http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/ashland_church_can_brew_halluc.html

the vine is twisting its shoots into North America..

An Ashland church can import and brew a hallucinogenic tea for its religious services, according to a U.S. District Court ruling. Judge Owen M. Panner issued a permanent injunction Thursday barring the federal government from penalizing or prohibiting the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen from sacramental use of "Daime" tea.

The church, which blends Christian and indigenous religious beliefs in Brazil, uses tea brewed from the ayahuasca plant in their services. The tea contains trace amounts of the chemical dimethyltryptamine or DMT. According to the church's lawsuit, the tea is the central ritual and sacrament of the religion where members believe "only by taking the tea can a church member have direct experience with Jesus Christ."

The Ashland chapter of the church filed its suit against the federal Department of Justice and Treasury Department in February arguing that the tea should be allowed under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Panner ruled that federal drug enforcement agencies are prevented from prosecuting the church for importing, possessing and distributing the tea and as long as they abide by guidelines outlined by Panner in his decision.

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

a movie regarding mythology, spectacle, reality and political power in three parts: an exposition of Christianity as a Judeo-Roman encoding of the astrotheological solar cult inherited from Egypt and Sumer, historicized for political power; an investigation and thorough debunking of the official 9/11 myth; and a description of recent history in the context of the immense power of central banks to influence policy, promote warfare, accumulate capital and keep entire populations in debt slavery through interest, taxation, inflation, ownership of media and influence over political institutions. heavily mashed-up with lots of interviews, passages, luminary quotes, etc. highly recommended.

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/NewTestament.html
fabrication of christianity

this guy claims that Christianity as we know it did not exist until Constantine convened the council of Nicea to make it up. he claims that before the council, there were a multitude of conflicting priestly cults. Constantine called together priests from all over to distill the various faiths and doctrines down into a single eccumenical order which could be under control of the state. in this account (which provides a wealth of citations from mainstream historical and Christian documents), it sounds like he mainly took the popular Mithraist cult and added in elements from other paganisms, philosophies and mystery schools.

Clusters of presbyters had developed "many gods and many lords" and numerous religious sects existed, each with differing doctrines. Presbyterial groups clashed over attributes of their various gods and "altar was set against altar" in competing for an audience. From Constantine's point of view, there were several factions that needed satisfying, and he set out to develop an all-embracing religion during a period of irreverent confusion. In an age of crass ignorance, with nine-tenths of the peoples of Europe illiterate, stabilising religious splinter groups was only one of Constantine's problems. The smooth generalisation, which so many historians are content to repeat, that Constantine "embraced the Christian religion" and subsequently granted "official toleration", is "contrary to historical fact" and should be erased from our literature forever. Simply put, there was no Christian religion at Constantine's time, and the Church acknowledges that the tale of his "conversion" and "baptism" are "entirely legendary".

Constantine saw in this confused system of fragmented dogmas the opportunity to create a new and combined State religion, neutral in concept, and to protect it by law. When he conquered the East in 324 he sent his Spanish religious adviser, Osius of Córdoba, to Alexandria with letters to several bishops exhorting them to make peace among themselves. The mission failed and Constantine, probably at the suggestion of Osius, then issued a decree commanding all presbyters and their subordinates "be mounted on asses, mules and horses belonging to the public, and travel to the city of Nicaea" in the Roman province of Bithynia in Asia Minor. They were instructed to bring with them the testimonies they orated to the rabble, "bound in leather" for protection during the long journey, and surrender them to Constantine upon arrival in Nicaea. Their writings totalled "in all, two thousand two hundred and thirty-one scrolls and legendary tales of gods and saviours, together with a record of the doctrines orated by them".

Mithra, one of a trinity, stood on a rock, the emblem of the foundation of his religion, and was anointed with honey. After a last supper with Helios and 11 other companions, Mithra was crucified on a cross, bound in linen, placed in a rock tomb and rose on the third day or around 25 March (the full moon at the spring equinox, a time now called Easter after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar). The fiery destruction of the universe was a major doctrine of Mithraism-a time in which Mithra promised to return in person to Earth and save deserving souls. Devotees of Mithra partook in a sacred communion banquet of bread and wine, a ceremony that paralleled the Christian Eucharist and preceded it by more than four centuries.

Christianity is an adaptation of Mithraism welded with the Druidic principles of the Culdees, some Egyptian elements (the pre-Christian Book of Revelation was originally called The Mysteries of Osiris and Isis), Greek philosophy and various aspects of Hinduism.