THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HASHISH
producing a standard drug, upon isolating the substance
responsible for effect (), and so on, we might find a reliable
and harmless adjuvant to the process which I have optimis-
tically named Scientific Iluminism.
But at least for the present we have not arrived so far.
In my own case I should know fairly well what to do, well
enough to get my little “loosening of the girders of the soul”
at a guess twice in five times, perhaps more.
Not surely enough to guarantee results to other people
without a lengthy series of experiments, still less to recommend
them to try for themselves, unless under skilled supervision.
My present appeal is to recognised physiologists and
psychologists to increase the number and accuracy of their
researches on the introspective lines which I have laid down
above, possibly with further aid from the pharmacist.
Once the pure physio-psychological action is determined,
I shall then ask their further attention to the special results
of combining the drug with the mystic process—always in-
voking trained observation—and from that moment the future
of Scientific Illuminism will be assured.
I must add a paragraph or twoon the nature of the mystic
process and the general character of the transcendental states
of consciousness resulting from its successful practice.
XI
“He maketh the whole World of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth,
and of the all-nourishing Ether.” —ZOROASTER.
One truth, says Browning, leads right to the world’s end ;
and so I find it impossible to open a subject, however small
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