The Entheogen Review - 1992-2008

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The Entheogen Review The DeKorne Years (Autumn 1992 — Winter 1997)

Edited by Jim DeKorne

The first four issues of The Entheogen Review display editor Jim DeKorne’s experimentation with graphic design. Each issue varies in length and looks somewhat different from the others. It was not until Autumn 1993 that the format settled into a consistent style. In order to reformat these early issues into this bound collection, some of the printed material was reworked by DeKorne, with some of the decorative illustrations eliminated. With the exception of minor factual corrections, all written material is the same as it appeared in the original issues. This bound facsimile version was scanned at 600 dpi from DeKorne’s master copies when possible, and from second generation photocopies when that was the only recourse. The early issues of The Entheogen Review were created via the cut-and-paste method at a time before desktop publishing on personal computers was as ubiquitous as it is today. Issues of The Entheogen Review edited and published by Jim DeKorne did not contain any indexes. (Since 1998, all issues have contained a yearly index in the Winter edition for each year.) This bound collection has been supplemented by an index that was manually produced by ER subscriber and contributor “S. Bear.” It took him years to complete and was clearly a labor of love—a tribute to the publication—and we are pleased to be able to offer such a useful addition for the first time with this compilation. Advertisements contained in these issues should be considered historical curiosities; they are most certainly out-of-date. Inaccurate information presented in early issues was sometimes corrected in later issues. Even so, there may still be faulty data contained in any issues produced. For more information on available back issues from 1998 until the present and a few books produced or sold by The Entheogen Review, please see our web site at www.entheogenreview.com. Our current mailing address is: The Entheogen Review, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA A one-year subscription (four issues) is $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign).

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW A QUARTERLY ETHNOBOTANICAL UPDATE

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

1992

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW Volume 1, No. 1, September, 1992 Copyright® •• 1992 All Rights Reserved James B. DeKome P.O. Box 778 El Rito, NM 87530 This is a newsletter. Its purpose is to keep you abreast of the latest information concerning the shamanic use of entheogenic plants. It will be published quarterly -on the solstices and equinoxes -- and will comprise a clearing house ·for hard-to-find empirical data on growing dose procedures, extraction techniques, information and subjective results experienced by readers. My name is Jim DeKome. I am writing a book on this subject, and therefore it serves my needs to edit a periodical devoted to it. In my research I have already compiled more information than I can possibly use in one volume. Because of this I am able to share obscure bits of data which others haven't had the time to dig out of the enormous body of literature on contradictory maddeningly psychedelia. The season is long overdue to shed a little light on this topic and separate a few facts from what appears to be a limitless mythology. With a relatively select and sophisticated group of subscribers it becomes possible to share experiences, pool data and formulate reliable guidelines for how to properly grow and use these plants -- maybe even acquire some minimal comprehension of the extraordinary realities which they evoke. I regard this as cutting-edge research - as fully on the far outposts of knowledge as the latest findings of quantum physics. Because of past excesses, the pendulum has now swung toward police-state repression of the entheogenic experience itself. This makes it difficult to explore these realms, yet no less essential: our planet is in serious trouble and the plant allies are there to guide us if we have the will and the courage to meet them intelligently. It may actually be an evolutionary watershed -- either we choose to cross it, or we "select" ourselves out of the game.

Because the material is so vulnerable to gross misinterpretation, this newsletter is not intended to be a mass circulation publication. It is hoped that subscribers will agree with my concern for My discretion in sharing its information. editorial position is highly elitist - these are shamanic substances for shamanic-type people. Despite our contemporary idealization of shamanism, the shaman has traditionally been (in Colin Wilson's sense of the word) an "outsider" in his own culture. The entheogenic experience is not for the masses at this point in time -- the sixties amply proved that point. Despite my bias, this newsletter will contain the most accurate information I can obtain: knowledge may be used or abused, and it is not within this editor's expertise to draw the line separating the two. The price of a one year subscription is twenty dollars with a refund of the unused portion of your subscription available on demand. (That's five bucks a copy for information I'm willing to bet you'd be hard pressed to find synthesized anywhere else - I know, because I've looked.) This first issue will summarize some of the data on the ayahuasca analog plants.

the imagination with the astronomical odds against its probability.

A YAHUASCA AND ITS ANALOGS Ayahuasca, or Yage, is a ubiquitous Amazonian brew made up of at least two different plant species. While each shaman probably has his own secret formula for the mixture (with no two exactly alike), it has been established that true ayahuasca always contains both beta-carboline and tryptamine alkaloids the former (harmine and or harmaline) from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, and the latter (N, Ndimethyltryptam ine, or DMl) from the leaves of the Psychotria viridis bush. It is interesting and significant to note that neither of these plant substances alone aie doses. oral in psychoactive normally (Harmine/harm aline is said to effect hallucinosis at near-fatal levels, but in less heroic quantities it is at best a tranquilizer, at worst an emetic.) DMT, in any quantity, is not orally active without the addition of a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor. Harmine and harmaline are potent short-term MAO inhibitors and they synergize with the DMT-containing botanicals to produce what has been described as one of the most profound of all psychedelic experiences.

MAO Inhibition Parenthetically, it must be noted that the concept of MAO inhibition is complex and hardly obvious to everyday experience. Indeed, it was not fully understood by Western science Yet, in the until about thirty years ago. Amazon, "primitive" cultures have been making use of this principle in their ayahuasca brews for hundreds of years, if not for millennia. Anthropologists ask us to believe that these tribes (from widely separated areas, speaking different languages, and many of them deadly enemies) all managed to discover the "ayahuasca principle" on their own by trial and error. Considering the sheer number of plant species growing in just one square mile of rainforest (not to even mention all of the possible combinations of plants), for each individual tribe to come up with the correct mixture "on its own by trial and error" beggars

Plant Allies The Indians have no problem with the concept -- they claim that the plants themselves taught them how to make the brew. Indeed, shamanic cultures world-wide share a nearuniversal belief that each plant species contains "spirits" which can be utilized as allies for Contrary to the Western shamanic work. notions are naive or such that assumption will operate from publication superstitious, this be something to may there the hypothesis that manifest actually plants these beliefs. Whether alkaloids their whether or sentient entities activate components of the human psyche which present themselves in this guise has yet to be determined -- the point is that empirical usage of such plants consistently evokes forces experienced by the user as sentient "others." (See my article, "Attack of the Archons" in the Spring, 1992 issue of Gnosis magazine for related speculations on this general theme.)

The Analog Plants Ayahuasca is exotic stuff- few of us are able to travel to Amazonia to experience its effects, and the plants from which it is traditionally compounded are tropical species which do not thrive outside of the rainforest. Terence McKenna has perceived this problem and suggested its resolution: Probably only a synthetic duplication of compounded with the correct ayahuasca carbolines and betaDMf of percentages will ever make the experience available outside the area where it is endemic. (1) This is precisely the concept of an "ayahuasca analog. "That is to say, if it were possible to find other, less tropical (hence easier to grow in northern latitudes) plants containing the same alkaloids as B. caapi and P. viridis, then the entheogenic experience provided by ayahuasca would be available to almost anyone

on the planet willing to grow the plants and compound the brew. Happily, there are several plant species which fit this description . The are Harminelhannaline, alkaloids, first relatively easy to acquire.

Syrian Rue was evidently introduced many years ago into the U.S. by an exotic plant enthusiast who lived near Deming; New Mexico. It escaped from cultivation and by 1938 was found growing wild near Pecos, Texas. Now it is apparently found all over the Southwest. Some of the literature ·leads you to believe that this plant has "taken over" (it is targeted for weed eradication programs in some areas), but ona recent collecting trip through .its adopted habitat I found it to be rather difficult to find. One spot to look is on Interstate 10 between Fort Stockton and El Paso, Texas. In Aug\Jst of 1992 there were several Syrian Rue plants growing on the freeway median immediately East of exit number 159. I collected about a half-pint of seeds from only three plants - there are many more remaining. Apparently P. harmala dries up after setting seed, then puts out new shoots from the root. This is what these plants were doing at any rate. (I must say that if you are really able to purchase seeds for only $50.00 a pound, that is a bargain.)

Cultivation of Peganum Harmala

Peganum Harmala Peganum harmala, or Syrian Rue, is the plant from which harmine was first isolated, as well as a source of harmaline and tetracontent hydroharmine. total B-carboline runs almost 4% by weight in the seeds of These alkaloids occur in Syrian Rue. roughly the same proportions as in B. caapi. Ten grams of Syrian Rue seeds provide about 400 mg of total B-carbolines, about the amount in a typical dose of ayahuasca. (*See revised dosage below. -- ed.) Syrian Rue grows in semi-arid conditions. It originated in Central Asia, and is held in high esteem throughout Asia Minor as a medicinal, aphrodisiac and dye plant ... It now grows wild in Eurasia and has recently been spread to Texas, Nevada, New Mexico and Southern California. Dye quality seeds are available from several West Coast seed services for about $50.00 per pound. (2)

Shamanic usage suggests however, that one raise one's own mother plants for seed production. There is an incredible amount of subtle energy exchanged between the grower and the growing plants - this sounds mystical I know, but only someone who has done it can really understand what I'm trying to communicate. There is far more to this business than left-brain logic would suggest. Unfortunately, I have found Peganum harmala to be more than a little tricky to grow from seed. Having finally raised a half-dozen plants past the early seedling stage, I would definitely recommend that one not start them in flats. The seeds are tiny, but it is worth the extra trouble to plant them individually in peat pots for later transfer to larger containers. Transplanting from flats stresses the seedlings enormously, and the amount of special care then required to nurse them back to health is avoided if one plants them individually.

inhibitors, and one shouldn't ingest any more of them than necessary for reasons too complex to go into in the space of this newsletter. It is assumed that the reader is already familiar with this information. Should questions arise, we can go into more detail in future issues. Suffree it to say that ignorant usage of any MAO inhibiting substance can ldU you dead. Again, these are shamanic substances demanding shamanic knowledge and shamanic presence of mind.)

Plants Containi ng DMT

Extractio n of Harm ala Alkaloids As of this writing (early September, 1992) I have not yet extracted any al.kaloids from P. harma/a seeds, but it appears to be a very simple procedure:

The technique was a two-stage extraction. The first extraction used was a boiling alcohol (we used vodka) and water infusion followed by a second extraction using boiled distilled water. Each. infusion was boiled for several hours. A "slow cooker" is ideal for this .For the Syrian Rue, we first ground the seeds very fine [in a spice mill]. The second extract was a bright cloudy yellow which may indicate harmine in solution. The plant material was strained and compressed after each extraction. The liquids from the two extractions were combined and dried using low heat on the slow cooker The weight was about 20% of the original for the ... rue. A plain water infusion would also seem to be just as effective in removing the harmine and would result in less of the other plant components being extracted. (3) More recent data suggests that one gram of P. harmala seeds contains between 20 and 70 mg of the harmala alkaloids. A good place to start would be 2 grams of seeds, double extracted (as above) in 30% lemon juice (or acetic acid or vinegar) to produce about 140 mg of alkaloid -- the optimum amount necessary to activate the DMT portion of the ayahuasca brew. (Remember: the harrnala alkaloids are MAO

While Syrian Rue is generally recognized as the best non-rainforest source of harrnala alkaloids, DMT sources seem not to be so well researched. Although several species of North American plants are known to contain DMT, I have so far been unable to find any data concerning how to extract and use it specifically in the ayahuasca admixture. At a conference on entheogens in August, 1992, I was unable to find one person out of forty attendees who had actually ingested any of the analog plants in an ayahuasca brew. One of the many goals of this newsletter is to elicit such information and make it available to subscribers. Plants containing DMT are not hard to find, however. Desmanthus iJiinoensis, (a weed legume common in the midwest), Arundo donax (a bamboo-like plant apparently introduced from India, and found growing wild in many areas of the U.S.), and Pha/aris arundinacea (a common grass species) have all been found to contain DMT in various concentrations. There are so~e indications that this alkaloid may actually be very common - all that is lacking is some sophisticated chemical analysis of likely plant varieties. The leguminosae, for example, are an extremely large botanical family which have yielded many DMT-containin g plants. While on my recent collecting trip I found what I assumed was a Desmanthus species growing along a Texas highway. They mow the road shoulders in Texas regularly, and most of the plants growing there get pretty severely pruned several What I thought was times each summer. Desmanthus was actually a very stunted mesquite bush - another legume species which in terms of numbers may be the most common

wild plant in the Lone Star State. The leaf configuration of Desmanthus and mesquite is very similar. Out of curiosity (once I'd realized my mistake), I looked mesquite up in Michael Moore's Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West and was amazed to find that at least some species of this plant contain in their leaves, pods and bark: 5-hydroxytryptamine and tryptamine. I'm no chemist, but those sound like alkaloids not molecularly far removed from N, N- dimethyltryptamine, or DMT for short. Are there any chemists out there who can enlighten us novices on the significance of this, if any? What I'm suggesting is that there may be DMTcontaining plants growing all around us, and that the legumes might be a good place to start looking for them.

QUESTIONS To date I've yet to uncover a complete, tested ayahuasca analog formula -- which doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. (Living in the New Mexico boondocks confines much of my research to obscure books and journals, and there are lots of data that never get written up.) Peganum harmala has been successfully combined with synthetic DMT (4), but that experiment was published in 1986. Surely by now someone must have developed a reasonably easy extraction procedure for DMT-containing plants. If not, that is valuable information in itself. Is there anyone out there willing to share their knowledge of this subject?

Teacher, Notes From Underground#2, Berkeley, 1986 3. Gracie and Zarkov --"Three B-carboline containing plants as potentiators of synthetic DMT and other indole psychedelics," Notes From Underground, Berkeley, 1985 4. Gracie and Zarkov (1986)

SOME SUBJECTS TO BE COVERED IN UPCOMING ISSUES It is late summer and already my morning glories are setting seed -- I've collected over twohundred in the last two days, and many hundreds more are ripening in pods next to The morning glory species fresh flowers. acid amides), have probably lysergic (containing information written contradictory more had plant entheogens. other any than them about a little research even done ever has who Anyone their hair in tears either in the literature at the amusement in up frustration or else cracks soby expounded confusion of sheer volume up wind not, as often as who, called experts The misinformation. quoting each others' Winter Solstice issue of The Entheogen Review will include some hard data on this subject. Readers with experience are invited to share it with us. Other issues will be devoted to the Belladonna alkaloids, Mescaline (specifically, San Pedro Cactus), Salvia divinorum, some of the minor psychedelics, and of course a continuous update of information on all of these subjects as it comes in. Shamanic techniques for using entheogens in inner work will also be covered.

Footnotes: "Among McKenna Terence 1. Ayahuasquera," Gateway to Inner Space, Prism, Great Britain, 1989, pg 202 2. Gracie and Zarkov - An Indo-European Plant

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW A QUARTERLY ETHNOBOTANICAL UPDATE

WINTER SOLSTICE 1992

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW ISSN 1066-1913 Copyright c 1992, All Rights Reserved Vol. I, No.2, Winter Solstice, 1992 Subscription: $20.00 per year Published quarterly by: The Walden Foundation P.O. Box 778 El Rito, NM 87530

Editor: James B. DeKome This newsletter is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of psychotropic plants. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction and ritual usage of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence -- published material is identified only by the author's initials and state of residence. The mailing list is not for sale, rent or loan to anyone for any reason.

THE OBLIGATORY DEFENSIVE DISCLAIMER The information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. As editor, my role is to collate and present these data, opinions and beliefs as is my right under the First amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Being a mere human, subject to the same frailties as others of my species, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of any of the data presented here, nor do I advocate that anyone do anything except read it. Although portions of this material may relate to subjects which are legally questionable, it is my understanding that while plants can apparently be declared illegal, facts of nature and human ideas about them (correct or incorrect) are currently exempt from such classification. Everyone has the existential freedom to do what they choose with what they've read, but that has no connection with what I or others may have written in these pages. Readers who act on any information found in this publication do so of their own free choice and volition and must accept full responsibility for such decisions. --- Jim DeKome

ENTHEOGEN -- WHAT'S IN A WORD? The McKenna brothers are not very fond of the name: I am generally uncomfortable with the term "entheogen" as it seems merely to add to a needless proliferation of terms in a field that is already glutted; what's wrong with good old ''psychedelic?" Dennis McKenna

A clumsy word freighted baggage. McKenna

with

theological Terence

I have been asked why I chose to call this newsletter The Entheogen Review. Even educated friends have asked me what the title meant, and have suggested that since other expressions like "ethnobotanical" are not a part of most peoples' vocabularies why put readers off with complicated terminology? As a former English teacher I am a firm believer in clear expression and in most circumstances hate obscure words when simple ones will do as well or better. Unfortunately, we live in troubled times -- our rulers have already suspended constitutional "guarantees" to make it easier for them to eliminate states of consciousness not meeting official approval. This is hazardous to our right to explore our own awareness and so, like oppressed minorities in all times and places, we who are concerned with such exploration must communicate with each other in a secret language to evade police-state oppression. "Entheogen" is a code-word roughly synonymous with "psychedelic," but (so far) without the latter's negative associations in the public mind. It suggests a substance capable of evoking transcendent forces and is therefore an appropriate word to use in describing shamanic states of consciousness. Yes, it does contain a certain amount of "theological baggage," but that is precisely the realm of consciousness we are interested in exploring. Even Terence McKenna titled one of his recent books Food of the Gods. Entheogens take us out of the mundane -- they evoke experiences transcending physical reality, hence remind us, however indirectly, of what we really seem to be -- spiritual entities. Materialists are threatened by this. The real battle in the "war on

Man must reach a new relationship to the world around him .. To do this he must give priority, not to external problems, but to the mind that is considering them ... Hardly a beginning has yet been made to bring the illimitable inner world that has recently been opened to us, the world of the unconscious, the world of the dreaming mind, into living contact with everyday life ... Our problems are plainly growing beyond conventional human control, and consciousness has no choice but to enlarge itself to meet them. The trouble is, consciousness per se has not the power to do this. It must look beyond itselffor help. --Alan McGlashan -- The Savage and Beautiful Country Houghton Miftlin, Boston, 1967, Pg 54

drugs" is between spirit and matter. Unfortunately, since ours is a materialistic culture, I question whether many Americans today are conceptually able to handle these substances with the respect they demand. I am not alone in this feeling -- a deep anxiety about " spilling the beans " has been communicated to me by more than one reader. The following quote from a letter is typical:

I am both concerned and pleased about your newsletter. Pleased because it could serve as a way of exchanging info, concerned because of its potential to spread the word a bit too widely. As editor of The Entheogen Review, I am very much aware that I tread a fine line between DEA watchdogs on the right and the "crack-dealer" mentality on the left. Frankly, I am no more enamored of drug abusers than I am of narcs. This explains my naive and probably doomed attempt to limit this newsletter to those sophisticated enough to read between its lines. Entheogens are not for everyone -- not even for very many of us.

Entheogenic substances offer us this possibility. I personally believe they may be the only realistic chance we have to make such an unlikely quantum leap of consciousness in the brief time remaining. While we definitely run the risk of opening up another wave of drug excesses in furthering this work, I believe the extreme gravity of our situation makes that risk irrelevant. Part of our strategy should be to retain and use the word: entheogen. It rather precisely reminds us of the proper set and setting necessary for success. --Jim DeKorne

Most of us remember the sixties. I lived in the Haight Ashbury during and after the famous "Summer of Love" of 1967 and watched in amazement as the scene deteriorated from young girls giving away flowers in August to bikers stomping some poor wretch in a doorway on New Year's Eve. A large part of the problem was simply that most of us didn't know how to handle psychedelics because our culture has never had a model for how to use them. If some old Amazonian shaman had been our guru instead of Timothy Leary, perhaps the era might have lived up to its initial promise.

MAO INHffiiTORS --READ THIS, IT MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE Ayahuasca contains harmala alkaloids -- MAO inhibitors which synergize with the DMT in the mixture to produce its psychedelic effects. Although the subject of MAO inhibition is somewhat complex, no one who intends to experiment with ayahuasca or its analogues should be ignorant about the dangers inherent in such use. Here is a quotaion for serious consideration:

Now we are three years into the last decade of the Twentieth Century. Terence McKenna has almost single- handedly made the psychedelic experience respectable again in an age when hysteria surrounding the War on Drugs has turned the United States Constitution into just another treaty guaranteeing something for "as long as the rivers shall run," or whatever. Meanwhile, the planet is undergoing a public rape-murder while we all stand around like New Yorkers and watch. Many of us believe that human consciousness is both the problem and its solution -- if a critical mass of people were able to access a higher level of awareness, we would all quickly cease to live the way we do at present.

A severe, atypical headache is usually the first sign, and may herald an impending crisis, which can end in a cerebrovascular accident and death. The hypertensive syndrome is usually characterized by headache, palpitations, flushing, nausea and vomiting, photophobia, and occasionally hyperpyrexia, arrhythmias, and pulmonary edema ... Foods with high tyramine content are a major concern. This chemical is a fermentation byproduct. Any food with aged protein should therefore be avoided ...

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Psychoactive Properties, 20th Century Alchemist, Manhattan Beach, CA, 1973, 64 pages. (9th printing, 1987)

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors and many pharmacological agents are synergistic, sometimes resulting in a hypertensive crisis. The agents with which the MAGis may be synergistic include: amphetamine, dextroamphetamine, methylamphetamine, ephedrine, procaine preparations (which usually contain norepinephrine), epinephrine, methyldopa, and phenylpropanolamine (over-the-counter cold preparations) ...

This 64 page book consists of extremely "concise" descriptions of seventy-four plants and chemicals following the format: Name, Material, Usage, Effects, Contraindications and Suppliers. There are sometimes three entries to a page, and the 4 1/4" X 7" pages are small! There is just not enough information about these substances to make the reader feel confident that he has enough data to warrant pmdent ingestion. No sources in the scientific literature are listed, no personal or ethnographic accounts -- just bare- bones assertions, many of which have the tone of being hearsay and not derived from personal experience. Some of the substances are too exotic to be relevant to the average American user.

Acute toxicity can be very serious with the MAGis. The signs of intoxication often do not appear until 11 or more hours after ingestion ... Most characteristic of a severe overdose is paradoxical hypertension. The elevation of blood pressure can precipitate pulmonary edema, circulatory collapse, or intracranial hemorrhage. The management of a serious overdose is generally symptomatic. Since hypertension may be acutely life-threatening, aggressive treatment with phentolamine .5. 0 mg IV, is indicated. Phentolamine, 0.25-0.5 mg IM every 4-6 hr, may be used thereafter to control bloodpressure. If this drug is not available, chlorpromazine is a good alternative. The initial dose is chlorpromazine 50 mg IM, with 25-mg IM doses used every 1-2 hr thereafter to control the hypertension. The patient's blood pressure should be monitored carefully, since marked hypotension may follow a hypertensive episode.

A letter to the editor from volume 3 of Psychedelic Monographs and Essays (Spring, 1988), Pg. 167, informs us that this author's name,"Adam Gottlieb," is a pseudonym: I am lending a copy of your journal to my good friend John Mann ... He is founder of The Church of the Tree of Life ... and 20th Century Alchemists Publications. You may know him under some of his pen names ... such as Adam Gottlieb (author of Legal Highs ... and a dozen or so other books) and Mary Jane Super-Weed [author of) Marijuana Dealers and Consumers Guide, etc ...

The pharmacological effects of MAGis are longlasting, since they permanently inactivate enzymes. The body must resynthesize the enzymes before normal metabolism of body amines resumes; this process takes 1 - 2 weeks. E. L. Bassuk, M.D., and S. C. Schoonover, M.D., The Practitioner's Guide to Psychoactive Drugs, Plenum, NY, 1977

Perhaps this explains why so many of these booklets sound like they're quoting from each other. Despite the fact that the author is billed as: "a famous and highly respected scientific journalist," only one of his books that I have seen gives a single reference to corroborate the data presented. This is a serious omission; doubly so if an author is writing under a pseudonym.

BOOK REVIEWS --Gottlieb, Adam -- Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti, Kistone Press, 1977, 16 pages. (No location on title page -- Available from 20th Century Alchemist, P.O. Box 1684, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266)

The following reviews are of books popularly accepted as authoritative on the subject of entheogenic plants, and all are currently still in print. There is hardly anything more fmstrating for a researcher than to continuously encounter erroneous or misleading data. If my remarks about tl1ese publications seem harsh, perhaps it is because the time is long overdue for a responsible treatment of the subject they deal with.

Tltis appears to be one of this author's more balanced and informative booklets -- he even provides a scientific reference for one method of increasing the potency of psychoactive cacti. Tltis involves the injection of dopamine into the cactus several weeks prior to harvesting. He does not tell us where or how a layman might obtain this enzyme

--Gottlieb, Adam -- Legal Highs, A Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Herbs and Chemicals with 3

into question the expertise of the author -particularly when he then pushes his book, Super Grass Grower's Guide, for full details on how to do the grafting. Either he knows that the operation is ineffective, in which case his honesty is in question, or he has never tried it himself, in which case he has no business selling a book on how to do it. This booklet evokes the most egregious aspects of the latesixties drug culture, in which some people would smoke dirty sweat socks if they were told it would get them high. Another ethical problem lies in the extreme range of plants "described" -- some (like Catnip) are psychoactively trivial, others (like Belladonna) can kill you dead.

however. Techniques for the extraction of mescaline from cacti are also given; these are unfortunately coupled with data on how much profit one can make selling the stuff on the street. I have extremely negative personal reactions to this approach to the use of entheogens. --Gottlieb, Adam -- The Book ofAcid, Easy to Follow Instructions for Making Organic LSD from Legal and Available Materials, Kistone Press, 1975, 16 pages. (No location on title page -- Available from 20th Century Alchemist, P.O. Box 1684, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266) Not being a chemist, it is difficult for me to evaluate this booklet -- it looks impressive enough, but the information presented is too sketchy and technical for anyone but an experienced chemist to have any real comprehension of what's being described. It's sort of like teaching yourself how to fly an airplane from a pamphlet written by someone who possibly doesn't even know how himself. As the saying goes: "A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing" -- in the sleazy world of street drugs there are far too many "entrepreneurs" who would attempt requisite the without manufacture such understanding of proper chemical procedures. As a computer bulletin board print-out sent to me by a correspondent says: "Please don't post asking for "simple" instructions on how to make LSD. There aren't. And if you needed "simple" instructions to make LSD, you're probably not a good chemist and shouldn't be attempting to synthesize it." -- alt.drugs F AQ list, Thu, 07 May 92

--Mary Jane Superweed -- Home Grown Highs: How to Grow Peyote, Psilcybe and Other Organics, Stone Kingdom Syndicate, 1972, 16 pages. (No location on title page -- Available from 20th Century Alchemist, P.O. Box 1684, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266) This is a brief yet seemingly thorough treatise on growing Psilocybin mushrooms, Peyote, San Pedro (and other psychedelic cacti), Salvia divinorum, Coleus and the morning glories. Lots of cultivation tips, including details on how to increase the lysergic acid content of the morning glory species. (This section is quoted almost verbatim under the name of Adam Gottlieb in the 1975 Book of Acid.) Unfortunately, without any scientific references to back up such claims, they remain at least questionable -- especially since the author's other books contain a fair percentage of ambiguous data. Nevertheless, much of the gardening information presented here is validated by my own experience and is confirmed in other publications as well.

In the light of those words of wisdom, it isn't difficult to imagine a lot of bad LSD and a lot of bum trips emerging from The Book ofAcid.

--Mary Jane Superweed -- The Marijuana Consumer's and Dealer's Guide, Stone Kingdom Syndicate, 1968, 16 pages. (No location on title page --Available from 20th Century Alchemist, P.O. Box 1684, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266)

--Mary Jane Superweed -- Herbal Highs -A Guide to Natural and Legal Narcotics, Psychedelics and Stimulants, Stone Kingdom Syndicate, 1970, 16 pages. (No location on title page --Available from 20th Century Alchemist, P.O. Box 1684, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266)

The title of this booklet is a bit misleading, since eight of its sixteen pages deal with methods of extracting LSD amides from morning glory seeds and mescaline from peyote. As previously noted, this author allegedly writes under three names: here, as Mary Jane Superweed, he says that ether is used to extract LSD amides from morning glory seeds; in his incarnation as John Mann (First Book of Sacraments, 1972, 1985) he explains that: "(LSD amide) is present in the form of a salt and is therefore soluble in water, but not in ether or alcohol unless it is first hydrolyzed with a 10% ammonium

Advertisements for this booklet say that it is "a comprehensive guide to natural and (in most cases) legal psychedelic herbs. More than 60 plants discussed." Actually, it contains extremely brief data on only thirty-two alleged hallucinogens -- from Wild Cucumber to Deadly Nightshade. I was immediately put off by its repetition of the old . canard that grafting hops stems to cannabis roots creates "secret marijuana." There is absolutely no truth to this strangely persistent myth, and it calls

4

hydroxide solution. Writing from the personality of Adam Gottlieb (Fhe Book ofAcid, 1975), he tells us to extract the amides with chloroform. Unexplained inconsistencies like these, which I have found throughout this author's publications, suggest caution in accepting any of this information without corroborating with other sources.

another's. In an effort to clear up the confusion in this area, each issue of The Entheogen Review will have a section devoted to specific questions about specific plants. A good place to start is with the Coleus species. Here are a few quotations from the literature:

11

COLEUS Salvia divinorum is, in the minds of the Mazatecs, only the most important of several plants, all Labiatae, that they regard as members of the same ''family." Salvia divinorum is known as Ia hembra, "the female. " El macho, or "the male, " is Coleus pumila, of European origin. Then there is el nene, "the child," and el ahijado, "the godson," which are both forms of Coleus Blumei. Some Indians insist that these others are likewise psychotropic, but we have not tried them; others say these are merely medicinal ... --R. Gordon Wasson-- "A new Mexican psychotropic drug from the mint family," Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, Vol. 20, No. 3, December, 1962

--Mann, John -- The First Book of Sacraments of the Church of the Tree of Life, Tree Of Life Press, San Francisco, 1972, 1985, 24 pages. Available from: The Church of the Tree of Life, P.O. Box 330155, San Francisco, CA 94133 The Church of the Tree of Life was founded to: "proclaim as our sacraments all substances in the physical universe which are not presently illegal." This strategy is based on the idea that since tribal cultures were using peyote long before it was declared to be an "illegal plant, a clause has been made in the law to allow members of The Native American Church to continue using it in their ceremonials; hence, the reasoning goes, by declaring all still-legal substances as sacraments, the Church of the Tree of Life can claim the same precedent. Unfortunately, the Church of the Tree of Life is probably too nebulous of an entity to be able to realistically prove its status as a bonafide religion in any American court of law. The First Book of Sacraments is a kind of "religious" version of Legal Highs, containing information related to using sixteen plants in a ceremonial context. There are several pages dealing with the value of ritual and related themes as well as a short bibliography. In dealing with this organization be prepared for long delays, or even no response at all -- a letter sent in March, 1992 (containing two dollars for their trouble) has yet to receive a reply. Jim DeKorne 11

The curandero also had several horticultural specimens of Coleus spp. growing near his house. Wasson has reported that the Mazatecs believe Coleus to be a medicinal or hallucinogenic herb closely related to S. divinorum (Wasson, 1962). However Don Alejandro said the plants were not medicinal and his daughter had bought them at the market because they were pretty. --Leander J. Valdes III, Jose Luis Diaz and Ara G. Paul-Ethnopharmacology of Ska Maria Pastora (Salvia Divinorum, Epling and Jativa-M.) -Journal ofEthnopharmacology, 7 (1983) 287-312 (Coleus blumei and C. pumila) and all of their garden varieties have strong psychoactive qualities ... About fifty of the brightly colored leaves are either chewed and swallowed, or crushed and steeped in water which is later drunk ... Like Salvia divinorum, coleus is a member ofthe mint family, so the psychoactive chemistry of the two plants is probably identical or at least similar. --Mary Jane Superweed -- Herbal Highs, Stone Kingdom Syndicate, 1970 (No location)

QUESTIONS Anyone who has examined the literature can attest to widely contradictory opinions oncerning the effects of allegedly psychotropic plants. Although the states of consciousness we seek to comprehend are by their very nature difficult to pin down cognitively, the substances used to attain them should at least be known to be reasonably consistent in their effects. This does not seem to be true in many instances, and the subject often seems to be based more upon myth than fact. This is probably to be expected in a culture where expanded states of consciousness are against the law -- in the absence of open public inquiry, one person's rumor is as good as

Since no one seemed to know about fresh coleus and since (no) one other than (a) John Mann book I have claimed fresh coleus worked like a minimushroom trip, I tried it. Bitter, very bitter. I bought a giant plant for four bucks (such a bargain), set some candles up, got my vision-request/purpose clear, ate 80 medium leaves and waited. Nothing. 5-10 minutes -- nothing. Twenty, nothing. Forty, 5

nothing. I ate a meal after an hour. I doubt that I ate too soon; I truly don't think it was working. Spread the word ... --A. L., CA -- letter, 9/3/92

sauerkraut and amazake (cultured rice drink) to be avoided? For how long before and after MAOI use? This seems pretty vital so maybe you could print a comprehensive list and explanation at some point.

At an entheogen conference in Hawaii last August, I was unable to elicit any definitive response to a question about whether or not Coleus is a psychoactive plant. No one seemed to know, though there was a vague comment that one species was active while the other wasn't. There were huge Coleus plants growing everywhere on the grounds of the conference site, and I now regret not making the modest proposal that at least some of us try them out. In the wake of that lost opportunity, readers with hard data are encouraged to share it with us.

Your discussion of potential DMT sources caught my interest. I have seen Of The Jungle's comments on Desmanthus and Arundo donax. The percentage ofDMT in these plants seems to remain in question- no one seems to have specific data. If the DMT amounts are small and one has to obtain large amounts of biomass to extract useable amounts, I think the giant reed, Arundo donax, would be a good candidate. Here in Southern California there are huge stands of the stuff growing wild in numerous In some areas it grows densely in locations. relatively dry stream beds and in some areas is actually cut down as a fire hazard in the dry season. What I'm getting at is that, should the Arundo don ax (called "carrizo" by the Hispanic people) prove to be a good DMT source, there are tons available ... While driving down the street today I noticed a clump of wild Arundo donax growing in a gully. I dug up some rhizomes and planted them in my yard. They look much like bamboo roots and I think they will be fast growers with proper care.

NETWORK FEEDBACK ARUNDO DONAX AS A PLENTIFUL DMT SOURCE Dear James: Your newsletter is a great idea -- actually the answer to a prayer. It's good to know that this sort of data will be available regularly and from one source. In the past, I've had to look high and low for fragments of usually unverified, questionable Your information about this subject matter. newsletter will be most welcome if it can serve as a clearinghouse for useable, accurate information.

You mentioned several West Coast seed services offering Syrian Rue seeds for $50.00 per pound. I have located a source and can beat that price by $20.00 per pound. That's $30.00 per pound. Orders can be directed to me at P.O. Box 5675, Balboa Island, CA 92662. Your newsletter is great and I'm eagerly awaiting the Winter Solstice issue. Thanks again. --V.C., CA

Your data on Peganum harmala extraction is encouraging, but I'm a little confused. You refer to a "boiling water and alcohol infusion." How much water and alcohol and in what proportions? If using a "slow cooker" as stated, do you use the high or low setting? In reference to "drying" in the slow cooker- are we actually boiling off all the liquid and recovering a powdery residue? In reference to the double extraction in 30% lemon juice -- again, what volume of liquid per 2 grams of seed? Perhaps in the future this kind of information could be written in a formal recipe format to be more concise. Excuse me. I just realized you are quoting Gracie and Zarkov's A little material and they are not specific. experimentation appears in order here.

Dear V: Thanks for the support. To take your questions in order: How much water and alcohol and in what Q: proportions? My understanding is that alcohol is neither A: necessary nor desirable as an extraction solvent for harmala alkaloids. There seems to be general agreement that a 30% acetic acid solution will do the trick:

In regard to your comments about the killing potential of ignorant MAOI use -- I have seen several lists of foods to avoid when using MAO inhibitors. Each list contained items the others did not. This leads me to wonder how well- researched this has been. I gather you are supposed to avoid One list implied tyramine containing foods. fermented and cultured foods were to be avoided. Some questions for research: are things like yogurt,

The crushed seeds are covered with three times their weight of water containing 30 g. of acetic acid per liter of water ... --Hasenfratz -- Ann. chem (10) 7, 151 (1927)

6

The original reference is available from Rosetta Folios, P.O. Box 4611, Berkeley, CA 94704. Their identification number is TRY-10. I agree that if useable amounts of DMT can be easily extracted from Arundo donax, the fact that it grows wild in large stands in many parts of the country makes it a great potential source of alkaloids. I saw a single stand in Texas that must have covered half an acre. The roots are humongous globular things, chunks of which can weigh several pounds apiece. They transplant easily and grow fast -- every segment I chopped out of the Texas earth and transplanted in New Mexico was pushing up sprouts within a couple of weeks.

Ivanov eta/. (1 965) report that dilute acetic acid extracted 98% ofharmel seed alkaloids. --Flattery and Schwartz -- Haoma and Harmaline Glacial acetic acid is readily available in photography stores; it is commonly used as a stopbath in the photo developing process. Q: If using a "slow cooker" as stated, do you use the high or low setting? A: I use the low setting and allow the stuff to cook all night long with the lid on. The lid prevents evaporation, so little or nothing is lost.

The first part of the extraction formula appears pretty straightforward -- after that it rapidly exceeds my ability to translate. Essentially, approx. two pounds of pulverized and dried root powder is percolated in 95% ethyl alcohol. (Available in liquor stores as Everclear in many states.) The time period of four weeks seems a bit extreme -- anyone know how to do this faster? Also, the rest of the formula was probably designed to separate out each alkaloid for identification. Maybe that isn't necessary to make an ayahuasca analog -- in the Amazon, raw plant material is just boiled in a pot over an open fire. See the extraction formula elsewhere in this issue for another view.

Q: In reference to "drying" in the slow cooker -- are we actually boiling off all the liquid and recovering a powdery residue? A: Yes -- keep a fairly close eye on the process when doing the evaporation. You don't want the stuff to burn, though I've heard evidence to suggest that this may not be crucial. You then have to scrape it out of the ceramic pot with a razor blade. It looks exactly like what you'd expect: reddish-brown gunk scraped off a burnt pot. The stuff is the source of the dye known as "Turkish Red," and it will stain your fingers-- no big deal, but messy. Here's the data I have on Arundo donax and DMT:

The subject of MAO inhibitors is a serious one. I have collected many references, one of which is reprinted elsewhere in this issue.

Five indole-3-alkylamine bases viz. N,N-dimethyltryptamine, 5-methoxy-N-methyltryptamine bufotenine dehydrobufotenine bufotenidine from the rhizomes ofArundo don ax L. isolated were This is the first reported occurrence of bufotenidine and dehydrobufotenine in a plant species ...

CONCERNING ELITISM James: ... Congratulations on your newsletter. Subscribe me immediately! ... I like your attitude (except for your admitted elitism) ... Your philosophy of elitism will severely limit your success ... DON'T CENSOR YOURSELF! Most people do not yet realize that elitism was the cause, and not the symptom, of prohibition ...

Arundo donax L (graminae) , a tall, stout, perennial shrub, often woody below, is widely distributed in India... (Alkaloids were obtained from) the alcoholic extract of the rhizomes of this plant ... As the rhizomes contained very little fat the alkaloids were extracted directly with alcohol without prior defatting with petroleum ether ... Dried and milled rhizomes (700 g) were extracted (95% EtOH), in a percolator, at room temperature for 4 weeks. The EtOH extract was concentrated under reduced pressure to give a brown viscous consistency (1 12 g) ... (Etc., the formula from here on out becomes incomprehensible to nonchemists ... See original for complete data.)

Sounds like you will be publishing letters from readers. Great! What about info or ideas you don't agree with? Be a true American; print them all! Even this one. Remember: print in full -- no editing ... Now, I'll give you incentive to print this letter: Desmanthus illinoensis (Prairie Mimosa! Illinois Bundleweed/ Illinois Bundleflower) grows in large colonies all along Interstate 70 in the eastern half of I'll Kansas and the western half of Missouri. guarantee the correctness of the identity. I collected roots and seeds. I am a supplier, as you know, and

7

Entheogen Review is intended for a different readership than Mondo 2000 or High Times.

will be selling it (not intended for consumption, of course). I also have the Arundo donax and Phalaris arundinacea.

I'll never knowingly censor myself, or anyone else -- The Entheogen Review will print any informative communication (whether I agree with it or not) dealing with the subject of entheogens. The only editing will be for brevity, spelling, etc., never for content. I welcome all sincere points of view that's what will make this publication useful.

Did you know that Pha/aris arundinacea grass has two varieties? One is a striped (varigated) gardener's variety. The other is completely green. The former does not go to seed or flower and is smaller. The latter grows only wild in low, wet ground. The question is: do they both contain the same levels of DMT? What are these levels? Keep up the good work. There is a huge demand for it. --JLF, IN

SUFI AY AHUASCA Dear Jim-Thanks for the review and note. Next week I'll be using 25% glacial acetic acid to extract P. hanna/a seeds. I will probably neutralize with baking soda which should precipitate out the harmine/harmaline.

Dear JLF: Thanks for the subscription and the great letter -I always appreciate frank and honest responses to anything I write. I'm an "elitist" because I lived through the sixties, (part of the time in San Francisco 1967-69), and, after more than twenty years to mull it over, realize that we don't yet have a useful model for entheogen use in our culture. (See editorial this issue.) Those cultures which value entheogens almost always use them ritually in a healing or religious context. I feel about their "recreational" use the way an orthodox Catholic or Jew might feel watching someone getting drunk on sacramental wine and then spraying the cathedral or temple with day-glo graffiti. I'm in fairly "elite" company with this opinion:

According to a source who was sworn to secrecy by a Sufi musician, P. hanna/a root and the roots of Arundo donax were and are the source of a secret entheogen long used in particularly musical orders since before Islam influenced the Sufis. The Arundo donax is Giant Reed or cane used in Persia for making the "Nay," an end blown flute, or reed pipe. The same plant is the source for reeds for clarinet, sax, oboe, bassoon, bagpipes and so on. He would not give me particulars on how the "mystical potion" was made. A crock pot water extraction of A. donax root only yielded molasses (A . donax is a relative of sugar cane) .. . Much Sufi literature, mostly untranslated, makes many oblique references to the reed pipe and harmala, which become clearer with the knowledge of their use. My "working group" here has a psychic who talks with plant spirits, so we are going to go to the source for info on their way to use these plants ... --T.A., CA

I haven't changed my mind that [psychedelics are] the most valuable discovery that man has made. I think what we've learned in the intervening years is that this isn't for everybody, and that what it takes to really make use of the psychedelics are two principal things -- commitment and honesty. In a way, they're the same. --Myron Stolaroff interview, in Peter Stafford, Magic Grams, Rosetta Folios, Berkeley, (no date), Pg 334

DearT: Your mention of Sufi connections with P. harmala and A. donax is fascinating! I immediately flashed on the possibility that this could be the mysterious Soma (Persian: Haoma) of the Aryans. Flattery and Schwartz published a book (Haoma and Harmaline, U.C. Press, Berkeley, 1989), putting forth the hypothesis that P. hanna/a was Soma. They argue a fairly good case for this, but I remain hanna/a by itself in unconvinced because P. reasonable doses isn't a particularly impressive hallucinogen. As we know, harmine and harmaline (the alkaloids in P. hanna/a and in the South American vine, Banisteriopsis caapi), are MAO inhibitors which potentiate orally ingested DMT in the Amazonian ayahuasca brews. If there is indeed a

The I960s proved that we are not wise enough to take the psychedelic tools into our hands without a This social and intellectual transformation. transformation must begin now with each of us. --Terence McKenna -- Food of the Gods, Pg. 250 Actually, I wouldn't care that much (live and let live) if it weren't for the draconian laws stifling their use -- keeping a low profile is necessary for serious entheogen questing, so who needs people who only want to get high being uncool and provoking the wrath of the establishment? It just makes it rough on everybody else. I guess the bottom line is that The 8

secret Sufi tradition combining P. hanna/a with A. donax to make "Sufi ayahuasca," then a convincing answer to the Soma mystery would seem to be found. Anybody out there want to research a Ph.D. thesis on this one?

My second reference comes from Rosetta Folios, reprint #TRY-12, my copy of which is unfortunately almost unreadable. It is a xerox of a scientific paper stating that both B- carbolines and tryptamines were discovered in various clones of P. arundinacea. I am sorry that my copy of this paper is so poor that I can't pull enough out of it to give you a good quotation -- here's the best I can do:

NO DMT IN PHALARIS GRASS? Dear James: You have an interesting journal, but I would like to know how you obtained my address. Really I've only written this letter to correct you .. .Phalaris species does not contain DMT, but it does contain two B-carbolines, much like Harmine. The alkaloids are as follows:.

The distribution of hordenine. gramine. DMF. MTHC. 5-MeO-DMT and 6-MeO-THC in 12 clones of 3-4-week old reed canarygrass regrowth is shown in Table 2.

e~o

The table in question seems to show that DMT was found in three of the clones described. I suggest that you contact Rosetta Folios for a legible copy of this report.

J)~

~CI{,

dil_

,_,.._.~-~,tP...."'y.t-~ a,3,~

"f'£r~~-~-~·

;;_-rt~T#t_J.- T~AIIyfMo­

COMBINING P. HARMALA WITH S. CUBENSIS

-8- i:AAGo~.;..,-•.

You must know that Terence McKenna and Gracie and Zarkov are not phytochemists, they are only authors!!! I would consider subscribing to your journal if you can correct this matter of misinformation in your next publication. Other than this one bit of misinformation, your presentation of alternate mixtures for an ayahuasca blend is quite correct. It is not my intention to berate you ... but it is very important that people obtain correct information.

Dear Jim: ... You asked me to tell you when I knew the results of my proposed experiments with P. harmala and S. cubensis. I have since found that one gram of harmala extract more than doubled the effects of two grams of cubensis. That is, subjectively, the experience was at least as strong as previous five gram doses --a true example of "less is more!" The experience was qualitatively different also -- colors seemed not quite as vivid, though moire patterns were very pronounced; I was physically almost unable to move for two or three hours (making shamanic work all but impossible), and the trip lasted at least two hours longer than expected, with a long slow decline after the peak. Be careful, though -- I unthinkingly drank a cup of coffee the next day and quickly developed a splitting headache. This was possibly the effect of MAO inhibition, since I practically never get headaches of any kind. Best of luck with The Entheogen Review . --J.G., CA

--L., FL Dear L.: No offense taken -- the whole point of this newsletter is to separate the correct information from the mass of mythology, confusion and weirdness that pervades the subject of entheogens. I received your name and address unsolicited from a correspondent who thought you might be interested in the newsletter. Alas, I, too, am only an author, and have almost no comprehension of chemistry -- therefore I am highly dependent upon those who do understand these things for accurate data. My first source for the claim that Phalaris grass species contain l)MT comes from a popular ethnobotanical catalog:

Dear J.: Thanks for the data on your harmalalcubensis experiment It would be interesting to know if others have tried this combination, and what the results were. As always, the possible consequences of MAO inhibition are not to be taken lightly.

... Grazing sheep and cattle develop what is called the "Phalaris Staggers" due to high levels of the same alkaloids found in P. viridis leaves ... Since P. viridis is the DMT portion of the ayahuasca brew, I took this as a coded message about Phalaris.

SAL VIA OIVINORUM AND PLANT TEACHERS Dear Jim: 9

I was very pleased to receive The Entheogen Review .. .I've continued my studies into Salvia divinorum, except that sometimes I think that it is the Salvia divinorum that is investigating me. I can say that it is the plants that have consciousness, that are the source of consciousness, and that animals got consciousness from eating plants -- say that and not really be metaphorical. It astounds me.

on the person involved if the awakening process is gentle than if it is abrupt. Therefore, I am interested not in homeopathic doses, but physiological doses ... I believe that the Ayahuasca leaf tea falls into this category of physiological doses. It produces, when used regularly for at least 4 to 6 weeks, a number of rather subtle changes which are associated with the change from an ordinary to a shamanic out look.

... A question, about MAO inhibitors, someone said NOT to take MAO inhibitors with ... what? Psilocybin? Thought I remember someone saying that [at the August conference]. I ask because I recently met a young man ... who does just that. --D.P., CA

The shamanic state of consciousness is one type of altered state of consciousness .. . It is in many respects superior to a simple entheogenic experience in that it is a controlled change of consciousness. It would be fair to say that a "full-blown" shaman does not require the use of drums, rattles, or entheogenic substances. Any so-called shaman who requires the use of these can properly be called no more than an apprentice shaman. What [entheogens] are useful for, of course, is to enable the non-shaman to share the shamanic [state of consciousness] and experience first hand the direct knowledge of the shaman. --A. , TN

Dear D.: It's good to hear from you -- thanks for the support. Although the newsletter hasn't had time to expand to the point where I can pay for articles, I'd be overjoyed if you would write up something on your experiences with the plant teachers. (That very subject is what started all this -- as far as I'm concerned, it represents the cutting edge of consciousness research.)

Dear A: Thanks for the clarification. I doubt if our positions are very far apart -- plant entheogens are certainly fascinating entities to grow and use, but in the end they are really just keys that unlock doors to the unconscious psyche (and who knows what realms beyond). Somebody once told me: "You always have to be smarter than your tools." That probably sums up my position as well as anything: entheogens are tools, albeit seductive ones! As you can infer from my other remarks in this issue, I'm rather conservative about the proper way to use these marvelous substances, though that won't prevent me from printing other viewpoints. (No dogma in The Entheogen Review, just a strong editorial bias, which will always be identified as such.)

Probably your memory about what not to take with MAO inhibitors at the conference concerned mescaline and any amphetamine type drug (as well as a host of other things). If my memory serves me correctly, the speaker said that combining harmala alkaloids with mescaline could be fatal. (As regards harmala plus psilocybin, see the previous letter.)

CONCERNING ENTHEOGENS AND SHAMANISM

THE NEED FOR A CONTEMPORARY SHAMANISM

Dear Jim: ... I am primarily interested in the shamanic uses of entheogens. A "full-blown Ayahuasca trip" is, in shamanic terms, equivalent to awakening someone out of sleep into a full-blown carnival or circus. One must know where one is going, how one is to get there, and how to get back. I fear tlmt some are using entheogens with the ignorance that has characterized our drug culture, considering them as little more than organic psychedelics ...

Dear Jim: It was good to hear from you with your last letter and certainly excttmg to know that your correspondence with others of a "like mind" is The time feels quite ripe for a picking up. renaissance of psychedelic shan1anism in the west. ... What you are trying to do with The Entheogen Review is very important. Community is essential, especially in such an area as psychedelic shamanism. It is definitely time to pool our information together to create a web of understanding and to assist the birth of a contemporary global shamanic tradition ...

My concerns are basically related to two primary is awakening shamanic One purposes. is the operational use of other the consciousness and shamanic consciousness. Obviously, it is far easier 10

in a ring ... , and optically and biologically active, many of the bases or their salts being used as drugs (as morphine and codeine).

--G.M., OR DearG: Yes, I agree that some sort of viable structure for doing group work is essential. I am now in contact with such a group, and expect to be reporting data as it comes in. All readers are encouraged to share what works and, equally importantly, what doesn't work in this regard.

Here are the definitions for three other terms we need to understand: Acid: a compound (as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, or benzoic acid) capable of reacting with a base to form a salt

SOME PRINCIPLES OF ALKALOID EXTRACTION

Salt: any of a class of compounds typified by common salt . .. that may be formed by the reaction ofacids with bases

In the Amazon, entheogen extraction methods are usually very simple: the shaman just boils up the raw plant materials in a pot and then drinks the concentrated brew. We come from a different culture and have different plants requiring different extraction processes. For me anyway, it isn't enough to just follow a recipe; I want to comprehend each operation -- what it does, and why it is necessary. To have that kind of understanding, some familiarity with basic chemistry is essential. What follows is information written, I hope, in language any nonspecialist can understand. A good place to start is with the concept of pH.

Base: a compound (as lime, ammonia, a caustic alkali, or an alkaloid) capable of reacting with an acid to form a salt either with or without the elimination ofwater

Within these definitions lies an important principle of chemical extraction: by increasing the acidity of a plant substance, we can remove the alkaloids present by converting them into their water-soluble salt form. To separate these in turn from the water, we make it basic and add an organic solvent. After these two incompatible liquids are again separated and the solvent is placed in a shallow dish, it soon evaporates, leaving the alkaloids behind -- either in a pure crystalline form (you should be so lucky!), or more commonly as a relatively impure gummy compound. --Jim DeKorne

pH is a numerical value assigned to the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance, expressed on a scale of 0 to 14. A substance with a low pH is extremely acid -- like the stuff found in automobile batteries; material with a high pH is extremely base or alkaline -- like lye, for example. (For our purposes, the terms "base" and "alkaline" are synonymous.) It follows then, that a pH of 7 would be neutral -- neither acid nor alkaline. The standard for pH neutrality is pure water.

ALKALOID EXTRACTION By Johnny Appleseed The following is a way to extract and concentrate the active principles from plants and brews containing DMT and beta-carbolines. Unfortunately, this procedure is not specific; it will extract any alkaloids present in the sample -- not just the ones we are interested in. For this reason it is useful to know the specific alkaloids each source plant contains before extraction.

All the possible degrees of acidity or alkalinity are found in the range between zero and fourteen on the pH scale. This is crucial for us to know, since it is a fact of nature that to make alkaloids soluble in water we must first make them acid. Conversely, for them to be soluble in an organic solvent, such as ether, we must make them basic or alkaline. Most of the psychoactive substances we are interested in extracting are called "alkaloids" -- compounds numerically above 7 in pH. Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines the word for us:

The first step is to extract the alkaloids from the plant material. When dealing with large amounts of bio-mass, such as Phalaris foliage, an acid-hot-water extraction is best. The key to this is to make the water acid with any common acid: not too much, just about pH 5 or so, because you will be changing the pH back later. Keep checking your pH, as the alkaloids will neutralize the acid as they come out into solution. Various companies make pH papers that change color at each pH number -- using these,

Alkaloid: any of a very large group of organic bases containing nitrogen and usu. oxygen that occur esp. in seed plants for the most part in the form of salts with acids ... , most of the bases being colorless and well crystallized, bitter tasting, complex in structure with at least one nitrogen atom 11

checking the pH, as the alkaloids will make the water solution less basic as they leave it and migrate into the solvent. Add more base if it gets down toward pH 8 or below. If there are bad emulsions formed, use phase separating filter paper to remove them: it allows the solvent to pass, but not the water solution. (Bad emulsions are mixtures of junk from the water and solvent phase that didn't separate for some reason.) Phase separating paper is siliconesaturated paper available from any chemical supply company.

it is easy to maintain the mixture in the mild acid range, between 5 and 6. I simmer my brews for about 12 hours. If you are starting with an ayahuasca brew, you can just make it slightly acid and start By "ayahuasca brew" I mean an from there. authentic jungle B. caapi, P. viridis mix from which you might want to extract the active principles. If you are thinking about just boiling up a harmala!Phalaris or harmala!A rundo mix, be aware that the alkaloids are not normally concentrated enough to get an effective dose-- you'd have to drink gallons of the stuff. Because individual plants can vary widely in alkaloid concentration, it is always advisable to extract new specimens separately so that you can determine approximately what percentage of alkaloids they contain.

When you have extracted the brew with the solvent several times and it no longer makes the solvent layer dark, you can discard the remaining aqueous solution. Combine the solvent extractions containing the alkaloids and let them evaporate or use a hair dryer to evaporate faster. Scrape up the goo that results from the evaporation and put into gelatine capsules. Extract the DMT and the betacarbolines separately, so that you know how much of each you have. Again, this procedure extracts all the alkaloids, so it is a good idea to chromatograph your results to get an approximation of how much you have of your target alkaloid. Thin layer chromatography is not difficult to learn, requires no fancy lab equipment, and is highly advisable when (Note: An working with unknown substances. for the planned article on simple chromatography is Review. Spring Equinox issue of The Entheogen Ed.)

If I am boiling up tubs of Phalaris, I let them cool overnight, then wring the grass out and filter the brew through a basket strainer. Then to the cooled acidified brew, add a small portion (5-10%) of an organic solvent, such as methaline chloride, ether, or chloroform. This is to remove fats in the solution. Shake the mixture together, and let stand for an hour or so until the two layers separate. Then drain or siphon off the organic solvent layer with the fats. Depending on the solvent used, this layer will be either above or below the aqueous layer. Ether, for example will go to the top, methaline chloride will go to the bottom. A separatory funnel is easiest for this and other operations, but careful decanting, siphoning, or suction off the top will also work. Discard the solvent, save the water-based brew.

A normal dose is 1.5 mg per kg of body weight of beta- carbolines and .5 mg per kg of body weight of DMT. [1 kg = 2.205 lb. 150 lb = 68.02 kg.P. harmala ext. = 102 mg. DMT = 34 mg. (Call it 105/35 for a 150 pound individual]

Next, to the acidified brew that remains, add enough concentrated base to make the solution alkaline -- pH 9 or above. Concentrated anunonia works well -- household ammonia will also work, but it will take more. Bicarbonate of soda and lye will also work. To the basified brew, add some fresh organic solvent, say around 10%. Then gently shake and let stand. The mixture that forms this time will Let it stand, stirring take longer to separate. occasionally, for anywhere from one day to one week.

ALCHEMY 101 -- THE QUEST FOR A MORNING GLORY EXTRACTI ON FORMULA It is axiomatic that nausea is a common side effect of ingesting morning glory seeds (Julien, 1981 ; E. Smith, 1982; D. Smith, 1985). Most of us feel that it shouldn't be necessary to vomit all night in order to expand our consciousness, therefore a simple extraction formula to separate the lysergic acid amides from their accompanying toxins would be a useful thing to know. Unfortunately, the literature is unclear on this subject, containing many However, we have to start inconsistencies. somewhere, and as good a place as any is with a widely circulated recipe which appeared in the January, 1979 issue of High Times magazine:

In the basic form the alkaloids will become more soluble in the organic solvent, and will migrate into it. As they gradually accumulate in the solvent layer, it will become darker, turning a yellowish or reddish brown tint. After the mixture has stood awhile and the solvent has become darker with alkaloids, remove this fraction and save it. You will want to add fresh solvent to the aqueous brew several more times to get all the alkaloids out. Keep 12

pseudonyms (see Book Reviews, this issue), and Adam's formula is vastly different from Mary Jane's:

Q: They say you can get high on morning-glory seeds, but any time I've ever tried them ... I've just gotten sick.

Grind the seeds to a fine powder in a blender or other grinding device. Saturate the pulverized seeds with ligroine, naphtha or lighter fluid (non-scented) to form a slurry. Pack the slurried seeds into a chromatography column. Arrange a drop funnel above the column to slowly drip one of these solvents through the slurry for several hours. The purpose of this is to remove the unwanted fatty oils from the seeds...

A: ... (You are) likely to get sick if you eat raw seeds, or if you do get high it will most likely be a nasty experience, thanks to other natural alkaloids besides the lysergic acid amides in them. To extract the best high from morning glory, grind 100 grams of seeds in a blender until you get a fine yellow mash dotted with seed hulls. Soak the mash two days in lighter fluid, and then strain it through a paper coffee filter in a funnel. Dry the strained mash -- maybe with a blow-dryer -- and soak it in 100 cc wood (methyl) alcohol for two more days. Strain this through another filtered funnel, and save the clear liquid extract. But soak the unfiltered mash residue two more days in wood alcohol, filter it again, and save the extract. Combine the two filtered extracts in a flat glass baking dish, set it in a dark spot, and let it evaporate entirely. A yellow gum will be left coating the dish; you scrape this up, rub flour into it until it's not sticky, and trip out on it. There should be enough for three good long acid-style trips.

Mix 900 ml chloroform with 100 ml concentrated ammonium hydroxide solution in a separatory funnel. Shake well and allow it to settle. Collect the chloroform layer from the bottom and discard the top layer. Drip the ammoniacal chloroform solution through the column and save the extract. Test frequently to see if any alkaloids remain in the slurry. This is done by dropping a sample of the extract as it comes from the column on a watch glass and evaporating it. Observe the watch glass under black light. If it fluoresces at all (light blue), there are still alkaloids in the slurry and extraction must continue. As soon as it no longer fluoresces stop the extraction.

First of all, the dose seems excessive -- 100 grams is the equivalent of more than three ounces of seeds. At "three good long acid-style trips" per 100 grams, one would be ingesting the extract of well over an ounce of seeds per trip. Three hundred seeds are generally considered to be a strong dose -- equal to 300 micrograms of LSD-25 (Lingeman, 1974; Savage, 1969; Valdes, 1983). This number of seeds should weigh only about six grams.

Evaporate the chloroform extracts. Collect the residue and dissolve it in the least possible amount Transfer the of a 3% tartaric acid solution... solution to a separatory funnel. Rinse the flask with some tartaric acid solution and add these washings to the funnel. Make this solution basic with sodium bicarbonate solution. Add an equal volume of chloroform. Shake well and allow to settle. Collect the bottom layer. Add another equal volume of chloroform, shake, let settle and collect the bottom layer. Reduce the combined chloroform extracts to a solid by evaporation. Scrape up and collect this substance with a stainless steel spatula. This is a mixture of semi-pure lysergic acid amides and can be used as the starting material for the manufacture ofLSD-25...

The very wording of the 1979 High Times formula is suspiciously reminiscent of a 1968 disclosure (the earliest I've found to date) appearing in The Marijuana Consumer's and Dealer's Guide, by Mary Jane Superweed. (See review, this issue.) The Superweed recipe is identical to the one from High Times in all respects except that petroleum ether is used instead of lighter fluid for the first extraction. Because the wording of the latter formula approaches plagarism, it is tempting to imagine some cocaine-era High Times assistant editor pulling untested data out of his file drawer for a quick and easy answer to a reader's question. The next reference on the subject is taken from Adam Gottlieb's The Book of Acid, Kistone Press, (No location), 1975. What confuses the issue is that Mary Jane Superweed and Adam Gottlieb appear to be the same author writing under different

Each of the above two recipes is reproduced in Michael Valentine Smith's 1981 book, Psychedelic Chemistry, so they apparently survived into the eighties without modification or comment. Does that imply that both of these formulas are effective? The problem is, if Superweed and Gottlieb are one and the same person, which pseudonym advocates the correct formula? With Smith and High Times getting into the act, we seem to have a vicious circle of quotations, with no real idea of who the original author is or where he got his information. The 13

confusion takes a quantum leap when we statement by John Mann, allegedly the real behind the Gottlieb/Superweed pseudonyms, that: The most psychopharmacologically

year-old Heavenly Blue seeds. Neither extraction showed any degree of psychoactivity after ingestion. This suggests that the formula is no good, but it is not proof positive -- the first seed batch may have been from a non- psychcoactive morning glory species, and the second seed batch may have been too old to be active.

read a person stating

active d-lysergic is seeds] gl01y component of [morning acid amide. It has about one-tenth the microgram potency of LSD. It is present in the form of a salt and is therefore soluble in water, but not in ether or alcohol unless it is first hydrolyzed with a 10% ammonium hydroxide solution. --John Mann, First Book of Sacraments of the Church ofthe Tree of Life, (1985 edition)

These experiments were carried out before this issue's article on alkaloid extraction by Johnny Appleseed was received. In editing that piece for publication I learned a lot about chemical extraction principles. I'm speculating here, but if the LSD amides in morning glory seeds are already in the form of a salt, then after the naphtha fat/oil removal, one should only need to basify the slurry and extract the alkaloids with an organic solvent. (That is apparently what all the business about "hydrolosis with ammonium hydroxide" in the second formula is other words, you could probably In about. accomplish the same thing with baking soda or lye plus an organic solvent.) By the next issue of The Entheogen Review I hope to have cleared up these ambiguities and found a viable formula that any layperson can follow. --Jim DeKorne

This appears to completely nullify the first formula. The sentence in formula number two about mixing "900 ml chloroform with 100 ml concentrated ammonium hydroxide solution in a separatory funnel," I assume refers to the mixture being hydrolyzed in a ten-percent solution. This seems to be chemist-language for making the solution basic and extracting with an organic solvent. The second formula is significantly different from the first -- not only is it more complex, requiring special equipment, but it uses different extraction solvents. Like many specialists, chemists often seem unable to communicate with laypeople in plain English. For example, what on earth is ligroine? A quick look at the dictionary tells us that it is: "Any of several petroleum naphtha fractions ... used chiefly as solvents."

Bibliography R. M. Julien -- A Primer of Drug Action, 3rd ed. W.H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, 1981 E.D. Smith -- "Hawaiian Baby Woodrose Seeds" -The Psychozoic Press #2, Winter, 1982

In other words, ligroine and naphtha are apparently identical. Far from being an exotic or hard to find chemical, a gallon can of ordinary Coleman fuel (the kind used for lanterns and camp stoves), has printed on its side: "contains a refined petroleum naphtha product." It should therefore come as no surprise to discover that the label on a can of Ronson lighter fluid also tells us that it "Contains naphtha." In essence then, ligrorine, Coleman fuel and lighter fluid are all naphtha products. This seems much easier for non-chemi.~ts to obtain than the petroleum ether of the first formula. It is used only to remove the fatty oils from the seeds; after use, it is discarded and is not 'itself used as an extraction solvent for the lysergic acid ami des.

David E. Smith, M.D. -- "Abuse Folio Med Alert,"

High Times Magazine, March, 1985, Pg 30 R. Lingeman -- Drugs from A to Z, McGraw Hill, NY, 1969, 1974, C. Savage, et al., "Ipomoea Purpurea: a naturally occuring psychedelic," in Altered States of Consciousness, C.Tart, ed., John Wiley, NY, 1969 Leander J. Valdes III, Jose Luis Diaz and Ara G. Paul --Ethnopharmacology of Ska Maria Pastora (Salvia Divinomm, Epling and Jativa-M.)-- Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 7 (1983) 287-312

When the literature is this ambiguous about a subject, the only way to tell what is tme is to make an extraction and try it. The High Times formula was applied to two batches of seed. Batch number one consisted of 200 seeds of an unknown morning glory species; batch number two was ten grams of

E.D. Smith -- "Ololiuqui and Badah (sic) Negro: Nature's Cousins to LSD" -- The Psychozoic Press, #3, Spring, 1983

14

magazine. Later, my eyes felt watery and eyelids The next day, I had a medium swollen. conjunctivitis, with occasional hives appearing on my body. It took three days for these symptoms to go away.

Mary Jane Superweed -- The Marijuana Consumer's and Dealer's Guide, Stone Kingdom Syndicate, 1968 (No location) Michael Valentine Smith, P5ychedelic Chemistry, Loompanics Unlimited, Port Townsend, WA, 1981

Later in the week I ate 125 mg of hanna/a extract and 50 mg of a Phalaris grass extraction. No allergic reaction this time, and there was definite unfortunately psychoactivity in the potion, accompanied by waves of mild to severe nausea. The experience was what Shu/gin describes as a ''plus-2" -- there was definite activity, but not so much that I couldn't function in an emergency if I had to. The trip could have been much deeper, but it was certainly ''psychedelic. " It is difficult to describe -- a novel sense of at least three energy fields radiating from my body at set "wave-lengths. " An unusual sensation, and not quite like anything I've ever experienced before. There were bright hypnogogic type visions (immediately forgotten) and an extremely tranquilized "weak" feeling-- almost as if my consciousness was connected to my body by the thinnest of threads. I won't call it an out-of-body experience, but it wasn't far from that. The nausea was a definite problem, although I didn't actually vomit. Two of my fellow travellers spent the evening with the dry heaves, though they seemed to get more positive benefits as well. I've never had jungle ayahuasca, so I don't know how this analogue experience compares with the 'real thing' ... --J.G., CA

Adam Gottlieb -- The Book of Acid, Kistone Press, (No location), 1975

TRAVELER'S TALES USING ENTHEOGENS IN GROUP WORK

It has been rather ironic, coincidental or even significant that our last three ecstasy experiences began with images and themes of wounds and "crossing over." We passed a crippled man one time hobbling across a bridge on his crutches as we were hiking off into the hills. I could go into this issue at length, but general~y the message seems to be that the gateway to the Other Side, access to the Other, or what have you, has to follow from some encounter with one's wound, wounding, etc. ... We have been doing a lot of "work" separate from the drug experiences relative to playing with images and engaging in a sort of mutual or group hypnosis. One person presents an image and the others fall into it, almost as if giving into or surrendering oneself to a trance. We have been trying to dismantle our normal perceptions in an effort to understand them more completely. We have been playing with shifting our focus, gathering our awareness in an effort to "read the text," so to speak.

LSD AMIDES IN SLEEPY GRASS

Basically, we see ourselves as apprentices, neophytes. We have always been incredibly humbled by our experiences. We have been defeated at times by our lack of belief and even our lack of passion, love, energy, what have you. Sometimes we try too hard, or expect too much to the extent of "barking up the wrong tree" by perhaps waiting for some type of classical vision, Other or Angel to appear ... --T.K., CA

A reader has just sent us a brief article appearing in the December, 1992 issue of Discover magazine. In it a recent study is mentioned in which Stipa robusta, commonly called "sleepy grass" (a poisonous range plant found in the Southern Rockies), has been found to contain lysergic acid amides. Interestingly, the alkaloids are apparently produced by Acremonium, a symbiotic fungus living within the plant. So closely have the two organisms evolved together that the fungus is also contained within the plant's seeds -- thus ensuring that the partnership is automatically continued each generation. The article claims that sleepy grass has the highest concentration of LSD amides of any known pl 15g/kg 1 .. plus-2 symptoms were tions and pithy words of wisdom along with noted). The experience those reams of Victorian poetry. two hours, then about lasted plus-3, to rapidly grew Learning foreign languages I've noticed something subsided. The trip was extremely uncomfortable, with similar to the dream messages recorded by the pillow. constant diarrhea, weakness, dizziness, and mild Sometimes I kept hearing a phrase in the language I nausea. The "psychedelic" effects were without was learning floating through my mind during the day colors, insights or euphoria, but with a characteristic -- similar to the way a song lyric plays again and again "tryptamine buzz" and overtones of nameless anxiety. in your subconscious. (An annoyance, usually.) But Very weak, I lay on the bathroom floor, not wanting to and ether the of out phrase the yanked I if sometimes, be far from the toilet, since the recurrent diarrhea was translated it -- lo and behold it turned out to be either intense. The word intoxication kept running through an answer to a problem that I'd been having or at least my mind -- I was experiencing something "toxic" for some helpful insight. Does this have anything to do sure! Others have taken this combination without with the old saw about not using 90-95% of our brain's such negative symptoms, so I suspect that everyone capacity? - JH, WA may respond to it in their own way. I was amazed how only one teaspoonful of juice could be so potent and was glad that I hadn't ingested more: the trip took LAST MINUTE NOTES ON PHALARIS so long to come on, I thought perhaps I hadn't taken I try to lay out each edition of The Entheogen Review enough. Don't be fooled by that! - JG, CA as early as possible to avoid eleventh-hour hassles.

