When we hear the word ‘mystery’, we might immediately think of an Agatha Christie novel starring a French-speaking detective with a funny moustache; or if you wasted your childhood’s Saturday mornings in front of a TV watching cartoons (brother!) you might imagine a psychedelic-looking van driven by 4 teens and a great Dane.

But 2500 years ago, the mystery schools were the very backbone of Greek society because they managed to impart into their adepts some of the most transcendental lessons one can get in life: confronting your own mortality, and a glimpse of our divine self. The teachings of the mystery schools were considered so important and secret, that only veiled references and partial descriptions have managed to be retrieved from ancient texts, giving us an incomplete picture of these ritual practices that invoked, among other things, the use of psychedelic substances.

Unfortunately, with the arrival of Christianity, the mystery schools were banned and condemned as demonic practices, with their ancient secrets lost forever… but what if they could be brought back?

If you are interested in this sort of stuff, then you definitely should consider joining the live streaming event organized by the McKenna Academy next May 8th, when Dennis McKenna will have a ‘virtual fireside’ chat with Brian Muraresku, author of The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name.

If you are a long-time reader of The Daily Grail, then you know we’ve always supported Dennis and his wonderful contributions to the fields of psychopharmacology, ethnobotany and psychedelic advocacy –here’s a link to my review of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the famous La Chorrera experiment. And Muraresku’s work has also gained a lot of attention lately from the likes of Graham Hancock and Joe Rogan, so this certainly promises to be a fun event in which thousands of psychonauts from all around the world will have a chance to learn from and interact with these two distinguished scholars.

Registration for the event starts at US$5 (kykeon drink and mask of Dionysius not included)