| Well it teaches us a couple things. The same narrative replays with many successful people - Bruce Lee (Jiddu Krishnamurthi), John Lennon, Brian Josephson (Mahesh Yogi), Steve Jobs etc etc. And from there it becomes myth for the rest of the population. Taking drugs/performing a ritual/chanting a prayer/meeting yoda (authority figure) etc - is people trying to cope with something that has happened in their life. Therapy options weren't great back then, and people had to work out by themselves, what we take for granted in a modern psychology textbook today, all while going through some traumatic life event. Even today it's not straight forward to do and it becomes easy to poke holes in the path people took and even currently take. Which then leads to defensiveness and reactions, which further misguide and mislead everyone. It also points at the need of some smart people for an Authority Figure to validate whatever new narrative they are trying to rebuild about themselves and the world after they go through some trauma and their existing narratives break down. |
It's the retelling of the story in this oversimplified version (as I've even heard Sam Harris tell in a podcast) of a Himalayan Yogi taking LSD with no effect that I wanted to highlight as incorrect, in the sense that it diverges significantly from Alpert's own account.
And yes, I also think he was a bit overly enthusiastic about Karoli Baba at the time. Don't we all act like that at many points in our lives?