1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:23,510 2 00:00:23,510 --> 00:00:26,870 >> Through the scope of religious texts and art, 3 00:00:26,870 --> 00:00:29,870 unexplained and quite mystical type experiences seem 4 00:00:29,870 --> 00:00:33,490 to revolve around all of the heroes. 5 00:00:33,490 --> 00:00:36,620 In legends and myth, supernatural powers, 6 00:00:36,620 --> 00:00:39,330 from walking on water and astral projection 7 00:00:39,330 --> 00:00:42,830 to stories of resurrection and transcendence, 8 00:00:42,830 --> 00:00:47,460 have baffled the rationale of skeptics and pragmatists alike. 9 00:00:47,460 --> 00:00:49,650 But the story was about to change 10 00:00:49,650 --> 00:00:53,280 after an unlikely ancient relic was discovered after being 11 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:55,758 lost for 2000 years. 12 00:00:55,758 --> 00:00:57,630 [MUSIC PLAYING] 13 00:00:57,630 --> 00:01:01,380 14 00:01:01,380 --> 00:01:05,700 On March 14 of 1952, at an archaeological site 15 00:01:05,700 --> 00:01:10,090 on the West Bank in Israel's Qumran National Park, 16 00:01:10,090 --> 00:01:15,090 15 scrolls were unearthed, the last of which 17 00:01:15,090 --> 00:01:17,610 was famously called the copper scroll. 18 00:01:17,610 --> 00:01:21,720 It was corroded to the point where it could not be unrolled. 19 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,660 So English archaeologist, John Marco Allegro, 20 00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:26,460 recommended that the scrolls be sent 21 00:01:26,460 --> 00:01:28,530 to Manchester University in order 22 00:01:28,530 --> 00:01:32,910 to cut them into pieces, making them easier to read. 23 00:01:32,910 --> 00:01:37,050 After 15 years of study, Allegro published his book, "The Sacred 24 00:01:37,050 --> 00:01:39,600 Mushroom and the Cross." 25 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,390 He argued that the linguistics of this dead language 26 00:01:42,390 --> 00:01:44,580 revealed that the roots of Christianity 27 00:01:44,580 --> 00:01:47,010 were born in fertility cults, with the use 28 00:01:47,010 --> 00:01:50,370 of sacramental and psychedelic mushrooms, 29 00:01:50,370 --> 00:01:52,710 also stating that these rituals survived 30 00:01:52,710 --> 00:01:55,340 in secrecy within Christian artwork seen 31 00:01:55,340 --> 00:01:57,620 in cathedrals and churches. 32 00:01:57,620 --> 00:02:00,390 But the most popular of Allegro's interpretations 33 00:02:00,390 --> 00:02:03,930 was the fresco at Plaincourault Chapel. 34 00:02:03,930 --> 00:02:06,570 >> Right before his book, "The Sacred Mushroom" got published, 35 00:02:06,570 --> 00:02:09,175 he saw a grainy image of the Plaincourault fresco 36 00:02:09,175 --> 00:02:10,800 and thought it was an amanita muscaria, 37 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,680 so he put it in the dust jacket of his book. 38 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,370 Like all people, when I first saw the Plaincourault fresco, 39 00:02:17,370 --> 00:02:19,050 I was like, oh, my god. 40 00:02:19,050 --> 00:02:22,170 That's an amanita muscaria, of course. 41 00:02:22,170 --> 00:02:25,110 >> Professor Jerry Brown served as the founding professor 42 00:02:25,110 --> 00:02:28,230 of anthropology at Florida International University 43 00:02:28,230 --> 00:02:31,710 in Miami, where he taught a course on psychedelics. 44 00:02:31,710 --> 00:02:35,370 >> It really started with my first psychedelic experience 45 00:02:35,370 --> 00:02:39,150 which was on LSD at a Rainbow Family gathering, 46 00:02:39,150 --> 00:02:40,740 high in the Rocky Mountains. 47 00:02:40,740 --> 00:02:44,509 It was a frightening experience, and I wasn't alone. 48 00:02:44,509 --> 00:02:46,050 I mean, Albert Hoffman thought he was 49 00:02:46,050 --> 00:02:48,240 dying in his first experience-- 50 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:50,220 discovery of LSD. 51 00:02:50,220 --> 00:02:54,030 And it really made me pause and want to learn 52 00:02:54,030 --> 00:02:55,890 a lot more about psychedelics. 53 00:02:55,890 --> 00:02:57,690 I mean, I didn't have the instant nirvana 54 00:02:57,690 --> 00:03:01,170 that Larry was talking about, and so being an anthropologist 55 00:03:01,170 --> 00:03:04,710 I designed and taught a course on hallucinogens in culture. 56 00:03:04,710 --> 00:03:07,320 Then, fast forward to 2006. 57 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:11,910 My wife, Julie, and I are in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, 58 00:03:11,910 --> 00:03:16,680 and I discovered, in the head of the most prominent green man, 59 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:19,500 a fertility head of which there are about 100 60 00:03:19,500 --> 00:03:22,440 in Rosslyn Chapel, about two weeks after buying 61 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:26,430 this replica of this Rosslyn Chapel green man, 62 00:03:26,430 --> 00:03:29,520 I turned it around on a table. 63 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,870 And I looked, and was staring at a replica of an amanita 64 00:03:33,870 --> 00:03:35,430 muscaria mushroom. 65 00:03:35,430 --> 00:03:39,210 The bulbous bottom, the little veil around the stem, 66 00:03:39,210 --> 00:03:42,120 the little white dots, the dots. 67 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:48,030 And it was this discovery of a psychoactive mushroom 68 00:03:48,030 --> 00:03:52,050 in a Catholic church that led Julie and me to start thinking, 69 00:03:52,050 --> 00:03:56,850 are there other psychedelic mushrooms in Christian art? 70 00:03:56,850 --> 00:04:00,390 Julie and I had the opportunity to meet with Paul Stamets, one 71 00:04:00,390 --> 00:04:03,930 of the world's most eminent and knowledgeable mycologists. 72 00:04:03,930 --> 00:04:07,200 And we said, Paul, do you agree with our interpretation 73 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,870 that this is an amanita muscaria mushroom? 74 00:04:09,870 --> 00:04:12,090 And he said, oh, absolutely. 75 00:04:12,090 --> 00:04:13,410 It is. 76 00:04:13,410 --> 00:04:16,860 And I said, and now I'm embarrassed about this, I said, 77 00:04:16,860 --> 00:04:17,880 Paul, are you sure? 78 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,519 That's like asking the pope, are you sure you're Catholic? 