Utopiates—The Use and Users of LSD 25.

A historical review of Louis Lewin's book on psychoactive drugs, the text draws a parallel between human attempts to surpass ordinary consciousness through drugs and the myth of Lucifer's fall. It references early Christian theologians Tertullian, Origen, and Duns Scotus, who interpreted Lucifer's aspiration to transcend his created limits as the original sin of pride. The summary describes the book's subject matter—narcotic and stimulating drugs, their use and abuse—and situates it within a philosophical and theological framework about the risks of self-transcendence.

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Abstract

Phantastica—Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs, Their Use and Abuse. By Louis Lewin, MD. Price, 30 s. Pp 335, with no illustrations. Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., 68-74 Carter Lane, London E.C.4, England, 1964. It seems that from earliest times man as well as angels has sought to surpass himself. Man's attempt has been by drugs or selfinduced transcendence. The angel of the first hierarchy, of the first order of that hierarchy, who attempted to transcend himself was named Lucifer. It was Tertullian, believe, who referred to Lucifer as the wisest of all angels. Origen, a father and founder of the Greek Orthodox Church, says that Lucifer, in attempting to surpass his intelligence and his grasp by vowing, I will be like unto the Most High, fell with a profound fall for his apostasy. And long after, in the 14th century, Duns Scotus was the protagonist of the opinion that Lucifer—by