Allegro may have been in the firing line for many of his extreme beliefs, but with this work he has done us all a great service. "The Teacher of Light" may or may not be Jesus. What Allegro does provide, is the air of expectancy that was around at the same time as the man we know as Jesus. Although, not a Chistian myself, I have just read the exceptional and inspiring "THE Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth and the Missing years" by Richard G. Patton. Patton depicts a very human being against the background that Allegro sets. Anyone that makes us question should be applauded. Allegro does just that. Patton does it in spades. Highly recommended.

This study is much more convincingly presented than the author's reputation would lead one to expect. Of course Allegro's reputation was ruined by the Sacred Mushroom and the Cross which, except for the basic thesis itself, and it's quite a thesis, is much more sober and scholarly than the so-called critics would have us believe. Here Allegro tries to be more restrained, although the earlier book actually contains more interesting and useful data on the cultic credos of the 1st b.c. <> 1st a.d. period. As for his conclusion, if there is one here, Allegro's suggestion that Essenic sects played a role in the Jesus narratives, and that pagan myths were assimilated to the Christ doctrines, is not really very original or untenable. In fact, reverend scholars such as Powell Davies were making the same points in the fifties, and in the benighted nineteenth century the Reverend Taylor's Diegesis, written while in an English prison for his views, made the same connections although he of course knew nothing whatever of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I have read many books about Christianity and Jesus historic discussion; besides that I watch every Tv program that discusses this time of history. I read the portuguese translation of this book. Well, I have to say that this is, probably, the best book I ever read on the subject. Allegro became a largely polemic historian when he spoke about his theory that the New Testament episodes were evoked by mushrooms' consumption and not by real events. Unlike Kersten, Messadié and other polemical authors, John Allegro doesn't fall in just an easy speculation completely without logic and strong historical evidence. No, Allegro knows deeply the religious background of the Essenians and other Near-East cults. He can so easily describe the rituals and beliefs of those strange gnostic movements that one feels like we're actually reliving those past times with them: the reader can see the Ancient World through the eyes and words of John Allegro. Although, the majority of historians believe that Jesus really existed, even if some of the events written in the New Testament may have not happened like that, there is one thing that must be stated: we found no strong proof of Jesus existence to this day. There is no record of Jesus from his age. The original Gospels were only written some 40 or 50 years after Jesus death and may have been badly translated by the posterior Gentile christians: we can read only the remains of the greek Gospels and never the originals (if there were any real originals). The 1st century roman and jewish historians don't know anything of importance about Jesus, even though they knew of the Christian movement. Even the early III century's Catholic Christian patriarchs seem to be greatly ignorant of their early antecessors history and do not provide any actually historical background of the age or for the original Hebrew records: any knowledge of the real events of the past is lost to them and only tradition remains. Most of the Testimonium Flavianum of Flavius Josephus is know believed to have been forged by some Christian copist and doesn't still represent a strong argument to Jesus existence, because Josephus could have been deceived by some popular stories told by the Christian tradition which may not be historically true. Besides, the stories spoken in the Gospels seem to be intended mostly for preaching and not for historical background: many of the events and rituals described in essential episodes don't match our knowledge of the age. Pilatos wasn't a coward governor afraid of cruxifying a Jewish rebel and Pilatos didn't convert to Christianism like the sayings of the Christian tradition: Pilatos was dimissed by the Emperor by his excessive ruthlessness towards the people in 36 and committed suicide in Vienna shortly after; there wasn't any roman census at the time of Herodes (because Judea wasn't a roman province at the time); there isn't any evidence about a roman tradition of releasing a prisoner by the time of Easter (and it is most unlikely that something like that could happen in a Roman Province) and the Jewish law forbids the Sinedrius of arresting and executing people during Easter time (it is very doubtful that such a transgression of the Law should be made by the Sinedrius). Well, Allegro doesn't talk about many similarities between Christian beliefs and the cults of Dyonisius and Mythra, much popular at the time. But he gives us an interesting perspective. An ancient parchment of the Gospel of Marcos was found in Qumran. Many of the beliefs of the Essenians ressemble early christianity and the Teacher of Righteousness life also reminds us of the Jesus tale. Allegro explores with great insight the rituals and life in Qumran, concluding that the christian tales appeared after the fall of Qumran, when the group dispersed itself. The tales of Christ must have been symbolic lessons told by a group of former Essenians, and some people which adopted the christian beliefs - without understanding the mystic order of these tales - thought them to be entirely true. And so the greatest fraud of History was born... Allegro knows what he's talking about and is a recognized scholar, whose knowdlege of ancient languages remains one of the best among archaelogists. His logic and cohesion of speech is unmatched. He bases his thesis on hard evidence, doesn't create absurd historical events (like Kersten) and a profound analysis of gnostic beliefs. This is a quite reasonable perspective of the ideas and forces behind early Christianity. We should be thankful for Allegro! Even if his thesis may not be 100% enlightening - some questions still remain to be answered - he has shown us another way of looking at the Christian problem. Making people think about the past is never a bad deed!

