We don't have to look very hard to find that. BRIAN MURARESKU: Dr. Stang, an erudite introduction as ever. 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. But you go further still, suggesting that Jesus himself at the Last Supper might have administered psychedelic sacrament, that the original Eucharist was psychedelic. Now, the great scholar of Greek religion, Walter Burkert, you quote him as musing, once-- and I'm going to quote him-- he says, "it may rather be asked, even without the prospect of a certain answer, whether the basis of the mysteries, they were prehistoric drug rituals, some festival imp of immortality which, through the expansion of consciousness, seemed to guarantee some psychedelic beyond." He's talking about kind of psychedelic wine. Brian C. Muraresku - Priory Of Sion Rachel Peterson, who's well known to Brian and who's taken a lead in designing the series. So when you take a step back, as you well know, there was a Hellenic presence all over the ancient Mediterranean. I don't know why it's happening now, but we're finally taking a look. I see it as-- well, OK, I'd see it as within a minority. CHARLES STANG: Thank you, Brian. Thank you. 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. And I just happened to fall into that at the age of 14 thanks to the Jesuits, and just never left it behind. I see something that's happening to people. CHARLES STANG: Right. And I think there are so many sites and excavations and so many chalices that remain to be tested. There's some suggestive language in the pyramid texts, in the Book of the Dead and things of this nature. Wise not least because it is summer there, as he reminds me every time we have a Zoom meeting, which has been quite often in these past several months. I'm currently reading The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku and find this 2nd/3rd/4th century AD time period very interesting, particularly with regards to the adoptions of pagan rituals and practices by early Christianity. And I got to say, there's not a heck of a lot of eye rolling, assuming people read my afterword and try to see how careful I am about delineating what is knowable and what is not and what this means for the future of religion. Here's your Western Eleusis. He draws on the theory of "pagan continuity," which holds that early Christianity adopted . Here's another one. A combination of psychoactive plants, including opium, cannabis, and nightshade, along with the remains of reptiles and amphibians all steeped in wine, like a real witch's brew, uncovered in this house outside of Pompeii. He's the god of wine. Here's the big question. 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 this clearly involved some kind of technical know-how and the ability to concoct these things that, in order to keep them safe and efficacious, would not have been very widespread, I don't think. I'm going to come back to that idea of proof of concept. But if the original Eucharist were psychedelic, or even if there were significant numbers of early Christians using psychedelics like sacrament, I would expect the representatives of orthodox, institutional Christianity to rail against it. You also find a Greek hearth inside this sanctuary. That seems very believable, but there's nothing to suggest that the pharmacy or drug farm was serving Christians, or even that the potions produced were for ritual use. You obviously think these are powerful substances with profound effects that track with reality. It draws attention to this material. And what does this earliest history tell us about the earliest evidence for an ancient psychedelic religion? 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? and he said, Brian, don't you dare. But what we do know about the wine of the time is that it was routinely mixed with plants and herbs and potentially fungi. He dared to ask this very question before the hypothesis that this Eleusinian sacrament was indeed a psychedelic, and am I right that it was Ruck's hypothesis that set you down this path all those many years ago at Brown? 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. Video: Psychedelics: The Ancient Religion with No Name? John H Elliott - Empires Of The Atlantic World.pdf As a matter of fact, I think it's much more promising and much more fertile for scholarship to suggest that some of the earliest Christians may have availed themselves of a psychedelic sacrament and may have interpreted the Last Supper as some kind of invitation to open psychedelia, that mystical supper as the orthodox call it, [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]. CHARLES STANG: You know, Valentinus was almost elected bishop of Rome. Church of the Saints Faustina and Liberata, view from the outside with the entrance enclosure, at "Sante" place, Capo di Ponte (Italy). Maybe I have that wrong. But what I see are potential and possibilities and things worthy of discussions like this. They were relevant to me in going down this rabbit hole. And besides that, young Brian, let's keep the mysteries mysteries. Because at my heart, I still consider myself a good Catholic boy. CHARLES STANG: OK. Now let's move into the Greek mystery. The book proposes a history of religious ritualistic psychedelic use at least as old as the ancient Greek mystery religions, especially those starting in Eleusis and dating to roughly 2,000 BC. It is my great pleasure to welcome Brian Muraresku to the Center. So I don't write this to antagonize them or the church, the people who, again, ushered me