Michael Hoffman, January 9, 2025
Contents:
- Intro
- Reblogging a Post
- The Forced Conflation of “Secret” and “Mushroom”
- New Domain name, Egodeaththeory.org, for Egodeaththeory.wordpress.com
- Removed Ads
- Stang Video: Plenary Lecture of the 2023 Paranormal Conference
- See Also
Intro
Motivation of this post:
- Testing the WordPress “Reblog” feature.
- Testing status of site.
Reblogging a Post
I linked to this Cyberdisciple page so often, I created my own local page containing the Cyberdisciple article reformatted.
Here’s the result of “Reblogging” a WordPress post:
The Forced Conflation of “Secret” and “Mushroom”
It is stunning how heavily, how totally and absolutely, Letcher and Hatsis and Huggins weld-together and conflate, by force, “secret” and “Amanita” – but they are not the ones who created that conflation!
Look in the mirror, entheogen scholars:
Live by the Secret Amanita, Die by the Secret Amanita.
The original source of the faulty, strenuous, absolute and total conflation of “secret” and “mushroom” is Graves, Wasson, Allegro, Ruck, Irvin, Rush, and everyone in First-Gen Entheogen Scholarship.
Brown 2019 effectively defines:
- 20th Century work as 1st-Gen entheogen scholarship,
- 21st Century work as 2nd-Gen entheogen scholarship, including Samorini 1996-1998.
Samorini’s milestone work of 1996-1998 cast aside the the Amanita Primacy Fallacy, the Amanita mono-focus, and treated Psilocybin as first-class on par with Amanita.
I treat Amanita as a minor footnote and marketing ad signifying ingesting Psilocybin, in Medieval same as headshop art.
I do the reverse of what was done since Graves/Wasson around 1952, where Psilocybin was treated as 2nd-class minor mere support role serving the Glory of False King Amanita, God-Emperor all-important Our Holy Mushroom, THE Sacred Mushroom, Fly Agaric.
🪰👑🪰🍄🪰
Charles Stang’s confusion would evaporate in a moment if we could only get him to let go of his death-grip on “secret” and “suppressed”.
The word ‘secret’ infests Stang’s his end-of-2024 article (recycled from 2021) 14 times.
“Psychedelic Futures and Altered States in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean”
Charles Stang, Harvard Divinity School
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/CFC771D700D6D7BEA8AD6D961BAC4F27/S0017816024000373a.pdf/psychedelic-futures-and-altered-states-in-the-religions-of-the-ancient-mediterranean.pdf
print pubn date: Oct. 4, 2024
online pubn date: Dec. 31, 2024
🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫(🍄, almost forgot)
https://egodeaththeory.org/2024/12/24/idea-development-page-22-2024-12-23/#Stang-Reheated-Leftovers-9-32 – find “rail against”:
Professor Charles Stang, director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, says and writes throughout his recycled article/ keynote/ video:
“And given the silence of the hostile witnesses, the very Churchmen you’d expect to rail against this practice, even if we were to find evidence of a psychedelic Eucharist, wouldn’t it more likely have been something at the margins of Christianity?”
“If there were significant numbers of early Christians using a psychedelic sacrament, I would expect that the representatives of orthodox, institutional Christianity would rail against it. I would expect we’d have ample evidence.”
What kind of evidence do you imagine you’re looking for, Stang? Negative, suppressive, persecution-type evidence; evidence of secret, hidden use of mushrooms.
Stang says in the 2021 video interview with Brian Muraresku:
“I wish the church fathers were better botanists and would rail against the specific pharmacopeia. They did not. But we do know that something was happening.”
“So, again, if there were an early psychedelic sacrament that was suppressed, I would expect that the suppressors would talk about it, as they do about all the other alleged errors they document. Why don’t they?“
BECAUSE MUSHROOMS WERE NOT SECRET, HIDDEN, SUPPRESSED, OR PROHIBITED, AS YOU KEEP BASELESSLY PRESUPPOSING, ESTEEMED AND LEARNED PROFESSOR DOCTOR DIRECTOR STANG.
🎓🏫 🚫🤔
Stop your presupposition of “secret”/”hidden” and “prohibited”/”suppressed”, and the situation and argumentation about “evidence” fundamentally changes.
Stang’s repeated argumentation then collapses. He’s looking for the wrong thing, “SUPPRESSED HERETICAL SECRET (mushrooms)”, instead of looking for mushrooms.
Stang, Letcher, Hatsis, and Huggins are all intently looking for “secret” and “suppressed”, instead of looking for “mushroom”.
Letcher Hatsis Huggins is not the one who created the misbegotten, malformed Secret Amanita paradigm that’s mis-founded on the the Amanita Primacy Fallacy.
The mushroom-imagery deniers opportunistically seize upon that mistake to leverage that conflation: the mushroom image is not secret, “therefore” not mushroom.
“This mushroom imagery on Bernward door is not secret. Therefore, the fervent assertions of secret Amanita (secret Christian mushroom cult) are disproved. Therefore mushroom imagery in Christian art is disproved. Therefore your guyses’ position that there was a secret Christian amanita cult is disproved.”
But we are not looking for a Secret Christian Amanita Cult. Not secret; not cult; not Amanita. We are looking for Psilocybin mushrooms, and for Amanita (a deliriant) as a symbol of ingesting psychedelics.
The bad argumentation stems originally from the Allegro/Ruck camp, not from Letcher or Huggins.
The four liberty cap mushroom trees on Bernward Column: https://egodeaththeory.org/2024/12/03/quotes-for-course-correction-of-entheogen-scholarship/#Bernward-Column-Liberty-Cap-Tree-1
New Domain name, Egodeaththeory.org, for Egodeaththeory.wordpress.com
I got Egodeaththeory.org, for this site. This site was down for less than an hour, while switching to the new domain name.
Removed Ads
I removed ads from this site, EgodeathTheory.WordPress.com, aka EgodeathTheory.org.
Stang Video: Plenary Lecture of the 2023 Paranormal Conference
Search for Stang at Harvard:
https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/search?search=stang
Video: “The Call of the Ancient: Psychedelic Pasts and Futures”, Professor Charles Stang
https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/video-call-ancient-psychedelic-pasts-and-futures-professor-charles-stang-2023-archives – page intro:
“Professor Charles Stang, CSWR Director, delivered a lecture entitled, “The Call of the Ancient: Psychedelic Pasts and Futures ” at the “Archives of the Impossible” Conference at Rice University on May 13, 2023.
“What is at stake in our knowing whether and how psychedelics were used in the ancient world?
“Why do we feel compelled to call up, and call upon, “The Ancient,” an imaginal reality I wish to distinguish from “the ancients” or indeed from “antiquity”?
“Or is it rather that “The Ancient” is calling on us, and if so, why?
This lecture will explore some recent scholarship on psychedelics in the ancient world, in the spirit of appreciation and critique, all with the aim of proposing how the contemporary interest for psychedelics should heed the call of “The Ancient,” of discerning a way forward.”
