I have been told that our feeble language can never contain the beauty, awe and love of these moments their effects are felt for a lifetime. The great Swiss analytical psychologist Carl Jung saw modern man as searching for lost soul. Through the efforts of another great Swiss pioneer an ancient factor has been rediscovered. In my country psychedelics have been labelled as without recognized medical use, although there is compelling evidence that they can heal people in despair. I pray that our science and medicine have not painted themselves into a corner where there is no place for this kind of wonder and meaning.
Profound uncertainty surrounds peak experiences.
It has often played havoc with attempts at measurement. Yet when these numinous moments occur there is great healing. To meet the challenge of understanding this potentiality, we need a broader frame of analysis, a new paradigm, one that forces us to describe all the variables in the clinical situation to understand what the relevant ones are. We do not yet know when or whether peak experiences will occur, or with whom, but we do know that this is the highest order of human experience, as testified by the greatest sages and mystics of all religious and philosophical traditions throughout history. We must safeguard the potential for this kind of experience among our subjects as we continue careful scientific work on every level possible, from the molecular frontiers of understanding the brain and its relationship with consciousness to the philosophical and scientific study of the mystical, as pioneered by Walter Pahnke.