About the Author

 

I am a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa Rinpoche often took LSD with small groups of his students. It was a very intimate and direct teaching encounter. I am sorry I never had the opportunity to share that experience with him, as so many of my friends have. It is this connection with my root guru that inspired me to attempt to meditate with LSD. Now I understand why he loved it.

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I completed my full Kagyu ngondro, Vajrayogini practice, and fire pujas. I completed Chakrasamvara practice on solitary retreats. Throughout those practices, I didn't understand the nature of mind, so the methods were ineffective in liberating me from confusion and suffering. I had problems with alcohol, and my relationship communication skills were poor. I felt stuck since Trungpa Rinpoche was no longer alive to explain it.

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In 2001, I read Tulku Urgyen's book As It Is Volume II. On page 209, I read this paragraph and tried it out.

 

In this moment, when past thought has gone and future thought has not yet come, do not reconnect with any thought. To use Dzogchen terminology, it is to be awake, vibrant, crystal-clear, fully present. These incredible words do not need our fabrication, our making. They point at what is naturally so, not at what is cultivated through training.

 

To my astonishment, I was resting in stable rigpa for the first time. It was like switching on a light bulb. I understood the Buddhist path.

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My wife and I became students of Mingyur Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, two of Tulku Urgyen's sons who specialize in teaching nature of mind practice. We started studying and practicing Mahamudra and Dzogchen together.

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At the same time, my wife and I were exploring rave culture to have more fun and romantic dates. We took large doses of LSD and practiced recognizing the nature of mind for 2-3 hours. When we were in the view of rigpa, we would go out dancing at our favorite gay dance club or rave party. We had an extraordinary amount of fun while dancing in rigpa on LSD.

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After two years of weekly LSD meditation practice and dancing experiences, things shifted, and I stopped dancing. I arranged to go on four solitary meditation retreats a year, each one nine days long. Toward the end of most retreats, I would take a high dose of LSD and do nature-of-mind practice. Then, I would eat a delicious feast and walk on the wooded paths by the lake. I enjoyed 30 of these nine-day solitary retreats over ten years.

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My LSD practice sessions improved my understanding of trekchö practice tremendously. Around 2010, I felt that LSD had shown me what it could at my level of training, so I set it aside and focused on strengthening my daily practice. In retrospect, if I had access to this manual, I would have begun trekchö practice with 5MeO.

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In 2022, I came across Chris Bache's book, LSD and the Mind of the Universe, and decided to try an LSD practice session again. I discovered that it is possible to do thögal practice with LSD. I also realized that no one had published a clear guide to nature of mind practice with psychedelics. I began writing this meditation manual, mapping out thögal practice with my partner, one discovery at a time. My partner has been an invaluable companion on this journey as a sounding board, making many suggestions to improve the manual and insisting on readable prose.

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A friend read a draft of this manual and recommended 5MeO for nature of mind practice. 5MeO is far more efficient and much less arduous than LSD. Within one breath, it is possible to come face-to-face with primordial wisdom. I recommend starting psychedelic meditation with 5MeO. Used responsibly, it is gentle and feels like home.

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This meditation manual contains no intellectual speculation or wishful thinking. I wrote it using traditional Mahamudra and Dzogchen texts, oral instructions from qualified teachers, and personal experiential research.

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Reaching stable realization is rare. My sangha is at the age where we are dying without stable realization. The Mahamudra and Dzogchen traditions have always sought the sharpest tools to cut through to primordial purity, such as multi-year solitary retreats, dark retreats, and thögal practice. Now, practitioners have access to the sharpest and most efficient tool of all, psychedelic meditation. Over the next generation or two, psychedelic meditation will become the primary vehicle for realization in Vajrayana Buddhism. There will be a thousand Buddhas in every generation.