Growing up as a Catholic, I spent much of my youth kneeling at the front of a church, inhaling incense. At every mass, the priest would grab the brass incense burner from the alter boy and wave it at the congregation as a benediction, spewing smoke in my direction. Little did I, or my parents, know that the priest was also sending a mind-altering drug wafting in my direction.

Incense might be symbolic in religious ceremonies, but it has also, perhaps not so coincidentally, played a role in gathering the faithful into the fold. A team of international neuroscientists has just announced that a component of the resin made from Boswellia trees, more commonly called Frankincense (yes, the same stuff brought to baby Jesus by the Three Kings), biochemically relieves anxiety in mice, and presumably people.

Although religion is usually considered a purely cultural construction, it might also have deep psychotropic roots.

Sociologists, philosophers and anthropologists have always looked beyond the spiritual to explain why organized religion was invented and why it stills plays a major role in all human societies.

Religion is, first and foremost, about community. Unlike groups that are formed by blood connections, religion has always been a way for unrelated individuals to cooperate, to depend on each other. As such, religion has always functioned as way of taking disparate people and encouraging them to be nice to each other.

Belonging to the same religion also gives people a common identity, sometimes across countries and continents. Of course, that spirit of community has also been forced upon people as a way to change their identity, if they want to or not.

More of the article here: Link

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Interesting... I remember when I was little the priest would whip out that incense ball and wave it around. Now I know why.

I had to laugh a bit though... My incense stick went out about a half hour ago or so before I saw the article. Though I wasn't burning Frankincense, just liquid blue brand stuff that smells awesome.

What about me hippy kind and all our pachouli-scented sticks, yo?

Also, I kinda doubt this. I mean, my priest did the swingy-brass thinger, but my priest would have also been the sort to disagree to this practise. He believe in ghosties and Bigfoot and aliums and other crazies-nesses. Aw, I miss that crazy guy.

Those are personal so you know what they're for and unless you have a cult we don't know about in your basement, you're not preaching to anybody as they're drugged up. I know mine are for relaxation and for good moods.

mmmmm insence is love...

Mind alterning anything in organized religion? The devil you say?!

Well, this is highly interesting. Hey, why not use it? Religion isn't all community. Its about having transcendental experiences with God. Buddhists do stuff similar to that too. Its good to have estatic religious experiences. Actually, that's why I like going to catholic or eastern orthodox church services. Sooo much more uplifting. The ritual; the experience, is of greater value to me personally than a contemporary worship band then someone preaching a sermon. I'd rather see a priest going up and down the aisle, swinging the incense ball as ancient latin or russian hymns are sung....

Some Wiccans also use censers that can be swung as well as sticks to burn incense. Among those methods cones are also used especially among Asians. The Vedas contained recipes for making incense. Jewish temple worship used them in a specific manner, with specific ingredients only, to be burnt only by the kohanim, and never for personal use. Revelation 8 mentions incense rising to the heaven along with the prayers of the saints. This is not so different than some beliefs which state that burning of incense calls to and invites the spirits in the same way that chanting does for some. Some traditions can be very specific on which ingredients call to which spirits. Most of the time burning of incense is done as a sacrifice.

Here is a bit about the Roman use of myrrh at funerals.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrrh#History

An even more metaphysical theory is that with drug use it is actually spirits that involve themselves in changing your perception of reality and this is only evidenced by chemical reactions within the body. The same might be occurring with incense. It is the same way food, which can be considered a drug since once ingested it causes chemical reactions, also can transfer other animal qualities. The ancients and some modern contemporaries believe that if you eat a part of a courageous animal it will transfer over into you as an example. There is also eating something that has been sacrificed to the gods which allows you to commune and become one with them in a manner. I truly believe that if we hunt an animal that is free and it dies while being happy it will then transfer happiness to us but if we eat some of the animals in the way they are farmed in misery today, chickens and cows unable to move and stuffed into tight areas, that their misery will also in some form be transferred. We are what we eat but then again that is why some of us pray for our food to rid itself of any spiritual impurities as well as giving thanks.

---- incense of any kind is not used during everyday mass for most churches. For most it's used during processions and funerals. So I can't see anyone getting whiffed out of their minds daily.

so I'd like to know what church she went too since she looks too young to remember or have been born when incense was used at every mass --- that would have been when they said it solely in Latin.

( although I won't rule out that an odd priest or church may still do it)

Very interesting, wasn't the oracle of Delphi supposed to sit and inhale smoke from insence to be able to foretell?

yes - I was speaking of modern catholic masses.

Where ther's smoke ther's fire.

Many religions feel that smoke is spirit Manifest.
Apologies if this has already been said.

Love Omnaka

LOL, no the point I was making is that this has been used for years. Was it intentional that the smoke is used for that reason, or was it just tradition? It's been used for thousands of years, which is quite a long time, that is what I find interesting.

