So, although, I mean, and that actually, I'd like to come back to that, the notion of the, that not just the pagan continuity hypothesis, but the mystery continuity hypothesis through the Vatican. 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. This an absolute masterclass on why you must know your identity and goals before forming a habit, what the best systems are for habit. CHARLES STANG: You know, Valentinus was almost elected bishop of Rome. 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. 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. The mysteries of Dionysus, a bit weirder, a bit more off the grid. And I wonder and I question how we can keep that and retain that for today. 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. And let's start with our earliest evidence from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age. And anyone who drinks this, [SPEAKING GREEK], Jesus says in Greek, you remain in me and I in you. And again, it survives, I think, because of that state support for the better part of 2,000 years. 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 it's not an ingested psychedelic. 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. BRIAN MURARESKU: Great question. In the same place in and around Pompeii, this is where Christianity is really finding its roots. And part of me really wants to put all these pieces together before I dive in. We're going to get there very soon. And maybe in these near-death experiences we begin to actually experience that at a visceral level. And in the ancient world, wine was routinely referred to as a [SPEAKING GREEK], which is the Greek word for drug. Eusebius, third into the fourth century, is also talking about them-- it's a great Greek word, [SPEAKING GREEK]. Research inside the Church of Saint Faustina and Liberata Fig 1. I'm skeptical, Dr. Stang. 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. I include that line for a reason. And shouldn't we all be asking that question? So first of all, please tell us how it is you came to pursue this research to write this book, and highlight briefly what you think are its principal conclusions and their significance for our present and future. And so I do see an avenue, like I kind of obliquely mentioned, but I do think there's an avenue within organized religion and for people who dedicate their lives as religious professionals to ministry to perhaps take a look at this in places where it might work. What is its connection to Eleusis? And keep in mind that we'll drop down into any one of these points more deeply. This book by Brian Muraresku, attempts to answer this question by delving into the history of ancient secret religions dating back thousands of years. 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 I don't know if there's other examples of such things. If you die before you die, you won't die when you die. And what it has to do with Eleusis or the Greek presence in general, I mean, again, just to say it briefly, is that this was a farmhouse of sorts that was inland, this sanctuary site. Now, that date is obviously very suggestive because that's precisely the time the Christians were establishing a beachhead in Rome. So that's something else to look into. So if we can test Eucharistic vessels, I wouldn't be surprised at all that we find one. Do you think that the Christians as a nascent cult adapted a highly effective psycho technology that was rattling . I would have been happy to find a spiked wine anywhere. Because ergot is just very common. Is taking all these disciplines, whether it's your discipline or archaeochemistry or hard core botany, biology, even psychopharmacology, putting it all together and taking a look at this mystery, this puzzle, using the lens of psychedelics as a lens, really, to investigate not just the past but the future and the mystery of human consciousness. Like the wedding at Cana, which my synopsis of that event is a drunkard getting a bunch of drunk people even more drunk. #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 from The Tim Ferriss Show on Podchaser, aired Wednesday, 28th December 2022. I try to be careful to always land on a lawyer's feet and be very honest with you and everybody else about where this goes from here. I'm trying to get him to speak in the series about that. I took this to Greg [? CHARLES STANG: All right. Now, what's curious about this is we usually have-- Egypt plays a rather outsized role in our sense of early Christianity because-- and other adjacent or contemporary religious and philosophical movements, because everything in Egypt is preserved better than anywhere else in the Mediterranean. Like savory, wormwood, blue tansy, balm, senna, coriander, germander, mint, sage, and thyme. But unfortunately, it doesn't connect it to Christianity. And the one thing that unites both of those worlds in this research called the pagan continuity hypothesis, the one thing we can bet on is the sacred language of Greek. BRIAN MURARESKU: I would say I've definitely experienced the power of the Christ and the Holy Spirit. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. 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. CHARLES STANG: OK, that is the big question. By which I mean that the Gospel of John suggests that at the very least, the evangelist hoped to market Christianity to a pagan audience by suggesting that Jesus was somehow equivalent to Dionysus, and that the Eucharist, his sacrament of wine, was equivalent to Dionysus's wine. The continuity theory proposes that older adults maintain the same activities, behaviors, personalities, and relationships of the past. An actual spiked wine. So, like, they're wonderstruck, or awestruck by their libations and their incense. What the Greeks were actually saying there is that it was barley infected with ergot, which is this natural fungus that infects cereal crops. Maybe there's some residual fear that's been built up in me. She found the remains of dog sacrifice, which is super interesting. I see it as-- well, OK, I'd see it as within a minority. You also find a Greek hearth inside this sanctuary. But the point being, the religion of brewing seems to pop up at the very beginning of civilization itself, or the very