{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/tib/psydead.htm","path":"bud/tib/psydead.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/psydead.htm","text":"~ The Psychedelic Experience ~\nA manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead\nBy Timothy Leary, Ph.D., Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., &\nRichard Alpert, Ph.D.\nThe authors were engaged in a program of experiments with LSD and other\npsychedelic drugs at Harvard University, until sensational national\npublicity, unfairly concentrating on student interest in the drugs, led to the\nsuspension of the experiments. Since then, the authors have continued their\nwork without academic auspices.\nThis version of THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD\nis dedicated,\nto\nALDOUS HUXLEY\nJuly 26, 1894 - November 22, 1963\nwith profound admiration and gratitude.\n\"If you started in the wrong way,\" I said in answer to the investigator's\nquestions, \"everything that happened would be a proof of the conspiracy\nagainst you. It would all be self-validating. You couldn't draw a breath\nwithout knowing it was part of the plot.\"\n\"So you think you know where madness lies?\"\nMy answer was a convinced and heartfelt, \"Yes.\"\n\"And you couldn't control it?\"\n\"No I couldn't control it. If one began with fear and hate as the major\npremise, one would have to go on the conclusion.\"\n\"Would you be able,\" my wife asked, \" to fix your attention on what The\nTibetan Book of the Dead calls the Clear Light?\"\nI was doubtful.\n\"Would it keep the evil away, if you could hold it? Or would you not be able\nto hold it?\"\nI considered the question for some time. \"Perhaps,\" I answered at last,\n\"perhaps I could - but only if there were somebody there to tell me about\nthe Clear Light. One couldn't do it by oneself. That's the point, I suppose, of\nthe Tibetan ritual - somebody sitting there all the time and telling you\nwhat's what.\"\n(DOORS OF PERCEPTION, 57-58)\nI.\nGENERAL INTRODUCTION\nA psychedelic experience is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The\nscope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic\nfeatures are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of space-time\ndimensions, and of the ego or identity. Such experiences of enlarged\nconsciousness can occur in a variety of ways: sensory deprivation, yoga\nexercises, disciplined meditation, religious or aesthetic ecstasies, or\nspontaneously. Most recently they have become available to anyone through\nthe ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT,\netc. [This is the statement of an ideal, not an actual situation, in 1964. The\npsychedelic drugs are in the United States classified as \"experimental\"\ndrugs. That is, they are not available on a prescription basis, but only to\n\"qualified investigators.\" The Federal Food and Drug Administration has\ndefined \"qualified investigators\" to mean psychiatrists working in a mental\nhospital setting, whose research is sponsored by either state or federal\nagencies.]\nOf course, the drug dose does not produce the transcendent experience. It\nmerely acts as a chemical key - it opens the mind, frees the nervous system\nof its ordinary patterns and structures. The nature of the experience depends\nalmost entirely on set and setting. Set denotes the preparation of the\nindividual, including his personality structure and his mood at the time.\nSetting is physical - the weather, the room's atmosphere; social - feelings\nof persons present towards one another; and cultural - prevailing views as\nto what is real. It is for this reason that manuals or guide-books are\nnecessary. Their purpose is to enable a person to understand the new\nrealities of the expanded consciousness, to serve as road maps for new\ninterior territories which modern science has made accessible.\nDifferent explorers draw different maps. Other manuals are to be written\nbased on different models - scientific, aesthetic, therapeutic. The Tibetan\nmodel, on which this manual is based, is designed to teach the person to\ndirect and control awareness in such a way as to reach that level of\nunderstanding variously called liberation, illumination, or enlightenment. If\nthe manual is read several times before a session is attempted, and if a\ntrusted person is there to remind and refresh the memory of the voyager\nduring the experience, the consciousness will be freed from the games\nwhich comprise \"personality\" and from positive-negative hallucinations\nwhich often accompany states of expanded awareness. The Tibetan Book of\nthe Dead was called in its own language the Bardo Thodol, which means\n\"Liberation by Hearing on the After-Death Plane.\" The book stresses over and\nover that the free consciousness has only to hear and remember the\nteachings in order to be liberated.\nThe Tibetan Book of the Dead is ostensibly a book describing the experiences\nto be expected at the moment of death, during an intermediate phase lasting\nforty-nine (seven times seven) days, and during rebirth into another bodily\nframe. This however is merely the exoteric framework which the Tibetan\nBuddhists used to cloak their mystical teachings. The language and\nsymbolism of death rituals of Bonism, the traditional pre-Buddhist Tibetan\nreligion, were skillfully blended with Buddhist conceptions. The esoteric\nmeaning, as it has been interpreted in this manual, is that it is death and\nrebirth that is described, not of the body. Lama Govinda indicates this\nclearly in his introduction when he writes: \"It is a book for the living as\nwell as the dying.\" The book's esoteric meaning is often concealed beneath\nmany layers of symbolism. It was not intended for general reading. It was\ndesigned to be understood only by one who was to be initiated personally by\na guru into the Buddhist mystical doctrines, into the pre-mortem-death-\nrebirth experience. These doctrines have been kept a closely guarded secret\nfor many centuries, for fear that naive or careless application would do\nharm. In translating such an esoteric text, therefore, there are two steps:\none, the rendering of the original text into English; and two, the practical\ninterpretation of the text for its uses. In publishing this practical\ninterpretation for use in the psychedelic drug session, we are in a sense\nbreaking with the tradition of secrecy and thus contravening the teachings\nof the lama-gurus.\nHowever, this step is justified on the grounds that the manual will not be\nunderstood by anyone who has not had a consciousness-expanding\nexperience and that there are signs that the lamas themselves, after their\nrecent diaspora, wish to make their teachings available to a wider public.\nFollowing the Tibetan model then, we distinguish three phases of the\npsychedelic experience. The first period (Chikhai Bardo) is that of complete\ntranscendence - beyond words, beyond space-time, beyond self. There are\nno visions, no sense of self, no thoughts. There are only pure awareness and\necstatic freedom from all game (and biological) involvements. [\"Games\" are\nbehavioral sequences defined by roles, rules, rituals, goals, strategies,\nvalues, language, characteristic space-time locations and characteristic\npatterns of movement. Any behavior not having these nine features is non-\ngame: this includes physiological reflexes, spontaneous play, and\ntranscendent awareness.] The second lengthy period involves self, or\nexternal game reality (Chonyid Bardo) - in sharp exquisite clarity or in the\nform of hallucinations (karmic apparitions). The final period (Sidpa Bardo)\ninvolves the return to routine game reality and the self. For most persons\nthe second (aesthetic or hallucinatory) stage is the longest. For the initiated\nthe first stage of illumination lasts longer. For the unprepared, the heavy\ngame players, those who anxiously cling to their egos, and for those who\ntake the drug in a non-supportive setting, the struggle to regain reality\nbegins early and usually lasts to the end of their session.\nWords like these are static, whereas the psychedelic experience is fluid and\never-changing. Typically the subject's consciousness flicks in and out of\nthese three levels with rapid oscillations. One purpose of this manual is to\nenable the person to regain the transcendence of the First Bardo and to avoid\nprolonged entrapments in hallucinatory or ego-dominated game patterns.\nThe Basic Trusts and Beliefs. You must be ready to accept the possibility\nthat there is a limitless range of awareness for which we now have no\nwords; that awareness can expand beyond range of your ego, your self, your\nfamiliar identity, beyond everything you have learned, beyond your notions\nof space and time, beyond the differences which usually separate people\nfrom each other and from the world around them.\nYou must remember that throughout human history, millions have made this\nvoyage. A few (whom we call mystics, saints or buddhas) have made this\nexperience endure and have communicated it to their fellow men. You must\nremember, too, that the experience is safe (at the very worst, you will end\nup the same person who entered the experience), and that all of the dangers\nwhich you have feared are unnecessary productions of your mind. Whether\nyou experience heaven or hell, remember that it is your mind which creates\nthem. Avoid grasping the one or fleeing the other. Avoid imposing the ego\ngame on the experience.\nYou must try to maintain faith and trust in the potentiality of your own\nbrain and the billion-year-old life process. With you ego left behind you, the\nbrain can't go wrong.\nTry to keep the memory of a trusted friend or a respected person whose\nname can serve as a guide and protection.\nTrust your divinity, trust your brain, trust your companions.\nWhenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, float downstream.\nAfter reading this guide, the prepared person should be able, at the very\nbeginning of his experience, to move directly to a state of non-game ecstasy\nand deep revelation. But if you are not well prepared, or if there is game\ndistraction around you, you will find yourself dropping back. If this happens,\nthen the instructions in Part IV should help you regain and maintain\nliberation.\n\"Liberation in this context does not necessarily imply (especially in the case\nof the average person) the Liberation of Nirvana, but chiefly a liberation of\nthe 'life-flux' from the ego, in such a manner as will afford the greatest\npossible consciousness and consequent happy rebirth. Yet for the very\nexperienced and very highly efficient person, the [same] esoteric process of\nTransference [Readers interested in a more detailed discussion of the\nprocess of \"Transference\" are referred to Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines,\nedited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Oxford University Press, 1958.] can be,\naccording to the lama-gurus, so employed as to prevent any break in the\nflow of the stream of consciousness, from the moment of the ego-loss to\nthe moment of a conscious rebirth (eight hours later). Judging from the\ntranslation made by the late Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, of an old Tibetan\nmanuscript containing practical directions for ego-loss states, the ability\nto maintain a non-game ecstasy throughout the entire experience is\npossessed only by persons trained in mental concentration, or one-\npointedness of mind, to such a high degree of proficiency as to be able to\ncontrol all the mental functions and to shut out the distractions of the\noutside world.\" (Evans-Wentz, p. 86, note 2)\nThis manual is divided into four parts. The first part is introductory. The\nsecond is a step-by-step description of a psychedelic experience based\ndirectly on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The third part contains practical\nsuggestions on how to prepare for and conduct a psychedelic session. The\nfourth part contains instructive passages adapted from the Bardo Thodol,\nwhich may be read to the voyager during this session, to facilitate the\nmovement of consciousness.\nIn the remainder of this introductory section, we review three\ncommentaries on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, published with the Evans-\nWentz edition. These are the introduction by Evans-Wentz himself, the\ndistinguished translator-editor of four treatises on Tibetan mysticism; the\ncommentary by Carl Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst; and by Lama Govinda,\nand initiate of one of the principle Buddhist orders of Tibet.\nA TRIBUTE TO W. Y. EVANS-WENTZ\n\"Dr. Evans-Wentz, who literally sat at the feet of a Tibetan lama for years,\nin order to acquire his wisdom . . . not only displays a deeply sympathetic\ninterest in those esoteric doctrines so characteristic of the genius of the\nEast, but likewise possesses the rare faculty of making them more or less\nintelligible to the layman.\" [Quoted from a book review in Anthropology on\nthe back of the Oxford University Press edition of The Tibetan Book of the\nDead.]\nW. Y. Evans-Wentz is a great scholar who devoted his mature years to the\nrole of bridge and shuttle between Tibet and the west: like an RNA molecule\nactivating the latter with the coded message of the former. No greater\ntribute could be paid to the work of this academic liberator than to base our\npsychedelic manual upon his insights and to quote directly his comments on\n\"the message of this book.\"\nThe message is, that the Art of Dying is quite as important as the Art of\nLiving (or of Coming into Birth), of which it is the complement and\nsummation; that the future of being is dependent, perhaps entirely, upon a\nrightly controlled death, as the second part of this volume, setting forth the\nArt of Reincarnating, emphasizes.\nThe Art of Dying, as indicated by the death-rite associated with initiation\ninto the Mysteries of Antiquity, and referred to by Apuleius, the Platonic\nphilosopher, himself an initiate, and by many other illustrious initiates, and\nas The Egyptian Book of the Dead suggests, appears to have been far better\nknown to the ancient peoples inhabiting the Mediterranean countries than it\nis now by their descendants in Europe and the Americas.\nTo those who had passed through the secret experiencing of pre-mortem\ndeath, right dying is initiation, conferring, as does the initiatory death-rite,\nthe power to control consciously the process of death and regeneration.\n(Evans-Wentz, p. xiii-xiv)\nThe Oxford scholar, like his great predecessor of the eleventh century, Marpa\n(\"The Translator\"), who rendered Indian Buddhist texts into Tibetan, thereby\npreserving them from extinction, saw the vital importance of these\ndoctrines and made them accessible to many. The \"secret\" is no longer\nhidden: \"the art of dying is quite as important as the art of living.\"\nA TRIBUTE TO CARL G. JUNG\nPsychology is the systematic attempt to describe and explain man's\nbehavior, both conscious and non-conscious. The scope of study is broad -\ncovering the infinite variety of human activity and experience; and it is long\n- tracing back through the history of the individual, through the history of\nhis ancestors, back through the evolutionary vicissitudes and triumphs\nwhich have determined the current status of the species. Most difficult of\nall, the scope of psychology is complex, dealing as it does with processes\nwhich are ever-changing.\nLittle wonder that psychologists, in the face of such complexity, escape into\nspecialization and parochial narrowness.\nA psychology is based on the available data and the psychologists' ability\nand willingness to utilize them. The behaviorism and experimentalism of\ntwentieth-century western psychology is so narrow as to be mostly trivial.\nConsciousness is eliminated from the field of inquiry. Social application and\nsocial meaning are largely neglected. A curious ritualism is enacted by a\npriesthood rapidly growing in power and numbers.\nEastern psychology, by contrast, offers us a long history of detailed\nobservation and systematization of the range of human consciousness along\nwith an enormous literature of practical methods for controlling and\nchanging consciousness. Western intellectuals tend to dismiss Oriental\npsychology. The theories of consciousness are seen as occult and mystical.\nThe methods of investigating consciousness change, such as meditation,\nyoga, monastic retreat, and sensory deprivation, and are seen as alien to\nscientific investigation. And most damning of all in the eyes of the European\nscholar, is the alleged disregard of eastern psychologies for the practical,\nbehavioral and social aspects of life. Such criticism betrays limited\nconcepts and the inability to deal with the available historical data on a\nmeaningful level. The psychologies of the east have always found practical\napplication in the running of the state, in the running of daily life and\nfamily. A wealth of guides and handbooks exists: the Book of Tao, the\nAnalects of Confucius, the Gita, the I Ching, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, to\nmention only the best-known.\nEastern psychology can be judged in terms of the use of available evidence.\nThe scholars and observers of China, Tibet, and India went as far as their\ndata allowed them. They lacked the findings of modern science and so their\nmetaphors seem vague and poetic. Yet this does not negate their value.\nIndeed, eastern philosophic theories dating back four thousand years adapt\nreadily to the most recent discoveries of nuclear physics, biochemistry,\ngenetics, and astronomy.\nA major task of any present day psychology - eastern or western - is to\nconstruct a frame of reference large enough to incorporate the recent\nfindings of the energy sciences into a revised picture of man.\nJudged against the criterion of the use of available fact, the greatest\npsychologists of our century are William James and Carl Jung. [To properly\ncompare Jung with Sigmund Freud we must look at the available data which\neach man appropriated for his explorations. For Freud it was Darwin,\nclassical thermodynamics, the Old Testament, Renaissance cultural history,\nand most important, the close overheated atmosphere of the Jewish family.\nThe broader scope of Jung's reference materials assures that his theories\nwill find a greater congeniality with recent developments in the energy\nsciences and the evolutionary sciences.] Both of these men avoided the\nnarrow paths of behaviorism and experimentalism. Both fought to preserve\nexperience and consciousness as an area of scientific research. Both kept\nopen to the advance of scientific theory and both refused to shut off eastern\nscholarship from consideration.\nJung used for his source of data that most fertile source - the internal. He\nrecognized the rich meaning of the eastern message; he reacted to that great\nRorshach inkblot, the Tao Te Ching. He wrote perceptive brilliant forewords\nto the I Ching, to the Secret of the Golden Flower, and struggled with the\nmeaning of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. \"For years, ever since it was first\npublished, the Bardo Thodol has been my constant companion, and to it I owe\nnot only many stimulating ideas and discoveries, but also many\nfundamental insights. . . Its philosophy contains the quintessence of\nBuddhist psychological criticism; and, as such, one can truly say that it is of\nan unexampled superiority.\"\nThe Bardo Thodol is in the highest degree psychological in its outlook; but,\nwith us, philosophy and theology are still in the mediaeval, pre-\npsychological stage where only the assertions are listened to, explained,\ndefended, criticized and disputed, while the authority that makes them has,\nby general consent, been deposed as outside the scope of discussion.\nMetaphysical assertions, however, are statements of the psyche, and are\ntherefore psychological. To the Western mind, which compensates its well-\nknown feelings of resentment by a slavish regard for \"rational\"\nexplanations, this obvious truth seems all too obvious, or else it is seen as\nan inadmissible negation of metaphysical \"truth.\" Whenever the Westerner\nhears the word \"psychological,\" it always sounds to him like \"only\npsychological.\"\nJung draws upon Oriental conceptions of consciousness to broaden the\nconcept of \"projection\":\nNot only the \"wrathful\" but also the \"peaceful\" deities are conceived as\nsangsaric projections of the human psyche, an idea that seems all too\nobvious to the enlightened European, because it reminds him of his own\nbanal simplifications. But though the European can easily explain away these\ndeities as projections, he would be quite incapable of positing them at the\nsame time as real. The Bardo Thodol can do that, because, in certain of its\nmost essential metaphysical premises, it has the enlightened as well as the\nunenlightened European at a disadvantage. The ever-present, unspoken\nassumption of the Bardo Thodol is the anti-nominal character of all\nmetaphysical assertions, and also the idea of the qualitative difference of\nthe various levels of consciousness and of the metaphysical realities\nconditioned by them. The background of this unusual book is not the\nniggardly European \"either-or,\" but a magnificently affirmative \"both-and.\"\nThis statement may appear objectionable to the Western philosopher, for the\nWest loves clarity and unambiguity; consequently, one philosopher clings to\nthe position, \"God is,\" while another clings equally fervently to the negation,\n\"God is not.\"\nJung clearly sees the power and breadth of the Tibetan model but\noccasionally he fails to grasp its meaning and application. Jung, too, was\nlimited (as we all are) to the social models of his tribe. He was a\npsychoanalyst, the father of a school. Psychotherapy and psychiatric\ndiagnosis were the two applications which came most naturally to him.\nJung misses the central concept of the Tibetan book. This is not (as Lama\nGovinda reminds us) a book of the dead. It is a book of the dying; which is to\nsay a book of the living; it is a book of life and how to live. The concept of\nactual physical death was an exoteric facade adopted to fit the prejudices\nof the Bonist tradition in Tibet. Far from being an embalmers' guide, the\nmanual is a detailed account of how to lose the ego; how to break out of\npersonality into new realms of consciousness; and how to avoid the\ninvoluntary limiting processes of the ego; how to make the consciousness-\nexpansion experience endure in subsequent daily life.\nJung struggles with this point. He comes close but never quite clinches it.\nHe had nothing in his conceptual framework which could make practical\nsense out of the ego-loss experience.\nThe Tibetan Book of the Dead, or the Bardo Thodol, is a book of instructions\nfor the dead and dying. Like The Egyptian Book of the Dead it is meant to be\na guide for the dead man during the period of his Bardo existence. . . .\nIn this quote Jung settles for the exoteric and misses the esoteric. In a later\nquote he seems to come closer:\n. . . the instruction given in the Bardo Thodol serves to recall to the dead man\nthe experience of his initiation and the teachings of his guru, for the\ninstruction is, at bottom, nothing less than an initiation of the dead into the\nBardo life, just as the initiation of the living was a preparation for the\nBeyond. Such was the case, at least, with all the mystery cults in ancient\ncivilizations from the time of the Egyptian and Eleusinian mysteries. In the\ninitiation of the living, however, this \"Beyond\" is not a world beyond death,\nbut a reversal of the mind's intentions and outlook, a psychological \"Beyond\"\nor, in Christian terms, a \"redemption\" from the trammels of the world and of\nsin. Redemption is a separation and deliverance from an earlier condition of\ndarkness and unconsciousness, and leads to a condition of illumination and\nreleasedness, to victory and transcendence over everything \"given.\"\nThus far the Bardo Thodol is, as Dr. Evans-Wentz also feels, an initiation\nprocess whose purpose it is to restore to the soul the divinity it lost at\nbirth.\nIn still another passage Jung continues the struggle but misses again:\nNor is the psychological use we make of it (the Tibetan Book) anything but a\nsecondary intention, though one that is possibly sanctioned by lamaist\ncustom. The real purpose of this singular book is the attempt, which must\nseem very strange to the educated European of the twentieth century, to\nenlighten the dead on their journey through the regions of the Bardo. The\nCatholic Church is the only place in the world of the white man where any\nprovision is made for the souls of the departed.\nIn the summary of Lama Govinda's comments which follow we shall see that\nthe Tibetan commentator, freed from the European concepts of Jung, moves\ndirectly to the esoteric and practical meaning of the Tibetan book.\nIn his autobiography (written in 1960) Jung commits himself wholly to the\ninner vision and to the wisdom and superior reality of internal perceptions.\nIn 1938 (when his Tibetan commentary was written) he was moving in this\ndirection but cautiously and with the ambivalent reservations of the\npsychiatrist cum mystic.