Maybe part of me is skeptical, right? BRIAN MURARESKU: Right. And I think it's very important to be very honest with the reader and the audience about what we know and what we don't. So I spent 12 years looking for that data, eventually found it, of all places, in Catalonia in Spain in this 635-page monograph that was published in 2002 and for one reason or another-- probably because it was written in Catalan-- was not widely reported to the academic community and went largely ignored. It would have parts of Greek mysticism in it, the same Greek mysteries I've spent all these years investigating, and it would have some elements of what I see in paleo-Christianity. Rather, Christian beliefs were gradually incorporated into the pagan customs that already existed there. The most colorful theory of psychedelics in religion portrays the original Santa Claus as a shaman. But you will be consoled to know that someone else will be-- I will be there, but someone else will be leading that conversation. And if there's historical precedent for it, all the more so. Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian Mysteries The big question is, did any of these recipes, did any of this wine spiking actually make its way into some paleo-Christian ceremony. Those religions featured psychedelic beer and ceremonies lead by women . Now, I think you answered that last part. But please do know that we will forward all these questions to Brian so he will know the sorts of questions his work prompts. So Brian, welcome. This 'pagan continuity hypothesis' with a psychedelic twist is now backed up by biochemistry and agrochemistry and tons of historical research, exposing our forgotten history. #283: Managing Procrastination, Predicting the Future, and - Scribd So the Greek god of wine, intoxication. From about 1500 BC to the fourth century AD, it calls to the best and brightest of not just Athens but also Rome. Maybe there's some residual fear that's been built up in me. I mean, so it was Greek. And for those of you who have found my line of questioning or just my general presence tedious, first of all, I fully appreciate that reaction. But by and large, no, we don't really know. Those of you who don't know his name, he's a professor at the University of Amsterdam, an expert in Western esotericism. Let me start with the view-- the version of it that I think is less persuasive. #646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian Not because they just found that altar. It is my great pleasure to welcome Brian Muraresku to the Center. I mean, I asked lots of big questions in the book, and I fully acknowledge that. 18.3C: Continuity Theory - Social Sci LibreTexts And that kind of invisible religion with no name, although brutally suppressed, managed to survive in Europe for many centuries and could potentially be revived today. Read more about The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku Making Sense by Sam Harris Now, Carl Ruck from Boston University, much closer to home, however, took that invitation and tried to pursue this hypothesis. Psychedelics Today: Mark Plotkin - Bio-Cultural Conservation of the Amazon. So can you reflect for us where you really are and how you chose to write this book? The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian Mysteries, Discovering the Divine, The Immortality Key, The Pagan Continuity Hypothesis, Lessons from Scholar Karen Armstrong, and Much More (#646) - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss 3 Annual "Best of" Apple Podcasts 900+ Million episodes downloaded And I think that we would behoove ourselves to incorporate, resuscitate, maybe, some of those techniques that seem to have been employed by the Greeks at Eleusis or by the Dionysians or some of these earliest Christians. To assess this hypothesis and, perhaps, to push it further, has required years of dogged and, at times, discouraging works in archives and archaeology. But it was just a process of putting these pieces together that I eventually found this data from the site Mas Castellar des Pontos in Spain. I don't know why it's happening now, but we're finally taking a look. It's a big question for me. And I, for one, look forward to a time when I can see him in person for a beer, ergotized beer or not, if he ever leaves Uruguay. The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in On Monday, February 22, we will be hosting a panel discussion taking up the question what is psychedelic chaplaincy. Brian C. Muraresku (@BrianMuraresku) / Twitter And so the big question is what was happening there? So frankly, what happens during the Neolithic, we don't know, at least from a scientific vantage. It tested positive for the microscopic remains of beer and also ergot, exactly the hypothesis that had been put forward in 1978 by the disgraced professor across town from you, Carl Ruck, who's now 85 years old, by the way. And I hear-- I sense that narrative in your book. And I'll just list them out quickly. CHARLES STANG: All right. 32:57 Ancient languages and Brian's education . CHARLES STANG: All right. So imagine how many artifacts are just sitting in museums right now, waiting to be tested. Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of morphic resonance. The mysteries of Dionysus, a bit weirder, a bit more off the grid. So whatever these [SPEAKING GREEK] libations incense were, the church fathers don't get into great detail about what may have been spiking them. Phil's Picks | Phoenix Books And that's all I present it as, is wonderfully attractive and maybe even sexy circumstantial evidence for the potential use of a psychedelic sacrament amongst the earliest Christians. Now that the pagan continuity hypothesis is defended, the next task is to show that the pagan and proto-Christian ritual sacraments were, in fact, psychedelicbrews. And so that opened a question for me. So if you don't think that you are literally consuming divine blood, what is the point of religion? What about Jesus as a Jew? . I just sense a great deal of structure and thoughtfulness going into this experience. The Tim Ferriss Show - #646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin Thank you. Frankly, if you ask the world's leading archaeobotanists and archaeochemists, where's the spiked beer and where's the spiked wine, which I've been doing since about 2007, 2008, the resounding answer you'll get back from everybody is a resounding no. So I'll speak in language that you and our good colleague Greg [? So let's start, then, the first act. There's a moment in the book where you are excited about some hard evidence. So what do we know about those