I'm skeptical, Dr. Stang. 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. These sources suggest a much greater degree of continuity with pre-Christian values and practice than the writings of more . 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? Like in a retreat pilgrimage type center, or maybe within palliative care. The book was published by Saint Martin's Press in September 2020 and has generated a whirlwind of attention. 36:57 Drug-spiked wine . But the next event in this series will happen sooner than that. The most influential religious historian of the twentieth century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Ep #1 Show Notes | Brian Muraresku: Psychedelics, Civilization Read more about The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku Making Sense by Sam Harris 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. But even if they're telling the truth about this, even if it is accurate about Marcus that he used a love potion, a love potion isn't a Eucharist. 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. It still leaves an even bigger if, Dr. Stang, is which one is psychedelic? #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 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. That is my dog Xena. As much as we know about the mysteries of Eleusis. 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. Here is how I propose we are to proceed. There's all kinds of reasons I haven't done it. To sum up the most exciting parts of the book: the bloody wine of Dionysius became the bloody wine of Jesus - the pagan continuity hypothesis - the link between the Ancient Greeks of the final centuries BC and the paleo-Christians of the early centuries AD - in short, the default psychedelic of universal world history - the cult of . Well, let's get into it then. Phil's Picks | Phoenix Books 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 Plato, Pindar, Sophocles, all the way into Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, it's an important thing. And her best guess is that it was like this open access sanctuary. I mean, so it was Greek. So this is the tradition, I can say with a straight face, that saved my life. I mean, if Burkert was happy to speculate about psychedelics, I'm not sure why Ruck got the reception that he did in 1978 with their book The Road to Eleusis. Because again, when I read the clinical literature, I'm reading things that look like mystical experiences, or that at least at least sound like them. Maybe part of me is skeptical, right? So, you know, I specifically wanted to avoid heavily relying on the 52 books of the [INAUDIBLE] corpus or heavily relying too much on the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the evidence that's come from Egypt. 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. Now, it doesn't have to be the Holy Grail that was there at the Last Supper, but when you think about the sacrament of wine that is at the center of the world's biggest religion of 2.5 billion people, the thing that Pope Francis says is essential for salvation, I mean, how can we orient our lives around something for which there is little to no physical data? I'm going to stop asking my questions, although I have a million more, as you well know, and instead try to ventriloquist the questions that are coming through at quite a clip through the Q&A. I see a huge need and a demand for young religious clergy to begin taking a look at this stuff. It's really quite simple, Charlie. So that, actually, is the key to the immortality key. He calls it a drug against grief in Greek, [SPEAKING GREEK]. Not because it was brand new data. Like in Israel. It was one of the early write-ups of the psilocybin studies coming out of Johns Hopkins. So when Hippolytus is calling out the Marcosians, and specifically women, consecrating this alternative Eucharist in their alternative proto-mass, he uses the Greek word-- and we've talked about this before-- but he uses the Greek word [SPEAKING GREEK] seven times in a row, by the way, without specifying which drugs he's referring to. 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. And we had a great chat, a very spirited chat about the mysteries and the psychedelic hypothesis. 1,672. Now, Carl Ruck from Boston University, much closer to home, however, took that invitation and tried to pursue this hypothesis. Now, you could draw the obvious conclusion. Now, I've never done them myself, but I have talked to many, many people who've had experience with psychedelics. And yet I talked to an atheist who has one experience with psilocybin and is immediately bathed in God's love. We're going to get there very soon. Origin of the Romanians - Wikipedia 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. Not because they just found that altar. The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Well, wonderful. That is, by giving, by even floating the possibility of this kind of-- at times, what seems like a Dan Brown sort of story, like, oh my god, there's a whole history of Christianity that's been suppressed-- draws attention, but the real point is actually that you're not really certain about the story, but you're certain is that we need to be more attentive to this evidence and to assess it soberly. The continuity hypothesis of dreams suggests that the content of dreams are largely continuous with waking concepts and concerns of the dreamer. So if Eleusis is the Fight Club of the ancient world, right, the first rule is you don't talk about it. It is not psychedelics. We have some inscriptions. So can you reflect for us where you really are and how you chose to write this