Home (theory of the ego death and rebirth experience)
Contents
New entheogenic Judeo-Christianity
book by Dan Merkur
Book review: Merkur: Mystery of
Manna
Book: Dan Merkur: Psychoanalytic
Approaches to Myth
Merkur: On Psychedelics in Our Time
The
Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience
by Daniel
Merkur, Dan Merkur
Paperback
- 144 pages (August 15, 2001)
Inner
Traditions Intl Ltd
http://www.parkstpress.com/titles/psysac.htm
>Reveals
the secret teachings from the Judeo-Christian traditions that promote the use
of psychedelic substances to enhance religious transcendence.
>Explains
how special meditations were designed to be performed while partaking of the
"psychedelic sacrament".
>By the
author of The Mystery of Manna, Powers Which We Do Not Know, Gnosis, and The
Ecstatic Imagination.
>In The
Mystery of Manna, religious historian Dan Merkur provided compelling evidence
that the miraculous bread that God fed the Israelites in the wilderness was
psychedelic, made from bread containing ergot--the psychoactive fungus
containing the same chemicals from which LSD is made. Many religious
authorities over the centuries have secretly known the identity and experience
of manna and have left a rich record of their involvement with this sacred
substance.
>In The
Psychedelic Sacrament, a companion work to The Mystery of Manna, Dan Merkur
elucidates a body of Jewish and Christian writings especially devoted to this
tradition of visionary mysticism. He discusses the specific teachings of Philo
of Alexandria, Rabbi Moses Maimonides, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux that refer
to special meditations designed to be performed while partaking of the
"psychedelic sacrament." These meditations combine the revelatory
power of psychedelics with the rational exercise of the mind, enabling the
seeker to achieve a qualitatively enhanced state of religious transcendence.
The Psychedelic Sacrament sheds new light on the use of psychedelics in the
Western mystery tradition and deepens our understanding of the human desire for
divine union.
>About
the Author -- Dan Merkur, Ph.D., has taught at Syracuse University and Auburn
Theological Seminary. His research focuses on the varieties of religious
experience in historical, cross-cultural, and psychoanalytical perspectives. He
is the author of many books, including The Mystery of Manna, Powers Which We Do
Not Know, Gnosis, and The Ecstatic Imagination. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Dan Merkur
also wrote the following books:
Unconscious
Wisdom : A Superego Function in Dreams, Conscience, and Inspiration
by Daniel
Merkur, Dan Merkur
Paperback
- 192 pages (May 2001)
State Univ
of New York Pr
The
Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible
by Daniel
Merkur, Dan Merkur
Paperback
- 186 pages (January 2000)
Inner
Traditions Intl Ltd
Mystical
Moments and Unitive Thinking
by Daniel
Merkur, Dan Merkur
Paperback
- 188 pages (March 1999)
State Univ
of New York Pr
The
Ecstatic Imagination : Psychedelic Experiences and the Psychoanalysis of
Self-Actualization
by Dan
Merkur, Daniel Merkur
Paperback
- 218 pages (February 1998)
State Univ
of New York Pr
Gnosis :
An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions (Suny Series in Western
Esoteric Traditions)
by Dan
Merkur
Hardcover
(December 1993)
State Univ
of New York Pr
Becoming
Half Hidden : Shamanism and Initiation Among the Inuit (Garland Reference
Library of the Humanities, 1559)
by Dan
Merkur
Hardcover
(September 1992)
Garland
Pub
Powers
Which We Do Not Know: The Gods and Spirits of the Inuit
Daniel
Merkur
University
of Idaho Press, 1991
Due end of
August.
Dan
Merkur, the author, wrote:
>The
book is supposed to be published in August 2001. When last I heard, it was going to the printer slightly ahead of
schedule.
Bob
Wallace of Mind Books bookseller wrote:
>I
called the publisher about 3 weeks ago, they said it should be out around the
end of August. Our next catalog will be around mid-September; if it's available
then we'll carry it at http://www.promind.com.
Shannon
Walker of Inner Traditions press wrote:
>This
book is not yet published. It will be
shipping to our distributors, including B&N.Com in late August.
>The
Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience
>by
Daniel Merkur, Dan Merkur
>Paperback
- 144 pages (August 15, 2001)
>Inner
Traditions Intl Ltd
>http://www.parkstpress.com/titles/psysac.htm
>>Reveals
the secret teachings from the Judeo-Christian traditions that promote the use
of psychedelic substances to enhance religious transcendence.
>>Explains
how special meditations were designed to be performed while partaking of the
"psychedelic sacrament".
>>By
the author of The Mystery of Manna, Powers Which We Do Not Know, Gnosis, and
The Ecstatic Imagination.
>>In
The Mystery of Manna, religious historian Dan Merkur provided compelling
evidence that the miraculous bread that God fed the Israelites in the
wilderness was psychedelic, made from bread containing ergot--the psychoactive
fungus containing the same chemicals from which LSD is made. Many religious
authorities over the centuries have secretly known the identity and experience
of manna and have left a rich record of their involvement with this sacred
substance.
