Immediate

Immediate, Sudden, Spontaneous, Instant, “All At Once”, etc.

According to the new data, spirituality is an intrinsic property of the psyche that emerges
quite spontaneously when the process of self-exploration reaches sufficient depth.

Before spontaneous action can be expressed in controlled patterns, its current must be set
in motion.

Change in behavior can occur with dramatic spontaneity once the game structure of
behavior is seen. The visionary experience is the key to behavior change.

Consciousness is suddenly released from its conditioned patterning and flung into a
flashing loom of unlearned imagery.

Experiences of this kind can bring instant intuitive knowledge that by far exceeds the
intellectual capacity and educational background of the individual.

For many, a sense of discontinuity between nature and man and man’s loss of the
spontaneous, free energy of eternal delight, is the essential tragedy of modern man.

Huxley after years of theorizing that each of us carries a reservoir of untapped vision and
inspiration had suddenly stumbled across it at age 58 (his first mescaline trip).

If there is no distinct ego, the stream of experience can simply flow on, unobstructed, by
itself, a spontaneous, unforced and unblocked flowing of life.

In this state of cosmic unity, we feel that we have direct, immediate and unlimited access
to knowledge and wisdom of universal significance.

Individuals find that they can think more clearly and that they suddenly have access to
untapped sources of creativity within themselves.

Intense and impressive psychic experiences make possible the sudden unlearning of
ineffective ways of performing.

Intuitive flashes are transient, spontaneous altered states of consciousness consisting of
particular sensory experiences or thoughts coupled with strong emotional reactions.

It becomes suddenly clear that things are joined together by the boundaries we ordinarily
take to separate them.

It is an experience which people have when they are, as it were, reborn into the world and
suddenly, with this kind of visionary sight, they perceive its miraculous beauty.

It is possible to live spontaneously without trying to be spontaneous. Indeed, there is no
alternative. (Whatever you do is spontaneous, even being uptight.)

Let the mind alone so that it functions in the integrated and spontaneous way that is
natural to it.

Objects take on a pristine immediacy, looking as they may have looked to Adam on the
first day or to the drug user as a child.

Objects which appear to ordinary, utilitarian, pragmatic, goal-oriented thought and
perception as irrelevant take on sudden and surprisingly fresh meanings.

Old destructive patterns of behavior may suddenly be abandoned after an overpowering
emotional experience. The learning of new attitudes and techniques may become easier.

One of the unique properties of the drug is that it excludes random distractions from the
immediate perception and permits total concentration.

Our reliance on habit, on words and on concepts, tends to blind us to the immediate
reality in front of us.

Our spontaneity is inhibited not only by the ego-complex as such but also by the Anglo-
Saxon conception of masculinity.

Plants seem to represent pure being in the here and now, in full contact with the
immediate environment, which is the ideal of many spiritual schools.

Spontaneity is not an ego action at all. It is action which the social control mechanism of
the ego does not block.

“Store-consciousness” is that form from which the formal world arises spontaneously or
playfully.

Such well-known concepts as the “primordial essence” and the “ultimate Ground of
Being” take on an immediacy and clarity hitherto unknown.

Sudden and unexpected displays of more primitive and intense emotion than shown
during normal waking consciousness may appear.

The full harmony of all qualities capable of teaching or delighting us may flow in at once
to ravish the soul.

The so-called “instant psychotherapy” is in fact a possibility in the psychedelic
experience.

The structures and masks he has built up over the years suddenly disappear and he is cast
free to ponder on the ultimate reality of things without restraint.

The substitution of interminable chatter for mystical experience or immediate realization
of our union with God is the basic reason why the Church has no spiritual power.

The ultimate reality is not clearly and immediately apprehended, except by those who
make themselves loving and pure in heart.

The whole rigid structure which is man’s usual interpretation of life suddenly drops to
pieces.

Think of God as the one whose spontaneity is so perfect that it needs no control, whose
inside is so harmonious that it requires no conscious scrutiny.

This is a matter of immediate experience, a psychological fact which has been recorded
in folklore and the religious literature of every age and country.

Visiting new realms within yourself, you are suddenly imbued with creative ideas and
new insights and find that your potential seems limitless.

We discover abruptly that we have been programmed all these years, that everything we
accept as reality is just social fabrication.

We each hold the potential for having direct and immediate experiential access to
virtually every aspect of the universe.

What needs to be controlled is not so much the spontaneous flow of human passions as
the ego which exploits them.

