William Blake and Magic Mushrooms

William Blake and Magic Mushrooms (Part 1)

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
"Proverbs from Hell", William Blake

I do not suggest that St. John of Patmos ate mushrooms in order to write the Book of Revelations. Yet the succession of images in his Vision, so clearly seen but such phantasmagoria, means for me that he was in the same state as one be-mushroomed. Nor do I suggest for a moment that William Blake knew the mushroom when he wrote this of the clarity of vision…Sacred Mushrooms: Secrets of Eleusis, (40) R. Gordon Wasson.

 I do suggest that St. John and William Blake used mushrooms, and both of their works are inspired by eating mushrooms. Consider the following quotes:

I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings."
  Revelations 10:10-11, St. John

Notice handle of the Torah (above)/scroll looks like mushroom.

A dragon red and hidden Harlot which John in Patmos saw
From Milton, William Blake

Part I

     In 1954, Aldous Huxley published The Doors of Perception, a book about his experience using mescaline, the active psychotropic in peyote.  He took the title from William Blake’s, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.”  In the 1960’s the psychedelic rock band The Doors, would take their name from the same quote. The full quote comes from Blake's A Memorable Fancy:

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite/ For man has closed himself up till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern.  

If Aldous Huxley and Jim Morrison used psychoactive substances to open these doors of perception, it would seem likely that William Blake did as well. Yet, those such as Wasson claim that Blake could enter an altered state of consciousness without the benefit of psycho tropics. If one never looked at the art of William Blake or knew of his background in Gnosticism and alchemy, it is possible to come to the conclusion that he was simpley inspired. However, If one takes a closer look at his work, in conjunction with such works as John M. Allegro’s, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, or Jan Irving and Andrew Rutajit's Astrotheology and Shamanism, or my Hacking into Heaven: Mushrooms and the Bible, it should be obvious that William Blake knew the source of the Bible to be the mushroom, Amanita muscaria or fly agaric; and that he consumed them to become inspired. In this work, I will analyze the prints and writing of William Blake to demonstrate beyond a doubt that he used mushrooms, and incorporated them into his art, in an effort to emulate the Bible.

     Deconstructing a myth is a difficult task, for it involves tearing apart something sacred and rebuilding it into something more realistic; it is akin to ripping the wings off of an angel to bring the image back down to earth.  For example, part of the William Blake myth involves Blake having a vision of god at the age of four.  How can one confirm of deny this happened? How at four years old, do you have the linguistic ability to express a vision of god? Unless of course, Blake relates the story later in life to give credence to the narrative of his poetic vision.  This story comes to us from Blake’s wife, Kate, and is recounted in the Diary, reminiscences, and correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson: 

You know dear, the first time you saw god was when you were four years old, and he put his head to the widow, and set you a-screaming(77).  

Furthermore, this comes from a conversation Robinson had with Kate after Blake’s death in 1872.  Also, while Blake enjoyed some recognition during his own time, he was not published nor well read by his contemporaries, and most of his work was in private collections. 

     Alexander Gilchrist wrote The Life of William Blake, in 1863, nearly 40 years after Blake’s death.  While it provides a narrative of Blake’s life, it does so by relying on dated information given to Gilchrist by Blake’s surviving friends.  To really understand Blake’s work, it is more important to look at who inspired his style and philosophies: Jacob Boehm and Emmanuel Swedenborg.  Both Boehm and Swedenborg attempted to reinterpret the Bible, and created their own methodology for their exegeses.  Both men came to the conclusion that the Bible was a sort of code in which the truth was hidden.  Consider the following quote from Boehm’s Clavis :

10. Reason will stumble, when it sees heathenish terms and words used in the explanation of natural things, supposing we should use none but scripture phrase (or words borrowed from the Bible); but such words will not always ply and square themselves to the fundamental exposition of the properties of nature, neither can a man express the ground with them: also the wise heathen and Jews have hidden the deep ground of nature under such words, as having well understood that the knowledge of nature is not for every one, but it belongs to those only, whom God by nature has chosen for it.

And consider a similar quote from Swedenborg’s The White Horse:

7. The Word is not understood, except by those who are enlightened. The human rational faculty cannot comprehend Divine, nor even spiritual things, unless it be enlightened by the Lord (n. 2196, 2203, 2209, 2654). Thus they only who are enlightened comprehend the Word (n. 10323). The Lord enables those who are enlightened to understand truths, and to discern those things which appear to contradict each other.

