31min chapter

Psychedelics Today cover image

PT575 – The Mystical Roots of Psychedelics: Exploring Dreams and the Liminal State, with Shauheen Etminan, Ph.D.

Psychedelics Today

CHAPTER

Psychoactive Botanicals and Cultural Wisdom

This chapter examines the historical and contemporary significance of Syrian rue and other psychoactive plants in Iranian culture, highlighting their ceremonial uses and potential therapeutic properties. It explores the chemical compounds in these plants and their effects, while also discussing the broader context of mystical traditions and altered states of consciousness. The conversation emphasizes the integration of these experiences and their relevance to modern psychedelic practices and personal growth.

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September the 12th, 1683, an army led by Cara Mustafa Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, lined up on a hill just outside Vienna, where I now live. The Ottomans had been besieging the city for almost two months, but they hadn't broken through. Between 90 and 200,000 troops and their support had marched in from the east, across rivers, through mud, with the Grand Vizier himself rolling along in a silver coach. For an emperor supposedly in decline, it was an impressive show of strength. The
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invention of Turkey, presented by Misha Glenny.
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Episode 2. The
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producer is Miles Ward. The first military bands in the world come from the Ottomans, of course. Their origins are the Ottoman Kettle drums and so on. they were given the most advanced technology, the most advanced weapons in the world. Absolutely
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terrifying and the army is considered to be the most disciplined in Europe. Christopher de Bele, author of The Lion House. The discipline, everyone remarks upon it. When you enter the Janissary camp, it's like entering a Carthusian cloister. And then when they come to fight, they are very, very fanatical. Mark David Baer, author of Carnes, Caesars and Caliphs. The elite corps of
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the Militech, the Janissaries, well, they are absolutely loyal to the Sultan. of the armies that they faced, whether it was in Hungary, whether it was in Iran, or whether it was in Egypt, their elite soldiers were on horseback with practically with bows and arrows. And this is another key reason why the Ottomans were able to expand so quickly is because they had artillery, they had gunfire that enabled them to conquer so many territories east and west. Wow. And what
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was the deal for the Janissaries? What was the structure that they had to abide by? Well they are made up of these converted Christian boys.
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And this is both a good thing and a bad thing for the Ottomans, because when the Sultan dies, then the Janissaries are not loyal to anyone and they can riot in the city. So the Ottoman ruling class would keep the death of a sultan secret until they were able to enthrone someone new for fear of riot. But they're taken in as young men, maybe 8, 12, up to 14, converted, taught the different Islamic languages, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, depending on their intellectual ability. So along with hierarchy based on religion and so on, any pig farmer, and you have Ottoman historians writing about this, any pig farmer from, say,
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Serbia could end up being the head of the Ottoman military. So an amazing system converted Christian boys from the Balkans and beyond, enslaved, but given a chance to rise up. You can find traces of it in Istanbul to this day. Bosniak, Serbian, Croatian means that I will often find people who speak those languages. There's a huge Albanian community here in Istanbul, for example. A lot of the faces you recognize and then having spent so much time in the Balkans, I'm a complete sucker for things like baklava and burek, duvects which is a sort of stewed chicken dish. I come to Istanbul and I immediately feel at home because much of the cuisine is very very similar if not identical. And the other thing that they inherited was military terminology. So if you go to Serbia all the names of military pieces, of fortresses and so on, they're all derived from Turkish. So when I come here, I can sort of half understand what some of the terminology means. Someone who knows more about this country than me and lives here is Hannah Lucinda Smith. You know, people talk about Turkey being a country that spans Eastern West. No, it's not. Like, I actually think, particularly in Istanbul and this part of Turkey,
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this is a Balkan culture here.

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