Salvia Divinorum Scotland - Science and Religion

<body stylesrc="../technical/backgroundformywords.htm" background="../technical/leafwords.jpg" bgcolor="#C0C0C0" text="#003300" link="#0000FF" vlink="#000080" alink="#800080"> <p align="center"><font size="5" color="#008000">Salvia Divinorum Scotland ~ Science and Religion</font> <hr> <p><strong><font size="4"> - Introduction</font></strong></p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Science</strong></p> <p>I often receive comments about Salvia experiences of the nature, "It seemed so real, it's not what I was expecting".  And also, "Why isn't there more scientific interest in these plants?"</p> <p>This web-site focuses on experience.  I am cautious about too much theory making, but there is a serious point to be argued about the<i> reality</i> of what goes on in Salvia-space. </p> <p>Psychedelic experiences generally are often dismissed as hallucination.  Plant-people <i>know</i> that this is not so, but the dismissals often come from people who might be mistaken for experts, people who should know better.</p> <p>It may simply be the case that science is not up to the job, but my feeling is that the 'scientific community' is generally letting us down in this area. </p> <p>Terence McKenna described shamanism as an 'experiential<i> science'</i>.  The understanding that power-plants do in fact reveal an aspect of<i> reality</i> is the primary rational behind this section.</p> <p><b>Religion</b></p> <p>Religion makes interpretive claims about reality too, though based on faith.  On the surface science and religion seem at odds with each other.  But in practice, when reality is separated out in to Mind and Body, split into Spirit and Matter, with religion taking care of one and science the other, it's seen that the two 'belief systems' can actually perpetuate one another.</p> <p>This is a sweeping statement I know.  There are areas of science with profound implications beyond the 'material world' ( - though strangely some of these areas are not where you might expect them to be, for example, I'd argue that psychology is lagging way behind quantum physics).  </p> <p>As far as religion goes, well, some are worse than others.  At least some of the eastern spiritual traditions have some notion of the importance of experiencing things for oneself, rather than the emphasis on the 'priest' to interpret and pass on the word of god down to you.  In any case, across the board there seems to a general prejudice against using plants.  This prejudice will be challenged in this section.  I'll argue how the plant experience is totally valid and totally authentic and may even be at the root of all religious experience, one way or another.</p> <p>At the end of the day though, you don't need to take my (nor anybody else's) word for it.  Critically, the plant realm does not require <i>faith</i>.  I'll end here with another quote from Terence McKenna,</p> <p>"I am spiritual only to the degree that I have been forced to be by experience. I came into it a reductionist, a rationalist, a materialist, an empiricist - and I say no reductionist, no empiricist could experience what I have experienced without having to seriously retool their philosophy." <a href="../quotes/mckenna/prejudice.html" target="_blank">[...<font face="Arial" size="2"><sup>></sup></font>]</a></p> </blockquote> <hr> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="17%"> <p align="left"><a href="../scienceandreligion.html"><Back</a></td> <td width="21%"> <p align="center"><a href="../menu2.html">Menu 2</a></td> <td width="22%"> <p align="center"><a href="../home.html">Main Menu</a></td> <td width="21%"> <p align="center"><a href="../salvia.html">Salvia Menu</a></td> <td width="18%"> <p align="right"><a href="../contact.html">Contact</a></td> </tr> </table> </body>