The Psychedelic Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by Alyson Dunlop Shanes in Uncategorized

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afterlife, Asklepios, Athens, Bacchus, Classical Greece, Demeter, Dionysus, Eleusinian Mysteries, Eleusis, ergot, Gorgon, Hades, Hellenic, Homeric Hymns, Hygieia, Kerameikos, Kore, kykeon, Medusa, mushrooms, Persephone, Perseus, psychedelic, Religion, Sacred Way, Styx, Telesterion

Persephone and Demeter holding mushrooms and food wallet, an implement of the Mysteries used to hide secret edible objects. From the Pharsalos bas-relief (5th c BCE), now in the Louvre.

Eleusis was a religious cult of ancient Greece, situated about twenty kilometres north west of Athens near the Isthmus of Corinth. In the Classical period, from as early as 1700 BCE, right up until the Roman Empire, Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries. These were sacred rituals revolving around Demeter (mother goddess of the grain) and her daughter Kore/Persephone. The ritual seems to have given the hope for life after death for those initiated. The traditional outlook at that time was that after death one would cross The Styx, the river of the Underworld. The Eleusinian Mysteries gave Greeks hope of a better life in Hades. These Mysteries were considered to be one of the most important in ancient times and were a major festival during the Hellenic period. The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were secret, but appear to have involved sacred visions of the Afterlife. It is generally accepted by scholars that the initiates used a potion to induce a psychedelic experience.
One line of thought by modern scholars has been that these Mysteries were intended “to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him.” (1).
The only requirements for initiation were a lack of “blood guilt”, in other words having never committed murder, and not being a “barbarian” (unable to speak Greek). Men, women and even slaves were allowed initiation (2).
There were four categories of people who participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries:
1. Priests, priestesses and hierophants
2. Initiates, undergoing the ceremony for the first time.
3. Others who had already participated at least once. They were eligible for the fourth category.
4. Those who had attained epopteia, who had learned the secrets of the greatest mysteries of Demeter.
Much of the information about The Eleusinian Mysteries was never written down. For example, only initiates knew what the kiste, a sacred chest, and the kalathos, a lidded basket, contained. The contents, like so much about the Mysteries, are unknown. However, one researcher writes that this Cista (“kiste”) contained a golden mystical serpent, egg, a phallus and possibly also seeds sacred to Demeter (3).
There were two Eleusinian Mysteries, the Greater and the Lesser. According to Thomas Taylor:

…the dramatic shows of the Lesser Mysteries occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body, so those of the Greater obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual [spiritual] vision.

According to Plato, “the ultimate design of the Mysteries … was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, … a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good”

