R E S P O N S E--T O:

CSP - 'Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between
Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness. (1)

- AND -

Drugs and Mysticism

 Found at:
  http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/drugs_and.html
  ----and
  http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/pahnke.htm

_________________________________________________

 

  Both of the above web pages refer to the experiment known as "The Good Friday Experiment."-This study was conducted by Walter N. Pahnke for his Harvard Ph.D. dissertation.-W. H. Clark says, "The most cogent single piece of evidence that psychedelic chemicals do, under certain circumstances, release profound religious experience, is the "Good Friday Experiment."(2)--Of this study, Mr. Pahnke tells us:

  "In a private Chapel on Good Friday, twenty Christian theological students, ten of whom had been given psilocybin one and one half hours earlier, listened over loudspeakers to a two-and-one-half-hour religious service which was in actual progress in another part of the building..." (3)

  The double-blind method was used in this experiment._Those conducting the experiment and the participants did not know who received the drug and who did not._Half of the participants received psilocybin and half received a placebo._Those that received the psilocybin had a drug experience that they interpreted as feeling religious.

  When reading about this experiment it is amazing how unscientific and 'staged' it was.-These subjects were not just your average persons on the street selected at random.-They were all "theological students".-They were given the drug after "screening" and "preparation".-They were given the drug in a church, listening to a religious service on a religious holy day.-How much more staged can it get!?-Mr. Clark says:

  Statistical analysis suggested that were the experiment to be repeated with similar subjects, the chances that some of the principal results and conclusions would be confirmed was greater than 999 in 1000! ...in proper circumstances and in certain people properly prepared, the psychedelic drugs have a strong tendency to release mystical experience.(4)

  Notice that he speaks of "certain people" in "proper circumstances" and being "properly prepared".--In other words, the subjects and the 'set and setting' were manipulated towards the desired results.-All of the aspects of this "experiment" were gauged and arranged, not for the free flow of the experience, but to a specific predetermined religious result.-The only thing this experiment proves is that Christians, given a drug, will have an experience that they will interpret within the narrow confines of their belief system.--Should we be surprised at this?--Isn't this the way it has always been?

  Note how Mr. Clark says that "with similar subjects" the results would be the same.--In other words, the results would not be the same unless there were "similar subjects"?--What if they were skeptics, Buddhists, Eskimos, Taoists or real atheists or a mix of all these? And, they were out in the woods or at an amusement park rather than in a church.--Does he think they would all interpret their experience as being Christian or for that matter even religious?


  Mr. Staal (Exploring Mysticism) opens his chapter Drugs and Power by saying, "It seems difficult to deny that there are numerous parallels and similarities between mystical and drug-induced states."(5)--When discussing the similarities between descriptions of mystical experiences and the description of LSD and mescaline, he also says:

  It is important to bear in mind that interpretations and doctrines are never simply "drug induced" or merely based on experience; they are also related to other traditional concepts of a civilization. Perception does not take place in a vacuum but is always interpreted in terms of preconceived notions. (6)

  What one takes into an experience determines what they will get out of it and how they explain what had happened to them.-Mr. Keller makes the point concerning a person's upbringing and training influencing the content and interpretation of mystical experience:

  The few studies that do exist concerning visionary experience in Christianity, Islam, and Ancient India tend to prove that there is a close relationship between the acquired language and thought habits of the human subject, and the contents of the visions he may have. Visions are a kind of language which runs parallel to the spoken language and to the conceptual framework of the visionary's daily life. In brief, the Christian sees Christian symbols: the Cross, Christ, the Virgin, and so forth; the Muslim contemplates Buddhas sitting on lotus thrones. Visions appear, then, as dream which the subject has chosen, consciously or unconsciously, as his own personal myth-dream.(7)

