Fair enough, I agree that the mushroom thing is quite a stretch. The word 'elect' has a bit of a history in Christianity, though. There certainly were gnostics

Fair enough, I agree that the mushroom thing is quite a stretch. The word 'elect' has a bit of a history in Christianity, though. There certainly were gnostics of all stripes (not only Christian gnostics, but various other purveyors of secret knowledge, etc.). And while the canonical Bible contains an invective against 'so-called knowledge' which seems to be a dig at gnosticism, there were other gnostic sects and works early on persisting for some time even after it was declared heretical.