...i have also experienced this ego dissolution, again, not on mescaline, but using psilocybin, and for me it was a fantastically positive event... and yet-
psychadelic drugs like these are powerful, and should be respected, their mind altering ability revered, small doses used, and used soley for one singular purpose, that being further appreciating the nature of reality and better understanding the self or uniting with the Gods.
if u manage to have such an experience urself u will probably do what most of us do- u will probably place too much emphasis on it later and allow it to become a defining moment, u might allow it to radically alter ur world view, and it will become something u cling to when, in truth, you're simply hallucinating, one day, and you get a little glimpse of something that might be like the truth we all seek but which equally might not be...
it'll only be a short trip, like using a taxi to take you to a place where normally a pilgrim would walk, barefoot, for many years, over sharp stones that cut their feet, without ever seeing a glimpse of something which you manage to stagger upon one day while using a drug, and that is generally what is considered to be the issue- not only are you taking a taxi to get there, but you probably haven't actually studied the map for yourself, and so if the taxi driver sees you're a tourist he might take a more complex route than neccessary, he might be a rubbish driver and drop you off in the wrong place, and you will never know 'til you get there.
the experience of something great and unusual isn't really what buddhism is supposed to be about. Buddhist practise involves three basic things- being ethical, practising samatha meditation and cultivating special insight. The aim of these practises is to cause the cessation of suffering. Buddhism is not about cultivating delusion, and clinging to it, but seeing through it, destroying it. If that "other" is reality, then what kind of reality is it that we can't see with our own eyes or hear with our own ears or smell with our own noses? An unreal reality? That makes no sense. An unreal reality is a delusion, a hallucination, a fantasy.
...it is relatively easy to experience the numinous, or meet with god, or become one with the earth and its creatures while tripping- it's standard stuff, really, just what happens with lsd and shrooms and mescaline and cactus buttons- and that is traditionally at least, precisely why ppl take them... there is a book called- the varieties of psychadelic experience- which asked various questions of those who had used lsd/mescaline, etc, and spiritual experiences were reported frequently...
now, if we just did some acid, and suddenly saw God, or experienced emptiness, wow man, that would be great, but we don't, we live in a world where we know about shamans, and the ritual use of psilocybin and peyote, we know of god, we know of emptiness etc, and so the simple act of knowing this primes us for an experience...
...those of us with firm faith will see God in the ways which God has been presented to us- in the above book, christians tended to see crosses and angels, catholics a sweet jesus, old testament types a wrathful creator god, while Hindu's are dancing the rasa lila with Krsna or becoming one with Brahma and buddhists are thinking they experience emptiness...
still, it's worth a go, just for the sake of it...
