The Snow Leopard :: essays research papers

LSD Induced, Yeti, Euphoric Sojourn Drugs can clear away the past, enhance the present; toward the inner garden, they can only point the way. Lacking the temper of ascetic discipline, the drug vision remains a sort of dream that cannot be brought over into daily life. Old mists may be banished, that is true, but the alien chemical agent forms another mist maintaining the separation of the 'I' from the true experience of the One.1 This passage comes from The Snow Leopard, by Peter Matthiessen. In this passage Matthiessen describes what he has learned from the experiences he had with hallucinogenic drugs, such as ayahuasca, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin. He is concerned mostly with the spiritual nature of such drugs, and reveals that while drugs are always harmful, they can provide a starting point for spiritual growth. Hallucinogens clear 'old mists';(47); they let you perceive yourself without any armour. They force you to stand naked and alone, without any defense to your own emotional states. You become very close to the oneness Matthiessen describes, 'Then I breathe, and the mountain breathes, setting the world in motion once again.';(198) Nevertheless this oneness is very hard to achieve in practice and harder still to maintain. Drugs always leave you short of the goal of oneness because the drugs themselves are an obstacle, a mist that will always stop you short of total oneness. Drugs will always hold you back because they are harmful, and while you are experiencing a drug trip you are doing nothing but experiencing a drug trip; the drugs can do nothing but induce that hallucinogenic state. Also you are unable to do anything other then experience that state. This is also a reason why drugs are able to 'point the way';(47) to spiritual unity, oneness. Drugs force you to live in the present, in the sense that you are totally consumed by the drug and are doing nothing except being high. This is another draw back of the drugged experience you cannot escape you must wait until the drug wears off before you can concentrate on anything else. You are one with the drug and its affects. If you are going to try and concern yourself with something other than the drug experience that you are involved in, you will become very nervous. An anxiety attack will start to creep over you, reminding you to concern yourself with only what is happening now.