Video: DMT Isn’t Enlightenment… It’s Something Else | Dr. Rick Strassman [YMTP]
Video title: DMT Isn’t Enlightenment… It’s Something Else | Dr. Rick Strassman [YMTP] “YMTP” probably means “Your Mate Tom Podcast” YouTube ch: Your Mate Tom June 2, 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXIl-lsaF4 –
Desc:
“Dr. Rick Strassman returns to the Your Mate Tom Podcast to talk DMT, Prophecy, and the Nature of Reality.
“Is DMT a shortcut to God, or something far stranger?
“In this rare interview, Dr. Rick Strassman — author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule — joins me to explore what people actually experience during powerful DMT trips.
“From visions of non-human entities to biblical-level encounters, this conversation will shake up everything you think you know about spirituality, science, and consciousness.
“We talk about:
Why DMT experiences aren’t always blissful.
Biblical visions (like Ezekiel’s) and DMT parallels.
Whether these beings are “real” or archetypal.
How Strassman’s views have evolved since his original research.
What this all means for the Psychedelic RenaissanceTM.”
Transcript of Strassman Video Interview
Cleaned up by Michael Hoffman. Ignore spurious “you” (short for “you know”).
If you read the first chapter of Ezekiel it’s it’s completely wild.
He’s standing by a river, the heavens open, he falls down, an angel grabs him by the hair it pulls him through space.
Beings with wings and eyes on their wings , they spin without moving
It’s completely DMT-like.
Many talk about DMT like it’s a shortcut to enlightenment.
[saying “that psychedelics are a shortcut to enlightenment” shows that you are completely wrong about your entire network of presuppositions.
In fact: Psychedelics are the way to enlightenment, enlightenment when done the only possible way is not that short of a way
It is hard work over multiple sessions.
The psychedelic (ie, the only) way to enlightenment is the authentic, only, and original way.
The purpose of non-psychedelic alleged pretended ways, is for the purpose of avoidance of the one way that works. A substitute Atman project. Ken Wilber writes about The Atman Project – actually, non-drug Advaita meditation is specifically the main Atman Project. -mh]
0:24
The mystical unitive state — but what if DMT is something much stranger?
0:29
Pioneering DMT researcher Dr Rick Strassman returns to the Your Mate Tom podcast sharing his decades-long knowledge of DMT.
0:36
What he found was strange ancient and even biblical.
0:49
What do you think DMT is
A number of years ago I thought about the naturally occurring DMT as being the endomatrix
0:57
It’s what regulates our everyday consensus reality.
DMT vs religious/mystical experiences
1:04
Based on your extensive research with DMT, what are the key similarities and differences between these mystical experiences in these religious traditions?
[REALITY CHECK: WE KNOW NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES, SO COMPARING TO DRUGS IS COMPARING THE COMPLETELY UNKNOWN TO THE COMPLETELY UNKNOWN]
1:11
you mean their relationship to the DMT state?
1:18
yeah the similarities but also maybe some differences as well between that peak DMT experience and the mystical experience in religious traditions.
[TRADITION IS EMPTY WORTHLESS MEANINGLESS WORD, WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT TRADITION RE: ESOTERIC EXPERIENTIAL PEAK EXPERIENCE]
Unitive vs. Relational Mystical Experience
1:31
It’s useful to characterize spiritual experiences in two ways:
One would be kind of the classical mystical unitive state where one feels that all is one; there’s no personality, there’s no time or space, there’s no concepts, there’s no words; there’s awe.
That could be referred to as a mystical unitive state.
Its trademark is unitive.
It’s the feeling that all is one.
2:08
At the other end of the spectrum would be the interactive relational state which is full of content.
One maintains their personality; there’s interaction between the content and the experiencer; it’s verbal: oftentimes there’s like telepathic or felt communication between you and the contents of that state, even though time and space are pretty distorted; they still exist as opposed to being obliterated in the unitive state.
2:49
The spiritual platform I went into the DMT research with was the Zen Buddhist model of Kencho, which is much more typical of the unitive mystical state.
In the scripture of great wisdom it’s described as no form feeling consciousness perception or understanding understanding
it’s completely empty of normal everyday mental contents
3:27
So I was expecting that kind of experience; most of my volunteers were as well, because the majority were practicing some kind of eastern meditation.
3:33
But only one of the volunteers had an [unitive] experience like that and he was someone with a long-standing interest in the mystical unitive state
He belonged to a church that emphasized it, taught about it instead my [subjects/ students/ crowd]
Everybody else had experiences that were full of content.
There were beings
there was intelligence
there was an interaction, give and take
lots of verbal information communicated
4:13
When I went back to the drawing board to look for models of how to explain the DMT experience, I continued looking at the Buddhist model as a good spiritual system, but it fell short or it wasn’t consistent with the data, which was: the spiritual experience was quite different [than the unity model].
[The non-drug meditation and weak mystical experience per the false Stace model is “unity”; ie nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension of mentally constructing the self/other boundary.]
4:45
It was around that time that I parted ways with my Zen community specifically over the issue of the relationship between spiritual experiences or the enlightenment experience and psychedelic drugs.
4:55
So that gave me an opportunity to return to my own roots, which are Jewish.
Jewish Mysticism
5:00
I started reading the Hebrew Bible or what Christians call the Old Testament but it’s the Hebrew Bible and the Tanakh.
I was struck by the description of a prophetic state, which was quite typical, especially in its extreme forms.
5:27
Quite phenomenologically similar to the DMT experience
[summary:
The pushed narrative in meditation is “unitive”.
On psychedelics, people have relational (prophet-like), not unitive experiences.]
5:34
There’s visions and there’s voices and there’s out of body experiences
5:40
There’s beings with which or with whom you communicate your time and space
5:54
you continue; There’s a beginning and a middle and an end of the experience is incredibly profound, more meaningful than anything else which has ever happened to the person receiving prophecy.
6:17
Prophecy isn’t only foretelling the future or predicting; it’s any spiritual experience on a whole ladder full of rungs.
Inspiration is one form of prophecy.
6:23
Courage might be another form , you seeing an angel; you’re hearing an angel; so there’s all kinds of stages of the prophetic state but in the full-blown
prophetic state it’s quite like DMT.
[Sounds like it’s time to backtrack, countersignal yourself, and diminish/disparate psychedelics. -mh]
6:42
If you read the first chapter of Ezekiel it’s completely wild: he’s standing by a river, the heavens open, he falls down, an angel grabs him by the hair, pulls him through space.
6:55
There’s what has come to be referred to as Ezekiel’s chariot.
There’s beings with wings and eyes on their wings, they spin without moving.
It’s completely DMT-like phenomenologically.
[Sounds like it’s time to backtrack, countersignal yourself, and diminish/disparate psychedelics. -mh]
7:21
If you’re looking for a religious experience that resembles a DMT one, it would be the Hebrew Bible’s extreme examples of the prophetic experience
[He accidentally says the correct thing: religious myth is like psychedelics – rather than saying, as usual: “psychedelics are somewhat like authentic, normal, non-drug mystical experiences or meditation”.]
[TIME TO COUNTERSIGNAL:]
7:38
The differences [FALSE] though are clear which is that the information which was gleaned in the prophetic state and as laid down in in the Hebrew Bible have they they’ve endured, they’ve influenced western civilization for 3,000 years. [or subtract 700 years, per chronology revisionism — and date the Old Testament back to 300 BC, not 1000 BC -mh]
7:59
Our kids are named after biblical figures our economy our philosophy theology art, aesthetics, poetry, it all can be traced back to the Hebrew Bible, which is a prophetic text; it was written in a prophetic state describing prophetic experiences, speaking with angels, speaking with God, and written down and then interpreted and explicated and transmitted
[B.S. PRESUPPOSITIONS:]
8:33
As opposed to the DMT state which, there’s no DMT Bible out there quite yet which contains any new information of anywhere near the significance of what’s been transmitted in the prophetic state [B.S.; THIS GENRE COMES FROM PSYCHEDELICS -mh]
8:51
From what I’ve read from the Old Testament or the Tanakh it’s very deeply layered in symbology [better: analogy].
9:02
You can read the same text over a hundred times and always get something new like it’s so intimately deep.
9:09
You know one of the stories that I really enjoy is the just Exodus I really like that one especially with Moses and the burning bush.
9:22
What do you think about those theories that say that the burning bush was an acacia tree and that he [Moses] was actually in a DMT state?
Do you think there is any sort of a psychedelic substance involved or do you think that’s a bit of a stretch and these are just like natural meditative experiences?
[GTFO! baloney, scholarly / evil priestly constructions and theft of credit, and dishonoring the holy spirit -mh]
[{burning bush} means any psychedelic, revealing non-branching – per msh tree artists – the bush is not the psychoactive; it’s the br vs non-br revealed by the psychedelic -mh]
9:35
The bush is a is a bush, it’s not a tree.
9:43
In the Hebrew Bible, the acacia tree or the acacia wood is called shitim and the bush isn’t called that in the story of Moses and the burning bush.
Moses and the burning bush
9:54
It is possible that there is a DMT-containing plant in the desert which when it’s burnt gives off fumes of DMT but that is you pretty much the only evidence.
10:10
Well it isn’t even evidence.
[it is sh!tty theorizing -mh]
10:17
But if you were pointing toward it you could say oh okay that’s one example of a burning bush or anything burning which allows communication with an angel.
10:30
That was Moses’s original theophany; it was his first prophetic experience, and it also involved an angel.
10:42
And all the rest of Moses’s interactions with divinity involved communication directly with God.
And there are no visions [you have no idea what you’re talking about -mh], it was just verbal; it was just mouth-to-mouth, or as a friend speaks to his fellow.
10:59
It was his [Moses’] first experience and it was crude, relatively speaking
11:11
If there were a role for exogenous psychedelics, like the manna has been suggested as an ergot kind of fungus
11:16
and the incense some speculate contain cannabis but
11:27
There was no mana in the times of Ezekiel
[how do you know where Cubensis was – in the “wilderness” translated as “livestock grazing pastures” -mh]
11:35
There was no yoli incense for Daniel when he was living in Babylon
and
11:42
the presence of naturally occurring DMT in the mamalian brain dispenses with a need to identify an outside agent
[“any activity at all is the same effect as ingesting DMT”]
11:54
you can instead suggest that elevated levels of DMT in the human brain were mediating the visions and the voices that people encounter in the prophetic state
Jewish view on psychedelics
12:12
What you said earlier with your a bit of a falling out with the Zen Buddhist community because from what I understand the eastern religions are quite against psychedelics, as is Christianity and even and Islam as well
12:40
What about Judaism or just rabbis that maybe you spoken to
what are they what are their view on psychedelics in general
12:45
All Zen Monks Started Because of LSD
Returning to the Eastern issue:
12:52
When I first spent any time at the Zen Temple, I spoke with as many of the young monks, all in their early 20s like myself, and I asked them
13:00
how many of them took LSD before they became monks
13:07
and almost everybody said “Yeah I took LSD as a teenager or young adult.”
13:12
And my followup question was:
How important were those LSD experiences in you becoming a monk?
And they all said I wouldn’t be a monk if it weren’t for LSD.
13:25
That supported my belief at the time that there were similar biological concommitants or determinants of the meditative state and the brain state which occurs after taking a psychedelic.
[confirms for me there is a lot that’s entirely baloney; meditation comes from psil historically -mh]
13:52
The same part of the brain might be turned on with LSD as is turned on with certain [WEAK, ineffectual] meditation practices.
14:01
Be that as it may with respect to my theory of a relationship in private interviews with monks over the decades actually over 20 years we spoke about psychedelics and their relationship to Zen training.
14:29
My studies were encouraged and we brainstormed about how to design them and how to interpret them and what kind of application might flow out of them.
14:40
But publicly once I started doing my studies and writing about them and making the comparison between the first flash of enlightenment which is what spurs people to become Buddhist and the psychedelic state which share many features in common, they just really couldn’t countenance it; it was just a little too controversial.
15:18
With most Buddhist communities, most of the teachers and most of the monks had their first flash of enlightenment on a psychedelic drug.
15:24
The apprehension or the comprehension that things were not quite what they seemed and that there was an underlying strata of reality which felt more real than this everyday reality.
So there are meditation retreats which occur with enhancement by psilocybin or iawaska.
16:07
There was actually a Swiss study came out a number of years ago and it was above-board with a certified zen teacher, where they did a week-long retreat and used psilocybin at least once or twice over the course of that week, and scores on meditation intensity increased, as you might expect.
16:19
Within the Jewish tradition* it’s really — like Hasidism, which is a mystical ecstatic form of Judaism which developed in Eastern Europe was
started by a rabbi called the Besht: he had a pipe and he would smoke things in this pipe and be transported to heaven
[I debate whether to attach the word “tradition” every time I assert psychedelics in religious history – it’s as bad as fabricating “secret” every time. “secret” is made-up rhetoric invented by the modern scholar; same w/ the word “tradition”. -mh]
16:50
Wow that’s fairly suggestive although I haven’t seen an analysis of his smoking mixture.
The more current iteration, Zalman Schecter, who lived in Boulder Colorado for quite a long time grew up in the 1950s, was a student of Kabad the Lubovicher rabbi in Brooklyn, and he learned about LSD from Tim Leary and his friends and he took acid that he said I want to explore this further within a Hasidic Jewish context.”
LSD the source of inspiration for Renewal Judaism
17:35
Out of his experiences, the Renewal movement was formed, Renewal Judaism and quite a few of the rabbis you got their first flash of “I want to be a rabbi” on LSD.
17:49
I sought out Rabbi Schecter and it’s a big movement now.
17:55
There’s a book that just came out Madison Margolan a young woman journalist. It’s called Exile and Ecstasy and it’s all about Jewish psychedelic sensibilities.
Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass and Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground (Margoland, 2023)
Exile and Ecstasy
Madison Margolan
Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass and Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground
“Through the perspective of having grown up among “HinJews” in the Ram Dass community and cannabis legalization movement, journalist Madison Margolin takes the reader on
“a journey inside New York’s Jewish counterculture and the Hasidic underground, reconciling her roots, tackling ancestral Jewish trauma, and finding intersectionality between the Jewish and psychedelic experience.
“Exile and Ecstasy sets out to explore the psychedelic path that occupies the crossroads between the Ram Dass movement and Hasidism.
“It’s a path of seeking and escape, rebellion and return, medicine and magic.
“Bridging the polar ends of the Jewish and psychedelic worlds, while buttressing the experience with expert reportage, Madison Margolin prods at Be Here Now to find its relevance and utility in a new generation, facing different issues than those Ram Dass faced as a generally well-to-do boomer.
“In doing so, she looks at solutions to our lack of presence and offers practices that help us integrate our psychedelic experiences in mundane life, as well as in the context of our roots and religious identities.
“This book is for anyone looking to feel spiritually kindled, to make peace with where they come from, and to reconcile seemingly disparate experiences of spirituality and psychedelics, with traditional* religion.”
[* might as well write “secret, suppressed, underground religion” – empty rhetoric narrative, completely arbitrary and debatable. In fact, Jewish history includes some psychedelics use, and some literalism and lack of psychedelics use.
Is a mushroom tree a mushroom, or is it a tree?
Given that Jewish history includes some psychedelics use, and some literalism and lack of psychedelics use, which storytime tale should we learned, learned scholars ritually tell?
* Jewish history has a psychedelics tradition.
* Jewish history has secret, suppressed, heretical, underground use of psychedelics.
-mh]
18:12
The young Hasidic Jews in Israel and in Brooklyn are taking a lot of psychedelics, and who knows what’s going to emerge from that practice.
Exile & Ecstasy — so I was just writing that down.
18:33
It’s a take-off on “agony and ecstasy”.
wow yeah crazy huh
18:40
yeah absolutely i didn’t I wouldn’t have expected that
18:46
in a way it makes sense in a strange way I suppose but because I know from like at least let’s say
18:51
Like Orthodox Christianity or fundamental Christianity, they’re very against psychedelics, to the point where they’ll say that they’re basically demonic tools that open you up for your body to become a vessel for these evil entities to use you as a as a puppet, and in Islam would be the same thing, they have a word for it jinn,
Exploring the spiritual world
19:17
If you believe in good spirits, you have to take into account bad spirits.
19:38
That it makes sense that they would be doing that.
19:44
They’ve been studying Talmud especially the legal tracks of Judaism like laws of kosher food, ritual purity, those kinds of things; legal stuff: property and damages and whatnot
20:13
For a lot of them, there isn’t a feeling which is associated with their study, like intensive concentrating or concentrated study you can induce an altered state [fkking WEAK!], but if it’s not looked for or you’re not aware of it, it just can just pass you by.
20:40
They’re looking for some more emotional connection to the tradition.
20:47
I just was corresponding with a fellow who is Jewish, and he hasn’t read the Bible, but he’s tripping a lot and he’s experiencing certain things during his states which at least bear some resemblance to things within the Hebrew Bible, like:
The high priest in Exodus is described as wearing a breastplate, and this fellow became the breastplate, and God downloaded the Torah into his chest and he says to God “But I’ve not read the Torah”, and God says “It doesn’t matter”.
21:44
Who is speaking to this fellow? Is it his own unconscious, or is it a lying spirit?
21:50
One of the hallmarks of true prophecy versus false prophecy is the source: is it angelic, or is it demonic?
[Both angel messages and demon messages come from psychedelics. -mh]
You need to be alert to distinguishing between the two.
22:19
I just finished reading a book called The Antichrist
22:27
yeah it’s a scholarly tour through the history of the antichrist from the beginning to nowadays.
The hallmark of the antichrist is the lie.
22:40
The antichrist is a liar, but it’s couched in partial truths, or you’re led to it through partial truths; it’s a sophisticated system, or it can be.
22:53
The ultimate essence of the antichrist or the message or his tool is of the lie.
23:06
You don’t want a spirit telling you falsehoods or giving you bad advice — that wouldn’t help.
23:12
At the same time, you’re convinced of the truth of these revelations, because of the meaning-enhancing effect of psychedelics.
23:18
I’ve never been more convinced of the truth of anything that I’ve thought or heard in my life well that’s the function of the drug
23:25
but what’s the content which is being transmitted in that state as a result of the drug
opening you up to things which were at least previously invisible they might not be spiritual or psychological or any number of things
but they were not visible before and with a drug they become visible and
23:45
where do they come from and what’s their content
23:50
That’s why discernment is very important
23:56
I’m sure you’ve met people who have fallen in love with just the wrong woman or vice versa because they’re so enamored emotionally but objectively it’s like “Man you got to you got to leave this chick man she’s like horrible for you.”
24:07
But they’re like “No but she’s my soulmate.”
And then obviously sometimes it can end disastrously
24:16
you do think that one “chasing” the psychedelic experience can chase the psychedelic experience especially with these formless kinds of states that are more common with ketamine or fivethoxy DMT where you’re completely detached from everything, from any conscious content
24:41
if you’re living in this world which is rather stressful
24:46
there’s a a temptation to escape that’s
24:52
one of the things that I was picking up from learning about
24:58
these young ultra-orththodox kids that are tripping so much is they just live from trip to trip
they want to to storm heaven or they’re chasing
25:11
a certain experience over and over so the integration question obviously is one that
25:18
always comes
25:24
so how do you integrate those big experiences with the rest of your life and if you can’t you might just return to that state over and over and ask yourself how do I integrate this
25:37
in the meantime you’re not integrating it because you’re not giving yourself any time to do so
25:43
you need to allow the paint to dry without just going back in to marinate
25:51
and because it can be difficult to ground these abstract experiences into everyday
reality but that’s why you got to just put in the work
26:01
They’re abstract and they can be very exotic as well like let’s say you go down to Latin America and you spend a
26:08
week or two with a Peruvian shaman and your mind is totally blown
26:14
in that setting in the jungle in a palapa with songs
26:21
and other likeminded folks and a whole different worldview
26:26
system of how healing works or how illness comes about yeah and you then you go home to New
26:32
York yeah I think yeah integration’s key like the ideas or the feelings need to be integrated but also in the setting the context in which those
26:46
experiences happened ah for sure and sometimes you can come back a little bit scathed because I had a few terrifying experiences in in the Amazon with
26:57
Rick’s nightmare Acid trip
Ayahuasca which I wanted to talk because on in your upcoming book you talk about
27:02
having this very harrowing LSD trip and you kind of stopped tripping for six years if I remember correctly let’s see when did that happen
27:15
1973 and the next time I tripped was 1985 so oh no no that’s not true
27:22
I used to say 12 years but then I thought about it
i think it was more
27:30
like six years but up until
27:35
then I was taking acid every weekend or two
27:44
and I just stopped because I had a similar trip where I stopped
I didn’t touch a psychedelic for like three years so it took a long time so I kind of kind of
27:50
understand that like that fear I guess of jumping back in from going a little bit too overboard
27:58
but yeah how was it
do you mind elaborating on your experience
28:07
I was 21 and was graduating from college and I wasn’t sure about becoming a doctor and going to medical school i really didn’t want to and I wasn’t quite in any medical school quite yet because nobody really wanted me as a student because I was just so fixated on a messianic view of psychedelic
28:36
Buddhist you Freudian healing
28:41
i developed this manifesto in my last summer at school which combined all of those disciplines
and I decided that’s why I want to be a doctor
28:55
this was 1972 and I’m interviewing at all these medical schools and they just weren’t interested in hearing that
and I couldn’t help myself
29:00
they say why do you want to be a doctor and just launch right into this like crazy stuff yeah your manifesto was it if I
29:08
It is my manifesto
29:15
I was spending the last few months with my old girlfriend or my college girlfriend back then and we had started dating when she was living with a guy and we ended up at a Bach concert by ourselves one night on acid and we fell in love and I moved in with her in her dormitory a few days later
29:48
and she ended the relationship with the other fellow so I was with these friends and we decided to take acid one day and go hiking and the old boyfriend was there in our group and he enjoyed ribbing me about living at a girl’s dorm and stealing his girlfriend from him
30:19
I felt guilty you for having done that but still it was what it was
30:29
and there was another fellow in the group who was new very tacetern like a real poker face you really you couldn’t read him
30:42
so I was in an unstable state or an unstable set back then like I didn’t know what my future was holding i was with a guy whose
30:48
girlfriend I had ripped off there was some other guy who I couldn’t you read at all
30:54
and one friend who was also like a good friend
31:05
so we took the acid walked up a canyon stopped every every so often and I started to feel very disconnected like people didn’t want to look at me or talk to me or that they think I was strange or what was going on
And it just built and built and built until I just snapped
31:24
and decided that the reason that I was being treated that way was because I was crazy and had always been crazy and the
jig was up
31:43
this was the true nature of my relationship to reality which was I was crazy and it was just a matter of time before I discovered it
31:55
in the meantime everybody else knew it but they were just waiting for me to discover it
So it just went on and on I imagined you myself just completely
32:02
giving up i had a vision actually of you being in a seclusion room in a mental
32:07
hospital with nurses kind of vaguely dimly outlined in this room and I was lying on a
32:15
pile of
and I was floating like just over it and I I felt like I I could finally give up
32:23
this is where my life has led I’m just going to give up it’s just way too hard and it was
32:31
kind of scary but the nuns seemed pretty nice and they had my interest at heart
32:37
This was going on for a few hours
at least the nurse was nice
32:43
I couldn’t make out any of them But they you seemed like nuns
32:48
like sisters in a like I’m in a hospital and friendly or well I
32:54
I wouldn’t say friendly but you benign so my
33:00
best friend you from my childhood years was at
33:06
the same college back then he transferred as a sophomore and was living in a compound
33:12
with a number of the fellows that was
33:18
part of our group or were part of our group so instead of being dropped off at my girlfriend’s dorm I asked them to drop me off at my friend’s place
and thankfully he was there and he just
33:34
talked me down like I explained you the situation and he you thought well we first you
33:40
smoked a joint you because one look at
33:46
me and he you realized that something was off so we sat down smoked a joint and I described the
33:52
state I was in like I had you finally discovered I was crazy and explained a lot of things you like oh now I get it
33:59
this is why that and this is why that and you so on you
so he you pondered it a bit and he said that makes no sense
34:15
so I thought what do you mean and he said if you have been you know crazy your whole life you wouldn’t just figure that out now so like that may be
34:23
true it might you not be true you but it just popped a bubble like there’s you there was an
34:30
absess in my brain or in my mind and it just popped it and out came all
34:35
the poison and I looked around and yeah I I came down like I felt way
34:40
better and who knows what might have happened if he weren’t around i
34:46
would you probably have ended up in an emergency room and a stigma of mental
34:51
illness would have followed me the rest of my life
34:57
So that was a scary experience and I was not keen on repeating it
35:03
i knew that it resulted from some certain instability in my sense of self and even though I didn’t articulate it in this way I knew I needed to have my feet firmer on the ground the next time I tried any kind of psychedelic drug
35:23
Those are the most terrifying experiences is when you think you’re going crazy because then there’s like this a point of no return like oh man really this is going to be my life
i’ve had those kind of similar visions it’s it’s the point of no return yeah it’s it’s going to be
35:42
like this forever Yeah yeah like my poor family like what are my friends going to think like I’m just I’m just
35:48
going to be here forever like Yeah i had that on still on a one of those heroic psilocybin doses so yeah
35:57
yeah well it’s an interesting phenomenon clearly and you
36:03
know like it’s one of those things which occur in a lot of people when they trip and it’s just not written
36:09
about it’s common knowledge that those bad trips happened but there’s much less
36:16
written about them or studied about them than the mystical experience yeah but
36:22
I think those kinds of effects are very important because they can
36:27
lead to a lot of harm
36:35
that’s why even on YouTube there’s more reported like trip reports of people explaining their experiences like I’ve shared my difficult
experiences and how to kind of heal from that psychedelic PTSD or
Using psychedelics for Spiritual and psychological bypassing
36:46
Sometimes we just make mistakes and we go into it unprepared or in a poor set & setting
36:57
and so it can be helpful to help integrate these experiences or do the work especially doing the work in everyday reality instead of using these psychedelics as a spiritual bypassing
A lot of people do they think of it as like a magic pill to enlightenment
37:11
spiritual bypassing but also psychotherapeutic bypassing
37:19
lots of the issues that you people contend with on a bad psychedelic experience are not spiritual problems
37:25
but psychological problems like they’re depressed or they’re anxious that
they don’t really know who
37:30
they are
In the mid 80s I was part of psychedelic research group
37:37
we were taking new drugs that chemists would send us and
37:42
we would write up the reports and send the reports it was pretty nuts
37:50
we were trying all kinds of things and after a couple years it was the same, it was the same trip
it could be some phenthylamine some tryptoamine some urgine and
38:02
it was the same trip
38:08
why was I attracted to a certain kind of woman and it was the same trip like I would empathize with them and I wouldn’t feel for myself and like one day I woke up after one of those weekends and I said I need therapy
38:26
so I just dropped out of the group and found myself a psychoanalyst actually
38:31
and worked with him for four years straight
38:37
so sometimes psychedelics can convince you that it’s time to stop taking psychedelics and to do something else
The DMT or I guess just in psychedelics in general but that strange memory phenomenon that I think from the study that I read is:
39:20
About 25% of people who have that overwhelming sense of familiarity like I’ve been here before
What are your theories on this
39:25
maybe neurologically spiritually like what what parallel universe neurological misfire like what’s going on
39:33
It has to do with the meaningfulness the reality sense that psychedelics seem to produce
39:46
there’s obviously brain centers which are mediating that and circuitry in the brain which changes
39:56
I just can’t keep up with all the brain imaging data coming out but if you just introspect and besides all those brain imaging studies do is explain how the experiences occur
40:15
and you can tell that the experiences occur by paying attention if the experiences were different then we would look at the brain imaging data and say that’s the biology behind that kind of experience
40:37
it’s the subjective state which matters and that subjective feeling is the reality feeling the meaningfulness the truthfulness
40:50
41:09
The reference point for that on your kind of your truthfulness is your home it’s your home it’s where you grew up
41:16
if it was you more or less satisfactory your parents are there your siblings are there your stuff is there your friends are around, it’s your world
41:30
That can act as a frame of reference or a touchstone for the feeling which then emerges on psychedelics which is like the feeling of what it was like as a small being in a safe secure happy place the only place; that is your entire universe
41:53
That ties in with the sense of familiarity which is interesting as well
42:06
if there are brain centers responsible for meaningfulness and truthfulness what regulates those brain centers on an every day moment-to- moment basis
42:19
They’re obviously pegged among psychedelics but what maintains them on a daily basis
That is one of the possible roles of indogenous DMT: is it is a psychedelic substance
42:41
it really makes you feel like what you’re experiencing is the most truthful honest intense meaningful thing you’ve ever encountered
42:50
it could be keeping the meaningfulness part of the brain at a certain or within a certain window,
if it increases whatever it is you’re undergoing in your everyday life becomes more meaningful and vice versa
43:14
It feels for some people like deja vu on steroids and even deja vu like we don’t like science doesn’t have like a direct explanation for exactly what it is they’re only hypothesis but even deja vu is very strange
43:30
The temporal lobe’s been implicated in deja vu.
43:36
it’s a micro seizure of some sort
43:41
43:49
psychedelics depending on your model can activate temporal lobefunction
The DMT Endomatrix
43:55
A number of years ago I thought about the naturally occurring DMT as being the endomatrix
44:12
It’s what regulates our everyday consensus reality
44:17
and we just don’t know really what is going on with endogenous DMT the concentrations are quite high comparable to neurotransmitters like
serotonin
so there may be a DMT neurotransmitter system and it
44:29
will be very interesting to see what what that regulates and what
44:36
regulates it so you stay tuned to the ever unfolding naturally
44:44
occurring DMT story yeah absolutely on the next episode
44:49
we’ll see well thank you Dr strasma for joining me today i really appreciate it
44:56
Is there anything you wanted to share about what’s going on, like your new book for example
45:03
my new book is called My Altered States
45:11
it’s an illustrated memoir from the age of of 0 to 22 and it’s got psychedelics and cannabis and alcohol and meditation and the manifestos in there
45:22
my depressed mood that occurred after I went to medical schools there yeah so it’s potirie is narratives and after each of the narratives is like clinical discussion
45:36
how did this occur and why and and what does it mean
45:43
what can you learn from these kinds of experiences
so it’s a bit like Hunter Thompson meets sigmund freud
45:50
That’s a good explanation
45:57
actually some very entertaining stories coupled with a clinical and objective assessment of those narratives that’s coming out in mid December [2024]
46:17
other than that I’ve got a number of other books that are rattling around out there
46:23
nice awesome looking forward to it well thanks again and I’ll yeah keep in touch
okay I’ll you see you next time
/ end of video Strassman transcript cleaned up by Michael Hoffman
Motivation for this Page
His headset mic sounds horrible: no bass at all; only the upper half of spectrum – upper midrange and treble. Unlistenable. Text is better.
Tons of filler junk words too:
so you know like um i think you that [x].
The Bible is analogies describing peak psychedelic experience.
Using the traditional methods of the mystics, an angel firing arrows down and poking me with a spear taught me better to interpret the Bible as analogies describing peak psychedelic experience (loose cognitive association binding).
I partly cleaned up the transcript. It’s full transcript so full dedicated page. Pretty substantive.
I was trying to re-find a video in which people said “Need more coverage of the threat of Psilocybin experience.” Similar is in this video.
Heavy Cleanup of Strassman Stuttering (Self-Prompting) “You” Between Each Word
When Rick Strassman joined our church book club, he mentioned psychedelics helping with his stuttering.
Yesterday’s video with him, transcript shows that he very frequently inserts:
um
uh
you know (deleted over 500! in just a 46-minute discussion)
you [short for “you know” — inserts “you” every few words] – this is most distinctive of Strassman’s verbal junk compared to typical junk utterances.
Example of raw transcript of Rick Strassman (exaggerated):
“you- DMT you- is you- same you- as you- Bible, you- except you- quite you-different.”
The Sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22) Condensed Passage
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.”
Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven,
“Abraham!
Do not lay a hand on the boy.
Do not do anything to him.
Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.
He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
The above is my gen22 keyboard shortcut expansion, broken up per sentence.
The Sacrifice of Isaac, Condensed; Key Phrases (Keyboard Shortcut)
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Gen 22:7-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2022%3A7-18&version=NIV
May 26, 2025: Fixed/improved the above keyboard shortcut, gen22.
Goal: the very most potent, central, valuable key phrases, condensed.
22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram[a] caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.”
19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
Nahor’s Sons
20 Some time later Abraham was told, “Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor: 21 Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), 22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel.” 23 Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milkah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also had sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maakah.
Footnotes
Genesis 22:13 Many manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint and Syriac; most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text a ram behind him
22 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;
21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.
Mytheme Decoding: {son} = the Egoic Personal Control System; Possibilism-Thinking with Monolithic, Autonomous Control
The altered state is forced upon the mind by the snake-shaped worldline,
the raven psychopomp leads awareness up out from the egoic personal control system,
vulnerability is demonstrated; non-control of a sort is demonstrated, personal control system is threatened to death;
then angel message from higher thinking does a lightning-strike in the idea realm, that is like a substitute sacrifice, like Abraham’s ram caught in a bush so that
Abraham and his youths-servants walk away unharmed (Isaac is smoked in a way, and not smoked in a way); like king Jesus on the cross, then released into resurrection.
That’s the peak-state dynamic of cybernetic eternalism; mental model transformation from possibilism to eternalism; maturation – psychospiritual development maturation caused by Psilocybin, the source of religions and meditation satori covered by Alan Watts’ article Zen and the Problem of Control around 1958 in the 1960 book This Is It.
{son}, son of Man; son of God – same idea. Mytheme decoding left as an exercise for the reader.
Mytheme Decoding: {obey God’s commands}
Be made to recognize and perceive 2-level, dependent control. A cybernetics principle in peak loose cognition state.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.”
INSANE! How in the hell does text get translated both as:
wash their robes
do his commandments
keyboard shortcut: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” – Revelation 22:14 (the last page of the Bible), KJB https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rev%2022%3A14&version=KJV rev2214kj
Loss of control (of a sort); experience of the threat of catastrophic loss of control — ultimate quasi-psychotic bad trip threat, ego death, as reflected in myth: blood = cybernetic boundary violation.
The ultimate terror threat idea received, in loss of control, is essentially figured or signified in a loss of control causing blood, a control boundary violation.
Then receive the idea of the idea…; receive the meta idea, angel messenger (Hermes).
Why is Myth filled with blood, sacrifice, violence? b/c boundary control-boundary transgression/ violation/ disproof/ overpowering. “receiving control commandments” per Louis Sass’ books about Madness and Modernism.
Bring piglet to Eleusis, to see its blood, cleansing you via hybrid literalism/ analogy.
The god (uncontrollable source of control-thoughts) could force the personal control system to (like Attis) transgress and cause harm, signified by the idea of being made to draw blood.
hypothesis from seconds ago prediction confirmed: 11:53 pm May 25, 2025: angel: Left hand touches blade. 3 of 3.
Sacrifice of Isaac (Golden Psalter)
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Features:
hypothesis from seconds ago prediction confirmed: 11:53 pm May 25, 2025: angel: Left hand touches blade. 2 of 2.
Angel: visually cut left arm.
Abr: visually cut left leg.
Isaac: visually cut left arm & left leg.
ram: stand on left foot (incorrect), look to left (incorrect). Abr: look to Right. Isaac: look to left. 12:46 am May 26, 2025.
previously noted: Abr: stand on right foot. {mushroom hem}. Isaac: stand on right leg (correct).
ram: cut left leg, in rear (ambig).
Ram: visually cut R leg (the desirable form).
Need shorthand: re: handedness: always indicate handedness, and now add: Say whether that is the desired standard handedness, or the reverse.
The tricky thing w/ handedness: it is extra squirrely and high amount of play, because can be any of 3:
significant, asserts the standard form.
significant, asserts the reverse of the standard form.
not significant.
The use of the handedness motif is highly significant (sometimes), but also is highly variable and is often insignificant (an onerous artistic constraint).
The strange result is that we MUST ALWAYS inventory handedness, even when it is not significant.
A later, distinct phase is to review all the handedness in an image (& across multiple images), and then look for meaningful patterns of usage of the standard orientation & of the reverse of the standard orientation.
Often, or even typically, the contrast is the thing: enlightenment = know good vs evil; good vs bad; branching AND non-branching.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Eternalism and Possibilism
12:58 am May 26, 2025
The Tree of the Knowledge of Possibilism vs. Eternalism
The Tree of the Knowledge of Branching and Non-Branching
The tree of the knowledge of possibilism vs. eternalism.
tree of knowledge = good / evil = good / bad = stable / unstable = possibilism-thinking vs eternalism-thinking = possibilism vs. eternalism.
I hesitate to say simply, “possibilism-thinking is bad/unreal/ illusion”.
Of most value (wisdom) is knowing the contrast between the two ways of thinking: possibilism vs. eternalism.
Not oversimplistic “possibilism = bad”, or the crude notion “get rid of possibilism-thinking”.
Sacrifice of Isaac (Van der Borch)
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Features:
{blade}
{fire} [implied by branches/altar; mentioned in text as burnt offering]
{rock} – altar for the burnt offering.
ram: {left foot lifted}
angel: R hand closer to ground than L hand; = stand on right foot.
11:53 pm May 25, 2025: angel: Left hand touches blade. IMMEDIATELY SUGGESTS THE SCIENCE-PREDICTION: THE OTHER PICTURES HAVE SAME: CONFIRMED TWICE; 3 FOR 3. 🏆 – a source for f134 major theme by Eadwine in Great Canterbury Psalter; {blade touch left limb} and in other pictures in the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}.
Abraham: {stand on right foot} = eternalism-thinking.
branches
angel messenger of God: splayed left-hand fingers, single right-hand finger
tree: branching on left; {cut right branch}
Isaac: hand shape: thumb out, four fingers together non-branching
Burning Bush (Van der Borch)
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Features:
Splayed left-hand fingers, two right-hand fingers held together.
Relevant to Sacrifice of Isaac (Van der Borch).
12:20 am May 26, 2025: Moses’ horns = branching; possibly “knowledge about branching” (not necessarily an assertion of possibility-branching).
Some “burning bush” are shown as tree, confirming that cutting branching = burning branching = asserting non-branching.
Note the left crown of tree: like some mystic astrology cosmos trees, it does have a Y on left; but still, there is more branching in main crown (on R) than on the smaller crown (here, on the L).
Principle of RELATIVE CONTRAST in various scopes eg local scope; even though L tree …
12:23 am May 26, 2025: read the pair of trees, speaking of “relatively branching”! Relatively, the L tree = branching; R tree = non-branching. ie, analyzed at scope of “both trees”, or “pair of trees”, it’s a Y-I tree-pair.
Seems like theme in picture is “all elements of the image are IY form, except God’s fingers are the ideal YI”.
ie as noted previously elsewhere, Moses wrongly splays R hand and does {stand on left foot}, both which are incorrect/ against the standard.
There are so many elements against the standard handedness, I would think this image is flipped by a clueless person, except that God’s fingers are highly valuable and highly correct, matching wonderfully the remarkable breakthrough decoding of Saint Martin: Entry into Jerusalem: Jesus’ finger-shapes.
wolf on L = control instability threat; sheep on R = control stability = gentle harmless peace.
Saint Martin Church: Left-Hand Fingers Splayed, Right-Hand Two Fingers Pressed Together
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Features:
Relevant to Sacrifice of Isaac (Van der Borch).
from viewer POV: Jesus forms IY; the called devotee youth in tree forms IY. More branching on R than L; reverse of the standard. Jesus’ L hand is, for us, shown on the R; thus branching on the R. Same w/ sticks & feathers: more branching on the R. b/c notice, mostly, the feather is to the R of the sticks.
Much handedness is not significant, yet, we must always fully analyze handedness, at every “fractal” scope (bigger scope, distinct from smaller scope).
Branching donkey ears visually cut the R arm, thus forming “cut right limb” (that is the standard orientation).
f134: Class and Trees
Crop by Michael Hoffman – f134 row 1 Left
Features:
Left hand touches blade. L = branching possibilities; possibilism-thinking.
12:32 am May 26, 2025, slightly different angle of my point: students: the 3 displayed L hands all have – from both viewer’s POV & the figures’ POV, they are making the wrong shape: the anti-normal form: IY; whereas:
The two hands that are on the left are Right hands: though they are IY form from the viewer’s POV, they are the desirable YI form, from the figures’ POV.
12:06 am May 26, 2025: the hand shape: look at your right hand palm this way: YI. look at your left hand palm this way: IY, the reverse of the ideal form w/ branching = L, non-branching = R.
Interpretation principle: What the artist had in mind is less important than the decoder’s ability to project meaningful patterns onto the resulting image that the artist was used, as a vessel of the muses, to produce. Some literary theory has this principle, that the text can have meaning that’s over the author’s head.
then, re-assess a such a new idea the other day yesterday, did I write it yet? or only voice recording May 24 2025? — teacher has two heads, including a youth with no limbs, just like the floating sage row 2 R.
The Teacher has two ways of thinking, including fearful possibilism-thinking that is threatened.
Thus – my driving point at the moment — re-assess teacher’s L arm, which I proved MUST belong to teacher not to “student 2”, though note, student 2’s face is the teacher’s 2nd face (or, original face; original way of thinking).
Thus teacher displays both R hand and L hand; his attached youth has no limbs.
[12:11 am May 26, 2025]: re: these two limbless youths: their branching has been cut; applies to row 1 R also: the table scene where BEARDED SAGES HAVE NO LIMBS; they have cut possibility-branching.
Compare in Great Canterbury Psalter the motifs: corpse w/ cut left limbs; empty Left sleeve.
f134: Banquet
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Features:
limbless, cut-branching sages: teacher & father.
12:15 am May 26, 2025: on Right, youth shows no information with L hand, and shows message hand YI form with Right hand.
Maiden does not yet indicate “branching vs. non-branching” with fingers; displays no thumb. 12:17 am May 26, 2025.
12:17 am May 26, 2025 – God and red guy display the lesser form, IY hand shape.
Self-Threatening Psalter Reader
Crop by Cybermon
Features:
Her hand shape is R hand YI (good): affirming YI gives stable control – {balance scale}.
YI Right Hand Shape, {balance scale}, Both Feet Down at Stable Column Base
Near-limbless, 2nd POV/ 2nd mental model is attached to her – it’s odd that the Left woman has a foot; expect no limbs.
Crop by Michael Hoffman
{two-headed person} Motif in Image f134
[8:23 am May 26, 2025]
f134 row 1 L: consider students 3 & 4 as 1 person with two mental models: one fearful, one peaceful.
Need set of crops, or white boxes on f134: all instances of “two-headed person”.
Instances of the {two-headed person} motif in image f134 of Great Canterbury Psalter:
row 1 L: Teacher & student 2 — the Right-hand figure is limbless.
row 1 L: Student 3 & 4 — the Right-hand figure is limbless.
row 2 M: Women — the Left-hand figure is near-limbless.
row 2 R: Floating sage — the Right-hand figure is limbless.
Motivation for this Page
It was a good call that half what I write is analysis of the sacrifice of Isaac. Yet my Site Map has “Isaac” 0 times, somehow.
Need a page containing “the sacrifice of Isaac” images from the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}.
Very often, I wish to see and show a collection of images of this most-central mytheme.
Videos: Sacrifice, Blood Pass-Over, Wrath, Threat
The Bible’s Most Dangerous Story — Here’s Why [Isaac] (Mindshift, Apr. 2025)
“Mindshift” channel is literalist; zilch consciousness of analogicity. You are right: it doesn’t make sense, AS LONG AS YOU ARE LITERALIST.
The literalism, ordinary-state-based critique of literalism magical thinking fails to escape the orbit of literalist magical thinking and reach higher orbit of mythic analogy in which:
Abraham is not literal.
son is not literal.
Isaac is not literal.
Ram is not literal.
Seed (offspring) of Abraham (through Isaac) is not literal.
Ram killled with knife and burned with fire branches is not literal.
Ram caught in thicket by its horns is not literal.
Atonement for sins is not literal.
Covered and washed and atoned by blood of ram/lamb (Gen 22 uses both words; “God will provide the lamb”) is not literal.
The payout: “Unharmed” is literal. The mind’s personal control system is exposed to the instructive threat (angel message from God), experience of the threat of catastrophic loss of control (= blood violence transgression), that transforms the mental model of control from monolithic, autonomous control to 2-level, dependent control.
Video title: The Bible’s Most Dangerous Story — Here’s Why YouTube channel: Mindshift Apr 27, 2025
Proved (unexpectedly! didn’t think possible!) on 2025/01/13 by Day 4 below it has 4 mushrooms pointing up in a symmetrical way including grid branching caps on left attracted to the branching shaped compass.
f11 row 1 middle: Day 2 of Creation (Bible: Atmosphere/ Firmament)
f11 row 1 right – “Creation of Plants”/”third day”
Huggins 2024: These pilzbaum have branches, which make these not look like mushrooms at all; Just look at these branches that disqualify these pilzbaum from looking anything like mushrooms
Day 3: Branching Form Develops toward Increasing Comprehension from Left to Right: III, IYI, YI, IY/YI.
The 4 plants of Day 3 of Creation
Crop by Cybermonk Look at these branches, which prove that these mushroom-looking plants that the art historians describe as pilzbaum do not look like mushrooms. Great Canterbury Psalter, “Creation of Plants”/”third day”, f11 row 1 right https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10551125c/f11.item.zoom
Crop by Cybermonk Great Canterbury Psalter, “Creation of Plants”/”third day”, f11 row 1 right, plant 4, right branch “f11-row1-right-msh4-right-branch.jpg” 16 KB, 10:48 am, Dec. 21, 2024 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10551125c/f11.item.zoom
Plant 2 & 3: Branching vs. Non-branching
Despite all my analysis learning how to pair-wise compare branching form in Day 3, in the end, I switched from pair-wise to sweeping left to right the 4 plants, discovering Jan. 12, 2025, the gradations of branching-form.
Finally looked at Day 1 & Day 4 together, to directly fill the pans with mushrooms
At end of day Jan. 12, 2025, I finally brought together my analysis of Day 1 & Day 4 panels, informed by Day 3 panel, producing a huge double-breakthrough – at the same time as figuring out the smooth stepped progression of branching form in Day 3: III, IYI, YI, IY/YI (two breakthroughs interleaved & co-supporting; so, Day 1 + 3 + 4 worked together to co-decode, the co-signalling that Eadwine provided.
Jan. 17, 2025: My error until end of day Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025 was to only look at this panel in isolation, or only compare it to Day 3.
THE REASON THIS DAY HAS PLANTS, WHICH IT SHOULD NOT, IS BC EADWINE WANTS TO DEPICT MORE MUSHROOMS, AND WANTS TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT DAY 1’S BALANCE SCALE CONTAINS MUSHROOMS.
Ronald Huggins’ “Foraging Wrong” article asks / discusses tradition of incongruity about what items are depicted in which day.
Liberty cap, Cubensis, Panaeolus, Amanita
Features:
Here the sun represents the planetary stars (other than the moon) & the fixed stars.
Liberty cap, Cubensis, Panaeolus, Amanita
Jan. 4, 2025: I probably announced this id’n Dec 13, 2020, following on from Third Day of Creation:
Liberty cap, Cubensis, Panaeolus, Amanita Liberty cap; Cubensis; Panaeolus; Amanita Liberty cap/ Cubensis/ Panaeolus/ Amanita
Lib, Cub, Pan, Ama Lib; Cub; Pan; Ama
Liberty cap, Cubensis, Panaeolina, Amanita Liberty cap; Cubensis; Panaeolina; Amanita Liberty cap/ Cubensis/ Panaeolina/ Amanita
Wrap those lines with quotes and search present site – somewhere I listed those re: this picture.
In this panel, all 3 trees’ branches under cap (= gills + veil, to depict block time non-branching) have Right branch cross-behind; visually {cut right branch}. Like Dancing Man.
“The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. [eternalism & possibilism]
He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” {immortal} = mature form, vs. temp perishable immature form
23
So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side [or: placed in front] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
Features:
{fire} & {blade} motifs. Usually Eadwine paints blue blade, here red blade.
{lifted garment} – todo: is that at the Key Mythemes catalog? is John Rush’s {celestial erection} at the Key Mythemes catalog?
See f134: pouring Golden Cubensis, balancing in Cubensis tree, psilocybin display cases. See f177 pouring onto balance scale.
Bottom right: [1:540 a.m. June 7, 2023] angel kicks out Adam & Eve through {gate} with {left foot down, right foot floating} – an inversion, proved. outside the city/ garden/ gate is wrong foot, left foot. lifted garment
Entheogen scholars either show a single day in isolation, or show entire image f11 or even entire page f11 of Great Canterbury Psalter. Big mistake! Each zoom level / crop scope is crucial, in this case, row 1’s Day 1 + row 2’s Day 4; Day 4 proves that Day 1 = mushrooms.
Motivation for Page: Jackpot Assessment is “huge”, “top 3 discoveries in Great Canterbury Psalter” yet “I have no proper page/article dedicated to focusing on the “Six Days of Creation” image”
Inferior entheogen scholarship argues whether Day 1 = amanita. It’s fire, vaguely Amanita imagery; NO ONE TALKS ABOUT the balance scale, except Huggins 2024 does.
Even more, no one talks about what’s IN the pans of the balance scale.
I am the first one to think big enough to even ASK or CONSIDER or point out that there is something in the pans.
I am the first to point out that there is something in the pans of the balance scale.
I am the first to state that the pans contain mushrooms. (6-12 months ago? a routine question to check at this site.)
I am the first to prove pans contain mushrooms.
Date When I First Pointed Out There’s Something in the Balance Scale Pans
tbd. Probably same as next section; the moment I noticed the pans contain brown things, I immediately said “probably mushrooms”.
Date When I First Asserted There’s Mushrooms in the Balance Scale Pans: June 7, 2023
tbd. task: check timestamps at this site. Find first mention the pans contain “cubensis” or “golden teacher”, b/c I think that’s how I first announced the proposal.
Date When I Proved There’s Mushrooms in the Balance Scale Pans: Midnight Start of Monday Jan. 13, 2025 (1 year 7 months later)
Feb 2023: “blue container in f134 row 3 middle contains Cubensis.”
March (?) 2023: (I posted the exact dates, for this huge breakthrough): “OMFG I CANNOT BELIEVE IT THE DISPENSARY BINS HAVE MUSHROOMS AND PROVE BLUE CONTAINER CONTAINS CUBENSIS!”
Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025 a few days ago, during the day I continued believing per past few months that “I KNOW EADWINE MEANS MUSHROOMS IN PAN OF BALANCE SCALE THAT EVERYONE LOOKS AT WITHOUT SEEING, BUT TOO BAD IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE.”
At around 11:57 pm into ~12:03 am, I was again made a fool, by Eadwine delivering DIRECT evidence to prove what I already knew INDIRECTLY from my expertise in Great Canterbury Psalter: Panaeolus specimen below balance scale points at its pan, red Amanita points at other pan.
Recent Very Recent Creation of 12 Crops of f11, Studied Each Isolated Panel
The fact that my outline is now bloated around image f11 in my “Commentary about All Eadwine images” page, shows the need for a page dedicated to f11 – or even, like this page, foc’d on HALF the entire image! Just the top half. The botom 6 panels show: interesting GATE of Eden with RED SWORD, spinning, “do not eat”, “eat tree know”,
An Extremely Popular Folio Page for Entheogen scholarship Since Paul Lindgren 2000 – But, Their Fragmented Treatment Is Blind
Motivation: My jackpot assessment of a huge discovery always takes days to assess how big the payoff jackpot.
