So can you reflect for us where you really are and how you chose to write this book? I am so fortunate to have been selected to present my thesis, "Mythology and Psychedelics: Taking the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis a Step Further" at. I mean, so Walter Burkert was part of the reason that kept me going on.
Video: Psychedelics: The Ancient Religion with No Name? Is there a smoking gun? This is all secret. You obviously think these are powerful substances with profound effects that track with reality. But clearly, when you're thinking about ancient Egypt or elsewhere, there's definitely a funerary tradition. One attendee has asked, "How have religious leaders reacted so far to your book? What's significant about these features for our piecing together the ancient religion with no name?
#646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian So throughout the book, you make the point that ancient beer and wine are not like our beer and wine. First I'll give the floor to Brian to walk us into this remarkable book of his and the years of hard work that went into it, what drove him to do this. CHARLES STANG: All right. And the second act, the same, but for what you call paleo-Christianity, the evidence for your suspicion that the Eucharist was originally a psychedelic sacrament. CHARLES STANG: OK, that is the big question. There is evidence that has been either overlooked or perhaps intentionally suppressed. Thank you, sir. It pushes back the archaeology on some of this material a full 12,000 years. It was it was barley, water, and something else. All that will be announced through our mailing list. Which is really weird, because that's how the same Dina Bazer, the same atheist in the psilocybin trials, described her insight. I expect there will be. And she happened to find it on psilocybin. Despite its popular appeal as a New York Times Bestseller, TIK fails to make a compelling case for its grand theory of the "pagan continuity hypothesis with a psychedelic twist" due to recurring overreach and historical distortion, failure to consider relevant research on shamanism and Christianity, and presentation of speculation as fact." Tim Ferriss is a self-experimenter and bestselling author, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been translated into 40+ languages. And apparently, the book is on order, so I can't speak to this directly, but the ancient Greek text that preserves this liturgy also preserves the formula, the ingredients of the eye ointment. BRIAN MURARESKU: Good one. And how can you reasonably expect the church to recognize a psychedelic Eucharist? So if you don't think that you are literally consuming divine blood, what is the point of religion?
All episodes of The Tim Ferriss Show - Chartable "The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity" Brian has been very busy taking his new book on the road, of course, all online, and we're very grateful to him for taking the time to join us this evening. Little attempt has been made, however, to bridge the gap between \"pagan\" and \"Christian\" or to examine late antique, Christian attitudes toward sexuality and marriage from the viewpoint of the \"average\" Christian.
#646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian Nage ?]
#646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian There aren't any churches or basilicas, right, in the first three centuries, in this era we're calling paleo-Christianity. Just from reading Dioscorides and reading all the different texts, the past 12 years have absolutely transformed the way I think about wine. And so in my afterword, I present this as a blip on the archaeochemical radar. The universality of frontiers, however, made the hypothesis readily extendable to other parts of the globe. Part 1 Brian C. Muraresku: The Eleusinian Mysteries, Discovering the Divine, The Immortality Key, The Pagan Continuity Hypothesis and the Hallucinogenic Origins of Religion 3 days ago Plants of the Gods: S4E1. And shouldn't we all be asking that question? And yet I talked to an atheist who has one experience with psilocybin and is immediately bathed in God's love. It's not the case in the second century. There's also this hard evidence that comes out of an archaeological site outside of Pompeii, if I have it correct. Like savory, wormwood, blue tansy, balm, senna, coriander, germander, mint, sage, and thyme. And when we know so much about ancient wine and how very different it was from the wine of today, I mean, what can we say about the Eucharist if we're only looking at the texts? 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. I would have been happy to find a spiked wine anywhere.
Phil's Picks | Phoenix Books We have an hour and a half together and I hope there will be time for Q&A and discussion. BRIAN MURARESKU: That's a good question. I opened the speculation, Dr. Stang, that the Holy Grail itself could have been some kind of spiked concoction. So I got a copy of it from the Library of Congress, started reading through, and there, in fact, I was reading about this incredible discovery from the '90s. let's take up your invitation and move from Dionysus to early Christianity.
