Home (theory of the ego death and rebirth experience)
Contents
Importance of Historical Study of
Entheogens
Spiritual Plants in Religious History
Scientific American: Intoxication
at Delphi
News article: Bronze Age Drugs
Entheogen references in the Book
Christ Conspiracy
Timothy Leary. Need Full History of Entheogen Use
Robust permutations of entheogen
theories, new chronologies
Andy:
>I'm a big fan of Acharya S [The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold], Alan Watts [The Way of Zen, Beyond Theology, This Is It], [and entheogen historical researchers].
I'm glad some people are seriously interested in the history of mystery-religions and Watts' approach to religion, in addition to entheogens. I shouldn't be surprised: you are not merely interested in current use and 20th-century history of entheogens, but rather, the complete history of entheogens, which goes much deeper than mere 20th century popcult history.
The 20th century history is essentially a-historical research. Such lack of true historical awareness has caused harm. Prohibition, which is persecution-for-profit, depends on keeping people ignorant about the important role of entheogens throughout human history and culture.
The 60s researchers made a pretty major mistake in emphasizing these materials as a modern innovation, and also in promoting the false assumption that Christianity is truly opposed to entheogen use.
>>proposing entheogenic ego-death allegories as the only sufficiently compelling alternative to the historical Jesus.
>>I thought that Barbara Thiering would be a little more open minded, she was quick to discredit the entheogen theory.
Thiering is not a Christ-myth theorist. She believes in the Historical Jesus. Her pescher theory of reading the gospels as encoded politics is impressively developed, but after a while, unconvincing because much too stiff and artificial.
She is committed to the historical Jesus, therefore she would maintain that entheogens are not necessary to explain the origin of Christianity.
Supernaturalists are out of the running now. The entire debate is between the historical Jesus camp and the Christ-myth theorists. You can count on the historical Jesus researchers to reject the entheogen theory as unnecessary, and you can count on the Christ-myth researchers to embrace the entheogen theory as the fitting explanation.
I have
discussed entheogens with the Christ-myth researchers, including those who have
published books. Generally, those who
conclude that Jesus was a myth back-projected are very open to considering the
entheogen theory of the origin of Christianity -- because if Christianity
didn't begin by a famous miraculous bodily resurrection, entheogens provide a
sufficiently compelling alternative: a mystery-religion experience of
entheogenic ego-death and rebirth.
Acharya S
(The Christ Conspiracy), Freke and Gandy (The Jesus Mysteries), and Earl
Doherty (The Jesus Puzzle) have all told me that they consider at least some of
my ideas on mystery-religions valuable.
I have been fully clear in proposing entheogenic ego-death allegories as
the only sufficiently compelling alternative to the historical Jesus.
I have
only hesitated to write these authors further because I want to more firmly
establish ownership of my ideas, to protect the integrity of the whole system I
have been at pains to gather together.
If the world wants my ideas about entheogens, I also want to make
available the ideas which I believe are related: mystery-religion allegories
and the encounter with and transcending of fixed-future determinism.
So I'm not
going to trip over myself in a rush to give other active, established scholars
a heads-up into encountering the full set of ideas. I've invited them and this is an open discussion archive. They now know a little about entheogens and
know that the Christ myth research points to entheogens -- it points toward me;
a search on "ego death" and entheogens delivers me to your web
browser. So does a search on
"christ myth" and entheogen.
Andy
wrote:
>That
mistake did a lot of damage. I just hope to see the paradigm shift in my
lifetime. I fear that the "Jesus
is Krishna, is Mithra..." loop will be the downfall of the Christian
Church and the sacrament will remain hidden. That's why it's so important to
spread the word about not only entheogens, but the 'Christ Conspiracy' as well.
>Some
history and only be studied thru art, not text:
>http://www.bluehoney.org/ReligionGallery.htm
>http://www.entheomedia.org/eden1.htm
Michael
Hoffman wrote:
>>The
60s researchers made a pretty major mistake in emphasizing these materials as a
modern innovation, and also in promoting the false assumption that Christianity
is truly opposed to entheogen use.
Andy wrote:
> my hobby is studying spiritual plants in religious history... Christianity mostly.
