I have always been impressed by the incredible achievements in philosophy, science, and art of the ancient Greeks. Very often, when I start reading something from modern philosophers, psychologists, or even political scientists, I catch myself thinking that almost all of it is already present in the texts of the ancient thinkers of Athens. In fact, they laid the foundation for science and the European concept of beauty in art. It’s even more incredible when you realize that Athens at that time was a small city by modern standards, and the flourishing of this wisdom lasted only briefly, after which Europe plunged into centuries of darkness and ignorance. And even the texts of the ancient sages have reached us only by some miraculous chance.
I ask myself how such a relatively small group of people, in a limited period of time, could achieve such amazing clarity of thought. We need to learn something about their way of life, their system of upbringing and education. Where did this unique phenomenon come from?
We know that Athens had democracy. Democracy, in fact, was invented by the Greeks. But it was a unique form of democracy, very different in many ways from what we know today. One obvious difference was that slaves, freed slaves, foreigners, and women were not allowed to participate in the public assemblies. Yes, the Greeks of that time had slaves. It was a complex combination of democracy and a slave-owning society.
It’s interesting that freed slaves were not given the right to vote. At first glance, this seems unfair. But human history has shown that people with a slave mentality often do not make the best choices. The question then arises: how can we cure people of such psychological traits? Sometimes it takes several generations of free living to achieve that. Women in ancient Greece were also not equal to men and could not vote. But this was due to broader restrictions. They didn’t have the opportunity to receive a full education. They were more involved with children, household chores, and domestic affairs. Yet, they were allowed to participate in other very important matters.
To understand the historical phenomenon of ancient Athens, we certainly need to understand what their religion was like. What kind of religion could allow or even foster such intellectual development? If we look at modern society and examine the most outstanding scientists: physicists, chemists, mathematicians, we find that almost all of them are atheists. Religious people often try to dispute this fact. But it remains a fact. If we consider scholars in the humanities, the percentage of atheists is lower, but it still predominates.
We know that the ancient Greeks were not atheists. But they were also not religious in the way we now understand or imagine religious people in monotheistic religions. It’s not just that they didn’t believe in a single God, but believed in many gods. Their relationships with the gods were based on entirely different principles. Their gods personified archetypes associated with objectively existing spheres of life understandable to any person: war, love, commerce, power, art, and so on. To be successful in any of these areas, a person had to possess certain qualities or energies. The gods represented the ideal realization of these qualities. Through interactions with these ideals, the Greeks sought to imbue themselves with the necessary qualities of the soul. Their goal was not simply to believe in the omnipotence of the gods; their goal was to experience a connection with them and, through this, to develop themselves.
In essence, this was not a religious but a mystical approach. These two approaches are often confused. Often these two words are written together with a hyphen – «religious-mystical experience.» But these are very different things. The Dark Middle Ages in Europe coincided with the reign of the religious approach. This topic is still poorly understood by humanity. Why do I think so? Because even today, the most explosive regions of our planet are under the total control of religions or ideologies. And humanity continues to try to find economic reasons for this.
The ancient Greeks called their rituals mysteries. These were very interesting events in which the entire elite of Athenian society participated. Women (maidens) were also actively involved. These mysteries were conducted by Delphic priests. This means there was a special priestly school. The priests and priestesses lived separately from other citizens. Most likely, this art was passed down from generation to generation. Only people who had studied this craft for many years could guide such rituals. Participants in these mysteries would come to the Delphic temple for a few days on specific dates to fully immerse themselves in the process.
From the works of various modern researchers who have studied the texts of Plutarch, we know that one of the mysteries was the mystery of the god Dionysus. The mystery played out the theme of the death and resurrection of the god. This mystery was conducted by the high priestess of Athens with fourteen of her assistants. Part of the mystery was a kind of theatrical performance. But there were also parts of the ritual in which all participants actively engaged. There were ecstatic dances to rhythmic music, which were also called orgies. These involved women known as maenads. The written sources do not mention whether this was associated with forms of collective sex. As I understand it, the event was not aimed at sexual satisfaction. Rather, the sexual energy of young, liberated women was used to achieve strong ecstatic states, from which they in turn influenced the other participants. But it is absolutely clear that the religion of the ancient Greeks did not encourage sexual repression!
