Parallax Sangha #9: Thomas Hamelryck

The return of prohibition and ritual

With the help of René Girard, Tomas Hamelryck makes an analysis of the present culture and the need to distinguish between ritual time and times of prohibition. Without the release valve of ritual carnival transgression, the murderous scapegoat mechanism and mob will capture the culture; whereas with too much prohibition, the culture becomes rigid and tyrannical. In the present culture, we have ‘unsatisfying ritual time’ in the form of banal entertainment; our prohibitions are unclear and tend to devolve into scapegoating. This is why we need to understand the tension between sutric law (prohibition) and tantric transgression (ritual) and bring back intelligent religious prohibition and satisfying art and collective ritual.

Thomas Hamelryck is a Girardian scholar and professor of machine learning. His research focuses on rethinking the foundations of religion from the perspective of mimetic desire, scapegoating and ritual, synthesizing Girard, Nietzsche, and eastern tantric religion.

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