- Creator is ignorant of nature and creates an imperfect world, seeks to permanently enslave humanity - Adam's breath of life from god imparts divinity upon humanity - Enslave through constant human conflict engineered by God - Sometimes evil, sometimes dumb - To prevent this they must learn everything they can from philosophy, science, magic, and religion to OVERCOME THE CREATOR and ascend beyond the physical universe to meet a God Beyond Gods who will aid them in becoming gods = Sethians thought 3rd son of Adam and Eve was a savior-prophet figure - _ Valentinians believed Jesus was son of the God Beyond God to help us (were a secret society in more mainstream churches) (some used entheogens or religious hallucinogens into spiked wine) Levels of Cognition 1, Sensory Motor Schemas (perception of spatial orientation) 2. Intuitive Mentalities (folk concepts) 3. Activities of Reflective Cognition (cultural environments and exchange) Cognitive Rules - Physical limits of human cognition exist and have not been overcome by evolution Reasons for Religious Spreading 1, Relevant 2. Attention grabbing (even counter intuitive) 3. Easy to understand and spread 4. Some sort of evolutionary fitness benefits Up vs Down - Up = More, good, virtue - Down - Less, bad, sickness, death Circle of Life Schema = No backtracking, linear progression of time, always getting older The Path Schema - Lots of walking + traveling - Paths are positive and negative = Starting point, goal, sequence of locations to an end - May not be spatial and visible, can be temporal and invisible Container Schema - In/Out of Body - Body is the container, soul is the liquid inside - Soul flight is removing the cap and dumping out the water = Removal of cap could be binaural beats or hallucinogens or whatever - Once out, your experience is based on your set of cognitive rules. - _ Rationalized narratives Rationalized Narratives - Sitting and thinking about all the stories you've heard - Mental push towards coherence and building a meaning- Kitbash of all heard stories - Up = positive experience, healing - Down = negative experience, damaging, come across a hell realm Material Off-Loading - Ratcheting takes a lot of instruction and performance to allow a spirit to liberate itself - Use physical assisting materials such as gems and maps Lecture 7 - Near Death Experiences (William Parsons) Lots of overlap with medicine, most happen in hospitals Hiking Example - Feelings of death and joy - Peace Military Example = Died and left his body - Realized he couldn't interact with people in the physical world - Sawa tavern with a Pabst Blue Ribbon Sign - Sawa light at the end of his bed (christ) who tells him it isn't his time - After he survived, he walked the same pathway when out of body and he found the tavern and the Pabst Sign was the same Cardiac Ward - Patients saying they had near death experiences, floating out of the body - Doctor says the patient died, patient goes up to heaven, told by God to come back Claire Zalesky - Otherworld Journeys = Looking at all out of body experiences as near death experiences - Fasting and nearly dying — trance state —> journey - Similar state to the cardiac patients Lecture 8 - Parapsychology Introduction ideas 1, Situate paper into broader discussion 2. Eye catching historical anecdote 3. Personal anecdote Experimental Parapsychology = Joseph Banks + Louisa Rhine - ESP Symbols - Karl Zener - Zener Cards Parapsychology "Parapsychology is to religion, what biology is to medicine” ‘Types of Psy (Psychic Phenomenon) - Telepathy = Psychokinesis - Visions / Hallucinations Telepathy = Mind to mind transfer - Often between loved ones during times of crisis,