Download or read book Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches written by Mike Marinacci and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-07-04 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive tour of North American spiritual groups that use psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness • Explores prominent psychedelic churches and sects in depth, including the Native American Church and their peyote rituals, the cannabis-sex temple known as the Psychedelic Venus Church, and the Church of Naturalism, an LSD-therapy cult that came to a murderous end • Presents an encyclopedic survey of dozens of minor organizations—many of which have never before been documented in an authoritative source • Shares personal interviews and anecdotes about the strange, outrageous adventures of religious psychonauts, alongside rare photos and illustrations From LSD-powered guru Timothy Leary to cannabis sex cults to psychedelic outlaw churches, Mike Marinacci presents a comprehensive tour of North American religious sects and spiritual groups who use entheogens and psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness, mystical insight, and spiritual enlightenment. Exploring prominent churches and cults in depth, he examines the lives of their colorful leaders, the origins of their unorthodox beliefs, the controversial practices of their congregants, and their many conflicts with both law enforcement and public opinion. He looks at the Native American Church and their legal battle over their peyote rituals, the cannabis sex temple known as the Psychedelic Venus Church, the murderous end of the LSD-therapy cult known as the Church of Naturalism, and several other major groups and temples of psychedelic spirituality. He then offers an encyclopedic survey of dozens of minor organizations, many of which have never before been documented in an authoritative source. Sharing personal interviews and anecdotes about the strange outrageous adventures of religious psychonauts alongside rare photos and illustrations, this extensively researched study of underground psychedelic religious sects in the United States reveals their spiritual and cultural influence from the 1960s to the present day.
Download or read book Deeper Learning with Psychedelics written by David J. Blacker and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2024-06-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In both clinical and informal settings, psychedelics users often report they have undergone something profound and even life-altering. Yet there persists a confounding inability to articulate just what has been imparted. Informed by multidisciplinary emerging research, this book provides an account of the specifically educational aspects of psychedelics and how they can render us ready to learn. Drawing from indigenous peoples worldwide who typically revere these substances as "plant teachers" and from canonical thinkers in the western tradition such as Plato, Spinoza, Kant, and Heidegger, the author proposes an original set of categories through which to understand the educational capabilities of "entheogens" (psychedelics with visionary qualities). It emerges that entheogens' real power lies not in destabilizing and decentering—"turning on and dropping out"—but as powerful aids in restoring and reenchanting our shared worlds.
Download or read book The Psychedelic Gospels written by Jerry B. Brown and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals evidence of visionary plants in Christianity and the life of Jesus found in medieval art and biblical scripture--hidden in plain sight for centuries • Follows the authors’ anthropological adventure discovering sacred mushroom images in European and Middle Eastern churches, including Roslyn Chapel and Chartres • Provides color photos showing how R. Gordon Wasson’s psychedelic theory of religion clearly extends to Christianity and reveals why Wasson suppressed this information due to his secret relationship with the Vatican • Examines the Bible and the Gnostic Gospels to show that visionary plants were the catalyst for Jesus’s awakening to his divinity and immortality Throughout medieval Christianity, religious works of art emerged to illustrate the teachings of the Bible for the largely illiterate population. What, then, is the significance of the psychoactive mushrooms hiding in plain sight in the artwork and icons of many European and Middle-Eastern churches? Does Christianity have a psychedelic history? Providing stunning visual evidence from their anthropological journey throughout Europe and the Middle East, including visits to Roslyn Chapel and Chartres Cathedral, authors Julie and Jerry Brown document the role of visionary plants in Christianity. They retrace the pioneering research of R. Gordon Wasson, the famous “sacred mushroom seeker,” on psychedelics in ancient Greece and India, and among the present-day reindeer herders of Siberia and the Mazatecs of Mexico. Challenging Wasson’s legacy, the authors reveal his secret relationship with the Vatican that led to Wasson’s refusal to pursue his hallucinogen theory into the hallowed halls of Christianity. Examining the Bible and the Gnostic Gospels, the authors provide scriptural support to show that sacred mushrooms were the inspiration for Jesus’ revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven and that he was initiated into these mystical practices in Egypt during the Missing Years. They contend that the Trees of Knowledge and of Immortality in Eden were sacred mushrooms. Uncovering the role played by visionary plants in the origins of Judeo-Christianity, the authors invite us to rethink what we know about the life of Jesus and to consider a controversial theory that challenges us to explore these sacred pathways to the divine.
