Brian Muraresku | The Hallucinogenic Origins of Philosophy & Religion

About the Guest: Brian C. Muraresku graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a degree in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. As an alumnus of Georgetown Law and a member of the New York Bar, he has been practicing law internationally for fifteen years. He lives outside Washington D.C. with his wife and two daughters.
In 2016, Muraresku became the founding executive director of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation. Their work has been featured on CNN and ESPN, as well as The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. In arbitration with the NFL in 2018, Muraresku represented the first professional athlete in the United States to seek a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis.
About The Immortality Key: A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.
The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age?
There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist - the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for real answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Centuries in the making, religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And to solve history’s greatest puzzle once and for all.
Before the rise of Christianity, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries - elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. Athens’ best and brightest flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god, achieving immortality. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine - the original sacraments of Western civilization - were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have suggested the use of psychedelic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psycho-pharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers.
If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the original Eucharist of Christianity, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? Is this the real secret behind the Holy Grail?
With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre Museum to show the continuity between pagan and Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth documents never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, he unveils the first hard data for the ritualistic use of psychedelic drugs in antiquity.
The Immortality Key reconstructs a suppressed history of women consecrating the forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were later targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is dead. Unless it returns to its roots.
The Immortality Key is his debut book.
Website: www.brianmuraresku.com/
Twitter: / brianmuraresku
Buy The Immortality Key: www.amazon.com/Immortality-Ke...
Simon Drew Links
Website: simonjedrew.com
Patreon: patreon.com/simonjedrew
Coaching: simonjedrew.com/coaching/
Practical Stoic Mastermind: groups/practicalstoicmastermind

Пікірлер: 79

  • @Erin__D
    @Erin__D3 жыл бұрын

    I just finished listening to this audiobook! Really fascinating! As a former evangelical I will say that I found so much of Brian's hypothesis to make so much sense. He seems really well researched and is a great, informative and entertaining storyteller (He reads his own book). Loved it!

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Agreed. Having a religious background definitely helps with understanding these ideas.

  • @garlenshepson4522
    @garlenshepson45223 жыл бұрын

    Loved listening to Brian in conversation with graham Hancock. Stimulating and insightful. More like this please 👌

  • @Psris123
    @Psris12310 ай бұрын

    I say cling to neither sorrow or joy. Both produce fear. Be now

  • @marshaezell1546
    @marshaezell15463 жыл бұрын

    Got the audio book after the Joe Rogen interview - fantastic! Looking forward to this discussion.

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for listening! :) The book is so great!

  • @ENOC772
    @ENOC7722 жыл бұрын

    The diference of the burocratic religion and the mystics and spirituality is like the diference of what Alex Grey say: believe in your spiritual experience or believe in the spiritual experience of someone else (narrated by a group of burocrats that believe they understand).

  • @trevorable04
    @trevorable047 ай бұрын

    Good job, brother! Keep up the good work. All the best.

  • @tylerhowe1027
    @tylerhowe10273 жыл бұрын

    I’m reading the book now. I’m more than interested in this subject. People do not need a middle man between them and psilocybin. Everything is legal to source right now. Watch some KZread and teach yourselves how to grow mushrooms at home. You can do this, there is no mystery. Lift your own vail.

  • @r34ct4
    @r34ct4 Жыл бұрын

    When he says "so on and so forth" it reminded me of "so forth and so on"

  • @S1L3N7D3A7H
    @S1L3N7D3A7H3 жыл бұрын

    One of the best interviews I've listened to of yours. It actually is fairly obvious from changes in Marcus' writings about the universe/nature/god when he must have started integrating his experiences from Eleusis. The influences it had were apparent that Marcus had seen beyond the veil.

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks mate, much appreciated. I really enjoyed talking with Brian about all this. I think it's certainly a topic that needs at least another couple of thousand years to get to the bottom of :)

  • @alfredmbenedictf.b7998
    @alfredmbenedictf.b79983 жыл бұрын

    So fortunate to watch your video... Brian has done a remarkable work in this psychedelic renaissance...

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Alfred!

