Jodorowsky (a rapist, but let's ignore that for a bit) provides compelling insight into why gurus and magicians play tricks on their apprentices: to fool them into believing miracles, so true magic can take place.

This clues us into the the CIA might torture psychedelic users:

It is rather obvious to any informed user that psychedelics are the psychiatric equivalent of the "yogi medicine" of Hindus, which can manifest supernatural powers -- or, if things go wrong, insanity.

Source: Iyengar, bestselling yoga teacher, p. 246

By stalking and harassing psychedelic users, and inciting fear and instability, the potential for magical powers (or siddhis) is effectively cut off at the root.

Instead of developing into seeing miracles as possible, the psychonaut develops as a paranoid schizophrenic.

An alternative route to dealing with individuals manifesting siddhis is to treat them as a capitalist commodity, and encourage them to become popular artists or teachers. This boosts the economy, but still runs the risk of letting them attain too much power individually.

In this case, it seems that governments will sit on compromising information about such magicians, miracle-workers, and yogis -- putting those who are easily controlled or directed through the social order into the spotlight. The Greys, Jodorowsky, Pinchbeck, etc.

When it boils down to it, being a popular artist or spiritual leader doesn't constitute much more than being able to willfully manifest a spiritual vision into the dreamlike reality that we all share.

So of course, the best way to control those popular artists, drawing from intense spiritual proficiency, is through common human denominators -- wealth, sexuality, fear of violence, mind control -- things that are institutionally or biologically difficult to reckon with sanely.

This strikes me as a huge wasted potential of the human race, instead used to serve those who worship war and control instead of peace and beauty.

Not to sound like a flower child, or anything.

And of course, there's a violent yin-yang happening here!

Those who worship war inevitably rely on the magicians who preach spiritual refinement, and those who preach spiritual refinement inevitably rely on those who worship war.

So it's really impossible to take sides in such an orgy.

To me, part of the appeal of Buddhism is NOT to fetishize on one's siddhis -- and merely to notice them as the side-effects of spiritual progress, and to be deluded into any kind of extravagance or karmic missteps.

In any case, back to Jodorowsky -- I disagree with the idea that apprentices should be "tricked" into believing miracles. That is some CoSM/CIA shit.

Those who experience siddhis naturally are already inclined to believe, and those who don't shouldn't be forced into schizotypy.

And those who do believe already should take note of siddhis and miracles as signposts on the way to something greater (why wouldn't there be?), rather than celebrate such a nondual achievement in and of itself.

As soon as you fetishize the siddhis, you put yourself at risk of being coopted by an agent -- whether government, spiritual, or both.

Besides: once you start believing in karmic imprints between lives (whatever that means), and realizing Good always carries forward, there's not much threat in being persecuted or lifted up materially. There's only doing Good.

I see a lot of kids tuning into these powers lately (thanks a lot, darknet).

For the reasons described above: without spiritual preparation, that's really just going to give more control over to capitalism and oppressive governments -- almost certainly intentional.

If you don't think there are covert psych wards where the volatile and spiritually-inclined are all thrown in together for observation and/or psychological torture: guess again.

If you don't think there are weird government-led agents catfishing potential yogis with Matrix analogies and popular comedians (another form of temporal lobe-induced spiritual prowess), guess again:

Maybe all these kids and artists voting in favor of a psychedelic renaissance have their heart in the right place, and truly believe they can win out against the government to bring about world peace.

Sorry, I don't think that's how it works.

As long as you keep digging yourself deeper into a self-reliant hole of spiritual materialism, you're ultimately not going to help promote anything but your own temporal manifestations. Time to level up.

And that, Mr. Jodorowsky Rapist Man, is the real "sacred trap."

Upon finishing this thread: got an unsolicited "Find my device/Device found" Android message, together with an email from that spooky Boulder landlord notifying me of my move-out date.

Someone's mad, I guess! Is it me?