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Thank you so much for your patience while I've been on maternity leave. The release schedule is still going to be variable for a while, thanks to the unpredictability of the world right now. But I'll do my best to keep putting out episodes more regularly. As always, there's more happening on the MCP Patreon page.
Recently we started doing guided meditations that explore morbid locations. If you're interested or just want to hang out with a bunch of nerdy creepy awesome people, just join our Patreon page at the lowest tier at bit.ly slash morbidpatron. That's bid.ly slash morbidpatron. Thank you again for your patience.
Also, stay tuned during the break for details about a special giveaway in honor of the return of the MCP. And now, on with the episode. This episode was suggested by a listener. Sadly their name got lost in our inbox.
We're sorry, but thank you for sending in your suggestion. If you'd like to make a suggestion, you can do so on Facebook and Instagram at Morbid Curiosity podcast, on Twitter, at Morbid podcast, and on our website, www.morbidcuriositypodcast.com. This episode contains discussions of colonization, drug use, and hallucinations. If these aren't topics you want to hear about, this may be a good episode to skip.
The information in this episode is meant for interest only. All the plants mentioned can cause dangerous effects on the human brain. The Morbid Curiosity podcast does not support the ingestion or use of any of these plants or any known toxic plants. And therefore, the MCP and I cannot be held responsible for any injury caused by the misuse of these plants.
Please be responsible. And if you think you haven't just did something poisonous, call your local emergency services immediately. Humans are fascinated by gore and violence, but even more so, the mysterious and unsolved. Interest in these disturbing and unpleasant subjects is called morbid curiosity, and it has gripped hundreds of people throughout the ages.
I am one of those people. My name is Hallie, and this is the Morbid Curiosity podcast. Previously in our Plants That Kill series, we discussed toxic plants that can cause death through poisoning. This is usually due to the presence of alkaloids, organic compounds that have a pronounced physiological effect on humans.
Usually only a fraction of a percent of the alkaloid is contained in the plant, but it still affects the human body in a variety of ways. Because of these effects, plant alkaloids have been utilized as both poisons and for pharmacological purposes, from very early in human history. Some are still used in medicine today, but usually just the extracted alkaloid or synthesized version instead of the actual plant, as it's much easier to determine dosage. As 16th century Swiss physician Paracelsus once said, it is the dose that makes the poison.
Giving the right dose is very important. In this third installment, we'll discuss plants that are toxic, but rarely deadly. Instead, they produce an effect called hallucination and have been used by humans for both religious and medical purposes since before written history. Hallucinations are experiences that involve perceiving something that doesn't exist in reality.
Substances that produce hallucinations are called hallucinogens, as well as psychedelics and psychogens. Most of the plants we'll talk about in this episode are psychoactive, meaning they affect the mind more than the body. Most cause visual hallucinations, but sometimes the sense of smell, touch, and even taste can be affected. The mechanism that causes hallucinations is the chemical substances contained in the plant interacting with the central nervous system.
The altered mental state or induced psychosis, where the person temporarily has trouble determining what's real and what's not, is usually brief, and ends when the substance is either metabolized or excreted. Pseudo-halucinogens cause similar experiences, but through a different process by the chemical substance interrupting normal metabolic function so that abnormal mental conditions occur. However, brain activity during true psychosis and the activity caused by hallucinogens is very different. Most hallucinogens aren't physically addictive, but they can cause a sort of mental addiction to altered perception and the feelings generated by the experiences.
There is also some new evidence that repeated use of hallucinogens and other substances that induce temporary psychosis may raise the risk of later developing and enduring psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia. Most areas of the world have at least one hallucinogenic plant that is or was significant to the culture that lives close to where it originally grew. The plants are often considered a gift from the gods or a god themselves. It's possible that ideas of gods, spirits, and other supernatural beings come from use of hallucinogens.
It's important to note before we go deeper into this topic that despite the modern age being the age of information, Western cultures still finds it hard to understand other cultures without using its own lens of experience, which is usually so different that new cultural information becomes skewed. Not only does this warp our understanding of other cultures, it also makes it harder to uncover our own cultural perspectives. This is called cultural bias, and in the case of hallucinogens, much of Western society has classed them as drugs, which has a negative connotation, while many other cultures see these plant substances as aids to healing and religious enlightenment. Cultural bias also often simplifies the information, making it more generalized.