79 00:04:20,519 --> 00:04:24,270 And he laughed, and he said, this is a taxonomically correct 80 00:04:24,270 --> 00:04:27,000 amanita muscaria mushroom. 81 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,640 >> As Jerry and Julie Brown found their conviction that 82 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:32,640 this was indeed a secretive depiction of the psychoactive 83 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:37,350 amanita muscaria mushroom by the artist Sir William Sinclair, 84 00:04:37,350 --> 00:04:39,900 the author of "The Witches' Ointment," Tom Hatsis, 85 00:04:39,900 --> 00:04:44,640 with a master's in history, has a different view on the matter. 86 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,640 >> Every image put forth by the holy mushroom advocates, 87 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:50,550 and they all have different-- 88 00:04:50,550 --> 00:04:53,400 they all have different details in their theories, 89 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:56,000 but they're all trying to say the same thing, that there 90 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:57,630 are mushrooms in Christian art. 91 00:04:57,630 --> 00:05:00,270 While I do believe that there's a lot to say about psychedelics 92 00:05:00,270 --> 00:05:02,900 in early Christianity and medieval Christianity, 93 00:05:02,900 --> 00:05:06,210 I don't believe that there is anything to say about mushrooms 94 00:05:06,210 --> 00:05:07,830 secretly hidden in art. 95 00:05:07,830 --> 00:05:13,040 An example would be the green man from Rosslyn Chapel. 96 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,240 Paul Stamets and Jerry Brown both say 97 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:17,070 that that's an amanita muscaria mushroom, 98 00:05:17,070 --> 00:05:19,450 and that it's a taxonomically correct amanita muscaria 99 00:05:19,450 --> 00:05:20,310 mushroom. 100 00:05:20,310 --> 00:05:22,410 But that's only because they put an unnatural line 101 00:05:22,410 --> 00:05:27,210 of demarcation at the nub where the mushroom should end. 102 00:05:27,210 --> 00:05:29,160 If you get rid of that line of demarcation, 103 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:30,540 it goes on, and on, and on. 104 00:05:30,540 --> 00:05:33,720 It doesn't look like it amanita muscaria that I've ever seen. 105 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,490 One of the things about the holy mushroom hypothesis, 106 00:05:36,490 --> 00:05:38,940 if we can call it that, is that it actually 107 00:05:38,940 --> 00:05:41,110 has a lot of shortcomings. 108 00:05:41,110 --> 00:05:42,990 Now, these shortcomings are often 109 00:05:42,990 --> 00:05:46,140 overlooked by the people bolstering the theory, 110 00:05:46,140 --> 00:05:49,890 but for others who pay a little bit more careful attention 111 00:05:49,890 --> 00:05:52,016 to detail, we see a big problem. 112 00:05:52,016 --> 00:05:52,890 There's a disconnect. 113 00:05:52,890 --> 00:05:55,560 And in my opinion, the biggest problem 114 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:58,650 is that Christians, especially the church fathers, 115 00:05:58,650 --> 00:06:01,530 wrote about their psychedelic experiences. 116 00:06:01,530 --> 00:06:05,510 I mean, St. Basil recommended taking mandrake. 117 00:06:05,510 --> 00:06:07,950 Theodoret of Syria would smoke opium and then 118 00:06:07,950 --> 00:06:08,970 read from the gospels. 119 00:06:08,970 --> 00:06:11,730 So these guys were totally open about discussing 120 00:06:11,730 --> 00:06:14,370 their psychedelic use, so why not say, 121 00:06:14,370 --> 00:06:16,400 hey, we're secretly painting it in art, too. 122 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,190 Why talk about cannabis, and opium, and mandrake, 123 00:06:19,190 --> 00:06:21,470 and henbane, and never bring up a mushroom? 124 00:06:21,470 --> 00:06:23,300 It makes no sense historically. 125 00:06:23,300 --> 00:06:25,940 >> Tom asked, he said, look, if there is all of these 126 00:06:25,940 --> 00:06:29,060 psychedelics, why aren't the church fathers-- 127 00:06:29,060 --> 00:06:30,650 why aren't there more about this in 128 00:06:30,650 --> 00:06:32,900 the early Christian writings? 129 00:06:32,900 --> 00:06:35,720 And my answer to Tom on this point is twofold. 130 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:41,660 One, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 131 00:06:41,660 --> 00:06:44,420 Just because they didn't write about it doesn't mean 132 00:06:44,420 --> 00:06:46,890 it wasn't there. 133 00:06:46,890 --> 00:06:48,620 And when we come back to this point 134 00:06:48,620 --> 00:06:50,600 that these were the holies of holy, 135 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:55,100 that people talked about them in secrecy, that the pope said, 136 00:06:55,100 --> 00:07:00,230 let art be the Bible of the illiterate, they expressed it, 137 00:07:00,230 --> 00:07:02,480 but they expressed it in the artwork and not 138 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:03,590 in the writings. 139 00:07:03,590 --> 00:07:07,010 It was too sacred to put into the writings. 140 00:07:07,010 --> 00:07:10,550 >> Tom began researching the holy mushroom theory years ago, 141 00:07:10,550 --> 00:07:14,060 and was even on the path to writing a book on the topic. 142 00:07:14,060 --> 00:07:17,840 >> So I used to actually believe the holy mushroom theory in its 143 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:19,040 totality. 144 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:21,740 And I actually, I didn't think that anybody 145 00:07:21,740 --> 00:07:24,692 had written a good book on the topic, so I'm like, OK. 146 00:07:24,692 --> 00:07:26,150 Well, I'm going to write that book. 147 00:07:26,150 --> 00:07:28,640 So before I wrote "The Witches' Ointment," the first book 148 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:31,430 in psychedelics I was going to write was on the holy mushroom 149 00:07:31,430 --> 00:07:32,450 theory. 