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Psychedelic ergot as evolutionary catalyst
In the iconic Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch, the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit are highly psychedelic. In 2012, a letter published by the University of Wisconsin explained:
“Ergotism is also known as ‘St. Anthony’s Fire’… caused by an alkaloid that grows in rye and sometimes wheat… Ergots have had a medicinal use in modern medicine... LSD, a drug used in the drug cultures of the 1960s and 1970s, is an ergot alkaloid.
Because of the saints that he painted — St. Anthony was depicted most extensively — I think it plausible that Bosch himself had lived through ergotism.”
Ergot is linked with many hysterias and mass cultural upheaval — as well as key spiritual and medicinal aspects across continents.
In addition to being found in archaeology linked with Greek mystery cults, ergot’s been found in “anthropic sites starting from at least 18,000 years ago in the Middle East and 5,400 years ago in Europe” (via Cambridge University Press).