into this discipline and into these questions. BRIAN MURARESKU: I would say I've definitely experienced the power of the Christ and the Holy Spirit. I would have been happy to find a spiked wine anywhere. BRIAN MURARESKU: Great question. Newsweek calls him 'the world's best human guinea pig,' and The New York Times calls him 'a cross between Jack Welch and a Buddhist monk.' In this show, he deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc . So it is already happening. The Immortality Key: Book Overview (Brian Muraresku) The pagan continuity hypothesis at the heart of this book made sense to me. I mean, about 25 years ago, actually. OK. Now let's pan back because, we have-- I want to wrap up my interrogation of you, which I've been pressing you, but I feel as if perhaps people joining me think I'm hostile to this hypothesis. 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 It was one of the early write-ups of the psilocybin studies coming out of Johns Hopkins. BRIAN MURARESKU: I look forward to it, Charlie. I will ask Brian to describe how he came to write this remarkable book, and the years of sleuthing and studying that went into it. But I do want to push back a little bit on the elevation of this particular real estate in southern Italy. And I think sites like this have tended to be neglected in scholarship, or published in languages like Catalan, maybe Ukrainian, where it just doesn't filter through the academic community. Which is a very weird thing today. I think it's important you have made a distinction between what was Jesus doing at the Last Supper, as if we could ever find out. That's staying within the field of time. How does, in other words, how does religion sit with science? With more than 35 years of experience in the field of Education dedicated to help students, teachers and administrators in both public and private institutions at school, undergraduate and graduate level. So listening right now, there's at least one orthodox priest, there's at least one Catholic priest, an Episcopalian, an Anglican, and several others with whom I've been talking in recent months. Several theories address the issue of the origin of the Romanians.The Romanian language descends from the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken in the Roman provinces north of the "Jireek Line" (a proposed notional line separating the predominantly Latin-speaking territories from the Greek-speaking lands in Southeastern Europe) in Late Antiquity.The theory of Daco-Roman continuity argues that the . Yeah. Mona Sobhani, PhD Retweeted. Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and - TopPodcast And even Burkert, I think, calls it the most famous of the mystery rituals. Was there any similarity from that potion to what was drunk at Eleusis? Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin: The Eleusinian Mysteries Not because they just found that altar. We have an hour and a half together and I hope there will be time for Q&A and discussion. If your history is even remotely correct, that would have ushered in a very different church, if Valentinus's own student Marcus and the Marcosians were involved in psychedelic rituals, then that was an early road not taken, let's say. When Irenaeus is talking about [SPEAKING GREEK], love potions, again, we have no idea what the hell he's talking about. Then there's what were the earliest Christians doing with the Eucharist. And even in the New Testament, you'll see wine spiked with myrrh, for example, that's served to Jesus at his crucifixion. And what about the alleged democratization with which you credit the mysteries of Dionysus, or the role of women in that movement? BRIAN MURARESKU:: It's a simple formula, Charlie. So frankly, what happens during the Neolithic, we don't know, at least from a scientific vantage. OK, now, Brian, you've probably dealt with questions like this. So I think it's really interesting details here worth following up on. And as a lawyer, I know what is probative and what's circumstantial evidence, and I just-- I don't see it there. 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. That's how we get to Catalonia. Here is how I propose we are to proceed. So there's a whole slew of sites I want to test there. And I-- in my profession, we call this circumstantial, and I get it. The most colorful theory of psychedelics in religion portrays the original Santa Claus as a shaman. Perhaps more generally, you could just talk about other traditions around the Mediterranean, North African, or, let's even say Judaism. Is there a smoking gun? And so I don't think that psychedelics are coming to replace the Sunday Eucharist. So you lean on the good work of Harvard's own Arthur Darby Nock, and more recently, the work of Dennis McDonald at Claremont School of Theology, to suggest that the author of the Gospel of John deliberately paints Jesus and his Eucharist in the colors of Dionysus. Now, I've never done them myself, but I have talked to many, many people who've had experience with psychedelics. BRIAN MURARESKU: Right. You know, it's an atheist using theological language to describe what happened to her. Now, that date is obviously very suggestive because that's precisely the time the Christians were establishing a beachhead in Rome. What's the wine? And so I cite a Pew poll, for example, that says something like 69% of American Catholics do not believe in transubstantiation, which is the defining dogma of the church, the idea that the bread and wine literally becomes the flesh and blood.