Dreams, drugs, madness, poetry, and the underworld

Abstract

The natural sciences have been reluctant to base findings upon certain types of experiences, which, for present purposes, we might call altered consciousness. At the very least, the following four experiences resemble one another, namely dreams, hallucinogens, delusions, and poetry. At their root, these so-called irruptions raise doubts about the reliability of what people perceive under their influence. Nevertheless, the natural sciences have tried to understand these experiences, with uneven success. Strangely, there is a literature connecting each of these experiences with the practice of leadership. The chapter ends by raising the possibility that leadership accesses reality in different ways, suggesting the interpenetration of planes of existence beyond the capacity of the natural sciences to observe and measure.