A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.
BRIAN C. MURARESKU graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a degree in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit. As a member of the New York Bar, he has been practicing law internationally for fifteen years. In 2016, he became the founding executive director of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, whose work has been featured by CNN, ESPN, VICE and The Washington Post. In arbitration with the NFL, he represented the first professional athlete in the United States to request a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis. Muraresku lives outside Washington D.C. with his wife and two daughters.
Absolutely one of the most fascinating podcasts I've ever done
... f*cking sensational. --Joe Rogan, host of The Joe Rogan
Experience
As excitingly plotted as Dan Brown. Extraordinarily readable. Of
substantive intellectual interest. Quite the trip. Almost
impossible to put down. --Jordan B. Peterson The book--which is
like nothing I had read before, it puts other 'popular scholarship'
to shame--is part popularized classical scholarship and part Da
Vinci Code-influenced investigative journalism. --Candida Moss,
The Daily Beast A mindblower. --Mark Manson, #1 New York
Times bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a
F*ck "Like The Da Vinci Code. Tremendous. Stunning."
--Michael Smerconish, CNN Amazing. Truly fascinating. Indiana Jones
meets the history of psychedelic experience within religion. I want
to see a reality docuseries based on this. --John Fugelsang, host
of Tell Me Everything "Completely captivated. Mesmerizing
evidence." --Elise Loehnen, goop
Exceptional investigative work. --Derek Beres for Big Think
The Immortality Key is an astonishing and remarkable book that
explores the mysterious links between psychedelic drugs, human
consciousness, and the origins of Christianity. It presents truly
ground-breaking research on many levels, tracing the use of
psychedelic drugs from Ancient Greece through Rome and into the
early days of Christianity, where they played a role--possibly a
crucial one--in the new religion of Jesus Christ. This is a
fascinating book, which I highly recommend. --Douglas Preston, #1
New York Times bestselling author of The Lost City of the
Monkey God
An outstanding inquiry into the power of the Mysteries in the
ancient world. A sweeping, persuasive argument from a true
Renaissance intellect. The writing is most vivid. --Gregory Nagy,
Francis Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature, Harvard
University A fascinating analysis of the mystical roots of ancient
religion, and a rediscovery of a forgotten ritual for the modern
world. --Deepak Chopra In Brian Muraresku, the psychedelic theory
of religion has its newest and most accomplished scholar-historian
(who also happens to be very funny). This is no crackpot idea. This
is genuine scholarship at its deepest, most comparative, and most
conceptually radical. The breadth of the investigation is simply
astonishing: the Eleusinian Mysteries; the cosmic love of God;
Goebekli Tepe and Indo-European studies; Greek, Latin, Sanskrit,
and Catalan; flying witches and the long religious war on women;
the Vatican Secret Archives; democracy, ethics, and the unity of
humankind; hard archaeochemical and DNA evidence; the first
(Dionysian) miracle of Christ in the Gospel of John; the political
radicalism of the Eucharist; LSD-laced graveyard beer and
psychedelic wine. Buckle up tight, Toto. You were never in Kansas.
It's Oz everywhere and always. --Jeffrey J. Kripal, Associate Dean
of Faculty and Graduate Studies, Rice University, author of
Esalen: The Religion of No Religion
Muraresku has successfully unwrapped one of history's greatest
riddles with a measured, skeptical eye. His ability to sift through
the evidence with an open mind and discriminating wit keeps the
pages turning. --Leslie Kean, author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots
and Government Officials Go on the Record and Surviving
Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence For An
Afterlife
Brian Muraresku's The Immortality Key connects the lost,
psychedelic sacrament of ancient Greek religion to early
Christianity -- exposing the true origins of Western Civilization.
Muraresku brings to light a secret with the capacity to
revolutionize our understanding of the past and chart a bold, new
course for the future. --Graham Hancock, New York Times
Bestselling Author of America Before
In The Immortality Key, Muraresku reconstructs the forgotten
history of psychedelics in the development of Western civilization.
