Books by Yulia Ustinova
- ‘Our greatest blessings come to us by way of mania, provided it is given us by divine gift,’ – ... more - ‘Our greatest blessings come to us by way of mania, provided it is given us by divine gift,’ – says Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. Certain forms of alteration of consciousness, considered to be inspired by supernatural forces, were actively sought in ancient Greece. Divine mania comprises a fascinating array of diverse experiences: numerous initiates underwent some kind of alteration of consciousness during mystery rites; sacred officials and inquirers attained revelations in major oracular centres; possession states were actively sought; finally, some thinkers, such as Pythagoras and Socrates, probably practiced manipulation of consciousness. These experiences, which could be voluntary or involuntary, intense or mild, were interpreted as an invasive divine power within one’s mind, or illumination granted by a superhuman being. In ancient Greece, these mental states were treated with cautious respect, and in contrast to the majority of complex societies, ancient and modern, were never suppressed or pushed to the cultural and social periphery.
Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind analyses techniques of searching for ultimate wisdom in ancient ... more Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind analyses techniques of searching for ultimate wisdom in ancient Greece. The Greeks perceived mental experiences of exceptional intensity as resulting from divine intervention. They believed that to share in the immortals' knowledge, one had to liberate the soul from the burden of the mortal body by attaining an altered state of consciousness, that is, by merging with a superhuman being or through possession by a deity. These states were often attained by inspired mediums, `impresarios of the gods' - prophets, poets, and sages - who descended into caves or underground chambers. Yulia Ustinova juxtaposes ancient testimonies with the results of modern neuropsychological research. This novel approach enables an examination of religious phenomena not only from the outside, but also from the inside: it penetrates the consciousness of people who were engaged in the vision quest, and demonstrates that the darkness of the caves provided conditions vital for their activities.
This is the first systematic study of the cults of the Bosporan Kingdom, which existed in South R... more This is the first systematic study of the cults of the Bosporan Kingdom, which existed in South Russia in the first centuries AD. The research is based on a variety of sources: archaeological evidence and inscriptions, largely unknown to the non-Russian readers, as well as historical and literary texts.
The religion of the Bosporus is viewed in this monograph as a blend of Greek and indigenous Iranian traditions. Its first part is dedicated to the cult of Celestial Aphrodite. The second part examines the controversial cult of the Most High God and its alledged Jewish affinities.
The book, illustrated with thirty figures, is an important contribution to the understanding of the religious life in Greek colonies, and the history of Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity.
Papers on Greek and Roman religion and culture by Yulia Ustinova
Scripta Classica Israelica 43 (2024), p.55-86
By the end of the fifth century, Hippocratic physicians were organized in a family-like associati... more By the end of the fifth century, Hippocratic physicians were organized in a family-like association, which acted according to formal statutes, recorded in the Oath, the Law, and other deontological texts. The Hippocratics were required to adhere to strict norms of ritual and moral purity, allowing them to regard themselves as holy men, pure and pious. Medical transmission included written texts, practical instruction, and oral tradition, presumably of esoteric knowledge prohibited to the uninitiated. A Hippocratic physician probably had to undergo rites of passage on two occasions. The first initiation was performed when he began his studies as a boy or adolescent; the second followed after years of apprenticeship and formally signified his becoming a physician. The combination of a two-stage initiation into esoteric wisdom, quasi-familial ties between the master and his disciples, and the emphasis on healing as a lofty vocation was characteristic of the associations of philosophers and healers in Magna Graecia. It is possible that the Hippocratics adopted some of their practices, particularly the elements of initiation rituals, and combined them with the norms and ceremonies of the Asclepiad clans of Cos and Cnidus.
Journal of Cognitive Historiography, 2023
Some basic Hippocratic practices were almost indistinguishable from magic healing, and above all,... more Some basic Hippocratic practices were almost indistinguishable from magic healing, and above all, catharsis was essentially a magic action. The use of cleansing, usually by hellebore, in the treatment of various ailments, is a shining example of the vitality of the magic worldview, which did not turn into an insignificant modest detail, but was a major method in Hippocratic therapy. The main principle behind purification is the feeling that misfortune, including disease, is filth contained within the body, and therefore can and has to be removed. The efficacy of catharsis was based on its cognitive impact, and this impact was enhanced by additional magic rites, therefore healing based on purification produced better results when administered in a cultic context, by a traditional healer or exorcist, than in a medical context, by a professional physician. Thus, the hostility of physicians towards sorcerers and other traditional healers receives an additional explanation.
