The kykeon contained barley, water, and pennyroyal. The ceremony password was 'I have fasted, I have drunk the kykeon, I have taken from the secret chest.' In 1978, Carl Ruck and co-authors proposed in 'The Road to Eleusis' that the drink contained ergot-derived psychedelics — ergot is the raw material from which LSD is synthesized. Brian Muraresku revived this theory in 2020 with 'The Immortality Key.'
The 1978 'Road to Eleusis' ergot hypothesis and its critics
Key facts
- The kykeon drink contained barley, water, and pennyroyal (a wild mint)
- The ceremony password was 'I have fasted, I have drunk the kykeon, I have taken from the secret chest'
- In 1978, Carl Ruck and two co-authors published 'The Road to Eleusis' proposing the drink contained ergot-derived psychedelics
- Ergot is the raw material from which LSD is synthesized
- Raw ergot poisoning caused St. Anthony's Fire in the Middle Ages, bringing convulsions, gangrene, and death
- Midwives historically used small, carefully measured doses of ergot to stop postpartum bleeding
- In 2020, Brian Muraresku published 'The Immortality Key,' reviving and extending the psychedelic theory to wider ancient religion
Sources
worldhistory.org
Linked in video description
hellenic.org.au
Linked in video description
Kykeonen.wikipedia.org
Some were made of water, barley and naturally occurring substances. Others were made with wine and grated cheese. contain two psychoactive alkaloids, ...
Science Revisits Kykeon: The Enduring Enigma of the ...open-foundation.org
While this study does not prove that the kykeon was psychedelic, nor that ergot was used in the Eleusinian Mysteries, nor, regrettably, does it ...
Investigating the psychedelic hypothesis of kykeon ...nature.com
by RK Antonopoulos · 2026 · Cited by 3 — Tul., a fungus infecting cereals and producing ergot alkaloids (EAs), was the psychedelic agent in kykeon, the sacred elixir of the Eleusinian ...
Kykeon – Ancient Greek Ritual Drink – Eleusinian Mysterieshistoricalitaliancooking.home.blog
KYKEON Ingredients whole-grain barley pennyroyal Method Roast the barley … then add a bit of minced pennyroyal.
Did ancient Greek priestesses brew a mind-bending potion ...science.org
the kykeon's ingredients, quoting Demeter as stating it contains “barley and water with soft mint.”
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