Where are the philosophers of 'Now'?
“Nature is a haunted house, but art is a house that wants to be haunted.”—Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters, ed. T.H. Johnson
Faust with Mephistopheles by Mary Evans Picture Library
I often ask myself- Where are the philosophers of now? Of 21st-Century? I’m not talking about those who are merely interested in analysing the philosophers, psychoanalysts, poets, artists, etc. of yesterday i.e., from somewhere between the 14th Century to let’s say late 20th Century. Why are most ‘philosophers’ as they claim themselves to be interested in merely re-reading philosophers from the past and synthesizing their texts- and in doing so, claim to be the Sage. It actually makes me chuckle every time a ‘philosopher’ claims that one and only achievement of theirs is that of deciphering Marx, Hegel or Nietzsche etc. Rarely do I come across philosophers of now- and yes, they exist- that not only do the work of the ‘philosopher’ but also produce original works of their own and in doing so manifest as the Sage of the 21st Century.
Nonetheless.
Today, I will attempt to do the work of the ‘philosopher’ and deconstruct the dialogue I had shared with a Sage- as it is of importance. This is the first instalment of the same amongst another one which will come right after this one- perhaps in a day or two.
PSYCHEDELICS & THE SAGES OF YESTERDAY
(A) Psychedelics enhance the Metaphysics of Mind- What is this Metaphysics? It is one of the branches of philosophy that deals with the link between the essence of consciousness or existence with the dualism of mind and matter. In the Eleusian Mysteries of the Athenians, there exists the mention of a potion possibly made of Ergot that may (or may not) have been a part of their yearly festivities. From this ancient account of a mysterious potion, akin to the one mentioned in the Vedic texts of the East i.e., the ‘Soma’- one can already fathom that these deeply mystical practices most often than not for one had been the idealist recipient of the angelic psychedelic.
(B) Throughout history there were many philosophers, writers, poets, artists etc., who experimented with diverse and/or a plethora of psychoactive substances. Humphry Davy, a chemical philosopher, often experimented with Nitrous Oxide amongst various other substances. William James even claimed- something that really makes me chuckle- that he deciphered Hegel on a Nitrous Oxide ‘trip’- as one can say for sure that higher doses of Nitrous Oxide can induce psychedelic states. Then there was Walter Benjamin with his accounts ‘On Hashish’, Thomas de Quincey with his ‘Confessions of an English Opium-Eater’, Freud with his Cocaine affair (several of his accounts on the same were published as different papers by him in addition to Anna Freud’s notes on the same), etc., etc.,
There was also Jean-Paul Sartre with his long-term use of Amphetamines, and famous HPPD like ‘Crab/s hallucinations’ induced after a Mescaline Trip.
(C) And then, there was Nietzche. One would never indulge in a talk about and around Nietzche’s use of Narcotics given his repute. There could very well have been some effort put forward by his sister’s will to banish the verdict of his death as a Syphilis ‘ bacterial infection’ which furthermore plagued his ‘damaged’ brain- in order to push forward a death induced by an overdose of narcotics- a rationale detested by many. Little are the masses aware of his use of Opium, Pottasium Bromide, Chloral hydrate amongst others that he employed upon himself as a Doctor of Philology. Hence, in terms of inquiry into his descent into Madness in 1899 followed by his Death in 1900 has loads to consider as a favourable cause- it could have been the severity of his inherited diseases, his manic-depression or dementia praecox or his overuse of drugs.
(D) There was an infamous ‘Outside Project’ around the 1950s, a project put forward by Humphry Osmand who also coined the term ‘psychedelic’. He was a close friend of Aldous Huxley along with John Smithy in Europe devised this project to bring together the well-known Intellectuals worldwide of that era to indulge in a Mescaline experience and after doing so, report back their accounts of the same. This project never fruited due to the Ford Foundation pulling out their funding for the same at the very last moment. It’s honestly a shame that this project never happened, not only because it would have radically revolutionized psychedelic renaissance as we know it but also because we could have as a result, of course, gotten reports from Jung, Einstein amongst fifty to hundred other intellectuals of that era.
-Sanjana Singh/26.11.2021