In every age, men have struggled to perceive God directly rather than as a tenuously grasped abstraction. Few succeed, and the visions of the world's rare mystics have normally come only after hard spiritual workprayer, meditation, ascetic practice. Now a number of psychologists and theologians are exploring such hallucinogenic drugs as mescaline, psilocybin and LSD-25 as an easy way to instant mysticism.
In large enough doses, these drugs can simulate the effects of certain forms of psychosisto the point, in some cases, of permanent derangement. But in controlled, minute doses the drugs...