With the decrease in the power of words in the psychedelic experience, the immediate
sensory life gains in range of significance as well as strength.

You hear music way off down in a cavern and suddenly it is you who is way down in the
cavern.

You see with an immediacy of vision that leads you to say to yourself, “Now I am seeing
for the first time, seeing direct, without the intervention of mortal eyes”.

A typical myth of the heroic journey begins when the ordinary life of the protagonist is
suddenly interrupted by the intrusion of elements that are magical in nature and belong to
another order of reality.

All of this stuff that is normally hidden in the active language is suddenly not only
available but visibly deployed in three-dimensional space and emotion. You recognize it
as intimately of yourself. In a sense you recognize it as your soul.

clear consciousness, seeing the world as it is—Such awareness is a lively attention to
one’s direct experience, to the world as immediately sensed, so as not to be misled by
names and labels.

Ego focuses consciousness on the few immediately neighboring pieces of the game board
because ego knows that one glance across the game board or beyond it puts the whole
thing in perspective.

Hallucinogenic drugs give people who lack the gift of spontaneous perception the
potential to experience this extra-ordinary state of consciousness and thereby to attain
insight into the spiritual world.

High dosages and internalization of the process lead to greater depth, intensity and
spontaneous flow of the experience; this results in a better chance for a positive
breakthrough.

If anyone brought up in a Christian culture says, “I am God,” we conclude at once that he
is insane. But, in India, when someone suddenly declares, “I am God,” they say,
“Congratulations. At last you found out.”

Immediate experience of reality unites men. Conceptualized beliefs, including even the
belief in a God of love and righteous-ness, divide them and as the dismal record of
religious history bears witness, set them for centuries on end at each other’s throats.

In order to become directly acquainted with God, rather than merely to know about God,
one must go beyond symbols and concepts, which are obstacles to the immediate
experience of the divine.

It is a direct and immediate awareness that we are dealing with something that has a
divine nature and is radically different from our ordinary perception of the everyday
world.

It is an illuminating insight into the very essence of existence. The experient does not
gain rational understanding of the cosmic process, but reaches instant comprehension by
losing his or her separate identity and literally becoming the process.

It’s as though for all of your normal waking life you have been caught in a still
photograph, in an awkward, stereotyped posture. Suddenly, the show comes alive,
balloons out to several dimensions and becomes irradiated with color and energy.

LSD can catalyze and precipitate a sudden dramatic transformation. On occasion, one
LSD experience has drastically changed an individual’s world-view, life philosophy and
entire way of being.

Nonordinary states of consciousness make it possible for unconscious material with
strong emotional charge to emerge into consciousness. This process is an expression of a
powerful spontaneous healing potential and should be supported.

Social conditioning fosters the identification of the mind with a fixed idea of itself as the
means of self-control and as a result man thinks of himself as “I”, the ego. Thereupon the
mental center of gravity shifts from the spontaneous or original mind to the ego image.

Sometimes the “doors of perception” are cleansed suddenly with a jolt; sometimes the
cleansing comes gradually with ever increasing discoveries. These discoveries may be
psychological insights or may be made through any of the senses.

Suddenly, the familiar view of our surroundings is transformed in a strange, delightful
way: it appears to us in a new light, takes on a special meaning. Such an experience can
be as light and fleeting as a breath of air, or it can imprint itself deeply upon our minds.

Tao signifies the energy of the universe as a way, current, course or flow which is at once
intelligent and spontaneous. It’s your own true self, the very energy and patterning of
your bones, muscles and nerves.

The content of LSD visions could be influenced by thoughts and feelings immediately
preceding the experience. (Where your head is at, coming into the experience, is a key
factor.)

The enlightened person is, so to speak, after the rise of language; he lives in language and
then goes beyond it. But what sort of world is there before language is introduced? What
sort of world is the world of immediate non-verbalized experience?

The psychedelic drug doesn’t mean doctor-disease, dope fiend-crime or instant insanity
but ecstasy, sensual unfolding, religious experience, revelation, illumination, contact with
nature.

The religion of direct experience of the divine has been regarded as the privilege of a
very few people. I personally don’t think this is necessarily true at all. I think that
practically everyone is capable of this immediate experience.

The sensations fill the person’s attention, which is passive but absorbed in what is
occurring, which is usually experienced as intense and immediate. Pure awareness is
experiencing without associations to what is there.

The spiritual leadership of a stable and unified society must have access to metaphysical
knowledge, i.e., to an effective realization and immediate experience of the ultimate
reality.

