The time I took drugs and had a lasting spiritual insight
October 6, 2025 | 7 CommentsAudio only version is here
Meditation begins at 12:05
I hope you are well and finding sources of joy, big and/or small.
Yes, your meditation teacher got high. A LONG TIME AGO! But it was awesome and provided my first true spiritual insight.
Don’t do what I did!! Drugs are not necessary but I was a youngster and it happened and so I’m sharing this crazy story with you. Don’t do what I did!
At the end, I mention that our next Meditation Teacher Training is coming up in January in case you want to take it. Which would be awesome. I haven’t taught it in two years and don’t know when I will again, so please join if you can.
Please have a listen and let me know what you think. I always love hearing from you.
Love,
Susan
PS: Don’t do what I did!!
categorized in: meditation, teaching
7 Comments
Thank you Susan — I have been enjoying your videos for almost the whole 10 years you have been doing them, and I have to say they are just getting better — I loved this one a lot!
One question — how do you manage with aches and pains while sitting? For example, right now, I have a hip that often pains while I am trying to meditate. I could use some tips on whether one should just put up with the discomfort, shift position, anything else.
Thanks and thanks again for the stories about music and Anton’s and all.
Susan from Ottawa, Canada
Dear Susan,
Great story. Good meditation too.
Those antenna (i) are always operational and I can’t remember if they ever weren’t.
The one time I tried pot (I was in my 30s), I passed out because I thought that breathing was an interesting choice. Yeah, not functioning well. I determined that stepping out of my real mind was not for me, and I felt raw vulnerability. As you said, don’t do that.
I usually sit with the longer unguided meditation, but I so enjoy your talks so I sat with this video today, and I’m glad I did. Among the many “me” aspects, one is the Anxious Seer – and I am considering that I should probably find a Seer that seeks joy, too. Aging can make finding joy and hope more challenging, as the body develops issues, relationships change, capabilities downshift, and it is all too easy to see only a bleak future. Maybe refocusing on present joy is a first step. So much to contemplate – thanks as always for your insights and personal story.
I appreciate your comments on your ecstasy experience. I had a very similar one using that drug for the first and last time, as you. In my case, I had an hour transition that became a bad trip. Mainly because I was fighting it. Luckily, I had a close friend around who guided me to settle down and open up and let go. When I gradually did that, my immediate world became super real. Like you, filled with love. I could have been sitting in a vat of feces and extremely enjoyed it. (Not the best thing.) And the coming down from this drug was intensely long and exhausting. I saw it as something that affected my life for the worse at the time. But that dissolved over the years. However, hearing your story made me revisit that observation. I now see it as allowing me to be totally in the present without fear. It was an amazing feeling, once I released to its grip. And just flowed down the stream of life. So, thank you for this further insight. It proved quite helpful…
Susan, I had to laugh at hearing you tell your story. How authentic you are to share all of who you are. Very brave, very smart and very funny.
I loved this and that you remember these details. So many great connections here:) thanks for sharing with us!
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