RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Religious experiences can be had by many methods; meditation, fasting, feats of endurance, the list goes on. One method in particular, however, has proven consistently reliable – psychedelics. In the 60s, a generation of young people were gifted direct religious experiences thanks to the discovery of LSD. This led to a fascination with Eastern religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, that had maps for such experiences. Many uncovered the mystic strands in the faiths of their culture of origin. Many questions arose. Why did these substances evoke religious experiences? Could they have played a role in the development of religion? If so, why was this strand of psychedelic gnosis ultimately lost?