Dearest D.S.: I'm relieved to have you point to the core truth for me, as always. Thank You! The Advaita shennanigans get to me sometime. Reading further into Mariana Caplan's book, I think her academic cautiousness is beginning to wear on me. Although I am grateful for the various warnings not to grab and hold on to experiences, which is my tendency -- or not to go monomanically psychotic, which I don't plan to do, at least not right away. (smile) Now I've posted "NO GRABBIES!" in big letters on my sadhana. Which of course is just another way of saying "SURRENDER to HER!"
I must share with you that I have taken the Divine Sage three or four more times, each time with remarkable results in terms of 'falling into myself" for lack of another description. I managed to scrawl down, "It's like a GLORIOUS DEATH," last night as I disappeared into THATness. Also wrote, "Touchdown," by which I think I meant the descent of the Soul into this vehicle, at least momentarily. Also A BIG HUG TO BREAK YOUR HEART OPEN...
Sage is a way of tuning into a Univeral Positioning Network to check my coordinates and make sure that my intentions remain pure. I like the _democratic_ aspects of organic entheogens -- i.e. you cannot wrap your ego around something that is caused by ingesting or smoking a holy leaf.
Thank you,