They, like most similar traditions, used repetitive rhythm, song, and poetry to induce trance.
Their main thing was stillness (Hesychia), used to deepen into trance and take the spirit journey.
And they were the “sons of Apollo, the healer.”
Conversation
These details and many more that Kingsley draws out paint a pretty clear picture. Either
A: Parmenides was a part of the shamanic healing tradition, and this is where his poem where ‘logic’ is born comes from (it’s a poem about a spirit journey)
or
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B: he coincidentally had a teacher who taught him Hesychia, had disciples who were concerned with Hesychia, wrote in a style that is recognizable from other Greeks in this tradition, wrote about a spirit journey as the key to his revelations, and was accepted by
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The later tradition as one of their forefathers (inscribed in stone in his hometown).
A seems like the clearest picture.
B seems… improbable. And yet has been pretty much common consensus, that all these little details don’t matter, or are embarrassing and should be ignored.
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That about catches up to where I am in the book. I’ll add to this as I read, but one other note:
The other thing you’ll hear about Kingsley is: he’s a dick.
The criticism from people in his field often comes down to not just that he’s “mystifying” all these facts,
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But that he’s constantly mocking them all while doing it, saying the tradition of western classics academics has been stupid and blind, and many people he’s worked with are all stupid and blind.
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In his most recent book, ‘Catafalque,’ he did pretty much the same thing with Jung and pissed off all the Jungians.
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I sent a short inquiry asking if he planned on releasing ebooks, since it’s hard for me to purchase physical copies from Vietnam; he sent me a page-long diatribe basically just yelling “How Dare You??” And then asking me to sign up for his newsletter.
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So the dude is a dick.
The upside of which is, a lot of people really want him to be wrong, just to rub it in his face.
I’ve looked around a fair bit, and I can’t find a convincing argument that he’s off on any of this.
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Basically all I can find is “*scoff scoff scoff* he things that ~trance~ is real, and that ~spirituality~ has a place in scholarship! Why I never! *scoff scoff scoff*”
Which suggest to me… that he’s fairly dead on with the factual parts. Which, that alone is… wild.
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Replying to
noice. have you checked out iain mcgilchrist’s stuff and/or julian jaynes? seems relevant!
Replying to
Yknow I never connected that til now. I read McGill Christ a few years ago—these would make an interesting pairing to go through together
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