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

[Joy Vriens]

Bonjour Stefan Detrez, 

>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?

No, but I have some suspicion about them (if I'd go for a hard reality approach), since they found what they were looking for. In this crazy univers and especially from a point of view of something as dependent origination it ought to be impossible to find what one was looking for. 

>Would you claim that the knowledge (if any) they gained through those 
>experiences in not genuine because it's chemically induced? 

If whatever they found satisfied them, then that is wonderful. If it's knowledge I don't know. And what sort of knowledge? And can knowledge give satisfaction? How can knowledge, the simple fact of knowing something give satisfaction? What exactly would this "knowledge" *satisfy*? Belief? Intention? Perfectly falling together to a fit, Halleluya! Can we prove all this goes beyond a closed circuit of suggestion and self sugestion?  

>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? 

Yes exactly. Or e.g. the simple fact of living in an all male environment (if one is a male). What does that do to one's hormonal, perhormonal etc. balance and what effects can that have on our thoughts, feelings, emotions etc. ?

Joy