# Did the Sufi saints have psychedelic experiences without knowing it?

*Were the Muslim mystics tripping? Eleusis, ergot and the Salem witch trials*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/3/
- Date: 2020-10-17 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Psychedelics are NOT haram | Mufti Abu Layth (7:26–11:41)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SkyPhQZdY8&t=446s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/

**Topics:** Spiritual experience and psychedelics; Sufism and tasawwuf; Psychedelics

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Many of Islam's great mystics, such as Junayd, al-Hallaj and Ibn Arabi, most likely had psychedelic experiences without knowing it, as initiates at Eleusis and communities eating ergotised grain did.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says many of the great Muslim mystics, including Junayd, al-Hallaj and Ibn Arabi, most likely had psychedelic experiences without knowing it, in the way that initiates at Eleusis and people eating ergotised grain did.

**Evidence, his words at 7:26:** “I actually feel that many of the great mystics of Islam were upon like they many of them were, if you want to use the term, tripping. many of them were. They probably just did not know it.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SkyPhQZdY8&t=446s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says certain cheats in nature have been set out as windows, and repeats his view that many of the great mystics of Islam were, in effect, tripping without knowing it. He recommends a Joe Rogan podcast with Graham Hancock and an author whose surname he finds hard to pronounce [?] about the Eleusinian mysteries, a pilgrimage in Greece going back two thousand years before Christianity that Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers attended, where initiates were not allowed to say what happened and may have had psychedelic experiences from what they drank. He says early and later saints of Islam such as Junayd, Mansur al-Hallaj [?] and Ibn Arabi most likely had some kind of psychedelic experience. From the same podcast he explains ergot, a fungus that grows naturally on grains such as wheat, barley, rye and corn and produces a psychoactive, ergotised product, and notes that researchers now think ergotised rye may explain what the community at the Salem witch trials believed it saw. He then shows pre-Islamic seals thousands of years old whose imagery he says clearly comes from people on a psychoactive trip.

## Sources and names cited

- Junayd al-Baghdadi
- Mansur al-Hallaj [?]
- Ibn Arabi
- Joe Rogan
- Graham Hancock
- Plato
- Aristotle
- the Eleusinian mysteries
- the Salem witch trials
- ergot

## Transcript (machine tier, 7:26–11:41)

[6:55] That's all you get out of £10,000. The £35 is the visual field that we have access to visible light. uh that's all that we can see. The rest of it is still there. It's not that it doesn't exist. It's just we don't have access to it. Now, in a similar way, consciousness works the same. That the consciousness is there, but we just don't have access to that layer of consciousness.

[7:26] And certain things, certain cheats I feel in this uh cosmos, [laughter] not even cosmos, in nature, sorry, have been set out as a window. And I've said before that look, I actually feel that many of the great mystics of Islam were upon like they many of them were, if you want to use the term, tripping.

[7:54] many of them were. They probably just did not know it. Now, I know that I did recommend this great uh recent podcast by Joe Rogan where he's speaking with uh Brian I I find his diff his surname difficult to pronounce uh and Graeme Hancock. So he has there's the three of them discussing the um discussing psychedelics but the Illusinian mysteries and that's basically going back to this holy place where for 2,000 years people would go there they would have a pilgrimage way before the Christian

[8:32] pilgrimage or way before Islam. this pilgrimage dating back and many of the great people including uh Plato and Aristotle and all these great uh philosophers would have visited Elusus which would have been uh in Greece modern day Greece. Now what used to happen there people weren't allowed to say. So there's this understanding that there were may have been certain psychedelic trips involved and things like because they had to drink and stuff like this.

[9:02] But fast forwarding um what I feel that many of the Muslims, early saints and even later saints that you people who they pontify them as saints but great people uh whether it was whether it was uh juned aldi whether it was Mans whether it was Arabi most of these people would have had some kind of psychedelic experience and What's interesting is in that podcast with Joe Rogan, they speak about urgots.

[9:37] Now, urgot is a particular kind of fungus that would grow naturally on uh on on on stock like on especially grains. Uh whether it was wheat, barley, whether it was things like rye, uh whether it was corn, these kind of things would naturally get infected with this fungi.

[10:04] And this which is called urgot what it would result is in an erotized product which was psychedelic. It was psychoactive. So people who were consuming that were having these kind of trips. Now there's uh an investigation going in. Now some people are studying the they're looking into exploring uh academically the Salem witch trials and they feel that some of the rye that that community was consuming was erotized and hence it made them think that what these things they were seeing uh you know was these women were witches but it was

[10:44] actually it can be explained and I find that so amazing. Seriously, when and when you look at our uh literature, the Islamic literature, you will see that if I can just and this is uh let me just bring this up. This is actually pre uh Islam. This is not Islamic. This is dating back few thousand years. And you can see these kind of seals that were made.

[11:10] It's very clear that the kind of imagery that these were people that were on uh a psychoactive kind of trip. And I want to share with you guys. Yeah, if I can just bring this up. Um, and those of you, sorry, my mouse is kind of playing up today. It's really annoying. [laughter] [gasps] All right. So, Mhm.

[11:35] If I can just if I can just bring this up people, show you this. This what you can see uh peanum seed in Arabic is called the Harmala. Now this is something that is very widespread in um uh in the Middle East and it's it's called Syrian um you'll have it's actually this harla comes from the especially predominant in Syria and other parts of the Middle East.

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 7SkyPhQZdY8/s/3. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/3/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.