Intellectual Deep WebLecture 1 - The Nature of Man and the Human Condition: Language, Property, and Production: 00:00 Lecture 2 - The Spread of Humans Around the World: The Extension and Intensification of the Division of Labor: 01:16:32 Lecture 3 - Money and Monetary Integration: The Growth of Cities and the Globalization of Trade: 02:20:01 Lecture 4 - Time Preference, Capital, Technology, and Economic Growth: 03:32:01 Lecture 5 - The Wealth of Nations: Ideology, Religion, Biology, and Environment: 04:43:50 Lecture 6-10: youtu.be/5kFkBAkc7cs
Hans-Hermann Hoppe - Economy, Society, and History (Part 1)Intellectual Deep Web2020-09-02 | Lecture 1 - The Nature of Man and the Human Condition: Language, Property, and Production: 00:00 Lecture 2 - The Spread of Humans Around the World: The Extension and Intensification of the Division of Labor: 01:16:32 Lecture 3 - Money and Monetary Integration: The Growth of Cities and the Globalization of Trade: 02:20:01 Lecture 4 - Time Preference, Capital, Technology, and Economic Growth: 03:32:01 Lecture 5 - The Wealth of Nations: Ideology, Religion, Biology, and Environment: 04:43:50 Lecture 6-10: youtu.be/5kFkBAkc7csAlbert Schweitzer - What MattersIntellectual Deep Web2024-09-28 | ...Leo Strauss - The Political Philosophy of Kant (Part 2)Intellectual Deep Web2024-09-15 | Part 1: youtu.be/xF_bR1CBOvs 00:00 - Session 10: Idea for a Universal History 01:13:51 - Session 11: Conjectural Beginning of Human History 02:36:23 - Session 12: Theory and Practice 03:56:43 - Session 13: The End of All Things 05:11:49 - Session 14: Perpetual Peace 06:25:25 - Session 15: Perpetual Peace 07:38:06 - Session 16: Perpetual Peace 08:59:13 - Session 17: DiscussionLeo Strauss - The Political Philosophy of Kant (Part 1)Intellectual Deep Web2024-09-08 | 00:00 - Session 1: Kant and the Philosophy of History 01:14:46 - Session 2: Critique of Pure Reason 02:30:43 - Session 3: Critique of Pure Reason 03:48:23 - Session 4: Critique of Pure Reason 05:01:37 - Session 5: Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals 06:18:51 - Session 6: Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals 07:34:35 - Session 7: Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals 09:01:40 - Session 8: Critique of Practical Reason 10:03:19 - Session 9: What is Enlightenment? Part 2: youtu.be/SCI7nOJtt5AChristopher Lasch - Mass Culture and TechnologyIntellectual Deep Web2024-09-01 | (1983)An Interview with Bertrand de JouvenelIntellectual Deep Web2024-08-27 | (1973) English subtitles coming soon...Marc Trachtenberg - International Politics in the Twentieth Century (Part 2)Intellectual Deep Web2024-07-31 | This course explores some of the most significant conflicts in human history: the First World War, the Second World War (both in Europe and in the Pacific), and the Cold War. We will examine both the origins of these conflicts and how they progressed.
The historical analysis will serve as a means to address fundamental issues in international relations theory. Can war occur even if no one truly desires it? Is war always the result of aggression, or can nations inadvertently slip into armed conflict? What impact do nuclear weapons have on international politics? Are they a source of stability, or did the stable peace during the Cold War period have little to do with nuclear weapons?
Additionally, what does the history we explore reveal about the effects of different political systems? For instance, do democracies pursue a particular kind of policy, and if so, does that policy promote peace or instability? We will tackle these questions by examining specific historical contexts rather than addressing them directly.
The Origins of the Second World War by A.J.P. Taylor: amzn.to/3Yn68Hj Going to War with Japan by Jonathan Utley: amzn.to/3WFBFD9 A Constructed Peace: The Making of the European Settlement by Marc Trachtenberg: amzn.to/3WFjMo9Marc Trachtenberg - International Politics in the Twentieth Century (Part 1)Intellectual Deep Web2024-07-28 | This course explores some of the most significant conflicts in human history: the First World War, the Second World War (both in Europe and in the Pacific), and the Cold War. We will examine both the origins of these conflicts and how they progressed.