/ end of blurb from webpage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW8Ua49dCYk —
Brain of the conference: Jeffrey Kripal – [Doctor of Paranormal Studies]
Whatever happened to the guy taking the E.S.P. test in Ghostbusters? Oh, here he is:
Direct link to YouTube video of Stang’s Plenary Lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzaSlubrVxY#t=6s (= 6 seconds in)
Blurb that’s directly on the video:
“June 29, 2023, RICE UNIVERSITY
“Charles M. Stang, professor of Early Christian Thought and the director of the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at Harvard Divinity School, lectured on “The Call of the Ancient: Psychedelic Pasts and Futures” during the international conference at Rice University titled “Archives of the Impossible: Transnationalism, Transdisciplinarity, Transcendence.”
“The May 11-13, 2023 conference featured speakers and panelists who set out to demystify the paranormal through their research and experiences regarding metaphysics, UFOs and much more.
“Stang leads an initiative at the CSWR called “Transcendence and Transformation,” which includes a series on “Psychedelics and the Future of Religion.”
https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/news/2023/10/25/psychedelics-and-future-religion
“His research and teaching focus on philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially Eastern varieties of Christianity.
“More specifically, his interests include
the development of asceticism, monasticism and mysticism in early Christianity;
ancient philosophy, especially Neoplatonism;
the Syriac Christian tradition, especially the spread of the East Syrian tradition along the Silk Road;
other philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean, including Gnosticism, Alchemy, Hermeticism and Manichaeism; and
modern continental philosophy and theology, especially as they intersect with the study of religion.”
“His current projects include
an edition and translation of Evagrius of Pontus’s “Great Letter,”
a translation of Henry Corbin’s The Paradox of Monotheism, and
a book on the imagination of fire in the ancient Mediterranean world.”
🔥
“Learn more about the Archives of the Impossible:
https://impossiblearchives.rice.edu “
Transcript:
ll right I’m really excited and delighted to be introducing Dr Charles M Stang uh Dr Singh is Professor of early
0:06Christian thought and the director of the center for the study of world religions at Harvard Divinity School
0:12where he leads an initiative called Transcendence and transformation which includes a series on psychedelics and
0:17the future of religion his research and teaching focus on philosophical and religious movements of
0:22the ancient Mediterranean World especially Eastern varieties of Christianity more specific interests include the
0:28development of asceticism monasticism and mysticism and early Christianity ancient philosophy especially
0:33neoplatonism the Syriac Christian tradition especially the spread of the East Syrian tradition along the Silk
0:38Road as well as other philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean such as gnosticism Alchemy
0:44hermeticism and manichaeism in addition to Modern Continental philosophy and theology
0:49his major Publications include apophysis and pseudonymity and Dionysus the arapagite no longer I and our divine
0:57double and current projects include an addition and translation of a vague race upon to this great letter a translation
1:02of Henry corbans the Paradox of monotheism and a book on the imagination of fire in the ancient Mediterranean
1:07world I first encountered Dr stang’s work through the cswr’s series on psychedelics and religion in a panel
1:14discussion led by him featuring a historian of religions by the name of Jeffrey kreipel here the driving question was what
1:21happens when the clinic when the clinical becomes religious and the religious becomes clinical in other
1:26words how are religion mysticism and spirituality invoked studied and understood within psychedelic clinical context and what unspoken ontological
1:33and Theological claims are at work of course none of you are here to listen to me rehash a panel from three years
1:38ago and besides you can watch it for yourselves online and I would encourage you to that’s great
1:43yet such insightful lines of inquiry inquiry I believe are worth repeating as they represent crucial considerations
1:50for the current psychedelic Renaissance and its impact on our Global moment an impact that is transnational
1:56transdisciplinary and yes transcendent furthermore these lines of inquiry and
2:01bringing the insights of the study of Religion and mysticism to bear on facets of the Psychedelic phenomena perhaps not
2:08entirely comprehensible through the lens of the clinical context alone indicate the significance and necessity of Dr
2:13Sting’s Innovative work in this area so in keeping with such inquiries into
2:19deeper and broader contexts today Dr Singh will share with us an exploration of recent scholarship on psychedelics in
2:25the ancient world and the spirit of appreciation critique with the aim of proposing how the Contemporary interest
2:30for psychedelics should heed the call of the ancient in Discerning A Way Forward
2:36uh and with that I give you Dr Charles M Stang [Applause]
2:48thank you Zach for that very kind introduction and thank you Jeff for the invitation to address this
2:54audience um I’m one of these squares who has a script but I feel compelled after the
3:00last panel discussion to go off script or rather to read from a deeper script
3:05as Michael Murphy the co-founder of esslin Institute often says who’s writing this script and what I want to
3:13share with you is the poignancy of my presentation following on that panel and
3:18especially Karen’s moving testimony about John Mack first of all
3:24the poignancy of my coming to you from Harvard an institution that mistreated
3:31John Mack so terribly so at my first I felt I I confessed my first emotion was
3:38compunction um and shame so I’m working through that
3:43privately but the more interesting um poignancy is perhaps more of a
3:51synchronicity is that um I stand before you as someone who over 20 years ago
3:56fell under the spell of T.E Lawrence otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia
4:02and as Karen mentioned uh John’s Pulitzer prize-winning book
4:08um called a prince of our disorder remains in my estimation the single best
4:14book on T.E Lawrence and there are lines of connection in my mind between the
4:19work he did on Lawrence and his work with experiencers I want to say
4:25something else a little bit more confessional which is that um
4:31listening to that presentation it became clear to me I had to confess to this group that T.E Lawrence still haunts me
4:40and I use that word rather deliberately I was visited by T.E Lawrence in 1999
4:48for those of you who aren’t sure of the timeline he’s long dead by that point um so and it was in a it was an evening
4:57in a Garrett apartment in uh Hyde Park in Chicago I think 1999
5:03and he has been with me ever since something of a possession rather I’ve
5:08been possessed by T.E Lawrence um I didn’t speak about that experience
5:14until I was prompted by a certain Jeff krypal to speak of that experience
5:21at you can probably guess where excellent yes exactly yes
