https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=flKwEy9HHz4
just human life, day to day. I think that’s very important to be grounded, you know, because I think when you get too lost in these spiritual dimensions without having the grounding, it can be more dangerous, you know. Any spiritual practice, I feel like. I feel like even Christianity could be dangerous if you don’t have that grounding. And I’ve seen it with people who get too inflamed with pride or something like that and they become self-righteous, like that typical, you know. I don’t want to say that’s a typical practice. Yeah, but even the mystical practice of the church, like in the Orthodox Church we have a mystical practice which is called hesychasm or the Jesus Prayer and it’s a prayer which is repeated and then it’s also coupled with a breathing, with a kind of breathing which rhythms the prayer, you know. Okay, how do you do this? Is this just a quick thing? Is it like you breathe in, you say half the prayer and then you breathe out? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah. And so this is like, this is really kind of the basic structure of Orthodox mysticism and everybody does the Jesus Prayer, like everybody prays that, but there is an idea that some people will pray the Jesus Prayer in a manner that they become, or the prayer enters into their heart and that they actually kind of, the prayer takes over their being and that they kind of become just the prayer. And so there’s even this idea that at some point your heartbeat rhythms with the prayer and that your heartbeat becomes the prayer. And so the Fathers will say, don’t do that. If you don’t have a guide, like if you don’t have someone to guide you, like do not do this, you will become insane. Like it will lead you to insanity. If you go in this direction, if you try to kind of do, to pray without ceasing, like to just kind of, because this is the idea that they try to do, is they try to, the monks basically try to become constant prayer where their entire being is kind of caught up in this prayer and it leads to elimination, it leads to theosis, to basically being united with God, but they tell you, like don’t do it without a guide because it’s super dangerous and it will make you, it could drive you crazy and monks go crazy. You go to these monasteries, let’s say on Mount Athos, and you’ll just meet crazy monks, monks who lost their mind because they just weren’t, they became prideful or they just weren’t being, they didn’t accept to be guided or they just did their own thing and then they just lose their mind. Well, it’s funny how that attitude is so universal because even in the psychedelic world, let’s say with ayahuasca, a lot of people like, no, don’t, you dare do this without a shaman and then even to go beyond that, it’s like, you’ve got to be very careful which shaman you choose because again, even in these new age practices, most reasonable people are aware that you are opening doors, you know what I mean, and you have to be very careful with what slips through and even if something seems good, it might not be good. It’s hard to know, like, can you explore these realms smartly and safely or is it one of those best not to mess with that kind of stuff? Or it just depends on who you are as a person. I mean, I’ve never done psychedelics, it’s like I can’t speak from experience. I feel like, let’s see from a more traditional perspective, it’s definitely more on the dangerous side in the sense that the idea of a real spiritual practice is to be transformed. It’s to actually rise up in the hierarchy of being is like through humility, not through pride, but like through humility and practice and spiritual discipline that you actually become more like the angels, become more like God. And so it’s not so much to just have these experiences of this world, but rather to kind of participate and rise up in the hierarchy of being, you would say. You see this image called the Ascent of the Divine Ladder, where you see monks going up a ladder and there’s Christ above. Christ is the goal, right? We’re actually aiming towards Christ to become like him, to be united with him. And then there are angels that are kind of helping along the way. But then there are also demons. You see it in the image, like these demons are like pulling the monks down. They fall into like the mouth of Hades at the bottom of the image. And so their idea is not to either experience the angels or experience the demons, right? Their idea is to aim towards the transcendent, aim towards Christ, aim towards the place where heaven and earth meet. And then you will encounter them along the way. But that’s not the point. And so the problem with I think with a lot of the psychedelic stuff is that people can rip open the veil and then move into this world. And they have these experiences, but they’re not better people. They’re not freer from their own demons. They’re not freer from their own passions. And so, yeah, so they’re more in danger than they would