As I'm part of an English-speaking Western culture, know that despite my best efforts, the information in this episode will have cultural bias. I apologize for any cultural generalizations or oversimplifications. The use of hallucinogens outside modern Western culture is mostly religious and medical. In many ancient and modern religions, hallucinogens are used as a bridge between humans and the world of gods, spirits, and the supernatural.
In this context, hallucinogens are known to Western anthropologists as entheogens. Practitioners of these rituals are known as shamans. Through trance or other altered states of consciousness brought on by hallucinogens, shamans interact with the spirit world, directing the energy or beings they encounter toward healing, divination, or other aid. In most ancient cultures and some modern ones, illness is considered the result of magical interference from the spirit world.
Therefore, the ability to communicate with the spirits is a way to heal a person of illness. hallucinogenic visions aid the shaman in diagnosing and healing a patient by revealing the cause of their illness during induced visions. While this may seem unique to non-Western cultures, it should be noted that medieval Christians also induced visions in order to speak with angels or god, but they did so through starvation, sleep deprivation, and prolonged isolation. In most cultures where hallucinogens are traditionally used, they are controlled by taboos and ceremonies just like some Western religious practices.
In almost all cases, hallucinogens are restricted to adult males. This is possibly due to the fact that many hallucinogens also have some abortive fashion qualities. There are, of course, exceptions, such as female shamans in southern Mexico who use sea lisiben mushrooms, which I'll get into after the break. hallucinogenic plant use goes back into prehistory.
The earliest written documentation seems to describe rituals that were already in place long before the writer took note. References to psychotropic plants exist as far back as the second century BCE in ancient Egyptian papyrus. Algaloids have been found in archaeological artifacts as well as archaeological human remains. Currently, the oldest known hallucinogen to be found in an archaeological context is peyote, which has been discovered at several well-dated sites in Texas, taking its use back to around 8,500 BCE.
Some of the most powerful hallucinogens are found in Central and South America, and it is these that will be the main focus of this episode. But first, some context for the earliest information we have on these plants. The Spanish Empire violently conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521, headed by Conquistador Hernan Cortes. Once a new capital called Mexico City was established on the site of Tenochtidlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, Central Mexico became a base of Spanish exploration, conquest, and conversion of the indigenous populations to Catholicism.
During the Spanish conquest, Spanish writers observed several plants that were used by the indigenous people to induce visions for both medical and religious purposes. The use of peyote was observed by Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca, and published in his 1542 manuscript La Valacion de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. hallucinogenic mushrooms were noted by Franciscan missionary Frei Bernadino Disagun in his 1590 manuscript, known today as the Florentine Codex. However, the use of these natural hallucinogens was considered a sin by Spanish Catholics.
Because of this, documentation and use of these plants was outlawed for some time. In the 1930s, western expeditions into the remote areas of Central Mexico revealed that isolated peoples such as the Mazatecs of northeastern Oaxaca had continued using hallucinogenic plants despite Spanish efforts to stop them. It wasn't until this time that scientists again became interested in hallucinogenic plants. Richard Evans Schulz, a Harvard ethnobiologist, collaborated with several chemists in the analysis of several hallucinogenic plants after he spent time among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.
He published many scholarly and scientific articles on the subject. He and Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman published Plants of the Gods in 1979, one of the most popular books on hallucinogenic plants and their cultural context. In the 1960s and 70s, there was an explosion of popular interest in hallucinogens thanks to the rise in use of LSD in psychiatry. This period is known as the psychedelic era, as western cultures explored psychedelic plants like never before.
While the psychedelic era mainly refers to the recreational use of hallucinogens, some medical and scientific research was also done before most hallucinogens were made illegal by the United Nations in 1971. Use in modern medicine is generally exclusive to psychotherapy. Hallucinogens have also been suggested for care of the dying, where the hallucinogen is taken and then the patient is guided through an experience that hopefully puts their mind at ease with death. These therapies are still the subject of much medical dispute.
I'm going to go into detail on several of these hallucinogenic plants, but first let's pause for a word from our sponsors. In celebration of the return of the morbid curiosity podcast and the enthusiasm of the creepy community for poisonous plants, the MCP is giving away four copies of Strange Horticulture, the new occult puzzle game from Bad Viking and iceberg games. You play the owner of a local horticulturist shop. The goals include finding and identifying new plants, petting your cat, working with local witches and an apocalyptic cult, all while using your collection of Strange and Dangerous Plants to influence the story and unravel the dark mysteries of the city of Undermere.