The historical analysis will serve as a means to address fundamental issues in international relations theory. Can war occur even if no one truly desires it? Is war always the result of aggression, or can nations inadvertently slip into armed conflict? What impact do nuclear weapons have on international politics? Are they a source of stability, or did the stable peace during the Cold War period have little to do with nuclear weapons?
Additionally, what does the history we explore reveal about the effects of different political systems? For instance, do democracies pursue a particular kind of policy, and if so, does that policy promote peace or instability? We will tackle these questions by examining specific historical contexts rather than addressing them directly.
00:00 - Origins of the First World War 01:34:25 - First World War 02:23:08 - Paris Peace Conference (I) 03:11:45 - Paris Peace Conference (II) 04:01:55 - 1919-23 04:50:58 - 1923-32 05:08:53 - 1933-36 05:59:28 - 1936-39 06:48:21 - Taylor 07:31:51 - 1939-41 08:22:33 - 1941 09:13:47 - 1945 Part 2: youtu.be/lthQXqjAy8M?feature=shared
The Origins of the Second World War by A.J.P. Taylor: amzn.to/3Yn68Hj Going to War with Japan by Jonathan Utley: amzn.to/3WFBFD9 A Constructed Peace: The Making of the European Settlement by Marc Trachtenberg: amzn.to/3WFjMo9John Mearsheimer - The Tragedy of Great Power PoliticsIntellectual Deep Web2024-07-28 | Professor John Mearsheimer discusses his book, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. A proponent of the “realist” school of international politics, the author believes that in a world where no supreme international authority reigns above the nation-state, great powers will pursue military and economic dominance.
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics by John J. Mearsheimer: amzn.to/3A9jvRmLudwig Klages - Grundlagen der Charakterkunde und Das Problem des MenschenIntellectual Deep Web2022-09-21 | 00:00 - Grundlagen der Charakterkunde (1949) 00:28:32 - Das Problem des Menschen (1952)
On the Nature of Consciousness by Ludwig Klages: amzn.to/3tN2y6xErnst Jünger - Reden, Gespräche und LesungenIntellectual Deep Web2022-09-14 | 00:00 - Das Sanduhrbuch (1954) 00:15:00 - Erinnerung an Kubin (1958) 00:43:20 - Interview zum 70. Geburtstag (1965) 01:09:10 - Forscher und Liebhaber (1965) 01:46:20 - Bunter Staub (1967) 01:57:18 - Festakt zu Ehren von Friedrich Georg Jünger (1968) 02:13:52 - Rede bei der Verleihung des Goethepreises (1982) 02:22:22 - Interview anlässlich des Besuches von J. L. Borges (1982) 02:31:19 - Nachtrag zu Autor und Autorschaft (1994) 02:59:04 - Tiger Meskalin mit Albert Hofmann (1995)Russell Kirk - On RevolutionIntellectual Deep Web2022-01-20 | Lecture 1 - Rights Under Two Revolutions: 00:00 Lecture 2 - Lord Acton on Revolution: 00:43:47
In Rights Under Two Revolutions, Kirk compares the French Revolution and the American struggle for rights under English law that led to the formation of the United States.
In Lord Acton on Revolution, Kirk gives a series of reflections on Lord Acton’s enduring contributions to our understanding of freedom, expressing great appreciation for Acton’s view that “liberty is the condition of duty, the guardian of conscience,” and that, “It grows as conscience grows. The domains of both grow together.”
In his early writings, Acton would refer to revolutions as “a malady, a frenzy, an interruption of the nation’s growth, sometimes fatal to its existence, often to its independence,” agreeing with Edmund Burke that the French Revolution was “the enemy of liberty.”Russell Kirk - The Religious Imagination of T.S. EliotIntellectual Deep Web2022-01-20 | Eliot and His Age: T. S. Eliot’s Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century by Russell Kirk: amzn.to/33xubcLKathleen Raine - Cities of the ImaginationIntellectual Deep Web2022-01-20 | Lecture 1 - William Blake’s Fourfold Vision of London: 00:00 Lecture 2 - Yeats’ Holy City of Byzantium: 00:48:17 Lecture 3 - William Blake – Prophetic Voice of England: 01:56:29
W. B. Yeats & the Learning of the Imagination by Kathleen Raine: amzn.to/3nDsHo6
Golgonooza, City of Imagination by Kathleen Raine: amzn.to/33Q4FPP
Blake and Antiquity by Kathleen Raine: amzn.to/3GHKqlSKathleen Raine - Monarchy and the ImaginationIntellectual Deep Web2022-01-20 | ...Paul Gottfried - Stalinism, National Socialism, and FascismIntellectual Deep Web2022-01-20 | WWI was a kind of turning point. Bolshevism, National Socialism and fascism are related ideologies which surfaced after the war. Fascism was the wave of the future in 1920 with its notion of government central planning.
