*Receiving the Light*Hebrew Mysticism and psychedelics

[joedirt]

Very interesting thread.

In my travels around the glode, my Jewish roots took me through Israel and to the mystical city of Kabbalah - Zefad.

My love of the Grateful Dead led me to meet up with an old ultra orthodox chassidic rabbi (who met his wife at a Halloween Dead show while blasted on DMT and got married at the Dead's 25th anniversary show), who is also an underground healer using plant medicine (iboga). Legal issues, forced him to stop treating folks (and has since vanished from Zafed)

I ended up spending months in Zefad hanging and learning from this rabbi and still keep in almost daily contact with him since my return to the states - as he is very open and non-judgemental and willing to sharing his knowledge (even though I am female and not orthodox)

I am only writing this out - as this dude would be perfect for this thread. ( legal problems keep him from forums; for a while he was posting on eboka as Vavar)

Vavar is a fellow who went through a shamanistic apprenticeship 30 years ago, mostly with Huichol Indians but also Paiute and others. He learned the path of cactus, fungi, sweat lodges and vision quests ... somehow he has extensive knowledge of the vine and many Peruvian plants . .. the completion of the first phase of his vision quest was walking from the Pacific to the Atlantic

The twist comes in that this shaman then spent 30 years absorbed in kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, and became a respected orthodox chsssidic rabbi, while also keeping up to date and on top of quantum physics and the outer limits of science.

The double twist is when he then starting working with plant medicines again,
doing dieta with iboga and people coming from all over to experience iboga under his observance. (When I was last at his place almost 2 years ago, there was a fellow from Sweden and another from Australia)

While there was much he was willing to share, there was much he kept hidden. He is very connected to one of the oldest elders in the jewish mystical traditions.

So why did i just blurb this out - - - I asked him to join this thread but he said I can pass on whatever i learned or anyone can email him at rebavraham@yahoo.com
A great opportunity to ask any and all questions re: psychedelics, kabbalah, healing, quantum from someone who has been living the path for over 30 years

I will try and pass on some thoughts and ideas in the next few days
Amazing interconnected between it all

Thanks for starting the thread Eliyahu
It brings back such fond memories of my time in Zafed with Vavar
mary

This is very interesting marypoppins. Very interesting indeed.

How does your friend relate the practice of Kabbalah back to actual psychedelic mind states? Are they the same? Similar?

 

[lyserge]

:shock: >>>>...I had an incredibly powerful vision where Jerry Garcia's Angelic Self revealed to me that he was and is in fact a reincarnation of King David. If your familiar with this archetype of warrior-musician-poet-loving leader perhaps you can see how alike they are.

Also lyserg..- I was not aware of the church of the subgenius...the discordia and so forth...all very interesting though and sound very agreeable...I will look more into it..

Interesting stuff - a friend also suggested calling on the "spirit of St. Jerome" whenever life gets you down, such as someone being rude at the grocery store, and you'll be helped to get merry all over again. I don't know about the sainthood thing = of course he's a Discordian saint, but that's a small feat for reasons I will explain at a later time, which for you will of course be an earlier time, so I guess you already understand . I also find calling on the "spirit" of Robert Anton Wilson to be helpful, he's always glad to grant one's wish for a healthy belly laugh.

About the reincarnation - what do you mean by this? Some people seem to think reincarnation is a single "soul" traveling between bodies the quality of which vary according to its actions/karma in various lifes. This "literal" interpretation of karma seems far-fetched - that the soul embodied in JG is literally the same soul embodied in King David. Robert Anton Wilson suggested a possible model for reincarnation in "Prometheus Rising", that our bodies are like "hardware" that is capable of running "software" such as thoughts, emotions, etc. So reincarnation may not occur in the "hardware" sense, but the same thoughts that operate on one person's hardware can easily be transferred and operate on another person's hardware. So this is one model for how it may seem that one person is actually the reincarnation of a previous person - since mental contents aren't bound by space/time locality, the same content can easily operate in the same people in different times or places.