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The Entheogen Review, Autumnal Equinox, 1994

NETWO RK FEEDBA CK FUZZY SEED COA11NGS?

PRESSURE CANNER SOURCES Q: What is the address for the All-American Pressure Cooker Co. mentioned in the Oss/Oeric Mushroom growers guide? They sell an eight-quart cooker for $50.00. - CW, NC A: The days of the $50.00 canning cooker are long gone. Last year I paid $30.00 for a 1950's vintage cooker at a flea market after pricing a new one in a restaurant supply store at $95.00. The Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry Co., Inc., Manitowoc, WI 54220 sells several models beginning at $65.00. (The 7 quart model is $98.00.) If you go the flea market route, be sure you can still purchase gaskets for whatever make/model you buy. A $15.00 "bargain" cooker proved worthless because they no longer make gaskets for it.- Ed.

ABSORP110N ENHANCEMENT There is a natural regulation of absorption from the gut which is changed by alcohol and pepper. Both these "open up" the gut to allow absorption of macromolecules. If one wanted better effects of ayahuasca one could either drink a bit of alcohol or eat hot spicy food (a Bloody Mary?) just before ingestion.

-Prof. Buzz De Lux, CA

LSA CONCENTRATION IN WOODROSE SEEDS Recently I divided the shell from the meat of two baby wood rose seeds, thinking most of the amide would be in the meat. I put it in a capsule and swallowed iL Many hours passed and I noticed no effects at all. So then I took the shell, which was broken into about ten pieces, and swallowed them without chewing. Bingo! Positively 100% of the amide is in the shell. It would be interesting to clarify just how much LSA is in two baby wood rose seed shells, which weigh about 40 mg. --PH,NM

Conventional wisdom says you must remove the fuzz from the seeds of the Hawaiian Baby Woodrose. I have never seen any HBW seeds which had fuzzy coatings -- have I been missing something? I have somewhat flu-like aftereffects with HBWs, and leg cramps with most morning glories, thus find Stipa appealing.

BD,CA

FEEDBACK ON SLEEPY GRASS I have tried Stipa robusta seeds four times, resulting in barely threshold effects each time. The first time, I chewed and swallowed 15 seeds. The second time, 25. For my third experiment, I broke open 35 seeds and allowed them to soak in a mug of cool water for an hour. I drank the water, discarding the seeds. My last experiment was again with 35 seeds, this time chewing instead of drinking. All experiences were weak, but the tea was strongest. Perhaps S. robusta, like the morning glories, must be ground and soaked. I am interested to hear other S. robusta experiences. Let's map this thing out! I felt no unpleasant effects, but woke up with a strange feeling after the first two times.- GW, NY

*** I took 3 Stipa robusta seeds, and the effect was definitely a plus-2. They took effect in about 30 minutes and produced mild after-images and colors equivalent to a good flashback for about 8 hours. The second time, 5 days later, I ate at least 20 seeds over two hours and experienced almost nothing, with a mild stomach feel. About 2 weeks later, I ate a spoonful of P. harmala, waited 20 minutes, and ate at least 40 seeds. Nothing but stomach feel again. I don't understand this lack of effect of any but the first dose. -JB, TX

*** In Vol. 2, #3 you had a user's report on sleepy grass. This person recorded a shift in consciousness from ingesting 9 seeds. Has there been further feedback? I've tried it three times on up to 120 seeds with no

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The Entheogen Review, Autumnal Equinox, 1994

FDACOmlliC~GOD~M~~K~

effect. -RN, WY

*** Q: Where can I obtain samples/seeds of Stipa robusta? --Anon. A: Stipa robusta (sleepy grass) has recently been found to contain lysergic acid amides. It appears to be par for the course for entheogenic grass species to vary widely in alkaloid content. Stipa from some areas is more potent than that growing in others. It is said that specimens collected in the Sacramento mountains of New Mexico are the most powerful. Because the LSA is synthesized by a symbiotic fungus and not the grass itself, potency presumably depends upon how much fungus the grass contains. Also, why not try a decoction made from the grass foliage (as with Phalaris), since more could be expected there than in the extremely tiny seeds. This is all still very new, and much "grassroots" research needs to be carried out before we can make definitive statements. Seeds are available from: Horus Botanicals, HCR 82, Box 29, Salem, ARK 72576 -Ed.

HERBAL ADMIXTURES I've found that adding huge amounts of Ginko and Gotu Kola to an entheogen is really beneficial. There is no tight- headedness or cramping feelings, and clarity and just plain good feelings seem to be added to the experience. I've used this combination with P. viridis ayahuasca, mushrooms and Salvia divinorum.

-EliX, TX

SYNTHETIC ENTHEOGENS Q: So far it appears that The Entheogen Review has focused on plantJnature-derived hallucinogens. What about synthetics? For example, LSD, synthetic DMT or phenethylamine-derived entheogens like MDA and MDMA? Is there a philosophical orientation against synthetics, and if so, why? - VP, WA

Yohimbe is one of the herbs the FDA will probably "ban" this year along with Lobelia injlata. Apparently they are also going to ban Ephedra sinensis (Ma Heung), as one of the wholesalers in LA told me they couldn't sell it anymore due to FDA restrictions. I guess the FDA and DEA don't need to hold public hearings, or even present scientific data to justify outlawing herbs or plants. They probably think the ephedrine would be converted to the HCl base form by some university undergrads. Remaining stocks will jump dramatically in price -- Lobelia just went from $8.50 to $50.00 a pound from one wholesaler! Of course millions of this species grow throughout the NE. I notice you have the articles proclaiming Catha edulis illegal. I had to read it 10 times to comprehend the surreptitious wording. It never really says the plants themselves are illegal, just the "leaves." So if your plant has no leaves it must be legal? A couple of herb companies still sell plants so the law seems to be anticipatory. Of course, it could be a pretense for liquidating companies like L.E .R., Of The Jungle, Horus Botanicals, etc. -Anon.

CALEA CULTIVATION TIPS It is a common practice to soak seeds in a 50% hydrogen peroxide solution for 24 hours. I left Calea zacatechichi seeds in this solution for 3 or 4 days, until they sank to the bottom of the cup in which they were soaking. They tend naturally to float on the surface, so when they reach the bottom it means they've not only broken their dormancy but some of them have already germinated! Then, I sow them on a fine soil mix normally moistened, tamping or inserting them over its surface and keeping them in bright but not direct sunlight. - OSR, Spain

GROWING PEGANUM HARMALA A: I had a bias against synthetics when ER was first conceived, but I've outgrown it. Any substance or technique which evokes "the God within" is a legitimate subject for this newsletter. - Ed.

I started some Peganum harmala from seed in the Spring of 1993 in some old 5-gallon paint containers. I live in a desert environment and the plants were watered every day by an automatic watering system. I realize that these are desert plants and shouldn't need

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suggest that one of the two chaperones mentioned by the informant (in Spring '94 issue) be an Emergency Medical Technician with an ambulance ready! Don Alejandro (a Mazatecan shaman) taught me that the visionary experiences are much more important than the plants and drugs that produce them. He no longer needed to take the vision-inducing plants for his journeys. In fact, they are really not necessary for such experiences. I don't believe too strongly in the significance of visions and dreams, myself, but if I did 1 would probably use meditation or some other non-drug method to attain ecstasy, as I tend to look on natural hallucinogenic compounds to be plant defense mechanisms (poisons) that usually warn off potential

so much water but felt that because they were in such small containers they needed it. They grew quickly to a certain size, then stopped. In the Fall I removed one of them from its container and noted the bright yellow roots had coiled over and over at the bottom of the bucket: obviously root bound. If they had been allowed to spread they would have covered an area 3 to 4 times larger than the above ground part of the plant. I haven't been able to get them to flower and suspect they're getting too much water. In conclusion: plant in cactus mix, give lots of root space and once established, cut back on the watering. - GD, NM [My experience with P. harmala is similar. Even with plenty of room for the roots to spread outside, if over watered they'll produce abundant green vegetation but no flowers. The roots also contain the desired alkaloids, but it's a shame to sacrifice such a beautiful plant when you can harvest its seeds year after year. Just keep 'em thirsty. In Southern New Mexico they thrive in the most barren desert imaginable, receive virtually no rain at all, and are in abundant flower for most of the summer. By Fall, each plant has many hundreds of alkaloid-rich seeds. - Ed.)

predators without killing them. -Leander J. Valdes Ill, LA [Dr. Valdes is one of the pioneer researchers into the ethnopharmacology of Salvia divinorum. See the classic paper: Leander J. Valdes III, Jose Luis Diaz and Ara G. Paul -- "Ethnopharmacology of Ska Maria Pastora (Salvia Divinorum, Epling and Jativa-M.)" -Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 7 (1983) 287-312. Also: L.J. Valdes III, G.M. Hatfield, M. Koreeda, and A.G. Paul-- "Studies of Salvia divinorum (Lamiaceae), an Hallucinogenic Mint from the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Central Mexico," Economic Botany, 41(2), 1987, pp. 283-291 --Ed]

FEEDBACK ON SALVINORIN-A AND DATURA I have heard about the extreme potency of the diterpene, salvinorin-A, but I have no direct experience with the compound, other than through my chemical research and animal testing. I would, therefore, be very reluctant to make statements about it that could lead to potential misuse by selfexperimenters who would put themselves or others in danger or hurt themselves with an overdose. There should be a paper coming out soon in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology on human experiments with Salvia divinorum and salvinorin-A and I have had a paper accepted for publication by the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

SALVIAAYAHUASCA I did six grams of Peganum harmala seeds with 45 one-and-a- half to two-inch long half-dried Salvia divinorum leaves. I think that removing the midribs and allowing them to dry almost completely is the best method. Freezing adversely affects the leaves, turning them brown and deteriomting their potency. There are no real side effects to the above combination other than deep muscle jerks (which are not uncomfortable). This experience lasted eight hours as compared with two hours with the leaves alone and six hours in a previous Salvialharmala experiment during which I was afraid to swallow the leaves. Chewing lemon along with the leaves has beneficial extraction properties, and kills some of the taste as well. This is by far the worst tasting entheogen, though it's my favorite. I seem to be the only one who thinks that the

On reading your interesting journal, I see many plants mentioned that I would consider to be more toxic than recreational, especially the Datura species, which are extremely dangerous and are nearly always very bad experiences for anyone that takes them. I would

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The Entheogen Review, Autumnal Equinox, 1994

taste of these plants is essential to the experience.

stomach. - RS, CA

EB,TX

SENTENCING GUIDELINES SMOKING SALVIA I have been experimenting with smoking dried Salvia divinorum leaves and I can tell you that it is indeed a powerful entheogen. It seems to work along the lines of DMT in that you need to get a large initial intake or the high just plateaus without a flash. I have smoked an entire joint containing about 3/4 gram of material by myself which didn't come close to the effects obtained by smoking two or three consecutive bong hits. Spooky is a good word to describe the first effects. Before I release my second bong hit I feel a pressure in my cheeks and start feeling a spinal shiver. Then I'm gone. Complete dislocation; if I'm with other people I sense their presence but have no idea who they are. I feel an emotion which is distinct and familiar yet indescribable: something like being very young and not privy to what's going on. Then I start to recognize my surroundings and I am in an energy field that seems to be pulsing from my brain; this field flows out of my body producing audible geometric patterns. At this point I can focus my attention, but the strange thing is that the energy wave seems to flow around my point of focus. The high rapidly falls off from there. Two to five minutes for what I've described, but completely down within twenty minutes, with no apparent residual effects. This is with dried leaves, so I think that salvinorin-A could be a truly terrifying experience -- or maybe that isn't the only active ingredient in S. divinorum. Other people I know have tried this method and all agree that diviner's mint is very potent. - RN, WY

SALVIA PROPAGATION Salvia works best by air-layering cuttings. When branches start to droop over, bend them down. Make a cut in the stem, cover with root-tone, and prop it so the wound is kept open. Bury the part of the stem which is thus propped in dirt and keep moist until roots form. Only a half dozen leaves are necessary if you don't swallow, but just masticate. This is because the Mazatecs apparently never realized that the active principle is only absorbed through the mouth, not the

According to federal sentencing guidelines, required prison sentence without parole for possessing at least $1500 worth ofLSD: 10 years; for attempted murder: 6.5 years; for rape: 6 years; for armed robbery: 4. 7 years; for theft of at least $80 million: 4 years; for taking a bribe: 6 months. Estimated number of Grateful Dead fans now in prison for LSD offenses: 1500 to 2000; four years ago: about 100. Federal sentence received by a 19-year old for possessing $2000 worth of LSD (first offense): 10 years; sentence he would have received if convicted in state court: 16 months. -- Playboy, December, 1993

SAN PEDRO CACTUS I recently cooked down three feet of San Pedro: simmered half-inch pieces for 8-1 0 hours, then blended pieces and separated liquids from solids. The quart of cooking water and quart squeezed from the solids were combined and cooked down to a quart. This was shared by four people with about half a cup left over. No one had any nausea. San Pedro is nowhere near as bitter as peyote. It took a long time to come on, but once the effect started it was strong and unmistakable. There was none of the mental deconstruction I have experienced with LSD and high-dose mushrooms. There was little in the way of visual phenomena. One of us reported entering extensive visual-concptual structures only to find when he emerged that very little time had elapsed. He described this as being "sideways in time," and regretted being unable to retain any of these visions. No one reported meeting with an entity. I am very curious about this, as the phenomenon seems to parallel the conceptual structures of Vajrayana Buddhism and archetypal psychology, both of which I practice. Hopefully, further excursions will bring more depth and breadth to these experiences. -Dr. Sax, VT

OTHER MESCALINE CACTI Please don't eat Ariocarpus -- they are 25 times slower growing than peyote and probably rarer. Although some are psychoactive, they are not psychedelic: I

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The Entheogen Review, Autumnal Equinox, 1994

know because I've done them. Peyote, when cultivated, grows quickly and when grafted (onto Trichocereus spp, for example), it "balloons" in one season. Don't be a fool : if you don't leave the root in the ground on wild peyote, or grow your own, you're not respecting this plant, and that reflects your entire attitude; I know, I've been there too. - DKW, AZ [Included in this letter were amazing color photographs of 3- year-old, baseball-sized peyote plants grafted onto what appears to be T. pachanoi. The ambience of the photos suggests an expert who really knows how to grow cactus! -Ed.}

MUSHROOM MATTERS GYMNOPILUS SPECTABILIS QUEST ION Any information on G. spectabilis dosages would be appreciated . - GW, NY

GYMNOPILUS SPECTABILIS ANSWE R I have tried three grams of G. spectabilis. Slight visuals, but it was enough (coupled with my meditation techniques) to propel me into intense, convulsive shivering. On going with it, found it was a memory of the viewing room after birth, where I was intensely cold and scared and needed my mother. Peak was over in 3 to 3 112 hours after ingestion. None of the side effects of psilocybin; to my mind the trip was superior. Psilocybes always mess up my clarity; this increased it. I know that psilocybin has been found in dried specimens of Gymnopilus, but that doesn't mean it's the only ingredient, and I'd be curious to know how much psilocybin was found by these tests. I know from experience that the active principle of Gymnopilus deteriorates under even normal drying conditions, much more than psilocybin. The effects are markedly different. - BD, CA

*** FANE OF THE PSILOCYBIN MUSHR OOM In the Summer '94 issue of ER two readers inquired

about the Fane of the Psilocybin Mushroom. It is possible that one of them wrote to the wrong address which I have seen listed incorrectly in other publications. The current address for the Fane of the Psilocybin Mushroom is: The Fane, Box 8179, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W-3R8. The Fane's headquarters are in British Columbia, with members scattered like spores throughout the world. Membership is open to anyone who agrees with the following principles: 1. That all mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe are sacraments and their ingestion is a religious practice and an aid to enlightenment. 2. Everyone has the right to expand consciousness and to stimulate aesthetic, visionary and mystical experience by whatever means one considers desirable without interference from anyone, so long as such practice does not injure another person or their property. 3. We do not encourage ingestion of the sacraments by those who are unprepared. The Fane is a small but dedicated group of psychedelicists; so, inquiries accompanied by either a self-addressed stamped envelope or suitable contribution would be appreciated . The Fane publishes a newsletter irregularly and encourages networking among its members. Yours in Light- DJ, VA

SPORE PRINTS I took a P. cubensis spore print that was over my stove and in a sterile petri dish for a year and checked its viability. The petri dishes exploded with mycelium in less than 48 hours and not even any contamination. Taking a spore print in a sterile petri dish is the best way I have found. Paper is just a difficult surface to extract the spores from by scraping. -Anon., PA

MUSHR OOM AL!.ERG Y Q: During consumption of Psilocybe cubensis swelling and inflammation are experienced to a severe degree, which ruins the whole experience. I've never read any mention of this anywhere. Is this common? What is the cause? Can it be avoided? How can the experience be aborted? - RW, NV A: Allergies, of course, are often specific to individuals and are not necessarily applicable to

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everyone ingesting a substance. Nevertheless, some mushroom strains display negative traits such as "cloudiness"-- a trip in which the psychedelic effects are muddied by a kind of fuzzy- headedness, unusually severe nausea, etc. It isn't difficult to imagine a strain producing allergens as well. I've heard that drinking a tea or infusion of Lobelia will terminate a mushroom trip within fifteen minutes. - Ed.

JOURNEYS OUT OF THE BODY WITH DATURA My sole experience with Jimson Weed/ Thornapple/ Datura occurred in the Spring of 1973. I was living in a remote house in the Guatemala highlands. At the gate between the patio and a grove of coffee trees grew two tall, dark green datura plants with foot-long white trumpets for flowers. My friend Pete and I dropped four of these into a liter ofboiling water. After twenty minutes we poured off the remaining liquid -- just enough for one large enamelware coffee cup apiece. About ten minutes after ingestion, I noticed a peculiar numbness in my body - the air around me seemed thick and muffled; objects felt insubstantial and tentative. I climbed into my hammock. "Hey ... " said Pete. His words came as from a deep tunnel. "I wonder if we did too much?" I was having the same thoughts myself. While it wasn't hard to breathe, the act somehow felt redundant. The numbness then turned to warmth and a feeling of lassitude. My vision blurred... Sometime later, I felt a surge of energy and left the hammock. Although my vision was blurry, I discovered that if I focused on nothing in particular, I could see perfectly. The first thing I saw was my own body-- still peacefully asleep in the hammock! 1 "walked" out into the landscape; the colors shifted to a reddish hue. I was aware of a peculiar emptiness: I kept expecting to find something alive here. Who runs this place? I wondered. Soon a growing fear of deserting my body made me turn back. When I turned around there was a large

shape standing in my path. It was a green triangle, seemingly two-dimensional, about seven feet high and perfectly angled. Reddish shimmers of light or heat radiated from it. My anxiety switched to bone dead fear. I felt that this object had both the intelligence and the power to squash me like a bug. I was paralyzed with fright, though I knew I had to move, to do something. Finally, I moved to one side and began walking at angles to the object, watching it from the edge of my vision. The very act of movement was empowering. Emanations from the triangle, now about fifteen feet away, felt like ripples of wind striking me. I turned to face it: "Who are you?" Although the question wasn't spoken, it boomed inside my mind. Then fear again: I was dead meat -- I was going to die in this weird place. I reached inside myself and dredged up my supply of wildness: brought it into my throat, then wadded it between my eyes and let some out. "You don't belong here," the triangle said in my mind. "I'm traveling. I drank something and came here." I pumped up my inner energy until I was swollen with power: enormous. The triangle disappeared. I first felt relieved, then elated and victorious. I had met and survived a meeting with ... something! ... Back under the portal, I thought about my body. Boom -- like that -- I was back inside, checking it out. I don't really need this thing, I thought. It's actually slowing me down. Without it, I could soar... I attempted to travel again. I thought about my home in New Mexico and I was there: no feelings of motion or time. I was just suddenly standing outside my house. I saw my neighbor chopping wood. In front of him was a twisted piece of pinon pine. He swung the axe and the blade caromed off the log and buried itself in the ground beside his right foot.. . Suddenly I felt a wrenching sensation and I was back in Guatemala ... On awakening, the first thing I did was vomit. I was sick down to my toes. Pete was already up, grey-faced and puking... Although I recovered enough to get around within a day or two, I was plagued by

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bed semi-conscious with nightmarish visions and ultimate paranoia -- most lost to the amnesia effects. I now grow daturas only: just being around them is weird enough! -Anon. AR

continuous diarrhea... [Author was dangerously ill for months, but eventually made it back to the U.S. - Ed.} After a month's convalescence with a friend, I went home to the mountains. The first person I saw was my neighbor. He told me of an incident earlier that Spring.

*** I know too well that these plants are powerful and dangerous -- last year two boys died the same month while trying an infusion of an asthma medication which contains datura. - HS, France

"I was chopping wood," he said, "and I got this strange feeling that someone was standing right behind me."

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"And," I said, "the axe skidded and almost took your right foot off." "How did you know that?"

Single copies of The Entheogen Review (Winter 1992, Spring 1993, Autumn 1993, Winter 1993, Spring 1994, Summer 1994, Autumn 1994) $5.00 each ($6.00 outside U.S.) while they last. First year of publication (Autumn and Winter '92, Spring and Summer '93) bound together into 74 page book: $20.00 (same price as a years' subscription).

I told him. I know he'd like to have believed me. One night, three years after this experience, I was meditating outside. I felt myself move out of my body. At that moment a shape came from behind a pinon tree: deep black and vibrating. It had the same aura of power as the triangle in Guatemala. I was totally unprepared to deal with this and ran like hell back to the house. Then it was outside my door, the power challenging me. As before, I dredged up all of my willpower and stonewalled it. Soon it left. Two nights later it returned; hovering outside the door, demanding my presence. Again I summoned up my courage and will and said: "Go away!" After a few moments of tension, the entity left. It hasn't been back since.

Psychedelic Shamanism, The Cultivation, Preparation and Shamanic use of Psychotropic Plants, by Jim DeKome, 1994, 155 pages. (Signed by author, yet! ) $22.00 postpaid from : The Entheogen Review, P.O. Box 778, El Rito, NM 87530. Or ask for it at your local bookstore for $19.95. "No hands on explorer ofpsychedelic hyperspace will want to be uninformed of the facts and techniques in this book. It is a valuable contribution to the new literature of do-it-yourself shamanism and psychoactive ethnobotany. " -- Terence McKenna

In retrospect, the experience was worth it. Datura can throw you out of your body. It can show you where power resides and give you the power to be anyplace you want to be. It can also kill you. I have no plans to ever take it again. - DH, NM

*** I tried a datura tincture once. It was the closest thing to complete psychosis imaginable. My irises were gone due to pupil dilation. At the onset, I had to ride my bike about two miles through a city subdivision: the giant oaks were rustling with an intelligent sentience and my legs were like rubber; my mouth was so dry I could hardly breathe. The next 36 hours were spent in

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW A QUARTERLY ETHNOBOTANICAL UPDATE

VOL. 3, N0.4 : Winter Solstice , 1994 ISSN 1066-1913

Copyright © 1994, All Rights Reserved Subscription: $20.00/Year, $30.00 Outside U.S.A Editor: Jim DeKome P.O. Box 778, El Rito, NM 87530

This newsletter is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of psychotropic plants. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction and ritual usage of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence -- published material is identified only by the author's initials and state of residence. The mailing list is not for sale, rent or loan to anyone for any reason.

Disclaimer The information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. As editor, my role is to collate and present these data, opinions and beliefs as is my right under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Being a mere human, subject to the same frailties as others of my species, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of any of the data presented here, nor do I advocate that anyone do anything except read it. Portions of this material may relate to subjects which are legally questionable. Although I am neither a law-maker nor a policeman, it is my understanding that while plants can apparently be declared illegal, facts of nature and human ideas about them (correct or incorrect) are currently exempt from such classification. Anyone has the existential freedom to do what they choose with what they've read, but that has no connection with what I or others may have written in these pages. Readers who act on any information found in this publication do so of their own free choice and vo-

lition and must accept full responsibility for such decisions.

Subscriptions The Entheogen Review is not intended to be a mass circulation publication -- it is available by subscription only. Tdon't send out renewal notices. On all quarterly (mass) mailings there will be a code after your name. W94 means that the Winter, 1994 issue will be your last. V stands for Vernal Equinox (Spring issue), S stands for Summer and F for Fall. Tmake a great effort to get the newsletter out on time, and third class mail sometimes gets lost - if you don't receive your copy within three weeks of a solstice or equinox, please let me know. Third class mail is not forwarded by the Post Office, so always inform me of address changes.

Submissions Your input is what keeps this network alive -- don't hesitate to share your ideas and questions. I can't afford to pay for submissions yet, and unfortunately 1 often have to edit for brevity, but please keep those fascinating letters coming in. -Jim DeKorne

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SALVINORIN A: NOTES OF CAUTION Salvinorin A (the major active principle of the plant Salvia divinorum) is an exiremely powerful consciousness-altering compound. In fact, it;,., the

most potent natural{v occurring hallucinogen thus far isolated. But before would-be experimenters get too worked-up about it, it should be made clear that the effects are often e.:dremely unnerving and there is a very real potential for physical danger with its use.

When

the herb Salvia divinorum is consumed either by smoking the dried leaf or chewing the fresh leaves, the effects are usually (but not always) pleasant and interesting. This is because when used this way the amount of salvinorin A absorbed into the blood stream is usually very small and, in the case of the chewed leaves, is absorbed gradually.

When

vaporized and inhaled, the pure compound

salvinorin A is active at 200 to 500 micrograms. [Lest we forget our metric measurements, that's roughly between one-quarter and one-half of one milligram! -Ed.] Since very few people have the costly equipment necessary to accurately weigh anything close to this small an amount, it is inevitable that people will try to visually estimate the dose. Unfortunately, there is little room for error before the effects become potentially dangerous. When the dose goes above 500 to 1000 meg the effects can be very alarming. I have seen people get up and lunge around the room, falling over furniture, babbling incomprehensible nonsense and knocking their heads into walls. Several people have tried to wander out of the house. When the experience is over, they have no memory of any of this. In fact, they usually remember very different events. To an ' outside observer, people in this condition have a blank look in their eyes as if no one is present (and perhaps no one is). It is also common for people to have a facial expression which is probably best described as being like that of a frightened animal. It appears that at these "larger" doses one completely loses awareness of, and control over, the physical body; for some reason part of the brain causes the body to get up and move

about recklessly while the individual has no awareness of where their physical self is or what it is doing. It seems inevitable that one day some careless person will do too large a dose without a sitter and will wander out into traffic, or hurt themselves in some other way.

Because the dose is so small and insignificant looking, there is a tendency for people to think they need more than what they are told is a safe dose. Another problem is that the technique of vaporizing and inhaling the compound can be tricky. Salvinorin A has a relatively high boiling point and people often don't get it hot enough to remain a gas all the way into the lungs. Another problem is that so little is used that the vapor often disperses before it gets inhaled. Sometimes people just don't hold the vapor in their lungs long enough for thorough absorption. Several people, after trying a dose in the recommended safe range, and not gelling an effect, assume that Utey need a larger dose, when in fact the problem is that they did not vaporize the material efficiently the first time. I have already seen more than one intelligent, careful and experienced person accidently do too large a dose because of Ulis. Fortunately, Utey had sitters and managed to get Uuough Ute experience safely.

It is also important to understand that there have been no toxicological studies of this compound in humans. It is true that the Mazatecs have used the plant for a very long time and don't seem to have problems with it, but when the pure compound is used it would be a simple matter to consume a dose hundreds of times greater than anything ever encountered by the Mazatecs.

Not only is salvinorin A chemically different from other hallucinogens (it is a diterpene, not an alkaloid), but its effects are quite different as well. Many people consider the effects less manageable and harder to work with than other entheogens. The majority of people who have had a full blown experience with salvi-

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norin A are reluctant to ever do it again. Anyone choosing to experiment with this compound should always have an alert, clear-thinkin g sitter present to prevent them from injuring themselves or others.

Salvia divinorum

as an herb can be used quite safely and many people claim that it has proved beneficial to them. Hopefully, there will not be a rush to isolate the pure compound, as it is almost inevitable that it will cause problems: people will get hurt, the compound and probably the plant will get negative attention and it will become scheduled. We will just be adding one more potentially valuable plant ally to the list of species which arc already feared and condemned in our society.

(5) Various sensations ofmotion, or being pulled or twisted by forces of some kind. (6) Uncontrollable hysterical laughter. (7) Overlapping realities. The perception that one is in several locations at once. Some of the effects appear to parallel those ofother hallucinogens (i.e. the depersonalization experienced with ketamine, the rapid onset of effects and short duration of smoked Dlv!T). The volunteers who were experienced with other hallucinogens all agreed that despite some similarities, the content of the visions and the overall character of the experience is quite unique.

If you choose to pursue a relationship with this plant, please treat it with respect and care. If we can use the plant safely and responsibly it will be able to grow and thrive freely into the future. - Daniel J. Siebert

Note: Daniel J. Siebert is the discoverer of the psychoactive effects of salvinorin A in humans and the author of "Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A: new pharmacologic findings," in the Journal of Ethnopharmacolog y 43 (1994) 53-56. The following quotalions are from Lhal paper:

*** Certain themes are common to many of the visions and sensations described. The following is a listing of some of the more common themes: (1) Becoming objects (veilow plaid French fries, fresh

paint, a drawer, a pant leg, a .Ferris wheel, etc.). (2) Visions ofvarious two dimensional surfaces, films and membranes. (3) Revisiting places from the past, hood. (4) Loss of the body and/or identity.

e~pecially

child-

*** DISCUSSIO N AND CONCLUSI ONS When S. divinorum leaves are consumed, either by chewing the fresh leaves or by retaining the leafjuices in the mouth, enough ofthe highly active compound salvinorin A is absorbed through the oral mucosa and into the blood stream to produce a psychoactive effect. Swallowing of the herb is unnecessary and its effects are increased by lengthening the amount of time that the herb remains in the mouth. When the leaf juices are quickly swallowed, minimizing contact with the oral mucosa, the only route of absorbtion is through the gastrointestinal system where salvinorin A is deactivated before entering the blood stream. When pure salvinorin A is encapsulated and swallowed it is inactive even at relatively large doses, but when absorbed through the oral mucosa or vaporized and inhaled is extremely active. It is likely that if salvinorin A were administered by injection, it would prove to be active at even lower doses than those described in this paper. Salvinorin A is the first entheogenic diterpene reported and is active in humans at extraordinarily low doses. It does not appear to affect any of thereceptor sites affected by other hallucinogens. Further research into the methods of action and possible medicinal values of this and similar compounds may prove quite rewarding.

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A PRIMER ON MAOis A1AO-inhibitors are chemical compounds whose activity in the body slows down or interferes with A1ono Amine Oxidase [A1AO], an enzyme system that oxidizes many compounds in foods and drugs into harmless byproducts. In the presence ofMAO-inhibitors [MAO/s], compounds that would normally be metabolized into inactive by-products instead have the duration of their physiological and psychological activity extended. Terence McKenna, True Hallucinations

***

For example: imagine two rooms each containing one-hundred mice representing MAO molecules. Into one room are placed ftfty adult cats and into the other are placed ftfty kittens. The adults are hungry and know how to kill mice. They will catch a MAOuse, kill it, and then catch another. They represent permanent MAO inhibitors. The kittens really just want to play. They will catch a mouse and play with it until the kitten gets bored, and eventually turns it loose. They represent temporary MAO inhibitors.

There are two types of MAO inhibitors: permanent and temporary (reversible). The permanent MAOis destroy one MAO molecule and then move on to destroy another and another, etc. Many prescription anti-depressants are permanent MAOis. Temporary MAOIs merely repress MAO for a period of time specific to the inhibitor. It takes one molecule of a temporary MAOI for each molecule of MAO inhibited. The alkaloids harmine and harmaline are temporary MAOis found in various plants -- Syrian Rue (Peganum harmala) being particularly rich in these compounds.

As a result, room one (the hungry cat room) is left with anywhere from a low of zero to a high of ftfty mice, but the second room still contains its original one hundred mice. More importantly, the minimum number of mice unoccupied in room two is ftfty, as opposed (eventually) to many less than that in room one. As you can see in the example, with ftfty of the MAOs still functioning in the kitten (temporary MAOI) room, the body still has a fair latitude for error in eating the foods (cheese, yogurt, etc.) that can cause dan-

Most of the warnings about the dangers of using the principles of MAO inhibition to enhance drug experiences are based upon the characteristics of the permanent MAOIs. The body requires at least two weeks to recover from these because it takes that long for it to replace all the MAO destroyed. Conversely, when beginning anti-depressant therapy, it takes about two weeks for therapeutic levels of these drugs to show any effect. This is because it takes that long to destroy all the MAO.

Jonathan Ott has eaten the Syrian Rue seed mixture and then eaten a cheese sandwich, drank a beer, and eaten chocolate. These are some of the things you are forbidden to do with the permanent MAOis, but he experienced no trouble whatsoever with the temporary version. This Spring I tried this. I drank an extract of Syrian Rue (three grams) as described in earlier issues of ER. After ten minutes I consumed a third of a normal dose of San Pedro (4 inches of a 12 inch piece). The effects of the mescaline were felt as if a normal dose had been taken. The experience was different due to the sedative effects of the harmala extract. Instead of being full of energy to go out and explore nature, I was left sitting on the couch without the desire to stand up. This did provide opportunity to explore my inner landscape, however: perceiving inner energy and losing myself in it. The combination encouraged full introspection from the beginning. - BC, WA

The temporary (also called "reversible") MAOis, however, simply attach to and then release the MAO. after a period of time -- they do not destroy it. After four to eight hours your body has overcome ("reversed") the effects of the MAOI and reclaims its original MAO protection. At normal doses, even at the peak of the temporary inhibition all of the MAO is not neutralized -- some is still active.

gerous MAOI reactions.

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[The temporary MAOls are obviously safer than the permanent ones, but it's still wise to pay attention to one's diet and drug intake before using them. A friend ingested some harmala extract a few hours after taking a tyramine- containing dietary supplement and had an extremely unpleasant trip. Ott's lack of any problem seems related to the fact that he ate the "forbidden" foods after the experience was over and the MAOis had been inactivated. He warns that one should not ingest these foods before or during the experience. Here's a highly anomalous view on this important topic from Gracie and Zarkov: -Ed.]

-1lthough the literature would indicate that the hannine MAO inhibition should be reversed in about five hours, the effects from all of the smoked plant material continued for at least 24 to 48 hours. That is to say, clear potentiation was noticed after this amount of time had elapsed ... Once we had taken 7.5 gm of very potent dried Stropharia. We were interested in making contact with the "voice in the head" phenomenon. We potentiated the mushrooms by each smoking about 750 grams ofpassionflower (extract) ... starting about 30 minutes after eating the mushrooms. The potentiation was quite overwhelming. After smoking about one quarter of the plant material, each fresh lungful brought on, within seconds, powerful "starburst" and "intersecting lightning bolt" hallucinations which, with eyes opened, obscured a well-lit room. The "voice" phenomenon was loud and clear and very unsettling (the content ofthe trip has been described in High Frontiers, Issue 2.) Before this trip we had attempted on several occasions to invoke the voice phenomenon with the same mushrooms at doses of up to 10 grams, to no avail. But, even more curiously, effects such as clear instance ofA!AO inhibition, voices in the head, visions (with both closed and open eyes) and finally at the.end of the period, clear potentiation ofanother psychedelic (LSD) occurred at discrete short intervals over a period of 14 days! We realize that this sounds unbelievable, however it did happen. It is our opinion that peculiar long-term effects can be initiated by large combined doses of tryptamines and B-carbolines that cannot be adequately explained using current models of brain chemistry. Additionally, since that rather harrowing trip, the

mushroom "voice" has been inescapable even on dosages as low as approximately one gram. As less spectacular long-term effects, we have also noticed this "locking-in" or tuning-in effect with the B-carboline!DMT combination. That is, effects that were previously elusive on DMT alone became easy to invoke once they have occurred in the combination. ... Indole psychedelics taken in a state ofA!AO inhibition are much more intense and qualitatively different than when taken alone. We believe that these combinations offer numerous fruitful avenues for further research ... Gracie and Zarkov -- "Three B-carboline containing plants as potentiators of synthetic DMT and other indole psychedelics," Notes From Underground, 1985

MAOIs AND MESCALINE In regard to MAO inhibitors and mescaline: I think the answer to this is that harmine/harmal ine are short acting. They inhibit mostly gut MAO. It takes a long time (several weeks) to inhibit brain MAO and the prescription MAO inhibitors which do this are indeed dangerous. One only needs about a third the normal amount of mescaline for a trip if taken with the natural MAO inhibitor. I certainly would caution folks to go slowly, especially if they are hypertensive, in ill health, etc. with any MAO inhibitor. Unfortunately, the pharmacology literature only deals with the synthetic drugs, so there's not a lot of reliable information on this. - Prof. Buzz De Lux, CA ONE MAN'S DOGMA IS ANOTHER MAN'S MYTH avoidance of tyramine beprolonged about myth The fore ingesting harmala alkaloids is absurd. In South America, the shamans just don't eat for about six hours before ayahuasca. The only time when I had problems was when I swallowed little balls of P. harmala extract encased in five-year old miso. I was trying to avoid the bitter taste. After I began feeling weird, the potential "hypertensive crisis" was avoided by induced vomiting. I intend to start to mix Peganum and San Pedro with increasingly higher amounts of the former because I am sceptical of the assertion that it could be problematic. -- RS, CA

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WEIRD REACTIONS I don't know if Oymetazoine Hydrochloride is a MAOI, but I did some Ecstasy while doing 12-hour Sinex and was messed up for a week. I love MDMA and never have had any bad effects, so either the Sinex was a MAOI or the X was not what I expected. I was dizzy and had rushes that almost made me pass out; this lasted about six days. My girlfriend was taking Prozac a couple of years ago and I gave her some Ketamine: she thought her head was going to explode. We may be lucky she's alive. We read about not taking a MAOI with Prozac, but we couldn't fmd what a MAOI was, so figured they were rare. I don't know if Ketamine is dangerous with a MAOI but I wouldn't do it with Prozac. - BF, CO P. HARMALA AS ANTI-DEPRES SANT There have been several reports about extracting and using Peganum harmala seeds, but not a word about what I experienced. Three grams of seeds, crushed and swallowed in tomato juice, tasted very bitter but the bitterness passed and there wasn't much of a nolicable effect. Then I tried four level teaspoons (about 8-9 grams) the same way. How anyone could take this much without reporting the side- effects I'll never know! The taste is very bitter, but with the higher amount the bitterness increased, lingering in my mouth, stomach and brain. Nothing I ate or drank could make this go away: water made me vomit. Weak and sick, yet unable to sleep, I went to bed, summoning all my strength not to continue vomiting. I could only wait it out until the next day. There were some mild psychedelic effects, but they were completely eclipsed by the sickness -- the longest bad trip I've ever had. I suffer from depression and take anti-depressants. Despite the bad effects from the above trip, I didn't need to take my medicine for the first time in eight years. MAO inhibitors are good anti-depressants. Doctors don't like to prescribe strong MAOis because of potential reactions with tyramine- containing foods. During the above experiment I tried caffeine tea and raisins and had no problem at all. If the medical community has overlooked a wonderful anti-depressant in P. harmala, I will be trying to synthesize it, since it is legal. Can anyone tell me the procedure for buying this chemical? Chemical·companies often refuse to sell

to individuals for home use, but is it illegal to make a legal drug in the home? - BJ, FL fPeganum harmala's possible potential as an herbal anti- depressant suggests intriguing research possibilities. It is usually utilized for its ability to potentiate other substances and is not generally regarded as psychedelic by itself except in amounts large enough to make you sick. It is not illegal to possess, extract or ingest P. harmala at home. The alkaloids are easily extracted for ingestion in capsule form, thus avoiding the bitter taste. Here is a good formula: 1. Crush seeds and soak in methanol for 24 hours.

Assume three grams of seed equal one dose, so calculate original quantity with that ratio in mind. (eg., nine grams of seed will yield three doses of final product, etc.) 2. Filter methanol from seed mash; evaporate methanol in shallow dish. 3. After complete evaporation, scrape up residue, and

redissolve in aqueous acid (eg. lemon juice or vinegar in water to pH 5): add enough liquid to easily dissolve the extract. Simmer this in a crock pot for 12 hours. 4. Cool liquid and pour into a container (a large mason jar is good). Add methylene chloride (about one ounce per quart). Gently swirl ten or more times to mix thoroughly; each time you stop agitation, the methylene chloride will settle to the bottom. Use a turkey baster (or separatory funnel) to draw off the solvent. This is discarded as it contains unwanted oils and fats. 5. Add a base to the liquid (lye, pure ammonia, even baking soda if you can't obtain anything stronger), to pH9. 6. Add more methylene chloride (same ratio) and gently swirl to mix contents. Repeat this ten or more times over 24 hours: swirl gently to avoid creating emulsion bubbles. 7. Draw off solvent with turkey baster/separatory funnel and put in a clean dish. Evaporate thoroughly

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(methylene chloride is a carcinogen, so you want no residues left over). What remains are relatively pure harmala alkaloids. 8. Divide into predetermined number of doses and put in gelatine capsules. - Ed.]

YOHIMBE A MAO/? Do you know about the use of MAO inhibitors other than the harmala alkaloids? Yohimbe, for example, is supposed to be a MAOI. How high are the concentrations ofbeta-carbolines in the Passijlora species? -GW,NY [Unless you understand them thoroughly, avoid synthetics. Herbal MAOis, are considered the safest, and P. harmala seeds are the richest source I know of I've been unable to locate much information about yohimbe bark; there is some question about whether it's a true MAOI, although it does contain indole alkaloids and is regarded as an aphrodisiac. It might be interesting to try in combination with harmala exiract if you're into marathon sex. Conventional wisdom says that Passijlora isn't nearly as good a source of harmine as P. harmala. Unless you have nothing else, it sounds hardly worth bothering with -Ed.]

THE DRUG WAR HAS GONE TOO FAR Sitting in your ivory towers making laws against the flowers, while flowers of choice (your choice) are fine: coffee, cigarettes and wine State Supported. State Promoted. Advertised and Subsidized With wiretaps and pre-dawn busts your Pot Commando's power lusts make the cartels rich as nations while you pass your legislations designed for sound byte spin gyrations. You burn their crops you corrupt their cops you drive prices lo lheir lops Spending billions. Watching millions.

The Entheogen Law Reporter is a seasonal newsletter monitoring the treacherous polymorphic legal landscape relevant to entheogen users. ... It's the most valuable synthesis oflegal information on this subject you can buy anywhere. -Jim DeKorne TELR contains legal information of vital importance to anyone involved with illicit drugs on any level. The only question it leaves unanswered is this: isn't your freedom worth $25.00 peryear? -Jonathan Ott

5AMP'LI: IJJ\11: SS. S\I!UCKIPTIOH SlS W/I \1511: SJO IHTI:KHIITIOHIIL rOK MOKI: IHrOKMIITIOH JI:Hb IIH 51151: TO: TI:LK. P'OJT orrKI: OOX 7-mJ. bi!VIJ. CIILirOKHIII9~7 strictly confidential

Confiscate a home, a car. Bend over search. Piss in the jar. Supply-demand and rising prices paid in blood and sexual vices. They cope with dope but it's you that pays with midnight fear of alleyways. Both torching pipes and laying lines Who'll be first to change their minds? The dmg war has gone too far.

Morgyn

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The Entheogen Review, Winter Solstice, 1994

MORE DATURA DATA I gave up on Datura as a hallucinogen a long while back because of its unpredictability. It can be used in that way, but it takes patience. These days I use it as a cold remedy only. The following instructions are not definitive, just a guide: what works well for me may not work for someone else.

Datura as cold remedy. D. stramonium: one-half "0" capsule of crushed seed every 4-6 hours for the duration of the symptoms. D. metel: two crushed leaves and peppermint steeped in very hot water for 10-15 minutes and taken about every 6 hours for duration of symptoms. (The peppermint is simply to flavor, so use to taste.) Remember: Datura is active in the body for 24-48 hours, so the doses are cumulative relative to the times of ingestion. Some psychoactivity will be felt. Obviously, it is unwise to drive or operate dangerous machinery while using this botanical. Here is a safe method of using Datura as a hallucinogen: ingest two "0" capsules of crushed Datura seed; wait six hours or until the dry feeling begins to subside. Ingest two more capsules and wait again. By the time you have ingested six of them, you should be hallucinating; if not, repeat again. I personally wouldn't take more than eight capsules in one day, nor would I recommend anyone else do it. For sedative/hypnotic purposes use no more than two or three "0" capsules of crushed leaves instead of seeds.

Datura puts one in a state between sleep and wakefulness. There is often a feeling of being between two separate but overlapping realities. The only significant effect of long term usage is memory loss. Occasio~lly there will be an ache in the area of the kidneys. Hopefully, this will answer questions about this unique and very powerful plant. This refers to Datura stramonium seed. With Datura metel (inoxia) use half the amount of seeds, or just the leaves. - MB, IN DATURA WARNING I'm sure Datura has valid medicinal uses, and I'm sure it can be used shamanically, but the potential draw-

backs of not only toxicity but permanent brain damage (you know, the sort of thing they wanted to pin on psychedelics, but couldn't) deter me. In the '70s I looked up a study of long-term marijuana smokers in India using the Botanical Abstracts at U.C. Berkeley. Autopsies revealed brains that were small, spongy and full of lesions. As such results haven't been seen in other studies of marijuana users, the authors suggested the adverse effects might have been due to the custom, in India, of cutting marijuana with Datura leaf. That was enough to warn me off. - BD, CA

(Our accountant had) heard about the mind-blowing effect of ... Datura arborea, a big beautiful flowering shrub growing in the garden. He decided to try its effect. The plant men warned him that it was extremely dangerous, but he tried it, liked it, and despite urgent warnings, got hooked on it. His memory began to fail. An hour after eating, he couldn't remember that he'd had lunch. The local merchants caught on fast; they presented the same bills several times, and each time he paid them ... The company sent him to the best neurologic/ hospitals in the States, but nothing could be done. The cortical brain cells killed by the plant's poison do not regenerate. - N. Ma'rn'ell, Wuch Doctor's Apprentice DATURA DELIRIUM after drinking a 16 oz. infusion minutes forty About from 12 to 15 leaves of D. stramonium, I felt very warm; next, my vision was totally distorted. I couldn't focus on anything: my pupils were gigantic! There is no word in the dictionary to describe the massive thirst I had -- no way to cure it until the two day trip ended. (My eyes were still large three days later.) I left the bathroom to go downstairs to the kitchen: 12 or 13 steps which turned into ten-feet thick marshmallows! I can usually control my natural experiences, but there was no controlling this trip! I immediately apologized to the "higher ups" for tampering so carelessly without proper knowledge, and started praying to God not to let me OD! After that, I only tested with small doses. -AR,PA

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ALIEN CONTACTS I've been compari ng notes with a few other people and no one has the alien possession experien ces that I've had from my very first 5-gram [psilocybin mushroo m] trip. I'd never heard of such things but I wanted to be a dutiful explorer and do the heroic 5-gram dose with closed eyes. I certainly didn't expect the strange creature s that popped in or the super technica l "space ship" control panel, space station(s) --all kinds of stuff. "Why this?" I ask. I've never read a science fiction book, nor have I speculated about UFOs. Now I'm reading Crash Collusion etc., trying to figure it out. What I also didn't expect was: I was making weird noises and my body started to move in strange ways: somewh at robot-like, and though I was fascinate d I was also a bit scared and decided to continue the experim ent of allowing it/them to enter my body only when I had a

I seem to have quite a bit of control over this. After about 20 minutes, it's in me and I'm firm about limiting it to my head. Sort of a Faustian pact: I keep my eyes open so "it" can see and we share my mind/br ain/eyes . When I look in the mirror, I can actually see "it" looking out at me through my eyes. The eyes are moving back and forth but it's not me. I am just gazing steadily observin g this. Also, when I look into the eyes deeply the facial image changes into strange creature s. One has a cellopha ne like covering with black marking s like tattoos or hieroglyphics and it opens up to reveal an amber glass-like robot head with mechani cal parts, backlit from inside. And several other reptilian and insectoid al images. And Negro/Mon goloid/N ordic archetypes. This happens also when I do what I call the "alien be-with" when another person on 'shroom s sits opposite me (if they're brave) and we look into each others' eyes: they too see the im-

witness -- in case it was irreversible.

ages.

A couple weeks later I went to a Terence McKenn a worksho p and asked him about the embody ing phenomeno n. He said it was "as common as pie," but that I should do it alone so that I don't freak people out. I decided not to do it alone. So when I returned home I

Then I find a spot -- sit back and look up at the ceiling. There is somethi ng like a large TV screen up there and all I have to do is defocus and the show begins. I can see myself clearly up there, front view, side view and other angles as they're doing experim ents on me. It's like observin g a large warehouse-like space through several surveilla nce cameras , surveying some kind of beings going on about their business in this laboratory. I could get a close-up view by a lateral me-

schedule d a session with three of my friends: I tripped --they watched. After swallow ing 7.5 grams in a tea, I began experien cing a very heavy DMf-like tunneling through space-tim e dimensi ons: many explicit visions of other beings, other places. I was astounded, emotional. It didn't take long until the possession happene d. I let it happen fully. I was all over the room, my body blasted with charged energy: 4 hours

chanical moving device and an elevator that would move and suddenly stop \Vith a jerk. Then a zoom shot would focus in on what seemed to be going on. There is somethi ng taking place in the backgro und but I can't

of this.

make it out.

So now I do 3.5 grams with the full spectrum of effects. I become possessed, but now I have boundaries. After it expande d my lungs with extreme force, I realized that this could be damagin g, as I am not athletic. Now I only allow "it" to enter my head, even though it wants to enter my entire body. It will take whateve r I

Finally, the pomo!,>raphy. One time it was three screens, side by side, with each screen showing naked women from the 1930s: two women per screen, each acting in their own show and all showing simultan eously. It was perfect black and white photogra phy and I felt that this was meant by "them" to appeal to me. I resisted the perceived manipul ation and went on to

give.

other places.

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On another occasion (this trip was an LSD/DMT combination) I was shown very slick modern (perfect cinematography) movies of bodies-- beautiful by Madison Avenue standards, but lacking totally in emotion or heart. I figured that this was the aliens' concept of what we go for. Behind and to the side of the imagery I saw weird creatures and a chemistry lab with glassware that seemed to interface with the porno images via cooking some anemic pale-red stuff. This was all dirty and grainy-looking like a greatly enlarged photograph. The feeling was shameful, ugly, disgusting. 1L feels good to write this down as if someone could actually understand it. Sometimes I get lonely -- there's not a lot of support out there for this kind of research. I'm grateful for any information I can get regarding entheogens and the experiences that come from ingesting them. -- JA, HI

REALITY MAPS Not all entities of the imaginal realm are figments of our imagination, as some forms of psychology seem to imply. I learned that several years ago experimenting with Magick -- a cautionary tale, to be sure. Ultimately the universe is one and we are all one (nasty characters and all), but until the final integration a psychonaut should be skilled in some form of psychic protection. How do we begin to map the imaginal realms? Perhaps by sharing our highest visions and weirdest experiences with each other we can begin to discern geographic outlines of the enchanted landscape. It would be great ifby the end of the next century we had detailed quantum maps of the Invisible Landscape (Inscape) as we now have in the form of geodetic maps. - TM, VT

DEALING WITH JINN I second the idea (Summer '94 ER) about bewaring of "deals" with entities. This reminds me of the Muslim advice that if one is successful in invoking a "genie" (jitm in Arabic) that the first thing one should do is or der him to empty a lake with a sieve. That way he'll be preoccupied with his task long enough to buy you time to figure out what to do with llris guy who could be a potential problem if left to his own devices. Watch your step when you encounter any entity -- by no means should you presume it to be benevolent or

within your control. -- JH, WA [Does anyone have advice on how to create a beneficial relationship with an inner ally? - Ed.]

BOOK REVIEW The Essential Psychedelic Guide, D.M. Turner (1994), 112 pages, Panther Press, 1032 Irving, #514, San Francisco, CA 94122, $14.95 (includes postage and handling). This was a challenging book for me to review, since when I first began it, I wasn't particularly impressed: the title is just about impossible to live up to, and the introductory ideas probably will be considered elementary by most readers of this newsletter. Then there's the matter of the claim that 5-MeO-DMT is a MAO inhibitor -- an assertion I find highly suspect, since the only place I've encountered it previously is in Legal Highs, a source I now consider unreliable (reviewed in Winter, 1992 ER). In short, without better data, I'm assuming that 5-MeO-DMT is not a MAO inhibitor. Nevertheless, as I got further into the book I began to realize that its fearless author has visited some very rarefied realms of hyperspace and qualifies as a psychedelic shaman by anyone's definition. (How many readers would be willing to emulate him is beside the point!) Using a wide range of catalysts: from LSD to Ketamine and DMT, plus many others, often in combinations which might cause even the most reckless experimenter to stop and reconsider, Turner seems to have boldly gone where few have gone before. (How about a "cocktail" consisting of psilocybin mushrooms, Syrian Rue, DMT, Nitrous Oxide and Ketamine, for example!) His descriptions of what he calls "Cydelikspace" (the same multiverse others have termed Hyperspace, the Imaginal Realm, Mind-Space, etc.) are gathered together in the last chapter, and in my opinion constitute an extremely valuable confirmation of a transcendent reality that shamans and mystics have been describing for millennia. Although it would take me a long time to work my way up to some of the dosages and combinations of drugs described here (and any prudent reader should exercise the same caution) I have to recommend this book as a valuable documentation of some truly intrepid trips. Definitely worth reading. - Jim DeKorne

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LEGAL ENTHEOGENS To obtain uncontrolled tryptamines: contact chemical supply companies listed under retail in the phone book. The phone is probably most appropriate for selecting a particular company. Even in the retail listing, some companies have policies about selling certain chemicals to the public. If one is affiliated with a school or business and can provide proof of this association or proper (according to guidelines set by the company) authorization from such an institution, she or he will probably be able to purchase uncontrolled substances of any kind from any retailer. Said documentation will likely allow one to purchase from a wholesaler as well thereby cutting costs 50 to 75 percent. I personally have not been able to locate any 4-hydroxylated tryptamines (4-0H- tryptamine, 4-0H-methyltryptamine, 4-0H- methylethyltryptamine, 4-0H-ethyltryptamine, 4-0H-diethyltryptamine, etc.), which is unfortunate because these are likely the most visually active tryptamines. Likewise, I've encountered no source for tryptamines with substitutions higher than methyl and ethyl. This is also unfortunate as the uncontrolled DPT, DIT, DAT, are likely the most promising candidates for experimentation outside of the 4-0H substitutes. I have found alphamethyltryptamine, alphaethyltryptamine, 5-methoxyN,N-dimethyltryptamine and N-methyltryptamine to be readily available. Making a ca.Yh (no money orders or checks) purchase might permit the buyer to circumvent provision of identification. At the San Francisco bay area supply company I purchased from, one supposedly does not need to provide l.D. \\'ith a money order if the purchase is under $100. This problem might be avoided if one does not prepay but simply pays cash on pickup. My purchase of about $160 (money order) required two fonns ofi.D., one state-approved with a picture, the other anything with my name on it, as well as the license number of the car I was driving! I don't know what they might have needed if I hadn't driven! They also required a signature that matched the sit:,'llature on the approved I.D. and a statement of intent. The purchase of some substances is reported to the government as required by law, but I don't know

which ones. I'm sure many precursors to illegal drugs are reported but I'm not certain that all tryptamines are watched. If a statement of purpose is required, I suspect it is a substance that is watched. -Anonymous,

C4

CANADIAN SOURCE FOR DPT This is in response to TB (Winter '93 ER) regarding legal entheogens. 1-propyl-Dipropyltryptamine (DPT) is available from a company in my area called Electronic Concepts. The company is so-named because they have to do with chemistry and electron bonding. They are basically an analytical and consulting finn for large companies. They also dabble in custom synthesis. They sell DPT for $50 U.S. a gram (postpaid). It is sold for research only, and not for human consumption. They will deal with either individuals or companies through the mail. Send your order on a company letterhead (a comupter home-made one will do) and pre-pay with a money order. State with your order that the chemical will only be used for laboratory research and is not for human consumption, drug manufacture or resale. They ship very discreetly in small packages. Any Canadian orders will be totaly problem-free as DPT is not illegal in Canada, and Canada has no analog drug law. DPT yields 50 doses to a gram. A typical dose is 20mg. A strong dose can go up to 50mg. It is usually smoked with some other medium -- not tobacco, which 1 have heard is a dangerous combination. The effects are different, but comparable, to cannabis and weak doses of LSD. There is mood elevation and enhanced communication between people. Ask for product #1247 DPT from: Electronic Concepts 8264 King Road West Bolton, ON L7E 5Sl CANADA

-LB, Canada

FOR WHATEVER IT'S WORTH The attitude on drugs is generally more liberal and relaxed up here in Canada -- we don't have manditory

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minimums and you just get small fines for possession or cultivation. -- JP., Afontrea/

LEGAL RESPONSE DPT is currently an unscheduled substance in the U.S. The literature indicates that it is a homologue of DMT. Therefore, although it is not explicitly out!awed, there is theoretically nothing stopping a federal prosecutor from charging a person caught in possession ofDPT with a violation of the federal Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act (CSAEA). To prove that DPT is an analog ofDMT and hence unlawful to possess, the government would have to prove that DPT is a substance (1) the chemical structure of which is substantially similar to the chemical structure ofDMT; (2) which has a stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect on the central nervous system that is substantially similar to or greater than the effects ofDMT. My perusal of the case-law indicates no reported case wherein DPT was the subject of a charge under the CSAEA, so the question of whether it falls within the CSAEA is not yet settled as a matter of law. It is interesting to question whether importing DPT (assuming for the purposes of discussion that it is an analog of DMT) violates the federal law against importing a controlled substance. Technically, it would seem so, but the degree of difficulty in prosecuting such a case probably makes such an importation prosecution impractical. -- Defense Attorney

ILLEGALENTHEOGENS DEA STING? I received an offer in the mail for a newly schedul(!(J hallucinogen (2C-B) from Isis health foods of Cape Town South Africa. Is it just a coincidence thatJSIS is an acronym for the DEA's computerized reporting system which is fully integrate~ with every U.S. embassy world-\\-ide? Had I bought it (and the price was a real bargain), I might just be up for ten years in jail. --Anonymous To meet the increasing demands on FDA for surveil-

lance and streamlined operations, the agency is working to automate its import operations. It is developing a sophisticated computerized import support and information system with the acronym IS1S, which will provide product and arrival data more quickly. .. .FDA's closest partner in import surveillance is the U.S. Customs Service, which provides the agency with substantial information about suspected violators. Indeed, much of the data for FDA's ISIS will come through Customs' automated system.

- FDA Consumer/ October, 1992

LEGAL RE~i'PONSE It does seem odd that the company's name corresponds to the FDA and Customs' "Import Support and Information System" (ISIS). The potentially sinister import of the name identity may be lessened, however, by the fact that the ISIS acronym is fairly prevalent within the federal government. (ISIS is also the acronym for the "International Species Inventory System" and the federal government's "Integrated Systems and Information Services" on-line computing environment linking microcomputers, minicomputers, and mainframe computers.) Isis is also, of course, the name of the E!,•yptian nature goddess married to Osiris, the god of the dead. It's well known in criminal defense circles that the DEA occasionally establishes bogus companies in the hope of gaining intelligence and ultimately arresting people who contact such companies. For example, in 1982 the DEA operated Universal Solvents of America and placed fairly discreet advertisements in several magazines "oriented toward illicit drug usage." More recently, the DEA, in conjunction with the Idaho Bureau of Narcotics, operated Geo-Data Chemicals in Boise, Idaho. Both of the above companies ostensibly sold laboratory equipment and chemicals and were aimed at identifying people unlawfully manufacturing controlled substances. In fact, both companies led to successful convictions. Assuming for the purposes of discussion that Isis Health Foods is a covert operation, it would be interesting to know what efforts it makes at reaching out to customers here in the U.S. If it engages in such tactics as direct mailing to selected targets, it would be open-

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ing the door to an entrapment defense -- though I hasten to add that entrapment is one of those defenses that is very difficult to sell to a jury these days. Under federal law it is, of course, illegal (without prior authorization from the Attorney General) to import a controlled substance into the U.S. In order to convict a person of illegally importing a controlled substance, the govelT'.ment must not only prove that the person actively did so, but also that the person knew the substance was controlled within the United States. With the exception of rather sophisticated psychonautical types who know what 2C-B is and know it has recently been added to Schedule I, I suspect that few people would realize that the Isis HF product, known as "Erox" is a controlled substance here in the U.S. Therefore, convicting such a person of unlawful importation might run into some difficulties.

-Defense Attorney

FURTHER FEEDBACK I hope you don't do a test order of 2C-B! There is enough detail in the article to get a conviction and it's a set-up for carrier weight or encouraging dealers who want the pure substance for cutting and concealment in shipment. The actual substance is legal in Germany, so just take a vacation in the winter for a trial. I wouldn't touch the DPT either. The Nease Chemical company advertises custom synthesis of tryptamine analogs under a phony name (but their address is the same). Their actual business is pesticides, so I didn't stop by with my shopping list! The DEA has learned about the "snowball effect": where they let deals go through for a while and let those people tell their friends and so on, and then even a year or two later round them up. The U.S. has a huge security apparatus looking for something to do with itself The CIA was laughed at for wanting to curb the "invasion" of the Soviet Mafia into New York, but drugs are always good for a quick appropriation. What's left for them to do? The Cold War is over. My feeling is that you are on the right track giving people the tools to avoid the establishment. It's cheaper and even educational. Many people will de-

velop an interest in plants and mushroom growing and even take a careful look at desert plants and grasses. Anything one must "buy" can be regulated and taxed. I was surprised to learn that there is only 6 cents worth of tobacco (farm price) in a $2.50 pack of cigarettes and that the filters don't work. -Anonymous

ANOTHER REVIEW The Drug Policy Letter, Drug Policy Foundation, 4455 Connecticut Ave, NW, Ste B-500, Washington, DC 20008-2302 Phone: 1-800-388-3784. FAX l-202-537-3007 Membership: $25.00/year A quote from their newsletter describes this organization best: "The Drug Policy Foundation is comprised

of distinguished scholars, doctors, judges, policy makers and concerned citizens dedicated to the search for responsible reform of our current drug policies... Every dollar ofyour support, up to $1 million each year, will be matched by the Open Society Institute." They sell a wide variety of books and videotapes (members get a 10% discount) and sponsor conferences devoted to these issues. The newsletter keeps you abreast of all the latest developments in this area nationwide. Quote: "Wah some modern adaptations, we should return to the people the freedom of choice regarding drugs that was unwisely taken from them at the turn of the century." An impressive organization that is making a difference. Join up.

FOUNDING FATHERS TURN OVER IN THEIR GRAVES I was convicted of cultivation of mushrooms and possession of hashish.. .I was arrested again after a special probation search. (When you're on probation you sacrifice all your rights and are subject to unlimited search and seizure.) I was re-arrested for possession of San Pedro cactus plants. They also confiscated all my books and notes. If you are a good person, a kind person, a person who minds his own business it does not matter. They will come after us because we are a threat to the sanctity of the State. All my money now goes to my legal defense. I wish you good luck, please be careful. I'm only 19 years old now, and my life is troubled. - KY, CA

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EXTRACTIO N NOTES TANNIC ACID Some of the DMT-containing barks are going to be quite high in tannins. Some of the legume related plant barks can be as high as 50% tannins. When preparing the water extract of a DMT bark, would adding vinegar (acetic acid) cause the DMT to adhere to the acetic acid in preference to the tannic acid? According to the Merck Index, tannins cause water insoluble precipitates with gelatin, starch and alkaloids. After filtration, would vigorously stirring starch into the extract cause the tannic acid to adhere to the starch? The goal is to remove the tannic acid by letting the starch, or whatever would be effective, settle, after which the non-starch portion of the liquid could be skimmed off and used. Twenty- five percent ofthe rootbark of Desmanthus illinoensis is DMT, the 75% is indole 3-acetic acid plus tryptophol --correct? Are these two other compounds orally active? Do they degrade through combustion? -- Vwhirla-whirla, OR EXTRACTION SOLVENTS of using isopropyl, ethyl, etc. alcohol as results Are the the sole solvent similar to the results of extraction using organic solvents such as methylene chloride? Organic solvents wreak havoc on the environment. Unless a collection device similar to those utilized by the dry-cleaning industry were utilized, evaporation of organic solvents into the atmosphere is not environmentally responsible. They also wreak havoc on human beings. In the form of dry cleaning solvents they leave detectable residues on clothing! -RS, CA [Ethanol is a suitable solvent for some substances, not so hot for others. Much depends upon the chemical makeup of the plants concerned. Methylene chloride is an excellent extraction solvent, but is also a known carcinogen. I am told that after complete evaporation, no harmful residues remain. The following quotations address some of these questions. - Ed.]

SELECTION OF A SOLVENT The first step, selection ofa suitable solvent, is sometimes difjicu/t.lfthe substance is known, a solvent for

crystallization has usually been reported, and the best procedure is to turn to the literature for this information. However, if the substance is new, a solvent must be found, and, in many cases, it is difjicult to predict what the solvent will be. In general, we may say that "like dissolves like"-- that is, a substance will dissolve in a solvent containing similar groups-- or better, that polar solvents will dissolve polar molecules and nonpolar solvents will dissolve nonpolar molecules ... Even with these generalizations, it is very difjicult to predict the best solvent for a new substance; in most cases, the method of trial and error must be used. -J. Cason, H. Rapoport, Laboratory Text in Organic {_'/temistry, (1960), Prentice Hall, NJ, Pg 15 LIKE DISSOLVES LIKE F'or a solvent to do its job its molecules have to approach closely enough to solute molecules to interact with them. This is why water is such a good solvent for some substances. Water molecules are ''polar": there is a slight negative electric charge on the o.xygen atom, which is balanced by slight positive charges on the hydrogens. So a water molecule will interact electrostatically with ions such as chloride, which is why water will dissolve sodium chloride, common salt, a substance made up exclusively of ions. The general rule is that like dissolves like: that is, most organic chemicals, which are nonpolar or "oily", are not soluble in polar solvents like water, but dissolve in solvents such as hexane, chlorine-containing hydrocarbons and ethers, which are themselves oily.-- D. Bradley, "Solvents get the big squeeze," New Scientist, 6 August, 1994, Pg. 33 SAN PEDRO EXTRACTION I think the best method of Trichocereus extraction is to thinly slice the plant, string it up to dry like Christmas tree popcorn, powder in a blender and then boil in lemon juice water, filter, then add salt to the remaining liquid to increase evaporation (like a humidifier requires). This way, as much of the pulp as possible is exposed and the viscosity is reduced as well as the boiling time. - Eli-X, TX

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The Entheogen Review, Winter Solstice, 1994

MORNING GLORY EXTRACTIONS The nausea-producing principle in morning glory and Hawaiian Baby Woodrose is water soluble. A simple method of removing it is: Grind MG or HBW seed into a coarse meal; soak in an amount of water equal to the amount of ground seed, shake. Allow to soak for a period up to, but not exceeding 45 minutes. Put the water and mash into a coffee filter or other straining device. The following step should be done as quickly as possible to avoid losing any of the hallucinogenic LSA: As soon as the water has drained from the pulp, pour ethyl alcohol through the mash, grasp the filter at the top and quickly squeeze the alcohol through it. Mter the alcohol has passed through the filter, touch the mash: if it still has a slimy feel, repeat the alcohol rinse. When the mash is no longer slimy, it will be about 85% nauseant-free. Don't get carried away with the alcohol rinse, as you can lose a good deal of the LSA that way. This procedure should be complete well before one minute is up. - MB, IN PROBLEMS WITH STARTING FLUID ETHER Q: I used your method of spraying engine starting fluid down a tube to collect ether. The final combined Desmanthus illinoensis extracts evaporated off to leave about a shot glass full of dark yellow oil. A mechanic friend warned me that every starting fluid he knows of contains motor oil to keep the engine from seizing up. Being curious, and thinking that the oils might be vegetable oils from the original plant material, I smoked some combined with an herbal blend: Ecch! Tasted bad and made me very ill! Is there any way to extract the alkaloids out of the remaining oil? I'd hate to think of people ingesting motor oil, especially with a MAO inhibitor. I will probably use naptha next time, as it is easy to get and evaporates cleanly. Does it go to the bottom or the top of the working solution? Does the lye added to the aqueous solution make it dangerous? -- EK, LA A: Starting fluid isn't as clean a source of ether as I was originally informed. I only used it once, and didn't notice any oil, but perhaps all brands aren't the same. Since the extract I was working with turned out to be inactive anyway, I went back to methylene chloride. Unless someone comes up with a safe and easy way to separate the oil from the ether in starting fluid, leave

it alone. Ether is so explosive that it is too dangerous anyway. (Methylene chloride isn't perfect either, but at least it is not inflammable.) Naptha, easily obtained in the form of Coleman fuel, rises to the top -- I've personally never had any luck with it as an extraction solvent. My understanding of the basification step in the extraction process is that one is merely changing the pH of the aqueous solution to enable the alkaloids to be extracted with an organic solvent. The alkaloids thus extracted should not be dangerously basic. - Ed.

