Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemical Paperback – September 12, 2003

This book collects essays from nearly 40 years of Smith's research into psychedelics. It addresses a number of issues:o The experiential dimension of the drugso The relationship of the drugs to religiono The history of psychedelics in the United StatesThe historical dimension is fascinating for children of the baby boomers, who are too young to have experienced the 1960s. He discusses the experiements conducted at various institutions in the 1960s. He talks about Aldous Huxley, Albert Hoffman, and Timothy Leary.Leary gets special attention in the essay on the viability of the drug culture as a new religious movement.I recommend reading this book after having read the classic The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley. This volume gives a much more mature perspective, since it is a retrospective decades after the fact.I highly recommend this book to several audiences. The first obvious audience is the would-be psychonaut. The book recounts the authors experiences with psychedelics. (The author prefers the term entheogens.) Students of religion would also benefit from this book. The author is a professor of religious studies, and several of the essays collected in this volume deal directly with the mystical experience brought on by the drugs.

I really enjoyed Smith's perspectives and many experiences he shared through this book. Combined with research and facts as well as personal views, this is an interesting and thought-provoking work on the controversial topic.

This is a great book in many respects, well written and persuasive. Smith covers a range of topics, from whether or not entheogenic experiences provide genuine glimpses of a greater reality, to historical discussions and modern studies which produced startling results. He also provides a much needed reality check for the counter-culture that espouses the spirituality of these substances on one hand while failing to live a spiritual life on the other.There is something that prevents me from giving this book the full 5 stars, however - not for what is in the book so much as what is missing from it. Like most books revolving around "World Religions," most of the discussion is centered on Judeo-Christian and Eastern spiritual viewpoints. There is a single chapter which combines an intro Smith wrote for a book on the Eleusinian Mysteries and interviews with members of the Native American Church, and throughout the book there are a few brief mentions of entheogenic use among other cultures, but Smith does not delve long or deeply into any of these topics. What disappoints me about this is that there continue to be many traditional cultures that actively make use of entheogens in their rituals, including many tribal cultures that may represent a clearer viewpoint of mankind's oldest natural religious impulses, yet Smith does not discuss these beliefs. Instead, he focuses most strongly on how the entheogenic experience meshes with Eastern beliefs, despite acknowledging that the Soma of the Hindus was suppressed before the Vedas were even finished, and that use of substances is considered one of the highest sins in Buddhism. My point here is not that certain entheogenic experiences do not echo Eastern spiritual beliefs or may not have influenced them, but rather that such influence waned thousands of years ago, that these belief systems have changed from this time and their mythologies taken on different interpretations partially due to societal shifts and partially due to distance from the original source of revelation. In addition to discussing these points, why not discuss the living worldviews of some of the traditional cultures that have had a continuous, intimate relationship with entheogens - worldviews which often do not resemble those of the East or West, except in the common belief that there is a more vital world beyond our everyday perception?Most cultures that have had both a long term and current involvement with entheogens gravitate towards shamanic worldviews in which harmony between the self and the living yet sacred world around us is the highest value, rather than focusing on redemption as in Western religions, or extinction of the self as in Eastern ones. Wouldn't the cultures that have a long standing familiarity with these plants also be some of the best primary sources of what they teach? Instead, Smith does what many others do - assume that religious experiences can be arranged in a hierarchy, and that the goals held highest by the dominant religious forces are clearly the highest spiritual goals in an objective sense. Where belief systems diverge from these goals, there are only cursory mentions, and I was disappointed when, in the second appendix, Smith dismisses consideration of shamanic cultures because shamans are lacking in "sanctity" - presumably because they function as intermediaries between humans and the spirits doing active work for people in the world, rather than spending their lives gazing at their navels.Still, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic, but with the caveat that they should explore entheogenically derived philosophies not covered by the major world religions of today as well.

Tedious

Really wasn't what I was looking for

a highly informed and elegant look inside the world of our minds. This is a work that adds to the classics on the subject and offers a slightly more sophisticated perspective than one would expect.Very interesting stuff.

The greatest contributions in this book were just the native americans talking about what peyote meant to them, and why it should be legalized. The author, although more than qualified to write on the subject, has no passion or fire behind his writings and the essays seems to be written in a manner which Mr. Smith's extensive vocabulary is showcased over the much more exciting power of the entheogens. If you haven't read Aldous Huxley's masterpieces "The Doors of Perception" and "Heaven & Hell" read them instead. If you have read those already, you will not learn anything new here.