21ST CENTURY ENTHEOGENS AND ITS EXPANSION

I present here a list of usual medicine plants (not all of them are here). At least the most common. Read to know them much deeply and get ready when you want to go for a ceremony. Find the proper schedule and to attend one.

The Peyote

It has a long tradition of both medicinal and ritual use among Native Americans, Huicholes, Guardians, and is widespread worldwide for psychedelic psychotherapy in Europe.

It allows the subject to obtain a renewed vision of himself, the world and life with therapeutic benefits.

It became popular with the anthropologist and writer Carlos Castaneda as a result of his adventure books.

ACTIVE PRINCIPLE

Mescaline is an alkaloid found in nature in two families of cacti: San Pedro and peyote. Phenylalanine is from the amino acid family. Mescaline is intensely visual and hallucinatory. Compared to other psychedelics, it is more physical, with an intense body charge that can be experienced as euphoria, nausea, or both. It is slower to cross the blood-brain barrier, so the onset time of its effects is longer (up to two hours) and they also last longer, around 12 hours.

RITUALS WITH PAGANIC SENSE

Among the tribes, like the Huichol, in the north of Mexico, where peyote grows, in their ceremonies they eat or drink the peyote water, they dance around the fire all night long in a communal trance or frenzy. And they venerate the little blue deer, which is the guardian of peyote. Pineapples are roasted to eat as a symbol of abundance and to give thanks for the harvest.

The Native American peyote ceremony known as The Native American Church: developed when tribes were put into forced captivity on reservations. Before that, he was known only to those who had visited the areas of Mexico and South Texas where he grew up, mostly Apache groups like the Lipan and the Mescalero. But after the Texas-Mexico Railroad opened in 1881, peyote from Texas began to make its way to the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache reservations in Oklahoma.

After the 1890 Ghost Dance ceremonies were suppressed in the wake of the Wounded Knee massacre, communal singing and dancing were banned on reservations.

So, peyote ceremonies began to take place in tipis, away from the prying eyes of government agents. Participants ate peyote buttons, usually dried, sitting all night around a fire, being purified with prayers, tobacco, and incense, and singing songs accompanied by a water drum and rattle. The songs were part of the ceremonies, and this is how different traditions and forms of ritual evolved.

Native American Church and Mormons?

On Indian reservations, peyote was often banned and those who used it were harassed and jailed. In 1918, the federal government attempted to ban it as a narcotic. To protect themselves, peyote worshipers in Oklahoma incorporated the Native American Church, to give their sacrament legal status under First Amendment religious freedom.

Of all the attempts to build a religious practice around peyote, this was the one that survived. A century later, it is still thriving.

What did scientists do with peyote in the West?

The active ingredient was synthesized in laboratories in 1919. But it didn't behave in a predictable way like other drugs: some people had euphoric experiences, others had nightmares.

It was the first example of what we now call psychedelics, and researchers focused on the visual hallucinations it produced. Dozens of experimental subjects described and recorded their hallucinations, and the artists were given mescaline and asked to draw or paint what they were seeing.

Mescaline was used by many culturally important people in the 20th century

Why did this happen?

During the first half of the 20th century, mescaline was the only psychedelic, and people experimented with it from many different perspectives: scientific, artistic, philosophical, spiritual.

The spiritual tradition that began with figures like Aleister Crowley and Frederick Smith went mainstream in the 1950s with Aldous Huxley's book about his first mescaline experience, The Doors of Perception, in which he wrote that it revealed "the miracle, moment moment, of pure existence". In the 1970s, peyote was popularized by author Carlos Castaneda, who claimed that his mystic master Don Juan had guided him through a series of journeys into the hidden world of the nagual, or shaman.

Legality

USA

In the United States, the Native American Church is legal and not limited.

Mexico

The Mexican government grants a permit to the Huichol natives, in order to moderate their consumption. In addition, they have signed international agreements in which they are committed to respecting traditions and a "sacred plant" is recognized, so it is not prohibited to transport, use and cultivate it within their activities.

International

Peyote and other psychedelic plants are not listed or regulated by the Convention.

SANANGA

Effects and Uses

The Tabernamontanus tree has different alkaloids for various uses. It is used from the root to the bark of the tree. Its most important active alkaloid is IBOGAINE. (alkaloid with an amino acid with psychoactive effects)

The Matis and Ticunas tribes report that they have the effect of giving the environment a greater texture and dimension, which facilitates the detection of animals during the hunt. Effects are reported to last for days to weeks. In addition to the visual improvement, there is also an increase in energy.

