Gnostic Psychedelia

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Gnostic Psychedelia "
Erik Davis

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1067252
Doc. No	:	LA110881
Call No	:	‭10.1163/2451859X-12340078‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Erik Davis
Title & Author	:	Gnostic Psychedelia [Article]\ Erik Davis
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies
Date	:	2020
Volume/ Issue Number	:	5/1
Page No	:	97–120
Abstract	:	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.
Descriptor	:	archons
Descriptor	:	consciousness
Descriptor	:	gnostic mythology
Descriptor	:	mysticism
Descriptor	:	psychedelia
Descriptor	:	religious experience
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/2451859X-12340078‬