Toto

Historian Mary K. Matossian has an article in the Aug-Sept 2009 issue of Free Inquiry (the article is not online, unfortunately, but can be ordered at a reasonable cost or found in a library.)

Matossian is the author of Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History (or via: amazon.co.uk), which "presents evidence that food poisoning from microfungi in rye bread may have caused widespread hallucinations, low fertility and witch-like behavior during the 14th through the 18th centuries."

She has also traced the "quaking" of Quakers to ergotism in "Why the Quakers Quaked: The Influence of Climatic Change on Quaker Health, 1647--1659" in Quaker History, 96.1 (2007).

Her theory is that wet climate conditions allow the development of mold in certain plants. The side effects of this mold include visions, hallucinations, shaking, and seeing bright lights. Ergot is chemically similar to LSD, which has been studied in laboratory and other conditions.

The Free Inquiry article is highly speculative, but it is speculation based on science.

Matossian starts by discussion the symbolism of light. Before the 6th century BCE, there was sun worship in Egypt and elsewhere, but no general identification of light with goodness (or dark with evil.) The symbolic use of light for goodness starts with Zarathustra, who drank the sacred haoma of the ancient Persians, which scholars believe was hallucinogenic, and which led to visions of figures clothed in shining white. George Fox, who founded the Quakers, reports similar visions of figures in shining white.

Matossian then goes on to discuss the apocalyptic thinking of the Jews between the 3rd century BCE and the 2nd century CE. She points out that the Roman empire had created peace and prosperity, with no particular political or social crisis to spur apocalyptic thinking.

She then searches for the missing hallucinogen that might be connected with this apocalyptic thinking, since it has been generally felt that the climate was too dry to encourage mold, and in any case rye was not grown in the middle east at this time. The available drugs (beer, wine, opium, hashish) are not hallucingenic.

Albert Hoffman in 1978 had proposed that hallucinogenic alkaloids might have been produced when the fungus Claviceps paspali colonized wild grass.

Matossian points out that apocalyptic thinking began at the beginning of a moist climactic period and died out in the third century as the climate dried out; in addition, Galilee has a higher rainfall than the rest of Palestine.

She connects the story of the shepherds in Luke who saw the Angel of the Lord at night with drug induced hallucination, which would explain the brilliant light and the feeling of fear shared by the entire group. It is possible that these shepherds had consumed fresh milk from their flocks, who had eaten contaminated wild grasses. The ergot passes through the milk.

Another possibility for hallucinations were cultural borrowing from local Persians (the magi in Matt - magi were reported to have used a drug to call up the gods) or from the Greeks, since the priestesses of Demeter appear to have used something.

Matossian thinks that there would not have been enough hallucinogenic matierial to keep a religion going, but that the early mystery religions and Christians used a potentiator to increase the strength. This potentiator could have been wild rue, which contains beta carboline, which is also used as a potentiator in the modern day drug ayahuasca, which is consumed in a religious ritual.

Wild rue [peganon] is mentioned in Luke 11:43 where Jesus says "woe unto you Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is those you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others."

Matossian notes that Biblical scholars consider peganon to be common rue, but this is quesitonable. Wild rue, unlike common rue, causes mild nausea, and mint is paired with it as a remedy.

This thesis explains some puzzles in early Christianity. It appears that the source of Paul's gospel and the early gospels was revelation from the Holy Spirit or Jesus, or channeled entities. But by the fourth century, this all disappears. It might have been that the prophets and visionaries were too unstable for that institutional phase of the church, but it just might have been that the drugs ran out.

Mobiius

Well, that would certainly explain a lot wouldn't it?

show_no_mercy

Communal meals... communal hallucinations?

Toto

William Lane Craig likes to argue that the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection must have been real because there is no such thing as a mass hallucination. I think that this has been disproven on a factual basis, but a communal drug would produce a common hallucination (with the right psychological prompting.)

aa5874

But, it must first be known when Paul wrote. He may have written when the drugs had already ran out.

DCHindley

Yes, proposing drug induced visions or hallucinations is speculative, but it can provide a context for the imagery of Ezekiel and Revelation (fire and blaring sounds). Being a product of the 1960-80s, I have heard folks describe their experiences using drugs such as LSD (late 60s) and Psilocybin mushrooms (early 80s).

The descriptions I heard of LSD use was rather tame compared to that of Psilocybin. From what I understand, both sound and light was really amplified with use of the latter. He said it was hard to distinguish between what he was actually seeing and hearing and what was passing through his head. He described it like turning the tuner knob on an analog radio and hearing a string of random sounds and voices. Unfortunately, I do not know whether it grew in the middle east in any numbers. The ones my friend consumed (I think they were Stropharia Cubensis) were growing near cow flops in farm fields in central Florida, which has a semi tropical climate. It may be prevalent in drier environments as well after rain showers or near irrigation channels. Farm out, man.

I have looked into Gordon Wasson's theory that Soma/Haoma, a golden or redish colored liquid, was produced from Amanita Muscaria mushrooms (the red toadstool with white specks found in countless book illustrations etc), mainly because one of the plates in his book mentioned the photos were taken at the Holden Arboretum in Cleveland, Ohio, near where I lived. I headed out there and damn if I didn't find the stuff growing everywhere in the stands of pine trees there (no, I didn't try them, but truth be told did think about it). They grow in a symbiotic relationship with conifer and birch trees. They do not contain psilocybin, but something called buffotonin (sp?) and other chemicals that are supposed to be psychoactive. On the other hand, there are relatively recent (19th century) accounts of its use among Asian peoples of Siberia, and may have been what caused Vikings to go "berserk." Out of state, dude.