It was a combination of laurel leaves and intoxicating fumes that rose out of the earth from a small chasm. Incense was there but I am not aware of any historians mentioning the Pythias ability to channel Apollo as due to incense.

Heh, my church doesn't use insense at all (or candles or anything. Just some chairs and that's about all you'll find in our meeting house). However, my grandfather was Catholic and at his funeral, the priest was waving his brass smoky ball around (a psalter?). I started coughing so bad I had to excuse myself. LOL.

I also have visited Ashrams in India. OMG, the insense usage there was out of CONTROL! The inside of the ashram was literally heavy, hazy and smoky, it's some wonder everyone didn't just drop dead of lung cancer! I couldn't stay inside for more than a minute or two. I think what they burned there was mostly sandlewood. I could be wrong though. (I usually LOVE the smell of sandlewood too)

I guess it's a good thing that my church doesn't use it at all... I couldn't tolerate it.

this is all I read before I started laughing -

Heh, my church doesn't use insense at all (or candles or anything. Just some chairs and that's about all you'll find in our meeting house). However, my grandfather --

because I finished it off with ' smoke a big ole stogie that stank up the place.'

sorry. my brain flew faster than I could read. lmao. so I had to share it.

Exodus 30:34-37
And the Lord said to Moses: Take unto thee spices, stacte, and onycha, galbanum of sweet savour, and the clearest frankincense, all shall be of equal weight. And thou shalt make incense compounded by the work of the perfumer, well tempered together, and pure, and most worthy of sanctification. And when thou hast beaten all into very small powder, thou shalt set of it before the tabernacle of the testimony, in the place where I will appear to thee. Most holy shall this incense be unto you. You shall not make such a composition for your own uses, because it is holy to the Lord.

...


you should go to a better church







fullywired

No thank you! But, you know us Quakers, we're not really much for Biblical inerrancy, or even believe that it's the final Word of God. We never claimed to follow the good book verbatum.

If you think about it the earliest forms of spirituality and religious belief revolved around Shamanism which is steeped in pychotropic and mind altering substances and ceremonies. Its not difficult to see that possibly a large pportion of religion evolved from these substances and practices. Even Neaderthals were painting swirls and shapes on the cave walls. Which are regularly seen when 'under the influence' . It seem to suggest that these mind altering substances open our brains which we began to interprete as spiritual experience thus the birth of religion!

The churches I have been too follow the Book and believe it is the inerrant Word of God and no, no incense at all is used. What God told Moses to do regarding incense does not apply to anyone outside of Jewish temple worship.

Of course it does .One minute you are telling us you follow the bible next minute you are discarding the bits you don't like ,


fullywired

Not really. You are wrong. What you quoted from Exodus is part of Mosaic Law or the Mitzvot. If you also notice the mentioning of the tabernacle that is in reference to their temple, which the Romans destroyed and has yet to be rebuilt.

The end bit says "because it is holy to the Lord." and he seems to want it

Over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering; the regular bread also shall be on it;

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Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. See [
"]Prov. 27:9[ Perfume and incense make the heart glad,

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11"]Mal. 1:11[/ For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts. See rl].

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l] The experience of death touched also the righteous, and a plague came upon the multitude in the desert, but the wrath did not long continue. Wis. 18:21 For a blameless man was quick to act as their champion; he brought forward the shield of his ministry, prayer and propitiation by incense; he withstood the anger and put an end to the disaster, showing that he was your servant.

---
]. "Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works. Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise, with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving: 'All the works of the Lord are very good, and whatever he commands will be done at the appointed time.'"

---l] He chose him out of all the living to offer sacrifice to the Lord, incense and a pleasing odor as a memorial portion, to make atonement for the people."

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al"]Rev. 5:8 "When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints."]

Rev. 8:3-4 "Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_use...incense#Judaism



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketoret

Numbers 4:7 are specific duties to Kohathites and is part of the mitzvah more specifically the Priestly Code.

Psalms 141:2 is simply David asking for his prayers to be counted as incense and nothing about him actually using it.

Proverbs 27:9 mentions nothing about non-priests lighting incense.

Malachi 1:11 is in a passage concerning polluted priest offerings starting at verse 6.

The Books of Widsom and Sirach are not in my Bible.

Revelation 8:3-4 read on and see if believers are supposed to do anything else the angels do in that passage.

My point is, the use of incense is biblical "because it is holy to the Lord" You can't just dismiss the bits that don't make your case for you


fullywired

We Pagans use a lot of different stuff depending on the time of the year and what we are doing. We use white sage to purify the circle before we start. I think my favorite incense is dragons blood. I never got a buzz off any of it. I'll see if I can get some real frankincense and give it a try. LOL