I'll respond to Jan's message in pieces:
> Here eat this bread which has a high probablility of having an halusinogen in > it and drink these firmented grapes which have alchohaul in it. No, but lets look at your evidence. I looked up ergot and found: http://www.killerplants.com/herbal-folklore/20010910.asp Ergot (Claviceps purpurea) is a fungus that attacks grasses, principally rye and wheat. It reproduces by replacing the grain with a hard, dark bundle of hyphae called a sclerotium. In rye, this sclerotium looks like a horn. (Ergot is from the French, argot, for spur in reference to this shape.) But this bundle of hyphae contains insidious toxins, alkaloids closely aligned to lysergic acid and LSD. The ergot alkaloids are vasoconstrictors; they restrict the flow of blood through the veins and arteries. If enough of the toxins are consumed, the blood no longer circulates...It was probably the herbalists in the monasteries that first noted the correlation between wet summers, darker rye bread, and the outbreaks of ergotism. There are a few things worth noting there: 1) The levening of the bread didn't make much difference. 2) Wet weather was correlated with the phenomenon. 3) It led to illness and death. So, it seems that the use of unleavened bread (which I don't remember being documented in scripture..except that the Last Supper was a Passover meal) for Communion does not seem to be particularly indiciative of this phenomenon. Further, since the Passover meal was a very long standing And, elsewhere we have: http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/LECT12.HTM The occurrence of Claviceps purpurea must have began with the cultivation of Secale cereale, Rye since it was far more common on that host than in other grains. Rye was a weed grain and occurred wherever wheat was cultivated. Often it became the dominant plant when wheat fields were abandoned. Thus, in a way, where ever civilization became established, Rye would follow it there. However, it was not cultivated for food until some time, in the early Middle Ages (around the 5th. Century), in what is now eastern Europe and western Russia. And finally, we have: http://www.angelfire.com/tx3/Jennifer1/explanations.html Ergot is extremely poisonous and is separated from grains when harvested. Eating or coming in contact with this fungi can result in extreme sickness, arms turning black and falling off or death. The chemicals found in this fungi can have a very mild hallucinogenic and sedating effect, but one would have to consume a large amount of the ergot to get enough of these chemicals in to their system for the effect. Therefor, being poisonous, would not be possible without dying first. Another argument is that a chemical process might happen when baking. This is also unlikely due to the fact that heat destroys ergot alkaloids and other chemical compounds. Chemically speaking, it is more likely that these people were werewolves rather than "tripping" on rye bread. This information is to enlighten and remind you that anything is possible in this world. So, putting together three sources, it seems to me that the ergot theory has a lot of holes in it. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