Returning to Psilocybin, I can easily believe that Ezekiel and the Author of Revelation were into something like that.

Ezekiel 1:4 4 As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze.

Ezekiel 1:13 13 In the midst of the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

Ezekiel 8:2 2 Then I beheld, and, lo, a form that had the appearance of a man; below what appeared to be his loins it was fire, and above his loins it was like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming bronze.

Revelation 1:12-16 12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle round his breast; 14 his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters; 16 in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

If the agents in Amantia Muscaria cause one to have hallucinations as some say, then I can understand it being used in the case of 4th (Latin Apocalypse of) Ezra:

4 Esdras 14:37-42 37 So I [Ezra] took the five men, as he commanded me, and we proceeded to the field, and remained there. 38 And on the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, "Ezra, open your mouth and drink what I give you to drink." 39 Then I opened my mouth, and behold, a full cup was offered to me; it was full of something like water, but its color was like fire. 40 And I took it and drank; and when I had drunk it, my heart poured forth understanding, and wisdom increased in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory; 41 and my mouth was opened, and was no longer closed. 42 And the Most High gave understanding to the five men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, in characters which they did not know. They sat forty days, and wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night.

But you really don't need chemical agents to have visions. Merkabah mystics have been doing it for centuries. While the earliest descriptions of adepts going into a trance after chanting repetitive prayers and verses from scripture and controlling their breathing are 4th-6th century CE at earliest, the kinds of "trips" they took, such as ascents up through the heavens and tours of celestial palaces before visiting the throne of God to worship, all the while learning celestial secrets from angels, etc, can be found in 1 Enoch (2nd century BCE!), the magical papyri (2nd century CE and later), and Greek literature.

DCH

Toto

It isn' just visions that Matossian describes, but specifically visions of light, or of people clothed in light, such as the Ascension and other appearances. Controlling your breathing will not produce that sort of mass hallucination.

The 2nd century BCE is within her time frame for moist moldy conditions in the Mediterranean.

mountainman

The Miraculous Victory of the Milvinian Christian REVOLUTION
By this sign will you kill, plunder and take what you want with my blessings ......
This is not about PEACE but the use of the SWORD.

[ Image from Constantine: The 13th Apostle ]

DCHindley

I think in fact that it can. It is a similar phenomenon to "near death" experiences, where folks think they see bright lights and hear voices and see long-dead relatives. It is caused by the lack of oxygen to the brain compounded by physical strain of a sick body. You could check into Gershom Scholem's book on Jewish Mysticism and also on Merkabah Mysticism specifically.

According to Scholem, who summarizes the process of ascent:

This mystical ascent is always preceded by ascetic practices whose duration in some cases is twelve days, in others forty. ... [quoting Hai ben Sherira, ca 1000 CE:] "he must fast a number of days and lay his head between his knees and whisper many hymns and songs whose texts are known from tradition. Then he perceives the interior of the chambers, as if he saw the seven palaces with his own eyes, and it is as though he entered one palace after the other and saw what was there."

The typical bodily posture of these ascetics ... [,] to judge from certain ethnological parallels, is favorable to the induction of pre-hypnotic autosuggestion. ... Sunk in his ecstatic trance, the mystic ... experiences frustration [at the increasing difficulty of producing the magical formulae and seals that the angels/archons will accept to let him pass] which he tries to overcome by using longer and more complicated magical formulae ... to pass the closed entrance gates which block his progress. As his physical energy wanes the magical strain grows and the conjuring gesture becomes progressively more strained, until in the end whole pages [of the notes kept by the adept's disciples as he narrates his activities] are filled with an apparently meaningless recital of magical key-words with which he tries to unlock the closed door.

It is this [psychological strain caused by the progressive lack of physical energy and increased frustration] which explains the abundance of magical elements ... [s]uch as voces mysticae ["mystical voices"] ... Angels and archons [which] storm against the traveller "in order to drive him out"; a fire which proceeds from his own body threatens to devour him. [The Munich manuscript of the Heckaloth texts says:] "[I]f one was unworthy of to see the king in his beauty, the angels at the gates disturbed his senses and confused him. And when ... he entered, ... instantly they pressed him and threw him into a fiery lava stream. And at the gate of the sixth palace it seemed as though hundreds of thousands and millions of waves of water stormed against him, and yet there was not a drop of water, only the ethereal glitter of the marble plates with which the palace was tessellated ... [a]nd he does not go until they strike his head with iron bars and wound him." [Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (or via: amazon.co.uk), pp 49-54]

This sounds like hallucinations with themes of raging fire (often consuming him completely, until he felt as though he was hanging in space without limbs) and intense visual misinterpretations (e.g., the glitter of polished floor tiles mistaken for the glitter of disturbed waters) to me! These descriptions are from merkabah/heckaloth texts composed in Babylon, Spain and Asia between 600 and 1200 CE! All this done with nothing more than controlled breathing and fasting and autosuggestion. The preparatory phase which includes fasting makes accidental ingestion of moldy grain highly unlikely as the common trigger for these visions.

Jewish mystics of this type (not necessarily exactly like the later merkabah mystics) are believed to have been active even as early as the 1-2 century BCE on the basis of similar imagery found in Jewish pseudepigrapha such as 4th Ezra and 1 Enoch. This is on a par with any Dungeons & Dragons style board or electronic fantasy game we have today, and they only require an active imagination!

DCH

show_no_mercy

Fasting also has similar physiological affects on the body - mild hallucinations, euphoria, visions, etc. but not as intense as taking mind-altering drugs. That's why fasting has been kept as a religious ritual.