Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments:
An Entheogen Chrestomathy
Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. and Paula Jo Hruby, Ed.D.
Author Index | Title Index
The Anaesthetic Revelation and The Gist of Philosophy.
Blood, Benjamin Paul. (1874).
Amsterdam, NY: No publisher.
ISBN: None
Description: Rebound
pamphlet, 37 pages.
Contents: 1 essay.
Excerpt(s): By the Anesthetic
Revelation I mean a certain survived condition, (or uncondition,)
in which is the satisfaction of philosophy by an appreciation
of the genius of being, which appreciation cannot be brought out
of that condition into the normal sanity of sense-cannot be formally
remembered, but remains informal, forgotten until we return to
it.
"As here we find in trances, men
Forget the dream that happens then,
Until they fall in trance again."
Of this condition, although it may have been attained
otherwise, I know only by the use of anesthetic agents. After
experiments ranging over nearly fourteen years I affirm-what any
man may prove at will-that there is an invariable and reliable
condition (or uncondition) ensuing about the instant of recall
from anesthetic stupor to sensible observation, or "coming
to," in which the genius of being is revealed ... but I think
most persons who shall have tested it will accept this as the
central point of the illumination: That sanity [normal, waking
consciousness?] is not the basic quality of intelligence, but
is a mere condition which is variable, and like the humming of
a wheel, goes up or down the musical gamut according to a physical
activity; and that only in sanity is formal or contrasting thought,
while the naked life is realized only outside of sanity altogether;
and it is the instant contrast of this "tasteless water of
souls" with formal thought as we "come to," that
leaves in the patient an astonishment that the
awful mystery of Life is at last but a homely and common thing,
and that aside from mere formality the majestic and the absurd
are of equal dignity. (pages 33-34)
... Nor can it be long until all who enter the anesthetic
condition (and there are hundreds every secular day) will be taught
to expect this revelation, and will date from its experience their
initiation into the Secret of Life.
Men and brethren, into this pervading genius we
pass, forgetting and forgotten, and thenceforth each is all, in
God. There is no higher, no deeper, no other, than the life in
which we are founded.
"The One remains, the many change and pass;"
and each and every one of us is the One that remains-Listen,
then, to the charming of the Prince of Peace, who takes away the
sin of the world, and say, each for himself, "My Father and
I are one." (page 35)
... remember only how many inspired times it is
spoken and written: I AM-that God whom faltering spirits
seek in far-off courts of heaven, while behold! the
kingdom of God is neither "lo! here" nor "lo! there"
but within you; it is the Soul. (page 36)
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