[Stu]

I'm always astonished by peoples reactions when I tell them I'm very spiritual but don't believe in God. Western society generally is incredibly predisposed to this incredibly non spiritual, outward looking, patriarchal form of faith that is teeming with about as much wonder and joy as kneeling in a tax office. To me the mechanic of God is incredibly unnecessary to sustain a belief in there being something more. It's nice that so many people here understand that unlike a lot of people I have encountered in person.

The idea of God being female or there being both a male and female creator always applied way more to me also than God being this retarded daddy who always messes things up and knocks his children about. I don't think anything close to a man would be capable of making the more beautiful parts of our cosmos and existence.

I digress, anyway. Because my beliefs generally don't tend to involve God[s] although I'm not entirely closed to the concept. To be honest my beliefs were built on and shaped by love and [sigh] psychedelic drugs. The first time I took psilocybin mushrooms I came out of it refusing to believe it was some stupid, inane set of images and modes of madness constructed by a brain in the throes of complete chemical bastardization. The fact that a naturally occurring fungi did such powerful things to my mind that always had a revelatory, spiritual edge to them changed me and left me more open and compassionate.

That got me into researching DMT or Dimethyltryptamine. You can look it up on Google or YouTube. Most people seem to be exposed to it through Joe Rogan's stand up comedy nowadays which is fine because he gives a concise, entertaining read of it but if you really want to be amazed check out Dr. Rick Strassman's book or film on the subject entitled 'The Spirit Molecule'.

DMT is essentially a trace amine neurotransmitter which occurs in virtually all living matter. We know it occurs in trace amounts in humans but it was Strassman who put forward the concept that it is created in your pineal gland - a tiny endocrine gland center of your brain that Rene Descartes christened the third eye. Strassman believes DMT may play a role in dreaming and near death experience.

Consuming it as drug brings on an absurdly powerful out of body experience. Smoked in it's pure form it will bring about a ten minute trip to space where most users encounter highly complex geometric patterns made of various symbols and languages before encountering alien like beings who appear to be flowing with a tremendous amount of information. Taken as Ayahuasca - a brew form created with native shamanic technology - it drags the experience out of hours allowing for a more gradual, learned experience with it.

It's DMT that convinced me our brains might simply be mere receivers and opened me up to the idea of pure consciousness without physical limitations. Similar to the body as vessel theories in this thread. I'm very much convinced on the idea of the material world and the ego being highly complex constructs of a collective consciousness. I don't disregard them, mind you. I like individuality and I like PlayStations and nice looking coffee tables.

Right now the cosmos as a whole is my god. I believe in a meditative energy we can all tap into to realize fundamentally what we are. Lovely little balls of light who should show compassion to one another. To swim in humor and love. I don't know what will happen when we die. Given how open I am to all of this it may surprise you that I'm still not sold on reincarnation.

As for love? Well that's easy. Once I fell in love I refused to believe it was a highly complex, deep rooted chemical reaction in my brain. That it wasn't something that now 'grew' that I was conditioned to give strong emotional response to. Once I fell in love that was it.

Quite a change considering I was a shameless dabbler in left hand path LaVeyan Satanism. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Collect your T-Shirt on the way out the door.