This book is a manual and translation of the ancient Bardo Thodol and is dedicated to Aldous Huxley. The Bardo Thodol is known by Tibetan Buddhists as a book of instructions for the dead or dying. The Bardo Thodol, according to this manual and other translations, is actually a psychedelic ceremony of spiritual death and rebirth that in modern times is known as ego death. Aldous Huxley was read the Tibetan book of the Dead while on his death bed and administered LSD from his wife, Laura.
The Psychedelic Experience was written by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner and Richard Alpert, all PhD psychologists from Harvard.
An anthropologist named Walter Evans-Wentz studied the Bardo Thodol and wrote a translation he titled The Tibetan Book of the Dead in 1927.
After the introduction in this book, the very first sentence grabbed my attention...
'All individuals who have received the practical teachings of this manual will, if remembered, be set face to face with the ecstatic radiance and will win illumination instantaneously, without further suffering on the age-long pathway of normal evolution which traverse the various worlds of game existence.'
I thought wow, I don't know what that means, but it sounds intriguing and I was already interested in what the book of the dead meant so I kept reading. I studied this book for over a year, taking notes, copying sections and looking up references in the book. I tried psychedelics a few times and did not quite get where the book was trying to take me... but I still kept reading it and I kept seeing things in my life that would remind me of a certain part of the book so I would go back, and read more of it and understand it better.
Then the time came, I got this really good LSD and I didn't even know it. It was WOW (white on white non-perforated white blotter paper) so at first that was suspicious but Ive learned that is often times the best LSD around. So I took one quarter inch square and hung out alone while my lover was sleeping.
Within an hour I was feeling love like never before, I knew it was good stuff.
That night I sat outside for hours staring at the starry sky...the moon was out, and it was late when I dropped so I was outside while the sun was rising. It was the most memorable moment of my life and even the view was PERFECT it looked like the scene on the iconic Bicycle Day picture with the sun rising and the moon still in the sky!!
As I sat there the teachings of this book came to fruition.... It felt like I just remembered something I forgot so long ago and at the same time I felt the most amazing sense of accomplishment I could ever feel! I was crying and laughing and smiling ear to friggin ear! I felt like I was being loved and it was pure love! I knew what it meant that we are all one and I experienced what it felt like directly! This was probably THE TOP experience of my life, it may have saved my life....and I do think psychedelics and this book helped me realize the most profound thing there is to feel as a human mind.
I am going to be writing more about this book and trying to find others that are interested in using the teachings and doing rituals whether alone separately on our own time or even eventually together. This is just a tidbit of information about this book and the teachings within! Feel free to share any information you might have as well as thoughts or even ideas! Thank you so much for reading!!!
This has become my passion...my life purpose to spread this love everywhere! I have been doing it for a long time now...and it might just be working! I will never stop...we will never stop and they will never stop the love!!
Sounds like an interesting book, I will have to check it out.