5:27um so uh the the synchronicities um abound and in fact I am I’m 10 years
5:35into trying to write a book about that possession I try to in some ways it’s an exorcism trying to get T.E Lawrence out
5:42of my system those who none of you I imagine would know this but Lawrence died um again not unlike our beloved
5:49John Mack um in a automobile accident in his case he was he died on a motorcycle but he um he was planning his a next
5:58book which was called a confession of Faith which was curiously about flight
6:04about the new phenomenon of humans taking to the air and that also
6:10resonates with some of the themes we’ve heard today um so uh I’m not here to talk about T.E
6:16Lawrence or John Mack but instead psychedelics but I can’t help to flag one final synchronicity and then Karen I
6:24you know you are free to go to dinner and ignore the rest of this talk but I ha you have to see this uh this is this
6:32is the image that we uh chose five years ago at at Harvard center for the study
6:39of world religions to inaugurate our initiative called Transcendence and transformation which
6:45I’ll be speaking about later okay so thank you all for indulging that Off Script uh performance or that deeper
6:52script performance so this evening I’m here to speak about psychedelics in the ancient world more specifically what’s
6:57at stake in our knowing whether and how psychedelics were used in the ancient world and I should first make clear that
7:04by the ancient world I mean something rather specific namely the ancient Mediterranean World spanning classical
7:10to late Antiquity that’s the ancient world I allegedly know something about
7:15the question of what would what’s at stake in our knowing whether and how the psychedelics were used in the ancient
7:21world would presumably change rather dramatically if I were to speak of the
7:26ancient world of China or South Asia or the Americas for example and I imagine some of you here today have expertise in
7:33those ancient worlds and others and I invite your comments on how that this question might be approached from those
7:40angles so this evening I want to begin by discussing Brian rescue’s breakout 2020
7:46bestseller the immortality key and exploring what seems to be at stake in
7:51his inquiry into psychedelics and the ancient Mediterranean I will review some of the evidence he Marshals and to what
7:58end and I’ll offer an appreciative critique for his call for a psychedelic
8:04Reformation I’ll then suggest a different framework for thinking about psychedelics a
8:09framework I’m calling surprise surprise Transcendence and transformation this is a bit of a stump speech you’re getting
8:15I’m afraid um and uh uh and and that as has already been mentioned is the name of this
8:21initiative we’ve launched which is an initiative I see as a very natural partner to The Archives of The
8:27Impossible Project here at Rice so then I will enlist two Scholars help
8:32in sharpening how we think about psychedelics in the ancient world those two Scholars are Yulia
8:38ustinova from ben-gorian University in the Negev and valtter hanograph from the
8:43University of Amsterdam the explicit category they use to speak of psychedelics in the ancient world is
8:48Altered States Altered States Of Consciousness and of knowledge respectively a key point in their
8:54analysis and also in my Modest Proposal is that we think of psychedelics as one
8:59 among many one among many means towards Transcendence and transformation one of
9:05 many means to occasion Altered States so let’s begin
9:10 no one has done more to bring attention to the question of psychedelics in the ancient Mediterranean world then Brian murescu in the immortality key subtitled
9:19 the secret history of the religion with no name I had the privilege of interviewing Brian in early 2021 as part of that
9:26 series that Zach mentioned. I’m not going to rehearse that interview today it’s available on YouTube if you’re curious
9:32 today rather I want to explore the framework Brian introduces to promote our contemporary psychedelic enthusiasm
9:39 he speaks not of a psychedelic Renaissance which is of course very common today but rather of a psychedelic
9:45 Reformation the Reformation of course is the name given to the 16th century religious
9:50 movement inaugurated by Martin Luther and his 99 theses a movement that swept
9:56 Europe changed the course of the modern world in areas very far flung from his German Homeland including right here in
10:04 the Lone Star State but before we dive into Brian’s call for a psychedelic Reformation we have to
10:10explore how he heard the call of the ancient and this starts with the ancient Greek
10:15ellucinian Mysteries the origins of these Mysteries this mystery cult are lost to time from
10:23The Classical period onward we know that on a specific day in September or October initiates would walk the 14
10:30miles from Athens to the town of eluses along the quote sacred road to celebrate
10:36the greater Mysteries which were a commemoration of Persephone’s return from Haiti’s underworld a reunion with
10:43her grieving mother Demeter and thereby a celebration of life’s life’s cyclical dance with death
10:50the initiates would approach the greater Mysteries having already celebrated the Lesser mysteries in February a year and
10:58a half earlier those who had undertaken this prior initiation were called
11:04um or that the initiation was muesis and they were called initiates or mustai
11:10mistine modern Greek that is the same route from which we get tamistica the
11:15Mysteries or mysticos a Mystic they would have spent the time between
11:22the first and second phases of the Mysteries immersed in myths and practices associated with both and so
11:28with fear and trembling these mistai approached the greater Mysteries and
11:34when they did the greater Mysteries I’m sorry were called The Vision or epoptia
11:39and the vision would render them Visionaries
11:44 so what did these initiates see such that they earned the title visionary
11:52 upon reaching eluses the initiates stood watch at an all-night vigil in a
11:58 sanctuary and were given a special drink called the kikion culminating in a secret liturgy and an f
12:04 and an ineffable vision of what we’re not quite sure because the
12:10 initiatory ritual and accompanying Vision were Mysteries after all initiates were strictly forbidden from
12:16 divulging the secrets of eluses and some speculate that what they beheld was in any case Beyond description ineffable
12:25 but from scattered reports and remarks over the centuries Scholars have
12:31 surmised that at the height of the Liturgy a high priest would invoke the goddess Demeter and Persephone and that
12:37 at a climax complete with a deafening gong and pyrotechnics the underworld
12:43 would open and one or both goddesses would appear to the assembled
12:49 not surprisingly Scholars have wondered what might have been in that kikyon
12:55 right if the vision was the result of an elaborate sound and light show orchestrated by priests in the inner
13:02 sanctum to induce a kind of ritual ecstasy might the kikion have been a
13:07 psychoactive Sacrament that helped induce that mystical ecstatic vision
13:14 the German scholar of Greek religion Walter burkert floated the idea in 1977.