>>In
The Psychedelic Sacrament, a companion work to The Mystery of Manna, Dan Merkur
elucidates a body of Jewish and Christian writings especially devoted to this
tradition of visionary mysticism. He discusses the specific teachings of Philo
of Alexandria, Rabbi Moses Maimonides, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux that refer
to special meditations designed to be performed while partaking of the
"psychedelic sacrament." These meditations combine the revelatory
power of sychedelics with the rational exercise of the mind, enabling the
seeker to achieve a qualitatively enhanced state of religious transcendence.
The Psychedelic Sacrament sheds new light on the use of psychedelics in the
Western mystery tradition and deepens our understanding of the human desire for
divine union.
>>About
the Author -- Dan Merkur, Ph.D., has taught at Syracuse University and Auburn
Theological Seminary. His research focuses on the varieties of religious
experience in historical, cross-cultural, and psychoanalytical perspectives. He
is the author of many books, including The Mystery of Manna, Powers Which We Do
Not Know, Gnosis, and The Ecstatic Imagination. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.
> The
Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience
> by
Dan Merkur.
>
>
bn.com at
>
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=089281862X
>
http://www.parkstpress.com/titles/psysac.htm
This is my
book review -- or rather recommendation -- posted today. There is already plenty of description of
the content of the book at Amazon.
Although some of my reviews have been detailed, I instead want to be
more forcefully persuasive in getting people to actually buy and read these
books. Merkur's books are an invaluable
contribution to a field that urgently needs more books, to provide a new
paradigm strong and broad enough to convert people from the old paradigm of
puzzlement.
The
Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible
Dan Merkur
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0892817720
Jan. 2000
5 stars
Anyone
interested in the entheogen theory of religion should definitely read this
book. It is well-written and
scholarly. The field is inherently
speculative at this early point. This
is a much-needed valuable contribution to religion studies.
Today's
situation is a perfect example of a paradigm shift: if you examine each
hypothesis separately and each book on the subject separately, and assume the
dominant paradigm or non-theory of "those crazy and primitive ancients are
simply unfathomable and alien to our way of thinking," you'll be able to
easily dismiss each hypothesis and each book.
But when
you consider the still-small set of all books and articles about the entheogen
theory of religion, a viable alternative paradigm is coming into view. This new paradigm, within which Merkur is
only one of a growing number of researchers, is readily yielding specific
plausible hypotheses, while the official dominant view has no hypotheses other
than "the ancients' minds operated differently than ours, and we simple
can't comprehend them, and they were remarkably excitable by wine --
lightweights, unlike us."
Therefore,
any one book in this field cannot be reasonably evaluated in isolation;
instead, read Merkur's book Psychedelic Sacrament, Clark Heinrich's 1995 book
Strange Fruit, which also has coverage of ergot in the Old Testament, and
several other books in the field of the entheogen theory of religion. Only then are you reasonably equipped to
assess how much this book contributes to our understanding of the history of
religion and the nature of religious experiencing.
----------------------------
Here is my
updated Amazon review. I've updated my
phrasing and expressions, and switched from a paradigm of "entheogens are
rare and suppressed" to a paradigm of "entheogens are ubiquitous,
standard, and somewhat suppressed".
The
Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience
Dan Merkur
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089281862X
http://www.parkstpress.com/titles/psysac.htm
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=089281862X
Entheogenic,
rational, short-session mysticism
5 stars
Merkur
shows the existence of a more or less continuous tradition of psychoactive
Western religion. Various separate threads of mystic techniques have sometimes
come together to form an approach to the mystic altered state that is based on
rational reflection, together with short-session use of visionary plants,
rather than continuous long-term meditation.
This book
associates a seemingly overlooked tradition of short-session meditation with
the use of psychoactive, visionary plants.
The use of psychoactives enables a more rationality-oriented approach
and obviates the need to constantly meditate for long-term periods. This entheogen-using, short-session,
rational form of mysticism is being increasingly recognized throughout Western
history. Meditation, psychoactives, and
rational thinking can be and historically have been brought together to augment
each other.
Merkur
helps entheogen researchers focus not only on revealing the presence of
particular plants in mystic-state practices, but also on the traditions of
using the plants in a shared religious framework and reflecting on the
experiences produced by the visionary plants.
The field of mysticism greatly needs such coverage of the important and
challenging semi-secret tradition of not only entheogen use, but entheogen use
combined with rational mysticism and short-session meditation.
I don't
think Merkur is claiming that the mystics who combine these approaches claim
that every aspect of mystic experiencing is entirely rationally explainable and
conceptually tangible; the vision of the transcendent cosmic throne may still
include a certain aspect that is, in a way, beyond the reach of complete,
direct conceptualization.
Despite
the seemingly entrenched assumptions that mysticism is inherently slow and
laborious, drug-free, and non-rational, rational short-session meditation forms
an effective alternative tradition or alternative view of what approach makes
sense. This proposal contradicts the
dominant assumptions about the techniques and conventions of mysticism: the
assumption, perhaps misguided, that mysticism ideally should not use
psychoactives, is not rationality-oriented, and must be conducted for extended,
endlessly long meditation periods. In some semi-obscured traditions that are
recently coming to light, these approaches have come together naturally and
effectively.
