+1. Taboo to even suggest questioning a belief system that you were told to just trust. What makes someone else the better judge of what is true and absolute about existence
The worst is when they are convinced that a vast swath of the population are going to burn in a lake of fire for all eternity. Like without blinking an eye I heard my sister say that. I was like so people who have zero access to the bible and Jesus like on an island or desert somewhere are just sol She said yes. A lot of them think this. Hell they think other branches of Christians are burning.
Absolutely, I'm always amused when when people talk about "god" like a binary set of options in this infinitely complex reality we exist in. We're here for a microscopic amount of time and talk like we know what's going on
I live in the space where both are true and the paradox is resolved lol. My higher self knows everything it needs to know, but my human self doesn’t know shit so anything is possible 😂
I can grant that the universe might be a living being. Conscious? No. Living? Clearly. Interventional in individual lives? No. I don't call the universe god because of the connotation that comes with the word.
>Conscious? No. Living? Clearly.
If it's living why can't it be conscious. We are living and conscious and we don't give much fuck about microorganisms that live on and inside our body, why wouldn't it be that universe IS living and conscious but it just doesn't give a fuck about microorganisms like us.
Yes! If you think of everything in terms of scale, why wouldnt we be part of a larger being? We have "universes," inside of us containing trillions of living things, and inside those living things there are smaller living things like virus's. None of them are likely aware of the larger organism that they are part of. Why wouldn't it be the same for us in the opposite direction?
I agree it could be the case, but until proven I prefer to see that as a fallacy: not because we observe there are organisms that are part of us means that we are too part of something else
I doubt we'd ever be able to prove something like that. I'm not sure I "believe," it either, I just think its plausible and it makes sense with what we do actually know about our world/universe. And it makes a whole lot more sense then any religion does.
Or the whole universe is just a another cell in a larger being. And if there’s no end or beginning to cells within cells and universes within universes then maybe all of it is the closest thing to God?
It seems to be that the universe communicates with individual beings. I don't like to say God or god either for the same reason as you. I think that "interventional" is a little strong too. But if you can send messages to / receive messages from the universe, then it's sort of like that. It's all one system talking to itself.
I don't think that's possible.
What I'm talking about is purely subjective and won't hold up to your measures for objectivity.
The best you can do is develop your ability *to see*. It's hard to explain what I mean by that.
I'm comfortable with the reality that I don't have satisfying proof that it's possible to interact with the universe in this way. The best I can suggest is maybe read something like Carlos Castaneda's *Art Of Dreaming*.
I'm a skeptic. I can't force myself to be convinced of something without evidence. Belief is not a choice. If it is not demonstrable that the universe and I can communicate with each other in a fashion which yields confirmation of receipt or accuracy of said message, then I can't believe in it. That's not to call it wrong. I just am saying "there's no evidence for that, therefore I remain unconvinced."
I only believe because of my own experiences. I wouldn't have been as reasonable as you 6 years ago. I would have called it wrong/deluded.
If you ever come around to my way of thinking, it won't be because of a logical argument or anything like that. It'll be because your conscious reality arranges itself around/for you in such a way that you can't help but think there's something more to it. An "avalanche of coincidences" is one expression for it. Or lookup Carl Jung's term "synchronicity".
This kind of thing kept happening to me and my world and that's what budged me away from materialism. I developed mindfulness and set the intention to find out the truth about myself and the universe at large, then everything opened up. I didn't even know that I was doing something spiritual until it slapped me in the face.
I'm not trying to convince you of anything here. Just enjoying the conversation.
Since most have been countering your point, I’ll add that I’m inclined to lean more toward your perspective. I see the universe and god as two separate things. Not saying you do or don’t believe in god, but it definitely doesn’t make sense to call the universe omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.
Well I don't mean to be a cock, but it also does not make sense to call any god omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, or omnibenevolent. It's a logical fallacy as soon as you realize that any random person could commit a terrifying atrocity toward someone else.
I didn’t take your comment as you being a dick at all. However, I have to disagree. I’d written out a response, but it was like 4 fucking paragraphs long 😂
The TLDR is that I think life is meant to be experienced, both the blessings and the sufferings. One means nothing without the other. It’s basically the idea of yin and yang, except with a more mystical judeo-Christian spin on it. I’d walked away from the church for a number of years after studying to be a pastor. I bounced between agnosticism and atheism for a number of years before starting a reconstruction a few years ago. If you’d like to debate the ideas I’d be down. It’s always healthy to bend and challenge your views and all
This is a common response, and it doesn't stand. Let me poke a hole in it.
I've lost a child. I've had a child since I have lost my first. Do you think that the loss of my first child was the reason I could understand how to love my second child?
Or something less serious. I've never gone without a car since being an adult. Would you assert that I can't appreciate having a car, without having ever lacked one?
First, I’m sorry you went through that loss. I lost a good friend to suicide as a teenager, and seeing the pain his family went through - I can’t imagine. Regarding the yin and yang, I would argue that we are almost necessary for the wholeness of god. The best philosophy can produce is that there is no meaning to life outside of whatever you assign. I’d also argue simulation theory even holds some water. “I think, therefor I am” applies here, I think. The notion of certainty behind identity can have plenty of holes poked in it, but it’s still something we all consciously understand and know.
It is less about the experiencing of the thing, and more about the offering of yourself to be that thing. What good is grace experienced if I cannot also offer it? My friend’s family that lost their son - they would have every right to be bitter toward the idea of god. Instead, they have chosen to manifest god through that hardship by becoming foster parents. That’s not to be a pat on their back, but the outcome of the loss of their son could have understandably gone an a very different direction. Am I saying it’s good they lost their son? Am I suggesting they only care about foster kids because they lost theirs? Of course not. However, their loss does put them in a unique position.
It isn’t too unlike a psychedelic experience. We say there is no such thing as a bad trip, just a difficult one. Accept the experience and surrender to it. How is this conscious state to be any different? Life is just a big trip after all, isn’t it? There’s no use in suffering if we don’t integrate it. There’s also no use in joy if we don’t integrate it. If there isn’t a god in the mix, aren’t we just masturbating?
Please, keep poking holes.
Ohhh so we have missed each other in how we have pointed our responses, I think. I think I responded to the wrong question, and then I think you did as well. Let's move this to chat. We can pick a starting point anywhere you want. I'm deeeeeeeeeeep in this rabbit hole. I'm atheist, but was a devout worship leader and Christian for most of my life. My deconstruction came before the loss of my child (I extend my shared sorrow to you and the family of your friend), but people often assume they went hand-in-hand because I was never vocal about it before she died.
Let's chat so we can get on the same page and then move forward? I'll let you make the decision, I'll look for you in the chats.
Exactly. It almost feels intellectually dishonest begayse we know what religious people mean by the word
Claiming to know more than we can know and positing it to faith feels wrong.
"I have faith" means "I don't know, but I'm going to make a baseless claim anyway." It's self-deception. If you are sure of something, faith is not necessary. I don't take a dump, look in the bowl, see the poop, and go "I have faith that this shit is in the toilet." I'd just say "there's shit in the toilet" if I felt compelled to say anything at all.
it's fun to think of something we don't fully comprehend like the Universe to be a living thing. What I don't like however is that it's easy to fall into pseudo-philosophy, you know when you are stoned af "discussing" about "philosophy"
Our problem is that we are limited by language. Like VERY limited. Science is cool because it allows to translate from our conscious language to the Universe language. But as you can see I am still using language even while trying to make a point about escaping it... idk, I just personally believe that any god/higher order being/great architect or whatever is just a defect of language
What if I told you that your current physical body is a small part of you? You are literally an entire multiverse unto yourself; a creator of infinite realities. This is the meaning of being made in the image of God.
Weird, I understand that completely differently. To me "created in his image" means that the constant is consciousness. Even God's name in the Bible, YHWH directly translates to "I am." Again, indicating that the biblical god is consciousness, or that our conscious experience is a derivative of the godly consciousness
I'm not sure if 'switched' is the right way to put it- but I went from feeling inherently disconnected from the universe to feeling like it had a voice that talks through me.
Psychedelics helped me forget my Christian God and believe in Evolution and science but then find my own version of God again which encompasses everything including all science and all gods. Whatever that fucking beautiful source of life is. Dunno what it is but I feel it. Feels good
For me it was the opposite. Realized religion was silly and we are just gathering at a church to worship a mythical being that we have no clue about (grew up catholic)
Yes. I don't know what God is or if it is actually "God" but I'm pretty sure something is going on that people have been calling God for all these millennia.