I've played through the game twice already, making different decisions each time and both endings were epic. I hear there are more than two, so I'd love to play it again. I really enjoyed adventuring out to find new plants, using clues to identify them, and then using them to help or hinder the people who came into my shop. Now that this episode is live, so is the giveaway.
To enter, go to one or all of our social media outlets, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and follow the directions of the giveaway post on each page. You can only enter once on each platform, otherwise you'll be disqualified. Patrons of the MCP get an extra opportunity to win on the MCP Discord server, which is accessible by joining the MCP Patreon community at any level. Winners will be drawn on May 9th, and will receive a direct message with the game code for Strange Horticulture, Redeemable on Steam.
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You'll have my eternal gratitude. And now back to the podcast. The first hallucinogen we're going to talk about is not a plant but a fungus, also known as magic mushrooms, psilocybin, or psilocybin mushrooms, can trigger hallucinogenic effects when consumed by humans. There are many varieties of these mushrooms that cause this effect, but the most potent are found in Central and South America.
The use of psilocybin mushrooms is ancient and rooted in centuries of religious and medical practices of the Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Aztecs recorded the use of a sacred mushroom, Teonanakatl, which means divine flesh in the Nahuatl language. They were used as a sacrament in only the most holy of ceremonies. Small carved stone mushrooms have been found in Mayan archaeological sites in Guatemala, dated to 2,200 years ago.
These artifacts have also been found in El Salvador, Honduras, and Mexico. When the Spanish conquered Mexico in the mid-1600s, some Spanish missionaries took notes on the Indigenous peoples and their ceremonies, including the mushroom ceremony. They also noted where and how the mushrooms were gathered and the effects they produced. The information is riddled with cultural bias, but it's the earliest documented evidence of mushroom use.
Missionaries and conquistadors then set out to eradicate the use of mushrooms, thinking the visions they produced weren't from God but the devil, and that the mushrooms were a form of false idol. The church did such a thorough job destroying the mushrooms and their cult that they weren't mentioned again for around 400 years. In the early 19th century, an American botanist William E. Stafford was studying peyote, which we'll talk about later.
He believed that the mythical Teonanakatl was the peyote cactus. He believed this so vehemently that he thought the Indigenous peoples were telling him the mushrooms were Teonanakatl to try and protect the cactus. In the 1930s, botany gained the use of chemistry and the sacred mushrooms were collected and chemically tested. Two dozen species were identified to cause hallucinations.
The most important of these were Psilocyb and Mexicana, Psilocyb cubensis, and Psilocyb serolecens. In the past as well as today, Psilocybin mushrooms were used in divination and healing ceremonies of many peoples, including the Mazatek, Chinantec, Chitino, Mihae, Zapotec, and Mishtec of Oaxaca, the Nava of Puebla, and the Taraskans of Michoacan. Contact with Christianity and other modern ideas didn't change how sacred the mushroom rituals were. Shamans used the mushrooms to talk to God, the saints, the ancestors, and the spirits.
These entities are believed to know all and to send the shaman visions, which they then report to those they are helping. The mushrooms are prepared based on the purpose of use, seasonal availability, and the personal preference of the shaman. Usually between two and 30 mushrooms, depending on the type used, are eaten during a ceremony. They are either eaten fresh or dried, ground up, and made into a tea.
The effects usually begin around 20 minutes after ingestion, and can last up to six hours. The active substances that cause hallucinations is Psilocybin, which gets converted into Psilocybin during digestion, both of which are indolic alkaloids. These alkaloids are derived from the same basic compound as the naturally occurring neurotransmitter serotonin, which contributes to mood modulation, cognition, risk versus reward, learning, memory, and numerous physiological processes, such as vomiting. Alkaloid content varies depending on the species of mushroom, but all cause both visual and auditory hallucinations, and the eater enters a sort of dreamlike state.
Most people describe seeing a kaleidoscope of movement and color with pleasant sounds surrounding them. However, these hallucinations can also be terrifying. The experience is usually dictated by the environment and emotional state of the user. Physical effects include vomiting, nausea, euphoria, muscle relaxation, drowsiness, and clumsiness.
