Aldous Huxley believed that if we look across the world's mystical traditions, we find not only differences of experience but also similarities, including the shared experience of what he called the "unitive knowledge." This is the experience of feeling that one has somehow merged with the Sacred or become one with God or the universe, and Huxley believed the experience is the "highest common factor" of all mystical experience, affording insights into the nature of reality that have definite value for everyday living.

Huxley's enthusiasm for this cross-cultural insight, which occasions a sense that one has an aspect of their being which transcends their individuality, was shared by his friend and student Huston Smith, the renowned scholar of world religions. This enthusiasm was also shared by Alan Watts, Ram Dass, Frances Vaughan, and others, and today it's the primary position of Andrew Harvey, MIrabai Starr, Deepak Chopra, Stanislav Grof, Richard Rohr, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, and many other advocates of the unitive mystical experience.

Known as the Perennial Philosophy, what does Huxley’s insight have to offer spiritual seekers today?

What is the proposed value of having this mystical experience of oneness?

What methods have people used over time to achieve this state?

Is it possible, as all these authors have maintained, to have the unitive mystical experience while under the influence of psychedelic drugs?

What is the history of psychedelic drug use by students and teachers of the Perennial Philosophy?

What questions of spiritual preparation and readiness should we consider in light of the current wave of psychedelic use in psychological, medical and recreational applications?

In this workshop, these and other questions will be answered in the context of lectures, videos, and group discussions.

Biography

Dana Sawyer

Dana Sawyer is professor emeritus of philosophy and world religions at the Maine College of Art & Design and author of biographies of both Aldous Huxley and Huston Smith. His primary expertise is in Hinduism and Buddhism but for more than twenty years, his work has focused on comparative mysticism, theories of the “perennial philosophy,” and the value of psychedelic experiences in the study of mysticism. Most recently, he has published an assessment of Aldous Huxley’s theory of psychedelic mysticism for the Centre of Aldous Huxley Studies (2019) and an essay in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2021) on four common errors in scholarly critiques of the perennial philosophy, including assessments of how psychedelic studies may help clarify such issues. His most recent book is an analysis of the Transcendental Meditation Movement for Cambridge University Press (2023).