The Pythia at Delphi

Q. Deeley
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

At Delphi in Greece the inspired oracle of Apollo, the Pythia, underwent a form of possession in which she was viewed as a vehicle for the god. Nevertheless, uncertainty has surrounded the exact nature of the experience of possession of the Pythia, and what could cause or motivate such experiences. This chapter explores the use of a range of explicit analogies and explanatory models to interpret the experience of the Pythia at the sanctuary of Apollo, and the broader context within which it occurred. Understanding of the Pythia can draw on explanatory models that reach beyond the categories of divination and possession. This includes not only the wider class of revelatory experiences in which supernatural agents (such as God or gods, demons, or spirits) speak or act through humans, but other types of experience involving alterations of the sense of identity and agency, whether they occur in psychopathology or as normal variations in experience. Examples include hallucinations and alien control phenomena in schizophrenia, and their analogues in religious experience; dissociation; and experiments combining suggestion and neuroimaging to model revelatory and possession states. All provide potential insights into the forms of experience, attributed significance, and causal processes involved in Apollo’s communication through the Pythia. They also point to the central role of ideas, expectations, and beliefs in influencing dissociations of the sense of self, and make the Pythia’s possession by Apollo seem less exotic, improbable, or deviant than it might once have seemed.
德尔菲的皮媞亚
在希腊的德尔菲,阿波罗的神谕,皮提亚,经历了一种形式的占有,她被视为神的载体。然而,不确定性围绕着拥有皮媞亚的体验的确切性质,以及什么可能导致或激发这种体验。本章探讨了使用一系列明确的类比和解释模型来解释皮提亚在阿波罗神庙的经历,以及它发生的更广泛的背景。对皮媞亚的理解可以借鉴超越占卜和占有范畴的解释模型。这不仅包括更广泛的启示性体验,其中超自然的代理人(如上帝或诸神,恶魔或灵魂)通过人类说话或行动,还包括其他类型的体验,包括身份和代理感的改变,无论它们是在精神病理学中发生的,还是作为正常的体验变化。例子包括精神分裂症中的幻觉和外星人控制现象,以及它们在宗教体验中的类似现象;离解;结合暗示和神经成像的实验来模拟启示状态和附身状态。所有这些都提供了潜在的见解,以了解阿波罗通过皮提亚交流的经验形式、归因意义和因果过程。他们还指出,思想、期望和信仰在影响自我意识的分离中起着核心作用,并使阿波罗占有皮提亚似乎不像以前那样具有异国情调、不太可能或不正常。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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