Out of This World: Otherworldly Journeys from Gilgamesh to Albert Einstein

«Mircea Eliade defined shamanism not as a religion properly speaking, but as a "technique of ecstasy," a system of ecstatic and therapeutic methods whose purpose is to obtain contact with the parallel universe of the spirits and to win their support in dealing with the affairs of a g» — recoge la definición de Eliade del chamanismo como técnica del éxtasis; el corte trunca la frase

«Free Spirit Seeks Free Spirit: An Outline of Shamanism 33 Dark Treasures: OtherwordlyJourneys in Mesopotamian ReliBion So Puppets, Playhouses, and Gods:Journeys throueh Other Worlds in Ancient EBYPt 60 Crane Riding, Soul Raising,- and Ghost Brides in Taoist China 7I Journeys through the Mind: Buddhism and Otherwo» — el índice declara el alcance comparativo: Mesopotamia, Egipto, China taoísta, budismo

«In the most typical shamanist areas a distinction is made between "white" and» — la partición entre chamanes blancos y negros

«the very same shaman may act as a healer within his own ethnic or regional group and as a sorcerer toward outsiders» — y cómo esa partición depende del grupo, no de la persona

«Sumerian written records are available from 3500 B.C.E. Does this make it easier to understand the treasures of a past immersed in the darkness of faded millennia» — abre Mesopotamia con la antigüedad de sus registros

«the wealth of Egyptian tomb inscriptions we will meet in the next chapter are far more enigmatic, for they are not woven into a coherent narrative» — compara: las inscripciones egipcias son más enigmáticas porque no narran

«Around 4000 B.C.E. the Sumerians built an advanced civilization around the cities of Ur, Uruk, and Kish, with their mysterious ziggurat temples» — la datación que da para la civilización sumeria

«A few years ago, I realized that a general history of otherworldly journeys should be written, for there is no other way to assess the possible unity in their variety.» — declara el motivo del libro: solo una historia general permite calibrar si la variedad de los viajes al otro mundo esconde alguna unidad.

«Two courses I gave at the University of Chicago in 1988 and 1989 helped me to organize and largely write this book.» — sitúa el origen del libro en dos cursos de Chicago, uno sobre religión y cuarta dimensión y otro sobre viajes de otro mundo en religión y literatura.

«All in all, my survey of shamanism remains extremely brief.» — acota él mismo el alcance de su tratamiento del chamanismo, aunque esa categoría organice el libro entero.

«The only possible conclusion one can draw is that anyone opening this book falls into one or more of these categories.» — de las encuestas Gallup que abren el libro —94 % cree en Dios, 67 % en vida después de la muerte, 23 % en reencarnación— saca que el lector mismo está dentro de la muestra.

«And, without fostering the misplaced ambition of giving all these phenomena an "explanation," this book will nonetheless endeavor to assess how people in different temporal and geographical settings would themselves explain their experiences.» — fija el programa: no explicar los fenómenos, sino reconstruir cómo los explicaban quienes los vivieron.

«The historian gathers documentation, written or not, and tries to describe within the cultural setting all other worlds people claim to have explored.» — define la tarea del historiador como descripción de los otros mundos dentro de su marco cultural, y dice que ése es el grueso del libro.

«The epistemologist uses the material gathered by the historian in order to examine the truth of the claims of all these otherworldly explorers.» — y la del epistemólogo como examen de la realidad de esos mundos: si son físicos, paralelos o mentales, y cómo se accede a ellos.

«The common denominator of the many psychological approaches to the problem of otherworldly journeys and visions is that all of them agree on one fact, and probably on one fact only: that the explored universes are mental universes.» — sostiene que lo único en que coinciden los enfoques psicológicos es en situar esos universos en la mente del explorador.

«Unfortunately, no psychological approach seems able to provide sufficient insight into what the mind really is, and especially into what and where the space of the mind is.» — y ahí pone el límite: ninguno de esos enfoques dice qué es la mente ni dónde está su espacio.

«Obviously, when we go inside our mind space (which is infinite, for there is no end to our imagining more space), we do not really know where we go.» — describe el espacio mental como infinito por construcción, y reconoce que no se sabe adónde se va al entrar en él.

«Yet the universal validity of their explanations is highly questionable.» — pone en el mismo plano al chamán, la bruja y el psicoanálisis: los tres son procedimientos válidos solo mientras se compartan sus premisas.

«We cannot actually understand, for example, what dreams are, if we cannot answer such basic questions as where dreams and visions take place, what dreams are made of, and the like.» — hace depender la comprensión del sueño de preguntas previas sobre dónde ocurre y de qué está hecho.

«Even if we describe our mind space with all its strange "mind stuff" as a complete universe existing in parallel with the world perceived as being outside us, the two of them are still dependent on each other to various degrees: the outside world could not exist without the mental universe that perceives it, and this mental universe in turn borrows its images from perceptions.» — sostiene la interdependencia de los dos mundos: el exterior no existiría sin quien lo percibe, y el mental toma sus imágenes de la percepción.

«For example, although snakes can barely see, they scan the outer world through a temperature detector,» — apoya en la variedad de aparatos perceptivos —abeja, delfín, serpiente— que el mundo interior difiere con la especie.

«Yet in all these cases a correlation between the inner world and the outer world exists.» — y aun así mantiene que en todos los casos hay correlación entre los dos mundos.

«Many of them have admitted that the outer world is a construct of our perception, and is thus deprived of "objectivity."» — recoge de los propios científicos la admisión de que el mundo exterior es un constructo de la percepción.

«Thus, the world outside us and the world inside us are not truly parallel, for not only do they interfere with each other in many ways, but we cannot even be sure where one of them ceases to be and the other commences.» — niega el paralelismo entre los dos mundos: interfieren, y la frontera no es localizable.

«According to the cognitive viewpoint adopted here, the belief of the inhabitants of the Cook Islands that the other world is right under the island and its entrance is a cave (a view substantially shared by many peoples of various cultures who think they can point out the entrance to the netherworld) is less infantile than it appears.» — de ahí que rehabilite creencias tenidas por ingenuas, como situar el otro mundo bajo la isla con entrada por una cueva.

«The optimist and the pessimist see the same glass as either half full or half empty; the philosopher Wittgenstein would say that they do not live in the same world.» — atribuye a Wittgenstein la fórmula de que percepciones distintas equivalen a mundos distintos.

«We cannot go further without exceeding the competence of the historian. Yet this survey, however short and inconclusive, has been sufficient to show how complex the whole matter is, and how ill-prepared we still are to fully understand our mind world.» — se abstiene de seguir: declara que el asunto excede la competencia del historiador y que el mundo mental sigue sin entenderse.

«Yet the phenomenon we are dealing with is so widespread that we certainly are entitled to call it universal.» — y aun con ese límite mantiene la universalidad del fenómeno como dato.

«the person who is the victim of an accident, or who receives a special yet cumbersome and unexpected ecstatic vocation leading to visions, has a particular call that is by no means the result of a quest, and can even be quite contrary to the world view and the social and mental habits of the recipient.» — distingue la vocación extática impuesta por accidente o llamado de la que resulta de una búsqueda, y admite que puede contrariar el mundo del que la recibe.

«otherworldly journeys should not be too lightly dismissed as being mere products of imagination, on the other they can undeniably be envisioned as a literary genre.» — sostiene las dos cosas a la vez: ni mera imaginación, ni menos que un género literario.

«with the help of ethnosemiotics, we can establish that human beings had beliefs concerning other worlds long before they could write.» — apoya en la etnosemiótica que las creencias sobre otros mundos son anteriores a la escritura.

«the final result in each case can be very close to texts that circulate in the community of the original transmitters.» — explica por intertextualidad que relatos independientes acaben pareciéndose a los que circulan en la comunidad de origen.

«The Italian scholar Carlo Ginzburg (see chapter 2, below), who studied European witchcraft for twenty-five years, came to the conclusion that witchcraft was still practiced in certain zones of eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth century as a direct derivative of shamanism.» — atribuye a Ginzburg, y no a sí mismo, la conclusión de que la brujería europea del siglo XIX deriva directamente del chamanismo.

«Explanations such as genetic transmission or the unhelpfully vague affirmation that some collective unconscious lies behind our individual psyche have no cognitive basis.» — descarta la transmisión genética y el inconsciente colectivo por falta de base cognitiva.

«In other words, the cognitive assumption of this book is that a simple set of rules would generate similar results in the minds of human beings for a virtually infinite period of time.» — formula el supuesto del libro: un conjunto simple de reglas produce resultados parecidos en mentes humanas durante un lapso casi ilimitado.

«In many cases we can establish that the rules show such dependence upon shamanism that they are probably derivatives thereof.» — y hace derivar muchas de esas reglas del chamanismo, con el probably como límite.

«A Middle Platonist like Plutarch of Chaeronea (ca. SO120 C.E.) adheres to the received data but reinterprets them according to a more sophisticated scientific hermeneutics.» — pone a Plutarco como caso de repensamiento activo de la tradición: acepta los datos recibidos y los reinterpreta con otra hermenéutica; el OCR estropea la datación ca. 50–120.

«Cognitive transmission is historical; yet it presupposes constant rethinking of old beliefs, and therefore constant failures of memory, deletion, and innovation.» — el modelo incluye el olvido y la innovación como parte del mecanismo, no como ruido.

«Obviously, many sets of answers are possible, and the debate can be cut short only by assuming a position of authority.» — sostiene que la exploración de un problema admite muchas respuestas y que solo la autoridad zanja el debate.

«(As in the case of most if not all metaphysical questions, we cannot find hard proof that parts of the human soul can reincarnate in plants or animals, but we have no evidence to the contrary either.)» — se abstiene expresamente sobre la metempsicosis: no hay prueba a favor ni en contra.

«Recourse to direct experience or encounter authoritatively legitimates a belief.» — identifica la experiencia directa como fuente de legitimidad de una creencia.

«The quest for legitimacy explains the proliferation of apocryphal apocalypses, or secret revelations, during the Hellenistic period.» — y con eso explica la proliferación helenística de apocalipsis apócrifos.

«We do not claim to have solved all problems of transmission, yet we claim that cognitive transmission as it has been delineated in this introduction is the most flexible model of diffusion devised so far in historical disciplines.» — reclama para su modelo flexibilidad, no solución: dice ser el más flexible disponible, no el definitivo.

«Suffice it to repeat here that we envision cognitive transmission as an active rethinking of tradition based on a simple set of rules, and that such participation in tradition by every single individual explains very well the tenacity of certain beliefs and practices.» — define la transmisión cognitiva como repensamiento activo de la tradición, y hace de la participación individual la razón de que ciertas creencias persistan.

«Otherworldly journeys seem to belong to this class of beliefs in that they are among the most tenacious traditions of humankind.» — clasifica el viaje al otro mundo entre las tradiciones más tenaces de la humanidad.

«Why have cases of NDE and DBE proliferated? Curiously enough, a confirmation of the possibility-theoretical rather than practical----of otherworldly journeys has come not from psychological disciplines, but from hard science.» — atribuye el renacer del interés por los viajes de otro mundo a la ciencia dura y no a la psicología, y acota que la confirmación es teórica, no práctica; el OCR imprime DBE por OBE.

«Physics and mathematics are to be held responsible to a large extent for the return of interest in mystical ways of knowledge.» — responsabiliza en buena medida a la física y la matemática del retorno del interés por las vías místicas de conocimiento.

«They have opened up new perspectives by asserting that this visible universe is only a convention based on our perception, and that wonderful, unimagined worlds are hidden in tiny particles and perhaps even in the familiar space surrounding us.» — sostiene que esas ciencias volvieron convención al universo visible y alojaron mundos no imaginados en las partículas y en el espacio ordinario.

«The history of the discoveries that led to the hypothesis of superior worlds is the topic of this chapter.» — declara el asunto del capítulo primero: la historia de los descubrimientos que llevaron a la hipótesis de mundos superiores.

«For them nothing exists outside of this plane: that which they observe to happen to themselves and to their flat 'things' is the all-inclusive reality of their plane....» — la analogía de los seres bidimensionales, que Couliano cita de Einstein y no de sí mismo.

«Written by Albert Einstein in 19 16, this attempt to describe verbally the higher dimensions through analogy (Special and General Relativity, for the General Public) must certainly have had a different effect among his contemporaries than it has when read now, a relatively long time later.» — data en 1916 la divulgación de Einstein y advierte que su efecto sobre los contemporáneos no es el que tiene hoy.

«a simple mathematical reasoning made toward the middle of the nineteenth century that must be held to a large extent responsible for the most electrifying hopes of humankind in the first decades of the twentieth century.» — hace derivar las esperanzas del siglo XX de un razonamiento matemático de mediados del XIX.

«It would be impossible to understand Einstein's general theory of relativity without mentioning its general intellectual context, in which science was inextricably mixed with dream, fiction, and vision.» — sostiene que la relatividad general no se entiende fuera de un contexto donde ciencia, sueño, ficción y visión iban mezclados.

«What a few visionaries of the fourth dimension contributed to science still remains to be assessed.» — se abstiene de medir esa contribución y la deja como tarea pendiente.

«It is interesting to note that both of his chosen subjects have something in common: they are different from the decimal tables, which are deeply rooted in convention.» — lee el oficio del personaje de Borges —pasar tablas duodecimales a sexagesimales— como manipulación de convenciones que revela el carácter convencional de la percepción ordinaria.

«a group of German Protestant gentlemen from the Palatinate headed by Johann Valentin Andreae faked a secret society called the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross, with the intention of leading humankind to incredible spiritual and technological achievements.» — presenta la Hermandad de la Rosa Cruz como fabricación deliberada de un grupo del Palatinado encabezado por Andreae.

«This invention proved more thought-provoking than anything else; still, several scholars seriously believe that it accelerated if not produced major advances in epistemology credited to the seventeenth century, establishing the goals of scientific endeavor for centuries to come.» — y consigna, sin hacerla suya, la tesis de que esa invención aceleró los avances epistemológicos del siglo XVII.

«the narrator finds a letter in a volume of Charles Howard Hinton that belonged to Herbert Ashe, and this letter reveals the forgery.» — señala que en el relato de Borges la falsificación de Tlön se descubre dentro de un volumen de Hinton.

«finally, all forty volumes of the First Encyclopedia oj non are discovered in a library in Memphis, Tennessee.» — recuenta el desenlace del relato, donde la enciclopedia del planeta ficticio aparece en una biblioteca real; el OCR imprime non por Tlön.

«It is true that a new world view has in fact surreptitiously taken over, a world view propounded by relativity and quantum physicists, mathematicians, biologists, and even historians.» — lee la conspiración de Borges como figura de una real: una visión del mundo que se impuso sin anunciarse.

«The language spoken by all these people is highly speculative and artificial.» — describe como especulativo y artificial el lenguaje en que esa visión se expresa.

«Its meaning, if understood, would suffice to bring to despair the most convinced hedonist.» — y añade que habla del universo como obra de un ilusionista y de nuestras mentes como creadoras de la ilusión.

«The two conspiracies, the fictitious one imagined by Borges and the actual one that developed naturally, have one key character in common, who is seldom if ever mentioned in histories of Western civilization:» — hace de Charles Howard Hinton el personaje que enlaza la conspiración imaginada y la real, y lo declara ausente de las historias de la civilización occidental.

«Arrested for bigamy, he lost his job as science master at the Uppingham School and started a wandering life that took him to Japan and the United States.» — resume la biografía de Hinton: la bigamia le costó el puesto y lo lanzó a una vida errante.

«It is possible that young Albert Einstein (who was born in 1879) learned about Hinton from his erudite friend Max Talmud, who visited him in Munich from 1889 to 1894.» — propone como posibilidad, no como hecho, que Einstein conociera a Hinton por Max Talmud.

«Later in his life, Einstein was painfully aware of the mathematician's dilemma about whether every mathematical construct is interpretable in physical terms or not, and he did not hesitate to call himself, to some extent, "a Platonist or a Pythagorean.» — recoge que Einstein se llamó a sí mismo platónico o pitagórico ante el dilema de si todo constructo matemático tiene lectura física.

«The fourth dimension is easily accessed through elementary mathematics, yet its implications are quite extraordinary.» — sostiene que la cuarta dimensión se alcanza con matemática elemental aunque sus consecuencias no lo sean.

«Moreover, it is quite possible, although not easy, to conceive of four-dimensional objects and their mathematical properties.» — y que concebir objetos de cuatro dimensiones es posible, con la reserva de que no es fácil.

«Although Hinton later devised his own version of it called Astria, which was perhaps more accurately analogous to our universe, Abbott's book remained the most popular attempt to open one's mind to the possibilities of higher dimensions.» — compara el Flatland de Abbott con la Astria de Hinton y le concede a aquel la difusión.

«Although rigidly protected in their linear frames from their neighbors' view, Flatlanders have no secrets from us: we can freely look into their locked rooms and drawers, and as strange as this would sound to them we can» — usa la asimetría entre planos para mostrar que la dimensión superior vuelve transparente lo que abajo es secreto.

«Obviously, the moral of the story is that a being from the fourth dimension would be able to operate in our three-dimensional world in exactly the same way as we could operate in a two-dimensional world.» — traslada la asimetría a nosotros: un ser de la cuarta dimensión operaría sobre el mundo de tres como nosotros sobre el de dos.

«The first question cannot be properly answered, but imagination can supply some analogies to make it plain; the second can be answered, but to imagine the actual situation is exceedingly complicated.» — separa las dos preguntas de la cuarta dimensión: qué se vería desde ella, y cómo se la puede pensar.

«It was Hinton's lifework to supply a satisfactory answer to the second, while his ideas concerning the first, though not supported by any mathematical calculation, were astonishingly revolutionary.» — adjudica a Hinton la respuesta a la segunda y marca que sus ideas sobre la primera no traían cálculo detrás.

«Rejected by all scholars for many decades, his ideas were finally fully accepted only in the 1980s.» — data en los años ochenta la aceptación de las ideas de Hinton, tras décadas de rechazo.

«Essentially, according to his ideas a flat being living on the surface of the soup I am preparing to eat would experience (painfully, I suppose) the spoon crossing his or her space as a simple line whose size varies in time.» — la cuchara que cruza el plano se percibe abajo como línea que cambia de tamaño, es decir, como suceso temporal.

«As astonishing as this may seem, the only way a Flatlander could experience the third dimension of space would be through time.» — de ahí que una dimensión de más se experimente, desde abajo, como tiempo.

«Only a 2-D mathematical genius would be able to make calculations leading to the conclusion that the crazy god is a three-dimensional. (3-D) solid object, but obviously no one would understand such a genius, for no plane being, including the genius him- or herself, would really be able to imagine what the 3-D spoon looks like.» — sostiene que la dimensión superior se calcula pero no se imagina, ni siquiera por quien la calcula.

«That four-dimensional (4-0) forces are not purely mathematical is today an accepted fact; what we experience as electricity in 3-D space is gravity in the fourth dimension.» — da por aceptado que la electricidad es gravedad de la cuarta dimensión; el OCR imprime 4-0 por 4-D.

«Analogously, what we experience as time can be conceived of as the fourth dimension of a space-time compound (as Einstein did, although he made clear that time is not just another direction of space).» — recoge la equivalencia tiempo-cuarta dimensión con la reserva que el propio Einstein le puso.

«It was Hinton's belief that 3-D beings show a "hyperthickness" in the unknown direction of the fourth dimension and that the space of our mind is multidimensional.» — atribuye a Hinton, y no a sí mismo, la tesis del espesor hiperdimensional de los cuerpos y de la mente.

«Accordingly, to prove that a cube has been moved through the fourth dimension, it is enough to change it into its mirror image.» — expone el criterio con que Hinton da por cumplido un paso por la cuarta dimensión: la vuelta del objeto en su imagen especular.

«Although I can clearly understand how Hinton's cubes may allow one to develop something that approximates 4-0 vision or to decompose a hypercube, the mathematical significance of the space rotation to which he devotes a whole book is unclear to me, since one cannot change the smaller cubes into their own mirror images.» — declara su propia perplejidad ante el sentido matemático de la rotación a la que Hinton dedica un libro entero.

«It does not necessarily validate the possibility that gods could theoretically exist yet be completely invisible to us, for it is rather obvious that, even if we have no organ to experience the fourth dimension itself, we can see in three dimensions things whose explanation can only become clear from a higher perspective.» — corta el salto de la cuarta dimensión a los dioses invisibles: lo que se ve en tres dimensiones puede explicarse desde arriba sin volverse invisible.

«The question is not where to start, but where to end the count of these hypothetical higher dimensions, each one of which behaves toward the previous one as the third does to the second.» — señala que la serie de dimensiones superiores no tiene un tope dado por el argumento.

«Hinton firmly believed that the fourth dimension was the conclusive explanation of mysticism, and he therefore believed mystical doctrines to be true, and mystical states and achievements to be real.» — expone la posición de Hinton, que hacía de la cuarta dimensión la explicación definitiva del misticismo.

«Yet it seems to me that a plane being who inferred from our supernormal powers in relation to the plane world that we are ethically perfect would obviously be wrong.» — objeta que del poder dimensional no se sigue perfección ética, y lo marca como parecer suyo.

«His conjecture is that our mind-space has hyperthickness, and is thus potentially able to open itself up to 4-0 vision.» — consigna como conjetura de Hinton que el espacio mental tenga espesor suficiente para abrirse a la visión tetradimensional.

«Only if we eradicate these conventions can we realize hidden potentialities.» — resume el programa de Hinton: las potencias ocultas solo aparecen si se desmontan las convenciones perceptivas.

«Hinton obviously looms behind the more recent ASC ideology.» — hace de Hinton el antecedente de la ideología contemporánea de los estados alterados de consciencia.

«In a more than metaphorical way, Hinton was the precursor of Einstein's cosmology as expounded in the general theory of relativity.» — sostiene esa precedencia en sentido más que metafórico.

«He also prefigured the physics of the 1980s in his insistence on the interpretation of electricity as a force from the fourth dimension» — y le acredita haber anticipado la física de los ochenta al leer la electricidad como fuerza de la cuarta dimensión.

«Today the explanation of electromagnetism as gravity in the fourth dimension is commonly accepted by all Grand Unified Theories» — sitúa esa lectura como corriente en las teorías de gran unificación.

«Seemingly unaffected either by Hinton's speculations on the fourth dimension or by Rev. Abbott's Flatland was another clergyman and mathematician, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson» — introduce a Dodgson como caso aparte, ajeno tanto a Hinton como a Abbott.

«Alice in Wonderland was first printed in 186S, inspired by and dedicated to Alice Pleasance Liddell» — data la primera impresión del libro en 1865; el OCR imprime 186S.

«There are not many instances in it that can be interpreted in terms of 4-0 experience, but the basic metaphor itself, that of turning into one's own mirror image, suggests access to the only space where such a phenomenon would be possible: 4-0 space.» — acota la lectura tetradimensional de Alicia a su metáfora central, la vuelta en imagen especular.

«Yet they only became popular in alliance with the spiritualist movement, an alliance which ultimately discredited them.» — sostiene que las ideas de la cuarta dimensión se popularizaron aliadas al espiritismo y que esa alianza acabó desacreditándolas.

«Only their esoteric, mathematical side continued to make progress, becoming one of the undiscussed basics of modem physics.» — y que solo su cara matemática siguió avanzando hasta volverse base de la física moderna.

