I really do agree with your contention that the drug [LSD] attacks defense mechanisms built up carefully to conceal the truth of our direct sensory perceptions. One would a priori imagine, however, that a drug which forced us to see the world as it is would be welcomed. Why, then, is the entire “consciousness-expanding” drug movement confronted with enormous hostility?
No matter whether one invokes a mystical, psychological, or pseudo-biological definition for the phenomenon of consciousness, it is clear that simple, known, organic compounds alter it. Orgies, black masses, fasting, fevers, ritual dancing, and fraternity initiations equally have changed the state of man’s consciousness in the past.
We are probably on the threshold of a physical basis of consciousness.
It is easy to see how a full consciousness of the multitudes of stimuli available at all times in our environs interferes with and confuses the direct goals of survival. Some modification of individual consciousness must be involved in the coordination of individual actions into a group.
Man, of course, can only survive in groups.