Drugs: (a) People take to these drugs like LSD and heroin for different reasons. One of the reasons is that they feel so full of tension that the need to relax becomes imperative. But this they are unable to bring about by themselves; so the easy artificial way is used. That a habit may be formed, that one day they may break up their consciousness through it, losing reason and control for short periods while hallucinatory heavens or monsters surround them, is something they need to be warned against.
(b) If you study the eyes of a fakir long addicted to smoking the Asiatic narcotics--hashish and bhang--you will observe that the irises often tend to become bloodshot. If, however, he is addicted to smoking opium the effect appears in the pupils, which tend at times to narrow down into pinpoints.
(c) All these narcotic drugs like opium, belladonna, and LSD which alter consciousness are poisons and, if taken in sufficiently large quantity, could kill a man, or at least bring about a state of stupor or complete unconsciousness. The habit of taking them is hard to break, and itself breaks the taker--morally and mentally and to some extent even physically by inducing convulsions.
-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 11 : Fanaticism, Money, Powers, Drugs > # 137
