How are drugs of help?

[Yex]

I've consumed a cornucopia of drugs in my time, with a variety of intentions ranging from purely spiritual to thoughtlessly hedonistic. Dismissing the latter (and thus, inherently in my personal experience, all experiences with "hard" drugs such as cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, etc), I'd like to share some thoughts on the matter.

On cannabis: Marijuana and Hashish were, at one time, central not only to my spiritual practice, but to my life in general. There was a time when I was more or less perpetually stoned, but my use was also intrinsically tied to my Shaivite practice and to my occult workings. Cannabis was, at that time, almost always worked into rituals, consumed prior to meditation, and used to aid scrying. At the time, my devotion to this plant made it seem absurd not to work it into my magickal practice. Over time though, as I became more attuned to my spiritual path, I ultimately found the consumption of cannabis to be highly detrimental to my mental and spiritual wellbeing. Where once cannabis had been an effective tool for inducing ecstasy, it had become a virtual spiritual poison. So I stopped, and never looked back. Were these negative qualities I came to find in cannabis universal truths, or tailored to my own experience? I do not know. I can say that for myself, though, that by the end of my relationship with marijuana, using it left me open to psychic and spiritual attacks by malevolent forces. Again, was this just my misuse, or something inherent in the use in general? At any rate, I'd advise would-be cannabis-devotees to be extremely cautious.

On psychedelics in general: psychedelics, when used properly have enormous spiritual potential. There was a time in my life when I thought that eating some drug and going on a trip was the pinnacle of spiritual practice, but this, of course, is naive and misguided. Still, these experiences can be extremely spiritually rewarding, even when divorced from ritual and ceremony. Again, this only applies when they are used "properly", ie infrequently and with "pure" intention. I've only rarely combined psychedelics with formal ritual magick, but the results have always been promising.

On specific psychedelics:

Salvia Divinorum: aside from alcohol, this was the first drug I ever tried, ten years ago when I was only 15. The experiences were always intensely dysphoric and overwhelming, which discouraged me from ever probing this space too extensively, but they almost always came with rich, visionary experiences. I never combined it with ritual magick. It's worth noting that amongst the Mazatec shamans, the original custodians of this plant, it is considered incredibly disrespectful to smoke it - being a sage/mint plant, it is thought that fire is the antithesis of the cool, damp environments where the plant thrive. Instead, the leaves of the plant are chewed to create a longer, more drawn out, and more manageable psychedelic experience than the brief but profound effects of smoking the extracts you find in head shops. It's also worth noting that smoking the pure leaf doesn't really do that much; it's only by creating these concentrated extracts that people can have the sort of experiences you hear about when people speak of smoking Salvia. It would seem that consuming it in such a way is in defiance of nature. At any rate, the smoked salvia extract experience is so incredibly chaotic that I recommend attempting to do any ritual - or anything at all, really - while under its influence, but it could perhaps be useful to induce visions at an opportune moment within a ritual.

Psilocybin Mushrooms: The majority of times that I've eaten mushrooms, I didn't attempt any rituals, but the one time that I did, the results were astounding. I find that mushroom experiences are much less dependent on "set and setting" than LSD (see below); there's more of an intrinsic "character" to the trip, and more of a sense of the mushroom itself leading you through the experience. This said, I believe that mushrooms can definitely add quite a bit of "oomph" to ceremonial magic. Could also be especially good in lunar rituals, as it seems to bring the id up to the surface. To use it for scrying seems almost comically obvious, and this is one of its traditional Meso-American uses.

LSD: This is the psychedelic that I have by far the most experience with, yet I've only rarely combined it with ritual. When I have, though, it has without fail aided in the ritual. Someone (years) earlier in this thread noted that this is the drug most suited to magick, and I believe it entirely. In contrast with plant/fungus psychedelic teachers, and with some other chemicals, there doesn't seem to be a lot of "direction" to the LSD experience. It's extremely mercurial, and the qualities of a trip are incredibly mutable, depending on "set and setting". It can just as easily enhance meditation, a ritual to evoke a spirit, a ritual to bless a patch of soil with fertility, sitting in a Christian church, watching a rock concert - whatever. I see it more as a tool, as opposed to a guide, than any other psychedelic.

Ketamine: I was never crazy about, but I could see how it could be very helpful in meditation.

2C-I: A relatively obscure research chemical, but one that I find myself recollecting often. I came into some back in 2008, and used it a handful of times, always with more or less no more intention than just getting high. I had some amazing experiences though. It's not a visual as other psychedelics (even other "2Cs"), can have some visionary qualities. What really struck me about this one, though, was the particular head-change it created. Rather than being mentally expansive, as with LSD or mushrooms, 2C-I was, as I described it at the time "sluggish and trancelike". I felt the sense of my mind being connected to a larger mind, not in the sense of oneness with everything, but in the sense of being part of a hive mind, like a drone in an ant colony. I feel that with the right ritual framing this drug could be really useful in trance work.

DMT (smoked): Most people, when they talk about smoking DMT, describe the "breakthrough" experience - the one with the intense visions, out of body experiences, interaction with higher beings, et cetera. What you don't hear as often is that to achieve such a state is really difficult - the actual feat of smoking DMT is incredibly difficult, and it's hard to consume enough to have a breakthrough experiences. My experiences were alway sub-breakthrough. However, at these low doses, I found DMT to be very directable, much like LSD, and at this level performing ritual was not only possible, but greatly enhanced.

Ayahuasca: I drank this once when I brewed it myself, and 4 times with two shamans in Peru. After the latter, I would never attempt the former again. Its pretty incredible to participate in the ritual consumption of a psychedelic when the person(s) leading the ritual have devoted their entire life to honing the techniques of using that drug in a ceremonial context. For example, ayahuasqueros (ayahuasca shamans) guide the experience with what are known as icaros, prayer-songs that are used to guide the experience (in an incredibly tangible way), invoke and banish certain spirits, and so forth. My experiences with ayahuasca were amazing, but again, I'd never attempt it on my own, because regardless of ritual preparation, I am simply not equipped to navigate that space in the same way as someone to whom such a task is literally their profession. It makes one wonder what sort of results people could get out of other psychedelics if it were socially acceptable to become, say, and LSD shaman.

I've taken a variety of others, but those are the main ones that come to mind. 2C-E seemed well-suited to use in magick, but I can't remember it well enough to really do a writeup on it. Anyway, I rarely use these anymore. They can definitely become a hinderance to one's spiritual development, but when used appropriately, I think they can be very beneficial to one's spiritual and magickal practice.