OTHER USES RESEARCHED BY SCIENCE

1. Tabernaemontana undulata or Bechete contains iboga alkaloids. Ibogaine is used to control pain and to treat addiction to opium, heroin, methadone. With a success rate of over 90% in avoiding cravings for relapse during the first three days of abstinence, other research suggests that ibogaine may also be useful in treating addictions to other addictive substances such as alcohol, methamphetamine, nicotine and obsessive-compulsive behavior patterns.

2. Psychology and psychiatry: to facilitate psychological introspection and spiritual exploration.

3. The T. heterophylla variety is used to treat dementia in the elderly. The Tabernaemontana sananho variety: with water to treat eye injuries and as an anxiolytic. Ocular dysfunctions and correction of myopia, glaucoma, cataracts and blindness.

4. Rhinitis and sinusitis.

5. There are other varieties. Guinea root. This is made in Brazil in the communities of Acre. And so many more that escape our knowledge even without investigating.

EXPANSION

Its expansion is always typical. Researchers, journalists, adventurers, travelers who go into the jungle and live with the tribes and participate in their customs, are brought back to the country, as an offering that the same tribe gives or they acquire, they end up being incorporated into spiritual groups that yearn for an awakening

The Hapé

ANCIENT USES OF TABACCOO

South America

In addition to being smoked, tobacco was snorted through the nose called rapé or singada, chewed, eaten, licked, drank, smeared on the body, used in eye drops, and as enemas.

Also in rites such as blowing it on the face of the warriors before the fight. It was spread in fields before sowing, offered to the gods, poured on women before intercourse, and used as a narcotic-sedative by both men and women.

North America

The rituals of the pipe of peace to establish good relations between brothers.

Petitions: The leaves of the plant were considered by the American Indians to be the messengers of man's wishes to Waka tanka or great Spirit. Through it, the favors of the spirits were requested to achieve victories in confrontations, protection from the dangers of nature.

Europe

From the leaf it became a powder. It was brought to Spain and monopolized in the city of Seville, where the first manufacturing company in Europe to market it was created.

It was a luxury item used by royal houses, ambassadors, even by the Vatican until Pope Urban VIII banned it. Kings and queens made use of it in the kingdoms of England, France…etc.

In the United States it was introduced by the husband of Pocahontas.

The use in the form of snorted Monkfish was justified because it distinguished them as elite members of society and the populace who smoked it. It was the difference.

COMPOSITION

Nicotiana is an alkaloid with psychoactive amino acids.

Due to current demand and fashion to create a product whose content is not only nicotine, as it has commercial and legal restrictions, they are mixed with various plants and roots. There is no danger and they are a fun adventure of flavors and sensations.

The effect is very powerful on the pineal gland. Produces psychedelic effects. Dizziness from the dose of nicotine in the gland. At the brain level, being a neurotransmitter, it produces more serotonin, or dopamine or other hormones, feeling more euphoria.

These enhanced activations Due to these ingredients, they take the person out of their vague tonic state, stimulating functions that could be slowed down, such as language, communication, and other more cognitive relational ones such as shyness...etc.

THE AYAHUASCA

The resulting concoction may contain the powerful psychedelic drug DMT and the MAO-inhibiting harmala alkaloids, which are necessary for DMT to be orally active.

Evidence of Ayahuasca use dates back to at least 1000 AD in Bolivia.

In the 16th century, missionaries from Spain first encountered indigenous people in Peru and Ecuador using ayahuasca.

HISTORY

Ayahuasca became more widely known when the McKenna brothers published their book about their experience in the Amazon in their book “True Hallucinations”

Richard Evans Schultes and Claudio Naranjo were characters who dared to make a special canoe trip down the Amazon River to study ayahuasca with South American Indians. They brought samples of the drink and published the first experiences in articles.

Artists like: Sting, Lindsey Lohan, Paul Simon and Tori Amos stand out for having experimented.

SANTO DAIME AND UNIAO DO VEGETAL

A series of modern religious movements based on the use of ayahuasca have emerged in Brazil, the most famous of which is Santo Daime (Holy Give me light, love, strength). Its precursor Master Irineu died in 1970 and the group União do Vegetal (or UDV), generally in an animist shamanism fused with Christianity.