Download or read book From the Bodies of the Gods written by Earl Lee and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-05-16 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origins of modern religion in human sacrifice, ritual cannibalism, visionary intoxication, and the Cult of the Dead • Explores ancient practices of producing sacred hallucinogenic foods and oils from the bodies of the dead for ritual consumption and religious anointing • Explains how these practices are deeply embedded in the symbolism, theology, and sacraments of modern religion, specifically Christianity and the Eucharist • Documents the rites of Cults of the Dead from the prehistoric Minoans on Crete to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Hebrews to early and medieval Christian sects such as the Cathars Long before the beginnings of civilization, humans have been sacrificed and their flesh used to produce sacred foods and oils for use in religious rites. Originating with the sacred harvest of hallucinogenic mushrooms from the corpses of shamans and other holy men, these acts of ritual cannibalism and visionary intoxication are part of the history of all cultures, including Judeo-Christian ones, and provided a way to commune with the dead. These practices continued openly into the Dark Ages, when they were suppressed and adapted into the worship of saintly bones--or continued in secret by a few “heretical” sects, such as the Cathars and the Knights Templar. While little known today, these rites remain deeply embedded in the symbolism, theology, and sacraments of modern religion and bring a much more literal meaning to the church’s “Holy Communion” or symbolic consumption of the body and blood of Christ. Documenting the sacrificial, cannibalistic, and psychoactive sacramental practices associated with the Cult of the Dead from the prehistoric Minoans on Crete to the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews and onward to early and medieval Christian sects, Earl Lee shows how these religious rites influenced the development of Western religion. In particular, he reveals how Christianity originated with Jesus’s effort to restore the sacred rites of Moses, including the Marzeah, or Feast for the Dead. Examining the connections between these rites and the mysterious funeral of Father Sauniere in Rennes-le-Château, the author explains why the prehistoric Cult of the Dead has held such power over Western civilization, so much so that its echoes are still heard today in our literature, film, and arts.
Download or read book Life in a Psychedelic Church written by Jack Call and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-02 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mild mannered philosopher becomes a disciple of the man Timothy Leary called "the mad monk of Millbrook," and things get very interesting very fast. Life as a follower of Art Kleps, the Chief Boo Hoo of the Neo-American Church could be entertaining, maddening, puzzling, or a combination of all three. Life is a dream, Art said. But what does that mean? And is it true? Jack Call, who plays Sancho Panza to Art Kleps's Don Quixote, tries to answer those questions, but only after telling the reader in entertaining and ironic detail what life was like as an active member of the Neo-American Church from 1972 to 1978, including the surprising story of what happened after Art had secured 180 acres of prime marijuana-growing land in Northern California, in order to establish a self-sustaining showcase of a psychedelic residence/amusement park called Mandalit. If you enjoyed Netflix's "Wild, Wild Country," or H.H. Price's Essays in the Philosophy of Religion, then you'll love Jack Call's picaresque and thoughtful Life in a Psychedelic Church.
