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As a personal admirer of Cognitive Science and all of its branches, it is an honor to study the renowned Archaeologist/Linguist through his collection of writings within, “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross”. Considering its widespread popularity among the modern independent thinkers and philosophers of twenty-first century secularism, it is essential for a like-minded modern independent thinker of twenty-first century Christian-rooted monotheism to take a thorough look at these findings made famous over the past half a century.

There is an absolute necessity in approaching this work as open-minded as possible. Libertarianism and Christianity, in their nature, can appear to the outside world as a close-minded solution to a probable outcome of injustice, unfairness, and improper comparisons in most peoples lives. The truth is that pure Christianity and true liberty are both forged out of the fires of rigorously tested faith and unimaginable uniqueness in personal testimony that can only come from a personal walk with God through the process of following Jesus daily.

With agreeance to John M. Allegro, there are absolutely many ancient (and modern) religions, faiths, belief systems, thought processes, and even reputable sciences that stem from the use of organic and synthesized hallucinogens. Also, in opposition to the renowned John M. Allegro, the history and foundations of Judaism and its Hebrew people has tangled into its formation distractions from God such as idol worship and generic sin, but there is a very clear and clean discernment apart from cultures that accept forms of intoxication as oneness with God. Intoxication and its ancient/modern acceptance in secular society has always been an impossible concept to fabricate with clarity. It is like a painter trying to paint a mountain from the valley with dense fog. The secular argument tends to become, ‘Well… if it makes you feel good, then how can it be bad?’.

Jesus himself, relating to Christianity and the call for purity/clarity, pleas with his followers to always be ready. Jesus says in an excerpt from Matthew 24:44, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” With consideration, would you prefer the watchdog to be asleep on its shift? Would you prefer your brain surgeon to take a quick shot or two before the surgery? Would you prefer your therapist to be rolling into a psychedelic experience while you are paying several hundred dollars an hour to be heard?”

Continuing on into the beginnings of this assessment of John Allegro and his book ,”The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross” it must be known that evidence towards cults who used hallucinogens in Jesus name has been known about for beyond decades. Sects of Christiantiy form, and churches often split over disagreements in theology. Whether it is political, social, or personal, there are countless records of individuals and families leaving the church or finding a new church based off of the church’s common core beliefs. Hallucinogenics is simply one category of common disagreement.

When it comes to the secondary assumption John Allegro places upon Judaism and Hebrews, it is the idea of Judaism forming as a fertility cult. This idea is genuinely rooted in much truth. The calling for the people (chosen by God) to reproduce, to eradicate others who risk as opposition, and to denounce homosexuality is fairly specific in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Torah, the Pentateuch, and also known as the Laws of Moses describes the necessity of fertility amongst Hebrews. The debate would be between which came first. Was there a call to God from Abraham (known as Abram) that led to a desire to multiply, or was there a desire to multiply that led to the illusion of an encounter with a god who could justify this multiplication? Clearly, to a believer, the encounter with a God who is love would be first historically.

And so, the edition being studied is the 40th anniversary edition. The preface is by Jan R. Irvin and the Foreword is by Judith Anne Brown. The addendum is by Carl A. P. Ruck out of Boston University. Making way int the Introduction there is immediate agreement and disagreement. The agreement lines with the prelude to modern human civilization known to stem from Mesopotamia in present day Iraq and Kuwait. Allegro notes that, “Out of the sense of dependency and frustration, religion was born.”

From the Biblical perspective there is a clear dependency on God, and so the inevitable need to seek to worship someone or something falls directly in line with biblical understanding. The disagreement would be coming from the sense of frustration having equal confirmation. Simply, dependency on God or a god is enough to drive mankind towards religion, but frustration is a fleeting emotion that is not enough to trigger core life-change. As a believer, there are five faith catalysts for spiritual growth (or the desire to join or formulate religion).

The first is practical teaching, the second is private disciplines, the third is personal ministry, the fourth is providential relationships, and the fifth is pivotal circumstances. When it comes to any religion, these catalysts can be applied as causality. Frustration can cause a domino effect towards decisions that are typically regretted, but it one of many emotions that can cause this effect. The five faith catalysts that affect every single person who has ever lived are truly the occurrences that formed mankind’s desire for and towards religion.

As a believer man began his existence by walking with God in the garden of Eden. Once sin stepped onto the pages of human history a chasm was formed between man and God. From the point of Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden to Abraham (the father of monotheism and all major religion), the dependency of mankind led to thousands of religious variety from faiths of the vast Far East from ancient India through ancient China, faiths of the ancient European barbarians casted out from ancient present-day UK to ancient present-day Russia, faiths of the ancient native Americas covering the entire Western Hemisphere, faiths of the Australian aboriginals interestingly/ironically called ‘Dreamtime’, and faiths of ancient tribal Africans.

It would be amiss to not recognize that rituals, sacrifices, constructions, and primitive anthropology were formed as forms of worship across the globe in pursuit of reconnecting with the God mankind subconsciously knew it once walked with. As a believer we known Adam and Eve as the first humans. We are not aware of ‘when’ exactly Adam and Eve walked the earth, but we are scientifically aware that all humans today share the majority of chromosomal/anatomical/biological similarities. In essence, every human alive today is related and descended from both Adam and Eve.

