Summary of : The Immortality Key; Psychedelics and the Ancient Age
By: Maps Of Wisdom
Tags: Summary, Ancient History, Peterson, Psychedelics, Ancient Vs Modern

Summary of : The Immortality Key; Psychedelics and the Ancient Age | Brian Muraresku & Prof. Carl Ruck | S4: E37 Maps of Wisdom Jul 22·9 min read

(This is a summary — it contains many direct quotes and paraphrased, shortened statements from this specific episode. If no speaker is indicated, then it is a guest’s words that are being summarised. Most timestamps are directly taken from the video description. Enjoy!)

Introduction:

Brian Muraresku holds a degree in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. He has been practising law for over 15 years. He is the author of exiting “The Immortality Key”: scientific adventure, which looks at growing evidence in support of the previously disgraced theories regarding use of mind altering substances (e.g. psilocybin) in traditions and religions (such as Greek Dionysus cults or early Christianity).

Professor Carl Ruck is an expert on ecstatic rituals in Dionysius cults. He has discovered evidence for presence of psychoactive ingredients in the beverages consumed during religious rituals. He heralds the centrality of the use of psychoactive substances in the early stages of religious traditions development.

[4:05] Jordan begins the discussion with Muraresku on how he became interested in the subject of psychedelics in ancient Greek religion.

Main points:

· Muraresku wrote this book out of his own volition, his own internal motivation as he was practicing the law and took care of his family. He got interested in the topic when he was a teenager/young adult studying ancient languages and got exposed to the ideas of Houston Smith — worldwide renown religious scholar researching the mystery of sacraments in the ancient religious traditions.

· There was vacuum of research about ancient pharmacology in 90’s and 00’s — there is only some books suggesting e.g. that Greeks could have drink LSD spiked beer (“The Road to Eleusis”). So Muraresku left it for time being.

· Until he rediscovered his passion upon learning about Roland Griffiths research on psilocybin in 2007. Where one dose of magic mushrooms could create life changing event.

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Smith

· https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2402353.The_Road_to_Eleusis

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_R._Griffiths

[6:55] JBP: can you describe what Eleusinian Mysteries are? Why are they significant?

· There have been many mysteries and now the Eleusis is a small town near Athens. But for 2.000 years it has been Mediterranean spiritual centre. Some refer to it as a real religion of the ancient Greeks.

· Some famous initiates: Plato, Cicero, Pindar. Referred by contemporaries (Cicero) as the most divine things developed by Athens. Marcus Aurelius rebuilt it. It clearly mattered to ancient people.

· The destruction of Eleusis in 4th Century A.D. brought about such comments: “Life in the absence of Eleusis would be unliveable”. Unprecedented testimony in Greek literature, showing gravity of that place.

[10:05] Reiterated question JBP: You were very young when you took interest in this topic. What was calling to you? You had career, family. What was so powerful that you have taken upon yourself 12 years long abstract, historical, spiritual journey?

· I was first person in my family to go to college. I went there for the classics (as is ancient languages etc.).

· I experienced major identity crisis and I have seen societal crisis.

· I wanted to understand how the Catholicism fit with the tradition of ancients, with Eleusinian Mysteries.

· (He talks about being guided by Jesuits towards academia, who also encouraged his research into Pagan-Christian transformation)

· (They talk briefly about Griffith’s research on psilocybin and about widely used psychedelics in various cultures in last 50.000 years — e.g. alleged use of Amanita Muscaria in Soma, Vedic potion (Later Hinduism)).

· I chose the law to have market-desired skills, but I remained passionate about the ancients.

[17:00] The story of Brian’s 12-year journey to discover the secret mushroom religion of the ancient Greeks.

· I used my law money to purchase all books by Hoffman, McKenna, and Ruck. I spent most of my time reading their material for a couple of years.

· Advancements in archo-botany and archo-chemistry allowed to analyse the compounds in food and drink containers. That was a big break.

· Perhaps creation of beer prompt the rise of the civilisation (you need to grow grains and spend some time in one place in order to get your beverage).

· Perhaps first world temple, could have been also first world bar.

· JBP points out: We call alcohol a spirit — it might be not coincidental. Dionysus is a spirit of drunkenness.

· Beer could have some LSD like substance

[20:00] The idea that beer and ergot are the root psychedelic experience in the form of religious communal experience.

· Ergot (a fungi) has many LSD similar compounds. So, the initiates could have drank psychedelic beer.

· JBP: in many traditions shamans “die” and move vertically on the tree of life to communicate with ancestral spirits.

[23:30] Facing death in Eleusis.

· JBP: In Griffiths experiments, many subjects report changed relationship to death as a consequence of very densely packed experience. The subjects come out changed, give up smoking for example. How happened it in Eleusis?

· It has been a classic shamanic journey. It was foreshadowing of how a death would look like — that is what mysteries were — they were ceremonies on death and rebirth.

· JBP: In your book you write: “If you die before you die, you won’t die when you die”. It has Christian overtones.

· It comes from St. Paul’s monastery in Greece.

· There was this concept that Greeks gave us the civilisation and Christianity saved our souls, but Eleusis is a counterargument to that. The initiates would go there to “die before they died”. They identified themselves with goddess Persephone. Something visceral had to happen there.

About the Eleusis:

· Plato: It is the holiest of mysteries.

· Aristoteles: You go there not to learn something, but to experience something.

· Plato: One who wishes to engage with philosophy in a right way practise nothing else but death and being dead.

[27:00] Overview on Brian’s trips while researching for his book The Immortality Key. How were you welcomed? Trying to prove that sacraments have their roots in psychedelics seems quite controversial.