There are sudden “slips” of consciousness into a wave length or dimension of this
everyday world which impress those who see them as being more real than the normal
vision.

There can be direct acquaintance with the world’s unity. This immediate mystical
experience of being at one with the fundamental Oneness that manifests itself in the
infinite diversity of things and minds, can never be adequately expressed in words.

This universal tradition of the eternal moment, carries the implication that there is some
very special and splendid insight to be discovered in a kind of concentration upon the
immediate moment.

Unusual states of consciousness, similar to those produced by LSD, occur spontaneously
in many dying individuals for reasons of a physiological, biochemical, and psychological
nature.

Various aspects of the universe from which we would expect to be separated by an
impenetrable spacial barrier can suddenly become easily experientially available and in a
sense appear to be parts or extensions of ourselves.

What we ordinarily take in and respond to is a curious mixture of immediate experience
with culturally conditioned symbol, of sense impressions with preconceived ideas about
the nature of things.

Without self-knowledge, what you say is not true. Truth repeated is no longer truth; it
becomes truth again only when it has been realized by the speaker as an immediate
experience.

Your thoughts, feelings and sensations are new and strange. All events, physical, personal
or social are looked at with a new eye. You suddenly realize who you really are and what
your personal reality means.

All of creation—people, animals, plants and inanimate objects—seems to be permeated
by the same cosmic essence and divine light. A person in this state suddenly sees that
everything in the universe is a manifestation and expression of the same creative cosmic
energy and that separation and boundaries are illusory.

All the arts, though they speak about us in our relationship to the immediate experience,
at the same time, tell us something about the nature of the world, about the mysterious
forces which we feel to be around us and about the cosmic order of which we seem to
have glimpses.

An individual who has a transcendental experience develops an entirely new image of his
or her identity and cosmic status. The materialistic image of the universe in which the
individual is a meaningless speck of dust in the vastness of the cosmos is instantly
replaced by the mystical alternative.

Colors are bright and glowing, the outlines of objects are defined as they never have been
before, spatial relationships are drastically altered, several or all of the senses are
enormously heightened—“all at once” the world has shed its old, everyday facade and
stands revealed as a wonderland.

Even positivistically oriented scientists, hard-core materialists, skeptics and cynics,
uncompromising atheists and antireligious crusaders such as Marxist philosophers and
politicians, suddenly become interested in the spiritual quest after they confront these
levels in themselves.

Here, the individual feels that he is experiencing the innermost divine core of his being.
His individual self is losing its seemingly separate identity and is reuniting with what is
perceived as its divine source, the Universal Self. This results in feelings of immediate
contact or identity with the Beyond Within, with God.

How can we Westerners see that our own potentials are much greater than the social-hive
games in which we are so blindly trapped? Once the game structure of behavior is seen,
change in behavior can occur with dramatic spontaneity. The visionary brain-change,
consciousness-altering experience is the key to behavior change.

I see that it is actually impossible not to be spontaneous. For what I cannot help doing I
am doing spontaneously, but if I am at the same time trying to control it, I interpret it as a
compulsion. As a Zen master said, “Nothing is left to you at this moment but to have a
good laugh.”

If the world is play, there is no way of going against it. The most outright contradictions,
the most firm assertions that the game is serious and the most absurd attempts to
command spontaneity can never be anything but extremely “far-out” forms of play. (Yes,
world, it’s all play and not serious. So, lighten up.)

Metanoia is that profound state of consciousness which mystical experience aims at—the
state in which we transcend or dissolve all the barriers of ego and selfishness that
separate us from God. It is the state of direct knowing, immediate perception of our total
unity with God.

Occasionally, a subject will bypass categorical recognition altogether. Then a scrap of
wallpaper may be perceived with such immediacy, such instantaneous and total
immersion in the sensory detail, as to oblige the subject to inquire what it is he is now
observing.

Our individual consciousnesses connect us directly not only with our immediate
environment and with various periods of our own past, but also with events that are far
beyond the reach of our physical senses, extending into other historical times, into nature,
and into the cosmos.

Psychedelic drugs dramatically suspend the conditioned learned aspects of the nervous
system. Suddenly released from its conditioned patterning, consciousness is flung into a
flashing loom of unlearned imagery, an eerie, novel landscape where everything seems
possible and nothing remains fixed.

Spiritual awakening is the difficult process whereby the increasing realization that
everything is as wrong as it can be flips suddenly into the realization that everything is as
right as it can be. (Alan Watts wrote that. With LSD, it’s not a difficult process at all,
except for the ego.)

The history of science makes clear that the greatest advancements in man’s understanding
of the universe are made by intuitive leaps at the frontiers of knowledge, not by
intellectual walks along well-traveled paths. Similarly, the greatest scientific thinkers are
those who rely on sudden intuitive flashes to solve problems.

The person feels a deep connection with the innermost spiritual core of his or her being.
The illusion of the individual self fades away and the person enjoys reunion with his or
her divine Self, which is also the Universal Self, the cosmic source of all existence. This
is a direct and immediate contact with the Beyond Within, with God.

To normal waking consciousness, things are strictly finite and insulated embodiments of
verbal labels. How can we break the habit of automatically imposing our prejudices and
the memory of culture-hallowed words upon immediate experience? Answer: by the
practice of pure receptivity and mental silence.

Altered states of consciousness enrich man’s experiences in many areas of life. The
intense aesthetic experience gained while absorbed in some majestic scene, a work of art,
or music may broaden man’s subjective experiences and serve as a source of creative
inspiration. There are also numerous instances of sudden illumination, creative insights,
and problem solving occurring while man has lapsed into altered states of consciousness.

Distances suddenly seem to be different. A person sitting across the room may suddenly
seem to be sitting only a few feet away. The ceiling may seem to bulge at the corners of
the room and the walls may undulate as though they were breathing. It may actually seem
possible to step inside a picture of a woodland scene on the wall and walk among the
trees.

If our sanity is to be strong and flexible, there must be occasional periods for the
expression of completely spontaneous movement, for dancing, singing, howling,
babbling, jumping, groaning, wailing, in short, for following any motion to which the
organism as a whole seems to be inclined. It is by no means impossible to set up sensible
contexts in which nonsense may have its way.

If the intellect by nature cannot understand life, it follows that the intellect by nature
cannot understand death. Its view of death results from the fact that it looks only at the
parts, not the Whole. If it would look at the Whole, it would see immediately that life is
immortal. The esoteric doctrine would be that it is precisely our insistence on personal
immortality which makes us blind to our actual immortality.

In nonordinary states of consciousness, visions of various universal symbols can play a
significant role even in experiences of individuals who previously had no interest in
mysticism or were strongly opposed to anything esoteric. These visions tend to convey
instant intuitive understanding of the various levels of meaning of these symbols and
generate a deep interest in the spiritual path. (visions seen with eyes closed)

In traditional psychiatry, mystical experiences of any kind are usually treated in the
context of serious psychopathology; they are seen as indications of a psychotic process.
In his comprehensive and careful study, Maslow was able to demonstrate that persons
who had spontaneous “peak” experiences frequently benefited from them and showed a
distinct trend toward “self- realization” or “self-actualization.”

Indians experience the collective unconscious as an immediate reality, not just as an
intellectual construct. It is significant that this experience of shared consciousness holds a
most important place in the society. In fact, as a sacramental ritual, it is the basis of tribal
unity because it proves and confirms the supposition that every person in the tribe is the
same as every other person in the most fundamental way.

Jung’s basic assumption was that the spiritual element is an organic and integral part of
the psyche. Genuine spirituality is an aspect of the collective unconscious and is
independent of childhood programming and the individual’s cultural or educational
background. Thus, if self-exploration and analysis reach sufficient depth, spiritual
elements emerge spontaneously into consciousness.

The conveying and receiving of complicated messages, without the normal amount of
verbalization, is made possible by the subject’s alertness to nuances of language. Double
meanings and other word plays may be picked up instantly. Apparently simple statements
and even single words yield manifold meanings and implications that all seem
simultaneously accessible.

The reality and concrete nature of these experiences, as well as their convincing quality,
presented for a while a very serious conflict for the “scientist” in me. Then, all of a
sudden, the resolution of this dilemma emerged; it became clear to me that it was more
appropriate to consider the necessity of revising present scientific beliefs than to question
the relevance of my own experience. (That was Stanislav Grof.)

The too-sudden opening up of the universe can induce an onslaught at what Aldous
Huxley called the “horror of infinity,” a terror of the vastness of the void within or
without, of the utter minuteness and aloneness of the soul in the cosmos. A clenching
reflex is, after all, a natural response to the floor and ceiling flying out of your mind.
(One needs to be prepared for this and understand that it’s all right.)