150 00:07:32,450 --> 00:07:35,750 But the more I investigated it, the more I came to realize, 151 00:07:35,750 --> 00:07:38,210 none of these things are actually mushrooms. 152 00:07:38,210 --> 00:07:41,180 A lot of the times, the advocates 153 00:07:41,180 --> 00:07:42,770 don't know what they're looking at. 154 00:07:42,770 --> 00:07:45,410 And some of them have kind of mushroomy shapes, 155 00:07:45,410 --> 00:07:47,510 but in an odd way, so does a stop sign. 156 00:07:47,510 --> 00:07:50,020 And look, it's red at the top, and it's on a stem. 157 00:07:50,020 --> 00:07:53,330 So I was just trying to make this theory fit-- 158 00:07:53,330 --> 00:07:57,110 the evidence fit what I already thought, and I was like, well, 159 00:07:57,110 --> 00:07:58,250 aren't I a sucker? 160 00:07:58,250 --> 00:08:00,200 There's just nothing to it. 161 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:01,880 I fell for it. 162 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,767 And so now I spend my time investigating these photos, 163 00:08:05,767 --> 00:08:07,850 and these pictures, and showing what they actually 164 00:08:07,850 --> 00:08:10,160 are because I think it's an important question. 165 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:12,710 Look, if Jesus had anything to do with magic mushrooms, that 166 00:08:12,710 --> 00:08:13,910 is a big deal. 167 00:08:13,910 --> 00:08:17,170 168 00:08:17,170 --> 00:08:21,350 >> By the time Jerry and Julie Brown's book came out in 2016, 169 00:08:21,350 --> 00:08:23,420 many other books had been published regarding 170 00:08:23,420 --> 00:08:25,640 psychedelics and Christian art. 171 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:28,130 The concept was growing in popularity, 172 00:08:28,130 --> 00:08:30,680 yet because there were so many unanswered questions 173 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:33,590 and wild speculations, Jerry and Julie 174 00:08:33,590 --> 00:08:36,530 found it imperative to write a comprehensive book on where 175 00:08:36,530 --> 00:08:38,510 the debate sits today. 176 00:08:38,510 --> 00:08:41,059 >> Are there other entheogens in Christian art? 177 00:08:41,059 --> 00:08:44,240 Does Christianity have a psychedelic history? 178 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:47,210 If it does, what does this imply for the life 179 00:08:47,210 --> 00:08:49,400 of Jesus and the disciples? 180 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:51,350 And before we slipped into a kind 181 00:08:51,350 --> 00:08:54,170 of a rambunctious overthrow of reason, 182 00:08:54,170 --> 00:08:57,380 Carl Sagan's famous words came to us, 183 00:08:57,380 --> 00:09:01,580 "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." 184 00:09:01,580 --> 00:09:04,760 >> Extraordinary claims require ordinary evidence, 185 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:08,090 and the holy mushroom hypothesis doesn't even have base 186 00:09:08,090 --> 00:09:10,030 evidence, let alone extraordinary evidence. 187 00:09:10,030 --> 00:09:11,800 It doesn't even-- it's got nothing. 188 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:13,670 Of all the pieces that I've seen, 189 00:09:13,670 --> 00:09:15,710 they're easily explained away by using 190 00:09:15,710 --> 00:09:21,260 very basic historical criteria in detective crime solving 191 00:09:21,260 --> 00:09:23,300 methods, every single one of them. 192 00:09:23,300 --> 00:09:25,520 In those days, psychedelics were not 193 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,597 classified the way we classify drugs today. 194 00:09:29,597 --> 00:09:30,680 They didn't classify them. 195 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:32,660 They classified magic. 196 00:09:32,660 --> 00:09:37,820 So you could give somebody cannabis, right, to heal them. 197 00:09:37,820 --> 00:09:38,630 And they're healed. 198 00:09:38,630 --> 00:09:39,800 Well, that's good. 199 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:40,617 That's good magic. 200 00:09:40,617 --> 00:09:41,450 You're a good witch. 201 00:09:41,450 --> 00:09:42,576 Congratulations. 202 00:09:42,576 --> 00:09:44,450 Now, you give somebody cannabis and let's say 203 00:09:44,450 --> 00:09:45,980 they start to freak out because they don't 204 00:09:45,980 --> 00:09:47,688 know what's going on or mushrooms-- well, 205 00:09:47,688 --> 00:09:48,770 now you're a bad witch. 206 00:09:48,770 --> 00:09:50,690 And now you didn't try to heal that person, 207 00:09:50,690 --> 00:09:52,717 you were trying to send demons into them. 208 00:09:52,717 --> 00:09:54,050 You were trying to possess them. 209 00:09:54,050 --> 00:09:56,880 210 00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:01,970 So much of it depended on, really, the outcome. 211 00:10:01,970 --> 00:10:04,790 >> If psychedelics were not as important as the intentions 212 00:10:04,790 --> 00:10:06,890 of the people using them in magic, 213 00:10:06,890 --> 00:10:09,500 then would it make sense to keep them secret? 214 00:10:09,500 --> 00:10:11,720 The extraordinary claims that Jerry and Julie 215 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:17,810 Brown were looking to back up had many obstacles to overcome. 216 00:10:17,810 --> 00:10:22,340 >> We had some serious reservations at the beginning. 217 00:10:22,340 --> 00:10:24,890 But we finally came to a point where 218 00:10:24,890 --> 00:10:28,670 we gathered so much information at a distance 219 00:10:28,670 --> 00:10:30,500 that Julie and I said, you know, we 220 00:10:30,500 --> 00:10:33,050 will regret it the rest of our lives 221 00:10:33,050 --> 00:10:35,660 if this insight was given to us, if we 222 00:10:35,660 --> 00:10:38,210 don't undertake this journey of discovery 223 00:10:38,210 --> 00:10:40,330 to see if we can find psychedelic images 224 00:10:40,330 --> 00:10:41,218 in Christian art. 225 00:10:41,218 --> 00:10:43,970 226 00:10:43,970 --> 00:10:46,850 >> Jerry and Julie set out for Europe and the Middle East 227 00:10:46,850 --> 00:10:50,180 to hunt down the original artwork, take pictures, 228 00:10:50,180 --> 00:10:54,610 and gather the extraordinary evidence that they were after. 