This seems
similar to the "lightning-bolt" short-path variety of Buddhist
meditation technique as portrayed by James Arthur in Mushrooms and Mankind,
which points out that Vajrayana was created by combining Tantric Buddhism and
the native Bon shamanism of Tibet. The
approach Merkur describes also seems equivalent to the evident visionary-state
experiencing on tap in the Hellenistic mystery-religions, in which a person
commonly undergoes a moderate number of limited-duration initiations to achieve
spiritual purification and mental transformation, reshaping the mind's
conception of the self by the encounter with transcendent experiencing.
Merkur, as
psychologist, contrasts the experience of loss of the sense of personal
freedom, which he portrays as being conventional mysticism, with a supposedly
different experience of a psychoactive rational mysticism that involves panic
attacks. However, I'd point out that
the loss of the sense of being a metaphysically free agent is integral to a
mystic-state panic attack. When the
psychoactive perspective and self-sense, combined with rational analysis about
our assumption of personal sovereign agency, suspends the sense of wielding
metaphysically free power, that is the very cause and central vortex of the
panic attack. The self-commanding part of the mind panics because the mind
perceives the lack of metaphysical freedom and self-control, and sees the
mind's vulnerable dependence on the mysterious uncontrollable arising of
personal control-thoughts, like discovering that one's controllership is
dependent on whatever happens to come up from an underground spring in a cave.
Merkur
uses the Psychology interpretive paradigm, but that would be strengthened by a
stronger Philosophy of Metaphysics background, including the philosophy of time
and responsible control agents. The book doesn't really explain what the union
with God experience, or the vision of the invisible transcendent controller on
the cosmic throne above one's personal controllership level, would be like for
a modern entheogenic rational mystic.
Merkur
reveals the occasional conjunction of Western religion and psychoactives, and
also a kind of rationality which I would call, with Ken Wilber,
"vision-logic" or visionary rationality.
Fortunately,
this book does not depend on identifying mystic sacraments as any one visionary
plant. There is consensus in the field
of the entheogen theory of religion that it is more important to identify
scriptural allusions to psychoactives, and find how psychoactives were combined
with meditation and visionary rationality, than to identify the main and minor
entheogens used. The important point is
to recognize the terms "sacrament" or "manna" as meaning
visionary plants.
Subsections
include The Necessity of Vision; Philo's Meditative Practices; Other Varieties
of Ecstasy in Philo; The Contemplative Practice of Aristotle; Discursive
Meditations in Islam; Bernard on Intellectualist Mysticism; Bernard on
Trance-Based Mysticism; Death and Resurrection at Sinai; Maimonides on Meditation,
and others.
Merkur
provides essential coverage of primary religious experiencing at the origin and
heart of Judeo-Christianity, providing highly valuable contributions that help
to discovering the semi-suppressed tradition and history of entheogens in
Western religion, as well as expanding our expectations about the nature of
mystic experiencing. This book is a
step toward covering entheogens casually as just one part, not especially novel
or controversial, of a system of philosophy and religion.
This
scholarly book is clear, organized, and presents a focused and well-supported
thesis -- an excellent source for researchers to cite. Merkur is a clear writer who states where
he's headed, states why he's covering subjects, and summarizes what he has established.
An
invaluable, much needed, must-have contribution to research in the history of
mysticism, theory of mystic-state insight and experiencing, and the entheogen
theory of religion.
I
shortened my review to post it at Amazon.com.
My
original long review is currently at:
http://www.egodeath.com/merkurpsychedelicsacrament.htm
The
Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience. By Dan Merkur, 2001.
To support
the entheogen-specialist bookseller, purchase the book through Mind Books:
http://www.promind.com
See the
book descriptions at:
http://www.parkstpress.com/titles/psysac.htm
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=089281862X
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089281862X
_________________
Merkur
shows that there has existed a more or less continuous tradition of
psychoactive Western religion. Various
separate threads of mystic techniques have sometimes come together to form a
rational, secret, psychoactive, mystic activity that uses occasional meditation
rather than continuous long-term meditation.
The cover
description is accurate, though it doesn't reveal the surprise that the book
associates a tradition of short-session meditation with use of psychoactives.
The use of
psychoactives enables a more rationality-oriented approach and obviates the
need to constantly meditate for long-term periods. Instead, in this entheogen-using, short-session, rational form of
mysticism that comes together every so often in Western history, meditation and
psychoactives and rational thinking are all brought together to augment each
other in a way that is not acknowledged by scholars who study only one of these
threads.
Most
conventional entheogenists may find less about entheogens than they want, and
more about a minor but important and challenging secret tradition of not only
entheogen use, but entheogen use combined with, of all things, *rational*
mysticism and *short-session* meditation.
I
particularly commend Merkur's proposal that entheogenic Western mystics often
combined that technique with *rational* and *short-session* meditation, forming
an approach that drastically contradicts the common, dominant formula of
drug-free, non-rational, long-session meditation.
Thus he
proposes the existence of entheogenic, rational short-session mysticism, which
contradicts the dominant assumptions about the techniques and conventions of
mysticism.
Merkur
especially shows that common mysticism does not use psychoactives and is not
rationality-oriented and is conducted for extended periods. Common rational philosophy does not use
psychoactives. Common use of
psychoactives does not use rationality.
But in some unusual traditions, these three have come together to form a
rational, psychoactive, short-session mysticism.
