In his bulky tribute to David Lewis-Williams’ account of the origins of religion and art, Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind,[1] Graham Hancock puts a bit too much emphasis for my taste on hallucinogenic drugs as main vehicles leading to trance. But, on some reflection, he may have a point. Although there are many reliable ways of achieving trance, drugs offer the easiest one by far. It is thus possible that the explosion of religion and art in the Upper Paleolithic had to do with widespread use of drugs. Which reminds me of Carlos Castaneda’s account of his induction into shamanism in Northern Mexico. Don Juan, his learned guide, considered him a bit of a dunce, as he was from California, and thus he gave him quite a bit more of the peyote than he thought necessary for his local pupils. The best needed none at all. And here we have the very first appearance of mass culture.

Footnote

1. London: Arrow Books, 2006 (first published in 2005).