Ep 23: Carl A.P. Ruck on Mushrooms, Mystery, and Drinking from the Dyonisain Stream

Carl A.P. Ruck is professor of classic studies at Boston University and an expert in the use of entheogens, or psychoactive substances, used in religious rituals. We discuss Dionysus, the Eleusinian Mysteries, and evidence for the fungus ergot as a key part of these rites. We talk about Ruck's collaboration with Gordon Wasson, who believed the Fly Agaric (Aminita Muscaria) was in the Vedic mystery drink of Soma, and Albert Hofmann's synthesis of LSD from ergot. Carl A.P. Ruck's Faculty Profile Entheogens, Myth, and Human Consciousness Persephone’s Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality