Program 1 2 Table of Contents

7th International Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism

Western Esotericism and Consciousness: Visions, Voices, Altered States

University of Amsterdam, 2-4 July 2019 - Conference Program 1 2 Table of Contents

1. Conference Description 4

2. General Information 5

3. Keynote Lectures 6

4. General Program Overview 9

5. Parallel Sessions Overview and Paper Titles 10

6. Maps & Directions 18

7. ESSWE7 Locations 24

3 of Contents Table Conference Description Western Esotericism and Consciousness: Visions, Voices, Altered States

The history of Western esotericism from antiquity to the present is filled with reports of unusual and sometimes spectacular experiences that are claimed to convey higher, deeper, or even absolute knowledge about the true nature of reality. Some typical examples are the many references to direct supra-rational gnosis, ecstatic experiences, and states of divine manía (madness or frenzy) or possession from antiquity to the present; visionary travels to other places, other worlds, or other levels of reality, as well as to past or future periods and events; visionary encounters with intermediary beings (for instance angels, demons, spirits, elementals, ascended masters, divinities); the hearing of inner voices, receiving or “channeling” of spiritual messages, and communication with disembodied entities; and ineffable experiences (for instance apophatic unity) that are difficult or impossible to express through normal discursive language. Common to all such reports is that they fall within the general phenomenology of human consciousness and seem to require some kind of modification or alteration of the normal or average mental states that allow us to negotiate consensus reality. All this makes the experiential dimension of Western esotericism (in both its historical and its contemporary social manifestations) extremely relevant to academic disciplines such as cognitive studies, consciousness research, psychology, or psychiatry. ESSWE7 is the first major international conference to bring these perspectives in conversation with one another in the context of the study of Western esotericism.

On the level of the humanities and the social sciences, we hope that this conference will provide participants with an ideal opportunity for learning about the phenomenology of unusual experiences across the entire historical spectrum of Western esotericism from antiquity to the present. Here the emphasis will be on empirical research and specialist knowledge about specific historical and contemporary cases. Furthermore, on the level of the study of consciousness, we hope to explore larger and more theoretical questions concerning such topics as the taxonomy and etiology of altered states, their neurobiological foundations, or their relevance to wider concerns such as cognitive functioning or mental health. Here the emphasis will be on how such approaches may help us understand and even explain the rich record of historical and empirical materi- als central to Western esotericism and, conversely, how these can serve as case studies for the study of consciousness more in general. ESSWE7 coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP) at the University of Amsterdam.

Conference Description 4 General Information

ESSWE7 Organizational Team Peter J. Forshaw Wouter J. Hanegraaff Manon Hedenborg White John MacMurphy Mriganka Mukhopadhyay Marco Pasi Antoinette Rutten

Academic Committee Wouter J. Hanegraaff, University of Amsterdam (chair) Egil Asprem, Stockholm University, Sweden Christine Ferguson, University of Stirling, United Kingdom Peter J. Forshaw, University of Amsterdam Julian Strube, University of Heidelberg, Germany

Acknowledgments The organizing team wants to thank: The Foundation Chair for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents The Embassy of the Free Mind – Ritman Library (Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica) Het Amsterdams Universiteitsfonds The Amsterdam School of Historical Studies The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism The Jewish Historical Museum Royal Brill Publishers

Design and Layout Andrea Franchetto, University of Amsterdam

5 General Information Keynote Lectures

Sonu Shamdasani

Sonu Shamdasani (born 1962) is a London-based author, editor, and professor at University College London. His writings focus on Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), and cover the history of psychiatry and psychology from the mid-nineteenth century to current times. Shamdasani edited for its initial publication a major work of Jung: The Red Book. Although well known by its title, until 2009 its contents had remained hidden from the public and from practicing psychotherapists.

“A Faint Rumour Left Behind”: Fragments from a History of Concepts of Consciousness

In the history of philosophy, the term consciousness is of relatively recent vintage, dating back to the seventeenth century. Today, the term is widely taken up and performs critical, and indeed contradictory work in an array of disciplines. In this presentation, I plan to explore these issues, by focussing on aspects of the history of concepts of consciousness in the West, and finally reflect on the effects when unusual experiences come to be conceptualised in terms of modifications and altered states of consciousness.

Keynote Lectures 6 Yulia Ustinova

Yulia Ustinova is Professor of Ancient History at the Department of General History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. She was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in Russia, and received her Ph.D. degree from the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1988. In 1990 she immigrated to Israel. Her research focuses on ancient Greek religion and its role within society. In addition to historical written and archaeological sources, she makes use of a multidisciplinary approach based on the application of results of cognitive neuroscience, anthropology, and sociology to the interpretation of historical phenomena.

Ecstatic Wisdom in Ancient Greece

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. However, some philosophic teachings were transmitted.

