mega-mushie!

"A more than 20-kilo (41-lb) mushroom has been picked in a forest in Mexico's southernmost state of Chiapas, university officials said Tuesday."
Full article here.

Before there were trees, before the ancient conifers, cycads, giant ferns and towering horsetails, the land supported forests of 50 foot tall mushrooms. This was not known until recently when a fossil of one such 50 ft tall mushroom was discovered in New England, a rare finding because the fungi do not fossilize easily. I do believe that makes Mario Land real, does it not?

Christian Ratsch - 50 Years of Mushroom Experience

Here is a video of Christian Ratsch giving a casual and deeply inspired talk at a trance party . Ratsch is the world's foremost scholar/researcher of shamanic plants and cultures. Author several phenomenal books including the 1000 page tome, The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants. I had the pleasure of socializing with him (and other luminaries) in 2000 at Palenque, Mexico and I can attest to his psychedelic charm. Nice storyteller, too. I highly recommend the earlier, more formal presentation, 'Psychoactivity: The Fountain of Culture'. This newer video is in German with English subtitles. Enjoy!
Part 1 of 4:

Have Yourself A Psychedelic Christmas

Flying reindeer, birch tree branches and holly everywhere, brightly colored gifts under a pine tree with a star on top. Yes, tis the season to be jollyphoric!
I know it's late for gift shopping but the hot item this season is Christian Ratsch's new book, Pagan Christmas. Extremely detailed research on so many of our traditions. Great gift idea for family and friends.


Enjoy this excerpt from The Pharmacratic Inquisition documentary about the solstice celebration and the lapland shamans we refer to today a Santa Claus.

Here is some more info about the origins of the holidays:
link>> Second Attention
link>> Cannabis Culture

Have a beatific solstice season everyone!

Cymatics, Fractals, and The Spirit Molecule

Posted is a video done in a style called synchromysticism. Synchromysticism seems to me like a like a combination of art, calendrics, sacred geometry, alternative history, conspiracy theories, entheogenic evolution, alchemy, new physics, astronomy and Jungian synchronicity.
(...whew!)
Archetypal mythology is enacted through the mainstream media, underground communication, our favorite Hollywood movies and current events. Weaving together seemingly disparate events is possible if we are seeing how everything is connected.

Here is a video from The Labyrinth of the Psychonaut. (This video reflects the theme of my 'entheogenic' blog. If you would like see more diverse and weird topics check out the two pages I linked below.)

Cymatics, Fractals, and The Spirit Molecule


link1: soundlessdawn
link 2: Seallion

'Save the Shrooms' protest in Amsterdam

Citizens march for better education, not illegalization, of sacred mushrooms.
LINK> >Reuters

Bread of Life, Christ, Mushroom

Here's some interesting findings by a Christian concerning various passages in the bible.
(7:45)


For much more in-depth research into the "the greatest story ever told" I refer you to my previous post concerning the DVD companion to the book, Astrotheology & Shamanism, linked HERE.

Mormon Elixirs

As most Americans know, Mormons' drug of choice is Ephedra which contains amphetamine-like compounds. But what should be noted also is that LDS parables are clumsily obvious allegories about inebriation, particularly with Amanita mushrooms:

Did Joseph Smith use psychedelics?
\www.mormonelixirs.org

Freemasonry and the Survival of the Eucharistic Brotherhoods

We all know that founding fathers such as George Washington and Ben Franklin were paramount advocates of hemp (marijuana), but might some of these philosopher statesmen been initiated into age-long rituals surrounding psilocybin and amanita mushrooms?
Could the secrets of the mystery schools actually have survived into the free-masonic rites of early America? (where both types of mushroom grow regularly) And why does the ancient, alchemical symbol (the phrygrian cap) for a certain strain of psilocybin mushroom actually appear on the flags of certain new-world nations as well as the the flag of New York state and the seal of the army, which states over the Liberty Cap, "This We'll Defend" ?
Who IS Columbia / Minerva / Lady Liberty?
ARE mushrooms (and artichokes) space-faring organisms helping us adjust to galactic ecology?
And WHAT is the big deal about masonry, art & architecture?