The Shamir, the Letters, the Writing, and the Tablets (Mishnah Avot 5:6). Studies in Honor of Professor Shamir Yona, eds. M. Gruber, J. Yogev, D. Sivan, L. T. Stuckenbruck, and E. Assis, Jerusalem, Ostracon, pp. 307*-313*.
Solon’s feigned insanity highlights the interplay between madness as a disease and madness as a b... more Solon’s feigned insanity highlights the interplay between madness as a disease and madness as a blessing. After the Athenians had lost hope of conquering Salamis, they issued a law charging anyone publicly raising this subject with death punishment. Solon feigned madness, wrote an elegy inciting the Athenians to renew their claims on Salamis, rushed to the agora, and when a crowd gathered, leapt up on the herald's stone and sang his elegy. Regardless of its historicity, the story portrays Solon, a lawgiver and poet, as designing a scheme which comprised a whole series of transgressions, legal and social. This episode presents a subtle interplay of symbols characteristic of three realms, madness, poetry and prophecy. Solon's steps in building up an image of a madman included musical performance, which was immediately associated with divine inspiration: the wise lawgiver and poet was quite aware of the supremacy of poetry over mere public speech. Furthermore, Solon urged the citizens to take action: his counsel was his prophecy. Solon pretended to be mad not only to escape punishment. The image of Solon leaping up on the herald's stone and singing his passionate exhortation is reminiscent of the abnormal behaviour of Greek seers, such as the Sibyl, and of Old Testament prophets. 'Mad words' could be perceived as divinely inspired, and therefore bearing more authority than sober words of a mere mortal.
The stratagem is based on Solon's understanding that behaviour prohibited to ordinary mortals is allowed to those honoured with a visitation from the gods. This intricate combination of mad behaviour and divine inspiration underscores the complex nature of mania: it was frightening and potentially numinous, a madman was not like other men, and the two extremes, being cast below other humans, or elevated above them, could overlap.
Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience, ed. E. Eidinow, A. Geertz, and J. North. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, pp. 44-66
We are fortunate to have detailed descriptions of both the ritual and the suppliant’s experience ... more We are fortunate to have detailed descriptions of both the ritual and the suppliant’s experience at the sanctuary of Trophonius in Lebadeia, that provide an opportunity for a case study juxtaposing ancient evidence with the results of modern research in cognitive science. The paper explores changes in the suppliant’s body and mind, experienced during his stay in Trophonius’ sanctuary.
The main rite was a descent into the artificial subterranean cave of Trophonius, who was believed to appear to the suppliants in person. In the subterranean chamber the inquirer experienced alteration of consciousness, induced by sensory deprivation, and comprising vortex and out-of-body experiences, as well as hallucinations and the sensation of unmediated communication with supernatural beings. The core experience was preceded by a series of preliminary rites, each of them involving a different cognitive and/or physiological mechanism.
The ritual of descent to Trophonius combined characteristics of a mystery rite, such as secrecy, brush with death, utter distress, obliteration of memory, and personality change, and an oracular consultation, which was based on interpretation of hidden knowledge revealed in the sacred grotto.
Ecstatic Experience in the Ancient World, eds. D. Stein, S. Costello, and K. Foster. London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 332-350.
Following F. Nietzsche, Apollo and Dionysus are often regarded as opposites. The two brothers sha... more Following F. Nietzsche, Apollo and Dionysus are often regarded as opposites. The two brothers shared however the same temple at Delphi, considered by the Greek as the umbilical center of the world and the most sacred place on earth. The cults of both gods were focused on actions of women in the state of possession: the Pythia, in the grip of Apollo, uttered prophecies inspired by the god, and the thyiads, known as maenads elsewhere, on alternate years roamed the mountain forests, following the call of Dionysus. Gender misbalance among Dionysus’ rapturous worshippers probably reflects the proclivity of women in patriarchal societies to channel their suppressed psychological tension through ecstatic rites, and the dominance of female prophets as instruments employed by the Greek gods to announce their will to the mortals can be explained as a result of responsivity of women to manipulation of consciousness. However, the intersection between Apolline prophecy and Bacchic ecstasy at Delphi suggests a link between the female votaries of the two gods. This paper presents an overview of the evidence on ecstatic cults of Apollo and Dionysus in Delphi, compares ancient testimonies with insights into the anthropology and neuroscience of alteration of consciousness, and suggests that the proximity of the two cults ensued from their deep multi-dimensional connection.
