I remember the most exciting book on this topic that I read, was the book on Constantin (the great) by Jacob Burkhardt. While maybe being a bit speculative, at least partly, I had the impression of highly plausible puzzle-solving by someone who actually read and understood the ancient sources. You will find a lot of details on questions like this. I find it most recommendable for anyone who is interested in (the making of) politics and religion now and then.
What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
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Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#22This isn't asking the hard question though: how did the oracle see the future?
Oracle: Lisa, this supplicant has not groveled in the least
Lisa: Then zot them into oblivion darling
Oracle: Your groveling is unacceptable! I shall ZOT THEE!
You have been zotted!
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#23Language shaping the way you think always feels off to me. Most languages are pretty much universal and unbiased and are capable of expressing an infinite amount of concepts. As easily as their negations, subtle variations, contextual dependencies, nuances, etc.
> Most languages are pretty much universal and unbiased and are capable of expressing an infinite amount of concepts.
Yes, most of them are (or can be, with the addition of a couple of neologisms or borrowings). Just like you can do anything with any Turing-complete language. Languages and cultures still have biases and built-in world views.
For example, to most Europeans, the idea that you would need to estimate your social rank to properly address someone is utterly alien. In the best case, there is a polite form, which we also use for people we don’t know. So we don’t even think about social status when we ask someone what time it is. But there are languages where that isn’t the case at all, and this tends to make you constantly aware of the social status of the people around you. So it definitely does affect how tou think about things.
It does not mean that Europeans are incapable of understanding these things, just that it is not something they implicitly care about.
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#24This isn't asking the hard question though: how did the oracle see the future?
According to mystical based beliefs described in A Textbook of Theosophy by C.W. Leadbeater:
> When a man thinks of any concrete object - a book, a house, a landscape - he builds a tiny image of the object in the matter of his mental body. This image floats in the upper part of that body, usually in front of the face of the man and at about the level of the eyes. It remains there as long as the man is contemplating the object, and usually for a little time afterwards, the length of time depending upon the intensity and the clearness of the thought. This form is quite objective, and can be seen by another person, if that other has developed the sight of his own mental body. If a man thinks of another, he creates a tiny portrait in just the same way. If his thought is merely contemplative and involves no feeling (such as affection or dislike) or desire (such as a wish to see the person) the thought does not usually perceptively affect the man of whom he thinks.
These mental bodies are not considered by the textbook to be bound by time, given they are "astral bodies" for which, under certain conditions, time and space don't matter.
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#25TL;DR: We have no idea if they were real, and if they were what caused them, and it's ok to be unsure and inconclusive sometimes.
I'm not sure I read the same thing. I think this misses the late point, that if empiricism can have weakness, what is its alternative?
> what is its alternative?
Accepting that we won’t know everything (but also accept that there are things we don’t know yet and that will be known in the future, and that it’s ok to change your mind in the face of new evidence).
Actually, it’s not really an alternative to empiricism, but I don’t thing that empiricism has this particular weakness.
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#26The voice of the Gods
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#27This isn't asking the hard question though: how did the oracle see the future?
I think first it would need to be established that she did in fact see the future.
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#28Our question is: Why did the Pythia go into a frenzy?
The major theory you hear about this is that the Oracle was ingesting some kind of drug, possibly a psychedelic derived from rye fungi - but who can say with any certainty? Maybe it was just similar to the 'speaking in tounges' religious phenomenon, which has examples from all over the world:
https://www.skeptical-science.com/religion/speaking-in-tongu...
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The hard version of this, sometimes called Strong Whorfianism (after the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) is relatively easy to discredit. Imagine a system of gears. Turn them and adjust them in your mind. You’re thinking in images rather than language. The soft version of this, that our thinking is influenced by the limits of language is almost certainly true. To give a very HN example, think about the work done in different…
> Imagine a system of gears. Turn them and adjust them in your mind. You’re thinking in images rather than language. How is this demonstrating anything? Can someone do the same who doesn't know what a gear is?
The idea is that it an example of explicitly non-linguistic thinking—hence not all thinking can be defined or limited by linguistic structures.
Re: What caused the hallucinations of the Oracle of Delphi?
#30Our question is: Why did the Pythia go into a frenzy? The major theory you hear about this is that the Oracle was ingesting some kind of drug, possibly a psychedelic derived from rye fungi - but who can say with any certainty? Maybe it was just similar to the 'speaking in tounges' religious phenomenon, which has examples from all over the world: https://www.skeptical-science.com/religion/speaking-in-tongu...
Maybe it was just BS. Don't write off the simplest explanation.