Now, as an unbeliever we know that it is common to not believe in the story of Eden. The history of Adam and Eve descending to Father Abraham becomes fantasy and fiction. Even then, the common unbeliever is aware of humanities core relationship biologically/anatomically. It is hard to disagree with the common believer or unbeliever that all humans in history were at one point spawned from a single couple through fertilization. Thus, we branch into what Allegro notes as ‘religion being a spawn of fertility cult’. Specifically, Allegro notes that both Judaism and Christianity (which means every spawning branch of Judaism) is a result of not just deep roots of being an organized fertility cult, but that many of the rituals and traditions were results of psychedelic/hallucinogenic encounters.

Allegro makes the case that the primary hallucinogen used for ancient ritual to connect with God is and was psilocybin. And so, the title, “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross” bears its name as a direct accusation that Jesus, his followers, and the entirety of Hebrew culture that came before Jesus, meaning King David, Moses, Joseph and the sons of Israel, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, and Adam himself were all pawns in the scheme of ritualized fungus consumption and a desire for cult fertility in the pursuit of encountering immortality.

As we dive deeper into the studies and finding of Allegro, it is important to note that ones personal stance and belief will always create a veil over perspective. For a believer, the veil of faith in Jesus is a clear veil free of any augmentation of reality. It is the veil of sobriety and the veil of truth. For the unbeliever, the only clear veil available is that which is referred to as ‘having an open mind’ or ‘accepting that there is a little bit of truth in everything (regarding the infinity of individualism that exists in personalized religion). Jesus made the powerful claim that, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” which is a direct statement against the concept of coexistence. To follow his phrasing, Jesus continued, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Father in this context means, “the God of Creation, or the God of us all”. From this context it is clear that the authority of Jesus cannot be misconstrued as being ‘just another prominent figure in human history’.

Allegro’s mention of primitive peoples singing and dancing to the skies in a way to stimulate the gods of rain to release its life giving water seems to hold a lack of acknowledgment that the wisdom and knowledge of humanity does not pass down with either exponential growth, or even stabilized growth. We have seen time and time again throughout recorded history the rise and fall of ‘common sense’ and ‘common knowledge’ as recorded both in scripture and secular history. Consider one tribe conquering another through annihilation (aka war-forced extinction) along with the countless libraries burnt down in world history cue to the ‘casualties of warfare’. Humanity is known to exist in cycles, and though growth can be found across all intelligence over snippets of time the blanket denial of cataclysmic events or apocalyptic events acting as a catalyst that reverses any intellectual process or program set forth by Mother Nature is in and of itself close minded and un-scientific.

Continuing, Allegro says, “the dream of man is to become God.” which may absolutely be true for many people is their fight against belief in their own mortality, but it can be assured that the common believer in Jesus Christ is absolutely relieved to not be God, to not to want to be God, and to find peace that the Will of God can be accepted as leading the reins of ones life. Discipleship in Jesus is typically begun by an individual making the choice that ‘being God is not fulfilling’. Matt Chandler (out of the Village Church in Texas, US) notes that when each man or woman is faced with Jesus, his testimony, and his claims, there is a choice that can be made which is to become an active Child of God or to continue to live as ones own God by choosing to actively live as a Child of Wrath. Though the word wrath may be a bit harsh to an outsider who is unfamiliar with Southern American Baptist tradition and culture, the word ‘Chaos’ may fit in more appropriately.

As Allegro romances upon the similarities between mushrooms and male sex organs there is also strange metaphor between ancient cultures. In reference to ancient nomenclature, Sumerian/hieroglyphics and ancient Hebrew/Aramaic are vastly different in approach, representation, and diction when presented in assistance for traditional folklore. Any potential breakdown in linguistics will still result in a bastardized version of the former and truly, the author would be the primary source for meaning in regards to any writings that spawned prior to the Greek Era. Now, even though specific words, pictures, or artifacts can be bound together for some accuracy it is still more fitting to study the overall principalities and moralities of ancient culture. Even though it is possible and probably that medicinal herbs and organic hallucinogens had a place in the realm of ancient spiritual healing it is without debate that the teaching of Jesus himself brought about peace, clarity, sobriety, and truth.

Anyone who has ingested, or who has known anyone who has ingested, hallucinogenics (primarily psilocybin or LSD) knows that the veil between natural and supernatural can significantly shrink and in some cases disappear all together. This is not a representation of collective consciousness, and this is also not a case for finding a collective truth. Individualism spawns in the aftermath of inward vision quests alongside meditations. Hallucinations and Meditations may be means to assist in ‘finding’ oneself, but it is not a means to ultimate fulfillment and purpose. Cult-like gatherings with emphasis on seeking intoxication as the means for community and connection always end with combinations of tragedy, regret, chaos, confusion, and for the common conscious, remorse through conviction.

