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We may be on the cusp of a great religious revival, due to the increased acceptance and eventual mainstreaming of psychedelics. People often interpret their ps
by pmoriarty 5y ago
We may be on the cusp of a great religious revival, due to the increased acceptance and eventual mainstreaming of psychedelics.
People often interpret their psychedelic experiences in religious terms, and psychedelic use has often created new religions and helped to engender an authentic reconnection to existing religions.
Mainstream religions rarely offer much more than platitudes or a place to socialize for the majority of their adherents, of whom many are part of the religion simply because their parents were, or because the church is the social center of their town.
They don't have an authentic connection to the teachings, many don't even read their sacred scriptures, rely on priests to tell them what to believe, and usually neither they nor their priests ever had a mystical experience.
Then psychedelics come in to the picture, and suddenly they may have a renewed sense of the sacred, religious texts and spaces come alive, and they may even come face to face with what they experience as the genuine heart of their tradition, including meeting, talking to or even being god.
This is not an uncommon occurrence, even for atheists and agnostics.
I don't think the mainstream culture has fully appreciated either how enormously powerful such experiences can be, nor their repercussions.
Historically, mainstream religions have been very against drug use, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when their churches, mosques, and synagogues start filling up with people who were drawn there through mystical experiences they had on psychedelics.
- andrewmcwatters 5y agoWalk into a mainstream religious setting. None of them are there because they got high. If that were the case, the 70s would have looked a lot different.
- pmoriarty 5y agoThis is false. A lot of people found religion in the 60's and 70's due to psychedelics, and have continued to do so ever since. As an example, many people were first drawn to Eastern religions through psychedelic experiences. Also, arguments have been made that even the mainstream religions were originally founded (and in their early years sustained) due to psychedelic use. For an example see Allegro's "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross". That's not to mention many smaller religions such as the Native American Church, Santo Daime, Uniao Do Vegetal, etc. Something else to consider is that drug use has been so stigmatized (not to mention illegal) for so long that many users have been afraid to come forward and admit their psychedelic use. That's been changing due to the Psychedelic Renaissance and its positive reception in the press, but there are likely to be many more people who haven't come out of the closet yet (not to mention users who died before this more permissive era started). So the number of people who were drawn to religion through psychedelic use is probably much larger than we know.
- andrewmcwatters 5y agoI'm sure plenty of them did. But it's interesting I don't see Christians, Jews, or Muslims talk about how they get high all the time. They'd be put off by you suggesting it. It's even a central practice to not do so.
- mistermann 5y agoOne thing I learned from psychedelic usage is the powerful of the minds ability to imagine things about reality and present them as reality itself. I think the realization of this sort of thing might contribute to many psychedelic users to adopt a more ~spiritual outlook on life, which I believe is more aligned with how things really are.
- perfmode 5y agoit’s worth also introducing another word into the vocabulary of the discussion: spirituality
- creamynebula 5y agoI used to be an atheist, then after experimenting with psychedelics I became agnostic, then after some major struggle in life now God is central to my life and I enjoy reading the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita. I had never touched anything similar before psychedelics, I was prejudiced against religions, religious people, spirituality and anything that wasn't materialistic.
- dimitrios1 5y agoThis is such a belittling and reductionist take on religiosity that all I can do, as a religious person myself, who is well educated (because that's the other assumed trope common in places like these: people must be religious because they are otherwise ignorant or uneducated), is laugh. Not only has American theological ignorance increased (people like Richard Dawkins for example, popular in atheist cultures, has just downright comically terrible theology and understanding of the Bible), but as well as ignorance of the human psyche. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
- mistrial9 5y agospiritually yes .. however, for me it took many, small and far apart, ventures into Bible study to find that in the Old Testament, it is literally a guiding principle to refrain from drugs that induce ecstatic experience.. The Old Testament g*d is a sober one.. (oh wait, wine) Fast-forward 2+ thousand years, and the structures of capital R Religion focus on tangible outcomes with built, physical infrastructure .. family structures and committments..