We've Been Lied To About Our Spiritual History (& The Hidden World of Esoterica) | Dr. Justin Sledge
Video Overview & Insights
Dr. Justin Sledge is a scholar of philosophy and Western esotericism, and the voice behind the YouTube channel Esoterica, which has grown to over a million subscribers. He has spent his career studying the traditions that history tried to erase: Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, witchcraft, and alchemy. In this conversation, we explore why these systems were suppressed, what was actually lost, and why recovering them matters more now than at almost any other point in modern history.
1:15:36 to anyone who is interested in a unique blend of Norse and Christian imagery in art, I recommend the Gameboy Advance turn based role-playing game called Riviera: The Promised Land
What We Dive Into:
1. Classical skepticism is not about debunking or disbelief. It is about bracketing your personal investment long enough to let the material speak for itself. That posture, rarer than it sounds, is what separates genuine inquiry from finding what you already wanted to find.
i genuinely enjoyed this so much. So intellectually stimulating. Thank you.
2. Newton wrote more on alchemy and the occult than on calculus. Descartes arrived at his famous method through a mystical dream. Kepler's mother was tried for witchcraft. Stripping these facts from the story of modernity is not intellectual honesty, it is myth-making, and it has cost us access to some of the most important spiritual technologies ever developed.
3. Every other starting point, certainty, comfort, doctrine, conclusions, has a gutter waiting at the end of it. Awe keeps the garden of curiosity alive. It is not a feeling to wait for but a practice to cultivate, and it may be the closest thing to a universal foundation for a meaningful human life.
Know Thyself, but not by yourself. A guided space to return home to yourself.
https://www.knowthyselfcollective.com
It entitled me to see a psychiatrist. I'm not sure I'm supposed share it with other people. The experience was for me and anyone else who is affected by my delusions. I feel somethings happened that weren't complete hallucinations. The experiences have stopped. I have to be sure, I can trust my beliefs or what everything means. In the mean time, I'll continue to believe in metaphysics. I think what G-d wants is for you to ask G-d yourself. You know, because the "Tree of Knowledge" ultimately belongs to the Deity.
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Sometimes when I'm just a little bit high on cannabis and I allow my mind to unfocus, I feel such a wonderful sense of love and acceptance from what I like to think of as The Big God.
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Justin Sledge is amazing!
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Thank you for inspiring a genuine smile
00:00 Intro
01:57 What Skepticism Actually Means
Wonderful!!
06:21 How to Enter Mystical Inquiry Without Collapsing Into Belief
08:03 Religion, Mysticism, and the Margins
The two of you are rocking it!
11:24 Gnosticism: The World as Prison, Christ as Liberator
14:21 The Nag Hammadi Discovery and the Many Christianities
Put all these books online. Scan in the pages, get genuine expers to translate them, create audio books and publish replica copies.
That is exactly what their authors would wish. Give these perspectives to everyone to read❤❤❤
17:00 William James and the Four Qualities of Mystical Experience
21:50 Perennial Wisdom vs. High-Resolution Differences
What a show!!!
💓🤩❤️🔥
The love and respect I have for Dr. Sledge is beyond me. I'll just say:"Many thanks to the autor for inviting him and to the good doctor for accepting the invitation." 😇
Blessed be both of you and the whole crew of this channel! 💝💞😘
26:44 The Limits of Propositional Truth
31:32 Irrational vs. Non-Rational: Why the Distinction Matters
This is why I spend my days secluded in a forest surrounded by animals.
37:10 The Danger of Universalizing Mystical Experience
44:34 The World Is Stranger Than We Assume
Armchair warriors are part of the problem
51:01 How the Myth of Rational Modernity Was Curated
59:35 Recovering the Suppressed Voices of Western History
Don't downplay mystical experiences.
1:00:45 Mary Magdalene: Not a Prostitute
1:14:22 The Suppression of the Feminine and the Road to the Witch Trials
Show me something that nobody else can do or has done , and then I will take your advice.
1:18:55 The Malleus Maleficarum and the Anatomy of a Moral Panic
1:24:01 Poverty, Not Practice: Who Was Actually Accused
What authority beyond your books do you hold? Beyond your education?
1:26:27 The Books Justin Brought: Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy
1:32:08 Agrippa and the Possibility of Induced Illumination
It's is not about the experience Dr sledge. It's about the works that follow. Anyone can say anything.
1:41:32 The Kabbalah and the Sefer Yetzirah
1:46:04 The Hermetic Tradition and Hermes Trismegistus
My name is Paul. We know each other. I know that you know who I am. I gained much knowledge from you over the past few years. I thank you for that, Dr sledge. Have you spoken with God? Have you seen Him? I'm just wondering, how can someone advise someone else, if they have not experienced it?
1:54:22 What Studying These Texts Has Done to Justin
1:59:51 Agrippa's Trilemma and the Limits of Reason
This conversation really gave me life, insight, awe and reverence. For the topics discussed and for life in general.
