Plants and Human Cosmologies

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Plants and Human Cosmologies
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Cosmologies

• Cosmologies are branches of philosophy which deal
  with the origins and structures of the universe -
  religions that explain how the universe formed
  and our place within it are one kind (a very
  powerful kind) of cosmology

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The sacred Maori Waka Huia
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From William Blake

• "If the doors of perception were cleansed every
  thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For
  man has closed himself up, till he sees all
  things through narrow chinks of his cavern."
  The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - 1793

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Entering the Another World

• In the western tradition, plants and plant
  products are used symbolically.
• Ritual intoxication is the point of many
  religions that use plants to enter another world.

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Quanah Parker Last Commanche Chief, co-founder
of Native American Church

• The white man goes into his church and talks
  about Jesus the Indian goes into his tipi and
  talks to Jesus.

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Areas where special plants are used to enter
another world
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Cover of English edition Of Phantastica by Louis
Lewin
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Categories of Psychoactive Plants - from Lewin
Phantastica

1. Euphorica - sedatives of mental activity - this
   group included opium and its derivatives morphine
   and heroin, as well as cocaine
2. Phantastica - drugs that cause evident cerebral
   excitation in the form of hallucinations,
   illusions, and visions - may be accompanied by
   unconsciousness or other symptons of altered
   cerebral activity - this group included plants
   like Datura sp., belladonna, peyote, ayahuasca
   from Banasteriopsis sp., ebena from Virola sp.,
   fly agaric, Psilocybe and related mushrooms

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Categories of Psychoactive Plants - from Lewin
Phantastica

• 3. Inebriantia - substances produced primarily
  by chemical synthesis or some other manipulation
  of raw materials - such as alcohol, chloroform,
  ether, benzene - these produce a primary phase of
  cerebral excitation, followed by a state of
  depression
• 4. Hypnotica - substances that induce sleep,
  such as kava
• 5. Excitantia - stimulants that result in
  apparent excitation of the brain without altering
  consciousness - coffee, cola nuts, betel nuts,
  tobacco

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Hallucinogens

• Hallucinogens are defined as a nonaddictive
  substance that consistently produces changes in
  perception, thought, and mood, occurring alone or
  in concert, without causing serious disabilities
  like major disturbances to the autonomic nervous
  system.
• High doses may elicit disorientation, memory
  disturbances, hyperexcitation, stupor, or
  narcosis, but these reactions are not
  characteristic.

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Hallucinogens

• Strictly speaking hallucinogens should be limited
  to those chemicals that mimic serotonin the
  indolalkylamines like psilocybin, and
  phenethylamines such as mescaline.
• But sometimes other substances that cause changes
  in mood and perception along with causing
  disability are included as hallucinogens. Such
  substances include tropane derivatives like
  scopolamine, and dibenzpyran derivatives like
  THC, tetrahydracannabinol.

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Narcotic

• Strictly speaking narcotic refers to morphine and
  related substances that are addictive and
  sedatives. But narcotic sometimes is used for
  any drug that alters mental state.

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Methodological Considerations

• 1. When studying the plants it is critical to
  study them in a controlled clinical setting.
  There is a considerable placebo effect with
  hallucinogenic and psychoactive plants.
• 2. But it is also essential that we test the
  plants in the way indigenous people use them. If
  they eat the plant, the plant must be eaten.
  Indigenous people use psychoactive plants in many
  different ways.

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Curandero and Tobacco CeremonySouth America
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Psychoactive plants as a communal experience

• Many psychoactive plants have very subtle effects
  and appear to facilitate social interactions
  among people - plants included in this group
  include plants that yield recreational beverages
  such as beer, wine, herba mate, coffee,
  chocolate, and tea

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Piper methysticum source of Kava
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Kava Chemical Activity

• The active chemicals in kava are lactones
• The two most important ones are kavain and
  dihydrokavain
• As Polynesians moved east, they tended to select
  plants rich in kavain and poor in dihydrokavain

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Samoan women prepare Kava for the Kava ceremony
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Different varieties of Kava

• There are 9 major groups of kava plant clones -
  each differs in chemical activity
• A Samoan clone called fellowship and
  brotherhood makes one feel very friendly
• Another called the white pigeon imparts a sense
  of heightened perception, as though one were
  flying over the rain forest like a pigeon

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More rapid entry to another world

• Many plants have been used around the world to
  enter another realm - as hallucinogens which
  permit one to travel to the spirit world
• They have been discovered in many parts of the
  world and interestingly all have somewhat similar
  chemical structure
• They all have features similar to serotonin - a
  major chemical messenger in the brain