#646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian How does, in other words, how does religion sit with science? Are they rolling their eyes, or are you getting sort of secretive knowing nods of agreement? The answer seems to be connected to psychedelic drugs. And if it only occurs in John, the big question is why. Now, I mentioned that Brian and I had become friends. And what we know about the wine of the time is that it was prized amongst other things not for its alcoholic content, but for its ability to induce madness. 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. You see an altar of Pentelic marble that could only have come from the Mount Pentelicus quarry in mainland Greece. The big question is, did any of these recipes, did any of this wine spiking actually make its way into some paleo-Christian ceremony. Like, what is this all about? And I don't know what that looks like. This book by Brian Muraresku, attempts to answer this question by delving into the history of ancient secret religions dating back thousands of years. The pagan continuity hypothesis theorizes that when Christianity arrived in Greece around AD 49, it didn't suddenly replace the existing religion. Then there's what were the earliest Christians doing with the Eucharist. CHARLES STANG: I have one more question about the pre-Christian story, and that has to do with that the other mystery religion you give such attention to. So if you were a mystic and you were into Demeter and Persephone and Dionysus and you were into these strange Greek mystery cults, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better place to spend your time than [SPEAKING GREEK], southern Italy, which in some cases was more Greek than Greek. Brian's thesis, that of the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis, was explored by Alexander Hislop in his "The Two Babylons", 1853, as a Protestant treatise in the spirit of Martin Luther as Alexander too interjects the Elusinian Mysteries. But unfortunately, it doesn't connect it to Christianity. The Tim Ferriss Show. And it seems to me that if any of this is right, that whatever was happening in ancient Greece was a transformative experience for which a lot of thought and preparation went into. Do the drugs, Dr. Stang? The continuity theory of normal aging states that older adults will usually maintain the same activities, behaviors, relationships as they did in their earlier years of life. And I just happened to fall into that at the age of 14 thanks to the Jesuits, and just never left it behind. And when you speak in that way, what I hear you saying is there is something going on. So, I mean, my biggest question behind all of this is, as a good Catholic boy, is the Eucharist. After the first few chapters the author bogs down flogging the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis and exulting over his discovery of small scraps of evidence he found in a decade of research. What was discovered, as far as I can tell, from your treatment of it, is essentially an ancient pharmacy in this house. His aim when he set out on this journey 12 years ago was to assess the validity of a rather old, but largely discredited hypothesis, namely, that some of the religions of the ancient Mediterranean, perhaps including Christianity, used a psychedelic sacrament to induce mystical experiences at the border of life and death, and that these psychedelic rituals were just the tip of the iceberg, signs of an even more ancient and pervasive religious practice going back many thousands of years. It was the Jesuits who taught me Latin and Greek. Tim Ferriss is a self-experimenter and bestselling author, best known for The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been translated into 40+ languages. CHARLES STANG: OK. Now let's move into the Greek mystery. And the big question for me was what was that something else? But we do know that the initiates made this pilgrimage from Athens to Eleusis, drunk the potion, the kykeon, had this very visionary event-- they all talk about seeing something-- and after which they become immortal. It was a pilgrimage site. I really tried. BRIAN MURARESKU: Dr. Stang, an erudite introduction as ever. But when it comes to that Sunday ritual, it just, whatever is happening today, it seems different from what may have motivated the earliest Christians, which leads me to very big questions. #646: 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 Brought to you by GiveWell.org charity research and effective giving and 5-Bullet Friday, my very own email newsletter. Why don't we turn the tables and ask you what questions you think need to be posed? I mean, so it was Greek. So why the silence from the heresiologists on a psychedelic sacrament? He's been featured in Forbes, the Daily Beast, Big Think, and Vice. But things that sound intensely powerful.
The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name I'm paraphrasing this one. And what about the alleged democratization with which you credit the mysteries of Dionysus, or the role of women in that movement? So I think this was a minority of early Christians. So. And Hofmann famously discovers-- or synthesizes LSD from ergot in 1938. Now, I don't put too much weight into that. BRIAN MURARESKU: Right. So in my mind, it was the first real hard scientific data to support this hypothesis, which, as you alluded to at the beginning, only raises more questions. CHARLES STANG: All right. Maybe I'm afraid I'll take the psychedelic and I won't have what is reported in the literature from Hopkins and NYU. And so that's what motivated my search here. Here's another one. Now, Brian managed to write this book while holding down a full time practice in international law based in Washington DC. CHARLES STANG: OK. 32:57 Ancient languages and Brian's education . CHARLES STANG: All right. And so I don't think that psychedelics are coming to replace the Sunday Eucharist. And you suspect, therefore, that it might be a placebo, and you want the real thing. So this whole water to wine thing was out there. CHARLES STANG: We're often in this situation where we're trying to extrapolate from evidence from Egypt, to see is Egypt the norm or is it the exception? All he says is that these women and Marcus are adding drugs seven times in a row into whatever potion this is they're mixing up. We know that at the time of Jesus, before, during, and after, there were recipes floating around. What is it about that formula that captures for you the wisdom, the insight that is on offer in this ancient ritual, psychedelic or otherwise? 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 improving The question is, what will happen in the future. And even in the New Testament, you'll see wine spiked with myrrh, for example, that's served to Jesus at his crucifixion. Some number of people have asked about Egypt. And all we know-- I mean, we can't decipher sequence by sequence what was happening. 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. And he was actually going out and testing some of these ancient chalices. I'm going to come back to that idea of proof of concept.
Pagan Continuity and Christian Attitudes: When did Paganism End? And that's not how it works today, and I don't think that's how it works in antiquity. First, I will provide definitions for the terms "pagan", "Christian", Then what was the Gospel of John, how did it interpret the Eucharist and market it, and so on. And anyone who drinks this, [SPEAKING GREEK], Jesus says in Greek, you remain in me and I in you. A rebirth into a new conception of the self, the self's relationship to things that are hard to define, like God. When there's a clear tonal distinction, and an existing precedent for Christian modification to Pagan works, I don't see why you're resistant to the idea, and I'm curious . OK, now, Brian, you've probably dealt with questions like this. Something else I include at the end of my book is that I don't think that whatever this was, this big if about a psychedelic Eucharist, I don't think this was a majority of the paleo-Christians. Interesting. Like in a retreat pilgrimage type center, or maybe within palliative care. You might find it in a cemetery in Mexico.
