Be sure to read the Comment thread below. Erik Davis encourages Hanegraaff’s folly and then tells him to leave the word ‘psychedelics’ alone.
Egodeath Mystery Show episode 192 – Non-Drug Psychedelics (July 18-20, 2022) – now briefly available starting July 23:
https://egodeaththeory.wordpress.com/2022/07/14/idea-development-page-14/#Egodeath-Mystery-Show-episode-192 – to download or in-browser “preview” for 1 week – 4 hour random extravanganza of guitar hermetic writings (no idea whats in this)
Bummer that Hanegraaff’s book abandons his “worst idea of any academic ever”, “entheogens in the wide sense” aka “non-drug entheogens” aka “non-drug psychedelics“.
I won’t get to make fun of him.
Correction: he hides it in Latin, didn’t abandon his bunk harmful idea. Saved! he does use this bad idea in the book; he hid it behind Latin, as done in his video keynote: find “sensu lato” – he continues his laughingstock move.
The traditional non-drug methods of the hermetist theurgists – that traditional academic phony presupposition is debunked by his new book, following his self-contradictory moves around footnote 3 in his article/chapter in book Contemporary Esotericism, Entheogenic Esotericism (a term I posted to the w w web 8 years before his article, telling him “Do not assert the dumb idea of non-drug psychedelics like you’re going to do 8 years from now”, but he didn’t listen to me.
bullshiite in the wide sense
Proposition:
Non-drug meditation can induce the intense mystic altered state as ergonomically as psychedelics.
True or false? False, therefore for all practical purposes, this is a FALSE (IE MISLEADING) CLAIM:
Non-drug meditation can induce the same intense mystic altered state as psychedelics.
Hanegraaff was trying to sell the idea of “non-drug psychedelics”
Chapter 19: Entheogenic Esotericism (2012)
https://www.academia.edu/3461770/Entheogenic_Esotericism_2012_
Bullshiite (sensu lato)
ie non-drug entheogens
The use of non-drug psychedelics, such as cave meditation and imagination exercises, produces as intense of an altered state as two bowlfuls of Psilocybe Cubensis as shown in Eadwine’s Great Mushroom Psalter.
Wording in the 2012 Chapter/Article
“entheogenic religion (in the wide sense)”
“entheogenic religion (in the narrow sense)”.
Wording in the 2012 Keynote Lecture
“entheogenic religion (sensu lato)”
In Hanegraaff’s 2012 Keynote Lecture/Video at ContERN, he reads aloud his Entheogenic Esotericism article but says in one place, Latin instead of English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrIMjjPg7uU&t=250s at 4:10
Video’s description is bullsht-free:
“Wouter J. Hanegraaff (University of Amsterdam) introduces the notion of entheogenic esotericism in this keynote lecture to the First International Conference on Contemporary Esotericism (Stockholm University, 2012). Hanegraaff argues that the use of psychedelic substances in not only Western esoteric currents, but in contemporary religion more broadly, has not been sufficiently recognized in academic studies.”
NOTICE when he says “such as the traditional methods of the theurgists”, he censors out his Footnote 3, where he cites Luck’s article that shows that theurgy is entheogen (substance) based.
Also notice the video text description reveals his hand: there’s no BS about “wide sense”; it straight-up honestly, non-deceptively says “substances need more attention”, not “non-drug entheogens (entheogens in the wide sense) need more scholarly attention”.
Wording in the 2022 Book
“entheogenic esotericism (sensu lato and sensu stricto)”
The Egodeath theory 
All the negative thinking in the modern world on psychedelics, where some try to separate psychedelics from entheogens in the history of esotericism, can’t change the genetic lock and key structure of the mystic altered state and psychedelic entheogens inherent in everyone. The snake is coiled deeply within our DNA structure.
LikeLike
I noticed a conversation on Twitter in which Hanegraaff says “Entheogenic is much broader than drugs alone.” What’s that supposed to mean?
LikeLike
An attempt by Wouter to demean drugs, subliminally carrying the stigma placed onto drugs in the modern world, by trying to make ‘entheogenic’ sound as if it’s a property and state beyond itself, by not accepting the simplicity of entheogens – psychoactives – drugs as the true catalyst for the mystic altered state. And Davis is following that lead, by wanting more than what is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The so called ‘drugs’ by which Wouter and Davis refer to, and try to strip from their riteful origin, the key into the mystic altered state, the very fruit gifted to humanity by Earth, the Psilocybin mushroom, with the strength and wisdom to rise from the dead – Blessed is the fruit of Earth’s womb- And yet still not satisfied, drugs to hell they say, they settle for the weakest link in the chain, deception.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cyberdisciple, in https://www.academia.edu/3461770/Entheogenic_Esotericism_2012_ find “broaden”, “narrow”, “wide”.
To ingratiate himself to the establishment, Hanegraaff is robbing credit from entheogens to falsely elevate non-drug meditation up to the efficacy / ergonomics level of psilocybin, and then, higher, to restore the status quo:
Per the status quo, the legitimacy of psilocybin (and equivalent exogenous psychoactives) is to be measured against non-drug meditation and ever-beyond-our-comprehension alien psychology and unspecified methods – so that the known efficacious trigger can be diminished, while elevating unspecified, incomprehensible, undefined “other methods we don’t understand” up to falsely be elevated as the standard by which fake chemical simulations can be measured (to diminish, dismiss, explain-away, and de-legitimate them).