«Mediums were used to access the fourth dimension and produce paranormal phenomena that could serve as a confirmation of four-dimensionality.» — describe el trato de ida y vuelta entre espiritismo y geometría: el médium daba pruebas de la cuarta dimensión.

«Conversely, the fourth dimension provided an ideal explanation for hidden and powerful presences from higher space.» — y la cuarta dimensión daba a cambio una explicación para las presencias del espacio superior.

«According to Ruth Brandon, spiritualism began around 1850 with the "Rochester rappings," bizarreknockings allegedly stemming from ghosts but in reality skillfully produced by two teenage girls, Katherine and» — atribuye a Ruth Brandon la datación del espiritismo hacia 1850 y la explicación de los golpes de Rochester como obra de dos adolescentes.

«Even though mediums were repeatedly exposed as frauds, the audience remained eager to participate in their exhibitions.» — señala que el desenmascaramiento repetido no restó público a las sesiones.

«In the debate over psychic phenomena, renowned physicists like William Crookes (1832- 19 19) and Joseph Zollner (1834-82) came down in favor of their existence.» — consigna que físicos de renombre se pronunciaron a favor de los fenómenos psíquicos.

«Zollner, who was professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Leipzig and was known for his work on comets, tried to verify experimentally the existence of the fourth dimension by producing phenomena that could only occur if the fourth dimension were accessed.» — describe el experimento de Zöllner como intento de verificar la cuarta dimensión por vía de fenómenos imposibles en tres.

«In a chapter of his New Model of the Universe (translated in 193I), which is otherwise a pretentious collection of esoterica, Ouspensky shows himself to be ahead of his time in so far as he accepts the idea of superior dimensions (seven of them) in physics.» — separa en Ouspensky lo que juzga colección pretenciosa de esoterismo de lo que le concede: haber admitido siete dimensiones superiores en física.

«But, according to Ouspensky, he had psychic powers and could communicate with his disciple at a distance, without articulated language.» — consigna como dicho de Ouspensky, no como hecho, los poderes psíquicos de su maestro.

«Peculiar to Ouspensky, although not invented by him, is the idea of the state of "cosmic consciousness," with the attainment of which he credits all authentic mystics.» — atribuye a Ouspensky el uso, no la invención, de la consciencia cósmica como marca del místico auténtico.

«Clearly, the fact that the only thing we can say with some certainty about 4-D vision is that it would somehow place the object focused on in its center, that it would contemplate it simultaneously from all sides, and that it would pierce through it as if it were transparent, neither proves nor disproves the interpretation of mystical experiences» — se abstiene: la visión tetradimensional describe cómo se vería un objeto, y con eso ni confirma ni desmiente las lecturas místicas.

«Monroe could certainly not have achieved rotation if not in hyperspace, whereby his "second body," flipped through the fourth dimension, became its own mirror image.» — aplica a Monroe el criterio de Hinton: la rotación que describe exige hiperespacio.

«The psychologist Charles Tart tested Monroe's ability to report events while out of the body, with inconclusive results.» — consigna que la prueba experimental de Tart sobre Monroe no concluyó.

«In conclusion, even if Monroe's own speculations about the three worlds he was visiting turned out to be entirely wrong, his "trips" themselves seem to be authentic, and his reports, published in 197I, although inevitably distorted by his efforts to "translate" them into everyday language, seem to be faithful.» — separa en Monroe la especulación del relato: aquella puede estar errada y este le parece fiel, con el seems como límite.

«An OBE was reported by Flora Courtois, who claimed an experience of awakening that a Zen master interpreted as "the same sort of satori that Sakyamuni Buddha attained.» — recoge el caso de Flora Courtois y la lectura zen que un maestro dio a su despertar.

«Yet the most challenging performer of OBEs in the early seventies was widely supposed to be the pseudoanthropologist Carlos Castaneda, that is, before it became clear that he was a novelist, not an anthropologist.» — retira a Castaneda del expediente etnográfico y lo declara novelista.

«Obviously, ASC are not a goal in themselves; they are, according to Hinton, the precondition for any 4-D experience.» — subordina el estado alterado a la experiencia dimensional, siguiendo a Hinton.

«As Dr. Louis Lewin noticed in the early twenties, most animals seem also to enjoy drunkenness and drug-induced ASC.» — cita a Lewin para extender a los animales el gusto por el estado alterado.

«It was launched in 197S by Raymond Moody's influential book Life l!fter Life,37 which was followed and imitated by many other» — data en 1975 el arranque de la literatura de experiencias cercanas a la muerte con el libro de Moody; el OCR estropea Life after Life.

«Yet sound and the tunnel, which are so crucial in Moody's reports, do not turn up in most of the cases collected by Kenneth Ring.» — contrasta a Moody con Ring: el túnel y el sonido faltan en la mayoría de los casos de este, de modo que la forma del testimonio depende de quien lo recoge.

«It seems beyond doubt that psychotropic substances, in so far as they produce ASC, were initially envisioned as a sort of» — sitúa las sustancias psicotrópicas dentro del mismo expediente por su capacidad de producir estados alterados.

«This is certainly what Richard Alpert, a Harvard assistant professor of clinical psychology, and his associate Timothy Leary, must have thought on 27 May 1963, when Harvard President Pusey decided to fire Alpert for having distributed drugs to undergraduates.» — fecha el episodio de Harvard que empuja la revolución psicodélica.

«As the two predicted, "restrictions on . . . mindliberating research" would indeed become "a major civil liberties issue in the next decade.» — recoge la predicción de Alpert y Leary sobre las restricciones a la investigación y le concede el acierto.

«Long before Aldous Huxley and others, Charles Howard Hinton seems to have been one of the most systematic advocates of unlearning of conventional modes of perception, cognition, and training.» — antepone Hinton a Huxley en la defensa sistemática del desaprendizaje perceptivo.

«He certainly favored ASC as both a technique of unlearning and as a result of obtaining 4-0 vision.» — y le atribuye el estado alterado en doble papel: técnica de desaprendizaje y efecto de la visión ganada.

«To this extent, we can indeed assume that there are only a few other great ideas of humankind whose influence can be compared with that of the fourth dimension, and none of them is closer to us in time than the fourth dimension itself.» — pone la cuarta dimensión entre las pocas ideas de influencia comparable, y la más reciente de ellas.

«In a certain sense, there will always be a dimension that leads to the unknown, be it the fourth or the nth.» — cierra el capítulo con la fórmula que da su hilo al libro: siempre queda una dimensión que lleva a lo desconocido.

«According to a recent trend in scholarship, the multitude of interpretations of religion can be reduced to two basic schools: the school of the British anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) and the school of the French sociologist Emile Durkheim (18S8-1917).» — reduce a dos escuelas, la de Tylor y la de Durkheim, el campo de las interpretaciones de la religión.

«The Tylorist school treats religion as a separate product of the human mind, although this view is only partly espoused in the original writings of Tylor» — acota que la posición tyloriana no coincide del todo con lo que Tylor escribió.

«It correctly describes, however, the view of phenomenologists of religion, up to a certain point.» — y que en cambio sí describe, hasta cierto punto, a los fenomenólogos de la religión.

«Although dated, Frazer's collection of materials still remains impressive, and the overall picture he gives is sharp enough, despite his interpretations.» — separa en Frazer el material recogido, que aún le sirve, de las interpretaciones, que descuenta.

«Yet other people believe that in dead land there is no night and no sleep, for there is no fatigue; nothing unpleasant filters through it, not even boredom.» — recoge la variante oceánica del país de los muertos sin noche, sin sueño y sin fatiga.

«It can be equalitarian and peaceful or, on the contrary, it can be the abode only of aristocrats, with the souls of commoners being destroyed at death.» — muestra que el más allá reproduce o suprime la jerarquía social según la tradición.

«But sometimes aristocrats go up to heaven and commoners go down to a subterranean Hades.» — y que en otras versiones la jerarquía se traduce en dirección: arriba los nobles, abajo los comunes.

«Yet sometimes one's luck hangs on a trifle: if you are a good dancer you can cross certain tricky bridges; otherwise you go to hell.» — señala que la retribución póstuma puede depender de una habilidad menor y no de la conducta moral.

«Men whose wives have not followed them in death (by being strangled) complain bitterly, but their fate cannot be worse than a bachelor's, who may never» — consigna que la suerte del muerto depende de su estado civil y de que la esposa lo siga.

«It is not always necessary to be dead in order to visit ghost land.» — establece la premisa que sostiene el libro entero: el país de los muertos se visita en vida.

«In eastern Melanesia, living people can go down to the netherworld, Panoi, either in the body or in spirit, and either in dream or in a near-death state.» — enumera las cuatro vías melanesias al inframundo: en cuerpo o en espíritu, en sueño o en estado cercano a la muerte.

«Ghosts advise them riot to eat from the food of the dead, for otherwise they cannot come back alive.» — recoge la prohibición de comer el alimento de los muertos como condición del regreso.

«Yap natives believe that in the past it was relatively easy for living people to go to heaven, but the situation has changed since the secret of ascent was lost.» — registra el motivo del acceso perdido: el ascenso fue fácil y dejó de serlo.

«The usual vehicles that can transport one to heaven are clouds or birds.'?» — nombra nubes y aves como vehículos ordinarios del ascenso.

«If it is free from sin, a god leads it to heaven, where it is deified, which essentially means that it will never have to work again.» — traduce la divinización póstuma en términos concretos: la exención del trabajo.

«The soul itself can turn into a bird upon death.» — consigna la transformación del alma en ave al morir.

«To understand how complex the problem of the soul is among the Oceanian people, it is enough to read the accurate survey given by Hans Fischer.» — remite a Fischer para el estado de la cuestión sobre el alma en Oceanía.

«His conclusion was that on Sumatra there is opposition between a "life soul" that confers vitality on the body and a "death soul" that comes free at death.» — recoge la partición sumatrana entre alma de vida y alma de muerte, que prepara la categoría de alma libre.

«And, although there is no comparable survey for Africa or South America (despite enlightening remarks contained in L. E. Sullivan's lcatichu's Drum: An Onetitation to MeaninB in South American ReliBions 17) , the categories established by the Swedish school (Paulson, Hultkrantz) are sufficient to furnish us with a theoretical framework for the understanding of shamanism.» — adopta como marco las categorías de la escuela sueca y declara el hueco documental para África y Sudamérica; el OCR estropea el título de Sullivan.

«According to this definition, shamanism is unknown on the African continent.» — señala que la definición de Eliade deja África fuera del chamanismo.

«However, shamanism is in fact identifiable in the religions of all continents and at all levels of culture, its center being Central Asia and northern Asia.» — y sostiene a la vez que el chamanismo se identifica en todos los continentes, con centro en Asia central y septentrional; las dos afirmaciones quedan juntas sin conciliarse.

«Genghis Khan himself, according to Muslim historians, had great shamanic powers.» — consigna como dicho de los historiadores musulmanes los poderes chamánicos de Gengis Kan.

«Although as a result the institution of shamanism was often disavowed, it has in fact continued to exist up until the present, surviving even Stalin's persecutions, as the late Hungarian scholar Vilmos Dioszegi ascertained during the short "liberalization" period under Khrushchev.» — apoya en el trabajo de campo de Dioszegi la supervivencia del chamanismo a la persecución estalinista.

«Ethnosemiotics attributes shamanic origin to ancient Siberian cave paintings (about 1000 B.C.E.) because of common» — remonta el chamanismo a las pinturas rupestres siberianas por vía de la etnosemiótica.

«Greek sources from the sixth century H.C.E., which suggest that a local type of shaman who was able to enter a state of trance, travel to the underworld and to a northern paradise, bilocate, and take bird shape, existed in Greece until the fifth century.» — sostiene, con las fuentes griegas del siglo VI, que hubo en Grecia un tipo local de chamán hasta el siglo V.

«New perspectives in the study of shamanism are emerging; in particular, a combination of history of culture and cognitive psychology is slowly but safely moving toward new understandings of shamanism.» — apuesta por el cruce de historia de la cultura y psicología cognitiva como vía de renovación del estudio del chamanismo.

«While diffusionistic theories may explain the existence of American shamanism as an early derivate of Asian shamanism, they do not account forthe occurrence of Australian shamanist phenomena,» — pone el límite del difusionismo: sirve para América y no para Australia.

«The cattle-breeder complex is defined by the following principal traits: the profession is almost exclusively male; the shaman summons spirits in human or animal shape; upon entering a state of trance, he displays indifference to self-inflicted pain and body injury; and he dances and mimics ascent to heaven (by climbing on the yurt roof) during a healing seance.» — define el complejo ganadero del chamanismo asiático por su carácter masculino, su indiferencia al dolor y su ascenso mimado sobre el techo de la yurta.

«Acc~rding to Ivar Paulson, there are four possible cases of soul pursuit, consisting of different combinations of the two souls or spirits a human being possesses: the free spirit and the body spirit.» — recoge de Paulson los cuatro modos de búsqueda del alma, combinatoria del espíritu libre y el espíritu del cuerpo.

«The classical case of a shamanic healing session can be defined as free soul seeking free soul, that is, the free soul of the shaman goes in search of the free, lost soul of the patient.» — de ahí el título del capítulo: la sesión curativa es un alma libre que busca otra alma libre.

«In northern Korea the shaman is chosen by the spirits, but in the south she inherits her function from her parents.» — contrasta dentro de Corea la vocación por elección de los espíritus y la transmisión hereditaria.

«Many of them are blind, as this is supposed to be the sign of a sure vocation.» — consigna la ceguera como señal de vocación chamánica en esas tradiciones.

«The free soul is often associated with the shadow, being lusterless and gray, but it can also be colored.» — describe el alma libre asociada a la sombra, sin brillo y gris.

«As a specialist in spirits, the shaman is supposed to know what the soul looks like.» — define la competencia del chamán por el conocimiento del aspecto del alma.

«The soul is in general a miniature being, in human form or shaped like a winged creature, bird, fly, or butterfly, whose dimensions, though diminutive, can vary in size according to the circumstances.» — describe el alma como ser en miniatura, humano o alado, de tamaño variable.

«North American shamanism has several traits in common with Arctic shamanism, such as the original lack of hallucinogens and the obtainment of shamanic powers through solitude and suffering.» — emparenta el chamanismo norteamericano con el ártico por la ausencia originaria de alucinógenos y la vía del sufrimiento.

«Yet in some geographic areas, shamans form professional associations, and this distinguishes them from most of the peoples acquainted with shamanism.» — señala la sociedad profesional de chamanes como rasgo excepcional.

«One of these associations is the Great Medicine Society (Midewiwin) of the Great Lakes, whose members initiate a candidate by "killing" him (shooting at him with cowries, quartz crystals, or other symbolic objects supposed to penetrate his body) and then bringing him back to life in the medicine cabin.» — describe la iniciación del Midewiwin como muerte y resurrección rituales del candidato.

«Hultkrantz reports, "The medicine-man sunk in ecstatic trance appears to be dead, does not move, shows tendencies to apnoea. "» — cita a Hultkrantz sobre el aspecto cataléptico del trance, y esa apnea reaparecerá en los iatromantes griegos.

«South American shamanism is rich in beliefs and practices that are found in other areas as well, such as initiatory sickness, visualization of the skeleton, marriage with a spirit, healing by suction, and so on.» — enumera los rasgos que el chamanismo sudamericano comparte con otras áreas.

«Yet quite peculiar to South American shamanism is the use of hallucinogens such as the Banisteriopsis caapi or Jane, or intoxicating substances such as tobacco, and the presence of collective ceremonies of initiation.» — y aísla lo propio: el alucinógeno y la iniciación colectiva.

«In L. E. Sullivan's words: "South American cultures, perhaps more than those of any other region of the world, make religious use of plants that spark luminous visions.» — la formulación sobre el uso religioso de plantas visionarias es de Sullivan, citado con su nombre.

«One of the most common powers claimed by the shaman is being able to transform himself into a jaguar.» — recoge la transformación en jaguar entre los poderes reclamados.

«South American shamans are specialists in the recovery of wandering souls.» — define la especialidad del chamán sudamericano como recuperación de almas extraviadas.

«During a seance, the healing shaman of the Shipibo "journeys to the realm of the sun, accompanied by light-colored birds.» — ilustra ese viaje con la sesión shipibo hacia el reino del sol.

«The Apinaye shaman has the task of recovering a patient's soul from the village of the dead; he visits it in the shape of a black snake that feeds on poisonous snakes.» — y con el chamán apinayé que baja al pueblo de los muertos en forma de serpiente negra.

«The scholarly attempt to confine original shamanism to Central Asia and northern Asia and to explain the presence of shamanism in other world areas as a phenomenon of diffusion has met with serious difficulties.» — declara en dificultades el intento académico de hacer del chamanismo asiático el origen difundido de todos los demás.

«Australian aborigines, for instance, are fully acquainted with shamanism, which, to make things even more complicated, they do not distinguish from sorcery.» — pone Australia como caso donde chamanismo y hechicería no se distinguen.

«In other words, a medicine man can act as a healer in certain circumstances and as a sorcerer in other circumstances.» — de ahí que el papel dependa de la circunstancia y no de la persona.

«The "aboriginal man of high-degree," as A. P Elkin calls his particular character, possesses magical powers, especially the power to fly through space, either in body or-as is more common-in spirit, while the body lies in sleep or trance.» — recoge de Elkin la figura del hombre de alto grado, cuyo vuelo suele ser en espíritu mientras el cuerpo yace.

«This cord becomes a means of performing marvelous feats, such as sending fire from the medicine-man's inside, like an electric wire.» — describe el cordón mágico australiano como conducto de proezas.

«But even more interesting is the use made of the cord to travel up to the sky or to the tops of trees and through space.» — y sobre todo como vía de ascenso al cielo.

«Probably Elkin's and R. M. Berndt's descriptions of the capability of the Australian shaman to project this cord out of his body and to "climb" on it inspired the Peruvian fiction writer Carlos Castaneda to invent the episode of the Yaqui "men of knowledge" Don Juan and Don Genaro moving like Spidennan through space following cords issuing from their abdomens.» — deriva de la etnografía australiana el episodio que Castaneda presentó como material yaqui, y lo llama invención de un novelista.

«The rainbow serpent keeps watch over precious substances connected with heaven and with the origin of the world: pearls, quartz crystal, or simply colored stones.» — sitúa a la serpiente arcoíris como guardiana de las sustancias ligadas al cielo y al origen.

«These substances have magical powers. One who obtains them can become rich, beautiful, and even immortal.» — y les atribuye poder de riqueza, belleza e inmortalidad.

«In the early 1970s, the Scottish functionalist anthropologist loan M. Lewis tried to establish permanent distinctions among "shamanism," "Witchcraft," and "possession cults," based on the relationship of the spirit operator toward the spirits.» — atribuye a I. M. Lewis la clasificación por la relación del operador con los espíritus; el OCR imprime loan por Ioan.

«Therefore, although the three main types devised by Lewis may have some heuristic use, they seldom if ever occur in a pure state.» — le concede valor heurístico y le niega existencia pura: los tipos no se dan separados.

«A far more interesting question has recently been raised by the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, who has been working with materials on the phenomenon of witchcraft in Friuli in the fifteenth and sixteenth century.» — introduce a Ginzburg y su expediente friulano de los siglos XV y XVI.

«He has ascertained that the Friuli benandanti were a group of beneficent sorcerers whose spirits fought nocturnal battles against evil witches, the outcome of which determined the quality of the crops.» — describe a los benandanti como hechiceros benéficos cuyas batallas nocturnas decidían la cosecha.

«Like most historians, Ginzburg holds that western European society at the beginning of the fourteenth century persecuted minorities such as lepers, Jews, and witches.» — sitúa a Ginzburg con la mayoría en cuanto a la sociedad perseguidora.

«Yet, unlike many of his colleagues, Ginzburg believes witchcraft to have been much more than a mere invention of a "persecuting society."» — y contra ella en cuanto a que la brujería fuera solo invención de esa sociedad.

«The phenomenon he describes was basically the encounter of two cultures, a popular culture and a "high" culture that imposed its interpretive network on all reality.» — resume la tesis de Ginzburg como choque entre cultura popular y cultura letrada que impone su red interpretativa.

«Ginzburg shows with absolute certainty that benandatui, "werewolves," and young dancers and fighters existed, and that they believed in the harmful return of the spirits of the dead, whose presence could have compromised the welfare of the living.» — le concede a Ginzburg que esos grupos existieron y creían en el retorno dañino de los muertos.

«Thus, according to Ginzburg, European witchcraft is nothing but shamanism. And not only typologically so.» — consigna como conclusión de Ginzburg, no propia, que la brujería europea no sea más que chamanismo, y no solo por tipología.

«Ginzburg believes that shamanism was disseminated in Europe through the Scythians, Indo-European tribes who practiced shamanic ecstasy with the help of marijuana and perhaps mushrooms like the fly agaric (Amanita muscatia).» — recoge la vía escita de difusión y las sustancias que Ginzburg le asocia, con el perhaps a cuenta del hongo.

«In presenting this view and in arguing that the people of Europe had their own culture, whose origins were ancient and prestigious, Ginzburg dissociates himself from many of his colleagues.» — marca que con esa tesis Ginzburg se aparta de sus colegas.

«Ginzburg's revolutionary research opens up a wholly new perspective in the study of the relationship between shamanism and other religious phenomena.» — y le reconoce haber abierto perspectiva nueva sobre la relación del chamanismo con los demás fenómenos religiosos.

«No, if we believe the famous Assyriologist A. Leo Oppenheim, who gave more than one reason "why a 'Mesopotamian r~ligion' should not be written"; 1 yes, if we rely on the admirable reconstruction, Treasures of Darkness, by Thorkild Jacobsen.» — deja abierta la disputa sobre si cabe escribir una religión mesopotámica, con Oppenheim en contra y Jacobsen a favor, y se decanta por este para su propósito.

«The first stories of otherworldly journeys come from Sumer: "Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living," "The Death of Gilgamesh," and "Inanna's Descent to the Nether World."» — nombra los tres relatos sumerios como los primeros viajes al otro mundo conservados.

«Gilgamesh is the first human being on record to have settled for nothing less than immortality.» — hace de Gilgamesh el primer hombre documentado que no se conforma con menos que la inmortalidad, y añade que innumerables chamanes lo habrán hecho antes sin dejar rastro.

«Scholars seem to agree that this wild, uncommon man was a historical king of Uruk around 2600 B.C.E.; his feats must have been impressive, yet they may not have had much in common with the stories that began to circulate about five hundred years later.» — separa al rey histórico de Uruk del héroe de los relatos que empiezan a circular quinientos años después.

«the form in which it has reached us is the work of a certain Sin-liqi-unninni (end of the second millennium B.C.E.), copied for the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh about» — atribuye la forma conservada del poema a Sin-liqi-unninni y su copia a la biblioteca de Asurbanipal.

«It is extant in twelve tablets, the last of which, a translation from Sumerian, contains a variant of the story that contradicts the previous eleven.» — consigna la contradicción interna del poema: la tablilla duodécima desmiente a las once anteriores.

«There are no indications that the epic was read as a part of the religious cult. Like the Odyssey, but more explicitly stated, it was the report of an otherworldly journey ascribed to a highly gifted mortal; it was "religious" in its topic, but not in its use.» — separa el asunto religioso del uso cultual: el poema era religioso por tema y no por función.

