Entheogens and the Future of Religion

232 Pages·2012·1.21 MB·English

by  Robert Forte

To all our relations
Let it be known
there is a fountain
that was not made
by the hands of man.
HUNTER/GARCIA
ENTHEOGENS and the FUTURE of RELIGION
“This book provides a balanced, thoroughly researched, and clear account
about a topic that has fascinated people for centuries—even millennia—and
will be with us, one way or another, for a long time to come.”
HARVEY COX, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND
AUTHOR OF THE FUTURE OF FAITH
“This book of essays plows new ground in the relationship between
entheogens and religion. It is well worth reading. Any path that can bring the
human family closer together should be investigated.”
REV. DR. KENNETH B. SMITH, PRESIDENT OF THE CHICAGO THEOLOGY SEMINARY
“An important book for anyone who cares about the future of the human race.
The sensible use of entheogens is one of most promising paths to deep
spiritual insight for many people, and this book shows how that could be done
—if we care enough.”
CHARLES T. TART, PH.D., PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
“We have long needed this well-articulated, thoughtful, and rational basis for
understanding the power of psychedelic biomechanicals to stimulate visionary
experience. These essays make a strong case for the use of these substances in
future religious practice.”
FRANK BARRON, PH.D., SC.D., AUTHOR OF NO ROOTLESS FLOWER: AN ECOLOGY OF
CREATIVITY
“If you want more than emotional and subjective outpourings about
entheogens, and if you think like I do that unless we expand our awareness we
will not have a happy future, then this is a book to read.”
RABBI ZALMAN M. SCHACHTER-SHALOMI, AUTHOR OF FROM AGE-ING TO SAGE-ING
“Offers a thoughtful, sane examination of a topic of great social,
psychological, and religious significance.”
ROGER WALSH, M.D., PH.D., PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
“Essential reading for everyone concerned with spiritual, psychological, and
social well-being. A fascinating and significant collection.”
FRANCES VAUGHAN, PH.D., AUTHOR OF SHADOWS OF THE SACRED AND THE INWARD
ARC
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THIS COLLECTION GREW out of a symposium in Big Sur, California, that
was inspired and supported by many folks, especially Stuart Abelson, Mircea
Eliade, Stan and Christina Grof, and Dick Price. Many dear friends, guides, and
inspiring (and patient) teachers appeared along the way to the book’s final form.
Frank Barron and Claudio Naranjo watched the entire process unfold and I hope
are pleased with the result. Jan Krinsley, Kelly Simmons, and Peter Stafford
helped in the early preparation of the manuscript. Bob Wallace and Bob Jesse
played key roles in bringing it all together and to you. Thanks for loving and
critical support to Michael Abbott, Greg Bogart, Brooks Cole, Clark Heinrich,
Minh-Hang Nguyen, and Dale Pendell. Thank you Nina Graboi, beloved
psychedelic godmother. Thank you Jaime. And thank you Timothy, wherever
you are. A by-no-means-final debt of gratitude is owed to the worldwide
entheogen community—those who keep the flame burning, sometimes at great
peril and personal sacrifice.
FIAT LUX
—ROBERT FORTE,
EDITOR
For this is the very problem that is obsessing me: although I see man
crushed, asphyxiated, diminished by industrial civilization, I can’t believe
that he will degenerate, decline morally, and finally perish, completely
sterile. I have a limitless confidence in the creative power of the human
mind. It seems to me that man will succeed—if he wishes—in remaining
free and creative, in any circumstance, cosmic or historical.
But how can the miracle be brought about? How can the sacramental
dimension of existence be rediscovered? At this point, so much can be
said: all the things that have existed we have not definitively lost; we find
them again in our dreams and our longings. And the poets have kept them.
This is to say nothing of the religious life, because the authenticity and
depth of the religious life among my contemporaries seems to me a most
mysterious problem. There must be a way out. Aldous Huxley proposes
mescaline. . . . There would be a great deal to say on that score.
MIRCEA ELIADE, NO SOUVENIRS, 1977

I am not so foolish as to equate what happens under the influence of
mescalin or of any other drug, prepared or in the future preparable, with
the realization of the end and ultimate purpose of human life:
Enlightenment, the Beatific Vision. All I am suggesting is that the mescalin
experience is what Catholic Theologians call “a gratuitous grace,” not
necessary to salvation but potentially helpful and to be accepted
thankfully, if made available. To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary
perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and inner world,
not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human
being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended,
directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large—this is an experience of
inestimable value to anyone. . . .
ALDOUS HUXLEY, THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION, 1954
CONTENTS
Cover Image
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
Foreword to the New Edition
Robert Jesse
SCIENCE
LAW
CULTURE
Introduction
Robert Forte
REFERENCES
Chapter 1: Testimony of the Council on Spiritual Practices
Robert Jesse
THE ENTHEOGENS
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
NATIVE AMERICAN USE OF PEYOTE
ACCOMMODATING OTHER ENTHEOGEN PRACTICES
QUOTES WITHOUT COMMENT
REFERENCES
Chapter 2: Explorations into God
Brother David Steindl-Rast
Chapter 3: Das Mutterkorn: The Making of Delysid
Dale Pendell
Chapter 4: The Message of the Eleusinian Mysteries for Today’s World
Albert Hofmann
Chapter 5: A New Vocabulary
Ann and Alexander Shulgin
Chapter 6: Natural Science and the Mystical Worldview
Albert Hofmann
Chapter 7: Psychedelic Society
Terence McKenna
Chapter 8: A Conversation with R. Gordon Wasson
Robert Forte
REFERENCES
Chapter 9: Sacred Mushroom Pentecost
Thomas J. Riedlinger
HISTORY OF THE VELADA
WASSON’S ROAD TO THE MUSHROOM VELADA
THE VELADA OF JUNE 29–30, 1955
PENTECOSTAL ELEMENTS IN THE MUSHROOM VELADA
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
Chapter 10: Psychedelic Experience and Spiritual Practice
Robert Forte
REFERENCES
Chapter 11: Academic and Religious Freedom in the Study of the Mind
Thomas B. Roberts
THE MULTISTATE COGNITIVE SCIENCES
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
FREEDOM OF RELIGION
RECOMMENDATIONS
REFERENCES
Chapter 12: Biomedical Research with Psychedelics
Rick J. Strassman
BIRTH, DEATH, NEAR DEATH, AND ABDUCTIONS
RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS
TRAINING ISSUES
REFERENCES
Chapter 13: Law Enforcement Against Entheogens
Eric E. Sterling
About the Council on Spiritual Practices
CSP CODE OF ETHICS FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDES
OTHER BOOKS IN THE CSP ENTHEOGEN PROJECT SERIES
ISA AND THE DOUBTERS
Footnotes
Endnotes
Index
About The Author
About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
Books of Related Interest
Copyright & Permissions