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The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible

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'The Mystery of Manna. The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible' is groundbreaking in that Merkur is the first author with an academic background in religious history, since the ill-fated John Allegro, to tackle the issue of the possibility of a psychoactive sacrament existing in an Judaeo-Christian context. John Allegro's 'Sacred Mushroom and the Cross' has been largely dismissed as either a joke at the expense of the Dead Sea Scrolls fraternity with whom he had fallen out, or an a example of a once brilliant academic going profoundly off the rails due to a personal obsession. Allegro's book is such a conundrum that it is rarely referred to today, even by those with an enthusiasm for the possible role of mushrooms in religious history and it cost him his academic reputation, though little may he have cared. It takes a brave scholar to step into Allegro's shoes.

Merkur contends that the miraculous Manna of Exodus fed by Moses to the Israelites, was a psychoactive substance, namely a bread or biscuit made from ergotised grain. Ergot being a parasitic fungus of cereal plants from which the powerful hallucinogen LSD was derived. Unfortunately, no-one to-date has successfully bio-assayed a simple preparation of ergot, such as would be have been available to the ancients, demonstrating powerful psycho-activity without toxic side effects. The known toxicity of ergot would in fact make this a very dangerous exercise. Experiments to date with pure ergot derived alkaloids of limited toxicity have been inconclusive. Speculations about different ergot type fungi, infecting different grains and possible ancient methods of successfully isolating psychoactive components remain just that for the time being. This is in strict contrast to the other known naturally occurring psychoactives such as psilocybin and amanita mushrooms, cannabis, opium, datura with an ancient history of religious usage, still in use by shamans and thoroughly explored by modern investigators.

Despite Merkur's conviction that he has found unassailable evidence that the Manna of Exodus and elsewhere in the Bible was a psychedelic, the initial textual evidence is really only strongly suggestive, involving as it does a minor scriptural revision and an implicit rather than explicit relationship between eating Manna and seeing the 'Glory of God'. Thereafter, the bulk of his book rests significantly on the evidence of literary juxtapositions of references to Manna and journeys of ecstatic ascent, in a variety of mystical traditions from the New Testament to the Holy Grail, again without the connection being made explicit. These veiled references are taken as evidence of a secret tradition and there is actually little doubt that journeys of ecstatic ascent such as those of the Book of Enoch, Saint Paul and the Prophet Mohammed were sometimes accomplished through the use of psychoactives. Clear testimony to this exists in the Zoroastrian scripture 'Arda Wiraz Namag', where such a journey is accomplished by means of a narcotic, possibly cannabis, henbane or both. There is near universal scholarly recognition that later scriptural journeys of ecstatic ascent to the various levels of heaven, in the company of angelic guides, are in the ancient shamanistic tradition and psychoactives are the shaman's method par excellence of visiting the other world. However, moving from evidence that is the strongly suggestive to the cognoscenti and enthusiasts of the plant drug theory of the origins of religious ideas, to hard evidence that will convince a sceptical critic is an important jump that I don't think is made in Merkur's book. In addition, mushrooms would appear a more obvious contender for the original Manna as a psychoactive that appears overnight and is prone to rapid infestation with worms. One must bear in mind though that there may be a mixture of traditions here.

In the case of Merkur's thesis, as with the similar work of other authors before him, such as that of Gordon Wasson, John Allegro and Schwartz and Flattery, what matters most is the light thrown on the likely role played by psychoactives in the development of world religions and the examination of associated traditions, rather than whether the author's particular argument in respect of the role played by a particular psychoactive, in a specific tradition is right or wrong. A commonality of such scholarship is the conviction of each author has that his proposed psychoactive candidate for a particular religious tradition is the correct one. There is in fact strong evidence that a wide variety of psychoactive plants have been used since time immemorial to obtain states of religious ecstasy and communion and given the massive time scales and movements of people involved it is likely that people have mixed and matched according to what they knew and what was available. Most significantly, a respected scholar of the mystical tradition in Judaism, Islam and Christianity, Merkur has revised his caution as expressed in his book 'Gnosis : An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions' regarding suggestive references to angel's bread and other heavenly foods.

Merkur applies a rigorous methodology which probably reflects his not only academic background and but also his own conviction that he is right even though he cannot produce really hard evidence, which is not surprising a concerning a tradition that was a secret. This book could easily have been written as a sensational pop-occult pot-boiler, uncritically drawing dramatic conclusions from sources that are really only suggestive. In fact, the rigour of the book's presentation requires close and careful reading to understand its arguments, even for those already interested by the subject matter and ready if not eager to be convinced. The literary references that Merkur has identified and other groundwork he has done will be of even greater value once other evidence for psychoactive drug use in the Judaeo-Christian tradition eventually emerges and when the toxicity versus psychoactivity problems of the ergot thesis are resolved. Dan Merkur's new book 'Manna, Meditation, and Mystical Experience' which elaborates on his original thesis has just been published.

