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Victor Turner studied the role of ritual in indigenous societies, particularly rites of passage. Those rites signaled periods of transition, as between childhood and adulthood. They were dangerous periods during which previous statuses and relationships were suspended. The “structure” of society was eliminated temporarily, and those periods are

Archetypal psychologist James Hillman writes of the link between the characters, which he calls our pathologies, and our compulsions, which he calls Ananke, the goddess of necessity. When we feel as if we are claimed by a foreign power, held hostage by a character that causes us to act in irrational, unfamiliar ways, we are caught in the circle of

Cicero once wrote that to be completely free one must become a slave to a set of laws. In other words, accepting limitations is liberating.

In light of these ideas, we should consider a statement made by the 14th Dalai Lama: In this century, human knowledge is extremely expanded and developed. But this is mainly knowledge of the external world. In the field of what we may call “inner science” there are many things, I think, that you do not know. You spend a large amount of the best

Some may be puzzled why I chose the trickster as a vehicle to explore psychic phenomena. I started this book as an effort to understand why the paranormal is so frequently associated with fraud and deception. Many trickster figures are linked with supernatural powers and with deception, so that is an obvious connection. But as I began reading the

throughout history certain human beings could reach a state of “enthusiasm” without using entheogens. I have picked this word carefully. Enthusiasm also has its root the ancient Greek word éntheos. Enthusiastic dancing, drumming and various other rhythmic movements seem to open access to the “god within”. Even in people not initiated in secret

that in principle new points of view are not as a rule discovered in territory that is already known, but in out-of-the-way places that may even be avoided because of their bad name.