Psychedelic Bible: The Discovery of a Lifetime (John Lash)

_{Site Map > John Lash}

Contents:

• Intro
• Citation and Link
• John Lash’s 9 Articles about Entheogen History
• A Partial Copy of the Webpage Where Lash Uploaded the Cropped Mushroom Tree with Two Men and a Sword
• See Also

Intro

This page is not great, it only lists a copy of a portion of the article. Full presumably latest is at Metahistory site.

Motivation for this page: Moved this research out from my Criteria/Proof/Compelling Evidence article, which I’m tweaking.

Edited on computer, not mobile app. Update july 7 2022: edited title on mobile.

Citation and Link

The Discovery of a Lifetime
John Lash
2008, with 2016 addendum
http://metahistory.org/Discovery.php – a latest Eadwine page with an 2016 addendum.

John Lash’s 9 Articles about Entheogen History

My page
Wise as Serpents: Entheogenic Religion and the Paris Eadwine Psalter (John Lash) 
links to Lash’s 9 archived articles – they are not all at Metahistory site:

• 1 article about 20th C History entheogen history.
• 5 articles about Eadwine’s images in the Great Canterbury Psalter.
• 3 articles about Wasson.

Right now my main set of such links is in my “Wise as Serpents” page, but they point to possibly outdated versions at Archive.org, and should first point to http://metahistory.org if available there.

I think I have backups in some form, of all 9 articles, eg saved webpages.

A Partial Copy of the Webpage Where Lash Uploaded the Cropped Mushroom Tree with Two Men and a Sword

[missing much text, compare https://metahistory.org/Discovery.php – ]

Amazon’s John Lash https://www.amazon.com/John-Lash/e/B001HMTWY0 page

Lash’s webpage article “Psychedelic Bible – The Discovery of a Lifetime” – I’m pasting the top of the copy of his page to here.

From a copy of John Lash’s article (also check archive.org): https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biblianazar/esp_biblianazar_84.htm –

“To scholars, the presence of psychoactive mushrooms in religious art is a closed subject, a revelation too outrageous to admit; but for this self-taught scholar it was the discovery of a lifetime.” “It appears that religious scholars practice intentional blindness when it comes to this extraordinary work of sacred art.” Lash continues:

“A recent trip to Paris afforded me the chance to visit the National Library of France and acquire some inkjet reproductions of the Paris Eadwine Psalter. [Huggins corrects some authors about conflating titles of psalters, but it’s complicated, as we see Lash explaining here.] With a couple of exceptions, where the source is wrongly attributed to “the Canterbury Psalter,” this material appears exclusively on the Internet on metahistory.org. Gaze and wonder!”

[re: my 2006 Gallery page at Egodeath.com in support of my Wasson article:
http://egodeath.com/christianmushroomtrees.htm#_Toc134497563
has a different image than below. I’m trying to find more info about scope of my gallery, dates and sources of my images.]

[there’s now a bigger inclusive crop at https://metahistory.org/Discovery.php – ]

[Lash’s image circa 2008 is cropped to only show a portion, missing some of the ten pilzbaum. Lash’s image is faded, fewer colors (narrower color range spread) than the actual image.]

“Here is the same folio page shown in another view with color values adjusted to how it looks on microfilm – rather faded. I have not yet seen or handled the original MS so I do not know if its colors correspond to the gloriously preserved tones of the other version, or if this is a Photoshop effect.”

“In November 2006 [when my main & Plaincourault articles were finished at Egodeath.com -Cybermonk], shortly after the publication of my book Not in His Image [pdf of book], where I describe entheogenic rites in the pagan Mysteries at Eleusis and elsewhere, I made a long-awaited visit to the National Library in Paris.

“Upon acquiring a membership card I was able to consult the archives for Greek and Latin manuscripts, of which the BNF (Bibliotheque National de France) has an impressive collection.

“I was in quest of a very particular item, Latin MS 8846, the Paris Eadwine Psalter. This is the single and unique illuminated MS of the 12^th century, the only one of its kind in the world.”

“I was not able to handle the actual MS, but I examined the color microfilm made from it. My session of three hours in the microfilm booth left me with wide eyes, a slack jaw, and unsteady feet. I literally staggered out into the Rue de Richelieu.”

“For rest of the evening I remained in state of astonishment, totally stunned by the images I had seen rolling across the microfilm screen.”
[missing “the” at start, even at Lash site]

Psychedelic Bible

“The Paris Eadwine Psalter is an oversize bound book of about 184 sheets, about 367 pages counting both sides.

The cover page is stamped Volume No. 174, 10 October 1873, presumably the day it was acquired or catalogued. It opens with five full-page panels divided into twelve sections, lavishly colored and detailed.

“The panels show incidents from the Old Testament, running from the creation of Adam and Eve to the life of the Patriarch Jacob. There immediately follow many half-page and full-page illustrations of the Psalms interspersed with Latin commentary. After about 100 pages come four more twelve-section panels resuming the story of Jacob, then the illustrations jump to the Ark of the Covenant, David and Goliath, and John the Baptist.”

“About 45 pages further on there is a unique page composed of eighteen panels celebrating Jesus Christ, followed by two more twelve-panel pages illustrating events in the life of the Savior.”

“All this is totally Biblical narrative, larded with pious commentary and directions for song and prayer. The Eadwine MS is after all a psalter, intended for use by a choir or congregation in reciting prayers.”

“What is far from routine, however, is the way the book is illustrated. Blue-staining mushrooms and mushroom-like omphali occur in lavish form in the first 100 pages. Dozens of pages display versions of a stylized tree with a blue trunk, depicting how psychoactive mushrooms grow from the trunk of a single “fruiting body” that sprouts from the mycelium.“

“Often the mushroom trees are integrated into dramatic scenes showing humans interacting with angels and demons.“

A copy from https://www.ancientpsychedelia.com/canterbury-psalter/, likely uploaded by John Lash from a dot matrix printout from microfilm.

http://erocx1.blogspot.com/2008/02/john-lash-paradise-denied-entheogenic.html – about psalters

http://www.metahistory.org – John Lash’s site, check archive.org for deleted entheogen articles; find “Lash” at the present site for commentary.

https://nemeta.org – “educational organization founded on the work of mythologist John Lamb Lash, Sophianic School of Arts and Sciences.

See Also

Foraging for Psychedelic Mushrooms in the Wrong Forest (Huggins 2024)
Huggins’ article “Foraging” links to “Discovery of a Lifetime”, only.

What does Huggins say about Lash’s claims about the titles of the psalters?

Huggins criticizes and corrects Ruck’s Conjuring Eden article for conflating Paris Eadwine Psalter vs. Great Canterbury Psalter.