Download or read book Chemical Ecstasy written by Walter Houston Clark and published by Sheed & Ward. This book was released on 1969 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mysterious California written by Mike Marinacci and published by . This book was released on 1988-10-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes haunted houses and the sites of unexplained events in each California county
Download or read book Psychedelics and Spirituality written by Thomas B. Roberts and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals how psychedelics can facilitate spiritual development and direct encounters with the sacred • With contributions by Albert Hofmann, Huston Smith, Stanislav Grof, Charles Tart, Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, Brother David Steindl-Rast, and many others • Includes personal accounts of Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment as well as a 25-year follow-up with its participants • Explores protocols for ceremonial use of psychedelics and the challenges of transforming entheogenic insights into enduring change Modern organized religion is based predominantly on secondary religious experience--we read about others’ extraordinary spiritual encounters with God but have no direct experience ourselves. Yet there exist powerful sacraments to help us directly experience the sacred, to help us seek out the meaning of being human and our place in the universe, and to help us see the sacred in the world that surrounds us. In this book, more than 25 spiritual leaders, scientists, and psychedelic visionaries examine how we can return to the primary spiritual encounters at the basis of all religions through the guided use of psychedelics. With contributions by Albert Hofmann, Huston Smith, Stanislav Grof, Charles Tart, Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin, Brother David Steindl-Rast, Myron Stolaroff, and many others, this book explores protocols for ceremonial and spiritual use of psychedelics, including LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and MDMA, and the challenges of transforming entheogenic insights into enduring change. It examines psychoactive sacraments in the Bible, myths surrounding the use of LSD, and the transformative ayahuasca rituals of Santo Daime. The book also includes personal accounts of Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment as well as a 25-year follow-up with its participants. Dispelling fears of inauthentic spirituality, addiction, and ill-prepared encounters with the holy, this book reveals the potential of psychedelics as catalysts for spiritual development, a path through which faith can directly encounter God’s power, and the beginning of a new religious era based on personal spiritual experience.
Download or read book The Psychedelic History of Mormonism Magic and Drugs written by Cody Noconi and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-23 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The factual history of the Mormon religion is stranger than fiction, and the church's leadership has gone to great lengths at times to obscure or censor much of that history from the public eye. Most notably, the early career of Joseph Smith as a teenage ceremonial magician and money digger in conjunction with his lifelong reputation of intemperance has managed to escape mainstream awareness. Likewise, the fact that the original congregation of the Mormon faith were administered psychedelic sacraments at the hands of Joseph Smith has been largely ignored. The fact that it has been lying under our collective noses for nearly two centuries will be brought to light in The Psychedelic History of Mormonism, Magic, and Drugs.Evidence for the employment of psychedelic substances by the early Mormons is tangible, and at times, unambiguous. The Psychedelic History of Mormonism, Magic, and Drugs takes a broad-spectrum analysis of the entirety of Mormon history through a unique multidisciplinary approach of occultism, ethnobotany, and human pharmacology. Adequately equipped with the appropriate esoteric toolkit, it then becomes apparent that Joseph Smith both recognized and implemented psychedelic plants into his religious and magical practices.
Download or read book The Immortality Key written by Brian C. Muraresku and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience! A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations. The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age? There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist – the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And after centuries of debate, to solve history’s greatest puzzle. Before the birth of Jesus, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. The best and brightest from Athens and Rome flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine – the original sacraments of Western civilization – were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have hinted at the enduring use of hallucinogenic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psychopharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers. But the smoking gun remains elusive. If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the Eucharist of the earliest Christians, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku takes the reader on his twelve-year global hunt for proof. He tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre to show the continuity from pagan to Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth manuscripts never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at UPenn and MIT, he unveils the first scientific data for the ritual use of psychedelic drugs in classical antiquity. The Immortality Key reconstructs the suppressed history of women consecrating a forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were then targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is in crisis. Unless it returns to its roots. Featuring a Foreword by Graham Hancock, the NYT bestselling author of America Before.
Download or read book Modern Religious Cults and Movements written by Gaius Glenn Atkins and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Psychedelic Spirituality written by Tarl Warwick and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-08-14 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does society view the use of psychedelics? Is its view to such use sensible, or nonsense? What role did mind altering substances play in the development of religion and culture? "Psychedelic Spirituality" seeks to answer these and other questions, based on the best possible anthropological evidence, along with both ancient and modern spiritual study- with more than a little bit of experimentation. From the failure of the drug war, to the degradation over time of primitive drug cults into modern religion, all psychedelic spirituality must be considered if such questions are to be answered. The role of "drugs" within human circles has not dissipated over time. Rather than regard only ancient people smoking, snorting, eating, or anointing themselves with various substances, this work seeks to view also the modern; for the modern becomes the antiquated, and prohibition never really removed psychedelia from the very forefront of human consciousness. It touches on the philosophical as well as the more tangible aspects of the human condition. Every realm of human understanding has been impacted by such species and substances; politics, sociology, psychology, and most especially, and within the main topic of this book itself; spirituality and religion, which at all times garnered whatever wisdom it had from those in times past who had imbibed most natural substances known to man.
