Psychoactive and Supernatural Influences on Cultural Consciousness
From ancient opium-infused rituals to visionary literature and world-changing technology
This is an excerpt from Sky Gods and the Recipe for Immortality: The secret influence of psychoactivity over science, society, and the supernatural.
Whether objectively real or not, supernatural and psychoactive ideas have profoundly shaped humanity. Among the countless different psychoactive substances used across history in key cultural settings — opium is one of the oldest and most impactful.
From the roots of ancient spirituality, democracy, and reason via the Eleusinian rituals to Neolithic burial sites — opium has influenced both prehistory and popular culture today. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Lucy, one of the main characters is haunted by the vampire while under the influence:
“I was not so sleepy as I should have been, so before they went I asked Dr. Seward to give me a little opiate of some kind, as I had not slept well the night before.… I have taken it, and am waiting for sleep, which still keeps aloof. I hope I have not done wrong, for as sleep begins to flirt with me, a new fear comes: that I may have been foolish in thus depriving myself of the power of waking. I might want it. Here comes sleep…