book? Show Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation podcast, Ep Plants of the Gods: S4E2. Certainly these early churchmen used whatever they could against the forms of Christian practice they disapproved of, especially those they categorized as Gnostic. And inside that beer was all kinds of vegetable matter, like wheat, oats, and sedge and lily and flax and various legumes. So when you take a step back, as you well know, there was a Hellenic presence all over the ancient Mediterranean. It is my great pleasure to welcome Brian Muraresku to the Center. But I don't understand how that provides any significant link to paleo-Christian practice. And part of me really wants to put all these pieces together before I dive in. Nazanin Boniadi That is about the future rather than the ancient history. Klaus Schmidt, who was with the German Archaeological Institute, called this a sanctuary and called these T-shaped pillars representations of gods. And we know the mysteries were there. So how exactly is this evidence of something relevant to Christianity in Rome or southern Italy more widely? would certainly appreciate. I appreciate this. I'm going to come back to that idea of proof of concept. And that's what I get into in detail in the book. Copyright 2023 The President and Fellows of Harvard College, The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. That's our next event, and will be at least two more events to follow. And at the same time, when I see a thirst, especially in young people, for real experience, and I see so many Catholics who do not believe in transubstantiation, obviously, what comes to my mind is how, if at all, can psychedelics enhance faith or reinvent Christianity. What was the wine in the early Eucharist? Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The Eleusinian Mysteries So I think it's really interesting details here worth following up on. And if the latter, do you think there's a good chance that religions will adopt psychedelics back into their rituals?". What is its connection to Eleusis? 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 I understand more papers are about to be published on this. 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. What's the importance of your abstention from psychedelics, given what is obvious interest. And I don't know if it's a genuine mystical experience or mystical mimetic or some kind of psychological breakthrough. Brian is the author of a remarkable new book that has garnered a lot of attention and has sold a great many copies. Now, I've had experiences outside the Eucharist that resonate with me. They minimized or completely removed the Jewish debates found in the New Testament, and they took on a style that was more palatable to the wider pagan world. I wonder if you're familiar with Wouter Hanegraaff at the University of Amsterdam. You may have already noticed one such question-- not too hard. So I present this as proof of concept, and I heavily rely on the Gospel of John and the data from Italy because that's what was there. And does it line up with the promise from John's gospel that anyone who drinks this becomes instantly immortal? You also find a Greek hearth inside this sanctuary. BRIAN MURARESKU:: It's a simple formula, Charlie. All rights reserved. We have an hour and a half together and I hope there will be time for Q&A and discussion. That's all just fancy wordplay. #646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The - Chartable Now, let's get started, Brian. So, I mean, my biggest question behind all of this is, as a good Catholic boy, is the Eucharist. Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Immortality Key: The Secret History And that the proof of concept idea is that we need to-- we, meaning historians of the ancient world, need to bring all the kinds of resources to bear on this to get better evidence and an interpretive frame for making sense of it. It's interesting that Saint Ignatius of Antioch, in the beginning of the second century AD, refers to the wine of the Eucharist as the [SPEAKING GREEK], the drug of immortality. difficult to arrive at any conclusive hypothesis. Because very briefly, I think Brian and others have made a very strong case that these things-- this was a biotechnology that was available in the ancient world. And I wonder whether the former narrative serves the interests of the latter. What I see is data that's been largely neglected, and I think what serves this as a discipline is just that. BRIAN MURARESKU: That's a good question. In fact, he found beer, wine, and mead all mixed together in a couple of different places. The idea of the truth shall set you free, right, [SPEAKING GREEK], in 8:32. Like savory, wormwood, blue tansy, balm, senna, coriander, germander, mint, sage, and thyme. BRIAN MURARESKU: Good one. Now-- and I think that we can probably concede that. The answer seems to be connected to psychedelic drugs. The actual key that I found time and again in looking at this literature and the data is what seems to be happening here is the cultivation of a near-death experience. Who were the Saints? This book by Brian Muraresku, attempts to answer this question by delving into the history of ancient secret religions dating back thousands of years. 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. And this is what I present to the world. Although she's open to testing, there was nothing there. 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. In the first half, we'll cover topics ranging from the Eleusinian Mysteries, early Christianity, and the pagan continuity hypothesis to the work of philosopher and psychologist William James.