Book SummaryThe Immortality Key, by Brian C. Muraresku

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Immortality Key

The Immortality Key, published in 2020, is Brian Muraresku’s deep dive into the origins of Christianity and its overlap with pre-existing pagan religious customs. In this book, Muraresku argues that Christianity began as a female-led mystical cult that used psychedelics to induce transcendental states to connect with the divine.

Muraresku is a scholar of ancient languages and law, holding degrees from Brown and Georgetown Universities. He has spent a decade in search of evidence to support what he calls the “pagan continuity hypothesis with a psychedelic twist.” The pagan continuity hypothesis theorizes that when Christianity arrived in Greece around AD 49, it didn’t suddenly replace the existing religion. Rather, Christian beliefs were gradually incorporated into the pagan customs that already existed there. In this way, the two traditions coexisted in a syncretic form for some time before Christianity became a religion that was considered entirely distinct from its pagan predecessors. And even then, many of those pagan customs, such as wine-based rituals, have remained a part of Christianity to the present day.

Paganism: Historic and Modern Definitions

The word “pagan” is derived from the Latin word paganus, which means something like “country folk.” It originated in the early days of the Roman Empire as a derogatory term applied to anyone who was still practicing their pre-Christian religions, with the implication that they were simple-minded and uncivilized “hicks.” So, technically, “pagan” originally meant anyone who wasn’t Christian. Because of the explicit agenda to eliminate pagan religions, the term became laden with negative connotations and false assumptions, such as the association of paganism with devil worship, black magic, and human sacrifice.

However, over time, the term has been reclaimed and many people in the contemporary world refer to themselves as pagans. Paganism now typically refers to religions that share some common features, such as:

• Nature-centeredness: Pagan religions have a deep reverence for nature at the heart of their beliefs and practices.

• Polytheism or animism: Pagan religions involve a belief in multiple gods and goddesses (whether literal or symbolic), or the view that all of nature is imbued with living/divine spirit.

• Divine feminine: Pagan traditions incorporate some element of the divine feminine, through worship of goddesses, or a belief that there is a sacred feminine aspect of nature or the Earth.

The “psychedelic twist” Muraresku adds in this book is his hypothesis that the pagan traditions existing in the Greco-Roman world at the time of the emergence of Christianity (and long before it) involved rituals using_...

The Immortality Key Summary Pre-Christian Greek Religion

Muraresku says we can’t possibly understand the origins of Christianity without understanding the religions that already existed in that region at the time it emerged, so this is where we’ll begin. He centers his pre-Christianity investigation on ancient Greece, for two overlapping reasons:

1) The Greco-Roman world is where Christianity became a major religious and political entity.

2) Ancient Greece is credited as being the cultural foundation of Western civilization. So, if Muraresku’s theory is correct, that would mean pagan psychedelic rituals contributed not just to Christianity, but to the development of Western culture as we know it today.

At the time of the birth of Christianity, the Greeks practiced a polytheistic religion, with mythology including 12 major gods and goddesses, and many other minor ones. This religion included a rich mystical tradition. This means that practitioners sought to attain a profound spiritual connection with the supernatural. The real religious experience, Muraresku says, was happening in ritual ceremonies, as a direct individual connection to the divine and mystical.

What Is Mysticism?

The word mysticism[ comes...

The Immortality Key Summary Proto-Christianity and the Pagan Continuity Hypothesis

Now that we understand the religious setting in Greece at the time, we can examine how Christianity rooted itself into Greek culture, gradually intertwined with the existing religious customs, and ultimately spread throughout the Romanized world.

It’s believed that Christianity arrived in Greece in AD 49 with Saint Paul, one of the apostles of Jesus. However, Christianity didn’t become the official religion of the Greco-Roman world until AD 392. Until this time, the polytheistic pagan and Christian traditions existed simultaneously throughout the region. So, these three centuries are the key time period for understanding the continuity between the existing pagan traditions and Christianity. Muraresku refers to the Christian practices during this time period as “proto-Christianity.”

(Shortform note: Muraresku’s pagan continuity hypothesis itself isn’t as controversial as his claims about psychedelic use. The continuity between pagan traditions and early Christianity has been supported by evidence from all around the area of the world that was dominated by the Roman Empire. Scholars have noted many instances of Christian elements being combined with pre-Christian pagan...

The Immortality Key Summary The Psychedelic Element

Now that the pagan continuity hypothesis is defended, the next task is to show that the pagan and proto-Christian ritual sacraments were, in fact, psychedelic brews.

Again, how did Christianity take hold in a world with such a rich mystical tradition? In addition to having beliefs and iconography that paralleled that of the existing traditions, Muraresku believes the practices also had to have been similar enough to be meaningful for people to adopt. Proto-Christianity, therefore, incorporated mysticism, through the use of a magical wine that promises redemption and immortality. In this section, we’ll look at the written and archaeological evidence Muraresku presents for the existence of psychoactive beer and wine in the ancient Greco-Roman world.

Psychoactive Beer

Muraresku first attempts to find evidence that the kukeon used in the Eleusinian Mysteries was in fact a psychedelic beer. We’ll look at the evidence he presents, from both the historical written record and the physical archaeological remains of sites from the region, in the early days of Christianity.

Written and Historical Evidence

Muraresku begins by discussing a written record that...

The Immortality Key Summary Elimination of Mystical Traditions

By the fourth century, religious traditions had become deeply fractured. On the one hand, there were the Gnostic proto-Christians, who were practicing the mystical traditions aligned with the pagan practices; and on the other, there were a growing number of powerful leaders who aimed to establish Christianity as an ecclesiastical tradition. This means the elite, particularly in Rome, wanted to establish a hierarchical church, within which only the leaders had access to power and divinity—this would become Orthodox Christianity. Muraresku says establishing such a tradition meant the elimination of two things sacred to the mystical tradition: women and drugs.

Exclusion of Women

One way to ensure the Mysteries couldn’t survive, Muraresku says, was to exclude women from the priesthood or official church leadership. The Mysteries relied on women to prepare the sacrament—it was a knowledge that was considered their domain. So, removing women from leadership positions was crucial for eliminating all traces of pagan customs.

(Shortform note: In 2021 Pope Francis changed some policies to [allow women some expanded roles in the...

Shortform Exercise: Consider the Role of Psychedelics in the World

Now that you’ve learned about the role psychedelics have played in cultures throughout history, consider what role they might play in the world today.

Knowing the importance they’ve had in many cultures, and the benefits they’ve offered people, why do you think most psychedelics are illegal in much of the world today? Do you think they should be illegal?