ContentedLife

As I looked at the sacred tea with its deep red colour, almost glowing with power, it occurred to me, probably not for the first time, that this would have made a lot more sense as the “wine” of the Last Supper, than actual wine.

I was brought up as a Christian. But never fully satisfied with over-literal interpretations of some of the stuff that went on in both the Old and New Testaments. When I finally got the chance to try psychedelics, it soon occurred to me that most of the old stories about Moses made a lot more sense viewed with the possibility that he, and maybe most of the Israelites too, had spent a lot of time tripping. I’ve seen a few “burning bushes” myself after a hefty dose of mushrooms.

I didn’t for a moment think I was the first to come up with this idea, although when similar musings by a certain Israeli researcher were publicised far and wide recently, I began to wonder. It’s such an obvious idea, did this guy actually say anything new or noteworthy?

Even the creation myth seems to be a coded reference to the evolution of mankind through the discovery of psychedelic plants (the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge), which catapulted us from instinctual apes to self-aware humans. But was it really that discovery that got us kicked out of Eden? It could be argued that those cultures which still use psychedelics regularly are still living in Eden (particularly the shamanic tribes of the Amazonian rainforest), while it’s our Western so-called civilised cultures, where Abel’s nomadic life was slain by Cain’s settled monoculture farming practices and land “ownership”, that have led rather rapidly to our fundamental disconnection from the Earth to the point where we are bringing about its destruction, we know we are doing it, and yet we still carry on doing it…

Well, enough on the Old Testament. What about the New Testament?

I think we can safely surmise that John was probably on something pretty potent when he had his Revelation. That whole book should be in the Erowid Experience Vaults.

What’s interesting me though is the idea that Jesus was a shaman. He certainly fulfills most of the criteria of shamanism that we recognise today; indeed, had he been alive in Britain in the middle ages, he would certainly have been burned as a witch by whatever power-hungry dominant religion would have existed instead of Christianity.

But did he, as with most shamans, use psychedelics as part of his medicinal repertoire?

If Jesus had lived in the rainforest, might he have said something like this…?

“I am the [Ayahuasca] Vine; you are the [Chakruna] branches [leaves?]. Put us together, and a fruitful time ensues! But the leaves on their own do nothing.”

I’m off to re-read the Gospel of John as if it’s not merely a collection of wise philosophy, but perhaps a recipe book too…