Anybody read this piece today?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html?ref=todayspaper
It describes the benefits of the hallucinogen psilocybin. It induces a state similar to that experienced by religious mystics. The authors of the study argue for the evolutionary benefit of the experience of the lack of ego.
I'm intrigued by the study. Huston Smith, one of the original subjects in the LSD experiments with Leary argued for the use of drugs in religious experience in a book a few years ago.
However, I tend to see the situation in reverse when looking at the evolutionary benefits. Rather than seeing mysticism as beneficial, it seems to me that the development of a separate ego consciousness is far more beneficial to the species. Mysticism leads to passivity but ego consciousness produces drives of competition and success that have pushed humanity to invent, work, explore, and excel. A society of mystics would have been happy to sit around and meditate.
Any thoughts out there