Mysticism and Psychedelics Course Syllabus and Notes

Mysticism and Psychedelics Course Syllabus and Notes Dr. Roger K. Green University of Denver, Department of Religious Studies Spring 2022   Meeting Times: TR 2:00pm-3:50pm Location: Sturm Hall 380 CRN: 5790 Campus: University Park  Instructor: Dr. Roger K. Green Office: Religious Studies Department Email: rogerkgreen@gmail.com Office Hours: 1:00-m-1:55pm, TR   Course Description:  This course is designed to introduce students to major trends in discourse on psychedelics and mysticism.  We begin with the genre mysticism itself, which I approach following scholars such as Michel de Certeau as a modern phenomenon, a “nostalgia for God,” and a subject-development that occurs alongside writing.  While we will consider many claims made about ancient cultures, we will do so with a critical eye toward the entrenchment of eurochristian worldview in religious studies.  We move through historical trajectories and controversies surrounding psychedelics as they were promoted to democratize mystical experience, including claims about entheogens and religious freedom.  We give specific attention to the explosion of new religious movements using ayahuasca or other psychedelics as sacrament.  Themes of globalized religion, spiritual abuse, appropriation of Indigenous practices, and the recent moves toward decriminalization and therapeutic use of psychedelics will also be covered. The world of research on psychedelics is vast, and students will be encouraged to follow their particular research interests in the field.   DU Catalog Description:  The course will examine various texts, traditions, and practice from indigenous to New Age religions that fall under the general category of what has been historically labelled "mysticism." Special emphasis will be placed on chemical or plant-induced forms of altered consciousness, commonly known as "psychedelics" or "entheogens". that both simulate, and are frequently employed by different peoples in different times and places in tandem with, mystical experiences. The course will also examine the transcultural as well as the syncretic nature of mystical practices, spiritual disciplines, and the use of mind-altering substances, in particular with reference to the misuse of these forms by secular enthusiasts who are responsible for what is known as "cultural appropriation" or "neocolonial" misrepresentation.   Required texts (DU Library has electronic copies of all required texts):  Blainey, Marc. Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing. New York: SUNY Press, 2022. Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. New York: HarperPerennial, 1945/1956. Free PDFs: http://www.ignaciodarnaude.com/espiritualismo/Huxley,Aldous,Heaven%20and%20Hell.pdf (Links to an external site.) http://www.ignaciodarnaude.com/espiritualismo/Huxley,Doors%20of%20Perception.pdf (Links to an external site.) Langlitz, Nicolas. Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain, Berkeley, Berkeley University Press, 2013. Letheby, Chris. Philosophy of Psychedelics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Richards, William A. Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experience. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Wasson, R. Gordon, Stella Kramrisch, Jonathan Ott, and Carl A.P. Ruck. Persephone’s Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Yountae, An. The Decolonial Abyss: Mysticism and Cosmopolitics from the Ruins (New York: Fordham University Press, 2017). Canvas Readings (more may be added): Cappo, Silvia Mesturini. “What Ayahuasca Wants: Notes for the Study and Preservation of an Entangled Ayahuasca.” In The Expanding World Ayahuasca Diaspora: Appropriation, Integration and Legislation, edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Clancy Cavnar, 157-176. New York: Routledge, 2018.  Cavnar, Clancy. “Ayahuasca’s Influence on Gay Identity.” In The Expanding World Ayahuasca Diaspora, edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Clancy Cavnar, 114-136. New York: Routledge, 2018. Cook, Lana. “Empathic Reform and the Psychedelic Aesthetic: Women’s Accounts of LSD Therapy.” Configurations22:1 (Winter 2014).   Fotiou, Evgenia. “From Medicine Men to Day Trippers: Shamanic Tourism in Iquitos, Peru.” PhD Diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2010. Gow, Peter. “River People: Shamanism and History in Western Amazonia.” Shamanism, History, & the State. Ed. Nicholas Thomas and Caroline Humphrey. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1996, 90-114. Highpine, Gayle. “The "Legality" of Ayahuasca Churches Under the Oklevueha Native American Church.” bialabate.net, December 12, 2015. https://www.bialabate.net/news/the-legality-of-ayahuasca-churches-under-the-oklevueha-native-american-church (Links to an external site.). Shepard, Glenn H., Jr. “Will the Real Shaman Please Stand Up?” Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond, edited by Beatriz Caiuby Labate & Clancy Cavnar, 16-39. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Taves, Ann. Various recent articles.   Recommended Texts Dawson, Andrew. Santo Daime: A New World Religion. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. de Certeau, Michel. The Mystic Fable, Volume One: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, translated by Michael B. Smith (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). Huxley, Aldous.  “Heaven and Hell.” The Doors of Perception. