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This work proves to be an adventure. In particular, it copiously details numerous substances that the US-born academic specializing in history and philosophy of science has taken. They include psychedelic fungi, lysergic acid, marijuana; quetiapine and Xanax to manage stress; antidepressants, fluoxetine, Lexapro and tricyclics; caffeine (“I've consumed espresso without interruption for over three decades”); and, at least for him, the always disappointing booze.

The Truly Mind-Bending Element

The truly astonishing aspect, though, lies not primarily in the philosopher’s accounts of his psychedelic episodes, rather that they are penned by a disciplined systematic scholar, one as familiar with AJ Ayer’s Foundations of Empirical Knowledge just as much as visionary mescaline-inspired consciousness studies. Additionally, he delivers them seeking to dissolving the minds of his academic colleagues and the rest of us arguing that psychedelics break down individual identity and make us part of universal awareness, thereby rendering liberation in the manner the 17th-century theorist Baruch Spinoza defined it (paraphrased by Smith-Ruiu through “a willing acceptance regarding how one’s own body operates amid the fixed cosmic structure”).

Melting the Western Paradigm

The melting analogy is appropriate, as the primal scene of early modern western philosophy came when the French philosopher philosopher Descartes heated a wax sample. The substance could alter its properties, odor, length, breadth, however, Descartes supposed, we assert with certainty that it remains the very entity. The observer might misperceive about all experiences related to the wax but not, Descartes argued, the fact that cognition exists: here lies the foundation of his celebrated “I think therefore I am” – whereby the French thinker established logical, empiricism-loving entities we are from then on.

The philosopher, provocatively, reverses the narrative on the Cartesian mental exploration: suppose that, instead of heating the substance, Descartes had “altered his perception” via psychedelics, or through entheogens starting to arrive across the continent from the Americas along with new crops and nicotine, including peyote or DMT brews? Imagine if instead of emphasized logic and instead praised the imaginative powers that the author proposes, are activated through substances? Western civilization could have become seeing the world completely differently, and individuals as “infinite reservoirs of insight and understanding”.

Challenging Traditional Philosophy

There’s more within the author’s substance journey, it could be argued, than is dreamt of in conventional philosophers’ philosophies. His approach seems kin to current contemporary, paradigm-shifting schools of thought as the new realism of theories, and the holistic views of frameworks and non-human-centric views. The German philosopher stated the divine is inherently behind an impenetrable veil, deducible maybe but not directly perceived. One cannot in this world, perceive the divine. According to the author, consciousness-expanders might help lift that veil. Due to this proposition merely I’m amazed – and inspired – that academia embraces this.

Sober Reflections

Important to note here that this is not similar to drug-fueled memoirs written while the author is intoxicated. The author is no Hunter S Thompson. Named On Drugs however it is not composed while high (excluding, probably, from some of the medications he describes previously and the odd caffeine jolt). “During composition, clear-headed, lucid, and completely focused on the project.”

A Surprising Turn

The book concludes with a fascinating turn of events (philosophical spoiler alert!). Not long ago, the philosopher participated in religious ceremony after many years since early adulthood at a local chapel next door to his Paris apartment. His claim in this section proposes that the psychedelic experience is analogous to that of religious ceremonies: everyday perception is interpreted as an illusion, and in worship one might perceive, like his during trips, a glimpse of timelessness. Another parallel concerns how an individual surrenders personal agency in ritual just as with a psychedelic trip. He writes: “Entheogens, akin to spirituality, comparably to creativity are among other things a letting go of the will to go it alone.” The philosopher shows awareness to acknowledge how ironic this may seem: that substances serve as his entrance to spirituality.

Accessible Transcendence

One need not to take psychedelics from any source in a shop (as Smith-Ruiu did) to melt your mind. The author references the initial section of In Search of Lost Time the classic text, as the young character vividly envisions that he transforms into {some of the things