229 00:10:54,610 --> 00:10:57,940 >> The first place we went was to Plaincourault, France, 230 00:10:57,940 --> 00:11:03,430 to the tiny chapel, 20 feet wide by 60 feet deep 231 00:11:03,430 --> 00:11:08,350 in Plaincourault, where there is a giant amanita mushroom 232 00:11:08,350 --> 00:11:12,940 on a fresco of the temptation scene in the Garden of Eden. 233 00:11:12,940 --> 00:11:15,970 We went there because this place was 234 00:11:15,970 --> 00:11:21,340 the source of the debate between Gordon Wasson and John Allegro 235 00:11:21,340 --> 00:11:25,340 as to, is this an amanita muscaria mushroom, 236 00:11:25,340 --> 00:11:26,560 or is it not? 237 00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:29,770 Wasson said, no, citing the art historian 238 00:11:29,770 --> 00:11:34,510 Panofsky, who said it's a stylized Italian pine tree. 239 00:11:34,510 --> 00:11:38,050 And Allegro said, oh, it absolutely is. 240 00:11:38,050 --> 00:11:41,050 It was an incredibly emotional day for both of us, 241 00:11:41,050 --> 00:11:43,220 but especially for me. 242 00:11:43,220 --> 00:11:48,070 I had been waiting for 40 years to see this giant amanita 243 00:11:48,070 --> 00:11:51,430 mushroom in Plaincourault Chapel. 244 00:11:51,430 --> 00:11:53,800 The guide to the chapel showed up. 245 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:56,920 He spoke in French which we could understand, 246 00:11:56,920 --> 00:11:59,350 and he described it as an amanita. 247 00:11:59,350 --> 00:12:02,440 And when we looked at it, it was completely clear 248 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:04,390 that this was an amanita mushroom because 249 00:12:04,390 --> 00:12:10,750 of the meticulous white dots on the cap, which were obviously 250 00:12:10,750 --> 00:12:14,230 drawn with intention because Adam and Eve were covering 251 00:12:14,230 --> 00:12:17,900 themselves with mushroom caps, not fig leaves. 252 00:12:17,900 --> 00:12:21,610 And Eve was partially skeletonized which 253 00:12:21,610 --> 00:12:25,030 in shamanism is associated with transcendence. 254 00:12:25,030 --> 00:12:26,710 I mean, skeletonization in the bones 255 00:12:26,710 --> 00:12:29,050 are very key to shamanism. 256 00:12:29,050 --> 00:12:31,240 And Julie noticed that. 257 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:35,710 So it was the first place we stopped in our journey, 258 00:12:35,710 --> 00:12:38,860 and it was the initial confirmation to say, 259 00:12:38,860 --> 00:12:42,250 yes, Allegro was right about Plaincourault, 260 00:12:42,250 --> 00:12:46,000 and we have our first major signpost 261 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,780 on the trail of finding compelling evidence 262 00:12:49,780 --> 00:12:53,650 of mushrooms in Christianity. 263 00:12:53,650 --> 00:12:56,700 >> There are shamanic skeletal references in books as well 264 00:12:56,700 --> 00:13:00,420 as rock art, in which the motifs represent death and rebirth 265 00:13:00,420 --> 00:13:03,890 of the spirit or transcendence. 266 00:13:03,890 --> 00:13:06,240 And the image even has definitive markings 267 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:08,850 to depict that Eve is either starving or becoming 268 00:13:08,850 --> 00:13:11,990 skeleton-like. 269 00:13:11,990 --> 00:13:15,180 But was John Marco Allegro truly correct in his claim 270 00:13:15,180 --> 00:13:19,140 that this was a name amanita muscaria mushroom? 271 00:13:19,140 --> 00:13:21,900 >> Well, Allegro himself came to believe that that 272 00:13:21,900 --> 00:13:23,700 wasn't a mushroom. 273 00:13:23,700 --> 00:13:26,220 And in every edition of the sacred mushroom and the cross, 274 00:13:26,220 --> 00:13:27,870 that photo was taken out. 275 00:13:27,870 --> 00:13:32,190 He died believing only in his linguistic interpretations. 276 00:13:32,190 --> 00:13:35,550 All these people today don't read dead languages, 277 00:13:35,550 --> 00:13:39,160 so they picked up on the art because it's just easy to-- 278 00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:39,960 it's art. 279 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:43,230 We can all interpret whatever we want to see in art. 280 00:13:43,230 --> 00:13:46,080 So it's simple, especially because some of the trees 281 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:47,940 are kind of zany looking. 282 00:13:47,940 --> 00:13:50,760 They do have purple tops, or red tops, 283 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:54,430 and have kind of a bulbous top with a long stem. 284 00:13:54,430 --> 00:13:55,230 Yeah, go outside. 285 00:13:55,230 --> 00:13:58,410 That's what trees look like. 286 00:13:58,410 --> 00:14:02,580 >> Well, I would point out that this is from about the 1100s, 287 00:14:02,580 --> 00:14:05,910 and perspective did not come into art until the 15th 288 00:14:05,910 --> 00:14:07,020 century. 289 00:14:07,020 --> 00:14:07,900 So the artist could-- 290 00:14:07,900 --> 00:14:08,700 look. 291 00:14:08,700 --> 00:14:11,670 This is not an anatomically correct Adam and Eve, 292 00:14:11,670 --> 00:14:16,080 nor is it an anatomically correct amanita muscaria fly 293 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:17,670 agaric mushroom. 294 00:14:17,670 --> 00:14:21,900 So this could be the artist drawing a cluster of mushrooms 295 00:14:21,900 --> 00:14:22,960 there. 296 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:24,570 And as an anthropologist, I always 297 00:14:24,570 --> 00:14:27,550 like to see what do the locals, the natives, say. 298 00:14:27,550 --> 00:14:32,700 A bishop in early France said that these were psychoactive, 299 00:14:32,700 --> 00:14:35,400 or really mind altering substances, 300 00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:37,530 using the language of that time. 301 00:14:37,530 --> 00:14:40,260 When it was first introduced to the Mycological 302 00:14:40,260 --> 00:14:43,890 Society of France, the mycologist presenting it 303 00:14:43,890 --> 00:14:48,360 said, and look, the artist has drawn a giant fly agaric. 304 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,020 When I asked the guide to Plaincourault, 305 00:14:52,020 --> 00:14:54,690 who was taking us around, why did the artist put this there? 