16th of April, 1999

I bougth this book out of sheer curiosity, having read something about it in the "Dead Sea Scrolls Deception". The main point the author tries to make is that "Jesus Christ" is used in the New Testament as a code-word for the red-capped mushroom known as "amanita muscaria" which contains a powerful hallucinogenic drug. This preposterous thesis is backed up by Allegro with a mass of jumbled, unreliable linguistic data connecting Sumerian roots with Aramaic, Greek and Latin words (for example: the name "Peter" would be another hidden reference to the "sacred mushroom"). On the top of it all, there are constant references to the sexual symbolism of the mushroom, which borders on obsession; this, according to Allegro, would explain much of ancient mythology, rituals and religion.
Reading Allegro's book I couldn't help but wondering about the mental sanity of the author or his seriousness. Is it a bad taste joke or what?
To sum it up, I put this book on a par with Morton Smith's works on the allegedly "secret gospel" of Mark and "Jesus the magician".
They are examples of pseudo scholarship and bad science-fiction inspired by bias and preconceived ideas about Jesus and Christianity.

Although the major premise of this book is hard to swallow, that Christianity was founded on a secret Jewish mushroom cult that was misconstrued by the Gentiles, it is nonetheless a fascinating foray into the origin of written language. The author's vast knowledge of ancient languages is magnificently displayed as he charts the birth of the alphabet from Accadian cuneform to the Greek alphabet.

The focus of the particular words he traces centers on the mushroom cults of the amanita muscaria, or fly agaric mushroom, which indeed had numerous cults in the Mideast, India, and China. The mystic significance and almost freudian connotations of the words for the mushroom capture the richness of ancient thought.

His brief and often wry digressions exhibit a great and playful mind at work. For example, in a discussion of the origin of the word "assassin" he comments on the sloth of the 1960's hippie.

Ultimately, his argument for the secret Jewish mushroom society rests on a handful of odd word origins in the New Testament, and though it does lead one to postulate the use of drugs by the early Christians, it does not thoroughly debunk the possibility of an historical Jesus Christ. Apparently Prof. Allegro discounted the references purported by some to be contained in certain versions of Josephus' "History of the Jewish War," which I find compelling.

Even though the major premise is flawed, the process of investigating it is riveting. Standing on the shoulders of this intellectual giant, the panorama of the ancient world comes vividly into view and the journey from picture-glyphs toward symbolic characters reveals mental operations that may be inherent forces in human cognition.

This book is worth having, although it is not the most persuasive and is corrupted by tabloid sensationalism and a scientific humanist attitude of condescending dismissal of all religious experiencing. Allegro acts as though portraying Christianity as mushroom- and fertility- based, he has demolished the credibility of Christianity altogether.

He disrespects his subject matter, like Aldous Huxley's smugly self-assured, ignorant, disgusted attitude toward entheogens before he experienced them. Not only was this book 30 years ahead of its time, the book was 30 years ahead of its author's ability to understand entheogens. Given that this sensationalist pulp book was written to shock a mass audience and discredit Christianity within that audience, it is unclear how ignorant or enlightened Allegro is about the efficacy of entheogens to cause intense religious experience and possibly valid mystic-state insight into the relation of self, control, time, and world.

Jesus is portrayed as none other than the Amanita, but that completely discredits Christianity for Allegro the scorched-earth, anti-religion humanist. The book is just as startling and confusing for entheogen-positive readers as those who are unfamiliar or dismissive of entheogens. Allegro made the mistake of alienating both orthodox Literalist Christians and esoteric mystics. The book is a real mixed bag, and the befuddling swarms of etymologies limit the readability as well.

Entheogenists may welcome his assertion that the inner circle of the early Christians used entheogens, specifically Amanita, but will be put off because he then turns around and holds a dismissive, pop-sensationalist attitude against entheogens. Entheogenists may also get more than they bargained for in this book when Allegro proposes that there was no man Jesus; Jesus was none other than the Amanita.

His theory is groundbreaking: he was the first to propose in some detail that Christianity was entheogen-oriented and that the entheogen was Amanita, and to additionally propose (in conjunction) that there was no historical Jesus.

The book, though flawed by sensationalism, is important, and required vision and daring. There was almost complete ignorance about entheogens when this book was published. I would recommend this book more for entheogen book collectors and scholars of the origins of Christianity than for general readers.

For related books, see my Amazon book lists: Ego death as deterministic self-control cancellation; Original, experiential, mystical Christianity; Christianity as political rebellion against "divine" Caesar; Mythic-only Christ theory; Entheogen theory of the origin of religions.