By Jose Goncalves
First and foremost in this thread I would like to put a dent in the hysteria that surrounds drugs. Most illegal drugs are illegal for a good reason but much of what we allow today further demonstrates the great hypocrisy of modern society. Some statististics might help.
• (Average 1990-1994) According to the US Centers for Disease Control, from the beginning of 1990 through 1994 "2,153,700 deaths (1,393,200 men and 760-400 women; total annual average: 430,700 deaths) were attributed to smoking (19.5% of all deaths)." The CDC notes that "Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States."
1. Source:(1996): "Smoking-Attributable Mortality and Years of Potential Life Lost," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control, 1997), May 23, 1997, Vol. 46, No. 20, p. 449.
• According to the federal National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, in 1996 an estimated 110,640 people in the US died due to alcohol.
2. Source: "Number of deaths and age-adjusted death rates per 100,000 population for categories of alcohol-related (A-R) mortality, United States and States, 1979-96," National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, from the web at
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/databases/armort01.txt, last accessed Feb. 12, 2001, citing Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System, Saadatmand, F., Stinson, FS, Grant, BF, and Dufour, MC, "Surveillance Report #52: Liver Mortality in the United States, 1970-96" (Rockville, MD: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Division of Biometry and Epidemiology, December 1999).
• (Average 1982-1998): According to Canadian Outreachers, approximately 32,000 hospitalized patients (and possibly as many as 106,000) in the USA die each year because of adverse reactions to their prescribed medications.
3. Source: Lazarou, J, Pomeranz, BH, Corey, PN, "Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies," Journal of the American Medical Association (Chicago, IL: American Medical Association, 1998), 1998;279:1200-1205, also letters column, "Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients," JAMA (Chicago, IL: AMA, 1998), Nov. 25, 1998, Vol. 280, No. 20, from the web at
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v280n20/ffull/jlt1125-1.html, last accessed Feb. 12, 2001.
• (1998): "In 1998 a total of 16,926 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States (Table 20). The category 'drug-induced causes' includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of drugs (legal and illegal use), but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes accidents, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to drug use. Also excluded are newborn deaths due to mother's drug use." The total number of deaths in the US in 1998 was 2,337,256.
4. Source: Murphy, Sheila L., Centers for Disease Control, "Deaths: Final Data for 1998,", National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, July 24, 2000), pp. 1, 10, from the web at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvs48_11.pdf
• (1996): "Each year, use of NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) accounts for an estimated 7,600 deaths and 76,000 hospitalizations in the United States." (NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, ketoprofen, and tiaprofenic acid.)
5. Source: Robyn Tamblyn, PhD; Laeora Berkson, MD, MHPE, FRCPC; W. Dale Jauphinee, MD, FRCPC; David Gayton, MD, PhD, FRCPC; Roland Grad, MD, MSc; Allen Huang, MD, FRCPC; Lisa Isaac, PhD; Peter McLeod, MD, FRCPC; and Linda Snell, MD, MHPE, FRCPC, "Unnecessary Prescribing of NSAIDs and the Management of NSAID-Related Gastropathy in Medical Practice," Annals of Internal Medicine (Washington, DC: American College of Physicians, 1997), September 15, 1997, 127:429-438, from the web at
http://www.acponline.org/journals/annals/15sep97/nsaid.htm, last accessed Feb. 14, 2001, citing Fries, JF, "Assessing and understanding patient risk,"Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology Supplement, 1992;92:21
• An exhaustive search of the literature finds no deaths induced by sacred entheogens. The US Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) records no instances of entheogens mentioned in medical examiners' reports. Sacred Entheogens have never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor have there been any hospital visits by anyone who has ingested them.
Now that that's out of the way we can move on to the spirituality of entheogens...
The theory of Entheogenics is that the true basis of religious experience (though not of religious doctrines and institutions) is ecstatic rapport with nature, achieved by the ritual ingestion of sacred plants. Psychopharmacologist Jonathan Ott, who along with Wasson and others coined the term entheogen in 1979, signals an "Entheogenic Reformation" that might correct and cure the spiritual ills of humanity. He defines it in these terms:
"The anachronistic 'Archaic Revival' of shamanism and use of shamanic 'Plant-teachers' in the contemporary 'overdeveloped' world; and the simultaneous appearance in several 'underdeveloped' countries of syncretic Neo-Christian religions in which the Placebo Sacrament of the Eucharist is replaced by entheogenic plants traditionally associated with shamanism; such as sacramental use of Peyotl by the Native American Church, similar use of Ayahuasca by Brasilian churchs, and sacramental use of Iboga in the African Bwiti religion. (The Age of Entheogens / The Angels Dictionary, p. 88)
This is a narrow definition of the modern resurgence of entheogenic religion, because it designates the movement by particular cultic activity rather than by the zeitgeist. In a broader sense, Ott's 'Reformation' can be identified as the continuation of the underground drug culture that exploded in the "Psychedelic Revolution" of the Sixties. Another aspect of this movement is the "Archaic Revival" (a term introduced by Terence McKenna), including modern shamanic experimentation, ecopsychology and the sacramentalism consistent with the Gaia-Sophia Principle and the visionary message of the Gaia Mythos.
The above theory is today simply called the Wasson Thesis. This revisionist historical theory formulated by R. Gordon Wasson, who proposed that the experiential basis of all religions was the sacramental use of sacred plants, such as the Amanita muscaria (fly-agaric) and Psilocybe mexicana (“magic mushrooms” ). Wasson (1898 – 1986) worked as a journalist and political analyst before becoming an investment banker with J. P. Morgan and Company, where he remained until 1963. His first book, The Hill Carbine Affair (1941), in which chronicled different versions of a rumor that J. P. Morgan sold defective rifles to the U.S. Army in the Civil War, has been described as “a book analyzing the development of historical myth.” Wasson's inceptive interest in myth was to be expanded enormously in later writings where he investigated the lore of mushrooms and mystical plants drawn from many cultures.
