Spirituality Studies 10-1 Spring 2024 57 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos without having experienced psychedelics himself or herself” (Eisner 1997, 215). The presence of the therapist in all forms of sacred psychology is invariably more important than the words spoken or even the actions taken. From Lao Tzu (sixth century) we hear: “He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know” (Lao Tzu 2017, 63). Becoming attuned to this posture requires us to embrace the Taoist attitude of “non-action” (Zh. wu wei), which is not idleness but the supreme activity because the person is then fully present and detached from all outward commotion wherein there are no oppositions. This awareness makes possible an entirely different reality, as Shunryū Suzuki (1904–1971) points out: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few” (Shunryū Suzuki 1995, 21). True non-directive forms of therapy make more sense when understood from this traditional perspective. Embracing true silence and equanimity in the “eternal now” is the most effective way to consummate the healing process. The following observation by Sengcan (d. 606), the Third Patriarch of Zen, is also useful here: “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent, everything becomes clear and undisguised” (Sengcan 1983, unpaginated). Although the traditional healer may not appear to be “doing” anything when conducting a healing ritual, their immersion into the spiritual world – while abiding in a posture of ceaseless prayer – provides great protection for the person being treated. We are told that “healers have a metaphysical system available to them and protective supernatural entities… beliefs which they share to one degree or another with their clients” (Dobkin de Rios 1992, 25). What secular psychotherapy cannot provide, by way of real safety and recovery, is something that a traditional shaman alone can offer an ailing patient; namely, “protection from… evil” (Dobkin de Rios 1992, 58). Now that we have explored the uses of sacred psychology, how does this differ from modernist approaches? The role of the secular psychotherapist has been described as follows: “The task of the sitters is to give support and protection to the subjects, take care of their various psychological and physiological needs, facilitate the full unfolding of the experience, and deal with various forms of resistance as they occur during the session” (Grof 1980, 150). What is overlooked here – other than the complete exclusion of spiritual considerations from this therapy – is that treatment from a secular perspective itself implies an unacknowledged metaphysical worldview. With that said, it is not possible to provide true healing without taking into account the triad of Spirit, soul, and body that comprises a complete human being. Treatment on any other basis can only fall short of achieving its objective. The metaphysical and ontological roots of sacred psychology not only ensure the efficacy of its practice, but also provide protection for both the healer and patient. “While many therapists and physicians in industrialized society suffer a burnout syndrome,” the energies of traditional shamans “are not drained by the onslaught of patients” (Dobkin de Rios 1992, 94) because their healing strength draws from a wellspring greater than themselves. Early pioneers within the psychedelic movement found that entheogens permit “you to see more clearly than our perishing mortal eye can see” (Wasson 1974, 197). For this reason, they often referred to the English poet William Blake (1757–1827), who famously spoke of the “cleansed doors of perception” [9]. What is often missing from this outlook is that, unless we ourselves have first become pure, our spiritual vision will remain obstructed. As Eckhart (1986, 311) says: “However small a thing it is which sticks to the soul, we shall not see God”. To overcome these impediments, the discipline of psychology needs to recover the “eye of the heart” (or the transpersonal Intellect) (Bendeck Sotillos 2022d, 29–45). The practice of sacred psychology requires that thought, being, and reality be brought together in a unified mode of knowing: “Knower, Known, and Knowledge are truly one only” (Guénon 2001, 92). Medieval epistemology defined knowledge as “adaequatio rei et intellectus – the understanding of the knower must be adequate to the thing to be known” (quoted in Schumacher 1977, 39). Parmenides (515–445) emphasized something similar: “To be and to know are one and the same” (Parmenides quoted in Coomaraswamy 1989, 35). This is to say that, in the premodern world, there were degrees of knowledge – with their corresponding levels of reality – by which one could realize the Supreme Identity. According to this understanding, a distinction is always made between relative orders of reality and the Absolute. 12 The Meaning of Integration Entheogenic researchers and practitioners have emphasized the importance of integration but, until recently, little direction has been provided on how to achieve this. A succinct account of what is meant by integration is “a process
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