The Immortality Key

The Secret History of the Religion with No Name

By: Brian C. Muraresku, Graham Hancock - foreword

Narrated by: Brian C. Muraresku, Graham Hancock

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

PJ He was right!! :)

Thanks for going on Rogan. I bought this immediately after hearing the podcast. Still in the middle of it but I already know it's a big game changer.

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.

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.

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!

informative read

Such a forward thinking author, much needed research.
I liked it and it made me think.

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.

briiliant

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

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.

Fantastically interesting with remarkable insights

This book has shown history, religion and mysticism in a completely new light to me. It totally changed the way I view all spiritual experiences, both organised religion and on a personal basis.

Serious historical perspective shift after hearing

It can be a difficult listen being very technical and packed with information, but the journey is a mind blowing realisation. Regarding the oridunal fedamental influences to crisianity and Greek philosophy when it came to religion

Excellent. A completely undeniable work for this

Could put it down, whatever your knowledge and understanding of the history of religion, this book will open your eyes further.
Obviously well researched on the ground as well as academically, the author puts the ball in the net or over the line, the passes coming from antiquity and blackballed scholars just decades ago.
The phenomen revealed and so well articulated is for everyone on the planet, although few will ever experience it which is understandable.
However experience is one thing, simply knowing can be just as enlightening.
That is the key to the experience of the book. Nothing lasts forever, apart maybe from the human desire to know what is life and death really is.
It seems we have had the answer from the very beginning ,despite those who try and impose constructed truth and will still have it in centuries to come.

Amazing and eye opening

This book has completely change the way I think about religion life and death. It’s opened my eyes to the vastness of experience that lay out there for everyone and I for one I’m going to seek it out.