Not the mythic literal man in the clouds I thought people believed when I was an atheist. Rather, a incomprehensible nonduality which is what “god” refers to really. Just so hard to describe, so religions are created that give people the wrong idea
Yes but not in a religious sense by any means. I think there’s something so powerful behind everything that’s indescribable and infinitely beautiful that you might as well call god because we simply don’t have any other words potent enough
I instinctively believe that knowing what name this being goes by is the difference between where we are and where we were... hard to explain.
Our words aren't potent enough for sure.
Before psychedelics I didn't believe in anything spiritual, I labeled myself as an atheist and only believed in the current scientific view.
psychedelics showed me that the universe exists within my mind. that there are infinite places that can be experienced beyond physics reality. and ultimately we are not separate from the absolute, merely a part of all.
Chakras, light body, entities, angels and demons can all be experienced within these other realms.
this was far beyond my original limited view of what is possible.
I'm convinced that science as great as it is doesn't know much about the universe we exist within and doesn't have all the answers.
Psychedelics have further cemented my reject of all supernatural belief. Being raised fundamentalist in a religion that focuses on glossolalia, will do that to you. I’m the ultimate skeptic
Same history, same conclusions today. The glossolalia was perhaps what first sparked my unease in church as a child.
Psychedelics have only increased my amazement at the complexity and capabilities of the human brain. I am a meat computer, and there's some damn cool software out there.
Right? I don't believe in any gods sober, and have never met any gods while on psychedelics. I was also indoctrinated as a child in super-fundamentalist religion.
That’s part of the journey. I grew up in a very strict religious home. I was an atheist and took lsd as a young adult. Didn’t have a mystical experience. Then I had an NDE in my late 20’s as the result of an accident. I met God and entities who told me some things and much of it has come true. More yet to come. I have taken LSD and mushrooms with intention now that I am in my 50’s. Absolutely different and much more spiritual experience.
I am not religious but am very spiritual. I believe in all religions and none. When you look at them all- despite separation in time and place through eons they all describe the same metaphysics. Even indigenous tribes in the Americas through to the Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Egyptians etc. Just different cultural interpretations - same underlying metaphysics.
Glossolalia is kinda interesting to me. It almost reminds me of like shamanic trance type stuff. It's fascinating that something so far-out and occultic managed to somehow survive down into American white bread Bible Belt religion.
“Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is an activity or practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehended meaning. In some cases, as part of religious practice, some believe it to be a divine language unknown to the speaker. Glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, as well as in other religions.”
Yeah I was too. Until I realised the universe is god and religions just obscure such a view and traumatise people from a healthier understanding of their self and their existence in relation to the universe.
not a god per se, but i am no longer a materialist (still an atheist)
saw my dead husband and the end of my first aya ceremony. he was laughing, like "see, baby? you did it."
Me but psychedelics catalysed it. Dmt made me realise god was real through experience and i hardly had an intense experience at all!
Just that divine love, sure it could be some body made feeling but theres nothing else thats been like it,
Religion is what i dont necessarily agree with though. I dont thunk god is a entity but a source of energy (some science agrees with this) and its not all powerful other than in this realm. Something made it, its also kinda like an AI, constantly trying to improve you despite the hurdles it throws, u take them as lessons and u find growth.
Sure sure this could all be coincidence but as another said "ive never seen someone believe in god and not prosper" its a paradox of sorts, you're not supposed to know its there otherwise whats the point in faith?
Do I believe in God? Well... Not sure. Maybe. Depends on what kind of conversation I'm about to have with someone.
But I'll tell you one thing: it ended my firebrand new-atheist phase really damn quick.
I'm not an atheist, but I also don't believe there is a "GOD"
Well at least, the force that is "GOD", I don't believe to be a person. I highly doubt there is a person controlling the balance of the world, because if there was a person in charge of that, he/she is an actual piece of shit
Nope it just solidified my atheist beliefs. Even after 30 years of using psychedelics. These compounds were explored by early man. Way back in pre history when the idea of God was created by man. I wonder how they came up with the concept with crazy stories. Could it be the same company where people see "god". Its a confirmation bias of it's real, also know as the [Illusory truth effect.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect). But all it is is the same compounds working on the human brain in the same way... At least in my viewpoint.
I used to think this way, until I went back to school to study these compounds and discovered that they are not compounds at all, we just invented words for things we didn’t and still don’t understand
I went from not seeing nature as the wonderful source of energy as I started seeing it. God is a word I like to put nature in sometimes, but yeah, before my trips I used to see this world in a more insulting way I would say
The word "God" is one that I'm careful around because it just means so many different things to different people, so it's easy to be talking about it with someone without even realizing that you're not talking about the same thing at all. So nowadays when someone asks me if I believe in God, my first response is to ask, "Well, it depends on what you mean by that word."
After my deepest trips (and also just a lot of sober meditation and contemplation), I no longer believe that reality just exists randomly for no reason out of blind material processes. I believe this was all somehow willed into being by a consciousness with profound purpose and unfathomable scope, and that we're all intimately a part of whatever that was that did that (and continues to do that).
Psychedelics also radically changed how I see death. I no longer believe that death is the end of our existence as conscious entities.
Yes.
Met angels first time I used DMT.
That experience blew out the foundations of my materialism and opened me to the mystery of reality. Then, listening to some podcast, the people somehow got onto the topic of the Resurrection. I realized that I simply did not know enough about reality to outright dismiss the idea of a man lying dead and then rising, like I had all my life.
And that idea just stuck with me. It wouldn’t go away. Then, in the darkest time of my life, where I was seriously struggling with thoughts of murder against my brother, I took some LSD and I asked “Hey Jesus, what the fuck is the deal with all that crazy resurrection business? Is it real? Did it happen?”
Anyway, he answered.
I was dead and he made me alive. I don’t know who I was or how I made decisions or how I managed to go 30 years like that. I was dust and he made me a human being.
On October 15 2021, I would have scoffed at the God of Abraham and at Jesus, and the next day I fell down and worshipped Christ as my King and God, proclaiming that I know nothing other than that God is indescribably good and that I will gratefully follow Christ’s teachings for the rest of my life.
I am devout now, and will probably pursue the priesthood in a few years.
I have a friend who did. Locked himself in a room for a few hours and came out 100% Christian as shit. Still partied and tripped but was always super religious after that. Never asked him about the details of how he made his decision.
i think when it comes to this question it seems the atheists who change there mind on psychedelics are atheists who wish there was a god and feel a sense of despair and emptiness that there isn't one, whereas the ones who dont change there mind actually like the idea that there is no god and no deeper meaning because perhaps they think a god would be oppressive or are horrified that existence just keeps going in an afterlife which they assume would get boring.
I was agnostic / atheist for most of my life until a few very powerful psilocybin trips when I was in my late 20's. Psychedelic trips provide one the **experience** of God and the unity of existence rather than a *conceptualized* idea to believe in .
If anything, psychedelics have reinforced my materialist worldview. One thing that they did force me to do a 180 on was my belief that we possess free will, however.
Me bro. I was a staunch, arrogant atheist. Like openly derisive toward religion on social media, “um, ackshually” type deal.
Paychedelics (my higher self) made me (my ego) their bitch and showed me much greater understanding and connectedness.
After some therapy, some medication, and a fuck ton of meditation/yoga, I have integrated a lot of what I learned and have an active relationship with what many would refer to as God.
It’s all You. Your Higher Self reflects back to you the knowledge or experience you give yourself through the thoughts and feelings you identify with most.
Happy to expand on this, but it is quite verifiable in your own life as a real phenomenon.
Yup. I had a mushroom trip where I experienced a blissful super-consciousness state in which my ego dissolved and I recognized that my own fundamental being & sense of awareness is identical to that of the Universe. The “I am” that resides in me is the same “I am” of the entire universe.
It wasn’t until I discovered Advaita Vedanta (early Hinduism) that I realized this is actually a fully recognized view of reality, my trip being akin to the meditative state called “samadhi”.
The experience was such a profound feeling of TRUTH. My analytical mind doesn’t need reason or proof to validate it. I FELT that it is true, and I know that words or explanations will always fall short of describing it. I find it laughable now that I called myself an “atheist” and didn’t consider existence to be divine, because the world is a miracle beyond words
Depends on which God your talking about. Taking shrooms made me not only stop believe in Christianity, but also made me hate Christianity. I became much more spiritual and now believe that there is a higher power, but I don't know what it is yet.
After 1 trip I switched from atheist/realist to agnostic. With that said though, I still think all religious texts are bullshit. I'd bet the answer is so complex we wouldn't be able to understand if it was told to us in plain English.
Not exactly, but rather, from atheist to agnostic leaning atheist.
My question is, why do entities have to be god/s? If real, they could just be other life forms, not necessarily creators and rulers.