Master Irineu had the vision of the woman from the jungle and told her what to do for the community. This view is common to many who drink ayahuasca…the spirit of the plant that is the Ayahuasca woman or grandmother. It is feminine. And the plants in general of this concoction have a feminine connotation.

TRADITIONAL USE

Tribes deep in the jungle that take it in times of conflict with other tribes to have a vision of what to do to resolve enmities that endanger the well-being of the community.

In moments of illness of a member of the tribe to know that he has become ill. It was done to have a vision of evil.

But really where ayahuasca has gained more strength is in its non-traditional use. People who work with ayahuasca in non-traditional contexts often align themselves with philosophies and cosmologies.

In art: artists from all over the world come to drink to help their creativity diminished by large societies.

In family conflicts: possibly the most widespread use. The healing of family and couple relationships.

RESEARCH AND PSYCHIATRY

It is a potential to cure addictions or post-traumatic syndrome. People suffering from chronic depression and as an alternative to antidepressants.

SIDE EFFECTS DURING A SESSION

In some cases, people experience significant psychological stress during the experience. Ayahuasca also has cardiovascular effects, moderately increasing heart rate and diastolic blood pressure. It is for this reason that extreme caution should be exercised with those who may be at risk of heart disease.

The psychedelic effects of ayahuasca include visual and auditory stimulation, the blending of sensory modalities, and psychological insight that can lead to great euphoria, fear, or enlightenment. Its purgative properties are important (known as la purga or "la purga"). The intense vomiting and occasional diarrhea it induces can cleanse the body of worms and other tropical parasites.

The shamans direct the ceremonial consumption of the ayahuasca drink, in a rite that normally takes place throughout the night. During the ceremony, the effect of the drink lasts for hours. Before the ceremony, participants are instructed to refrain from spicy foods, red meat, and sex.

Its use is allowed in: Australia, Brazil, Romania, Italy, Costa Rica, Netherlands, controlled in Chile. Mexico, Peru, Colombia and in Spain, where there is a legal vacuum.

SAN PEDRO or WACHUMA

VARIOUS USES

Superstices: Remove evils, curses, evil eye, alcoholism, bad luck, spells, spells... etc.

2. Mental: It has positive and pleasant effects, creative thoughts, calm, non-judgment, union, forgiveness, love.

Currently the ceremonies are spread throughout Peru mixed ada with a traditional design (the table, in full moon with the Christian) to hide the use that was prohibited during the conquest. The table is prepared with images of Jesus Christ, the virgin and objects such as stones, minerals, shells and everything that the shaman feels to bring.

The role of the Shaman

Take care of the participants and guess through clairvoyance the meaning of the visions.

Ceremonies in Europe

Neo-shamanic design, in places in nature with or without music, in silence.

The guide is a fundamental factor. For this reason, it is good to refrain from doing it alone, since there are frequent cases of people who enter alone and it causes them a lot of stress, fear and euphoria.

THE SAN PEDRO increases the abilities, auditory, sensory, perceptive. Also a binge, possible vomiting. If you don't know how to interpret all this, it can cause anxiety and lack of control.

THE CACTUS THAT OPENS THE DOORS OF HEAVEN

Awakens feelings of love, understanding, tenderness, compassion. He is ideal as a muscle relaxant, it gives one more sense of calm, patience, and decreases wanting to control the situation. He makes us realize what is happening to us and who or what is causing it. Relieves stress and anxiety.

MUSHROOMS and TRUFFLES

Metabolism and hallucinogenic mushrooms

Due to their pharmacokinetic properties, mushrooms take between 20 and 90 minutes to be digested, pass through the liver and reach the bloodstream. It is not until then that one notices its effects, which will last between 3 and 6 hours.

It is estimated that the typical recreational dose ranges between 10 and 50 milligrams of psilocybin, and that each gram of fresh magic mushrooms contains one milligram of this compound, while each gram of dried magic mushrooms contains 10 milligrams of psilocybin.

Hallucinations include content of all kinds. These can be of any modality, visual, auditory, sensitive, gustatory or olfactory. As in addition to the presence of hallucinations, normal perception itself is sharpened and changed, both properties are mixed. It is possible to see common objects of colors that do not correspond or perceive them as distorted shapes, appreciate sounds with greater intensity that in an unaltered state would not be the object of attention, and so on.

