 The 5-Meo-DMT medicine, extracted from the Bufo alvarius toad, seems to be a real life wizard's tool from the fairy tales of old. Ralph Metzner gives us a fascinating and comprehensive book about this powerful and obscure psychedelic substance. Detailed trip reports offer vivid glimpses into the experience. Guidelines for intentions, setting, and usage are not only helpful; they could be life-saving for the adventurous psychonaut. The possible outcomes include wondrous healing or bizarre negative reactions, and all are thoroughly examined. Metzner is no distanced scientist, writing from the point of view outside the ceremony. He writes directly from the heart of his many mystical first hand experiences. He has even spent time with the sacred creatures that give the earth this profound medicine when consciously collecting the medicine himself. Metzner's voice is a vital contribution to the contemporary study of 5-Meo-DMT and the safe, effective, therapeutic application of entheogens. EXCERPT There was a complete dissociative loss of awareness of my surroundings. However, apparently this disconnect was a function of my eyes being closed, because at one point I opened my eyes momentarily and could see that I was protected by my friends from bumping into things or rolling into the fireplace, in a kind of instant "reality check." Immediately after closing my eyes I was immersed again into the swirling, seething maelstrom of synesthetic sensations. Whereas Frof interpreted his experience in terms of the cosmology of Tibetan Buddhism, I attempted to make sense of my experience (afterwards) using the language of Vedanta, as well as Tantra yoga. There was a feeling of being in the nucleus of the psyche. Awareness of "all and everything" and simultaneously, "This is IT." The Vedantists say at the highest level of consciousness there is only being (sat), consciousness (chit), and blissful joy (ananda). In my experience there was no self, no body, no time or space, but there was being. ABOUT THE AUTHOR  Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. has a B.A. in philosophy and psychology from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Harvard University, has been involved in the study of transformations of consciousness ever since, as a graduate student, he worked with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) on the Harvard Psilocybin Projects. He co-wrote The Psychedelic Experience, and was editor of The Psychedelic Review. During the 1970s, Ralph spent 10 years in the intensive study and practice of Agni Yoga, a meditative system of working with light-fire life-energies. He wrote Maps of Consciousness, one of the earliest attempts at a comparative cartography of consciousness; and Know Your Type, a comparative survey of personality typologies, ancient and modern. He was the Academic Dean for ten years, during the 1980s, at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he taught courses there on “Altered States of Consciousness” and “Developing Ecological Consciousness.” He is now Professor Emeritus. He maintains a part-time psychotherapy practice, and conducts numerous workshops on consciousness transformation, both nationally and internationally. His books include The Well of Remembrance, The Unfolding Self, Green Psychology, and two edited collections on the science and the phenomenology of Ayahuasca and Teonanácatl. greenearthfound.org Comments are closed.
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