Here is an excerpt from my research notes on the scientific evidence suggesting that people practicing the Eleusinian Mysteries were tripping on LSD beer. If you want more, check out Once Bitten 562. Link in my profile.
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Archaeobotanist Jordi Juan-Tresserras from the University of Barcelona found “’the remains of ergot sclerotia’ at Mas Castellar de Pontos in not one, but two different artifacts connected to Pon’s iconic ‘domestic chapel.’ The fungus was found embedded between several teeth of a human jawbone. Microscopic evidence of the same organism was additionally identified in one of the miniature chalices that once contained a ‘special beer.’ Given the ‘cultic’ context of the area where both relics were unearthed in 1997, Juan-Tresserras linked whatever potion filled the tiny cup to ‘the consumption of the kykeon’ during the Mysteries of Eleusis. After all, ergot played a ‘fundamental role’ in the Ancient Greek rites according to Gordon Wasson. And no less a scientific expert than Albert Hofmann had explained how the ‘entheogenic alkaloids’ in ergot, like the water-soluble ergine and ergonovine, could have easily been separated from the toxic alkaloids.”
Juan-Tresseras wrote “the element to highlight is the presence of the remains of ergot sclerotia (Claviceps sp.), also identified in one of the human jawbones….This purple-colored mushroom has been associated with Demeter as well, especially because the color is associated with the goddess, and also because this fungus undergoes a cycle similar to the myth of Demeter and Persephone. After infecting the grain plant with ascospores, the purple-colored sclerotia that envelop the ears of the mature grain begin forming. At first, the sclerotia fall to the ground, where they pass the winter and fruit with the first spring rains, forming little purple-colored mushrooms that release ascospores that, using the wind to intercede, wind up infecting the ears. The harvest of the ears infected with sclerotia and their later processing contaminate the grain with toxic alkaloids. The psychoactive alkaloids of ergot are basically derivatives of lysergic acid [(LSD)] and have hallucinogenic effects.” This is in alignment with “The hypothesis from Wasson, Hofmann, and Ruck [which] is that the naturally occurring fungus ergot, derived from barley, would have potentiated the kukeon.”
