This nOde last updated January 26th, 2002 and is permanently morphing...
(13 Et'znab (Flint) - 16 Muan (Owl) - 78/260 - 12.19.8.16.18)
Eleusis
Eleusis (î-l¡´sîs)
An ancient city of eastern Greece near Athens, site of the Eleusinian mysteries.
- El´eusin´ian (èl´y¢-sîn´ê-en) adjective & noun
Eleusinian mysteries
Eleusinian mysteries (èl´y¢-sîn´ê-en mîs´te-rêz) plural noun
The ancient religious rites celebrated at Eleusis in honor of Demeter.
[From Latin Eleusìnius, of Eleusis, from Greek Eleusinios, from EleusisEleusin-, Eleusis.]
Eleusinian Mysteries
Eleusinian Mysteries, sacred rituals that were the most important of ancient Greek religious festivals. The people of the town of Eleusis observed the mysteries, which were later adopted by the city of Athens as an official festival. The ceremonies included a priest's address to the mystoe, the initiation candidates; a cleansing in the sea; a sacrificial rite; and a procession from Athens to Eleusis, where the initiation occurred in secret ceremonies. The tale of the search of Demeter through the 
underworld for her daughter Persephone was probably reenacted at the initiation. It was related to the seeking after immortality and happiness in a future world, which was the presumed purpose of the ceremonies. The Eleusinian mysteries were probably celebrated until the 4th century AD, when Eleusis was destroyed.
Oscar Janiger envisions a place for LSD in our culture. He would like to see studies of LSD and other psychedelics "become fair-minded and at parity with other kinds of research," and the fruits of suchresearch applied to "acceptable social and medical uses." He cites the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece as a model for LSD's potential place in our own society. For nearly 2,000 years, the Greeks participated in an annual ritual in the city of Eleusis, 22 kilometers west of Athens. In the secret ceremony, participants from all walks of life (Plato and Aristophanes, as well as slaves) imbibed a sacred drink called "kykeon" and then proceeded to experience what one ancient author described as "ineffable visions" that were "new, astonishing, inaccessible to rational cognition." Says Janiger, "Those who underwent the mysteries came out at the other side, the sages tell us, as changed people who saw the world differently." In short, the Golden Age of Greece may have also been a very psychedelic age. - L.A. Weekly article re: Cary Grant and psychedelics
 |  |
Fortunately, it doesn't take that many people to move the consciousness of society to a higher plane. In ancient Greece, a mere 15% of the free citizens were participants in the mysterious rites of Eleusis, which provided the cognitive
foundation of their society. I have read estimates that 80 million Americans have used substances our current power structure has declared to be illegal. Although not all of these substances have psychedelic properties, it would be an interesting historical coincidence if one-half of these illegal substance users have used a psychedelic substance at least once. If that is the case, then approximately 15% of the U.S. population have now experienced a taste of the rites of Eleusis, for they have ventured into the marvelous realm of entheospace at least one time. What is needed is for the more advanced explorers of entheospace, the psychedelic thinkers, to contact those who were once familiar with this territory and encourage them to return to the world of psychedelic thinking and help us begin the difficult work of saving the biosphere and all the life it sustains. - Lawrence Hagerty - _Psychedelic Thinking And The Dawn Of Homo Cyber_
The characteristic property of
hallucinogens, to suspend the boundaries between the experiencing self and the outer world in an ecstatic, emotional experience, makes it possible with their help, and after suitable internal and external preparation, as it was accomplished in a perfect way at Eleusis, to evoke a mystical experience according to plan, so to speak. Meditation is a preparation for the same goal that was aspired to and was attained in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Accordingly it seems feasible that in the future, with the help of LSD, the mystical vision, crowning meditation, could be made accessible to an increasing number of practitioners of meditation.
I see the true importance of LSD in the possibitity of providing material aid to meditation aimed at the mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality. Such a use accords entirely with the essence and working character of LSD as a sacred drug.
Albert Hofmann - "LSD Experience and Reality", Chapter 11 of _LSD, My Problem Child_
No comments:
Post a Comment