Literary Review: ‘The Holy Mushroom’ by Jan R. Irvin (with Jack Herer)

Originally published in 2008 ‘The Holy Mushroom – Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity’ by Jan R. Irvin, with Jack Herer, is a fine addition to a very much under-researched area; the entheogenic relationship with religion. It critically re-evaluates  the schism between the theory’s two greatest proponents – R. Gordon Wasson and John M. Allegro – and introduces new pictorial and textual evidence to add weight to the contemporary arguments.

The study of entheobotany developed off the back of ethnobotany, which is to say the relationship between humans and plants developed into the more precise consideration of the theoretical existence of a connection between hallucinogenic agents and religious/spiritual practice in human history.

There’s a fair amount of controversy surrounding the topic and this is reflected in the fact that, for the most part, mainstream researchers have failed to give it a detailed deconstruction; leaving it beyond even the periphery of academic circles. However, one deconstruction that has been performed was by Dr. Andy Letcher in his book ‘Shroom’. He concluded that, according to the available evidence, the religious use of magic mushrooms in the Western world is a modern phenomena. According to Irvin, however, ‘The Holy Mushroom’ disproves his conclusion.

Before looking at this contemporary schism we shall first examine Irvin’s elucidation of an earlier one. In specific regard to mushrooms and the Western world, it is two individuals who have come to dominate the popular psychedelic theories of this area; banker and amateur mycologist Robert Gordon Wasson and scholar John M. Allegro.

In a nutshell, when Allegro published ‘The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross’ – an attempt to explain the roots of Christianity as a fertility and mushroom cult through the use of philology – the book was met with a great degree of popular and academic outrage. Although one might expect Wasson, who had already established a link between psilocybin mushrooms and religion in Mexican culture, to have been excited about new scholarship in the area, he was not. In fact, the two had a rather public spat via letters in the Times Literary Supplement.

But why did they disagree? Aside from any considerations of professional pride, on either side, it is primarily three points that came to drive a wedge between the two. Firstly, disagreements over whether the Plaincourault fresco was depicting mushrooms or stylized trees. Secondly, over the possible dates for the use of Fly Agaric in Near and Middle Eastern culture (Wasson believes it continued down to 1000 B.C. whilst Allegro takes it down to at least the time of Christ.) Thirdly, and rather obtusely because of the extent it had to with his hypothesis, Wasson was critical over the citations of the chemical make-up of fly agaric.

Irvin’s research deconstructing the letters and in checking the references of Allegro, alongside new research, reveals the schism to be quite possibly a mute point that has only served to hold back scholarship. He examines the misunderstandings, between Wasson and Allegro and the wider research fields, and his argument comes across very strongly; ultimately finding that their positions are not incompatible. Irvin even demonstrates that Wasson never actually read Allegro’s book. Personal and professional pride, coupled with angry popular reactions, appears to be the underlying premise in Wasson’s attack of the ‘The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross.’

“The time has come for the acceptance and incorporation of John M. Allegro’s valid research into the fields of both biblical theology and entheobotany. His insights and contributions, and those of other scholars studying entheogens in Christianity after him, are certain to move the study of Judeo-Christianity and its origins forward – far beyond his pioneering theories – for decades to come. Let us no longer be restrained by outmoded, prejudiced beliefs.”

Irvin is right to note that there are many reasons to open up the scholarship on Allegro’s work. Allegro’s analysis of Sumerian root words, for example, uses many asterisks. This is a philological convention meaning that when two root words are used in conjunction to create a new one, that there isn’t extant evidence of the new one in the record, only of the two roots. How far we can come to surmise the truth of what Allegro speculates on can be neither off-handedly discarded nor blindly applauded. The key is opening up the debate to a wider audience of expertise by garnering sufficient reason to do so and in that ‘The Holy Mushroom’ is highly commendable.

The additional evidence includes a plethora of new frescos from all over Europe dated approximately between the 10^th and 19^th centuries but largely coming from around the 11^th and 12^th. Plates of these frescos are all included in the book for the reader to peruse and, whilst they can make up their own mind of what they depict, I’m not totally convinced that art history has come up with a definitive answer as yet.

From a literary point-of-view the most interesting addition to the debate is The Epistle to the Renegade Bishops text. Referenced from the Harvard Ukrainian Studies journal, as part of an article by Professor Harvey Goldblatt, this rare 16^th century text written by Ivan Vysensicyj, mentions the miracle of a “holy mushroom”. It also states that this miracle, which had to do with the 40 martyrs of Sebaste, “…was pronounced throughout the entire ecumene…”. This, as far as the current evidence demonstrates, is the only explicit description of a holy mushroom in the Christian corpus.

Through a combination of the new pictorial and textual evidence Irvin states that “I have also shown sufficient evidence to refute Letcher (2007).” This is a rather bold statement but highlights the more contemporary scholarly schism. Essentially this schism asks the question: Do we assume a prioi that there was a mushroom cult in Christianity and find evidence to prove it? Or should we examine the available evidence and draw conclusions from it? The Epistle text is a case in point.

According to Letcher: “Given the internal evidence of the text it seems utterly improbable that this refers to a magic mushroom cult: this is a foul polemic against apostasy in which Christians who abandon Orthodoxy for Catholicism are treated to an excoriating damnation.” When one also takes into account the more traditional use of mushrooms in Eastern European culture; then the symbology appears merely to fit the cultural history.

Academically speaking, the text offers a window of opportunity through which further research into this specific event could reveal more evidence. If it was “pronounced throughout the entire ecumene” one might assume that other references to the miracle might be out there, from which a better picture may be built, but as proof of the mushroom cult theory and as disproof of Letcher’s hypothesis it falls well short. Its value lies in opening up a new route of investigation.

‘The Holy Mushroom’ contains a wealth of information. The reproduction of the Epistle passage containing the mushroom reference, photos of the frescos and the breakdown of the Wasson/Allegro schism – not least to mention Jack Herer’s appendix and the examination of other unsupported claims  – means the book is an essential addition to your library.