\nThe dead man must desperately resist the dictates of reason, as we\nunderstand it, and give up the supremacy of egohood, regarded by reason as\nsacrosanct. What this means in practice is complete capitulation to the\nobjective powers of the psyche, with all that this entails; a kind of\nsymbological death, corresponding to the Judgement of the Dead in the Sidpa\nBardo. It means the end of all conscious, rational, morally responsible\nconduct of life, and a voluntary surrender to what the Bardo Thodol calls\n\"karmic illusion.\" Karmic illusion springs from belief in a visionary world of\nan extremely irrational nature, which neither accords with nor derives from\nour rational judgments but is the exclusive product of uninhibited\nimagination. It is sheer dream or \"fantasy,\" and every well-meaning person\nwill instantly caution us against it; nor indeed can one see at first sight\nwhat is the difference between fantasies of this kind and the\nphantasmagoria of a lunatic. Very often only a slight abaissement du niveau\nmental is needed to unleash this world of illusion. The terror and darkness\nof this moment has its equivalent in the experiences described in the\nopening sections of the Sidpa Bardo. But the contents of this Bardo also\nreveal the archetypes, the karmic images which appear first in their\nterrifying form. The Chonyid state is equivalent to a deliberately induced\npsychosis. . . .\nThe transition, then, from the Sidpa state to the Chonyid state is a\ndangerous reversal of the aims and intentions of the conscious mind. It is a\nsacrifice of the ego's stability and a surrender to the extreme uncertainty of\nwhat must seem like a chaotic riot of phantasmal forms. When Freud coined\nthe phrase that the ego was \"the true seat of anxiety,\" he was giving voice\nto a very true and profound intuition. Fear of self-sacrifice lurks deep in\nevery ego, and this fear is often only the precariously controlled demand of\nthe unconscious forces to burst out in full strength. No one who strives for\nselfhood (individuation) is spared this dangerous passage, for that which is\nfeared also belongs to the wholeness of the self - the sub-human, or supra-\nhuman, world of psychic \"dominants\" from which the ego originally\nemancipated itself with enormous effort, and then only partially, for the\nsake of a more or less illusory freedom. This liberation is certainly a very\nnecessary and very heroic undertaking, but it represents nothing final: it is\nmerely the creation of a subject, who, in order to find fulfillment, has still\nto be confronted by an object. This, at first sight, would appear to be the\nworld, which is swelled out with projections for that very purpose. Here we\nseek and find our difficulties, here we seek and find our enemy, here we\nseek and find what is dear and precious to us; and it is comforting to know\nthat all evil and all good is to be found out there, in the visible object,\nwhere it can be conquered, punished, destroyed or enjoyed. But nature\nherself does not allow this paradisal state of innocence to continue for ever.\nThere are, and always have been, those who cannot help but see that the\nworld and its experiences are in the nature of a symbol, and that it really\nreflects something that lies hidden in the subject himself, in his own\ntransubjective reality. It is from this profound intuition, according to\nlamaist doctrine, that the Chonyid state derives its true meaning, which is\nwhy the Chonyid Bardo is entitled \"The Bardo of the Experiencing of Reality.\"\nThe reality experienced in the Chonyid state is, as the last section of the\ncorresponding Bardo teaches, the reality of thought. The \"thought-forms\"\nappear as realities, fantasy takes on real form, and the terrifying dream\nevoked by karma and played out by the unconscious \"dominants\" begins.\nJung would not have been surprised by professional and institutional\nantagonism to psychedelics. He closes his Tibetan commentary with a\npoignant political aside:\nThe Bardo Thodol began by being a \"closed\" book, and so it has remained, no\nmatter what kind of commentaries may be written upon it. For it is a book\nthat will only open itself to spiritual understanding and this is a capacity\nwhich no man is born with, but which he can only acquire through special\ntraining and special experience. It is good that such to all intents and\npurposes \"useless\" books exist. They are meant for those \"queer folk\" who no\nlonger set much store by the uses, aims, and meaning of present-day\n\"civilization.\"\nTo provide \"special training\" for the \"special experience\" provided by\npsychedelic materials is the purpose of this version of The Tibetan Book of\nthe Dead.\nA TRIBUTE TO LAMA ANAGARIKA GOVINDA\nIn the preceding section the point was made that eastern philosophy and\npsychology - poetic, indeterministic, experiential, inward-looking, vaguely\nevolutionary, open-ended - is more easily adapted to the findings of modern\nscience than the syllogistic, certain, experimental, externalizing logic of\nwestern psychology. The latter imitates the irrelevant rituals of the energy\nsciences but ignores the data of physics and genetics, the meanings and\nimplications.\nEven Carl Jung, the most penetrating of the western psychologists, failed to\nunderstand the basic philosophy of the Bardo Thodol.\nQuite in contrast are the comments on the Tibetan manual by Lama\nAnagarika Govinda.\nHis opening statement at first glance would cause a Judaeo-Christian\npsychologist to snort in impatience. But a close look at these phrases\nreveals that they are the poetic statement of the genetic situation as\ncurrently described by biochemists and DNA researchers.\nIt may be argued that nobody can talk about death with authority who has\nnot died; and since nobody, apparently, has ever returned from death, how\ncan anybody know what death is, or what happens after it?\nThe Tibetan will answer: \"There is not one person, indeed, not one living\nbeing, that has not returned from death. In fact, we all have died many\ndeaths, before we came into this incarnation. And what we call birth is\nmerely the reverse side of death, like one of the two sides of a coin, or like\na door which we call \"entrance\" from outside and \"exit\" from inside a room.\"\nThe lama then goes on to make a second poetic comment about the\npotentialities of the nervous system, the complexity of the human cortical\ncomputer.\nIt is much more astonishing that not everybody remembers his or her\nprevious death; and, because of this lack of remembering, most persons do\nnot believe there was a previous death. But, likewise, they do not remember\ntheir recent birth - and yet they do not doubt that they were recently born.\nThey forget that active memory is only a small part of our normal\nconsciousness, and that our subconscious memory registers and preserves\nevery past impression and experience which our waking mind fails to recall.\nThe lama then proceeds to slice directly to the esoteric meaning of the\nBardo Thodol - that core meaning which Jung and indeed most European\nOrientalists have failed to grasp.\nFor this reason, the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan book vouchsafing liberation\nfrom the intermediate state between life and re-birth,- which state men\ncall death,- has been couched in symbolical language. It is a book which is\nsealed with the seven seals of silence,- not because its knowledge would be\nmisunderstood, and, therefore, would tend to mislead and harm those who\nare unfitted to receive it. But the time has come to break the seals of\nsilence; for the human race has come to the juncture where it must decide\nwhether to be content with the subjugation of the material world, or to\nstrive after the conquest of the spiritual world, by subjugating selfish\ndesires and transcending self-imposed limitations.\nThe lama next describes the effects of consciousness-expansion techniques.\nHe is talking here about the method he knows-the Yogic-but his words are\nequally applicable to psychedelic experience.\nThere are those who, in virtue of concentration and other yogic practices,\nare able to bring the subconscious into the realm of discriminative\nconsciousness and, thereby, to draw upon the unrestricted treasury of\nsubconscious memory, wherein are stored the records not only of our past\nlives but the records of the past of our race, the past of humanity, and of all\npre-human forms of life, if not of the very consciousness that makes life\npossible in this universe.\nIf, through some trick of nature, the gates of an individual's\nsubconsciousness were suddenly to spring open, the unprepared mind would\nbe overwhelmed and crushed. Therefore, the gates of the subconscious are\nguarded, by all initiates, and hidden behind the veil of mysteries and\nsymbols.\nIn a later section of his foreword the lama presents a more detailed\nelaboration of the inner meaning of the Thodol.\nIf the Bardo Thodol were to be regarded as being based merely upon\nfolklore, or as consisting of religious speculation about death and a\nhypothetical after-death state, it would be of interest only to\nanthropologists and students of religion. But the Bardo Thodol is far more. It\nis a key to the innermost recesses of the human mind, and a guide for\ninitiates, and for those who are seeking the spiritual path of liberation.\nAlthough the Bardo Thodol is at present time widely used in Tibet as a\nbreviary, and read or recited on the occasion of death,- for which reason it\nhas been aptly called \"The Tibetan Book of the Dead\"- one should not forget\nthat it was originally conceived to serve as a guide not only for the dying\nand the dead, but for the living as well. And herein lies the justification for\nhaving made The Tibetan Book of the Dead accessible to a wider public.\nNotwithstanding the popular customs and beliefs which, under the influence\nof age-old traditions of pre-Buddhist origin, have grown around the\nprofound revelations of the Bardo Thodol, it has value only for those who\npractise and realize its teaching during their life-time.\nThere are two things which have caused misunderstanding. One is that the\nteachings seem to be addressed to the dead or the dying; the other that the\ntitle contains the expression \"Liberation through Hearing\" (in Tibetan, Thos-\ngrol). As a result, there has arisen the belief that it is sufficient to read or\nrecite the Bardo Thodol in the presence of a dying person, or even of a\nperson who has just died, in order to effect his or her liberation.\nSuch misunderstanding could only have arisen among those who do not\nknow that it is one of the oldest and most universal practices for the\ninitiate to go through the experience of death before he can be spiritually\nreborn. Symbolically he must die to his past, and to his old ego, before he\ncan take his place in the new spiritual life into which he has been initiated.\nThe dead or the dying person is addressed in the Bardo Thodol mainly for\nthree reasons: (1) the earnest practitioner of these teachings should regard\nevery moment of his or her life as if it were the last; (2) when a follower of\nthese teachings is actually dying, he or she should be reminded of the\nexperiences at the time of initiation, or of the words (or mantra) of the\nguru, especially if the dying one's mind lacks alertness during the critical\nmoments; and (3) one who is still incarnate should try to surround the\nperson dying, or just dead, with loving and helpful thoughts during the first\nstages of the new, or afterdeath, state of existence, without allowing\nemotional attachment to interfere or to give rise to a state of morbid\nmental depression. Accordingly, one function of the Bardo Thodol appears to\nbe more to help those who have been left behind to adopt the right attitude\ntowards the dead and towards the fact of death than to assist the dead, who,\naccording to Buddhist belief, will not deviate from their own karmic path. . .\n.\nThis proves that we have to do here with life itself and not merely with a\nmass for the dead, to which the Bardo Thodol was reduced in later times. . . .\nUnder the guise of a science of death, the Bardo Thodol reveals the secret of\nlife; and therein lies its spiritual value and its universal appeal.\nHere then is the key to a mystery which has been passed down for over\n2,500 years - the consciousness-expansion experience - the pre-mortem\ndeath and rebirth rite. The Vedic sages knew the secret; the Eleusinian\ninitiates knew it; the Tantrics knew it. In all their esoteric writings they\nwhisper the message: it is possible to cut beyond ego-consciousness, to tune\nin on neurological processes which flash by at the speed of light, and to\nbecome aware of the enormous treasury of ancient racial knowledge welded\ninto the nucleus of every cell in your body.\nModern psychedelic chemicals provide a key to this forgotten realm of\nawareness. But just as this manual without the psychedelic awareness is\nnothing but an exercise in academic Tibetology, so, too, the potent chemical\nkey is of little value without the guidance and the teachings.\nWesterners do not accept the existence of conscious processes for which\nthey have no operational term. The attitude which is prevalent is: - if you\ncan't label it, and if it is beyond current notions of space-time and\npersonality, then it is not open for investigation. Thus we see the ego-loss\nexperience confused with schizophrenia. Thus we see present-day\npsychiatrists solemnly pronouncing the psychedelic keys as psychosis-\nproducing and dangerous.\nThe new visionary chemicals and the pre-mortem-death-rebirth experience\nmay be pushed once again into the shadows of history. Looking back, we\nremember that every middle-eastern and European administrator (with the\nexception of certain periods in Greece and Persia) has, during the last three\nthousand years, rushed to pass laws against any emerging transcendental\nprocess, the pre-mortem-death-rebirth session, its adepts, and any new\nmethod of consciousness-expansion.\nThe present moment in human history (as Lama Govinda points out) is\ncritical. Now, for the first time, we possess the means of providing the\nenlightenment to any prepared volunteer. (The enlightenment always comes,\nwe remember, in the form of a new energy process, a physical, neurological\nevent.) For these reasons we have prepared this psychedelic version of The\nTibetan Book of the Dead. The secret is released once again, in a new dialect,\nand we sit back quietly to observe whether man is ready to move ahead and\nto make use of the new tools provided by modern science.\nII.\nTHE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD\nFIRST BARDO:\nTHE PERIOD OF EGO-LOSS OR\nNON-GAME ECSTASY\n(Chikhai Bardo)\nPart I: The Primary Clear Light Seen At the Moment of Ego-Loss.\nAll individuals who have received the practical teachings of this manual\nwill, if the text be remembered, be set face to face with the ecstatic\nradiance and will win illumination instantaneously, without entering upon\nhallucinatory struggles and without further suffering on the age-long\npathway of normal evolution which traverses the various worlds of game\nexistence.\nThis doctrine underlies the whole of the Tibetan model. Faith is the first\nstep on the \"Secret Pathway.\" Then comes illumination and with it certainty;\nand when the goal is won, emancipation. Success implies very unusual\npreparation in consciousness expansion, as well as much calm,\ncompassionate game playing (good karma) on the part of the participant. If\nthe participant can be made to see and to grasp the idea of the empty mind\nas soon as the guide reveals it - that is to say, if he has the power to die\nconsciously - and, at the supreme moment of quitting the ego, can recognize\nthe ecstasy which will dawn upon him then, and become one with it, all\ngame bonds of illusion are broken asunder immediately: the dreamer is\nawakened into reality simultaneously with the mighty achievement of\nrecognition.\nIt is best if the guru (spiritual teacher), from whom the participant received\nguiding instructions, is present, but if the guru cannot be present, then\nanother experienced person; or it the latter is also unavailable, then a\nperson whom the participant trusts should be available to read this manual\nwithout imposing any of his own games. Thereby the participant will be put\nin mind of what he had previously heard of the experience and will at once\ncome to recognize the fundamental Light and undoubtedly obtain liberation.\nLiberation is the nervous system devoid of mental-conceptual activity.\n[Realization of the Voidness, the Unbecome, the Unborn, the Unmade, the\nUnformed, implies Buddhahood, Perfect Enlightenment - the state of the\ndivine mind of the Buddha. It may be helpful to remember that this ancient\ndoctrine is not in conflict with modern physics. The theoretical physicist\nand cosmologist, George Gamow, presented in 1950 a viewpoint which is\nclose to the phenomenological experience described by the Tibetan lamas.\nIf we imagine history running back in time, we inevitably come to the epoch\nof the \"big squeeze\" with all the galaxies, stars, atoms and atomic nuclei\nsqueezed, so to speak, to a pulp. During that early stage of evolution, matter\nmust have been dissociated into its elementary components. . . . We call this\nprimordial mixture ylem.\nAt this first point in the evolution of the present cycle, according to this\nfirst-rank physicist, there existed only the Unbecome, the Unborn, the\nUnformed. And this, according to astrophysicists, is the way it will end; the\nsilent unity of the Unformed. The Tibetan Buddhists suggest that the\nuncluttered intellect can experience what astrophysics confirms. The\nBuddha Vairochana, the Dhyani Buddha of the Center, Manifester of\nPhenomena, is the highest path to enlightenment. As the source of all\norganic life, in him all things visible and invisible have their consummation\nand absorption. He is associated with the Central Realm of the Densely-\nPacked, i.e., the seed of all universal forces and things are densely packed\ntogether. This remarkable convergence of modern astrophysics and ancient\nlamaism demands no complicated explanation. The cosmological awareness-\nand awareness of every other natural process- is there in the cortex. You can\nconfirm this preconceptual mystical knowledge by empirical observation and\nmeasurement, but it's all there inside your skull. Your neurons \"know\"\nbecause they are linked directly to the process, are part of it.] The mind in\nits conditioned state, that is to say, when limited to words and ego games,\nis continuously in thought-formation activity. The nervous system in a state\nof quiescence, alert, awake but not active is comparable to what Buddhists\ncall the highest state of dhyana (deep meditation) when still united to a\nhuman body. The conscious recognition of the Clear Light induces an ecstatic\ncondition of consciousness such as saints and mystics of the West have\ncalled illumination.\nThe first sign is the glimpsing of the \"Clear Light of Reality,\" \"the infallible\nmind of the pure mystic state.\" This is the awareness of energy\ntransformations with no imposition of mental categories.\nThe duration of this state varies with the individual. It depends upon\nexperience, security, trust, preparation and the surroundings. In those who\nhave had even a little practical experience of the tranquil state of non-game\nawareness, and in those who have happy games, this state can last from\nthirty minutes to several hours.\nIn this state, realization of what mystics call the \"Ultimate Truth\" is\npossible, provided that sufficient preparation has been made by the person\nbeforehand. Otherwise he cannot benefit now, and must wander on into\nlower and lower conditions of hallucinations, as determined by his past\ngames, until he drops back to routine reality.\nIt is important to remember that the conscious-expansion process is the\nreverse of the birth process, birth being the beginning of game life and the\nego-loss experience being a temporary ending of game life. But in both there\nis a passing from one state of consciousness into another. And just as an\ninfant must wake up and learn from experience the nature of this world, so\nlikewise a person at the moment of consciousness expansion must wake up\nin this new brilliant world and become familiar with its own peculiar\nconditions.\nIn those who are heavily dependent on their ego games, and who dread\ngiving up their control, the illuminated state endures only so long as it\nwould take to snap a finger. In some, it lasts as long as the time taken for\neating a meal.\nIf the subject is prepared to diagnose the symptoms of ego loss, he needs no\noutside help at this point. Not only should the person about to give up his\nego be able to diagnose the symptoms as they come, one by one, but he\nshould also be able to recognize the Clear Light without being set face to\nface with it by another person. If the person fails to recognize and accept\nthe onset of ego loss, he may complain of strange bodily symptoms. This\nshows that he has not reached a liberated state. Then the guide or friend\nshould explain the symptoms as indicating the onset of ego loss.\nHere is a list of commonly reported physical sensations:\n1. Bodily pressure, which the Tibetans call earth-sinking-into-water;\n2. Clammy coldness, followed by feverish heat, which the Tibetans call\nwater-sinking-into-fire;\n3. Body disintegrating or blown to atoms, called fire-sinking-into-air;\n4. Pressure on head and ears, which Americans call rocket-launching-into-\nspace;\n5. Tingling in extremities;\n6. Feelings of body melting or flowing as if wax;\n7. Nausea;\n8. Trembling or shaking, beginning in pelvic regions and spreading up torso.\nThese physical reactions should be recognized as signs heralding\ntranscendence. Avoid treating them as symptoms of illness, accept them,\nmerge with them, enjoy them.\nMild nausea occurs often with the ingestion of morning-glory seeds or\npeyote, rarely with mescaline and infrequently with LSD or psilocybin. If the\nsubject experiences stomach messages, they should be hailed as a sign that\nconsciousness is moving around in the body. The symptoms are mental; the\nmind controls the sensation, and the subject should merge with the\nsensation, experience it fully, enjoy it and, having enjoyed it, let\nconsciousness flow on to the next phase. It is usually more natural to let\nconsciousness stay in the body - the subject's attention can move from the\nstomach and concentrate on breathing, heart beat. If this does not free him\nfrom nausea, the guide should move the consciousness to external events -\nmusic, walking in the garden, etc.\nThe appearance of physical symptoms of ego-loss, recognized and\nunderstood, should result in peaceful attainment of illumination. If ecstatic\nacceptance does not occur (or when the period of peaceful silence seems to\nbe ending), the relevant sections of the instructions can be spoken in a low\ntone of voice in the ear. It is often useful to repeat them distinctly, clearly\nimpressing them upon the person so as to prevent his mind from wandering.\nAnother method of guiding the experience with a minimum of activity is to\nhave the instructions previously recorded in the subject's own voice and to\nflip the tape on at the appropriate moment. The reading will recall to the\nmind of the voyager the former preparation; it will cause the naked\nconsciousness to be recognized as the \"Clear Light of the Beginning;\" it will\nremind the subject of his unity with this state of perfect enlightenment and\nhelp him to maintain it.\nIf, when undergoing ego-loss, one is familiar with this state, by virtue of\nprevious experience and preparation, the Wheel of Rebirth (i.e., all game\nplaying) is stopped, and liberation instantaneously is achieved. But such\nspiritual efficiency is so very rare, that the normal mental condition of the\nperson is unequal to the supreme feat of holding on to the state in which the\nClear Light shines; and there follows a progressive descent into lower and\nlower states of the Bardo existence, and then rebirth. The simile of a needle\nbalanced and set rolling on a thread is used by the lamas to elucidate this\ncondition. So long as the needle retains its balance, it remains on the thread.\nEventually, however, the law of gravitation (the pull of the ego or external\nstimulation) affects it, and it falls. In the realm of the Clear Light,\nsimilarly, the mentality of a person in the ego-transcendent state\nmomentarily enjoys a condition of balance, of perfect equilibrium, and of\noneness. Unfamiliar with such a state, which is an ecstate state of non-ego,\nthe consciousness of the average human being lacks the power to function in\nit. Karmic (i.e., game) propensities becloud the consciousness-principle with\nthoughts of personality, of individualized being, of dualism. Thus, losing\nequilibrium, consciousness falls away from the Clear Light. It is thought\nprocesses which prevent the realization of Nirvana (which is the \"blowing\nout of the flame\" of selfish game desire); and so the Wheel of Life continues\nto turn.\nAll or some of the appropriate passages in the instructions may be read to\nthe voyager during the period of waiting for the drug to take effect, and\nwhen the first symptoms of ego-loss appear. When the voyager is clearly in\na profound ego-transcendent ecstasy, the wise guide will remain silent.\nPart II: The Secondary Clear Light Seen Immediately After Ego-Loss.