Journal of Hellenic Studies 141 , pp. 54-73, 2021
While Greeks called the ecstatic musical mode ‘Phrygian’, there is no evidence of high-arousal mu... more While Greeks called the ecstatic musical mode ‘Phrygian’, there is no evidence of high-arousal musical performances in Phrygia, and the musical characteristics of this mode were distinctively Greek. The image of wide-ranging excited celebrations practised in Phrygia seems to have existed only in the imagination of the Greeks and Romans. This paper suggests that the uneasiness felt by some Greeks facing high-arousal cults was assuaged by attributing them foreign origin, which was often fictitious. By culturally dissociating themselves from the ecstatic practices, the Greeks resolved the cognitive inconsistency between their self-perception as citizens of the decorous civilized world and their surrender to the irresistible allure of high-arousal cults and music. These false attitudes allowed cognitive consonance and attained the status of indubitable truth. Upheld throughout antiquity, they persuaded many modern scholars, who still mistakenly consider the Phrygian musical mode as an Oriental borrowing.
Delphi. Apollons Orakel in der Welt der Antike, ed. B. Bäbler and H.-G. Nesselrath. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 119-133.
The paper is focused on the Pythia, in particular, on the mode of her functioning. Various factor... more The paper is focused on the Pythia, in particular, on the mode of her functioning. Various factors of religious, psychological, and physiological nature prepared the Pythia for her duty. The personality of the Pythia was of crucial importance, and a candidate for the role of the god’s mouthpiece was chosen carefully. She was probably a woman whose propensity for alteration of consciousness was already observed by members of the community during the ecstatic Dionysiac celebrations of the thuiades. The lifestyle of the Pythia rendered her particularly responsive to the complex induction process to which she was exposed during the preliminary ceremonies leading to the prophetic trance. The accumulated interaction of all these factors enabled successful induction of the Pythia into a state of possession by Apollo – prophetic mania. Apollo’s and Dionysus’ joint tenancy in Delphi reflected the profound connection of the divine half-brothers in cult, epitomized in the Pythia’s personality and behaviour.
Sensorium. Sensory Perceptions in Roman Polytheism, ed. A. Alvar Nuño, J. Alvar Ezquerra, and G. Woolf, Leiden: Brill, p. 71-89, 2021
Hirpi Sorani, “the wolves of Soranus,” were priests, belonging to several Faliscan families and w... more Hirpi Sorani, “the wolves of Soranus,” were priests, belonging to several Faliscan families and worshipping Apollo Soranus and other local gods. Once a year, during a popular community festival celebrated on Mount Soracte, these priests carried offerings, walking barefoot on blazing embers and feeling no pain. In antiquity, some regarded their abilities as god-given, while others attributed the immunity of Hirpi Sorani to pain to application of an ointment. Fire-walking occurred also in other parts of the Mediterranean world.
Fire-walking is well-known in the modern world. Contemporary anthropological research, employing interviews with the fire-walkers, as well as quantitative criteria of assessing their physical and mental state, sheds light on the experiences of ancient fire-walkers. Fire-walking involves alteration of consciousness, associated with the release of endogenous substances, which renders high-ordeal participants immune to pain, and results in the state of euphoria and blessedness. The research on the state of low-ordeal witnesses of fire-walking demonstrates that they were also passionately involved. Thus, perceived suffering and alteration of consciousness of several people endows the entire community with a transformative experience which can be construed in terms of redemption and purification.
These observations elucidate the cognitive and social roles of fire-walking in the ancient Mediterranean: these rituals bestowed the high-ordeal participants with feelings of euphoria and extreme salience of their experience, which compelled them to participate in the ritual time and again, while the empathy of the low-ordeal participants brought about feelings of elation and purification.
