I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, unavailable to us without such drugs.
Sagan is not talking merely about sensation; he is talking about ideas he gets while high. He gets insights into the way the world works which he finds convincing when high, but unconvincing when he's down. For example: "... that there is a world around us which we barely sense, or that we can become one with the universe, or even that certain politicians are desperately frightened men...." He describes how he tries to explain these ideas in voice recordings, how he tries hard to convince his morning self that he's not being crazy. And still he can be skeptical in the morning.
I find this schism of the mind to be frightening. I am aware that dreams, drugs and psychoses can convince you that certain things are true. I wouldn't want to be two people, a high Nisan and a down Nisan, who hold different beliefs and who don't believe each other.
On the other hand, maybe Sagan is too much of a scientist? Science only goes so far, and there are plenty of valid "perceptions" that are not scientifically testable, whether for practical reasons or for theoretical reasons. For example, "a vastly enhanced sensitivity to facial expression, intonations, and choice of words which sometimes yields a rapport so close it's as if two people are reading each other's minds" might actually be nothing more than the pot convincing Sagan that he is being especially empathic. This is a possibility that a scientist should consider, and which it would be difficult to disprove. But, as I will allude to in my blog post about Les Mis, for some purposes it doesn't matter whether two people are really connected, or whether they just think they are. It can be a useful feeling that facilitates emotional bonding. I'd be more comfortable with Sagan's high self if he were willing to admit that this perception might be unreal, even if it were worthwhile.
I do believe that there are many ways to perceive the world, and that people generally only use a few of these at a time. There are easy examples of this: If I'm being led through an unfamiliar big house or city or forest without paying attention, I can be unaware of its floorplan or layout; if I'm leading someone else through a familiar place, I'm aware of the layout and its relation to the part I can see at any given moment. For another example, I can see the eruv in the community I used to live in; it stands out so much, it might as well be highlighted, and I can tell at a glance if it's broken. I know it's invisible to everyone else. As a third example, I can listen to a piece of music, especially classical music, and hear the melody, and the variations on the melody, and the other parts harmonizing with the melody and alluding to it, and certain notes being delayed or being left unsaid. And some people don't hear this.
In fact, Sagan mentions that cannabis use has given him such an appreciation for music. If, as Sagan claims, cannabis tends to make you receptive to things you customarily ignore, I'm sure it is an effective way to find new modes of perception. I have heard that meditation can do things like that too. I believe that there are many ways. You can learn a new language, or learn to play music, or learn how to recognize plants and animals. You can meet lots of people with different sorts of lives and see things from their perspectives; you can do something dangerous; you can try to repair your own bicycle or make your own furniture.
All these activities can enrich the array of modes of perception you have available in your everyday life, often in surprising ways. They are activities that force you to recognize patterns that you normally wouldn't. And afterwards you can see that, yes, these patterns are really there in the world. I am suspicious of the patterns Sagan sees while high on cannabis which seem to disappear and become implausible when he comes down.
I wondered above if Sagan was too much of a scientist. I say this because he started experimenting with marijuana at "a time when [he] had come to feel that there was more to living than science...." I don't know anything about Sagan, but I know there are people who believe that only science is significant or important. They say that any statement that is not falsifiable is nonsense. Such people cannot have a deep appreciation of music or visual art; apparently, neither did Sagan. From what little knowledge I have, it seems plausible that cannabis opened Sagan's mind to new and entirely unscientific perceptions, and that he was at first unable to integrate this with the strictly arid and scientific mindset of his down self.
Once when riding in a warm car at night, I got lost in my own thoughts and was seized by the startling certainty that strong artificial intelligence was entirely easy to create, if one only implemented a few simple principles. I did not know exactly what those principles were at the time. By the next morning, it was clear to me that artificial intelligence is not so easy, and that I must have been deluding myself the night before.
I don't expect I will ever have this particular delusion or fantasy again, but I can recognize that such moments of sureness and euphoria can be essential in doing anything creative. Indeed, during a similar warm car ride at night I was once seized by a scene from a yet-unwritten story that was very emotionally moving at the time. This inspired me to produce a story which I believe to be inspiring and of intrinsic value.
I brought that up so I could illustrate the idea of properly interpreting feelings and perceptions that might appear to make no sense. I'm glad I accepted and appreciated my fantasy about artificial intelligence for what it was, rather than becoming one of the countless pitiable cranks who believe they are geniuses. If, while high, Sagan was overcome with the idea that "there is a world around us which we barely sense", he could interpret that as the feeling of his mind being willing to perceive things in new ways. If he became convinced that "we can become one with the universe", he could regard that as an extremely intimate meditation on an idea you can pick up from religious texts. If he realized that "certain politicians are desperately frightened men", he could then tell himself that while such an intuition could be true, it might be false, for all he knows, and it might also describe other people he has yet to meet.
I do not want to believe that there are "valid levels of perception" which are unavailable without the use of drugs. I am willing to believe that cannabis can lead you to good places, but not that it's the only way to get there. And if there are ideas it gives you that you don't understand while outside, I don't believe they are real.