Merkur
associates the combining of psychedelics and rational mystic activity with
short-session meditation rather than extended, endlessly long meditations. This seems similar to the
"lightning-bolt" short-path variety of Buddhist meditation technique
as portrayed by James Arthur in Mushrooms and Mankind, which points out that
Vajrayana was created by combining Tantric Buddhism and the native Bon
shamanism of Tibet.
Merkur, as
psychologist, contrasts the experience of loss of the sense of personal
freedom, which he portrays as being conventional mysticism, with a supposedly
different experience of a psychoactive rational mysticism that involves panic
attacks.
But I
point out that the loss of the sense of being a metaphysically free agent is
essential to a panic attack; when the psychoactive, combined with rational
analysis about our assumption of personal sovereign agency, suspends the sense
of my wielding metaphysically free power, that is the very cause and central
vortex of the panic attack. One panics
*because* one perceives lack of metaphysical freedom and self-control. Merkur's oversight of this identity of the
loss of the feeling of freedom and the experience of a panic attack indicates
the limits of his understanding and familiarity with the phenomena and insights
that arise during the mystic loose-cognition state.
Merkur
applies a psychology perspective that would be strengthened by a stronger
philosophy of metaphysics background, including the philosophy of time and
responsible control agents. The book
doesn't really explain what the union with God is all about or explain what
that experience would be like for a modern entheogenic rational mystic.
This book
reveals the occasional conjunction of Western religion and psychoactives, and
also a kind of rationality which I would call, with Ken Wilber,
"vision-logic" or visionary rationality.
This book
does not depend on Merkur's theory, expressed in a similar book, that the main
entheogen of Israel was ergot. There
seems to be consensus in the field that it is more important to identify
scriptural allusions to psychoactives, and find how psychoactives were combined
with meditation and visionary rationality, than to identify the main and minor
entheogens used.
Detailed
table of contents:
Preface
Introduction:
The Mystery of Manna
Philo's
Vision of God's Existence
The Necessity of Vision
Philo's Meditative Practices
Philo's Conception of Prophecy
Other Varieties of Ecstasy in Philo
The Muslim
Revival of Aristotelian Contemplation
The Contemplative Practice of Aristotle
Discursive Meditations in Islam
St.
Bernard on Spiritual Marriage
Bernard's Use of Augustine's Categories
Bernard on Intellectualist Mysticism
Bernard on Trance-Based Mysticism
Spiritual Marriage in Bernard's Experience
Bernard's Practice of Meditation
Hitbonenut
and Prophecy in the Maimonides Family
Death and Resurrection at Sinai
Maimonides on Prophecy
Maimonides on the Prophecy of Moses
Maimonides on Meditation
Abraham Maimonides
Obadyah Maimonides
Afterword
Notes
Index
Read this
book if you are particularly interested in evidence that Judeo-Christianity
includes an entheogenic tradition, and if you are especially interested in the
three mystics covered, entheogens in Judaism, and the history of entheogens in
Western religion.
This book
is more of a theory about the psychology of religion and religion's occasional
use of entheogens, rather than a book about entheogens that happens to have an
emphasis on religion (particularly Western religion).
This book
is a step toward covering entheogens casually as just one part, not especially
novel or controversial, of a system of philosophy and religion.
This short
book is worth buying and reading, and presents a focused and well-supported
thesis. The paper, typeface, writing,
and copyediting is high-quality and scholarly.
The book
is structurally clear. Merkur is a
clear writer who states where he's headed, states why he's covering subjects,
and summarizes what he has established.
It has an index and end notes.
Only a few paragraphs are hidden in the end notes. The Notes section is appropriately short for
this fairly short book. It is easy to
read if you like the subject matter. As
with all nonfiction books, I wish a detailed table of contents were provided.
Recommended
if your interest in the history of mysticism is as strong as your interest in
entheogens.
See my
Amazon area for related books and information."
I highly
recommend this book. See my review at
Amazon. I need to revise the review to
more strongly recommend it.
The
Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience
Dan Merkur
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089281862X
Aug 2001,
rank 315K (ought to be more popular)
Review:
* * * * *
Entheogenic, rational, short-session mysticism
Merkur
shows that there has existed a more or less continuous tradition of
psychoactive Western religion. Various separate threads of mystic techniques
have sometimes come together to form a rational, secret, psychoactive, mystic
activity that uses occasional meditation rather than continuous long-term
meditation.
The cover
description is accurate, though it doesn't reveal the surprise that the book
associates a tradition of short-session meditation with use of psychoactives.
The use of
psychoactives enables a more rationality-oriented approach and obviates the
need to constantly meditate for long-term periods. Instead, in this
entheogen-using, short-session, rational form of mysticism that comes together
every so often in Western history, meditation and psychoactives and rational
thinking are all brought together to augment each other in a way that is not
acknowledged by scholars who study only one of these threads.
Most
conventional entheogenists may find less about entheogens than they want, and
more about a minor but important and challenging secret tradition of not only
entheogen use, but entheogen use combined with, of all things, *rational*
mysticism and *short-session* meditation.
I
particularly commend Merkur's proposal that entheogenic Western mystics often
combined that technique with *rational* and *short-session* meditation, forming
an approach that drastically contradicts the common, dominant formula of
drug-free, non-rational, long-session meditation.
