Psychedelics, Rod Dreher, Malachi Martin, Harry Potter – immortality?

So, Rod Dreher has a forthcoming book on enchantment, and from what I understand, he’s also going to be going into dark/false enchantment a little bit. As part of this, on his Substack, he’s been discussing subjects such as UFO phenomena, artificial intelligence, and psychedelics as examples of modern false enchantments. On the surface, none of these things necessarily scream “conduit to demons”, but as one gets further down into all three of these, there’s a really unsettling amount of really weird, religious type stuff that seems to attach itself to all of it. 

The funny thing is, I’m just about done with Malachi Martin’s book, Hostage to the Devil. About two-thirds of the way through, instead of being shocked and horrified, I got hit with a very depressive sense surrounding the book, kind of a profound sadness connected to how easy it seems to be for evil spirits to capture people sometimes, especially when they are self-assured to the point of being prideful. It seems like we still fall for the very old promise that if we eat from the fruit, we shall be as gods… 

The last case that Martin writes about is about a professor who, as a child, realized that he had some psychic ability. He was so taken by this that his whole life became dedicated to the study of parapsychology, eventually becoming a professor in that field. It is in that capacity that he meets a Roman Catholic priest who takes a couple of his classes. Little does he know, but the priest, too, has some innate psychic ability. 

However, the difference between the two of them is that the professor is chasing the experience of his psychic abilities, never questioning whether what he experiences is the truth or not, whereas the priest is much more cognizant that the ability and the experience are not the same thing, and even in the unseen realm (and probably especially so), every spirit must be tested. 

I am an ardent believer in the realms of the unseen. Heck, I miss enough of what actually is visible, it’s really no stretch of the imagination that there are lots of things out there that most people will never have the slightest knowledge of, nor is it important to the fabric of their lives. I am fascinated, though, of the stories of holy people – particularly monks – who seem to be able to see things on a different plane – people’s thoughts or infirmities, communicating with people at long distances, even bilocation and the occasional remote rescue. The thing in common here, though, is that when, say, a Christian monk enters that realm, it’s through years of aesthetic practice and discipline. It is not the experience that is sought out.

Psychedelics, for one, offer the user a shortcut, or “hack”, to the experience. Sure, the user may experience something of that other plane, but they totally lack what they need to comprehend it or to armor themselves against the evil spirits who are looking for easy prey. 

Furthermore, by assuming that the experience is just a chemical reaction in the brain, it makes it seem as though religion as we know it can be explained and controlled through chemical and/or technological means. Those with the expertise to do this – whether they be modules of “artificial intelligence” or “aliens” – they become the gods who are worshipped and charged to rule the masses. 

Mind you, a lot of this emergent technological development, while not new in conception, has a lot more “mainstream” support. And of course, one of the goals of it all is the eternal desire of many to live forever. 

The combination of all these things got me thinking of Harry Potter. Well, Harry Potter and every story where the hero goes through all sorts of trial and tribulation to possess something that others desire for power, without desiring that power for one’s self. In Harry Potter, the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in some editions) is like this; it is highly desired for its granting of immortality to the one who possesses it. For this reason, Voldemort is willing to kill for it, regardless of the fact that even if he would acquire immortality, it would be a cursed existence due to the evil that Voldemort undertook in order to gain that immortality. In some sense, I’d say, Voldemort was looking to “hack” his way into immortality. 

The flip side to this is when Harry seems to enter a realm between life and death, and this is where he meets Dumbledore again, even though Dumbledore has been dead for a year by this time. At one point, Harry questions Dumbledore about whether this is all real or in his head. Dumbledore responds by assuring him that yes, this is happening in his head, then questioning why something “in one’s head” can’t simultaneously be real. It’s a very good question. But assuming that Dumbledore is real there – perhaps residing “beyond the veil” – he has achieved some sort of immortality, and it’s obviously a much more blessed state than Voldemort ever could dream of. 

In the same way, I think that if we do try to attain “higher consciousness” through the “hacks”, we will often end up very much in a cursed state like Voldemort, and we allow evil to work itself in. 

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