I had a mystical experience.
If you’re not familiar with the term, dig into it some before reading on (just google “mystical experience” – or even seek out the essay titled “Can an Atheist Have a Religious Experience“) – it is a specific kind of experience that happens in similar ways across times and cultures, although the means of getting there and the modes of interpreting the experience vary considerably.
For me, the means of getting there involved a small dose of LSD and a 10-mile nature hike in some of the most stunning scenery in the United States.
Yes, I was ‘on drugs’ when I experienced the “oneness of all things” and became convinced that that “everything was good/god.”
Interesting story, and well told. You are free to interpret it as a "mystical experience" if you like; to me it is a fine example of how the human brain has evolved to perceive patterns to such an extent that we are able, with relatively little effort, to impose them on practically any series of unrelated events, if we are so inclined.
I too, have some <ahem> experience with hallucinogenic substances. In less responsible, more carefree days I liked nothing better than to drop acid on a nice, sunny summer day and go on a nature hike. I am familiar with the feeling under such conditions that "everything is good". One of the most consistent effects of said substance on me is that it tends to make everything look just a little bit brighter, smell just a little bit sweeter, sound just a little more interesting, etc. Indeed, one of the typical after-effects is that my face would be sore for the next day, from having been smiling so much during the trip.
On one occasion I began my experience sitting on the steps in front of my house, gazing at the unmowed lawn, when suddenly all of the dandelions became snakes. (I count myself fortunate that I happen to
like snakes, and used to keep them as pets when I was a kid.) The illusion was very real, and lasted for quite a long time. It was rather like watching a movie that had gradually morphed into a sort of virtual reality experience and back again. Yet at no time during the experience did I ever think that what I was experiencing was anything
other than a drug-induced illusion.
Never have I felt the need to invoke god, or synchronicity, or hyperdimensionality, or Ram Dass to explain or give meaning to my experience. The action of lysergic acid diethylamide on my central nervous system furnished more than sufficient explanation, and indeed I repeated the experience several times on subsequent occasions. And I do sometimes reflect on the experience even now, whilst mowing the lawn, though it's been some years since I last indulged in swallowing those little pieces of paper.
Just this past August I went out to my car, which had been locked with the windows rolled up, and parked in the middle of an asphalt parking lot all day, and when I opened the door I found two sizable garter snakes sitting on the floor mat in front of the brake pedal. Were I so inclined, I could make a much longer and more entertaining story of this, involving synchronicity.
But instead, I removed the snakes, drove home, and had a beer.
I was a lot older than 10 when that movie came out.
