Psychedelics in Ancient Greece and Christianity | Brian C. Muraresku

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  • Опубліковано 1 січ 2025

КОМЕНТАРІ • 78

  • @TheInstituteOfArtAndIdeas
    @TheInstituteOfArtAndIdeas  3 роки тому +4

    What do you think of this talk? Leave a comment below.
    You can watch the full talk at iai.tv/video/how-to-die-before-you-do-brian-muraresku?UA-cam&

    • @maxheedrum100
      @maxheedrum100 Рік тому

      Psychedlics is a form of pharmakia; Greek word φαρμακεία, transliterated pharmakeia, which means 'sorcery' and is prohibited in the bible.
      The apostle Paul lists sorcery as one of many sinful practices that mark the lives of unbelievers: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife . . . and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
      Interestingly, the New Testament Greek word translated “sorcery” is pharmakeia, which is the source of our English word pharmacy. In Paul’s day, the word primarily meant “dealing in poison” or “drug use” and was applied to divination and spell-casting because sorcerers often used drugs along with their incantations and amulets to conjure occult power.

  • @radiotvteapee2335
    @radiotvteapee2335 3 роки тому +20

    Wonderful. One of my primary areas of study. As someone who was born into and raised in a medieval Catholic sect (The Cult of the Divine Holy Spirit which has been kept alive for 500 years in the Azores, Portugal) and someone who entered into the world of American Plant Medicine in the 1990’s and has continued walking the Old Road, I have been puzzling together the bridge between these paths for years now. I am writing a series of pamphlets on “The Way of the Cosmic Cross” elaborating my theories and findings, laying out the basic cosmology, concerning this syncretism. The world is in deep spiritual crisis and, it seems to me, that there can be no political healing before the spiritual medicine. But what do I know, I am a kooky heretic priest living in a teepee in the brain melting Sonoran Desert. Thank you for the great work with IAI. Love & Lightning -Padre Paulo Santos (Un-Orthodox Church of the Cosmic Cross)

    • @thstroyur
      @thstroyur 3 роки тому +1

      "But what do I know, I am a kooky heretic priest living in a teepee in the brain melting Sonoran Desert" Then come back to the Anointed One's fold, man - he sure has proven himself to be more legit than you, I can wager. But what do I know, I am just a stranger in a stranger land, cowboying my way thru the cyberspace

    • @maxheedrum100
      @maxheedrum100 Рік тому

      Psychedlics is a form of pharmakia; Greek word φαρμακεία, transliterated pharmakeia, which means 'sorcery' and is prohibited in the bible.
      The apostle Paul lists sorcery as one of many sinful practices that mark the lives of unbelievers: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife . . . and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
      Interestingly, the New Testament Greek word translated “sorcery” is pharmakeia, which is the source of our English word pharmacy. In Paul’s day, the word primarily meant “dealing in poison” or “drug use” and was applied to divination and spell-casting because sorcerers often used drugs along with their incantations and amulets to conjure occult power.

