[Buddha-l] Dumbo's feather Re:Buddhism and psychoactive substances

[Stefan Detrez]

2006/10/4, Joy Vriens <joy.vriens at nerim.net>:
>
>
> In my current approach to what I consider a "spiritual" "path" to be, the
> use of psychoactive substances and of magical techniques such as yoga,
> breathing, pranayama etc. with the intention of influencing one's
> perception, mental and/or physical state is control-related. Who and/or what
> wants to control what and what for? Genuin spirituality imo ought to be
> close to total ahimsa, non interference, or non-intentional interference.
> Why would that be genuin spirituality? No idea. Is it possible at all?
> Probably not. But if it can't make Dumbo fly without a feather, it doesn't
> deserve the name "spiritual" path.


I don't see what's wrong with using psychoactive substances as a spiritual
path. Plenty of religious groups use drugs (peyote, cannabis, amanita
muscaria, psylocybin) to get in touch with what they see as their spiritual
entity/force/manifestation/state supreme. Would you go there as to deny the
reality of the spiritual experiences they have, because they are induced by
drugs? Would you claim that the knowledge (if any) they gained through those
experiences in not genuine because it's chemically induced?
What makes the quality of experiences coming from drug use (albeit
ritualized and 'normalized' in particular social contexts) different from
the quality of experiences coming from sensoric deprivation (exhaustion,
tiredness, hunger, thirst, darkness, excessive light, excessive quietness,
...), all of which are the result of the seeker's time and energy consuming
quest for spiritual experiences?
One might want to look at it from a neuropsychological point of view: what
the brain perceives is correlated with external experience (OK, cittamatrins
- have me for breakfast!) and internal experience. It responds to those
impulses and tries to fom a 'picture' of those experience to make them
comprehensible for itself. Whether that formed 'picture' is induced by
chemicals or physical and mental states as a result of meditation (a type
of  sensoric deprivation) does not, for the brain, make any difference. To
make things worse, I've had experience with people taking psychedelics who
were more 'insightful' into the nature of reality, than monotheists who
prayed for lenghty hours or hadn't eaten for an unhealthy period of time and
claimed to have talked with God. No wonder Jesus saw the Devil after 40 days
of hunger. No to say that one is 'better' than the other. But maybe sitting
on the porch, watching tipsily at the sunset might lead some to get the
insight that life is good and everything is beautiful, while some doing all
kinds of 'spiritual procedures' will be left with a grey appreciation for It
All.

Stefan
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