Editing Flying ointment (section)

==Bodily flight versus flight in spirit==
{{blockquote|He little knows the Devil who does believe that witches and wizards can be borne through the air at wondrous speed to far distant places and there hold revels, dances and suchlike with folk of the same type<ref>Bishop Jesper Brocmand, ''Systema universae theologiae'' 1633</ref>}}
{{blockquote|the mediaeval witch-ointments...brought visionary beings into the presence of the patient, transported him to the witches' sabbath, enabled him to turn into a beast.<ref>Tylor, Edward B.1924 ''Primitive Culture : Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom'' 2 vols. (combined) pub. New York : Brentano's. Originally published 1871.</ref>}}
{{blockquote|Magic ointments...produced effects which the subjects themselves believed in, even stating that they had intercourse with evil spirits, had been at the Sabbat and danced on the [[Brocken]] with their lovers...The peculiar hallucinations evoked by the drug had been so powerfully transmitted from the subconscious mind to consciousness that mentally uncultivated persons...believed them to be reality.<ref>Lewin, Louis ''Phantastica, Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs : Their Use and Abuse''. Translated from the second German edition by P.H.A. Wirth, pub. New York : E.P. Dutton. Original German edition 1924.</ref>}}
It has been a subject of discussion between clergymen as to whether witches were able physically to fly to [[Witches' Sabbath|the Sabbath]] on their [[Besom broom|broom]]s with help of the ointment, or whether such 'flight' was explicable in other ways: a delusion created by the [[Devil]] in the minds of the witches; the souls of the witches leaving their bodies to fly in spirit to the Sabbath; or a hallucinatory 'trip' facilitated by the [[entheogen]]ic effects of potent drugs absorbed through the skin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brh.org.uk/gallery/witches.html|title=Witches Gallery|website=Bristol Radical History Group|access-date=19 July 2017}}</ref><ref>[[Michael Harner|Harner, Michael J.]], ''Hallucinogens and Shamanism'', pub. Oxford University Press 1973, reprinted U.S.A.1978 Chapter 8 : pps. 125–150 : The Role of Hallucinogenic Plants in European Witchcraft.</ref> An early proponent of the last explanation was [[Renaissance]] scholar and scientist [[Giambattista della Porta]], who not only interviewed users of the flying ointment, but witnessed its effects upon such users at first hand, comparing the deathlike trances he observed in his subjects with their subsequent accounts of the [[bacchanalia]]n revelry they had 'enjoyed'.<ref>{{cite book|title=Magiae naturalis|author=John Baptista Porta|year=1584|url=http://www.alternativaverde.it/stel/documenti/Porta/magiae_naturalis.pdf}}</ref> (book II, chapter XXVI, "Lamiarum vnguenta,")