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Explores scientific and medical research on the emerging uses of psychedelics to enrich mind, morals, spirituality, and creativity
• Outlines a future that embraces psychedelics as tools for cognitive development, personal growth, business, and an experience-based religious reformation
• Presents research on the use of psychedelics to enhance problem-solving, increase motivation, boost the immune system, and deepen ethical values
• Includes chapters by Roger N. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., and Charles Grob, M.D., on their psychedelic research on religious experience and alleviating the fear of death
As psychedelic psychotherapy gains recognition through research at universities and medical establishments such as the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute and Bellevue Hospital, the other beneficial uses of psychedelics are beginning to be recognized and researched as well--from enhancing problem-solving and increasing motivation to boosting the immune system and deepening moral and ethical values.
Exploring the bright future of psychedelics, Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D., reveals how new uses for entheogens will enrich individuals as well as society as a whole. With contributions from Charles Grob, M.D., and Roger N. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., the book explains how psychedelics can raise individual and business attitudes away from self-centeredness, improve daily life with strengthened feelings of meaningfulness and spirituality, and help us understand and redesign the human mind, leading to the possibility of a neurosingularity--a time when future brains surpass our current ones. Roberts envisions a future where you will seek psychedelic therapy not only for psychological reasons but also for personal growth, creative problem solving, improved brain function, and heightened spiritual awareness.
Our psychedelic future is on the horizon--a future that harnesses the full potential of mind and spirit--and Thomas Roberts outlines a path to reach it.
- Sales Rank: #468931 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-01-23
- Released on: 2013-02-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
“Roberts seeks to enlighten all who will listen about the many potential benefits of using entheogens for a variety of purposes, and to replace common misconceptions with facts. This book goes beyond science and mental health. It’s interesting and enlightening for any explorer of human potential. ” (Alice R. Bernston, New Connexion, November 2013)
“Roberts present his concepts and ideas clearly and coherently, yet does so with unmistakable passion and an underlying sense of humour. The main goal of this work is to stimulate a new way of looking at psychedelics; viewing them as potential allies in our evolutionary journey. While he remains optimistic for the future, he stops short of suggesting that psychedelics are a panacea or that social change will occur overnight. He emphasizes that obstacles to public education and academic research still exits and there will continue to be resistance in the public and political spheres. Nevertheless, Roberts’ conclusions and recommendations, especially with regards to education, are worthy of a wider audience. Considering Roberts has taught a course on psychedelics for over three decades, he has a commendable grasp of the logistics and significance of psychedelic education. We would be wise to take note of his suggestions so that we may develop new research questions and models; creative methodologies; engaging university courses; and future generations of psychedelic researchers.” (Adam G. Van Hagen, South African Journal of Psychology, February 2014)
“Those who can come across the word entheogens (psychoactive drugs used with a spiritual purpose) without needing a dictionary will have an easier time with the prose, but they might be the proverbial choir listening to the preaching. These folks can expect an informative, thoughtful, organized, and enjoyable spin through history, spirituality, religion, psychology, economics, and politics. They will find the classic allusions to many of psychology’s forefathers, including William James and Abraham Maslow, as Roberts details how the field has always flirted with mystical experiences and altered levels of awareness. Big names in the study of consciousness also get respectful tips of the hat. Roberts boils down complicated studies in an accessible way. Unlike comparable authors, he does not see hallucinogens as a panacea. An endearing section called Why You Shouldn’t Put LSD in Your Friend’s Coffee underscores the import of set and setting, emphasizes how the underground market undermines knowledge about any illicit drug’s actual content and potency, and elaborates on individual differences in drug reactions. The hallucinogens are clearly not for everybody.” (by Thomas B. Roberts, American Psychological Association, February 2014)
“Roberts provides us with a map of a healthy future and directions on how to get there. This important, practical volume should be on the must-read list of all citizens, including students, businesspeople, artists, legislators, regulators, and policy makers. We would all do well to follow Professor Roberts’s guidance into our psychedelic future.” (Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., author of Psychedelic Healing)
“With the psychedelic renaissance now in full flower, this book provides timely insight into the many reasons that we should work to mainstream nonordinary states of consciousness for a range of beneficial uses and the practical ways we can do so.” (Rick Doblin, president and founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAP)
