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56 Calif. L. Rev. 74 (1968)
Psychedelics and Religious Experience

handle is hein.journals/calr56 and id is 76 raw text is: Psychedelics and Religious Experience Alan Watts* T HE 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 states consciousness in which the individual discovers himself to be one continu- ous process with God, with the Universe, with the Ground of Being, or whatever name he may use by cultural conditioning or personal preference for the ultimate and eternal reality. We have no satisfactory and defini- tive 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. I THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE The idea of mystical experiences resulting from drug use is not readily accepted in Western societies. Western culture has, historically, a particu- lar fascination with the value and virtue of man as an individual, self- determining, responsible ego, controlling himself and his world by the power of conscious effort and will. Nothing, then, could be more repugnant to this cultural tradition than the notion of spiritual or psychological growth through the use of drugs. A drugged person is by definition dimmed in consciousness, fogged in judgment, and deprived of will. But not all psychotropic (consciousness-changing) chemicals are narcotic and soporific, as are alcohol, opiates, and barbiturates. The effects of what are *S.T.M., D.D. Philosopher and Author, with special interests in the psychology of religion and comparative religion. Former research fellow in Social Relations, Harvard University, and twice recipient of research fellowships from the Bollingen Foundation. Publications include: The Wisdom of Insecurity; Myth & Ritual in Christianity; The Way of Zen; Nature, Man & Woman; Psychotherapy East & West; The Joyous Cosmology; Beyond Theology. 1 See W. JAras, THE VsAns oF' REM ous ExPm=rBNc (1911),

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