The Day I Met "God"

It was the summer of 1977, when I was 19 and reading eastern philosophy books like "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda, "Be Here Now" by Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) and listening to the George Harrison album, Dark Horse. At home, with my parents gone for the weekend, as evening approached I took some LSD with a friend. Sitting in the back yard, near the calm waters of the canal behind my house in Long Island, we waited impatiently for the drug to take effect. Nothing seemed to be "happening". Was the stuff still good? On edge, I said something to my companion that really irked him. I can't remember what I had said but he was pissed. I was startled. I didn't understand why my words had gotten him so upset... so I put myself in his place - I mentally repeated what I had said to him as though I was saying it to myself. I immediately realized that if I had spoken the words to myself ...I would have gotten angry too! In just the same way he had. And then it happened. At the precise moment that I had "sync'd" with my friend's mind-space, I had realized that the reason that I had experienced the same emotion as he was because "I" was "him"! On the most basic and purest level "we" were literally the same "being". The illusion of separateness that we both had clung to all of our lives had, simutaneously, in an instant...vanished within our minds. I had come to realize that my heart was not only united with my friend but.... with all of humanity. Past and present. It didn't stop there. When I looked up into the sky I realized that I was also the moon. Looking around I understood that what I had been calling "Cliff" was the shared essence of everything. At the moment of my epifany, I experienced an invisible flower-like mechanism, like a multi-petaled "lotus blossom" unfold on top of my head- like a crown. The joy of my "self-realization" made me weep- from joy. Tears of joy were literally streaming down my face.Pouring. As though something that had been blocked for a thousand years was finally released. It was indescribable. My friend and I both experienced this simultaneously. Our countenance changed too. Our faces apeared wise. Lit up with the wisdom of the ages. Our eyes physically looked different. We had these all-knowing "enlightened" eyes.The eyes found on the radiant faces of holy men. We were just American teenagers. The photo of the Indian mystic, Paramahansa Yogananda, shown on the cover of my copy of the classic "Autobiography of a Yogi" appeared to me that evening as the photo of an ordinary Joe. The "holy" man was just another "guy" to me. It was as though someone took a picture of some random guy on a subway and slapped his photo on the cover of a book. I understood Buddha. I got Jesus. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" because... the other guy... is you! The truth that was revealed that evening was so simple. In fact it was "too" simple. It is elusive because it is so simple and obvious. Too obvious. Something too obvious becomes... hidden. That evening I couldn't understand why LSD was illegal. I couldn't understand why it wasn't mandatory. I understand why now. LSD is not for everybody. The truth can freak you out man. Many people don't have wonderful "mystical" experiences. Even those that do sometimes have trouble re-adjusting to the delusionary world of separateness. A world that likes to eat mystics for breakfast. I was lucky. As were thousands of "hippies" in the sixties. By the way, I now understand why "hippies" were called "hippies". They were "hip" or "clued" in to the experience of love and peace mentioned above. Update 2/18/2010:Any experience, regardless of how wonderful it may be is still an experience.Experiences come and go. The Experiencer, however IS permanent.