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The Ethical Import of Entheogens Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 6-30-2017 The thicE al Import of Entheogens Joshua Falcon [email protected] DOI: 10.25148/etd.FIDC001924 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Part of the Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Metaphysics Commons, Other Religion Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Theory and Philosophy Commons, and the Transpersonal Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Falcon, Joshua, "The thicalE Import of Entheogens" (2017). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3357. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3357 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida THE ETHICAL IMPORT OF ENTHEOGENS A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in RELIGIOUS STUDIES by Joshua Falcon 2017 To: Dean John F. Stack Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs This thesis, written by Joshua Falcon, and entitled The Ethical Import of Entheogens, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. ____________________________________ Lesley A. Northup ____________________________________ Albert Kafui Wuaku ____________________________________ Steven M. Vose, Major Professor Date of Defense: June 30, 2017 The thesis of Joshua Falcon is approved. ____________________________________ Dean John F. Stack Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs ____________________________________ Andrés G. Gil Vice President for Research and Economic Development and Dean of the University Graduate School Florida International University, 2017 ii ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS THE ETHICAL IMPORT OF ENTHEOGENS by Joshua Falcon Florida International University, 2017 Miami, Florida Professor Steven M. Vose, Major Professor The term entheogen refers to drugs—including the artificial substances and active principles drawn from them—which are known to produce ecstasy and have been used traditionally in certain religious and shamanic contexts. The entheogenic experiences provoked by entheogens are described by users in myriad ways, including in spiritual, religious, philosophical, and secular contexts. Entheogenic experiences have shown that they can create opportunities for individuals to generate meaning, including novel philosophical insights, which users claim to gain by way of experience. As such, entheogenic experiences exhibit the ability to influence a change in a user’s fundamental philosophical commitments, or live options, including their ethical dispositions. Given that these new live options are rooted in experience, their veracity gains further credence for users than those commitments they have come to hold by way of abstraction. By philosophically investigating the phenomenology of entheogenic experiences, this work argues that entheogens have ethical import. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Methods ............................................................................................................... 5 Chapter Outline ................................................................................................................... 8 Important Terminology ..................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1: The Prismatic Nature of Entheogens: Discourses on the Classic Psychedelics ........... 21 A Note on Drugs ............................................................................................................... 22 Perspectives on the Western Biases Against Entheogens ................................................. 25 The Ceremonial Use of Entheogens ................................................................................. 30 Early Research on Entheogens .......................................................................................... 39 Discourses on The Link Between Psychedelic, Mystical, and Religious Experiences ..... 45 The Psychedelic Renaissance: Pioneering Research and Renewed Interests in Entheogens ........................................................................................................................ 56 Contemporary Discourses on Entheogens and Ethics ....................................................... 63 Chapter 2: Theoretical Considerations ........................................................................................... 68 Mircea Eliade – Self-Identity and the Regeneration of Meaning ..................................... 70 Viktor E. Frankl – Entheogens and Meaning-Making Spaces .......................................... 71 Ralph Metzner – Metaphoric Language and Symbols of Transformation ........................ 73 William James – Mysticism, Conversion, and “New Live Options” ................................ 74 Mysticism.......................................................................................................................... 76 Conversion ........................................................................................................................ 78 New Live Options ............................................................................................................. 79 Chapter 3: The Phenomenology of Entheogenic Experiences ....................................................... 83 Elements of Influence ....................................................................................................... 83 Set, Setting, and Substance ............................................................................................... 84 Expectation, Preparation, Intention, and Purpose ............................................................. 86 Phenomenological Data .................................................................................................... 87 Experience Reports ........................................................................................................... 88 Chapter 4: The Ethical Import of Entheogens ............................................................................. 120 Entheogens and an Ethics of Interconnectedness ........................................................... 134 Interconnectedness in Buddhist Thought ........................................................................ 136 Interconnectedness in Process Thought .......................................................................... 141 Interconnectedness in Traditional Knowledges .............................................................. 148 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 154 Research Limitations & Future Research ....................................................................... 158 References .................................................................................................................................... 160 iv Introduction This investigation focuses on the phenomenology of entheogenic experiences had by persons living within the United States and the ethical implications which can be drawn thereof. In attempting to capture the ethos of this wide and variegated group of users who engage in consuming entheogens, some scholars have coined designations such as “Entheogenic esotericism” (Hanegraaff 2013), “Psychonaut religion” (Monteith 2016), and Neoshamanism. While it proves difficult to apply any homogenizing classification to such a diverse group of persons, what these individuals do share is their use of entheogenic substances for positively transformative meaning-making purposes. Although the term “entheogen” was created to denote drugs that have both traditional and contemporary histories of usage as ecstatic inebriants (Ott 1993, 15), this investigation into the ethical import of entheogens will nevertheless incorporate several source materials which have used a wide range of terms to describe the nature of these entheogenic experiences, including “psychedelic,” “mystical,” and “spiritual,” to name a few. The purpose for not prescribing any of the aforementioned terms to the entheogenic experiences in this study is to avoid pigeonholing users’ entheogenic experiences, as some of the persons who engage in the ceremonial consumption of entheogens do not necessarily agree with the religious or spiritual connotations associated with their use, and may prefer to use the term psychedelic instead. Another reason for not attributing these terms to entheogen users is because some of the entheogen users I have interviewed consider themselves to be ideological anarchists in a sense, and have a kneejerk reaction to rigid structures or institutional hierarchies that are commonplace among organized traditions. Given these reasons, it seems unhelpful to designate any label to them, other than a loosely-descriptive term that I will call
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