\nThe preceding section describes how the Clear Light may be recognized and\nliberation maintained. But if it becomes apparent that the Primary Clear\nLight has not been recognized, then it can certainly be assumed there is\ndawning what is called the phase of the Secondary Clear Light. The first\nflash of experience usually produces a state of ecstasy of the greatest\nintensity. Every cell in the body is sensed as involved in orgastic creativity.\nIt may be helpful to describe in more detail some of the phenomena which\noften accompany the moment of ego-loss. One of these might be called \"wave\nenergy flow.\" The individual becomes aware that he is part of and\nsurrounded by a charged field of energy, which seems almost electrical. In\norder to maintain the ego-loss state as long as possible, the prepared person\nwill relax and allow the forces to flow through him. There are two dangers\nto avoid: the attempt to control or to rationalize this energy flow. Either of\nthese reactions is indicative of ego-activity and the First Bardo\ntranscendence is lost.\nThe second phenomenon might be called \"biological life-flow.\" Here the\nperson becomes aware of physiological and biochemical processes; rhythmic\npulsing activity within the body. Often this may be sensed as powerful\nmotors or generators continously throbbing and radiating energy. An endless\nflow of cellular forms and colors flashes by. Internal biological processes\nmay also be heard with characteristic swooshing, crackling, and pounding\nnoises. Again the person must resist the temptation to label or control these\nprocesses. At this point you are tuned in to areas of the nervous system\nwhich are inaccessible to routine perception. You cannot drag your ego into\nthe molecular processes of life. These processes are a billion years older\nthan the learned conceptual mind.\nAnother typical and most rewarding phase of the First Bardo involves\necstatic energy movement felt in the spine. The base of the backbone seems\nto be melting or seems on fire. If the person can maintain quiet\nconcentration the energy will be sensed as flowing upwards. Tantric adepts\ndevote decades of concentrated meditation to the release of these ecstatic\nenergies which they call Kundalini, the Serpent Power. One allows the\nenergies to travel upwards through several ganglionic centers (chakras) to\nthe brain, where they are sensed as a burning sensation in the top of the\ncranium. These sensations are not unpleasant to the prepared person, but, on\nthe contrary, are accompanied by the most intense feelings of joy and\nillumination. Ill-prepared subjects may interpret the experience in\npathological terms and attempt to control it, usually with unpleasant\nresults. [Professor R. C. Zaehner, who as an Oriental scholar and \"expert\" on\nmysticism should have know better, has published an account of how this\nprized experience can be lost and distorted into hypochondriacal complaint\nin the ill-educated.\n. . . I had a curious sensation in my body which reminded me of what Mr.\nCustance describes as a \"tingling at the base of the spine,\" which according\nto him, usually precedes a bout of mania. It was rather like that. In the\nBroad Walk this sensation occurred again and again until the climax of the\nexperiment was reached . . . I did not like it at all.\n(R. C. Zaehner: Mysticism, Sacred and Profane. Oxford Univ. Press, 1957, p.\n214)\nIf the subjects fails to recognize the rushing flow of First Bardo phnomena,\nliberation from the ego is lost. The person finds himself slipping back into\nmental activities. At this point he should try to recall the instructions or be\nreminded of them, and a second contact with these processes can be made.\nThe second stage is less intense. A ball set bouncing reaches its greatest\nheight at the first bounce; the second bounce is lower, and each succeeding\nbounce is still lower until the ball comes to rest. The consciousness at the\nloss of the ego is similar to this. Its first spiritual bound, directly upon\nleaving the body-ego, is the highest; the next is lower. Then the force of\nkarma, (i.e., past game-playing), takes over and different forms of external\nreality are experienced. Finally, the force of karma having spent itself,\nconsciousness returns to \"normal.\" Routines are taken up again and thus\nrebirth occurs.\nThe first ecstasy usually ends with a momentary flashback to the ego\ncondition. This return can be happy or sad, loving or suspicious, fearful or\ncourageous, depending on the personality, the preparation, and the setting.\nThis flashback to the ego-game is accompanied by a concern with identity.\n\"Who am I now? Am I dead or not dead? What is happening?\" You cannot\ndetermine. You see the surroundings and your companions as you had been\nused to seeing them before. There is a penetrating sensitivity. But you are on\na different level. Your ego grasp is not quite as sure as it was.\nThe karmic hallucinations and visions have not yet started. Neither the\nfrightening apparitions nor the heavenly visions have begun. This is a most\nsensitive and pregnant period. The remainder of the experience can be\npushed one way or another depending upon preparation and emotional\nclimate.\nIf you are experienced in consciousness alteration, or if you are a naturally\nintroverted person, remember the situation and the schedule. Stay calm and\nlet the experience take you where it will. You will probably re-experience\nthe ecstasy of illumination once again; or you may drift into aesthetic or\nphilosophic or interpersonal enlightenments. Don't hold on: let the stream\ncarry you along.\nThe experienced person is usually beyond dependence on setting. He can\nturn off external pressure and return to illumination. An extroverted person,\ndependent upon social games and outside situations may, however, become\npleasantly distracted (colors, sounds, people). If you anticipate extroverted\ndistraction and if you want to maintain a non-game state of ecstasy, then\nremember the following suggestions: do not be distracted; try to\nconcentrate on an ideal contemplative personage, e.g., Buddha, Christ,\nSocrates, Ramakrishna, Einstein, Herman Hesse or Lao Tse: follow his model\nas if he were a being with a physical body waiting for you. Join him.\nIf this is not successful, don't fret or think about it. Perhaps you don't have\na mystical or transcendental ideal. That means your conceptual limits are\nwithin external games. Now that you know what the mystic experience is,\nyou can prepare for it next time. You have lost the content-free flow and\nshould now be ready to slip into exciting confrontation with external\nreality. In the Second Bardo you can reash and deeply experience game\nrevelations.\nWe have just anticipated the reactions of the naturally mystical introvert,\nthe experienced person, and the extrovert. Now let's turn to the novitiate\nwho shows confusion at this early stage of the sequence. The best procedure\nis to make a reassuring sign and do nothing. He will have read this manual\nand will have some guidepost. Leave him alone and he will probably dive\ninto his panic and master it. If he indicates that he wishes guidance, repeat\nthe instructions. Tell him what is happening. Remind him of his phase in the\nprocess. Urge him quietly to release his ego struggle and drift back into\ncontact with the Clear Light.\nPreparation and guidance of this sort will allow many to reach the\nilluminated state who would not be expected to recognize it.\nAt this point, it is necessary to inject a word of benign warning. Reading\nthis manual is extremely useful, but no words can communicate experience.\nYou are going to be surprised, startled and delighted. A person may have\nheard a detailed description of the art of swimming and yet never had the\nchance to swim. Suddenly diving into the water, he finds himself unable to\nswim. So with those who have tried to learn the theory of how to experience\nego-loss, and have never applied it. They cannot maintain unbroken\ncontinuity of consciousness, they grow bewildered at the changed condition;\nthey fail to maintain the mystical ecstasy; they fail to take advantage of\nthe opportunity unless upheld and directed by a guide. Even with all that a\nguide can do, they ordinarily, because of bad karma (heavy ego games) fail to\nrecognize the liberation. But this is no cause for worry. At the worst, they\njust slip back to shore. No one has drowned, and most of those who have\ntaken the voyage have been eager to try again.\nEven those who have familiarized themselves with the road maps and who\npreviously have had illumination, may find themselves in settings where\nheavy game behavior on the part of others forces them into contact with\nexternal reality. If this happens, recall the instructions. The person who\nmasters this principle can block out the external. The one who has mastered\ncontrol of consciousness is independent of setting.\nAgain there are those, who although previously successful, may have\nbrought ego games into the session with them. They may want to provide\nsomeone else with a particular type of experience. They may be promoting\nsome self goal. They may be nurturing negative or competitive or seductive\nfeelings towards someone in the session. If this happens, recall the\ninstructions. Remember the unity of all beings. One to me is shame and fame.\nOne to me is loss or gain. Jettison your ego program and float back to the\nradiant bliss of at-one-ness.\nIf you reach the Clear Light immediately and maintain it, that is best. But if\nnot, if you have slipped down to reality concerns, by remembering these\ninstructions you should be able to regain what the Tibetans call the\nSecondary Clear Light.\nWhile on this secondary level, an interesting dialogue occurs between pure\ntranscendence and the awareness that this ecstatic vision is happening to\noneself. The first radiance knows no self, no concepts. The secondary\nexperience involves a certain state of conceptual lucidity. The knowing self\nhovers within that transcendent terrain from which it is usually barred. If\nthe instructions are remembered, external reality will not intrude. But the\nflashing in and out between pure ego-less unity, and lucid, non-game\nselfhood, produces an intellectual ecstasy and understanding that defies\ndescription. Previous philosophic reading will suddenly take on living\nmeaning.\nThus in this secondary stage of the First Bardo, there is possible both the\nmystic non-self and the mystic self experience.\nAfter you have experienced these two states, you may wish to pursue this\ndistinction intellectually. We are confronted here with one of the oldest\ndebates in Eastern philosophy. Is it better to be part of the sugar or to taste\nthe sugar? Theological controversies and their dualities are far removed\nfrom experience. Thanks to the experimental mysticism made possible by\nconsciousness-expanding drugs, you may have been lucky enough to have\nexperienced the flashing back and forth between the two states. You may be\nlucky enough to know what the academic monks could only think about.\nHere ends the First Bardo,\nThe Period of Ego-loss or Non-Game Ecstasy\nSECOND BARDO:\nTHE PERIOD OF HALLUCINATIONS\n(Chonyid Bardo)\nIntroduction\nIf the Primary Clear Light is not recognized, there remains the possibility of\nmaintaining the Secondary Clear Light. If that is lost, then comes the\nChonyid Bardo, the period of karmic illusions or intense hallucinatory\nmixtures of game reality. It is very important that the instructions be\nremembered - they can have great influence and effect.\nDuring this period, the flow of consciousness, microscopically clear and\nintense, is interrupted by fleeting attempts to rationalize and interpret. But\nthe normal game-playing ego is not functioning effectively. There exist,\ntherefore, unlimited possibilities for, on the one hand, delightful sensuous,\nintellectual and emotional novelties if one floats with the current; and, on\nthe other hand, fearful ambuscades of confusion and terror if one tries to\nimpose his will on the experience.\nThe purpose of this part of the manual is to prepare the person for the\nchoice points which arise during this stage. Strange sounds, weird sights\nand disturbed visions may occur. These can awe, frighten and terrify unless\none is prepared.\nThe experienced person will be able to maintain the recognition that all\nperceptions come from within and will be able to sit quietly, controlling his\nexpanded awareness like a phantasmagoric multi-dimensional television set:\nthe most acute and sensitive hallucinations - visual, auditory, touch, smell,\nphysical and bodily; the most exquisite reactions, compassionate insight\ninto the self, the world. The key is inaction: passive integration with all\nthat occurs around you. If you try to impose your will, use your mind,\nrationalize, seek explanations, you will get caught in hallucinatory\nwhirlpools. The motto: peace, acceptance. It is all an ever-changing\npanorama. You are temporarily removed from the world of game. Enjoy it.\nThe inexperienced and those to who ego control is important may find this\npassivity impossible. If you cannot remain inactive and subdue your will,\nthen the one certain activity which can reduce panic and pull you out of\nhallucinatory mind-games is physical contact with another person. Go to the\nguide or to another participant and put your head on his lap or chest; put\nyour face next to his and concentrate on the movement and sound of his\ninspiration. Breathe deeply and feel the air rush in and the sighing release.\nThis is the oldest form of living communication; the brotherhood of breath.\nThe guide's hand on your forehead may add to the relaxation.\nContact with another participant may be misunderstood and provoke sexual\nhallucinations. For this reason, helping contact should be made explicit by\nprearrangement. Unprepared participants may impose sexual fears or\nfantasies on the contact. Turn them off; they are karmic illusory\nproductions.\nThe tender, gentle, supportive huddling together of participants is a natural\ndevelopment during the second phase. Do not try to rationalize this contact.\nHuman beings and, for that matter, most all mobile terrestrial creatures\nhave been huddling together during long, dark confused nights for several\nhundred thousand years.\nBreathe in and breathe out with you companions. We are all one! That's what\nyour breath is telling you.\nExplanation of the Second Bardo\nThe underlying problem of the Second Bardo is that any and every shape -\nhuman, divine, diabolical, heroic, evil, animal, thing - which the human brain\nconjures up or the past life recalls, can present itself to consciousness:\nshapes and forms and sounds whirling by endlessly.\nThe underlying solution - repeated again and again - is to recognize that\nyour brain is producing the visions. They do not exist. Nothing exists except\nas your consciousness gives it life.\nYou are standing on the threshold of recognizing the truth: there is no reality\nbehind any of the phenomena of the ego-loss state, save the illusions stored\nup in your own mind either as accretions from game (Sangsaric) experience\nor as gifts from organic physical nature and its billion-year old past\nhistory. Recognition of this truth gives liberation.\nThere is, of course, no way of classifying the infinite permutations and\ncombinations of visionary elements. The cortex contains file-cards for\nbillions of images from the history of the person, of the race, and of living\nforms. Any of these, at the rate of a hundred million per second (according\nto neuro-physiologists), can flood into awareness. Bobbing around in this\nbrilliant, symphonic sea of imagery is the remnant of the conceptual mind.\nOn the endless watery turbulence of the Pacific Ocean bobs a tiny open\nmouth shouting (between saline mouthfuls), \"Order! System! Explain all this!\"\nOne cannot predict what visions will occur, nor their sequence. One can only\nurge the participants to shut the mouth, breathe through the nose, and turn\noff the fidgety, rationalizing mind. But only the experienced person of\nmystical bent can do this (and thus remain in serene enlightenment). The\nunprepared person will be confused or, worse, panicky: the intellectual\nstruggle to control the ocean.\nIn order to guide the person, to help him organize his visions into explicable\nunits, the Chonyid Bardo was written. There are two sections:\n(1) Seven Peaceful Deities with their symmetrically opposed ego traps.\n(2) Eight Wrathful Deities who can be joyfully accepted as visionary\nproductions, or fled from in terror.\nEach of the Seven Peaceful Deities (bisexual Father-Mother figures) are\naccompanied by consorts, attendants, lesser deities, saints, angels, heroes.\nEach of the Wrathful Deities is similarly accompanied. Lights, symbolic\nobjects, beautiful, horrid, threatening, seething, are likewise seen.\nIf read literally, The Tibetan Book of the Dead would have you expect the\n\"Master of All Visible Shapes\" (or his opposite, the fondness for stupidity)\non the first day; the \"Immovable Deity of Happiness\" and his consort,\nattendants and opposite on the second, etc. The manual should, of course, not\nbe used rigidly, exoterically, but should be taken in its esoteric, allegorical\nform.\nRead from this perspective, we see that the lamas have listed or named a\nthousand images which can boil up in the ever-changing jeweled mosaic of\nthe retina (that multi-layered swamp of billions of rods and cones,\ninfiltrated, like a Persian rug or a Mayan carving, with countless multi-\ncolored capillaries). By preparatory reading of the manual and by its\nrepetition during the experience, the novice is led via suggestion to\nrecognize this fantastic retinal kaleidoscope.\nMost important, he is told that they come from within. All deities and\ndemons, all heavens and hells are internal.\nThe student with a particular interest in Tibetan or Tantric Buddhism should\nsteep himself in the text of the Chonyid Bardo. He should obtain colored\nplates of the fourteen dramas of the Bardo, and he should arrange to have\nthe guide lead him through the prescribed sequence during the drug session.\nThis will provide an unforgettable series of liberations and will permit the\ndevotee to emerge from the experience \"reincarnated\" in the lamaist\ntradition.\nThe aim of this manual is to make available the general outline of the\nTibetan Book and to translate it into psychedelic English. For this reason we\nshall not present the detailed sequence of lamaist hallucinations but,\nrather, list some apparitions commonly reported by Westerners.\nFollowing the Tibetan Thodo, we have classified Second Bardo visions into\nseven types:\n1. The Source or Creator Vision\n2. The Internal Flow of Archetypal Processes\n3. The Fire-Flow of Internal Unity\n4. The Wave-Vibration Structure of External Forms\n5. The Vibratory Waves of External Unity\n6. \"The Retinal Circus\"\n7. \"The Magic Theatre\" [We owe the phrase \"retinal circus\" to Henri Michaux\n(Miserable Miracle), and the term \"magic theatre\" to Hermann Hesse\n(Steppenwolf).\nVisions 2 and 3 involve closed eyes and no contact with external stimuli. In\nVision 2 the internal imagery is primarily conceptual. The experience can\nrange from revelation and insight to confusion and chaos, but the cognitive,\nintellectual meaning is paramount. In Vision 3 the internal imagery is\nprimarily emotional. The experience can range from love and ecstatic unity\nto fear, distrust and isolation.\nVisions 4 and 5 involve open eyes and rapt attention to external stimuli,\nsuch as sounds, lights, touch, etc. In Vision 4 the external imagery is\nprimarily conceptual and in Vision 5 emotional factors predominate.\nThe sevenfold table just defined bears some similarity to the mandalic\nschema of the Peaceful Deities listed for the Second Bardo in The Tibetan\nBook of the Dead.\nTHE PEACEFUL VISIONS\nVision 1: The Source [The first Peaceful Deity\nlisted by the Bardo Thodol is the Bhagavan Vairochana who occupies the\ncenter of the mandala of the five Dhyani-Buddhas. His attributes of source-\npower have been translated into those of the monotheistic creator of\nWestern religions.]\n(Eyes closed, external stimuli ignored)\nThe White Light, or First Bardo energy, may be interpreted as God the\nCreator. The Spreader of the Seed. The Power which makes all shapes\nvisible. Seed of all that is. Sovereign Power. The All-Powerful. The Central\nSun. The One Truth. The Source of all Organic Life. The Divine Mother. The\nFemale Creative Principle. Mother of the Space of Heaven. Radiant Father-\nMother. Magnificent revelations, both spiritual and philosophic, can occur at\nthis point making the highest union of experience and intellect. But, because\nof bad karma (usually religious beliefs of a monotheistic or punitive nature),\nthe glorious light of the seed wisdom it can produce awe and terror. The\nperson will wish to flee and will beget a fondness for the dull white light\nsymbolizing stupidity.\nPersons from a Judaeo-Christian background conceive of an enormous gulf\nbetween divinity (which is \"up there\") and the self (\"down here\"). Christian\nmystics' claims to unity with divine radiance has always posed problems for\ntheologians who are committed to the cosmological subject-object\ndistinction. Most Westerners, therefore, find it difficult to attain unity with\nthe source-light.\nIf the guide ascertains that the voyager is struggling with thoughts or\nfeelings about the creative source energy, he can read the appropriate\ninstructions. ==|==>> INSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 1: THE SOURCE\nVision 2: The Internal Flow of Archetypal Processes\n(Eyes closed, external stimuli ignored; intellectual aspects)\nIf the undifferentiated light of the First Bardo or of the Source Energy is\nlost, luminous waves of differentiated forms can flood through the\nconsciousness. The person's mind begins to identify these figures, that is, to\nlabel them and experience revelations about the life process. [Lama Govinda\ntells us that Amoghasiddhi represents \". . . the mysterious activity of\nspiritual forces, which work removed from the senses, invisible and\nimperceptible, with the aim of guiding the individual (or, more properly: all\nliving beings) towards the maturity of knowledge and liberation. The yellow\nlight of an (inner) sun invisible to human eyes . . . (in which the\nunfathomable space of the universe seems to open itself) for the serene\nmystic green of Amoghasiddhi. . . . On the elementary plane this all-\npervading power corresponds to the element of air - the principle of\nmovement and extension, of life and breath (prana).\" Lama Govinda:\nFoundations of Tibetan Mysticism. Lodon: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1959, p.120.\nThe fifth day of the Baro Thodol confronts the deceased with the Bhagavan\nBuddha Amoghasiddhi, Almighty Conqueror, from the green Norther realm\nof Successful Performance of Best Actions, attended by a Divine Mother, and\ntwo Bodhisattvas representing the mental functions of \"equilibrium,\nimmutability, and almighty power\" and \"clearer of obscurations.\"]\nSpecifically, the subject is caught up in an endless flow of colored forms,\nmicrobiological shapes, cellular acrobatics, capillary whirling. The cortex is\nturned in on molecular processes which are completely new and strange: a\nNiagara of abstract designs; the life-stream flowing, flowing.\nThese visions might perhaps be described as pure sensations of cellular and\nsub-cellular processes. It is uncertain whether they involve the retina\nand/or the visual cortex, or whether they are flashes of direct, molecular\nsensation in other areas of the central nervous system. They are\nsubjectively described as internal visions.\nAnother class of internal process images involves sound. Again we do not\nknow whether these sensations originate in the auditory apparatus and/or in\nthe auditory cortex, or whether they are flashes of direct, molecular\nsensations in other areas. They are subjectively described as internal\nsounds: clicking, thudding, clashing, soughing, ringing, tapping, moaning,\nshrill whistles. [ The Tibetan Book includes a brilliant discussion of internal\nprocess noises. \". . . innumerable (other) kinds of musical instruments,\nfilling (with music) the whole world-systems and causing them to vibrate,\nto quake and tremble with sounds so mighty as to daze one's brain. . . .\"\n\"Tibetan lamas, in chanting their rituals, employ seven (or eight) sorts of\nmusical instruments: big drums, cymbals (commonly brass), conch shells,\nbells (like the handbells used in the Christian Mass Service), timbrels, small\nclarionets (sounding like Highland bagpipes), big trumpets, and human\nthighbone trumpets. Although the combined sounds of these instruments are\nfar from being melodious, the lamas maintain that they psychically produce\nin the devotee an attitude of deep veneration and faith, because they are the\ncounterparts of the natural sounds which one's own body is heard producing\nwhen the fingers are put in the ears to shut out external sounds. Stopping\nthe ears thus, there are heard a thudding sound, like that of a big drum\nbeing beaten; a clashing sound, as of cymbals; a soughing sound, as of a wind\nmoving through a forest - as when a conch-shell is bone; a ringing as of\nbells; a sharp tapping sound, as when a timbrel is used; a moaning sound,\nlike that of a clarionet; a bass moaning sound, as if made with a big\ntrumpet; and a shriller sound, as of a thigh-bone trumpet.