Religious Drugs

The purpose of this workshop is to explore the role of entheogens in its various religious and spiritual expressions: historically, culturally and finally from the methodological approach taken by various research fields. It will be moreover, directed at clarifying the purpose, importance and relevance that the various forms of entheogens and mind-altering substances cover for the individual mystical and religious traditions.

Emphasis will also be placed on the combination with ritual, meditation and biofeedback. The workshop will moreover encourage the discussion, analysis and questioning of research methods and methodologies such as: The ethics of the researcher in connection to the use of substances as part of participatory observation. Enquiries into the analysis of ecstatic and religious states in cooperation and compared to the descriptions of laboratory tested altered states of consciousness. Comparative methodologies and cooperation in different fields of research are encouraged.