Thus he
proposes the existence of entheogenic, rational short-session mysticism, which
contradicts the dominant assumptions about the techniques and conventions of
mysticism.
Merkur
especially shows that common mysticism does not use psychoactives and is not
rationality-oriented and is conducted for extended periods. Common rational
philosophy does not use psychoactives. Common use of psychoactives does not use
rationality. But in some unusual traditions, these three have come together to
form a rational, psychoactive, short-session mysticism.
Merkur
associates the combining of psychedelics and rational mystic activity with
short-session meditation rather than extended, endlessly long meditations. This
seems similar to the "lightning-bolt" short-path variety of Buddhist
meditation technique as portrayed by James Arthur in Mushrooms and Mankind,
which points out that Vajrayana was created by combining Tantric Buddhism and
the native Bon shamanism of Tibet.
Merkur, as
psychologist, contrasts the experience of loss of the sense of personal
freedom, which he portrays as being conventional mysticism, with a supposedly
different experience of a psychoactive rational mysticism that involves panic
attacks.
But I
point out that the loss of the sense of being a metaphysically free agent is
essential to a panic attack; when the psychoactive, combined with rational
analysis about our assumption of personal sovereign agency, suspends the sense
of my wielding metaphysically free power, that is the very cause and central
vortex of the panic attack. One panics *because* one perceives lack of
metaphysical freedom and self-control. Merkur's oversight of this identity of
the loss of the feeling of freedom and the experience of a panic attack
indicates the limits of his understanding and familiarity with the phenomena
and insights that arise during the mystic loose-cognition state.
Merkur
applies a psychology perspective that would be strengthened by a stronger
philosophy of metaphysics background, including the philosophy of time and
responsible control agents. The book doesn't really explain what the union with
God is all about or explain what that experience would be like for a modern
entheogenic rational mystic.
This book
reveals the occasional conjunction of Western religion and psychoactives, and
also a kind of rationality which I would call, with Ken Wilber,
"vision-logic" or visionary rationality.
This book
does not depend on Merkur's theory, expressed in a similar book, that the main
entheogen of Israel was ergot. There seems to be consensus in the field that it
is more important to identify scriptural allusions to psychoactives, and find
how psychoactives were combined with meditation and visionary rationality, than
to identify the main and minor entheogens used.
Detailed
table of contents:
Preface
Introduction:
The Mystery of Manna
Philo's
Vision of God's Existence
-- The
Necessity of Vision
-- Philo's
Meditative Practices
-- Philo's
Conception of Prophecy
-- Other
Varieties of Ecstasy in Philo
The Muslim
Revival of Aristotelian Contemplation
-- The
Contemplative Practice of Aristotle
--
Discursive Meditations in Islam
St.
Bernard on Spiritual Marriage
--
Bernard's Use of Augustine's Categories
-- Bernard
on Intellectualist Mysticism
-- Bernard
on Trance-Based Mysticism
--
Spiritual Marriage in Bernard's Experience
-- Bernard's
Practice of Meditation
Hitbonenut
and Prophecy in the Maimonides Family
-- Death
and Resurrection at Sinai
--
Maimonides on Prophecy
--
Maimonides on the Prophecy of Moses
--
Maimonides on Meditation
-- Abraham
Maimonides
-- Obadyah
Maimonides
Afterword
Notes
Index
Read this
book if you are particularly interested in evidence that Judeo-Christianity
includes an entheogenic tradition, and if you are especially interested in the
three mystics covered, entheogens in Judaism, and the history of entheogens in
Western religion.
This book
is more of a theory about the psychology of religion and religion's occasional
use of entheogens, rather than a book about entheogens that happens to have an
emphasis on religion (particularly Western religion).
This book
is a step toward covering entheogens casually as just one part, not especially
novel or controversial, of a system of philosophy and religion.
This short
book is worth buying and reading, and presents a focused and well-supported
thesis. The paper, typeface, writing, and copyediting is high-quality and
scholarly.
The book
is structurally clear. Merkur is a clear writer who states where he's headed,
states why he's covering subjects, and summarizes what he has established. It
has an index and end notes. Only a few paragraphs are hidden in the end notes.
The Notes section is appropriately short for this fairly short book. It is easy
to read if you like the subject matter. As with all nonfiction books, I wish a
detailed table of contents were provided.
Recommended
if your interest in the history of mysticism is as strong as your interest in
entheogens.
--------------------------------------------------
http://www.egodeath.com/merkurpsychedelicsacrament.htm
The Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience. By Dan
Merkur, 2001.
To support the entheogen-specialist bookseller, purchase the book through
Mind Books (if they carry it yet): http://www.promind.com
See the book descriptions at:
http://www.parkstpress.com/titles/psysac.htm
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=089281862X
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089281862X
(This review is 1500 words. I have to abridge it to 1000 words to post it at Amazon. Good news for online reviewers: you can now edit your previous reviews at Amazon. This is my first review to use my "ultimate Amazon review template". I hope to use this template soon to review the most important book for drug policy reform, Dan Russell's book Drug War -- http://www.drugwar.com .)
