what IS the veil, exactly?

[anagogy]

Why should it be, though, that we forget our mission? Why can't it be that we are veiled from our true identity and the suffering that comes with it, but we still know what it is we came here to do?!? Why must even our mission be hidden under the thick mud of illusion, and even while we're sinking in the mud we don't know why we incarnated. It seems as if all vision has been veiled. I would love to perform my mission. But I don't know what it is, or how to get to the next step.

I think a lot of people are under the mistaken impression that there is, in fact, a "next step". The game in every illusion of separation is simply: see the truth of unity through the veil of separation, and embrace those around you and assist them in doing the same. That is why you incarnated. It's the only game in town, so to speak. A wanderer has just played the game more than the natives, and has slightly higher chance of succeeding. Sure, there are nuances and niches to this game, and they reveal themselves to you through your natural interests and inclinations. Follow your bliss -- that is the lighted path to your specific spiritual path. But understand it will just be a more specific focusing of the ancient spiritual game: see the unity behind the illusion and act on the truth of it.

The illusion of our world is essentially this: if God wasn't around to preserve harmony, love, and peace and *we* had to act in his/her place, how would we behave? Can we, with our free will, act in alignment with unity? There is no limit to the depths of unity we may attain within the illusion, but the conditions of the illusion are such that there is a definite resistance to doing it. A muscle does not get stronger in the absence of resistance.

That's interesting that you say alcohol can also help lift the veil. I absolutely agree that cannabis, DMT, LSD, psilocybin can and do lift the veil, but I guess I've categorized alcohol as a "bad drug." I've done that because every time I drink I just want more and more of it, it's a spiralling snowball effect, it lifts the veil on my destructive impulses, I have a burn scar from a low destructive point, I've severely damaged relationships when drunk - so now I'm sworn off alcohol, I have been for 8 months now.

I suppose it depends why and under what circumstances you are using that particular substance. I've made major breakthroughs and understandings under the influence of alcohol on occasion -- even enriched friendships due to the inhibition loosening effects produced, which allowed for a greater degree of honest communion with others. I've also had destructive outbursts under its influence. As I said before, it can both heal or destroy, be medicine or poison. The tools are the tools. A hammer can fix, and a hammer can kill. Use everything judiciously and with respect.

That's kind of strange, then, when I read Ra say, "No desire should be suppressed." How could they mean that? Should I follow my destructive desires?

They also say, "We have found it to be inappropriate in the extreme to encourage the overcoming of any desires, except to suggest the imagination rather than the carrying out in the physical plane, as you call it, of those desires not consonant with the Law of One; this preserving the primal distortion of free will"

Explore destructive desires in your mind (or even in a videogame). Sometimes its a good outlet for these destructive impulses we human beings inevitably get from time to time.