The aim is to provide a guidebook to, rather than a book about, the ways that people use psychoactive substances for spiritual purposes. It will make use of accounts from people who have had a spiritual experience induced by a drug.
My intention is that the book should be for seekers rather than for voyeurs, more like a manual rather than a sociological study. It will only include uses which are theoretically possible for the reader to experience, although this may require considerable initiative and determination.
I am not paying contributors, but am giving the North American rights to the Council on Spiritual Practices.
Section One will establish the validity of drug-induced spiritual experiences by:
1. Its long history, from Soma to witchcraft, and widespread acceptance in diverse cultures.
2. The Good Friday Experiment, which used classical scientific methodology to establish that the drug induced spiritual experience was comparable to those reported by Christian saints.
3. The Good Friday Experiment follow-up, which established that the drug-induced experiences were long lasting.
Section two will look at drug-induced spiritual experience in various contexts:
1. Traditional Religions, for which I will include interviews with a Rabbi, a Benedictine monk and two Buddhist monks. We also have some accounts of conversions to Christianity and other traditional religions induced by drugs.
2. Christian-Based Religions. These include the Bwiti in Africa, the Santo Daime and Unaio do Vegetal in South America, the Native American Church in North America and some recent religions such as the Temple of the True Inner Light. These will be described in detail as well as from personal experience.
3. Home Users of entheogens; ie people whose intention in using a drug is to induce a spiritual experience, however they may define the term. A wide variety of examples using different drugs will be given, many of them originally posted on Internet closed groups (with their permission).
4. Ritual Users. These are modern rituals involving psychoactives. Some are based on the work of particular people such as Maria Sabina; others blend New Age ideas with shamanism or astrology.
5. Shamanistic and neo-Shamanistic Use available to foreigners. This section will be an 'entheotourist' guide to the Amazon.
6. Rave Culture. The rave experience compared to a religious service and the spiritual attraction of the culture illustrated with first hand accounts.
Section three will provide information for seekers:
1. Settings conducive to an entheogenic experience. Including how reduce the likelihood of a 'bad trip' and guidelines for guides.
2. Contact religions using psychoactives, websites and newsgroups, suppliers of legal psychoactive plants and publications listing entheogenic workshops and visits to shamans.
3. Glossary including a list of drugs used as entheogens, how they are used and what effect they have.
4. Bibliography. A comprehensive annotated bibliography including several hundred books and
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