I like characterizing leading-edge research in the ultimate profundity as a mere "hobby". My fundamentalist Protestant grandparents are involved in church services three times a week -- it is their hobby.
Andy:
>The whole Christian trip really fascinates me, not just the "Eucharist Conspiracy" but how the story of the sun is hidden in the story of the son, yet it's right in your face all the time; or Moses and his entheogen - Manna.
Dan Merkur's new book is due out soon, on Judeo-Christian entheogen use - a "companion book" for Mystery of Manna. I pre-ordered it through bn.com, not Amazon, because Amazon has consistently been unable to follow through on forthcoming or out of print books. b-n has roots in brick-and-mortar stores, so may be better at working with distributors and used-book networks.
Amazon warned me that Arthur Drews' book Legend of Saint Peter (Mithraic foundation of Vatican) will be delayed at least 4-6 weeks in addition to the 2 weeks I've been waiting. b-n claims to be able to get the book to me much faster.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0009BD34-398C-1F0A-97AE80A84189EEDF
Scientific
American August 2003
Questioning
the Delphic Oracle: Overview / An Intoxicating Tale
John Hale,
Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, Jeffrey Chanton and Henry Spiller
>>For
the past century, scholars have discounted as myth the traditional explanation
that vapors rising out of the earth intoxicated, and inspired, the prophesying
priestesses at Delphi. Recent scientific findings show that this description
was, in fact, extraordinarily accurate.
>>In
particular, the authors have identified two geologic faults that intersect
precisely under the site of the oracle. Furthermore, the petrochemical-rich
layers in the limestone formations of the region most likely produced ethylene,
a gas that induces a trancelike state and that could have risen through
fissures created by the faults.
It would
be a gross mistake to think that this use of chemical inebriation was an odd,
isolated case in Hellenistic religion.
Hellenism (premodern religion-philosophy in general, in fact) was
*normally* and *predominantly* a matter of visionary inebriation, from *many*
sources of altering brain chemical states.
We should accept instances of religious chemical inebriation not into a
framework of the *minimal* entheogen theory of religion; but rather, within a
framework of the *maximal* entheogen theory of religion.
We must
not fall into the trap of using instances of entheogenic religion as evidence
establishing the *minimal* entheogen theory of religion; use instances of
entheogenic religion as evidence to establish the *maximal* entheogen theory of
religion.
-----Original
Message-----
From:
TRoberts
Sent:
Thursday, August 08, 2002
To:
maps-forum
Subject:
Bronze Age Drugs
Scientists
Study Bronze Age Drugs
By JASON
KEYSER
.c The
Associated Press
JERUSALEM
(AP) - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient cultures
throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and
disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands
of years, researchers say.
Ancient
ceramic pots, most of them nearly identical in shape and about five inches
long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle East,
dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at
Jerusalem's Hebrew University.
The drugs
were probably used as medicine and the finds are helping researchers better
understand how ancient people treated illness and disease.
``It's a
window to the past that many people are unaware of,'' Zias told a recent
conference in Israel on DNA and archaeology. ``Here's something used in
prehistoric times and it's used until today.''
When
turned upside down, the thin-necked vessels with round bases resemble opium
poppies pods. If there was any doubt about what was inside, the round bases
have white markings, designs that symbolized knife cuts made on poppies bulbs
so the white opium base can ooze and be harvested, Zias said.
The
Mycenaean ceramics were analyzed with a procedure called gas chromatography
that turned up traces of opium.
Hundreds
of the pots have been found and they commonly show up in the hands of
antiquities dealers in places like Jerusalem's Old City. ``Give me an hour
there and I could find you 10 of them,'' Zias said.
Based on
ancient Egyptian medical writings from the 3rd millennium B.C., researchers
believe opium and hashish - a smokable drug that comes from the concentrated
resin from the flowers of hemp plants - were used during surgery and to treat
aches and pains and other ailments. Hashish was also used to ease menstrual
cramps and was even offered to women during childbirth.
Based on
Egyptian writings, archaeologists believe the opium was eaten rather than
smoked.
The drugs
are part of a medical record that shows the ancients were far more advanced
than most people realize, Zias said, noting evidence that European people did
cranial surgery as long as 10,000 years ago, while the Romans left records of
120 surgical procedures.
