Cybermonk afternoon March 26 2023.
Contents:
- Book Citation
- Commentary and Limitations
- My Amazon Review
url https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Flesh-Teonan%C3%A1catl-History-Mushroom/dp/1387872133/
Top recommendation.
Just note carefully the subtitle is NOT “The True History of Psilocybin and Mankind”; it is ONLY “The True History of the Sacred Mushroom“, by which this 2022 Irvin book means only “in the Americas”.
In his new, anti-mushroom context, Irvin overcorrects and doesn’t attempt to reconcile his 2008 truths with 2022 truths. He’s neither interested nor able, despite his lectures about Logos = avoiding self-contradiction.
Irvin is self-contradictory in tone. Unlike Irvin, I am able to explain how both Irvin 2008 and Irvin 2022 are correct. In Europe context, Logos/Eucharist = Psilocybin. In Americas context, Logos/Eucharist != Psilocybin.
Limitation (somewhat poisoned; chalice; somewhat worse than “limitation”/neutral; this book is potentially harmful unless you understand that THIS BOOK IS ONLY VALID IN THE AMERICAS, NOT IN EUROPE CONTEXT.
Irvin 2008 is 100% valid in Europe context: Eucharist/Logos = Psilocybin.
Irvin 2022 remains 100% valid in Europe context.
Eucharist/Logos != Psilocybin and they didn’t use it for spirituality/ mystical experiencing/ religious experiencing (if Irvin is reliable here).
I have not read all the evidence Irvin presents but I have read & followed Irvin enough to trust Irvin.
In the Americas, Psilocybin was used for merely fair or bad uses.
Ambiguity when Wasson denies – *THE* biased, obstructionist scholar.
Per Irvin, it is MADDENING if Ruck and Ott claim that Wasson asserted “mushroom trees mean mushrooms but mean bullies were biased and obstructionist against his insistence that mushroom trees mean mushrooms”.
In fact, it is Wasson who is the biased, obstructionist, rude, mean, nasty, manipulative, prevaricating, double-talking, garbled-writing jerk (and worse! this is tip of iceberg) who denied, decade after decade with never a change of position, Wasson ALWAYS insisted — being THE biased obstructionist — that mushroom trees do NOT mean mushrooms — against Ruck & Ott’s OUTRAGEOUS attempt to rewrite history 180 degrees opposite of truth. Wasson wrote in such a confusion-maximizing, garbled, head-fck way, you can hardly blame Ruck and Ott: I don’t know WHAT the F Wasson is asserting but Irvin & Hoffman is correct, that Wasson consistently restricted Amanita only, to Bible, and only to no later than 1000 BC.
Panofsky’s Censored Pair of Letters to Wasson Revealed and Transcribed
Irvin is unjustified in misrepresenting Allegro as if Allegro is an entheogen scholar. As if Allegro has a chance in hell of serving as a framework on which to build out the science of entheogen scholarship — Allegro put forth no such thing! Allegro can’t possibly serve as anything more than a sideshow. He just doesn’t have that much to contribute, much less serving as the foundation; even Irvin abandoned the project of the book Astrotheology & Shamanism which begins — like subtitle of THM — by stating up front:
The purpose of this book is build out upon the foundation of the field of entheogen scholarship which is Allegro’s SMC.
But SMC is not intended — as Cyberdisciple elaborates — to be the foundation of the field of entheogen scholarship. That’s not Allegro’s vision or purpose.
Yesterday I determined that the nature of Modern Science is to kick Aristotle / Allegro/ Wasson off a cliff, we are not perm’ly beholden to forever build upon their foundation theory. Science is all about doing the opposite: replace the folk shards of misty non-explanations by an initial semi-Theory, and then replace that semi-Theory (eg today’s “Pscyehdelic Science”) by a bona fide theory (the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism ; the Egodeath theory; the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence) , and then always be ready to re-center and re-found the field, eg if the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism were to be found wanting.
