What do you do when you have no power to watch TV, use the computer or dial a friend because of an act of nature pejoratively called a hurricane? 

Well, eat everything in the fridge that might spoil, sleep when the noise lets up, play board games by candlelight or read. Our son, George, who likes to read stuff that has been highlighted on the internet, said, "Dad, here's one that'll challenge you." "The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name." It's got to be a secret. I've never heard of it. Hang on.

The book started out – for me at least – talking about 2nd Century Emperor Marcus Aurelius who studied at Eleusis, an important religious center that celebrated the sacred mysteries of ancient Greece: life, death and reincarnation. 

It seems that the secret celebrations or rituals, available to the very elite and select, would help the worthy initiates cheat death. For us moderns, think of the so-called Fountain of Youth we have here in St. Augustine, Florida. 

We know it's here, but we just can't find it. By using pharmaceuticals, stuff to help you get stoned, bombed, sloshed, smashed or doped, those plastered ones experienced a euphoria that was believed to allow a dimension of reality, formerly hidden, to be seen. In my language, they could experience a future eternal life. They could cheat death!

I finally got to a chapter which explained the particular brew that became the secret drink. It was called Kukeon or mystery beer. For those of you who are looking for this stuff, it would not be Whopper Wheat Ale, Toyoda, Perlenbacher or Loa. These would be like fizzy water in comparison. Here's the ritual. 

After dances, music, liturgy, praise for the god or goddess, the initiates would consume the Kukeon, then drink the thanksgiving drink. In other words, the sacred beer enhanced the result of the ritual. Aha!

I'm not too sure, but suppose the book is hinting that our present day eucharist (Catholic transubstantiation) or Communion (Protestant consubstantiation) would make us more acceptable to God if we drank the mystery beer first?

My overall reaction to this academic, researched and 482 pages long book. I suppose that some might just want to have an induced drug addicting euphoria because it sounds so mysterious and out-of-this-world. 

The church service with a long-winded sermon, loud music and hard to understand liturgy would certainly not be boring. Would that upbeat ritual make us more saved, welcomed and loved by Jesus Christ who gave His life for us?

Our God does not need such distasteful and concocted psychedelics to gain His love and forgiveness! I want to worship in a church surrounded by a congregation who gather together for the comfort, strength and hope we all need; where the music we share warms our hearts, the sermon challenges us, the prayers comfort us, the Lord's Supper reminds us that "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!" Psalm 118:24

Thanks, God!