Word: baba
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...condemnation stems somewhat from the anti-drug pronouncement of one particularly well-thought-of Indian religious ascetic, Avatar Meher Baba. American psychedelists had appealed to this guru for spiritual advice even some journeying to India "forever," for "the Truth," as part of a widespread LSD-nick Orientalism. But it was ironic, Cohen writes, that, "encouraged by the apparent fit of the Eastern metaphors (for hallucinogenic mystical experiences), the psychedelic vanguard overlooked the fact that Eastern spiritual leaders had consistently dissuaded their disciples from using drugs for spiritual advancement...
Cohen quotes a letter from Baba to an unnamed leader of the American psychedelists dumping mercilessly on the drug-takers' pretentions to religiosity. "The experiences you elaborate," wrote the old Indian, "are as far removed from Reality as is a mirage from water.... The Search for God through drugs must end in disillusionment.... Indulgence in drugs is harmful physically, mentally and spiritually...
Cohen himself is one of the first to jump off the bandwagon. Baba's assertions, he says, "certainly corroborate my own conclusions about the after-effects...
...Having taken LSD [June 17], I conclude that the distinction between its valid use for therapeutic purposes and its quasi-perversion for "spiritual" purposes is important. As Avatar Meher Baba, an Eastern master of consciousness, said, "The experiences that drugs induce are as far removed from reality as is a mirage from water. No matter how much you pursue the mirage, you will never quench your thirst, and the search for truth through drugs must end in disillusionment...
...Araguaina, which got its start in 1958 as a road-construction camp 500 miles north of Brasilia, is now up to 8,000 people, has its own branch of the Bank of Brazil and will soon have a $1,600,000 factory that will refine oil from native babaçú nuts, peanuts, cotton and sunflower seeds, produce the cans in which to export the oil and cut up local mahogany to make cases for the cans...