   The ancient calendar was different from the Gregorian. On the 14th Boedromion, the Greater Mysteries began by bringing the sacred objects from Eleusis to the Eleusinion at the base of the Acropolis. On the 15th, the priest carried out sacrifices and on the 16th celebrants began cleansing rituals, washing themselves in the sea at Phaleron. On the 17th, participants celebrated the Epidauria. It was a “festival within a festival” in honour of Asklepios, god of healing, and his daughter Hygieia.
The procession to Eleusis began on the 19th, and started at the Kerameikos. This is the ancient cemetery in Athens (well worth a visit – lovely museum – take a picnic and sit amongst the ruins!). The celebrants would walk along the Sacred Way, which is still visible. At one point they would shout obscenities in commemoration of an old woman who had made Demeter laugh as she mourned the loss of her daughter Persephone.
On reaching Eleusis there was a day of fasting, again commemorating Demeter’s fasting as she searched for Persephone. The fast was broken when the celebrants drank a potion called the kykeon, and on 20th and 21st they would enter the Telesterion. This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and those who had been initiated were forbidden ever to speak of the events that took place in the Telesterion. The penalty was death.
Some believe the priest revealed the visions which were of life after death, but others believe the experiences must have been internal and caused by ingesting a hallucinogen as part of the kykeon mixture.   We can certainly find evidence that Greek wine sometimes was hallucinogenic. At the Anthesteria, a Dionysian festival that was not part of the Mysteries but was similar to it, specific mention was made of a drug in the wine that was responsible for opening the graves and allowing the departed spirits to return to Athens for a banquet. Its hallucinatory nature can be seen on many of the choes vases depicting scenes from the festival. In fact, someone in Aristophanes’ Acharnians wishes his enemy a bad trip at the Anthesteria by hoping that he encounters a mad hallucination. Wasps also begins with two slaves attempting to escape their misery by drinking a potion called Sabazios, a Thracian analogue of Dionysus (god of wine, R. Bacchus): it causes them to experience a so-called “nodding Persian sleep”, during which they see strange things. Furthermore, such well known hallucinogens as mandragora and henbane were often compared to wine with respect to the drunkenness they induced.
Whatever else happened at the Eleusinian Mysteries, the use of psychotropic hallucinogens seems to have been a definite part of it, with visions inducing an ecstatic spiritual experience for the initiate. There are several theories about what the kykeon might have consisted of. Some have suggested that, as the ritual was in honour of Demeter, it might have been partly made of Lolium (or ‘aira’).    Improperly grown in the wrong conditions, it seems this cultivated grain reverted to a more primitive form which was also susceptible to the growth of the ergot fungus. Ergot poisoning can cause very serious effects, including seizures, spasms, mania, psychosis and hallucinations. In severe cases, even death.
The Lesser Mysteries seem to have been linked to the ingestion of mushrooms. Mushrooms, or mykes (from where we get the word mycology),are also linked to the myth about Perseus who founded Mycenae in the spot where he picked a mushroom. A Greek amphora from southern Italy depicts a variant of the same foundation myth in which Perseus’ decapitation of the Gorgon, Medusa, is equated with his harvesting of a mushroom. Traditional folklore has associated the decapitation of Medusa with giving birth to a son, Chrysaor, and a flying horse, Pegasus – symbolic of perhaps inspiration and transportation. Chrysaor’s name means “he who has a golden armament”. He was depicted as a golden sword-wielding giant.
The political and military leader, Alcibiades, caused a huge scandal one year by stealing the kykeon and having a party with his friends! The conclusion being that the experience was both pleasant and very much sought after. Many wrote about the joyful and revealing holy experience the potion induced. Both Gordon Wasson and Robert Graves believe the kykeon contained psychedelic mushrooms, whilst Albert Hofmann believes ergot to be the psychoactive ingredient in the mixture, suggesting that the ancient Greeks could have made a safe psychedelic beverage with an aqueous infusion of ergot thereby separating the water soluble alkaloids from more dangerous peptide ones. After more research, he concluded that paspalum (a wild grass in the Mediterranean) and ergot were the most likely combination, rather than barley (Hofmann 1994). He goes on to say that barley may have been a nutrient ingredient and mint used to settle the stomach, as ergot preparations induce nausea. Both barley and mint are mentioned in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. However, after much self-testing of various different concoctions, all those that included any derivative of ergot, produced unpleasant side effects. This was not at all in keeping with the description of the kykeon! The Homeric Hymn describes the initiation experience at Eleusis thus: “Blissful is he among men on Earth who has beheld that!”. This description is verified by Pindar and Cicero.
Terence McKenna has pointed out that both Demeter and Persephone were associated with the poppy and that perhaps opium was an ingredient in the kykeon, reducing rather than enhancing its effect. Many agree with both McKenna and Graves that psilocybin mushrooms were also most likely an ingredient in the potion. We will probably never know, unless further archeological or textual evidence is found to tell us more.
As an aside, do please be extremely careful with experimentation of psychedelics. The Eleusinian kykeon recipe seems to have been a tried, tested and very safe concoction which was used for centuries without any deaths being recorded. That’s not to say that there wasn’t any. Whatever it was made of, the ingredients were obviously very carefully measured. It was also most likely deemed as safe. Many people took part year after year, enjoying the religious experience it brought them. Nevertheless, it was a respected potion, as all living things on this planet should be. It was not recreational but spiritual in nature.

Until next week. Your friend, A.D.

