Subject: God in a Pill? (One Sufi's Opinion)

                        Excerpts from GOD IN A PILL?
                                      
                                 Meher Baba
                                      
   In an age when individual liberty is prized above all achievements,
   the fast-increasing number of drug addicts forms an appalling chain of
   self-sought bondage! Even as these drugs hold out an invitation to a
   fleeting sense of ecstasy, freedom or escape, they enslave the
   individual in greater binding. LSD, a highly potent "mind-changing"
   drug differing from the opium derivatives and being used in the
   research of mental science, is said to "expand consciousness and alter
   one's personality for the better". In America it has become tragically
   popular among the young, used indiscriminately by any and many. They
   must be persuaded to desist from taking drugs, for they are harmful --
   physically, mentally and spiritually.
   
   All so-called spiritual experiences generated by taking
   "mind-changing" drugs such as LSD, mescaline and psilocybin are
   superficial and add enormously to one's addiction to the deceptions of
   illusion which is but the shadow of Reality.
   
   No drug, whatever its great promise, can help one to attain the
   spiritual goal. There is no short-cut to the goal except through the
   grace of the Perfect Master*, and drugs, LSD more than others, give
   only a semblance of "spiritual experience," a glimpse of a false
   Reality. [*The Perfect Master is the God-realized being who has
   completed the cycle of evolution and involution through which
   consciousness is developed, matured and perfected, and who
   subsequently elects to return to active participation in creation in
   order to help other souls perfect consciousness.]
   
   The experience of a semblance of freedom that these drugs may
   temporarily give to one is in actuality a millstone around the
   aspirant's neck in his efforts towards emancipation from the rounds of
   birth and death.
   
   The experience is as far removed from Reality as is a mirage from
   water. No matter how much one pursues the mirage one will never reach
   water and the search for God through drugs must end in
   disillusionment. One who knows the Way, who is the Way, cannot approve
   the continued pursuance of a method that not only must prove fruitless
   but leads away from the Path that leads to Reality.
   
   Experiences gained through LSD are, in some cases, experiences of the
   shadows of the subtle (emotion, energy) plane in the gross (physical)
   world. These experiences have nothing at all to do with spiritual
   advancement.
   
   The user of LSD can never reach subtle consciousness in this
   incarnation despite its repeated use. To experience real spiritual
   consciousness, surrenderance to a Perfect Master is necessary.
   
   It is human, and therefore necessarily wrongsighted, to view the
   result of the drug by its immediate relative effects -- to calculate
   its end result is beyond human knowledge, and only the true Guide can
   point the way.
   
   The experiences derived through the drugs are experiences by one in
   the gross world of the shadows of the subtle planes and are not
   continuous. The experiences of the subtle sphere by one on the subtle
   planes are continuous, but even these experiences are of illusion, for
   Reality is beyond them. And so, though LSD may lead one to feel a
   better man personally, the feeling of having had a glimpse of Reality
   may not only lull one into a false security but also will in the end
   derange one's mind. Although LSD is not an addiction-forming drug one
   can become attached to the experiences arising from its use and one
   gets tempted to use it in increasing doses, again and again, in the
   hope of deeper and deeper experiences. But eventually this causes
   madness or death.
   
   An example of experiences that are shadows of the subtle plane
   encountered in the gross world is that of a yogi who taught his 150
   students to go into trance. When the students came out of the trance
   they were asked by the yogi to describe their experiences. Their
   accounts would be amazing to a man in the street, for in their state
   of trance they saw lights and colours galore -- dazzling lights in
   colours and in circles and in different designs. They felt all things
   around them pulsating with light and felt themselves separate from
   their own bodies and became witness to all things.
   
   Even such experiences as these are but the shadows of the subtle plane
   experienced in the gross world, for they are not continuous. However,
   these are NOT spiritually harmful, but neither are they spiritually
   beneficial. But experiences induced through the use of drugs are
   harmful physically.
   
   Even actual experiences of the subtle planes in the subtle sphere
   (which are always continuous) are likened to the pleasure of children
   playing with toys. However, these experiences are spiritually
   beneficial since they create a longing in the aspirant for further
   advancement. But union with God is impossible without the grace of the
   Perfect Master.
   
   Consciousness is fully evolved and complete as soon as the soul
   identifies itself with the human form. This consciousness neither
   increases nor decreases; only the experiences of consciousness
   increase. Hence the states of sub-sub-super consciousness, sub-super
   consciousness, super consciousness and God consciousness. This in
   other words is gross consciousness, subtle consciousness, mental
   consciousness and God consciousness. The lighter the burden of
   impressions (sanskaras) the higher the experience of consciousness.
   
