Early Modern Drugs and Medicinal Cannibalism (2012) | Hacker News Reader

Early Modern Drugs and Medicinal Cannibalism (2012)

resobscura.blogspot.com

22 pointsbenbreen8 comments

The human fat being uncommented upon brings to mind deceased organ transplants as an attitude counterpart - it is for healing and the dead are beyond help. Of course ironically they had issues with dissection sourcing for theological reasons so it was likely more "draining the fat or embalming doesn't count as defiling".

The real crucial difference ethically is that organ transplants are actually effective as opposed to consuming human fat. Using human body parts for something frivolous like fashion would draw far more objections.

If the Gods meant for people not to eat people, they wouldn't have made us of meat!

completely off topic, but I'm reminded of "They're Made out of Meat" [1]

[1] http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/TheyMade.sh...

I stole it from Flanders and Swan's "The Reluctant Cannibal":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjAHw2DEBgw

They also sing "The Gnu Song":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPgo6s1lBbw

I don't actually endorse or participate in cannibalism, myself. I'm just pointing out it's the logical result of superstitious belief in Gods: Eucharist, Transubstantiation, etc.

https://www.nobeliefs.com/communion/communion.htm

>Conclusion: Even if you still stubbornly cling to the belief that the Eucharist represents only a symbol of eating flesh and drinking blood, that still makes you a cannibal, if only a symbolic cannibal. If you partake in communion as a metaphorical representation of eating Christ's body, then that still makes you a metaphorical cannibal. You simply have no easy out of this predicament as a symbolic cannibal sits as a subset of cannibalism.

What was the title of that PKD story?

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread886012/pg1

>In a Philip K Dick story, a hallucinated Christ cannibalizes an astronaut. Interesting theology.

>The writer Philip K Dick wrote a short story (I can't remember the name - Warning spoilers below) where an Astronaut was trapped in a space accident and dying. As he was dying, he hallucinated Jesus Christ coming towards him. At first he was happy but then he was horrified as Christ began to tear chunks of his flesh out with his teeth! Then he died.

I had to look for this. I think the short story is called "Rautavaara's Case" and can be found in these collections: https://pkdickbooks.com/shortstories/TheRautavaarasCase.php.

Thank you! My Google-Fu totally failed me, and I was worried I had hallucinated reading the same PKD story as the guy who wrote that blog who also couldn't remember the name, or maybe we came from the same parallel alternate universes! (Kinda like Faith Of Our Fathers, where there actually were several different parallel universes, but the government put hallucinogens in the water to make everybody think they were living in the same reality.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_of_Our_Fathers_(short_st...

With regard to that conclusion, I'm reminded of a scene in Heinlein's «Stranger in a Strange Land», near the end of part 2 chapter 13, a conversation between Dr. Jubal Harshaw and Duke:

“To Mike it’s a solemn—but joyful—religious ceremony.”

Duke snorted. “Jubal, you don’t believe that stuff about ghosts. It’s just cannibalism combined with rank superstition.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. I find these ‘Old Ones’ hard to swallow—but Mike speaks of them the way we talk about last Wednesday. As for the rest— Duke, what church were you brought up in?” Duke told him; Jubal went on: “I thought so…. Tell me—how did you feel when you took part in the symbolic cannibalism that plays so paramount a part in your church’s rituals?”

Duke stared. “What the devil are you talking about?”

&c.

"Placenta encapsulation" is still very much a thing among hippie moms.

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