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Are Psychedelics Religious in Nature?

Why are psychedelic substances which invoke mystical states outlawed, while established religious groups which lack nearly all mystical elements are given freedom and benefits? That’s the question raised in a recent article in Reason magazine, which features a brief historical overview on scientific research into mystical states brought about by psychedelics, including the ‘Good Friday experiment’. Also at Reason is a related article titled “Spiritual Highs and Legal Blows“, which compares the UDV and similar ‘indigenous religions’ – which do have legal access to these substances (peyote and ayahuasca) – to similar requests from other groups and individuals. An interesting topic for discussion, perhaps most especially the reasoning that you can’t have your own personal religion or mystical meetings with ‘God’ (gnosis), at least when it comes to the legal use of entheogenic sacraments.

Editor
  1. Confusion
    I think there’s a lot of confusion over psdychedelics and drugs – not so much what the drugs do, but how people react to them.
    In the UK the liberal middleclass tend to want drugs legalised because they say there isn’t that much harm. I tend to agree – for them. They have fulfilled lives and use them recreationally.
    The problem is, it would also legalise it for those who have pathetic lives and no hope. For them, drugs are NOT recreational, but escape. I think it is here that real addiction – and damage – lies.
    Another category of person is the mystic who uses psychedelics for religious experience. What must be remembered, here, is that drugs are an aid, and the experience does not stop after the trip. The true mystic takes his insights with him into his life, and is fulfilled that way.

    Sin is what you’ve done once you’ve been caught.

    Anthony North

    1. Drugs and ‘drugs’
      [quote=anthonynorth]The problem is, it would also legalise it for those who have pathetic lives and no hope. For them, drugs are NOT recreational, but escape. I think it is here that real addiction – and damage – lies.[/quote]

      Hi Anthony,

      I think it should be kept clear the difference between various substances, rather than just labeling them all as ‘drugs’. True psychedelics, such as psilocybin, are not addictive. I think marijuana could go the other way, as many people use it as almost a soporific, just making the ‘bad’ world go away. And if anyone thinks Salvia divinorum could be addictive, I’d be mightily impressed to see anyone keen to go back for more of that ‘trip’ after experiencing it once (ditto for iboga…which ironically, is said to cure addictions).

      But completely agree with your final paragraph. Some mystics would even argue that psychedelics are ‘too easy’ a way of accessing these states, but there’s a whole new debate right there.
      😉

      Kind regards,
      Greg
      ——————————————-
      You monkeys only think you’re running things

      1. Meditation
        Hi Greg

        Yes, I accept your point about different drugs.
        On the other point, I know a person who regularly meditates, and when she decided to give cannabis a try, her friends were shocked that it had no effect at all.
        This experience was repeated a couple of times. I suspect the chemical changes in the brain caused by cannabis were similar to those she sparked in meditation, only the meditation being greater.

        Celebrities – To paraphrase Wilde: the unspeakable in full pursuit of the trivial.

        Anthony North

  2. Are Psychedelics Religious in Nature?
    Perhaps the question would be more properly phrased as “Is Religion Psychedelic in Nature?” There’s a whole lot of religion that would be more easily grasped if it was viewed as the product of a drug-induced delirium.

    cheers

    Good News: There’s a guiding force at work in the Universe. Bad News: It’s Irony.

      1. along the same lines, maybe …
        If you were to go into the desert, and not eat anything, not drink, get dehydrated and real hungry, maybe just smoke some stuff – after a few days, you would have visions too.

        —-
        wherever you go, there you are

  3. Reference Paper and a Documentary
    Persephone’s Quest: Ethneogens and The Origins of Religion by Gordon R. Wasson 1988
    SAMPh – Society for Ancient Medicine and Pharmacy
    ——————————————————-
    Found this on http://psychonauts.tribe.net

    Critical Mass Productions Announces The Release of Entheogen:Awakening the Divine Within

    Award Winning Documentary at its first Hollywood Premiere Opens Minds to the Evolution of Planetary Consciousness

    PALO ALTO, CA (May 15, 2007) — Critical Mass Productions (CMP Group Inc) announced today the commercial DVD release of the award winning documentary Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within. A breakthrough synesthetic film experience, this feature-length documentary weaves an electrifying tapestry of audio and visual imagery that transcends traditional documentary storytelling. Through interviews with leading countercultural thinkers and artists, the film invites the viewer to rediscover an enchanted cosmos by awakening to the divine within.

    Entheogen examines the modern day crisis of disenchantment associated with living in a hyper modern world, integrating ancient history, philosophy, science and emerging technology to draw the audience toward new existential possibilities. Weaving together images and interviews of ecological awareness, tribal dance culture, shamanism and the current evaluation of entheogenic compounds, the film documents the emergence of techno-shamanism and the evolution of man kind. Exploring themes ranging from archaic cosmologies to the collective consciousness of the Internet, the thinkers and artists in the film, including Stan Grof, Marilyn Schiltz, Terence Mckenna, Alex Grey, Ralph Metzner, John Markoff, Daniel Pinchbeck, and Kat Harrison postulate the potential for the next leap in planetary consciousness.

    Entheogen will be released on DVD on May 18th, following a string of pre-release screenings that have garnered critical acclaim. The film won Best Documentary at Hollywood’s Brilliant Light Film Festival, its festival premiere. The film was also screened in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival at Mindbender, an eclectic event that integrated the screening with interactive artistic and musical performances that sustained some 600 initiates until dawn.

    “I would say that this film is coming forth as an expression of the democratization of film production that has enabled the ‘cultural creatives’ to produce films of high production quality with less capital than would have been necessary even a few years ago. The film has been a labor of love, an ‘open source’ dialogue that has enabled the technologically empowered younger generation of countercultural thinkers to engage with and synthesize the wisdom and experience of the elders of this community. We’re honored that so many of these pioneers have participated in this project, and excited about sharing this vision of the concrescence of a new participatory definition of flow through hip hop, through poetry, through dance, art, psychedelics, etc., as it evolves via ongoing events that will emerge organically through the globally interconnected information sphere.” said Rod Mann, director of the film and CMP Group Founder.

    For more information about the upcoming release of Entheogen, CMP Group, and future festivals and screening productions, please visit us at http://www.entheogen.tv.

    To view the new trailer: http://www.entheogen.tv/media/trailer.mov

    Contact: Katy Saeger

    310-597-2337

    katysaeger@gmail.com

    —————————–
    Worldwide on Hilltops and Mountains
    August 25 and 26, 2007
    http://www.worldgathering.net/
    The spiritual light and Earth power stored at the ancient temples like Stonehenge and Glastonbury is there and waiting for release. The Holy Mountains are veritable store-houses of spiritual power, guarded by Angelic Beings and waiting to be tapped and used in the service of Michael.

    We may look down and with inner vision link St. Michael’s Mount, Skirrid, Wrekin, the Eildon Hills, Glastonbury Tor, Malvern, Tryfaen, Schiehallion. There are many more and new ones to find and, through suitable pilgrimage, to activate.

    We may compare this network to a great electric grid. If, metaphorically, the cosmic switch were thrown, power would instantly flood throughout the land. Imagine that!

    —————————–Truth is stranger than fiction.

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