Why do some people have a problem with other people attaining altered states of consciousness?

[renate]

20. to be honest, the reason I've never used drugs and never wanted to is fear

Last edited Wed Feb 22, 2012, 04:03 PM - Edit history (1)

Not because of the horror stories we were told in school, but fear that I would become discontented with the unaltered state of consciousness I would still have to be in most of the time. If you've looked into the face of God, say, after taking psychedelics, wouldn't normal life seem a bit dim? And I'm actually very content with normal life and normal consciousness right now, and feel very happy most of the time without having to do anything illegal or pay for drugs or even leave my couch, so I wouldn't want to risk losing that sense of enchantment.

I certainly don't care what other people do, as long as it's safe for them and others (e.g., no overdosing, please, and no driving under the influence). Well, I wouldn't want my kids to take drugs for the reasons I don't take them myself, plus they're illegal and I don't want my kids to get busted or get into financial trouble paying for drugs, and I wouldn't want them to get addicted to the addictive ones and just sit around all day getting high because of everything else they'd miss out on, but I don't have a moral objection.

Edited to add that, coincidentally, I just found this article at time.com:
http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/16/magic-mushrooms-can-improve-psychological-health-long-term/?iid=hl-article-mostpop1
about an experiment in which subjects had five sessions using an optimal dosage and said that the experiment was one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives, apparently because of the sense of oneness that they felt. So that's interesting, that it only took a limited number of exposures and they didn't have to be continued to be meaningful.