History of Psychology 24(1), p. 17-21, 2021
Comments on the article by I. Graiver (History of Psychology, 24(1), 1–12) regarding the notions ... more Comments on the article by I. Graiver (History of Psychology, 24(1), 1–12) regarding the notions of mental health in monastic circles of late antiquity. In addition, the piece offers a few remarks on heterogeneous Greek sources on mental health and disorder. Hippocratic writers tended to close their eyes to chronic and mild deviations from the norm, but other Classical Greek authors were aware of various methods of maintaining mental health, explored it as a concept, and acted on the basis of complex theoretical premises. More than two thousand years before the emergence of Western individualistic psychology, fifth- and fourth-century intellectuals were concerned with mental well-being. Several methods of prevention and treatment of mental disorders by means of conversation and persuasion were probably developed in Greece. Therefore, a study of mental well-being and misery in antiquity, which takes into account evidence contained in texts belonging to a wide range of genres, may shed light on the transformation of these concepts in the evolving social environment.
History of Psychiatry 31 (3), pp. 257-273, 2020
Ancient Greece was unique in its attitude to alteration of consciousness. Various altered states ... more Ancient Greece was unique in its attitude to alteration of consciousness. Various altered states of consciousness were commonly known: initiates experienced them during mystery rites; sacred officials and enquirers attained them in the major oracular centres; possession by various deities was recognized; and some sages and philosophers practised manipulation of consciousness. From the perspective of individual and public freedom, the prominent position of mania in Greek society reflects its openness and acceptance of the inborn human proclivity to experience alterations of consciousness, which were interpreted in positive terms as god-sent. These mental states were treated with cautious respect, but never suppressed or pushed to the cultural and social periphery, in contrast to many other complex societies, ancient and modern.
Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis. Festschrift in Honour of Armin W. Geertz. Edited by A. Klostergaard Petersen, I. Sælid Gilhus, L. H. Martin, J. S. Jensen, and J. Sørensen, Leiden: Brill (2019), p. 461-475.
The myth of self-sufficient women presents us with a rare opportunity to test the principles of s... more The myth of self-sufficient women presents us with a rare opportunity to test the principles of social cognition in a historical setting. In ancient Greek mythology, the Amazons, barbarian autonomous female warriors living on the periphery of the world, personified the antithesis to the ideal of a citizen's wife, confined to her male-dominated home. In China, independently from the European tradition, imaginary communities of self-governing women were also associated with faraway lands. I contend that in several complex societies, similar cognitive mechanisms fostered similar mental representations of inverted female behaviour, which were then conceptualized in similar myths. The myths of self-sufficient women, who did not hesitate to fight men and were portrayed as liminal and semi-bestial barbarians, brought ad extremum the male dread of loss of control over their womenfolk and xenophobic anxiety. These myths were extremely successful in their cultures, and lasted even longer than these cultures themselves.
Enhancing the mind. Proceedings of the Bial Foundation 12th Symposium “Behind and Beyond the Brain” , 2018
Some famous Greek philosophers, traditional sages and prophetic priests, used similar methods of ... more Some famous Greek philosophers, traditional sages and prophetic priests, used similar methods of attaining the state of inspiration. The paper describes ancient practices, underscores the interaction between this cross-cultural proclivity and the historically conditioned environment of a particular culture, and uses Greece as an example illustrating the antiquity of the aspiration for mind enhancement.
Kernos, 2013
Inspired prophecy and divination by signs involve different activities and require different abil... more Inspired prophecy and divination by signs involve different activities and require different abilities on the part of their practitioners. A re-examination of ancient sources demonstrates that the idea of the supremacy of direct prophecy cannot be dismissed as a Platonic invention. Moreover, modes of prophecy are far from being a modern construal: they were already perceived as such in the second millennium BC. Ecstatic prophecy, difficult to achieve and dependent on the will of the gods, was open-ended and difficult to manipulate. Hence, most experts regard direct divination in Mesopotamia as peripheral to traditional divination by signs: it is the reverse correlation in Greece that requires an explanation. To discard the dichotomy between direct and indirect prophecy is to strip Greek culture of one of its unique characteristics.
