Cosmic Flute and Psychedelic Purification

Channel the Breath of the Infinite

I'm guessing that everyone has been listening to Andre 3000's flute album the past few days and has been evaluating it for use in psychedelic sessions. Maybe some of you have already sat with it. I've got it playing in the background as I write this.

The titles are pretty great too. Below I'll post the song, "That Night In Hawaii When I Turned Into A Panther And Started Making These..." - I think I remember that night, too! We've all been there.

The flute has long been regarded as spiritual and meditative. This simple wind instrument captivates the mind and frees the spirit. ​R. Carlos Nakai​ was one of my first intros to 'New Age' music, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I was lucky enough to see ​Hariprasad Chausrasia​ perform one night and was spellbound. The vibes were so high we were all elevated. This is what flute is known for; it literally raises the vibration of the space and the people in it. It's a spiritual ultrasound. We almost have to let go of our attachments.

The most famous flute player in the world, more famous than Ron Burgundy even - is Krishna. His flute was said to be so enchanting that people left all of their worldly cares behind to run towards the music and the spiritual life it represented. It didn't matter if they were half-dressed or had something on the stove - they came straight away. Such was the allure of the mystic quality of Krishna and his flute. The yogis tell us that if we try, we can be like Krishna's flute. This is one of the best outcomes for us, really. To have the supreme being hold us to his lips and to fill us with a divine breath that makes us sing so sweetly. We take our place in the sacred symphony of creation. People come to psychedelics to find their purpose. Well, how is that for a purpose? Finding a new job is easy, but try cleaning the mud out of the bamboo of your soul so the music of infinity can pass through it unobstructed; that's the good stuff right there.

And nobody said it would be easy. The story says that the bamboo suffered quite a bit while Krishna prepared him. He had to be hollowed out, and once that was complete, the holes had to be poked into him. We need to learn to make this distinction in our psychedelic integration practice. I wrestle with it a lot because I'm the kind of person who would rather learn through bliss and pleasure. But that's not always possible, so we need to ask ourselves: Is our suffering for a greater purpose? Are we making ourselves miserable for no reason? Are we enduring some kind of unsustainable torture? Or is this the path of purification? Is the pain the pain of letting go or growing up? Are we releasing something that has been ignored for so long and bearing witness to a long-loathed shadow? These are distinctions that come with experience. And while it's never easy, having an understanding of the process of purification certainly helps, as does cultivating a willingness to go through it. We know that reluctance is built into the hero's journey mythos, but there comes a time when we've got to embrace our true potential, our fluteness. Embrace your fluteness.