SOL VENT RECIPES I called a local chemical supply company to ask about buying some ether or chloroform. They told me I had to show them my driver's license because "some people use them to make drugs." Although other companies may sell chemicals more readily, I decided to find another way to obtain organic solvents. One of the first things I unearthed was an anonymous primer on how to manufacture each of the above chemicals. To make chloroform you mix 17.8 grams of pure Sodium Hypochlorite (from photography shops or evaporated bleach) with 120 ml of water. To this you add 3 ml of Acetone (from nail varnish or paint remover) and shake. Once this has settled for a few minutes you distill the solution gently until oily drops of chloroform appear on the condenser. Continue distilling until no more oily drops appear. The collected liquid's lower, heavier fraction is reasonably pure chloroform. To make ether you slowly add 8 ml of concentrated sulphuric acid (from a car battery) to 10 ml of pure ethanol (Everclear) in a flask placed in an ice bath. Then distill as above at a temperature of 140 deg. F. and what accumulates in the collector vessel is the ether. Keep the collector vessel as cold as possible while distilling as the vapor is extremely explosive. I th.Utk I've found a way to easily remove ethanol from water in a way that would keep the alkaloids fully present (i.e. not like in distillation). Simply freeze an open container containing a water/alcohol mix with a rod stuck in it at an angle. When the water freezes the alcohol will remain liquid and migrate to the bottom of the container. It can be extracted by removing the rod and pouring the alcohol through the resulting hole. One could use ethanol as a non-poisonous, easily accessible organic solvent to extract alkaloids in the same way as ether or chloroform. - DB

Post Office Box 778, El Rito, New Mexico 97530 USA 15

The Entheogen Review, Winter Solstice, 1994

NETWORK FEEDBACK DREAM MACHINE The dreamachine is a simple device which was promoted some years ago by a group called the Temple Ov Psychic Youth. Its construction is very simple: all you need is an old 78 rpm turntable (available at most thrift stores), a 32" square piece of heavy paper and a light (I took apart an old lamp). With a yardstick draw a grid of two inch squares on the paper. Then trace the shapes in the sequences shown. (Make a template of each shape to insure uniformity.) Cut out each shape with an X-acto knife, bend the paper into a cylinder and fasten the edges with tape. Place the cylinder on the Ulmtable and dangle the light down into the rube. Turn on the machine and close your eyes. If constructed properly, the flicker produced on your closed eyelids will correspond with the alpha rhy1hm in your brain. Experiments to try: Put your face close to the machine and then far away. Put the machine in front of a speaker and it will bend the sound. Meditate -- I find the dreamachine works best when 1 relax and clear my head: let the visions come from within. Common phenomena include visions of nameless colors spinning into and out of one another in chaotic beauty. Or visions of religious symbols that seem not to belong to this world or time. [Note of caution: this could cause epileptic seizures. ] If you discover anything interesting, please share it with the network. I'm particularly interested in how entheogens might augment this hypnotrance state.-- TA, CO · - - - -- -- -- - ----------- >L·~

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:::::: :._: :.: :·: .:_:-:-:-: '··:)·!: :.:; :·.: ::::::::::::::.::.::::::: [.:: .::. :: :.; :.::.:::::: :::-:-::::: ':::::: .::::: 30 % spawn to substrate ratio) may be required for faster growth to provide the dense mycelial mat required for fruit-body production. For most wood-loving mushrooms, at least four weeks are required to establish mycelium density sufficient to survive the winter. The spring is the best time to acquire clean, freshly cut wood chips for larger cultivated beds in temperate climates. The ideal substrate is composed of wood chips one-eighth inch in diameter to four inches length, with a minimum of leafy matter. If one acquires wood chips from February through April when the sap is running and before trees develop their foliage, one is assured of having the highest possible sugar, nutrient, and water content in the chips with an absolute minimum leafy material. I think that it is worth emphasizing the importance of having clean wood chips. In my experience, clean wood chips colonize much more quickly than dirty or muddy chips and I believe that this is because the dirt seals the pores of the wood chip and actually limits the amount of wood that is exposed and made available to the mycelium. It is my understanding that irregular one- to four-inch size wood chips provide an ideal compromise between the smaller chips that provide greater surface area for rapid colonization and the larger chips that support dense mycelium growth necessary for maximum fruiting. As previously explained, sawdust allows for rapid, wispy mycelium development, but unless added to larger wood chip pieces, it quickly loses its vitality. If fresh, hardwood sawdust is available, it can be added in a 50:50 ratio (by volume) to larger, one- to four-inch size chips, to form an optimized substrate matrix.

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While Paul Stamets has reported good results utilizing wood chips and bark from some conifers, such as Douglas Fir, I have seen slow, reluctant mycelium growth when such Fir chips were used, and even this was only when other hardwood chips were supplemented into the substrate. For best results, I recommended using only broadleaf hardwoods rather than softwood pines. Fast-growing hardwoods such as Alder, Birch, Cottonwood, Eucalyptus, and Poplars have a greater

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amount of sapwood than heartwood, and thus possess a relatively higher amount of sugars conducive to rapid colonization. The trade-off is that such species will also decompose more quickly than denser hardwood species, such as Oak, which will support saprophytic mushrooms longer. The two species that I have seen the most voracious and rapid mycelium development with are Alder and Eucalyptus, and I would recommend refreshing the cultivated beds with fresh, clean wood chips once a year to ensure a healthy fall crop. If one has access to a shredder or chipper to reduce woody debris and miscellaneous materials to mulch, one could experiment with a variety of different hardwoods and various organic refuse such as grape vines, corn cobs, corn and vegetable stalks as suitable substrate material. One advantage to shredding your own chips would be to design custom substrate blends, such as Alder and Oak, so that the rapid colonization of Alder is combined with the longevity of Oak. If one would prefer to let someone else do the work, there are numerous local sources for fresh, clean hardwood chips. I have received fresh wood chips from the local utility company, the city parks and recreation forestry division, and neighborhood arborists without having to go through the hassle of acquiring a chipper and doing the manual labor myself. Both sources were more than happy to place my name on a list to receive a truckload full of chips. The only problem with this is the chance of receiving wood chips from multiple species of trees. I recommend using an excuse such as mulching the flower beds, laying sod, or planting rhodo-

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dendrons, in order to justify insisting on getting hardwood chips. In my opinion, it is worth going to the extra trouble and expense to ensure that one is receiving only broadleaf hardwoods. My landlord was only too willing to oblige reimbursing me for the expense of a truckload full of fresh, clean wood chips once I did a little landscaping around the property with the mulch. Should one be unable to acquire Alder or Eucalyptus wood chips for a garden, fear not, for there are quite a few choices for the home cultivator. I have heard of amateur mycologists using Hickory and Mesquite wood chips that were located in the grilling section at the local hardware store. Although I have not tried such wood chips on my cultivated Stropharia beds, I suspect that this could be a convenient and reasonable source for many individuals who are unable or unwilling to locate fresh wood chips in bulk. Although this is by no means a comprehensive list, I encourage experimentation with the following woods: Scientific Name Acer species Alnus species Arbutus species Betula species Carpinus species Carya species Castanea species Castanopsis species Cornus species Corylus species Larix species Liquidambar species Lithocarpus species Ostyra species Populus species Prosopis species Quercus species Rhus species Robinia species Salix species Fagus species Taxus species Fraxinus species Ulmus species Juglans species

Common Name Maples Alders Madrones Birches Hornbeams Hickories Chestnuts Chinkapins Dogwoods Filberts Larches Sweetgums Tanoaks Ironwoods Cottonwoods and Poplars Mesquite Oaks Sumac Black Locust Willows Beechs Yews Ashes Elms Walnut    

Before the wood chips are used, Stamets recommends moistening them to near saturation. The drier the chips, the more

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necessary this step becomes, and if one is using store-bought chips, then one might consider soaking the chips overnight. However, no matter how clean these wood chips may appear, hit them with a blast from the garden hose before putting them on the beds. This really makes a difference with growth; I am not sure if this is due to rinsing off dirt, dust, or plant residue, or if the damp chips just provide better kindling for the mycelium. The point here is to wash or rinse the chips just prior to putting them on the beds. You want the chips to be damp, but not dripping wet. If you are going to give the chips a good rinsing, make sure to do it away from the beds, so as not to flood them. When constructing the beds, one may wish to start by sprinkling one to two inches of moistened wood chips on the bed location. This forms the lower stratum of substrate, and serves to elevate the spawn and promote drainage. Then spawn, either in the form of transplanted mycelium, inoculated cultured spawn, or myceliated cardboard, should be evenly sprinkled on top of the first layer of wood chips. Finally, a second layer of moistened wood chips should be added on top of the spawn and mixed thoroughly by hand or rake with care not to further muddy the chips. The finished beds should now be four to six inches high and approximately two feet wide. Once inoculated, one may wish to water the beds again, but care should be given not to flood them. To ensure a humid environment for mushroom development, Stamets recommends covering the substrate with cardboard, plastic shade cloth, or scrap wood to protect the mycelium from direct sun and dehydration. Aside from a weekly inspection and watering only when necessary, the beds are left alone to the natural forces of the mycelium.

MYCELIUM RUNNING As previously explained, several factors will determine the rate of colonization and mycelial expansion. I cannot stress enough the importance of rapid colonization. It is better to start out with a smaller bed and a higher inoculation ratio to ensure rapid colonization than to have a larger bed with scat-




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tered and dispersed spawn that may not fully colonize. If the spawn is too dispersed, the inoculated particles will not be close enough to form the contiguous mycelial colony required for fruit-body development. Again, use the 20–25% spawnto-substrate ratio. Once the beds have been fully colonized, the grower may choose to induce fruiting if environmental conditions allow. If the environmental conditions are not favorable to fruiting, yet the temperature is above freezing, then one may choose to continue to expand the beds by adding more substrate material. Keep in mind that if one does not expect that additional substrate material can be fully colonized before the arrival of winter, then no more new substrate material should be added to the beds, and fruiting should be encouraged. Mushroom patches are transitory communities and as the mycelium decomposes organic material, it must continue to move in order to retain its vitality. Thus, it is far better to keep the mycelium running by adding new substrate material until environmental conditions are advantageous to fruiting. Only very cold temperatures (below 40º F) will keep the mycelium viable for a prolonged period. If the window for fruiting has passed, then unless new material is added to the patch, the mycelium will exhibit what Stamets calls “dieback.” This is seen as an obvious decline in the vigor of the mycelium. Where the colony was once a thick mat of mycelium, it begins to represent small islands. The patch can be salvaged either by re-introducing more organic material, or by raking what is left of the bed into a suitable mound. This past summer I raked the remains of one bed into a heap six to eight inches deep at the base of a tree. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of a fall fruiting and was expecting having to start over in the spring. Come fall, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the heap of mycelium and debris had congealed into a solid mass and soon began to fruit with an intensity I had never seen before at that location. It remains unavoidable that the location will need further work in the spring, but I was delighted by the crop where I was not expecting one, and I promptly named the patch Serendipity.

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CASING AND FRUITING Generally speaking, primordia formation requires shade and increased waterings to keep the moisture content high, as well as cool temperatures between 45º and 55º F (7–13º C). In the fall, the bed is uncovered and given a heavy watering twice a week, but with care not to flood it. This is the prime time to consider a substrate topping to aid in primordia formation and fruit-body development. Some may argue that this topping is actually a casing layer, fulfilling the basic functions and requirements of a casing structure. First, a casing serves to protect the colonized substrate from drying out. As I have previously mentioned, mycelium requires a humid environment and is extremely sensitive to dry air. Should the outer mycelium surface dry out, the exposed cells die and form a tough, leathery layer. While this hardened layer slows any further moisture loss from the substrate, it also significantly reduces gaseous air exchange and limits further, if any at all, fruit-body formation. Thus, the casing layer must remain open and porous and maintain its structure after repeated waterings to allow metabolic gases to diffuse from the substrate into the air. Second, the casing layer provides a humid microclimate that is conducive to primordia formation and development. This is an important point, as the casing layer should be made of material that will allow the mushroom mycelium to develop an extensive, healthy network throughout the casing layer that will support the formation of primordia and their subsequent growth into mushrooms. In other words, although the casing should have low nutritional value compared to the substrate, if the mycelium cannot grow through the casing layer, then it is not a suitable casing material.

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Third, the casing layer must be able to both absorb and release considerable quantities of water to support both vegetative growth and mushroom development. Remember that mushrooms are 90% water, and that the growth of mushrooms from pinheads to mature fruit-bodies is largely dependent on the amount of moisture available. Without sufficient water, mushrooms remain small and stunted, as they are forced to compete with one another for moisture. With the casing functioning as a water reservoir, the mushrooms are supplied with adequate moisture and are able to reach full size even during heavy flushes. Fourth, the casing supports the growth of beneficial microorganisms that influence mushroom primordia formation. While the casing should be relatively free of pests and pathogens, it is not necessary to sterilize the casing in order to promote the stimulation of these beneficial microbes.

CASING MATERIALS Although there are a number of materials that can be used for casing, including straw, Douglas Fir boughs, fallen leaves, and even shredded paper, I have found sphagnum moss to be the tops (tee hee). After experimenting with numerous biodegradable casing materials, the best results I have seen used sphagnum moss as soon as the substrate was inoculated to aid in rapid colonization, in addition to promoting heavy mushroom fruiting in the fall. Even though horticultural grade sphagnum can be a little pricey (the best comes from Chile and New Zealand), those in the know swear by the stuff and will cover their beds with nothing less. The moss has antibacterial properties that inhibit the growth of competing organisms while acting as the perfect humidity blanket. Due to its high moisture retention, sphagnum moss excels at providing the perfect humid microclimate for mycelium growth without risking over-watering the substrate material. Since the moss is usually shipped dried and compressed, I prefer to soak the sphagnum moss

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overnight prior to applying on top of the beds. After lightly squeezing the moss so that it is damp, but not soaking wet, it can carefully be applied in a one- to two-inch thick layer across the beds. One only needs to lightly water the sphagnum moss topping whenever the moss feels dry to the touch, about once a week or so, to rehydrate the moss. Because of moss’s hydrophilic properties, it is more forgiving to over-watering and actually disperses water uniformly across the casing layer. An additional bonus to using this material is that due to the long ropey characteristics of the sphagnum moss, when colonized, it creates a wonderful spongy mycelium that can be easily re-used as inoculum. The mycelium cake can be easily cut with a knife and removed as necessary. After extensive experiments with various organic casing materials, I can tell you that nothing compares to sphagnum moss. Douglas Fir boughs and straw hold their structure after repeated waterings, and have a large amount of surface area that acts as a micro-condenser, but cannot absorb and retain moisture as well as sphagnum moss. Shredded brown paper can retain more moisture than Fir boughs or straw, but it can lose its structure after several waterings and has the tendency to plaster itself on top of the beds, closing the pores of the mycelium and limiting air exchange. The easiest way to correct this problem is to use a fork or wire brush to gently scratch the surface of the mycelium, and then re-cover with the casing of choice.




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help to extend the cropping season during the winter. Some growers may have difficulty naturalizing a certain mushroom species to the local environment; in such cases, it may prove necessary to use a local strain already adapted to local conditions. In climates unsuited for natural culture, the chips may be filled into trays and preferably topped with moss (although layers of damp cardboard will work), and taken indoors. Even though most temperate mushrooms have evolved to survive cold temperatures, I have known people to either cover their beds in the winter or to bring them indoors on trays to protect them from the cold and to allow the mycelium to continue running. Once the primary bed has been established outdoors, it can considered a perennial plant that will flourish as long as its needs of moisture, shade, and substrate are being met. With each successive year, chips can be drawn from the original bed and used as inoculum. If one maintains a 20–25% spawnto-substrate ratio, then this theoretically means that under optimum circumstances, the beds can be expanded up to four or five times their original size on an annual basis! Due to the prolific nature of the mycelium, once one becomes comfortable with the local conditions that the mycelium requires, one can easily seed mulch beds in public locations so that others may become educated in these fantastic wood-loving mushrooms. After all, mom always said to share. 

Fruit-body development is basically a continuation of primordia formation. Humidity is kept as high as possible (90– 95%) with slightly warmer daytime temperatures of 50º–65º F (10–18º C). When the mushrooms begin to fruit, watering should be gauged to environmental conditions and natural precipitation. As long as the temperature stays above freezing, the mushrooms will continue to produce, usually for several months. Extended freezing weather ends outdoor cropping until the following year. Throughout the winter the beds can be protected by a layer of straw, plastic, or new wood chips topped with plastic. This is particularly important for harsh climates. While certain regions of the country are better suited to outdoor culture than others, I encourage experimentation and resourcefulness. For instance, if one lived in an area with an exceedingly dry climate, in addition to the liberal use of damp sphagnum moss topping, one may consider making the cultivated bed inside a cold frame or plastic greenhouse. Even a simple lean-to made out of plastic sheeting for the covering could easily be constructed and fitted up against a fence or wall to provide adequate coverage. Any similar structure would also THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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Network Feedback Memantine hydrochloride is chemically related to the anti-influenza drug amantadine hydrochloride (brand name SYMMETREL®). It has been marketed (under the brand name AXURA®) in Germany since 1989 to treat “dementia syndrome” and Parkinson’s disease, as well as to speed the recovery of comatose patients. It has also been suggested as a treatment for neuropathic pain due to diabetic neuropathy, Huntington’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and AIDS dementia. In the U.S., memantine (under the brand name NAMENDA®) was approved for use on October 17, 2003. It has been shown to reverse existing tolerance to morphine in mice (POPIK et al. 2000), and it has been speculated that N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists (such as memantine) may be useful in the treatment of alcohol and substance abuse disorders (BISAGA et al. 2000). It has been cautioned that there may be adverse interactions between memantine and MAOI or antidepressant drugs. According to the site www.memantine.com: Memantine is used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, and it may be useful in treating mild to moderate cases of vascular dementia. Memantine is the first representative of a new class of Alzheimer’s drugs—a moderate affinity NMDA-receptor antagonist. It has been touted as improving cognitive and psychomotor functioning, providing benefits in the activities of daily living, reducing the dependance on outside care, and is said to have a good tolerability. It is also believe to have neuroprotective effects (by preventing the influx of calcium due to blocking the NMDA receptor in the presence of sustained release of low glutamate concentrations) at the dosages used in treating Alzheimer’s disease (which could slow the progression of the disease). The maximum daily amount recommended to treat Alzheimer’s is 20 mg. Reported side effects more frequent than with placebo (listed second) were: hallucinations (2.0 vs. 0.7%), confusion (1.3 vs. 0.3%), dizziness (1.7 vs. 1.0%), headache (1.7 vs. 1.4%), and tiredness (1.0 vs. 0.3%). [Interestingly, the FDA’s press release at www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2003/ NEW00961.html provides higher incidences of adverse reactions, listing dizziness at 7%, headache at 6%, and—not noted above— constipation at 6%.] — EDS.

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MEMANTINE HYDROCHLORIDE: A FEW WORDS OF CAUTION In the interest of harm reduction, I feel compelled to write this report. I have determined that memantine is indeed a psychoactive substance. I have also discovered that there are some potential dangers involved when experimenting with this chemical. I would not want anyone else to unintentionally induce the undesirable effects of taking multiple doses of this drug. There are some potentially serious complications that could occur when experimenting with high doses of memantine. This is how it has since been explained to me by a more knowledgable soul than I: The problem with memantine is its slow absorption and excretion. It is largely not metabolized, 57–82% is slowly excreted with urine. In clinical applications there is a large accumulation of memantine with only one dose per day. If you are taking a large dose it will take some time until it hits you, and the effect is prolonged, because it remains in the body for a very long time (the half-life is 60 to 80 hours). Taking large doses daily is probably a bad idea.

Needless to say I learned this lesson the hard way. Plain and simple, I am at 48+ hours and still feeling the compounded effects of multiple doses. But for now, on to the good stuff... I have found that 50–100 mg taken orally is an acceptable dose for a pleasant evening if you can wait one to three hours for the full effects to manifest. One of my first single-dose experiences was at this level, and I noticed very few lingering effects 24 hours later. This leads me to believe that single doses via oral administration may prove to be the best way to experience this substance. On the other hand, 50–100 mg taken by intramuscular injection (50 mg per ml) provided me with a stinging, itchy, burning sensation in my flesh/muscle, which eventually gave way to a very pleasant, comfortable feeling in mind and body. For five to six hours, I noticed similarities to both ketamine and methylone. Reluctantly, but at the insistence of my tripping partner, I decided to attempt multiple dosing. My friend “C” and I have had incompatible schedules lately, which do not allow us the luxury of shared tripping time. Seeing as how we might not have the opportunity to explore this molecule together again for some time—but against my intuition and better judgement—we re-dosed four times over the course of the next seven or eight hours, at levels ranging from 50 to 100 mg taken by intramuscular injection. This turned out to be a bad idea. “C” had obligations yesterday that she was unable to fulfill, due to lingering effects and her inability to drive a car. She was

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reluctantly able to perform some of her obligations today, although she re-dosed with much smaller amounts than I. On the other hand, I am still feeling pretty “warbled out” at 48+ hours, with pending obligations myself, later this evening. While definite similarities were noted to low doses of ketamine, at no point did I ever experience anything that I would even remotely compare to a breakthrough ketamine experience. Other than the fact they are both NMDA-antagonists, similarities would be that they share the same type of body signature, driving energy, and create an inability to sleep. I find that when a single oral dose of 50–100 mg is taken, memantine provides a very comfortable, desirable effect, that resonates nicely in my body and mind. I would not recommend intramuscular injection of this chemical for two reasons. First, the vast majority of this substance commonly available is in a pre-packaged pill form that likely contains binders or other impurities which you would not want to inject into your body. Second, there is a definite stinging sensation present when injecting memantine intramuscularly. It irritates the tissue at the injection point, leaving an itchy red bump, similar to a bee-sting, that eventually




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subsides over the course of a few hours, although the pain should be gone within 10–20 minutes. Additionally, it does not seem that this chemical is readily soluble in water. I was able to mix 50 mg of memantine hydrochloride into 1 ml of distilled water only after applying light heat to increase solubility. If one does not mind waiting a few hours for the effects to be felt, and due to the pain involved with intramuscular injection, I believe oral administration would be the preferred method at 50–100 mg. I’d also like to add that I tried insufflating a 10 mg line at one point during one of my original experiments. I only managed to snort about 5 mg before I realized it burned. A lot. I thoroughly regretted even attempting such a thing. It was very uncomfortable, to say the least.  It is now 66+ hours, and “C” and myself are both still feeling pretty warbly, although improving. Multiple doses are definitely not recommended unless you have a lot of spare time on your hands. The overall experience from a single administration could be considered rather subtle by some standards, and one might feel compelled to take multiple doses.

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Beware of the possible consequences if you choose to do so. And the experience, although highly enjoyable, doesn’t really break into uncharted territory. So is the ride worth the ticket price? The jury is still out on that one. It has come to my attention that one may be able to clear his or her body of memantine faster, by acidifying one’s urine. Apparently, drinking cranberry juice can aid in this process. Here is what I have been told by someone more knowledgable than I: This is how you can get the memantine out of your system quickly. Try to acidify your urine. That way, memantine is eliminated 7–10 times faster. There are over-the-counter medications available to acidify the urine too; for example, pills containing methionine, which is used to prevent bladder infections.

 I have just awoken at 90+ hours, and I think I’m finally pretty much back to baseline. I feel it is inevitable that someone else is going to attempt experiments with this compound in the future, due to the fact that its potential recreational value has begun to be discussed on the Internet, coupled with the fact that it has recently been approved as a prescription medication by governments worldwide. It would be a real shame for someone to experiment with multiple and/or high doses of this chemical, without realizing the potential dangers involved. For example, if it was crucial that one should drive a car or perform other obligations 24–72 hours into the experience, I would not want anyone else to be unknowingly forced into such a situation. Let this also be a lesson to other intrepid psychonauts who attempt experiments with high doses of relatively unresearched substances. I have definitely learned my lesson. It may be possible for some people to reasonably predict the actions of unknown chemicals with a bit of foresight, but the ability to do this is unfortunately not one that I possess. I feel pretty irresponsible at this point in time. Although I dedicated a lot of time to researching the properties of this drug before I consumed it, I was unable to foresee this unexpected turn of events. I sincerely hope this report helps someone else avoid a potentially hazardous situation in the future, and I share this information only because I feel it is inevitable that it will soon be noticed that memantine has potential recreational value. Peace. Go Vegan. — Lazyvegan

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ENZYMES, METABOLISM, AND BIOAVAILABILITY Bioperine® is a purified form of piperine extracted from the fruit of the black pepper plant. It has been patented for use in increasing the bioavailabily of nutrients. It enhances the absorption of a wide range of fat- and water-soluble substances, often by 30–60%. It is currently marketed in combination with medicinal shiitake mushrooms, as well as with kava kava, which leads me to believe that it might be useful in increasing absorption when combined with more interesting mushrooms and plant species as well. It has been clinically proven to increase the absorption of barbiturates, theophylline, and phenytoin. Because piperine influences the metabolizing enzymes CYP1A1, CYP1B1, CYP1B2, CYP2E1, and CYP3A4, it can be assumed that it would affect those substances that are metabolized and/or transported by these enzymes, keeping them around longer for absorption. These drugs include benzodiazepines, caffeine, cocaine, codeine, dextromethorphan, methadone, DHEA, and Viagra®, to name a few. In fact, one web site suggests that expensive doses of Viagra® can be cut in half when used with Bioperine®. When Bioperine® is combined with curcurmin, it increases its bioavailability by 154%! The usual recommended dose of piperine is 5–15 mg per day. It is recommended that one take it 30 minutes before the substance whose bioavailability is to be enhanced is taken. Because Bioperine® has a significant effect on the body’s metabolism, daily use is not advised. The enzymes that are inhibited by Bioperine® serve an important purpose in the body; some break down toxins, and toxins need to be broken down! Bioperine® is easily available as a supplement on the Internet. It is available at a very good price from the company www.beyond-a-century.com, which sells it as a loose powder: 1 gram (200 doses) for $2.50. This company also sells loose BHT crystals, which were mentioned in the last issue of The Entheogen Review as being potentially useful as an antioxidant to reduce side effects from MDMA, and possibly offer neuroprotective effects. I have found www.beyond-acentury.com to be an excellent company to deal with. Of course, anyone who conducts any experiments with Bioperine® should report on them in a future issue of The Entheogen Review. — A.Q., TX

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BUTORPHANOL




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More than you need to know?

I had access to butorphanol some years ago. Expecting an opiate experience I was surprised to find it mildly psychedelic. The downside of butorphanol (nausea, dissociative effects, difficulty of access) eventually led to my abandonment of use of this chemical, and I can’t say I missed it much. Some years later, I tried Salvia divinorum. I was surprised again that the Salvia experience very much reminded me of my butorphanol experiences. Later still I learned butor-phanol and salvinorin A are both theorized to be agonists of the same kappa opioid receptor. If memory serves me, this is not considered a receptor site that produces euphoria. Butorphanol is supposed to be an analgesic, and it is used as such in veterinary medicine. However, I found it to lack analgesic effects. Of course, the correlation of my experience to animal medicine is unknown—if animals could only talk, eh? Butorphanol was most interesting in combination with ketamine. With this combination I experienced “true hallucinations,” with vines growing indoors extending in real-time across the wall, and fields being harvested by crowds of phantom scythers. Nothing too scary. I must warn the potential traveller that with this combination, I also experienced extreme urination; it seemed like every few minutes I had to go again. This is one reason I kept the number of journeys to under five or so. — D.H., CA   It is interesting that a compound other than salvinorin A that works on the kappa opioid receptor appears to have dissociative effects. Below are some musings from the DEA on butorphanol. — EDS.

While butorphanol can be made from thebaine, it is usually manufactured synthetically. It was initially available in injectable formulations for human (Stadol®) and veterinary (Torbugesic® and Torbutrol®) use. More recently, a nasal spray (Stadol NS®) became available, and significant diversion and abuse of this product led to the 1997 control of butorphanol in Schedule IV of the CSA. Butorphanol is a clear example of a drug gaining favor as a drug of abuse only after it became available in a form that facilitated its mode of administration (nasal spray v. injection). From: www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/butorphanol.html.

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Events Calendar SOCIETY FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS MEETING MARCH 24–28, 2004 The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness’ annual meeting will be held March 24–28, 2004 at the Berkeley Faculty Club in California. This year’s theme is: “Altered Bodies/Altered Minds.” Presenters include: Adele Getty, Stanley Krippner, Ralph Metzner, Benny Shanon, Annie Sprinkle, and many others. On-site registration is $120 (general), $65 (student). Single-day registration is available for $35 (general), $15 (student) per day. See www.sacaaa.org for more information.

TOWARD A SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS APRIL 7–11, 2004 Toward a Science of Consciousness will be held April 7– 11, 2004 at the Tucson Convention Center in Arizona. Presenters include: Susan Blackmore, Jon Hanna, Stanley Krippner, Stephen LaBerge, Roger Penrose, Thomas Ray, Alexander Shulgin, Charles T. Tart, Franz Vollenweider, and many others. Admission is $230 (general) and $130 (students). For more information, see http://consciousness.arizona.edu/tucson2004.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS APRIL 23–28, 2004 The International Conference on Science and Consciousness will be held April 23–28, 2004 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Presenters include: Don Campbell, Donna Eden, Raymond Moody, Judith Orloff, Candace Pert,

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Peter Russell, Huston Smith, Carlos Warter, Stephen Wolinsky, Danah Zohar, and over forty others. Activities include yoga, drumming, and dancing. Admission is $745. For more information, see www.bizspirit.com.

ALTERED STATES AND THE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING MAY 14–16, 2004 Altered States and the Spiritual Awakening will be held May 14–16, 2004 in San Francisco, California. “One of the primary goals of this conference is to bring together experts in multiple forms of altered states. We seek to cover three main spheres of knowledge: transpersonal and para-psychology, entheogens, and consciousness exploration through external (technological) means.” Presenters include: John Perry Barlow, Ram Dass, Erik Davis, Delvin, Gaia, Leslie Gray, Shabda Kahn, Stephen LaBerge, Dennis McKenna, Jean Millay, Naasko, Beverly Rubik, Ann Shulgin, Sasha Shulgin, Sijay, Stuart Sovatsky, and Myron Stolaroff. Early registration before April 1 is $90 (general), $40 (student); after April 1, registration is $110 (general), $60 (student). Single-day passes are also available. For more information, see www.assacon.com.

CLINICAL CONFERENCE ON CANNABIS MAY 29–22, 2004 The Third National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics will be held May 20–22, 2004 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The conference is designed for physicians, nurses, healthcare professionals, legal professionals and patients. Presenters include: Donald Abrams, Valerie Corral, Raphael Mechoulam, Ethan Russo, and many others. Registration is $295 (physicians), $195 (nurses, health care professionals), $145 (general). For more information, see www.medicalcannabis.com.

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Sources by Jon Hanna

AWAY… TO CANADA! I spent the first week of February in Vancouver, British Columbia. I was giving a presentation on the topic of contemporary psychedelic art at the first annual Entheogenesis conference, as well as another presentation on the topic of psychedelic culture and drug-inspired metaphysical beliefs at a smaller gathering up the Sunshine Coast in the Elphinstone Rainforest. I was quite surprised at how this journey affected me, renewing my enthusiasm—both for my interest in psychedelia and for life in general. The people in Canada seem to have a pervasive optimism that, living in the United States, I have not seen in some time. Hell, I don’t remember ever seeing it. An example is in order. While we were waiting for the ferry to cross up the coast, one of my compatriots ran into a woman who worked on the ferry and seemed to know who he was. The woman, who was perhaps in her late forties, started waxing rhapsodic about the “good work” that my buddy was doing in harm reduction: “Well, I am just so thankful to think that my young nephew and niece will be able to make intelligent, well-informed choices with regard to the drugs they choose to use or not use, due to your efforts,” she gushed. “The world is certainly going to be a much better place in the future because of

people like you, and I am happy that they will be growing up in that world.” My jaw dropped. I can not conceive of, in my wildest imagination, running into someone on the streets of America who would rave about how great it is going to be in the near future. Perhaps such an attitude toward life is something that is easier to cultivate when one’s government actually takes care of its citizens, and isn’t spending its time, energy, and funds on aggressive and hostile actions directed both externally and internally? As I spent more time in Canada, it seemed as though the people I met were generally happier than those in the U.S., as well as being more productive. I suspect that this exemplified the fact that living under the oppressive and ever-watchful eye of the U.S. government saps a lot of energy which could be better directed in more positive ways, if one isn’t constantly worried about a knock on the door.

ENTHEOGENESIS www.entheogenesis.ca

Organized by Chris Bennett, author of Green Gold the Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic & Religion and Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible (www.forbiddenfruitpublishing.com), and produced by Marc Emery of Cannabis seed-sales fame (www.emeryseeds.com), the Entheogenesis conference took place over two days in the basement of the B.C. Marijuana Party headquarters. The basement was so filled with Cannabis smoke during the presentations, that several friends who were not actively smoking actually had to leave the building for some fresh air, because they had inadvertently gotten much higher than they expected from just “hanging out,” and could see that their highs kept climbing. Upstairs, various vaporizers cluttered counters, beckoning to anyone who wished to partake. The quality of bud that I was repeatedly gifted with (the Canadians were not only happy, but generous) rivaled anything that is available in California. While Cannabis still isn’t across-the-board legal in Canada, clearly it is tolerated to a much greater extent than in the U.S. While a coffeeshop near the conference digs wasn’t

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selling bud, they didn’t have any problem with their customers toking up in their establishment. Several Cannabis seed stores were open for business on the same block as the conference was being held on. When I asked about which strains were best for commercial purposes, providing the highest yield, a salesman in the shop I visited pointed out that yield “isn’t everything,” and gently suggested several strains that were of greater potency or better taste as options. He also discouraged purchasing the higher-priced “feminized” seeds, expressing his concern that these might not be as vigorous as normal females. It was clear that this seed seller, at least, was concerned more with providing quality than making money. In the B.C. Marijuana Party headquarters itself, the general feel was one of a headshop, with countless topical books, hemp clothing, and paraphernalia. And of course there was Marc Emery’s gargantuan seed collection for sale. Emery acted as host for the conference as well, and a more gracious host could not be imagined—from taking us to dinner in the evenings and pouring the wine, to even providing sundry crowd-pleasing party favors—Marc knows how to produce an event in style. In the back of the store, was a store-withina-store:

URBAN SHAMAN 307 West Hastings Street Vancouver, British Columbia,V6B 1H6 CANADA [email protected] www.urbanshaman.ca

Run by ex-patriot Renee Boje, the Urban Shaman had everything you might expect from a well-stocked entheobotanical vendor. Beautiful Huichol yarn paintings covered the walls, and their mini-greenhouse specimen cases contained various live plants, including peyote cactus. (The peyote plant is specifically mentioned in Canadian drug law as being

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entirely legal; I have often thought that someone should start up a large-scale peyote farm in Canada—a decade or so from now such a visionary might be able to supply the Native American Church, when natural supplies run low, potentially helping to slow the possible death of this religious practice, which is increasingly using “symbolic” amounts of peyote, rather than active doses, in their rituals.) Other items for sale both at their store and on-line at their web site include assorted incenses, smoking and tea blends, liquid extracts, dried herbs, roots, flowers, seed pods, and seeds for plants such as Areca catechu, Anadenanthera colubrina, A. peregrina, Artemisia absinthium, Banisteriopsis caapi, Calea zacatechichi, Ephedra major, Eriodictyon californicum, Erythroxylum catuaba, Ilex paraguariensis, Ipomoea violacea, Lactuca virosa, Leonotus leonorus, Mimosa tenuiflora, Nicotiana rustica, Nymphae caerulea, Papaver somniferum, Paullinia cupana, Pausinystalia johimbe, Peganum harmala, Phalaris arundinacea, Piper methysticum, Salvia divinorum, Sceletium tortuosum, Trichocereus peruvianus, Turnera aphrodisiaca, and more. I was impressed that not only did their free information handouts present good information about the plants that they sold, as well as references for additional information on-line, but they actually even provided citation credits for both the text quoted and images used in these brochures; nicely done. Downstairs, below the Urban Shaman, was the heart of the broadcasting center for the building:

POT-TV [email protected] www.pot-tv.net

Managed by Chris Bennett, Pot-TV, quite simply, blew me away. The entire Entheogenesis conference was live broadcast over the Internet in real-time, and I was told after giving my presentation on psychedelic art that there were 6,000 people tuned in worldwide. Pot-TV now has archives of all of the talks presented at Entheogenesis, and they have also kindly archived the Mind States Highzzz DVD (broken into sections, for easier download) reviewed in the last issue of The Entheogen Review, which provides highlights from the Mind States IV conference. The idea has been tossed out by Bennett to the editors of The Entheogen Review to create a twice-monthly video version of the rag; if it ever comes to fruition, I am sure that you will read about it here first.

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The Pot-TV web site is a bit overwhelming, with so much content to choose from! They do an incredible job of keeping on top of the latest relevant news and entertainment. For example, they posted an entire recent episode of the TV show CSI: “A murder of a clown in Las Vegas reveals a sinister intrigue of prostitution and heroin addiction and the use of ibogaine to escape it in this prime-time crime drama.” And, speaking of ibogaine:




WINTER SOLSTICE 2003

Book Review

IBOGA THERAPY HOUSE (604) 916-2311 (604) 216-0007 www.ibogatherapyhouse

Sandra Karpetas, project coordinator for the Iboga Therapy House treatment center was kind enough to put myself and fellow presenter Rick Doblin up at the Therapy House during our stay in Vancouver. During this time, we learned more from her about this project, which treats drug addicts—at the rate of about one per week—at no charge, provided they are suitable candidates for ibogaine therapy. The Therapy House was conceived of and is funded by Marc Emery, who related the story of how two people very close to him kicked their drug addictions through ibogaine treatments. My most sincere thanks go out to Sandra, gracious host. And low bows, as well, to my extraordinary tour guide Delvin Majere (creator of the bold psychopticon of art: The Galactik Trading Card Oracle Complex; available from www.elfintome.com); without his encouragement and financial support, I may not have made the “trip” in the first place. Thanks too, to other new friends and anonymous acquaintances, who kept me nicely toasted for the entire seven days of my voyage—I can’t recall there ever being a whole week of my life previously that was spent in a non-stop stoned state. In closing this column, I want to encourage anyone and everyone in the U.S. to take off to the great white north. It is indeed, “a beauty-way to go.” And, considering that my plane ticket was under $200.00, it is an inexpensive vacation to boot. “Next stop, Vansterdam, eh?”

Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals by Huston Smith. 2003. (Sentient Publications: www.sentientpublications.com.) Trade paperback 1-59181-008-6. $14.95. [6" x 9"], 173 pp.

With Cleansing the Doors of Perception, Huston Smith— philosopher, religious scholar, author, and teacher—presents a collection of his essays written over the past forty years. Although these essays were originally published in various other places, they have recently been edited liberally for inclusion in this volume, making the collection a unique offering. The book wrestles with Smith’s essential question: “Do drugs have a religious/spiritual importance?” I think we all know the answer to this query. Smith quotes Aldous Huxley (who was indirectly responsible for introducing Smith to entheogens, via Timothy Leary) as stating that “nothing was more curious, and to his way of thinking more important, than the role that mind-altering plants and chemicals have played in human history.” Later, at the end of the Preface, Smith offers another relevant Huxley paraphrase: “chemicals [don’t] cause visionary experiences, they occasion them.”

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In the Introduction, Smith succinctly presents his personal history, as well as the events and thoughts that lead up to his entheogenic initiation on January 1, 1961. In the essays that follow, he talks of soma, the Eleusinian mysteries, the Native American Church, empirical metaphysics, the case of Cardinal J.H. Newman, the sacred unconscious, and more. In discussing Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment, Smith provides details of “…a significant incident that occurred during the experiment [which] had not appeared in the reports…” So as not to spoil the suspense, I won’t relate the specifics in this review, other to mention that it involved one of the participants who managed to escape the church setting! Pahnke conducted this experiment on the Boston University campus as part of his Ph.D. dissertation, and Smith dedicated Cleansing the Doors of Perception book to Pahnke’s memory. Smith’s essay “Historical Evidence: India’s Sacred Soma” provides the reader with just enough detail about R. Gordon Wasson’s research to not drag on and bore. It is good reading for the uninitiated: “…When fragments of the white veil of the fly-agaric still cling to, the cap, though night has taken over all else, from afar you may still see Soma, silver white; resting in his well-appointed birth-place close by some birch or pine tree. Here is how three thousand years ago a priestpoet of the Indo-Aryans gave voice to this impression: “By day he appears the color of fire, by night, silver white (IX 979d).” Soma’s scarlet coat dominates by day; by night the redness sinks out of sight, and the white patches, silvery by moon and starlight, take over” (4:41–42).

Two appendices finish off the book: “Secularization and the Sacred: The Contemporary Scene” and “Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove: A Televised Interview.” This edition of Cleansing the Doors of Perception is well produced, with an easy-to-read layout and font, on a creamtoned paper, and an adequate index. You will be well served with the purchase of this fascinating volume. — Jay Yasgur

R.Ph, M.Sc. • www.yasgur.net.

LOOK HERE ➔




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Bibliography Bisaga, A. et al. 2000. “Therapeutic Potential of NMDA Receptor Antagonists in the Treatment of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Disorders,” Expert Opin Investig Drugs 9(10): 2233–2248. Epling, C. & C.D. Játiva-M 1962. “A new species of Salvia from Mexico,” Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 20(3): 75–76. Erowid, E. & F. Erowid 2003. “LSD Analysis: Do We Know What’s In Street Acid?” Erowid Extracts 5: 12–17. Franzosa, E.S. et al. 1987. “The LSD Blotter Index,” Microgram 10(7). Published by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Popik, P. et al. 2000. “Clinically Available NMDA Receptor Antagonists Memantine and Dextromethorphan Reverse Existing Tolerance to the Antinociceptive Effects of Morphine in Mice,” Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol 361(4): 425– 432. Wasson, R.G. 1962. “A new Mexican psychotropic drug from the mint family,” Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 20(3): 77–84. Paye, Y. 2001. “Mushroom Cultivation: From Falconer to Fanaticus and Beyond,” The Entheogen Review 10(4): 127–139. Paye, Y. 2003. “Introducing the Moksha Method,” The Entheogen Review 12(3): 82–88. Congratulations to MAPS and Dr. Rick Doblin for the historic approval on February 24, 2004 of their MDMA / PTSD study! Readers of The Entheogen Review, please consider donating to this incredibly important project, to help MAPS pull off the first study of MDMA psychotherapy ever approved in the USA. MAPS needs to raise an additional $200,000 to complete the study. If ever there was a time to make a special donation to MAPS, now is that time.

DONATE OR LEARN MORE AT WWW.MAPS.ORG

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Index 1-(3-chlorophenyl)piperazine 51 1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-2-butanone 95 1-(4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-butanamine 94 1-methyl-THBCs 66 1,2-dimethyl-6-methoxytetrahydro-ß-carboline 53 12-OH-ibogamine (noribogaine) 30, 99 2-aminoethanol phosphate 73 2-methylamino-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)-1propanone 95 2-methylamino-1-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)butane 95 2,amino-Indan 18 2C-B 18, 39, 43, 49, 51 2C-C 18 2C-E 18 2C-H 18 2C-I 18 2C-T-2 18, 97 2C-T-4 18, 105 2C-T-7 18, 89, 97, 104 3-CPP 51 3-dehydromitragynine 28 3,4-methylenedioxy-2-butanone 95 4-AcO-DET 18, 20 4-AcO-DIPT 20 4-AcO-DMT 18 4-AcO-DPT 18 4-AcO-EIPT 18 4-AcO-EPT 18 4-AcO-MET 18 4-fluoro-amphetamine 105 4-FMP 18 4-HO-DIPT 18, 105 4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine 105 4C-DOB 94 5-HT 67 5-HTP 95, 96 5-hydroxytryptophan 72, 73, 95 5-MeO-AMT 18, 57, 63 5-MeO-DET 18 5-MeO-DIPT 18, 19, 20, 21, 61, 89, 91, 104 5-MeO-DMT 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 54, 56, 57, 61, 99, 100 5-MeO-DPT 18 5-MeO-EIPT 18 5-MeO-MET 18 5-MeO-MIPT 18 5-MeO-MMT 53 5-OH-DMT-N-oxide 53 7-hydroxymitragynine 28 9-methoxymitral-actonine 28

A A Psychonaut 43 A.C. 26 A.Q., TX 134 A.S., CA 23 Aardvark, David 25, 63, 66, 96 Aaron, David 101 Abraham, Ralph 31 Abrams, Donald 136 Acacia species 25, 58 Acacia catechu 13 Acer species 128 acetaldehyde 71, 72 acetone 87 acetylcholine 64 Achbar, Mark 119 Acorus calamus 15, 16, 98 Acosta 11 addiction 3, 4, 29, 30, 31, 92, 98, 102, 103 Adelaars, Arno 88 adrenaline 17 adrenochrome 17, 18 Adyashanti 101 agar 63, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 Agaricus species 120 Aghajanian, G.K. 80, 108 AIDS 96, 132 ALC-kit Sober Up™ 71, 72 Alchemy Works Seeds & Herbs 66 alcohol 2, 4, 5, 29, 71, 72, 87, 96, 98, 132 alcohol abuse 1 alcohol, isoproyl 87 Alder 127, 128 Alkaloid Biology and Metabolism in Plants 59 Allen, John W. 43 Alles über Psilos: Handbuch der Zauberpilze 88 Alnus species 128 Alper, Kenneth R. 31 Alpert, Richard 39 Altered States and the Spiritual Awakening 136 Altvater, L.J. 43, 103, 104 Alzheimer’s disease 132 amantadine 132 Amaringo, Pablo 6, 31 Amazon.com 102 American Association for the Advan. of Science 77 American Visionary Art Museum 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 ammonia 30, 95, 99 amnesia 11, 64 amphetamine 52, 73 AMT 18, 19, 61, 63 Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis 132

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Anadenanthera species 21, 22 Anadenanthera colubrina 53, 54, 55, 138 Anadenanthera peregrina 53, 54, 138 analgesic 59, 60, 135 Anderson, Carl M. 31 Androgynoid 101 Anonymous 17, 50, 75 anti-emetic 16 anticholinergic syndrome 11 antidepressant(s) 21, 132 a,O-DMS 19, 20, 21, 61 aphrodisiac 11 Apin Chemicals 26 aporphines 22 Arabeth 7 Arbutus species 128 Architectural Digest 92 Ardagh, Arjuna 101 ARDAGH, CHAMELI 101 Areca catechu 12, 138 areca nut 13, 14 arecaidine 13 arecoline 13, 14 Arjuna 41, 42 Aromazap 32, 33, 36 Arrien, Angeles 101 Artemisia absinthium 138 Ash 128 asthma 10, 83, 96 Atropa belladonna 10 atropine 11, 65 Atta-Ur-Rahman 99, 108 Australian Emu Association 97 Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration 28 Avena sativa 61 Avicenna 11 Axel 116 Axura® 132 ayahuasca 6, 24, 29, 35, 39, 43, 44, 55, 66, 67, 70, 101, 102 Ayahuasca SpiritQuest 62

B B. Green 55 B.C. Marijuana Party (also British Columbia) 137, 138 B.C. Vaporizer 33, 34 B.H., IL 62 B.K. 26, 28 Baca, Joe 38 Bach 94 Back from the Void 89 Bacopa monniera 60 Baggott, M.J. 108 Baker, J. 40 Bandow, Christine 49 Banisteriopsis caapi 48, 54, 67, 138 Barbeau, Anton 31 barbiturate 134 Barlow, Perry John 136 Barnaby, C.J. 43

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Basement Shaman, The 28, 32, 62 BDB 95 Beal, Dana 29, 31 Bear, S. 15 Beck, Don 31 Bee, J. 9, 12, 13, 40 Beech 128 beer 4, 71, 84 Beifuss, Will 27, 28 belladonna 10 Benjamin, Walter 39 Bennet, S.S.R. 11, 40 Bennett, Chris 101, 137, 138 benzodiazepine 29, 134 benzylpiperazine 50, 51, 52 Berger, Markus 49 Bernhard-Smith, A. 11, 40 betacarbolines 22 betel 9, 12, 13, 53 Betula species 128 Beyerlein, Fred 71 Bhagvad Gita 41, 42 BHT 95, 96, 134 Big Brother 41 Biochemistry of Alkaloids, The 59 Bioperine® 134 biotin 72 Birch 127, 128 Bisaga, A. 140 Black Locust 128 Blackmore, Susan 31, 136 Blewett, Duncan 119 Blosser, Bret 117 blotter art 34, 38, 44, 106, 109, 110, 113, 114, 115, 116 Blotter Barn 109, 115 blue lotus 59 Bob 56, 57 Boire, Richard Glen 31, 88 Boje, Renee 101, 138 Booth-Clibborn, Edward 113 Bosch, Hieronymus 103 Bouncing Bear Botanicals 62 Bouso, Jose Carlos 80 Braden, Gregg 31 brain 71, 72, 77, 78, 79, 81, 89, 90, 91, 94, 95, 100 Braun, Michael A. 52 Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey… 39 British Columbia Marijuana Party (also B.C.) 101 bronchodilator/bronchodilation 10, 11 Brotherhood of Eternal Love, The 112 Brown, Luke 101, 106 Brown, Trevor 38 Browne-Miller, Angela 31 Buchert, R. 78, 108 Buddha/Buddhism/Buddhist 2, 11, 38 bufotenine 53, 54, 55 Bunnell, Sterling 117, 118 “Bunnell” (Salvia divinorum strain) 118 Burning Man 24, 39, 95, 97 Burroughs, William S. 1, 2, 6

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 4

Bush administration 77, 79 Bush, Noelle 30 Bust Book, The 114 butanamines 94 butorphanol 135 butylhydroxytoluene 95 BZP 18, 50, 51, 52

C C.E.G., ID 61 cactahuasca 59 caffeine 1, 29, 134 Calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum) 14 calcium 72, 95, 96 calcium hydroxide 13 calcium oxide 68 calcium sulfate 69 Calea zacatechichi 138 California NORML 74 Callaway, Jace 66, 67, 75 Calliandra augustifolia 66 Calliandra pentandra 66, 67 Cameron, Kyle 119 Campbell, Don 31, 136 cancer 80, 96 Cannabis 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 29, 32, 33, 38, 57, 60, 61, 73, 74, 96, 98, 101, 116, 136, 137, 138 Cannabis sativa 9, 13, 45 Cannapee 27 Caracciolo, Lou 101 Carpinus species 128 Carya species 128 Case, Justin 25, 58 Castanea species 128 Castaneda, Carlos 39 Castanopsis species 128 caterpillar fungus 83 cebíl (Anadenanthera colubrina variety) 53, 54, 55 Center for Spirituality and Healing 101 Chang, L. 79, 108 chanoclavine 67 Charpentier, C. 12, 40 Chaste tree 60 Cheap Vaporizer 34 Chemical Resale of Santa Barbara 49 “Cheshire Cat” (blotter art) 116 CHESS GmbH 51 Chestnut 128 Chinkapin 128 chlorella 72 choline 72 cholinergic agonist 14 Chopin 94 chromium 72 chrysanthemum flower 72 Church of the Divine Sage 35 Clayton, Clydette 70 Cleansing the Doors of Perception 139 Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics 136




WINTER SOLSTICE 2003

Clinton administration 79 cobalt chloride 68 coca leaf 22, 93 cocaine 18, 29, 73, 92, 111, 134 Cocilovo, Tony 31 codeine 55, 59, 134 coffee 4, 93, 94 coffee filter 69, 99 coffee grinder 64 Cole, Jack A. 102 Combo 52 Comerci, Nelson 29 Companion Plants 62 Conference and Telecast on Iboga and Ibogaine 31 Conference on GHB, First National 31 Conference on Science and Consciousness 31 Confessions of a Dope Dealer 107 Conrad, Chris 29 contact high/contact tripping 57 Controlled Substance Analog 51 Cooper, Jason 38 Cooper, Samuel 11, 40 Cordyceps 83 Cornus species 128 Corporation, The 119 Corral, Valerie 136 Corydalis 22, 59, 60 Corylus species 128 corynantheidaline 28 cottonmouth 16 Cottonwood 127, 128 Craig 28 cranberry juice 134 Cross, Matthew 31 cross-tolerance 19, 20, 61 crotono-GBL 18 Crowley, Aleister 39 CSI 139 Cumes, David 31 curcumin 71, 72 curcurmin 134 Cutch (Acacia catechu) 13 CYP1A1 134 CYP1B1 134 CYP1B2 134 CYP2E1 134 CYP3A4 134 cysteine 72

D D.H., CA 135 D.M. 43 Dacoit bandits of Phoolan Devi 11 daidzin 72 Dali, Salvador 116 “Dancing Condoms” (blotter art) 114 dandelion root 71, 72 Darling, Kathryn 31 Datura 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 64, 65

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Datura ferox 10 Datura metel 10, 11 Datura stramonium 11 Davis, Erik 31, 136 Davis, Wade 9, 11, 40 DEA 18, 19, 30, 32, 51, 52, 66, 75, 77, 81, 104, 109, 114, 135 deadly nightshade 10 death 31, 51, 78, 89, 103 Declaration of Independence 82 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 41 DeKorne, Jim 39, 61 DeLuca, John 31 Demartini, John 31 dementia, vascular 132 desiccants 68 desmethyl-ibogaine 30, 99 devil’s weed 10 dextromethorphan 134 DHEA 134 diarrhea 49, 73, 92 p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DMBA) 67 Dioscorides 11 Diplopterys cabrerana 62, 66 DIPT 18 Disney, Walt 113 dissociative 135 distillation, steam 64 Divine Sage 117 dizziness/dizzy 11, 13 DMAE 72 DMBA-spray 67 DMSO 23, 97 DMT 7, 20, 24, 25, 37, 39, 44, 53, 55, 58, 61, 62, 66, 67, 103 DMT-N-oxide 53 DMT: The Spirit Molecule 37 DNA 64 Doblin, Rick 31, 77, 101, 108, 139, 140 docosahexaenoic acid 72 dogs, drug-sniffing 16 Dogwood 128 dopamine 60, 77, 78 Dossey, Larry 31 Douglas Fir 126, 127, 130, 131 Douglas, Michael 5 Downey, Robert (Jr.) 2 DPT 18, 20, 39, 59 Drachman 14 dream/dreaming 20, 21, 59, 60, 61, 81, 93, 101 Drierite 69 Drink as Much as You Want and Live Longer 71 drug abuse 1, 103 DXM 18 Dyer, Jo Ellen 31

E E-Bay 32, 38 E-Chemical Supplier 18 e-Kit™ 72, 73, 96 EastWest Teachings 70

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Ebotashop 26, 28 Ecstasy 51, 52, 73, 77, 78, 79, 81, 89, 104 Eden, Donna 31, 136 Edgar, Robin 42, 75 Einstein, Albert 1 EIPT 18 EKG 91 Electric Buddha, The 113 Electric Ladyland Studios 116 elemicin 17 Eleusinian mysteries 140 Eliade, Mircea 39 Elm 128 elymoclavine 67 Emboden, W.A. 9, 10, 40 Emery, Marc 101, 137, 138, 139 emetic 15 emu oil 97 enema 64 entactogen 49, 50 Entheogene Blätter 49 Entheogenesis 137, 138 entities 43, 56 Ephedra major 138 epinephrine 17 Epling, Carl 117, 118 ergine 110 ergoline alkaloids 67 ergometrine 67 ergotamine tartrate 110 Eric 38 Eriodictyon californicum 138 Erlich’s reagent 26, 27 Erowid 17, 22, 63, 104, 105, 115, 116 Erowid, Earth 31, 73, 75, 140 Erowid Extracts 69 Erowid, Fire 31, 68, 140 Erythroxylum catuaba 138 Escher, M.C. 103 Eterra 32, 33, 36 Ethnogarden 27 Eucalyptus 127, 128 euphoria/euphoriant 15, 16, 26, 50, 93, 98, 135 EverClear 87 Exodus 52 Explorers Club, The 14 eye, disembodied 41, 42, 43 eye, flying 42, 43 eye of God 42 Eye of Horus 114 Eye of the Pyramid 115 eye, winged 42 eyes, bloodshot 16 eyes, disembodied 41, 43, 44

F F.B., CA 96, 97 Fagus species 128 Farmer Hank 26, 28

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 4

Farrelly, Liz 113 “Father of LSD” (blotter art) 115 FDA 28, 30, 32, 68, 70, 77, 79, 80, 95, 105, 132 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 17 Feinstein, David 31 Feinthel, Nancy 101 Fenner, Gary 109 Ferdinand, Roy 2, 3 fever 11, 51, 60 fibromyalgia 2 field of consciousness 57 Filbert 128 First Unitarian Universalist Church & Center 29 Fischer, R. 43, 75 Fiske, Teresa 12 Flashback 38 Fluckiger, F.A. 10, 40 flushing 11 fly agaric 140 Flyer, Tyler D. 120 folic acid 72 Forester 113 Fork 55 foxy methoxy (5-MeO-DIPT) 18 Franzosa, E.S. 114, 140 Fraxinus species 128 Frederick the Great 4 Friedman, Robert 31 Fruin, Tom 3 FungalKEL 88

G G.N., Hokkaido, Japan 18 GABA 72 Gaia 136 Galactik Trading Card Oracle Complex, The 139 Galerina autumnalis 22 gamma linolenic acid 72 gamma-2C-T-4 105 Gardner, Kay 31 gas chromatography 46 Gas-X 64 Gass, Judith 101 Gass, Robert 101 gastrodiae root 72 Gaynor, Dana 31 GCMS 66 Genest, K. 67 Getty, Adele 136 GHB 52 GHB overdose 31 Giger, H.R. 116 Gijsman, H.J. 80, 108 Gilman, A. 14, 40 Gilmore, John 31 ginger 15, 16 ginkgo biloba extract 73 Giorno, John 112 Glatt, Sara 31




WINTER SOLSTICE 2003

Glennon, R.A. 49, 75 Glick, Stanley 31 God 41, 43 Golden Gate Park 23 Goldsmith, Neal M. 70 Gomez, Danny 38 Good Friday Experiment 140 Good-vision 43 Goodman, L.S. 14, 40 Gorbachev, Mikhail 113 Gorman, Peter 31 Goswami, Amit 31 Gottlieb, A. 17, 40 Gould, Stephen Jay 4 Grateful Dead 115 Grauds, Connie 101 gravel root 72 Gray, Leslie 136 Gray, Spaulding 109 Great Seal of the United States 41 Green Earth 62 Green Gold the Tree of Life 137 Green Rhino Botanicals 61 Grey, Alex 1, 6, 7, 31, 43 Grey, Allyson 7, 31, 106, 107 Grey, Zena Lotus 7 Griffin, Rick 42 Grob, Charles 79 Grof, Stanislav 31, 70, 101, 106, 119 Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms 120 Gruetzmann 59 Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch 39 Gwar 42 gypsum 69 Gysin, Brion 2

H Hagelin, John 31 Hagerty, Lorenzo 31 Hagerty, N. 42, 75 Hahn, Robert “Rio” 9, 14 Half.Com 32 Hallucinogen Rating Scale 37 Hanbury, D. 10, 40 Hangover Formula™ 72 Hanna, Jon 26, 41, 71, 101, 102, 109, 114, 136, 137 Hansen, H.A. 9, 11, 40 harm reduction 5, 71, 72, 73, 74, 81, 132, 137 harmala alkaloids 63 harmaline 18, 55 Harmalist 94 harmine 18, 48, 67 Harner, Michael 9, 39, 40 Harrison, Kathleen 101 hashish 51 Hattori, Naoto 38, 43 Head Hunter (DEA operation) 32, 104 Healing Visions 29 heavenly blue 64

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Heffter technique 28 henbane 10 Hendricks, Gay 101 Hendricks, Kathlyn 101 Hendrix, Jimi 116 Hennessy cognac bottle 25 Henson, Mark 31, 106, 107 Herbal-Shaman 28 Hericium (lion’s mane mushroom) 83 Hernandez, Vic 31 heroin 1, 4, 16, 29, 92, 139 herpes 96 hesperidin 72 Hickory 128 Higgins, Charley 101 high performance thin-layer chromatography 46 High Times 20 Highflyers 113 Hoffer, Abram 111, 112, 119 Hoffmann, Martina 31, 43, 101, 106, 107 Hofmann, Albert 9, 10, 11, 37, 39, 40, 44, 53, 75, 106, 115, 117, 119 Hofmann’s Potion 31, 119 hojas de la Pastora 117 Holden, Maura 6 Holotropic Breathwork 101 Homestead Books 32 Hornbeam 128 Horus 10 Howard, Kenny “Von Dutch” 42 HPLC analysis 27, 66 Hughes, Aidan Brute 38 Hulsik, D.L. 49, 75 Huntington’s disease 132 Huxley, Aldous 39, 82, 139 Huxley, Laura 119 Hydergine 72 hydrogen peroxide 83, 84, 86, 87 hyoscine 11 hyoscyamine 11 Hyoscyamus niger 10 hypertension 11 hyperthermia 49, 51, 81

I Iboga Therapy House 139 ibogaine 29, 30, 98, 99, 139 idebenone 73 Idid, S.Z. 28, 40 Ilex paraguariensis 138 Inavap vaporizer 36, 102 indoles 22, 67 Indra extract (Tabernanthe iboga) 30, 99 Information Awareness Office 41 inositol 72 Institute of Personality Assessment and Research 117 International Conference on Science and Con… 136 Into The Void 89 Ipomoea violacea 138

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Iravani, M.M. 78, 108 Ironwood 128 Isaacs, Julian 29 Island 82 isoquinolines 22, 59, 60

J J.B. 27 J.D., IL 67 J.E., AZ 99 J.H., CA 95 Jackson, Aaron 34 jaguar 44, 54 James, Mat 2 Jansen, Karl 28, 40, 42, 43, 75 Játiva-M, C.D. 117, 140 jaw clenching 95 Jenks, Christopher W. 30, 99 Jennings, Peter 79 Jerome, L. 108 Jimi Hendrix Experience, The 42 Jimson weed 10, 64 Johnson, Awolowo 31 Jones, R.T. 108 Journal of Chromatography 67 Journal of Nuclear Medicine 78 Juglans species 128 jujube dates 59 Jung, Carl 39

K Kahn, Shabda 136 Kaku, Michio 31 Kali 11 Karpetas, Sandra 139 Kasper, Tom 50, 75 Kastor, Jacaeber 116 Kater, Charles 31 Katha (Acacia catechu) 13 kava kava 13, 134 ketamine 23, 42, 52, 58, 132 ketoprofen 97 kidney 96 Kinderlehrer, Daniel 31 Kish, S.J. 78, 108 Kitzu Botanicals 28 Klarwein, Mati 43 Kleefeld, Carolyn 43 Klodzinska, A. 49, 75 Klüver, H. 43, 75 kombucha 83 Kornfield, Jack 70 Kozik, Frank 38 kratom 16, 26, 28, 46, 47, 92, 93 kratom acetate 26, 27 kratom-like 26, 27 Kreig, M. 10, 40 Krippner, Stanley 136 Krishna 41

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VOLUME XII, NUMBER 4

Krishna-murthy, Uma 31 Kroupa, Patrick 29, 31 kudzu 71, 72 Kunstbar 36

L L-cysteine 71, 72 L-Dopa 78 L.E.G., NH 66 L.E.R. 61 LaBerge, Stephen 136 Lactuca virosa 138 Lad, Vasant 31 Lancet Neurology 77, 78, 79 Larch 128 Larix species 128 laudanum 4 Laurelia novae-zelandiae 60 Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) 102, 103 Lawson, John 2 Lazyvegan 134 Leary, Timothy 39, 113, 119, 139 LeBeau, Marc 31 lecithin 72 Lee 62 Lees, M.D. 26, 40 Legal Highs 17 Legendary Ethnobotanical Resources 61 Lemberger, L. 20, 40 Lennon, John 113 Leonotus leonorus 138 Leshner, Alan 77, 79 Levin, H.S. 14, 40 Levine, Peter 101 Liebermann, J.A. 80, 108 Life Extension: a Practical Approach 71 Life Services Supplements 95 Lil’ Shop of Spores 97 lime (CaO) 13, 22, 53 Linnaeus 11 Liquid Crystal Vision 106 Liquidambar species 128 Lithocarpus species 128 Littlefield, Connie 119 liver 17, 59, 72, 96, 98 LM Chemical Trade & Consulting GmbH 51 locoweed 10 Lotsof, Howard 30, 31 LSD (book by Otto Snow) 111 LSD 1, 7, 19, 20, 31, 38, 39, 49, 50, 51, 63, 64, 65, 73, 98, 102, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 119, 140 LSD-like 98 Lucas, Phil 101 Luna, Luis Eduardo 70 Lwydd, Gwyllm 54, 106 Lyttle, Thomas 110

M mace 17




WINTER SOLSTICE 2003

Machine, The (DMT pipe) 24, 25 MAD Magazine 110 Madrone 128 Magic Mike 114 Magic’s Soul Food Machine 97 magnesium 72, 95, 96 magnolia bark 72 Magritte, René 103 Mahaney, Teri 31 Mahesvara 11 Majere, Delvin 136, 139 Majupuria, T.C. 11, 40 Malaysian National Narcotics Agency 28 Mandragora officinarum 10 mandrake 10 manganese 72 Manufacturing Consent 119 MAOI 54, 67, 132 Maple 128 MAPS (also Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) 74, 77, 78, 80, 81, 115, 119, 140 Marendi 31 marijuana 50, 101 Marmite 84, 86, 87 Marquis reagent 73 marshmallow root 72 Mash, Deborah 29, 30, 31 Materson, Melanie 4 Materson, Ray 3, 4 Mavrides, Paul 113 Max, Peter 116 Maxwell, Suzanne 31 MBDB 18, 95 MBE Tech 18 McAlpine’s Medium 82, 83 McCann, Una 77, 78, 80, 108 McCloud, Mark 31, 106, 109–116 McCloy, John 10, 11, 13, 40 McCluhan, Marshall 113 McClure, Michael 117 McCormick, Carlo 113 McCusker, Anna 70 McKenna, Dennis 26, 28, 101, 136 McKenna, Terence 6, 64, 82, 103, 106, 109 McPherson, Robert 65, 88 mCPP 18 MDA 51, 81 MDMA 18, 38, 39, 43, 49, 50–52, 72, 73, 77–81, 89, 95, 96 MDMA-like 15, 50, 52, 95 Mechoulam, Raphael 136 Mecke reagent 73 Medicine Eagle, Brooke 101 meditated/meditation 20, 21, 56, 61, 70, 82 melatonin 27, 73 Mellow Gold (new name for bogus kratom extract) 27 memantine 132, 133, 134 memory disturbances 11 Mencken, H.L. 6 Mendes, Mireille 70 Merck KgaA 51

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mescaline 18, 49, 65, 94 Mesquite 128 MET 18 metabolism 20 methadone 30, 134 methamphetamine 52, 77, 92 methanol 87 methionine 134 Methyl-J 95 methylamine 95 methylone 95, 132 Metropolis 94 Metzner, Ralph 31, 70, 106, 119, 136 Meyer, P. 44, 75 Mickey Mouse 113 Miguez, Joe 101 Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden 118 milk thistle seed extract 71 Millay, Jean 101, 136 Miller, Ralph 70 Mimosa hostilis 38 Mimosa tenuiflora 38, 62, 138 Mind States Highzzz 106, 107, 138 Mind States IV conference 31, 53, 59, 106, 138 Mindell, Arnold 31 mint 72 Miotto, Karen 31 Mishlove, Jeffrey 140 mistletoe 17 Mithoefer, M. 78, 81, 108 Mitragyna speciosa 27, 28, 46, 47, 60, 65 mitragynaline 28 mitragynine 26, 27, 28, 47 mitragynine ethane disulphonate 26, 27 mitragynine picrate 26, 27, 46 mitralactonal 28 mitralactonine 28 mitrasulgyline 28 MJB Botanicals 27, 28 mMPP 18 MoDu 21, 56, 58, 61, 100 Moksha Method 82, 83, 87 Molliver, Mark 30 Molly (TFMPP) 49, 51 Mondo 2000 37 Moody, Raymond 136 Morales, Frank 31 Moran, K. 9, 40 morels 83 Moriarty, Brian 43 morning glory seeds 41, 64 morphine 1, 4, 21, 22, 23, 59, 60, 132 morphogenetic fields 58 Moss, Richard 101 Mothersbaugh, Mark 116 Mothes, K. 59 Mountain Girl 106 MTV 79 mullein 24 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

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(also MAPS) 77 Munro, Thomas 37, 38 muriatic acid 17 Musgrave, Story 31 Mushroom Cultivator, The 63, 120 Mushroom Motel 122, 125, 126 mushrooms, entheogenic 41 mushrooms, psilocybian 15, 18, 38 mycelium 63, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131 mycro-tech 65 Myristica fragrans 16, 17 myristicin 17

N N-acetyl cysteine 71, 72, 73 N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) 132 N2O 56 Naasko(w) 31, 136 Nader, Ralph 50 nalexone 60 naltrexone 60 Namenda® 132 narcotic 93, 100, 135 Nash, Ogden 5 Nathan 56, 57 National Film Board 119 National Institute on Drug Abuse 77 Native American Church 138, 140 Native Habitat 27, 28, 62 Natural Products Letters 30, 99 Nature 77 Naturwissenschaften 59 nausea/nauseated 15, 22, 49, 63, 98, 112, 135 Nave, Isauro 118 near death 22 Nelumbo nucifera 22 nervous system 11, 72, 98 Neuroguard 73 neuropathy, diabetic 132 neuroprotective 96 Neuropsychopharmacology 80 neurotoxic/neurotoxicity 30, 72, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81 New York Times 77 Newman, Alfred E. 110 Newman, J.H. 140 niacin 53, 72 niacinamide 72 Nichols, David E. 31 Nicotiana 22 Nicotiana allata 59 Nicotiana rustica 138 nicotine 1, 2, 5, 14, 22, 59 nicotine-like 13 NIDA 30, 70, 77, 78, 79 Nils 101 Nisker, Wes 70 nitrous oxide 74 Nixon, Richard M. 16

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XII, NUMBER 4

NMDA 132, 133 Norberg, Sheldon 31, 107 norhyoscyamine 11 noribogaine 30 Nowack, Edmund K. 59 nutmeg 16, 17 nutritional supplements 71 Nymphae caerulea 138 nystagmus 51

O O.M.U. 62 Oak 128 …of the jungle 117 Olchevski, Slava 38 Om-Chi Herbs 22 ONDCP 77 Onyemaechi, Onye 31, 101 Operation X-Out (DEA operation) 52 opiates 29, 55, 60, 61, 66, 73 opium 4, 15, 55, 66, 92 Orloff, Judith 136 Osbourne, Ozzy 90 Osmond, Humphry 119 Oster, G. 43, 75 Ostyra species 128 Ott, Jonathan 17, 41, 55, 66, 75, 98 Otto Snow 111 Owsley, Stanley 111 Oxy (book by Otto Snow) 66 oxycodone 55, 66

P P.E.S. 62 P.J.T. Botanicals 62 Pachycereus pringlei 59 Pahnke, Walter 140 “Palatable” (Salvia divinorum strain) 117 Panaeolus cyanescens 88 Panaeolus subbalteatus 82 pantothenic acid 72 Papaver bracteatum 21, 22, 59, 66 Papaver orientale var. bracteatum 66 Papaver somniferum 66, 138 Paradigm Shift 50, 76 Paramycelius, B. 88 paraphernalia 32, 65, 82, 88, 104 Pardo, Frederic 43 Parkinson’s disease 77, 78, 80, 132 Partnership for a Drug-Free America 77, 79 Party Pill II™ 72 Party Pill™ 71 Patterson, Tom 7 Paullinia cupana 138 Pausinystalia johimbe 138 Paye, Yachaj 65, 66, 82, 88, 120, 140 paynantheine 28 PBS 79 peach leaf 72




