Entheogens and Nonduality - an Introduction
Martin W. Ball, Ph.D.
This is a brief introduction to the topic of entheogens and non-dual experience. Though far from being comprehensive, this primer should give the interested reader a reasonable understanding of what non-dual experiences are, how they can be generated, and how entheogens can serve as a primary tool in achieving non-dual states of awareness and being.
Let’s begin by discussing entheogens.
Entheogens
The term “entheogen” literally means, “generating the experience of God within,” and is an alternate for “psychedelic” or “hallucinogen,” though it has rather different connotations than these other two terms. The term was coined by ethnobotanists and cultural researchers to distinguish between the ritual and sacramental use of visionary plants and fungi from their more secular and recreational use that was prevalent in Western cultures at the time. For example, whereas hippies were recreating with “psychedelics” in a cultural free-for-all, shamans in the Amazon were characterized as ingesting “entheogens” in carefully orchestrated sacred rituals embedded within thousands of years of spiritual and religious use.
The term is somewhat problematic given that many of the shamanic cultures and traditions that make use of visionary plants and fungi don’t necessarily think in terms of “God,” and therefore this term is more genuinely reflective of the researchers’ concerns than those of indigenous traditions. However, placing this concern aside, we can see that the term is meant to indicate that there is something potentially “spiritual” or “religious” about the experiences generated from the consumption of visionary plants and fungi and that the intentions and setting surrounding their use have a significant role to play in such experiences.
Historically, entheogens have been used by various cultures around the world throughout human history to assist in the process of generating “spiritual” and “religious” experiences. In many cases, specific knowledge of the plants and fungi used in various traditions have been kept as carefully guarded secrets that one must be initiated into before being revealed, so much work has been done to reconstruct historical uses, such as in the Rig Veda from Hindu tradition, or the Greek Mystery Cults of Hellenic culture. In other cases, use is clear, such as with South American ayahuasca shamanism or Meso-American use of psilocybin mushrooms. While there are potential connections between entheogens and historically non-dual or mystical religious traditions, in many cases we can find more clear connections to shamanic traditions, which are often more of a dualistic nature and may or may not involve emphasis on non-dual states of awareness and being. Full understanding of the relationship between entheogens and non-duality is therefore largely a modern phenomenon and much of our understanding of such connections historically is speculative and inconclusive.
Shamanism vs. Non-Dualism
Within shamanic cultures, entheogens are understood to provide access to the world of spirits, disembodied entities, and secret knowledge about the working of the universe. Overall, shamanic cultures tend to be very practically oriented and shamans serve as healers, spiritual guides, philosophers, artists, and musicians. Use of entheogens is often likened to earning advanced degrees in that the subject can undergo profound experiences of learning and there is therefore a deep association between entheogens and knowledge. However, shamanic cultures tend to emphasize the duality of the world: the duality of “normal” reality vs. “spiritual” reality, and spirits are often divided into good and bad, helpful and harmful, and energies are similarly divided into good and bad, light and dark: the worldviews of many shamanic cultures are highly dualistic. Furthermore, there tends to be a strong emphasis on visions and visionary states of awareness, as this is how the shamans learn their trade, so interaction with “spirit entities” is highly valued and promoted. Within shamanic practice, the distinctions between “self” and “other” are maintained, promoted, and even cultivated and refined. This is decidedly not non-dualism.
The non-dual experience is what is often called in religious literature a “mystical” experience wherein the apparently artificial boundaries between “self’ and “other” disappear and reality and being are appreciated and directly experienced as one unified system in which any distinctions are understood as merely conventional constructs of the mind. Another way of putting this is to say that in non-dual experiences, the limited identification and association of the individual with his or her ego has been transcended, along with all sense of separation or isolation. For the most part, this kind of experience and understanding is neither promoted nor cultivated in shamanic cultures where the quest for liberation from illusions of separateness has not been a motivating factor. This could be because individuals in shamanic cultures tend to view themselves as existing within a vast, interconnected web of life and awareness, so their egos don’t feel the same sense of separateness. For the most part, shamanism and mysticism, or non-dual experience, are distinct, and in most cases, shamanic use of entheogens does not promote non-dualism.
