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LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven
A professor of religious studies meticulously documents his insights from 73 high-dose LSD sessions conducted over the course of 20 years The book chronicles, with the author’s systematic journey into a unified field of consciousness that underlies all physical existence and makes a powerful case for the value of psychedelically induced spiritual experience and discusses the challenge of integrating these experiences into everyday life.
352 pages, Paperback
Published November 26, 2019
291 people are currently reading
1575 people want to read
About the author
Christopher M. Bache
10 books38 followersChristopher Bache is professor emeritus in the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and on the Advisory Council of Grof Legacy Training.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
January 21, 2020
I’ve been reading spiritual books for 35 years but this is the first one that I have finished and then gone straight back and read all over again. I know this is one of the most important books I will ever read. I wrote to the author (another thing I’ve rarely done), and quote from that email here:
“I want to congratulate you on distilling your immense experiences and your far-reaching discoveries into a book that is relatively concise, considering the topic it covers. Your writing is beautiful, your descriptions often stunning. Of course, as you say so often, words cannot do justice to what you have experienced. But you have made words do some wondrous things here.
One of the biggest blessings I've received from your book has been the gift of perspective. I have been studying books on the afterlife since I first found a copy of Michael Newton's Journey of Souls in the 1990s. Lately, however, I seemed to have reached a ceiling with this study, wanting more. Your book took me far, far beyond what I had previously understood to be the map of the universe, of consciousness.
This is crucial to our well-being. I am a storyteller, and understand the importance of the questions "Who are we? Where are we? Where are we going?" that stories have forever tried to answer. Our modern age is suffering from some truly awful answers to these questions, and therefore I hope your book reaches a very wide audience. I am sure that the ripples of your work will affect the entire human project of trying to answer these questions, not just directly through your writing, but through the endeavors of others that you will inspire.
Reading your book I felt that at times that your work was directly affecting me and my life, in a way that felt similar to the work did in your sessions with the collective consciousness of humanity. I can't fully explain this, but it felt like your session work and the heroic task of making sense of what you experienced, was having a small harvest in my life - changing its course in a blessed way, by expanding my perspective.
I could go on, but I imagine you will be a busy man currently. I don't expect an answer, but I sincerely hope you receive this email and that somehow my words can convey my deepest thanks.
A bow, to your immense courage, your steadfastness and your heroic sense of duty. In some mysterious way, you have given me a blessing beyond words”.
“I want to congratulate you on distilling your immense experiences and your far-reaching discoveries into a book that is relatively concise, considering the topic it covers. Your writing is beautiful, your descriptions often stunning. Of course, as you say so often, words cannot do justice to what you have experienced. But you have made words do some wondrous things here.
One of the biggest blessings I've received from your book has been the gift of perspective. I have been studying books on the afterlife since I first found a copy of Michael Newton's Journey of Souls in the 1990s. Lately, however, I seemed to have reached a ceiling with this study, wanting more. Your book took me far, far beyond what I had previously understood to be the map of the universe, of consciousness.
This is crucial to our well-being. I am a storyteller, and understand the importance of the questions "Who are we? Where are we? Where are we going?" that stories have forever tried to answer. Our modern age is suffering from some truly awful answers to these questions, and therefore I hope your book reaches a very wide audience. I am sure that the ripples of your work will affect the entire human project of trying to answer these questions, not just directly through your writing, but through the endeavors of others that you will inspire.
Reading your book I felt that at times that your work was directly affecting me and my life, in a way that felt similar to the work did in your sessions with the collective consciousness of humanity. I can't fully explain this, but it felt like your session work and the heroic task of making sense of what you experienced, was having a small harvest in my life - changing its course in a blessed way, by expanding my perspective.
I could go on, but I imagine you will be a busy man currently. I don't expect an answer, but I sincerely hope you receive this email and that somehow my words can convey my deepest thanks.
A bow, to your immense courage, your steadfastness and your heroic sense of duty. In some mysterious way, you have given me a blessing beyond words”.
March 3, 2022
A year ago, when I heard Christopher Bache tell this story on a podcast, I was unimpressed. How could seventy-three high-dose LSD sessions yield such a boring story? I cringe now at my blindness. I was used to hearing charismatic self-promoters, Terence McKenna-types, talk about psychedelics. I was looking for more “High Weirdness” of the Erik Davis variety, stories of aliens and machine elves and reality tunnels.
Then I read the book.
I’ve read plenty of trip reports on Erowid. I’ve read the classic psychedelic texts: Huxley’s Door’s of Perception, Alan Watts’ The Joyous Cosmology, Shulgin’s PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. But it became clear right away that this was something of another order.
This story is as deep and wide as any genuine metaphysical quest. And it’s moving. That’s the most remarkable thing about it. Precisely because Christopher Bache is so methodical, so grounded, so much the antithesis of Terrence-McKenna’s exciting and conceptually-promiscuous eloquence, that he is capable of bringing you along with him through the Ocean of Suffering and into the Diamond Luminosity and the promise of Endlessness.
This is Bache’s great gift, I think, to the psychedelic discourse. Only someone with his academic rigor and his disinterest in hype could pull all these threads together into what is one of the most astonishing and novel psychedelic quests I’ve ever encountered.
One aspect of the story I found most fascinating is the cosmology he develops. It seems to combine all that is most expansive and profound from Eastern traditions (karma, reincarnation) with the highest expressions of love and commitment found in the Judeo-Christian tradition (the goodness of creation, the earth as home). Bache reaches the realization of Oneness, then pushes beyond. Most significantly, he criticizes the shortcomings of Axial-age “theologies of return,” that is, spiritual frameworks in which the goal is escape: the Hindu awakening from samsara and return to Brahman, the Gnostic departure from this corrupt material plane, the Buddhist parinirvana, the familiar heaven-filled-with-angels-and-harps, and so on. Of this sort of unilateral transcendence, Bache writes:
“Our mystical traditions tell us that we are made of the stuff of God, that Atman is Brahman, and my sessions affirm this truth. But something special happens to this Atman-essence inside the incubator of the physical universe beyond just waking up to itself. In repeatedly entering and leaving physical reality, in the firing and cooling of awareness, in the constant folding and refolding of human experience, something new is being forged—not simply adding new layers one by one but eventually fusing all these layers into a new form of life.”
Now, a theme of a few reviews on this website concerns the lack of critical engagement with these experiences. This is the question of psychological priming, which some think undermines any epistemological privilege we’d like to give psychedelics. Is Prof. Bache experiencing only those states which he’s readied himself for through a lifetime study of Eastern spirituality? I understand where this criticism comes from. However, I beg to differ.
It’s true that most of the book is devoted to telling the story, and the commentary woven in throughout may not be satisfying to some. It didn’t satisfy me, either. So, in an email exchange with Christopher Bache, I asked him: Do you consider your experience to be an instance of Robert Anton Wilson’s idea of a “reality tunnel”—self-perpetuated and self-validated by means of your personal interest in karma and reincarnation, etc.? Or do your experiences offer you more ontological certainty?
Christopher Bache was kind enough to reply thoroughly: “I’m not familiar with Wilson’s “reality tunnel,” but it sounds like a way of holding one’s experience lightly, which is a good thing, but accepting ambiguity as inherent, which feels dated to me. It sounds like a smaller truth within a larger truth I am more comfortable with. I’m thinking of Jorge Ferrer’s participatory spirituality in his book Revisioning Transpersonal Theory. I don’t think my experiences are self-validating, self-perpetuated reflections of my personal conditioning. My conditioning plays a role, certainly, but the breakdown of conditioning that takes place inside one’s sessions plays a larger role still. I lay this out in a dialogue with Ken Ring (NDE researcher) that we published in medium.com – “Are deep psychedelic experiences trustable?”
If you want more critical engagement, I recommend checking out that exchange on Medium: https://medium.com/@cmbache/are-deep-...
At the end of the day, however, I suspect that only those who have experienced these non-ordinary states themselves, and who have thought through their philosophical implications, will appreciate the extent of Bache’s explorations and the quality of his thoughtfulness. Because the question, “Was it real or not?” is hopelessly naïve. It’s far from the most interesting question you could ask, and it’s based in premises that just don’t work at the level he’s operating at. The fact, the very fact, that these experiences exist reveals that “reality” (whatever we mean by that) is capable of them. Put another way, these experiences are their own evidence. Whether or not Christopher Bache’s personality and interests primed them into being, they noneneless are. Maybe that’s even the point: you get to them by and through priming.
