Psychedelic Renaissance and Spiritual Conundrums pt. 1
Psychedelics are making it into mainstream again, where does that leave spirituality and mysticism in the equation?
Most research today is focused on medicinal and therapeutic properties of psychedelics and this is undoubtedly of great value. If psychedelics can treat depression, trust me, I’m all in. However on top of that, we should continue to expand our knowledge about psychedelics from philosophical, spiritual and mystical point of view, because psychedelics might help us elucidate mysterious unresolved questions regarding our purpose and relationship to the universe and cause profound transformation of our society.
What is spirituality and mysticism anyway and why bother?
I need to get few definitions out of the way first. Spirituality is a broad concept and generally it includes a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves and is tied to mystical experiences.
Mysticism, similarly, is also such a vague and vast term, that there are very few contenders that could compete with it (looking at you, transcendental). Nevertheless, there's one definition I think does a good job at trying to explain it:
"Mysticism may refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, and to human transformation supported by various practices and experiences."
I also like this idea of mysticism as a kind of anti-knowledge, you see things as they are and see how impenetrable the riddle of existence is and more you try to describe it, the more you fail. It's somewhat antithetical to science, which has studying parts of a wholeness as its basic modus operandi all the while avoiding the wholeness itself. To summarise it, mystical experience is (according to William James):
ineffable - it's hard to describe in an ordinary language
noetic - it seems to reveal profound truth
transient
it is a passive state
The noetic quality and its ability to reveal profound truth, is the inspiration for religious scriptures, doctrines and dogmas all around the world. It’s also precisely the thing that makes mystics quibble about who is actually right. If gnosis is reliable is for whole another discussion.
Nonetheless, spirituality is an important dimension of human psyche as it gives sense of meaning, purpose, it helps to maintain hope and peace and as a consequence it affects our relationship to other living beings, nature and universe. Precisely this kind of transformation is needed to face challenges such as climate change and war, so it becomes all the more relevant and urgent these days.
Furthermore I truly believe, there is no mental health without spirituality, although many would disagree. Metaphysics and spirituality matters, if you ask me.
What does it mean in the context of psychedelics?
Let’s throw some science in. First of all, from mental health point of view, several studies done in John Hopkins University found that the stronger the mystical experience induced by psilocybin, the more people were freed from addiction, depression and other mental disorders.
Second of all, new evidence begin to emerge, that psychedelics might cause lasting metaphysical belief shifts, especially shifts away from materialism and physicalism towards dualism and panpsychism. I presume this effect is also associated with the intensity of mystical experience.
While attempting to revolutionize mental health with new pharmaceuticals, the results of these studies lead to important ethical considerations for future clinical practice. On top of that, those results point to mystical experience as an integral part of the psychedelic experience, an agent responsible for considerable change with its metaphysical implications.
Psychedelics and their spiritual history
Psychedelics are as old as humanity, dubbed as the oldest religion without a name.
The Soma-drops with thousand powers are purified for victory,
Hymned to become the feast of Gods.
*The drops of Soma juice effused fall like the rain upon the earth:
To Indra flow the Soma-streams.
O Soma flowing on thy way, win thou and conquer high renown;
And make us better than we are.
- Verses from The Ninth Mandala of the Rig Veda
The ancient and mysterious Rig Veda provides beautiful and poetic description of a plant, from which a divine potion is made. To this day, it remains a mystery, what plant is described in the Vedas, however it very likely is a plant with hallucinogenic properties around which religious cults were built. It may or may not be important what substance it used to be, it is certain, that psychedelics were means to a mystical end as important sacrament or were even worshipped as deity.
Psychedelics were and still are part of many cultures and religions that centered their rites around ceremonial use of psychedelic substances, shamanism in indigenous cultures of Amazonian forest with ayahuasca, Bwiti religion and Iboga in Gabon, magic mushrooms and peyote in Mexico, to name a few.
There are numerous entheogenic theories about a role the psychedelics played in the origins of Western thought as well. Examples include ritual of Ancient Greece with Kykeon, the concoction of Eleusinian Mysteries, presumably containing ergot infected barley as its possible main ingredient. It was a visionary ritual that was supposed to reveal deep insights about nature of reality. When we really put our imagination to work, early Christianity might have revolved around a much more cathartic ritual, induced by mind altering substance as the actual Eucharist.
Current psychedelic spiritual discourse revolves mainly around western spiritual tourism and attending ayahuasca ceremonies deep inside the Amazonian jungle, often involving clash of cultures and misinterpretation. And as with with West’s tendencies to commodify everything, including spirituality, I thus fear similar fate awaits psychedelics, just like it happened to yoga or mindfulness with so called “fast-food spirituality”. It’s not that long ago when microdosing in the Silicon Valley was news of the day. Anyways, the book McMindfulness by Ronald Purser, albeit quite ranty, touches on this topic rather well, it describes how mindfulness, when stripped off Buddhist ethics, instead of being a propeller of social change, has become mere self-help tool to deceive yourself into thinking everything is fine. Moreover, attempts to monopolize psychedelics should be taken seriously as it doesn’t seem like the type of transformation I wasn’t talking about previously.
These are just some of the many reasons why I find it important to talk about how to integrate psychedelics with spiritual practice and ethics and ask if it is possible or even necessary and what are the consequences of that. More on that in the second part.