Hi everyone. I'm Josh, and this is The Emerald,

currents and trends through a mythic lens.

The podcast where we explore an ever-changing world and our lives in it

through the lens of myth, story, and imagination.

The Emerald.

All that's happening on this green jewel in space. Hi, everyone. I'm Josh, and welcome to the Emerald.

We'll start today with a story from Alexaev Mikhail, an old Yakut man from Siberia.

And here he's quoted in Joseph Campbell's masks of God.

Here's what he says. I remember how, in the old days, the shamans bellowed during the seance like bulls, and there would grow from their heads pure, opaque horns. I once saw such a thing

myself. There used to live in our village, a shaman whose name was Connor. When his older sister died,

he shamanized. When he did so, horns grew on his head.

He stirred up the dry clay floor with them and ran about on all fours as children do when they play bull.

So I want to take a look at how the modern mind processes a story like this.

Most likely, we would look at an experience like this and conclude one of several things. One, that everyone who saw those horns was under the influence of strong

anthogenic substances. Or two, they were possibly psychotic, having some kind of psychosis, psychotic experience.

Or three, they really wanted to believe the horns were there, so they saw them.

Or four, they lied about seeing the horns. They made the whole thing up.

Well, what if the people in question were

not actually under the influence of any substances, nor were they psychotic? What if these people, in fact,

had a very clear conception of psychosis, and none of them who saw the shaman grow horns met the

definition of psychotic? And what if they weren't lying at all, or necessarily wanting

to believe anything in particular? Where does that leave us? Well, of course, there is one final option

...