13:20 he wrote it may rather be asked even without the prospect of a certain answer whether at the basis of the Mysteries
13:27there were prehistoric drug rituals some Festival of immortality which
13:33through the expansion of consciousness seemed to guarantee some psychedelic Beyond
13:40in a subsequent publication he tried to walk that back but
13:46in the next year 1978 three authors working independently of burkert took up
13:53the Psychedelic hypothesis in a book called The Road to eluses two of them will come as no surprise
14:01the first was R Gordon Wasson the amateur ethnomycologist whose 1957
14:07article in Life Magazine seeking the magic mushroom told of his experiences
14:12ingesting psychoactive mushrooms with the mazatek people of Mexico led by the
14:18shaman Maria Sabina his article opened the floodgates to a torrent of Western Seekers looking to
14:25expand their consciousness the sad story of the effect of that influx on the mazotec people and on
14:31 Maria Sabina in particular is well known the second author was Albert Hoffman the
14:37 Swiss chemist who first synthesized LSD in 1938 and who in re-synthesizing it in
14:44 1943 inadvertently absorbed some into his system and so famously discovered
14:50 it’s hallucinogenic effects it was Hoffman who analyzed the samples
14:56 of magic mushrooms Wasson brought back from Mexico and identified their active compounds that is psilocybin and
15:03 silacine later Wasson asked Hoffman whether the ancient Greeks might have had the
15:09 capacity of isolating a psychoactive agent from ergot
15:14 which is a fungal parasite that grows on many grains Hoffman was confident that indeed it was
15:21 possible because airgut grew on the on the wheat and barley that grows on the plains next to eluses and throughout the
15:27 Mediterranean and the relevant alkaloids from ergot were Waller I’m sorry were water soluble and thereby easily
15:34 isolated so perhaps the secret of the kikion lay in the psychedel the psychoactive ergot That Grew on the
15:41 Greeks grains which they had learned to isolate and mix with their ritual potion
15:47 oh hold on there’s Carl the third member of their team was the classicist Carl A.P Ruck
15:54 professor at Boston University he claimed that what the initiates saw in the hall was nothing less than a
16:00 mystical Vision induced by a hallucigen those are his words a poem from the 7th Century BC called
16:07 the homeric hymn to Demeter tells the famous myth of Persephone’s abduction
16:12 and return and the establishment of the ellusinian Mysteries by the goddess herself Demeter the hymn also tells of
16:20the first potions ingredients the first kikion it included barley water and mint
16:27sadly the manuscript breaks off just at the point with a gap of over 20 lines so
16:34we don’t know what else was revealed about its Constitution use or effects
16:41now according to Ruck the ellucinian priests were masters of what Timothy Leary later called set and setting
16:48carefully curating initiates interior States and exterior environment so that
16:53they would have a vivid vision of Persephone’s return from Hades a psychedelic trip that would forever
16:59reorient their lives and so their deaths Ruck went further though
17:06and thought and thanked wasen and Hoffman because quote I think this is the next one let’s see yes those of us
17:15 who have experienced the superior hallucinogen may now join The Fellowship of the ancient initiates in a lasting
17:22 bond of friendship a friendship born of a shared experience of a reality far deeper than we had known before
17:30 now an initiate himself like Wasson and Hoffman Ruck broke the ancient
17:36 injunction and spoke the Unspeakable secrets of ellusis
17:42 the road to eluses was largely met with silence at least among classicists a
17:47 short review in the 1979 issue of classical World concluded that the evidence was insufficient and thus that
17:54 acceptance of the book’s hypothesis quote depends on one’s view of its plausibility or on faith
18:01 by faith the reviewer clearly means experience because he then quotes Rock’s
18:06admission of his own psychedelic experiences the review was short but hardly Savage
18:14the reaction at his home institution was less kind John Silber the legendary president of
18:20Boston University removed Rook as the chair of Classics and barred him from teaching graduate seminars
18:27he had tenure so he kept his job but he was marginalized and humiliated
18:32until recently most classicists passed a politely passed over his hypothesis with
18:39silence or a brief dismissive mention Ruck responded by doubling down on the
18:45Psychedelic hypothesis and widening his Ambit to include the other Greek mystery religions the Psychedelic origins of
18:51religion itself the possibility of a psychedelic Eucharist in early Christianity and the lasting but hidden
18:57influence of all these on medieval and early modern Europe but as he widened his Ambit he narrowed
19:04his audience only those who are already predisposed to the Psychedelic hypothesis were likely to read his later
19:11books it often seems as if Wasson Hoffman and
19:16Rook are convinced that psychedelics are the only or at least the preeminent technique for inducing mystical ecstasy
19:24but why should we be persuaded of that after all the greater Mysteries involved
19:29a year and a half of preparation and training and during the week of the celebrations themselves extensive
19:35trekking fasting dancing and hence physical exhaustion
19:41but also identification with Mythic figures that is gods and heroes and what
19:47we might call theophanic dramaturgy all of this amounts to some Synergy and some
19:53quote somatic states that welcomed rather than resisted the combination of ingredients that was the kikion
20:01my own view is we should not put psychedelics on a pedestal where they might easily be knocked off
20:08but rather acknowledge their place as part of the foundation of the ecstatic edifice at eluses
20:15of the three authors of the road to eluses only rock is still alive today Wasson died in 1986 and Hoffman in 2008.
20:25despite his rough going at Boston University Ruck does not regret his decision to pursue the Psychedelic
20:31hypothesis nor does he hold any great grudge against his many Skeptics and critics
20:36still he must be pleased to see his hypothesis revived and defended with more evidence
20:43in murrescues the immortality key we know Ruck is pleased because he
20:50appears throughout the pages of this book which reads like a popular detective story mixed with learned
20:56non-fiction muresku is a lawyer by trade not a scholar but he’s nevertheless very
21:03learned a ba in Classics from Brown furnished him with Greek and Latin as well as
21:08fluency in several European languages that afford him access to obscure research like Catalan and allow him to
21:15charm Gatekeepers at relevant archaeological sites and archives including the Vatican
21:22following in rook’s footsteps Moore rescue suggests that the Psychedelic Sacrament at eluses is just the tip of
21:28the iceberg and that behind the differing competing religions of the ancient Mediterranean there was an even more ancient and
21:36 pervasive Indo-European religion of ecstasy a barely visible religion with
21:42 no name a religion at times celebrated if also guarded such as eluses a religion at
21:49 times persecuted especially by institutional Christianity like toadstools though this religion
21:56 with no name seems to pop up throughout the sediment of ancient history rearing its head or its Hood only briefly before
22:05 returning to the Earth from which it arose but Christianity has a much more
22:11 complicated place in murrescu’s secret history then this would suggest he
22:16 suspects that at least some early Christians were experimenting with a psychedelic Eucharist and that with the rise of Imperial
22:23 Orthodoxy in Rome it was driven Underground perhaps literally as in the case of the Roman catacombs
22:29 with one eye on the past marescu fixes another on the present or really the future
22:35 surfing what has been called the second wave of psychedelic Research In The Sciences as evidenced by the trials at
22:42 Johns Hopkins University and and New York University he wonders like many
22:47 others whether the extraordinary therapeutic outcomes associated with these trials Harkens a new age of the
22:55 religion with no name almost certainly psilocybin and other psychedelics will soon become legal for
23:01 therapeutic use and if many I’m sorry but if many find that psychedelics reliably induce
23:08 extraordinary experiences of the Divine mystical ecstatic states that are truly Soul revealing or psychedelic
23:16 then perhaps we stand on the threshold of a new Reformation a quote popular
23:21 outbreak of mysticism and when not if but when for marescu it