We’d — in STEM fashion — replace or revise per Paul Thagard, the 0.1 gamma or the Beta v1.0 of a explanatory model, or our Ptolemaic v1 model by Copernicus v2 model, etc.
Science is about REVISION and REPLACEMENT to select WHATEVER is the most max explanatory power and utility, usefulness, clarity, purpose-built for the domain per latest undertanding. This mean recognize the poorness & irrelevance of Lash’s “The Wasson theory” [sans, Lash says, deleted Wasson’s awaful wrong turn, ditch Wasson’s mis-selection of Amanita, replace that by Lash’s reboot of Wasson’s “general theory” to delete Wasson’s “specific theory” (that’s Lash term’y)]
Hatsis and Irvin need to learn what Modern Science is: the REPLACEMENT of the fcurrent less-than theory, by a indepenednet superior proper framework — which Allegro cannot serve as, but the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism is totally successful and provides the actual sound solid RELEVANT USEFUL actually Cognitive theory foundation paradigm (Kuhn) to build out per Thagard. Allegro is no such thing and didn’t try to be such a thing.
Even if you pile on the warmed-over exoteric eso’m that’s Irvin & Rutajit book Astroth & Shamm, you cannot do what Irvin attempts to do: build out Allegro’s entheogen scholarship theory to be the optimal useful explannatory framework to serve as the backbone of a future science of entheogen scholarship & Psychedelic Science. It won’t work; it’s a category error.
Hatsis is right that we cannot build out a science field of entheogen scholarship on the trellis of his closet lover Allegro. Reading Allegro Again (Hatsis 2015) Hatsis is right that we need to clear Alllegro off the stage but Hatsis is wrong that we need to close down the stage, of research in mushrooms role in W Culture. We need to begin the real show, (I talked on Egodeath Mystery Show past two days on this analogy). Not close the theater; but BEGIN RESEARCH for real this time NOT like Wasson , NOT like Allegro. Get rid of Wasson & get rid of Allegro in order to BEGIN actual theory consturction and shcolarshiop.
Wasson is the opposite of scholarship eg he censored Brinckmann’s book & censored Panofsky for recomending that book.
Allegro is the opposite of scholarship on entheogen scholarship — people misconstrue what the book SMC is and constitutes: it cannot serve as a trellis to build and hold up a field of entheogen scholarship & psychedelic science, it never was designed to serve that role, and a malformed, stunted field would result.
My Theory is a proper real theory designed and optimized to serve that role. the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism, the Egodeath theory; the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence; ecq the Eternalism and Control Questionnaire, etc.
My series of main articles 1996/ 1997/ 2007/ 2020a / 2020b / 2023.
My “total reset of field” Plaincourault article. (a negative article to unblock the field, to put car in reverse, change course, then put in gear the right real direction).
ALLEGRO IS A DEAD END FOOTNOTE CUL DE SAC; Allegro = a rough folk precursor that’s less than Ptolemy (earth-centered formal cosmos model).
Allegro isn’t even a reject superseded “theory”, he’s less than that.
Read Irvin 2008 & Irvin 2022 and make them fit together by assigning scope: first book true for Europe & the other book true for Americas.
Psilocybin is used for harm & low purpose in Americas context, as Wasson sought to inflict and PR-lie and misrepresent and mislead people, per Irvin 2022.
AND Psilocybin is used for highest, ultimate application, in Europe context. per Irvin 2008. It’s a tool 🤷♂️
Is electric music good, or bad?
Is cinema good, or bad?
Is culture good, or bad?
Is religion good, or bad?
Is gnosis good, or bad?
Is logos good, or bad? Logos is mishandled and misrepresented in Irvin’s confused, non-integrated hands. Gotta add Psilocybin, the right way, for authentic actual Logos; eucharist; completion of initiation; Transcendent Knowledge.
It’s how you use it.
Cybermonk afternoon March 26 2023.