Download or read book The Psychedelic Gospels written by Jerry B. Brown and published by Park Street Press. This book was released on 2016-09-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reveals evidence of visionary plants in Christianity and the life of Jesus found in medieval art and biblical scripture--hidden in plain sight for centuries • Follows the authors’ anthropological adventure discovering sacred mushroom images in European and Middle Eastern churches, including Roslyn Chapel and Chartres • Provides color photos showing how R. Gordon Wasson’s psychedelic theory of religion clearly extends to Christianity and reveals why Wasson suppressed this information due to his secret relationship with the Vatican • Examines the Bible and the Gnostic Gospels to show that visionary plants were the catalyst for Jesus’s awakening to his divinity and immortality Throughout medieval Christianity, religious works of art emerged to illustrate the teachings of the Bible for the largely illiterate population. What, then, is the significance of the psychoactive mushrooms hiding in plain sight in the artwork and icons of many European and Middle-Eastern churches? Does Christianity have a psychedelic history? Providing stunning visual evidence from their anthropological journey throughout Europe and the Middle East, including visits to Roslyn Chapel and Chartres Cathedral, authors Julie and Jerry Brown document the role of visionary plants in Christianity. They retrace the pioneering research of R. Gordon Wasson, the famous “sacred mushroom seeker,” on psychedelics in ancient Greece and India, and among the present-day reindeer herders of Siberia and the Mazatecs of Mexico. Challenging Wasson’s legacy, the authors reveal his secret relationship with the Vatican that led to Wasson’s refusal to pursue his hallucinogen theory into the hallowed halls of Christianity. Examining the Bible and the Gnostic Gospels, the authors provide scriptural support to show that sacred mushrooms were the inspiration for Jesus’ revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven and that he was initiated into these mystical practices in Egypt during the Missing Years. They contend that the Trees of Knowledge and of Immortality in Eden were sacred mushrooms. Uncovering the role played by visionary plants in the origins of Judeo-Christianity, the authors invite us to rethink what we know about the life of Jesus and to consider a controversial theory that challenges us to explore these sacred pathways to the divine.
Download or read book Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America written by J. Gordon Melton and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1992 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book Prison Or Paradise written by Arnold James Rudin and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Psychedelic Christianity written by Jack Call and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2018-07-27 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychedelic Christianity discusses what we should hope and believe about the ultimate goal of living and uses psychedelic experience and Christianity as its guiding stars. The book reconciles three seemingly inconsistent claims: that we have already attained the ultimate goal; that there is more than one ultimate goal; that there is and always will be another ultimate goal coming. Psychedelic Christianity also argues that Jesus taught that worldly politics will never lead to the kingdom of heaven.
Download or read book Doomsday Cult written by John Lofland and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the years since Doomsday Cult was first published, much has happened to the movement. This enlarged edition brings us up to the present. Doomsday Cult analyzes the first five years in America (1959-1964) of an obscure end-of-the-world religion that went on to become nationally and internationally famous in the 1970s. The movement went from identification as a small and laughable bunch of kooks to public definition as a powerful and nefarious social force that had to be countered. Such a truly dramatic change in the status of a movement (and the activities of the movement itself) demands the question: Why and how did it happen? The change provides an important opportunity, moreover, to increase our understanding of the dynamics of social movements more generally: their resource mobilization, internal organization, strategies, citizen responses to them and the like. These topics are discussed in the Epilogue to the Enlarged Edition, added since the original edition was published. - Preface to the enlarged edition.