What we ordinarily take in and respond to is a curious mixture of immediate experience
with culturally conditioned symbol, of sense impressions with preconceived ideas about
the nature of things. And by most people the symbolic elements in this cocktail of
awareness are felt to be more important than the elements contributed by immediate
experience.

In ordinary seeing, we are hardly ever directly aware of our immediate impressions. For
these immediate impressions are more or less profoundly modified by a mind that does
most of its thinking in terms of words. Every perception is promptly conceptualized and
generalized, so that we do not see the particular thing or event in its naked immediacy;
we see only the objective illustration of some generic notion, only the concretion of an
abstract word.

The summer of 1967 was known as the “Summer of Love” and saw a great emergence of
unstructured communal living, new found sexual freedoms, and growing interest in
eastern philosophy and religion. Displays of spontaneity, trust, non-possessiveness and
non-evaluativeness among the new arrivals were attempts to deal with what was
commonly thought to be hypocriticalness, rigid adherence to rules and a lack of
emotional spontaneity between people.

All parts of the organism regulate themselves spontaneously.
An episode could be both instantaneous and eternal.
Holiness is the life of spontaneity and self-abandonment with humor.
If discipline altogether controls spontaneity, grace is entirely lost.
Immediate experience is timeless.
It may bring about “a sudden liberation from ignorance”.
Living organisms move according to inner spontaneity rather than objective principle.
LSD produces rapid, even sudden, cures for emotional disorders.
Many people have never experienced full spontaneity.
Objects suddenly come alive.
Our true self is the natural man, the spontaneous Tao.
Sexual communion has a strongly spiritual and mystical character when spontaneous.
Spiritual freedom is just that capacity to be as spontaneous and unfettered as life itself.
Spontaneity is total sincerity.
Suddenly, there is a “turning about in the deepest seat of consciousness”.
The full and real self is not the willing and deliberating function but the spontaneous.
The great kick of the mystic experience is the sudden relief from emotional pressure.
The immediate experience of the One and the Holy is the supreme gift.
The individual transcends himself and experiences spontaneity.
The universal process acts freely and spontaneously at every moment.
These experiences seem more direct and immediate, more real than ordinary reality.
This excursion into the visionary realms can be exciting, spontaneous and creative.
This return to the source is a matter of immediate experience.
Trust in the wisdom and spontaneous healing potential of the psyche.
Under LSD, music seems to have an immediate and powerful impact on one’s emotions.
Understanding is primarily direct awareness, an immediate experience.
When body and mind achieve spontaneity, universal mind can be understood.
Wisdom is spontaneous.
Wisdom is the spontaneous immediate knowledge of the Suchness of things.
With the experience of rebirth, all our sensory pathways are suddenly wide open.
You don’t select and immediately classify what you see; you just take it in.
You suddenly get into closer contact with reality.

Suddenly I feel my understanding dawning into a colossal clarity, as if everything were
opening up down to the roots of my being and of time and space themselves. The sense of
the world becomes totally obvious. I am struck with amazement that I or anyone could
have thought life a problem or a mystery.

After experiencing LSD, he went to be with his wife and found “It was like discovering
her all over again. Her body suddenly became new and fresh and exciting.”

Everything that I ever believed in, everything that I did or pursued, everything that
seemed to give my life meaning, suddenly appeared utterly false. (That is a revelation.)

I closed my eyes and almost instantaneously, I went out of body to a place of power and
shamanic possibility.

I had never heard music played like that before. I suddenly understood the very essence
of music, the secret of its magic.

I looked at a film of sand I had picked up on my hand, when I suddenly saw the exquisite
beauty of every little grain of it.

I suddenly saw the color of the wall waxing and waning, ebbing and flowing. The
extraordinary character of light and color is unbelievable.

I suddenly understood the message of so many spiritual teachers that the only revolution
that can work is the inner transformation of every human being.

I thought that I was near death; when suddenly, my soul became aware of God, in an
intense present reality. I felt him. I cannot describe the ecstasy I felt.

I was carried by this Light to an Ecstasy beyond ecstasy and suddenly I was no longer I,
but a part of the Divine Workings.

I would look at an object hard and suddenly it would burst open into a beautiful terrain—
a playground of movement, color, light, warmth.

In a flash, the Door in the Wall would slide open and wherever you were, in a room,
lying on the grass, walking on the beach, would be magically transformed.

In one great crystal instant I realized that I was immortal. (He doesn’t mean that the ego
is immortal.)