I mean, isn’t that the case with everything? As John C. Lilly’s maxim goes: “In the province of the mind what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits. These limits are to be found experimentally and experientially. When so found these limits turn out to be further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind there are no limits.”
Then I read the book.
I’ve read plenty of trip reports on Erowid. I’ve read the classic psychedelic texts: Huxley’s Door’s of Perception, Alan Watts’ The Joyous Cosmology, Shulgin’s PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. But it became clear right away that this was something of another order.
This story is as deep and wide as any genuine metaphysical quest. And it’s moving. That’s the most remarkable thing about it. Precisely because Christopher Bache is so methodical, so grounded, so much the antithesis of Terrence-McKenna’s exciting and conceptually-promiscuous eloquence, that he is capable of bringing you along with him through the Ocean of Suffering and into the Diamond Luminosity and the promise of Endlessness.
This is Bache’s great gift, I think, to the psychedelic discourse. Only someone with his academic rigor and his disinterest in hype could pull all these threads together into what is one of the most astonishing and novel psychedelic quests I’ve ever encountered.
One aspect of the story I found most fascinating is the cosmology he develops. It seems to combine all that is most expansive and profound from Eastern traditions (karma, reincarnation) with the highest expressions of love and commitment found in the Judeo-Christian tradition (the goodness of creation, the earth as home). Bache reaches the realization of Oneness, then pushes beyond. Most significantly, he criticizes the shortcomings of Axial-age “theologies of return,” that is, spiritual frameworks in which the goal is escape: the Hindu awakening from samsara and return to Brahman, the Gnostic departure from this corrupt material plane, the Buddhist parinirvana, the familiar heaven-filled-with-angels-and-harps, and so on. Of this sort of unilateral transcendence, Bache writes:
“Our mystical traditions tell us that we are made of the stuff of God, that Atman is Brahman, and my sessions affirm this truth. But something special happens to this Atman-essence inside the incubator of the physical universe beyond just waking up to itself. In repeatedly entering and leaving physical reality, in the firing and cooling of awareness, in the constant folding and refolding of human experience, something new is being forged—not simply adding new layers one by one but eventually fusing all these layers into a new form of life.”
Now, a theme of a few reviews on this website concerns the lack of critical engagement with these experiences. This is the question of psychological priming, which some think undermines any epistemological privilege we’d like to give psychedelics. Is Prof. Bache experiencing only those states which he’s readied himself for through a lifetime study of Eastern spirituality? I understand where this criticism comes from. However, I beg to differ.
It’s true that most of the book is devoted to telling the story, and the commentary woven in throughout may not be satisfying to some. It didn’t satisfy me, either. So, in an email exchange with Christopher Bache, I asked him: Do you consider your experience to be an instance of Robert Anton Wilson’s idea of a “reality tunnel”—self-perpetuated and self-validated by means of your personal interest in karma and reincarnation, etc.? Or do your experiences offer you more ontological certainty?
Christopher Bache was kind enough to reply thoroughly: “I’m not familiar with Wilson’s “reality tunnel,” but it sounds like a way of holding one’s experience lightly, which is a good thing, but accepting ambiguity as inherent, which feels dated to me. It sounds like a smaller truth within a larger truth I am more comfortable with. I’m thinking of Jorge Ferrer’s participatory spirituality in his book Revisioning Transpersonal Theory. I don’t think my experiences are self-validating, self-perpetuated reflections of my personal conditioning. My conditioning plays a role, certainly, but the breakdown of conditioning that takes place inside one’s sessions plays a larger role still. I lay this out in a dialogue with Ken Ring (NDE researcher) that we published in medium.com – “Are deep psychedelic experiences trustable?”
If you want more critical engagement, I recommend checking out that exchange on Medium: https://medium.com/@cmbache/are-deep-...
At the end of the day, however, I suspect that only those who have experienced these non-ordinary states themselves, and who have thought through their philosophical implications, will appreciate the extent of Bache’s explorations and the quality of his thoughtfulness. Because the question, “Was it real or not?” is hopelessly naïve. It’s far from the most interesting question you could ask, and it’s based in premises that just don’t work at the level he’s operating at. The fact, the very fact, that these experiences exist reveals that “reality” (whatever we mean by that) is capable of them. Put another way, these experiences are their own evidence. Whether or not Christopher Bache’s personality and interests primed them into being, they noneneless are. Maybe that’s even the point: you get to them by and through priming.
I mean, isn’t that the case with everything? As John C. Lilly’s maxim goes: “In the province of the mind what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits. These limits are to be found experimentally and experientially. When so found these limits turn out to be further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind there are no limits.”
August 18, 2019
Altered states of consciousness, whether from illness or injury resulting in a near-death experience, meditation, or from intentional enhancement through the use of psychedelic medicines, can reveal profound clues about the nature of reality. Diamonds from Heaven is an extraordinarily rich journey into the deep truths of the universe as revealed by a dedicated and reflective seeker whose journey involved 73 high-dose LSD sessions over two decades. Professor Bache’s cosmic insights represent a rare but profound gift to humanity. Highly recommended!
January 26, 2020
A collection of mystical and profound trip reports from a professor of religious studies using high dose LSD sessions exploring the outer limits of consciousness over a 20 year period.
There are some beautiful observations and revelations that the professor shares including but not limited to experiencing the spiral of death and rebirth, the collective unconsciousness, total immersion into the powerful overwhelming feeling of being light to understanding the total reality of love and oneness that radiates consciousness which he notes as the Diamond Luminosity that exists beyond cyclic existence.
They are deeply personal and engaging trip reports that mirror the spiritual / mystical experiences that can arise from the many forms of altered states of consciousness be it from psychedelics, meditation, injury, natural spontaneous self inquiry and other forms of engaging with the nature of reality and the cosmic consciousness.
What limits the book is the lack of critical analysis from a religious or self critical perspective. I'm all for mystical experiences and understanding them, however the author's work in Buddhism, eastern religions and other scholarly work on mysticism seem to penetrate his psychedelic states. LSD like forms of self inquiry can be augmenters of prior thoughts. Almost a chicken and egg problem. Are the LSD trips he reports really mystical engagements or is he seeing what he wants to see from his reading and work on other's mystical experience? Still as a long term mediator, his descriptions are beautiful, engaging, and understandable . His descriptions of becoming and dissolving into the totality of light are extremely beautiful and relatable.
The author ultimately engaged in his inquiry in a private, hidden way only with his wife as a sitter and guide. I wish he could have shared his trip reports with other psychonauts, scholars, scientists, therapists, mystics etc during his sessions to build a collective framework for understanding and balance his self inquiry with the help of others. I think that would have deepened his understanding. Sadly society lacks such openness for self inquiry. Still for this reason I think more a traditional Buddhist exploration of the mind exploring the mind collectively can¥ help frame, question and ultimately try to understand the outer limits of inner reality.
Highly recommended for those interested in advanced trans personal philosophy and psychology and can help serve as a template for work in engaging with the mind.
Ultimately this hero's journey into the supernova of the mind is a welcomed and a moving account.
There are some beautiful observations and revelations that the professor shares including but not limited to experiencing the spiral of death and rebirth, the collective unconsciousness, total immersion into the powerful overwhelming feeling of being light to understanding the total reality of love and oneness that radiates consciousness which he notes as the Diamond Luminosity that exists beyond cyclic existence.
They are deeply personal and engaging trip reports that mirror the spiritual / mystical experiences that can arise from the many forms of altered states of consciousness be it from psychedelics, meditation, injury, natural spontaneous self inquiry and other forms of engaging with the nature of reality and the cosmic consciousness.
What limits the book is the lack of critical analysis from a religious or self critical perspective. I'm all for mystical experiences and understanding them, however the author's work in Buddhism, eastern religions and other scholarly work on mysticism seem to penetrate his psychedelic states. LSD like forms of self inquiry can be augmenters of prior thoughts. Almost a chicken and egg problem. Are the LSD trips he reports really mystical engagements or is he seeing what he wants to see from his reading and work on other's mystical experience? Still as a long term mediator, his descriptions are beautiful, engaging, and understandable . His descriptions of becoming and dissolving into the totality of light are extremely beautiful and relatable.
