Message from Andrew Rutajit and Jan Irvin of the Pharmacratic Inquisition:

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I Dugg it. I watched their presentation a year ago already.

The work of Jan Irvin and Andrew Rutajit is quite chaotic and they are heavily biased towards the amanita mushrooms, but the underlying ideas do make sense. That seems to be one of the main problems; people getting into arguments on the details of that work when in fact the very point of that work is that you have to look at the bigger picture to see the association of the use of psychedelics with the present world religions.

I think Jan and Andrew could have done a better job at making that clear, now their work is too easily dismissed as 'esoteric' and 'incoherent'

The comments on that website are quite entertaining and frustrating at the same.


One comment I found particular amusing:

ok let me get this straight.
to believe in a god is illogical. but, to say religion is all about mushrooms is logical?

riiiight.

well.. if you put it that way.. yeah

People’s concepts of god are so disjointed and rudimentary. They pass simple inconsistencies off and focus on detail pertaining to other more debatable forums as a means of driving attention away from their own insecurities about what they believe. They know that it can’t correlate to anything observable, felt or experienced in any way.
But mushrooms!? No that can’t be right; mumble mumble, mumble (sarcasm)

Poisoned, tainted, or just plain retarded logic…

The work of Jan Irvin and Andrew Rutajit is quite chaotic and they are heavily biased towards the amanita mushrooms, but the underlying ideas do make sense. That seems to be one of the main problems; people getting into arguments on the details of that work when in fact the very point of that work is that you have to look at the bigger picture to see the association of the use of psychedelics with the present world religions

With 'the work' you are refering to the 2004 video? I found that many people missed the point (including me the first time) in focussing too much on the Amanita themselves. There are traces of psilocybin use, some indirect, some direct and the Amanita may have just been the symbol of 'all those little brothers' because of the amazing and unique grow cycle it has.

It's really putting together the pieces of the puzzle. If you focus on 'just' Jan and Andrew's work, it's easy to miss the point. This is not a discussion about which plants were used (even in our time, there are many different plants used for the purpose of divination including Amanita and Psilocybin species) but about the true origin of these mystical experiences which inspired so many artists and writers in that time, to express something about it. There is a lot of drug history in Greek history as well as in many other previous believed, drug-free religions.

Love/peace
HC

why isn't more people replying to this topic????

yes, it's meaningless to debate the little details, what's important it's the bigger picture; I wanted to share this:

A secret religion existed for 2,000 years in Greece (until the christians displaced it around 400 AD). The initiation was open to anyone who spoke Greek and hadn't committed murder, once in their life. After 6 month lo?
ng preparatory rituals, members walked to Eleusius whereupon they underwent secret rituals. The rituals remained secret until the 1970's.
Wasson, an ethnomycological scholar and former banker (and the first white to trip on shrooms with the mexican indians) proposed the following explanation of the Eleusinian mysteries to Hofmann, an ergot-alkaloid expert chemist, and Ruck, a greek scholar:

The Secret of the ritual involved the personal visions induced by drinking the grain decoction administered to the initiates. The domestication of grains permitted the development of greek civilization; it also brought ergot fungus (of St. Anthony's fire infamy).

The thin book contains their argument for the use of the ergot fungus in Eleusinian rites, Wasson providing some background on the use of mushrooms and grains and their role in the culture; Hofmann on the psychoactivity of ergot strains; and Ruck on the mythological and cultural backround of the sect.

Evidence includes: Hofmann dosed himself with large (ergot-derived) doses of obstetric compounds to assay their hallucinogenic potential, and found them to possess such activity. The Eleusinian temple site still remains, but there is no room to view theatric performances, just rows of tripping initiates, further supporting their argument.

Various greek prominant figures attended the rituals, including Plato


Yes, that Hofmann, is that Hofmann, Wasson is the first white person to be able to confirm the existence of psilocybin mushrooms and Ruck is a linguist, this stuff, I got it from Erowid, the LSD FAQ and this is all in a book called The Road to Eleusius, published by these three guys, and well what does all this means?? well just that one of the most prominent civilization of ancient times had this rituals were people were "initiated" by having trips!!!! those greeks knew what they were doing drinking that kykeons, you know, this book is vary hard to find apparently and cost Ruck his career!

Arghg this is really frustrating, the more I read and the more I know about these topics it's like we have been told this massive lie!!! (with help from our christian friends) and the information it's just there waiting to be assimilated...

interesting

I don't know why I said The Road To Eleusis is hard to find, I even got it now

It's here.