A Philosophical Review of 'The Varieties of Religious Experience'
How William James failed to connect the dots
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
April 23, 2025
n "The Varieties of Religious Experience,1" William James describes ecstatic and inspirational states of mind that have apparently come to human beings "naturally," as it were, out of thin air, or else been vouchsafed to an individual thanks to their quixotic personality, as in the case of Walt Whitman. James's book is full of descriptions of these seemingly "soberly accessed" states, which he classifies to various degrees as religious in nature. It is not until the end of his book that he nods his hat to the existence of substance-induced visions that are indistinguishable from these "natural" ones, judging by the written accounts of those who have experienced them. Even this last-minute acknowledgment of substance-inspired visions seems to have come about by chance, thanks to James's last-minute reading of a self-published pamphlet by philosopher Benjamin Paul Blood entitled "The Anaesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy.2" And so the idea of substance-inspired visions enters James's work by the back door, so to speak, and at the last minute. This is unfortunate because James did not seem to have had the time to connect the dots between Blood's work and a whole new area of investigation largely ignored in James's book: namely, the power of substances OF ALL KINDS to inspire visions and to teach seeming truths, in an experiential rather than didactic manner.
As technically defined by Benjamin Blood, the anesthetic revelation refers to but one part of a substance-inspired experience: the firm conviction that one is being given an experiential glimpse of some existential verity. As Blood wrote:
"Its inevitableness defeats all attempts at stopping or accounting for it. It is all precedence and presupposition, and questioning is in regard to it forever too late."
James seemed unaware of the fact that psychoactive substance use in general could bring about these same kinds of experiential convictions, although he seems to have been on the verge of grasping that truth when he wrote the following:
"When enjoying plenary freedom either in the way of motion or of thought, we are in a sort of anaesthetic state in which we might say with Walt Whitman, if we cared to say anything about ourselves at such times, 'I am sufficient as I am.'3"
What James did not realize was that a wide variety of substances -- especially psychedelics and phenethylamines - can provide that self-same conviction, that anesthetic substances such as laughing gas hold no monopoly when it comes to providing the user with seemingly ineluctable perspectives on life and the ultimate meaning thereof. Consider the following reports of the use of phenethylamines in "Pihkal" by chemist Alexander Shulgin:
"Intense intellectual stimulation, one that inspired the scribbling of some 14 pages of handwritten notes."
"The afterglow was benign and rich in empathy for everything."
"I feel that it is one of the most profound and deep learning experiences I have had." 4
The implication is there for the taking: namely, that we can ALL be Walt Whitman for a day (or St. Teresa or Meister Eckhart) with the strategic use of psychoactive substances -- or at least we all have that potential as mere "normal" human beings. A variety of personal psychological factors will, of course, play a role in deciding the extent to which we can fulfill that potential as a practical matter, such as our intelligence, education level and personality. Yet we can all transcend what modern researchers call our "default mode network" and so experience the world more deeply and with conviction as to ultimate purposes. That is the crucial epiphany that was dangling in front of the great psychologist's face, but which he failed to grasp. One can only explain this oversight on his part by supposing that puritanical America was already in the habit of ignoring the glaringly obvious benefits of psychoactive substances long before the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914. Otherwise James would have known that even opiates, which were still legal in James's time, can provide the "normal" user with the sorts of remarkable transcendental experiences that we assume are only visited on historical exceptions, and then only when they are in an imagined "sober" state, one in which they are supposedly unaffected, psychologically speaking, by any substances whatsoever. Consider the following lines from Edgar Allan Poe about the experience of an opiate-using protagonist in "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains."
"In the meantime the morphine had its customary effect- that of enduing all the external world with an intensity of interest. In the quivering of a leaf- in the hue of a blade of grass- in the shape of a trefoil- in the humming of a bee- in the gleaming of a dew-drop- in the breathing of the wind- in the faint odors that came from the forest- there came a whole universe of suggestion- a gay and motley train of rhapsodical and immethodical thought.5"
Once again, the implication is clear: substance-use (beyond that of anaesthetics alone) can inspire a wide range of inspirational and ecstatic states that are indistinguishable from those reported by presumably "sober" individuals during their experience of purported religious epiphanies, from which it follows that a thorough discussion of "drug use" is crucial to any study of religious states. This is the glaring omission in James' book - one which he no doubt would have remedied himself had he lived long enough to connect the dots of the various facts that he himself had adduced. James got halfway there by realizing that the use of anesthetics, and especially laughing gas, could inspire a kind of religious state. What he failed to realize was that anesthetics are just one kind of substance that can accomplish that feat. This is less excusable than the reader might think, however, given the fact that James fails to even mention the apparently inconvenient truth that the Hindu religion owes its very existence to the use of a drug that inspired and elated. Any purportedly comprehensive book on the religious experience that ignores that fact is surely biased, whether consciously or not, in favor of the passion-scorning materialist mindset of the west.
