religiousrituals

This podcast was recorded on May 14th, 2021.

In today’s episode, Dr. Jordan Peterson is accompanied by author Brian Muraresku and Professor Carl Ruck to unravel the secrets of ancient Greek culture and religion. They embark upon the sinuous journey of discussing psychedelics in Ancient Greek religion, and how both Brian and Professor Ruck became deeply invested in understanding the subject.

Today we meet with Brian Muraresku, who tells us why and how he was drawn to research the role of psychedelics within Western civilization. Muraresku is also the author of The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name.

Carl Ruck is an American professor who’s known for his extensive research on mythology and religion regarding the sacred role of entheogens; a selection of psychoactive plants that are known for inducing altered states of reality or consciousness. Ruck co-authored the book The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries, and is currently teaching mythology classes supporting this theory at Boston University.

If you've taken part in a religious service, have you ever stopped to think about how it all came to be? How did people become believers? Where did the rituals come from? And most of all, what purpose does it all serve? This week, we explore these questions with psychologist Azim Shariff, who argues that we can think of religion from a Darwinian perspective, as an innovation that helped human societies to survive and flourish.