Understanding ketamine's role in depression treatment: how this breakthrough works, what it can and can't do, and why clinical reality differs from the hype.
Psychedelics are a gateway to another dimension. With a slight pun intended, I mean that these medicines can alter the way we view ourselves and, ultimately, life. They show us what Rudolf Otto calls the "mysterium tremendum et fascinans". They take us by the hand (sometimes by the throat) to show us that everything we thought we knew might be wrong. That there are other ways of seeing, feeling, and doing life. That our minds can lock us up in self made prisons or they can make us feel bliss and joy. That a blade of grass or a drop of rain hanging from a spiderweb can "contain multitudes" and are universes in their own right. That the mystery of existence goes beyond what we encounter day by day by far. And yet, we come to understand that these daily little miracles constitute the building blocks of our precious lives.
The psychedelic experience can take us to dimensions, here and now, where our lives can be turned around in such ways that we become somebody else. A Higher Self. After all, we have no fixed "I" (anatta in Buddhism).
For the psychonaut, reality and the self will never be the same again. These technologies of the self show us, in full technicolor and surround sound, what in zen is shunyata. The Absolute. The ultimate emptiness within a reality full of life.
If used responsibly and with respect, psychedelics can rewire our brains, change our minds, open our hearts.
They can show us, if we allow ourselves to see, glimpses of satori.
Thank you so much for this insightful commentary and your contribution. In Buddhism, shunyata is the absence of inherent self-nature in all phenomena and the interconnectedness of all things. It is not abstract metaphysics—it’s the lived, experienced realization that nothing stands alone, everything is fluid and interdependent, and that seeing this deeply frees us to live more openly and compassionately. Psychedelics are a doorway we can open to this realization.
Psychedelics are a gateway to another dimension. With a slight pun intended, I mean that these medicines can alter the way we view ourselves and, ultimately, life. They show us what Rudolf Otto calls the "mysterium tremendum et fascinans". They take us by the hand (sometimes by the throat) to show us that everything we thought we knew might be wrong. That there are other ways of seeing, feeling, and doing life. That our minds can lock us up in self made prisons or they can make us feel bliss and joy. That a blade of grass or a drop of rain hanging from a spiderweb can "contain multitudes" and are universes in their own right. That the mystery of existence goes beyond what we encounter day by day by far. And yet, we come to understand that these daily little miracles constitute the building blocks of our precious lives.
The psychedelic experience can take us to dimensions, here and now, where our lives can be turned around in such ways that we become somebody else. A Higher Self. After all, we have no fixed "I" (anatta in Buddhism).
For the psychonaut, reality and the self will never be the same again. These technologies of the self show us, in full technicolor and surround sound, what in zen is shunyata. The Absolute. The ultimate emptiness within a reality full of life.
If used responsibly and with respect, psychedelics can rewire our brains, change our minds, open our hearts.
They can show us, if we allow ourselves to see, glimpses of satori.
Thanks for your writing Rob.
Thank you so much for this insightful commentary and your contribution. In Buddhism, shunyata is the absence of inherent self-nature in all phenomena and the interconnectedness of all things. It is not abstract metaphysics—it’s the lived, experienced realization that nothing stands alone, everything is fluid and interdependent, and that seeing this deeply frees us to live more openly and compassionately. Psychedelics are a doorway we can open to this realization.