For by direct implication it raises contemporary questions which our cultural establishment has thus far deemed too hot to face.
Triangulating the resources of an eminent Classics scholar, the most creative mycologist of our time, and the discoverer of LSD, is a historical tour de force while being more than that. The content of those Mysteries is, together with the identity of Indias sacred soma plant, one of the two best kept secrets in history, and this book is the most successful attempt I know to unlock it. The three authors present their findings and their evidence, drawing the specialties of their three fields together in fascinatingly persuasive form. In collaboration with the world-renowned chemist, Albert Hofmann, and Carl Ruck, a Classical scholar specializing in the ethnobotany of ancient Greece, they give solid foundation to what Wasson deduced as the essence of the Mysteries. Gordon Wassons insight into the true nature of an ancient religious ritual, the Eleusinian Mysteries. Octavio Paz, Nobel Prize-winning poet and author The Road to Eleusis grew out of a three-way collaboration of scholar-scientists sparked by R. Review Quotes made the specialty of mycology something of universal importance and one of the pillars of anthropology and the history of religions. This 30th anniversary edition includes an appreciative preface by religious scholar Huston Smith and an updated exploration of the chemical evidence by Peter Webster. The books themes of the universality of experiential religion, the suppression of that knowledge by exploitative forces, and the use of psychedelics to reconcile the human and natural worlds make it a fascinating and timely read. The authors have played critical roles in the modern rediscovery of entheogens, and The Road to Eleusis presents an authoritative exposition of their views. Although controversial when first published in 1978, the books hypothesis has be more widely accepted in recent years, as knowledge of ethnobotany has deepened. The authors then expand the discussion to show that natural psychedelic agents have been used in spiritual rituals across history and cultures. In this groundbreaking work, three experts-a mycologist, a chemist, and a historian-argue persuasively that the sacred potion given to participants in the course of the ritual contained a psychoactive entheogen.
Huston Smith, author of The Worlds Religions The secretive Mysteries conducted at Eleusis in Greece for nearly two millennia have long puzzled scholars with strange accounts of initiates experiencing otherworldly journeys. one of the two best kept secrets in history, and this book is the most successful attempt I know to unlock it.
0 kommentar(er)