The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in From about 1500 BC to the fourth century AD, it calls to the best and brightest of not just Athens but also Rome. And there are legitimate scholars out there who say, because John wanted to paint Jesus in the light of Dionysus, present him as the second coming of this pagan God. And I want to say to those who are still assembled here that I'm terribly sorry that we can't get to all your questions.
The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Others would argue that they are perfectly legal sacraments, at least in the Native American church with the use of peyote, or in the UDV or Santo Daime, I mean, ayahuasca does work in some syncretic Christian form, right? They were relevant to me in going down this rabbit hole. So it's hard for me to write this and talk about this without acknowledging the Jesuits who put me here. And I don't know if there's other examples of such things. And I'm happy to see we have over 800 people present for this conversation. Brendon Benz presents an alternative hypothesis to recent scholarship which has hypothesized that Israel consisted of geographical, economic . I mean, I asked lots of big questions in the book, and I fully acknowledge that. And I think there are lots of reasons to believe that. Eusebius, third into the fourth century, is also talking about them-- it's a great Greek word, [SPEAKING GREEK]. And it was their claim that when the hymn to Demeter, one of these ancient records that records, in some form, the proto-recipe for this kykeon potion, which I call like a primitive beer, in the hymn to Demeter, they talk about ingredients like barley, water, and mint. Research inside the Church of Saint Faustina and Liberata Fig 1. BRIAN MURARESKU:: It's a simple formula, Charlie. Up until that point I really had very little knowledge of psychedelics, personal or literary or otherwise. Who were the Saints? I wish that an ancient pharmacy had been preserved by Mount Vesuvius somewhere near Alexandria or even in upper Egypt or in Antioch or parts of Turkey. Or maybe in palliative care. I know that's another loaded phrase. Now, I've never done them myself, but I have talked to many, many people who've had experience with psychedelics. Which, if you think about it, is a very elegant idea. 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. They were mixed or fortified. I mean, in the absence of the actual data, that's my biggest question. Rather, Christian beliefs were gradually incorporated into the pagan customs that already existed there. So let's talk about the future of religion, and specifically the future of Roman Catholicism. BRIAN MURARESKU: I look forward to it, Charlie. So after the whole first half of the book-- well, wait a minute, Dr. Stang. And he found some beer and wine-- that was a bit surprising. It's funny to see that some of the first basilicas outside Rome are popping up here, and in and around Pompeii. And considering the common background of modern religions (the Pagan Continuity hypothesis), any religious group who thinks they are chosen or correct are promoting a simplistic and ignorant view of our past. The (Mistaken) Conspiracy Theory: In the Late Middle Ages, religious elites created a new, and mistaken, intellectual framework out of Christian heresy and theology concerning demons. 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 improving But with what were they mixed, and to what effect? BRIAN MURARESKU: Right. 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. I can't imagine that there were no Christians that availed themselves of this biotechnology, and I can't imagine-- it's entirely plausible to me that they would mix this biotechnology with the Eucharist. But I think there's a decent scientific foothold to begin that work. And you find terracotta heads that could or could not be representative of Demeter and Persephone, the two goddesses to whom the mysteries of Eleusis were dedicated. And so for me, this was a hunt through the catacombs and archives and libraries, doing my sweet-talking, and trying to figure out what was behind some of those locked doors. BRIAN MURARESKU: It just happens to show up. So I see-- you're moving back and forth between these two. But what I see are potential and possibilities and things worthy of discussions like this. Even a little bit before Gobekli Tepe, there was another site unearthed relatively recently in Israel, at the Rakefet cave.
Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian Mysteries I'm trying to get him to speak in the series about that. So what I think we have here in this ergtotized beer drink from Catalonia, Spain, and in this weird witch's brew from 79 AD in Pompeii, I describe it, until I see evidence otherwise, as some of the very first heart scientific data for the actual existence of actual spiked wine in classical antiquity, which I think is a really big point. [texts-excerpt] penalty for cutting mangroves in floridaFREE EstimateFREE Estimate We know from the literature hundreds of years beforehand that in Elis, for example, in the Western Peloponnese, on the same Epiphany-type timeline, January 5, January 6, the priests would walk into the temple of Dionysus, leave three basins of water, the next morning they're miraculously transformed into wine. 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. 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".
John H Elliott - Empires Of The Atlantic World.pdf What the Greeks were actually saying there is that it was barley infected with ergot, which is this natural fungus that infects cereal crops. Despite its popular appeal as a New York Times Bestseller, TIK fails to make a compelling case for its grand theory of the "pagan continuity hypothesis with a psychedelic twist" due to. So my biggest question is, what kind of wine was it? Was there any similarity from that potion to what was drunk at Eleusis? There's John Marco Allegro claiming that there was no Jesus, and this was just one big amanita muscaria cult.
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