SOURCE: "Drugs and Ecstacy," in Myth and Symbols: Studies in Honor of Mircea Eliade, edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Charles H. Long, The University of Chicago Press, 1969, pp. 327-42.

In the following essay, Jünger examines the influence of drugs on personality and the portrayal of this influence in literature over several centuries.

Qu'elle soit ramassée pour "le bien" ou pour "le mal," la mandragore est crainte et respectée comme une plante miraculeuse—En elle sont renfermées des forces extraordinaires, qui peuvent multiplier la vie ou donner la mort. En une certaine mesure donc, la mandragore est "l'herbe de la vie et de la mort."

Mircea Eliade, "Le culte de la mandragore en

Roumanie," Xalmoxis, 1938

The influence of drugs is ambivalent; they affect both action and contemplation, will and intuition. These two forces, which seemingly exclude each other, are often produced by the same...