HALLUCINOGENIC PLANTS OF THE GODS.

This book is not intended as a guide to the use of hallucinogenic plants. Its purpose is to offer scientific, historical, and cultural documentation concerning a group of plants that are or have been of importance to many societies. Ingestion of some of these plants or plant products may be dangerous. The remedies, approaches, and techniques described herein are meant to supplement, and not be a substitute for, professional medical care or treatment. They should not be used to treat a serious ailment without prior consultation with a qualified healthcare professional.

INTRODUCTION


The use of hallucinogenic or consciousness expanding plants has been a part of human experience for many millennia, yet modern Western societies have only recently become aware of the significance that these plants have had in shaping the history of primitive and even of advanced cultures. In fact, the past thirty years have witnessed a vertiginous growth of interest in the use and possible value of hallucinogens in our own modern, industrialized, and urbanized society.
Hallucinogenic plants are complex chemical factories. Their full potential as aids to human needs is not yet fully recognized. Some plants contain chemical compounds capable of inducing altered perceptions, such as visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory hallucinations, or causing artificial psychoses that, without any doubt, have been known and employed in human experience since earliest man's experimentation with his ambient vegetation. The amazing effects of these mind-altering plants are frequently inexplicable and indeed uncanny.
Little wonder, then, that they have long played an important role in the religious rites of early civilizations and are still held in veneration and awe as sacred elements by certain peoples who have continued to live in archaic cultures, bound to ancient traditions and ways of life. How could man in archaic societies better contact the spirit world than through the use of plants with psychic effects enabling the partaker to communicate with supernatural realms? What more direct method than to permit man to free himself from the prosaic confines of this earthly existence and to enable him to enter temporarily the fascinating worlds of indescribably ethereal wonder opened to him, even though fleetingly, by hallucinogens?
Hallucinogenic plants are strange, mystical, confounding. Why? Because they are only now beginning to be the subject of truly scientific study. The results of these investigations will, most assuredly, increase interest in the technical importance of the study of these biodynamic plants. For man's mind, as well as his body and the organs of the body, need curative and corrective agents. Are these nonaddictive drugs of interest as "mind-expanding agents," as media for attaining "the mystic experience," or as agents to be employed merely as aids in hedonistic adventure?
There is, however, another aspect that engages the scientist's attention: Can a thorough understanding of the use and chemical composition of these drugs not lead to the discovery of new pharmaceutical tools for psychiatric treatment or experimentation? The central nervous system is a most complet organ, and psychiatry has not advanced so rapidly as many other fields of medicine, mainly because it has not had adequate tools. Some of these mind-altering plants and their active chemical principles may indeed have far-reaching positive effects when they are fully understood.
An educated public must be an integral part in such development of scientific knowledge, especially in so controversial a field as hallucinogenic drugs. It is for this reason that we offer the present volume—directed neither to the scientists who are deeply involved in research in this field nor to the casual reader, but to the concerned public. It is our belief that scientists—for the sake of humanity itself and its advancement—must make technical knowledge available to those able to take advantage of its presentation. It is in this spirit that we wrote Plants of the Gods, hoping that it may, in one way or another, further the practical interests of mankind.
Richard Evans Schultes
Albert Hofmann

WHO USES HALLUCINOGENIC PLANTS?

Notwithstanding the recent upsurge in the use of psychoactive plants in modern Western societies, the thrust of this book emphasizes almost exclusively the employment of hallucinogens among aboriginal peoples who have restricted the use of these plants mostly to magic, medical, or religious purposes. The outstanding difference between the use of hallucinogens in our culture and their use in preindustrial societies is precisely the difference in the belief concerning their purpose and origin: all aboriginal societies have considered—and still do—that these plants are the gifts of the gods, if not the gods themselves. It is obvious that our culture does not view hallucinogenic plants in this light.
There are many examples—and more will be discussed in the following pages—of plants that are sacred and even severed as gods. Soma, the ancient god-narcotic of India, may be the most outstanding example. Most hallucinogens are holy mediators between man and the supernatural, but Soma was deified. So holy was Soma that it has been suggested that even the idea of deity may have arisen from experiences with its unearthly effects. The sacred Mexican mushrooms have a long history that is closely linked to shamanism and religion. The Aztecs called them Teonanácatl ("divine flesh"), and they were ceremonially ingested. Highland Maya cultures in Guatemala apparently had, more than three thousand years ago, a sophisticated religion utilizing mushrooms.

