These Gnostic interpretations of the Allegory of the Fall can be compared to different versions of stories that appear in our media whenever some controversial event takes place. For instance, following reports that Monica Lewinsky had had an affair with President Clinton, Clinton and the White House issued "official" versions of what had — or rather had not —taken place, while members of the media and Independent Council Kenneth Starr continued to investigate the matter. In antiquity, no such investigations would have taken place. The official version would have been accepted by the decree of priestly authorities, and that version would have been disseminated to the masses, while dissenting positions were stifled or forced underground.

In light of the above Gnostic interpretations of the Fall and a great deal of other evidence, there are grounds for believing that the Gnostics, too, were ingesting A. muscariae to achieve gnosis, and that they were persecuted by prohibitionist Christian sects for that practice and their resultantly unorthodox, Christian beliefs. This suggestion is supported by an authority no less than St Augustine who, in Chapter 13 of his De Moribus Manichaeorium, decried particularly the Manichean Gnostics for ingesting mushrooms in their religious rituals, and by a Chinese official who wrote in a letter to his emperor: "What they eat is always the red mushrooms."

4th century Christian fresco depicting A. muscariae and snails, symbolizing death and spirtual rebirth.

Still more evidence that some early Christians were ritualistcally ingesting A. muscariae to achieve communion, in accord with the position John Allegro took in The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross, can be found on the walls of an early Christian basilica at Aquileia, in Northern Italy, dated to approximately 330 C.E.. More specifically, this fresco depicts red mushrooms, strongly suggestive of A. muscariae and snails. Snails anciently symbolized death and resurrection^,13 evidently because they shed their coverings in an act that called to mind ego death and spiritual rebirth, and/or snail-like slugs are known to ingest A. muscariae.

Because the Church had the ability to control the media and, thus, the minds of its flock, the position that the sun revolved around the earth managed to survive long after Copernicus proved otherwise, just as the notion that man was created essentially ex nihilo has managed to survive in many religious circles long after scientists essentially proved otherwise. Wasson’s position that the Allegory of the Fall was a prohibition against A. muscaria ingestion cannot be proved empirically, as the heliocentric theory of the solar system and Darwin's theory of evolution essentially have been. But the evidence and arguments supporting Wason’s theory seems compelling enough to persuade at least some rational Jews and Christians to reconsider their positions on the need for, let alone the identity, of a Messiah.

Indeed, if Wasson’s theory achieves the general acceptance many believe it should, Wasson could very well be considered the Messiah for having saved humanity from its allegedly fallen state simply by showing that our ancestors never did fall from grace. Inn fact, Wasson showed that many of our ancestors ingested A. muscariae to induce ego death and spiritual rebirth, notwithstanding at least one age old prohibition against doing so.

3. Heinrich, Clark.  Strange Fruit, pp. 195-196.

4. Wasson, R.G. Traditional Use in North America of A. muscaria for Divinatory Purposes. J. Psychedelic Drugs.Vol.11:25-28, 1979.

5. Donner, Kai. Ethnological Notes about the Yensei-Ostyak. Memories de la Societe Finno-Ougrieene. Vol LXVI, Helsinki, 1933, pp 81-82.

6. Stephenson, George W., FACS. Of Aesculapius and the medicine man: Some comments on the College Seal. Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons Vol.68, No. 10.

7.  Fiske, John. Myths and Myth-Makers: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology. http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/public/media/literary/collections/project_gutenberg/gutenberg/etext97/mythm10.txt

8. Nicander. Alexipharmaca, 521-525.

9. Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Loeb Classic Library. Vol VI. Libri   XXII, 95.

10. Allegro, John. The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross. Garden City, N.Y. Doubleday. 1969.

11. Anonymous. On The Origin of The World. The Nag Hammadi Library. James Robinson, ed.. San Francisco. Harper. 1990. p. 184.

12. Anonymous. The Apocryphon of John. The Nag Hammadi Library. James Robinson, established that. San Francisco. Harper. 1990. p.117.

13. Fabbro, Franco. Mushrooms and Snails in Ancient Liturgy of Earley [sic] Christians of Aquileia.        http://people.etnoteam.it/maiocchi/fabbro.htm.