\"\n\"Not only is this interesting as a theory of Tibetan sacred music, but it\ngives the clue to the esoteric interpretation of the symbolical natural\nsounds of Truth (referred to in the second paragraph following, and\nelsewhere in our text), which are said to be, or to proceed from, the\nintellectual faculties within the human mentality.\" - (Evans-Wentz, p. 128)]\nThese noises, like the visions, are direct sensations unencumbered by\nmental concepts. Raw, molecular, dancing units of energy.\nThe minds sweeps in and out of this evolutionary stream, creating\ncosmological revelations. Dozens of mythical and Darwinian insights flash\ninto awareness. The person is allowed to glance back down the flow of time\nand to perceive how the life energy continually manifests itself in forms,\ntransient, alwasy changing, reforming. Microscopic forms merge with primal\ncreative myths. The mirror of consciousness is held up to the life stream.\nAs long as the person floats with the current, he is exposed to a billion-year\nlesson in cosmology. But the drag of the mind is always present. The\ntendency to impose arbitrary, isolating order on the organic process.\nSometimes the voyager feels he should report back his vision. He converts\nthe life flow into a cosmic ink-blot test - attempts to label each form. \"Now\nI see a peacock's tail. Now Muslim knights in colored armor. Oh, now a\nwaterfall of jewels. Now, Chinese music. Now, gem-like serpents, etc.\"\nVerbalizations of this sort dull the light, stop the flow and should not be\nencouraged.\nAnother trap is that of imposing a sexual interpretation. The dancing,\nplayful flow of life is, in the most reverant sense, sexual. Forms merging,\nspinning together, reproducing. Eros in its countless manifestations. The\nTibetans refer to the female Bodhisattvas Pushpema, personification of\nblossoms, and Lasema, the \"Belle\", depicted holding a mirror in a coquettish\nattitude. Keep the pure, spontaneous awareness of the Mirror-like Wisdom.\nLaugh joyously at the tricks of the life process, forever decking out forms in\nseductive, enticing patterns to keep the dance going. If the voyager\ninterprets the visions of Eros in terms of his personal sexual game model,\nand attempts to think or plan - \"what should I do? what role should I play?\"\n- he is likely to slip down into the Thrid Bardo. Sexual plots dominate his\nawareness, the flow fades, the mirror tarnishes, and he is rudely reborn as a\nconfused, thinking being.\nStill another impasse is the imposition of physical symptom games upon the\nbiological flow. The new somatic sensations may be interpreted as\nsymptoms. If it is new, it must be bad. Any organ of the body may be\nselected as the focus of the \"illness.\" People whose primary expectation\nwhen taking a psychedelic substance is medical, are particularly likely to\nfall into this trap. Medical doctors are, in fact, extremely prone and can\nimagine colorful diseases and fatal attacks.\nIn the case of the most widely-used psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, etc.), it\nis safe to say that such bodily effects are virtually never the direct effect\nof the drug. The drug acts only on the brain and activates central neural\npatterns. All physical symptoms are created by the mind. Bodily sickness is\na sign that the ego is fighting to maintain or regain its hold over an\noutpouring of feeling, over a dissolution of emotional boundaries.\nIf the person complains of physical symptoms such as nausea or pain, the\nguide should read him the ==|==>> INSTRUCTIONS FOR PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS.\nThe negative, wrathful counterpart to this vision occurs if the voyager\nreacts with fear to the powerful flow of life forms. Such a reaction is\nattributable to the cumulated result of game playing (karma) dominated by\nanger or stupidity. A nightmarish hell-world may ensue. The visual forms\nappear like a confusing chaos of cheap, ugly dime-store objects, brassy,\nvulgar and useless. The person may become terrified at the prospect of being\nengulfed by them. The awesome sounds may be heard as hideous, clashing,\noppressive, grating noises. The person will attempt to escape from these\nperceptions into restless external activity (talking, moving around, etc.) or\ninto conceptual, analytic, mental activity.\nThe experience is the same, the intellectual interpretation is different.\nInstead of revelation, there is confusion; instead of calm joy, there is fear.\nThe guide, recognizing the voyager to be in such a state, can help him get\nfree, by reading the ==|==>> Instructions for Vision 2.\nVision 3: The Fire-Flow of Internal Unity\n(Eyes closed, external stimuli ignored, emotional aspects)\nThe First Bardo instructions should keep you face-to-face with the void-\necstasy. Yet there are classes of men who, having carried over karmic\nconflict about feeling-inhibition, prove unable to hold the pure experience\nbeyond all feelings, and slip into emotionally toned visions. The\nundifferentiated energy of the First Bardo is woven into visionary games in\nthe form of intense feelings. Exquisite, intense, pulsating sensations of\nunity and love will be felt; the negative counterpart is feelings of\nattachment, greed, isolation and bodily concerns.\nIt comes about this way: the pure flow of energy loses its white void quality\nand becomes sensed as intense feelings. An emotional game is imposed.\nIncredible new physical sensations pulse through the body. The glow of life\nis felt flooding along veins. One merges into a unitive ocean of orgastic,\nfluid electricity, [The Peaceful Deity of the Bardo Thodol personifying this\nvision is the Buddha Amitabbha, the all-discriminating wisdom and feeling,\nboundless light, representing life eternal. Lama Govinda writes that \"The\ndeep red light of discriminating inner vision shines forth from his heart . . .\nfire corresponds to him and thus, according to the ancient traditional\nsymbolism, the eye and the function of seeing.\" (Govinda, op. cit., p. 120.)\nWith the Bhagavan Amitabbha comes the Bodhisattva Chenrazee, embodiment\nof mercy or compassion, the great pitier ever on the lookout to discover\ndistress and to succour the troubled. He is joined by the Bodhisattva\n\"Glorious Gentle-voiced One,\" and the femal incarnates \"song\" and \"light.\"]\nthe endless flow of shared-life, of love.\nVisions related to the circulatory system are common. The subject tumbles\ndown through his own arterial network. The motor of the heart reverberates\nas one with the pulsing of all life. The heart then breaks, and red fire bleeds\nout to merge with all living beings. All living organisms are throbbing\ntogether. One is joyfully aware of the two-billion-year-old electric sexual\ndance; one is at last divested of robot clothes and limbs and undulates in the\nendless chain of living forms.\nDominating this ecstatic state is the feeling of intense love. You are a\njoyful part of all life. The memory of former delusions of self-hood and\ndifferentiation invokes exultant laughter.\nAll the harsh, dry, brittle angularity of game life is melted. You drift off -\nsoft, rounded, moist, warm. Merged with all life. You may feel yourself\nfloating out and down into a warm sea. Your individuality and autonomy of\nmovement are moistly disappearing. Your control is surrendered to the total\norganism. Blissful passivity. Ecstatic, orgiastic, undulating unity. All\nworries and concerns wash away. All is gained as everything is given up.\nThere is organic revelation. Every cell in your body is singing its song of\nfreedom - the entire biological universe is in harmony, liberated from the\ncensorship and control of you and your restricted ambitions.\nBut wait! You, You, are disappearing into the unity. You are being swallowed\nup by the ecstatic undulation. Your ego, that one tiny remaining strand of\nself, screams STOP! You are terrified by the pull of the glorious, dazzling,\ntransparent, radiant red light. You wrench yourself out of the life-flow,\ndrawn by your intense attachment to your old desires. There is a terrible\nrending as your roots tear out of the life matrix - a ripping of your fibres\nand veins away from the greater body to which you were attached. And\nwhen you have cut yourself off from the fire-flow of life the throbbing\nstops, the ecstasy ceases, your limbs harden and stiffen into angular forms,\nyour plastic doll body has regained its orientation. There you sit, isolated\nfrom the stream of life, impotent master of your desires and appetites,\nmiserable.\nWhile you are floating down the evolutionary river, there comes a sense of\nlimitless self-less power. The delight of flowing cosmic belongingness. The\nastounding discovery that consciousness can tune in to an infinite number of\norganic levels. There are billions of cellular processes in your body, each\nwith its universe of experience - an endless variety of ecstasies. The simple\njoys and pains and burdens of your ego represent one set of experiences - a\nrepetitious, dusty set. As you slip into the fire-flow of biological energy,\nseries after series of experiential sets flash by. You are no longer\nencapsulated in the structure of ego and tribe.\nBut through panic and a desire to latch on to the familiar, you shut off the\nflow, open your eyes; then the flowingness is lost. The potentiality to move\nfrom one level of consciousness to another is gone. Your fear and desire to\ncontrol have driven you to settle for one static site of consciousness. To use\nthe Eastern or genetic metaphor, you have frozen the dance of energy and\ncommitted yourself to one incarnation, and you have done it out of fear.\nWhen this happens, there are several steps which can take you back to the\nbiological flow (and from there to the First Bardo). First, close your eyes.\nLie on you stomach and let you body sink through the floor, merge with the\nsurroundings. Feel the hard, square edges of your body soften and start to\nmove in the bloodstream. Let the rhythm of breathing become tide flow.\nBodily contact is probably the most effective method of softening hardened\nsurfaces. No movement. No body games. Close physical contact with another\ninvariably brings about the unity of fire-flow. Your blood begins to flow into\nthe other's body. His breathing pours into your lungs. You both drift down\nthe capillary river.\nAnother form of life process images is the flow of auditory sensations. The\nendless series of abstract sounds (described in the preceding vision) bounce\nthrough awareness. The emotional reaction to these can be neutral or can\ninvolve intense feelings of unity, or of annoyed fear.\nThe positive reaction occurs when the subject merges with the sound flow.\nThe thudding drum of the heart is sensed as the basic anthem of humanity.\nThe whooshing sough of the breath as the rushing river of all life.\nOverwhelming feelings of love, gratitude and oneness funnel into the\nmoment of sound, into each note of the biological concerto.\nBut, as always, the voyager may intrude his personality with its wants and\nopinions. He may not \"like\" the noise. His judgmental ego may be\naesthetically offended by the sounds of life. The heart thud is, after all,\nmonotonous; the natural music of the inner ear, with its clicks and hums and\nwhistles, lacks the romantic symmetries of Beethoven. The terrible\nseparation of \"me\" from my body occurs. Horrible. Out of my control. Turn it\noff.\nThe trained guide can usually sense when ego-attachment threatens to pull\nthe person out of the unitive flow. At this time he can guide the voyager by\nreading the ==|==>> Instructions for Vision 3.\nVision 4: The Wave-Vibration Structure of External Forms\n(Eyes open or rapt involvement with external stimuli; intellectual aspects)\nThe pure, content-free light of the First Bardo probably involves basic\nelectrical wave energy. This is nameless, indescribable, because it is far\nbeyond any concepts which we now possess. Some future atomic physicist\nmay be able to classify this energy. Perhaps it will always be ineffable for a\nnervous system such as that of homo sapiens. Can an organic system\n\"comprehend\" the vastly more efficient inorganic? At any event, most\npersons, even the most illuminated, find it impossible to maintain\nexperiential contact with this void-light and slip back to imposing mental\nstructures, hallucinatory and revelatory, upon the flow.\nThus we are brought to another frequent vision which involves intense, rapt,\nunitive awareness of external stimuli. If the eyes are open, this super-\nreality effect can be visual. The penetrating impact of other stimuli can\nalso set off revelatory imagery.\nIt comes about this way. The subject's awareness is suddenly invaded by an\noutside stimulus. His attention is captured, but his old conceptual mind is\nnot functioning. But other sensitivities are engaged. He experiences direct\nsensation. The raw \"is-ness.\" He sees, not objects, but patterns of light\nwaves. He hears, not \"music\" or \"meaningful\" sound, but acoustic waves. He\nis struck with the sudden revelation that all sensation and perception are\nbased on wave vibrations. That the world around him which heretofore had\nan illusory solidity, is nothing more than a play of physical waves. That he\nis involved in a cosmic television show which has no more substantiality\nthan the images on his TV picture tube. [The Peaceful Deity of the Thodol\npersonifying this vision is Akshobhya. According to Lama Govinda, \"In the\nlight of the Mirror-like Wisdom . . . things are freed from their \"thingness,\"\ntheir isolation, without being deprived of their form; they are divested of\ntheir materiality, without being dissolved, because the creative principle of\nthe mind, which is at the bottom of all form and materiality, is recognized\nas the active side of the universal Store Consciousness (alaya-vijnana), on\nthe surface of which forms arise and pass away, like the waves on the\nsurface of the ocean. . . .\" (Govinda, op. cit., p. 119.)\nThe atomic structure of matter is, of course, known to us intellectually, but\nnever experienced by the adult except in states of intense altered\nconsciousness. Learning from a physics textbook about the wave structure of\nmatter is one thing. Experiencing it - being in it - with the old, familiar,\ngross, hallucinatory comfort of \"solid\" things gone and unavailable, is quite\nanother matter.\nIf these super-real visions involve wave phenomena, then the external\nworld takes on a radiance and a revelation that is staggeringly clear. The\nexperienced insight that the world of phenomena exists in the form of\nwaves, electronic images, can produce a sense of illuminated power.\nEverything is experienced as consciousness.\nThese exultant radiations should be recognized as productions of your own\ninternal processes. You should not attempt to control or conceptualize. This\ncan come later. There is the danger of hallucinatory freezing. The subject\nrushes back (sometimes literally) to the three-dimensional reality,\nconvinced of the fixed \"truth\" of one experienced revelation. Many misguided\nmystics and many persons called insane have fallen into this ambuscade.\nThis is like making a still photograph of a television pattern and shouting\nthat one has finally seized the truth. All is ecstatic electric Maya, the two-\nbillion-year dance of waves. No one part of it is more real than another.\nEverything at all moments is shimmering with all the meaning.\nSo far we have considered the positive radiance of clarity; but there are\nfearful negative aspects of the fourth vision. When the subject senses that\nhis \"world\" is fragmenting into waves, he may become terrified. \"He,\" \"me,\"\n\"I\" are dissolving! The world around me is supposed to sit, static and dead,\nquietly awaiting my manipulation. But these passive things have changed\ninto a shimmering dance of living energy! The Maya nature of phenomena\ncreates panic. Where is the solid base? Every thing, every concept, every\nform upon which one rests one's mind collapses into electrical vibrations\nlacking solidity.\nThe face of the guide or of one's beloved friend becomes a dancing mosaic of\nimpulses on one's cortex. \"My consciousness\" has created everything of\nwhich I am conscious. I have kinescoped my world, my loved ones, myself.\nAll are just shimmering energy patterns. Instead of clarity and exultant\npower, there is confusion. The subject staggers around, grasping at\nelectron-patterns, striving to freeze them back into the familiar robot\nforms.\nAll solidity is gone. All phenomena are paper images pasted on the glass\nscreen of consciousness. For the unprepared, or for the person whose karmic\nresidue stresses control, the discovery of the wave-nature of all structure,\nthe Maya revelation, is a disastrous web of uncertainty.\nWe have discussed only the visual aspects of the fourth vision. Auditory\nphenomena are of equal importance. Here the solid, labelled nature of\nauditory patterns is lost, and the mechanical impact of sound hitting the\neardrum is registered. In some cases, sound becomes converted into pure\nsensation, and synesthesia (mixture of sense modalities) occurs. Sounds are\nexperienced as colors. External sensations hitting the cortex are recorded as\nmolecular events, ineffable.\nThe most dramatic auditory visions occur with music. Just as any object\nradiates a pattern of electrons and can become the essense of all energy, so\ncan any note of music be sensed as naked energy trembling in space,\ntimeless. The movement of notes, like the shuttling of oscillograph beams.\nEach capturing all energy, the electric core of the universe. Nothing existing\nexcept the needle-clear resonance on the tympanic membrane. Unforgettable\nrevelations about the nature of reality occur at these moments.\nBut the hellish interpretation is also possible. As the learned structure of\nsound collapses, the direct impact of waves can be sensed as noise. For one\nwho is compelled to institute order, his order, on the world around him, it is\nat least annoying and often disturbing to have the raw tattoo of sound\nresonating in consciousness.\nNoise! What an irreverent concept. Is not everything noise; all sensation the\ndivine pattern of wave energy, meaningless only to those who insist on\nimposing their own meaning?\nPreparation is the key to a serene passage through this visionary territory.\nThe subject who has studied this manual will be able, when face to face\nwith the phenomenon, to recognize and flow with it.\nThe sensitive guide will be ready to pick up, on any cue, that the subject is\nwandering in the fourth vision. If the voyager's eyes are open (indicating\nvisual reactions), he can read the ==|==>> Instructions for Vision 4.\nIf the guide senses that the voyager is experiencing the fragmentation of\nexternal sound into wave vibrations, he can amend the instructions\nappropriately (changing the visuaol references to auditory).\nVision 5: The Vibratory Waves of External Unity\n(Eyes open, or rapt involvement with external stimuli; emotional aspects)\nAs the learned perceptions disappear and the structure of the external world\ndisintegrates into direct wave phenomena, the aim is to amintain a pure,\nconten-free awareness (First Bardo). Despite the preparations, one is likely\nto be led backwards by one's own mental inclinations into two hallucinatory\nor revelatory interpretations of reality. One reaction leads to the\nintellectual clarity or frightened confusion of the fourth vision (just\ndescribed). Another interpretation is the emotional reaction to the\nfragmentation of differentiated forms. One can be engulfed in ecstatic unity,\nor one can slip into isolated egotism. The Bardol Thodol calls the former the\n\"Wisdom of Equality\" and the latter the \"quagmire of worldly existence\naccruing from violent egotism.\" [The Peaceful Deity of the fifth vision\ncomes in the form of the Bhagavan Ratnasambhava, born of a jewel. He is\nembraced by the Divine Mother, She of the Buddha Eyes, and accompanied by\nthe Bodhisattvas, womb of the sky, All-good, and those holding incense and\nrosary. \"On the elementary plane Ratnasambhava corresponds to the earth,\nwhich carries and nourishes all beings with the equanimity and patience of a\nmother, in whose eyes all beings, borne by her, are equal.\" (Govinda, op. cit.,\np. 119.)] In the state of radiant unity, one senses that there is only one\nnetwork of energy in the universe and that all things and all sentient beings\nare momentary manifestations of the single pattern. When egotistic\ninterpretations are imposed on the fifth vision, the \"plastic doll\" phenomena\nare experienced. Differentiated forms are seen as inorganic, dull, mass-\nproduced, shabby, plastic, and all persons (including self) are seen as\nlifeless mannequins isolated from the vibrant dance of energy, which has\nbeen lost.\nThe experiential data of this vision are similar to that of the fourth vision.\nAll artifactual learned structure collapses back to energy vibrations. The\nawareness is dominated not by revelatory clarity but by shimmering unity.\nThe subject is entranced by the silent, whirling play of forces. Exquisite\nforms dance by him, all surrounding objects radiate energy, brilliant\nemanations. His own body is seen as a play of forces. If he looks in a mirror,\nhe sees a shining mosaic of particles. The sense of his own wave structure\nbecomes stronger. A feeling of melting, floating off. The body is no longer a\nseparate unit but a cluster of vibrations sending and receiving energy - a\nphase of the dance of energy which has been going on for millennia.\nA sense of profound one-ness, a feeling of the unity of all energy.\nSuperficial differences of role, cast, status, sex, species, form, power, size,\nbeauty, even the distinctions between inorganic and living energy, disappear\nbefore the ecstatic union of all in one. All gestures, words, acts and events\nare equivalent in value - all are manifestations of the one consciousness\nwhich pervades everything. \"You,\" \"I\" and \"he\" are gone, \"my\" thoughts are\n\"ours,\" \"your\" feelings are \"mine.\" Communication is unnecessary, since\ncomplete communion exists. A person can sense another's feeling and mood\ndirectly, as if they were his own. By a glance, whole lifetimes and words\ncan be transmitted. If all are at peace, the vibrations are \"in phase.\" If there\nis discord, \"out of phase\" vibrations will be set up which will be felt like\ndiscordant music. Bodies melt into waves. Objects in the environment -\nlights, tree, plants, flowers - seem to open and welcome you: they are part\nof you. You are both simply different pulses of the same vibrations. A pure\nfeeling of ecstatic harmony with all beings is the keynote of this vision.\nBut as before, terrors can occur. Unity requires ecstatic self-sacrifice. Loss\nof ego brings fright to the unprepared. The fragmentation of form into waves\ncan bring the most terrible fear known to man: the ultimate epistemological\nrevelation.\nThe fact of the matter is that all apparent forms of matter and body are\nmomentary clusters of energy. We are little more than flickers on a\nmultidimensional television screen. This realization directly experienced\ncan be delightful. You suddenly wake up from the delusion of separate form\nand hook up to the cosmic dance. Consciousness slides along the wave\nmatrices, silently at the speed of light.\nThe terror comes with the discovery of transience. Nothing is fixed, no form\nsolid. Everything you can experience is \"nothing but\" electrical waves. You\nfeel ultimately tricked. A victim of the great television producer. Distrust.\nThe people around you are lifeless television robots. The world around you is\na facade, a stage set. You are a helpless marionette, a plastic doll in a\nplastic world.\nIf others attempt to help, they are seen as wooden, waxen, feelingless, cold,\ngrotesque, maniacal, space-fiction monsters. You are unable to feel. \"I am\ndead. I will never live and feel again.\" In wild panic you may attempt to\nforce feeling back - by action, by shouting. You will then enter the Third\nBardo stage and be reborn in an unpleasant way.\nThe best method to escape from fifth vision terrors is to remember this\nmanual, relax, and swing with the wave dance. Or to communicate to the\nguide that you are in a plastic doll phase, and he will guide you back.\nAnother solution is to move to the internal biological flow. Follow the\ninstructions given in the third vision: close your eyes, lie prone, seek bodily\ncontact, float down into your bodily stream. In so doing, you are\nrecapitulating the evolutionary sequence. For billions of years, inorganic\nenergy danced the cosmic round before the biological rhythm began. Don't\nrush it.\nIf the guide senses that the person is experiencing plastic doll visions or is\nafraid of the uncontrollability of his own feeling, he should read to him the\n==|==>> Instructions for Vision 5.\nVision 6: \"The Retinal Circus\"\nEach of the Second Bardo visions thus far described was one aspect of the\n\"experiencing of reality.\" The inner fire or outer waves, apprehended\nintellectually or emotionally - each vision with its correspondent traps.\nEach of the \"Peaceful Deities\" appears with its attendant \"Wrathful Deities.