How to change your mind

https://youtu.be/Whmnx_Cb5ts

I’m reading the latest Michael Pollan book of the above title, and it’s one of the most compelling and fascinating things I’ve ever read.

For instance: I did not know that Bill W., founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, not only did a series of supervised LSD trips in the late 1950s, he was so impressed by the results that he wanted to include it in AA programs.

Turns out he credited his own sobriety to a mystical experience he had on belladonna in 1934. His entire concept of a spiritual awakening and surrendering to a higher power was based on his drug experience. If more people knew that, they might not be so resistant to the program!

Now, this is interesting to me because I had a spontaneous transcendental experience in 1999. At the time, I talked about it with a friend who was in AA, and he said, “That sounds just like what William James wrote about in The Varieties of Religious Experience.” James is considered the founder of modern psychology. (You can read what he has to day about mystical experiences here if you’re interested.)

I’d never heard about it and was shocked to discover it was not exactly common, but not unknown, either. The thing is, my experience was completely spontaneous and had nothing to do with drugs.

I began to cautiously approach the subject with people. I remember this one Southern co-worker (former college quarterback) who told me the same thing happened with him. “I just don’t talk about it because I don’t want to be lumped in with all those right-wing Christians saying they’re born again,” he said. (Good point.)

Anyway, I’d love to feel that way again. It’s been so long now, all I have left are the intellectual remnants, and not the rush of overwhelming compassion and tranquility that lingered for years.