I live in Newburgh, New York, a city of thirty thousand a short drive from the Hastings Center's Garrison campus. In 2016, residents were informed that our drinking water contained elevated levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate, a chemical the Environmental Protection Agency calls an "emerging contaminant of concern." The contaminant's long-term health effects are poorly understood: it might cause cancer, or birth defects, or thyroid issues, or it might not. Newburgh's water contamination is a problem that is both mine and not (...) mine. I'm a relatively recent white transplant to a city with a complex racial and economic history. I proudly call it home, but I am, in many respects, an outsider. I drink the water—and I'd done so for months before the city declared a state of emergency and switched its source—but I was exposed to the contaminated water only briefly and am well insured and in great health. Many of my neighbors are not. (shrink)

Accompanying the resumption of human research with the entheogen , psilocybin, the range of states of consciousness reported during its action, including both nonmystical and mystical forms of experience, is surveyed and defined. The science and art of facilitating mystical experiences is discussed on the basis of research experience. The potential religious import of these states of consciousness is noted in terms of recognizing the reality of the spiritual, in better understanding the biochemistry of revelation, and in exploring the potentially (...) positive contributions that mystical consciousness may effect in psychological treatment. (shrink)