7 Keynote Lectures Karl Baier

Karl Baier is Associate Professor and, since 2013, head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Vienna. He holds an M.A. in Catholic Theology (1993) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy (1987). From 1987 to 2009 he was a postdoctoral research assistant and Assistant Professor at the Department of Christian Philosophy, University of Vienna. From 2000 to 2005 he designed and co-ordinated a postgraduate course on Interreligious Theology of Spirituality at Paris Lodron University, Salzburg. In 2008 he submitted his habilitation thesis for Religious Studies on the history of meditation in modern times, which was published in two volumes in 2009. The same year he became associate professor at the Department of Religious Studies. From 2003 to 2016 he served as a member of the editorial board of Polylog: Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren. Since 2010, he has been co-editing the Wiener Forum für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft. Professor Baier is a board member of the European Network of Buddhist- Christian Studies. He is a member of the Austrian Association for the Study of Religions (ÖGRW) and of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). His current research interests include nineteenth and twentieth century alternative religion, mesmerism, occultism, modern yoga research, and psychedelics.

Early Psychonauts: Albert Hofmann’s Occultic Network

This lecture investigates the circle of friends and acquaintances around Albert Hofmann, the famous chemist who invented LSD and was the first one to isolate psilocybin. From the early 1950s to the 1970s members of this group were engaged in experimenting with drugs and interpreting their experiences in different literary genres. Many of them shared a right- wing Traditionalist background and a radical critical attitude towards modern culture. They supported Eliade-type religionist views, related to romantic Naturphilosophie and sympathized with occult arts such as magic, alchemy or astrology. The lecture analyses the ideas and practices of this group and locates it within the cultural history of psychedelia.

8 Keynote Lectures General Program Overview

Monday | 1 July 18.00 - 20.00 Guided visit to Kabbalah Exhibition - Jewish Historical Museum Tuesday | 2 July 08.00 - 17.00 Registration - OMHP (General Hall) 09.00 - 09.30 Conference Opening - OMHP D0.08 Wouter J. Hanegraaff (on behalf of Conference Organizational Team) Fred P. Weerman (Dean of the Faculty of Humanities) Andreas Kilcher (President of the ESSWE) 09.30 - 10.30 Keynote 1: Sonu Shamdasani - OMHP D0.08 Chair: Peter J. Forshaw 10.30 - 11.00 Coffee break 11.00 - 13.00 Parallel Sessions A 13.00 - 14.00 Lunch break 14.00 - 16.00 Parallel Sessions B 16.00 - 16.30 Coffee break 16.30 - 18.30 Parallel Sessions C 19.30 - 21.30 Welcome Reception - Embassy of the Free Mind – Ritman Library Wednesday | 3 July 08.00 - 08.45 ESSWE Network Meetings: ENSIE- C1.17; NIRSEO - C2.17; OSAN - C0.23 09.00 - 11.00 Parallel Sessions D 11.00 - 11.30 Coffee Break 11.30 - 12.30 Keynote 2: Yulia Ustinova - OMHP D0.08 Chair: Wouter J. Hanegraaff 12.30 - 13.30 Lunch Break 12.45 - 13.30 Students’ Round Table - OMHP D0.08 13.30 - 15.30 Parallel Sessions E 15.30 - 16.00 Coffee Break 16.00 - 17.00 ESSWE Thesis Prize Presentation - OMHP D0.08 17.00 - 18.00 Meeting of Members of the ESSWE - OMHP D0.08 Chair: Andreas Kilcher 19.30 - 22.00 Conference Dinner - De Goudfazant Thursday | 4 July 09.00 - 11.00 Parallel Sessions F 11.00 - 11.30 Coffee Break 11.30 - 12.30 Keynote 3: Karl Baier - OMHP D1.08 Chair: Marco Pasi 12.30 - 13.30 Lunch Break 13.30 - 15.30 Parallel Sessions G 15.30 - 16.00 Coffee Break 16.00 - 18.00 Parallel Sessions H 18.15 - 20.00 Plenary panel: Should we drop the “Western” from Western Esotericism? (Chair: Karl Baier. Panelists: Egil Asprem, Henrik Bogdan, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Marco Pasi, Liana Saif, Julian Strube) - D1.08

