The Romanesque Cathedral in Athens

Brian Muraresku—author of The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name—spent twelve years entrenched in connecting the dots between the use of mind-altering drugs and the foundation of Christianity as we know it today. Many of us are familiar with the holy wine present at ancient religious celebrations. But what was actually in that wine? Was it anything like the wine we drink today? Muraresku says the evidence suggests it was very different—that the wine was routinely mixed with other substances, from spices and perfumes to herbs, and fungi. For Muraresku, this begged the question: What was the intent of those who drank it? Today, he joins host Elise Loehnen to share the wild journey this question led him on and what he discovered along the way about faith, science, and the rise of the church—including long-suppressed evidence of just how fundamental women were to the origin and survival of Christianity. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.)

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