rituals? And when Houston says something like that, it grabs the attention of a young undergrad a bit to your south in Providence, Rhode Island, who was digging into Latin and Greek and wondering what the heck this was all about. The Immortality Key Book Summary by Brian C. Muraresku Maybe there's a spark of the divine within. Examine the pros and cons of the continuity theory of aging, specifically in terms of how it neglects to consider social institutions or chronically ill adults. And I think what the pharmaceutical industry can do is help to distribute this medicine. What the Greeks were actually saying there is that it was barley infected with ergot, which is this natural fungus that infects cereal crops. But curiously, it's evidence for a eye ointment which is supposed to induce visions and was used as part of a liturgy in the cult of Mithras. To be a Catholic is to believe that you are literally consuming the blood of Christ to become Christ. He draws on the theory of "pagan continuity," which holds that early Christianity adopted . I understand the appeal of that. And if it's one thing Catholicism does very, very well, it's contemplative mysticism. I might forward the proposition that I don't think the early church fathers were the best botanists. Psychedelics Weekly - Prince Harry and Psychedelics, Proposed First, the continuity of the offices must be seen in light of the change of institutional charges; they had lost their religious connotations and had become secular. Brendon Benz presents an alternative hypothesis to recent scholarship which has hypothesized that Israel consisted of geographical, economic . Oh, I hope I haven't offended you, Brian. You mentioned, too, early churchmen, experts in heresies by the name of Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome. I mean, lots of great questions worthy of further investigation. So how exactly is this evidence of something relevant to Christianity in Rome or southern Italy more widely? So we not only didn't have the engineering know-how-- we used to think-- we didn't have even settled life to construct something like this. The Immortality Key, The Secret History of the Religion With No Name. Because ergot is just very common. Because at my heart, I still consider myself a good Catholic boy. It pushes back the archaeology on some of this material a full 12,000 years. So again, if there were an early psychedelic sacrament that was being suppressed, I'd expect that the suppressors would talk about it. In fact, something I'm following up on now is the prospect of similar sites in the Crimea around the Black Sea, because there was also a Greek presence there. The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name #646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian There's all kinds of reasons I haven't done it. So the big question is, what kind of drug was this, if it was a drug? And she happened to find it on psilocybin. But it just happens to show up at the right place at the right time, when the earliest Christians could have availed themselves of this kind of sacrament. So I point to that evidence as illustrative of the possibility that the Christians could, in fact, have gotten their hands on an actual wine. I appreciate this. And that's where oversight comes in handy. Again, if you're attracted to psychedelics, it's kind of an extreme thing, right? In the afterword, you champion the fact that we stand on the cusp of a new era of psychedelics precisely because they can be synthesized and administered safely in pill form, back to The Economist article "The God Pill". So Brian, I wonder, maybe we should give the floor to you and ask you to speak about, what are the questions you think both ancient historians such as myself should be asking that we're not, and maybe what are the sorts of questions that people who aren't ancient historians but who are drawn to this evidence, to your narrative, and to the present and the future of religion, what sort of questions should they be asking regarding psychedelics? He was greatly influenced by Sigmund Freud (1940) who viewed an infant's first relationship - usually with the mother - as "the prototype of all later love-relations". CHARLES STANG: So it may be worth mentioning, for those who are attending who haven't read the book, that you asked, who I can't remember her name, the woman who is in charge of the Eleusis site, whether some of the ritual vessels could be tested, only to discover-- tested for the remains of whatever they held, only to learn that those vessels had been cleaned and that no more vessels were going to be unearthed. Mark and Brian cover the Eleusinian Mysteries, the pagan continuity hypothesis, early Christianity, lessons from famed religious scholar Karen Armstrong, overlooked aspects of influential philosopher William James's career, ancient wine and ancient beer, experiencing the divine within us, the importance of "tikkun olam"repairing and . But I don't hold-- I don't hang my hat on that claim. I think the only big question is what the exact relationship was from a place like that over to Eleusis. Now the archaeologist of that site says-- I'm quoting from your book-- "For me, the Villa Vesuvio was a small farm that was specifically designed for the production of drugs." Now is there any evidence for psychedelic use in ancient Egypt, and if not, do you have any theory as to why that's silent? [2] So you were unable to test the vessels on site in Eleusis, which is what led you to, if I have this argument right, to Greek colonies around the Mediterranean. First, I will provide definitions for the terms "pagan", "Christian", "@BrianMuraresku with @DocMarkPlotkin The Eleusinian Mysteries, Discovering the Divine, The Immortality Key, The Pagan Continuity Hypothesis, Lessons from Scholar Karen Armstrong, and Much More" Please enjoy! It seems entirely believable to me that we have a potion maker active near Pompeii. And part of me really wants to put all these pieces together before I dive in. And that that's how I-- and by not speculating more than we can about the mystical supper, if we follow the hypothesis that this is a big if for some early communities of Greek speakers, this is how I'm finding common ground with priests both Catholic and Orthodox and Protestants. I am excited . 18.3C: Continuity Theory. So I really follow the scholarship of Enriqueta Pons, who is the archaeologist on site there, at this Greek sanctuary that we're talking about in Catalonia, Mas Castellar des Pontos. Correcting Key Points in Muraresku, The Immortality Key Revolutionary Left Radio: Early Christianity: Psychedelics, Ancient