![]() ![]() Harner’s “The Role of Hallucinogenic Plants in European Witchcraft” in Hallucinogens and Shamanism (1973). There, in a nutshell, is the working hypothesis of Michael J. But a few writers have asked: What if there really were witches? Not, I hasten to say, people who were genuinely in league with the devil, flew on broomsticks, turned into beasts, etc., but rather people who believed they were or did? Moreover, what if the agency of this belief was a drug-induced hallucination? Today many scholars assume there never were any actual witches, just a bunch of old crones, simpleminded adolescents, and other unfortunates who became targets of religious paranoia. If drugs work for religious types, they’ll work for pagans, too. See for example Weston La Barre, “Hallucinogens and the Shamanic Origins of Religion,” in Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens (1972). (Forty days of fasting in the desert will do in a pinch.) (d) Ergo, many of the world’s major religions owe their origins to drugs! I’m oversimplifying, but not much. ![]() (c) A good way to have a mystical experience is to do drugs. (b) Many leading religious figures have been mystics, and mystical experiences have been a primary source of religious revelation. Tolja this would be weird.Ī lot of people who did drugs in the 60s thought, Wow, man, I can see God! This gave rise to the following line of thought: (a) We’re not the first people who ever did drugs. ![]() Before we get into that, though, we should talk about drugs and religion. But you needn’t have an especially dirty mind to realize that a woman riding a pole has sexual connotations - and not merely as a metaphor for intercourse. The easy take on the witch’s broomstick is that it’s a burlesque of female domesticity. You thought Easter eggs and bunnies as fertility symbols was kinky? You ain’t heard nothin’ yet. As we’ve learned from our previous forays into folklore, most of these old rituals have something to do with S-E-X. Well, maybe you do, but you don’t want to tell the kids. ![]()
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