Existentialism and ethical dilemmas associated with psychedelia

Introduction

The question that haunts people with high existential quotient is
unmistakably ‘who am I’. That told. What we should be really asking
ourselves is more of ‘why am I’. Why me or why us?
We all have these definite patterns of behaviour or set of
characteristics that makes us ‘US’ (characteristic does sound
derivative, but can’t help it).
We are what we are because we have been what we have been
– Sigmund Freud
The immediate consciousness, the self, an identity that we attribute
to ourselves. What is it that one quality that makes us what we are.
I like to believe that life is nothing but a journey that we have
experienced through our senses (journey is a metaphor that has been
used a lot with life, just passing through cognitive linguistics).
Only the senses can cure the soul, and only the soul can cure the
senses – Oscar Wilde
What if there is a reality beyond our senses. (Well we all know that
we can only perceive the visible spectrum through our eye. Which
technically speaking is a small portion of the spectrum of waves
considering ultra violet, infra-red etc.; which analogously speaking
is same for all the other sense as well) what if I told you that our
senses are bound. Restricted so as to speak so that we can
physically survive. What if our brain has blocked all of these other
wide spectrum of sensations just in order to concentrate on the
current purpose at hand which is primordial and biological one
(let’s not digress into that. The brain is trying to cancel out all
the other noises so as to concentrate on the continuation of the
species. What if there was a way to break this levee and go into the
unknown, a world of senses that we haven’t experienced yet.
Synaesthesia (which is said to have been lost over evolution,
although seen in people within (and outside(very few)) autistic
spectrum), ego dissolution (oceanic boundlessness, ego death). What
if we could find god in a pill? Does it do any good, or does it
exacerbate the misery of existence. An existence without a belief.
Trying to grab on to something so as to save yourself all the while
you’re drowning in the sea of ignorance.