__________________
Consider the official description of the book: "Dan Merkur elucidates a body of Jewish and Christian writings especially devoted to this [psychoactive manna] tradition of visionary mysticism." He shows that there has existed a more or less continuous tradition of psychoactive Western religion.
Merkur shows how various separate threads of mystic techniques have sometimes come together to form a rational, secret, psychoactive, mystic activity that uses occasional meditation rather than continuous long-term meditation.
The use of psychoactives enables a more rationality-oriented approach and obviates the need to constantly meditate for long-term periods. Instead, in this entheogen-using, short-session, rational form of mysticism that comes together every so often in Western history, meditation and psychoactives and rational thinking are all brought together to augment each other in a way that is not acknowledged by scholars who study only one of these threads.
The main idea in this book is the following. Common mysticism does not use psychoactives and is not rationality-oriented and is conducted for extended periods. Common rational philosophy does not use psychoactives. Common use of psychoactives does not use rationality. But in some unusual traditions, these three have come together to form a rational, psychoactive, short-session mysticism.
The cover description continues: "He discusses the specific teachings of Philo of Alexandria, Rabbi Moses Maimonides, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux that refer to special meditations designed to be performed while partaking of the "psychedelic sacrament." These meditations combine the revelatory power of psychedelics with the rational exercise of the mind, enabling the seeker to achieve a qualitatively enhanced state of religious transcendence."
The cover should also say that Merkur associates this combining of psychedelics and rational mystic activity with short-session meditation rather than extended, endlessly long meditations.
Lending support to Merkur's association of entheogens with short-session yet fulfilling religious experiencing, I'm pointing out that this combining of short-session meditation and psychoactives to produce full, richly diverse, and fulfilling mystic experiencing can also be seen in the "lightning-bolt" short-path variety of Buddhist meditation technique, as James Arthur covers in Mushrooms and Mankind.
Arthur concluded that the Vajrayana short path of enlightenment is shamanistic, meaning entheogen-using. Alan Watts' book The Way of Zen mentions Vajrayana as the lightning-fast short path to satori, in several places. Vajrayana was created by combining Tantric Buddhism and the native Bon shamanism of Tibet.
The following comments are a critique based on my own views about psychoactive rational mysticism and ego death. An oversight in the very heart of the presentation is when Merkur contrasts the experience of loss of the sense of personal freedom, which he portrays as being conventional mysticism, with a supposedly different experience of a psychoactive rational mysticism that involves panic attacks.
But I am pointing out that the loss of the sense of being a metaphysically free agent is essential to a panic attack. When the psychoactive, combined with rational analysis about our assumption of personal sovereign agency, suspends the sense of my wielding metaphysically free power, that is the very cause and central vortex of the panic attack.
One panics *because* one perceives lack of metaphysical freedom and self-control. Merkur's oversight of this identity of the loss of the feeling of freedom and the experience of a panic attack indicates the limits of his understanding and familiarity with the phenomena and insights that arise during the mystic loose-cognition state.
Merkur's lack of seeing this connection also can be seen as a result of his psychology background rather than philosophy background (I'm thinking of the philosophy of modern metaphysics, time, and agency). The book doesn't really explain what the union with God is all about or explain what that experience would be like for a modern entheogenic rational mystic.
This book is about the occasional conjunction of Western religion and psychoactives, and also rationality which I would call, with Ken Wilber, "vision-logic" or visionary rationality.
I admire the way Merkur avoids risking weakening the thesis in this book, by distancing this book from his theory that the main Judeo-Christian entheogen was ergot. There are more crucial issues that identifying which was the main entheogen.
Merkur expresses my recent views: It doesn't make a whole lot of difference whether Amanita or Ergot or Cannabis or some combination of plants was the main Christian entheogen. The only really important thing is that entheogens can cause Judeo-Christian religious experiences and that some kind of psychoactive plant with some kind of entheogenic, psychedelic, or ego-death effects is definitely and certainly present as a primary inspiration for the Western religious scriptures and mystic writings.
It is more important to identify scriptural allusions to psychoactives, and find how psychoactives were combined with meditation and visionary rationality, than to identify with certainty which were the main entheogens and which were the lesser-used entheogens.
Most conventional entheogenists may find less about entheogens than they want, and more about a minor but important and challenging secret tradition of not only entheogen use, but entheogen use combined with, of all things, *rational* mysticism and *short-session* meditation.
This is, to me, the most important aspect of this book: not just that some Western mystics used entheogens, but that (Merkur seems to imply) the Western mystics who used entheogens tended to combine that technique with *rational* and *short-session* meditation, forming an approach that drastically contradicts the common, dominant formula of drug-free, non-rational, long-session meditation.
It is essential that we identify this unrecognized alternative combination (entheogenic rational short-session mysticism) and contrast it with the dominant assumptions about the techniques and conventions of mysticism.
What are other books like this, about the entheogenic origin of Western religion?
Clark Heinrich: Strange Fruit (Amazon didn't have it so I was forced to get it
from a specialist entheogen bookseller).
Chris Bennett: Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible
James Arthur: Mushrooms and Mankind
Jonathan Ott: The Age of Entheogens
Dan Russell: Shamanism and Drug Propaganda
Heinrich et al: The Apples of Apollo
Why might a person want to buy and read this book instead of a comparable one? If you are particularly interested in evidence that Judeo-Christianity includes an entheogenic tradition. If you are especially interested in the three mystics covered, and entheogens is Judaism, and the history of entheogens in Western religion.
