{Inner Truth: Love}[17th June 1988]

[Redbook5:165-170][19880617:1949b]{Inner Truth: Love}[17^th June 1988]

.19880617.1949

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I have just read the E[ncyclopaedia ]B[ritannica] [(15^th Ed) article on the Philosophy of Science,* which I should have grappled with before writing 'The Great Divide'.** Oddly enough, the only point which I may have stumbled on [i.e. over] in that piece [ – ] occurring to me as a result of reading the article (I may have missed others of course) [ – ] arises out of a passing remark about the inducement of quasi-mystical experiences by drugs. If, for example, the taking of narcotics can give rise to inner experiences of Love, does that not invalidate the claim that such a quality represents a truth not available to the science of external phenomena?

The answer is, I think, that it does not.**** The fact that we can experience Love without the drugs suggests that the drugs do not create the Love: they merely facilitate the experience. They are merely procedural; but like all forcing procedures, they are likely to give rise to dangers of various kinds, not least in the price to be paid by the Individual for the forcing process.

I still# feel, on the whole, that Love is a quality which comes and goes unlooked for, like the Spirit; to force such a Quality [sic] seems like caging a song-bird. I could be wrong: the Mistress#* in [2] takes the view that Simplification happens to you, but Love is something you can initiate. I see it the other way round, although not for certain.

But 'my heart misgives me' about drug-induced Love: I suspect that although the Quality [sic] is real enough, the experience of it is distorted by the state of mind which can force it, as in the case of selfish or possessive love. I did not cover this aspect in the essay for N[ew ]S[cientist]** (too complicated)!

*E[ncyclopaedia ]B[ritannica] [(15^th Ed)][XV.]660-678

**ref [[Redbook5:148A-D][19880611:0000]{The Great Divide}[11^th June 1988]ff,] 148A-D

***{(r.E[ncyclopaedia ]B[ritannica] [(15^th Ed)]XV.661ff Philosophy of Science)}

****(!)

#ref ↑ [Reference not found]

#*[Not that kind of mistress; & subject to revision.]

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