«Its conclusion, however, was cautious: Gilgamesh, whom the title of the poem defines as "he who saw everything" (sha napba imuru), gained experience but failed in the quest.» — el que todo lo vio gana experiencia y pierde la búsqueda.

«One could venture to assert that something strange occurred in Mesopotamia: Gilgamesh, otherwise a typical hero of high civilization, was not a successful but rather an unsuccessful shaman.» — propone, con el venture como reserva, leer a Gilgamesh como chamán fracasado que la civilización alta convirtió en héroe.

«A Hittite fragment informs us that the gods themselves helped to fashion the oversized Gilgamesh, who is thus twothirds a god and only one-third mortal.» — recoge del fragmento hitita la composición del héroe, dos tercios dios y un tercio mortal.

«(Apparently he was exerting the jus primae noctis and sleeping with brides before their legitimate spouses did.)» — glosa así la queja de los ciudadanos de Uruk contra su rey, con el apparently como reserva.

«Enkidu's company inspires Gilgamesh to higher enterprises than the taming of all maidens of Uruk, and the city is saved when its ruler and his friend move against the monster Huwawa who lives in the cedar forest.» — sitúa en la amistad con Enkidu el giro del héroe hacia empresas mayores.

«makes this episode into a part of the conquest of immortality: Huwawa is the last peril Gilgamesh confronts after crossing the seven mountains between Uruk and the land of the living.» — señala que la variante sumeria integra a Huwawa en la conquista de la inmortalidad, tras las siete montañas.

«After bewailing his motionless corpse, Gilgamesh stumbles upon the unexpected revelation that he too will die: "When I die, shall I not be like Enkidu?'» — hace de la muerte del amigo el descubrimiento de la propia mortalidad, motor del viaje.

«This revelation requires immediate action; Gilgamesh sets out for the distant and hypothetical land, of his ancestor Utnapishtim, who became immortal.» — y de esa revelación arranca el viaje a la tierra del antepasado inmortal.

«the formidable cosmic mountain Mashu, "whose peaks reach to the vault of heaven and whose breasts reach to the nether world below."? Awful scorpion-people guard the gate of the sun, but they let Gilgamesh pass on account of the divine part in him,» — describe el paso por la montaña cósmica y el permiso que la parte divina del héroe le compra ante los hombres-escorpión.

«to cross the waters of death, Urshanabi apparently needs stone figurines and the urnu snakes that sailors love; yet Gilgamesh has smashed the stones and done away with the urnu, and he is therefore obliged to use brute force to propel the ferry.» — relata que el héroe destruye los medios del barquero y ha de cruzar las aguas de la muerte a fuerza de brazos.

«Even if he cannot obtain immortality, Gilgamesh receives from Iltnapishtim the secret of the thorny plant of rejuvenation that grows in the depth of the ocean, and Gilgamesh picks it and saves it for later, when he will be old in Uruk.» — la inmortalidad se le niega y en su lugar recibe el secreto de la planta del rejuvenecimiento; el OCR imprime Iltnapishtim por Utnapishtim.

«for while Gilgamesh is bathing in a well, a serpent smells the odor of the plant and carries it away; hence serpents shed their old skins and are rejuvenated.» — la planta se pierde ante una serpiente, y el relato explica con eso la muda de piel.

«We do not know what the Sumerian Venus Inanna, predecessor of the Akkadian Ishtar, had to seek in hell, the realm of her sister Ereshkigal; it appears that she was foolish enough to wish to dethrone her.» — declara desconocido el motivo del descenso de Inanna y da el destronamiento solo como apariencia.

«Inanna cannot resolve to hand over to them people who have mourned over her disappearance, but she gets irritated when she notices that her husband, the shepherd Dumuzi, seems to be enjoying himself.» — explica por el duelo no guardado la entrega de Dumuzi como sustituto en el infierno.

«One is tablet I 2 of the Gilgamesh epic, directly translated from Sumerian.» — identifica la tablilla XII, traducida del sumerio, como la pieza chamánica del poema.

«To reward the hero, Inanna makes a drum (pukku) from the base of the tree and a drumstick (mikku) from the crown, and gives them to him.» — el tambor y la baqueta salen del árbol sagrado, y son los instrumentos que caerán al inframundo.

«We are not told if the shamanic drum and drumstick come out as well.» — cierra el episodio con lo que la fuente calla: si el tambor chamánico volvió del inframundo o no.

«Far more detailed is the description of hell in the dream of the Assyrian prince Kumma, who was presumptuous enough to ask for such a vision.» — la visión mesopotámica más detallada del infierno es la del príncipe Kumma, que la pidió.

«One day when he is fishing, the south wind capsizes his ship; in his anger, Adapa curses the wind and breaks his wings.» — refiere el incidente que lleva a Adapa ante Anu.

«Ea instructs his servant, Adapa, to wear mourning attire, to tell the two gods at the heavenly gate that he is mourning for Tammuz and Gizida, and not to eat or drink of the stuff of death that Anu will put before him.» — el consejo de Ea que hace de Adapa un ascenso sin inmortalidad.

«For Ea does not want to confer immortality on this human being any more than Anu does.» — y sostiene que Ea, al aconsejarlo, tampoco quería darle la inmortalidad.

«Etana, king of Kish after the world flood, is credited with another ascent to heaven, which he undertakes in order to bring down the plant of birth as a remedy for his childlessness.» — el segundo ascenso humano de la tradición es el de Etana, por la planta del nacimiento.

«Along with Etana we move from heaven to heaven and see the land underneath becoming smaller and smaller, "and the wide sea just like a tub. "» — describe el ascenso de Etana por la vista que se empequeñece debajo.

«Fastidious as they may have been in their divination records, the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia were obviously no experts in otherworldly journeys like their Egyptian neighbors.» — compara y descuenta: minuciosos en la adivinación, los mesopotámicos no lo fueron en el viaje al otro mundo.

«They left us only a few fragmentary myths to dwell on, myths with a moral that sounds familiar: human beings are doomed to mortality and, as such, they are not entitled to glimpses of other worlds.» — extrae la moral del corpus mesopotámico: al mortal no le corresponde asomarse a los otros mundos.

«In the darkness of the museum, statues and images remain still.» — abre el capítulo egipcio con la inmovilidad que el museo da por descontada, para negarla enseguida.

«Yet an inhabitant of ancient Egypt would not have shared our skepticism, nor would the Egyptian fellahs who not long ago mutilated many statues, breaking at least their thumbs, out of the belief that while unbroken the statues could do harm.» — documenta la creencia en la estatua activa hasta época reciente, con la mutilación de pulgares como medida preventiva.

«tomb was a complete universe, active as long as no observer disturbed it, for the sight of an untrained observer could freeze this frantic activity, reducing it to nothingness.» — describe la tumba como universo activo que la mirada del no iniciado congela.

«The most accurate description of a Near Eastern temple, also valid in the case of Mesopotamia, is a playhouse with gods.» — de ahí el título del capítulo: el templo del Próximo Oriente es un teatro de marionetas con dioses.

«The god spoke through his carriers: an affirmative answer would result in an increase of the weight in the front of the boat, so that the front carriers would stumble, kneel, or rush forward, while a negative answer would be translated into a backward movement of the carriers.» — explica el oráculo procesional como lectura de los desplazamientos de peso en la barca.

«In a study of oracles among the Azande of eastern Africa, the anthropologist Evans-Pritchard found that, of three available methods of divination, people thought only one was truly dependable, although this one was unaffordable under normal circumstances.» — trae de Evans-Pritchard el caso azande, donde el único método fiable es también el inasequible.

«For reasons too obvious to be mentioned, the Egyptian divine oracles were not very dependable either;» — y aplica el juicio al oráculo egipcio, que por eso pasó a elegir entre dos respuestas escritas.

«In the sanctuary of Deir el-Bahari at Luxor, where the local god would talk to sick pilgrims at night and prescribe medication for each of them, his voice was actually produced by a priest through a masked opening in the vault.» — documenta la mecánica del oráculo hablante: un sacerdote tras una abertura enmascarada.

«The Egyptians were famous in the ancient world for their capacity to "charge" inanimate objects through magical formulas and to make them work for them.» — atribuye a Egipto la fama antigua de cargar objetos inertes por fórmula.

«In his Philopseudes (a title meaning "lover of lies," in itself a poor recommendation of credibility), the Greek satirical author Lucian describes Egyptian household robots of a kind now familiar to us from Walt Disney's cartoons.» — descuenta la credibilidad de la fuente al citarla: el testimonio es de Luciano y su título ya avisa.

«Using a powerful formula, the magician Pancrates ("almighty") was able to animate broomsticks, pillars, and door bolts and have them perform zombie labor.» — el mago del relato anima escobas y cerrojos para que trabajen.

«Eucrates, who tells the story, was able to do the same: he got a cane to fetch water for him, but he did not know the formula for stopping it.» — y el aprendiz que ignora la fórmula de detención inunda la casa.

«Another Chinese sorcerer did the opposite: he sold actual horses, which turned into clay as soon as the customer got home.» — pone casos chinos al lado de los egipcios para mostrar que animar imágenes es operación mágica difundida.

«The best of what the Egyptians did was not for this life, but for the afterlife, which was conceived of as a continuation of one's occupational patterns.» — define el más allá egipcio como prolongación de los oficios de esta vida.

«the ka was supplied with a large number of statues animated by specialists through the ritual of opening the mouth.» — describe el rito de abrir la boca como el que dota de cuerpos al doble.

«As we will see, that so many efforts should be devoted to ensuring the double's surrogates a proper physical survival is unique among the religions of the world.» — sostiene que ninguna otra religión invirtió tanto en la supervivencia física de los sustitutos del doble.

«During the dynasties of the Old Kingdom, all hopes for eternity were focused on the king, who would spend his afterlife in heaven.» — sitúa en el Reino Antiguo la exclusividad regia de la eternidad.

«An afterlife in heaven remained the exclusive privilege of the king, but the nobles built tombs so that they might continue their earthly existence after death, and they often borrowed some of the immortality of the monarch.» — describe la inmortalidad como bien prestado: el noble toma parte de la del rey.

«His son Horus would "open his mouth," that is, revive him in the afterlife.» — el rito de abrir la boca se lee sobre el modelo osiriano de Horus reviviendo al padre.

«The pharaoh is sometimes identified with Horus himself or with the sun god.» — señala la identificación variable del faraón con Horus o con el sol.

«To us, the spells seem to contain innumerable metaphors of ascent and rebirth.» — advierte contra la lectura metafórica de los conjuros.

«In reality, they were precise references to situations in the afterlife that the king was supposed to meet.» — y sostiene que eran referencias precisas a situaciones concretas del más allá.

«The privileged ways of ascent to heaven are two: by means of a ladder made by Re, the sun god, or through transformation into a bird, either the falcon of Horus or a composite creature that is half falcon, half duck.» — reduce a dos las vías del ascenso en los Textos de las Pirámides: escalera solar o transformación en ave.

«"I have soared in the sky as a heron, I have kissed the sky as a falcon, I have reached the sky as a locust," declares the king.» — la voz es la del rey en los conjuros, que se declara garza, halcón y langosta.

«Usually the gate of heaven opens before the pharaoh, but sometimes he finds it locked, the door bolt the phallus of the god Babi.» — consigna que el ascenso puede encontrar la puerta cerrada.

«He bathes in the scented sweat of Osiris or in the Field of Rushes.» — describe los baños de la transfiguración regia.

«He becomes imperishable, his bones turning into iron.» — la incorruptibilidad se dice en material: huesos vueltos hierro.

«"He eats their magic and gulps down their spirits," and he "swallows the intelligence of every god."» — recoge el conjuro caníbal en que el rey se apropia de la magia y la inteligencia de los dioses.

«A whole category of texts, some of which are called ferryman texts,'? describe the way the pharaoh crosses the river of death, ferries over the sky, travels to Re on the reed float of the sky, or becomes Re's ferryman.» — describe los textos del barquero como los del cruce del río de la muerte.

«its ceiling is the sky, its floor the earth, its sides the four directions of space.» — el ataúd de los Textos de los Sarcófagos es un cosmos en miniatura.

«Judgment of the dead person by a tribunal of gods was a later development in Egyptian mortuary beliefs. Yet, even at the point when the deceased has been admitted to heaven and has become identified with Osiris, his destiny may still be in jeopardy because of the plottings of Osiris's brother Seth, who tries to kill him.» — data el juicio como desarrollo tardío y advierte que la admisión al cielo no cierra el peligro.

«As for anyone who does not know what they speak, he shall fall into the nets of those who net there. . . . As for anyone who shall know what they speak, he shall pass by, and he shall sit beside the Great God wherever he may be, and he shall give respect to him, for he is one wholly equipped and spiritualized.» — cita del texto egipcio la regla que gobierna todo el corpus: la salvación depende de saber los nombres.

«During the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptian beyond opened its gates to everyone, rich and poor.» — data en el Reino Medio la democratización del más allá egipcio.

«The Book of the Dead illustrates a further phase of this belief.» — sitúa el Libro de los Muertos como fase siguiente de esa apertura.

«Two major innovations in Egyptian afterlife beliefs found in The Book of the Dead are the description of the trial of the dead in spells 30b and I25b, which consists of the famous "psychostasy," or weighing of the soul on the scales of the keeper of» — nombra la psicostasia y la confesión negativa como sus dos innovaciones.

«The western Field of Offerings is guarded by the Heavenly Bull of Re, which Raymond Weill identifies with the constellation Orion.» — recoge de Weill la identificación astral del Toro Celeste.

«Yet at some point the distinct functions of the fields merged, and both fields were depicted as Osirian abodes of the dead who continued to exist happily and to till their pieces of land.» — señala la fusión posterior del Campo de Juncos y el Campo de Ofrendas.

«Although in general an Egyptian was supposed to do good and shun evil, his list of wrong actions may strike us as odd, especially when it comes to overwork, which is considered to be one of the worst transgressions:» — advierte que la moral egipcia no coincide con la esperada: el exceso de trabajo cuenta entre las peores faltas.

«Egyptian mortuary beliefs continued to exert a powerful influence on Hellenistic religion, especially on the mystery cult of Isis and on some of the late Coptic Gnostic texts that emerged in the nineteenth century.» — prolonga la herencia funeraria egipcia hasta los misterios de Isis y los textos gnósticos coptos.

«Weightlessness is a Taoist specialty, as is immortality.» — abre el capítulo chino emparejando ingravidez e inmortalidad como especialidades taoístas.

«From the most ancient times, the two were closely related, for it is by lightening one's body, either by esoteric means or by special contrivances, that one can ascend to heaven where the immortals dwell.» — y explica el vínculo: se asciende aligerando el cuerpo, por vía esotérica o por artefacto.

«The tractate Pao-p'u-tzu written by Ke Hung before 317 C.E. describes the Taoist immortal (hsien) as a being who can walk equally well on fire, water, and air, "carried by the wind in a chariot of clouds.» — la descripción del inmortal taoísta la toma del tratado de Ke Hung, y la data antes de 317.

«He is a "walking corpse," and although he conceals his true nature, he can be identified by the square pupils of his eyes, by the tops of the ears, which reach the top of his head, and by the feathers covering his body.» — enumera las marcas por las que el inmortal, que se oculta, se deja reconocer.

«his body will emit supematurallight and will be as incandescent as the sun and the moon."? He is a master of the "art of ascending to heaven in full daylight," he can change himself in seven different ways, becoming light or a cloud, and he can hide in the sun, in the moon, or in the stars.'» — describe la promesa hecha al adepto: luz propia, siete transformaciones y ascenso a pleno día.

«An-ch'i Sheng, an inhabitant of the isles of the blessed in the eastern ocean, obtained the power of invisibility and ascended to heaven after having lived in the Lo-fu Mountains of Kwangtung province eating only water-rush stalks.» — pone el caso de la dieta extrema que acaba en invisibilidad y ascenso.

«This frugal Taoist diet is called "living on air," and many are those who tried it. Straying is impermissible.» — nombra la dieta de vivir del aire y señala que no admite desviación alguna.

«If diet for some reason would not do, one could resort to an elixir invented by the physician T'ao Hung-ching (452-536 C.E.).» — presenta el elixir como alternativa a la dieta.

«It was made of gold, cinnabar, azurite, and sulfur, had the color of "hoarfrost and snow," and tasted bitter.» — da la composición del elixir: oro, cinabrio, azurita y azufre.

«Shao-kun, under the Han emperor Wu Ti (141-87 B.C.E.), was already in possession of a similar elixir, for he boasted: "I can rein the flying dragon and visit the extremities of the earth.» — la jactancia del alquimista Shao-kun se cita como suya, no como afirmación del historiador.

«And the second-century B.C.E. alchemist Liu An was renowned for having prepared an elixir that allowed not only him to ascend to heaven, but also his poultry and dogs when they licked the vial he dropped into the courtyard upon his sudden takeoff.» — recoge el relato del elixir que subió al cielo también a las aves y perros del alquimista.

«Some plants, like huanB-chinB, are reported to produce immortality, which comes together with weightlessness.» — atribuye a ciertas plantas la inmortalidad, que llega junto con la ingravidez.

«Taoists generally, however, preferred airborne vehicles for travel to heaven.» — señala que sobre la dieta y el elixir se prefirió el vehículo aéreo.

«First in order of importance was the crane, white or black, but wild ducks and even tigers would do on occasion, and even special shoes like the cloud-raising shoes made by Sun Pin from fish skin were thought to be efficacious.» — ordena los vehículos del ascenso, con la grulla a la cabeza.

«The famous emperor Chi reached the heavenly immortals by ascending to them on a winged horse, or according to another version on the back of a long-bearded dragon capable of carrying seventy people at once.» — consigna las dos versiones del ascenso imperial sin escoger entre ellas.

«Humanlike, befeathered, red-eyed, white-headed, longjawed beings born from eggs and appropriately called Yti-min or "bird people" were said to live on the peaks near the seashore on an island in the southeastern ocean.» — describe a los hombres-pájaro nacidos de huevo que la tradición sitúa en una isla del océano sudoriental.

«In ancient times, dragons were the best airborne vehicles.» — y da al dragón la primacía entre los vehículos antiguos.

«K'u YUan (332-295 B.C.E.) wrote an allegorical poem about flying over the Kun-Iun Mountains in a chariot carried by dragons and preceded by Wang-shu, the charioteer of the moon.» — sitúa el vuelo también en la poesía alegórica china.

«Chi-kung is credited with the invention of a flying chariot (fti-ch'e) during the reign of the emperor Ch'eng T'ang (eighteenth century B.C.E.).» — recoge la atribución legendaria del carro volador.

«worshipped as the patron of Chinese carpenters until recent times, much in the same way as the seventeenth-century levitating saint Giuseppe Desa of Coppertino is held by the Catholic Church to be the patron of aviation.» — compara el patronazgo chino con el del santo levitante que el catolicismo hizo patrono de la aviación.

«According to de Groot, the existence of two souls is a widespread belief in ancient and modern China.» — atribuye a de Groot la difusión de la doctrina de las dos almas en China.

«However, the number of internal shen can be multiplied ad libitum: a Taoist treatise of the tenth or eleventh century lists three dozen shen, and medical treatises generously ascribe to every human being "a hundred shen" (in Chinese, "a hundred" can mean "a large number"), whose location moreover varies with age.» — advierte que el recuento de almas internas no es fijo, y que cien puede valer por muchas.

«Yet death is not the only occasion when the free soul can exit the body.» — abre la salida del alma libre en vida, que es el asunto del libro.

«Skillful magicians are said to be able to extract the souls of others from their bodies.» — consigna la extracción de almas ajenas entre las artes atribuidas al mago.

«They usually do this with the souls of beautiful women, who then have no recollection of the occurrence, as if it happened in a dream.» — y señala que la víctima no guarda memoria, como de un sueño.

«A twelfth-century story reports that a young man called Chien-pu and also Shun-yu was "able to emit his own shen" and thus to obtain information on things going on elsewhere.» — pone el caso del que emite su propia alma para saber lo que ocurre lejos.

«The art of leaving the body was also known to Buddhist monks, who explored the western paradise of Amitabha even before going there to abide after death.» — extiende a los monjes budistas la salida del cuerpo, usada para explorar el paraíso occidental.

«This seems to be a shamanistic interpretation of Buddhist dhyana (meditation) in terms of an otherworldly journey.» — lee esa práctica como interpretación chamánica de la meditación budista, con el seems como reserva.

«In general, trances were used from ancient times for visiting heaven.» — sitúa el trance como técnica antigua de visita al cielo.

«Different charms and drugs are supposed to bring back the hun, which is entirely transferable and which can even enter an animal (just as Lucius ended up in an ass in Apuleius's Metamorphoses).» — describe el hun como alma transferible que puede entrar en un animal, y lo compara con el asno de Apuleyo.

«Where spirits were believed to be involved with the living in so many ways, one would expect to find a powerful group of specialists able to deal with them.» — deriva de la implicación de los espíritus en la vida ordinaria la existencia de un cuerpo de especialistas.

«wu priests were mainly women, but when Confucianism became the state religion women were expelled from the performance of imperial sacrifices.» — consigna el carácter originariamente femenino del sacerdocio wu y su expulsión por el confucianismo de Estado.

«he explained that the wu priests did not ascend bodily to heaven, but only their china, which was "in a bright and shining condition," could "rise to higher spheres and descend into the lower," thus being able to forecast the future and to know the past.» — recoge la precisión de la fuente china: no asciende el cuerpo del wu sino su parte luminosa.

«Both shen and kuei were said to survive death, but shen did so in a more consistent way.» — distingue la supervivencia de las dos almas por su consistencia.

«The phek (p'o) is associated with earth, femaleness, darkness, and yin; it is necessary to life yet transitory, for after lingering in coffins and around graves for a while it eventually expires.» — describe el alma yin como necesaria y perecedera, que ronda la tumba y se extingue.

«The beliefs he reports are but a variant of those described by de Groot or by Elliott in Singapore.» — señala la continuidad entre lo observado en Taiwán y lo descrito en Singapur.

«The groom once used to be chosen randomly-the first man to pick up a red envelope left in the street was selected-but, according to Jordan, in recent times the marriage is increasingly kept in the family by wedding the ghost to one of her sisters' husbands ..» — describe el matrimonio con la novia fantasma y el cambio en la elección del novio.

«As an explanation for this, Jordan suggests possible exhaustion of all ghost brides-to-be in some village communities; but economic factors cannot be discarded, since the ghost bride receives a rather substantial dowry.» — deja a Jordan su explicación y añade la económica sin descartar ninguna.

«The ancient goal of immortality was still pursued in Taoist circles until not long ago.» — sostiene la continuidad de la meta de la inmortalidad hasta tiempos recientes.

«Taoist priests still perform the most impressive journeys between worlds.» — y la del viaje entre mundos como práctica sacerdotal viva.

«In his book The Teachinps if Taoist Master Chuana, Michael Saso describes the eclectic techniques of Master Chuang-ch'en Teng-yiin of Hsinchu City in Taiwan, who died in 1976.» — remite a Saso para el trabajo de campo sobre el maestro taoísta de Hsinchu.

«Not unlike the early sixteenth-century German magician Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim, Master Chuang could conjure the spirits of the stars, of which he knew the names and aspects.» — compara la conjuración estelar taoísta con la de Agripa, por el conocimiento de nombres y aspectos.

