The Best Kept Secret In History?: A Conversation with Brian Muraresku (Episode  

Considering how often Paul instructs Christians to be sober minded and how he clearly condemns drunkenness repeatedly it’s incredibly unlikely he was tripping on drugs. His writings are ardently against doing things like that.

Thank you for everything you do

A calm voice of reason who should inspire us all to learn how to have valuable conversations….

This is amazing, thank you. I recently started reading his book, what great timing.

Hearing him converse with Bart Ehrman would be interesting.

brian is light years beyond me, but ive watched and listened to alot of pods now with you... they will be quoting you for hundreds if not thousands of years my friend, thankyou for coming into my life

Wow! Thanks for this cogent and eloquent contribution🙄

I learned Latin in the 8th grade. It was a required course. Of course i have lost the ability to conjugate sentences and speak the language but it helps daily understanding the meanings of many words . Have not done psychdelics since high school but i did not find the experience pleasant.

That was excellent. I lived in Athens and visited Eleusis back in the eighties. He mentions Mc Donald who has been on Mythvision. Excellent interview

will this knowledge get me laid in 2024?

Thanks for bringing the eleusinian mysteries to my ears. I've heard that religion might have been influenced by psychedelics but this, if accurate, is quite frankly mind blowing.

I just wish his podcasts would be free... So interesting!

There have been so many holes punched in the cloth of religions just from science and common sense it amazes me that it still has the power over people. Religion keeps you in a child's brain, never really leaving the nest.

Really amazing podcast. This paints such a bigger picture and understanding of the world early Christianity sprang from. Very educational and enlightening.

This guy is fascinated by psychedelic experiences that the Greeks had but has never tried them, this is spiritual Voyeurism!

Apolitical Sam is my favourite voice to listen to

Psychedelics are great, one time I was trippin on too much acid and I was staring at a fire pit and the fire pit turned into a mini world with little people and buildings, it was 2 years ago and it's such an experience to remember. would love to try out the magic mushrooms next, just don't know where or how i can get my hands on them, so hard to come by

Thanks Sam and Brian! Excellent. Cults are always fun😢

I'd love to hear you talk about Judaism as much as you talk about other religions, love yr work

Listening with great interest. Food of the Gods and the McKenna brothers work is as prescient as ever and it’s interesting you are bringing these topics to your audience.

My question would be, what is that psychedelic they took? Do we know of any endogenous plants in the Mediterranean that have a psychedelic effect? “Magic” mushrooms?

*From a DRTV podcast* In September 1960, 23-year-old Gunnar Sandvei enters the large gate to Frederiksberg Hospital. Gunnar is studying to be a farmer, and is about to take over the family farm. However, he suffers from a form of OCD that makes him constantly wash his hands and shower. Therefore, Gunnar has got an agreement with chief physician Einar Gert Jørgensen in the psychiatric ward According to Gunnar - who is dead now - the doctors tell him that the treatment is completely harmless and risk-free and on November 8, 1961, Gunnar Sandvei is taken down to the basement and gets his first dose of LSD. In total, Gunnar receives LSD 6 times. The first time he gets 50 micrograms. The second time he gets 80 micrograms. The third time he gets 120 Fourth time he gets 150 And the fifth and sixth time he gets 180 micrograms. Gunnar calls the sixth and final treatment ‘the disaster’: “We're talking about a death experience. I experienced myself outside of time and space. I found myself in an inferno of fire. *I will not say it like I was in an electric field. I would say it like I was an electric field.* And it was an experience of such a terrifying nature that - yes - I cannot describe it further. But it is obvious that no human being who has been through such a course will recover from it without a trace. Anne Skjerning Programmedarbejder, P1 Aktualitet

Christianity is basically recycled mythology. The majority of the biblical stories come from earlier works of mythology like The Epic of Gilgamesh etc. The story of Jesus is not original in alot of ways. Lots of earlier characters in mythology were virgin born, raised from the dead etc. It’s mythology, not history