WINTER SOLSTICE 2003

Pearson, Durk 71, 72 Peganum harmala 55, 62, 138 pemiclavine 67 Penrose, Roger 136 Perfect Fungi Europe 88 Perry, Wendy 22 Pert, Candace 136 Pesce, Mark 31, 106, 107 Peters, B.H. 14, 40 peyote 6, 15, 35, 39, 102, 138 PF TEK 65, 82, 83, 87, 88 Phalaris arundinacea 138 Pharmacotheon (book by Jonathan Ott) 17, 66 phenethylamines 22, 49, 59 phenytoin 134 Phillips, Bruno 26, 27, 28 Phoenix 7 Photomosaic™ 110 Physostigma venenosum 14 physostigmine 14 Picraulima nitida 60 Pinchbeck, Daniel 31, 39 pineal gland 7, 64 Pipe Dreams (DEA operation) 32, 104 Piper betle 13 Piper methysticum 13, 138 Piper nigrum 13 piperazines 49, 52 piperine 134 PIPT 18, 20 Plants of the Gods (book by Hofmann and Schultes) 53 Playa Surfer Dave 39 Pluronic Lecithin Organogel 23 pMPP 18 Pogo 1 Polivoy, Silvia 24, 70, 101 Polo, Marco 9 Popik, P. 132, 140 Poplars 127, 128 poppy seeds 59, 66 Populus species 128 Porrata, Trinka 31 Porter, Sharon 31 post-traumatic stress disorder 2, 78 Postman, Stevee 31, 43, 106, 115 Pot-TV.net 116, 138 potassium 72 Practical LSD Manufacture (book by Uncle Fester) 98 Prast, C.J. 28, 40 predatory drugs 52 primordia 121, 127, 130, 131 prohibition 1, 77, 79, 102, 103 Prosopis species 128 Proto Pipe 74 Prozac 67 psi-2C-T-4 105 psilocin 23, 32, 122 Psilocybe 22, 23, 63, 64, 121, 124 Psilocybe azurescens 88, 121 Psilocybe caerulipes 121

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Psilocybe cubensis 21, 83, 86, 87, 88 Psilocybe cyanescens 23, 121 Psilocybe cyanofibrillosa 22, 23, 121 Psilocybe mexicana 86 Psilocybe semilanceata 86, 88 Psilocybe stunzii 121 Psilocybe tampanensis 63, 86 psilocybin 20, 22, 32, 64, 83, 87, 88, 105, 121, 122 Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World (book by P. Stamets) 121 psilocybin-containing mushrooms 44, 64, 65, 82, 83, 88, 94, 117 Psychedelic Resource List (book by Jon Hanna) 74 Psychedelic Solution 116 psychotherapy 70, 77, 80, 81 Psychotria viridis 47, 62, 66, 67 Psylocybe Fanaticus 32, 65, 82, 88 PTSD 78, 80 Pueraria lobata 72 pukatea 60 pukateine 60 pupils, dialated 50 Pure Land Ethnobotanicals 28

Q Quality Health 62 quercetin 72 Quercus species 128

R R-lipoic acid 71, 73 Rabbin, Robert 101 RAD Test™ 73 Rael, Joseph 31 Ralphster’s Spores 97 Ram Dass 119, 136 Ramachandran, V.S. 31, 107 rape 31, 52 Rasmussen, Phil 60 Rätsch, C. 40, 53 raves 19, 51, 104 Ray, Thomas 136 Reagan, Nancy 5 receptors, muscarinic cholinergic 11 receptors, opioid 60, 135 receptors, serotonin 49 Recovery Essentials 71, 72, 73, 95, 96 redgar 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 Reich, Lori Jae 2, 6 Reisfield, Aaron 37 Release the Reality 37 Rendón 55 Reneman, L. 78, 108 Repke, D.B. 55, 76 research chemicals 17, 18, 49, 89, 95, 104, 105 Resinovik, Marco 31 Resonance Project, The 100 Rhus species 128 riboflavin 71, 72 Ricaurte, George 77, 78, 80, 81, 108

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Richardson, Peter 70 Rick 28 Ripinsky-Naxon, M. 11, 40 Rivers Source Botanicals 62 Roberts, Thomas B. 101 Robinia species 128 Robinson, Trevor 59 Rooney, D.F. 9, 13, 40 Rosas, Debbie 31 Rosenthal, Ed 29 Royal Geographical Society 14 Rubenfeld, Ilana 31 Rubik, Beverly 136 Ruck, Carl 101 Rudgley, R. 13, 40 Russell, Peter 31, 136 Russo, Ethan 101, 136 Ryman, James 38

S Sacred Succulents 59 Safford, W. 11, 40 saliva 15 Salix species 128 salutaridine 59 Salvia divinorum 24, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 46, 48, 101, 102, 117, 128, 135, 138 Salvia Divinorum (magazine) 37 Salvia Divinorum Corps 37 salvinorin A 37, 38, 48, 135 salvinorin crystals 18 Samuel, Rev. 38 San Francisco Art Institute 115 San Francisco Ibogaine Forum 29 Sand, Nicholas 31, 107, 109 Santana, Carlos 49, 50 Sazy, Laurent 31 Scanners 90 Sceletium tortuosum 138 Schechter, M.D. 49, 76 schizophrenia 17 Schmoke, Kurt 5 Schoenfeld, Eugene 29 Schultes, R.E. 9, 10, 11, 39, 40, 53 Science 77, 78, 80 Scientist, The 77 sclerotia 63, 86 scopolamine 9, 11, 14, 23, 65 sedation/sedative 11, 59, 92, 93 selenium 72, 73 Semple, D.M. 108 Sensarma, P. 11, 40 Sense of Being Stared At and Other Aspects… 58 Sententia, Wrye 31, 107 serotonin 77, 78, 81, 95 serotonin reuptake inhibitor 66 serotonin syndrome 95 Seven, Zoe 24, 31, 70, 89, 101 Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible 137

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VOLUME XII, NUMBER 4

Shaman Australis 26, 27, 28, 40 Shamanic Snuffs or Entheogenic Errhines 55, 66 Shankaran, M. 73, 76 Shanon, Benny 101, 136 Shapiro, Isaac 101 Shaw, Sandy 71, 72 Sheldrake, Rupert 58 Shellard, E.J. 26, 40 Sherman, John 101 “Shields” (blotter art) 114 shiitake 83, 134 Shiva 9, 11 Shlain, Leonard 101 Shroeterr 59 Shuar 67 Shulgin, Alexander T. 22, 26, 28, 31, 39, 40, 59, 66, 67, 95, 118, 136 Shulgin, Alexander T. & Ann 66, 91, 106, 119 Shulgin, Ann 31, 136 Siebert, Daniel 26, 28, 37, 40, 117 Sijay 136 silica gel 68 silver oxide 17 Silvers, Robert 110 silymarin 71, 72 Simon reagent 73 Simple Plant Isoquinolines, The 22, 59 Sinden, James 123 Sirius, R.U. 31, 106 Sisko, Bob 31 Sitaram, N. 14, 40 slippery elm 72 Smith, Huston 136, 139 Smith, Stephen W. 31 Snow, Otto 66, 111 snuff 22, 53, 54, 55 Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness 136 Solaria 32 soma 140 Source Naturals 72 de Souza, Tina 101 Sovatsky, Stuart 136 Sparks, Tav 101 speciociliatine 28 speciogynine 28 sphagnum moss 126, 130, 131 Spitzkegulus, F. 88 spore print(s) 82, 83, 84, 122 spore syringe(s) 32, 65, 82, 83, 88, 97 Spore Trading Post 97 Sprinkle, Annie 136 SSRI 67 Staack, R. F. 49, 76 Stadol NS® 135 Stadol® 135 Stains on Paper 113 Stamets, Paul 22, 63, 120, 121, 124, 127, 128, 129 Stanhope, Adam 114 Staples, Blaise 101 Stark, Ronnie 112




WINTER SOLSTICE 2003

steel wool 25 stereogram 110 Stevens, Jay 17 Stevens, José 101 stimulant/stimulation 15, 17, 50, 93, 112 Stolaroff, Myron 31, 107, 119, 136 Storming Heaven 17 Storz & Bickel 73, 74 Strassman, Rick 37 Stropharia 124, 128 Stropharia rugosoannulata 122 Stuart, R. 29, 99 SubGenius 113 substance abuse treatment 29 Sudberg, Elan M. 45 Sudberg, Sidney 45 sugar 5, 29, 50, 127 sugar, malt 84, 86, 87, 88 Sumac 128 Summer of Love 115 Sundance Channel 119 Sunnyvale Library 22 Swami Dharmjyoti 12, 13, 14 Sweetgum 128 Symmetrel® 132 SynChem OHG 51

T T.F., IL 64 tabernaemontanine 99 Tabernanthe iboga 29, 30, 31, 38, 39, 99 tachycardia 11, 49, 51 Takayama, Hitomitsu 26 Talby 16, 98 Tamblyn, Greg 31 Tanoak 128 Tart, Charles 14, 40, 42, 76, 136 Taub, Eric 31 taurine 72 Taxus species 128 Taylor, N. 11, 40 tea 93 techno-shaman 18 tetrahydroharmine 66 tetrahydromitragynine 28 TFMPP 18, 49, 50, 51, 52 Tham Krabok 29 THC 20 Theatrum Botanicum 28 thebaine 21, 22, 59, 66, 135 theophylline 134 theta 64 THH 66, 67 thiamine 71, 72 thin layer chromatography 26, 67 Thirwell, J.G. 38 Thompson and Morgan 66 thorn apple 10 Thugees 11

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TIHKAL 17, 66, 67, 91 Tiller, William 31 Timberwolf Gardens 18 TMA 98 TMA-2 18 tobacco 2, 4, 10, 13, 21, 22, 29, 33, 55, 59, 72, 73, 92 tolerance 20, 61, 97, 132 toloache 11 Tomaselli, Fred 31, 106 Torbugesic® 135 Torbutrol® 135 Torres, C.M. 55, 76 Torres, Sebastian 28 Tourette’s Syndrome-like 89 Toward a Science of Consciousness 136 Trachelospermum jasminoides 99 Traffic 5 Trametes sanguinea 59 trance 21 transdermal 23, 97 Trichocereus peruvianus 138 trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine 49 Trip 37, 100 Tripatourium 38 tropine 11 Trout, K. 20, 43, 60, 61, 63, 64, 67 tryptamine(s) 49, 59, 61, 63, 135 Tum Krabok 29 tumor 96 Tunneshende, Merilyn 101 turmeric rhizome extract 71 Turnera aphrodisiaca 138 Tuth-Shena, Lady 10 Twain, Mark 18




WINTER SOLSTICE 2003

Visionary Garden, NH 97 Vissell, Barry 101 vitamin(s) 71, 72, 73, 86, 95, 96 Voacanga africana 30, 60, 61, 99 voacangine-7-hydroxyindolenine 99 vobasine 99 Volcano Inhalator 73, 74 Volkow, Nora 77 Vollenweider, F.X. 80, 108, 136 vomit 15, 49, 71, 90, 91, 98 Von Reis, S. 9, 10, 40

W

UCLA Botanical Garden 118 ueraria flower 72 Ulmus species 128 Uncle Fester 98 União do Vegetal 67 Urban Shaman 138 urination 135

Waizmann, Samuel 31 Walker, George R. 59 Walnut 128 War on Drugs 1, 5, 102, 103 Warhol, Andy 115 Warter, Carlos 136 Washington Post, The 115 “Wasson and Hofmann” (Salvia divinorum strain) 117 Wasson, R.G. 41, 42, 44, 76, 117, 118, 140 Watt, Darcy J. 38 Webb, Craig 31 Wesselman, Hank 101 White, Eric 5 White, William E. 38 Whitehouse, Steve 36 Wilde, Oscar 1 Willow 128 Willy 55 Wilson, Pamela 101 Winfrey, Oprah 79 winged disk 42 Winnie the Pooh 113 Winters, Wallace 31 witchcraft 9, 101 Withania somnifera 60 withdrawal 29, 60 Wogg, P.E. 28, 40 Wolinsky, Stephen 136 Women’s Christian Temperance Union 4 Woodring, Jim 103

V

Y

V.G., NH 61, 65 Valdés, Leander 37, 117 Vamana Purana 11 vaporizer 32, 33, 34, 36, 73, 74, 102 Venosa, Robert 31, 101 vermiculite 83 Verordnung (EWG) 49, 76 vertigo 11, 13 Viagra® 134 vicodin 60 Vietnam War 5 vinegar 30, 99 vinpocetine 73 Virola 53

yaa baa (methamphetamine) 92 Yahya, R.A. 40 Yasgur, Jay 140 Yew 128 yoga 7, 70 Yoga of Herbs, The 15 yohimbe 27 yopo (Anadenanthera perigrina) 22, 53

U

152




Z Ziziphus jujuba (Chinese dates) 22 Zohar, Danah 136 Zvosec, Deborah L. 31

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: K. Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love Contributors Mark McCloud Jon Hanna Daniel J. Siebert Connie Littlefield Tyler D. Flyer Lazyvegan A.Q., TX D.H., CA Jay Yasgur, R.Ph, M.Sc.

The King of Blotter Art: Mark McCloud Speaks…

109

The History of the First Salvia divinorum Plants Cultivated Outside of Mexico

117

Documentary Fundraising: Ann & Sasha: A Chemical Love Story

119

Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation: Means and Benefits

120

Network Feedback

132

Memantine Hydrochloride: A Few Words of Caution

132

Enzymes, Metabolism, and Bioavailability

134

Butorphanol

135

Events Calendar

136

Sources

137

Book Review

139

Bibliography

140

Index

141

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from Design & Layout Soma Graphics Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA Web www.entheogenreview.com Front Cover Blotter Collage by Mark McCloud Back Cover Mayan Blotter by Mark McCloud

many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to The Entheogen Review, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

ETHNOGARDEN

BOTANICALS Offering you rare and sacred plants, herbs, seeds, and extracts from around the globe! Tabernanthe iboga products Lophophora williamsii cacti Sceletium tortuosum Ayahuasca herbs Resin Extracts Dry extracts Erythroxylum novogranatense seeds and many other rare and hard to find plants. Payment accepted includes VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and money order by mail. Wholesale inquiries welcome and encouraged. Please call for catalog: (705) 735-0540. Sources also welcome to contact us offering supply.

ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS POB 27048 Barrie, ON L4M-6K4 CANADA [email protected]

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2003–2004 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

http://ethnogarden.com

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XII, Number 4




Winter Solstice 2003




ISSN 1066-1913

1) 20 min. after first dose of 50 µg. Condition normal. No effect from the drug yet. (Except where otherwise stated, all drawings were done in charcoal.)

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

2) 85 min. after first dose, 20 min. after another 50 µg. Euphoria. The subject sees the model correctly, but finds difficulty in controlling the wide, sweeping movements of his hand.

3) 2.5 hours after first dose. Outlines of the model seen normally, but very vividly and in changed colours. The subject states: “My hand must follow the bold sweep of the lines. I feel as if my consciousness is situated in the part of my body that is now active.”

4) Shortly after third drawing. “The outlines of the model are normal, but those of my drawing are not (Fig. 3). I pull myself together and try again: it’s no good. I give up trying and let myself go at the third attempt (Fig. 4).”

5) Shortly after third and fourth drawings. “I try again and produce this drawing with one flourish.” 6) 2.75 hours after first dose. Agitated. “The perspective of the room has changed, everything is moving…everything is interwoven in a network of colour…the model’s face is distorted to a diabolic mask.” (Image created in Tempera.)

7) 4 hours 25 min. Euphoric mood, intoxication less marked. The subject attempts to draw a portrait similar to his first one. “If I am not careful, I lose control of my movements.” (Image created in Pen and water-colour.)

8) 5 hours 45 min. Crayon drawing. “It is probably because my movements are still too unsteady that I am unable to draw as I normally do…The intoxication is wearing off, but I can both feel and see it ebbing and flowing about me (now it only reaches to my knees); finally, only an eddying motion remains.”

9) 8 hours. The intoxication has now worn off, apart from a few small waves (for example, sudden distortions of faces from time to time). The subject feels bewildered and tired. “I have nothing to say about the last drawing; it is bad and uninteresting.”

Volume XIII, Number 1




Vernal Equinox 2004




ISSN 1066-1913

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: K. Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love Contributors Sandra Karpetas Jon Hanna R. Stuart Scott J. Thomson E.B., Berlin C.H., CA Altoid B. Green Doc, IN Anonymous, IN T, CA Justin Case C, CA Edzard Klapp Ulrich Holbein Design & Layout Soma Graphics Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA www.entheogenreview.com Front & Back Covers Nine drawings from a series of fourteen that were made in 1951 by the Hungarian physician and amateur artist László Mátéfi, while he was under the influence of LSD. These were published in Triangle, the Sandoz Journal of Medical Science. (We believe the images were published in 1954.) We have been unable to locate a copy of this publication, which was probably an in-house production. The images were scanned from Taylor, G.R. 1963. The Science of Life: A Picture History of Biology. McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Ibogaine as Therapy: Sandra Karpetas Speaks…

1

Modern Psychedelic Art’s Origins as a Product of Clinical Experimentation

12

Network Feedback

23

More on Memantine Hydrochloride

23

Even More on Memantine Hydrochloride

23

Ten Kratom Bioassays

24

More Thoughts on Kratom, and Another Ten Bioassays

25

Anadenanthera colubrina as Ayahuasca

26

Reply to “AMT Shelf-life”

27

New Research Chemical: 5-MeO-DALT

27

Events Calendar

29

Sources

30

Book Reviews

31

Bibliography

39

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to The Entheogen Review, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

ETHNOGARDEN

BOTANICALS Offering you rare and sacred plants, herbs, seeds, and extracts from around the globe! Tabernanthe iboga products Lophophora williamsii cacti Sceletium tortuosum Ayahuasca herbs Resin Extracts Dry extracts Erythroxylum novogranatense seeds and many other rare and hard to find plants. Payment accepted includes VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and money order by mail. Wholesale inquiries welcome and encouraged. Please call for catalog: (705) 735-0540. Sources also welcome to contact us offering supply.

ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS POB 27048 Barrie, ON L4M-6K4 CANADA [email protected]

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2004 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

http://ethnogarden.com

VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 1




VERNAL EQUINOX 2004

Ibogaine as Therapy: Sandra Karpetas Speaks… Interviewed by Jon Hanna SANDRA KARPETAS is the project coordinator for the IBOGA THERAPY HOUSE, a treatment center in Vancouver, British Columbia that uses ibogaine to combat drug addiction. They charge absolutely nothing for this service. Although it is illegal in the United States, ibogaine is not specifically scheduled in Canada. However, even if ibogaine were legal in America, the treatment that happens at the IBOGA THERAPY HOUSE would not be allowed in the United States, as the FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION restricts the use of nonapproved experimental medications. Interestingly, one of the reasons that the THERAPY HOUSE is able to use ibogaine is because they don’t have doctors involved in the treatment. According to MARC EMERY, currently the sole funder of the THERAPY HOUSE, if doctors were running the therapy, various medical regulations would tie their hands and prohibit the work. Keeping the doctors uninvolved actually allows the therapeutic process to happen. Furthermore, if the THERAPY HOUSE charged for their services, there would be a completely different set of regulations that would bog down the process and make it difficult to provide the therapy. What’s being accomplished at the IBOGA THERAPY HOUSE is a well-considered and delicate dance that actually allows addicts to kick via a psychedelic treatment process. In order to protect the privacy of the individuals undergoing treatment and safeguard the healing process itself, the location of the IBOGA THERAPY HOUSE is not made public. On a cool day in late spring I spoke with SANDRA about her initial interest in psychedelics, her work in the field of harm reduction, and how she ultimately became involved with this cutting-edge, philanthropic addiction treatment facility.

Jon: When did you become interested in psychedelics? Sandra: Do you consider Cannabis to be a psychedelic? If that’s the case, I was ten years old when I smoked my first joint. This was with my mother and a friend. I had bronchitis many times throughout my childhood, as well as asthma. Mom had heard that Cannabis might help me with my asthma, so she said, “Okay, I’m going to let you try this. But under no circumstances are you to keep using it on your own. It’s going to be a supervised activity.” So I smoked my first joint at age ten, but by the time I was thirteen, I was smoking pretty regularly. Jon: Did your mom smoke Cannabis? Sandra: No. Jon: She had just heard that it could be good medicinally. What was her attitude toward drugs like Cannabis and the psychedelics? Sandra: She didn’t really have much information about them. She had heard all of the propaganda claiming that Cannabis was dangerous, so she was definitely worried about that.

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VERNAL EQUINOX 2004

Jon: That takes a pretty ballsy mom to, out of a concern for her daughter’s health, administer a medication that she not only felt uncertain about herself, but which also had all of the weight of anti-drug propaganda levied against it. Was she into naturopathy; did she lean toward natural remedies? Sandra: Not really, no. It was mostly because a friend that we had in common— who was between us in age and who acted as a very good bridge for us—was a regular pot smoker. It was through her that my mom found out about marijuana’s medicinal properties. Jon: How old was your mom at that time? Sandra: Thirty-three. Jon: Did the Cannabis actually end up having any medicinal properties? Was it an effective treatment for your asthma? Sandra: I haven’t had a problem with asthma since then. Whether that was psychosomatic or not, I don’t know. Yage.Net specializes in the development and hosting of entheogen-related web sites with an emphasis on ethnobotanical suppliers. We’re also home to the largest collection of ayahuasca resources on the web. ▼ ▼ ▼

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Jon: Was it something that cured your asthma immediately, on the first try? Sandra: I don’t know really, because I have been smoking it ever since. [laughs] Jon: Excellent! Of the more traditional psychedelics, which did you take first? Sandra: I took LSD first when I was fifteen. I was going out to a movie with some friends, and they told me about it. Of course, I had heard of LSD before that. I heard that it made you see things. I heard that it was really fun. So I decided to try it with my group of friends, and it blew me away. That’s when my interest in psychedelics began to blossom.

.

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Jon: Had you heard any of the anti-drug propaganda at that time about LSD?

Currently hosting sites for

Sandra: Some, but I didn’t pay much attention to it, because I had also heard such propaganda about Cannabis, and clearly that was something very helpful and quite fun. I played with nitrous a lot when I was younger too. I remember occasions where a bunch of us kids would walk into a grocery store, clear out all the whipping cream in the dairy section, and get high in the supermarket. [laughs] However, some of my most influential and healing journeys have been facilitated by the intentional use of Psilocybe mushrooms.

The Entheogen Review Trout’s Notes Pablo Amaringo Luis Eduardo Luna James Arthur Ayahuasca.Com EntheogenUK and many more at www.yage.net/hosted

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Jon: What is your educational background? Sandra: I don’t really have any formal education. I’m self taught in the arena of drug information, although I have some very good mentors. But I’ve taken it upon myself to absorb as much information as I can in the areas that I’m interested in. I’ve taken quite a few workshops on topics ranging from harm reduction to facilitation. But most of my experience comes from being directly involved.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 1

In 1996, I joined a group called Mind Body Love. This was a raver information project based in Vancouver, whose purpose was to provide accurate, up-to-date, non-biased information about psychoactive drugs and sexual health. We set up safe spaces at raves and other events, with a focus on sharing information that could help to reduce harm associated with drug use. The spaces we set up were not just information based, but they were also there to help during the moment when people were having difficulties with their experiences. And those experiences got me interested in working with and learning more about transpersonal psychology and psychedelic psychotherapy. Through this work, I increasingly became an advocate for harm reduction on a larger scale in Vancouver, particularly concerning young people and drug education. Due to my work in this area, I was eventually invited to host a number of workshops for young people in schools. That later turned into a project on the Sunshine Coast called the Higher Knowledge Network. My work in harm reduction led to an interest in drug policy and cognitive liberty issues, and I became more proactive in working with the downtown East side and injection drug use. I’m a co-founder of VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, an advocacy group funded by Health Canada for which I co-wrote the proposal that got them their initial funding and who have made a number of recommendations to the City Council and the Health Board for changes in the city’s policies related to IV drug use. Shortly after that, I moved to the Sunshine Coast and started doing the same kind of work, but became involved again with youth. And that’s when we started doing more of the drug education workshops with young people, and hosting conferences. Jon: The difference in attitude in Canada is amazing to me. You were able to go into schools with an approach that is not abstinence-based, but rather a more realistic harm reduction focus that provides real education that kids can use. Growing up in the United States, the message is simply, “If it feels good, don’t do it.” The DARE program has set us back tremendously. Canada is clearly much more progressive than the United States, when it comes to drug policy. Sandra: Well, it took us years to establish trust with the people in charge at the schools and with the health promotion organizations. Basically we had to get to know these people as individuals, and approach them with various solid sources of information, such as the work that Joel Brown is doing in America with the Center for Educational




VERNAL EQUINOX 2004

Research and Development on the topic of young people and drug education. We printed up that sort of information and sent packages of it out to the right people to persuade them of a more reasonable viewpoint. It didn’t happen overnight. It took a lot of dialog and communication with these people to show them the need for this approach. Jon: Do you think that Canada may be receptive to this sort of approach because the government there has a much more reasonable take on health care in general? Perhaps because the government is more directly involved in health care, they actually need to come up with something practical that really works, as opposed to the United States. Sandra: Canada’s drug strategy actually is a harm reduction strategy. A lot of people don’t know that, and part of my work has been trying to educate people about that. I’ll remind them that this is the case, and give them a definition for harm reduction and what it can potentially mean. Yes, our policy is different here, our health care system is different here. Because there is equal access to health care here, that then puts more of an onus on health care agencies to be proactive in finding out what works and what doesn’t. But I also think that for us here, being able to jump through a lot of those hoops had to do with the people that we were forming relationships with and getting to know. Dialog is paramount to making things work. I see the harm reduction approach as the middle path in a discussion of drug use in our culture, with prohibition on one side and promotion on the other. The definition of harm reduction has definitely changed for me over the years. It’s not just about reducing harm, it’s also about opening dialog. The whole concept of providing non-biased information can be a daunting task. But for me, the answer is found in the dialog that needs to take place between people involved from any particular viewpoint. We need to remember that everybody is different, and different substances will have different effects on different people. Jon: Tell me about the project that is your primary focus these days, the Iboga Therapy House. Sandra: The Iboga Therapy House was founded in November of 2002 by Marc Emery, who is currently the sole funder of the project. I was hired in January of 2003. I had heard about ibogaine back in 1996. From 1997 through 1998, when I worked with VANDU, I thought that ibogaine might be very useful for some of these users, but I had no idea how

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to get a hold of any. Information on ibogaine was somewhat scarce at that time, and I was also busy with a number of other projects. So as an interest, ibogaine kind of fell to the side. But I found out in December of 2002 that Marc Emery was doing this ibogaine therapy project. I was curious, so I gave him a call. He took me on a tour of the space, introduced me to the facilitators, and showed me around. He told me what they were doing, what his intentions were with the project, how much he was willing to fund, and where he wanted to go with it. And I saw a real opportunity for growth there. He offered me a job, which I wasn’t expecting. It wasn’t necessarily what I was looking for, but I’m really glad that I decided to take it. I took it on as a sort of challenge, because I could see that the work had huge potential. And now, this project has become my life. I’m very seriously dedicated to it, and to seeing that the world finds out about ibogaine. The monthly budget for the Therapy House is about $10,000, but that fluctuates depending on how many people we treat. We try to treat four people per month. One person per week in an individualized setting. We actually treat each person over a period of five days. It’s a residential treatment, so we provide everything that they need during that time, as well as around-the-clock staff. Within the project, I have a number of different roles. I’m the project coordinator, so I not only screen the clients for physical and psychological health issues, but also help to make the decision with them about whether or not they are ready to make this sort of a change in their lives. Ibogaine certainly is not a miracle cure, as has been touted by some. But it can be a powerful catalyst and tool for an ongoing program of recovery. My role as a facilitator and sitter with the client during the actual experience includes helping to prepare them for having a potent psychedelic experience, and also helping to set up the space in which it will be conducted. Basically paying attention to the “set and setting” of the whole thing. Finding out what they expect from the experience and seeing how well they are prepared to really go into that and deal with anything that might come up is definitely a factor in how beneficial the experience will be with them. So that’s my role. My role is to inform and provide support. Jon: Are the clients usually lying down for the entire session, or do people want to get up, walk around, or even leave the environment of the Therapy House?

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Sandra: Everybody is different, but most people prefer to stay lying down. Ibogaine in large doses, such as those given for addiction therapy, causes ataxia (loss of muscle coordination). So often patients can not walk around, although we have had a few people who have been able to come out and spend some time with us in other spaces in the house. For example, someone might come out into the living room and spend some time with the facilitators and have short conversations, maybe just to get a change of external scenery. But most people tend to lie down. The ibogaine is more of a facilitator in itself. It’s different from LSD or MDMA therapy, where there is an active role for a therapist while the person is under the influence, in terms of opening dialog and discussing issues that may come up. The ibogaine tends to get people into a state where they focus inwardly, and it seems to act as the facilitator in itself. So a lot of our job, again, includes preparing them for the experience, and then helping them to integrate the experience afterwards. And of course we’re there monitoring vital signs and helping them to go to the bathroom, or keeping them hydrated, and reassuring them that they are in a safe space and that if anything comes up where they do need to talk, that we’re there for them. Jon: Have you seen any sort of major freakouts? Sandra: No, there haven’t been any freakouts. I’ve had people who have come out of it saying that it was the worst thing that they had ever done and that they would never do it again, who then called me two weeks later saying that it was actually the best thing that they had ever done, and they wanted to do it again. Jon: There’s a code among some of the psychedelic therapists who were working before these compounds were criminalized, that has been adopted by many underground psychedelic therapists as well, which says that the therapist must have at least one session with the substance they are providing for others, so that they can speak from a place of experience. Do you agree with this idea? And if so, what was your experience with ibogaine like? Sandra: That’s a good question, because I did administer ibogaine to others for a few months before I had tried it myself. And I think that was valuable in terms of having an objective look at what other people were experiencing, and basing my interpretations of what was happening on user reports, which I think is quite valuable to do. But I also felt that I couldn’t fully comprehend what was going on until I had my own experience with it. So I’ve taken iboga now, and

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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 1

it was a very beautiful and powerful experience. I’ve learned a lot from it. It’s definitely valuable when giving treatment to others to have some background information about what someone else may experience, but it’s also important to be quite aware that whatever you experienced isn’t necessarily what someone else is going to experience. Everybody is quite unique, and those providing treatment should honor and respect someone else’s interpretation of the experience. Again, our job is to inform the process and act on a support basis, and not to try to color their experience with our own interpretations. Jon: Was the experience that you had with the pure compound ibogaine, or did you take some manner of more crude extract of Tabernanthe iboga root? Sandra: I’d like to try ibogaine hydrochloride, which is the pure compound. What I took is called the “Indra” extract, which is a total alkaloid extract. So it wasn’t pure ibogaine. I took 3000 milligrams of this extract, which is less potent than pure ibogaine, and which contains additional alkaloids found in the plant’s roots, other than ibogaine. Jon: It’s my understanding that the Indra extract was tested a while back and shown to contain about 15 to 20% alkaloids, with about 50% of that being ibogaine (and the other 50% being other alkaloids of various activities). This would put your dose of ibogaine at about 225 to 300 milligrams. I’m not certain when those tests were done, but I’m curious if you know how long the Indra extract has been around or if it has been analyzed recently. It would be interesting to know exactly how much of what it contains these days, as I believe that the same batch of extract has been circulating for some years now. I wonder how stable ibogaine is.




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Jon: How much work have you done with the Indra extract, and how much of your work has been done with the pure compound? Sandra: We treated 16 people with the Indra extract, and then the last 15 have been with the hydrochloride. Jon: How many of those 31 people have come in for additional treatments? Sandra: Seven people have come for a second treatment. And we’ve had a few people who have requested a third treatment, but that hasn’t happened yet. We have 13 people currently who have relapsed, and four of those 13 want to come in for either a second or third treatment. Out of those who relapsed, five were due to inadequate pain management. Jon: So you’ve had about a 58% success rate. Have people who have not relapsed wanted to come in for an additional treatment? Sandra: Yes, we’ve had a few. None of them have actually filed another application with us yet, but they have mentioned interest in trying it again or can see that it would be valuable maybe six or nine months down the road.

Sandra: One of the reasons that we stopped working with the Indra extract is because we don’t have the answers to those questions. From what I’ve heard, the extract could be anywhere from 15 to 20 years old, and I don’t know when the last time that it was tested was. But we haven’t had any independent people test it for us. Because we aren’t working with it anymore, we don’t have any future plans to test it. We’re working with ibogaine hydrochloride, which is a 98% pure extract. We have a certificate of analysis for that chemical, so we feel more comfortable knowing what we have is pure. I’ve found already that there are some differences between the Indra extract and the pure ibogaine hydrochloride. People tend to get a lot less sick with the hydrochloride; there’s less vomiting and pain in the body afterwards. THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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Jon: Is that something that you would feel comfortable doing, or do you have a policy regarding repeat treatments for those who have not relapsed? Sandra: We’ve said that we are willing to offer people up to three treatments if they feel that’s necessary. So we are open to having people come in for a second or third treatment. Jon: I realize that you haven’t yet treated that many people, but have you seen any sort of a trend where the people who are addicted to a particular type of substance tend to have a higher or lower success rate? For example, does a heroin addict seem to respond better to ibogaine treatment than a cocaine addict? Sandra: Both people who are using heroin and people who are using cocaine tend to have pretty good results, although cocaine users have seemed to do better at remaining abstinent. We’ve had a great deal of success lately with cocaine users. Poly-substance users might be a bit more difficult. The methadone users tend to be a little harder to detox, depending on how much they have got in their systems and whether or not they have pre-existing pain issues to deal with. But even with them, ibogaine seems to be pretty effective in terms of curbing withdrawal. However, pain management issues may be a contributing factor as to why in some cases opiate addicts have a harder time remaining abstinent than cocaine addicts.




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they are at, and others are to help them in their recovery process in terms of recommending changes in their diets or to avoid potential triggers with regard to relapse issues. We want to find out whether or not they’ve tried any other detox options in the past or if they have been to any other treatment centers. Generally we get people for whom other treatment options have failed, but that’s not the case with every client and it’s not a requirement. A social support network and an aftercare plan are vital. With regard to the aftercare, it’s really important to get an idea of what they plan to do. For some people that might mean going into another treatment center. For everyone, it means getting their life back together on a number of different levels. We ask about that so we can help them to make those changes or find suitable recovery options. Before treatment, we’d like the client be clear from other medications, like antidepressants, for example. We ask what kind of medications the client is on and find out whether or not those medications are contraindicated with ibogaine. In any case, I generally ask people to taper down or stop their medications before they take the ibogaine. And as well, they need to stop their intake of the drug of abuse. How long before the treatment they should stop the drug depends on what it is. If it’s heroin, generally 12 hours before. If it’s methadone, 24 hours before. With cocaine, anywhere from 10 to 12 hours. It also depends on the dose they take and their frequency of use. But we definitely do require them to stop taking their drug of abuse.

Jon: What is your client screening process? Sandra: We request copies of medical tests: EKGs, cell blood count with differential, and a liver panel. We need to make sure that the client is healthy enough to take the medication. We check their heart because there have been a few cases where heart rates have shot up, or blood pressure has been lowered or raised, and so we need to make sure that their heart is healthy. Liver work is done because it is the liver that helps metabolize the ibogaine into noribogaine, which then remains in the system for quite a while. So we want to make sure that the client’s liver is healthy enough to deal with this process. We do accept people with hepatitis C if their liver enzymes are lower than 200% above normal. Our screening also includes a whole component on finding out what their withdrawal symptoms are, what their patterns of use are, how long they’ve been using, how much they tend to use, whether or not they are poly-substance users, what their nutritional habits are, and whether or not they’re physically active. Some of these questions are to find out about the client and where

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Jon: Has there been a problem with border crossings, when maybe a patient went into withdrawal before reaching you? Sandra: It did in one case, where the applicant had withheld information about a previous felony conviction. When he tried to cross the border, he was basically considered an “undesirable” and they didn’t want to let him in. He had been detoxing already for a day, and then he got to Canada and was detained at the border. He was allowed to come to us for a single evening, during which we didn’t have enough time to treat him because the experience itself can last from 20 to 36 hours. And we feel that the reintegration period is also quite necessary, so we didn’t want to just dose him and stick him back on a plane in the morning. When he got back to the airport, he was detained from his flight because he started to go into withdrawals before getting on the plane. It was a very difficult situation for us and for him, because he wasn’t able to take the treatment nor was he able to have access to the substance he was dependent upon.

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Jon: What percentage of the people that you treat are from Canada and what percentage of them are from elsewhere?

Jon: Are you collecting any sort of documentation during or after the experiences from your subjects?

Sandra: It’s changed. At one point it was about 50-50. But currently it’s about 60% Canadian, 40% American.

Sandra: We give the subjects the option to use a tape recorder during the session if they want to. We also try to keep notes regarding anything that the person says during the session, as well as anything that he or she has ingested, or any changes in vital signs. All this information is compiled in a set of treatment notes that we retain. And we always ask the people to write something about their experiences afterwards. We provide them with questions that touch on a number of different areas, regarding the mental, emotional, and spiritual effects that were experienced, as well as the person’s general well being. We use the Peak Experience Profile, which was created by Richard Yensen and Franco Di Leo, and the Hallucinogen Rating Scale developed by Rick Strassman. The subjects are also expected to write a report of their experience of their treatment and of the Iboga Therapy House. This helps us to evaluate our program and make the changes that are needed.

Jon: Ibogaine is known to produce a moderate rise in blood pressure in about 15% of the people who take it. Do you give any sort of a “test dose” to see how the person responds to the ibogaine? Sandra: We administer a 100 mg dose of ibogaine before we give them a full dose, monitor their vital signs—their blood pressure, pulse, and temperature—for an hour to check for any allergic reaction. If there is such a reaction, we will abort the treatment. Jon: What is a full dose considered to be? Sandra: It is largely based on the person’s weight. However, it also depends on the substance of addiction that we are treating for, and the person’s frequency of use of that substance, and the dose that the person is used to taking. It can be anywhere from 16 to 20 mg per kg for people who are physically dependent on the chemical or chemicals that they are trying to kick. Jon: You said that the course of action of the drug can range from 20 to 36 hours. What is the average time that people are under the effects of ibogaine? Sandra: The average is about 24 hours, and that’s in three phases. The first phase is a period of psychological exploration and dumping. A lot of random images come up, and the experience is highly visual and chaotic. The images may seem strange and unrelated to each other. That phase usually lasts anywhere from 5 to 10 hours. Phase two is where they start to get more visions that are related specifically to themselves, to their past, and to their drug use or family or other issues that they need to look at. The visions generally come in a bit slower. Based on user reports, people tend to feel that this phase of the process is more about working through their issues than the first part. The second phase can last anywhere from 10 to 16 hours. Then the third phase is coming down, where the visuals start to subside. The person is usually up for a few more hours, but just waiting to fall asleep. It depends on the individual, but that can last from another 3 to 12 hours.

Jon: Do you see any side effects from the treatments? Sandra: Primarily there can be some nausea and ataxia. For nausea we may give Gravol®, which in America you know of as Dramamine® (dimenhydrinate). Sometimes we get people who have a rising or lowering of their blood pressure. Generally we’ve found that if we keep people well-hydrated beforehand, the chances of their blood pressure dropping is minimal. Jon: Some ibogaine researchers have noticed that people who undergo the treatment have a reduction in their need for sleep that can last a month or more following the treatment. The idea has been presented that this might indicated some manner of structural change that has occurred in the brain, or that there is a long-lasting metabolite of ibogaine that stays in one’s system. People have reported needing only three or four hours of sleep a night. Have you seen this reaction with any of your patients? Sandra: I’ve seen it with some of them, but definitely not with all of them—very few, in fact. Robert Goutarel’s hypothesis is that ibogaine may facilitate a prolonged R.E.M. experience, and there is speculation that this might delay the need for sleep. But that’s just speculation. EEG brain-mapping at some of the stages of the experience of people under the influence of ibogaine may prove to be quite interesting.

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Jon: Two of the people who are known to have died during ibogaine treatment were women. These deaths led people to be worried that ibogaine might have a greater toxicity in females, possibly due to it being metabolized differently. That concern caused the Food and Drug Administration to exclude women from their 1993 approval of clinical studies with ibogaine. Are you aware of any comparative metabolism studies based on gender that have been done? Do you allow women to detox at the Iboga Therapy House? If so, what is the ratio of men to women who are treated? Sandra: Yes, we do treat women. About 40% of our patients have been women. One ibogaine treatment provider who sent us his treatment procedure did suggest that women who are having their menstrual period be excluded from treatment, including the time a week before their period. I haven’t found anything that mentions why that may be. Jon: The only thing that I can think is that there is some concern about a woman’s metabolism related to her hormone levels, but I dunno… Sandra: I’m waiting to find out what Deborah Mash has to say about that, as I believe that she is doing some work related to the metabolism of ibogaine and/or noribogaine. Jon: Have you ever had to stop a treatment based on a negative reaction from the test dose that you give? Sandra: Yes. Once we had someone who had already taken ibogaine in the past. We noticed a dramatic drop in her blood pressure, and had to stop the treatment. And we also had another person whose heart rate jumped to over 120 within ten minutes, and then it took about an hour for that to subside. It has been suggested that the response in this second case may have been just due to anxiety. But the patient didn’t appear to have any outward signs of anxiety. And since we’re not doctors, we would rather play things safe—it was such a drastic rise in his heart rate. So we have had two treatments that were aborted. Jon: What if the need for a doctor arose? Sandra: I’m trying to work out the possibility of having a doctor or registered nurse on hand as an observer. Not as someone who is actively involved, due to the government restrictions on that, but just there in a safety net sort of position. I’d also like to have a crash cart on site, with someone experienced in its use, in case it is needed. However, we are

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currently about five minutes away from the closest hospital. We have advised them that we are providing this treatment, and we have tried to establish an emergency protocol with them. They said that if anything goes wrong, we should just call, and an ambulance would be right over. Our staff all has first aid training, too. Jon: There have been a few deaths reported from the use of Tabernanthe iboga root among the African tribe, the Bwiti, who traditionally use it in spiritual rituals. How many people have died from taking the plant for recreational purposes or as an addiction treatment? Sandra: I don’t know the answer to that question. To find out the specific details regarding each of the deaths that happened during therapy sessions would be valuable. There are some questions as to whether or not these people may have died due to the concurrent consumption of other drugs while on ibogaine, or immediately afterwards. Such an approach could cause a potentially-lethal overdose, if they revisit their drug of abuse at their “normal” dose level. If someone was going to try and use their drug of addiction directly following ibogaine treatment, they would have to be careful to take a very small test dose to find out what their tolerance level has become. Ibogaine can highly potentiate other drugs. So far as I know, a lot of the deaths have been because of this tolerance issue in conjunction with using another drug. But there are a couple deaths that are in question. I believe that five or six people have died related in some manner to ibogaine therapy, but I don’t know the exact figure. Jon: There was recently a death in England, which was noted to be the first case where a coroner actually listed the specific cause of death as ibogaine. This raised concerns that ibogaine might become scheduled in the United Kingdom. Considering Canada’s connection with the U.K., are you afraid that scheduling of ibogaine over there might increase the chances that it becomes scheduled in Canada? Sandra: Yes, absolutely. It’s something that I think about all the time, that our situation could change at any moment. And I think that makes our task even more urgent, in terms of helping as many people as we can now, and gathering data. So that if Canada were to threaten the scheduling of ibogaine, we could argue for its place as a licensed medicine. Or for not scheduling it. Or at least to open dialogs about the potentials, and have the government look more deeply into it before making a rash decision based on some anecdotal evidence. I haven’t seen the coroner’s report, so I don’t really

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know whether or not the death was solely due to ibogaine itself, or if there were any other drugs in the person’s system. I’d like to find out more. Jon: The risk of death is probably minuscule in the proper environment. Possibly of greater concern is the potential for neurotoxic effects from ibogaine. Mark Molliver of John’s Hopkins showed cytopathology in the cerebellum. Karl Jansen, M.D., Ph.D. has stated that ibogaine therapy should only be used as a last resort, with hardcore addicts who have failed to kick via any other approach, due to his concerns about permanent changes that might occur in the brain. To what degree should people who take ibogaine be worried about brain damage? Sandra: From my knowledge of the Molliver study, anything under 50 mg per kg was not shown to be neurotoxic.




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That was in rats. I don’t know if there have been any neurotoxicity studies in humans. I definitely hope that there will be such studies in the future, because I am very curious. Again, the dose that we give is anywhere from 16 to 20 mg per kg, with 20 being reserved for the most severe cases of addiction. We also recommend to those people who apply for our treatment that they attempt some other manner of treatment first. Not only because of potential neurotoxicity, but also because it is a very potent psychoactive experience. Not everybody is ready for that. Of course, one of the most important tasks that we have is to prepare people for that experience. But I do think that ibogaine is a better choice for those who have already exhausted other options. It also speaks well to the efficacy of ibogaine therapy if it is successful with people who have tried other treatments and failed at them; that’s something that may be persuasive to researchers that ibogaine therapy needs to be looked into seriously.

Oaxaca, a sun-drenched city cooled by Mexican mountain breezes, is regarded by many as a spiritual center because of the ancient Zapotec and Mixtec cities that dominate the nearby hills. It is also a multicultural center—people from all over the world come to see the arts and crafts of the 16 different indigenous groups practicing their traditional ways in the region. — Iris Denton, Whole Life Times, June 1998 The state of Oaxaca in Mexico is infamous due to the (re)discovery of several powerful entheogens in use by Mazatec healers in the Sierra Mazatec mountain area, including Psilocybe mushrooms and Salvia divinorum. In particular, the town of Huautla de Jiménez attracted those interested in discovering more about the native use of these visionary plants. Oaxaca City is the first stopping point in Mexico for many wishing to take the beautiful 6-hour scenic drive through a multitude of ecosystems to the Sierra Mazateca. In Oaxaca City, curendera María Sabina clearly holds the status of a folk hero—one can even find T-shirts with her face on them sold in the city square! Oaxaca is a great little city, with delicious food, friendly locals, and tons of art, both traditional and contemporary. It is home to the world’s largest, longest-running open air market, and of course a trip to the amazing Zapotec ruins at Monte Albán will be part of the adventures during the Mind States Oaxaca seminar. Join us in Oaxaca City! Spend a week in an intimate, relaxed setting, having stimulating conversations with the following presenters:

Deirdre Barrett • Bruce Damer • Erik Davis • Alex Grey • Allyson Grey • Jon Hanna • Manuel Jiménez (tentative) Jonathan Ott • Daniel Siebert • Ann Shulgin • Sasha Shulgin • Allan Snyder (tentative) • Martha Toledo Each ticket is $1,200.00 per person. Price includes admission to all lectures and field trips, accommodations (a single space in a double-occupancy room), access to the swimming pool and hotel amenities, and delicious Mexican breakfasts and lunches (vegetarian and vegan available). Airfare and transfer to the hotel (about ten minutes by taxi) are not included. Early registration is suggested, as space is limited. Payment for ticket(s) should be sent to: Mind States, POB 19820 (Dept. ER), Sacramento, CA 95819, USA. Credit card payment available through PayPal: send money to [email protected]. For additional info see: www.mindstates.org.

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Jon: The active metabolite of ibogaine, 12-hydroxyibogamine or O-desmethylibogaine, which is more commonly referred to as noribogaine, is thought to stay in the system for a long time. One of the actions of noribogaine is that it elevates serotonin levels. It has been theorized that these higher levels of serotonin may be a reason why those addicts who have taken ibogaine may have an easier time practicing abstinence following their treatment. Do you know how long noribogaine stays in one’s system? Sandra: I have heard of some studies that postulate that it may stay in the system for up to three months, but I don’t know for sure. More studies on this are needed, as it is suspected that this action may contribute to ibogaine’s long-lasting effectiveness in curbing cravings. Jon: Ibogaine has also been shown to reverse cocaine-induced dopamine increases. So it not only affects the serotonin system, but the dopamine system as well. It also acts as a competitive inhibitor of MK-801, binding to the NMDA-receptor complex, which has been shown to attenuate tolerance to opiates and alcohol, and reverse tolerance to stimulants. This reflects what you were saying about an addict being at great risk if he or she was to take their drug of choice at the same dose level following the treatment as was used prior to the treatment. As well, ibogaine has been shown to bind to the mu and kappa opioid receptors. So pharmacologically, there is a lot going on with ibogaine. Sandra: I’m looking for a pharmacology tutor, by the way. Perhaps I can get a student to come and explain these issues to me, because I’ve never studied pharmacology other than… Jon: …applied pharmacology? [laughs] Sure, we’re all students of that. Sandra: Exactly. But for me to try and speak with any legitimacy on this level is impossible, because I really don’t know. Jon: Well, with that caveat in mind, I’m going to ask you to speculate anyhow. Many addicts undergoing ibogaine treatment are said to experience the benefit of not having any withdrawal symptoms, or having less intense withdrawal symptoms. To what extent do you attribute the antiaddictive properties of ibogaine on its pharmacology, and to what extent do you attribute future success with abstinence to the visionary psychotherapeutic effects? After all, people are going through a very intense and sometimes reflective or “life reviewing” mental process.

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Sandra: I feel that those elements are inseparable. While one can attempt to separate the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical components, I don’t think that we will ever be entirely successful in that process or achieve a truly balanced look at what may be going on. Jon: Over a decade ago, someone created a synthetic analogue of ibogaine that didn’t produce any visionary effects, but which could theoretically still be used for its anti-addictive properties, right? Sandra: Yes. It’s called 18-methoxycoronaridine: 18-MC, for short. But they still haven’t tested it on humans. That’s Stanley Glick’s project, and I’m really interested in seeing what comes out of that. Everyone who has undergone treatment with us has had a visionary experience of some form or another. Having gone through a process where they are able to look at traumatic issues in their lives and find some sort of peace within themselves around those issues—I suspect it may play a significant part in the success of the treatment. Jon: The ideas of set and setting are well known in the psychedelic community. But one of the great early LSD researchers, Dr. Betty Eisner, proposed a third idea that didn’t catch on as well. Yet I feel it is equally important, if not more so. Eisner worked with alcoholics, treating them with LSD. Her idea was that, along with “set” and “setting,” there was the “matrix.” The matrix relates to one’s environment. The matrix could help one with the integration of the effects of the psychedelic after a trip. It could help addicts to stay clean. A potential problem is that addicts may have friends who are addicts. So you kick, now what are you going to do afterwards? What Eisner did was that she had these homes set up, where people following their treatment would live. In these halfway houses, the (hopefully) former addict would be surrounded by people who were similar to them, who were also in the process of getting the monkey off their backs. Now all of a sudden the matrix that surrounds them is a group of people who can support each other in a common goal; a new group of friends. Which leads me to ask what sort of followup work is done with those people who have undergone treatment at the Iboga Therapy House? Sandra: We’re trying to tackle that issue on a number of different levels. Our ideal patients for therapy are those who already have factors in place that include a support matrix. So along with the ability to have good nutrition, remain in

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shape physically, and related issues, we are looking for people who have a good social and home life. Because we have a lot of people who apply, in our screening process we attempt to locate those people who could potentially have the most successful outcomes based on a number of different factors. We take all of those things into consideration. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we would exclude somebody from treatment based on those reasons. But for the aftercare plans it really helps us to get an idea of where the person is at beforehand. This aids us in formulating the individual’s aftercare plans, so that they can work on the areas that need help. I think that it would be beneficial to have a two- or three- or fourweek program at the Iboga Therapy House, but we can’t afford that just yet. So the way that we are trying to respond at the moment within our means is to form a network of people locally, in Vancouver. We’re compiling a resource of individuals, service providers, holistic health healers, therapists, body workers, and others who are willing to help the addicts both pretreatment and posttreatment. For example, if someone has a problem with employment, but has a very good home and family life, then we could refer them to an employment counselor who knows about our ibogaine program, who knows what these people are facing, and who is coming from a wellinformed position about the issues that a chemically dependent person faces. Such an employment counselor will support the addict in working toward his or her specific needs and goals. So if we can put that matrix into place, it will help the person have a better chance at a successful recovery. Jon: What are the long term goals of the project? What about the funding? Sandra: Marc Emery has agreed to fund the project for an undetermined amount of time, providing the $10,000 monthly that we need for our operating expenses. Although he is committed to the project, the future is uncertain. Something could happen to Marc where he is no longer able to continue funding the project. Or Canada might decided to schedule ibogaine. Changes could occur quickly, without any warning. I’d like to get a number of options in place, so that if anything restricted our current funding, we would be able to immediately obtain funding from other sources. We do want to apply for funding from other sources in any case. But I feel that there are a number of things that we need to get in place first, before this can happen.




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I’d like to integrate the Iboga Therapy House into the city of Vancouver’s document A Framework for Action, which outlines the Four-Pillars Drug Strategy that they are trying to implement. The Safe Injection Site is an example of one of the recommendations made in A Framework for Action that has already been put into place. Prescription heroin is another one that they are working on getting in place. In Vancouver, hopefully within two or three years, I would like to see ibogaine be the next big thing on that level. It should be included in A Framework for Action under “treatment,” which is one of the four pillars of the city’s approach to the problems with drugs. [The three other pillars are harm reduction, prevention, and law enforcement.] One of the currently proposed actions is that the city fund clinical trials for medications that may be used in detoxification and treatment, and they list levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol (LAAM) and buprenorphine as examples. But I’d like to suggest that ibogaine be included as well. So I would like to see more funding put into research and clinical trials, but then I’d also like to open up dialog with the city about them helping us to continue this program. Our program is not necessarily as stringent as a clinical research trial, but it is still providing data and treatment that is clearly valuable. Jon: Where do you see yourself five or ten years from now? Sandra: I’d like to see this program get off the ground and provide enough of a framework that others could work with it. I could train other people to do this kind of work. In the future, if the Iboga Therapy House or some incarnation of it becomes sponsored by the city, I may continue to work with it or I may train somebody else to do my job. I’d like to go to school some day and study transpersonal psychology. But I think that ibogaine’s gonna follow me around for at least the next five years. And I’m committed to do it. Eventually, I’d like to work as a psychedelic therapist. Jon: Thanks, Sandra, for taking the time to speak with me for The Entheogen Review. 

The Iboga Therapy House is currently only accepting applications from Canadian residents. This is related to an outcome study funded by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which will gauge the long-term effectiveness of the treatment offered via the Therapy House, as well as via the Ibogaine Association, which offers similar treatments in Mexico. For more information on this study, see Mojeiko, V. 2004. “Developing an Outcome Study of Ibogaine Therapy,” MAPS Bulletin 14(1): 7–8, or visit www.maps.org.

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Modern Psychedelic Art’s Origins as a Product of Clinical Experimentation by R. Stuart; German sources translated by Scott J. Thomson There is a common belief that hippies in the United States invented psychedelic art in the 1960s. Actually, modern psychedelic art began in Germany four decades before the “Summer of Love.” This art first appeared in clinical settings, unaware of its antecedents in native societies and little influenced by earlier Western drug art from the 1800s (see Figure 1).

MESCALINE Kurt Beringer’s 1927 book Der Meskalinrausch presented his study of the effects of injected mescaline hydrochloride on 32 human subjects. Subject #8 was a fine arts painter, but he did not do art during his session. However, some of Beringer’s subjects did illustrate their written descriptions of their mescaline experiences. These subjects did not have

any artistic training, but their aesthetically unimpressive sketches were the first publication of mescaline’s visual imagery uninfluenced by the religious programming of Native American cacti ceremonies. Subjects #3 and #31 were doctors who took 500 mg each, in different experiments. They both drew “trails” produced by the glowing end of a moving cigarette. Subject #31 looked at upholstery with a batik pattern of checks and squares. He then looked at a book, and the textile patterns transferred to the book and proceeded to metamorphose into the designs he represented in three drawings. Subject #10 was a doctor who was administered 400 mg. He was inside a building looking up at light coming down through a domed concrete ceiling. Closing his eyes, he felt elevated into the dome and identified with it. “It was as if I was inside the cupula, and looking up as the light was going through. At the same time I had a sort of physical sensation of the entire construction, the ability to feel what this kind of iron/concrete construction was like from the inside.” The subject drew a grating of iron slates with bronze ornaments that was part of the construction. Subject #17 was a doctor who was given 400 mg. Looking at a rug, she commented, “The whole carpet seemed to me without sense.” She drew a stylized crab, an animated form that she imagined in the carpet. Subject #18 was a law student who took 400 mg. Either during or after his session, he illustrated the phosphenes that he produced by pressing on his closed eyes. He described, “With closed eyes there was again a strongly ordered surface of color changing like a kaleidoscope and taking on geometrical patterns that were crisscrossing as if lit up by a flashlight.”

Figure 1: A depiction of ether-induced hallucinations. Taken from Les Merveilles de la Science, ou Description populaire des inventions modernes by LOUIS FIGUIER, 1867–1870.

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Subject #23 was a doctor who was administered 500 mg. He drew phosphenes to illustrate the following experience. “I closed my eyes and pressed on the eyeballs and saw small circling white points and later these apparitions transformed into kaleidoscope-like whirls of small red and green flecks of

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color like an ocean of little pennants. Red and green played from now on until later in the afternoon, and I see only red and green in the world and I am searching for blue and yellow.” He also drew “eggdart-molding,” which was an architectural molding with filigree ornamentation, that he imagined in the glowing band emanating from an electric lamp that was moving back and forth. The subject was shown a test pattern, designed by the Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer, to test for the perception of illusory movement and colors. The subject recounted: “the pinnacle or apex of the triangle moved from A to B and back. There were no colors, they were gray.” The subject drew two sketches of the moving triangle. Subject #26 was a doctor. He drew six pictures illustrating his experience with a 500 mg dose. He described what he imagined while looking open-eyed into a dark cellar. “From this black space emerged colorful swastika figures—innumerable, all of them around me, in front and back, above and below, right and left. I must have been in the middle of them. They were not actual swastika, but rather like this (indicating the drawing). And then began from the points of the hooks innumerable spirals and flashes and lines. The swastikas disappeared when the music turned on. Unusual, mostly red and green, geometrical figures appeared again in numerous places. This time they moved in pleasant rhythm, sometimes hastily, sometimes slowly, then taking on the most bizarre architectonic forms… The splendid color and rhythm melded into a certain harmony.” Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (a.k.a. Witkacy) was a Polish philosopher, playwright, and artist. He obtained peyote from Warszawskim Towarzystwie Psycho-Fizycznym (the Warsaw Metaphysical Society), and later from the scientists Alexandre Rouhier and Kurt Beringer. He also got mescaline directly from Merck pharmaceuticals. An expurgated version of his description of a peyote experience was published in his 1932 essay Narcotics. The censored text originally included surreal sexual imagery such as “violet sperm-jet straight in the face, from a hydrant of mountaingenitals.” Author Marcus Boon commented: “Profane and misanthropic, Witkiewicz’s prose reads somewhat like a modernist version of Hunter S. Thompson’s” (Boon 2002). Boon speculates that Witkacy’s novel Insatiability may have been influenced by his peyote experiences. Apparently, Witkacy was the first modern artist to work under the influence of a classical hallucinogen. In 1928, Witkacy took “peyotl” under the supervision of Drs. Teodora BialynickiegoBirula and Stefan Szuman. Dr. Szuman published illustrations of Witkacy’s peyote and mescaline visions in 1930. In 1990, Irena Jakimowicz published a 1928 drawing and ten pastel portraits created from 1929 to 1930 that Witkacy made under the influence of peyote, as well as three drawings and five pastel portraits he made under the influence of mescaline (see two examples, Figures 2 & 3).

Figure 2 (above). WITKACY made this 1929 portrait of NENY STACHURSKIEJ under the influence of peyote. (JAKIMOWICZ 1985, plate 143). Figure 3 (below). WITKACY made this 1929 portrait of TEODORA BIALYNICKIEGO-BIRULA under the influence of mescaline. (JAKIMOWICZ 1985, plate 151).

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In 1932 Frederic Wertham and Manfred Bleuler administered mescaline to normal subjects to study visual hallucinations: A good impression of these optic phenomena is given by the attempt of one subject to paint in oil a few of the scenes on the day after his mescaline test. He painted four pictures. Since it is very difficult to gain a clear realization of these visual experiences in words, and since mescaline hallucinations are of considerable psychopathological interest, two of these paintings are given here as illustrations (figs. 1 and 2). He wrote of these paintings in his retrospective account: …A field of century plants. I have painted only one plane, but there were actually five at the same time. This is the only vision that had any apparent connection with the drug (century plants, pulque, also called mescal). The plants were in sandy fields and did not move in relation to their background, though all five planes moved separately in different directions and at different angles from the eye. (fig. 1.) The second vision was seen while the physician played the phonograph. The background was flames. The black figures moved up black stairways. Their movements were angular and mechanical. In this case there was one background, but the stairs were, like the century plants, at different distances from me. (Fig. 2.)

In 1933 G. Marinesco published a drawing of a hand seen under the influence of mescaline. The thumb was reduced to a pointed protrusion and the fingers were of inconsistent size. In 1934 Dr. Fritz Fränkl, who was living in Paris after having fled the Nazis, injected a small dose of mescaline into his roommate, Walter Benjamin (Thompson 1997). Benjamin drew three pictures that consisted of words about sheep and witches poetically scribbled across the page. He also produced, while under the influence of Cannabis, a picture of a bird. Walter Benjamin is currently an extremely popular philosopher, especially in literary circles. There are fourteen volumes of his work published in German, and five volumes of English translations published by Harvard University Press. One of the foremost experts on Benjamin is George Stiener. In Amsterdam, Stiener opened the 1997 Congress of the International Walter Benjamin Associa-

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tion by giving the keynote address. The assembled congregation of scholars visibly bristled as Stiener lectured about Benjamin’s drug usage, which went back at least to 1927, possibly even earlier. Stiener said that the eleven extant drug protocols were only the “tip of the iceberg,” because Benjamin had hundreds of sessions with hashish and other drugs. Stiener related these sessions to Benjamin’s obsession with Baudelaire and his interest in the influence of dreams and hallucinations on art. Although Stiener emphasized that these experiments occurred before the legal prohibition, when societal attitudes were different than today, the audience was quite disturbed. The academic world fears that mentioning Benjamin’s drug use would discredit the legitimacy of his ideas. For example, one contemporary Benjamin scholar—terrified that his career would be ruined if he seemed to encourage drug use—decries any public discussion of Benjamin’s pharmacological explorations. Yet he has stated privately that he finds the topic interesting. Only a few of the drug protocols that Benjamin participated in were published in English. There were a few hashish experiments scattered in the various volumes produced by Harvard, but no mention of Benjamin’s use of mescaline. City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco agreed to publish Scott J. Thompson’s English translation of Benjamin’s collected drug protocols. However, Harvard University Press owned the copyrights, and Lindsey Waters, Executive Editor for the Humanities at Harvard University Press, told Thompson that he would not sell publication rights to City Lights, nor would Harvard be interested in publishing such a compilation. Waters said, “We are very interested in publishing translations of Benjamin’s work, but we can not undermine Benjamin’s reputation by making him appear to be a drug addict.” It seems that Janus-faced scholars and bowdlerizing editors are suppressing academic discussion about legitimate scientific experiments! Incidentally, Benjamin’s preoccupation with recurrent hallucinogenic ornamental motifs may have been influenced by parallel observations by scientists (Knauer 1913). Drs. Eric Guttmann and Walter S. Maclay of Maudsley Hospital studied art produced by psychotic patients and by mescaline subjects. Art generated by their 1936 mescaline experiments is preserved in the Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum in Kent, England. Bethlem also has a collection of pictures by Richard Dadd and other artists who suffered mental disorders.

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In his 1948 doctoral dissertation for the Medical Facility of the University of Heidelberg, Hans Friedrichs described a series of tests conducted from 1937–1938 at the Psychologischen Institut der Universität Bonn (Psychological Institute of the University of Bonn). The subject of the experiment was a 24-year-old student of philosophy and mathematics who spontaneously produced six drawings approximately eight hours after being injected with 300 mg of mescaline sulfate. These pictures represented the “extraordinary profusion of images powerfully charged, in part, with emotive associations so difficult to describe” that he experienced during the peak of the session. He wrote a statement about the last illustration, which he submitted along with his drawings to the test director: What I was thinking about as I drew this illustration: Underneath matter, [there is] the Questionable, about which the skeptics argue and are at odds. Chaos, the organic, the imperfect, the inadequate. I am deeply rooted in it, unfortunately. I elevate myself up above it and strive for the realm of pure form, which is the nearest and most immediate passage into the infinite Nothingness. Everything irrational, unworldly is located here, hovering in the Nothingness. Nothingness endlessly encased and concealed inside Nothingness over and over. “God desired to look away from Himself, so He created the world.” The sense of this is completely clear to me. The diagonal line [in the illustration] is the limit of time, where space-and-timelessness begin, and into which I can consciously project myself, if I so desire. Here the Will is everything. It alone is capable of giving form to the Nothingness. Everything here is given to it for interpretation: namely Nothing[ness]! Still remote [is] the Feminine-Maternal, which gave birth to me. Everything else behind me to the right, always in the right, corresponds to it. These unutterably lamentable figures torment themselves over the truth. What is truth? The Nothingness is true. We strive toward it as the one certain thing in death! atastalos! [Greek: ατασθαλοσ; reckless, presumptuous] (Friedrichs 1948).

LSD In 1947, Werner Stoll published a small sketch of an LSDinduced “tesselloptic hallucination” in the first article about the psychological effects of LSD. Giuseppe Tonini and C. Montanari worked at the Ospedale Psichiatrico “L. Lolli” in Imola, Italy. In 1955 they administered drugs to an artist who worked in the hospital’s occupational therapy department. The two researchers adhered to the psychotomimetic paradigm, and




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described their subject as a having a normal but “slightly primitive” mind. They asked the artist to paint during his sessions with mescaline, LSD, lysergic acid monoethylamide (LAE 32), as well as with methedrine (both alone and in combination with either mescaline or LSD). He produced paintings during all sessions except the one on LAE-32. The doctors published seven of his paintings of flowers in vases and a landscape, along with a comparison drawing by a schizophrenic. They concluded, “the pictures do not contain any new elements in the creative sense, but reflect pathological manifestations of the type observed in schizophrenia” (Tonini & Montanari 1955). The researchers believed the drawings expressed the differences in the mental states elicited by the different drugs. Although the pictures did look different from each other, it would not have been possible to pick out which picture was painted in an ordinary state of consciousness. Four prominent American graphic artists were asked by Louis Berlin and his colleagues to paint under the influence of mescaline and LSD. Three subjects were disinclined to paint while peaking, preferring instead to “look and feel,” while the remaining subject “painted with great fervor and excitement.” Paintings done under the influence of a psychedelic were “works of greater esthetic value appeal according to the panel of fellow artists, but this was associated with a relaxation of control in the execution of lines and employment of color, so that both color and line were freer and bolder.” The doctors explained: This improvement in their esthetic creativity may be explained by the following observations. The subjects became aware of “dead areas and dull colors” in their paintings and were able to modify them. There was a new feeling of unconcern about drawing in a “loose free way”, and this loosening of restraint was evident in the size, freedom of line and brilliance of colors employed in their paintings. One artist who described her approach to painting as “indirect and tentative with many changes” felt “relaxed about the mistakes in drawing” and “could cope with them in due time” while under the influence of mescaline (Berlin et al. 1955).

During the “Draw-A-Person” test and Bender-Gestalt doodles, the artistic style was more bizarre, expansive, and free when the subject was under the influence. The drugs caused an “impairment of the highest integrative functions” as measured by other standardized psychological instruments. These were naïve subjects “unaccustomed to the use of ‘drugs’,” so perhaps their performance on “integrative functions” would have improved with practice.

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Max Rinkle, M.D., initiated the United States’ first LSD research in 1949. Rinkle (1955) reported that he and Clemens C. Benda, M.D., “gave mescaline and, on another occasion, LSD to a nationally-known contemporary painter who showed a progressive disintegration in his drawings though each line showed the superior craftsman in his art.” Dr. Jirˇí Roubícˇek’s 1961 book Experimentální Psychosy (Experimental Psychoses) described research in Prague, providing numerous drawings and paintings, including 20 color plates (see Figures 4 & 5). These pictures were by subjects under the influence of psychedelics (some of whom were wellknown professional painters), and by mental patients. Roubícˇek’s book notes that between 1952 and 1960 at the Psychiatric Clinic of Charles University, Czechoslovakian psychiatrists conducted “11 experiments with mescaline on healthy subjects; 130 experiments with LSD on 76 healthy volunteers and 80 experiments on 44 patients; with psilocybin 8 experiments on healthy subjects and 7 on patients; furthermore occasional experiments with other drugs, tryptamine substances and benactizine.” The text’s Englishtranslation summary retains psychotomimetic terminology that characterizes psychedelics as “delirogens” that produce “toxic psychotic conditions.” The art of healthy psychedelic subjects is described in comparison to schizophrenic art: Symbolism is not so much in the foreground and composition is not so profoundly disturbed in the graphic production of volunteer painters in toxic psychotic conditions, especially following the administration of LSD,




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mescaline and psilocybin. On the whole intoxicated subjects frequently present a spontaneous recording of their hallucinatory and illusionary experiences and often attempt to depict the dynamisms of abruptly alternating visions. In euphoric and hypomanic states their manual speed and available drawing space are sometimes not equal to the flood of dazzling perceptive changes. The expressionistic exaggeration and caricature of some elements in the drawings are reminiscent of the productions from the prehistory of graphic art in which space and time are not yet mastered. Another common feature is the immediacy and directness of the creative product. If a certain regression may be inferred it is one to archetypal levels, to the fundamental features of painting. Such a view is supported by the oft employed ornament during intoxications which is also an ancient mode of expression and is reminiscent of the geometrical records and ornamental drawings in caves and later on various objects of primitive man. In keeping with this view are also the introverted lack of interest in the environment, “spatial insensitivity”, loss of established inhibitions and rationally unprepared automatisms. Such regressive mechanisms, however, are in no sense specifically confined to states produced by delirogens; such retrograde processes are repeatedly seen in certain developmental phases of painting. In such comparisons of healthy painters, especially modern ones, we are not concerned here with matters of valuation but with pointers to the understanding of some creative processes. From all that has been said hitherto it is clear that the symptomatology, electrical brain activity was well as the artistic products of schizophrenics on the one hand and FIGURE 5

FIGURE 4

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The face to the left and female form above were both created under the influence of a psychedelic in a clinical setting. Taken from JˇI RÍ ROUBÍCˇEK’S 1961 book Experimentální Psychosy.

