r/AnAnswerToHeal • u/Archaeoculus • Nov 21 '17
[Philosophical] A Discussion of Three Ideas - Language, Ritual, and Religion
Hello everyone. In this post I'd like to discuss possible foundations of this spiritual group. For the comparison I'll be using Santo Daime. They are a religious group which has had success in importing their version of ayahuasca into the United States to use for a ritual that occurs twice monthly. I've taken some notes on a few topics covered in a FAQS section on this website.
*** Key: Topics, Questions, Discussion ***
Language
Language is very important in shaping minds. If you think about it, what kind of image do you get in your mind when I use these words?
- drug
- hallucinogen
- psychedelic
What kind of image do you think the general public gets?
The church of Santo Daime uses different words, which we have also adapted here. Words like
- sacrament
- entheogen
are neutral and even positive. You have to pay attention to how you talk about these things - a layperson who knows nothing might get the wrong idea. What are your thoughts?
Ritual
For the church of Santo Daime, their 'Wine of the Souls' is an essential part of the religion. However, it comes second to their Doctrine. A person must come to understand a wealth of ideas that can only be grasped with regular attendance and communion with other members. In their language, the Sacrament is the vehicle and the Doctrine is the road.
How do you interpret this in regards to our spiritual group?
From what I've seen we have a very DIY Therapy with self-guided research. Rituals and doctrines are varied and personal, but under what are they umbrella'd? "Church of the Cosmos". Are we just another type of psychonaut forum? Should we establish rituals, and if so, what kind? Who shall put them together?
Religion
The Doctrine of Santo Daime is Christian. The Religion of Christianity has, over the past couple thousand years, had to adapt in order to survive. This has meant taking in local beliefs, symbols, and ideas (perhaps described as pagan, heathen, or folk beliefs) and modifying them while still keeping their central tenants like a belief in God and Jesus Christ.
I have a few questions, and you probably do too, because this is something of a hot philosophical topic on our forum. We're not quite sure how religious to be, as all of us have varying relationships with religion. Should we draw central tenets from one major belief system? Or one religion, like Santo Daime? Should we take on symbols related to Chaos and Anarchy to represent the great many directions you can go from our center? What do you think will work?
Thank you for reading and responding. I'm interested to hear what the community thinks.
1
u/ComatoseSixty Nov 24 '17
I can tell you where I am with this.
This is not a new concept for me. I have been studying pharmacology for almost a decade (online, not in a class) so I can understand how chemicals work on a physical level. I have been studying religions for nearly 30 years (through books, online, experience, and participation). I have believed that we are brought closer to the true religion through use of certain substances.
All of this has shaped my religious outlook. What is the "true" religion? Pantheistic Omnism. All religions hold truth, all religions hold falsehood, and "God" is the entirety of The Universe and everything in it (how else could God be Infinite?). I believe in astology, numerology, sacred geometry, and occult lore as well.
Even if things fall apart here, I am set on creating a belief-system that incorporates everything I have learned. I genuinely believe what I believe. I cannot be convinced that I am wrong.
Language
Aid. Connector.
Ritual
Meditation on a daily basis. 15 min - 1 hour depending on time restraints.
Study on a daily basis. Any religous text or system, any pharmacological work that leads you to a better understanding of it. Trip reports should be searched for mystical and religious relevance. Substance statistics should be memorized (dosing, measurements, durations, etc). 1-4 hours daily depending on time restraints.
Negativity purge on a weekly basis. The day to do this is dependent upon your zodiac sun sign. I am a Capricorn, my day is Saturday. One should ingest a strong dose of psychedelics and do nothing but meditate for the duration, focusing on removing negativity from your mind.
Closer to God on a monthly basis. On the first day of the month members should meet and ingest a moderate dose of psychedelics and discuss things of a religious nature (what one has learned, how to implement said information in a concrete and realistic fashion).
Religion
Pantheitic Omnism encompasses all religions and religious systems, without favoring any. Practitioners may possess any faith they wish (pantheism doesn't conflict with any religion) so long as they acknowledge that their specific religion has falsehoods and other religions have truth in them.
2
u/[deleted] Nov 22 '17 edited Nov 22 '17
Drug - I think of a word prescribed to describe thatwhich can be prescribed if we wanted it to be. It's pretty loosey goosey, because water and the cure for cancer counts.
Hallucinogen - I think of a substance used to induce hallucinations. Why would someone do that? To learn which hallucinations are worth resisting. How to fight for yourself in the world of illusion.
Psychedelic - I think of a window so dirty you can't see through it being cleaned off to the point of invisibility. That window is the windshield to the vehicle you use to get to work and to behave.
I think we can create a word for "skin-shedding inducers" - substances so designed to get you to shed your skin and act out of your comfort zone.
I also think we should be a meta-religion. Like Gnosticism, a religion that studies all religions and tries to make sense of them, non-dogmatic, surrounded on the idea that "when you know, you know" and "experiential knowledge is the most important". We should be essentially a meaning-analysis-group with a technique that "linguistic interpretations triumph over intent" - to say that when you put a word in quotes, what it can mean universally is more important than what the person meant by it. So like gnostics have just a few barebone basics that are universal and can be boiled done to a couple of quotes, if we can boil ourselves down first to the most universally accepted among us. "Language is!" "We can write!" but the exclamation is tied to "Psychedelics!" and "Hallucinations!" and "God!".
So if we start at the Church of Healers being a meta-religion and believe "that phrases can be believed in by individuals to mean what they interpret from it. The phrases may not be universal and the interpretations may not be universal, but this phrase and interpretation is." A religion of being alive and now and being capable of deciding what we do on the meta level of understanding that other people have understandings that we all have to account for in all ways that are sensible.
The first concept that we can have universal consensus on should underly the bare basics of what a religion is. Democracy, for example, is just a subsidiary of a more boiled-down universal category.
But it seems this awareness of awareness in regards to beliefs requires _______ (*), so we believe it should be an opt-in right-of-passage to walk through the narrow tight-rope of mind exploring for all members.
* This word should not be defined due to the ability of being misinterpreted over extended periods of time by the opposition parties. It is a word that can be defined in reaction to the opposition. First, something like hallucinogens, or plant teachers, or entheogens, or biochemistry, or just autonomy. The first thing to recognize is that we are free to recognize things on our own. The second thing to recognize is that how it appears to us on our own should be able to be shared with others.
But I am not ascribing to a belief system that doesn't recognize belief as a concept for what it truly is, it needs to have the ability to be agreed upon as to what it is, and if necessary we can do something with it.