My Amazon Review of God’s Flesh
Customer Review
Michael Hoffman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential fundamental research, valid for the Americas context
Reviewed on March 27, 2023
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R167KFPFVD0OCQ/ –
Irvin provides invaluable contributions, revealing with copious evidence and vigorous original scholarly research, the mythmaking and fabrication of the Wassonian claim and popular narrative that in the Americas, Psilocybin was used for mystical, spiritual, religious experiencing.
Anyone in the field of entheogen scholarship and Psychedelic Science must read Irvin’s books and online articles and take them into account, and must integrate them on Irvin 2008’s behalf and on Irvin 2022’s behalf.
Everything in the 2008 book The Holy Mushroom, and this 2022 God’s Flesh book, is essentially correct and basically sound. Sure, with nits corrected per Jerry Brown & Thomas Hatsis: e.g. St. Walburga holds not simply a literal mushroom, but a vial made to look like Amanita. That’s hair-splitting that doesn’t change Irvin’s essential soundness.
I’ve read aloud Hatsis’ articles and their argumentation on the Egodeath Mystery Show podcast — his arguments are not as relevant or sound as Hatsis thinks, despite Hatsis’ assertions that “You guys got a big problem; how’re you gonna explain mushrooms in negative or non-Jesus scenes?!”
Hatsis’ strange vectors of critique (often premised on anti-mushroom biased assumptions) are just not a problem that perturbs Irvin’s basic rightness.
I’m just hoping that Irvin can break out of the false start of the Allegro/ Hatsis limited, bounded thought-world. To take off, modern Science had to break out of allegiance to the backwards-looking Aristotle framework that was more stunting than empowering the development of knowledge. (Not that I consider Allegro to be as adequate a framework as Aristotle.)
We need to always take the best of Jan Irvin, John Allegro, Gordon Wasson, Thomas Hatsis, and Carl Amanita Promoter Ruck, and completely rework them, with great imaginativeness, being highly selective about frameworks and components, interpretations and presuppositions and attitudes.
Especially, beware of dominant popular narratives like Letcher Hatsis’ factoid of “no psilocybin in England before 1976”, which would be an inexplicable gap which Paul Stamets has said is preposterous and impossible, in a 2007 discussion with Graham Hancock in the book Supernatural.
Hatsis is very correct that the field fell into a pit of the Amanita Primacy Fallacy, and needs to reject that mushroom, which John Rush’s book overly promotes, like everyone else in the field over-promotes, except for Georgio Samorini, myself, Jerry Brown, Gilberto Camilla, and Fulvio Gosso.
Much of what Irvin contributes in this 2022 book is a cautionary story about how not to build a scientific field. I’m glad Irvin is doing this invaluable, centrally important work for getting out of the 1970 rut that this field’s been stuck in, no thanks to the anti-mushroom psychedelic witch, Thomas Hatsis.
I emphasize with Irvin 2008 (the book The Holy Mushroom) against Irvin 2022 (God’s Flesh): Logos is from none other than Psilocybin, and the Eucharist of salvation, righteousness, and regeneration is none other than Psilocybin — even if, per this book, that potential didn’t manifest in the Americas.
The positive findings in Irvin’s book have led to many more findings and also — very important — a stronger foundation of explanatory framework and expanded thinking, far from stuck trapped in 1970’s reduced and narrow options such as Allegro, who is as relevant for this field of entheogen scholarship and Psychedelic Science as Aristotle is.
It’s time to mothball and retire Allegro together with Wasson the idols, treated as if authorities, the mythic legends, so we can form a better, well-formed scientific basis that’s useful and relevant. Look to Jan Irvin’s crucial research to set the record straight and avoid again making such mistakes in this field.
And this does not mean shutting down the field, per Hatsis; it means the opposite: opening up the field, properly this time: be careful not to get prematurely stuck committing to weak, inadequate frameworks to build this Science upon.
— Michael Hoffman, the theorist of ego death; the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism
/ end of Amazon review
The Egodeath theory 