What is it about?
The Eleusinian mysteries, which were performed in the ancient world for a millennium, have a long reception history, testifying to the remarkable power of the transformational experience for which Eleusis was famous. The present article focuses on the role of this mystery cult in the cultural imaginary of the 21st century and in the cognitive neuroscience that is brain mapping altered states of consciousness. I argue that Eleusis has helped structure a set of loosely connected tropes that combine postmodern forms of expression with reverence for a pagan past that is perceived as spiritually richer than what contemporary culture offers. In doing so, it has also functioned as a conduit for the return of ritual activities that are being recreated in cultural heterotopias promising heightened forms of spiritual enlightenment. While Eleusis is therefore part of the so-called archaic revival, it is also functioning as an ancient source of authority in the contemporary neuroscience of psychedelics.
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Why is it important?
This article is broadly interdisciplinary, bringing together the fields of Classics, Religious Studies, Anthropology, and Neuroscience in the study of an ancient cult that is surrounded by mystery. It therefore also engages with sociological studies of secrecy, which have grown into a major sub-discipline in the Humanities.
Perspectives
Audiences have long been fascinated by mystery cults. The importance of this piece lies not only in enabling an understanding of what the Eleusinian cult was, but why it has remained alive in the contemporary discourses of neuroscience as well as in modern popular culture where it testifies to the human need for transformational experiences.
Michelle Zerba
Louisiana State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Eleusis at the Intersection of Antiquity and Modernity: the Mystēria, Altered Consciousness, and the Neuroscience of Transformational Experience, February 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004719620_022.
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