Mark
Spigelman, a Zias colleague at Hebrew University, found one of the poppy-shaped
ceramic pots from the middle Bronze Age in Siqqura, a Giza cemetery near the
pyramids outside of Cairo during a dig four years ago. The pot, found in an
18th Egyptian Dynasty grave, was identical to other pots found throughout
ancient Israel and the Middle East.
``These
guys were selling opium all over the Middle East,'' Spigelman said. ``This is
the original Medellin cartel, 3,500 years ago,'' he said in a joking reference
to the violent Colombian cocaine cartel.
It seems
more likely, however, that the ancient trade was run by respected healers
rather than violent drug lords.
``We know
for sure these things were used for medical purposes,'' Zias said. ``The
question is whether they were used for recreational purposes.''
In an
archaeologically rich area of central Israel, Zias found another clue. While
excavating a tomb from the late Roman period in the town of Beit Shemesh 10
years ago, he found the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl who died in childbirth
around 390 A.D. On her stomach was a fleck of a burnt brownish, black
substance.
``I
thought it was incense,'' Zias said. But when he had it analyzed by police and
chemists at Hebrew University, it turned out to be a seven gram mixture of
hashish, dried seeds, fruit and common reeds.
Seven
glass vessels containing traces of the drug were found near the skeleton. She
probably used them to inhale the smoky cocktail to aid her delivery. Medical
researchers have found that other than relaxing the user, hashish increases the
force and frequency of contractions in women giving birth; and it was used in
deliveries until the 19th century, after which new drugs were developed.
But it
didn't help this girl, who was only 4 feet 6 inches tall. She bled to death.
The drug
was an extremely rare find. Organic compounds quickly decay, but because this
one had been burned it was carbonized and preserved.
``It's the
first time it's ever been found in terms of direct evidence in an
archaeological dig,'' Zias said. ``You rarely find direct evidence of drugs in
antiquity.''
08/07/02
13:52 EDT
The Christ
Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
Acharya S
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932813747
Sep. 1999
Page -
theme
114 -
Osiris as plant of truth eaten in communion
186 -
venom inebriation to induce prophetic and hallucinatory trances
203 -
datura, opium, 'wine' with spices - in sacred king tradition
270 -
eating sweet scrolls followed by visions in Ezekiel & Revelation, "it
has been suggested that these scrolls represented hallucinogenic drugs, which
were commonly used in mystery schools and secret societies."
275-276 -
introduction to the sex and drugs section. 'God-given' sacramental drugs as
avenue to the divine, paths to "God" or Cosmic Consciousness, gifts
from "God", to create union with the divine, use of drugs as part of
the esoteric religious or "mysteries", these "sacraments"
constituted a significant part of the mysteries, many schools and cults used
drugs in their initiation rites, there have been a number of pro-drug rituals,
esoteric Judaism and Christianity used these rites and rituals; need to utilize
these powerful devices wisely, the "instruction manual" of initiation,
entheogens as generating God.
Puts down
"the potent extracted chemicals causing such turmoil today" (I
strongly object to that view which Dan Russell holds as well. For example, LSD may very well exist in
nature, and natural-potency Mescaline and Psilocybin can be as strong as
extracted chemicals. I believe Jonathan
Ott has a more neutral view, which I consider enlightened.)
293-295 -
main section on drugs. Strong defense
of ancient widespread tradition of visionary plants ("opium, cannabis,
hashish, sacred plants, herbs, amanita, fungi") in religious
practice. Plants as teaching-gods, for
initiation, spiritual physicians, Therapeuts, medicinal herbs. Alcohol is "truly drugging and
stupefying, whereas entheogens, including the "magic mushroom, " have
the ability to increase awareness and acuity". "Much of the world's sacred literature incorporated the
mushroom in an esoteric manner"... "manna from heaven" as
psychedelic.
"In
fact, Allegro's suggestion that "Jesus" was a mushroom god is not
implausible, considering how widespread was the pre-Christian Jesus/Salvation
cult and how other cultures depict their particular entheogens as
"teachers" and "gods."