“Roberts’s book is a tour de force in the nascent field of psychedelic studies. The Psychedelic Future of the Mind proposes bold new research directions and methodologies that intrepidly advance what psychedelic research can become. A guide for researchers and the general public alike, this book promotes paths to integrate the power of psychedelic insights into both careers and daily life.” (Nese Devenot, founder of the Psychedemia conference and contributing editor for Reality Sandwich)
“With intelligence, keen insight, deep knowledge, and a wonderful ability to imagine a future illuminated by the powerful interaction between entheogens and the seeking human mind, Thomas Roberts pulls off a visionary book about the most fascinating subject imaginable.” (Tom Shroder, author of Old Souls and Fire on the Horizon)
“Tom Roberts is one of the few elder statesmen of the psychedelic world concerned with the inevitable social and medical repercussions arising from the continued worldwide use and growing medical and governmental acceptance of entheogens. I find his speculations and their implications wise and innovative.” (James Fadiman, Ph.D., author of The Psychedelic Explorers Guide)
“Roberts’s work in the area of entheogens--man’s use of psychedelic substances in the context of religious rite or spiritual growth--has sought to replace popular uninformed hysteria with actual facts and, through critical examination, illuminate the ways in which our brains process and interpret our perceptions. He has earned his place among the best inner explorers of our time.” (Will Dresser, author of Sacrament of Fear and The Methuselah Man)
“Tom Roberts may be an extraordinary academic thinker, but he presents the ideas in this book poetically and directly in ways that will allow everyone from artists and intellectuals to shamanic seekers and born-agains to understand the value of psychedelics as we map out the geography of the global future of consciousness.” (David Biddle, Reality Sandwiches, March 2013)
“The Psychedelic Future of the Mind is the best exploration that I’ve ever seen on how mystical experiences can transform human lives, catalyze the evolution of spiritual intelligence, and help people to discover the hidden potentials of the mind. This valuable contribution to our understanding of the psychedelically-inspired mystical experience--and its consequences on physical, mental, and spiritual health--discusses the psychology of religion, and how we learn in non-ordinary states of consciousness, from a transcendental vantage point. Thomas Roberts’ magnificent new book also explores how the future evolution of consciousness will interface with advanced technology, and is simply a treasure trove of fascinating ideas, bursting with eye-opening insights on every page.” (David Jay Brown, author of The New Science of Psychedelics)
“In short, Roberts’ book offers a well-informed introduction to the broad spectrum use of psychedelics, a prospectus for community growth centers, and a vision of intelligence and creativity higher than what we now enjoy, plus news from one of the best thinkers and a pair of the most imaginative researchers in the field.” (Alternet, April 2013)
“Tom Robert’s new book is a tour de force in the nascent field of psychedelic studies. More than a seminal overview of psychedelic research to date, The Psychedelic Future of the Mind proposes bold new research directions and methodologies that intrepidly advance what psychedelic research can become...Roberts’ book will be a signpost of inspiration to current and future researchers in developing this field.” (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, April 2013)
“One of the most important and powerful aspects of this book is that Roberts effectively bridges the gap between science and humanistic thought. He takes an ecumenical and very open-minded approach to the value of altered states. This book should be in every psycho-naut’s library.” (Neurosoup, April 2013)
“Our psychedelic future is on the horizon—a future that harnesses the fuller potentials of mind and spirit: raising intelligence, new intellectual frontiers, new ways to interpret history and philosophy, even designing new thinking processes...! This book will sprout fresh ideas in your mind.” (Branches of Light, June 2013)
“In conclusion, The Psychedelic Future of the Mind does what any great work of pharmacography should do i.e. make one think. It doesn’t simply prescribe an approach, posit a definitive vision or throttle any particular meaning around the psychedelic experience. It puts one to thinking about the potential for psychedelic substances, for the individual and for society. As such, it is very successful and, moreover, challenging in many of the ideas it puts out there. Very much worth a read!” (Psychedelic Press UK, October 2013)
About the Author
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D., is professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University, where he has taught the world’s first catalog-listed psychedelics course since 1981. A former visiting scientist at Johns Hopkins, the editor of Spiritual Growth with Entheogens, coeditor of Psychedelic Medicine, and author of Psychedelic Horizons, he lives in DeKalb, Illinois.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 7
Psychedelic Psychotherapy Near the End of Life
CHARLES S. GROB, M.D., AND ALICIA L. DANFORTH
“Death must become a more human experience. To preserve the dignity of death and prevent the living from abandoning or distancing themselves from the dying is one of the great dilemmas of modern medicine.”