The Nature of the Ego
All people (in all cultures in all times) have egos. The ego is an individual’s sense of self as distinct from other people and things. Regardless of any culture’s worldview or religious or spiritual practice, the default state of being for humans is to have a sense of self that is experienced as somehow distinct and separate from others. This appears to be a uniquely human problem in that the development of an ego is a normal and fundamental part of human conscious development that does not seem to be present among other living beings. It is the aspect of our awareness that allows us to self-reflectively ponder the nature of our being and provides for a sense of personal identity. It is also that part of human awareness that gives rise to all manner of forms of identification such as culture, religion, spirituality, politics, etc. Virtually all aspects of human cultures are, at root, manifestations of the ego and its need to create a sense of self that is distinct from what is characterized as “other” or “not self.”
The “problem” with the ego is that it is a fiction, and at its core, it is fundamentally empty or without inherent identity or substance. The ego itself is not so much a thing as it is a collection of various patterns of thought, behavior, belief, and expression. Taken collectively, the various patterns of mobilization of energy that the individual uses to create a sense of self, is the ego. Take away the patterns, and there’s nothing there underneath. As all the patterns that comprise the sense of self are arbitrary conventions, there’s nothing fundamental at the core of the sense of self or separate being. The sense of a separate self is a fiction, an illusion.
While ego-based consciousness and identity is the default setting for human awareness, it is not absolute and can be transcended. Transcendence of the ego occurs when and individual chooses to “let go” of all of the various energetic patterns that comprise the sense of self, and is generally a temporary phenomenon. Liberation from the ego occurs when the individual has reached a deep enough level of awareness to be conscious of the illusions, fears, and motivations of the ego and consciously chooses not to engage them on a moment-to-moment basis as they arise. Transcendence only requires a deep willingness to trust, surrender, and let go, and is not all that difficult to achieve. Actual liberation from the ego takes persistent self-evaluation, careful attention, and a commitment to truth and personal responsibility, and is a far rarer achievement than mere transcendence of the ego.
Transcending the Ego via Entheogenic Experience
We are now ready to look at the question of how entheogens relate to the possibility of ego transcendence and ultimately, liberation from the ego. From a practical standpoint, entheogens are the best possible tool available to human beings for experiencing transcendence and liberation from the ego. This has to do with both the energetic nature of the ego as well as the nature of the amplification and enhancement of experiences of energy as afforded by ingestion of entheogens: this is an “energetic” question and not a question of religion, spirituality, or metaphysics. It is a very practical question with practical applications, and does not require anything even remotely understood as spiritual.
To restate, the ego is comprised of a collection of patterns of thought, belief, behavior, and expression. All of these patterns are fundamentally energetic in nature: they are expressions and mobilization of energy within an individual’s being/body/mind. By definition, all such patterns are limited and are based on making dualistic distinctions. It is their limitations/distinctions that provide for a distinct sense of self and identity. More importantly, these energetic limitations are challenged by the energetic expansion and awareness afforded by entheogens, which is why entheogens are the ideal tool for transcending the energetic limitations of the ego.
From the perspective of the ego, a full energetic opening (or non-dual experience) feels like the dissolution of everything that the ego thinks, believes, understands, or is able to identify or conceptualize. For the ego, it feels like, “Oh my God, THIS IS IT!”, whatever that “it” is. It is the direct experience of the infinite, beyond all limits and without boundaries. It is timeless, eternal, and universal. Energetically, the body becomes highly energized and individuals generally fall back with arms and legs open, fully exposing the body in a posture of universal embrace. Bodies also tend to gyrate along the axis of the central column of energy along the torso, with waves of ecstatic energy radiating out from the heart and moving up and down the spine with arms and legs moving in fluid, symmetrical gestures. In essence, in these moments the individual is effectively making love with him or herself in universal energetic form, the purest expression of universal love, acceptance, and identity. Perceptually, everything appears as universal and symmetrical patterns of multidimensional fractals of pure white/rainbow light.
Virtually all entheogens create stress on the limited patterns of the ego. The stronger the entheogen, however, the greater the likelihood that an individual will experience transcendence of the ego. Yet this is not an automatic response, as is evidenced by shamanic use of entheogens where transcendence of the ego is not emphasized and possibly not even recognized. Mere ingestion of entheogens does not, in and of itself, produce transcendent states of being or awareness. As stated previously, an individual must choose to let go of all identifying patterns in thought, belief, behavior, and expression in order for entheogens to produce transcendent or non-dual results.