I don't know how to start this but i was 'a born christian' From birth baptised and sealed with the 'HOLY SPIRIT' I'm a 45 yr old man that could never have kids,but growing up i always questioned my faith,science was always on my mind and all it stands for me because i think i always knew it was bullshit,thank you,needed to know i was not alone

I've sensed this, this "secret," in the bones of my soul for some time now. Having recently participated in a mushroom and ayahuasca ceremony - I can attest to having seen what's being described in the author's work. To die now in order to not die is the best description I've heard to sum up my experience. Thank you

Thank you for connecting us to our western classical origins a bit more

Such an Interesting Topic …….🌞

nice drama free episode

great podcast a always Sam. Can't wait for the next one

Taylor Swift on psilocybin. That made my day 🤣

Would like an episode with *Dr. Richard Carrier*

Did he misquote the Bible verse? I didn't see anything related in the area of John 6: 60 Can someone explain?

In my late teens, I took a few LSD trips in the Badlands of Eastern Montana. Even though I've been firm atheist since about age 16, I refered to the Badlands as my "church." I've never viewed LSD or psilocybin mushrooms as party drugs, but as tools to gain something from an altered consciousness that detaches one from normal viewpoints and thinking; a spiritual experience, for lack of a more precise word. I became convinced that if world leaders took LSD, there'd be peace on Earth; not considering at the time that not everyone has a positive, enlightening experience on LSD. Grace Slick tells a story of how she almost had a chance to slip LSD to Richard Nixon. I think if she'd succeeded, he probably would have just thought he was ill with a fever or something. But I understand Grace's intentions.

I hope John Allegro was mentioned in some part of this interview. His contribution is undeniable.

Saaaam! Why is this not on Waking up! Fantastic conversation

This stuff is the stuff Sam does well.

They were probably on something at the temple of Delphi too.

Hello from India

It'll be interesting to examine the letters of Paul in light of this psychedelic theory. Professor Robyn Faith Walsh pastes her knowledge of Stoic philosophy over Paul's letters and she shows the Stoic philosophy behind his writings. But is this a bias of the modern academic? If there was a big psychedelic thing going on in the ancient world then surely a guy like Paul of Tarsus would include clues in his letters like he include stoic influences?

psychedelics and religion, their impact on human development. these are THE subjects 👍

Something tells me that "taking responsibility for your thoughts," while being something that ought come first in life, comes last - if at all - for most.

Sam, I enjoy what you do as much as everyone of your paid subscribers, however I can't afford another subscription! So, for the moment I'll enjoy these free bits!

Hmmm, my first thought is, couldn’t “dying before you die…” be a metaphor for out of body (OBE) experiences in general…finding out for one’s self that there is no death of Consciousness…

Insightful. Thanks Brian. Sam, please consider a conversation with Dr. Richard C. Carrier and/or Dr. Robert M. Price on Christ Myth Theory.

Sam Couldnt be more wrong. I am "hearing this" AND am also subscribed to his mailing list and a member. I just prefer RU-vid.

Couldn't this be a reference to the death of the individual self, and thus the embracing/transforming to awareness of connection to the Universal Self? "Communion" in the larger sense...

It seems a way to dispose of dead body and also provide nutrition to the followers of the faith.

😮 i thought that topic will be more Dan Brown style...

Can anyone help me. I don't understand something. This ceremony has been done for hundreds of years but christianity only came at the end? I probably misunderstood

One hyphen can make the difference between the secret of history that is kept best and the best secret in history that is kept.

I haven’t watched the video yet but I’m already mad!

Thank you Samuel.

28:23 I thought the early Christians spoke Aramaic rather than Greek. Is that not true?

Sam, if you had a conversation with Professor Mearsheimer or Professor Finkelstein or professor Chomsky you’d be much further ahead on your understanding of the Middle East. I live there for 20 years. Try a discussion with one of the professors will all be better for it.

