When I first read the Book of Revelation, I wondered what kind of drugs was its author taking. Was he eating too many of those mushrooms or smoking too many of those poppies?

Anyone else have similar impressions?

Ergot - the fungus that grows on rye, of which LSD-25 is a well known derivative.

True! It was a major problem before food was stored in good conditions. A lot of religious visions, experiences etc. can probably be put down to the fact that in times gone by a lot of people spent a lot of time tripping out of their faces.

I think you have to take into consideration the (very likely) possibility that the author of Revelation may have been making symbolic political observations in a code contemporary Messianic Jews (or early Christians) would have understood. You know, like fearing Nero, who was recently assassinated, might have faked his death and was going to return (as the head of the beast which was wounded but had grown back) to continue persecuting dissenters. The symbolic nature of the text might have been an attempt to make the writing deniable to avoid persecution.

I'm not dismissing the 'trip' aspect out of hand, just saying that there is definitely some symbolic reflection of what was then current events.

[This message has been edited by smugg (edited April 08, 2001).]

He bit into the little cookie that said EAT ME.

One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small.....

Hey man, Ken Kesey was eating all that tripped out stuff when he wrote
'One Flew Over The CooCoo's Nest'. That book was awesome and it sure as hell made a lot more sense than revelation.

You are giving the influence of drugs a bad name when you blame the Book of Revelations on them. That book was written by a paranoid delusional dude with a serious bi-polar disorder to boot.