306 00:14:54,690 --> 00:14:59,010 He said, because he wants people to understand 307 00:14:59,010 --> 00:15:02,280 that they have to have a transcendental experience 308 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:06,210 to come closer to God. 309 00:15:06,210 --> 00:15:09,150 >> The double-edged sword of art is that some pieces can be 310 00:15:09,150 --> 00:15:13,140 interpreted in many ways, whereas others are quite 311 00:15:13,140 --> 00:15:14,790 on the nose. 312 00:15:14,790 --> 00:15:17,370 Making a distinction between which of those categories 313 00:15:17,370 --> 00:15:19,590 these Christian renderings fall into 314 00:15:19,590 --> 00:15:24,300 is the debate that has raged for the better part of a century. 315 00:15:24,300 --> 00:15:27,240 But Jerry and Julie kept on with their investigation, 316 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:30,150 wondering where else they might find evidence of psychedelics 317 00:15:30,150 --> 00:15:32,970 in Christian art. 318 00:15:32,970 --> 00:15:37,920 >> After Plaincourault, we drove about two hours east in France 319 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:41,190 to the Parish Church of Saint-Martin de Vic, again, 320 00:15:41,190 --> 00:15:43,590 about 1,000 years old. 321 00:15:43,590 --> 00:15:46,440 And when we came into the choir, Julie took my arm 322 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:49,320 and she said, do you see what I see? 323 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:52,890 And I looked at the joint scene of the purification 324 00:15:52,890 --> 00:15:57,600 of Isaiah's lips and Jesus entering Jerusalem. 325 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:00,780 And up in the right hand corner of the scene of Jesus entering 326 00:16:00,780 --> 00:16:05,310 Jerusalem, the joyful youth, who are welcoming him to Jerusalem 327 00:16:05,310 --> 00:16:08,200 on the Passover, one of them is holding 328 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:13,810 onto the stem of one of five, large, tan psilocybin 329 00:16:13,810 --> 00:16:15,820 mushrooms. 330 00:16:15,820 --> 00:16:19,600 And as we looked to the next wall, 331 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,060 Jesus is going towards the Tower of Jerusalem. 332 00:16:22,060 --> 00:16:24,160 On top of the Tower of Jerusalem, 333 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:26,980 there are other youth with long knives, 334 00:16:26,980 --> 00:16:30,190 cutting down unmistakable psilocybin mushrooms, 335 00:16:30,190 --> 00:16:31,990 cutting through the stem. 336 00:16:31,990 --> 00:16:38,230 If that was not enough on this wall, the painting, the fresco, 337 00:16:38,230 --> 00:16:41,830 of the Towers of Jerusalem is looking down 338 00:16:41,830 --> 00:16:43,540 on the Last Supper. 339 00:16:43,540 --> 00:16:45,250 It is not bread on the table. 340 00:16:45,250 --> 00:16:46,600 It's mushroom caps. 341 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:49,270 If it were bread, it would be pulled apart. 342 00:16:49,270 --> 00:16:50,740 It would be baked in loaves. 343 00:16:50,740 --> 00:16:53,980 And the same knives are on the table 344 00:16:53,980 --> 00:16:56,530 that were used to cut down the mushrooms 345 00:16:56,530 --> 00:16:58,510 in the Tower of Jerusalem. 346 00:16:58,510 --> 00:17:03,400 >> So a lot of people look at that image without knowing 347 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:04,572 exactly where it comes from. 348 00:17:04,572 --> 00:17:06,280 And when I say exact where it comes from, 349 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:08,230 I mean, literally, the Bib-- 350 00:17:08,230 --> 00:17:11,810 the chapter and verse of where it comes from. 351 00:17:11,810 --> 00:17:14,290 It comes from the Gospel of Mark. 352 00:17:14,290 --> 00:17:19,210 It's often misappropriately titled, 353 00:17:19,210 --> 00:17:23,870 The Triumphal Entry, by people who are not New Testament 354 00:17:23,870 --> 00:17:24,670 historians. 355 00:17:24,670 --> 00:17:26,878 Because New Testament historians know that it was not 356 00:17:26,878 --> 00:17:28,480 a triumphal entry. 357 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:31,070 Mark's Gospel is a war gospel. 358 00:17:31,070 --> 00:17:34,240 This was a counter-protest. 359 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:36,490 In the Gospel, you have Jesus coming 360 00:17:36,490 --> 00:17:38,090 in from one side of town. 361 00:17:38,090 --> 00:17:38,890 OK? 362 00:17:38,890 --> 00:17:42,670 He's contrasted by Caesar coming in from the other side 363 00:17:42,670 --> 00:17:45,340 with the standards and the warhorses. 364 00:17:45,340 --> 00:17:47,770 So Jesus is not on a war horse. 365 00:17:47,770 --> 00:17:49,390 He's on a lowly donkey. 366 00:17:49,390 --> 00:17:50,290 Right? 367 00:17:50,290 --> 00:17:52,150 And even though the Romans are coming in 368 00:17:52,150 --> 00:17:55,600 with their parasols of victory getting back to that peace, 369 00:17:55,600 --> 00:18:00,480 you see the young boys, handing the parasol of victory, 370 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:02,830 instead, to Jesus. 371 00:18:02,830 --> 00:18:06,250 >> Parasols and umbrellas seem to be a point of debate between 372 00:18:06,250 --> 00:18:08,860 scholars looking into religious art. 373 00:18:08,860 --> 00:18:12,460 Even in Hindu, Babylonian, and Assyrian art, 374 00:18:12,460 --> 00:18:14,860 we find many parasols. 375 00:18:14,860 --> 00:18:18,860 But are these really meant to depict the same objects? 376 00:18:18,860 --> 00:18:20,830 And why would the children be using knives 377 00:18:20,830 --> 00:18:22,900 to cut down the parasols of victory 378 00:18:22,900 --> 00:18:25,060 instead of pulling them out of the ground? 379 00:18:25,060 --> 00:18:27,760 A knife would make more sense to cut a mushroom from the ground 380 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:29,800 than an umbrella. 381 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:32,840 As Jerry and Julie continued their investigation, 382 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:35,920 they found many images that look far less like parasols, 383 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,870 but still peculiar enough to question. 