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009. Leary, Timothy, et al. The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. New York: Citadel Press, 2017. Michaux, Henri, Miserable Miracle. New York: New York Review of Books, 2002. Shanon, Benny. The Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.   Course Organization and Expectations of Conduct Graduate students are expected to do all required readings and be present for every lecture.  Undergraduates should read as much as they can but be especially attentive to lectures for lecture quizzes.  I understand that pandemic conditions are still waning, but this is designed as a face-to-face class.  I will begin class with a lecture that will gloss various different topics and periods.  These will be recorded for review and for anyone who is quarantined.  I will also provide lecture notes.  My aim in doing so is to open up spaces for inquiry and discussion and to give you more information than you can read in a given week.  Course lectures are not to be thought of as substitutions or detailed coverage for the assigned reading.  In lecture, I move quickly from one topic to the next and am not always linear, but we can return to anything I say in more detail in discussion or in future classes.  I will generally open class with lecture that will cover about 45 minutes, and the rest of the time we will address questions concerning my lecture, your discussion questions, or questions that have come up in your reading. Expectations for students will vary according to undergraduate or graduate status.  Undergraduate student grades will be based on a final paper and various in-class activities.  Graduate students will be required to lead class discussion and do mini presentations depending on how many students enroll.  I’ll be requiring you to post discussion questions and ongoing thoughts each week before my initial class lecture on Canvas. This not only contributes to a community of inquiry; it also allows you to introduce and work with your specific interests throughout our time together to sharpen your own thinking in community. I’ll provide lectures written out or in notes and videos too, if I can, for review, because we’ll certainly get heady.  Although I will post videos afterwards, I do expect in-person attendance. My lectures are made as larger reflections than what we can cover in our reading, so of course I expect you to have thoroughly read the assigned material each week.  I approach the classroom as a community, so student contributions are necessary to the success and uniqueness of our quarter together.   Course Assignments According to Student Experience Undergraduate Student Assignments: Weekly Discussion Questions Posted to Canvas: 15% Lecture Quizzes: (6 at 5% each): 30% Midterm Integration Paper: 15% Final Research Paper: 40% Master’s Level Student Assignments Class discussion-tracking (discourse analysis) posted on Canvas once over the quarter: 10% Article length research paper: 60% Annotated literature review: 30% Optional in-class presentation that counts as 10% and makes the final paper count for 50%  Doctoral Student Assignments Article length research paper: 60% In-class Discussion Presentation / Leading 10% Class discussion-tracking (discourse analysis) posted on Canvas twice over the quarter: 10% (5% each). Annotated literature review: 20% Evaluation / Grading Procedures  Grading Scale 94% - 100% With NO Missing Assignments = A 90%-93% = A- 87%-89% = B+ 83% - 86% = B 80%-82%= B- 77%-79% = C+ 70% - 79% = C 70%-72% = C- 67% - 69% = D+ 60%-66% = D 59% and below = F Student Learning Outcomes 1. Student is able to demonstrate knowledge of major events in the history of psychedelic drugs, including issues of legality, research ethics, and relationship to religious studies and mysticism. 2. Student is able to discuss and research current trends and controversies with respect to emergent psychedelic research and therapy, including issues of inequity in gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity.  3. Student is able to demonstrate scholarly knowledge of themes and controversies related to psychedelics and mysticism, including religion, end-of-life care, and what constitutes mystical experience. 4. Student is able to articulate and critique major controversies surrounding ayahuasca religions, drug tourism, and its effects on Indigenous communities.     Essay formatting All typed assignments should follow Chicago Style, MLA, or APA format conventions.  Late Work  Late work will not receive a higher grade than a “D.”   Students requesting extensions on an must notify me no less than twenty-four hours before a paper is due. Plagiarism / Academic Dishonesty Plagiarism, whether intentional or not, is grounds for failing grades, failing courses, and disciplinary measures up to and including expulsion from the university.  Turning in essays previously written for other courses that you wrote is still considered academically dishonest.   Course Schedule *In addition to assigned readings, I have listed “shadow texts,” which are completely optional.  They are meant to show transparency and offer lines of flight into areas of research we do not cover directly in class.   Week 1: Introduction March 29: Opening Lecture: Theories of Mysticism and an Introduction to Psychedelics Shadow Texts: Michel de Certeau, The Mystic Fable, Don Cupitt, Mysticism after Modernity. Homework: For next class, try to have read as much as you can (I know it’s a lot!): Introduction in Chris Letheby’s Philosophy of Psychedelics, 1-7. AND Taves, Anne, “Mystical and Other Alterations in Sense of Self: An Expanded Framework for Studying Nonordinary Experiences” in Canvas Module 1. Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception. New York: HarperPerennial, 1945/1956. Free PDF below: http://www.ignaciodarnaude.com/espiritualismo/Huxley,Doors%20of%20Perception.pdf (Links to an external site.) Suggested reading: Michaux’s Miserable Miracle is suggested and especially recommended if you are interested in the issues relating to linguistics and semiotics. Lecture Shadow Texts: Michel de Certeau, The Mystic Fable,   March 31: Lecture 2, "Modern Mystics Aldous Huxley and Classic Psychedelic Literature Shadow Texts: Michel de Certeau, The Mystic Fable Homework: Read: Langlitz, Nicolas. Neuropsychedelia: The Revival of Hallucinogen Research since the Decade of the Brain, Berkeley, Berkeley University Press, 2013.  Read chapter 2 in Letheby.   Week 2: The Psychedelic Renaissance / Contemporary Issues with Mysticism and Identity April 5: Lecture / Discussion: Langlitz and his theses. Langlitz says that we need ethical human subject research for psychedelics because rats cannot give us trip reports and because in all “hard science” laboratories religious questions arise. Homework: Read on Canvas: Cook, Lana. “Empathic Reform and the Psychedelic Aesthetic: Women’s Accounts of LSD Therapy.” Configurations 22:1 (Winter 2014).  Read on Canvas: Cavnar, Clancy. “Ayahuasca’s Influence on Gay Identity.” In The Expanding World Ayahuasca Diaspora. Read chapter 3 in Letheby, pp. 39-61.   April 7:  Lecture / Discussion: Psychedelics and Identity Politics / Queering Psychedelics and Problematizing Universalism, Therapeutic Controversies Shadow Texts: Videos from the Queering Psychedelics Conference Homework: Read through Part 3 of Richards, William A. Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experience. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.   Week 3: Medicalizing Psychedelics and End-of-Life Care  April 12: Lecture / Discussion: What Assumptions does William Richards Make about Religion / Mysticism?  Homework: Finish reading Richards, William A. Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experience. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Read on Canvas Erika Dyck, “Psychedelics and Dying: A Historical Look at the Relationship between Psychedelics and Palliative Care.” Read Letheby, chapter 4, pp. 62-80.   April 14:  Lecture / Discussion: Richards, Dyck, Letheby. Push toward critique of "Entheogens" and the "archaic revival." Homework: Read Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion, Part 1.   Week 4: The Problem of the Perennial April 19:  Lecture / Discussion: The concept of “Entheogens” and cases for psychedelic influences on the birth of religion. Homework: Read Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion, Part 2. AND David Lewis Williams, "Putting the Record Straight: Rock Art and Shamanism," Antiquity 77, no. 295 (2003): 165-170.   April 21:  Lecture / Discussion: Debates on Shamanism and critiquing Wasson et al. Homework: Read An Yountae, The Decolonial Abyss: Mysticism and Cosmopolitics from the Ruins Shadow Texts: Roger Green, “The Return to ‘Nature’ and the Problem of the Perennial.”   Week 5: Is Mysticism Inherently Colonialist? April 26:  Lecture / Discussion: Discuss Yountae, philosophical history and the "abyss." Homework: Read Gow, Peter. “River People: Shamanism and History in Western Amazonia.” Shamanism, History, & the State. Ed. Nicholas Thomas and Caroline Humphrey. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1996, 90-114. April 28: Lecture / Discussion: Discuss Yountae, (re)conceiving in terms of the global south. Homework: Begin reading Marc Blainey, Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing, Intro-Part III (up to page 101). *Undergraduate midterm paper due on the weekend.   Week 6: Ayahuasca Religions and Mysticism May 3:  Lecture / Discussion: Ayahuasca Religions and their History Homework: Read Marc Blainey, Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing, Part III (pp. 102-167). May 5: Lecture / Discussion: Blainey cont'd. Homework: Read Marc Blainey, Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing, Parts IV & V (pp. 169-283).   Week 7: Ayahuasca Religions and Mysticism, cont'd May 10: Lecture / Discussion: Blainey cont'd. Homework: Read Marc Blainey, Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing, Part VI (pp. 289-353) May 12: Lecture / Discussion: Blainey cont'd. Homework: Read Marc Blainey, Christ Returns from the Jungle: Ayahuasca Religion as Mystical Healing, Part VII (pp. 354-407)   Week 8: Connecting Back to Letheby May 17: Lecture / Discussion: Blainey cont'd.  Homework: Have Letheby Finished May 19: Lecture / Discussion:  Homework: TBA Readings next week will be designed according to research projects / class discussion   Week 9: Synthesizing / Looking at Current Issues May 24: Lecture / Discussion: TBA Homework: TBA Readings this week will be designed according to research projects / class discussion May 26: Lecture / Discussion: TBA Homework: Research and Write Essays * Graduate Annotated Literature Reviews due on weekend   Week 10: Synthesizing / Preliminary Research Sharing Day 1: Research Sharing Day 2: Research Sharing   Finals Week: Preliminary Research Sharing / Essays Due (See Canvas)