The author ultimately engaged in his inquiry in a private, hidden way only with his wife as a sitter and guide. I wish he could have shared his trip reports with other psychonauts, scholars, scientists, therapists, mystics etc during his sessions to build a collective framework for understanding and balance his self inquiry with the help of others. I think that would have deepened his understanding. Sadly society lacks such openness for self inquiry. Still for this reason I think more a traditional Buddhist exploration of the mind exploring the mind collectively can¥ help frame, question and ultimately try to understand the outer limits of inner reality.
Highly recommended for those interested in advanced trans personal philosophy and psychology and can help serve as a template for work in engaging with the mind.
Ultimately this hero's journey into the supernova of the mind is a welcomed and a moving account.
January 22, 2020
This book will stay with me
The vision of Bache's cosmology is compact, consistent, illuminating, and challenging. I haven't yet read an account of not only a glimpse through Grof's telescope but sustained study and integration with many spiritual perspectives. I can already see how we are living at a cutting edge of some kind of mysterious phase change in the ways we are coming together, subtly shifting through tides and bubbles in the ways we connect, all the while shaped by the pressuring state of our planetary environment. The journeys in this book evolve and open into a story that weaves what I thought I knew about psychedelics into a fuller picture: one of the reality they magnify and give us access to. I hope this book sparks wider interest in a kind of universal spirituality that is compatible with science and draws on many religious or spiritual teachings. The path Bache charts of our near and distant planetary and societal future really sticks in my mind, and gives me not only hope, but envy towards the future, when we've made it through. There is an intense and gentle incontrovertible optimism encoded here.
The vision of Bache's cosmology is compact, consistent, illuminating, and challenging. I haven't yet read an account of not only a glimpse through Grof's telescope but sustained study and integration with many spiritual perspectives. I can already see how we are living at a cutting edge of some kind of mysterious phase change in the ways we are coming together, subtly shifting through tides and bubbles in the ways we connect, all the while shaped by the pressuring state of our planetary environment. The journeys in this book evolve and open into a story that weaves what I thought I knew about psychedelics into a fuller picture: one of the reality they magnify and give us access to. I hope this book sparks wider interest in a kind of universal spirituality that is compatible with science and draws on many religious or spiritual teachings. The path Bache charts of our near and distant planetary and societal future really sticks in my mind, and gives me not only hope, but envy towards the future, when we've made it through. There is an intense and gentle incontrovertible optimism encoded here.
November 2, 2020
Anti scientific rubbish. I stopped when he said that planetary position may have had an effect on his experience, which was quiet early.
January 9, 2023
the best part of this book is when he has his wife (who trip sits him and eventually divorces him) bring him a plate of snacks/treats during his comedown. at that point he had been convulsing on the floor for eight hours experiencing what he described as The Ocean of Suffering. the wife brings him grapes and carob covered raisins, which he describes as “primal hand food.” that phrase really planted itself in my brain like i was eating some olives today and i thought - “ yum, primal hand food.”
the rest of the book is new age pablum.
the rest of the book is new age pablum.
May 5, 2020
The author is a trustworthy narrator of his sessions. My problem is with the details of the subject matter. Too many questions unanswered whereas some themes are repeated ten fold.
All in all a good read but since all of the recollections are intuitive, there's no way of actually imagining them other than being under the influence. Some thing I found to be similar to the themes the author was describing is the movie "The Fountain".
All in all a good read but since all of the recollections are intuitive, there's no way of actually imagining them other than being under the influence. Some thing I found to be similar to the themes the author was describing is the movie "The Fountain".
December 12, 2023
I read about halfway before admitting to myself that Bache’s writing had lost all credibility in my eyes and that no real wisdom about the universe would be found by completing the book. On a hunch that he might be a little bit crazy, I looked him up online and found a podcast he did with “Numinus Presents: Psychedelic Therapy Frontiers” in which he basically outs himself as an evolution-denier. Someone who does not see the truth of the theory of evolution yet somehow has been persuaded by astrological principles is not someone who can be reasoned with.
If you read this book you will find many interesting trip reports, yet they are so far removed from the realm of normal human experiences that it’s hard to fully appreciate. They’re hard to imagine. Littering both his trip reports and philosophical musings are a plethora of undefined terms. Don’t expect Bache to slow down to explain to you what he means when he incorporates spiritual language into his writing. He usually does not, without warning. Anyone who expects key terms to be defined will be disappointed, there is a lot of spiritual lingo that you’re just assumed to “get”.
His trust in shady academic work is concerning. Grof’s ideas about the perinatal are certainly not beyond scrutiny, reincarnation has certainly not been empirically proven to be true by any means, and astrology is definitely not something you can assume to be true without some plausible theory of how it works. Bache is the kind of intellectual that will say something is true without a shadow of a doubt, yet will proudly claim that the exact nature of how it works or why it’s real cannot be known. (Biggest example: reincarnation.)
I had big hopes from a philosophy professor’s earnest take on spirituality through psychedelics. It is clear, however, that his grip on reality is wanting.
If you read this book you will find many interesting trip reports, yet they are so far removed from the realm of normal human experiences that it’s hard to fully appreciate. They’re hard to imagine. Littering both his trip reports and philosophical musings are a plethora of undefined terms. Don’t expect Bache to slow down to explain to you what he means when he incorporates spiritual language into his writing. He usually does not, without warning. Anyone who expects key terms to be defined will be disappointed, there is a lot of spiritual lingo that you’re just assumed to “get”.
His trust in shady academic work is concerning. Grof’s ideas about the perinatal are certainly not beyond scrutiny, reincarnation has certainly not been empirically proven to be true by any means, and astrology is definitely not something you can assume to be true without some plausible theory of how it works. Bache is the kind of intellectual that will say something is true without a shadow of a doubt, yet will proudly claim that the exact nature of how it works or why it’s real cannot be known. (Biggest example: reincarnation.)
I had big hopes from a philosophy professor’s earnest take on spirituality through psychedelics. It is clear, however, that his grip on reality is wanting.
April 26, 2023
5 stars for the concept. Doing heroic doses of LSD systematically and recording trips and using different spirituality knowledge to interpret what happened is very respectable effort. However I admit that somewhere after halfway of the book I started to lose interest in theories represented. Problem in spirituality is that the more you say about reality the more you say wrong. I guess I would have enjoyed if the book had been shorter with more condensed content. Also other interpretations and theories for what was experienced would have been nice.
April 9, 2025
I am highly disappointed.
This book was made to make people suffer: this man took all those LSD trips with the intention to make a book out of it and writes about all these great revelations he had- while being miserable and suffering.
In my opinion this man was lost and tried to find some sense in life and why some people are doing better than others. This book made me really feel miserable and depressed at times - I hope he gets the help he needs!
DO NOT RECOMMEND UNLESS YOU WANT TO FEEL DEPRESSED.
This book was made to make people suffer: this man took all those LSD trips with the intention to make a book out of it and writes about all these great revelations he had- while being miserable and suffering.
In my opinion this man was lost and tried to find some sense in life and why some people are doing better than others. This book made me really feel miserable and depressed at times - I hope he gets the help he needs!
DO NOT RECOMMEND UNLESS YOU WANT TO FEEL DEPRESSED.
September 25, 2023
I listened to this on audio and have been telling all my friends about it. It has instantly become my favorite book.
The magnitude of Mr Bache’s work is breathtaking. He is truly a Bodhisattva. His description of pressing on despite the pain and anguish has inspired me in my own life to press on, to be curious to see what is on the other side of my own suffering.
Mr Bache’s meticulous methods and rigorous accountability lend an air of authority to his conclusions. And his description of why he stopped his research was both beautiful and heartbreaking.
This book has enriched my life on the very deepest level. Thank you Mr Bache, you are truly inspirational.
The magnitude of Mr Bache’s work is breathtaking. He is truly a Bodhisattva. His description of pressing on despite the pain and anguish has inspired me in my own life to press on, to be curious to see what is on the other side of my own suffering.
Mr Bache’s meticulous methods and rigorous accountability lend an air of authority to his conclusions. And his description of why he stopped his research was both beautiful and heartbreaking.
This book has enriched my life on the very deepest level. Thank you Mr Bache, you are truly inspirational.
May 9, 2021
Not a very logical/scientific minded guy
October 16, 2021
twenty years of tripping and nothing to show for it but new-age twaddle and cliche. What a waste of my time.
June 28, 2022
Between 1979 and 1999 the author, Professor Christopher Bache, took LSD on 73 occasions, each of them a high dose. This book is the story of that journey of exploration, a journey which took him so far beyond the realms of conventional drug experience that this quickly becomes a book not about the drug itself but about spirituality and the infinite.
