This is the first in a new series on the wisdom shared by 25 visionaries from a wide variety of backgrounds in the anthology How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World: Visionary and Indigenous Voices Speak Out. The mission of the book is to help people understand the skillful use of psychedelics, including their role for a planet in a condition of rapid change and upheaval.
In my role as editor of the book, I wanted Chris Bache’s chapter to go first—following the Introduction—to put the story in its largest and most powerful overarching context. For those not familiar with Chris’s story as described in the remarkable book, LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds From Heaven, it goes something like this.
Early in his career as a professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Chris learned of the work of Stanislav Grof, who among his many valuable contributions to the field of psychedelics and consciousness transformation, designed an effective protocol for solo journeying based on his extensive experience in clinical settings.
Put simply, that protocol involves taking the sacrament–in this case 500 to 600 micrograms of LSD–in a safe, quiet setting with eye shades; a carefully curated music playlist on headphones; a skilled sitter whose responsibility is basically to keep an eye on the journeyer but otherwise to leave them alone; and finally, meticulous transcription of the journey on the following day. Chris usually did the journeys on Saturday and the transcriptions on Sunday, with the music playlist on again to trigger specific memories.
What transpired turned out to be a 20-year project of 73 of these high dose LSD sessions in the years from 1979 to 1999. Chris has said a few times since that he wouldn’t recommend this high-dose regimen and in fact wouldn’t do it that way himself had he known how difficult it would be. He has said he would be gentler with himself, perhaps including some sessions with much lower doses and some with psilocybin mushrooms.
With numerous variations, the typical trajectory of each session had two phases. The first hour or two involved a purification and cleansing process that was at times very painful. Chris underwent different forms of death at different stages of his journey, first ego-death—the death of his spacetime identity—and later deeper forms of dying and surrender. had to die to his self-identify–a process of ego-death or ego-dissolution as it’s often termed. The second phase was the ecstatic phase in which Chris broke through into what he sometimes described as the realm of the vast intelligences of the universe. He has also said that he was “repeatedly taken into ‘Deep Time’ “.
The main reason that the “Diamonds from Heaven” Chris brought back from these immensely powerful encounters is so important for the rest of us is because of the intense conditions of change and upheaval humanity is currently experiencing. It’s easy to fall into despair and depression and to make unwise and even dangerous choices like putting one’s faith in demagogues who promote false promises of safety.
As Chris says in his chapter in How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World, “…the vision of our future that has repeatedly come through my sessions is that humanity is rapidly approaching a breakthrough of evolutionary proportions” and,, “…the message I’ve received has been one of promise and hope–more than hope, a message of emerging greatness.” It hardly bears elaboration to say that such a message is important and necessary. It seems all but certain now that humanity is moving rapidly into a death and rebirth cycle.
What follows is a condensed version of the key insights from “six visionary initiations into what appeared to be an evolutionary pivot that humanity is entering” that Chris experienced between 1991 and 1994.
1. Divine Love: Creation is an act of Cosmic Love, and the suffering we experience in life takes place inside this love…we are cooperating with a transformational fire that is re-creating humanity.
2. All Humanity: The Creative Intelligence of our universe is working to awaken not just some individuals, but all of humanity.
3. Guiding Intelligence: After millions of years of struggle and ascent, we are poised on the brink of a sunrise that will forever change the conditions of life on this planet. There is an
intelligence in nature and in our species that is preparing us for this transition and working to bring it about.
4. Our Species as a Single Being: The evolution of our species is the systematic growth of a single organism. This unified being is moving decisively to become more aware of itself; it is waking itself up from within.
5. Collective Purification: To awaken to this higher self-awareness, we must let go of everything that has kept us small. The poisons of humanity’s past are being systematically brought to the surface in us. By transforming these poisons in our individual lives, we are making it possible for divine awareness to enter more deeply into future generations.
6. The Future Human: At one point, I was carried deep into the future and allowed to experience the abiding state of humanity at that time. There was a sense of being truly One beneath the diversity of life. It had such expansiveness; such breadth of being! It was fully embodied spiritual realization, the tantric awakening of our entire species—Spirit and Matter in perfect balance.
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Though it may be difficult to come to grips with, it’s necessary to be clear that the “rebirth” stage of this death and rebirth journey may not manifest until long after the lifetime of anyone currently living on the planet. Borrowing language from Chris again, we have entered a “global crisis and the dark night of our collective soul that will precede and elicit this rebirth. Suffering with a noble purpose.” But that sobering information should not keep us from embracing the vision. Let me repeat Chris’s statement from above that, “…the message I’ve received has been one of promise and hope–more than hope, a message of emerging greatness.”
The clear implication is that what we do for our own healing and for the benefit of others matters. As Professor Jem Bendell says in his powerful book Breaking Together, we do it because it’s the right thing to do, even though we have no guarantee of the results of our efforts. As the age-old saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I believe that these challenging times are going to pull out still untapped inner resources among a great many of us.
May the spiritual warriors be blessed and empowered.
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Next episode in this series:
Psychedelic Feminism in the Time of Rebalancing, by Zoe Helene.
Zoe Helene has been a fiercely compassionate and determined advocate for women, wildlife and wilderness, and the right to journey with sacred psychoactive and psychedelic plants and fungi—our coevolutionary allies.
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