I think a large number of people would benefit from temporarily adopting a mystic/magical religion. Tantra comes to mind first owing to David Chapman’s writing, but Wicca, alchemy, Kabbalah and ritual magic are included as well.
These are systems utterly at odds with normal and socially acceptable modes of living. Ideally, these could serve as shocks to break people out of major ruts in thinking or belief, or as outlets for resolving emotional hangups and releasing socially unacceptable desires. I also know a good few people who, if nothing else, could really use an injection of weirdness and wonder to break them out of self-imposed boredom. The exact system matters less than the presence of a system at all.
The key is not to get too caught up in them or start believing they’re real. So long as they maintain a playful aspect, you’re probably fine. You also want to avoid getting into cults, especially Scientology. They’re also weird, and they’re also systems of meaning-making, but they take themselves too seriously and in the latter case it’s difficult and potentially harmful to leave.
Distinguishing cults from playful religions may be much more difficult than I’m giving credit for. Keep an exit strategy on hand and don’t give out your credit card information.
One of my own weird beliefs is very close to this one: Huge amounts of everything accepted by modern western medicine and psychology today was used by people in some way before being “scientifically” explained. Whether we’re talking about using compounds from particular plants to treat particular ailments, or using particular psychological tricks to alter peoples’ thoughts and behavior, science is literally eating magic’s lunch because “magic” is often where science looks to get ideas for hypotheses to test.
Because of this history, and the history of science being very confidently wrong about many things in the past, I don’t find it problematic to use personally pieces of “magic” or “superstition” as lifestyle or cognitive building blocks when they suit a particular purpose better than the available scientific ones.
Then again, I think that what “most people” need to learn from a foray into the occult is the ability to build their own systems to meet their needs, rather than just raw weirdness.
I think a large number of people would benefit from temporarily adopting a mystic/magical religion. Tantra comes to mind first owing to David Chapman’s writing, but Wicca, alchemy, Kabbalah and ritual magic are included as well.
These are systems utterly at odds with normal and socially acceptable modes of living. Ideally, these could serve as shocks to break people out of major ruts in thinking or belief, or as outlets for resolving emotional hangups and releasing socially unacceptable desires. I also know a good few people who, if nothing else, could really use an injection of weirdness and wonder to break them out of self-imposed boredom. The exact system matters less than the presence of a system at all.
The key is not to get too caught up in them or start believing they’re real. So long as they maintain a playful aspect, you’re probably fine. You also want to avoid getting into cults, especially Scientology. They’re also weird, and they’re also systems of meaning-making, but they take themselves too seriously and in the latter case it’s difficult and potentially harmful to leave.
Distinguishing cults from playful religions may be much more difficult than I’m giving credit for. Keep an exit strategy on hand and don’t give out your credit card information.
One of my own weird beliefs is very close to this one: Huge amounts of everything accepted by modern western medicine and psychology today was used by people in some way before being “scientifically” explained. Whether we’re talking about using compounds from particular plants to treat particular ailments, or using particular psychological tricks to alter peoples’ thoughts and behavior, science is literally eating magic’s lunch because “magic” is often where science looks to get ideas for hypotheses to test.
Because of this history, and the history of science being very confidently wrong about many things in the past, I don’t find it problematic to use personally pieces of “magic” or “superstition” as lifestyle or cognitive building blocks when they suit a particular purpose better than the available scientific ones.
Then again, I think that what “most people” need to learn from a foray into the occult is the ability to build their own systems to meet their needs, rather than just raw weirdness.