Altered states
Subtitle: Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality in America
By: Douglas Osto
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 300
ISBN-13: 9780231177306
Subjects: Buddhism; Hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience
Description: In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans combined psychedelics with Buddhist meditation to achieve direct experience through altered states of consciousness. As some practitioners became more committed to Buddhism, they abandoned the use of psychedelics in favor of stricter mental discipline, but others carried on with the experiment, advancing a fascinating alchemy called psychedelic Buddhism. Many think exploration with psychedelics and Buddhism faded with the revolutionary spirit of the sixties, but the underground practice has evolved into a brand of religiosity as eclectic and challenging as the era that created it. Altered States combines interviews with well-known figures in American Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality--including Lama Surya Das, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei, Rick Strassman, Charles Tart, and Erik Davis--and personal stories of everyday practitioners to define a distinctly American religious phenomenon. The nuanced perspective that emerges, grounded in a detailed history of psychedelic religious experience, adds critical depth to debates over the controlled use of psychedelics and drug-induced mysticism. The book also opens new paths of inquiry into such issues as re-enchantment, the limits of rationality, the biochemical and psychosocial basis of altered states of consciousness, and the nature of subjectivity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-292) and index.
Table of contents: title: Buddhism and the psychedelic connection; title: The psychedelic revolution; title: The Buddhist revolution; title: Opening the door: psychedelics as a gateway to Buddhist practice; title: Closing the door: the fifth precept and graduating from psychedelics; title: Keeping the door open: psychedelics as an adjunct to Buddhist practice; title: Are psychedelics the true Dharma.