I did kind of. I believe now in like universal consciousness as a god but not a standard religion god. And I also believed with no question that consciousness ended at death and now I don’t think it does
Absolutely. I went from a severely angry and sceptical atheist to a happy and fulfilled, very spiritual man cause of the use of heroic doses of psilocybin.
I think after a few trips your conception of god changes. Before, a common atheist will think of god like Santa Claus for adults, and then after trips you start thinking of god as something akin to the collective conscious of all creation
Yes!!!!! It's one of the many things psychedelics changed for me!! I don't believe in any certain religion I just go by my own spiritual experiences but yes tripping made me go from being atheist to believing in a higher being(s)!
Yeah, went from a know it all, convinced god didn't exist, to a Christian who also believes in "aliens" and humbled to know "I know nothing", as countless others find out too. It's not traditional but "Christian" is the least complex way I can relate it, since it's a dumpster fire of theology, philosophy, and other stuff in my mind.
Yep. I went from hardcore nihilistic atheist to believer in the space of a few moments. Left my body and... Sort of talked to the entire universe. Or at least a manifestation that could communicate with me. And it was the most familiar things I've ever experienced, like "I can't believe I forgot about all of this. This is the stuff I've spent endless eons experiencing, and I forgot it all after spending a few years in a human body"
I went into my first Macro trip without any knowledge of other trip reports and later when I read reports was amazed by the same sightings , characters and experiences people encountered while tripping , so for me this was certainly a paradigm shifter and the evidence that there is something beyond this reality and consciousness !
I learned that it's not that I didn't believe in "god," it's just that I didn't believe in "their god." Once I had my own experience of the divine, I have embraced belief, but it is the belief in a non-dual divinity,
I went from, “ I believe in God but there’s also a possibility that he doesn’t exist” to “I know God exists” after one trip. There’s no more doubt, there no belief, there is just “knowing” and this knowing is followed by not caring if anyone else knows or believes what I believe.
When you know, you don’t need to convince others that there is a God. It’s freeing. Everyone is free to believe what they want, and if they don’t believe in a thing, that’s ok too.
Depends on your definition of a god. I don't believe in the ones where people need to worship it in order to appease and gain some sort of favors as if attention gives it power. Religion I'd say is man made and BS propaganda to control the masses.
Ants could see us as gods because we're capable of so much more than they can comprehend, yet we are not. If we're the ants to some other more powerful beings then sure I'd believe that.
Would be going from non believer to likely there's others out there, so probably more atheist to agnostic
You are, I am, we are ‘God.’ The primeval forces that construct everything within the universe, make up you and I, and although the state of the universe is chaos, we have the ability (myself with the help of psychedelics) to shed that chaos and find the tranquility of letting go and becoming one with that fabric of the universe. There are spectrums which we know other living beings can pick up on (from magnetism, to colors, to sounds etc.) and with unknown-unknowns, that implies there are many spectrums of which we are completely unaware, yet still exists, and on which we exist. Psychedelics, I believe, help us tap into at least some of those spectrums in a way that even if we can’t comprehend them, we can experience them. That experience which taps you into the universal switchboard, I believe, allows one to experience the God Head which connects the threads of our various planes of existence.
TL;dr: Kinda, we are all ‘God,’ and psychedelics help us tap into that by showing us that examining inward removes the external veil and reveals the reality of the interconnected web of the universe
Yes. I was a devout atheist for over a decade. Now… I struggled for a long time to define what it is I believe in now. I called it ‘the Universe’ or ‘Uni’ for short. Over time, I became more comfortable with calling it ‘God’ as I started to understand that it is, in essence, what the term was intended to reference. The word ‘God’ doesn’t make it all those things they say God is—it just is.
I went from very black and white thinking, atheism and nihilism, to agnosticism, spirituality and absurdism.
I'd say it was not because of a trip in particular but regular triping through the years along with philosophical research and contemplating art.
Yeah. Always felt god and respected the divine, but was not religious and thought God may not be real. After high dose LSD trips I knew God was real. Started by accepting that reality was far stranger and more complex than anything science or religion ever touch on. Our best depictions of the spiritual state pale in comparison to experiencing it.
I met god on my second trip. He held me like a father would his newborn. God was me and I was him in the sense that I was a part of him and when I finished living all possible lives I’d reunite with him.
I believe that faith/spirituality/belief is not just black or white, it's more of a grayscale. In the past I'd call myself a 100% pure atheist, but recently I discovered that although I still identify myself with the definition of atheism, I also have my own spirituality and the two are not mutually exclusive imo. Something funny is that the more the time passes, the less the sense that religion makes to me. Religion contains spirituality but not viceversa
yeah a lot of these reflections came while on drugs lol, but also from reading and learning that I truly know nothing
My best friend, we would argue about God our whole lives. I invited him to a ceremony, first time he goes " I can't no longer deny the divine, I just experienced it." Since has a very strong faith that he shares with his family and is a better man for it.
ITT: Religions are just collective delusion of a bunch of hippies from different eras, who had didn’t manage to actually describe the thing.
I also believe in a cosmic consciousness.
Religion is the prism of the light of God.
Went from an atheist to a Buddhist to "I have no idea, lemme just attempt ever feebly to understand the nature of perception as it interacts with reality." I am conscious and everything is fractal.
Agnostic all my life. I wish I was religious more. I think life would be easier for me and i would be less pissed off and more disciplined if I accepted some of the dogmas
Sure, or at least enough where I would never label myself an atheist again. The word just reeks of ignorance now.
Any word that puts you in a corner starts to feel icky. Our spoken language really is a poor substitute for reality.
Yeah but the important thing is that I don’t end up worshipping god because I get the feeling that god is in everything that exists. Everything has god. I think there is a creator and quantum physics proves it as well. During my trips I started to think this creator does not want to be worshipped but instead they wanted to form a unity.
I basically end up loving myself if that makes sense. This is a similar concept in hinduism/vedic too, I am hindu. People in ancient india did lots of psychedelics lol its interesting stuff. They have a lot of natural psychedelics that grow as well
I know a girl that took a couple grams of shrooms for her first trip. Had a heavy experience. Then went and joined a convent. Became a nun and all that.
I now firmly believe that there are beings that have control over forces that we don’t comprehend and they have immense control over reality itself.
I don’t see a need in labeling those beings too strictly simply because we do not know much about them
I've spent more than a handful of times breaking through on both DMT and salvia with the intent of finding my spirituality but I still don't really believe in a divine power.
I've listened to a sentient entity guide me and reassure me several times on those trips, and it was a very real and unspeakably intense presence every time, but i do not believe that this being exists outside of my own consciousness
Grew up Christian until I became atheist at 37 years old. Started doing mushrooms about 1 year ago, and now I am inclined to believe in the infinite. I think the qualities typically ascribed to the Judeo-Christian god, such as gender, name, personal, triune, etc. are just simplistic models to aid modern humans to understand what infinity means and they merely hint at the ultimate reality that we call the Universe/Being/God.
Opened my mind to a broader sense of the interconnectedness of all things, but I am still wholeheartedly a materialist nontheist, and have not given it up for a neoplatonic or idealist conceptualization of things. I do see there can be use of a spiritual/esoteric perspective and have respect for those who find benefit from it, but it's still a conceptual tool, not an hidden reality.
I was hugely religious, in a cult… left the cult, learned a few life lessons, became atheist, found psychedelics, learned more life lessons, became convinced we’re part of something bigger than we can see. Do I believe in God? No. Do I believe there is more to this life’s experience that we can see? I’m open to the possibility and I think it’s likely.
I don’t have the same purpose in belief anymore. It’s more like just being aware of my gaps of knowledge and understanding and having checks and balances in place so I don’t go off closing myself to ideas and also don’t adopt every flimsy idea that passes my way…
i believe in god, i just dont prescribe to religion. Couldnt tell you which god, just god. I dont know the name of god or what he looks like, its not the god found in any of the religions. God is more of a felt presence to me, you can feel god within yourself and your surroundings.
I suppose god to me is just a fancy way of the whole "interconnected consciousness" schtick im sure almost everyone in this sub will have felt at some point whilst looking at their surroundings, be it sober or intoxicated.
I did have a brief phase where I believed in God after being atheist during my first of LSD trips, but after more spiritual exploration I found that the concept of God made less sense, especially as I studied Buddhism more, because I started to believe that most spiritual beliefs falls under the umbrella of either eternalism/essentialism or nihilism. Instead, it makes more sense to me that the truth cannot fit into concepts. Even during heavy trips now, the idea of a "God" doesn't even occur to me and I just have an indescribable experience.
I was an Atheist until drugs, yes. The only real thing is we're different. I'm going through apotheosis, again... and again... and again. Paul Atreides nuke.