«This practice is one of the standard Taoist operations concerning stars, which include conjuration, installation of stars in one's body, and walking on stars.» — enumera las tres operaciones estelares taoístas: conjurar, instalar y caminar.

«The last one, as described in relatively ancient sources, is particularly interesting: the stars of the constellation of the Dipper take the adept through the three gates of the nine heavens, where he shows each keeper a talisman and says the keeper's name; the keeper then lets him enter.» — describe el ascenso por la Osa Mayor con talismán y nombre ante cada guardián.

«Having reached the heaven Yu Ch'ing, where there is no spatial direction, he eventually enters a paradise, in the middle of which grows a jade tree with golden branches, surrounded by dragons.» — sitúa el término del ascenso en un cielo sin direcciones y un paraíso con árbol de jade.

«The closest Western analogue to this practice is the so-called "Mithra liturgy," a magical Hellenistic text in which the stars help the adept in his heavenly ascent (see chapter 10, below).» — empareja el ascenso estelar taoísta con la liturgia mitraica helenística.

«Like Michael Saso, John Lagerwey worked with an extraordinary informant, the Taoist priest Ch'en Jung-sheng ofTaitung in present-day Taiwan.» — declara la base etnográfica del capítulo: dos informantes sacerdotes de Taiwán.

«Taoist liturgy appears to be the enactment of a heavenly journey, strongly reminiscent of a shamanistic performance.» — lee la liturgia taoísta como puesta en escena de un viaje celestial emparentado con la sesión chamánica.

«The ritual, which lasted three days (altogether twenty-five hours), included nineteen main sequences of great complexity.» — da la escala del rito de consagración descrito por Lagerwey.

«No gods or celestial clerks of high rank in heaven and hell are omitted.» — señala la exhaustividad burocrática de la invocación.

«The ritual of announcement that follows was devised by a Taoist movement of the tenth century C.E. called the orthodox method of the heart of heaven (t'ien-hsin cheno-Ja).» — data el rito de anuncio en un movimiento taoísta del siglo X.

«It starts with a long sequence of purification; the priest is transformed into a cosmic being whose head is a cloud of ink, whose hair is scattered stars, whose nose is a mountain, and whose teeth are like a forest of swords.» — describe la transformación del sacerdote en ser cósmico tras la purificación.

«This giant hides behind the Big Dipper, summons his celestial and terrestrial souls, and then starts walking on the stars of the Dipper in order to reach the golden gate and be received in audience by the Emperor of Heaven.» — y su recorrido por las estrellas hasta la audiencia con el Emperador del Cielo.

«Taken at their face value, however, the gestures of the performer of the Taoist liturgy are a simulation of a heavenly ascent, and as such are strongly reminiscent of a shamanistic seance.» — sostiene la doble hermenéutica: en su cara externa el rito es ascenso simulado.

«The esoteric meaning of the ritual is that the priest is sending to heaven the "red infant," an energy from his lower abdomen, through the stars of the Dipper to a "silent audience before the Supreme Emperor.» — y en su cara interna, circulación de una energía corporal, el infante rojo.

«the officiant, who is often a medium, comes before the gate of hell and summons the gatekeeper (represented by the drummer or another actor) to let him enter the gloomy kingdom of Yama.» — describe el rito de rescate en que el oficiante negocia con el guardián de Yama.

«He continues singing, but his song is about the inferno, describing what he witnesses beyond the gate of powerful Yama, in the kingdom of darkness.» — y el canto que describe lo visto del otro lado de la puerta.

«Rightly or wrongly, Vedic India is commonly regarded as having been the homeland of ecstasy.» — recoge la reputación de la India védica como patria del éxtasis y marca de entrada que puede no estar bien fundada.

«Three times a day, Vedic priests drank the inebriating and probably hallucinogenic freshly squeezed juice of a mountain plant called soma.» — describe el consumo ritual del soma con el probably a cuenta de su carácter alucinógeno.

«The identity of the plant has been lost since early times.» — declara perdida desde antiguo la identidad botánica del soma.

«Several substitutes were used by the Brahmans in its stead, but their properties were surely not equal to those described in Vedic hymns.» — y consigna los sustitutos brahmánicos como inferiores a lo que los himnos describen.

«In the 19605, R. Gordon Wasson, a retired banker, and Wendy Doniger, a scholar of Indology, assembled a great wealth of data in order to show that the soma plant was fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), a Widespread Eurasian mushroom possibly used in the past by Siberian shamans in order to enter a state of trance.» — atribuye a Wasson y Doniger, no a sí mismo, la identificación del soma con la amanita.

«According to Wasson's theory, fly agaric was used by the Indo-Iranians in their Asian homeland during a period in which active lingUistic exchange took place between them and the Finno-Ugrians.» — sitúa la teoría de Wasson en un contexto de intercambio lingüístico indoiranio y ugrofinés.

«the soul was not supposed to expect any particular glamor; it was simply the abode of the ancestors, the pitul:» — describe el más allá védico primitivo como morada de los antepasados, sin esplendor.

«The soul had to find its way past two frightening dogs whose four powerful eyes watched over the entrance (Rinveda 10.14. I I )--meager versions of the Greek Cerberus.» — pone los dos perros védicos como versión previa y menor del Cerbero griego.

«Yet other Vedic hymns speak of a heavenly judgment of the dead and of posthumous retribution for deeds committed in life.» — consigna que otros himnos del mismo corpus ya traen juicio y retribución.

«The picture becomes clearer during the post-Vedic period.' when a distinction is made between heavenly immortality for the good, and punishment in one of the twenty-one underground hells for the wicked.» — data en el periodo posvédico la partición neta entre cielo y veintiún infiernos.

«The Upanishads refer to the soul as rising from the fire of cremation and going either the way of the gods (devayana) without return, or the way of the fathers (pitriyana}, which leads back to the earth through rebirth.» — expone las dos vías upanishádicas del alma: la de los dioses sin retorno y la de los padres con renacimiento.

«A person should not be suddenly awakened, for the soul may be in danger of not finding its way back» — recoge la prohibición de despertar bruscamente al durmiente, fundada en la salida del alma onírica.

«One of these siddhi is the faculty of flying through the air, already mentioned by the Rinveda (10.136.3-4), which is an outgrowth of weightlessness, such as we already encountered in ancient Taoism.» — enlaza el vuelo indio con la ingravidez taoísta ya vista, y lo remonta al Rig-veda.

«Patanjali's Yonasutra lists laBhiman, or the achievement of weightlessness, among the eight major magical powers (mahasiddhi) of the yogin.» — sitúa la ingravidez entre los ocho grandes poderes que Patáñjali enumera.

«According to Hemacandra, the ]aina ascetics could make their body lighter than air,» — y añade el testimonio de Hemacandra sobre los ascetas jainas.

«Legends of miraculous powers abound in connection with the names of the yogin Nagarjuna, or Gorakhnath.» — nombra a Nagarjuna y Gorakhnath como polos de la leyenda yóguica de poderes.

«According to another tradition, he went to the underworld, threatened Yama with destruction, shook the foundations of the realm of the dead, and then modified the records in order to change the destiny of his guru Matsyendranath, who had too pronounced an inclination toward sex.» — recoge el descenso yóguico que altera los registros del reino de los muertos.

«Mircea Eliade distinguished shamanic ecstasy from yogic "enstasy," but the distinction is problematic.» — consigna la distinción de Eliade entre éxtasis y enstasis y la declara problemática.

«The two overlap in that yogic mysticism culminates in ecstasy similar to ecstatic rapture.» — y sostiene que ambas se solapan porque la mística yóguica culmina en un arrobo semejante.

«Yoga presupposes interiorization of ecstatic practices and of a vertical hierarchy of being, and in this respect is very similar to Western mysticism, be it Platonic or Christian.» — define el yoga por la interiorización de la práctica extática, y con eso lo empareja con la mística occidental.

«The psychoanalyst J. Moussaieff Masson? has reapplied the Freudian expression "oceanic feeling" (ozeanisches Gefiihl or EiniakeitsBefu'hl) to the Indian context from which Freud originally derived it.» — señala que el sentimiento oceánico vuelve, con Masson, al contexto indio del que Freud lo tomó.

«A recent analysis of "divine madness" among Bengali mystics shows that bhava (ecstasy), though similar in content and oftentimes based on the "oceanic feeling," can be obtained through various methods.» — sostiene la unidad del resultado extático frente a la variedad de los métodos.

«The best example of multiplicity of methods and unity of results remains Ramakrishna (Gadadhara Chatterji, 1836-86) himself, who "include[d] both the singular dedication of devotion to a deity and the universalism of Vedanta, combined with yoga and tantra.» — pone a Ramakrishna como el caso donde muchos métodos rinden un mismo resultado.

«It was in that instant that the Goddess revealed herself to him as an ocean of consciousness.» — sitúa la visión de Ramakrishna en el instante del intento de suicidio.

«At least in theory, the existence of a "free soul" in Buddhism is problematic. Indeed, the Buddha ("awakened one") strongly opposed the brahmanic atman theory.» — plantea el problema del capítulo: sin alma permanente no hay alma libre que viaje.

«Developing his famous negative logic, the Buddha taught that there is nothing permanent, and therefore no such thing as a stable soul (atman): "No phenomena are atman," declares the Pali Majjhima Nikaya (1.230).» — la doctrina del no-yo se cita del canon pali y se atribuye al Buda.

«When Vacchagotta asks him what he thinks about atman, the Buddha gives no reply at all, for anything he could say would be misinterpreted (Samyutta Nikaya 4oof.).» — consigna el silencio del Buda ante la pregunta por el atman como respuesta deliberada.

«According to Pali texts, the main iddhi of the Tathagata (Buddha) is levitation (Samyutta Nikaya 5.283).» — y contrapone que esos mismos textos dan la levitación como poder principal del Buda.

«As John S. Strong noticed, magical powers, and especially the power of levitation, are treated in quite a contradictory manner in Buddhism: on the one hand they are discouraged by the Buddha, but on the other hand they are actively practiced by both the Buddha and his disciples.» — recoge de Strong la contradicción budista entre desalentar los poderes y practicarlos.

«Similarly, although one would expect from Buddhism opposition to the multiplication of parallel worlds where Buddhas, gods, demons, and the dead live, the idea of an intermediate condition between this world and extinction in nirvana is constitutive of ancient Buddhism.» — sostiene que el estado intermedio es constitutivo del budismo antiguo pese a lo que la doctrina haría esperar.

«Thus parallel worlds proliferated in Buddhist circles, including paradises of the buddhas and of the luminous, asexual, and perishable gods, and hells populated by ancestors and demons.» — y de ahí la proliferación de paraísos e infiernos budistas.

«The Bat-do'i-thos-qtol (The book of the dead; read Bardo thoao1) is a nter-ma (hidden treasure), that is, an apocryphal work of uncertain date, allegedly authored by the eighth-century apostle of Tantric Buddhism in Tibet, Padmasambhava, and hidden during his lifetime, to be exhumed centuries later.» — consigna la atribución del Bardo Thodol a Padmasambhava como alegada, y el texto como apócrifo de fecha incierta.

«From the main biography of Padmasambhava, written by his disciple the princess Yeshe Tsogyel, we discover that the guru of Tibet was an incarnation of Buddha Amitabha, that he received his yogic instruction directly from heaven, and that he could fly like a bird.» — recoge de la biografía escrita por Yeshe Tsogyel los rasgos que la tradición atribuye a Padmasambhava.

«The purpose of reading the Bardo thoao1 beside the deceased for forty-nine days is to "close the door" of the gaping womb ready to catch the soul in order to trap it in a body, and to ensure the soul a good posthumous fate.» — define la función ritual del libro: cerrar la puerta del vientre y dirigir el destino póstumo.

«The text therefore speaks of six batdo: "the bardo of birth, the bardo of dreams, the bardo of samadhi-meditation, the bardo of the moment before death, the bardo of dharmata and the bardo of becoming.» — enumera los seis estados intermedios que el texto distingue.

«Bardo experience is actually a simple but persuasive trick played by one's own mind.» — reduce la experiencia del bardo a un engaño de la propia mente, persuasivo pero simple.

«If one recognizes its emptiness from the outset, then one can avoid it by being absorbed in the colorless light.» — y hace del reconocimiento de la vacuidad la salida inmediata.

«if during the fourth day the deceased is still indecisive,from the west dawns the intense red light of Buddha Amitabha with his consort and his retinue of bodhisattvas. The element is fire, and the loka is pretaloka, announced by a soft yellow light.» — describe la correspondencia por día entre color, dirección, buda, elemento y loka que el difunto debe evitar.

«"When projections appear like this do not be afraid.» — la instrucción al muerto, citada del texto, es no temer a lo que aparece.

«The Lords of Death too arise out of your own radiant mind, they have no solid substance.» — y que los Señores de la Muerte salen de la propia mente y carecen de sustancia.

«Recognition now becomes extremely difficult, for these heruka Buddhas with their consorts are not meant to be pleasant.» — advierte que el reconocimiento se vuelve difícil justamente cuando las apariciones son terroríficas.

«He then administers capital punishment to the soul, but yet this capital punishment produces pain without killing.» — describe el castigo del bardo como dolor sin muerte posible.

«At this point it is especially good to know that the bardo body is made only of dream stuff and that nothing can affect it in any way; pain is an illusion.» — de ahí que el cuerpo del bardo, hecho de materia de sueño, no pueda ser dañado.

«you who write the script for your own death, and it depends on only you whether you tum it into an endless horror show, a divine comedy, or nothing at all.» — cierra que el muerto escribe el guion de su propia muerte.

«The mechanism of rebirth is desire for the opposite sex: one enters the womb and becomes a daughter if one is attracted to the father, and one becomes a» — sitúa el renacimiento en el deseo por el progenitor de sexo contrario.

«This is clearly one version of the Oedipus myth, a version in which the Freudian reading is already included.» — sostiene que esa doctrina es una versión del mito de Edipo con la lectura freudiana ya incorporada.

«it shows that it is children who choose their parents, a decision they may live to regret bitterly.» — y que invierte la dirección: son los hijos quienes escogen a los padres.

«no matter how high one's religious merits, one may still be confronted with all the unpleasant aspects of the bardo if proper attention has not been devoted to yogic preparation for the bardo.» — subordina el mérito religioso a la preparación yóguica específica.

«It is clear that, in this case, the yogin undergoes an imaginary otherworldly journey in anticipation of the bardo.» — lee el ejercicio onírico como viaje al otro mundo hecho por anticipado.

«The adept is taught how to recognize the clear light dawning on the mind at death and how to avoid the illusions of the bordo by being absorbed into this nirvanic light.» — describe el entrenamiento en reconocer la luz clara y disolverse en ella.

«Noteworthy are a river of blood with two bridges that can be crossed only by relatively good people (the best go to heaven, but there are not many of them), while the wicked must muddle through the blood, fighting against brass serpents and iron dogs.» — describe el infierno del relato chino del siglo XVI con su río de sangre y sus puentes selectivos.

«Dame Meng is supposed to mix the potion of oblivion for the dead, which is a sort of water of Lethe that allows them to reincarnate, but here she becomes an old prostitute mixing a tea that produces confusion of mind.» — compara la poción del olvido china con el Leteo griego y consigna su degradación en el relato.

«Fortunately, the visit ends with the eighth hell, since Wing Ming's host is "called away on urgent business."» — señala el corte cómico con que el relato interrumpe la visita al infierno.

«Like Dante's Comedy, writes Yu, "the Journey is at once a magnificent tale of fiction and a complex allegory, in which the central drama of its protagonist's 'approach to God' unfolds within the interplay of the literal and figurative dimensions of the work.» — la comparación entre el Viaje al Oeste y la Comedia es de Anthony Yu, citado con su nombre.

«This certainly applies to the part of The Journey to the West that is based on the pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Hsliang-tsang (596--664) to India in search of Buddhist scriptures.» — acota esa lectura al núcleo histórico de la novela, la peregrinación del monje a la India.

«The Monkey God is in a privileged position that allows him to visit other worlds; in fact, he is an inhabitant of other worlds, having been born from a miraculous stone on top of the cosmic mountain in which were concentrated the essences of the cosmic principles of heaven and earth.» — explica el privilegio del Mono por su nacimiento en la montaña cósmica.

«Monkey is an almighty shaman, more ancient than the gods, even than the Taoist gods.» — y lo define como chamán omnipotente anterior a los dioses.

«This theory, now entirely obsolete, should not detain us here; it has been dismissed in a previous book and series of articles that Philippe Gignoux, one of the leading specialists in Iranian otherworldly journeys, found convincing.» — descarta la tesis de la escuela alemana sobre el Irán antiguo remitiendo a su propio trabajo anterior.

«More interesting, a book by the great Swedish Iranologist Hendrik Samuel Nyberg, which became famous in a 1938 German translation by H. H. Schaeder, claims that pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion was dominated by communities of ecstatic warriors who performed shamanic ecstasies and otherworldly journeys to a heavenly place of ritual singing.» — consigna como tesis de Nyberg, no propia, la de las comunidades de guerreros extáticos preszoroástricos.

«We already know that the Indo-Iranian prototype of haoma, called soma by the Indians, must have been a powerful drug, possibly-if we believe R. Gordon Wasson-dried fly agaric mushroom.' Yet when the Iranians migrated to their eventual homeland, the plant was lacking and substitutes were sought.» — explica por la migración la pérdida de la planta sagrada y la busca de sustitutos.

«The Avestan drug banqha, probably henbane (Hyoscyamus' niBer) was one such substitute. Later the Middle Persian word bana came primarily to mean hemp (Cannabis indica).» — identifica el sustituto avéstico con el beleño, con el probably a cuenta, y sigue el desplazamiento del término hacia el cáñamo.

«The Greek historian Herodotus (fifth century B.C.E.) reports that the Scythians, an Indo-European population liVing north of the Black Sea who were related to the Iranians, would gather in a tent and breathe the smoke of roasted hemp seeds.» — el testimonio sobre los escitas y el humo de cáñamo es de Heródoto, citado con su nombre.

«Studying the Avesta, such scholars as Philippe Gignoux and Gherardo Gnoli have reached the conclusion that Iranian religion was indeed based on a shamanistic ideology.» — atribuye a Gignoux y Gnoli la conclusión sobre el fondo chamánico de la religión irania.

«According to Gnoli, the Gathic maaa refers to an ecstatic experience, to a state of visionary union with the Zoroastrian archangels, the amesha spentas (beneficent immortals).» — recoge la lectura extática que Gnoli hace del término de las Gathas.

«Gignoux makes a different case for Iranian shamanism, preferring to rely not on information concerning the use of hallucinogens, but on Zoroastrian psychology.» — distingue las dos vías del argumento: la del alucinógeno y la de la psicología zoroástrica.

«Gignoux believes that shamanistic elements in Zoroastrianism are connected with the Iranian concept of the free soul, called bony soul (astvand ruvan) in Avestan.» — sitúa el rasgo chamánico del zoroastrismo en su concepto de alma libre.

«Although the problem of ancient Iranian shamanism is speculative, later Persian tradition, from the Sassanians (226640 C.E.) to the tenth century, contains a few interesting descriptions of otherworldly journeys.» — declara especulativo el chamanismo iranio antiguo y firme, en cambio, el expediente sasánida.

«Kirdir, chief mobad (priest) under a series of Sassanian rulers, was an influential man at court and a persecutor of hereticshe was responsible for the disgrace of Mani, who died in prison in 276.» — sitúa al autor de la primera visión persa como perseguidor de herejes y responsable de la caída de Mani.

«One of them, at Sar Mashhad in Fars, reports an otherworldly journey granted to him by the gods in order for him to test the truth of Zoroastrian belief.» — el viaje se declara concedido para verificar la verdad de la fe, no buscado por el viajero.

«Kirdir implicitly declares that he is one of the righteous, for otherwise his daena would be old and ugly.» — lee la belleza de la daena como declaración implícita de justicia del propio narrador.

«According to Gignoux, the appearance of Kirdir's double is the key to this story, which he defines as shamanistic.» — deja a Gignoux la clave chamánica del relato: la aparición del doble.

«Indeed, the double is none other than Kirdir's free soul, his bony soul that can be projected out of the body.» — identifica ese doble con el alma libre proyectable fuera del cuerpo.

«Among the two visions, that of Virflz is certainly not only more extensive but also more authentic.» — compara las dos visiones persas y concede a la de Viraz mayor extensión y autenticidad.

«According to Zoroastrian belief, anyone who had undergone the initiation rite called Nawzod between the ages of seven and fifteen would go to Vishtasp's upper paradise, Garodman.» — consigna el rito de iniciación que condiciona el destino póstumo.

«Fereydun Vahman, the most recent commentator on this Iranian Divine Comedy, suggests that the narrative wishes to establish a link between the otherworldly journey of Viraz, meant to be a confirmation of the Zoroastrian faith, and the subsequent reform initiated by Adurbad.» — recoge de Vahman, con el suggests a cuenta, la función política del relato.

«Elected by the assembly to test the veracity of Zoroastrianism, Viraz is reluctant to take the potion of wine and henbane, especially since, as a faithful Mazdaean (Zoroastrian), he is married to his sisters, and there are no less than seven of them who protest, weeping and shouting.» — el viaje se emprende por encargo de la asamblea, mediante vino y beleño, y contra la resistencia del viajero.

«Yet Viraz himself makes preparations for a one-way voyage: he makes a will and performs the rites of the dead for himself.» — señala que el viajero se prepara como para un viaje sin retorno.

«Thus they arrive at the Cinvat Bridge. There the soul of Viraz remains until the third day. The explanation for this delay is found in another text, the HadOkht, which deals with the fate of the dead.» — sitúa el puente Cinvat y la espera de tres días como estación obligada del alma.

«Because of Viraz's merits, when he advances on the Cinvat Bridge it becomes nine lances wide.» — el ancho del puente depende del mérito del que lo cruza.

«Then Srosh and Adur take him on a tour of paradise and hell, but first they visit hammestaoan (purgatory), where people whose good and bad deeds are equal await resurrection, punished by an alternation of cold and heat.» — describe el purgatorio zoroástrico como lugar de los que tienen buenas y malas obras en equilibrio.

«There on shining thrones are righteous ones who were good and pious in their earthly lives, but who did not recite Mazdaean prayers, observe kin marriage, or practice "lordship, rulership, and leadership."» — consigna un grado de bienaventuranza reservado a los justos que no cumplieron las prácticas mazdeas.

«The great Archangel Vahman takes Viraz's hand and introduces him to the courtiers of the sovereign god, who are the bony souls of Zarathustra, Vishtasp, and other religious leaders and major supporters.» — el guía angélico presenta al viajero ante las almas de los fundadores.

«Eventually he is introduced to Ohrmazd himself, who greets him graciously and then orders the gods Srosh and Adur to show him the rewards of the good and the punishments of the wicked.» — la visita al cielo culmina en el encargo divino de ver premios y castigos.

«For example, according to Zoroastrian belief women can reach the highest abodes if they have "satisfied their husbands and lords, and were submissive, respectful and obedient to them";» — recoge sin suavizarla la retribución zoroástrica que premia la sumisión conyugal de la mujer.

«another meritorious deed that opens the gates of paradise is to kill many reptiles, because they are created by Ahriman, Ohnnazd's opponent.» — y la que hace mérito de matar reptiles por ser criaturas de Ahriman.