beginning of monumental engineering at this world's first sanctuary. Now, I think you answered that last part. And I write, at the very end of the book, I hope that they'd be proud of this investigation. In my previous posts on the continuity hypothesis . And if the latter, do you think there's a good chance that religions will adopt psychedelics back into their rituals?". For me, that's a question, and it will yield more questions. I have a deep interest in mysticism, and I've had mystical experiences, which I don't think are very relevant. Those religions featured psychedelic beer and ceremonies lead by women . And there were probably other Eleusises like that to the east. And the one thing that unites both of those worlds in this research called the pagan continuity hypothesis, the one thing we can bet on is the sacred language of Greek. It's funny to see that some of the first basilicas outside Rome are popping up here, and in and around Pompeii. And what we find at this farmhouse is a sanctuary that Enriqueta Pons herself, the archaeologist who's been on site since 1990, she calls it some kind of sanctuary dedicated to the goddesses of the mysteries. Nage ?] Lots of Greek artifacts, lots of Greek signifiers. So we're going down parallel paths here, and I feel we're caught between FDA-approved therapeutics and RFRA-protected sacraments, RFRA, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or what becomes of these kinds of substances in any kind of legal format-- which they're not legal at the moment, some would argue. We look forward to hosting Chacruna's founder and executive director, Bia Labate, for a lecture on Monday, March 8. So what do we know about those rituals? And besides that, young Brian, let's keep the mysteries mysteries. 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. Now that doesn't mean, as Brian was saying, that then suggests that that's the norm Eucharist. He comes to this research with a full suite of scholarly skills, including a deep knowledge of Greek and Latin as well as facility in a number of European languages, which became crucial for uncovering some rather obscure research in Catalan, and also for sweet-talking the gatekeepers of archives and archaeological sites. You see an altar of Pentelic marble that could only have come from the Mount Pentelicus quarry in mainland Greece. So at the very-- after the first half of the book is over, there's an epilogue, and I say, OK, here's the evidence. 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". We have plays like the Bacchi from Euripides, where we can piece together some of this. The kind of mysticism I've always been attracted to, like the rule of Saint Benedict and the Trappist monks and the Cistercian monks. Those of you who don't know his name, he's a professor at the University of Amsterdam, an expert in Western esotericism. So again, that's February 22. This event is entitled, Psychedelics, The Ancient Religion With No Name? 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. And there you also found mortars that were tested and also tested positive for evidence of brewing. "The Jews" are not after Ye. . Is this only Marcus? Nazanin Boniadi And I look forward to talking about this event with you after the fact eventually over a beer. 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. 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. There were formula. 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. That's one narrative that I feel is a little sensational. 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. BRIAN MURARESKU: OK. Like in Israel. 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". [1] According to this theory, older adults try to maintain this continuity of lifestyle by adapting strategies that are connected to their past experiences. There's evidence of the mysteries of Dionysus before, during, and after the life of Jesus, it's worth pointing out. 44:48 Psychedelics and ancient cave art . 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. It seems to me, though, that the intensity and the potency of the psychedelic experience is of an order of magnitude different than what I may have experienced through the Eucharist. If we're being honest with ourselves, when you've drunk-- and I've drunk that wine-- I didn't necessarily feel that I'd become one with Jesus. The big question is, did any of these recipes, did any of this wine spiking actually make its way into some paleo-Christian ceremony. What's significant about these features for our piecing together the ancient religion with no name? . And I think it's proof of concept-- just proof of concept-- for investing serious funding, and attention into the actual search for these kinds of potions. And I asked her openly if we could test some of the many, many containers that they have, some on display, and many more in repository there. And for some reason, I mean, I'd read that two or three times as an undergrad and just glossed over that line. And that's where oversight comes in handy. So even from the very beginning, it wasn't just barley and water. Are they rolling their eyes, or are you getting sort of secretive knowing nods of agreement? And I think that that's the real question here. I did go straight to [INAUDIBLE] Papangelli in Eleusis, and I went to the museum. 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. So Gobekli Tepe, for those who don't know, is this site in southern Turkey on the border with Syria. So Dionysus is not the god of alcohol. What does God mean? #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 by The Tim Ferriss Show That's how we get to Catalonia. So the basic point being, as far as we can tell, beer and wine are routinely mixed with things that we don't do today. And Ruck, and you following Ruck, make much of this, suggesting maybe the Gnostics are pharmacologists of some kind. 7:30 The three pillars to the work: the Eucharist as a continuation of the pharmako and Dionysian mysteries; the Pagan continuity theory; and the idea that through the mysteries "We can die before we die so that when we die we do not die" 13:00 What does "blood of Christ" actually mean; the implied and literal cannibalism

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