23:29can be shown that a psychedelic Sacrament was the more ancient perhaps even the original Sacrament then as he
23:35puts it the religion of No Name Is Back
23:42how did we get here let’s step back and assess the evidence
23:48it’s easier to it’s easiest to do so in two stages first for the Pagan mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean
23:53and second for early Christianity which marescu prefers to call primitive or
23:58paleo Christianity as if it were a diet um
24:05if there were hard evidence of psychedelics in the ellucian Mysteries how would we know it
24:10after all food and drink are ephemeral they decompose quickly so traditional archeology can hardly dig them dig them
24:17up dust them off and put them in a museum for display enter archaeological chemistry or
24:24archaeochemistry for short in the last several decades new technologies allow researchers to recover organic residue
24:32that has survived in excavated vessels that is to say ancient cups or plates or
24:37has been absorbed into their porous surfaces and then to analyze their chemical composition with these tools
24:44and hands you’d think that the Psychedelic hypothesis could be easily confirmed with a single trip to eluses
24:51but sadly all the excavated vessels from eluses have been thoroughly cleaned
24:58scoured of any organic residue that might answer the question apparently that was a standard practice before the
25:04Advent of archeochemistry fine you might say let’s go dig up some more uh vessels and test those again
25:13sadly this path is also blocked at least for now since any further digging at
25:19eluses is prohibited you can almost hear the exasperated sigh
25:25from marescue when he realizes this thwarted again
25:30now he’s rescued from despair by news from Catalonia
25:36in the early aren’t we all um in the early 6th Century BC Greek
25:42colonists established a port city north of what is now Barcelona they pressed Inland in The Next Century
25:48and established a Farmstead where together with the local indigenous population they farmed and worshiped
25:55archaeological evidence has emerged from this Farmstead Community pointing to a suggestive connection with the
26:01ellucinian Mysteries it seems as if these Greek colonists were familiar with
26:07the myths and rituals associated with eluses and Incorporated them into whatever cult they practiced as part of
26:13their hellenized Farmstead inside of a domestic Chapel of this agrarian cult archaeologists found the remains of a
26:20human jawbone and a small ritual chalice both of which tested positive for ergot
26:27the very ingredient thought to be in the kikion potion at eluses
26:32did the Greek colonists rest the secrets of eluses from the priesthood and
26:37presume to practice their own mysteries in Catalonia if so their free adaptation of the
26:44Mysteries would Mark a betrayal of the initiate’s oath of silence but they didn’t do it alone
26:50they were working and worshiping with indigenous locals independent of the farm The Farmstead
26:56site archaeochemists have discovered ample evidence of an even more ancient
27:01psychedelic beer in and around Northeastern Spain the locals beer was spiked with
27:08variations of nightshade not aragot so the picture that emerges is that of a
27:14psychedelic collaborative of sorts an ancient indigenous tradition of drinking psychedelic beer to enable
27:21Journeys to other worlds or the afterlife is coupled with a foreign cult brought from Greece also centered on
27:28life’s stance with death but which involved a different ritual potion who knows what exactly happened in that
27:35domestic Chapel in Spain but it seems that the locals long accustomed to their own psychedelic Sacrament readily
27:42embraced the latest import from the East these two finds then are together the
27:48closest thing we have to a Smoking Gun does this confirm the Psychedelic
27:53hypothesis regarding eluses not exactly maybe indirectly
28:01some Greek colonists with connections to elusives were found to have used an ergot-infused beer in an Open Access
28:07sanctuary and to have found receptive indigenous Partners not exactly
28:12confirmation of what happened at eluses but on my reading the balance of
28:17evidence is tilting in the favor of the Psychedelic hypothesis
28:22the second half of marescu’s book is devoted to early Christianity he argues that quote the primary
28:30motivation of the entire Reformation was the rediscovery of Christianity’s true
28:36Origins and its real meaning and we know that the reformers portrait
28:41of early Christianity was in no small part of fiction they painted early Christians in their
28:47own image so as to see themselves reflected in that history as the earliest among the faithful
28:54I fear that Mira rescue is doing much the same when he calls for a new
28:59reformation and his quest for the original sacrament of Western Civilization
29:06he forwards what he calls the Pagan continuity hypothesis with two questions
29:13before the rise of Christianity did the ancient Greeks consume a secret psychedelic Sacrament during their most
29:19famous and well-attended religious rituals two did the ancient Greeks pass a version of
29:26their Sacrament along to the earliest greek-speaking Christians For Whom the original Holy Communion or Eucharist was
29:33in fact a psychedelic Eucharist he writes if the answer to both
29:39questions is yes then the new Reformation is as well grounded and historically oriented as Martin Luther’s
29:46Reformation so a historian of the Reformation might find that very curious sense well grounded in history
29:52okay but any case and it becomes an immediate reality for the tens of millions of sbnrs and religiously
29:58disillusioned I imagine you all know sbnr stands for Spiritual but not religious now let’s just take his two questions in
30:04turn as for the first we’ve already discussed how the answer is Maybe
30:11I’m more and more persuaded by the indirect evidence that the kikioned eluses may have
30:17included some psychoactive ingredient which was part of a wider orchestrated ritual that induced the vision as for
30:24the second question regarding the Christian Eucharist mer rescue claims to explore quote an early secret form of
30:31Christianity that has been scrubbed from the record now here I must simply call foul
30:38as far as I can tell there is simply no evidence direct or indirect circumstantial or otherwise
30:45that an early secret form of Christianity was using a psychedelic Eucharist
30:52and even if evidence of a psychedelic Eucharist within the first centuries of Christianity were to surface and it
30:58wouldn’t surprise me if it did it wouldn’t tell us that the original Eucharist was psychedelic
31:06or that it was ever the norm rather than the exception any more than the discovery of texts
31:13from the second or third Century tells us about who Jesus really was
31:18or what the original faith of early Christianity was
31:23in the longer version of this lecture I offer a much more sustained critique of the alleged evidence that Moresco Marshals but in the in the interest of
31:30time I’ll simply say that at present the answer to the second question at present the answer is simply no
31:37or at best not yet so on my best read the answer to these two questions are a maybe and a no
31:44rescue writes I present every piece of evidence that taken together finally convinced me of the Psychedelic reality
31:51behind Western civilization’s original religion the religion that started it all the religion with no name
31:57I will need much more convincing and I think you should too
32:03now I do find myself agreeing with miresku when he says that his book is a proof of concept that is proof that
32:09there’s something in the ancient record some of it’s already out and more will follow if we learn how to look for it
32:17I’m not exactly I’m not remotely scandalized by the notion that the ancient rituals employed what we’re
32:23calling psychedelics I’m not surprised to find evidence among the evidence for it among the ellucinian
32:28Mysteries and I wouldn’t be surprised to find some evidence for it in early Christianity but we don’t have that
32:34evidence and so it feels as if marescu is letting some narrative rather than the evidence Drive the inquiry
32:43his narrative is clear psychedelic ritual was the ancient religion With No Name a nameless lineage
32:49of women with expertise in plant medicine and ritual ecstasy suppressed by institutions of male privilege
32:55jealous of their own power preeminently the church a religion that would not die despite severe and brutal persecution of
33:02Faith shared by Jesus or at least his early followers and other mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean
33:09but even if we were to find evidence of a psychedelic Eucharist would that establish that it was the norm or the
33:15original form of the sacrament I think we’d have to amass a lot of evidence to make that case we might have
33:21to find the Holy Grail literally and I think Indiana Jones tried
33:27it’s been a while since I’ve seen the third movie but so given the Silence of the Hostile
33:32Witnesses the very Churchman you’d expect to rail against this practice even if we
33:37were to find evidence of a psychedelic Eucharist wouldn’t it be more likely to have been something at the margins of
33:43Christianity that’s my guess so in the end it seems to me that in
33:48calling for a new Reformation muresku has repeated the reformers error of retro projecting their present 16th
33:56century pie German piety for example onto the past of early Christianity morescue is retrojecting his present
34:04our present the 21st century American psychedelic Renaissance onto that same
34:10past this psychedelic past which is really just a projection of the present underwrites a psychedelic future
34:17a new Reformation he cites Aldous Huxley in support of this view Huxley and the doors of
34:23perception calls not for a Reformation per se but for a Revival of religion quote a radical self-transcendence and
34:30deeper understanding of the nature of things and this revival of religion will at the same time be a revolution
34:37religion will be transformed into an everyday mysticism
34:43Huxley marescue issues a call to quote Join the Revolution that might just rescue a
34:51dying Faith that’s Christianity dying faith and a civilization on the edge of Extinction that’s us
34:58marescu’s reboot of this revolution is explicitly targeting the growing ranks
35:04of the unchurched the espionars and hoping to mobilize their disaffection with institutionalized religion they’re
35:11longing for an enchanted world and their despair in the face of political environmental collapse
35:17judging by the sales the Revolutionary call has found an audience one willing
35:22at least to buy the book if not read it every Revolution needs a past to
35:30underwrite its vision of the future certainly Marx’s did and this revolution
35:35is no exception rather than a Reformation I’d like to
35:41propose a different psychedelic past and one which may offer a better psychedelic future
35:46more realistic psychedelic future what I’m going to call Transcendence and transformation
35:51I recently spoke at a conference at Harvard on interdisciplinary psychedelic research and I told the audience that if
35:58you told me five years ago that I’d be speaking at a conference on interdisciplinary psychedelic research
36:03I’d say you need to lower your dose
36:09I did I do I do I did I did and I do fancy myself something of a psychonaut
36:16a sailor on the Seas of Seoul but mine were not Journeys associate occasion by
36:22those substances we’re calling psychedelics my drug of choice as it were was reading
36:27ancient texts in their original languages which is a mind-altering and tried and
36:33true method I highly recommend yeah thank you um
36:39by the way I have to say I can’t resist this uh T.E Lawrence visited me while
36:44during an intensive reading of his book Seven Pillars of wisdom okay and one of the things and I’ve told Brian this that
36:51absolutely frosted me about the uh the immortality key as he says in the introduction no mystic has ever
36:57encountered God reading a book and I thought yeah I
37:04I do have maybe among the religions of the book
37:10um but in any case I’ll do that to one side Brian’s a friend by the way and I’ve already you know given him most of this
37:18uh um he’s good-natured about it okay so I confess I entered the Psychedelic space
37:24as something of a skeptic but I think that skepticism has in fact served me pretty well
37:29I don’t think it’s controversial to say that in the Contemporary enthusiasm for psychedelics there’s a lot of noise
37:34there’s a lot of froth on this latte I’ve come to believe that there is a
37:40signal amidst the noise that something important is coming to the surface in this cultural Moment occasioned by the
37:47Psychedelic Renaissance but the truth is I’m not interested in
37:52psychedelics per se I think psychedelics are most interesting and most significant as one
37:59among many different means and modes of exploring what I call Transcendence and transformation what Jeff might call the
38:06superhumanities to put that another way I’m interested in the Transcendence of our normal
38:11states of being perception Consciousness and embodiment and the ways that Transcendence affords the transformation
38:18of the individual group and Society I’m interested in psychedelics as one
38:23among many practices of transcendence and transformation and I don’t believe they’re necessarily the Golden Road
38:30but rather One path or rather a set of paths for psychedelics are not a highway
38:35but a web of paths each with its own individual qualities and character and
38:42paths that may lead to very different destinations I prefer to think of psychedelics as one
38:48among many ecstatic practices or what in other contexts might be called spiritual exercises that is practices that Usher
38:56us outside our custom States and invite us into new relationship with ourselves our fellow humans and our more than
39:03human or other than human neighbors including the Earth’s plant fungal and animal life but also those elusive
39:10entities we call Spirits Angels demons and gods or in this context I’ll say
39:17aliens visible and invisible real and imagined malevolent and benign
39:25practices that allow us to experience differently the relationship between mind and matter
39:31body and spirit what is animate and what we allege is inert in other words the
39:36big questions of space and time and of consciousness
39:42I said that I’m interested in Transcendence of our normal states of being and perception Consciousness and embodiment
39:48in other word in other words I’m interested in Altered States and I want to suggest that Altered
39:54States is another and better framework for thinking about psychedelics in the ancient world
39:59better and no smart no small part because it takes psychedelics off that pedestal they’re often put on and places
40:05them where they should be namely part of a broad array of practices that help
40:11occasion Altered States and help us transcend and transform so I want to highlight the work of two
40:18Scholars one working in classical Antiquity and another in what is called late Antiquity and in this regard they
40:23nicely bookend the ancient Mediterranean world the first is Yulia ustinova who in 2017
40:31published Divine Mania alteration of Consciousness in ancient Greece
40:36her interest in Altered States has been a Mainstay in her work in her first book in 2019 her first book was entitled
40:43caves and the ancient Greek mind descending underground in search for
40:48ultimate truth in which she looked closely at how Greeks went underground in search of Altered States Of
40:55Consciousness so her new book widens the inquiry and looks at all manner of techniques for altering one’s
41:01consciousness in his dialogue with I’m sorry in his dialogue entitled The phaedris Plato has
41:09Socrates offer a taxonomy of mania or Madness on the one hand Socrates says
41:15Madness is a human disease let me see is this the right nope I cut that okay it’s
41:20a human disease on the other hand Madness can be divine in which the gods
41:26quote release you from your customary habits and there are four kinds of divine
41:32Madness one prophecy inspired by Apollo initiatory Madness inspired by Dionysus
41:39three poetic Madness inspired by the muses and four love Madness inspired by
41:47Aphrodite and Eros ustinova Marshalls extensive evidence to
41:53suggest that Socrates is actually espousing of you widely shared by his contemporaries that while there is a
42:00concern about the pathology of Madness there’s also a deep interest in exploring Altered States Of
42:06Consciousness and that wisdom and Truth are not accessible to our accustomed ways of experiencing the world
42:15she tells us how the ancient Greeks distinguish between forms of Mania in which the Divine possesses you as if
42:21from outside so-called katoki which forms
42:26distinguishes that from forms in which the Divine seems to emerge from within you and Blossom forth into Altered
42:33States here the uh hence the adjective and Theos or in godded the noun enthusiasmos in godliness or epipenoia
42:42inspiration you may hear the resonance here with the modern neologism and
42:47theogen which means something that brings about the state of ungodedness
42:54she very helpfully introduces the idea borrowed from neuropharma neuro phenomenology that some cultures are