9 General Program Overview SESSION A Tuesday | 2 July - 11.00 - 13.00

Consciousness and “It’s All Something “Away with Communication Communication with We Made Up”: the Fairies”: with Totemic Non-Humans Communication Intersections of Animals During A1 in Contemporary with Channelled Contemporary Neo-Shamanic Room Esotericism Entities in the Paganism and Rituals C0.17 Goddess Game Traditional Irish Culture Susannah Chair: Egil Asprem Crockford Jenny Butler Denise Lombardi Christian Kabbalah Mystical Vision of God and Water of Life “Reconcile the during the Early Experiences Kabbalistic Practical and Biblical Irreconcilable”: Modern Period: a and Kabbalistic Knowledge in Jean Hermeneutics in Knorr von A2 Quest for “Extra- Wisdom in Jacques Thenaud (1480- Paulus Ricius (d. Rosenroth’s Room Natural” Knowledge? Gaffarel’s Works 1542) 1541) Mystico- C1.17 Philological Project Chair: Jean-Pierre Margherita Brach Tiziano Anzuini Flavia Buzzetta Mantovani Anna Maria Vileno Consciousness in Islamic Bringing together Understanding Sufism, Personality Islamic Esotericism: Physiognomy as a Sufi Conceptions Dreams: Sufism and and Consciousness From Physiognomy Science of Intuition of Consciousness Psychoanalysis in in the Enneagram to Psychology and Western Milan A3 Transpersonal Room Psychology: Beyond-Ego and C2.17 Contemporary Islamic Psychology in Turkey Chair: Keith Edward Cantù Liana Saif Dilek Sarmis Francesco Piraino Mark Sedgwick Mesmerism and Odylic Scintillations, Magnetic Electro-Psychology The Sacred Somnambulism Sensitives and Somnambulism: The and Phreno- Synapse: Instrumental Baron Dupotet de Magnetism: The Swedenborg’s A4 Women Sennevoy Scientification of Theological Room (1796-1881) Animal Magnetism Neurology C0.23 in the 19th century

Chair: Jens Schlieter Pia van Gelder Anne Jeanson Andreas Kilcher Dell J. Rose Paracelsianism A Cosmic Dance of Visions and The Rosicrucian Meditation and Miraculous Forgery: Supreme Theory of Alchemy in the The St Vitus Dance, Knowledge in the Consciousness in Works of Gérard A5 Imagination, and Writings of Jan Thomas Vaughan’s Dorn (c. 1530-1584) Room the Sidereal Body Baptist Van Helmont Lumen de Lumine C1.23 (1579-1644) (1651)

Chair: Mike Zuber Lindsey Drury Giorgiana Hedesan Thomas Willard Peter J. Forshaw Theatre and Music Colors of the Tracing Esoteric Enacting Cruelty: Divine Madness: Celestial City: Connections in the Audience Reception Reality and Esoteric and Theatre Laboratory as Collective Consciousness A6 Cognitive Aspects Transformation in Günter Brus’s Room of Messiaen’s Zerreißprobe A1.18 Synesthetic C Consciousness Chair: Joscelyn Sólveig Godwin Beth Abbate Bryan Brown Emma Graveson Guðmundsdóttir

Parallel Sessions 10 SESSION B Tuesday | 2 July - 14.00 - 16.00

Psychedelic The Use of From Mesmerism to Can Drugs Bring The Buddhist South Asia: Indian Ayahuasca Tantrik Occultism: Wisdom? Indian Skandhas and Spirituality and Analogues in Contested Paths Theosophists’ Ceremonial the Discourse on Ancient Vedic and to Higher States of Perceptions Intoxication in the B1 Altered States of Zoroastrian Rituals Consciousness of Human Works of Aleister Room Consciousness Consciousness Crowley C0.17 Panel 1 and the Use of Psychedelics

Mriganka Chair: Karl Baier Matthew Clark Julian Strube Mukhopadhyay Keith E. Cantú Modernity and Mind Conceptual Parallels The Power of Revelation as The Power of Power in Theosophy and Positive Thinking Discovery: “The Suggestibility: Transhumanism Fall” and the Rise of Experimental B2 Mary Baker Eddy Research on Room Extraordinary C1.17 Experiences Chair: Bernd- Christian Otto Aaron French Allison P. Coudert Paul Ivey Michiel van Elk

Transformations of Cultic Milieus and Invisible Partners: Energy, Information Post-Soviet Consciousness in ASCs in Late Soviet Channeling in Soviet and Spiritual Visionaries Russian New Age 1 and Post-Soviet and Post-Soviet Messages in and Astrology: B3 New Age New Age Russian Intentional Specialist Types Room Communities and Prognose C2.17 Models Chair: Angelika Alexander Schmitt Birgit Menzel Panchenko Julia Andreeva Anna Tessmann Judaism, Sufism & Diagnostic The Mystery of Theurgy, Ilm-e-Khshnoom: Zoroastrianism Oneirology in Lilies: Visionary Purification, Magic Unlocking the Kubrawi Sufism: Mystical Ascent in and Exorcism: Occult Knowledge B4 The Development of the Zohar The Kabbalistic of Zoroastrianism Room Sufi Dream Theory Yichudim C0.23 in the 12th and 13th Meditations Centuries Chair: Mark Jonatan M. Sedgwick Eyad Abuali Benarroch John MacMurphy Mariano Errichiello Film and Media The Emergent Structures of Social Kabbalah and Film: Contemporary Alteration: Magic, Cinematic Visions, Movement of Media, and (Mass) Narrative Voices, Spiritual Cinema Manipulation and Altered States B5 and Media: Room Explorations C1.23 in Mind/Body Alternations