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experimentally intoxicated individuals on the other, are so divergent that their differences far outweigh their allied and similar features.




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need to bring everything including the painted picture into the surface of the image. Had the painting process been more of a technical success, I would have been able to produce a fantastically good work (Mátéfi 1952).

It was not surprising that hallucinogens came to the attention of creativity researchers who were already interested in Over the course of seven years, Oscar Janiger, M.D., coldreams, eidetic imagery, hypnogogic imagery, and synesthe- lected over 250 drawings and paintings by artists who volsia (McKellar 1957). They considered these drugs as being unteered for his LSD study, which ended in 1962. The artists painted pictures of a kachina useful for understanding abnordoll before and during their LSD mal thought processes. Around session. Part of Janiger’s collecthe same time, psychedelics also tion was displayed in 1971 at the came to be regarded as tools for Lang Art Gallery at Clareenhancing creativity or for art mont College (Hertel 1971). In therapy. In 1955 J.J. Saurí and 1986 Janiger hosted the exhibit A.C. de Onorato gave LSD to “The Enchanted Loom: LSD and “autistic schizophrenics,” who Creativity” at his home in Santa made artistic images that exMonica, California. He displayed pressed greater openness and this art along with commentary readiness for interpersonal by 25 of the artists (Dobkin de contact. Psycholytic therapist Rios & Janiger 2003). Hanscarl Leuner described psychotherapy wherein chronic After taking 75 µg LSD in a visual neurotic students attempted to psychology experiment in the use art to portray the content of 1960s, Brooklyn chemistry protheir hallucinations induced by fessor Dr. Gerald Oster (see FigLSD and psilocybin. Leuner said ure 6) began an art career dedithat three subjects initially procated to painting phosphenes duced stiff drawings, but after with an oil suspension of phossubsequent drug sessions they phorescent pigments (Joel 1966; made “large-surfaced freely-conOster 1970). A 1996 issue of ceptualized and often unusually Wired magazine reported that Dr. expressive artistically interesting Mario Markus, of the Max paintings part of which were pregPlanck Institute in Dortmund, nant with caricature-like traits, used Oster’s “glow in the dark” and part with intense colors” (Leuner 1962). In 1952 Lászlo Figure 6. Dr. GERALD OSTER, chemist turned artist, fol- paintings to study how hallucinaMátéfi described how an experi- lowing his LSD experience; pictured superimposed on tions are produced in the brain: mental subject under the influ- one of his paintings. Photograph by YALE JOEL, taken ence of a hallucinogen experi- from “Psychedelic Art” in Life magazine, September To test his hypothesis, Markus investigated sketches made by enced a discrepancy between his 9, 1966. artist Gerald Oster—sketches intention and performance while he made of the hallucinations he experienced under the making a portrait: I see the object correctly but draw it falsely; my hands won’t follow it…. This desire to paint is harder and harder for me to perform since the expanse of my experience pulls me more and more into it. Myself, the drawing, and the surroundings create a unity—and that hinders me because I cannot concentrate on the model. I have the

influence of LSD. Markus then digitized the images, fed them into his computer, and applied his transformation algorithms to them in order to work out how these visions looked when mapped out according to the topography of the visual cortex. Pleasingly, the spirals and circles were found to correspond to exactly the simple striped Turing patterns that Markus had predicted.

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In the 1960s the International Foundation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park and the Institute for Psychedelic Research of San Francisco State College ran a research project on the use of LSD and mescaline for creative problem solving. One of the subjects was a commercial artist. His customer, Stanford University, had rejected several of his presentation sketches for a letterhead. He took a psychedelic for the purpose of developing a saleable design. The university later accepted one of the 26 drawings produced in his session: I started with modifying the original idea of the presentation sketch a little. After a couple of those I dismissed the original idea entirely, and started to approach the graphic problem radically differently. That’s when things started to happen. All kinds of different possibilities began to come to mind, and I started to quickly sketch them out on the blank lettersized sheets that I had brought with me for that purpose. Each new sketch would suggest other possibilities and new ideas. I began to work fast, almost feverishly, to keep up with the flow of ideas. And the feeling during this profuse production was one of joy and exuberance: I had a ball: It was the pure fun of doing, inventing, creating and playing. There was no fear, no worry, no sense of reputation and competition, no envy; none of these things which in varying degrees have always been present in my work. There was just the joy of doing (Anonymous n.d.).

The artist Arlene Sklar-Weinstein had a single LSD session, which was under the supervision of a psychologist. This experience influenced her paintings for years afterward. She said “it opened thousands of doors for me and dramatically changed the content, intent, and style of my work” (Krippner 1977). In 1967 Leonard S. Zegans, M.D. led a research group in the United States that published an LSD creativity study. The creative performance on standardized tests given to 19 LSD subjects was compared to the performance of 11 controls who received a placebo. The researchers concluded that administration of LSD is unlikely to amplify creativity in randomly selected people. However, while acknowledging the limitations of their methodology, the researchers speculated “that greater openness to remote or unique ideas and associations would only be likely to enhance creative thought in those individuals who were meaningfully engaged in some specific interest or problem. There should exist some matrix around which the fluid thought processes can be organized if the experience is not to diffuse into a melange of affective, somatic,

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and perceptual impressions which may lead to feelings of anxiety or depression” (Zegans et al. 1967).

PSILOCYBIN In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Sandoz distributed synthetic psilocybin at no cost to European and North American scientists. Consequently, there was a small amount of psilocybin-inspired art before the mid-1970s, when the dissemination of Psilocybe cubensis cultivation methods made “shroom art” accessible to the masses. Frank Barron was first to bring psychedelics to the attention of Timothy Leary by advising him to investigate psilocybin. Barron participated in the early stages of Leary’s psilocybin research at Harvard. He published two excerpts from accounts written by artists who were their subjects. I attempted some drawings but found that my attention span was unusually brief…. Interruptions, such as the model moving, did not really bother me and on at least one occasion a considerable period passed between the beginning of the drawing and its completion (if it could have been called complete even at that point); I simply picked it up and finished it when the occasion presented itself. I seemed to become unusually aware of detail and also unusually unconscious of the relationship of the various parts of the drawing. My concern was with the immediate and what had preceded a particular mark on the page or what was to follow seemed quite irrelevant. When I finished a drawing I tossed it aside with a feeling of totally abandoning it and not really caring very much. In spite of the uniqueness of the experience of drawing while influenced by the drug and my general “what the hell” attitude toward my work I cannot help but feel that the drawings were, in some ways, good ones. I was far better able to isolate the significant and ignore that which, for the moment, seemed insignificant and I was able to become much more intensely involved with the drawing and with the object drawn. I felt as though I were grimacing as I drew. I have seldom known such absolute identification with what I was doing—nor such a lack of concern with it afterward. Throughout the afternoon nothing seemed important beyond what was happening at the moment.

The other painter did not comply with the experimenter’s repeated encouragement to draw because it seemed to be an invasion of privacy at the time. This subject recounted: Now I think that the most important part of what has happened to me since the experiment is that I seem to

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be able to get a good deal more work done. Sunday afternoon I did about six hours work in two hours time. I did not worry about what I was doing—I just did it. Three or four times I wanted a particular color pencil or a triangle and would go directly to it, lift up three or four pieces of paper and pull it out. Never thought of where it was—just knew I wanted it and picked it up. This of course amazed me but I just relied on it—found things immediately. My wife was a little annoyed at me on Sunday afternoon because I was so happy, but I would not be dissuaded. When painting it generally takes me an hour and a half to two hours to really get into the painting and three or four hours to really hit a peak. Tuesday I hit a peak in less than half an hour. The esthetic experience was more intense than I have experienced before— so much so that several times I had to leave the studio and finally decided that I was unable to cope with it and left for good! I now have this under control to some extent but I am delighted that I can just jump into it without the long build-up and I certainly hope it continues (Barron 1963).




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of two of his subjects—a dancer and an artist—who were given 30 mg psilocybin. Barron was working at the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research at the University of California, Berkeley. Because the institute lacked film equipment, the movie was made by Barron himself, with the assistance of Bunnell. The painter did not want to sketch or paint, but she did want to do photography. The experimenters let her go outside to photograph children and flowers. In 1964, for the Fifth Utah Creativity Research Conference, Leary published encouraging results achieved by administering psilocybin to 65 artists, musicians, and writers

Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique (Heim & Wasson 1965–1966) contains photographs of ancient mushroom art, such as a picture from an Aztec codex, photographs of mushroom stones and a mycolatrous ceramic figurine, sketches of native use drawn by Conquistador priests, and botanical illustrations—excellent watercolors of different Figure 7. Many-eyed dragon drawn by a psilocybin subject species. Of greater relevance in Paris. Taken from HEIM & WASSON’S 1965–1966 book to the student of modern art It is now understood that Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique. are the mushroom-inspired artists will be most productive images created by French if they approach their session with an emotional commitment subjects in Paris. One woman painted a watercolor of a smilto a specific project; particularly for naïve subjects, they ing mother with child, and ten drawings of human faces and should be already working as their consciousness begins animals. Another subject produced several drawings, one to alter. portraying Christ’s crucifixion. Another artist created two well-crafted paintings, one of a two-headed bird and another In 1962 in California, Barron and Sterling Bunnell Jr., of a many-eyed dragon (see Figure 7). M.D. organized a series of experiments with several psychedelics, wherein subjects were encouraged to draw, dance, or CANNABINOIDS make music. One of the subjects was psychiatrist Claudio In a forthcoming book, Dr. James Ketchum (formerly of the Naranjo, who received psilocybin. Several of Naranjo’s Edgewood Arsenal), plans to publish four pictures by an drawings were published in Scientific American (Barron et experimental subject who was administered EA 2233 in late al. 1964; Stafford n.d). While presenting a paper at a 1961. EA 2233 was a mixture of eight stereoisomers of THC creativity conference in 1964, Barron screened film footage with a heptyl (seven-carbon) side chain that had been THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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with his charcoal pencil. The paintings by Heinz Trokes demonstrated an almost complete disappearance of form. Eberhard Eggers and Thomas Häfner succeeded in transferring their mental images onto canvas, and Eggers’ canvas was judged to show improved artistry. Part of the experiment was televised, demonstrating a change in the artists’ behavior. Werner Schroib, reputed to usually have an aggressive manner, chatted pleasantly while drawing. MANDALAS AND THERAPY The term “mandala” originally referred to Vajrayana Bud- Manfred Garstka had a nightmarish time, commenting dhist icons that resemble Hindu yantras. In 1969, Joan “I held fast to painting for it was the only thing I had to cling Kellogg began having her psychotherapy patients use oil to to save myself from total submergence in an inferno.” All pastels to make circular paintings, which she called the artists concurred that the experience was of value and “mandalas.” Kellogg collaborated with Helen Bonny, the the work was placed on display in a Frankfurt gallery. German web sites carry pioneering music theramore information about pist who worked at the this experiment, includMaryland Psychiating a description in a disric Research Center sertation, testimonials (see Figure 8). From by some of the artists, a there, mandalas were photograph of an artist popularized in New Age painting under the influcircles by Stanislav ence of LSD, and more Grof’s Holotropic Breathrecent psychedelic art by work. In 1977 Kellogg one artist who participublished two pictures Figure 8. Mandalas created before (left) and after (right) an LSD pated in the Kunstrausch of mandalas drawn by an session conducted at the MARYLAND PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH CENTER, (Inebriation Art) show alcoholic who underfrom SCHULTES and HOFMANN’S 1979 book Plants of the Gods. in Hamburg. went therapy with an uninvented by chemist Harry Pars. Ketchum explained, “At intervals during the experiment subjects were required to “Draw-a-Man”, a commonly used projective test, indicating distortion of self image as well as the physical and mental capacity to create a coherent representation of the human body” (Ketchum 2003).

specified psychedelic at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. The patient drew a series of seven mandalas over the course of his treatment. A full description of the case was provided in the unpublished manuscript The Use of Mandalas in a Case of Psychedelic-Assisted, Time-Limited Psychotherapy.

CREATIVITY RESEARCH ENDS The last scientific experiment on psychedelic art was at the Max Planck Institute in Munich (Krippner 1985, citing Kipphoff 1969). In the late 1960s Richard P. Hartmann administered LSD to numerous well-known artists, devoting about one week to each subject (Hartmann 1974). Artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser refused to paint while under the influence of LSD. Gerd Hoehman could not paint due to a headache elicited by remembering a wartime experience. The work of C.O. Goetz was indistinguishable from his ordinary paintings. Alfred Hrdlicka, usually a technical perfectionist, drew caricatures and primitive shapes with crude gusto. Waldemar Grzimek attempted to draw a female figure but developed anatomy problems insoluble

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EXHIBITS AND COLLECTIONS In Mexico City in 1971 there was a large exhibit of dozens of paintings and drawings produced by psychiatric patients under the influence of LSD and other hallucinogens. Most of the art came from Eastern Europe where psychedelic psychotherapy was still allowed. Little or none was from the United States, as by then therapists were prohibited from administering psychedelics to patients. This exhibit was displayed at the Museum of Anthropology in connection with the Fifth World Congress of Psychiatry. The Congress, which in various years had presentations on psychedelic psychotherapy, convened at a conference center near the museum. Sandoz published two collections of art produced by patients undergoing LSD psychotherapy. Psycholytic psychotherapist Hanscarl Leuner (1963, 1974) provided commentary. Sandoz also published psychedelic art in Pandorama Sandoz (March–April 1968) and an issue of Triangle (see front and back covers of this issue of The Entheogen Review).

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In 1979 Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hofmann published pictures of LSD art by both psychiatric patients and normal subjects, in their coffee table book Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use. Timothy Leary and John Lilly decorated their homes with psychedelic paintings given to them by admirers, but these collections apparently dissipated after their deaths. No substantial collections of psychedelic fine art—either privately owned or in museums—have come to the attention of the public. However, various psychedelic researchers accumulated personal collections of art produced by patients.




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Salvador Roquet collected art by the patients at his psychedelic psychotherapy clinic in Mexico City from the 1960s through the 1980s. Some of his patients were artists, including Pedro Alatriste, Rodolfo Aguirre Tinoco, and Fred de Keijzer (Clark 1977, cited by Krippner 1980). Dr. Yensen regarded the art by de Keijzer—a Mexican of Dutch ancestry—as particularly notable, and Aguirre Tinoco is still active, having participated in a 2002 group show at Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.

POP CULTURE News about art produced in experiments gradually diffused to the general public. In 1953 Newsweek published an article about the use of mescaline in psychiatry entitled “Mescal madness.” This featured surrealist composite photographs by German photographer Leif Geiges that simulated “the mental patterns described by mescal users.”

Stanislav Grof, M.D., collected art during his practice of LSD psychotherapy in Prague and later at the Spring Grove State Hospital and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. His 1980 textbook LSD Psychotherapy contains 52 black and white plates and 41 color plates (see Figure 9). These pictures included those created by patients undergoing psychedelic therapy, as well as those by Grof himself depicting the types experiences catalyzed by psychedelics, plus a drawing by Grof of dream imagery from his own therapy while in psychoanalytic training. Further illustrations are found in Grof’s other books. Richard Yensen, M.D., also worked at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. He has a collection that “is from patients in MDA therapy and consists of mandalas drawn at our request with oil pastels” (Yensen 2004).

Figure 9. The castration complex rooted in the birth trauma from GROF’S 1980 book LSD Psychotherapy.

Betty Eisner collected some paintings produced by her patients during psychedelic therapy. Creating art was part of her treatment protocol from 1957 to 1964 (Eisner 2004).

British novelist Aldous Huxley first took mescaline in 1953, under the supervision of Dr. Humphry Osmond. Huxley discussed mescaline and art while delivering the opening address— “Visionary Experience, Visionary Art, and the Other World”—at the 1954 Duke University Lecture Series in North Carolina (La Barre 1975). Huxley regularly mentioned psychedelics in his lectures at scientific conferences and he informed the general public about them through his talks at universities, magazine interviews, and written works. Nevertheless, in 1960 Huxley expressed a lack of enthusiasm about using psychedelics for art:

Some experiments have been made to see what painters can do under the influence of the drug, but most of the examples I have seen are very uninteresting. You could never hope to reproduce to the full extent the quite

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incredible intensity of color that you get under the influence of the drug. Most of the things I have seen are just rather tiresome bits of expressionism, which correspond hardly at all, I would think, to the actual experience. Maybe an immensely gifted artist—someone like Odilon Redon (who probably saw the world like this all the time anyhow)—maybe such a man could profit by the lysergic acid experience, could use his visions as models, could reproduce on canvas the external world as it is transfigured by the drug.

The pulp magazine Fate published sensationalistic articles about pseudoscience, parapsychology, and the occult. “Magic Land of Mescaline,” the lead story for a 1956 issue of Fate, was an account by Claude Chamberlain, an experimental subject who took mescaline under medical supervision in a laboratory. Despite making numerous erroneous statements, the author astutely suggested that mescaline might provide a “shortcut” to achievement for artists, inventors, philosophers, and theologians. As cover art for this article, Lloyd N. Rognan produced a color painting of a beautiful blond woman—clad only in a flowing diaphanous scarf—prancing through a strange landscape with a polychromatic explosion in the sky (see Figure 10). This picture also appeared in the story itself, along with a drawing of a man who was hallucinating a voluptuous nude woman orbiting the planet Saturn. These pictures did not correspond to the text, and there is no indication that the artist had ever ingested a psychedelic himself; he was probably just assigned the task of conveying the impression that mescaline grants instant access to cosmic marvels and libidinal titillation.

Figure 10. “Mescaline art” on tabloid magazine cover.

In 1955 the French writer Henri Michaux began painting and drawing under the influence of mescaline, apparently without medical supervision. He displayed 22 mescaline ink drawings in 1957 at Gallery One in London (see Figure 11).

FUTURE TRENDS In 1962 underground LSD distribution began in the United States. Consequently, psychedelic art rapidly developed outside of clinical experiments and merged Cannabis-inspired art. Since the early 20th century, some indigenous hallucinogen-using artists have employed modern painting materials and European artistic conventions such as shading and perspective, and distribution to an international market. In the 1990s, non-native artists began experiencing visionary plants in traditional shamanic settings. Contemporary psychedelic art and indigenous hallucinogen-inspired art will undoubtedly continue to converge in the 21st century. 

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Figure 11. An untitled ink drawing done by HENRI MICHAUX, under the influence of mescaline, from the collection at the TATE GALLERY.

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Network Feedback MORE ON MEMANTINE HYDROCHLORIDE With consideration of the words of caution about memantine hydrochloride, presented in the Winter 2003 issue of The Entheogen Review, I want to provide some further information. If memantine is used at the suggested amounts of up to 20 mg per day, it acts like small dose of amphetamine: it enhances vigilance, it is slightly euphoric, and it helps focus one’s concentration. Memantine definitely does not help you to relax. If you take more than the 20 mg per day, it feels as though there is some deep vibration within the body, and insomnia is a result. Future use of memantine will probably be as a replacement for amphetamine or caffeine. The fastest-acting version available is the liquid preparation, sold in bulk to hospitals at horribly high prices. A prescription is required to obtain this. In liquid form, memantine seems to absorb relatively quickly through the mucous membrane; it tastes bitter and creates a strong cooling sensation on the tongue and within the throat, which takes some getting used to. How long it is in contact with the mucous membranes seems important with regard to its speed of action: the longer one keeps it in one’s mouth, the faster it acts. However, the resulting total effect will be the same if it is swallowed directly—it just takes longer to get there. If it is not possible to get the liquid version and one still wants to achieve delivery via the mucous membrane, this is not a problem, as the pills dissolve very fast when held in the mouth. Memantine seems to lower tolerance to substances other than morphine. I found this to occur when I took Psilocybe cubensis, resulting in a valuable overdose. (I had wanted a nice museum-level dosage with no visuals and enhanced thinking abilities; instead, I got some subtle visuals and way too much going on in my mind, using about a quarter of the mushroom dose that I would have normally needed). I used 10–15 mg of memantine once daily, over the course of four days, so it was about 70 mg memantine in total. Also caffeine seems more potent than usual, so it is more common to have side effects like nausea or cold sweating hands.

The suggested dosing approach is to start using 5 mg per day over the course of five days. After this it is suggested to use 10 mg per day as the regular dosage. Only those using it for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease should take up to 20 mg per day as this dose in healthy people will result in shakiness, insomnia, problems with fine motor coordination (such as is needed to assemble watches), and flashes of euphoria. The article in the Winter 2003 issue of The Entheogen Review notes that memantine accumulates in the body when used regularly. If one uses memantine for a long period, it takes about one week until it stops acting. So if someone needs to stop using memantine—because limited doses are left and a new supply is not available—it will keep working with a soft downscaling over the course of at least a week. I did not notice any major withdrawal-related problems following the two months that I took memantine. About two to four days after I quit taking it, there were some sensations on my skin at the legs from the knees down. It was as though my lower legs were hyper-sensitive to a light touch. If the skin was touched directly, this was fine. But if something close to them touched them lightly (like a pair of jeans), it felt like the soft burning of nettle. It was not really painful, but noticeable. Also the muscles in my calves felt as though they were going to cramp up, but they never actually did cramp. So it was noticeable when I stopped taking memantine, but not really problematic. (Since the price is so damn exorbitant, this is a good thing!) — E.B., Berlin, Germany

EVEN MORE ON MEMANTINE HYDROCHLORIDE A strange coincidence occurred. Right about the time my housemate came home one day with a month’s sample supply of memantine hydrochloride, the Winter Solstice 2003 issue of The Entheogen Review arrived in my mailbox. I held the magazine in my lap, and voilà! It fell open to an article on this very compound. It seemed that the gods were conspiring to get me high. Needless to say, being the devoted psychonaut that I am, I immediately set about coaxing a 100 mg dose out of my

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housemate. About an hour after taking it, I started to feel slightly altered. How exactly, is hard to describe—just that the world was starting to look somewhat different around the edges. More shimmery and colorful. The drug took about three hours to come on fully, and then—quite frankly—it left me wishing I wasn’t high. And it just went on, and on, and on. It was very much like the ketamine experience except without any of the cosmic “ah ha!” moments. It had none of the spiritual or emotional insights that ketamine has. My body had that strange puffy feeling, like it was made of styrofoam, the visual environment had a fuzzy cast to it, and it was a little hard to walk or stand up without a wobble. I found myself in a somewhat morose and dissatisfied mood and didn’t know what to do with myself. This could be attributed to my mindset before the trip, but who can say for sure? This continued for a full eight hours, at which point I decided to put myself out of my misery and knock myself out with some benzodiazepines. Would I try it again? Maybe. It struck my mind at the time that this compound could be made more interesting by combining it with something like MDMA, GHB, or both.

NATURE’S MIND www.natures-mind.com Supplier of strange, sacred, and rare botanical products such as: Amanita muscaria, Anadenanthera peregrina, Argyreia nervosa, Dioscorea dregeana, Mucuna pruriens, Salvia divinorum, Sceletium tortuosum, Trichocereus peruvianus, Virola theiodora, and many other exotic seeds, herbs, and extracts. We also carry ceremonial incense, shamanic tools and artifacts, books, and more.

CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITE FOR A COMPLETE LISTING. We’ve got entheogens for the whole family!

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Don’t try combining this drug with ketamine, however (which is like committing some sort of pharmacological oxymoron in the first place). My housemate injected 1 ml of ketamine within 24 hours of having taken 90 mg of memantine hydrochloride, and she had a heretofore unparalleled response to the ketamine. She has built up a very high tolerance for ketamine, and can function normally if the situation calls for it on a dose of this size. This time she reported to me that, shortly after the injection, she unwittingly exhibited some strange behaviors that were totally out-of-character for her, and then proceeded to completely leave her body. She said that she felt as though she was possessed. Afterwards she had very little memory of what had happened, but it involved a pest control man who had stopped by the house unannounced and the situation developed from there. NOT good. I won’t go into the details, but suffice it to say, don’t be tempted to try these two without supervision, unless you scale way down on your normal dose of ketamine. They appear to potentiate one another a great deal. I guess this could be attributed to the long half-life of memantine hydrochloride. Happy trips! If you do decide to try this compound, I wish for you a better time than I had. Still, I think that it might warrant further investigation with some additives in the cocktail for spice. — C.H., CA

TEN KRATOM BIOASSAYS I wanted to share with you the results of my having given Mitragyna speciosa to ten people over the past month. The kratom came from Cielo Ethnobotanicals and is a finely ground powder. This material is considerably less potent than other kratom that has occasionally been on the market; I have found that a dose of 12–15 grams is needed, as opposed to 2 grams of the higher quality material. Because of the larger amount needed, it is only practical to consume it by making a tea out of it, whereas if one uses the higher quality material one can simply chew 2 grams of the leaf and hold it in the mouth as a quid. Of the ten people who tried the kratom, eight had pleasant experiences and two did not. The two people who had bad reactions experienced prolonged nausea and vertigo and had to spend several hours lying down—any movement caused an increase in their symptoms. One of these people felt

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psychoactive effects in addition to the nausea and vertigo, while the other person felt nothing other than the unpleasant effects. Anyone can experience these unpleasant effects if they take too much kratom, but based on these ten bioassays, it also seems that perhaps 20% of the people who try it may have a bad reaction even at the recommended dose. Two of the ten people cited above were heroin users who were in the process of withdrawing from the drug. One subject was a long time user who consumed about 2 grams per day administered IM, while the other person had just recently developed a dependence on the drug and was using 0.5 gram to 1 gram per day administered nasally dissolved in water. Both people found the kratom lessened their withdrawal symptoms and allowed them to get some sleep on the first night of their abstinence. They were still experiencing withdrawal symptoms, but those symptoms were ameliorated by the kratom tea. As would be expected, the person who had more recently become habituated, and was using only 25% to 50% of the heroin that the long term addict was using, experienced more relief from the kratom. Both people consumed the tea several times in the first 48 hours of their withdrawal, but got the most relief from the first dose and then steadily diminishing relief from each subsequent dose of the tea. Nevertheless, it seems kratom can be beneficial during opiate withdrawal and is worth trying since so few things help during this unpleasant process. — Altoid

MORE THOUGHTS ON KRATOM, AND ANOTHER TEN BIOASSAYS If you are looking for a visionary plant, don’t read any further. I have tried every opiate in general use, and kratom’s effects most assuredly fall into the classification of “opiatelike.” Personally, I have found the dried powdered leaves of kratom to be the most powerful and euphoric opiate-like material I have ever ingested. From my limited experience to date, I would say that kratom may have a very substantial potential for addiction. I’ve ingested the powdered leaf material on two occasions, and have determined my dose range to be between one teaspoon and two-and-a-half teaspoons. Keep in mind, of course, that different people do react differently to botanicals, based on their individual sensitivities to the item in question.




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My first experiment consisted of the ingestion of one teaspoon of powdered kratom at about 5:00 pm. It took about 90 minutes to fully come on to the effects. Most of these effects were typical of other rather potent opiates, but the kratom had much more of a stimulating effect than anything else I have ever used. Kind of like it included a big dose of caffeine, although it didn’t feel exactly like caffeine or any other stimulant that I have ever experienced; it was a unique stimulation. It also had a pleasant euphoric quality, which I find impossible to describe; I expect that one must experience it to truly understand it. By about 2:00 am the next morning, I was still quite high, but I felt exhausted from being up so late. Finally, realizing that sleep would not come on its own, I took 10 mg of Valium™ and a couple of hits of Cannabis. I drifted off, but sleep was spotty and fitful. The next morning I was tired from lack of sleep, but as the effects from the kratom had mostly abated by this time, I did not have any noticeable unpleasant side effects. On the contrary, I felt very relaxed and had pleasant lingering aftereffects. The second time I tried it, I started off with one teaspoon at 9:00 am. By 10:00 am I was feeling really good and quite stoned. I ran around my house cleaning up and putting things away until about 12:00 noon. I got more accomplished that morning than in all of the previous week. It was like being on a euphoric, opiated, speed high, and I was very efficient in completing my tasks. At 12:00 noon I took another teaspoon of the powder and went to a job washing windows for a private residence. Now, I really hate window washing, but on this day I loved it. I worked fast, was well organized, and did an excellent job. By 7:00 pm that night I was coming down, but was still in a considerably euphoric state. At 9:00 pm I went to bed, wondering if I would be able to sleep. I got nine hours of restful sleep that night, with very pleasant dreams. I love this plant, at least up to this point in my experience. The day after my second experiment, I felt like a million bucks. The only side effect was some constipation the next day (which is also typical of true opiates). I later gave two slightly heaping teaspoons each of powdered kratom to ten people. Everyone got totally wasted and loved it. We all agreed that it is one of the finest drugs we have ever experienced that has opiate-like effects. We took it while some of us were coming off of psilocybin-containing mushrooms and some of us were coming off of peyote. Again, it is the best opiate-like drug that I have ever taken, providing four hours of euphoric stimulation followed by six or so more

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hours of blissful heavy narcotic feelings, followed by a deep, restful sleep. This is really potent shit! I obtained my kratom from Herbal-Shaman, who I have bought products from for many years, and who I have always been satisfied with. They are getting the material directly from Thailand. Where can I get seeds or live plants of kratom? That is the only remaining question in my mind. Euphorically yours. — B. Green We are not aware of any vendor currently selling kratom seeds. Vendors of the live plant include THEATRUM BOTANICUM for $35.00 each, NATIVE HABITAT for $45.00 each, and THE BASEMENT SHAMAN for $93.00 each. Note that following our article on bogus kratom (see the Vernal Equinox 2003 issue), we have more recently been made aware that dried kratom which has been properly identified is now being sold by quite a few ethnobotanical companies. Most of this material originates from the same source and has been collected from wild plants, and it is not as potent as that which is specifically selected and grown for its use as a drug. This does not mean that the wild material is not effective, it just means that more must be taken. Good results have been reported by most people using 14 dried grams of leaf which is made into a tea (boiled for 15 minutes twice, using fresh water the second time). Nausea and vomiting are not uncommonly reported from doses of 25 grams made into a tea. Doses of 50 grams have been said to produced closed-eye visuals (likely with

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dizziness, nausea, and vomiting as possible side effects). Even low doses cause dizziness in some people. Although it may be difficult to compare effects from dried leaf eaten directly to that of a tea, from the doses that you mention—one to two teaspoons of dried powdered leaf (which weigh 1.5 to 3 grams)—it would appear as though you definitely are working with one of the potent strains and not the less potent wild material that is newly and more widely available. The wild material is distributed via CIELO ETHNOBOTANICALS (and also sold via several other companies). CIELO charges $19.00 for 50 grams. The material from HERBAL-SHAMAN sells for $50.00 for 50 grams. However, considering that 50 grams of HERBAL-SHAMAN’S material equals about 25 doses ($2.00 per dose), and 50 grams of CIELO ETHNOBOTANICALS material equals about 3.57 doses ($5.32 per dose), buying from HERBAL-SHAMAN seems prudent. Although we were unable to locate any information about the sale of kratom at the H ERBAL -S HAMAN web site, they assured us via e-mail ([email protected]) that they are indeed carrying this material. — EDS.

ANADENANTHERA COLUBRINA AS AYAHUASCA I finally got around to trying this combination, and it’s pretty molly-fucking impressive! First I tried smoking a bit of the seed, just to check for activity; it had plenty. However, since I’m not such a big fan of smoking tryptamines, I decided I would ingest it with two grams of Peganum harmala seed.

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Why only two grams? Well, the stuff was bought almost ten years ago, and I read somewhere that with age, harmine converts to harmaline—and I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by the effects. In any case, it worked. Along with the P. harmala seeds, I took four crushed Anadenanthera colubrina seeds. As the smell of them was nauseating, I packed the powder into gel-gaps. It took about 15 minutes to get an alert, and then after about 45 minutes I began to flash a bit—but nothing real heavy. I felt somewhat uncomfortable and sorta queasy. At about one hour into it, I went out for a smoke. My legs felt numb. Uh-oh, here it comes; I ran to the bathroom and had a purging/puking event—not real pleasant, but not entirely unexpected considering the way the stuff smells. As soon as I finished throwing up, wham! Instant plus-3. I came to the living room and fell onto the couch. Looking up at the ceiling, I saw it was covered in wavy lines with multi-colored diamond shapes wherever the lines intersected. Wow! Eyes opened, eyes closed—it didn’t matter. It felt rather as if the physical me was about to disappear after several minutes (years? centuries?) passed. I went to the bedroom to lay down in the dark; here, the visuals became even more intense, nearly overwhelming. Light from the other room was painted on part of the ceiling and this became a sort of hook which snagged me and suddenly I was just hanging there. Fuck this noise; I went back to the front room and put on some Beatles music. After an hour or so, the visuals faded a bit and I just laid there for the next four hours. What is odd is that I thought the trip would last about three to five hours. But this was not the case. After the effects presumably from DMT wore off, there was something else present. I thought that I was mostly down at seven hours after taking it, and I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette, and found myself still at plus-2.5! It took over eight hours to wear off; I’m not exactly sure, as I fell asleep. Wow! This kinda dashes my hopes that this would be a good short “summer” trip; it lasts too long, and I despise the daylight when I trip (well, not so much the light itself, as what it shines on). Anyhow, if someone wants the ayahuasca experience in a simple to prepare form, this is it—don’t bother with Psychotria viridis or Phalaris grass (yech!). If you don’t mind a bit of physical discomfort, I recommend it highly. — Doc, IN

REPLY TO “AMT SHELF-LIFE” After reading your suggestion in Vol. XII, No. 2 of The Entheogen Review that the “AMT” I reported on was really 5-MeO-AMT, I considered getting it tested. But since I didn’t




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know where to send it, and—when it comes down to it—I’d probably be too paranoid to send it anywhere anyway, I took another approach. I had gotten into a conversation with some people who were asking if I knew where to find any LSD. (Yeah, right. I haven’t seen any LSD since 1989!) I said that I had no idea, but that I could get them something that was kinda-sorta like LSD. It was a freebie, I said. All I wanted in return was that they gave me a full report. There were three “subjects” in this experiment: a guy weighing 250 pounds, another guy weighing 150 pounds, and a girl weighing 130 pounds. (Recall that I previously mentioned that 2–3 mg is plenty potent with this material for me, lasting 17 to 20 hours, and I weigh 150 pounds.) I gave each of these people 4.5 mg. The big guy said that he felt like he was about ready to trip, but never quite made it. I interpret this as a plus-1. The girl said it was too intense, and she mostly felt ill from it for a 24hour period. The second guy called me the next day to see if he could score any more of it from me. He claimed to have gotten off like a rocket. He said that he took half of it to start with (which is what I told all of them to do), but since it didn’t seem like it was doing anything, he took the rest. He reported auditory distortions to begin with, then a powerful rush, insomnia, inability to sit still, and some visuals (mostly in reds and oranges). His report was almost identical to my own 5 mg experience. Now that some other people have bioassayed the material and most have gotten strong effects, I figure that the stuff probably is 5-MeO-AMT. — Anonymous, IN

NEW RESEARCH CHEMICAL: 5-MeO-DALT I was recently at a gathering where three friends were trying out a new “research chemical” that seems to be making the rounds: 5-MeO-DALT. Having heard nothing about this one, and without getting any hits at the Erowid search engine, nor even anything at Google, I asked Sasha Shulgin about it. Turns out that 5-MeO-DALT was something that a few people had tried out, but the reports hadn’t yet been published. Shulgin provided a dosage range of 12–20 mg orally, and a duration of 2–4 hours. Qualitative comments from various anonymous sources included the following: (with 10 mg. orally) “I am looking at everything through someone’s open friendly eyes, not mine. I would like to go through life like this if others saw me as OK. I am 10 feet tall, my pulse is 72 but uneven, and light-headed is a better describer of where I am than psychedelicized.”

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(with 16 mg. orally) “The music was fabulous, as was the sex and neither of us had a problem with orgasm. But there was a total lack of imagery—less than I would normally have to the music when unstoned, so there might have been an actual suppression. I was pretty much baseline by the third hour.” (with 20 mg. orally) “It’s coming on strongly in 15 minutes, and at the half hour point I am at a +++ with eyes closed—but nothing with them open! No hang-over.”

Reports on the effects that my friends experienced follow. The first is from “T”: 12:30 pm: C, T, and J, orally ingested 29–30 mg of 5-MeO-DALT. 12:45 pm: C feels the onset of effects. 1:10 pm: Everyone is coming on by this point, and feeling an energy surge through our bodies. 1:30 pm: C feels that the increased energy is uncomfortable, so she takes a Xanax. [Note: There is a discrepancy in this report, as C makes no mention of the Xanax, and instead reports below having taken 40 mg of oxycontin. — Eds.] 3:15 pm: J reports the effects have reached a pleasant, cruising “museum” level. T reports a sparkle around the edges of plants similar to the visual effects that she gets from San Pedro cactus. Also, T’s closed-eye visuals are colorful. 3:30 pm: C says that the Xanax helped to even out the energy in her body. 3:45 pm: Everyone is gradually coming down at this point, and has nearly reached baseline.

A second report, this time from “J,” Justin Case: Recently I had the opportunity to sample a compound called 5-MeO-DALT. Three of us took it orally at a dose of about 30 mg. Overall the effects were mild with a distinctive tryptamine signature. In this case, a brightening of the world followed administration, with a magical glow surrounding everything. I felt mildly but decidedly elated, almost sparkling inside, with an enhanced richness of perception and tactile sensation that made me wonder how it would function for prosexual applications. My guess is quite nicely. There were moderate rushing or surging sensations of energy but these were limited to the back of my head, neck, shoulders, chest and

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upper back rather than ever becoming fully spinal. I perceived limited minor visual aberrations at this dosage, something I only noticed when walking around marvelling at the wondrous diversity of life forms and patternings. Closed-eye imagery was nicely enriched but was not particularly noticeable unless I was specifically looking for it. Physical movement was accompanied by a mildly exaggerated sense of not quite swirling, not quite pulsing motion in the visual field but when keeping still this was not noticed. There was only a minor diminishment of articulation in thought flow, nor was there much difficulty in either speech or conversation and there was no discomfort being around people. The decided enhancement of appreciation of beauty accompanied by a deliciously pronounced sense of wonder suggests that this would also be a good choice of compound for augmenting a visit to a museum or botanical garden. It also seemed mildly empathogenic. In conclusion, I found it mild, manageable, and exceedingly pleasant; inducing a strong sense of well-being bordering on stimulated contentedness. However one person who ate the same amount at the same time felt the need to abort it with Xanax almost immediately after onset (perhaps this was even during onset) due to the rushing sensations that she described as an uncomfortably intense body load. The only minor complaint is that I wish I’d used a larger dose. Next time I encounter this, I would try 35 mg, probably increasing that to 50 mg, if 35 proved comfortable. I would highly recommend this compound for any type of sensory and perceptual exploration.

The third report, this time from “C”: Recently at a social gathering I had the chance to try 5-MeO-DALT. How much did I take? I can’t remember. [According to the other two reports, everyone took the same amount of about 30 mg. — Eds.] I do know that I was underwhelmed by the experience. It came on around 30 minutes after ingestion and manifested in an uncomfortable way in my body. I was aware of energy rushing up my spine and it felt so intense, but without an outlet for expression somehow. It made me feel edgy and restless. I thought that having sex on it would probably be nice, but as there was no one to have sex with at the time, I may never know because I am not likely to try this compound again. The evening progressed with a plethora of other drugs, so I ended up having fun after all. I initially tried snorting 40 mg of oxycontin to smooth out the 5-MeO-DALT, and this worked well. The rushing energy was replaced by a feeling of melting like butter.

I would be interested to hear about other experiences with 5-MeO-DALT in a future issue of ER. — Fork!, CA

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Events Calendar AYAHUASCA HEALING RETREAT AUGUST 6–15, 2004 Held in the Brazilian Amazon, this retreat features ceremonies with ayahuasca and Salvia divinorum, lectures, art work expression, transpersonal exercises, meditations with sound/ light brainwave synchronization and psychoactive frequencies, and excursions. Presenters include Pablo Amaringo, Zoe Seven, and Silvia Polivoy. For more information, see www.ayahuasca-healing.net.

TELLURIDE MUSHROOM FESTIVAL AUGUST 19–22, 2004 Designed for people interested in edible, psychoactive, and poisonous mushrooms, the Telluride Mushroom Festival includes mushroom lectures, forays, hands-on identification and cultivation workshops, mushroom poetry, and a mushroom parade that runs down the main street of Telluride and features festival participants dressed as mushrooms, spores, and other elements of the mycological world. The festival’s second annual “Mushroom Cook-off Feast” features chefs from Telluride’s top restaurants, who will prepare mushroom dishes to be judged by festival faculty. The winning chef will receive a chef ’s hat adorned with mushrooms, and festival goers will dine on the mushroom dishes. Experienced guides will lead daily fungus forays in the forests surrounding Telluride, generally productive of a wide variety of wild mushrooms, particularly edible species, like chanterelles and porcini. Presenters include Gary Lincoff, Paul Stamets, Ralph Metzner, Emanuel Salzman, and others. Complete information about the festival program, registration, lodging, and travel is available. Contact: Fungophile, Box 480503, Denver, CO, 80248-0503 • (303) 296-9359 • www.shroomfestival.com.

ENTHEOVISION 2 AUGUST 21–22, 2004 The EntheoVision 2 congress will be held at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany. This gather-

ing will feature presentations and workshops from 18 researchers, scientists, and artists from Europe, the United States, and Canada. The conference is produced by Entheogene Blätter (www.entheogene.de), the German spinoff of The Entheogen Review. With presentations and/or workshops by: Ann Shulgin, Sasha Shulgin, Jon Hanna, Christian Rätsch, Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Sergius Golowin, Wolfgang Bauer, Jochen Gartz, Markus Berger, David Schlesinger, Bernd Lauer, Traumkraft, Ulrich Holbein, Wolfgang Sterneck, Aromed, Verein Für Drogenpolitik, “Eve&Rave Berlin” (Hans Cousto), Sector 16, and Sandra Karpetas. There will also be an art gallery, psychedelic marketplace, computers with Internet access, and on-the-fly translation of English and German in both directions. LOW COST CONFERENCE! Admission for both days is only 60 euros per person (meals not included). EntheoVision 2 takes place one week before the psy-trance dance BOOM Festival in Portugal begins. Stop over in Berlin before you travel to Portugal. For more information about EntheoVision 2 visit: www.entheovision.de or send an e-mail to: [email protected]. The registration form can be found at: http://entheogene.de/cgi-bin/kong-eng.py.

BOOM FESTIVAL AUGUST 26–30, 2004 15 to 20 thousand folks converge in the beautiful Portuguese countryside for this outdoor psy-trance dance festival. The event’s Liminal Village zone will host daytime workshops, evening presentations, an all-night cinema, a visionary art gallery featuring the work of Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffmann, Luke Brown, and Andy Thomas, the MAPS CosmiKiva Sanctuary, a small market space, chai and food stalls, a Planetary Art Network zone, as well as a healing temple offering body work and other healing modalities. This project aims at crafting a new vision of global culture from the ground up. On site camping for the festival is available. With presentations by Naasko, Jon Hanna, Jorge Fialho, Mark Comings, Luis Eduardo Luna, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffmann, The Koan Brothers, Richard Glen Boire, and others. For more info see www.boomfestival.org.

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Sources by Jon Hanna AYAHUASCA-WASI Julio Becerra 189-A Miraflores, Lima PERÚ (511) 446-3200 [email protected] www.ayahuasca-wasi.com

“This makes no sense. Since the government can’t even keep drugs out of our federal prisons, everyone has reason to know drugs may be used at their event. Every music concert attracts some people who may use or sell drugs. These provisions make criminals out of every concert promoter, nightclub owner, and stadium or arena owner.

A new group offering ayahuasca sessions in the Amazon. Three sessions are held during the week-long seminar, and the traditional dietary restrictions and sexual abstinence are required. Attendance is limited to 12 participants, and the next sessions will be held July 17–23 and August 14–20, 2004. Lodging and all meals are included in the reasonable price of $700.00. Check their web page for more information.

“The language of the Ecstasy Awareness Act is so broad that bartenders, musicians, and anyone else that in any way profited from an electronic music event could be fined or jailed. Section 305 of the CLEAN-UP Act is so broad that every musical style could be affected, including rock, HipHop, country, and electronic music. Indeed, any property owner (including hotel owners, cruise ship owners, and casino owners) could be hurt under the CLEAN-UP Act, since it is reasonable to assume that any entertainment event that draws a large crowd (especially young people) will draw people who will try to use or sell drugs. (It should be noted that Section 305 of the CLEAN-UP Act is the only section of the bill that is problematic. Other than that section, the CLEAN-UP Act is largely a good bill that provides resources to train law-enforcement officers how to dismantle illegal methamphetamine laboratories without hurting the environment).

PROTECT LIVE MUSIC www.protectlivemusic.org

The Drug Policy Alliance’s project to fight proposed legislation that could hold DJs, bands, bartenders, promoters, and venue owners liable if a patron uses drugs at a nightclub or concert. If such legislation is enacted, it could have a chilling effect on music events. From their web site: “Congress passed the Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (also known as the RAVE Act) last year, making promoters and venue owners liable for the drug offenses of their customers…Now Congress is considering two new bills that threaten to effectively ban live music and dancing while throwing innocent people in jail… “The Ecstasy Awareness Act (H.R. 2962) would throw anyone in jail who ‘profits monetarily from a rave or similar electronic dance event knowing or having reason to know’ if some of the event-goers use drugs. Similarly, Section 305 of the CLEAN-UP Act (H.R. 834) makes it a federal crime— punishable by up to nine years in prison—to promote ‘any rave, dance, music, or other entertainment event, that takes place under circumstances where the promoter knows or reasonably ought to know that a controlled substance will be used or distributed.’

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“Disturbingly, it does not matter under either the Ecstasy Awareness Act or the CLEAN-UP Act if event promoters and property owners take steps to deter drug offenses. They can be prosecuted even if they have good security and a strict zero-tolerance policy. Nor does it matter if the vast majority of people attending the event are law-abiding citizens that do not use drugs. These bills criminalize entire events and everyone involved in such events, raising very serious free speech and due process issues. Racist or homophobic prosecutors could also use the laws to target Hip Hop and R&B concerts and gay and lesbian nightclubs. “People should not be punished for the crimes of others, nor should the government be frightening law-abiding businesses away from holding legal events like rock, country, or Hip Hop concerts. The Drug Policy Alliance and its coalition of partners will continue to work to protect the

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music industry, prevent the further criminalization of dance and music events, and mobilize opposition to these dangerous laws.”




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Book Reviews

Check out the web page listed above for more information.

PSYCHEDELIC INTELLIGENCE PSY-I NETWORK 13 Brecknock Road London, N7 OBL UNITED KINGDOM (+44) 0207-419-1234 [email protected] www.psy-i.net www.psychedelicintelligence.com

Primarily a book vendor of psychedelic titles, these guys are taking up where Mind Books left off, with over 300 titles to choose from currently. Although they operate out of the United Kingdom, their site has the nice feature of allowing you to choose in what currency you want their offerings listed via: pounds, dollars, the euro, or the yen. Their selection is wide and fairly complete. They offer a few Trout’s Notes that are no longer obtainable from Trout himself, as well as a couple other rare or out-of-print books. Their book lists are broken into reasonable categories (and sometimes subcategories), and the site is well-designed and fast to load. However, I would love to see a page that lists all of their titles alphabetically in a single spot, perhaps with new additions highlighted. Their web site also features a forum with very little posted as yet, and a gallery, which I was unable to connect to. Hopefully these aspects of Psy-I Network will further bloom in the future.

TRICHOCEREUS •C•A•C•T•I• rooted plants, postpaid • send cash only PERUVIANUS • $35 per foot; $100 for 4 feet MACROGONUS • $35 per foot; $100 for 4 feet BRIDGESII • $25 per foot; $100 for 6 feet

KAK-TALL-A-TREE Box 225 • 3128 - 16th Street • San Francisco, CA 94103

Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants by Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Christian Rätsch and Wolf-Dieter Storl. 2003. (Inner Traditions International, One Park Street, Rochester, VT 05767, www.InnerTraditions.com.) Trade paperback 0-89281-971-5. $24.95. [8" x 10"], 240 pp. Note: The reviews below were first published in the Entheogene Blätter and are based on the original German text Hexenmedizin [fourth edition, 2002. AT Verlag, Aarau, Switzerland, ISBN 3-85502-601-7]. The reviews have been translated and by Christine Bandow and Helen Hanna, and adapted to reflect the English translation of the book, the publication details of which are presented above. 

Please compare the following cures: 1. “To cure a toothache, find a willow or an elder tree in spring, carefully remove some bark from the eastern side of the tree, carve a splint out of it and scratch your gums with it until blood appears. Then put the bloody splint back in its place on the tree, cover it with the bark and tie it up. If the splint adheres and becomes a part of the tree again, then the evil will go away. If the splint does not adhere, the cure must be repeated next spring.” 2. “For toothaches the afflicted scraped his gums with an elder chip until the affected area bled. Then the chip was placed back on the branch from which it had been taken. […The] elder guided the toothache downward into the earth.” The first quotation is taken from the Hauslexikon (household encyclopedia), Leipzig 1837 (volume 7, page 800, edited by Gustav Theodor Fechner). The second is from the book Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants (page 45) by Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Christian Rätsch and Wolf-Dieter Storl, which I am going to review here. Fechner provides examples of sympathetic medicine from old documents simply to encourage doctors to fight superstition. He proposes to invalidate superstition by directly confronting people with carefully carried out medical observations. In contrast to this, Storl goes on and on praising “witches’ cures” as everlasting secret knowledge that stems

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from the Paleolithic Age. Don’t expect critical footnotes for the examples Storl cites—there are none. The subtitle of this book in its original German edition is “The Rediscovery of Forbidden Medicine—Shamanic Traditions in Europe,” and Storl claims that witches and sorcerers “reach deep into the earth and tap into the healing waters of primordial wisdom.” Claudia Müller-Ebeling’s contributions are the highlights of the book. Based on works of artists living in early modern times (e.g. Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien) she presents the image of the witch as seen by these artists or their patrons. However, one cannot say if living “examples” of this image have ever really existed. There are only images that have been handed down, and subsequent ones based on them. I am certainly not convinced by the thesis that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the counterpart of a typical “witch.” Nor would I find any enlightenment in the depiction of Mary living in sin with the aged carpenter Joseph. Even then, being engaged meant for Jews that they had already achieved a legal marital status. Thus, when Luther (the first to translate the Bible into German) described Joseph’s fiancee as “Mary, his confidante and wife” he did not falsify any biblical content. Nowhere in the Gospels do the authors emphasize that Joseph was an old man when Jesus was born. He did not abstain from intercourse with Mary because of senile impotence, but out of obedience to God. The idea presented by Müller-Ebeling, that Mary lived in sin with Joseph only to avert her divine lover (to avert whom?) “who appeared in her lonely chamber—accompanied by a winged messenger—for insemination” [translated as quoted from the German version of this book, and worded less graphically in the English version] clarifies the message the author wants to convey: she disparages a chapter of Christian tradition only to romanticize abstruse pagan values. [It should be pointed out that nowhere in the English translation of this book is the relationship between Mary and Joseph characterized as one of “living in sin.” — Eds.] Duplicating this unearthly procreator (one: an angel, two: the divine lover who inseminates Mary) does not comply with the legend of the Annunciation, where nothing is said about somebody accompanying the archangel Gabriel. Or maybe Müller-Ebeling is talking about the Holy Spirit [St. Luke, 1: 35]? Describing Joseph’s marriage—a marriage without intercourse between the partners— as “living in sin” is not only a blunder but also reveals Müller-Ebeling’s bias. Throughout the book I got the impression that the author fancies a kind of romanticized, bleary paganism as an ideal version of the present we live in, or of our near future. May destiny save us from that! I found

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another statement—not in this book but on the Internet— proposing that female mystics may be considered the counterpart of witches (Michael Skoruppa, “Hexenbanner, Hexenmacher und Hexenjagden” from http://michaelskoruppa.de/finalhtm/hexen.html). I like this idea better. When Halley’s Comet appeared in the 1470s it was not yet called “Halley,” since Mr. Halley was born two centuries later. He lived from 1656 to 1742. Thus, Werner Rolevink, whom Müller-Ebeling quotes, cannot possibly have spoken—as she is assuming—about Halley’s Comet. Storl acts like a watercolor painter imitating Turner. He applies colors but is very reluctant to add outlines to his images. Thus, the reader sometimes feels confronted with riddles, not knowing whether the author is talking about events in the Late Archaic Period or costumes and traditions of the generation of our great-grandparents, or whether one of the long-winded quasi-quotations stems from traditions in Holstein (in northern Germany) or in the Steiermark (in Austria). According to Storl, old wise women have passed on their secret knowledge of herbs and spells in a never-ending tradition since ancient times, without letting any of their opponents stop them. Instead of giving evidence or examples for his theses, the author confronts us with his odd mumblings, which get a bit tiring in the long run. When he does present facts—which is seldom enough—he leaves out the explanatory details. His favorite expression is “transsensual.” I searched the dictionary for this word, but couldn’t find anything between “transsegmental” and “transshape.” Storl may have hit on an interesting concept, but what is it? It is common knowledge that the name “Bockbier” (bock beer, i.e. “he-goat beer”), also called “einbeckisch Bier” (“beer from Einbeck”), derives from the town of Einbeck. Despite this, Storl claims that the name was given because during the witches’ Sabbath the devil himself, in the shape of a he-goat, serves up this beer. What will the inhabitants of Einbeck have to say about that! Storl mentions the authors Lassa, Vogt, and Felicitas Goodman, but they do not appear in the book’s bibliography. (Felicitas Goodman can be found in the table of contents, under “F,” but who would look for her there?) [In the English edition, Vogt is cited in the bibliography, but Lassa and Goodman are missing. Goodman does not erroneously appear in the English table of contents, and she is included properly by last name in the book’s index. Lassa and Vogt are missing from the index. — Eds.]

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Storl assumes that the reader knows what is meant by “pfeffern,” “schmackostern,” and “pfitzeln,” but I doubt that. These terms describe traditions and/or occasions related to begging/asking for things, such as is done on Halloween. The word “pfeffern” is used in mountains in the south of Germany, and “schmackostern,” which has the same meaning, comes from the former East Prussia (today the northeast of Poland). When saying “Hirschlangen,” I suppose that Storl means Hirschlanden, a part of the town of Ditzingen near Stuttgart; the Old Palace there houses the “Warrior of Hirschlanden,” a statue made of stone. Storl says that this warrior wears a tapered headgear constructed from birch bark, but one can only guess that. I also doubt that many readers know who or what is meant by the “Warrior of Hirschlanden.” [We agree that not many readers would know what is meant by this, and wonder why the reviewer didn’t tell us. — Eds.] Furthermore, it is only an assumption that the statue’s sculptor intended for it to represent a dead person. Nevertheless, Storl presents this as a fact and does not give any further information about it. The “Fürst von Hochdorf ” (the Sovereign of Hochdorf ) was buried in a cairn (a burial mound). Even if it were true that the Hirschlanden statue, which is almost life-size, was once located on a cairn (Hirschlanden lies only a few kilometers from Hochdorf ), there is no written evidence that this statue really incarnated a dead person who was buried there. Maybe it is the image of something or someone completely different, perhaps a deity or a transpersonal hero. Storl assumes offhand that the traditional carnival celebrations in a region in the south of Germany trace back to pagan traditions. Nevertheless, there are many indications that the traditional carnival procession in the town of Rottweil, for example, first and foremost traces back to Christian endeavors, since it includes decidedly Christian elements. This can be seen in the paintings on the clothes of the people in the procession. Has Storl never heard of this, or would he like to withhold it from the reader? If the first were true, the author would be lacking sufficient knowledge; if the second were true, he would be pursuing biased intentions! This is rather a delicate subject, since under the Nazi dictatorship there was a research assignment in this field: Christianity, as one of the upholders of civilization, was to be devalued. At that time, there were also ludicrous attempts in that time to “Arianize” the image of Jesus Christ. Storl creates a colorful but unstructured image of a type of woman, presenting her as a shaman, an expert herbalist, a




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storyteller, a midwife, and an undertaker. All this is phrased with the precision and commitment of the insert in a package of placebos. Rätsch seems to believe that monotheism is a lapse of cultural history. How else could the following harangue against Moses be interpreted: Moses was probably a trickster who was chased out of Egypt and who greatly impressed a dilapidated Jewish tribe with his little theatrical performances (for example, his “Indian” rope trick) and lured them over to monotheism. Moses is also considered the author of one of the most important folk works about witchcraft medicine, The Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses. (p. 82)

On one hand, Rätsch describes Moses as a historical person, but on the other hand he has this same Moses (maybe) also leaving behind this peculiar irregular collection of texts. Although Rätsch claims that The Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses is one of the most important sources on this general subject, he does not go further into these writings. What audience will enjoy reading the pejorative description of the Jews led by Moses as a dilapidated Jewish tribe?” Here, too, I have the feeling that—as with Müller-Ebeling and Storl—Rätsch would like to attract advocates and followers of neo-paganism with this book. Apparently it did not even occur to Rätsch that in the context of history, monotheism can be seen as a reaction to polytheistic conditions. According to the Bible, Moses did all that was humanly possible to free the Jews from bondage. There is no word about banishing anyone—so where could Rätsch have found this? And why would anyone perceive Moses’ people as “dilapidated,” as Rätsch puts it? It should be noted that compared to Storl, Rätsch’s style of writing is more detailed and factual. In fact, we can only learn from his style! This applies not only to his own writing but also to the material he edited. What you cannot find in the part Storl has written, you will find in Rätsch. In a book about witches, the persecution of witches cannot be left aside. Rätsch assumes that “millions” of victims were burnt on the stake in Europe in the early modern age. With this assumption, Rätsch simply follows Gottfried Christian Voigt (1740–1791), the town clerk of Quedlinburg, who picked this number of victims as a rough estimate. He started out with the statement that 30 witches were burnt between

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1569 and 1598, according to the files of the town archives. He then added ten more, claiming that the files were not complete. He extrapolated this number for a century and then for 650 years. He compared the number of inhabitants of Quedlinburg (at the time, about 11,000) to that of Europe (then 71 million) and finally calculated the total of burnt witches under the assumption that their persecution in Europe lasted 1,100 years. Thus, he concluded that as many as 9 million witches were burnt in Europe. What about population growth, differing intensity of this persecution at different time and in different places, its actual duration in Quedlinburg and in the whole of Europe? Voigt and those who nowadays still revert to his findings don’t worry about these parameters. Rätsch is probably not aware of who calculated the number he used without questioning its reliability. Today’s scientists assume that approximately 65,000 women fell victim to these persecutions in Europe, with 40,000 of them burnt in German-speaking countries. Bad enough, but at least these numbers are mostly verifiable. Apparently in accordance with his co-authors, Rätsch reckons that the persecution of witches in the early modern times in Europe had its roots in the Inquisition. However, reliable investigation does not affirm that idea. For example, the Inquisition in the Basque region explicitly opposed the systematic persecution of witches (Behringer, Wolfg. 2000. Hexen und Hexenprozesse in Deutschland, S. 326, N. 21). On the contrary, research has revealed that it was the populace who frequently gave the impetus and asked local authorities to take actions against the activities of those evil witches. It is a tragic and terrible fact that there resulted an instrumental body so completely irrational in its thinking and actions, as documented in the Hexenhammer—a book about witches, witchcraft and how to persecute them—by Heinrich Kramer (also known as Heinrich Institoris). This development was surpassed only by events of the 20th century. Rätsch describing the German narcotics law as a “modern version of the Hexenhammer” is mere polemics. It seemed more appropriate to me when the four-volume set Die christliche Mystik (Christian Mystics), written by Joseph von Görres in 1836–1842, was called the “Hexenhammer of the 19th century” by Uta Ranke-Heinemann, the editor of a 1989 reissue of the books, since this description pointed out the editor’s mindset (even though the epithet doesn’t do justice to Görres’ work). Rätsch would have been better off if he had consulted a few criminal law experts before publishing such a weird expression. Even in Hamburg, where Rätsch lives, there are attorneys who know about this part of the law.

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Like Beckmesser (a harsh critic of one of Wagner’s operas) I highlight here only those points that bother me. This does not mean that the book is a complete failure—far from it! When one first sees the book, one expects a comprehensive introduction to the subject. In ancient Greece there was only one word for medicine and witchcraft: pharmacy (φαρµακια could mean medicine as well as witchcraft or wizardry). This shows that these two activities were once inseparably connected, while today we see them as completely separate. Mysterium tremendum and fascinosum—these traits appear in the divine as well as in the demonic. There is much evidence that both good and evil can be experienced as different visions of the same inconceivable power. If any one of the authors breathed a word about this, he or she must have shyly hidden it somewhere in the book. Given that psychedelic substances are mentioned several times, it would have stood to reason to look at this subject more closely. For example, there have been reliable reports during the past century about an incident near Avignon where many people suffered an ergot poisoning (John Fuller, Apocalypse ’52). They ate bread made from spoilt flour and thus had heavenly and infernal visions that could alternate in an instant. At that time, they rightly suspected the flour vendor was guilty of neglect. Some centuries earlier they would have tracked down “witches” as causes of the event and called them to account for their evil ways. So what is a witch? The quite sobering answer: a witch is a woman who was denounced and convicted as a witch. The fact that Storl, Müller-Ebeling, and Rätsch attempt to make us believe something different may be considered deserving, but it does not change anything concerning the sad history of the persecution of witches. The book Witchcraft Medicine is not just fun to read. It also serves to document the wave of obscurantism that has become more noticeable lately. Numerous illustrations, most of which have been diligently chosen, contribute to the pleasure of reading the book. One example is the photograph of the Stone Age “Venus of Lespugue” (page 57, photo by Rätsch). I think I have never seen a more successful and impressive photograph. The authors don’t bother mentioning that the Greek mistress of all beings (ποτνια θηρων) reappears as the Madonna with her sheltering cloak, thus proving that even the most ancient representations also persist in Christianity. Over all, I encountered more gaps in the authors’ analyses than gaps in my knowledge that they were able to reveal and fill. — Edzard Klapp

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WANTED: A Green and Golden Moss Spirit Instead of a Conjuror Named Moses A response to previous reviews of Witchcraft Medicine, the classic work on entheogens by Müller-Ebeling, Rätsch, and Storl. Preanimism, animism, anthropomorphism, paganism, shamanism, pantheism, panpsychism, theopanism, gnosis, or neolithic polytheism—all these are wonderful ancient trends and pre-Christian religions. Only thousands of years later have their melodious names been coined. Every now and then solitary spoilsports appeared in the midst of all these trends, overly down-to-earth critics, thinkers, skeptics, pre-Socratics. Instead of starting in the 18th century A.D., the Enlightenment was already set in motion around 600 B.C. Diogenes of Apollonia (450 B.C.), considered the Descartes (or Julien Offray de la Mettrie) of ancient times, made a clean sweep of things and did not hesitate to deny the idea that plants could think. How ungenerous of him! How unforgivable! And from its beginning, this tree-bashing raged on without cease, disguised in reality-emphasizing theories that were created quite cold-bloodedly. Jainism, which appeared even before Mahavira lived, even did without a god. Buddha, king of enlightenment, disposed of teeming hallucinations and constructed gods, including uncontrolled growth of demons, in a quite rational way. He was like a cold shower on the prior religion of Bön, which was based on animism, shamanism, and entheogens. Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons ousted Gnostic phantasms. Wang Chung (27 to 97 A.D.) referred to the teachings of ying, yang, and tao as “idle talk.” However, the trampled grass always rose again, including all the divine pandemonium and spiritual weeds. Willows that were topped burst out anew, and every little hole in Great Mother Mary’s veil was immediately mended before the next mental or unmetaphoric logger approached. But earlier trends persisted. There is no evidence of a Bodhi tree for the historic Gautama. However, the ineradicable religion of Bön continued to be active under the surface, and elements of its tree cult were inserted post de facto into the sprawling Buddhistic elements, thus allowing for Buddha’s enlightenment—which was dendrologically limited—to advance as the undisputed core of Buddhism, just because there was a religious fig tree. Tertullian sneered at the questionably




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feminine way in which Empedocles handled the pythagorean transmigration, and also at Empedocles’ plainly Darwinistic statement that he himself already had gone through different stages of being something else: a bush, a fish and so on. Later on, Maulana Jaladu-D-Din reported this about himself, too, using almost exactly the same words as Empedocles. Muhammad had three Acacias cut down in the Wadi Nakhla, since they were dedicated to the ancient Arabian goddess al-Uzza. A hundred years later, Saint Boniface had a millennial oak cut down that was sacred to Donar (the god of thunder). This oak was the beam in his Christian eye, so he had it cut down instead of just condemning it in a mental and symbolic way, like Jesus. Or denying it all thinking, as Diogenes had done. To put it in a nutshell: it was always male rigor—sometimes intellectual, sometimes with an axe—treading against female tree spirits. It was always an inquisitor against a dryad branded as a witch. First, the holy pre-Christian groves of trees suffered the cold shower of a thousand years of Christianity; then followed two hundred years of mining, heavy industry, and motor traffic. But earlier beliefs were still alive. The irrepressible Germanic dandelion was still breaking through the Christian asphalt surface. A resistant Avalon reappeared stronger than ever and overran the strange intermezzi of Jerusalem and Jericho using the carnival, the Easter Promenade (a poem in Goethe’s Faust), the second and third spring, Early and Late Romanticism. The more the green and golden tree of life faded in our gray world—because people raced forward more compatible with technology, more acidproof, more resistant to road salt and with less humanity— the more scarce, threatened, and intense became the shimmering, verdant better times and rays of hope (hardly visible behind the smog of congested areas) along with their elder tree grannies and ash tree spirits. Even Christianity, although considered hostile to nature, was impregnated from behind. Maybe the calm, peaceful, and romantic chapels in the woods, with fawns, holy Geneviève, cloistered gardens or floral legends, whispered in a more atmospheric, more conciliatory and more caressing way than the historic sites and the holy groves, which originally were very macho and concentrated on rituals just the way that later on, “Le sacré du printemps” made people feel uncomfortable and Greenpeace seemed too technological. Idylls and arbors by Spitzweg (the German impressionist painter) surpassed in sentimental emotionalism the lapidary myth of paradise. Even taxonomists and categorizers like Carl von Linné instilled an emotional life in flora. In retrospect, even the Garden of Gethsemane came to be a holy grove where the

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winds of night might have carried a passing hint of botanicBuddhistic Lumbini voluptuousness. The enormous Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (a concise dictionary of German superstition) by Bächtold-Stäubli flourished, overshadowing by far the hardhearted Summa Theological of St. Thomas Aquinas. It showed that superstition can be richer, more diverse, more beautiful, more detailed, and even truer than belief. Researchers in matriarchy, spiritually inspired feminists, female mythologists, cultural anthropologists, specialists in ancient American studies and in ethnobotanicals define themselves as advocates of new paganism, Wicca, biosophy, pansophy, neo-gnosticism and entheogenism. Two hundred years after the Enlightenment in Central Europe, Rätsch (who does not want to be called a neo-shaman), Storl (who does not like being called shaman of the Allgäu), art historian Müller-Ebeling and the mushroom mythologist Wolfgang Bauer, built monumental fortresses: with their love plants, sacred mushrooms, toadstools, and psychoactive encyclopedias, pro-plant devas, intoxicants, flights of the soul, elemental spirits, and anti-Enlightenment without soul. Thus, they are critical of all academic science. “The world of spirits is not shut away / Thy sense is closed, thy heart is dead! / Up, Student! Bathe without dismay / thy earthly breast in morning-red!” Storl translates these lines from the first part of Goethe’s play Faust into a language of his own, assuming that witches’ medicine is magic and thus alienating those whose souls are dead and frozen and whose mind’s eyes are blinded. But now several wiseacres (derived from Middle Dutch wijsseggher, which ironically means soothsayer or witch) and armchair philosophers, led by Edzard Klapp, are standing up. Instead of bathing their earthly breast in morning-red, they are subjecting the wonderful and lovingly produced standard work Witchcraft Medicine to criticism that’s suspiciously laden with biblical references. Klapp’s critique could be considered quite plausible in its details, if only his objections as a whole were not mere nitpicking. To argue against Rätsch’s description of Moses as a humorless conjuror does not lead very far. Klapp finds the book useless at filling the casual gaps in his personal knowledge. But hopefully the more important and justifiable objections of Klapp’s nitpicking do no harm to all those healing magical words. Klapp is skeptical of the bleary paganism that is supposed to be a panacea for enlightenment, reductionist straitjackets, and soulless positivistic science. This skepticism seems to be reasonable and gives us something to think about—at least

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more so than the review by Lili Chonhuber published on the Internet. Her review offers little more than irony concerning “graduate medicine men” and their strange expressions like “vitality of being” or “assurance of being.” She declares, “While the high-tech civilization is bombing the poorest countries back to the Stone Age, Müller-Ebeling, Rätsch, Storl & Co. are recollecting the true values of the Stone Age.” Behind Chonhuber’s observations there lurks a badly veiled belief in the progress of a hideously failed and super-mechanized super-civilization. “There is no silver bullet that leads us back into the past.” What a dubious assumption! What an evidence of the incapacity of her soul, when she claims that it is hard for her to believe that salvation exists in a world once more enriched with imps, rhizotoms, illness demons, and pea devas. Another Internet review—or rather, Internet argument—by Uriel Bohnlich (please, don’t confuse him with Ulrich Holbein!) was much more to the point than Klapp’s or Chonhuber & Co’s. In this review Klapp’s scepticism and Chonhuber’s superficial malice are magnified to the fervor and vehemence of Tertullian. Bohnlich sees those all-tooscientific earlier stages glittering through in the book, stages that witch doctors would reject. Bohnlich defines the book’s language as a mixture of terms used in scientific and psychojargon together with the immense vocabulary used by the nature-adoring new pagan authors of 1910, such as Wilhelm Bölsche, Theodor Lessing, Bruno Wille, Hermann Löns, and Ernst Wiechert. Bohnlich gives the expression “the weaving of cosmic constellations” (used by Storl) as an example. He says that the “weaving” stems from Wagnerian music and Faustian gibberish. “Constellations” is borrowed from a comparatively scientific and, thus, soulless territory. He also points out that the use of the word “essences” [referring to the German word Wesenheiten used in the book] is antiquated, borrowed from theosophic vocabulary that in turn is referred to as “transsensual”—a modernistic description… Executives, archetypes and Hagezussen [an ancient German word for “witch”] are coupled with the graceful Freya. Old German vocabulary, according to Bohnlich, is constantly mingling with dispassionate technological words: Herbaria, the little old herbalist, is characterized as the “keeper and watchwoman of the local ecosystem”… All in all, quoting Uriel Bohnlich one last time: “Thus, that which was uselessly resisted, is sneaking into the supposed head wind.” Here, we (i.e. Ulrich Holbein) can just sigh: So what? Even if the linguistic-stylistic “problem” of Witchcraft Medicine

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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 1

were not to be solved for the time being—if it existed at all— what we want to dispute here is that one way or another, Bohnlich, Chonhuber, and Klapp are lowering themselves to the size of quibbling nitpickers without a message or a vision; they are truly not following the tradition that includes Diogenes, Wang Chung, Saint Boniface’s oak cutting, Kant’s disproof of Swedenborg, and Adorno’s attack on occultism. Instead, a brain or spirit is needed who not only completely sympathizes with female shamanic entheobotanists and green people saving the world, but who can also somehow offer resistance to a fanatic humanity that is going down the wrong track of Christianity and technology. Or who can at least—in the age of city lights and pavement— reconstruct those better, more inspired by forgotten times and rescue their knowledge of healing. Most suitable for this would be someone who has it in himself to turn the only partially expressed theses and assumptions of “new paganism” or “natural mysticism,” (which have not yet been fully written) into a passionate manifesto. Or who would first give a melodic name to this movement—if it were a real movement. Should the whole thing be called “Humane Paganism?” Or would this again sound far too scientific? But New Paganism would sound too smoky and militant, and it has been existing for too long to still be called “new.” Moreover, it would also have to cover quite dubious groupings. Or maybe choose a name like Tree Spirits, by analogy with those who call themselves tree huggers? Or something along the lines of Graying (aging) Greens and Goethe’s “green and golden tree of life”: the “green-goldians,” the “green souls,” the “tree souls,” the “entheologics?!” Well, I will discreetly set aside this list now, for lack of time. In a nutshell, what is wanted is a new Moses, a moss spirit, or a plant spirit, who smashes those Tablets of the Law in order to take part in dancing circles around the Golden Calf, or who—while dancing—makes up ten or eleven other, improved commandments. Or, who, even better, makes up maxims that take into consideration the pre-Buddhistic Golden Rule as well as the government’s constitution: 0th commandment 1: Never adorn innocent stones with stingy commandments! 0th commandment 2: Throw overboard today’s offers for consumers and for those who seek meaning in life—hyperactivism, bestialism (bestiality) over Cartesianism, Social Darwinism, Eurocentrism, photorealistic fanaticism, giantism, heroism, suctioned-off Catholicism, exuberant careerism, materialistic mass tourism, neo-nationalism,




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anemic Ecumenism, perfectionism, mind-withering esoterics, utilitarianism, terrorism, vandalism—and see what is left! Hopefully, extraordinary moments of sudden insight, free thinking, whole-body orgasms, a broadened awareness, coincidencia oppositorium, a going out-of-bounds, breakthroughs, inspiration, rejoicing, cosmic dreams, Olympic laughter, platonic one night stands, high inebriation, blissful nostalgia, trance, fusion, word frenzies, and, not least of all, unio mystica! first maxim: You shall have as many gods near me as possible! And stop putting gods before animals and camels before fungi! Divine idols are better than dead gods! And you shall always make yourself many colorful images of me! Please, pray to Flora, Pomona, Aphrodite, Cybele, Luna, Hermes, to the green fairy, the last manifestation of the witches’ goddess Artemis or Diana, instead of praying to Mammon, Blasphemo, or Toyota! Establish a phalanx together with Laotse, Theocritus, Pliny, et al., instead of global players, popes, and governors! second maxim: Never again deny that plants think! You shall not cut, pick or pick to pieces, neither as reviewer nor as logger! The dignity of plants shall be inviolable! Do not touch but empathize! P.S.: If you have to pick a plant, then plant a little tree for every sheet of paper you crumple or write on. If you do not own a piece of land, you could just commit illegal forestation! third maxim: Try to understand even unfriendly beings! Be nice to one another, including your parents! Be nice to inquisitors! Pray for the salvation of Hitler! Do not say anything against Moses, Wang Chung, Tertullian, the priests and pastors of this world, or Lili Chonhuber! fourth maxim: Create your own rule here. fifth maxim: You shall not kill! And not slaughter! And not mob! And not hurt! Don’t look for a loophole to excuse killing of any kind! And do not cut down holy groves only to put up a parking lot for handicapped people! On the contrary, declare domestic cattle to be sacred cows, i.e. golden calves! Imagine that even Microsoft has a soul! Call the control of your computer “Mouseclick”! Give names to your household articles! Be an animist! Declare livestock to be taboo, off limits! Never let a golden calf pass you without dancing around it instead of slaughtering it! All in all, the dignity of calves must be inviolable! Do not touch, but empathize! Eat more fruit! Amuse your human and plant companions and fellow-

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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sufferers! All in all, never kill! (Not even child abusers or houseflies, if possible.) sixth maxim: You shall not commit adultery! Instead, just try eating, caressing something else, and listening to music in stereo. At least, avoid uninteresting monaural fidelity. Turn masturbation into self-knowledge and the daily grind of marriage into pansophy and pansexuality. Be polyphonic, not monotonous! Get out of the line you are standing in. Don’t always be the one who just stays put, no matter what. seventh maxim: Instead of stealing, beg for the object you desire in a charming way. Give huge thank-you presents, and remember to water your plants. Tax evasion and illicit employment (or non-union labor) are not mortal sins, but symbols of your longing for blind human devotion. Leave peanuts behind! The ocean is in front of you, so stop turning around to check the washing machine. eighth maxim: Instead of lying, be a poet, try mimicry, and take time off to enjoy carnivals. ninth maxim: Go on comparing the narcotics law to the book Witchcraft Medicine! Go on referring to the highest numbers of burnt witches possible, even if there were “only” 200,000 victims. Even if there had been only one victim, there would have been one too many! Let the ancient Pan go on piping his songs together with elemental spirits, and put the elves from 18th century French fairy tales far back into Paleolithic settings! A predated elf is better than households desolate because of psychic shortcomings! Oh, and if it bothers you that elves, pea devas, and elder tree grannies depend on

VERNAL EQUINOX 2004

anthropomorphism, then just create new elemental spirits that are more detached. The dwarfs and pixies mentioned by Wolf-Dieter Storl are quite easy to produce in the age of genetic engineering. Sylphs and elves take more time (on account of the problem with their wings and upper arms, not to mention foreseeable difficulties when adding the DNA of hummingbirds). tenth maxim: Instead of envying your neighbor’s Porsche and his other stuff, just join him in raving on molecules and sanctifying ecstasies! No matter what grimaces appear on your faces! Let Bush and Saddam smoke the same joint! Make love not war! Kiss your enemies, even if they don’t like it! Teachers who have been shot, forgive your students who have run amok! Forgive god and the other gods for being (fortunately beforehand) flighty and imperfect as you are! Nevertheless, go down in infinity and don’t ask what time it is! First, exaggerate and then increase slowly! Let yourself go, even if you are too small for that! But still leave the bathroom in the state you would like to find it in! Bathe in early morning-red, together with gods, golden calves, djinn, witches and those who burnt them, infidels, spoilsports, and “essences!” Rediscover forbidden cures! Buy and read Witchcraft Medicine by Claudia Müller-Ebeling, Christian Rätsch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl! Forgive Edzard Klapp, Uriel Bohnlich, Lili Chonhuber, and maybe even Ulrich Holbein! Wake up before you are woken! Die before you kick the bucket! Be awake, even in your sleep! Get well before you get ill! Amen! All right! Cheers! I have spoken! — Ulrich Holbein

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Bibliography Anonymous n.d. Use of Psychedelic Agents to Facilitate Creative Problem Solving (Creativity Project progress report #1). The Institute for Psychedelic Research of San Francisco State College [Run by: James Fadiman, Willis W. Harman, Robert H. McKim, Robert P Mogar, and Myron J. Stolaroff]. p. C-1.

