‘A critique of culture’: Alan Watts, psychedelic Buddhism, and religious play in postwar America

The post-World War II era in America, despite economic prosperity, saw religious revivals in evangelicalism and apocalyptic thought that reinforced neoliberalism and consumerism, leading to cultural and spiritual alienation. Psychedelics offered an alternative by fostering mutuality and compassion, as outlined in Alan Watts' work, which used them to reveal Buddhist wisdom emphasizing existence as absolute interconnection rather than difference. Watts' non-doctrinaire approach invites exploration beyond subjective selfhood toward an unselfish expression of the absolute 'other'.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Heralded as a time of economic prosperity, the post-World War II period in America also experienced extraordinary religious awakenings of born-again evangelicalism, Prosperity Gospels, and an apocalyptic flare rendered palpable by atomic bombs and the Cold War. Postwar Christianity found itself reinforcing neoliberalism, sanctifying standardizations accompanying technological routinization, economic progress, and consumption-based lifestyles, resulting in alienating crises of spirit and culture. Amidst uncertainty and conformity, psychedelics offered sacramental means for bypassing postwar society’s mechanisms by uncovering expressions of mutuality and compassion. Outlined within Alan Watts’ work, psychedelics unveiled Buddhist wisdom, detailing existence not as a function of difference, but as an expression of absolute interconnection. Neither doctrinaire nor authoritarian, Watts’ psychedelic engagement with Buddhism invites us to investigate beyond differences, toward moments in which the subjective self becomes an unselfish expression of the absolute ‘other’.