Success in seeking the Absolute may simply be a matter of altering our minds chemically.
I’m sorry to disappoint Job and I can not see Handel writing an oratorio about mind altering drugs but that is my belief.
It is a belief shared by some eminent philosophers and does not represent the mere churning of a mind in chaos.
Our small minds evolved to seek survival at any cost. Not happiness or knowledge in general. If we have to kill our neighbor and eat him (literally in some benighted parts of the world) then that is what we will do. In the West we achieve these aims through capitalism. In less “civilized” parts of the world physical violence still reigns supreme as it does in the animal kingdom at large.
And yet those blessed with the luxury of reflection (and the time to reflect) may come to the conclusion that it need not always be so.
In essence it seems that the universe is great simplicity cloaked in overwhelming complexity. From the vibrations of infinitesimally small one dimensional strings there arises all that we see around us.
Ourselves included.
Under the influence of half a teaspoon full of psilocybe cubensis I have found truth in the words of Julian of Norwich.
The petty concerns of humanity fall away and you can see your way to understanding what the mystics describe. Most people restrict themselves to reading about contentment or the sublime. Reading the words of others is, as the Buddhists would have it, a mere finger pointing to the moon.
To witness the sublime itself is of far greater value. No-one should seek to be a junkie. To zone out on heroin or cannabis. Or to psyche themselves up for a day in the urban jungle with cocaine.
But we should learn that the troubled mind is a mind that is not well. And we should accept that it need not always be so. Perhaps consciousness is designed to dig its bearers out of the mud.
In the more likely event that no one designed consciousness, that there is no creator, then we must create ourselves.
We do not need to live like pigs or jackals. We do not need to suffer. We do not need competition, aggression and violence.
What we do need is to search, to experiment. Without fear of reprisal and without cease. Peace is to quiet the mind, to quell the never ending stream of pointless thoughts and worries. To see through destructive emotions, to overcome fear and greed.
My normal state of mind is not “necessary”. It is not useful or kind or nice. To me or to anybody around me.
I will change. I will become better, kinder, more peaceful. Not just today or yesterday but for all days to come. I live in the physical world and I need to recognize that I need to take physical actions to achieve my objective.
I do not shirk from the task and I do not hesitate to step outside the bounds of convention to achieve this. Remember Edward Jenner, the founder of vaccinology in the West. Avoid potential harm to others (unlike Jenner) but do not seek to avoid experimentation on yourself if you seek “Truth”.
If you wish to see the universe as it really is you need to stray from the prison cell in which you have incarcerated yourself.
Weltanschauung 