Grof, S. 1980. LSD Psychotherapy. Hunter House, Inc.

Barron, F. 1963. Creativity and Psychological Health: Origins of Personal Vitality and Creative Freedom. D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. pp. 74, 251, 253–254.

Guttmann, E. & W.S. Maclay 1937. “Clinical Observations of Schizophrenic Drawings,” British Journal of Medical Psychology XVI (parts 3 & 4): 184–205.

Barron, F. 1964. “The Relationship of Ego Diffusion to Creative Perception,” Widening Horizons in Creativity: The Proceedings of the Fifth Utah Creativity Research Conference. Calvin W. Taylor (ed.). John Wiley & Son, Inc. pp. 80–86.

Hartmann, R.P. 1974. “Malerei aus Bereichen des Unbewussten: Künstler experimentieren unter LSD,” Ksˇln. M. DuMont Schauberg.

Barron, F. et al. 1964. “The Hallucinogenic Drugs,” Scientific American. Beringer, K. 1927. Der Meskalinrausch: Seine Geschichte und Erscheinungsweise. Verlag von Julius Springer. pp. 42, 147, 181, 208, 216, 246, 248, 251, 267–269, 299–300, 303. Berlin, L. et al. 1955. “Studies in Human Cerebral Function: The Effects of Mescaline and Lysergic Acid on Cerebral Processes Pertinent to Creative Activity,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 122: 487–491. Boon, M. 2002. The Road to Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs. Harvard University Press. pp. 218–275. Chamberlain, C.W. 1956 (January). “Magic Land of Mescalin,” Fate 9(1): 14–21. Issue 70. Clark Publishing Company. Clark, W.H. 1977. “Art and Psychotherapy in Mexico,” Art Psychotherapy 4: 41–44. Dobkin de Rios, M. & O. Janiger 2003. LSD, Spirituality, and the Creative Process. Park Street Press. pp. 25–26, 83, 113. Eisner, B. 2004 (in press). “Betty Eisner: The Birth and Death of Psychedelic Therapy,” in Higher Wisdom—Psychedelics, Society, Mind, and God: Eminent Thinkers Explore the Continuing Impact and Implications of Psychedelics. R. Walsh & C. Grob (eds.). SUNY Press.

Guttmann, E. & W.S. Maclay 1936. “Mescaline Experiments. Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum.” Transcripts: BHM 698v; BHM 44; BHM.

Heim, R. & P. Thévenard 1965–1966. “Expériences Nouvelles d’Ingestion des Psilocybes Hallucinogènes,” Chapter V, pp. 201– 211 in: Heim, R. & R.G. Wasson. 1965–1966. Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique: Études Ethnologiques, Taxinomiques, Biologiques, Physiologiques et Chimiques. 7th series, Volume IX. Archives du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Éditions du Muséum. Also see the first part: Volume VI (1958). Hertel, C. 1971. Portrait of the Artist with Two Heads: A Study of Stylistic Changes Influenced by the Ingestion of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. Scripps College Art Galleries. Huxley, A. 1960 (spring). “The Art of Fiction XXIV,” The Paris Review 23: 57–80. Jakimowicz, I. 1985. Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz: Witkacy Malarz. Wydawnictwa Artystyczne I Filmowe. pp. 66–70. plates xviii, xix, xx, xxi, pp. 139–145, 147, 168–169, 173, 182. Joel, Y. 1966 (September 9). “Psychedelic Art,” Life 61(11): 60–69. Kellogg, J. et al. 1977 (July). “The Use of the Mandala in Psychological Evaluation and Treatment,” American Journal of Art Therapy 16: 123–134. Ketchum, J.S. 2003 (pre-publication draft). Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten: The Story of Chemical Agent Research with Enlisted Volunteers, Conducted by Military Physicians in the 1960s. pp. 35, 39. Kipphoff, P. 1969. “Artists and LSD,” Encounter 35: 34–36.

Friedrich, H. 1948. Zeichnerische Illustrationen zum Meskalinrausch. Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität Heidelberg. THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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Knauer, A & W.J.M.A. Maloney 1913. “A Preliminary Note on the Psychic Action of Mescalin, with Special Reference to the Mechanism of Visual Hallucinations,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 40: 425–436. Krippner, S. 1977. Research in Creativity and Psychedelic Drugs, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis XXV (4): 274–290. Krippner, S. 1980. “Psychedelic Drugs and the Creative Process,” The Humanistic Psychology Institute Review 2(2): 9–34. Krippner, S. 1985. “Psychedelic Drugs and Creativity,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 17(4): 235–245. La Barre, W. 1975. The Peyote Cult, 4th edition. Archon Books. pp. 206, 209. Leary, T. 1964. “The Effects of Test Score Feedback on Creative Performance and of Drugs on Creative Experience,” pp. 87–111 in Widening Horizons in Creativity: The Proceedings of the Fifth Utah Creativity Research Conference. C. W. Taylor (ed.). John Wiley & Son, Inc. Leuner, H. 1962. Die Experimentelle Psychose: Ihre Psychopharmakologie, Phänomenologie und Dynamik in Beziehung zur Person: Versuch einer konditional-genetischen und funktionalen Psychopathologie der Psychose, Springer-Verlag. p. 51. Leuner, H. 1963. “Die optische Halluzinose und ihre Sinngehalte,” Psychopathologie und Bildnerischer Ausdruck vol. 3. Sandoz. Leuner, H. 1974. “Masques et Faces Grimaçantes dans l’Hallucinose Toxique,” Coll. Psychopathologie de l’Expression vol. 21. Sandoz. Maclay, W.S. & E. Guttmann 1941 ( January). Mescaline Hallucinations in Artists, Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 45(1): 130–137. Marinesco, G. 1933. Presse Médicale 74: 1433. Mátéfi, L. 1952. “Mescalin- und LysergsäurediäthylmamideRausch Zeichentests,” Confinia Neurologica 12: 146. McKellar, P. 1957. Imagination and Thinking: A Psychological Analysis. Basic Books, Inc. Publishers. Newsweek 1953 (February 23). “Mescal Madness,” Newsweek : 92–94. Oster, G. 1970 (February). “Phosphenes,” Scientific American : 82–87.

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Rinkle, M. 1955. “Summary of Papers on Drugs Affecting Behavior,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 122: 487–491. Roubícˇek, J. 1961. Experimentální Psychosy. Státní Zdravotnické Nakladatelství. pp. 257–258. Saurí, J.J. & A.C. de Onorato 1955. “Las Esquizofrenias y la Dietilamida del ácido d-lisérgico (LSD 25) I. Variaciones del Estado de Ánimo,” Acta Neuropsiquiátr Argent 1: 469. Schultes, R.E. & A. Hofmann 1979. Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use. McGraw-Hill Book Company. pp. 176–183. Stafford, P. n.d. Magic Grams: Inquiries into Psychedelic Consciousness. Self-published. pp. 58–59. Stiener, G. 2002. Benjamin Studies I: Perception and Experience in Modernity. Rodopi. p. 17. Stoll, W.A. 1947. “Lysergsaurediathylamid, ein Phantastikum aus der Mutterkorngruppe,” Schweiz Arch Neurol Psychiat 60: 279–323. Szuman, S. 1930. “Analiza formalna i psychologiczna widzen´ meskalinowych,” Kwartalnika Psychologicznego 1. Thompson, S.J. (1997). “Protocol XI: Fritz Fränkel: Protocol of the Mescaline Experiment of 22 May 1934,” Protocols to the Experiments on Hashish, Opium and Mescaline 1927–1934: Translation and Commentary. [Posted to www.wbenjamin.org/protocol1.html#XI, accessed May 29, 2004.] Tonini, G. & C. Montanari 1955. “Effects of ExperimentallyInduced Psychoses on Artistic Expression,” Confinia Neurologica 15(4): 225–239. Wertham, F. & M. Bleuler 1932. “Inconstancy of the Formal Structure of the Personality: Experimental Study of the Influence of Mescaline on the Rorschach Test,” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 27: 52–70. Wired. 1996 (February 2). “The Mind’s Inner Eye. Wired 2 (UK version). Witkiewicz, S.I. 1992 (translation of 1932 essay). “Narcotics: Nicotine, Alcohol, Cocaine, Peyote, Morphine, Ether,” in The Witkiewicz Reader. D. Gerould (ed.). Northwestern University Press. p. 264. Yensen, R. 2004 (January). Personal communication. Zegans, L.S. et al. 1967 (June).“ The Effects of LSD-25 on Creativity and Tolerance to Regression,” Archives of General Psychiatry 16: 740–749.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: K. Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love Contributors Sandra Karpetas Jon Hanna R. Stuart Scott J. Thomson E.B., Berlin C.H., CA Altoid B. Green Doc, IN Anonymous, IN T, CA Justin Case C, CA Edzard Klapp Ulrich Holbein Design & Layout Soma Graphics Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819, USA www.entheogenreview.com Front & Back Covers Nine drawings from a series of fourteen that were made in 1951 by the Hungarian physician and amateur artist László Mátéfi, while he was under the influence of LSD. These were published in Triangle, the Sandoz Journal of Medical Science. (We believe the images were published in 1954.) We have been unable to locate a copy of this publication, which was probably an in-house production. The images were scanned from Taylor, G.R. 1963. The Science of Life: A Picture History of Biology. McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Ibogaine as Therapy: Sandra Karpetas Speaks…

1

Modern Psychedelic Art’s Origins as a Product of Clinical Experimentation

12

Network Feedback

23

More on Memantine Hydrochloride

23

Even More on Memantine Hydrochloride

23

Ten Kratom Bioassays

24

More Thoughts on Kratom, and Another Ten Bioassays

25

Anadenanthera colubrina as Ayahuasca

26

Reply to “AMT Shelf-life”

27

New Research Chemical: 5-MeO-DALT

27

Events Calendar

29

Sources

30

Book Reviews

31

Bibliography

39

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

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1) 20 min. after first dose of 50 µg. Condition normal. No effect from the drug yet. (Except where otherwise stated, all drawings were done in charcoal.)

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

2) 85 min. after first dose, 20 min. after another 50 µg. Euphoria. The subject sees the model correctly, but finds difficulty in controlling the wide, sweeping movements of his hand.

3) 2.5 hours after first dose. Outlines of the model seen normally, but very vividly and in changed colours. The subject states: “My hand must follow the bold sweep of the lines. I feel as if my consciousness is situated in the part of my body that is now active.”

4) Shortly after third drawing. “The outlines of the model are normal, but those of my drawing are not (Fig. 3). I pull myself together and try again: it’s no good. I give up trying and let myself go at the third attempt (Fig. 4).”

5) Shortly after third and fourth drawings. “I try again and produce this drawing with one flourish.” 6) 2.75 hours after first dose. Agitated. “The perspective of the room has changed, everything is moving…everything is interwoven in a network of colour…the model’s face is distorted to a diabolic mask.” (Image created in Tempera.)

7) 4 hours 25 min. Euphoric mood, intoxication less marked. The subject attempts to draw a portrait similar to his first one. “If I am not careful, I lose control of my movements.” (Image created in Pen and water-colour.)

8) 5 hours 45 min. Crayon drawing. “It is probably because my movements are still too unsteady that I am unable to draw as I normally do…The intoxication is wearing off, but I can both feel and see it ebbing and flowing about me (now it only reaches to my knees); finally, only an eddying motion remains.”

9) 8 hours. The intoxication has now worn off, apart from a few small waves (for example, sudden distortions of faces from time to time). The subject feels bewildered and tired. “I have nothing to say about the last drawing; it is bad and uninteresting.”

Volume XIII, Number 1




Vernal Equinox 2004




ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XIII, Number 2




Summer Solstice 2004




ISSN 1066-1913

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love Contributors Justin Case Fun Gal R. Stuart Mambo Pachano S. Bear, CA R.D., MO K. Trout B. Green, NM M.H., TN DEA Web Site Joáo Serro Jon Hanna Design & Layout Soma Graphics Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

CONTENTS The Enema Project: Taking it Past the Limit? Extreme Condition Extraction of Mimosa tenuiflora (= Mimosa hostilis) Root-bark Insufflation of Trichocereus pachanoi Network Feedback Anadenanthera and Ants New Psychoactive Mint Salt-free Potentiation Iodine Precipitation Rip-off from ER Advertiser Kratom Combos Plant-rooting Gizmo Fertilization Program Vaporizers & Tryptamines DEA Busts Research Chemical Vendors Oaxaca City: Are You Experienced? A Review of the Mind States Oaxaca Conference Events Calendar Sources Bibliography

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Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

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The Enema Project: Taking it Past the Limit? by Justin Case, Fun Gal, and R. Stuart Widely-held mores and other societal constraints can cause avenues of scientific inquiry to be neglected or deliberately avoided. This creates opportunities for researchers who boldly go where few have wanted to go before. We recently explored one such area: namely, assessing the efficacy of the retention enema as a means for visionary drug administration. Our primary focus was on Trichocereus cacti. Did the scant indications of mescaline-containing cacti taken via enema hold any merit? Could cactus-based enemas have been employed as an effective route of administration by nontechnological cultures? Would such enemas afford any advantage to people who had trouble orally consuming cactus? Little has been written on the topic of visionary plant administration via enema, despite its clear antiquity. Nearly 90 years ago, USDA botanist William Edwin Safford published a piece on the snuffs derived from Anadenanthera sp. seeds (Safford 1916). In that work, he mentions French scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine’s 1749 description of the Omagua—an Amazonian Indian tribe—using rubber syringes to ritually administer similar substances preceding “the repasts of ceremony.” He also mentions that extracts believed to have been made from these same seeds were used as enemas by other people. This route was described as being less powerful than when the material was used as a snuff. An anecdotal account of peyote enema use among the Huichol was presented in Peter Furst’s Hallucinogens and Culture (1976). However, in an early issue of The Entheogen Review, editor Jim DeKorne suggested that this anomalous account might have represented a Huichol informant pulling the leg of a gullible anthropologist (DeKorne 1995).

In the early 1980s, Dutch botanist Peter A.G.M. DeSmet published an article on intoxicating enema rituals in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (DeSmet 1983), and later compiled a book on the subject titled Ritual Enemas and Snuffs in the Americas (DeSmet 1985). Despite containing a wealth of fascinating tidbits, the book didn’t provide much data regarding the effectiveness of enemas or the mechanics of absorption. The possibility of dried and ground peyote being administered rectally as an aqueous suspension was reported by DeSmet, who described a bone affixed to a deer bladder, suggesting that the use of such enemas could have preceded the Spanish invasion. But it is really only certain that peyote enema administration has occurred in the U.S. in modern times. Nevertheless, DeSmet theorized that mescaline would make a reasonable candidate for enema administration: The solubility profile of mescaline (Merck 1983) and the reported good absorption of this hallucinogen after oral ingestion (Charalampous et al. 1966) suggests that substantial absorption can be possible after rectal application. This is a theoretical view which still awaits experimental confirmation, for in the only rectal experiment known to me, 200 mg of mescaline in a suppository caused nothing but a dubious mydriasis (Möller 1935).

Anthropologist Weston La Barre believed that a Chavin ceramic relic represented a San Pedro enema (La Barre 1989). A number of stirrup bottles are known which show clear depictions of San Pedro (Sharon 2001). In her book The Mochica: A Culture of Peru, art historian Elizabeth Benson presents a scene (shown below) from a Moche ceramic relief that has been interpreted as portraying a stirrup vessel being used to administer an enema (Benson 1972).

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More than you need to know?




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Ralph E. Cané (1988) also mentions that enema administration may be depicted in Moche ceramics, referencing a book by archeologist Federico Kauffmann-Doig (1979), but that book apparently refers to the same scene described by Benson (1972). DeSmet (1983; 1985) clearly detailed the use of enemas in pre-Columbian societies. Indigenous tribes of the New World employed the rectal route of administration for some psychoactive drugs used as religious inebriants, recreational intoxicants, and medical treatments. The Maya left ceramic artifacts documenting the ritual use of enemas that may have contained alcohol, tobacco, and flowering plants such as a water lily.

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As our evaluation was concerned with visionary drugs taken as an enema, we will not concern ourselves further with nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, or any of the medicinal substances that are better known for their rectal applications. Curiously, once we had our project underway and began discussing our research with other people, the most common response was some variation on a short look of addled horror, followed by a rapid change of topics. As it turned out, it appears as though (in some circles), enema administration is currently practiced on occasions as a route of administration in modern times. However, this practice is generally kept out of sight. One individual remarked: “Isn’t that rather intimate? I mean why would you want to write about that? Everybody knows it works. Lots of us have done it that way.” A surprising number of friends expressed similar comments. Such remarks left us perplexed for two reasons. First, enema administration was considered by some to be an “intimate” act. And second, these otherwise intelligent, thoughtful, articulate, and moderately liberal people were not only not talking about something that they actually did themselves, but apparently they did not want other people talking about it either. This was not due to their fear of revealing a secret practice, but apparently to avoid discussing something “unseemly.” One reporter of good effects even prefaced his Internet post by apologizing for discussing such an “unsavory” subject. In Australia, enemas are a well-known route of ingestion for many substances, but reporting on such use is similarly considered beneath what is acceptable for public discussion—it is quietly reserved for those with taste aversions, weak stomachs, or delicate constitutions.

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Of course, there were still the “normal” open-minded people (like one might encounter at Burning Man), whose response when we mentioned our research project was generally some variant of, “Wow, cool!”

PREPARATION The first and third brews were prepared the same way, as described below. The second brew was cooked-up by someone else and we lack precise preparation details. The plant material was chopped into a salsa-like consistency and an excess of water was added. It was brought to boiling then reduced to a simmer for 2–3 hours. The solution was allowed to cool. A colander was used to rapidly drain off whatever liquid would pour through it, and this liquid was then filtered through a winemaker’s straining bag. The pulp was not squeezed at this point. This process was repeated two additional times. A final, fourth simmer at a lower temperature overnight was used to exhaust the marc. In the morning it was filtered with the winemaker’s straining bag, and this time the pulp was squeezed. Each of the solutions was separately reduced in volume over gentle heat, without boiling, until they reached consistency of a light oil.1 At this point the solutions were combined and the volume was further reduced to what we projected our dose would be: approximately 130 ml. We used this preparation method in order to remain within the parameters reported for most traditional societies’ approaches to cactus extraction for direct consumption. Our own normal approach would have been to use less liquid, and to include citric acid in order to more efficiently extract the material.

ADMINISTRATION PROCEDURE We used prepackaged enema bottles manufactured by Fleet (and similar brands). These held around 130 ml and could be easily emptied and rinsed before filling with our solution. With our first evaluations, we found that unless a small bit of air was permitted to remain in the bottle, it was impossible to squeeze out the last bit of solution without removing the bottle and adding some air. Hence, we used 120 ml as our dose for all subsequent evaluations. Before administration, we made an effort to ensure our bowels were empty. We took turns administering the enemas to each other. Due to the thickness of the liquid, this sometimes took up to ten minutes. Following complete administration of the dose, we lay on our stomachs for the next 2–3 hours, after which we expelled the remainder.

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TIME COURSE Onset was indistinguishable from eating the cactus. The first alerts were around 15 minutes, with effects building gradually over the next couple of hours, until full effects were reached around three hours after ingestion. Duration was usually 10–12 hours, although we generally ingested 0.5 mg of Xanax around that point, so we don’t know how long it would have taken us to actually reach sleep.

DOSAGE AND RESULTS Our First Evaluation was produced from a stout blue Trichocereus peruvianus. Final pH of the solution was 6.5. We used about 600 grams of wet cactus, to produce each single dose of 130 ml. Although we definitely had effects, they were mild and perhaps equivalent to approximately 300 mg or less of mescaline sulfate. Others who orally bioassayed this same material, at a dose that was 75% the size of what we took rectally, reported being overwhelmingly buffeted about for some hours by electric waves of force. Friends of theirs who then orally took less than 50% of our rectal dose still reported strong effects.

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Our Second Evaluation was a solution prepared from the RS0004 clone of Trichocereus macrogonus. We were not provided with final dosage amount or with the preparation method. The odor of the preparation suggested that it had been made using some citrus fruit or citric acid. One author experienced abdominal cramping for several days after the administration of this tea as an enema. Psychoactive effects were discernible, but overall very mild. An oral evaluation performed by another person at the same dose reported similar mild results, suggesting the preparation was not concentrated enough. Our Third Evaluation was brewed from a mixture of species, including Trichocereus bridgesii, T. macrogonus, T. pachanoi, T. pallarensis, T. peruvianus, T. puquiensis, and T. scopulicola cuttings. All had been drought-stressed before harvest. (Droughtstressing may increase mescaline content.) This time we used about 500 grams of wet cactus, to produce a single dose of 120 ml. Two hours after administration the remainder was expelled. At the end of another hour we decided that our dose was insufficient, so a second identical-size dose was taken. This was retained for just over an hour. (The physical stress of holding in this second dose made it impossible to retain for any longer than this.) Effects were decided but still fairly mild, perhaps equivalent to approximately a 300 mg oral dose of mescaline sulfate.2 An oral evaluation of our third brew was performed by other people. In one case this was two people who previously had not taken mescaline, although they had experience with LSD. Both ingested what we used for our initial dose (i.e. what was thought to be a 400 mg equivalency). One described it as “extremely colorful,” and got violently ill from it. The other thought it was similar in potency to around 200 micrograms of acid, and commented on some queasiness. Oral evaluation was subsequently performed by two additional people, one of whom was experienced with mescaline. Both experienced powerful effects, with the experienced person equating it to around 400 mg of pure compound. Neither got ill

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after drinking it. All of this was in stark contrast to our experience with the material via enema, even though we used twice their dose with the same material.

DISCUSSION Overall onset from enema administration was more or less the same as taking it orally. The queasy sense was not abolished, only transferred lower in the gut. One author of this article actually had more discomfort from the mild abdominal cramping than he would have had from taking the same amount of cactus orally as a citrate tea. The twinges of nausea around onset were still present. This was not particularly surprising, as nausea and vomiting have been reported in the published accounts for injected mescaline, and both are also fairly common side effects from oral ingestion of pure mescaline salts. The actual effects were attenuated. Subjective estimates are that we got maybe about half of the effects as we would have if we had taken the same dose orally. Perhaps a bit more than this, but quite clearly not the whole dose. While our Trichocereus enemas obviously worked, they didn’t work well. It seemed possible that the solution’s pH could play a role in its solubility, and an extract that was produced within a particular pH range might possibly be more effective. The subtlety of our own results stood in contrast to those described by Jared Diamond in his article “Anatomy of a Ritual: Ingestion of Hallucinogens via Enema,” which appeared in an issue of Natural History (Diamond 2001). Diamond claimed hallucinogenic drugs are readily administrable via this route and that delivery and onset were like intravenous administration. He presented three reasons as to why enemas may work better. His first argument was that “drugs taken by rectum can’t produce nausea by irritating the stomach or the small intestine. Even if you do vomit, you retain the drug, because vomiting expels the contents of the stomach and upper small intestine but not of the large intestine.” This argument might be reasonable for someone who is prone to vomiting. If such a person becomes so nauseated that they vomit up their peyote or ayahuasca or whatever before enough of it is absorbed, they may not get off at all. Therefore, an enema might be the preferred approach, since it is better to get half of the effects (based on our own initial results) than none at all.




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Diamond’s second argument for the advantage of enemas is that they allow the drug to get into the blood stream faster than if it is consumed orally. Food in one’s stomach may delay absorption. Alkaloid drugs, being bases, hit the stomach acid and bind with hydrogen, which Diamond states slows their absorption rate. This doesn’t occur with the rectum, since it doesn’t secrete acid. The problem with Diamond’s argument in this case is that—based on our evaluations— the pharmacodynamics of our cactus enemas was similar to that of our past experiences with oral consumption. Diamond’s third argument for the advantage of enemas was that this route allows the drug to “bypass the small intestine’s private line to the liver.” Since blood from the enema goes directly into general circulation, the drug makes it into the brain without having any of it destroyed by the liver. (This same reason is why drugs, when snorted, smoked, or shot, tend to have more potent effects.) But again, our own cactus enema results had been less potent than when taken orally, not more potent. Diamond’s arguments sound logical. Yet at this point in our investigations, our own results were different enough as to lead us to suspect that his pronouncements were likely the result of mental extrapolation rather than any actual evaluation. Along with our own attenuated effects from mescalinecontaining cacti, there are assorted anecdotal accounts in the lay press that claim a lack of effectiveness from psilocybincontaining mushrooms and from morning glory seeds delivered up the breech. Diamond toes the politically correct line and warns: At the risk of belaboring the obvious, I’ll conclude by stressing why this piece shouldn’t convince you to rush out and give yourself (or ask your beloved to give you) a hallucinogenic enema. Every argument against taking hallucinogenic drugs by any route applies with full force to the enema. Drugs destroy your body slowly if used carefully. They kill you quickly if used carelessly. They cut off your access to all the diverse and persistent pleasures of a normal life, in return for brief flashes of a single sickening pleasure. Added to all those general arguments, drug enemas pose other risks of their own. They are so tricky to administer correctly that they can easily cause severe poisoning or death. Native Americans knew that they had to leave enema administration to an expert elder.

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Diamond presents no rationale for this non-scientific scare tactic, and doesn’t seem concerned that his warning might be viewed as conflicting with his earlier assertions. For instance, “In several New World cultures, the enema was the technique of choice for taking hallucinogenic drugs,” and “Ritual intake of alcohol and hallucinogens by enema used to be widespread among Native American tribes and is still practiced today by some.” Both of these statements, when considered together, seem to suggest that there sure must have been (or be) a lot of busy expert elders! Nevertheless, in defense of Diamond’s arguments on the physiological action of enemas, there actually are a fair number of visionary plants and drugs that have been successfully ingested via enema or suppository. For example, ketamine via enema is as active as insufflation. This has been anecdotally reported by numerous people, and experientially confirmed by two of this paper’s authors.3 Scant reports indicate that Salvia divinorum solutions have been effective as enemas (Siebert 2004).4 There has been some success with tryptamines via enema, particularly when taken in conjunction with a MAOI. (Ass-huasca, anyone?) As well, there have been reports of the use of the phenethylamines MDMA and 2C-B in enemas with good results.

TRYPTAMINES Safford’s remark mentioned earlier—concerning an anthropological account that noted a lessening of effects for Anadenanthera snuff taken up the breech rather than blown up the nose—suggests that DMT and other tryptamines might not be ideally delivered via this route. DeSmet (1983) and Case (2000) both reported failure using pure DMT as a retention enema in a few milliliters of water. This was taken by DeSmet (as bioxalate) up to 125 mg and by Case (as ascorbate) as a 95 mg dose. (Both doses are presented here as their free-base equivalency.) Both 5-MeO-DMT and DMT have been reported as being successfully used in suppositories along with a Peganum harmala extract equivalent to 3 grams of seeds (Toad 1995). MAOI inclusion seems to be needed for several tryptamines. While these researchers found that 13–15 mg of 5-MeO-DMT “was extremely active and very intense,” they also noted that 70 mg of DMT free-base produced only a “very mild, but distinctive DMT trip.” It is worth noting that both of the dose ranges described above are reasonably higher than would be required via oral consumption with a MAOI.

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Jonathan Ott (2001b) found rectal administration of 5-MeO-DMT to be uninteresting, but if combined with a trivial amount of harmala alkaloids they become perceptibly effective. He also reported successfully bioassaying 50 mg of bufotenine with 10 mg of harmaline as a suppository, taken in a gram of cocoa butter with the addition of a quarter gram of sodium bicarb (Ott 2001a). An EnthogenUK post (2004) claimed DPT and 5-MeODIPT are active via enemas, but it is worth remembering that DPT is not appreciably affected by MAO inhibitors so is not directly comparable to DMT. Similarly 5-MeO-DIPT is fully active orally, so it should show no problems in rectal administrations.

PHENETHYLAMINES The available reports concerning phenethylamines sounded promising. The EntheogenUK post noted above also reported good effects from 2C-B. We have heard similar anecdotal accounts in the past involving both 2C-B and MDMA being used rectally with success. However, none of these past reports included any dosage details. The EntheogenUK post claimed that 6 mg of 2C-B taken as an enema was comparable to orally consuming 18 mg. It was also noted that taking it via enema did not cause the “burning” effect that results when one snorts 2C-B. This report provided enough details that it was simple to evaluate—and so we did. Two adult subjects used a known and familiar dose of 2C-B hydrobromide (22 mg), which was dissolved in several milliliters of water. Although the dose chosen was about 3.66 times higher than that reported on in the EntheogenUK post, this much was taken specifically because 22 mg barely registered as an oral dose for these two individuals with this compound. Each dose was administered into the rectum using 10-ml plastic syringes. Onset proved to be more like insufflation (i.e. faster than oral consumption), but the peak level reached was indistinguishable from what would have resulted from oral ingestion. This stands in contrast to the EntheogenUK post’s claim that 2C-B is three times as active when taken as an enema, compared to oral consumption. Nevertheless, it did indicate that a molecule similar to mescaline had no trouble getting into the blood stream when breech-loaded. It appeared prudent to further evaluate mescaline taken as an enema, but this time use a known quantity of pure mescaline as a salt. A dosage of 350 mg mescaline sulfate was

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chosen, as the subject had been previously calibrated for this amount (as well as having taken the pure compound orally at both higher and lower doses). Even when warmed, the material did not dissolve well in water. Hence, it was taken as a partial suspension. After application, the relatively minor discomfort of an internal prickling sensation was noticed, but it dissipated within the first hour. (Failure to finely-grind the material prior to its administration was suspected to be the cause of this sensation.) Onset followed its normal course, with first alerts in about 12 minutes and full effects reached about 3 hours after administration. Several pronounced waves of nausea accompanied onset. The level reached with rectal consumption was fully active and completely in line with what would have resulted from oral consumption. There was no decrease in effectiveness. It may be important to recall our procedure included administration in a liquid, whereas the ineffective 200 mg evaluation mentioned reported by DeSmet (1983; 1985) was taken as a suppository and hence had a smaller surface area available for its absorption. It is also worth commenting that 200 mg of mescaline is a low dose for most people. In view of the results for this rectal consumption of mescaline, it seemed prudent to evaluate the use of a moderate amount of citrate or ascorbate added to our cactus brew, in order to better facilitate absorption (neutral to slightly acid). Our Fourth Evaluation, completed by a single individual, was executed using material from the same brew as our third evaluation. However, in this case we included some filtered lime juice. This acidified brew proved highly effective, indicating that water solubility is a critical factor in mescaline’s rectal absorption. Conversion of the mescaline free-base and organic acid conjugates that occur in the plant into citrate and ascorbate salt forms (both of which will be produced via the use of lime juice) clearly creates a more effective cactus enema. We don’t know what the ideal pH is, but making the solution slightly acid with lime juice works fine. There was one odd side effect noticed from this evaluation: the feeling (for want of a better phrase) of being “squeaky clean” internally, everywhere. The subject even reported his sweat as “feeling acidified and bursting with vitamin C and lime juice.” This was not so much specifically a bad side effect, but it was a strange and unfamiliar feeling.




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MECHANICS & PHARMACODYNAMICS Like Diamond (2001), DeSmet (1983; 1985) noted the advantages of rectal administration are that: 1) food in the stomach does not delay absorption as with oral dosing, and 2) the breakdown of acid-labile drugs by the stomach is avoided. The disadvantages are that absorption may be interrupted if the subject can not retain the material for a sufficient length of time, that the rectum has a small absorption surface, and that in some cultures patients have an aversion to inserting foreign material into the posterior orifice of the alimentary canal. He also stated: Drug uptake from the rectum does not appear essentially different from that in other parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Passive diffusion through a lipid membrane is probably the main governing mechanism of absorption. In contrast to the small intestine, the rectum has no primary function as an absorbing organ. It is approximately 15–20 cm long, and there are no villi and microvilli on the rectal mucosa. Consequently, the absorption surface is far more limited than that of the duodenum. Under normal conditions, the rectum merely contains 2–3 ml of inert mucus, so the small intestine has much more fluid available than the rectum for drug dissolution from solid dosage forms. Despite these potential disadvantages, it has been demonstrated that numerous drugs reach effective plasma levels when given rectally and in many countries rectal therapy is generally viewed as a convenient alternative to oral dosing.

This raised the question of which was the better site of absorption: the rectum or the descending colon? It appears as though this may largely be a function of the volume administered. The larger the volume, the more regions become involved. However, large volumes become increasingly difficult to retain. The descending colon also has more surface area per centimeter, due to having a differently-configured surface. The greater area of absorption might also be offset by the increased blood flow from the descending colon to the liver, when compared to the rectum. Resorption of water occurs along nearly the entire length of the digestive tract including both the colon and the rectum. Of 2000 ml of water taken orally, only some 150 ml normally remains in the feces. The rest is resorbed by the guts, despite internal secretions, which add another 7200 ml of liquids as the material travels from the mouth through the intestines. This is not just an important recovery process for water. It is also the main mechanism that we use for deriving vitamins and other important nutrients from our gut (Martini 1998).

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It may be that pH effects factor into the disparate absorption results in our experiments. Our brews came out slightly on the acid side (~pH 6.5), which is common for cactus juices. Unfortunately, we lack information about what the ideal pH should be. The choice of salt might also play a role.

SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS Could cactus-based enema administration have been effectively performed in a non-technological society? The answer is “yes,” as long as the mescaline is in a salt form that is soluble. (We experienced a decided decrease in the activity per dose, when the mescaline was not in a soluble salt form.) As to whether or not this process might afford any advantage to people who had trouble consuming cactus orally, the answer is not as simple. We experienced from no less, to more, discomfort than would be typical if drinking a Trichocereus brew. (Normally we have little to no discomfort.) However, it is still possible that the enema might be favored by those with weak stomachs or strong taste aversions (or perhaps by people who just like to put things up their butts). In the end we decided, due to the extra bother of dose retention and the additional physical distress, that the enema is not a route we will generally opt for in the future. 




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FOOTNOTES 1. Initially reducing each cooking separately was done to avoid any burning that might occur in a longer, combined reduction. Potentially introducing burned particles into a fluid taken as an enema seemed like a bad idea. 2. As we clearly weren’t going to get any higher at this point, we compromised the “purity” of our experiment by taking 100 mg ketamine I.M. each around 6 hours after our first cactus enema. The resulting ketamine experience seemed substantially prolonged from normal and was a wondrous melting-together of “beingness.” One of the subjects reported this as the best drug combination yet experienced with ketamine. 3. During our research, we were told about an interesting approach to the ketamine enema. It was claimed that this individual would use a syringe with a “shunt” (a length of small plastic tubing with lure-lok ends) used to carry solutions into an IV needle taped to the patient. One end would be inserted well up this person’s anus, and the other end would be secured to the person’s belt. While out at events or shows, the individual used a syringe pre-loaded with ketamine to rectally administer a dose through the tiny plastic line, so that the come-on and dose could be timed as desired. 4. As far as we know, there are three reports of having used Salvia divinorum via the bum. Two of these reports seem credible; one used an aqueous leaf-juice infusion and the other used an ethanolic tincture (Siebert 2004). A third report, posted to an e-mailing list, which claimed the use of a “Salvia suppository,” is known to be a humorous hoax.

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Botanical Preservation Corps • Box 1368, Sebastopol, CA 95473 USA www.botanicalpreservationcorps.com

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Extreme Condition Extraction of Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) Root-bark as told to Mambo Pachano Several interesting modifications to a normal isolation approach have proved effective in overcoming both the adverse impact of tannins and the emulsion-forming nature commonly encountered when extracting Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) root-bark. I do not know whom to credit for these advancements, as they seems to have resulted from the interactive exploration of several people, mostly anonymous, over the course of the last two or three years. Thanks to all involved. The use of acidic extraction at pH 1 has been questioned as being too extreme and merely overkill, but it is worth noting that this approach works and these results have been replicated by a number of people. Critics can say what they want, but opinions arising from an armchair viewpoint are worth a whole lot less than those resulting from some meaningful wet glove time. The procedure described requires knowledge of proper chemical handling and safety protocols for concentrated acids, strong bases, and toxic organic solvents.

THE APPROACH 1) Break one kilogram of Mimosa tenuiflora root-bark into small pieces by hand and then run through an industrial blender in small amounts until it is all shredded/powdered. 2) Prepare a strong aqueous acid solution. I have seen hydrochloric acid used as a 10% dilution, with more added if needed. However, in the process described below, supersaturated citric acid was used. This was prepared by heating 500 ml of water to boiling and adding 125 grams of citric acid while stirring. It was cooled before use. 3) Combine the aqueous acid solution with 3 liters of absolute ethanol (denatured with isopropanol). Test the liquid with pH strips. The resulting pH should be around 1, so add more acid with stirring if needed. It will work okay at pH 2, but it works better at pH 1. (My belief is that this extreme acidic condition is degrading the tannins and preventing them from complexing with the alkaloids.)

4) Soak the material at room temperature in a dark place, from overnight to a week. 5) Filter off the acidified alcohol and save it. Be sure that no particulates came through your filter. Let the solution stand and settle if they did, and refilter. Repeat steps 2 and 5 another time or two, but process each repetition separately and carry the first extraction forward through to its completion as soon as is feasible. 6) Carefully reduce the solution to a solid, by evaporating off the alcohol. This will leave an acidic residue. 7) Dissolve the residue in warm water. Use enough water to completely dissolve the residue and be able to mechanically handle it without it being a thick or syrupy solution. (The amount of water needed will be determined by the amount of residue one has.) It should be filtered if need be. 8) Defat this by adding some xylene to the acidic aqueous solution and mixing them together very well. Use no more xylene than as much as the total acid water volume. Less xylene than this is better—a half or even a quarter of the water volume is plenty. Allow to stand and separate. Discard the xylene, which will be floating on top of the water after separation. Perform the defatting process a total of three times. 9) Basify to pH 14 using a very strong solution of lye (sodium hydroxide). To prepare a strong lye solution, simply add an excess of solid lye to water, ideally with stirring. The solution may get hot enough to break some glass containers, so a good precaution is to place the glass container into some other larger container prior to preparation (to contain the material if the glass does break). Glass usually won’t break unless there is a defect in the container, but it is better to be safe than sorry. This solution will generate caustic fumes which must not be inhaled. Wear splash-approved goggles and long gloves while making this solution, and work under a fume hood. Let this stand and cool completely before use. Pour off and use only the clear portion.

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SOURCING MATERIALS

A pH lower than pH 14 will result in the aqueous phase forming two layers; a dark reddish one and a lower turbid blue-green-greyish one with a lot of solids. Also, an abundant emulsion will form when the basic solution is shaken with a solvent. Neither of these occurs at high pH. If either situation is an issue, just add more base.

Hydrochloric acid (aka muriatic acid) is available at hardware stores and pool suppliers. It is used for cleaning bricks and cement. It is extremely corrosive and quite nasty stuff. Use this only with adequate precautions of goggles, gloves, and ventilation. While supersaturated citric acid can burn you, it is less hazardous to handle than hydrochloric acid.

10) Extract with toluene by carefully mixing for an extended period or by shaking. Let stand until separated, then draw off the toluene using a separatory funnel or pipette.

Toluene and xylene (aka Toluol & Xylol) are available in many parts of the country in larger paint or hardware stores. We have occasionally had trouble finding them in some states in stores that always carried them in other parts of the country. However, we could always find that both of them were available, in even small cities, if we just kept visiting more stores.

11) Perform step 10 a total of three times.

Sodium hydroxide (aka lye) is available via stores that sell soap-making supplies, as well as at some fabric or craft stores, winemaking suppliers (although this is often too dilute for practicality), and in many grocery stores as Red Devil Lye.

12) Evaporate the toluene. If a rotovap is not available, a stream of air can be used to help, but we would suggest using no heat. The final stage of the evaporation should be completed in a large flat-bottomed glass dish. 13) When dry, scrape up and package. Seeding should not be necessary. This method has reliably produced a pale yellow, waxy-crystalline solid that crushed to white powder. It had only a faint floral smell indicating substantial purity and lack of skatole. Recovery ran around 1% by weight using Braziliansourced Mimosa tenuiflora root-bark. Mexican material from Chiapas has been reported to give significantly higher yields. One person we know has reproduced the process presented above, but switched methylene chloride for toluene, and obtained the same endresults. (This person still used xylene to defat).

Citric acid is available at some health food stores and from winemaking supply stores.

Potassium hydroxide (aka caustic potash or potassia) is sometimes sold in place of lye via the above sources, and it can be substituted without problem. 

TRICHOCEREUS •C•A•C•T•I• rooted plants, postpaid • send cash only PERUVIANUS • $35 per foot; $100 for 4 feet MACROGONUS • $35 per foot; $100 for 4 feet BRIDGESII • $25 per foot; $100 for 6 feet

KAK-TALL-A-TREE Box 225 • 3128 - 16th Street • San Francisco, CA 94103

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Insufflation of Trichocereus pachanoi by R. Stuart

The following account the nasal ingestion of San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi) during a traditional religious ceremony. The author is F.W.M., a conservative Republican who disapproves of illicit drug use but who respects the herbalism he encountered in South America. This account is valuable because he was a “naïve” subject who approached the experience with no preconceptions, and because the experience occurred in February 1953—only eight years after the first publication about the psychoactive properties of San Pedro (Gillin 1945). While in the Cuzco region of Peru, I happened to wander into a street market with the intention of buying a rug to be shipped back to the United States. I soon spotted a colorful stall with a vendor surrounded by folded piles of blankets. Engaging in friendly banter, I asked where the blankets came from. He gave a smile and said that the rugs were made by San Pedro. When I expressed confusion at who San Pedro was, the vendor smiled and shrugged. I was more inclined to buy a rug than to inquire further about San Pedro, and soon the conversation shifted to negotiating for a brilliant red rug. After a price had been agreed to and I had paid for the rug, the vendor motioned over to a large older man who sat on the ground a short distance away, with his face covered by the brim of his hat. I could not tell if the older man was asleep or awake. The vendor smiled again and told me that if I asked, the old man could take me to San Pedro and then I would understand where the rugs came from. I was immediately wary of such comments, assuming the men to be relatives involved in some sort of hustle. I thanked the vendor for his time and turned to leave when the vendor called out to the older man. The old man slowly got up and walked over to me, smiling to reveal his brown teeth. Introducing himself as Yassi, he said that San Pedro was like a brother to him, and of course, he assured me, he could take me to see San Pedro, who lived in the mountains next to a lake. Although I was not looking for such an adventure, the older man flashed his smile, adamant that after meeting San Pedro I would never be the same and would be forever touched in my heart. Since I did have some time to myself while my wife was in Lima, I decided to take the old man up on his offer to meet San Pedro. He agreed to meet me early the next morning in front of a church in the village. Before he left, he told me to eat a light dinner that night,

cautioned me not to drink alcohol (San Pedro doesn’t like drunks!) and not to eat breakfast, as he would take care of that. We bade each other farewell until tomorrow, and I returned to my hotel room. I unfolded the blanket on the bed and marveled at the incredible geometric patterns once more before going to sleep, with the glowing diamond pattern burning inside my eyelids. Early the next morning, I packed a small knapsack and walked down to the church Yassi had described. There, I realized that I was not the only one going to meet San Pedro. Four or five others were there already, with another two or three to arrive shortly. As I introduced myself to the others, I met another fellow Texan, an ENT surgeon from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Happy to hear a familiar drawl, I asked the surgeon what brought him to South America. He confessed that he was here to learn more about the coca plant. Apparently in his profession, cocaine is used extensively as a safe and effective topical anesthetic during surgery. He had traveled through Bolivia and Peru, documenting ritualized coca plant consumption and had come to the conclusion that the plant form of coca is rather safe, and that many of the undesirable side effects were produced only by purified cocaine. He then continued to push his theory forward, hypothesizing that the San Pedro plant may produce less undesirable side effects than the purified plant essence. It was only at this point that it became clear to me that San Pedro was not a person, but a plant used by shamans. And from what I was able to gather from this doctor, we were going to participate in the ritual use of the San Pedro, a plant whose identity was still unknown to me. Soon thereafter I introduced myself to everyone in the group. Yassi appeared with four mules and announced that we were going to hike up to a high mountain lake named Lake Chimay, and that the mules were for the women in our group to ride. The rest of our group set out on foot, following a small footpath that started out behind the church. The footpath quickly turned steep and wet, and our group took its time navigating the muddy and slick steps that comprised the trail. Along the way, Yassi told stories of San Pedro, adding to the mystery of this plant, as if it were a person. Describing what appeared to be a mixture of Christianity and local folk mythology, Yassi said that San Pedro was the gatekeeper of both heaven and hell, and that San Pedro

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would only allow someone to pass into heaven once they had walked through hell. Yassi said that the San Pedro gazes into one’s heart, holding a mirror for one to see how one appears to others—the resulting experience being a reflection of one’s own life. For example, Yassi made it clear that bad people are punished by San Pedro, causing them to have prolonged nightmares of the pain and suffering they have caused in people’s lives. He said that the spell of San Pedro could even drive bad people to insanity persisting for weeks or even months. Yet Yassi was a firm believer that San Pedro also has the power to heal, to purify and to revive one’s body and spirit. Once one walks through heaven, Yassi explained, one is reborn. Having been brought up a devout Presbyterian Christian, I was somewhat skeptical of Yassi’s claims, but thought of myself as a respectful observer. I didn’t wish to offend anyone and kept my musings to myself. After several miles of fairly strenuous hiking uphill, we arrived at the lake. We took immediate opportunity of the small beach area to rest our weary legs. Lake Chimay was a beautifully clear, high mountain lake, with the far shore surrounded by towering rocky crags. Yassi gave us a moment to rest while he asked us to reflect on our life’s path before calling us over to the water’s edge. Each one of the men was given a bull’s horn and the women were given carved wooden bowls. Yassi and his assistant then poured the San Pedro into our drinking vessels, but ordered everyone not to drink until told to do so. The San Pedro mixture appeared to have the consistency somewhere between mucus and pea soup. Yassi walked out into the very cold water until he stood knee deep as he prayed to San Pedro for us to have safe passage under his care. Yassi then tilted his head back and with a low grunting noise, poured the San Pedro mixture down his nose, essentially drinking the San Pedro via insufflation. Had he not been facing me, I do not think I would have believed that Yassi drank the San Pedro through his nose, but I saw it with my own eyes. Once Yassi finished draining the contents of his horn down his nostril, he repeated his prayer of safe passage for us and motioned for us to copy his method of ingestion. I cannot even begin to describe how horrendous it was to pour this liquid into our sinuses. No one in our group—NO ONE—was able to tolerate more than a modest amount of the San Pedro before immediately gagging or vomiting. The ENT surgeon remarked dryly that, had he known that insufflation would have been involved, he would have brought some cocaine to help out with the San Pedro. Despite Yassi’s protests, everyone drank the rest of their vessels. I found myself insufflating water in vain attempts to relieve the burning of my nasal passages. I spent a good deal of time

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during the ensuing experience trying to take my mind off the relentless burning of my sinuses. While we waited by the shore for the San Pedro to take effect, Yassi tapped each one of us on both shoulders, as he chanted a purification prayer for us. We were then instructed to take off our clothes, save for our underwear, and then step into the lake to be bathed in the cold water. Needless to say, my “bath” was rather short and I hurriedly returned to shore, where Yassi’s assistant motioned me to come over to him. He dried me off with a coarse towel before instructing me to do a series of bizarre calisthenics designed to undo injury and sickness in addition to warding off evil spirits. For example, I was asked to turn in a circle to my left to undo my past, while making punching and kicking motions to release any bad luck I may have accumulated in my life. I tried to follow through with the routine as I was being told to do so. But between my burning nasal passages, the chill from bathing in the lake, and the beginning of altered perceptions from the San Pedro, it was all I could do to complete this exercise and purification ritual. Once Yassi felt that we were adequately purified, he told us he had brought us this far, and now it was San Pedro’s turn to teach us. I gladly took advantage of the break in activity to redress and walk the along the lake away from the group. I stopped where I was still in sight of the group, but far enough that I couldn’t hear most of them talking. I just wanted to be by myself with my thoughts. After locating a natural chair amongst some boulders, I sat down and gazed out onto the lake. The sun’s reflection on the waters gave the appearance of thousands of glittering, sparkling prisms. Everything around me appeared to have a glowing, rippling movement. At first, I noticed small movements of the rocks and boulders through my peripheral vision. Slowly, this subtle activity came into my direct field of vision. The air took on the appearance of water, the land pulsed with radiant energy, and the water’s surface opened up as if gazing into the heavens. It was there on the shores of Lake Chimay that I realized that within each microcosm, there is a macrocosm, and that infinity is the boundary of everything. It was a truly wondrous experience, and nothing short of magnificent.

This account is corroborated by Douglas Sharon, an anthropologist who studied the San Pedro ceremonies of Peruvian shaman Eduardo Calderón. Eduardo’s Christianized ritual included repeated nasal imbibing of the juice of boiled San Pedro and wild black tobacco by himself, his assistants, and his patients. Sharon reported that nasal imbibing “is called ‘raising’, which Eduardo defined as a libation, offer-

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ing, or tribute to the cosmos intended to ‘clear the mind’.” (Sharon 1979). Sharon lists San Pedro juice as one of numerous ingredients in the “tobacco” mixture that was nasally ingested during Eduardo’s ceremonies. Sharon states that the combination of San Pedro with tobacco was believed to generate a sixth sense, so taking it nasally may have been intended to facilitate parapsychology rather than affect pharmacodynamics (Sharon 1978). Additionally, a photograph was published of Eduardo performing the raising (Calderón et al. 1982). In a survey of numerous San Pedro curanderos, Sharon reported that the insufflation of tobacco preparations (often through a horn or shell) was common, although Eduardo was the only one who combined San Pedro with the tobacco (Joralemon & Douglas 1993). Bonny Glass-Coffin (1998) also described San Pedro ceremonies that included levantada (“raising”), the nasal ingestion of a liquid comprised of tobacco, cane alcohol, and perfumes. Her account didn’t mention the inclusion of San Pedro juice in the mixture. In both Sharon’s account and that of F.W.M., everyone except Yassi also drank cups of San Pedro juice. It is not known if Yassi was under the influence of the San Pedro he insufflated, and—if he was inebriated—whether any absorption of mescaline occurred through the sinuses (as most of the liquid probably drained down the back of his throat). Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence that the nasal administration of San Pedro produces psychoactive effects. Most healers who insufflate San Pedro juice along with tobacco are likely doing so for ceremonial or occult motivations, rather than enhanced pharmacological activity. Jonathan Ott (2001c) cited Peter Furst’s (1974) rather implausible speculation that peyote was insufflated by Indians farther north: “One snuff-pipe shows a deer with péyotl-cacti (Lophophora williamsii) in its mouth, suggesting mescaline cactus-infusions had likewise been snuffed in Mesoamerica.” Actually, this imagery most likely represents the oral ingestion of peyote, rather than insufflation, considering that the deer seems to be eating the peyote. (Although, for all we know, the artist who made the pipe may have meant it to depict the peyote issuing forth from the deer’s mouth, considering the iconographical equivalence of the two life-forms.) And even if the purported snuff pipe had shown a deer with peyote in its nostril, we should remember that ornamental motifs on drug paraphernalia sold in modern head shops contain drugrelated imagery that does not necessarily identify the substance for which the device was intended. 




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Network Feedback ANADENANTHERA AND ANTS I’ve been growing an Anadenanthera colubrina (var. cebil) for a little over four years. It’s now a fairly substantial little sapling, about fifty inches tall, with fern-like leaves that make it look a great deal like a Jacaranda. For the first two years I grew it indoors, since it seemed to wilt rapidly in direct summer sunlight. Thought it has not yet flowered, I noticed when it was still a seedling that it produced tiny droplets at the junction of the leaves and stems. The material it exudes is sticky and sweet, so I suppose these are nectaries of some sort. The tree loses all of its leaves each winter, whether kept indoors or outside. When new branches and leaves sprout in the spring, the fresh growth is invariably infested with spider mites, aphids, and other pests. But as the nectaries begin producing their sweet droplets, ants take control of the tree. They harvest the droplets, and also kill all of the pests; within about a week, the spider mites and aphids are gone. These guardians are those tiny, omnipresent Argentine ants that have invaded so much of the Southwest (and apparently most of Europe) with their “super-colonies.” They aren’t normally aggressive towards large life forms such as humans, but on the tree branches they behave differently: tapping a branch with a fingertip makes all the ants in the vicinity rear up and charge, jaws wide, toward the source of the disturbance. I have heard of many tropical and subtropical ant/tree partnerships over the years, but I’ve never observed one until now. At first, the Argentine ants seemed like unlikely partners— until I thought about their name, and realized that Anadenanthera and Argentine ants are probably symbiotic back down in Argentina. (Duh.) Has this been documented somewhere? In any case, if you see ants climbing onto your Anadenanthera colubrina, don’t try to get rid of them; the tree wants them there. — S. Bear, CA

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NEW PSYCHOACTIVE MINT? Recently I was out of Cannabis, so I rolled up some henbit, just to have something to smoke. Henbit is a mint that grows in lawns during the spring. I was surprised that I felt stoned from this, but I figured that it was just a placebo effect. However, I tried it to good effect again the next day, and I had other people try it as well. They all said that they got stoned too. The feeling it produces seems somewhere between Cannabis and Salvia divinorum. The buzz lasts about an hour or so, and I find it to be nearly as good as commercial Cannabis. I will definitely harvest some more next spring. — R.D., MO Henbit is the common name for Lamium amplexicaule (shown below). Although native to Eurasia and North Africa, it now grows all over the United States. The young leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, and we have found no reports of them producing inebriation when consumed in this manner. The plant has been used medicinally as an antirheumatic, diaphoretic, excitant, febrifuge, laxative, and stimulant (DUKE & AYENSU 1985; CHOPRA et al. 1986). It apparently is not known to contain alkaloids (RAFFAUF 1996) or isoquinolines (SHULGIN & PERRY 2002), but at least eight iridoid glucosides and the compound 24-epi-pterosterone have been isolated from it (ALIPIEVA 2003). We are totally ignorant of the biological activity of these compounds. Henbit has also had verbascoside isolated from it (ALIPIEVA 2003), and verbascoside has been shown to have a litany of biological




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activity, from cardioactive effects in rats (PENNACCHIO 1996) to antibacterial effects (MUAMAR 1999), to action as an aldose-reductaseinhibitor, analgesic, antifeedant, antihepatotoxic, antihypertensive, antiinflammatory, antileukemic, antioxidant, antiseptic, antistaph, antitumor, cytotoxic, fungicide, hypertensive, immunosuppressant, lipoxygenase-inhibitor, PKC-inhibitor, pesticide, and phytoalexin (DUKE 2004). Phew! While speculation on our part, it seems possible that so much work has been done investigating the activities of verbascoside because it is also found in the root of Echinacea species, which are commonly used as herbal medicines. We have no idea what might be causing a “high” from henbit, but we are interested to hear from anyone else who tries smoking it. — EDS

SALT-FREE POTENTIATION Laboratory rats that have been regularly depleted of salt show a sensitization and exaggerated response to amphetamines. They also show increased neuronal growth in areas of the brain associated with reward and motivation regulating natural drives. This has been observable in as little as two weeks after the first salt depletion. University of Washington researchers, headed by psychologist Ilene Bernstein, reported that nerve cells in the nucleus accumbens of sensitized rats were found to be 30– 35% longer than normal and had more branches. Bernstein remarked: This number…is startling and implies an ability for neurons to make more connections.…[Other] research and ours seem to indicate that being hungry or sodium deprived enough can change an animal’s or a person’s response to a drug even if they have not been exposed to the drug previously (Roitman et al. 2002).

It is not clear how this applies to humans, but it suggests a potentially interesting line of study in light of the salt prohibitions commonly encountered in some traditional dietary restrictions for both peyote and ayahuasca use. — K. Trout

IODINE PRECIPITATION Dealing with large volumes of liquids in the course of plant extractions has always been a problem for plant alchemists. This can especially be true when the starting material contains only low concentrations of the target alkaloid(s). An interesting use of iodine precipitates to recover indole alkaloids from dilute and/or thick solutions was patented in 1972 by a Hungarian ergot producer.

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This isolation approach consists of adding 100 ml of a solution containing 20% potassium iodine and 10% iodine per 10 liters of alkaloid-base bearing solution, while stirring. The precipitate is then collected by filtration. The alkaloid is regenerated by dissolving in one liter of chloroform and shaking with 500 ml of a solution of 5% sodium hydroxide and 10% sodium thiosulfate. The chloroform is then separated, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and the solvent removed under reduced pressure. Efficiency for the use of this process to recover lysergic acid amide as a crystallizing residue was reported to be 65% from a fermentation broth containing 1.5 micrograms per ml.

other entheogens. I discovered that kratom is very effective when used with tobacco. Kratom is also great in combination with a kava kava (Piper methysticum) extract. My favorite combination is kratom, kava, and Cannabis. This produces the most narcotic and euphoric ten hours I have ever experienced. Strangely, kratom and Cannabis together (without the kava) takes me “nowhere” and seems to be a useless combination. I also found the combination of kratom and opium to be rather uninteresting. It appears as though the worst combinations with kratom are those that add an additional depressant quality without also adding some sort of stimulant into the mix.

This was reported to reduce the volume of solvents used in the process, and therefore the overall volume of liquids required, by several orders of magnitude. It is also implied that it would work for any indole alkaloid, suggesting that the assorted forms of readily available biomass containing trace amounts of interesting indole alkaloids such as ibogaine or DMT might become more functional plant sources. For further details, see Richter Gideon 1972. “Process for the isolation of indole alkaloids,” British Patent #1374343. — K. Trout

I did several experiments mixing kratom with Psilocybe cubensis. We have all-night dances up in the mountains at various places around Taos, New Mexico. My friend brings the peyote and mushrooms, and I bring everything else. I took two grams of very potent mushrooms along with friends. At the point when we were all coming down, feeling burned out and exhausted, I handed out the dried, powdered kratom leaves. We took 1.5–2 teaspoons each. The effect on everyone was remarkable. We all felt totally refreshed and rejuvenated, in addition to simply feeling very good. A friend who had taken peyote that night commented that it combined much better with the peyote comedown than with a previous experiment while on mushrooms. That is consistent with my belief that kratom combines best with stimulants, since peyote is more stimulating than mushrooms.

RIP-OFF FROM ER ADVERTISER? The Entheogen Review has received three complaints about the vendor “Eric” first mentioned in the Vernal Equinox 2003 “Sources” column as offering Brazilian Mimosa hostilis rootbark. “Eric” subsequently took out a couple of advertisements in later 2003 issues of ER, which also presented Brazilian Anadenanthera peregrina seeds for sale. The subscribers complaining wrote to Eric to resolve the issue, but received no response. We had previously heard a complaint about this business, intervened, and the problem was resolved to the customer’s satisfaction. More recently, we have received no response in our attempts to contact Eric. One of the ER subscribers who complained pointed out that Eric mentioned planning to set up a web site business under the name South American Botanicals. Caveat emptor!

KRATOM COMBOS My recent obsession with kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) over the last ten weeks or so has revealed to me some interesting properties of the plant, when taken in combination with

The third time I combined it with mushrooms, I took the kratom (2 teaspoons powdered) while I was at the peak of my trip. When it started coming on, the closed-eye visuals doubled in intensity and the nature and quality of the trip took on entirely different characteristics. I have rarely had such intense, 3-dimensional visuals. Indeed, these were images the likes of which I had never seen before. These effects went on for about 30 minutes, until the kratom kicked in completely and actually overtook the mushroom effects. This caused all of my visuals to disappear entirely, leaving me in a high-energy condition that sustained me until dawn. If I had taken less kratom, I wonder if the heightened visuals might have gone on much longer, without causing the “suppression” effect? I predict that kratom will go very well with LSD, and probably pretty poorly with ayahuasca (which has a more sedative effect). The Basement Shaman sent me a gorgeous kratom plant, packaged with great care, which arrived in perfect condition. I planted it and saw new growth appearing in only four days.

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They claim that their clone is a good one. I ate two mediumsized leaves from it and got a small but definite effect, which was encouraging. Kratom stands in a class of its own, and I predict its popularity will sky-rocket over the next few years. This is an incredible narcotic. I encourage everyone to grow the plant; get one before they schedule it! — B. Green, NM

PLANT-ROOTING GIZMO It’s late July in Arizona as I write this, and the ambient air temperature is in the mid-80° F range. It is very difficult to root softwood cuttings using the usual methods in this climate. However, I have come across a product I like very much, since it seems to be the only thing that works under these conditions. It is called the GEL Propagator, and it’s available from Charley’s Greenhouse (www.charleysgreenhouse.com). The six-cell propagator comes with a clear plastic top to maintain moisture and allow light in. The cells are filled with what looks like agar and rooting hormone. To use, you simply punch a hole in the foil covering the cells, and insert a cutting. The translucent cells allow one to observe root formation. This thing simply works. I was even able to get a Mitragyna speciosa cutting to root (although it later died). I am sure that readers of The Entheogen Review would be interested in this item. — J.E., AZ

FERTILIZATION PROGRAM I have been growing Salvia divinorum, various Phalaris grasses, Trichocereus cactus, and other plants in my greenhouse for the past twelve years. When I started “reterraforming” my gardens over a year ago with organic fishflakes and soil bacteria inoculations, the following happened: 1) The DMT content in my Phalaris stenoptera increased by three times, and the plant itself is growing twice as fast. The blades are a much darker green. 2) My kratom is growing very rapidly and is in perfect health, with no leaves dying or dropping off. 3) My Banisteriopsis caapi plant is growing twice as fast (or more), producing abundant biomass. 4) All plant pests disappeared, and have been gone for a year. This includes spider mites and aphids.

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I also treated part of a friend’s Cannabis garden. The plants were all seedlings, and they grew three times faster and were healthier than the ones which had been treated with only a nitrogen fertilizer. I’ve been using the Men In Green program for my soil work. They can be reached at Box 773, Taos, NM, 87571, (505) 7370899. Or check them out on the web to learn more about their products: www.meningreenintl.com. — B. Green, NM

VAPORIZERS & TRYPTAMINES I have started using an Aromacare vaporizer (the kind with the big glass dome) for ingestion of the low-grade tryptamine extracts I created so much of a few years back. A friend of mine who uses a vaporizer for Cannabis said that he thinks the Aromacare is not very efficient, but for my purposes it seems to work pretty well. I wasn’t happy with running lighters for extended periods of time, dealing with the hot metal and wondering whether I was sucking in butane fumes. Could you assemble a vaporizer review slanted toward tryptamine use? Or has something of this sort already run in High Times? (I only very rarely read High Times.) Regards and best wishes for the coming year. — M.H, TN As far as we are aware, there has been no systematic review to determine which commercial vaporizers are most useful when vaporizing tryptamines. Your friend commented that the AROMACARE is not very efficient; presumably this remark was made with regard to its use with Cannabis. It is true that, overall, the units that operate via a heated surface—such as the glass “dome” style units—seem to be less efficient than those that operate by drawing variable temperature hot air over the herb (once one has the temperature adjusted correctly). One can make the dome units more effective by using a thin layer of well crushed or powdered Cannabis, to make it possible for the material to be evenly and completely heated. However, it is also true that the dome units are not terribly efficient for use with tryptamines, because of desensitization to the tryptamine effect, due to not being able to inhale a big enough hit all at once. The domes on these units are generally pretty large, and the challenge when using them with tryptamines has to do with the air/ volume ratio. When you take a hit from these vaporizers, air rushes into the dome to displace the vapor-filled air that is currently in the dome. The larger the dome is, the more air that needs to enter it in order to displace all of the vapor. Add to this the fact that the vapor which remains in the dome is becoming diluted with each hit that is taken. Each new hit is displacing the same amount of air (and vapor) from the dome, but the vapor remaining inside the dome is getting progressively “thinner” and less potent with each hit. With some dome-style vaporizers, it can take seven or more hits to clear the dome entirely of vapor, and the last couple hits are very weak.

