# Altered States > Altered states are vibrational perspectives beyond ordinary focus reached through permission slips and integrated into daily life. - Canonical: https://sassani.app/topic/altered-states # Altered States *A breath cloth, resonant stone, and water bowl reflect one distant pale pool* An "altered state," in Bashar's teaching, is a vibrational state of being that lets you experience a perspective outside your ordinary physical focus — an other-dimensional vantage, a deep or expanded level of consciousness, or a more lucid relationship to the physical dream. The topic overlaps with permission slips (substances and rituals that help you reach the state) but the distinct question is what the state is for: Bashar treats it as a teaching that is meant to be learned and then carried back into ordinary reality. ## Permission slips that teach a vibration Bashar describes natural substances — marijuana, psychedelics, mushrooms — as "teachers" that allow you to experience an altered state of being and other-dimensional perspectives. They are not the state itself; they are a permission slip through which you become familiar with the vibration so that, once you know it, you can recreate it from your own energy without needing the teacher again. The more natural forms are designed to interact with human chemistry and psychology, and when paired with personal processing rituals they can assist in contacting deep and expanded levels of consciousness — though Bashar also notes that most people do not need to use them as often as they think. > — Meeting With Bashar (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/meeting-with-bashar) > — Mushrooms As A Permission Slip And Teacher (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/mushrooms-as-a-permission-slip-and-teacher) The key mechanism is that the state is installed vibrationally: the instant you genuinely remember what the state felt like, you are in it. The only reason a person believes they are not in that vibration is a definition that says they are not. Drop the definition and you create the sensation of being in the vibration again. > — Mushrooms As A Permission Slip And Teacher (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/mushrooms-as-a-permission-slip-and-teacher) ## Teaching state versus application state *A pale grotto reflection continues over stepping stones toward a worktable and empty conversation seats* Bashar draws a deliberate distinction between the teaching situation and the application situation. During the teaching, the vibration is instilled and you become familiar with it for its own sake. When you later generate the same vibration from your own energy in order to act on it, it will not necessarily feel identical — because now the purpose is application, not instruction. The change in feeling does not mean the vibration is wrong; it means the context has moved from being taught a state to applying it. > — Mushrooms As A Permission Slip And Teacher (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/mushrooms-as-a-permission-slip-and-teacher) ## Bringing the mystery back into physical reality A common difficulty people report after intense ceremonial or psychedelic experiences is that ordinary physical reality feels mundane by comparison — "so mystical" in the ceremony, so flat in daily life. Bashar's reading is that this gap is created by a definition of complacency: a belief that physical reality is ordinary and the ceremonial states are the mystical exception. The purpose of going into those states is precisely to learn to view physical reality in the same miraculous, mysterious way. From this view, physical reality is itself a mystery school — magical, mysterious, powerful — and once you define it that way you become more lucid inside the physical dream rather than escaping it. > — Mushrooms As A Permission Slip And Teacher (qa-2), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/mushrooms-as-a-permission-slip-and-teacher) ## Practical implications Treat the substance (or ritual) as a teacher, not a crutch. The point of a permission slip is to learn the vibration well enough to reproduce it from your own energy. If you find yourself relying on the teacher automatically, Bashar's guidance is that most people use such tools far more often than they need to. > — Meeting With Bashar (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/meeting-with-bashar) Remember the state to re-enter it. Because the state is vibrational, genuinely recalling what it felt like places you back in it; the obstacle is the definition "I'm not in it," not the absence of the state. > — Mushrooms As A Permission Slip And Teacher (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/mushrooms-as-a-permission-slip-and-teacher) Don't expect the application to feel like the lesson. When you bring the learned vibration into action it may feel different — that shift reflects a change of context, not a loss of the state. > — Mushrooms As A Permission Slip And Teacher (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/mushrooms-as-a-permission-slip-and-teacher) Redefine ordinary reality as the mystery school. The contrast between "mystical ceremony" and "mundane life" is a definition you can drop. Defining physical reality as a dream makes you more lucid inside it. > — Mushrooms As A Permission Slip And Teacher (qa-2), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/mushrooms-as-a-permission-slip-and-teacher) Use discernment rather than automatic reliance. Bashar frames deliberate, honest use as legitimate while cautioning against unexamined habit. > — Meeting With Bashar (qa-1), [Source](https://sassani.app/source-transmissions/meeting-with-bashar) ## Representative passages They are teachers that allow you to experience an altered state of being, other dimensional perspectives, and as teachers they are allowing you to experience a vibrational state. Once you experience that vibrational state and learn to be familiar with it, then you can create that state for yourself, by yourself, out of your own energy without necessarily needing the teacher from that point forward. … The teaching situation is a different situation from the application situation — but that doesn't mean you can't know you're in the appropriate vibration.— Bashar, You have a definition of complacency. You're creating, through your definitions, the idea that physical reality is mundane by comparison. The idea of going to those states is to actually let you understand how to view physical reality in the same miraculous, mysterious way. … Physical reality is a mystery school — very magical, very mysterious, very powerful. You just need to learn to define it that way and you will experience it that way.— Bashar, They can be, depending on how you use them. The more natural forms are designed to interact with your chemistry and psychology, and when used with personal processing rituals they can assist people in contacting deep and expanded levels of consciousness. Most people do not need to use them as often as they think.— Bashar, ## Related - [Permission Slips](https://sassani.app/topic/permission-slips) - [Dream Reality](https://sassani.app/topic/dream-reality) - [Definitions & Beliefs](https://sassani.app/topic/definitions-and-beliefs) - [Higher Mind](https://sassani.app/topic/higher-mind) - [Consciousness](https://sassani.app/topic/consciousness) Markdown twin of https://sassani.app/topic/altered-states. The HTML page is the source of truth.