Reddit mentions of Cave and Cosmos: Shamanic Encounters with Another Reality

> Is this normal?

It sounds like you have an unusual, but not unheard of, ability to get into deeply altered states. With a little more meditation practice, you may find that you can get into mushroom states without ever eating any mushrooms.

> I smoke marijuana to help me with my depression, but I chose not to smoke when I sat down to meditate.

I infrequently smoke cannabis (rarely more than once a month). When I meditate within about 48 hours of smoking, I find that my experience is vastly more psychedelic than with just cannabis or just meditation. So now I only smoke when I can turn the day into a mini meditation retreat, and spend as much time meditating as possible.

Two books that you may find interesting are:

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, Daniel Ingram's book that focuses very sharply on Buddhist meditation and the path(s) to enlightenment. Ingram strips meditation practice down to its bare minimum, and then talks very openly about the mind maps that people typically traverse over the course of their meditation practice. This may help you find out where you are with respect to other people and other writings. It will also help you get closer to an answer to your question about whether you are doing it 'right' or not.

The other book worth investigating is Michael Harner's Cave and Cosmos. Harner's book is all about how to get into deeply altered mental states without using any plants or chemicals. I suspect you will find some deep parallels between your experience and the shamanic experience.

I mainly work with what we call "journeying" via a state of consciousness during drum-induced trance. If you are curious about the methodology, I recommend Harner's The Way of the Shaman. His organization has collected reports of experiences and his new book Cave and Cosmos cites many from that repository.