Stairways To Heaven: Drugs In American Religious History (Hardcover)

~ Robert W. Fuller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Explores the historical link between mind-altering substances and religious experience in the United States

From Native Americans' use of tobacco for solemnizing oaths to the spread of New Age religious beliefs in Haight-Ashbury coffeehouses, drugs have been intimately associated with American spirituality. Stairways to Heaven illustrates how such substances as peyote, jimson weed, hallucinogenic mushrooms, LSD, marijuana, wine, and coffee have stimulated ecstatic revelations of spiritual truth and strengthened the social bonds that sustain communities of faith. The book deftly moves from historical examples to an engaging consideration of the legal, ethical, and spiritual controversies that surround drug use in contemporary America. Clearly written and accessible, Stairways to Heaven is a significant scholarly review of the relationship between religion and drugs in America.

About the Author

Robert C. Fuller is a leading historian and interpreter of American religious life. He is Professor of Religious Studies at Bradley University. His previous books include Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls, Alternative Medicine and American Religious Life, Americans and the Unconscious, and Religion and Wine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (April 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813366127
• ISBN-13: 978-0813366128
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #209,178 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing history., August 4, 2000

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

How have Americans used drugs to establish and forge religious foundations? Stairways to Heaven provides a survey and analysis of the use of mind-altering substances as an aid to spirituality, with chapters considering the foundations of religious experience, the role of drugs in creating or altering such experiences, and links between religious freedom and the nation's war on drugs. An intriguing history.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Must" reading for students of religion & drug use., September 5, 2000

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Stairways To Heaven: Drugs In American Religious History is a unique, seminal work spanning Native Americas' use of tobacco for solemnizing oaths to the spread of New Age religious beliefs in Haight-Ashbury coffeehouses. Robert Fuller presents an important, overlooked aspect of American religious history -- the use of mind-altering substances as an aid to spirituality ranging from peyote, jimson weed, and hallucinogenic mushrooms, to LSD, marijuana, wine, and coffee. Stairways To Heaven explores many of the questions surrounding the use of drugs in religious life including drugs use to induce "authentic" religious experience; religious experience as an aberration in brain chemistry; how much drug use can be tolerated under the auspices of religious freedom; the legitimate role of mind-altering substances in the development of mature spirituality. Stairways To Heaven is "must" reading for students of spirituality, American religious history, and the ritual use of mind-altering substances.