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The problem with taking a lot of successively weaker hits is that with many tryptamines, a desensitization occurs. While a pleasant low-level “museum dose” of effects can be achieved with such a vaporizer, it can be difficult to get a strong trip. This can be compensated to some degree by loading the chamber with a substantially higher dose than one normally would take, but that strikes us as a waste of material. Condensed tryptamine vapors can be recollected from the dome by rinsing it with a bit of ethanol and then evaporating off the ethanol. However, such material may eventually contain decomposition products that are less active and/or which damage lung tissue; dark-colored or bad-tasting material should be ditched. If one decides to use a dome-style vaporizer for tryptamines, finding the model with the smallest glass dome available is probably a good idea. The last time we checked, the B.C. VAPORIZER “standard” model was made with a 212 ml glass jar “dome,” and was one of the smallest on the market (much smaller than the AROMACARE). Some hot air models might work for tryptamines if the tryptamine is soaked onto herbal material first and if the hot air gets hot enough. A few models, such as the AROMAZAP, ETERRA, and TULIP, are unlikely to work well except perhaps for the most potent of tryptamines, due to the very small “stem” chamber that they have, which (depending on the model) only holds about 20–65 mg of screened herbal material. (Consider that the tryptamine needs to fit in there too, and getting a 40 mg hit of DMT into one of these stems, along with the herbal carrier, probably ain’t gonna happen.) Keep in mind that commercial vaporizers are geared toward use with Cannabis, and they tend to heat somewhere between 180– 235° C (356–455° F), although many try to target around 200° C (392° F). While such vaporizers will work fine for tryptamines with low enough boiling points, such as DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, they may not get hot enough to work with tryptamines that have substantially higher boiling-points, such as DPT or bufotenine. Using such vaporizers for Salvia divinorum also won’t work well, due to the higher boiling-point of salvinorin A. Those wishing to “hack” commercial hot-air vaporizers for use with higher-boiling-point-materials have been inventive. For example the VOLCANO ($634.00 from the manufacturer, www.vapormed.de), only heats to 205° C (401° F). However, it is possible to use a modified wire protection nozzle with a STEINEL HG® 3002LCD heat gun, and vaporize bufotenine directly from crushed Anadenanthera colubrina seeds into the VOLCANO’S valve set. That particular model of heat gun allows one to set the temperature on a digital readout. With such precision, it is easy to target any known boiling-point. With Anadenanthera seeds, a setting between 232–274° C (450–525° F) has been recommended to us by one colleague. Using a heat gun as the source of heat, rather than the base that the VOLCANO comes with, can be a less expensive means of creating a vaporizer. From the web site for the OAKLAND CANNABIS BUYERS’ COOPERATIVE (www.rxcbc.org), one can purchase the complete VOLCANO for $600.00, cheaper than buying it direct from the manufacturer. However, the manufacturer sells their valve set by itself for only $177.00. Pair this with a STEINEL HG® 3002LCD heat gun (about $185.00) and a modified wire protection nozzle ($20.00), and you’re looking at a complete vaporizer for under $400.00. The OAKLAND CANNABIS BUYERS’ COOPERATIVE actually sells this set up for $380.00.




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In two ways, this hamburgered-together vaporizer will work better than the standard VOLCANO: it will have truly pinpoint adjustable heat, and it will be able to get much hotter. However, one has to be very careful not to use too much heat (or heat for too long), as it is possible to melt (and/or fuse) the valve set by using a heat gun with it. As well, the base that the VOLCANO comes with is undoubtedly safer than using a heat gun, in that a heat gun is much more likely to accidentally start a fire if not handled with great care. Thankfully, because the VOLCANO works on a “bag” system, the heat gun can be completely cooled off and properly dealt with, before folks take their hit(s). If you are only using the VOLCANO for Cannabis and other materials that will work within the heat range it provides, we would recommend (if you can afford it) buying the complete set. It is less cumbersome to use than a heat gun, as well as being safer. As far as your concern about inhaling butane goes, it is probably not much of a health risk, considering that the butane is being consumed by the flame when it is in use. You could use an alcohol lamp instead, although this may have a higher risk for setting accidental fires. Or you could switch to indirectly heating the sample, by using a crack pipe or similar glass pipe. One that might work for this purpose is the CHEAP VAPORIZER (www.cheapvaporizer.com), which sells for $10.00. Unfortunately, this pipe has only a straight stem and no bowl. It might work better if the tryptamine was placed onto a small piece of stainless steel scrubber pad (which had been well cleaned with ethanol, to remove any protective oil that might be on it). In this way, the CHEAP VAPORIZER should work similarly to THE MACHINE described in the Vernal Equinox 2003 issue of The Entheogen Review, except that it would be heated indirectly through the glass. We have not actually tried this using the CHEAP VAPORIZER, and would be interested in any feedback from ER readers. — EDS.

NATURE’S MIND www.natures-mind.com Supplier of strange, sacred, and rare botanical products such as: Amanita muscaria, Anadenanthera peregrina, Argyreia nervosa, Dioscorea dregeana, Mucuna pruriens, Salvia divinorum, Sceletium tortuosum, Trichocereus peruvianus, Virola theiodora, and many other exotic seeds, herbs, and extracts. We also carry ceremonial incense, shamanic tools and artifacts, books, and more.

CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITE FOR A COMPLETE LISTING. We’ve got entheogens for the whole family!

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DEA Busts Research Chemical Vendors The press release below was obtained from www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr072204.html

News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 22, 2004

DEA ANNOUNCES ARRESTS OF WEBSITE OPERATORS SELLING ILLEGAL DESIGNER DRUGS WASHINGTON, DC – DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy today announced the culmination of “Operation Web Tryp” that resulted in ten arrests and targeted five websites. Operation Web Tryp investigated Internet websites distributing highly dangerous designer drug analogues under the guise of “research chemicals” primarily shipped to the U.S. from China and India. These websites are known to have thousands of customers worldwide. One website operator is known to conduct estimated sales of $20,000 per week, while another is known to have been in business for more than five years. These websites sold substances that led to the fatal overdose of at least two individuals and 14 non-fatal overdoses. “The Internet has become the street corner for many drug users and traffickers. Drug pushers who use the Internet will find themselves out of business and behind bars,” Administrator Tandy said. “These dealers now enter into the privacy of our own homes to entice and sell destruction to our children veiled under the illusion of being safe and legal. The formulation of analogues is like a drug dealer’s magic trick meant to fool law enforcement. They didn’t fool us and we must educate our children so they are not fooled either. Today’s action will help prevent future deaths and overdoses, and will serve as notice for those dealing in designer drugs and the illegal use of the Internet.”

ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS This operation resulted in the following website operators arrests on July 21, 2004:

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www.racresearch.com and www.duncanlabproducts.com April Curtis and Doug Thompson, website operators of www.racresearch.com, were arrested yesterday, July 21, in Arizona and Georgia, respectively. The arrests are based on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substance analogues out of the Southern District of New York. www.racresearch.com has so far been linked to non-fatal overdoses of two college students. This investigation by DEA New York and the New York Police Department also uncovered the illegal distribution of designer drugs on www.duncanlabproducts.com. This site was operated by Raymond Duncan and supplied by April Curtis. Duncan was arrested yesterday, July 21, in California based on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substance analogues. Both websites were voluntarily terminated.

www.pondman.nu David Linder, website operator of www.pondman.nu was arrested yesterday. This investigation was conducted by DEA and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Norfolk, VA. The above site, which purportedly sold landscape supplies, also sold designer drugs. Linder supplied these drugs to U.S.-based Navy personnel who later held rave-style parties to facilitate further distribution. To date, an overdose death of an 18-year-old male and three non-fatal overdoses causing serious bodily injuries have been linked to www.pondman.nu. Linder is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substance analogues out of the Eastern District of Virginia. This website will be voluntarily terminated.

www.americanchemicalsupply.com DEA Baton Rouge, LA initiated this investigation that resulted in yesterday’s arrest of Michael Burton, operator of www.americanchemicalsupply.com. Charges against Burton and an unidentified coconspirator include illegal distribution with enhanced penalties for causing death, aiding and abetting, and forfeiture out of the Middle District of Louisiana. A restraining order will be issued to prevent use of this website.

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www.omegafinechemicals.com DEA San Diego yesterday arrested Thomas Kasper, Joseph Kasper, Beth Badrak, and Elaine Villalobos, all California residents, on conspiracy charges to distribute controlled substance analogues, distribution of controlled substance analogues to individuals under the age of 21, and money laundering out of the Southern District of California. These four operated www.omegafinechemicals.com. In addition to the arrests, DEA used warrants to search the Omega Business address, and the residence of Beth Badrak and Tom Kasper in Santa Barbara, CA. A seizure warrant will be served on the Omega website. Two bank accounts were also seized.

BACKGROUND ON DESIGNER DRUGS FROM OPERATION WEB TRYP The products sold by the above mentioned websites are synthetic substances chemically identified as tryptamines, piperazines, and phenylethylamines [sic]. Some of these substances are specifically restricted under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) while others, when intended for human consumption, are controlled under the Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act (CSAEA). Prior to the CSAEA, chemists would cause slight changes in the molecular structure of a controlled substance to circumvent the CSA. The CSAEA was enacted to arm law enforcement with the tools needed to stay one step ahead of the drug dealers’ innovations. On the street and in Internet chat rooms these substances go by innocuous names such as “Foxy Methoxy” and “DIPT.” Many young people are led to believe that these substances are a form of “legal” Ecstasy or LSD because they produce similar hallucinogenic effects. Adolescents and young adults are primary abusers of these chemicals. Many have the false impression that they are not as harmful or addictive as mainstream drugs such as heroin or cocaine. This is a highly dangerous emerging drug trend. Because the recommended dosages can vary by as little as a milligram, any slight miscalculation can cause fatal results.

OVERDOSE VICTIMS In April 2002, an 18-year-old male in Hancock, New York died after consuming a chemical obtained from www.pondman.nu. A 19-year-old male friend of the decedent later confirmed using similar chemicals obtained from www.pondman.nu that resulted in him suffering from seizures, floating spots in his vision, memory lapses, uncontrollable teeth grinding and large lumps that would appear and disappear periodically on his face and neck.




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In March 2004, a 22-year-old male resident of St. Francisville, Louisiana died after ingesting a substance he believed to be similar to Ecstasy. When found by his mother he asked to be driven to the hospital where he died three days later. His |body temperature had reached an astounding 108 degrees. It was later found that the substance used was sent from www.americanchemicalsupply.com, one of the targeted websites in this investigation. These website operators attempted to give an appearance of legitimacy to their websites by presumably selling these chemicals to bona fide researchers; however, a review of customer lists revealed purchasers with e-mail addresses such as acidtripo420@; ecstasylight@; madtriper17@; moontripperdipt@; partys_with_glow_sticks@; professor@; psychedelic_stoner@; and ravergirlny@.

SPECIAL THANKS AND RECOGNITION These enforcement actions demonstrate the DEA’s steadfast commitment to identifying and preventing any illegal drug distribution through the use of the Internet. The success of this operation could not have taken place without the cooperation and coordination of the following: DEA and US Attorney’s Office, Albuquerque, NM DEA and US Attorney’s Office, Baton Rouge, LA DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ward County Narcotics Task Force, North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigations, and US Attorney’s Office, North Dakota Food and Drug Administration and US Postal Inspection Service, Minnesota DEA, New York Police Department and US Attorney’s Office, New York, NY DEA, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and US Attorney’s Office, Norfolk, VA DEA, Food and Drug Administration, US Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service, and US Attorney’s Office, San Diego, CA Federal Bureau of Investigation, Santa Maria, CA US Forestry Service and Santa Barbara County Sheriff ’s Office, Santa Barbara, CA DEA, Las Vegas, NV DEA, Riverside, CA DEA, Phoenix, AZ DEA, Macon, GA

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Oaxaca City: Are You Experienced? a review of the mind states oaxaca conference by João Serro

There are no even surfaces in Mexico. At any time you can fall in a hole or hit your head or snag your clothing on some random protrusion sticking out of a building while walking down the sidewalk. There is no sense of liability. And Mexico is very loud. Bring earplugs and watch your step. Barring those minor gripes, Oaxaca City is an incredible and diverse place. There is an infinite variety of foods, flavors, and spices. Called the land of chocolate, just about every restaurant, home, and region has its own unique recipe for mole, similar to India’s numerous blends of curry. Oaxaca is remarkable for its rich and complex colors, patterns, textures, tiles, weavings, pottery, painting, and sculpture—all of which are strongly inspired by multiple indigenous and colonial histories.

Oaxaca is brimming with dazzling panoramic landscapes featuring ecosystems that can change every few miles: from exotic deserts to tropical rainforests, from valleys to mountains to beaches. But once you have been to Oaxaca a number of times and have been overwhelmed with the electric patterns and textures, once you have been barraged with tastes and fragrances and music until your head is dizzy and you want off the ride, the thing that becomes most remarkable about Oaxaca is its people. When you pass the facades, penetrate the culture, and spend time hanging out with its citizens, you find yourself opening up from the heart. And when I say open, I mean wide open. Experiencing Oaxaca is the closest I’ve ever come to visualizing the heart chakra. And even if chakras don’t exist, you may find yourself inventing one out of necessity. My wife Martine and I arrived in the city a week before the conference to acclimate. We settled into Posada de Chencho, a charming bed and breakfast run by a wise and tiny 84-year-old man who resembles Yoda in every way but color. Chencho is a walking encyclopedia of “everything Mexican.” We brought him a beautiful book on Mexican textiles written by a friend of ours, which he pored through thoughtfully. Of course, he knew some of the artisans by name. One page showed an indigenous woman holding a woven fabric. But where the text’s description stopped, Chencho picked up with flair (and for a half hour), demonstrating his knowledge of not only the fabric at hand but the clothes on the woman’s back. How the hem of her dress had

PHOTO BY SETH HOLLUB

There are two places in the world where artists prosper and live well: Bali and Oaxaca. Where I live in Los Angeles, California, there are gas stations on every other corner. In contrast, Oaxaca has art galleries wherever one looks. The city is a hub surrounded by satellite pueblos, each specializing in a particular art or craft. One could spend weeks there, visiting a different village every day. There is the town that weaves rugs and rebozos (the ubiquitous, all-purpose shawl). Market stalls, homes, and studios provide demonstrations of the entire production process, displaying the hand-spooled wool dyed in natural pigments obtained from local minerals, plants, and even insects (the cochineal, or Dactylopius coccusa, is a scale insect which feeds on nopales cactus and produces a rich red color). Another home raises silk worms on mulberry leaves. The cocoons are then woven into finely-crafted dresses and blouses. One village specializes in black pottery and another village sculpts green pottery. Yet another village

carves wooden animals, and paints them in psychedelic colors. Some artists are renowned enough to command worldmarket prices; others produce work at the same level of quality, yet charge ten times less.

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been intricately embroidered using specially-died threads. How the shawl she was wearing had been created in such a labor-intensive way that it was no longer cost-effective and the tradition has died. Listening to Chencho while relaxing in his courtyard—a garden paradise of roses and fruit trees— I noticed that his rooster was missing a toe. I asked him if his cock had lost the digit in a fight and he replied, “Oh no, he’s old. When you get old, you lose parts. Heh, heh.” Our room was waiting for us like a little nest. Every room at Chencho’s is unique. The walls are brightly colored and decorated with hanging sculpture and paintings by local artists. The bed covers and curtains are intricately woven and carefully chosen by Chencho—much to the chagrin of his children, who have to hand wash each item to protect its delicate fringe. And the premises are so clean, that one day I watched one of Chencho’s family members polishing to sheen an already clean surface.

ALTERED STATES Psychedelics always pound my nervous system. They’re never an easy ride. For me, these substances are not recreational— the experience they produce rocks my world permanently. Yet strangely, I always come out the other side a better person, transformed down to the cellular level. I was brought up in a strict Catholic environment, terrified of hell and of dying. So the first time I ever turned on at age 14, I felt my chest broken open by a cavalry of angels stampeding out of me. Standing before me in all his terrifying glory was the face of that sour-puss Jehovah, the ass-kicking god of the Old Testament. And he wasn’t very happy with me. But when I return from a journey, that’s when the fun begins, as well as the learning. I was failing in school before my first horrifying encounter with another reality. After that experience, my curiosity for life was insatiable. I became a straight “A” student. I discovered books and began reading everything, looking for existential answers. I once spoke with Timothy Leary at a seminar held at UCLA, and confided to him my fear of psychedelics because they always brought up death. My parents would die one day, I would die, and my unborn children would all die. Death was a large jar containing everything. With his wiry limbs flailing, he expressed to me that if the theme of death didn’t come up at least once during my experiences, then I needed to tell my dealer to get me some better shit! That was the whole point of working with these substances: to meet death face-to-face and look it square in the eyes.




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Actually, I usually have a bit of anxiety from any sort of “trip,” even just vacations. However, having already visited Oaxaca City on several occasions in the past, I no longer had any trepidation about making this trip. Cured of my traveling anxiety, I could now tackle bigger game. This time Mexico had a new edge: the Mind States Oaxaca conference, and all the groovy folks who usually attend. These events pull a stylistic cross-section of world citizens: from the straightlaced to the motley crew, from the stereotypes to the stereo players, from the tuned-in dropouts to the turned-on professionals. And on top of that, I brought the heavy guns: a couple of long-time friends who are dyed-in-the-wool psychonauts with decades of tripping experience. Just in case I hit a mental snag. One afternoon I went to the Oaxaca airport to pick up my friend, Brother John, a Gnostic priest. John had just returned from a trip to Tibet. There he was, a big, lovable, teddy bear dressed in all black with a string of amber beads, sporting a large Gnostic cross dangling around his neck. Other than that, he travels light. It was a hot day to be wearing black. But this was just after the rainy season in September, so the weather had been a pleasant range of conditions—from fiveminute tropical rain bursts, to warm sun with puffy clouds and cool evenings. I was glad for those conference participants who had never been to Oaxaca, that the conference took place when it did. This way they could get a sampler of the climate here without enduring any extremes. Mind States conference producer Jon Hanna arrived later that evening. This Jon was not traveling light. The airline had barely let him squeeze by with bags a few pounds over the limit, filled with an arsenal of technical equipment and books. Jon was looking dapper in his rice-paddy cone hat— a bright purple coolie with a band of flaming eyeballs. He said he had painted it at last year’s Burning Man. My friend Insect Surfer Dave arrived later that night, with acoustic guitar in tow. Dave has a shock of blond, corkscrew hair and an impish smile from ear to ear. His high-octane band, the Insect Surfers, specialize in instrumental surf music. I asked him what he thought of Oaxaca. Dave said, “What’d you call me?” The group of us lay around in Jon’s room at Chencho’s and talked until 4:00 am. Jon is an incredible raconteur and had us laughing all night. He animates his characters by impersonating their voices. So in an impeccable Irish brogue:

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“You look sad, Seamus. What could be ailing you?” asked Fitzpatrick. “Well you see those ships down there in the harbor? I stitched every one of those sails. You’d think that they might call me ‘Seamus the Ship Builder.’ Ah, but they don’t. And you see those cobblestones that line the streets of Dublin? I laid every stone. You’d think might call me, ‘Seamus the Road Builder.’ Ah, but they don’t. And you see all them roofs across the city? I thatched every one on my hands and knees. Why, you’d think they might call me, ‘Seamus the Roof Builder.’ Ah, but they don’t. But you fuck one goat…”

THE CONFERENCE BEGINS The first morning of the conference we stormed the Hotel Misión de los Angeles. What must the staff have thought of this amalgamated group of ungainly styles and colors? Those in suits conversed with those in dreads (and sometimes the suit and the dreads were on the same person). Burning Man holds no surprises for the crowd it will draw. It has a context. But behind the politely stoic faces of hotel personnel was the strong desire to drop jaws. After all, the hotel usually dealt with business conferences and medical seminars. Indeed, right next to our conference room was a convention of anesthesiologists. Our talks were held in the Salon de Guelaguetza, which means “the party room.” Service at the Misión de los Angeles was terrible. Not due to its staff, who were hard working, but due to the sheer size of the complex. It was golf-course expansive. You had to walk what seemed like half-a-mile to get to your room. Although the grounds were beautiful, with lush gardens, everyone felt adrift. The room walls were a sterile white. No charm. My wife Martine and I were at the conference in work-trade positions. Martine would help with translation, while I would videotape the event. Martine possesses sharp time management skills, but this particular morning we were late, very late. Martine had misjudged the time it would take Jon Hanna to set up the camera equipment. Or maybe she just wanted to sleep in after the late-night gab session. Working so closely with Jon on this trip, we bonded, and I got to know his threshold level. It’s actually pretty high. He remains good-natured amidst the chaff on the threshing floor. So when Martine and I walked in so close to “go time,” I suspected that Jon had been cursing us under his breath. He had, and he told us, in so many words. But with his usual panache. That’s the thing I love about Jon. He shoots straight

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from the hip and doesn’t mince words. He said he had allowed Sebastian, a young man who couldn’t afford the conference, to attend on a work-trade basis. But then the guy showed up with two other friends, Alex and Cristian, who also wanted to volunteer. Being short-handed, Jon put them all to work. And these young guys were phenomenal. They kicked ass, working circles around the hotel staff. As the conference days progressed (and the shit hit the fan behind the scenes), Jon suggested that perhaps these guys were three angels fallen out of heaven. And they were. They exemplified the persona of the new urban techno-shamans. With complete mastery over the physical world, they knew (or quickly grokked) everything about computers, cameras, multimedia, sound, and the miles of tangled wiring to make it all work together. We were all learning to use the technology on the fly, and these three guys came through time and again when I got stuck. They had come from different parts of the world studying various healing and shamanic practices. Sebastian was a tall, lanky German with arms that could almost reach the hotel ceiling to change a bulb without a ladder. His dad is a pharmacist, and he knew everything about drugs, drug safety, drug combinations, and hangover prevention. Alex was a sensitive Mexico City kid from a prominent medical family. He always carried a colorful woven sack filled with acupuncture needles and herbal remedies. In his bag of tricks, Alex had two Aztec sulfur magnets that he seemed to use to treat damn-near everything: from relieving headaches to removing chiggers. Cristian was from Italy. Also studying acupuncture, he was earnest, hard working, and had an eye for detail. At one point Jon said he could no longer find things because Cristian and Sebastian had been too thorough. Every night, no matter how late the conference ran, they would fold a mountain of cords and compartmentalize all equipment to the appropriate storage bag. It may have been a headache for Jon, but it cured mine. The first day was used for attendee introductions. Following Jon’s overview of the conference, which also presented things to see and do (and not do) in Mexico, each participant had three minutes to encapsulate the essence of their being. Some people were shy and only used 60 seconds of their time. Others were showmen, using their time as a performance piece, and had to be politely yanked off stage. Some grandstanded political views on the state of the world and how to solve its problems, while others used the available multimedia equipment to showcase their talents. It was long and tiring to sit in a conference room for so many hours, but everyone was patient, accommodating, and attentive. Real troopers. And

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the payoff was tremendous. We can learn a lot about a person when he or she has only three minutes to speak. All the priorities of identity are encoded and compressed. In the days to come, we gravitated toward those individuals with whom we had some affinity; all we needed to do was “click,” to unzip the full content. The next day began with some of the featured speakers. Since I was working for the conference, I didn’t get the chance to hear all of the presentations. Hence, my reviews will only focus on some of those that I did catch. Allan Snyder was one of the hits of the conference. He is a jovial professor who also acts as the director of the Centre for the Mind (www.centreforthemind.com), a joint venture of the Australian National University and the University of Sydney. Allan dresses like a skateboarder with a penchant for wacky hats. For his talk he wore a baseball hat flipped sideways over one ear. He spoke about turning off certain parts of the brain in order to enhance other brain functions. Autistic kids, or the classic savant, may be able to paint, draw, or play music with incredible agility. Allan presented art from a three-year-old autistic girl who could draw a horse in full Leonardo da Vinci perspective, from memory. Based on brain research spanning decades, Allan has ingeniously invented a skullcap attached to a gnarl of thick multicolored wires and cables. It is retro sci-fi right out of Time Bandits or Brazil. Working via the electromagnetism of brain waves, his device shuts off parts of a brain while activating others. The theory is that normal brain functioning is riddled with too many distractions. Shut off the sections you don’t need as you sit down to draw or play music, and out pops the idiot savant. I could use one of those when paying my bills. Jon asked if Allan planned on producing a more portable commercial version, and he said that he’s working on it. I asked Allan if he had invented his cool skullcap due to a fascination with hats.




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Between talks we hung out around the conference tables. Jon was fussing with a slide projector problem. Insect Surfer Dave mentioned to Brother John how much he loved the art of Alex Grey. I brought up an interview with Alex from a 1980s issue of High Performance magazine. It said Alex had been working swing shift at the morgue, and one fine evening while overcome with a strange impulse, he took liberties with a nearby female corpse to practice necrophilia. Dave said, “What’d you call me?” At that very moment Alex Grey walked in headed for the podium, and Dave yelled out in a loud voice, “Hey corpse fucker!” Jon just about split a gut. And as he was recovering with tears in his eyes, Dave quickly spat out (in an Irish brogue), “You know, you fuck one corpse…” That finished Jon. Alex Grey presented an incredible slide show spanning the entire history of visionary art. He shared some of the earliest expressions of “psychedelic” imagery in art, presenting paintings from Hieronymus Bosch and William Blake. He then worked his way to modern times, visiting some outsider artists who produced a prolific amount of strange art. One such artist, Louis Wain, had fame in his early life due to his sentimental “calender art” paintings of cats. Later in his life he went a little wacky and was eventually institutionalized, living out his final years in a nut house. But he kept right on painting cats. With each consecutive slide that Alex showed (see images below), Wain’s felines transformed and mutated, looking increasingly intoxicated, deranged, mutilated. With the very last slide in the series, there was virtually nothing left of the cat shape but its eyes and an amorphous pattern of colorful zigzagged stripes. Very psychedelic! Alex showed work from the heavies of visionary/psychedelic art, such as Ernst Fuchs, Mati Klarwein, and Robert Venosa, and then presented images from some lesser-known contemporary artists whose work was breathtaking. He was even gracious enough to include an image of woodcarvings from a photo that he had taken that very day, when he vis-

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ited Don Manuel Jiménez, the artist and curandero. Allyson Grey presented a talk as well that evening, describing her life’s work as an artist, but I unfortunately missed much of that presentation. The Grey’s second talk was about family, and raising kids to have a reasonable attitude toward drugs. Their daughter Zena was charming in her response to questions like: What do your friends and teachers think about you and the topic of drugs? “Well, all they have to do is read any article or see archival film and video footage relating to my parents to realize the obvious answer.” She spoke frankly about using a little pot now and then with friends, but as of yet not with her parents. That might be a future consideration. If she ever decides to take stronger medicine, she said that she wants to do it with her parents as guides. “Kids are going to experiment no matter what. Why not do it with people you trust and who are informed?” The Grey family had presented a similar talk at the Palenque Norte Burning Man camp in 2003 (see www.matrixmasters.com/pn for an audio file), possibly inspired by an interview completed earlier that year, which has only recently been published (available at www.maps.org/news-letters/v14n2-html). A psychology professor at Harvard Medical School, Deirdre Barrett (shown below) spoke on the influence of dreams on societies throughout history. Unfortunately she was a bit rushed because the conference was behind sched-




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ule. The tour bus had arrived to transfer the first load of us gringo tourists to see the local artist/curandero. In Mexico, time seems to distort, and events happen whimsically rather than chronologically. The earth revolves around the sun due to gravitational forces, but Mexico is along just for the ride, not the revolution. So Deirdre and some other speakers kindly shaved ten minutes off of their talks as a sacrifice for the good of the tribe. While she tried to cram too much material into her shorter time slot, I nevertheless enjoyed her presentation. Most of her information had to do with the influence of dreams on art, literature, and science. She presented an overview of how dream symbolism affected famous artists, inventors, and rulers with breakthrough ideas that changed the course of civilization. Chemist Friedrich A. Kekulé conceptualized the nature of the benzene molecule after he dreamed about six snakes swallowing each others’ tails; Niels Bohr dreamed atomic structure; Edison, the light bulb filament; Newton, the apple displaying gravity; Freud, Jung, Chagall, etc. She shared a splendid array of paintings I had never seen before, describing the dream landscape. Each one was lush and complex. However, the slides flew by at an incredible speed—too fast for me to wrap my brain around each painting’s dream elements. The general consensus among conference attendees was that the talk would have been improved by showing fewer slides, and focusing more deeply on the meanings of each painting.

INDEPENDENCE DAY That night we arrived at the zocalo (the town square) after the fireworks were over. Darn it, late again! At each corner of the square was a band playing (different) loud music at the same time. At any point between the stages, your ears were blasted with a cacophonous wall of noise. And darn it again, I forgot my earplugs. Everyone—kids, teenagers, moms, dads, grandparents—seemed to be holding what looked like cans of “silly string.” Unfortunately, rather than projecting stiff, string-like material, these cans jettisoned long thick tails of foul-smelling white mousse. It was more the consistency of watery shaving cream. Jon Hanna suggested that perhaps Mexico gets sent all of the defective cans of silly string from the U.S.

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The multicolored neon cans had no labels on them, so they gleamed under the lights. I stopped to take a photo of some teenagers dousing themselves. Upon seeing me, they turned their mousse cans at me and fired—a mound of foam hit dead on the lens and covered my camera. Jon started to laugh, so they doused him. From then on it was a free-for-all. At first, timid of the gringos, the locals would never have committed such an impropriety. But as soon as a drop of foam had marked anyone, that person became “free game.” The locals accosted us with foam, and there was no end to the madness. Jon and I met some friends at a cafe, drenched to the bone. We sat around drinking beer, eating guacamole, and watching various performances. At one point an orchestra took the stage, with the conductor waving his baton so fiercely, I could feel the wind drying out the wet mousse I was covered in. We hung out until 4:00 am, then walked back toward the hotel. Along the way we kicked through an endless sea of gem-like empty mousse cans—as if some pirates had left a bit of treasure for the street cleaners.




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ARRAZOLA AND MANUEL JIMÉNEZ Always travel first class in Mexico. It isn’t much more expensive than the other classes. The swank Mercedes-Benz buses have lots of leg room, air conditioning, and TVs showing cheesy dubbed American “B” movies. Of course, we had too much to look at to pay attention to the TVs. Gazing out the bus window, you notice that Internet cafes seem to be everywhere, even in remote villages like the one we were headed for. You might see a video game arcade and an Internet facility with a chicken market between them selling live chicks, hanging plucked birds, and a giant pyramid of chicken feet. It’s a cyberpunk spaghetti western smorgasbord. Often you will catch the endearing sight of a father walking home from the fields pulling an ox-driven wagon with his colorfullydressed daughter or son riding along eating bread and gazing wide-eyed at the passing bus. Our bus pulled into the village of Arrazola. We were here to see the world-famous artist Manuel Jiménez (shown below). Martine and I had mentioned him to Jon Hanna the

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previous year when we had all come to Oaxaca City together to scout for hotels. Back then, Jon took an immediate liking to Manuel. In his mid-80s, Manuel greets you with a smile, shakes your hand, looks you deeply in the eyes, and then stares in a defocused way at an area just above your head. I’ve never asked him, but I assume he’s checking out your aura. While Manuel is renowned for his wood carvings, it is less known that he is a faith healer, or curandero. Manuel is fairly tall, a Gandalf to Chencho’s Frodo. It was Chencho who first introduced us to Don Jiménez. The Mixtec Indians are notoriously good with money—they’re the Koreans of Mexico. Descended from the Mixtec line, Chencho has no time for hocus pocus and he is a practical businessman. But Don Jiménez is also confident with money. So Chencho has a funny story. The two men first met many years ago near a bank. Don Jiménez was rushing past, and Chencho asked him where he was going in such a hurry. Manuel replied that he had to run off to heal a sick woman. Chencho asked, “Are you a doctor?” “No,” Manuel replied, “I do faith healings using my hands.” “And this woman believes you can heal her with your hands?” Chencho inquired. “Yes,” said Manuel, “There is no doubt in her mind that I will heal her.” Chencho started to laugh, and gleefully remarked, “One loco is trying to help another loco. Heh, heh.” Manuel Jiménez charmed the conference attendees. We had made arrangements to bring guests to his home and art studio in groups of about twenty people. The town of Arrazola has slowly built up and prospered, largely due to the work of




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Don Jiménez. Once he had become famous and his art was a hot commodity, most families in town began to copy his style of brightly-painted woodcarvings. Every other house in Arrazola is now a shop for selling these wooden animals, called alebrijes. When we arrived, Manuel was sitting quietly on a bench in his courtyard waiting for us. The previous year, Jon had asked Don Jiménez if he would speak at the Mind States Oaxaca conference about his work as a faith healer. Manuel agreed, but on the condition that the talks take place in his home. He said, in a quiet voice, that a conference room would be too large and his presence would be lost. In his home setting he could offer people a lot more. He also remarked that his power as a faith healer was tied to the geography of his home, at the base of Monte Albán. A talk about the sacred should take place in a sacred spot. Manuel greeted everyone with a handshake and a blessing. It took time to set up our cameras and get everyone seated. We were already running late, as the bus took longer than expected to get from Oaxaca to Arrazola. Jon called the hotel to alert the evening speakers that their talks would have to be delayed. Manuel told his story gracefully. He was born into a dreadfully poor family. His parents were bedridden invalids. So from his earliest days he worked hard trying to earn money for his parents’ medicine. He became a shepherd and slept under trees in the fields. He would have powerful dreams wherein he flew as a giant bird from mountain to mountain. He saw crowds of people down below. He saw himself making things with his hands. When he awoke from these dreams each morning, while his flock grazed, he began to sculpt small animals from clay. But the rains would come and dissolve his works. So he got the idea to instead carve his animals from wood. Later he became a choirboy and the personal assistant of the priest. He had always been devoutly religious, and serving in the church made his faith stronger. But as he still needed money for his parents, the priest eventually let him leave to make a living. He became a construction worker, lifting heavy rocks all day for little pay. On weekends he would walk from his town over the mountains into Oaxaca City. One day

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while there, he saw a diviner who used caged birds to tell fortunes. The young Manuel placed three pennies in a bird’s beak and the bird dropped the coins into a cup. Then he asked the bird about his future. The bird flew around the cage and came back with a little scrolled piece of paper. On it was Manuel’s fortune. It said he would fly one day over crowds of people. Manuel had no idea what that meant, so he asked the bird a second question. When the bird didn’t move, the diviner remarked that the bird wouldn’t work for free. Manuel coughed up three more pennies. The bird came back with a second fortune that said Manuel would make beautiful things with his hands, be prosperous, raise a big family, and live a long life. In his spare time Manuel had continued to carve and paint wooden animals. But based on the bird’s predictions, he left his construction job and instead cut sugarcane for better wages. His boss said Manuel was a diligent worker who could cut more sugarcane in one day than anyone he had ever seen. Therefore, el jefe introduced Manuel to the President of Mexico as worker of the year. On the day he met with the President, Manuel brought him a sculpture as a present. The President was so pleased with it, he asked Manuel to be one of the representatives for his country in a book on Mexican art. From that point on, interest in Manuel’s work snowballed. Now that he is an old man, his art has shown in galleries and museums around the world. He has flown (in airplanes) all over the globe as guest artist, and has drawn crowds of people. He has a large healthy family. He has made beautiful things with his hands and he has lived a long life. In the end, everything in his visionary dreams and his fortunes came true. After Manuel spoke, we visited his atelier, the original studio where he started working as an artist. As he became more successful, he kept adding sections to his house and buying more property. His place has become a quaint oasis, with gardens, fountains, and houses for his growing family. But the original studio remains a small recessed dirt floor shack with lots of windows for light. Manuel and his sons, who are also artists, sit on short three-legged wooden stools to carve each animal, then meticulously paint it by hand.

After viewing his studio, we all crowded into the small showroom where the Jiménez family displays their carvings. Considering that Manuel created this style of art, his work commands the highest prices in the village. A small piece sells for around a hundred dollars. His work is minimal but elegant, with a few bold colors and sometimes large polka dots. (A painted Jiménez frog is shown on the preceding page to the left; unfinished carvings are shown above.) Manuel’s sculpture is more like a low-dose mushroom color palette, in contrast to the full-blown electric Kool-Aid® acid colors of the alebrijes that some other villagers make. Allyson Grey bought one of Manuel’s finished pieces. But Alex Grey fell in love with a large, unpainted skeleton hanging in a studio corner, covered in spider webs. Manuel remarked that it was an unfinished piece from his youth, so it wasn’t worth much. But Alex wanted it just the way it was, cobwebs and all. He got it for a song. As we were leaving the showroom, Alex (who doesn’t speak Spanish) asked me to inquire as to whether or not Don Jiménez ever used psychoactive plants in his work as a curandero. Manuel thanked everyone for coming. He stated that he was honored to have such a group of people visit him, wished everyone great prosperity and joy in their lives, telling us to eat, drink, and be happy. He wanted us to relish each day as if we were always on vacation—have a good shot of tequila after a delicious meal with friends and loved ones, and pay attention to the enchanting details that surround us, just waiting to be enjoyed. It was a simple philosophy, but charm-

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ing and sincere, presented with genuine love. He could afford to be generous because life had given him everything he ever wanted. And his abundance seemed to spill over onto all of us who visited him. We walked from his house up a steep cobblestone hill to the store of Rocio Ramirez, which presented works from a large family of artists—a virtual warehouse showroom. Although talent is everywhere in Arrazola, this shop had a wide representation of high-quality animals, created with superb craftsmanship. Ann Shulgin was having a difficult time making it up the hill, stopping every few feet to catch her breath. I suggested to Jon that we find a taxi for her, especially for the walk back to the bus. He responded with enthusiasm, “Great idea. Find her a cab!” I realized I had stuck my foot in my mouth. Where the hell was I going to find a cab in this onewooden-horse town? As this feeling of defeat washed over me, I noticed a courtyard where—peaking through a slit in the gate—was the fin of a taxi. I ran past the gate into the yard where a tiny old woman was painting a wooden animal: a horse. She said the boy who drove the taxi daily into Oaxaca was asleep on his day off. I asked her to wake him. Rubbing his eyes, he appeared and agreed to take the fare. Although taxis in Oaxaca City are nearly as ubiquitous as taxis in New York City, I was nevertheless amazed that every time I needed one, a taxi would appear before my eyes. Just another example of the magic in Oaxaca. On the bus trip back to the city, Alex Grey wanted to know how Manuel Jiménez had responded to the question of whether or not he used psychoactive plants. I spoke through the tour bus P.A. system, saying that I would relate the curandero’s answer. But when I got distracted with my tale about the taxi manifestation magic, I could sense Alex rolling his eyes with impatience: “Can you skip all that and get to the part about the drugs?” Don Jiménez continues to be a devout Catholic. Although he claims not to practice witchcraft or treat with herbal remedies, it is nevertheless clear that his spirituality is a syncretic one—a hybrid of the conquering dominant religion grafted onto (or superimposed over) the pre-existing, preColumbian, animistic beliefs of indigenous Mexico. The Protestants have had an uphill battle evangelizing these people. Brother John describes Protestantism as nothing more than pseudo-Judaism, because it has stripped the magic out of what is divine down to the bare bones: it has entirely scrapped the mystery of the sacraments and it has jerked the feminine principle out of the equation. According to John, Judaism

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and Protestantism are the only two religions in the world whose deity has no feminine side. Greek mythology, as all other world religions, had both male and female gods. And these deities generally didn’t pester their worshipers. Jehovah on the other hand (perhaps because he was lacking the influence of a wife), developed the personality of an angry, unreliable, alcoholic parent who claimed to protect you on one page of the scripture, and then flew off the handle and kicked your ass on the next page. In such an environment, it becomes difficult for devotees and the Almighty to ever be on the same page. And unlike the Greek gods who were playful but largely left you alone, Jehovah was in your bedroom. If he caught you masturbating, you were one dead monkey. Don Jiménez prays to the virgin regularly. And while he does use garden variety herbal remedies such as arnica, chamomile, mint, and yerba buena, he is primarily a faith healer. He works with power from the divine by channeling it through his hands, and he also uses prayer for transferring healing energy over longer distances. When I questioned Don Jiménez as to whether or not he had ever used sacred mushrooms in his healing work, he adamantly expressed that he did not use them because they have magic in them. Hence, their use is prohibited by his spiritual beliefs. The effects that they produce merely address the local deities, and they can have connotations of witchcraft associated with them. But when I probed further, asking if it was truly possible that in his long life he had never taken any of these mushrooms, he exclaimed excitedly, “Oh absolutely! In my youth, I took them. Yes!” Alex Grey’s eyes lit up like one of his own paintings on hearing this, and he remarked, “I knew it. I just had a feeling.”

BACK AT SALON DE GUELAGUETZA Bruce Damer is a tall man who sports multicolored hair and psychedelic attire. His company designs interactive software for clients such as NASA. It’s nice to have someone like Bruce in this position, to work the system from within. He remarked that he often gets into heated discussions with high-level officials at their power meetings over certain “delicate” subjects like war, bombs, and civilian killing. Bruce’s approach isn’t necessarily defensive, but he feels the current administration’s clearly offensive approach to solving diplomatic crisis is like using an engine crane to deliver a baby. He is soft spoken and heartfelt. It was refreshing to listen to a scientist with a warm, fuzzy, affectionate attitude. After detailing the state of affairs in physics and the new science (from the big bang to the end of creation), he compared the universe to a newborn—both need lots of love and care. And

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on the subject of children, his company is developing software for autistic kids. Too much environmental stimulation can easily overwhelm these children. They can’t learn or function well in these conditions. So Bruce has created a virtual space for them, in the form of a game with increasing skill levels. In the safety of their home and via a computer, these children can enter and walk around in a virtual city. They learn tasks such as how to cross the street by recognizing approaching traffic, street-light signals, etc. Martha Toledo (shown below) is a beautiful, enigmatic Juchitec woman from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, an area that contains perhaps the last remaining matriarchy. Women are recognized as the heads of families, with power and inheritance passing from mothers to daughters. Their men, of course, have a different view. They say it’s a myth that their culture is a matriarchy, because they do all the heavy lifting! You don’t see the men around much, because they are up at 3:00 or 4:00 am to fish, farm, and set up the large open market. Nevertheless, the women are stately, strong, and take care of the banking and commerce. You wouldn’t want to mess with one.




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transvestites in the world. They are called muxes (pronounced mushays) in their Zapotec language. Every family is proud to have one so the mothers will have someone to dance with. I guess the men are too zonked-out to dance. Martha is a photographer and singer. She showed slides of her work while singing a lamentation song. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Following the afternoon’s talks, we headed to a local bar for dinner, where it was said that they offered “all you can eat” for the price of just one drink. A light rain was falling on the walk over. While I was enjoying the refreshing change of weather, I noticed a beautiful tall blond girl walking beside me in a neon-pink raincoat. We introduced ourselves. Her name was Brandy. There was a pause right after I told her my name. I’m used to this, because my name is hard to pronounce for many people. But instead of asking me the usual “How do you spell that?” Brandy matter-of-factly replied, “Oh yes. I believe that your membership to MAPS has lapsed.” How could she know that? Oaxacan curandera maybe? No, she just happens to work for MAPS, and appar-

Martha’s dream as a young girl was to get married, have many children, fatten up, and own lots of gold. Her style of dress is a blend of indigenous with colonial. She’s in her thirties, and wears flowers woven into her hair, satin layered skirts the color of lapis lazuli, and embroidered blouses as detailed as the Book of Kells. Martha strikes the eye with radiant energy. Most women her age from the same region, who have grown up with MTV, have given up the old traditions of dress and have adopted a modern style. But Martha, far more progressive in her thinking than her “modern” peers, has stayed true to her lineage. Martine first met Martha in the mid-1990s. Martha’s husband at the time ran an environmental organization. The river had become the city dump. No one knew about recycling. With help and funding from a German environmental protection agency, they were able to restore the river to its original purity, so people can now fish and use the water. (One little old Jewish woman we met while there remarked, “Those Germans! First they destroy the world and then they clean it up.”) Martha owned a bar/restaurant/gallery/library there, where artists curious about this matriarchy would come from around the globe. She also had a Sunday morning radio show, where young students were invited to read from their own writing or their favorite poets and authors. Martha comes from a family of artists. Her uncle is the famous artist Francisco Toledo. Her town of Juchitan has the largest population of THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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ently has an uncanny ability to retain hundreds of names and their membership status! That evening’s special at the bar was fried grasshoppers. Hmm… no wonder it was “all you can eat.” I was going to pass, but I didn’t want to appear chicken-shit in front of everyone, so I ate some. They weren’t unpleasant, tasting a bit like over-salted beer nuts, only more acidic. Taste wasn’t the worst of it, however. I was picking insect parts from between my teeth for a couple of days, even after many flossings. Once you eat an insect, you never forget it. Especially the next time you step on one.

MORE PRESENTATIONS Technical problems with the hotel’s sound system postponed the evening’s talks. A spotty sound cord—seemingly the only one that the hotel had—was discovered to be the problem. After a long delay, the hotel was finally able to locate a replacement, and the evening’s presentations got underway. Erik Davis was his usual eloquent self, constructing his sentences like paint on a canvas. It’s funny that the theme of his talk was about cultures and their fascination with magic, because his words always possess a quality of incantation. Through a lively multimedia presentation (which in itself proved his point), Davis took us on a magical mystery tour of early technologies. He began by showing slides of traditional cave paintings, featuring animals and animal-headed humans, of the sort that we are used to seeing. But amidst these images, he pointed out the oddities of alien-looking geometric shapes and squiggles. Were these ancient people trying to project the secret recesses of their unconscious minds onto the cave wall in the same way that we currently project our desires onto a movie screen? It certainly appears as though, at every stage of human history, our desire to live in a mystical universe has created technologies that present the deepest contents of our interior psyches onto the exterior physical world. Erik showed early magic lanterns and the camera obscura, which projected illuminated objects onto a wall to create fantastic illusions. The earliest special effects in films were used to express magical ideas: we saw sorcerers, alchemists, and kings, appearing and disappearing in clouds of smoke. As cheesy as these technologies look to us today, they were captivating to the audiences of their times, leaving them with a feeling of enchantment. Each new generation is more sophisticated than the previous. Hence, increasingly advanced technology needs to be invented to give our spirits nourishment and communion with the mysterious.

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Jon Hanna’s talk started around midnight because of the earlier delays. We were all tired, but it was a full house. Jon hadn’t slept more than three or four hours in several days, so his voice was strained but it remained loquacious. His presentation was long—probably close to two hours—and yet we were all enthralled. While past talks Jon has given have discussed works from contemporary psychedelic painters, this time he focused exclusively on hallucinatory animation in film. And the clips he complied, as seen via his powerful laptop projector, were grand and ran seamlessly. It felt like I was at an IMAX® theater. Jon traced animated hallucinations back to their roots in the early part of the century, with a 1927 episode of Felix the Cat. Felix drank some kind of a potion and began to trip. The hallucinations were unmistakable: things appeared and disappeared, morphed and mutated. My favorite clip from Jon’s presentation was the “Elephants on Parade” scene of drunken visions from Dumbo, which I’d heard about many times but never seen. It was a delightful surprise. Considering that particular kind of animation had really never been done before, it must have been as startling to the audiences of 1941 as it was for me. I know that animators and cartoonists tend to be naturally wacky. But I find it hard to believe that whomever conceptualized the trailing psychedelic patterns and designs in Dumbo could have come up with that kind of visual language without having had some first-hand experience with visionary drugs. (Jon did mention the unconfirmed rumor that one of Disney’s animators may have taken part in some early mescaline studies performed in Germany in the late 1920s.) A scene presented from the 1951 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, depicting synesthetic pipe smoke blown from the caterpillar perched on a mushroom, may be another telltale example. Jon continued, decade by decade, with highlights from such classics as Yellow Submarine, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Fantastic Planet, among many others. He finally concluded with the next generation upgrade of the Teletubbies: a bizarre and hugely psychedelic children’s program called Booh Bah. If extraterrestrial aliens ever reach Earth, this “totally other” show geared toward preschoolers may help prepare our children for their arrival.

MONTE ALBÁN The following day, conference attendees were treated to a tour of the ruins at Monte Albán. They are located on plateau just outside Oaxaca City. The site had been abandoned almost a thousand years before Columbus, for lack of water due to drought, and deforestation due to humans. Yes, even back then we were a nuisance to the natural order. The ruins

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themselves are like the pyramids: mountainous and majestic, built brick-by-brick by hand, using no sophisticated equipment other than an advanced knowledge of mathematics. After a great drop on the history of the site by a well-informed tour guide, we were free to roam the ruins. On the side of a giant stretch of steps, I spotted Jon in his purple-flamingeyeball-coolie, halfway up the stairway to heaven. So I started to climb up myself. These people 1300 years ago must have been in tip-top shape. I was out of breath by the time I reached Jon. Yet the state of mind I was in made every step meaningful. We looked out over an expanse pregnant with history. Before us were pyramids in pristine condition, with steps running along side them, built for watching spectator sports. They reminded me of the spectator activities of ancient Rome. It is said that many important Roman plays are lost. We know of them because they have been written about and lauded by scholars of their day. But the plays themselves are missing. And some of the plays that did survive are bawdy, lewd, and inferior—much like the Rambo films of today. I wondered if 1300 years from now, people would be watching Rambo films. Or worse yet, they’d be stuck watching only the second and third installments of The Matrix, because the first (and only good) one had been lost. I asked Jon if he thought these ancient people had to deal with Ticketmaster. He replied, “That’s probably what killed them.”

HACIENDA DE LA NORIA Descending from Monte Albán, it began to rain, and the warm drops felt good. Loaded back onto the bus, we were transported to the second hotel where the conference was scheduled to be relocated at the mid-week point: the Hacienda de la Noria. This hotel was a refreshing change from the Misión de los Angeles. Other conference attendees kept approaching me and telling me how much they loved this place. How charming it was. How all the rooms faced each other so you could say hello to your neighbor. How the room interiors were attractive and comfy. Much to everyone’s surprise, the hotel’s pool was mushroom-shaped and bright blue. Blue-staining mushroom, anyone? People could sit

around the pool comfortably in many locations. Chaise lounges, chairs in the sun, chairs in the shade, and seats next to the cafe. We could quickly spot someone we had been looking for. We could hang out together in a cozy group, easily able to hop from one conversation to another or politely eavesdrop on the interesting discussions of our neighbors. This hotel conference room had a better sound system, everything worked, and the staff was cordial, accommodating, and lightning-fast to respond. While headed toward the pool, I ran into Sasha Shulgin— a real-life Santa Claus of sorts for some, due to his chemical tinkering. We sat down at a table together, as I wanted to ask him about a compound he created that I had recently heard about. It was said to produce effects similar to MDMA, but apparently it has not yet been specifically scheduled. (I have since learned that it could perhaps be considered a controlled substance analogue, and hence be illegal via that route of legislation.) The drug was called MBDB. “Sasha, I have heard that MBDB is a quite amazing drug. When did you invent it?” I asked. “Oh, about thirty years ago,” he replied. “Really? This stuff has been around that long and I’m just now finding out about it?” I responded, somewhat amazed. Sasha continued, “Well, MDMA had been around even longer, before Ann and I stumbled onto it. That drug was invented in the 1920s.” “You know Sasha,” I said, “I had a dream about you. In it, people would ask you to make specific drugs. For example, one that would last two hours, had lots of orange and blue visuals, and was low on anxiety. Then you would move molecules around on this advanced computer, pull some levers, and out would pop the new drug.” Sasha laughed, “I wish it was that easy. Well, I’m supposed to get Ann some coffee.” He scampered off, reminding me of a giant leprechaun.

EVEN MORE PRESENTATIONS Daniel Siebert spoke on the topic of Salvia divinorum. Daniel delivered his words at an even pace, almost monotone, and his presentation was occasionally a little dry and

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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 2

technical. Yet at the same time Daniel’s personal warmth and enthusiasm for the topic was engaging. He gave a detailed history of the plant, including the discovery of its active compound. His slideshow presented plants growing in their natural habitat. The shamans plant Salvia in secret, remote locations so it won’t pick up outside interference. I guess commercial traffic and human noise is considered toxic, similar to contaminating a plant with pesticides. He addressed the current world legal situation surrounding Salvia, and provided some speculations as to where things might be headed. Daniel’s knowledge of S. divinorum is inexhaustible, and this was put to good use during his question and answer period. Deirdre Barrette presented her second talk on dreams, which had wider appeal because it was more “hands on.” She described various ways to work with dreams and how to better access them using devices, drugs, and/or herbal supplements. Erik Davis later spoke about the history of California’s “consciousness culture” and the effects this culture has had on ideas about spirituality. His presentation was a sort of “preview” for a photo-essay book on the same topic that he is working on with the photographer Michael Rauner, called The Visionary State.




SUMMER SOLSTICE 2004

Other talks included a lively hour-long question and answer session with Sasha and Ann Shulgin, as well as presentations by Jonathan Ott on the topics of chocolate and mezcal. Ott handed out raw cacao beans for us to sample, but sadly his “tasting” bottle of mezcal had been broken in transit on the way to the new hotel. The final morning of the conference we all met for a “postmortem.” Jon and a panel of presenters engaged the participants in a think tank about how to improve future events, and where such gatherings might be held. Strong contenders for new locales appeared to be Vancouver, Canada and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. When asked if they might return to Oaxaca, say in four years, for another conference, most participants raised their hands. It was clear that everyone in attendance had been infected by the magic of Oaxaca City. After the conference concluded, a group of us chartered a bus to Mitla, another site for archeological ruins. On the way there we visited the town of Santa María del Tule to see the world’s largest tree. On the way back, we stopped to tour a mezcal factory—where it was learned that Erik Davis might make a good contender on Fear Factor, due to his penchant for consuming booze-fermented worms. And in the days to come, a few of us took a trek to Huautla de Jiménez, hometown of the infamous curandera María Sabina. But that is a tale for another day. 

NOW AVAILABLE Mitragyna speciosa

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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 2




SUMMER SOLSTICE 2004

Events Calendar SSDP CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 18–21, 2004

PLANTS IN HUMAN AFFAIRS JANUARY 3–14, 2005

The Students for Sensible Drug Policy will be holding their 6th annual national conference on November 18–21, 2004 and the University of Maryland. Invited presenters include U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich, Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, former governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, the PoeTRee Ladies, and former SSDP National Director Shawn Heller. See www.ssdp.org/home/ssdp_conference2004_info.htm for registration information.

Plants in Human Affairs will be held January 3–14, 2005 at the Ohana Keauhou Beach Resort on the Kona Coast of the Big Island. This 4-credit, 12-day course explores humanity’s age-old symbiotic relationship to plants. Taught by ethnobotanist Kathleen Harrison and ethnopharmacologist Dennis McKenna, this course covers the role of plants in the evolution of civilizations, wars, migrations, religion, spirituality, art, medicine, and science. Guest lectures by local experts and frequent field trips bring the subject alive in one of the most beautiful and biodiverse environments on the planet. See www.csh.umn.edu/Education/ CourseListings for registration information.

BRAZILIAN MUSIC SHAMANISM DECEMBER 3–5, 2005 Brazilian Music Shamanism: Voice Entrancing, Enchantment, and Enlightenment is a performance (Dec. 3) and workshop (Dec. 4–5) by Silvia Nakkach and Gamo Da Paz, to be held at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Silvia Nakkach is a pioneer in the field of sound and transformation of consciousness, an award-winning composer, a therapist, and a specialist in cross-cultural music and sound therapy. She is the founding director of the Vox Mundi Project, an international school devoted to teaching and preserving indigenous musical traditions and to combining music, service, and spiritual practice. Gama Da Paz was born in Salvador, Bahia in Brazil and raised in the lineage of the Candomble tradition of the Ketu nation. He is one of the few drummers who plays ceremonial and healing rhythms in the most renowned religious houses in Brazil and internationally. The Friday night performance, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm is free. The Saturday and Sunday workshop, which offers an in-depth understanding of how chanting, rhythm, and movement can be practices of personal empowerment and inspiration when connected to a shamanic comsology, costs $275.00. For more information, see www.ciis.edu.

ONEIRIC VISION & AYAHUASCA JANUARY 23 – FEBRUARY 5, 2005 Oneiric Vision: Ayahuasca, Lucidity, and Dreaming in the Amazon will be held from January 23 through February 5, 2005, at a lodge near Manaus in Brazil. The program includes: • Five evening ayahuasca sessions, with each session followed by a circle for integrative group sharing. • A morning debriefing of “dreams and experiences of the night,” to explore and share our dream worlds and illuminate dream signs and the possibility of lucidity rising. • Two Holotropic Breathwork sessions conducted by Ivania Hassler. • One Waking Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD) practice session led by Dominick Attisani. • Lectures by Stephen LaBerge including: Perception/Awareness in Lucidity; Psychophysiology of Lucid Dreaming; and Techniques of Becoming Consciously Aware and Controlling Your Dream State. • Lectures by Luis Eduardo Luna including: Amazonian Ayahuasca Shamanism & Brazilian Syncretic Religions; Botany, Pharmacology, and Current Research on Ayahuasca; Visionary Pre-Columbian and Ethnographic Amazonian Art. • Artistic and musical workshops, as well as excursions into the surrounding rainforest, are also part of this seminar. $2000 for single-occupancy, with all meals included. See http:// lucidity.com/manaus for registration information.

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SUMMER SOLSTICE 2004

Sources by Jon Hanna COSM: JOURNAL OF VISIONARY CULTURE 725 UNION STREET, FL. 2 BROOKLYN, NY 11215 (718) 789-2576 [email protected] www.cosmnyc.com

CoSM: Journal of Visionary Culture is the new print vehicle supporting the recent opening of Alex Grey’s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM). Issue number one came out around the Summer Solstice 2004. First up was an article by Matthew Fox, theologian and founder of the University of Creation Spirituality. He introduced the journal and the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors with a call to renew our sense of the sacred, and embrace the privilege that we experience as “embodied light.” He pointed out that the new physics suggests that material objects are just “slow moving light,” or—as the American quantum physicist David Bohm calls it “frozen light.” Lizbeth Rymland’s “Entheogenic Freestyle” was a confusing and chaotic dream-world poem of prophecy. Following that was a fascinating short article that provided biographic details about the life and work of Paul Laffoley, a mildly autistic artist who creates diagrammatic “architectonic thoughtform” paintings. Since 1968, he has lived in an eighteen by thirty foot utility room. UFOlogists became interested in Laffoley and his work when a CATscan of his brain revealed a tiny metallic “implant” that Laffoley believes is extraterrestrial in origin. Next up, dance guru Gabrielle Roth described her rhythmic approach to creating a contemporary shamanic existence. An interview with electronic violinist Kenji Williams, discussed musical creation as a transformative spiritual process, and described his collaboration with Alex Grey on the Worldspirit performance and DVD creation. Excerpts from a conversation with Stephen Rechschaffen presented a sampling of the ideas— from “timeshifting” to living a fearless life to ecological issues—supported through the work of the Omega Institute, which he co-founded. An interview with Jayson Finn, manager of the Esalen Arts Center, provides a bit of data about the sort of activities that happen at their retreat center along the California coast. One of the best pieces in the journal was a rambling bit of philosophical insights from 15-year-old

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Zena Grey—not particularly focused, but honest, curious, and perceptive. After that was an overview of the meanings associated with the summer solstice by Alex Stark, and a series of photos from fundraising parties as well as shots of the CoSM space in various stages of development. The issue ended with the inspirational poem “Free Fall” by MarieElizabeth Mundheim. Sadly, the journal suffers from poor readability. At 5.5" X 4.25" in size, the font is kept small throughout, toggling between perhaps 7 and 9 points. Fonts used for both the text and headlines are overly stylized, further decreasing their readability. But the most grievous error is the use, about 65% of the time, of a white font on top of dark backgrounds. In most cases, these backgrounds are not solid—they are the distracting textures of some piece of “background” art. This design choice does not do justice to the art (obscured by text), or the text (obscured by art). White fonts are hard enough to read on a solid dark background, never mind one that isn’t solid. With a font as small as it is in this journal, and the added problems of a white font on a distracting background, it is hard to think that too many people will be able to read more than a few pages at a time. Even when a black font is used, it isn’t always used on a light or white background. Black fonts on dark textured backgrounds can be even harder to read than white fonts! I had no idea who most of the individuals were that contributed to this issue or who were written about. In that respect, the journal was successful in introducing me to some interesting people and ideas. However, the articles presented were short “sound bites,” no more than a couple pages long in most cases. Considering the physical readability problems with the issue, it was actually a good thing that they kept the articles short. Short articles also provided the ability to cover more ground. But ultimately, the journal remained a “sampler platter,” without enough substance or detail in most cases to make a full meal. The overall tone was one of positivity, without getting horribly new-agey about it all. It’s a good first effort, but I hope that future issues will be more readable and provide more depth. But hey, at a mere $3.00 per issue, it’s worth picking up a copy regardless.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 2

DBOTANY www.angelfire.com/pro/dbotany

A web site based outside of the United States describing the Erythroxylum novogranatense plant and periodically offering fresh seeds for the same. E. novogranatense, known by the common names java coca and Colombian coca, is one of the two species of Erythroxylum that produces cocaine alkaloids in their leaves. The better known plant is, of course, E. coca. One of the reasons that E. coca plants are not grown more often in the United States is that the viability of seeds quickly diminishes after they are picked. Reasonably fresh seeds must be obtained in order to grow the plant. The second reason that E. coca is not grown is because leaves of the plant (or their extracts) are Schedule 2 controlled substances in the United States. But the strange thing about the federal law is that it doesn’t actually appear to list the Latin plant name— Erythroxylum coca—anywhere. As far as I can tell, at least, it just lists “Coca leaves and any salt, compound, derivative or preparation of coca leaves…” Of course the plant with “coca” as part of its Latin name would be considered illegal. But does this vagueness also mean that a plant which only has a common name that includes the word “coca” is also illegal? It certainly might. I don’t know, and I’m not sure whether or not anyone knows. All that said, this web site can provide ten seeds for $50.00. When I e-mailed to ask about current availability, they said that they should have seeds ripe and ready for shipping by mid-January 2005. They don’t sell any E. coca seeds (so don’t ask) and they can’t tell you whether or not the seeds that they do sell are legal in the United States or Europe. The site does provide germination advice, details about growing environments, and helpful feedback from customers describing their experiences with growing these plants. I heard about this web site from an ER subscriber who stated that he could “confirm the trustworthy nature of the site owner, and the viability of the seeds as well.” So at least it doesn’t sound like a rip-off.

THANATOS TO EROS ON-LINE www.maps.org/t2e/index.html

Now that the hardcopy is out-of-print, Myron Stolaroff has posted his excellent autobiography Thanatos to Eros, 35 Years of Psychedelic Exploration on the web for free download from the URL listed above. 




SUMMER SOLSTICE 2004

Bibliography Alipieva, K.I. et al. 2003. “Benzoxazinoids and iridoid glucosides from four Lamium species,” Phytochemistry 64(8): 1413–1417. Benson, E.P. 1972. The Mochica. A Culture of Peru. Prager Publishers: 133–134, fig. 6–7. Calderón, E. et al. 1982. Eduardo Calderón: The Words of a Peruvian Healer, North Atlantic Books. Cané, R.E. 1988. “Alucinógenos Utilizados en la Región Andina Prehispánica,” Boletín de Lima 10 (56): 35–40. Case, J. 2000. Unpublished lab notes. Charalampous, K.D. et al. 1966 “Metabolic Fate of Mescaline in Man,” Psychopharmacologia 9: 48–63. Chopra, R.N. et al. 1986. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. DeKorne, J. 1995. “Bullshit as Fertilizer in the Garden of Truth,” The Entheogen Review 4(1): 2–4. DeSmet, P.A.G.M. 1983. “A Multidisciplinary overview of intoxicating enema rituals in the western hemisphere,” Journal Of Ethnopharmacology 9(2,3): 129–166. DeSmet, P.A.G.M. 1985. Ritual Enemas and Snuffs in the Americas. Latin American Studies Vol. 33: 1–240. Diamond, J. July 2001. “Anatomy of a Ritual: Ingestion of Hallucinogens via Enema,” Natural History. Posted to www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1134/6_110/76550319/p1/ article.jhtml, accessed 10/22/04. Duke, J. 2004. “Biological Activities of Verbascoside,” Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Database, www.arsgrin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/chem-activities.pl, accessed 10/29/04. Duke, J.A. and E.S. Ayensu 1985. Medicinal Plants of China. Reference Publications, Inc.

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EntheogenUK 2004. “Rectal Administration,” [email protected]. Posted by “rami” on February 10, 2004. Furst, P.T. 1974. “Archaeological evidence for snuffing in prehispanic México,” Botanical Museum Leaflets 24 (1): 1– 28. Harvard University. Furst, P.T. 1976. Hallucinogens and Culture. Chandler & Sharp.




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Ott, J. 2001b. “Pharmepéna-Psychonautics: Human Intranasal, Sublingual and Oral Pharmacology of 5-Methoxy-N,NDimethyl-Tryptamine,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 33 (4): 403–407. Ott, J. 2001c. Shamanic Snuffs or Entheogenic Errhines. Entheobotanica.

Gillin, J. 1945. Moche: A Peruvian Coastal Community.

Pennacchio, M. et al. 1996. “Cardioactive compounds from Ermophila species,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 53(1): 21–27

Glass-Coffin, B. 1998. The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru. University of New Mexico Press.

Roitman, M.F. et al. 2002. “Induction of a Salt Appetite Alters Dendritic Morphology in Nucleus Accumbens and Sensitizes Rats to Amphetamine,” Journal of Neuroscience 22: 225.

Joralemon, D. and D. Sharon 1993. Sorcery and Shamanism: Curanderos and Clients in Northern Peru. University of Utah Press.

Safford, W.E. 1916. “Ethnobotany. Identity of Cohoba, the Narcotic Snuff of Ancient Haiti,” Washington Academy of Sciences 6: 547–562.

Kauffmann-Doig, F. (1979) Sexual Behavior in Ancient Peru. (Cited in Cané 1988.)

Sharon, D. 1978. Wizard of the Four Winds: A Shaman’s Story. The Free Press.

LaBarre, W. 1989. The Peyote Cult, fifth edition. University of Oklahoma Press. (The first edition was published in 1938 by Yale University Press.)

Sharon, D. 1979. “A Peruvian Curandero’s Séance: Power and Balance,” in D.L. Browman and R.A. Schwartz (Eds.). Spirits, Shamans, and Stars: Perspectives from South America. Mouton Publishers.

Martini, F.H. (editor) 1998. Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology, fourth edition. Prentice Hall. Merck 1976. The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals and Drugs, ninth edition. Merck & Co.

Sharon, D.C. 2001. “Ethnoarchaeological Evidence for San Pedro (Trichocereus pachanoi) Use in Northern Peru,” Eleusis 5: 13–59. Siebert, D. 2004. Divine Sage (pre-publication copy).

Möller, A. 1935. “Einige Meskalin Versuche,” Acta psychiatrica et neurologica 10: 405–442.

Toad 1995. “Ayahuasca Suppositories,” The Entheogen Review 4(4): 8. (Edited by J. DeKorne.)

Muamar, A.F.H.A. 1999. Isolation, identification and evaluation of antibacterial activity of the semi-purified compound from Strobilanthes crispus (L.Bremek). Thesis Dissertation (Pharmacology), Universiti Putra Malaysia. Ott, J. 2001a. “Pharmañopo-Psychonautics: Human Intranasal, Sublingual, Intrarectal, Pulmonary and Oral Pharmacology of Bufotenine,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 33 (3): 273–281.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love Contributors Justin Case Fun Gal R. Stuart Mambo Pachano S. Bear, CA R.D., MO K. Trout B. Green, NM M.H., TN DEA Web Site Joáo Serro Jon Hanna Design & Layout Soma Graphics Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

CONTENTS The Enema Project: Taking it Past the Limit? Extreme Condition Extraction of Mimosa tenuiflora (= Mimosa hostilis) Root-bark Insufflation of Trichocereus pachanoi Network Feedback Anadenanthera and Ants New Psychoactive Mint Salt-free Potentiation Iodine Precipitation Rip-off from ER Advertiser Kratom Combos Plant-rooting Gizmo Fertilization Program Vaporizers & Tryptamines DEA Busts Research Chemical Vendors Oaxaca City: Are You Experienced? A Review of the Mind States Oaxaca Conference Events Calendar Sources Bibliography

41 49 51 53 53 54 54 54 55 55 56 56 56 58 60 73 74 75

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to

Front Cover Trichocereus Enema Bottles by Justin Case

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues).

share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

BOTANICALS Offering you rare and sacred plants, herbs, seeds, and extracts from around the globe! Tabernanthe iboga products Lophophora williamsii cacti Sceletium tortuosum Ayahuasca herbs Resin Extracts Dry extracts Erythroxylum novogranatense seeds and many other rare and hard to find plants. Payment accepted includes VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and money order by mail. Wholesale inquiries welcome and encouraged. Please call for catalog: (705) 735-0540. Sources also welcome to contact us offering supply.

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Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are Back Cover Imbibing a Cactus Enema by Justin Case

ETHNOGARDEN

available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2004 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

http://ethnogarden.com

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XIII, Number 2




Summer Solstice 2004




ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XIV, Number 1




Autumnal Equinox 2005




ISSN 1066-1913

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Design & Layout Soma Graphics Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819, USA Web www.entheogenreview.com Front Cover Albert Hofmann photo by Rolfe Verres Back Cover Father of LSD courtesy of Mark McCloud In celebration of Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday, one in every hundred issues is a lucky winner. Are you feeling lucky?