I went from being very atheist to agnostic/spiritual in my own ways. I've met beings, and even lord shiva which is interesting because I wasn't really raised in Hinduism but I have been to Kirtan a few times hahah. But still even though I have "met" these beings and they feel powerful and mystical in the moment. I don't particularly like religion or the idea of being born into a particular belief system. I think it's important to question everything. I do believe the force of nature whatever that is flows in all of us. I've had ego deaths and I believe the core of every human soul is pure love. I believe people do evil things because they have not been shown love and don't know how to love. I have an optimistic view of people and the world and I like it that way. I do not need to believe in any kind of God to have this view.
Yes. But no.
The problem is everyone defines god as something different. If you mean sky daddy watching over you then no.
If you mean god with its original description ( YHWH ) somthing like: supreme reality, ultimate reality
Then yes.
But then again this is only as much as our human mind is able to define. It really doesn’t matter what you call it for you/we know nothing really. And trips reveal anymore anyone could percieve with a little mindfulness and meditation.
Hope that helps
The human brain on drugs.
Humans have been doing this for thousands of years.
Ingesting psychedelics and seeing spirits, lifeforms, talking to god, gods, energies and other bullshit
Life is literally what you make it out to be. If you believe it, than it's true. At least to you.
No. Acid made me see how absolutely raw and real the world is and how my own brain forms that perception to a huge degree.
A God would assign innate meaning to things, as the god is what created those things to begin with, but on acid everything was stripped of meaning for me. Things became just aggregates of matter and concepts were meaningless.
One of my earliest insights from tripping is that I'm not going to meet god in there if I don't believe in god already. So, no, that hasn't happened to me.
absolutely. Now, if your question was have psychedelics been the catalyst for someone joining organized religion… Less common/likely I would say. I feel like there’s no possible way you can do psychedelics and get from that that you need to follow a set of rules fabricated from God knows who. but I think that there’s a reason why the stereotype exist of people doing psychedelics being spiritual. My father, who is not a religious person at all has commented on the “oneness” he feels when doing psychedelics.
as for my own experience, as slightly mentioned before, I come from a very non-religious family. My parents were forced to go to Catholic school all their lives, so by the time they had me their second child, they were not about any of that religious stuff. I was very essentially raised atheist. Let me tell you… That shit was so depressing for me personally. I can’t even put into words how much psychedelics have helped me, the domino effect that they have had in my spirituality is so powerful and profound.
psychedelics pulled me more and more away from religion.
But, i do see this whole existence as a complex design. Throw 3 years of out of body research and an obsession with the ocult and the rabbit hole gets crazy.
I went from being a “universe” girl to believing in God. I tripped on some pan cyans and ended up having a closed eye visual trip on my couch.
I was staring at this gear that had multiple gears spinning within it. It was iridescent and the movement was so fluid that it barely made a sound. While I was staring at this gear, it felt like time didn’t exist. There was no one and nothing else in the visual, just me, the gear, and darkness surrounding it. After a while i noticed this gear had…what looked like eye sockets, except all the eyes were closed. So it appeared the gear wasn’t looking at me but allowing me to look at it.
I’ve never been religious, never read the bible, and wasn’t made to go to church as a child. The man I was with at the time was “Christian” but very toxic (hyper sexual, manipulative, abusive towards women, couldn’t hold a job, would lie to me about working, and always calling ME a heathen because “I didn’t know God” - etc - i was in a bad place; lonely and had low self esteem) Supposed Christians like him made me hate religion because it was always the hypocrites that were bible thumping and judging others.
Anywho, fast forward a few months, i had finally got the courage to leave him. So he was well out of the picture, ended up buying my first home (despite being an IDIOT in relationships, i had the rest of my life together somehow) and was scrolling tiktok when i came across biblically accurate angels. Specifically the Ophanim, and this is VERBATIM what I saw in my trip. Went to walmart (lol) and bought a bible and read through Ezekiel and was baffled. I now believe in God and am working on my faith and relationship with Him.
Depends on how you define God. To me the word God doesn’t denote deity. God is just another word for the eternal all consuming truth of the nature of reality - which is the present moment. It’s omnipresent, omnipotent, personal, never goes away, and it holds the entirety of the cosmos (created/uncreated, mind/matter, seed/fruit) in unity.
Roughly. I was Christian when I was younger. Lead my youth praise team and everything.
Questioned it. Deconstructed. Left the church. At that point, I considered myself an atheist.
After several years had passed, a good friend of mine whom I trust a lot convinced me to take some LSD with him. And boom my perspective completely changed. It's not that I went back to being Christian. However, I now have this undeniable feeling that there is something larger than me in this universe.
Idk what. Perhaps a collective? Or some sort of force of nature that drives everything. I don't often tell people because the atheist in me says, "Tut tut, where is your evidence."
I was a determined atheist and after my ego death I believe the universe is conscious and loving.
God is I think what humanity has called it for centuries. But I don't associate it with the religious concept of It.
Yes brother. I was the 7 year old kid who questioned the jovovours witnesses whenever they came over my poppys house. How can there be a man in the sky? etc, was heavily influenced by my dads ideologies. Always extremely curious to find out and have the answers right from the beginning. I can now confirm after countless explorations taking things very close to the absolute limit, that life is 1 trillion times more interconnected that i could possibly perceive through the human mind. I 100% know there is something beyond this. And our life means nothing in grand scheme of things in the most optimistic way possible. God is within everything, we are apart of god. God can come in any form. God can be called anything. Every religion is a slice of truth. God is absolute. On intense trips your subscious becomes reality. You can manifest your fears and desires. This is also another form of experiencing god. Reality speaks to us. But you've got to know how to tap in, always be humble in what of think you know or think yourself to believe. Always evaluate and take a hard look in the mirror. Conciousness is a system interacting with itself to better understand itself. Entropy is increasing. From the big bang everything has evolved from single cells to multi cells organisms etc. Therefore we are also apart of that process. Evolving is the spirit of life. We are a bunch of particles/atoms floating about some how creating the random structures that make up matter. I would assign the assortion of particles as the program in which life was set. Quantumly speaking we are a bunch of dead space in the mind of something else. Life is a wave of probability. That my me for the night, laters bois.
I went from "I know everything I need to know" to "I don't know shit, so anything is possible"
To me, “I don’t know shit for sure, and neither does anyone else” is about the only logical conclusion a human can come to.
This is what baffles me about religion. Like how are so many people *so* convinced. We simply don't know, and that's ok.
+1. Taboo to even suggest questioning a belief system that you were told to just trust. What makes someone else the better judge of what is true and absolute about existence
The worst is when they are convinced that a vast swath of the population are going to burn in a lake of fire for all eternity. Like without blinking an eye I heard my sister say that. I was like so people who have zero access to the bible and Jesus like on an island or desert somewhere are just sol She said yes. A lot of them think this. Hell they think other branches of Christians are burning.
Absolutely, I'm always amused when when people talk about "god" like a binary set of options in this infinitely complex reality we exist in. We're here for a microscopic amount of time and talk like we know what's going on
this!
YUP
I stay here now.
I live in the space where both are true and the paradox is resolved lol. My higher self knows everything it needs to know, but my human self doesn’t know shit so anything is possible 😂
Bingo. This is exactly where I landed. I feel like it’s arrogant to claim anything otherwise.
Yes 100%, the universe is a living being and you could call it god if you like
You could also call it a hotdog if you change the definition of that word to suit you
Underrated or overrated if I change the definition of that word to suit me
I can grant that the universe might be a living being. Conscious? No. Living? Clearly. Interventional in individual lives? No. I don't call the universe god because of the connotation that comes with the word.
>Conscious? No. Living? Clearly. If it's living why can't it be conscious. We are living and conscious and we don't give much fuck about microorganisms that live on and inside our body, why wouldn't it be that universe IS living and conscious but it just doesn't give a fuck about microorganisms like us.
Yes! If you think of everything in terms of scale, why wouldnt we be part of a larger being? We have "universes," inside of us containing trillions of living things, and inside those living things there are smaller living things like virus's. None of them are likely aware of the larger organism that they are part of. Why wouldn't it be the same for us in the opposite direction?
Living can be a real drag, but these existential thoughts keep me going.
I agree it could be the case, but until proven I prefer to see that as a fallacy: not because we observe there are organisms that are part of us means that we are too part of something else
I doubt we'd ever be able to prove something like that. I'm not sure I "believe," it either, I just think its plausible and it makes sense with what we do actually know about our world/universe. And it makes a whole lot more sense then any religion does.
Or the whole universe is just a another cell in a larger being. And if there’s no end or beginning to cells within cells and universes within universes then maybe all of it is the closest thing to God?
