Dear Clarke, David, Rasheed, "The Bard" & all,
Clarke wrote 22/6 13:03 -0400:
"Pirsig indicated that the peyote was a 'shortcut' to enlightenment, necessary because of the infringement of Western society."
In ch. 3 (p. 38&39 Bantam edition) of Lila Pirsig writes:
"In the tray of slips, just back of the ones on Dusenberry, was a section of slips on how the Indians had quietly brought peyote up from Mexico in the late nineteenth century, eating it to induce an altered mental state that they considered a form of religious communion. Dusenberry had indicated that Indians who used it regarded it as a quicker and surer way of arriving at the condition reached in the traditional "vision quest" where an Indian goes out into isolation and fasts and prays and meditates for days in the darkness of a sealed lodge until the Great Spirit reveals itself to him and takes over his life."
And in ch. 5 (p. 72):
"The Native American church argues that peyote can force-feed a mystic understanding upon those who were normally resistant to it, an understanding that Indians had been deriving through Vision Quests in the past."
So: "a shortcut to enlightenment", yes, but "necessary because of the infringement of Western society" seems to me to be a conclusion of your own.
I agree with "The Bard" and Rasheed 22/6 06:16 -0400:
"Drug use ... seems ... like ... DQ with no static latch"
David wrote 14/6 23:55 +1200
"The concept of studying the MoQ and nothing pertaining to its implications in the environment is rather static quality, almost absurd as Pirsig explained it can't ever be completely understood."
Analogous to that, I think that experiencing DQ may be fun for the drug user, but is not relevant for the world at large. It can't latch onto a (new) static pattern of value, because it is forced on the user without any context of social and intellectual patterns that get the credit for the fun and can be induced to migrate (to partly break up and change for the better). Use of peyote in the Native American church is a different thing, for it has such a context of social and intellectual patterns.
Why use drugs? If what I experience is real and if it is possible to experience it also in more culturally acceptable ways (even if they are more difficult), these other ways are better, because they enable me to convince others (and myself) that my experience is veracious and worthy of application.
Needless to add that I never used drugs (and never enough alcohol to really change my perception) and don't intend to do so.
With friendly greetings,
Wim Nusselder
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