384 00:18:38,870 --> 00:18:44,020 >> In the opening folio of the great Canterbury Psalter, 385 00:18:44,020 --> 00:18:46,850 which was created at Canterbury Cathedral, 386 00:18:46,850 --> 00:18:51,220 it started about 1180, it tells the story of Genesis, 387 00:18:51,220 --> 00:18:53,470 all the way through the life of Christ. 388 00:18:53,470 --> 00:18:56,710 And there's this scene where Jesus heals the leper. 389 00:18:56,710 --> 00:19:02,770 And the leper says, master, please cleanse me. 390 00:19:02,770 --> 00:19:05,800 And Jesus says-- and his scroll reaching out to the leper, 391 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:09,820 says, I will be cleansed. 392 00:19:09,820 --> 00:19:12,820 But what is fascinating about this 393 00:19:12,820 --> 00:19:15,700 is that the scroll that the leper is holding 394 00:19:15,700 --> 00:19:21,070 goes from his hand not to Jesus, but to a very clear, tan 395 00:19:21,070 --> 00:19:24,490 psychedelic mushroom at the bottom of the painting. 396 00:19:24,490 --> 00:19:27,730 Jesus is hovering, sort of suspended in air, 397 00:19:27,730 --> 00:19:29,380 over that mushroom. 398 00:19:29,380 --> 00:19:32,200 And the artist obviously was showing us 399 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:38,660 the significance of mushrooms in Jesus' healing ministry. 400 00:19:38,660 --> 00:19:43,010 In this fresco in the Parish Church of Saint-Martin de Vic 401 00:19:43,010 --> 00:19:45,380 in central France, there is a fresco 402 00:19:45,380 --> 00:19:48,950 that brings together to the New Testament, Jesus entering 403 00:19:48,950 --> 00:19:52,670 Jerusalem and the Old Testament, Isaiah's lips, the purification 404 00:19:52,670 --> 00:19:53,600 of his lips. 405 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,660 And the story is that the Seraphim, the angel, 406 00:19:56,660 --> 00:19:59,840 took a burning coal with tongs and put it in 407 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:02,240 to cleanse his lips, and metaphorically 408 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:05,030 wash all of his sins away. 409 00:20:05,030 --> 00:20:08,150 What's in this painting is a tan, 410 00:20:08,150 --> 00:20:12,290 round object in Isaiah's lips. 411 00:20:12,290 --> 00:20:16,010 It is not burning hot black like a coal. 412 00:20:16,010 --> 00:20:17,510 It's not burning red. 413 00:20:17,510 --> 00:20:19,020 There are no tongs. 414 00:20:19,020 --> 00:20:21,320 And given the relationship, the context 415 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,930 of mushrooms in the rest of the scenes there, 416 00:20:23,930 --> 00:20:28,280 we believe that this story is talking about an entheogen, 417 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:31,100 even back in the Old Testament time. 418 00:20:31,100 --> 00:20:34,970 And it was at that moment that we had our aha discovery, 419 00:20:34,970 --> 00:20:38,040 and said, this is a psychedelic Gospel. 420 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:41,330 This is an alternative history of Christianity. 421 00:20:41,330 --> 00:20:43,010 And this shouldn't be so surprising, 422 00:20:43,010 --> 00:20:44,930 because back in the sixth century, 423 00:20:44,930 --> 00:20:49,670 Pope Gregory said, let art be the Bible of the illiterate, 424 00:20:49,670 --> 00:20:52,280 because most of the people throughout the entire medieval 425 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,130 period were illiterate. 426 00:20:55,130 --> 00:20:58,070 >> Is illiteracy the reason why these seemingly psychedelic 427 00:20:58,070 --> 00:21:01,370 mushrooms show up in Christian art? 428 00:21:01,370 --> 00:21:04,370 One other theory is that from early on in the construction 429 00:21:04,370 --> 00:21:06,830 of the religious institution, these plants 430 00:21:06,830 --> 00:21:09,890 were suppressed and kept only in the hands of the inner circles 431 00:21:09,890 --> 00:21:11,150 of the church. 432 00:21:11,150 --> 00:21:14,030 But Jerry sees this point a bit differently. 433 00:21:14,030 --> 00:21:17,540 >> When it comes to secrecy of the mushrooms and these 434 00:21:17,540 --> 00:21:23,210 rituals, the major point to make here is that secrecy is not 435 00:21:23,210 --> 00:21:24,560 suppression. 436 00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,280 There are some people who argue that entheogens were suppressed 437 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:29,870 in Christianity. 438 00:21:29,870 --> 00:21:31,340 Absolutely not. 439 00:21:31,340 --> 00:21:34,760 This did not happen until after the Inquisition. 440 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,670 That's the point where they really disappear 441 00:21:37,670 --> 00:21:40,280 for a variety of reasons. 442 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:45,320 The reason that these mushrooms are there for the initiates 443 00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:51,280 to see is because this is the holy of holies. 444 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,490 These are the sacred plants. 445 00:21:54,490 --> 00:21:58,900 And so in all of the shamanistic and classic religious 446 00:21:58,900 --> 00:22:02,290 traditions that use entheogens, these are treated reverently, 447 00:22:02,290 --> 00:22:04,810 and secretly, and quietly. 448 00:22:04,810 --> 00:22:07,640 Among María Sabina and the Mazatec shaman, 449 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:08,890 they're talked a little-- 450 00:22:08,890 --> 00:22:11,640 landslide mushrooms, the little saints of the Mazatec, 451 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,260 are talked about in whispers at night 452 00:22:14,260 --> 00:22:18,100 at veladas, at midnight healing ceremonies. 453 00:22:18,100 --> 00:22:21,100 >> The use of secrecy in magic and religion is seen 454 00:22:21,100 --> 00:22:24,940 ubiquitously through many different spiritual traditions. 