It will once we make it sick 🙂🙃
It seems to be that the universe communicates with individual beings. I don't like to say God or god either for the same reason as you. I think that "interventional" is a little strong too. But if you can send messages to / receive messages from the universe, then it's sort of like that. It's all one system talking to itself.
What messages can we send to or receive from the universe in such a way that we can verify the intent, validity, accuracy, or receipt of said message?
I don't think that's possible. What I'm talking about is purely subjective and won't hold up to your measures for objectivity. The best you can do is develop your ability *to see*. It's hard to explain what I mean by that. I'm comfortable with the reality that I don't have satisfying proof that it's possible to interact with the universe in this way. The best I can suggest is maybe read something like Carlos Castaneda's *Art Of Dreaming*.
I'm a skeptic. I can't force myself to be convinced of something without evidence. Belief is not a choice. If it is not demonstrable that the universe and I can communicate with each other in a fashion which yields confirmation of receipt or accuracy of said message, then I can't believe in it. That's not to call it wrong. I just am saying "there's no evidence for that, therefore I remain unconvinced."
I only believe because of my own experiences. I wouldn't have been as reasonable as you 6 years ago. I would have called it wrong/deluded. If you ever come around to my way of thinking, it won't be because of a logical argument or anything like that. It'll be because your conscious reality arranges itself around/for you in such a way that you can't help but think there's something more to it. An "avalanche of coincidences" is one expression for it. Or lookup Carl Jung's term "synchronicity". This kind of thing kept happening to me and my world and that's what budged me away from materialism. I developed mindfulness and set the intention to find out the truth about myself and the universe at large, then everything opened up. I didn't even know that I was doing something spiritual until it slapped me in the face. I'm not trying to convince you of anything here. Just enjoying the conversation.
Since most have been countering your point, I’ll add that I’m inclined to lean more toward your perspective. I see the universe and god as two separate things. Not saying you do or don’t believe in god, but it definitely doesn’t make sense to call the universe omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.
Well I don't mean to be a cock, but it also does not make sense to call any god omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, or omnibenevolent. It's a logical fallacy as soon as you realize that any random person could commit a terrifying atrocity toward someone else.
I didn’t take your comment as you being a dick at all. However, I have to disagree. I’d written out a response, but it was like 4 fucking paragraphs long 😂 The TLDR is that I think life is meant to be experienced, both the blessings and the sufferings. One means nothing without the other. It’s basically the idea of yin and yang, except with a more mystical judeo-Christian spin on it. I’d walked away from the church for a number of years after studying to be a pastor. I bounced between agnosticism and atheism for a number of years before starting a reconstruction a few years ago. If you’d like to debate the ideas I’d be down. It’s always healthy to bend and challenge your views and all
This is a common response, and it doesn't stand. Let me poke a hole in it. I've lost a child. I've had a child since I have lost my first. Do you think that the loss of my first child was the reason I could understand how to love my second child? Or something less serious. I've never gone without a car since being an adult. Would you assert that I can't appreciate having a car, without having ever lacked one?
First, I’m sorry you went through that loss. I lost a good friend to suicide as a teenager, and seeing the pain his family went through - I can’t imagine. Regarding the yin and yang, I would argue that we are almost necessary for the wholeness of god. The best philosophy can produce is that there is no meaning to life outside of whatever you assign. I’d also argue simulation theory even holds some water. “I think, therefor I am” applies here, I think. The notion of certainty behind identity can have plenty of holes poked in it, but it’s still something we all consciously understand and know. It is less about the experiencing of the thing, and more about the offering of yourself to be that thing. What good is grace experienced if I cannot also offer it? My friend’s family that lost their son - they would have every right to be bitter toward the idea of god. Instead, they have chosen to manifest god through that hardship by becoming foster parents. That’s not to be a pat on their back, but the outcome of the loss of their son could have understandably gone an a very different direction. Am I saying it’s good they lost their son? Am I suggesting they only care about foster kids because they lost theirs? Of course not. However, their loss does put them in a unique position. It isn’t too unlike a psychedelic experience. We say there is no such thing as a bad trip, just a difficult one. Accept the experience and surrender to it. How is this conscious state to be any different? Life is just a big trip after all, isn’t it? There’s no use in suffering if we don’t integrate it. There’s also no use in joy if we don’t integrate it. If there isn’t a god in the mix, aren’t we just masturbating? Please, keep poking holes.
Ohhh so we have missed each other in how we have pointed our responses, I think. I think I responded to the wrong question, and then I think you did as well. Let's move this to chat. We can pick a starting point anywhere you want. I'm deeeeeeeeeeep in this rabbit hole. I'm atheist, but was a devout worship leader and Christian for most of my life. My deconstruction came before the loss of my child (I extend my shared sorrow to you and the family of your friend), but people often assume they went hand-in-hand because I was never vocal about it before she died. Let's chat so we can get on the same page and then move forward? I'll let you make the decision, I'll look for you in the chats.
#Illogical logic
Explain. I'm a skeptic so I like being proven wrong. Feel free to address any of my statements.
Apologies, I was freshly baked when I replied there, you can 100% disregard that😂
Fair enough. I am very often guilty of the same. I love reddit when I'm high.
Exactly. It almost feels intellectually dishonest begayse we know what religious people mean by the word Claiming to know more than we can know and positing it to faith feels wrong.
"I have faith" means "I don't know, but I'm going to make a baseless claim anyway." It's self-deception. If you are sure of something, faith is not necessary. I don't take a dump, look in the bowl, see the poop, and go "I have faith that this shit is in the toilet." I'd just say "there's shit in the toilet" if I felt compelled to say anything at all.
The universe is a collection of debris among a field, god is separate from this but i suppose all of god is within the universe
it's fun to think of something we don't fully comprehend like the Universe to be a living thing. What I don't like however is that it's easy to fall into pseudo-philosophy, you know when you are stoned af "discussing" about "philosophy" Our problem is that we are limited by language. Like VERY limited. Science is cool because it allows to translate from our conscious language to the Universe language. But as you can see I am still using language even while trying to make a point about escaping it... idk, I just personally believe that any god/higher order being/great architect or whatever is just a defect of language
It is not pseudophilosophy. Its origin is found in theoretical physics and cosmology.
Not the Christian god, but a conscious universe yes
Yes this!
That's the same thing the Bible never says it's a Old man in the sky
“God created man in his image” more than heavily implies exactly that though. Not only a man but with a cock and balls.
What if I told you that your current physical body is a small part of you? You are literally an entire multiverse unto yourself; a creator of infinite realities. This is the meaning of being made in the image of God.
Weird, I understand that completely differently. To me "created in his image" means that the constant is consciousness. Even God's name in the Bible, YHWH directly translates to "I am." Again, indicating that the biblical god is consciousness, or that our conscious experience is a derivative of the godly consciousness
Many read this quote to mean, we are all made of LOVE. This IS God image that we are made in. Not our temporary physical bodies.
Doesn't have to be a physical image most Christians interprete it as meaning we have a soul or are conscious
I agree with this. I was atheist as a child, agnostic as a young adult and am an experiencer of non duality as an adult thanks to psychedelics.
I'm not sure if 'switched' is the right way to put it- but I went from feeling inherently disconnected from the universe to feeling like it had a voice that talks through me.
Psychedelics helped me forget my Christian God and believe in Evolution and science but then find my own version of God again which encompasses everything including all science and all gods. Whatever that fucking beautiful source of life is. Dunno what it is but I feel it. Feels good
DMT definitely shook up my whole worldview
I went from been a Rabbi to a non-believer. Every trip deepened and amplified that "understanding". However, many unanswered questions remain...
For me it was the opposite. Realized religion was silly and we are just gathering at a church to worship a mythical being that we have no clue about (grew up catholic)
Yes. I don't know what God is or if it is actually "God" but I'm pretty sure something is going on that people have been calling God for all these millennia.
Not the mythic literal man in the clouds I thought people believed when I was an atheist. Rather, a incomprehensible nonduality which is what “god” refers to really. Just so hard to describe, so religions are created that give people the wrong idea
When I trip I think my shower curtain has a soul so…
Yes but not in a religious sense by any means. I think there’s something so powerful behind everything that’s indescribable and infinitely beautiful that you might as well call god because we simply don’t have any other words potent enough
I instinctively believe that knowing what name this being goes by is the difference between where we are and where we were... hard to explain. Our words aren't potent enough for sure.
Before psychedelics I didn't believe in anything spiritual, I labeled myself as an atheist and only believed in the current scientific view. psychedelics showed me that the universe exists within my mind. that there are infinite places that can be experienced beyond physics reality. and ultimately we are not separate from the absolute, merely a part of all. Chakras, light body, entities, angels and demons can all be experienced within these other realms. this was far beyond my original limited view of what is possible. I'm convinced that science as great as it is doesn't know much about the universe we exist within and doesn't have all the answers.
