The Lion, the Therianthrope and the Fruitcake

Warren and I went to the cinema for the first time in years last weekend, to see the Chronicles of Narnia-the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , which I remember fondly growing up reading.

The film didn't disappoint either-it was so lightly Hollywoodised that I hardly noticed, and all the characters were pretty much as I had imagined them so many years ago. What did take me by surprise was the evidence of the Death of the Cinema . There we were, Saturday night, a fairly new release showing, and the place was not even a quarter full.Oh well, not too many tears will I shed, especially as one of the ploys the theatres is using is full-on advertising for a tedious half hour before the film.(you thought the new Coke ad was pretty cheesy, until you saw it on the BIG screen.Then you knew it was conceptualised by, produced by and for complete morons). Now, Narnia the fillum was quite good on the Special Effects Creatures. Aslan the lion was spectacular (I know I know-he's supposed to represent Jesus but what the fuck , I never saw him that way when I was eight , and I certainly don't care now), as were the mythical creatures: Fauns

Centaurs

Minotuars


And many others. One of the great anthropological questions is:from where did we dream up these therianthropes (from the Greek 'therion'-wild beast and 'anthropos'-man)(oh yes, it's my New Word of the Month, that one) ?

One man who has taken a stab at answering that is Graham Hancock , in his new work Supernatural which I'm plodding through at this moment(actually I bought a copy on the same night I went to see Narnia-how's that for meaningless coincidence, eh?).

His main premise seems to be (so far-I'm about a third of the way through) that our ancestors were inspired in their subject of rock art by hallucinogenic drugs, trance-dancing, and other ways of reaching an altered state of consciousness, in which they would-well-err..hallucinate these strange entoptic patterns and icons like The Sorcerer at Trois Freres .Or is that The Shaman? Can't remember.This bloke:

As part of his research, Hancock, who, as much as I'd like to, I can't call an out and out fruitcake, undertook to ingest various hallucinogens in legal and illegal use. The ayahuasco visions with which he enlivens the first chapters of Supernatural are quite good examples



although frankly not something I'd like to try.
Even for visions like this one.

Science Must Destroy Religion

Another Goody from Sam

The distinction between science and religion is not a matter of excluding our ethical intuitions and non-ordinary states of consciousness from our conversation about the world; it is a matter of our being rigorous about what is reasonable to conclude on their basis.

Truth there-I have some ideas and experiences with non-ordinary states of consciousness but I lack enough data for a reasonable conclusion-therefore I keep my tentative hypothoses to myself.

I just wish more of us would.

When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths.

I wish I wish I wish that were true-but I have a deep suspicion that it’s not.
That humans will continue to divide themselves along whatever lines seems most profitab….errr….appropriate to them.
And let’s face it- we have evolved as a cooperating species only in smallish groups-somewhere around 150 isn’t it?- which encourages the demonisation of outsiders and the drawing up of definitions as to what constitutes ‘them’and what makes for ‘us’.
Religion is not only a most convenient defining charactersitic, it is also one of the most easily recognised.

If you have a pentagram around your neck, you’re a member of a certain ‘us’.I
f you do not wear a burka in public, you are most certainly not one of another form of ‘us’ and thus deserve to die where you stand.


The thing is here, Sam-that you seem to have forgotten the most important fact of all-and that is that humans are not reasonable creatures.
Most of us are highly irrational and see absolutlely no problem with it, as society doesn’t punish us for it
On the contrary, much irrationality is rewarded in the organism by having its needs cared for by patriarchal, paternalistic governors of various stripes-be they ministers of government, ministers of religion or insane asylum nurses.