Dying Christians were anointed, apparently to help ease the pain of death and to prepare the psyche for “eternal life”. A remnant of this practice can be found in the Catholic rite of Extreme Unction, wherein inert oil is used to consecrate a mortally ill believer.

Before the sacred salve lost every last drop of its pharmacological function, it was also used as a medicine for more prosaic purposes, such as healing skin ulcers. Disciples would also use it cast out “devils”, which might refer to the treatment of people suffering from psychiatric or psychosomatic disease.

This long-held dogma was formalized at the 1545 Council of Trent, when the Church declared it an outrage to the Holy Ghost to attribute any virtue to the chrism. To argue otherwise, as the Gnostics, Montanists, and other early non-Catholic Christians once had, was reason to be persecuted, converted by force, or murdered. The quaint idea of “convinc

By the 3rd century, at least for most Christians, the unguent had become inert and the Spirit no longer worked the way it once did.

Christian scholars have long pointed to the early days as characterized by special spiritual gifts, that were later lost; of ecstatic worshippers “drunk with the Spirit”, spouting forth strange ides, having visions, and “sitting at the throne of God”. It would not be long before such entheogenic experience would cease, a clear idea of the role of t

Though it was recorded in the New Testament that “the anointing would teach all things”, the actual particulars of the ritual are never clearly spelled out. Terms like laying on hands, salvation, and being in the Spirit were used to disguise the actual event. Enemies were everywhere, so secrecy was paramount.

What changed was that the true Spirit experience catalyzed by the true unguent of Moses was lost, to be replaced by an inert chrism, elaborate ceremonies, costumes, fancy buildings, and solemnly spoken words understood by no one not even the ones uttering them.

Scholars and churchmen alike have long wondered why these mighty manifestations of the Spirit vanished and left nothing obvious in their wake.

While the passage cited suggests that Paul regained his sight almost immediately, he himself recorded that “in that very hour I received my sight”. (Acts. 22:13). This makes perfect sense, for it would take some time for the pharmacological effects of the ointment to manifest. And then Paul was in for an incredible psychedelic ride.