Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers

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So Plowman broke coca down into four varieties of coca. Erythroxylum coca, which is Bolivian Coca, which is typical of the highland of the central and southern Andes. The second variety is Erythroxylum coca variety ipadu, which is the coca powder that I’ll be talking quite a bit about. The other species was E. novogranatense, which Plowman broke into two varieties. There was Novogranatense novogranatense, which is Colombian coca, which is what the Kogi Indians of northern Colombia chew. And the final variety was Novogranatense truxillense, which is what’s grown around Trujillo in Peru, which figures into Coca-Cola, which I’ll be getting into. I discovered the tome, Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers,[ 11] while researching and ascertaining the veracity of certain stories contained in an immensely celebrated series of books from the sixties and seventies by Carlos Castaneda, an anthropology student and PhD candidate at the University of California at Los Angeles.[ 4] I wanted to verify the existence and corroborate the action of the powerful hallucinogenic plants mentioned in that popular series and that were consumed by Don Juan, the teacher, and Carlos Castaneda (“Carlito”), his younger apprentice. Previously, we mentioned D. innoxia in the context of the teachings of Don Juan. Datura plants grow in the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. In Mexico, the plants, referred to as Toloache, are considered one of the main plants of the gods and used extensively for their psychoactive effects. It was consumed by both the Mayans and the Aztecs in ancient times. The eminent Maya scholar Eric Thompson wrote in The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization[ 12] that the chilans (Mayan priests specializing in divination) may have used peyote and Datura mixed with tobacco and lime to induce hallucinatory visions and assist them in divination. More recent archeological and anthropological scholarship have confirmed that bloody Mayan rituals also utilized hallucinatory plants.[ 10] Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) was a Jeffrey Professor of Biology and Director of the Botanical Museum at Harvard University, considered by many to be the father of modern ethnobotany. The dizziness of freedom.” I’ve never heard that concept, much less explained simply and eloquently. It hit home with me at this phase of my life where I’m pursuing freedom but not entirely understanding (yet) the self-mastery that is required of that pursuit.

Plants of the Gods — Dr. Mark Plotkin on Ayahuasca, Shamanic Plants of the Gods — Dr. Mark Plotkin on Ayahuasca, Shamanic

If you want to truly begin to understand shamanic cultures and shamanic healing, and the plant of the gods, and the fungi of the gods, and the magic frogs of the gods, you need to experience the ceremony as the shaman as the indigenous people see it. Now as an ethnobotanist, I’ve been through probably 80 or 90 ayahuasca ceremonies. Always in a ritual context, always led by a shaman, because these are plants of power and knowledge and danger as well. This superbly illustrated, encyclopedic volume provides a much needed, well-balanced scientific perspective on the use of hallucinogenic plants. Richard Evans Schultes, the worlds most eminent ethnobotanist, and Albert Hofmann, the former research director at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, emphasize the need for continued education about both the potential benefits and the inherent dangers involved in the use of hallucinogens. Perhaps some of the lessons learned from the increasingly widespread legalization of marijuana in many countries might help us one day pursue a similar positive path with coca in its native form. In the meantime, the traditional use of coca by its traditional users should be celebrated and protected. The bottom line here is the coca used in its traditional cultural setting is a plant of the gods, which only benefits humanity.Season 4 of Plants of the Gods wraps up today with an episode featuring Peter Grinspoon, MD, cannabis specialist at Harvard Medical School. During this conversation, Dr. Plotkin and Dr. Grinspoon discuss everything from the pain-relieving and uplifting qualities of cannabis sought by people with chronic illnesses to marijuana in popular culture (cannabis trilogy to brush up on your history!), as well as his father’s successful efforts to fend off the Nixon Administration’s attempts to deport John Lennon because of a cannabis conviction. Join us today for this captivating interview. Bonito manual de divulgación para gente interesada en plantas enteogénicas. Valioso por lo accesible de los datos técnicos, pero invaluable por resaltar la importancia étnica y religiosa de cada planta de los dioses. I dropped out of college after my freshman year and started working in a museum at Harvard, essentially as a gopher. Enrolled in a night school course on lobotomy and chemistry of hallucinogenic plants taught by professor Schultes himself and I’ve been hooked ever since. The point of this podcast is to teach and to learn about the hallucinogenic, entheogenic, mind-altering substances used by shamans and other healers around the world, with a heavy emphasis on the rainforest. And to be able to share some of what I’ve learned at some of what I’ve seen, both answers and questions with people who have an interest in this topic. Psilocybe cyanescens, the wavy cap mushroom species, have a wavy brown cap but unlike P. mexicana, grows in decaying plants, “coniferous mulch, and humus-rich soil.” Reportedly, it has been used in neo-pagan rites in Central Europe and North America. “Visionary doses are 1 g of the dried mushroom, which contains approximately 1% tryptamine (e.g., psilocybin(e) and psilocin(e).”[ 11] Plants of the Gods: S4E6. Part 1 — Ayahuasca and Tobacco Shamanism: an Interview with Ethnobotanist Dr. Glenn Shepard

