Hallucinogens How are they taken? • Eaten – fresh or dried, crushed leaves or seeds, as a tea or decoc:on, smoked (a new world custom) • Snuffing – yopo, epena, ebil , rape dos indoios • Plant addi:ves – plants added to mix of other hallucinogens to prolong or intensify the effects. Hemispherical differences • Fewer examples from the old world that the new world. There are 15 to 20 species used in the Eastern Hemisphere but more than 100 in the Western. • Exepons from the Eastern Hemisphere would be Cannabis, Henbane, nightshade, Belladonna and Mandrake. Mushrooms • Amanita muscaria – used in northeastern Siberia • Taken alone or with reindeer milk or wild plants’ juice • Ac:ve compounds passed in urine • Said to be connected to Rig-Veda Mushrooms, con:nued • Psilocybe cubensis and other species. • Used in ancient ceremonies in Mexico • Visual and auditory hallucinaons, a disembodiment and intensificaon of senses Old world plants Cannabis • Old world in origin, nave to central Asia • Kif, Bhang, Charas, Marihuana, Hasheesh, Hemp • Some:mes called a “camp follower” because of its presence around human habitaons. • Cons:tuents concentrated in a resin of the female flower with much variaon from races and strains of the plant. • Ancient use across China and the middle east. Old World Plants Belladonna (Atropa belladonna) • Highly poisonous and hallucinogenic. • Part of medieval Europe’s witches brews. • A beauty aid in medieval Italy – as eye drops • Alkaloid hyoscyamine, scopolamine, the psychoac:ve component, and atropine Old world plants Henbane, Hyoscyamus niger • Another for the witches pot in old Europe • Hallucinaons and sensaon of flight • Alkaloid, Hyocyamine but also scopolamine Plants of the old World Mandrake Mandragora officinarum Mandrake • “Its complex history as a magic hypno:c in the folklore of Europe cannot be equaled by any species anywhere. Mandrake was a panacea.”* • Remember the Doctrine of Signatures? This looks like a human figure, thus magic. • When pulled from the ground there is a shriek. • Alkaloids are hyoscyamine, scopolamine etc. Richard Schultes, Plants of the New World Mescal bean – Saphora secundiflora • Used in northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas. Red Bean Dance • Highly toxic with deaths, replaced by Peyote but beans s:ll used on dancers costums in the Peyote ceremony • Cysine is the alkaloid, causing nausea, convulsions, and asphyxiaon Plants of the new world Ayahuasca/Caapi Banisteriopsis species • An hallucinogenic drink made from the bark • Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia • Visual hallucinaons • Involved in religious ceremonies and disease diagnosis. • "the vine of the soul" Plants of the new world Peyote, Lophophora williamsii • A cactus, some:mes referred to as the most spectacular hallucinogenic plant of the new world. • Above ground rounded head (mescal bueons) cut off ofen the root sprouts. • Nave to the Rio grande valley and northern parts of Mexico. • Suppressed by the Spanish conquistadors • Vivid hallucinaons, ofen of geometric shapes • Part of the Nave American Church which blends Chris:an and nave rituals. • The cactus produces several alkaloids. New world plants Sacred Mexican morning glories – Rivea corymbosa and Ipomoea violacea • Of major importance to the Aztecs • Pain-relief, visions, prophecy Jimsonweed Datura stramonium • Jamestown 1676, a salad of Jimsonweed was served and… As told by Robert Beverly in The History and Present State of Virginia (1705): The soldiers presented "a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sing up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more an:c than any in a Dutch droll. "In this fran:c condi:on they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves - though it was observed that all their ac:ons were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and aer 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed." • Atropine, Hyoscine (scopolamine), Hyoscyamine, Tropane alkaloids .