Ebook: The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross

'A distinguished British scholar has· written a sensational book that is certain to cause the greatest upheaval in orthodox christian thinking since Charles Darwin said Man was descended from the ape. For he not only argues the non-existence of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, but claims that Christianity itself as well as Judaism and other religions of the Near and Middle East- are no more than hangovers from an ancient fertility cult. Such a claim, such a challenge to orthodox belief, coming as it does from one of the country's leading experts in his field, is something of a religious H-bomb - threatening a shattering fall-out.. Sunday Mirror 'I knew from the way it was attacked by the religious Establishment in the Press that this was a book it was important to read for its challenge to common assumptions' The Daily Telegraph Magazine 'Allegro boldly sketches in the origins of the primitive fertility cult with an exciting plunge into the catacombs of antiquity where mythology and mycology mingle in a poetict hallucinatory haze of credible speculation. It is a dazzling foray into the obscure hinterlands of comparative philology' Dennis Potter, The Times 'A remarkable feat of scholarship' The Glasgow Herald A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East Professor Allegro (Univ. of Manchester) has hitherto been known for his several excellent books on the Dead Sea Scrolls. In an unusual reversal, he has now produced a book that will make The Passover Plot seem the last refuge of theological ultra-conservatism. The thesis of the book is simple enough: Jesus did not exist, the Gospels were & are a hoax, & Christianity is the atavistic vestige of an ancient fertility cult in which the object of worship was a peculiarly phallic mushroom, Amanita muscaria, capable of producing psychedelic reactions. As farfetched as all this may seem, it cannot be denied that he has brought to this work the same care & scholarly detachment that have characterized his earlier, & more conventional, works; & he has made not one concession to the sensational nature of his thesis. The book is, in fact, a demanding one, which presupposes in the reader at least a working knowledge of the ancient Semitic tongues & of the sciences considered auxiliary to biblical studies. Only the most determined non-professional iconoclast will be willing to wade through his unrelenting jargon. None of which, of course, will affect the demand for what is probably to become a very controversial work.

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A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East Professor Allegro (Univ. of Manchester) has hitherto been known for his several excellent books on the Dead Sea Scrolls. In an unusual reversal, he has now produced a book that will make The Passover Plot seem the last refuge of theological ultra-conservatism. The thesis of the book is simple enough: Jesus did not exist, the Gospels were & are a hoax, & Christianity is the atavistic vestige of an ancient fertility cult in which the object of worship was a peculiarly phallic mushroom, Amanita muscaria, capable of producing psychedelic reactions. As farfetched as all this may seem, it cannot be denied that he has brought to this work the same care & scholarly detachment that have characterized his earlier, & more conventional, works; & he has made not one concession to the sensational nature of his thesis. The book is, in fact, a demanding one, which presupposes in the reader at least a working knowledge of the ancient Semitic tongues & of the sciences considered auxiliary to biblical studies. Only the most determined non-professional iconoclast will be willing to wade through his unrelenting jargon. None of which, of course, will affect the demand for what is probably to become a very controversial work.

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