April 13, 1967
(A note from Mother to Satprem, who is in a bad mood)
Satprem, my dear little one,
We’re still friends anyway!
Tenderness
Signed: Mother
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April 15, 1967
Have you read this report on LSD? What’s your impression?
It’s interesting. They have experiences that aren’t just on the level of brute sensation. That drug does release the consciousness, all the same.
(Mother remains silent)
It releases from the whole habit of formations.
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Ah, yes, that, surely.
But he himself says it’s better to begin with a guide.
But do you hold the same opinion after reading the end?
Because you hadn’t read the whole thing.
That it disrupts the being’s equilibrium is absolutely without doubt. And obviously, disrupting one equilibrium may lead you to a higher equilibrium. But there is a risk.
(silence)
It’s probably part of the preparations. Only, the results may be catastrophic enough.
It could be part of a scientific discipline. But then, that’s how it should be done, as a discipline, and under the supervision of those who know.
You see, he takes great care not to say anything about the harmful effects. I have personally met two people who had done the experiment and had met with dreadful effects – they decided never to touch it again in their lives.
They are very careful not to say anything about that.
It should be done as a discipline of education, with all necessary safeguard and supervision.
It’s the same as all the rest: it’s the method that starts from below. The true method starts from above – it’s more difficult, less spectacular, and it takes more time.
From the standpoint of study and observation, it’s very interesting. But it should be done scientifically, in a spirit of discipline and almost consecration, as a means of study.
Of course, just the contact with a small amount of the Force from above disturbs many people’s minds; so here, I think the effect would be very widespread.
It’s a risk one has to take.
If someone – someone conscious, who already knows much, has much self-mastery and control over his reactions – does it as a means of study, it can be very interesting. But giving it to a poor devil who knows nothing and is hurled into it out of curiosity can be disastrous.
(silence)
In the last part, what he calls the “cellular level” is indeed the description – ONE description – of cellular phenomena and activities
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on their level of consciousness, and also on the level of consciousness of the infinitesimal. He speaks of “great currents” and “cellular transformations” and all that; it’s quite correct, only …[[This is the description (retranslated from the French) of the "cellular level" by Dr. Timothy Leary, psychologist and professor at the Harvard University: "Huge aggregates of cells are impelled and the consciousness whirls about in strange landscapes for which there exist neither words nor concepts. LSD reveals cellular dialogues imperceptible to the normal state of consciousness, for which we have no adequate symbolic terms. You become aware of processes you never sensed before. You feel yourself sinking into the soft swamps of your own body's tissues, slowly drifting below dark red aqueducts, floating through endless capillary factories, gently propelled through endless factories of cells, grandfather clocks of fibers tirelessly jingling, clinking, tinkling, pumping. This experience is striking when you have it for the first time; it can also be a dreadful, frightening and at the same time marvelous experience...." Then his description of the "precellular level": "Your nervous cells become aware, as Einstein did, that all matter, ail structure is nothing but pulsating energy. Your body and the world around you dissolve into a sparkling lattice of white waves. You have penetrated matter's intimate structure and vibrate in harmony with its primeval and cosmic pulse." ]] It’s what is going on at present, but it’s precisely the consciousness brought down to the scale of the infinitesimal. And it’s a reproduction of what takes place in the other dimensions. But, for instance, with all this discipline of the cells that has been going on for … several years now, his description strikes me as the same thing SEEN THROUGH AN ILLUSION. And the illusion is caused by that very imbalance: the illusion of an absolute reality, while it’s a quite relative reality. You understand, it’s the difference between seeing something with a sense of relativity, with a whole immensity of other things, and seeing it all alone as an exclusive and unique reality. It’s the sense of the harmony and equilibrium of the Whole that is gone. And so, it becomes “awesome”: as he says, some people may find it frightening. And that’s precisely because that equilibrium is missing. It’s the same thing, on a very small scale, in a personality: that vision of the whole which gives the proportion of every event, the importance of every event and everything, changes completely when you have the sense of the Whole, and what appears, as he says, frightening or catastrophic or marvelous becomes again just a part of the Whole. It’s the sense of equilibrium that is gone. When I read the end, it gave me one more confirmation of my experience.
It may be necessary, in certain cases, to disrupt that equilibrium so as to come into contact with something new, but that’s always dangerous. And the way of consecration and surrender to the supreme Power is infinitely superior – it’s slightly more difficult. It’s more difficult than swallowing a drug, but infinitely superior.
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We could call it “yoga within everyone’s reach”! But … it’s not without danger.
And they say a considerable number of people are taking it….
(silence)
That the Force is working is without a shadow of doubt, and that this is the result of the action of the Force is also without a shadow of doubt.
There are other, very interesting examples. There’s a Burmese (you may have heard of this) who has just received a “peace prize.” He has written an article (he is Burmese, I don’t know which language he wrote it in, but it has been published in French in a Swiss newspaper), in which he says what everybody knows, but also what everybody forgets: that if all the money wasted on preparing means of destruction were used for the progress of human well-being, it could work wonders. And he adds (I can’t quote him exactly): for that to be done, men – nations and men – should stop distrusting and fearing each other, and should live in the sense of unity. And he says, if, for that, HUMAN NATURE HAS TO CHANGE, it’s high time it changed and we must all work for that to happen.