  When "myth-dreams," illusions, preconceived notions and pre-interpretations based on religion are left behind all that is left is reality.-A Christian goes on an LSD or psilocybin 'trip' and finds Jesus or sees the Virgin Mary, a Muslim finds Allah or Mohammed, a Buddhist finds Buddha and/or attains nirvana, Hindus see the astral planes and the transmigration of souls, a Native American finds 'Great Spirit', only the Atheist finds Reality and interprets the experience accordingly.-Religious writers have had hundreds of generations and thousands of years to mold their argument in favor of defining mystical experience as religious phenomena. However, the arguments have failed. Mr. Burtt says, "It would seem from these facts that no civilized religion can hope for enduring success unless it satisfies the mystic urge in man."(8)-Western religion (Christianity) has failed to provide an avenue for mystical experience.--In fact, the church has done whatever possible to keep mystical experiences away from the "profane masses", the "unbelievers" and the "uninitiated".--But, why?--Why should the institution wish to keep this knowledge secret?-Mr. Stall correctly says:

  If mystical experiences are removed from the realm of religion, their removal would in dew course affect the notion and interpretation of religion itself. For it is not open to doubt that such experiences, when interpreted as divine inspirations, become the sources of many religious ideas and phenomena, if not of entire religions. (9)

  Shamanism, the original religion on planet earth, was inexorably linked to the drugs found in nature.-The Shaman evolved into the priests of the pagan religions and brought with them the ecstatic experiences of their forbearers.-Christianity appropriated Paganism's grand motifs and iconography into itself but could not amalgamate the mystical practices because the secret drugs they were based on were hidden behind the wall of silence which surrounded all the Mystery Religions.-But they were there all the same.--Mr. Braden makes the statement:

  The issue of chemistry cannot be avoided, it seems; psychedelic cultists and religionists alike should be prepared to face squarely the possibility or even probability that their metaphysical systems are in fact inexorably linked to biochemistry.(10)

  Mainstream religions want nothing to do with the idea that chemicals can produce the same experiences as those spoken of in their holy books.--Christianity has been weakened not strengthened by the infusion of Eastern and alternative religious thought.--Mr. Braden put it this way:

  Perhaps the most striking aspect of the New Theology has been its re-emphasis in the concept of immanence, or the indwelling nature of God - as opposed to transcendence, or the 'otherness' of God. While immanence as such is by no means heretical, in the drug movement and in Death of God theology immanence is carried all the way to its radical conclusion, where it becomes pantheism. But pantheism is not vague. Whatever the merits of the idea, it is perfectly clear-cut and straightforward in its assertion: God is Man. Or God is the Universe.(11)

  Psilocybin was the drug used in the Good Friday Experiment.-Psilocybin is a powerful drug.-Cannabis is a much less powerful substance and yet it is capable of producing all of the experiences spoken of by the mystics from the ancient world.--Merely being stoned will not in and of itself produce these experiences this is why I consistently say that they are possible only with the CORRECT use of cannabis.-Still, all in all, throughout the literature on the "Good Friday Experiment" there is no clear cut method to arriving at a mystical experience other than the mere taking of the drug.-The only experience described by the participants that might approach a genuine mystical experience would be the mild experience known as ecstasy.

  This is the main thing that makes

Marihuana the Burning Bush of Moses, Mysticism and Cannabis Experience

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 (1) Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy.
  By: Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.

 (2) Chemical Ecstasy, Pg. 77.

 (3) Aaronson & Osmond, Psychedelics, Pg. 152.

 (4) Chemical Ecstasy, Pg. 78. Emphasis his.

 (5) Pg. 5155.

 (6) Exploring Mysticism, Pg. 157.

 (7) Mystical Literature, in S. Katz, Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, Pg. 86.

 (8) Man Seeks the Divine, Pg. 430.

 (9) Exploring Mysticism, Pg. 196.

 (10) William Braden, The Private Sea; L S D and the Search for God, Page 49.

 (11) William Braden, The Private Sea; L S D and the Search for God, Page 17.

 

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