Swedenborg

     Both excerpts suggest that the actual words of the Bible are not to be taken literally, but interpreted.  Furthermore, Boehme suggests that only those chosen by god will receive insight, while Swedenborg suggests that only the enlightened will understand these spiritual truths. Apparently, Boehme and Swedenborg felt they were in possession of this faculty to discern the truth of the word, but where did they get this divine knowledge? How where they selected?

     Secret societies abounded in medieval and industrial Europe, and it has been suggested by many that the secret of the Divine Mystery of Jesus Christ has been passed down through secret societies, especially through the alchemical works of Paracelsus and secret society of Freemasonry.  Rather than try to prove that William Blake lived across the street from a Masonic temple, and was a Freemason, as well as those who inspired him, I would rather focus on the work of Blake to demonstrate the themes he includes originate from Freemasonry and alchemy. It was through these secret societies that certain members were initiated in into the inner circle and given the true doctrine of the world’s great religions; civilization evolved out of mushroom use, more specifically the consumption of Amanita muscaria. 

     In 1957, the western world was introduced to magic mushrooms via Life magazine, in an article about R. Gordon Wasson’s rediscovery of the magic mushroom in Mexico. The ancient mushroom ritual was still being practiced by the Mazatec Indians.  Wasson followed up the article with a self-published book, Mushrooms Russia and History.  And in 1969, he self-published another book, Soma: The Divine Mushroom of Immortality, which consequently was sold out before it was even published.  Only a year later, John M. Allegro would publish The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, based on his translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in which he claimed that the god the ancient Israelites was the Amanita muscaria mushroom.  Then 2001, that Dan Merkur published, The Mystery of Manna, in which he suggested ergot rather than amanita was the basis for the Bible.  And in 2002, Clark Heinrich published, Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy, in which he suggests that the Amanita muscaria mushrooms was behind both religion and alchemy.  Then in 2006, Jan Irving and Andrew Rutajit published, Astrotheology and Shamanism: Unveiling the Law of Duality in Christianity and Other Religions, which reasserted the Amanita muscaria theory.  Most recently, I published my own, Hacking into Heaven: Mushrooms and the Bible, which I too assert that the Bible is based on the psychoactive mushroom Amanita muscaria.  This work you are reading assumes that the reader is familiar with at least one of these books; however, I will include a previously written essay, “Language, Religion, and Slavery” to provide a brief model for how this paradigm works.

R.E.M. Gardening the Flowers of Guatemala at Night

The Flowers of Guatemala 

     "Gardening at Night" is the name of an REM song on their first EP, Chronic Town. It was a popular term in the south with obvious implications about marijuana farming; however, it can refer to any type of activity done under the secrecy of night normally done during the day. REM being signed to IRS Records and managed by CIA management all run by sons former CIA Miles Copeland Jr. And since the CIA was behind the psychedelic 60s, it should come as no surprise that drugs are still the focus of pop music. 

I've took a picture that I'll have to send

People here are friendly and content

People here are colorful and bright

The flowers often bloom at night

Amanita is the name

The flowers cover everything

The flowers cover everything

There's something here I find hard to ignore

There's something that I've never seen before

Amanita is the name, they cover over everything

The flowers cover everything

They cover over everything (Amanita is the name)

The flowers cover everything 

Look into the sun

Don't look into the sun 

Book of Genesis explained by Pem Das

Genesis

Illustration 2

     An unorthodox or Gnostic interpretation of the Adam and Eve narrative is simply that the Garden of Eden represented an archetype plantation, and Adam and Eve represented the archetype slaves. Furthermore, the Lord, God, was King, and his angels were his court. His main advisor, Satan loses faith in his king, God. So Satan plots to overthrow the king with a third of the other angels. He also teaches the slaves Adam and Eve the truth of the Tree of Knowledge, so that they might help him in the rebellion. However, the rebellion is put down and Satan, his co-conspirators, and the slaves are exiled from Eden. However, nowhere in Genesis does it imply that the Serpent is Satan, this commentary comes later in Isaiah and Ezekiel.
     While Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they heard the voice of God, “You are free to eat from any tree in the Garden but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. For you will surely die,” Genesis 2:16-17. Sometime later, when Eve is alone, the Serpent approaches her. The snake tempts her to eat the fruit saying “You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowinggood and evil” Genesis 3:4-5. Eve is tempted and eats the fruit. She gives some to Adam as well. As a result “the eyes of them were both opened, and they both knew that they were naked,” Genesis 3:7. As the snake implied, they do not die, and become god-like, knowing good and evil. Consider the following:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. KJV Genesis 3:22-24