Unpleasant effects

Along with hallucinations and alterations in perception and thinking, another class of unwanted effects can occur. One of the most frequent unpleasant effects is paranoia, that is, the conviction that one is persecuted or the object of some kind of plot. It is a very aversive experience that borders on the psychotic and can set in if it becomes severe enough.

In the long term, the effects of misuse of magic mushrooms can include persistent psychotic symptoms with hallucinations, delusions and thought disturbances, and persistent emotional disturbances such as major depression or dysthymia.

Although rare, these dramatic consequences are unpredictable. Anyone who is sensitive to hallucinogenic mushrooms, who has not been well informed, who has taken too many doses, who has not been well accompanied or who has consumed in an unwelcoming environment can end up developing this type of symptoms that, in addition to being unpleasant, do not They are usually completely reversible and leave consequences on the personality of those who suffer from it.

Psilocybin mushrooms, also called hallucinogenic mushrooms, are mushrooms that contain psychoactive substances such as psilocybin, psilocin, and baeocystin.1

They were one of the first drugs used by mankind. Archaeological finds show that as early as 1600 B.C. C. the species Amanita muscaria was consumed in India. They have been associated with Soma and Haoma, the sacred drug of immortality in Indo-Iranian cultures, with the ambrosia of Greek myths, with the mysteries of Eleusis, also in ancient Greece, and even (minority) with the origins of Christianity. They were used by the nomadic tribes of Siberia in communal rites of indulgence. They knew something about the metabolism of the alkaloids responsible for the hallucinogenic effects of the fungus, if the urine was drunk, the effects could be prolonged.

Specimens of the genus Psilocybe were used in the New World before the arrival of the Spanish. The "magic mushroom" from Mexico and Central America has a longer history of human use than any other plant with psychoactive effects.

There are several genera and more than 200 species that contain these substances.

An important character in the history of the medicinal use of mushrooms was María Sabina.

María Sabina Magdalena García was a healer and shaman of the Mazatec indigenous ethnic group from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. Maria Sabina and her uncles with whom she learned and from her own experience were reasons of SUPERSTITION. She said it was to remove curses. Later she developed clairvoyant abilities which she says she acquired through the use of mushrooms.

In 1968, Robert Gordon Wasson published the book The Marvelous Fungus: Teonanácatl Mycolatría in Mesoamerica, where he exposes to the American public the ritual and use of "children" in the Mazatec culture. Since the pivot of the book was Maria Sabina, it received phenomenal publicity at the height of American hippie culture.

Her indiscriminate use of her as a hallucinogen rather than as a medicinal plant, brought endless problems and annoyances for her that she did not see that way.

Currently in neo-shamanism its use continues to follow the same line as a psychedelic experience rather than for healing. That does not mean that you should not participate with the awareness that it is for a healing purpose rather than for recreation within what is possible. Perhaps it is the most distorted of the medicinal plants.

ENTHEOGENIC ANIMALS

HISTORY

Toads have always played an important role in the myths, legends, religions and medical and healing practices of different peoples throughout the history of mankind.

We find representations of toads dating back thousands of years. Some authors suggest that the poison of toads was already used by Neanderthal man for hunting, divination and as an intoxicant.

There are myths and traditions related to toads throughout history in different parts of the world such as China, Tibet, Nepal, as well as in Bolivia and Europe. Myths about the use of toads IN THE MIDDLE AGES in witchcraft during the middle ages are very abundant.

There are many iconographic and mythological representations of toads in the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec cultures, dating back to 2000 BC. Especially in the archaeological remains of San Lorenzo, in Veracruz, Mexico, dating from 1250-900 BC, belonging to the Olmec culture, Aztec sculptures and representations place great emphasis on the parotoid glands of toads, which is where the glands are located. secretions that can be psychoactive.

According to the accounts of Anglo-Dominican friar Thomas Gage, the Poloman natives of Guatemala used to add both tobacco leaves and poisonous toads to their fermented beverages to increase their potency.

The peculiarity of this toad is that it is the only one on the planet that has 5MEO-DMT.

EXPANSION

His predecessor is the current facilitator Octavio Rettig, a doctor addicted to cocaine, in the middle of a trip across the border between Mexico and the United States in search of the drug, he ran into the town of the Seris.

He has become famous for curing users of crack, heroin, amphetamines... etc. The Comcac or Seris, a tribal nation from Sonora, have seen the effect with their own eyes.

