METAGEUM '07
EXPLORING THE MEGALITHIC MIND
CONFERENCE, TOUR, AND WORKSHOPS:
Exploring the Consciousness of the Megalithic Temple Builders
Caraffa Stores, Birgu, Island of Malta
3rd - 11th November 2007
Entheogens
Stone spiral, Zabbar, Malta. Photo: P.B.Lloyd
Psychotropic substances are those that affect the mind in some interesting way. Strictly speaking, domestic drugs such as caffeine and alcohol could be classed as mildly psychotropic substances, but the term is normally applied only to stronger chemicals, which might be artificial or natural. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which was discovered by Albert Hoffman in 1938, is the most well-known potent psychotropic agent.
Entheogens are psychotropic drugs that are believed to bring about a spiritual or mystical experience. This term is most ofen applied to plant derivatives (such as ayahuasca) that are employed in religious or shamanic rituals, rather than artificial chemicals. But the term can be applied to both kinds of drugs. The key idea is that the substance is used as part of a spiritual process rather than for recreation. "Entheogen" as a word was coined in 1979 by a group of ethnobotanists and scholars of mythology (Carl A. P. Ruck, Jeremy Bigwood, Danny Staples, Richard Evans Schultes, Jonathan Ott and R. Gordon Wasson). The literal meaning of the word is "that which causes God to be within an individual".
Shamans make use of a variety of means of entering altered states of consciousness, and the use of entheogens is one such means. It is contended by some researchers, such as Benny Shanon (who will be presenting at Metageum '07) that entheogens were involved in the genesis of many religions. It is completely speculative, but nonetheless quite plausible, that the Neolithic creators and users of the Megalithic temples had knowledge of entheogens, and used them as part of whatever procedures they followed in the temples.
Form constants are one clue to the imagination of those Neolithic people. In 1926 In Heinrich Klüver studied the visual hallucinations of people who had taken peyote, and noted four recurring forms: spirals, lattices, cobwebs, and tunnels, often combined with one another (such as a lattice spiralling into the distance). Other investigators found comparable form constants in hallucinations of users of other entheogens. Professor David Lewis-Williams has suggested that similar form constants are to be found in primitive rock art. Lewis-Williams distinguished six form constants: lattices, parallel lines, dots, zigzag lines crossing the field of vision, nested catenary curves, and filigrees or thin meandering lines.
Entoptic phenomena are visual experiences that are produced internally by the eye or the brain, as opposed to being produced by light entering the eye. An everyday form or entoptic phenomena are phosphenes -- the coloured lights you see when you press your eyeball. Of more significance are the entoptic phenomena that are induced by psychotropic substances, or other altered states of consciousness.
Modern artists, such as Alex Grey incorporate entheogenic form constants in their work, and connect them to the iconography of mystical religions such as Buddhism. There may well be insights to be gained into the Megalithic mind by understanding the creative processes of such transformational artists.
A central question concerning the content of spiritual visions -- be they induced by entheogens or other altered states of consciousness -- is this: Are these vision veridical, that is, do they represent some bona fide spiritual reality? Or they glorified entoptic phenomena, merely artefacts and by-products of the way the visual cortex of the brain is wired up? This question impacts science, philosophy, and art -- and it pertains directly to how we are to understand the Megalithic mind.
Further reading online: Suzanne Carr's 1995 MA Dissertation, "Exquisitely Simple or Incredibly Complex: The Theory of Entoptic Phenomena" (www.oubliette.zetnet.co.uk)
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