Jan 17, after the Jan 13 breakthrough, 4 days later, I am STILL processing how huge this jackpot breakthough.
I am still, after end of day Midnight Breakthrough, the Midnight Revelation Delivery of Proof of Balance Scale containing “Cubensis”…
That was Sunday, Jan 12, 2025 end of day (eg 11:57 pm & 12:03 am Monday), that it occurred to me to conjoin my interpretation work on Day 1 and my interpretation work on Day 4 below it.
Ronald Huggins’ “Foraging Wrong” article says:
“[John] Rush tells us that “in [God’s] left hand there is a variation on the alpha and omega.”85 Those familiar with the art of the period, however, will immediately recognize that what God is holding is not an alpha and omega, but an architect’s compass, a common feature in pictorial depictions of creation.”
Sounds like Browns’ argument: “Our intensive research shows that Saint Walburga is known to hold a vial. So, doesn’t count; not mushroom.”
Rush seems reasonable and correct saying that the compass is meant to look like an Alpha, and the balance scale is meant to look like an Omega.
That assertion by Rush stands up, against Huggins.
Problem to solve: What about the bottom half of the image, that I very recently created hi-res crops for?
The other day, I created 3*4 = all 12 crops, that was a project! And look how it paid off re: 3 of 6 days in top half of image. I also found Row 4 Left valuable (red flaming sword in Gate of Eden) worthwhile, and everyone looks at 2-3 other panels too – in isolation.
I’ve inventoried the balance scale motif, I think 8 instances after you include the 1 from the Spain painter (shipping & receiving & weighing & storing & ingesting Cubensis – f221):
“The Browns’ third non-local “expert” (and I use that term very loosely here) is “Google scholar” Michael Hoffman.
“I’m not aware of anyone in the field who takes Hoffman seriously and, truth be told, his ideas are not worth wasting the word count allotted in this response.
“For now, I will say that all the supposed “mushroom trees” Hoffman advances to support the MICAH fit in with the same categories of mistake that the Browns make (see endnote 23 of this article).”
All the supposed args from Hatsis have been exposed as logical fallacies at my page, see below.
For demolition of Hatsis’ totally confabulated “parasols of victory”, see Brown at Hancock site.
____
“So that’s how the Browns derived their “evidence”: (1) preconceived bias (2) assertions from non-experts like Crantelle and Rignoux (3) exaggerating the depth of analysis by scholars who are certainly intelligent, but not critical historians, like Shultes and Hofmann and (4) reprinting once plausible but currently unsupported notions like those offered by Samorini. “
“2222Michael Hoffman, mentioned earlier, falls for this one quite a lot.”
I HAVE BEEN CRUSHED BY HATSIS’ PARASOL OF VICTORY 😵
“We also have the parasol of victory in writing: the Latin word for a “large umbrella” is “umbraculum.”
“Incidentally, there is no Latin word for “large mushroom.”
“In fact, there is no known word for “large mushroom” in any language of the ancient or medieval worlds—yet they all had a term for “parasol of victory.”
“And the parasol revelation doesn’t just topple the Plaincourault fresco—most every canopy-topped looking tree will suffer this fate.22
“And yet, it is only one category of mistake that the Browns make.
“There are, in total, five categories of mistake that every piece the Browns offer fits into neatly.23“
Five? See my page on the top 25 log falls of deniers of mushrooms in Christian art:
Deniers’ Logical Fallacies in the Pilzbaum (Mushroom-Trees) Debate
I need an official page dedicated to all panels and crops of folio page f11 – the famous one since 2000 Paul Lingren, cover of Mushrooms & Mankind book by James Arthur, and shown in:
Conjuring Eden: Art and the Entheogenic Vision of Paradise (Hoffman, Ruck & Staples, Entheos 1, 2001)
The content and crops for f11 is in two older pages:
I have 4 other pages dedicated to 1 folio of Great Canterbury Psalter.
Entheogen scholars since 2000 have presented together panels from 6 Days (top half) and Eden (bottom half). Anyone who has seen some mushroom panels from 6 Days of Creation has probably also seen some of the mushroom panels from the Eden rows.
The “tree of knowledge” panels in bottom half have important connections to Day 3 & Day 4 – Creation of Plants panels in upper half.
When teaching Sunil & N. last Thur May 22, 2025, 2 days ago in a 1-hour meeting, how to read Great Canterbury Psalter & the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}, we ended up profitably going over 5 images from Great Canterbury Psalter:
f11: Creation & Eden
f109: Bus/Net
f134: Hanging from mushroom-tree
f145: Cubensis traders; King David
f177: Horses; rams; crutch
Recently, I have been making progress on f109: learned to read f109 lower left to upper right.
Sequence of action motifs [no interp’s here; list only]: lower left to upper right:
mushroom-tree & non-falling, scroll-holding looking to the right
hellmouth w/ outer garments
balancing, inner undergarment and panaeolus arch stomach & R leg balancing
kneel (with L foot not touching ground)
net to catch his fall
vine leaf tree; branching message tree w/ {cut right trunk} & {cut right branch}. also has {cut left branch} which per last night May 23 2025 can = possibilism-thinking (because {cut right branch} means eternalism-thinking).
hand shape thumb + fingers held together.
angel w/ hand shapes implic. lifts blue guy from net after he falls into net.
blue censer/ water jug containing mushrooms
rock ossuary
corpse shroud
stability gate; transformation gate requiring payment of death/honoring.
God bringing through gate to safety
Jesus Christ as son; God’s sacrificial son Jesus substitute (isomorphic “in” him) sacrifice = lightning rod for no-harm Transcendent Knowledge.
Cloth: Clean washed cloth
inner temple sanctum; protected, safe refuge from danger of loss of control/ control instability.
A sanctum is the holiest place inside a holy building or room.
Sanctuary means protection given to someone by a place that is safe for them, a place where people who are in danger are safe.
“Europe was generally warmer during the Medieval Warm Period (roughly 900-1300 CE) than during the Little Ice Age (roughly 14th-19th centuries).
“The Medieval Warm Period was characterized by relatively mild conditions in much of Europe, while the Little Ice Age saw a significant cooling trend.
“Medieval Warm Period: This period, also known as the Medieval climate anomaly, saw a rise in temperatures in many parts of the world, including Europe.
“Some regions experienced temperatures higher than those recorded during the first half of the 20th century.
Little Ice Age: Following the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age brought about a period of widespread cooling. The cooling occurred gradually, with an initial drop around 1300 CE and a more severe cold period beginning around 1560 CE.”
Perhaps that gave a shift from Cubensis to Liberty Cap & Panaeolus, 1300 / 1430 / 1560. In England & Europe.
“Regional Variations: It’s important to note that while the Medieval Warm Period was generally warmer in many areas of Europe, the effects were not always uniform. Some regions may have experienced more significant warming than others, and the Little Ice Age also had varying impacts across different parts of Europe. Impacts: Both periods had significant social, economic, and environmental consequences.
“The Medieval Warm Period may have contributed to agricultural advances and the expansion of the Norse into Iceland and Greenland.”
Crop by Michael Hoffman. Great Canterbury Psalter f134 row 3 R.
“The Little Ice Age, on the other hand, was associated with crop failures, famines, and increased winter severity.”
City, Outer Gate, Inner Gate, Clean Cloth, Inner Sanctum
leash-controlled, man-controlled dog allergic to branching
take 2: fresh image jpg from scratch from library: January 22, 2026
blurry, take 1:
take 1, blurry, used bad approach: do not use local full image, then crop it. at lib, zoom, capture only a portion of full image, then trim. Crop by Michael Hoffman “f109 shield ears.jpg” 204 KB, 10:13 pm May 24, 2025 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10551125c/f109.item.zoomCrop by Michael Hoffman “f109 shield ears group not hearing.jpg” 295 KB May 29, 2025
The figures around the asp shielding ears from hearing the “right hand chain” transcendent message, but persists in L-hand branching-thinking.
The figures do not display the {YI hand shape}; they only know possibilism-thinking, not eternalism-thinking – despite 2x {lifted garment} on left.
The figures right of ossuary: one guy displays correct R hand = YI hand shape; they have more understanding, or at least that one guy has comprehension, = {holding open scroll}.
{holding a spear and shield} = psychonaut who is assertively exploring the Psilocybin state.
Horn Points at Cut Branch, Intolerable to Dog-Asp
11:16 p.m. January 21, 2026 –
Trumpet points at de branched branch held in L hand w/ no thumb.
Like how eyes serve to point, in Eadwine pics.
Dog (like asp) covers ears, b/c hearing that there’s no branching — non-branching block-universe eternalism instead — is a threat; experience of the threat of catastrophic loss of control.
Holding leash = 2-level, dependent control: holder of leash (with thumb + fingers; IY) is higher level controller; the leashed dog is the subserv, controlled agent.
Asp (Aberdeen Bestiary). Asp (the egoic, possibilism-premised personal control system) is trying to avoid hearing the attractive song. Posted at present site,
R hand: palm facing viewer: YI; branching two fingers, non-branching thumb. Same as how the R hand Hand Shape means YI.
L hand makes a YI shape holding open book = transcendent message.
It is RIDICULOUS that Thomas Hatsis says “bestiary, not religious book, SO, DOESN’T COUNT” re: “dancing man” image (Salamander page of a bestiary).
This “bestiary” shows religious imagery w/ same mushroom-tree family of motifs, so it is not valid to dismiss this set of pictures as “not religious art”. This bestiary genre is for religious moral instruction.
This decoding research builds on John Rush’s {hokey pokey} motif coverage.
About Aberdeen Bestiary (1200)
Same era as Great Canterbury Psalter, confirming that the Asp in Aberdeen = the Asp-Dog in Great Canterbury Psalter f109 bottom right.
Same genre, same era, same place (England), therefore same interpretation.
“The Aberdeen Bestiary (Aberdeen University Library MS 24) is considered to be one of the best examples of its type due to its lavish and costly illuminations.
“The manuscript, written and illuminated in England around 1200, is of added interest since it contains notes, sketches and other evidence of the way it was designed and executed.
“Original Website Project: In 1996 Aberdeen University created a website for the manuscript. For this, the book was photographed using slides which were subsequently scanned.
“The text was transcribed and translated, supported by a commentary and introduction.
“The website and the images have remained popular, indeed the images are amongst the most requested in our collections.
“However, digital imaging has improved dramatically over the intervening years and it is now possible to capture tremendous amounts of detail, in some cases, a level of detail not clearly visible to the naked eye.
Special Collections uses a Canon EOS DSLR camera which produces excellent images, but in order to capture the highest level of detail possible, we elected to make use of the services offered by The University of Manchester Library’s Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care (CHICC) which specialises in high-resolution imaging.
“Given the importance and value of The Aberdeen Bestiary, and the risks associated with taking it out of a controlled environment, we elected to have the photography done in the Glucksman Conservation Centre in The Sir Duncan Rice Library.
“At the end of March 2015, CHICC’s photographer, Jamie Robinson, arrived in Aberdeen. He brought their mobile unit, the Manfred Mayer Travellers Conservation Cradle, which has built in ultraviolet filtered LED lights.”
My own timeline:
2007 main article: covered snake, didn’t cover tree/ branching.
2010: “is {branching} a key mytheme?”
Nov 2013: got confirmation that branching is a key mytheme. douris kylix + The Power of Myth: cranach: Eve Tempted by the Snake.
[March 2015: high-res Aberdeen Bestiary online]
Dec 2015: Dancing Man salamander [Bodelian] bestiary’s mushroom-tree (from Hatsis’ copy of his zine article around 2013): maybe {stand on right foot} = eternalism, stand on left foot = possibilism?
Nov 2020: Confirmed (via f134 row 1 L, uploaded by John Lash 2008) stand on right foot = eternalism-thinking.
f177: Shrouded Corpse with Cut Left Limb
Crop by Michael Hoffman, March 11, 2023. f177 crop
corpse shroud – left limbs cut off; left arm cut off; left leg cut off.
decoded last night — actually a joint effort: decoded during teaching instruction meeting with Sunil & N. but completed last night May 23, 2025 voice recording: the logic =
{cut right branch} = eternalism-thinking; therefore {cut left limb} = possibilism-thinking. Q. E. D. Also applies to f177 row 2 panel 3.
todo: crop of f109 ossuary.
todo: crop of f109 net/ balancing/ vine leaf tree/ angel; kneel; hand shape; mushroom stomach.
difficult interpr ossuaries 3:
red, empty, at key tree w/ {cut right branch}. WHY TWO?!
Several spots have 3 figitures: the pointless loiterers; 3 rams; 2 carriers of corpse + corpse.
The two beard sages holding corpse died loss of control cybernetic ego death then left their two ossuaries, are assisting the dead ego death possibilism-thinking dead guy who used / asserted possibilism-thinking (cut left limb/arm & cut-off L foot;
Corpse is the egoic aspect of the guy held up by God on R foot only, who is burned away with rams).
Empty ossuary = {cut right branch} = good occupied ossuary = {cut left branch} = bad.
tree of knowledge = knowledge of good & bad; YouTube symbolism guy (& others) says “good and evil” means “good and bad” or “works vs. doesn’t work”. = stable control vs loss of control.
tree of knowledge = knowledge of stable control vs. loss of control, on Psilocybin/ psychedelics. branching = unstable = bad; non-branching = stable = good.
Crop by Michael Hoffman
{kneel} Motif in St. Martin Church: Entry into Jerusalem
In the kneeling motif, sometimes L foot doesn’t touch ground; so 100% of weight on R foot – however, R leg is bent, so, less than 100% weight on R foot.
No outer robe thinking; undergarment thinking only.
{outer robe garment} vs. {inner garment} or {naked}
outer robe = far from inner truth underlying; removeable; = possibilism-thinking.
Inner garment = eternalism-thinking.
hell mouth fire burns away the {outer robe garment} = egoic/ naive possibilism-thinking.
Only relying on R leg = only eternalism-thinking; this is repudiating L foot (possibilism-thinking).
Careful not to hard-demonize ego/ possibilism-thinking. It’s ok to “soft-demonize” egoic thinking; egoic personal control system. We repair sinful thinking; not wholesale, crude “get rid” of it. We only get rid of an ASPECT of egoic thinking.
3:42 pm May 24, 2025: re: identifying/ interp’g boy with halo in city: God’s son; his halo protects you; he is sacrificed (& resurr.) on your behalf to purify and give stable no-harm control on psychedelics.
ie it is Jesus as God’s lightning-rod son sacrificed like Isaac; compare Abraham & Isaac in the sacrifice of Isaac.
{hold branch} Motif
3:46 pm May 24, 2025: finally a bit of progress on lower right: L leg at branching arms; R leg foot at non-branching chest.
Left hand of man holds branching branch; {hold branch} Right hand of man holds leash chain of animal, controlling the animal who tries to {shield ears} from hearing the shohar horn message that causes loss of control.
That is the answer finally, to the baffling question, “WHY DOES THE MAN HOLD A BRANCH THING?”
Can read hands on horn as: L = branching fingers. R = non-branching thumb.
Images of Jesus in Great Canterbury Psalter
Medium-hard question: are there pictures of Jesus in Great Canterbury Psalter? Yes, but include child, and exclude God.
The tormenting, corrective demon makes the correct R hand YI shape, meaning (when look at palm) YI.
Dark demon stand on right foot ouside hellmouth flames, bent R foot burned by flames/ fire.
demons pull foolhardy cubensis psychonauts into flames vortex of trying to avoid thinking of catastrophic loss of control. This instance is mouth, not pit.
blue liberty cap topped stable tower at entryway
{caught in a net} invited to the city gate entrance past an ossuary corpse
Need to –without creating a page necessarily — have a way to tour / gather all instances of each motif of interest to see the variations and best understand the motif. eg a Findable flag. Not always mouth; can be pit. always fire. {fire} + hell mouth, fire pit… tended by demon/angels.
compare cowering holding shields and averting gaze when angels throw spears/ arrows down on hapless psychonauts.
/ end of copied from gallery page
Mystics Trying to Shield Themselves from Angels’ Arrows & Spears
Angels assaulting (arrow-blade, spear-blade) mystics by giving them too much knowledge/ message from controller-God.
Boon Tail Is Branching, the Beneficent No-Harm Reward of Being Threatened to Death in Divine Psychotic Mania
Difficult, diamond-run, peak difficulty of describing:
Our Non-Control Coerced Loss of Control Self Is Struck Down Beneficently “in” Beneficent Mithras’ Bull Sacrifice:
The devotee, is a Sacrificial Victim Forced to Agree to Be Harmed, and participating in the Lightning Rod Harmlessly, in idea-space with the sacrificed god or godly divine sacrifice like Abraham’s ram, or like God’s son Jesus as lamb, in whose sacrifice and cancellation and devastation catastrophe we participate to being washed clean and reconfigured, authorized, unharmed, local steering control agents.
New note May 24 2025: the boon fertility-via-death tail grain wheat is BRANCHING tail; goldenized blessed branching; the blessed authority to steer as a washed-clean egoic personal control system.
Not naive-egoic; qualified transcendent egoic.
crop of color reversible tauroc: main, middle part, hi-res equiv of German cover of Ulan book.
Motivation for this Page
This is the main, general-purpose page about the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene.
See also the new site map section about Mithraism.
Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony reversible colored main scene.jpg” 144 KB (dubious res? jpg?) 3:02 pm May 24, 2025
This is potentially the gallery page to place the main copy of images, though new page yesterday is dedicated to the colorized reversible tauroctony, so that page might be main place for those image crops.
Motivation for page: I only have topic-focused pages, need general main page about Mithraism & the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene.
Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony snake tree crowns Sol.jpg” 19 KB 11:38 May 29, 2025Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony weild shoulder.jpg” 28 KB 11:36 May 29, 2025Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony zodiac arch threat arrow upper row.jpg” 106 KB 12:02 May 29, 2025
Same row as eternalism zodiac is {threatened by arrow/blade}.
Above zodiac row is seeing eternalism snake worldline non-branching, and being made to see 2-level, dependent control.
Above zodiac row, top row, is steering with divine authorization, not monolithic, autonomous control. transcend eternalism. steer with reins in L hand; steer using washed-clean possibilism-thinking. Two horses = two mental models.
top row: Left rock horses look at tree’s branching, Right rock horses (Luna) look at a tree’s non-branching trunk.
top row L: Mithras stand on right foot in the chariot that’s steered by Sol in relation with Mithras.
A pact, an agreement, handshake, a concord between a higher ruler emperor and a king local ruler, in the hierarchy of honor / hierarchy of control per 1997 Egodeath theory spec:
“The underlying block universe is at a higher level in the hierarchy of control than the practically free actions that take place within the stream of personal actions within the block universe. The universe forcefully controls the stream of personal control-actions, then the stream of control actions exerts its secondary power. One can postulate a god — a creator and controller — at an even higher level in the control hierarchy“
{billowing cape} = the eternalism state of consciousness
{billowing cape} instances: row 1 L; row 2 M; row 4 L
number of trees (Y trees): 3 + 4 + 1 = 8 trees.
cape = billowing = wind = pneuma = heimarmene fixed stars state of consciousness; the eternalism state of consciousness.
the eternalism state of consciousness esoc
the possibilism state of consciousness psoc
possibilism-branching steering control
Orig. Content Developed in “Cyberdisciple Site Map” Page
Moved to here from my Cyberdisciple site map page:
The motive for this cleanup: Need detailed info below each crop, that was first put into Cyberdisciple site map page.
todo: merge sections/ crops.
Tauroctony Decoding April 25, 2025
Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony snake tree bull bladed see snake.jpg” 50 KB 6:16 pm April 25, 2025 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92776678 export/crop from wiki orig file might be clearerCrop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony snake tree bull dragged see snake.jpg” 16KB 6:14 pm April 25, 2025 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92776678 export/crop from wiki orig file might be clearer estab’s snake = non-branching part of treeCrop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony snake tree in tree threatened blade.jpg” 39 KB 6:21 pm April 25, 2025 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92776678 export/crop from wiki orig file might be clearerCrop and annotations by Michael Hoffman
seeing {snake frozen in rock} threatens to death egoic control agent, monolithic, autonomous control. replaced by mental model that is 2-level, dependent control.
bull dragged when see snake at right trunk of tree,
bull replaced by Sol, crowned.
Grape bunch on lib cap mushroom stem aimed at drinking horn filled with strong dose of lib cap the God brings the follower to ingest, after which god gives initiate crown to steer wind-blown cape chariot in altered state.
8:02 pm April 25, 2025 Michael Hoffman
naive possibilism-thinking bull sacrificed thus, upon seeing snake rather than branching tree,
bull identity replaced by Sol, transcendent possibilism-thinking.
Pre/Trans fallacy: pre = bull; trans = Sol.
bull != Sol though both are a form of possibilism-thinking.
bull = naive possibilism-thinking. Sol = transcendent possibilism-thinking.
Completed initiate has together: transcendent eternalism-thinking + transcendent possibilism-thinking.
from cover of German book David Ulansey’s solution explaining Mithraism
/ end of content moved to here from my Cyberdisciple site map page
Entire Front
Features:
wind blowing beard on R in top row, on L in bottom row. bottom row: beard is near Mithra’s R foot.
which leg bent on L, on R. Consistent. stand on right foot vs. stand on left foot; ie, the leg which is not bent. Forget “crossed” legs; which leg is bent and thus not bent?
L side: 3 bent L legs = 3 stand on right foot. Most tauroctony scenes have bent L leg, on L twin.
R side: 2 bent R legs = 2 stand on right foot.
random art choice re: L torch light up or down: if you choose to show torch down on L, that points to {stand on right foot}, above that snake.
wheat tail against heimarmene fixed stars: affirming heimarmene gives fecundity reward. Sol is higher personal control system after blade the vulnerable bull which is lower personal control system, especially egoic naive possibilism-thinking “monolithic, autonomous control” is repudiated, specifically.
Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony reverse.jpg” 386 KB 7:35 pm Apr. 25, 2025
Banquet Scene on Reverse Side
Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony reverse 2.jpg” 406 KB 7:51 pm Apr. 25, 2025
Features:
Lib Cap has sword blade revealing Psilocybin transformation about steering; crown = steering ability authorized by the standard of Psilocybin. Mithras showing palm = threatened & mercy pleading, apprehension. Apprehending the blade – Psilocybe semi-lanceata; spear-blade-mushroom.
Steering rod is non-branching.
Blade goes into bull near shoulder.
Seeing how steering works in non-branching revealed world (an experience).
Bull’s right legs are bent, implying bad/unstable {stand on left foot}: belief in stand on left foot is dead, when on Psilocybin. To still use possibilism-thinking (branching possibilities steering), must transcend eternalism-thinking.
Drinking horn contains lib cap Psilocybin which is a blade that kills initial monolithic, autonomous control steering in a branching possibilities tree. Cuts off the branching & cuts off the egoic autonomous personal control system of the type that steers in a tree to create the open future to “close” the future by your egoic autonomous control power.
grape = Psilocybin lib cap
mercy hand: thumb = non-branching; fingers = branching. IY. “display hand” = the capability of finger shapes to represent branching vs non-branching.
hunting dogs: Acteon sees Artemis, turns into stag w/ branching antlers, torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs.
Cubensis mushroom above bull head. Angle illusion; it’s a right hand above bull ear.
wheat tail: bovine dung grows Cubensis.
Bull Made to See Snake in Tree
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Bull Dragged Seeing Snake at Trunk of Tree
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Sol Authorized to Steer as Charioteer
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Sol Authorized to Steer as Charioteer, with Pneumas
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Top Rows
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Sol Crowned by Mithras and Made to Understand Mithras Controls Your Control-Thoughts, in Harmonious, Benevolent, No-Harm Relationship
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Features:
naked L foot-relying Sol on R: no control power; crown not on head; powerless; Mithras controls Sol’s power; Mithras holds controls your bull muscle, your source of power.
left Mithras stand on right foot; left foot floats. Heimarmene cap billowing touches branching part of tree.
Mithras Is Tree’s Branching; Dragged to See Snake at Trunk; Threatened by Arrow-Blade at Rock
Mysteria: The Ancient Mysteries and the Evolution of Consciousness
30 Oct. 2012 (no such)
“David Ulansey’s Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries won wide acclaim for its splendid scholarship and what Gnosis magazine called “an absolutely spell-binding detective story of antique lore.”
“Ulansey returns here with another detective story, this time unearthing the once-flourishing religious movements snuffed out by the arrival of Christianity.
Based on a series of lectures presented at San Francisco’s prestigious Jung Institute, Mysteria employs a wealth of scholarly and investigative tools in this exploration of
the role ancient mystery religions played in the evolution of Western consciousness.
The book reveals how these secret
cults, which centered on rituals and symbols of transformation at the deepest levels, catalyzed the formation of the individual, personal identity that became the core of the Western psyche.
Mysteria also examines the impact of the extraordinary
cultural and intellectual transformations of the Hellenistic Age on consciousness and self-awareness.
The official model of mystical experience that was firmly baked into psychedelic science via Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ).
Defines the the positive unitive model of “mystical experience”.
It is an eliminative, reductive, narrowing, selective conception of mystical experience:
“If your experience was anything other than positive unitive, you failed to have a mystical experience, and your experience is to be ignored, rejected, and disowned, as irrelevant for mystical experience.”
Silently accompanying the positive unitive model of mystical experience is the repressed and disowned {shadow dragon monster} threat; the experience of the threat of catastrophic loss of control.
The more you are enlightened, the more that personal control goes instable and non-viable.
To have Transcendent Knowledge is to be cognizant of the threat of control instability.
This marks a boundary between levels, per folio image f107 in Great Canterbury Psalter.
In a Harvard video that’s transcribed at the present site, Charles Stang confronted Griffiths on this not matching writings of the mystics that Stang read; Griffiths responded (paraphrased): “Yes, we use a “positive balanced” model” and “We’ve got the failures covered: we made-up the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ)”.
The CEQ arbitrarily eliminates 18 of 21 negative effects that are defined in Angst dimension of Adolph Dittrich’s 1994 OAV [Ocean/Angst/Vision] questionnaire; even the negative, unpleasant-effects questionnaire that was fabricated by psychedelic pseudo science is “positive-balanced” – a farce.
Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drug Experience and the Mystical State of Consciousness (Pahnke, 1963)
Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drug Experience and the Mystical State of Consciousness Walter Pahnke, June 1963, PhD thesis http://en.psilosophy.info/drugs_and_mysticism.html
How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (Fields, 1981)
This book was the inspiration for the 1991 McRae article, which explains the 1893 cultural historical source of the (exclusively) “Positive Unitive”, Pop Neo-Advaita model of mystical experience (eventually expressed in Stace’s 1960 book).
In 1962, Stace’s version of the positive unitive model of “mystical experience” formed the false (selective, narrow, exclusivist, eliminative) basis of psychedelic science & its Leary-type psychometrics questionnaires, such as the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), starting with the Good Friday Experiment at Marsh Chapel on April 20, 1962 by Walter Pahnke, under the advisor Tim Leary.
“If your experience was something other than Positive Unitive, your experience failed to be mystical; doesn’t count; and is to be entirely ignored, and rejected as a failure.”
“A modern classic unparalleled in scope, this sweeping history unfolds the story of Buddhism’s spread to the West.
“opens with the story of Asian Buddhism, including the life of the Buddha and the spread of his teachings from India to Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and elsewhere.
“Coming to the modern era, the book tracks how Western colonialism in Asia served as the catalyst for the first large-scale interactions between Buddhists and Westerners.
“the development of Buddhism in the West through key moments such as
Transcendentalist fascination with Eastern religions
immigration of Chinese and Japanese people to the United States
the writings of D. T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, and members of the Beat movement
the publication of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki”
Oriental Verities on the American Frontier: The 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions and the Thought of Masao Abe (McRae, 1991)
Oriental Verities on the American Frontier: The 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions and the Thought of Masao Abe John McRae, 1991 Journal: Buddhist-Christian Studies Volume v.11, pp. 7 – 36 Publisher University of Hawai’i Press http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/t3-buddhist-christian-studies.aspx
Contents:
I. AN IRENIC DIALOGUE AND ITS ROUGH-EDGED ANCESTOR 7
II. THE WORLD’S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS OF 1893 9
A. The Context and Meaning of the Columbian Exposition 9
B. The World’s Parliament as an Event in International Religious History 13
C. Asian Religions at the Parliament 14
III. TURNING THE MESSAGE AROUND I: INDIAN REPRESENTATIVES SPEAK OUT AT THE WORLD’S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 15
A. Vivekananda (1863-1902) and the Eternal Truth of Indian Religions
B. Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) and Buddhism as the “Light of Asia” 18
IV. TURNING THE MESSAGE AROUND 2: CHINESE AND JAPANESE 23
A. Shaku Soyen (1859-1919) and Japanese Zen as the Law of Cause and Effect 23
B. Pung Kwang Yu, Government Official and Confucian Scholar, and the Evils of Religion Itself 27
V. THE IMPACT AND MEANING OF THE WORLD’S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS IN ASIA AND AMERICA 29
A. The Asian Representatives and Their Messages
B. Lessons to Be Drawn Concerning the Buddhist-Christian Dialogue 31
NOTES 33
The article was inspired by the book How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (Rick Fields, 1981).
The Psychedelic Religion of Mystical Consciousness (Rick Strassman, Jul. 2018)
Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences (Ann Taves, May 2020)
Debunks the “Positive Unity Experience” Model of Mysticism.
Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences Ann Taves, 2020 Perspect Psychol Sci 2020 May;15(3):669-690 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32053465/ doi: 10.1177/1745691619895047. Epub 2020 Feb 13. PMID: 32053465 DOI: 10.1177/1745691619895047 Free article at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/86r3f75j
Erratum in: Corrigendum: Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2022 Mar;17(2):614. doi: 10.1177/17456916221076158. Epub 2022 Jan 24. PMID: 35073216
“This volume charts the fascinating history of the multiple roots and interactions which underlie the modern popular understanding of mysticismas a universal phenomenon across epochs and cultures.
“In an unprecedentedly broad interdisciplinary exchange, international scholars from different disciplinescritically examine the concept and mental maps of the term ‘mysticism’ which enjoyed a central role in classical theories of religion, as developed in fields like psychology, sociology, history or phenomenology.
“However, mysticism lost its prominence after the controversial debates [= Katz rebuttal against not mystical experience, but against the irrelevant Trojan-horse accretion, “pure awareness”] in the second half of the twentieth century[year? how does he below arrive at 1980?] about whether mystical experience should be considered universal or socio-culturally constructed.
“After four decades of silence [since Frits Staal’s 1975 book Exploring Mysticism], this [June 2021] [2021 – 40 years = 1981] volume ventures a stimulatingly novel approach to mysticism as a universal, transcultural category from the perspective of the cultural studies of religion.
This includes the question of how a European concept fraught with Christian notions was transferred to non-European cultures and secular contexts, and thereby attained new meanings and functions in daily life.
Fresh insights are gained by examining three major areas:
a) mysticism’s potential for boundary crossing in earlier centuries of European history;
b) the history of mysticism research in context – from the mysticism boom at the fin de siecle and early twentieth century to its renewed attractiveness in American counterculture and the psychedelic movement to its trans-formation into postmodern spirituality; and
c) universal mysticism’s absorption of Eastern religions (notably Buddhism, Hindu traditions, and Daoism) as well as Asian insiders’ self-conceptions.”
/ end of book blurb; book contains the Baier article
Contents:
Book: Constructions of Mysticism as a Universal: Roots and Interactions Across Borders
Article: High Mysticism: On the Interplay between the Psychedelic Movement and Academic Study of Mysticism
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Drugs as a Topic within the Study of Mysticism before the PM [Psychedelic Movement]
3. Aldous Huxley’s Psychedelic Perennialism
3.1 Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy in Relation to The Doors of Perception
3.2 The Consummate Stage of Huxley’s Psychedelic Mysticism
3.3 Huxley’s Filter Theory
4. Filter Theories after Huxley
5. Zaehner’s Antithesis
6. Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment and the Influence of Walter T. Stace
7. The Synopsis and Swansong of an Era: Frits Staal’s Exploring Mysticism (1975)
Bibliography
Consciousness, Religion, and Gurus: Pitfalls of Psychedelic Medicine (Matthew Johnson, Apr. 2021)
Consciousness, Religion, and Gurus: Pitfalls of Psychedelic Medicine Matthew Johnson https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00198 ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science 20214 (2), 578-581 DOI: 10.1021/acsptsci.0c00198
Matthew Johnson, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
Photo: Michael Hoffman
I GOT TO TELL YOU NOW THE SHIP IS READY WAITING ON THE SHELF.
Photo: Michael Hoffman
Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science (James Sanders & Josjan Zijlmans, May 2021)
Reconciling Mystical Experiences with Naturalistic Psychedelic Science: Reply to Sanders and Zijlmans (Jussi Jylkkä, Jun. 2021)
Reconciling Mystical Experiences with Naturalistic Psychedelic Science: Reply to Sanders and Zijlmans https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsptsci.1c00137 Jussi Jylkkä (2021) June 8, 2021 Published by American Chemical Society
Working with Weirdness: A Response to “Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science” (Joost Breeksema & Michiel van Eck, Jul. 2021)
“The mystical experience [ie the Vivek/Stace, positive unitive model of “mystical experience”] is a potential psychological mechanism to influence outcome in psychedelic therapy.
“It includes features such as oceanic boundlessness, ego dissolution, and universal interconnectedness [dup of ocean], which have been closely linked to both symptom reduction and improved quality of life.
“In this review, 12 studies of psychedelic therapy utilizing psilocybin, ayahuasca, or ketamine were analyzed for association between mystical experience and symptom reduction, in areas as diverse as cancer-related distress, substance use disorder, and depressive disorders to include treatment-resistant.
“Ten of the twelve established a significant association of correlation, mediation, and/or prediction.
“A majority of the studies are limited, however, by their small sample size and lack of diversity (gender, ethnic, racial, educational, and socioeconomic), common in this newly re-emerging field.
“Further, 6 out of 12 studies were open-label in design and therefore susceptible to bias.
“Future studies of this nature should consider a larger sample size with greater diversity and thus representation by use of randomized design.
[how about a model of “mystical experience” that’s not shiite?]
“More in-depth exploration into the nature of mystical experience is needed, including predictors of intensity, in order to maximize its positive effects on treatment outcome benefits and minimize concomitant anxiety.”
[The best mystical experience is not moving from separateness to unity, but rather, adding eternalism-thinking to possibilism-thinking, during eternalism-driven control-transformation. -mh]
A Channel for Magic: Ralph Hood’s Mysticism Scale and the Occult Roots of the Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Program (Travis Kitchens, Sep. 2022)
The M-Scale and the Occult Roots of the JHU Psychedelic Research Program (Travis Kitchens video, Feb. 2023)
Video title: The M-Scale and the Occult Roots of the JHU Psychedelic Research Program | Plus Three #56 YouTUbe channel: Psymposia Feb. 15, 2023 Show: Plus Three podcast
“In this episode, the Psymposia team speaks with writer Travis Kitchens about his recent piece “A Channel for Magic: Ralph Hood’s Mysticism Scale and the Occult Roots of the Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Program”
Psychometric brahman, psychedelic science: Walter Stace, transnational Vedanta, and the Mystical Experience Questionnaire Jeffrey A. BreauORCID Icon &Paul Gillis-Smith Pages 788-806 | Published online: 13 Nov 2023 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03080188.2023.2266322
Video: Psychedelic Medicine, Panpsychism, and Theodicy (Mosurinjohn, April 12, 2024)
Video title: Psychedelic Medicine, Panpsychism, and Theodicy | The Research Room with Dr. Sharday Mosurinjohn YouTube channel: MAPS Canada Len: 58:01 Uploaded Apr 12, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5POIh7_dJuM “Psychedelic medicine grapples with the issue of bad trips within the framework of regulatory systems.” – todo: where’s that string from? Desc:
“Sharday is an Associate Professor in the School of Religion at Queen’s University, Kingston ON, where she researches and teaches on esotericism, occult sciences, and new religious movements.
“She is interested in working with, and enlivening integrative, non-mechanistic worldviews found within these traditions.
“Her first book is The Spiritual Significance of Overload Boredom (2022; McGill-Queen’s University Press).
“Her major projects right now are about psychedelic spiritual crises and solutions.
“With multidisciplinary collaborators, she is synthesizing tools for facilitating navigating existential distress, recovery and maps for meaning-making.
“This work begins from a cosmophilic starting point, centering epistemologies of direct gnosis from traditional communities of practice, and integrating academic scientific and humanistic epistemologies.
“She is involved in a number of academic and other organizations: she is
a founding member of the Human Augmentation Research Network,
she holds leadership positions at the American Academy of Religion, and
she has been Director of Research at the Psychedelic Association of Canada“
What We Do Is Secret: Part One: The Night Watchman (Travis Kitchens, Jan. 2025)
“Travis Kitchens was a psychedelic research subject for Johns Hopkins University who eventually uncovered a secret plan to revive religion with drugs. Travis writes on the history and philosophy of psychedelic research.”
todo: read & comment probably at idea development page 31. paste text into Word, del junk, paste to 31.
The Most Controversial Paper in the History of Psychedelic Research May Never See the Light of Day: Was the Psychedelic Renaissance Led by Science or Faith? (Travis Kitchens, Mar. 2025)
10:43 “The contribution that I want to make is towards supporting the discussion of psychedelics coming into mainstream culture on sound historical footing.”
She has found nothing that’s proved to be not on sound historical footing. Mosurinjohn & Ascough have disproved nothing, despite their propaganda campaign.
Mosurinjohn & Ascough covertly shift from possibility (maybe mystery religions didn’t use psychedelics) to as-if-fact (mystery religions didn’t use psychedelics).
Brave New World- The Psychedelic Renaissance is a Social Engineering Project (Travis Kitchens video, Apr. 2025)
Video title: #60 Brave New World- The Psychedelic Renaissance is a Social Engineering Project. Travis Kitchens YouTube channel: AWONDERJUNKIE Apr 2, 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZWsLluqU3Y —
Desc:
“Travis Kitchens was a psychedelic research subject in the Johns Hopkins study in 2014.
“Travis and Ryan explore the history of the current psychedelic movement, focusing on the Johns Hopkins studies, the Council on Spiritual Practices, and the implications of psychedelics in social engineering.
“Travis critiques the psychedelic movement, highlighting the influence of key figures and the commercialization of psychedelics, while questioning the narrative that psychedelics universally improve individuals and society.
“Travis and Ryan delve into the complexities surrounding psychedelics, discussing their potential benefits and the authoritarian elements that often accompany their use.
“They explore the dangers of addiction and escapism, the importance of cultural context, and the need for critical examination of psychedelic literature.
“The dialogue emphasizes the mystery of existence and the limits of knowledge, advocating for a humble approach to understanding consciousness and the human experience.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Psychedelics and Personal Journey
Desc: “Despite failing human subjects protections, a Johns Hopkins psychedelic clergy study driven to influence the public appears set to be published.”
This Is Your Priest on Drugs (Michael Pollan, May 2025)
This Is Your Priest on Drugs Michael Pollan, May 19, 2025 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/this-is-your-priest-on-drugs [subscribers] – If you are able to view entire article, you might want to Save As, Print (try 75% size), or Save As PDF – if you go in again, d/k if you have access to it.
I was able to access the full article and Save and Print it.
Crop and Annotations by Michael Hoffman, Jan. 13, 2025
Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions (May 2025)
The long-awaited “Religious Leaders Study”.
Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions Roland R. Griffiths, Robert Jesse, William A. Richards, Matthew W. Johnson, Nathan D. Sepeda, Anthony P. Bossis, Stephen Ross May 30, 2025 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/psymed.2023.0044 Psychedelic Medicine (journal)
“Although historical writings, anthropological accounts, and experimental studies document associations between psilocybin use and religion, no prospective experimental study has investigated how the effects of psilocybin are experienced and interpreted by religious clergy.
“This exploratory study evaluated the overall safety and the acute and enduring effects of psilocybin in clergy.
Methods:
“Participants were psychedelic-naïve clergy from various major world religions.
“A randomized, parallel group, waitlist control design was used to assess the effects of two supported psilocybin sessions, with participants receiving 20 and then 20 or 30 mg/70 kg about 1 month later.
“Outcomes were compared between the Immediate Group (n = 13) and the Delayed Group (n = 16) at 6 months after screening using self-report measures.
“The effects of psilocybin were also assessed on session days and 4 and 16 months after the second psilocybin session in the 24 participants who completed both sessions.
Results:
“The primary outcome assessment at 6 months after screening showed that, compared with the delayed control group, participants who had received psilocybin reported significantly greater positive changes in their religious practices, attitudes about their religion, and effectiveness as a religious leader, as well as in their non-religious attitudes, moods, and behavior.
“Follow-up assessments showed that positive changes in religious and non-religious attitudes and behavior were sustained through 16 months after the second psilocybin session.
“At that time, participants rated at least one of their psilocybin experiences to be among the top five most spiritually significant (96%), profoundly sacred (92%), psychologically insightful (83%), and psychologically meaningful (79%) of their lives.
“Furthermore, 42% rated one of their experiences to be the single most profound of their lifetime.
“At 16-months follow-up, most (79%) strongly endorsed that the experiences had positive effects on their religious practices (e.g., prayer or meditation) and their daily sense of the sacred, and most (71%) reported positive changes in their appreciation of religious traditions other than their own.
“Although no serious adverse events were reported, 46% rated a psilocybin experience as among the top five most psychologically challenging of their lives.
Conclusions:
“In this population of clergy, psilocybin administration was safe and increased multiple domains of overall psychological well-being including positive changes in religious attitudes and behavior as well as their vocation as a religious leader.
“The study was limited by a waitlist control design, homogenous sample, and the use of some unvalidated outcome measures. Further research with more rigorous control conditions and diverse samples is needed.”
/ end Abstract
todo: move out to Commentary page:
Find “conflicts of interest” in the article:
The section is restrictive-sounding. Will that reduce how often the article is cited?
“the following must be reported to all journals and disclosed in all publications where data related to this study may be published”
How often would people want to publish data related to this study?
With or without the violations that taint & invalidate this entire study.
What impact the requirement of disclosure of taintedness?
UNCLEAN study
You cannot build evidence-based Science with unclean studies. That’s the simplified idea. Practical is more nuanced: It is not bad that they attempted a study in this pioneering area.
After Controversy, the Psilocybin & Religious Leaders Study Is Finally Published (Psychedelic Alpha, May 2025)
“After late-stage drama, one of two papers in the psychedelic clergy study is published. Other things weren’t.”
Psychedelics and Spirituality in Light of the Religious Leaders Study (Livestream, June 11, 2025) – Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley
Psychedelics and Spirituality in Light of the Religious Leaders Study (Livestream) https://events.gtu.edu/event/gtu.events.1016144 Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley Wed., June 11, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM, PST Pollan, etc. on the panel
“Entanglements between psychedelics and religion are nothing new.
Such intersections span countless cultures across millennia, presumably ever since humans started gathering to ingest psychoactive plants and fungi.
This fact has both enchanted and tormented modern researchers who wish to study these substances within the secular frameworks of scientific materialism.
We now find ourselves at an intriguing moment in the history of psychedelics and religion.
Nearly a decade ago, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins and NYU observed the effects of psilocybin on dozens of religious leaders from various traditions.
The researchers sought to replicate and improve upon the groundbreaking “Good Friday Experiment” of 1962, conducted beneath Howard Thurman’s Marsh Chapel by a Harvard PhD candidate who sought to measure the impact of psilocybin on local divinity students in a devotional setting.
Central questions underlying both studies were:
Given the tendencies of psychedelics to induce “mystical” or “spiritual” states typically associated with religions, what happens when you administer them to seasoned religious practitioners from traditions that do not normally incorporate psychedelics?
Are these individuals somehow primed for the psycho-spiritual terrain?
Do psychedelic experiences change their religious identities or outlooks?
For a variety of reasons, publication of the scientific article from the Hopkins/NYU study was stalled for years.
Just recently, on May 19th, Michael Pollan published his own article in The New Yorker about the study, its contexts, and its controversies.
Then, the scientific article finally appeared on May 30th in the journal Psychedelic Medicine.
During a panel discussion we are hosting at the Graduate Theological Union and via livestream on June 11,
Pollan will engage in discussion with
Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, who participated in the Hopkins/NYU study;
Aidan Seale-Feldman, an anthropologist researching contemporary psychedelic “churches” with an eye toward secularism;
Bia Labate, an anthropologist who has published extensively on Indigenous plant medicine traditions, as well as other marginalized psychedelic cultures; and
Michael Silver, a neuroscientist and co-director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Sam Shonkoff, a scholar of religion at the Graduate Theological Union, will moderate.
Together, these speakers will shed light on the cultural significance of the Hopkins/NYU study and how its results and reception ought to inform perspectives on psychedelics, religions, and the entanglements between them.
Video: “Erica Rex – Science and Religion”: Summary of Hopkins’ “Religious Leaders Study” Fiasco (June 30, 2025)
Video title: Erica Rex – Science and Religion YouTube Channel: Psychedelics Today Streamed live on Jun 30, 2025, I was there live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_TYKKU-2MI –
Good summary of Religious Leaders Study fiasco.
Award-winning science writer Erica Rex, conversation about the recent Hopkins religious study.
John Allegro and the Psychedelic Mysteries Hypothesis Richard Ascough 2025/08/08 School of Religion, Queen’s University at Kingston, Kingston, ON, Canada https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/8/1029 John_Allegro_and_the_Psychedelic_Mysteries_Hypothe.pdf
Excerpts from Abstract
What to reject
What to accept, to move forward:
The following Ascough quotes/excerpts are exact; copypasted from PDF:
Reject the theory “that early Christianity derived from fertility cults involving psychedelic mushroom use.”
Affirm “the broader psychedelic mysteries hypothesis … the role of entheogens in religious traditions.”
“Allegro’s work is best viewed as a historical curiosity rather than a reliable source for contemporary entheogenic scholarship.”
Excerpts from Conclusion:
“a larger project to recover the centrality of mystical experience [expected “psychedelics” here] in religion”
“Irvin (2009) … Allegro’s book … He [Ruck] argues that entheogens have always played a role in facilitating the direct encounter with the sacred, an encounter that institutional religion has often sought to regulate or suppress.
[beware the “social drama narrative” tail wagging the “entheogen scholarship” dog; beware ulterior agendas corrupting and compromising entheogen scholarship or psychedelic science -mh]
“Ruck draws parallels between ancient mystery cults and modern psychedelic research, suggesting that entheogenic experiences continue to reveal themselves as potent means of accessing transcendence.
“… this ancient, experiential core of religion.
“a growing scholarly and cultural interest in entheogenic spirituality.
“the arguments for the “psychedelic mysteries hypothesis” of religion put forth by later authors [McKenna, Irvin],
“Whatever else may be argued for or against the psychedelic mysteries hypothesis, it is time to relegate Allegro to, at best, a descriptive footnote of a failed experiment.
“The linguistic and historical flaws inherent in his approach undermine any use of Allegro’s work in advancing the modern arguments around the role of psychoactive substances in religious experiences.
“If we are to move forward with a convincing case based on scientific and historical evidence, it is time to relegate Allegro’s work to a curiosity of the past that may have inspired further work but upon whose foundation we cannot continue to build.”
Cites Michael Hoffman 2006, Plaincourault, at Egodeath.com re: the same conclusion. todo: post my conclusions from my 2006 article, along same lines: we must sideline Allegro’s particular theory, to move forward.
Mosurinjohn invades and misuses the field: she brings her own, imported agenda, from outside the field: her Psychedelic Justice false agenda; her own “social drama narrative”:
“THERE CANNOT BE ALLOWED PSYCHEDELICS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY [“We know there is no evidence”], BECAUSE YOU WOULD BE GUILTY OF COMMITTING COLONIAL VIOLENCE BY FAILING TO REVOLVE YOUR WORLD AROUND, AND BOUNDARY-LIMIT YOUR WORLD TO, INDIGENOUS SHAMS, WHO HAVE ACTUAL EVIDENCE GOING WAY BACK TO 100 YEARS AGO.”
Sharday argues that way in her written summary of her 10-minute talk, but then (probably after Ascough yelled at her), in her talk, she’s defensively denying that that’s her message.
Toward a Psychedelic Theodicy: Psychedelic Biomedicine and the Concept of “Risk” (Mosurinjohn 2024/2025) – todo: read
Mosurinjohn, Sharday Toward a Psychedelic Theodicy: Psychedelic Biomedicine and the Concept of ‘Risk.’ Sharday Mosurinjohn In Psychedelic Intersections: 2024 Conference Anthology, edited by Jeffrey Breau and Paul Gillis-Smith Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2025. https://doi.org/10.70423/0001.14
article: Toward a Psychedelic Theodicy: Psychedelic Biomedicine and the Concept of “Risk” https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/publications/psychedelic-intersections/psychedelic-theodicy-mosurinjohn “Construed broadly, as I do here, a theodicy is an attempt to square the experience of malevolence and suffering with metaphysical conditions that are assumed to be fundamentally, well, loving. In Islam or Christianity, for example, theodicy is usually rendered in terms of reconciling the existence of a benevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent God with the existence of evil. While I do not have space here to make the case for the fundamental lovingness of existence, I take this as a premise for my argument.1 Doing psychedelic theodicy is a practice of theorizing how and why a fundamentally loving, intelligent cosmos gives rise to experiences that are not that in the context of a psychedelic trip. Psychedelic theodicy allows one to explore a wide variety of questions and experiences that surface during a trip: death, desecration, meaninglessness [McKenna], disconnection, encounters with apparently sinister, etc.”
Video: Psychedelics in Context: Hauntings, Hype, & Hope. An interdisciplinary panel. (Mosurinjohn etc, Oct. 17, 2025) – todo: watch
Video title: Psychedelics in Context: Hauntings, Hype, & Hope. An interdisciplinary panel.
“The McGill Psychedelics and Contemplation Lab welcomes you to a round-table discussion exploring the past, present, and future directions of psychedelics and psychedelic therapy.
“As psychedelics become increasingly mainstream, it is a critical moment to reflect on the field through a social and cultural lens.
“Hosted at (and streamed from) the historic Allan Memorial Institute, a group of international experts will share perspectives on navigating the psychedelic landscape, exploring in equal measure the field’s pitfalls and promises.
“Panelists include
Tehseen Noorani,
Neşe Devenot,
Ido Hartogsohn, and
Sharday Mosurinjohn.”
Incoming Entries
Motivation/Scope for this Page
This page was spawned from older, verbose, messy page that was hard to find just the citations/links to the articles.
Scope/topics; the field being critiqued:
Critiques of Psychedelic Science with psychometrics questionnaires modelling mystical experience.
Not critiques of entheogen scholarship / history of psychedelics in religion – that’s a separate debate.
Video title: The Bible’s Most Dangerous Story — Here’s Why [sacrifice of Isaac] YouTube channel: Mindshift (Brandon) – literalist Apr 27, 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoQ-qP3j2_A
Who is worst and stupidest? Literalist Christians, or literalist anti-Christians who merely prove that they are “those on the outside”?
Literalism kills, idolatry kills; mythology enlightens and transforms, delivering the treasure.
Better than 1) Old Testament literal blood sacrifice of horned livestock is 2) New Testament literal blood sacrifice of Mr. Jesus, but after I was saved from cybernetic loss of control threat by the IDEA of Jesus on the cross in 1995, I puzzled over the role/ function/ purpose of an actual, literal death of a literal Jesus.
I had a couple years to think and write about that question 1996-1998, which explains why I so quickly and immediately pivoted in 1999 as soon as I heard about ahistoricity.
