Jewish Psychedelic Historiography: The Search for a Trippable Past | Bar Ilan University
at Bar Ilan University
Tel Aviv
Among psychedelic enthusiasts, there now exists a genre of speculative psychedelic histories, alleging psychedelic traditions in Ancient Greece, Early Christianity, and even Medieval Europe; examples include Rusk, Wasson and Hoffman’s The Road to Eleusis; Brian Muraresku’s The Immortality Key; and John Allegro’s The Mushroom and the Cross. Jews, and even some Jewish scholars, have likewise written speculative histories of Biblical, Talmudic, Kabbalistic, and Hasidic psychedelic use, including scholars Benny Shanon, Yaffa Eliach, and Sharon Packer, as well as Burt Jacobson, David Roskies, Danny Nemu, Rick Strassman, Dan Merkur, Yoseph Leib, and Harry Rozenberg. Though the evidence for such use is sparse and mostly circumstantial (though not non-existent), this historiographical discourse serves a variety of theological and social functions, at times legitimating psychedelic use and experience, at others legitimating Jewish history and practice. Like many Jewish “searches for a usable past,” this discourse projects its theological concerns onto an imagined/retrieved Jewish past, revealing tensions and potentialities of contemplative innovation.
Information for this presentation will be posted soon.
