This is a great article! As an orthodox Christian (maybe you are too? It’s unclear) who has been a part of the psychedelic community in my teen years, and a part of the nondenominational church just a few years ago I tend to be more skeptical of psychedelics. I think they carry high risks for spiritual delusion as you mention, and I would suspect that there is a spiritual element to them that is deceptive, driving people away from God and not to Him.
But you may be right that this doesn’t preclude the possibility of therapeutic intervention- my intuition would be that lower doses are comparatively harmless. For example my aunt has done insulfated ketamine (medically prescribed) for ptsd, did not have any spirtual effects, but found great relief from being in patterns where she was obsessing about her abuser or being abused. She has also done intravenous ketamine, which is significantly more spiritually potent. I don’t know enough about her history to say whether or not that was a spirtual experience for her, but you could easily assume for many people it is.
Christ tells us to deny the self (the false ego self that is what Hindus and Buddhists also deny) and follow Him. That false self that you have a terror of annihilation is the sinful self you are protecting. Psychedelics are neither good nor bad- they are a tool for unveiling what is going on in your mind. And yes the mind is drenched in sin and ignorance of God. You will see that clearly in psychedelics. It is not mind altering- it is mind revealing. Ordinary consciousness is a veil drawn over our eyes so that we cannot perceive the sinful nature of the self that we must deny. Use of psychedelics does not automatically make on a “drug addict.” This is the fearful demonic sinful mind’s way of interpreting everything through the lens of fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Manna is the code word in the Bible for psychedelics - they were used for ages to connect with God, but people were still not able to overcome death- Christ came and overcame death so that we may do the same with Him. Psychedelics are a tool just like anything else in this material world and God will direct us to these tools as long as they are useful or necessary for a time.
BTW Brahman is NOT the creator of this universe. Brahman is completely transcendent of this world and unknowable by the human mind. Just like many oversimplified Christians, you oversimplify other religions in order to make it into a strawman and dismiss them, dismissing what you don’t understand so that you can state “My religion is the best!” It is pride and ego that does this. You are stubbornly holding onto dogma (my religion is the best, all others are wrong!) out of fear of losing your false ego self. Only when you lose that false self, the true love of God will shine through.
One part that seemed absent from your overview is the issue of judgement. I would say the central aspect of Christianity is that God promises to forgive sinners on account of Jesus' death and resurrection alone and only. Eastern traditions or psychedelics do not make the same promises, and many of the issues you highlight (moral relativism, we are god, we are illusory, monism, etc) stem from us trying to hide from the fact we are sinners, justly accused and facing judgment.
I would argue that the 'maybe monism, maybe dualism,' doctrine of the Trinity, Chalcedon, and all of the rest stem from trying to make sense of the mechanics whereby 1) God comes down to us humans, becomes incarnate, forgives sinners, gets murdered, breaks death, and lives and 2) how God makes that promise of forgiveness real to sinful humans today.
The Eastern church tends to focus on the metaphor as sin as sickness/poison, and Jesus as the physician healing our souls. This is complementary to the metaphor of sin as breaking a law. Forgiveness of sin and being healed of sin are different ways of talking about salvation/sanctification.
The hippies talk about fulfilling their human potential, overcoming limitations, embodying their highest self. I would use all of this language to talk about what salvation means as we are cleansed of sin. The way this happens is that God shares his life-giving energies with us, so that we overcome sin and participate in his existence.
By "Eastern" I should have clarified that I meant Hindu/etc, not Orthodox. Agree that healing/forgiveness talking about the same thing.
But I think this issue is where to focus to determine if and when psychedelics can be compatible with Christianity. *How* are we cleansed of sin? If God shares His life-giving energies with us, that must come from something *outside* of us by definition (RIP monism). But what's the mechanism? Does the mechanism require Jesus' death and resurrection? If not, RIP Trinity.
