Religion & Sex Part 4

We have been studying the misinterpretation, in terms of religion, of abnormal or pathological states of mind, and observing how far these have contributed to building up and perpetuating a conviction of the possibility of supernatural intercourse. We have yet to trace the same principle of misinterpretation in the s.e.xual and social life of mankind.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] _A Psychological Study of Religion_, p. 234.

[21] _Primitive Culture_, i. p. 501.

[22] _Primitive Culture_, ii. p. 410.

[23] Some very curious information concerning the use of this and other fungi is given by Dr. J. G. Bourke in his _Scatologic Rites_, pp. 69-75.

[24] Cited by Bourke, p. 90.

[25] Tylor, ii. pp. 417-9.

[26] For a clear account of the effects of hemp preparations, calculated to produce a feeling of religious ecstasy, the reader should consult Dr.

Hale White's _Text-Book of Pharmacology_, 1901, pp. 318-22. The effects of opium are thus described by another writer: "Opium, in those who are capable of stimulation by it, gives rise to a pleasurable feeling, something like that which is produced by wine in not excessive doses; but the excitement derived from it, instead of tending to some highest point, remains stationary for hours, and in place of the slight incoherence of thought always present in those who are exhilarated with wine, the most perfect harmony is established among all the conceptions.

There is an extraordinary stimulation of the pure intellect, and not merely of the power of expression. The opium-eater seems to have had the eyes of his spirit opened, to have acquired a gift of insight into things that to mere mortals are inexplicable. The most remote parts of consciousness come into clear light; the finer shades of personality, those that had been unknown even to the opium-eater himself, are brought into view and become distinct; the smallest details of the things around take new significance, and are seen to be profoundly important; their a.n.a.logies with other phenomena of nature are revealed. It is the same with the moral as with the intellectual being; that also becomes indefinitely exalted. An absolute balance of the faculties seems to have been attained. The whole man _is_ what in his ordinary state he only tends to be; he has realised the highest perfection of which he is capable; only his 'best self' now remains; his lower self has been left behind without need of the purgatorial fire of contention with the environment to destroy it."--T. Whittaker, _Essays and Notices, Psychological and Philosophical_, p. 367.

[27] _Anthropology_, p. 296.

[28] For a general account of religious dances, see Major-General Forlong's _Faiths of Man_, art. "Dancing."

[29] Catlin, _North American Indians_, i. p. 36.

[30] Cited by Frazer, _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, p. 161.

[31] Turner's _Samoa_, p. 345-6.

[32] Brady, _Clavis Calendaria_, vol. i. p. 223.

[33] Cited by Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. pp. 412-3.

[34] _Natural Causes and Supernatural Seemings_, p. 277.

[35] A very good account of the methods followed in these places will be found in Miss Hamilton's _Incubation, or the Cure of Diseases in Pagan Temples and Christian Churches_, 1906.

[36] Grote, _History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 359 and vol. v. p. 232.

[37] "The ancient Egyptians and Greeks," says Dr. Maudsley, "used humane and rational methods of treatment; it was only after the Christian doctrine of possession by devils had taken hold of the minds of men that the worst sort of treatment, of which history gives account, came into force" (_Pathology of Mind_, p. 523). For a general account of Egyptian medicine see the chapter on Egypt in Dr. Berdoe's _Origin and Growth of the Healing Art_.

[38] Meryon, _The History of Medicine_, vol. i. p. 67.

[39] _Ibid._, vol. i. p. 104.

[40] See Sir Michael Foster's _Lectures on the History of Physiology_, chap. i.

[41] _Primitive Culture_, ii. 124.

[42] _On the Miracles_, p. 168.

[43] Cited by White, who gives original authorities, _Warfare of Science with Theology_, ii. 107.

[44] White, ii. 108.

[45] _Meditations_, bk. i.

[46] Fort's _Medical Economy during the Middle Ages_, p. 345.

[47] Dr. Howden, Medical Superintendent of the Montrose Lunatic Asylum, in _Journal of Mental Science_, 1873.

[48] _First Signs of Insanity_, p. 293.

[49] _Clinical Lectures on Mental Diseases_, p. 428. The whole of chapter xi. is very pertinent.

[50] Dr. R. Jones, in Allb.u.t.t's _System of Medicine_, vol. viii. p. 335

[51] Dr. Hollander, _First Signs of Insanity_, pp. 64-5.

[52] Cited by Ireland, _The Blot on the Brain_, p. 39.

[53] Allb.u.t.t's _System of Medicine_, viii. 395.

[54] _Physiology of Mind_, p. 251. See also Dr. Mercier's _The Nervous System and the Mind_, p. 55.

[55] _Literary Remains_, p. 83.

[56] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, ii. 235-6.

[57] Dr. H. Maudsley has gone fully into the case of Swedenborg in an article in the _Journal of Mental Science_ for July and October 1869, since reprinted in his _Body and Mind_.

[58] See _Luther_, by H. Grisar, 1913, vol. i. pp. 16-7.

[59] For other cases, and a general account of the relations between pathologic states and religious delusion, see Lombroso, _Man of Genius_, chap. iv. pt. iii.

[60] _Varieties of Religious Experience_, pp. 6-7.

[61] _The Soul of a Christian_, p. 13.

[62] See Parish's _Hallucinations and Illusions_, pp. 38-9.

[63] _Saint Teresa_, by H. Joly, pp. 25, 26, and 58.

[64] _Inquiries into Human Faculty_, 1883, p. 68.