GOD a dit:
Welcome to the forum SpaceCadet
Maybe you should define "spirit quests" better . What exactly are you looking for ? What do you mean by "impasse" ? What do you mean by "going beyond the usual kinds of experiences that can be achieved through sensory deprivation, etc." and what you mean by "etc" . What have you tried ? It sounds like you are looking for something that you havent found , if you havent found it you must know exactly what your looking for . Maybe it doesnt exist ?
Hello GOD.
Okay, I didn't want to go into specifics because I didn't want to bore anybody, but since you asked ...
For 25 years, I have been interested in existential issues and anomalistic phenomena (paranormal). I have practiced meditation, mindfulness, chanting, using non-psychedelic, mind altering substances, done retreats. I was a member of a zen sangha, a Christian for some years, a hard-nosed skeptic for some years, worked in professional parapsychology in university funded research, and have had my fair share of spiritual experiences which have shaken my taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of reality.
Here's my impasse. I am a thinking type and a natural skeptic. The field of anomalistic science has reached a deadlock between believers and skeptics. As for as I'm concerned, this deadlock will never end because from what I can tell, the whole field has a 'tricksterish' element which prevents the uncovering of a 'perfect case'. Attempts to examine the paranormal through a scientific lense are fraught with problems, because the more we try to focus on it, the more it disappears. And I do not believe that is because it was never there in the first place. I think it is because the scientific method is actually antagonistic towards the conditions required for manifestation of anomalistic phenomena. Anyway, after many years of exploring NDEs, poltergeists, religious visions, alien abductions, etc, I can only conclude that mundane explanations are inadequate to explain some of the more interesting features of these phenomena. Transcendent explanations (including the idea that there is such a thing as aliens or religious frameworks) are inadequate too, because nobody has come up with a physical or metaphysical theory that does justice to the diversity in these phenomena.
So, after thinking my way in circles for decades, I think the only way for me to get a better understanding of the nature of anomalistic experience is to go for direct experience of my own, and see if there is another perspective to be had.
In terms of 'spirit quest', I was thinking along the lines of a taking something like DMT in the company of a person who is very experienced with that sort of thing. Preferably a Shaman, or some benevolent person who understands my motivation. It's not just to 'trip out'. There is a very definite reason I want to try this, and that is to gain insight into Shamanic practices and the use of hallucinatory experience. I want to get out of my left brain and get into the symbolism-rich right-brain functioning. I don't want more 'oneness of all things' experiences, because nice as they are, they do not help me understand the content of, for example, visionary experience.
I want some different material to ponder over.
Thanks for listening.