Mass-hysteria and mass psyche-manipulations are typically results of chemical influence and/or untrained/simple minds. It is known throughout many scientific communities that being mentally trained through psychological strength and conditioning can prevent not only hypnosis, but also it can prevent direct chemical imbalances presented through ingesting outside sources like generic hallucinogenics. When it comes to the disciples of Jesus it is biblically and historically clear that Jesus was a healer, teacher, and preacher. Understandably, people who have encountered the darker sides of the world generically assume that everyone also lives through the same darkness, but it is simply not the case.

In other words, there is a commonality between people who lie and believe that everyone lies. This reaction is a form of justification. And this justification is a type of instinctual defense mechanism that tends to surface when sin exercises its will over man. This is also known as moral failure. There is commonality between people who steal and believe everyone steals. People who are addicted to alcohol believe that everyone drinks, and those who don’t are either weirdos or outcasts. It is common in people who use marijuana, prescription pills, hallucinogens, or other man-made drug to genuinely believe that everyone uses the same or similar drugs. It is similar to people who watch porn and believe that everyone watches porn, or people who cheat on their spouses that typically believe it is both common and normal. The truth is that these beliefs are not only fallacy or false, but that this a common and familiar type of mass-hypnosis casted regularly throughout history (and primarily as major societies collapse.

In modern times, the world-wide internet reveals this prime modern-day example of mass-hypnosis through a unique type of individualism sharpened through consistent doses of mass-hypnotism brought through the ether of both social media and artificial intelligence. The common phrase is, “You can find a group for anything”, or “There seems to be a chatroom for any type of personal desire, or personal interest.” etc.

Now, at the end of the first chapter Allegro Christianity as a form of Judaism. This is again a misunderstanding of what Christianity became. Through Judaism, Christianity came. The reality of the believer is that Jesus always was meaning that Jesus was inevitable with or without Judaism. Now, considering Jesus fulfilled Judaic prophesy it is understandable to see Christianity as a form of Judaism, but belief in Jesus surpasses even belief in Abraham.

In the singular perspective of Christianity on a timeline there is proof that Judaism came first, and then Christianity, but the belief in an omnipresent/omnipotent God is the rebuttal to this singularity. Even main stream, pop-culture, references have recently magnetized itself to the ideas of multiverses and timeline alterations in a desperate attempt to fantasize a creation of a being or beings beyond the limits of time and space. This is main stream fabrication has been a keystone truth to Christianity for many centuries now.

Lastly, Allegro’s inability to have linguistic accuracy on quotes from Jesus is another reflection of typical peoples inability to discern meaning from context. This form of misunderstanding takes place commonly in an approach to find loopholes in rules or laws on the grounds of lacking specifications. An example would be a mom or dad asking their child to not eat the cookie on the counter before dinner because it would ruin their appetite. The child then eats a bad of Doritos claiming, “Well, you ONLY said to not eat the cookie.” Even though the statement is accurate, the truth is the reason for not eating the cookie was completely missed and inherently forgotten due to the desire the child had for something. The child simply overlooked the reason and focused on the literal statement to justify the child’s selfish want.

This is common in media, this is common in most households, and this is common globally in every day life. The goal for a believer and follower of Jesus is to recognize ones own ability to manipulate, to falsely remember, and to inappropriately justify, so we can avoid unnecessary hardships in the future. Thought the English words written in any given New Testament bible may not be verbatim the words used by Jesus in his native tongue, and even the word Jesus may not sound the exact same as when it did rolling off the Christ’s mother’s tongue it all holds the same meanings. The structure for the church and the map of human morality still exists today through the collective conscious known as the church.

A beautiful note made by Allegro is the realization that Latin and Aramaic have spawned English and Arabic in ways that make translations nearest impossible and also risk a complete misinterpretation most of the time. We can see this through the reflections of political turmoil as polar opposite cultures collide in modern day trade wars. Allegro notes that Greek and Hebrew (spawning from these two vastly different languages), are very different in vocabulary and grammatical structure. He notes that they belong to different language families being Into-European and Semitic.

The beautifully, God-inspired, account and testimony within the New Testament is that of Saul of Tarsus, or later known as Paul the Apostle, who was both Greek and Hebrew. He Wass fully Into-European and he was fully Semitic. He became the critical voice between the Believers and the Gentiles during his time because of both his personal encounter with Jesus and is god-given bloodline that merged these two clashing cultures.

As chapter one closes there is a deep focus onto Mesopotamian culture. This is the critical society in what is commonly referred to as the beginning of modern civilization. Between both historians, theologians, believers, non-believers, atheists, and agnostics, it is always agreed that Mesopotamia is the beginning of modern human society. Not only were people gathered in mass numbers, but writings, music, and global history always seems to point to this land that is in the Middle East of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria. Allegro is a master of linguistics which is very useful in translations, but it falls short in meaning. Though a master of linguistics should also be a master of idioms, it takes far more then linguistics to master a society, to master a culture, and specifically to master a faith.

This is my introduction to a breakdown of John M. Allegro’s, “The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross”.

As always, God bless,

James Arthur Ferguson