Book Reviews, Notes and Comments Tropic Drugs Intheancientworld] [Pharmacological Ecstasy

376 Ann Ist Super Sanità 2014 | Vol. 50, No. 4: 376-380 DOI: 10.4415/ANN_14_04_14 BOOK REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS Edited by Federica Napolitani Cheyne TS N 266). Quotes are justified by the infinite variety of dif- OMME L’ESTASI FARMACOLOGICA ferent approaches and theories: to the point that the author has felt the need to discuss (and reject) the opin- C Uso magico-religioso delle droghe D nel mondo antico ion that “altered” states of consciousness simply do not N A exist, being extremes in a continuum of “normal” states. Paolo Nencini In this context it should also be noted that recent times Roma: Giovanni Fioriti Editore; have witnessed an exponential increase of more or less OTES 2014. 238 p. fanciful accounts of Out-of-body experiences and Near- ISBN: 978-88-95930-96.1. death experiences [3] (these are briefly discussed in a , N € 26,00. later chapter, p. 177), resulting in several attempts to provide scientific explanations of such experiences [4]. [Pharmacological ecstasy. Ritual-religious uses of psycho- Additional complications stem from the fact that this EVIEWS tropic drugs in the ancient world] field is strewn with a startling number of chicken-and- R egg questions for which answers are mostly unavailable This book, following those by the same author on opi- (and will remain unavailable), due to the absence or un- OOK um [1] and alcohol [2], completes a trilogy devoted to reliability of prehistorical and historical evidence. For B the historical, sociological, cultural and anthropological example, euroasiatic or indoamerican shamanic expe- aspects of the development of different drug uses from riences may have originally developed without the use prehistoric times to the present. Much of this work de- of drugs, i.e., by steady introspection, intense physical bunks several time-honoured narratives showing, for exertion (dance etc.) and/or stunning sensory stimula- example, that ritual/religious and therapeutical uses of tion (obsessively rhythmic music or drum beating); only opium started a long time before its hedonic uses. later on, drugs may have been introduced as facilitators. This third instalment is a significant contribution to With or without drugs, the importance of the shaman’s the understanding of a variety of phenomena in the functions is further confirmed by recent developments realms of psychology, psychopathology, and either such as the taking on of a political role in defence of therapeutical or non-therapeutical psychotropic drug amerindian communities from external threats [5]. uses. Among other things, the evidence discussed is The second chapter, devoted to the Palaeolithic Age, often against the frequent attribution of a significant is a good example of how the admixture of available role of drugs in the development of various religions as and missing evidence can unleash a host of equally distinct, e.g., from shamanic, magic, or today’s New Age (or almost equally) credible accounts and hypotheses practices. At most, drugs may have favoured group co- in contrastt with each other. For example, the role of hesion in religious practices and/or facilitated the per- drugs – particularly plants containing antimuscarinics formance of one or the other ritual. The discussion of such as atropine and scopolamine – in the production the possible role of drugs and its frequent discounting of Franco-Cantabrian paintings (Altamira, Lascaux, helps understanding the considerable differences be- etc.) is strongly supported by some but firmly denied tween shamanism, magic and wizardry, between Greek by others. Earlier interpretations were often based on mantic (pythonic) practices and Roman divinatory an instrumental (“intercession”) model – the invocation practices, between Jewish prophetism and Christian of animal spirits to favour success in hunting, includ- symbolism, and so on and so forth. ing defence from dangerous neighbours, and to stave In this difficult exercise the author had to negotiate a off the spectre of famine. Incidentally this seems to an- monumental amount of highly heterogeneous literature ticipate innumerable similar phenomena both religious evidence. In fact this field, characterized by a hetero- and non-religious, till recent times, like the cult of the geneous nomenclature – psychedelic, psychotomimetic, Fourteen Intercessor Saints at the spectacular baroque psychodisleptic or hallucinogenic drugs – is much wid- Vierzehnheiligen pilgrimage church in Bavaria. er and diversified than those of opiates and alcoholic Subsequently, more sophisticated, often “cognitive”, beverages. This depends on the wide variety not only hypotheses have been supported and Nencini shows of different drug types (rather than different forms of how each has its pros and contras, including those in- the same type of drug), but also of different settings in volving the use of drugs. Of special interest in the face which their use was developed. of present debates on neuropsychological and psycho- Having to deal with various states of altered con- pathological questions are a “neuro-aesthetic” hypoth- sciousness, the