Describing the primordial revelation of the Divine among the shamanic cultures of prehistory (and the many tribal Shamanic tribes still in existence today), Wasson wrote:
"At that point Religion was born, religion pure and simple, free of Theology, free of Dogmatics, expressing itself in awe and reverence and lowered voices, mostly at night, when people would gather together to consult the Sacred Element. The first entheogenic experience could have been the first authentic, and perhaps the only authentic, miracle."
In more recent times, the Wasson Thesis has been expanded upon by the brilliant Ethnobotanist and philosopher, Terence McKenna (1949 - 2000). The McKenna thesis has two aspects that distinguish it from Wasson: first, the claim that ingestion of psychedelic mushrooms in prehistory caused or at least augments the growth of the forebrain circuits of homo sapiens, and second, that some species of mushrooms such as Stropharia Cubensis are emissaries from elsewhere in the universe. On the first point, McKenna went one step further than Wasson, who claimed that experimentation with psychoactive plants was the origin of religious experience, but not of higher consciousness itself, as McKenna argued. On the second point, McKenna took an even greater step. He proposed that mushroom spores can circulate freely through interstellar space, seeding various worlds with trans-galactic intelligence. The 'humble mushroom teacher to the million worlds" carries the essence of experience of many species and weaves countless life-threads into a vast tapestry of living intelligence. In short, McKenna saw in the "starseed" mushrooms a kind of unitive Logos, a transcendent species capable of overseeing and integrating the vast and varied realms of experience known to the creatures in those worlds.
Before we can go any further it is imperative we understand entheogenic concept of 'sacrementalism'.
Sacrementalism is literally "mindfulness of the sacred." The practice of ecstatic cognition in direct communication with Gaia, the living planet. According to the Wasson thesis, sacramentalist ritual with psychoactive plants such as the mushroom Amanita muscaria, is the origin of all genuine religious experience, as distinguished from religious doctrines and institutions which restrict and repress such experience. According to Carlos Castaneda, spiritual discipline is "the art of feeling awe." (In conversation with Michael Ventura.) The term "ecstatic cognition" is used by Eric Davis in TechGnosis, while Mircea Eliade famously proposed "archaic techniques of ecstasy" for the body of shamanic practices now known to be of millennial duration and global extent.
Sacrementalism is then a primary religious experience without doctrines or formal assemblies. It can include mental and spiritual discipline including fasting, mudra and mantra, and methods of mind-control, surrender to awe, cognition in ecstatic states, trance and dance, and the adaptation of archaic techniques such as divination — all these elements converge in sacramentalist practice.
Psychosomatic illumination is the rather weighty term that might be proposed for the sacramentalism Mystery in Pagan Europe. This 'illumination' is furthermore the hidden key to the Shamanic experience.
Shamanism is a complex pattern of diverse rites and beliefs, shamanism is a tribal religion in societies without a literary tradition. The shaman uses mystical powers to journey to other worlds or realities and communicate with spirits in order to bring about a balance between the physical and spiritual worlds. Central to the roles of the Shaman are healing and prophecy. The English word shaman is derived from the Siberian Tungus word 'saman' which is defined as a technique of ecstasy. The shaman is considered a great master of trance and ecstasy. He or she is the dominating figure in certain indigenous populations. Shamans believe that there are realities that exist beyond the dimension that we experience on Earth. They believe that all creation is alive—rocks, plants, animals, trees, fish—and work regularly with these forces of nature. Shamanism is a combination of "magic" and medicine. They also perform rites to assure success in hunting and fishing, to protect the tribe's lands, and increase and develop the family.
The basis of a shaman's work stems from his or her mastery of the ecstasy technique, in which he or she enters an altered state of consciousness known as the trance state. During this state, the shaman's soul leaves his or her body to travel to nonphysical realities, in order to communicate with spirits and gain information for healing.
The Western understanding of traditional Entheogenic traditions really began in 1955 when R. Gordon Wasson met a Curandera (a female Shaman) called Maria Sabina. Sabina was the first Shaman to allow Westerners to participate in the healing vigil known as the 'velada' where all participants partake of the psilocybe mushroom as a sacrement to open the gates of the mind. The velada is seen as a purification and as a communion with the sacred.
After the publication of Wasson's book, American youth began seeking out Sabina and the "holy children" as early as 1962, and in the years that followed, thousands of counterculture mushroom seekers, scientists, and others arrived in the Sierra Mazateca, and many saw her.
Maria Sabina had sampled sacred mushrooms in abundance as a child;
"Maria Anna and I were taking care of our chickens in the woods so that they wouldn't become the victims of hawks or foxes. We were seated under a tree when suddenly I saw near me within reach of my hand several mushrooms. 'If I eat you, you and you' I said 'I know that you will make me sing beautifully'. I remembered my grandparents spoke of these mushrooms with great respect. After eating the mushrooms we felt dizzy as if we were drunk and I began to cry, but this dissiness passed and we became content. Later we felt good. It was a new hope in our life. In the days that followed, when we felt hungry we ate the mushrooms. And not only did we feel our stomachs full, but content in spirit as well. I felt that they spoke to me. After eating them I heard voices. Voices that came from another world. It was like the voice of a father who gives advice. Tears rolled down our cheeks abundantly as if we were crying for the poverty in which we lived.' She had a vision of her dead father coming to her. 'I felt as if everything that surrounded me was god.'" (Estrada 39).
