Sacks’s article detailing his personal experiences with mind-altering drugs, as a neurologist, will be helpful to my college world-religion students. However, practitioners of traditional religions might take issue with the Western tendency toward individual exploration in this area. Native American and other traditional cultures would always have a spiritual guide to support community members in their use of entheogens to generate the Divine within. The ritual use of entheogens could result in dramatic change, such as the birth of a new shaman, or the bringing back of an important message for the tribal community. The experience always had a larger purpose.
Father Brad Karelius
Associate Professor of World Religions
Saddleback Community College
Mission Viejo, Calif.