--Sidney Cohen, M.D., 1965
For individuals approaching the end of life, severe and persistent spiritual and existential crises are common occurrences. Even though modern medicine has progressed considerably in developing effective treatments for advanced-stage disease, often extending survival time for months or even years, efforts designed to address the psychological distress of terminal illness have often been limited.
Surveys have found that up to 70 percent of individuals with advanced-stage cancer experience heightened and often clinically significant anxiety. Depression and despair in cancer clients is not uncommon and leads to poorer survival rates, suicidal preoccupation and behavior, desire for hastened death, and requests for physician-assisted suicide. Existential anxiety, while a universal phenomena, develops greater intensity and urgency at the end of life along with heightened perception of vulnerability and inevitable death. The profound spiritual suffering often experienced as individuals approach the end of life shares many features of severe depression, including hopelessness, worthlessness, meaninglessness, social isolation, anger, guilt, and remorse. Addressing such conditions of spiritual and existential distress encourages active life review along with a realistic appreciation of current realities and assists in recognizing purpose, value, meaning, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
The great challenge for individuals nearing the end of their lives is often one of sustaining a sense of meaning and purpose. As the physical body declines and approaches death, individuals are often overwhelmed with pain and suffering, psychological as well as physical, and they begin to lose the thread of meaning and coherence that had previously defined their lives. Finding and sustaining meaning and a reason for being alive become the central challenges when faced with life-threatening illness, and serve as a way to help deter end-of-life despair.
PSYCHEDELIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychedelic psychotherapy is a treatment approach that has been demonstrated to facilitate enhanced states of spiritual transcendence and well-being reliably when conducted under optimal conditions. The passage of time has allowed for a relaxing of restrictions imposed on research as a result of the cultural turmoil of the 1960s and has provided new opportunities to reexamine the range of safety and efficacy of this long neglected treatment model. Both the pioneers of psychedelic research several decades ago along with more recent investigations have made the practical determination that, when conducting hallucinogen-facilitated psychotherapy with advanced-stage cancer clients, adhering to certain structures that will increase the likelihood of positive outcome is important. To begin with, clients must be informed that the treatment will not cure their physical illness but may help them develop the emotional strength to cope with what lies ahead. A period of preparatory work is necessary to establish rapport and trust between the client and therapeutic team and to conduct a thorough life review, including an examination of past and current relationships. Communication issues are addressed, as are attitudes and fears of death and dying and concerns about the future.
The treatment session is conducted in a pleasant and private setting that is decorated with items such as tapestries, art, flowers, or objects that have meaning for the client. During the long psychedelic experience (4 to 6 hours with psilocybin and 8 to 12 hours with LSD), the client is encouraged to lie down wearing an eyeshade and listening to pre-selected music through earphones (the experience of listening to music helps the client to let go of usual ego controls and experience a heightened degree of emotional awareness). Immediately after the session, family and friends may visit as the post-session “afterglow” state often opens up the opportunity for gratifying emotional interchanges. The final element of the treatment process is the integration of the experience, preferably with ongoing support from the research team, which occurs in the days, weeks, and months that follow.
