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" Gnostic Psychedelia "
Erik Davis
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AL
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| Record Number
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1067252
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| Doc. No
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LA110881
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| Call No
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10.1163/2451859X-12340078
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Main Entry
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Erik Davis
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| Title & Author
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Gnostic Psychedelia [Article]\ Erik Davis
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| Publication Statement
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Leiden: Brill
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| Title of Periodical
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Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies
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| Date
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2020
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| Volume/ Issue Number
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5/1
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| Page No
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97–120
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| Abstract
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Today the clinical return of research into psychedelic medicine has been accompanied by a model of religious experience that stresses the healing effects of unitive, immanent experiences. This paper instead unearths a counter-narrative of psychedelic religiosity: a more suspicious and critical sense of spiritual encounter that I illuminate through the classic gnostic mythology of the archons. In a number of movement texts from the 1960s through the 2000s, I trace the appearance of archon-like figures—both explicitly linked to gnostic traditions and not—and how their appearance motivates social critique and a more engaged politics of consciousness. Today the clinical return of research into psychedelic medicine has been accompanied by a model of religious experience that stresses the healing effects of unitive, immanent experiences. This paper instead unearths a counter-narrative of psychedelic religiosity: a more suspicious and critical sense of spiritual encounter that I illuminate through the classic gnostic mythology of the archons. In a number of movement texts from the 1960s through the 2000s, I trace the appearance of archon-like figures—both explicitly linked to gnostic traditions and not—and how their appearance motivates social critique and a more engaged politics of consciousness.
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| Descriptor
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archons
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consciousness
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gnostic mythology
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mysticism
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psychedelia
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religious experience
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| Location & Call number
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10.1163/2451859X-12340078
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