Psychedelic Mushrooms in Christian Art? John A. Rush
John A. Rush who taught Anthropology at Sierra College, Rocklin, California. Rush example represents the first kind issue, namely something he has simply gotten conspicuously wrong: In his book Failed God: Fractured Myth in a Fragile World (Berkeley, CA: Frog Books, 2008), John A. Rush, uses a certain mosaic he saw in St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice as a sort of launching pad for the work. We read in his preface: On July 13, 2001, I entered St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy, and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the mosaics. As I moved along, I noticed an arch with a curious scene (see from cover). There was Jesus with the cap of Amanita muscaria , the sacred mushroom, in his hand (pp. xix-x). The image of the mosaic on the cover is not clear enough to tell whether what Rush said was true or not (Fig. 1). But a clearer one will be presented below. Fig. 1 But in truth Rush saw no such thing, and the fact that he claimed he did reveals...