Mark Booth’s view of our secret history looks way beyond churchy Christianity.

photo by: Skeptiko
Alex Tsakiris: Today we welcome Mark Booth to Skeptiko. Mark is probably best known as the author of The Secret History of the World, an international bestseller from 2008, that really changed the way we think and talk about esoteric wisdom, secret societies, mystery schools, and it was also a book, I think, that has played a part in weakening the grip of this kind of soul-crushing, scientific materialism that we talk about so much on this show.
Mark, it’s great to have you here, thank so much for joining me.
Mark Booth: I’m so pleased to be on your show, I admire it enormously and I admire your cast of mind. You’re curious about everything, but you don’t want to be stupid, and I think, if there is a God, he doesn’t want us to be stupid. So, that’s a very sensible attitude to take.
Alex Tsakiris: Right-on to that, and in that spirit, I really want to have, what I like to call a level-3 kind of discussion here because level-1 is, as our culture would say, “Why would you listen to Mark Booth? I mean, that’s just ridiculous, don’t even pay any attention.” Then, level-2 is the people who just admire and so greatly are inspired by your work, as they should be, and say, “Yes, we must believe everything that Mark says.” Then, it’s level-3, that we don’t have enough of, where it says, “Gee, this a wonderful dialogue to engage in.”
Here is someone I truly believe is a hero, to have stepped forward and fought these tremendous cultural forces that you just have stacked yourself against, but let’s dig into it a little bit further. That’s my speech, that’s where we’re going to go, so if any time you think I’m poking you too hard, let me know. We need to have that next level of discussion.
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Start 35:59 Alex Tsakiris: So, there’s all of these different viewpoints about this extended consciousness, which is again this level-3, getting past the idiocy of the Neil deGrasse Tyson, Joe Rogan, “Oh, it’s all bullshit,” kind of thing. Then, kind of looking at it more deeply, I just don’t see where Christianity, for the most part, in the general sense, is willing to embrace that in a way of saying, “Okay, let’s look at all of that stuff and try and make it make sense to us,” in terms of answering the questions about how we should live our lives, you know?
Mark Booth: I think if you’re saying that you would expect to find answers to questions about LSD experience and after-death experiences in the bible, that’s a little unfair. I think that really, Christianity is part of an evolving dialogue, which involves the other religions and the other mystical traditio...