His analysis of the roots of Christianity will shake the foundation
of organized religion and point the way to a revolution in
consciousness. --Andrew Weil, M.D. An impeccably researched journey
to the crossroads of history. The questions are provocative, the
disclosures earth-shaking. By deciphering the relationship between
Jesus and Dionysos, Brian Muraresku has achieved nothing less than
a radical re-envisioning of the Christian story. --Mark Arey,
Former Director of the Office of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and
Interfaith Relations of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America A
timely message, given the re-emergence of psychedelic research for
end-of-life distress. A tour de force on the perennial quest to
unlock the mystery of death. A spiritual adventure page-turner
that's not easy to put down. And a mystery tour well worth taking.
--Anthony P. Bossis Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of
Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine With his new
book, The Immortality Key, Brian Muraresku offers an
invigorating look at the birth of religion as the ancient secret of
dying before dying, providing us with a rejuvenating blast of what
my friend Huston Smith described as authentic enthusiasmos,
an ecstatic experience of the god within. --Phil Cousineau, author
of Once and Future Myths, and coauthor with Huston Smith of
And Live Rejoicing: Chapters from a Charmed Life
A manifesto, briskly paced and engaging from page one, on the very
real possibility of a psychedelic eucharist. I strongly recommend
this intriguing, provocative, and thoughtful book. --Julie Holland,
MD, author of Good Chemistry: The Science of Connection From
Soul to Psychedelics
In his Introduction alone, Muraresku captures the excitement of
what psychedelics can offer our species in this time of crisis.
What an exhilarating adventure into the heart of the Ancient
Mysteries, and the psychedelic key to Eleusis. Somewhere over the
rainbow, my dear friend Albert Hofmann is smiling. The secret is
out! --Amanda Feilding, Founder and Director of the Beckley
Foundation Like a modern-day Galileo, combining meticulous
scholarly analysis with highly rarefied fieldwork, Muraresku is
willing to bravely challenge sacred cow orthodoxies, unafraid of
where the facts and evidence lead him. He has the standing and
erudition to do so. Deftly weaving in humor and contemporary
policy, Muraresku's book is of utmost urgency in the search for
what it means to be alive and inevitably die. This page-turner
presents the hard archeological evidence substantiating the
LSD-like chemical presence in the Eleusinian and Dionysian
Mysteries, which carried on for thousands of years, reappearing in
democratized form as the Eucharist in the mystery cult of early
Christianity before its suppression under the Roman Empire. Here
revealed are the true origins of the dominant religion of Western
civilization, and the lengths to which its early progenitors went
to preserve female spiritual leadership, and the psychedelic
sacrament that was their lodestar. --Sunil Kumar Aggarwal, MD, PhD,
Co-Founder and Co-Director, AIMS Institute; Affiliate Assistant
Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine and Geography, University of
Washington Psychedelic Eucharist anyone? This amazing researcher
Brian Muraresku has uncovered what has been called the biggest
secret in history. Really enjoying reading The Immortality
Key, it places the psychedelic truth in more irrefutable
historic context. --Alex Grey, CoSM An old-fashioned detective
story, like The Da Vinci Code. Except it doesn't suck. And
it's about psychedelics. --Sean Illing, Vox Structured as a travel
diary, in the style of a real-life Da Vinci Code, The
Immortality Key tells the story of a dozen-year quest for
Christianity's psychedelic roots. A thorough work, performed
assiduously. --Ido Hartogsohn, Haaretz
"likely to become a classic study... THE IMMORTALITY KEY lands
another powerful blow against the logic and rationale of the drug
war and offers a cogent argument in favor of the responsible use of
entheogens...it's a ripping read, one that roughly hews to the form
of a mystery - or maybe a Dan Brown conspiracy thriller. That's an
awful lot for an author to accomplish in a first book, but
Muraresku has done it all deftly, and given the movement for
cognitive and religious freedom some great material to work with."
--Clifton Ross, Quillette
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