Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals
Cleansing the Doors of Perceptionis a fresh consideration of the age-old relationship between certain psychoactive plants and chemicals and mystical  experience by one of the most trustworthy religious writers of our time. Author   Huston Smith (most famous for his classicThe World's Religions) is the   Walter Cronkite of religion scholars. He has long believed that "drugs appear   to be able to induce religious experiences" and that "it is less evident that   they can produce religious lives." At the same time, he posits that "if ...  religion cannot be equated with religious experiences, neither can it long   survive their absence." Therefore, Smith's basic question about entheogens (a   word he defines as "nonaddictive mind-altering substances that are approached    seriously and reverently") is "whether chemical substances can be  helpful    adjuncts to faith."Cleansing the Doorsdoes not offer one sustained    argument in response to that question. Instead, the book collects  Smith's    many articles about this subject, and connects them with brief  introductory    essays. The writings gathered here range from personal testimony  about    Smith's own experience with entheogens to ethnographic work on the use of entheogens in India.  Throughout,  Smith's style conveys the wisdom and wonder that has  guided his   explorations  of this strange, fascinating aspect of religious  experience.--Michael  Joseph Gross