Member-only story
Psychoactive Substances at the Roots of Civilization
From ancient rituals to modern research: alcohol, LSD ergot, and the mystic origins of agriculture
This is an excerpt of Sky Gods and the Recipe for Immortality: The secret influence of psychoactivity over science, society, and the supernatural.
Supernatural and psychedelic consciousness may exist beyond the body and potentially survive physical death. A Time Magazine article recently headlined “Taking Psychedelics Could Make People Less Afraid of Dying.” The underlying Johns Hopkins study reported:
“The researchers split more than 3,000 participants into two groups: those who had previously had an extraordinary non-drug experience, and those who had used a psychedelic drug: psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ayahuasca, or N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). They found that about 90% of people in both groups were less afraid of death than they had been before their experiences.”
René Descartes, a Renaissance-era mathematician who pioneered the modern scientific method, regarded the psychedelic pineal gland as the seat of the immortal human soul. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy noted:
“The pineal gland is a tiny organ in the center of the brain that…
