Mystical Hedonism

Accessing Divinity through pleasure

In the beginning of the psychospiritual evolution of our species, the religious experience was not separate from sex and drugs. In fact, in the early days of religious development, it could be considered that sex and drugs were religion. Religion was characterized by use of entheogens and fertility rites; the ecstatic trance states achieved through these sacraments and rituals the ultimate goal. The ecstatic trance state is exemplified by the Mystery Cult rites; those attributed to Dionysian and Eylusian Mystery cults, Oracles of Delphi, as well as shamanic journeys.

Ceremonial performances often symbolized psychospiritual transformation; metaphoric actions representing the death of the initiate, followed by the rebirth of the same individual. The uninitiated enters the process of illumination unaware and obstructed from understanding due to a lack of knowledge. Upon undergoing initiation (involving entheogens, ritual, education on cosmology, divine purpose, and/or sexual activity) the initiate participates in ritualized death and rebirth. This process represents the death of ignorance, a breaking free from social conditioning and habitual ways of being. Following the death of the individual’s former self, they are then ritually reborn to symbolize their new state of understanding; transformed by entheogens and esoteric knowledge they now have direct awareness of the mystical energies of the universe.

This knowledge, bestowed upon them during the transformative experience, manifests while…