Lila Moore & Marianna Chair: Carole Ruah-Midbar Cusack Shapiro Guido Nerger Brian Ogren Healers and Henry Corbin’s A New Esotericist Sousa Martins: The Esoteric Conservatives Esotericism and the With a Global The Cult of the Reception of Political: A Critical Following: Jordan Academic Medical the Philokalia´s Assessment B. Peterson’s Doctor who Mysticism: B6 Conservative Became a Spiritist Altered States of Room Spirituality and its Saint in Catholic Consciousness in a A1.18 Ties to Western Portugal different Key Esotericism C Chair: Cavan Francisco Santos Ionuţ-Daniel McLaughlin Ahmad Bostani Dimitry Okropiridze Silva Băncilă

11 Parallel Sessions SESSION C Tuesday | 2 July - 16.30 - 18.30

Approaching Interpreting Teaching and Anubis at the Table: The Semiotic Consciousness Platonist Narratives Extraordinary The Construction Ideologies of Late and Extraordinary of Cosmic Ascent Experiences in of Encounter with Antique Ascent: C1 Experience in Hermetism the Divine in Roman Arguments about Room the Late-Antique Egypt Efficacy C0.17 Meditteranean 1

Chair: Paul M. Pasquesi Nicholas Banner Christian H. Bull Korshi Dosoo Naomi Janowitz Postwar Psychedelic The Wizard of High UFOs and the “Don’t Forget New The Spirit Gland Culture Weirdness: Robert Psychedelic Age Rhymes with and Psychedelic Anton Wilson’s Experience Sewage”: The Occulture C2 Psychedelic Lunatic Fringe of Room Theurgy 1980s Esotericism C1.17 Christopher Chair: Luke Walker Erik Davis Partridge J. Christian Greer Graham St John Climbing the Beyond the Cosmic “Expand the Alice A. Bailey and “No Religion” and Cosmic Ladder: Ladder, according Consciousness of the Coming Altered “Beyond Belief”? Consciousness to Julius Evola and God”: The Purpose State of World The Epistemic C3 and Evolution in Paul Brunton of Human Evolution Consciousness Innocence of Room the Theosophical as Presented in Theosophy’s Higher C2.17 Movement and its Annie Besant’s Consciousness Reception Writings

Chair: Muriel Pecastaing-Bossière Joscelyn Godwin Yves Mühlematter Tim Rudbøg Jens Schlieter The Visionary Christian Kabbalah Visions of Hell: Intellectual Vision From Lyre to Lamp: C4 Renaissance as Divine and The Life of the and Altered States Marsilio Ficino’s Human Knowledge Imagination after in Giordano Bruno continued influence Room Death in Niccolò on Giordano Bruno C0.23 Leonico Tomeo

Chair: Anna Maria Allegra Baggio Vileno Jean-Pierre Brach Corradi Antonio Dall’Igna Joyce Pijnenburg Literature and Mirrors of the Self: Nightmares, Hidden in Plain Scientists and Esotericism The Monstrous and Lethargy, and Sight: Psychoactive Psychonauts: the Divine in Maria Wandering in the Drug States in Two Empiricism and Szepes’s The Red Afterlife: Visions Novels of the 1920s Experience in A.P. C5 Lion of the Mysteries Sinnett’s Karma: A Room of Life and Death Novel C1.23 in Agnieszka Pilchowa’s novel Zmora

Karolina Maria Hess & Chair: Andreas Margorzata Alicja Kilcher Andrea Gondos Dulska Alan Piper Aren Roukema Russian Marazm: Alterations Mystical Vision The Hermetic Possession in Consciousness of Consciousness and its Evaluation Symbolism of Modern Russian and Radical in the Russian Andrei Bely’s Orthodoxy: C6 Metaphysics in the Freemasonry of the Philosophy of Between Cultural Room Soviet Yuzhinsky late 18th/early 19th Culture Performance and A1.18 Circle Centuries Mental Disorder C Konstantin Chair: Birgit Menzel Jafe Arnold Burmistrov Angelika Schmitt Pavel Nosachev

Parallel Sessions 12 SESSION D Wednesday | 3 July - 9.00 - 11.00

Panel: Accessing D1 Contemporary Esoteric Techniques Room for Altering Susannah Crockford - Jenny Butler - Denise Lombardi - Markus Davidsen C0.17 Consciousness

