Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'altered states of consciousness'

Zion Petroglyphs

September 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

A friend just visited Zion National Park in Utah and took some amazing photos of petroglyphs in the backcountry.  Given that these are carved into the rock, there really is no way to date them directly.  I am not sure of the occupational sequence for that area, but there seems to be no reason these [...]

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Astronomy & Paleolithic Cave Paintings

August 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Over at Seed, Holly Capelo provides a helpful survey of the various ways in which the famous Upper Paleolithic cave paintings — found primarily in France and Spain — have been interpreted over the last several decades.  The occasion for her survey, which strangely omits mention of David Lewis-Williams’ contention that the paintings were the [...]

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The Art of Perception

August 15th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Cognition and Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

How we perceive the external world is a fascinating subject that has long attracted the attention of great thinkers from Kant to Nietzsche.  Kant knew that we possessed some sort of interior filter that enables us to perceive the world and Nietzsche knew that this filtered perception was always an interpretation of the world.  Modern [...]

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Is “Quantum Consciousness” the Essence of “Spirituality”?

August 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cognition and Religion, Definitions of Religion, Methodology of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

In “Quantum Consciousness: The Way to Reconcile Science and Spirituality,” Kingsley Dennis elegantly discusses what has proven to the most intractable issue in neuroscience: consciousness.  Because fluctuations and altered states of consciousness are so often linked to the supernatural-religious, I have examined it in many posts, including Consciousness and the Supernatural, which provides a brief [...]

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Near Death Experiences: Portal to Another Realm?

July 16th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Cognition and Religion, Emotions and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct

There are many who believe that near death experiences (“NDE”) provide evidence of the existence of a spirit-soul and that those who have these close encounters with death have glimpsed another realm.  Over at Brain Blogger, Jennifer Gibson discusses some recent studies of NDEs in a post titled “Light at the End of the Tunnel [...]

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Hospital Hallucinations — Consciousness and the Otherwordly

June 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct, Shamans and Shamanism

In a previous post, Consciousness and the Supernatural, I discussed at some length David Lewis-Williams’ contention that supernatural thinking arises naturally from fluctuations of consciousness.  These fluctuations range from normal (dreaming) to periodic (reveries) to pathological (delusions).  Deliberately induced — and dramatic — altered states of consciousness are of course a specialty of shamans around [...]

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Consciousness and The Supernatural

May 21st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion, Cognition and Religion, Evolution and Selection, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct

A few months ago, the cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams published Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion.  When I saw the title, I worried that perhaps I had been scooped.  Now that I have nearly finished the book, my worry has passed.  Lewis-Williams’ title is a bit deceiving, given that the book combines [...]

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New Studies of Hallucinogens — Inducing Religious Experiences

April 12th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

In today’s New York Times, John Tierney reports that doctors and medical centers are once again testing hallucinogens (primarily psilocybin) for therapeutic potentials.  Scientific research into these mind-altering drugs largely ceased after initial investigators, such as Timothy Leary, became drug evangelists.  The new research sounds quite promising.  Therapeutic issues aside, there have been some interesting [...]

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New Interpretation of Rock Art Symbols

March 3rd, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion

David Lewis-Williams, Professor of Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, has for decades studied Paleolithic rock art across the world.  His scholarly output has been not only been prodigious, but also provocative.  Because rock art constitutes some of the oldest evidence we have for symbolic thinking, its importance to understanding Paleolithic [...]

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Why “Shamans and Shamanism”?

February 12th, 2010 · No Comments · Shamans and Shamanism

Shamans are ritual and spiritual practitioners found in both traditional small-scale and modern centralized societies.  They are not, therefore, associated exclusively with hunter-gatherers or tribal groups, as some scholars have suggested.  It is a fact, however, that all known foraging groups include individuals who are recognized or recognizable as shamans.  This has led many to [...]

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