Curious about the statement made by Sam or his guest (can’t remember exactly who said it here) about these events taking place well before Christianity specifically the concept or notion of resurrection. I am far from a Bible scholar but my understanding is that the resurrection of the messiah or a Jesus was prophesied by earlier books in the bible as in the Old Testament. Meaning that at the very least maybe the timing of the notion that the ideas of resurrection in the Greek mysteries come prior to Christianity are not very accurate unless they are distinguishing between Christian’s Bible and the concept of resurrection versus the Hebrew’s Bible if that makes sense. Again not a scholar just a man with some curiosity.

Moses and the burning bush seems quite like a psychedelic experience

I don't use mind-altering substances. None of my neighbors or medicine takers in the community can wrap their heads around _Synchronistic Mathematics._ If I had not documented events in my entire life I might believe that drugs can enlighten an individual. It would be like people who went to a movie and think they understand reality. My research is greater. I came back from myvtrips with empirical evidence and real world artifacts.

I thought the best kept secret was trump's education records. Or his marvellous new health care system.

Some of the language in The Gospel of Thomas is striking and clearly comes from a source of rare insight, like a semitic analogue to the Advaita Vedanta tradition, with Jesus being principally concerned with having his disciples recognize the kingdom of heaven within themselves. Only I don't know what he was on about when he talks about prostating on one's own face, or getting naked and trampling on your own clothes. Methinks Jesus was a bit of a silly sausage

In Languages like the civilizations “ Look “-can be changed , but the basic goes as the “ Pyramid Up and Down in its Form of energy performance “ -is changed …In Sounds -but all over the Root Words broken as Sounds - as Frequency -brings the idea of Naming Anything…….and Languages are subject to that laws and regulations shows the Beautiful Connection and Transformation-of All Languages……..🌞

The Davinci Code

Also - I’m sure that the author is aware that the historical (actual) Yeshua bar Joseph (Greek name, Jesus) traveled to Persia, India, and Tibet as a boy where he studied Buddhism and related mysticism at the Temple of Ladakh (well documented by the monks there) before returning to Palestine as a young man of almost 30 to bring those teachings to his “own people”, suffering under Roman rule. It’s WHY that period of his life is simply missing from the traditional Christian narrative (the parable of “The Fatted Calf” is largely auto biographical)

Gpt, compare the eleusinian mysteries to burning man

Wow this is great affirmation for me!!!

Professor Mearsheimer , professor Finkelstein, Professor Chomsky, over 150 years of experience in the Israeli camp, not to mention Gideon LEVY OF HARRETZ CAN HELP YOU UNDERSTAND ISRAELI HISTORY, ZIONISM, ETC. GIVE THEM A CHANCE ONE DISCUSSION ONE OF THEM. NO ONE‘S GOING ANYWHERE WHEN MINDS ARE CLOSED.

Psychedelic baptism!

Muraresku is great and all but how about interviewing the guys who gave him the goods, Dr DC Ammon Hillman. Dr Ammon has a PhD in Classical Greek and Latin. He teaches the mystery directly through sources and the language. Learn the truth of the mystery.

You are a very critical thinker Sam. Please keep speaking. Your words help a lot of people .

