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By: John M. Allegro

Studying the works of John M. Allegro was a task. Seemingly redundant, yet hysterical, this work is a staple in any deep religious study. When it comes to unique perspective and undoubtedly gifted linguistic capability, Allegro takes on the world of religion by analyzing, cross-referencing, and charting countless point against the familiar tune of purity and sobriety in the Judaic Christian culture.

Beyond the Judaic-Christian theology and history roots to the depths of monotheism and even as far back as the Garden of Eden itself. Modern theology suggests that the story of creation was of oral tradition until Moses. It is not to say writing did not begin prior to Moses nor literacy of hieroglyphs, but it is to say that the recognition of the Law of Moses originated with Moses which begin the process of scribes dedicating their lives towards monk-style living away from the world and submersed in scripture.

Allegro does not hesitate to attack this generic belief by merging together pagan cultures, fertility cults, and the use of organic hallucinogens for the intent of seeking God, being one with God, and ultimately worshipping God. History does not deny the claims that people have sought ways to reduce sobriety for the sake of many different benefits. Pleasure is typically the root for seeking God through substances, but there is also more depth, even to that hedonistic philosophical perspective.

When considering the balance of health in physical, mental/emotional, and social heath and its relativity towards happiness, peace, joy, and spirituality it is hard to no think about the reasonings why people chemically seek a forced change upon the standard conscious state. People can debate on reasons such as trauma, coping mechanisms, or natural imbalances that are only balanced through ingestions or consumption. Nevertheless it is irrelevant when trying to contradict basic tenants of faith in the modern world.

What cannot be taken away from the studies of this book are not only the references for cross reference, but the shear amount of time it would have taken to notate the hundreds of vocabulary in dozens of ancient languages. Noting them as, Sumerian, Accadian, Ugaritic, Semitic, Sanskrit, Hebrew/Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic/Persian, Greek, and Latin Allegro clearly spent a lot of time analyzing the artistic flare of each language along with tonal familiarities.

Words may sounds alike, be written alike, be spelled similar using matching letters, but that does not always mean they are rooted from the same place. Another combative theory is the reality of counter culture response to certain words or phrases through either religious usage, political usage, or even comical usage. John M. Allegro exercises his emotional spiritualism as having a personal disdain with any person who could blindly acknowledge a faith with more holes than a Swiss cheese. Homophones, homographs, and homonyms are all categories of debate when it comes to both modern English to modern English and especially modern English to ancient Sumerian.

The art and science of linguistics has allowed scientists of the twentieth and twenty-first century to perform feats unparalleled to generations before. When it comes to closing the gap of understanding the modern tools and resources are mind-boggling to say the least.

John M. Allegro is with a doubt a fine linguist. He is world renowned and recognized in elite communities for his studies and research. When it comes to the world of faith and religion he is demonized. The appropriate approach to debate and disagreement should be with grace and love. The truth of faith is leaning on hope in the face of the unknown. Where math falls short faith grows tall. Where equations produce variable and unidentifiable integers faith produces stability. These are parts of the linguistic equation that John M. Allegro could not grasp.

The ability to choose to turn the lights on in your house or keep them off is a choice. One could choose to save the pennies in power bill, or one could sacrifice a percentage of the daily for better comfort and clearer vision. This is the same as positivity and negativity. We can choose to pursue things of good or evil. The debate then becomes what is good and what is evil.

Throughout the writings of, “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross” Allegro reiterates time and time again his frustrations with religion as a whole while roping in Christianity as part of the problem. The truth in history is that Christianity was the resolve to centuries of religious persecutions brought on by the remnants of King David’s and Solomon’s Israel. The Pharisees and Sadducees both are referenced throughout the New Testament as being challengers of both Jesus and his ministry. This was for a very keen reason. The reason was to format a new approach to religion. The irony of John M. Allegro’s work is that his reasonings for despising religion wherein many ways paired with the perspectives and reasonings of Jesus.

The main differentiation between the approaches of Jesus and Allegro is the debate on whether or not Jesus used psychedelics as a platform for his ministry. It is without a doubt that if Jesus had been using anything that was distorting his sobriety there would have been some very interesting discussions regarding their usage. The closest we get to Jesus using substances is regarding wine several times throughout scripture referencing miracles being performed. If psilocybin had been used whether for mental healing or physical healing there is not reason that it would not have recorded as everything else was. The truth is that Jesus healed by touch, and that his references to “being ready” were based upon sobriety of mind and faith.

There are nineteen chapters full of immensely fascinating studies and reflections, but the emotional maturity of Allegro is lost after the consistent comparisons of ancient names, places, words to genitals and sexually related images. Mushrooms or magic mushrooms are powerful psychedelics that alter perception which in turn can create religious experience. There is no argument that psychedelics of countless variety have been used in the past and present as ways to build community, resolve personal conviction, sustain balance spiritually, and or produce effects of healing from mental diseases like depression or addiction. There is a place for psychedelic usage in the modern world, but sadly they do not pair with Christianity.