Wasson was deeply affected by his contact with Sabina. He later wrote;
"There is a world beyond ours, a world that is far away, nearby and invisible. And there is where God lives, where the dead live, the spirits and the saints, a world where everything has already happened and everything is known. That world talks. It has a language of its own. I report what it says. The sacred mushroom takes me by the hand and brings me to the world where everything is known. It is they, the sacred mushrooms that speak in a way I can understand. I ask them and they answer me. When I return from the trip that I have taken with them I tell what they have told me and what they have shown me...The more you go inside the world of teonanacatl , the more things are seen. And you also see our past and our future, which are there together as a single thing already achieved, already happened . . . I saw stolen horses and buried cities, the existence of which was unknown, and they are going to be brought to light. Millions of things I saw and knew. I knew and saw God: an immense clock that ticks, the spheres that go slowly around, and inside the stars, the earth, the entire universe, the day and the night, the cry and the smile, the happiness and the pain. He who knows to the end the secret of teonanacatl - can even see that infinite clockwork." (Schultes and Hofmann 1979 149).
Late in life, María Sabina became bitter about her many misfortunes, and how others had profited from her name. She also felt that the ceremony of the velada had been desecrated and irremediably polluted by the hedonistic use of the mushrooms: "From the moment the foreigners arrived, the 'holy children' lost their purity. They lost their force, they ruined them. Henceforth they will no longer work. There is no remedy for it."
Psilocybe Cyanescens
So its time to look at some of these sacred plants closer. To see how human interaction with them has led to the rise of expanded consciousness. Lets start with Psilocybe Cyanescens, commonly called 'magic mushrooms' in the West.
The Story of the discovery of the flesh of the gods is surely one of the more unusual episodes of human history. The very existence of such entities had apparently disappeared from human consciousness, despite the existence of ancient mushroom stones in the Guatemalan highlands, when in 1936 an anthropologist in Mexico discovered of the existence of a mushroom rite, hidden through the 500 years of Christian repression. It was to lie fallow for another 20 years until Gordon Wasson received the prophesied transmission from Maria Sabina.
Subsequently great interest developed in psilocybe mushrooms, Albert Hofmann synthesizing the active ingredient and Timothy Leary giving them notoriety, while nevertheless recognising in them something of their spiritual potential. It gradually came to be discovered that although somewhat difficult to identify, there were psilocin-bearing mushrooms, predominantly psilocybes, in just about every moist terrain on the planet. Two types of habitat are distinguishable. Most species are carbohydrate decomposers that live stably for long periods on decaying wood. The other type is one large tropical and some small temperate mushrooms growing in pastures in association with Brahmin cattle.
Mycophiles such as Kat Harrison, Terrence McKenna and Paul Stamets discovered instances of mushroom artefacts in the Old World, and it became apparent that, given the widespread distribution of forest psilocybes, that it would be most surprising if the early gatherers of Europe had not become familiar with their properties.
McKenna also notes the existence of green mushroom stones from the Vinca site in Northwestern Bulgaria, and a particularly unusual relic found on the Konja Plain which has what look like a pair of mushrooms on the front and a riveting stare consistent with a visionary state. These are consistent with an early spread of a mushroom cult, possibly of a pastoral mushroom associated with cattle. On the south side of the Mediterranian, Tassili rock painting shows a variety of instances of shamanic figures either running holding a mushroom or sprouting mushrooms, while at the same time covered in just those entopic patterns mentioned in prehistoric Europe. Climatic changes would have made this area fertile in earlier periods.
A stele of Demeter, passing the central sacrament of the Eleusinian mystery to Persephone, also presents the distinctive appearance of a liberty bell mushroom similar to the pastoral psilocybe semilanceata. These mysteries have also been associated with ergot, because it is a hallucinogen which is in the very grain of which Demeter is the Goddess, but one should regard all sacred plants and fungi as potentially in the domain of the Earth Goddess and her mystery religions. The above sacrament is clearly not ergot. Neither does ergot show on the grains otherwise held by Persephone.
Psilocybe cyanescens is extensive throughout Europe and may have been introduced to the US with the Europeans. It and related species exist in small numbers scattered in forest. The preferred substrate of cyanescens is alder. As such woods come to be cut down and used domestically, so piles of decaying nutrient build up which can lead to large eruptions of fungi in association with small communities. Such a possibility may remain conjecture but is not inconsistent with the detailed involvement both of nature and of the alder in particular in old European tree-lore.
But there is one more distinct way in which mushrooms have played a role in Western culture: Christmas.
Patrick Harding of Sheffield University in England argues that the trappings of the traditional Christmas experience owe a great deal to what is probably the most important mushroom in history: fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), the recreational and ritualistic drug of choice in parts of northern Europe before vodka was imported from the East. Each December this mycologist dresses up as Santa and drags a sleigh behind him to deliver seasonal lectures on the toadstool. The garb helps Harding drive home his point, for Santa's robes without doubt honor the red-and-white-dot color scheme of this potent mind-altering mushroom.
Commonly found in northern Europe, North America, and New Zealand, fly agaric is fairly poisonous, being a relative of the more lethal death cap (Amanita phalloides) and destroying angel (Amanita virosa). The hallucinogenic principles of fly agaric are due to the presence of the chemicals ibotenic acid and muscimol, according to the International Mycological Institute at Egham, Surrey, England. Ibotenic acid is present only in fresh mushrooms. On drying, it turns into muscimol, which is ten times more potent. In Lapp societies, the village holy man, or shaman, took his mushrooms dried—with good reason.
The shaman knew how to prepare the mushroom, removing the more potent toxins so that it was safe enough to eat. During a mushroom-induced trance, he would start to twitch and sweat. His soul was thought to leave the body as an animal and fly to the otherworld to communicate with the spirits. The spirits would, the shaman hoped, help him to deal with pressing problems, such as an outbreak of sickness in the village. With luck, after his hallucinatory flight across the skies, he would return bearing the gifts of medical knowledge from the gods.
Santa's jolly "Ho, ho, ho" is the euphoric laugh of someone who has indulged in the mushroom. Harding adds that the big man's fondness for popping down chimneys is an echo of how the shaman would drop into a yurt, an ancient tentlike dwelling made of birch and reindeer hide. "The 'door' and the chimney of the yurt were the same, and the most significant person coming down the chimney would have been a shaman coming to heal a sick person."
