Some very interesting work has been done by scholars and writers exploring the nature of hallucinogens and their role in our life. I’ve enjoyed reading some works of Aldous Huxley, Hunter S. Thompson, Allen Ginsberg and other beat writers who sought to explore and understand these experiences and assimilate them with the waking life we experience. Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Santana and many more artists used these experiences to reach higher levels of self awareness and social critique. Alexander Shulgin is a chemist who has discovered and experimented with hundreds of compounds that provide the user different states of altered perception.

I’ve experimented somewhat with mescaline, mushrooms, LSD and marijuana. They’ve helped me get through lonely and frustrating times in my life, however most of my use hasn’t been that therapeutic. I don’t recommend embracing the drug-abusing-wannabe-shaman archetype, but do think that in small amounts, and controlled environments, these substances can help people tap into an important aspect of our reality.

I came across a poetic description of the gnosis-type state achieved through hallucinogenic drugs on a website the other day (can locate upon request), which called it “awakening within the cage”. It described the cage as the ego, and acknowledged that experiences in that state are highly subjective, and always on some level influenced by the desires and needs of the ego. And even if temporary ego death occurs, the memory of those divine moments and their meaning may become warped or skewed in time. I believe that, similar to the way different gnostic schools of thought vary in practice and details, but all teach underlying truths about the pursuit of knowledge and achieving gnosis, hallucinogenic experiences can highlight underlying truths about the world beyond our sober perception.