    • @Ryan88881
      @Ryan88881 Рік тому

      Well I don't know if you're trying to study Christ as a figure of the historical records or anything from a scholarly critical (enough) historical but magically/theologically conscious (usually allegoric by still often semiotically sympathizing) standpoint. And maybe a little hermeneutic But yeah so he was definitely an ascetic, according to the claims and a wandering jew, hmm. Sounds like a stoner already. A 'healer', practicing sagehood and "goodness", and is an *itinerant*.. And it's ancient Palestine.. and he's a f***** ascetic, like I said lol. And.. Jewish! for Christ-sake, the chances that he wasn't using marijuana or hashish is so low just based on that stuff. Just some of the more focalized and straightforward postulates and interpreted versions of him too it's still very fitting. Along with the time period, not just the physical region and biogeography itself. And me, being a Bayesian chorologist amateur writer and author I can half formally infer with healthy confidence that the itinerant Rabbinic Jew (both ethnically and religiously Jewish) living in Half-Hellenized Galilee at the time, and whose name was Jesus Christ, who was born between 4- 6 B.C.E. (but probably 6 B.C.E but on Xmas) in Bethlehem)... But yeah that guy, definitely probably consuming hashish. Smoking was not unknown to the Near East societies (like the Scythians) as a route of administration either but I imagine those in Christ's neck of the woods in semi-ancient Judea would be more have likely been eating it and doing this with hashish. Christ probably used oral hashish for ordealstic reasons on himself, and for contemplation and solitude. Probably utilized the psychodynamic/emotio-character capacity/moral value-crispining effects of oral THC, I mean plus the wandering and socio-psycho-cognitivly noticeable moments of question in regards to some of Jesus's behavior in the scripture or records, some might say. The puesdo-schitzotypal ascetic who eats hash and probably Mary Magdalene's butt too. Quite a life, but interesting seeing how far we got.
      And wth was this whole thing about the anointing stuff? That should probably be investigated more from a multidisciplinary effort in ethnohistory, chorology, and chemotaxonomy, paleobotany/bioarcheology and of course, electron scanning for mass spectrometry readings. Maybe it's my bias as an ecologist/biogeographer, pharmacognosist prospect and chorology, history, archeology, epistemology and electromagnetism enthusiast. At that end of the day, it's scripture versus plants/fungi (basically nature) though and this is because of major psychedelics, (and a few other things) carrying semiotics and tropes and thus can be treated as ecosemiotic transmitters and interpreted in an almost hermeneutic sense but for phenomenological-subjective state analysis. Analysis of the content and composition of the experience via the mentally-related phenomena that ensues post chemical administration. With judicious assessment and proper attention and discernment and asking around and reading around one should be able to pick up on at least a rough outline of the intersubjective motifs and themes and 'amounts' present in many of these plant hallucinogens. In fact the only synthetic one that seems archetypal is LSD and but even that's only semi-synthetic.

    • @Ryan88881
      @Ryan88881 Рік тому

      ​@@maxheedrum100 No it's not. Psychedelics were not used by herbalists or for instances of average medicine (unless you count cannabis). The reason pharmakeia meant sorcery too in certain contexts was because a lot of the substances that actually did have medical utility for jenky and quotidian purposes happened to be plant hallucinogens such us Mandrake, Belladonna and Henbane which are littered with chthonic, daimon-like, ghostly, witchy and malefic themes and troops and motifs when taken in effective doses which is very easy to do with these nightshade deliriants accidentally. But the reason was because of deliriants (nightshade hallucinogens) that paramakeia was referred to as sorcery. Because they're literally (and still to this day) big-time plants in witchcraft and sorcery/magic. They just also happened to be one of the most common medicines used by herbalists and healers. This caused many healers to become power-hungry, necromantic, malefic, conjuring and underworld and plant-connected.
      There's no altruism or divine mystical-type feeling or impression with the nightshades like psychedelics. No shamanic or epistemically potent feelings either. It feels more like a 'drug' drug and is hazy and impairing and poisonous and delirious and dysphoric. And apparently opium's gothic-themed hypnogogic phantasmagoric displays in dark environments augmented this superstitious, daemonic, creature-esque, maddning and underworld-oriented vibe. Psychedelics feel nothing like that. Psychedelics are the other side of the coin with spirituality and shamanism on one side essentially and occultism, magic, sorcery on the other side of the coin. It's literally like heaven on one end and the underworld on the other.Cannabis (similarly to opium perhaps) would've probably further augmented the magic-ness and superstitiousness of the nightshades as well. Nightshades is what the Maenads and Oracle at Delphi were doing.

  • @likklej8
    @likklej8 3 роки тому +15

    Maybe the Vatican should reintroduce it into the Eucharist? Then churches would really be happy places and would have a real life changing purpose.

