A pivotal and symbolic journey of real world synchronicities that align with a spiritual vision and Dzogchen Buddhism teachings.
In the spiritual and psychedelic community, the use of sacred plants or simply put – plants that cause altered stated of consciousness and generate hallucinations, are considered sacred tools and helpers that allow individuals to “journey”, hence why a trip is called a “trip”, as you journey through altered states of consciousness. Consciousness or awareness, is an incredible thing to behold and examine and there are many many states to which consciousness can exhibit itself, states that can be obtained through meditation, states that can be obtained through altered states, there are many avenues to which one can explore and examine consciousness. As Nietzche so eloquently puts it... God is dead, the day and age that humans would spend the entirety of their life times trying to develop a connection with God and following the doctrines of faith in order to embody this...is dead. We have given through to the way of science and rational, and have come to believe, rather irrationally, that all can be understood and controlled through mere logic and rational alone. This logical analytical approach to everything can not so easily provide the answers to everything, and regarding the psychedelic states, in the last twenty years research into this area has been dancing in the twilight, naked and fucked on mushrooms. I'm going to be harsh and truthful here, you do not have the answers to everything, we....do not have the answers to everything, we are naked monkeys with no more than id say 10000 years experience in the realm of empire building, and only like 100 years on the interstellar map, if we didn't fake it all of course. Don't be so naïve, there is a lot to learn, when the empire raises your children, don't be alarmed when they get sent to war. When the empire raises your children, don't be surprised that they cant seem to hold a single opinion in critic of that empire. Ideological puppets resulting of a meticulously contrived set of experiences that we throw our children through for over 16 years....school.
Religion or spirituality is a big big topic, a topic that spurs a lot of projection from people on both sides, atheists think religious people are wrong, religious people think atheists are wrong, one religion thinks the other religion is wrong. There's just a shit load of opinion bashing and it gets awfully tedious. Which is why, that when it came to my attention that spirit plants “grant you access to the spirit world”, I obviously had to check it out. I was so interested and intrigued as to what I would find when I kick that door in like some sort of police raid, am I going to find Jesus racking up lines of coke, Lord Shiva taking a shit? Or will I just find Allah, resting peacefully having given up on the social affairs of humanity? I was keen to stop reading these thousands of texts about Paris, and just actually go there myself. Here I share a pivotal story in my journey of journeying, and an experience which I have come to believe was a higher force guiding me to a greater and deeper understanding of self and all that is.
In order to facilitate this act of journeying I had used changa, changa is a mix of Dimethyltryptamine and MAOI herbs, combined in a way to make the effects of the dimethyltryptamine (DMT) both stronger and longer. The journey lasted around fifteen minutes, give or take, and had various components or levels to it. The primary vision that I was consciously presented with during the course of this journey was a deep blue sphere, the deep blue sphere was floating and travelling through a liminal space that was also deep ultramarine blue. The sphere would manifest itself through an almost infinite amount of forms and was in a state of constant transition between its forms. Some of the manifestations that it undertook: water, crystal, fire, vapour, it could create a wormhole inside of itself that would lead to other dimensions, I saw universes in the sphere, all landscapes within the sphere, it even had a party in side of itself where little dough like people were dancing, it could drip through the floor, through the ceiling and back into itself. Beyond its manifestations as a blue sphere in a variety of forms, it also was able to manifest this rainbow like energy that would emanate from it whilst also undertaking various forms, it could produce rainbow coils that went over and through the sphere, it could create rainbow lightening, rainbow geometry...As I said the manifestations of this sphere were infinite and it transcended form so vividly and rapidly that it was hard to acknowledge and document each manifestation, almost like seeing a number flashing from 1-1000000 fifty times a second in no coherent order, its hard to remember each variation.
