Chiara Baldini - Political Outcomes of Ecstatic Practices: The Case of the Bacchanals Affair in Anci

The Bacchanalia Affair of 186 BCE illustrates the political repression of ecstatic practices in Ancient Rome. Rome responded to a burgeoning grassroots mystery religion by attempting to ban the Bacchanals, which used dance, music, and psychoactive substances to induce altered states of consciousness. This repression was motivated by the political threat posed by a group that had established its own independent structure and egalitarian social bonds. The Roman elite used claims of moral corruption and conspiracy as a justification to reestablish social order. Today, these events mirror contemporary tensions surrounding modern ayahuasca ceremonies, where legal and social pressures often clash with the practice of individual and collective ecstatic experience.