The modern mushroom ceremony is an all-night ritual with chanting and rhythmic clapping. There is also ritual in collecting the mushrooms, which must be done during a new moon by a virgin girl. They are then left at a church altar for a time before being used. When Psilocybin mushrooms aren't available, mushroom cult shamans will sometimes substitute with another hallucinogen.
Salvia divanorum, also known as seersage and irba de la pasora, is a planet with leaves that contain compounds similar to opioids that can induce hallucinations. Salvia leaves aren't as strong as Psilocybin mushrooms, but they serve the purpose for the ceremonies. Salvia was originally found only in the cloud forests of the Sierra Madre oriental in the Mexican state of Oaxaca between 300 and 1,800 meters above sea level. It's now cultivated all over the world using cuttings, as the plant rarely produces seeds.
The use of Salvia possibly goes back to the ancient Aztecs. Spanish Inquisition files, also known as codices, kept at the National Archives in Mexico City from 1696, 1698, and 1706, mention a plant of the Aztecs called peal peals instantly, meaning the purist little prince that had intoxicating effects. Some researchers suggested this plant was Salvia. However, there isn't enough evidence to prove this theory.
Salvia was first documented in English by Gene Bassett Johnson in 1939 during an anthropological study of Mazatek shamanism. He noted its usage and effects through interviews with the people who used it. The psychoactive mechanism was identified later in 1990 and named Salvinoran A. Salvinoran A is not an alkaloid, but a turpenoid, similar to the cannabinoids in cannabis.
Turpenoids are the largest class of plant secondary metabolites. However, the neurochemistry of Salvinoran A is still a mystery. It doesn't affect serotonin receptors, which is what most classical psychedelics do. Salvinoran A is absorbed through the mucus membrane of the mouth.
After 10 minutes, the effects begin and last for between 30 minutes to an hour. Salvia is classified as a dissociative hallucinogen, meaning it produces feelings of separation from the environment and sometimes oneself. Most people who use it in ceremonial contexts report very bizarre effects that are incomparable to other psychedelic substances, such as the bending of space, a feeling of swaying, and out-of-body experiences. A feeling of calm and meditation is also reported.
Dried leaves can be smoked one or two leaves at a time. Two to three inhalations gives a strong psychoactive reaction. By mass, Salvia is the most potent naturally occurring hallucinogen, and it's active at quite low doses. That being said, while it's potent, it's not poisonous.
Historically and still today, Salvia is used by the Mazatek to bring on shamanistic visions. The plant is seen as an incarnation of the Virgin Mary, and rituals often begin with an invocation to her or other saints. Only fresh leaves are used, and they are usually crushed, then brewed into a tea, or rolled into a sort of cigar that is chewed or sucked. It's usually consumed by the shaman in the presence of the patient in a dark and quiet place.
This is because Mazatek shaman state that La Maria, a name they use for Salvia, speaks in a quiet voice. Little clinical research has been done with Salvia, so it's hard to say what its adverse effects and long-term use effects might be when used outside its ceremonial context. Recently, it has become increasingly popular among adolescents thanks to its strong effects and short active period. Modern methods of use center on absorbing Salvin or an A more efficiently, usually by smoking.
The effect comes on more quickly, but lasts an even shorter time, around 20 minutes. As the potency of each leaf varies, it's hard to calculate dosage. When used in high concentrations or as an extract, Salvia hallucinations are more likely to be terrifying. Many who try it never wish to do so again.
Because of this, and the lack of clinical research, fear surrounds Salvia in western countries, especially in the United States, or it's slowly growing in popularity. Most news stories about Salvia compare it to LSD, refer to it as dangerous, or as, quote, the new pot, end quote. While it's nowhere near as dangerous as LSD, the concentrated extract of Salvia, which is more common in the United States, is more likely to induce terror rather than trance. Because of this, Salvia is banned in many countries, and most U.S.
states. Aminida Muscaria, also known as Fly Aminida or Fly Agaric, is another type of hallucinogenic mushroom that has a vast history of use in Europe, Asia, and North America. These mushrooms have distinctive red caps with white spots. The attractive nature of the mushrooms has made them quite popular in art, including video game art, such as the iconic mushrooms seen in Super Mario Brothers.
Like psilocybin, the main application of Muscaria is to induce visions. One of the best documented uses is by the Sami, a people indigenous to northern Siberia. Among the Sami, the mushrooms are used in religious rituals to induce trance when dance and drumming are not enough. The Sami, sundry, or slow-roast one or several mushrooms during their ceremonies.
