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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
The Psychedelic Experience.
Aiken, John W., and Aiken, Louisa V. (ca. 1963).
Socorro, NM: Church of the Awakening.
ISBN: None
Description: 18 unnumbered,
mimeographed leaves, stapled, printed on one side.
Contents: Introduction
by Franklin Loehr, 5 chapters, appendix:
The Church of the Awakening.
Note: Chapter 1 " Can
Drugs Lead You to God?" was originally published by FATE
magazine in May 1963. Chapter 3 " Psychedelic
Mysticism" is by Swami Parampanthi.
Chapter 4 "The
Mrs. N. M. The last page is a membership form for The Church of
the Awakening.
Excerpt(s): The tragic
death of their two sons jarred Dr. and Mrs. Aiken out of what
they have called their "comfortable middle-class complacency
with life" and set them on the quest for life's deeper realities.
Their lives had been full and varied - college graduates; a year
of Presbyterian Seminary for Dr. John, then public school teaching
for both of them: the training and practice as osteopathic physicians,
coming in 1948 to establish the first health service in Socorro,
New Mexico, 60 miles south of Albuquerque. But when the hardest
blows came, all this was not enough. (Franklin Loehr, Introduction,
page 2)
A typical psychedelic experience as conducted under
our supervision begins on an empty stomach. The substance is given
in the morning, the subject having eaten nothing since the previous
evening. This is to reduce the nausea which some experience, but
which in most cases disappears within the first hour or two. A
slight vertigo may also be noticed, within the first thirty minutes
or so, but soon passes. Sometimes there is a period of euphoria,
when ordinary things may seem unusually funny. However, at the
end of two or three hours most of the participants, if properly
guided, will wish to be quiet and to look within their own consciousness,
to find the Inner Self. Some enjoy music, or flowers, or pictures,
for such objects frequently take on extraordinary qualities, and
very often aid the subject in going into the deeper levels of
the Self.
Life and love are experienced as everywhere present;
one seems to have a new understanding of the meaning and purpose
of life, and a new awareness of his own identity as "one
with God," and of his neighbor as an integral part of himself.
It is much easier during the psychedelic experience to realize
that our true identity is not that of the body-mind-emotions complex
which is designated by our name. This is an important lesson,
for this is one of the first steps toward the Father's House,
away from separateness and toward unity. To know that I AM,
and that "I and my Father are One," is a most salutary
experience. (page 4)
Compilation copyright © 1995 – 2001 CSP
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