Animals have a “participation mystique” with the natural landscape: it speaks to them. It reveals the qualia they need, when they need it, in order to survive. People have a mystical participation of their own, with the human landscape. If we follow the landmarks and pathways of tradition, we will be successful.
We need to develop a similar sort of magical reality with the other human landscape, the inner landscape — the mind. Only then will we break free of the addictive, material, human landscape.
Many religions hearken back to a time “before the fall” when people knew “the Way.” This time was after we were like animals, and before the development of the human landscapes upon which we have become dependent — the landscapes of addiction that exist today.