pagan continuity hypothesis

I'll invite him to think about the future of religion in light of all this. David Wakefield - President - Wakefield Enterprises, LLC | LinkedIn CHARLES STANG: We're often in this situation where we're trying to extrapolate from evidence from Egypt, to see is Egypt the norm or is it the exception? We know that at the time of Jesus, before, during, and after, there were recipes floating around. But what we do know is that their sacrament was wine and we know a bit more about the wine of antiquity, ancient Greek wine, than we can piece together from these nocturnal celebrations. 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 . Now that doesn't mean, as Brian was saying, that then suggests that that's the norm Eucharist. And the reason I find that a worthy avenue of pursuit is because when you take a step back and look at the Greek of the Gospels, especially the Greek of John, which is super weird, what I see based on Dennis MacDonald's scholarship that you mentioned-- and others-- when you do the exegesis of John's gospel, there's just lots of vocabulary and lots of imagery that doesn't appear elsewhere. What I see is data that's been largely neglected, and I think what serves this as a discipline is just that. And there you also found mortars that were tested and also tested positive for evidence of brewing. And if there's historical precedent for it, all the more so. And, as always the best way to keep abreast of this series and everything else we do here at the Center is to join our mailing list. These mysteries had at their center a sacrament called kykeon, which offered a vision of the mysteries of life and death. 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 recurring overreach and historical distortion, failure to consider relevant research on shamanism and Christianity, and presentation of speculation as fact To be a Catholic is to believe that you are literally consuming the blood of Christ to become Christ. So after the whole first half of the book-- well, wait a minute, Dr. Stang. And I did not dare. And so I don't think that psychedelics are coming to replace the Sunday Eucharist. You want to field questions in both those categories? First act is your evidence for psychedelics among the so-called pagan religions in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East. Love potions, love charms, they're very common in the ancient. Brian's thesis, that of the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis, was explored by Alexander Hislop in his "The Two Babylons", 1853, as a Protestant treatise in the spirit of Martin Luther as Alexander too interjects the Elusinian Mysteries. #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 We have some inscriptions. The Tim Ferriss Show | iHeart 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. I'm skeptical, Dr. Stang. Here's another one. BRIAN MURARESKU: Right. And that's the mysteries of Dionysus. They were relevant to me in going down this rabbit hole. Like the wedding at Cana, which my synopsis of that event is a drunkard getting a bunch of drunk people even more drunk. I mean, I asked lots of big questions in the book, and I fully acknowledge that. And maybe in these near-death experiences we begin to actually experience that at a visceral level. 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. Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation And all along, I invite you all to pose questions to Brian in the Q&A function. And that's what I get into in detail in the book. 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. There's evidence of the mysteries of Dionysus before, during, and after the life of Jesus, it's worth pointing out. And another: in defending the pagan continuity hypothesis, Muraresku presumes a somewhat non-Jewish, pagan-like Jesus, while ignoring the growing body of psychedelic literature, including works by . Where does Western civilization come from? I mean, lots of great questions worthy of further investigation. And by the way, I'm not here trying to protect Christianity from the evidence of psychedelic use. These two accuse one Gnostic teacher named Marcus-- who is himself a student of the famous theologian Valentinus-- they accuse him of dabbling in pharmacological devilry. 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 her best guess is that it was like this open access sanctuary. 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. So to find dog sacrifice inside this Greek sanctuary alludes to this proto-witch, Hecate, the mother of Circe, who is mentioned in the same hymn to Demeter from the 8th, 7th century BC, as kind of the third of the goddesses to whom these mysteries were dedicated. Just imagine, I have to live with me. And in his book [? 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. But what I hear from people, including atheists, like Dina Bazer, who participated in these Hopkins NYU trials is that she felt like on her one and only dose of psilocybin that she was bathed in God's love. But I don't hold-- I don't hang my hat on that claim. 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. BRIAN MURARESKU: I'm bringing more illumination. That is my dog Xena. I've no doubt that Brian has unearthed and collected a remarkable body of evidence, but evidence of what, exactly? In this episode, Brian C. Muraresku, who holds a degree from Brown University in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit,  joins Breht to discuss his fascinating book "The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name", a groundbreaking dive into the use of hallucinogens in ancient Greece, the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis, the role of the Eucharist in early Christianity, the . 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. You take a board corporate finance attorney, you add in lots of childhood hours watching Indiana Jones, lots of law school hours reading Dan Brown, you put it all together and out pops The Immortality Key. "The Tim Ferriss Show" 646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin It draws attention to this material. #646: Brian C. Muraresku with Dr. Mark Plotkin The - Chartable 13,000 years old. This event is entitled, Psychedelics, The Ancient Religion With No Name? And yet I talked to an atheist who has one experience with psilocybin and is immediately bathed in God's love. So psychedelics or not, I think it's the cultivation of that experience, which is the actual key. And even Burkert, I think, calls it the most famous of the mystery rituals. Thank you. I include that line for a reason. So welcome to the fourth event in our yearlong series on psychedelics and the future of religion, co-sponsored by the Esalen Institute, the Riverstyx Foundation, and the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. And what we know about the wine of the time is that it was prized amongst other things not for its alcoholic content, but for its ability to induce madness. Not because it's not there, because it hasn't been tested. Mona Sobhani, PhD Retweeted. Now are there any other questions you wish to propose or push or-- I don't know, to push back against any of the criticisms or questions I've leveled? I would expect we'd have ample evidence. Just from reading Dioscorides and reading all the different texts, the past 12 years have absolutely transformed the