Magical thinking and superstitution seems to dominate the postmodern world. With the collapse of modernism and confidence in knowledge as something definite and definable following the Renaissance, postmodernists advocate taking LSD trips to escape reality in order to deal with reality. Such nonsense is similar to getting drunk only to sober up and realize that not only did getting drunk not solve anything but in fact made matters worse.
Having done psychedelic drugs myself in the late 1970's and early 1980's I can tell you that the only insight I gained was that drugs can make you high, make you feel good when you're on a good trip, and that your problems are not solved when you come down. And to top all that off the normal emotions and fears you experience in everyday life are magnified by a thousand or more. Bad trips and overdoses are also a possibility. How do you know how much LSD you're getting? There is no constant dosage nor is there a way to measure what dosage of LSD you're going to receive.
Psychedelic mushrooms can be controlled better since they are handpicked and you can know how many mushrooms you put into the brew. But even here the dosage is unpredictable and overdosing is a real possibility.
The short of it is that those advocating the experimental or even spiritual use of psychedelic drugs are not only advocating breaking the law but they are advocating a dangerous activity that could have devastating and catastrophic results. While mysticism and pagan religion might seem to be the answer, logical and reasonable examination of ineffable experiences are impossible. Therefore to say that ineffable experience somehow contributes to one's mental or spiritual health is irrational at best and superstitious at worst.
The Christian worldview is not one of mysticism or ecstatic visions, although the Bible does record such experiences in the inerrant record of God's revelation to man. The problem is that direct revelation from God to individuals would negate the one revelation that is the infallible and inerrant word of God to man in written form. Mysticism essentially makes revelation from God a moot point since revelation would then be nothing more than some indescribable LSD trip without rational or propositional content. God's objective revelation in the written Scriptures would be unnecessary if direct revelation to individuals were the norm. Individual revelations would be essentially relative to each individual person and there could then be no objective standard for Christian doctrine or for individual belief.
The Word of God makes it clear that Scripture is rational and that God the Son is Himself the very being and essence of logic and reason since He is called the Logos. (See John 1:1 KJV and John 1:1 NA27). Irrationalism and existentialism is the way of paganism and superstition and atheism. It is not part of the Christian worldview at all. The influence of the charismatic movement and pentecostalism coupled with neo-orthodoxy and an attack on the propositional logic of divine revelation in written form has undermined not only the Christian worldview but the very foundations of western civilization. If there is no objective revelation from God to man, then all other forms of knowledge collapses. That would include philosophy, science, the arts, and natural law. Without divine revelation, according to Gordon H. Clark's apologetics, there can be no genuine knowledge at all.
Click here to read the article in question: There is no hiding with LSD | Sue Blackmore | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Having done psychedelic drugs myself in the late 1970's and early 1980's I can tell you that the only insight I gained was that drugs can make you high, make you feel good when you're on a good trip, and that your problems are not solved when you come down. And to top all that off the normal emotions and fears you experience in everyday life are magnified by a thousand or more. Bad trips and overdoses are also a possibility. How do you know how much LSD you're getting? There is no constant dosage nor is there a way to measure what dosage of LSD you're going to receive.
Psychedelic mushrooms can be controlled better since they are handpicked and you can know how many mushrooms you put into the brew. But even here the dosage is unpredictable and overdosing is a real possibility.
The short of it is that those advocating the experimental or even spiritual use of psychedelic drugs are not only advocating breaking the law but they are advocating a dangerous activity that could have devastating and catastrophic results. While mysticism and pagan religion might seem to be the answer, logical and reasonable examination of ineffable experiences are impossible. Therefore to say that ineffable experience somehow contributes to one's mental or spiritual health is irrational at best and superstitious at worst.
The Christian worldview is not one of mysticism or ecstatic visions, although the Bible does record such experiences in the inerrant record of God's revelation to man. The problem is that direct revelation from God to individuals would negate the one revelation that is the infallible and inerrant word of God to man in written form. Mysticism essentially makes revelation from God a moot point since revelation would then be nothing more than some indescribable LSD trip without rational or propositional content. God's objective revelation in the written Scriptures would be unnecessary if direct revelation to individuals were the norm. Individual revelations would be essentially relative to each individual person and there could then be no objective standard for Christian doctrine or for individual belief.
The Word of God makes it clear that Scripture is rational and that God the Son is Himself the very being and essence of logic and reason since He is called the Logos. (See John 1:1 KJV and John 1:1 NA27). Irrationalism and existentialism is the way of paganism and superstition and atheism. It is not part of the Christian worldview at all. The influence of the charismatic movement and pentecostalism coupled with neo-orthodoxy and an attack on the propositional logic of divine revelation in written form has undermined not only the Christian worldview but the very foundations of western civilization. If there is no objective revelation from God to man, then all other forms of knowledge collapses. That would include philosophy, science, the arts, and natural law. Without divine revelation, according to Gordon H. Clark's apologetics, there can be no genuine knowledge at all.
Click here to read the article in question: There is no hiding with LSD | Sue Blackmore | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
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2 comments:
Excellent points, Charlie. This is why I mainly stuck with booze and the sweet, sweet nose candy. No rational person would question the insights revealed by Wild Turkey or high-powered booger sugar...right? As no less a success than legendary alkie axeman and mega-wealthy blow connoisseur Eric Clapton famously sang, "She don't lie, Cocaine."
So I must have misunderstood her when I heard her to say I wouldn't end up a burnt-out bum with a criminal record sleeping under a bridge on a mattress of flattened, urine-soaked malt liquor cases. Something obviously was lost in translation.
Thanks for commenting, aztexan.... I just don't get why people advocate drugs as an window to reality. It seems to me just an escape from reality.
Peace!
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