The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity

The Psychedelic Gospels accomplishes its stated goal, doesn't make strategic mistakes, and brings additional evidence of mushrooms in Christian art, with intelligent, informed, broad discussion. This book is ready for Wouter Hanegraaff to read. Hanegraaff is leading critical historical scholarship in Western esotericism, and he is calling for critical scholarship on the history of psychedelics in Western esotericism. Brown shows a Boehme woodcut with mushroom elements. Brown provides valuable contributions to studying how religions come from psychedelics and then corporate religion tries to manage or compete against psychedelics, sometimes suppressing the very root inspiration of religion. Brown raises the right questions about Wasson, and takes a critical, informed look at the Wasson/Allegro contention, so that's no longer blocking research. That logjam has now been cleared. This book is written as a travel adventure format. It is chatty and yet impressively broad and relatively well-informed on psychedelic history and latest research developments and controversies, including Irvin, Letcher, Hatsis, and Hoffman. Discusses the reception history of McKenna and Allegro, and gives balanced critical assessment of Wasson and of Allegro. We must not let Wasson hold back any longer, research into psychedelic history within Christianity. We must not let Allegro hold back the psychedelic theory of religion. Letcher and Hatsis have fixated on Allegro's particular model of how to think about the mushrooms in Christianity, as if we must pick between only two, shallow explanatory-theory options, "there are no mushrooms in our own religion" vs. "secret fertility cult hiding their mushroom use in the figure of Jesus". Brown's thinking doesn't get stuck inside the over-specific John Allegro description of what mushrooms in Christianity meant in the cultural context. Brown has contributed several useful mytheme decodings: {bones} = nondying {Purification of lips by ember} A {full-height spear held by the god} separates the scene into mortal vs. immortal Brown points to the Egodeath site for discussion of the psychedelic theory of religion. The Egodeate site has content through 2007. The Egodeath Yahoo group covers through the present. Brown considers ahistoricity and psychedelics, but doesn't consider the Egodeath theory as a whole. There is a paragraph about consciousness, yet no mention of loose cognitive binding and metaperception per the Egodeath theory. No mention of Heimarmene or Eternalism or freewill. Shallow pop sike treatment of the snake as being vaguely "identified with" psychedelics -- but Eve sees and rightly blames the snake for bringing her the ingesting of mushrooms. This book adheres to the typical scope, typical focus on shallow recognition of the sheer presence of mushrooms in Christianity, or psychedelics in religion. Gives lip service to cognitive approach and cites Benny Shanon, but doesn't mention anything like the theory of loose cognitive association binding. Brown makes the usual comments about meditation that the Moderate psychedelics "advocates" make, equating meditation with psychedelics. But meditation or contemplation comes from psychedelics; psilocybin (not meditation) is the authority and point of reference for religion. Functionally, meditation serves as a way of avoiding psychedelics, which are too effective. Brown's next step after this book is to gather and assess art evidence of mushrooms in Christianity. Even before we make additional important progress there, though, it is suddenly already time to ask: given the fact of mushrooms in Christianity, what of it? The article _Wasson and Allegro on the Tree of Knowledge as Amanita_ advises to put aside the shallow argument about a single mushroom tree, and focus research instead on the question: To what extent are psychedelics in Christianity? But moving on to the next phase after Brown's next project, after books in this genre have piled up, and after piling up more than enough evidence of the sheer presence of psychedelics in all of our religions, then what? Brown doesn't reach that far. Given that there are plentiful mushrooms in Christianity, what of it? Given that there are plentiful psychedelics throughout religion, what of it? The Egodeath theory explains that once the esoteric psychedelic tradition is reinvigorated, this will lead to an eager and fearful uncovering and revelation, which delivers salvation and gnosis: Mushrooms in Christianity will lead to transformation from literalist ordinary-state Possibilism (possibility-branching-steering) to analogical psychedelic Eternalism (pre-existence/noncontrol; frozen spacetime block). Esoteric (inner) Christianity must be available, as well as exoteric (outer) Christianity. Brown advocates amending the Controlled Substances Act to permit psychedelics for certain purposes, and centers where people legally ingest psychedelics under supervision. The Egodeath theory advocates full repeal of drug Prohibition back to the 1913 nonexistence of laws against psychoactives; eliminate the schedules. Brown's declared position on Jesus' historicity is literalist; historicist: Brown asserts that Jesus *ingested* mushrooms, not that Jesus *means* mushrooms. Allegro's camp asserts that Jesus represents mushrooms. Brown points to the Egodeath site. The Egodeath theory asserts: The Eucharist is psychoactive mushrooms, is Christ in the likeness of flesh, the only means by which the mind is transformed. The Jesus figure depicts by analogy, the experiential dynamics that result from mushrooms. Greek and Bible mythology describes transformation from Literalist Ordinary-state Possibilism to Analogical Psychedelic Eternalism. -- Michael Hoffman, the Egodeath theory