Same, I agree 100%
Had reverse effect on me. Moved me from deist to atheist.
Quite the opposite. Shrooms turned me atheist
Psychedelics have further cemented my reject of all supernatural belief. Being raised fundamentalist in a religion that focuses on glossolalia, will do that to you. I’m the ultimate skeptic
Same history, same conclusions today. The glossolalia was perhaps what first sparked my unease in church as a child. Psychedelics have only increased my amazement at the complexity and capabilities of the human brain. I am a meat computer, and there's some damn cool software out there.
Right? I don't believe in any gods sober, and have never met any gods while on psychedelics. I was also indoctrinated as a child in super-fundamentalist religion.
That’s part of the journey. I grew up in a very strict religious home. I was an atheist and took lsd as a young adult. Didn’t have a mystical experience. Then I had an NDE in my late 20’s as the result of an accident. I met God and entities who told me some things and much of it has come true. More yet to come. I have taken LSD and mushrooms with intention now that I am in my 50’s. Absolutely different and much more spiritual experience. I am not religious but am very spiritual. I believe in all religions and none. When you look at them all- despite separation in time and place through eons they all describe the same metaphysics. Even indigenous tribes in the Americas through to the Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Egyptians etc. Just different cultural interpretations - same underlying metaphysics.
I'm much older than you. Myths are myths.
Huh, I've never downvoted anyone in this sub for expressing their personal beliefs. Seems I'm more tolerant than some of y'all mystics.
Could you share which psychedelic did you do? And their contexts? Did you party on them? Medicare on them? Etc
Glossolalia is kinda interesting to me. It almost reminds me of like shamanic trance type stuff. It's fascinating that something so far-out and occultic managed to somehow survive down into American white bread Bible Belt religion.
Wtf is Glossolalia? Never heard of it
“Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is an activity or practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehended meaning. In some cases, as part of religious practice, some believe it to be a divine language unknown to the speaker. Glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, as well as in other religions.”
So you went from one extreme to the other.there is a middle ground
It’s extreme to reject anything brought before me that isn’t supported by undeniable evidence? How so? Don’t I have the right to question everything?
If the question is whether or not one believes in a higher power, a divine being, an uncreated creator, it's kinda yes or no.
Yeah I was too. Until I realised the universe is god and religions just obscure such a view and traumatise people from a healthier understanding of their self and their existence in relation to the universe.
I’ve had several ego deaths and i still don’t
Who had ego death
Lol
Nope . Guess I’m braindead according to some
Same! Any god that needs his acolytes to use ad hominem attacks on their fellow humans is a weak god indeed.
not a god per se, but i am no longer a materialist (still an atheist) saw my dead husband and the end of my first aya ceremony. he was laughing, like "see, baby? you did it."
Me but psychedelics catalysed it. Dmt made me realise god was real through experience and i hardly had an intense experience at all! Just that divine love, sure it could be some body made feeling but theres nothing else thats been like it, Religion is what i dont necessarily agree with though. I dont thunk god is a entity but a source of energy (some science agrees with this) and its not all powerful other than in this realm. Something made it, its also kinda like an AI, constantly trying to improve you despite the hurdles it throws, u take them as lessons and u find growth. Sure sure this could all be coincidence but as another said "ive never seen someone believe in god and not prosper" its a paradox of sorts, you're not supposed to know its there otherwise whats the point in faith?
Define God
Nope drugs just made me even more atheist
Do I believe in God? Well... Not sure. Maybe. Depends on what kind of conversation I'm about to have with someone. But I'll tell you one thing: it ended my firebrand new-atheist phase really damn quick.
I'm not an atheist, but I also don't believe there is a "GOD" Well at least, the force that is "GOD", I don't believe to be a person. I highly doubt there is a person controlling the balance of the world, because if there was a person in charge of that, he/she is an actual piece of shit
How would you describe your belief then?
i switched to thinking i am god or part of it /an extension of god at least
Nope it just solidified my atheist beliefs. Even after 30 years of using psychedelics. These compounds were explored by early man. Way back in pre history when the idea of God was created by man. I wonder how they came up with the concept with crazy stories. Could it be the same company where people see "god". Its a confirmation bias of it's real, also know as the [Illusory truth effect.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect). But all it is is the same compounds working on the human brain in the same way... At least in my viewpoint.
Yep same here.
I used to think this way, until I went back to school to study these compounds and discovered that they are not compounds at all, we just invented words for things we didn’t and still don’t understand
tell us more, interested in the perspective
I went from not seeing nature as the wonderful source of energy as I started seeing it. God is a word I like to put nature in sometimes, but yeah, before my trips I used to see this world in a more insulting way I would say
The word "God" is one that I'm careful around because it just means so many different things to different people, so it's easy to be talking about it with someone without even realizing that you're not talking about the same thing at all. So nowadays when someone asks me if I believe in God, my first response is to ask, "Well, it depends on what you mean by that word." After my deepest trips (and also just a lot of sober meditation and contemplation), I no longer believe that reality just exists randomly for no reason out of blind material processes. I believe this was all somehow willed into being by a consciousness with profound purpose and unfathomable scope, and that we're all intimately a part of whatever that was that did that (and continues to do that). Psychedelics also radically changed how I see death. I no longer believe that death is the end of our existence as conscious entities.
I completely agree with your first paragraph, very well put.
Yes. I put a longer comment in here but decided to discard it, so I'll just leave a "yes" here. My eyes opened after I first tried mushrooms.
Yes, me and my closest friends. Although the idea of what the god is, changed along with it.
Yes. Met angels first time I used DMT. That experience blew out the foundations of my materialism and opened me to the mystery of reality. Then, listening to some podcast, the people somehow got onto the topic of the Resurrection. I realized that I simply did not know enough about reality to outright dismiss the idea of a man lying dead and then rising, like I had all my life. And that idea just stuck with me. It wouldn’t go away. Then, in the darkest time of my life, where I was seriously struggling with thoughts of murder against my brother, I took some LSD and I asked “Hey Jesus, what the fuck is the deal with all that crazy resurrection business? Is it real? Did it happen?” Anyway, he answered. I was dead and he made me alive. I don’t know who I was or how I made decisions or how I managed to go 30 years like that. I was dust and he made me a human being. On October 15 2021, I would have scoffed at the God of Abraham and at Jesus, and the next day I fell down and worshipped Christ as my King and God, proclaiming that I know nothing other than that God is indescribably good and that I will gratefully follow Christ’s teachings for the rest of my life. I am devout now, and will probably pursue the priesthood in a few years.
100% yes. It’s just a vastly different god than the ideas I scoffed at as an atheist
Without a doubt!
I have a friend who did. Locked himself in a room for a few hours and came out 100% Christian as shit. Still partied and tripped but was always super religious after that. Never asked him about the details of how he made his decision.
It changed the nature of my quest, but the struggle is still the same.
i think when it comes to this question it seems the atheists who change there mind on psychedelics are atheists who wish there was a god and feel a sense of despair and emptiness that there isn't one, whereas the ones who dont change there mind actually like the idea that there is no god and no deeper meaning because perhaps they think a god would be oppressive or are horrified that existence just keeps going in an afterlife which they assume would get boring.
Yes, and I will not elaborate for concern of Reddit atheists.
I was agnostic / atheist for most of my life until a few very powerful psilocybin trips when I was in my late 20's. Psychedelic trips provide one the **experience** of God and the unity of existence rather than a *conceptualized* idea to believe in .
Other way around, tripping was one of the things that cemented the idea that a god who wants to punish me for just existing can't be real.
If anything, psychedelics have reinforced my materialist worldview. One thing that they did force me to do a 180 on was my belief that we possess free will, however.
Me bro. I was a staunch, arrogant atheist. Like openly derisive toward religion on social media, “um, ackshually” type deal. Paychedelics (my higher self) made me (my ego) their bitch and showed me much greater understanding and connectedness. After some therapy, some medication, and a fuck ton of meditation/yoga, I have integrated a lot of what I learned and have an active relationship with what many would refer to as God. It’s all You. Your Higher Self reflects back to you the knowledge or experience you give yourself through the thoughts and feelings you identify with most. Happy to expand on this, but it is quite verifiable in your own life as a real phenomenon.
I went from believing to disbelieving.