  • @jjut6182
    @jjut61822 жыл бұрын

    Been enthralled with Brian’s work since I first heard about it!

  • @shamanic_nostalgia
    @shamanic_nostalgia2 жыл бұрын

    I definitely recommend the book, he goes in-depth in a way that isn't captured in interviews. Kind of amazing something like this can have such low views...i'm thinking in 10 - 20 years we will look back and really say wow....im really hoping this book will inspire a new generation of research into these topics that will take us to a very new level of understanding in society. Its very exciting

  • @voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885
    @voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang8852 жыл бұрын

    You can access the PreSocratic Pythagorean training now through the qigong masters - I did this to finish my Master's Degree at University of Minnesota. Kingsley documents the ancient Greeks experiencing a spacetime vortex when they "die" - this is described and explained in chapter 11 of the book "Taoist Yoga: alchemy and immortality" - I experienced this also. thanks

  • @Red_AIert
    @Red_AIert Жыл бұрын

    “There’s a difference between eternity and everlasting” 🤔😳✌🏽

  • @Red_AIert
    @Red_AIert Жыл бұрын

    “One person’s therapy is another person’s religion” 😳🙏🏼

  • @DjAngelKandi
    @DjAngelKandi3 жыл бұрын

    I can’t afford it now but I will somehow get my hands on either the audiobook or actual book OR both! Love tye topic! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

  • @Thereisnospoon8

    @Thereisnospoon8

    3 жыл бұрын

    Audiobook is on KZread

  • @crowkangi
    @crowkangi2 жыл бұрын

    clinical settings are decent but the shamans know how to take it further with actual archaic techniques of ecstasy. dont forget the cultures that have survived that utilize psychedelics in ritual settings.

  • @SavageHenry777
    @SavageHenry777 Жыл бұрын

    Ammon Hillman is translating Galen.

  • @debrastrayer8600
    @debrastrayer86009 ай бұрын

    I never understood the trilogy either. As a young girl I didn't know where I fit in because I wasn't a father, son or spirit.

  • @user-jt5ot4hy9q
    @user-jt5ot4hy9q3 жыл бұрын

    A mind-blowing experience is a metaphysical phenomenon, and to dismiss it as simply the effects of a drug was (and should still be) considered a form of blasphemy. This goes a long way for explaining why the mystery religions maintained their secrets and insisted on their initiates having the proper ritual context.

  • @DanielPJMMAS
    @DanielPJMMAS3 жыл бұрын

    What a beautiful discussion!!! Thank you so much...

  • @eylamlangotsky8130
    @eylamlangotsky81303 жыл бұрын

    Thank you two for a fascinating talk, adding a comment and reference that might be interesting: 1 Rudolph Steiner described in his Secrets of Philosophy, the mysteries of Ancient Greece as the cradle of philosophical enterprise. his inquiry lays heavily on the akashic chronicles so it is a 'spiritual' research, but the information is highly interesting 2 Michel Montaigne the French philosopher, tried to talk of philosophy as the art of dying, even though it is not as deep as your ancient references. Looking forward to reading your book in details, my own experiences into 'those realms' that was spontaneous rather than induced, blew my 'mind' and changed my approach to life and dying, as a young man, and opened me to those layers of the intellectual history. Good luck and many blessings. Eylam

  • @withnail-and-i
    @withnail-and-i3 жыл бұрын

    Great discovery this channel, subscribed!

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks mate! I appreciate it :)

  • @sharingforimprovement155
    @sharingforimprovement155 Жыл бұрын

    Wow really good, enjoyable and interesting interview, considering there was so much new information you got out of Brian and not the same Q’s others have asked

  • @chilltime4878
    @chilltime48783 жыл бұрын

    Holy moly! Im intrigued

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    I know right? He's a fascinating thinker!

  • @keatonchaplinfilms6264
    @keatonchaplinfilms62643 жыл бұрын

    Good morning, Simon J. E. Drew. this is a absolutely insightful video. thank. :)

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks mate, sorry for the late reply!

  • @jvladcliff4083
    @jvladcliff40833 жыл бұрын

    It has to be available to all who want it. Not only elite well educated seekers who can afford it. All who want the experience, so taking two years to prepare may not be viable for those in lower economic situations, which could be argued are who need it most.