The mushrooms are also sometimes drunk as an extract in water or reindeer milk, usually with the juices of the cineum, oligonorum, or epilobium, a gustofolium, also known as bilberry and fireweed, respectively. Sometimes, if the mushrooms are consumed as a solid, they are moistened in the mouths of women and rolled into a pellet for men to eat. Ritualistic drinking of the urine of intoxicated individuals developed alongside this mushroom ritual, as the psychoactive components are not metabolized by the human body, and therefore are still active once excreted. Flyominida was also used by the ancient Maya of Guatemala, who called it Kakuha Ikosh, meaning lightning mushroom, as well as being related to the gods it was associated with thunder and lightning.
The mushroom has also been said to be significant to several North American First Nation peoples. The main psychoactive substances are two neurotoxins, mucimal and ibotanic acid, which converts mostly to mucimal during digestion. These neurotoxins are found mostly in the caps of the mushroom, but are present in small amounts in the stem. While drying increases potency by converting the ibotanic acid to mucimal, boiling breaks down the psychoactive constituents, making the mushroom inert.
Amanita Muscaria have a vast variety of effects, and are often unpredictable. These effects range from hallucinations, delirium, euphoria, and altered perception, such as feeling too small or too big, which is also called Alice and Wonderland Syndrome, a topic I covered for patrons in March of 2021, to confusion, seizures, and coma. These effects are experienced while in a trance-like state, which can be interrupted by occasional bursts of energy, religious fervor, and convulsions. A deep sleep, sometimes with lucid dreaming, symptoms begin within 30-90 minutes and peak at about three hours, but certain effects can last for several days.
Amanita Muscaria are also quite poisonous, although deaths are extremely rare as one common side effect is vomiting. The mushrooms can't be easily commercially cultivated due to the need for pine roots to be in the soil. There's divided opinion on whether Amanita is particularly dangerous and in need of regulation, and therefore its legal status varies considerably throughout the world. One of the best known and strongest hallucinogenic plants in North and Mesoamerica The Latin name for this needle-less cactus is Lofophora williamcii, but it's known as Peyote, Hiculi, and in its dried form, Mescal Button.
The use of Peyote cactus is ancient. Archaeological samples found in Texas were carbon-dated in 2002 and revealed ceremonial use of Peyote has been occurring for around 5,700 years. The first documentation of Peyote use among the ancient Aztecs comes from the observations of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. Similar to psilocybin mushrooms, Spanish colonizers saw Peyote as a form of satanic trickery and went to great lengths to suppress its use.
Despite this, the use of Peyote has survived to this day due to its deep cultural significance to the indigenous peoples, especially the Wirarica, sometimes said Wisharica, also known as the Wechul people of Mexico, who avoided both conquest and influence by the Spanish. Due to its prevalence, Peyote was one of the first hallucinogenic plants to be chemically analyzed in 1857 by Arthur Hefter, a German chemist. It was found that, like many other toxic plants, the active substances were alkaloids. Peyote contains up to 30 alkaloids, but the main constituent is tri-methoxyphenolethamine, the dried cacti from which the alkaloid was extracted are called mesylbuttons.
Therefore, this alkaloid is referred to as mesylin. In 1918, an Austrian chemist Ernst Spieth was the first to produce mesylin synthetically. This alkaloid's chemical structure is similar to norepinephrine, also called nore adrenaline. Norepinephrine is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger that transmits signals between neurons in the brain.
It affects heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, sleep, wake cycles, attention, and focusing, and memory storage. It also affects emotions. Bursts of norepinephrine can lead to euphoria, but are also linked to panic attacks, elevated blood pressure, and hyperactivity. Low levels can cause a lack of energy, lack of concentration, and possibly depression.
It also plays a part in the fight or flight response. Because of its similarity, mesylin also affects these biological processes. Peyote cactus can be eaten raw as a mash or dried and made into a tea. Usually between 4 and 30 cacti are consumed during a traditional peyote ceremony, which I'll describe in a moment.
Once a person ingests to Peyote, the mesylin is quickly absorbed by the body. Nausea, vomiting, sweating, drooling, dizziness, and drowsiness may occur at any time during the experience. Heart rate and blood pressure tend to rise as well. The hallucinogenic effects may begin in under an hour and can last for around 12 hours.
