Dada was the counter-culture of the first world war, just as psychedelia was to be the counter-culture of Vietnam. At a time when supposedly rational decisions sent so many to their deaths – in 1916, the year Dada began, General Haig ordered an advance at the Somme that killed 19,000 British soldiers on a single day – Dada feigned madness. Its angriest practitioners were Germans.
Adam LeBor's "Tower of Basel: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank That Runs the World" makes a strident case for challenging these financial shamans. They are not, he argues, ...
Jonathan Adams for The New York Times
Chang Yin, a shaman in Taipei, Taiwan, giving advice as the spirit Ji Gong, a 12th-century monk.
Ms. Chang is a jitong, a shaman who dispenses advice while said to be possessed by a spirit. Here, inside a modern office building next to Taipei’s bustling main train station, she is carrying on a folk tradition that goes back hundreds of years in Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.
After his discovery of LSD’s properties, Dr. Hofmann spent years researching sacred plants. With his friend R. Gordon Wasson, he participated in psychedelic rituals with Mazatec shamans in southern Mexico. He succeeded in synthesizing the active compounds in the Psilocybe mexicana mushroom, which he named psilocybin and psilocin. He also isolated the active compound in morning glory seeds, which the Mazatec also used as an intoxicant, and found that its chemical structure was close to that of LSD.
If this is correct, these people are not "pure" or "pristine"; they are dispossessed. And their existence in small bands is reflective not of humankind's ancient past but of a shattered society that has preserved its liberty by retreat. It would be risky to base conclusions about the evolution of society on the study of posses of refugees, perhaps especially those who have survived both a holocaust and a diaspora.
Also in This Week’s Book Review
By THOMAS PYNCHON
Reviewed by WALTER KIRN
Reviewed by WALTER KIRN
Thomas Pynchon’s latest novel is a psychedelic homage to Hammett and Chandler, set in 1970s Los Angeles.
kommos, in Attic tragedy, lyric dirge or lament sung by the chorus and one or more of the actors alternately.
1. The origin of Greek tragedy. The only Greek tragedy we possess is Athenian; for that reason it is known as ‘Attic’ tragedy (from the state of Attica, of which Athens was the chief city). Tragedy was usually regarded as an Attic invention (but not always; see below).
posse
[名]
1 ((米))（郡の保安官が治安維持のため召集する）犯人追跡隊, 民警団；（市民）警察隊.
2 ((俗))（共通の目的・利害をもつ）仲間；不良仲間；((米俗))追っかけ（ファン仲間）；（米国の）ジャマイカ人暴力団.
pos・se・man
[名] 民警団員. psychedelia
Line breaks: psy¦che|delia
Pronunciation: /ˌsʌɪkəˈdiːlɪə/
nounpsychedelic
adjective ━━ a. 陶酔［幻覚］の［を起こさせる］; 幻覚剤の; サイケ調の.
━━ n. 幻覚剤（常用者）.
1 (of a drug) causing effects on the mind, such as feelings of deep understanding or seeing strong images:
psychedelic drugs
2 Psychedelic art or clothing has bright colours and strange patterns of a type which might be experienced by taking psychedelic drugs.
possess (CONTROL) Show phonetics
verb [T]
(of a desire or an idea) to take control over a person's mind, making that person behave in a very strange way:
[+ to infinitive] Whatever possessed him to wear that appalling jacket!
possessed Show phonetics
adjective [after verb]
Someone who is possessed is thought to be controlled by an evil spirit.
pos・sess
-->
━━ vt. 所有［占有］する; （悪霊などが）取りつく, 支配する; （心・感情を）維持する; （女と）情交を結ぶ.
sha・man
薩滿
sha・man・ism ━━ n. シャーマニズム, 巫(ふ)術.n.
A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic or sorcery for purposes of healing, divination, and control over natural events.
[Russian, from Tungus šaman, Buddhist monk, shaman, from Tocharian B ṣamāne, monk, from Prakrit ṣamana, from Sanskrit śramaṇaḥ, from śrámaḥ, religious exercise.]
syllabification: (sha·man)
Pronunciation: /ˈSHämən, ˈSHā-/
Definition of shaman
noun (plural shamans)
Derivatives
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