It expanded and dignified the soul with a sudden access of glories such as no earthly
kingship could give.

My life suddenly seemed to me infinitely precious and I cried out with joy at the thought
that I was now living so much in so short a span of time.

Random details of my surroundings suddenly stood out strongly and somehow appeared
to be “meaningful.”

Suddenly I felt the presence of a strong energy field, as though I were at the center of a
vortex of sacred energy.

Suddenly there was white light and the shimmering beauty of unity. There was light
everywhere, white light with a clarity beyond description.

The drugs produced sudden insight that one has been living in a narrow space-time-self
context.

The knowledge that was suddenly revealed to me under LSD seemed to be remembered
rather than learned.

The radiant colors flooded the room, folding over the top of one another in rhythm with
the music. Suddenly, I was aware that the colors were the music (the colored music).

The whole of my being and the world’s existence and history had suddenly made
complete sense to me.

There came, suddenly, a living, flesh-and-blood, twinkling face with eyes looking at me
out of each of the little diamonds in the bark on the tree. The tree was like a Tree of Life.

There came upon me a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied or
immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe.

A different quality of consciousness came with a rush. The room was suddenly
transfigured. All objects stood out in space in an amazing way and seemed luminous. I
was aware of the space between objects, which was pure vibrating crystal.

Death, instead of being the ultimate end of everything, suddenly appeared as a transition
into a different type of existence; the idea of the possible continuity of consciousness
beyond physical death seemed to be much more plausible than the opposite.

I looked into her mind and I had my eyes closed. Margaret came inside my mind and we
were together there, inside my mind. Suddenly, she manifested herself inside my mind
with a cat face and smiled at me with a cat mouth. I knew I’d always be with her.

Subjects who had previously ridiculed alchemy and the ancient forms of divination
suddenly discovered their deeper meaning and found genuine appreciation of their
metaphysical relevance.

Suddenly, without warning, I felt that I was in heaven—an inward state of peace and joy
and assurance indescribably intense, accompanied with a sense of being bathed in a warm
glow of light.

I cannot recall whether the revelation came suddenly or gradually; I only remember
finding myself in the very midst of those wonderful moments, beholding life for the first
time in all its young intoxication of loveliness, in its unspeakable joy, beauty and
importance.

I had a great awareness of life, truth, and God. I went to church and suddenly all parts of
the service made sense. My senses were sharpened. I became fascinated by the little
insignificant things around me. There was an additional awareness of the world that
would do artists, architects, and painters good.

I suddenly became aware of the creaking of frogs and then of the chirping of crickets.
The former came from a stream about a block or so away from the house but sounded
very close and I fancied that the frogs had come down to stand before the door and
serenade me.

I suddenly felt that everything was so much more real than it had been before. The grass
was greener, the sun was shining brighter, and people were more alive, I could see them
clearer. I could see the bad things and the good things and all that. I was much more
aware.

I understood, at that instant, what the concept of being born again was all about. Jesus the
Christ says in the Christian bible, “you must be born again.” And I knew what he meant.
You must go into yourself…all the way into yourself…to your beginning, your origin.
Into the waters of your unconscious. Into the core of you.

Suddenly, my consciousness was lighted up from within and I saw in a vivid way how
the whole universe was made up of particles of material which, no matter how dull and
lifeless they might seem, were nevertheless filled with this intense and vital beauty. For a
second or two the whole world appeared as a blaze of glory.

The most extraordinary event happened. Quite suddenly the room, a dingy office in an
old college building, resembled a cathedral of enormous size and beauty. The colors of
the furnishings were incredibly beautiful, full of deep texture and hues I had never seem
before. Small objects around the office were magnificent works of art.

To concoct anything by way of description that would even hint at the magnitude, the
sense of ultimate reality…this seems such an impossible task. The knowledge which has
infused and affected every aspect of my life came instantaneously and with such
complete force of certainty that it was impossible, then or since, to doubt its validity.

A curtain was lifted and I saw the magnitude of life and was totally absorbed by it. The
moment lasted just a minute or two, but it embraced a lifetime. I suddenly understood the
cliché of oneness, that everything in the world is connected and part of a Whole, and that
that interlinkage is a truer characterization of the relationship of things than that of me
and my body being separate from all other mes and their bodies.

All at once, everything appeared in an uncommonly clear light. Was this something I had
simply failed to notice before? Was I suddenly discovering the spring forest as it actually
looked? It shone with the most beautiful radiance, speaking to the heart, as though it
wanted to encompass me in its majesty. I was filled with an indescribable sensation of
joy, oneness, and blissful security.

