The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead

by Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Ralph Metzner

Overview

This manual uses material from The Tibetan Book of the Dead for this preparation. The authors also make an important contribution to the interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. They show that it is concerned not with the dead, but with the living. The last section of the manual provides instructions for an actual psychedelic session, under adequate safeguards.

The authors were engaged in a program of experiments with LSD and other psychedelic drugs at Harvard University until sensational national publicity unfairly concentrating on student interest in the drugs, led to the suspension of the experiments. Since then, the authors have continued their work without academic auspices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806516523
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	10/28/2000
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.99(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

Timothy Leary was one of the most famous countercultural icons of the 1960s. In 1957, the Harvard psychologist experienced a “profound transcendent experience” while taking hallucinogens in Mexico. No longer content with his work in personality assessment, Leary began advocating the psychotherapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. His “experiments” with LSD often involved students and wild “tripping” parties, which eventually led to his dismissal from Harvard. With patronage from heirs of the Mellon fortune, Leary continued his experiments and prolific writing career at an estate in upstate New York known as Millbrook. In 1967, Leary spoke at a San Francisco “Be‑In,” where he coined the phrase “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Labeled as the “Most Dangerous Man in America,” Leary had many run‑ins with the law and served several prison sentences. He died of prostate cancer in 1996; the following year seven grams of his ashes were launched into space aboard a Pegasus rocket.
         
Ralph Metzner is a professor emeritus of psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies and president of the Green Earth Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reconnecting humans and the environment. He is also well known for his decades of research and writing on the subjects of consciousness, psychedelics, the practice of yoga, meditation and shamanism.
 
Richard Alpert, also known as Ram Dass, is a former professor who conducted controversial LSD experiments with Timothy Leary at Harvard and Millbrook. He eventually made a philosophical split from Leary and traveled to India to study Hinduism and yoga. This transformational experience led him to write the classic spiritual text Be Here Now. Having founded a number of spiritual organizations that promote personal growth, the importance of serving others, and unity among different religious traditions, Ram Dass is considered one of the most important spiritual teachers of the 20th century.
 
Daniel Pinchbeck is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism and 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, ArtForum, and many other publications. He launched the web magazine Reality Sandwich and has written columns for Conscious Living and Dazed & Confused. In much of his recent work, he explores the profound implications of the shamanic experience and the possibility that a revival of archaic knowledge of visionary plants and psychedelic substances could accelerate a transformation of global consciousness.

Table of Contents

Introduction (2007) Daniel Pinchbeck ix

I General Introduction 1

A Tribute to W. Y. Evans-Wentz 8

A Tribute to C. G. Jung 9

A Tribute to Lama Anagarika Govinda 16

II The Tibetan Book of the Dead 21

First Bardo: The Period of Ego-Loss or Non-Game Ecstasy 23

Part 1 The primary clear light 23

Part 2 The secondary clear light 28

Second Bardo: The Period of Hallucinations 33

Introduction 33

Explanation of the Second Bardo 34

The peaceful visions-Vision 1 : The source 38

Vision 2: The internal flow of archetypal processes 38

Vision 3: The fire-flow of internal unit 42

Vision 4: The wave-vibration structure of external forms 45

Vision 5: The vibratory waves of external unity 48

Vision 6: "The retinal circus" 50

Vision 7: "The magic theatre" 52

The wrathful visions 54

Conclusion of Second Bardo 56

Third Bardo; The Period of Re-Entry 58

Introduction 58

General description of the Third Bardo 59

Re-entry visions 63

The all-determining influence of thought 65

The judgment vision 67

Sexual visions 69

Methods for preventing the re-entry 71

Method of choosing the post-session personality 72

General Conclusion 74

III Some Technical Comments About Psychedelic Sessions 77

Use of this manual 79

Planning a session 80

Drugs and dosages 82

Preparation 84

Setting 87

The psychedelic guide 89

Composition of the group 92

Follow-up 93

IV Instructions for use during a Psychedelic Session 95

First Bardo Instruction 97

Second Bardo Preliminary Instructions 100

Instructions for Vision 102

Instructions for Physical Symptoms 103

Instructions for Vision 2 104

Instructions for Vision 3 105

Instructions for Vision 4 106

Instructions for Vision 5 107

Instructions for Vision 6 108

Instructions for Vision 7 109

Instructions for the wrathful visions 110

Third Bardo Preliminary Instructions 111

Instructions for the re-entry visions 115

Instructions for the influence of thought 116

Instructions for the judgment vision 117

Instruction for the sexual vision 119

Four methods of preventing re-entry 120

Meditation on the Buddha 120

Concentration on good games 121

Meditation on illusion 122

Meditation on the void 123

Instructions for choosing the post-session personality 124