‘A critique of culture’: Alan Watts, psychedelic Buddhism, and religious play in postwar America
M. Shipley
Self & Society October 2, 2017 DOI: 10.1080/03060497.2017.1356085 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | Argues that psychedelics, through Alan Watts' engagement with Buddhism, offer a means to bypass postwar society's alienating mechanisms by uncovering expressions of mutuality and interconnection. |
Abstract
Heralded as a time of economic prosperity, the post-World War II period in America also experienced extraordinary religious awakenings of born-again evangelicalism, Prosperity Gospels, and an apocalyptic flare rendered palpable by atomic bombs and the Cold War. Postwar Christianity found itself reinforcing neoliberalism, sanctifying standardizations accompanying technological routinization, economic progress, and consumption-based lifestyles, resulting in alienating crises of spirit and culture. Amidst uncertainty and conformity, psychedelics offered sacramental means for bypassing postwar society’s mechanisms by uncovering expressions of mutuality and compassion. Outlined within Alan Watts’ work, psychedelics unveiled Buddhist wisdom, detailing existence not as a function of difference, but as an expression of absolute interconnection. Neither doctrinaire nor authoritarian, Watts’ psychedelic engagement with Buddhism invites us to investigate beyond differences, toward moments in which the subjective self becomes an unselfish expression of the absolute ‘other’.
Comparable studies
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| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |