Western civ founded on fungal brain juice, actually

A Twitter post by Taylor Sterling presenting a Nature journal article about ancient Greek psychedelic use at the Eleusinian Mysteries. The post makes sweeping claims that Western civilization was founded on psychedelic sacraments, citing Plato and Cicero as users. Features an embedded academic article from February 2026 detailing the composition of 'kykeon' (a fungal-based elixir). Extracted text: Taylor Sterling @FatherMcKennaa · 8h The ancient Greeks made a psychedelic from toxic fungus, wood ash, & water — and served it to thousands every year for 2,000 years. A paper published today in Nature showed how. Plato drank this. Cicero drank this. The Western world was built on a psychedelic sacrament. nature > scientific reports > articles > article Article Open access Published: 13 February 2026 Investigating the psychedelic hypothesis of kykeon, the sacred elixir of the Eleusinian Mysteries Romanos K. Antonopoulos, Evangelos Dadiotis, Kostas Ioannidis, Antigoni Cheilari, Vangelis Mitsis, Ana M. Garcia-Campaña, Laura Gámiz-Gracia, Maykel Hernández-Mesa, Alfonso Narváez, Mark A. Hoffman, Carl A. P. Ruck, Zacharoula Gonou-Zagou, Nektarios Aligiannis & Prokopios Magiatis Scientific Reports, Article number: (2026) | Cite this article