Professional Documents
Culture Documents
maps • volume XI
By Vanja Palmers
(vanja@bluewin.ch)
guishable from the changes produced by the intake of behavior and addiction. The classic psychedelics, unlike
psychedelics. substances such as heroin, cocaine, and alcohol, have
At this point it might be useful to make a distinction virtually no organic toxicity in the quantities in which
between the virtue or goal of practice, the loving, benefi- they are ingested. Their addictive risk is too small to be
number 2 • fall 2001
cent and constant awareness of this never-ending process measured when used in ceremonial settings. Psychedelic
of exploration, and the methods that aim at getting us traditions from the Vedic dawn to Eleusis to the Native
there. The former is universal, true and necessary for American Church have succeeded in creating ritual con-
everyone. Dogen refers to this when he states that “Zazen texts in which hazardous acting-out is virtually unknown.
has nothing to do with sitting or standing or laying But what of the dramatic changes which psychedelics
down” - and St. Paul when he admonishes us to “pray at can have on our psyche and spirit, our heart/mind, our
all times”. When it comes consciousness? Of course
to the methods, we have a “
The traditional understanding this effect is the very reason
maps • volume XI