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In ordinary awareness, the inside of the mind is a dark sphere. The person cannot see out of it, nor can others see in.

It is a sphere blackened by ignorance, materialism, and fear of the unknown. With certain drugs or with extended meditation, the darkness is washed away. The sphere becomes clear glass instead of darkness, and the eye of the mind can see into many worlds. They are initially a blur of flowing shapes and colors but when the mind becomes more focused, they become organized into patterns, and then doorways and portals. Consciousness must be organized to become transparent. Otherwise it stays asymmetrical and distorted.

Once the mind is clarified and organized, the next question is what should be explored. Empowered mantras guide the soul to specific realms, or allow contact with discarnate persons. These may be ancestors, or gods, or one of trillions upon trillions of sentient beings.

Religions have maps to the worlds of the gods. Folk stories have memories, often distorted, written down by people who have travelled to intermediate worlds. Sometimes these travels are accidental and occur when people visit sacred ground and their souls get involved in supernatural dramas. Sometimes people become heroes, explorers, or visionaries who bushwhack their ways into supernatural realms. In such cases, the mechanisms of travel are rarely understood and return to the realm just means going to the same place again and again waiting for something to happen.

Skepticism and disbelief cover the windows of the mind with dirt and cement. Nobody can see through cement. Psychedelics can act like explosives blowing up layers of dirt and rock covering the mind. The clear glass of the mind is then revealed to those who seek it with discipline. They can shovel through the loosened, rocky barriers of ignorance and worldly attachment to find clear sight. With drugs, this is a temporary revelation. The barriers to spiritual sight are exploded and the soul can find its way into new territory.

However, the rocks eventually fall back into place and the barriers of ignorance rebuild themselves. The mind returns to its previous assumptions and blinded state.

With meditation, the rocks are removed slowly one by one rather than being blown up all at once. The rubble of past suffering and wrong views is taken away permanently, and does not rebuild itself. The mind stays clear.

When the cavern of the mind is watertight and there is no spiritual sight, no awareness of other worlds and forms of consciousness can enter in. Only the senses allow the mind to learn new ideas, and prevent it from living in a room of mirrors or a mental world of self-reflection.

There are other more subtle senses but they are normally blocked. It is only in unusual circumstances that they become alternative pathways of knowing. Individuals must learn on their own how such senses work, for the current culture provides little training. These include intuitive perception of persons (the "sense of presence"), the awareness of spiritual "power places" throughout the physical world, and the sense of intuitively understanding the ideas and emotions of others. People can also learn to intentionally distort these intuitive perceptions for the purposes of art and creativity. Some people intuitively know what is beyond the mind's doors. Others need explosives.

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