All of a sudden I found myself in a completely new and magical world. The little green
strands of the shag rug were undulating in a most delightful way. The lights reflecting off
the glass coffee table top sparkled with a kind of moist luminescence. The furniture, the
walls, the floor, were all pulsing and undulating in slow waves as if the whole room was
breathing. The rate of the waving motion seemed to be coordinated with my breathing.

Feeling not that I was drugged but that I was in an unusual degree open to reality, I tried
to discern the meaning, the inner character of the dancing patterns which constituted
myself and the gardens and the whole dome of the night with its colored stars. All at
once, it became obvious that the whole thing was love-play. This single source was not
just love as we ordinarily understand it. It was also intelligence.

It was as though a veil had been stripped away and certain things had become suddenly
self-evident. I realized that there was just one force in the universe. There is only one
energy and that is consciousness. And there is only one consciousness, one mind, and we
are, in fact, one with this, which means we are all one. I felt this was a revelation of the
true nature of reality.

Suddenly I burst into a vast, indescribably wonderful universe. Although I am writing
this over a year later, the thrill of the surprise and amazement, the awesomeness of the
revelation, the engulfment in an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and blessed
wonderment, are as fresh, and the memory of the experience is as vivid, as if it happened
5 minutes ago.

The perennial philosophy and the esoteric teachings of all time suddenly made sense. I
understood why spiritual seekers were instructed to look within, and the unconscious was
revealed to be not just a useful concept, but an infinite reservoir of creative potential. I
felt I had been afforded a glimpse into the nature of reality and the human potential
within that reality, together with a direct experience of being myself, free of illusory
identifications and constrictions of consciousness.

A different quality of consciousness came with a rush.
All of a sudden came a vision that totally clarified everything for me.
As I looked at the rose, it began to glow and suddenly I felt I understood the rose.
Emotions intensified, changed with lightning quickness.
Everything was suddenly magnified, extraordinarily marvelous.
I felt healed, as though I were suddenly touched by God.
I had a sudden awakening to the innermost divinity of all things.
I was suddenly confronted with something so much greater than oneself.
In an instant he now saw all.
Looking at the cards, the shadings suddenly became very meaningful.
Suddenly, his whole psychic field of consciousness erupted.
Suddenly, I felt my entire spirit come up out of the inside of me.
The psychedelics triggered the switch that allowed me a glimpse—an instant of eternity.
The room grew suddenly brighter and I took this as a sign that I was close to the truth.
Their minds were enlightened in an immediate experience of eternal life.
This awareness was sudden but timeless.

a firsthand, immediate perception of the Holy and the individual’s relation to it,
accompanied by emotion, excitement and feeling

a peculiarly immediate conscious access to the inner workings of the central nervous
system (eyes closed)

a sudden breaking through from “reason” to intuitive “intellect” capable of a genuine
insight into the divine Ground of all being

an immediate awareness of things as they live and move, as distinct from the mere grasp
of ideas and feelings about things which are the dead symbols of a living reality

an increased attentiveness to immediate experience in contrast to memories of the past or
plans for the future

how real, definite and memorable an event of sudden conversion may be to him who has
the experience

immediate contact through chemicals with the reality of “consciousness, energy and
bliss”

immediate perception of the eternal Unity, the experience which mystics universally
testify

moments of vivid awareness, of intense realization of and absorption in the immediacy of
life

opening up the channels through which the formative and intelligent spontaneity of the
organism can at last flow into consciousness

profound aesthetic imagery—Objects in the room may suddenly become transformed into
works of considerable beauty and artistic value.

seeing that the mind, the basic reality, remains spontaneous and ungrasped whether one
tries to grasp it or not

the abstract world of so-called facts and events and the concrete world of immediate
experience

the concentration on the present movement that psychedelic drugs produce by crowding
so much into immediate awareness

the discovery that both the voluntary and involuntary aspects of the mind are alike
spontaneous

the rediscovery within ourselves of a virgin not-mind capable of non-verbally, not-
thinking in response to immediate experience

the unthinkable ingenuity and creative power of man’s spontaneous and natural
functioning

this immediate sense on the part of almost everyone concerned that there was something
intrinsically valuable and important in this kind of experience

to consider the universe as a self-organizing body which moves and regulates itself
spontaneously like the circulation of the blood

