High Culture

Since the late eighteenth century, many Western thinkers and writers have used psychoactive substances to seek transcendence, meaning, and mystical states. The book traces this history through figures such as Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Humphry Davy, Charles Baudelaire, William James, Aldous Huxley, and Timothy Leary, among others. It covers the Romantic fascination with opium, the discovery of anesthetics, psychiatric and religious interest in hashish, the use of mescaline and hallucinogenic fungi, and later LSD. Central to the account is how drugs have been employed to induce nonordinary realities, access gnosis, and lift users out of everyday ennui and pain, despite rising addiction levels.

Study at a glance

Abstract

For a number of complex reasons, humans are fascinated by drugs and altered states. Even if only momentarily, psychoactive substances lift people out of the ennui and pain of their everyday lives and, in some cases, introduce them to new visions of reality. It is no surprise, therefore, that the use of recreational drugs is rising. While, sadly, this also means that levels of addiction are increasing, many have used drugs as technologies to induce moments of meaning-making transcendence. Beginning at the close of the eighteenth century, this book traces the quest for transcendence and meaning in the West through the modern period. As well as the Romantic fascination with opium, it includes the discovery of anesthetics, the psychiatric and religious interest in hashish, the bewitching power of mescaline and hallucinogenic fungi, and the more recent use of LSD. The ideas and influence of a number of key protagonists are discussed, including Thomas De Quincey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Humphry Davy, Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Tours, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Paschal Beverly Randolph, Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet, Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, Benjamin Paul Blood, William James, Aleister Crowley, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Carlos Castaneda, and Terence McKenna. Central to the discussion is the analysis of the ways in which drugs have been used to induce mystical states, to transport users to nonordinary realities, and to access gnosis.