5-MeO, Samadhi, and Acceleration

Intro

Among advanced meditators I know who have extensive experience with the vast altered state-(and trait)space available through traditional methods (e.g. jhanas both formed and formless, vipassana-nanas, non-dual awareness, etc.) and who have tried 5-MeO, there appears broad agreement that there are non-trivial phenomenological similarities and a possibility for cross-potentiation, to a much higher degree than appears true of any other psychedelic (e.g. LSD, psilocybin, or N,N-DMT).

This all requires far more methodologically sound research to draw any generalizable conclusions, but I hope by sharing from my own limited set of experiences that further clarification will be brought out by fellow inquirers. I should also note that the range of possible experiences under 5-MeO far exceeds what I personally have undergone and here describe, and that it is not, in principle, possible to dissociate the effects of prior training from what 5-MeO has brought about in this nervous system.

For context and credence, my own contemplative training has been within and across Theravada, Zen, Vajrayana, and Dzogchen lineages as well as Shinzen Young’s secular distillation. You can see my brief biography for more info.

I am not the only one with classical training who notes the similarity, Shinzen in particular has referred to 5-MeO’s effects as “vectorially correct” with respect to awakening, and recently John Gorman, a Vajrayana and Dzogchen practitioner of many decades, has been speaking and publishing on the topic.

Similarities

It will do at first just to list which most salient features, in my own experiences, have been common to both samadhi (taking sufficient absorption in jhana as prototypical) and mid-to-high doses of 5-MeO, ordered from least to most radical. Lower doses result in less intense and rapid versions of 1-3, and if I close my eyes 4 as well, and 5 is true at my sober baseline.

1. Energization of the phenomenal field
2. Dissolution of bodily boundaries
3. Dissolution of self-other boundaries
4. Cessation of all formed phenomenal content
5. Dropping subject-object structure
6. Cessation of all phenomenal content

Each of these features deserves its own gloss, but first, I list the most relevant differences which appear to hold across many experiences.

5-MeO, for me, as compared to samadhi, results in:

• Less smooth state-transitions (e.g. as compared to progression through jhana)
• More chaotic dissolution and consequently less spatial uniformity of the phenomenal field
• Less to no availability of volitional attentional and sensorimotor control (depending on dosage)

1. Energization of the Phenomenal Field

This is a loose designation referring to increases in the general vibrancy, vividness, resolution, clarity, and intensity of the phenomenal field, which anyone familiar with classical psychedelics and/or sustained, deep samadhi will be familiar with, and can manifest in somatic energy flows, visual distortions/hallucinations, bliss, luminosity internal and external, and much more besides. 5-MeO tends not to induce, for me, patterned distortions as energy increases, rather trending towards formless dissolution and ultra-smoothness, with more marked turbulence than is typical for me now deepening into samadhi.

2. Dissolution of Bodily Boundaries

Facilitated by (1), the sense of coagulated somatic boundaries can become superfluid and eventually utterly absent, eyes open or closed. This is true of both ‘sober’ samadhi and 5-MeO. There’s usually a progression from a waviness/vibratory character (often blissful) mixed with a global softening which may diffuse to experiencing no felt bodily boundaries at all.

3. Dissolution of Self-Other Boundaries

Often occurring in the progress of (2) intensifying, the sense of being a separate self centered within experience diminishes or unifies with the broader field of experience. This can issue in a sense of radically expanded, rather than absent, selfhood, which can be much more problematic than liberating, sane, and functional (see Roger’s post on God-Mind hazards).

4. Cessation of all Formed Phenomenal Content

A deepening of the same processes leading to the prior experiences, at this point all conventional boundaries and individuation of elements of experience has ceased. What remains varies, but it is likely to express as formless, boundless, boundary-less light, space, consciousness, nothingness, and concomitant with this is the absence of ordinary spatio-temporal located-ness as a subject connected with linear time and spatial extension.

5. Dropping Subject-Object Structure

This may drop out at any point along with or in the absence of the other experiences listed, though necessarily at full absorption in the territory of 4 and unequivocally at 6. Here there is a breakdown of the fundamental dualistic misperception of there being some set of sensations which is the observer of others, and any center or boundaries to the phenomenal field, globally

The 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje’s words cut through:

Looking at objects, there are no objects; we see only mind.
Looking at mind, there is no mind; it is empty of an essence.
Looking at both, dualistic clinging is spontaneously liberated.
May we realize luminosity, the true nature of mind.

– Mahamudra Aspiration Prayer

As far as conscious liberation regardless of content goes, this is it.

6. Cessation of all Phenomenal Content

It’s an open question at the moment whether blacking out on 5-MeO does anything good for someone, but it is assuredly possible, and the entry and exit do bear similarities to fruitions in insight practice and immersion in cessation that can occur with sufficient samadhi. Nothing much to say here except zip, gate, gone, lights out.

Questions of Acceleration

So, it appears true that 5-MeO can, at least for some, induce states similar, if not strictly identical, to classically sought-after goals of intensive contemplative practice. It remains to be seen and empirically proven whether it can serve as an accelerant either for conventional therapeutic aims or for classical awakening. I suspect it can be for both, but only time and more research will tell.

On a personal note, I’ve found psychedelics useful primarily for rapid emotional processing and highlighting of discordant elements in my psyche and behavior moreso than any durable moment-to-moment phenomenological changes, but I’m hopeful that there is a wise mixed-methods approach combining careful psychedelic use, potentially neuro-stimulation, and good ol’ fashioned intensive retreat and practice in the midst of life.

May all beings be safe, happy, and free!