43:00more amenable to Altered States than others a so-called polyphasic culture tends to
43:06Value quote Altered States Of Consciousness experienced principally in ritual contexts
43:12now such cultures tend to be pre-industrial ancient Greece was one such polyphasic
43:18culture over and against ancient Rome at least Republican Rome which was
43:25monophasic that is it tended quote to marginalize these experiences as unorthodox or even criminalize them and
43:32alteration of Consciousness in such societies is limited to the secular sphere
43:38Republican Rome was certainly pre-industrial and yet it was on her view committed to the suppression of
43:44Altered States at least until the Imperial period when it opened itself to the influence of ecstatic movements from
43:51Greece and further east now I leave it to you to discern whether you think we are inhabiting a monophasic
43:57or polyphasic culture or whether that distinction even maps onto the Contemporary psychedelic scene
44:03Renaissance Reformation Revolution or Revival or indeed none of the above
44:09as you can probably tell ustinova is in dialogue with contemporary brain Sciences cognitive
44:15Neuroscience including neural phenomenology and neurotheology she follows what’s sometimes called 5e
44:22cognitive science which insists that whatever we’re calling Consciousness is embedded embrained embodied and cultured
44:30and extended the alternation I’m sorry the alteration of Consciousness follows suit which is
44:37to say that alterations can be a occasion by techniques that Target the brain other parts of the body or even
44:44the social body the body politic and although Consciousness is encultured
44:49quote the ability to experience alteration of Consciousness is a part of
44:55human biological potential end quote in other words in her view it’s a universal
45:01and the methods for altering it are quote similar cross-culturally
45:06methods generally fall into one of two modes excessive stimulation or its
45:11opposite deprivation and the alteration of Consciousness falls into three main types
45:17physiological pharmacological and pathological if we remove the pathological which is
45:24an alteration of Consciousness that most cultures including ancient Greece did not generally value
45:30we’re left with physiological and pharmacological alteration of Consciousness and while she does admit
45:36that there is evidence for what she calls psychotropic substances there’s simply one of among many techniques and
45:43they hardly take Center Stage even when sub when such substances are
45:49actors on the stage they’re often accompanied by other actors that is to say other modes and methods such as
45:56music movement and the play of light and darkness just as we saw at eluses
46:02she published her book before marescu’s social about ellusis and the kikion she says that quote so far there’s no
46:09unequivocal evidence for the use of mind-altering substances other than Wine and mystery religions
46:15to be honest that claim still stands because even the impressive evidence mayor rescue on Earths and Marshals for
46:22his case is all indirect and therefore equivocal for the matter of the Mysteries but to be fair to him much of
46:29his book is also devoted to arguing quite persuasively I might add that ancient beer and wine were much more
46:36powerfully psychoactive than their contemporary descendants so rather than focus on what we think of
46:43as psychedelics such as ergot and the kikion potion ustinova brings us back to the question of what what might have inspired ancient
46:50oracles such as it Delphi or didima and I mean inspired quite literally because
46:57the question is about the natural gases or Vapors what the Greeks called panevma
47:02penuma the Greek that these oracles were said to have breathed in as part of their
47:08prophetic practice some argue that the concentration of these gases isn’t or wasn’t high enough
47:14to induce the trance-like states associated with the pro the oracle’s prophecy
47:20but ustinova argues that such an approach is limited she writes
47:26the concentration of the intoxicating gas needed to alter the consciousness of a highly hypnotizable individual firmly
47:32believing in the sacredness of the right and after a day of fasting is much lower than needed to induce such changes in
47:39the consciousness of an average person moreover the gas could serve as a trigger a driving factor that put into
47:46action the oracle’s auto suggestion and in this case even a low concentration would have been signif sufficient
47:54it’s noteworthy that in various cultural practices around the globe pattern
47:59dissociative identity can be precipitated by a combination of consciousness-altering substances with
48:06one or several other methods or even be induced without any psychotropic substances
48:12the Greeks seem to have been aware of the psychoactive qualities of penuma vapors although they did not rely on it
48:19alone the same the same seems to be the case at didema where the Oracle inhaled
48:26Vapors from a sacred spring or indeed in the cave of akaraka where the inhalation
48:31of natural gases was part of the practice of dream incubation the point of all this is to underscore
48:38that psychoactive or psychotropic substances whether ingested or inhaled were one among many methods a catalyst
48:45combined with other techniques for altering States a trigger one factor among many part of a careful combination
48:53equally important to any cocktail of ecstatic techniques was the susceptibility of or sensitivity of the
48:59individual in the case of oracles it’s very likely that they were selected for their sensitivity and that their
49:06sensitivity was cultivated both over a lifetime of practice and in the short term as they prepared to issue their
49:13prophecies this is captured again in that phrase set and setting the uncultured mindset of an Oracle and her
49:20audience cultivated over a lifetime paired with a profound setting and a
49:26range of practices designed to induce Altered States
49:31ustinova’s study of Altered States in ancient Greece pairs well with valtter haneground’s latest book hermetic
49:37spirituality and the historical imagination subtitled Altered States of knowledge in late antiquity
49:44with this book we move from ancient Greece to late ancient Egypt although in
49:49Egypt deeply hellenized after centuries of rule by Greeks and thereafter Romans
49:55hermetic spirituality belongs to the Roman period that is the first several centuries of the Common Era but but it’s
50:03a spirituality that emerged from centuries of greco-egyptian hybridity
50:08like ustinova’s hanograph subtitle speaks of Altered States he explains
50:14the sub there it is the subtitle of this book refers to the unquestionable fact
50:19that human consciousness is not stable and reliable but fluid and susceptible to alteration
50:25so that what we hold to be true must depend very much on how and where we’re able to or unable to direct our
50:32attention alteration of Consciousness results in Altered States of knowledge
50:38hermetic practitioners believe that the Horizon of human consciousness could not just be expanded but be could could be
50:43transcended altogether resulting in those states of absolute knowledge and direct insight to which they referred as
50:50gnosis so his book explores in great detail how hermeticists sought to access that
50:57absolute knowledge or gnosis through various means including but not limited to psychoactive agents hallucinogens and
51:04herbs like the ancient oracles ustinova describes hanograph focuses our
51:10attention on what has often been inhaled in such rituals specifically the smoke of kufi incense
51:17kufi was used in temples all throughout Egypt and its narcotic properties induced a state of sleep-like reverie
51:25and relaxation in which the subject’s imagination would be greatly empowered
51:31the power of kufi was known not only among Temple priests but among philosophers as well
51:38platonist Plutarch said of kufi that quote it brightens the
51:43imaginative faculty susceptible to dreams like a mirror
51:49the illumination of the imagination was of course its own altered state and here too we see a psychoactive inhalant
51:56playing a part but not surprisingly paired with
52:02deliberate breathing techniques more famous than the smoke of kufi
52:07perhaps is the Psychedelic eye ointment described in the 4th Century Greek magical Papyrus text erroneously called
52:14the mithras liturgy the text is an invocation to enable an initiate to ascend to a vision of the
52:21god Helios mithras who would then bestow on him or her immortality
52:27part of the invocation involves an eye ointment whose ingredients include rose oil myrrh water lilies contritus and
52:36other ingredients not yet identified which ointment helped occasion the vision of the God honograph shows how
