Repression of death consciousness and the psychedelic trip.
Journal of cancer research and therapeutics January 1, 2012 Varsha Dutta 12 citations
Death is humanity's most repressed fear, an innate condition that modern culture has denied by embracing symbolic immortality. This repression has extended into medicine, where professionals shy away from the emotional and spiritual dimensions of dying, and the drive to prolong life has intensified. Research into psychedelic therapy for the terminally ill, which began in the 1950s and 1960s, was politically suppressed but has recently revived. The paper argues that death anxiety, being inherent to human existence, cannot be therapeutically cured. It questions how much of the ritual and spiritual context of ancient psychedelic use can be extracted and translated into modern medical language.