The Psychedelic Sex Cult of Early Christianity and why Jesus was NOT REAL | Video Essay
[Music] i'm puzzled uh are you really seriously suggesting that jesus christ was a mushroom i put pretty blankly yes surely you don't suggest that jesus christ and his various disciples were not human creatures yes you are dealing with a a secret cult a secret society the stories of the new testament contain certain incantations certain magic names were which were really the names of mushrooms no but the writers the writers matthew mark luke john these men who wrote the story you are telling me they did not exist no none of them existed it is part of mythologies part of muslim mythology in 1970 an englishman by the name of john marco allegro published a strange book it was named the sacred mushroom and the cross deriving heavily from his work on the equally controversial dead sea scrolls in the judean desert lying in present-day israel and the west bank he claimed christianity to have originated as a shamanistic fertility cult in his crazy cultural conspiracy theory allegro talks about a special mushroom called the flyer garrick or amanita muscaria and how this mushroom was actually a sacred visionary plant or an enthusiasm it was widely considered by many since the time of the ancient sumerians to have been the drug of choice to speak with god this was mainly because the flyer garrick is one of nature's most potent hallucinogens with actives like muskie mall that cause auditory and visual hallucinations but unlike other drugs it synchronizes brain activity instead of disrupting it this provides conviction and clarity in the consumer's experience giving its trip a religious and spiritual flavor it's not surprising then that it was also prominent as a fertility facilitator that helped bring two lovers together in a sacred spiritual commune that allowed for god to bless them with progeny the best example of a culture that still revolves around mushrooms is to be found in the russian far east with the chukchi people in the remote region of chukotka according to john marco allegro's book the mushroom cult and its practices flourished in the middle and near eastern parts of western asia this part of history may have been lost had it not been for the discovery of the dead sea scrolls in the qumran caves in the judean desert its literature was a part of the library of a pre-christian jewish sect known as the essenes from the second temple period in roman judea [Music] apparently they were into sex and spirituality rights under the influence of the mushroom the flyer garrick in order to protect their belief systems and hide their activities from the world the essenes encoded their philosophy into the biblical tradition by using jesus as a metaphor for the magical mushroom this cult flourished in secrecy up until the time of the sacking of the second temple by the romans in 1870 and this is where it gets really weird allegro alleges that the concept of jesus was devised in order to encapsulate the symbolic significance of amanita muscaria forever in the public's religious cultural memory this was done in order to protect the offices of the cult using philological analysis of the structure of the sumerian language allegro discovered the real meaning behind the name of jesus it meant something along the lines of semen that's right semen the sumerian equivalent of the name christ meant something along the lines of giant erect mushroom penis smeared with semen [Music] the symbolism here lends itself especially when you consider the image of a blood red head of the fly garrick with white spots on it the bible is thus just a series of myths that display the secrets of amanita muscaria and the mushroom fertility cult jesus never existed according to allegro but the jesus myth eventually spread rapidly to become christianity much like the figment of clone's mythical culture in jory louis borahez's tron ugbar orbius turtius the legendary short story that might have inspired the likes of umberto eco and christopher nolan now it's not revolutionary discourse to posit the role of anthogens in the revelations of grand religious experiences there are umpteen references to mystery drugs in legends spawned from all corners of the world majority of experts seem to agree that these mystery drugs were most likely derivatives of local mushrooms there is of course the drug soma mentioned in ancient vedic literature and it has been adopted into indian epics in subsequent religious schools with an area of fantasy tales then there is aoma an eerie cognate to the vedic soma mentioned in avistan the language of zoroastrian literature from ancient persia then there is nepenthe the drug of forgetfulness from the odyssey and one cannot help but draw parallels with soma when one refers to the mysterious drink kaiken it was consumed during the climactic rituals of the elusionian mysteries in ancient greece it was performed by the early pagan cult of demeter and persephone or how about the fabled ayahuasca rituals from the southern americas it might be safe to assume that much of religious mythology in the world stem from the visions brought on by the consumption of psychoactive substances while the close relationship between intelligence and religious culture might be explicit among the pagans and the orientals the association with occidental religions under the abrahamic fold is almost absent in the mainstream public eye yet there are some speculations life in counter cultures and among other daredevil academicians like john marco allegro for example there is benny shannon's speculative hypothesis surrounding the episode of the burning bush in the old testament in the biblical narrative of exodus the god yahweh is said to have appeared before moses out of the flames of a burning bush on mount horeb he is said to have instructed moses to lead the israelites out of egypt and into kanan according to professor shannon acacia trees are common in the region and could have been the bush that was on fire but this is not all some varieties of akesha trees are laced with naturally occurring dmt a popular enthusiasm among psychonauts [Music] god appearing out of the burning bush then could have been a thinly veiled allegory for visions from a hypnotic trip maybe the ancient cults from the holy land had carried forward the tradition of consuming psychoactive drugs in order to speak to god just like the ancient sumerians before them in fact how about we push the needle further on this and wonder about the entry of christianity into the indian subcontinent according to religious law thomas the apostle landed on the malabar coast in kodangalur in kerala as early as 1852 the oldest church in india was built by saint thomas in the year 1857 it still stands today in tiruvidham code near kanyakumari in tamil nadu the ruling chera king of the time udayna cheri called the church tomaya koval which when translated from tamil loosely means the temple of thomas now the christians converted by saint thomas's evangelism identify with the syriac nestorian church or the church of the east [Music] syria is not too far from the holy land and centuries before the advent of islam syria's culture would have retained the tradition of consuming psychedelic drugs like mushrooms especially during the second temple period and what are the valleys of munnar vainard and nilgris in southern india known for that's right you know it mushrooms magical ones ever heard of idiki mushrooms the town of ediki happens to be only 140 kilometers away from the malabar coast where saint thomas is said to have landed these are also the regions where christianity took firm route in india even before it started making inroads into europe keeping aside rampant and violent evangelism and politics what was it really about early christianity that rallied even brahmins and other staunch vedic caste to convert so readily was there really some cultural synergy discovered with the common denominator being the practice of consuming visionary plants and fungi like mushrooms again this specular connection between the cult of christ and mushrooms might actually have some legs to it [Music] when you read about john marco allegro's theory you might find a method to his madness take for example the practice of the eucharist followed in most churches it is basically an enactment of the scene from the last supper or the holy communion where jesus is believed to have given his disciples bread along with the words this is my body and then he is believed to have given them wine with the proclamation this is my blood this institutional ritual is said to have been founded by jesus on the night before his final crucifixion [Music] to this day the sacred bread and wine ritual is carried out in every church under the auspices of the eucharistic symbolism and think about it the whole ritual serves as a larger metaphor wherein you are actually consuming the body of christ in order to be closer to god [Music] and you could very well just replace the word christ with mushroom many psychonauts would vouch for the fact that there is no difference between the two statements still not convinced just look at the famous fresco left behind by abe de plaine coro in france he painted this depiction of adam and eve as the first progenitors of the mushroom fertility cult as early as ad-1290 notice the mushrooms depicted in it with its red color and white spots it is no doubt the mushroom fly agaric the magic mushroom [Music] me you