A year and a half ago I wrote the below book review of Mr. Merkur's work.

After serious and long study, I have decided to give Merkur and second look. I've decided that in some instances, what I said below/previously was incorrect, or at least not wholly accurate.

Here are the following reasons why.

If Mr. Merkur had written a comparison between the Amanita, and the later "substitute" of the showbread/unleavened bread/ Presence bread and bitter waters, his book would have been incredible. Instead, he decided to steer clear of anything whatsoever associated to Allegro and the Amanita muscaria.

"If the psychoactive cult object that was euphemistically called manna was not the showbread, it was something else."
Dan Merkur

This was Merkur's primary downfall in the writing of this book. If Merkur had taken the time to reinvestigate the scandal surrounding John Strugnel and members of the international team of "scholars" who in 35 years did nothing but suppress the Dead Sea Scrolls, and anyone's career who challenged them, maybe he wouldn't have been so quick to judge Allegro. (See Dr. Robert Eisenman, Judith Anne Brown, Biblical Archeology Review, Baigent and Leigh, etc.) It is unfortunate that so few really take the necessary time to discover the scandal of the Dead Sea Scrolls which finally ended Strugnel's career in a state of international embarrassment--irony at it's finest.

Merkur provides an EXCELLENT case for a "SUBSTITUTE" manna of the Bible, and states so himself. But as I said in my previous review, many of his statements clearly back Allegro and references to the Amanita (and other mushrooms that both have missed), and it seems that he missed the mushroom references, or wanted to ignore them.

"What among the ritual objects of Solomon's temple was described in biblical narrative as Manna? The answer is not far to seek. According to Josh. 5:11-12, unleavened bread was SUBSTITUTED [caps mine] in Canaan for the manna of the wilderness years."
Dan Merkur Pg. 5

I should mention here that Strong's Concordance clearly relates the Hebrew word for wilderness, "midbar," in this passage as being related to cattle pastures, and therefore most likely related to Psilocybe mushrooms:

4057 midbar mid-bawr' from 1696 in the sense of driving; a pasture (i.e. open field, whither cattle are driven); by implication, a desert; also speech (including its organs):--desert, south, speech, wilderness.
~ Strong's Concordance


The main problem with Allegro's research, was that he attempted to link a "language bridge" between Greek and Hebrew through Sumerian to show the FACT of entheogens in the Bible. Though Allegro also used Sanskrit, if he had only used Sanskrit, probably near none of his work (except his misunderstanding of effects, taste etc.) would have been contested. Though philologists today still contest Allegro's work in The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross; none seem to be qualified (in my humble opinion) in the study of both entheogens and fertility rites as well...and can not be used to make a strong claim against Allegro.

As I said in my previous review, this book is an EXCELLENT source for discovering entheogen references in the bible, and as an argument toward a substitute manna, this book is fantastic.

"Immediately after the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and ate the produce of Canaan, Yahveh ceased to provide them with manna. Unleavened bread REPLACED [caps mine] manna in their diet. Interestingly, the Israelites did not eat the produce of Canaan on their first night in Canaan."
Dan Merkur Pg. 5

I also should have given Merkur more credit for his valid discoveries of ergot. While I still feel that many of my previous statements were correct, I should have substantiated them, and not been so hard on Merkur for taking the orthodox path of bashing Allegro. It seems to be the fashionable thing to do. But it was Allegro who was the first to take a serious look at the Bible for Entheogens. Allegro said the Bible is based on drugs, and if you don't believe Allegro, read the hundreds of wonderful biblical passages Merkur has provided for you to discover on your own. It is also highly recommended that one seriously interested in this field take a look at Clark Heinrich's book "Magic Mushrooms," and Professor Ruck and Heinrich's "Apples of Apollo" and make a comparison to Merkur AND Allegro.

The final problem I still have with Merkur's work is that he does appear to be lacking in areas of ancient mythology, and attempts to historicize and literalize fictitious mythological characters.

Upon a deep study of entheogens, one realizes that the Hindu gods, Greek gods, Phoenician gods, Native American gods, Celtic gods, Egyptian gods etc. were all primarily based on drug anthropomorphisms (See McKenna, Myerhoff, Ruck, Staples, Heinrich, Wilson, Spess, Wasson, Hofmann, Ratsch, Ott, Narby, etc.)...