This (left) early-sixteenth-century Aztec statue of Xochipilli, the ecstatic Prince of Flowers, was unearthed in Tlamanalco on the slopes of the volcano Popocatepetl. The stylized glyphs depict various hallucinogenic plants. From left to right, the glyphs represent: mushroom cap; tendril of the Morning Glory; flower of Tobacco; flower of the sacred Morning Glory; bud of Sinicuiche; and, on the pedestal, stylized caps of Psilocybe aztecorum.

Probably the most famous sacred hallucinogen of the New World, however, is Peyote, which, among the Huichol of Mexico, is identified with the deer (their sacred animal) and maize (their sacred vegetal staff of life). The first Peyote collecting expedition was led by Tatewari, the original shaman, and subsequent annual trips to collect the plant are holy pilgrimages to Wirikuta, original paradisiacal home of the ancestors. In these circumstances, however, use is often strictly controlled by taboos or ceremonial circumscriptions.
In almost all instances, in both the Old and the New World, the use of hallucinogenic drugs is restricted to adult males. There are, however, striking exceptions. Among the Koryak of Siberia, Anianita may be used by both sexes. In southern Mexico, the sacred mushrooms can be taken by both men and women; in fact, the shaman is usually a woman. Similarly, in the Old World, Iboga may be taken by any adult, male or female. While purely speculative, there may be a basic reason for the exclusion of women from ingesting narcotic preparations. Many hallucinogens are possibly sufficiently toxic to have abortifacient effects.
Since women in aboriginal societies are frequently pregnant during most of their child bearing years, the fundamental reason may be purely an insurance against abortions—even though this reason has been forgotten. Sometimes hallucinogens are administered to children. Among the Jivaro, Brugmansia may be given to boys, who are then admonished by the ancestors during the intoxication. Frequently, the first use of a hallucinogen occurs in puberty rituals.
There is hardly an aboriginal culture without at least one psychoactive plant: even tobacco and coca may, in large doses, be employed for the induction of visions. An example is the smoking of tobacco among the Warao of Venezuela, who use it to induce a trancelike state accompanied by what, for all practical purposes, are visions. Although the New World has many more species of plants purposefully employed as hallucinogens than does the Old World, both hemispheres have very limited areas where at least one hallucinogen is not known or used.
So far as we know, the Inuit have only one psychoactive plant; the Polynesian Islanders of the Pacific had Kava-kava (Piper niethysticum), but they seem never to have had a true hallucinogen in use: Kava-kava is classed as a hypnotic.
Africa has been poorly studied from the point of view of drug plants, and may have hallucinogenic species that have not yet been introduced to the scientific world. It is, however, possible to assert that there are few parts of the continent where at least one such plant is not now utilized or was not employed at some time in the past.
Asia, a vast continent, has produced relatively few major hallucinogenic varieties but their use has been widespread and extremely significant from a cultural point of view; furthermore, the use of them is extremely ancient. Numerous sources describe the use of hallucinogenic and other intoxicating plants in ancient Europe.

Kauyumari, the Spirit of Rain, a serpent, gives life to the gods. Tatewari, first shaman and Spirit of Fire (top center right), is bending down toward Kauyumarl listening to his chant. Both are connected to a medicine basket (center right), which binds them together as shamanic allies. Our Father Sun, seen opposite Tatewari on the left, is connected with the Spirit of Dawn, the orange figure below. The Sun and Spirit of Dawn are both found in Wirlkuta, the Sacred Land of Peyote. 
Also in Wirikuta is Kauyumari's nierika and the temple of Elder Brother Deer Tail. The temple is the black field, lower center. Deer Tail, with red antlers, is seen with his human manifestation above him. Behind Deer Tail is Our Mother the Sea. A crane brings her a prayer gourd containing the words of Kauyumari. Blue Deer (left center) enlivens all sacred offerings. A stream of energy goes from him toourMother Sea's prayergourd; he also offers his blood to the growing corn, the staff of life germinating below him. Above Blue Deer is the First Man, who invented cultivation. First Man faces a sacrificed sheep.

Many researchers see the roots of culture, shamanism, and religion in the use of psychoactive or hallucinogenic plants.

By Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann and Christian Rätsch in the book 'PLANTS OF THE GODS- Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers, Healing Arts Press, Rochester, USA, 2001, p.68-71. Adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa. (all pictures from the book)