Socialism was more ambiguous. Fascism did not become a wicked right-wing kind of ideology until the Nazis and Mussolini allied. The Bolshevists merely fumbled around. The Communist Party was a joke until the 30s when they were viewed as a force against fascists and were seen as a workers’ party. They were big winners after WWII.
Totalitarian movements are all pretty much the same. They are dead ends and generally have to be forcibly removed. But, the Soviet Union did not fall apart because of any invasion, it simply imploded from within. The Chinese government has evolved into something less brutal. Controlled thought is the main characteristic of totalitarian states. It is the way the left operates.
Fascism: The Career of a Concept by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3KqV1Un
Antifascism: The Course of a Crusade by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3KzjeIv
After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3GIKcL5
Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt: Toward a Secular Theocracy by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3FDGst5Paul Gottfried - Bolshevism and Democratic SocialismIntellectual Deep Web2022-01-20 | The 1917 Revolution gave birth to both the reality and the myth of the Bolsheviks and the democratic left. The social democrats rejected the violence which was part of the communist party. They claimed to follow a democratic path to socialism. They turned Marx into a wise man that should not be taken too literally.
A coalition against fascists arose. Social democrats made common cause with the communists. There is reason to suspect that Stalin knew what he was doing bringing Hitler to power. Since the 1930s the enemy of the left has been fascism. The social democrats successfully split from the communists. The end of the cold war looks like the end of WWII. The left won the cold war. The right disappeared.
Fascism: The Career of a Concept by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3KqV1Un
Antifascism: The Course of a Crusade by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3KzjeIv
After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3GIKcL5
Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt: Toward a Secular Theocracy by Paul Gottfried: amzn.to/3FDGst5Ryszard Legutko - The Demon in DemocracyIntellectual Deep Web2021-12-14 | The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies by Ryszard Legutko: amzn.to/3dPRkIRRobert Conquest - Reflections on a Ravaged CenturyIntellectual Deep Web2021-10-09 | Reflections on a Ravaged Century by Robert Conquest: amzn.to/2YwifFnMichael Davies - The French RevolutionIntellectual Deep Web2021-10-09 | ...Gershom Scholem - What is Jewish Mysticism?Intellectual Deep Web2021-05-30 | ...Gershom Scholem - The Religious Dimension of JudaismIntellectual Deep Web2021-05-30 | ...Christopher Lasch - The Culture of NarcissismIntellectual Deep Web2021-03-12 | The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations by Christopher Lasch: amzn.to/3vgDcQuLeo Strauss - The Origins of Political Science (Part 2)Intellectual Deep Web2021-03-12 | Lecture 1-7: youtu.be/FRdNsyvoPt8 Lecture 8: 00:00 Lecture 9: 01:38:49 Lecture 10: 03:24:29 Lecture 11: 05:00:16 Lecture 12: 06:42:36 Lecture 13: 08:31:00
Required readings:
Plato's Apology and Crito: amzn.to/2OHXbXr Aristophanes' Clouds, Birds, and Wasps: amzn.to/3rLnhHyLeo Strauss - The Origins of Political Science (Part 1)Intellectual Deep Web2021-03-12 | Lecture 1: 00:00 Lecture 2: 01:29:15 Lecture 3: 02:59:21 Lecture 4: 04:37:32 Lecture 5: 05:45:31 Lecture 6: 07:38:57 Lecture 7: 09:07:05 Lecture 8-13: youtu.be/3ON9IMMAfPk
