Entheogens as catalyzers of religious experience?

19th Conference of the European Society for Philosophy of Religion

Soesterberg, 30.8 – 2.9. 2012

Methodological prelude

Move 1: Entheogens and hallucinatory experiences

Move 2: Religious symbolism

Move 3: Phenomenology

Move 4: Biosemiotics

References

Transdisciplinary Imagination

Crossing the boundaries between traditional disciplines and modes of expression

ENTHEOGENS

EN – In, into

THEOS – god

GENESTHAI – to become, generate

ENTHOUSIAZEIN – to be inspired or possessed by the divine, be in ecstasy

www.etimonline.com

Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey (2008)

History Channel TV Documentary

http://vimeo.com/33931362

R. E. Shultes with Mazatecs

Letcher is talking about mushroom experiments conducted by Roger Heim (mycologist and the director of the French National Museum of Natural History (1951 - 65; studied with R. G. Wassson in Mexico identifying different speices of Stophariacea and Psilocibae families) and Pierre Thévenard (documentarist, science filmmaker. They were giving mushrooms (Psylocibae cubensis) to volunteers with artistic backgrounds. They published their findings, recorded every reaction, filmed the experiments, analysed them rigorously. They were looking for the artistic merit and for what it revelead about the inner workings of the artist's mind.

Leila Castle

The Mushroom Beings would helps us return to our true natureLeila Castle has studied and taught Sacred Feminine traditions since 1967, when at 16 she became a professional belly dancer, a featured dancer of the legendary Bal Anat company with Jamila Salimpour. After living in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1975 she began traveling to sacred sites, going on to research the Glastonbury Zodiac in Somerset, England 1979-84.  There she met and collaborated with pioneers of the British Earth Mysteries including Christopher Castle, with whom she co-directed Spotted Fawn Geomantic Arts in Pt. Reyes, California 1986-90, and John Steele, cofounder of The Dragon Project, with whom she studied and worked closely for many years.

Giulio Romano, Jupiter seducing Olympia (1526-28) Palazo del Te, Mantova

According to Lactantius, this sign was revealed to the emperor Constantine in the dream, the night before the battle of Milvian Bridge, 28. 10. 312

Enuma Elish, 18 – 16th centuries BCE

Yoshitoshi Nihon, Illustrated History of Great Japan, 1897 - 1880

Summary and interpretation of the main serpentine (serpent = snake-dragon) topoi:- Various mythological and cultural traditions: Aztecs and Central America, Inkas, amazonian cultures, Ancient Greece, Rome, China, Japan, India and Mezopotamia, christian Europe, modern alchemy, psychedelic experiences- "Filthy, dirty beast" - connection with dirt, humus, soil as a condensate of decay, rot and organic destruction being the source of the new growth; Killing, taming, subduing- Roots changing into snakes - connection with the fractal or rhizomatic patterns of the vein or river systems- Talking serpents - inherent conscious activity of all life

DNA in nano dimension

- Daemonic and destructive nature linked with enlivening, invigoratings powers - Signs of kingly and/or godly powers- Impregnating abilities, sexuality, reproduction - we may imagine here, among other things, the serpentine form of a single sperm, violently entering the egg, destroying its original unity, tearing it literally in two, to start the cycle of maturation and growth, that is in-formated by another serpentine structure, the double helix of DNA- Struggle between heavenly and chtonic (earthly, related to the hidden, underground) deities - Guardians of the secrets of life

The Dragon is contained in all things, he is the Fire, and in him our airy Stone. It dwells in every human on the Globe.

Husserl / Merleau-Ponty

- Die Erde als Ur-Arche

- Soil or Ground of our Experience – das Boden

- The Earth – the Root of our history

- Earth as Offenheit (Openness)

- Primordial and original relation to Earth

- Domain of common primal presence

- Cradle of life

Biosemiotics

Elements – Water, Earth, Air, Fire, and Spirit/LogosSpheres – Hydrosphere, Geosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere and SemiosphereAutopoietic system – self recognizing and self-organizing system (in communion with its surroundings)Umwelt – a world of meaning; that what makes sense according to the needs of any organism – semiotic nicheSemiosphere – interconnected, multilayered net of communication

The self-organizing features of mind are an enriched version of self-organizing features of life.

The self-producing (autopoietic) organization of biological life already implies cognition

The „incipient mind“ finds its expression in action, perception and emotion.