The phrasing used in the book and by others is "the pagan continuity hypothesis". BRIAN MURARESKU: Great question. In 1950, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote " The Influence of the Mystery Religions on Christianity " which describes the continuity from the Pagan, pre-Christian world to what would become early Christianity in the decades and centuries before Jesus Religion & Mystical Experiences, Wine But they charge Marcus specifically, not with a psychedelic Eucharist, but the use of a love potion. 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? "@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'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. Brought to you by Wealthfront high-yield savings account, Peloton Row premium rower for an efficient workout, and You Need A Budget cult-favorite money management app.. Rick Rubin is a nine-time GRAMMY-winning producer, one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, and the most successful producer in any genre, according to Rolling Stone. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. 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. Did the potion at Eleusis change from generation to generation? CHARLES STANG: Brian, I want to thank you for your time. Where does Western civilization come from? He's the god of wine. Now I want to get to the questions, but one last question before we move to the discussion portion. Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of morphic resonance. 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. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Nage ?] So the Greek god of wine, intoxication. Thank you, sir. 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 We have an hour and a half together and I hope there will be time for Q&A and discussion. And how do we-- when the pharmaceutical industry and when these retreat centers begin to open and begin to proliferate, how do we make this sacred? I see something that's happening to people. Is there a smoking gun? Perhaps more generally, you could just talk about other traditions around the Mediterranean, North African, or, let's even say Judaism. [texts-excerpt] penalty for cutting mangroves in floridaFREE EstimateFREE Estimate Jerry Brown wrote a good review that should be read to put the book in its proper place. And I offer psychedelics as one of those archaic techniques of ecstasy that seems to have been relevant and meaningful to our ancestors. And then was, in some sense, the norm, the original Eucharist, and that it was then suppressed by orthodox, institutional Christianity, who persecuted, especially the women who were the caretakers of this tradition. And I think we're getting there. And what you're referring to is-- and how I begin the book is this beautiful Greek phrase, [SPEAKING GREEK]. And the truth is that this is a project that goes well beyond ancient history, because Brian is convinced that what he has uncovered has profound implications for the future of religion, and specifically, the future of his own religion, Roman Catholicism. And that is that there was a pervasive religion, ancient religion, that involved psychedelic sacraments, and that that pervasive religious culture filtered into the Greek mysteries and eventually into early Christianity. The continuity between pagan and Christian cult nearby the archaeological area of Naquane in Capo di Ponte. 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. And there you also found mortars that were tested and also tested positive for evidence of brewing. Maybe I'm afraid I'll take the psychedelic and I won't have what is reported in the literature from Hopkins and NYU. Not because it was brand new data. 40:15 Witches, drugs, and the Catholic Church . 32:57 Ancient languages and Brian's education . 48:01 Brian's psychedelic experiences . Not just in Italy, but as kind of the headquarters for the Mediterranean. And my favorite line of the book is, "The lawyer in me won't sleep until that one chalice, that one container, that one vessel comes to light in an unquestionable Christian context.". I mean, so Walter Burkert was part of the reason that kept me going on. And he was actually going out and testing some of these ancient chalices. CHARLES STANG: All right. That was the question for me. To become truly immortal, Campbell talks about entering into a sense of eternity, which is the infinite present here and now. CHARLES STANG: We've really read Jesus through the lens of his Greek inheritors. 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. Which, if you think about it, is a very elegant idea. We have plays like the Bacchi from Euripides, where we can piece together some of this. Again, if you're attracted to psychedelics, it's kind of an extreme thing, right? So the Eastern Aegean. 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. 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. Things like fasting and sleep deprivation and tattooing and scarification and, et cetera, et cetera. I see it as-- well, OK, I'd see it as within a minority. Or maybe in palliative care. And at some point in my narrative, I do include mention of Gobekli Tepe, for example, which is essentially twice the age of Stonehenge. If beer was there that long ago, what kind of beer was it? And I want to say that this question that we've been exploring the last half hour about what all this means for the present will be very much the topic of our next event on February 22, which is taking up the question of psychedelic chaplaincy. Show Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation podcast, Ep Plants of the Gods: S4E2. It was a pilgrimage site. I don't think we have found it. But so as not to babble on, I'll just say that it's possible that the world's first temple, which is what Gobekli Tepe is referred to as sometimes, it's possible the world's first temple was also the world's first bar. 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. So again, that's February 22. 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. let's take up your invitation and move from Dionysus to early Christianity. This an absolute masterclass on why you must know your identity and goals before forming a habit, what the best systems are for habit. For me, that's a question, and it will yield more questions. And we had a great chat, a very spirited chat about the mysteries and the psychedelic hypothesis. And so the big hunt for me was trying to find some of those psychedelic bits. When Irenaeus is talking about [SPEAKING GREEK], love potions, again, we have no idea what the hell he's talking about. And when you speak in that way, what I hear you saying is there is something going on. Eusebius, third into the fourth century, is also talking about them-- it's a great Greek word, [SPEAKING GREEK]. So why the silence from the heresiologists on a psychedelic sacrament? What is its connection to Eleusis? Lots of Greek artifacts, lots of Greek signifiers. But the next event in this series will happen sooner than that. What I see is data that's been largely neglected, and I think what serves this as a discipline is just that. And I think that's an important distinction to make. Is this only Marcus? So I'm trying to build the case-- and for some reason in my research, it kept coming back to Italy and Rome, which is why I focus on Hippolytus. Nazanin Boniadi That is my dog Xena. Books about pagan continuity hypothesis? Are they rolling their eyes, or are you getting sort of secretive knowing nods of agreement? So now it's true that these heresy hunters show an interest in this love potion. So I'll speak in language that you and our good colleague Greg [? Let me just pull up my notes here. But you will be consoled to know that someone else will be-- I will be there, but someone else will be leading that conversation. I'd never thought before about how Christianity developed as an organized religion in the centuries after Jesus' murder. So what evidence can you provide for that claim? And if the latter, do you think there's a good chance that religions will adopt psychedelics back into their rituals?". 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. Now, that date is obviously very suggestive because that's precisely the time the Christians were establishing a beachhead in Rome. I'm trying to get him to speak in the series about that. And I think that that's the real question here. And I hear-- I sense that narrative in your book. The pagan continuity hypothesis theorizes that when Christianity arrived in Greece around AD 49, it didn't suddenly replace the existing religion. Because my biggest question is, and the obvious question of the book is, if this was happening in antiquity, what does that mean for today? According to Muraresku, this work, which "presents the pagan continuity hypothesis with a psychedelic twist," addresses two fundamental questions: "Before the rise of Christianity, did the Ancient Greeks consume a secret psychedelic sacrament during their most famous and well-attended religious rituals? And I'm happy to see we have over 800 people present for this conversation. That's all just fancy wordplay. So thank you, all who have hung with us. 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 want to say to those who are still assembled here that I'm terribly sorry that we can't get to all your questions. That's our next event, and will be at least two more events to follow. I write it cognizant of the fact that the Eucharist doesn't work for many, many people. And then at some point they go inland. 101. And shouldn't we all be asking that question? But with what were they mixed, and to what effect? 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. 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 (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. 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. 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."