The Psychedelic Theory of Esoteric Religion

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neilgodfrey
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Re: The Psychedelic Theory of Esoteric Religion

Post by neilgodfrey »

PsyPhilosopher wrote: Wed Oct 25, 2017 8:06 am
neilgodfrey wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:25 pm Simply relying upon plausibility does not cut it as a historical method
"Historical method" is hardly relevant to psychedelic esotericism, the crucial issue here is the hermeneutics of religion.
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PsyPhilosopher
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Re: The Psychedelic Theory of Esoteric Religion

Post by PsyPhilosopher »

iskander wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2017 2:08 pmAccording to Allegro, the Bible (and the New Testament in particular) is really just a series of myths that describe the secrets of the Amanita muscaria fertility cult rather than real people
It is important to understand that Allegro was suggesting a mushroom theory of religion and *not* a psychedelic theory of religion.

Allegro had no concept of a psychedelic mushroom, no concept of entheogens, and no concept that ancient Christians were tripping on drugs and experiencing religious revelation as a result.

Allegro focused on the amanita muscaria mushroom (red with white spots) which is not psychedelic. The psychedelic mushrooms are the (visually unremarkable) psilocybin-containing varieties, but Allegro had no awareness of these mushrooms or of any role that psilocybin-induced experiences had on early christianity.
bskeptic
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Re: The Psychedelic Theory of Esoteric Religion

Post by bskeptic »

PsyPhilosopher wrote: Wed Oct 25, 2017 8:06 am
neilgodfrey wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:25 pm Simply relying upon plausibility does not cut it as a historical method
"Historical method" is hardly relevant to psychedelic esotericism, the crucial issue here is the hermeneutics of religion.

When deciding how religion is best interpreted, the relative plausibility of the different interpretive paradigms is compared. For example - is it more plausible to interpret the crucifixion story as a literal historical event, or as a metaphor for intense psychedelic tripping?

Well if you take:

(1) It's intended to describe a literal historical event (whether or not it really happened), OR it's intended as a metaphor with whatever spiritual meaning.

Compared to:

(2) It's intended as a metaphor with a very specific meaning-- psychedelic tripping


Then I think (1) should be about a billion times more plausible than (2). (And I'm not against the idea that psychedelic plants have had a significant influence on world religion, or some types of religion.)
PsyPhilosopher
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Re: The Psychedelic Theory of Esoteric Religion

Post by PsyPhilosopher »

bskeptic wrote: Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:10 am (1) It's intended to describe a literal historical event (whether or not it really happened), OR it's intended as a metaphor with whatever spiritual meaning.

Compared to:

(2) It's intended as a metaphor with a very specific meaning-- psychedelic tripping

This ^ is not a valid comparison because (2) is included as a subset of (1)

There are various pairs of axioms that need to be compared for their relative plausibility, such as:

(1) Religious stories are literal depictions of historical events

vs.

(2) Religious stories are metaphorical (and therefore non-literal)

and:

(1) Religious stories are metaphorical references to astrological events

vs.

(2) Religious stories are metaphorical descriptions of psychedelic experiences

etc.
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