Psychedelic monasteries are definitely the least insane idea and likely the best idea. My biggest hope for the future of the US is that all religions establish more retreat centers for deep learning and worship. The monastery model needs more of a presence in the states for our long term spiritual health.
I'm so glad that someone is thinking about this topic as deeply as you are. You're imagining both the possibilities and the pitfalls, from the vantage point of personal experience. Winnowing out the delusions, whether the paranoid and restrictive superstitions of drug prohibitionists, or the self-editing denialism of starry-eyed bliss ninny psychedelic utopians. Psychedelic substances are not good or evil; they're POWERFUL. Whatever human minds manage to extract from their use is always informed by the values and teachings of the society in which they're instructed. The evidence of use of psychedelic substances by Mesoamerican civilizations indicates that their use did not automatically equate to benevolent enlightenment. To understate the case.
The most positive impression I've gotten as a result of my experience and observation of psychedelic users is that all other things being equal, the experience tends to make people more tolerant and less mean-spirited than they otherwise would be. But not even that is completely assured. I think much of the benevolence experienced in connection with today's psychedelic culture is conditioned on social codes of behavior that have served to provide a foundation for American society. Judaeo-Christian ethics, for want of a better term. I know that there are some Jews and some Christians who are insistent on separating those traditions, but to me that's a different debate. I think the commonality of the ethic is real, and vitally important- especially now that its religious basis is so widely disdained and disrespected. As if the feel-good nihilism with a smiley face that seeks to replace it is an improvement.
Psychedelic monasteries are definitely the least insane idea and likely the best idea. My biggest hope for the future of the US is that all religions establish more retreat centers for deep learning and worship. The monastery model needs more of a presence in the states for our long term spiritual health.
I'm so glad that someone is thinking about this topic as deeply as you are. You're imagining both the possibilities and the pitfalls, from the vantage point of personal experience. Winnowing out the delusions, whether the paranoid and restrictive superstitions of drug prohibitionists, or the self-editing denialism of starry-eyed bliss ninny psychedelic utopians. Psychedelic substances are not good or evil; they're POWERFUL. Whatever human minds manage to extract from their use is always informed by the values and teachings of the society in which they're instructed. The evidence of use of psychedelic substances by Mesoamerican civilizations indicates that their use did not automatically equate to benevolent enlightenment. To understate the case.
The most positive impression I've gotten as a result of my experience and observation of psychedelic users is that all other things being equal, the experience tends to make people more tolerant and less mean-spirited than they otherwise would be. But not even that is completely assured. I think much of the benevolence experienced in connection with today's psychedelic culture is conditioned on social codes of behavior that have served to provide a foundation for American society. Judaeo-Christian ethics, for want of a better term. I know that there are some Jews and some Christians who are insistent on separating those traditions, but to me that's a different debate. I think the commonality of the ethic is real, and vitally important- especially now that its religious basis is so widely disdained and disrespected. As if the feel-good nihilism with a smiley face that seeks to replace it is an improvement.