I gladly immediately switched from asking Paul & Jesus to confirm the Egodeath theory, to asking religious myth to confirm the Egodeath theory.
3) Best is the idea (comprehension of mythic analogy) of blood violent sacrifice (eg you must bring a piglet to sacrifice, to the Eleusinian mysteries), or the idea of godman fastened to spacetime cross helplessly.
I can explain how the IDEA (mythic analogy) of substitute blood saves the mystic psychonaut from harm; I cannot explain how literal blood could save the psychonaut from harm. Magic thinking, literal thinking, cannot enlighten or save or transform.
Strangely, the angel of God never told Abraham to sacrifice the ram, though pictures show that, in the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}.
The angel said do not harm the boy, and don’t do anything to the boy.
The angel said because you have done this thing and NOT withheld your only son, your offspring will thrive and be blessed.
The angel did NOT say “sacrifice this ram instead of your son.” THE ANGEL DID NOT SAY BECAUSE YOU KILLED THIS RAM, YOU ARE SAVED/ BLESSED, AND ISAAC IS SAVED.
Angel ACTED like Isaac was let live because the ram was killed.
Sequence: Gen 22: Omits the setup where God commands Abraham to offer up Isaac.
Abraham makes the child carry the cut wood branches: child-thinking = branching thinking
Abraham Tested <– NIV authors add headings
22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about [when?].
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 He said to his servants [young men; youths], “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” [lying, or planning to cheat God? Is Abraham testing God?]
6 Abraham took the wood [cut branches] for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. [missing: {rock} altar]
As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.”
Then he reached out his hand [like tree of life in Gen. 3] and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns [probably horns = {branching}: consider: 7:52 pm June 9 2025: goat, ram, bull all have horns]. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Gen 22:7-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2022%3A7-18&version=NIV
To “obey God’s commandments” (Rev 22:14 per KJB) is to be made willing to expose the vulnerability of egoic personal control system; to be made willing to sabotage one’s control-power.
Then receive idea of sufficient grasp of analogies instead, eg vicarious imaginal blood sacrifice of a provided ram or son of God.
Strickland Comment Against Writing ‘Alien’, but Only Strickland Wrote ‘Alien’
“Cyberdisciple, it’s so good to see your site map.
“I’m not sure if the following information is appropriate here, but thought I would give it a try.”
[I recall the concept of/ critique of, the “alien primitive psychology” theory of religious myth/ the alleged non-drug intense mystic altered state confabulated by academic inventors/ taboo-driven storytellers. Strickland should have stated that context, if that’s what this comment is about. -mh
Cyberdisciple, I must take issue with your advocating kicking puppydogs.
“I don’t get why there is a misuse of labeling a reference of mystic altered state experience as ‘alien’, when the mystic altered state is commonly expressed in many ways throughout time.”
“From the very roots of the ancient world and found in literature, art, music, sculptures, religion, to name a few, the mystic altered state carries itself forward, through many mechanisms. and including through medicine where the Caduceus is alive and well, and commonly seen on ambulances in the modern world.
“The matching of the mystic altered state through natural entheogens with that of technological consciousness is scary simply because the roots of origin may differ, one being from heart and soul through the depths of earth, and the latter from machines.
“So just what is the motive behind the writings which support the word ‘alien’, if not just another form of fame seeking exploitation of the cherished mystic altered state, with effort of making it not only strange but also further away from the living heart and soul by placing it into the wires of lifeless AI.
“If using the word ‘alien,’ becomes the message for the ordinary world mindset in bringing forward expression of the mystic altered state, then what’s truly becoming ‘alien’ is not the magnificent mystic altered state, but rather the ordinary world mindset moving farther away from its natural origin.”
About 7 More Comments to Possibly Read
on same post by Cyberdisciple
Wrmspirit post at Cyberdisciple site June 9, 2025
“There is an elegance which comes from the whole of mystic altered state experience which becomes eclipsed by the power of the bible’s literal interpretations of the dark night of the soul.
The elegance of the whole of altered state experience is reflected within its creative expressions and not difficult to see, feel, and love, such as the Bernward Doors, stone carvings, statuaries and sculpted elements throughout the world, music, paintings, theory and literary compositions. Artistry in its finest form.
Even the most experienced in altered states can become blindsided in nullifying the purity of elegance by placing the gore as the core, stating gore is not gore, in order to differentiate between literal and analogical representation of mystic altered state experience with good intentions, never realizing the power of those images deeply ingrained within lifetimes of exposure to literalism’s lurking shadows.
Where is the power of prayer in the dark night of the mystic altered state. The forgotten power of gut-level prayer, not verbose wording, but prayer from the soul in its purest form, gets lost in the thrill for graphics of daggers and swords stabbing into the flesh of life taking full stage.
Pattern recognition, a valuable tool, used now for teaching the intricacy of mystic altered state experience with good intentions, may very well become the creation of a 3rd mode of interpretation. In addition to literal interpretation and analogical interpretation, there is pattern recognition interpretation. A new Bible. A new format to follow, dogmatic in the sense of ‘must adhere to,’ another layer of diversity placed onto the mystic altered state for new generations to peel away in order to find their naked heart.
From ancient hands gifting the modern world with treasures of the soul, who could ever have imagined that the simplicity of the mystic altered state could be reduced to a complexity that dilutes the very essence of its being.”
Psychedelics in Monotheistic Traditions: Sacramental Practice and Legal Recognition (Harvard Law School, March 5-6, 2025)
https://www.psychedelicsandreligion.info – “This interdisciplinary symposium brings together scholars of religion, legal experts, and religious leaders to explore the legal recognition of religious psychedelic use in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities.”
“Sessions will draw on methodologies of religious studies, law, and the humanities, and will cover topics including:
Biblical, theological, philosophical, and mystical bases for religious psychedelic use
Religious psychedelic practices in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities today
Theological, critical, and doctrinal perspectives on religious psychedelic use
Legal pathways to recognition including religious exemptions, decriminalization, and legislative initiatives
Critical perspectives on safety, ethics, representation, access, and justice”
Conference Schedule (Psychedelics and Monotheistic Traditions: Sacramental Practice and Legal Recognition Harvard Law School, March 2025)
“Wednesday, March 5 Religious Cultures and Theologies Austin 101
9am Welcome and Introduction Noah Feldman Jay Michaelson
9:30-10:45 Jewish Techniques of Ecstasy, Mysticism, Magic, and Spiritual Guidance Jill Hammer, The Drum and the Vineyard: Priestesses Changing Consciousness in Ancient Israel Elly Moseson, Jewish Magical Techniques as Model for Psychedelic Practice Sam Shonkoff, Enlightened Amnesia and Entheogenic Memory: The Case of Neo-Hasidism Yosef Rosen, Ba’alei Shem as Predecessors for Contemporary Jewish Psychedelic Guidance
11:00-12:00 Contemporary Jewish Psychedelic Practice Natalie Ginsberg, Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Zac Kamenetz, Madison Margolin, Adena Phillips, David Sauvage
12:15-1:15pm Islam and Psychedelic Practice Sughra Ahmed, Ismail Ali, Karina Bashir, Hena Malik Kamal Abu-Shemsieh: Harm Reduction and Islamic Jurisprudence Fayzan Rab: Muslim Communities’ Perceptions of Psychedelics
1:15pm Lunch
2:20-3:30 Christianity, Psychedelics, and Non-Ordinary Experiences Rev. Jaime Clark-Soles, Searching the Depths of God: Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness in Scripture Hunt Priest, Claiming a Healing Ministry: Resourcing Christians for Spiritual and Pastoral Care Bryan McCarthy, Could MDMA Support Catholic Faith and Practice? A Conservative Maybe Ron Cole-Turner, Psychedelics and the Christian Mystical Path
3:40-4:20 Syncretistic Psychedelic Practices Jessica Felix-Romero – The Rattle and the Rosary: Intersections Between Lay Theology and Shamanism Joshua Falcon – Catholicism & Psychedelics in South Florida: Ambivalence and Affirmation oriana mayorga – Nothing New! Communal Use, Ancestral and Ancient
4:30-5:40 Complexifying Psychedelic Theologies Christian Greer, Psychedelic Christianity: Real and Imagined Sharday Mosurinjohn, The Sweetest Taboo: Psychedelics and the Invention of Religious Experiences Tim McMahan-King, Natural Law on Drugs Nathaniel Berman – Nomopoeisis, Psychedelia, and Synesthesia: Envisioning Correspondences with Larry Tribe, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and the Sefer Ha-Zohar
5:50-6:20 Kabbalah, Space-Time Synesthesia, and Psychedelics Elliot Wolfson and Noah Feldman
6:30 Dinner for Presenters Milstein East, WCC
8:00 Open Space Sessions and Screening of A Table of our Own WCC 2004 and 2024
Thursday, March 6 Law and Policy Austin 111
9am Welcome 9:10-10:10 Safety, Access, Ethics, and Equity Laura Appleman – The Church of Eugenics? Envisioning Psychedelic Dystopias Jeffrey Breau – Care and Creed: Learning from Novel Psychedelic Spiritual Communities Ayize Jama-Everett – Pharmacological Reductionism, Unequal Justice, and Anti-Blackness in the Pursuit of Religious Freedom Under RFRA oriana mayorga – An Orated Ethnography
10:20-11:40 Legal Doctrines and Religious Realities Martin Lederman, Victoria Litman, Mason Marks, Josh McDaniel, Charles Stang
11:50-1:00 RFRA, the DEA, and Religious Exemptions Ismail Ali – Cultural Blind Spots and Growth Edges of US Protections for Entheogenic Religions Allison Hoots – Religious-Based Exemptions Under RFRA and the Controlled Substances Act John Rapp – RFRA Challenges That Have Succeeded… and Failed Matt Zorn – So, You’re Looking to Litigate. Strategic Considerations in Filing a Lawsuit.
1:10pm Closing Remarks Noah Feldman Jay Michaelson
1:30 Symposium Ends Lunch for Afternoon Session Participants 2:30-4:00 Afternoon Session 1 (invited participants) Langdell Hall
4:15-5:45 Afternoon Session 2 (invited participants) Langdell Hall
Conference Abstracts (Psychedelics and Monotheistic Traditions: Sacramental Practice and Legal Recognition Harvard Law School, March 2025)
Jeffrey Breau, Care and Creed: Learning from Novel Psychedelic Spiritual Communities Novel psychedelic spiritual communities (NPSCs) are new religious movements forming around psychedelic use that are distinct from Indigenous plant medicine traditions and unaffiliated with major world religions. They represent religions that are unique to the psychedelic space. NPSCs challenge conventional understandings of religious life, have sophisticated approaches to community care, and will face distinct hurdles to obtain religious freedom. This presentation will share preliminary findings from a multisite ethnography of NPSCs in the United States. Religion, the law, and care are inextricably entwined for NSPCs, and this presentation will argue that to learn from NPSCs we must attend to how these three domains shape their communities. The talk will focus on how NPSCs are creating safe psychedelic rituals, navigating the regulatory environment, and approaching ethical oversight. It will conclude by discussing what NPSCs suggest for established religious communities interested in entheogenic practices.
Rev. Jamie Clark-Soles, Searching the Depths of God: NOSC in Christian Scripture If the U.S. Constitution is the founding communal document for America, then Sacred Scripture is/are the founding communal document/s of Christianity. From Genesis to Revelation we find ample evidence of NOSC and even the attempt to induce them. How might this inform (or not) our current consideration of legalizing psychedelics for the purposes of spiritual formation within Christianity?
Ron Cole-Turner, Psychedelics and the Christian Mystical Path
“The mystical in Christianity finds its center in lifelong spiritual transformation in relationship to the presence of divine love. The process of transformation might be punctuated by intense or non-ordinary experiences, but the experiences are not its defining feature. In the tradition of James or Stace, however, modern definitions of mysticism (and the Mystical Experience Questionnaire, widely used by researchers) focus almost exclusively on mystical experiences, and even then do not discuss love. My central questions are: When intense psychedelic spiritual experiences occur, can they lead to the rich spiritual transformation that Christianity values? Can church leaders and congregations support those who want to explore psychedelic experiences within a Christian context? Moreover, in terms of legal recognition, the use of psychedelics are not a traditional sacrament [FALSE!], but the use of groups for spiritual reflection and growth is a longstanding practice. If we imagine groups tailored to include reflection on psychedelic experiences, over time, such groups might come to consider psychedelics as central to spiritual growth. Would they be free to act on this belief?
Rabbi Jill Hammer, The Drum and the Vineyard: Priestesses Changing Consciousness in Ancient Israel
“Biblical texts reveal that women in ancient Israel used the drum, dance and song to create sacred experience and change consciousness. Archaeology bears out that women with drums, acting as sacred musicians, were important figures in biblical culture, and were sometimes named as temple workers or prophetesses. While they used these tools in a variety of contexts, we can particularly note that women were the celebrants of biblical vineyard dedication rituals and annual vineyard celebrations. It is possible to conclude that wine was also involved in these celebrations—a further tool for trance. Set in the wider context of women’s sacred ritual in ancient Israel, these musical, earthy rituals seem to suggest that music and wine were openings to deep ritual experience and even to prophecy.”
Ayize Jama-Everett, Pharmacological Reductionism, Unequal Justice, and Anti-Blackness in the Pursuit of Religious Freedom Under RFRA
“The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was intended to protect sacred practices from government interference, yet its application reveals a stark racial bias. While Indigenous traditions involving peyote and ayahuasca have secured legal recognition– and even some largely-white entheogenic churches’ uses of them – African and African diasporic spiritual traditions—such as Hoodoo’s use of High John the Conqueror and Bwiti’s Iboga—remain marginalized. This talk explores how pharmacological reductionism limits the sacred to a material plane and constructs a view of the Sacred that is exclusory to traditions and religious effects that are collaborative in nature.. This exclusion reflects a deeper legacy of anti-Blackness, wherein Black religious innovation is dismissed, criminalized, or erased. Addressing these disparities requires an expanded legal and cultural framework that honors the full spectrum of sacred traditions.
Elly Moseson, Mysticism, Magic and the Search for Psychedelic Analogues in the Jewish Tradition
“While the cultivation of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) for religious purposes in the Jewish tradition is typically treated in connection with the Jewish mystical tradition, this paper proposes that reframing ASCs in terms of magic offers a compelling framework for considering the place of psychedelics in contemporary Judaism.
“Despite the significant overlap between the two traditions, magic tends to focus on individual agency, prioritizing efficacy and pragmatic outcomes, whereas mysticism often emphasizes specific doctrines, pietistic ideals, and communal or initiatory structures.
“The relative absence of pietistic rhetoric and strictures in magical literature, along with its emphasis on efficacy, parallels both the availability of psychedelic substances without moral preconditions and their consistent effectiveness in inducing ASCs.
“Another parallel can be found in the ambivalence with which normative religion and culture regard both magic and psychedelics. Drawing on examples from the Jewish magical tradition, this paper suggests that reconsidering ASCs in terms of magic, rather than mysticism, provides a fresh perspective on both the integration of psychedelics into contemporary Jewish practice and its potential challenges.”
con’t below…
Video: Ep. 57: Can Psychedelics Replace Religion? – Sharday Mosurinjohn
Video title: Ep. 57: Can Psychedelics Replace Religion? – Sharday Mosurinjohn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onlx_Lr0SQI – ch: Atheists United May 30, 2025 i think a re-release of same vid from 2 years ago, “ep 57”. Beyond Atheism Podcast – 73 episodes Desc:
“In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Sharday Mosurinjohn, an Associate Professor in the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Canada.
“We learn about the current use of psychedelics as well as their links to religion in both the past [“BEEN DEBUNKED, MANY TIMES IN THE PAST 90 YEARS“ – Mosur.] and present.
“Sharday talks about the universal connections [“mystical experience = positive unity, which doesn’t require psychedelics“] and spirituality found through mind-altering chemicals.
“Along the way we meet a few mechanical elves.
“We also ask whether a “true psychonaut” can believe in an afterlife or attend a church.”
[I’ve been studying psychedelics since 1985, but I can’t be a psychonaut, because I attend a church.
The hosts (ordinary-state-based atheists) were surprised to find out that psychedelic churches exist.
What wisdom can atheists have regarding religion, and mystical experience, and entheogens – if they know nothing at all about them?
That lack is fairly well remedied by this pretty good interview with Sharday Mosurinjohn.]
“In the bonus section, available exclusively to Patreon supporters, we talk with Sharday about
“Check out her latest book, The Spiritual Significance of Overload Boredom”
Video Transcript, Mosurinjohn
ranscript welcome to the Beyond Atheism podcast with me Nathan Alexander and my co-host Todd Dvarez
this podcast moves beyond questions of God’s existence to ask what’s next in the godless world
if you’re enjoying the show so far remember to like and subscribe rate and review and consider supporting us on Patreon
beyond Atheism is produced and distributed by Atheist United [Music] Studios
turn on tune in and drop out
this was the famous phrase by Timothy Liry addressed to the counterculture movement of the 1960s in which he urged people to explore the nature of reality and the meaning of life partly or entirely through the use of psychedelic drugs
but can psychedelics allow us to grasp deeper truths about life and reality and even to experience transcendence
to talk about these issues and more we’re joined by Dr charardde Morrison John
chararda is an associate professor in the school of religion at Queens University in Kingston Ontario
as a multidisciplinary scholar her work draws from a wide range of topics including religion cultural theory aesthetics and mind augmenting technologies ranging from AI to psychedelics
her first book is the spiritual significance of overlord overload boredom
her new [next] book project considers the psychedelic renaissance as an ethnogenic new religious movement in the long history of esotericism
[as if European use of psychedelics is “new”]
my goodness that’s a mouthful for our day welcome from the name to the books yeah
thank you thank you for having me yeah it’s great to have you here yeah uh thanks so much Charardai for coming on
really looking forward to talking with you i guess
the first question is
Why psychedelics? Why are you so interested in this topic?
well I probably first of all have to do the the Andrew Huberman style line like I wish to emphasize that
any real or perceived advocacy on my part is completely separate from my research and teaching roles at Queens University and service
um but is nonetheless part of my desire to bring um low low cost to consumer information to the general public about weird metaphysics
um yeah so uh
psychedelics is is the the most fun I’ve had in my career, the most interesting um thing that I’ve worked on
and you know and and personally like non-ordinary experiences um uh yeah that that’s that’s where it’s at
so how did did it start as a a research project or a hobby or an in how did it go from how did it become a focus of study
i think where it started was listening to Paul Stammit’s [Stamets’] TED talk about 10 or 12 years ago about fungi
And so well that’s kind of like the approximate starting point in a way um because you know really in some sense
it starts with the DARE program back when I was a kid in public school
do you all remember the DARE program they have come drugs are bad
yeah um and I I I really drank that flavor aid and I I was absolutely straight edge for for the longest time
[can’t relate. in school, I learned, but I was always critical – I read stacks of books at public library and schoolroom]
and um and it’s a funny thing because I was craving aesthetically interesting meaningful intense experiences but I had cut myself off from most avenues of doing that
um not just with respect to you know um like substances and practices but even socially
um I
I didn’t want to associate socially with people who did who did drugs
it seemed like the most morally bankrupt thing that anybody could do
but I I nonetheless or you know maybe tied up with that kind of prohibition that I’d set for myself was really really fascinated with the nature of mind and consciousness and you know this whole sort of family of concepts that taps into whatever we’re trying to get at with those words um and was kind of constantly experiencing some sort of low-level crisis of meaning
which is where my first book came from and I boredom as an idiom to describe this sort of um warping of time and problem of meaning
and as I was working on that I was thinking about you know different kinds of minds and phenomenology and what is it like to be a me or in anything
I was thinking about orked [artif?] intelligence and network thinking and network living because I I wound up really talking a lot about what it is to live like in our present computational condition
and uh and this was back in the early days of TED talks the cool days of TED talks and I listened to that and
I remember you know the idea of this um this agential and really kind of clever mycelium the the way that the that that the underground part that we don’t notice of the mushroom fruing bodies
like it could move fast and it could communicate fast and it could communicate with other organisms and it could do all kinds of things so I had that in my mind and I had that resonance of that um you know he he is fond of saying stemits and and others are fond of making a comparison between the way that that all fungal mycelia connect and communicate and the way that psilocybin the the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms does that for in in human body minds um and between people who have had those experiences so all of that was in there
[a complete(sic) mystical experience ie of just “positive unity”; nondual unity oneness – not cybernetic eternalism / mental model transformation]
and and percolating and
I was using some of those ideas in in my book The Spiritual Significance of Upload Boredom — i too, often say “overlord” I can’t say overload boredom i say o “overlord boredom”
um I don’t know what that pretends and then the funny thing is I mean we we
We started to get like the endless trip of Michael Pollen
you know eventually his his stuff came out and um and just
gradually it was definitely more and more in the air if not the water and then sbatical [? todo] became on the horizon
you know the
the book number one was done and people started asking me “What are you going to do?”
And I started hearing myself say psychedelics
and I and it it I just and it and it came true i I said it enough and I lived into it and then it became true
and I have oriented my whole research program around psychedelics and
it has been the most generative fruitful socially rich collaborative thing I’ve ever done
um there’s so much kind of intersectoral and interdomain collaboration in that space
right yeah and just just to go back you mentioned about you know
in school like this sort of anti-drug message and that really um kind of like hit you hard or whatever
and I wonder maybe like we can ask about like your religious background like if that in any way um informed like your attitudes toward toward drugs and and so on and and if there was a change
that Yeah that
that changed your like religious changes that changed your attitudes
yeah well yeah this is this is so it’s so strange um because so I always say
I would have made a really great zealot like for somebody if anybody had recruited me i would have been fabulous
i I was this kind of I mean I it would be nice to be able to say
rebel without a cause
but I I wasn’t you know particularly outgoingly rebellious it was it was just like
well I’ll show you by forming strong moral standards within my own self and like withholding experiences from myself
and so I grew up without
but I I think maybe that is because I grew up without um being raised in it just didn’t feel like anything in particular um so what
I was not was Irish Catholic that’s what my mom had been and then the nuns beat her sufficiently that she ran away and um and so therefore that is what I was not
[WHERE IS YOUR FATHER?]
and what I had was something like the like what does Megan Goodwin say something like it was Protestantism with the barcode filed off or the serial number filed off sort of like standard issue liberal mainline types of hegemonically Christian values floating around
there I’m sure because that’s you know what would have been residual in my mom I assume um and
I was really like there I just I didn’t have uh
there wasn’t sort of a community identity in terms of like a a neighborhood
there wasn’t you know extended family
[NOT EVEN A BASIC FAMILY, NO MENTION OF FATHER]
there wasn’t a kind of cultural identity
there wasn’t a religious identity
there just kind of wasn’t a lot to hang on to
so I think I started cobbling together a whole bunch of strictures for myself and I just kind of um things that would be I was this like virtue signaling for kids
i was like “Oh this if I if I can internalize this message then this will give me some kind of moral ground to stand on.”
and maybe look down at my tears but it’s neat that that you have an awareness of that without like were you were you
Was your family church going
[family with no father?]
were you sort of
No not at all
you didn’t have those rituals
no and I I remember for really no reason that I can point to until I was probably at the end of my undergrad i was vehemently anti-religious
i was so hostile
i was I mean
if the militant atheists had gotten me I would embrace them too it’s not claimed to me it’s true i
I haven’t my draft letter yet but um there’s still time before I get back
it’s a neat perspective which I don’t think we’ve heard much on this like
people who are raised without religion
yeah and because it seems to be a very different flavor and it’s not one that we’re very familiar with
but it’s also interesting that you go from that upbringing to something that at least is studying I mean are
do you feel like you study religion as an outsider now
it’s you well
this is the most insider I’ve ever felt
so I it was like it was very much a a sort of
I’m going to study this thing that I’m angry at
and the angle that I took for many years was I am angry at religion which I mean thankfully
my master’s supervisor pointed out is you’re you’re sort of angry at mainline Protestantism chararda
and I was like okay I’ll do
I’ll do an ethnography with the United Church Women’s Group and I’ll show them
and you know they were tremendously liberal lovely people um about whom I could say nothing like truly critical
and um and and so
that sort of vitriol that I had that I just did I didn’t know where to place it and I didn’t know what it was
except that I I thought okay I can I can say something about the fact that religion is tied up with sexism and capitalism and those things are bad so I’ll you know I’ll follow that angle
and then as I got into the discipline ipline of religious studies which I came to through
I came through socioultural anthropology
i came through some philosophy of science stuff
i came through museiology
i came through cultural studies
and sort of kept just like flirting with religious studies and
the more that I got into it as a discipline the more that I was allowed to just be metaphysically curious in some respects because there’s lots of boundary policing too
and I and at that point it became like
I am not doing anything that can ever be mistaken for theology
um and you know but
The more that I let my philosophical flag fly the more that was also sort of more and more a tense boundary that I had to deal with
uh and so at this point being that
I am doing work in a community of psychonauts that I’m part of
it’s the most insider that I’ve ever felt
and it’s not
it still you know comfortably falls outside the world religions
but like clearly I have embedded myself personally and professionally in something esoteric that as a religious studies scholar I can recognize is a kind of you know insider position
it’s like
so is it religion adjacent or like it has parts of religion
what’s what’s the best way to put that
this is a really interesting thing because uh
I keep having this experience in psychedelic communities where people will say things to me like well religion is disappearing right the the churches are closing their doors and um so what’s going to happen next and I say they’re doing it right now
this isn’t not that you know
if we look at what the functions are and they go we need community
like yep yep we do and that’s what religions have done yep and we’re and we’re still doing it right now
um and so I mean on the one hand I could just say
whatever it is is amanable to study with the whole conceptual toolkit that we have as religious studies scholars
and then uh in another way I could say yeah
I can firmly locate this in terms of religion in in the history of western esotericism
so if I locate it as a form as of esotericism it is something that I guess it it also I think this also sort of fits with Lois Lee’s definition of non-religion as something that gets its identity from being meaningfully different from religion that in
in Vder Hanikov’s [Wouter Hanegraaff?] sense of esotericism it’s the thing that is in that reject basket of both mainstream religion and mainstream science um but is informed by and always kind of intense relationship with both
right and and what
What do we mean exactly by esotericism?
[Laughter] um as um so it the
the absolute simplest kind of soundbite definition uh is Hannah Craft’s [Wouter Hanegraaff] it’s stigmatized knowledge or it’s rejected knowledge it’s the waste basket of knowledge and who is it rejected by religion on the one hand and science on the other
or mainstream religion and science on the other
[poor def., b/c it is negative: If I reject anything, that thing is “esotericism” BECAUSE i rejected it. The poor Chris Partridge approach to characterizing esotericism.]
those being histories that we can trace back to like say with astrology the earliest empirical practices of observing stars [all 7 of them in Hanegraaff’s sky] and like weather patterns in order to do practical things in the world
but that also takes on this kind of mysterious predictive esoteric dimension
um well there I just used the word to define itself but I said enough words at the time
yeah no I think
that makes sense
yeah and and so
How does psychedelics like fit into that?
like
Are there
kind of Yeah um almost
like churches or institutional sort of things like that around uh psychedelics?
oh man
there’s so many ways it’s a damn schmorggas board right now
it so okay so one thing is that yeah
There are these entheogenic NRMs
that was the That’s maybe that’s another thing we should define i don’t know yeah yeah so
entheogen means god-generating
okay okay i see okay and um this is another it’s a
it’s a synonym or sometimes I think a euphemism for psychedelic
that I’m hearing increasingly lately in fact so usually it’s being used specifically to point to religious uses or spiritual uses
like avowedly you know by the people avowedly religious or spiritual uses of psychedelics or other practices like fasting for a long time or like praying with your head between your knees for a really long time or holotropic breath work things that can [/ could/ might/ may] produce psychedelic experiences but for religious or spiritual purpose
[Breathwork can produce psychedelic experiences. Smashing your head against a wall can produce psychedelic experiences. The empty worthless tin “can”.]
but I’m seeing some concept creep increasingly
so for instance
I was at one of Kingston’s um psychedelic community events the other day and this was one that was targeted towards students because we have a a club at Queens for psychedelics
so there was a PowerPoint and it periodized the different eras in psychedelic history with the most recent one being the enthogenesis era
[athiests want psychedelics without entheogenic]
[era 1: the hippie 60s. era 2: Rave 90s. That’s it. I learned this from the intensive research of Chris Partridge etc. Swiss cheese history consisting of 99% holes/ absences.]
and I thought well that’s really interesting because
That embeds the notion of God or religion into the very premise and what what the era is about right now
but so that’s that’s enthogenic um and then it it’s just you know
there’s always some kind of strategic branding problem or communication issue or angle
um psychedelic comes from like psyche your suk mind soul and do loss manifesting so mind manifesting
[what about pneuma, spirit manifesting? Classical Antiquity vs Late Antiquity model]
and that was kind of coined in part to be able to not use the word hallucinogen uh you know just all of these things have baggage and get freighted and sort of need to so that’s that’s yeah so
and um I was actually just talking on the religious studies project podcast the other day about this one called the church of Silomthoxin which is started by two lawyers and a veteran in the states and they are very saviley using the legal form of a church in order to provide legal protection to give a psychedelic as a sacri
And the the fellow whose labor of love this is he has as a lawyer helped um establish over 30 other such churches so there’s a big anthogenic church movement
Psychedelic Science’s Claim that “The Root of All Religion Is Psychedelic” Has Been Debunked 90 Years Ago, Many Times [CITATION NEEDED!]
“but then there’s also just stuff like
“You would not believe the number of psychedelic scientists who say to me “Did you know that the root of all religion is psychedelic?”
and Did you know that the mysteries of Elucus were psychedelic? on it was actually psychedelic
“and then I go to my biblical studies friends and colleagues and I say you know they’re saying this still and they go we debunked that 30 years ago [CITATION NEEDED!] we debunked that 60 years before that [ie 90 years ago = 2023-90 = 1933] like how many times [answer: zero times]“
“um so so there’s that”
[my comment posted at video:
20:00 – there’s a false statement by Sharday Mosurinjohn that the claims that “the root of all religion is psychedelc” and “the mysteries of Eleusis were psychedelc” has been debunked many times by Biblical Studies scholars 30 years ago and 60 years before that.
In fact, entheogen scholarship has not really even started to investigate the question. There has only been 1st-generation entheogen scholarship (the Secret Amanita paradigm), and then starting in 1998, 2nd-generation entheogen scholarship (the Explicit Psilocybn paradigm).
In fact, Bible Studies has not even attempted to debunk the claim that “the root of all religion is psychedelc”.
Citations Needed, from Sharday Mosurinjohn:
In what publications did Bible Studies scholars debunk the claim that the root of all religion is psychedelcs?
Will Mosurinjohn resort to citing Andy Letcher’s 2006 book, in which he treated only a single piece of art evidence (page 35-36, Bernward Door), and gives phony endnote 31 falsely claiming that Stamets & Gartz tell a narrative of “secret, suppressed”?
The claim that the root of all religion is psychedelcs has been treated and debunked ZERO times – not “many times, 30 years ago and 60 years before that.”
Stop trying to reach negative conclusions and close the door, before sincere historical investigation has even begun.
-mh]
There’s also the fact that when psychedelic research got back up and running in the early 2000s when John’s Hopkins obtained regulatory approval after the whole freeze due to Nixon’s racist war on drugs, it was the mystical experience questionnaire that was at the heart of those first studies with psilocybin, saying psilocybin can occasion mystical experiences and things like mystical experiences that are indistinguishable from religious experiences [which came from Psilocybin -mh] that are had in you know a church setting um and
The mystical experience questionnaire was itself it was derived
so what was used there was derived from what Walter Panky [Tim Leary] used in the 60s
which was with the Marsh Chapel Good Friday experiment where he with approval dosed Harvard Divinity students in a Good Friday service in church and then said like do these psilocybin occasioned experiences compare to sort of regular religion occasioned mystical experiences that could be called the regular version [which came from Psilocybin -mh] of
And yes they did and so there’s been this kind of use of religion to legitimate psychedelics all the way through and that mysticism concept was itself taken from the perennialist Christian work of the philosopher Walter Stace earlier than than that
and so there there’s just so much also in this space I see so much interest in astrology in magic in past lives in ancient aliens and it just my friend Jacob used the metaphor of like a violently shaking snow globe of um of esoteric references it has everything yeah
so okay so far what I’ve got is that there are there’s a large community of psychonauts some of whom are using psychedelics to create gods which may or may not form into religion based on
mystical experiences [sic; the “positive unity” false model selectively fabricated & whitewashed & neutered for the purpose of trojan horse pretext [to push for international mundane unity] by Swami Vivekananda 1893, James 1902, Stace 1960] and spirituality
this sounds very different from what we typically understand as religion and it seems like most mainstream religions disregard this they’re not interested in it um
but spirituality is a universal part of religious experience
what is meant by spirituality and
How does this mystical esoteric phenomenon inform spirituality as an experience?
yeah good question so
that is really at the heart of what I’m tracking with these communities
because that
that part the
What does spirituality mean in this context?
it’s a discursive question that I can track through the literature and I can track through the way that people use it
and well I mean so
Charardai for me and I think this is true for most most atheists like it’s just it’s
it’s almost like an alien concept
it’s so weird I
I don’t have any functional grasp of it
And I don’t know Nathan do you have a spirituality
like a
Yeah
When you think of spirituality is there do you even have like a sense of it? Is it a feeling, can you define it?
no uh I don’t think I have a sense of it it’s hard to define
i mean
it’s one of those things like it’s hard to define without defining it in a circular way
i think um Right wasn’t Wasn’t there yeah may this is
maybe is it ineffable is that but I remember like I think at some point you looked up the definition there was something like you know spirituality is like believing in spiritual things or something like that
i mean I don’t know
it’s just some like totally circular definition
um but uh yeah anyway yes go ahead i can
I can offer something that can help ground this my dear friend and colleague the brilliant Dr galen Watts wrote his dissertation and first book on the spiritual but not religious in Canada
so espions millennial espioners um of which we are that generation and um I mean I think what they said so he he actually hung out at institutions where he thought that this particular type of spirituality was really embodied and he hung out at um C3 which I believe did understand itself specifically as a church but also Toast Masters and AA very interesting and what they said had a
lot to do with notions that I think will probably sound very familiar like connection and meaning and personal expression and the idea of I think sort of belonging in a responsive universe and things like that the far more interesting element that I think Galen articulated was the historical context of this that these notions come through like Wesleian charismatic Christianity through liberal and romantic modernity so it’s these these this twinned phenomenon of liberal and romantic modernity that carries what he calls uh advisedly because of it its root in this kind of like you know tent show situation with the strange warming of the heart um the religion of the heart so yeah I I think that that
That helps me historically ground where the those elements of the discourse of like belonging and connectedness and um all of these kind of good things come from but yeah in practice I think
one of the things that will be interesting is to see
does psychedelic spirituality actually show up differently than SBNR spirituality?
because the psychedelic spirituality very much about belonging in a responsive universe very much about connectedness
like with the the fungal mcelium as the primary metaphor of connectedness but very very much about direct non-ordinary experience which I mean is similar to the kind of charismatic impulse of having some kind of a revelatory event um an event deemed revoly in Tavian language but in this case there there’s a lot of drawing on kind of archetypal language and imagery
there’s a real interest as there is in a in generally in esotericism of authenticating things by going way way way back
European History Has No Entheogens, because I Accuse Fabrication by Appropriating Indigenous
[THE CENTER FOCUS AND CONCERN OF EUROPEAN ENTHEOGEN SCHOLARSHIP IS EUROPE.
THE CENTER OF FOCUS OF EUROPEAN RESEARCH IS NOT INDIGENOUS.
INDIGENOUS HAS NO PART, NO ROLE, NO RELEVANCE (IE, PERIPHERAL ONLY)
World religious myth informs the topic of European entheogen history, while the focus and concern of … these remain two distinct scopes and focuses of concern:
European religious myth – high pri. from POV of this research, non-Euro “indigenous” & world religious myth is low pri and in a merely peripheral supporting role.
World religious myth – subservient low pri in service of the high pri.
“wanting to refer to stuff like the Greco Roman mysteries but also wanting to and
There is no “appropriation” needed, as accused by ignorant semi-scholars, no need to “appropriate”, because Europe has its own indigenous “traditions”, “mainstream”, of Psilocybin and other, lesser inebriants such as mixture of Datura, Amanita, opium, & cannabis to form deliriant non-psychedelics.]
“this is where it the psychedelic community is really reckoning with its relationship with um learning from and appropriating indigenous traditional knowledges“
“because there’s a lot of that way of of framing things and you know like making contact with entities from those traditions and so
these connections are are are really really broad and mean in a lot of different ways
you can have like it’s like the oneness across people a connection to the universe and a connection across time as well going back to other systems of belief and other people’s historically as well
that’s wow that’s a very broad notion of spirituality and it it does
it helps me make sense of other ways people have used it is when psychonauts
I’m sorry I just love that word and want to keep using it
when people draw these connections how far back do they see the the the use of psychedelics going back in time to build these connections
like does it go back to prehistory
is it only going back to the 60s
how far back does it Oh yeah
there is this fellow a lawyer who did a classics undergrad Brian Morasco who recently put out this book The Immortality Key [as if this one, “ergot Christianity” book = the state of entheogen scholarship in Europe] and
he claims that not only is the one of the psychedelic community’s kind of like foundational documents
and and you know a story that it often lives by um the road to elus by our Gordon Wson and Albert Hoffman who synthesized LSD and Carl Ruck the classicist not only were they correct in in saying that the Greco Roman mysteries were psychedelic [if you consider Amanita to be a psychedelic – like Ruck – which it is not]
Moresu wants to say that actually there were all these kinds of all these all these kinds of cults way before that uh and wants to stretch it back I think into prehistory
and it’s it’s an it’s an interesting thing because that so I
I have heard that hypothesis filtered through scientists who have picked up that book cuz they’re psychedelic scientists and they’re interested in it and they are unfamiliar with sort of humanity’s standards of evidence
[We have not even STARTED looking yet. IDIOT HUMANITIES washed out the cups and then claimed “there’s no evidence”, yeah because you dumbasses washed the cups and mixing bowls, so impressive, your standards for evidence]
and as I’m reading that book [THE ONLY BOOK YOU’VE READ ABOUT ENTHEOGEN SCHOLARSHIP!] I’m seeing okay there’s a lot that is frontloaded here on evidence that my colleagues who work in the Greor Roman antiquity area find spurious at best
[WE HAVEN’T STARTED LOOKING, SO THAT MEANS NOTHING]
and it dedicates many many many more chapters to going through a lot of detail about you know particular artifacts found at particular museums and telling a very sort of dramatic story about like how they don’t want you to find out about this
[= 1st-generation entheogen scholarship (the Secret Amanita paradigm) – a narrative-driven, narrative-restricted approach to scholarly gathering of evidence. MUST OMIT SUCH NARRATIVES. -mh]
and um and I just I noticed that the form that that takes is that it’s like
the farther away you get from that initial hypothesis [?] the more plausible it [?] seems to become
because all of this so-called evidence is stacking up in between it but if you remember that the hypothesis to begin with was on shaky grounds according to the people who have dedicated themselves to those disciplines you know except for a few kind of outlier figures it’s yeah it is suspect
[“WE WASHED OUT THE CUPS AND HAVEN’T STARTED LOOKING. SO, DO NOT LOOK, B/C THE EVIDENCE IS SUSPECT”]
so there are claims that seem to be being taken seriously because it looks to people who are not in that area
[LOOK IN THE MIRROR: YOU HAVE NOT READ ANYTHING ON THE TOPIC YOU PRESUME TO TALK ABOUT HERE]
like there’s a heck of a lot of evidence being marshaled for it um that it’s very very very very very old
and then I think you know with with traditions that are alive right now then I think the imperative there is to take what they say about how long their traditions have been going with psychedelic sacraments
yeah yeah i I wanted to ask um moving away from religion and to more like secular and atheist people i mean I feel like probably they would there
there’s benefit I think for atheists and secular people from psychedelics too
and perhaps more so I mean like well
what is your thought about taking psychedelics and like getting a new picture of reality but not ever not ever kind of abandoning like a materialist worldview or something like that but nonetheless um uh yeah still like finding doing psychedelics and then coming away with like you know change understandings of consciousness or something like that
[false dichotomy. religious analogy = changed understanding of mental model]
yeah this is something that I also want to work on and I think I’m going to have to do this in more of a data driven way because anecdotally it seems like a lot of people come through powerful psychedelic experiences
so I’m not talking about a micro dose or a mess dose but you know maybe a full acid trip or um something heroic
yeah yeah a heroic mushroom trip or a full embrace of DMT and and they come back ontologically shocked
they come back changed
they we
integration is such a huge part of the psychedelic community because these profoundly strange metaphysical things seem to happen that you then have to incorporate into your model of how the world is
[non-branching; 2-level, dependent control]
and so I am curious to know actually
how many people do go through that level of non-ordinary experience and do not deem itreligious spiritual supernatural non-materialist
but then there’s also stuff like I don’t know like
are you a dual aspect monist
[monism here means Swami Vivek’s “positive unity” model of mystical experience – not cybernetic eternalism]
“maybe you think that there is one substance but it sort of shows up in two ways you know it’s it’s shakti and it’s Shiva it’s a particle and it’s a wave
it’s and so yeah I don’t know but
that really is something that we need to track
and I’m going to Yeah
there’s um Sam Harris who’s the this well one of the new atheists but he’s um
he’s written about like his experience with psychedelics and
he has this funny article where he’s talking about basically
he’s kind of going through a list of like substances and things like talking about his daughters
like you know like
he would be really disappointed if you know they took up smoking or like he would be horrified if they took up heroin
um and so on but
he said like I’d be really disappointed if they didn’t uh ever try psychedelics
um so as as a note:
psychedelic exceptionalism is a real issue: that psychedelics are the good kind of drugs but let’s keep the rest stigmatized
yeah it’s a real problem
oh that’s interesting yeah go on no no i mean it was
it was just just a note
that Yeah that that that Yeah that
the secular person is is uh kind of boosting them
[“look how the good, atheist, secular person is boosting psychedelics, against other drugs”]
yeah well
he’s ultra ultra spiritual now isn’t he
i think he’s psychedelics i think
he’s trying trying to like uh reappropriate or whatever um the word spirituality
but yeah uh yeah i mean I I wonder
how much of this is like that sort of like secularization of of something that’s seen as sort of ceremonial or sacred
right like
you have this thing it’s it’s part of a ritual it’s part of it’s either a right of passage or something connected to a bigger pro religious pro community project
and now it’s been taken out of that
are PE
Are the psychonaut community are they trying to rebuild around that notion trying to sacriize it or is it something that’s being left to be profane and meant to be secular and meant to be common
[I want religious mental model transformation to be made entirely commonplace and familiar -mh]
yeah that’s that’s such a good question because
there are I think um it’s not like counterveilling forces but
there are forces from different directions that are maybe converging such that you could say that
one strand of what’s happening is that
this psychedelic renaissance or enthogenesis era right now is a manifestation of the the weak secularization hypothesis
is religion is changing in the face of modernity like clearly there are things of some sort of worldbuing importance going on here and it’s not happening necessarily within the confines of the so-called traditional [McPriest article in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies doubts the “traditional Christianity” construct] world religions
um but reckoning with the same kinds of existential questions and impulses regarding meaning and um community
and so functionally there’s you know religious stuff happening but it’s it’s being but it’s it’s it’s secular it’s secularizing
and then another strand of what’s happening is that there are
particular ritual forms particular substances i mean I think IA is a really key example um I highly recommend checking out the work of Olivia Marcus who’s a medical anthropologist on shamanic tourism
she’s done field work at retreat centers Iaska retreat centers in um in Peru and uh and the tradition that is taken mainly in the iawaska space is specifically shapibbo and as those practices like that IA [Aya?] is typically done in a group setting led by somebody who hopefully is not only self-appointed as the shaman far as I understand ought to be a communal designation like that is driven from the opinion of the community and but
That form is what you see often transported into North America so there is a secularization there for instance mushrooms got popularized because Gordon Wson inappropriately took pictures of the Kurandera Maria Sabina and published them in I think it was time or
his wife um Valentina Wson also who was a brilliant myologist also ran a similar story in another like national magazine and so it the
a lot of mushroom lore and practice and just knowing about them how to identify them all kinds of stuff this is taken from the Masetch tradition
which is you know in both of those traditions that I’ve just mentioned Masetch and Shipo are very much extent um but have been seriously damaged by tourism like they ruined Maria Sabina’s life by overrunning her town and so so there’s so there’s that and then there’s the fact that um and interestingly I think because
A lot of the researchers who have been at the forefront of the really the Renaissance period so at Hopkins
Roland Griffiths um nearly left his his research career to go join an ashram
and Bill Richards is theologically trained
and there are a bunch of other people who actually come from some kind of theological training and then into this space
there’s something there’s some sort of secularization of some kinds of internal maps of how things go and bringing that into a clinical space and a research space and figuring out how to do that
and then there is also you know even beyond those particular um personalities a recognition of that whether it’s you know like
I don’t think religion can be used to explain this i think it’s just that
people do things in community um and those communities that some of these psychedelics have been done in historicallycould be described or people want to describe them in religious or spiritual terms
[see Jan Irvin, who disproves “religious” use of Psilocybin in Americas, that such “religious” has little match between Americas vs. Europe.
The present site proves that compared to actual “religious use of Psilocybin” in Europe, the Vivek/Stace model is false and fails to match actual religious Psilocybin mystical experience.
article series: The Secret History of Magic Mushrooms
latest book God’s Flesh.
and so then people go “Oh we’ve always done it this way so if we’re going to have the right set and setting to do it today we need to make new rituals.”
[seeming contradiction above: always done this way … new rituals — vague speaking.]
And so you do see the this is another line of where there is the invention it’s like the Sunday assembly for the research lab
it’s in the invention of secular rituals because they can’t be too clearly referential to any given tradition
but I have seen still photos for instance of some of the the settings where um where says psilocybin sessions would happen for trials or for for research and you know there’s like there’s a Buddhist statue there’s a candle there’s a rose and there’s a maybe there’s like celtic knot tapestry or something
yan yeah and it it really tells the story because you’re as you say like
something is being co-opted
[define “co-opt”. religion comes from Psilocybin. To use Psilocybin, draw upon religious history. Stupid notion: “later culture is a cooptation of earlier culture“.]
right
it’s being being taken out of where it was but it’s being recreated in a in a a different society that’s secularized
[biggest false dichotomy: alleged gap between secular approach to psychedelics, vs. having religious experience from psychedelics]
that has this loss of meaning that’s being recreated but it has this setting set in setting meaning the
the conditions that you do you have a heavy trip in and who you’re with and how it establishes the mindset
you have to create sort of a ritualized setting and then you have a heavy dose you go through it and you you get to meet God that sounds pretty nice and then it and you come out of it with a spiritual awakening that really does sound like like it’s
it’s almost like
a secular road back to a sort of religious foundation
and I think weird it’s
[Zep: “I only wanted to have some fun” but had religious transformation instead]
it’s a strange path that secularism can take that’s unexpected
yeah that’s a good way to put it um Yeah and it it really
regardless of exactly the terms that it’s put in it it does come to this meaning crisis problem
and some people describe that by saying something more like
it’s because we’ve lost religion or tradition
um and some people put it more like no
those changes are a function of a much broader you know set of conditions that can produce you know enemy [anomie?] and disconnection and fragmentation
um but it it comes down to yeah
finding these different roads to experience something meaningful
right so
how do people get into it
that this is the we’re
we’re at the end
all right how do we all how do we do this uh
check out your your local society or community
and I guess the the disclaimer has to be made that
there are a lot of good folks fighting the good fight for legalization
um you know it’s following the medical cannabis model
there are legal challenges up right now that it
it violates sort of basic rights that people have to not be able to make these decisions for themselves and that there should be access
but so I have to say that because um of course
we can’t encourage anybody to do anything illegal now can we
yeah yeah the legality also extends to research doesn’t it where it’s still mostly illegal to to conduct research on psychedelics even for things like PTSD and
any sort of psychological treatment there are in Canada two ways to obtain um the special access program and section 56 exemption and so
the special access program I believe is the way that most researchers who are able to do this are are doing it like who researchers who are you know there are researchers who are collecting observation of naturalistic use say through um quantified citizen is a citizen science app [see Houot, Rise of the Psychonaut] where um a bunch of say micro do [dose] studies are going on right now
but yeah for researchers who are actually administering a substance it’s uh it’s not easy but it’s it’s possible but it can be said that um well so I’ve got
Cannabis Can Produce the Same Effect as High-Dose Psilocybin, So Cannabis Is a Psychedelic Like Psilocybin
“I’ve got friends who are absolely absolutely insistent that with the right set and setting and so a sort of ceremonial one and paired with breath work cannabis can [/ could/ might/ may] be just as psychedelic as anything else
[same with tobacco, and alcohol, inhaling engine fumes, and sniffing glue, and smashing your head against a wall -mh]
and so what I could say about you know if you kind of want to do a toe dip into this space is find a community that is doing that kind of group work and you can have a perfectly legal experience in that way but uh it seems like a lot of municipalities have a community like a psychedelics community and yeah I mean I think often about the fact that
It not that long ago and for friends of mine in this space who are of an older generation to put that out there could have you know maybe outed friends of yours or you know taken a a community that was supposed to be very close-knit and underground ground uncomfortably above ground and exposed
so it almost it feels weird in a way to say like go join your local community like do so carefully and with respect please but
excellent that I think that’s great advice and it’s Yeah and also
keep it legal and safe it’s it’s not just set in setting, it’s making sure it’s everything’s safe
um that’s right: setting, supply, dose, integration, all of that um we’ve got the lightning round charard
so I should we make it It’s normally
can a true atheist should we make it can a true psychonaut
yes i love that all right okay see if it works
yeah I think it’ll
I think it’ll work all right
well the easy one do you want to start Nathan sure okay so I guess we should just say these are just short short questions short answers and so on you can elaborate a little bit but it’s called a lightning round though I guess um anyway yeah okay so okay
Can a true psychonaut believe in God?
[Music]
i know a bunch of do
can you like can you have both can like I I mean we we mentioned it earlier
do you know people who’ve like gone through it and been like “Yeah I just I totally talked to God it was amazing.”
And then been like “Yeah but God’s not real.”
Can you kind of have that sense really actually yeah yeah I do i know
i know a particular neuroscientist who maintains uh I mean he has had he has he’s gotten into some pretty wild polyarm pharmacy like many layers of many substances and and had some really you know some experiences that were like yeah this shows something about how very profoundly weird reality is but I don’t know but uh but yeah Yeah so
they met God but maybe it wasn’t God trickster God
yeah that’s right yeah well
Can a true psychonaut attend church?
in fact
There’s a whole phenomenon of psychedelic chaplain
wait like like Ken Casey’s um I forgot what they’re called already man mary pranksters
the merry pranksters like where they were evangelicizing acid
is it like that um not evangelizing but actually uh you know maybe
working on the staff of the institutions that would traditionally employ chaplain for the sake of integration, which is something between like a spiritual direction and psychotherapy
and uh yeah and harm reduction and um and the I there is an idea that that actually yeah that
mainline churches may want to adapt to this and theo generation um by by training or providing psychedelic chaplain
so yeah I think I think yes okay okay um
Can a true psychonaut think we live in a computer simulation?
[Laughter]
i want the answer to that to be no
oh to be no yeah i I want it to be no i want it so that every you know the
I want the intel that people are bringing back to be like “Yeah don’t worry it’s all very true.”