Church of Subgenius split off from Discordianism. People think they're stupid jokes, but they're actually brilliant (or sub-brilliant) genuine religions in the original sense of the term, re-yoking people around the center, which in the Church of Subgenius' case is brought to you by a travelling salesman back in the 1950's, a man by the name of J.R. Dobbs (he goes by "Bob" ); they're a bit below my level so I don't really have much to do with them, but I think that's the basics of the story. It's said that you can understand everything there is to know about the Subgenii by contemplating upon the image of "Bob" for 5 minutes or the first 23 miles, whichever happens last.

Keep in mind: the stupider it looks, the more important it probably is.

 

[Eliyahu]

Eliyahu wrote:

" >>>>...I had an incredibly powerful vision where Jerry Garcia's Angelic Self revealed to me that he was and is in fact a reincarnation of King David. If your familiar with this archetype of warrior-musician-poet-loving leader perhaps you can see how alike they are."

Lyserge wrote:

About the reincarnation - what do you mean by this? Some people seem to think reincarnation is a single "soul" traveling between bodies the quality of which vary according to its actions/karma in various lifes. This "literal" interpretation of karma seems far-fetched - that the soul embodied in JG is literally the same soul embodied in King David. Robert Anton Wilson suggested a possible model for reincarnation in "Prometheus Rising", that our bodies are like "hardware" that is capable of running "software" such as thoughts, emotions, etc. So reincarnation may not occur in the "hardware" sense, but the same thoughts that operate on one person's hardware can easily be transferred and operate on another person's hardware. So this is one model for how it may seem that one person is actually the reincarnation of a previous person - since mental contents aren't bound by space/time locality, the same content can easily operate in the same people in different times or places.

Lyserg,,,you are a true genius. The software hardware thing is a perfect way to explain what I previously could not explan...
:thumb_up: :thumb_up:

 

[lyserge]

Lyserg,,,you are a true genius. The software hardware thing is a perfect way to explain what I previously could not explan...
:thumb_up: :thumb_up:

That's RAW's explanation, he comes recommended. You can get a PDF of Principia Discordia free online, I recommend the 5th edition.

an old ultra orthodox chassidic rabbi

The existence of that sort of person, and the circumstances that had to arise that would allow him to meet his wife at the Halloween show of a 60's era band, perturbs the imagination. For me, the band's association with psychedelia is far less interesting than its deep connections with American and therefore human roots - Africa, Celtic (bluegrass is a blend of African and Celtic music merging in the deep southern US), Asian ("even the Buddha would agree, this song's got balance" says a recent youtube comment), and apparently Hebrew roots, according to you two - and the way this seemed to emerge as an expression of nature, rather than a forced attempt to be "multi-cultural" as would happen in these overly PC days. "The wind bloweth where it listeth."

Maybe the chap you mention can recommend some texts about Chassidism?

 

[marypoppins]

How does your friend relate the practice of Kabbalah back to actual psychedelic mind states? Are they the same? Similar?

His answer was,

"psychedelics may open the gate for some to experience the bliss unity oneness of the force;

kabbalah is a way of life that strives to unify with the source of the force."

he added,

"learning, even studying, kabbalah without living it as a way of life 24 / 7

is like reading about, even studying, the many plants and there alkaloids and their effects without ever ingesting the plants themselves"

 

[marypoppins]

Maybe the chap you mention can recommend some texts about Chassidism?

CHASSIDUT

Chassidic Masters - Aryeh Kaplan

Where Earth and Heaven Kiss, A Guide to Rebbe Nachman's Path of Meditation by Ozer Bergman

The Long Shorter Way - Adin Steinsaltz

Thirteened Petalled Rose - Adin Steinsaltz


KABBALAH:

Inner Space: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy - Aryeh Kaplan

Sefer Yetzira: The Book Of Creation - translated by Aryeh Kaplan

Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide - Aryeh Kaplan

Meditation and Kabbalah - Aryeh Kaplan

 

[lyserge]

thank you, I'm checking out Adin Steinsaltz's work at the moment.