This post is a very rough sketch of ideas and may include unfinished, incomplete, or erroneous ideas that will later be corrected. This post will be part of a series that will form the basis of a new book I’m writing following on the themes of my last book, Thoughts From Reconstruction. All of these themes center around the New Covenant. You can find everything published so far in this series on the Highlights page under the My Most Important section.
Trips and Traps
The kinds of drugs and psychedelics we’ll be looking at are the kind that give a user a “trip” and often, because of feelings of euphoria or enlightenment, create a desire to experience the trip again. Trips, in particular, are often described by feelings of euphoria, oneness, enlightenment, and sometimes even voices, beings, angels, or even demons, who sometimes even communicate. We all imbibe in what we think are innocent “drugs” and “highs”. Your morning coffee or tea with caffeine is one such high. Sugar provides a high. Runners will tell you that exercise provides a high. Friendship and love have their own sort of high. Prayer or meditation can result in trip-like visions, something similar to what the Apostle Peter experienced in Acts 10. Clearly, there is a range of activities that lie on a spectrum of intensity from innocent to destructive. We will look at the non-destructive but morally uncertain use of drugs to seek out trips for enlightenment, hidden knowledge, or even communication with non-human beings.
As we see, most would agree that some highs are positive, or at least neutral, and healthy while others are negative and unhealthy. What matters in judging this spectrum is why you land where you do. It is not merely the experience of psychedelics that makes us consider them probably unwise, at best, it is something more than that. It may be the duration or intensity of the experience, or the level of benefit or harm of the lasting effects on one’s self or others around you.
Experience and Experimentation
What God has created was intended to be experienced and there are Created substances that many peoples throughout history have used to alter their mood. Alcohol is used the world over from time immemorial. Smoking also has a long history. South American peoples have a long history of ayahuasca usage, with reporting of reliable “mystical” and “spiritual” experiences, even claiming to “make contact with various spiritual or extra-dimensional beings who can act as guides or healers” [1].
As humans, we engage in activities, exertions, that are meant to allow us physical, intellectual, and symbolic enlightenment or revelation. One doesn’t know one’s strength unless pushed to the limit with running, push ups, sport, or what have you. Reaching the end of one of these tasks is akin to reaching a new height of understanding of one’s self. We might try beer or wine for the first time, see how it tastes, how it affects us, and we might even go too far – and at each step we learn something new. So it is not simply a matter of exercise is good but “drugs” are bad. Again, it comes down to something more nuanced, something more correctly about the heart and our intentions.
Mythopoetic and Imagination
Psychiatrist Carl Jung is known for having intentionally induced varying ‘states of consciousness’ as recorded in what is known as The Red Book, Liber Novus (“New Book”). Jung’s intent, as he, himself described, was a “voluntary confrontation with the unconscious through wilful engagement of what Jung later termed “mythopoetic imagination” [2]. What this meant in practice was, “deliberately evoking a fantasy in a waking state, and then entering into it as into a drama. These fantasies may be understood as a type of dramatized thinking.” In other words, he would later recall “his scientific question was to see what took place when he switched off consciousness.” He believed “dreams indicated the existence of background activity, and he wanted to give this a possibility of emerging, just as one does when taking mescaline [a naturally occurring psychedelic].”
In this period of Jung’s life, he was exploring the mind by freeing it of the inhibitions of the regular disciplines of everyday life. He was also attempting to “allow” his subconscious to surface and then “play along” with whatever arose in his mind. Jung was willing to experiment and seek out experiences that are not normally accessible. In doing so, he was able to reach new areas of experience he would later apply to his professional work.
Jung understood he was investigating mental states similar to those triggered by psycho-active drugs, as indicated by his mescaline reference. What he discovered in that period gave him insight into consciousness and subconsciousness that have helped inform and shape psychology for over a century.
Drawbacks and Distinctions
On the spectrum of human experiences, we have seen the innocent and we have seen the evil, and we realize that at some point on that spectrum good becomes bad. “The LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7b). In following the New Covenant law, we can look at each choice and come to a conclusion in each case. We’ve already seen how it has helped in finding the limits. Now we can look at what is permissible and what is profitable.
Where does investigation of God’s Creation turn from good to bad? It would seem there’s still plenty of room on the way from the pleasure of food, the high of running, and the investigation of consciousness, to the far end of conjuring demons. Where that lies is to be decided by the individual, according to the New Covenant law, until it becomes a harm to another, a violation of loving your neighbour.. This requires wisdom and shrewd judgment because, we all know, moral busybodies can twist anything into a failure to “love your neighbour”.
