L. S. Dharma: Not-Self-Transformation in Buddhism and Psychedelia – Nathan Keele Springer

L. S. Dharma: Not-Self-Transformation in Buddhism and Psychedelia – Nathan Keele Springer (Georgia State University) Abstract: Over the course of the 20th century, writers and scholars began making connections between psychedelic phenomenology and perennialist thought. Riding the tide of exoticized Western interpretations of Asian religion, Timothy Leary and other proponents of psychedelics found analogs to their drug experiences in English translations of Buddhist, Hindu, and Daoist texts, helping to usher in what scholar Jeffrey Kripal calls “Psychedelic Orientalism.” Undergirding this movement was the idea that psychedelics were offering access to esoteric knowledge that had previously been privy only to mystics. While the fifth precept of Buddhism explicitly prohibits the use of intoxicants, many “Western” Buddhists acknowledge the role of psychedelics in catalyzing their spiritual journeys. This paper will look from the 19th century to the present day to outline how, on both individual and community lev