That’s a good point yeah
does anybody endorse the the simulation
i mean nobody comes back from a trip and says like “Oh yeah it’s all programming
it’s Yeah people
people don’t tend to come back talking about computers.”
But there there is this this funny phenomenon of um the the gear elves the gear elves with DMT
so there there is like a mechanical flavor to some of these the aesthetics of some of these but I haven’t heard I have
I haven’t heard like Yeah it’s all code you know it’s it’s all binary
right yes like gear elves man
Can a true psychonaut believe in the transcendent?
i just Or do they have to yeah well I think
A true psychonaut probably thinks that the transcendent is imminent
oh yeah man
that’s draw you in horrible ro uh okay
Can a true psychonaut play with a Ouija board
oh every every Saturday night yeah
one hasn’t been busted out at any parties that I’ve been at
but um but
That is like esoterically on brand
mhm that’s true yeah
Can a true psychonaut believe in an afterlife?
one of my favorite things on this that I’ve heard recently is a
a dear friend of mine said to me with a straight face and then heard what he said and laughed hysterically but continued to endorse the sentiment
it’s hilarious that we think that people die
yeah it was so clearly circular in some way that that’s that’s quite telling yeah it’s a good one so is the answer yes yes okay or or I guess if you never
if no one dies then I guess there’s no afterlife
oh oh thank you
that’s actually a way more sophisticated answer cut out you saying that cut to me saying that well
if consciousness is fundamental then life is ongoing with no serious interruptions
we ties in our just last our last episode um we talked about about that um but uh the persistence of consciousness
how it just can’t Yeah exa Exactly we the self
The self dies but consciousness goes on
um I think it’s me um this one is more relevant for the
Can a true atheist part but
Can a true psychonaut use the prayer emoji?
[Laughter]
frequently religiously i’m I’m picturing Jason Baitman in that episode Arrested Development where he winds up on the cover of the magazine
yes but so but
the God that’s created isn’t is it an active God
i I’ve just thought of this because like there’s no one to pray to is there in Well I think
there’s so so many really you know I think it’s it’s like especially with the sort of desire to like
there’s a real pagan strain in that that all of the natural forces are sort of personified oh wow yeah as gods
and it’s like
call in whoever you need or want
um I see and
I’m not I’m not saying I of course everybody is like this and
if you’re working with any specific tradition you’re going to have particular figures or concepts or gods or whatever
it’s not just the recreation of monotheism; it’s not just the recreation of Abraham’s God
it’s it is like it’s it’s creating new gods all the time
there’s there’s a lot of a type of perennialism that is like and you know
when in that story Moses saw the burning bush you know that was psychedelic and you know the god that spoke to him was
and so like everybody’s gods might be able to play in this story in so far as probably the access through psychedelics
[WAIT, I THOUGHT Mosur. had firmly reached the conclusion that European history lacks entheogens, and any attempt or wish or desire to find entheogens in Euro history is cultural appropriation and oppression of indigenous? -mh]
and probably it’s just the many faces of some principle that transforms itself into many things
i see much multiplicity all right and finally I think it’s me um
Can a true psychonaut think life is sacred?
i don’t think I’ve met one who doesn’t
interesting all right yeah
that’s a beautiful place to end it
I think yeah nice
i don’t think life is sacred
it’s like how do they define that
but it seems like nice that’s deep and important and I’ve learned a lot thank you so much Charardai this has been fantastic
thank you so much thank you both for having me
this was so much fun
all right that was Charardai Mazerin john [Sharday Mosurinjohn]
uh what were some of your takeaways
well I mean there’s a lot to lot to unpack there i Well one thing
I finally learned what spirituality is
like that’s all right i feel better like this idea of uh
we’re all connected to each other, we’re all connected to the universe
that feels pretty good
do you uh
are you a spiritual person Nathan
it’s
now that we have a good working definition
[biased trojan horse “positive unity” beginner/ “lite” model of “mystical experience” fabricated by Swami Vivek., latched onto by James, Stace, etc. – “mystical experience lite”]
no I don’t i would probably say not i mean it’s like I think the thing is it can also just kind of kick the definitional can down the road
like then you get like
what does it mean to feel connected to the universe
i mean I’ve
I feel connected to
I mean
I realize that I’m part of the universe and I’m part of something that’s way way bigger than myself and so on
but I don’t know if I feel Yeah like
What does it mean to feel connection?
i’m not sure exactly
right yeah what about what about you no I mean like in the the like the one of the things that got thrown around like the SBNR like spiritual but not religious, not in that sense not in like a woo woo sense but I mean like it’s baked into like you know humanism
it’s like
you can have a materialist reality and still feel that connection
[beginner “mystical experience” Lite: the “positive unity” model of mystical experience, vs. the mature, cybernetic eternalism model]
and it’s weird things like I don’t know
have you ever seen that like I think it’s a paradox the checkerboard paradox where if you start working backwards so okay
here’s how it works out
you get a checkerboard 8 by8 64 squares right
you start with the first square and that’s you right
this is just a way to show that we’re all interconnected
that’s you
and then how many parents do you have okay so the next square that’s two and that’s a generation
and then we go back another generation it’s 4 8 16 32 264 blah blah blah blah blah
the problem is because it’s exponential you rapidly get to the point where it’s more people than have ever existed and how the hell do we get to the point where it’s more people than have ever existed to produce one person
right that’s weird there’s something there’s something so simple to the logic of it but it gives us this conclusion that’s so strange it doesn’t seem to make sense at all
in less than I mean 64 generations would be about 1,200 years right working backwards let’s say 1500 years so that’s um and you know
one of the logical answers that we come to is that we’re all related
right like yes of course of course
we’re all connected we’re all related
when you hear that somebody’s related to Charlemagne or Ginghan it doesn’t who gives a [ __ ] we’re all related to Charlemagne and we’re all related to Genghaskhan it doesn’t matter right like there’s no getting away from it
after a certain point you go back enough generations with the exception of extreme genetic isolation everybody’s related and like that
in that sense I have this sense of connectedness the sense of holism the sense of and you know the cosmic sense of like yes we are I mean we’re a pale blue dot we’re all stuck in the same situation whether we like it or not we’re all together so I I don’t you don’t need drug I I feel you don’t need drugs for that they certainly help apparently but you don’t need it
[1. Define a weak, feeble model of mystical experience = positive unity. A complete mystical experience of positive unity.” update: now the acceptable locution is: “a mystical-type experience“. 2. Point out that many ways can/ could/ might/ may give experience of positive unity. 3. Psychedelics give positive unity (as one of the resulting effects). 4. Reach the false conclusion: “Many ways give mystical-type experience (ie positive unity), therefore Psilocybin is not the only way to have a complete mystical-type experience.” -mh]
yes yeah i think it’s so that’s
one thing I think that’s a good takeaway
is there anything anything you found Nathan uh just to add on to to that point i mean I think again
I don’t know that I would say it’s spiritual but like
even if we go beyond like how we’re related to human like other humans like like we’re literally cousins with animals and birds and plants like not like metaphorically like literally cousins if you go far far enough back
and so I think that’s pretty cool um that we’re all part of the same story of life um but again I don’t know that it’s I wouldn’t call it “spiritual“; maybe other people would and then maybe that’s just a matter of the terminology people are comfortable with
yeah yeah i mean you know if it’s this
if it’s more of a metaphysical sense but you can get to that point with without the metaphysical
I feel so that’s one thing um you know
what struck me you know what was weird that I hadn’t thought about before is that like the idea that religion permits drugs right or like advocates it which I never really like explicitly considered before
like religions do advocate explicitly ways to like alter your consciousness
and normally we think about like forbidding and I mean
I don’t know if if I ever told you this one but um
when I was in Korea I had a student who um didn’t drink alcohol
it’s first of all like some good background to know is like
Korea has a very strong drinking culture and particularly in workplaces you have to go out and drink as a group it’s kind of like socially mandated
and he um and he’s like I I don’t drink i’m like why why don’t you drink and he said “Well because I’m a Christian.”
It’s like “Well that’s kind of weird like the first miracle Jesus performed was turning water into wine like how do you how why do you not drink?”
I’m not looking for a theological discussion but like trying to get some insight into this kid and he’s he goes
“Oh yeah that turning water into wine that was really grape juice.”
[John MacArthur’s LAME made-up arguments]
What the That’s so weird but the thing was it’s like
That allowed him to escape what the rest of society does
right and we like and we have it and
the flip side is of course that Christianity permits it it’s very permissive with drinking
and in a lot of ways we see that like
that is a part of western cultural legacy
right like we have very strong drinking from very strong Christian communities
whereas in Islam you don’t have that right
and one way to look at it is like it’s banned in these but in another way it’s like it’s permitted it’s allowed it’s encouraged
i mean it’s a sacrament in Catholicism
[alcohol wine is not an authentic sacrament. Liberty Cap is an authentic sacrament; Liberty Cap in grape wine.]
Liberty Cap lbc
“so if we think about it that way one of the things that we find is that like the state kind of when we think of like governmentality
the government is really um reinforcing this sort of civic legacy, this religious power that’s been passed down even if it’s not good by the way that we measure things by the government government typically I mean
one of the things that we discuss in in political theory is like the harm principle the idea that you permit things that are not that don’t cause harm to other people
there is no way you can look at something like alcohol and say it does not harm other people
it’s it it’s very very clear that it does
but we have it where it’s it’s passed down right we know that this is what the state does right it’s permitting this it’s reinforcing this social permission it it also allows businesses things like opiates pharm pharmaceuticals
but when we start pushing it into this drugs section these psychoactive drugs psychedelic drugs places where we don’t find any harm and cannabis is included in this category
there’s a break with this legacy with this religious legacy
it wasn’t religion that permitted permitted it
[Greco Roman Christendom was filled with drugs, so that’s an untenable sweeping assertion]
it wasn’t businesses that were permitting it
it’s it’s just democracy
right
it’s just people who have for a long time worked to legalize cannabis and then they it happens it happens and in the US I’m not sure about the Canadian case but almost every state in the US that’s legalized marijuana almost all of them did it through voter initiatives there’s only like one or two cases where state legislators did it so the government
it’s not the government rationally looking at a list of drugs saying “Okay what’s harmful what’s dangerous what’s bad?”
It’s got nothing to do with it uh
instead it was it was people going out voter initiatives saying this is what we want
and this is to bring it full circle back to you know the atheist project when we go out and we say “Okay
What does it look like if we have a government that’s divorced from religion, what do we do that disrupts a religious legacy that imposes culture on us imposes the rules on us?”
[Euro’n religious legacy gives us many pharmacopia/theon]
This is a case where we’re doing that right this is a blank slate
We don’t have a religious legacy that endorses psychoactive drugs
[False, overbroad assertion based in IGNORANCE]
but we know socially they’re not harmful right compare opioid deaths tens of thousands i mean it’s really ridiculous in the US right the tens of thousands of opioid deaths every year um which were like artificially created in laboratories
compared to psychedelics that have killed literally no one over
Yeah right for entire history
yeah i I agree i mean one interesting thing is like and I think Charardai we talked a little bit about this with her like that sometimes
you can even make a religious freedom argument for legalizing certain like uh psychedelics or whatever
which is almost um Yeah almost like a kind of a reverse case where Yeah but atheists aren’t going to do that
are they no but I I think I think
she was talking about
like these sort of if I recall correctly like
particular churches
well I mean the thing is
what does it mean to be a church
like church kind of based around uh psychedelic drugs or something uh and claiming that religious freedom
I mean it’s sort of like this
like the satanic temple uh using that idea of religious freedom um yeah whether that’s that’s a good thing
here’s the flip side of that Nathan like with marijuana [sic; cannabis] nobody did that and we don’t need to
that’s true right and
if we’re going to be atheists we we can just we can say “Yeah we can do that.”
Or we can just say “No we we like this
We think about it rationally: we measure the harm verse um like the risk versus the reward
we think the outcome is totally okay.” Yeah I Yeah and
it’s a weird thing right because
we’re getting rid of that grounding that used to be there
[now admit Euro history includes psychedelics]
jesus drank wine we should be allowed to drink wine right
our our elders ate peyote, we should be allowed to eat peyote it’s an important part of a ritual
or right so I mean so
one of the things I find which I hadn’t thought of is that like
when we think of things as like an atheist culture, an atheist society: what does an atheist world look like, we don’t need to do that
right
we can wash away these things that religion says are good to do or you need to do socially
i think that’s powerful yeah i think Yeah um and I think
there is more of a focus on like um you know rationally considering laws versus like such and such thing is just bad it’s just immoral that’s just the way it is
you know like
even if it’s not even religiously like there’s no like you know religious prohibition on psychedelics [good point] or something like that but it’s more like you know drugs are bad and like why well they’re just bad okay like they’re just immoral like we they should be illegal
but rather than like actually sort of thinking about like what is the harm versus benefit or so on which more more rational way to approach it
I think yeah and I mean like
This isn’t to say that as an atheist or a non-believer you need to endorse psychedelics, you need to go out and do them, it’s just that we you know yeah that we have to think about these things rationally
with like and look at things like Like we aren’t looking into an abyss right like
whoa where do we want to put the ground
do we want to right like
we get to make these decisions, take it seriously become uh interested in and invested in it whether or not you’re doing it
so Nathan are you going to start hitting up the mushrooms
now well there is
I never done psychedelics before but there is um here in Ottawa there’s a ton of cannabis stores but I saw on my street there’s like I think there’s like a like a dispensary or something for like magic mushrooms
Crop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael Hoffman
i don’t know you know like Yeah I’m not sure like I assume it’s illegal but it’s like it’s one of those things where it’s probably becoming sufficiently like widespread that people will do it the other way maybe i’m not sure so maybe we’ll see see I should I don’t know
We expect you to report back in the next episode about what happened with the magic mushroom discussion
yeah yeah all right yes better not just be like creini mushrooms or oyster mushrooms oh it’s got it’s got uh psychedelic artwork and stuff on the building so obviously yeah maybe they just color Did they put food dye on the mushrooms yeah right yeah yeah yeah yeah i I don’t think
I’m not going to be smoking DMT no anytime soon
yeah okay that sounds like a good thing probably yeah but
if uh anyone’s interested you can stop follow Charardai’s work um we’ll put some links below um what else we should plug her what What else can we say about Charardai other than she’s a fantastic scholar doing incredible work so
her book is called the spiritual significance of overload boredom
i almost said overlord as well overlord and uh check that out and
she’s got a new well she’s working on a new book on psychedelics which is mostly what we talked about
so Um keep an eye on her website and and follow her on social media if you want to and I’m sure if you have fantastic stories she would love to hear from you that’s always a question for
It’s always an issue for people doing research in that field yeah yeah good otherwise what do we I don’t know
nathan do you have anything to plug what’s going on no nothing to plug um follow me on Twitter I guess uh Nath G alexander
well it still exists i’m I really have have I think I sort of have not being there anymore but you never know so it’s still there
i’m also do it a lot so he notices push the buttons really hard
yeah I guess yeah so check that out nathan’s there um
as always like and subscribe if you like what you hear that’s the easiest way of course if you have extra money hanging around we’d love to have you throw some our way and become a patron
big support to our patrons we love you guys so much thank you and uh remember even for $5 a month you get some of the behind the scenes you get the extra talk which is a little looser a little sloppier more swearing I think and that’s totally worth the money too that’s that’s the best part
um and yeah be sure to check out Remember
we are part of Atheist United Studios check them out there are partners on the on the network and Atheist United if you’re in California looking for a good time sign up they’re always out there they’re always doing stuff looking for members looking for people to join the project
um and that’s it from me Nathan any last words thanks again people for listening and we’ll see you next time
awesome [Applause] [Music]
About Mosurinjohn, Who Advocates Ignorance of European Entheogen History and Is Against Scholarly Research on That Topic
“Dr. Mosurinjohn studies the discursive construction of spirituality and religion as well as concepts of nonreligion and secularity.
“Specific interests include the study of “new religious movements” (NRMs), ritual, and religion and/as media.
“Her broad interest in the material turn touches on contexts of contemporary (especially conceptual) art; museums; everyday aesthetics; digital contexts (eg. social media; surveillance cultures), and affect.
“Her major line of research continues to be about boredom and spirituality—taking the modern concept of boredom as a spiritual crisis as a heuristic through the late modern context of choice and information overload.
“Professor Mosurinjohn’s research is about contemporary mind-body experience as spiritual and religious experience.
“Her work bridges religious studies, cultural theory, aesthetic philosophy, and media and technology studies.
“Prof. Mosurinjohn’s first book is The Spiritual Significance of Overload Boredom (2022; McGill-Queen’s University Press).
“Her new project explores the concept of entheogenic esotericism in a way that reunites the study of religion, magic, and science in the psychedelic turn.” [didn’t say “re-integrate psychedelics into religion”]
Conference Abstracts (Psychedelics and Monotheistic Traditions: Sacramental Practice and Legal Recognition Harvard Law School, March 2025), con’t
Sharday Mosurinjohn, The Sweetest Taboo: Psychedelics and the Invention of Religious Experiences
“This talk responds to the idea that the ancient Eleusynian Mysteries were psychedelic, as claimed by Carl Ruck and co-authors in The Road to Eleusis (1978), revitalized by Brian Muraresku’s The Immortality Key (2020), and popularized by the Overton window-widening Joe Rogan.
It begins by exposing critical methodological flaws in the arguments, namely, a pattern of presenting claims, followed by mild circumstantial evidence, and then rhetorically solidifying the interpretation of this evidence into a “fact,” on which is built each subsequent round of conjecture.
In The Road To Eleusis, a speculation like “It seems obvious that an hallucinogen must have induced it” (2008: 47) immediately furnishes the next premise “To identify the Eleusynian drug…” (2008: 47) that begins the following paragraph.
I argue that these writers’ dogged pursuit of evidentiarymirages has to do with wanting a western civilizational pedigree to dignify the use of stigmatized drugs.
[Mos. equates – like terrible writers McC & Priest – Muraresku as if TIK is an adequate representative of Euro entheogen scholarship.
Mos. equates European history research in psychedelics with “myopia” b/c not focusing on non-Europeans] [
Succesful strategy:
Focus on European history, and mostly ignore non-European history.
Like how bad Amanita scholarship abuses Psilocybin by only employing Psilocybin as a slave to sing the glory of Amanita; subsuming Psilocybin in service of the Ruck committee’s grand narrative of “Amanita = Europe = mixed wine”.
Use non-European entheogen history, only employ non-European entheogen history in service of the only goal that matters for this Euro Entheogens project.
Pay attention to non-European entheogen history only insofar as it can be used to prop up European entheogen history.
The little, feeble effort to find entheogens in European history was impeded and blocked by the duplicitous Wasson, who had to resort to lies, deception, censorship, and play-acting con-artistry:
Conflict-of-interest Gordon . . . .🔍🧐🤔 Wasson LIES, as the banker for the pope, and falsely says no Psilocybin in Christian history, resorting to duplicity and censorship, Soma p. 180 top, his ellipses in same paragraph as his admonition to”consult art historians”.]
“If you are interested, I recommend a little book by A. E. Brinckmann, Die Baumdarstellung im Mittelalter (or something like it), where the process is described in detail. Just to show what I mean, I enclose two specimens: a miniature of ca. 990 which shows the inception of the process, viz., the gradual hardening of the pine into a mushroom-like shape, and a glass painting of the thirteenth century, that is to say about a century later than your fresco, which shows an even more emphatic schematization of the mushroom-like crown. [handwritten:] Albert Erich Brinckmann Baumstilisierungen in der mittelalterlichen malerei” = Tree Stylizations in Medieval Paintings (Brinckmann 1906)
Mosurinjohn con’t:
“This myopia is rooted in colonial violence that precludes seriously relating to the many well-documented Indigenous histories of psychedelics, as well as a sort of functional fixedness that prevents seeing contemporary psychedelic practice in continuity with other, and maybe even older, non-pharmacological methods of changing consciousness.”
[myopic over-focus on alleged indigenous psychedelics history [see Jan Irvin’s new book] precludes seriously relating to the many well-documented mushroom imagery in Christian art & greco-roman.
Your bullsh!t sword cuts both ways. -mh]
“I conclude that, given how the psychedelic hypothesis is fundamentally flawed in its study of antiquity, it is a shaky foundation [SO MAKE IT STRONGER, NOT GIVE UP BEFORE YOU EVEN TRY LEGITLY] on which to build an argument for modern psychedelic use for therapeutic and spiritual practice.”
[1st-generation entheogen scholarship (the Secret Amanita paradigm) is fundamentally flawed in its study of Antiquity. Switch to 2nd-generation entheogen scholarship (the Explicit Psilocybin paradigm).
A naysayer crowd who sucks at building arguments, should not lecture others.
WE HAVEN’T EVEN BEGUN TO LOOK, AS PROVED BY MY recent additional of mushroom imagery in Christian art.
Refusing to discuss the tons of evidence, is foisted here as “there is no evidence”.
Argument from ignorance, like Letcher 2006 only considering 1 evidence, even ignoring the other evidence in the Bernward Door/ column/ chandelier.
Fallacy: premature negative conclusion before we have started to even look– properly per 2nd-generation entheogen scholarship (the Explicit Psilocybin paradigm).
“Let’s stop looking, before we have started looking.”]
“I also report on the multi-year history of the rejection of the manuscript on which this talk is based as it is emblematic of the way popular audiences and scholars fail to communicate around psychedelic history and culture, even as psychedelic bioscience scholarship is at the centre of today’s social mainstreaming.”
Your ms. was rejected. Maybe it is nonsensical:
You here tell scholars to stop looking for entheogens in European history.
And you accuse scholars of failing to communicate re: psychedelic history.
[BUNK, PREJUDICED, AGRESSIVE CRYBABY (CRYBULLY) ARG: “Indigenous entheogens history is well doc’d. Euro entheogen history is not well doc’d, therefore, we should not try to doc Euro entheogen history.“]
Anti-European Prejudice: Europe Is Not Allowed to Have Psychedelic History, because That Oppresses Non-Europeans (per Sharday Mosurinjohn)
Sharday Mosurinjohn Disrespects, Discredits, & Dismisses European Entheogen History Scholarship, Pushes Divisiveness
… Implying that European Entheogen History Scholarship Should Disrespect, Discredit, and Dismiss Non-European Entheogen History
Zero-sum arg: “We should not look for entheogens in Europe/ Mediter. history, b/c that fails to promote entheogens in non-Europe history, and steals credit from Indigenous.”
MOSURINJOHN USES HER OWN IGNORANCE OF EUROPEAN ENTHEOGEN HISTORY TO FALSELY ACCUSE EUROPE HISTORY OF STEALING CREDIT FROM INDIGENOUS.
Mosur takes advantage of two weaknesses of The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku, 2020:
Should focus broadly on all Mystery Religions, not only Eleusis; and sacred meals, “mixed wine”.
Should focus broadly on all entheogens eg Lib Cap, not only on ergot.
Muraresku restricts theorizing to ergot in Eleusis & proto Christianity. A weak case results.
Mosur leaps on that weakness to accuse Europe scholarship of fabricating European history of entheogen use.
Thanks for Your Divisive Recommendation, Mosurinjohn, your effort to delete entheogens from history.
F*ck social-suppression narratives! This is the “deletion” effect produced by narrative-driven entheogen scholarship.
In entheogen scholarship, Social-Suppression Narrative = effort to restrict entheogens, thus accommodating & perpetuating Prohibition and ignorance of history.
McPriest’s Presentation (Conf. Abstracts, con’t)
Rev. Hunt Priest, Claiming a Ministry: Resourcing Christians for Psychedelic Spiritual and Pastoral Care
“With high-quality educational resources and training, Christian congregations could, through existing programs and ministries, support parishioners and the wider community in their psychedelic experiences by providing a safe and non-judgmental space for open discussions and peer support.
“Clergy and layleaders could offer spiritual guidance and integration support, helping individuals make sense of their psychedelic journeys within a Christian context.
“Additionally, churches could explore how the psycho-spiritual insights gained in a psychedelic experience might be integrated into existing Christian practices and beliefs, fostering a more inclusive and expansive approach to spirituality, religion, and mental health.
Yosef Rosen, Ba’alei Shem as Predecessors for Contemporary Jewish Psychedelic Guidance
“Not too long ago, Jewish shamans roamed through Ashkenaz, offering healing and mystical ecstasy.”
“These practitioners were called Ba’alei Shem, masters of the name, because kabbalistic names of God and angels were a core part of their medical craft—written in amulets or chanted over herbs.
“Trained in Kabbalah, bloodletting, herbalism, other pre-modern healing modalities, and magical incantations, they offered a uniquely Jewish style of healing throughout the early-modern period.
“This talk will propose that these figures—with their integration of ecstasy, healing, meditation, and ascent—provide the best historical template for contemporary Jewish psychedelic facilitation.”
“As more Jews search for psychedelic settings that offer healing modalities rooted in Jewish lineage, “Ba’al Shemkeit” offers a model of training and practice for emergent Jewish facilitators.
“Unlike more traditional (theoretical) Kabbalistic models, Ba’al Shemkeit emerges from Practical Kabbalah and is thus better suited to contemporary models of psychedelic facilitation that integrate the earthy, somatic, and curative aspects of existence.”
/ end of: Conference Abstracts (Psychedelics and Monotheistic Traditions: Sacramental Practice and Legal Recognition Harvard Law School, March 2025)
“Karina Bashir” (Psychedelics Today podcast) Video
Non-drug entheogens; diminishing actual psychedelics while falsely elevating non-drug, avoidance strategies to the level of “psychedelic”
I strive to be the extreme voice representing “ppl who say entheogens are the only way to access the intense mystic altered state” – I defend that position, against the tired repeated assertion that other ways “can/ could/ might/ may” produce the same effect.
Has legal ramif. I reject any diminishment of entheogens (the source of religion) & I reject false elevation of other approaches above, or to the level of, entheogens. Other approaches are lesser.
1:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vI81OvFWwU&t=90s – Harvard Law School conference: Psychedelics in Monotheistic Traditions: Sacramental Practice and Legal Recognition March 5-6, 2025: “interdisciplinary symposium brings together scholars of religion, legal experts, and religious leaders to explore the legal recognition of religious psychedelc use in J, C, and M communities.”
15:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vI81OvFWwU&t=930s – psychedelcs vs. potential of non-drg methods. The gold standard reference is Psilo; other ways that ppl have accessed the intense mystic altered state are the deviant nonstandard exceptions that are far less reliable and strong and effectual. Non-drg methods “can/ could/ might/ may” produce same effects as high-dosce Psilo, but are poor and serve as ways of avoiding the experience.
Joe’s Weak, False Elevation of Breathwork to Steal Credit from Psychedelics: “Breathwork Is a Psychedelic Practice”
17:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vI81OvFWwU&t=1020s – “breathwork is a form of psychedelc practice” – no, it is a misuse of language to construct the notion of “non-drg psychedelcs”. This is a contradiction in terms. Moves like proposing “non-drg entheogens” is a way of falsely elevating other methods, stealing credit from entheogens to elevate ineffectual attempted alternatives that serve as a way of avoiding the actual transformative experiences that primarily come from entheogens.
Esotericism in Western Culture: Counter-Normativity and Rejected Knowledge (Wouter Hanegraaff, May 29, 2025)
Replaces 2013 book Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed. 2nd, expanded & revised version.
Blurb:
“This accessible introduction by the world’s leading expert explains why the study of esotericism is not a marginal pursuit but belongs at the center of modern research in the humanities. Reflecting updates in the field since the foundational publication Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed (2013), Wouter J. Hanegraaff demonstrates that the exclusion of “rejected knowledge” from normative accounts of Western civilization is the reflection of a narrow Eurocentric ideology that became the template for discrediting and ultimately destroying so-called “primitive” cultures associated with “superstition” and “pagan idolatry” during the global colonial age.
Rejecting this “rejection of rejected knowledge” means restoring the suppressed to its legitimate place in history and cultural analysis. Through this approach, Wouter J. Hanegraaff depicts a radically inclusive vision of the Greater West and its forgotten histories, from pagan antiquity through Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures up to secular modernity and beyond.”
CPC Healthcare Professionals/Healers meeting report, June 5, 2025
cpc website = ??
Guest presenter: Leo (Leonora) Russell (knows [ppl])
https://entheosociety.net — “Entheo Society – We support the therapeutic, spiritual, and medical right to heal ourselves with entheogens and join together to decriminalize, de-stigmatize, and honor their use.”
The meeting was at X’s place, where they’ve had a series of meetings, usually w/ “therapy/ healthcare providers rather than policy activists”.
It was a lovely ride through the arboretum, to East of … Was able to mobile Zoom book club, Singh’s new Shamanism book. (back-to-back Zoom meeting & in-person meeting)
I made it to the 2nd hour of Leo’s presentation, missed presentation but discussed with [ppl]:
Leo pointed out advantages of legalizing psil rather than simply Repeal of psil Prohibition.
Leveraging 2nd-Generation Entheogen Scholarship (the Explicit Psilocybin Paradigm) for Repeal of Prohibition
In the meeting, I explained:
Entheogen scholarship needs to put aside the question of “What kind of ppl used psil in Medieval Christendom history?”, and instead greedily gather all evidence that Christendom fully included psil.
Evidence-first approach, not driven by (= restricted by) baseless social speculation conjectured narratives that tend to restrict, not expand, the evidence.
Do not allow entheogen history to be co-opted by (Carl Ruck-type) agenda of anti-Christian restrictive narrative that perpetuates & accomodates Prohibition.
Avoid narrative words “secret”, “heretical”, “mainstream”, “tradition”; just give the raw evidence that “Throughout Medieval Christendom, psil was fully used.”
I found more evidence than Ruck, by ignoring speculative narratives of restriction/suppression; by focusing on Psil rather than Amanita; & by avoiding would-be explanatory constructs of “secret” & “tradition”.
“There’s no textual evidence”: false; see “Eucharist” & “the Teacher of Righteousness” and its effects; superior Theory produces maximal evidence.
Inferior theorizing (eg narrative-driven, restrictive presuppositions) restricts the evidence.
Discussed rift among conservatives: ignorant prohibitionists, vs informed libertarians.
/ end of Signal group post
Entheogen Scholarship Habitual Narratives of Restricting Mushroom Use in Medieval Christendom
Signal group post:
narrative-driven entheogen scholarship (Carl Ruck school) is funny how it waffles between trying to tell contradictory stories/ constructs:
“evil elites always restricted the sacrament to themselves” vs.
“here’s more evidence of the sacrament that was always restricted to underground, suppressed, heretical, closed cults/ groups”.
So which is it? Which narrative of restriction is correct?
Answer: Drop all restriction narratives. Stop trying to pick out specific, bounded groups of users. Evidence does not support the presupposition that Psilocybin mushrooms were restricted to selected/ specific groups of users.
Drop the construct “groups that had the mushroom”.
Stop obsessing and prioritizing the “all-important, most fundamental question: Which group was the mushroom restricted to?“
Evidently, use of the sacrament was broadly spread throughout Christendom (& greco-roman, eg Mixed Wine = Lib Caps). WITH NO DISCERNIBLE RESTRICTION TO ANY PARTICULAR GROUP(S).
/ end of Signal group post
1st-Generation Entheogen Scholars Serve as Gatekeepers to Keep Prohibition in Place Perpetually
Gatekeeper effect: The Carl Ruck school with its defeatist narrative of restriction serves The System of Prohibition as a gatekeeper; enabling Prohibition; accommodating Prohibition perpetually.
The evidence goes against speculations about restirction to any particular group.
The evidence indicates LACK of restriction to any particular group.
There is simply no evidence supporting Browns’ arbitrary adding the word “secret” to the plain word “initiation”.
The “suppression”/”secrecy” narrative converts sheer “initiation” to “secret initiation”, thus propping up Prohibition.
“The prevalence of this psychedelic tradition in a wide variety of texts and artistic media including illuminated manuscripts, bronze castings, and stained glass windows in the high holy places of Christianity shows that this tradition was not suppressed by the early Church, but to the contrary was made available as a secret practice for initiates.” – p. 156, Brown & Brown 2019
WHAT EVIDENCE FOR ADDING YOUR NEEDLESS AND UNJUSTIFIED WORD “SECRET”?
“(b) by arguing that based on the presence of these images in the high holy places of Christianity, these psychedelic traditions were not suppressed by the Church, but were rather maintained for the secret instruction of initiates and possibly for the education of the illiterate masses;” – p. 161, Brown & Brown 2019
WHAT EVIDENCE FOR ADDING YOUR NEEDLESS AND UNJUSTIFIED WORD “SECRET”?
Need a way of writing about the evidence without employing the narrative construction, arbitrary, loaded, presupposition-laden words “tradition” and “secret”. These arbitrary words complicate the situation and reduce and restrict the evidence and the framing we present.
Use simpler, cleaner words that don’t have a lot of contentious baggage attached.
“I experimented with X.” vs. “I used X.”
What do we think we are trying to show, and WHY?!
“evidence for the secret tradition of use of Psilocybin mushrooms” vs. “evidence of use of Psilocybin mushrooms”
Are we here to discuss and propose “secret tradition“? Or, conversely, here to propose and discuss use of Psilocybin mushrooms?
Letcher 2006 disproved 1st-generation entheogen scholarship (the Secret Amanita paradigm) by using a single instance of 2nd-gen entheogen scholarship evidence: a Liberty Cap mushroom-tree explicitly on Bernward Door.
Prejudiced, bad reasoners are using the heavy-handed “secret” construct/ framing/ narrative, to try to appear that they have disproved sheer USE of Psilocybin mushrooms.
Psychedelic Science Conference ’25 (Denver, June 16-20, 2025)
“Thousands of researchers, clinicians, activists, and curious minds will gather in Denver next month for Psychedelic Science 2025: The Integration, a week-long conference exploring the future of psychedelics in medicine, policy, and culture.
Hosted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the event will run from June 16 to 20 at the Colorado Convention Center.
This year’s theme, The Integration, emphasizes
The merging of science and spirituality.
The merging of traditional wisdom and modern medicine.
The merging of research and real-world practice.
“It’s time to unite and integrate the insights, progress, and passion that have defined the psychedelic movement,” said MAPS representatives in a statement.”
Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions (May 30, 2025) – “Religious Leaders Study”
Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions Roland R. Griffiths, Robert Jesse, William A. Richards, Matthew W. Johnson, Nathan D. Sepeda, Anthony P. Bossis, Stephen Ross May 30, 2025 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/psymed.2023.0044 Psychedelic Medicine (journal)
“Although historical writings, anthropological accounts, and experimental studies document associations between psilocybin use and religion, no prospective experimental study has investigated how the effects of psilocybin are experienced and interpreted by religious clergy.
“This exploratory study evaluated the overall safety and the acute and enduring effects of psilocybin in clergy.
Methods:
“Participants were psychedelic-naïve clergy from various major world religions.
“A randomized, parallel group, waitlist control design was used to assess the effects of two supported psilocybin sessions, with participants receiving 20 and then 20 or 30 mg/70 kg about 1 month later.
“Outcomes were compared between the Immediate Group (n = 13) and the Delayed Group (n = 16) at 6 months after screening using self-report measures.
“The effects of psilocybin were also assessed on session days and 4 and 16 months after the second psilocybin session in the 24 participants who completed both sessions.
Results:
“The primary outcome assessment at 6 months after screening showed that, compared with the delayed control group, participants who had received psilocybin reported significantly greater positive changes in their religious practices, attitudes about their religion, and effectiveness as a religious leader, as well as in their non-religious attitudes, moods, and behavior.
“Follow-up assessments showed that positive changes in religious and non-religious attitudes and behavior were sustained through 16 months after the second psilocybin session.
“At that time, participants rated at least one of their psilocybin experiences to be among the top five most spiritually significant (96%), profoundly sacred (92%), psychologically insightful (83%), and psychologically meaningful (79%) of their lives.
“Furthermore, 42% rated one of their experiences to be the single most profound of their lifetime.
“At 16-months follow-up, most (79%) strongly endorsed that the experiences had positive effects on their religious practices (e.g., prayer or meditation) and their daily sense of the sacred, and most (71%) reported positive changes in their appreciation of religious traditions other than their own.
“Although no serious adverse events were reported, 46% rated a psilocybin experience as among the top five most psychologically challenging of their lives.
Conclusions:
“In this population of clergy, psilocybin administration was safe and increased multiple domains of overall psychological well-being including positive changes in religious attitudes and behavior as well as their vocation as a religious leader.
“The study was limited by a waitlist control design, homogenous sample, and the use of some unvalidated outcome measures. Further research with more rigorous control conditions and diverse samples is needed.”
“After Controversy, the Psilocybin & Religious Leaders Study Is Finally Published
“After years of anticipation and controversy, Johns Hopkins and NYU have released their research on the effects of psilocybin on religious leaders via a journal article in Psychedelic Medicine.
“The road to publication has been turbulent.
“Earlier this year, the Johns Hopkins Medicine IRB identified “serious non-compliance” in the study’s conduct, including undisclosed conflicts of interest and improper handling of participant data.
“Regardless, a majority of participants have spoken out in favour of publication, defending their agency and the value of their experience.
“Headline findings:
📌 Most rated at least one psilocybin session among the top five most spiritually significant of their lives.
📌 At 16-month follow-up, most reported lasting positive effects on both their religious practices and their daily sense of the sacred.
📌 Nearly half also described the experience as among the top five most psychologically challenging of their lives.
“Entanglements between psychedelics and religion are nothing new.
“Such intersections span countless cultures across millennia, presumably ever since humans started gathering to ingest psychoactive plants and fungi.
“This fact has both enchanted and tormented modern researchers who wish to study these substances within the secular frameworks of scientific materialism.
“We now find ourselves at an intriguing moment in the history of psychedelics and religion.
“Nearly a decade ago, a team of scientists from Johns Hopkins and NYU observed the effects of psilocybin on dozens of religious leaders from various traditions.
“The researchers sought to replicate and improve upon the groundbreaking “Good Friday Experiment” of [April 20,] 1962, conducted beneath Howard Thurman’s Marsh Chapel by a Harvard PhD candidate [Walter Pahnke, under Timothy Leary] who sought to measure the impact of psilocybin on local divinity students in a devotional setting.
“Central questions underlying both studies were:
“Given the tendencies of psychedelics to induce “mystical” or “spiritual” states typically associated with religions, what happens when you administer them to seasoned religious practitioners from traditions that do not normally incorporate psychedelics?
“Are these individuals somehow primed for the psycho-spiritual terrain?
“Do psychedelic experiences change their religious identities or outlooks?
“For a variety of reasons, publication of the scientific article from the Hopkins/NYU study was stalled for years.
“Just recently, on May 19th, Michael Pollan published his own article in The New Yorker about the study, its contexts, and its controversies.
“Then, the scientific article finally appeared on May 30th in the journal Psychedelic Medicine.
“During a panel discussion we are hosting at the Graduate Theological Union and via livestream on June 11,
Pollan will engage in discussion with
Rabbi Zac Kamenetz, who participated in the Hopkins/NYU study;
Aidan Seale-Feldman, an anthropologist researching contemporary psychedelic “churches” [eg Sacred Garden Church] with an eye toward secularism;
Bia Labate, an anthropologist who has published extensively on Indigenous plant medicine traditions, as well as other marginalized psychedelic cultures; and
Michael Silver, a neuroscientist and co-director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Sam Shonkoff, a scholar of religion at the Graduate Theological Union, will moderate.
“Together, these speakers will shed light on the cultural significance of the Hopkins/NYU study and how its results and reception ought to inform perspectives on psychedelics, religions, and the entanglements between them.
“This event is hosted by the GTU with support from the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion.
To learn more about earning a Master of Arts in Psychedelics and Spirituality from the GTU, visit our website. https://www.gtu.edu/academics/ma-program – “The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley brings together scholars of the world’s diverse religions”
If you find that you are unable to join us in person, you can access the panel discussion via livestream at: youtube.com/@gtuberkeley.
My Notes and Comments About Livestream
video has no timestamp yet; raw stream
33% in: He [Sam Shonkoff?] says the awaited article starts w/ 1902-1975 citations – he points out like Erik Davis:
How come the most recent scholarship cited about defining “mystical experience” is 1975, 50 years ago?!
From start of main article “Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions”, Roland R. Griffiths et al 2025:
“Mystical experiences are characterized by a range of subjective features including a sense of unity, “noetic” quality (e.g., an authoritative sense of truth), transcendence of time and space, a sense of awe or sacredness, intense positive mood, transiency that nevertheless feels timeless, presence in awareness of mutually exclusive states or concepts, and ineffability.1–8“
References
1. James W. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Longmans Green and Company; 1910. [1902??]
2. Stace WT. Mysticism and philosophy. Philosophy 1960; 37(140).
3. Russell B. Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays. Longmans, Green and Co.: London; 1918.
4. Huxley A. The Perennial Philosophy. 1945. London: Chatto & Windus. 1974.
5. Pahnke WN. Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship Between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness: A Thesis. Harvard University; 1963.
6. Maslow AH. Religions, Values, and Peak-Experiences. Ohio State University Press: Columbus; 1964. p. 123.
7. Hood RW. The construction and preliminary validation of a measure of reported mystical experience. J Sci Study Religion 1975; 14(1):29–41.
Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions Roland R. Griffiths, Robert Jesse, William A. Richards, Matthew W. Johnson, Nathan D. Sepeda, Anthony P. Bossis, Stephen Ross May 30, 2025 https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/psymed.2023.0044 Psychedelic Medicine (journal)
Panel Speakers
Michael Pollan is a writer, teacher, and activist.
His May 19, 2025 New Yorker article “This Is Your Priest on Drugs” focuses on a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and N.Y.U. about religious leaders’ experiences with psilocybin.
Pollan is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including This is Your Mind on Plants, How to Change Your Mind, Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all of which were named New York Times Bestsellers.
In addition, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind were listed among the ten best books of the year by The New York Times.
Pollan teaches writing in the English department at Harvard University, and for many years, served as the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Several of his books have been adapted for television, such as series based on How to Change Your Mind (2022) and Cooked (2015) that are streaming on Netflix, and The Botany of Desire and In Defense of Food that premiered on PBS.
From 2022-23 Pollan was a Guggenheim Fellow and in 2010 he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
Pollan lives in Berkeley with his wife, the painter Judith Belzer.
Aidan Seale-Feldman is a medical anthropologist interested in affliction and its treatments who has spent the past decade conducting ethnographic research in the Himalayas.
Based on this research, her forthcoming book, The Work of Disaster: Crisis and Care along a Himalayan Faultline, is an ethnography of mental health governance in Nepal in the aftermath of disaster.
Dr. Seale-Feldman’s current research focuses on the mainstreaming of mysticism in the United States.
Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, her current project, Ethical Substance: Psychedelic Medicine in Times of Social and Spiritual Crisis, is an interdisciplinary study that explores the incorporation of mystical experience in to the lives of secular Americans and their therapeutic practices.
Dr. Seale-Feldman’s work has been published in journals such as Cultural Anthropology, Ethos, HIMALAYA: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, and has also been featured in The Microdose. Dr. Seale-Feldman received her PhD in Anthropology from UCLA in 2018. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer in Bioethics at the University of Virginia.
Zac Kamenetz is a rabbi and community leader who is based in Berkeley.
A highly sought-after educator and qualified MBSR instructor, Zac’s work is centered on seeking answers to life’s essential questions within the context of Jewish tradition and embodied spiritual practice.
Zac is the founder and CEO of Shefa, an independent 501(c)(3) organization that was founded in 2020 and is dedicated to supporting Jewish psychedelic explorers in North America and abroad.
Shefa, a word that means “flowing abundance” in Hebrew, is helping to
cultivate greater awareness in the Jewish community about the potential rewards and risks of psychedelic use in a variety of settings;
advocating for a more culturally competent and religiously inclusive approach to Jewish experience in the psychedelic world; and
integrating Jewish spiritual traditions and psychedelic exploration in ethical and authentic ways.
Through these efforts, Zac is pioneering a movement to
bring safe and supported psychedelic use into the Jewish spiritual tradition,
advocating for individuals and communities to heal inherited trauma, and
inspiring a Jewish religious and creative renaissance in the 21st century.
Zac is also
a co-founder of the Jewish Psychedelic Summit, is
trained in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapeutic care through Inbodied Life, and is
certified in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy by the Hakomi Institute of Northern California.
Bia Labate (Beatriz Caiuby Labate) is an anthropologist, educator, author, speaker, and activist, committed to the protection of sacred plants while amplifying the voices of marginalized communities in the psychedelic science field.
As a queer Brazilian anthropologist based in San Francisco, she has been profoundly influenced by her experiences with ayahuasca since 1996.
Dr. Labate has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil.
Her work focuses on plant medicines, drug policy, shamanism, ritual, religion, and social justice.
She is the Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and serves as a Public Education and Culture Specialist at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
Additionally, she is a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and an act as advisor for around 15 organizations, among them the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition and the Alaska Entheogenic Awareness Council.
Dr. Labate is also a co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies (NEIP) in Brazil and the editor of its site.
She has authored, co-authored, and co-edited 28 books, three special-edition journals, and numerous peer-reviewed and online publications.
Michael A. Silver is a Professor of Optometry and Vision Science and Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley.
He has served as the Faculty Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) since its founding in 2020.
His research investigates how the human brain constructs representations of the visual environment and how these representations are modified by cognitive processes such as attention, expectation, and learning.
He addresses these questions by applying a combination of behavioral, neuroimaging, computational, and pharmacological techniques to the study of both healthy human participants as well as patients who suffer from diseases that affect perceptual processing.
Last year, Dr. Silver’s group launched the first ever studies involving administration of psychedelics to human research subjects at UC Berkeley.
Blurb con’t:
UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP)
Blurb con’t:
“In the BCSP’s first five years, it has
created a widely read newsletter on psychedelics (The Microdose),
conducted and disseminated results from the UC Berkeley Psychedelics Public Perception Survey,
launched an award-winning podcast (Altered States),
developed a free online course (Psychedelics and the Mind),
incubated the BCSP Certificate Program in Psychedelic Facilitation, and
supported fellows in the following programs:
Ferriss – UC Berkeley Journalism Fellows,
Psychedelics in Society and Culture,
Indigenous Student Research Fellows, and
Mycoskie-UC Berkeley Social Media Fellows and
Psychedelic Documentary Fellows.
Panel Speakers, con’t
Sam Shonkoff is the Taube Family Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at the GTU, where he teaches on Jewish religious thought and methods in the study of religion.
“His scholarship focuses primarily on German-Jewish and Hasidic theologies, as well as integrations of Hasidic spirituality in relatively secular spheres.
Dr. Shonkoff invites students and readers to examine how perspectives on the very fabric of reality are always morphing through interpretive acts, and how these practices are always mutating in the protean habitats of history.
He takes an interdisciplinary approach to building bridges across historical, theological, and cultural studies and his commitment to mentoring, public engagement, and expanding interreligious dialogue strengthens the GTU’s significance as a hub for innovative and inclusive theological scholarship.
Dr. Shonkoff is co-editor with Ariel Evan Mayse of Hasidism: Writings on Devotion, Community and Life in the Modern World (Brandeis University Press, 2020) and the editor of Martin Buber: His Intellectual and Scholarly Legacy (Brill, 2018).
His current research project investigates themes of embodiment in Buber’s representations of Hasidism vis-à-vis the original sources.
He earned his PhD with distinction in 2018 from the University of Chicago Divinity School and his MA in 2011 from the University of Toronto, and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 2007.”
/ end of info page about livestream event
Livestream Chat
Graduate Theological Union – Thank you all for joining us for Psychedelics and Spirituality in Light of the Religious Leaders Study! The panel will begin shortly.
Michael Hoffman – ok
Jaime Clark-Soles – 👍
Michael Hoffman – lots of chatter, for a single person looking at phone
Graduate Theological Union – We have about 110 folks who registered to join us on campus today!
Michael Hoffman – 🎉
Michael Hoffman – hey that’s Clif
Paul Houston Blankenship – that’s wonderful!
Julio A – Good to see Cliff
Julio A – and Phil
Graduate Theological Union – Thank you for bearing with us on the delays, everyone!
Michael Hoffman – I imagine the interest in academia is greater than openly expressed, among many departments
Michael Hoffman – article title: Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions (May 30, 2025) – the “Religious Leaders Study”
Michael Hoffman – before 1902 Wm James was 1893 Swami Vivekananda, who defined mystical experience as positive unity, and met w/ James – historical root of the debatable def’n
Michael Hoffman – Elaine Pagels’ first 3 books show vying against each other in early Christianity, “orthodox”/ literalist vs. “gnostic”/ experiential. so, can trace this tension through history
Graduate Theological Union – Thank you for all of the contextual points, Michael!
Graduate Theological Union – Please feel free to share any questions you have in this chat. We will share them with the folks in Berkeley in hopes that the panel can respond to them during the Q&A.
Michael Hoffman – Question: Will Hood’s Mysticism Scale, the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), & the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) be replaced by a more balanced and complete model of mystical experience?
Michael Hoffman – For example, Ann Taves, Erik Davis, and Charles Stang have questioned the 1960 Walter Stace “positive unity” model of mystical experience.
[Bia Labate said “overly biased on positive”]
Michael Hoffman – Best list of negative/ challenging experiences is Dittrich’s 1994 version of OAV questionnaire: the A/”Angst/ Dread” dimension listing 21 effects eg item 54: “I was afraid to lose my self-control.”
[panelists said “Michael’s article”]
Michael Hoffman – article: This Is Your Priest on Drugs (Michael Pollan, May 19, 2025, New Yorker)
/ end of livestream chat
Email from Jennifer Ruppert re: Michael Pollan re: Replacing MEQ, from Livestream on Religious Leaders Study
Jen Ruppert, Chief External Affairs Officer, Graduate Theological Union wrote:
Hi Michael,
Thank you for tuning into the livestream of our Psychedelics and Spirituality in Light of the Religious Leaders Study event last night.
I am sorry we never got to the Q+A portion of the program so we couldn’t share your question with the panel.
You asked:
“Will Hood’s Mysticism Scale, the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), & the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) be replaced by a more balanced and complete model of mystical experience? For example, Ann Taves, Erik Davis, and Charles Stang have questioned the 1960 Walter Stace “positive unity” model of mystical experience.”
I was able to run this past Michael Pollan who said:
“Yes, absolutely. People are already working on this.”
While I suspect you were seeking a more in-depth response, we are hoping it will be possible to hold a “part 2” event on this same topic to explore additional themes and ensure that attendees can ask questions.
We will let you know if and when that happens.
We greatly appreciate your interest in this topic and thank you for participating in our event!
Sincerely,
Jen
Jen Ruppert Chief External Affairs Officer Graduate Theological Union 2400 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709
My Reply Friday the 13th of June, 2025 to Jennifer Ruppert
Hi Jennifer,
Great, thanks.
Many ppl are interested in this field, yet also, livestreams sometimes have almost no viewers or posts in the livestream chat. In my own specialty in the field (eg mushroom imagery in Christian art), the field often feels deserted. Ppl might not want to post publicly, due to Prohibition.
I worried that my question was extreme and punchy, because of the condensed chat format (I like how chat forces tight posts).
Good to hear Pollan’s response. His book p. 283 (“experienced eternity”) says Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) is so misrepresentative, he had to answer “N/A”, because he did strongly experience the “timeless” effect, but it was challenging/ unpleasant, instead of mystical/ pleasant (a false dichotomy at the root of the field).