    • @thstroyur
      @thstroyur 3 роки тому +3

      Hardy-har-haha... sure. Thank you for your invaluable input, we appreciate it much; I'm sure you thought long and hard about it, before typing it here

    • @CherubAlex
      @CherubAlex 3 роки тому +3

      @@thstroyur Sounds like you are anti-psychedelics. Go research into how they have evolved and benefits us

    • @Darisiabgal7573
      @Darisiabgal7573 3 роки тому

      I’ve never heard Brian’s theory but in the case of the apostle Paul I am inclined to believe that it is true.
      The basic problem and it’s a big problem is that Orthodoxy is all about doctrine, and they fought well over 200 years to get that doctrine. Now imagine this, you have 30 or so bishops having hallucinations in full living color and each man’s hallucinations are a different wisdom and prophecy. You can kiss your orthodoxy goodbye.
      I don’t think “Jesus” was a shroom junkie, but it sure looks like some of the authors of the New Testament were.
      I don’t have much of a religious doctrine, but here goes. The body is the temple of the spirit, to defile the body with hallucinogens is to defile the spirit in one of the worst possible ways.

    • @thstroyur
      @thstroyur 3 роки тому +1

      @@Darisiabgal7573 "I don’t think “Jesus” was a shroom junkie, but it sure looks like some of the authors of the New Testament were" Appearances can be deceiving; the big problem with _that_ is that there really isn't any evidence to back it up at all. We have lot so f guesswork and armchairing - yes, tons and tons of that; Allegro's _The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross_ - and of course, the guys mentioned in the vid. But hard evidence? I lack knowledge thereof...

    • @Darisiabgal7573
      @Darisiabgal7573 3 роки тому

      @@thstroyur Paul had some sort of behavior problem; some think he was manic depressive. He seems to rely on visions a lot, and I don’t mean this from an outsiders point of view. Plus the visions he has are apparently lucid and in a fully conscious state and clearly some were hallucinations. We could argue that he had post berievement hallucinations but the problem he was not close to Jesus and it was years after he was crucified. So even the manic depression argument does not fit, it is like explained either by some sort of schizophrenia or induced hallucination (possibly food poisoning). Again we are basing conclusion on 2000 year old letters and basically guessing, but in Paul’s own words, he went to Jerusalem, they told him Jesus stories and he concluded that his hallucination/vision stories were more useful than what the historical accounts were. You be the judge.

  • @jonathonjubb6626
    @jonathonjubb6626 3 роки тому +9

    Eary christianity sounds surprisingly real...

    • @rebella_alld5108
      @rebella_alld5108 3 роки тому +1

      Yeah. Wonder were we went wrong..

    • @vashlash6870
      @vashlash6870 2 роки тому +2

      Check out the Gnostic gospels

    • @vashlash6870
      @vashlash6870 2 роки тому

      @@rebella_alld5108 Manacia created the first assembled bible. It's VERY different from modern Christianity. The early church murdered him and his followers. What he advocated for aligns with my spiritual experiences. The Gnostic scriptures are crazy deep.

    • @EarthPoweredHippie
      @EarthPoweredHippie 2 роки тому

      It becomes even more real when u ingest psilocybin mushrooms. If done correctly, by following Terence McKenna's 5g on an empty stomach protocol, u will be plugged directly into the universal ether, where u will meet the most ancient of beings. I dare u to ask said being what it actually is.

  • @EarthPoweredHippie
    @EarthPoweredHippie 2 роки тому

    Will anyone ever figure out the Eucharist?

  • @joedavis4150
    @joedavis4150 3 роки тому +4

    ... Psychedelics aside, wasn't opium used a lot in ancient Greek and Roman medicine?

    • @jackywacky7322
      @jackywacky7322 3 роки тому +1

      Really?

    • @joedavis4150
      @joedavis4150 3 роки тому +2

      @@jackywacky7322 ... Yes Jackie wacky. I just now looked it up.

