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Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments:
An Entheogen Chrestomathy
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.
Author Index | Title Index
An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions.
Ferguson, John. (1976).
London: Thames and Hudson.
ISBN: None
Description: Hardcover,
228 pages.
Contents: Foreword, alphabetical
entries, bibliography.
Excerpt(s): LSD
Short for lysergic acid diethylamide, a drug which overstimulates
a section of the brain and so distorts responses. The result may
be that familiar objects become of extreme beauty and colours
appear of rare brilliance, some of the effects being close to
those of mystical religion. Time sense is affected, and past,
present and future become one. The senses interact and music,
for example, may produce visual experiences or bodily vibrations;
there is synaesthesia. Logical categories fall away, and opposites
unite. One experimenter records a flash of illumination in which
he saw himself as a `minute and miserable microcosm, containing
but the barest hint of the infinitely more complex and enormously
vast macrocosmic Mind of God'. He was filled with awe and touched
by God's presence. Dr Leary also emphasizes
its capacity to produce an expanded sexual consciousness and expanded
sexual energy. But also it can produce fear and horror, or again
an illusion of impregnability, and it has been known to lead to
insanity, suicide and attempted murder. (pages 109-110)
Compilation copyright © 1995 – 2001 CSP
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