The Immortality Key

The Secret History of the Religion with No Name

By: Brian C. Muraresku, Graham Hancock - foreword

Narrated by: Graham Hancock, Brian C. Muraresku

Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's Summary

THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER

As seen on The Joe Rogan Experience!

This program includes a Foreword written and read by Graham Hancock.

A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.

The most influential religious historian of the 20th century, Huston Smith, once referred to it as the "best-kept secret" in history. Did the Ancient Greeks use drugs to find God? And did the earliest Christians inherit the same, secret tradition? A profound knowledge of visionary plants, herbs and fungi passed from one generation to the next, ever since the Stone Age?

There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist - the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains an article of faith for today’s 2.5 billion Christians. In an unprecedented search for real answers, The Immortality Key examines the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Centuries in the making, religion and science converge to paint a radical picture of Christianity’s founding event. And to solve history’s greatest puzzle once and for all.

Before the rise of Christianity, the Ancient Greeks found salvation in their own sacraments. Sacred beverages were routinely consumed as part of the so-called Ancient Mysteries – elaborate rites that led initiates to the brink of death. Athens’ best and brightest flocked to the spiritual capital of Eleusis, where a holy beer unleashed heavenly visions for two thousand years. Others drank the holy wine of Dionysus to become one with the god, achieving immortality. In the 1970s, renegade scholars claimed this beer and wine - the original sacraments of Western civilization - were spiked with mind-altering drugs. In recent years, vindication for the disgraced theory has been quietly mounting in the laboratory. The constantly advancing fields of archaeobotany and archaeochemistry have suggested the use of psychedelic drinks in antiquity. And with a single dose of psilocybin, the psycho-pharmacologists at Johns Hopkins and NYU are now turning self-proclaimed atheists into instant believers.

If these sacraments survived for thousands of years in our remote prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Ancient Greeks, did they also survive into the age of Jesus? Was the original Eucharist of Christianity, in fact, a psychedelic Eucharist? Is this the real secret behind the Holy Grail?

With an unquenchable thirst for evidence, Muraresku tours the ruins of Greece with its government archaeologists. He gains access to the hidden collections of the Louvre Museum to show the continuity between pagan and Christian wine. He unravels the Ancient Greek of the New Testament with the world’s most controversial priest. He spelunks into the catacombs under the streets of Rome to decipher the lost symbols of Christianity’s oldest monuments. He breaches the secret archives of the Vatican to unearth documents never before translated into English. And with leads from the archaeological chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, he unveils the first hard data for the ritualistic use of psychedelic drugs in antiquity.

The Immortality Key reconstructs a suppressed history of women consecrating the forbidden, drugged Eucharist that was later banned by the Church Fathers. Women who were later targeted as witches during the Inquisition, when Europe’s sacred pharmacology largely disappeared. If the scientists of today have resurrected this technology, then Christianity is dead. Unless it returns to its roots.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

©2020 Brian C. Muraresku and Graham Hancock (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Most important book of the now.

I listen to a lot of really good books. I honestly can't remember if I've ever given a review before. This book hits on so many truths I feel if I don't write this review I'll regret it forever. What Brian has accomplished here is a masterpiece. As an atheist I've explored my relationship with the universe via psychedelic's many times, so to have a book that explains the history of our ancestors path of finding god through the use of these taboo tools is so refreshing. I feel that spirituality is something we all feel at one level or another, yet a large majority of our species aren't aware that you can connect with the cosmos via these organic tools provided. This book is hands down the best yet at revealing the vast history of mans use of drugs to expand the collective consciousness, and the influence these compounds had on early religions. It's also a grim reminder of how some groups are threatened by these ideas and will stop at nothing to conceal them.
Fight the war on consciousness and buy this book. This work is an eye opener.
Brian and PJ, Thank you. You both made it happen.

P.S. Graham Hancock presents the forward to the book and knocks it straight out the F#%KING PARK!

PJ

PJ, be proud! Exceptional author! Incredible passion. Great legacy to leave behind! I would join him on this adventure if I could!

A Fun ‘Trip’—But Not a Sober One

As a well-researched and whimsical series of 'what if' hypotheses, this self-styled Indiana Jones travelogue makes for fun reading. It provides an engaging tour of the archaeological, classical, and chemical evidence for the religious use of psychedelics in the ancient world. Muraresku is popularizing key ideas from the pioneering scholarship of Ruck, Wasson, and others, who have brought the question of psychedelics into the anthropological mainstream.

The idea that psychedelics figured prominently in facilitating a sacramental religious experience, linking pagan Greeks and early Christians, is a fascinating thesis. And I hope the author’s right! But I finished the book far from convinced that he is. Muraresku’s book draws conclusions that wildly outrun the evidence used to support them.

For example: there is no clear archeological evidence that the ancient Greeks actually used psychedelics at Eleusis. There are a series of circumstantial clues which enable us to *guess* that they *might* have. But nothing more than circumstantial evidence has so far been uncovered by Muraresku or the other scholars devoted to this hunt. Greek words, read with special emphasis and interpreted in light of the main hypothesis; experiential reports from ancient initiates that align with the experiences of contemporary psychedelic users; ceremonial vessels that could have held psychedelic beer, etc. are the kinds of support used to make the case here. This isn’t to say that psychedelics were *not* used at Eleusis. It seems quite plausible that they were. But their use is just that: an elegant and exciting guess. Unfortunately, the author of this book makes it seem as if it were a fact beyond reasonable doubt.