way I think about wine. That's how we get to Catalonia. The most influential religious historian of the twentieth century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. The altar had been sitting in a museum in Israel since the 1960s and just hadn't been tested. Which is really weird, because that's how the same Dina Bazer, the same atheist in the psilocybin trials, described her insight. But I'm pressing you because that's my job. Maybe for those facing the end of life. And the quote you just read from Burkert, it's published by Harvard University Press in 1985 as Greek Religion. The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in He has talked about the potential evidence for psychedelics in a Mithras liturgy. Israel's Exodus In Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text - Vdoc.pub 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. CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WORLD RELIGIONS, Harvard Divinity School42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 617.495.4495, my.hds |Harvard Divinity School |Harvard University |Privacy |Accessibility |Digital Accessibility | Trademark Notice |Reporting Copyright Infringements. They did not. And I think there are lots of reasons to believe that. In the Classics world, there's a pagan continuity hypothesis with the very origin of Christianity, and many overt references to Greek plays in the Gospel of John. 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. First I'll give the floor to Brian to walk us into this remarkable book of his and the years of hard work that went into it, what drove him to do this. And when Houston says something like that, it grabs the attention of a young undergrad a bit to your south in Providence, Rhode Island, who was digging into Latin and Greek and wondering what the heck this was all about. Do you think that the Christians as a nascent cult adapted a highly effective psycho technology that was rattling . 18.3C: Continuity Theory - Social Sci LibreTexts Where are the drugs? 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. But it was not far from a well-known colony in [INAUDIBLE] that was founded by Phocians. I mean, I think the book makes it clear. Those of you who don't know his name, he's a professor at the University of Amsterdam, an expert in Western esotericism. I understand more papers are about to be published on this. But I think the broader question of what's the reception to this among explicitly religious folk and religious leaders? And it seems to me that if any of this is right, that whatever was happening in ancient Greece was a transformative experience for which a lot of thought and preparation went into. BRIAN MURARESKU: OK. The fact that the Vatican sits in Rome today is not an accident, I think, is the shortest way to answer that. When you start testing, you find things. Eusebius, third into the fourth century, is also talking about them-- it's a great Greek word, [SPEAKING GREEK]. I do the same thing in the afterword at the very end of the book, where it's lots of, here's what we know. 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. That to live on forever and ever, to live an everlasting life is not immortality. And I think we're getting there. "The Jews" are not after Ye. We have an hour and a half together and I hope there will be time for Q&A and discussion. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. And according to Wasson, Hofmann, and Ruck, that barley was really a code word. Something else I include at the end of my book is that I don't think that whatever this was, this big if about a psychedelic Eucharist, I don't think this was a majority of the paleo-Christians. So the mysteries of Dionysus are a bit more of a free-for-all than the mysteries of Eleusis. And so I don't know what a really authentic, a really historic-looking ritual that is equal parts sacred, but also, again, medically sound, scientifically rigorous, would look like. BRIAN MURARESKU: Right. 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 . BRIAN MURARESKU: Right. Because every time I think about ancient wine, I am now immediately thinking about wine that is spiked. So this whole water to wine thing was out there. He's talking about kind of psychedelic wine. 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. Now, I don't put too much weight into that. And so the big question is what was happening there? We look forward to hosting Chacruna's founder and executive director, Bia Labate, for a lecture on Monday, March 8. 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. Here's what we don't. I would have been happy to find a spiked wine anywhere. There's no mistake in her mind that it was Greek. And if it only occurs in John, the big question is why. Was there any similarity from that potion to what was drunk at Eleusis? And they found this site, along with others around the Mediterranean. Brian is the author of a remarkable new book that has garnered a lot of attention and has sold a great many copies. If the Dionysian one is psychedelic, does it really make its way into some kind of psychedelic Christianity? I think the wine certainly does. What, if any, was the relationship between this Greek sanctuary-- a very Greek sanctuary, by the way-- in Catalonia, to the mysteries of Eleusis? Not in every single case, obviously. Brendon Benz presents an alternative hypothesis to recent scholarship which has hypothesized that Israel consisted of geographical, economic . First, the continuity of the offices must be seen in light of the change of institutional charges; they had lost their religious connotations and had become secular. There were formula. pagan continuity hypothesis - diamondamotel.com There's also this hard evidence that comes out of an archaeological site outside of Pompeii, if I have it correct. Well, the reason I mention Hippolytus and Marcus and focus on that in my evidence is because there's evidence of the Valentinians, who influenced Marcus, in and around Rome. Part 1 Brian C. Muraresku: The Eleusinian Mysteries, Discovering the Divine, The Immortality Key, The Pagan Continuity Hypothesis and the Hallucinogenic Origins of Religion - Feb 22, 2023 And there were gaps as well. 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. 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. This 'pagan continuity hypothesis' with a psychedelic twist is now backed up by biochemistry and agrochemistry and tons of historical research, exposing our forgotten history. After the first few chapters the author bogs down flogging the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis and exulting over his discovery of small scraps of evidence he found in a decade of research. Like in Israel. Do you think that by calling the Eucharist a placebo that you're likely to persuade them? So, I mean, my biggest question behind all of this is, as a good Catholic boy, is the Eucharist. Now, I mentioned that Brian and I had become friends. Things like fasting and sleep deprivation and tattooing and scarification and, et cetera, et cetera. I am so fortunate to have been selected to present my thesis, "Mythology and Psychedelics: Taking the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis a Step Further" at. So again, if there were an early psychedelic sacrament that was being suppressed, I'd expect that the suppressors would talk about it.