But somewhere in the history of western civilization direct experience of the divine became the supreme heresy, taking all the religion out of religion, leaving an empty and hollow shell with no value or attraction to human kind. Contemporary drug prohibition can be seen as the modern secular expression of the ruling politics inquisition against direct personal experience of the divine. He pointed out the important distinction between mere drunkenness and divine intoxication that is not readily acknowledged in our society. Certain states of inebriation can actually promote lucidity, rather than dull it. Inebriation threatens one's mask of composure, and Escohotado suggests that these masks can often be false personas, masks of duplicity and self deception.
Inebriation pushes away the masks.
The entheogenic path is not necessarily easy, it requires courage to take an honest look at one's life. This is not always guaranteed to be joyful, but it is instructional. Psychedelics cut through the masks of our defensive constructs and enable us, if we are willing, to examine and correct our way of living. Hence we can then find greater joy, not only in inebriation, but in all living. The next presenter, chemist Kary Mullis, shifted the academic tone of the conference a bit.