THE VISIONARY MICROSCOPE. ENTHEOGENS AS A “SCIENTIFIC” TOOL IN THE THOUGHT OF OCCULTISTS OF THE LATE 19TH - EARLY 20TH CENTURIES
Studia Religiosa Rossica: Russian Journal of Religion January 1, 2025 Semen S. Petrukhin
Occultists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries turned to entheogens as a way to bridge the conflict between science and religion, using them to produce experimentally verifiable religious experience. The article traces this rhetoric back to 16th-century theological controversies about witches' ointments and peyote. Analyzing the works of Louis Alphonse Cahagnet and Aleister Crowley, it shows that both considered entheogens scientific tools for studying religion, but differed in interpretation: Cahagnet saw reproducible visions as proof of an objective spirit world, while Crowley, influenced by psychology, focused on subjective religious experience and higher states of consciousness. This shift reflects how occult authors adapted scientific rhetoric of their era.