Mushrooms, Myth & Mithras

It sounded like a fascinating subject. I really thought I was going to like it. But Mushrooms, Myth & Mithras: The Drug Cult That Civilized Europe, by Carl A. P. Ruck, Mark A. Hoffman and Jose Alfredo Gonzales Celdran, was about as interesting as reading the names of those three men. Most of the time, I felt as if I was reading the same sentence, over and over and over again. Other moments felt as if they had been constructed by an incompetent carpenter who had to bend things just to make them fit. The object of the book was to trace Mithraism, an ancient warrior religion from Persia that uses hallucinogens in initiation rituals, through Roman history to present day. Like I said, it sounded like a great idea. But the book just didn’t come through. The writing was boring, repetitive and bland and just kept going on, and on, and on about the “Tauroctony,” the site of the ritualistic re-enactment of the slaying of a bull. I don’t know how I made it through. My wife suggested I take mushrooms. I didn’t try it. But I probably would have enjoyed it more.