Spirituality Found in Religion vs. Plant-based Tools
*Reprint
by JORDAN LENABURG
It’s a widely known fact that most religions are the “One True Religion.” Just ask them. Almost any one of them will claim to have a monopoly on truth. When you ask them why, you begin to understand the secret these religions have, which causes them to be “true.” What’s that secret, you say? Their religion allows access to truly spiritual experiences. Any other religion that claims to provide access to spirituality is either lying or doesn’t understand what authentic spirituality is.
How can this be? How can so many people believe that their spirituality is the only access to truth in the universe?
To answer this question, let’s take a look at what spirituality is. Spirituality refers to the process by which humans are brought closer to the shape of a higher power (often referred to as God).
What “makes” a spiritual experience? A difficult question to answer, as most spiritual experiences are deeply personal. When a spiritual experience happens, it’s often difficult to describe exactly what happened. Throughout the history of religion, people have explained the changes in their lives due to something that happened to them during some form of religious activity. That could be a ceremony, prayer, or meditation. It could even be living everyday life, choosing to live by the tenants of the chosen religion, leading to a permanent change in attitude or behavior. The commonality, though, is that you are changed on the other side of a spiritual experience. This change is achieved because you felt connected to something larger than yourself.
For millennia, indigenous cultures have used entheogenic plants and animals to help achieve these spiritual experiences. There is evidence that many cultures of Ancient Mesoamerica used several different plants and animals for the purpose of spirituality. Likewise, Hinduism has a history of psychedelic usage going back 3500 years. It’s only very recently that religious institutions have claimed that plants are harmful, and therefore not a way to achieve a connection to a higher power. If you can gain a spiritual experience in any of these religions, then why not without them?
The answer is, of course, you can. A spiritual experience can happen from anywhere. I was raised in a strictly religious household. In my teenage years, I rebelled and left my religion. For many years after, I denied that any experience I’d had was spiritual, especially regarding religion. It wasn’t until I participated in an ayahuasca ceremony where I finally understood that religion and spirituality have nothing to do with one another. Religion can be a vehicle to achieve spirituality, but it’s not the only one.
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It only makes sense then to explore other options to achieving spirituality. Entheogenic substances are one of the best ways to have a spiritual experience. The cultures previously mentioned used them as a shortcut to wisdom and spirituality. The medicines were respected and honored as gifts from heaven because of the power they hold. Using a substance with reverence and respect can set the stage for a truly life-changing experience without religion.
Dipping into the scientific side of psychedelics for a moment, we can begin to see why this might be the case. While there isn’t a clear scientific explanation for why spiritual experiences happen, there is a lot of evidence for the parts which make up a spiritual experience. As children, the world is full of possibilities. We are malleable, impressionable. We explore the world as it’s so new to us. As we learn and grow, our neural pathways begin to form, and thought patterns emerge. Our entire lives become dictated by those neurons which grow into familiar paths. A spiritual experience, though, is something that changes you. It’s a new way of thinking, a new perspective. In short, it’s a new neural pathway that is being forged.
Psychedelics light up the brain like a Christmas tree. They affect our prefrontal cortex, where abstract thinking, thought analysis, mood, and perception come from. They allow new neural pathways to be formed, which can permanently alter our ways of thinking and perceptions of the universe. With this understanding, it makes sense why so many cultures throughout history have used psychedelics as a shortcut to achieving spirituality. While not every experience with psychedelics will be spiritual, it’s clear that psychedelics are one of the fastest as a vehicle for attaining spirituality.