R. Gordon Wasson (1898–1986)

This book is wrong, as its own afterword admits, as far as the proposed pathways to hallucinogenic experiences go. It's a bit of an exercise in finding what you're looking for in interpreting the ancient material, and the best spin it has to offer for being wrong about the pathway is that it was put there as a red herring to hide the real psychedelic mystery. Except the rather tortured way of producing this thesis in the first place is more easily just dismissed as wrong?

Regardless, it's an show more interesting idea about spiritual initiation through psychedelics which has precedent in other cultures, and does fit to the mythology fairly well. Without a plausible source of that psychedelic you need to look further afield into similar experiences from less fitting sources. Mushrooms perhaps, datura type dream wine? Natural gasses were proposed for inducing visions in the context of oracles but no evidence has been found. There's something here, even if the central argument doesn't hold up. show less

Is the thesis of the book, that the Eleusinian mysteries involved the use of psychoactive drugs, correct? Probably, and the idea has become more widely accepted in the decades since the book was published. However, that change in perception has come in no small part due to more academically rigorous examinations of the question than this book, which devotes quite a large portion of its pages to talking about the authors' experiences with psychoactive drugs, personal opinions, and show more unconventional interpretations of myths and etymology that borders on a 'Chariots of the Gods' level of academic rigor. There is of course some serious archeological discussion but too much time is spent on flowery descriptions of drug trips and speculation presented as fact. That, as much as anything, is why this book wasn't initially taken seriously in academic circles. It deserves credit for being the first to broach the subject, for likely being right, and it is an interesting read, but is hardly authoritative. show less

“The ideas which the authors—the banker, the chemist and the classicist—brought forth have been largely unchallenged and ignored by specialists in the culture of ancient and Classical Greece. The situation seems to fulfill the rule of thumb that when ideas are controversial they are discussed, when they are revolutionary, they are ignored.”

“The late Mr. Wasson is the Abraham of the reborn awareness in Western civilization of the presence of the shamanically empowering mushroom.”