What Does It Mean To 'Crack Yourself Open'?
Having a 'mystical experience' can 'crack you open', and by that I mean it can show you that there's more to life than the reality we all agree on.
There's aspects of our existence that aren't easily explainable, if they are at all.
There's things that can't easily be tested in a laboratory setting.
There's a reality that we exist in, that's far more malleable, porous, and impermanent than we may have otherwise known.
When you begin to see that everything is uncertain, or 'not sure', it can alter your perspective in a fundamental way.
It can make a 'before' you, and an 'after' you. Your life can be changed.
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What follows are ways to access that unseen, un-agreed-upon reality, along with some disclaimers.
And at the end, I'll try to spoil all of the fun by telling you why all of these experiences are essentially meaningless (I'm sure you can't wait).
Everything mentioned below is something I've experienced, so I'm not telling you anything that I haven't tried or gone through.
But, that doesn't mean you should do them all.
Be safe, be smart, and hopefully by the end, you'll understand why I advise not chasing after these fleeting experiences.
Let's get into it.
Nine Ways To Have A Mystical Experience
1) Psychedelic Experiences
Let's get this one out of the way first.
As someone that smoked Salvia Divinorum on a number of occasions when it was legal, I can tell you that it was indeed a memorable experience when (my last time smoking it) I saw a white wire grid with an outer-space backdrop.
Explanations of such a sighting are merely speculations, and that goes for about every other psychedelic out there.
I can't necessarily recommend psychedelics, even if they're legal in your area.
I have no idea if they'll interact with your mind and body in a detrimental way. And maybe my reasons for caution can be best explained below, in the "Why Mystical Experiences Are Meaningless" section.
Personally, hearing about 'trips' is about as entertaining as hearing about a stranger's dreams. They're made of the same matter to a certain extent.
But, I will admit, that psychedelics do, often, produce on-demand mystical experiences for people.
2) Psychotic Episodes
This is a state that some find themselves in when they consume psychedelics (or even marijuana, it seems).
You'll certainly experience something memorable, but at what cost?
I cannot recommend anyone inducing, attempting to induce, or experimenting with things that can induce a psychotic episode.
Having interacted with many people that are 'neither here nor there' illustrates just how damaging one of these states can be. There's many people in the world that are shells of themselves because they couldn't come back to consensus reality after experiencing what some shrugged off as a 'mystical experience'.
Take care of yourselves is my suggestion when it comes to this subject.
3) Breathwork
Whether it goes by the name of "holotropic breathing," "Wim Hof breathing," "Tummo," or "cyclic hyperventilation," there's many ways to breathe yourself into an altered state.
Doing something like cyclic hyperventilation for two minutes, holding your breath for as long as you can, and repeating for about 30 minutes, might just be enough for you to experience some very unique things.
I remember doing it so vigorously on multiple occasions, that my hands involuntarily closed.
As with any of the things listed in this piece, there's reason to be cautious. And you definitely don't want to practice breathing exercises in or around water.
4) Fasting
Let me preface this by saying that you don't want to starve yourself, and you want to be cautious about anything that could spark disordered eating.
While intermittent fasting is helpful on a daily basis, you do not want to turn a multi-day fast into a weekly one.
With that said, a multi-day fast does 'open' you up quite a bit.
You become more sensitive, for better or worse.
You may have greater mental clarity, and in a fasted state, it's only going to amplify the effects of something like breathwork.
As with this entire list: be careful, and don't chase a mystical experience so strongly that you end up chasing it into a forest fire.
5) Meditation
I've had a meditation practice since 2014, and it took years, but I did experience some 'strange' things.
During a period of time when I was meditating an hour a night, I experienced tingling sensations on my scalp.
There's sources on the internet that will tell you it's chakra this, and supernatural that, but when it comes to meditation-related phenomena, I just remember Ajahn Chah telling his followers to pay it no mind, let it do what it does, and it'll pass or arrive on its own accord.
I agree. Chasing meditation-related sensations is like driving a car to experience rolling down your driver's side window.
6) Magic
Seeing the results of your first successful sigil can sometimes be enough to get you to say 'life is a little more strange than I thought it was'.
Sigils can sometimes take some time, depending on the intention.
And then there's Saint Expedite petitions, which sometimes bring you results a little faster.
I've written at length about this kind of thing in the linked pieces in this section, so I'll leave you with that.
7) Watching For Precognitive Dreams
If you're interested in seeing how your dreams can carry images, ideas, and scenes from your future, I'd recommend keeping a dream journal for a period of time, and making a habit of regularly looking back at them, for elements that actually ended up in your day-to-day reality.
It may grow tiring after seeing it happen again and again, but for someone just starting to move in the direction of the strange, it can be rewarding enough to give it a shot.
8) Divination
If you've followed my I Ching-Astrology Horoscopes you may have already experienced this. Or you may have begun your own divination practice.
Regardless, if you've seen how readings can accurately describe future circumstances, events, and feelings, it can be enough of a mystical experience to 'crack you open'.
As someone that practices divination on a daily basis, it's personally never gotten old for me. And it might be one of the safer ways to connect to something larger than yourself.
Why Mystical Experiences Are Meaningless
I understand that the above statement may ring a little un-true from someone that has done and experienced all of the things mentioned in this piece, but let me explain:
My issue with pursuing a mystical experience is the craving that's often involved.
In our lives, we want to acquire experiences and 'things'.
We want to be able to say 'I did that', we want to feel purpose, we want to feel like it all 'means' something.
Instead of taking the advice of Timothy Learyv(Or was it Terence McKenna, or was it Alan Watts, (the internet doesn't seem to be sure)), and 'hanging up the phone when we get the message', we want to go through the entire phone book.
Why is this craving unproductive? Because there will always be strangeness, and 'synchronicity' to be had. It's an un-exhaustable pool of phenomena that will just keep you drinking instead of getting on with living.
Living is where presence is. It's when you're aware, and as W. Timothy Gallwey has said, "Awareness is curative." Awareness and the present is where the solutions to your problems exist. The key isn't in those ephemeral bells and whistles.
So, in my opinion, these mystical experiences are scaffolding. They exist for a new frame of reality, and a new awareness to be erected, and they can be done with.
While I do have a regular practice of some of the sources of 'mystical experience', I don't seek out the strangeness. The strangeness runs on its own schedule, and to be honest, with enough of it, you'll become numb to seeing its face.
Everyone has to learn these lessons in their own way, though. Sometimes we learn by pushing the limits.
I hope that you find what you're looking for and know when to stop 'seeking', but that choice is yours to choose.
Werner Erhard said something that I continue to find true: "Life is empty and meaningless, and it's empty and meaningless that it's empty and meaningless."
That might be a tough pharmaceutical to swallow, but that's only the case if you're making it "mean" something.
With enough experience, you might realize the truth in that statement, and shrug off the ocean of synchronicities and strange occurences that continue to wash against the shore of you.
Getting back to living instead of all of the 'things' found in life might help you as much as its helped me, if you let it.