spirits

Sometimes I think that what alcoholics are most afraid of is being ordinary. Most of us seek in alcohol not only ease from pain but also some kind of transcendent experience. In the beginning, we think we've found it. As William James said, "However we view things otherwise, under the influence they seem more utterly what they are, more 'utterly utter' than when we are sober." The state of drunkenness, according to James, "expands, unites and says 'Yes" in contrast to the diminished "no" of sobriety. The alcohol advertisers are aware of this belief and they promise continued excitement and transcendence.

Occasionally the promised transcendence is divine. Carl Jung described a craving for alcohol as "the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness." Certainly many alcoholics seek a spiritual experience in alcohol, some perfect connection. Another word for alcohol is “spirits”. Indeed the experience of drunkenness does involve a loss of self, a merging with the alcohol, that is a kind of perversion of a transcendent spiritual experience.