditation will be enabled to go deeper to the level where authentic transformation happens.”

    Dear Doctor Sir,
    I was really waiting for such high powered transformation process.
    If you ensure, money back guaranteed in case of dissatisfaction, I would be glad to join your next course.
    And I am not a thankless person, if results are positive, I can stand like Jehovah the witness on the main road with fliers of Dontics!
    I also understand, everything does not happen as one sees in the ads. for example add 5 inches in five weeks should at least add one or two inches for sure!

    Yours Sincerely,

    Shantam

    PS- I don’t like anymore to end the letter with sannyas customary Love, neither I want to sign with Swami.

  12. Preetam says:

    Is known that in the Middle Ages and before often the grain was contaminated with ergot, deliberately. Get the peoples hallucinating, to sell them easy religious and political lies, to become an authority through fear. They came with skull and crossbones as helmet and murder the working people, as today. After War comes the same person without helmet and promises to safe the whole country and becomes King by the grace of God. What is different to today, aren’t people even more obedient. Full of fear they accepted money and success as their life goals. Is that Hallucination, Maya or what is that?

    Guess today Monsanto is doing the work and all those little money and success freaks.

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