52:42the portion of this text having to do with this obvious psychedelic agent has
52:48been largely ignored by Scholars they just pass over this part of the
52:53text presumably because of their prejudice against drugs and the connection of religion to drugs
52:59but he insists the I think this is no
53:06I’ll read it but he insists the references are there in our sources and much more abundantly than is often
53:12thought the information is obviously important for understanding how these rituals may have worked and why practitioners could be so impressed by
53:19their efficacy if our own Hinterland of cultural biases makes it hard for us to
53:24consider this Dimension seriously then the burden is on us to do something about it
53:30but just as hanograph calls for Scholars to overcome their cultural biases so too
53:36he cautions us against thinking that these psychoactive agents took Central
53:41stage in occasion in Altered States especially gnosis he writes
53:47if I’ve called some special attention to the role of psychedelic psychoactive substances in this context it’s because
53:53the of the relative neglect of that Dimension needs to be corrected while the underlying mechanisms of discursive
53:59marginalization must be properly understood the implication is not that psychoactive psychoactives are in any
54:06way Central to the spiritual culture under discussion or to hermeticism more specifically
54:12rather they should be seen as part of a broader far more just diverse and
54:17complex repertoire of techniques and procedures that were available to spiritual practitioners in late
54:24antiquity so I hope the reasons for my appeal to usinova and hanographer clear first they
54:30both look at the ancient Mediterranean through the lens of Altered States and explore various movements both
54:36mainstream and esoteric that work with Altered States for the pursuit of wisdom truth and knowledge
54:41second they’re both open to the use of psychoactive substances or psychedelics
54:46in that Pursuit and in fact they go out of their way to highlight the relevant evidence and critique scholarly biases
54:53that have marginalized that evidence third and this is crucial they both refuse the temptation to indulge in
55:00psychedelic exceptionalism the notion that somehow what we’re calling psychedelics are the exceptional or
55:07exemplary technique of altering one’s consciousness there are traditions of transcendence
55:12and transformation traditions of working with Altered States that have nothing to do with psychedelics
55:19and even in those Traditions that do the ingestion or inhalation of psychoactive substances is often a catalyst in a much
55:27more complicated alchemical reaction one factor in a much more complex equation
55:36all right conclusion I want to Circle back to the title of my talk the call of the ancient and then I
55:42want to suggest why I think the Psychedelic past centered around Transcendence and transformation can help us discern a better psychedelic
55:48future first I want to concede something to speak of transcendence in the
55:55Contemporary Academy is transgressive and to understand why we should linger
56:01for a moment over that Latin preposition trans as in Transcendence transformation
56:07and now transgression trans means that it’s most basic level
56:13across or Beyond and implied and it implies movement movement from one place
56:19to another one state to another across something like a threshold or a
56:25line or a boundary whatever differentiates here from there this from that one from another
56:32many contemporary thinkers are wary of transcendence because they think it implies a particular kind of movement
56:39namely an escape an escape from the thorny realities of
56:44history and its Horrors or its beauties and they regard the Escape as Escapist
56:52and they’re certainly right the Transcendence has been marshaled to justify the flight from our bodies and their demands on us from other people
56:59and our responsibilities to them from the earth and how we have grossly mistreated it
57:05it appears to them Transcendence appears to them as a metaphysical version of the
57:10billionaires launching themselves into space in their Rockets leaving us and
57:15this wounded World Behind changing their location but not changing themselves one
57:21atom or inch this is decidedly not what I invoke when
57:27I speak of transcendence I’m committed to the trans and Transcendence and transformation
57:32movement across and Beyond to explore ourselves and others and to embark on an
57:39adventure into this world and into others for when we worry that Transcendence
57:45might be an escape from our Here and Now I want to ask whether we should be so confident that we know our Here and Now
57:54perhaps the first thing to be transcended is that very confidence in hopes that we might discover other ways
58:01of being here and now rather than a flight from the body for
58:06example might Transcendence be a flight into the body or at least into other modes of embodiment we’re not accustomed
58:13 to perceive I’m convinced that we are individually and collectively much more than we
58:19 typically take ourselves to be and that the Urgent task is first a kind of imminent trans Transcendence
58:27 crossing the most proximate thresholds of our custom States
58:32 maybe that will open up onto New Horizons of the then and the there
58:38 but we’re not there yet or are we in any case let’s start here and now
58:45 recognizing that both here and now like us have always been much more than we’ve let them be
58:52 one last point it’s a brief one I promise what can psychedelics and the ancient
58:57 Mediterranean reframed offered the future let’s answer that by first turning to
59:04our present in today’s world fueled in part by the Psychedelic Renaissance there’s a
59:09growing enthusiasm for Altered States everyone’s asking to quote Michael Pollan how to change my mind
59:18but fewer are asking why to what end
59:23which alterations of Consciousness are good and for whom
59:28and when what do such Altered States afford US
59:34what do I learn about myself or my world by being altered
59:40what should I seek to transcend and why how should I seek to transform and why
59:48and just as importantly what should I not seek to transcend or transform and
59:55why I worry that in today’s world Altered States are all too often like
1:00:01psychedelics seen as ends unto themselves a menu of extraordinary experiences we
1:00:08collect and compare and with which we all too often compete
1:00:14in the ancient world there were more often Frameworks for the pursuit and interpretation of Altered States
1:00:21mythologies and metaphysics along with communities of practice to sustain them
1:00:27the oracular Traditions knew what sort of Altered States they were pursuing and why
1:00:33followers of Dionysus and initiates in adelusis knew what sort of ecstasy or
1:00:39what sort of vision they were after and why hermeticists believed that their
1:00:45spirituality offered access to Altered States of knowledge and they had an account of what why the of what they
1:00:52needed to know and why they needed to know it differently than we usually do
1:00:57I worry that in today’s pursuit of Altered States we’re sorely lacking in Frameworks
1:01:04not final finished Frameworks but heuristic practical Frameworks we’re
1:01:09lacking in both communities of discernment that are crucial for any pursuit of transcendence and
1:01:15transformation and in mythologies and metaphysics to ground those Pursuits
1:01:21we certainly can’t just pretend that we can revive ancient Traditions long interrupted and take holy on board their
1:01:28mythologies and metaphysics trust me it’s a Temptation I’m a platonist it’s another confession I’ll
1:01:35make it’s the last one I think we need to find our own
1:01:42but I think we need to find them in dialogue with others perhaps in the past
1:01:48but the first step in recognition the first step is recognizing that such mythologies and metaphysics are
1:01:54necessary as we seek to imagine a psychedelic future in pursuit of transcendence and
1:01:59transformation I invite us all to ask ourselves how the ancient archives of
1:02:05the impossible can best serve us today and tomorrow we may find in their Dusty Halls
1:02:12unlikely resources for our present and our future thank you so much
1:02:18[Applause] [Music]
/ end of transcript of Paranormal Conference Plenary Lecture by Charles Stang
See Also
Site Map > Cyberdisciple
https://egodeaththeory.org/nav/#Cyberdisciple
- Site Map of Cyberdisciple.wordpress.com
- Reductionist Theories of Mythology (Cyberdisciple)
- Against the Assumption of Suppression of Psychedelics in Pre-Modernity (Cyberdisciple 2020)
The Egodeath theory 