\"\nTo maintain any of these visions for any length of time requires a certain\ndegree of concentration or \"one-pointedness\" of mind, as well as the ability\nto recognize them and not to be afraid. Thus, for most persons, the\nexperience may pass through one or more of these phases without the\nvoyager being able to hold them or stay with them. He may open and close\nhis eyes, he may become alternately absorbed in internal sensations and\nexternal forms. The experience may be chaotic, beautiful, thrilling,\nincomprehensible, magical, ever-changing. [In the Bardo Thodol, on the sixth\nday appear the radiant lights of the combined Five Wisdoms of the Dhyani-\nBuddhas, the protective deities (gatekeepers of the mandala) and the\nBuddhas of the Six Realms of game-existence. According to Lama Govinda:\n\"The Inner Way of Vajra-Sattva, consists in the combination of the rays of\nthe Wisdoms of the four Dhyani-Buddhas and their absorption within one's\nown heart - in other words, in the recognition that all these radiances are\nthe emanations of one's own mind in a state of perfect tranquility and\nserenity, a state in which the mind reveals its true universal nature.\"\n(Govinda, op., cit., p. 262.)]\nHe will travel freely through many worlds or experience - from direct\ncontact with life-process forms and images, he may pass to visions of\nhuman game-forms. He may see and understand with unimagined clarity and\nbrilliance various social and self-games that he and others play. His own\nstruggles in karmic (game) existence will appear pitiful and laughable.\nEcstatic freedom of consciousness is the keynote of this vision. Exploration\nof unimagined realms. Theatrical adventures. Plays within plays within\nplays. Symbols change into things symbolized and vice versa. Words become\nthings, thoughts are music, music is smelled, sounds are touched, complete\ninterchangeability of the senses.\nAll things are possible. All feelings are possible. A person may \"try on\"\nvarious moods like so many pieces of clothing. Subjects and objects whirl,\ntransform, change into each other, merge, fuse, disperse again. External\nobjects dance and sing. The mind plays upon them as upon a musical\ninstrument. They assume any form, significance or quality upon command.\nThey are admired, adored, analyzed, examined, changed, made beautiful or\nugly, large or small, important or trivial, useful, dangerous, magical or\nincomprehensible. They may be reacted to with wonder, amazement, humor,\nveneration, love, disgust, fascination, horror, delight, fear, ecstasy.\nLike a computer with unlimited access to any programs, the mind roams\nfreely. Personal and racial memories bubble up to the surface of\nconsciousness, inter-play with fantasies, wishes, dreams and external\nobjects. A present event becomes charged with profound emotional\nsignificance, a cosmic phenomenon becomes identical with some personal\nquirk. Metaphysical problems are juggled and bounced around. Pure \"primary\nprocess,\" spontaneous outopouring of association, opposites merging, images\nfusing, condensing, shifting, collapsing, expanding, merging, connecting.\nThis kaleidoscopic vision of game-reality may be frightening and confusing\nto an ill-prepared subject. Instead of exquisite clarity of many-levelled\nperception, he will experience a confused chaos of uncontrollable,\nmeaningless forms. Instead of delight at the playful acrobatics of the free\nintellect, there will be anxious clinging to an elusive order. Morbid and\nscatological hallucinations may occur, evoking disgust and shame.\nAs before, this negative vision occurs only if the person attempts to control\nor rationalize the magic panorama. Relax and accept whatever comes.\nRemember that all visions are created by your mind, the happy and the\nunhappy, the beautiful and the ugly, the delightful and the horrifying. Your\nconsciousness is creator, performer and spectator of the \"retinal circus.\"\nIf the guide senses that the voyager is in or seems to be in the \"retinal\ncircus\" vision, he may read to him the appropriate instructions ==|==>>\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 6: \"THE RETINAL CIRCUS\".\nVision 7: \"The Magic Theatre\"\nIf the voyager was unable to maintain the passive serenity necessary for the\ncontemplation of the previous visions (the peaceful deities), he moves now\ninto a more dramatic and active phase. The play of forms and things\nbecomes the play of heroic figures, superhuman spirits and demigods. [In the\nTibetan Handbook, this is described as the vision of the five \"Knowledge-\nHolding Deities,\" arranged in a mandala form, each embraced by Dakinis, in\nan ecstatic dance. The Knowledge-holding Deities symbolize \"the highest\nlevel of individual or humanly conceivable knowledge, as attained in the\nconsciousness of great Yogis, inspired thinkers or similar heroes of the\nspirit. They represent the last step before the \"breaking-through\" towards\nthe universal consciousness - or the first on the return from there to the\nplane of human knowledge.\" (Govinda, op. cit., p. 202.) The Dakinis are female\nembodiments of knowledge, representing the inspirational impluses of\nconsciousness leading to break-through. The other four Knowledge-Holders,\nbesides the central Lord of Dance, are: the Knowledge-holder abiding in the\nearth, the Knowledge-holder who has power over the duration of life, the\nKnowledge-holder of the Great Symbol, and the Knowledge-holder of\nSpontaneous Realization.] You may see radiating figures in human forms. The\n\"Lotus Lord of Dance\": the supreme image of a demi-god who perceives the\neffects of all actions. The prince of movement, dancing in an ecstatic\nembrace with his female counterpart. Heroes, heroines, celestial warriors,\nmale and female demi-gods, angels, fairies - the exact form of these figures\nwill depend on the person's background and tradition. Archetypal figures in\nthe forms of characters from Greek, Egyptian, Nordic, Celtic, Aztec, Persian,\nIndian, Chinese mythology. The shapes differ, the source is the same: they\nare the concrete embodiments of aspects of the person's own psyche.\nArchetypal forces below verbal awareness and expressible only in symbolic\nform. The figures are often extremely colorful and accompanied by a variety\nof awe-inspiring sounds. If the voyager is prepared and in a relaxed,\ndetached frame of mind, he is exposed to a fascinating and dazzling display\nof dramatic creativity. The Cosmic Theatre. The Divine Comedy. If his eyes\nare open, he may visualize the other voyagers as representing these figures.\nThe face of a friend may turn into that of a young boy, a baby, the child-god;\ninto a heroic stature, a wise old man; a woman, animal, goddess, sea-\nmother, young girl, nymph, elf, goblin, leprechaun. Images of the great\npainters arise as the familiar representations of these spirits. The images\nare inexhaustible and manifold. An illuminating voyage into the areas where\nthe personal consciousness merges with the supr-individual.\nThe danger is that the voyager becomes frightened by or unduly attracted to\nthese powerful figures. The forces represented by them may be more\nintense than he was prepared for. Inability or unwillingness to recognize\nthem as products of one's mind, leads to escape into animalistic pursuits.\nThe person may become involved in the pursuit of power, lust, wealth and\ndescend into Third Bardo rebirth struggles.\nIf the guide senses that the voyager is caught in this trap, the appropriate\ninstructions may be used ==|==>> INTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 7: \"THE MAGIC\nTHEATRE\".\nTHE WRATHFUL VISIONS\n(Second Bardo Nightmares)\nSeven Second Bardo visions have been described. At each one of them, the\nvoyager could recognize what he saw and be liberated. Multitudes will be\nliberated by that recognition; and although multitudes obtain liberation in\nthat manner, the number of sentient beings being great, evil karma\npowerful, obscurations dense, propensities of too long standing, the Wheel\nof Ignorance and Illusion becomes neither exhausted nor accelerated. Despite\nthe confrontations, there is a vast preponderance of those who wander\ndownwards unliberated.\nThus, in the Tibetan Thodo, after the seven peaceful deities, there come\nseven visions of wrathful deities, fifty-eight in number, male and female,\n\"flame-enhaloed, wrathful, blood-drinking.\" These Herukas as they are\ncalled, will not be described in detail, especially since Westerners are\nliable to experience the wrathful deities in different forms. Instead of\nmany-headed fierce mythological demons, they are more likely to be\nengulfed and ground by impersonal machinery, manipulated by scientific,\ntorturing control-devices and other space-fiction horrors. [Some general\nremarks about the Tibetan interpretation of these visions. The Wrathful\nDeities are regarded as \"only the former Peaceful Deities in changed aspect.\"\nLama Govinda writes: \"The peaceful forms of Dhyani-Buddhas represent the\nhighest ideal of Buddhahood in its completed, final, static condition of\nultimate attainment or perfection, seen retrospectively as it were, as a\nstate of complete rest and harmony. The Herukas, on the other hand, which\nare described as \"blood-drinking,\" angry or \"terrifying\" deities - are merely\nthe dynamic aspect of enlightenment, the process of becoming a Buddha, of\nattaining illumination, as symbolized by the Buddha's struggle with the\nHosts of Mara. . . . The ecstatic figures, heroic and terrifying, express the\nact of breaking through towards the unthinkable, the intellectually\n\"Unattainable.\" They represent the leap over the chasm, which yawns\nbetween an intellectual surface consciousness and the intuitive supra-\npersonal depth-consciousness.\" (Govinda, op. cit., pp. 198, 202.)]\nThe Tibetans regard the nightmare visions as primarily intellectual\nproducts. They assign them to the Brain chakra, whereas the peaceful deities\nare assigned to the Heart chakra and the Knowledge-Holding deities to the\nintermediate Throat chakra. They are the reactions of the mind to the\nprocess of consciousness-expansion. They represent the attempts of the\nintellect to maintain its threatened boundaries. They symbolize the struggle\nof breaking through to ego-loss understanding and awareness.\nBecause of the terror and awe they produce, recognition is difficult. Yet in a\nway it is also easier in that, since these negative hallucinations command\nall attention, the mind is alert and therefore through trying to escape from\nfear and terror, people get involved in psychotic states and suffer. But with\nthe aid of this manual and the presence of a guide, the voyager will\nrecognize these hell visions as soon as he sees them, and welcome them like\nold friends.\nAgain, when psychologists, philosophers, and psychiatrists, who do not know\nthese teachings, experience ego-loss - however assiduously they may have\ndevoted themselves to academic study and however clever they may have\nbeen in expounding intellectual theories - none of the higher phenomena will\nappear. This is because they are unable to recognize the visions occurring in\nthese psychedelic experiences. Suddenly seeing something they had never\nseen before and possessing no intellectual concepts, they view it as\ninimical; and, antagonistic feelings arising, they pass into miserable states.\nThus, if one has not had practical experience with these teachings, the\nradiances and lights will not appear.\nThose who believe in these doctrines even though they may seem to be\nunrefined, irregular in performance of duties, inelegant in habits, and\nperhaps even unable to practice the doctrine successfully - let no one doubt\nthem or be disrespectful towards them, but pay reverence to their mystic\nfaith. That alone will enable them to attain liberation. Elegance and\nefficiency of devotional practice are not necessary - just acquaintance with\nand trust in these teachings.\nWell-prepared persons need not experience Second Bardo hell visions at all.\nRight from the beginning they can pass into paradisiacal states led by\nheroes, heroines, angels and super-spirits. \"They will merge into rainbow\nradiance; there will be sun-showers, sweet scent of incense in the air,\nmusic in the skies, radiances.\"\nThis manual is indispensable to those students who are unprepared. Those\nproficient in meditation will recognize the Clear Light at the moment of\nego-loss and will enter the Blissful Void (Dharma-Kaya). They will also\nrecognize the positive and negative visions of the Second Bardo and obtain\nillumination (Sambhogha-Kaya); and being reborn on a higher level will\nbecome inspired saints or teachers (Nirmana-Kaya). The study and pursuit of\nenlightenment can always be taken up again at the point where it was broken\nby the last ego-loss, thus ensuring continuity of karma.\nby the use of this manual, enlightenment can be obtained without\nmeditation, through hearing alone. It can liberate even very heavy ego-game\nplayers. The distinction between those who know it and those who do not\nbecomes very clear. Enlightenment follows instantly. Those who have been\nreached by it cannot have prolonged negative experiences.\nThe teaching concerning the hell-visions is the same as before; recognize\nthem to be your own thought-forms, relax, float downstream. The ==|==>>\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR THE WRATHFUL VISIONS may be read. If, after this,\nrecognition is still impossible and liberation is not obtained, then the\nvoyager will descend into the Third Bardo, the Period of Re-Entry.\nCONCLUSION OF SECOND BARDO\nHowever much experience one may have had, there is always the possibility\nof delusions occurring in these psychedelic states. Those with practice in\nmeditation recognize the truth as soon as the experience begins. Reading\nthis manual beforehand is important. Having some degree of self-knowledge\nis helpful at the moment of ego-death.\nMeditation on the various positive and negative archetypal forms is very\nimportant for Second Bardo phases. Therefore, read this manual, keep it,\nremember it, bear it in mind, read it regularly; let the words and meanings\nbe very clear; they should not be forgotten, even under extreme duress. It is\ncalled \"The Great Liberation by Hearing\" because even those with selfish\ndeeds on their conscience can be liberated if they hear it. If heard only once,\nit can be efficacious because even though not understood, it will be\nremembered during the psychedelic state, since the mind is more lucid then.\nIt should be proclaimed to all living persons; it should be read over the\npillows of ill persons; it should be read to dying persons; it should be\nbroadcast.\nThose who meet this doctrine are fortunate. It is not easy to encounter. Even\nwhen read, it is difficult to comprehend. Liberation will be won simply\nthrough not disbelieving it upon hearing it.\nHere ends the Second Bardo\nthe Period of Hallucinations\nTHIRD BARDO:\nTHE PERIOD OF RE-ENTRY\n(Sidpa Bardo)\nIntroduction\nIf, in the second Bardo, the voyager is incapable of holding on to the\nknowledge that the peaceful and wrathful visions were projections of his\nown mind, but became attracted to or frightened by one or more of them, he\nwill enter the Third Bardo. In this period he struggles to regain routine\nreality and his ego; the Tibetans call it the Bardo of \"seeking rebirth.\" It is\nthe period in which the consciousness makes the transition from\ntranscendent reality to the reality of ordinary waking life. The teachings of\nthis manual are of the utmost importance if one wishes to make a peaceful\nand enlightened re-entry and avoid a violent or unpleasant one.\nIn the original Bardo Thodol the aim of the teachings is \"liberation,\" i.e.,\nrelease from the cycle of birth and death. Interpreted esoterically, this\nmeans that the aim is to remain at the stage of perfect illumination and not\nto return to social game reality.\nOnly persons of extremely advanced spiritual development are able to\naccomplish this, by exercising the Transference Principle at the moment of\nego-death. For average persons who undertake a psychedelic voyage, the\nreturn to game reality is inevitable. Such persons can and should use this\npart of the manual for the following purposes:\n(1) to free themselves from Third Bardo traps;\n(2) to prolong the session, thus assuring a maximum degree of illumination;\n(3) to select a favorable re-entry, i.e., to return to a wiser and more\npeaceful\npost-session personality.\nAlthough no definite time estimates can be given, the Tibetans estimate\nthat about 50% of the entire psychedelic experience is spent in the Third\nBardo by most normal people. At times, as indicated in the Introduction,\nsomeone may move straight to the re-entry period if he is unprepared for or\nfrightened by the ego-loss experiences of the first two Bardos.\nThe types of re-entry made can profoundly color the person's subsequent\nattitudes and feelings about himself and the world, for weeks or even\nmonths afterwards. A session which has been predominantly negative and\nfearful can still be turned to great advantage and much can be learned from\nit, provided the re-entry is positive and highly conscious. Conversely, a\nhappy and revelatory experience can be made valueless by a fearful or\nnegative re-entry.\nThe key instructions of the Third Bardo are: (1) do nothing, stay calm,\npassive and relaxed, no matter what happens; and (2) recognize where you\nare. If you do not recognize you will be driven by fear to make a premature\nand unfavorable re-entry. Only by recognizing can you maintain that state of\ncalm, passive concentration necessary for a favorable re-entry. That is why\nso many recognition-points are given. If you fail on one, it is always\npossible, up to the very end, to succeed on another. Hence these teachings\nshould be read carefully and remembered well.\nIn the following sections some of the characteristic Third Bardo\nexperiences are described. In Part IV instructions are given appropriate to\neach section. At this stage in a psychedelic session the voyager is usually\ncapable of telling the guide verbally what he is experiencing, so that the\nappropriate sections can be read. A wise guide can often sense the precise\nnature of the ego's struggle without words. The voyager will usually not\nexperience all of these states, but only one or some of them; or sometimes\nthe return to reality can take completely new and unusual turns. In such a\ncase the general instructions for the Third Bardo should be emphasized\n==|==>> THIRD BARDO: PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTIONS.\nI. General Description of the Third Bardo\nNormally, the person descends, step by step, into lower (more constricted)\nstates of consciousness. Each step downwards may be preceded by a\nswooning into unconsciousness. Occasionally the descent may be sudden, and\nthe person will find himself jolted back to a vision of reality which by\ncontrast with the preceding phases seems dull, static, hard, angular, ugly\nand puppet-like. Such changes can induce fear and horror and he may struggle\ndesperately to regain familiar reality. He may get trapped into irrational or\neven bestial perspectives which then dominate his entire consciousness.\nThese narrow primitive elements stem from aspects of his personal history\nwhich are usually repressed. The more enlightened consciousness of the\nfirst two Bardos and the civilized elements of ordinary waking life are\nshelved in favor of powerful, obsessive primitive impulses, which in fact\nare merely faded and incoherent instinctual parts of the voyager's total\npersonality. The suggestibility of Bardo consciousness makes them seem\nall-powerful and overwhelming.\nOn the other hand, the voyager may also feel that he possesses supernormal\npowers of perception and movement, that he can perform miracles,\nextraordinary feats of bodily control etc. The Tibetan book definitely\nattributes paranormal faculties to the consciousness of the Bardo voyager\nand explains it as due to the fact that the Bardo-consciousness encompasses\nfuture elements as well as past. Hence clairvoyance, telepathy, ESP, etc. are\nsaid to be possible. Objective evidence does not indicate whether this sense\nof increased perceptiveness is real or illusory. We therefore leave this as an\nopen question, to be decided by empirical evidence.\nThis then is the first recognition point of the Third Bardo. The feeling of\nsupernormal perception and performance. Assuming that it is valid, the\nmanual warns the voyager not to be fascinated by his heightened powers,\nand not to exercise them. In yogic practice, the most advanced of the lamas\nteach the disciple not to strive after psychic powers of this nature for their\nown sake; for until the disciple is morally fit to use them wisely, they\nbecome a serious impediment to his higher spiritual development. Not until\nthe selfish, game-involved nature of man is completely mastered is he safe\nin using them.\nA second sign of Third Bardo existence are experiences of panic, torture and\npersecution. They are distinguished from the wrathful visions fo the Second\nBardo in that they definitely seem to involve the person's own \"skin-\nencapsulated ego.\" Mind-controlling manipulative figures and demons of\nhideous aspects may be hallucinated. The form that these torturing demons\ntake will depend on the person's cultural background. Where Tibetans saw\ndemons and beasts of prey, a Westerner may see impersonal machinery\ngrinding, or depersonalizing and controlling devices of different futuristic\nvarieties. Visions of world destruction, dying in space-fiction modes, and\nhallucinations of being engulfed by destructive powers will likewise come;\nand sounds of the mind-controlling apparatus, of the \"combine's fog\nmachinery,\" of the gears which move the scenery of the puppet show, of\nangry overflowing seas, and of the roaring fire and of fierce winds springing\nup, and of mocking laughter.\nWhen these sounds and visions come, the first impulse will be to flee from\nthem in panic and terror, not caring where one goes, so long as one goes out.\nIn psychedelic drug experiences, the person may at this time plead or\ndemand to be brought \"out of it\" through antidotes and tranquillizers. The\nperson may see himself as about to fall down deep, terrifying precipices.\nThese symbolize the so-called evil passions which, like narcotic drugs,\nenslave and bind mankind to existence in game-networks (sangsara): anger,\nlust, stupidity, pride or egoism, jealousy, and control-power. Such\nexperiences, just as the previous one of enhanced power, should be regarded\nas recognizing features of the Third Bardo. One should neither flee the pain\nnor pursue the pleasure. Recognition is all that is necessary - and\nrecognition depends upon preparation.\nA third sign is a kind of restless, unhappy wandering which may be purely\nmental or may involve actual physical movement. The person feels as if\ndriven by winds (winds of karma) or shunted around mechanically. There\nmay be brief respites at certain places or scenes in the \"ordinary\" human\nworld. Like a person travelling alone at night along a highway, having his\nattention arrested by prominent landmarks, great isolated trees, houses,\nbridgeheads, temples, hot-dog stands, etc., the person in the re-entry period\nhas similar experiences. He may demand to return to familiar haunts in the\nhuman world. But any such external placation is temporary and soon the\nrestless wandering will recommence. There may come a desperate desire to\nphone or otherwise contact your family, your doctor, your friends and appeal\nto them to pull you out of the state. This desire should be resisted. The guide\nand the fellow voyagers can be of best assistance. One should not try to\ninvolve others in one's hallucinatory world. The attempt will fail anyway\nsince outsiders are usually unable to understand what is happening. Again,\nmerely to recognize these desires as Third Bardo manifestations is already\nthe first step toward liberation.\nA fourth, rather common experience is the following: the person may feel\nstupid and full of incoherent thoughts, whereas everyone else seems to be\nperfectly knowing and wise. This leads to feelings of guilt and inadequacy\nand in extreme from to the Judgment Vision, to be described below. This\nfeeling of stupidity is merely the natural result of the limited perspective\nunder which the consciousness is operating in this Bardo. Calm, relaxed\nacceptance and trust will enable the voyager to win liberation at this point\nAnother experience, the fifth recognizing feature, which is especially\nimpressive when it occurs suddenly, is the feeling of being dead, cut off\nfrom surrounding life, and full of misery. The person may with a jolt awake\nfrom some trance-like swoon and experience himself and the others as\nlifeless robots, performing wooden meaningless gestures. He may feel that\nhe will never come back and will lament his miserable state.\nAgain, such fantasies are to be recognized as the attempts of the ego to\nregain control. In the true state of ego-death, as it occurs in the First or\nSecond Bardos, such complaints are never uttered.\nSixth, one may have the feeling of being oppressed or crushed or squeezed\ninto cracks and crevices amidst rocks and boulders. Or the person may feel\nthat a kind of metallic net or cage may encompass him. This symbolizes the\nattempt prematurely to enter an ego-robot which is unfitting or unequipped\nto deal with the expanded consciousness. Therefore one should relax the\npanicky desire to regain an ego.\nA Seventh aspect is a kind of grey twilight-like light suffusing everything,\nwhich is in marked contrast to the brilliantly radiating lights and colors of\nthe earlier stages of the voyage. Objects, instead of shining, glowing and\nvibrating, are now dully colored, shabby and angular.