«Also, according to Mazdaean religion it is not good to shed tears for the departed because those tears contribute to a large afterlife river, and the souls of the dead havegreat difficulty crossing it.» — consigna la prohibición mazdea de llorar a los muertos y su fundamento.

«The second part of the story is more interesting, and it also reveals the basic oppositions on which the beyond is based: Ohrmazd as opposed to Ahriman is like being as opposed to nonbeing, paradise as opposed to hell, good as opposed to evil, and south as opposed to north.» — despeja la estructura dualista que ordena el más allá zoroástrico, orientación cardinal incluida.

«Thus, when Viraz is led back to the Cinvat Bridge to witness the fate of the wicked, the first thing that he notices is that a bad soul is met by "a cold stinking wind" rising from the north, the direction of the demons of Ahriman.» — el norte y el hedor marcan la entrada del alma condenada.

«Hell is pitch dark, narrow, "and in such stench that anyone getting that wind into his nose would struggle and tremble and fall.» — describe el infierno persa por la oscuridad, la estrechez y el hedor.

«It is impressive how frequently crimes derive from pollution and to what extent punishment is olfactory.» — señala que en ese infierno el delito es contaminación y el castigo, olfativo.

«At the bottom of hell, diametrically opposed to Ohrmazd's paradise, is Ahriman's hell, looking like a "dangerous, fearful, terrible, painful, harmful, stinking, very dark" place;» — sitúa el fondo del infierno en simetría exacta con el paraíso.

«This part of the story is repetitious: the categories of transgressors overlap with those already mentioned in the other layers of hell.» — descuenta el valor del tramo final por repetitivo.

«Thus, we find a woman who continuously cuts her breasts with an iron comb (and the breasts presumably grow back), because she was evil with her lord and husband and "she beautified herself and she whored with the husbands of others";» — recoge el castigo por los pecados sexuales femeninos tal como el texto los enumera.

«After leaving the dark, stinking abode of Ahriman, Viraz is led again before Ohrmazd, who is made only of light, and who does not have a body.» — el dios sin cuerpo cierra el relato.

«This episode must have originated due to pressure from the Muslim rejection of the anthropomorphism of God.» — explica ese dios incorpóreo como adaptación tardía a la crítica islámica del antropomorfismo.

«In the Western literary tradition, the blind storyteller Homer (whom legend and conjecture place about the eighth century B.C.E.) kicked off the genre that the Latin Middle Ages would later call pereBrinatio, meaning vagrancy or wandering around, rather than pilgrimage.» — sitúa en Homero el arranque del género y precisa que la palabra medieval significa vagabundeo, no peregrinación.

«Various traditions know of this type of journey by sea, usually leading to miraculous and often otherworldly territories.» — extiende el viaje marítimo a territorios de otro mundo en varias tradiciones.

«Suffice it to mention here the Celtic imrama (navigation narratives), which certainly predate the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, for the Arabs were reluctant to sail or build fleets.» — data los relatos célticos de navegación antes que los de Simbad.

«Odysseus's voyage can be---and has been-interpreted as simply symbolic.» — consigna la lectura simbólica de la Odisea sin hacerla suya.

«Yet the god Hermes gives Odysseus the herb of virtue, the mysterious plant moly, "black at the root" but with a milky flower, and thus Odysseus remains sober.» — la planta que protege al héroe frente a Circe es un don de Hermes, y lo mantiene sobrio.

«To my knowledge, Elemire Zolla is the first to have rectified Homer's perspective, which he has done in a recent essay.» — atribuye a Zolla la corrección de la perspectiva homérica sobre las diosas.

«The ancient goddesses of the matrifocal civilization of old Europe were conquered, but not finished.» — lee los encuentros de la Odisea como sometimiento incompleto de las diosas de la Europa matrifocal.

«In her autobiography, her father, angry at her determination not to marry, sends her away and tells the hordes of suitors that "whoever lays hands on her first can have her.!"» — abre el paralelo con la autobiografía de la tibetana Yeshe Tsogyel, entregada a quien la tomara primero.

«Yet because of her beauty and ornaments she was assailed by suitors, rapists, and thieves; and because of her asceticism, she was assailed bydemons.» — su belleza le trae agresores y su ascetismo, demonios.

«Yeshe's meditation is, however, powerful enough to transform them, some into nothingness, and some "into black corpses, some into bent and frail geriatrics, some into lepers, some into blind, deformed, dumb or ugly creatures.l» — la defensa de la santa es la meditación, que transforma a sus agresores.

«Anthropologists classify peoples as "pig lovers" and "pig haters." Judaism and Islam forbid consumption of pork, but Indonesians are great pig lovers.» — usa la clasificación antropológica del cerdo para situar la posesión balinesa por espíritus porcinos.

«In the Odyssey, Circe knows the location of Hades; it is across the stream Oceanus, where "into Acheron flows Pyriphlegeton, and Cocytus, a branch of the water of the Styx.» — quien conoce la ruta al Hades en el poema es Circe, y ella la dicta.

«She instructs Odysseus to dig a trench there and pour in offerings to the dead of mead, wine, and water in order to attract the ghost of the prophet Tiresias, who can foretell his future.» — describe el rito de la fosa y las libaciones con que se convoca al muerto.

«This leads to one of the most enigmatic parts of the Odyssey, the Nekyia (Scene of the dead) in» — señala la Nekyia como el pasaje más enigmático del poema.

«As soon as the blood of the slain sheep flows in the trench, spirits begin to swarm.» — la sangre es lo que atrae a las sombras.

«One of them is Odysseus's former companion Elpenor, who fell off the roof of Circe's cottage when he forgot that he was supposed to use the ladder; he demands to be buried, lest he bring Odysseus bad luck.» — el muerto sin sepultura reclama entierro bajo amenaza de desgracia.

«The Latin poet Virgil, who was also an ideologist of the grandeur of Rome under the Augustan empire, imitates the Homeric Nekyia scene in the Sixth Book of his epic Aeneid.» — sitúa la reescritura virgiliana de la Nekyia dentro de la ideología imperial augustea.

«More enigmatic than the Homeric Nekyia, the Sixth Book of the Aeneid reflects all of the changes undergone by traditional eschatology during the imperial period.» — y la lee como registro de los cambios escatológicos del periodo imperial.

«In his posthumously published Elysion: On Ancient Greek and Roman Beliefs Concernine a Life '!fier Death, W E Jackson Knight shows that ancient Greece had two distinct beliefs about the spirits of the dead.» — recoge de Jackson Knight la existencia de dos creencias griegas distintas sobre los muertos.

«In general, the Greeks believed that the dead survived in a shadowy Hades, but that in the case of special people, the "heroes"-local celebrities, mythological characters, great warriors, seers, or rulers-their psyche remained on earth and interfered in human affairs.» — separa la sombra del Hades del héroe que permanece activo en la tierra.

«In pre-Homeric Greece, spirits manifested themselves as keres, "little flying, insect-like creatures."» — describe la forma prehomérica del espíritu como criatura alada diminuta.

«The Roman generic ghosts were called manes (although there were other kinds as well);» — nombra a los manes como los muertos genéricos romanos.

«Most soothsayers, however, were called psychomanteis or psychopotnpoi (soul raisers).» — nombra al especialista griego en levantar almas.

«According to Pierre Boyance, the Pythagoreans enquired about the posthumous fate of their recently dead by using an uncommon method of divination called alektryomancy. On a table were traced squares containing the letters of the alphabet, and in each square seeds were placed. After proper incantations, a white rooster was released, and the letters were read in the order in which the rooster pecked the seeds. The interpretation of the oracle is unknown.» — describe de Boyancé la adivinación pitagórica por gallo y alfabeto, y cierra declarando que no se sabe cómo se interpretaba.

«One of Hermes' main functions was to act as psychopompos (leader of souls) on their way to Hades (see, for example, the Odyssey 24:S).» — fija la primera función de Hermes: conducir almas al Hades.

«But he was equally a soul raiser (psychaB0BoS) who could take souls back to this world, for a brief appearance or perhaps even to install them in new bodies.» — y la segunda, traerlas de vuelta, incluso a cuerpos nuevos.

«Often he was represented with two or three bodies, and sometimes with three heads (tricephalous), by reason of which the allegedly Egyptian Hellenistic god Hermes-Thoth was called trismeaistos (three times great).» — deriva el epíteto de tres veces grande de las representaciones tricéfalas del dios.

«Asclepius, the famous heros iattos (healing hero) was, according to Pindar, the son of Apollo and the unfaithful mortal Coronis.» — la genealogía de Asclepio se cita de Píndaro.

«In a moment of anger, Zeus struck him with lightning in punishment for his healing talent: "the dead were continually growing fewer because they were healed by Asclepius.» — el héroe curador es fulminado precisamente por curar demasiado.

«Like Heracles, after death he was accepted into the divine pantheon" and worshiped in temples where he effected cures by sending his patients dreams the meaning of which was sometimes interpreted by a professional physician.» — describe la incubación en los templos de Asclepio, con el sueño como medio de la cura.

«The ritual in preparation for incubation in the temples of Asclepius was simple: the patient had to bathe in cold water and offer sacrifice.» — y su preparación mínima: baño frío y sacrificio.

«If this omen is good, the postulant makes further preparations for his descent (katabasis) into the sanctuary, which is symbolically a descent to Hades.» — describe el descenso a la cueva de Trofonio como bajada simbólica al Hades.

«He is bathed at night by two local boys called Hermai (Hermes was the soul leader) in the cold water of Herkyna; then he drinks from the water of two springs called Lethe and Mnemosyne ("forgetfulness" and "memory").» — el rito preparatorio incluye beber de las fuentes del olvido y la memoria.

«If so, he would have had access to the valuable library of wooden tablets on which everyone coming out of the cave was supposed to write down the account of his experience; these records were stored by the priests.» — consigna que los relatos de los que salían de la cueva se archivaban en tablillas.

«Thus freed from the body, Timarch's soul expands happily like a sail in the wind, listening to the music of the spheres and watching the stars like islands floating in the ocean of ether.» — describe la salida del alma de Timarco y su vista de las estrellas como islas en el éter.

«The idea that it is through the skull that the soul comes out is surprising; one finds it also in shamanistic and especially in Indo-Tibetan testimonies.» — señala la coincidencia entre el relato griego y los testimonios indotibetanos sobre la salida del alma por el cráneo.

«Yet, under the name of Apollo of Hyperborea, he also possessed a very special category of seers, the Iatromantes (from the Greek words iatros [healer] and mantis [prophet]), said to be pboibolamptoi or phoiboleptoi (possessed by Phoebus-Apollo).» — define al iatromante como médico y profeta a la vez, bajo la advocación hiperbórea de Apolo.

«These prophets, however, were not shamans.» — y deslinda de entrada: esos profetas no eran chamanes.

«The fuller left to fetch his family, but when they returned Aristeas was not there any more.» — refiere la desaparición del cuerpo de Aristeas tras darlo por muerto.

«Obviously, he had been in a near-death state but recovered.» — y la explica como estado cercano a la muerte del que se recobró.

«Stories of sensory deprivation abound in connection with the Iatromantes, unlike other entheoi (possessed people) like the Maenads, who clearly used sensory bombardment in their ecstatic methods, such as dance and wine.» — opone las dos técnicas del éxtasis griego: privación sensorial en los iatromantes, bombardeo en las ménades.

«Antiphanes, a popular author of comedies in the fourth century B.C.E., ascribed to the Pythagoreans the use of halimos in their diet.» — el dato sobre la dieta pitagórica viene de un comediógrafo, y así se consigna.

«In his Life of Pythaaoras, Porphyry also asserted that the shaman from Samos ate alimos, perhaps instead of halimos.» — recoge la variante de Porfirio y deja sin resolver cuál de las dos plantas era.

«Abaris avoided food, while Pythagoras reputedly died of starvation.» — la abstinencia alimentaria llega en estos personajes hasta la inanición.

«Abaris, Bakis, Empedocles, and Epimenides were "purifiers," a business that consisted in driving away miasma from a town.» — define el oficio del purificador griego como expulsión del miasma de la ciudad.

«Abaris could sway powerful winds, and Empedocles specialized in it, for which he gained the title ofalexanemos (wind repeller).» — atribuye a estos personajes el dominio de los vientos, con título propio.

«He actually entrapped winds in leather bags, and he promised his disciples shamanic power over wind and rain, adding that they would also be able to recover souls of the dead from Hades.» — y la promesa que Empédocles hace a sus discípulos incluye recobrar almas del Hades.

«Pythagoras, according to Heraclides of Pontus, was Hermes' son, and had received from his father the gift of recollection of his past incarnations.» — la memoria de las vidas pasadas se atribuye a Pitágoras por vía de Heraclides Póntico.

«Obviously, Phormion's guests were the Dioscuri themselves; displeased with his treatment, they wanted to show him a man who had true respect for them.» — recoge el relato de los Dioscuros que hieren y curan al mismo hombre.

«The same ambivalence of the healing hero occurs in the legend of Leonymus of Athens, who took part in the same battle of Sagra and was wounded by Ajax.» — señala esa ambivalencia —herir y sanar— como rasgo del héroe curador.

«Obviously Leuke is an otherworldly country where dead heroes live on.» — identifica Leuke como país de otro mundo habitado por héroes muertos.

«Only' here the usual shamanic roles are reversed: instead of taking the otherworldly route in order to find the lost soul of a patient, the shaman goes rather in search of an otherworldly healer who can cure the shaman's own illness.» — señala la inversión del papel chamánico en estas leyendas griegas: el viajero busca sanador, no alma.

«It was enough for Stesichorus to write a recantation (palinode), and he recovered his sight.» — la retractación escrita basta para deshacer el castigo del héroe.

«So far we have found in Greece beliefs and specialists whose traits are very close to those of shamans and medicine men of other areas of the world.» — resume el hallazgo del capítulo: en Grecia hay figuras muy próximas a los chamanes de otras áreas.

«This has been the object of a long and inconclusive debate.» — y declara sin cerrar el debate sobre cómo llamarlas.

«It took scholars some time to recognize the differences between the Iatromantes and the cult of Dionysus.» — señala que la erudición tardó en separar al iatromante del culto dionisíaco.

«He therefore made of Dionysus a Thracian intruder who brought to Greece a lot of nonsense akin to shamanism and yoga.» — consigna la lectura de Rohde, que hacía de Dioniso un intruso tracio.

«Meuli astutely assessed the similarities among many of the medicine men mentioned in this chapter, and he explained them as a phenomenon of shamanism.» — atribuye a Meuli la explicación chamánica de esas semejanzas.

«This shamanism, he believed, was partly borrowed from the Scythians, with whom the Greeks had been in contact in the seventh century B.e.E., and partly the result of a process of cultural growth that the Greeks, like all other ethnic groups, had to undergo.» — y recoge su doble origen: préstamo escita y desarrollo propio.

«We owe to Eric R. Dodds (The Greeks and the Irrational, 19SI) the word "Iatromantes," and to E M. Cornford (Principium Sapientiae, 19S2) the idea that Greek philosophy was an outcome of earlier shamanic speculations on the soul.» — adjudica el término a Dodds y a Cornford la tesis del origen chamánico de la filosofía griega.

«Superficially seen, Plato was a playful dialectician, but deeply understood, he was an extremely religious man.» — lee a Platón como hombre religioso bajo la superficie dialéctica.

«Thus the body (soma) is the tomb (serna) of the soul; or, playing on a perfect homonymy, the body (soma) is like the guardian (soma) of the soul's prison.» — recoge el juego de palabras platónico que hace del cuerpo tumba y carcelero del alma.

«In the dialogue Cratylus (aocc), Plato records all sorts of puns on the relationship of soul to body, and he agrees with most of them.» — y señala que Platón suscribe la mayoría de esos juegos.

«Unfortunately, although in the Republic Plato assigns equal social roles to men and women, he thinks women are ontologically inferior.» — consigna la desigualdad ontológica que Platón mantiene pese a la igualdad de funciones.

«If the soul leads a strict philosophical life three times in a row, it has a chance to remain in perpetual contemplation. However, this happens very rarely.» — describe la condición platónica de la contemplación perpetua y su rareza.

«Accordingly, the afterlife is full of movement: souls are continually ascending and descending, spending time in heaven or in the underground Hades described in full detail in the dialogue Phaedo.» — describe el más allá platónico como circulación continua de almas entre cielo y Hades.

«Just as only a few winged souls of philosophers deserve full recompense for their oustanding merits, only a few souls of major profligates deserve eternal punishment in hell.» — acota la simetría: pocos merecen la recompensa plena y pocos el castigo eterno.

«The earth's surface, called "true earth," is beyond our reach, but even if it were not, the experience of getting there would be unbearable, like a fish trying to breathe air.» — expone la tierra verdadera platónica y el símil del pez que respira aire.

«Not so the true earth, whose ground is made of precious stones far superior to those known to us, and it is full of gold and silver, and marvelous trees and animals.» — describe esa tierra verdadera como paraíso de piedras preciosas.

«Indeed, ether, the element above the heads of the inhabitants of the true earth, is to air as air is to water.» — ordena los elementos por proporción, del agua al éter.

«Accordingly, the planets, which are made of stellar fire, are much better than the surface of the earth itself, and the world of ideal intelligences is much superior to the planets and stars themselves.» — establece la jerarquía por altura que gobernará después toda la escatología celestial.

«Plato and his disciples Aristotle and Heraclides of Pontus were heirs to the Greek scientific revolution.» — sitúa a Platón y sus discípulos como herederos de la revolución científica griega.

«Many scholars claim that this change in cosmological beliefs was prepared and perhaps produced by a shamanic sect, the Pythagoreans, whose founder, Pythagoras of Samos, was among the most prestigious Greek Iatromantes before Socrates.» — consigna, como afirmación de otros, que ese cambio cosmológico saliera de una secta chamánica.

«Babylonians and Egyptians had long been practicing astrology and astronomy, but they supposed that heaven was like a concave lid covering the world, on which the planets moved among fixed stars.» — describe el cielo como tapa cóncava antes de la hipótesis de Eudoxo.

«Eudoxus started from a daring hypothesis, which astonishingly proved to be nearly true.» — señala que la hipótesis de Eudoxo resultó casi acertada.

«The second, which for some obscure reason of a coincidental nature proved to be nearly correct, was to link the distance of a planet from earth to the length of the revolution of the planet around the earth.» — y atribuye a la coincidencia el acierto de ligar distancia y periodo.

«According to this hypothesis, the planets revolve around the earth, except for Mercury and Venus, which revolve around the sun, being satellites of the sun (helios).» — expone la hipótesis geoheliocéntrica de Heraclides.

«Under the pressure of Eudoxus's hypotheses, heaven suddenly gained a depth in space that had been absent previously.» — sostiene que la hipótesis de Eudoxo dio al cielo una profundidad que antes no tenía.

«Despite his innovations, Plato remained committed to a popular, traditional image of the judgment of the dead, which took place partly in an underground Hades and partly in heaven.» — señala que Platón no abandonó la imagen popular del juicio pese a su cosmología nueva.

«Plato himself struck the first note of generalization of heavenly eschatology by moving the isles of the blessed from the earth to the celestial zone, called true earth (the earth's true surface).» — data en Platón el traslado de las islas de los bienaventurados de la tierra al cielo.

«He may not have been the only one responsible-as J. D. P Bolton asserted in a 1963 book-for the vogue enjoyed by heavenly eschatology, but he was certainly instrumental in creating alternative views of the destiny of the dead.» — reparte la responsabilidad del auge de la escatología celestial sin adjudicarla a uno solo.

«It is very difficult to conclude, from these disconnected fragments, if indeed Heraclides believed that there was no underground Hades at all.» — se abstiene ante fragmentos insuficientes para decidir qué creía Heraclides.

«The publication thirty years ago of Heraclides' extant fragments by the Swiss scholar Fritz Wehrli belatedly exonerated the philosopher from such shameful misinterpretations.» — consigna que la edición de los fragmentos deshizo lecturas erradas del filósofo.

«He wrote a dialogue called Abaris (the name of the Hyperborean Iatromante who came to Greece riding on Apollo's arrow), a tractate on near-death experiences (Apnous), and another one called On rhinos in Hell, all of which have been lost.» — inventaria la obra perdida de Heraclides sobre apnea y descenso al infierno.

«It appears that Heraclides was quite an interesting reformer of Greek eschatology, a clever astronomer, and a consequential thinker.» — reivindica a Heraclides como reformador de la escatología griega y astrónomo.

«In Plato's Republic, Er contemplates two gates in the region of midearth: the "gate of heaven" by which souls ascend, and the "gate of the earth" by which souls descend.» — describe las dos puertas del mundo medio en el mito de Er.

«Empedotimus is reported to have seen three gates in one of his otherworldly visions, one located in the zodiacal sign of Scorpio (which was the gate of Hercules, leading to the astral gods), another. one located between Leo and Cancer, and a third one located between Aquarius and Pisces.» — Empedotimo ve tres puertas y las sitúa en el zodiaco, donde Er veía dos.

«Empedotimus also called the Milky Way "the way of the souls going through the heavenly Hades,":" and he was supposed to believe that the realm of Hades extended from the earth to the sphere of the sun.» — con él la Vía Láctea pasa a ser el camino de las almas y el Hades sube al cielo.

«It is also said that in the middle of a desert he suddenly encountered Pluto and Persephone and then attended the judgment of the dead.» — consigna el encuentro en el desierto como cosa dicha, sin respaldarla.

«It came from Clearchus of Soli, a contemporary of Heraclides. Clearchus told the story of one Cleonymus of Athens, who went through a near-death experience.» — identifica en Clearco la fuente del relato de Cleónimo.

«The two cataleptics witnessed the judgment, punishment, and purification of the souls of the dead under supervision of the Erinyes.» — dos catalépticos coinciden en el mismo lugar del otro mundo y presencian el juicio.

«The Latin writer Cornelius Labeo reported a very similar story, which unfortunately is mistranslated in the latest edition of his Ftapments/» — señala un error de traducción en la edición vigente de Cornelio Labeón.

«Plutarch of Chaeronea in Boeotia (ca. So-I20 c.s.) was a learned Platonic philosopher who was particularly interested in traditional religion-both he and his wife were priests of Greek gods.» — sitúa a Plutarco como filósofo platónico y sacerdote en ejercicio.

«Plutarch seems also to move the Platonic Hades from the underground space where Plato locates it to a zone beneath and on the moon.» — el traslado del Hades platónico a la luna se le atribuye con el seems por delante.

«Plutarch is clever enough to describe the vision in vivid and colorful terms; yet behind every element there is some astronomical notion.» — sostiene que bajo cada imagen de la visión plutarquea hay una noción astronómica.

«The moon plays a crucial role in Plutarch's eschatology.» — hace de la luna la pieza central de esa escatología.

«For while the rest of the islands belong to gods, the Moon belongs to terrestrial daemons and avoids the Styx by passing slightly above it.» — la luna queda como territorio de los demonios terrestres, apenas por encima de la Estigia.

«The moon is full of hollows and recesses.» — describe la luna horadada de cavidades.

«The largest of them is called 'Hecate's recess,' where the souls suffer and exact penalties for whatever they have endured or committed after having already become Spirits; and the two long ones are called 'The Gates,' for through them pass the souls now to the side of the Moon that faces heaven and now back to the side that faces earth.» — la cita de Plutarco describe la luna como puerta perforada entre la tierra y el cielo.