Harding uses the shaman's urine to link reindeer to the myth. For one thing, reindeer were uncommonly fond of drinking human urine that contained muscimol. The hoi polloi from the village also were partial to mind-expanding yellow snow, because the potency of the muscimol was not greatly weakened—although it was probably safer—once it had passed through the shaman. "There is evidence of the drug passing through five or six people and still being effective," Harding says. "This is almost certainly the derivation of the phrase 'to get pissed,' which has nothing to do with alcohol. It predates inebriation by alcohol by several thousand years."
Such was the intensity of the drug-induced experience that it is hardly surprising that the Christmas legend includes flying reindeer.
References to flying can be found in more recent applications of the mushroom. St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) used fly agaric to soar to the heights of religious ecstasy, according to Daniele Piomelli of the Unité de Neurobiologie et Pharmacologie de I'Inserm in Paris. An account of the life of St. Catherine describes the use of ground agaric, so that God "infused such suavity and divine sweetness in her heart that both soul and body were so full as to make her unable to stand."
In Victorian times travelers returned with intriguing tales of the use of fly agaric by people in Siberia, Lapland, and other areas in the northern latitudes. One of the first was reported by the mycologist Mordecai Cooke, who mentioned the recycling of urine rich in muscimol in his A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi (1862). Harding points out that Cooke was a friend of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), the author of the fantastic children's story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Almost certainly, this is the source of the episode in Alice where she eats the mushroom, where one side makes her grow very tall and the other very small," Harding says. "This inability to judge size—macropsia—is one of the effects of fly agaric."
One popular misconception that can be attributed to mushroom use concerns the many tales of witches flying on broom-sticks. The Inquisition collected many such tales and attributes such powers to further evidence of witchcraft. The real story behind this legend concern old European wise women's practice of smearing mushroom, belladona and other ingredients on a broom-stick and then inserting it into their private parts, thus the legend of flying on a broom-stick.
What about the story of Jesus? Is there any evidence to link it to the early cult of the mushroom?
Jesus is portrayed as the Son of God, sent to fulfil the role of Messiah or 'Anointed One' - of course 'anointed one' literally meant, 'one smeared with semen'. As a mushroom, the amanita muscaria does not disseminate seeds as plants do, but ejaculates microscopic spores which create a threadlike fungal network at the base of conifer trees from which thunderstorms elicit more mushrooms. Prior to knowledge of spores, lightning was thought to be the source of mushrooms and lightning was considered the fiery progenitive spears of God, hence the phallic fungi were called 'Sons of God'.
The mushroom's spore ejaculate leaves an oily film on the blood-red cap spotted with white thorns, hence the term 'Messiah' ('Anointed One') and allusions to thistle-entwined, bloody-browed sacrifices, such as the miraculous 'Ram' of Abraham (Genesis 22:13) and Jesus the thorn-crowned 'Lamb of God'.
Mushrooms were also seen as 'winged' creatures, or crowned by a cloudy cap or 'halo', each carrying a 'message' from God, the very definition of an 'Angel'. Some mushrooms were 'good' or nutritious, some were 'evil' or poisonous, but amanita muscaria was considered 'blessed' and capable of bestowing health, strength, inspiration and the power of prognostication.
Ingestion of the amanita muscaria can revive the deathly ill and enables people to perform unusual feats of strength. The Gnostics used the mushroom to access 'gnosis' or 'sacred knowledge' and become privy to seeing the 'Kingdom at hand.'
The experience can also result in a very deep sleep, giving the appearance that the partaker has died, only to be 'resurrected' as the effect wears off. The decaying mushroom smells like rotting flesh thus attracting flies, hence another term for the mushroom, 'fly agaric'. Flies seem to die on contact with the mushroom, but if observed for a period of about 12 hours, however, the insects experience 'resurrection' and fly away.
As John Allegro points out, the 'Cross' is merely the cuneiform symbol of the mushroom, just as the 'Asclepius', or snake-entwined staff topped by a winged disc found on nearly all medical facilities, is also just an ancient symbol of the mushroom.
Ayahuasca
The most powerful singular hallucinogen known to man is certainly the drink known in Quechua as ayahuasca - the vine of the soul or rope of the dead, Caapi, or Yaje. "There is a magical intoxicant in in the northwestern most of South America which the Indians believe can free the soul from corporeal confinement , allowing it to wander free and return to the body at will. The soul thus untrammeled, liberates its owner from the realities of everyday life and introduces him to wondrous realms of which he considers to be reality and permits him to communicate with his ancestors" (Schultes & Hofmann 1979 120).
Ayahuasca is an admixture based on both dimethyl-tryptamine and the carboline harmine. The bark of the vine of certain Banisteriopsis species is mashed and boiled with the leaves of plants such as certain Psychotria species. Sometimes some tropanes are also added. The principal is regarded as a major botanical discovery of the Indians: the beta-carboline acts as a mono-amine oxidase inhibitor, making it possible for the dimethyl-tryptamine to both enter the body through the stomach and to remain in action for some four hours. In combination, these substances produce a profound and sustained visionary state of a particularly tumultuous sort.
Harner in 'The Way of the Shaman' gives a particularly striking description of his introduction to ayahuasca by the Conibo indians:
"Just a few minutes earlier I had been disappointed, sure that the ayahuasca was not goint to have any effect on me. Now the sound of rushing water flooded my brain. My jaw began to feel numb ... Overhead the faint lines became brighter and gradually interlaced to form a canopy resembling a geometric mosaic of stained glass. I could see dim figures engaged in shadowy movements ... the moving scene resolved itself into a supernatural carnival of demons. In the centre was a gigantic grinning crocodilian head from whose cavernous jaws gushed a torrential flood of water".
The scene gradually tranformed into sky and sea. He then saw two vessels which merged 'into a single vessel with a dragon-headed prow'.
"I heard a regular swishing sound and saw it was a giant galley. I became conscious too of the most beautiful singing I have ever heard in my life ... emanating from myriad voices on the galley. I could make out large numbers of people with the heads of blue jays. At the same time some energy essence began to float from my chest up into the boat as if to take his soul away." His body began to become numb as if his heart was going to stop. His brain became partitioned into an intellectual command level, the numb level and lower levels of the visions. (Harner1980 1)
"I was told that this new material was being presented to me because I was dying and therefore 'safe' to receive these revelations. First they showed me the planet earth as it was eons ago. Then appeared large creatures with pterodactyl-like wings which were fleeing from something out in space and showed me how they had created life on the planet in order to hide within the multitudinous forms."
He then witnessed the unfolding of plant and animal speciation learning that the dragon-like creatures were inside all forms of life. "These revelations alternated with visions of the floating galley which had almost taken my soul on board." (Harner1980 4)
"With an unimaginable last effort, I barely managed to utter one word to the indians: 'Medicine!' I saw them rushing around to make an antidote which eased my condition but did not prevent me from having many additional visions. Finally I slept. Rays of light were piercing the holes in the palm-thatched roof when I awoke. I was surprised to discover that I felt refreshed and peaceful." (Harner1980 5).
Afterwards he related his vision of the bat-like creatures to an aged sightless shaman who said with a grin "Oh they are always saying that. But they are only the masters of the outer darkness." waving his hand casually towards the sky just as Harner had seen in his vision.
There have been many reports that medicine men achieve clairvoyance under the influence of ayahuasca. For this reason, Fisher the first investigator to extract an alkaloid from it called the substance now known as harmine telepathine. This is a controversial area. Some researchers very experienced at the use of entheogens discont the idea that ayahuasca has any unique properties in this regard, but acknowledge that such properties are often attributed to hallucinogens generally (Ott 233).
Carlos Fallon commanded a gunboat floatilla navigating the Putamayo. He met a medicine man who was able to 'see' a Peruvian boat coming upstream manned by a crew of four and an officer before it was confirmed by a radio. Fallon tok the potion himself and reported that he was covered in feathers and talons rather than feet. He moved into the centre of the hut and from there he looked back to see his human body sleeping. When he asked the paye if this was possible, he was admonished not to attempt such things until after more practice at 'mastering his dreams (Andrews 353).
To the Amahuaca an ayahuasca party is a social occasion. Anyone can drop in and woen will sit chatting while their men keen and shudder away. However it may also be taken to find a thief or to seek revenge for acts of witchcraft through summoning a power animal soul as an agent to dispatch psychic darts into the adversary.
Corresponding to this a shaman will traditionally remove such magical darts by sucking them fro a person's abdomen during a healing session. Visions of sexual incubi and succubi are regarded as pleasant diversions with no ill effects. In general there is a clear distinction between disease per se and disease caused by sorcery, based on its unexplained or coincidental occurrence (Andrews 349).
Yopo
Commonly called cohoba snuff, it is a powerful mind-alterer made from seeds of the yopo tree (Anadenanthera peregrina). The main psychoactive components are DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and 5-methoxy-DMT, which are also present in other trees, vines and shrubs and even in mushrooms.
The Yopo experience is no easy journey, it is extremely painful to take and its visions can be terrifying. Traditionally only the most advanced Shamans are allowed to take Yopo.
The Indian tribes mostly snuff the toasted and pulverized Yopo seeds/beans mixed with ashes or calcined shells. Adding limestone to the powder strongly enhances the visual hallucinations. To make the trip even stronger many Shamans combine it with some Banisteriopsis caapi powder. This is a rather harsh method and can induce violent sneezing and heavy hallucinations.
Use of yopo may actually predate Ayahuasca usage. Many shamans believe the visionary dream-state induced by yopo allows them to contact spirits in the spirit world to gain knowledge about medicinal plants, how to treat an illness, etc. The effects are can be visual in nature, causing the user to see colorful patterns, objects seen with the eyes may appear to be swirling, transforming into other objects, changing colors, etc. The user may see colorful 3-dimensional moving patterns with the eyes opened or closed. The user may hear dreamy sounds and voices. With the eyes closed or in a dark setting, users may experience full dream-like phenomena, interacting with dream-like places, people, etc.
Datura
Now comes the most terrifying, the most intense, the most seriously DANGEROUS 'sacred plant' on earth. This plant cannot be put alongside the other sacred plants as being harmless, it isnt, in fact it is seriously dangerous stuff. I am talking of course about Datura.
Although this plant is highly toxic if ingested, the real danger of Datura comes from the actions of the person who has taken it. The results of Datura consumption are totally unpredictable. In tribes that do take Datura (and there aren't many) the person taking it is usually looked after by at least 3 of the strongest tribe members. The Datura experience is often described as the most terrifying journey imaginable. A doorway into the most primitive, reptilian, Lovecraftian aspect of the mind imaginable.
Known commonly as Jimson Weed, Datura is a woody-stalked, leafy herb growing up to 2 meters. It produces spiney seed pods and large white or purple trumpet-shaped flowers that face upward. Most parts of the plant contain atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine. It has a long history of use both in S. America and Europe and is known for causing delerious states and poisonings in uninformed users (I seriously pity people accidentaly poisoned by this plant).
If you have this plant growing in your yard (its very common in Australia) and you have young kids, I SERIOUSLY recommend you remove this plant immediately! Even the small seeds of the Datura plant are equally potent. Do not let your kids (heck don't let anyone) play or touch this plant.
The narcotic properties of this purple-flowered member of the deadly nightshade family, Solanaceae, have been known and valued in India since prehistory. The plant has a long history in other countries as well. Some writers have credited it with being responsible for the intoxicating smoke associated with the Oracle of Delphi. Early Chinese writings report an hallucinogen that has been identified with this species. And it is undoubtedly the plant that Avicenna, the Arabian physician, mentioned under the name jouzmathel in the 11th century. Its use as an aphrodisiac in the East Indies was recorded in 1578. The plant was held sacred in China, where people believed that when Buddha preached, heaven sprinkled the plant with dew.