455 00:22:24,940 --> 00:22:29,320 Kees Willem Bolle opens his book, "Secrecy and Religion" 456 00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:33,640 by saying, not only is there no religion without secrecy, 457 00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:36,640 but there is no human existence without it. 458 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,990 Religious expressiveness and all human life cannot be understood 459 00:22:40,990 --> 00:22:44,830 if we ignore their peculiar codes, reservations, 460 00:22:44,830 --> 00:22:48,580 self restraints, and cautions that seem their very grammar 461 00:22:48,580 --> 00:22:50,740 and idiom. 462 00:22:50,740 --> 00:22:53,020 Many in modern self encounter groups 463 00:22:53,020 --> 00:22:55,780 state that the only difference between magic practice 464 00:22:55,780 --> 00:22:58,450 and religion is that religion is sanctioned 465 00:22:58,450 --> 00:23:01,090 by a near governmental size authority, 466 00:23:01,090 --> 00:23:02,890 and magic refers to the groups that 467 00:23:02,890 --> 00:23:05,350 didn't build the mass congregation or business 468 00:23:05,350 --> 00:23:07,600 model around it. 469 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,640 But authors like Jordan Maxwell seem 470 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:12,280 to find that obscure passages in the Bible 471 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:16,480 might point to mushroom worship amongst the Israelites. 472 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:21,550 Exodus 16:14 states, and when the dew that lay was gone up, 473 00:23:21,550 --> 00:23:24,400 behold upon the face of the wilderness, 474 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:27,250 there lay a small round thing, as small 475 00:23:27,250 --> 00:23:30,340 as the hoarfrost on the ground. 476 00:23:30,340 --> 00:23:33,460 He also points out that the hats worn by Jewish priests 477 00:23:33,460 --> 00:23:36,600 look similar to mushroom caps. 478 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:40,650 Professor Carl Ruck, who wrote "Mushrooms, Myth and Mithras," 479 00:23:40,650 --> 00:23:44,820 says of Mithraism, the religions kept its secrets well. 480 00:23:44,820 --> 00:23:46,560 The teachings were never codified 481 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:48,600 in official scriptures. 482 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,560 He also says that Mithras, like the amanita muscaria mushroom, 483 00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,160 was said to be born wearing a red, star-spotted cap 484 00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,280 from a pine cone or philosopher's stone. 485 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:01,050 Many of these religions were born 486 00:24:01,050 --> 00:24:03,690 in a similar area of the old world, 487 00:24:03,690 --> 00:24:05,790 while we also find mushroom idolatry 488 00:24:05,790 --> 00:24:10,710 among many North, Central, and South American indigenous. 489 00:24:10,710 --> 00:24:12,720 Even if only a few of these references 490 00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:16,100 are, in fact, historically accurate, speaking 491 00:24:16,100 --> 00:24:17,840 about psychedelic worship leading 492 00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:20,900 to widespread religions, what, then, 493 00:24:20,900 --> 00:24:22,760 is the incentive to keep the secrecy 494 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,480 alive in the information age that we live in today? 495 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:32,450 >> Institutions that are very invested in telling large 496 00:24:32,450 --> 00:24:37,910 numbers of people what they should think, like religions, 497 00:24:37,910 --> 00:24:40,700 is probably the best example, psychedelics are very 498 00:24:40,700 --> 00:24:44,030 threatening to that because you're saying, no. 499 00:24:44,030 --> 00:24:49,790 I'm not going to accept your doctrine, your dogma, whatever. 500 00:24:49,790 --> 00:24:53,080 I'm going to think for myself. 501 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,880 A society of people that actually think for themselves 502 00:24:55,880 --> 00:25:00,230 is a very dangerous thing to established institutions. 503 00:25:00,230 --> 00:25:05,390 >> What this research reveals is the plant-based shamanic 504 00:25:05,390 --> 00:25:07,520 origins of religion itself. 505 00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:09,710 And that's something that fundamental religion 506 00:25:09,710 --> 00:25:14,477 has been rallied against ever since they took hold. 507 00:25:14,477 --> 00:25:16,310 Ever since the Christian religion took hold, 508 00:25:16,310 --> 00:25:19,730 it began with the suppression of the pagan cults 509 00:25:19,730 --> 00:25:22,100 and suppressed the peyote cults, and the mushroom 510 00:25:22,100 --> 00:25:26,510 cults, and the sacred use of drugs and plants and everything 511 00:25:26,510 --> 00:25:30,350 throughout the whole world, because of this fear out of it. 512 00:25:30,350 --> 00:25:34,490 >> Once religions adopted public persuasion and political power, 513 00:25:34,490 --> 00:25:37,670 the claims of magic powers coming from plant sacraments 514 00:25:37,670 --> 00:25:40,640 were seen as blasphemous, and may have fueled the mass 515 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:44,570 genocide of shamanic tribes in the Americas. 516 00:25:44,570 --> 00:25:47,630 Even today, it is a controversial claim 517 00:25:47,630 --> 00:25:50,210 to say that psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms 518 00:25:50,210 --> 00:25:53,360 can elicit a religious or mystical experience. 519 00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:55,820 But if it were true, could this account 520 00:25:55,820 --> 00:25:57,590 for the nature of the transformation 521 00:25:57,590 --> 00:26:00,230 that Christ, and possibly other religious heroes, 522 00:26:00,230 --> 00:26:02,450 claim to have had? 523 00:26:02,450 --> 00:26:07,520 >> There are many writings that indicate that Jesus achieved 524 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:12,020 his immortality and divinity through entheogens. 525 00:26:12,020 --> 00:26:13,470 Let me give you just one-- 526 00:26:13,470 --> 00:26:17,420 for example, eat of my flesh, drink of my blood, 527 00:26:17,420 --> 00:26:19,059 and you will achieve immortality. 