THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH
surgery, &c., just as mysticism has revolutionised, again and
again, the philosophies of mankind.
The analogy is a perfect one. By meditation we obtain
the vision of a new world, even as the world of micro-
organisms was unsuspected for centuries of thinking—
thinking without method—bricks without straw!
Just so, also, the masters of meditation have erred.
They have attained the Mystic Vision, written long books
about it, assumed that the conclusions drawn from their
vision were true on other planes—as if a microscopist were to
stand for Parliament on the platform “ Votes for Microbes”
—never noted possible sources of error, fallen foul of sense
and science, dropped into oblivion and deserved contempt.
I want to combine the methods, to check the old empirical
mysticism by the precision of modern science.
Hashish at least gives proof of a new order of conscious-
ness, and (it seems to me) it is this Avimdéd facie case that
mystics have always needed to make out, and never have
made out.
But to-day I claim the hashish-phenomena as mental
phenomenaof thefirst importance; and I demand investigation.
I assert—more or less ex cathedré—that meditation will
revolutionise our conception of the universe, just as the
microscope has done.
Then my friend the physiologist remarks:
“But if you disturb the observing faculty with drugs and
a special mental training, your results will be invalid.”
And I reply:
“ But if you disturb the observing faculty with lenses and
a special mental training, your results will be invalid.”
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