The Psychedelic Gospels is an exciting read for the psychedelic scholar and the casual reader alike. Jerry and Julie Brown offer a comprehensive exploration of mushroom use in early Christianity through the lens of sacred cathedral art. Backed by years of research, travel, and devoted study, the Browns present an intriguing interpretation of mushrooms' role in the history of the Christian Church. The Browns' expertise in the history of psychedelics is a rich launching pad for their thesis that magic mushrooms were used throughout the history of Christianity. Before diving into their more recent research, the Browns present an accessible primer on psychedelic history (which is arguably as old as the species itself). They cover everything from the Mysteries of Eleusis to the Good Friday experiment. This offers readers a great context in which to understand the Browns' ideas about mushrooms. Further, they give the reader a clear and fun narrative of their research process. This is helpful for young scholars stepping into the realm of deep field research. They write of their adventures through the churches and cathedrals of Europe, thoughtfully inspecting paintings, frescoes, windows, texts, etc. Without getting technical or dry, they manage to explain how their thesis grows and evolves as they accumulate sources. Another helpful feature of the book is the collection of rich color photographs of the Browns' evidence. The Browns make a particularly important contribution to the psychedelic conversation in their critique of the work of R. Gordon Wasson. They reveal some interesting facts about Wasson that are important to consider for the student of psychedelic history. With further research and verification, The Browns' findings are potentially revelatory with regard to the history of religion and human development. Appropriate for students of history, art, religion, drug culture, and anyone who ponders the intersection of nature and spirit. Happy reading!

