mysticism

Psychedelics and Religious Experience

THE EXPERIENCES resulting from the use of psychedelic drugs are often described in religious terms. They are therefore of interest to those like myself who, in the tradition of William James, are concerned with the psychology of religion. For more than thirty years I have been studying the causes, the consequences, and the conditions of those peculiar state consciousness in which the individual discovers himself to be one continuous process with God, with the Universe, with the Ground of Being, of whatever name he may use by cultural conditioning or personal preference for the ultimate and eternal reality. We have no satisfactory and definitive name for experiences of this kind. The terms “religious experience,” “mystical experience,” and “cosmic consciousness” are all too vague and comprehensive to denote that specific mode of consciousness which, to those who have known it, is as real and overwhelming as falling in love. This Article describes such states of consciousness as and when induced by psychedelic drugs, although they are virtually indistinguishable from genuine mystical experience. The Article then discusses objections to the use of psychedelic drugs which arise mainly from the opposition between mystical values and the traditional religious and secular values of Western society.

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Values, Beliefs, and Sense of Coherence in Psychedelic Drug Users

Past research has linked the use of psychedelic substances to profound spiritual change (Pahnke 1966; Doblin 1991). In a high-dose psychedelic experience, users may claim to encounter God, to merge with the cosmos or undergo death and rebirth. Reports from many users resemble Buddhist or Hindu descriptions of self-realization, satori or enlightenment. This mystical experience is said to have a universal aspect that transcends cultural context. If psychedelic drugs can produce mystical experiences, then the values and beliefs of psychedelic users should differ in crucial respects from those expressed by users of other illicit drugs such as cocaine or heroin. Further, the values and beliefs of psychedelic users should be similar across different cultures. The present study tested these hypotheses by examining different types of drug users in Israel and Australia, specifically comparing the values, beliefs and sense of coherence (an index of physical and mental well-being) of users of psychedelic drugs with users of non-psychedelic illicit drugs (marijuana, heroin, cocaine, etc.), and with non-users of illegal drugs.

Descending the Mountain

What happens when you administer psilocybin to experienced zen meditators? A neuroscientist and a zen master carry out a double-blind experiment on a sphinxlike mountain in Switzerland. Their goal: to examine the nature of consciousness.

“These substances are not for the sick only, they belong in the hands of meditation”
Albert Hofmann

Exactly fifty years after the ban on psychedelics a group of Zen meditators – who have never used any psychedelic substances before – are given psilocybin on the last day of a 5-day retreat. Half the group receives a placebo.

Mystical experiences are induced through a combination of deep meditation and psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms.
This scientific experiment, which was published in Nature magazine in 2020, may lift the controversy that has clouded the realm of psychedelics for far too long.

Scientist Franz Vollenweider and zen master Vanja Palmers descend from the mountain of bliss to teach us how we can integrate mysticism into our day-to-day life.

‘Descending the Mountain’ is a mesmerising testimony of inner climate change that shows us how psilocybin could create a revolution in improving mental health and strengthen our connection with our environment.

Spiritual Growth with Entheogens: Psychoactive Sacramentals and Human Transformation

Modern organized religion is based predominantly on secondary religious experience–we read about others’ extraordinary direct spiritual encounters in the distant past and have faith that God is out there. Yet what if powerful sacraments existed to help us directly experience the sacred? What if there were ways to seek out the meaning of being human and our place in the universe, to see the sacred in the world that surrounds us?
In this book, more than 25 spiritual leaders, scientists, and psychedelic visionaries examine how we can return to the primary spiritual encounters at the basis of all religions through the guided use of entheogens. With contributions by Albert Hofmann, Huston Smith, Stanislav Grof, Charles Tart, Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, Frances Vaughan, Myron Stolaroff, and many others, this book explores protocols for ceremonial use of psychedelics, the challenges of transforming entheogenic insights into enduring change, psychoactive sacraments in the Bible, myths surrounding the use of LSD, and the transformative ayahuasca rituals of Santo Daime. It also includes personal accounts of Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment as well as a 25-year follow-up with its participants. Dispelling fears of inauthentic spirituality, addiction, and ill-prepared encounters with the holy, this book reveals the potential of entheogens as catalysts for spiritual development, a path through which faith can directly encounter God’s power, and the beginning of a new religious era based on personal spiritual experience.

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