References and Further Reading

Bigwood, J., Ott, J., Thompson, C. & Neely, P. 1979 Entheogenic effects of ergonovine. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 11 (1-2) Jan-Jun 1979(1 47-1 49)
Casti, J.L. 1990 Paradigms Lost: Tackling the unanswered mysteries of modern science. Avon Books, New York
Cole, J.R. & al. 1977 Paspalum staggers: Isolation and identification of tremorgenic metabolites from sclerotia of Claviceps paspali. J. Agric Food Chem., Vol.25, No. 5, (1197-1201)
Craig, J.R. & Metze, L.P. 1979 Methods of Psychological Research. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia
Foley, H.P. (Ed.) 1994 The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, commentary, and interpretive essays. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Gallagher, R.T., Leutwiler, A. & al. 1980 Paspalinine, a tremorgenic metabolite from Claviceps paspali, Stevens et Hall. Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 21, Pergamon Press Ltd. (235-238)
Goldhill, S.: Greece; in: Willis, R. (Ed.) 1993 World Mythology. Simon & Schuster, London
Graves, R. 1992 The Greek Myths (Combined edition). Penguin Books, London
Hofmann, A. 1983 LSD-My Problem Child: Reflections on sacred drugs, mysticism, and science. Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., Los Angeles
Hofmann, A. 1994 personal communication
Kerenyi, K. 1962 De Mysterien von Eleusis. Rhein-Verlag, Zurich
McKenna, T.1992 Food of the Gods: The search for the original tree of knowledge. Rider, London (available online here)
Ott, J. 1993 Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic drugs, their plant sources and history. Natural Products Co Kennewick, WA
Ott, J. 1994 personal communication
Ott, J. & Neely, P. 1980 Entheogenic (hallucinogenic) effects of methylergonovine. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 12(2) Apr-Jun 1980 (165-166)
Rätsch, Ch. 1992 The Dictionary of Sacred and Magical Plants. Prism-Unity, Bridport, Dorset
Ripinsky-Naxon, M. 1993 The Nature of Shamanism: Substance and function of a religious metaphor. State University of New York Press, Albany
Ruck, C.A.P.1981 Mushrooms and philosophers. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 4, (179-205); 1983 The offerings from the Hyperboreans. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 8, (177-207)
Sankar, D.V.S. 1975 LSD-A Total Study. PJD Publications, Westbury, NY
Sheridan, Ch.L. 1976 Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology (2nd ed.). Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
Shulgin, A. 1994 personal communication
Shulgin, A.T. & Shulgin, A. 1991 Pihkal: A chemical love story. Transform Press, Berkeley 1993 Barriers to Research; in: Rätsch, Ch. & Baker, J.R. (Eds.): Jahrbuch für Ethnomedizin und Bewusstseinsforschung 2. Verlag fur Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin
Springer, J.P. & Clardy, J. 1980 Paspaline and paspalicine, two indole-mevalonate metabolites from Claviceps paspali. Tetrahedron Letters, Vol. 21, Pergamon Press Ltd. (231-234)
Valendid, Ivan 1993 Mistery elevzinskih misterijev. Razgledi 18(1001), 30f
Wasson, R.G., Hofmann, A. & Ruck, C.A.P. 1978 The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the secret of the mysteries. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York

(1) Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Popular Religion “The Religion of Eleusis” New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. pages 42–64
(2) Smith, William. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London, 1875.
(3) Taylor, Thomas. Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries. Lighting Source Publishers, 1997. p. 117
(4) ibid p.49.

After Roswell: Are Aliens Among Us or Part of Us?

12 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by Alyson Dunlop Shanes in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

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Alien, Aliens, Betty and Barney Hill, Close Encounters, Demons, E.T., Extra-Terrestrial, faery, fairy, Fire in the Sky, folk tales, George Adamski, gods, Independence Day, John Carpenter, mythology, Orson Welles, PTSD, Quatermass and the Pit, Roswell, sleep paralysis, Terence McKenna, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Fourth Kind, The Invasion, The Thing, Travis Walton, UFO, Vilas-Boas, War of the Worlds

In the mid-1990s, I developed an interest in the UFO and alien abduction phenomenon. I set about becoming a somewhat sceptical UFO investigator. Most of my findings led me to meteorological, astronomical or military activity as conclusions for sightings. One rainy night I got on the train to Stirling. It took about forty five minutes from Glasgow. There was a meeting of the group Strange Phenomena Investigations, in the back room of a local pub. I expected to encounter one or two strange individuals. In fact, they were all just ordinary everyday people, but interested enthusiasts of the subject. They were as keen to know what it was all about, as much as I was. I decided to listen without judgement, lest it cloud my view of what was occurring with these people. Malcolm Robinson, the founder of SPI, was there and introduced me to the group. At one point in the evening, someone began speaking about how aliens were our friends and were not here to harm us. Almost immediately another participant forcefully exploded: “How can you say that?” he cried. “You don’t know that! I have no idea what they are or what they want, but I can tell you one thing…they are not our friends!” I swallowed hard. I could tell by the look on this man’s face that he was completely serious. He said that since his encounter he and his friend, Colin, had problems with friends, family and colleagues who didn’t believe their story and his friend had not been back to work since the incident. I realised I was listening to Garry Wood speaking. He and his friend Colin Wright had reported experiencing an alien abduction on the A70, an incident which was investigated by the Ministry of Defence. They had about ninety minutes of missing time. Now, I have no idea what happened that night, but there is one thing I am completely sure of, Garry Wood certainly believed it had happened. The look on his face was that of a man disturbed, terrified and angered by the experience. You can read the full story of Garry Wood and Colin Wright here.

