No man is so good as to be free from all evil, nor so bad as to be worth nothing.
This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren't.
He prays because he knows he doesn't control it. He's at the mercy of it.
As the practical value of altering consciousness becomes recognized, procedures to effect these alterations will become increasingly ordinary and unremarkable. The whole concept of changing states of consciousness will cease to have a threatening or exotic aspect.
Story of our species...everyone knows it's coming, but not so soon.
Increasingly, the mathematics will demand the courage to face its implications.