The Serpent, while defeated, was not destroyed, and exiled along with the other rebels. Adam and Eve became like gods and are no longer useful as workers, so they too are exiled from Eden; all are banished.
     Though the first couple are banished from the Garden of Eden, there is still a passage back to Eden, but cherubs and a flaming sword protect the entrance. “So he drove out the man; and placed at the east of the garden of Eden, Cherubs and a flaming sword, which turned every-way, to keep the way of the tree of life,” Genesis 3:24. In English, the word Cherub conjures up baby-faced angels like Cupid, however its meaning is quite vague, and is often associated with a higher order of angels who act as guardians.
     Many artists have drawn the angel Michael holding a sword guarding an entrance. However, the flaming sword, which turned every-way, ends up creating the image of a flaming sphere, or red ball, or red circle – the mushroom cap of the Amanita. Michael and the sword are the amanita mushroom. The mushroom serves as a metaphysical sword cutting through the linguistic matrix to reveal things as they are. Ironic too, that the same mushroom which expelled Adam and Eve from paradise is the same one that takes us back.

A Neurolinguistic Model for Mushroom Ecstasy

     

     Throughout the book I have mentioned the ego death, mushroom intoxication, and other vague references to being under the influences of the Amanita muscaria mushroom. Recent research has come to my attention in the form of a TED Talk: My Stroke of Insight, by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, who describes the experience she had while having a stroke. The experience she describes is very similar to the mushroom experience; however, Dr. Taylor is a neurologist who studies how the brain works. 

My Stroke of Insight Ted Talk

The following is drawn from her talk and my own ideas. Dr. Taylor's ideas are italicized.

The brain is divided into two hemispheres, and despite their symmetrical appearance the two hemispheres are very different from one another. The right side of the brain works like a computer parallel processor, allowing the brain to simultaneously process stimuli of differing quality. Whereas the left side of the brain works more like a computer serial processor, attending to and processing one item at a time. Therefore, each half of the brain has its own personality.

The right hemisphere is the part of the brain that processes images in the present moment. It learns through kinesthetic movement and experience. The right side of the brain is the side that feels a human connection, and oneness with the universe. The right side sees the bigger picture.

The left side of the brain is the calculating part of the brain that deals with past and future. It deals with language. The left part of the brain is the one that separates the individual from the oneness and wholeness the right brain perceives. It does this by creating the “I Am” identity of the person who experiences the sensations. The left hemisphere sees the individual as separate from the environment.

     Even though the brain has two hemispheres, it does not mean they are equal in terms of use. Due to the omnipresence of language, the left hemisphere of the brain plays a leading role in processing sensory information. The brain is inundated with language. Civilization with all its language forces the brain to internalize the exterior world using words as labels to categorize the environment. Then language is used to communicate these categories and labels to others, sometimes orally other times written. The brain learns to rely on language;language becomes just as tangible to the mind as the environment. Maybe even more so.