very sudden and great extensions of the ordinary “field of consciousness”, the sudden
broadening of consciousness

the psychological implications of the psychedelic experience, the accelerated personality
change, the rapid learning, the sudden life changes so regularly reported by psychedelic
researchers

the state in which we transcend or dissolve all the barriers of ego and selfishness that
separate us from God, the state of direct knowing, immediate perception of our total unity
with God

greater spontaneity of emotional expression, reduction in depression and anxiety, less
distance in interpersonal relations, more openness to experience, increased aesthetic
appreciation, deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life, and an enhanced sense of unity
with nature and humanity

a direct, immediate, incontrovertible experience of the Mysterium, the sacred
a matter of immediate feeling
a mystical state, the unification of all immediate experience with “God”
a religion of immediate experience
a spontaneous, unforced and unblocked flowing of life
a state of profound peace in which truths were revealed to him in immediate awareness
a sudden and revolutionary change
a sudden biochemical “unfixing” of perceptual constancies
a sudden flash of psychological lightning
a sudden liberation from ignorance or illusion
a sudden new look at oneself and the universe
a vivid immediacy
accelerated personality change, rapid learning, sudden life changes
an immediate change in behavior
an immediate consciousness of the divine glory
an immediate intuitive experience
an immediate knowledge of those universal principles
an immediate spiritual intuition
an instantaneous “turning about” within the depths of consciousness
as though I had experienced everything that ever happened all in one instant
beautiful, free, wild and spontaneous
beyond games, in touch with only the living moment, this immediate reality
brings a sudden revelation from ignorance and illusion, enlarges the spiritual horizon
cortex is suddenly turned on to a much higher voltage
direct and immediate experience we usually cloud over with game-playing
direct spiritual knowledge, immediate knowledge
faith—the attitude of letting the spontaneous be spontaneous
great flash, instant realization
heightened attention to immediate sensory experience
her strange sudden laughter
illumination achieved through the sudden and unexpected
immediate awakening
immediate awareness
immediate experiences which in fact are the only experiences of beauty
immediate insight into ultimate reality
immediate luminousness
immediate, unverbalized awareness
in his spontaneous, natural state
inner spontaneity
instant personality change
instant total emotional value of the thought
instantaneous awakening
metaphysical knowledge the most immediate kind of experience
our spontaneous-creative fullness of being
realizing immediately things we otherwise know only abstractly
return again to the state of infancy, to spontaneity
spontaneous insights in new experiences
spontaneous play, transcendent awareness
sudden and profoundly impressive perception of ultimate reality
sudden awakening
sudden illumination of all things around
sudden insights of omnipotence and glory
sudden realization
that state of spontaneous innocent curiosity that children are so famous for
the bliss of immediate liberation
the crystal-like quality or immediacy of the psychedelic experience
the ecstatic smile that welcomes a sudden insight, a revelation of truth or of beauty
the ego, standing apart from the immediate feeling or experience
the enhancement of immediate experience
the expansion of the immediate sensory life
the experience, the immediate knowledge of it being so
the flash of enlightenment
the immediacy and “ultimate truth” of the experience
the immediate awareness of Reality
the immediate, concrete feeling of ourselves
the immediate experience of the world as beauty, as mystery and as unity
the immediate realization of all that is good and beautiful
the instant immediacy of the infinite Self
the intellectual vision of Truth, the immediate, unitive knowledge of the divine Ground
the intuition and immediate spiritual consciousness of God
the magical immediacy and connection with life
the most direct and immediate perception
the most vivid recognition of a wholeness that is absolute, timeless, instant
the overwhelming immediate nature of the experience
the present immediacy of the objects, persons and events
the pure, spontaneous awareness
the sages who, abandoning learning, rest in spontaneity
the spark, the flash that reveals reality
the spontaneous healing potential of the deeper dynamics of the psyche
the sudden awakening of the mystical experience
the sudden confrontation of the real-reality
the sudden insight, the brilliant hypothesis, the truly “creative” leap
the sudden realization of the truth
the sudden release of their tactile sensitivity
the sudden relief from emotional pressure
the value of a drug-induced, sudden transforming encounter
this instant joy and relaxation
this psychic eruption, sudden insights and startling revelations
this sudden flash of awakening
this sudden revelation
to let themselves go, to the spontaneous rhythms of nature
to restore and develop the original spontaneity or “self-so-ness”
your immediate perception of the ultimate order

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Revelations of the Mind

LSD Experience