Definition of entheogen in US English:
entheogen
nounenˈthēəˌjenenˈthēəˌjen
A chemical substance, typically of plant origin, that is ingested to produce a nonordinary state of consciousness for religious or spiritual purposes.
Example sentencesExamples
- As I've stated before, I came to ritual use of entheogens quite late in my shamanic practise - just 3 years ago in fact.
- Though the title may suggest that this is a book exclusively about Buddhist meditation and psychedelics, it is more fundamentally about the relationship between entheogens and the spiritual journey.
- The question I periodically take up with myself: what application might this have to magick that isn't already served by chemical entheogens?
- On the other hand, would entheogens constitute religious enrichment for the transcendentally deprived?
- The tremendous cultural fear and repression focused around drug use inhibits open dialogue about the positive role entheogens can play in spiritual awakening.
Derivatives
adjectiveenˌthēəˈjenik
I was reading that Demeter is famous for the poppy also, and wonder what kind of drug cults were associated with them, and whether the Persephone story is also allegorical of entheogenic trips, and shamanic voyages.
Example sentencesExamples
- During the 1960s he associated with Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary, and was known for his defense of entheogenic plants and chemicals for religious purposes.
- Many also suggest that the entheogenic experience helps to cultivate the conscious inner observer so fundamental to the spiritual journey.
- He notes that when religious scholars were given randomized descriptions of mystics' experiences and entheogenic drug experiences, they were unable to distinguish between them.
- After his own drug-induced awakening, he surmised that religions may very well have been invented to explain entheogenic experiences.
Origin
1970s: from Greek, literally 'becoming divine within'; coined by an informal committee studying the inebriants of shamans.