Vikram Zutshi takes us on a journey to Teotihuacán, the City of the Gods, where the psychedelic and superconsciousness present a heady cocktail.

My first glimpse of the psychedelic subculture was at a Grateful Dead concert held in New Jersey. Clearly, the Dead weren’t merely a rock band; they were the anointed messiahs of the New Age — torchbearers of the counter-culture revolution started in the ’60s, who, over the years, had acquired demi-god status among their millions of acolytes.

A Dead concert was like a kaleidoscopic carnival, a heady cocktail of lasers, spaced-out riffs and a teeming, churning ocean of ecstatic humanity, swaying in rhythm with the band.

Magic mushrooms

A big part of the Deadhead legacy included the frequent use of hallucinogens like LSD, ‘Magic’ mushrooms or psilocybe cubensis, the peyote cactus and salvia divinorum — consciousness expanding substances that had been used for millennia by shamans and mystics to enter a state of communion with the Oversoul. The use of soma, the divine intoxicant, is well-documented in ancient Hindu scriptures.

Having recently read Journey To Ixtlan — the seminal tome by Carlos Castaneda, about his apprenticeship with Yaqui shaman Don Juan, I was raring to journey into the Great Beyond. One fine day, I strapped on my trusty backpack and boarded a flight to Mexico City.

A few hours to the north-west of Mexico City lay the ancient and sprawling complex of Teotihuacan or City of the Gods. It had been recommended to me by my old friend Jose as a prime locale to carry out the experiment.

Accompanying us was Guillermo, a local shaman who had in his possession a bag of humito, the psilocybin mushrooms that grew abundantly in the Sierra Madres.

In Mexico, Central and South America, mushrooms containing psilocybin have been ingested for thousands of years, primarily for spiritual purposes. Enthusiasts consider it an entheogenor spirituality enhancing agent. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, the mushrooms were called teonanacatl or ‘God’s flesh’.

Walking through the magnificent complex was a treat. Among the most highly developed pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilisations, Teotihuacan was renowned for the gargantuan twin pyramids of the Sun and Moon, almost the same size as the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

After gazing in wonderment at the intricate hieroglyphics and Toltec/Mayan motifs carved on the walls, we sat down in the shade of the pyramid and waited for sunset — the designated time to partake of the sacrament.

As the sun lowered into the horizon, Guillermo asked us to turn into each of the four cardinal directions to seek blessings and guidance from the deities that guarded the four portals or cosmic gateways. He explained that our earthly body was a microcosm of the cosmic mandala that contained the five primal elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether, which corresponded with each of our five senses.

He produced what looked like a large feather-duster, and faced each of us in turn, chanting a Toltec hymn while literally dusting us with his instrument. He said it was to cleanse our auras of any lingering impurities and prepare us for the journey beyond.

Jose and I sat down and chewed slowly on the dried mushrooms given to us. It took us about an hour to feel the effects, initially preceded by mild physical discomfort. Guillermo explained it was nothing to worry about: “it was humito making your body its home”.

Complete transformation

After a while, things around me started to take on a luminous, pulsating quality and seemed to literally come alive. The pyramid was now a giant obsidian peak towering for miles above us, it’s pinnacle touching a blood-red sky streaked with veins of gold, turquoise and lapis lazuli.

The rich textures and intricate patterns on the walls took on a life of their own, rapidly morphing into organic shapes and constantly evolving geometric patterns. It was then that I felt a Presence in the vicinity. I knew somehow that it was an ancient soul and a permanent resident of these parts. It seemed to say that it had seen all that had gone by and all that was to come, and if I focused long enough, it could take me to the beginning of Time itself.

Sensing my fear and trepidation at jumping into the great unknown, it reassured me that nothing would be shown that I was not ready to see. The following words appeared without bidding: ‘Everything comes when it must. We must accept what comes to us at a given time and not ask for more. But life is endless, so we never die; we never really were born. We just pass through many phases. There is no end. Humans have many dimensions. Time is not as we see time, but rather in lessons that are learnt.’

The words addressed the very roots of my existential dilemma. I heard a deep rumbling sound, emanating from the belly of the earth below us. It instantly made me aware of my immediate surroundings once again. I was surprised to see my companions sitting up and sipping yerba mate, the herbal tea we had brought along with us. Clearly, I was back in the ‘real world’. Jose informed me that I had been ‘out’ for almost four hours. To my mind, what had just transpired seemed to have taken place in the span of a few minutes.

Cleansed and centered

Feeling extremely centered and cleansed, I was ensconced in a warm, beautiful glow. Jose too had experienced a powerful epiphany, specific to his personal quest. He told us that he had seen not one, but an entire family of ancient souls in ceremonial garb and headdress and witnessed them participating in a ritual deep inside the pyramid itself. He was told they were his ancestors and guardian entities and that this human birth is merely a ‘school of consciousness’, which we must all pass through in order to move to the next level.

Guillermo pulled out an Andean pan-pipe from his satchel and began playing for us. The gentle soothing sounds of his flute soon took us into a deep, relaxing trance. The first rays of the morning sun reflected off the pyramid making it look like a giant beacon in space. Who knew what celestial beings had created this magical symmetry? We decided to return to the City of the Gods on the same day, a year later, to renew the quest.

Getting there

By car (or taxi): It takes about 45 minutes from the Mexico City city center if you use the toll highway. However, a taxi could be expensive, though sometimes tours with a car and driver or guide can be arranged

By bus: Buses to Teotihuacán leave from Mexico City every half-an-hour from two locations: Terminal Autobuses del Norte (outside Autobuses del Norte Metro station, Line 5) and from outside the Potrero Metro station (Line 3). Check that your bus goes to the site entrance of Teotihuacán ruinas and not just to the town of San Juan Teotihuacán nearby.

Most travel agencies offer half or full day tours to the site, often combining it with the Plaza de las Tres Culturas and the Basilica of Guadalupe, both of which are outside the city centre.