\nThe passages ==|==>> THIRD BARDO: PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTIONS contain\ngeneral instructions for the Third Bardo state and its recognizable features.\nAny or all of the passages may be read when the guide senses that the\nvoyager is beginning to return to the ego.\nII. Re-entry Visions\nIn the preceding section the symptoms of re-entry were described, the signs\nthat the voyager is tryihng to regain his ego. In this section are described\nvisions of the types of re-entry one can make.\nThe Tibetan manual conceives of the voyager as returning eventually to one\nof six worlds of game existence (sangsara). That is, the re-entry to the ego\ncan take place on one of six levels, or as one of six personality types. Two of\nthese are higher than the normal human, three are lower. The highest, most\nilluminated, level is that of the devas, who are what Westerners would call\nsaints, sages or divine teachers. They are the most enlightened people\nwalking the earth. Gautama Buddha, Lao Tse, Christ. The second level is that\nof the asuras, who may be called titans or heroes, people with a more than\nhuman degree of power and vision. The third level is that of most normal\nhuman beings, struggling through game-networks, occasionally breaking\nfree. The fourth level is that of primitive and animalistic incarnations. In\nthis category we have the dog and the cock, symbolic of hyper-sexuality\nconcomitant with jealousy; the pig, symbolizing lustful stupidity and\nuncleanliness; the industrious, hoarding ant; the insect or worm signifying\nan earthy or grovelling disposition; the snake, flashing in anger; the ape, full\nof rampaging primitive power; the snarling \"wolf of the steppes;\" the bird,\nsoaring freely. Many more could be enumerated. In all cultures of the world\npeople have adopted identities in the image of animals. In childhood and in\ndreams it is a process familiar to all. The fifth level is that of neurotics,\nfrustrated lifeless spirits forever pursuing unsatisfied desires; the sixth\nand lowest level is hell or psychosis. Less than one percent of ego-\ntranscendent experiences end in sainthood or psychosis. Most persons return\nto the normal human level.\nAccording to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, each of the six game worlds or\nlevels of existence is associated with a characteristic sort of thraldom,\nfrom which non-game experiences give temporary freedom: (1) existence as\na deva, or saint, although more desirable than the others, is concomitant\nwith an ever-recurring round of pleasure, free game ecstasy; (2) existence\nas an asura, or titan, is concomitant with incessant heroic warfare; (3)\nhelplessness and slavery are characteristic of animal existence; (4)\ntorments of unsatisfied needs and wants are characteristic of the existence\nof pretas, or unhappy spirits; (5) the characteristic impediments of human\nexistence are inertia, smug ignorance, physical or psychological handicaps\nor various sorts.\nAccording to the Bardo Thodol, the level one is detined for is determined by\none's karma. During the period of the Third Bardo premonitory signs and\nvisions of the different levels appear, that for which one is heading\nappearing most clearly. For example, the voyager may feel full of godlike\npower (asuras), or he may feel himself stirred by primitive or bestial\nimpulses, or he may experience that all-pervasive frustration of the\nunhappy neurotics, or shudder at the tortures of a self-created hell.\nThe chances of making a favorable re-entry are increased if the process is\nallowed to take its own natural course, without effort or struggle. One\nshould avoid pursuing or fleeing any of the visions, but meditate calmly on\nthe knowledge that all levels exist in the Buddha also.\nOne can recognize and examine the signs as they appear and learn a great\ndeal about oneself in a very short time. Although it is unwise to struggle\nagainst or flee the visions that come in this period, the ==|==>>\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR RE-ENTRY VISIONS are designed to help the voyager\nregain First Bardo transcendence. In this way, if the person finds himself\nabout to return to a personality or ego which he finds inappropriate to his\nnew knowledge about himself, he can, by following the instructions, prevent\nthis and make a fresh re-entry.\nIII. The All-Determining Influence of Thought\nLiberation may be obtained, by such confrontation, even though previously\nit was not. If, however, liberation is not obtained even after these\nconfrontations, further earnest and continued application is essential.\nShould you feel attachment to material possessions, to old games and\nactivities, or if you get any because other people are still involved in\npursuits that you have renounced, this will affect the psychological balance\nin such a way that even if destined to return at a higher level, you will\nactually re-enter on a lower level in the world of unsatisfied spirits\n(neurosis). On the other hand, even if you do feel attached to worldly games\nthat you have renounced, you will not be able to play them, and they will be\nof no use to you. Therefore abandon weakness and attachment to them; cast\nthem away wholly; renounce them from your heart. No matter who may be\nenjoying your possessions, or taking your role, have no feelings of\nmiserliness or jealousy, but be prepared to renounce them willingly. Think\nthat you are offering them to your internal freedom and to your expaned\nconsciousness. Abide in the feeling of non-attachment, devoid of weakness\nand craving.\nAgain, when the activities of the other members of the session are wrong,\ncareless, inattentive or distracting, when the agreement or contract is\nbroken, and when purity of intention is lost by any participant, and frivolity\nand laxness take over (all of which can clearly be seen by the Bardo\nvoyager) you may feel lack of faith and begin to doubt your beliefs. You will\nbe able to perceive any anxiety or fear, any selfish actions, ego-centric\nconduct and manipulative behavior. You may think: \"Alas! they are playing\nme false, they have cheated and deceived.\" If you think thus, you will\nbecome extremely depressed, and through great resentment you will acquire\ndisbelief and loss of faith, instead of affection and humble trust. Since this\naffects the psychological balance, re-entry will certainly be made on an\nunpleasant level.\nSuch thinking will not only be of no use, but it will do great harm. However\nimproper the behavior of other, think thus: \"What? How can the words of a\nBuddha be inappropriate? It is like the reflection of blemishes on my own\nface which I see in a mirror; my own thoughts must be impure. As for these\nothers, they are noble in body, holy in speech, and the Buddha is within\nthem: their actions are lessons for me.\"\nThus thinking, put your trust in your companions and exercise sincere love\ntowards them. Then whatever they do will be to your benefit. The exercise\nof that love is very important; do not forget this!\nAgain, even if you were destined to return to a lower level and are already\ngoing into that existence, yet through the good deeds of friends, relatives,\nparticipants, learned teachers who devote themselves wholeheartedly to the\ncorrect performance of beneficent rituals, the delight from your feeling\ngreatly cheered at seeing them will, by its own virtue, so affect the\npsychological balance that even though heading downwards, you may yet\nrise to a higher and happier level. Therefore you should not create selfish\nthoughts, but exercise pure affection and humble faith towards all,\nimpartially. This is highly important. Hence be extremely careful.\nThe ==|==>> INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ALL-DETERMING INFLUENCE OF\nTHOUGHT are useful in any phase of the Third Bardo, but particularly if the\nvoyager is reacting with suspicion or resentment to other members of the\ngroup, or to his own friends and relatives.\nIV. Judgment Visions\nThe judgment vision may come: the Third Bardo blame game. \"Your good\ngenius will count up your good deeds with white pebbles, the evil genius the\nevil deeds with black pebbles.\" A judgment scene is a central part of many\nreligious systems, and the vision can assume various forms. Westerners are\nmost likely to see it in the well-known Christian version. The Tibetans give\na psychological interpretation to thisas to all the other visions. The Judge,\nor Lord of Death, symbolizes conscience itself in its stern aspect of\nimpartiality and love of righteousness. The \"Mirror of Karma\" (the Christian\nJudgment Book), consulted by the Judge, is memory. Different parts of the\nego will come forward, some offering lame excuses to meet accusations,\nothers ascribing baser motives to various deeds, counting apparently neutral\ndeeds among the black ones; still others offering justifications or requests\nfor pardon. The mirror of memory reflects clearly; lying and subterfuge will\nbe of no avail. Be not frightened, tell no lies, face truch fearlessly.\nNo you may imagine yourself surrounded by figures who wish to torment,\ntorture or ridicule you (the \"Executive Furies of the Robot Lord of Death\").\nThese merciless figures may be internal or they may involve the people\naround you, seen as pitiless, mocking, superior. Remember that fear and\nguilt and persecuting, mocking figures are your own hallucinations. Your own\nguilt machine. Your personality is a collection of thought-patterns and void.\nIt cannot be harmed or injured. \"Swords cannot pierce it, fire cannot burn it.\"\nFree yourself from your own hallucinations. In reality there is no such thing\nas the Lord of Death, or a justice-dispensing god or demon or spirit. Act so\nas to recognize this.\nRecognize that you are in the Third Bardo. Meditate upon your ideal symbol.\nIf you do not know how to meditate, then merely analyze with great care the\nreal nature of that which is frightening you: \"Reality\" is nothing but a\nvoidness (Dharma-Kaya). That voidness is not of the voidness of nothingness,\nbut a voidness at the true nature of which you feel awed, and before which\nyour consciousness shines more clearly and lucidly. [That is the state of\nmind known as \"Sambhoga-Kaya.\" In that state, you experience, with\nunbearable intensity, Voidness and Brightness inseparable - the Voidness\nbright by nature and the Brightness inseparable from the Voidness - a state\nof the primordial or unmodified consciousness, which is the Adi-Kaya. And\nthe power of this, shining unobstructedly, will radiate everywhere; it is the\nNirmana-Kaya.\nThese refer to the fundamental Wisdom Teachings of the Bardo Thodol. In all\nTibetan systems of yoga, realization of the Voidness is the one great aim. To\nrealize it is to attain the unconditioned Dharma-Kaya, or \"Divine Body of\nTruth,\" the primordial state of uncreatedness, of the supra-mundane All-\nConsciousness. The Dharma-Kaya is the highest of the three bodies of the\nBuddha and of all Buddhas and beings who have perfect enlightenment. The\nother two bodies are the Sambhoga-Kaya or \"Divine Body of Perfect\nEndowment\" and the Nirmana-Kaya or \"Divine Body of Incarnation.\" Adi-\nKaya is synonymous with Dharma-Kaya. The Dharma-Kaya is primordial,\nformless Essential Wisdom; it is true experience freed from all error or\ninherent or accidental obscuration. It includes both Nirvana and Sangsara,\nwhich are polar states of consciousness, but in the realm of pure\nconsciousness identical. The Sambhoga-Kaya embodies, as in the five Dhyani\nBuddhas, Reflected or Modified Wisdom; and the Nirmana-Kaya embodies, as\nin the Human Buddhas, Practical or Incarnate Widom. All enlightened beings\nwho are reborn in this or any other world with full consciousness, as\nworkers for the betterment of their fellow creatures, are said to be\nNirmana-Kaya incarnates. Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, the translator of the\nBardo Thodol, held that the Adi-Buddha, and all deities associated with the\nDharma-Kaya, are not to be regarded as personal deities, but as\npersonifications of primordial and universal forces, laws or spiritual\ninfluences. \"In the boundless panorama of the existing and visible universe,\nwhatever shapes appear, whatever sounds vibrate, whatever radiances\nilluminate, or whatever consciousnesses cognize, all are the play of\nmanifestation in the Tri-Kaya, the Three-fold Principle of the Cause of All\nCauses, the Primordial Trinity. Impenetrating all, is the All-Pervading\nEssence of Spirit, which is Mind. It is uncreated, impersonal, self-existing,\nimmaterial and indestructible.\" The Tri-Kaya is the esoteric trinity and\ncorresponds to the exoteric trinity of Buddha, the Scriptures and the\nPriesthood (or your own divinity, this manual and your companions).\nIf the voyager is struggling with guilt and penance hallucinations, the\n==|==>> INSTRUCTIONS FOR JUDGMENT VISIONS may be read.\nV. Sexual Visions\nSexual visions are extremely frequent during the Third Bardo. You may see\nor imagine males and females copulating. [According to Jung. (\"Psychological\nCommentary\" to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Evans-Wentz edition, p. xiii),\n\"Freud's theory is the first attempt made in the West to investigate, as if\nfrom below, from the animal sphere of instinct the psychic territory that\ncorresponds in Tantric Lamaism to the Sidpa Bardo.\" The vision described\nhere, in which the person sees mother and father in sexual intercourse,\ncorresponds to the \"primal scene\" in psychoanalysis. At this level, then, we\nbegin to see a remarkable convergence of Eastern and Western psychology.\nNote also the exact correspondence to the psychoanalytic theory of the\nOedipus Complex.] This vision may be internal or it may involve the people\naround you. You may hallucinate multi-person orgies and experience both\ndesire and shame, attraction and disgust. You may wonder what sexual\nperformance is expected of you and have doubts about your ability to\nperform at this time.\nWhen these visons occur, remember to withhod yourself from action or\nattachment. Have faith and float gently with the stream. Trust in the unity\nof life and in your companions.\nIf you attempt to enter into your old ego because you are attracted or\nrepulsed, if you try to join or excape from the orgy you are hallucinating,\nyou will re-enter on an animal or neurotic level. If you become conscious of\n\"malness,\" hatred of the father together with jealousy and attraction\ntowards the mother will be experienced; if you become conscious of\n\"femaleness,\" hatred of the mother together with attraction and fondness\nfor the father is experienced.\nIt is perhaps needless to say that this kind of self-centered sexuality has\nlittle in common with the sexuality of transpersonal experiences. Physical\nunion can be one expression or manifestation of cosmic union.\nVisions of sexual union may sometimes be followed by visions of conception\n- you may actually visualize the sperm uniting with the ovum - , of intra-\nuterine life and birth through the womb. Some people claim to have re-lived\ntheir own physical birth in psychedelic sessions and occasionally confirming\nevidence for such claims has been put forward. Whether this is so or not may\nbe left as a question to be decided by empirical evidence. Sometimes the\nbirth visions will be clearly symbolic - e.g., emergence from a cocoon,\nbreaking out of a shell, etc.\nWhether the birth vision is constructed from memory or fantasy, the\npsychedelic voyager should try to recognize the signs indicating the type of\npersonality that is being reborn.\nThe ==|==>> INSTRUCTIONS FOR SEXUAL VISIONS may be read to the voyager\nwho is struggling with sexual hallucinations.\nVI. Methods for Preventing the Re-Entry\nAlthough many confrontations and recognition points have been given, the\nperson may be ill-prepared and still be wandering back to game reality. It is\nof advantage to postpone the return for as long as possible, thus maximizing\nthe degree of enlightenment in the subsequent personality. For this reason\nfour meditative methods are given for prolonging the ego-loss state. They\nare (1) meditation on the Buddha or guide; (2) concentration on good games;\n(3) meditation on illusion; and (4) meditation on the void. See the ==|==>>\nFOUR METHODS OF PREVENTING RE-ENTRY. Each one attempts to lead the\nvoyager back to the First Bardo central stream of energy from which he has\nbeen separated by game involvements. One may ask how these meditative\nmethods, which seem difficult for the ordinary person, can be effective. The\nanswer given in the Tibetan Bardo Thodol is that due to the increased\nsuggestibility and openness of the mind in the psychedelic state these\nmethods can be used by anyone, regardless of intellectual capacity, or\nproficiency in meditation.\nVII. Methods of Choosing the Post-Session Personality\nChoosing the post-session ego is an extremely profound art and should not\nbe undertaken carelessly or hastily. One should not return fleeing from\nhallucinated tormentors. Such re-entry will tend to bring the person to one\nof the three lower levels. One should first banish the fear by visualizing\none's protective figure or the Buddha; then choose calmly and impartially.\nThe limited foreknowledge available to the voyager should be used to make\na wise choice. In the Tibetan tradition each of the levels of game-existence\nis associated with a particular color and also certain geographical symbols.\nThese may be different for twentieth-century Westerners. Each person has\nto learn to decode his own internal road map. The Tibetan indicators may be\nused as a starting point. The purpose is clear: one should follow the signs of\nthe three higher types and shun those of the three lower. One should follow\nlight and pleasant visions and shun dark and dreary ones.\nThe world of saints (devas) is said to shine with a white light and to be\npreceded by visions of delightful temples and jewelled mansions. The world\nof heroes (asuras) has a green light and is signalled by magical forests and\nfire images. The ordinary human world has a yellow light. Animal existence\nis foreshadowed by a blue light and images of caves and deep holes in the\nearth. The world of neurotics or unsatisfied spirits has a red light and\nvisions of desolate plains and forest wastes. The hell world emits a smoke-\ncolored light and is preceded by sounds of wailing, visions of gloomy lands,\nblack and white houses and black roads along which you have to travel.\nUse your foresight to choose a good post-session robot. Do not be attracted\nto your old ego. Whether you choose to pursue power, or status, or wisdom,\nor learning, or servitude, or whatever, choose impartially, without being\nattracted or repelled. Enter into game existence with good grace, voluntarily\nand freely. Visualize it as a celestial mansion, i.e., as an opportunity to\nexercise game-ecstasy. Have faith in the protection of the deities and\nchoose. The mood of complete impartiality is important since you may be in\nerror. A game that appears good may later turn out to be bad. Complete\nimpartiality, freedom from want or fear, ensure that a maximally wise\nchoice is made.\nAs you return you see spread out before you the world, your former life, a\nplanet full of fascinating objects and events. Each aspect of the return trip\ncan be a delightful discovery. Soon you will be descending to take your place\nin worldly events. The key to this return voyage is simply this: take it easy,\nslowly, naturally. Enjoy every second. Don't rush. Don't be attached to your\nold games. Recognize that you are in the re-entry period. Do not return with\nany emotional pressure. Everything you see and touch can glow with\nradiance. Each moment can be a joyous discovery.\nHere end the Third Bardo,\nThe Period of Re-Entry\nGENERAL CONCLUSION\nWell-prepared students with advanced spiritual understanding can use the\n\"Transference\" principle at the moment of ego-death and need not traverse\nsubsequent Bardo states. They will rise to a state of illumination and\nremain there throughout the entire period. Others, who are a little less\nexperienced in spiritual discipline, will recognize the Clear Light in the\nsecond stage of the First Bardo and will then win liberation. Others, at a\nstill less advanced level, may be liberated while experiencing one of the\npositive or negative visions of the Second Bardo. Since there are several\nturning points, liberation can be obtained at one or the other through\nrecognition at moments of confrontation. Those of very weak karmic\nconnection, i.e., those who have been involved in heavy ego-dominated game-\nplaying, will have to wander downwards to the Third Bardo. Again, many\npoints for liberation have been charted. The weakest persons will fall under\nthe influence of guilt and terror. For weaker persons there are various\ngraded teachings for preventing the return to routine-reality, or at least for\nchoosing it wisely. Through applying the methods of visualization described,\nthey should be able to experience the benefits of the session. Even those\npersons whose familiar routines are primitive and egocentric can be\nprevented from entering into misery. Once they have experienced, for\nhowever short a period, the great beauty and power of free awareness, they\nmay, in the next period, meet with a guide or friend who will initiate them\nfurther into the way.\nThe way in which this teaching is effective, even for a voyager already in\nthe Sidpa Bardo, is as follows: each person has some positive and some\nnegative game-residues (karma). The continuity of consciousness has been\nbroken by an ego-death for which the person was not prepared. The teachings\nare like a trough in a broken water drain, temporarily restoring the\ncontinuity with positive karma. As stated before, the extreme suggestibility\nor detached quality of consciousness in this state ensures the efficacy of\nlistening to the doctrine. The teaching embedded in this Manual may be\ncompared to a catapult which can direct the person towards the goal of\nliberation. Or like the moving of a big wooden beam, which is so heavy that a\nhundred men cannot carry it, but by being floated on water it can be easily\nmoved. Or it is like controlling a horse's bit and course by the use of a\nbridle.\nTherefore, these teachings should be vividly impressed on the voyager, again\nand again. This Manual may also be used more generally. It should be\nrecited as often as possible and committed to memory as far as possible.\nWhen ego-death or final death comes, recognize the symptoms, recite the\nManual to yourself, and reflect upon the meaning. If you cannot do it\nyourself, ask a friend to read it to you. There is no doubt as to its liberative\npower.\nIt liberates by being seen or heard, without need of ritual or complex\nmeditation. This Profound Teaching liberates those of great evil karma\nthrough the Secret Pathway. One should not forget its meaning and the\nwords, even though pursued by seven mastiffs. By this Select Teaching, one\nobtains Buddhahood at the moment of ego-loss. Were the Buddhas of past,\npresent and future to seek, they could not find any doctrine transcending\nthis.\nHere ends the Bardo Thodol, known as\nThe Tibetan Book of the Dead\nIII.\nSOME TECHNICAL COMMENTS\nABOUT PSYCHEDELIC SESSIONS\n1. Use of This Manual\nJ\nThe most important use of this manual is for preparatory reading. Having\nread the Tibetan Manual, one can immediately recognize symptoms and\nexperiences which might otherwise be terrifying, only because of lack of\nunderstanding as to what was happening. Recognition is the key word.\nSecondly, this guidebook may be used to avoid paranoid traps or to regain\nthe First Bardo transcendence if it has been lost. If the experience starts\nwith light, peace, mystic unity, understanding, and if it continues along this\npath, then there is no need to remember this manual of have this manual re-\nread to you. Like a road map, we consult it only when lost, or when we wish\nto change course. Usually, however, the ego clings to its old games. There\nmay be momentary discomfort or confusion. If this happens, the others\npresent should not be sympathetic or show alarm. They should be prepared to\nstay calm and restrain their \"helping games.\" In particular, the \"doctor\" role\nshould be avoided.\nIf at any time you find yourself struggling to get back to routine reality, you\ncan (by pre-arrangement) have a more experienced person, a fellow-\nvoyager, or a trusted observer read parts of this manual to you.\nPassages suitable for reading during the session are given in Part IV below.\nEach major descriptive section of the Tibetan Book has an appropriate\ninstruction text. One may want to pre-record selected passages and simply\nflick on the recorder when desired. The aim of these instruction texts is\nalways to lead the voyager back to the original First Bardo transcendence\nand to help maintain that as long as possible.\nA third use would be to construct a \"program\" for a session using passages\nfrom the text. The aim would be to lead the voyager to one of the visions\ndeliberately, or through a sequence of visions. The guide or friend could read\nthe relevant passages, show slides or pictures or symbolic figures of\nprocesses, play carefully selected music, etc. One can envision a high art of\nprogramming psychedelic sessions, in which symbolic manipulations and\npresentations would lead the voyager through ecstatic visionary Bead\nGames.