Radically strong entheogens, such as N,N DMT, and particularly 5-MeO-DMT, (both of which are naturally present in all humans and mammals endogenously), are the ideal tools for assisting in full ego transcendence. This is especially so for 5-MeO-DMT. The overwhelming sensation of the experience of 5-MeO-DMT is one of immediate and potentially infinite energetic expansion and identification. Practically speaking, the experience of 5-MeO-DMT, from the ego’s perspective, is akin to dying. As the sense of energy begins to expand into a sense of the timeless and infinite, the ego has a choice: just let go and surrender completely, or try and hold on through any of the various patterns of thought, belief, behavior or expression that it has at its disposal. If the individual can fully let go of all structures of the ego, then the individual is able to have a full mystical or non-dual experience. This letting go requires profound levels of trust, surrender, and full acceptance of the unfolding process of energetic expansion. In this experience, there is no subject and no object. There is only the immediate experience of complete unification without any distinctions. In practical language, it is an infinite experience as there are no boundaries or limitations of identity. This is the deepest level of non-dual experience as expressively, it is equivalent to the statement of “I AM EVERYTHING” or even “I AM GOD.” Lower-level, partially mystical experiences are more along the lines of “I am a part of Everything,” or “I am an expression of God,” or “I am one with the infinite.” There is still a lingering sense of ego or dualistic division in these lower-order statements, however, and they reflect a residual withholding on the part of the individual’s ego.
A difficulty is that, in general, all such experiences of transcendence of the ego are limited to the time period of the effects of the entheogen. With 5-MeO-DMT, for example, ego transcendence is most likely within the first 5-15 minutes of the radically expansive experience, and there is a very definitive point at which the ego regains its hold on the individual and old ego patterns reassert themselves out of habit. It takes sustained and highly discriminating use of entheogens to produce actual liberation from the ego where the patterns of the ego do not reengage at the end of the entheogenic session. Personally, I call such work “reality therapy.” It can only successfully be performed by those who are willing to let go of everything they think they know and believe and surrender completely and unreservedly to the work of overcoming all ego attachments, illusions, and projections. Using entheogens in this manner is akin to practice: practicing observing and sensing the self in an ego-suspended state and observing the energetic patterns engaged by the ego upon its re-emergence. Essentially, the ego is similar to a self-created energetic prison and it is up to the individual to personally choose to let those energetic structures/patterns go and not engage them. The ego will always try to automatically reassert all previously existing patterns and preventing their re-emergence takes conscious effort to not censor or impede ones natural flow of energy in the body/mind.
The ego is a very fast learner and can quickly seek to co-opt the entheogenic experience and direct it toward its own, personal ends. This is a complex topic and one that cannot be fully addressed here. Ultimately, it comes down to an individual’s willingness to take full responsibility for all aspects of his or her experience. Entheogens, particularly the more visually stimulating ones, provide a perfect environment in which egos can have a field day of creating projections and personal illusions that can seem fully autonomous and independent of the individual: indeed, much shamanic practice depends on this phenomenon. It is a deep commitment to truth and personal clarity and responsibility that are the primary means of overcoming tendencies for projection and misidentification. For many, moving beyond a dualistic, shamanic approach to entheogens is a fundamental hurdle.
Conclusion
It is my hope that this brief introduction has provided some insight into the role that entheogens can play in the production of non-dual, unitary states of awareness. It has been my goal to keep this short and sweet, so there are a number of topics and ideas presented here that could use a great deal more discussion and fleshing out. As an introduction, however, it has been my aim to present cogently and concisely how entheogens and non-duality are related and how non-dual work with entheogens differs from both recreational and shamanic use of these powerful neurotransmitters.
The greatest power of entheogens is that they make the possibility of genuine non-dual liberation possible outside the bounds of any pre-existing tradition or system, most of which are filled with potential ego traps and attachments. Truth, ultimately, can only be found within, and that is always a solitary and personal journey. Entheogens are not a short cut, though they can greatly accelerate the process. Non-dual awareness and being is an energetic issue, not a spiritual one, and therefore tools that affect our energetic awareness, such as entheogens, can serve as primary, and in many ways, incomparable tools in the personal quest for liberation from self-generated illusion, separation, and fantasy.
Three Models of Psychedelic Healing
Martin W. Ball, Ph.D.