...and were also often based on star worship or "Astrotheology" (See Jordan Maxwell, Manly P. Hall, Acharya S. Ernest Brusenbark, Kersey Graves, Gerald Massey, G.A. Wells, etc.)... One realizes that it's more of a stretch of the imagination to attempt historicity of these characters than to just accept their anthropomorphized reality and understand these ancient texts for what they are...

Shamanic MYTHOLOGY!

I am changing my previous rating of this book from 2 to 4.

To "Substitutes"!

After reading Dan Merkur's book The Mystery of Manna, it has become quite clear that the author has no comprehension of Mythology, Mycology, or Shamanism it self. Mr. Merkur in his notes of Chapter #1 footnote #5 states that "Neither is there evidence to support the cavalier allagation of John M. Allegro, The sacred Mushroom and the Cross...That manna was Amanita Muscaria, the fly agaric mushroom."

Mr. Merkur is clearly not a world leading Philologist/Mythologist, and has written an entire book backing John Allegro's theory, but does not even see it himself, and clearly had to ignore volumes of other's research in order to make his case.

Although Merkur makes a couple of good points about the bitter waters being ergot, his entire thesis backs Allegro, where he points out numerous statements about the Bread (In most cases, a term for the Amanita), the rock (A baby Amanita) and the staff (The stem of the Amanita) caused fire to come from the rock (the term for the undeveloped Amanita bursting forth its red cap), the miraculas fire (The red of the Amanita), The Oak (One of the few trees the Amanita grows under), the wilderness (The place where the Amanita grows), The Ark (Another name for Amanita, as well as the burning bush), and both Manna and water in the wilderness (The tea made from the Amanita), as well as the so-called 'Angels', which is a simple morphing of the words AAHKUT, AKKHUT, AAK HUT, ANGKHUT, and ANKH, which are simply ancient words for Hongo, or Hanggo, and Anggelos which are in and of themselves words for "Mushroom".

Mr. Merkur's lack of experience with these substances becomes painfully clear, as he just does not get it. He is by no means a Shaman who is writing about Shamanism, which he refers to as "Cults", which depicts a clear lack of understanding of what this is all about.

Mr. Merkur's book is excellent for finding the passages in the Bible that refer to entheogens, and he does make a few good points...But, for one with a firm understanding of mycology, and especially of that surrounding the Amanita, by changing the ergot references to Amanita, the book becomes somewhat readable. Regardless, Mr. Merkur is so far off base that it appears that his indoctrinated PH.D. has got the best of him. I would recommend reading his book only if you're doing your own research for writing purposes, etc. But for factual information on what Manna is, this guy doesn't even come close to the target.

Merkur's "The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible" poses the thesis that the majority of the major mystical experiences over the last 2000 years are the by-product of the consumption of psychedelic substances administered as part of the secret initiations kept alive outside of the mainstream of Western religious practices. The holy Eucharist, shewbread, Masonic symbolism, and the Grail Quest are the means by which this tradition has been transmitted despite persecution from secular and ecclesiastical authorities. While the topic is definitely hot and very debatable, Merkur has well researched it and presents his material in a highly readable manner. A nice introduction to this controversial subject.

This book is a gate to new understanding of ancient rituals, and can elaborate same ritual nowadays among many tribes and cultures. It makes us understand that God is hidden in nature's gifts, otherwise this connection couldn't be explained. Before Adam was put on the earth the plants where there for him to cultivate and to preserve.
The primordial experience of mankind probably passes through this gate between Tree of life, Tree of knowledge
To open their venues of consciousness, the sacred transformation, was and is, a way to 'see' the supreme. The information in this book really contributed to my research.

Anyone interested in the entheogen theory of religion should definitely read this book. It is well-written and scholarly. The field is inherently speculative at this early point. This is a much-needed valuable contribution to religion studies.

Today's situation is a perfect example of a paradigm shift: if you examine each hypothesis separately and each book on the subject separately, and assume the dominant paradigm or non-theory of "those crazy and primitive ancients are simply unfathomable and alien to our way of thinking," you'll be able to easily dismiss each hypothesis and each book.

But when you consider the still-small set of all books and articles about the entheogen theory of religion, a viable alternative paradigm is coming into view. This new paradigm, within which Merkur is only one of a growing number of researchers, is readily yielding specific plausible hypotheses, while the official dominant view has no hypotheses other than "the ancients' minds operated differently than ours, and we simple can't comprehend them, and they were remarkably excitable by wine -- lightweights, unlike us."

Therefore, any one book in this field cannot be reasonably evaluated in isolation; instead, read Merkur's book Psychedelic Sacrament, Clark Heinrich's 1995 book Strange Fruit, which also has coverage of ergot in the Old Testament, and several other books in the field of the entheogen theory of religion. Only then are you reasonably equipped to assess how much this book contributes to our understanding of the history of religion and the nature of religious experiencing.