Chair: Egil Asprem

Visions, Voices, Alterations of Pedagogics of The Beast in the Fill me the Cup and Voids: Aleister Consciousness and Transformation: Wilderness: The of the Poppy Crowley and the Aleister Crowley’s The Initiatory Erotic Destruction Circean! Opium D2 Transformation of Concept of Initiation Enskillment of of Individual Literature and the Room Consciousness Charles Stansfield Consciousness in Sacralisation of C1.17 Jones Aleister Crowley’s Intoxicants in Turn Crossing of the of the Century Abyss Occultism

Chair: Jesper Manon Hedenborg Aagaard Petersen Henrik Bogdan Olivia Cejvan White Johan Nilsson Off the Beaten Dante’s Visionary The Translation The Tetrad and the Creativity and the D3 Path: An Alternative Realism: For a and Spread of The Tree: Revelations of Occult History of Visions and History of the Secret of the Golden the ‘Self’ Archetype Room Visionary Texts Esoteric Reading of Flower in the Works of C.G. C2.17 Dante’s Commedia Jung Chair: Sonu Shamdasani Tommaso Priviero Dangwei Zhou Christopher Wagner Jelena Martinovic Christian Theosophy How to Have a Signatura rerum: The Visionary Visions, Voices, Spiritual Rebirth? The Parallel Experiences of Altered States in The Visual Motif Epiphanies of John Pordage the Shadow of the of the Heart at the Goethe and Jacob English Revolution: D4 Centre of Practicing Böhme The Heterodoxy of Room Jakob Böhme’s John Pordage, the C0.23 Teachings Visions of Samuel Pordage and the Enochian Walks of Jane Lead

Chair: Rafal T. Prinke Mauricio Oviedo David W. Wood Sarah Green György E. Szönyi Psychical Research Experiments Altered States of Hasidism, Psychical Bedri Ruhselman with Experience: Consciousness Research, and the and his “Neo- Spiritual Practice in the Light Occult: The Case of Spiritism”: The D5 as Scientific of Hungarian Hillel Zeitlin Formation of Room Experimentation Metapsychical Spiritism in the C1.23 Research Early Years of Modern Turkey

Samuel Glauber- Süleyman Mertcan Chair: Olav Hammer Jens Schlieter Júlia Gyimesi Zimra Orhan Occult Visions Austin Osman Blavatsky’s “There is No Visions, Spirit Spare’s Vedanta: A Case More Mystery Guides and Contribution to the Study in Cultural and Glamour in Channeling in the D6 Tradition of Magical Entanglement Examining the History of Yoga in Room Monograms After-Death State Finland A1.18 with the Astral C Vision, than in Examining the Tyrol with the Physical”: Annie Besant and Clairvoyance.

Chair: Christopher Muriel Pecastaing- Partridge Riikka Ala-Hakula Julie Chajes Bossière Matti Rautaniemi

13 Parallel Sessions SESSION E Wednesday | 3 July - 13.30 - 15.30

“How to Know The Trappings of Thought-Free From Enlightenment Of Causes and Higher Knowledge”: “Imagination”: Perception and to “Intuition”: Idols: Aristotelian Anthroposophical Meditation and Bare Awareness as Rudolf Steiner’s and Baconian Perspectives Visual Experiences a “Path to Higher Conception of Readings of Concerning in Rudolf Steiner’s Knowledge”: Thinking as a Rudolf Steiner’s E1 the Nature, Anthroposophy Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Experience Theory of “Higher Room Development, Conception of Knowledge” and Expression “Inspiration” in C0.17 of Meditatively Relation to Buddhist Enhanced Non-Thought Consciousness

Chair: Christian Clement Terje Sparby Andreas Neider Jost Schieren Christoph Hueck Crowley Plus “Don’t Believe Magick, Strange “I believe in As Altered States Me!”: Re-evaluating Drugs, and Much as Possible”: and Telepathy: the Importance of Draughts of Wizard Visions of Crowley The Strange Altered States in the Wine: Examining in Early 1970s Experiences and Life and Works of Aleister Crowley’s Danish Life of Emilio E2 Aleister Crowley Ceremonial Use of Servadio (1904- Room Peyote to produce 1995) Spiritual vision, C1.17 Ecstasy, and Insight