Many researchers note that the goal of these mysteries was not to gain faith in the gods. The goal was to achieve a special experience that helped the citizens of Athens see and understand such important topics as death and birth in a new light. Great sages like Plato and Aristotle, who essentially laid the foundation for all modern science, considered participation in the mysteries vital and recommended them to their students. In fact, they repeatedly expressed the idea that no statesman of Athens had the moral right to govern anything if he had not personally undergone these rites. They also especially highlighted the Eleusinian Mysteries.
The Eleusinian Mysteries are associated with many secrets. Only a small number of citizens had the opportunity to attend them. They were held under strict secrecy. There are known cases of former slaves being killed after accidentally witnessing part of a mystery. The participants themselves were obliged never to reveal the details of what happened there. And they almost always kept silent. Based on some indirect evidence, we can conclude that the essence of what happened there was connected with entering a state of deep trance. Participants in the Eleusinian Mysteries, which took place over several days in a temple resembling a semicircular ancient theater, compared the experience to complete rebirth.
What allowed the priests conducting the ritual to send people into such altered states of consciousness in the third stage of the mystery? According to some reports, we are talking about technologies that the Greeks partially borrowed from small tribes who at that time lived almost like wild forest peoples. I suggest that this involves a practice that can be called shamanic. There is a high probability that this practice involved the use of special plants or mushrooms. The use of special plants and mushrooms, and a deep knowledge of their properties, have always been characteristic of small tribes living in constant interaction with wild nature.
I think that the Athenian priests took the shamanic technologies of small tribes and supplemented them with the plots of their mythology and philosophical reflection, giving rise to the unique phenomenon of the mysteries, capable of leading people with a good basic education through a unique transformative experience of expanding consciousness. It’s understandable why this was secret. Not all people are ready for such an experience. The ability to select and prepare such people was also an important priestly task.
In studying the shamanic technologies of the small peoples of Latin America that have survived to this day, who use special plants, plant decoctions, cacti, and mushrooms in their ceremonies to enter a deep trance, I have discovered several important patterns. First and foremost, it must be understood that these plants alone are not enough. The complete technology is crucial. Any Greek finding certain special plants or mushrooms in the forest could have eaten them. For the noble Greeks, these plants and mushrooms could have been gathered by slaves, or they could have been sold in the market. But that’s not how it works. The best people of Athens went to a special place in a temple where they underwent special rituals for several days, guided by knowledgeable people who directed the process in such a way that it facilitated not random chaotic changes but a targeted transformation, resulting in Greeks becoming healthier and gaining clearer consciousness. They became prepared to engage in state affairs, philosophy, science, and art at a higher level.
My life, especially the last fifteen years, has become an experiment that partly confirms the validity of this historical theory. Having met authentic shamans, along with my close friends and regular participants in my expeditions to Latin America, I began to regularly undergo shamanic ceremonies with deep trance immersion. I participate in about one hundred shamanic ceremonies a year in Peru and Mexico. When the number of ceremonies I completed exceeded a thousand, people started regularly asking me what it’s like. Usually, they mean two things: whether I’ve gone crazy or whether I’ve become enlightened! Some think that the psyche cannot handle it, while others are convinced that I must have solved all my problems once and for all. Of course, neither has happened to me. The first didn’t happen because I did this with real shamans in the right places at real shamanic ceremonies. The second didn’t happen because development never stops. There can only be growth or degradation. And, of course, you can’t solve all problems once and for all. Life doesn’t stand still. It presents us with new challenges.
And yet recently I’ve reflected on the significant changes that have occurred in me during the period of intense shamanic ceremonies. First of all, it’s important to realistically assess where you started. I didn’t receive a good basic education. I partially compensated for this with self-education. I didn’t possess any special talents. At least, they didn’t have time to manifest and develop in me. My life has included a fair amount of traumatic and extreme experiences. I was lucky with my family and happy childhood. But starting from adolescence, I chose a life full of stress, repeatedly brushing close to death. All this created a far from ideal foundation for starting the experiment. My main advantages were a desire and determination to always think for myself and, perhaps, that I became interested in and began practicing various self-development techniques very early. It’s possible to assume that people with a brilliant education, special talents, and not traumatized by extreme life events would achieve much better results if given the chance that I had. But that’s something each person can find out only in their own practice.
Analyzing what has happened to me in recent years, I’ve discovered several interesting positive changes within myself that could be described, and several somewhat unusual abilities, opening up a range of new possibilities. Perhaps in the next article, I’ll try to write about this. Not to boast, but to explain why I consider the technology I’ve discovered to be very effective and beneficial for people. I hope this will help make our shared world better!
