It would have parts of Greek mysticism in it, the same Greek mysteries I've spent all these years investigating, and it would have some elements of what I see in paleo-Christianity. 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. All that will be announced through our mailing list. 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. Thank you, sir. 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. [texts-excerpt] penalty for cutting mangroves in floridaFREE EstimateFREE Estimate And by the way, I'm not here trying to protect Christianity from the evidence of psychedelic use. I go out of my way, in both parts of the book, which, it's divided into the history of beer and the history of wine, essentially. I would have been happy to find a spiked wine anywhere. And she talks about kind of being born again, another promise from John's gospel. . So Gobekli Tepe, for those who don't know, is this site in southern Turkey on the border with Syria. What, if any, was the relationship between this Greek sanctuary-- a very Greek sanctuary, by the way-- in Catalonia, to the mysteries of Eleusis? Which turns out, it may be they were. 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 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. He's the god of wine. 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. To assess this hypothesis and, perhaps, to push it further, has required years of dogged and, at times, discouraging works in archives and archaeology. That to live on forever and ever, to live an everlasting life is not immortality. Not just in Italy, but as kind of the headquarters for the Mediterranean. So this whole water to wine thing was out there. . I don't think we have found it. Its proponents maintain that the affable, plump old fellow associated with Christmas derives from the character of Arctic medical practitioners. He draws on the theory of "pagan continuity," which holds that early Christianity adopted . The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name You obviously think these are powerful substances with profound effects that track with reality. Brendon Benz presents an alternative hypothesis to recent scholarship which has hypothesized that Israel consisted of geographical, economic . In this hypothesis, both widely accepted and widely criticized,11 'American' was synonymous with 'North American'. Books about pagan continuity hypothesis? And as a lawyer, I know what is probative and what's circumstantial evidence, and I just-- I don't see it there. 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. 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. Pagan Continuity and Christian Attitudes: When did Paganism End? The only reason I went to college was to study classics. But unfortunately, it doesn't connect it to Christianity. 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. Just imagine, I have to live with me. Even a little bit before Gobekli Tepe, there was another site unearthed relatively recently in Israel, at the Rakefet cave. The continuity theory proposes that older adults maintain the same activities, behaviors, personalities, and relationships of the past. And I wonder and I question how we can keep that and retain that for today. OK-- maybe one of those ancient beers. BRIAN MURARESKU: Good one. Maybe for those facing the end of life. Brian C. Muraresku (@BrianMuraresku) / Twitter I did go straight to [INAUDIBLE] Papangelli in Eleusis, and I went to the museum. Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2023 #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 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. And then that's the word that Euripides uses, by the way. And how can you reasonably expect the church to recognize a psychedelic Eucharist? In my previous posts on the continuity hypothesis . The most colorful theory of psychedelics in religion portrays the original Santa Claus as a shaman. I fully expect we will find it. [1] According to this theory, older adults try to maintain this continuity of lifestyle by adapting strategies that are connected to their past experiences. So how exactly is this evidence of something relevant to Christianity in Rome or southern Italy more widely? 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." You also find a Greek hearth inside this sanctuary. The question is, what will happen in the future. Leonardo Torres Pagan, PhD - Subject Matter Expert & Editor - LinkedIn Because what tends to happen in those experiences is a death and rebirth. Brian launched the instant bestseller on the Joe Rogan Experience, and has now appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius XM, Goop-- I don't even know what that is-- and The Weekly Dish with Andrew Sullivan. And that kind of invisible religion with no name, although brutally suppressed, managed to survive in Europe for many centuries and could potentially be revived today. I mean, shouldn't everybody, shouldn't every Christian be wondering what kind of wine was on that table, or the tables of the earliest Christians? A lot of Christianity, as you rightly point out, I mean, it was an Eastern phenomenon, all over the eastern Mediterranean. And if you're a good Christian or a good Catholic, and you're consuming that wine on any given Sunday, why are you doing that? The answer seems to be connected to psychedelic drugs. And I just happened to fall into that at the age of 14 thanks to the Jesuits, and just never left it behind. I mean, that's obviously the big question, and what that means for the future of medicine and religion and society at large. It was one of the early write-ups of the psilocybin studies coming out of Johns Hopkins. I know that that's a loaded phrase. . Now, I've never done them myself, but I have talked to many, many people who've had experience with psychedelics. 36:57 Drug-spiked wine . That also only occurs in John, another epithet of Dionysus. 13,000 years old. Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of morphic resonance. Including, all the way back to Gobekli Tepe, which is why I mentioned that when we first started chatting. Then there's what were the earliest Christians doing with the Eucharist. And not least because if I were to do it, I'd like to do so in a deeply sacred ritual. What does that have to do with Christianity? 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. Yeah. 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. Now, Mithras is another one of these mystery religions. I'd never thought before about how Christianity developed as an organized religion in the centuries after Jesus' murder. John H Elliott - Empires Of The Atlantic World.pdf So it wasn't just a random place to find one of these spiked wines. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. Like, what is this all about? 18.3C: Continuity Theory. The same Rome that circumstantially shows up, and south of Rome, where Constantine would build his basilicas in Naples and Capua later on. For those who didn't have the time or the money or the temerity to travel all the way to Eleusis from Spain, here's your off-site campus, right? But the point being, if the Dionysian wine was psychedelic-- which I know is a big if-- I think the more important thing to show here in this pagan continuity hypothesis is that it's at least plausible that the earliest Christians would have at the very least read the Gospel of John and interpreted that paleo-Christian Eucharistic wine, in some communities, as a kind of Dionysian wine. 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. Did the ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? 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. He calls it a drug against grief in Greek, [SPEAKING GREEK]. 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. If you are drawn to psychedelics, in my mind, it means you're probably drawn to contemplative mysticism. And so how far should this investigation go? Psychedelics are a lens to investigate this stuff. This discussion on Febrary 1, 2021, between CSWR Director Charles Stang and Brian Muraresku about his new book, The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name,a groundbreaking dive into the role of psychedelics in the ancient Mediterranean world. Continuity theory - Wikipedia Now, it's just an early indication and there's more testing to be done. And I offer psychedelics as one of those archaic techniques of ecstasy that seems to have been relevant and meaningful to our ancestors.