Scripta Classica Israelica, 2012
The faculty of memory, comprising memorization and remembrance, is often viewed as entirely ratio... more The faculty of memory, comprising memorization and remembrance, is often viewed as entirely rational. This paper focuses on three phenomena, poetry, mystery initiations, and Plato’s philosophy, in order to demonstrate that in some spheres, mania and mnêmê intertwined. The poet’s memory is only partially his own: he recalls and commemorates in the grip of divine inspiration, when he is out of his mind. Creation of the eternal memory of the life-changing ecstatic experience was the aim of mystery rites, whereas the mnêmê of the ceremony was enhanced by means of mania. Finally, in Plato, the philosopher’s recollection of his soul’s true knowledge is pictured as a seizure of mania. Magic memory and inspired knowledge are present in all these phenomena. The ancient mingling of thinking, alteration of consciousness and remembering, expressed by means of the words deriving from the Indo-European root men-, denoting ‘active mental force,’ did not disappear in Greece.
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2013
The paper focuses on embodied mystery experiences of initiates in ancient Greek mystery cults. Fo... more The paper focuses on embodied mystery experiences of initiates in ancient Greek mystery cults. Four main questions are addressed: what kind of experience was considered the core of Greek mystery initiations, how was this experience attained, in what way did it influence the life of the initiates, and what real-life experience could prompt the idea of mystery initiations.
Mystery initiation may be defined as ersatz-death, a rehearsal of the real one. Modelled as it seems on near-death experiences, these rites comprised alterations of the initiate’s state of consciousness. For trivial events to be remembered by the mystai as revelations, they were brought to a state of heightened sensitivity and perhaps also suggestibility. The knowledge of life and death thus acquired was a holistic and ineffable sensation, rather than a learnt doctrine: in Aristotle’s words, the initiates were “not to learn anything, but rather to experience and to be inclined”.
Time and Mind, 2009
A great number of Greek oracular cults focused on caves, notwithstanding the divergent nature of ... more A great number of Greek oracular cults focused on caves, notwithstanding the divergent nature of the divine patrons of these cults. The fundamental reason for locating prophetic activities in caves was the need of the gods' mediums to attain divine inspiration, that is, to alter their state of consciousness. For the purposes of divination the Greeks used at least two methods. The easiest and universally practiced technique was sensory deprivation. Modern research demonstrates that reduction of external stimuli leads to dream-like states, involving release of internal imagery. In the geographic setting of Greece, caverns and grottos provide an easy way to achieve total or near total isolation. The second technique was based on special geological conditions, namely, a source of poisonous gas having euphoriant or psychotropic effect. The psychotropic or, in the opinion of the Greeks, numinous quality of the caves was common knowledge to such a degree that the association of seers and prophets with caves became universal.
Altering Consciousness. Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Eds. E. Cardeña and M. Winkelman. Vol. 1. History, Culture, and the Humanities. Santa Barbara, Praeger, p. 45-71
Since the Stone Age, human beings manipulated their consciousness. There is little doubt that psy... more Since the Stone Age, human beings manipulated their consciousness. There is little doubt that psychotropic plants were used in the Neolithic period, and it is most probable that this and other methods of consciousness alteration, such as sensory deprivation, auditory driving and extensive motor behavior were employed even earlier, during the Palaeolithic. With the invention of writing and subsequent development of literature, descriptions of individual experiences of divine revelations, out-of-body states and related practices made their appearance. Ancient Greeks went further and began to expound altered states of consciousness as a complex world view, basing their approach on the belief that human ability to attain the ultimate truth is limited by nature, and only liberation from the restraint of the mortal flesh can allow a glimpse into the realm of the absolute. These ideas persisted till late antiquity, and were further developed by the adherents of syncretistic cults and philosophical schools drawing on the heritage of the entire Mediterranean world – as well as on the inherent human drive to attain extreme experiences by means of consciousness alteration.
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Books by Yulia Ustinova
The religion of the Bosporus is viewed in this monograph as a blend of Greek and indigenous Iranian traditions. Its first part is dedicated to the cult of Celestial Aphrodite. The second part examines the controversial cult of the Most High God and its alledged Jewish affinities.
The book, illustrated with thirty figures, is an important contribution to the understanding of the religious life in Greek colonies, and the history of Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity.