The effects are different for everyone, though most people experience vivid hallucinations. These hallucinations usually affect multiple senses, and sometimes the senses are mixed up. For example, people have claimed to be able to see, sounds, or feel colors. Time can also feel distorted.
Some people experience shifts in their field of vision or the objects around them. These hallucinations can be overwhelmingly joyful or terrifying, depending on the person taking the peyote, their headspace, and the environment at the time. The experience may seem highly significant to the person, but could also feel very chaotic. During a bad experience, also known as a bad trip, a person may be haunted by terrifying hallucinations or continuously relive negative moments in their lives.
Also, because of the feeling of time and object distortion, the person may have severe anxiety or feel trapped within these experiences. Recent research has found that bad trips are more likely to occur for people with pre-existing mental health issues. Taking peyote may also cause temporary side effects, like increased heart rate, numbness, increased blood pressure, fever, muscle weakness, headaches, dilated pupils, nausea, and vomiting. Also, some people experience vivid momentary flashbacks of their hallucinations at a later time.
Overdosing on a classic hallucinogens such as peyote is rare. The main long-term concern with using hallucinogens is a series of continuous mental problems and disturbances called persistent psychosis. However, this is also very rare. In addition to divination, spirit communication, and healing, peyote is also used for physical ailments, such as the pain of childbirth, fever, skin diseases, rheumatism, diabetes, colds, and blindness.
The modern Riladica peyote ritual is believed to be the closest to the pre-Columbian ceremonies. Once a year, a group journey back to San Luis, their ancestral homeland, to perform mitote peyote ceremonies, a pilgrimage to return to where life originated, and heal oneself. There's a purification and quest ritual involved in gathering peyote as well, which is usually led by an experienced shaman. Enough peyote for the year is harvested.
Afterwards, there's much dancing, and peyote is eaten to induce visions, which are believed to heal and purify. Peyote is also used as a religious sacrament among over 40 Native American tribes in the United States and Western Canada. The Kiowa and Comanche people are said to be the first to have visited Mexico and bring back dried peyote. It is their ceremonies that still prevail north of the Mexican border.
In the United States, peyote is used by members of the Native American Church in a vision quest ritual, where Christian and Native American elements are combined. The Kicapu used it for services for the dead, in which the body of the deceased is included in the ceremony. Mescalin was native legal in the United States in 1970, and prohibited internationally in 1971 by the United Nations. However, it is legal for certain religious groups, such as the Riladica and the Native American Church, and for medical research.
Suggested medical uses have included treatment of alcoholism and depression, but very few studies have been done since 1970. The last hallucinogen I'll talk about is Ayahuasca, which is used by Indigenous peoples in the western half of the Amazon Valley and by isolated tribes on the Pacific slopes of the Colombian and Ecuadorian Andes. This hallucinogen is actually a mixture of several hallucinogenic plants, but the main plants used in most mixtures are Benastereopsis copy and Benastereopsis inibrians. Both are woody-clining plants that hang from trees as vines.
The word copy is used specifically to refer to Benastereopsis copy, while the term ayahuasca can mean specifically Benastereopsis copy, or a hallucinogenic mixture of plants. The term ayahuasca is from the Kicua language, and means vine or tendril of the soul. Other names include copy, dapa, mihi, kahi, natema, pinde, and yaje. Some of these names denote a single specific mixture of plants, while others indicate a variation or different kind of brew with different ingredients.
These different kinds of ayahuasca are often used for different purposes, as the effects they produce are slightly different depending on the preparation and plants used. The most common ayahuasca brew usually includes cyclotria viridis, asrub in the coffee family, known in Quechua as chakruna or chakrui, or dipluptaries kabirana, asrub known as chalipanga or chagrapanga in Quechua. There are other combinations which include other plants, but these two are the most common. The brewing of ayahuasca is ancient.
The earliest known archaeological evidence comes from southwestern Bolivia, where a pouch was found to contain paraphernalia for making ayahuasca, as well as residue containing the main alkaloids of ayahuasca, which I'll get into in a moment. The pouch was carbon dated to be from around 1,000 years ago. The most common ayahuasca preparation is created by a shaman and involves scraping the bark from a coffee vine. The bark is either boiled for many hours to create a thick, bitter liquid, or pulverized and kneaded into cold water to create a tea.
