Lewis Ungit > Quotes

“And this is one of the most interesting things about pharmakeia. People claim to be enlightened by the experiences, but when you ask them what they learned, you get saccharine clichés about the oneness of everything and how we just need to love everyone. Not exactly enlightening.”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies

“Going back through the history of modern music and technology, for every John Lennon, we can name a Syd Barett (who was forced to leave Pink Floyd) or Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones (who was first kicked out of the band and then died due to drug and alcohol use).”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies

“Once again we encounter the dark trinity of drugs for spiritual purposes, serpent gods, and human sacrifice.”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies

“These books are accepted as canonical by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians but not by Protestants or Jews. But whether taken as canonical or not, the books were undeniably influential in the early church, and certainly helped shape Christian thinking about the practice of pharmakeia. Consider the book of Wisdom. Wisdom 12:4 says God hated the Canaanites because of two things: their “wicked sacrifices” (likely human), and their “pharmakeia.” Note yet again the close association that the ancient Hebrews had between human sacrifice and pharmakeia.”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies

“Let’s start with Exodus 22:18. The English translation is: “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.” The word sorceress is pharmakous — a conjugation of pharmakeia — in Koine Greek. The translation using the Friberg Lexicon would be rendered something like this: “Do not allow one who prepares drugs for ritual purposes to live.” And suddenly what the Bible says about drugs becomes much clearer. The Bible is saying that the mixing of drugs and religion is so bad that the Israelites should not even let someone live who does it!”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies

“We are so conditioned in modern society to assume that “spiritual” equals “good” that we never ask what ancients would have asked: “which spirit?”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies

“Let’s consider the Greek Septuagint’s rendering of Deuteronomy 18:10: “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in pharmakous.” Notice that statement about human sacrifice. The Bible has several links between human sacrifice (widely practiced by ancient religions that did use drugs as part of their worship, as we saw in the previous chapter) and pharmakeia.”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies

“The reason that it is not translated simply as “drugs” is that the word has another rendering often used by scholars. Because of context, in most biblical instances, scholars translate the various conjugations of pharmakeia as one of the following: witch, wizard, witchcraft, sorcerer, sorcery, divination.”
― Lewis Ungit, The Return of the Dragon : The Shocking Way Drugs and Religion Shape People and Societies