Not only have the use of psychedelics not been convincingly established at Eleusis, but modern chemists haven’t even been able to reproduce the *kind* of psychedelic brew—sourced from ergot—that the ancient Greeks are supposed to have served up to the initiates at Eleusis for a millenium. The appendix to the Thirtieth Anniversary edition of ‘Road to Eleusis’ entitled ‘Kykeon Chemistry,’ written by Peter Webster, summarizes some of this research. The chemist describes using vodka to synthesize a psychedelic from prescription Rx containing ergotamine tartrate—a chemical somehow related to something that might be sourced from ergot. He ingested his concoction and reported “[a] definite but weak psychoactive effect”—plus major tummy trouble. That’s as close as he gets to brewing up anything resembling the ancient Greek kykeon. So, beyond pointing out that ergot contains chemicals similar to LSD, the chemists seem to be a long way from starting with ergot and producing—using the tech available to the ancient Greeks—anything similar to the powerful psychedelic beer that Muraresku claims was the secret of the Greek Eleusinian mysteries. Although Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD, argues in the original ‘Road to Eleusis’ that “[w]ith the techniques and equipment available in antiquity it was therefore easy to prepare a hallucinogenic extract from suitable kinds of ergot,” it’s not at all clear to me that Hoffman, or anyone else, has actually done it.

The book’s treatment of psychedelics in early Christianity is similarly heavy on guesses and light on evidence. Do grape vines in an early Christian mosaic in a catacomb under St. Peter’s establish that early Christians, celebrating the refrigerium, were using psychedelics inherited from the Greeks? Do the presence of lizards in a potion found near Vesuvius really link first century witches to those persecuted by the Catholic church a millennium and a half later? Do the words of St. Paul in 1 Cor. 11 describing early Christians ‘falling asleep’ indicate catalepsis induced by psychedelics? Maybe! But, yeah, also maybe not. Lots of conjecture is stitched together into something masquerading as history.

One of the book’s core claims is that “the sacrament of Dionysius and the sacrament of Jesus are one and the same.” This argument centers almost exclusively on key passages from the Gospel of John. For early Roman Christians, did the eucharist extend and develop rites of death and rebirth from the ancient Greeks? Probably! But drawing a straight, clear line from Dionysius to Jesus is—at best—an historical oversimplification. It overlooks a couple of inconvenient facts: Jesus was a Jew. So were his followers--including his immediate disciples, St. Paul, and many of the authors of the New Testament. Neither Jesus nor his disciples were clandestine surrogates for a pagan deity—whose worship they would have, in fact, found repugnant. Is the author of the Gospel of John adapting Jesus’ story to appeal to culturally Greco-Roman pagans. Maybe! But this, again, is very different from claiming that Jesus himself, if his message is understood correctly (i.e., as the Gnostics did), was really the second-coming of Dionysius. Neither Jesus nor his early followers could possibly have seen the Christ in this way. First century Jews lived as members of a minority religion in an oppressive, colonial context in which they defined themselves against their oppressors, in part, by clinging to an austere monotheism, with little room for Bachic devotion.

Conceptually, the book depends heavily on the following assumption: in order to have experience of the divine, most people need the aid of something extraordinary—like a drug. Empirically speaking, this seems highly doubtful. Post-Covid, I’d encourage the author to do a little cross-cultural ethnography at his local Pentecostal church. Millions of people around the world—across different faith traditions and cultures—have what they would characterize as an immediate experience of divinity every week, without the help of drugs. Can psychedelics facilitate that experience for the many of us who *don’t* have such experiences on a regular basis? There is a growing body of psychological research suggesting that they can—which is very interesting and exciting. But why should we assume that most people (if they aren’t extraordinary sages, saints or mystics: that is to say, the Pythagoreans of the world) require drugs to experience God?

As an academic with training in late antiquity, I regularly do scholarly peer-reviews. And I find it hard to believe that this book would ever have passed a rigorous scholarly peer-review process. That’s fine! I’m glad we live in a world where globe-trotting lawyers spend years scouring obscure archives and archeological sites in a ballsy attempt to verify the use of psychedelics in ancient religion—then write up the results as a travel narrative! Just know what you’re getting. The book would have been much stronger with a heavy dose of humility, honesty, and transparency about what it shows—and what it doesn’t.

As published, this book’s a heady brew of textual analysis, archeological evidence, first-person dialogue, educated guesswork, and historical fiction.

I hope this saves your marriage

I purchased this audio book to save the authors marriage. I hope things are well Brian. I heard you on Joe Rogan and loved the interview. I enjoyed hearing about the book and your process of writing it. I am writing this review before I listened to the book. If this saves your marriage please name you first born after me Matthew lol jk. looking forward to listening to this.

Science helping shed light on history/religion!

