Since I posted about Dr Hoffman's discovery, I thought I'd also add this info about the ritual use of sacred psychedelic plants and fungi in the ancient mystery religions,... the Mysteries of Eleusis in particular:
"Some scholars believe that the power of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from the kykeon's functioning as a psychedelic agent; this was argued most extensively in The Road to Eleusis, by R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hoffman, and Carl A. P. Ruck. Barley may be parasitized by the fungus ergot, which contains LSA, a precursor to LSD. It is thus possible that the initiates, sensitized by their fast and prepared by preceding ceremonies, were propelled by the effects of a powerful psychoactive potion into revelatory mind states with profound spiritual and intellectual ramifications. "
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