«With Plutarch, Platonic eschatology is maintained, while all its elements are transferred to heaven.» — resume la operación de Plutarco: conserva la escatología platónica y la sube entera al cielo.

«Plutarch also authored another apocalypse based on the near-death experience of a certain Aridaeus of Soli, in De sera numinis vindicta (On the belated vengeance of the gods; S63b-- 68f).» — sitúa el segundo apocalipsis plutarqueo en el tratado sobre la venganza tardía de los dioses.

«He fell from a certain height upon the nape of his neck and died not from a wound, but from the stroke only.» — la salida del alma la desencadena un golpe en la nuca, no una herida.

«The rational soul of Aridaeus leaves his body (actually, the skull) upon concussion, undergoing a sudden and abrupt transformation (metabole) similar to that which a ship pilot would undergo "falling from his ship in the watery abyss.» — describe la salida como metabole brusca, con el símil del piloto que cae al mar.

«After the initial shock, the soul recovers sight and hearing, enjoying its freedom and "breathing all over." "Open like a single eye," it can now "see around in all directions at once.» — el alma liberada percibe en todas direcciones a la vez, como un ojo único.

«This allows it to see the spectacle of the souls of the dead; like balls of light changing into human shapes, they move up from the earth, some following a direct path, but most, frightened, following a disorderly route.» — las almas suben como bolas de luz, la mayoría en desorden.

«At this point, the soul of a relative who died young comes toward him and calls him by his new name, Thespesius.» — el guía es un pariente muerto que le da nombre nuevo.

«In other apocalypses, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian (see chapters 9 and I I, below), this function belongs to an angel or to someone like Virgil for Dante, that is, to a venerated precursor.» — señala que la función del guía la cubren en otras tradiciones un ángel o un precursor venerado.

«The first sequence introduces us to the messengers of justice, Adrasteia and the three Erinyes, who distribute penances for different kinds of sins.» — ordena la visión en secuencias y abre por las mensajeras de la justicia.

«The second sequence deals with the "scars" left by sins on the soul (s6sb), a motif borrowed from Plato (GoIBias S23d-24e).» — deriva de Platón el motivo de las cicatrices que el pecado deja en el alma.

«There is no clear explanation of why these four colors were chosen by Plutarch.» — se abstiene ante el sistema de colores del alma: no hay explicación clara de por qué son cuatro.

«If Plutarch had the planets in mind, however, it is impossible to understand why he picked only four and not five or seven colors.» — y descarta por aritmética la lectura planetaria de esos colores.

«In the third sequence we meet a special category of the dead: those who, during their lifetime, had been initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus (s6sa-s66a).» — aísla como categoría aparte a los iniciados en los misterios dionisíacos.

«This occupation causes the rational soul to accumulate moisture and become heavy; it is weighed down by the cycle of rebirth, for birth (aenesis) is nothing but an inclination toward the earth (epi Ben neusis).» — recoge el juego de palabras que hace del nacimiento una inclinación hacia la tierra.

«Plutarch is especially harsh toward Dionysus's mysteries, for the true initiate, usually initiated in the major mysteries of Eleusis, is never supposed to be reborn again in the world.» — señala la dureza de Plutarco con los misterios dionisíacos frente a los de Eleusis.

«From a place at the summit, his or her soul contemplates "the mud of the world" below and has absolutely no desire to return there.» — el iniciado verdadero mira el lodo del mundo sin deseo de volver.

«A fourth sequence shows that Plutarch was also rough on Orpheus, who visited the beyond in pursuit of his wife Eurydice, but did not remember well what he saw and» — Plutarco descuenta también a Orfeo, cuyo recuerdo del más allá le parece defectuoso.

«A fifth sequence is meant to emphasize that no one has ever visited a region above the moon and lived to tell about it.» — fija el límite del viaje: nadie pasó de la luna y volvió a contarlo.

«The seventh and last episode takes Thespesius to the place where souls are apportioned the kinds of bodies they deserve in order to go down into the world.» — cierra la visión en el lugar donde se reparten los cuerpos de la próxima vida.

«Plotinus's philosophy is Platonism; yet the solutions now given to many problems left unsolved by Plato are Aristotelian.» — describe el sistema de Plotino como platonismo con soluciones aristotélicas.

«The goal of Platonic mysticism is higher than a visit to the heavenly Hades: it is a visit to the essence of all essences, which is beyond the universe and cannot be described.» — con Plotino la meta deja de ser el Hades celeste y pasa a lo indescriptible.

«All duality being absent, no vision or drama unfolds, unlike most of the apocalypses examined so far.» — y ahí el viaje deja de tener escenografía: sin dualidad no hay visión ni drama.

«The Greek word apokalypsis means "uncovering, revelation." It applies to a body of literature belonging to various traditions: Greek, Jewish, Christian, Gnostic, Iranian, and so on.» — define el apocalipsis por su sentido de revelación y lo declara transversal a varias tradiciones.

«Collins defines apocalypse as a "literary genre." "Apocalypse is a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world.» — la definición del género es de J. J. Collins y su equipo, citada con su nombre.

«From this distinction between a "horizontal," historical axis and a "vertical," ontological axis two types of apocalypses» — de la distinción entre eje histórico y eje ontológico salen los apocalipsis con viaje y sin él.

«As Collins and other authors frequently note, it is often difficult to ascertain to what extent a Judeo-Christian apocalypse is not just a Judaic apocalypse rewritten to include Christian motifs.» — advierte que separar lo judío de lo cristiano en estos textos suele ser indecidible.

«It is far more difficult to find a place for the examination of Gnostic otherworldly journeys, because they follow two different patterns.» — señala que los viajes gnósticos no caben en un solo patrón.

«As the debate about the existence of a "Judaic Gnosticism" and about the relationship between Gnosticism and Judaism is still open, the above-mentioned Gnostic apocalypses are discussed in this chapter,» — deja abierto el debate sobre el gnosticismo judío y justifica con eso su ordenación del material.

«In 1981, we proposed a parallel classification of apocalypses based on the attitude of the main character going on the otherworldly journey;" this classification contains three categories.» — reclama para sí una clasificación por la actitud del protagonista, propuesta en 1981.

«In "call" or "elective" apocalypses, the hero is elected from above by virtue of special merits he has accumulated in respect to the other world.» — define la primera categoría: el apocalipsis de llamado.

«Some apocalypses take place "by accident," as a result of an accident or a serious illness; in this case, personal merit is unnecessary.» — y la segunda, el accidental, donde el mérito no cuenta.

«This classification allows us to understand some of the 'major differences between the Judaic (and Christian) tradition of otherworldly journeys, and other traditions, such as the Greek or the Iranian.» — sostiene que esa clasificación separa la tradición judía de la griega y la irania.

«It is typical for jewish apocalypses to be call apocalypses. 5 Narratives of quest apocalypses seem to be completely missing in the Jewjsh tradition, and only one apocalypse, which has no otherworldly journey and, besides, was thoroughly influenced by Greek models, seems to belong to the category of accidental apocalypses.» — la tradición judía concentra los apocalipsis de llamado y carece de los de búsqueda.

«Studying a number of Jewish apocalypses (1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, The Testament of Levi, 3 Baruch, The Testament of Abraham, 4 Ezra, and The Apocalypse of Abraham), Mary Dean-Otting, a student of Johann Maier of Cologne, has come to the conclusion that all Jewish apocalypses share a number of traits: they are what we have defined as "call-apocalypses."?» — apoya esa conclusión en el trabajo de Dean-Otting, citada con su nombre.

«It should therefore not come as a surprise that most otherworldly journeys in Jewish apocalyptic literature are attributed to two of the three men who went to heaven without dying: Enoch, Elijah, and Moses.» — explica la nómina de viajeros judíos por la de los tres que subieron al cielo sin morir.

«A third one might have been abducted to heaven as well, for "no one knows the place of his burial to this day" (Deut. 34:6); that one is Moses.» — funda el rapto de Moisés en el silencio bíblico sobre su sepultura.

«Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 B.C.E.-SO C.E.) interpreted Moses' ascent to Mount Sinai as an ascent to heaven,8 and Josephus Flavius reports a tradition according to which Moses did not die, but was simply taken to heaven.» — recoge de Filón y de Josefo las lecturas del Sinaí como ascenso celestial.

«Based on the Aramaic fragments of 1 Enoch discovered at Qumran in 1952, J. T. Milik was able to date its most ancient parts to the beginning of the third century B.C.E..» — la datación del Enoc etiópico se apoya en Milik y en los fragmentos de Qumrán.

«This vision seems to Johan Maier to be "the purest, simplest and earliest ascent description" in 1 Enoch.» — deja a Maier el juicio sobre cuál es la descripción más antigua del ascenso.

«The German scholar sees in it the influence of chapter I of the vision of the prophet Ezekiel: the chariot (merkabah) with God's throne on it.» — y su derivación de la visión del carro de Ezequiel.

«It should therefore not surprise us to see that a whole cycle of otherworldly journeys appears under his name, containing not only 2 Enoch (or The Slavonic Book if Enoch) and 3 Enoch (or The Hebrew Book ifEnoch), but also traditions that report his name as Metatron ("angel of the throne").» — describe el ciclo enóquico y la identificación de Enoc con el ángel Metatrón.

«In the seventh and last heaven, Enoch enters God's court and is adopted as an angel, more precisely as a scribe-angel, to whom the archangel Vrevoel (possibly Uriel) dictates all the secrets of heaven and earth in 360 books.» — la transformación de Enoc en ángel escriba se consuma en el séptimo cielo.

«God himself then dictates the secrets of creation, part of which sound like an Eastern European dualistic legend and which must therefore originate from the Slavic context.» — detecta en el texto eslavo una capa dualista de origen local.

«The angel-guide opens to Levi the gates of heaven, and he beholds "the holy temple and the Most High upon a throne of glory" (5:I), after which he receives priestly investiture and the weapons to be used against his sister's rapist.» — en el Testamento de Leví la visión celeste desemboca en investidura sacerdotal y en armas para la venganza.

«The division of heavens is more rational than in 2 Enoch, for they show increasing holiness according to the Platonic principle that "what is higher is better.» — ordena los cielos por el principio platónico de que lo más alto es lo mejor.

«The same Levi is made by biblical tradition into the ancestor of the priestly tribe of the Levites, although it is questionable whether there is any historical connection between the tribe and Levitic priesthood.» — pone en duda el vínculo histórico entre la tribu y el sacerdocio levítico.

«The text, of uncertain date, is a product of Hellenized judaism.» — data el Tercer Baruc solo como producto del judaísmo helenizado, sin fijar fecha.

«The angel-interpreter Phanuel comes and gives him a tour of heaven, leading him first to the firmament, then» — el guía angélico de Baruc lo lleva por los cielos.

«In the fifth and last heaven, Baruch sees the first of 365 gates and the archangel Michael, supreme commander of the angels, descending with a clash of thunder, a vessel in his hand containing the merits of the righteous to be presented to god.» — la visión culmina en Miguel con el vaso de los méritos de los justos.

«Michael gives Abraham a heavenly tour in his chariot.» — en el Testamento de Abraham el guía es Miguel y el vehículo, su carro.

«The Vision e!f Isaiah forms the second part of the apocryphal Ascension e!fIsaiah, consisting of a "Martyrdom of Isaiah" section and of a "Vision" or apocalypse section containing an otherworldly journey.» — separa las dos partes del texto: martirio y visión.

«Yet, as we have shown in a series of books and articles, Greek influence becomes increasingly important in time, so as to allow one to state that two different apocalyptic traditions developed in Christianity.» — sostiene, remitiendo a su propio trabajo, que en el cristianismo se desarrollaron dos tradiciones apocalípticas.

«To understand this passage, one must know who the angels in the firmament are and who Sammael is.» — hace depender la lectura del texto de identificar a los ángeles de las naciones.

«Sammael is simply the national angel of Rome. Yet another tradition, certainly not contradictory, makes of Sammael the angel of death.» — identifica a Sammael como ángel nacional de Roma y consigna la otra tradición sin oponerlas.

«This short passage shows us that the "Vision" must have been composed during a period of time when Rome, and therefore its angel, was particularly powerful and thus hateful;» — data el texto por el odio a Roma que su ángel condensa.

«In the second heaven Isaiah sees an enthroned angel and wants to pay homage to him (probably thinking that he is God).» — recoge el motivo del ángel entronizado confundido con Dios.

«A similar episode also appears in two other Jewish apocalypses of the same period, 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, and in a nameless Coptic (Christian) apocalypse.» — y lo documenta en otros apocalipsis de la misma época.

«In the third heaven, Isaiah begins to change into a heavenly being, as Enoch did.» — la transformación del visionario en ser celestial se repite de Enoc a Isaías.

«Obviously, this otherworldly journey of Isaiah is entirely Jewish and has nothing Christian about it.» — adjudica el viaje de Isaías al fondo judío pese a la transmisión cristiana del texto.

«For a long time, the study of Jewish mysticism was dominated by the imposing figure of a patriarch, Gershom Scholem (18971982).» — sitúa a Scholem como figura dominante del campo.

«The conclusion that can be drawn from this remark is that Scholem was not strictly a scholar of mysticism.» — y matiza: Scholem era historiador antes que estudioso de la mística.

«He had a unique knowledge of the bibliography of Jewish mysticism, but he was inclined to edit out the more technical parts in his descriptions of mystical doctrines.» — le reconoce el dominio bibliográfico y le señala la supresión de lo técnico.

«Respectful of the complexity of data and problems, Ithamar Gruenwald, who never hastens to assert a unilateral position but always strives toward global understanding, is the safest gUide today to the fascinating world of early Jewish mysticism.» — propone a Gruenwald como guía más segura por su reserva ante las posiciones unilaterales.

«The ecstatic technique is called ma'aseh merkabah (work of the chariot).» — nombra la técnica extática judía como obra del carro.

«It derives its biblical legitimacy from the vision of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel I), who contemplates the formidable throne of God transported on a chariot (merkabah) carried by various sorts of angels.» — y funda su legitimidad bíblica en la visión de Ezequiel.

«The first testimonies of merkabah mysticism occur as early as the authorship of 1 Enoch (14:11-19), in the third century B.C.E.» — data los primeros testimonios de la mística del carro en el siglo III antes de nuestra era.

«In the blessed times of the Palestinian Tannaites it was agreeable to God to see the rabbis talking about the mysteries of the chariot and the throne, although this was not without great danger, as fire would descend from heaven during such talks.» — recoge los relatos del fuego celeste que envolvía a los rabinos al tratar los misterios del carro.

«Times changed, however, and the rabbis eventually came to look with suspicion on these esoteric practices and to warn against them.» — registra el giro de la curiosidad rabínica a la sospecha.

«The tradition of an esoteric teaching transmitted from rabbi to disciple is reflected in the narrative framework of a classic of hekhaloth literature, the Maaseh Merkabah, a dialogue between master (Rabbi Akiba) and disciple (Rabbi Ishmael).» — señala que la forma dialogada del texto refleja la transmisión de maestro a discípulo.

«Procedures for ascent are suspiciously simple: by uttering the formula SDYR TYKRY 'M YBY' BYHW SWWSH 'P RWP WYHM and the like, and with no less than forty days of fasting, the Angel of the Countenance descends with his frightening hosts.» — describe la técnica y desconfía de su simpleza, con el ayuno de cuarenta días como precio.

«Either in dialogic or, more often, in apocalyptic form, hekhaloth literature describes the details of the otherworldly journey, designated as a "descent to the metkabah" despite the indisputable fact that it is a heavenly ascent.» — señala la paradoja del nombre: se llama descenso a lo que es un ascenso.

«Rabbi Ishmael said: All the haverim [companions, that is, initiated disciples] liken this to a man who has a ladder in the middle of his house, who ascends and descends on it and there is no creature to stop him.» — la imagen de la escalera en casa propia es del texto rabínico, y dice qué significa saber el secreto del carro.

«When anyone would want to descend to the Chariot, he would call upon Surya, the Angel of the Presence, and make him swear [to protect him] one hundred and twelve times in the name of Tutruseah-YHVH» — describe la invocación de Surya y el juramento repetido como condición del viaje.

«The function- of the guards of the sixth palace is to kill those who are "unworthy of the task.» — los guardianes del sexto palacio matan al indigno.

«If Dumiel, the chief guard of the sixth hekhal, decides that the mystic has enough knowledge of the Jewish tradition, he leads him before the throne of glory.» — y el paso depende del conocimiento que el místico tenga de la tradición.

«The formidable names of the guardians of the seventh hekhal derive directly from the unutterable name of God.» — deriva los nombres de los guardianes del nombre impronunciable.

«Only Akiba ascended and descended in peace.» — de los cuatro rabinos que entraron al Paraíso, solo uno volvió indemne.

«According to the early tradition transmitted by 1 Enoch, Enoch was a Jewish culture hero;» — presenta a Enoc como héroe cultural en la tradición más antigua.

«God gave him an extremely important job, which he performed sitting in the Garden of Eden: he was God's scribe and archivist.» — y como escriba y archivista de Dios, sentado.

«Yet Metatron retains one characteristic of Enoch the human being: he can sit.» — de esa postura queda el rasgo que distingue a Metatrón de los demás ángeles.

«When Elisha ben Abuyah goes to heaven, he--like Isaiah and others mentioned above--sees a being sitting on a glorious throne and mistakes him for God himself, knowing that only God can sit and the angels cannot.» — y ese rasgo explica el error del visionario que confunde al ángel sentado con Dios.

«The Sej'er ha-razim (Book of secrets), reconstructed in 1966 by Mordecai Margalioth, is a composite text dated variously between the fourth and the seventh century C.E.» — data el Sefer ha-razim solo por horquilla, y consigna que es texto reconstruido.

«difference between the Sej'er ha-razirn and hekhaloth literature is that, whereas the latter makes the otherworldly journey into a goal in itself, the former uses knowledge about heavenly beings» — distingue el fin del viaje: meta en sí en la literatura de los palacios, medio mágico en el libro de secretos.

«Noticing analogies between Gnosticism and early Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem holds that the latter is derived from the former; he therefore calls merkabah mysticism "Jewish Gnosticism."» — expone la tesis de Scholem sobre el gnosticismo judío.

«Yet, with particular discretion, Gruenwald never polemicizes against his predecessors or boasts about his discoveries.» — señala la discreción de Gruenwald frente a sus predecesores.

«Obviously, Scholem is wrong on one point only: far from being Gnostic in themselves, all of the above-mentioned motifs are already present in Hellenistic magic, from which, it is legitimate to assume, both Jewish mystics and Gnostics borrowed.» — corrige a Scholem por la vía de la magia helenística, fuente común de gnósticos y místicos.

«Therefore, no claim of precedence can be made, either by Gnosticism over merkabah mysticism or vice versa.» — y de ahí concluye que ninguna de las dos tiene prioridad sobre la otra.

«Unlike many of his colleagues, however, Gruenwald does not reverse the traditional explanation, which derives Gnosticism from early Jewish mysticism.» — sitúa a Gruenwald fuera de la inversión que otros hacen.

«His arguments are sound and convincing; they seem to enforce the view that the problem of the historical origins of Gnosticism is actually based on a theoretical fallacy.» — sostiene que la pregunta misma por el origen histórico del gnosticismo es una falacia teórica.

«While this is true, it does not take awaythe probability that a whole series of mythical motifs were borrowed by the Gnostics from Judaism, if only because the anti-Judaic attitude of some of them presupposes an active confrontation with Judaism (this is Birger Pearson's thesis).» — mantiene aun así el préstamo de motivos, apoyado en la tesis de Pearson.

«Only a survey of Gnostic otherworldly journeys can show to what extent the main pattern of ascent is similar in both of these religious trends in late antiquity.» — remite la cuestión al examen de los viajes mismos y no a la teoría.

«We cannot understand this practice outside the framework of Gnostic doctrine, in particular the doctrine of a group of Gnostics that the early third-century heresiologist Hippolytus of Rome called Sethians.» — sitúa la práctica de visualización en la doctrina que Hipólito atribuye a los setianos.

«The Sethians of Hippolytus, whose doctrine must have had a fundamental impact on Manichaeism, postulate the existence of three principles: light, darkness, and pneuma (or spirit), which mediates between the first two.» — expone los tres principios setianos y su proyección sobre el maniqueísmo.

«Like the Platonic archetype of space (chora), these principles are intelligible but not perceptible, and they can only be understood through meditative practice.» — y sostiene que solo se alcanzan por práctica meditativa.

«Darkness is made of irrational yet self-reflective water, which anxiously desires to come in contact with pneuma and light, in order not to remain "lonely, invisible, deprived of light, impotent, inert and weak.» — describe la oscuridad setiana como agua irracional que desea la luz.

«One of these imprints is the form of the universe, which looks like a huge female womb or matrix "with an omphalos in the middle." As Casadio shows, the Greek word omphalos, commonly meaning "navel," is here a euphemism for phallos (phallus).» — recoge de Casadio la lectura del ombligo cósmico como eufemismo, y con ello la cosmología de matriz y demiurgo.

«It is possible to visualize the world's matrix by meditating on the shape of the matrix of a pregnant animal.» — describe el soporte concreto de la visualización setiana.

«In order to save Nous subsumed in the middle of darkness, light dispatches Logos-Christ to save him by "entering the repugnant mysteries of the maternal matrix.» — expone la soteriología setiana como descenso del Logos a la matriz.

«Such methods were not typically Gnostic. They belonged to Hellenistic magic in general and were practiced from immemorial times, for the Assyriologist Alasdair Livingstone could trace them back as early as a number of Assyro-Babylonian tablets already employing numerology and permutational philology.» — remonta la numerología y la permutación alfabética a las tablillas asirobabilonias, muy por detrás del gnosticismo.

«Zostrianos is a typical intellectual, who, while scrupulously practicing the rigorous ascetic exercises he preaches to his community (Zostrianos is a prominent character in his group), secretly longs for an experiential illumination he never attains.» — describe al protagonista gnóstico como asceta sin experiencia, que predica lo que no alcanza.

«Goethe would have liked it, for Zostrianos, like his Faust, was on the brink of nervous exhaustion and suicide when he received the ultimate revelation.» — compara su desenlace con el de Fausto: la revelación llega al borde del suicidio.

«The messenger offers him an otherworldly tour on a bright cloud of gnosis that moves fast in space.» — el viaje se le concede como respuesta, no como conquista.

«Baptized, that is, adopted, in all successive aeons, Zostrianos reaches the summit of the otherworld and receives final revelation from the great Authrounios and from a being of light called Ephesech.» — describe el ascenso como serie de bautismos por eón hasta la revelación final.

«It is easy to tell from these reports that so far Gnostic otherworldly journeys seem to have scarcely anything in common either with Jewish apocalypses or with merkabah mysticism.» — concluye que hasta ahí los viajes gnósticos poco tienen que ver con los judíos.

«However, two late third-century Coptic writings known as the First and Second Books of leu75 certainly resemble merkabah mysticism in so far as they contain a long and fastidious description of celestial stations through which the soul of the Gnostic is supposed to find its way after death.» — y salva de esa conclusión los Libros de Ieú, con sus estaciones celestes.