I was enamoured by this vision and the state of consciousness that I was in when I was having it, I was completely in that moment, in a trance like state. Afterwards, it was then that I decided that I would attempt to use this vision as a means of honing my craft of acrylic painting, I had never really touched acrylic paints and I wanted to learn how to paint with them and start facilitating painting of the deep blue sphere in its various forms and manifestations, the vision had given me a lot of visual stimuli that I would be able to facilitate painting from. I was also quiet inspired by the likes of artists such as Alex Grey, artists that were able to produce stunning images of visions and journeys that they had been on and I wanted to attempt to facilitate such paintings and experiences myself, I derived and still derive a lot of value and fulfilment from this process. I compiled a brief sketch directly after the vision which is pictured below.
I started with painting a deep blue sphere in a deep blue space, I wanted to understand the basics of acrylic painting through this painting, how to shade, how to get clean edges etc. I facilitated this painting within about two weeks of having had the vision. (Picture below)
It was then, again, about two weeks later, after I had conducted this painting, that I was on my way to work, I decided to take an alternative route as a mean of keeping things fresh and interesting. About five minutes away from my work space, on Goodge street in Covent Garden, I just so happened to walk right over a deep blue sphere that was on in the curb of the road, it was the exact same colour as the one I had painted and seen in the vision and obviously it caught my eye. In a state of excitement and thrill, I picked it up and observed it, as I picked it up, I noticed that the wall opposite where I was standing, had been covered in illegal graffiti tags and scribbles, but in the middle of all those tags and scribbles, was a perfect deep blue rectangle, again, in the exact same colour of the vision. I love graffiti and tagging, so intrinsically this caught my eye, but to have had someone paint this deep blue rectangle in the middle of all those tags with no seaming rhyme or reason, felt profound. I walked over, say about three steps to the wall, held the blue sphere in front of it, and it was uncanny to the vision and painting I had had previously. I felt this wave of energy come over me, I had asked specifically to be shown the nature of the higher power and energies, the spirit world, and I had no idea as to what answer I would get, but this deeply felt although it was some sort of answer. As much as this felt although it was some form of an answer, I didnt know what it meant or how to receive the message, but it didnt matter, for I knew that I was being shown and that deriving a concrete conclusive answer wasn't the answer, I was on a journey and the answer may take time to manifest. (Picture below)
Lastly, it was again, within a period of about two weeks, that I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, when I was presented with an Alex Grey painting entitled “Psychedelic Healing” (pictured below). The painting embodied numerous blue spheres, all in a geometric pattern emanating from the central blue sphere, in which was emanating rainbow colours and energy. As soon as I saw this painting, I instantly felt the resonance between his painting and my vision, it had so many similar qualities and expressions and I believe strongly that he was depicting the same event that I had experienced. In this post, Alex Grey detailed that his “Pscyhedelic Healing” painting was actually a depiction of a vision that they would have in the practices of Dzogchen Buddhism from Tibet. He detailed that the blue sphere represents a “thigle” or “tigle” and that it represents a “drop of primordial essence” or the “spark of life”, it is the primordial building block of physical incarnation and manifestation. This resonated deeply with me, as when I had experienced the thigle, it really was a primordial essence that could manifest into an infinite amount of forms, the symbolism and experience that Dzogchen Buddhism stipulates from this deep blue sphere deeply resonates with the experience that I had had and I felt a strong alignment.
What I love the most about this journey is my intention, my approach, the experience that I had, then the synchronicities that manifested themselves in alignment with my intentions and how greater understanding and clarity was able to manifest as a result of this practice I embodied, for myself. To me and my awareness, I had asked to be shown, and I feel adamantly that I was shown through a series of guides and synchronicities, they guided me to a greater understanding of all that is and the relationship between that and the self. Since then, I have had a multitude of guides and experiences manifest themselves and this notion is something that plays an increasingly stronger role in my experience and journey through life as a human being. Below, is my final picture, a depiction of the Dzogchen Buddhism thigle that was displayed in Watkins Bookstore the first time I had gone there after the vision.
