Dr. Rick Strassman on the Prophetic State, the Hebrew Bible, and Psychedelics

One of the central lessons running through the text is the nature of the one God and the claim that this God exists. Alongside that sits the Golden Rule, which sets the terms for how a person deals with themselves and with everyone else. The prophetic state, by its nature, is verbal. It carries information, and that information spells out a relationship: either between the person and the godhead, or between the person and the world outside them.

Contrast that with the Buddhist orientation, which tends to be far more about the individual. The starting line is something like, 'I'm not happy, and I want to feel better.' The Hebrew Bible also wants good things for people (happiness, peace among nations, people reaching their full potential), but it sets out from a different place entirely. One path grows out of the bond between a person and their God. The other begins in distress, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, suffering. Boiled down, those are the two revealed truths the Hebrew Bible hands over: there is one God, and you should treat your fellow person the way you would want to be treated.

Erik asked whether both outlooks might have room to meet somewhere, as a way to close things out. Strassman answered that he wasn't asking anyone to throw out one in favor of the other, but the balance right now strikes him as badly off. Walk into a head shop, go to a concert, show up at Burning Man, and you will not hear a word about the prophetic state. The whole vocabulary is mandalas and incense, Buddhist statuary and mindfulness.

He pointed to something telling at Burning Man. The spot where people recover after a rough psychedelic experience is called the Zendo, a Zen meditation hall. Why not the temple, or the tent of meeting, or the tabernacle? His read is that it happens almost reflexively. When people reach for a spiritual frame around these drugs, the east is simply where the mind goes first.

His aim is to widen that conversation, to put other models on the table alongside the usual ones. He granted that the Bible carries a heavy emotional charge for a lot of people the moment they crack it open and sit with what's inside. Reactions like that come with being human, though, and there are ways to work past a gut rejection of something you haven't actually studied. Part of the trouble with the Hebrew Bible in particular is that it's dense and resists easy entry. Cracking it takes real effort.