Articles and Book Chapters
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Imagining the Future Study of Religion and Spirituality
Religion 50:1 (2020), 72-82.
In this article I argue that after decades of deconstruction, it is time to begin reconstructing the study of religion on new and better foundations. My proposal focuses on the key terms "experience," "consciousness," "imagination" and "spirituality." These terms should be moved out of the taboo sphere for secular scholars of religion and reclaimed for critical non-religionist methods and approaches.
The Santo Daime Church in the Netherlands: Why the ECHR Should Consider the Case
The Journal of CESNUR supplement to vol. 4:2, clvii-clxii
This article was written by the scholar of New Religious Movements and lawyer Massimo Introvigne and co-signed by Holly Folk and myself. It is about an important case on the interface between freedom of religion and drugs legislation. The Santo Daime church should have the right to make ritual use of its sacrament.
Psychedelica in de Westerse cultuur: Onnodige psychiatrisering van visionaire ervaringen
Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie 62:8 (2020), 713-720.
"Psychedelics in Western Culture: Needless psychiatrization of visionary experiences". Short article in thematic issue "Psychedelics" in the Dutch Journal of Psychiatry. I'm discussing three cases: the Mithras Liturgy from Roman Egypt, witches' ointments, and haschisch in 19-century occultism.
Forthcoming later this year:
“Carl August von Eschenmayer and the Somnambulic Soul,”
in: Lukas K. Pokorny & Franz Winter (eds.), The Occult Nineteenth Century: Roots, Developments, and Impact on the Modern World, Routledge 2020.
“Western Esotericism and the Orient in the First Theosophical Society,”
in: Hans-Martin Krämer & Julian Strube (eds.), Theosophy Across Boundaries,
State University of New York Press : Albany 2020.
Altered States of Knowledge: The Attainment of Gnōsis in the Hermetica
The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 2:2 (2008), 128-163.
Based on close reading of Corpus Hermeticum I (Poimandres), C.H. XIII and "The Ogdoad and the Ennead", I argue that these central Hermetic treatises must be understood in terms of a spiritual praxis resulting in alterations of consciousness.