This book is more of a theory about the psychology of religion and religion's occasional use of entheogens, rather than a book about entheogens that happens to have an emphasis on religion (particularly Western religion).
I'm pointing out that as entheogens become acknowledged as a most key topic for scholars, theorists, and philosophers, entheogenists will have to get used to seeing entheogens covered with broader interests that sometimes take entheogens for granted and focus more on the subject matter that is often born out of entheogenic experiencing -- systems of philosophy and religion that seem to eclipse a direct focus on the entheogens themselves.
What does each chapter cover?
Preface
Introduction: The Mystery of Manna
Philo's Vision of God's Existence
The Necessity of Vision
Philo's Meditative Practices
Philo's Conception of Prophecy
Other Varieties of Ecstasy in Philo
The Muslim Revival of Aristotelian Contemplation
The Contemplative Practice of Aristotle
Discursive Meditations in Islam
St. Bernard on Spiritual Marriage
Bernard's Use of Augustine's Categories
Bernard on Intellectualist Mysticism
Bernard on Trance-Based Mysticism
Spiritual Marriage in Bernard's Experience
Bernard's Practice of Meditation
Hitbonenut and Prophecy in the Maimonides Family
Death and Resurrection at Sinai
Maimonides on Prophecy
Maimonides on the Prophecy of Moses
Maimonides on Meditation
Abraham Maimonides
Obadyah Maimonides
Afterword
Notes
Index
Is the book easy to read? Yes, it is professionally written and edited. Only hard to read if you don't like the subject matter. I wish a detailed table of contents were provided.
Is a lot of the book back-matter? Footnotes are better than endnotes, and in either case, these should not be used for paragraphs, but only for citations. Paragraphs should be integrated into the body of the text, or omitted from the book if they are irrelevant. This book does well here; only a few paragraphs are hidden in the end notes. The Notes section is appropriately short for this fairly short book.
Does it have an index and list of related books/resources? Yes: index and endnotes.
Is it worth the price? Yes -- $13 for a 132-page valuable but focused and well-supported thesis.
How is the copyediting? Standard scholarly.
How is the structural clarity? Standard scholarly -- as always, the conventions for nonfiction idea-presentation could be improved, but Merkur is a clear writer who states where he's headed, states why he's covering subjects, and summarizes what he has established.
Does it cover what you would expect? Yes, the cover description is accurate, though it doesn't reveal the surprise that the book associates a tradition of short-session meditation with use of psychoactives.
Is it recommended? Yes, if your interest in the history of mysticism is as strong as your interest in entheogens.
__________________________________
>>Rational entheogenic short-session meditation is a great formula. It allows people to think they have interesting/enlightened answers to important questions while keeping most of their egoneurotic structures intact.
Long-term programs to shrink the ego are completely ineffective and only entrench the ego. Either a technique works quickly, or it is ineffective. Short-path, entheogenic, rational meditation is effective at completely and absolutely short-circuiting the ego. It's relatively instantaneous. If a technique takes 30 years, and even then does not get rid of ego, that is to say it is an ineffective technique.
This is the philosophy of the short path, the lightning vehicle to perfect and complete enlightenment. The ego is killed by instant logic, by comprehending how it is essentially an illusion.
After 30 years of drug-free, non-rational, long-session meditation, all the egoneurotic structures remain intact.
After a single semester of entheogenic, rational, short-session meditation, the ego structures are completely transcended, meaning that they are available and usable, but are not taken by the mind as logically legitimate or simply genuine.
Book:
Psychoanalytic Approaches to Myth
Dan Merkur
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0824059360
2004
Forthcoming. Should be interesting, because Merkur
incorporates entheogen knowledge.
Books by
Dan Merkur:
http://www.greatbiblestore.com/author_search.php?q=Daniel+Merkur
-----Original
Message-----
From: Dan
Merkur
Sent:
Tuesday, March 05, 2002
To:
maps-forum at maps org
Subject:
MAPS: On Psychedelics in Our Time
The recent
postings by prospective graduate students have got me thinking. I once read an interview with James Watson,
the co-discoverer of DNA, who said that he tries to teach his grad students
both what they can do with the existing equipment, and what would be worth
going after if new equipment were to provide the opportunity. Here are some thoughts of the latter sort.
In this
alarmingly warmest of Toronto winters, following a visit to our city zoo, it
occurred to me that our species can have no long-term future unless we learn to
mass-market effective psychotherapy as, in the 19th century, public education
was made social policy internationally.
We have
well-intentioned, knowledgeable people in government throughout the Western
democracies (and lots of reprobates too, of course), but little comes of it
because the mental health is not there.
However, as long as psychotherapy requires as much time and work as it
does, and is as chancy in its results, psychotherapy will remain the elitist
phenomenon that it has always been, and the future of our species must be
bleak.
Among
possible ways to mass-market psychotherapy, a psychedelic assisted
psychotherapy, that is, a psycholytic therapy, is, to my thought, the most
promising possibility on the horizon.