Required readings:
Plato's Apology and Crito: amzn.to/2OHXbXr Aristophanes' Clouds, Birds, and Wasps: amzn.to/3rLnhHyCarl Gustav Jung - C. G. Jung SpeakingIntellectual Deep Web2020-12-09 | Part 1 - At the Psychology Club Zürich (English): 00:00 Part 2 - A Talk with Students at the Institute (German): 01:40:32 Part 3 - At the Basel Psychology Club (German): 05:07:23 Part 4 - Kaarle Nordenstreng Interview (English): 06:28:48
English transcripts for parts 2 and 3 can be found here: amzn.to/3qIf5YOSean D. Kelly - Heideggers Being and Time (Part 2)Intellectual Deep Web2020-12-09 | Lecture 1-6: youtu.be/RLEL6o24uIA Lecture 7 - Worldhood II: 00:00 Lecture 8 - Involvement and Significance: 01:18:47 Lecture 9 - Significance: 02:39:23 Lecture 10 - Das Man: 03:57:09 Lecture 11 - Intro I: 05:18:21 Lecture 12 - Intro II: 06:34:37 Lecture 13 - Death: 07:55:26Sean D. Kelly - Heideggers Being and Time (Part 1)Intellectual Deep Web2020-12-09 | Lecture 1 - Introduction: 00:00 Lecture 2 - Dasein: 01:17:17 Lecture 3 - Being: 02:21:05 Lecture 4 - Being in the World I: 03:29:23 Lecture 5 - Being in the World II: 04:57:03 Lecture 6 - Worldhood I: 06:10:43 Lecture 7-13: youtu.be/ngPsLq_tTEMErik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn - On Ludwig von MisesIntellectual Deep Web2020-09-25 | Lecture 1 - The Mises and Hayek Critiques of the Modern Political State: 00:00 Lecture 2 - The Humane Economists: Ludwig von Mises, Wilhelm Roepke, & F.A. Hayek: 01:03:46Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn - Democracy: Opium of the PeopleIntellectual Deep Web2020-09-25 | Lecture 1 - Democracy Revisited: 00:00 Lecture 2 - Democracy Fails in Europe: 00:22:28 Lecture 3 - Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism: 01:05:58
Liberty or Equality: The Challenge of Our Times by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: amzn.to/2SMopuD
Democracy – The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order by Hans-Hermann Hoppe: amzn.to/2T6L0CwHans-Hermann Hoppe - Economy, Society, and History (Part 2)Intellectual Deep Web2020-09-02 | Lecture 1-5: youtu.be/L1GSRgOTT0M Lecture 6 - The Production of Law and Order: Natural Order, Feudalism, and Federalism: 00:00 Lecture 7 - Parasitism and the Origin of the State: 01:24:45 Lecture 8 - From Monarchy to Democracy: 02:56:46 Lecture 9 - State, War, and Imperialism: 04:16:34 Lecture 10 - Strategy: Secession, Privatization, and the Prospects of Liberty: 05:36:38Kathleen Raine - W.B. Yeats and the Book of the PeopleIntellectual Deep Web2020-09-01 | ...Kathleen Raine - Nature, the House of the SoulIntellectual Deep Web2020-09-01 | ...Harold Bloom - Shakespeare: The Invention of the HumanIntellectual Deep Web2020-09-01 | ...John Bishop - James Joyces UlyssesIntellectual Deep Web2020-09-01 | ...A Portrait of Ernst JüngerIntellectual Deep Web2020-09-01 | A Portrait of Ernst Jünger (102 år i hjärtat av Europa: ett porträtt av Ernst Jünger) is a Swedish documentary film from 1998 directed by Jesper Wachtmeister. It consists of an interview by the journalist Björn Cederberg with the German writer, entomologist, and war veteran Ernst Jünger (1895-1998). Jünger talks about his life, his authorship, his interests and ideas. The actor Mikael Persbrandt reads passages from some of Jünger's works, such as Storm of Steel, The Worker, On the Marble Cliffs, and The Glass Bees.