The book resonated with me enormously for two reasons: first, I myself took the sacrament some 20 to 30 times – unlike the author I wasn’t counting – between 1979 and 1990; and second, through a completely different medium, Tantra, I myself reached one of the waypoints which Chris Bache reached in his experiences of infinite universal power. So great was my resonance with this book that I got in touch with the author even before I had finished it.
LSD is not like other drugs. Indeed, there is an argument for saying that it is not a drug at all. What was always apparent to me when I took it was that I was not under the influence of the drug itself, but rather that the drug was a catalyst which simply released an experience which was already latent within my mind. As someone once wrote: acid is simply a trigger which fires a loaded gun.
My use of the word ‘sacrament’ above will make some people blanch, but it is neither a pretention nor a conceit. From the first time I took it I felt like I was touching the sacred, so the use of the word comes completely naturally to me. I am not alone in this: shamanic rituals all over the world have used what my Tantra teacher called ‘teacher plants’ from time immemorial: peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, yucca, kava, ayahuasca…
My resonance with the early trips in the book was on a relatively superficial level. Like the author, my experiences of LSD were imbued with extraordinary significance and enormous surges of awareness of underlying realities, but which had little staying power in my day-to-day life beyond a couple of weeks after each trip. This is the fundamental reason why few people have chosen psychedelics as the main route through which they have sought spiritual awareness – Chris Bache being very much an exception – as opposed to just using them to provide the odd boost along the way.
As I read on, I found myself nodding sagely as some of his descriptions triggered memories from decades past: seeing things with a crystal clarity and level of detail never experienced before, seeing eternity in a grain of sand, the rules of time being bent, not being able to remember one’s own name – or, to be more accurate, knowing that one could remember it if one needed to but not being inclined to make the effort required - a feeling of having reverted to a primal state of humanity in which we are still deeply connected to nature.
This last point is a strange one in the context of the book. Professor Bache took his 73 trips in a single indoor location and using the same background music each time. He had his reasons for doing this, but it strikes me as a strange approach given quite how strong a feeling of connection with nature acid produces in people. To me nothing was ever as enjoyable on an acid trip as being out amongst the birds and trees and feeling the connection between all parts of nature; deliberately cutting himself off from that fundamental acid experience seems a strange choice to me.
On the other hand, having once had a session in an isolation tank I can confirm that, far from the experience being an internal and claustrophobic one, it felt more like a journey into infinite space. I did at one point consider dropping acid and going into an isolation tank, which I think might have been an experiment not dissimilar to the indoor approach taken by the author, but I never went beyond just thinking about it.
Midway through the book the author began to have experiences which went beyond the ‘normal’ experience whereby LSD gives one insight into the universe, and he moved into the realms of direct personal experience with an infinite universal energy. Those experiences again resonated with me, though by virtue of an incident which occurred through the study of Tantra, rather than though LSD.
My common experience with the author in this realm involved an experience of being at the centre of a vortex of infinite universal power, with all its power channelling directly through me between ‘heaven’ and the earth. This description of a ‘vortex’ – though ‘tornado’ would also do - is particularly resonant because it is too specific for there to be any doubt as to the commonality of our experiences.
My experience was a significant signpost in my life which convinced me that, in Bache’s words “the circumstances of my life were filled with deliberate purpose and intent” and that "there is a deep logic and significance to the circumstances of [my life]" (quotes which relate to experiences of the author which were much deeper than my own, of which more later). Again in the words of the author "I am unable to re-create the details of what I saw… This does not lead me to question or doubt my experience. Even though I have lost large sections of the experience, I retain an unshakable epistemological certainty that this knowing was of a higher order of knowing than any I am capable of in my ordinary consciousness."
It was this commonality of experience which led me to contact the author, particularly as we had reached the same waypoint from different approaches, but after that moment of commonality the author’s journey took him far beyond anywhere I have ever reached in mine. At times this journey was difficult to follow. This sentence is not untypical: “My encounter with the Living Forces of archetypal reality at the high subtle level seemed to awaken in me a capacity to experience the sinews of humanity’s collective being at a lower subtle level”. There were sections of the book which I simply didn’t follow. As these sections never lasted more than 3 or 4 pages I simply ploughed through them, at the end of which I invariably picked up the thread again. I didn’t mind that; taking acid is like riding a bull – the tripper isn’t in control but is simply hanging on during a wild ride – so I was comfortable that reading a book about acid had a similar characteristic, particularly given that by the end of the book the overall journey was fully understood, with just some of the details a little hazy.
And where that overall journey took Chris Bache is extraordinary. The vision revealed to the author is as follows. (Spoiler alert, if one can have spoilers in respect of works of non-fiction.)
Acid gave him insight into the collective unconscious. Having had the experience of tripping with a friend and the two of us having identical thoughts at identical moments – I won’t go into detail but this wasn’t simply perception but rather was objectively verified afterwards – I can confirm from first-hand experience with acid that it is possible to have thoughts which are not uniquely one’s own.
As per the author’s revelations, part of the collective unconscious seems to stem from the fact that we are souls who have multiple reincarnations, and that we therefore have aggregated knowledge of multiple lives. After each life we go through a debrief and a period of assimilation of the knowledge acquired in that life, before choosing a new life into which to return to Earth, but with our memories duly wiped.
The knowledge revealed to Chris Bache is that humanity is about to go through a massive process of disruption and suffering caused by climate change, at the end of which we will have a collective spiritual breakthrough as a species, effectively reaching nirvana on Earth (though there are apparently further nirvanas beyond). This spiritual breakthrough will occur as a result of the collective revelation to all humanity of the multiple incarnations we have all been living and the constant cycle of rebirth. When people realise that they have been oppressor, oppressed, rich, poor, powerful and powerless, and of every gender, creed and colour multiple times in multiple lives, and will be again, and that their present incarnation is a brief and temporary one, then they will start to think along communal lines and to act to promote the common good of humanity, rather than towards achieving a temporary personal advantage in a short-term incarnation.
Whilst I love this image, I must, as should we all, remain sceptical (though purely in the philosophical sense) as to experiences related to me by others but which I have not experienced myself. That said, something about this vision of reincarnation and mass-revelation resonated with me in a way which I believe goes marginally beyond mere appeal, as if there were a hint of recognition about it. We each must seek our own path and, although reading Chris Bache’s book may well prove to be a significant event and waypoint on my own journey, it is his journey which is being described in the book and not mine. If my journey eventually leads to the same destinations as those which Chris Bache’s reached, then there is literally nothing which could make me, or indeed the rest of humanity, happier.
The book resonated with me enormously for two reasons: first, I myself took the sacrament some 20 to 30 times – unlike the author I wasn’t counting – between 1979 and 1990; and second, through a completely different medium, Tantra, I myself reached one of the waypoints which Chris Bache reached in his experiences of infinite universal power. So great was my resonance with this book that I got in touch with the author even before I had finished it.
LSD is not like other drugs. Indeed, there is an argument for saying that it is not a drug at all. What was always apparent to me when I took it was that I was not under the influence of the drug itself, but rather that the drug was a catalyst which simply released an experience which was already latent within my mind. As someone once wrote: acid is simply a trigger which fires a loaded gun.
My use of the word ‘sacrament’ above will make some people blanch, but it is neither a pretention nor a conceit. From the first time I took it I felt like I was touching the sacred, so the use of the word comes completely naturally to me. I am not alone in this: shamanic rituals all over the world have used what my Tantra teacher called ‘teacher plants’ from time immemorial: peyote, psilocybin mushrooms, yucca, kava, ayahuasca…
My resonance with the early trips in the book was on a relatively superficial level. Like the author, my experiences of LSD were imbued with extraordinary significance and enormous surges of awareness of underlying realities, but which had little staying power in my day-to-day life beyond a couple of weeks after each trip. This is the fundamental reason why few people have chosen psychedelics as the main route through which they have sought spiritual awareness – Chris Bache being very much an exception – as opposed to just using them to provide the odd boost along the way.
As I read on, I found myself nodding sagely as some of his descriptions triggered memories from decades past: seeing things with a crystal clarity and level of detail never experienced before, seeing eternity in a grain of sand, the rules of time being bent, not being able to remember one’s own name – or, to be more accurate, knowing that one could remember it if one needed to but not being inclined to make the effort required - a feeling of having reverted to a primal state of humanity in which we are still deeply connected to nature.
