The sources of spiritual experience
Submitted by darktremor on Mon, 12/15/2008 - 13:46
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- I've posted these sort of ideas a few times in various discussion here on religion, so I've decided to make a list. What will follow is a list of every way to induce spiritual experiences, and which historical religious experiences seem likely to have come from each source.
- Dehydration
- This can cause delerium and visual disturbances - the combination of which can result (in some cases) in hallucinations. This could have been the source of Moses' talking burning bush - he was, after all, in the desert. This may also play a part in inducing spiritual experiences in any religion that advocates vision quests.
- Mirages
- These are not particularly spiritual experiences, but I suspect the "pillar of fire" that the Jews followed out of the desert may have been a mirage, which makes sense considering how mirages move and work.
- Sensory Deprivation
- Meditation in particular is important here, as it involves the willing removal of all sensory information for long periods of time. It can eventually result in bizarre thoughts and hallucinations, which probably explain a lot of the anthropomorphic Hindu and Buddhist Gods.
- Ergot poisoning
- This was called "St. Anthony's Fire" in medieval times. It is essentially like being on a high dose of LSD, plus excruciating pain, and often death. This seems to be a source of the belief in demonic possession, and also witches. When women who were pregnant accidentally ingested ergot, they would not only go into a horrific frenzy, they would miscarry, and deliver a fetus - which would be pretty scary looking - covered and blood, embryonic fluid, placental discharge, etc.. If the woman didn't know she was pregnant, you can imagine the sort of reaction a town would have - they would believe a demonic possession had occurred. Also, there was an ancient Greek sect that would willingly ingest ergot. This very likely had some influence on their very colourful mythology.
- Hypnogogic hallucinations
- As we wake from sleep, there is sometimes a short period in which we are still paralyzed, and still dreaming, and almost always see and/or sense a malevolent presence in the vicinity. This was another source of belief in demons - people would have hypnogogic hallucinations, and awake to see a terrifying creature sitting on their chest. Also, this seems to be one source of alien abduction stories - aliens are a common hypnogogic hallucination nowadays (it especially fits the reports of being "paralysed by the aliens," which are fairly common).
- Peyote cactus/Mescaline
- This one is the religious sacrament of the Navajo Native Americans. Their entire religion stems from it. It was also used by the ancient Aztecs, Mayans, and probably Olmecs, and is unquestionably one source of their spiritual artwork (this artwork closely resembles the very distinctive visual patterning generated by peyote cactus).
- Delerium tremens
- This is probably the source of Christianity's concept of hell. Since Christians advocate drinking the "blood of Christ" (alcohol), some of their priests, who do this several times per day (at each mass) everyday, are going to end up becoming dependent on alcohol. The withdrawal from alcohol is actually the worst of the entire world of drugs - it involves intense, terrifying hallucinations that often involves a complete loss of contact with reality - that is, being drawn into a dark, horrific world (like hell). It also often includes convulsions, fever, and other painful and debilitating physical symptoms, which combined with the evil-sounding babbling that would come with the hallucinations, might look like demonic possession to an onlooker. If the confused sufferers stabbed himself in the hands or somehow bloodied his hands (not unlikely with delerium tremens), that would explain stigmata. They wouldn't even necessarily remember hurting themselves, which fits stigmata even better.
- _More coming soon, I have studying to do, and I've procrastinated long enough. Call me on it if you see any factual errors here: some of this is theoretical (a lot of it is scientifically documented, but some of these are just ideas I came up with).
Alcohol withdrawl worse than heroin withdrawl? That's definitely a new one on me. I know the symptoms but this seems ridiculous. Are you telling me the concept of hell came from a couple of priests who were, for whatever reason, holding multiple masses per day, during which they would drink excessively, then withdrawl and get symptoms so intense they realized they were randomly experiencing hell and got this idea into the Bible? And that at some point the same thing happened only the priest stabbed himself and that explains all stigmata? I'm not really keen on the idea of stigmata either but that explanation seems like a really far reach.
Read this. It's a fair match to what my texts have to say on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin_withdrawal#Withdrawal
Same deal for delerium tremens:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delerium_tremens#Symptoms
Note the part in heroin withdrawal where it says "seldom fatal," and the part in delerium tremens, where it says "5% mortality with treatment, and 35% mortality without treatment." Surprise, alcohol is a really dangerous drug. OK, heroin is worse for other reasons, but it's not that much worse than alcohol (I may have sent you this already, I spread it around a fair bit):
http://www.antiproibizionisti.it/public/docs/thelancet_20070323.pdf
- it was originally published in The Lancet, one of the most respected medical journals in the world. It's only on such a sketchy site because better sites charge you to read it. I highly recommend you take a look at that, especially the results. It's mind-blowing.
The stigmata thing was a big reach. I don't really think stigmata happens, and if/when it does, I think it's probably just over-zealous christians looking for a little fame - not all that unlikely considering that early christians would often try to get themselves tortured to death so that they could be saints and martyrs. The hell part, however, isn't - the symptoms of delerium tremens would be quite consistent with visions of hell. It is excruciatingly painful, and the visions that come with it are horrific. The fact that priests would be drinking every day makes it highly likely that some would experience this phenomenon. And think about it: masses all day, that's like 12 masses if they're an hour each. Ever see the priest finish the wine after communion? I have, it's common practice. That's like 6 glasses of wine a day the priests are having (with half left in the glass at the end of each mass), easily enough to create withdrawal if you do it every day.
Whether the concept of hell in the bible came from that or not is questionable (it's likely social control), but the idea behind the concept may have come from earlier delerium tremens experiences, and the later experiences that priests and holy men have had of hell seem very likely to have come from delerium tremens, considering how well the syndrome matches hell. Plus, remember that christianity is thought by many to be an evolution of the cult of Horus, which evolved into the worship of Dionysus, which eventually became the idea of christianity. The worship of Dionysus in particular involved a lot of heavy drinking - that would leave plenty of time for people to come up with the concept of Hell. Besides, Hell is influenced by the idea of Hades and other earlier dark afterlives (all of which came from societies that had a lot of drinking: especially the hard-partying Greeks with "Hades"). In fact, every religion that had some form of Hell also involved drinking (IE: the Vikings were heavy drinkers, and they had "Hel").
I think the delerium tremens explanation makes a lot more sense than someone's soul transcending into a very real dark netherworld of suffering (especially since we know delerium tremens can make you think this!).