People want to protect incomprehension and elevate the indeterminate over the concrete explanation. Based on ergonomic efficacy, psilocybin is the standard by which non-drug meditation and vague unspecified (by design) “other methods” ought to be measured.
Meditation is given vastly undue credit; extremely overrated and over-respected. Using meditation as the measure is unwarranted, and is an avoidance strategy to avoid Transcendent Knowledge.
Note that there’s more to say on both sides; it’s fair to differentiate mind’s potenitial vs. chemical receptors vs. triggers as my 1997 theory outline does; I too listed various methods with psychedelics as one in a list.
Since his new book doesn’t list ‘Entheogens’ in the index(!) I’m doing full-text search in the book: 5 6 9 8 110 228 385.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you.
What Hanegraaff is doing is a direct violation of the pureness of the word, entheogen, by using the word, entheogen, to discredit itself. That’s a low blow- self – serving maneuver in effort of bolstering ego.
There is pureness within the word ‘entheogen’ from its true origin to its destination into transitioning and clarifying the mind, when genuine explanatory guidance accompanies its intake and action.
LikeLike
There was something nagging about the book title and then came; the problem with Hanegraff’s new book title surrounding “historical imagination.” That term stays within the realm of the ordinary world leading only to a scenario of what is thought to have existed, and what is considered creative interpretation of history but based upon what? – the ordinary world. That’s all involving just the ordinary world and doesn’t take into consideration the meaning and genuine expressions of and expressions pointing toward the mystic altered state experience, a genuine experience of the mind beyond fantasy (even though he may mention altered states). And until all the scholars, who may very well experience the mystic altered state but make no sense of it, can read and study the Egodeath Theory, and can realize and become aware of the importance, impact, significance and actuality of the mystic altered state, and how literalism distorts the mystic altered state, then they will just continue to stay within the bounds of the ordinary world in everything they write, and therefore are not a reliable source of information for the mystic altered state or for mind’s potential.
LikeLiked by 1 person
He got me, Hanegraaff snuck it past me 😵 his new book DOES assert his worst idea of any academic ever: he hid it from my full text search by latin; “entheogenic esotericism (sensu lato and senso narrow)” – so my book review gets to subtly mock him by translating his deceptive latin into what he means, “non-drug entheogens”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hanegraaff may have abandoned his worst idea of any academic ever, ‘entheogens in the wide sense,’ in his new book, but did you see what Cyberdisciple shared? Hanegraaff and Davis both committ the worst idea of any academic ever in the following twitter conversation dated June 2022:
Wouter J. Hanegraaff WJHanegraaff
·
Jun 17
That’s exactly right. Entheogenic is much broader than drugs alone.
Erik Davis
Also: I think Wouter’s suggestion about terminology here is spot on: let’s keep “psychedelic” for the drugs themselves, but place them in a larger “entheogenic” context that includes other visionary practices. So an entheogenic tradition does not need drugs
LikeLike
If not for the Eucharist carried forward within its rite of transubstantiation,
If not for the snake/serpent which carries itself throughout time, history and boundaries aligning with medicinal practices of healing, intertwined with ancient life on the living caduceus,
If not for the psilocybin mushroom which lives on Earth and within Christian art, positioning itself in bringing forth the original entheogenic mystic altered state,
If not for the many volumes of literature, sharing with the world metaphor from the original mystic altered state,
If not for the modern world’s meditation which leads to narcissistic behavior, inflated egos, as evidenced by new-age spirituality, where spiritual egos become the end product, a distortion in actuality,
If not for the history of prohibiting the original entheogens in the modern world in effort of preventing life from its rite of passage, and most importantly;
If not for the Egodeath Theory which changes lives, clarifying the mind, providing tools for understanding, and unraveling the web of religion by exposing the limitations of literalism,
If not for any of that there would be no second thought for the writings of Hanegraaff.
I am convinced that the original entheogen stands well on its own, erect in statues, alive in literature and art through the living word and artistic expression, and infused within the Heart of humanity.
Meditation has its place in the modern world as all things do, but can only accompany and not replace the true, original entheogen.
To try and make meditation a forgery of the original entheogen does not give it justice and at the same time demeans authenticity
Hanegraaff may provide information on ancient meditative practices and may label those as entheogenic, but he won’t be able to provide evidence that those practices were not accompanied by the real mccoy.
LikeLike
Words have powers of suggestion and can twist things around. And what a violation against the purity of the word, entheogen. Hanegraaff attaches the word ‘narrow’ to true, original entheogens,
– and ‘broad’ to non-true entheogens -hoping to lead the reader into believing that original, true entheogens lead to inferior narrow-minded results, and broad entheogens, which are not true entheogens, lead to superior broad- minded results.
LikeLike
Scholars and educators, such as Wouter Hanegraaff, who write about and teach from a wide spectrum of understanding ancient spirituality, religion and philosophy, can present themselves as an authority on such subject matter, but fall short on understanding and zeroing in on expressing the huge magnitude of impact that the authentic mystic altered state, experienced through authentic entheogens, has on and throughout history.
Modern scholars who are uninformed by authentic mystic state experience, don’t realize that forms of major expression informed by the authentic mystic altered state, including but not limited to scriptures, religious and spiritual ideation, philosophy, literature and arts, throughout history, carries and brings forth, through metaphoric expression, authentic mystic altered state experience, as revealed by and within the Egodeath Theory.
It can be said that authentic mystic altered state experience is the very foundation from which the ordinary world sprouts, but which gets lost within the rubble of literalism’s misinterpretations, the greatest boundary and disruption between the ancient and modern world.
LikeLike