Those who follow health news have probably noticed a topic that appears to be popping up across the media spectrum: psychedelics and their roles in health and wellbeing. Research into psychedelics is currently undergoing a profound scientific and cultural renaissance, and the topic of their many uses is gaining interest among a diverse audience. With all this renewed attention, it might be helpful to consider a basic overview of how psychedelics are used for health, wellbeing, and spirituality. With this goal in mind, this essay will divide such applications of psychedelics into three general, and often overlapping, models of health and wellbeing: scientific/medical, shamanic/religious/spiritual, and nondual. These categories have been chosen as representative as they all have different approaches to both how and why psychedelics are used as medicines, with different goals, practices, illness categories, and objectives. Let's begin with the scientific/medical approach.
The Scientific and Medical Approach to Psychedelics
Due to the U.S.-lead "War on Drugs," research into the medical applications of psychedelics was largely brought to a dramatic halt around the world, despite early promises of numerous medical applications that were promoted in the early half of the 20th century, especially in psychiatry. While most psychedelic compounds remain illegal in most countries, scientific and medical research has recently begun to flourish once more, and the results are promising (and inspiring shifts in legal status). Here, the model tends to coincide with modern medical practice: illnesses are identified by scientific criteria and psychedelics are applied on an as-needed basis, generally with minimal applications. Depending on how broadly one construes the term "psychedelic," many new therapies could be included in this category: MDMA ("ecstasy") for PTSD for vets, and as an adjunct to psychotherapy; cannabis for treatment of a wide variety of ailments, from pain management to seizures, cancer, and other debilitating conditions. It also includes the use of LSD and psilocybin for psychological treatment of patients with terminal illnesses, addressing such existential questions as fear of death, and also addiction, anxiety, and depression. There is also the use of iboga and ibogaine for the treatment of addictions, particularly alcohol and opiate addictions, where withdrawal symptoms can be bypassed entirely, helping individuals become addiction-free with only one application. Furthermore, psilocybin has been found to be effective in relieving severely debilitating cluster headaches. As much of this research is still in its infancy, more applications are sure to be found in the near future as studies increase and proliferate. At the forefront of such applications are institutions such as The Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, MAPS, and Johns Hopkins University.
The Shamanic/Religious/Spiritual Approach to Psychedelics
The next healing model would be shamanic/religious/spiritual. While lumped together, there are some important distinctions that could be made here, though the overall approach is that psychedelics are treated as sacred medicines, or “sacraments,” within this model, where they are often referred to as entheogens (meaning "that which generates the experience of God within") and even more commonly, simply as "medicine." For many practitioners in this category, psychedelic use is seen as a way of life, and as a direct means of experiencing the sacred. Unlike the scientific/medical model, where use of psychedelics is largely limited to very specific treatments, in this model, psychedelics are used as a primary means of individual and group spiritual practice, and may be consumed on a regular basis, usually in a ceremonial context. The identification of "illness" is much more broadly construed, covering not just physical or mental ailments, but also those that are deemed to be spiritual, religious, and existential. One of the appeals of psychedelics in this context is that they are effective at every level of a person's being: physical, mental, energetic, "spiritual," etc., recognizing more cultural or tradition-bound categories of disease than the scientific model would allow.
At the shamanic level, ayahuasca shamanism is probably one of the fastest growing spiritual movements across the globe, with use of ayahuasca (a tea made primarily with DMT, though also, at times, including 5-MeO-DMT, and brugmansia) is flourishing far beyond its origin in the Amazon, with ayahuasca ceremonies now taking place regularly across Europe and North America. Though generally taken under the guidance of a shaman in a ritual context, the ayahuasca itself is seen as the primary healer which can show participants what they need to see about themselves and their issues, bringing about greater personal awareness, while simultaneously assisting in purging negative elements from the body in the forms of vomit and diarrhea.
Ayahuasca is also spreading through various religious and church-based movements, such as Uñio Do Vegetal (UDV), and Santo Daime. Here, the consumption of ayahuasca (called "huasca" and "daime," respectively) is the central feature of religious gatherings, worship, prayer, and healing. Most importantly, its use is understood to facilitate spiritual maturity, growth, and insight, along with the resultant healing that comes as part of the process.
Peyote is also widely used for religious and healing purposes in North America, mostly through the Native American Church. Though it is a relatively recent religious movement (less than 150 years old) it is now considered "traditional" religion for many Native American communities, especially communities that have had their more culture-specific practices disrupted by colonialism and forced assimilation and conversion. In this context, peyote is commonly seen as an effective treatment for alcoholism as well as a medium for addressing personal illness, facilitation of prayer, and contact with the spirit world. Here, vomiting and purging is euphemistically known as “getting well.” It’s also quite common for peyote ceremonies to be used in combination with other ceremonial practices that are understood to have a health and spiritual value such as sweat lodge and vision questing.
