mayzee wrote:No... semantics RULE
(actually semantics get in the way of Philosophy, but that too is another matter)
Jesse - its interesting you mention you're a psychedelic... I think it was John Allegro (amongst others) who came up with the theory that the concept of 'God' was actually the result of early humans eating mushrooms and other such hallucinogenic materials which give the user a 'spiritual awakening' effect... its not something that provable, but it does seem to me to be a feasible idea when you look at tribal religions and see that many of them have at their focus a shaman who communicates with the gods by ingesting the local hallucinogen
hell, look at the ideas Timothy Leary came up with about the 8-fold model of consciousness after eating lots of acid
Terrence McKenna has also suggested something similar. He suggests that psilocybin mushrooms have contributed in the developement of language and enhanced sight because of their properties to make one utter strange thoughts, sometimes in made up languages, and their ability to make one see much more clearly.
I wouldn't doubt that for a moment, same with the other point you have brought up. They definitely could have aided in creating god like characters. Mushrooms being entheogens, their visions (at higher doses) often are of a very spiritual and alien nature where one experiences a type of logos or perhaps the mushroom itself talking to the bemushroomed seeker. It also seams quite possible that people could have achieved sort of a god seeking mindset while drinking the mysterious Soma, in southern Europe.
Another interesting fact is the story of how
Santa Claus as we know him has his clothing colours because of the Fly Agaric mushroom which use to be consumed in nomadic Europe and parts of Asia to achieve somewhat of a state of drunkenness. It was also used by shamans who would enter ritual shacks through a chimney at the top hence Santa coming down the chimney. Reindeer who also consumed the mushroom also became somewhat drunk and were sometimes found eating their own urine in patches of yellow snow to get drunk. People who took the mushroom often passed their own urine on to get others into a bemushroomed state as the active alkaloids did not fully break down and passed into the urine and from that we get the term 'pissed.' Hahaha!
All the fun little things you learn while reading
But yeah, I guess early archaic homonids could definitely have been considered 'psychedelic' in a way had they eaten the mushroom all the time, haha!
we are all atomic and subatomic particles and we are all wireless...