    • @RhythmJunkie
      @RhythmJunkie 3 роки тому +1

      Yes, as well as Cannabis, Syrian Rue, and the ergot (LSD) naturally present on wheat, barley and other grains used in ancient ‘Wine’
      It’s been proven that they were also burning and inhaling many psychoactive plant compounds, some mentioned above, in the tabernacles

    • @Ryan88881
      @Ryan88881 Рік тому

      Yes and deliriant nightshades

  • @marcotepedino
    @marcotepedino 2 роки тому +2

    Love to learn more about how the homosapiens became obsessed with the idea of a God creator. Could it be the mind altering psychodelics ? it is very promising.

    • @bloodyfingers8633
      @bloodyfingers8633 Рік тому

      Richard Dawkins did a lecture on this. There's a youtube video where he explained that it basically was the wind. The theory go's something as follows; Early man while foraging in the tall grass could have assumed the sound they heard was just the wind blowing or that it could be a predator waiting to attack. If they assume it is just the wind, it could be a lion and then they are dead but if they assume it is a lion they could then act by fleeing or defending themselves. Basically this also applies to a beleif in a God. Is it better to assume there isn't one or is it better to assume there is? 'But why don't they simply take a spear and go into the grass to look?

    • @Ryan88881
      @Ryan88881 Рік тому

      @@bloodyfingers8633 When did Richard Dawkins become a comedian?

  • @LizzieWintersChill
    @LizzieWintersChill Рік тому

    Typo on the headline. It says “eary Christianity” guessing it meant early?

  • @bryanutility9609
    @bryanutility9609 Рік тому

    Thanks I went searching for this interview and preferred your summary and cutting Out all the hancock & rogan babble.

  • @junevandermark952
    @junevandermark952 2 роки тому

    What a difference one word can make.

    Just imagine, if the term “near death experiences,” had been “near death hallucinations,” what a difference it would have made to those reading the words.

    And just imagine, concerning the subject of psychedelics, if rather than “mind manifesting,” … the term had been “mind hallucinating” … what a difference it would make to those reading the words.
    From the book … How to Change Your Mind. What the New Science of Psychedelics teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addictions, Depression, and Transcendence. Author, Michael Pollan. Published 2018 ... Despite the 1960 trappings, the term “psychedelic,” coined in 1956, is etymologically accurate. Drawn from the Greek, it means simply “mind manifesting,” which is precisely what these extraordinary molecules hold the power to do.

  • @talkin6_muffin330
    @talkin6_muffin330 2 роки тому

    Don't get caught up in this vid. Very unsatisfying ending

  • @bryanutility9609
    @bryanutility9609 Рік тому

    I don’t care what was in the potion. I just want to know what it meant to the Greeks and it’s role in the society.

  • @MrTzarBomb
    @MrTzarBomb Рік тому +1

    This is what happens when you have no authentic Catholic spirituality or knowledge.

  • @jamesruscheinski8602
    @jamesruscheinski8602 3 роки тому +1

    Christ Jesus mediates human person direct connection to God without political central government / empire

  • @michigancleaningcrew4508
    @michigancleaningcrew4508 3 роки тому +1

    huxley was largely responsible for the psychdelic movement his book doors of perception lead people such as tim leary alan watts to mexico who held a class at harvard about psychedelics great book called harvard psychedelic Club on audible about it i loved it forgive my spelling

    • @EnjoyTheShoah
      @EnjoyTheShoah Рік тому

      He also was the person who got Bill Wilson of Alcoholics Anonymous to drop acid in sobriety in the 50's.

  • @geneschmunk8906
    @geneschmunk8906 3 роки тому +1

    you have to click and subscribe to watch this vid after 10 minutes ...waste of time if you dont ...kinda a scam

    • @NICEFINENEWROBOT
      @NICEFINENEWROBOT 2 роки тому

      And kinda childish know-it-all lecturing us on things unseen and ungoverned.

  • @toddbellows5282
    @toddbellows5282 3 роки тому +6

    Christianity forbids psychedelic drugs. The word "sorcery" in the bible is written in Greek as "Pharmacia", meaning "drugs".

