Religion as a Product of Psychotropic Drug Use

slimvictor

slimvictor

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
6,477
Location
"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
The notion that hallucinogenic drugs played a significant part in the development of religion has been extensively discussed, particularly since the middle of the twentieth century. Various ideas of this type have been collected into what has become known as the entheogen theory. The word entheogen is a neologism coined in 1979 by a group of ethnobotanists (those that study the relationship between people and plants). The literal meaning of entheogen is "that which causes God to be within an individual" and might be considered as a more accurate and academic term for popular terms such as hallucinogen or psychedelic drug. By the term entheogen we understand the use of psychoactive substances for religious or spiritual reasons rather than for purely recreational purposes.

Perhaps one of the first things to consider is whether there is any direct evidence for the entheogenic theory of religion which derives from contemporary science. One famous example that has been widely discussed is the Marsh Chapel experiment. This experiment was run by the Harvard Psilocybin Project in the early 1960s, a research project spearheaded by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. Leary had traveled to Mexico in 1960, where he had been introduced to the effects of hallucinogenic psilocybin-containing mushrooms and was anxious to explore the implications of the drug for psychological research.

On Good Friday 1962, two groups of students received either psilocybin or niacin (a nonhallucinogenic "control" substance) on a double-blind basis prior to the service in Boston University's Marsh Chapel. Following the service nearly the entire group receiving psilocybin reported having had a profound religious experience, compared to just a few in the control group. This result was therefore judged to have supported the entheogenic potential of hallucinogenic drug use. Interestingly, the experiment has subsequently been repeated under somewhat different and arguably better controlled circumstances and the results were substantially the same.
Click to expand...

cont at
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...as-a-product-of-psychotropic-drug-use/282484/
 
I once had a bad trip and in this state I had lost a grip of reality for a while (stupidly dosing a research chemical while inexperienced with drugs as a whole, lesson learnt). During this experience, I would find things such as bottles of water and have no idea where it came from, my brain immediately suggested some kind of 'lord' who was providing for me, after this experience i was completely unconvinced by the whole idea of a god, as this supported my earlier theory that 'god' is a placeholder for when people don't know the answers.
 
is see psychotropic use symptomatic of religion

they kind of got it the wrong way around :\
 
think of being on acid as being quite enlightened, think of poor integration as insanity (bipolar/borderline/narcissist/depressed/anxious/it goes on...)

think of good integration as a seed or gem (both must be cultivated with good nutrition)

so you are seeking a state of enlightenment, and if you dont have much wisdom or good advice behind you or a huge amount of introspection, you either wont progress, or things could go downhill for you in life
 
Enjoyable read.
I studied Hinduism briefly, but the subject of soma and amantias came up quite a lot actually. My professor always argued that it was probably not amantia, because there is some descriptions of it as a white milky substance which that they drank hot, and descriptions of it being highly uplifting, more like a stimulant.

That article did get a little bit overwhelmingly silly for me at the end, like "according to Allegro, Jesus never actually existed. He purported to demonstrate, using philological analysis of the structure of the ancient Sumerian language, that the name Jesus actually meant something along the lines of "semen" and that Christ meant something like "giant erect mushroom penis."
 
Last edited:
Yeah, there's definitely a correlation, but I think a lot of people overstate it.
 
blank bones said:
"according to Allegro, Jesus never actually existed. He purported to demonstrate, using philological analysis of the structure of the ancient Sumerian language, that the name Jesus actually meant something along the lines of "semen" and that Christ meant something like "giant erect mushroom penis."
Click to expand...

Finally, a reason to like the guy!! 8o
 
^I call my penis the king of kings.

But sometimes I analyze and give that it might be a king of kings and queens, or something like that.

And I also think that it might be both semen/mushroom-penis (Jesus Christ), and the person. Like micro/macro.. I think. Or just representations.

I forget the guys name right now... Something Arthur. He studied this a lot... And apparently in an older script, some kind of cuneiform that he found relevant, a "+" means/can mean mushroom. And the symbol of "+" is very common in religion. The cross for one. Not to say its so exact and exclusive to one meaning, but its interesting stuff. I've heard that "Jesus is the mushroom", and this goes with his saying, that I remember, something about being alive because he is dead, and dead because he is alive... I might have it mixed up, but just shooting stuff out here.

On another note, but related to the topic at hand, while experimenting with 2C-D, some 9-10 years ago, I found myself looking at "God", sitting out on my friends porch, getting rained on or barely under the porch's roof, still getting wet, in the dark. I saw God in the power of the rain, the nature.. I don't know. Same "symbols" in the criss-crossing of a hammock. Played with it with my hands. Anyways... Here somewhere in this time that I fail to elaborate on, I felt a compulsion to put the towel I had with me out there, out in front of me, like is common in ways of worship and meditation. And I out my body prostrate. This is what felt right. I was humbled by the power of everything. Get low.

Another time on 2C-D, I saw symbols appear all over my body... I remember they looked "angelic". But then that's just my perception of what "angelic" might be like. They were mostly blue/white... and static. Its like they were always there in the subtle changes in skin flow/color. And it was, even if a drug effect, like I remembered a time before my time that I remember here, where I learned these. Like they were part of an innate language. Something encoded. My encoding. I was "manufactured". I was artificial.

I don't know though... I felt like I remembered them from my childhood. But one I was separated from somehow in memory. I don't know.

This is one reason I won't get tattoos. I think they are inferior. Perhaps this is justification, not why.

But I can see why psychs would spawn religion... But I don't see anything wrong with it. Or I don't feel it was "just the drugs talking to me"... ;)
 
Last edited:
^ Interesting experiences, What.
I can relate.
I have had a few experiences on psychedelics where I was in over my head.
I had to pray to some higher being just to survive!
Other trips, I have believed that I felt the existence of a God / higher being. Very deeply.
It floored me with its beauty and incredible power.
These experiences have stayed with me for years, and I still believe in a higher being.
Not a Christian white-bearded dude, maybe, but something.
A conscious universe, maybe. Zeus, maybe.
Hard to put a name or image on it, but I feel that I have experienced something higher than humans.
 
slimvictor said:
^ Interesting experiences, What.
I can relate.
I have had a few experiences on psychedelics where I was in over my head.
I had to pray to some higher being just to survive!
Other trips, I have believed that I felt the existence of a God / higher being. Very deeply.
It floored me with its beauty and incredible power.
These experiences have stayed with me for years, and I still believe in a higher being.
Not a Christian white-bearded dude, maybe, but something.
A conscious universe, maybe. Zeus, maybe.
Hard to put a name or image on it, but I feel that I have experienced something higher than humans.
Click to expand...

I can say i've had a similar experience, because i'm an atheist (let's not start that argument :)). I was in a mild state of psychosis and I found a water bottle and couldn't explain where it came from. When i thought about it, my brain seemed to answer to me "God.". Now i think about this, to me it seemed as if my brain was making it up as a defence mechanism when thought about afterwards, but I can see how it can be interpreted differently. Very interesting stuff, and really something that I have been thinking about a lot lately and i'm glad I read your experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top