This last point is a strange one in the context of the book. Professor Bache took his 73 trips in a single indoor location and using the same background music each time. He had his reasons for doing this, but it strikes me as a strange approach given quite how strong a feeling of connection with nature acid produces in people. To me nothing was ever as enjoyable on an acid trip as being out amongst the birds and trees and feeling the connection between all parts of nature; deliberately cutting himself off from that fundamental acid experience seems a strange choice to me.
On the other hand, having once had a session in an isolation tank I can confirm that, far from the experience being an internal and claustrophobic one, it felt more like a journey into infinite space. I did at one point consider dropping acid and going into an isolation tank, which I think might have been an experiment not dissimilar to the indoor approach taken by the author, but I never went beyond just thinking about it.
Midway through the book the author began to have experiences which went beyond the ‘normal’ experience whereby LSD gives one insight into the universe, and he moved into the realms of direct personal experience with an infinite universal energy. Those experiences again resonated with me, though by virtue of an incident which occurred through the study of Tantra, rather than though LSD.
My common experience with the author in this realm involved an experience of being at the centre of a vortex of infinite universal power, with all its power channelling directly through me between ‘heaven’ and the earth. This description of a ‘vortex’ – though ‘tornado’ would also do - is particularly resonant because it is too specific for there to be any doubt as to the commonality of our experiences.
My experience was a significant signpost in my life which convinced me that, in Bache’s words “the circumstances of my life were filled with deliberate purpose and intent” and that "there is a deep logic and significance to the circumstances of [my life]" (quotes which relate to experiences of the author which were much deeper than my own, of which more later). Again in the words of the author "I am unable to re-create the details of what I saw… This does not lead me to question or doubt my experience. Even though I have lost large sections of the experience, I retain an unshakable epistemological certainty that this knowing was of a higher order of knowing than any I am capable of in my ordinary consciousness."
It was this commonality of experience which led me to contact the author, particularly as we had reached the same waypoint from different approaches, but after that moment of commonality the author’s journey took him far beyond anywhere I have ever reached in mine. At times this journey was difficult to follow. This sentence is not untypical: “My encounter with the Living Forces of archetypal reality at the high subtle level seemed to awaken in me a capacity to experience the sinews of humanity’s collective being at a lower subtle level”. There were sections of the book which I simply didn’t follow. As these sections never lasted more than 3 or 4 pages I simply ploughed through them, at the end of which I invariably picked up the thread again. I didn’t mind that; taking acid is like riding a bull – the tripper isn’t in control but is simply hanging on during a wild ride – so I was comfortable that reading a book about acid had a similar characteristic, particularly given that by the end of the book the overall journey was fully understood, with just some of the details a little hazy.
And where that overall journey took Chris Bache is extraordinary. The vision revealed to the author is as follows. (Spoiler alert, if one can have spoilers in respect of works of non-fiction.)
Acid gave him insight into the collective unconscious. Having had the experience of tripping with a friend and the two of us having identical thoughts at identical moments – I won’t go into detail but this wasn’t simply perception but rather was objectively verified afterwards – I can confirm from first-hand experience with acid that it is possible to have thoughts which are not uniquely one’s own.
As per the author’s revelations, part of the collective unconscious seems to stem from the fact that we are souls who have multiple reincarnations, and that we therefore have aggregated knowledge of multiple lives. After each life we go through a debrief and a period of assimilation of the knowledge acquired in that life, before choosing a new life into which to return to Earth, but with our memories duly wiped.
The knowledge revealed to Chris Bache is that humanity is about to go through a massive process of disruption and suffering caused by climate change, at the end of which we will have a collective spiritual breakthrough as a species, effectively reaching nirvana on Earth (though there are apparently further nirvanas beyond). This spiritual breakthrough will occur as a result of the collective revelation to all humanity of the multiple incarnations we have all been living and the constant cycle of rebirth. When people realise that they have been oppressor, oppressed, rich, poor, powerful and powerless, and of every gender, creed and colour multiple times in multiple lives, and will be again, and that their present incarnation is a brief and temporary one, then they will start to think along communal lines and to act to promote the common good of humanity, rather than towards achieving a temporary personal advantage in a short-term incarnation.
Whilst I love this image, I must, as should we all, remain sceptical (though purely in the philosophical sense) as to experiences related to me by others but which I have not experienced myself. That said, something about this vision of reincarnation and mass-revelation resonated with me in a way which I believe goes marginally beyond mere appeal, as if there were a hint of recognition about it. We each must seek our own path and, although reading Chris Bache’s book may well prove to be a significant event and waypoint on my own journey, it is his journey which is being described in the book and not mine. If my journey eventually leads to the same destinations as those which Chris Bache’s reached, then there is literally nothing which could make me, or indeed the rest of humanity, happier.
April 5, 2025
Bache couragously shares his adventures in the sprawling Infinity of the Universe. His own consciousness is his spaceship, LSD is the rocket fuel. Through detailed recollections of 70 tightly controlled trips over two decades, Chris shares his experiences and insights. The ideas are often come from his firsthand experiences of the spiritual concepts that humans have had for millenia: Each human life is part of the underlying creative, benevolent consciousness which has given birth to the cosmos, and cares for its creations deeply. Love is part of every physics equation, our universe is saturated with it. Our job throughout our lifetime on earth is to align ourselves with the Universe, our Creator, to study its powers of creativity and love and exercise them in our own lives. I feel firm in this conviction and yet still recognize the grand and unfathomable complexity of this world we find ourselves in. There is so much we have to learn, and Bache, one human cannot possibly provide all answers. But one thing is clear: We must love and create and push onwards into the infinite mystery of the universe. We are all in this Earth School together.
December 13, 2025
Mind shattering, while at times sobering- this is an intense book. I loved it. I probably read it too fast to absorb all of what he was saying, but I don't believe that is possible on the first, or any read. This is a book to behold. It is an ultra fascinating journey to read about and I think anyone who has gone deep into any sort of spiritual practice will enjoy the read and get your face fairly blown off. Futurists, religious people, spiritual people, and certainly the psychedelic community have a lot to gain from reading this; I know I did. This is one to read with people, to discuss, and ultimately to just be in awe of. I'm going to say this was a top 10 read for me, all time. I'm grateful to Mr. Bache for letting us in on his journey, which feels like all of ours on some level. Yes - read this book, if you dare ;)
March 17, 2025
Fascinating account of a deep and courageous journey into psyche, consciousness and the cosmos. One of the challenges with these sorts of accounts is the inherent limitations of words to fully express these profound experiences, the numinous, but this author with his meticulous approach to his self-research and his writerly talents does a pretty darn good job.
October 11, 2024
Amundsen, Hillary, Burton, Bache. Thank you.
April 7, 2021
Chemically enforced insanity
I very much enjoyed this book but would advise against anybody dosing themselves up on LSD, there are other means of delving into higher realities.
I am going to add a couple of paragraphs from Jane Roberts book by Seth called The Nature of Personal Reality
Seth, the personality who speaks through author Jane Roberts, has this to say about “massive doses” of LSD in The Nature of Personal Reality (Prentice-Hall). Seth’s statements refer only to LSD, used under certain conditions; there are other chemical hallucinogens that are not mentioned.
“In therapy using massive doses of LSD, a condition of chemically enforced insanity takes place. By insanity, I mean a situation in which the conscious mind is forced into a state of powerlessness. There is a literal assault made not only upon the psyche, but upon the organizational framework that makes it possible for you to exist rationally in the world that you know. The ego, of course, cannot be annihilated in physical life. Kill one and another will, and must, emerge from the inner self which is its source.
“Under such enforced conditions, you are literally facing egotistical consciousness with its own death in an encounter that need not occur — and while the physical body is fighting for its own life and vitality. You are bringing about a dilemma of great proportions.
“The landscape of the psyche is indeed revealed, bringing good data to the psychiatrist. But the experiences undergone by the patients — and all of this applies to massive doses — represent the enactment, through terrible encounter, of the species’ birth into consciousness, and its death as consciousness falls back annihilated; followed by its rebirth as the individual patient struggles to emerge again from dimensions not native under those conditions.
“The deepest biological and psychic structures are altered. I did not say they were damaged, though they may be according to the situation. Consciousness is assaulted at its roots. When periods of transcendence are felt under such conditions, they represent the psychic birth of a new personality from the sources of the old, and from the death, psychically, of the old. In some cases the genetic messages have changed, in that they are different. This is psychic slaying in a technological framework.