Historical Research Background
Among the most promising areas of study coming out of the “Golden Age” of psychedelic research from the late 1950s to the early 1970s were a series of reports describing the work of investigators exploring the use of a psychedelic treatment model with clients who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Although he was not a medical researcher, the English literary figure Aldous Huxley was the first Western intellectual to identify the potential application of psychedelic compounds at the end of life. During the final ten years of his life, Huxley developed a fascination with the range of effects of the newly discovered psychedelics, and particularly their potential to alleviate psychospiritual suffering. In his final work of fiction, Island, Huxley described the use of the moksha (Sanskrit for “enlightenment”) medicine to facilitate the passage of the terminally ill from life into death. True to his beliefs, Huxley arranged for his personal physician to inject him with 100 micrograms of LSD hours before he died.
Huxley was a close friend of Sidney Cohen, a prominent internist at the UCLA School of Medicine who developed the first program designed to examine the use of psychedelics to ameliorate the high levels of emotional distress often observed in patients dying of advanced medical illness. Unfortunately, the details of his findings were never reported. However, Cohen published the rationale for conducting this treatment in Harper’s Magazine in 1965 in an article titled “LSD and the Anguish of Dying.” Cohen fervently called for the development of a more effective intervention for individuals approaching the final stages of life, which he believed would one day alter the experience of dying.
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
The Experience that Alters All Others
By David Biddle
The Psychedelic Future of the Mind needs to be read by every psychology and education professional working to advance human thought processes over the next several decades. This book is a general mapping of the implications and meaning behind altered states of consciousness. We lost so much ground over the past few decades in research into the value of psychedelics. Most books on psychedelics and entheogens that have come out in the past few years have focused on the scientific research into mental health and consciousness expansion.
Roberts takes a completely different tack, orienting the reader with a discussion of the power of mystical experience ("the experience that alters all others"). He then moves into a more interesting and powerful discussion of the MultiState implications of psychedelics, and completes his book by presenting a cartography for how psychologists and psychiatrists might begin to think about business models to address the issue of evolving higher consciousness as professionals. Roberts presents many questions people aren't yet asking.
The thinking here joins science and mental health with more humanistic thought. If the psychedelic renaissance is real (and it is), Roberts' book is a must-read for everyone from college students to lifelong explorers of human potential.
26 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
It's a start, but perpetuates limiting, incoherent assumptions
By Michael Hoffman
This book is an assortment, a compilation of pieces, including a couple chapters by other authors. This too-short book somewhat achieves its goal; it's appropriate for an entheogen library but uncritically perpetuates poisonous fatally self-defeating fallacies. The book really needs to be better, more consistently enlightened, with a thoroughgoing critique. This book is average, conventional groupthink in too many ways, and where it breaks away, it does so insufficiently. Regarding the cognitive potentials of entheogens, it's a start, but could be more substantial (without being longer). It's a useful brief survey of the field, of current attitudes; that's a relatively strong point of the book.
The sections on entheogen history and on psychedelics in cognitive science need to be expanded, but without the tepid compromise that limits this book. It needs to be harder-hitting; it's not good enough to accomplish its goals. It relies too much on Stan Grof's quirky, narrow model, his fixation on the birth-trauma metaphor.
It needs to go deeper on the taboo, censored huge interest and role of entheogens throughout many fields. As suggested but not emphasized enough in this book, millions of people (researchers, professors, priests, and mystics) are highly interested though censored and silent, and we get glimpses of this interest in several points in the book. Roberts doesn't step up to the plate and in a sustained and direct way tackle this key blocking impediment, of communication censorship; he only keeps noting it, too feebly. I would expect his survey of thousands of books to point out what's really going on, to explain why I go into the New Age bookstore and am told they have no books about psychoactive drugs in religion, when in fact, as Roberts knows, those books and sections are strewn throughout the store, separated, scattered, diluted.
Roberts vaguely mentions that there is much entheogen activity at websites, but his book is too retrograde to cover them seriously. The limited and self-defeating thinking (or lack of thoroughgoing consistent critical thinking) seen in these books that cite each other, shows why the future of clear thinking is driven online, where there is less hidebound and conventional thinking than in old fashioned and old conventional-thinking printed books.