Pollan, whistleblowers, Matthew “lose the Buddha statue” Johnson: but in this debate, the root problem is the mis-defined, misconceived word “mystical”/”mysticism”:
Ken Wilber – Philosopher, Visionary, Integral Theorist, Founder of the Integral Institute [todo: quote by Christian debunker of psychedelic pseudo science, from Integral site: “We are the superior evolved people”]
Matthew “Lose the Buddha Statue” Johnson
Christopher Timmermann (neuropseudoscience, associate of Chris Letheby = Phil Dept discovers psychedelics)
Stan Grof
John Vervaeke – Cognitive Scientist
etc.
Video: DMT Isn’t Enlightenment… It’s Something Else | Dr. Rick Strassman [YMTP]
Alcoholics Anonymous: Another Lying, Psychedelics-Diminishing Religion
AA founder Bill Wilson was inspired by Belladonna (scopalamine) and advocated LSD to break addiction. So it is odd to say AA is “against psychedelics”.
AA’s history follows a common pattern in religions: the original (& ongoing) inspiration = largely psychedelics, then later, deny that inspiration and compete against psychedelics and diminish and disparage them.
VR Matches Psychedelics According to the Poor, Weak, Beginners Model of Mystical Experience
Beginner visuals phenomenology in VR goggles only has to be compelling enough to match the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) & Mysticism Scale, which are based on a half-baked, skewed, whitewashed, “positive-balanced” model of alleged “mystical experience” based on Swami Vivekananda 1893, William James 1902, & Walter Stace 1960.
The 1893 trojan-horse agenda of the “positive unity experience” model of mystical experience was to create international political unity, giving a denatured, reductionist, narrowed model of mystical experience.
That model falsely excludes challenging experiences from mystical experience, per a “positive-balanced” model, as Roland Griffiths told Charles Stang, as a euphemism for a false, half-complete model of mystical experience.
That model equates positive unity (nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension) with mystical experience, and omits any “divine Wrath, demon, monster, threat, guarded gate, fire, puppet, non-control, loss of control, control instability, or sacrifice-idea” type of mystical experiences, where much or most of the transformative, significant dynamics are at.
“Against psychedelics advocates, there are other ways for doing this”: vague; the altered-state effects are specified too weakly, such that any feeble effects are conflated with the full classic Psilocybin transformation effects.
A “complete authentic mystical experience” then is reduced to merely perceptual distortion or mere “positive unity” sensation, ie the cessation of the self/other boundary construction.
VR goggles can produce perceptual distortion and some beginner positive unity (nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension).
But the full criteria or goal for mystical experience includes transformation of the mental model of time, self, and control; mental model transformation of “control steering in world”.
By that criteria, alleged non-drug meditation and non-drug methods of the mystics fail to meet the stringent criteria defined and delivered by psychedelics.
Being merely dizzy doesn’t meet the meaningful criteria.
Non-drug meditation can produce some effects, but not the main effect of full mental model experiential transformation.
I coined & posted the descriptor ‘pneumadelic’ on April 19, 2025, to mean: more developed than psychedelic, based on the Late Antiquity model:
hylic body; psyche soul; then pneuma spirit.
Psyche-delic merely reaches heimarmene/ Fatedness/ eternalism; end up imprisoned, trapped, and enslaved in block time, per Classical Antiquity (before 150 AD).
Then Pneuma-delic brings the person’s spirit to above sphere of the fixed stars; partly transcending heimarmene/ Fate/ eternalism, escaping the cosmic rock. Redeemed, saved, rescued, emancipated, per Late Antiquity (150+ AD).
Respect Both Possibilism & Eternalism; Mature Hybrid Mental Model = Integrated Possibilism/ Eternalism Thinking
Gnosticism plays with “demonize Psilocybin-revealed eternalism, to put all value on phase 3: transcend eternalism.” See my summary in book review of 2013 book Nicola Denzy Lewis: Under Pitiless Skies. https://egodeaththeory.org/?s=%22Nicola+Denzy+Lewis%22
Book Review: Cosmology and Fate in Gnosticism and Graeco-Roman Antiquity: Under Pitiless Skies (Lewis 2013)
I had my university library order this book in hardcover and electronic form.
People in Mediterranean antiquity including Jews, Pagans, Gnostics, and Christians, around the 1st Century, believed in fatedness. Then around the 2nd Century, people adopted a rhetoric of transcending fatedness, while disparaging other people or the other groups as being ignorant and being slaves to fate. This book supports the 3-tiered systematic analysis in my Egodeath theory, in which we move through three stages during initiation experiences:
1. Ignorant freewill thinking.
2. Enlightened realization of fatedness and personal noncontrol. This stage disparages stage 1 (ignorant freewill thinking).
3. Transcending fatedness to gain a transcendent freedom. This stage conflates and disparages stage 1 (ignorant freewill thinking) and stage 2 (realization of fatedness and personal noncontrol).
Lewis’ analysis is not as systematic, but supports this explanation of how stage 2 was first positively valued and then later was negatively valued.
Lewis shows that competition and rhetoric inflation led all the groups (Jews, pagans, Christians, gnostics) to praise themselves as having true freedom and disparage the other people as being both ignorant (per stage 1) and slaves of fate (as realized in stage 2). People didn’t complain of themselves being enslaved by fate; they disparaged other people as being ignorant and enslaved by fate. However, during initiation, as I have analyzed, the experience of fatedness and personal noncontrol give rise to panic and egodeath, which amounts to suffering enslavement by fate.
Lewis misses this point and understates the intensity of ancient experience of enslavement to fate; she argues that enslavement to fate was mere rhetoric, but in fact enslavement to fate was intense peak experiencing. Lewis’ theory is literary scholarship unplugged from intense, lightning-bolt, ancient experiential transformation of consciousness. Once this connection is made, from initiation experience to the encounter with fatedness, Lewis’ book can be corrected and recognized as relevant to explaining the heart of religious origins in antiquity.
Introduction Chapter 1: Were the Gnostics Cosmic Pessimists? Chapter 2: Nag Hammadi and the Providential Cosmos Chapter 3: ‘This Body of Death’: Cosmic Malevolence and Enslavement to Sin in Pauline Exegesis Chapter 4: ‘Heimarmene’ at Nag Hammadi: ‘The Apocryphon of John’ and ‘On the Origin of the World’ Chapter 5: Middle Platonism, Heimarmene, and the Corpus Hermeticum Chapter 6: Ways Out I: Interventions of the Savior God Chapter 7: Ways Out II: Baptism and Cosmic Freedom: A New Genesis Chapter 8: Astral Determinism in the Gospel of Judas Chapter 9: Conclusions, and a New Way Forward Selected Bibliography Subject Index
— Michael Hoffman, the Egodeath theorist
/ end of review
Don’t demonize possibilism, don’t demonize eternalism; keep balanced and respectful toward both mental models, esp. integrating them while differentiating them.
“Ask: The right question to ask is not which technology is better, but rather:
“Which of these technologies is able to simulate the other ones?”
Can a VR headset or non-drug meditation simulate the visual-distortion effects of Psilocybin?
Can a VR headset or non-drug meditation simulate the beginner positive unity sensation of Psilocybin? ie cessation of mental construction of the self-other boundary; moving or suspending this cognitive experience.
Can a VR headset or non-drug meditation simulate the ultimate transformation effect of Psilocybin? ie mental model transformation from possibilism to eternalism; of the mental model of control, time, and possibility branching.
Reversible Tauroctony, {blood}, {snake} 3x, {right foot touches right trunk}
Crop by Michael Hoffman. Instead of snake licking bull’s blood, snake is in tree, seen. Blood is the snake’s destiny brought, producing fertile wheat-tail in heimarmene (eternalism) fixed stars in billowing cape of Liberty Cap state of loose cognition.
Snake under the bull: The worldline leads to ingesting Liberty Cap mixed wine, krater, wine mixing bowl that heals.
Snake at the bull’s shoulder POWER MUSCLE: The worldline leads to {blood} vision of realization of helpless 2-level, dependent control that could be made to have control violation and cause harm.
{bull’s shoulder} both in the mini scene and in the main scene, {blood} at bull’s shoulder = personal control power to steer in tree of branching possibilities.
Crop by Michael Hoffman, April 25, 2025
Mithras’s L foot does not touch R trunk of tree Sol’s R foot touches R trunk of tree
11:27 May 29, 2025: Sol’s R foot almost touches trunk, it is where the bull sees snake. R side of bottom of tree trunk = snake = see worldline in frozen block-universe eternalism; see 2-level, dependent control.
Snake = R side of tree; billowing cape (the eternalism state of consciousness) = non-branching/ worldline in frozen spacetime block.
frozen spacetime block fsb
4D spacetime block fdsb
4D spacetime fds
todo: study symmetries in L side & R side, near {threaten with arrow at rock}.
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Helps explain why Sol kneels wrong orientation, why L foot is forward against the {kneel} motif.
This can be a clue to help interp decode {kneel} w/ both feet bent, not standing w/ straight legs.
copied 3 new crops to Tauroctony page:
Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony snake tree crowns Sol.jpg” 19 KB 11:38 May 29, 2025Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony weild shoulder.jpg” 28 KB 11:36 May 29, 2025Crop by Michael Hoffman “Tauroctony zodiac arch threat arrow upper row.jpg” 106 KB 12:02 May 29, 2025
Mytheme Decoding: {fall down and worship the god}
To fall down and worship = to acknowledge “you have greater power than me, power to make me think {blood} and harm; pls do not harm me.”
Phase 1: Inventory the motifs and handedness. Phase 2: Interpret the motifs and use of handedness.
Only sometimes is it the case that to inventory = to interpret. Should differentiate these, because:
It is difficult to inventory motifs.
It is difficult to interpret motifs after inventory them.
ie, when I inventory Features (motifs), I am NOT thereby doing interpretation and bragging that ever motif proves the Mytheme theory.
On L,
Mithras = altered state billowing cloth,
Mithras stand on right foot.
Sol is wearing robe (mental model).
Sol: stand on left foot (slightly).
Crown touches Sol’s head.
Mithras’ cap touches R side of tree.
Sol’s L arm touches L side of tree.
On R,
Mithras = ordinary state, not billow cloth,
Mithras: stand on left foot (bad)
Sol has no outer robe (mental model). (good)
Sol has L foot forward. (bad)
Sol: stand on right foot. (good)
Crown doesn’t touch Sol’s head. Mithras controls the bull’s shoulder, so Sol is not in control.
The tree of the knowledge of good and bad (ie, of cybernetic eternalism and cybernetic possibilism).
The tree and snake of the knowledge of cybernetic eternalism and cybernetic possibilism.
Every Liberty Cap in Great Canterbury Psalter has a L arm/fruit and a R arm/fruit, = good and evil, = good and bad, = possibilism-thinking & eternalism-thinking = monolithic, autonomous control (in branching world) vs. 2-level, dependent control (in non-branching world).
Crop and annotations by Michael Hoffman, Jan. 30, 2025
Mithras says by insert blade in blood, I control your source of control power and can make you cause harm, and I remove branching possibilities appearance, undermining your power; personal control system. monolithic control-agent. monolithic, autonomous control, steering in tree.
Vision of {blood} is destined in the worldline, at the point where bull’s power is overpowered by Mithras.
Outcome/ benefit/ boon: Sol becomes an authorized steersman.
Sol is made aware of being helpless puppet of Mithras, after Mithras brings Sol to the banquet of Liberty Cap mixed wine over the dead bull, sacrificed bull and bull’s blood that gives new life & authorized steersmanship/ control agency aware of 2-level, dependent control.
Blood is the snake’s destiny brought, producing fertile wheat-tail in heimarmene (eternalism) fixed stars in billowing cape of Liberty Cap state of loose cognition.
Literal Blood (Fails to Give Transcendent Knowledge) vs. Mythic-Realm Comprehension of {blood} Mytheme (Gives Transcendent Knowledge)
Relying on literal blood sacrifice fails to give Transcendent Knowledge, and causes harm.
Relying on comprehending {blood} analogy gives Transcendent Knowledge, without causing harm.
To rescue the mystic unharmed, giving Transcendent Knowledge without causing any harm, requires comprehending the analogies of {blood}, not literal magical-thinking literal {blood} that saves and rescues.
Vision of {blood} can be part of loss of control during peak window of intense mystic altered state. The person can be struck down and harmed, or, the person can receive the message transcendent message from the angel of God:
“Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
{obey God’s commands} = the mind’s personal control system is made to recognize 2-level, dependent control.
The person is made to see that they could be made to do harm, = {blood}, but is given instead the comprehension of {blood} idea via analogy, as fulfillment of expression of 2-level, dependent control. via comprehending analogy, it is finished: the mind is brought into mature alignment with revealed, 2-level, dependent control, mitigating or complementing monolithic, autonomous control (possibilism-thinking).
Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this [what, killed a ram? killed Isaac? almost killed Isaac? killed his offspring in some way?] and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Finally I can employ Cyberdisciple’s translation of Cain & Abel panel in Great Canterbury Psalter.
Grain offering can’t represent control violation and restabilization; loss of control is represented by {blood} not by “grain”.
Especially, specifically: blood of the ram caught in the thicket by its horns.
Notable silence: The angel does not tell Abraham to sacrifice the ram.
Not just the blood of any man; the blood of son (prince) of God (ruler); Jesus is king hung from tree branch.
These are mythically meaningful blood sacrifice ideas/ instances/ analogies. It’s all about comprehension …. effective blood sacrifice, blood as cybernetic violation/ transcendence, is a matter of analogy comprehension, NOT literal blood magical thinking literalism.
Literal, ineffective: literal blood sacrifice of a random sheep or of a man.
Effective for salvation and avoiding harm while receiving Transcendent Knowledge: comprehending analogy of blood.
Experiencing threat and “I don’t understand” = please explain the analogy:
The mystic peak mind can be made to cybernetic control instability = {blood}, but receive message idea concept analogy comprehension from messenger of control-levels:
“Do not lay a hand on the boy.
“Do not do anything to him.
“Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.
“Because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
“Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
To {obey God’s commands} = you have been made to perceive 2-level, dependent control. Like Balaam says after passing through the angel of death gate on the vine yard non-branching path:
All the words I say are given to me by God, the higher controller above the local personal control agent.
Rather than the initial {robe} (mental model of control, time, and possibility branching).
Messenger of control-levels:
Hermes.
angel of the Lord
raven psychopomp, in Mithraism.
Raise a sheep or a goat or a bovine, in order to use its blood as substitute for one’s own harmful control violation {blood}.
To show that blood to higher thinking, as a lightning rod, as comprehension of levels of control, and non-control.
Not just any sacrifice (eg grain, lamb); specifically blood and fire sacrifice of the ram caught in the thicket by its horns.
And especially the message, the idea, from the angel:
appease apotropaic wrath in intense mystic altered state, gain non-harm, peace, harmony, good relationship of 2-level, dependent control.
Hand Shapes: R Hand = YI = Eternalism; L Hand = IY = Possibilism
f11 row 4 right: Cain and Abel sacrifice ram and grain
Crop by Michael Hoffman, Jan. 4, 2025
Features:
God approves Lamb via R hand making YI form; straight fingers held together on L, non-branching thumb on R.
God’s L hand does not show awareness of Y vs I, branching vs non-branching — touching grain. Grain offering = no comprehension of non-branching; only of branching.
{sacrifice a lamb} somewhat stands on its own (instead of you being made to loss of control and harm = blood, God provides idea of sacr animal instead), but after the sacrifice of Isaac, also must see each sacr’l lamb as meaning, specifically, “God provided a ram caught in a thicket by its horns“. – which has stronger cybernetic comprehension.
[8:12 pm May 27, 2025] f134 row 1 M: red guy on right brought by angel is same as hanging in tree.
When brought by angel, he displays The Shape w/ L hand.
When hanging, he displays The Shape w/ R hand.
Angel’s L wing has like 4 fingers (blue lines) and thumb.
Today, building on past few days of reflection on decoding The Hand Shape (roots go back some years), proposed that:
Regardless of perspective, R hand is read as YI form (the preferred/ favored form, over L hand = IY form).
Branching vs. non-branching is ALWAYS significant.
Handedness is significant 50% of the time in such art (“such art” = more broadly than the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees} strictly speaking).
f134 Row 1 Middle: Hand Shapes
Crop by Michael Hoffman. f134 Row 1 M
Passover, {pass over}, {blood}, threat, deliverance from enslavement and death, lightning rod, bloody threat then peace – Exodus 12
{blood} = life = cybernetic levels relationship control stability limitations and switch of modes and mental models that are an inherent dynamic birth death rebirth limit-violation transformation-causing maturation of integrating a 2nd mental model from loose cognitive state
{blood} = threatened personal control system, control violation, control cancellation/limitation climax and adding a 2nd control level outside under rock substrate worldline frozen.
receive idea of idea of blood as control violation threatening to death while lifting up the experiential mode from possibilism to eternalism mode, causing death and stability limit of control for operational boundary maturation
the maturation rebirth transformation into the mature form that bows and stands, fear of the wrath of the gate guard tree of that fruit you ate, Transcendent Knowledge is the fruit; knowleddge
the snake in the tree claims that higher knowledge is about tree vs. snake, the fruit of the tree is konwledge of stable and unstable, tree and snake, possibilism-thinking and eternalism-thinking / experiential mode.
the time aspect: eternalism the control aspect: cybernetic
cybernetic eternalism
the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence
the Cybernetic Eternalism Theory of Ego Transcendence
literalist ordinary-state possibilism with autonomous control
analogical psychedelic eternalism with dependent control
psychedelic = loose cognition
ordinary state = tight cognition
if i could only have 1 word, eternalism (not cybernetic modifier).
the Egodeath theory of psychedelic eternalism
the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence
Curt Jaimungal trying to get Doug Hofstadter on the show Consciousness & Science.
change from mental model: mental model of time, self, and control from
monolithic, autonomous control in branching possibilities into open future
2-level, dependent control worldline block-universe eternalism with extremely closed future
Spectrum of Determinism Models
determinism; causal determinism; determinism that’s always defined as domino-chain causality across time. Retains egoic thinking, the egoic personal control system with minimal & hidden impact. Similar to freewill thinking; shares/ retains much of same network of concepts. Bromhall calls this “causal determinism”.
deterministic manyworlds; deterministic branching manyworlds; Everett Quantum Physics. Sustains egoic personal control system steering in branching possibilities.
superdeterminism – the mode of reasoning of determinism (domino-chain causality), amplified and broadened to include the decision about which measurement to make (similar to my adding a focus on Cybernetics to the topic of Eternalism and models of time).
Strong Determinism article by Eddy Chen, Apr 2024.
Wm James 1897 article The Dilemma of Determinism tries to make domino-chain causality (future is weakly closed/ inevitable) produce block-universe eternalism (future is strongly closed/pre-existing), as Kyle Bromhall article points out: An Inchoate Universe: James’s Probabilistic Underdeterminism (2018).
logical determinism – McTaggert: A series & B series; arg’n in terms of truth value of statements about future states. 1908 article The Unreality of Time. Bromhall calls this “logical determinism” as opposed to “causal determinism”.
eternalism – the future is real, the future exists. Minkowski 4D spacetime block universe. Philosophy of time. presentism vs. eternalism. Source/ Pege, unity. Omits considerations/ discussion of control transformation; personal control system aspects. Gets sidetracked into wrong contrast, metaphysics-based: Presentism vs. Eternalism; ought to focus on control-contrast in Possibilism vs. Eternalism.
experiential cybernetic eternalism; psychedelic cybernetic eternalism – future control actions already exist, non- branching possibilities. (cybernetic) possibilism vs. (cybernetic) eternalism. Conceive of “the Source” or “the One” as uncontrollable source of control-thoughts; cybernetic death boundary violation, more than nondual unity oneness non-boundary unity. The cybernetic eternalism experiential mode/state; the mind can experience eternalism & cybernetic non-control – Psychedelic 4D-Spacetime Block-Universe Mysticism
naive assumption: any conception of determinism is the same b/c “future is closed” or inevitable.
actually, determinism and eternalism are extremely different, and there are expressions that are in between; each model has a different sense of “future is closed”.
Turns out, the weakest, most possibilism-soaked, un-reconstructed model is “determinism”, which, per Kafei, is ALWAYS, universally defined as domino-chain causality – to the extent that, the word ‘determinism’ ought to be replaced by what they are REALLY talking about, specifically: domino-chain causality.
The poorly chosen contrast between Presentism vs. Eternalism is due to framing this as a debate within the field of Perception/ Epistemology/ Ontology/ Metaphysics. Within the more relevant concern of personal control system steering within world, the far more relevant contrast – per the mushroom-tree artists – is Possibilism vs. Eternalism.
Presentism – only the present exists. Hyper solipsism: I only know that my present time slice exists; I think now therefore the the present-time-slice “I” am. Don’t know if “me yesterday” exists.
Possibilism – the present and past exist, the future is open and non existing.
4D Spacetime Mysticism vs. Quantum Mysticism – Must integrate the two competing Physics models proxy models
upon seeing fountainhead source of control thoughts arm in cloud with chain, slave of Christ, passed over
God’s wrath passed over you because you received idea of blood = cybernetic transgression of limit of possibilism-thinking, the mental model vs the state…. concept-label for the two states of
the eternalism experiential state gives the Eternalism mental model
the eternalism state of consciousness — omits “control” modes
the cybernetic eternalism
the cybernetic eternalism state of consciousness
I complained long ago about NIV vs KJB having entirely different translations of Jonah’s Prayer.
Old Testament myths I am tracking todo: list
Jonah
Isaac
Overnight Pastures
Eden
Offerings from Cain vs. Abel
we (while only having possibilism-thinking) are not allowed to eat from tree of knowledge; we are cast out the gate guarded by dragon demand sacrifice maiden princess ruler
the egoic mental model based possibilism-thinking based egoic personal control system
{gate} {guard} {serpent}
kicked out of Garden mushroom-tree by angel flame sword gate (tradition built out — added {gate} theme as a figuration of the bible text Gen 2-3 – the analogy is easy after it is set up to see the analogy:
psychedelics are forbidden because they cause death that day,
snake wins, makes you have wisdom and non-dying immortality.
forbidden fruit, not allowed to ingest
snake makes you ingest the forbidden fruit that surely causes death on that day, snake says that snake eternalism-thinking does not kill you but makes you wise, as snake makes you ingest to have gods take you transform your source foundation
blood of the savior idea in whom
Gen 22:
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Gen 22:7-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2022%3A7-18&version=NIV
The egoic personal control system is not allowed to enter loose cognition state until mental model transformation to die to sin to possibilism-thinking then it is resurrected and 2-level faith relationship is formed,
Ariadne is married by Dionysus after Ariadne was abandoned on island by husband King and the minotaur
Gods climaxing cybernetically via mortals overpowering and transforming – maturation as cybernetic climax and death limit and – the region of control stabliity after which possibilism-thinking is overpowered and undermined by eternalism-thinking climax excitement death and resurr and new life basis in the dangerous climactic transformative model-switching inner chamber where the threat draws and transforms and gentle peace dove lamb good shepherd Wrath, offense, dishonoring then being made to honor eternalism-thinking revealed underlying {snake frozen in rock} united with blodd of lamb – a pair of the two main {sacrifice lamb/ram}
tree in the garden hesperides has golden apples of immortality guarded by seeing-dragon,
to see is to be made to self cancel or escape personal control system viable reach of its control power, Mithras holds your power you bow, while Mithras crowns the local control, {blood} in tauroctony the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene while tail of wheat ears (sometimes branching) against Mithras’ heimarmene {billowing cape} = saying: artists knew: altered state of loose cognition = tantamount to: fixed stars,
dine over bull dead drinking horn lib cap cap on sword blade stem holding grapes = liberty cap = vine = worldline = snake brings you the loose cognition wafer – image: brown – St Martin: Isaiah impure lips coal from the god angel arm given, Jesus at last supper giving Judas the psychedelic, making Judas correctly kneel stand on right foot left foot lifted laying down mental model possibilism-thinking limited domain, and transformed re-stabilized by eternalism-thinking added to possibilism-thinking in the ego death inner chamber bull in labyrinth
MIthras’ bull overpowered/ undermined, lifted up awareness changes from experiential mode possibilism-thinking lifted up to the level of eternalism-thinking , undermining or showing hte the limit and 2-level, dependent control again, repeated purification exposure of teh possibilism-thinking mind – or mental model —
the Possibilism mental model of time, self, and control pmm “eternalism” mental model emm
whirlwind up to heaven drawn by horses steering, the Possibilism horse on the Left the Eternalism horse on the Right
how rev 22 14 has two translations – each one fits, but still, how are they so different?
{wash your robe} = {obey God’s commands}: both are analogies for no-free-will; puppethood; 2-level, dependent control; etc.
Passover: display the blood of the lamb so that the angel of death doesn’t kill your FIRSTBORN child/son/sons.
Features:
{lamb}
{blood}
{door}
lightning-rod dynamic: to avoid your {firstborn} {child} being killed, kill a lamb and display its blood.
judgement, wrath, mercy
do “not touch” the child, if blood of lamb displayed (compare the sacrifice of Isaac).
suspend egoic activity of working
A baby goat is called a “kid”.
Exodus 12: Passover Blood Displayed to Not Have Your Firstborn Child Killed by the Lord
12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb[a] [or kid] for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb [or kid], they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb [or kid] needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.
12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
17 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you [your firstborn child] down.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.
The Exodus
31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” 34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. 35 The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36 The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.
37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. 39 With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.
40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt[b] was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt. 42 Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.
Passover Restrictions
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:
“No foreigner may eat it. 44 Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, 45 but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48 “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. 49 The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”
50 All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
Footnotes
Exodus 12:3 The Hebrew word can mean lamb or kid; also in verse 4.
Exodus 12:40 Masoretic Text; Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint Egypt and Canaan
Displaying the Hand Shape with Thumb Out, Fingers Straight, Held Together, L or R Hand
hand shape in f134 – subtle distinction, a hypothesis: 7:02 pm May 27 2025:
Left hand with thumb out and 4 fingers straight together, palm facing viewer. Proposal: Read it as IY.
Left hand with thumb out and 4 fingers straight together, back of hand facing viewer. Proposal: Read it as IY even though appears to viewer as YI.
Right hand with thumb out and 4 fingers straight together, palm facing viewer. Read it as YI.
Right hand with thumb out and 4 fingers straight together, back of hand facing viewer. Proposal: Read it as YI even though appears to viewer as IY.
Proposals seem sound / consistent, as follows: Displaying “the shape” with L (inferior) hand produces inferior IY form. Displaying “the shape” with R (superior) hand produces superior YI form.
For analysis of art motifs, I frame possibilism as (generally) inferior to eternalism.
Be cautious about belittling Left or possibilism-thinking in any way.
The fully mature mind affirms integrated possibilism/eternalism.
I predict much inconsistency in the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}, nevertheless this analysis is obviously needed.
Inventory of f134 row 1 Left, YI hand shape variants:
student 1: R hand IY form with back of hand facing viewer = R hand with YI form facing the figure and facing the instructor. Instructor sees R hand with YI form; student is showing YI form to instructor.
student 1 L hand = holding up outer garment forming {lifted garment} motif.
instructor: R hand IY form with back of hand facing viewer = R hand with YI form facing the instructor (& student 1).
re: my recent correct that re-assigned the L hand to the instructor instead of to student 2: it’s variable, given that the face of student 2 can be read as the instructor’s initial, possibilism mental model. The instructor has two heads: one with beard, both(!) with {furrowed brow}. The L arm comes out from the instructor’s outer garment, BUT, the instructor has two heads (two mental models, and we can arguably assisng the L arm – as I initially did — to student 2 instead of to the instructor.
L hand belonging to the instructor and/or student 2:
f109 – some L & R hands that form “the shape” have negative L hand and positive R hand – but, not always; not always significant:
significant: blue guy in net makes The Shape with R hand, which means YI regardless of appearing to viewer as IY. Red companion has stand on right foot; both figures affirm Right, and the vine leaf tree is mostly Right = cut; has {cut right trunk} & {cut right branch}.
God reaches R hand forming The Shape, but notably holds back the L hand making The Shape.
Jesus boy makes The Shape with L hand, fitting being a child AND DOES NOT HAVE A R HAND, b/c the immature mind knows possibilism-thinking but not yet eternalism-thinking.
4 saved safety guys who have been purified (upper right) have no limbs [7:30 pm May 27 2025] because they affirm non-branching (eternalism-thinking).
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Lower right: the group clustered around the asp blocking ears, MUST be connected / equated. None of them display The Hand Shape, but on L (blue) is two {raised garment}.
lower right group of 7 guys: none of them display The Hand Shape. Artist says “I am hiding and refraining from showing The Shape.” Group above them — in same space as the purifying trajectory — has 1 guy making The Shape w/ R hand: appears to viewer as IY, but read it as YI given that it’s the R hand – his companions refrain/withhold The Shape.
This raises Q about f177 row 1 L (“the Egodeath community”): the outstanding furrow brow guy displaying his L hand, which I read as “IY” (~= possibilism-thinking).
The smooth brow (at peace) guy looks at viewer and displays semi-splayed R fingers, no thumb.🤷♂️
Canterbury-f177 row 1 R
Crop by Michael Hoffman Canterbury-f177 row 1 R
f134 Row 3 R
7:02 pm May 27 2025: from last Thurs teaching meeting to teach how to read Great Canterbury Psalter – f134 row 3 R sowing Cubensis spores: pretty sure I wrote that speculation within the past couple years:
Crop by Michael Hoffman f134 Row 3 R
Motif Identified: Hand-Shape (IY & YI)
{lion} = threaten-to-death; wrath kills egoic personal control system (monolithic, autonomous control; possibilism-thinking), forces transformation to 2-level, dependent control (eternalism).
child = egoic personal control system (monolithic, autonomous control; possibilism-thinking).
Crop & image processing by Michael Hoffman ~2005. From window of the Legend of St. Eustace in Chartres cathedral
11:22 am May 26, 2025:
Like grid-cap is considered “branching” in Great Canterbury Psalter:
Four straight fingers held together are considered multiple and thus map to {branching} (even though not splayed); thumb is singular and maps to {non-branching}.
Emoji is semi-splayed (depending on platform):
✋ 🤚 YI IY
“Standard orientation” = YI:
Y = branching = L (conventionally) = possibilism.
I = non-branching = R (conventionally) = eternalism.
— 11:27 am May 26, 2025.
11:11 am May 26, 2025:
Eustace’s Right hand (on Left for viewer) is YI form, and the tree-pair on the Left is a YI pair.
Eustace’s Left hand (on Right for viewer) is YI form, and the tree-pair on the Right is an IY pair.
11:14 am May 26, 2025: Look at palm of your L hand: IY form. Look at palm of your R hand: YI form.
Viewer’s POV vs. figure’s POV, makes the {handedness} motif the most squirrely motif.
Medium importance: {mushrooms}
Low importance: {handedness}
High importance: {branching}
High importance: {stability}
The Goal Is Reached via Analogy, not via Literalism
If analogy-based modelling cannot deliver the ability to have stable control in the intense mystic altered state, then neither can literalist religion and literal violence and literal sacrifice deliver that.
The final state of mystery is the future and the uncontrollable source of control-thoughts, how we — determinism puppets — are to live as active control agents when we believe in no-free-will.
How is that stable control, during the fated peak loose-cog experience that we are often fated to be subjected to, at points in our worldlines?
The mind is designed to be threatened, and dependent on the mysterious unfathomable uncontrollable source of control-thoughts upon which we are utterly dependent.
How to trust in the Creator of our worldlines?
What is the usable, practical foundation and source of stable control, then?
We can never say we are secure, if we are brought into loose cognition divine mania and threatened and ego-killed and reconfigured, all driven by the mysterious Source.
We are stable, by being threatened with control instability – is that “safe”?
Life is semi-stable danger; so is peak religious experience that the mind undergoes in the normal course of religious maturation; psychospiritual development.
How to have stable control when we are forced to ingest the loose cognition agent?
“The god wants an exchange bargain honor-shame hierarchy.”
Goal: Have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
Goal: Be able to high-dose loose cognition, with reasonable degree of stable control, as claimed by {stand on right foot} in the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}.
The mind’s personal control system is given the sacrament by the Creator, by the snake-shaped worldline.
The mind is then tormented by demon-thoughts and angel-message-thoughts and shown the uncontrollable source of control-thoughts.
The outcome is that we end up with 2-level, dependent control; stand on right foot; eternalism-thinking.
The mind’s personal control system ends up with mature, integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking.
The sections below, May 18 to May 24, 2025, are mostly focused on the {threat-then-peace} dynamic of the peak state, when non-control (of a sort) is demonstrated in practice, not just in theory.
Literalist Jewish Religion, Literalist Christianity, and Analogical Mythic Religion
The battle between literalist religions: Which literalist religion is the correct religion? The True Israel Of God (video series, May 2025) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQZIohUP7xg This church leader is focused on “Christians are the true Israel”, disagreeing with my Dec. 2, 2013 classroom lecture statement that it’s purely analogy, that:
{Israelites} = people who are destined to have mental model transformation from possibilism to eternalism.
Balaam goes to curse Israel, but encounters the angel of death on the non-branching path, and is threatened and transformed to bless Israel: I now know that every word I say is put there by God, not by myself as an egoic, monolithic, autonomous control agent steering in branching possibilities.
Reality-realm Amanita is a poor entheogen. Mythic-realm Amanita is the ultimate super-psychedelic.
Reality-realm Israel and Abraham, Isaac, ram, lamb, Mr. Historical Jesus being literally killed:
How can these past events be required in order to have psychedelic maturation and mental model transformation?
It doesn’t make sense and cannot make sense.
When reading as analogy, THAT is relevant; that can make sense.
Analogy describing mental model dynamics, THAT is relevant.
Abraham sacrificing the bush-caught ram, that Abraham is not responsible for providing, caught by its Y-like pair of horns in a branching thicket, when considered as an enlightening comparison and analogy, THAT is relevant to the dynamic of altered state {threat-then-peace}.
This principle has been part of the successful Egodeath theory since like 1995.
Literalist violence, killing an actual ram way back in 150 B C or 200 BC era when the Old Testament was written, how is that required, for mystic control restabilization, when we now can only know the IDEA of that happening.
We can’t know if it literally happened, and there is no clear way to connect the LITERAL killing of animals, to the cognitive dynamics, when the IDEA of killing as in lightning-rod demonstration and comprehension, IS explicable.
Conventional theological doctrine is a half-baked incoherent mishmash of literal and analogical.
Exoteric religious thinking seems to never make sense, because it is a magical, nonsensical mode of thinking.
I can explain how the idea of killing ram instead of son is involved in, or is like, cognitive dynamics of personal control system when the mind is brought into the loose cognition state of eternalism experiencing.
I cannot explain how literal violence and literal killing of a ram, lamb, or man is required, for the mind to undergo mental model transformation in the altered state — especially for how Abraham must kill his ram in order for Mithraism initiates or Eleusis initiates to have transcendent reconciliation.
How does the threat-then-reconciliation dynamic depend on and require literal Abraham to literally threaten his literal son and then kill a literal ram instead, so God gives such a man health and prosperity?
I can explain in terms of mythic analogy.
I cannot explain in terms of literalism.
This analogy-based, successful explanation — this model of mental model transformation — explains not only Jewish religion; not only Christian salvation, but also, Mystery Religions eg Eleusis & Mithraism, and world religious myth.
In contrast, literalism is baffling, inexplicable, MAGICAL THINKING.
Literalist Israelites = magical thinking, literal sacrifice in literal temple is “required”?
{Israelites} as analogy — analogical psychedelic eternalism with dependent control — is mature and coherent, intelligible thinking.
Salvation, Rescue, and Mental model Transformation Makes Sense via Analogy, not via Literalist Religious Myth
All the dynamics of ego death and reset makes little sense — in various religions and regions and eras — if it requires literal sacrifice of a specific ram, or literally willing to kill your literal only son, or literal crucifixion of literal Mr. Historical Jesus.
Another reason why I believe a science model of the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence per 1988, before I really knew religious myth:
My Jan. 1988 theory did not involve literal Jewish or Christian religion, yet in 2025 I still assess (as measured by 1997 summary) that my 1988 theory of mental model transformation is sound.
I can upload my 1988 August Minn. draft or the first Word document draft, and it matches my 1997 outline; my 1988 & 1997 core theory is sound. It’s just not fully mature so as to integrate the two ways of thinking.
As I said in my chalkboard presentation in 2013 Dec. 2, — and I can upload audio, but the video is still at the orig address —
{Israelites} = people whose mental model was transformed from possibilism-thinking to eternalism-thinking.
Maturely, that includes integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking.
This non-literal theory is desirable because it applies universally to the human mind in ancient Greece; global world religious mythology, and other planets, in all eras.
If I have to cobble and restrict the Egodeath theory so that it depends on literal existence of Abraham, Isaac, ram, lamb, Jesus, crucifixion, resurrection — that sounds like what the Bible warns against and mocks, literalist incomprehension.
The bad guys are literalists; those on the outside.
The good guys are analogical comprehenders; those on the inside.
The objectively preferable explanation of Transcendent Knowledge is that ALL CULTURES AND PLANETS CAN HAVE THE SAME DYNAMIC, without depending on arbitrary particulars.
from Amanita, Christianity, surface form, low esotericism to Psilocybin, Greek + Christian, cognitive effects, high esotericism
I have written about this before; thinking about it since maybe 1995.
A video series about the promise to Abraham proposes to change from Jewish literalism to Christian literalism.
Per the explanatory model of mental model transformation in the Egodeath theory, no literal Abraham, ram, Jesus, or crucifixion is needed or involved.
Suppose there was:
no literal Abraham.
no literal Isaac.
no literal ram caught in bush, to substitute for Isaac.
no literal Jesus.
no literal crucifixion.
Does the lack of these specific literal things make the peak dynamic of “threat and then receive idea for peace” not work?
My principle is based on assumption that:
Ancient Classical Antiquity Greek religious myth 500-300 B C contains the same dynamic of “threaten to death, and then receive peace and stable control and Transcendent Knowledge”, as I received in 1995, and that people receive by thinking of the substitute sacrifice idea of ram caught in bush and replacing Isaac.
From an altered state analogy perspective, “Isaac” does not mean literal son and literal offspring; “son” means egoic personal control system, and not harming oneself or others during the enlightening cybernetic dynamic of peak-state threat and transformation gate and peaceful no-harm outcome.
“King Jesus, son of God, crucified and resurrected” is not literal.
Where the action is actually at is, the IDEA of Jesus taking the lightning-strike so that we who are “in” that mythic figure are not harmed, yet brought to Transcendent Knowledge and forcing mental model transformation, like a birth through the transformation gate and momentarily destroys egoic control power, to produce mental model transformation and Transcendent Knowledge.
A scientific theory of mental model transformation in loose cognition should TRY to not depend on elements that are unknown to the ancient Greek mind and Mystery Religions and symposium parties, which knew nothing of:
literal Abraham
literal Isaac
literal ram caught in bush
literal Jesus
literal crucifixion
literal resurrection
Receiving of Transcendent Knowledge & Rescue from Threat only Requires God to Provide Ideas (Including Mythic Analogies), not Literal History
Gospel of John says figurative analogies, not literal; same with Mark 4:12.
I doubt Transcendent Knowledge can be reached by depending on literalist thinking – whether literalist Jewish, literalist Christian, etc.
My theory is coherent, my explanatory model of altered state mental model transformation, if the model explains Mystery Religions and religious myth and Jewish myth and Christian myth.
If the mechanism of the “saved from threat” dynamic depends on literal existence of Abraham, Isaac, ram, Jesus, and crucifixion, that’s hard to make a coherent scientific explanatory model.
But if the dynamic depends on figurative analogy, and the salvific angel-message that bypasses us from taking harmful lightning-strike is analogy, then an explanatory model is possible.
The fundamental question of literalist vs. analogical salvation and enlightenment:
Are we saved (peaceful and un-harmed) by literal external historical events, and thereby given Transcendent Knowledge?
Are we saved (peaceful and un-harmed) by mythic analogy comprehension and thereby given Transcendent Knowledge?
Does mental restabilization depend on literal Jesus crucifixion, or literal ram, or literal threatening literal Isaac?
My reasoning since 1995, before even I found about mythicism, is that:
In ~1995, I WAS SAVED FROM HARM BY RECEIVING THE IDEA OF JESUS HARMED ON THE CROSS taking the lightning-strike.
Given that the IDEA was salvific for me, receiving just the message from the higher thinking angel of God, I then struggled to find any reason why Jesus would want or need to be literally crucified.
Around 1998-1999, when I first heard of ahistoricity, I had thus been already wrestling with puzzlement about literalism, for 3-4 years.
When I was saved from harm (~1995) by receiving the idea of lightning-strike figure of Jesus on the cross, I started wondering what Mr. Jesus’ purpose was in actually being willing to be crucified.
A LITERAL DEATH OF A VICARIOUS PERSON WAS RECOGNIZED TO BE SUPERFLUOUS!
Superfluous = wrong = ineffectual.
A literal godman undergoing a literal death, has no saving power, and in fact PREVENTS SALVATION/ Transcendent Knowledge / rescue, and might cause harm.
Greek Mystery Religion, aliens with Transcendent Knowledge on other planets, and other brands of religion (demon guards in Buddhism) can’t be explained in terms of literal Abraham/ Isaac/ ram/ Jesus-lamb/ crucifixion.
The Bible has plenty of indicators saying “those on the outside = literalist”, “those on the inside = analogical/ mythic realm ideas”.
I was saved from harm by an IDEA of lightning-rod Jesus around 1995.
The several times that I was threatened and came out unharmed but given Transcendent Knowledge, a literal Abraham/ Isaac/ ram/ Jesus-lamb/ crufixion was not required, and played no discernible role.
I am successfully explaining Mithraism by studying equivalent dynamic of the sacrifice of Isaac & crucifixion of the gentle lamb on the tree.
The more that the angel of God teaches me, I’m saved and redeemed in idea-space, I’m not seeing how a literal violence is required and plays a role in mental model transformation, given that receiving IDEAS of violence and no-harm and benevolent God is centrally involved in the experience of threat and ego death and cybernetic seizure and release, lightning-strike IDEA that many, multiple people participate in the same idea-pattern — vs. requiring physical, temple, physical literal sacrifice that has to be repeated literally — that cannot save.
IF WE CANNOT BE SAVED BY RECEIVING THE IDEA OF VICARIOUS VIOLENT LIGHTNING-STRIKE, IT’S NOT CLEAR HOW LITERAL SACRIFICE COULD SOLVES THAT GAP AND SHORTCOMING.
There is far more to explain, unclearly, if our salvation is a matter of literalism than idea-space.
If someone tells me to make the Egodeath theory require literalism, I give up; I don’t see how to do that. And the Bible speaks against that, and doesn’t make sense.
I hear God and angel telling me to write explanation of how lightning-strike enlightenment & Transcendent Knowledge & no-harm rescue, that is so great, so fulfilling and sensible, so comprehensible, that it explains:
Greek myth
world religious myth
Mithraism
Jewish mythemes
Christian mythemes
Rock lyrics
The Egodeath theory is a huge success at that. But if God and angel tells me I have to make this theory depend on literal ram of Abraham, I DON’T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN HOW OUR MENTAL MODEL TRANSFORMATION DEPENDS ON LITERAL DEATH OF A RAM, or requires temple, or sacrifice, or priest, or worship.
I am incapable of MIXING literalist thinking and analogical thinking, to make a useful, helpful, relevant (and simple & clear) explanatory model of mental model transformation.
1) Take the successful, coherent: analogical psychedelic eternalism with dependent control;
2) then try to add literalist dependence on literal ram or lamb being sacrificed literally;
3) Now the Egodeath theory is a smoking ruin. No longer “analogical psychedelic eternalism”; it would be psychotic chaos of literalist-analogical, ordinary-state/psychedelic, possibilism/eternalism.
New Testament Christianity doesn’t involve temple, sacrifice, priest, or worship.
After my 1995 salvation in the form of receiving an idea of violent Jesus crucifixion that I am “in” as an idea, now in 2025 I am re-assessing — because of a sermon series about how literalist Jewish is wrong, and literalist Christian is right — he actually
The Lightning-Rod Dynamic Producing Peace
copied from below:
The lightning-rod dynamic: the high transcendent mind receives the threat of loss of control, and then receives the holy saving idea of idea of fulfillment in idea-space and no-harm participation (a collective aspect; a vicarious atonement; subst sacr.
eg in myth-space, the bull of Sol is made to lose control and we the followers of Mithras are “in” that fulfillment): gentle dove not eagle; gentle donkey not warhorse; gentle lamb not ram.
Strangeloop followed my instructions at Egodeath.com, but didn’t have ego death control seizure.
The devotee was given the sacrament by the frog god.
He vividly and lucidly had that in the symposium.
He and God were alone in the intense bridal chamber, in community of devotees.
I can improve my instructions and talk with Strangeloop about this type of experience / the control vortex transformation.
Image: the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene in the colorized reversible tauroctony:
He was the bull forced to look at snake (= threat of psychotic loss of control, experienced being Semele struck down by Zeus’ revealed power, giving brith to Dionysus godman/boon) – the wheat sprouting (fruiting) from tail of bull against the heimarmene fixed stars (eternalism) = no harm was done, but https://www.google.com/search?q=Zeus+Meilichios – benevolent snake-in-rock god – gave well-formed control model and honoring the divine control level, killing a claim to have control.
Had well-formed “loss of control” and “forced surrender” and the sense of “i have control” lifted off.
Shamans Do Not Have Superior Control Technology Above Mystics’ Surrenderism
Relevant for analyzing “mystic surrender” w/ Alan Houot.
I reject the assertion in Houot dissertation that Americas shamans have control-technology better than mystics’ surrenderism.
Fear “loss of control” or fear harm-inflicting loss of control. What is “loss of control”?
What is “psychotic” or “psychotic-like” loss of control – what ego calls “loss of control” is a forced revealing of “in some way, you never HAD control, of a certain type”.
The “control death gate” is a kind of loss of control that gives non-harmful, viable, stable well-formed right honoring of the control-levels relationship.
“Do not harm the child, do not do anything to the child. You are blessed and healthy and prosperous because you have done this thing; were forced to want to …”
Initiates lose control [? define carefully!] and are forced to surrender and die – there is a bad/ incomplete & good/complete way of this:
* if malformed and incomplete, can cause harm/ “catastrophe” (or, might just put on a token display of scrambling one’s room – but that’s still a form of harm; thus is not proper).
* If well-formed and complete, the revelation of loss of control / non-control/ control transformation is non-harmful and the person is made to honor higher control or, honor the right relationship of control-levels.
Being forced to have mental loss of control in psychotic-like, or manic DIVINE MANIA state, is a kind of cybernetic “death” to the personal control agent.
Mentally overpowered at the root, given that you surrendered when overpowered, were caused to surrender, by the higher power; [the illusion or virtual effect of] control was taken out of your hands – without harm, without real psychosis, because well-formed control-relationship/ arrangement. The robe [of the sense of “I have control”] is taken off by higher thinking.
This cybernetic dynamic of the mind can be explained, but is not easy to explain.
The separate higher controller lifts up the soul on cloud of smoke, and strips away the garment clothing robe, the sense of “I have control” – that circuit, that mental construct: egoic personal control system is shown to be illusory re: source of control thoughts.
This is a kind of psychosis-like state and is like psychotic loss of control, but when well-formed, produces a boon, no harm, and honor to the gods, ie, a stable control relationship.
Noah releases a raven (death psychopomp), a dove comes back
peaceful harmless dove vs eagle
peaceful harmless lamb vs ram
peaceful harmless donkey vs. warhorse
good shepherd.
Does the mind then have [psychotic] loss of control?
Better to ask: “Do I have viable, stable, non-dysfunctional control?”
You’d have to fully grasp the mushrm-state diagrams in Great Canterbury Psalter, to be able to go through this death transformation gate; demon-guarded gate: the demon = psychotic harmful loss of control; the threat of that.
Those who are pulled through the door
* endured no harm except deepest humility and honoring/ spiritual elevation and purification.
To get through the door:
* Be lifted by God level control,
* Be pulled through the gate, and
* Have no harm done, except ego death/ made to surrender and allow loss of control (lightning bolt), and then
* Made to give honor to the more powerful control-level.
The transformed mind in the peak state does not experience focusing on “unity”.
The claim of having control is pulled away like a garment.
Beyond this no-harm loss of control gate, no-harm control-transformation gate, unity is one reward.
But the gate is where all the action is at: the heart of mystical experience. psychotic-like type of “loss of control”, as defined here.
That is what myth cares about, that is what the mushroom-tree artists care about: the control transformation gate, not “unity” ….
The bridal chamber unity of the god bridegroom who overpowers and marries the bride.
THAT kind of relational unity; a unity that includes oneness yet also includes the separate self.
Includes the individual separate self as locus of control, revealed as illusory / virtual (this is not dishonoring or getting rid of self), along with unity experience.
A unity that does not destroy the individual creature/ local control agent is per Ken Wilber, Tim Freke, & Jessica Nathanson, who all say to preserve the initial developmental structure, even while affirming AT SOME LEVEL a nondual unity oneness boundarylessness.
— Cybermonk
David Bowie:
Oh no Not me We never lost control
We lost control [in what way?] in divine mania when the god brought us up to his banquet.
We were shown to never have had that type of control really, but control was stable – not harm or unstable, not falling.
We were held up only by the grace of God. image Great Canterbury Psalter 177 row 1 panel 2:
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Email 2 to Cyb & Max [May 22, 2025, 11:06 am]
Teaching a policy reform expert to read Great Canterbury Psalter today, to leverage for Repeal and to rewrite Christian / European history, and NOT in the f’d up Ruck narrative.
Then I will be able to teach my church how to read Great Canterbury Psalter; mushroom-trees genre.
The immature lure, the attraction, the reward: massive shipment of “spot the mushrm”. Rewrite history.
Amanita Experts Reject Amanita as Mixed Wine
mixed wine means Liberty Cap wine in antiquity for funeral banquets, Mystery Religion sacred meals, and symposium religious drinking parties mwl
mixed wine mw
Amanita experts concluded mixed wine was likely Psilocybin eg Liberty Cap,, far more likely than Amanita.
Amanita experts disbelieve mixed wine was Amanita.
Liberty Cap = mixed wine, the preferred engine.
Example of Liberty Cap in Mystery Religions: Liberty Cap on Reverse Side of Tauroctony
Against the book by Ruck asserting Mithraism’s engine was Amanita.
I don’t know how to revise the theory that Ruck’s book and entheos issue 3 2002 article about — tauroctony is reversed on the cover, loudly signalling incomprehension, and is forced from blue to red, thus giving me restricted confidence in that book/theory.
Similarly, I doubt ergot played much role in Mystery Religions & Christianity, given that Psilocybin potentially fits the bill in classic form. Must admit though, Psilocybin …. flipping that point:
Eating dried Psilocybin mushrooms can be non-ergonomic, therefore, mixed wine based on Psilocybin mushrooms makes more sense.
Compare Amanita mixed wine vs. the potential of Psilocybin mixed wine, as the engine of:
Mystery Religions
Old Testament religious experience
New Testament religious experience
Gnosticism religious experience
Hermetic religious experience
funerary banquets
Banquets
symposium
If there was a technology of grape juice plus Psilocybin mushrooms, with rounds of mixed wine, THAT WOULD WORK PERFECT.
Grape juice with Amanita would not. Throw in some cannabis, herbs, datura, kitchen sink, opium…. that WILL make you dizzy — but would it deliver classic religious myth experience? Doubt. Abstract conjecture.
Psilocybin mushrooms in grape wine would DEFINITELY work PERFECTLY; ergonomic form, classic effects.
