Entheogens, Healing, and the Sacred

Year 2023, , 195 - 199, 15.06.2023

Samuel Bendeck Sotillos

https://doi.org/10.37898/spc.2023.8.2.189

Abstract

The quest for more holistic forms of treatment and healing in modern psychology has been provoked by its sole focus on the management of symptoms. This has led to an alarming rise in the use of psychedelic substances. Yet the true cause behind these maladies of the mind is the burgeoning ‘crisis of meaning’ that we find in the world today. This largely undiagnosed predicament has led to religion being supplanted by psychology, and to the realm of the psyche becoming confused with that of the spiritual. Modern societies have clearly lost a sense of the sacred. To the extent that we fail to see this, the use of entheogens will never be able to replace a true “science of the soul,” which offers a more satisfying conception of reality, and a fuller understanding of what it means to be human. In this way, we may discover a properly integrated approach to healing that is grounded in the deeper wisdom to be found in the world’s time-honored spiritual traditions.

Keywords

Sacred, religion, Enlightenment

References

• Freud, S. (1989). Civilization and its discontents. Translated and edited by James Strachey. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Guénon, R. (2001). The reign of quantity and the signs of the times. Translated by Lord Northbourne. Sophia Perennis.
• James, W. (1982). The varieties of religious experience: A study in human nature. Penguin Books. Pahnke, W. N., & Richards, W. A. (1966). Implications of LSD and experimental mysticism. Journal of Religion and Health, 5(3), 175–208.
• Perry, M. (2012). The mystery of individuality: Grandeur and delusion of the human condition. World Wisdom.
• Perry, W. N. (1996). Challenges to a secular society. Foundation for Traditional Studies.