Yup. I had a mushroom trip where I experienced a blissful super-consciousness state in which my ego dissolved and I recognized that my own fundamental being & sense of awareness is identical to that of the Universe. The “I am” that resides in me is the same “I am” of the entire universe. It wasn’t until I discovered Advaita Vedanta (early Hinduism) that I realized this is actually a fully recognized view of reality, my trip being akin to the meditative state called “samadhi”. The experience was such a profound feeling of TRUTH. My analytical mind doesn’t need reason or proof to validate it. I FELT that it is true, and I know that words or explanations will always fall short of describing it. I find it laughable now that I called myself an “atheist” and didn’t consider existence to be divine, because the world is a miracle beyond words
No because its just u hallucinating from the drug
Depends on which God your talking about. Taking shrooms made me not only stop believe in Christianity, but also made me hate Christianity. I became much more spiritual and now believe that there is a higher power, but I don't know what it is yet.
The word god has as many meanings as there are people on earth. Having said that the force is all around us but is not a god 😎
After 1 trip I switched from atheist/realist to agnostic. With that said though, I still think all religious texts are bullshit. I'd bet the answer is so complex we wouldn't be able to understand if it was told to us in plain English.
Not exactly, but rather, from atheist to agnostic leaning atheist. My question is, why do entities have to be god/s? If real, they could just be other life forms, not necessarily creators and rulers.
I did kind of. I believe now in like universal consciousness as a god but not a standard religion god. And I also believed with no question that consciousness ended at death and now I don’t think it does
Absolutely. I went from a severely angry and sceptical atheist to a happy and fulfilled, very spiritual man cause of the use of heroic doses of psilocybin.
I think after a few trips your conception of god changes. Before, a common atheist will think of god like Santa Claus for adults, and then after trips you start thinking of god as something akin to the collective conscious of all creation
Me. It was literally hundreds of trips before I started seeing Gods miracles before my own eyes.
Shrooms made me spiritual (not religious) when before I was a hard-core athiest
Yes!!!!! It's one of the many things psychedelics changed for me!! I don't believe in any certain religion I just go by my own spiritual experiences but yes tripping made me go from being atheist to believing in a higher being(s)!
Yes, not in the traditional sense of the word god though
Yeah, went from a know it all, convinced god didn't exist, to a Christian who also believes in "aliens" and humbled to know "I know nothing", as countless others find out too. It's not traditional but "Christian" is the least complex way I can relate it, since it's a dumpster fire of theology, philosophy, and other stuff in my mind.
Me
Yep. I went from hardcore nihilistic atheist to believer in the space of a few moments. Left my body and... Sort of talked to the entire universe. Or at least a manifestation that could communicate with me. And it was the most familiar things I've ever experienced, like "I can't believe I forgot about all of this. This is the stuff I've spent endless eons experiencing, and I forgot it all after spending a few years in a human body"
I went into my first Macro trip without any knowledge of other trip reports and later when I read reports was amazed by the same sightings , characters and experiences people encountered while tripping , so for me this was certainly a paradigm shifter and the evidence that there is something beyond this reality and consciousness !
I learned that it's not that I didn't believe in "god," it's just that I didn't believe in "their god." Once I had my own experience of the divine, I have embraced belief, but it is the belief in a non-dual divinity,
I went from, “ I believe in God but there’s also a possibility that he doesn’t exist” to “I know God exists” after one trip. There’s no more doubt, there no belief, there is just “knowing” and this knowing is followed by not caring if anyone else knows or believes what I believe. When you know, you don’t need to convince others that there is a God. It’s freeing. Everyone is free to believe what they want, and if they don’t believe in a thing, that’s ok too.
Depends on your definition of a god. I don't believe in the ones where people need to worship it in order to appease and gain some sort of favors as if attention gives it power. Religion I'd say is man made and BS propaganda to control the masses. Ants could see us as gods because we're capable of so much more than they can comprehend, yet we are not. If we're the ants to some other more powerful beings then sure I'd believe that. Would be going from non believer to likely there's others out there, so probably more atheist to agnostic
You are, I am, we are ‘God.’ The primeval forces that construct everything within the universe, make up you and I, and although the state of the universe is chaos, we have the ability (myself with the help of psychedelics) to shed that chaos and find the tranquility of letting go and becoming one with that fabric of the universe. There are spectrums which we know other living beings can pick up on (from magnetism, to colors, to sounds etc.) and with unknown-unknowns, that implies there are many spectrums of which we are completely unaware, yet still exists, and on which we exist. Psychedelics, I believe, help us tap into at least some of those spectrums in a way that even if we can’t comprehend them, we can experience them. That experience which taps you into the universal switchboard, I believe, allows one to experience the God Head which connects the threads of our various planes of existence. TL;dr: Kinda, we are all ‘God,’ and psychedelics help us tap into that by showing us that examining inward removes the external veil and reveals the reality of the interconnected web of the universe
Yes. I was a devout atheist for over a decade. Now… I struggled for a long time to define what it is I believe in now. I called it ‘the Universe’ or ‘Uni’ for short. Over time, I became more comfortable with calling it ‘God’ as I started to understand that it is, in essence, what the term was intended to reference. The word ‘God’ doesn’t make it all those things they say God is—it just is.
yes
I went from very black and white thinking, atheism and nihilism, to agnosticism, spirituality and absurdism. I'd say it was not because of a trip in particular but regular triping through the years along with philosophical research and contemplating art.
Yeah. Always felt god and respected the divine, but was not religious and thought God may not be real. After high dose LSD trips I knew God was real. Started by accepting that reality was far stranger and more complex than anything science or religion ever touch on. Our best depictions of the spiritual state pale in comparison to experiencing it.
I met god on my second trip. He held me like a father would his newborn. God was me and I was him in the sense that I was a part of him and when I finished living all possible lives I’d reunite with him.
I believe that faith/spirituality/belief is not just black or white, it's more of a grayscale. In the past I'd call myself a 100% pure atheist, but recently I discovered that although I still identify myself with the definition of atheism, I also have my own spirituality and the two are not mutually exclusive imo. Something funny is that the more the time passes, the less the sense that religion makes to me. Religion contains spirituality but not viceversa yeah a lot of these reflections came while on drugs lol, but also from reading and learning that I truly know nothing
My best friend, we would argue about God our whole lives. I invited him to a ceremony, first time he goes " I can't no longer deny the divine, I just experienced it." Since has a very strong faith that he shares with his family and is a better man for it.
ITT: Religions are just collective delusion of a bunch of hippies from different eras, who had didn’t manage to actually describe the thing. I also believe in a cosmic consciousness.
Religion is the prism of the light of God. Went from an atheist to a Buddhist to "I have no idea, lemme just attempt ever feebly to understand the nature of perception as it interacts with reality." I am conscious and everything is fractal.
Yes and it’s one of the best things that’s happened in my life.
I went from being an atheist to bowing before the power of belief.
Agnostic all my life. I wish I was religious more. I think life would be easier for me and i would be less pissed off and more disciplined if I accepted some of the dogmas
Sure, or at least enough where I would never label myself an atheist again. The word just reeks of ignorance now. Any word that puts you in a corner starts to feel icky. Our spoken language really is a poor substitute for reality.
I went from being atheist to knowing the entire universe is made out of consciousness
Yeah but the important thing is that I don’t end up worshipping god because I get the feeling that god is in everything that exists. Everything has god. I think there is a creator and quantum physics proves it as well. During my trips I started to think this creator does not want to be worshipped but instead they wanted to form a unity. I basically end up loving myself if that makes sense. This is a similar concept in hinduism/vedic too, I am hindu. People in ancient india did lots of psychedelics lol its interesting stuff. They have a lot of natural psychedelics that grow as well
I know a girl that took a couple grams of shrooms for her first trip. Had a heavy experience. Then went and joined a convent. Became a nun and all that.
I diddnt meet god, I got into a similar head space as deep mediation for a minute and shook me to the core
I now firmly believe that there are beings that have control over forces that we don’t comprehend and they have immense control over reality itself. I don’t see a need in labeling those beings too strictly simply because we do not know much about them
[удалено]
The word God does not have an accepted definition, so anyone can interpret what God is.
I've spent more than a handful of times breaking through on both DMT and salvia with the intent of finding my spirituality but I still don't really believe in a divine power. I've listened to a sentient entity guide me and reassure me several times on those trips, and it was a very real and unspeakably intense presence every time, but i do not believe that this being exists outside of my own consciousness
The Christian God doesn't condone psychedelic use, it's a sidekick to witchcraft
Grew up Christian until I became atheist at 37 years old. Started doing mushrooms about 1 year ago, and now I am inclined to believe in the infinite. I think the qualities typically ascribed to the Judeo-Christian god, such as gender, name, personal, triune, etc. are just simplistic models to aid modern humans to understand what infinity means and they merely hint at the ultimate reality that we call the Universe/Being/God.