It’s one of the Big Questions, alongside “Why are we here?” and “Is there a God?” Another thing we are all really curious about is: Are we alone in this universe? Or, is there a remote possibility that somewhere, out there, there is another form of life. If there is, what could it possibly look like? If we were ever to encounter it, how would it behave towards us?

This is the 66^th anniversary of the “Roswell Incident”. In July 1947, in Roswell, New Mexico, debris was recovered. Authorities claimed it was a top secret surveillance balloon, but conspiracy theorists have always believed the US military recovered an alien spaceship that day.

In 1995, Ray Santilli claimed to have footage of an alien autopsy being performed on one of the Roswell aliens recovered from the crash. Two years later the US Air Force released a report which said the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing were, in fact, test dummies. In 2006, Santilli admitted the autopsy film was not genuine. However, he insisted it was based on real life events. Nevertheless, there has never been any substantial proof that aliens crashed to Earth in 1947.

There were certainly alien stories prior to the Roswell incident. Orson Welles’s adaptation of War of the Worlds, a novel by H G Wells, sent many Americans into a state of mass hysteria, thinking that Marsians had invaded. Science-fiction was developing as a popular genre and many scientific discoveries were being made about space. The format of War of the World was news bulletins. With an audience already primed for war, all these things contributed to sending the public into a frenzy.

Tune into the original 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds.

Nevertheless, after the Roswell incident, the public imagination about aliens and UFOs went wild. It was round about this time that George Adamski was taking photos of flying saucers. The 1950s then saw a huge increase in sci-fi and alien movies. One of my favourites, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), gives the message that the people of Earth must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets. The following year Adamski claimed to have met Venusian alien, Orthon, who warned him of the dangers of nuclear war. There are, of course, many criticisms of Adamski and many holes in his stories, which you can read for yourself here.

In 1957, Antônio Vilas-Boas, a Brazilian farmer claimed to have been abducted by aliens. There are other similar abduction stories, but his is the first to receive proper attention. The incident occurred when Boas was only 23 years old, working at night to avoid the hot temperatures during the day. As he was ploughing a field, near São Francisco de Sales, he was approached by what he described as a red star, which as it got closer, became recognisable as a space craft. The full story can be read here.

In 1961, widespread publicity was generated by Betty and Barney Hill, who also claimed to have been abducted by aliens in New Hampshire. The University of New Hampshire have custody of a permanent collection of Betty Hill’s notes, tapes and other items. In 2011, a state historical marker was placed at the site of the alleged encounter. Betty and Barney Hill’s story can be read in full here.

The Hill’s story is highly intriguing, yet many motifs and themes are similar to that of science-fiction being aired at that time. It is thought that these images, coupled with sleep deprivation and false memories recovered during hypnosis, were all part and parcel of the overall experience.

As a hypnotherapist myself, I can say that nowadays regression would never be used to recover memories. The likelihood of false memory syndrome would be a huge factor in discrediting the entire encounter. Any information Betty and Barney Hill gave under hypnosis should be dismissed entirely.

A few years later, attention turned to what our relationship to aliens might be. Quatermass and the Pit (1967) is an extraordinary concept of the imagination. It is a fantastic story, surrounding the discovery of an ancient Martian spacecraft in the London Underground, and the realisation that aliens have influenced human evolution and intelligence since the beginning. The spacecraft seems to stir up memories of the aliens which remain deep in the human psyche. Professor Quatermass is convinced that all our beliefs and fears of devils and such like are, in fact, tied up with these memories of our encounters with the Martians.

The term “close encounter” was coined in 1972 by Josef Allen Hynek (1910-1986) in his book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Enquiry. Hynek proposed there were three types of close encounter:

Close Encounters of the First Kind are sightings of one or more UFOs at a distance of 500 feet or less.

Close Encounters of the Second Kind are sightings of a UFO which were accompanied by physical effects such as heat, electrical interference etc.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind involve the sighting of an animated being (presumably alien but not specifically defined as such).

Other categories have since developed, including having contact, being abducted, those involving death, those involving hybrid creations and sexual encounters. There are also sub-categories to the Third Kind according to whether the perceived alien is inside or outside their UFO, there are any other witnesses, the alien is injured or captured etc. All categories can be read here.

Following this initial categorisation by Hynek, Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) explored the phenomenon. It turned out the aliens were quite nice really, and usually returned abducted children happy and uninjured. I jest. It’s actually another of my favourite films, quite unnerving in parts, but ultimately a “feel good” ending. Spielberg carried on with his view of the alien as the good guy with E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in 1982, which had everyone in love, and saying a tearful goodbye to their favourite alien, by the end of the movie.