However, this mushroom identification would represent merely one aspect
of the Jesus myth and Christ conspiracy, which, as we have seen, incorporated
virtually everything at hand, including sex and drugs, widely perceived in
pre-Yahwist, pre-Christian cultures as being "godly."" - p. 294
Acharya's
views on entheogens are also online:
http://www.truthbeknown.com/entheog.htm
It's
interesting how little this view is integrated into the bulk of Christ Con,
which portrays astrotheology as based in the ordinary state of consciousness,
even if it's "esoteric knowledge" and a matter of
"initiation". The entheogen
topic is practically cordoned off as though in an appendix.
It's also
surprising how isolated her portrayal of the astrology approach is from related
topics (eg gematria), topics covered by Fideler. A mono-dimensional emphasis results -- not a balanced coverage
that reflects the diversity of views that were integrated in the ancient way of
thinking.
Jesus
Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism
David
Fideler
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0835606961/qid=1058458721/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-1918737-0092618?v=glance&s=books
>The
Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
>Acharya
S
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932813747
>Sep.
1999
Picture
her portrayal of how astrotheology was taught, but now assume a framework of 7
entheogenic initiation sessions running through the astrology lessons. *That* is the key difference and now we
understand what it was really about.
>Acharya's
views on entheogens are also online:
>http://www.truthbeknown.com/entheog.htm
>It's
interesting how little this view is integrated into the bulk of Christ Con,
which portrays astrotheology as based in the ordinary state of consciousness,
even if it's "esoteric knowledge" and a matter of
"initiation". The entheogen topic is practically cordoned off as
though in an appendix.
>>The
Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
>>Acharya
S
>>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932813747
>>Sep.
1999
The
biggest, most serious error in studies of drug prohibition in the 20th century
is that they have an incomplete, isolated historical perspective. Even recent writings by one of Leary's
Harvard cohorts imply that entheogens, or "psychedelics", are a 20th
century novelty. It's crucial that we
look at the *entire* history of psychoactives to discover that using them is
historically normal, and treating their use as deviant is actually an odd,
deviant view that has not been dominant in most places in most eras.
Any future
studies of the 60s psychedelic movement must cover the entire history of
psychoactive use as well. Without doing
so, we end up with the half-baked attitude on the part of their supposed
defenders that entheogens can on occasion be an adequate artificial simulation
of the mystic state.
That
mentality has everything completely upside-down; drug-free mysticism rather is
the occasionally adequate artificial simulation of the normal, sure, and
traditional way of accessing the mystic state.
See the books (available at Mind Books; http://www.promind.com ):
Brief
History of Drugs
Dan
Russell: Shamanism and Drug Propaganda
James
Arthur: Mushrooms and Mankind
Clark
Heinrich: Strange Fruit
Jonathan
Ott: The Age of Entheogens
Dan
Merkur: Mystery of Manna
Dan
Merkur: The Psychedelic Sacrament: Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience
-- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089281862X
http://www.egodeath.com/entheogenbooks.htm
- (I think I wrote a better email list of such books, to update this page)
>Please
send as far and wide as possible.
>Thanks,
>Robert
Sterling
>Editor,
The Konformist
>http://www.konformist.com
>Note:
This may be a bit late, but that it has been released is because, after nearly
two years, The Konformist is finally hitting the right direction financially.
>http://www.konformist.com/2000/kotc.htm
>
>Konformist
of the Century
>Timothy
Leary
The
existence of the years 600-900 or Charlemagne may or may not interfere with the
entheogen hypothesis. There are two
versions of the entheogen hypothesis, one aligned with the conventional
chronology, and one aligned with the new chronology. The field of new chronology is brand new, so new that it doesn't
really exist in English. And my study
of the field is brand new.
There is
now a question of *whether* the new chronology offers stronger support for the
entheogen theory of religion. The new
chronology clearly offers a *chance* of increasing the support for the
entheogen theory of religion.
There are
various reasons for entheogen scholars to consider the new chronology. The greater the number of radical theories
we know, the larger our conceptual vocabulary, enabling picking and choosing
the choicest elements from each perspective, resulting in a highly stable and
viable interpretive framework.
I am
currently not so interested in the simple proposal of adjusting our calendars
to close a 300-year gap.