«The exercise of learning all these formulas by heart must have exceeded the powers of most Gnostics, for at the end of the book the Savior is said to have» — señala que el propio texto acaba anulando su utilidad al revelar un juego maestro de nombres.

«The Books if leu are probably translated from Greek (given the number of Greek words they contain, unusual even among other Gnostic writings in Coptic translation), but their origin must be Egyptian.» — argumenta el origen egipcio de los textos pese a su tránsito por el griego.

«We can ascertain beyond any doubt that such a method was first used in Egyptian mortuary practices, and it is quite likely that it was borrowed from there by Egyptian Gnosticism.» — hace derivar de las prácticas funerarias egipcias el método de listar fórmulas.

«One innovation is that a saint can experience an otherworldly journey dUring martyrdom.» — señala como novedad cristiana el viaje al otro mundo durante el martirio.

«Kabbalah is a fonn of Jewish mysticism rooted on the one hand in the grammatologic and numerologic speculations that led to the SeJer yetsirah (Book of creation; perhaps fourth century C.E.) and on the other, in hekhaloth literature.» — define la cábala por su doble raíz: la especulación sobre letras y números y la literatura de los palacios.

«The study of Kabbalah has greatly profited from the recent works of Moshe Idel, who distinguishes two Kabbalistic trends throughout history: a "theosophic-theurgic" and an "ecstatic" Kabbalah.» — recoge de Idel la partición entre cábala teosófico-teúrgica y cábala extática.

«The SeJer yetsirab already features a cosmological system that becomes classic in Kabbalah; the ten sephitot (heavenly spheres) probably correspond to the ten commandments, and the twenty-two paths that connect them correspond to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.» — describe el sistema de diez sefirot y veintidós senderos, con el probably a cuenta de la correspondencia.

«Isaac the Blind (ca. 1160-1235), son of Rabbi Abraham ben David of Posquieres (ca. 1120'-98), was the first Provencal mystic to study the Bahir.» — sitúa en Provenza el arranque documentado del estudio del Bahir.

«The major representative of ecstatic Kabbalah was the great , thirteenth-century Sefardi mystic Abraham Abulafia, whose goal was devekut or unio mystica with God.» — hace de Abulafia el representante mayor de la cábala extática.

«Idel contends that Abulafian Kabbalah is a theoretical synthesis of Maimonidean Aristotelianism and Sufi mysticism, and is based in practice on a series of methods called hitbodedut (concentration), consisting of grammatology and the pronouncing of divine names.» — deja a Idel la tesis de que Abulafia sintetiza aristotelismo maimonideano y mística sufí.

«As in Sufism, for Abulafia unio mystica (devekut) is the experience of transformation of the human being into God.» — y consigna que en Abulafia la unión es transformación del hombre en Dios.

«Classical Kabbalah integrates the cosmology of the merkabah literature into one of the four spiritual universes that follow each other from above, that is, atsilut, beriyah, yetzitah, and asiyah.» — señala que la cábala clásica absorbe la cosmología del carro en uno de sus cuatro universos.

«Kabbalah does not share the Platonic dualism of soul and body or Platonic contempt for this world, at least not systematically.» — separa la cábala del dualismo platónico, con el at least not systematically como reserva.

«Moshe Idel has provided breathtaking new descriptions of actual mystical techniques used by the Kabbalists, some of which Gershom Scholem had only mentioned en passant, if at all, in his work, The Major Trends efJewish Mysticism.» — vuelve sobre la omisión de lo técnico en Scholem y la contrasta con Idel.

«Like the Tannaim of old, Rabbi Michael the Angel (rnid-thirteenth-century France) "asked questions, and his soul ascended to heaven in order to seek answers.» — documenta la continuidad de la práctica del ascenso en la Francia del siglo XIII.

«Later Jewish mysticism is connected with Shabbetai Tsevi (1626-:76), a seventeenth-century mystic but not a Kabbalist.» — sitúa a Shabbetai Tsevi en la mística judía tardía y precisa que no era cabalista.

«Nathan predicted that the messiah would take the crown of the Turkish sultan and become world emperor.» — recoge la predicción de Natán de Gaza sobre el mesías.

«Shabbetai chose the latter, but Nathan and many Shabbatianists of the Ottoman empire accepted his choice without losing their faith, and decided to follow him in a proforma conversion to Islam, while continuing their antinomian practices.» — describe cómo la conversión del mesías no deshizo el movimiento sino que lo volvió antinómico.

«The Besht was followed by the mQ88id of Meseritch, itinerant preacher Dov Baer (17 IOJ 2); during his time the movement won many adepts, to the exasperation of the jewish authorities (kehillah), who favored the ideology of the Enlightenment (represented by the Jewish tnitnaqdim, the Enlightenment's representatives).» — sitúa la expansión del jasidismo frente a las autoridades ilustradas.

«After one hundred years of conflict, the differences between the two factions were smoothed out; while the Hasidim lost much of their revolutionary impetus, the mitnapdim learned a lesson in ethics.» — consigna el desenlace del conflicto como pérdida y ganancia repartidas.

«The practice of heavenly ascent was frequent with the founder of Hasidism, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov.» — atribuye al fundador del jasidismo la práctica frecuente del ascenso celestial.

«They experience devekut as aliyat ha-neshamah (ascent of the soul in the divine light). They identify the presence of God in the humblest activities of their bodies and practice physical worship (avodah ba-8ashmiyut), praising God not only in prayer or during sacred ceremonies, but also in the middle of profane activities such as sexual intercourse, eating, and sleeping. Any action fulfilled with devekut in mind can lead to ecstasy. Thus, ecstatic dances, songs, and even rotatory movements like those of the whirling dervishes have devekut in view. The accomplished Hasid descends from contemplative heights to rescue his community, thus practicing yeridah le-tsorekh aliyah (descent in view of the ascent).» — describe el culto físico jasídico y cierra con el descenso en vista del ascenso, que devuelve al místico a su comunidad.

«Although ascent of the soul was less fashionable under the ma88id and his followers, a theory of ecstasy was expounded in a tractate ('Qunteros ha-hithpa'aluth') by Dov Baer of Lubavitch ( 1773-1827),» — sitúa la teoría de los tipos de éxtasis en un tratado jasídico del siglo XIX.

«Dov Baer did not, however, discuss such means of achieving ecstasy in his tract, with the exception of music and song.» — y señala qué deja fuera ese tratado: los medios, salvo la música y el canto.

«in the sphere of Saturn it obtains reason and understanding, called loeistikon and theotetikon; in Jupiter's sphere, the power to act, called praktikon; in Mars' sphere, a bold spirit or thymikon; in the Sun's sphere, sense-perception and imagination, aisthetikon and phantastikon; in Venus' sphere, the impulse of passion, epithymetikon; in Mercury's sphere, the ability to speak and interpret, hetmetieutikon; and in the sphere of the Moon, the power of sowing and growing bodies, phytikon.» — el reparto de cualidades por esfera planetaria se cita de Macrobio, no se le atribuye al autor.

«Thus wrote the late fourth-century Latin Platonist Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius in his Commentary on Cicero's Dream oj» — identifica a Macrobio como el que transmite esa doctrina y lo sitúa a fines del siglo IV.

«In essence, the doctrine states that in its descent into the body the soul is wrapped in planetary influences that constitute a "vehicle" to carry it down and permit it to become embodied.» — resume la doctrina del vehículo del alma en su descenso.

«Conversely, after death the "vehicle" takes off with the soul in it and is gradually discarded during a passage through the planets, which now pick up again what they previously contributed to form the wrapping. Freed from its "vehicle," the soul goes to the place of its origin, awaiting rebirth or perhaps a better fate.» — y en su ascenso, donde cada planeta recobra lo que había prestado.

«The most outstanding philosophers of the second century-Basilides the Christian Gnostic, Numenius, Celsus, and the two Julians (julian the Chaldaean and his son, Julian the Theurgist, authors of the Chaldaean Oracles)--were obsessed by a question that has now lost much of its appeal: How does the soul descend from its heavenly realm to be incarnated in the body, and by what means does it return to its origin?» — enumera a los filósofos del siglo II que se plantearon el descenso y el retorno del alma.

«The first to answer this question coherently were the Gnostics, groups of radical, generally Christian Platonists who were rebellious toward the conventional world order of Platonism and Judaism.» — define a los gnósticos como platónicos cristianos rebeldes y les da la primera respuesta coherente.

«The Gnostics, who were not constituted in large organizations but formed small independent groups, left numerous tractates, some of which survived in Coptic translations later found by scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.» — describe la forma social gnóstica y la vía por la que sus textos llegaron.

«The rulers (archons) see this image and tell each other, "Let us make man in the image of God and in His [or our] resemblance.» — el relato gnóstico reescribe el versículo del Génesis en boca de los arcontes.

«They then fabricate a creature (plasma) in imitation (mimesis) of the image reflected in water, which is nothing but an imperfect simulacrum of the perfect (teleios) man.» — el hombre queda como copia imperfecta de un reflejo.

«Divinity creates the osseous soul, Lordship creates the fibrous or nervous soul, Jealousy (or Fire) creates the flesh (sarx) sou], Providence (Pronoia) the marrow soul and the body shape, Kingship the blood soul, Intelligence (Synesis) the skin soul, and Wisdom (Sophia) the hair soul.» — describe la melotesia gnóstica, que reparte partes del cuerpo entre potencias.

«When we read that thirty demons are ascribed to the different parts of the body, it becomes even clearer that we are dealing with the basic Gnostic antiastrological polemic.» — lee esa anatomía demoníaca como polémica antiastrológica, y no como astrología.

«Thirty is the number of degrees of an astrological sign.» — y funda esa lectura en la aritmética del signo zodiacal.

«Catching sight of the spiritual spark that shines in Adam, the archons devise a further means of keeping him prisoner of matter-they create a physical body for him.» — el cuerpo físico es, en ese mito, una cárcel añadida.

«At this point a crucial element is added to this miserable creation of the archons, an element of paramount importance not only among the Gnostics, but also among Manichaeans and late Neoplatonists: the antikeimenon pneuma (evil spirit) or, more frequently, the antimimon pneuma (the counterfeit spirit; BG, 2).» — introduce el espíritu falsificado como pieza que va del gnosticismo al maniqueísmo y al neoplatonismo tardío.

«In another place the counterfeit spirit is explained more precisely: it is astrally originated genetic information that accompanies every soul coming into the world.» — traduce el espíritu falsificado en información de origen astral que acompaña a cada alma.

«Apocryphon ifJohn rejects the theory of metensomatosis: all souls, including those that have been led astray by their counterfeit spirit, partake of salvation, although those who have strayed are saved only after having been instructed by other souls who possess the living spirit.» — consigna que ese texto rechaza la transmigración y salva a todas las almas, con instrucción de por medio.

«Isidorus, whom we have every reason to think was a Christian Gnostic, also engages in polemics against other Gnostics, perhaps of the kind illustrated by the Apocryphon ifJohn, who made the counterfeit spirit into a serious obstacle to free will.» — muestra la disputa dentro del propio campo gnóstico sobre el libre albedrío.

«Isidorus already takes the stance later taken by Pelagius or Julian of Eclanum, who were the opponents of Augustine's predestinationism at the beginning of the fifth century; the Apocryphon ifJohn is closer to what would later be the position of the Manichaeans and of Augustine.» — proyecta esa disputa sobre la posterior entre Pelagio y Agustín.

«The disagreement was over whether the Middle Platonist Numenius of Apamea was the father of the influential doctrine of the passage of the human soul through the planetary spheres; during this passage the soul acquires certain qualities, or, in a negative version, certain vices from the planets.» — expone el debate erudito sobre la paternidad de la doctrina.

«This conclusion leaves us with the Gnostics as authors of the doctrine of the passage of the soul through the spheres; however, this explanation seems improbable, because the Gnostics commonly reacted» — descarta a los gnósticos como autores de la doctrina porque su papel fue reactivo.

«We are certain that the Gnostics dealt with the passage of the soul through the spheres before Numenius, which means that an early second-century or even a late first-century origin of the theory is more probable.» — y con eso adelanta la fecha probable de origen de la teoría.

«The antimimon pneuma shows up first in chapters II I to I 15 of the second book of Pistis sophia.» — localiza en la Pistis Sophia la exposición más detallada del espíritu falsificado.

«It derives from the vices of the cosmic archons, and it pushes the soul toward the fulfillment of the same vicious impulses, which are for it like food (trophai).» — describe cómo ese espíritu se alimenta de los vicios que induce.

«On the contrary, when the counterfeit spirit is weak, the soul can shed it after earthly embodiment on its ascent through the spheres of the rulers» — y cómo el alma puede desprenderse de él al ascender.

«Pistis sophia proposes two methods: baptism, which, like a purifying fire, loosens the seals of the sins with which the soul is burdened and separates "the soul from her antimimon pneumat'? and the prayer of intercession for the dead.» — enumera los dos remedios que el texto ofrece: bautismo e intercesión por los muertos.

«The myth of the fabrication of the soul together with the counterfeit spirit is reported in detail in chapters I 3I and following,24 which are an impressive parody of Plato's Timaeus (4Idff.).» — lee ese mito como parodia deliberada del Timeo.

«The five archons of astral fatality (heimarmene) send preexistent souls into the world or create new souls.» — describe la fábrica de almas a cargo de los cinco arcontes de la fatalidad.

«The five planetary rulers, together with their colleagues, the sun and the moon, therefore blow their breath over the souls, and with their breath a spark of spirit penetrates the souls, thus enabling them to go in search of the eternal light.» — el mismo aliento que las anima les deja la chispa que las hará buscar la luz.

«The antimimon pneuma is attached to the soul with the seals (sphranides) of the rulers.» — el espíritu falsificado queda sellado al alma por los arcontes.

«It compels (anankazein) the soul to immerse itself in all the passions (pathe) and iniquities (anomiai), and holds her under its power during all her transmigrations (metabolai) in new bodies.» — y la fuerza a las pasiones a lo largo de todas sus transmigraciones.

«Even if they are far away from each other, the man and the woman are supposed to look for each other in the world (kosmos) until they find each other and thus they realize their basic accord (9'mphonia); but, obviously, this wandering in search of one's spouse is secretly predestined by the heavenly ministers.» — el encuentro amoroso queda, en ese mito, predestinado por los ministros celestes.

«The doctrine of the counterfeit spirit is further extremely influential in Manichaeism, a radical Gnostic religion founded by the Persian Mani (216j6).» — prolonga la doctrina hacia el maniqueísmo, que define como gnosticismo radical.

«Tardieu's book recognizes a pentad-based classification system as being one of the formal keys to understanding the Manichaean system.» — recoge de Tardieu la clave pentádica del sistema maniqueo.

«Scholars acquainted with Hellenistic astrology have so far failed to understand the profound connection between antiastrological polemic in Gnosticism and the foundation of the Manichaean system of classifications.» — señala el hueco que su propio argumento viene a llenar: nadie ligó la polémica antiastrológica con la clasificación maniquea.

«The theory is of paramount importance in Hermeticism, occurs in a modified version in Manichaeism, and informs one of the most luxuriant Gnostic myths in the late tractate Pistis sophia.» — reparte la doctrina entre hermetismo, maniqueísmo y gnosticismo.

«It becomes a common motif in Neoplatonism starting with Iamblichus of Coele-Syria; it is present in the Greek Neoplatonists Proclus, Hierocles, Damascius, Simplicius and Priscianus of Athens, and Hermeias and Olympiodorus of Alexandria.» — y sigue su curso por el neoplatonismo desde Jámblico.

«The source of this doctrine is the pseudo-Hermetic treatise Panaretos, which belonged to the Hermetic astrological vulgate and probably dated to the second century B.C.E.» — atribuye la doctrina de los lotes a un tratado pseudohermético y consigna el pseudo como dato.

«These lots can be inferred from the reading of the horoscope after performing a few mathematical operations that are not exceedingly complicated.» — describe cómo se obtienen los lotes planetarios del horóscopo.

«The five archons are the dark rulers of the five elements: Jupiter rules over smoke, Venus over fire (this is ironical, since in traditional astrology Venus is rather watery), Mars over wind, Mercury over water, and Saturn over darkness.» — expone el reparto elemental maniqueo y marca la ironía de que invierta la astrología corriente.

«Smoke rules over Gemini and Sagittarius; fire over Aries and Leo; wind over Taurus, Aquarius, and Libra; water over Cancer, Virgo, and Pisces; and darkness over Caper and Scorpio.» — y su prolongación sobre los doce signos.

«A very common Manichaean myth, in the versions reported by Augustine and by his disciple Evodius, says that the twelve virtues appeared in the middle of heaven in order to instill desire in the archons.» — el mito maniqueo de la seducción de los arcontes llega por Agustín y Evodio, y así se consigna.

«This sperm (or soul) of the archons contains light, which is picked up by the tertius }eBatus ("third messenger"), the envoy of the Supreme Father, who separates light from darkness and drops the residual substance over the earth.» — describe la recogida de la luz y el desecho del residuo sobre la tierra.

«The five trees are simply the antimimon pneuma (defined in Gnostic texts as the tree of iniquity), that is, the negative influences of the five evil planets, of the twelve evil signs of the zodiac, and of all troops of heavenlyarchons.» — identifica los cinco árboles maniqueos con el espíritu falsificado gnóstico.

«If in the Manichaean system light and darkness were both eternal, we can state with certainty that in Mani's mind darkness came first.» — sostiene que en Mani la oscuridad tiene precedencia pese a la eternidad de ambos principios.

«For three hundred years Adam's body stayed soulless, until the ruler had the brilliant idea of eating unclean animals such as serpent, scorpion, dog, cat, frog, and so on, and spitting this awful mixture over the soul.» — recoge la versión maniquea de la animación de Adán.

«In late antiquity it was widely believed that the soul ascends to heaven, whether after death or as the result of some initiation, particular favor, or accident.» — declara común en la Antigüedad tardía la creencia en el ascenso del alma, por muerte, iniciación o accidente.

«So far, scholars have not been able to resolve the difficulties already pinpointed in a 1900 dissertation (in Latin) by the Dutch scholar K. H. E. De long, according to whom it is impossible to decide of the meaning of this passage.» — deja sin resolver el sentido del pasaje de Apuleyo sobre la iniciación isíaca.

«Some scholars have even sought an Egyptian model for this otherworldly journey, but their attempts have not been convincing thus far.» — y descarta por no convincentes los modelos egipcios propuestos.

«This latter symbol is a tall ladder with seven gates (heptapylos) and an eighth gate above the others.» — describe la escalera mitraica de siete puertas más una.

«This does explain, however, Celsus's allusion to "musical relations," for the order of the planets thought to dominate the seven days of the week can be obtained from the order of the planets in the universe through two operations, one of which had to do with Pythagorean heavenly music.» — explica la alusión de Celso a relaciones musicales por el paso del orden cósmico al de los días de la semana.

«The misattribution and misinterpretation of the ladder seems, however, more likely.» — y concluye que lo más probable es que la escalera esté mal atribuida y mal interpretada.

«To conclude this part of our story, it is by no means certain that the initiates in Mithraic mysteries truly simulated an interplanetary journey of some sort, although this is by no means implausible.» — se abstiene sobre el viaje interplanetario mitraico: ni cierto ni inverosímil.

«Antong the magical papyri there is a document, erroneously called "the Mithra liturgy" (which has nothing to do with the mysteries of Mithra, however), describing the otherworldly journey of the initiate after death beyond the celestial pole, and even beyond the sphere of the fixed stars, as far as the throne of the Supreme God who sets in motion the stars of the Big Dipper.» — corrige el nombre del texto y describe su ascenso más allá de las estrellas fijas.

«Although Saturn, the most distant planet from the earth, rules here over the highest initiation and is therefore endowed with unmatched dignity, the other planets are not disposed in any known order, and Jacques Flamant's ingenious observation that we are dealing with an Egyptian series split in two and aligned in erratic order does not quite solve our problem.» — deja abierto el desorden planetario de los grados mitraicos, y descarta la solución de Flamant como insuficiente.

«Hans Lewy doubts the authenticity of Psellus's interpretation, for elsewhere in the Chaldaean Oracles the descent of the soul does not take place across the planetary spheres, but across four zones: the ether, the sun, the moon, and the air.» — recoge la objeción de Lewy: en los Oráculos caldeos el descenso es por cuatro zonas y no por siete esferas.

«Aristotle, possibly starting from a suggestion made by Plato (Laws, 898c), invented a wrapping for the soul, made of astral fire, that would allow the soul to enter the body (On the Generation ojAnimals, 736b).» — remonta el vehículo del alma a Aristóteles, con el possibly a cuenta de la sugerencia platónica.

«The major medical authority at the beginning of the third century, Galen, recognized the existence of this "light-like and ether-like spirit," and even the term Vehicle (ochema) referring to this external wrap of the soul was invented as soon as the second century C.E.» — sitúa en Galeno y en el siglo II la consolidación del término.

«Plotinus knows the doctrine of this subtle body (leptoteron soma), but does not yet adopt the word "vehicle" to describe it, nor does his disciple Porphyry.» — precisa que Plotino y Porfirio conocen la doctrina sin usar todavía la palabra.

«The vehicle of every particular soul descends by the addition of vestures (chitones) increasingly material; and ascends in company with the soul through divestment of all that is material and recovery of its proper form, after the analogy of the soul which makes use of it:» — la formulación de Proclo describe el descenso como vestidura y el ascenso como desnudamiento.

«Thus the Platonic space shuttle, meant to carry the soul to the earth from its heavenly dwelling and from the earth back to its origin, was continually perfected.» — resume el capítulo: la doctrina se fue perfeccionando siglo tras siglo.

«For the soul "cannot understand without the help of images" (aneu phantasmatos);» — recoge el principio que hace del vehículo un órgano de imágenes y no solo un transporte.

«I do not know if this sense is not more saintly than others, for it is because of it that we can communicate with the gods, either through sight, through conversation, or by other means.» — la cita neoplatónica pone la imaginación como sentido por el que se trata con los dioses.

«Ficino firmly believed in the "Platonic space shuttle," and he described the process of embodiment and disembodiment of the soul in the following terms.» — hace llegar la doctrina hasta Ficino, que la sostiene sin reservas.

«Souls descend into bodies from the Milky Way through the constellation of Cancer, wrapping themselves in a celestial and» — el descenso ficiniano arranca en la Vía Láctea y pasa por Cáncer.

«It is due to that descent that the souls and bodies of the Planets confirm and reinforce, in our souls and our bodies respectively, the seven original gifts bestowed upon us by God.» — en Ficino los planetas ya no otorgan los dones sino que refuerzan los que Dios dio.

«The gift of contemplation is strengthened by Saturn by means of the Satumian demons.» — y lo hacen por mediación de sus demonios, empezando por los saturninos.

«Although this doctrine was suspicious in the eyes of the Catholic Church (in effect, Ficino elsewhere exposed it as a "Platonic fable"), or perhaps for that very reason, it became extremely influential in the Florentine Platonic academy, and by the end of the sixteenth century it was known all over Europe.» — señala que Ficino mismo la presentó en otro lugar como fábula platónica, y aun así se difundió por Europa.

«Paul was one of the most famous ecstatics of the Christian Middle Ages.» — abre el último capítulo con Pablo como el extático de referencia de la Edad Media cristiana.

«The narrative framework presents the account of Paul's vision as having been written down by himself, hidden in a box together with his apostolic shoes, and buried under the foundation of his house at Tarsus.» — describe el marco de hallazgo del texto, que legitima la revelación por descubrimiento.