I disagree with Roberts' assertion in this book that entheogens should be controlled and doled-out by authorities. The law should be the same as it always was from the beginning of time until a few years ago in 1966 and Nixon's drug schedules, which is to say, no law, other than accurate labelling and quality control, since religious freedom means freedom of traditional mystic methods which were entheogenic, as the books Roberts cites show. He should know better, for this book and from his Entheogen Chrestomathy (a collection of passages about entheogens from many books).
Instead, we get more crypto-Prohibition, Roberts allowing himself to be coerced by mental censorship into contradicting his own position, effort, and evidence, and training his readers to similarly sustain their uncritical key assumptions about religion, and training them how to hold self-contradictory ideas in their mind like himself, Walsh, and most of the other authors. Clark Heinrich is relatively enlightened in his book, Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, elegantly tracing Amanita throughout our Western religious history. For coherent clear thinking about rights and meaningful religious freedom, see Steve Kubby The Politics of Consciousness: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom.
The books Roberts cites and surveys show that Greeks and Christians used mixed wine freely, and we claim to legally have religious freedom, so against this incoherent book, we must insist we be as free in our religious banqueting parties as we were during Antiquity; we cannot settle for any lesser pseudo-freedom while claiming we have religious freedom and claiming that America is religious. Follow the Supreme Court consistently: leave the entheogen churches alone; reject Roberts' compromising authoritarian administration of entheogens.
This book claims to be forward-looking rather than a historical recounting, and yet it perpetuates major fallacious assumptions about history, in a self-defeating way, by implicitly asserting a history while lacking sufficient critical examination of our Western history of entheogens. Being forward looking shouldn't be at the expense of telling a false and self-defeating story of the past. It would be better to be silent about the past than to tell a false story of our past lacking entheogens, so you could say this book is not exclusively forward looking enough. It's a fairly good forward-looking story combined with a bad careless habitual historical story that defeats the forward effort.
Roberts needs to read the books excerpts he's gathered and put together the pieces more, on an independent basis. Like all prominent authors of entheogen books, his thinking is far too compromised and unoriginal, coerced into unconsciously shooting himself in the foot and affirming the underpinning doctrines that support the Prohibition-friendly reality-tunnel. Schultes does the same, and Roger Walsh's article that's a chapter of this book does the same. They ask the Prohibition-saturated question "Do drugs have religious import?" These drug policy reform leaders are preventing success by declaring defeat before they've begun, by framing the self-evidently obvious as if it were something that's in doubt. Walsh titles his article self-defeatingly as a question, "are entheogens false?"
This book -- its authors -- reify habitually the uncritically adopted unspoken Prohibitionist-compliant dogma, a hazy, incoherent dogma, that scholars understand how Christian mystics throughout history accessed the intense mystic altered state, and we know that they accessed it through meditation, and we know they didn't access it through drugs. It is unthinkable and unwriteable by Walsh and Roberts -- mis-leaders of reform -- to consider the question I pose: to what extent were visionary plants used by Christians throughout history? Roberts contradicts the evidence he has collected: he cites the book The Psychology of Religion by Hood et al The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach, which states that Dan Merkur has shown in his book The Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience that Jewish mystics used visionary plants.
Yet these writers continue, as firmly repeated in the present book, to put forward without any critical examination, the assertion -- taken as if granted and established -- that traditional Christian mysticism is distinct from the use of visionary plants. Per my Maximal Entheogen Theory of Religion, Ruck et al, cited by Roberts' book, have demonstrated enough evidence that we must assume the opposite: every Christian mystic used visionary plants, unless proven otherwise. That's the exact opposite of the strong tendency of all these authors. They contradict themselves. Roberts advises about the Entheogenic Reformation, and yet, he in unthinking convention, together with the other authors, robs visionary plants of their credit.
He gives Christianity and Christian religious experiencing, he gives credit to non-visionary plant vague ill-defined practices, contemplation practices that are assumed without any critical thinking, to be non-plant based -- despite copious evidence that Merkur and Ruck and the entheogen historians have gathered, including mushrooms in art that I have routinely identified. Roberts cites books that contain that evidence, and yet he unthinkingly fails to connect, instead, he omits and shuts out visionary plants, robbing them of their due central credit throughout our religious history.