Chair: Henrik Jesper Aagaard Bogdan Thomas van Breda Patrick Everitt Petersen Michele Olzi Gnosis in Ancient Gnosis and The Role of “Light” Sociology of Gnosis Gnosis after Babel: E3 Gnosticism and Revelation in the in the Hermetic Direct Noetic Hermetism Hermetica Writings Experience in the Room Hermetica C2.17 Chair: Naomi Anna van den Wouter J. Janowitz Kerchove Elsa G. Simonetti April D. DeConick Hanegraaff Gurdjieff plus Everyday “The Struggle of How to Rationalize Jacques Enlightenment? the Magicians”: the Esoteric? Demarquette Physical Labour, Gurdjieff’s Sacred Jacques Bergier (1888-1969): E4 Food and Drink as Dances and and the “Telepathy Mysticism within Room Teaching Methods Higher States of with the Infinite” the Academy C0.23 Consciousness Chair: Massimo Introvigne Carole Cusack Christian Giudice Damien Karbovnik Léo Bernard Magic and Divination Vis imaginativa: Are Bonam Efficiens Chiromancy and its Experiences There Altered States Animam: Visionary Basics Deemed “Magic” in in Medieval Image Reevaluating Modern “Magick” E5 Magic? the Supernatural Room Encounters in the C1.23 Liber Vaccae/Kitāb al-Nawāmīs Bernd-Christian Chair: Julian Strube Lauri Ockenström Sarah Ortega Alexandra Nagel Otto Dreams, Death and Wine Fueled Fantasy, Reality and Hasidic Masters Speaking to the E6 Wine: Varieties of Revelry? On the the Cultivation of Interpret their Dead in Hasidism Altered States in Function of Alcohol Lucid Dreaming in Dreams Room Hasidism in Hasidism Early Hasidism A1.18 C Chair: Yuval Harari Elke Morlok Elly Moseson Gadi Sagiv Uriel Gellman

Parallel Sessions 14 SESSION F Thurday | 4 July - 9.00 - 11.00

Indian Spirituality Timothy Leary’s Kṛṣṇa in the Sky Alien Visions in The Return of and the Discourse Psychedelic with Diamonds: Kathmandu. Grant Hippie Advaita? on Altered States of Orientalism Vaiṣṇavism and Morrison on Drugs, Martin W. Ball’s F1 Consciousness 2 the Psychedelic Magic and South Concept of Radical Room Movement Asian Spirituality Non-duality C0.17 Chair: Mriganka Mukhopadhyay Marleen Thaler Lucian Wong Tancredi Marrone Karl Baier Altered States in The Role of Herbal “And the Cupbearer Visions and Islamic Esotericism Intoxication in is nowhere to be Vampires in 19th- Bengali Fakiri seen!”: The Nature century Sufism F2 Sādhana of the Intoxicating Room Beverage in Sufi C1.17 Medieval Literature Chair: Mark Sedgwick Keith Edward Cantú Luca Patrizi Cüneyd Yildirim Female Sexual Consciousness- The Many Lives Erotic Psychologies Dion Fortune’s Mystics and Altering Sex, of Alice Bunker of Magical Initiatory Fiction Magicians at the Sex Altering Stockham’s Sexual Operation in Dion Turn of the Twentieth Consciousness: Mysticism Fortune’s Novels F3 Century: Ecstatic Alice Bunker and Other Works Room Sex and Altered Stockham’s The Consciousness in Lover’s World C2.17 the Writings of Alice Bunker Stockham and Dion Fortune

Chair: Cathy Gutierrez Christa Shusko Daniel Joslyn Anne Parker Georgia van Raalte American Spirits 4-E Cognition and “Voice on Voice, Guided by Ascensionists the New Motor: Power on Power”: Voies: Trance “Transmissionaries”: Thinking Through Trance Poets and Texts, Visions of The Spiritual F4 a 19th-century the Paradox of Summerland, and Encounter and Room Spiritualist God- Female Authorship the Rhetorical Entity Revelations of C0.23 Machine in American Legacy of Cora Esoteric Cascadia Spiritualist L.V. Richmond and Literature Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Chair: Allison P. Clara Contreras Coudert Nell Champoux Ameduri Elizabeth Lowry Madeline Duntley More than Fantasy Parlor Games: Tulpamancy: Alter-Human Keeping out of Leonora Carrington Psychospiritual Identities and Meatspace: Post- and the Tarot Technology, “Self- the Imaginary: Soviet Practitioner F5 Willed Therapeutic Experiencing Views on States of Room Schizophrenia” or Consciousness as a Consciousness C1.23 a “Community of Plural System Imaginary-Friend Hobbyists”?

Chair: Aren Roukema M.E. Warlick Cavan McLaughlin Stephanie Shea Kateryna Zorya Magic and Kabbalah The Voices in the Ask the Rabbi: Streaming Magic: Ritual Practices of in Early Modern Italy “Voice”: Voices, Altered states Aspects of the Soul Dream Divination demons and of mind in the in Moshe Zacuto’s in Zacuto’s F6 Book of supernatural correspondence of Kabbalah Secrets Room beings in R. Moshe R. Moses Zacuto A1.18 Zacuto’s Qol ha- C ReMeZ Maximilian de Chair: Boaz Huss Vladislav Slepoy Molière Gerold Necker Yuval Harari