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Chemical structure of serotonin and psychoactive
chemicals
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Virola theiodora source of Ebena
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Justicia pectoralis also used in Ebena
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Ebena The Semen of the Sun

• Ebena is usually prepared from the fresh inner
  bark of the tree Virola theiodora (F.
  Myristicaceae the nutmegs). It is combined
  with ash of the tree Elizabetha princeps (F.
  Caesalpiniaceae subfamily of legume trees) and
  dried powdered leaves of the herb Justicia
  pectoralis (F. Acanthaceae Acanthus family)

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Ebena Chemicals

• The sap of Virola contains the active
  ingredients. The sap contains several
  psychoactive compounds, primarily tryptamines,
  particularly N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT),
  N-monomethyltrptamine (MMT), and
  5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT)
  these are all related to serotonin
  (5-hydroxytryptamine). The sap also contains
  several beta-carbolines, compounds that enhance
  the effects of orally ingested tryptamines and
  that are psychoactive in their own right.

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Waika Indian inhales Ebena snuff blown through a
tube
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Steps involved with preparation of Ebena snuff
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Vine of the soul - Banisteriopsis caapi
Source of Ayahuasca
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Ayahuasca or Yaje

• Two species of the vine Banisteriopsis are used,
  depending on the area - either B. caapi or B.
  inebrians - both produce powerful psychoactive
  substances that are beta-carboline alkaloids -
  harmine and harmaline
• Ayahuasca bark is collected and boiled in a pot,
  a bitter tea is produced which is then drunk
• Sometimes ayahuasca is used with leaves of
  another plant Psychotria viridis to enhance its
  effects - it contains N,N-dimethyltryptamine
  which is also a powerful hallucinogen

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Psychotria viridis
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Painting by Pablo Amaringo, Peruvian shaman
showing visions received from Ayahuasca
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Advantages of Ayahuasca

• In the words of Padrino Alex Polari de Alverga of
  the Santo Daime Community in Brazil, Daime
  (ayahuasca) is basically a shortcut, its as if
  we had been traveling down the same highway as
  the rest of humanity, but then, in order to
  arrive at our destination more quickly we took a
  side road. When taking such a shortcut, however,
  we must be very careful and clear-minded. It is a
  shortcut that leads us to truth, but only if we
  follow in the footsteps of the Masters who have
  preceded us.

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Wysoccan Datura sp.
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Native Virginians - 1673
A priest and a conjurer
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Black Elks Vision Quest
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Wysoccan - Datura stramonium

• Given to boys in adolescent rites lasting 18-20
  days - after which they were considered to be
  adults
• From it comes stramonium a drug used in the
  treatment of asthma - hallocinogenic agents are
  tropane alkaloids hyoscamine and hyoscine

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Marijuana Cannabis sativa
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Ancient Use of Cannabis

• 2000 BCE Writings of Shen Nung mention Cannabis
  as an important plant for the treatment of
  various illnesses including beri-beri, malaria,
  and forgetfulness. He also described the plant
  as freeing the psyche If taken over a long
  term, it makes one communicate with spirits and
  lighten ones body.

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Ancient Use of Cannabis

• Writers in China warned that Cannabis was a
  liberator of sin. 2000 BCE
• By 1500 BCE the plant known as ma was reported
  as useful for shamanistic purposes
• 2nd Century AD Chinese physicians mixed it with
  wine and used it as an anaesthetic during surgery

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Ancient Use of Cannabis

• 500 300 BCE - ancient Scythians in the Near
  East used Cannabis as a psychotropic drug
• Herodotus reported that Scythians delighted in
  vapor baths scented by Cannabis seeds placed on
  heated stones
• 4th Century BCE - discovered with skeleton in
  tomb in Jerusalem

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Al-Hasan ibn al-Sabbah

• By 1090 had established fortress on trade routes
  to China and India ruled army of thieves whom
  he supplied with hashish and women in return for
  their loyalty

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Introduction to Europe

• Europeans were introduced to Cannabis as a
  psychoactive plant by Napoleons soldiers after
  the conquest of Egypt in 1800. They began by
  consuming resin of Cannabis flowers and leaves
  (hashish). At first the resin was used to treat
  mentally ill, but soon it was used recreationally
  too. By 1844 so many fashionable Parisians were
  enjoying their visions from use of hashish that
  they formed a club, Le Club des Haschischins, and
  held monthly meetings at the Hotel Pimodan on the
  Ile Saint-Louis.

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The Hotel Pimodan
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Modern Water Pipe and Hashish
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Bob Marley and the Wailers Album Cover - 1973
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Cannabis smoker Southeast Asia