He contradicts himself; he compromises with the mental shackles of Prohibition unspoken dogma (the silent Reform-preventing dogma of repeating the poisonous nonsensical phrase "entheogens vs. natural traditional mystic methods"), even while citing books that contradict that phrase and show it is a false dichotomy, a massive category error. Evidence citied in many of the hundreds of books Roberts surveys, indicate -- when you engage your critical thinking, consistently -- that the category "entheogens" is identically the same as the category "traditional mystic practice".
This book purports to advocate entheogens, yet the author permits himself to be psyched-out by Prohibitionist mental shackles and the very kind of endemic, biased thought-censorship that he mildly comments on in this book. Roberts ends up advocating against entheogens in our religious history, despite the evidence (which Roberts gathers in his books and citations, pages 146-151 here, and his book An Entheogen Chrestomathy) that shows that Christian mysticism is the same thing as entheogens; that entheogens are the traditional method of accessing the intense mystic altered state. He cites Clark Heinrich, and Carl Ruck et al: The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist.
Uncritically parroting repeatedly the nonsense phrase "entheogens vs. natural methods" (going directly against Jonathan Ott's title Pharmacophilia: or The Natural Paradises), Roberts robs and steals from visionary plants the central credit they are due, within our own Western history. Just like almost all the other prominent, Prohibition-friendly, collaborationist, compromisers (Schultes, cited on page 148: Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers). Roberts and all authors need to weed out their self-contradicting compromises from their thinking, purify their thinking of Prohibition-friendly unstated, uncritical dogma, and start telling the true, coherent, evidence-based history, abandoning care of what the mental shackles of censorship and Prohibition dictate.
Walsh (chapter 5 of this book) needs to move forward and stop asking whether drugs have genuine religious import, and engage substance: how does religious experiencing come through visionary plants, as seen throughout religious history? This isn't a matter of citing more evidence, so much as a matter of stating coherent connections, and being consistent in their thinking and handling of the evidence Roberts has gathered. The key false dichotomy of "drugs vs. traditional mystic methods" is totally entrenched in Walsh's writing, and totally void of any thought of critical examination, despite the seemingly open-minded questioning implied in this chapter title (false advertising): "Psychedelics and Religious Experiences -- What is the Relationship?"
Walsh's chapter is based on a massive fallacious assumption never mentioned or examined for even a moment: that mystics didn't use entheogens -- despite the books cited by this book. Walsh's name is given with M.D., Ph.D., and D.H.L., but he utterly fails to think about his underlying assumption, in this article supposedly about inquiring into this relationship. As Roberts writes about censorship and omission of psychedelics in Cognitive Science: "Whether this omission is due to a simple lack of information or scientists' and scholars fear for their careers by touching a taboo topic is hard to say; it is probably some of both."
Roberts and Walsh colossally fail to effectively counter and call for an end to this mental straightjacket and censorship. But at least Roberts mentions it; a glimmering of consciousness of the conditions of Prohibition begins to awaken, but we need a thousand times more, and this gentle, compliant, positive-thinking book is too mild to tackle these key blocking dynamics, resulting from Prohibition for Profit.
What use is Roberts' advice on Reform when he despite his evidence persists in reifying a key Prohibitionist lie, that historical religion uses (vague, undefined) "traditional methods" that are not visionary plants? Roberts repeats that dogmatic assumption, and never stops to subjective it to critical examination. His section on entheogen history is not connected and integrated into his thinking through the rest of the book. Ralph Metzner (who is mentioned on page 70) wrote that he made a strategic mistake in the 1960s by portraying psychedelics as something new. Roberts hasn't learned that lesson, despite decades of scholarship gathered in his Chrestomathy, such as Robert Graves' discovery of mushrooms in Greek religion and myth in 1957.
