Text Resources Thread

Please post links to text files (journal papers, Web articles, etc.) here.

Typoz (if I understood correctly!) asked me to make a cross-post here:

TASTE - The Archives of Scientists' Transcendent Experiences

There's also a dedicated thread to this resource here:

http://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-258.html

I've occasionally mentioned the writings of Dr Arthur Guirdham.

I've chanced upon one of his writings I'd not seen before. Note: I haven't read it, and do not have any opinion of its contents.

Christ and Freud: A Study of Religious Experience and Observance by Arthur Guirdham

Originally published in 1959, this book is primarily concerned with the question of psychiatric factors in religion, and, conversely, with that of religious factors in psychiatry. It rejects the Freudian theory that religion is a form of obsessional neurosis. Though this latter hypothesis may explain many of the phenomena of religious observance, it cannot explain the reality of religious experience. Dr Guirdham believes that orthodox Christianity is a perversion of the psychologically irrefutable teaching of Christ and that its conception of God as a supreme being endowed with supreme power, its teaching on the resurrection, and its contamination with a sense of guilt, are especially conducive to psychiatric disorder. He shows how theology may actually be inimical to religious experience and how faith differs from belief and is a response of the whole man. The book explains also the psychological origins of clericalism and demonstrates the role played by the latter in stifling religious experience.

Magonia Review has a review of a book by Mark Williams, entitled "Ireland's Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth," published in 2016. It examines the medieval source material - trying to disentangle the pagan origins from the Christian modifications made by the monks who recorded the traditions - and also the later cultural and political significance of Ireland's pre-Christian religion. The review is positive on the whole, though it does mention the frustrations inherent in the source material, and the sheer weight of the volume:
http://pelicanist.blogspot.com/2020/01/t...-myth.html

Free E-Book:

Initiation into the Mysteries of the Ancient World

Jan N. Bremmer (Author)
Format: Kindle Edition

This book explores ancient mystery cults and their influence on emerging Christianity. The author discusses the famous Eleusian Mysteries as well as smaller and lesser-known Greek and Roman mysteries, offering an indispensable in-depth analysis of this fascinating phenomenon.