How to take 1st-generation entheogen scholarship (the Secret Amanita paradigm) — eg Ruck’s Mithraism book — and convert it to 2nd-generation entheogen scholarship (the Explicit Psilocybin paradigm)?
I showed an Amanita expert the reversible colorized tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene: the back side shows the killed bull (local control agency of you & of the mythic god), Sol is brought to dine by Mithras, and shows a Liberty Cap formed by sword/blade, with Phrygian cap, with a sun-rays crown on the cap.
An awful inspired church plant [spiritual founding of a church]. A church pastor received this source of inspiration decades ago. It was a major inspiration to start a church.
The symposium is blown away and requires integration for a long time afterward.
Cybernetic Dynamics of {surrender}
The bad: the mind is was made to think dreadful threatening actions.
The good: confirms and validates mythemes: the {threat} {cowering} {angels throwing spears & arrows & sword down} {demons applying fire}
In {surrender}, the sense of local control agency was forced and overpowered, violated by the God, in the {bridal chamber}.
They died, were defeated, and were reborn and instructed by the angels and demons.
They mystic hardly survived, but the outcome is, the mind brings back the treasure stolen from the dragon.
I can’t exactly recommend that anyone be subjected to this threat that kills and torments and reshapes and forces a surrender like shown in the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene & in the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}.
But it’s up to the god to pull the followers up to him.
My job is just to clearly document the dynamic, and to show that IF we can ever achieve stable control in loose cognition, it will be via well-formed mature mental model, including themes of “gentle benevolent powerful god”; dove; donkey, “do not harm the boy”.
The personal control system receives the “no harm” doctrine: the worshipper is saved from the threat, and in exchange, the god gets to be honored by a civilization honoring the god, a thriving people, the sons of Abraham.
If God harms the person, there can be no sons of Abraham to honor God.
God violated and smashed the follower with threats, zapped him into a pile of ash, and then gave him the treasure.
Depicted in the mushroom-tree set of motifs in the Great Canterbury Psalter. The medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}.
Discuss (analyze, model) the dynamics of surrender. and limits; forming a relationship around that LIMIT for the blessed egoic personal control agent/ agency.
The personal control system is brought through the gate into the city and given the right to enter this bridal chamber but NOT bringing egoic …. “pollution” (but do not disparage egoic personal control system).
The mind, the person is brought again into bridal chamber to be overpowered and lose control in some way, that’s good, but, the egoic personal control system cannot enter that space.
The mind’s “I” can re-enter, but “I” am pushed down to kneel and that lower “I” cannot enter that space.
After the excessive, too-frightening experience, the personal control system is gently made to slightly re-enter the space: good for reconciliation. Knocked down hard, threatened to death, but “stay away” can’t possibly be the lesson!
There would be no honoring of Transcendent Knowledge, of God, if the lesson/ message from the {angels of death & the fire-applying demons} is: “Too dangerous; stay away from God’s inner temple chamber.“
To get this benefit, this treasure/ boon, the personal control system is made limp like douris’ Jason kylix: the sacrificed golden ram robe/coat/ fleece limp in the tree where it branches; and Jason is limp coming out of the snake, with Athena boundary spear dividing the scene.
Ladon, Jason, Athena, golden fleece of Zeus’ ram hiding the non-existent branching of the vine tree. Kylix by Douris. Photo from Wikipedia user Daderot, xyz public use license.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.”
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him.
“Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.
He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
“Because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
“Loss of control” is the threat, but what does that even mean; “control restabilization” is more precise.
Honoring of God is not acting out but God threatens the personal control system with that.
Honor God is to clearly write up the danger, the cybernetic death and violation, that traumatic bridal chamber overpowering.
Control instability then control stability in the non-branching/ eternalism model.
A problem with focusing on eternalism / time / branching: it completely omits the more important part, cybernetics.
Thus recently my construction (not entirely new): cybernetic eternalism.
The mind is made better at being in the lightning-washed, threatened, purified-by-fire mindset to read Eadwine images in Great Canterbury Psalter, and the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}.
Every time the priest sacrifices at the altar at the temple entryway the priest must wash hands again – purification prior to entering the inner chamber where God the source of control thoughts demonstrates threat, and scares to death again, and… the Teacher of Righteousness:
Crop by Michael Hoffman
I wondered if, after mental model transformation, you can’t experience ego death again?
Or does the godman dyad have this climax multiple times?
Seems that the mind can undergo ego death seizure panic death surrender multiple times, becoming more apprehensive and reverent and reshaped, more and more made to stand balanced on Right foot (and kneeling halfway down using some Left foot, blessed, as well.
HEALTHY WELL FORMED MENTAL MODEL transformed, is the resulting confiiguration.
God brings some people to continue entering the bridal chamber to terrorize and reshape us again.
My given role cast in stone turns out to be to document this, and preach “no harm”; Dove; harmless donkey not warhorse; well-formed relationship.
We are placed in the “bus” (inner temple) shelter, after dying.
On this (eventual) side of the ossuary path, [is he balancing?] [I think figured out the hand shape displayed w/ fingers held together & thumb out], there is no Left limbs.
Do not belittle possibilism-thinking; egoic personal control system; immature child-thinking. Requires subtle refined fine-tuning of attitude about possibilism-thinking.
Funny – what triggered me (most distinctly) on May 24, 2025 to decode {raven} is the TOC of the book Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science, which mentions “the raven paradox”.
Raven = attracted to dead bodies to eat meat. Raven = death psychopomp. a guide that leads you quickly up to God, higher controller, the lifting causes loss of control / cybernetic death and Transcendent Knowledge; higher stability.
“The Raven Paradox, also known as Hempel’s Paradox, is a philosophical problem that challenges our intuitive understanding of evidence and confirmation.
“It arises from the fact that
“observing a non-black, non-raven object (like a red apple) can, in a logically sound way, be considered as evidence for the hypothesis that all ravens are black.”
In tauroctony instances, the raven is placed near Sol; between Sol and the heimarmene fixed stars cape of Mithras.
The transcendent message about death, as awareness is elevated and pulled out from the egoic personal control system.
The Traditional Model of Stable No-Harm Control and Transcendent Knowledge
You are made to ingest then made to participate in mythic-realm representative sacrifice (eg of bull, piglet, ram, Christ). This is how the mature mind is transformed.
God could make my control cause harm, and God gives me the idea of harming an idea in idea-space to represent the ability to make me will harm.
I am made to participate in that mythic-realm sacrifice of control power, and am not harmed and have Transcendent Knowledge. This is the theory of stable no-harm control and Transcendent Knowledge.
Mentions Paul Thagard 40 times; author of Conceptual Revolutions.
Blurb:
“This handbook offers the first comprehensive reference guide to the interdisciplinary field of model-based reasoning.
“It highlights the role of models as mediators between theory and experimentation, and as educational devices, as well as their relevance in testing hypotheses and explanatory functions.
“The Springer Handbook merges philosophical, cognitive and epistemological perspectives on models with the more practical needs related to the application of this tool across various disciplines and practices.
“The result is a unique, reliable source of information that guides readers toward an understanding of different aspects of model-based science, such as the theoretical and cognitive nature of models, as well as their practical and logical aspects.
“The inferential role of models in hypothetical reasoning, abduction and creativity once they are constructed, adopted, and manipulated for different scientific and technological purposes is also discussed.
“Written by a group of internationally renowned experts in philosophy, the history of science, general epistemology, mathematics, cognitive and computer science, physics and life sciences, as well as engineering, architecture, and economics, this Handbook uses numerous diagrams, schemes and other visual representations to promote a better understanding of the concepts.
“This also makes it highly accessible to an audience of scholars and students with different scientific backgrounds.
“All in all, the Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science represents the definitive application-oriented reference guide to the interdisciplinary field of model-based reasoning.”
Noah Sends Death-Raven, Receives No-Harm Dove
Crop by Michael Hoffman. Canterbury window near other mushroom windows.
When a the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene shows up-pointed torch-light held by R twin, here that up direction points to / reveals, makes perceptible, the snake vs tree; fire (light) = (touches) snake.
There is distinct lack of consistency whether the torch light is pointed up or down on L & R.
The Left twin usually has weight on Right foot, bent Left leg, like the bull’s rear legs and like Mithras.
On the left, the torch can illuminate Right foot (when pointed down) or heimarmene fixed stars (when pointed up).
On the right-hand twin, the torch can illuminate snake in tree (when pointed up) (in the case of the reversible tauroctony) or “weight on left foot” (when pointed down).
{torch up|down on Left|Right}: summarized May 24, 2025, based on analysis since Nov. 2025 (and possibly earlier eg 2023).
90% consistent: L twin = stand on right leg (L leg bent), matching Mithras.
Front of bull always has weight on L leg; R leg bent.
{kneel} Posture Motif Mytheme [May 24, 2025]
{raven}
cut left limb = {blade touching left limb}
decoded {kneeling posture}
{Judas kneeling given the psychedelic sacrament at Last Supper then handing over king Jesus to be crucified for him to have unharmed life + Transcendent Knowledge}; we learned this by studying illum ms psalters art related to the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}: this scene, occurring several times, DEMANDS that we (ie, I) MUST decode the {kneeling posture}. done May 23 2025 last night, on tape, after discussing center of f109 w/ S. & N.
In a mental experiment, I was given the Eucharist by – see Judas kneeling at Last Supper (3rd instance; Great Canterbury Psalter ; Golden ps, Saint Martin) – https://egodeaththeory.org/2023/02/11/saint-martin-frescos-%e2%9e%b3%f0%9f%96%96%f0%9f%8c%b4%f0%9f%94%aa%f0%9f%8d%84%f0%9f%96%bc%f0%9f%94%8d%f0%9f%94%ac%f0%9f%a7%90/#Image-4-Last-Supper — I (as local control agent) was shown my helpless lack of control and being threatened, and I was “in” Jesus the crucified king on a cross, I handed over [the idea of; in idea-space] king Jesus to represent my vulnerability of control per 2-level, dependent control — like Abraham’s “place”; the location of the sacrifice of Isaac: “God will provide”, in the place where God provides the sacrifice [in mythic analogy idea-space] to substitute for harming me.
Mentally, you gather rock, and flame, and blade, and sacrifice [the root of “religious ritual”] – a mental religious ritual – …. if I give physical form to my undergoing threat and then my pointing to king Jesus on the cross as fulfilling demonstration of Transcendent Knowledge of control vulneratbility, that would be the paradigm of “religious ritual sacrifice offering”; we offer king Jesus crucified (and resurrected) in our mind, to represent that God can harm us but can instruct and reshape us to have the holy combination:
I live my life as unharmed prosperous control agent AND
I have Transcendent Knowledge.
New Posts/Pages Needed
[copied to above] The lightning-rod dynamic: the high transcendent mind receives the threat of loss of control, and then receives the holy saving idea of idea of fulfillment in idea-space and no-harm participation (a collective aspect; a vicarious atonement; subst sacr. eg in myth-space, the bull of Sol is made to lose control and we the followers of Mithras are “in” that fulfillment): gentle dove not eagle; gentle donkey not warhorse; gentle lamb not ram.
I created a dedicated page about f11: f11 Great Canterbury Psalter: 6 Days of Creation, Eden I previously tried a page just covering top half 6 Days of Creation, but two reasons to have just a single page: 1) everyone treats Day 3 & tree of knowledge panels usually together; 2) fits design pattern for pages eg f134, f145, f177.
I created a dedicate page about f109: f109 – sucks that none of these 5 pics (11, 109, 134, 145, 177) have angels throwing blades at mystics. Angels assaulting mystics with blades. There is one panel that has a version of that: f11 row 4 left: gate of Eden, angel w/ flaming sword driving out Adam & Eve. f109 Great Canterbury Psalter: Hellmouth, Net, Ossuary, Cloth, Looking Out from Temple
That breakout of pages implies making a page for each picture in Great Canterbury Psalter.
The alternative is to make the “commentary” page REALLY REALLY LONG, as has happened.
A better design would be – I already hate the Golden Commentary page and the Great Canterbury Psalter Commentary page, a stupid parallel structure w/ the Gallery page.
A pain! Use a star design instead:
1 page: Gallery of all images in Great Canterbury Psalter. (or in Golden).
Each image folio image should have its own webpage, linked from the gallery.
Do I have a main page about Tauroctony? I created now that page:
Mithraism; the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene ? no, it sucks [before creating that page]:
I have little topical pages about Mithraism enough for a Site Map section, but no main page about Mithraism / The tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene.
done: Step 1: Make site map section gathering my topical Mithraism-related pages.
done: Step 2: Make official main page about Mithraism/Tauroctony.
God Please Don’t Harm Us, and Do Bring Tree of Life Ingesting Psychedelics
The grand wish and prayer and aspiration: I have stable control and am immortal, nondying, stable in altered state of loose cognition, insofar as I can mentally do the ritual acknowledgement, the ultimate kneeling (standing but not standing, both legs bent, R leg forward, being given by God angel the sacrament, I hand over the piglet (Eleusis) king Jesus for sacrifice on the tree, and I am thus “covered” and “protected” so that I walk with God and am threatened but LIGHTNING ROD JESUS idea.
Judas, Lightning Rod, Substitute Sacrifice, Religious Ritual [May 24, 2025]
This motif is poor for trad myth, but useful: {lightning rod vicarious representative: the branching-caught ram; the savior on the cross = lightning rod: strike Jesus as God’s child-thinking, in place of harming MY child-thinking; my egoic personal control system. Do not do anything to your child self,
the keyboard shortcut for SoI is: gen22 — it’s f’d up. fail to diff what Abr says vs what Angel/God says:
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Gen 22:7-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2022%3A7-18&version=NIV
Fixing the keyboard shortcut expan: should be: (damnit, gonna have to re-do the excerpt from the Bible original passage):
This passage claims that the angel does not tell Abraham to sacr the ram.
This passage gives Abr the initiative for subst’g the ram for Isaac, tho God provides the ram according to Abr.
todo: make post/page about the sacrifice of Isaac.
the sacrifice of Isaac asoi
The sacrifice of Isaac is SUPER important, and key for understanding the Crucifixion.
We participate in vicarious sacrifice, how we are saved in Christ, as Abr/Isaac was saved by the branch-caught ram that God provided.
Could Abr/Isaac have been saved were there no ram?
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” [angel of god said:]: “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its [branching pair of] horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. [angel of God said] “Because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants [through Isaac] as numerous as the stars in the sky. Through your offspring [mystical not bodily] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” [that is active voice; passive voice: the higher controller forced you to cyber-die and provided the lightning rod that covered you by isomorphism, and saved you from harm] Gen 22:7-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=gen%2022%3A7-18&version=NIV [11:12 am May 24, 2025]
You are made to kneel not able to stand on L or R leg, but you receive the R leg, and you are given the sacrament of loose cognition, you are threatened to death w cybernetic vulnerability threat as you are lifted to the edge of stable control.
A portion of you (the local control agent) goes outside the domain of stable control, and you are threatened with harmful control thoughts, but you receive [the dynamic of salvation is] the idea of wanting to be covered by a representative figure of taking the lightning hit: the idea of {ram caught in branching by its pair of horns}, and idea of {king on cross} (and resurrected).
We believe in the future life in heaven city gates with tree of life after we are cybernetically killed upon seeing higher controller.
{conversion}
Conversion from possibilism w/ monolithic, autonomous control, to eternalism w/ 2-level, dependent control.
2-level, dependent control [May 24, 2025]
lower control: egoic personal control system in branching world.
higher control: rock block universe containing snake-shaped worldline, created by the Creator.
Judas hands over Jesus to be crucified, and Judas participates in that crucifixion, is covered by it, is kept from harm yet also receives Transcendent Knowledge and a viable life.
We (like Judas receiving the sacrament of enlightenment [Transcendent Knowledge] at the Last Supper) want Jesus to be crucified [in mythic-experiencing idea-space] so that we can be saved and protected from harm by God the higher controller.
The experiential reasoning about control transformation (Psilocybin transformation) is hard to comprehend and hard to depict, but we CAN be made to comprehend it (this transcendent control dynamic) and we CAN depict it in art.
We are well on our way, I am well on the way toward that, using university course engineering Control Systems engineering eg domain of stability.
mytheme decoding: Friday, May 23, 2025, in voice recording VOX_TK_6490.wav: f109 Great Canterbury Psalter when explaining to a policy reform expert in a 1-hour teaching meeting on Thurs May 22 2025:
Mytheme Decoding: {cut left limb} = Possibilism-Thinking, in {shrouded corpse} Motif in f109 & f177 [May 24, 2025]
May 24, 2025
announcement – i figured out last night may 23 2025 in voice recording:
ossuary does not have correct “{cut right branch/limb}”; has instead incorrect {cut left branch/limb} which – , must mean possibilism-thinking. {cut right branch} means eternalism-thinking THEREFORE in both shroud-corpses: f109, f177 — {cut left branch} means possibilism-thinking. therefore mytheme decoding: {cut left limb} = possibilism-thinking. Q.E.D.
cut left limb = {blade touching left limb} as in f134. also matches guys who have {empty left sleeve}.
Equivalent motifs:
{empty left sleeve}
{shrouded corpse with cut left limb}
{blade touching left limb}
related: hand sign throughout f109: thumb out, four fingers together. {hand displayed with thumb out, four fingers together}
In the meeting where a policy reform expert helped interpret f109, I broke through to recognize at 3-4 pm that day, the fact that the guy is BALANCING and falling off losing balance and being caught passively by the net, the net (to catch you when you are made to cybernetically fall and lose control) is tied by the kneeling guy, the guy pulled up from the net is making the hand sign: thumb out, 4 fingers together straight (non-branching). Elements that I grasped that I did not grasp before:
guy is balancing and implicitly he falls but is caught by net.
little guy kneeling — I didn’t figure this out during the teaching meeting but the following evening (Friday May 23 2023 voice recording): puts Right foot forward meaning using eternalism-thinking, and also, some weight on L leg – both legs bent.
kneerling posture and often laying down robe under incoming emperor per Otto illum ms and others in the (Saint Martin church) Entry into Jeru scene.
Although right bent leg is forward, this is not to entirely disparage Left leg – he bends both legs, in the {kneel} motif.
Placidas (10:29 am May 24 2025) is not on his saddle, he is holding reins as a steersman, the saddle and back of deer each have a branching mushroom-tree.
On Left side of picture is a branching and a non-branching mushroom-tree, same on Right side of picture.
Middle of picture has a mushroom-tree that I read as a YI tree, where the I branch touches his Right leg. copy of pics from that page:
Conversion of Placidas, Saint Eustace Window, Chartres Cathedral
Conversion of Placidas, Saint Eustace Window. Chartres Cathedral, France, early 12th century (photo by Julie M. Brown) Citation: Journal of Psychedelic Studies 3, 2; 10.1556/2054.2019.019 “the Conversion of Placidas to Saint Eustace. Flanked by sacred mushrooms, he kneels and prays before the crucifix, which appears between the antlers of a stag standing regally before him.”
10:45 pm May 17, 2025 figured/ got more confirmation. Left mushroom-tree sets a pattern mapped to YI hand; groups of 4 guys + 1 guy, check all hand shapes, and claw shapes –
search present site on “claw”
I have written along these dedocding lines before, Otto two pictures.
recently wrote about guy w/ YI hand behind Jesus in Saint Martin church – Entry into Jerusalem, where Jesus does splayed left fingers on L hand & held-together two fingers on R hand.
Desc: “Despite failing human subjects protections, a Johns Hopkins psychedelic clergy study driven to influence the public appears set to be published.”
Not sure how relevant the article is
The archons are pushing a fake (or at best a low-grade, low-quality), global watered-down religion, like Joseph Atwill accused Roman rulers of inventing Christianity to control the populace. I have not studied his theory.
Everyone Is Skeptically Interrogating & Critically Re-Examining Mysticism Claims and Nonduality Claims
Everyone has suspended their belief in assertions about mysticism or nonduality. The mood in the air is skepticism and agnosticism.
The Enterprise top-down Bob Jesse CSP dubious claims and NARRATIVES are all in question, they have all been exposed and revealed:
Andy Letcher 2006, Thomas Hatsis 2013, & Michael Hoffman 2020 Debunking the Secret Amanita Paradigm
The Secret Amanita paradigm, pushed by Allegro and then amplified by Ruck. Letcher 2006 debunked it w/ a single picture from the Explicit Cubensis paradigm.
Cyberdisciple Critique of Narrowing Motive of The Immortality Key
Cyberdisciple’s critique of The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku, 2020:
Did Cyberdisciple summarize the points of agreement & disagreement?
That’s an excellent format that I used with Wouter Hanegraaff re: astral ascent mysticism.
Cyberdisciple agrees with the general idea that Muraresku sort of overlaps with: the important aspect of religions comes from psychedelics.
Cyberdisciple disagrees with the agenda purpose narrowing use of Eleusis narrative to support the Big Pharma Astroturf Psychedelic Renaissance psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy model.
Alan Houot Against the Therapy & Mysticism Approaches, Calling for a Science-Based Approach to Exploring Psychedelics
Alan Houot noticed two objectionable agendas: combining of therapy approach & “mystical = pleasant boundaryless unity” approach
Justin Sledge: Critical Mysticism
Dr. Justin Sledge, ESOTERICA YouTube channel, is making a video on “Critical Mysticism“.
Vervake: Zen & Neoplatonism Require Update & Correction
Cog Scientist John Vervake is correcting the weaknesses of Zen and of Neoplatonism.
Tim Freke and Jessica Nathanson: Advaita Vedanta Is Malformed and Causing Insanity
Tim Freke and Jessica Nathanson report people going insane from poorly formed Advaita Vedanta, warped selective version fabricated in 1893 for ulterior motives agenda by:
Swami Vivekananda, taken up by
Wm James, then
Walter Stace, Next add psychedelics to that unicorns & rainbows fake mysticism model:
Tim Leary & Walter Pahnke (Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ))
Wm Richards 1975/2015 book that now I know why I hate that book Sacred Knowledge: it pushes psychedelic “Transcendent Knowledge = nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension. (vs. cybernetic eternalism per the Egodeath theory), like Ken Wilber’s 1979 book No Boundary (his 6 main books 1977-1984).
Ralph Hood’s Mysticism Scale (M Scale) 1975;
Bob Jesse: CSP; Council for Spiritual Practices.
Roland Griffiths 2006.
All of the psychedelic mystical experience = Unity writers aim for the wrong target, missing the mark: they all construct altered-state “mysticism” around nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension.
That mystical experience is not wrong, but it’s a mere lightweight beginners sideshow, according to:
The mushroom-tree artists.
The best myth eg Buddhist {demon-threat guarded gates}.
The best lyrics.
The Egodeath theory.
… instead of hitting the main, potent target, cybernetic eternalism.
Given that everyone agrees “altered state” is key, and more people say altered state via psychedelics, this means, I do not need to highlight:
psychedelic eternalism
but I instead need to highlight:
cybernetic eternalism
the Egodeath theory of psychedelic eternalism –>
[7:59 pm May 17, 2025] the Egodeath theory of cybernetic eternalism edtce
The “psychedelics” part no longer needs emphasis, in some contexts of writing/ theorizing.
Thus the Egodeath theory of psychedelic eternalism solves the biggest barrier, by intelligibly theorizing and modelling the guarded gate of threat of loss of control.
Thus the Egodeath theory of cybernetic eternalism solves the biggest barrier, by intelligibly theorizing and modelling the guarded gate of threat of loss of control.
The bad fake explanation of panic freakout challenging experiencing provided by the Unity paradigm (nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension):
“The bad trip was caused by your resisting ego dissolution; ie resisting nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension.”
The good useful relevant helpful explanation of panic freakout challenging experiencing provided by the cybernetic eternalism paradigm:
The bad trip was caused by relying too much on possibilism-thinking (branching possibilities + monolithic, autonomous control); need to rely instead (also) on eternalism-thinking (non-branching possibilities + 2-level, dependent control).
Your near-future control-thoughts already exist, cast in stone.
stand on left foot = possibilism-thinking (branching possibilities + monolithic, autonomous control)
stand on right foot = eternalism-thinking (non-branching possibilities + 2-level, dependent control)
Hot Topic In the Air: Deep Questioning of What Mystical Experience Is; What Ego Transcendence Is
Upon discovering cybernetic eternalism in Jan 1988, my dispute against Wilber’s model was not mainly A, B, or C; but rather, D.
D: boundary change vs. cybernetic eternalism.
The boundary change model of ego transcendence isn’t bad b/c it’s specifically boundary change; the real problem is that it’s NOT cybernetic eternalism.
Every model of ego transcendence that’s something other than cybernetic eternalism is bad and wrong, not b/c of what it is, but because of what it’s not. Boundary change model of ego transcendence might be really great in 8 substantial ways, but it is stil WRONG and BAD, FAILURE, fails to be relevant; useful; helpful
(also: a different kind of objection, probably smaller and unimportant: the boundary-change model fails to be clear and simple.)
i HAVE critcized Ken Wilber for a model that is long-delayed development/ gradual change model; I HAVE criticized his model as over-articulated [like when I ritually insulted and dishonored a representative set of 12 books] – but none of those complaints are important.
Ken Wilber model 1984 (6th of 6 regular books) – I thought about … in 1986 I read wilber 1977-1984, then Jan 1988, critcized Ken Wilber of 1984 saying I have a better model of what the altered state delivers for ego transcendence: not boundary change, but cybernetic eternalism.
boundary change b-c
not b-c, but ce
Mystical experience is not boundary change, but cybernetic eternalism.
The “boundary change” vs. “cybernetic eternalism” model of ego transcendence
The main point of dispute is not altered state, psychedelics, or speed of transformation, or word-count.
I am not bragging that as opposed to Ken Wilber, the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence has altered state, psychedelics, or low word count (high summarizability).
Actually, I am bragging that as opposed to Ken Wilber’s model, the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence brings cybernetic eternalism rather than boundary change as a successful explanatory framework.
The problem with his model is not that it is boundary change, but that it is not cybernetic eternalism;
The Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence (cybernetic eternalism) is strong, at delivering and explaining a relevant helpful useful model of ego transcendence.
The Cybernetic Eternalism Theory of Ego Transcendence is strong, at delivering and explaining a relevant helpful useful model of ego transcendence.
The boundary change model of ego transcendence is weak, at delivering and explaining a relevant helpful useful model of ego transcendence.
In 1988 my titles were:
transcendent eternalism-thinking
the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence
but better is:
omit “Psychedelic”, b/c Ken Wilber agrees altered state – this is a minor detail…. not as super important as:
GIVEN altered state, what is the kind of ego transcendence that results?
One attempted answer to “what kind of ego transcendence” is, off the mark, the guess is: boundary change.
Wrong answer.
This is one wrong answer among potentially many wrong answers –
Perhaps it is a “better wrong answer” than some other wrong answers; maybe outside the bullseye target several bands.
A terrible answer = literalist “the nature of ego transcendence, i speculate, is alien literal angels and aliens and demons”.
One terrible answer (among others) to “What is the nature of ego transcendence?” is: literal angels and demons; or, alien machine entities. Alan Houot 2025. This general low-quality kind of answer = tyupical of (or, representative of; or, an instance of) lowest tier of religion.
One mediocre answer (among others) to “What is the nature of ego transcendence?” is: boundary change. Ken Wilber 1977-1984. Instance of “mediocre tier of religion; pseudo-esoteric; a lower but claims to be the higher.
The best and only correct answer to “What is the nature of ego transcendence?” is: cybernetic eternalism. Michael Hoffman Jan 1988.
Ultimately the specific actual problem of Ken Wilber model 1984 (6th of 6 regular books) is that it is something (boundary change) OTHER THAN cybernetic eternalism.
In theory, the false, fall-short, miss-the-mark “boundary change” theory of Transcendent Knowledge is only one among many possible false theories, like “shed skin” is not the ONLY false explanation of why {snake} is #1 mytheme.
The “boundary change” theory of mysticism (or ego transcendence, or Transcendent Knowledge) is only one among many possible wrong, failed theories of mysticism.
The “boundary change” theory of mysticism covers/ delivers a false explanation of panic challenging trips, by explaining from within paradigm of the boundary change theory/paradigm.
According to the “boundary change” paradigm of mysticism or ego transcendence or Transcendent Knowledge, panic/ freakout/ challenging experiencing is caused by resisting boundary change; and the solution is: trust [random word] and surrender to [random word].
Surrender to what????? THEY GIVE A DIFFERENT ANSWER EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY SAY TO SURRENDER! RED FLAG!
best answer: boundary change …. surrender to boundary change. trust boundary change.
surrender to nondual unity oneness ego dissolution non-boundary (boundary cessation).
That explains panic freakout challenging experiencing.
Cybernetic eternalism includes 2-level, dependent control – stand on right foot held upright by God:
The only thing stopping loss of control (“falling over”; “falling down”) is God:
Crop and annotations by Michael Hoffman, Jan. 3, 2025
f134 row 1 l > hanging guy: {right foot down}? R foot on cloud; he stands on the cloud of God. Not on the ground.
sitting guy: does not use possibilism-thinking to keep balance / to avoid falling. R foot on cut branch. mere basic simplified immature eternalism-thinking.
hanging guy: R foot touches cloud of God. (R knee on tree branch). = detailed, refined, integrated, mature eternalism-thinking.
immature possibilism-thinking.
failed student 2 & 4; L-foot youth.
immature eternalism-thinking.
red R-foot youth; sitting guy in tree. passing “C” student 3.
mature integration of possibilism-thinking & eternalism-thinking.
hanging guy in tree; floating sage. ideal fully passing student 1.
“The solution is to trust boundary change and surrender to boundary change.”
The solution is to trust cybernetic eternalism and surrender to cybernetic eternalism. 2-level, dependent control. not rely on monolithic, autonomous control. Fine detail: You do not “stop using possibilism-thinking”.
You actually always use possibilism-thinking – but now, you rely on also using eternalism-thinking.
The mind ends up with an integrated combination of distinctly perceived possibilism-thinking & eternalism-thinking
The (loose cognition) mature mind ends up with integrated qualified possibilism-thinking with qualified eternalism-thinking.
Crop by Michael Hoffman, March 20, 2023Crop by Michael Hoffman, Apr. 16, 2025
next, change “boundary change” to: nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension:
nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension nuobs
nondual unity oneness awareness nuoa
nondual unity oneness nuo
The solution is to trust nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension, and surrender to nondual unity oneness boundary-suspension.
That is the currently dominant, most widespread, false, pseudo-explanation of __, based in a false explanatory framework: the boundary change model of mysticism/ ego transcendence/ Transcendent Knowledge.
the true explanation of panic … is based in the true expw: the cybernetic eternalism model of mysticism/ ego transcendence/ Transcendent Knowledge.
singular: challenging experiences …. THE one and only, challenging experience.
challenging experiencing c-e
challenging experiences
the challenging experience
challenging experiencing <– fav
What if Ken Wilber 1977-1984 model of ego transcendence were climaxed in cybernetic eternalism?
What if his model said the essence of ego transcendence is cybernetic eternalism?
Then in 1988 I would have had only minor disputes with Ken Wilber.
a Core Concepts entry cce
Book Club Singh Email (May 14, 2025)
My church book club picked for next book after Joe Tafur (author who joined us a few minutes ago), the forthcoming book by Singh.
Cool coincidence, my colleagues brought up Singh and that March 30 video, and book, a few days ago.
I posted about the video at my site, & linked to book, I’ll re-watch, and maybe pre-order book: Kindle ebook Audiobook 🤔 Hardcover
Hot topic for readers: Article debate series: “Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science”
[May 14, 2025] – from book club email
Non-book, though some of the articles are book chapters.
The Egodeath community might meet again with Alan Houot (author of Rise of the Psychonaut), developing/ defining a high-quality, upward-convergent Science approach that can include Transcendent Knowledge aka Mysticism, in some framing.
The past few days, I re-read the article debate “Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science” – that review strongly confirmed:
The Walter Stace 1960 model of so-called “mysticism” is specifically, narrowly, emphatically the experience of positive-experienced boundaryless unity.
The Stace model of “common core mysticism” is rooted in Advaita Vedanta ever since Swami Vivekananda in 1893, who met with William James.
That’s the historical origin of the dubious model of “a complete mystical experience” per Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), Hood Mysticism Scale, & Hopkins group.
Writers following the Stace model of “mysticism” narrowly claim that mystical experience excludes any negative experience, such as what they call “ego dissolution“, by which they narrowly mean negatively experienced boundaryless unity — like reported in Michael Pollan’s book, re: Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ)), pp. 276-284, How to Change Your Mind; 5-MeO chapter: Pollan says the MEQ failed to match his terrifying experience, because too positive a framing to be applicable.
But now in psychedelic science (psych. assisted therapy) there are many influential & compelling calls to broaden and open up, from that narrow model of what “mysticism” allegedly is, re: the alleged “common core” of mysticism, by which the writers meant, specifically, positive-experienced boundaryless unity.
Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences (Taves 2020)
Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences Ann Taves, 2020 Perspect Psychol Sci 2020 May;15(3):669-690 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32053465/ doi: 10.1177/1745691619895047. Epub 2020 Feb 13. PMID: 32053465 DOI: 10.1177/1745691619895047 Free article at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/86r3f75j
Erratum in: Corrigendum: Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2022 Mar;17(2):614. doi: 10.1177/17456916221076158. Epub 2022 Jan 24. PMID: 35073216
“Although many researchers in psychology, religious studies, and psychiatry recognize that there is overlap in the experiences their subjects recount, disciplinary silos and challenges involved in comparing reported experiences have left us with little understanding of the mechanisms, whether biological, psychological, and/or sociocultural, through which these experiences are represented and differentiated.
“So-called mystical experiences, which some psychologists view as potentially sui generis, provide a test case for assessing whether we can develop an expanded framework for studying unusual experiences across disciplines and cultures.
“Evidence for the special nature of “mystical experience” [boundaryless unity? or, control-model transformation?] rests on the operationalization of a metaphysically untestable construct in two widely used self-report scales: the Mysticism Scale [M Scale] and the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire [MEQ].
“Consideration of the construct in light of research on alterations in sense of self [sense of self as boundaryless unity? or, sense of self as control-agency/ control-model transformation?] induced by psychoactive drugs and meditation practices suggests that “positive experiences of undifferentiated unity” are not sui generis, but rather a type of “ego dissolution.”
“To better understand the nature and effects of unusual experiences, such as alterations in the sense of self [regarding unity? or control transformation?], we need self-report measures that distinguish between generically worded experiences and the way they are appraised in terms of valence, significance, cause, and long-term effects in different contexts.
‘self’ or ‘ego dissolution’ re: non-boundary unity? (like “two models in Phil of Time” but omitting any consideration of personal control system implications)
or,
‘self’ or ‘ego dissolution’ re: cybernetic control-model transformation? (like possibilism vs eternalism but with emphasis explicitly on cybernetic personal control system model modification/ transformation)
Taves Quotes: Unity, Positive, Narrow, Advaita, common core
No need to do this. I thoroughly read the long, good article.
Summary of Findings, Conclusions, Observations about the False, Pleasant Unity Model of “Mysticism”: Smashing the Pleasant Unity Paradigm of Mysticism
Having re-read the debate, it is easiest and a fine strategy to concede dismissively:
LOWER COMMON CORE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE IS POSITIVE EXPERIENCE OF BOUNDARYLESS UNITY.
“Common” as in, hoi poloi; unsophisticated; vulgar; beginner; commonplace and as worthless.
HIGHER COMMON CORE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE IS CYBERNETIC ETERNALISM.
ONLY THE BEST MYSTICS, WITH THE STRONGEST Psilocybin, ACCESS THIS SUPERIOR POTENTIAL.
The positive unity model of mysticism is worse than merely a beginner narrative; that model was just MADE UP.
Purely fabricated and selected from Advaita.
Sw Vivek/ Wm James/ Walter Stace/ Tim Leary/ Walter Pahnke/ Wm Richards/ Ralph Hood/ Bob Jesse/ Roland Griffiths: they simply MADE UP the “positive unity” model of mysticism.
The Stace “positive unity” model of mysticism is as phony as Wasson, SOMA, p. 180, his call to “consult” art historians in the same paragraph where he censors the Brinckmann book citation, while meeting with the Pope, as the Pope’s banker: 100% maximum extreme conflict of interest.
Pollan reports the extreme, total mismatch between so-called the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) framing vs. the actual mystical experience:
Pure made-up bullsh!t, quoted not critically enough via Pollan:
“mental phenomena– thoughts, images, and sensations that psychologies and philosophers regard as typical of a mystical experience. The questionnaire draws on the work of William James, W. T. Stace, and Walter Pahnke.”
Translation: A certain group of confused scholars fabricated a lot of fantasy nonsense based on Swami Vivekananda’s 1893 trojan-horse pretend model of mysticism selectively plucked from Advaita Vendanta, to push a political agenda of international political unity by selectively abusing and ignoring actual mystical experience.
It is utterly misleading to write as Pollan got suckered into:
Mental phenomena of positive boundaryless unity that psychologies and philosophers regard as typical of a mystical experience, such as James, Stace, Pahnke.
That statement fails to point out 2018-1893 = 125 years (not just “over 50” per Erik Davis) of pushback against this BOGUS MODEL OF MYSTICISM drawn from a quirky Swami’s portrayal, “Advaita positive Unity experience = the true essense of mystical experience”.
Against Mr. Swami, as much as against Zen Master Brad and against the pope’s banker fraud fake academic Wasson, the Salvation Salesmen, the Meditation Hucksters,
I support Psilocybin based meditation.
I’m against meditation that tells lies to diminish Psilocybin and to deny the Psilocybin origin of meditation.
Real, authentic, Reference gold standard meditation is defined by Psilocybin meditation. Imitation, avoidance-tactic meditation is non-psychedelic meditation.
Non-psychedelic meditation is as phony as Wasson: fraudulent, imitation, avoidance-tactic meditation. Not to say anyone must use psychedelics in meditation
It is a LIE to claim meditation doesn’t come from Psychedelics, yet, every book in the field all tells this lie.
I can’t stand reading them, they ALL say the same false biased lies to diminish and steal credit from Psilocybin. None of these books ever considers the possibility that (as Nichols David said) meditation must have come from Psilocybin.
Any transformative or revelatory experience of positive boundaryless unity mystical experience came from Psilocybin, typically accompanied by wrestling with gate guard demons; negative altered sense of self.
Meditation that denies the Psilocybin origin of Meditation is FAKE PHONY PSEUDO MEDITATION and it is an AVOIDANCE TACTIC.
James, Stace, Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), M Scale – all are PURE NOTHING BUT IMAGINED PUERILE JUNK MADE-UP NOTION OF Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ).
Selective, arbitrary, positive-only, unity-only –
The entire conception of “mystical experience” used in the field of psychedelic pseudo science is PURE FANTASY.
My condemnations since like 2022 were TOO GENEROUS.
It turns out, I was right, even understated, when saying: psychedelic pseudo science.
I am suddenly more sympathetic to the naysayers Matt Johnson who call for – even filing claims of ethics violations at Hopkins — “Moving Past Mysticism in Psychedelic Science”. the key is, whose ‘mysticism’ are we talking about?
‘mysticism ‘ – What’s that supposed to mean?
You don’t want to know the answer, it’s awful; it’s WORST-CASE SITUATION.
What they all mean by ‘ mysticism’ is, made-up, positive-only, Advaita based.
I am mad at Ken Wilber the past few years, since around 2022, I figured out that Wilber is nothing but non-drug Advaita meditation.
I was correct in Jan 1988: my Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence contradicts the self-assured, entrenched, dominant, made-up, Eastern meditation philosophy model that:
The only, definitive, authentic way of zapping and eliminating ego in a sense, in a deep sense, yet harmlessly, is by block-universe eternalism experienced through high-dose psychedelics repeatedly.
‘Trust’ and ‘surrender’ seemed utterly pathetic in this category 5 mental storm. Terror seized me. The terror didn’t disappear with with extinction of my “I”, in the flames of terror. Pure and terrible sensation. No time or space. It was just horrible. The dimensions of time and space returned. The leaves had blown off the great tree of being and scattered to the four winds, find their way back, fly up into the welcoming limbs of reality, and reattach. The terror I had just endured, died, reborn. I had tied myself up in a philosophical knot, constructed a paradox or koan I was clearly not smart enough or sufficiently enlightened to untangle. One of the most shattering experiences of my life. The MEQ asked me to rank a list of thirty mental phenomena– thoughts, images, and sensations that psychologies and philosophers regard as typical of a mystical experience. The questionnaire draws on the work of William James, W. T. Stace, and Walter Pahnke. “Looking back on the entirety of your session, please rate the degree of which at any time you experienced the following phenomena” using a six-point scale. “From zero, for “none at all,” to five, for extreme: “more than any other time in my life.” But I was unsure what to do with this one: “Feeling that you experienced eternity or infinity.” The language implies something more positive than what I felt when time vanished and terror took hold: NA, I decided. The “experience of the fusion of your personal self into a larger whole” also seemed like an overly nice way to put the sensation of becoming one with a nuclear blast.
Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind, pp. 277-284
Stace’s 1960 model of “mystical experience” is more brittle, more cartoonish, more arb’y, more fake, and even less of a merited “science foundation” than I realized.
the dominant definition of common core and mystical is far worse and far more narrow than I realized.
Just like ‘determinism’ is defined far more specifically than I realized. It’s an exact synonym of domino-chain causality.
‘mysticism’ as it is used in the field, is an exact synonym for the firm, narrow, specific, entirely self-assured emphasis: THE COMMON CORE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE IS (positively experienced ie pleasant) BOUNDARYLESS UNITY.
All of my criticisms of Stace as bunk have been proved, other critics especially Taves reached same conclusion, and I was if anything, TOO EASY ON STACE.
Everyone in that Popular Paradigm says “Item 54: I was afraid to lose my self-control” is not mystical because it is not positive and it is not about boundaryless unity.
per Pop paradigm: “Mystical” only, exclusively, specifically means: positively experienced boundaryless unity.
I hate and completely reject the notion of “mystical experience” that EVERYONE uses; all late-modern scholars since 1893-2025.
They all (except critics)….
There is a certain dominant model of “mystical”, “common core”, and sometimes “perennialism”, used by a certain community/ group/ paradigm.
Critics make a few same objections that I do: eg, Stace is too narrow and too exclusively positive.
OTOH I agree with aspects of Stace and common core, or, “best case” mysticism, normative.
The best mystics should use psychedelics and should experience transformed control in transformed world.
The best lyrics and myth should depict that, via analogy.
My concept of “common core” is more normative and selective.
I’m picking out a certain potential experience as “the best” and “the authentic”.
Many mystics lack that.
Many myths lack that.
Many lyrics lack that.
Those are inferior.
My concept of “common core” is more like, I like the word “classic” or “epic” or “archetypal”.
I like astral ascent mysticism and
I like Hero’s Journey, though with Science explanation, the 2nd gen n/a.
1st gen discoverers do the Hero Journey, then add to Science, then 2nd gen does not do hero journey; they do merely mystery-religion initiation like everyone else.
My model of common-core mysticism and perennialism is normative: If you are tuned into what’s best, you experience transformed control in transformed world; you experience…
Strangeloop found my practical method failed.
Ideal mystical experience is not “unity”, but better: it should cause cybernetic control transformation per sequence:
naive possibilism-thinking. then series of Psilocybin sessions, giving:
basic eternalism-thinking. come down 10th time to the ordinary state of consciousness, end up with:
eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking.
Especially Ann Taves article cleared this up (that “ego dissolution” really means Unity per the Unity Paradigm of mysticism, but with negative valence), but I also got unanimous, overwhelming, extremely consistent indicators May 11-13 2025 from every writer that I checked – wiki, Kitchens, Strassman.
Taves omits transformed world, over-focuses on “sense of self”, fails to consider concom. “sense of world”.
I didn’t realize how pointedly and emphatically Stace & everyone – even Dittrich! — specifically urged, “mystical = positive boundaryless unity” (as Taves clarified). Makes my job easy: black and white contrast:
Everyone says mystical = boundaryless unity per Advaita. A cheap, inarticulate equivalent of eternalism-thinking, without reconciling possibilism-thinking.
These writers waffle, re: psychedelics as the cause of historical mystical experience.
THESE WRITERS DENY THAT HISTORICAL MYSTICS GOT THEIR MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE VIA PSYCHEDELICS. EVEN Even Lundborg writes usual anti-psychedelics assumption: “can Psilocybin simulate genuine traditional methods of the mystics?” I can’t stand to read any of these books asking if meditation hucksters are allowed to use novel innovative new thing, psychedelics.
the Egodeath theory says, and myth, rock lyrics, trippers, Mystery Religions, mushroom-trees says: mystical = cybernetic control transformation; transformed control in transformed world. from branching possibilism with monolithic, autonomous control, to non-branching eternalism with 2-level, dependent control. end up with stable control in both states. end up knowing and perceiving both mental models: possibilism & eternalism.
“ego dissolution” is directly tied to the false, Unity model of mystical experience: like every term used by the bad paradigm, every construct is soaked with the framing; they mean “ego dissolution a la non-boundary unity”. NOT cybernetic control transformation; not control-agency phen’y.
every time they say “mystical”, they always means specifically and narrowly, boundaryless unity.
negative experience of boundaryless unity gets categorized as “non-mystical”.
People challenged the Stace model, though you wouldn’t know it from page 1 of 11-F the 11-Factors questionnaire article.
Stace model is arbitrary and narrow and positive-balanced (selective).
Everyone in psychedelic pseudo science and all fields defines mystical experience specifically as Unity, per specifically Advaita.
The James/Stace false unity model is lifted from Advaita per Swami Vivekananda 1893.
Everyo Critics agree positive
Stace omits negative unity experience.
Dittrich’s OAV’s Ocean dimension means positive unity. (discovered in Taves article).
OAV’s Angst dimension means negative unity, called “ego dissolution“.
“ego dissolution” means negative equiv of Oceanic unity. Vision dim is not related to Unity.
Ocean = positive unity exp.
Angst = negative unity exp.
When they all say “ego dissolution“:
they do NOT mean loose cognition;
they do NOT mean transformed control in transformed world.
All of the writers about “mysticism” merely, always, exclusively, narrowly mean: boundaryless unity (experienced as negative).
Thanks to Taves for shining light on this mostly surprising realization though this was noted when I noticed that Dread is allegedly of what? of “ego dissolution”.
Translation: Dittrich means DREAD OF the boundaryless unity EXPERIENCE.
Dread of Ego Dissolution doesn’t mean Item 54: I was afraid to lose my self-control.
Yesterday May 11 or 12 2025 i noticed that v1 1985-1993 OAV lacked item 54, “anxiety about control”!
During 1975-1993, Dittrich failed to realize that psychedelics cause fear of loss of control.
Only in 1994 OAV did Ditt finally add Item 54: I was afraid to lose my self-control.
Vision != unity exp.
Item 54: I was afraid to lose my self-control. i54
item 54, “anxiety about control” (“I was afraid to lose my self-control”), from OAV’s Angst/Dread dimension i54l
Item 54, “anxiety about control”
Item 54 was dropped from the fancy stupid overcomplicated failed-in-execution low-level factors in the 11-Factors questionnaire, because 54 fit equally in both poor factors:
their misconceived “Anxiety” factor.
their misconceived “Impaired control and cognition” (poor scoped factor).
Shadow Factor 13 is where Item 54: I was afraid to lose my self-control ends up, to be ignored.
This is the history of Item 54: I was afraid to lose my self-control:
Failed to think of it until 1994, not 1975, Dittrich.
Got placed in the 11-Factors questionnaire only in the Unpl hi-lev dim, not in any low-level factor other than my Shadow Factor 13.
When the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) should have copied all 21 items from OAV Angst 1994, they instead copied only the two negative factors in the 11-Factors questionnaire – thus ignoring 8 of the 21 items, for no reason.
My Comment on Freke Podbook Chapter 4 (Why the Universe is Like a Learning AI system)
4 Why the Universe is Like a Learning AI system Tim Freke May 12, 2025 This is a chapter from ‘Why Your Life Really Matters: The Podbook‘.
Tim Freke and Jessica Nathanson have brought a useful critique of nondual unity oneness Advaita.
I look forward to hearing Freke’s critique of how to integrate eternalism (extremely closed future) with our experience of possibilism branching into an open future.
Today I got massive confirmation that the entirely dominant model of common-core “mystical experience”, since Swami Vivekananda in 1893, is, specifically, “boundaryless unity”; nondual oneness.
Swami V fabricated this “unity” model as a means to an end, a trojan horse to push political international unity. James, Stace, Pahnke, Richards, then Griffiths took up this “positive unity feeling” mis-conception of the central mystical experience.
Since 1988, I disagree: the actual main dynamic of mystical experience is the “challenging experience” of cybernetic control destabilization and restabilization, upon experiencing 4D spacetime block universe eternalism — especially the problematization of control, not merely the “unity” aspect of eternalism.
I also got a definition of “perennialism”, from the Summary of the article “The Common Core Thesis in the Study of Mysticism” (Ralph Hood, 2016):
Sentence 1 of Hood’s Summary directly equates Mystical Experience with Unity:
“The common core thesis contends that mystical experience is an ultimate non-sensuous experience of unity of all things.”
“Unlike the perennialist thesis, the common core thesis does not assume that any common theology, philosophy, or practice[??] necessarily follows from mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience.” I don’t know what “theology, philosophy, or practice” is attributed to perennialism.
It is completely clear now why I definitely have to reject “perennialism” and “common core mysticism”. I cannot assert “mysticism” without specifying my model (control destabilization and restabilization) as opposed to the firmly entrenched, false model with misplaced focus (boundaryless unity).
Official Admission: “Common Core Mysticism” Is Sold as “Merely That There Is Something in Common” — but Is Actually, Specifically, Unity
The bait:
The common-core mysticism and perennialism thesis is simply the proposition that:
Religions have a mystical experience in common at their core.
Religions have unitive mystical experience in common at their core.
The common-core mysticism and perennialism is unitive experience.
= nondual, boundaryless unity, non-boundary unity, oneness, suspension of the self-other boundary; No Boundary –
Unitive experience; suspension of the self-other boundary, is the essential core mystical experience.
In fact, cybernetic control transformation from psychedelics is the essence of Transcendent Knowledge, the important thing that all authentic religion has in common.
Is Mystery Religion about unity experience? No. Mystery-religion initiation is about cybernetic control transformation.
THAT is the central essence of religious expeirencing or peak mystical experience across all brands of religion.
(not:)
All paths join at the mountain top, the mountain top is unitive experiencing eg of eternalism per philosophy of time [in which we smartly contrast two metaphysics models: is only the present real, or is past/present & future real?
ie, we contrast Presentism vs. Eternalism, as a Metaphysics debate], and you feel that you = all of space and time, and it is a positive experience.
Authentic Advanced Mystical Experience: Harrowing Cybernetic Control Transformation
In fact:
Myth is about cybernetic control transformation; cybernetic re-stabilization when eternalism is experienced as a POV outside of possibilism-thinking; {shadow dragon monster} driving through the transformation gate]
The relevant cybernetic contrast is the two models of control implied by possibilism vs. eternalism.
branching vs non branching.
open future vs. maximally closed future — on the other extreme end of spectrum from mere domino-chain causality “determinism” with its EXTREMELY WEAKLY “CLOSED” FUTURE, vs eternalism — not the weak half baked grasp of eternalism that Josie Kins effect index has.
Determinism.
Superdeterminism.
Strong determinism.
Phil of Time’s “eternalism” (vs. of course Presentism [facepalm]) – omits control destabilization and restabilization.
Effect index weak eternalism per Josie Kins.