     Language even undermines right brain functions in western cultures. In the arts, for example, language precedes the art. In music, notes and music theory are taught before students ever get to experience touching an instrument. Therefore, they are not taught music, but rather the language of music. The same could be said of many artistic disciplines; language precedes the art, rendering an artistic composition into just a linguistic expression internalized by the left side of the brain. Therefore, no new thoughts are expressed, and people are trained to express themselves into readily available patterns, such as chord progressions and song structure. The same way that the music is taught, is the same way that public education teaches children. All they are taught to do is produce expected answers; it does not teach them how to think, but what to think.
     The brain is also a pattern seeker, it seeks out patterns and tries to identify and categorize what it senses. And since the brain has had so much exposure to language, it learns to look for language to make sense of things; however, as the brain learns to rely on language, so do we. It becomes a way of thinking; we are forced to think in terms of language (internal dialogue). The problem is, all this is taking place in the left hemisphere of the brain, the side that can only process one idea at a time; and its always following rules.
     The first word humans learn is also the first law; no, thou shall not. All the laws and rules based on language become hardwired into the brain; literally, neurons form neural networks, which become byways of the central nervous system. Problem is, they bypass the convoluted routes of actually thinking and using the brain, and instead guided by the No Exit, No Littering, and No Right Turn signs. The left-brain creates the individual; and places boundaries on the individual based on these linguistic negative patterns. The brain does not look for what you are permitted to do, but what you cannot do.
     Eden was a walled garden where Adam and Eve were placed to work. Eden is the left hemisphere of the brain, the place ruled by the “I am”, language, and rules. Heaven is the right hemisphere, a place without language, time, or rules. How did Adam and Eve get to heaven? They ate the fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and it opened their eyes and made them god-like. Why would the Lord deny Adam and Eve this experience?
     Egypt was an empire where Moses was placed to work. He escaped to the wilderness, where he discovered the god of his ancestors. His god gave him the identity of “I Am”, and the power to plunder the Egyptian empire. Rome was the empire where Jesus existed. He was baptized the heavens opened up, a spirit descended upon him, and a voice says, this is my son, with whom I am pleased.

If these experiences were put together to form a collective idea, the fruit of knowledge opens your eyes, making you god-like. You also discover yourself, as separate from the world, and god is happy about the experience.
     When Jesus says that the Pharisees and Sadducees have taken the keys away, he is talking about the Amanita muscaria mushroom. The mushrooms are the keys that open the door out of Eden and into Heaven. You eat the mushrooms and go on a trip to Heaven. The mushrooms shut down the left hemisphere of the brain and activate the right side to turn on; hence, having visions. This causes the disassociation of linguistic patterns—interrupting the flow of space and time. When you come back from this trip to the right side of your brain, the left hemisphere reorganizes its labels and categories based on the experience. You are essentially reborn to a new consciousness based on your organization of linguistic patterns or language. As a result, new sensory information is redirected along new neural networks created while under the effects of the mushroom. This basically creates new thought patterns, which generate new ideas. These new ideas are expressed in a re-born person's use of language. The experience redefines the world. The linguistic matrix is reordered so that it creates a more accurate reflection of the environment.

Bill Hicks and Mushrooms

    Bill Hicks

I'm glad they're [mushrooms] against the law because I took them one time; and you know what happened to me? I laid in a field of green grass for four hours going, “My God! I love everything.” 

The heavens opened up and rained down gifts of forgiveness onto my being- 
healing me on every level.  Psychically.   Physically.   Emotionally. 

And I realized our true nature is spirit, not body. 

That we are eternal beings and God's love is unconditional and there's nothing we can do to ever change that. 

It's only our illusion that we are separate from God
or that we are alone.

In fact, the reality is that we are one with God and He loves us.

Now if that isn't a hazard to this country.



Bill Hicks on Mushrooms

Bill Hicks on MJ Shrooms, Evolution

Jesus the Alpha and Omega

Jesus said he was the Alpha and the Omega, what does that mean? Well symbolically, how about this:
Look the bottom for the alpha and omega.  Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet; and, when the Omega is placed over the Alpha you get what looks like and Egyptian Ankh, what would later become the Cross.

Introduction to Hacking into Heaven

                   A History of Hacking into Heaven

     In 1970 John Allegro published "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross". In 1999, I read the Bible for the first time, starting with Revelations. At the time I was listening to a lot of reggae, especially Bob Marley, and I wanted to understand Rastafarism better. It seemed like a pretty cool version of Christianity. In was only a few verses into the Bible that John is eating a little scroll and having visions. I was like Whoa!!hold on partner. Scroll handles look like mushrooms, and why would you eat a scroll.

     I worked the Bible backwards, and then read John. Eat of my Body and Drink of blood?! The more I read, the more it seemed that there was some kind of hidden code, but it had nothing to do with DaVinci. It was all about mushrooms. But why?

     Terrence McKenna, Tim Leary, and many others have suggested that these mushrooms were held sacred to ancient cultures, but they never focused on Christianity. This seemed odd, since it has more influence today than the Rig Vedas or Mithras. So I started thinking, What if? What if Jesus is a mushroom? What if Religion was a form of slavery of the mind? And what if these mushrooms are a part of evolution? Why are we being lied to, and denied this experience?