A current
question is, all the Renaissance Western Esotericists (alchemy, magic,
astrology, Hermeticism) -- did they possess the New Testament, or were the
Pauline epistles, the gospels, and the "early" Church Fathers all
written and backdated in an effort around 1500 to forcibly corral all the
quasi-Gnostics -- including dualistic Cathars -- of the Renaissance era?
To
investigate how strong of an entheogen theory is possible with the conventional
chronology versus with the new chronology, we must define the two proposed
systems side by side, clarifying them both.
We can define multiple variants of the entheogen theory of religion,
multiple chronology theories, and multiple theories about dating the supposed
"early" Christian writings and about the historicity of New Testament
figures and other figures.
We must
study all of the following subjects:
o Comparative chronology theories.
o Quasi-historical literature and forgery.
o Evaluating historicity.
o Various entheogen theories of religion.
o Different theories of metaphysical
determinism.
o Different theories of Western esotericism.
o Different theories of the mystery religions
and banquet traditions.
There are
myriad odd aspects of today's history of esotericism. There was supposedly a whole world of activity, then a long,
complete darkness, and then suddenly, the exact same whole world of esoteric
traditions springs back to life.
Esotericism in general has timeless similarities, but some similarities
are odd and too perfect, such as the Catholic priests and the Jewish priests,
both blocking the way to mystic experience.
I've been
fully satisfied with following my gut feeling of plausibility on these matters
-- it's the only way to break out from one paradigm into another. After reading a handful of books on
Christian history, I looked back at felt a mysterious missing period: the blank
ages, the crayon scribbling book period, not convincingly drawn.
The
entheogen theory rests on thin ground, and solid ground. There never seems to be enough evidence of
it, and the thesis depends on claiming that visionary plants were always kept
hidden by those who liked them.
One reason
I am attracted to discussing Rush rather than other groups as an acid rock
band, is that there is no dispute regarding Led Zeppelin's use of drugs; there
is no surprise, no paradigm shifting, no news there. But fans today think that Rush was somehow different, the lone
exception of the drug-soaked post-60s, 1970s.
The drug topic is more interestingly hidden in Rush than in the
obviously drug-cultured bands.
Telling a
drastically different story about chronology enables telling some drastically
different stories about the entheogen theories of religion. Per Edwin Johnson, attended to now by Uwe
Topper, the Roman Empire was not (2000-500=) 1500 years ago, but instead was
only 800 years ago. (The years 700-1400
didn't exist, so subtracted a 700-year phantom interval.)
Christianity
is a very recent invention of around 1500 (500 years ago, not 2000 years ago)
that projected a literary illusion of the Roman Empire being a long time ago
and projecting Church history way back onto that time. The Roman Empire leaps 700 years nearer to
our time. The origin of the Church, the
pseudo-"early" Church Father writings, and the epistles and gospels,
leaps from happening 1900 or 1600 years ago, to happening just 500 years
ago.
"Ancient"
Rome with its mystery-religions leaps nearer to our time, and Church origins
leap even nearer. Much more or tighter
continuity is suggested by a time period too brief for much variation,
explaining why the Western esotericism just prior to the 1500s was so strangely
similar to the forms of esotericism on the other side of the supposed period
called the Dark Ages.
So far, I
don't see the entheogen theory or theories as being dependent on other variants
of other theories, such as whether we reasonably conclude there was a single
historical individual warranting the label of "the historical Jesus"
or "the historical Paul".
Even if Jesus pops into existence, the fact remains that entheogens run
circles around other methods of inducing the mystic state, in terms of
ergonomics and efficiency, and that the surest candidate for the main
wellspring of religion is entheogens, not meditation or contemplation.
The
entheogen argument can and should be won against all paradigmatic backdrops or
frameworks of interpretation. The
environment is what you care about?
Then you should advocate legalization of all drugs. Literalist religion is what you care
about? Jesus administered the sacrament
as hierophant. Mystic
experiencing? See entheogens. Gnosticism?
Drink a cup of mind. Health is
your concern? Medical cannabis is the
best cause.
The
entheogen argument should not be founded on the cornerstone of the historical
Jesus, or on the cornerstone of conventional chronology. The entheogen theory of religion must be developed
and strengthened against the backdrop of myriad frameworks and paradigms.
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