S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 8 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 2 3 3 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos this impulse can be confused with substance abuse: “His craving for alcohol was the equivalent on a low level of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: union with God.” (Anonymous 1984, 384). William James (1842–1910), the father of American psychology, was an important influence on the development of Alcoholics Anonymous [1]. James (1982, 387) documented the connection between substance use and the search for deliverance: The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes… Not through mere perversity do men run after it. Substance abuse, like all forms of addiction, is a substitute for the sense of the sacred whose lose pervades the modern world. With this said, James acknowledged the role of the spiritual dimension in recovery: “The only radical remedy I know for dipsomania [note: alcoholism] is religiomania.” (James 1982, 268). Jung commented, “[a]lcohol in Latin is ‘spiritus’, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: ‘spiritus contra spiritum’.” (Anonymous 1984, 384). This formula, Spirit against the spirits is an important insight of which contemporary psychology has yet to take into full account: namely, that alcoholism, or any type of addiction, needs to embrace the spiritual dimension in its assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. The question is asked, “[h]ow could a sober man know the drunkards’ intoxication?” (Rūmī 1983, 320). It is through metaphysics that we can comprehend the dialectic between sobriety and inebriation, and their ultimate resolution in the Absolute. In fact, we are informed by Rūmī that, in the essence of the Divine, both are to be found: “I am the root of the root of sobriety and intoxication” (1983, 266). Islam recognizes itself in sobriety (Arabic sahw), as conveyed in the Qurʼānic verse 4:43: “O you who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when you are drunken until you know what you are uttering.” However, within its inner or mystical dimension of Sufism, Islam claims both realms of sobriety (Arabic sahw) and intoxication (Arabic sukr). In the mystical paths, transcendence is associated with the former and immanence with the latter. Persian poet and mystic Ruzbihan Baqli (1128–1209) affirmed a unitive understanding of these concepts: “Sobriety and intoxication are one, for the lover dives into the oceans of Greatness and Might, and there the intoxicated is not distinguished from the sober.” (in Ernst 1985, 49). Mystical traditions use the symbolism of wine for Divine Love and intemperance for union with the Absolute. There are also cautionary reminders about not abusing alcohol or substances: “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). It is an error to confuse terrestrial wine with the celestial wine of the Spirit, which is the object of our search for transcendence. This understanding of reality differs from those who abuse alcohol or drugs, for the celestial wine signifies union with Divine reality, what in Hindu and Islamic traditions is regarded as being-consciousness-bliss (Sa. sat-chit-ānanda; Arabic wujūd-wijdān-wajd). Altered states of consciousness may bear some semblance to the descriptions of mystical experiences found in spiritual traditions; however, there is an important difference in that experience here pertains to the limits of the empirical ego rather than pure immersion in the transpersonal dimension. The saints and sages were not interested in experiences as such, but in union with the Absolute. Śrī Rāmakrishna (1836–1886) once remarked: “Communion with God is the true wine, the wine of ecstatic love” (1977, 94). Śrī Ānandamayī Mā (1896–1982) urged us to “[b]ecome drinkers of nectar, all of you – drinkers of the wine of immortality. Tread the path of immortality, where no death exists and no disease.” (2007, 79). St. Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) spoke of this state as “heavenly inebriation” (1980, 244), and there are many other mystics who also experienced such religious ecstasy, such as St. Catherine of Alexandria (c. 287–c. 305), Hildegard of Bingen (c.1098–1179), St. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182–1226), and St. Philip Neri (1515–1595). Śrī Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) went so far as to suggest that we are always already in a state of ecstasy (Sa. samādhi) and need not search for it: “Actually, one is always in samadhi but one does not know it. To know it all one has to do is to remove the obstacles.” (1985, 174). Prior to concluding this section, it needs to also be acknowledged that the spiritual traditions equate overindulgence in alcohol with ignorance. The Japanese Pure Land Buddhist master Shinran (1173–1263) spoke of those who were “drunk with the wine of ignorance” (2007, 197).
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