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Zusammenfassung von The Immortality Key

Name: The Immortality Key
Rating: 4 (36 reviews)
Author: Brian C. Muraresku

Brian C. Muraresku

The Secret History of the Religion with No Name

4 (36 Bewertungen)

18 Min.

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Altertum Christentum Spiritualität

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The Immortality Key
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What’s in it for me? Discover the surprising connection between psychedelics and religion.

During the Eucharist, Christians are invited to sip the sacramental wine. It’s a ritual that the author, Brian Muraresku, has taken part in many times. But he finds the experience a little bit…well, underwhelming. He understands the symbolism of the Eucharist, but where's the feeling?

One day, Muraresku became intrigued by an idea, first put forward by renegade academics in the 1970s. What if the original Eucharist was a more powerful experience? Maybe the wine drunk by early Christians was no ordinary wine, but something containing hallucinogenic substances. Drugged wine would have given people the spiritual experience they were seeking.

There’s a possible precedent, too. The Christians might have been copying the ancient Greeks. According to one theory, the Greeks drank hallucinogenic wine during religious rituals. Even Plato participated.

It all sounds pretty far-fetched, we know. But before you dismiss the theories as the ramblings of a drug-user, consider this: Muraresku is a lawyer and a scholar who’s never used psychedelic drugs.

So keep an open mind, as you join him on his quest. He wants to find out what really went on in the sanctuaries and churches of ancient Greece and Rome.

Although we don’t have time to look at all the evidence in-depth, this Blink will give you an overview of the theories, and some of the key pieces of evidence.

And even if you’re not completely converted, Muraresku’s findings might just make you reassess your views on drugs and religion.

So, are you ready to take a trip?

Psychedelic drugs can lead to transformative experiences.

Dinah is a grandmother, a New Yorker, and an atheist. She’s adamant that she doesn’t believe in God. But one day, she had an amazing, life-changing experience that gave her a whole new perspective. “I felt this overwhelming love,” she says. “It was like being immersed in God’s love.”

The cause of this epiphany? A dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms.

Dinah took part in a study conducted by John Hopkins University on the effects of psilocybin. As a cancer patient in remission, she hoped the drug would help her overcome her fear and anxiety.

And it did. For Dinah, just one dose of the psychedelic was transformative.

It worked wonders for the others, too. 70% of participants in the study rated their single dose of psilocybin either as the most meaningful experience of their lives, or as one of the top five.

For many people, it seems that psychedelic experiences can be something truly profound.

So, as scientists research the use of psychedelics as a potential treatment for depression and anxiety, another question is emerging. Could hallucinogenic substances be a path to spiritual experiences?

After taking psilocybin, Dinah felt an all-encompassing sense of love, and a dissolution of the self. She realized that each moment is an eternity, with no beginning or end.

Was Dinah’s experience a spiritual breakthrough? It certainly sounds like one. Other users of psychedelics have described similarly transformative experiences.

In fact, an Economist article about psilocybin even went so far as to call it “The God Pill.”

It’s a big claim, suggesting that God or enlightenment can be found in the form of a drug.

But according to the author, Muraresku, it’s worth considering – now more than ever.

Traditional religion is in decline. Huge numbers of people now identify as spiritual-but-not-religious – according to one study, 27% of all Americans. In the west, people seem to be hungering for spiritual experiences that organized religions can’t provide.

What if those experiences could be accessed in the form of a psychedelic drug?

It’s an exciting prospect, isn’t it? Like Dinah, maybe we could all benefit from “the God pill.” One dose of psilocybin, and you could potentially experience a form of enlightenment.

If psychedelics are legalized, we might just be heading towards a new kind of religion.

Religious rituals in Ancient Greece may have involved the use of psychedelics.

But actually, maybe the connection between spirituality and psychedelics is not so new. According to some experts, we’ve been here before. It’s time to journey back to Ancient Greece…

Not far from Athens was Greece’s spiritual capital – a religious sanctuary known as Eleusis. For millennia, pilgrims flocked there to take part in mysterious rituals – rituals so mysterious, they are known to this day as the “Eleusinian Mysteries.” Participants weren’t allowed to reveal any details of their experiences, and the punishment for indiscretion was death.

Evidence suggests that the Greeks added hallucinogenic substances to their drinks.

Clearly, Muraresku had a lot of investigating to do. And it wouldn’t be easy.

His research took twelve years, as he talked to countless experts, and explored museums and archaeological sites across Europe. He even managed to get access to the hidden archives of the Louvre and the Vatican.

Originally, the Eucharist may have involved the use of hallucinogenic wine.

The Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, is one of the most important rituals in Christianity. During the Last Supper, Jesus Christ invited his followers to eat the bread and drink the wine in his memory. And for centuries, this moment has been reenacted in churches across the world.

But for Muraresku, who was raised Catholic, this symbolic ceremony has always seemed a little hollow. You sip the sacramental wine, and then what? Where’s the experience?

It’s time to dig deeper, while reassessing our attitude towards psychedelics.

But there are more pieces out there, just waiting to be uncovered. Muraresku is convinced that the evidence exists. Ancient cups used in early Christian rituals could be tested for traces of hallucinogenic substances. With advances in technology, and more interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, who knows what we could find?

Of course, not everyone shares Muraresku’s enthusiasm for proving the psychedelic Eucharist theory. If it turned out to be true, it would have massive ramifications for Christianity. It would change our understanding of the faith’s foundations, and force the church to reassess one of their most important rituals.

Final Summary

We still don’t know for sure whether or not the early Christians drank hallucinogenic wine during the Eucharist. But it’s certainly plausible, especially as we now have clear evidence of hallucinogenic drinks in the ancient world. Recent scientific research suggests that hallucinogens can have significant, long-lasting benefits – something that our ancestors already knew. So let’s keep an open mind about psychedelics. In the right circumstances, they can lead to profound experiences. Perhaps the best way to achieve spiritual awakening is not through going to church, but through a dose of psilocybin. And at last, maybe the moment has come to return to our roots, and kick-start the psychedelic revolution.

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Worum geht es in The Immortality Key?

The Immortality Key (2020) investigates the mysterious religious rituals of the Ancient Greeks and the early Christians. Muraresku spent 12 years researching a controversial hypothesis about the role of psychedelic drugs in spiritual experiences.

Wer The Immortality Key lesen sollte

Historians and classicists
Anyone interested in Christianity or spirituality
People who are curious about psychedelic drugs

Über den Autor

Brian C. Muraresku is a lawyer based in Washington D.C. and the founding executive director of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation. He has a degree in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit from Brown University. The Immortality Key is his first book.

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