From: Avatar Polymorph (avatarpolymorph@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Sep 28 2002 - 00:27:52 MDT
"Personally, I am referring to the mystical core, the experiential reality
behind religions. Those who have experienced this know that it cannot be
expressed in such language and that any "explanation" at such a level
explains nothing at all.
I know that will look like nothing but useless mystification to many. It
can't be helped.
- samantha atkins"
Absolutely. However, I suspect that this mystic experience is the result of
selective pressure and involves a combination of new worldview or insight
with special neurotransmitter release patterns which result in euphoria.
Thus disagreeing with the group in forming a new perception is benefitted
with euphoria in various forms (otherwise new mindsets would be prohibited
because of group resistance which almost always penalises the bringer of new
thoughts). Sounds silly? Maybe.
>From an experiential level, those who have not experienced a mystic period
have no idea of what it is like. It is something like a calm and ecstatic
combination of LSD and cocaine.
I recommend The Jesus Mysteries: Was the Original Jesus a Pagan God for a
good description of pagan mystery religions and religious memes... for
example, did you know "the early Christian monastic tradition initiated by
St Anthony was modelled on ascetic Pythagorean communities found throughout
the Mediterranean [for centuries prior]" - i.e. mystical mathematicians who
found the material world a corrupt version of the pure Platonic universe
were responsible for monasticism in Egypt and Syria. I never found that out
in the Encyclopedia Brittanica!
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