\n2. Planning a Session\nIn planning a session, the first question to be decided is \"what is the goal?\"\nClassic Hinduism suggest four possibilities:\n(1) For increased personal power, intellectual understanding, sharpened\ninsight into self and culture, improvement of life situation, accelerated\nlearning, professional growth.\n(2) For duty, help of others, providing care, rehabilitation, rebirth for fellow\nmen.\n(3) For fun, sensuous enjoyment, aesthetic pleasure, interpersonal\ncloseness,\npure experience.\n(4) For transcendence, liberation from ego and space-time limits;\nattainment\nof mystical union.\nThis manual aims primarily at the latter goal - that of liberation-\nenlightenment. This emphasis does not preclude attainment of the other\ngoals - in fact, it guarantees their attainment because illumination requires\nthat the person be able to step out beyond game problems of personality,\nrole, and professional status. The initiate can decide beforehand to devote\nthe psychedelic experience to any of the four goals. The manual will be of\nassistance in any event.\nIf there are several people having a session together they should either\nagree collaboratively on a goal, or at least be aware of each other's goals. If\nthe session is to be \"programmed\" then the participants should either agree\non or design a program collaboratively, or they should agree to let one\nmember of the group do the programming. Unexpected or undesired\nmanipulations by one of the participants can easily \"trap the other voyagers\ninto paranoid Third Bardo delusions.\nThe voyager, especially in an individual session, may also wish to have\neither an extroverted or an introverted experience. In the extroverted\ntranscendent experience, the self is ecstatically fused with external\nobjects (e.g. flowers, or other people). In the introverted state, the self is\necstatically fused with internal life processes (lights, energy-waves, bodily\nevents, biological forms, etc.). Of course, either the extroverted or the\nintroverted state may be negative rather than positive, depending on the\nattitude of the voyager. Also it may be primarily conceptual or primarily\nemotional. The eight types of experience thus derived (four positive and four\nnegative) have been described more fully in Visions 2 to 5 of the Second\nBardo.\nFor the extroverted mystic experience one would bring to the session\nobjects or symbols to guide the awareness in the desired direction. Candles,\npictures,books, incense, music or recorded passages. An introverted mystic\nexperience requires the elimination of all stimulation; no light, no sound, no\nsmell, no movement.\nThe mode of communication with the other participants should also be\nagreed on beforehand. You may agree on certain signals, silently indicating\ncompanionship. You may arrange for physical contact - clasping hands,\nembracing. These means of communication should be pre-arranged to avoid\ngame-misinterpretations that may develop during the heightened sensitivity\nof ego-transcendence.\n3. Drugs and Dosages\nA wide variety of chemicals and plants have psychedelic (\"mind\nmanifesting\") effects. The most widely used substances are listed here\ntogether with dosages adequate for a normal adult of average size. The\ndosage to be taken depends, of course, on the goal of the session. Two\nfigures are therefore given. The first column indicates a dosage which\nshould be sufficient for an inexperienced person to enter the transcendental\nworlds described in this manual. The second column gives a smaller dosage\nfigure, which may be used by more experienced persons or by participants in\na group session.\nLSD-25 (lysergic acid diethylamide) 200-500 micrograms 100-200\nmicrograms\nMescaline 600-800 mg 300-500 mg\nPsilocybin 40-60 mg 20-30 mg\nThe time of onset, when the drugs are taken orally on an empty stomach, is\napproximately 20-30 minutes for LSD and psilocybin, and one to two hours\nfor mescaline. The duration of the session is usually eight to ten hours for\nLSD and mescaline, and five to six hours for psilocybin. DMT\n(dimethyltryptamine), when injected intramuscularly in dosages of 50-60\nmg, gives an experience approximately equivalent to 500 micrograms of LSD,\nbut which lasts only 30 minutes.\nSome person have found it useful to take other drugs before the session. A\nvery anxious person, for example, may take 30 to 40 mg of Librium about on\nhour earlier, to calm and relax himself. Methedrine has also been used to\ninduced a pleasant, euphoric mood prior to the session. Sometimes, with\nexcessively nervous persons, it is advisable to stagger the drug\nadministration: for example, 200 micrograms of LSD may be taken initially,\nand a \"booster\" of another 200 micrograms may be taken after the person\nhas become familiar with some of the effects of the psychedelic state.\nNausea may sometimes occur. Usually this is a mental symptom, indicating\nfear, and should be regarded as such. Sometimes, however, particularly with\nthe use of morning-glory seeds and peyote, the nausea can have a\nphysiological cause. Anti-nauseant drugs such as Marezine, Bonamine,\nDramamine or Tigan, may be taken beforehand to prevent this.\nIf a person becomes trapped in a repetitive game-routine during a session, it\nis sometimes possible to \"break the set\" by administering 50 mg of DMT, or\neven 25 mg of Dexedrine or Methedrine. Such additional dosages, of course,\nshould only be given with the person's own knowledge and consent.\nShould external emergencies call for it, Thorazine (100-200 mg, i.m.) or\nother phenothiazine-type tranquilizers will terminate the effects of\npsychedelic drugs. Antidotes should not be used simply because the voyager\nor the guide is frightened. Instead, the appropriate sections of the Third\nBardo should be read. [Further, more detailed suggestions concerning dosage\nmay be found in a paper by Gary M. Fisher: \"Some Comments Concerning\nDosage Levels of Psychedelic Compounds for Psychotherapeutic\nExperiences.\" Psychedelic Review, I, no.2, pp. 208-218, 1963.]\n4. Preparation\nPsychedelic chemicals are not drugs in the usual sense of the word. There is\nno specific reaction, no expected sequence of events, somatic or\npsychological.\nThe specific reaction has little to do with the chemical and is chiefly a\nfunction of set and setting; preparation and environment. The better the\npreparation, the more ecstatic and revelatory the session. In initial sessions\nand with unprepared persons, setting - particularly the actions of others -\nis most important. With persons who have prepared thoughtfully and\nseriously, the setting is less important.\nThere are two aspects of set: long-range and immediate.\nLong-range set refers to the personal history, the enduring personality. The\nkind of person you are - your fears, desires, conflicts, guilts, secret\npassions - determines how you interpret and manage any situation you enter,\nincluding a psychedelic session. Perhaps more important are the reflex\nmechanisms used when dealing with anxiety - the defenses, the protective\nmaneuvers typically employed. Flexibility, basic trust, religious faith,\nhuman openness, courage, interpersonal warmth, creativity, are\ncharacteristics which allow for fun and easy learning. Rigidity, desire to\ncontrol, distrust, cynicism, narrowness, cowardice, coldness, are\ncharacteristics which make any new situation threatening. Most important\nis insight. No matter how many cracks in the record, the person who has\nsome understanding of his own recording machinery, who can recognize when\nhe is not functioning as he would wish, is better able to adapt to any\nchallenge - even the sudden collapse of his ego.\nThe most careful preparation would include some discussion of the\npersonality characteristics and some planning with the guide as to how to\nhandle expected emotional reactions when they occur.\nImmediate set refers to the expectations about the session itself. Session\npreparation is of critical importance in determining how the experience\nunfolds. People tend naturally to impose their personal and social game\nperspectives on any new situation. Careful thought should precede the\nsession to prevent narrow sets being imposed.\nMedical expectations. Some ill-prepared subjects unconsciously impose a\nmedical model on the experience. They look for symptoms, interpret each\nnew sensation in terms of sickness/health, place the guide in a doctor-role,\nand, if anxiety develops, demand chemical rebirth - i.e., tranquilizers.\nOccasionally one hears of casual, ill-planned, non-guided sessions which end\nin the subject demanding to be hospitalized, etc. It is even more problem-\nprovoking if the guide employs a medical model, watches for symptoms, and\nkeeps hospitalization in mind to fall back on, as protection for himself.\nRebellion against convention may be the motive of some people who take the\ndrug. The idea of doing something \"far out\" or vaguely naughty is a naive set\nwhich can color the experience.\nIntellectual expectations are appropriate when subjects have had much\npsychedelic experience. Indeed, LSD offers vast possibilities for accelerated\nlearning and scientific-scholarly research. But for initial sessions,\nintellectual reactions can become traps. The Tibetan Manual never tires of\nwarning about the dangers of rationalization. \"Turn you mind off\" is the best\nadvice for novitiates. Control of your consciousness is like flight\ninstruction. After you have learned how to move your consciousness around -\ninto ego-loss and back, at will - then intellectual exercises can be\nincorporated into the psychedelic experience. The last stage of the session\nis the best time to examine concepts. The objective of this particular\nmanual is to free you from you verbal mind for as long as possible.\nReligious expectations invite the same advice as intellectual set. Again, the\nsubject in early sessions is best advised to float with the stream, stay \"up\"\nas long as possible, and postpone theological interpretations until the end of\nthe session, or to later sessions.\nRecreational and aesthetic expectations are natural. The psychedelic\nexperience, without question, provides ecstatic moments which dwarf any\npersonal or cultural game. Pure sensation can capture awareness.\nInterpersonal intimacy reaches Himalayan heights. Aesthetic delights -\nmusical, artistic, botanical, natural - are raised to the millionth power. But\nall these reactions can be Third Bardo ego games: \"I am having this ecstasy.\nHow lucky I am!\" Such reactions can become tender traps, preventing the\nsubject from reaching pure ego-loss (First Bardo) or the glories of Second\nBardo creativity.\nPlanned expectations. This manual prepares the person for a mystical\nexperience according to the Tibetan model. The Sages of the Snowy Ranges\nhave developed a most sophisticated and precise understanding of human\npsychology, and the student who studies this manual will become oriented\nfor a voyage which is much richer in scope and meaning than any Western\npsychological theory. We remain aware, however, that the Bardo Thodol\nmodel of consciousness is a human artifact, a Second Bardo hallucination,\nhowever grand its scope.\nSome practical recommendations. The subject should set aside at least\nthree days for his experience; a day before, the session day, and a follow-up\nday. This scheduling guarantees a reduction in external pressure and a more\nsober commitment to the voyage.\nTalking to others who have taken the voyage is excellent preparation,\nalthough the Second Bardo hallucinatory quality of all descriptions should be\nrecognized. Observing a session is another valuable preliminary. The\nopportunity to see others during and after a session shapes expectations.\nReading books about mystical experience is a standard orientation\nprocedure. Reading the accounts of others' experiences is another possibility\n(Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, and Gordon Wasson have written powerful\naccounts).\nMeditation is probably the best preparation for a psychedelic session. Those\nwho have spent time in the solitary attempt to manage the mind, to\neliminate thought and to reach higher stages of concentration, are the best\ncandidates for a psychedelic session. When the ego-loss state occurs, they\nare ready. They recognize the process as an end eagerly awaited, rather than\na strange event ill-understood.\n5. The Setting\nThe first and most important thing to remember, in the preparation for a\npsychedelic session, is to provide a setting which is removed from one's\nusual social and interpersonal games and which is as free as possible from\nunforeseen distractions and intrusions. The voyager should make sure that\nhe will not be disturbed by visitors or telephone calls, since these will\noften jar him into hallucinatory activity. Trust in the surroundings and\nprivacy are necessary.\nA period of time (usually at least three days) should be set aside in which\nthe experience will run its natural course and there will be sufficient time\nfor reflections and meditation. It is important to keep schedules open for\nthree days and to make these arrangements beforehand. A too-hasty return\nto game-involvements will blur the clarity of the vision and reduce the\npotential for learning. If the experience was with a group, it is very useful\nto stay together after the session in order to share and exchange\nexperiences.\nThere are differences between night sessions and day sessions. Many people\nreport that they are more comfortable in the evening and consequently that\ntheir experiences are deeper and richer. The person should choose the time\nof day that seems right according to his own temperament at first. Later, he\nmay wish to experience the difference between night and day sessions.\nSimilarly, there are differences between sessions out-of-doors and indoors.\nNatural settings such as gardens, beaches, forests, and open country have\nspecific influences which one may or may not wish to incur. The essential\nthing is to feel as comfortable as possible in the surroundings, whether in\none's living room or under the night sky. A familiarity with the surroundings\nmay help one to feel confident in hallucinatory periods. If the session is held\nindoors, one must consider the arrangement of the room and the specific\nobjects one may wish to see and hear during the experience.\nMusic, lighting, the availability of food and drink, should be considered\nbeforehand. Most people report no desire for food during the height of the\nexperience, and then, later on, prefer to have simple, ancient foods like\nbread, cheese, wine, and fresh fruit. Hunger is usually not the issue. The\nsenses are wide open, and the taste and smell of a fresh orange are\nunforgettable.\nIn group sessions, the arrangement of the room is quite important. People\nusually will not feel like walking or moving very much for a long period, and\neither beds or mattresses should be provided. The arrangement of the beds\nor mattresses can vary. One suggestion is to place the heads of the beds\ntogether to form a star pattern. Perhaps one may want to place a few beds\ntogether and keep one or two some distance apart for anyone who wishes to\nremain aside for some time. Often, the availability of an extra room is\ndesirable for someone who wishes to be in seclusion for a period.\nIf it is desired to listen to music or to reflect on paintings or religious\nobjects, one should arrange these so that everyone in the group feels\ncomfortable with what they are hearing or seeing. In a group session, all\ndecisions about goals, setting, etc. should be made with collaboration and\nopenness.\n6. The Psychedelic Guide\nFor initial sessions, the attitude and behavior of the guide are critical\nfactors. He possesses enormous power to shape the experience. With the\ncognitive mind suspended, the subject is in a heightened state of\nsuggestibility. The guide can move consciousness with the slightest gesture\nor reaction.\nThe key issue here is the guide's ability to turn off his own ego and social\ngames - in particular, to muffle his own power needs and his fears. To be\nthere relaxed, solid, accepting, secure. The Tao wisdom of creative quietism.\nTo sense all and do nothing except to let the subject know your wise\npresence.\nA psychedelic session lasts up to twelve hours and produces moments of\nintense, intense, INTENSE reactivity. The guide must never be bored,\ntalkative, intellectualizing. He must remain calm during the long periods of\nswirling mindlessness.\nHe is the ground control in the airport tower. Always there to receive\nmessages and queries from high-flying aircraft. Always ready to help\nnavigate their course, to help them reach their destination. An airport-\ntower-operator who imposes his own personality, his own games upon the\npilot is unheard of. The pilots have their own flight plan, their own goals,\nand ground control is there, ever waiting to be of service.\nThe pilot is reassured to know that an expert who has guided thousands of\nflights is down there, available for help. But suppose the flier has reason to\nsuspect that ground control is harboring his own motives and might be\nmanipulating the plane toward selfish goals. The bond of security and\nconfidence would crumble.\nIt goes without saying, then, that the guide should have had considerable\nexperience in psychedelic sessions himself and in guiding others. To\nadminister psychedelics without personal experience is unethical and\ndangerous.\nThe greatest problem faced by human beings in general, and the psychedelic\nguide in particular, is fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of losing control. Fear\nof trusting the genetic process and your companions. From our own research\nstudies and our investigations into sessions run by others - serious\nprofessionals or adventurous bohemians - we have been led to the\nconclusion that almost every negative LSD reaction has been caused by fear\non the part of the guide which has augmented the transient fear of the\nsubject. When the guide acts to protect himself, he communicates his\nconcern to the subject.\nThe guide must remain passively sensitive and intuitively relaxed for\nseveral hours. This is a difficult assignment for most Westerners. For this\nreason, we have sought ways to assist the guide in maintaining a state of\nalert quietism in which he is poised with ready flexibility. The most certain\nway to achieve this state is for the guide to take a low dose of the\npsychedelic with the subject. Routine procedure is to have one trained\nperson participate in the experience and one staff member present in ground\ncontrol without psychedelic aid.\nThe knowledge that one experienced guide is \"up\" and keeping the subject\ncompany, is of inestimable value; intimacy and communication; cosmic\ncompanionship; the security of having a trained pilot flying at your wing tip;\nthe scuba diver's security in the presence of an expert comrade in the deep.\nIt is not recommended that guides take large doses during sessions for new\nsubjects. The less experienced he is, the more likely will the subject impose\nSecond and Third Bardo hallucinations. These intense games affect the\nexperienced guide, who is likely to be in a state of mindless void. The guide\nis then pulled into the hallucinatory field of the subject, and may have\ndifficulty orienting himself. During the First Bardo there are no familiar\nfixed landmarks, no place to put your foot, no solid concept upon which to\nbase your thinking. All is flux. Decisive Second Bardo action on the part of\nthe subject can structure the guide's flow if he has taken a heavy dose.\nThe role of the psychedelic guide is perhaps the most exciting and inspiring\nrole in society. He is literally a liberator, one who provides illumination,\none who frees men from their life-long internal bondage. To be present at\nthe moment of awakening, to share the ecstatic revelation when the voyager\ndiscovers the wonder and awe of the divine life-process, is for many the\nmost gratifying part to play in the evolutionary drama. The role of the\npsychedelic guide has a built-in protection against professionalism and\ndidactic oneupmanship. The psychedelic liberation is so powerful that it far\noutstrips earthly game ambitions. Awe and gratitude - rather than pride -\nare the rewards of this new profession.\n7. Composition of the Group\nThe most effective use of this manual will be for the experience of one\nperson with a guide. However, the manual will be useful in a group also.\nWhen used in a group session, the following suggestions will be most helpful\nin planning.\nThe important thing to remember in organizing a group session is to have\nknowledge of and trust in the fellow voyagers. Trust in oneself and in one's\ncompanions is essential. If preparing for an experience with strangers, it is\nvery important to share as much time and space as possible with them prior\nto the session. The participants should set collaborative goals and explore\nmutually their expectations and feelings and past experiences.\nThe size of the group should depend to some extent on how much experience\nthe participants have had. Initially, small groups are preferable to larger\nones. In any case, group experiences exceeding six or seven people are\ndemonstrably less profound and generate more paranoid hallucinations. If\nplanning for a group session of five or six people, it is preferable to have at\nleast two guides present. One will take the psychedelic substance and the\nother, who does not, serves as a practical guide to take care of such\nconcerns as changing the recordings, providing food, etc., and if necessary or\ndesired, reading selections from the manual. If it is possible, one of the\nguides should be an experienced woman who can provide an atmosphere of\nspiritual nurturing and comfort.\nIt is sometimes advisable that the initial session of married couples be\nseparate in order that the exploration of their marriage game not dominate\nthe session. With some experience in consciousness-expansion, the marriage\ngame like others may be explored for any purpose - increased intimacy,\nclearer communication, exploration of the foundations of the sexual, mating\nrelationship, etc.\nIV.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR USE\nDURING A PSYCHEDELIC SESSION\nFIRST BARDO INSTRUCTIONS\nO (name of voyager)\nThe time has come for you to seek new levels of reality.\nYour ego and the (name) game are about to cease.\nYour are about to be set face to face with the Clear Light\nYour are about to experience it in its reality.\nIn the ego-free state, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky,\nAnd the naked spotless intellect is like a transparent vacuum;\nAt this moment, know yourself and abide in that state.\nO (name of voyager),\nThat which is called ego-death is coming to you.\nRemember:\nThis is now the hour of death and rebirth;\nTake advantage of this temporary death to obtain the perfect state -\nEnlightenment.\nConcentrate on the unity of all living beings.\nHold onto the Clear Light.\nUse it to attain understanding and love.\nIf you cannot maintain the bliss of illumination and if you are slipping back\ninto contact with the external world,\nRemember:\nThe hallucinations which you may now experience,\nThe visions and insights,\nWill teach you much about yourself and the world.\nThe veil of routine perception will be torn from you eyes.\nRemember the unity of all living things.\nRemember the bliss of the Clear Light.\nLet it guide you through the visions of this experience.\nLet it guide you through your new life to come.\nIf you feel confused; call upon the memory of your friends and the power of\nthe person whom you most admire.\nO (name),\nTry to reach and keep the experience of the Clear Light.\nRemember:\nThe light is the life energy.\nThe endless flame of life.\nAn ever-changing surging turmoil of color may engulf your vision.\nThis is the ceaseless transformation of energy.\nThe life process.\nDo not fear it.\nSurrender to it.\nJoin it.\nIt is part of you.\nYou are part of it.\nRemember also:\nBeyond the restless flowing electricity of life is the ultimate reality -\nThe Void.\nYour own awareness, not formed into anything possessing form or color,\nis naturally void.\nThe Final Reality.\nThe All Good.\nThe All Peaceful.\nThe Light.\nThe Radiance.\nThe movement is the fire of life from which we all come.\nJoin it.\nIt is part of you.\nBeyond the light of life is the peaceful silence of the void.\nThe quiet bliss beyond all transformations.\nThe Buddha smile.\nThe Void is not nothingness.\nThe Void is beginning and end itself.\nUnobstructed; shining, thrilling, blissful.\nDiamond consciousness.\nThe All-Good Buddha.\nYour own consciousness, not formed into anything,\nNo thought, no vision, no color, is void.\nThe intellect shining and blissful and silent -\nThis is the state of perfect enlightenment.\nYour own consciousness, shining, void and inseparable from the great body\nof radiance, has no birth, nor death.\nIt is the immutable light which the Tibetans call Buddha Amitabha,\nThe awareness of the formless beginning.\nKnowing this is enough.\nRecognize the voidness of your own consciousness to be Buddhahood.\nKeep this recognition and you will maintain the state of the divine mind\nof the Buddha.\nSECOND BARDO PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTIONS\nRemember:\nIn this session you experience three Bardos,\nThree states of ego-loss.