Tribes that use Datura in rituals are to be commonly found in Gabon and the Congo. Various species of Datura were also revered as sacred plants by the Aztecs, and used in manhood rites to cause boys coming of age to 'lose their memories of childhood' in becoming a man. It is the most sacred plant of the Zunis who say it sprouted from the place where the primordial humans with magical vision disappeared into the earth when chased by sky gods jealous of their prophetic powers (Schultes and Hofmann 1979 106).
The use of Datura is not widespread in tribal culture but the fact that some do use it and that it has been widely used even in Europe for thousands of years as a spiritual medium warrented its inclusion here.
Datura is the doorway to the underworld, if we want to use Christian terminology on this then I would say that the beings revealed via Datura are demonic. Datura is the path to hell. Even Shamans will only use Datura for the most serious of circumstances.
Datura is totally unpredictable. Even the smallest amounts will have horrendous consequences. Here is an example;
There is a particular being that is invoked via Datura. Crazy idea I know but the continual reports of this being by people who have tried Datura confrim its existence. This being is a beautiful woman that usually appears when the person first begins to feel the affect of Datura. Time for a user report:
"I was left blind for three days after one trip with seven flowers steeped in boiling water. The last thing i saw was a very beautiful white woman with black hair, very beautiful with a flowing white dress. She beckoned to me but somehow I knew she would be my death if I followed. I asked her to come to me instead, and she responded with anger that I should not rush to greet her. After I came down I lost my sight for three days. These were the most difficult three days of my life, three days of total terror."
and another;
"When I first felt the affects of Datura a woman appeared. She was so beautiful it was difficult not to keep staring at her. Every bit of me told me not to look at her. She kept telling me to take more and more, that my dose had not been enough. I now know this beautiful woman was death."
and another;
"I cannot tell you the terror and the fear of the visions of Datura. I kept having this woman, all dressed in white, telling me she wanted to marry me, telling me to follow her. She was death, even while delirious I knew she was death!"
or the advice of someone who 'went there';
"The usual pattern of those foolish enough to try Datura is that they will eat some seeds, think they are not feeling anything, eat some more, etc etc and die or end up in hospital. She is NOT like Ayahuasca or anything else. You will not know you are being effected. You will believe that the world you are in is perfectly normal. Your friend will agree, that you seem fine. She might even tell you it might be that you didn't eat nearly enough. The only problem is, that person doesn't exist, not in this world. But you will think you are normal and that person is there."
And from someone else;
"This plant is the "dirty" way to get to the other side. I've tried all your popular hallucinogens, yeah, yeah, all of them. And datura is the one b*itch I have vowed to stay away from. After about an hour your body locks up. Its like I had wire in my veins. A very dirty, unflowing feeling with datura - this plant really takes you to the dark side. Dreams were all distorted and I through it all, a feeling of mocking feminine presence. But I will say this... it gives you power. A raw sick dirty power. I got an amazing strength in my legs and could jump freakishly high. This *buzzing* surrounded my feet. Well folks, its been 10 years later and that buzzing/tingly feeling in my feet is still there. I have been diagnosed with RLS (restless leg syndrome). Its like some part of her (datura) remained in my body and has yet to let go. I hate it. I hate her. Didn't Don Juan warn about this? Datura can make a slave out of you! Don't mess with her my friends."
From a Shaman himself;
"The datura spirit has a dual nature almost to the point of being two separate beings. One is the active protection and the other is more stationary and holds the wisdom. The protective aspect, who I have seen in the form of a woman that slowly transforms into a four-footed wolf-like beast, is the side most often encountered by those experimenting with datura for fun. Fast, vicious, and speechless, this spirit is ruthless in tearing apart the physical and mental health of traspassers; permanent mental illness and death are common results."
A more commonly used plant that is still part of the Datura family is the Brugmansia, which is common to the Amazons. Brugmansia is nowhere near as intense as Dature but its affects are still described are terrifying.
Von Humbolt the early explorer remarked on the use of Tonga (Brugmansia sanguinea) as a sacred plant of the priests of the Temple of the Sun at Sogamoza in Columbia. The women and slaves of a dead Muisca chief were also given the brew so they would not recognise their impending burial with their chief.
The Muisca had a song about the plant (known to the locals as the Tree of the Evil Eagle) which went like this;
"The spirit is so evil that if a weak person stops at its foot they will forget everything. If a girl rests under its shade, she will dream about men of the Paez tribe and a figure will be left in her womb, which will later become the pips of the tree."
Schultes and Hoffman described their encounter with a Shaman who had ingested Brugmansia;
"The native fell into a heavy stupor, his eyes vacantly fixed on the ground, his mouth convulsively closed, and his nostrils dilated. Over fifteen minutes his eyes began to roll, foam issued from his mouth and his whole body was agitated by frightful convulsions. After these frightful symptoms had passed, a profound sleep of several hours followed after which he related the particulars of his visit with his forefathers" (Schultes and Hofmann 1979 129).
They remind us;
"They are plants of the gods, but but not the agreeable gifts ofthe gods like peyote, the sacred mushroom and Ayahuasca. Their powerful and wholly unpleasant effects, periods of violence and temporary insanity, and their sickening after-effects have put them in a second category - reminding us that the gods do not always strive to make life easy for man." (Schultes and Hofmann 1979 131).
Peyote
Fray Bernadino de Sahagun estimated from Indian chronology that peyote had been known to the Chichimeca and Toltec at least 1890 years before the arrival of the Europeans. This is confirmed by the find of the peyote deer snuff pipe at Monte Alban. Usage for as long as 3000 years is suggested from Tarahumara rock carvings and Peyote specimens found in Texas rock shelters. Sahagan reports as follows: "There is another herb like [opuntia]. It is called peiotl. It is found in the north country. Those who eat or drink it see visions, either frightful or laughable. This intoxication lasts two or three days and then ceases. It is a common food of the Chichimeca, for it sustains them and gives them courage to fight and not to feel hunger or thirst. And they say it protects them from all danger" (Schultes and Hofmann 1979 132).