the secret to learning mathematics is to ignore calculations, even the best mathematician in the world is crap at estimating exact values of trig functions in a usable way for small changes in angle at some arbitrary angle, some things in math is just about learning to understand and follow rules, but the most important bit is to be able to come up with protocol sentences you can understand for what a mathematical concept is, when you are learning a new subfield or about some new concept, just look at the rules given to you, and try to rephrase them yourself by producing a set of protocol sentences for yourself that reproduces the rules or connections in a way you can understand. the protocol sentences don't serve as a ground floor analytical definition of whatever you are trying to understand, but secretly it is just you reproducing what is already of that sort, some protocol sentences that define operations that are usable in some sense, that you can understand, the concepts you learn in mathematics don't actually have some analytically rigorous basis, just what amounts to a set of protocol sentences that are easy enough for you to understand that you can use them, the same way a few sentences might explain to you how to follow the rules of chess without making illegal moves, that is all that is required to invent or use mathematics. a trap people often fall into is that they search too hard for an understanding of the analytical basis, instead of trying to just understand the axioms or protocol sentences defining concepts well enough to use it, because truthfully there is no deeper analytical basis, and it isn't necessary to do logic either, the reliability in understanding the protocol is enough. that perspective stops you from going "nono i understand the rule, but what are we really doing here?" while you try to comprehend it :). this is quite abstract stuff, but it applies to all meaning not just mathematics, reliability is key, we never really define the meaning of words or mathematical symbols beyond at some level where our cognitive capacities can understand it the same way every time, or at least with some effort most of the time, that is what is meant by clarity, and can only be what is meant by clarity, for example you could never define what a strawberry is with just a logical language, you would start with some sentence, then the symbols in the sentence would require their own protocols, and then protocols squared and cubed and so on towards infinity, to do logic without the possibility of a true analytical ground floor of meaning we need cognitive functions and a world to operate in, such that you can "know it when you see it" at some level, the details of how cognition works as a whole is a more interesting question, but the requirement for logic is just this simple reliability of recognition and operation :). here we can also avoid the mistake of creating different categories of knowledge, such as what Kant and every other thinker in history has done, there really is no difference, every kind of pattern to be recognize is in a sense analytical in nature only, or in form, if you talk about the platonic realm as simply all possible patterns that can correspond to protocol sentences or real world objects, there is no difference between algebra and strawberries in terms of categories for example, both are sufficiently understood and have as well defined and rigorous analytical properties if they were completely understood and known, ofc it is doubtful that you could know every detail of a strawberry as well as the details of summation, but you see what i mean, the boundry between categories of knowledge is illusory when you get down to it, everything that can have operational meaning is in the same broad category so to speak. thereby we unify logic and metaphysics into a pretty easy to state bunch of sentences, such that we have a sufficient understanding to know that it is useless to separate kinds of knowledge in any sort of analytical sense, and the divisions are only our tools operationally just as well as any other category of knowledge, all paradoxes are nuked, and all is well in time for Christmas. unfortunately understanding the basis of logic doesn't fix spelling errors automatically, i apologize for that, but i wish you a happy holiday Sam, i hope the next year will turn out better than this one :).

@32:42 where he is talking about a Deist sort of heavenly father up in the clouds is a very weak idea of God which mostly developed after the enlightenment given Newtons contributions and the concept of a mechanical universe. I'm saying that this writer doesn't go deep enough into the classical theism presented by a variety of early church theologians up until the great divorce of Philosophy and theology around the 17th 18th century. He should explore and incorporate Philosophy such as that which David Bentley Hart writes about in his book The Experience of God. Without presenting the strong understanding of God concept from traditionalist, I find it hard to take his research more seriously. I've had my own experiences with hallucinogenics and meditation as well as a good bit of reading in Philosophy and having attended Catholic and Lutheran churches. I feel like you can have the experiences he talks about but the development of classical reasoning and philosophy both eastern and western is necessary towards pursuing the good life. Also in Raja yoga there are states of experience which seem to go way beyond that which can be found through hallucinogens, according to teachers who I respect writing on the subject. Also I don't know of any evidence of mystics like Eckhart having taken hallucinogenics. But anyway his research is worth development. I just wish he'd acknowledge a deeoer understanding of God that has existed for thousands of years in classical philosophy and non hallucinogenic based practices.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:6-11

Sam always tries to get everyone into drugs, my hero.

In fact, drugs have been around since the dawn of humanity and are an integral part of the story of mankind. The fact that drugs are mentioned is simply because drugs are an aspect of religious history in one way or another, or one drug or another, both ceremonially and or through personal choice. Sam Harris is an excellent researcher and student of history. What he is retelling and what he is describing here is very informational as simply factual.

Maybe they distrusted logic and wanted another viewpoint which would bypass learned experience but still experience another function the brain was capable of processing. But what if these substances only affect certain parts of the brain and are therefore limited in scope and in what is learned therefore incomplete.