    • @RhythmJunkie
      @RhythmJunkie 3 роки тому +6

      What part? … the Old Testament and Hebrew Bible specifically promote the use Cannabis and many drank ‘Wine’ of which used in ritual and spiritual practice included Cannabis, Opium, Syrian Rue, Ergot (LSD) and other psychoactive plant compounds. They were also inhaling these compounds when burned in a tabernacle (tent) not to mention these states can be entered via 3-5 consecutive days of fasting in darkness. Humans along with all mammals, produce the two most potent psychedelic substances known to exist: DMT & 5-Meo-DMT which are most likely enabling us to experience the Consciousness that is God 😉
      When you have a direct experience with God you will better realize what’s actually true, what matters most and come to ‘know’ the nature of God. Because it can’t be ‘known’ by words in a book but only through direct experience, like all things😉🙏🏼💖

    • @amosmckibben7402
      @amosmckibben7402 3 роки тому +1

      @@RhythmJunkie wonderful response friend! Little tid bit tho, salvinorum-a is actually the most powerful know natural psychedelic compound know to this day I believe by quite a lot!

    • @redmoonfilms
      @redmoonfilms 3 роки тому +1

      Pharmacia can also be applied to any medicine, even coffee is mildly psychoactive. Where I do not promote the use of drugs, and do not think they are all safe. There are a lot of properties that link psychedelics to the teachings of Christianity. I would warn of perceiving the psychedelics as a source of holiness, for then it serves us, rather than submitting to what is above. Without such reverence to God, then it would akin to substance abuse.

    • @chah5731
      @chah5731 2 роки тому

      @@amosmckibben7402 DMT

    • @amosmckibben7402
      @amosmckibben7402 2 роки тому

      @@chah5731 salvinorum-a is actually significantly stronger than DMT per weight as DMT is measured in milligrams and salvia in micrograms for full breakthrough doses

  • @hopperthemarxist8533
    @hopperthemarxist8533 3 роки тому +4

    Psychadelics have been taken by people all over the world for centuries. Ancient Greece was built in large part by ancient Persia. They didn’t have some unique civilization that was somehow independent of the rest of the world. This narrative they civilizations are unique among common boundaries is absurd. There is no such thing as “western civilization” in the first place

    • @wenpax9732
      @wenpax9732 3 роки тому +1

      Ancient Greece was built in large part by ancient Persia??
      go somewhere else and do your propaganda

    • @zz3OPEN
      @zz3OPEN 2 роки тому

      Culture, language, tradition..

    • @Ryan88881
      @Ryan88881 Рік тому

      Uh are you talking about the Minoan Crete civilization? They were the precursor to Ancient Greece (Mycenaean, then Hellenism) and what turned out to eventually become Western Culture yes, but it doesn't really matter because it's not that uncommonly mentioned. It's just that the Minoans fell into a kind of collective opium-induced narcosis and their society and religious rites were less reproducible for some reason and maybe the historians felt embarrassed. Still though.. the start of the West can even directly be pinpointed to the city-state of Athens specifically. Minoans were the precursor but that's it.

  • @NICEFINENEWROBOT
    @NICEFINENEWROBOT 2 роки тому +2

    Brian, keep christianity out of this, please. You are heavily misled and erring around in your and other people's misconceptions.

    • @R2000Random
      @R2000Random 2 роки тому

      @TaeTheSkeptic it’s spoken of in the Bible already also one of the books of Enoch someone taken by God explains the creation of many things such as astrology, psychedelics, raping of angels

    • @R2000Random
      @R2000Random 2 роки тому

      @TaeTheSkeptic I guess ima just keep reading the word. May the lord and savior Jesus Christ Bless you 🙏🏿

    • @Ryan88881
      @Ryan88881 Рік тому

      At this point, the *only* thing that will be able to give any sense of legitimacy to your Abrahamic religion or the rest of the Near East trifecta is visionary plants.

  • @Alohasnackbar88
    @Alohasnackbar88 Рік тому

    Not true

  • @cpymo
    @cpymo 3 роки тому +3

    I wasted 10 minutes waiting for him to produce something solid, or new. Disappointing.