Observations placeholder
Quincey, Thomas de - Opium gives an expansion to the heart and the benevolent affections
Identifier
003741
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Thomas de Quincy – Confessions of an English Opium Eater
opium … communicates serenity and equipoise to all the faculties, active or passive; and with respect to the temper and moral feelings in general, it gives simply that sort of vital warmth which is approved by the judgement and which would probably always accompany a bodily constitution of primeval or antideluvian health. Thus, for instance, opium, like wine, gives an expansion to the heart and the benevolent affections................. the opium eater ( I speak of him simply as such and assume that he is in a normal state of health) feels that the diviner part of his nature is paramount – that is, the moral affections are in a state of cloudless serenity; and high over all the great light of the majestic intellect.