It is discussed how they knew that the toad could be smoked. And why didn't they use it? Apparently this information fell into the hands of a Californian in 1970 who was arrested for bringing the toad into his country in large numbers. And as it usually happens, by empirical experience, by experimentation, it seems that drug traffickers and cocaine users dared to smoke it, resulting in successful experiences of altered states of consciousness that made them stop addictions suddenly.

The dose of pure substance by smoking is between 6 and 20mg, and it is currently the most used route:

Threshold dose: 1 – 2mg

Low dose: 2 – 5mg

Average dose: 5 – 10mg

High dose: 10 – 20mg

When smoked/vaporized, 5-MeO-DMT has immediate and short effects, usually lasting less than 20 minutes, although often unexpected and overwhelming in intensity.

When 5-MeO-DMT vapors are inhaled, the effects set in within a few seconds and their onset is sudden and sudden. Peak effects occur in less than 1 minute and last for about 5-15 minutes. Users often describe the onset and plateau of effects as extremely intense

Many people describe feelings of cosmic unity, of accessing non-dual awareness and profound experiences and spiritual. Some people have likened the experience to the experience of dying and accessing states similar to those described in Buddhist and Hindu traditions as Nirvana or the Tathāgata, the afterlife. Loss of sense of identity and dissolution of the ego, as well as oceanic sensations of merging with the whole, are common.

Also, due to the rapid and intense onset of effects, fear and panic reactions are common, and the experience can be overwhelming and traumatic for some people.

Movements can occur during the experience, as well as the involuntary expression of sounds (screams, songs, tears...) without the person being aware of it.

PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL VISIONARY ANIMAL ON THE PLANET

It is considered the most powerful new medicine of the 21st century on the planet. Capable of breaking the mental constructs densified by millennia and that no previous treatment and even perhaps surpassing other psychedelic plants, is generating changes in those people who take it. It has the particularity of feeling more in tune with it now, consequently, bringing abundance to your life.

Legal status

B. alvarius is not on any list of controlled species. Neither 5-MeO-DMT nor bufotenine is found on the psychotropic lists of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 except in the UNITED STATES, ENGLAND AND SWEDEN.

THE KAMBO

The Katukina consider themselves ancestral owners of the knowledge about the medicinal properties of kambô (dermorphine) and its application is part of the contemporary cultural practice of their spiritual leaders or pajés (traditional healers).

Traditionally, the Katukinas, Kaxinawás and Ashaninkas, among other indigenous groups in Brazil, have used kambó in rituals to strengthen the immune system.

COMPOSITION

This secretion, which contains so-called opioid agonists, has been used by peoples such as the Matsés as part of a propitiatory ritual before going hunting.

Traditionally, the Katukinas, Kaxinawás and Ashaninkas, among other indigenous groups in Brazil, have used kambó in rituals to strengthen the immune system. To do this, they hunt the frog after following its songs, immobilize it by tying its four limbs, and remove its secretion by scratching its back with a spatula.

Dermorphine and deltorphine are substances similar to opiates that allow a chronic and acute activation of the mu- and delta-opioid receptors, having as a response the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adenocortical (HPA) axis, both in basal conditions and in the acute response to stress.

Dermorphin is only found in autistic children and on the backs of captive poison dart frogs. These opiate-like molecules are thought to be the cause of autism symptoms.

The interested party must attend the session fasting.

There he will drink up to three liters of water, while the shaman makes a series of superficial burns in the form of points.

On those slight open wounds he will then apply the substance extracted from the frog which, having been combined with water and dried on a wooden board, is now a whitish paste.

"It's a physical reaction to the poison of a toad. You're poisoned for a while."

And it ends in vomiting and relief. From the point of view of healers it is because toxins and evils are expelled.

Conditions as diverse as inflammation in general, tiredness, tendinitis, headache, asthma, rhinitis, allergies of all kinds, ulcers, diabetes, constipation, blood pressure and high cholesterol, are also treated. cirrhosis, stress, menstrual irregularity, low libido or anxiety attacks.

"It could be especially dangerous for users with any disease related to the heart muscles and the circulatory system" due to the presence of bradykinins as these molecules cause vasodilation and a relaxation of the muscles." So there is a possibility that the kambó can produce (...) side effects such as hypotension, tachycardia and palpitations.

(excerpts from different sources)

Written by Esther Siverio