Papers on Greek and Roman religion and culture by Yulia Ustinova
The stratagem is based on Solon's understanding that behaviour prohibited to ordinary mortals is allowed to those honoured with a visitation from the gods. This intricate combination of mad behaviour and divine inspiration underscores the complex nature of mania: it was frightening and potentially numinous, a madman was not like other men, and the two extremes, being cast below other humans, or elevated above them, could overlap.
The main rite was a descent into the artificial subterranean cave of Trophonius, who was believed to appear to the suppliants in person. In the subterranean chamber the inquirer experienced alteration of consciousness, induced by sensory deprivation, and comprising vortex and out-of-body experiences, as well as hallucinations and the sensation of unmediated communication with supernatural beings. The core experience was preceded by a series of preliminary rites, each of them involving a different cognitive and/or physiological mechanism.
The ritual of descent to Trophonius combined characteristics of a mystery rite, such as secrecy, brush with death, utter distress, obliteration of memory, and personality change, and an oracular consultation, which was based on interpretation of hidden knowledge revealed in the sacred grotto.
Fire-walking is well-known in the modern world. Contemporary anthropological research, employing interviews with the fire-walkers, as well as quantitative criteria of assessing their physical and mental state, sheds light on the experiences of ancient fire-walkers. Fire-walking involves alteration of consciousness, associated with the release of endogenous substances, which renders high-ordeal participants immune to pain, and results in the state of euphoria and blessedness. The research on the state of low-ordeal witnesses of fire-walking demonstrates that they were also passionately involved. Thus, perceived suffering and alteration of consciousness of several people endows the entire community with a transformative experience which can be construed in terms of redemption and purification.
These observations elucidate the cognitive and social roles of fire-walking in the ancient Mediterranean: these rituals bestowed the high-ordeal participants with feelings of euphoria and extreme salience of their experience, which compelled them to participate in the ritual time and again, while the empathy of the low-ordeal participants brought about feelings of elation and purification.
Mystery initiation may be defined as ersatz-death, a rehearsal of the real one. Modelled as it seems on near-death experiences, these rites comprised alterations of the initiate’s state of consciousness. For trivial events to be remembered by the mystai as revelations, they were brought to a state of heightened sensitivity and perhaps also suggestibility. The knowledge of life and death thus acquired was a holistic and ineffable sensation, rather than a learnt doctrine: in Aristotle’s words, the initiates were “not to learn anything, but rather to experience and to be inclined”.
The religion of the Bosporus is viewed in this monograph as a blend of Greek and indigenous Iranian traditions. Its first part is dedicated to the cult of Celestial Aphrodite. The second part examines the controversial cult of the Most High God and its alledged Jewish affinities.
The book, illustrated with thirty figures, is an important contribution to the understanding of the religious life in Greek colonies, and the history of Eastern Mediterranean in Late Antiquity.
The stratagem is based on Solon's understanding that behaviour prohibited to ordinary mortals is allowed to those honoured with a visitation from the gods. This intricate combination of mad behaviour and divine inspiration underscores the complex nature of mania: it was frightening and potentially numinous, a madman was not like other men, and the two extremes, being cast below other humans, or elevated above them, could overlap.
The main rite was a descent into the artificial subterranean cave of Trophonius, who was believed to appear to the suppliants in person. In the subterranean chamber the inquirer experienced alteration of consciousness, induced by sensory deprivation, and comprising vortex and out-of-body experiences, as well as hallucinations and the sensation of unmediated communication with supernatural beings. The core experience was preceded by a series of preliminary rites, each of them involving a different cognitive and/or physiological mechanism.
The ritual of descent to Trophonius combined characteristics of a mystery rite, such as secrecy, brush with death, utter distress, obliteration of memory, and personality change, and an oracular consultation, which was based on interpretation of hidden knowledge revealed in the sacred grotto.
Fire-walking is well-known in the modern world. Contemporary anthropological research, employing interviews with the fire-walkers, as well as quantitative criteria of assessing their physical and mental state, sheds light on the experiences of ancient fire-walkers. Fire-walking involves alteration of consciousness, associated with the release of endogenous substances, which renders high-ordeal participants immune to pain, and results in the state of euphoria and blessedness. The research on the state of low-ordeal witnesses of fire-walking demonstrates that they were also passionately involved. Thus, perceived suffering and alteration of consciousness of several people endows the entire community with a transformative experience which can be construed in terms of redemption and purification.