Christianity holds its power in sobriety. It holds its power in control, reasoning, logic, law, principals, discernment, and clarity. There is a time and place for everything, but when it comes to the daily following of Jesus, and daily dying to ones sins, it is a choice to do better and be better. Scripture is specific on the outcome of simply believing fully in Jesus. The outcome is complete and total healing. The story of a woman being healed as Jesus shadow passed over her is just one example of many regarding the power and purity of Jesus.

Prior to Christianity, and even during its formation, the world was known to be filled with rituals, cultures, and communities surrounding the entirety of ancient Israel. The kingdoms of the Far East were already established, we know that the Americas had already been established through ancient empires catering to millions of people. The far reaches of Africa and Europe were forming entirely new races of people. These things were in tandem with the life of Jesus in Israel.

Allegro has revealed that ancient civilizations used specifically the amanita mascara to induce religious experience thus forming ancient religions like Judaism. Now, whether or not the founding of Judaism was associated with such hallucinogens is up for debate until a time machine is invented, but regardless of whether or not substances were used is not a deterrent or intervention of Jesus and his ministry.

Not only were pagan religions actively using such drugs, like the Vikings, it is known that prior to the life of Jesus there was debauchery and experimentation of psychedelics. Continuing, the secondary note of Allegro is regarding fertility cults. The assumption of cults wanting to reproduce and procreate is not a new idea. At the basic, most primitive instincts of man is the desire to procreate and reproduce. Every culture began with the desire to multiply. Referencing scripture is not needed as Abraham was told by God that he would father many nations. Genghis Khan also had that same calling from God. He just may not have given God the credit, nor performed the task in an admirable way.

A man could have a calling from God to be wealthy. Clearly the word calling is being used loosely, but that man could then pursue that calling through admirable approach or hedonistic approach. Would the man work for the wealth, or steal for it? When it came to the ministry of Jesus and how we would be recorded and remembered throughout history, is his legacy that of selfishness and judgment, or is it selflessness and love?

Once again, prior to the life of Jesus we know that thousands of recorded history had passed and that entire races of people were lost to history through war, famine, and natural disaster. It is also known that religions such as polytheism and paganism were of common occurrence across the entire ancient world. What we also know is that today the remnants of those beliefs still exist. The majority of the modern world believes in one God. There are currently three major religions being Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three stem from Abraham.

Daoism/Taoism is the only other faith that is globally recognized aside from Confucianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism in the eastern religions. Hinduism existed alongside King David, Buddhism existed several hundred years before Jesus and was also spawned from polytheism, Confucianism also spawned simultaneously alongside Buddha, and there teachings can be closely associated historically with the awakening of philosophy during what theologians refer to as the silent years.

Greek ideas such as Stoicism, Cynicism, and Hedonism are alls practices of life similar to the eastern philosophies and due to the lack of worship make it hard to call religion. Hinduism is the closest to a religion considering it stems from recognizing worship, but there is the recognition of many gods and not just one God. Polytheism and Monotheism are rooted in core disagreement considering the belief in monotheism is that mankind was made to worship one God. Thus, religious wars will always be inevitable unless one culture decides to eradicate the other as God called Moses to do in the Old Testament.

Once again, these controversial concepts stemming from history are previous to the teachings of Jesus which tell the common man to turn the other cheek. Jesus would walk into a village to preach the gospel truth, and certain villages would run Jesus out of town for reasons such as blasphemy or witchcraft associated with paganism. Jesus would simply dust himself off and move to the next town. This approach continued throughout his ministry until the city of Jerusalem considered his transgressions morally inadequate and decided that his penalty would be death by a Roman cross.

Considering the time, energy, and resources required for Allegro to form such comical arguments it is outstanding that there was never a question as to why Jesus did not just walk away from the chaos of Jerusalem or simply take his mystical circus show to any other area and become a wealthy emperor in his own way. Allegro assumed that by presenting controversial knowledge from the roots of Christianity he would in turn disprove of the entire thesis, but what Allegro failed to recognize is that the past is not the foundation of Jesus and his ministry. Linguistics are not enough to understand the balance required by faith. Anthropology is not enough.

The wholeness of physical sciences and cognitive sciences are not to dissect the creator of science. Jesus is believed to be God in the flesh, and so if this is true, then the creator of paradox inserted itself into a religious paradox just to piss off people like John M. Allegro who think that their own knowledge can hold a match to the power of God Almighty.

The ministry of Jesus is a ministry beyond space and time. Jesus could exist in any form and in any universe and to any form of life. Jesus can to deliver humanity from sin. Humanity was chosen by God to have Jesus in its past and present, future and history. Jesus was inevitable to humanity because of sin according to the events human history and its sacred scripture.

I could spend the rest of my days dissecting the work of Allegro, but he is a small piece to the puzzle of cognition. As far as linguistics are concerned, we must pay Allegro respect. His work is phenomenal, emotional, and critical for those who seek to dive deep into history and theology.

As always, God Bless,

James Arthur Ferguson