ALTERED STATES: Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality in America

In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans combined psychedelics with Buddhist meditation to achieve direct experience through altered states of consciousness.

As some practitioners became more committed to Buddhism, they abandoned the use of psychedelics in favour of stricter mental discipline, but others carried on with the experiment, advancing a fascinating alchemy called psychedelic Buddhism.

Many think exploration with psychedelics and Buddhism faded with the revolutionary spirit of the sixties, but the underground practice has evolved into a brand of religiosity as eclectic and challenging as the era that created it. 'Altered States' combines interviews with well-known figures in American Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality, including Lama Surya Das, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei and Erik Davis, and personal stories of everyday practitioners to define an American religious phenomenon.