Just finished my copy The Psychedelic Gospels and it was an interesting read and would make a fine introduction to entheogenic literature for anyone not familiar with the subject of Entheogens. The term "entheogen "meaning "generating divinity from within" is a relatively new term and is used to differentiate between "psychedelic" ("mind-manifesting or mind-disclosing "a term that accumulated much negative baggage from the 1970's drug revolution. I'm not sure why the authors decided to use the older term for their title except that Jerry Brown writes he had his first drug trip in the late 70's The book starts out like a Dan Brown romp through various mystical sites all over Europe and the UK but fortunately, it is not a Dan Brown fantasy novel. With the exception of the Green Man/mushroom image at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland (which I found a stretch), most of the images documented hold up to scrutiny with their examples of mushroom iconography. I had previously read several more detailed books on the subject of religious mushroom iconography (many of which the authors cite), and this book is a great general survey of those examples. I only wish they had visited St Marks in Venice where mosaic mushrooms are clearly visible at the feet of Jesus under the dome. I was there in May and cannot express the delight at actually seeing these images in person. The authors do a great job of reviewing entheogenic history --of R. Gordon Wasson's discoveries of the Amantia muscaria and its connection to Soma and the development of theories of the ergot in the Kykeon at Eleusis to the magic mushrooms in Mexico. Then they jump into the central thesis of the book--the images of mushrooms (and thus entheogenic teachings) embedded in early to medieval Christianity as illustrated in religious and architectural art. The most interesting fact I learned from this book was that R. Gordon Wasson who was a banker with JP Morgan was also the banker to the Vatican and it is the authors' contention that Wasson halted his historical research at 1000 BCE so as not to create a path to early Christianity. That path was clearly sniffed out by John Allegro who blew the whistle and asserted that Christianity came out of earlier mysteries based on mushroom culture. The authors gloss over the famous Allegro/Wasson dispute due to their own biases at the end of the book regarding their view of the beginnings of Christianity and do not want to offend any believers. I feel however, the entheogenic theory of the origins of Christianity is only one leg of the proverbial elephant that the three blind men are trying to describe. Jerry Russell. PhD in his introductory remarks to "Shakespeare's Secret Messiah", by Joseph Atwell made the following observation: "the search for the 'original sources' of the gospels along with the search for 'the historical Jesus' is often a spiritually- driven quest: that is, once the seeker is convinced that Christianity has been 'corrupted' (whether by Paul or by Flavian influences, or by the Papacy, or by modernity) the goal becomes to recover the purity of the message that was originally delivered by the revered prophet. In terms of its spiritual value, however, the enthusiasm for this quest may be misplaced, as there is no guarantee that the original message is recoverable, or that the prophet had any unique wisdom to impart in the first place." Russell goes on to write: “the works of Joseph Atwell, maintain that Christianity was the creation of the Flavian Caesars, Vespasian and Titus and that is the religion we know as Roman Catholicism. The emperors left a veiled confession of their work embedded in the Gospels and the works of Josephus. The religion was invented as wartime propaganda, primarily targeted at the Hellenistic Jews of the Diaspora, and also the Gentiles. This covert act of psychological warfare was successful beyond the Romans’ wildest dreams: even today, the dominant view is that Christianity arose in humble circumstances, and grew to massive proportions while being driven by a variety of philosophical and religious trends, if not by God himself.” I make reference to the works of Atwell as possibly the second leg of the “elephant” to explain the historical origins of the institution of Christianity. Unlike the authors of the Psychedelic Gospels who finally side with the religious studies establishment who, contrary to their professed ‘academic’ pursuits are actually on a spiritual-driven quest (see above) I agree with Allegro et al. that Jesus may be a spiritual metaphor for the Consciousness of which the Psychedelic Gospels authors devote their book. Their call for an Interdisciplinary Committee on the Psychedelic Gospels may catch on. Already there are programs in accredited institutions studying Entheogens and Psychological Counseling as at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco [...] where both Stan Grof and Ralph Metzner are Faculty Emeriti. [...] At the conclusion, Brown writes that it was Jesus who applied Archimedes’ Lever to move world history but I think that the works of Ruck, Rush and Allegro in addition to Joseph Atwell will be the lever to move the world out of the dark ages and into the Light of Knowledge

Psychadelic Gospels A raging argument in the the religious scholar community is the debate about the role of ehtneogens or psychadelic drugs on the development of Christianity and other religions. Most religious leaders will try to deny the role of psychodelics in the religions development while someone more open minded might say there is quite a bit of eveidence pointing to the use of hallicinogens. Starting off with the research of R.Gordon Wasson the author Doctor Jerry Brown and his wife Juliie go traveling to differnt destinations around the world to show the evidence of psychadelics in religious art work. Going through th world relgiions the authors discuss Soma in the classic Rigveda. It appeaers to be a hallucinogenic drink. It is drink that conveys wisdom. It also offers immortatlity. What made up this drink? Some artistic renditions show a mushroom lie fly agaric or Amanita Muscaria. This mushroom was also used by the siberian shaman. There art depicts its use. In fact the Santa Clause legend comes from this. The shaman would have reindeer pull his sled and from an opening in the yurt he would climb through and enter the house. THe Ancient greeks with thier rituals to demeter and the rights of Eleusisis. THe would take egort which grew on Barley and this took them to the underworld and gave them immortality. The art work depicts wheat stocks which is what Ergot grew off of. R. Gordon Wasson, who was an assitant banker for JP Morgan , was the ametuer scientist who spear headed this movement and he wrote several books on it. His big claim claim to fame was meeting Maria Sabina and the exposure led to tourists combin the hills of Oaxaca looking for a psychadelic experience. This disrupted life for her and it caused enough commotion to/hve here son killed. Mr. Gordon Wasson never dared to venture that psychadelics played a part in the developement of Christianity. Someone name John Allegro would make that claim and would ultimately be discredited for it. R. Gordon Wasson worked with the vatican and his role was to suppress this theory or information. The authors Jerry and Julie Brown explored the churches of Europe and examined the art work in Frocault Church, Saint Martins and a few others. The illustration and carving clearly depict serveral mushroom like ilustrations. Juding from this it is easy to say that ethneogens played more than a small role in the developement of Christianity. After all they did play a role inthe developement of the other religions. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures offer a zen like Christianity. Jesus lived in Egypt for a long time and he must have learned from the Egyptian mysteries. His deth and resurrection weere not literal but rather ppart of an ancient spiritual practice where the Shaman ventures tothe other side in search of gnosis. The Egyptians also used ethneogens. MANY people have used psychaedelics including steve Job and other scientists. Time is coming to reexamine our relgions and philosophies and look for different interpreations.

