Understanding the Maya's Triple Rebirth Metaphor of 2012 (cont.)
By Thomas Razzeto
The Real Message of 2012: The Stages of Personal Spiritual Development
Archaeological evidence shows that people in Mesoamerica over three-thousand years ago began to track not only the stars and the planets but also precession. At that time, they also began to explore the full nature of reality via psychedelic rituals. The knowledge and wisdom from both of these things developed for over a thousand years and then came together in the creation of the Maya Long Count calendar.
Some people will point out that the use of mind-altering chemicals will not help you find out anything at all about reality; it will only help you find out about hallucinations. This point is worthy of much discussion but for our purposes now, I will simply offer one point for contemplation. One experience that the shamans reported was direct, personal interaction with spirit entities, often repeatedly with the same entities. If you were a shaman, could you imagine an entity from the other world greeting you with the following words: “So you have decided yet again to visit me and still you wonder if I am really real. But I have a question for you. How do you know if your own world is not just happening in your head? How do you even know if you yourself are not just an illusion?”
While I do find those questions interesting, let's get back to our subject. The shamans could have also experienced astral projection. While this subject is fairly complex, it is very clear that in the opinion of those who do this, these experiences leave no doubt that a materialist worldview is woefully incomplete. Just this realization would be worthy of the rebirth metaphor yet I believe that the Maya shamans went much further than this.
In his book Tryptamine Palace, James Oroc describes the effects of the psychedelic chemical from the Bufo toad. By the way, this chemical is called 5-MeO-DMT and it has different effects from other types of DMT from different sources. Now, it is important that I clearly point out that this chemical is both illegal and risky. Used incorrectly, it can lead to a sudden and fatal heart attack. Remember, it comes from the poison gland of a large toad. Because of this, I strongly recommend meditation rather than psychedelics as a tool for self-discovery. But let's continue. Oroc states that he had the experience of being “consciousness without identity.” Since this is sometimes reported by others who have used this drug, it is extremely likely that at least some of the ancient Maya shamans also had this experience and it is my opinion that this experience can lead to the deepest awakening of all: the direct, personal discovery of the true, fundamental self - the One Awareness - which is much deeper than your personal consciousness, which is part of what Oroc calls “identity.”
Your True Self
In other words, what you think of as your personal consciousness is simply the One Awareness looking out through your own eyes! This is happening to you right now and it has been happening to you your entire life! What was created when you were born was not a new personal consciousness but a new viewpoint from which the One Awareness experiences the world! Your true self is the One Awareness, not the sentient being you have considered yourself to be all your life.
Now, not everyone who uses the chemicals from the toad awakens to this new understanding of the self, which is a core ingredient of what some people call “enlightenment.” Yet the people that don't wake up to the true self often still wake up to the idea that there is a greater spiritual reality behind our ordinary physical reality. This is like waking up or being born into a spiritual world. This is why it can be said that the unfolding of this spiritual understanding has three births. Let's take a look at them.