Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences

by William Richards

Overview

Sacred Knowledge is the first well-documented, sophisticated account of the effect of psychedelics on biological processes, human consciousness, and revelatory religious experiences. Based on nearly three decades of legal research with volunteers, William A. Richards argues that, if used responsibly and legally, psychedelics have the potential to assuage suffering and constructively affect the quality of human life.

Richards's analysis contributes to social and political debates over the responsible integration of psychedelic substances into modern society. His book serves as an invaluable resource for readers who, whether spontaneously or with the facilitation of psychedelics, have encountered meaningful, inspiring, or even disturbing states of consciousness and seek clarity about their experiences. Testing the limits of language and conceptual frameworks, Richards makes the most of experiential phenomena that stretch our understanding of reality, advancing new frontiers in the study of belief, spiritual awakening, psychiatric treatment, and social well-being. His findings enrich humanities and scientific scholarship, expanding work in philosophy, anthropology, theology, and religious studies and bringing depth to research in mental health, psychotherapy, and psychopharmacology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231174077
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/24/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	536,297
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William A. Richards is a clinical psychologist at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center with formal training in theology and comparative religion. Earlier in his career, he pursued psychedelic research at Spring Grove Hospital Center and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Baltimore. His graduate education included studies at Yale University, Brandeis University, Catholic University, the Andover-Newton Theological School, and the University of Göttingen.

Table of Contents

Foreword G. William Barnard xi

Preface: One Discovery of Transcendence xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

Introduction xxv

Note to the Reader xxix

Part I Setting the Stage

1 The Death and Rebirth of Psychedelic Research 3

2 Orientation, Definitions, and the Limits of Language 8

3 Revelation and Doubt 29

Part II Mystical and Visionary Forms of Consciousness

4 Intuitive Knowledge 39

5 Approaches to Unitive Consciousness 58

6 New Perspectives on Time and Space 69

7 Visions and Archetypes 78

Part III Personal and Interpersonal Dynamics

8 The Interpersonal and the Mystical 99

9 Experiences of Meaninglessness, Despair, and Somatic Discomfort 104

10 Religious Conversion and Psychodynamic Experiences 113

11 Discipline and Integration 119

12 Reflections on Death 126

Part IV Present and Future Applications of Entheogens

13 Psychedelic Frontiers in Medicine 139

14 Psychedelic Frontiers in Education 152

15 Psychedelic Frontiers in Religion 166

16 Maximizing the Probability of Safety and Benefit 179

Part V Onward

17 Fears of Awakening 195

18 Entering Into a New Paradigm 204

19 Movement Into the Future 207

Epilogue: A Concise Report of Insights from the Frontier Where Science and Spirituality Are Meeting 211

Selected Bibliography 213

A Hopkins Playlist for Psilocybin Studies (2008 Version) 223

Name Index 227

Subject Index 231

Editorial Reviews

Sacred Knowledge provides the most comprehensive overview of the actual use of psychedelics in psychotherapy and of the transformative power of mystical experiences.

Torsten Passie

In this wonderfully sensitive, critical, and confessional history one of the foremost clinicians and scholars of presents his own experience with psychedelics and with guiding others in studies to occasion mystical experiences using entheogens. Neither addictive nor toxic, these drugs whatever called surely can under the right set and setting reveal the God within us all. This book is the best accessible overview by someone who knows by experience, and can guide others whether they choose to be involved with entheogens personally or seek to simply to understand others who do. Regardless of choice, this loving man should be your guide.

Ralph W. Hood Jr.

Richards' Sacred Knowledge is not a tome but rather a concise work rich with personal stories, observations, and insights into a compelling topic long ignored and now garnering the attention it has long deserved.

Charles S. Grob

Richards is a generous and gregarious writer, who avoids platitudes for a mix of hard evidence, anecdotal stories, and memoir-like ruminations... Timely.

Baltimore City Paper

In Sacred Knowledge, Richards . . . distills his years of thinking about psychedelics’ psychotherapeutic and spiritual uses into a book that is readable for educated general readers, intellectually firm enough for scholars, and flavored by his personal experiences.

Tom Roberts

A seminal work that will become required reading for anyone seriously interested in either religious experience or psychedelic research. There has not been a book in this area as valuable since William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience, more than a century ago.

James Fadiman

This is a great book which I highly recommend. It is an immersive experience, which provides an opportunity for those unfamiliar with nonordinary states of consciousness to catch a glimpse of their beauty and power. William A. Richards seamlessly weaves together his extensive understanding of spirituality on the one hand and academic and clinical science on the other – a rare combination. His humour, insights, and empathy shine through on every page. The topic is timely and a manifestation of the fact that the intellectual battle regarding the potential of nonordinary states of consciousness (as, in this case, facilitated by psychedelics) has been won.

Amanda Feilding

A valuable work and a real treat to read.... Few people could have written Sacred Knowledge and even fewer people could have done it so eloquently.

OPEN Foundation

Sacred Knowledge is not only timely and relevant to a whole host of current social/legal issues but also addresses, with seemingly effortless ease, many of the deeper/subtler metaphysical implications of psychedelics—their therapeutic and spiritual potential. Richards's clear prose makes articulating such difficult topics look easy.

G. William Barnard

This is a wonderful book and couldn't have been launched at a more auspicious time. As William A. Richards has portrayed so beautifully, psychedelics provide an experience of total sanity and give a glimpse of a deeper, more heart-centred, and universal spiritual reality. In my opinion everyone should read this book, not just researchers, theologians, and philosophers but also the ordinary person in society. As society becomes more and more degraded, the planet more and more polluted, and the natural world destroyed, the truth of what the great mystic Krishnamurthy said, 'It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society,' will become ever more apparent. Increasingly I find more and more people are asking at a deeper level 'why am I here? 'What is this life about? What is it all for'? The sane answer to many of these questions is to be found in this book.

Ivor Browne

Part memoir, part manifesto, Sacred Knowledge charts the birth, death, and resurrection of psychedelic research. . . . The conclusion to be drawn from this book is that it’s time—in a safe setting and with careful guidance—that we started taking our miracles in tablet form.

Independent - Charles Gilmour

An inspiring testament to half a century of scientific research and personal exploration into the responsible, beneficial use of psychedelic substances. William A. Richards's work is visionary, personal, and transpersonal, instilled with kindness, deep humanity, and quiet wisdom.

Don Lattin