But the possibility needs a lot of work, because existing techniques are
still very unreliable. Our best people
are still trying to demonstrate that psychedelics can facilitate psychotherapy;
no one is trying to argue that a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is by far
and away the fastest, most reliable and/or most through of psychotherapies--as
would be needed for a mass market to occur.
I also
suggest that a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is the best use for
psychedelics that I can currently imagine.
This realization represents a significant change of priorities for me
personally. For thirty plus years I
have thought of psychedelics as religious sacraments that happen to have
psychotherapeutic use as an occasional side-effect. This bias was adopted from my first exposure to psychedelics in
the context of the mass social movement of the late 60s and early 70s.
Wasson,
Hofmann, and Ruck's book on the Eleusinian Mysteries also made it clear to me
that psychedelics have also been used historically in the context of religious
initiation practices. In both
sociological contexts--religious renewal movements, and individual initiation
rites--psychedelics have historically had limited appeal. The problem of bad trips outweighs the
benefits of good ones for most people, and only a few remain dedicated to the
sacrament.
On the
other hand, the concept of the unconscious was known in antiquity and widely
accepted among Western intellectuals from the Renaissance onward. What Freud did (and Freud, according to his
son Martin, was a secret hunter of wild mushrooms, including psychoactive
varieties!) was not to discover the unconscious, but rather to develop a
psychotherapeutic technique that made it necessary to work with the
concept.
Similarly,
religious approaches to the use of psychedelics have been around since time
immemorial--perhaps prior to the origin of our species--but we have as yet no
technique for using psychedelics whose value is sufficient to win a mass
market. I venture to hope that the
psychotherapeutic use of psychedelics has a potential for mass appeal, as the
religious use historically has not.
And it is
mass therapy, and not mass religion, that our species can no longer afford to
do without.
What needs
to be developed, I speculate, is a form of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy
that is sufficiently reliable in its production of therapeutic change to
command a mass market share. Cut good
psychotherapy down from 7 years to 2, and increase its reliability dramatically
(like doubling or tripling the rate of success), and there is a market out
there. Potent marijuana, rather than less socially acceptable substances, might
be the most marketable way to go. If
such a psychotherapy promotes an ethical (including ecological) responsibility,
it will be "good enough" to do the socio-cultural job that needs
doing, whether it is explicitly sacramental or not. The sacramental element could be left as an individual option.
The
possibility of using psychedelics as a total program of psychotherapy--that is,
"psychedelic psychotherapy" as distinct from "psycholytic"
or psychedelic-assisted verbal psychotherapy--has been explored and found too
hit-and-miss for marketting success. It
is a variant of the religious initiation model of psychedelic use, with all its
limitations.
Here then
is work for specialists in the psychology of psychedelics: developing a clinical technique that
maximizes the therapeutic utility of the drugs.
________________
Rob wrote:
I don't
see any difference between "mass therapy" and "mass
religion" since the implication is that if only everyone would get some
"good psychedelics" into them rather than "good religion"
the world would be a better place.
How is
that any different to the proselytization of a "born-again/baptised in the
Holy Spirit" Christian?
Just a
'pinch of psychedelic', for the hell of it, and all will be saved ... mein
gott! i'm on a religious [online discussion] list.... [rather than the MAPS
scientific list]
________________
Dan wrote:
My posting
has been misunderstood. To my thought,
several mass religions do exist and have failed to unite the planet, or provide
a basis for international cooperation, etc.
Mass therapy, by which I mean any form of psychotherapy that is (a)
effective and (b) cheap and fast enough for mass marketting, does not exist,
has not been invented yet, and certainly won't be achieved through a
"pinch of psychedelic" alone.
Calling a
random psychedelic experience "therapeutic" has been tried, isn't
accurate except by chance, and has no mass appeal. What I am talking about is genuine personality change, as indeed sometimes
occurs through religious conversions (but usually doesn't) and sometimes is
brought about through psychotherapy (but often doesn't). This differs from "baptism in the Holy
Spirit" and all religious analogs in that I am not talking about magic, or
about social status, etc.
It is of
no importance to me whether a psychedelic experience arrives a person at a
mystical union, a death-rebirth experience, a conversation with a god or God,
or any other manifest content. People
have lots of religious experiences whose manifest contents I think to be sheer
fantasy; and no doubt lots of people think the same of the religious
experiences I happen to think well of.
This is beside the point.
Becoming
religiously holy, perfect, sanctified, saved, elect, redeemed, transpersonally
developed, etc., is just a label.
Performative language does not accomplish psychotherapy. The terms all describe something
supernatural, something that may be validated consensually by one's society or
friends, but is nevertheless make-believe (like money, patriotism, and a lot of
other very serious fictions).
Sometimes, not often, people who have such experiences do coincidentally
undergo therapeutic change, but most do not.
The
research I am proposing is to discover what has to go right for thereapeutic
change to occur, so as to be able to produce it predictably. I am not proposing to debate the value of
genuine personality change. It's a bit
like debating the value of true love.
If you don't think it exists, or is important, you are not going to
participate in research on it. On the
other hand, I make no apology for having an interest in pursuing ideal
solutions to real problems. Are
inadequate solutions to world problems the only ones worth going after?
------ end
of Dan's posting -----
Home (theory of the ego death and rebirth experience)