At a less-organized end of the spectrum is simply the spiritual use of psychedelics by numerous practitioners outside of any particular shamanic or religious tradition for the purposes of growth, insight, and healing. Such uses include both synthetic as well as naturally available psychedelic compounds and substances. This takes place both in neo-shamanic healing circles and rituals as well as simply through individual use, exploration, and personal healing.
The Nondual Approach to Psychedelic Healing
Our final model is the nondual. While sharing some features with the previous model, this has been separated out as a unique model in that, unlike the more broadly construed "spiritual" application of psychedelics for healing, in the nondual model, there is only one condition that needs addressing, and that is the ego, or the illusory sense of the individual self that is experienced as separate from the fundamental nature of being and reality. Here, the use of psychedelics coincides with the ultimate goal of the world's mystical and nondual traditions. The primary cause of suffering is seen as the illusory self that lacks knowledge and direct experience of the true nature of the Self that is beyond the apparent and artificial divide of self and other, subject and object, transcendent and immanent (and other such oppositional categories). The ego is seen as a self-generated energetic construct that binds individuals into a false perception of themselves, which in turn creates energetic distortions, blocks, and suffering. The construct of the ego is understood to be a "character" that is continually narrating and constructing its identity (including one’s “spiritual” identity), which individuals mistake for themselves, when in reality, it is merely a conventional construct. Beyond this character of the self lies the Authentic Self, in which there is no separation or distinction, and is therefore nondual, or encompasses all of reality, including the apparent individual. Here, psychedelics, particularly the most powerful of psychedelics, such as 5-MeO-DMT, are used to provide a temporary suspension of the energetic bindings of the ego to allow an individual to experience him or herself in a state of "union" with "God," the "Fundamental Ground of Being," "Infinite Love," "Pure Consciousness," etc.
The nondual model is grounded in the individual quest for enlightenment and ultimate liberation from illusion. It is not based on any specific religious or spiritual tradition. In fact, it is simply resting in the fullness of being that is revealed by the mystical experience. It is also not a system of beliefs, rituals, or spiritual practices, but rather is the raw uncovering of the universal nature of Being. It is a method of introspection, self-awareness, observation, and letting go of limiting beliefs, constructs, patterns, and choices. It demands deep commitment to truth and authenticity, and requires individuals to overcome their lack of trust, embrace unconditional love, and slough off self-created illusions to which they may be attached in the formation of their personal identities. While the ego is not viewed as inherently bad (as nonduality is ultimately about moving beyond such conventional distinctions of "good" and "bad"), it is seen as potentially problematic, as it is the fundamental root of human illusion and the resulting suffering. In this sense, the nondual model is directly addressing the most fundamental of human problems: the false illusions of our identities.
A primary difference between the shamanic/spiritual use of psychedelics and the nondual model is that most shamanic and spiritual use is still based in perceptions and constructs of duality. In the shamanic and spiritual model, beings, spirits, alternate realms, and non-human forms of consciousness are either implicitly and explicitly understood to be objectively real and authentically true. In other words, many psychedelic spiritualists believe in the reality of spirits and entities that may assist in the process of spiritual growth, healing, and insight. In contrast, the nondual model transcends these distinctions into seeing everything as a direct expression of the One Universal Self, where “spirits” and “entities” are appreciated as mental constructs formulated by the egoic mind. While the difference may seem academic, in the nondual approach, there is no ceremony, no prayer, no worship, no placating of spirits or divine beings, as these are understood as the self and not separate entities that must be appeased or dealt with. The majority of approaches to psychedelic healing are still embedded within dualistic models.
Conclusion
Whatever one's approach to psychedelics might be, there are numerous and various ways in which psychedelics are currently in use for spirituality and health. As practices become more widespread, and as legal restrictions are gradually loosening, we can expect to see interest in these areas of practice and wellbeing grow. In some ways, this is a return to origins in that psychedelic use has been identified with many historical and pre-historic religious, spiritual, and medical practices. In this context, the interruption of the "War on Drugs" can be put into the proper historical perspective as an aberration, rather than as the norm. As culture shifts, so will openness to the many promises of psychedelic therapy and spirituality.