I'm not the best with reviews, but if you're into science and facts supporting ideas that challenge the rigidity of what seems to be a false narrative force-fed to us as truth through modern day academia, then this will be up your alley. All of that told very elegantly but without overwhelming the audience with big words or scientific jargon. I hope you enjoy!

Phenomenal research and great story telling

Read by the author and feels more like he is telling us the story of his adventure in discovering rare gems hidden in dark corners of history. The historical information is remarkable. I am personally a believer in his theory. I think he has made a great case. An absolute must read!

headline

Great research and theorie's. However this book is 50% longer than it should be. Nobody wants to hear about the author tell us repeatedly about what restaurant he was eating and what he was drinking. Bad editing. Too much ego.

haven't read yet.

bought to save Brian's marriage. I'm sure Brian has more work to do and the only way its going to get done is if this PJ realizes this book is a certified banger.

So gooood

Haven’t finished it yet but had to hop on and give a great review before I forgot ! It’s a great read !

MUST READ/LISTEN

If you are humanist, feminist, alive... you need to understand why there is a war on drugs, women, and our psychological and spiritual freedom. This book will give you the context to begin to understand why those in power lie.

Loved it!

Great book, I was going to deduct a star for mispronounced Greek words, but then I realised its read by the author who speaks ancient Greek and I do not. So I deducted a star from myself instead.
Incredibly interesting read, very well researched I loved it!

Can’t wait for the sequel!

Comparisons with the Da Vinci Code can be made in the sense that this book reads like an investigation into the secret history of the past.

This book is based on solid research. The author is no crank but a leading expert in his field of study. The insights in the book are incredibly insightful and thought provoking - our past and culture has been smudged with important, significant aspects of our human heritage extinguished over the centuries by those who have sought to control the masses to their own benefit.

The book is intellectually stimulating , yet readable. The forward by Graham Hancock provides an outstanding start and the author reads his work with enthusiasm and humour.

Some reviewers have cited the Joe Rogan Podcast as a means of entry to see if you might like this work. I agree - not only is the podcast illuminating but I would also say why not go further and check out some of Joe’s other, many great podcasts that inspire discussions of truth and self empowerment? It’s stimulates the brain better than the mainstream tv media that clogs and warps the brain.

And I suppose this is what this book explores and exposes. It highlights how significant practices such as the centuries old use of psychedelics can transform the lives of so many people. They offered our ancestors a mysterious pathway to the gods - literally - and modern truth seekers are rediscovering their incredible benefits in the twenty first century. Psychedelics may appear to many to be a weird and dangerous pursuit for those who wish to hold on to their sanity...but the incredible, mind blowing truth appears to be that the opposite is true. Psychedelic practice has provided peace and acceptance to the dying, enabled those with mental health issues to discover a means for improving their lives and provided some of the most spiritually profound experiences ever felt to those who have taken them.

The author is not a taker of substances himself. He is a researcher, historian, language expert and lawyer who has studied the ancient texts with such scrutiny and care that he has been able to put the pieces of a jigsaw together to illuminate a story of the past that has never been told before. A story that forces the reader to question the truths they have been told by government and religious organisations. The book is not anti religious as such, but does show how early religions and spirituality has been hijacked, watered down and re-interpreted to the cost of us all.

I look forward to a sequel whereby the author embarks on his own psychedelic journey to document his journey, not through the evidence gathered from dusty tomes but through his experience and insight of altered states.

The books holds the keys to a modern revolution in spiritual thought and a means for re-awakening our common humanity. In that respect, this book is not only timely but profoundly necessary.

The author’s wife apparently questioned his use of time writing this book. Who would want to read this? I can only say look at all the positive reviews and thank goodness his enthusiasm and passion for the subject meant he saw it all through. If he hadn’t written this book then some of the hidden truths within might have been lost forever.

Give the book a try. It provides accessible and interesting research and Is carefully crafted by the best lecturer you never had at College, who delivers the fascinating insights the Church would rather not have you know.

Can't Stop Smiling

Absolutely amazing book.
Story line:10/10.
Authors voice: music to my ears.
Content: jaw dropping.
Get this in your lobes.

Paradigm Shattering

Best book I’ve ever had!
In the days of cancel culture and oppression of thought, this book reveals just how long the sovereignty of our minds has been under attack and what lengths the powerful have gone to, in the past, to prevent people from thinking freely.

the incredible amount of research and interpretation of it’s findings will both shock and come as no surprise.

This was a good day for the mystics

Thank you Joe Rogan for having amazing guests, thank you Graham Hancock for all your work and your forword and most of all, Thank you Brian for writing this revolutionary book.

So dam dangerous!

So good,full of knowledge and what I like about a book like this is it prompts you to learn more giving you other avenues of reading to connect you own dots

briiliant

who knows whether Brian has got it right or not, but it is a brilliant read .

Amazing and eye opening

It's a great book with a wonderful and captivating story. This book uncovers the mysteries behind the religion with no name and the potion of immortality.

Enlightening

The most enlightening book I have read in a long time. His research is so thorough.
Everyone should read

Amazing

Amazing research! 100%recommended,
I hope with this type of work, humanity can recover what's our birthright and open the eyes of the biggest lie that has been imposed on us.