Cleansing The Doors Of Perception: The Religious Significance Of Entheogenic Plants And Chemical

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In this book, renowned philosopher and scholar of religion Huston Smith, takes a serious look at the use of psychedelic drugs as a means to achieve mystical union with the divine. In a unique blend of direct experience and academic depth, Smith examines this controversial subject and describes the historic and turbulent academic experiments of the sixties in which he was both a subject and an observer. Smith begins by telling the story of his own initiation into the world of psychedelic drugs in the company of Timothy Leary—a meeting arranged by Aldous Huxley—and the profound effect it had on his understanding of reality. In wrestling with the question—Do drugs have religious import?—he draws on history, theology, philosophy, psychology, and anthropology. He tells of fascinating experiments that attempted to shed light on this question, such as the one in which he participated as a guide, where twenty volunteers—mostly seminary students—were given psilocybin before they attended a traditional Good Friday church service. He discusses as well the use of peyote in Native American sacred rituals and the hallucinogenic plant soma in ancient India. Throughout, he does not approach the question of drugs and religion from any fixed standpoint. Instead, he mines his own experiences and his relationships to pioneers in this field to come up with insights on this intriguing subject that are not available in any other book written for the general public.

Paperback: 173 pages

Publisher: Sentient Publications; 3 edition (September 12, 2003)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1591810086

ISBN-13: 978-1591810087

Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.5 x 9.1 inches

Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #519,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #120 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult & Paranormal > Parapsychology > Out-of-Body Experiences #798 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Sociology #968 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age & Spirituality > Spiritualism

As an advocate of the use of entheogens (psychedelics) as a means of expanding consciousness, I have to praise this book for several reasons.One, due to Dr. Huston's reputation, many people who would not have considered psychedelics as a spiritual path will now have to take the spiritual use of these substances seriously.Two for those of us who do use entheogens, Dr. Smith offers an interesting critique of the psychedelic movement of the 60s. He asks himself if the corrolary of "tune in" and "turn on" has to be "drop out".He also underscores the importance of paying attention to "set" and "setting" (the attitude of the user and the physical environment in which the user takes the psychedelic). He rightly notes that a lot of people pay lip service to this idea without being rigorous in it's application. There seems to be a kind of libertarianism, even philistinism, in the contemporary psychedelic scene. We're going to explore alone without paying attention to the lessons from other cultures who have used these substances for thousands of years. Understandably we do so under the banner of authenticity, but I think we lose out. We should not ape or follow the lessons of those cultures dogmatically, but we should investigate them and heed what is good...especially about set and setting.Third, he assigns psychedelics their proper place. They are tools. And like any tool, psychedelics work for some and not for others. Or they work for a time for us and then we need to leave them behind. Any way it goes, we are left with integrating the lessons learned from our psychedelic explorations into our everyday life.This is a sober treatment of the role of psychedelics, not an absolute glorification.

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