A Quote by Huston Smith

No one in human history has given as much thought to the interweaving of altered states of consciousness and religion as I have.

Huston Smith

Quote Topics

Altered Altered States Altered States Of Consciousness Consciousness Given History Human Human History Much Religion States States Of Consciousness Thought

Quote Author

Huston Smith
American - Theologian
May 31, 1919 - December 30, 2016

the heart of religion is not altered states but altered traits of character. For me, then, the test of a substance's religious worth or validity is not what kind of far-out experience it can produce, but is the life improved by its use? That's the test. Now, on that score, if you remove the "religious cocoon," the experiences don't seem to have much in the way of discernible, traceable effects.

Huston Smith

The uniqueness of the United States in human history is the United States is the first global power in human history which emerged far away from Africa or Asia, which is the main land of human history.

Ahmet Davutoglu

What I don't like in movies dealing with the illustration of altered states of consciousness is that usually you see the guy from the outside.

Gaspar Noe

Often what is nearest is hardest of all to see - try asking a fish to define water. Distance opens a door to revelation. When the first great distances of space were conquered by technology, a camera altered the human perspective on the Earth as radically as Galileo did when he proved the sun was the center of the universe. The ecology movement was born from a photographically altered consciousness.

Vicki Goldberg

Certain drugs provide brief excursions into altered states of consciousness. The problem is that the perceptions and understandings that come from these experiences don't tend to last.

Frederick Lenz

When there are miles to go before we sleep, altered traits are more important than altered states.

Huston Smith

The goal of spiritual life is not altered states, but altered traits

Huston Smith

Sometimes when you are with an enlightened teacher, you will feel both pleasant and unpleasant things magnified. That happens when you meditate with someone who goes into very strong states of altered consciousness.

Frederick Lenz

When I experienced altered states of consciousness, my whole philosophical structure crumbled, and that terrified me. And what scared me the most was the realisation that death was not the end!

Susan Schneider

The popular prophets have underestimated how strange the truth can be. The human brain, that 'perfect instrument,' that 'fabulous electronic dance,' can be our open sesame to an infinitely richer life than we have believed possible. The fluent, liberating, creative, healing attributes of the altered states can be incorporated into consciousness. We are just beginning to realize that we can truly open the doors of perception and creep out of the cavern.

Marilyn Ferguson

Religion claims to be in possession of an absolute truth; but its history is a history of errors and heresies. It gives us the promise and prospect of a transcendent world - far beyond the limits of our human experience - and it remains human, all too human.

Ernst Cassirer

the leading error of the human mind, - the bane of human happiness - the perverter of human virtue ... is Religion - that dark coinage of trembling ignorance! It is Religion - that poisoner of human felicity! It is Religion - that blind guide of human reason! It is Religion - that dethroner of human virtue! which lies at the root of all the evil and all the misery that pervade the world!

Frances Wright

Poetry is a slipknot tightened around a time-beat of one thought, two thoughts, and a last interweaving thought there is not yet a number for.

Carl Sandburg

Some of the first human beings in whom the new consciousness emerged fully became the great teachers of humanity, such as Buddha, Lao Tzu, or Jesus, although their teachings were greatly misunderstood, especially when they turned into organized religion. They were the first manifestations of the flowering of human consciousness.

Eckhart Tolle

The only thing that is unqualifiedly given is the total pervasive quality; and the objection to calling it "given" is that the word suggests something to which it is given, mind or thought or consciousness or whatever, as well possibly as something that gives.

John Dewey

We're here to make a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here? We're creating a completely new consciousness, like an artist or a poet. That’s how you have to think of this. We're rewriting the history of human thought with what we're doing.

Steve Jobs

A Quote by Huston Smith

Quote Topics

Quote Author

Related Quotes

Related Authors