Religion as a Product of Psychotropic Drug Use

[cbayer]

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/religion-as-a-product-of-psychotropic-drug-use/282484/

How much of religious history was influenced by mind-altering substances?

RICHARD J. MILLER
DEC 27 2013, 10:12 AM ET


Wikimedia

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.

***

It may be easy for some to accept the idea that entheogenic substances played a role in the genesis of religion. However, when we move from generalities to specifics we are on less firm ground. There has been a great deal of speculation concerning the actual identity of drugs used for religious purposes in the ancient world. For example, what is the true identity of the drug soma used by the gods in the ancient Hindu Vedas? Or the identity of nepenthe, the "drug of forgetfulness" mentioned in The Odyssey? Although it is impossible to answer such questions in a definitive scientific sense, one can speculate about the various possibilities.

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[elleng]

1. Another thought

(of mine.) Wandering in the desert might result in hallucinations?

[eShirl]

2. what about the non-desert-related religions?

[elleng]

3. Obviously wouldn't apply.

[eShirl]

5. exactly

[cleanhippie]

20. Was there a larger point you were trying to make?

Or just pointing out an exception to a quite plausible hypothesis that was agreed to?

[cbayer]

4. People who make long passages by boat and are up for long periods of the night

also report hallucinatory experiences. Many describe these as very spiritual and profound.

[edhopper]

6. One of the reasons why I discount peoples stories of "religious experiences" as divinely caused.

I have no doubt they felt what they felt, but I think they interpret it within their personal and cultural framework. And since the very same sensations can occur without any spiritual component, Occam's razor leads me to think this is a purely internal experience with no need to sight outside forces.

[cbayer]

7. I tend to agree with you on this, but I have no way to prove or

disprove it.

The near death experience is an interesting phenomenon. I think there is most likely a reproducible neurobiological cause, but there have been some lively discussions in this group that included people who had NDE's and felt strongly that it was something else. Some of those people were not religious believers at all.

Occam's razor is a good maxim, but it does not always lead to the correct answer.

[edhopper]

8. I know your position on this

but I would say that it depends on the persons account. I understand your view of not discounting something "spiritual' being involved, "touched by the divine" is a very general statement. But if the person says they know exactly what it was that prompted the episode we can pretty much discount them. When we get into alien abduction or some ancient entity from Lemuria or the archangel Michael, I wouldn't worry about disproving such malarkey.

[cbayer]

9. I've known some fully sane and rational people who truly believe that they have been

visited or abducted.

It always takes me aback, because I just don't expect it from them.

But I see no reason to argue with them about it. I've got nothing.

[edhopper]

10. Usually a hypnagogic dream.

not uncommon and seems quite real if the person doesn't understand what is happening.
If they were hypnotized later, the fantasy can be solidified as memory.

I can state categorically they were not abducted by aliens.

[cbayer]

11. But I have spoken with people who had these experiences as a group, so

hypnagogic explanation doesn't make sense.

OTOH, I have seen shared delusions and false memories. They can spread rapidly, particularly in a closed environment.

You can state it emphatically, and you are probably right, but not categorically.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. like for example the children in Salem Village.

Who is to say they didn't really experience what they testified to? So a few people got murdered as a consequence, but their beliefs are as valid as any other, right?

[cbayer]

13. Huh? Where did I say anything remotely like that?

[Warren Stupidity]

16. huh? Did I say you said anything?

But if you insist:

I've known some fully sane and rational people who truly believe that they have been

visited or abducted.

It always takes me aback, because I just don't expect it from them.

But I see no reason to argue with them about it. I've got nothing.

And you then proceeded to point out:

But I have spoken with people who had these experiences as a group, so

hypnagogic explanation doesn't make sense.

And as always you continue to claim that we should treat all beliefs as equally valid.
After all who are we to dispute claims of alien abductions, or witchcraft, or people born from virgins and risen from the dead?

[cbayer]

17. You have to be kidding, right?

Wicked sense of humor you've got there.

I made no argument that all beliefs are equally valid in either of those posts.

But I'm sure you can find something wrong with what I said.

C'mon. I know you can do it.

[Warren Stupidity]

18. NDE:

I tend to agree with you on this, but I have no way to prove or disprove it.

As always.

[cbayer]

24. So off base. My comments on NDEs is that they are probably

neurobiological phenomenon and I think people's reports of them as something supernatural or spiritual are probably not valid…

but I have no way to prove or disprove that.

That's exactly the opposite of what you accuse me of (equating all beliefs as valid).

C'mon. Can't you find anything substantial wrong with what I have said? I feel that I must have failed in some way.

[cleanhippie]

21. No, but you've made that argument on many, many other posts.

No need to be obtuse here, your posts and your words stating that all beliefs are equally valid, are available for all to see. Why pretend they don't exist?

[edhopper]

14. No categorically

as in unqualified, unconditionally, positively etc....

They were not abducted, this is a statement of fact.

Aliens are not abducting people. Aliens are not visiting Earth.

Forget that extraordinary claims.... there isn't even any god mediocre evidence, there is no worthwhile evidence at all.

Some things just aren't true, no matter how much some people want to believe.

I am not probably right, I am right, this isn't belief, it is a matter of real tangible fact.

[cbayer]

15. I had the opportunity to drive the extraterrestrial highway this summer.

It was a trip.

[edhopper]

19. far out!

[cleanhippie]

22. Do you not find it frustrating after so much back and forth, making your point crystal clear...

Only to have it dismissed and ignored?

[edhopper]

23. Not at all

I think cbayer read my reply, maybe didn't want to get sidetracked into a discussion about alien abduction, and ended on a note of levity, and I responded in kind.

[cbayer]

25. It's really cool and I highly recommend it if you get the chance.

You will meet some people that will keep you entertained for hours, if not days.

Just don't forget to gas up before you go.

And stay on the highway!!

[riverwalker]

26. Terrence McKenna

used to say Santa Claus was inspired by mushrooms, the red and white, the little elves, giving gifts...

[Bennyboy]

27. I've had my share of "religious experiences" on various

types of psychedelics.

I was "saved" while on some mescaline at Church camp while in High School. 16 I think. I had not much experience with psychedelics then, maybe twice and never mescaline. Raised in a family that went to church every week, was active in the church nationally and centered their lives around the church. (Presbyterian)

The pastor at the Church camp, Pator Bob Rauppe, was mesmerizing and both me and my girl came to services one night high as hell and he convinced us big time. Kind of reinforced all of that stuff I had been taught over and over in church..... I could see now, that I could have fallen into something deeply religious had I stuck to that path and that path only......

"There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night......"

Of course, even though I got even more active in the church, swore off drugs etc, that door had been kicked wide open and I knew there was something else out there.....Not sure of what it was (or is)the search for something continued and I was only "saved" for about a year or so...

I've had similar experiences with peyote and native American elders in sweat lodges, seeing the Grateful Dead (many many many times).... Scuba Diving (yep, mescaline again) or sitting all by myself on top of Half Dome. All of them deeply profound and meaningful beyond your ordinary experience. Does it happen every time. NO. but when it happens it something so much more than anything else.

I think there is actually a psychedelic religion of sorts. Today there is ten times more psychedelics around than before. So many bands that have fans that are all part of that touring and all the festivals, people are doing all kinds of psychedelics.

[JEB]

28. Jesus was a mushroom.

[BlueToTheBone]

29. Cannabis has also been found

in grave goods of ancient people.