Plants of The Gods - Their Sacred, Healing, and - Scribd Plants of The Gods - Their Sacred, Healing, and - Scribd

Now chicle is a resin of the sapodilla tree, which also produces a very tasty indigenous edible fruit. It is best known to the Western world. It has had a major impact on our history in a very unique and interesting way. Chicle, as I said, was native to Central America. It was long chewed by indigenous peoples there, and the commercialization of chicle in chewing gum got its start with General Santa Anna, the Mexican hero of the Alamo. This superbly illustrated, encyclopedic volume provides a much needed, well-balanced scientific perspective on the use of hallucinogenic plants. Richard Evans Schultes, the worlds most eminent ethnobotanist, and Albert Hofmann, the former research director at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, emphasize the need for continued education about both the potential benefits and the inherent dangers involved in the use of hallucinogens." Shaman's Drum It contains an incredible amount of rigorous and fascinating information in a highly accessible, beautiful, and compelling format." Plants of the Gods is a collaborative work by ethnobotany greats Albert Hofmann, Richard Evans Schultes, and Christian Ratsch. It is an overview of various psychoactive plants and their uses in cultures of the past and present. It goes into detail on many of these plants, such as the morning glory vine Ololuiqui, the Peyote cactus, the Ayahausca brew, and DMT-containing snuff powders made from the Yopo.There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror?

Podcast – Mark. J Plotkin

This superbly illustrated, encyclopedic volume provides a much needed, well-balanced scientific perspective on the use of hallucinogenic plants. Richard Evans Schultes, the worlds most eminent ethnobotanist, and Albert Hofmann, the former research director at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, emphasize the need for continued education about both the potential benefits and the inherent dangers involved in the use of hallucinogens." A third hallucinogenic plant was the most powerful and, as a benevolent “teacher,” a deity in and of itself. Don Juan referred to this plant as mescalito. The plant not only assisted the user in reaching a separate reality but also taught great lessons that would lead to a better ordinary life. The source was peyote, Lophophora williamsii, a cactus species grown in Mexico and the American southwest. The top part of the cactus was cut off, collected, and dried. Later these peyote “buttons” were ritualistically chewed and ingested, a couple of pieces at a time. Don Juan and Carlito participated in several such ceremonies described in the early books.[ 4]There are indications some of the beginnings of Judaism may be rooted in these mind-altering substances as well. But as I said, there’s fodder for more discussions of this. The most significant medical development in terms of Western medicine recently, has been the mainstreaming of hallucinogens into our own Western medicine. Hallucinogens are the shamanic medicine par excellence, but now they’re finding their way almost magically, almost shamanically, into very traditional halls of Western medicine. Now, Schultes was famous for saying and for writing he never felt anything from ayahuasca. A couple of flashes of color. If you read The Yage [Letters], which I’m not a great fan of but it has a huge following — this is William Burroughs’ account — Schultes says to Burroughs, who was a Harvard classmate, “Sorry, Bill. I just saw some flashes of color. No big deal.” Ethnobotanists always worried how this father of ethnobotany, this so-called scientific discoverer of ayahuasca, never felt the effects. The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Nassim Nicholas Taleb & Scott Patterson — How Traders Make Billions in The New Age of Crisis, Defending Against Silent Risks, Personal Independence, Skepticism Where It (Really) Counts, The Bishop and The Economist, and Much More (#691) Now what’s intriguing about these admixtures is that they contain hallucinogenic tryptamines, which is another type of alkaloid, a chemical substance common in many plants. Caffeine is an alkaloid, strychnine is an alkaloid. Now these tryptamines prove inert when consumed orally, unless they are activated by the presence of compounds which are known as monoamine oxidase inhibitors, MAO inhibitors. A Smithsonian scientist named William Safford said that, “No, there were no hallucinogenic mushrooms. It was just peyote. It was the Indians trying to mislead the missionaries.” But Schultes was a better botanist than Safford, and he knew there would be no peyote, which thrives in desert-like conditions. There would be no pipe peyote in the tropical forest of Oaxaca and Southern Mexico, and he set out to prove Safford wrong.