This is a great article! As an orthodox Christian (maybe you are too? It’s unclear) who has been a part of the psychedelic community in my teen years, and a part of the nondenominational church just a few years ago I tend to be more skeptical of psychedelics. I think they carry high risks for spiritual delusion as you mention, and I would suspect that there is a spiritual element to them that is deceptive, driving people away from God and not to Him.
But you may be right that this doesn’t preclude the possibility of therapeutic intervention- my intuition would be that lower doses are comparatively harmless. For example my aunt has done insulfated ketamine (medically prescribed) for ptsd, did not have any spirtual effects, but found great relief from being in patterns where she was obsessing about her abuser or being abused. She has also done intravenous ketamine, which is significantly more spiritually potent. I don’t know enough about her history to say whether or not that was a spirtual experience for her, but you could easily assume for many people it is.
Good stuff. Helps me build out a proper taxonomy.
Christ tells us to deny the self (the false ego self that is what Hindus and Buddhists also deny) and follow Him. That false self that you have a terror of annihilation is the sinful self you are protecting. Psychedelics are neither good nor bad- they are a tool for unveiling what is going on in your mind. And yes the mind is drenched in sin and ignorance of God. You will see that clearly in psychedelics. It is not mind altering- it is mind revealing. Ordinary consciousness is a veil drawn over our eyes so that we cannot perceive the sinful nature of the self that we must deny. Use of psychedelics does not automatically make on a “drug addict.” This is the fearful demonic sinful mind’s way of interpreting everything through the lens of fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Manna is the code word in the Bible for psychedelics - they were used for ages to connect with God, but people were still not able to overcome death- Christ came and overcame death so that we may do the same with Him. Psychedelics are a tool just like anything else in this material world and God will direct us to these tools as long as they are useful or necessary for a time.
BTW Brahman is NOT the creator of this universe. Brahman is completely transcendent of this world and unknowable by the human mind. Just like many oversimplified Christians, you oversimplify other religions in order to make it into a strawman and dismiss them, dismissing what you don’t understand so that you can state “My religion is the best!” It is pride and ego that does this. You are stubbornly holding onto dogma (my religion is the best, all others are wrong!) out of fear of losing your false ego self. Only when you lose that false self, the true love of God will shine through.
This is an excellent essay. Thank you.
Good analysis!
One part that seemed absent from your overview is the issue of judgement. I would say the central aspect of Christianity is that God promises to forgive sinners on account of Jesus' death and resurrection alone and only. Eastern traditions or psychedelics do not make the same promises, and many of the issues you highlight (moral relativism, we are god, we are illusory, monism, etc) stem from us trying to hide from the fact we are sinners, justly accused and facing judgment.
I would argue that the 'maybe monism, maybe dualism,' doctrine of the Trinity, Chalcedon, and all of the rest stem from trying to make sense of the mechanics whereby 1) God comes down to us humans, becomes incarnate, forgives sinners, gets murdered, breaks death, and lives and 2) how God makes that promise of forgiveness real to sinful humans today.
The Eastern church tends to focus on the metaphor as sin as sickness/poison, and Jesus as the physician healing our souls. This is complementary to the metaphor of sin as breaking a law. Forgiveness of sin and being healed of sin are different ways of talking about salvation/sanctification.
The hippies talk about fulfilling their human potential, overcoming limitations, embodying their highest self. I would use all of this language to talk about what salvation means as we are cleansed of sin. The way this happens is that God shares his life-giving energies with us, so that we overcome sin and participate in his existence.
By "Eastern" I should have clarified that I meant Hindu/etc, not Orthodox. Agree that healing/forgiveness talking about the same thing.
But I think this issue is where to focus to determine if and when psychedelics can be compatible with Christianity. *How* are we cleansed of sin? If God shares His life-giving energies with us, that must come from something *outside* of us by definition (RIP monism). But what's the mechanism? Does the mechanism require Jesus' death and resurrection? If not, RIP Trinity.
Your terror of annihilation is worth examining more deeply. Nothing persists forever.
Your acceptance of annihilation is worth examining more deeply.
God is a God of love and would not create you only to annihilate you.