“Under LSD you are highly suggestible. If you are told that the ego must die then you will kill it. You will telepathically follow the ideas of your guide under even the best of conditions. The psychic “rebirth” may leave you with a completely new set of problems, rising on the bed of the old and as yet undecipherable.
“The new ego is quite aware of the conditions of its birth. It knows it was born out of the death of its predecessor, and for all its feelings of transcendent joy, natural enough at its birth, it fears that annihilation from which it sprang.
“The natural creature-integrity is not the same. The physical world will never be trusted in quite the same way. The alliance with it is not as secure. The “self” that was born into the body, and grew with it, has gone, and another “self” has risen from that previous organization.
“Such self-changes happen naturally as life progresses, and when the self modulates at any given time, it is different from what it was. When this occurs “all by itself” it is an innate reflection of the psyche’s creativity and happens with its own rhythm — connected to seasons of the mind and blood and consciousness and cells in ways that you do not as yet understand. But the whole structure and its subsidiary relationships change together, and the conscious mind is able to assimilate what is happening.
“You grow and live through deaths that happen in you constantly, and travel through births within your lifetime that you do not comprehend. Such massive doses of LSD chemically activate all levels of cellular memory to such an extent that in certain terms they are no longer in charge of themselves, and the memories can then emerge unpredictably when the system is under stress. The fine biological and psychological alliance is now weakened.”
“Assaults upon your consciousness in such a manner challenge the stability of your species, and insult the integrity of your creaturehood. You may say that such chemicals are natural because they exist within the reality that you know, but the body is equipped to deal with ingredients that come from the earth.
I very much enjoyed this book but would advise against anybody dosing themselves up on LSD, there are other means of delving into higher realities.
I am going to add a couple of paragraphs from Jane Roberts book by Seth called The Nature of Personal Reality
Seth, the personality who speaks through author Jane Roberts, has this to say about “massive doses” of LSD in The Nature of Personal Reality (Prentice-Hall). Seth’s statements refer only to LSD, used under certain conditions; there are other chemical hallucinogens that are not mentioned.
“In therapy using massive doses of LSD, a condition of chemically enforced insanity takes place. By insanity, I mean a situation in which the conscious mind is forced into a state of powerlessness. There is a literal assault made not only upon the psyche, but upon the organizational framework that makes it possible for you to exist rationally in the world that you know. The ego, of course, cannot be annihilated in physical life. Kill one and another will, and must, emerge from the inner self which is its source.
“Under such enforced conditions, you are literally facing egotistical consciousness with its own death in an encounter that need not occur — and while the physical body is fighting for its own life and vitality. You are bringing about a dilemma of great proportions.
“The landscape of the psyche is indeed revealed, bringing good data to the psychiatrist. But the experiences undergone by the patients — and all of this applies to massive doses — represent the enactment, through terrible encounter, of the species’ birth into consciousness, and its death as consciousness falls back annihilated; followed by its rebirth as the individual patient struggles to emerge again from dimensions not native under those conditions.
“The deepest biological and psychic structures are altered. I did not say they were damaged, though they may be according to the situation. Consciousness is assaulted at its roots. When periods of transcendence are felt under such conditions, they represent the psychic birth of a new personality from the sources of the old, and from the death, psychically, of the old. In some cases the genetic messages have changed, in that they are different. This is psychic slaying in a technological framework.
“Under LSD you are highly suggestible. If you are told that the ego must die then you will kill it. You will telepathically follow the ideas of your guide under even the best of conditions. The psychic “rebirth” may leave you with a completely new set of problems, rising on the bed of the old and as yet undecipherable.
“The new ego is quite aware of the conditions of its birth. It knows it was born out of the death of its predecessor, and for all its feelings of transcendent joy, natural enough at its birth, it fears that annihilation from which it sprang.
“The natural creature-integrity is not the same. The physical world will never be trusted in quite the same way. The alliance with it is not as secure. The “self” that was born into the body, and grew with it, has gone, and another “self” has risen from that previous organization.
“Such self-changes happen naturally as life progresses, and when the self modulates at any given time, it is different from what it was. When this occurs “all by itself” it is an innate reflection of the psyche’s creativity and happens with its own rhythm — connected to seasons of the mind and blood and consciousness and cells in ways that you do not as yet understand. But the whole structure and its subsidiary relationships change together, and the conscious mind is able to assimilate what is happening.
“You grow and live through deaths that happen in you constantly, and travel through births within your lifetime that you do not comprehend. Such massive doses of LSD chemically activate all levels of cellular memory to such an extent that in certain terms they are no longer in charge of themselves, and the memories can then emerge unpredictably when the system is under stress. The fine biological and psychological alliance is now weakened.”
“Assaults upon your consciousness in such a manner challenge the stability of your species, and insult the integrity of your creaturehood. You may say that such chemicals are natural because they exist within the reality that you know, but the body is equipped to deal with ingredients that come from the earth.
April 12, 2020
Beautifully written book about experiences that are in truth indescribable. I am grateful that the author undertook such an arduous but amazing journey and in the process helped both himself and humanity heal some wounds.
August 18, 2022
"I took high doses of LSD 73 times, here are my trip reports" is a big promise. But Chris Bache writes better trip reports than anyone I know. And he's managed to distill these into a few arcs:
1. practicing dying: "ego death" isn't just a one time thing, you can get better at it
2. the ocean of suffering: maybe you can heal The Collective World a little, not just yourself?
3. reincarnation totally happens
4. the living classroom: he started having a ton of "magic" coincidences back in his regular life (and classes he teaches)
5. the future human: humanity is going through a big transformation right now
6. diamond luminosity: we are all really light, and to see that is life-changing
1 makes sense.
2, 3, and 5, who knows - they feel kind of un-falsifiable, kind of like whether there's a god, so I'm not that interested in a factual sense. They might be helpful beliefs (e.g. maybe reincarnation is comforting) so I'd take them in as much as they're helpful. (they could also be harmful, watch for that!)
4 is fascinating; I'd love to be in that classroom. I can imagine it being true, as being on a different wavelength might make you better able to pick up on details or find more coincidences. Apparently it was helpful to his students.
6 is... well, sounds life-changing for him, but I think even this experienced psychonaut's powers of description failed here. It sounds really nice! In a way that can produce life-altering positive effects: I bet he's pretty sure that the universe and consciousness are inherently good/loving/joyful/clear, which lessens fear of death and honestly fear of everything else too.
A lot of good details/tips for other travelers too (not that this was his goal):
- probably don't do 600 ug 73 times
- there's some kind of painful purification process almost every time; it's part of the process too, not just a necessary evil
- sometimes entire sessions will be "in the mud", that's ok
1. practicing dying: "ego death" isn't just a one time thing, you can get better at it
2. the ocean of suffering: maybe you can heal The Collective World a little, not just yourself?
3. reincarnation totally happens
4. the living classroom: he started having a ton of "magic" coincidences back in his regular life (and classes he teaches)
5. the future human: humanity is going through a big transformation right now
6. diamond luminosity: we are all really light, and to see that is life-changing
1 makes sense.
2, 3, and 5, who knows - they feel kind of un-falsifiable, kind of like whether there's a god, so I'm not that interested in a factual sense. They might be helpful beliefs (e.g. maybe reincarnation is comforting) so I'd take them in as much as they're helpful. (they could also be harmful, watch for that!)
4 is fascinating; I'd love to be in that classroom. I can imagine it being true, as being on a different wavelength might make you better able to pick up on details or find more coincidences. Apparently it was helpful to his students.
6 is... well, sounds life-changing for him, but I think even this experienced psychonaut's powers of description failed here. It sounds really nice! In a way that can produce life-altering positive effects: I bet he's pretty sure that the universe and consciousness are inherently good/loving/joyful/clear, which lessens fear of death and honestly fear of everything else too.