The failure of William James to connect the dots has helped modern Drug Warriors to get away with demonizing psychoactive substances indiscriminately and without regard to context, resulting in the effective outlawing of the religious impulse itself. The success of this demonization campaign against inspirational substances has been so thorough that even James's alma mater, Harvard University, fails to mention the anaesthetic revelation in their online biography of the man, never mind the obvious profound implications that James's work has for religious liberty. The prime imperative of academia today is to deny all positive uses for psychoactive medicines, and everything -- including James's legacy and civil liberties -- must come in a distant second place. Indeed, the idea that drugs have positives uses is the ultimate "damned" fact of our time, in the Fortean sense of that word67. It is a fact that Americans are determined to ignore, even if they have to rewrite history and dishonor legacies in order to do so.
In the Atomic Age Declassified, they tell us that we needed hundreds of thermonuclear tests so that scientists could understand the effects. That's science gone mad. Just like today's scientists who need more tests before they can say that laughing gas will help the depressed.
Science today is all about ignoring the obvious.
And THAT's why scientists are drug war collaborators, because they're not about to sign off on the use of substances until they've studied them "up the wazoo."
Using grants from an agency whose very name indicates their anti-drug bias: namely, the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
"When two men who have been in an aggressive mood toward each other take part in the ritual, one is able to say to the other, 'Come, let us drink, for there is something between us.' " re: the Mayan use of the balche drink in Encyc of Psych Plants, by Ratsch & Hofmann
Science knows nothing of the human spirit and of the hopes and dreams of humankind. Science cannot tell us whether a given drug risk is worthwhile given the human need for creativity and passion in their life. Science has no expertise in making such philosophical judgements.
The problem with blaming things on addiction genes is that it whitewashes the role of society and its laws. It's easy to imagine an enlightened country wherein drug availability, education and attitudes make addiction highly unlikely, addiction genes or no addiction genes.
In the board game "Sky Team," you collect "coffees" to improve your flying skills. Funny how the use of any other brain-focusing "drug" in real life is considered to be an obvious sign of impairment.
The "acceptable risk" for psychoactive drugs can only be decided by the user, based on what they prioritize in life. Science just assumes that all users should want to live forever, self-fulfilled or not.
Doc to Franklin: "I'm sorry, Ben, but I see no benefits of opium use under my microscope. The idea that you are living a fulfilled life is clearly a mistake on your part. If you want to be scientific, stop using opium and be scientifically depressed like the rest of us."
Oregon's drug policy is incoherent and cruel. The rich and healthy spend $4,000 a week on psilocybin. The poor and chemically dependent are thrown in jail, unless they're on SSRIs, in which case they're congratulated for "taking their meds."
David Chalmers says almost everything in the world can be reductively explained. Maybe so. But science's mistake is to think that everything can therefore be reductively UNDERSTOOD. That kind of thinking blinds researchers to the positive effects of laughing gas and MDMA, etc.
Prohibition turned habituation into addiction by creating a wide variety of problems for users, including potential arrest, tainted or absent drug supply, and extreme stigmatization.
Buy the Drug War Comic Book by the Drug War Philosopher Brian Quass, featuring 150 hilarious op-ed pics about America's disgraceful war on Americans
You have been reading an article entitled, A Philosophical Review of 'The Varieties of Religious Experience': How William James failed to connect the dots, published on April 23, 2025 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
n "The Varieties of Religious Experience,1" William James describes ecstatic and inspirational states of mind that have apparently come to human beings "naturally," as it were, out of thin air, or else been vouchsafed to an individual thanks to their quixotic personality, as in the case of Walt Whitman. James's book is full of descriptions of these seemingly "soberly accessed" states, which he classifies to various degrees as religious in nature. It is not until the end of his book that he nods his hat to the existence of substance-induced visions that are indistinguishable from these "natural" ones, judging by the written accounts of those who have experienced them. Even this last-minute acknowledgment of substance-inspired visions seems to have come about by chance, thanks to James's last-minute reading of a self-published pamphlet by philosopher Benjamin Paul Blood entitled "The Anaesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy.2" And so the idea of substance-inspired visions enters James's work by the back door, so to speak, and at the last minute. This is unfortunate because James did not seem to have had the time to connect the dots between Blood's work and a whole new area of investigation largely ignored in James's book: namely, the power of substances OF ALL KINDS to inspire visions and to teach seeming truths, in an experiential rather than didactic manner.
You have been reading an article entitled, A Philosophical Review of 'The Varieties of Religious Experience': How William James failed to connect the dots, published on April 23, 2025 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