15 Parallel Sessions SESSION G Thursday | 4 July - 13.30 - 15.30

Approaching Visionary Religious The Experience The ἄνοδος of The Physical Consciousness Experience in the and Practice of Corpus Hermeticum Concreteness and Extraordinary Hekhalot Literature Altered States of of Visionary G1 Experience in Consciousness in Experiences in Room the Late-Antique Late Antique Syro- the Greek Magical C0.17 Mediterranean 2 Mesopotamia Papyri

Chair: Nicholas Banner Rebecca Lesses Paul M. Pasquesi Yang Gao Andrea Franchetto Occultism, Bodies The Concept of The Great Initiate Max Weber and Altered States and and Altered States Subtle Anatomy and the Royal Monte Verità: Schizophrenia: R.D. in Western Sensitive: Visions, Experiments with Laing’s psychedelic G2 Esotericism and Automatic Writing Alternate States psychiatry Room its Influence on and Altered States C1.17 Contemporary Yoga in the Cosmic and Meditation: Movement of Max Examples of Theon and Mary Experiences Ware and Theoretical Approaches

Chair: Egil Asprem Malin Fitger Boaz Huss Aaron French Eva Johach Consciousness in Seancing the Self Spiritism and Spiritism and Heretic Demons Muslim Spiritism and and the Communal Freudianism in Literature: The and Muslim Related Literature Conscious: Science Turkey Case of Enis Behi. Drunks: Esoteric and Spiritism in Koryürek (1891- Devices in Leo G3 Early 20th Century 1949) Strauss’ Reading of Room Egypt the Arabian Nights Chair: Mark Alexandre C2.17 Sedgwick Marwa Elshakry Toumarkine Laurent Mignon Rasoul Namazi Anthroposophy Western Altered States of Management A Paradisian Esotericism and the Consciousness Matters: Discursive State of Mind: Phenomenology and Charismatic Strategies and Theosophical G4 of Consciousness: Authority: The Case the Question Visions in Fin de Room Rudolf Steiner’s of Judith von Halle of Authority in Siècle Sweden C0.23 Practical a Post-Steiner Contributions to Anthroposophical the Development Society of Higher Levels of Consciousness Chair: Christoph Hueck Aurélie Choné Olav Hammer Karen Swartz Peter Olsson Art and Literature Tales of What Cannot be Hilma af Klint The Spirits as Transformation: Expressed in Words: and the Visionary Artists: Three Platonic Idealism, Conveying Visions Experience Categories of G5 Intellect, and in Altered States “Spirit Art” Room Initiation in Péladan of Consciousness C1.23 through Art

Chair: Giuliano Caroline Levander Hedvig Martin- D’Amico Sasha Chaitow Ahlén Massimo Introvigne Faeries and Pagans Faeries, Occultism, Esoteric Fairy Faith: Seers of the Second Witch Blood and Artistic The Theosophical Sight: The Celtic and Myth of the Visionary States of Background of Otherworld and European Pagan G6 Consciousness Walter Y. Evans- Visionary Mind: Concepts Room Wentz’s The Fairy of Race In Early A1.18 Faith in Celtic Wiccan Literature C Countries Chair: Kateryna Friedemann Zorya Per Faxneld Rimbach Sator Jake Winchester Fredrik Gregorius Parallel Sessions 16 SESSION H Thursday | 4 July - 16.00 - 18.00

Visions, Voices and “They have not Psychical “The Drama “Like Sexual Altered States in our thoughts Engagements of the Soul”: Intercourse, only Scotland in the Long of weight and with Scotland’s Neoplatonism and Infinitely More H1 Nineteenth Century measure”: Second Romantic Art as Henosis in So’: Conjugial Room Sight, History and Landscape in the the Work of Phoebe Marriage, Divine C0.17 Subjectivity Nineteenth Century Anna Traquair Transcendence and the Glasgow Disciples of the Brotherhood of the New Life Chair: Christine Ferguson Elsa Richardson Michelle Foot Sally-Anne Huxtable Tanya Cheadle Alchemy Notre-Dame de Dreams, Visions, Alchemical Dee and Paris: A Place and Alchemical Visionaries: Dreams Kelley’s Angelic of Visions and Knowledge and Visions in Early Conversations H2 Revelations for in Michael Modern Alchemy Revisited - a View Room Alchemists Sendivogius’s from the East C1.17 Writings Window

