What Were Religious Writers Smoking?

Not really. A lot of wise people have always had this perspective. It is as old as the bible itself.

The more people are distanced from religion and just out to convict it the more they focus on literal interpretations.... can be said as well

 

The lack of understanding and acceptance how a loving creator could make a universe where everything dies sooner or later is also age old. Doesn't mean God is inevitably evil, crazy or non existant. It mainly indicates a lot of people have trouble with a finite existence and that this universe works with giving AND taking energy.

 

It seems to me you been having trouble with that keyboard lately ....

 

And who is more accepting of their finite existence; an atheist, or someone who believes in Abrahamic God nonsense?

 

Probably cannabis, mushrooms, cacti and the like...

Perhaps without the cultural desenzitation to drugs and lights, something like blue lotus may have been appreciated beyond a mild intoxicant.

 

I wonder if any of them ended up with emphysema?

 

How can you be so sure ones existance is finite and ends with the death of the body?

 

There are some sects in Hinduism which use drugs, but they use it judiciously and properly to access higher states of consciousness.

But this is not the general rule, as drugs are considered as an intoxicant which can prevent proper meditation , and disturb mental equanimity.

It is through meditation that most ancient Indian sages attained superconscious wisdom and intuitive knowledge.

 

LOL, while hemp oil (as in the oil from the pressed seeds, not "hash oil") was a constituent of the anointing oil, it wasn't made to get the priests stoned.

what about spontaneous ecstatic/spiritual/religious states?
human awareness/consciousness spans a wide spectrum of discrete subjective states, so why must people always negate or try to explain away experiences if they have not personally experienced them?

 

As I said, it is not a general rule.

The use of drugs actually prevents meditation. It is an artificial means to attain higher states of consciousness. And anything artificial or external creates a dependency.

The enlightened master Meher Baba stated that " Enlightenment is not found in a pill. "

No user of drugs ever in the history of the world has attained the bliss and joy found in enlightenment, solely through the use of drugs.

And there is no pleasure found in drugs that can match the bliss of enlightenment, which is permanent and never wears off.

 

Let's also add old European pagans who probably used plants like Henbane and Belladonna.

 

Drugs can give a hint of what lies at the essence of things, and it is important in that regard so that one is not caught in the merely superficial aspects of reality.

But the actual groundwork in attaining that state permanently is done solely through meditation .