528 00:26:19,059 --> 00:26:20,600 I mean, this is in the New Testament. 529 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:21,560 This is John. 530 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:22,880 What is Jesus talking about? 531 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:24,650 Is he advocating cannibalism? 532 00:26:24,650 --> 00:26:26,900 I think not, because this would be anathema 533 00:26:26,900 --> 00:26:30,350 to Romans and to Jews alike. 534 00:26:30,350 --> 00:26:33,070 Number two, when we get into gnostic gospels, 535 00:26:33,070 --> 00:26:37,850 in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says to the disciples, 536 00:26:37,850 --> 00:26:40,220 to whom can you compare me? 537 00:26:40,220 --> 00:26:42,590 And Thomas answers and he says, master, 538 00:26:42,590 --> 00:26:46,970 I am wholly incapable of comparing you to anyone. 539 00:26:46,970 --> 00:26:51,710 And Jesus replies, I am not your master. 540 00:26:51,710 --> 00:26:56,210 Because you have drunk from the bubbling spring 541 00:26:56,210 --> 00:27:00,950 that I have measured out, you have become like me, 542 00:27:00,950 --> 00:27:03,290 and I have become like you. 543 00:27:03,290 --> 00:27:07,280 And all that is hidden within has been revealed. 544 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,610 Now, what we're talking about is a bubbling spring. 545 00:27:10,610 --> 00:27:14,510 Drinking the drink from my mouth, and a drink 546 00:27:14,510 --> 00:27:16,340 that I have measured out. 547 00:27:16,340 --> 00:27:18,410 We all know that dose is very important. 548 00:27:18,410 --> 00:27:20,210 I mean, here, as close as you can 549 00:27:20,210 --> 00:27:23,510 get without going into volume, he's 550 00:27:23,510 --> 00:27:26,960 talking about measuring out a dose of this particular drink. 551 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,820 We think this is a code for the original Eucharist, 552 00:27:31,820 --> 00:27:34,040 the mushroom. 553 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:37,870 >> There is something uniquely powerful and re-organization 554 00:27:37,870 --> 00:27:40,250 all about these experiences. 555 00:27:40,250 --> 00:27:45,110 They appear to map on to naturally occurring 556 00:27:45,110 --> 00:27:48,260 mystical or transformative type experiences that 557 00:27:48,260 --> 00:27:51,020 have been reported throughout the ages 558 00:27:51,020 --> 00:27:55,100 by mystics and religious figures. 559 00:27:55,100 --> 00:27:57,750 Now, as a clinical pharmacologist 560 00:27:57,750 --> 00:28:00,500 who's been doing research with all kinds 561 00:28:00,500 --> 00:28:04,220 of different psychoactive compounds for decades, 562 00:28:04,220 --> 00:28:10,190 that's just a remarkable and unprecedented finding. 563 00:28:10,190 --> 00:28:13,220 >> If the leading researcher in psilocybin mushrooms trials 564 00:28:13,220 --> 00:28:17,390 with control groups with nearly two decades of studies can make 565 00:28:17,390 --> 00:28:20,240 the claim that these mushrooms might account for the wildly 566 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:22,720 mystical stories of religious heroes, 567 00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:25,610 then we may now truly have evidence of the psychedelic 568 00:28:25,610 --> 00:28:29,840 origins of religions around the world. 569 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,080 The ancient Egyptians called mushrooms the sons of the gods, 570 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:37,430 and plants of immortality, closely resembling the idea 571 00:28:37,430 --> 00:28:39,650 that psychoactive mushrooms were involved 572 00:28:39,650 --> 00:28:42,200 in the divine soma drink of immortality 573 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,800 for the ancient Indians. 574 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,810 The Egyptian origin myth of the sacred mushrooms 575 00:28:47,810 --> 00:28:50,720 was that Set, the storm god, created them 576 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,530 by hurling lightning bolts with spores in them to the earth. 577 00:28:54,530 --> 00:28:57,560 This has relevance to the theory that the first lifeforms 578 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,710 on the planet may have been mushrooms from large molecules 579 00:29:00,710 --> 00:29:03,740 in the oceans that were struck by lightning. 580 00:29:03,740 --> 00:29:08,810 Similar beliefs crop up in anxious Greek, Roman, Indian, 581 00:29:08,810 --> 00:29:11,360 and even Scythian idolatry. 582 00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,420 Across the ocean, the Zapotec civilization, 583 00:29:14,420 --> 00:29:17,270 who built impressive temple grounds in Mexico, 584 00:29:17,270 --> 00:29:20,210 prayed to the great lightning bolt that breeds the mushrooms 585 00:29:20,210 --> 00:29:22,070 after their ceremonies. 586 00:29:22,070 --> 00:29:26,150 The Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and quite possibly 587 00:29:26,150 --> 00:29:29,210 many more ancient religions from around the world, 588 00:29:29,210 --> 00:29:33,410 believe that these were divinely intelligent, highly important 589 00:29:33,410 --> 00:29:34,490 holy mushrooms. 590 00:29:34,490 --> 00:29:37,010 591 00:29:37,010 --> 00:29:40,140 As the holy mushroom theory develops and the world becomes 592 00:29:40,140 --> 00:29:43,590 aware of it, perhaps the biggest revelation to come 593 00:29:43,590 --> 00:29:47,100 is not an encouragement to take these substances, 594 00:29:47,100 --> 00:29:49,440 but at the very least, to balance the view 595 00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:51,080 that the modern culture has taken 596 00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:54,270 on psychedelic plants and their role in spiritual pursuits. 597 00:29:54,270 --> 00:29:59,430 598 00:29:59,430 --> 00:30:03,030 Up next, join us as we take a look at the potential future 599 00:30:03,030 --> 00:30:06,810 of psychedelics in society and where the merging of those two 600 00:30:06,810 --> 00:30:08,900 might take us. 601 00:30:08,900 --> 00:30:18,176