\nFirst there is the Clear Light of Reality.\nNext there are fantastically varied game hallucinations.\nLater you will reach the stage of Re-Entry\nOf regaining an ego.\nO friend,\nYou may experience ego-transcendence,\nDeparture from your old self.\nBut you are not the only one.\nIt comes to all at some time.\nYou are fortunate to have this gratuitously given rebirth experience.\nDo not cling in fondness and weakness to your old self.\nEven though you cling to your mind, you have lost the power to keep it.\nYou can gain nothing by struggling in this hallucinatory world.\nBe not attached.\nBe not weak.\nWhatever fear or terror may come to you\nForget not these words.\nTake their meaning into your heart.\nGo forward.\nHerein lies the vital secret of recognition.\nO friend, remember:\nWhen body and mind separate, you experience a glimpse of the pure truth -\nSubtle, sparkling, bright,\nDazzling, glorious, and radiantly awesome,\nIn appearance like a mirage moving across a landscape in springtime.\nOne continuous stream of vibrations.\nBe not daunted thereby,\nNor terrified, nor awed.\nThat is the radiance of your own true nature.\nRecognize it.\n>From the midst of that radiance\nComes the natural sound of reality,\nReverberating like a thousand thunders simultaneously sounding.\nThat is the natural sound of your own life process.\nBe not daunted thereby,\nNor terrified, nor awed.\nIt is sufficient for you to know that these apparitions are your own thought-\nforms.\nIf you do not recognize your own thought forms,\nIf you forget your preparation,\nThe lights will daunt you,\nThe sounds will awe you,\nThe rays will terrify you,\nThe people around you will confuse you.\nRemember the key to the teachings.\nO friend,\nThese realms are not come from somewhere outside your self,\nThey come from within and shine upon you.\nThe revelations too are not come from somewhere else;\nThey exist from eternity within the faculties of your own intellect.\nKnow them to be of that nature.\nThe key to enlightenment and serenity during this period of ten thousand\nvisions is simply this:\nRelax.\nMerge yourself with them.\nBlissfully accept the wonders of your own creativity.\nBecome neither attached nor afraid,\nNeither be attracted nor repulsed.\nAbove all, do nothing about the visions.\nThey exist only within you.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 1: THE SOURCE\n(Eyes closed, external stimuli ignored)\nO nobly-born, listen carefully:\nThe Radiant Energy of the Seed\n>From which come all living forms,\nShoots forth and strikes against you\nWith a light so brilliant that you will scarcely be able to look at it.\nDo not be frightened.\nThis is the Source Energy which has been radiating for billions of years,\nEver manifesting itself in different forms.\nAccept it.\nDo not try to intellectualize it.\nDo not play games with it.\nMerge with it.\nLet it flow through you.\nLose yourself in it.\nFuse in the Halo of Rainbow Light\nInto the core of the energy dance.\nObtain Buddhahood in the Central Realm of the Densely Packed.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS\nO friend, listen carefully.\nThe bodily symptoms you are having are not drug-effects.\nThey indicate that you are struggling against the awareness of feelings\nwhich surpass your normal experience.\nYou cannot control these universal energy-waves.\nLet the feelings melt all over you.\nBecome part of them.\nSink into them and through them.\nAllow yourself to pulsate with the vibrations surrounding you.\nRelax.\nDo not struggle.\nYour symptoms will disappear as soon as all trace of ego-centered striving\ndisappears.\nAccept them as the message of the body.\nWelcome them. Enjoy them.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 2:\nTHE INTERNAL FLOW OF ARCHETYPAL PROCESSES\n(Eyes closed, external stimuli ignored; intellectual aspects)\nO nobly born, listen carefully:\nThe life flow is whirling through you.\nAn endless parade of pure forms and sounds,\nDazzlingly brilliant,\nEver-changing.\nDo not try to control it.\nFlow with it.\nExperience the ancient cosmic myths of creation and manifestation.\nDo not try to understand;\nThere is plenty of time for that later.\nMerge with it.\nLet it flow through you.\nThere is no need to act or think.\nYou are being taught the great lessons of evolution, creation, reproduction.\nIf you try to stop it, you may fall into hell-worlds and endure unbearable\nmisery generated by your own mind.\nAvoid game interpretations.\nAvoid thinking, talking and doing.\nKeep faith in the life flow.\nTrust your companions on this watery journey.\nMerge in Rainbow Light,\nInto the Heart of The River of Created Forms.\nObtain Buddhahood in the Realm called Pre-Eminently Happy.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 3:\nTHE FIRE-FLOW OF INTERNAL UNITY\n(Eyes closed, external stimuli ignored, emotional aspects)\nO nobly born, listen carefully:\nYou are flowing outward into the fluid unity of life.\nThe ecstasy of organic fire glows in every cell.\nThe hard, dry, brittle husks of your ego are washing out,\nWashing out to the endless sea of creation.\nFlow with it.\nFeel the pulse of the sun's heart.\nLet the red Buddha Amitabha sweep you along.\nDo not fear the ecstasy.\nDo not resist the flow.\nRemember, all the exultant power comes from within.\nRelease your attachment.\nRecognize the wisdom of your own blood.\nTrust the tide-force pulling you into unity with all living forms.\nLet your heart burst in love for all life.\nLet your warm blood gush out into the ocean of all life.\nDo not be attached to the ecstatic power;\nIt comes from you.\nLet it flow.\nDo not try to hold on to your old bodily fears.\nLet your body merge with the warm flux.\nLet your roots sink into the warm life body.\nMerge into the Heart-Glow of the Buddha Amitabha.\nFloat in the Rainbow Sea.\nAttain Buddhahood in the Realm named Exultant Love.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 4:\nTHE WAVE-VIBRATION STRUCTURE OF EXTERNAL FORMS\n(Eyes open, rapt involvement with the external\nvisual stimuli, intellectual aspects)\nO nobly born, listen carefully:\nAt this point you can become aware of the wave structure of the world\naround you.\nEverything you see dissolves into energy vibrations.\nLook closely and you will tune in on the electric dance of energy.\nThere are no longer things and persons but only the direct flow of particles.\nConsciousness will now leave your body and flow into the stream of wave\nrhythm.\nThere is no need for talk or action.\nLet your brain become a receiving set for the radiance.\nAll interpretations are the products of your own mind.\nDispel them. Have no fear.\nExult in the natural power of your own brain,\nThe wisdom of your own electricity.\nAbide in the state of quietude.\nAs the three-dimensional world fragments, you may feel panic;\nYou may beget a fondness for the heavy dull world of objects you are\nleaving.\nAt this time, fear not the transparent, radiant, dazzling wave energy.\nAllow your intellect to rest.\nFear not the hook-rays of the light of life,\nThe basic structure of matter,\nThe basic form of wave communication.\nWatch quietly and receive the message.\nYou will now experience directly the revelation of primal forms.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 5:\nTHE VIBRATORY WAVES OF EXTERNAL UNITY\n(Eyes open; rapt involvement with external stimuli such as lights,\nor movements; emotional aspects)\nO nobly born, listen carefully:\nYou are experiencing the unity of all living forms.\nIf people seem to you rubbery and lifeless, like plastic puppets,\nBe not afraid.\nThis is only the attempt of the ego to maintain its separate identity.\nAllow yourself to feel the unity of all.\nMerge with the world around you.\nBe not afraid.\nEnjoy the dance of the puppets.\nThey are created by your own mind.\nAllow yourself to relax and feel the ecstatic energy-vibrations pulsing\nthrough you.\nEnjoy the feeling of complete one-ness with all life and all matter.\nThe glowing radiance is a reflection of your own consciousness.\nIt is one aspect of your divine nature.\nDo not be attached to your old human self.\nDo not be alarmed at the new and strange feelings you are having.\nIf you are attracted to your old self,\nYou will be reborn shortly for another round of game-existence.\nExercise humble trust and remain fearless.\nYou will merge into the heart of the Blessed Ratnasambhava,\nIn a Halo of Rainbow Light,\nAnd attain liberation in the Realm Endowed with Glory.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 6: \"THE RETINAL CIRCUS\"\nO nobly born, listen well:\nYou are now witnessing the magical dance of forms.\nEcstatic kaleidoscopic patterns explode around you.\nAll possible shapes come to life before you eyes.\nThe retinal circus.\nThe ceaseless play of elements -\nEarth, water, air, fire,\nIn ever-changing forms and manifestations,\nDazzles you with its complexity and variety.\nRelax and enjoy the rushing stream.\nDo not become attached to any vision or revelation.\nLet everything flow through you.\nIf unpleasant experiences come,\nLet them flit by with the rest.\nDo not struggle against them.\nIt all comes from within you.\nThis is the great lesson in the creativity and power of the brain, freed from\nits learned structures.\nLet the cascade of images and associations take you where it will.\nMeditate calmly on the knowledge that all these visions are emanations of\nyour own consciousness.\nThis way you can obtain self-knowledge and be liberated.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR VISION 7: \"THE MAGIC THEATRE\"\nO nobly born, listen well:\nYou are now in the magic theatre of heroes and demons.\nMythical superhuman figures.\nDemons, goddesses, celestial warriors, giants,\nAngels, Bodhisattvas, dwarfs, crusaders,\nElves, devils, saints, and sorcerers,\nInfernal spirits, goblins, knights and emperors.\nThe Lotus Lord of Dance.\nThe Wise Old Man. The Divine Child.\nThe Trickster, The Shapeshifter.\nThe tamer of monsters.\nThe mother of gods, the witch.\nThe moon king. The wanderer.\nThe whole divine theatre of figures representing the highest reaches of\nhuman knowledge.\nDo not be afraid of them.\nThey are within you.\nYour own creative intellect is the master magician of them all.\nRecognize the figures as aspects of your self.\nThe whole fantastic comedy takes place within you.\nDo not become attached to the figures.\nRemember the teachings.\nYou may still attain liberation.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR THE WRATHFUL VISIONS\nO nobly born, listen carefully:\nYou were unable to maintain the perfect Clear Light of the First Bardo.\nOr the serene peaceful visions of the Second.\nYou are now entering Second Bardo nightmares.\nRecognize them.\nThey are your own thought-forms made visible and audible.\nThey are products of your own mind with its back to the wall.\nThey indicate that you are close to liberation.\nDo not fear them.\nNo harm can come to you from these hallucinations.\nThey are your own thoughts in frightening aspect.\nThey are old friends.\nWelcome them. Merge with them. Join them.\nLose yourself in them.\nThey are yours.\nWhatever you see, no matter how strange and terrifying,\nRemember above all that it comes from within you.\nHold onto that knowledge.\nAs soon as you recognize that, you will obtain liberation.\nIf you do not recognize them,\nTorture and punishment will ensue.\nBut these too are but the radiances of your own intellect.\nThey are immaterial.\nVoidness cannot injure voidness.\nNone of the peaceful or wrathful visions,\nBlood-drinking demons, machines, monsters, or devils,\nExist in reality\nOnly within your skull.\nThis will dissipate your fear. Remember it well.\nTHIRD BARDO: PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTIONS\nO (name), listen well:\nYou are now entering the Third Bardo.\nBefore, while experiencing the peaceful and wrathful visions of the\nSecond Bardo,\nYou could not recognize them.\nThrough fear you became unconscious.\nNow, as you recover,\nYour consciousness rises up,\nLike a trout leaping forth out of water,\nStriving for its original form.\nYour former ego has started to operate again.\nDo not struggle to figure things out.\nIf through weakness you are attracted to action and thinking,\nYou will have to wander amidst the world of game existence,\nAnd suffer pain.\nRelax your restless mind.\nO (name), you have been unable to recognize the archetypal forms of the\nSecond Bardo.\nYou have come down this far.\nNow, if you wish to see the truth,\nYour mind must rest without distraction.\nThere is nothing to do,\nNothing to think.\nFloat back to the unobscured, primordial, bright, void state of your intellect.\nIn this way you will obtain liberation.\nIf you are unable to relax your mind,\nMeditate on (name of protective figure)\nMeditate on your friends (name)\nThink of them with profound love and trust,\nAs overshadowing the crown of your head.\nThis is of great importance.\nBe not distracted.\nO (name),\nYou may now feel the power to perform miraculous feats,\nTo perceive and communicate with extrasensory power,\nTo change shape, size and number,\nTo traverse space and time instantly.\nThese feelings come to you naturally,\nNot through any merit on your part.\nDo not desire them.\nDo not attempt to exercise them.\nRecognize them as signs that you are in the Third Bardo,\nIn the period of re-entry into the normal world.\nO (name),\nIf you have not understood the above,\nAt this moment,\nAs a result of your own mental set,\nFrightening visions may come.\nGusts of wind and icy blasts,\nHumming and clicking of the controlling machinery,\nMocking laughter.\nYou may imagine terror producing remarks:\n\"Guilty,\" \"stupid,\" inadequate,\" \"nasty.\"\nSuch imagined taunts and paranoid nightmares\nAre the residues of selfish, ego-dominated game-playing.\nFear them not.\nThey are your own mental products.\nRemember that you are in the Third Bardo.\nYou are struggling to re-enter the denser atmosphere of routine game\nexistence.\nLet this re-entry be smooth and slow.\nDo not attempt to use force of will-power.\nO (name),\nAs you are driven here and there by the ever-moving winds of karma,\nYour mind, having no resting place or focus,\nIs like a feather tossed about by the wind,\nOr like a rider on the horse or breath,\nCeaselessly and involuntarily you will wander about,\nCalling in despair for your old ego.\nYour mind races along until you are exhausted and miserable.\nDo not hold on to thoughts.\nAllow the mind to rest in its unmodified state.\nMeditate on the oneness of all energy.\nThus you will be free of sorrow, terror, and confusion.\nO (name)\nYou may feel confused and bewildered.\nYou may be wondering about your sanity.\nYou may look at your fellow voyagers and friends,\nAnd sense that they cannot understand you.\nYou may think; \"I am dead! What shall I do?,\"\nAnd feel great misery,\nJust like a fish cast out of water on red-hot embers.\nYou may wonder whether you will ever return.\nFamiliar places, relatives, people known to you appear as in a dream,\nOr through a glass darkly.\nIf you are having such experiences,\nThinking will be of no avail.\nDo not struggle to explain.\nThis is the natural result of your own mental program.\nSuch feelings indicate that you are in the Third Bardo.\nTrust your guide,\nTrust your companions,\nTrust the Compassionate Buddha,\nMeditate calmly and without distraction.\nO (name),\nYou may now feel as if you are being oppressed and squeezed,\nLike between rocks and boulders,\nOr like inside a cage or prison.\nRemember:\nThese are signs that you are trying to force a return to your ego.\nThere may be a dull, gray light\nSuffusing all objects with a murky glow.\nThese are all signs of the Third Bardo.\nDo not struggle to return.\nThe re-entry will happen by itself.\nRecognize where you are.\nRecognition will lead to liberation.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR RE-ENTRY VISIONS\nO (name),\nYou have still not understood what is happening\nSo far you have been searching for your past personality.\nUnable to find it, you may begin to feel that you will never be the\nsame again,\nThat you will come back a changed person.\nSaddened by this you will feel self-pity,\nYou will attempt to find your ego, to regain control.\nSo thinking, you will wander here and there,\nCeaselessly and distractedly.\nDifferent images of your future self will be seen by you;\nThe one you are headed for will be seen most clearly.\nThe special art of these teachings is particularly important at this moment.\nWhatever image you see,\nMeditate upon it as coming from the Buddha -\nThat level of existence also exists in the Buddha.\nThis is an exceedingly profound art.\nIt will free you from your present confusion.\nMeditate upon (name of protective ideal) for as long as possible.\nVisualize him as a form produced by a magician,\nThen let his image melt away,\nStarting with the extremities,\nTill nothing remains visible.\nPut yourself in a state of Clearness and Voidness;\nAbide in that state for a while.\nThen meditate again on your protective ideal.\nThen again on the Clear Light.\nDo this alternately.\nAfterwards, allow your own mind also to melt away gradually.\nWherever the air pervades, consciousness pervades.\nWherever consciousness pervades, serene ecstasy pervades.\nAbide tranquilly in the uncreated state of serenity.\nIn that state, paranoid rebirth will be prevented.\nPerfect enlightenment will be gained.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ALL-DETERMINING\nINFLUENCE OF THOUGHT\nO (name), you may now experience momentary joy,\nFollowed by momentary sorrow,\nOf great intensity,\nLike the stretching and relaxing of a catapult.\nYou will go through sharp mood swings,\nAll determined by karma.\nBe not in the least attached to the joys nor displeased by the sorrows.\nThe actions of your friends or companions may evoke anger or shame in you.\nIf you get angry or depressed,\nYou will immediately have an experience of hell.\nNo matter what people are doing,\nMake sure that no angry thought can arise.\nMeditate upon love for them.\nEven at this late stage of the session\nYou are only one second away from a life-changing joyous discovery.\nRemember that each of your companions is Buddha within.\nYou mind in its present state having no focus or integrating force,\nBeing light and continuously moving,\nWhatever thought occurs to you,\nPositive or negative,\nWill wield great power.\nYou are extremely suggestible\nTherefore think not of selfish things.\nRecall your preparation for the session.\nShow pure affection and humble faith.\nThrough hearing these words,\nRecollection will come.\nRecollection will be followed by recognition and liberation.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR JUDGMENT VISIONS\nO (name), if you are experiencing a vision of judgment and guilt,\nListen carefully:\nThat you are suffering like this\nIs the result of your own mental set.\nYour karma.\nNo one is doing anything to you.\nThere is nothing to do.\nYour own mind is creating the problem.\nAccordingly float into meditation.\nRemember your former beliefs.\nRemember the teachings of this manual.\nRemember the friendly presence of you companions.\nIf you do not know how to meditate\nConcentrate on any single object or sensation.\nHold this (hand the wanderer an object),\nConcentrate on the reality of this,\nRecognize the illusory nature of existence and phenomena.\nThis moment is of great importance.\nIf you are distracted now it will take you a long time to get out of the\nquagmire of misery.\nUp till now the Bardo experiences have come to you and you have not\nrecognized them.\nYou have been distracted.\nOn this account you have experienced fear and terror.\nEven though unsuccessful thus far\nYou may recognize and obtain liberation here.\nYour session can still become ecstatic and revelatory.\nIf you do not know how to meditate, remember (person's ideal).\nRemember your companions\nRemember this manual.\nThink of all these fears and terrifying apparitions as being your own ideal,\nOr as the compassionate one.\nThey are divine tests.\nRemember your guide.\nRepeat the names over and over.\nEven though you fall,\nYou will not be hurt.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR SEXUAL VISIONS\nO (name),\nAt this time you may see visions of mating couples.\nYou are convinced that an orgy is about to take place.\nDesire and anticipation seize you,\nYou wonder what sexual performance is expected of you.\nWhen these visions occur,\nRemember to withhold yourself from action or attachment.\nHumbly exercise your faith.\nFloat with the stream.\nTrust the process with great fervency.\nMeditation and trust in the unity of life are the keys.\nIf you attempt to enter into your old personality because you are attracted\nor repulsed,\nIf you try to join the orgy you are hallucinating,\nYou will be reborn on an animal level.\nYou will experience possessive desire and jealousy,\nYou will suffer stupidity and misery.\nIf you wish to avoid these miseries\nListen and recognize.\nReject the feelings of attraction or repulsion.\nRemember the downward pull opposing enlightenment is strong in you.\nMeditate upon unity with your fellow voyagers.\nAbandon jealousy,\nBe neither attracted nor repulsed by your sexual hallucinations.\nIf you are you will wander in misery a long time.\nRepeat these words to yourself.\nAnd meditate on them.\nFOUR METHODS OF PREVENTING RE-ENTRY\nFirst Method: Meditation on the Buddha\nO (name), tranquilly meditate upon your protective figure (name).\nHe is like the reflecting of the moon in water.\nHe is apparent yet non-existent.\nLike illusion produced by magic.\nIf you have no special protective figure,\nMeditate upon the Buddha or upon me.\nWith this in mind meditate tranquilly.\nThen causing the visualized form of your protective ideal\nTo melt away from the extremities,\nMeditate, without any thought-forming, upon the Void Clear Light.\nThis is a very profound art.\nBy virtue of it rebirth is postponed.\nA more illuminated future is assured.\nSecond Method: Meditation on Good Games\n(Name), You are now wandering in the Third Bardo.\nAs a sign of this, look into a mirror and you will not see your usual self\n(show the wanderer a mirror).\nAt this time you must form a single, firm resolve in your mind.\nThis is very important.\nIt is like directing the course of a horse by the use of the reins.\nWhatever you desire will come to pass.\nThink not of evil actions which might turn the course of your mind.\nRemember your spiritual relationship with me,\nOr with anyone from whom you have received teaching.\nPersevere with good games.\nThis is essential.\nBe not distracted.\nHere lies the boundary line between going up or down.\nIf you give way to indecision for even a second,\nYou will have to suffer misery for a long, long time,\nTrapped in your old habits and games.\nThis is the moment.\nHold fast to one single purpose.\nRemember good games.\nResolve to act according to your highest insight.\nThis is a time when earnestness and pure love are necessary.\nAbandon jealousy.\nMeditate upon laughter and trust.\nBear this well at heart.\nThird Method: Meditation on Illusion\nIf still going down and not liberated,\nMeditate as follows:\nThe sexual activities, the manipulation machinery, the mocking laughter,\ndashing sounds and terrifying apparitions,\nIndeed all phenomena\nAre in their nature, illusions.\nHowever they may appear, in truth they are unreal and fake.\nThey are like dreams and apparitions,\nNon-permanent, non-fixed.\nWhat advantage is there in being attached to them,\nOr being afraid of them?\nAll these are hallucinations of the mind.\nThe mind itself does not exist,\nTherefore why should they?\nOnly through taking these illusions for real will you wander around in\nthis confused existence.\nAll these are like dreams,\nLike echoes,\nLike cities of clouds,\nLike mirages,\nLike mirrored forms,\nLike phantasmagoria,\nThe moon seen in water.\nNot real even for a moment.\nBy holding one-pointedly to that train of thought.\nThe belief that they are real is dissipated,\nAnd liberation is attained.\nFourth Method: Meditation on the Void\n\"All substances are part of my own consciousness.\nThis consciousness is vacuous, unborn, and unceasing.\"\nThus meditating,\nAllow the mind to rest in the uncreated state.\nLike the pouring of water into water,\nThe mind should be allowed its own easy mental posture\nIn its natural, unmodified condition, clear and vibrant.\nBy maintaining this relaxed, uncreated state of mind\nRebirth into routine game-reality is sure to be prevented.\nMeditate on this until you are certainly free.\nINSTRUCTIONS FOR CHOOSING THE\nPOST-SESSION PERSONALITY\n(Name), Listen:\nIt is almost time to return.\nMake the selection of your future personality according to the best teaching.\nListen well:\nThe signs and characteristics of the level of existence to come\nWill appear to you in premonitory visions.\nRecognize them.\nWhen you find that you have to return to reality,\nTry to follow the pleasant delightful visions.\nAvoid the dark unpleasant ones.\nIf you return in panic, a fearful state will follow,\nIf you strive to escape dark, gloomy scenes, an unhappy state will follow,\nIf you return in radiance, a happy state will follow.\nYour mental state now will affect your subsequent level of being.\nWhatever you choose,\nChoose impartially,\nWithout attraction or repulsion.\nEnter into game-existence with good grace.\nVoluntarily and freely.\nRemain calm.\nRemember the teachings.","title":"Psychedelic Tibetan Book of the Dead","type":"page"}