That fatal mistake and persisting in robbing entheogens of their fully due credit as the source of the mystic state throughout history, continues to reign supreme even as Ruck et al pile up more and more evidence; Roberts continues omitting and shutting out entheogens from our religious history even while he dabbles incoherently in showing that the reality is the opposite. This book is futile because in the name of Reform, it falsely eliminates entheogens from our history, despite evidence the book cites. This book inadvertantly keeps telling the story of self-defeat, as the master narrative. The key to Reform involves quitting telling that 1960s Prohibition-supporting story; Roberts doesn't have a compelling enough story without integrated that evidence throughout his thinking.
This book's purpose is Reform, yet this book perpetuates a key fallacy that pushes entheogens away: Roberts tells the story, reifying and repeating it, that our religion's history is not entheogenic. He falls short of providing complete coherent independent critical thinking. His error is deeply entrenched in this book: page 55, he mis-portrays antiquity as having merely rites and activities, as opposed to later word-based religion of 1500, and now, new, "primary religious experiencing". This is the evolutionism fallacy: that we have entheogens now, and we are more evolved than antiquity, therefore, antiquity lacked entheogens, but had merely "rites" (presumed uncritically and inconsistently in this book as being non-entheogenic).
He ought to tell the more compelling true story, of returning to the non-placebo original Eucharist which inspired Christianity throughout its history, as the evidence and coherent thinking indicates. Roberts isn't interested in looking at the copious evidence for entheogen Christianity because it contradicts his preconceived self-defeating and incoherent story of religious evolution -- a false story that is encouraged by Prohibition's censorship effect. Roberts several times in this book criticizes authors for omitting and hiding their pro-entheogen views; for example, page 122 points out that authors censor William James, like I have criticized Ken Wilber for starting with first book by omitting William James' lead-in, "On nitrous oxide, ..." (before "it occurred to me that perception is a veil; multiple states...").
But Roberts needs to gain self-awareness of how he is censoring and shackling his own thinking, and thus perpetuating the mental shackles of his readers, helping to keep Prohibition in place and prevent us from perceiving the central role of entheogens in our history. He should take a lesson from his coverage of the censorship D.C.A. Hillman's dissertation was subjected to (The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization) and ask: How is this present book also compromised and coerced into being self-censored?
Roberts should've gathered together the several points in his book, instances of censorship he points out, calling for breaking through these mental chains and start putting the pieces of evidence, the connections, together, coherently, to tell a story that makes compelling sense. I'm surprised that Roberts didn't mention along with Hillman, Michael Rinella's book Pharmakon: Plato, Drug Culture, and Identity in Ancient Athens, which was also extremely censored. Censorship is the top topic, the main restriction now, for policy reform, which is why online has taken the lead away from the hidebound, conformist press: Prohibition Press, I have named it, after I spoke with the entheogen-friendly Park Street Press about this problem at a Western Esotericism conference.
Roberts mentions that people around 1970 were drawn to religion by LSD, and yet, he tells the Prohibition-friendly version of the story, a false tale artificially created by a censorship filtering effect, and fails to mention that people were forced to move away from entheogens and attempt to substitute meditation and a placebo make-believe Eucharist instead, and forced to tell the entheogen-diminishing story of how religion with its entheogen removed is better -- a story now entrenched as dogma, mitigating against Roberts' Entheogenic Reformation project. (Jonathan Ott advocated that term in his book The age of entheogens & the angel's dictionary.)
Roberts calls for $1 billion for research including "education" toward Prohibition reform, but should more emphasize abandoning the phony drug schedules and fully re-legalizing entheogens like before October 1966. Just get rid of obstructionist Prohibition. We don't have a budget problem, we have a Prohibition problem. We don't need a billion dollars so much as we need bona fide actual religious freedom, which means nothing if not the freedom to access ecstatic fear and trembling and awesome power that has always been the source of religion, through the traditional mystic method: the sacred meal of the Lord's flesh, which is real food and which transmits effective grace just as has always been claimed for this the traditional method of mystic experiencing.
-- Michael Hoffman
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
This is a great read for anyone wishing to consider how our ethics
By Craggin Stylie
The ideas and premises proposed by TBR are exactly what humanity needs during these challenging and tumultuous times. This is a great read for anyone wishing to consider how our ethics, morals, and values can be heavily influenced and even completely altered from the profound experiences offered by psychedelics.
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