I am extremely happy to hear this. Here is a man who has caught the true thing. [[Mother is referring to U Thant, secretary-general of the United Nations. U.N.O., April 10, 1967: “That a fraction of the amounts that are going to be spent in 1967 on arms could finance economic, social, national and world programs to an extent so far unimaginable is a notion within the grasp of the man in the street. Men, if they unite, are now capable of foreseeing and, to a certain point, determining the future of human development. This, however, is possible only if we stop fearing and harassing one another and if together we accept, welcome and prepare the changes that must inevitably take place. If this means a change in human nature, well, it is high time we worked for it; what must surely change is certain political attitudes and habits man has.” (La Suisse, Geneva, April 10, 1967, translated from the French). ]]
And it’s beginning to spread. In Korea, too, there is someone who says the same thing and is known by thousands of people. They are all asking for the change in [human] nature, for a “new consciousness.”
(long silence)
There is something interesting in this cellular consciousness: they have a sense of sincerity which is much sharper, and what they call in English exacting, than in the vital and the mind (even the material vital and mind). There is a sort of absoluteness in the sincerity which is very remarkable, and they have a severity towards
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each other which is quite wonderful. It’s extremely interesting. If anything, any part, any movement, tries to cheat, they catch it like this (gesture of nipping it and wringing its neck), and in such a sharp and precise way…. In all vital or mental movements, there is always a kind of (sinuous gesture) suppleness, something that tries to adapt itself – while here, oh … it’s like this (inflexible gesture). So when there is invocation, prayer, self-giving, surrender, trust, all those things become so pure – so pure, so crystalline, you know, that … oh!
And there is a growing conviction that a perfection realized in this very Matter is a FAR MORE perfect perfection than anywhere else. That’s what gives it a stability it has nowhere else…. When there is the great offering and also the joyous self-giving, joyous surrender, if something comes in with even a very slight self-interest – for instance, a suffering in some little corner (a pain or disorder), which hopes for or wishes or expects some improvement – then it gets caught like this (same gesture of nipping and wringing its neck) and it’s told, “Oh, insincere one! Give yourself without condition.” Then it’s magnificent.
It’s very interesting.
And this joy, this enthusiasm at the possibility: that being wholly sincere should be POSSIBLE; that it should be, I might almost say, allowed (these are words): “Life is such a disorder and muddle of insincerity that THAT is really what is expected of us, THAT; THAT is what’s permitted, THAT is what must be realized: to be absolute in the joy of self-giving.” It’s a marvel, a marvel!
Also, the contact with all those beings of the Overmind, all those gods, all those Entities, all those divinities…. There is here, in the cells, a sort of … (what can I call it?) rectitude, and, yes, sincerity and honesty that says, “Oh, what fuss they make! How all this is (Mother puffs up her cheeks) puff! puff! swollen up.” It’s very interesting, really very interesting. The vision of the world is quite different. It’s far more honest – far more honest, far more sincere, far more straightforward. It’s strange.
The consciousness expressed in transformed cells is a marvel. It justifies all those ages of misery. Reaching that was really worth the trouble. Really worth the trouble.
Especially all pretense, all exaggeration, all vanity, oh, it’s all gazed at as through the ingenuous eyes of a very pure child (it’s much better than that! The comparison is invidious).
(silence)
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There is also a sort of internal code of regulations. When there is a pain somewhere, something that goes awry, you should see the others’ attitude! … A sternness that first says (I have to translate, and it loses all its charm), but first it begins with, “Don’t you make such a fuss and to-do” (or “don’t you all,” it depends). Then, a pressure to surrender. And that action to make the Light circulate everywhere…. I am translating; with the translation, the mind always mixes in, unfortunately. The thing in itself doesn’t think itself – it doesn’t think itself, doesn’t watch itself be, it’s very spontaneous. Very spontaneous and, therefore, very sincere. It’s pretty.
It’s like an immense society, you understand.
And during the work there are … (what should I call them?) aggregates, or very small groups of cells that have retained imprints, imprints made on them. Or sometimes here (gesture to the brain), but here it’s full of a great light like that, compact; still there are corners – many dark nooks and crannies – and the memory of the circumstances, events, sensations, perceptions that built the imprint unfolds all of a sudden: it’s all seen in the new Light, to be done away with. And then … yes, as they[ [The followers of LSD. ]] say, you “travel,” you travel in an immense world, indeed; and it’s not things from the past, it’s … an immense Present in which you travel.
Only, you travel consciously and at your own will, rather than through the effect of a drug. That’s superior.
This morning again, the lesson was repeated with, for instance, bits of old things still clinging, reactions, small movements (inner movements): “Only one solution, one single solution: self-annulment, perfect self-giving, the surrender of everything.”
Then there’s the joy of Light – the beauty, the joy … a splendor!
(silence)
It’s the only remedy.
Naturally, everything is good, everything is possible, [[Mother is alluding to LSD. ]] but … it seems to be a very circuitous route to come to the same place.
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