Entheogen

:This entry covers entheogens in the strict sense of the word (i.e. hallucinogenic drugs used in a religious or shamanic context). For general information about these substances and their use outside religious contexts, see hallucinogenic drug and psychedelic.

Related Topics:
Hallucinogenic drug - Shamanic - Psychedelic

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The word entheogen is a modern term derived from two Ancient Greek words, ?????? (entheos) and ???????? (genesthai). Entheos means literally "in God", more freely translated "inspired". The Greeks used it as a term of praise for poets and other artists. Genesthai means "to cause to be". So an entheogen is "that which causes (a person) to be in God". The translation "creating the divine within" that is sometimes given is not quite correct -- entheogen implies neither that something is created (as opposed to just perceiving something that is already there) nor that that which is experienced is within the user (as opposed to having independent existence).

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In its strictest sense the term refers to a psychoactive substance (most often some plant matter) that occasions enlightening spiritual or mystical experience, within the parameters of a cult, in the original non-pejorative sense of cultus. In a broader sense, the word "entheogen" refers to artificial as well as natural substances that induce alterations of consciousness similar to those documented for ritual ingestion of traditional shamanic inebriants, even if it is used in a secular context.

Related Topics:
Psychoactive - Plant - Spiritual - Mystical - Cult - Alterations of consciousness - Ritual - Shamanic

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Those opposed to entheogens often use the claim that "drug-induced" religious experiences are invalid because they are "just" a result of drug action on the nervous system. However, there is an enormous amount of evidence that certain drugs can facilitate the experience of states of consciousness that are then described by the experiencing subjects in words that are indistinguishable from many reports of religious experiences without drugs. In the Marsh Chapel Experiment, which was run under the supervision of Timothy Leary, graduate student volunteers at the Harvard Divinity School, almost all reported profound religious experiences under the influence of psilocybin. (A brief video about the Marsh Chapel experiment can be viewed here.

Related Topics:
Marsh Chapel Experiment - Timothy Leary - Harvard Divinity School - Psilocybin

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