...
psychomagnifiers
'The impact of these psychomaginfiers
for psychology and education is parallel to the impact of the microscope
on biology and medicine. The most important of these is LSD. While most
drugs produce a more or less standard effect, LSD and the other psychedelics
magnify perceptions of what is already going on in the mind, our cognitions.
Because this amplification was not understood in the 1960s, the information
lawmakers had about psychedelics was misleading, confusing, and incorrect,
but our laws have not been updated to reflect scientific reality. In the
politically charged atmosphere of the Vietnam War, racial unrest, and cultural
revolution, it was easy to rationalize the political decision to outlaw
these drugs as a public health decision. (...) Evidance about the nature
of the human mind may be the most significant information possible. Just
as the magifying power of the microscope made modern biology and medicine
possible, the magnifying power of psychedelics offers to advance psychology
and education into hitherto undreamed of realms.' (Thomas
B. Roberts in 'Entheogens and the Future of Religion') |
... freedom of religion
'Unitive consciousness - mystical
experience. A major change in the Western psychology or religion during
the last two decades is ignored by current drug laws. This is the reevaluation
of states of unitive consciousness. While this change is centered in the
overlap among religion, psychology, and general culture, it also concerns
areas of the arts, psychotherapy, anthropology, and related fields. In
Western thought states of unitive consciousness are also known as mystical
experiences, peak experiences, conversion states, intense religious experiences,
cosmic consciousness, ego-transcendence, and transcendent experiences.
They also have a host of names in Eastern thought such as samadhi, satori,
enlightenment, illumination, and so forth. Until the 1960's these states
were generally considered to be evidance of neurosis or psychosis, and
this error persists among professionals and laymen who are not familiar
with the empirical research on them. Because some psychoactive drugs and
other mindbody psychotechnologies can produce these states, they were erroniously
thought to be psychologically damaging, and this is reflected in our current
drug policies.' (Thomas B. Roberts in 'Entheogens and
the Future of Religion') |
... consciousness research
'I see psychedelics as one of the
most fruitful areas of modern consciouness research. I would not be surprised
if at some point there comes to be a useful marriage between some of these
drugs and a systematic training or practice that I have described. That
marriage will have to be based on an understanding of the ancient teachings,
the laws of karma, responsibility, action, virtue, training the heart and
the mind, and the laws of liberation.' (Jack Kornfield
in 'Entheogens and the Future of Religion') |