Face to Faith:

However, shamanism cannot be described as a religion or a faith. No faith is needed in a visionary experience; in these states, the individual receives direct personal experience of the divine, becoming unified with their own subconscious and with the rest of the universe. In a timeless moment you realise that God is not an angry patriarch somewhere in the ether – God is within. We are the arbiters of good and evil, entirely responsible for creating our own reality. This ecstatic realisation cannot be enshrined in dogma, requires no priests and does not ask one to have faith in the ancient ideas of other people. It is no surprise that hallucinogenic plants and chemicals are also known as “entheogens”, a word derived from Greek that means “that which generates the god within”.

This is something most people don’t understand about my fascination with entheogens. It’s not a religious experience. It’s an introspective experience. They just can’t grasp it unless I say something like, “it’s like meeting god.” Which isn’t anywhere near the truth of the matter. Of course, I suspect this comes with living in the bible belt. Good thing they don’t recognize the smell of Ayahuasca brewing in my kitchen.

Also, I’ve noticed something in my Humanities courses at school. The professors have to relate any non-christian religion in a way that still upholds some sort of superior being analogous to the Christian god. They even tried to put a “god” into Taoism. I was absolutely floored, but not surprised: they did the same thing with Hinduism. This did not bother me as much as the fact that they lumped Buddhism into Taoism as if they were the same thing.

Granted, this is not a theology course. It is an interdisciplinary course for literature, music and art. But the fact that theology and philosophy are deeply intertwined with a culture’s art and literature cannot be overlooked. And they are doing everyone a disservice by dumbing it down like this. But the very fact that courses like this exist is a great thing. Especially because I never would have taken a music or art appreciation class given the choice. But I digress.

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4. Australian PM is an Atheist
5. My god! It’s full of stars!