A lot of good details/tips for other travelers too (not that this was his goal):
- probably don't do 600 ug 73 times
- there's some kind of painful purification process almost every time; it's part of the process too, not just a necessary evil
- sometimes entire sessions will be "in the mud", that's ok
August 14, 2024
I thought a quote from Schopenhauer on the difference between philosophy and mysticism would be appropriate for this book: "The mystic starts from his inner, positive, individual experience, in which he finds himself as the eternal and only being and so on. But nothing of this is communicable except the assertions that we have to accept on his word; consequently he is unable to convince. The philosopher, on the other hand, starts from what is common to us all, the objective phenomenon lying before us all, and from the facts of self-consciousness as they are to be found in everyone. Therefore reflection on all of this, and the combination of the data given in it, are his method; for this reason he's able to convince. He should therefore beware of falling into the way of the mystics, and for instance, by assertions of intellectual intuitions, or of pretended immediate apprehensions of the faculty of reason, of trying to give in bright colours a positive knowledge of what is for ever inaccessible to all knowledge, or at most can be expressed only by a negation. Philosophy has its value and virtue in its rejection of all assumptions that cannot be substantiated, and in its acceptance as its data only of that which can be proved with certainty in the external world given by perception, in the forms constituting our intellect for the apprehension of the world, and in the consciousness of one's own self common to all. For this reason it must remain cosmology, and cannot become theology. Its theme must restrict itself to the world; to express from every aspect what this world is, what it may be on its innermost nature, is all that it can honestly achieve." (Vol II, book IV, chapter 48, Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation, 1844)
In other words: I missed some epistemic humility, but I should have expected this when it seemed necessary to add 'Ph.D' next to the author's name on the cover of the book.
In other words: I missed some epistemic humility, but I should have expected this when it seemed necessary to add 'Ph.D' next to the author's name on the cover of the book.
February 2, 2021
Just astonishing. It's hard to know exactly what to say about this; in the first place, more digestion is required. As a work of philosophical and spiritual inquiry, I think the significance of Bache's achievement would be difficult to overstate. Possibly there are other psychonauts as dedicated, courageous, and systematic as he is. If there are, we haven't yet heard from them in so public a fashion, and his book stands (as far as I'm aware) alone in the annals of this kind of transdimensional exploration. There have been several great accounts of visionary experience, but none quite like this, as far as I'm aware - a rigorous, multi-decade regimen of very high-dose LSD-catalyzed visionary experience, diligently recorded, and then related after many more years of integration and reflection. As a book, it struggles mightily with the difficulty of relating and describing the numinous and the ineffable, and where it falls short, manages instead to convey a sense of the magnitude of the experience, which is no small achievement in itself. Better still are the snippets of Bache's personal story - it works better as a kind of memoir or travelogue than it does as a work of systematic philosophy. Bache isn't a William James, he's more like an Ernest Shackleton, it seems, bravely venturing where very few mortals - possibly any - have ventured before, and returning to tell us that there is something enormous there, and beautiful, and it can be experienced and described.
August 27, 2024
Deeply moved by Christopher Bache's LSD account. The 73 trips flow together in a cohesive narrative I never really experienced before in these types reports. The description of the Cosmic consciousness is poetic and sometimes mind blowing. I also appreciate the great Stanislav Grof as a reference point throughout the different layers.
I just wish Bache could have taken a more critical approach to some of his experiences. There are a lot of far out ideas presented in this book and some of them would have benifited from a critical analysis. The end and rebirth of humanity for example, which seem to be be a common troope. Or reincarnation which I, similar to Bache, believe in, but sometimes we have to be challenged.
Nevertheless I really enjoyd Bache's story and I hope he will someday reunite with the diamond luminosity.
I just wish Bache could have taken a more critical approach to some of his experiences. There are a lot of far out ideas presented in this book and some of them would have benifited from a critical analysis. The end and rebirth of humanity for example, which seem to be be a common troope. Or reincarnation which I, similar to Bache, believe in, but sometimes we have to be challenged.
Nevertheless I really enjoyd Bache's story and I hope he will someday reunite with the diamond luminosity.
August 9, 2020
Bache has a beautiful heart and his sharing felt very meaningful.
I personally found it easy to really feel into his experiences and learning as he described them for most of the book. Near the later sessions though, that didn’t come very easily as they were so far beyond the extent of the places I have been that I had no inner reference for what it might feel or be like. However, that is when it got especially interesting at a philosophical level. Those experiences were incredibly fascinating to read.
I personally found it easy to really feel into his experiences and learning as he described them for most of the book. Near the later sessions though, that didn’t come very easily as they were so far beyond the extent of the places I have been that I had no inner reference for what it might feel or be like. However, that is when it got especially interesting at a philosophical level. Those experiences were incredibly fascinating to read.
December 19, 2020
The book contains nice informations and I appreciate the author’s vulnerability regarding his inner transformations and experiences. I liked that this was presented and taken as serious transformative work. Although, at points I found it annoying to read all the details, as it is a subjective experience, but the big picture was presented nicely.
Anyway, I think it would be more interesting and transformative to just go and experience it yourself.
Anyway, I think it would be more interesting and transformative to just go and experience it yourself.
Read
October 12, 2020Who can comment on this book? The man has the most singular of experiences imaginable and then tells the tale of his downloads from Source. Heck if i know. But it seems he either has balls of steel or is blowing smoke.
I think he sees himself as a savior in some sense, like he has taken on the suffering of the world in some quasi-christian legal theory of atonement sounding way. Like a karmic debt is to be paid, and the psychonaut pays it and and works to heal the collective psyche somehow
He followed this therapeutic protocol - to amplify your unconscious, to allow patterns to emerge into your awareness, and surrender to the experience. (He acknowledges intention isnt relevant at this high level of LSD use.) 200mcg of lsd is rec for therapeutic purposes. 400mcg and u can experience ego death. The author did between 500-600mcg 73 times over a couple decades with his wife as sitter for both spiritual awakening and cosmic exploration purposes. Journeys began with purging and then went into ecstatic states. The hell and pain he describes is “unimaginable”. Yet he looked forward to it because on the other side was a bliss that justified the price tag of the death and loss he just experienced.
Metzner says too high a dose and u can dissociate and not remember the experience or bring anything back. A dysphoric response can happen as well- you resist to loosing control and produce schizoid reactions and trauma.
The greatest danger in working with psychedelics is psychic inflation. You equate the profound experience with you being profound.
I am dancing with mind
I am expanding
I bore a hole in the universe bit didnt experience any plane to the fullest
In psychedelic work, you learn by becoming
The universe wants to be deeply known and will help you in this journey
“ i touched the center of my being and learned that i control the flow of creative energy into my life, as i opened this valve, my energy engaged the universes energy”
Human suffering is something we voluntarily took on.
All things are a diversified manifestation of a single entity
There was no outside to my being
The gods of this earth are culturaly language bound approximations to the divine but fall short.
Forget everything u have been taught abt God in order to know God
Being propelled into a deeper level of reality shakes loose impurities so as to be able to absorb purity
To experience oneness is to experience emptiness, no self
Our experience in space-time is a manifestation of the collective unconscious
We are cells in a super organism rapidly evolving
The west is collectively experiencing ego death
In shamanic combat, one conquers by surrendering
“ i saw that generations born in our period of history have been deliberately configured to precipitate an i tense cycle of collective purification. The poison of humanities past were being brought to tue surface n us, and by transforming these poisons in our individual lives, we were making it possible for divine awareness to enter more deeply into future generations. We had volunteered for both our personal good and the collective good...Debts put off for generations are coming due”
“ my system was storing energy activated in multiple sessions over hours, days, months, years, and using that stored energy to generate massive breakthroughs....Years of work for hours of communion”
I think he sees himself as a savior in some sense, like he has taken on the suffering of the world in some quasi-christian legal theory of atonement sounding way. Like a karmic debt is to be paid, and the psychonaut pays it and and works to heal the collective psyche somehow
He followed this therapeutic protocol - to amplify your unconscious, to allow patterns to emerge into your awareness, and surrender to the experience. (He acknowledges intention isnt relevant at this high level of LSD use.) 200mcg of lsd is rec for therapeutic purposes. 400mcg and u can experience ego death. The author did between 500-600mcg 73 times over a couple decades with his wife as sitter for both spiritual awakening and cosmic exploration purposes. Journeys began with purging and then went into ecstatic states. The hell and pain he describes is “unimaginable”. Yet he looked forward to it because on the other side was a bliss that justified the price tag of the death and loss he just experienced.
Metzner says too high a dose and u can dissociate and not remember the experience or bring anything back. A dysphoric response can happen as well- you resist to loosing control and produce schizoid reactions and trauma.
The greatest danger in working with psychedelics is psychic inflation. You equate the profound experience with you being profound.
I am dancing with mind
I am expanding
I bore a hole in the universe bit didnt experience any plane to the fullest
In psychedelic work, you learn by becoming
The universe wants to be deeply known and will help you in this journey
“ i touched the center of my being and learned that i control the flow of creative energy into my life, as i opened this valve, my energy engaged the universes energy”
Human suffering is something we voluntarily took on.