author devotes his first chapter to a clear esis and an “autistic” hypothesis. The latter is based survey of the present controversial knowledge on con- on the sudden appearance in the Paleolythic of a high sciousness and its “normal” and “altered” states (see also quality artistic capability, assuming that such an appar- the recent series of articles in this journal on coma and ently rapid flowering is not an artifact due to missing vegetative states, Ann Ist Super Sanità 2014;50(3):207- evidence on previous more “primitive” attempts: the 377 franco-cantabrian sudden perfection could therefore be spectively) and by “competing” myths (particularly the compared to the sudden emergence of a high-quality one resulting in Orphic mysteries), descent to, and re- drawing capability in some autistic children, without turn from, the Underworld is a crucial aspects of these any previous ad hoc training. The substantial implica- cults, be they associated or not with one or the other tions for the relationships between the development of type of drug use. language and other cognitive capabilities by The last chapter is an effective overview of the de- Homo sapi- TS ens are too complex to be discussed here. velopments from ancient times to the present, showing N For obvious reasons, the contents of the following six the complex relations in the Middle Ages between dif- chapters cannot be discussed in detail. The third one ferent trends – the Neoplatonic, Hermetic and Gnos- concludes in favour of marked differences between tic heritages, Scholastic philosophy and theology ap- OMME the experiences of Middle-east neolithic populations, propriating Aristotle’s wisdom, astrology and alchemy, C D whose use of drugs was likely limited to beer (quite and last but not least, wizardry with its use of drugs N A murky and with a low alcohol contents, therefore con- (particularly those with central antimuscarinic effects) sumed more for its food value than for its inebriating and its long history of persecution of not-sufficiently- properties), and those of the central and western euro- submissive women (overall, about 100,000 trials, up to OTES pean areas, where ample evidence has been found of an 90% of all trials in some places and periods). The fol- extensive use of opium; however, for ritual and perhaps lowing step deals with the apparently bizarre admixture , N therapeutic purposes, not for hedonic purposes. The in the Renaissance of currents like esotericism and the fourth chapter deals with subsequent developments in new paradigms of modern science: Paracelsus’ pharma- the East, including the spread of cannabis domestica- cology and therapeutics is the classical example of such EVIEWS tion and uses (there is evidence of its presence in Chi- a hybridation. This long story ends with a confrontation R na already around 4,500 BC) and of shamanic uses of between modern scientific psychopharmacology and Amanita muscaria in the northeastern euroasiatic area. “New age” trends with their religious dogmas connect- OOK Quite interesting in this chapter is a discussion of the ed to the use of hallucinogens and their philosophies B more or less fanciful attempts to guess what was the which appear to come much closer to the Gnostic than mythical Vedic ritual drink Soma, of importance among the Hermetic tradition – both signs of a strong nostalgia the early Indo-Iranians, for which different investiga- for an (imaginary) past Golden Age. tors have “identified” some 20 different plants and fungi The author concludes his analysis with a harsh judg- with quite different psychotropic properties. ment on the drastic prohibition – following the Timo- The fifth chapter confronts scientific evidence and thy Leary Harvard “scandal” and Leary’s jailing in the legendary accounts concerning Mediterranean areas sixties, another example of the 20th century fixation up to and including the period corresponding to the with witch hunting, shortly after the downfall of Sena- Homeric poems; i.e., ranging from the sudden appear- tor McCarthy – of any use of hallucinogenic drugs in ance, at the end of the second millennium BC, of icono- psychological and psychopathological research, includ- graphic representations of the opium poppy in Minoic ing investigations on their therapeutic potential in some territory to Circe’s wizardry and its neutralization by ap- psychiatric conditions. Here the author forgets to men- propriate antidotes (and here we have the first appear- tion the work by one of the pioneers in this field, the ance of the term pharmakon, but meaning poison, not Italian psychoanalist Emilio Servadio (1904-1995), who medicine). The following chapter is focused on archaic experimented LSD and psilocybin on himself and on and classical Greece, with its wide range of divinatory younger colleagues in training with him (without any (mantic) practices often intertwined with medical-ther- “religious” freak like those of Leary and others), and apeutical practices (iatromantic); and again, the experts gave lucid accounts of the effects of the drugs (see [6] often disagree concerning the role of various drugs and for his biography and bibliography).

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