Early in the article linked here, the author and self-professed ayahuasca skeptic, Dalston Playfair, uses the well-worn analogy that compares a psychedelic-induced mystical experience to a helicopter ride to the summit of a mountain, and a mystical experience achieved through some other spiritual discipline to climbing up the mountain on foot. “The view is the same, but at the end of the helicopter ride you know less about the mountain.”
Given the beautiful description, in the next-to-last paragraph of the article, under the heading “Recalled to Life,” of the feeling of involvement in mankind that he felt after the experience, I wonder if he would now agree with me that the helicopter-ride putdown, of psychedelic means, shows a lack of understanding?
The feelings and thoughts expressed so beautifully in that last paragraph and in John Donne’s meditation remind me of the love of God and of one’s neighbor as oneself that are the heart of the Christian religion.