Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences

This month I THOUGHT I was looking at ancient history, and this weeks book is Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences by William A. Richards. However…this book had very little to do with ancient history. We will of course come back to that.

So as I said, I thought this might be more information on the history of psychedelics and how entheogens advanced religion, kind of along the lines of Food of the Gods….it was not. Although the author does speculate that one of the 180 species of psilcybe mushrooms may have been the Isrealites Manna they ate while wondering the desert, hence the cocktail. What it was, was a doctor’s, PhD in I believe both psychotherapy and religious studies, experiences both personal use and as a therapist and religious scholar, with entheogens. And that is what he calls them, rather than psychedelics, which is a specific word choice. Entheogen means “a psychoactive substance used for its spiritual or religious effects, whether or not in a traditional or formal religious context.”

So his primary focus IS on the use of psychotropic substances and ones connection with a god force, whatever that may be for you. And he is non-religiously specific with this. But he also extensively discusses the psychological benefits of controlled use. Meaning, therapeutically, under a doctor’s direction AND assistance, so not just writing a prescription to take two and call me in the morning, but in office for an extended session, with a therapist available to help you work through any trauma that may pop up during the session.

Richards addresses the history of psychedelics, how they were initially used in psychotherapy research, up until Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, at which point some very promising research was summarily shut down as illegal under the provision of the Act. Doctors don’t want to go to prison any more than the rest of us do. Some continued to jump through the absurd legal hoops required of the DEA and the FDA to obtain authorization to continue very specific research. Which, incidentally, puts the United States DECADES behind Europe in the study of psychedelics on the psyche, as studies continued throughout Europe to this day, stopping in England in 2005. The continent continues their studies.

He goes into some of what people may see, what people may know, and dives into the religious implications of entheogenic’s. Which was really interesting as he discusses a man who was nominally raised Christian, struggling with alcoholism and other drug addiction, who after a session with one of the psychedelics, and I don’t recall which one although he did specify in the book, who had visions of dancing Devas, aka, hindu spirits. And never drank again. There’s A LOT of evidence that psychotropics can rewire the brain to help in overcoming addicitions, not just with Ibogaine, which was mentioned the Psychedelic Handbook a few years ago, but generally speaking.  An Australian scientist who was aborigine, who saw Christ while under entheogens. Imagine what an absolute mind fuck that would be. You’re raised Catholic, go on a spiritual journey, and see the Buddha. You think your wiccan—BAM! Nope, Jewish.

ANYWAYS, it’s not all fun and joy, and he goes into great discussion on some of the negatives. People who experiment for experimentations sake and have a bad trip, which if you recall from Dr. Strassman’s book a few years ago, a bad trip IS an adverse reaction. Richards explains that a bad trip can be anything from experiencing great anxiety, to one person who KNEW they were going to be experiencing psychedelics, and absolutely rejected the very idea by taking the dose, then burying his head in the couch and curling in a ball, refusing to speak or move until the experience was over. Richards says it was rejection of joy. The man was so terrified of possibly experiencing joy, that he rejected the very possibility by refusing to experience the experience.

He talks about one guy who became convinced there was a cobra in the room and had to be bodily tackled by the counselor not to go running into the street, and once down the counselor was able to talk the man into a productive session about how constricted he felt by his mother. I feel like there was probably more to that, since cobras are venomous, not constrictors. There may have been culture in there too, if the patient was from India. He discusses priests who thought they were going to have a holy experience and instead ended up reliving and working through the trauma of being sexually assaulted.

So no, it’s not all fun and games, and those are just some of the reasons he supports use under controlled circumstances, and with someone you can talk with and can talk you through what you experience. And that’s a pretty strong argument. Imagine you think you’re going to drop acid for grins by yourself and end up running into traffic. Like…there’s a reason Hollywood uses the bad trip as a trope for a psychotic break.

To that point, he actually recommends that if there is a history of psychosis in your family, you should definitely NOT be using psychotropics. He mentions in one experiment, there was exactly ONE bad reaction, and that one was the identical twin of a diagnosed schizophrenic. If you are on any of a host of SSRI’s, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, you should be safely weaned off of them, obviously with the assistance of your psychotherapist, before using psychotropics, also with the assistance of your psychotherapist. This is because the SSRI’s bond with the same areas of your brain that the psychotropics do.

He talks about flashbacks and how those seem to be exceedingly rare; however he provides a caveat with that in that most of the psychiatric experiments don’t actually ask about flashbacks during follow up appointments, so its possible they are not as rare as he thinks they may be. Although he raises the idea that those who experience flashbacks may be doing so because they did not work through whatever issues the initial session raised, and their brain is now forcing them to do so.

He does address end of life care and how deeply therapeutic entheogens can be for people who are experiencing terminal illness and makes compelling arguments for hospice and palliative care workers being licensed to administer these medicines to their charges.

I think part four of this book, Present and Future Applications of Entheogens, was particularly interesting as he postulates unexplored uses of psychedelics in medicine, education, religion, and maximizing safety and benefits of use.  It was actually hilarious because on one hand, he’s talking about the safe production, presumably meaning a pharmacist, and then immediately mentions the like four very easy steps needed to grow your own.

NOTE: Neither I nor Dr. Richards are advocating violating federal law to grow your own and definitely neither of us are advocating experimenting and risking a bad trip by yourself, possibly resulting in prison after the fact given the illegality of psychedelics. Although Dr. Richards does comment on the absolute absurdity of possible federal crimes for literally ACCIDENTALLY growing something. Probably not if you’re a city slicker, but psilocybe quite famously grow on cow patties. In Food of the Gods, Terrence McKenna theorizes that this may be why cows are sacred in Hindu religions.  

This book was not what I was expecting, but it still made for very interesting reading. I was expecting how religion evolved, and instead received details on how it COULD evolve, along with a whole host of benefits we’re all being denied by unelected government officials, namely the DEA and the FDA, who decide for us all that collectively it is bad for us. Because big daddy government says it is.

But I will say that while Dr. Strassman’s book a few years ago convinced me that IF you want to experiment, you should have a spotter, someone to remain sober and make sure you don’t hurt yourself, Dr. Richards has convinced me of the importance of that person being responsible and knowledgeable, either as a therapist or a member of faith…whatever faith may be for you.

Review is up on YouTube and Rumble.