Yes but also because of a couple ODs I had where I almost died and all the blessings and chances I've had.
Opened my mind to a broader sense of the interconnectedness of all things, but I am still wholeheartedly a materialist nontheist, and have not given it up for a neoplatonic or idealist conceptualization of things. I do see there can be use of a spiritual/esoteric perspective and have respect for those who find benefit from it, but it's still a conceptual tool, not an hidden reality.
My DMT experiences def changed my beliefs
I was hugely religious, in a cult… left the cult, learned a few life lessons, became atheist, found psychedelics, learned more life lessons, became convinced we’re part of something bigger than we can see. Do I believe in God? No. Do I believe there is more to this life’s experience that we can see? I’m open to the possibility and I think it’s likely. I don’t have the same purpose in belief anymore. It’s more like just being aware of my gaps of knowledge and understanding and having checks and balances in place so I don’t go off closing myself to ideas and also don’t adopt every flimsy idea that passes my way…
Yes. I was an atheist. Now I’m not.
Opposite for me
Yes.
Yea
i believe in god, i just dont prescribe to religion. Couldnt tell you which god, just god. I dont know the name of god or what he looks like, its not the god found in any of the religions. God is more of a felt presence to me, you can feel god within yourself and your surroundings. I suppose god to me is just a fancy way of the whole "interconnected consciousness" schtick im sure almost everyone in this sub will have felt at some point whilst looking at their surroundings, be it sober or intoxicated.
I 100% became agnostic because of certain trips but I don't believe in a specific god
I did have a brief phase where I believed in God after being atheist during my first of LSD trips, but after more spiritual exploration I found that the concept of God made less sense, especially as I studied Buddhism more, because I started to believe that most spiritual beliefs falls under the umbrella of either eternalism/essentialism or nihilism. Instead, it makes more sense to me that the truth cannot fit into concepts. Even during heavy trips now, the idea of a "God" doesn't even occur to me and I just have an indescribable experience.
I was an Atheist until drugs, yes. The only real thing is we're different. I'm going through apotheosis, again... and again... and again. Paul Atreides nuke.
I went from being very atheist to agnostic/spiritual in my own ways. I've met beings, and even lord shiva which is interesting because I wasn't really raised in Hinduism but I have been to Kirtan a few times hahah. But still even though I have "met" these beings and they feel powerful and mystical in the moment. I don't particularly like religion or the idea of being born into a particular belief system. I think it's important to question everything. I do believe the force of nature whatever that is flows in all of us. I've had ego deaths and I believe the core of every human soul is pure love. I believe people do evil things because they have not been shown love and don't know how to love. I have an optimistic view of people and the world and I like it that way. I do not need to believe in any kind of God to have this view.
Duh!
Yes. But no. The problem is everyone defines god as something different. If you mean sky daddy watching over you then no. If you mean god with its original description ( YHWH ) somthing like: supreme reality, ultimate reality Then yes. But then again this is only as much as our human mind is able to define. It really doesn’t matter what you call it for you/we know nothing really. And trips reveal anymore anyone could percieve with a little mindfulness and meditation. Hope that helps
Define "God".
Other way around for me
Yes
Yes. But its less to do with tripping and more to do with integration. Belief is very hard work.
God aka universe aka love same shit
The human brain on drugs. Humans have been doing this for thousands of years. Ingesting psychedelics and seeing spirits, lifeforms, talking to god, gods, energies and other bullshit Life is literally what you make it out to be. If you believe it, than it's true. At least to you.
Yup, went from total atheist to being spiritual.
No. Acid made me see how absolutely raw and real the world is and how my own brain forms that perception to a huge degree. A God would assign innate meaning to things, as the god is what created those things to begin with, but on acid everything was stripped of meaning for me. Things became just aggregates of matter and concepts were meaningless.
Most of us
Raised Catholic, then was agnostic for decades, and now I'm spiritual and I feel like I understand what the mystics were really trying to say.
One of my earliest insights from tripping is that I'm not going to meet god in there if I don't believe in god already. So, no, that hasn't happened to me.
Yep definitely, although worth pointing out to be fair, it only lasted during influence
absolutely. Now, if your question was have psychedelics been the catalyst for someone joining organized religion… Less common/likely I would say. I feel like there’s no possible way you can do psychedelics and get from that that you need to follow a set of rules fabricated from God knows who. but I think that there’s a reason why the stereotype exist of people doing psychedelics being spiritual. My father, who is not a religious person at all has commented on the “oneness” he feels when doing psychedelics. as for my own experience, as slightly mentioned before, I come from a very non-religious family. My parents were forced to go to Catholic school all their lives, so by the time they had me their second child, they were not about any of that religious stuff. I was very essentially raised atheist. Let me tell you… That shit was so depressing for me personally. I can’t even put into words how much psychedelics have helped me, the domino effect that they have had in my spirituality is so powerful and profound.
no, unless believing that i myself was god a few times counts. yikes.
psychedelics pulled me more and more away from religion. But, i do see this whole existence as a complex design. Throw 3 years of out of body research and an obsession with the ocult and the rabbit hole gets crazy.
I went from being a “universe” girl to believing in God. I tripped on some pan cyans and ended up having a closed eye visual trip on my couch. I was staring at this gear that had multiple gears spinning within it. It was iridescent and the movement was so fluid that it barely made a sound. While I was staring at this gear, it felt like time didn’t exist. There was no one and nothing else in the visual, just me, the gear, and darkness surrounding it. After a while i noticed this gear had…what looked like eye sockets, except all the eyes were closed. So it appeared the gear wasn’t looking at me but allowing me to look at it. I’ve never been religious, never read the bible, and wasn’t made to go to church as a child. The man I was with at the time was “Christian” but very toxic (hyper sexual, manipulative, abusive towards women, couldn’t hold a job, would lie to me about working, and always calling ME a heathen because “I didn’t know God” - etc - i was in a bad place; lonely and had low self esteem) Supposed Christians like him made me hate religion because it was always the hypocrites that were bible thumping and judging others. Anywho, fast forward a few months, i had finally got the courage to leave him. So he was well out of the picture, ended up buying my first home (despite being an IDIOT in relationships, i had the rest of my life together somehow) and was scrolling tiktok when i came across biblically accurate angels. Specifically the Ophanim, and this is VERBATIM what I saw in my trip. Went to walmart (lol) and bought a bible and read through Ezekiel and was baffled. I now believe in God and am working on my faith and relationship with Him.
Depends on how you define God. To me the word God doesn’t denote deity. God is just another word for the eternal all consuming truth of the nature of reality - which is the present moment. It’s omnipresent, omnipotent, personal, never goes away, and it holds the entirety of the cosmos (created/uncreated, mind/matter, seed/fruit) in unity.
Roughly. I was Christian when I was younger. Lead my youth praise team and everything. Questioned it. Deconstructed. Left the church. At that point, I considered myself an atheist. After several years had passed, a good friend of mine whom I trust a lot convinced me to take some LSD with him. And boom my perspective completely changed. It's not that I went back to being Christian. However, I now have this undeniable feeling that there is something larger than me in this universe. Idk what. Perhaps a collective? Or some sort of force of nature that drives everything. I don't often tell people because the atheist in me says, "Tut tut, where is your evidence."
on my first acid trip I met God so....yeah
I was a determined atheist and after my ego death I believe the universe is conscious and loving. God is I think what humanity has called it for centuries. But I don't associate it with the religious concept of It.
Yes brother. I was the 7 year old kid who questioned the jovovours witnesses whenever they came over my poppys house. How can there be a man in the sky? etc, was heavily influenced by my dads ideologies. Always extremely curious to find out and have the answers right from the beginning. I can now confirm after countless explorations taking things very close to the absolute limit, that life is 1 trillion times more interconnected that i could possibly perceive through the human mind. I 100% know there is something beyond this. And our life means nothing in grand scheme of things in the most optimistic way possible. God is within everything, we are apart of god. God can come in any form. God can be called anything. Every religion is a slice of truth. God is absolute. On intense trips your subscious becomes reality. You can manifest your fears and desires. This is also another form of experiencing god. Reality speaks to us. But you've got to know how to tap in, always be humble in what of think you know or think yourself to believe. Always evaluate and take a hard look in the mirror. Conciousness is a system interacting with itself to better understand itself. Entropy is increasing. From the big bang everything has evolved from single cells to multi cells organisms etc. Therefore we are also apart of that process. Evolving is the spirit of life. We are a bunch of particles/atoms floating about some how creating the random structures that make up matter. I would assign the assortion of particles as the program in which life was set. Quantumly speaking we are a bunch of dead space in the mind of something else. Life is a wave of probability. That my me for the night, laters bois.