AND .... Most of the altered states of consciousness practices “originated” (relatively speaking) in ancient Egypt for reasons I can’t elaborate on here. Specifically, the blue lotus flowers that appear often and so prominently in Egyptian art (generally held by women and being offered to male students) were sources of psychedelic substances. It’s been documented that Plato - like many of the elite in his time - visited Egypt and the Great Library at Alexandria to learn and be initiated into a transformative state. He stated, upon his return to Greece, that he came back “as a different man “. The pyramids around the world were built (by the “gods” ....NOT humans) both as energy generators on top of underground aquifers AND as portals to enter into other dimensions (rituals for this were also conducted by females FAR down in the lowest areas of the structures). The reason that pharaohs later in history chose to be buried within pyramids was precisely to be able to enter into these other dimensions after physical death.

Written as early as the 7th century B.C.,Job says, ‘I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will lift me up on the Last Day’. All the religious idea of resurrection in the worship of other gods, came from the Adversary, who wants to confuse people.

I am by no means a scholar but I am pretty sure the g in gnostic is silent.

Califon?

Sam, I love your work. I hate this clickbait video title. It could perhaps be worse as - "People, many people, are saying - The Best Kept Secret In History?: A Conversation with Brian Muraresku"

I read Greek and a little Latin but Sanskrit sounds super not fun to learn.

RU-vid - The Earliest Western Buddhist Monks. Interesting perspective from 25 rains, Theravadan venerable. He was a classical guitarist and philosopher before ordaining and has spent his celibate years teaching the Dhamma and reading/comparing Eastern/Western philosophy. Lives in Canada. What were they drinking in India? Interestingly Buddhist laypersons can drink intoxicants but in moderation for civil purposes. But I understand you have to maintain a contemporary scientific argument.

No 14 minute rant about Elon on Trump preceding the pod 👍 let's keep doing that

damn i would like to subscribe for only for this episode

That “Moses” was an alias and who he really was is history’s best kept secret.

👍

It's incredibly exotic to call this stuff "spiritual". I've done LSD, mushrooms, and ayahuasca, so i know first-hand what it's like. It definitely enables access to different parts of your mind than you usually see, or that you even can see otherwise. In the same way that you can make up any story, you can imagine it's spiritual, but there's no reason to, and no proof that it's anything but your brain thinking unusual thoughts. It definitely gives you a "feeling" of connection to things outside of you but that's a known neurological response that can be triggered by many things. That feeling of "transcendence" is just a feeling, and it can be induced in many completely mundane ways. There's no actual "spirituality" apart from your mind.

They should have had a Last Lunch. Eating late in the evening is bad for the gallbladder.

34:11

If he finds the roots of Christianity so fascinating, why is he always hating on it?

❤

Btw the mushrooms connection with Christianity is through the unitive experience that the mushroom can give. This unitive state that is at the core of all the natural religions is a lower level state of consciousness then the highest state which is that of the Father that drugs and nothing can approach. It is only through Christ can the Father be revealed. Just as Jesus said, no one knows the Father except the Son and those He chooses to reveal Him to. This is said many times by Jesus and is a great mystery. Most so called Christians have no idea what it all means.

This one is actually a bit frustrating, even as an atheist. Historical research has already corroborated that Christianity was not “illegal” in the Roman Empire, same with the lore of the “underground” passages and communities. I’m willing to bet this guy who WROTE A BOOK will have a lot of fact checking in response. Sadly it will probably be dismissed from the “I saw it in a documentary” Rogan-esque crowd.

I wonder what Bart Ehrman would havr to say about this thesis.

💥

I think the Single Tax is the best kept secret in history

❤️‍🔥☦️❤️‍🔥

Take A Moment I would never join a club that would have me a member of: Mark's Grotcho. 1:42 reality 1:53 Popcorn time 2:03 🎉

Once you enter you never want to leave they say, I dead on lets go lets play, we step through a doorway the one thats hard to find we jump around on sacred ground on slemish mountain found 432

Forward by Graham Hancock? Oh no...

Please unlock your inner walrus as soon as co-healthily possible.