|
Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments:
An Entheogen Chrestomathy
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.
Author Index | Title Index
Psychedelic Drugs: Psychological, Medical and Social Issues.
Wells, Brian. (1973).
Harmondsworth, Middlesex.
ISBN: 0-14-080342-4
Description: paperback, 250 pages.
Contents: foreword by Humphrey Osmond, 11 chapters, references, index.
Excerpt(s): The sub-culture is not principally concerned with social issues
or good works anymore than was the primitive church; at the centre of both
Christian religion and serious psychedelic drug use lies the search for
spiritual growth. (page 189)
The institutional churches have many centuries of domestication behind them
now; plenty of time for skillful propagandists, theologians and church
logicians to give some semblance of reconciliation between the logic of the mechanical
world and the alogic, revelation, and miracles that are at the real centre of
faiths like Christianity. But the attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable,
though perhaps motivated by the generous wish to bring feelings and
experiences within the ken of those who have not known them, has now resulted in a quasi-logical system
of such an unconvincing sort as to undermine the credibility of what it
purports to promote — spiritual or divine revelation. The claims of the
psychedelic movement are no less incredible to most people — though for the opposite reasons;
instead of relying on dubious argument it simply denies the relevance of logic and
reasoning in this entire sphere.
Now to propose that there may be an association between religion and the
use of any drug — even alcoholic communion wine — is very near blasphemy for
many people. That cherished and sustaining beliefs should be equated with
‘mind-bending’ drugs — ones which have been widely publicized as being
related to hallucinations, delusions, and insanity itself — may seem to the average
person to be an absurdity, and an offensive one at that. Most of us would
find it difficult to accept that psychedelic experiences can lead to genuine
religious inspiration, because such a hedonistic and short-cut approach is so
divorced from customary religious practice. Yet this is what many intelligent
and experienced people are claiming and we must therefore examine their
evidence. (page 190)
Despite the crucial value of the mystical experience to the established
religions, it is they who are most condemnatory and harsh about new mystical
movements. Inquisitors in all ages find their life’s work in discrediting and
punishing the very process on which their own lives and beliefs depend. And
one is not just thinking about the Spanish Inquisition type of situation, but
all ‘defenders of the faith’ — including the gentle parish priest or minister
who is totally distrustful of, and even repelled by, any contemporary examples of
mystical experience. This is not to argue that all experiences which are
claimed as mystical and divinely inspired are worthy, but simply to point out the
paradoxical relationship which exists between religion and mysticism — being
at the same time both its most cherished asset and its greatest perceived
source of threat. Being aware of this paradox, Christian churches have been
at pains to specify what is, and what is not, true revelation, psychedelic drugs
apparently constituting one of the more recent, and pressing, reasons for
trying to define the ways which accepted revelations differ from those now reported.
However, the simplest pragmatic solution to a difficult situation is simply
to deny the validity of any drug-induced state of mind as being, by definition,
a psychological aberration and therefore not of religious significance.
Another solution is to back those people who would totally ban the substances and
thus remove the source of the problem. Both solutions have been favoured by
most churches. But banning has proved to be ineffective and the existing
documentary evidence is such as cannot be ignored — especially as scholars
have shown that the qualities which typify ‘religiously induced’ mysticism, i.e.,
prayer, fasting, mortification, etc., are so very similar to those reported
in drug-induced states. The only honest thing for any churchman to do is to dispassionately consider
whether psychedelic experiences are, as they are often claimed to be, of a
similar type to those accepted as valid within his own church. Happily, there
are a number of such people at work and the comparisons and conclusions make
fascinating reading. (pages 191-192)
The findings vary with the nature of the group observed and their set and
setting, the most striking effects occurring when the subjects are consciously
religiously focused and in a religious context. Yet even in quite
unpropitious circumstances the number of positive mystico-religious experiences is still surprisingly
high. (pages 194-195)
Compilation copyright © 1995 – 2001 CSP
|