Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"Bacchic Mysteries. 89is the region or condition of punishment andmisery, the purifiedsoul must reside in theregions of bliss ;in a life and condition ofpurity and contemplation in the present life,and eiitheastically,* animated by the divine* Medical and Surgical Reporter, vol. xxxii. p. 195. "Thosewho have professed to teach their fellow-mortals new truths concerning immortality, have based their authority on direct divineinspiration. Numa, Zoroaster, Mohammed, Swedenborg, allclaimed communication with higher spirits ; they were what theGreeks called cntlicast immersed in God a striking wordwhich Byron introduced into our tongue." Carpenter describesthe condition as an automatic action of the brain.The inspiredideas arise in the mind suddenly, spontaneously, but very vividly,at some time when thinking of some other topic.defines genius asthe automatic activity of theguished from the effort of the will,Francis Galtonmind, as distinthe ideas coming by inspiration." This action, says the editor of the Eeporter, is largelyfavored by a condition approaching mental disorder atleast byone remote from the ordinary working day habits of thought.Fasting, prolonged intense mental action, great and unusual commotion of mind, will produce it ; and, indeed, these extraordinarydisplays seem to have been so preceded. Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, all began their careers by fasting, and visions of devils followed by angels. The candidates in the Eleusinian Mysteriesalso saw visions and apparitions,while engaged in the mysticorgies. We do not, however, accept the materialistic view of thissubject. The cases are entheasHc ; and although hysteria andother disorders of the sympathetic system sometimes imitate thephenomena, we believe with Plato and Plotinus, that the higherfaculty, intellect or "intuition as we prefer to call it, the noetic partof our nature, is the faculty actually at work. "Byreflection,