The same year, Bill Lancaster (son of Burt) wrote the screenplay for The Thing (directed by John Carpenter), which assured us that we were in mortal peril from E.T. Here the alien is a parasite which assimilates other lifeforms and imitates them. Who can you trust? That is the Big Question this time. Someone might look like your friend, or your pet husky, but are they in fact an alien in disguise…?

By 1993, we were sticking with the alien as foe. Fire in the Sky is possibly one of the creepiest and most unnerving alien abduction stories, not least of all because it’s based on the events depicted by Travis Walton who claimed to have had a real life encounter. What actually happened that night is largely undetermined and many still believe it was one big hoax. The film is certainly an exaggeration of Walton’s own account from his book The Walton Experience.

On the evening of 5^th November 1975, logger Travis Walton and his co-workers, on their way home, encounter a UFO. Travis gets out the car, is hit by a beam of light, the others take off in their car. One of them, Mike Rogers, returns to the scene later but Travis is nowhere to be found. Initially the incident is investigated as a murder enquiry. The boys take a lie-detector test, which is inconclusive and five days later Travis turns up disorientated and hysterical at a gas station. Travis initially fails his first polygraph, which is claimed to have used out-dated methods. Two subsequent ones revealed him to be telling the truth. The entire story can be read here.

Various invasion films have been made over the last ten years or so: Independence Day (1996), War of the Worlds (2005), The Invasion (2007). Then in 2009, The Fourth Kind came to cinemas. It is a mockumentary science-fiction thriller based on disappearances in Alaska. It’s a fairly good film, though not an exceptionally good advert for hypnosis (once again!), and its supposed realistic background gives the viewer plenty to think about. Similar to Quatermass, the alien life-forms are tied to an ancient civilisation. This time the Sumerians. They are bound up once more in our beliefs of supernatural beings, including God.

We do indeed live in a strange world, full of seemingly inexplicable occurrences. It would do a great injustice to both science and victims if I were to simply cast aside all accounts of alien abduction as mere hallucinations. However, the truth is often stranger than fiction and every bit as intriguing. Similar supernatural experiences have happened since practically the dawn of time and they all bear remarkable similarities to one another. Supernatural kidnappings, abductions and attacks have been reported going right back into ancient times, passed down through folklore. Faery kidnappings and alien abductions contain some terrifying parallels. Even ancient Gods, in mythology, were known to kidnap mortals. Noise of some sort often accompanies such abductions. In faery lore it might be music, in alien accounts it’s usually humming or buzzing sounds.

As someone who has experienced a very realistic encounter of a supernatural entity, during what is termed by psychologists to be sleep paralysis (with hallucination), I know what it feels like. I know, too, that most experiences happen during the sleeping state, and have been linked to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). My experiences most often happen during stressful times. These “visitors” most often terrify us at night, be they incubus/succubus demons, fairies or aliens, and there is often a sexual element to them. There is also an association with missing time, which is reported not just in the Hills or Walton cases, but also in ancient folklore. For example, there is a Welsh folk tale of Rhys and Llewellyn who heard music when they were walking home one night. Rhys follows the music, whilst Llewellyn goes home. Months pass without Rhys being seen, until finally Llewellyn goes to the spot where they heard the music and finds Rhys dancing in a faery ring claiming to only have been there for five minutes (1). It’s also common for those who have experienced the abduction phenomenon to have marks on their bodies: faery bruising, witches marks placed by the Devil and alien needle marks, all seem to be very similar occurrences. What they actually are, is very difficult to say.

In fact, could all of these experiences be entirely natural phenomena, triggered by stress? Does stress release certain chemicals in the brain which interferes with normal functioning, causing people to experience supernatural encounters? (Stress and sleep deprivation both trigger off my own sleep paralysis, but thankfully I’m quite big on relaxation, yoga, meditation and self-hypnosis these days!). Or do we, somewhere in our psyches, have the key to communicate with other realms, as Terence McKenna has suggested, linking the ingestion of certain kinds of hallucinogenic mushrooms to the ability to see other realms which are always there anyway. Perhaps polar magnetism makes a difference – as areas in the north, such as Iceland and Scandinavian countries, seem to find the existence of faery and troll entities a completely normal part of life. Are alien encounters a more scientific equivalent, more prevalent in other parts of the world?

I leave you with this, and the thought that in the scale of the universe Earth really is very tiny indeed. In that vastness we called “space” can we really possibly be the only significant life forms….?