Hopefully all the answers to questions will be more researched and widespread someday, but for now, read this short article by historians Carl Ruck and Mark Hoffman:
ENTHEOS

Declaration of Independence of the United States of America

The Dec. of Ind. is a beautifully articulated statement of extremely advanced philosophy. Go figure! Huh!

MUST-SEE Documentary: The Pharmacratic Inquisition

This movie will utterly blow your mind repeatedly!! Absolute must-see. The truest, most concise documentary about the story of religion to date. This is the free online online version but I encourage folks who enjoy it to purchase the high-quality DVD, it would make an excellent gift to friends and family. The intro is a little slow but at about 5 - 10 minutes into it the plot thickens and what follows is a tremendously exiting and mind-expanding trip through a hidden history that has affected all of us on almost every level.
If you enjoyed Zeitgeist you HAVE to watch The Pharmacratic Inquisition (Zeitgeist used the Pharmacratic Inquisition book as a main reference).
See below for a description of the film from the authors.
So make a pot of tea, pour a glass of wine or consecrate your vaporizer and ENJOY THE SHOW!

(Click here for larger viewing screen. Length = 1 hr 50 minutes.)

How deep does the rabbit hole go? Gnostic Media is proud to present the official online edition of The Pharmacratic Inquisition 2007. If ... all » you enjoyed “Zeitgeist - The Movie”, you will love this video; the creators of this video are listed as one of the sources for the Zeitgeist Movie. The Pharmacratic Inquisition 2007 is a video version of the book, “Astrotheology & Shamanism” by Jan Irvin & Andrew Rutajit. The painstakingly detailed and heavily footnoted research in the book comes to life in this video and is now available to you for FREE! For further research of the claims made in this video, please read AstroTheology & Shamanism - this book is available to order as a combo with the DVD.

Thousands of years ago, in the pre monarchic era, sacred plants and other entheogenic substances where politically correct and highly respected for their ability to bring forth the divine, Yahweh, God, The Great Spirit, etc., by the many cultures who used them. Often the entire tribe or community would partake in the entheogenic rites and rituals. These rites were often used in initiation into adulthood, for healing, to help guide the community in the decision process, and to bring the direct religious experience to anyone seeking it.

In the pre literate world, the knowledge of psychedelic sacraments, as well as fertility rites and astronomical knowledge surrounding the sun, stars, and zodiac, known as astrotheology, were anthropomorphized into a character or a deity; consequently, their stories and practices could easily be passed down for generations. Weather changes over millenniums caused environmental changes that altered the available foods and plant sacraments available in the local vicinity. If a tribe lost its shamanic El-der (El - God), all of the tribe's knowledge of their plant sacraments as well as astronomical knowledge would be lost. The Church’s inquisitions extracted this sacred knowledge from the local Shamans who were then exterminated…It is time to recognize the fact that this Pharmacratic Inquisition is still intact and destroy it.

www.GnosticMedia.com
www.Pharmacratic-Inquisition.com

High quality entheogen movie in the works...

Just saw this on DoseNation , a documentary about entheogens and religion that takes a humorous approach. It's called The God Botherers and you can watch a ten minute trailer on their website. I think it looks lovely; insights on the current affairs of world religions, samples from psychedelic luminaries, and it's edited really, really well. It'll be a very high quality film.
(The trailer takes a long time to load so start it and pause and come back to it in, like, 5 minutes or so.)
Check it out! > The God Botherers

Pharmacratic Inquisition DVD released

A DVD companion to the incredible book, Astrotheology & Shamanism, is now available. The authors explore the roots of religion with an emphasis on Christianity. I highly encourage the purchase of this outstanding book (and DVD), available at Pharmacratic-Inquisition.com/
Here is the older preview and then a new sample about John Allegro. Check it out!