Friend and Foe
Lucifer, also called Satan, is described as an ‘angel of light’. He doesn’t present himself in the garb of obvious evil. Likewise, when users of ayahuasca report “making contact” with spiritual beings, they might be meeting mere figments of their imagination or, in fact, may be meeting those who present themselves ‘fair raiment’, demons.
This is something the Bible speaks to:
Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. -Deuteronomy 18:9-14
How, then, is this prescriptive law understood under descriptive law? Firstly, if we Love God then we obey this command and, secondly, it should be obvious how sacrificing sons and daughters is not Loving Your Neighbour–but what about the others?
Intent and Content
The question is a matter of intent. A psychologist who is investigating the way the mind works, either of their own or of a patient, presumably has good intentions and is not necessarily planning or expecting to meet Spirits of the kind the Bible describes. There is certainly room for wisdom and foresight but it can be seen how substances leading to altered states of perception may not, in themselves, be sinful.
As to the use of substances to seek out “others”, we, as Christians, understand that evil forces, spirits, and demons are real. We also know that no Angel would present themselves to one seeking divination or sorcery as they would be participating in what God has forbidden. So, any true Spirit met in divination or sorcery is necessarily evil. Likewise, any power of insight from omens, any seeming positive result from witchcraft, any effect from a spell, would necessarily be a manifestation from an evil source.
Any Spirit met in a psychedelic state is not of God and therefore any communications had with such a Spirit would be for evil, by definition, and any new evil engaged with inthe world can not be considered loving of one’s neighbour.
We should not absolutely rule out, however, experiences that could result in such meetings. We speak with beings in dreams, after all, and we think these just figments of imagination. This, too, might well be the case with some, perhaps even most, psychedelic experiences. We must lead with wisdom.
Commune and Condemnation
We shouldn’t rush to judgment lest we end up condemning a real vision as an evil commune, as others might have done with the Apostle Peter and his vision. Instead, we operate from mercy, initially, and judge the experience, how it accords with the New Covenant, how it aligns with scriptures, how it plays out if practiced, how it agrees or disagrees with wisdom and experience, and how the Holy Spirit informs us by our conscience.
In terms of judging a moral choice, mercy plays a role in that one should not jump to immediate judgment with punishment simply because of mere drug use, which would not show mercy, while there comes a point where a judgment has to be made when such drug use becomes harmful, at which point judgment becomes mercy.
Depraved and Deprived
There is a theme that runs through the Bible regarding remaining in control of yourself, your strength, your will, and your mind. From Noah who got drunk and was exposed (Genesis 9) to Moses who struck the rock for water instead of speaking to it as God had commanded (Numbers 20), the proverbial admonition to refrain from strong drink to maintain the king’s judgment (Proverbs 31:4-5) to Old and New Testament warnings against laziness and drunkenness (Isaiah 5:11, Ephesians 5:18). The theme is clear: Strive to remain in control of yourself.
It is not for kings, Lemuel—
it is not for kings to drink wine,
not for rulers to crave beer,
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
-Proverbs 31:4-5
And, yet, the Bible also gives us a sense of an appropriate place and time for “losing control” and “letting go”. King Solomon tells us there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3). When Solomon was searching for meaning, he even turned to foolishness: “I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 2:3a). We see there is the possibility even for the wise to embrace foolishness, guided by wisdom. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding, after all (John 2).
It’s in this sense, of foolishness in wisdom, of irrationality in rationality, unreason in reason, that we see space to embrace experiences that are uncertain in their outcomes and which only have a chance of a beneficial result. Striving to land man on the moon could be and was seen in moral categories, some seeing it as a colossal waste of money, others seeing the potential of the future benefits of science and technology that were spurred on by such a lofty goal. So, too, with investigating the mind and altered states of perception. When we had landed on the moon, “obvious” harms gave way, in time, to “obvious” benefits. The key is to guide such exploration by wisdom.
Conclusion
We will find, most often, that the wisest choice is what the Bible has prescribed: Strive to maintain control over yourself. In terms of probabilities, it is increasingly unlikely that extreme psychedelic usage would be a benefit. But on the spectrum, there are many possibilities for wisdom, from enjoying a meal with friends to the excitement of sport, the cigar for celebrating an accomplishment to the psychologist who investigates the mind. Beyond this point, the returns are diminishing and the likelihood of benefit decreases while the likelihood of harm increases.
My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
-Psalms 131:1-2
There is wisdom in searching and there is wisdom in resting in contentedness. For everything there is a season.
Footnotes
This series will continue. Please check back from time to time, if you’re interested in reading new parts as they become available. The entire series will be made available on the Highlights page under the My Most Important section as each part is published.