The Dionysian Naturalist

Towards a Religious Anthropology of Dionysian Naturalism   Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. DRAFT ABSTRACT This paper develops a religious anthropology for Dionysian Naturalism, examining how ritual, myth, and ecstatic practice can address modern alienation while remaining grounded in naturalistic worldviews. Drawing from Nietzsche's Dionysian-Apollonian framework and Wesley Wildman's concept of homo religiosus, it synthesizes scientific naturalism with embodied spirituality. The research integrates insights from Religious Naturalism, depth psychology, and neuroanthropology to explore how ecstatic states and communal rituals serve vital psychological and social functions. Building on Michael Winkelman's work on shamanic consciousness and contemporary psychedelic research, the paper argues that the human drive for transcendent experience represents an adaptive mechanism that has been systematically repressed in modern society. The study concludes by proposing a model of spiritu...

SACRED NATURE: TOWARD A COMPREHENSIVE THEORY (DRAFT December 2024) Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. Institute for Dionysian Naturalism Santa Barbara, CA 93101
 ABSTRACT In an era of unprecedented environmental degradation and spiritual disconnection, this paper explores the concept of "sacred nature" as a transformative framework for reimagining humanity's relationship with the natural world. By synthesizing perspectives from classical sociological theorists, religious naturalist philosophers, and Nature Religions, the study develops a comprehensive understanding of sacredness that is immanent, relational, and emergent within ecological systems.  Drawing on the works of Durkheim, Otto, Eliade, Goodenough, Corrington, and others, the research traces the evolution of sacred nature from transcendent spiritual concepts to an embedded, dynamic understanding of the Earth as a living, sacred entity. The analysis reveals a spiritual common core across diverse traditions: sacredness...

ON THE GENEALOGY OF DRUG ABUSE AND ADDICTION Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. [Originally written in 2007; substantially revised in 2024] INTRODUCTION This paper adopts a genealogical approach, inspired by the methodologies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault, to explore the historical transformations in human substance use across different modes of production. Genealogy, as a critical framework, seeks to unravel the contingent and often contradictory processes through which modern understandings of drug use and addiction have emerged. This method challenges linear historical narratives, instead emphasizing the ruptures, power dynamics, and cultural negotiations that have shaped humanity’s relationship with psychoactive substances. While contemporary discussions of drug use often focus on addiction as a pathological or individual condition, this paper reorients the analysis to consider broader sociohistorical patterns. By tracing substance use across forager, agricultural, industri...