Tantric psychedelics

Above I link to two YouTube clips featuring Dharma Bodhi from Trika Mahasiddha Yoga, a Tantric group based in the jungles of Costa Rica (sic). Mr Bodhi seems to be American, however. The practices of this particular group are said to be inspired by Vajrayana, Bön and Trika (Kashmir Shaivism), but perhaps with their own twists and turns. Dharma Bodhi is planning to write a book about his system. Meanwhile, we can follow him on this channel and on Facebook. And no, he doesn´t like Franklin Jones! 

The two clips linked to above are about psychedelic drugs and their uses in spirituality. What I found interesting is that Mahasiddha Yoga doesn´t completely reject the use of psilocybin, soma and other hallucinogenic drugs. They *can* play a positive role: as an eye-opener to spiritual realities for atheists, or a reminder of their existence for true believers. Indeed, the narrator believes that the taking of such drugs played an important role in the ancient community rituals of many cultures. Psychedelics can also play a therapeutic role. Finally, they can even be used in Tantric meditation - some of the examples given sound, frankly, crazy! Imagine meditating in a closed room filled with hash smoke, hash leaves, hash, hash, hash...not even a hippie would do this... 

Ultimately, however, psychotropic drugs cannot lead to enlightenment, or non-dual consciousness of the Base ("Base" seems to be the name used for the Divine in this system). If you really want to reach the Base and abide in it, more "regular" methods of meditation are needed. That answer was unsurprising, but on the web, it´s usually an either-or proposition. You either think everything you see during a DMT trip is literally true (and literally Divine), or you reject psychedelics completely. It´s a bit ironic that it takes a Tantrika group to stake out the middle ground on an issue like this one!