I'm reading Supernatural by Graham Hancock right now. I just got done with Part I a few moments ago. While reading the section Scientific Sacrilege a thought suddenly hit, please forgive me if there is any lack of sense in this, I have an inconsolable headache but I wanted to write before I forgot my thought completely.
Is the War on Drugs, in part, a (Western) conspiracy to keep people from learning/studying about hallucinations: What they portray, why they exist, how they may change us?
"But to understand what hallucinations really are, and what part they play in an overall spectrum of human perceptions, is another thing altogether, and neither Lewis-Williams nor any other scientist can yet claim to possess such knowledge, or to be anywhere near acquiring it. Gifted and experienced shamans the world over really do know more - much more - than they do. So if we were smart, we would listen to what the shamans have to say about the true character and complexity of reality, instead of basking mindlessly in the over-weening one-dimensional arrogance of the Western technological mindset."
So are hallucinations just the modern day "the sun orbits the earth." Did fanatical religious leaders put pressure on banning hallucinogens because of the fear of the unknown, or the fear of losing control? Is it too "pagan" to go into a trance? Are "western" religions fearful of hallucinations because of the shamans use and understanding of them are far greater. Did the lack of physical evidence and understanding cause us to reject our brains ability to hallucinate as something worth delving into? With people from different walks of life from all over the world having "what appear to have been the same intelligent, communicative, non-physical "entities" encountered on their trance journeys" how can educated people say that hallucinations are just a trick of the brain.
No this is not a campaign promoting drugs. It's just a provoked thought popping out of my brain while reading. I do agree with Mr Hancock; what makes us think we know so much when we won't even open our eyes to thousands of years of knowledge shamans have about this "trick of the brain."
I find this hypothesis to be dubious for a couple of reasons. firstly, hallucinations are not, generally speaking, useful. A hallucination is when your brain is working incorrectly. basically when you see things that are not there, or hear, taste, touche or in any other way experience. basically it is when various neurochemical pathways misfire in the brain. we know this because there is actually quite a bit of research on the subject. It was this research that lead to the invention and the banning of a great many new hallucinogens. Your other line of reasoning, that there is a conspiracy of major religions, and religious leader to hide the benefits of hallucinations, would be difficult to pull off. basically you would need hundreds, maybe thousands, of people working together over the span of centuries without any hiccups. add to that all the support personnel needed for a ruse of that size and you would get something to large to guarantee even a modicum of control. Also the way we ban the use of drugs, and which drugs we ban, change drastically throughout the last thousand years. at one point England was one of the largest opium dealing nations in the world. I am not saying that religious visions, pagan or otherwise, are all fake or misfiring braincells. I am saying that purposefully forcing your brain to misfire is a dangerous thing, and while I do not think the government should be involved in controlling those substances, I understand the reasoning behind those decisions.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing your "quite a bit of research" is only about 50 years of serious research on the subject, while there are cultures that have been using hallucinogens, through plant use or extreme dehydration and/or exhaustion, for thousands of years. There would have been more "western" study on the matter had the war on drugs not stopped them. Since research had to be stopped, I think scientists, having no other physical evidence, decided it must be a "misfiring"
ReplyDeleteIt is ironic that we today, who have criminalized the use of hallucinogens...have the temerity to imagine that we know better about these remarkable substances than other cultures that have lived with them and made controlled use of them for thousands of years. It is equally absurd to suppose, in the 50 or so years in which Western neuropsychologists were able to conduct systematic research...that they could have learned even a fraction as much as is already known through long accumulated experience by any shaman in the Amazon jungle today.
Nevertheless, by the early 1970s, just before the War on Drugs really began to take prisoners, a few neuropsychologists were beginning to give serious consideration to what look in retrospect like profoundly shamanistic ideas- including "discussions of hallucinogenic drug use as a threshold to paranormal phenomena."...a broad range of volunteers from very different backgrounds and cultures, who had not met and had no opportunity to compare notes, repeatedly gave lab researchers descriptions of what appear to have been the same intelligent, communicative, non-physical "entities" encountered on their trance journeys.
Graham Hancock, Supernatural
How can people having similar hallucinations be considered a misfiring and no want for more explanation. Whatever hallucination may actually be it seems either way there should be more research. With the knowledge of how complex our brains are it seems silly to assume that all humans have a misfiring that produces nearly the same results. Why would all our brains work "incorrectly" in the same way? Being told it's misfiring braincells isn't a good enough answer for me and if Western scientists are too stubborn to believe there is more to it than maybe there are other answers somewhere else. I think sometimes our advanced technology stops us from delving deeper into the unknown.
As for a conspiracy of major religion and their leaders, yes you're right it would be extremely hard to pull off. I just find it interesting that right as Western scientists begin to delve into any supernatural meaning hallucinations might have their research was stopped.
At what point would we have 'enough' research? 80 years? a hundred? a thousand? If the hallucinogenic properties of certain drugs were benificial in a measurable way you could surmise that cultures using them in that manner(I.E. shamans in the amazon) would be living, better and more fulfilled lives. I have seen these people. I have not seen the benifits of this behaviour. they live short lives filled with fear. fear of diseasebecause it is caused by demons only the shaman can see) fear of death(demons again, or rival tribes). they often go without the nutrients they need from day to day, and they live in filth because they do not believe in germs(which is a theory only about a hundred years old and so unproven according to your hypothesis). it is not that I think that there is nothing to learn from these drugs. I think that there is a great deal we can learn from them. supernatural hallucination powers are not one of those things. I also think that the dangers of hallucinogens are significant enough to be cautious in our study.
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