Other ingredients are often added during the process, such as chakruna or chalipanga. The bark can also be chewed, but this is less common. Recently, coffee has been found dried, pulverized, and used as a form of snuff. The main alkaloids contained in coffee are harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine.
These act as monoamine oxidase inhibitors, or MAOIs, a class of drug that's used in western medicine as highly effective antidepressants, as well as treatment for panic disorder and social phobia. However, in the case of ayahuasca, the MAOIs allow the psychoactive compounds in the other plants to activate. For example, the main psychoactive substance in chakruna is dimethyltryptamine, also known as DMT. When the alkaloids in coffee and chakruna are combined in ayahuasca preparations, they interact spectacularly.
Harmine prevents the breakdown of DMT in the digestive tract, and then allows it to activate the central nervous system, causing vivid hallucinogenic experiences. Ayahuasca ceremonies are often held at night and last until the effects of the drink wear off between two and six hours. The space is blessed by the shaman, and then the ayahuasca is distributed, sometimes in several small doses. The hallucinogenic effects begin between 20 and 60 minutes after drinking the brew.
Most people who use ayahuasca report having experiences revolving around their purpose on Earth, the nature of the universe, and a sort of awakening, in which it is revealed how they can be the best person possible. Contact with the spirits or other dimensions has also been reported. These experiences are culturally influenced, meaning what is experienced depends largely on the culture the person was brought up in. For example, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon who use ayahuasca report visions of green snakes and jaguars who degrade them for being only human, while westerners describe a sort of death and rebirth of their personality or soul.
With the addition of Challyponga or Chacruna, the length and vividness of the hallucinations are enhanced and are said to be very colorful. The drinker eventually falls into a deep sleep and has vivid dreams. If too much ayahuasca is ingested, a person may become aggressive. It's believed by some people that use ayahuasca that the visions reveal the real world and that what we see every day is the true illusion.
Many people vomit or have diarrhea after their experience, and this is considered by many shamans and experienced users of ayahuasca as an essential part of the experience representing the release of negative energy and emotions. There are some common effects across cultures. These include seeing symmetric patterns, a feeling of returning to the womb, and returning to the origin of all things. Nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, and a euphoric or aggressive state followed by deep sleep are also common.
However, each time ayahuasca is consumed, the experience is different depending largely on the brew and the environment. Aside from divination and healing, ayahuasca is used as a medicine for ailments like arthritis, fevers, and allergies. These plants and the mixture that's created from them are so deeply rooted in the mythology and philosophy of the indigenous cultures that utilize them, that they are often cultivated near settlements so that an ample supply is always available. In Colombia, the boys of the Takano people drink ayahuasca as part of an adolescent initiation ritual.
The hivaro of Peru and Ecuador believe ayahuasca makes communication with the ancestors possible, and that under its influence, a man's soul may leave the body and wander. Certain religious groups in the United States have obtained First Amendment exemption to use ayahuasca in their ceremonies. The US government could not meet the burden of showing ayahuasca as a serious health risk, as there have been no deaths reported to be caused by it. Toxic overdose is also minimized by the fact that vomiting is naturally induced after drinking it.
Long-term use also doesn't appear dangerous. Ayahuasca has grown in popularity among tourists and those seeking help with mental health issues and addiction, as it is said to aid in both of these areas. There is some current research into these therapies, but not enough to confirm these allegations. It's been noted that while ayahuasca doesn't seem to cause any harm on its own, combining it with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSIs, and other drugs such as MDMA and Mescaline can be very dangerous.
There is much more to learn about hallucinogens, but sadly, the people who traditionally use them are becoming extinct due to assimilation into modern and western culture. Cultural bias has tainted the oldest knowledge we do have. The scientific understanding is also lacking, as hallucinogenic plants are heavily regulated in most western societies. Therefore, the full, historical, cultural, and scientific significance of hallucinogenic plants may never be fully understood.
This, and the intense, strange, and unpredictable visions they produce are why hallucinogens spark our curiosity. The Morbid Curiosity Podcast was produced by H. Lloyd if you'd like to get in touch or suggest a morbid topic for me to talk about, you can tweet the show at Morbid Podcast or find us on Facebook and Instagram at Morbid Curiosity Podcast. If you like the show, please share us on social media and please give us a rating on Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast app you use.
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