be if they would just kind of stay in the normal world. I say that, but look, I’d be honest with you. I know several people that did psychedelics and then converted and then just became Christian. Yeah, I’ve heard that. That’s the thing that throws a wrench in my whole thinking about this, because I don’t have necessarily a strong opinion of psychedelics or this or that because they’re so mysterious and they have so many different outcomes for different people. However, I would say that at the state that humanity is right now, it probably would be more dangerous than it is good. But I don’t know if that’s necessarily the psychedelics themselves, but just where humans are because we’re very prideful and very naive and can fall into these traps. And also because we’re materialists. And so I can see it. I can totally see it because it’s like for all my love, Jordan Peterson, like I love Jordan Peterson, you know, but I think that this is one of the dangers that he’s falling into. It’s because it’s easy to you can analyze it, right? It’s a mushroom. It’s like, here’s the chemical formula. Here’s the thing. It’s right there. Just take it. You eat it. And there you go. So it’s like it’s super easy. So the most materialist, the most scientific person can say like, this is like it’s this works. It’s a pill. You take it. You have this experience. You can analyze it. You can calculate it. You can you can look at the person’s brain and you can see their waves, whatever is going on. And so and so it seems like a kind of materialist shortcut, you know, to the spiritual life. But I think that that’s also why why it’s a problem. I think that that’s why it’s a problem is because, you know, look at look at even like at the way that I don’t know if you saw that discussion you had with the guy who wrote this. This what is it like? I forget what it is. There’s something about how mushrooms are at the source of our religions or whatever. Some book about that. Oh, yes. I actually had him on. Yeah. Yeah. The immortality came. Is that right? I think that’s maybe that’s what it is. I don’t know. But look at look at what they’re doing. It’s like so. So think of the mysteries of releases. You loose is, for example. Right. So you have this entire ritual that lasts several days and is extremely engaging and is like sworn to secrecy. You’re not allowed to talk about it. There’s a whole thing around the entire mystery of elusive. And then maybe at some point in this thing where they come to the to the edge of it, then there’s a substance involved in the experience. But now the materialist wants to just say, no, that ritual stuff. It’s all bullshit. It’s the it’s the mushroom. Yeah, it’s a mushroom. Formula that I can analyze and that I can show you and that I can I can measure and I can. And so and so it’s it’s just such a materialist way of looking at reality that even if maybe in some in some cultures psychedelics were part of the process of transformation of the person. The idea that they were the central part of it is complete nonsense. It’s complete nonsense. And it’s and it’s and it’s super dangerous. And it’s such a it’s like a materialist way of approaching these these these ancient myths, these stories, these these patterns of transformation. And I anyway, so I tend to really be very cynical about about this stuff. Even Kyle Young was cynical about it. It’s funny because even myself, a lot of psychedelic people quote Kyle Young. Like, yes, our Lord and Savior, but even he’s like, yeah, beware of unheard wisdom. Don’t do psychedelics. Pretty much. He didn’t say those exact words. He did say beware of unheard wisdom, but he was very. But then again, man, he went through like a 10 year psychosis. So it’s like, yeah, I don’t need to open any more doors. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. He also had, I think, that problem where he wasn’t he didn’t accept to be guided, you know. And and there are there are stories about young like, you know, even even like from even not even from a not a Christian perspective. You know, there are stories of him, you know, going to India, but all but then refusing to even to be guided by the supposed masters that he encountered there and that he wouldn’t even meet with them. Like he was just he’s a scientist. Like in the end, he ended up and I think that that he didn’t like, yeah, he just he was never like he he I don’t think he ever ended up being either a practicing Christian or an initiate and of anything. He was just someone from the outside who was trying to explain these things and then got cracked open, you know, just got cracked open is the only way to see it. Oh, man. Could you imagine that like going to bed sleeping with a revolver on your pillow and having these attacks by these entities every day. I’m surprised he didn’t like end up killing himself, man. That’s like, yeah, that sounds like hell to me. But I’m glad that he got some knowledge out of it and came out the other side. Thank God. Yeah, yeah. That’s what it is. Yeah.