Technologies of Transcendence
Oxford Scholarship Online May 24, 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190459116.003.0002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that drugs can be understood as "technologies of transcendence" that subvert dominant readings of reality and are therefore always countercultural, often providing access to gnosis and mystical experiences of oneness that lead to a form of perennialism. Drawing on Foucault, William James, and Mircea Eliade's account of shamanism as "techniques of ecstasy," the chapter proposes that drugs are often understood as inducing ekstasis, a displacement from the embodied self. |
Abstract
This chapter introduces the book’s core ideas and some of the principal issues raised. Beginning with a discussion of Michel Foucault’s understanding of “technologies of the self,” it explores how drugs might be understood as “technologies of transcendence”—technologies that have the power to subvert dominant readings of reality. As such, they are always countercultural. By inducing the transcendence of ordinary consciousness, they are often understood to provide access to gnosis, or a special form of knowledge. They also typically induce mystical experiences of oneness that lead to a form of perennialism. In order to understand these mystical experiences, the chapter makes use of William James’s analysis of mysticism. Also, drawing on Mircea Eliade’s understanding of shamanism as “techniques of ecstasy,” it shows that drugs are often understood as technologies that induce ekstasis, meaning “to be located outside,” to “transcend,” or to be “displaced from” the embodied self.