2:04:22 Hermeticism vs. Gnosticism: The World as Divine, Not Prison
2:13:11 Making the Best Case for the Transcendent Realm
I was raised Lutheran and left at 12. Evolution and Von Daniken theory helped. I gave up on religion in general. I found Castenada and Budah. Good work guys the truth is what is important. My wife is Catholic but thinks Jesus was a hybrid and left earth because we were too violent after they rejected his teachings. I relate to Native American beliefs and spiritual ideas. TV Evangelical Cosplay Christian Nationalist Churches hypocrisy is ruining America and the world
2:19:54 Whatever Matter Is, It's Indistinguishable from Spirit
2:26:34 Justin's Personal Satanic Panic: The School Shooting
THANK YOU
2:36:37 Turning Trauma Into Education
2:38:03 Generational Trauma and the Suppression of the Feminine
Lost me at his stumbling over Mary Magdalene Im afraid. Was really hoping I was going to have a new channel to follow too
2:44:57 Truth as a Verb: Dialogue Across Difference
2:47:14 Are We on the Threshold of a New Renaissance?
Dr. Sledge is incredible. I could listen to him speak for 30 hours! 😍🔯
2:54:33 How to Find What Is Worth Being Responsible For
2:58:39 Community Questions: The Most Meaningful Experience of Magic
I often wonder if those who are experts in alchemy ever read the texts from the Indus Valley. The Upanishads show is deep alchemy
2:59:15 When Justin Realized the Books Were Real
3:03:51 Finding the Clerical Necromantic Underground
As someone who did a degree in the Study of Religion, I can say that Dr. Sledge is a fine educator in this interesting, but often misunderstood discipline. I'd highly encourage people to study this area, as it is personally very rewarding, and it helps push back against the world tide of religious illiteracy.
3:04:26 Recreating Alchemy in the Modern Lab
3:07:11 Why We Want Magic: The Very Human Desire for Hidden Power
Justin uses left hemisphere thinking for books that were written to be absorbed by the right hemisphere leading to yet another litteral interpretation
3:13:00 Modern Mythology and the Meaning Famine
3:17:39 Religion as Spiritual Technology
You two are the best. You touch my heart
3:20:10 Closing Message: Flourishing Begins in Awe
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I see a 3 hour interview with Dr. Sledge, I grab my headphones, make popcorn and sit down
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I belive the nag hamdi and feel the truths thanks brothers from moundsville West Virginia love u all
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Thank you so much to the creator of this video for mapping out the introduction the way you did. I really appreciate you highlighting Dr. Sledge’s focus on femininity, as it has to do with our spirituality as humans and the history of our spirituality as humans. That’s really a poignant point to highlight, and I want to thank you so much for that!
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Gnostics wanting to be free of the prison is eerily similar to how Nirvana works
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Go looking for the devil and you'll find him.
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Great chat.
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The other thing about the Library of Alexandria IMO is that if a work was lost because the library was burned/drowned/neglected/whatever, implying that the only copies of that work were in that one library, then it was as good as lost anyway. Works survive from antiquity in most cases because many copies were made of them and disseminated. If that didn't happen then they almost always (with rare exceptions such as the find at Nag Hammadi) simply vanish.
↳Book recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list
My body hair is standing on edge to hear him talk in open conversation. This man changed my life through his channel
More User Perspectives
I’ve listened to 1000+ hrs of Dr. Sledge @TheEsotericaChannel over the past few years, and his brilliant perspectives through this dialogue are exceptionally profound and utterly vital. We are so fortunate to have his wisdom and genius during these unhinged, meaning-starved times. May we all be inspired and choose the courage to rise to our individual responsibility to create the world as a better place.
@fawnmillercoachingThank you
@auntiemoo312Mid spellcraft
@anthonyvictoriano3048I love I love esoterica and I love sledge
@sarahcurtis693The real four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Confirmation Bias
Mis/Disinformation
Illusory Pattern Perception
Fear of the Unknown.
Me: I dont really want to tell anyone about my experiences 😶🌫️
Me 20 minutes later: 🤔 I think I took a break from this channel because I couldn't control my commenting.
Did you say something about not being an accurate self judge?
Oof, well
Happy to be here now 😊
At 6:14 with 14% battery if that means anything to anyone 👋
Around 1:18 they started talking about the witch trials. Which is fascinating that many scholars have texts explaining it. Few explain that who was targeted and who gained. These people would target widows. A certain group would buy/ inherit up their land. They used religion-to do this.
@Lostwisdom369I did a lot of mushrooms and saw a headless goddess whose skin was the universe with galaxies and quasers etc. Light trails were streaming out of her vagina and swirling in random patterns ultimately culminating into the energy nimbus where her head would be. I was given to know all the light streams were souls not only of people but of organizations and nations. I was given to know this by a gigantic jackel headed egyptian god I think was Upuaut. He seemed a bit surprised to see but had no issues holding back the knowledge that my universe was a construction site were a new Goddess was being built. She was mostly done we are just working on the head now.
Anyway that wasn't my cultural paradigm. I'm just a swamp redneck from florida. Boodin Boodin drivin trucks through mud.
This is well masked introduction into satanism. If you're a Christian - just leave, there is nothing here to learn.
@mikkirurk1I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you!
@francesswan4599I'd put Justin Sledge up there with Jordan Peterson and Bernardo Kastrup. He has an open invitation to my dinner table.
@richardduree6559Great theme, great teaches!
@Newworder1:33:15 That's the core plot of the "The Ninth Gate" movie (secrets hidden via editorial variations of the same book on the occult).
@ScrotusMaximus69Loved conversation so much. Something I watched in the silence of midnight. A peaceful and meaningful experience. Thank you!
@NamorongMartyn