Eternalism per the Egodeath theory; myth; acid lyrics; mushroom-trees, & mystery-religion initiation.
control agency phen’y: control destabilization and restabilization cdr
Supposedly:
nondual unity oneness awareness
Religious experiencing has unitive experience in common at their core.
Religious experiencing has unitive experiencing in common as the core of mystical experience.
— That That Unspecified Something Is Specifically Unity ie Boundaryless Nondual Oneness Unity.
But in fact:
The something – the experience that authentic religions have in common, such as:
Myth
Acid Lyrics
actual trippers
the Egodeath theory
the mushroom-tree artists
mystery-religion initiation
is:
The true actual common core mysticism is CYBERNETIC RE-STABILIZATION AFTER ETERNALISM EXPERIENCE INTRUDES INCURSION
The most extreme example of hardcore acid freakout isolated within a Power Pop upbeat happy song:
tape phasing
nervous escalating violins
3-4 key freakout words/lines
Lyrics:
Remember You were at work and then Friday at five I remember Felt like a pawn, was I dead or alive? I remember Thought no one could hear me, I was goin’ insane I remember, It was a real fine line, now you’ve changed my life around
I’ve been runnin’, I’ve been hidin’, it’s the way of the world You say it’s over, but the world keeps turnin’ ’round World goes round, life goes on, and on, and on
I went to this concert tour. This album is my life, in 1980.
Dream Police was a huge album, delayed so as to not harm sales of their hit Live at Budokan album, 1978/1979.
Six years before Back to the Future day (October 26, 1985).
Given the musical cues of tape phasing and nervous escalating violins, I do NOT read this as (positive) unitive experiencing; I read this as (extreme harrowing) cybernetic control reconfiguration/ restabilization.
Mystery Religion initiation mythic peak seizure!
cybernetic control reconfiguration/ restabilization ccrr
The Common Core Thesis in the Study of Mysticism (Hood 2016): Sentence 1: “Mystical Experience = Unity”
Ralph Hood “the expert in religious experiencing”, 2016 article.
Summary:
“The common core thesis contends that mystical experience is an ultimate non-sensuous experience of unity of all things.”
LOL THERE IT IS! “There is a common thing AND SPECIFICALLY THAT THING IS UNITY”
“It can be identified within major faith traditions, whether explicitly religious or not.
“Its roots are in the work of William James who explored mystical [boundaryless unity] experience outside the limits imposed by what he perceived as only a provisional natural science assumption of the newly emerging discipline of empirical psychology.
“Following the explicit phenomenological work of Walter Stace, the phenomenology of a universal core to mystical [boundaryless unity] experience has been operationalized and an explicit psychometric measure developed to allow empirical assessment of the claim to a common core to [boundaryless unity] mysticism. [vs. control restabilization mysticism]
[control destabilization and restabilization mysticism control destabilization and restabilization cdr
control restabilization mysticism crm]
“It is the linkage of psychometric approaches to the work of James and Stace that is now known explicitly as the common core thesis.
“The common core thesis needs to be delineated from the perennialist thesis popularized by Aldous Huxley in which there is postulated not only a common core experience, but also values and practices[??] claimed to be associated with this experience if not directly derived from it.”
[he’s lost me… what “values and practices”? I have NO IDEA what you’re talking about.]
[compare: Eranos religionism as criticized by Wouter Hanegraaff; traditionalism.]
“Psychometric and empirical evidence for the common core thesis is substantial and continues to accumulate.”
[minor detail: the “boundaryless unity” model is a false, fake model invented selectively by Swami V & followers through Roland Roland Griffiths team at Johns Hopkins Dept. of Psychedelic Pseudo Science; NOT THE MAIN DYNAMIC; FAR FROM IT!]
“evidence….” What circular bull sh!t! Same as: Quantum Physics is irrational nonsense, but this is fine, because super duper mega well proven!! I’m not lying, no no no no no! I super swear, rock solid proof!
“The common core thesis is restricted to mystical [non-boundary unity] experience and assumes that this experience seeks to express itself in various faith traditions, whether religious or not, but is not restricted to or defined adequately by the culture or language with which this experience is interpreted.
“Unlike the perennialist thesis, the common core thesis does not assume that any common theology, philosophy, or practice[??] necessarily follows from mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience.”
This entire article from Ralph Hood is a false, far-off-base model of “mysticism”, ignoring as “challenging therefore non-mystical” the TRUE CORE experience, cybernetic control destabilization and restabilization.
cybernetic control destabilization and restabilization ccdr
In January 11, 1988, our knowledge of ego transcendence leaps ahead: it’s not actually about Unity like everyone unanimously emphasizes, following Swami V 1893 phony concoction of international political unity-purposed “mystical unity” made-up model.
“The document discusses stages of mystical experiences in Hermetic rebirth traditions.
“It describes four specific mystical experiences sought by initiates in a deliberate sequence:
1) Detaching from the senses and material world to achieve intellectual detachment,
2) Ascending through seven planetary zones discarding earthly attachments,
3) Ascending beyond the planetary zones to free the mind from astral determinism,
4) Achieving a rebirth experience associated with a specific celestial region to induce a particular doctrinal orientation.
“The document analyzes differences between Hermetic and Gnostic views of ascension and mystical experiences.”
Critique of Merkur
“Ascending beyond the planetary zones to free the mind from astral determinism” – CITATION NEEDED!
Hermetic writings do NOT say this!
Fowden or someone is MAKING SH!T UP!
No hermetic writing says “when you reach sphere 8 Ogdoad sphere of the 4000 fixed stars above planet spheres 1-7, you are now freed from astral Fate/ heimarmene/ determinism/ eternalism.”
However, hermetic scholars do not use ‘astral’ that way when they write “astral determinism is among the planet spheres” — the 5 moving-star spheres (Mer Ven Mar Jup Sat) vs. the 4000 fixed stars.
Hermetic scholars w/ straight face tell us:
“You rise above the planet zones to be above astral determinism, at the level of the 4000 fixed stars.”
“You reach the 4000 fixed stars, so now you are above astral fate.”
Merkur has a hand-waving passage saying “hermetic cosmos models are a jumbled mess switching from 7 planet spheres to 12 zodiac (= sphere 8 sphere of the fixed stars = Ogdoad) zones.”
Merkur gives no citation to support “above planet zones = free from astral determinism”.
Above planet spheres you are by definition in sphere 8 sphere of the fixed stars, which you must explain how sphere of the fixed stars is free from astral determinism.
When you reach sphere 8 sphere of the 4000 fixed stars, how does that constitute being “free from astral determinism”??
Hermetic scholars once again MAKE NO SENSE, CONTRADICT THEIR own TERM USE from one paragraph to the next, and they cannot provide citations here re: these contradictory, inconsistent term-usages.
Heremetic scholars can’t even handle saying “the fixed stars are immediately above the moving planet spheres.”
Their cosmos model is disjointed.
David Ulansey book & articles: simple coherent, consistent, intelligible, not a mass of inconsistent contradictions.
Why Clueless Blaming of Tripper for “Failing to Surrender”
the fear & threat is not of lifting the boundary between self & world – that’s what the foolish “blame the tripper who failed to surrender” think.
Actually, the ‘surrender’ crude folk advice IS pretty close to seeing the actual threat: control-related.
Surrender your control to [gets 100% hazy here]…
On the ego side of the transformation gate, it looks like you are required to hand over your control to mystery agent X, as is, unchanged.
Actually what happens is your model of control is transformed upon seeing the {snake frozen in rock}.
The king remains on his throne as the emperor episphany reveals his higher power under the king’s throne.
the fear & threat is of catastrophic loss of control
6:02 pm May 12, 2025: This means that the blame-the-tripper explanations, eg at effectindex.com — when they say “your bad trip panic seizure is your fault, for resisting ego dissolution – you should have surrendered to the drug/trip/ demon/ satan/ mystery-threat] – they really are thinking, wrongly, “you were stupid to be afraid of merely non-boundary unity”.
They are oblivious to the real actual threat, experience of the threat of catastrophic loss of control.
The Word “Mystical” Always Means the Fake, “non-boundary unity” model of mysticism
Always Read “Mystical” (since 1893) as Swami Vivekanandean Fake Political Substitute “non-boundary unity” model of mysticism
boundaryless unity
in all writings, globally insert after “mysticism”/ “mystical”:
[boundaryless unity] mysticism
mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience
as opposed to the authentic, “control-model transformation” model of mystical experience
the Egodeath theory is an explanation of authentic mystical experience – it is NOT a model of that which scholars or psychedelic pseudo science calls “mystical experience”.
When anyone in those communities says “mysticism”, they are instead talking about boundaryless unity experience.
I’ve been using “Stacean” or “Staceanism” pejoratively, to replace “mysticism” or “mystical”. Better say “Vivekanandean” or “Vivekanandeanism”. Thanks to Strassman 2018 then Taves 2020 then Kitchens for tracing back to Swami. Or Jamesian/ism.
Move Over, Zen Master Brad, Make Way for Swami Vivekananda, on the Bench of Unity Spirituality Fabricators
Salvation Salesman
Meditation Hucksters
Unity Mysticism Fabricators
When anyone in those communities says “mystical experience”, they are instead talking about boundaryless unity experience.
Ralph Hood’s Mysticism Scale was based on Stace 1960; ie based on James 1902; ie based on Swami Vivekananda 1893 fake reductionist [ie explanandum-replacing] non-boundary unity mysticism trojan horse for international political unity.
“The paper was published in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion in March 1975, solidifying the [sic; non-boundary unity model of; not the control transformation model of] mystical experience as a valid scientific concept.
“Science wasn’t exactly replacing religion, as some would argue, but it was beginning to reformulate it in its own image.
“Mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience as a measurable phenomena didn’t emerge (or evolve) without its critics.
“Ann Taves, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at UC Santa Barbara and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship,8 says that the conclusions derived from the research at Johns Hopkins rely heavily on the idea of a universal “mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience,” a theological concept that functions as a catchall category for a variety of possibly unrelated mental states.”
“Hood’s questionnaire—based on this spiritual belief [trojan horse for international political unity by Swami V 1893] that Taves says was elaborated over the past one hundred years—doesn’t just influence the volunteer into seeing the experience as a positive one, it also suggests and reinforces their assumption that the mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience is a distinct or sui generis one.
“If scientists fail to make a clear distinction between
scientific claims based on empirical evidence and
theological claims based on revelation or tradition [or on Swami V’s scheme to fabricate a model of “mystical experience” that’s “positive-balanced” and that’s limited to merely non-boundary unity experience, to advance his agenda of international political unity in 1893]
“, they risk setting mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experiences apart from other similar experiences on theological rather than scientific grounds.
“They have no scientific basis for making theological claims regarding the common core of all religions [falsely or feebly taken to be non-boundary unity] or the presence of an ultimate reality that unites them,” Taves wrote.
“These broad [unity, but ignore control transformation] and unstable categories, she says, limit our ability to uncover the mechanics of consciousness and how these experiences actually work.”
The Dimension Name “Dread of Ego Dissolution” Participates in the False, Swami V Model of “Mystical experience”: by “ego dissolution”, Dittrich Merely Means non-boundary unity, not Control Transformation
The Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) by Roland Griffiths team at Johns Hopkins Dept. of Psychedelic Pseudo Science omits 18 of 21 unpleasant effects (from OAV 1994’s Angst/DED/Dread dim [5:16 pm may 12 2025: here i connect-in, my previous noting that Ditt’s dim name “Dread OF EGO DISSOLUTION” is false], which = the Unpleasant hi-lev dim of 11 Factors questionnaire), replacing them by a giant Grief Therapy factor/subscale, no “Control challenges” subscale.
Kitchens con’t:
“Some believe that these theological premises are being obscured by researchers who have both an ideological (and in some cases: financial) interest in bringing psychedelics to market. Add to this the fact that psychedelics are now being hyped as the answer to all of our problems and a troubling picture emerges. Did the scientists of religion, attempting to model the natural sciences and systematize religions, accidentally synthesize them, creating a new, scientific subgenre of Christianity that they themselves could believe in? What’s really happening at Johns Hopkins might be the flowering of a new psychedelic spirituality, grounded in Jamesian [love it! modifier just like I been doing!] mysticism, with psilocybin “therapy” replacing the ancient initiation ceremony.
“Dr. Rick Strassman calls it “the psychedelic religion of mystical [ie boundaryless unity] consciousness.”
“It’s a messianic movement,” Strassman told me. “They want to bring about a utopia, and in this case, the messiah is the mushroom.”
“Strassman is not just a veteran psychedelic researcher—his investigations into DMT in New Mexico in the late 1980’s were the very first post-prohibition psychedelic trials in the United States—he was also the first person Bob Jesse asked to help initiate the mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience trials before Roland Griffiths and Johns Hopkins signed on.
“Bob Jesse discovered the rave culture in the Bay Area in the early 1990s and he got bit by the bug big time,” Strassman says.
“He thought that this was a path to utopia.
“He stopped working at Oracle, got a big severance package from Larry Ellison, and just went on this mission.
“And he’s been kind of nonstop since then.”
“Psychedelics, Strassman says, don’t have any inherent mystical [ie boundaryless unity] or spiritual effects—those are caused by set and setting: specific musical playlists, sensory isolation, and filtering the results through questionnaires like the M-Scale.
The current psychedelic movement or “renaissance,” he says, is essentially the emergence of a new mystico-[ie boundaryless unity]-scientific religion—“camouflaged by scientific studies and statistical firepower” [= sloppy 11 Factors paper then dropping 18 of 21 effects in CEQ]—with its own Moses (William James) and cult vocabulary (psychedelics “occasion” effects; adverse effects are now “challenging”; flashbacks are “reactivations”; “and if you read the articles, they all start to borrow the same language.”)
“There’s the philosophy of James, Strassman says, and then there’s his theology, which was inspired by his connection with Swami Vivekananda.
“Vivekananda was preaching [fabricating; inventing] a universal religion—not just anybody’s universal religion, his universal religion—which would promote utopia.
“There would be no more sectarian strife.
The way you could do it was by positing a universal religious [non-boundary unity] experience which all major religions shared and that was biological or “hardwired” so, how could you deny it?
“If you accepted it [DO NOT ACCEPT “PERENNIALISM” OR “MYSTICISM” – TRJOAN HORSE PACKAGE DEAL!], all the sectarian differences would kind of melt away.”
[… along with omitting advanced control transformation mysticism, from strong psychedelics.
What Sw V did wasn’t necessarily abandoning authentic mysticism control transformation; but, the way he did it, that’s what he did:
Omit unpleasant;
omit high dose psychedelics;
omit control transformation.]
“This was consistent with and supported James’ idea of a universal [read: unitive] religious [non-boundary unity] experience that was a formless, content-free, no-self [ie, non-boundary unity] state.”
“Strassman worries specifically about Judaism, which is “particularistic” and therefore incompatible with a universal religion.”
[Actually Rick Strassman’s Jewish religion is incompatible with a merely non-boundary unity mysticism.
Jewish religion would be more compatible with authentic, control transformation mysticism, per my Dec 2, 2013 chalkboard lecture about the true referent of {the Israelites}.
{the Israelites} = those who affirm non-branching possibilities and 2-level, dependent control, like Abraham & Isaac.]
“The Hebrew Bible doesn’t contain any contentless, selfless, ego-loss experiences free of time and space, he says, and as a result, is viewed by researchers as inferior.”
but theologians elevate relational mysticism over unitive mysticism -Michael Hoffman
““The existence of a universal religious experience is a theological solution,” he said.
“Other researchers are moving away from [boundaryless unity] mysticism for their own reasons.
“Matthew Johnson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, has warned his colleagues against adopting frameworks “drawn piecemeal from mystical [boundaryless unity] traditions” that might alienate potential customers.
“Ultimately, we want them [insurance companies] to cover this stuff,” Johnson told Vice.
“And there is going to be an issue with covering religious therapy.
“The point is, someone could make an argument against it.”
“It is also inappropriate, he says, to introduce “meta-religious” belief systems such as perennialism (or “the common core”) [always defined as boundaryless unity mysticism, never as control transformation mysticism] into therapeutic practice.
“Johnson is a paid advisor with at least seven different companies developing psychedelics for medicinal use.
“Hood freely acknowledges the limits of language and even his own scale for capturing the sacred. ]
prediction: M Scale questionnaire is weak at covering control transformation effects, and strong at boundaryless unity effects. – Michael Hoffman
“Some things you just have to try for yourself, he says.
“Say you’ve never tasted a lemon before and ask me what one tastes like.
‘Well hell, I say, I don’t know. Have you ever had an orange? It’s like that, but sour.’
“No matter how much I talk, can you walk away saying that now you know what a lemon [he means boundaryless unity, not control transformation experience] is like?
“The answer is no—go taste the goddamn thing.
“Once you taste it [non-boundary unity], all of the words don’t matter.
“There’s no substitute for [non-boundary unity] experience.
“You will know the answer on the basis of your [non-boundary unity] experience, and what that experience has elicited in you.
“We are caught as intellectuals with the notion that it’s [non-boundary unity is] all in the words.”
“One explanation for such widely reported claims of experiencing God and transcendent realities [he doesn’t mean cybernetic control aspects of eternalism; he means only non-boundary unity], he says, “is simply that they do.”
[5:39 pm May 12, 2025: A huge key for critiquing the kind of “Philosophy” positions defined by Chris Letheby: why he wrongly focuses on mere Metaphysics, not on Cybernetic phen’y: b/c he is under delusion that mystical experience = non-boundary unity – oblivious to the control transformation aspects of experiencing eternalism, which invites appropriate Control Agency Phen’y modelling instead of Metaphysics.
Letheby & Timmerman’s MBQ should be instead, not Metaphysical Beliefs [= boundaryless unity] Questionnaire, but rather, Control Agency Phen’y [= control transformation cybernetics] Questionnaire
– Michael Hoffman]
Kitc con’t:
“People don’t just search for the sacred [ie non-boundary unity], they respond to it, and his scale simply and accurately measures that response, whether it’s [non-boundary unity is] occasioned by drugs, isolation, meditation, prayer, or gazing at the sunset.
“Though culture is certainly a factor in how people choose to express these [boundaryless unity] experiences, no mystic [ie, experiencer of boundaryless unity] would mistake the interpretation for the experience [of non-boundary unity] itself.
Those who know [the feeling of non-boundary unity] don’t say, Hood says, and those who say don’t know.
[indeed they do not know control transformation phen’y]
“I never ever said that I measured mystical [ie boundaryless unity] experience.
“I don’t have that much hubris.
“I measured people’s response to an [non-boundary unity] experience.
“Maybe you lied.
“Or, maybe my questions were good enough so that you said, ‘I’m going to mark it this way because there’s something there that rings true.’
“That means it is more than just a mark on that piece of paper.
“One of the arguments that people have made against my [mysticism ie non-boundary unity] scales is that it’s difficult.
“Double negatives.
“My response is that the people who respond to it never have that problem.
“It has high reliability.
“I’m always open to the fact that you lied, but it’s hard to mask that. If you did lie on the other scale, fine, but then that’s just stupid.”
“Despite the shortcomings of experimental science, Hood believes that most drugs could safely be in the marketplace if people are educated about them.
“However, he does worry about the commodification of psychedelics and what may happen if the pharmaceutical industry—prone to baseless hype and deceptive advertising—controls the market.
“Strassman agrees that Johns Hopkins’ approach is too reductive and that there’s a danger of turning psychedelics into “super Prozacs.””
Taves’ Abstract Suggests Groupings: Pleasant Boundary-Unity Mysticism vs. Unpleasant Cybernetic-Control Mysticism
Taves’ Abstract suggests coupling two sets of ideas/ theory-constructs:
non-boundary unity vs control-model transformation – two models of mystical experience
positive/pleasant therefore mystical, vs. negative/ unpleasant/ challenging therefore unmystical but actually, TRULY KEY-MYSTICAL
Then grouping the associated two items of the old theory vs new theory:
Traits of the old theory (not supported by Religious Myth, Acid Metal lyrics, or the mushroom-tree artists):
non-boundary unity; boundaryless unity
positive/pleasant therefore mystical
Traits of the new theory (supported by Religious Myth, Acid Metal lyrics, & the mushroom-tree artists):
‘Monism’ vs. ‘Pluralism’ in James Studies Means Bare Eternalism, Lacking the Cybernetic Control Transformation Implications
That’s why it is never sufficient to say eternalism; must say cybernetics word too. (at a certain summary level)
pluralism = possibilism = [paired with] monolithic, autonomous control
monism = eternalism = [paired with] 2-level, dependent control
‘Monism’ vs. ‘Pluralism’ in James and Bricklin: Illusion of Will Author Book: They Mean Bare Eternalism Lacking the Crucial Implicit Control Transformation Implications of Eternalism Omitted by Only Seeing Time or Space
Myth Supports the Control Transformation Model of Mystical Experience (the new theory), not the Boundaryless Unity Model (the old theory)
boundaryless unity blu
boundaryless unity mysticism blum
The Well-“Validated” But False, “Unity” Model of Mystical Experience
The model of mystical experience hasn’t been validated.
Only the questionnaire to measure mystical experience has been “validated”.
‘Validated’ merely means that someone did some specialized calculations; it does not at all imply that the model of mystical experience is valid.
A “validated” questionnaire means NOTHING regarding the truth of the model it’s based on. Even the the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ-POS has been “validated”.
The word “validated” sounds impressive to the gullible, but is far less impressive really.
Raising suspicion even more, AI’s source says “well-validated”.
The beans I ate were well-validated by my extra-big fart.
The AI summary (its sources) should say SUPER-WELL VALIDATED.
A QUESTIONNAIRE BASED ON A TOTALLY FALSE MODEL OF MYSTICISM IS “VALIDATED” — YET REMAINS FALSE.
Quantum Physics has been super duper ultra confirmed [suspiciously strenuous emphasis] by experiment (even if insane, false interpretations).
Did Hopkins Use Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ 32) (Single Session) or Hood M-Scale 30 (Lifetime)?
todo: correct my pages if needed – this might explain why index of Pollan How C Mind says Mystical Experience Questionnaires; =
M Scale, Mystical Scale, 1975 from Ralph Hood (the “expert” about religious experience, who is oblivious to transformed control in transformed world). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_W._Hood
MEQ 1975 (William Richards, from Walter Pahnke).
Criticism/Debunking of Hood’s Mysticism Model (from Stace) at Wiki
“Stace’s work in mystical experience has received strong criticisms for its lack of methodological rigor and its perennialist pre-assumptions.[6]
“Major criticism came from Steven T. Katz in his influential series of publications on mysticism and philosophy[a] and from Wayne Proudfoot in his Religious Experience (1985).[7]
“In defense of Stace, Hood (2001) cites Robert K. C. Forman, who argues that introverted mysticism is correctly conceptualized as a common core, since it lacks all content, and is the correct basis for a perennial philosophy.[8][b]
“Hood notes that Stace’s work is a conceptual approach, based on textual studies.[7]
“He posits his own work as a parallel approach, based on an empirical approach, thereby placing the conceptual claims in an empirical framework,[10] assuming that Stace is correct in his approach.[11]
“Jacob van Belzen criticized Hood, noting that Hood validated the existence of a common core in mystical experiences, but based on a conceptual framework which presupposes the existence of such a common core: “
“[T]he instrument used to verify Stace’s conceptualization of Stace is not independent of Stace, but based on him.”[12]
“Belzen also notes that religion does not stand on its own, but is embedded in a cultural context, which should be taken into account.[13]
“To this criticism Hood et al. answer that universalistic tendencies in religious research “are rooted first in inductive generalizations from cross-cultural consideration of either faith or [non-boundary unity] mysticism”,[14]
“stating that Stace sought out texts which he recognized as an expression of [non-boundary unity] mystical expression, from which he created his universal core.
“Hood therefore concludes that Belzen “is incorrect when he claims that items were presupposed.”[14][c]”
My Commentary on Wiki Critique of Hood
religious experience r-e
There IS a common core, but it is NOT what EVERYONE assumes, boundary lifting.
In fact common core BEST mystical experience is transformed control in transformed world – NOT unity; not non-boundary unity dissolution of self-other boundary.
The best, most authentic mystical experience was refined; the analogies describing were most refined in the superior and best brands that most fully developed and honed in on this specific dynamic.
These superior recognitions of ultimate mystical experience ignore inferior mystical experience, and commit all focus to the very best mystical experience:
Acid Rock Music Lyrics
mystery-religion initiation
religious myth
astral ascent mysticism
the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees}
reports of 1950-2025 transformed control in transformed world by psychedelics users
In the acid song Heaven Can Wait, does Iron Maiden sing “To see the truth: non-boundary unity“? No, they sing: “To see the truth: the path for you is decided“.
Does myth or mushroom-trees exclaim: “OMG, non-boundary unity!”? NO! Myth & mushroom-trees exclaim: “OMG, tctw
transformed control in transformed world tctw
Wiki page about criticism/debunking of Stace’s mysticism model
Wm James, Walter Stace, Ken Wilber, etc. Get Their Model of “Mystical” Experience from Advaita’s “Unity” Religious Philosophy
Theory of psychedelic transformation needs to weed out bad alien models based in rumor and Orientalism or Nativism. Overlooked: religious myth, imagery, art, mushroom-trees, mystery religion, acid Rock lyrics, tripper reports, the Egodeath theory.
The main source of evidence for ideal cases, for the Egodeath theory, is the Egodeath theory. The Egodeath theory the best source for generating evidence that the Egodeath theory needs.
Note that both “science founders of mysticism”, consistently:
Wm James 1893: Mainly influenced by Swami V’s Advaita Vendanta.
Walter Stace 1960: Mainly influenced by Advaita Vendanta.
“He concluded that the spirit of scientific enquiry … has furthered religious scepticism by undermining the teleological presumption of an ultimate ‘final cause’. Concern with divine purpose of events had been replaced by investigation into what had caused them; the new imaginative picture of the world was dominated by the idea that life is purposeless and meaningless. The effects of this change included moral relativity, the individualisation of morality, and the loss of belief in free will.”
“his idea that mysticism is everywhere “the apprehension of an ultimate nonsensuous unity in all things“.”
“the mystic perceives the unity in “the multiplicity of external material objects”, while in the latter the mystic perceives the One … “as the wholly naked One devoid of any plurality whatever”.”
“the psychological qualities of mystical experience, which he roots in a passage from the Mandukya Upanishad:
Undifferentiated unity
Dissolution of the self [Does that mean control agency? Hell no! As always, all words are packaged within a heavy framework of “unity boundaryless”, so, “the self” means suspending the boundary between self vs. everything.]
Feeling of revelation or veracity of the event
Feeling of blessedness and peace [cybernetic control transformation aspects are not typically tranquil/serene]
Feeling of serenity
…
“for his definition of mysticism, and identifies the realisation the personal self is identical with the infinite Self at the core of the experience. … there are three causes for this:
loss of individuality [ie non-boundary unity]
transcending space and time
feeling of peace and bliss“
“Professor Stace seems to have no knowledge of any Indian language and his examples are drawn from what is most monistic in the Upanishads and other sacred writings”
“Stace’s list of characteristics hardly represents the broad variety of mystical experiences described by mystics. His “unitary consciousness” is only one characteristic, and not necessarily connected to illuminating insight.”
“Stace is also normative in his preference for monistic mysticism and his rejection of theistic mysticism.
“Stace fails to understand the difference between phenomenology and metaphysics“
“‘constructivism’, this position holds that all states of mind are in some degree constructed by social and cultural factors, so that we cannot speak of a unitary consciousness.”
“It is the pure unitary consciousness, wherein awareness of the world and of multiplicity is completely obliterated. It is ineffable peace. It is the Supreme good. It is One without a second. It is the Self.””
Overemphasis on Advaita by James, Stace, Wilber, Everyone
“King, Richard (1999), Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East”, Routledge, who describe how Western preferences for monotheism influenced the Western perception of Indian religions, and the influence of their Brahmana informants, lead to a favoring of Advaita Vedanta as the quintessential Indian philosophy.
“This Advaitic preference, together with the influence of Unitarian missionaries, shaped the worldview of Swami Vivekananda [influenced Wm James 1893], arguably one of the strongest forces in the shaping of the Western popular understanding of Indian “mysticism.”
“His [Vivekananda’s] Ramakrishna Mission spread his idiosyncratic understanding on Advaita Vedanta in the West, and popularized Ramakrishna, one of Stace’s examples of genuine mystics, as an exemplary Indian saint.”
Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) vs. Mysticism Scale (M Scale)
The Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) and the Hood Mysticism Scale (M-Scale) are both well-validated instruments used to measure mystical experiences, but they differ in some key aspects:
Similarities:
Theoretical Basis: Both scales are rooted in the same theoretical framework, particularly drawing upon W.T. Stace‘s [VILLAIN follower of Swami Vivekananda] conceptualization of the “core” characteristics of mystical [read: positive-balanced, boundaryless unity] experiences.
Content Domains: Both instruments assess similar underlying content domains, such as unity, transcendence of time and space, and ineffability, which are central to mystical experiences.
Convergent Validity: Studies have shown a strong correlation between scores on the MEQ and the Hood Mysticism Scale, demonstrating convergent validity.
Differences:
Time Frame:
MEQ: The MEQ is typically used to assess phenomena occurring during a single, discrete mystical experience, often in the context of studies involving classic hallucinogens like psilocybin.
Hood Mysticism Scale: The Hood Mysticism Scale (M-Scale) has been applied as a measure of phenomena occurring over a lifetime or retrospectively, assessing mystical experiences more broadly.
Factor Structure:
MEQ: The MEQ, particularly the 30-item revised version (MEQ30), has a validated four-factor structure consisting of mystical, positive mood, transcendence of time/space, and ineffability.
Hood Mysticism Scale: The Hood Mysticism Scale (M-Scale) typically demonstrates a three-factor structure, such as introvertive, extrovertive mysticism, and interpretation.
Specific Items: While both scales address similar themes, they differ in the specific items used to measure mystical experiences.
In summary:
Both the MEQ and Hood Mysticism Scale are valuable tools for studying mystical experiences.
The MEQ is often preferred for examining the features of a single, hallucinogen-occasioned mystical experience, while
the M-Scale is better suited for assessing mystical experiences more broadly across an individual’s lifetime.
/ end of AI summary
Mysticism Scale (M scale) Psychedelics Effects Questionnaire (Ralph Hood, 1975) (32 items, based on Stace’s “Boundaryless Unity” Model of Mysticism, 1960)
The Construction and Preliminary Validation of a Measure of Reported Mystical Experience Ralph W. Hood, Jr. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Vol. 14, No. 1 (Mar., 1975), pp. 29-41 (13 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/1384454
Abstract:
“A measure of reported mystical experience is presented.
“This “Mysticism Scale, Research Form D (M scale),” has 32 items, four for each of 8 categories of mysticism initially conceptualized by Stace (1960).
“Items on this scale are both positively and negatively expressed to avoid problems of response set.
“A factor analysis of the M Scale indicated two major factors, a general mystical experience factor (20 items) and a religious interpretation factor (12 items).
“Preliminary evidence indicates that those high on the M Scale
have more intrinsic religious motivation as defined by Hoge’s (1972) scale,
are more open to experience as defined by Taft’s (1970) ego permissiveness scale,
have more intense religious experience as defined by Hood’s (1970) scale,
and have moderately higher scores on the L, Hs, and Hy scales of the MMPI .”
William James and Swami Vivekananda: Religious Experience and Vedanta/Yoga in America (Frederick 2012)
Relevant to the Egodeath theory: Everyone wrongly models mystical experience as non-boundary unity; the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience.
Only the Way of Zen by Alan Watts & the Egodeath theory (reflecting acid Metal lyrics & Myth & mushroom-trees) model mystical experience as the “control-model transformation” model of mystical experience; the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence 1988.
Late Antiquity (Astral Ascent Mysticism) Asserts that Possibilism-Thinking Is Used Coherently and Validly as a Personal Control System Mental Model, Not as a Metaphysical Reality
Ken Wilber “trans-rational” = the way in which the Psilocybin-matured mind uses possibilism-thinking. Our virtual world we exist in is structured in the shape of possibilism, though Psilocybin reveals that at the substrate level, eternalism is the case.
The alien Psilocybin incursion of eternalism truth into virtual possibilism world.
The alien transmitted message of Hermes from the gods to immortals is that at the substrate level, eternalism is the case, and at the virtual experienced level, possibilism is effectively the case.
Entry into Jeru: Jesus head = knowing eternalism is the case metaphysically. Donkey head = experiencing virtual possibilism world & control-agency; the practical personal control system (bulk of it).
Exception: during peak state, use possibilism-thinking but also use / rely on eternalism-thinking.
Late Antiquity astral ascent mysticism is only semi-guilty of lying, claiming that you transcend Fatedness/ eternalism: The Psilocybin-Transformed Mind Ends up Using the “eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking” mental model/ personal control system
Late Antiquity Doesn’t Claim Possibilism Is the Case Metaphysically; It States that Possibilism-thinking Is Used Coherently and Validly as a Personal control system / mental model (not as a metaphysical reality)
Coherent Viable Integrity Requires Using eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking.
That is what’s practically relevant, not what’s the case metaphysically; only the suitable type of functional, in-practice “coherence” or “integrity” is required.
May 10, 2025 all-day voice recording, I switched from “Late Antiquity lies, pretends possibilism is legit” per epistemology, ontology, metaphysics – to saying instead, POV: possibilism (eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking) is indeed how the mental model of control ends up, just as claimed by astral ascent mysticism”
the way i arrived at that favorable framing of qualified possibilism-thinking – instead of saying “possibilism is merely virtual illusory, not really the case” – is because this huge benefit of having for 3 years reviewed, analyzed, and corrected the book Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity (Wouter Hanegraaff, 2022).
Friend said ignore Wouter Hanegraaff, he’s confused and wrong.
Instead, I followed through and wrote and posted the review correcting Hanegraaff – the huge payoff for me – for the Egodeath theory — was that wriing the review and explaining his error, required me to get super clear on my model of mental model transformation:
naive possibilism-thinking (resulting from the personal control phen’y of the tight cognitive binding state)
basic eternalism-thinking (resulting from the personal control phen’y of the loose cognitive binding state)
eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking
Nowhere in those 3 phases does the model of mental model transformation focus on the question of whether eternalism or possibilism or eternalism is the case metaphysically.
Unlike the Letheby & Timmerman questionnaire, we don’t aren’t focusing on Metaphysics (MBQ); we are instead relevantly focusing on phen’y driven mental model transformation about control-model transformation.
In April 21 2025 for me to compose finally the book review – in context of conversations w/ Houot — just after I posted the Houot Rise of the Psychonaut book review — reviewing Wouter Hanegraaff book and straightening out his cosmic mess so as to bring fixed stars back in, I had to keep referreing to my model OF WHAT? WHAT POV?
Answer: My model of mental model personal control system t control transformation.
Did I say my model of “what is actually the case metaphysically/ epist’y / ontol’y”? No.
I said, CONTROL AGENCY PHEN’Y MAY 10 2025, AFTER my successful Wouter Hanegraaff book review April 21 2025.
To write my Wouter Hanegraaff review, to fix his cosmos mess, I had to keep referring to my model of mental model transformation.
NOT my Phil department position per Letheby, re: epis’ly “what is the case” – not Metaphysics; not Epis’y, not Ontol’y. Basically, cognitive control agency phen’y.
From the POV of cognitive control agency phen’y, it is irrelevvant what is the case metaphysically. astral ascent mysticism accepts Mewtaphysics sphere 8 = eternalism is the case, and combinees sphere 9 cognitive control agency phen’y: end up with rebirth into / as, eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking.
The mind IN FACT ends up with eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking, in the personal control system.
Even though metaphysically, eternalism is the case.
This is the sense in which:
On the Metaphysical level, eternalism is privileged and possibilism is irrelevant.
On the mental model Phen’y level, possibilism is privileged and eternalism is irrelevant.
Switched from “Eternalism is the case, metaphysically” to “Possibilism is the final, mature personal control system mental model”
more a Phenomenology basis of valuation & judgment, than Metaphysics:
on May 10, 2025, and while writing book review Wouter Hanegraaff April 21, 2025
Are we describing what’s metaphysically the case?
Or are we describing mental model transformation driven by loose cognition phen’y? To make sense of Late Antiquity hermetic astral ascent mysticism, required my model of mental model transformation driven by loose cognition phen’y — NOT my model of what’s the case metaphysically.
This is how on May 10, 2025 I finally dropped all traces or hints of disparaging possibilism-thinking.
It is irrelevant that eternalism, not possibilism, is the case metaphysically. (So, possibilism-thinking is fake and illegit; dirty.)
What’s relevant (for the Egodeath theory & astral ascent mysticism) is that the personal control system mental model transforms to qualified possibilism-thinking. (So, possibilism-thinking is washed clean, so we have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.)
Fake Mysticism Agenda: Non-boundary unity vs. control transformation; Fake Unity Mysticism vs. Authentic Cybernetic Mysticism
I joined a May 10 distinction w/ a May 12 (today) 2025 IDENTIFYING specifically what all the bad models have in common:
May 10 2025: Myth confirms the Egodeath theory AND DISPROVES ALL OTHER MODELS, “the old theory”. Myth matches the Egodeath theory far better than myth matches the old theory.
But what’s the hallmark essence of the false theory? Answer from May 12: non-boundary unity (instead of control-model transformation).
May 10 I mocked “I experienced my boundary (self vs world) moving from here to there — from A to B — or lifting/suspending. Therefore, I have Transcendent Knowledge.”
That’s the stupid model of mystical experience or ego transcendence or Transcendent Knowledge that everyone pushes, except for the Egodeath theory; the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence 1988.
The best religious myth & the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees} confirms the latter, not the former.
May 12 2025: the essence of the old theory (the non-boundary unity model of mystical experience), seen everywhere, eg:
the 1987 the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology model.
The Ken Wilber model; integral theory; model of psycho-spiritual dev’mt: “you do non-drug Adv meditation for 30 (ie 60) years, to gain non-boundary unity awareness.”
the James positive-balnaced model of mystical experience, from Swami Viv.
Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ)
the lopsided whitewashing of the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ).
My Jan 1988 model is instead, the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence; ie, the control transformation model of mystical experience. Use a few loose cognition sessions and study block-universe eternalism and mental model transformation about control, to readily (1 semester class) do control-model transformation, become a completed initiate (Classical Antiquity’s 2-phase model of Transcendent Knowledge) or transcend Fate (Late Antiquity’s 3-phase model of Transcendent Knowledge/ spiritual transcendence/ redemption/ rescue/ emancipation/ salvation).
Scholars claim that:
Classical Antiquity = communal Mystery Religions
Late Antiquity = indiv Mystery Religions
perhaps, but more important is:
Classical Antiquity = 2-phase model: possibilism-thinking, then eternalism-thinking. basic possibilism-thinking, then basic eternalism-thinking. [a charitable wording; Classical Antiquity was not wrong, but was too limited/ basic]
the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees} is typically limited to depicting basic possibilism-thinking then basic eternalism-thinking.
Eadwine in Great Canterbury Psalter elaborates and develops the genre refining it, to depict the limitation of merely basic eternalism-thinking; to go on all the way to final mental model: the final model of personal control system produced by Psilocybin indefinite endless series of Psilocybin sessions:
the end result mental model (personal control system) is eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking. Not basic eternalism-thinking.
eternalism-modified possibilism-thinking empt
I discovered the the “control transformation” model of mystical experience (as opposed to the dominant, wrong, “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience) on Jan 11, 1988, and immediately contrasted it against the non-boundary unity model of mystical experience (as I put my finger on that contrast, today, May 12, 2025).
Classic Ken Wilber Books for my 1988 Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence
No Boundary (Ken Wilber 1979) pushes the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience
the “control-model transformation” model of mystical experience cmtmme
Before Jan 1988, I was definitely reading the 1979 book No Boundary by Ken Wilber. eg likely Jan 1986-March 1987. The book is probably in my small library photographed in dorm/ cottage room. On my gtr spk iso box table in cottage.
1985-1987, the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience was pushed by everyone, and it did not provide value for my needs of fixing my dysfunctional cross-time control/ self-conflict.
I did not need to experience non-boundary unity.
I needed to experience what the Way of Zen by Alan Watts pushed: a sudden revised model of self-control cybernetics.
Does No Boundary push the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience? YES! Totally 100%, explicitly, emphatically!
“No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth Ken Wilber
“A straightforward and accessible study of personal development and human consciousness, as seen through the lens of Eastern and Western therapeutic traditions.
“In No Boundary, Ken Wilber masterfully bridges Eastern and Western philosophies to explore the intricate relationship between consciousness and identity. [read that verbiage as: non-boundary unity]
“Through an inquiry into the essence of self [as boundary within a branching world? or as a transformed-model control agent in a revealed-non-branching world?], Wilber challenges readers to question the boundaries that define their identities, illustrating how these self-imposed limits shape our perceptions and experiences.
[Tim Leary & Alan Watts also – like everyone else – casts Transcendent Knowledge as “skin encapsulated ego: realizing unity; illusory boundary” – ie, non-boundary unity]
“The book examines the concept of unity consciousness, a state where boundaries dissolve, revealing the interconnectedness of all existence.
“By weaving together insight from psychology, spirituality, and modern physics [Everett manyworlds branching Quantum Mysticism — not the other, passed-by potential model, Minkowski 4D spacetime block-universe mysticism], Wilber offers a comprehensive view of human potential [within branching possibilities world] and the path to enlightenment [re: non-boundary unity — not re: control-model transformation]
“Readers will gain a valuable understanding of the nature of identity and the illusion of separateness that pervades our understanding of reality.
“No Boundary serves as a guide to personal transformation, encouraging individuals to engage with psychological and spiritual practices that awaken them to their true nature. [ie, non-boundary unity]
“Through this journey, readers can embrace a more integrated and harmonious existence, free from the constraints of dualistic thinking.
[we can see / smell/ detect here, Swami Viv poking through: political agenda: fabricate a model of mystical experience that pushes the agenda of international political unity – if the Strassman/Kitchens lead is valid]
“Wilber’s exploration provides practical tools for self-discovery, inviting readers to transcend their limitations and experience a deeper connection with the cosmos. [read: connection between all nations, all religions]
“For those seeking a transformative exploration of consciousness, No Boundary offers a compelling invitation to rethink the boundaries that define our lives.
“Wilber’s insightful narrative not only challenges conventional wisdom
[like my 1988 Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence puts forth the “control transformation” model of mystical experience , challenging the dominant “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience]
“but also inspires readers to embark on a journey toward unity consciousness.
“This book is a must-read for anyone interested in personal growth, spirituality, and the profound interconnectedness of all life.”
/ end blurb of No Boundary
Ken Wilber (1984) pushes the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience
I read the 1970s/1980s Ken Wilber books prior to my Jan. 1988 breakthrough that ego transcendence is actually a matter of control-model transformation, not non-boundary unity.
I re-referenced / re-read these books immediately after the breakthrough, in 1988-1990:
No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth, 1979
The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development, 1980
Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution, 1981
The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes: Exploring the Leading Edge of Science (editor), 1982
A Sociable God: A Brief Introduction to a Transcendental Sociology, 1983: Toward a New Understanding of Religion
Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm, 1984
Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Great Physicists (editor), 1984
Transformations of Consciousness: Conventional and Contemplative Perspectives on Development (co-authors: Jack Engler, Daniel Brown), 1986
Spiritual Choices: The Problem of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation (co-authors: Dick Anthony, Bruce Ecker), 1987
Only the monographs, not about Q P, in 1970s/1980s:
The Spectrum of Consciousness, 1977
No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth, 1979
The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development, 1980
Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution, 1981
A Sociable God: A Brief Introduction to a Transcendental Sociology, 1983: Toward a New Understanding of Religion
Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm, 1984
Those six books were “the Wilber books”, for me in Jan 1988.
Tim Freke Parrots Non-boundary unity: “oneness” 3x in his Glossary
[how much is the forthcoming Tim Freke theory — emergent spir’y — limited to that false, deluded, limited grasp of control-model transformation? https://timfreke.com/glossary-2/ — home page about podbook May 2025 doesn’t name the theory. Glossary reveals name of theory:
Emergent Spirituality The view that spirituality is concerned with an emergent level of the evolving universes, rather than anything supernatural.
Field of Being The undifferentiated oneness ….
Freke presents the trojan horse lying incomplete fake definition of: Perennial Philosophy The idea that there are universal experiences and beliefs underlying diverse spiritual traditions. — censored covertly: “and the nature of these universal common core mystical experiences is: non-boundary unity (certainly not about control-model transformation)”
Hit counts:
6 unividual
3 universe
3 oneness
2 universal
1 unity
0 boundary
1 duali (unividualism)
0 separat
12:53 Noon May 12, 2025: found it! spotted it! Freke glossary is rife with “uni”, “universe” – read that as: non-boundary unity.
Here’s the key to the expose of Tim Freke pushing the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience just like everyone else:
“Unividual An individual becoming conscious of unity with the universe.”]
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts (1955) uniquely pushes the “control-model transformation” model of mystical experience
The Way of Zen uniquely pushes the “control-model transformation” model of mystical experience. Even if Watts also pushes non-boundary unity.
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts is an exception: Watts pushes non-boundary unity like everyone, but, he also pushes control-model transformation.
Given that EVERYONE is wrong about Psilocybin in European history
Given that EVERYONE is wrong about the essence of mystical experience
It’s justified that I (like Jan Irvin) don’t have any reason to trust Quantum Physics.
Why should I trust the debate-riddled field of Q P., given that everyone ni the in the field of mystical experience is wrong, and field of entheogen scholarship re: … most of the field of entheogen scholarship is wrong re: … that field is garbled.
The theory of mystical experience is wrong, fundamentally off-base, in 2025.
The model of Psilocybin in Europe is wrong, fundamentally off-base, in 2025.
The model of Psilocybin in Mesoamerica is wrong, fundamentally off-base, in 1915. as Wasson 1957 book-pair ridiculed: An Aztec Narcotic (Safford 1915)
The Way of Zen by Alan Watts (1955):
Pushes the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience.
Pushes the “control transformation” model of mystical experience.
Hofstadter: Godel, Escher, Bach (1979)
GEB is 1979: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%2C_Escher%2C_Bach I read it after the Jan. 1988 breakthrough, roommate (music grad student) told me about it in Fall 1987, months before the breakthrough. eg Sep-Dec 1987. When I was reading the Way of Zen by Alan Watts.
It’s not necessary to fully specify my 1988 model as the cybernetic psychedelic eternalism block-universe eternalism model, vs. the Ken Wilber model or James model.
It’s sufficient to contrast just these key words:
the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience (tepid waffles re: psychedelics)
the “control transformation” model of mystical experience (firmly psychedelics based)
Non-drug meditation only gives “non-boundary unity” mystical experience, not “control-model transformation” mystical experience: Myth concerns the latter
Non-psychedelics based feeling of non-boundary unity is caused by many ways; but control-model transformation requires specifically — only psychedelics are strong enough to force control-model transformation.
Weak, non-psychedelics ways are enough to give non-boundary unity, but are not strong enough to give control-model transformation.
the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience nbumme
the “control transformation” model of mystical experience ctmme
to come up w/ the concept-label May 12, 2025, “non-boundary unity“, thanks to Kitchens, after Strassman, pointing out Wm James’ motivation by Swami Viv 1890 to invent a model of mystical experience as agenda trojan horse to achieve political unity.
political agenda corrupted scholars’ model of what “mystical experience” is about. “It’s about non-boundary unity.”
Actually, mystical experience is about control-model transformation, not non-boundary unity.
Myth corroborates the Cybernetic Theory of Ego Transcendence; the “control transformation” model of mystical experience.
Myth disproves the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience.
also the actual effects of Psilocybin (OAV 1994: item 54: item 54, “anxiety about control”; item 54, “anxiety about control” (“I was afraid to lose my self-control”), from OAV’s Angst/Dread dimension – proves that the Egodeath theory , not the pop model of mysticism held by EVERYONE ELSE, is correct.
Goal: political unity. Strategy: claim that the universal mystical experience is non-boundary unity. Cover-up the reality that mystical experience is actually about control transformation. (control-model transformation)
False model of mystical experience. Yes, mystical experience includes non-boundary unity, but that’s a sideshow, not the core common essence and definitive Psilocybin-distinctive transformation.
Myth and the mushroom-tree genre have little concern with non-boundary unity; they are intensely concerned with control-model transformation.
Strassman’s Jewish criticism pays off here, his RELATIONAL MYSTICISM.
Psilocybin critics or perennialism (a hot debate topic) critics also point out, eg I am leveraging Zaehner against Huxley. Deistic mysticism; relational mysticism; 2-level, dependent control. vs. unitive nature mysticism or unitive [Zae’s type 2 of 3]. panentheist mysticism:
unity with nature – nature mysticism version of unitive mysticism.
unity with everything – unitive mysticism.
relation with God – relational mysticism <– advocated by Zaehner & Strassman (roughly/ comparatively).
Depict pleasant mystical experience = non-boundary unity.
Frame psychedelics as if they give pleasant mystical experience = non-boundary unity, per APZ’s Oceanic dimension.
Depict unpleasant, challenging mystical experience about control transformation as “non-mystical”.
A big tip is through a Travis Kitchens article at the parasite site, but then, as Jan Irvin found, the entire field of entheogen scholarship is fake and false motives.
Calling this group “hidden agenda distorting the field” is true of the entire field. Corrupt psychedelic pseudo science; corrupt James model of mystical experience; … leads to corrupt Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ) & corrupt the Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ).
Not only whitewashing mystical experience; replacing mystical experience by political non-boundary unity agenda.
Kitchens is not the source, Jewish Rick Strassman persepective as outsider is the source.
I’m currently reading Strassman book on Old Testament DMT phen’y that’s an inventory of isolated DMT effects side by side w/ isolated Bible verses.
I read Strass article complaining about the dominant Christian model of mystical experience: ness (Strassman 2018):
The Psychedelic Religion of Mystical Consciousness Rick Strassman 2018: book review of William Richards’ book Sacred Knowledge, a book which I pre-ordered but was underwhelming, perhaps b/c it, like everyone else, pushes the “non-boundary unity” model of mystical experience – instead of the “control transformation” model of mystical experience. (control-model transformation) https://www.rickstrassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/JPS_Strassman.pdf
the Moving Past Mysticism debate in Psychedelic Science aka the Mysticism Wars mpmd
Email to Ulansey May 7, 2025
Hi Professor Ulansey,
Here’s my new book review of Hanegraaff’s book, that took almost 3 years of analysis to write.
It’s a night and day contrast between your book’s clear consistency (sphere 8 = fixed stars = heimarmene/ Fate) and Hanegraaff’s confused, star-free cosmos:
“Whether the fixed stars should be included [with Saturn, sphere 7] or should rather be associated with the Ogdoad [sphere 8] remains an open question for me.” – p. 294, footnote 114, Hermetic Spirituality, Darth Wouter “Star Destroyer” Hanegraaff
Book citation:
Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity
Wouter Hanegraaff, 2022
My page about the book, with my copy of my review:
I’d be interested in any ancient text that implies that the cosmos has only 7, not 8 spheres, or that says sphere 8 (fixed stars) is outside the cosmos.
Look at the sky, see 5000 visible dots, that’s sphere 8, the cosmos; the main visible thing that you see in the sky. That’s the cosmos.
I’ve been modelling astral ascent mysticism in relation to Heimarmene at sphere 8 since 2001, when I got David Ulansey’s book about Mithraism.
Video Summary of Hanegraaff Book Hermetic Altered States (Angela’s Symposium)
Great video summary (of the book) you did with Angela’s Symposium, back when I had had your new book for a couple weeks.