Preview (6 min)


Sample about John Allegro (9 1/2 min)

Book 'Shroom' falsley called "rigorous"

This post is from Michael Hoffman (egodeath.com). I whole-heartedly agree. I, also, was upset when this general audience book came out attempting to debunk decades or scholarly research:


Talks of Letcher's "findings":
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/490/book_review_andy_letcher_shrooms_mag

I also spoke with a modernity-focused psychedelics researcher who also bought into Letcher's illusion of rigor. I'm starting to agree with Jan Irvin that the shortcomings of Letcher's book could cause some harm and serve as the biggest setback to the field of entheogen scholarship since Wasson's dismissal of the Plaincourault fresco as Amanita and Wasson's complete failure to consider entheogens throughout the Bible & Christian history.

Anyone who hasn't read much entheogen scholarship, and hasn't made that their main focus, is likely to come away from Letcher's book with the mis-impression that the entheogen theory of religion has been proven baseless. Letcher needs to publish corrections and clarifications to reduce the harm that his half-informed, abridged "popular audience" book has done
to the field of entheogen scholarship.

We need more issues of Entheos magazine to dispel the pernicious illusion that the entheogen theory of religious origins = the mushroom theory as popularized using Wasson/Allegro/McKenna, and the illusion that Letcher's book treated all the evidence and arguments for the entheogen or mushroom theory of religious origins & history. Shroom is a biased treatment: it waves aside much evidence, carelessly treats the existing evidence, and waffles on which hypothesis it is purporting to refute.

The popular version of the mushroom theory of religion that is based on
Wasson/Allegro/McKenna has flaws, but neither is Shroom correct. Letcher is not a general entheogen scholar; he researched the popular Wasson/Allegro/McKenna mushroom theory in isolation. The resulting biased, distorted picture and treatment demonstrates why authors must be cautious when writing a book about only a single visionary plant. Authors need to do all their homework across the overall field, to contribute valid studies in the subfields.

Demonstrates Shroom is not rigorous as it needs to be:
http://www.egodeath.com/ViewsOnEntheogensInReligiousHistory.htm - high-level
analysis of the situation and state of the field; categorizes Letcher's view
within a typology of competing paradigms

http://www.egodeath.com/ShroomLetcher.htm - relevant book excerpts

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/egodeath/message/4577 - my Amazon review

-- Michael Hoffman, Egodeath.com

The Psychedelic Experience

This looks neat!

There's not much info yet (see below), it's just starting production, but it looks like it might be really cool, I can't wait! (I bet it's released before the 'Entheogen' move, heh heh.)

"A teaser from the forthcoming feature length docudrama THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE, Directed by Julia Jason, Produced by Peter Martin."

Wondrous Mushroom reprinted

The Wondrous Mushroom: Sacred Mushrooms in Mexico and Mesoamerica by R. Gordon Wasson has been released today. New edition comes with a forward by Daniel Pinchbeck.

(Hopefully someone will reprint his other books which cost $400 - $4000 for the original printing.)

New John Allegro website

Jan Irvin, one of the authors of the excellent, comprehensive book, Astrotheology & Shamanism, has created a new website devoted to the work of John M. Allegro, with input from Judy, his daughter:
http://johnallegro.org

I read John Marco Allegro: The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a biography by his daughter and found incredibly fascinating. At times it read like an archeological adventure story story ala Indiana Jones with the conspiracies and the secrets of history being unveiled. An amazing human being, John Allegro was a master linguist and historian who was in charge of deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls. While never a participant in drug culture, he had revealed the ancient cults of fertility and sacred mushrooms that were there roots of Christianity and other major religious branches.


Here are the main websites of Jan Irvin and Andrew Rutajit, authors of the book
Astrotheology & Shamanism:
http://gnosticmedia.com
http://pharmacratic-inquisition.com

Crystals 'helped Viking sailors'

Vikings may have used a special crystal called a sunstone to help navigate the seas even when the sun was obscured by fog or cloud, a study has suggested.
BBC News link

Tom Robbins on the Fly Agaric

The Super Fly - The Mushroom that Conquered the Universe - High Times, Dec. 1976 : by Tom Robbins

Christian Ratsch on Google Video

Excellent talk by leading shamanism expert.

Psychoactivity: The Fountain of Culture


"You have to go into a trance and then you can find the yeti easily"