/lit/ - Literature

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The Order of Assassins (al-Hassasin) of Hassan-i Sabbah and the Kali-worshiping Thuggees (from which we get the word “thug”) of East India and Bangladesh, now those are sinister fascinating little groups. There’s a fascinating possibility that some diabolical, sinister yet very brilliant people took up a study of watered-down/corrupted yogic and Sufic practices and teachings hundreds and hundreds of years ago, which, in a crude sense, could sometimes partially be said about getting into a “trance” state, a hypnotic/meditative state, and instead of using it for spiritual development, refined it into a sophisticated practice of hypnotism and brainwashing, then used it to turn people into automata who would follow their orders, kill on command, loot, pilfer, act as soldiers of an army and bring them back booty and help them secure political power through intimidation and assassination of enemies.

The etymology of the Assassins, fascinatingly enough, is reputed to derive from the Arabic hashishi, and it’s believed as a piece of folklore that Hassan-i Sabbah developed a technique of inviting people as guests to his home, dosing them with tremendous quantities of hash baked into their meals such that they eventually passed out, then him and his attendants would reputedly take the victims to an artificially constructed “paradise” where they would wake up with a vast quantity of sweetmeats laid out for them, gorgeous prostitutes ready to satisfy their desires, and beautiful natural scenery around them, an artificial garden by a river or waterfall. They would then be told that this is the heaven described by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in the Quran, and that they had had the blessing of a foretaste of it while still alive due to their piety and to the sainthood of their host, Hassan-i Sabbah. They were reputedly promised that if they fully obeyed and carried out the orders of their leader, this heaven was guaranteed to be theirs after death.