I think there are reasons to distinguish between religions and mystical experiences.
With or without psychedelics people have probably had mystical experiences a long time
and realized that there is something beyond the physical reality. This does not mean that
psychedelics create religions. Religions in the real meaning of the word (re - ligare) reconnect
with something that has been lost, do not appear until the midpoint of the Mayan Long Count,
at the cosmic consciousness change generating the so called Axial Age 550 BCE
and are about developing philosophies and rites to reconnect with the previous spirituality.

Take for instance the Christian religion whose essence is that Jesus died at the cross for our sins.
Did this idea come out of somebody's psychedelic experience? I would say clearly not. Besides,
in my personal view this idea is not true, even if it obviously has had a great appeal to people.
If someone agrees with me that the basic idea of Christianity is not true and yet argues that
it was created by psychedelics what is he or she saying? That psychedelics have created
religions based on false narratives? I do not think this would give a fair view of the use
of psychedelics either then or now.

Another significant argument that psychedelics do not create religions is that the ancient Greek,
among whom the Eleusian mysteries played a great role and gave rise to mystical experiences,
despite this has not left any major religion to posteriority. The use of psychedelics, presumably ergot
based, did not compell them to do so. In my view then, psychedelics give rise
to mystical experiences that tend to break down religions. In my book The Nine Waves of Creation
I describe how the quantum shifts of consciousness that the Mayan calendar describes has given rise
to the various religions and I think there is nothing to indicate that psychedelics play a role in this.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 24-Nov-20 14:43 by cjcalleman.