Psychedelic Drugs:Can They Give You A Religious Experience
In the sixties and seventies, there was an interest in drugs related to higher consciousness. Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert), Dr. Grof and other respected professionals at universities researched and themselves experimented with these drugs. Today, this isn’t discussed much but are they a door to higher perception?
One thing I remember in college was that people often were not using drugs to get “wasted”. I knew a lot of english, philosophy and psychology majors and the interest was how to get out of one’s normal thought habits, get beyond underlying assumptions and experience non-duality.
This seemed to compliment reading eastern mysticism and meditation practices. I believe it was Huston Smith who said that psychedelic drugs give you a religious experience but not a religous life. Ram Dass speaks about how he hated coming down but when he went to India and met his teacher he found someone who never came down. This got him into a very strong meditation practice.
There is a side to drugs that offer mind expansion but once that is glimpsed, it makes sense to expand the mind using meditation, prayer, study and methods to undo one’s usual walls and routines. If you experiment with drugs or know people who do, don’t just see this as an attempt to get wasted. It may point to a spiritual place in yourself you are craving to expand but just aren’t sure of how to develop. Drugs may give you a taste of this but cannot be the method.