I just finished reading the book The Psychedelic Gospels and highly recommend you experience it for yourself. It's a true story about finding what may be hidden truths that may just set you free. Jerry and Julie take you along with them on their intriguing journey...one that turns into an adventure of synchronicity. Venture forth with an open mind and you are in for a treat. You'll see for yourself the presence of entheogens in early Christian art and read about the abundance of research on the subject to date. Jerry combines scholarly research with hands-on personal experience and weaves them into a rich tapestry that is very well written and appealing. And Julie graces the pages with meaningful visual evidence of their theory and premise. Finally, they "call for the establishment of an international interdisciplinary committee on the Psychedelic Gospels. This committee would be co-chaired by a mycologist and an art historian with impeccable scientific credentials. It would include scholars from diverse fields, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, classics, mycology, religious history, and theology. The committee would be charged with collecting potential psychedelic images in religious art from around the world and evaluating them for the presence of entheogens based on well-defined criteria." So this is a "call to arms" ...an invitation to engage in truth seeking and truth finding. Enjoy.

This is a well researched, well written book on what for some will be a controversial subject. Given the sacred substances that early indigenous people used world wide, it stands to reason that the early Christians, and Christ himself, would and could have utilized sacred mushrooms as a means to higher consciousness, spiritual enlightenment, and connection to God and source. I think ultimately this is a theory that resides within the divide between orthodox Christianity and Gnostic Christianity. As inquiring people, we have to decide if those who declared "heresy" were divinely guided, or already invested heavily in their version of spiritual truth and validity. For example, I have always negatively ranked The Council of Nicaea as suspect for banishing all other views as heresy. These were men, albeit "religious" men who made a divine decision for themselves and the rest of us. As for the Gnostic Gospels vs. Orthodox Christianity: here we have the ultimate diversion of opinion. The Psychedelic Gospels by bringing into play the sacred substances that bring one to find God, or Jesus within are at the dividing line of this either/or conundrum of orthodox or gnostic. Choosing one side or the other as the exclusive truth brings us to a swirling controversy. I think that since orthodox gospels talk about Jesus, God within - that this is not so much an either/or spiritual decision, but one seeped in paradox, mysticism, and calls for us to be open that there is an amalgam of truth here in spite of the strict differences each side presents. This wonderful book brings many issues to light - The Essenes, the "missing years" of Jesus's life, and opens wide a spiritual questioning that can only enhance faith, and make it beautifully inclusive. To me there is nothing heretical in where this book brings us. It drops us into a spiritual cauldron of questioning. And it is good......................Jim Calandrillo

Moscow, June 11, 2021 - Opening paragraph of the Introduction by publisher and mycologist Mikhail Vishnevsky, Ph.D., to the Russian Edition of The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity, 2016. (Posted by Jerry B. Brown, coauthor The Psychedelic Gospels) The book you hold in your hands is epoch-making. Its significance for ethnomycology can only be compared with the Wassons' book Mushrooms, Russia and History. Both of these works are striking in their parallelism. I am sure that Jerry and Julie Brown do not fully realize how pervasive this parallelism is, even considering the fact that the books are contrasting sometimes. The first book was written by the Wassons, the second one by the Browns. The creators of both works are not mycologists: the authors of Mushrooms, Russia and History are a banker and a doctor, The Psychedelic Gospels is written by an anthropologist and a psychotherapist. Both books are composed in the form of a diary, a travel log that takes reader from place to place, from event to event, from thought to thought. But if the Wassons' book ushers in the era of ethnomycology, the Browns' book finalizes it. The Wassons' work contains too much excess information, it is raw, ponderous and often controversial; in some places, it is simply unrealistic for an unprepared reader to wade through it. The Browns' book is fluent, sophisticated, well-balanced and well-reasoned, and any material presented in it may be easily understood by anyone interested in this topic.