Cederberg had interviewed Jünger eight years earlier but only in text. Jünger had declined to participate in the film project, but the film team still decided to travel to the village Wilflingen, where Jünger lived, and make an attempt. As a gift, they gave Jünger, known for his interest in botany and zoology, an 18th-century print of Carl Linnaeus' Systema Naturae, and were granted an interview. __________
Title: 102 år i hjärtat av Europa: ett porträtt av Ernst Jünger Director: Jesper Wachtmeister Co-director: Björn Cederberg Production: Fredrik Martin for Martin & Co Filmproduktion, Cecilia Cederström Cinematography: Pelle Källberg, Jesper Wachtmeister Editing: Jesper Wachtmeister __________
Hic lapis exilis extat, pretio quoque vilis, spernitur a stultis, amatur plus ab edoctis. (Here stands the mean, uncomely stone, 'Tis very cheap in price! The more it is despised by fools, The more loved by the wise.)
A dedication is also inscribed on this side of the stone:
IN MEMORIAM NAT[ivitatis] S[uae] DIEI LXXV C G JUNG EX GRAT[itudine] FEC[it] ET POS[uit] A[nn]O MCML (In memory of his 75th birthday, C.G. Jung out of gratitude made and set it up in the year 1950.)
The second side of the cube depicts Jung's Telesphoros figure, bearing a lantern and wearing a hooded cape. It is surrounded by a Greek inscription:
"Time is a child — playing like a child — playing a board game — the kingdom of the child. This is Telesphoros, who roams through the dark regions of this cosmos and glows like a star out of the depths. He points the way to the gates of the sun and to the land of dreams."
"Time is a child at play, gambling; a child's is the kingship" is a fragment attributed to Heraclitus.
"He points the way to the gates of the sun and to the land of dreams" is a quote from the Odyssey (Book 24, Verse 12). It refers to Hermes the psychopomp, who leads away the spirits of the slain suitors.
The second side also contains a four-part mandala of alchemical significance. The top quarter of the mandala is dedicated to Saturn, the bottom quarter to Mars, the left quarter to Sol-Jupiter [male], and the right quarter to Luna-Venus [female].
The third side of the cube is the side that faces the lake. It bears a Latin inscription of sayings which, Jung says, "are more or less quotations from alchemy."
The inscription reads:
I am an orphan, alone; nevertheless I am found everywhere. I am one, but opposed to myself. I am youth and old man at one and the same time. I have known neither father nor mother, because I have had to be fetched out of the deep like a fish, or fell like a white stone from heaven. In woods and mountains I roam, but I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for everyone, yet I am not touched by the cycle of time.Jeffrey Raff - Jung and the Alchemical ImaginationIntellectual Deep Web2020-06-14 | Jung and the Alchemical Imagination by Jeffrey Raff: amzn.to/3cTlt7iKathleen Raine - Paradigms of RealityIntellectual Deep Web2020-06-02 | Lecture 1 - W.B. Yeats and the Learning of Imagination: 00:00 Lecture 2 - Thomas Taylor the Platonist: 00:50:10 Lecture 3 - The Imagination According to William Blake: 01:46:50 Lecture 4 - Shelley as a Mythological Poet: 02:45:59 __________
W.B. Yeats and the Learning of Imagination by Kathleen Raine: amzn.to/3gzzJVI
Thomas Taylor the Platonist ed. by Kathleen Raine: amzn.to/3eH0NAv
Shelley, The Poems of Percy Bysshe ed. by Kathleen Raine: amzn.to/36Lqqh5Paul Tillich - Religion as a Dimension in Man’s Spiritual LifeIntellectual Deep Web2020-06-02 | Theology of Culture by Paul Tillich: amzn.to/300iWW2John C. Lilly - The Center of the CycloneIntellectual Deep Web2020-06-02 | The Center of the Cyclone by John C. Lilly: amzn.to/2AsTAW3James Hillman - Back to Beyond: On CosmologyIntellectual Deep Web2020-05-30 | James Hillman's keynote lecture at a conference organized by the Center for Process Studies at Claremont University Center (1983).