Chair: Giorgiana Magdalena Hedesan Tom Fischer Luszczynska David Sterkenburg Rafal T. Prinke Transformations of The Hand Bell of Ritual Feast and Mystical “VseyaSvetnaya Consciousness in Emperor Rudolf II: Transpersonal Anarchism and Gramota”: Post- Russian New Age 2 A Magical Object Experience: Transformations Soviet Exercise in to Summon Angels Ossetian Religious of Consciousness Russian Kabbalah H3 and Demons in Traditionalists in 20th-Century Room Prague Castle?! in Search of Russia Legitimization of C2.17 Their Revivalist Projects Svetlana Chair: Birgit Menzel Corinna Gannon Sergey Shtyrkov Romina Heim Tambovtseva The American Albion’s Return: The Archontic States “Better Than From the “Blake Counterculture Blakean Visions of of Consciousness Schnapps”: vision” to Allen Ginsberg and in 20th-century Psychedelic “Plutonian Ode”: H4 Kenneth Patchen Neuroshamanism Research and Allen Ginsberg as Room Neo-Kabbalah in Student of Western C0.23 America Esotericism Chair: J. Christian Greer Nicholas Collins Tommy Cowan Avinoam Stillman Luke Walker Literature and Lifting the Veil: Reading the Aleph Shamanism, Magic The Transcendental Esotericism Weird Fiction and in Isfahan: the and Altered States Unity Experience in Ecstatic Encounters Esoteric and the in Håkan Sandell’s Fernando Pessoa’s H5 Islamicate in Works Poetry Poems Room of Jorge Luis A1.18 Borges C Chair: Per Faxneld Kahn Faassen Kurosh Amoui Giuliano D’Amico Fabio Mendia

17 Parallel Sessions MAPS & DIRECTIONS

Conference venue (OMHP) and Atrium restaurant

Route from OMHP to Jewish Historical Museum (Monday evening) Maps & Directions 18 OMHP Ground Floor

OMHP First Floor

19 Maps & Directions Maps & Directions

OMHP Second Floor

Atrium Restaurant Plan

Maps & Directions 20 Route from OMHP to the Embassy of the Free Mind - Ritman Library (Tuesday Evening)

21 Maps & Directions Route from OMHP to Restaurant “De Goudfazant” (Wednesday evening) Easy underground connection: At station Rokin, take metro 52 (direction Noord). Get off at station Noorderpark

Maps & Directions 22 23 ESSWE7 Locations Oudemanhuispoort Oudemanhuispoort marks the entry of one of the main locations of the University of Amsterdam and can be approached by the gate at Oudezijds Achterburgwal and by the entrance at Kloveniersburgwal. Today, it accommodates the Faculty of Humanities and of Philosophy as well as some eighty student dorm rooms. The history of the building complex goes back to the beginning of the seventeenth century when it was built as an almshouse for elderly men and women. In later centuries the location served as an auxiliary hospital and, later still, it housed the Royal Academy of the Arts and the State Academy. At the end of the nineteenth century the Oudeman- huispoort complex was also a home to the painting collection of Adrian van der Hoop, a banker who donated his collection to the municipality of Amsterdam. This is a fact worth mentioning as one of these paintings was ‘The Jewish Bride’ by Rembrandt which now is in the Rijksmuseum and draws countless visitors every year. A noteworthy feature of the passage of the Oudemanhuispoort are the so-called shop- cabinets that were created in the eighteenth century to serve as selling points for traders in gold and silver. When the complex deteriorated these traders pulled out and book- sellers set up their business. Today, there is a lively trade in second-hand books.

Embassy of the Free Mind The Embassy of the Free Mind is located in the seventeenth-century national monu- ment ‘House with the Heads’ at Keizersgracht 123. During a century and a half it was inhabited by the family De Geer, entrepreneurs and patrons of freethinkers. Now, this beautifully restored building has been turned into a museum that houses the Ritman Library, a scientific research library that consists of 25.000 books. The library arose from an interest in the hermetic tradition by the Dutch entrepreneur Joost Rit- man. In 1984 he decided to open his rare collection of manuscripts and printed books to the public. Since then the collection has been carefully supplemented around topics like hermetica, Rosicrucians, alchemy, gnosis, mysticism, Western esotericism and more. To make the collection internationally available the library has currently digitized some two thousand works with financial support from the author of the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown and the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund.

ESSWE7 Locations 24

In de Pelikaan Publishing House

In de Pelikaan is the publishing house of the Embassy of the Free Mind. Since 1984 many academic texts, studies and exhibition catalogues have appeared on the six main collecting areas of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Collection: hermetica, alchemy, mysticism, Rosicrucians, gnosis and western esotericism. New in its range of products are notebooks, postcards and bookmarks. For a full overview, visit the book stand during the conference or see the museum (web)shop. www.embassyofthefreemind.com Aries Book Series Edited by Marco Pasi. Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism is the first professional academic book series specifically devoted to a long-neglected but now rapidly developing domain of research in the humanities, usually referred to as “Western Esotericism”. This field covers a variety of “alternative” currents in western religious history, including so-called “hermetic philosophy” and related currents in the early modern period; alchemy, paracelsianism and rosicrucianism; Jewish and Christian kabbalah and its later developments; theosophical and illuminist currents; and various occultist and related developments during the 19th and 20th centuries, up to and including popular contemporary currents such as the New Age movement. 28 © Dick Osseman