As with sacred mushrooms, the Spaniards repressed the use of peyote because it was connected with heathen rituals and superstitions to contact evil spirits through diabolical fantasies. Francisco Hernandez, physician to King Philip II noted: "Wonderful properties are attributed to this root., if any faith can be given to what is commonly said among them on this point. It cause those devouring it to be able to forsee and predict things ..." (Schultes and Hofmann 1979 134).
Every year the Huichol make a peyote pilgrimage. The peyote hunt takes over 600km of rugged desert country from their tribal homeland in the Sierra Madre Occidental (Meyerhoff 10, Furst 136). The journey involves many ritual steps and many days of journey involving hardship. The confessing of marital infidelities is done without recrimination. The Huichol are polygamous and traditionally accept such revelations with a light heart. A knot is placed in a string for each occasion and then burned.
So what is the peyote experience like? Well according to 109 year old Shaman Don Jose Matsua;
"There is a doorway within our minds that usually remains hidden and secret until the time of death. The Huichol word for it is nieríka. Nieríka is a cosmic portway or interface between so-called ordinary and non-ordinary realities. It s a passageway and at the same time a barrier between the worlds. Peiotl opens the doorway and we can see inside."
and
"I have pursued my apprenticeship for sixty-four years. During these years, many, many times I have gone into the mountains alone. Yes I have endured much suffering in my life. Yet to learn to see, to learn to hear, you must do this - go into the wilderness alone. For it is not I who can teach you the ways of the gods. Such things are learned only in solitude and with the aid of the peiotl you learn fast."
According to old Huichol shamans in the last 60 years the visions of peyote have changed, the visions now have a warning. The Huichol shamans say we are 'perdido', lost. They say we are bringing doom and destruction to Yurianaka, Mother Earth, and that Taupa, Father Sun, is coming closer to the earth to purify it. They are concerned for the future and for the life of their children. They are holding great ceremonies calling in shamans from many areas to try and "hold up the sun."
Syrian Rue
A very interesting Arabic plant that contains harmine and harmaline after which it is named is Peganum harmala or Syran rue. This plant remains one of the candidates for the sacred plant Soma. Harmel would be ruddy if pressed from the root, where the active ingredients are stored as they are also in the seed.
Many authorities, such as Rudgley, have suggested that Peganum was the ancient Soma. He notes that Avesta describes Soma as tall perfumed and greenish. The Vedas also describe Soma as growing in the mountains. In 1794 Jones' Laws of Manu describes Soma as a species of mountain rue but not true rue (Ruta). Peganum (wlid rue) is found in the central Asian steppes and Iranian plateau.
Rue intoxication is characterised by a soporific stupor with hallucination. In the Avesta Yasna 10:8 notes: "Indeed all other intoxications are accompanied by violence of the bloody club, but the intoxication of Haoma is accompanied by bliss-giving righteousness".
The consumption of sauma is the only means recognised in the Zoroastrian literature and is the means used by Ohrmazd when he wishes to make the menog - seeing into existence before death - visible to living persons (McKenna 105).
In the book of Arda Wiraz the Persian priest drinks mang from three golden cups for Good Thought, Speech and Action, at a great meeting of priests to assess the future prospects in the wake of Alexander's incursions. His soul travels to another world returning on the seventh day, relaying all he has seen to a scribe. In this journey he travels on the axis-mundi to heaven and hell in just the manner of Muhammad's night flight to heaven."I saw the pre-eminent world of the pious which is the all-glorious light of space, perfumed with sweet basil, all-bedecked and splendid full of glory and every pleasure, with which no one is satiated" (Rudgley 53).
Evidence is beginning to accumulate that this hallucinogen may also have been available to ancient Biblical prophets including Moses, and Bedouins of al-Lat. Peganum harmala is widespread in Biblical areas and is noted on Gebel Musa one principal candidate for Mt. Sinai of Moses (Hobbs 16). A specific desert acacia, Sant, a host tree of the mistletoe-like loranthus, is Moses 'burning bush' and the source of mana (Graves 1948 264), which is the prime oracular tree of Canaan (440). If this contains tryptamines as many species do Moses could have had access to a potion much like ayahuasca.
This experience follows a close parallel to those of the Prophet during his night journey to heaven on the axis mundi. "It is related from the Prophet that over each leaf and seed of the isfand plant an angel is appointed so that through its bark and roots and branches grief and sorcery are set aside" Baqir Majlisi (Rudgley 43). A hadith relates that in seeking a solution to the cowardice of his followers, Muhammad was told by Allah to cammand them to consume isfand in order to make them brave (Rudgley 52). In the garden of paradise Allah also has a sacred drink spiced with ginger. This suggests an intriguing possibility that the inspiration of Muhammad's vision could have been Soma itself and that this vision is comparable with that of the Vine of the Soul.
The 'burning bush' of Moses?
Cannabis
Tradition in India maintains that the gods sent man the Hemp plant so that he might attain delight, courage, and have heightened sexual desires. When nectar or Amrita dropped down from heaven, Cannabis sprouted from it. Another story tells how when the gods, helped by demons churned the mile ocean to obtain Amrita one of the resulting divine nectars was Cannabis, able to give man anything from a good health and a long life to visions of the gods. It was consecrated to Shiva and was Indra's favourite drink. Cannabis bears the name Vijaya for the victory the gods had over the demons in retaining guardianship of Amrita. Ever since the plant has been held in India to bestow supernatural powers on its users. As Bhang it was thought to deter evil, bring luck and cleanse man of sin.
