Simply identifying sex and death as the essence of mystery, is stating the obvious. After all, imagine the indifference with which audiences would greet a whodunit that contained no whiff of either sex or death. Imagine a middle-aged cast of nobody but smart and witty women surrounding Jessica Fletcher while she conducts a thrilling search for the miscreant who stole the salt shaker. As true as this is, it fails to offer any clue as to why people do find sex and death both fascinating and mysterious. Carl Jung wrote that the old Latin name for alcohol, spiritus , reflected its ability to provide an illusion of spirituality.
Alcohol can appear to eliminate the limitations of physical reality.
People who feel shackled by physical reality often turn to alcohol because their souls yearn for the infinite. All humans want more than they have. A marketplace exists because resources are finite while a human soul yearns for the infinite. Animals cared for in a zoo require only food, shelter, and medical attention. Treating welfare recipients in the same way makes them feel caged and often discontent because a human soul yearns for the infinite.