"The difficulty of philosophy is the expression of what is self-evident." ― A. N. Whitehead
The Archetypal Process: Self and Divine in Whitehead, Jung, and Hillman, ed. by David Ray Griffin: amzn.to/3gEa1PRHubert Dreyfus - Heideggers Being and Time, Division II (Part 2)Intellectual Deep Web2020-04-11 | Lecture 1-5: youtu.be/lrNT1q_Igv0 Lecture 6 - Authentic Temporality, the Phenomenon: 00:00 Lecture 7 - Temporality of Being-in-the-World: 01:01:53 Lecture 8 - The Ordinary Conception of Time: 02:31:18 Lecture 9 - Temporalität, Basic Problems: 04:42:04 Lecture 10 - Ontological Difference, Basic Problems: 06:52:19
Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time, Division I by Hubert Dreyfus: amzn.to/2Tlp496
Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge by Charles Guignon: amzn.to/2XFNgSe
The Basic Problems of Phenomenology by Martin Heidegger: amzn.to/2XHFqYa
Heidegger's 'Being and Time': A Reader's Guide by William Blattner: amzn.to/2SnLAdT
Heidegger: An Introduction by Richard Polt: amzn.to/2UriElATerence McKenna - Touched by the TremendumIntellectual Deep Web2020-04-11 | A talk given by Terence McKenna at the Reality Club in New York City (March 27, 1990).
"This is our birthright. It is profoundly our birthright in the same way that our sexuality is our birthright. The notion that a person would call themselves intelligent and aware and present in the world and that they would go from the cradle to the grave without ever having a psychedelic experience is nothing short of obscene; it's absurd. It makes my flesh crawl in the same way that celibacy and virginity make my flesh crawl. What a horrible, horrible waste of a human life." - Terence McKennaLeo Strauss - Platos Apology of Socrates and Crito (Part 2)Intellectual Deep Web2020-03-28 | Lecture 1-8: youtu.be/9cMpiTijcIk Lecture 9: 00:00 Lecture 10: 01:30:55 Lecture 11: 03:01:03 Lecture 12: 04:31:41 Lecture 13: 06:00:23 Lecture 14: 07:31:00 Lecture 15: 08:51:04 Lecture 16: 10:21:06
Transcript: wslamp70.s3.amazonaws.com/leostrauss/s3fs-public/Plato%27s%20Apology%20%26%20Crito%20%281966%29_0.pdfSonu Shamdasani - A Faint Rumour Left Behind: Fragments from a History of Concepts of ConsciousnessIntellectual Deep Web2020-03-28 | ...Yulia Ustinova - Ecstatic Wisdom in Ancient GreeceIntellectual Deep Web2020-03-28 | The Greeks perceived mental experiences of exceptional intensity as resulting from divine intervention. To share in the divine knowledge, one had to liberate the soul from the burden of the mortal body by attaining ecstasis, mania, or enthousiasmos, that is, by merging with a superhuman being or possession by a deity. Whatever was perceived or uttered in such states – prophecy, poetry, or mystical insights – was considered inspired by the gods and immeasurably superior to anything perceived or deliberated in normal circumstances. In classical Greece, divine messages received in sanctuaries either by temple officials or laymen became the most valued channel of communication with the gods. In mystery initiations, alteration of consciousness was a means of attaining revelation leading to the peak experience, defined by the ancients as eudaimonia, blessedness. Alterations of consciousness of several Presocratic thinkers can be assumed quite confidently. Plato’s Socrates alluded to out-of-body experiences, and his prolonged trance-like meditations could only happen in an altered state of consciousness. Plato’s writings suggest that he had undergone mystical experiences himself. Modern research on altered states of consciousness demonstrates that in many cases these experiences involve the sensation of ineffable revelation of superhuman truth. The cross-cultural propensity to manipulate consciousness is a part of human natural potential. These states are multifarious, can involve various subjective and objective manifestations, and may be induced by many methods. The natural tendency to enjoy alteration of consciousness and trust the accompanying visions is usually limited or suppressed with the transition from traditional to complex societies, but Greece was a rare exception. The reason for this uniqueness is the absence of rigid priestly authority and lack of ability or desire to interfere on the part of political powers. As a consequence, the Greeks made the most of the alterations of consciousness that many of them experienced, and developed social mechanisms that allowed successful exploitation of these phenomena. In the unique historical situation of archaic and classical Greece, notions and practices which in later periods would be defined as esoteric, largely belonged to the mainstream culture.
Divine Mania: Alteration of Consciousness in Ancient Greece by Yulia Ustinova: amzn.to/2UKDIVk
Caves and the Ancient Greek Mind: Descending Underground in the Search for Ultimate Truth by Yulia Ustinova: amzn.to/2ULZAzN