Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T01:56:43.696Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sacramental and spiritual use of hallucinogenic drugs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2011

Levente Móró  and
Valdas Noreika
Levente Móró
Affiliation:
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland. leve@utu.fihttp://users.utu.fi/~leve
Valdas Noreika
Affiliation:
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland. leve@utu.fihttp://users.utu.fi/~leve Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, United Kingdom. valnor@utu.fihttp://www.psy.utu.fi/henkilot/valdasnoreika.htm
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Arguably, the religious use of hallucinogenic drugs stems from a human search of metaphysical insight rather than from a direct need for cognitive, emotional, social, physical, or sexual improvement. Therefore, the sacramental and spiritual intake of hallucinogenic drugs goes so far beyond other biopsychosocial functions that it deserves its own category in the drug instrumentalization list.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 34 , Issue 6 , December 2011 , pp. 319 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, J. R. (1994) Consciousness alteration as a problem-solving device: The psychedelic pathway. In: Yearbook for ethnomedicine and the study of consciousness, ed. Rätsch, C. & Baker, J., pp. 51–89. VWB.Google Scholar
Bishop, J. P. (2009) Biopsychosociospiritual medicine and other political schemes. Christian Bioethics 15(3):254–76. doi: 10.1093/cb/cbp017.Google Scholar
La Barre, W. (1979) Shamanic origins of religion and medicine. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 11(1–2):7–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maslow, A. H. (1969) The farther reaches of human nature. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 1(1):1–9.Google Scholar
Revonsuo, A. (2000) The reinterpretation of dreams: An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23(6):877–901.Google Scholar
Roberts, T. B., ed. (2001) Psychoactive sacramentals: Essays on entheogens and religion. Council on Spiritual Practices.Google Scholar
Ruck, C. A., Bigwood, J., Staples, D., Ott, J. & Wasson, R. G. (1979) Entheogens. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 11(1–2):145–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schultes, R. E. & Hofmann, A. (1979) Plants of the gods: Origins of hallucinogenic use. McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Winkelman, M. (1995) Psychointegrator plants: Their roles in human culture, consciousness and health. In: Yearbook of cross-cultural medicine and psychotherapy, ed. Winkelman, M. & Andritsky, W., pp. 9–53. VWB.Google Scholar