The word ‘ecstasy’ is from the Greek ekstasis meaning: entrancement, displaced outside
(oneself). Used by 17th century mystical writers it meant ‘a state
of rapture that stupefied the body while the soul contemplated divine things’. What
we would call these days an altered state
of consciousness.
Perhaps the most famous tradition of involving ecstasy was
what was known as the Eleusinian
Mysteries, practiced for two thousand years right up to 390 AD.
Thousands of people, slaves, philosophers and aristocrats, from all over the
Greek world came to Eleusis, 15 miles northwest of Athens, to celebrate the
festival each year. The procession of initiates would start from Athens and
make their way towards the Telesterion
(Initiation Hall) where they would rest for the night.
The next day they would drink a special brew of barley water
and mint. After that, whatever happened inside the Telesterion has always been the most dreadful secret. Initiates
were forbidden to speak of it on pain of death. But many were able to speak
about the effect of the experience on their lives. What they had to say sounds
every bit like what modern people have said about the effects of psychedelic
drugs, taken in a sacred or therapeutic setting.
In the Elusion Mysteries, Plutarch tells us, ‘… there are all kinds of
terrors, with shivering, trembling, sweating, and utter amazement. After this,
a strange and wonderful light meets the wanderer; he is admitted into clean and
verdant meadows, where he discerns gentle voices, and choric dances, and the
majesty of holy sounds and sacred visions.’
There is evidence that the Kykeon, the ‘special brew of
barley water’ given to the initiates, was derived from locally grown barley
which regularly gets infected with the ergot fungus known as Claviceps Purpurea, a potent
hallucinogen related to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). It means that all
those thousands of initiates way back then were on a dope assisted, holy trip.
Many spoke about how it changed their whole outlook on life.
Aristides the Rhetor in the 2nd century speaks of the ‘ineffable
visions’ they had in the Telesterion:
‘Eleusis is a shrine common to the whole earth’ he said, ‘and of all the divine
things that exist among men, it is both the most awesome and the most luminous.
Aristotle’s view was that the initiates did not have a lesson to learn, but an
experience to undergo.
The Roman emperor Theodosius closed the sanctuary in CE 392.
It was probably the first drug-bust in history; and when Christianity arrived
in the region all cult worship was forbidden.
*
The picture above is of the session room at the Behavioural
Biology Research Center Johns Hopkins University. Sandy Lundahl, with the blue
eyeshade, lies on the couch listening to classical music through headphones.
She has just taken two 30milligrams capsules of psilocybin, the active
hallucinogenic in ‘magic mushrooms’ for an ongoing research study. It is the
first study of its kind since the early '70s – ‘a rigorous, scientific attempt
to determine if drugs like psilocybin and LSD, demonised and driven underground
for more than three decades, can facilitate life-changing, transformative
mystical experiences.’
The research made news around the world. Its conclusion:
‘psychedelic drugs offer the potential for profound, transformative, and
long-lasting positive changes in properly prepared individuals’. Recalling her
experimental session four years later Sandy said "Nothing had ever been
that vivid. There was this grid on top of everything, all these colors. And I
don't know how long, as I was mesmerized by it, and then I started thinking,
Oh, no ... am I going to be looking at this for six hours? Oh, no, no. It was
interesting for about five minutes -- maybe not even. I started thinking, Oh,
what a waste of time. But I’d made a vow (to go along with the research).
"I'm never going
to make an inauthentic decision again. Never again”. And as soon as I said that
to myself it was like -- whooosh -- the colors were gone. And I felt like I was
being whisked ... whoa, boy ... and then I went to all these other
places."
Bill Richards, in charge of the experiment, said later said.
"First, it's sensory and aesthetic. People experience colors, patterns,
intriguing bodily sensations -- what most people think of when they think of
the effects of a psychedelic drug. It's not life-transforming, by any means.
Beyond that stage, they start dealing with psychodynamic issues – the sense of
self, obstacles, fears. It's very personal. In that stage, people often regress
to their childhood and relive emotional episodes with parents, sibling,
spouses, and children. After that ... we enter the archetypal realm. Visions of
Christ, or Buddha, or Greek gods, that sort of thing.”
It was in this stage that Sandy saw this jester. “He was
coming down the street. I was in the crowd, I was right there. And one side of
him was totally black, and the other side was totally colorful, and here he is,
just laughing." She closes her eyes, remembering. "And I'm getting
the image of the dark side of life, and the light side, and here is this jester
... just laughing! Laughing at the human condition…” and Sandy began to laugh
with him.
What seems to follow this stage is the mystical realm, says Richards.
Here people have this overwhelming sense of oneness with the universe:
"There's a dimension of awesomeness, of profound humility, of the self
being stripped bare. In the psychology of religion, mystical experience is
well-described: unity, transcendence of
time and space, sacredness, ineffability.”
The team had marked success with alcoholics and neurotics;
and then quite by accident a member of the research team developed a terminal
cancer. She was open to the idea of trying psychedelics to see if it would be
helpful.
"She experienced a dramatic decrease in anxiety and
depression and lived the time that she had left much more fully," Richards
says. Over the next ten years the team applied psychedelic therapy to cancer
patients at Baltimore hospital.
"There are a lot of people with cancer lying in bed,
depressed, just lying there, suffering, preoccupied with pain and estranged
from their family members. Sort of half
alive while they're waiting for the cancer to advance. We found that people who
have mystical experiences tend to benefit most dramatically. They resolve
conflicts of guilt, grief, estrangement from family members, breaking through
the denial and pretense that often accompanies cancer. That's incredibly
helpful. They are less anxious, less depressed, closer in their personal
relationships, less preoccupied with pain.
"And, perhaps most significantly, those who have
mystical experiences claim loss of a fear of death ... that they somehow feel
part of something eternal”, says Richards. “Not necessarily personal
immortality – there's a paradox there – it's not denying death, but that
somehow in spite of the reality of death, it's a good universe. Life makes
sense. And there's every reason to live the rest of this lifetime as fully as
possible. It's pretty inspiring."
*
Perhaps we are getting over the awful fright psychedelics
gave us in the 60s; maybe rediscovering what we lost when the Elusion Mysteries were closed down sixteen hundred years ago.
For a most instructive TED talk by Dr Roland Griffith on
psilocybin research go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKm_mnbN9JY
contact: stanrich@vodafone.co.nz
(03) 981 2264