   There is also a state of perverted consciousness. It is a state in
   which consciousness indulges in induced experiences such as those
   gotten from the use of drugs; and even the most fantastic experiences
   thus induced are only the shadows of the subtle plane experienced in
   the gross world.
   
   Only the One who knows and experiences Reality, who is Reality, has
   the ability and authority to point out the false from the Real. The
   only Real experience is to continuously see God within oneself as the
   infinite effulgent ocean of Truth and then to become one with this
   infinite ocean and continuously experience infinite knowledge, power
   and bliss.
   
   To a few sincere seekers, LSD may have served as a means to arouse
   that spiritual longing which has brought them into my contact, but
   once that purpose is served further ingestion would not only be
   harmful but have no point or purpose. The longing for Reality cannot
   be sustained by further use of drugs but only by the love for the
   Perfect Master which is a reflection of his love for the seeker.
   
   An individual may feel LSD has made a "better" man of him socially and
   personally. But one will be a better man through Love than one can
   ever be through drugs or any other artificial aid. And the best man is
   he who has surrendered himself to the Perfect Master irrespective of
   his personal or social standing.
   
   As for possible use of the drug by an enlightened society for
   spiritual purposes -- an enlightened society would never dream of
   using it!
   
   All the experiences even of spiritual aspirants on the Path to
   God-realization (gotten in the natural course of involution of
   conciousness) are of the domain of Illusion and are ephemeral and
   absolutely unimportant; how much more illusory and distracting are the
   experiences through substances compounded in a laboratory which have
   the semblance of those of the aspirant on the Spiritual Path! The one
   and only true experience is the experience of the Truth, the Reality;
   for once the realization of God is attained it remains a continual and
   never-ending experience.
   
   The all-pervading effulgence of God the Reality can only be
   experienced by an aspirant who keeps himself scrupulously above all
   illusory experimentations and humbly takes refuge in love of God.
   
   God can only be realized by loving Him with all the love at one's
   command -- pure, simple and unadulterated love. When one's love for
   God, and God alone, is at its zenith true longing for union with God
   is greatest, and the aspirant's ego assertion is then at its lowest
   point.
   
   The aspirant at this stage is in the sixth plane of consciousness
   (vide God Speaks) and "sees" God face to face in all His glory. The
   aspirant experiences this without fear of fluctuation in his continual
   and never-ending experiencing of "seeing" the glory of God. Even this
   most sublime experience of "seeing" God face to face falls short of
   the only true experience -- union with God the Reality.
   
   It is absolutely essential for a spiritual aspirant who genuinely
   longs for union with God -- the Reality -- to shun experiments with
   the effects of certain drugs. These things do not uplift the aspirant
   nor draw him out of the rut of Illusion. Experiences born of these
   practices wear off as soon as the aspirant withdraws from or is thrown
   out of the orbit of the effect produced by the technique employed.
   
   But there is no drug that can promote the aspirant's progress -- nor
   ever alleviate the sufferings of separation from his beloved God. LOVE
   is the only propeller and the only remedy. The aspirant should love
   God with all his heart till he forgets himself and recognizes his
   beloved God in himself and others.
   
   Even the experiences of the planes of consciousness are only another
   kind of an illusion! Experiences of the planes are "Real Illusion",
   whereas those derived from the use of drugs are illusion into "False
   Illusion". This mudane life and the experiences thereof are a "dream
   into a dream"; whereas the traversing of the spiritual Path by the
   seekers who gain experiences of planes of consciousness is a "dream".
   
   Medically there are legitimate uses of LSD. It can be used
   beneficially for chronic alcoholism, for severe and serious cases of
   depression and for relief in mental illnesses. Use of LSD other than
   for specific medical purposes is harmful physically, mentally and
   spiritually.
   
   Any drug when used medically for diseases, under the direct
   supervision of a medical practitioner, is not impermissible and cannot
   be classed with individual usage of a drug for what one can get out of
   it -- or hopes to get out of it -- whether thrills, forgetfulness, or
   a delusion of spiritual experience.
   
   LSD and other psychedelic drugs should never be used except when
   prescribed by a professional medical practitioner in the case of
   serious mental disorder under his direct supervision.
   
   In short, LSD can be used beneficially for specific medical purposes,
   but for spiritual progress it is not only useless but positively
   harmful.
   
   If the student world continues to indulge in the use of LSD, the best
   of its intellectual potential will be lost to the nation.
   
   Use of LSD produces hallucinations, and prolonged use of this drug
   will lead to mental derangement, which even the medical use of LSD
   would fail to cure.
   
                               GOD IN A PILL?
          Copyright 1966 Sufism Reoriented, Inc., Walnut Creek, CA
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