Dr. Michael Albert-Puleo

In 1974, I graduated with a degree in Creative Writing. My goal was to be a mythobotanist, someone who investigates the role of plants in ancient myth and religion. In truth, there are many mysteries, both sacred and profane, that can only be understood when the pharmacological effects of a particular herbal drug are considered.

My interest first began as a senior at Syracuse University when I came up with the idea that sweet flag, or calamus root, catalyzed the mystical vision evident in the poetry of Walt Whitman. Calamus was not only the name of a series of poems in his "Leaves of Grass," but also an herbal drug used by Native Americans as a stimulant and psychedelic. As a delved into the history and pharmacology of this herb, I discovered that it may have also played a crucial role in the formulation of a spiritual medicine used by the ancient Egyptians, Jews, and Christians.

I left the hallowed halls of higher education determined to set the mythobotany world on edge. Alas, no one was hiring. I tried my hand as a barn painter, stock boy, ditchdigger, car hop, gardener, autopsy technician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and finally a research technician at University Hospitals in Cleveland.

Through it all, I continued my studies whenver and wherever I could, and in 1978 published published my first communication to the scientific world in Harvard University's Economic Botany: "Mythobotany, pharmacology, and chemistry of thujone-containing plants and derivatives." This was followed by a 1979 work detailing the estrogenic effects of fennel and anise, common herbs that not only play an important part in ancient tales, but were also the standard hormonal agents used in medical practice well into the 1940s.

Despite these, shall we say, "successes," my prospects appeared bleak. I looked to another line of work. I became a doctor.

Rodney Dangerfield once lamented that when he announced his retirement after his initial failed bout as a comedian, "Nobody noticed." And so, in 1983, in my senior year at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, I received a Crile grant to do my last piece, "Physiological effects of cabbage with reference to its potential as a dietary cancer-inhibitor and its use in ancient medicine." I then retired. Nobody noticed.

For 25 years I have practiced as a Family Physician and continued my investigations, assuring myself that all things come to fruition in their own proper season.

And so, I present The Anointed Ones, the result of 37 years of study by a part-time mythobotanist. Hopefully it was worth the wait.