The Psychedelic Gospels succeeds at being a travelogue through Europe to holy sites where the amanita mushroom is depicted in Christian churches until the Middle Ages. I had greater hopes for this book however. Mark 4:11-12 says “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to hose on the outside everything is said in parables, so that 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.” I expected The Psychedelic Gospels to run with the ball that an entheogen such as the amanita mushroom is in fact the "secret." For instance, exposure to an entheogen leavens all the dough in Matt. 13:33 and Lk. 13:20–21. Another simple place to begin would be the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas: "Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human." This parable implies an order of being that the author is too modest identify directly: "Whether the man eats the god or the god eats the man, the man graduates in order of being to god (divinity)." The body (soma), wine, an anoiting oil (chrism) made from the amanita mushroom are the "god" eaten by a man so that the god eats the man in return. More of a travelogue, Brown's book is lacking in scriptural insight.

A wonderful journey through the origins of Christianity seen through the lens of entheogenic medicine. Much already researched and written, this merely confirms the belief of many, written as a beautiful travelogue following the path of Gordon Wasson, but with so much more. Beautifully written with fascinating photography showing what appears evidential in that the use of Psychedelic medicine has played a crucial role within religion. Is it time to write a different bible?

Religion is integrated into every persons world picture in one way or another. Here is some information that might broaden your horizons. Various natural substances that alter perception have always been present in the environment. Modern " religions " do more to control and contain consciousness than expand it , and re-write and edit along the way to accentuate their own vested interests. Shaman of every culture have traditionally experimented with altered realities to obtain insights and visions. These authors present compelling , well organized and documented evidence of the use of magic mushrooms in early Christianity. For instance , one of the most interesting facts to me is that dried amanita muscaria mushrooms when added to water turn it red. Was it the addition of dried mushrooms that " turned the water into wine " ? If you understand the principle of Occams' Razor you can extrapolate that one for yourself. Basically , they had a spiritual event akin to a modern rock concert. No wonder everybody " got off " on it. The book is full of similar revelations and is a must read.

I enjoyed the feeling of being there with the Authors as they found what they were looking for in the works of art they encountered on their travels. Many thanks to them for sharing this journey

The premise of this book is probably rather controversial which makes sense given that it shakes the foundation of one of the world's major religions. However, when approached with an open mind this book has many great points to support this premise. Even more so when able to see some of the evidence in real life, which I was fortunate enough to be able to do last summer, I have to thank the authors for inspiring a great road trip by the way. Besides laying out arguments and “looking through Soma eyes” what makes this book great is the relationship between the authors, Jerry and Julie Brown. As readers we get to travel along with them on this journey and through many wonderful anecdotes and stories, this book is much more than scientific research, it's a fascinating story about a married couple traveling together while looking into a very interesting aspect of Christianity's origins. “We drove by fields of golden sunflowers bordered by elegant rows of poplar trees. We loved the absolute freedom, untethered from televisions and telephones, from grinding cycles of bad news. The unpredictability of changing plans at a moment's notice to chase down rumors of enigmatic frescoes. But most of all, we relished the adventure of traveling with a purpose. To be sure, it is liberating to put a knapsack on your back, to be a vagabond, wandering any way the wind blows. But for us it was much more rewarding to be on a quest, ears, and eyes ever alert for clues, for a glimpse of angels in the architecture.” This is what makes this book such an enjoyable read, a combination of a personal journey and compelling evidence. The overall message of this book is as intriguing as it is profound, posing a valuable question about our history and culture. I would recommend it to anyone even if they're skeptical about the premise.

Good read for anyone into this