«Its purpose is not to disclose the illusory character of the "intermediary state," but on the contrary, to create the illusion of posthumous retribution of deeds accomplished during one's lifetime.» — opone el propósito del apocalipsis cristiano al del bardo tibetano: aquí se busca hacer creíble la retribución, no disolverla.

«When the soul of the departed goes through the lower region of Heaven, the evil angels check to see if there is in it any trace of the vice that each of them carries with him and represents.» — describe la aduana de los ángeles malignos que buscan en el alma su propio vicio.

«This would not have occurred had that soul repented at least one year before death.» — y el plazo de un año de arrepentimiento que la habría salvado.

«It is, however, only one of the nearly twenty Jewish and Christian "tours of Hell" analyzed in a beautiful book by Martha Himmelfarb,» — remite a Himmelfarb para el conjunto de las visitas judías y cristianas al infierno.

«Augustine of Hippo (354-430), depicts Heaven as a Platonic spiritualized realm, "devoid of human interaction and family concern." Later this was modified into a "semispiritual heaven" in which saints have social exchanges and there is even room for lustless admiration for the beauty of women's bodies. 5» — contrasta el cielo espiritual de Agustín con el semiespiritual posterior, y con eso la tensión medieval entre cielo material y platónico.

«In 594, Pope Gregory I, known as Gregory the Great (590604), wrote a text of unsurpassed interest for the study of the early Middle Ages called Dialo8i de vita et miraculis patrum ltalicorum (Dialogues about the lives and miracles of the Italian fathers).» — data en 594 los Diálogos de Gregorio Magno como fuente de la alta Edad Media.

«Among the many curiosities he reports are three cases of near-death experience, which he uses to show that not all people who are shown the beyond in a vision take the threat of hell seriously or repent and thus improve their posthumous fate.» — señala el uso pastoral de esos casos: ver el infierno no basta para enmendarse.

«The bridge is interesting, for, like the one in the Middle Persian vision of Viraz, it widens to let the righteous pass and narrows to fling the wicked down into the infernal river.» — enlaza el puente estrecho cristiano con el Cinvat persa por su comportamiento idéntico.

«If the above-reported visions show that a relationship exists between Jewish-Christian and Iranian eschatology, it is difficult if not impossible to ascertain which comes first, since it all depends on the dating of a particular motif in the Book ofArda Viraz, that is, the motif of the "narrow bridge."» — se abstiene sobre la prioridad entre las dos tradiciones, y dice de qué depende la respuesta.

«Another early medieval vision shows that during these times of relative isolation the memory of Platonic eschatology still persisted.» — documenta la persistencia de la escatología platónica en la alta Edad Media.

«The angel explains that it is the fire of the celestial purgatory, which "tries everyone according to the merits of his or her works .. "» — el fuego celeste del purgatorio prueba a cada uno según sus obras.

«The tour of Hell of the monk Wetti of the monastery of Reichenau, which took place on 3 November 824, and was written down by Heito, shows special concerns for sins of a sexual nature.» — fecha la visión de Wetti y señala su concentración en los pecados sexuales.

«The Vo)'aoe if Saint Brendan, like the Od)'ssey,~ can be read as an otherworldly journey and is probably based on a Celtic narrative pattern of travel by sea (imrama), although in the tenth century, when the legend seems to have originated, other models of navieatio were also available.» — lee el viaje de Brendan sobre el patrón céltico de navegación, con las reservas del probably y el seems.

«The tradition that the founder of Islam went on an otherworldly journey crystallized around an early nucleus.» — sitúa el mi'ray como cristalización en torno a un núcleo antiguo.

«In the Quran, sura 17, called Sural ai-isra', seems to allude to the "nightly journey."» — consigna la base coránica del viaje nocturno con el seems por delante.

«The Archangels Jibrll and Mlkail pay Muhammad a visit. Mlkail brings water from the sacred source, Zamzam of Mecca. Jibril opens Muhammad's abdomen and breast, takes out his heart; washes it three times in water, fills it with goodness, wisdom, faith, certainty, and islam (submission to God), and marks him between his shoulders with the seal of prophecy (khOtlm alnubuwa).» — describe la purificación del corazón del Profeta como preparación del viaje.

«After this episode, which has authentic shamanistic flavor, the Prophet mounts his famous winged, human-faced, female ass Buraq and follows Jibril to various places, where people are either rewarded for their religious zeal or punished for their indolence.» — lee ese episodio como de sabor chamánico y describe el ascenso sobre el Buraq.

«Initially God commands Muhammad to have the community recite fifty prayers daily, but on the advice of Moses, who knows how weak human beings are, this number is drastically cut to five.» — recoge el regateo de las cincuenta oraciones a cinco por consejo de Moisés.

«The second scenario of the mi'rclj is similar to the one reported above, with the insertion of a long episode in which Muhammad is shown the first of seven stories of hell by a huge, fiery angel who is the supervisor of hell.» — distingue dos escenarios del relato y lo que el segundo añade.

«Although some translations of works from Arabic or Greek were done sporadically in Syria, Constantinople, and Sicily, at the end of the eleventh century Toledo became the major center of diffusion of Greco-Roman culture by means of Arabic translations and commentaries that now found their way into Latin Europe.» — sitúa en Toledo el centro de la transmisión que hizo posible el contacto de leyendas.

«It is difficult to assess to what extent otherworldly journeys in the twelfth century were influenced by the Muslim legends of the mi'10. Very influential seems to be a Latin reworking of the Apocalypse if Paul, known under the name of the Vision if Paul.» — deja sin medir la influencia islámica y en cambio da por influyente la reelaboración latina del Apocalipsis de Pablo.

«It is certainly possible that an oral tradition going back to Constantine himself could have existed in Monte Cassino.» — propone como posible, no como probado, un canal oral por Constantino el Africano en Montecassino.

«It appears that Guido had inserted many spurious episodes borrowed from such apocrypha as the life ofAdam and Eve and the Voyaae of Brendan. 29 Yet, even when expurgated, Alberic's Vision seems to be-with the exception of one episode that has authentic shamanistic flavor-s-only another compendium of apocalyptic commonplaces.» — descuenta la visión de Alberico como compendio de lugares comunes, salvo un episodio.

«However, Alberic's vision does not bear the clear imprint of the Islamic legends.» — y descarta en ella la huella islámica.

«According to this story, after a period of confusion in the middle of a hideous crowd, an angel like a bright star takes Tundal's soul on a tour of hell and heaven.» — describe la visión de Tundal y su guía angélico.

«Its reputation was based on the legend of an apparition of Christ to Saint Patrick.» — funda la fama del purgatorio de Lough Derg en la aparición de Cristo a San Patricio.

«Uttering the name of Jesus Christ, Owein resists a multitude of demons who drag him to a plain of torments, then into a fiery stinking pit, and finally to a long, narrow, high, slippery bridge running across» — el puente estrecho reaparece en el relato del caballero Owein.

«According to Colleen McDannell and Bernhard Lang, the growth of European urban centers between I I SO and I 250 is paralleled by the promotion of a highly urban concept of heaven.» — recoge de McDannell y Lang el paralelo entre crecimiento urbano y cielo urbano.

«As an example of this trend, the authors cite the vision of the Camaldolese tertiary Gherardesca da Pisa (I 210-69), who saw the heavenly city of Jerusalem, with streets made "of the purest gold and the most precious stones" and flanked by golden trees, surrounded by seven rich castles of the Virgin Mary in which chairs were prepared for all the inhabitants of heaven.» — pone la visión de Gherardesca como muestra de ese cielo con forma de ciudad.

«This conclusion, however, cannot be generalized for all the apocalyptic texts of this extraordinary period.» — acota esa correlación: no vale para todos los textos del periodo.

«On the contrary, some of the most important do not have an urban setting.» — y señala que los más importantes no tienen escenario urbano.

«But punishment appeared not alwaysto be eternal.» — consigna que en estas visiones el castigo no siempre es eterno.

«I do not intend to take a position in the debate concerning the "origins" of the Divine Comedy.» — se abstiene expresamente del debate sobre las fuentes de la Comedia.

«The case for the dependence of the Divine Comedy on the mi'rQj is, of course, extremely meager.» — y descuenta la dependencia del poema respecto del mi'ray.

«With Dante our survey of otherworldly journeys comes to a conclusion.» — cierra en Dante el recorrido histórico del libro.

«Surprisingly enough, it is an entirely circular conclusion, and the end of this book leads us again to its beginning.» — declara circular ese cierre: el final devuelve al principio.

«It is the story of a man visited by the spirits of a poet long dead and of a young woman endowed with supernatural powers.» — reduce la Comedia a un hombre guiado por el espíritu de un poeta muerto y por una joven con poderes.

«Reduced to its nucleus, Dante's story is a shamanistic story that could have taken place in any space or time setting among those we have surveyed above.» — y con esa reducción la declara historia chamánica trasplantable a cualquiera de las tradiciones recorridas.

«Although we have our own popular literature on near-death and out-of-body experiences, Dante's poem continues to move us.» — explica por ahí la vigencia del poema en una época que tiene su propia literatura de experiencias cercanas a la muerte.

«This book is meant to be a survey of otherworldly journeys according to place and time, and it therefore arrives at no particular conclusions.» — abre la conclusión declarando que el libro no concluye: es un relevamiento.

«Nonetheless, despite their variety, most if not all of the traditions studied here share a number of basic traits.» — y aun así reconoce rasgos comunes a casi todas las tradiciones recorridas.

«First, there is the belief in a "free soul" that survives after death as a ghost.» — el primero de esos rasgos es el alma libre que sobrevive como fantasma.

«This soul can, under certain conditions, separate itself from the body and visit the ghost world.» — y su capacidad de separarse del cuerpo bajo ciertas condiciones.

«The shaman is a specialist in separation, and can, therefore, function as a soul raiser.» — define al chamán por esa especialidad y de ahí su función de levantar almas.

«Soul raising is one of the activities we have come across almost constantly, in all the ancient traditions of humankind.» — declara el levantamiento de almas constante en las tradiciones antiguas.

«Due to repeated visits to the abodes of the ghosts, the shaman knows exactly the geography of dead land; he or she can describe it and often dramatizes encounters with the dead.» — el conocimiento de la geografía del país de los muertos viene de la visita repetida, y se dramatiza.

«Between the medium's description of the inferno in the soul raising of Singapore and in Dante's Divine Comedy there is only a difference of discourse and theology; both of them share the idea of infernal punishment and the narrative device of conversation with familiar ghosts.» — pone la sesión de Singapur y la Comedia en un mismo plano, separadas solo por discurso y teología.

«It is more reasonable to believe that it precedes the crystallization of the shamanistic complex as such.» — sitúa la creencia en el alma libre por delante del propio complejo chamánico.

«It is useless, in this case, to look for a general pattern of historical diffusion.» — y descarta por eso el patrón general de difusión histórica.

«All traditions of humankind developed parallelly from analogous premises, although beliefs inevitably interacted and coalesced.» — propone el desarrollo paralelo desde premisas análogas, con interacción posterior.

«The more complex a religion, the more complex dead land becomes.» — hace depender la complejidad del más allá de la de la religión que lo imagina.

«In Tibetan Buddhism, for example, the afterlife, despite its concrete appearance, is just another creation of the mind.» — pone el bardo como caso extremo: más allá concreto y a la vez creación mental.

«In a certain sense, what we have here is the widespread notion of "second death," which in Buddhism is an important goal to strive for, whereas in other religions it is a horrible fate encountered by certain unfortunates among the dead.» — muestra la segunda muerte como meta en una tradición y como desgracia en otras, sin armonizarlas.

«Thus, for example, it appears that the Jewish tradition has a number of constant traits, one of the most important of which is that the character who is shown other worlds does not take drugs and does not postulate a vision in any way.» — aísla como rasgo de la tradición judía que el visionario no busca la visión ni usa sustancias.

«Early Christian apocalypses are but a continuation of the Jewish pattern, whereas late medieval otherworldly visions are far more often obtained through near-death experience, which becomes a quasi-standard feature of twelfth- and thirteenth-century apocalypses.» — traza el paso del patrón judío al de la experiencia cercana a la muerte en los siglos XII y XIII.

«None can satisfy our expectations of the afterlife, neither the Platonic isles of the blessed nor Dante's astronomical paradise.» — constata que ninguna de las representaciones recorridas satisface ya las expectativas.

«The only conclusion we can draw from the multiplicity of current representations of other worlds is that we live in a state of advanced other-world pluralism.» — y cierra con la única conclusión que se permite: un pluralismo avanzado de otros mundos.

«Let all who enter here know: they are in for a tour of heaven and hell.» — Lawrence E. Sullivan abre el prólogo diciendo que el libro no recorre un más allá sino muchos: cielos, infiernos, paraísos, purgatorios, limbos y laberintos.

«loan Couliano does not saunter; he moves at the brisk pace of someone familiar with the rooms with their furnishings through which he threads his way.» — Sullivan describe a un autor que se mueve con soltura por materiales de épocas y culturas en las que no siempre es especialista, y asume el riesgo de compararlas; el escaneo imprime loan por Ioan.

«He examines side by side the normally separate genres of fiction and factual science, and disparate figures like Bohr and Borges, Einstein and Gilgamesh.» — para Sullivan el método del libro es la yuxtaposición deliberada de géneros y figuras que las disciplinas mantienen separados.

«He is not beyond teasing the reader with enigmatic juxtapositions intended to introduce doubts and ambiguities.» — Sullivan advierte que parte de esas yuxtaposiciones busca sembrar duda, no cerrar una demostración.

«"There will always be a dimension that leads to the unknown," writes Couliano--be .it the one of myth, of the fourth dimension, or of the nth dimension.» — Sullivan cita a Couliano para fijar el hilo del libro: siempre queda una dimensión que conduce a lo desconocido, sea la del mito, la cuarta o la enésima.

«Berkeley went even further. He denied the existence of absolute space or time or motion-ideas that were winning a hearing with the championship of Sir Isaac Newton.» — Sullivan recuerda que Berkeley negó espacio, tiempo y movimiento absolutos justo cuando Newton los volvía doctrina.

«On mathematical and philosophical grounds, Berkeley argued that all motion is relative.» — Sullivan atribuye a Berkeley, por vía matemática y filosófica, la relatividad de todo movimiento.

«Couliano also seems to emphasize relativity in his study of the perceptions of space.» — Sullivan lee el libro como un estudio de la relatividad de las percepciones del espacio, y marca con el seems que es su lectura.

«Just as Berkeley assured us that there is "no substance without a mind," Couliano fuses tradition and thought in an axiom worthy of Giambattista Vico: traditio is percipi.» — Sullivan condensa la transmisión cognitiva en un axioma propio, calcado del esse est percipi de Berkeley y puesto bajo el nombre de Vico.

«Couliano's notion of cognitive transmission seems designed to deal with multifaceted traditions and with the clash of the many traditional worlds imagined throughout history.» — Sullivan separa a Couliano de Berkeley: donde aquel imaginaba un mundo único sostenido por la percepción divina, la transmisión cognitiva sirve para tradiciones múltiples y en choque.

«Matter has already been relativizedeven evacuated-e--bv subatomic physics, on the one side, and pluridimensional cosmological theory, on the other.» — Sullivan sostiene que Couliano no necesita disolver la materia como Berkeley porque la física subatómica y la cosmología pluridimensional ya la relativizaron; el OCR estropea evacuated by.

«The world of Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Rudy Rucker is not the one of George Berkeley.» — Sullivan marca el corte: hoy la materia cede ante la percepción sin desaparecer del todo, cosa que en Berkeley no ocurría.

«Couliano's aim is to have us realize--literally to make realother possibilities.» — Sullivan atribuye al libro el propósito de hacer reales otras posibilidades alterando las percepciones recibidas.

«For Couliano, the multiplicity of worlds seems to be an epistemological necessity, a function of the way the mind works in space.» — Sullivan resume la tesis: los mundos se multiplican por cómo opera la mente en el espacio, no por acumulación de creencias.

«However advanced our knowledge of the surrounding world, the space of the inner mind expands beyond it.» — de ahí, según Sullivan, que el espacio mental siempre desborde al conocido.

«Couliano draws freely on the discoveries of cybernetics, physics, literary theory, psychoanalysis, cognitive theory, neurophysiology, mathematics, ethnography, and epistemology.» — Sullivan enumera las disciplinas de las que el libro toma material.

«He investigates this _possibility in extended case studies. He examines, for instance, the Puraatory if Saint Patrick, a twelfth-century work associated with the extraordinary cave at Lough Derg where Christ appeared to Saint Patrick.» — Sullivan pone el Purgatorio de San Patricio como muestra del estudio de caso extenso; el OCR estropea Purgatory of.

«Couliano has set forward parts of his case in other writings on gnosticism, flights of ecstasy, and Renaissance magic.» — Sullivan sitúa el libro como continuación de trabajos previos del autor sobre gnosticismo, éxtasis y magia renacentista.

«After all, he points out, worlds can be adequately perceived (only?) from dimensions that do not exist within them.» — Sullivan recoge el principio dimensional del libro, con el paréntesis dubitativo incluido.

«For example, it is easier to perceive the properties of a two-dimensional world if one is cognizant of one's own existence in a three-dimensional one.» — y lo ilustra con el salto de dos a tres dimensiones.

«Couliano is betting that, on severalgrounds, it can be demonstrated that cultural creations havebeen held unjustifiably distant from one another: the imaginings of pure math and physics, the myths of ancient peoples, and the poetry, utopias, ecstasies, visions, and dreams of historically scattered humankind.» — Sullivan formula la apuesta del libro como apuesta, no como resultado: matemática, mito y poesía se han mantenido separados sin justificación.

«Readers will be prodded by the general conclusions Couliano draws from time to time throughout the book and by the summary analyses at the end.» — Sullivan anticipa que las conclusiones generales del libro incomodarán al lector.

«Couliano sets out to gUide the perplexed reader's imagination as it descends through ancient netherworlds, strays through medieval Erewhons, or soars through edenic paradises.» — Sullivan compara la función del autor con la de un psicopompo que abre ruta por una historia aún sin cartografiar.

Alma Libre — El rasgo común a casi todas las tradiciones recorridas: un alma libre que sobrevive como fantasma y que, bajo ciertas condiciones, se separa del cuerpo y visita el mundo de los muertos.

Transmision Cognitiva — Repensamiento activo de la tradición a partir de un conjunto simple de reglas; incluye el olvido y la innovación como parte del mecanismo, y explica por la participación individual la tenacidad de ciertas creencias.

Viaje al Otro Mundo — No hace falta estar muerto para visitar el país de los muertos, y el fenómeno está tan extendido que se le puede llamar universal.

Cuarta Dimension — Se alcanza con matemática elemental aunque sus consecuencias no lo sean, y un ser de cuatro dimensiones operaría sobre nuestro mundo como nosotros sobre uno de dos.

Estados Alterados de Consciencia — No son meta en sí: siguiendo a Hinton, son la precondición de cualquier experiencia tetradimensional, y sirven a la vez como técnica de desaprendizaje.

Experiencia Cercana A la Muerte — La forma del testimonio depende de quien lo recoge: el túnel y el sonido, centrales en Moody, faltan en la mayoría de los casos de Kenneth Ring.

Experiencia Fuera del Cuerpo — El arte de salir del cuerpo lo practican también los monjes budistas, que exploran el paraíso occidental antes de morar en él, y eso parece interpretación chamánica de la meditación.

Extasis — Opone las dos técnicas del éxtasis griego —privación sensorial en los iatromantes, bombardeo sensorial en las ménades— y declara problemática la distinción de Eliade entre éxtasis chamánico y enstasis yóguica.

Levitacion — Recoge de John Strong la contradicción budista: el Buda desalienta los poderes mágicos y a la vez los textos pali le dan la levitación como iddhi principal.

Metempsicosis — Se abstiene expresamente: no hay prueba dura de que partes del alma reencarnen en plantas o animales, ni evidencia en contra.

Psicopompo — Hermes conduce las almas al Hades y también las levanta de vuelta, para una aparición breve o incluso para instalarlas en cuerpos nuevos.

Necromancia (nigromancia) — Los adivinos griegos se llamaban psychomanteis o psychopompoi, levantadores de almas, y el levantamiento de almas aparece casi constantemente en las tradiciones antiguas.

Merkabah — La técnica extática se llama obra del carro, funda su legitimidad bíblica en la visión de Ezequiel y se llama descenso pese a ser un ascenso celestial.

Sefirot (las diez numeraciones) — El Sefer yetsirah trae ya el sistema que se vuelve clásico: diez esferas celestes, probablemente correspondientes a los diez mandamientos, unidas por veintidós senderos.

Gematría (aritmética de las letras) — La numerología y la filología permutacional no son gnósticas ni judías de origen: Livingstone las remonta a tablillas asirobabilonias.

Gnosis (conocimiento salvífico) — Los gnósticos, platónicos cristianos rebeldes al orden del mundo, fueron los primeros en responder coherentemente cómo desciende el alma al cuerpo y cómo vuelve a su origen.

Bardo — El estado intermedio es constitutivo del budismo antiguo, su cuerpo está hecho de materia de sueño y el dolor que sufre es ilusión: es el muerto quien escribe el guion de su propia muerte.

Vehiculo del Alma — La envoltura de fuego astral viene de Aristóteles, Galeno la reconoce y le da nombre, Plotino la conoce sin llamarla vehículo, y Proclo la describe como vestidura que se añade al bajar y se quita al subir.

Espiritu Falsificado — Información de origen astral que acompaña a cada alma al mundo, la fuerza a las pasiones durante todas sus transmigraciones y pasa del gnosticismo al maniqueísmo y al neoplatonismo tardío.

Daimon (entidad intermedia, ni ángel ni demonio) — La luna pertenece a los demonios terrestres, y en Ficino son los demonios de cada planeta los que refuerzan en nosotros los dones originales.

Imaginación (phantasia) — El alma no puede entender sin conversión de los mensajes sensoriales en imágenes, y por ese sentido —quizá más santo que los otros— se trata con los dioses.

Iniciación (recepción por grados / metamorfosis del ser) — Los grados mitraicos suben por una escalera de siete puertas más una, aunque el orden planetario que se les atribuye no coincide con ningún esquema conocido.

Microcosmos (el hombre-mundo) — La liturgia taoísta tiene doble lectura: por fuera simula un ascenso celestial, y por dentro envía al cielo el infante rojo, energía del bajo vientre del sacerdote.

Transvection (el traslado corporal por seres demoníacos) — El vuelo de la bruja en escoba y la sesión chamánica quedan en el mismo plano que el psicoanálisis: procedimientos válidos solo mientras se compartan sus premisas.

Talismán (imagen astrológica) — En el ascenso estelar taoísta el adepto muestra un talismán a cada guardián y dice su nombre, y los guardianes de los cuatro polos lo revisan ante la puerta dorada.

Apocalipsis — Recoge la definición de género de Collins y añade una clasificación propia por la actitud del protagonista —llamado, accidente, búsqueda—, con la que la tradición judía queda concentrada en los apocalipsis de llamado.

Puente Estrecho — El puente que se ensancha para el justo y se estrecha para el malvado pasa de la visión persa de Viraz a las visiones cristianas medievales, y cuál viene primero no se puede decidir.