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    I have to say, I tend to agree with you. However, in my view there are absolutely important steps one should/could take to be best prepared to utilise the experience.

  • @I3lindMan

    @I3lindMan

    3 жыл бұрын

    It's freely available to anyone. You don't have to use psilocybin or LSD or ayahuasca. The experience they are talking about can be achieved through meditation and/or fasting which both cost zero dollars.

  • @Instramark

    @Instramark

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@I3lindMan Good point but the expert, Terence McKenna, would tell you it could take a lifetime, or never to get there through meditation without plants. He also cautions that you need to get buzzed enough until you start meeting certain entities along the way which also have to be negotiated, if I got this right. He says the problem for some of us on the plants is getting so far out, might never get back. I did some mushrooms one time. I got out there so far, almost did not get back. But, I did not meet any entities, so I guess I failed. I don't really want to trip like that again and this was 35 years ago. Would need some heavy supervision to try again. But what a trip it was. Much more intense than LSD.

  • @I3lindMan

    @I3lindMan

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@Instramark While what McKenna said about meditation is true, keep in mind that is a single perspective from an individual about what is apparently the most subjective possible experience human beings can be part of. For one, how many people can be found that spent months or years in sincere meditation practices that completely failed to undergo this experience? The possibility of "failure" should not be a discouraging point for anything, ever. Second, meditation is as much a tool for control and stability within the experience as it is a method for inducing it. Fasting seems to be a much more "forceful" way of bringing about this experience, not that you can make it happen. Go 7 days taking in nothing but water and electrolytes and then try meditating and see what happens. While I do not know the details of your trip, I hope you consider the extreme importance your intentions going into a trip, the place and environment you are in during the trip, your state of mind you are bringing with you going into the trip, and then how you put all of the experience into practice and perspective once it has passed and you have returned to "real" life.

  • @501promo
    @501promo3 жыл бұрын

    The "Smoking Gun" is the experience.

  • @raywest7222
    @raywest72222 жыл бұрын

    My favorite books are the immortality key, the secret drugs of Buddhism and the psychedelic gospels. I'm working on writing a book Called Amrita and Eucharist that will draw heavily on the work done in these books

  • @thomashicks7164
    @thomashicks71643 жыл бұрын

    Great Podcast, I am convinced of the very notion expressed here in, according to my own experience with DMT... Once you have this experience you understand the concepts the ancients were conveying to those with the eyes to see and ears to hear, for validation....

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks Thomas, I'm glad you loved it!

  • @thomashicks7164

    @thomashicks7164

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@simonjedrew I did subscribe by the way, Thank you for sharing.

  • @craighicksartwork

    @craighicksartwork

    3 жыл бұрын

    Once you've been there, everything changes. Psychedelics annihilate all concepts, boundaries and ego.

  • @plimithsock
    @plimithsock3 жыл бұрын

    I fuck with this heavvvy , modern eleusis is already under construction 🚧!!

  • @ronjohnson4566
    @ronjohnson45662 жыл бұрын

    "ten years from now we may go to a client/event to take part in drug induced ritual/healing/scientific event. dying and returning to life". Well many of us thought it would happen in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s... but it hasn't and it probably won't.

  • @baroquecat2295
    @baroquecat22952 жыл бұрын

    Cool tattoo

  • @CHITOWNDEECON1
    @CHITOWNDEECON13 жыл бұрын

    The same rituals still take place in the initiation rituals of modern mystery schools like the Rosicrucians but I imagine the ancient version was more like a rainbow gathering

  • @abernica
    @abernica Жыл бұрын

    An IA translating dead language would make eavy sens.

  • @shwetasinghnm
    @shwetasinghnm Жыл бұрын

    True Mystics do not need hallucinogens/ psychedelics to have visions. Explore the Indian spiritual traditions, where spiritual visions are the norm. These are achieved through intense, long-term yogic/ mantric/tantric/ bhakti ( devotion) practices. Many saints in Indians multi-tradition spiritual history have had such visions without, I think, much use of hallucinogens. When one's spiritual state is very high, they come naturally.