These observations elucidate the cognitive and social roles of fire-walking in the ancient Mediterranean: these rituals bestowed the high-ordeal participants with feelings of euphoria and extreme salience of their experience, which compelled them to participate in the ritual time and again, while the empathy of the low-ordeal participants brought about feelings of elation and purification.
Mystery initiation may be defined as ersatz-death, a rehearsal of the real one. Modelled as it seems on near-death experiences, these rites comprised alterations of the initiate’s state of consciousness. For trivial events to be remembered by the mystai as revelations, they were brought to a state of heightened sensitivity and perhaps also suggestibility. The knowledge of life and death thus acquired was a holistic and ineffable sensation, rather than a learnt doctrine: in Aristotle’s words, the initiates were “not to learn anything, but rather to experience and to be inclined”.
'ניצחון הרקלס והאורונאס'. זהו האזכור הראשון של צמד אלים זה, פטרוני יאמניה, שהתגלה בעירם. הקריאה הייחודית לשני האלים מאפשרת תובנות חדשות אודות הרקע הדתי של הלחימהמאבקים צבאיים בארץ ישראל בתקופה ההלניסטית
A second-century BCE lead sling bullet, unearthed at Yavneh, ancient Iamnia, bears an inscription ‘victory of Heracles and Hauronas.’ This is the first mention of the pair, known as the patrons of Iamnia, in their homeland. The unique invocation to the two gods allows new insights into the religious background of warfare in Palaestina in the Hellenistic period.
The Greeks perceived mental experiences of exceptional intensity as resulting from divine intervention. To share in the divine knowledge, one had to liberate the soul from the burden of the mortal body by attaining ecstasis, mania, or enthousiasmos, that is, by merging with a superhuman being or possession by a deity. Whatever was perceived or uttered in such states – prophecy, poetry, or mystical insights – was considered inspired by the gods and immeasurably superior to anything perceived or deliberated in normal circumstances.
In classical Greece, divine messages received in sanctuaries either by temple officials or laymen became the most valued channel of communication with the gods. In mystery initiations, alteration of consciousness was a means of attaining revelation leading to the peak experience, defined by the ancients as eudaimonia, blessedness. Alterations of consciousness of several Presocratic thinkers can be assumed quite confidently. Plato’s Socrates alluded to out-of-body experiences, and his prolonged trance-like meditations could only happen in an altered state of consciousness. Plato’s writings suggest that he had undergone mystical experiences himself.
Modern research on altered states of consciousness demonstrates that in many cases these experiences involve the sensation of ineffable revelation of superhuman truth. The cross-cultural propensity to manipulate consciousness is a part of human natural potential. These states are multifarious, can involve various subjective and objective manifestations, and may be induced by many methods. The natural tendency to enjoy alteration of consciousness and trust the accompanying visions is usually limited or suppressed with the transition from traditional to complex societies, but Greece was a rare exception. The reason for this uniqueness is the absence of rigid priestly authority and lack of ability or desire to interfere on the part of political powers. As a consequence, the Greeks made the most of the alterations of consciousness that many of them experienced, and developed social mechanisms that allowed successful exploitation of these phenomena. In the unique historical situation of archaic and classical Greece, notions and practices which in later periods would be defined as esoteric, largely belonged to the mainstream culture.
https://www.history.org.uk/secondary/module/8658/podcast-series-associated-scheme-of-work-an-int
The materials comprise podcasts about a number of ancient Greek rituals, as well as a scheme of work for KS3. The materials have been tested by students and teachers at KS3 and above, and are now distributed via the website of the Historical Association (HA).
The podcasts were developed by Hugh Bowden (King’s College, London), Felix Budelmann (University of Oxford), Esther Eidinow (University of Bristol), Olympia Panagiotidou (University of Thessaloniki), Robert Parker (University of Oxford), and Yulia Ustinova (Ben Gurion University, Israel), all participants in the AHRC-funded research network ‘Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience’; they were narrated and produced by Simon Brown (HA).