|
Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments:
An Entheogen Chrestomathy
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.
Author Index | Title Index
My Psychedelic Religion: The Kingdom of God Is Within You.
Yonson, Jan. (1994).
San Francisco: Council on Spiritual Practices.
ISBN: None
Description: Velo bound
in plastic wrappers, 14 numbered leaves each containing two pages
on one side with the verso blank.
Contents: 1 essay with
references and footnotes.
Excerpt(s): One of the
nastiest lies promulgated by Antidrug Warriors is
that there are only two kinds of drug use: medical is legitimate;
all nonmedical is recreational, therefore illegitimate. I do not
consider religion as "recreation." I resent their implying
so. (page 6)
Most psychedelicists believe that the human mind
includes a spiritual part, level, or proclivity. If one explores
one's mind far enough, one can reach this part, which is most
characterized by a sense of sacredness. ... Mind exploration is
not merely psychology or psychotherapy; it can also be spiritual
development. In addition to their uses in creativity, scholarship
and psychotherapy, LSD and other entheogens are especially helpful
in activating the spiritual aspects of one's mind; they are sacraments
when used for this purpose. (page 6)
Fourth, existing religious texts and rituals
take on deepened meaning and significance when viewed from a sacred
state of consciousness. ... two-dimensional ideas which suddenly
become three-dimensional in meaning are:
The Kingdom of God is within you.
We are all children of God.
Be still and know that I am God.
You must die and be born again
to enter the Kingdom of heavenHeaven.
The inner light ... (page
7)
The Second (Psychedelic) Reformation
/ During the Protestant Reformation many clergy feared that the
printing press and movable type would make the Bible available
to the common person. The untutored and unwashed might criticize
the church and clergy or even set up their own churches. ... Today's
psychedelic reformation carries religious democracy a second step-to
experience. No longer is the experience of god limited to a few
saints and holy persons. Each person can and should (is spiritually
and morally obligated) have his or her own direct
experience of god. Just as common ownership of the Bible
was at one time suppressed by church and state, now psychedelics
are suppressed. Just as protestants, reformers, and puritans were
seen as the heretics and traitors of their times, we Psychedelicists
are misperceived as religious heretics and political traitors
of our times. Reading is to the First Reformation as psychedelics
are to the Second Reformation.
Today psychedelics take reformation one step further.
... Psychedelicists claim that the direct experience of god, (undistorted
by church, belief or revealed word) gives the purest knowledge
of the divine.
Should the American government take sides in this
theological dispute? (page 8)
Compilation copyright © 1995 – 2001 CSP
|