All things are a diversified manifestation of a single entity
There was no outside to my being
The gods of this earth are culturaly language bound approximations to the divine but fall short.
Forget everything u have been taught abt God in order to know God
Being propelled into a deeper level of reality shakes loose impurities so as to be able to absorb purity
To experience oneness is to experience emptiness, no self
Our experience in space-time is a manifestation of the collective unconscious
We are cells in a super organism rapidly evolving
The west is collectively experiencing ego death
In shamanic combat, one conquers by surrendering
“ i saw that generations born in our period of history have been deliberately configured to precipitate an i tense cycle of collective purification. The poison of humanities past were being brought to tue surface n us, and by transforming these poisons in our individual lives, we were making it possible for divine awareness to enter more deeply into future generations. We had volunteered for both our personal good and the collective good...Debts put off for generations are coming due”
“ my system was storing energy activated in multiple sessions over hours, days, months, years, and using that stored energy to generate massive breakthroughs....Years of work for hours of communion”
November 17, 2025
So far? Best book I’ve ever read. Most illuminating. Most personally and collectively meaningful. It takes a book like Wilber’s “Sex Ecology and Spirituality”, which sets out to describe a very concrete and rigorous philosophical framework to hold everything; all aspects of the universe at all levels. And it asks “what would it be like to EXPERIENCE it?“ The coherence and correspondences with everything else I’ve read is continuously mind-boggling, front to back.
This book can be very unsettling. Very destabilizing, depending on where you are at when you read it, depending on what is already understood about the nature of consciousness and one’s current relationship to it; I imagine that based on this, it could range from disconcerting to devastating. And yet. The gifts it has the capacity to give? Life changing.
In the month it took to read this book I feel I’ve been kicked up a few developmental notches. Like free candy. Deep wounds I didn’t know I had have surfaced and I’ve already begun the process of healing. For the first time in my life, a sense of genuine purpose has touched me, far beyond anything I’ve experienced. His story triggered my own distillation of my life, at my own level (certainly not beyond space and time or anything). The developmental trauma he experienced and healed at the end of his journey, while infinitely more severe than my own, mirrors EXACTLY the structure of the pain I’ve felt since I’ve begun my own journey. And his slip into the “sweet valley” of integration, while infinitely more sweet than my own, mirrors EXACTLY the structure of peace I’ve experienced since I’ve begun integrating my journey. So many mirrors in this book. I find genuine solidarity in it.
With the right structures, this book has the capacity to directly address some of life’s most intense existential pains. A book for a scientist and a pastor. A framework that holds space for Buddha, Marx, Jesus, and Einstein. Not in a blind “everyone is right” sorta way which resolves paradoxes by refusing to look at them and labeling that love. A genuine embrace will both feel right AND make sense. Christopher Bache understands this intimately.
It’s a book of our times. It speaks to so much beyond us, but if heard correctly, this will not diminish our individuality by making us feel small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Quite. The. Opposite. It will provide the structure and cosmic motivation we long for, within which we may genuinely engage the fullest extent of our individual expression (within the constraints of our material conditions). The challenge ahead of humanity calls for nothing less than our collective opening, so that each and every one of us may do exactly what we WANT to do, at every level; awaken.
This book can be very unsettling. Very destabilizing, depending on where you are at when you read it, depending on what is already understood about the nature of consciousness and one’s current relationship to it; I imagine that based on this, it could range from disconcerting to devastating. And yet. The gifts it has the capacity to give? Life changing.
In the month it took to read this book I feel I’ve been kicked up a few developmental notches. Like free candy. Deep wounds I didn’t know I had have surfaced and I’ve already begun the process of healing. For the first time in my life, a sense of genuine purpose has touched me, far beyond anything I’ve experienced. His story triggered my own distillation of my life, at my own level (certainly not beyond space and time or anything). The developmental trauma he experienced and healed at the end of his journey, while infinitely more severe than my own, mirrors EXACTLY the structure of the pain I’ve felt since I’ve begun my own journey. And his slip into the “sweet valley” of integration, while infinitely more sweet than my own, mirrors EXACTLY the structure of peace I’ve experienced since I’ve begun integrating my journey. So many mirrors in this book. I find genuine solidarity in it.
With the right structures, this book has the capacity to directly address some of life’s most intense existential pains. A book for a scientist and a pastor. A framework that holds space for Buddha, Marx, Jesus, and Einstein. Not in a blind “everyone is right” sorta way which resolves paradoxes by refusing to look at them and labeling that love. A genuine embrace will both feel right AND make sense. Christopher Bache understands this intimately.
It’s a book of our times. It speaks to so much beyond us, but if heard correctly, this will not diminish our individuality by making us feel small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Quite. The. Opposite. It will provide the structure and cosmic motivation we long for, within which we may genuinely engage the fullest extent of our individual expression (within the constraints of our material conditions). The challenge ahead of humanity calls for nothing less than our collective opening, so that each and every one of us may do exactly what we WANT to do, at every level; awaken.
August 6, 2022
I have about 10 pages to go to finish this book so I think I can write my review at this point.
I heard Prof. Christopher Bache's interview on Dr. Bernard Beitman's YouTube channel on coincidences. I was extremely impressed with Bache's way of being. I totally and completely trusted and believed him. He's extremely present, very humble, and speaks with incredible clarity. I myself have many synchronicities with him. He's a professor emeritus of philosophy of religion. I got my bachelor's degree in philosophy with a minor in religious studies. I focused on Buddhism and Hinduism. He is affiliated with the Institute of Noetic Sciences in San Rafael. I was a member and attended programs there when I lived in the Bay Area. He has also taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. I took classes there, too. I was so intrigued with these parallels, altho, of course, my level of education and accomplishment does not begin to touch his. I have been a spiritual seeker since the age of 17 and I'm now 71. I have participated in around 40 enlightenment intensives. I experienced that this is all an illusion with a much more real reality underneath and that "I" do not exist. It was so blissful that I could not stop crying for an entire month due to a state of overwhelm. I once had a spiritual experience on MDMA, when it was legal, in which beings inserted a large faceted diamond into my heart chakra. I was told to send light and love out to the world thru this diamond. I still practice this to today. This, too, comes close to Prof. Bache's experience. I experimented, recreationally though, in many LSD experiences in my youth. So all of these common experiences lead me to believe Prof. Bache.
This is the best book I have ever read on spiritual truth. I can hardly put it down. I have highlighted and flagged so many passages so that I can read it over again more quickly. It is what I have been looking for--a view into the Universe, the mind of God, if you will, an adventure into reality. It satisfies a lot of my perpetual curiosity. It reflects what many channels are now saying about the coming transformation of humanity from ego-centric systems, from "I" to "we." We are approaching Oneness and we're here to participate in a new world order and a whole new humanity.
I heard Prof. Christopher Bache's interview on Dr. Bernard Beitman's YouTube channel on coincidences. I was extremely impressed with Bache's way of being. I totally and completely trusted and believed him. He's extremely present, very humble, and speaks with incredible clarity. I myself have many synchronicities with him. He's a professor emeritus of philosophy of religion. I got my bachelor's degree in philosophy with a minor in religious studies. I focused on Buddhism and Hinduism. He is affiliated with the Institute of Noetic Sciences in San Rafael. I was a member and attended programs there when I lived in the Bay Area. He has also taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. I took classes there, too. I was so intrigued with these parallels, altho, of course, my level of education and accomplishment does not begin to touch his. I have been a spiritual seeker since the age of 17 and I'm now 71. I have participated in around 40 enlightenment intensives. I experienced that this is all an illusion with a much more real reality underneath and that "I" do not exist. It was so blissful that I could not stop crying for an entire month due to a state of overwhelm. I once had a spiritual experience on MDMA, when it was legal, in which beings inserted a large faceted diamond into my heart chakra. I was told to send light and love out to the world thru this diamond. I still practice this to today. This, too, comes close to Prof. Bache's experience. I experimented, recreationally though, in many LSD experiences in my youth. So all of these common experiences lead me to believe Prof. Bache.
This is the best book I have ever read on spiritual truth. I can hardly put it down. I have highlighted and flagged so many passages so that I can read it over again more quickly. It is what I have been looking for--a view into the Universe, the mind of God, if you will, an adventure into reality. It satisfies a lot of my perpetual curiosity. It reflects what many channels are now saying about the coming transformation of humanity from ego-centric systems, from "I" to "we." We are approaching Oneness and we're here to participate in a new world order and a whole new humanity.
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