Hermetic Spirituality with Prof Wouter Hanegraaff
Cyberdisciple’s Site Map
Cyberdisciple (cc’d) is a Classics scholar who knows my theory of transcending (& integrating) Heimarmene in the intense altered state.
Today he finally made a Site Map , which you should find relevant:
Due to the distorting conditions of Prohibition that you pointed out in “Entheogenic Esotericism”, Cyberdisciple has been carefully revealing his name.
Is this not the Psyched*lic RenaissanceTM now? Or is Science still forbidden from looking through the telescope?
My Instructive Comment on Announcement of Site Map
A well-written, enlightening joke comment on Cyberdisciple’s Site Map Announcement:
“Your comment made me slightly dizzy. Therefore… [it’s “an entheogenic practice”, by the too-easy standards of the Entheogenic Esotericism article]
because of the potency of your comment,
I have not merely discovered ego-cancelling Heimarmene, [in my university’s School of Electrical Engineering in Jan. 1988], but have fully integrated the Heimarmene and non-Heimarmene ways of thinking,
same as 2 bowls filled with Golden Teacher of Righteousness [Psilo.], for 9 sessions,
ascending through the cosmos spheres to my soul reaching pure Heimarmene resting in sphere 8
and also my spirit reaching hyper-Heimarmene sphere 9,
perceiving even the Pege at level 10 — the hidden, uncontrollable Source of control-thoughts.
“
[The emojis show harmoniously wedding the two different ways of thinking, and
worship of “{snake frozen in rock}” Agathos Daimon serpent carved in rock altar, giving prosperity.]
Strategy of Late Book Review
It took almost 3 years of analyzing your book, Hermetic Spirituality & Altered States in Late Antiquity, to write a technically adequate, critical analysis of its cosmos-rebirth model in relation to Heimarmene = fixed stars.
Advantages of the late date of composing the book review:
* I was able to remove 1 star – [joke: poetic-justly, seeing as you remove all 5000 stars from the sky] – without seeming unappreciative, because (ignoring 1 badly written 3-star review) all 20 reviews give 5 of 5 stars.
So my review stands out effectively.
* I realized just in time for composing the final review, the theme of marrying and embracing both the Heimarmene way of thinking and the non-Heimarmene way of thinking, for mature completion of initiation.
* 1 week ago, I read David Litwa’s new book Hermetica I, and found no ancient text implying that sphere 8 is somehow “outside the cosmos”.
* Recently I watched videos by Dr. Justin Sledge and others, about affirming while also transcending Fate in Late Antiquity;
I inspected the transcriptions & marked them up re: sphere # 8 & cosmos-rebirth: they waffle, inconsistently, when discussing transcend Heimarmene.
* Emily Adlam 2 weeks ago claims that Minkowski 4D spacetime block universe eternalism (Heimarmene, experienced in the altered state per https://www.effectindex.com/effects/perception-of-eternalism) unifies the two ways of thinking in Physics:
— Michael Hoffman, theorist of ego transcendence in the altered state
_____________________________
Copy of the review:
Michael Hoffman
Title of review: Rebirth into cosmos sphere 8 (Heimarmene) and 9 (above Heimarmene) Reviewed on April 21, 2025 Verified Purchase [orig hardcover + ebook]
Wouter Hanegraaff’s book Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity advances the field of Hermetic studies, especially after the error is corrected in his cosmos-ascent model, per astral ascent mysticism, so that the Fate-soaked fixed stars are no longer excluded entirely from his sky, but are allowed into his cosmos model, where they belong: sphere 8, the Ogdoad.
Hanegraaff’s model of the so-called “cosmos” doesn’t have any fixed stars. Look up into his sky: there are no stars, only 5 planets + sun & moon. This is not a model of the cosmos, nor of cosmos rebirth, because his visible sky cannot have any stars, per his admission in footnote 114, page 294: “Whether the fixed stars should be included [with Saturn, sphere 7] or should rather be associated with the Ogdoad [sphere 8] remains an open question for me.” This is the most closed question in the cosmos; it is a basic, simple given that the Fate-soaked fixed stars are what defines sphere 8, called “the Ogdoad”.
The initiate Tat asks Hermes to be brought into the Ogdoad (Heimarmene; Fatedness; fixed stars; sphere 8; the soul) and also into the Ennead (above heimarmene, above the cosmos; sphere 9; the spirit). Since Hanegraaff omits fixed stars from their sphere 8 (which they define), there’s no functional difference in his model between rebirth phase 1 into the Ogdoad, and rebirth phase 2 into the Ennead.
The end result of entheogenic mental model transformation is not the repression of fixed stars (Fatedness) as Hanegraaff attempts; the end result is a coordinated, harmonious combination of first affirming Heimarmene, and then affirming transcending Heimarmene, honoring both ways of thinking, together.
Hanegraaff cannot place the fate-soaked fixed stars in sphere 8, because he wrongly says “the Ogdoad above the heimarmene”. The Ogdoad is not above heimarmene. The cosmos does not consist of 7 spheres, as Hanegraaff writes. Per looking up at the sky, the cosmos consists of 8 spheres. All ancient writings agree; no Hermetic text says the cosmos consists of 7 spheres, or that sphere 8 is outside the cosmos. The cosmos consists of 7 planetary spheres and also the sphere of the fixed stars. Sphere 8 is not “hypercosmic”, as he writes. Sphere 9 is actually hypercosmic.
I have read his book multiple times in hardcover and ebook format, and David Litwa’s book Hermetica I, to confirm that no Hermetic writing says the cosmos has 7 spheres, and that sphere 8 (defined by the fixed stars) is somehow “outside the cosmos”. The main visible thing you see in the sky that is the cosmos, is the fixed stars, defining sphere 8 of the cosmos.
Per Hanegraaff’s own writings in this book and elsewhere, sphere 8 = the Demiurge = the zodiac = Heimarmene headquarters.
Hanegraaff spreads the following equations separated apart to hide the self-contradiction: Ogdoad = sphere 8 = fixed stars = heimarmene = Fate = cosmos. By spreading the equations into separate pages, he writes inconsistently: Heimarmene = Fate = fixed stars = sphere 8 = Ogdoad = above Heimarmene.
Other hermetic scholars follow suit, waffling in self-contradictory fashion: in one paragraph, Ogdoad is above heimarmene; in alternating paragraphs, sphere 8 is the Fate-soaked fixed stars.
Switching between saying “sphere 8” and “Ogdoad” tries to hide the self-contradiction, in order to misguidedly purify the Ogdoad of heimarmene by making the stars go missing in every other paragraph, inconsistently.
The solution is to always give the sphere number (7, 8, or 9) and equate Heimarmene consistently with the fixed stars and sphere 8 and the name “Ogdoad”, and understand that rebirth is initially into conformity with pure Heimarmene – not yet above Heimarmene.
My other correction of this book is its claim that anything you can think of is entheogenic, as if to propose “non-drug entheogens”, a contradiction in terms. Entheogenic practices in the broad sense actually means combining visionary plants with mental model formation and observation and various techniques – not omitting visionary plants. In 2004, I posted in Egodeath Yahoo Group about that point, a post titled “Entheogenic Esotericism”, 8 years before Hanegraaff’s keynote article speech titled “Entheogenic Esotericism”.
To summarize, as the million stars to steer by in the cosmos rebirth model that Hermetic scholars struggle to coherently present:
The mind starts with naive possibilism-thinking (level 0), becomes increasingly attuned to Heimarmene (Fate; eternalism) in entheogenic sessions 1-7, becomes fully reshaped and aligned harmoniously with Heimarmene (Fatedness; 4D spacetime block universe eternalism) in sphere 8 (the fixed stars); and then reconciles and marries the two ways of thinking together in sphere 9: embrace and include Heimarmene coordinated with the transcending of Heimarmene; marry qualified possibilism-thinking and qualified eternalism-thinking, to reach completion of initiation, per all brands of religion in Late Antiquity, flourishing starting around 150 CE.
— Michael Hoffman, theorist of ego death and transcendence
{billowing cape} = the eternalism state of consciousness
{billowing cape} instances: row 1 L; row 2 M; row 4 L
number of trees (Y trees): 3 + 4 + 1 = 8 trees.
cape = billowing = wind = pneuma = heimarmene fixed stars state of consciousness; the eternalism state of consciousness.
the eternalism state of consciousness esoc
the possibilism state of consciousness psoc
possibilism-branching steering control
Features:
wind blowing beard on R in top row, on L in bottom row. bottom row: beard is near Mithra’s R foot.
which leg bent on L, on R. Consistent. stand on right foot vs. stand on left foot; ie, the leg which is not bent. Forget “crossed” legs; which leg is bent and thus not bent?
L side: 3 bent L legs = 3 stand on right foot. Most tauroctony scenes have bent L leg, on L twin.
R side: 2 bent R legs = 2 stand on right foot.
random art choice re: L torch light up or down: if you choose to show torch down on L, that points to {stand on right foot}, above that snake.
wheat tail against heimarmene fixed stars: affirming heimarmene gives fecundity reward. Sol is higher personal control system after blade the vulnerable bull which is lower personal control system, especially egoic naive possibilism-thinking “monolithic, autonomous control” is repudiated, specifically.
Lib Cap has sword blade revealing Psilocybin transformation about steering; crown = steering ability authorized by the standard of Psilocybin. Mithras showing palm = threatened & mercy pleading, apprehension. Apprehending the blade – Psilocybe semi-lanceata; spear-blade-mushroom.
Steering rod is non-branching.
Blade goes into bull near shoulder.
Seeing how steering works in non-branching revealed world (an experience).
Bull’s right legs are bent, implying bad/unstable {stand on left foot}: belief in stand on left foot is dead, when on Psilocybin. To still use possibilism-thinking (branching possibilities steering), must transcend eternalism-thinking.
Drinking horn contains lib cap Psilocybin which is a blade that kills initial monolithic, autonomous control steering in a branching possibilities tree. Cuts off the branching & cuts off the egoic autonomous personal control system of the type that steers in a tree to create the open future to “close” the future by your egoic autonomous control power.
grape = Psilocybin lib cap
mercy hand: thumb = non-branching; fingers = branching. IY. “display hand” = the capability of finger shapes to represent branching vs non-branching.
hunting dogs: Acteon sees Artemis, turns into stag w/ branching antlers, torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs.
Cubensis mushroom above bull head. Angle illusion; it’s a right hand above bull ear.
wheat tail: bovine dung grows Cubensis.
Crop by Michael Hoffman
When a the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene shows up-pointed torch-light held by R twin, here that up direction points to / reveals, makes perceptible, the snake vs tree; fire (light) = (touches) snake.
No consistency: whether torch light is pointed up or down on L & R.
90% consistent: L twin = stand on right leg (L leg bent), matching Mithras.
Crop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael Hoffman
Features:
naked L foot-relying Sol on R: no control power; crown not on head; powerless; Mithras controls Sol’s power; Mithras holds controls your bull muscle, your source of power.
left Mithras stand on right foot; left foot floats. Heimarmene cap billowing touches branching part of tree.
Mysteria: The Ancient Mysteries and the Evolution of Consciousness
30 Oct. 2012 (no such)
“David Ulansey’s Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries won wide acclaim for its splendid scholarship and what Gnosis magazine called “an absolutely spell-binding detective story of antique lore.”
“Ulansey returns here with another detective story, this time unearthing the once-flourishing religious movements snuffed out by the arrival of Christianity.
Based on a series of lectures presented at San Francisco’s prestigious Jung Institute, Mysteria employs a wealth of scholarly and investigative tools in this exploration of
the role ancient mystery religions played in the evolution of Western consciousness.
The book reveals how these secret
cults, which centered on rituals and symbols of transformation at the deepest levels, catalyzed the formation of the individual, personal identity that became the core of the Western psyche.
Mysteria also examines the impact of the extraordinary
cultural and intellectual transformations of the Hellenistic Age on consciousness and self-awareness.
fixed stars = the entire cosmic structure; fixed stars = the cosmos
David Ulansey’s use of ‘cosmos’ or ‘cosmic’ does not follow the absurd definitions by Hanegraaff; Hanegraaff says that the fixed stars are “outside the cosmos”, insofar as Hanegraaff keeps the fixed stars at all.
Hanegraaff writes that the Ogdoad (sphere 8) is outside the cosmos, and that the cosmos consists only of planet spheres 1-7, and sphere 8 is “outside the cosmos” (Hanegraaff stays silent on whether Ogdoad contains fixed stars – which of course it does).
Unlike Hanegraaff, Ulansey coherently, sensibly, intelligibly uses the term ‘cosmos’ to include, and even highlight, sphere of the fixed stars. vs Hanegraaff’s admitted confusion that omits fixed stars from Ogdoad and places them nowhere:
“Whether the fixed stars should be included [with Saturn, sphere 7] or should rather be associated with the Ogdoad [sphere 8] remains an open question for me.” – p. 294, footnote 114, Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity, by Wouter Hanegraaff, 2022
“Hipparchus’s idea that the precession [of the equinoxes] was caused by a previously unknown movement of the entire cosmic structure was not merely one more suggestion in a list of equally valid hypotheses. Rather, this idea was his final, mature conclusion,
… Hipparchus conceived of [the movement of the entire cosmic structure -d.u.] on the basis of the phenomena available to him …
Hipparchus’s final conclusion about the precession [of the fixed stars] was that it was a movement of the entire cosmic structure, for he expresses this conclusion in the very title of the first of his two works on the subject– “On the Displacement of the Solstitial and Equinoctial Points“– a title which can only refer to a motion of the entire cosmic structure.
… about the nature of this cosmic movement.
For Ptolemy tells us explicitly that in “On the Length of the Year” Hipparchus gave a precise estimate of the rate of the movement of the cosmic structure (not less than one degree per century),[12] and explained the exact orientation of this movement as being around the poles of the ecliptic.
“What we call the “precession of the equinoxes” (a term first used by Copernicus) was discovered by Hipparchus (2nd cent. B.C.) as a second motion of the fixed stars, in addition to the diurnal rotation.
“He described it either as an eastward motion of the sphere of the fixed stars about the axis of the ecliptic, thereby shifting the stars in the direction of increasing longitude with respect to the equinoxes, or as a westward motion of the axis of the diurnal rotation in a circle about the axis of the ecliptic, shifting the equinoxes in the direction of decreasing longitude with respect to the fixed stars.[15]
Swerdlow here acknowledges that the final outcome of Hipparchus’s work on the precession was the conclusion that it was a movement of the entire cosmic structure (either a motion of the sphere of the fixed stars or a motion of the axis of rotation of the universe– either of these mathematically equivalent formulations represents a shift of the entire cosmic structure).
Ptolemy says that in concluding that the precession was a movement of the entire cosmic structure Hipparchus was forced “to conjecture rather than to predict, since he had found very few observations of fixed stars before his own time…”), wouldn’t the tentative nature of his conclusion have prevented anyone from taking it seriously enough to believe that it indicated something like the existence of a new god?
in the Mithraic mysteries we are dealing not with a scientific but with a religious phenomenon, and the stuff of religion is not the human intellect but the human imagination.
Hipparchus suggested in his writings the remarkable new idea that the entire cosmic structure might be moving in a previously unknown manner.
Whether Hipparchus presented this as a proven fact or merely as a plausible hypothesis is of no consequence whatsoever for the religious imagination.
his final conclusion about the precession was that it was a motion of the entire cosmic structure.
Hipparchus’s discovery could well have catalyzed the sorts of speculations that led to the origins of the Mithraic mysteries.”
Mithraism concept/idea: we can transcend heimarmene/ fatedness/ eternalism, because the heimarmene sphere 8 sphere of the fixed stars moves. Mithras is outside cosmic rock heimarmene, so is able, from there, to move the sphere of the fixed stars which = Fatedness/ eternalism frozen rock prison enslavement embeddedness.
Evolution of the Egodeath Theory (Email to Max & Cyb May 7, 2025)
>One possible podcast topic: technology vs science:
The Egodeath theory as a Science advances by adding analogy that connects with other systems eg myth, esotericism, Late Antiquity cultic religions, sympos, the medieval art genre of {mushroom-trees} w/ {branching}, {handedness}, and {stability} motifs.
Crop and annotations by Michael Hoffman, Egodeath.com, Jan. 3, 2025
The Egodeath theory as a Technology advances by adding use-case scenario framing that’s applied and practical in the harrowing climactic peak window of the intense mystic altered state.
Not the technology of delivery formats, but a level more abstract.
This technology is a body of knowledge structured for relevance to Psilo peak state control transformation.
The content of the Theory is tailored and targeted for high-intensity Psilo loose cognition – as a technology, a practical explanation directly targeting this scenario – application tailored.
A useful map of Psychedelic Mythemeland, including control vortex and Psilo transformation. Not surrender and hand over control as is.
Transformed control model:
able to use POV: non-branching possibilities + 2-level, dependent control,
able to use POV (consciously) branching possibilities + monolithic, autonomous control — as practical a model, as virtual.
Put the focus on the whole 2-model system, not only eternalism w/ 2-level, dependent control.
Benefits of having both models, in a single overarching model of cybernetic control in branching & non-branching worlds.
Integration of the revelation into practical control model
Finally, the technology and the Science model is designed for Integration of the peak control transformation into practical agency control, in both states – building up the total mental worldmodel w/o disparaging the initial model (branching-steering monolithic control-agent) – our virtual world, though “virtual” has some delegitimization to avoid.
Limited Technology tool applicability: The Egodeath theory does not necessarily produce control-harmony and get rid of self-conflict across time.
Check the list of benefits promised in 1997 & 2007, or Bubble of Simulation.
Mostly, more than solving your control problems, this theory explains, to deliver understanding, to make the classic control transformation (climax seizure vortex) a known dynamic, and to comprehend how to gather evidence of ways this control transformation is reflected in history.
This technology teaches how to read and look and perceive eternalism and the contrastive transformation from possibilism to eternalism.
Psychedelia: An Ancient Culture, A Modern Way of Life (Lundborg 2012, Phenomenology)
Altered state Phen’y book
PSYCHEDEL!A: AN ANCIENT CULTURE, A MODERN WAY OF LIFE
Book by Paul Lundborg is thick (high word count) and not particularly inspired or radical, it is intended as a Phenomenology book. Has almost NOTHING about Europe 500 B C – 1400 A D. False advert. title, like “Ancient means the Americas”.
What little he writes about Europe history, or relation of Psil & meditation & nondual unity mysticism is the conventional views, no more.
Kykeon = the only instance in Europe history.
The Kykeon focus is used to accomplish strict containment. We admit Europe has plant history, but, limited to kykeon, to cover the topic of Europe.
Like Ruck frames every instance of mushroom imagery in Christian art as “heretical” and “closed secret community”, a containment strategy.
/ end of may 7 email
Evolution of the Egodeath Theory (Email to Max & Cyb May 6, 2025)
Max wrote:
>technology vs science: the difference between
>EDT as a static complete theory, and
>EDT as something which develops and changes and evolves over time.
After 1997, in Phase 2 (motivated by confirming the core theory), the Egodeath theory adds myth & history, and relates to other models.
The eventual Theory now has: inner core; outer core; add: inner periphery, outer periphery – then list topics in each layer.
This date matches Samo’s milestone article marking the start of 2nd-generation entheogen scholarship (the Explicit Psilocybin paradigm):
“Mushroom-Trees” in Christian Art (Giorgio Samorini, 1998) .
Max wrote:
>There is some core set of insights that were present at the beginning conception of EDT,
1. During the tail end of the Allegro + Ruck-dominated, Pop, 1st-gen entheogen scholarship, during 1985-1996, I developed the Core theory, with no historical focus.
Exceptions: I read the psychology history book Up From Eden, Ken Wilber, around 1986-1989. Lyrics. Gnosis mag, before 1997/1998.
Allegro & Ruck & Pop Sike Cult fixated on the Secret Amanita paradigm.
Reference to represent the early Core theory 1988-1997:
Self-control Cybernetics, Dissociative Cognition, & Mystic Ego Death
>then there has been a change in the way those insights are communicated.
Starting in 1998, added an analogies layer around the Core science model.
eg art showing L foot youth, then R foot youth, then floating(!) sage, gesturing at pair of guys in tree: simple sitting; vs. complicated hanging. Great Canterbury Psalter f134 row 1 L & 2 R.
Crop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael Hoffman
2024, tried to express the Core using “branching vs. non-branching”.
Nov 2024-May 2025, stopped disparaging possibilism-thinking. In a sense, we repudiate possibilism-thinking — but we only repudiate its root and its certainty of branching possibilities. Created narrow-sense & broad-sense qualifiers:
naive possibilism-thinking
basic possibilism-thinking
qualified possibilism-thinking
qualified eternalism-thinking
broad eternalism-thinking includes qualified possibilism-thinking.
2. Starting 1997-1998, while Samorini started 2nd-generation entheogen scholarship (the Explicit Psilocybin paradigm),
I developed — to corroborate the Core Egodeath theory — the Mytheme theory;
added an inner periphery and outer periphery of concerns:
building on Rock Lyrics: added:
esotericism history
visionary plants history
myth,
the Mytheme theory,
analogy,
art motifs,
the ahistoricity of religious founder figures.
Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy’s book The Jesus Mysteries, 1999.
Negative: the ahistoricity of religious founder figures.
Positive: the esoteric analogicity of religious founder figures.
Reference to represent the Phase 2, build-out, the Mytheme theory 1998-2007-2020-2025:
— for the purpose of connecting my Core theory with mytheme: branching vs non-branching.
Max wrote:
>Is there a clearest, simplest most unambiguous statement of the original, central core theory?
The 1997 spec is designed to be exactly that.
Broken out into a set of principles, same as my 1988 drafts.
Lacks “worldline”, says “stream” and “tunnel”.
Max wrote:
>What exactly, precisely is the original core claim of EDT that you were first making when you first had the full theory?
The Jan 1988 coming-together of the Theory, and June 1988 first draft of “the [Cybernetic] Theory of Ego Transcendence”, are preserved with scope intact in my 1997 theory summary spec.
My message of 1988 & 1997:
The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology & Ken Wilber claim that ego transcendence is about 30 (60) years of Advaita meditation to change to nondual unity oneness.
But in Jan 1988, my new view to announce was:
I disagree. Found a better model, compact, more potent:
Actually, ego transcendence is about loose cognition to transform from one mental model of control and time to another; to block-universe eternalism, neutralizing egoic control agency (in a certain root way) 100%.
That total quick cancellation is proof of rightness, and that Ken Wilber is lost with an empty engine in his massive model.
In Jan 1988, a few components came together, that summarizes the essence of the core Egodeath theory:
* loose cognition (via, incidentally, theory of psychedelics)
* block-universe eternalism as a model of time (implies a model of control too). 4D spacetime block universe eternalism.
* control-agency focused: focused on transforming mental model of personal control system; cybernetics; Control Systems engineering course.
* mental model transformation from model A to B, per Satori about cybernetics per the Way of Zen by Alan Watts.
1988: Good news! We now have a compact explanatory model of ego transcendence / Transcendent Knowledge!
Simply a matter of loose cognition (via psychedelics most definitively) transforming mental model of control-in-world.
Not per Ken Wilber and the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology; not meditation; not unity nondual oneness;
rather, control-focused – not Quantum Mysticism with Everett branching manyworlds steering; rather, 4D Spacetime Mysticism with pre-existing future (frozen worldline, not branching) that instantly totally cancels a kind of egoic agency.
2007 article is perfect to represent this Phase 2, the Mytheme theory expansion — but incomplete: shows pictures that contrast branching vs. non-branching, but article doesn’t recognize that — even though at 2001 start of Egodeath Yahoo Group, I posted contrasting the branching vs non-branching models in Physics.
In 2010, walking forking forest preserve every year photo’ing fungi, I speculated: wouldn’t we expect branching antlers vs. non-branching vine to be major mythemes? That’s a science Prediction. Massively confirmed that prediction by 2013, then especially by 2020 and ensuing years.
2007 article is strong re: snake, weak re: tree/branching.
A recent re-framing the theory:
late 2024, I stopped disparaging possibilism-thinking, since I always use possibilism-thinking and that doesn’t change, though root is transformed re: the hidden, uncontrollable source of control-thoughts.
Comparable to Tim Freke 2025 saying “do better than Pop Neo Advaita, too crude and primitive and un-scientific; too un-evolved, un-developed.”
Essentially same as me re: perennialism: agree there is a common experience, but, that experience is grasped, modelled, and expressed more or less poorly over the years.
And I dismiss unity nondual oneness as beginners un-earned initial taste, before their impurities and dishonoring the gods gets them kicked out of heaven in fear; the control instability {guarded gate}.
Shamanism: The Timeless Religion (Manvir Singh, May 20, 2025)
“From a brilliant, young, Harvard-trained anthropologist and contributor to The New Yorker comes a fascinating investigation into the spiritual practice of shamanism, from its beginnings to the present moment, for readers disaffected with organized religion who seek a more personal approach to spirituality.
“What are the origins of shamanism, and what is its future?
Do shamans believe in their powers?
What exactly is trance?
What can we learn from indigenous healing practices?
Traveling from Indonesia to the Colombian Amazon, living with shamans and observing music, drug use, and indigenous curing ceremonies, anthropologist Manvir Singh journeys into one of the most mysterious religious traditions.
“Fundamentally, shamans are specialists who use altered states to engage with unseen realms and provide services like healing and divination.
“As Singh shows, shamanism’s appeal stems from its psychological resonance. Its essence is spiritual transformation: a specialist uses initiations, deprivation, and non-ordinary states to seemingly become a different kind of human, one possessed of powers to cure, prophesy, and otherwise tame life’s uncertainties.
Following a fascinating cast of characters, Singh reveals the complexities and vicissitudes of a timeless, always relevant, and ubiquitous phenomenon.
“He argues that biomedicine can learn from shamanic practices and that psychedelic enthusiasts completely misrepresent history.
“He also shows that shamanic traditions will forever re-emerge – and that by contemplating humanity’s oldest spiritual practice, we come to better understand ourselves, our history, and our future.”
Shamanism, Human Culture & the Evolution of Religion (Singh Video & Book)
“shamanism’s role as a universal human practice, exploring its roots in cultural evolution, cognitive tendencies, and persistence across history and modern society.
“how shamans use altered states to address uncertainty—like healing or divination
“shamanism’s interplay with centralized religion, its psychological benefits, and parallels in today’s world, from tech gurus to medical placebos.
“Shamanism is a widespread cultural practice involving specialists who enter altered states to engage with unseen forces, often for healing or managing uncertainty.
“It’s not an archaic precursor to modern religion but a recurring expression of spiritual beliefs & practices, competing with other forms.
“Techniques vary widely—dance, music, [oven, light bulb, car engine,] psychedelics—but only about half [the good half] of shamans historically used psychoactive substances.
“Modern parallels include tech CEOs and money managers who project exceptionalism to influence others, echoing shamanic charisma without trance.
“rituals alone can [, could, might, may] trigger healing [what about triggering control transformation from possibilism to eternalism?], much like shamanic practices.
“Shamanism as a cognitive technology, shaping how we cope with chaos [eg control instability] across cultures and time.”
April 27 2025 email to Max & Cyb
My 1997 theory spec is a perfect snapshot of early, core Phase 1 theory.
Not complicated by analogies (myth) or concept of “transcend eternalism”.
Routine Science vs Revolutionary science (Kuhn concepts) –
a sunny day fan?
only on board for the period of revolutionary science, not ordinary sci?
even if i say the core-theory “Revolutionary Science” phase was 1985 to 1988 or 1997 or 2007, and – in contrast – adding the {branching} mytheme/ art motif, & correcting the term from determinism to eternalism, is RELATIVELY mere “Ordinary Science” (Kuhn),
really the entire period 1985-2025+ is 100% Revolutionary Science.
Sep 2007: main article great, but failed to connect 2001 idea of “Minkowski = non-branching Physics; Bohr/Everett = branching Physics” to non/branching in art & myth.
Next day, found the terms eternalism & super determinism;
then my next step in theory devmt ~ late 2010: formed my hypothesis (AND SCIENTIFIC PREDICTION) of the “branching” mytheme:
aside: people wrongly equate and reduce the scientific method is reduced to and conflated completely with prediction. I call this fallacy predictionism.
That is an intellectually lazy, crude, simplistic model of “how science works”, which replaces thinking.
It’s a just-so story, a pseudo-explanation, like “the snake is a famous myth because it sheds its skin. ” — says (imagines) every modern writer about myth, because they read it in every other modern writers’ books, and they parrot the same idea, which is relatively unknown in the source materials, afaik.
Me in 2001 or 2003, to all entheogen scholars & myth scholars: BS! The REAL reason snake #1 mytheme is its shape?? bc shape matches Minkowski worldline.
Another example: everyone says that the twins around the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene have their “legs crossed”, but nobody notices that their bent vs straight leg matches the bent vs. straight leg of the bull and its Slayer
and feel free to reverse the tauroctony image, like Ruck Commitee Entheos issue 3 cover, & the top recomm Mithraism book’s cover by Manfred Klaus, because surely that can’t matter.
Walking in the nature preserve where there are mushrms every Fall in a microcomputer software company, walking the branching paths, looking at trees and fungi, I asked:
“isn’t it reasonable to think that the ancients knew cognitive science, and modern physics of Minkowski Block universe?
“isn’t it reasonable to think that the ancients understood the difference between the initial, branching model of spacetime, versus the subsequent, revealed, non-branching model??”
In 2013 Thanksgiving week, when I saw the three layers of branching, triple emphasis in the book the power of myth, Eve tempted by the serpent, while studying liberty cap theory, I was shaking & shaken for over a week, upon getting the confirmation that the ancients understood branching, and non-branching.
That proves that the 2007 main article was NOT the end of my Revolutionary Science period.
That Nov/Dec 2013 breakthrough was confirmed by Ascelpius’ staff w broken-off branches and healing serpent, and also the good – not the uninspired – versions of Moses’ bronze serpent on a pole, which I had struggled to interpret in the 2007 article.
(I had no idea yet though in 2013, to perceive the motif of {branching vs non branching} in the pictures in the 2007 article.)
Still yet waiting, long after that: Xmas ’15 Hatsis color Dancing man-> Is {handedness} a thing??
Can we map one leg to possibilism-thinking & one to eternalism-thinking?
That hypoth was massively confirmed Nov 2020 by Eadwine’s leg-hanging mushroom tree image in the Great Canterbury Psalter.
Years later, elated facepalm to recognize Ariadne hold branch L arm, Dionysus spear in R arm, wedding victory,
not to mention (re: that picture) in 2020, my 2010 Oct photo proof that the Leopard fountain is an upturned Amanita – NOT merely the real-world scientific Amanita muscaria; vastly better:
mythic-realm Amanita, the famous, legendary, well-known super-psych’c.
—–
Do not say branching is “bad/false” – it is one of the two mental models the psychonaut uses.
Honor the wedded pair of models; honor both a YI msh tree’s branching Y & non-branching I parts).
The superpower of youth branching: it is able to climactically be seized by a mental giant in love w the beautiful youth/ maiden. Kore/ Ganymede, beautiful prince Absalom.
— Michael
email snippet: mythic meeting of the gods & mortals
expressions of enthusiasm, fascination, and awful horror, in this mythical epic greatest meeting of all time – the mother of all high meetings, ill-fated to be lost Somewhere in Time — except in the mythic Amanita super-psychedlic realm, where this not merely epic, but mythic meeting of the gods & mortals was held
email snippet: the changing value of Mythicism: Positive Analogicity vs. Negative Mythicism
posted at MythVision livestream:
After adopting mythicism, the value of mythicist scholarship changes.
Then, look for positive mythicism (comprehending) vs. negative mythicism (mere debunking)
Fully done thinking: positive mythicism; when comprehend myth describing the peak altered state
email Apr. 28, 2025 to Max & Cyb
“If the History doesn’t match the Theory, too bad for the History; the Theory is correct.”
Before Hanegraaff’s Hermetic Spirituality book, I wrote in defense of academic study of Theory or Interp. of Esotericism, which Hanegraaff demonizes; wholly dismisses.
In advocating a purely scientific historiography methodology, Hanegraaff contrasts the bad approach: timeless Theory.
OMG a perennialist approach! Maybe even a Religionist approach OMG!
Hanegraaff’s lopsided dread of the academic sin of “perennialism” & “religionism” handicaps him.
Hanegraaff’s result is incoherent and nonsensical garbage, re: the engine core of what it means to be reborn into sphere 8 in relation to heimarmene.
He can have his model that rebirth = above heimarmene, but can’t place fixed stars, and, doesn’t match any brand of Late Antiquity religion.
A massive misrepresentation, and mostly incoherent.
Historiography without Theory is blind and ends up inventing, despite claims of “empirical, accurate reporting what the author means.”
Does Hanegraaff report what the author means?
No, Hanegraaff invents a fantasy that the author means “rebirth means reach sphere 8 then 9, which means transcend heimarmene & then transcend heimarmene“.
The author actually meant “reach pure heimarmene and then also transcend heimarmene – that’s rebirth.”
Hanegraaff’s subsquent book, Herm. Spir., proves me right and him wrong on that lopsided advocacy.
Hanegraaff claims to do scientific historiography, non-judgmental, and yet, he fabricates incoherent nonsense with no citations, “the Ogdoad above the Heimarmene”.
What ancient text says sphere 8 is outside of heimarmene? None, b/c it’s sheer nonsense on stilts.
Hanegraaff made it up.
INSTEAD OF DOING GOOD THEORY, Hanegraaff delivers bad theory + semi-valid history.
If your Theory / interpretation is shiite, your History is false and corrupt, no matter how much ink you spill lecturing against the perils of Theory and pushing the doctrine of Scientific Historicity.
Incoherent invention is the result.
The Hermetic writers would wince at Hanegraaff’s astrophobia, fear of divine heimarmene.
Nice try, but broken engine, like Ken Wilber.
The airplane doesn’t fly.
Recent posts after started last idea development page
Photo: Michael HoffmanPhoto: Michael HoffmanPhoto: Michael HoffmanPhoto: Michael Hoffman, Egodeath Mystery Show David Ulansey uses this mic setup in video above, SM57+A2WS
“TechGnosis is a cult classic of media studies that straddles the line between academic discourse and popular culture;
“appeals to both those secular and spiritual, to fans of cyberpunk and hacker literature and culture as much as new-thought adherents and spiritual seekers“
“How does our fascination with technology intersect with the religious imagination?
“In TechGnosis—a cult classic now updated and reissued with a new afterword —Erik Davis argues that while
the realms of the digital [sic, informational?] and the spiritual may seem worlds apart,
esoteric and religiousimpulses have in fact always permeated (and sometimes inspired) technological communication. “
“Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as:
electricity
alchemy
online roleplaying games
religious and occult practices
virtual reality
gnostic mythology
programming languages
Kabbalah
Apocalyptic Nightmare Dreams
the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about
a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and
machine,
nightmare and <– Egodeath {shadow dragon monster}
fantasy.”
Formats: Print, Ebook, Audiobook
Motivation: Erik Davis Audiobook of Zep 4 Is Released Today
Tomorrow, April 29, 2025, audiobook is released, of book Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) (Erik Davis, 2005) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826416586 —
Motivation: Houot Should Probably Cover TechGnosis
Motivation: Houot’s Call to Receive an Advanced Transformative Alien Transmission Was Done by Decoding Eadwine’s Leg-Hanging Mushroom Tree Image in the Great Canterbury Psalter During 2020-2025
Crop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael HoffmanCrop by Michael Hoffman
Unexpected, Clear, Well-Formed, Advanced Transmitted Message from the Mushroom State that I Was Positioned to Receive and Decode
The best, paradigm example of receiving an alien transmission and decoding it is f134 Great Canterbury Psalter: my decoding of it in Nov 2020 (& after, & broader).
The most lofty information-dense image, teaching tool, encoded message [positive connot encoded] – not a damn “coded” “secret” message. Depicts progression of from basic possibilism-thinking basic eternalism-thinking integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking
Decoded as a Model of Mental Model Development from possibilism-thinking to qualified eternalism-thinking.
Decoded as a Model of Mental Model Development from:
Possibilism-Thinking Modified by Eternalism Perceiving
Possibilism-Thinking with Eternalism Perceiving
ultra specific phrase – very grounded.
possibilism-thinking modified by eternalism perceiving <–
The term “eternalism-thinking” has three scopes of meaning:
basic eternalism-thinking
qualified eternalism-thinking
the entire personal control system or mental model after fully integrating eternalism-thinking into possibilism-thinking
The term “possibilism-thinking” has two meanings:
basic possibilism-thinking
qualified possibilism-thinking
A lexicon problem: I need a short phrase concept-label and WISH to use ‘eternalism-thinking’ BUT that has 2-3 senses: basic eternalism-thinking vs whole-integrated into the whole system that has full harmonious affirmation HEALTHY FULLY developed and maximally strong and max stability.
THE GOAL: Adult stability on high-dose Psilocybin.
By “Psilocybin” – i do NOT mean the real world experience of a guy who ingested actual Psilocybin mushrooms; I mean the IDEAL potential of Psilocybin, in THEORY-LAND, where Amanita is the ultimate super-psychedelic, far superior to mere real-world Psilocybin.
The actual world is stupid. I target instead, Egodeath theoryland, where I am among the immortals, having the knowledge of the immortals, living for garden eternity tree Hesperides guarded by the snake — i want that video! says serpent = snake as monster threat.
The Walled Magical Garden of Egodeath Theoryland: Gate Securely Guarded Against Actual History
In its potent best potential. Do not theorize about the flawed real world of details of history.
Eternalism-thinking that participates in full mature system, integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking dual mental model <– vague version of concept-label dual possibilism-thinking/ eternalism-thinking
possibilism eternalism thinking
eternalism in the wide sense: integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking
eternalism in the narrow sense: basic eternalism
Blade hits target potential to disrupt forcing seizure climax death rebirth transformation egoic personal control system.
qualified possibilism-thinking integrated with qualified eternalism-thinking
Eadwine’s unexpected, highly well-formed, advanced transmitted message that I was positioned to receive and decode in Nov. 2020, when finishing the article requested by Professor Jerry Brown: “compelling evidence and criteria of proof for mushrooms in Christian art”.
The Psalter artist sent an unexpected, highly well-formed, advanced transmitted message that I was positioned to receive and decode in Nov. 2020
Nov 2020, handedness was not yet confirmed as a motif but was avail as a hypoth that I had been trying to test: finally this image gives me something to test the hypoth.
I had to construct my entire theory of mushroom-trees, including {mushrooms}, {branching}, {handedness}, and {stability} motifs – I already the Key Mythemes catalog.
branching-message mushroom trees,
the message of integrating the perceiving of … “vision” Houot asy says “vision” – aility able perceive the difference of two mental models: the branching vs non-branching ; the tree vs snake models. the branching tree vs non-branching snake
δράκων- The Dragon in the West with Professor Daniel Ogden
Decoding Eadwine’s leg-hanging mushroom tree image in the Great Canterbury Psalter is the Greatest Alien Transmission Reception Ever
Crop by Michael Hoffman
Fitting the theme of TechGnosis & Rise of the Psychonaut:
The ultimate cybernetic transmission advanced alien Psilocybin-state communication about control was sent by Eadwine f134 (Eadwine’s leg-hanging mushroom tree image in the Great Canterbury Psalter) in 1200 AD, & received and decoded starting Nov. 2020 by Michael Hoffman, finished in April 2025 upon reading the theme of mature integration of eternalism-thinking into possibilism-thinking:
In April 2025, I finished receiving & decoding the message by interpreting hanging as advanced integration compared to mere sitting, pointed to by floating sage, who is contrasted as the next step after discovering and perceiving eternalism.
I am comfortable announcing now April 30, 2025: since precursor Xmas 2015 Hatsis Dancing Man salamander bestiary’s mushroom-tree set up the {handedness} hypothesis to predict & test, started decoding Eadwine’s leg-hanging mushroom tree image in the Great Canterbury Psalter in Nov. 2020, and FINISHED DECODING f134 image in April 2025.
2025/04 -2020/11 = 2024/16 -2020/11 = 4 years 5 months
In April 2025, I finished the basic idea of: integrate eternalism-thinking into possibilism-thinking; integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking.
Analogies that instructed and informed my improved completed model of control transformation:
Wedding victory Dionysus & Ariadne.
The rebis, two heads in one person.
Abr & Isaac – post sacrifice – walk away together in blessed prosperity.
Rider’s head above donkey’s head = eternalism-thinking above possibilism-thinking. Balaam’s ass; Entry into Jeru.
Cautes & Cautopates: the two ways of thinking, Sol + Mithras, wheat bull tail and the Mithras end of the bull w/ R leg straight/ L leg bent, vs. R leg bent on other side of the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene.
I decoded {floating sage} f134 row 2 R in relation to [the paired youths: L foot possibilism-thinking & R foot eternalism-thinking], in row 2 R the two youths connected with the Psilocybin Dispensary.
floating sage = hanging guy
The 3 phases of control transformation in Classroom Tree scene:
also the women in row 2 Middle = qualified possibilism-thinking; integrated possibilism/eternalism thinking; that type of “balance”.
Row 2 Middle: women = balance across the two states of cons. Row 2 Right: R foot “basic eternalism-thinking” youth = balance during intense mystic altered state.
In Nov 2020, I was uniquely equipped to start decoding Eadwine’s alien signal transmitted advanced Psilocybin message by possessing the 2007 Egodeath theory & Mytheme theory, and having the Xmas 2015 hypothesis that per Dancing Man salamander bestiary’s mushroom-tree:
maybe L foot is mapped to possibilism-thinking and R foot in mythic art is mapped to eternalism-thinking.
page not ready but i have to un-hide draft page – important to work on. Fill in. Keep as q because he asked me a q productively and THIS IS THE Q.
In 1987 my mission was fix dysfunctional cross-time control and explain how.
In 1988 my mission changed to explain ego transcendence easily as eternalism-thinking , mental model transformation from possibilism to eternalism in loose cognition : the (Cybernetic) Theory of Ego Transcendence
2025 mission: equip Loose Cognitive Science (& everyone) to endure and explore the psychedelic state.
suitably equipped for balance stable comtrol where u know how to climax and know what lies down that direction of thinking in the bridal chamber, while in the heated psychotic-able state of enlightened madness like the Acid Metal album Diary of a Madman.
frenzy maenad divine mania — honor the god Dionysus to have climax ability with control stability, calmly routinely boringly know what control-disproof disruption climax potential lies down that direction of looking.
the Acid Metal album Diary of a Madman
d o a m
Contents:
Motivation for Creating this Page
Content
See Also
Zach Leary Book
forthcoming april 29 2025 , same day as audiobook of Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3) (Erik Davis, 2005) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0826416586
Motivation for Creating this Page
Someone in a meeting of experts – who doesn’t know the Egodeath theory – asked me if we can have stable control, since …
todo: link to “mission” yesterday writing defining my mission as give map/ explantory model to Cognitive Sci Loose Cognitive Scientists & Phil’ers of Mind.
Advise Cog Scientist to stand on right foot, not stand on left foot — but complete balanced initiation requires using both feet: purified Left foot branching-thinking together with Right foot non-branching-thinking.
cover art of german edition of David Ulansey’s solution explaining Mithraism book:
cosmology and salvation in the pagan world, mysteries of mithras: pact between heimarmene & transcend heimarmene
the integration of eternalism-thinking & transcendent possibilism-thinking
bull is Stand on left foot is branching-thinking is possibilism , basic possibilism-thinking
mithras is fixed stars is eternalism , basic eternalism-thinking
Aion is transcendent possibilism-thinking above eternalism
TWO DIFF MAPPINGS of Mithras!
always put sol below mithras when map the 3 levels/ phases:
one moment, Mithras = eternalism sacrificing possibilism-thinking; but next moment, Mithras represents “above eternalism “!
next moment, mithras is above heimarmene/ eternalism at transcendent possibilism-thinking and sol = mere heimarmene (lower) level?
proof that one moment, first, Mithras represents eternalism-thinking: in the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene , Mithras L foot bent and —
announcement from other day:
do not focus on which torch up or down in Cautes vs Cautopates and DO NOT SAY “LEGS CROSSED”, say …
DO NOT SEE “LEGS CROSSED” , SEE WHICH LEG IS BENT!
c&c twins are not “legs crossed”, they have “one leg bent”! legs crossed is a mere means to an end, to bend leg to indicate weight relying on the other leg.
ANNOUNCEMENT: mytheme decoding: {bent leg} (L or R)
I am not now discovering or initially decoding (ie, mapping to its actual referent) the {bent leg} motif; I am now officially announcing as a gathering of variant instances. April 24, 2025 7:15 am date of formal announce.
I mean “{bent leg}” as shorthand for:
{bent left leg or bent right leg}
= rely non/branching thinking = stand on right leg / stand on left foot / stand on right foot
{cut right trunk} = stand on right foot
huge art motif that only i discovered: {bent leg} , part of {handedness} motif.
cautes and cautopates: Mithraism :
cut foot: f134 major theme: blade touch left limb.
DO NOT SEE THEIR LEGS “CROSSED”; SEE WHICH LEGS BENT in The tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene :
i think consistently guy on left has L leg bent IN ORDER TO MATCH MithraS, guy right has R leg bent TO MATCH BULL.
In every intact tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene:
left guy and Mithras have L leg bent = stand on right foot
rely on non-branching thinking
nbt
rnbt
test 4 keyboard shortcut:
r b t rely on branching thinking
b t branching thinking
r n b t rely on non-branching thinking
n b t non-branching thinking
rely on both:
right guy & bull have R leg bent = stand on left foot
keyboard shortcut:
the tauroctony bull-sacrifice scene
taur
0-7 = branching, basic possibilism-thinking
8 = non-branching , basic eternalism-thinking
9 = transcendent possibilism-thinking wedded with transcendent eternalism-thinking
transcendent eternalism-thinking
t r e t
Sol & Mithras = eternalism + transcendent possibilism
bull & Mithras = possibilism + eternalism
Engineers and the STEM way of explaining.
Since Spring 1988, I held Science at arm’s length to the extent that the idea of Science was dominated by Copenhagen Manyworlds interpretation of Physics instead of Minkowski 4D spacetime block universe eternalism, & instead aligned with Engineering in March 1988, upon finding that they willfully change the word ‘measure’ to ‘observe’ – probably doc’ed in book How the Hippies Saved Physics.
todo: add to my good new page Books, the equel sequal to How the Hippies Saved Physics. A couple Books pages i have?
stand on left foot slf
todo: copy my recent sent emails to this site.
Content
fill in
Hanegraaff Correction
Fate posts on videos to copy to Hanegraaff pages
yt ch VIS MYTH
The most interesting topic needing videos and research is the relation in Late Antiquity between cosmos spheres 8 & 9.
The Demiurge resides in sphere 8, ruling over the 7 archons who rule the 7 planetary spheres.
Sphere 8 = Fate, fatedness, the Ogdoad, the sphere of the fixed stars, Heimarmene, the cosmic prison, the cosmic rock, cosmic enslavement, wrapped by cosmic heimarmene serpent.
The soul (in a narrow, limited sense per the Valentinian 3-part model) rises to this level, no higher.
All brands of religion in Late Antiquity affirmed Fate, and also set their sights on the spirit rising to sphere 9 above Fate, above Heimarmene, to be redeemed and rescued out from the cosmic rock.
The initiate affirms the pair of both views, rebirth into sphere 8 (Heimarmene) together with higher rebirth into sphere 9, the Ennead, outside the sphere of the fixed stars; transcending Fate.
That is per David Ulansey’s solution explaining Mithraism: his book and his two articles:
The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and Salvation in the Ancient World
Tat travels through the 7 planetary Fate-ruled spheres of the cosmos to reach Fate-ruled sphere 8 of the cosmos, the sphere of the fixed stars, which is the outermost sphere of the cosmos, the millions of stars of the cosmos, including the zodiac.
Hanegraaff correctly writes that the zodiac is Heimarmene/ Fate.
The zodiac is in the Ogdoad, which means 8th sphere of the cosmos, where the Demiurge dwells, ruling over the 7 planetary archon Fate rulers.
Hermetic rebirth is into the Ogdoad and the Ennead contrasted against each other like Fate vs. also transcending Fatedness, affirming both as a pair of complementary views, as lower, purified soul plus higher, transcendent spirit.
The soul (in the strict sense) halts in the Fate-ruled Ogdoad, sphere 8; sphere of the fixed stars.
Then in phase 2 of rebirth, the spirit travels outside of the 8-sphere cosmos, above the sphere of the fixed stars, reaching sphere 9, the Ennead.
This resolves Hanegraaffs’s footnote 114:
“Whether the fixed stars should be included [with Saturn, sphere 7] or should rather be associated with the Ogdoad [sphere 8] remains an open question for me.” – p. 294.
In the Earth-centered cosmos model, it is a simple given that looking at the sky, the 5 white dots of the planetary spheres move relative to sphere 8, which is defined by the fixed stars.
Cosmos sphere 8, defined by the fixed stars, is the outer, most extremely visible sphere of the cosmos, the Ogdoad, which the soul (in the strict sense) is reborn into.
Hanegraaff correctly writes that the fixed stars are heimarmene.
The fixed stars define cosmos sphere 8, called the Ogdoad.
Tat is reborn in phase 1 of rebirth, into the highest level of pure Heimarmene, where the purified soul reaches the fixed stars and stops.
The result is the harmonious integration of the soul in Heimarmene sphere 8 in the cosmos (the 8th, the Ogdoad) along with the spirit above Heimarmene, in sphere 9 (the 9th, the Ennead) outside the Fate-ruled cosmos.
Tat (the initiate) asks to be brought into pure Heimarmene (the Ogdoad) and also into above Heimarmene, into the Ennead.
Then Tat (with soul in Fate sphere 8 & spirit in above-Fate sphere 9) can perceive the 2nd level that’s outside the Fate-ruled, 8-sphere cosmos, outside the most-visible cosmos sphere, perceiving the Decans, the Source, the Pege; level 10.
See David Ulansey’s solution explaining Mithraism, which was also in Late Antiquity, starting around 98 CE, flourishing around 150 CE, same as Hermetism.
Per Dr. Justin Sledge, of the ESOTERICA YouTube channel, with astrologer Chris Brennan, all brands of religion in Late Antiquity affirmed cosmic Fate (the fixed stars, defining cosmos sphere 8) and aspired to deliver transcending Fate, by also reaching sphere 9, outside the cosmos.
Look up at the millions of fixed stars in the sky and 5 wandering planetary stars (plus sun & moon): that visible sky is the Fate-ruled, 8-sphere cosmos, to ascend to and also ascend beyond, in Hermetism and in the other brands of religion in Late Antiquity.
The visible, Fate-ruled cosmos has 7 planetary spheres and most visible of all by far, sphere 8 of the cosmos, which the soul reaches, in rebirth of the soul, and which the spirit rises above, in spiritual rebirth outside the cosmos:
Per Mithraism, “born out from the rock” (the Ogdoad, sphere 8, fixed stars, the zodiac) to see the hypercosmic light (in the Ennead, sphere 9, and Decans, level 10).
Cosmic sphere 8 along with hypercosmic sphere 9 = the pact of harmony between Sol & Mithras; the soul & the spirit; Heimarmene & transcending Heimarmene.
“The 8th Reveals the 9th”, as David Litwa’s new 2025 book Hermetica I titles the Hermetic writing.
, which you should find relevant:
[it’s “an entheogenic practice”, by the too-easy standards of the Entheogenic Esotericism article]
“
The Egodeath theory 
