In 1970, archaeologist John Allegro published The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, a book arguing that Jesus Christ was not a historical figure but a hallucinogenic mushroom. The theory, based on an examination of the Bible's New Testament, was dismissed by other academics at the time.
Allegro identified coded references to psychedelic ceremonies throughout the New Testament, asserting that every miraculous event was in reality a drug-induced experience. The book was dismissed as fanciful rubbish, but now scholars are demonstrating fresh interest in it, according to Popular Mechanics.
Renewed Interest in a Dismissed Theory
In 2009, Gnostic Media Research and Publishing issued a 40th anniversary edition of The Sacred Mushroom. The book was subsequently discussed on controversial podcaster Joe Rogan's show, where other dubious conspiracy theorists such as Eddie Bravo, who thinks the earth is flat, have appeared, reports the Daily Star.
Before his contentious book, Allegro was recognised as an authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of nearly 1,000 ancient Semitic texts that are approximately 2,000 years old. Bedouin shepherds initially discovered them in a cave along the Dead Sea's shores in 1947. Subsequently, throughout the 1950s, archaeologists and other Bedouins uncovered more scrolls and text fragments in a total of 11 caves.
Allegro's Sumerian Claims Challenged
Today the Dead Sea Scrolls are seen as the oldest known evidence of written Hebrew. Allegro contended that the New Testament's authors employed coded language to reference a clandestine fertility cult with roots stretching back to ancient Mesopotamia. This sect utilised psychedelic substances, particularly the Amanita muscaria mushroom. He reached this determination through studying Sumerian, the ancient Mesopotamian language.
"For him, Sumerian was almost this sort of panacea to all the linguistic challenges that scholars of the Old and New Testament faced," says Geoffrey Smith, PhD, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins. "I think he believed that Sumerian basically just blows the whole Bible wide open."
Allegro maintained Sumerian provided a linguistic bridge between the New Testament's Greek and the Old Testament's Hebrew and Aramaic. He further claimed the Mesopotamian fertility cults persisted secretly throughout the Roman era. Nevertheless, linguists reject Allegro's theory that Sumerian serves as this linguistic connection, according to Smith.
Psychedelics in Biblical Tradition
"A lot of his argument is based on Sumerian, and some of the reviews of the time by people who know that language [were] like, 'This doesn't make any sense,'" says Matthew Goff, PhD, a professor of religion at Florida State University. "They're saying, 'I don't think this guy knows Sumerian as much as he claims to.'"
Allegro's methodology was fundamentally flawed, yet psychedelics may still have played a role in biblical scripture. "It's possible his method was wrong, but he got to the right place," Goff says. This notion becomes particularly compelling when considering Jesus' time in the desert. "I'm not a doctor, but I think if I was out in the desert without food for 40 days I'd probably see all sorts of interesting things," Goff continues.
While extensive research highlights the significance of psychedelics in numerous religious ceremonies, their role in the Bible may well be considerably underappreciated. "It's always the Amazon or the Hopis in the Northwest in those traditions," Goff says. "Their visions, their ecstatic experiences were triggered by peyote or ayahuasca."
"Allegro's general intuition about the ritual use of hallucinogens across the Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures that gave rise to biblical tradition has witnessed some corroboration in recent years," says Brian Muraresku, author of The Immortality Key, which investigates whether early Christian rites included hallucinogenic communion wine.