  • @neilbaesel3767

    @neilbaesel3767

    9 ай бұрын

    Look up a substance called SOMA in the Rig Veda, lol.

  • @kevinm4157
    @kevinm41573 жыл бұрын

    53:02 < Just because the early gospels were written in Greek doesn't make the roots of Christianity Greek, it was the lingua franca of the region back then.

  • @bellezavudd

    @bellezavudd

    2 жыл бұрын

    If its roots are actually as dogma claims it would be written in Aramaic. One of the oldest languages in writing, and served as the lingua franca of the area for 3000 years. Language of Jesus himself, and many prominent Jewish holy texts.

  • @kevinm4157

    @kevinm4157

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@bellezavudd Partially true, "the consensus of modern scholars is that the New Testament was written in Greek and that an Aramaic source text was used for portions of the New Testament, especially the gospels." Anyhow, I was responding to a point made in this video, I don't believe that having Greek elements makes it Greek in origin.

  • @bellezavudd

    @bellezavudd

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@kevinm4157 Some people see it other ways. Such as how the new testament is Greek thru n thru, with Judiasm sprinkled here and there to act as a bridge of cohesion. Either way the mainstream modern dogmas of Christianity have been shown to be the result of a gradual ongoing evolving theology. A long history of various apologist clamoring among the sects creating civil wars and infighting , along with more random interpretations vigorously and continually added on top of mythical and mystical works . Quite the history. A powerful, rich elite "club" fronting a central myth of a messiah character who says "Give your $$$ to the poor and follow me." While the club mostly uses the peoples $$$$$ to buy art, gold, real estate, politicians and soldiers for "holy" wars. Now to find out more what rests at the foundation of these age old spurious claims is mindboggling bizarre, hilarious and maddening. But also very refreshing.

  • @taraconnelly2348
    @taraconnelly23483 жыл бұрын

    Book isn't available on amazon? Got removed?

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Oh not sure. I'll try and check.

  • @simonjedrew

    @simonjedrew

    3 жыл бұрын

    Here’s the link: www.amazon.com/Immortality-Key-Uncovering-History-Religion/dp/1250207142/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+immortality+key&qid=1610503065&sr=8-1 However they may well have sold out. I’d imagine that after Rohan’s interview there was quite a flood of interest.

  • @davidgough3512
    @davidgough35122 жыл бұрын

    The term "psychedelic" in the title would have been MUCH better than the inept and misleading "hallucinogenic". Why not just go total retro and use "narcotic"? (Satire). You still get a thumbs up, though.

  • @chuckleezodiac24
    @chuckleezodiac24 Жыл бұрын

    that dude from Party Down knows a lot about shrooms and ancient shit.

  • @claudiaxander
    @claudiaxander3 жыл бұрын

    Eluesis is SoMannaFest

  • @Andy-B1984
    @Andy-B19848 ай бұрын

    In a nutshell philosophy is about how to live and die well.

  • @immaeditthatoutjustsayin5892
    @immaeditthatoutjustsayin58923 жыл бұрын

    Sounds like they drank Soma and tripped. When they tripped they navigated through the underworld. Then they come out of the trip newly birthed. Making them initiated and not afraid of death because they had a N.D.E..

  • @apolodoro11
    @apolodoro11 Жыл бұрын

    We need someone who knows how to ask key questions briefly! without cheerleading his guest or his own discourse. Be deep and brief and let the Other speak.

  • @MultiFastie
    @MultiFastie3 жыл бұрын

    Interesting thesis and topic. I was interested to learn more. I'm not Christian and have no problem with the idea that early religions may have been based on ecstatic drug-induced experience. And there is certainly no doubt that the Christian church is a deeply patriarchal entity. I got the book thinking it would be a credible, well-researched exploration of the topic. Unfortunately, the "evidence" he presents is speculation. In fact, there is virtually no credible evidence to support his assertions. Quite disappointing. His book would never be taken seriously by real scholars/historians.

  • @matthijsvanemous7046
    @matthijsvanemous70462 жыл бұрын

    saying all religions came to existence bc of drugs is just nonsense