The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (1964) Kindle Edition

I work with the ill and dying daily, as well as trippers. When someone I know dies, falls into a comma, comes out of a psychotic episode, or decides to dive into the abyss, I make sure to have this book on me for the recitations- just in case.None of the negative reviews of this book take into account it's historical importance. The Books of the Dead are still seen today by conventional authorities as Funerary Rituals, which is true, but the funeral the rituals are for is not simply the body, but the ego- which is most likely the "psychedelic experience" referred to in the title. "Psychedelic", I believe it says in the book, is not restricted to drug induced experiences, and drugs are not the only way to suppress and/or kill the ego.This book is not simply a manual for trippers, hence what I assume is the confusion I see expressed in these reviews. Though it might be thought of, or even marketed that way, that is simply too narrow a view of this work. It is in fact, a manual for the Tibetan Book of the Dead (aka The Tibetan Book of Coming Forth by Day). I see no negative comments here by anyone claiming to have read that book. I definitely suggest read it, and even Yents' other books, before attempting to fully grasp this one.🙏

I was there, or you could say now, then. My friends and I took our first hit on sugar cubes in 1963. Just before the book came out . One of my friends ordered it special cause it came out in 1964 so we waited for it by the mail-box daily till it came . When it did, as a group we used it to navigate through the difficult places the book suggest. Seeing the whole structure of the material world on a micro / macro level. Understanding the structure of the mind/brain/personality process. We discovered the clear light and used to say when we saw each other weeks after we took trips together "Are you still where it's at". We could maintain 2-3 days of total awareness of the effects of the L.S.D. At this time that we took it, It was still Legal. It became Illegal in 1966 at which time we stopped taking it. (disclaimer) Ha! Ha!. The book was responsible for changing the way we view the world and our selves. We did loose our ego's. We did experience most of the levels in the book as real to us. Nothing short of a full on Eastern Mystical experience. The real thing only from a drug and an instruction book. With out the book we had no way of labeling our experiences so as to identify them as they happened. We missed a lot without the book, although the intensity of the experience was self explanatory with out it.Today My feet are on the ground but still I study and practice being in the "Now" Echart Tolle is a good source for today on getting there on the Nach! I dont recommend use of any drugs or mind altering substances because with drugs you come down and forget how you got there. But today we have many books and practices that get you there for real and forever. Remember this is a life time work to be done by everybody regardless of your religion or belief but without Drugs. The bottom line is to see and diminish the ego domination of you personality and see and feel your pure, innocent nature as a human being. I'm 70 years old now. I took my first L.S.D trip when I was 18. That experience changed the way I saw the whole system so I had problems adjusting to society and life in general. But today I have a good handle on whats real and what's not real. Remember It's your mind that interprets everything.Your mind is all stored past memory. So you see through the past. When you loose the ego the past dies' so whats left is "what is". Thats where you start to understand whats true and whats false in life. Good Luck, R

This book is INCREDIBLY amazing!!!! I got this for the hopes of better going into lsd trips and with this book i have a better understanding of the phases and physical symptoms of any resistence as well as if you do experience negative symptoms during a trip it lists ways to calm down amd get out of it! This book is a must have for any body who experiments with psychadelic plants/drugs or anyone who naturally induces higher states of consciousness .

This book will show you what the psychedelic experience is really about. If you don't feel like getting the book (although I highly recommend you do) the jist of the book is simply to turn off your mind and "float down stream" (in other words meditate). So the answer to the common question "what should I do during my trip?" Is simply: nothing. Don't draw, don't try to figure out your life or the universe or whatever, just keep your mind as a blank canvas for the psychedelic and it will paint a beautiful picture you will not soon forget.

This book is an invaluable resource of information about the psychedelic experience for anyone who's thinking about undertaking the experience, especially if they're apprehensive about it, or anyone who wants to try to understand a little bit more about it without trying illegal or legal drugs. The psychedelic experience is one that is overwhelmingly and incorrectly associated with other drug experiences, and this book, whether it means to or not, does a great job of explaining that the psychedelic experience is more of a religious experience than plain drug experience.It's an irrefutable fact that every one of the world's major religions and wisdom traditions had a psychedelic drug ritual attached to them, even Christianity has his halos based on mushroom caps and art containing mushrooms everywhere. Timothy Leary went so deep with studying various ancient wisdom traditions to understand or explain or better navigate the psychedelic experience and this book does that 'beautifully.' The Tibetan Book of the Dead and Buddhism as a whole go brilliantly hand in hand with psychedelics, as if they were made for each other, but the inexperienced would need a little guidance to link some of the concepts with one to the concepts of the other, and that's what this book seeks to do. In my deeply experienced opinion, it succeeds 'gloriously.'

A truly fantastic read. I'm not an avid reader but I loved every minute of reading this. Honestly if you plan on tripping I can't reccomend this enough. It can really help you out in a bad spot, or instruct you on how to guide your trips.

Lovely little book...very interesting reading would recommend to any space travellers hehe.

Was mental

Wow no wonder nothing changed the world if you tripped and read this, although I can relate to mystical experiences with magic mushrooms, I suppose people coming out of the 50s conservatism would flip on this

Ersteinmal:Das Buch ist nicht immer leicht zu lesen. Hier ein tipp: Man muss nicht jedes Wort verstehen. In aller Regel lässt sich der Sinn aus dem Kontext ableiten.Es hat nur 120 Seiten und hiervon sind knapp 40 Seiten Beiwerk.Dieses Beiwerk wirkt nicht aufblähend. Es trägt stimmig zur Sache bei und bereitet den Leser auf das folgende "eigentliche" Buch vor.The Psychedelic Experience will, ganz im Sinne des Tibetanischen Totenbuches, mehrmals gelesen werden.Es geht Leary nicht darum, das Wissen des Lesers durch den Inhalt des Buches anzureichern.Vielmehr ist es Learys Absicht, das Bewusstsein des Lesers in einen Zustand zu versetzen, in dem die Psychedelische Erfahrung also solche (also nicht das Buch. Volkstümlich also "der Trip") am sinnvollsten ablaufen kann.Leary beschreibt verschiedene Phasen die nach Einnahme einer psychedelischen Substanz (LSD, Psilocybin, DMT, Meskalin,..) ablaufen, welche Richtungen zu gehen sind und was eben zu vermeiden ist.Dabei schafft es Leary die negativen Aspekte in einer Weise anzusprechen, in der man als leser das Negative nicht übernimmt. Man kann es (Das negative, chaos, Ursache des bad trip) distanziert betrachten, Wissen darüber erlange, ohne selbst in negative Vibes zu gelangen.Vielen anderen Schriftstellern gelingt das leider nicht.Die Wegweisungen zum "Licht", "Ego-Loss", "Guter Trip", (Oder wie man immer es auch nennen mag) sind praktischer Natur.Sie umzusetzen Bedarf entweder einem entsprechend geschulten Sitter (Welcher das Buch kennt), oder dem gründlichen verinnerlichen der Anleitungen.Um den größtmöglichen Nutzen aus diesem Buch zu ziehen, sollte man den Inhalt wirklich verinnerlichen.Mehrmals lesen, zumindest einmal in den Tagen unmittelbar vor einer psychedelischen Erfahrung.