Was John the Revelator smoking crack?

By the way, I highly advise you not to read it alone, or at night. Very spooky stuff, this.

Maybe being plunged into boiling oil addled his brain? LOL
Considering the Bible is the greatest “story” ever told, it stands to reason many of it’s authors were under the influence of something. You know, that wine mixed with gall, wild mushrooms, fungus with hallucinogenic properties. The Salem with trials are now blamed to people consuming the Ergot fungus on Rye and Wheat that sent them on some serious hallucinogenic trips.

Not to mention a whole lot of untreated mental illness.
Why do you think they all tarried so much? haha

You mean like Stephen King when he wrote the child orgy in IT? Yeah, probably.

No. John wrote The Revelation nearly 2000 years ago. Crack was invented 40 years ago.
Since it is impossible for John to have smoked crack, it is far more likely that people who suggest he did are high.

I had a pastor once tell me that he thought that John the Revelator was most certainly under the influence of some kind of hallucinogenic substance.

The book of Revelation was written by John while living in poverty and exile on the island of Patmos. Not a lot of money for hallucinogins, nor was it the nature of prophets to use them. Once again, the understanding of the culture is wayyy off.

The book of Revelation is not a particularly scary book. Its cryptic nature has several interpretations as to whether it has to do with the “end times” or events in the first century that were coming to fulfillment, The End Times interpretation certainly looks plausible nowadays and that’s probably what is freaking you out.

@Yellowdog Hallucinogens grow wild in all sorts of forms. Morning glory seeds, Opium poppies, baby rosewood seeds, fungi of all kinds. ‘God” only knows what kinda tea and gruel John was partaking in. No money needed, this wasn’t modern drug dealing days. LOL

What’s the story: morning glory?

By their very nature, caves are conducive to altered states of consciousness. The darkness and isolation is the perfect recipe for sensory deprivation. With sensory deprivation often comes vivid imagery, and this imagery can be made even more vivid through a number of techniques that can include include everything from simple repetition of a mantra or prayer, to hyperventilation, to the ingestion of psychoactive substances, to dancing to the point of exhaustion, to sleep and/or food deprivation.
Also, an entheogen known as “Gramofonche”, or Morning Glory, is a part of the flora of Patmos. The question of whether Morning Glory was ever used ritualistically in this area is often widely debated.

http://entheology.com/peoples/revelation-a-psychdelic-vision/

@Yellowdog “The book of Revelation was written by John while living in poverty and exile on the island of Patmos. Not a lot of money for hallucinogins, nor was it the nature of prophets to use them. Once again, the understanding of the culture is wayyy off.”

Talk about understanding being wayyyy off…

We’re not exactly suggesting that he was buying hits of LSD from the local street dealer. A lot of hallucinogenics grow wild in nature. Many (before the advent of modern science and medicine) would be consumed (knowingly or not) by humans (ergot is a good example).

^ Right. I mentioned Ergot in a posting above. It is now blamed for the behavior that led to many executions during the Salem Witch trials. The colonists rye grain was full of it, baked into a nice trippy bread it led to a lot of witchy behaviors. haha

I purchased a book on ergot many years ago—though it had a Jewish author I think, it certainly wasn’t a friendly source—+ A popular theory American Atheists dumps on college freshmen.

Rabbinical standards and kosher laws guard against these things, especially ergot, wine and strong drink. Why would Jewish sages imbibe in that which is so strongly forbidden?

In any case, levin was not used so there was no fermentation. No ergot,

Revelation was written in cryptic language understood by its audience, mostly regarding first century events that were to come, and possibly eschatology or end times—linking the two together. Its really not all that ‘psychedelic; in nature—and contains a lot of symbols and images deeply engrained in Jewish eschatology.

A: No one said that John certainly consumed ergot. Ergot was simply mentioned as one of many hallucinogenics that grow wild and, historically, would be consumed (often unknowingly) by humans.

B: The identity and background of John of Patmos isn’t even solidly established.

C: Further still a man living as an exile in a cave is likely to be subsisting off whatever wild fruits and grains he can gather.

And no, kosher laws do not prohibit wine and strong drink.