Cannabis makes its first appearance in the Bible in Exodus 30:22-23:
"Moreover the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet KINEBOISIN two hundred and fifty shekels...And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary; it shall be an holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony. Upon man's flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it: it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.'"
KINEBOISIN, according to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is the old name for cannabis - it was also spelt kannabosm.
Cannabis was traditionally called 'the New Wine' just as alcohol was called 'the Old Wine'. Jesus rejected the old wine and glorified the "new wine" at the wedding feast of Cana. Cana is a linguistic derivation of the present day cannabis and so it is. (Some Biblical scholars and there is a certain amount of support in early tradition of the view have looked upon the miracle of Cana as a sign of the Eucharist.)
Note the references to new wine in the Bible:
Isaiah 65:8 "Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it; so will I do for my servant's sake"
Acts 2:13 "Others mocking said, "These men are full of new wine."
Isaiah 65:8 declares that the new wine is found in the cluster and that a blessing is in it. When one mentions clusters, one thinks of clusters of grapes. Webster's New Riverside Dictionary, Office Edition, defines marijuana: 1. Hemp 2. The dried flower clusters and leaves of the hemp plant, esp. when taken to induce euphoria.
It would be very strange if Cannabis did not play an important part in Christian history considering the important part it plays in all other spiritual traditions of the region. The Rig Veda tells us that Cannabis preceeded the Gods by three ages. Hindus believe that Lord Shiva himself brought Cannabis down to earth with him from heaven for human use. Cannabis was also called Indricana, the food of the god Indra. Assyrian texts from the 7th century BC name cannabis. The Essenes of ancient Israel and the Theraputea of Egypt both used cannabis medicinally. Zoroaster, Persian founder of a religion, used cannabis. In one legend Buddha is said to have survived on one cannabis seed a day for years. First century AD Taoists in Japan used cannabis in their incense burners. The Sufis widely used cannabis as part of their ritual of searching for spiritual insight.
Everywhere in the ancient world Cannabis was in use, why would Christianity be any different?
Conclusion
Can a spirituality based on taking mind altering plants be taken seriously? In other words, when we look around at our own culture and we see the massive problems that drugs bring, the terrible cost in crime, mental illness, addiction etc...can we seriously view the Shamanic consumption of these mind altering plants as anything more than drug taking?
Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to first understand a little of the Shamanic cosmology and then understand the importance of these plants. You cannot compare the consumption of these plants in tribal culture with Westerners taking drugs. We Westerners take drugs to have a good time (ecstasy, alcohol etc), to relax (marijuanna, tobacco etc), to pick us up (coffee, sugar, amphetamines etc), to escape our problems (heroin, cocaine etc)...in fact we take these substances to do everything possible but look within.
Tribal cultures do not take their sacred plants to have a good time or to escape. Tribal culture consumes these plants to explore the within. So here we need a little understanding of the Shaman's cosmology.
Shamanism is an unwritten tradition that spans the globe. It is the oldest form of spirituality on earth and wherever it is found it always tends to follow a very similar pattern of belief. According to the Shamanic view the Universe is a kind of watch, and time is a kind of higher dimension that is perpendicular to all directions that we are in.
You and I, all of us in fact, are flying forward through time and the patterns we develop as we fly forward are kind of like linked braids. Every day we eat and every day we excrete, atoms come into us and atoms leave us and we ourselves become like long braids of atoms (what the Shavante call 'spirals of information').
The dimension we are in is made up of space-time and within this space-time we are nothing more than patterns. Patterns of information, nothing actually solid, just patterns of information.
According to the Shamanic view, the universe is a kind of machine which is made up of two opposites; habit and novelty. These two opposites are in continual battle and motion. Habit is momentum, entropy, and repetition of pattern. Novelty is symmetry breaking chaos. Neither of these are 'intelligent', they are merely the insides, the mechanics if you will, of the universal clock which is space-time.
Sacred plants are not really plants at all, according to Shamans. Sacred plants are a type of code (kind of like a new program) and when consumed assimilate their power into our spiral or pattern of information. This assimilation causes rips in the space-time continuum which are instantly filled with other dimensions (remembering of course that nature abhores a vacum). These dimensions are populated with our ancestors, other beings etc.
With this kind of understanding of the Shamanic cosmology you quickly realize that a comparison between their consumption of mind-altering substances and our consumption of drugs is simply not possible. Our consumption of mind-altering substances does not have the pre-requisite cultural knowledge or experience to be of any value. In fact, its quite the opposite, our consumption of mind-altering substances merely brings problems.
Allow me to use the analogy between HD technology and more primitive AM transistors to illustrate my point. These molecules (sacred plants and substances) do nothing but push your buttons that are already part of your body. They merely manually help you to change to HD consciousness instead of AM forms of awareness which we are forced to maintain with threats of imprisonment, religious excommunication, scorn and other un-spiritual practices better used for evil.
Studies found we do not NEED these plants, but in certain situations (like showing you how much more full of awareness our perceptions can have access to) these plants certainly can be of assistance. Then, you know it is there, and know you come back and and get there WITHOUT the training wheels.
If I told you that you were in even less than a primitive cartoon world, and you said prove it, so I take out your old hanger antenna and plug you in to an HD cable signal, and you see that, enjoy that for 6 hours, with billions of stations and subjects, would you come back to your cartoon? Likely the shock would scare your little cartoon plans and value systems, but if you are of sufficient intelligence it would be plain that remaining stupid and clueless in a monochromatic existence would be madness.
How hard would you hold on to ignorance after you knew how 2 dimensional your life was and how much love, understanding and connection to what you call GOD you were missing?
Like I said, you don't need the drugs, but any arguments against them might indicate you need to experience something more if your view is still AM mono radio, no picture. Try HD 1080i video in 3D with Surround Sound and you will toss out that little transistor radio you were lied to about being the ONLY format for awareness.
"I don't need drugs. I AM drugs" Salvador Dali