· I was relatively welcomed. I was well received by the religious people.

· I researched past, which does not threaten current practises.

· There is already a lot of evidence of alternative practises, such as Gnosticism.

· Jesus spoke in parables and not plainly. I think there is some understanding that early Christianity has certain level of secrecy, just that ancient pharmacology could be involved is relatively new idea.

· (They talk about possible future union between religion and psychedelics, e.g., project of Charlie Stang)

· I discovered version of religion that I haven’t learn in school.

· I went to undergrounds of Vatican.

· I have seen representations of Dionysius there.

· I have seen many references to pharmacology, to higher role of the women.

[33:00] Muraresku talks about whether or not he’s found links to the origins of Christianity in his research. (They mention the John Allegro — linguistic proponent of psychedelic use in early Christianity, for what he was banished from academia).

· Times have changed — those ideas are not as polarising (hugely thanks to the Griffiths research).

· JBP: maybe due to psychedelics destabilising properties, the Christianity removed them to allow more stability. In 1960s they caused so much ruckus that we had to ban them.

· I believe that some Christians engaged in these psychedelic sacraments, but I don’t share view of allegro that the Christianity started as a mushroom cult.

· JBP: But why would we abandon the psychedelics? The large sample studies show that hallucinogens users are healthier on virtually all aspects than psychedelics non-users. So, can we really think of it as a poison? It started the religions. IMHO it points to something we just don’t understand.

· (They mention the Stone Ape, Paul Stamets, Dennis McKenna, and our mastery of the psychedelics in all areas of the world).

· We coevolved with mushroom. They are extremely old organisms.

[46:30] Professor Carl Ruck joins. They discuss Ruck’s co-authorship of The Road to Eleusis.

· Professor Ruck: the book of Allegro was excellent in terms of citations and content. It caught my attention.

· I read Gordon Watson (writer on Soma) and started working with him.

· We came up with idea that ergot would be connected.

· My task was to show that it fits the mysteries.

[55:00] Distinguishing between visionary and hallucinogenic experiences.

· Hallucination is pejorative. It discredits the experience as false, mad.

· I use the words entheogen is better word

Meaning of the word from Wikipedia:

“Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behaviour for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwise in sacred contexts. Anthropological study has established that entheogens are used for religious, magical, shamanic, or spiritual purposes in many parts of the world. Entheogens have traditionally been used to supplement many diverse practices geared towards achieving transcendence, including divination, meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, asceticism, prayer, trance, rituals, chanting, imitation of sounds, hymns like peyote songs, drumming, and ecstatic dance. The psychedelic experience is often compared to non-ordinary forms of consciousness such as those experienced in meditation, near-death experiences, and mystical experiences. Ego dissolution is often described as a key feature of the psychedelic experience.”

· We construct the reality by what we see, so things that alter our seeing ability can let us to see fringes of reality.

[1:04:00] The main thesis of The Road to Eleusis as described by Carl Ruck.

· The book talks about initiation mystery that was panhellenic (many people, even from afar would do it).

· The participants were prepared, taught, and medicated to see something at the same time — something transformative.

· They drank potion that elicited those experiences.

· You could not speak of that experience under threat of death.

· You had to transcend the world to the edge of the cosmos.

[1:10:00] Shamanic tradition that echoes Greek myth, even Disney movies mirror the same elements of experience.

· JBP: Talks about Tree of Life and microscopic and Cosmological level

· JBP: Pinocchio rescuing his father from the dragon (whale + fire = dragon) and his conscience (The Cricket) gets a golden badge — similar to shamanic traditions.

[1:15:00] Public reactions to The Road to Eleusis.

· I expected that others would take this material (like I did with Allegro book), but nobody did.

· It got me some enemies.

· It is dangerous idea, because it opens possibility to categorise religion and spirituality to be a biological need.

· JBP: It is worse: it opens possibility that religions are right! It means we have divine responsibilities.

[1:25:30] Carl Ruck’s experience with the kukiyon potion (the spelling is from the YT description).

· It did not work basically. They felt nothing.

[1:31:00] Recounting other psychedelic experiences of Carl Ruck.

· I had experiences with LSD and shamanic rituals.

· My teacher advised me that if I want to study soul, I should study philosophy, not psychiatry.

[1:36:30] The use of realizations achieved through psychedelic use.

· The psychedelic experiences are a journey to understand who you are.

· When you get to the end of the journey, what you find is yourself looking back.

· Alcohol is a catastrophe. Same with the other addictive substances. Psychedelics are not addictive.

· (They talk about role of non-ordinary consciousness states in Greek culture)

· (They talk about the muses)

[1:44:00] Speculation on influential thinkers in Western culture that may have been affected by entheogenic substances.

· Red Book was a consequence of Jung using psychedelics.

· (Perhaps Blake, Milton and many others potentially used some of those substances)

[1:46:00] Brian on not taking entheogenic substances after devoting so much of his life to its research.

· I am really curious about it.

· Mysticism still very real in Christianity.

· JBP: Talks about dogma and spiritual experience and their balance.

· I did my psychedelic trip by studying classics.

[1:49:30] Professor Ruck talks about what the relationship between Dionysus of Greek mythology and Christ is/was.

· Christ is Hellenised Jewish myth (it is a Greek Deity).

· (They talk about rivalling religions and trying to “own” the narrative over the world).

· (Muraresku talks about Peter Kingsley’s In The Dark Places of Wisdom — Cave techniques, trans techniques practised by persons such as Pythagoras)

· “Once you wake up it is hard to remember the dream”.

· (Very interesting take on Lucid Dreaming by professor Ruck, but best watched as I feel they cannot be paraphrased)