The Entheogen Review’s Publishing Schedule Albert Hofmann Speaks Novel Condensation of d-LA into d-LSD via PyPOB Shhh… Salvia divinorum and Secrecy Marc Emery Busted Five Things You Can Do To Help Marc Hyperspatial Maps First Voyages with Salvia divinorum Salvia divinorum on top of Argyreia nervosa Extract: A Trip in Laugh Land Galbulimima belgraveana, “Agara” Bark Absinthe Not Absent… “Absence” Anyone? Network Feedback Correcting Errors Publishing Errors? More Corrections? HPLC-MS Analysis of Acacia obtusifolia Some Thoughts on Analysis and Comparisons of Extracts and Synthetic DMT Seeds & Stems Mind States Conference Review Events Calendar Sources Book Reviews Bibliography

81 83 94 95 96 97 102 102 103 104 106 109 109 110 111 113 116 119 120 121 122 125 127

Audio CDs of past Mind States conference presentations are now available featuring lectures and original interviews with presenters such as: Pablo Amaringo, Susan Blackmore, Crystal & Spore, Erik Davis, Rick Doblin, Earth & Fire Erowid, Alex & Allyson Grey, Charles Grob, Stan Grof, Charles Hayes, Sandra Karpetas, Mark McCloud, Ralph Metzner, David Nichols, Mark Pesce, Nick Sand, Zoe Seven, Sasha & Ann Shulgin, and many others. For details, see:

www.musqaria.com/mindstates

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2005 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

Know your Body Know your Mind Know your Substance

KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE

Contributors Albert Hofmann Rick Doblin Charles Grob John Halpern Michael Mithoefer Andrew Sewell Casey William “Freeblood” Hardison Daniel J. Siebert Dana Larsen Susan Blackmore Dr. Wily Benjamin Thomas Jon Hanna Jonathan Ott K. Trout Ima B. Leever D.P., CA Mulga Clear Scotto David Aardvark

CONTENTS

Know your Dose

Know your Source

EROWID www.erowid.org

A library of information about psychoactive plants and drugs.

VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 1




AUTUMNAL EQUINOX 2005

The Entheogen Review’s Publishing Schedule by David Aardvark

At the end of 2003, The Entheogen Review had fallen behind in production, and we were unable to get the Winter issue out that year. In 2004, while we had hoped to get caught up, we again were only able to get three issues produced that year, placing us two issues behind. In 2005, spring and summer passed, and not only were we unable to get caught up in production, but we didn’t get any issues produced for the first half of the year. Subscribers wrote in, wondering what was happening and offering suggestions. The most often suggested idea was that we change the frequency, having The Entheogen Review appear only three times yearly, or twice yearly, or even as a larger annual yearbook (similar to the Italian publication Altrove). A formal change in the publication schedule may indeed be an approach that we decide to take at some point in the future. But as we considered the increasing weight of the backlogged issues, and our lack of enthusiasm for having to rush through producing that much material if we were ever to get caught up, the path that we should walk became obvious: take a year off. And so, with the timely release of this Autumnal Equinox 2005 issue, we have absolved ourselves from the pressures of past debts and returned to the present. There will be no Fall 2004, Winter 2004, Spring 2005, or Summer 2005 issues. What does this mean for our subscribers? Simply that we will extend your subscription for a year. For example, if your subscription would have expired with the Autumnal Equinox 2004 issue, then it currently expires with this issue. If it would have expired with the Winter Solstice 2004 issue, then it will expire with our Winter 2005 issue. And so on. We have altered the codes on the mailing labels to reflect this change, so you can still see when your subscription will expire: F05, W05, V06, S06, etc. For ease of indexing, pagination for the last two issues of 2005 will continue forward from the Summer 2004 issue, and a combined two-year index will appear in the Winter 2005 issue. In other publishing news, we have finally been able to scare up the funds to reprint our monograph Salvia Divinorum and Salvinorin A: The Best of The Entheogen Review 1992–2000. While the main text of this reprint is unchanged, minor alterations have been made to the resources appendix in order to bring it up-to-date. Due to the high cost of short print runs, the retail price for this book has increased slightly. It now sells for $29.00 (USA), $34.00 (foreign), postpaid. We only have a very limited stock of these, and may not reprint it again. Finally, we want to announce the availability of an exhaustive index for the years that Jim DeKorne was editor of The Entheogen Review, from 1992–1997. This index was manually produced by ER contributor S. Bear. It took him years to complete and is clearly a labor of love—a tribute to the publication. We are pleased to be able to offer such a useful addition for the first time. This 32-page index can be downloaded for free from www.entheogenreview.com, or a printed version is available for $6.00, postpaid.

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Albert Hofmann • Chemist, Discoverer of LSD Stephen Abrams • Soma Research Association/Avalon Botanicals Guenter Amendt • Social Scientist, Therapist, Publicist Mathias Broeckers • Literary Scholar, Publicist Eric Burdon • Composer, Musician (The Animals) Hans Cousto • Mathematician and Musicologist Rick Doblin • Founder and President of MAPS John Dunbar • Artist, Co-founder of the Indica Gallery, London

PROBLEM CHILD & WONDER DRUG JANUARY 13–15, 2006 Held at the Convention Center in Basel, Switzerland

Jochen Gartz • Chemist, Mycologist Sergius Golowin • Researcher of Myths, Folklorist Alex Grey • Visionary Artist Charles S. Grob • Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, UCLA Stanislav Grof • Founder of International Transpersonal Association Christina Grof • Founder of the Spiritual Emergence Network Sue Hall • Trance Dancer, Psychonaut, Buddhist, DJ

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Dr. Albert Hofmann (January 11th, 2006), the Gaia Media Foundation presents an international symposium dedicated to the most well known and controversial discovery of this outstanding scientist.

John Halpern • Doctor, Harvard’s McLean Hospital

Lectures • Panels • Seminars • Workshops Concerts • Exhibitions • Parties

Martin A. Lee • Journalist, Writer

Since April 19, 1943, the day that Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychoactive effects of LSD, millions of people all over the world have experienced a higher reality with profound and psychological insights and spiritual renewal; created innovative social transformation, music, art, and fashion; were healed from addiction and depression; and experienced enlightened insights into the human consciousness. At this symposium, experts will present an in-depth review of all aspects of this unique phenomenon: informing and discussing the history, experiences, and implications, as well as assessing the risks and benefits of this most potent of all psychoactive substances. Presentations will be simultaneously or consecutively translated into German or English. For more information and to register, see:

Felix Hasler • Neuropharmacologist, Hallucinogen Researcher Ulrich Holbein • Publicist, Writer John “Hoppy” Hopkins • Photographer Michael Horowitz • Publicist, Editor of Aldous Huxley’s Moksha Michael Klett • Publisher Stanley Krippner • Professor, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco Ralph Metzner • Consciousness Researcher and Psychotherapist Mark McCloud • Artist, Art Historian Barry Miles •Journalist, Writer, Co-founder of the International Times Michael Mithoefer • Psychiatrist, Medical University of South Carolina Valerie Mojeiko • MAPS Program Director/Clinical Research Associate Claudia Müller-Ebeling • Art Historian, Anthropologist Amanda Feilding, Lady Neidpath • The Beckley Foundation David E. Nichols • Co-founder of the Heffter Research Institute Reynold Nicole • Astrologist Jonathan Ott • Chemist, Ethnobotanist, Writer, Translator Christian Rätsch • Anthropologist, Ethnopharmacologist Micky Remann • Media Artist, Inventor of “Liquid Sound,” Writer Carl P. Ruck • Mythologist Manuel Schoch • Therapist, Founder of “Time Therapy” Andrew Sewell • Psychiatrist, Harvard Medical School Alexander T. Shulgin • Pharmacologist, Chemist Ann Shulgin • Psychedelic Researcher, Lay-Therapist Blaise Staples • Comparative Theologian Wolf-Dieter Storl • Ethnobotanist and Cultural Anthropologist Juraj Styk • Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist Rolf Verres • Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Clinic Heidelberg Franz X. Vollenweider • Consciousness Researcher, Psychotherapist Peter Webster • Chemist, Consciousness Researcher

www.lsd.info

Fred Weidmann • Visionary Artist Carlo Zumstein • Foundation for Living Shamanism and Spirituality

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Albert Hofmann Speaks… in conversation with Rick Doblin, Charles Grob, John Halpern, Michael Mithoefer, and Andrew Sewell (shown left, top to bottom)

January 11, 2006, is the 100th birthday of Dr. Albert Hofmann. On the day after his 99th birthday in 2005, he was interviewed via phone—broadcast live on the Internet—by a collection of contemporary psychedelic researchers. The following transcription of that conversation has been edited and adapted to make it easier to read. An audio file containing most of the actual conversation (missing only a short bit from the front and back ends) can be downloaded from www.maps.org/conferences/ah99/howto.html. Andrew Sewell: It’s a pleasure to speak with you today, Dr. Hofmann. Dr. Halpern and I are working toward restarting clinical trials with LSD and psilocybin at Harvard, and in pursuit of this I have been gathering a series of cases for publication of people who have successfully used these hallucinogens to treat their cluster headaches. As you know, a cluster headache is a trigeminal autonomic cephalgia that causes such intense pain that people sometimes will even kill themselves to escape it. Although we have medications that can make it more bearable, most have severe side effects or are difficult to take. In the meantime, a grassroots group of cluster headache sufferers, the Clusterbusters, has discovered that three doses of psilocybin or a single dose of your LSD can cure their headaches for as long as a year! I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you some of the data I have collected prior to its publication. I have 93 cases of patients who have used psilocybin. Thirty-seven found it 100% effective and a further 46 found it partially effective in aborting a headache cluster. Of 32 who took it while they had a headache, 30 found it effective in treating the individual headache. What is particularly interesting is that 47% of these patients achieved headache control with a dose of psilocybin that did not cause hallucinogenic effects. I have a further 11 cases who treated their headaches with LSD. Ten found it to be 100% effective in aborting a cluster and the remaining person found it improved the headaches more than 75%. Again, half were able to achieve therapeutic success with a sub-psychedelic dose, sometimes as little as 25 micrograms. I trust you find these results as exciting as we do, and we all look forward to the day when your “problem child” can become a “miracle child!” Rick Doblin: When you were first synthesizing LSD for Sandoz, back in 1938, what did you think it might be used for at that point? What kind of a medicine where you looking for through the whole ergot series?

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Albert Hofmann: I was looking for a substance like a psychological stimulant, like uh—what is name of…




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Albert: Not amphetamine, no, no…

substance, plant, and it was always used in a sacred environment with priests, by priests. And LSD belongs to these safe plants. One must realize it is not just a stimulant, or just a sleeping pill. It really changes the very heart of the human being, which is the consciousness. And one must always be conscious of this fact.

Andrew: Hydergine? Mescaline?

Rick: And we need it so much, in today’s world.

Albert: The fourth ring of lysergic acid is a ring like in…

Albert: Our society needed a change in consciousness. Just to see what is important in life, what is very important. Not the technical world. But that we realize that we are part of creation of the living Nature. We must become conscious of that. And that is something that is not just a medicine, it is the product of a sacred plant. I think for the future, I can imagine that LSD could be a sacred medicine in a meditation sense. Meditation centers like Eleusis, where people would try to get deeper in the ego, probe the consciousness, and have the possibility to have this experience, with a pure substance, in a wonderful environment, and with guides who know these things. That is my vision for the future. Something like Eleusis.

Rick: Like amphetamine?

Rick: Serotonin? Albert: No, no… mon dieu what is it? Andrew: Ergotamine? Albert: Nicotinic acid diethylamide, do you know the name for this? It is… Andrew: NAD. Albert: …coramine! I thought it could be used like coramine because the structure of lysergic acid is the nicotinic acid structure. And therefore I prepared an analogue of this coramine, which is this nicotinic acid diethylamide. I prepared the diethylamide of lysergic acid because of this chemical similarity. And I expected this—like coramine—to be a stimulant of heart and lung, a stimulant of circulation. That was because I believed in analogy of chemical structure. And it was a heart stimulant and not a stimulant for breathing, but it became extremely, as you know, what it is! (laughs) Rick: (laughs) And an even more important stimulant of the mind. Albert: Yes, yes, it is really. And what I always must say is, one should realize, such kinds of medicines have been used for over 3000 years, always as sacred drugs. Never just as other things. It was always sacred, like ololiuqui and mushrooms. It was always for contact with higher forces, with our higher consciousness. And we should realize this. Why did people 3000 years ago use mushrooms and the ololiuqui? That was a special kind of substance. They realized it changes our consciousness. And a consciousness is the heart of the human being. And it quite different from just a stimulant, or just something sleep-producing. It is a change of our consciousness.…It cannot be compared with others. It is the same… imagine in fact ololiuqui, it is practically this very old

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Rick: This is a little bit out of order, but Charlie could you tell Albert about the efforts in the United States to legalize the religious use of ayahuasca? Because, I think that the kind of centers you’re talking about, Albert, they may be possible. Charles  S. Grob: Well, I’ve done research with one of the ayahuasca churches of Brazil, the União do Vegetal, or UDV. And in the early ’90s, they established Center in the United States, primarily in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1999, Customs and the DEA confiscated their ayahuasca, preventing them from conducting their ceremonies. The UDV in the United States filed suit against the Justice Department. In 2001, the case was heard in federal court, and to my surprise, the federal judge ruled in favor of the UDV, primarily on the issue of health and safety. The federal judge ruled that the government had not established that there were health and safety risks with ayahuasca. The federal judge did not agree with the UDV, however, that they were entitled to equal protection under law in regards to the Native American Church; that the Native American Church was a discrete nation, and had made a separate treaty with the United States. In any event, the Justice Department appealed the federal judge’s ruling, and it went to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. It was heard by a panel, the panel ruled 2 to 1 in favor of the UDV. Again it was appealed by the Justice

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Department, it went to the full appeals court, and, a couple months ago that court ruled 8 to 5, again in favor of the UDV. At that point it was appealed and went to the Solicitor General, and it looked initially like it was going to be heard by the Supreme Court, but several weeks ago, the Supreme Court essentially lifted the injunction against the UDV using ayahuasca in their religious ceremonies, allowing the Church to hold—as far as I was told—two ceremonies, around Christmas time. So, at this particular point in time, there does appear to be a legal use of ayahuasca within the context of a particular religious structure, the União do Vegetal. So things have moved forward, to a surprising degree, given the increasingly conservative direction our federal government is taking. Albert: Yes, I have no experience with ayahuasca. I cannot compare it, as I have no experience. But I think LSD is really a very dangerous drug if it is not legalized, if it is not used in a psychologically controlled way. It is a sacred drug. What else can I say? And it may be ayahuasca has the same use. But what I know from the chemical point, it is quite different. Imagine: it is a part of a gram, a microgram, which is used for LSD. It is the very very most active psychologically working substance that we have. And also very specific. Therefore I think, I cannot compare it with ayahuasca. I don’t know, maybe ayahuasca could also be used only in a religious context. I just can’t compare it, because I have no experience with ayahuasca. Charles: One protective factor with ayahuasca against it being used recreationally is that it often causes significant gastrointestinal side effects, deterring many individuals from using it in a recreational context. I am only aware of ayahuasca use in a group ceremonial setting. Rick: Can you describe, Charlie, what you think the subjective similarities and difference are between ayahuasca and LSD? Charles: That’s a tough one, in just a couple minutes. Really, it depends so much on the set and setting. But it does appear to induce quite a profound subjective psychedelic state. If you were to compare it to anything, perhaps it would be closest to mushrooms. And there is the potential, if used under optimal conditions with the appropriate intention, for individuals to have very powerful religious/spiritual epiphanies, which can be utilized to motivate transformational changes in their lives subsequently. It is a shorter-acting substance than LSD. LSD is an eight- to ten-hour experience.




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Ayahuasca is generally only four hours or so. So in a sense, more manageable. It induces significantly more somatic side effects. But the internal state is, I think, within the realm of psychedelic experience and quite profound and valuable when used under ideal conditions. Albert: Like I told you, I have no experience with ayahuasca. Rick: Well, Albert, there’s still time…(chuckles) Albert: And the history of ayahuasca, has it also been a holy drug in antiquity? Charles: Well, because of the weather conditions for archeological evidence in that part of the world, it’s hard for things to be preserved. Nevertheless, there’s quite good indication that ayahuasca was used by the native tribes going back long before the Europeans came into that area… that it was used for native religious purposes, but also to facilitate practical matters, such as facilitating the hunt. In a sense it would prepare the hunters to find game, and the like. But also it had a spiritual context in which it was used. Throughout the Amazon basin, wherever the plants would grow wild, the native people seemed to figure out how to utilize them. And they utilize them in a consistent manner, from area to area. Albert: Hmm. Rick: I think, Albert, the idea of the meditation centers, and the idea of spiritual use of LSD, that’s going to be a little bit harder, because that’s an individual’s personal connection to spirituality… whereas, at least in our legal system, for the foreseeable future, these drugs have to be like ayahuasca use within the UDV, within a social structure or a religious context, based on group religion. We’re not quite at the point yet where individuals can have their own approach to spirituality directly, in some kind of a legal context outside of a particular religion. But is an opening for the UDV… Charles: It’s a necessary first step, and perhaps… the UDV is a Christian church, certainly many people would debate the merits of that. Nevertheless, from a political point of view, I’m sure that has helped the political process to move forward. Rick: John, would you mind now talking a little bit more about our research projects here, and what you’re doing with the LSD/psilocybin cluster-headache project, as well?

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John Halpern: Sure. Greetings Dr. Hofmann, happy birthday. Albert: Thank you.

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John: When I saw you at the last European College for the Study of Consciousness conference, I had to apologize to you for not speaking any German. Now I apologize that all I can say is entschuldigen Sie and sprechen sie Deutsch. So it’s still in English. You heard from Dr. Andrew Sewell, about the progress we’re making in looking at what people are telling us; that LSD in particular, and psilocybin, do something that no current standard medications offer for these people. It may truly alter and improve cluster headache, which is the worst headache of them all; people commit suicide to get away from this type of headache. So it’s compelling. It’s just the sort of research project that somebody involved in academic research for helping people, lives to discover, I think: that we might be able to offer a true relief for people who don’t really have anywhere to turn anymore. And so, your problem child may be a savior for a very important population of patients. Andrew didn’t mention it, but he’s a psychiatrist and a neurologist. I think that’s what it would take, because obviously LSD should be administered by physicians most familiar with the psychological components of the acute effects of LSD. Fortunately we have somebody who’s an expert on headaches working with us on this, too. It’s really quite promising; we’ve held initial meetings with the administration here at Harvard’s McClean Hospital. They’re supportive of it because they’ve met some of these patients, and they’ve even seen a video of what it’s like for a person to go through the traumatic experience of this type of headache. It’s truly a terrifying thing to behold. And to see a group of people seeking us out that were not from any drug reform movement, or advocacy movement; they came from this community of support for people who have cluster headache—that they sought us out because they discovered that this really improves their lives, it’s just remarkable to hear this from these people. So the credibility of how this is starting out goes a long way. I think that’s the first part of it. The other part is trying of course to make sure we have the LSD to use, and I’m glad to report that I think that we will have Drs. Yensen and Dryer transferring to us the Sandoz LSD that they still retain, that’s from a study that’s still on hold with the FDA. So Sandoz LSD may eventually be used in this coming project for cluster headache. I thought you’d be pleased to hear that. The LSD was taken up under argon, so it still should be pure and active. This study will, I’m sure, be quite controversial, when it starts getting press attention. But we will be focusing on that it’s about these patients and helping them, and being good, caring physicians, nothing more, nothing less. The political side of it I will leave to our other friends. And, hopefully that will change the way this country and the world takes a look at your problem child. We should be reporting back to you more good news, I think over this year. The other study that I’m actively working on right now is similar to one that Dr. Grob is going to tell you about with his project. I have FDA approval to give MDMA to cancer patients who have less than a year to live, and have a diagnosis of Associated Anxiety Disorder. It will be with twelve individuals, and there will be six non-drug sessions, and two sessions where people will be receiving MDMA in conjunction with psychotherapy. We will be tracking whether this changes their

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sense of pain, their use of medication, their use of benzodiazepine anti-anxiety medications. And we will be videotaping the sessions, primarily to deepen the psychotherapy— the patient can take it home and watch it—but also for training purposes, and even in case there’s something that might go wrong. We expect to be able to start that study in the next two years. Then…

Rick: Because that’s something that was just sort of lost in the history of LSD research. I mean, I had not even heard of cluster headaches before the cluster headache patients came to us, and said that LSD and psilocybin helped them. Now Andrew, you had assumed that it’s not the actual psychoanalysis, though, because some people have said that with LSD it’s from the sub-psychedelic threshold dose.

Rick: Wait, start the study in the next two years? We hope to start within the…

Andrew: I think the psychedelic effects are not related to the headache-abating effects.

John: I’m sorry, within the next two months.

Albert: Yes. It was used for people who did not, could not, were not able to respond to analysis; with LSD an opening could be created by the psychiatrist.

Rick: (laughs) Okay… John: Thank you Rick. He’s paying for all this, Dr. Hofmann, so he’s carefully watching the timeline. Rick: John, one other thing… Albert talked about how in a way these substances should be approached in a spiritual context? Could you talk a little bit about that? Because you’re going to be working with people who are dying, and so this is kind of a combination of psychiatry and sacred spirituality to help people deal with mortality. Albert: I remember when LSD was a substance distributed by Sandoz—I called it already, “a pharmacological aid to psychoanalysis”—I had nine people write me that they had terrible headaches. They had even had psychoanalysis but it had not helped. It was people who were seventy or sixty years old, who had had a lifelong headache, and psychoanalysis without result. The first session of psychoanalysis with the help of LSD, opened the person so that he healed. They told me that really that completely changed their life. And that was legal, and not a religious use, but I was impressed that people had analysis for years and years without any help, and under LSD, analysis was successful. If it could be possible that LSD could be used officially, as a medical aide in psychoanalysis, then we have the possibility to get more experience and can study the mechanism and the very use of LSD. One could continue what was interrupted in the ’60s. This pharmacological help in psychoanalysis, that would be a very clear indication. Rick: It’s so exciting to hear you say that, about how people spontaneously talked to you about the use of LSD with headaches, and having the headaches go away.

John: I spoke with Jan Bastiaans, just a few months before he passed away, and he told me virtually exactly everything you just said now about his life work, and using LSD in his analytic practice in Holland, and he was very worried that something that he was convinced truly made all the difference for those patients—who could not talk about, for example, the trauma of the Holocaust—that it was the LSD that opened them up, and allowed them to talk finally about this very difficult material. He was very worried for the students that he left behind, to carry on the work. So, this time around, we’re going to do everything in the open. Our protocol is on the Internet for people to read, and it will get published, and hopefully we will be challenging our colleagues— if they don’t believe our work—to try to replicate it, and disprove us. So that the work with LSD, or MDMA, or psilocybin, will be approached fully from within accepted modern scientific research. I was very excited that yesterday, on your birthday, I was invited to Brown University to present on psychedelic research to the residency in psychiatry. At the conclusion of the lecture, I asked all the residents if any of them felt that this work should not happen. And not a single one raised their hand. So we may be at this point, that it’s acceptable to move forward with this type of work, doing it fully in a legitimate and legal way, and answer these questions that seem so promising. Rick asked about the spiritual side of the work, and I would just answer that by saying that we won’t shy away from it, we won’t run away from the spiritual component involved with it. In fact, if that is what comes up primarily in the discussed material with the participants, then we will go towards it, and see if we can help deepen their direct spiritual experience. And hopefully, we have the tools that we can capture that this is a valid and therapeutic response.

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Rick: I should add that I think there is definitely something sacred about the scientific process as well. Many of us have so much hope and faith that through the rigorous scientific process there is a way to get closer to truth and that there’s something beautiful and sacred about science. It’s not surprising in a way then, that science would help us look at, with psychedelics, the spirituality in people’s life, and mortality. John: Well, with the results from my study of the Navajo, who use peyote—mescaline—in their religious ceremonies, I did not find any problems in thinking. I did find that they report healthier lives, more lifetime satisfaction, less depression, less anxiety in their life, better connections to their community. And it even was dose-dependent—those who had been participating in the church the longest, or the most, had the most vibrant differences from those who do not follow the Native American Church, and follow different religions. So: one part religion, one part phenethylamine for them. Rick: I was thinking, Charlie, that you’d speak next, but Michael, do you have to leave at one? Michael Mithoefer: I do, yeah. Rick: So maybe Michael, if you could talk next about our MDMA/post-traumatic stress disorder study? Michael: I’d be happy to. Rick: Charlie, do you have time?

though this is MDMA—I feel a great debt of gratitude to you and your work. Because my wife and I, who are the co-therapists in the study, have both studied with Stan Grof. He’s been an important teacher and mentor for us. The model for the way we approach working with people in our MDMA study comes from his LSD psychotherapy, which of course he developed working with LSD. So, this is very much a follow-up of your work, in that way. What we’re finding is, well, several important points, I think. One is that we pay a great deal of attention to set and setting. We have a very amenable place for people to work, and we’re with the subjects during their MDMA sessions for eight hours, to support them in their experience. Actually, now there are two stages of the study. The first stage is double-blind placebo-controlled. Sixty percent of people get MDMA on two occasions, and forty percent get placebo on two occasions. Then along with that there are eleven other psychotherapy sessions—two beforehand, and others after the sessions. So there’s a lot of attention paid to preparing people for the experience, and then supporting them in integrating the experience. I think all of that is also in the tradition that you’ve spoken about so eloquently today, that these substances need to be used in a way that gives a lot of attention to the intention and the support with appropriate guides; the way they’re used makes all the difference. So we’re paying a lot of attention to that. We’ve just recently gotten permission to do a second stage, in which the people who got placebos will be then offered two MDMA sessions, so they’ll act as their own controls. We’re looking forward to now starting to work in that way. Albert: I wish you much success in your studies, in your work.

Charles: Yeah, I’ve got a few minutes. Rick: Okay. Michael: Hello, Dr. Hofmann. It’s an honor to talk to you today, and happy birthday. Albert: Thank you, thank you. Michael: We’re doing a pilot study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, for people with post-traumatic stress disorder that has not responded to conventional treatments. We started this study in March of this year, we got our final approval in February of 2004. The study is going to include twenty subjects altogether, and thus far five people have finished the study, and we have some others who are getting ready to start. One thing I want to say at the outset—even

Michael: Thank you very much. I appreciate that. We’re very encouraged about the way it’s going so far, and I very much appreciate getting your thoughts about this whole study thing. Rick: Michael, could you describe the recent expansion of the study? Michael: Yes, initially, our protocol called for working with crime-related PTSD only, people who had been raped, or who had suffered childhood sexual abuse, or other violent incidents. And now the FDA granted us permission to work with war veterans—people who, in this case, have had PTSD for less than five years. There’s now the possibility to work with some people returning from Afghanistan or Iraq with PTSD.

Rick: I think this will make our study more acceptable, too, to the American public, because we’re working with people who are very sympathetic to the general population. Starting to work with war-related post-traumatic stress disorder, and then also working with cancer patients, I think we’re trying to show that these substances and these states of mind don’t inherently make people drop out of society, or want to start a counter culture—that we can weave them into our culture as it is, and as it will grow. Hopefully, we won’t be rejected and repressed the way it was 40 years ago, when this all came up so strong; and that now, I think, after several generations, hopefully the culture is better able to accept and integrate these states of mind and the ways we’re trying to help people with them. Michael: It’s been interesting to me that—you know, our numbers are still very small, but—the people who have come to these studies have not been people who have used a lot of these kinds of drugs. They’ve used a lot of prescription medications, but they’re people—many of them—to whom it never occurred that they would use any substance like this. But they were so desperate to find a solution and their therapist referred them, and they’ve gone back to rather conventional lives, but with many fewer symptoms. The experience so far is very consistent with that, that these can be used in the context of mainstream culture, without causing disruption in people’s lives, but with causing possibly a real improvement. Albert: Uh, Rick…? Yes. I thank you very, very much for helping to bring this material, Sandoz documentation, to the Internet. And I ask you, wouldn’t it be very important to analyze this material; I am sure that many experimental results could be used for the future. Rick: Yes, I think that’s very true… Albert: It is very important, this material, with three to four thousand items. I am very, very happy that you brought it to the Internet, and why not use this material? And analyze it and see? I think very much experiential experimental material is contained there. Rick: Yes. I think actually as part of our application to the FDA, to the McLean Hospital institutional review board, for the LSD study, and the psilocybin study with cluster headaches, we will be reviewing all of the literature as it relates to the safety of the compound, and anything we can see about its use for headaches, and then we’ll also continue on with

that project, to try to analyze the existing information about therapeutic uses. We’ve had to do that with MDMA, and so far we’ve spend about $125,000 reviewing several thousand studies with MDMA, to summarize that, and then submit that to FDA and the institutional review boards. I think with the cluster headache study that gives us the opportunity to try to do something similar with the LSD and the psilocybin literature. And I’m just so glad that you saved all those papers over the years, because a lot of those papers we would have had a very difficult time finding in libraries; many of them are before the 1960s, they’re not even indexed on Medline. So that fact that you had a pretty complete collection we were able to scan and digitize and archive on the Internet; it really helped save this whole field of research for the future, and now anybody can access the archive for free. And analyzing it is on our agenda. It is the next thing that we’ll be doing as part of the LSD/psilocybin cluster headache protocol. Albert: Yes, very important. Another thing: After LSD came into medical use, I was asked by physicians if we should make an LSD which would work only three hour. LSD is… difficult to work with because it lasts twelve hours. And you need too much to surveil the patient when working with LSD. And, what do you think about that? Is that real reason for not using LSD, and looking for other substances, because LSD works too long? Rick: I don’t think that that’s a valid reason. In fact, I remember one time Stan Grof was talking about how, when people smoked DMT, that they have unusual experiences, but it doesn’t seem to necessarily produce therapeutic changes. He also said something similar about ketamine, that it also produces very dramatic experiences but they only last a relatively short time. And Stan thought that sometimes the length of time that you’re in an altered state experience permits you to learn more. Because a lot of times there’s the defenses— it’s scary material, and people run away from what’s coming up in their minds. Then they gather strength and…over time can look at it again, and they get more and more benefit from it, the longer the experience lasts. I am thinking right now of ibogaine, which is used in the treatment of addiction, and that lasts, I would say, sometimes even longer than LSD. I think really that it’s more that psychiatry and psychotherapy need to change, to work around the gifts that LSD offers, rather than we should try to squeeze LSD into the traditional analytic model of the fifty-minute therapy session.

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Andrew: Also, there’s the issue that one dose of LSD has an effect, that makes it different from conventional medications that have to be taken every day. If one LSD session is the equivalent of, say, twelve psychotherapy sessions, the total amount of time you’re spending on it is the same. Rick: Ayahuasca is in a sense that sort of a drug, it’s like a two- or three-hour LSD experience, somewhat similar—although Charlie says its closer to mushrooms—but there are short-acting psychedelics, and they do have a role in their religious use. I think that the União do Vegetal wouldn’t be able to use a longer-acting drug as easily. Although the Native American Church, again, has used peyote in all-night ceremonies. So I think the value of the time that you’re in the altered state, LSD, just the way it is, is tremendously potentially therapeutic and inspirational and spiritual, and I don’t think that that’s really a reason to try to abandon it and look for a shorter-acting substance. I mean, MDMA is shorteracting, and it has a therapeutic use, but I think, in these meditation centers of the future, all these psychedelic clinics, that there will be a spectrum of substances that people could go there to experience. And that the therapists will be trained to work with a range of substances. They may start with MDMA, or move to ayahuasca, and then move to LSD; there may be a sequence, but I think that LSD just exactly the way it is will have a very important role in these meditation centers and psychedelic clinics. Michael: I think our experience with MDMA supports the value of a longer time of a process, because even though the MDMA lasts four or five hours, we’re with the people for eight hours, then they spend the night, and use that time in a meditative way with a support person there. Then we meet with them again for an hour and a half the next morning. So actually, it’s a 24-hour experience for them all together, and I think that’s tremendously valuable. Albert: Mm, hmm. Rick: Charlie, would you like to explain about your study now? Charles: Sure. Mike: Oh excuse me, I’m going to have to get off, but I’m sorry to miss what you’re going to say. I’ve really enjoyed this discussion, I thank you all.




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Charles: Hello again, Dr. Hofmann! First, again, many, many thanks and much gratitude, for your laying the foundation to this field, because obviously none of what we’re talking about, none of these exciting new developments, could have occurred without the critical work you did many years ago. Also, let me just allude to one issue that you and John brought up about the transcendental, or spiritual, experience that might be induced by psychedelics. Just looking back at the old literature, in particular at the literature with alcoholics and drug addicts, finding that what often was the critical, distinguishing, variable between those patients who had positive therapeutic outcome versus those who did not, was that those who did seemed to have some kind of transpersonal or spiritual epiphany. So that might be—even though modern medicine and psychiatry recoil to some degree at the notion of looking at spirituality as therapeutic— a critical component of the psychological mechanism of therapeutic effect. But getting to our study, we have a study at Harbor UCLA Medical Center that’s been developed with the Heffter Research Institute; we’re approved to treat patients with advanced cancer—Stage Three and Stage Four metastatic cancer, who have tremendous overwhelming anxiety—with moderate-dose psilocybin. Thus far we’ve treated two subjects with good effect; we have a third that we’re going to treat next week. Anxiety is the key symptom we’re looking at, secondarily we’re looking at mood, pain, need for narcotics to suppress pain, and quality of life. Essentially it’s a placebo-controlled, double-blind, each subject acts as their own control, and they will have an active medicine session and a placebo session. The order is variable, so— and it’s all double-blind, so we don’t know what they’re getting on each occasion—each of the subjects will have an experience. We are having some challenges recruiting patients for this study, we are actively looking for new patients; interestingly, all of our subjects to date had prior psychedelic experience back in the 1960s and 1970s, so when they heard of the study they understood implicitly the mechanism and the rationale, so those are the subjects at least who have stepped forward at this point. But again, it’s proved to be somewhat challenging getting the word out about our need for subjects. I’m taking this opportunity to mention that. We’re encouraged, with the overall structure of the study, and our results to date. Again, much gratitude and appreciation for your critical work years ago, and your continued support for our efforts in recent years. Rick: Charlie, what do you think about the length of time that you have to spend with people with psilocybin?

(Goodbyes)

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Charles: We’re with them for six hours. That’s the structure of the session, and that appears to be quite adequate for what we’re doing. The subjects we’ve worked with thus far felt they got a great deal out of the experience. I would say moving beyond six hours becomes, logistically, more challenging for the treatment facilitator. You’d almost have to have teams ready, one team replacing the other. A ten, twelve hour, closely-monitored experience would be pretty arduous for the doctor and the nurse team. I would also say that, I’ve studied ayahuasca quite a bit, it’s generally at maximum a four hour experience…but, the subjective sense of time certainly slows down. So, what objectively may be measured at four hours could be an eternity for the individual in the experience. Certainly the report I hear over and over again is that tremendously valuable information is gained during even the short time period compared to LSD. I don’t necessarily think it’s essential to have a marathon session, although there might be some advantages in particular situations. Rick: Do you see any arguments against LSD or psilocybin because they last so long? Charles: No, not necessarily, it’s a relative issue. Certainly, its therapeutic capacities need to be explored, and compared to these other medicines. It would not be a prohibitive factor, it’s a logistical consideration. Rick: Now, one other question, this is also for you, John, because the history of the research working with the terminally ill is really with LSD. Starting Eric Kast in the early ’60s, and then Aldous Huxley, who took LSD… Charles: It’s mostly with LSD, although Grof did work with dipropyltryptamine, which is somewhat shorter-acting. Rick: So now we’re starting with psilocybin and MDMA, and I think that, along this line, we should think about adding— at some point, after we have the cluster headache study approved—a group that receives LSD. I’m wondering, John or Charlie, your intuition: do you think there will be significant therapeutic differences between psilocybin and MDMA and LSD, or do they all more or less open people up to their emotions, and more or less act in a similar way? John: Well, I think it relates to what Charlie was mentioning earlier, harking back to the few lasting positive contributions we have from the days of Leary, which is set and setting. And as we gain more direct experience in working with these compounds again, we’re going to be better able to help




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prepare our subjects, our patients, for realizing the full potential of the treatment. And so, any of those substances can induce no sense of spirituality or connection with something greater. It really is the intention that goes into it, and the preparation, and of course the setting, and we’ll be hard at work to try to optimize those. Of all of the substances, MDMA is starkly different than LSD and psilocybin, because there’s preservation of ego, even in higher doses. Especially with larger doses of LSD and psilocybin, that’s a more difficult thing to try to prepare individuals for—that they may lose their sense of self, as part of the process of the experience. Charles: I agree. I also think that my best sense of this would be that all of these substances will have significant value over not utilizing this model of treatment at all. Nevertheless, within this model I think we’re going to see some distinct differences between MDMA—a phenethylamine empathogen—on the one hand, and LSD or psilocybin—classic psychedelic substances—on the other. Rick: To really experimentally get at that, would either of you be interested in a future study where we have a group that gets randomized either to LSD or psilocybin or MDMA? Charles: Sure. In the best of all possible worlds, you bet. John: I would, absolutely. And I would just throw in one other, and that is mescaline. Charles: Sure. That would bring in the third classic hallucinogen. And we should also consider what might the applications of ayahuasca be? Although ayahuasca will have some challenging considerations, given drug-drug interactions, and some individuals might not be wise to use ayahuasca. Nevertheless, with all the treatment applications here, ayahuasca may have a very valuable place, ultimately. Rick: Albert, I’m wondering if you have any suggestions for us about things that we might want to look into regarding LSD and psilocybin? I remember, a while ago, you said one of the most unexplored areas of research with LSD was low doses? Albert: Yes, that would be interesting. Just as a kind of pleasure drug. Heh heh. Rick: Ah.

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Albert: Very, very low doses; this could be a worthwhile study. I have used it, sometimes, just very small doses, for walking and thinking. This could be a worthwhile study. Rick: What kind of doses are you talking about, when you would go out walking?




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Albert: There is already a large number of studies, literature is already there, experience by these people that I named—Grof, and Kast, and Pahnke—very important research, and I think it should be followed up on. What do you think? Rick: I agree.

Albert: 25 microgram. Twenty-five, instead of 125. Or even lower: ten. Rick: Wow. Can you actually notice when you take ten micrograms? Can you notice that you’ve taken it? Albert: Oh, yes! Yes. An improved response to nature. Improved experience of nature, yes. And of thinking, a big improvement of thinking. But, may I just add to this discussion, quite another thing: the work of Kast, Walter Pahnke, and Grof—that it may be used for dying people. Rick: Yes. Albert: I think that is a so very, very important thing in our time: the people who are suffering terrible pain, which resists other pain medicaments, have been treated very successfully. And I think this should be continued, this study in dying people who suffer terrible pain. We have a big investigations and publications from Kast, Pahnke, and Grof. What do you think? That it be allowed; if the danger of becoming addicted to LSD would not exist, if you use it in this kind of a very, very important use in our time? Rick: Yes. I think we should definitely try to get LSD back into research for helping people with terminal illness. I think that for many people, LSD is the most controversial psychedelic of all. So I don’t think it’s surprising that right now, there’s not a single, legal study anywhere in the world in which LSD has been given to human subjects. And that we’ve been able to get permission for research with DMT, psilocybin, ibogaine, MDMA, and mescaline, and yet—so far, not yet—LSD. But I think that this LSD cluster headache study will be the one that will have an excellent chance of actually restarting LSD research. In a way I think it’s possible because it’s not LSD psychotherapy that we’re asking the regulatory authorities to accept, it’s pharmacological. And from there I think we can build to LSD for therapy. Albert: I think that it is the relief of pain, it is not just the… Rick: Ah yes. Oh, I see what you’re saying…

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Albert: I spoke with Grof, and he also thought personally that it would be very important in our time, the big discussion about dying people, with problems which do not have the help of religion. LSD could have a place as a pharmacological aide. Charles: Interestingly, Eric Kast, who focused solely on pain perception, used very low doses of LSD, and he did report a good outcome. Rick: Well, with the traditional narcotic painkillers, too, people at the end of life are often so sedated that they’re not paying attention, and not alert to the few moments they have left in life, and with LSD they report being able to lower the amount of other narcotic painkillers that they’re taking—so that people could be pain-free, and yet lucid and present to be with their families. I think that’s really very important. Albert: Yes. John: It’s going to be a long road, still, to get back to that study, I suspect. It’s important, I think, to first start getting a clinical study with LSD active, and the cluster headache one will be compelling. But of course people who are dying, anything that might truly help them is compelling as well. But there’s the reinventing of the wheel here, too. Dr. Kast’s work is now forty years old, and doesn’t meet the type of descriptive standards that we would want in a publication to be able to understand what he did. And sadly, Dr. Pahnke died an untimely death; otherwise, maybe we would have more answers today. And, Dr. Grof’s work was done at the closing of this last era of research with LSD. And clearly, the reports that were published on LSD and DPT and the Spring Grove experiments were overlooked by medicine, in the closing days of the research with LSD. Hopefully, one day soon, though, we will get back to this, because those reports are important and haven’t been forgotten. And I think Charlie Grob and I, we’re starting off with psilocybin and, MDMA for anxiety, for people who are dying; if we achieve positive results in these studies, it will bring us that much closer to revisiting this type of study as well.

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Rick: I guess that’s our main message to you, Albert, on your birthday—which actually was yesterday—that there is this continual effort to try to bring this field back to science, back to the forefront. I’m sure that we ourselves, when we’re older, we’ll only have accomplished a small fraction of what we see as the potential of what we could have accomplished. I’m feeling more comfortable too, now that I’m working a little bit more with younger people, that this is going to continue. For thousands of years, these substances have attracted human fascination, and we’re not going to let the ball drop, Albert. We’re going to keep working on it until we do bring these things back. And the next generation after us will continue it as well. Albert: (pauses) I didn’t really understand the whole thing, what you said. I could not follow, I’m sorry, my English is not very perfect. Heh heh. Rick: Oh, no, you’re doing great! I was just saying that our message to you on your birthday is that what you helped to discover, and brought to our lives, and the lives of the world—even though there’s been this thirty, forty years of repression, that it’s starting to end. We’re going to stick with it until we bring LSD research back to exploring its use for pain, and exploring its use in analysis, and exploring its use with cancer patients, and the confrontation with death. And that, even though we won’t be able to accomplish all that we hope to, there’ll be a younger generation after us that will continue on as well. And that, it’s been going for thousands of years, and I think this thirty, forty year period of repression is really kind of an unusual point in history. We’ll get back to the more standard, where cultures and people value these experiences. That’s what we’re working towards, and that’s what you’ve inspired us to do. Charlie : Many thanks again, Dr. Hofmann, for all your work creating this field, and laying down the foundation, which we’re now trying to develop in our contemporary times. Albert: Thank you. And may I speak something for my book, LSD, My Problem Child. It is, I think, the bible of the psychedelic movement, and it has been translated into eleven languages—even into Japanese and Hebrew. I would like, that it also be translated into Chinese and Russian, because it exists in all the other important languages. 




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Subsequent to this interview, a Russian translation of LSD, My Problem Child was posted at the MAPS web site, and a Chinese translation is underway, at a cost of about $4,000. MAPS also plans to reprint a new English edition (as the book is currently out-ofprint), to be released by Dr. HOFMANN’S birthday in January 2006. STUDY UPDATES Dr. MICHAEL and ANNIE MITHOEFER’S MAPS-sponsored U.S. MDMA/ PTSD study is almost at the half-way point, with a preliminary data analysis to be conducted after the 10th subject completes her final follow-up exam around the end of September. So far, 10 subjects have received a total of 18 MDMA experimental sessions and 6 placebo experimental sessions, along with lots of non-drug psychotherapy sessions. This includes 7 subjects who were randomized into the MDMA group, each of whom received 2 MDMA sessions. In addition, 2 subjects who were initially randomized into the placebo group chose to participate in Stage 2, in which they received 2 MDMA sessions on an unblinded “open label” basis as well as the same amount of non-drug psychotherapy. There have been no drugrelated “serious adverse events,” meaning that MAPS has spent $24,000 so far on an ER doc and ER nurse who have sat in the next room during the first five hours of each experimental session doing absolutely nothing. The outcome data is quite promising. If the second half of the study closely mirrors the first half, we’ll have a potential FDA-approved medication on our hands, assuming we can raise enough funds and train enough co-therapists to eventually test about 550 additional subjects. Due to the track record of 18 MDMA sessions conducted safely and with evidence of efficacy, MAPSsponsored MDMA/PTSD pilot studies in Israel and Switzerland are moving slowly but surely through the regulatory review process. Dr. ANDREW SEWELL has completed his MAPS-sponsored case report series of people who have used psilocybin/LSD to help them deal with their cluster headaches. Dr. SEWELL has gathered medical records and dosing and outcome information on over 40 people. This case report series—the largest ever complied on cluster headache patients—has been written up and submitted for publication. The results suggest that LSD and/or psilocybin do have efficacy in some patients after other medications have failed, and can in some instances be administered at sub-psychedelic threshold doses. The results are now guiding the design for a pilot study that will, if approved by FDA and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at HARVARD’S MCLEAN HOSPITAL, involve the administration of LSD and/ or psilocybin to cluster headache patients. We’re working to obtain approval for the study prior to Dr. ALBERT HOFMANN’S 100th birthday on January 11, 2006. Dr. JOHN HALPERN’S MAPS-sponsored study of the use of MDMAassisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with advanced cancer is expected to receive final approval from the DEA before the end of September. The FDA and the IRB at HARVARD’S MCLEAN HOSPITAL have already approved the study. Dr. CHARLES GROB’S HEFFTER RESEARCH INSTITUTE-sponsored study of the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with cancer is underway, with three subjects already having received both of their experimental sessions (one with psilocybin and one with placebo). Initial results suggest that this form of therapy can play an important role in the psychotherapeutic treatment of cancer patients.

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Novel Condensation of d-LA into d-LSD via PyPOB by Casey  William  “Freeblood” Hardison

Although the following piece is technically oriented, we feel that it will be of intellectual interest for those with an understanding of chemistry. Author Casey Hardison is a long-time friend to staff members of The Entheogen Review. His article “An Amateur Qualitative Study of 48 2C-T-7 Subjective Bioassays” appeared in the MAPS Bulletin 10(2): 11. He is currently serving a 20-year term imprisoned in the United Kingdom, one of the harshest punishments delivered in the U.K.: seven years outside the 1978 “Operation Julie” sentence of Richard Kemp, and six years outside the guidelines set by the 1996 Joseph Hurley case. We encourage ER readers to correspond with Casey via the address below.

EXPERIMENTAL

A recent publication by Dr. David  E. Nichols (Nichols et al. 2002) on the isomeric lysergamides of demethlazetidine catalyzed a revolution in the realm of clandestine LSD synthesis. I do not know if Dr. Nichols is to be credited with the first use of PyBOP for lysergamide condensation, as theoretical discussions on the use of a variety of peptide-coupling reagents have been occurring on The Hive (www.the-hive.ws) and Rhodium (www.rhodium.ws/chemistry/et2lsd.txt) web sites since 2001.

2.80 grams of lysergic acid was added to 100 ml of magnetically stirring CH2Cl2. To this was added 1.81 grams N,Ndiethlmethylamine and the solution was allowed to stir for five minutes. Then 5.70 grams of PyPOB was added and the solution was allowed to stir for an additional five minutes. Then 0.84 grams of diethylamine was added and the reaction was allowed to stir at RT for 60 minutes.

In early 2004, I engaged Dr. Nichols in a theoretical discussion as to his expected limits on scale-ability and it was clear that he did not know, as he is limited to NIDA quantities of the lysergic acid, i.e. > 250 mg.

The reaction mixture was quenched with 100 ml of 7.5M concentrated NH4OH, the layers were separated and the aqueous phase was then thrice extracted with 30 ml CH2Cl2, the organic layers were combined and rotary evaporated at 35°C under high vacuum.

After studying Dr. Nichols’ papers and the Internet, and doing further book research on peptide synthesis (Coste et al. 1990), I conducted a series of experiments to determine the limits and parameters of the reaction, i.e., the best solvent, the best tertiary scavenger amine, the best sequence of introducing the reagents, and the most effective reaction time.

The residue was dissolved in 40 ml of cold saturated NaHCO3 and extracted thrice with 20 ml EtOAc, the organic layers were combined and washed with deionized H2O, brine, and then dried over MgSO4, filtered and rotary evaporated at 40°C under high vacuum to a constant weight. Yield 3.13 grams before chromatography, 93%.

I worked with several solvents, but I found CH2Cl2 to be most suitable, as it evaporates easily and keeps the reaction temperature low. I worked with several tertiary amines, but N,N-diethylmethylamine added slowly after the dry lysergic acid gave the most effective results and work-up. I varied the reaction time between 30 to 120 minutes; however, I am of the opinion that the reaction completes in less than one hour. All reactions were conducted under a 15w red light, in an Argon atmosphere, and with dried SigmaAldrich solvents and reagents.

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Another run of 5.12 grams lysergic acid with the same amines, equivalents, and times, yielded 5.55 grams after chromatography, 90%.

THE WORK ENDS It is unfortunate that as I was perfecting this reaction, I was under police surveillance, brought to the attention of the London DEA by an informant in the United States. Donations accepted and desired (checks, money orders, books, letters, love, etc.); correspondence can be sent to: Casey Hardison • POWD LH5330 Her Majesty’s Prison, Parkhurst, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5NX, ENGLAND

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Shhh… Salvia divinorum and Secrecy by Daniel  J. Siebert Her real name must not be told— Her real name is closer to Medusa than to Mary — Dale Pendell (1995) Mazatec shamans grow Salvia divinorum in hidden locations and they are usually quite reluctant to discuss the plant with outsiders. Partly because of this tradition of secrecy, the plant remained unknown to the world-at-large until relatively recently. The history of the region may offer some explanation for why the Mazatecs have long been secretive about this plant. Spanish conquistadors first encountered the ritual use of vision-inducing plants by Native Americans during the sixteenth century (Sahagún 1950–1969). The Catholic Church viewed such plants as demonic agents being used for idolatrous communion and worship. On June 19, 1620, the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Mexico City formally declared ingestion of inebriating plants a heresy, and use of such plants was officially banned (Leonard 1942). Indians who violated the prohibition were often punished severely; in some cases they were tortured or killed. Consequently, those who continued to use these plants were forced to do so in utmost secrecy. This kind of persecution has persisted through the centuries. To this day, it continues. It is no exaggeration to characterize many of the world’s drug laws, even those of many of the most “progressive” nations, as Draconian. Although numerous visionary plants used in Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest have been identified in historical records, there is no persuasive evidence that the Spaniards knew about Salvia divinorum. In fact, we have no historical record clearly referring to this plant prior to 1938 (Johnson 1939), and it was not identified botanically until 1962 (Epling & Játiva-M. 1962). It remained relatively obscure until the mid1990s, at which time its properties began to be better understood, interest in the plant increased, and it began to receive widespread publicity. Unfortunately, increased public awareness and interest in the plant has made it vulnerable to governmental control. In 2002, Australia became the first country to make S. divinorum and salvinorin A illegal. Several other countries followed suit, including Denmark, Belgium, Italy, and South Korea. On August 15, 2005, Louisiana made S. divinorum illegal if intended for consumption. Both New

York and Missouri are considering legislation against the plant, and the city of St. Peters, MO has banned the sale of S. divinorum to minors. Although S. divinorum is not currently illegal in Mexico, there have been some cases in which S. divinorum plants belonging to Mazatec shamans were destroyed by the Mexican army indiscriminately enforcing their government’s anti-drug campaign. Fear of persecution is not the only motive for secrecy. Many people regard Salvia divinorum as something sacred, and feel that it should be kept away from those who might profane it. Some consider it a spiritual gift that should only be given to people who can appreciate it as such. And there are those who believe that secrecy is an intrinsic aspect of this “plant spirit.” Salvia divinorum often produces experiences that are quite personal and precious, so it is understandable that people would be selective about who they choose to share it with. Following my discovery of salvinorin A as the primary psychoactive component of Salvia divinorum, there were some people who expressed the opinion that I should keep my finding secret. Several people wrote me letters asking me not to publish information about the compound and its effects, fearing that increased public awareness would eventually lead to the classification of S. divinorum as a controlled substance. Unfortunately, such concerns are all-too-well founded; they clearly reflect the insalubrious environment of fear created by oppressive government policies that suppress fundamental human freedoms by making it a crime to possess and utilize visionary plants and compounds. I made a carefully weighed decision to share my discoveries. In 1994, I published my initial findings in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (Siebert 1994). This led to renewed scientific interest in S. divinorum. I am confident that this was the right decision. Salvia divinorum is an extremely beneficial plant. It is a plant of insight. People will continue to benefit from it regardless of any attempts to criminalize its use. The right to explore one’s own mind is utterly inalienable. Of course, Salvia divinorum can be quite powerful, and it is important that it be used intelligently. Too much secrecy can be a bad thing, especially now that S. divinorum is so widely available. People who are interested in experiencing it must

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be properly educated about the nature of its effects. It is unethical for people to provide S. divinorum to others unless they also provide information on how to use it wisely. There is a responsibility that comes with sharing it, and that responsibility is education. 

some relevant quotes

MARC EMERY BUSTED

There is something very pagan about it. I don’t think you should tell anybody about it (quoted in Pendell 1995). I think that it must be kept like a sort of “secret,” that you will only share with people that you trust in (Anon n.d.). Existe en Jalapa de Díaz un individuo llamado Felipe Miranda, quien cada tres o seis mesas va al cerro a recoger la yerba; hace excelentes curaciones y se encuentra en condiciones económicas muy buenas; dicen que cuida la yerba, pero no revela la clase de yerba de que se trata. (Weitlaner 1952) [There is in Jalapa de Díaz an individual named Felipe Miranda, who every three or six months goes to the mountains to gather the plant. He makes wonderful cures and finds himself in a good economic situation. They say he cultivates and tends to the plant, but he does not reveal the kind of plant that it is. (Translation from Wasson 1962.)] Many, perhaps most, Mazatec families possess a private supply of the plants, but almost invariably they are not near the home nor near trails where passers-by might see them. We were on the watch for Salvia divinorum as we criss-crossed the Sierra Mazateca on horseback in September and October of 1962, but never once did we see it. The Indians choose some remote ravine for the planting of it and they are loath to reveal the spots. No Indian in San José Tenango was willing to take us to the plants whence they brought back specimens to us (Wasson 1962). From an old curandera, a venerable woman in a strikingly magnificent Mazatec garment, with the lovely name Natividad Rosa, we received a whole bundle of flowering specimens of the sought-after plant, but even she could not be prevailed upon to perform a ceremony with the leaves for us. Her excuse was that she was too old for the hardship of the magical trip; she could never cover the long distance to certain places: a spring where the wise women gather their powers, a lake on which the sparrows sing, and where objects get their names. Nor would Natividad Rosa tell us where she had gathered the leaves. They grew in a very, very distant forest valley. Wherever she dug up a plant, she put a coffee bean in the earth as thanks to the gods (Hofmann 1983).

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On July 29th the DEA, in cooperation with Vancouver police, raided MARC EMERY’S BC MARIJUANA PARTY headquarters. On the same day, they arrested EMERY while he was attending a Cannabis rally. The United States wants EMERY sent to America to face charges for selling Cannabis seeds into the U.S., even though he has not broken any Canadian laws. In fact, EMERY’S activism has been a major reason why the laws in Canada are more reasonable today than they were a decade and a half ago. Since 1990, EMERY has worked as an activist for Cannabis. Through his efforts, the way that Cannabis is viewed in Canada has dramatically changed. Canada now has legal medical marijuana on a national level, and on April 19th of this year, they became the first country in the world to approve the pharmaceutical preparation Sativex®, a Cannabisbased drug used in treating pain related to multiple sclerosis. Back when MARC EMERY first began his activism, even just distributing books that mentioned Cannabis could result in up to six months in jail and/or a fine of up to $100,000. MARC has been arrested time and again to challenge the unjust laws in Canada. He is also the force behind HEMP BC (a headshop/bookstore), Cannabis Culture (a magazine), the BC MARIJUANA PARTY (a political group), EMERY SEEDS DIRECT (a Cannabis seed vendor), P OT -TV (an internet TV station), and ENTHEOGENESIS (a conference series).

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

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Five Things You Can Do To Help Marc Emery by Dana Larsen Please do your part to keep the U.S. drug war out of Canada! I have received many e-mails and messages from people asking me what they can do to help prevent Marc Emery from being extradited to the United States to face a lifetime in prison. Here are five simple, concrete things that anyone can do to make a positive impact on this situation. If you can donate even two hours of spare time each week to doing some of these five things you will be making a real difference. The first three things can and should be done by anyone in the world who supports this effort. The last two are for Canadians only. Please don’t just read this list and then do nothing. This is a very crucial battle and one we must win. 1) Call Irwin Cotler regularly. Canada’s Justice Minister is Irwin Cotler. It is largely his decision whether Canada will extradite Marc Emery. Cotler’s biography describes him as a “peace activist” who has devoted his life to supporting international human rights, free speech, freedom of religion, women’s rights, minority rights, war crimes justice and prisoners’ rights, but he has not proven himself to be a friend to the Cannabis culture. Please call each of these three phone numbers twice every week, and politely repeat your message every time. The goal is to keep these lines constantly tied up with calls and voice mails about Marc Emery, so that the Justice Department phones are ringing steadily about the Emery case every day for the next few months. When you call, always be very polite. Your goal is not to get into a debate with Cotler’s secretary. Just say that you are calling because it would “shock your conscience” for Marc Emery to be extradited to the United States for alleged marijuana seeds crimes committed on Canadian soil. Say that you believe that if Marc has broken the law in Canada, he should be tried in Canada, under Canadian laws. If they say you are calling the wrong number ask what number you should call. But still call them again the next week regardless. No matter where you are in the world, please call all three of these phone numbers every week. We definitely need active, vocal support from Americans and also from the international community.

• Irwin Cotler’s Constituency Office: (514) 283-0171 • Irwin Cotler’s Parliamentary Office: (613) 995-0121 • Justice Department Office: (613) 992-4621 If you have access to a fax machine then please also send a daily or weekly fax supporting Marc Emery to each of these Justice Department fax numbers: • Fax: (613) 992-6762 • Fax: (514) 283-2407 • Fax: (613) 990-7255 Don’t bother sending e-mails to Cotler. E-mails are easily ignored, deleted, or filtered out as spam. Weekly phone calls and faxes are much more effective in creating awareness and political pressure. 2) Donate and buy. This raid means the end of Marc Emery Marijuana Seeds, the pioneering business which Marc Emery used to fund activist efforts around the world. Marc, Michelle Rainey, and Greg Williams will all have huge legal bills, while at the same time losing their assets, income, and livelihood. Money-losing projects like Pot-TV will need to be curtailed, political activities will be shut down, Cannabis Culture magazine will struggle greatly, and all our staff will suffer layoffs and paycuts. Please make a donation or purchase with the BC Marijuana Party, and buy a subscription to Cannabis Culture magazine. Our store is still fully stocked with books, pipes, bongs, clothes and other Cannabis products. The only thing we don’t sell now is seeds! We need your business to survive, so please come down and pick up some new paraphernalia. 3) Write to Canadian media. Please contact all of the following newspapers and magazines, with a new letter every week. Don’t write a big long letter. Just write a short, snappy letter which offers your opin-

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ion on American efforts to extradite Marc Emery. Don’t just send one mass e-mail to all of these media at once. Instead send them each individually the same e-mailed letter. Write one letter every week, different letters but on the same topic, and send them to every one of these media outlets every week. A more complete list of Canadian media outlets can be found here: http://mapinc.org/cmap/press.htm

NEWSPAPERS Burnaby Now • [email protected] Calgary Herald • [email protected] Calgary Sun • [email protected] Edmonton Journal • [email protected] Edmonton Sun • [email protected] Globe & Mail • [email protected] Guelph Mercury • [email protected] Hamilton Spectator • [email protected] Kamloops Daily News • [email protected] Kamloops This Week • [email protected] Kelowna Capital News • [email protected] Kingston Whig-Standard • [email protected] Kitchener-Waterloo Record • [email protected] Langley Advance • [email protected] Langley Times • [email protected] Lethbridge Herald • [email protected] London Free Press • [email protected] Montreal Gazette • [email protected] Nanaimo News Bulletin • [email protected] National Post • [email protected] North Shore News • [email protected] Ottawa Citizen • [email protected] Ottawa Sun • [email protected] Regina Leader-Post • [email protected] The Saskatoon Star Phoenix • [email protected] Surrey Leader • [email protected] Surrey Now • [email protected] Toronto Star • [email protected] Toronto Sun • [email protected] Tri-City News • [email protected] Vancouver Courier • [email protected] Vancouver Province • [email protected] Vancouver Sun • [email protected] Victoria News • [email protected] Victoria Times Colonist • [email protected] Whitehorse Star • [email protected] Windsor Star • [email protected] Winnipeg Free Press • [email protected] Winnipeg Sun • [email protected]

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MAGAZINES Eye Magazine • [email protected] Maclean’s Magazine • [email protected] NOW Magazine • [email protected] Vancouver Magazine • [email protected] The Walrus • [email protected] 4) Contact your MP and MLA. If you are in Canada, then contact both your MP and your MLA. Don’t send them an e-mail, make a phone call. Try to make an appointment for a personal visit. Also have every one of your friends and family members each make their own phone call as well. The more calls they receive the better. You are not seeking your MP and MLA to support the legalization of marijuana. Just say that you are calling because you want your elected representative to oppose the extradition of any Canadian to a foreign country when their actions are not considered a serious crime in Canada. Remind them that Emery is the leader of a legitimate political party, that the Canadian government has knowingly collected taxes from his United States seed sales for a decade, and that Emery has operated openly without interference from Canadian police since 1998. Tell your MP and MLA that Canada should not be sending political activists to jail in foreign countries, especially when their actions are not even considered to be an “arrestable offence” in Canada. Your MP is your federal Member of Parliament. You can find your MP here: www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/ house/PostalCode.asp?Source=SM, Your MLA is your Provincial Member of the Legislature. You can find your MLA online here: Alberta www.assembly.ab.ca/adr/adr_template.aspx?type=mla British Columbia www.legis.gov.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm Manitoba www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/members/alphabetical.html New Brunswick http://app.infoaa.7700.gnb.ca/gnb/pub/ListMLA1.asp

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

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Newfoundland www.hoa.gov.nl.ca/hoa/members Nova Scotia www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/MEMBERS/index.html Ontario www.electionsontario.on.ca/fyed/en/form_page_en.jsp Prince Edward Island www.assembly.pe.ca/members/index.php Quebec www.assnat.qc.ca/fra/Membres/deputes.shtml Saskatchewan www.legassembly.sk.ca/members 5) Rally in your community. If you are in Canada, then try to put on a rally in your community to protest this incursion of the United States drug war into Canada. The focus of your rally should not be on the marijuana laws, but rather that Canadians within Canada are not subject to United States law. The Canadian courts and people have decided that selling Cannabis seeds is a trivial, non-arrestable offence. The Canadian government has steadily collected sizable taxes from Marc Emery’s United States seed sales for ten years. If Emery has broken the law in Canada then he should be charged and tried here. If he has broken no laws in Canada then he should not be extradited to the United States for a life sentence. Who will be next? Will U.S. police start extraditing Canadians who perform gay marriages for visiting Americans? Try to put together a rally for Saturday, September 10, to coincide with the rally planned for Vancouver. If there is a United States consulate office in your city then that is a good place to rally at. Otherwise find a park or other government building. Please contact us at the BC Marijuana Party to let us know what you are up to. Tell us if you have contacted your elected representatives, if are planning a rally, and what else you are doing to help preserve Canadian sovereignty and keep the United States drug war out of Canada.




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Thank you for your help. Marc Emery has devoted his life to ending the drug war and ensuring that marijuana seeds are available to anyone who wants to grow this wondrous herb. Please follow his lead, become active, and help to end this vicious war.  BC Marijuana Party • (604) 684-2803 [email protected] • http://bcmarijuanaparty.com.

IMPORTANT WARNING If you were a past or current customer of MARC EMERY DIRECT SEEDS, you will want to be aware of the information below, which was excerpted and condensed from MARC’S seed company web site (www.emeryseeds.com).

Emery Seeds has been raided by the DEA. We are now completely out of business. Keep up-to-date with discussion on this topic at the www.cannabisculture.com Forums section, which is updated regularly. The data below was current as of August 13, 2005. This is vitally important. When seeds were sent out in June, they took unusually long to get to people’s places; 200–300 letters were intercepted somehow, and held up. Return addresses on incoming mail sent to us was likely matched up with outgoing mail that had our return address. This regrettable discovery suggests that the DEA and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and perhaps other agencies may be coordinating a massive round-up of both Canadians and Americans in a considerable escalation of the drug war. Those outgoing letters were held up after we sent them. If you thought there was an unusually long delay in receiving any recent orders from the time you were aware it was sent, then it is very likely you are in danger, and should take appropriate action. Even if your seed order mail was opened, that is not enough to incriminate you for receiving that letter. Nothing in our outgoing orders implies that you asked for what we’re sending. Prosecution will require that those people who get the scam letter (see example on page 100) from the DEA incriminate themselves by agreeing that they wish to receive seeds, and through acknowledging the letter, prove that they asked for and paid for seeds. These scam letters are fake and dangerous. DO NOT RESPOND! Different names and security passwords are used. [This is related to the process for sending in payment, and the scam letter states that additional funds are required to fill the orders. — Eds.]

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We would like to express our concern for all American and Canadian citizens. We have received many questions from people who have received messages appearing to be from Marc Emery Direct. If you received this same type of letter (shown below), you may be in danger. The government may be trying to get you to “admit” through responding that you ordered seeds. We have NOT sent out any information to our customers, as we did not retain their records. Be extremely cautious. We would warn any large-scale growers to IMMEDIATELY CEASE YOUR OPERATION. Do not give any information to this group. It may be the DEA trying to do a massive bust on growers. Be careful when dealing with marijuana seeds, and be on the lookout for any scams or stings seeking donations or information. It might be best to refrain from buying seeds at any and all outlets and online businesses, whether in Canada or the USA. The U.S. government and DEA are waging war, and many hundreds of people can still be implicated. Marc Emery Direct Seeds is closed for good. There are no refunds. There are no records. We have, however, managed to returned a number of orders that were in the mail boxes (the addresses provided in our catalog and online) with “RTS”—return to sender”—in black marker on the envelope. Hopefully this means those people are not in any trouble, but we want everyone to be extra careful regardless. DON’T RESPOND to any mail or e-mail claims from anyone posing as Marc Emery Direct! We will convey all legitimate information to our people through Cannabis Culture Online and the Marc Emery Direct Seeds web site. The DEA has offices in Vancouver, and the Vancouver Police Department is, and I quote, “working hand in glove with the DEA” and “fully cooperating together.” Western Union headquarters is also working with the DEA. WE KNOW THIS. That’s why they ask you to use it. When you send a Western Union, you have to show ID, give your home address, and phone number: everything the DEA needs to find you.

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Let me explain why this is likely DEA, and not just some scammer. The DEA was photographing all mail sent to the two addresses given in (a) the seed catalogue and (b) at the Marc Emery Direct Seeds web site (respectively), and all mail being sent out to customers, in June and July. In doing so, they could record all of the addresses on the outgoing mail, as well as incoming mail. With just those photos, they can’t “prove” that those pieces of mail are seed orders. But to do so, they can send their own mail to all of those addresses, with a letter included (again, see the example to the left) posing as Marc Emery Direct. If some unsuspecting customer of ours acts on the scam letter, they might: a) Go to Western Union or get a Money Gram to send $50.00 or $100.00 to the name of the person on the letter; b) Show their ID and fill out all of their personal information on the Western Union form to send payment; c) Write down the passwords, as expressed in the letter; d) Send their wire to the name on the letter: predetermined names set by whatever group is behind this; and e) Send an e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected] with: 1) Confirmation of their order, which we DID NOT send out or keep (most people just waited by their mailbox), 2) The money control number used by the other end to pick up payment (so they can pick up your information with it), 3) The name used to both order seeds and to send the wire, and 4) The amount of money transferred.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 1

So, the only people to get this letter in the mail are people who ordered seeds from us through the mail. When someone responds to this letter, it confirms that YES, they did order seeds. They clearly did, because they wouldn’t have the right name or the password or the location from the letter otherwise. By asking you to not use a post office box, but to instead use your home address, they can easily find you. The use of capital letters is a “legal thing.” The system of Roman contract/admiralty law doesn’t recognize lower-case letters, and for a “person’s name” to be legally applicable, must be in all upper case. For this reason, all court documents use upper case exclusively. (If you are ever filed with legal documents that spell your name as “Joe Blow” and not “JOE BLOW,” they can be thrown out of court because you can claim, legally and rightfully, that the name on the document does not apply to you. To get around this, the first thing they try to do is get you to acknowledge that you are “Joe Blow” and from then on you’re pretty much screwed.)




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Cannabis Culture magazine can no longer receive seed company advertising. If you wish to support the continued survival of the mag, it needs subscribers, advertising, and donations immediately. You can send a check, money order, or cash to: CC MAGAZINE 15 - 199 WEST HASTINGS STREET VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V6B 1H4 CANADA People in British Columbia who can use a very lucrative taxcreditable receipt can donate to the BCMP. The BCMP needs to pay for phones, office, and our full time organizer and legal team co-ordinator Kirk Tousaw. Although called to the bar in both Canada and the United States, Kirk is working for food and rent money. He’s a lifesaver, and the Party is made vital through your checks, money orders, and cash donations (under $100) to:

We know that the DEA was taking photos of the orders sent to us for seeds. We know that the DEA would love to have people “admit” they ordered seeds from Marc Emery Direct. We feel very strongly that this is law enforcement trying to sweep up a lot of our customers, many of whom are growers. AGAIN, DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS LETTER.

BCMP 307 WEST HASTINGS STREET VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V6B 1H6 CANADA

HOW CAN YOU REALLY HELP? If you want to contribute to our legal fees, which will add up to over $100,000 in the next year alone, please send a check, money order, or cash to:

JOHN CONROY IN TRUST 2459 PAULINE STREET ABBOTSFORD, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V2S 3S1 CANADA

BCMP BOOKSTORE 307 WEST HASTINGS STREET VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V6B 1H6 CANADA

Please also take the time to watch Marc Emery’s public address on Pot-TV.net. If you can’t watch the video, you should read Marc’s message posted here: www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4482.html

Credit card donations can be made online through the Cannabis Culture magazine web site.

You can hear from Michelle Rainey, co-accused, in her appearance on the Marijuana News Global Report on PotTV.net.

If you wish to support Pot-TV.net—because it receives no other revenue than your donations—please send a check, money order or cash to: POT-TV 307 WEST HASTINGS STREET VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V6B 1H6 CANADA

If you would like to send a check or money order directly to senior counsel of our legal team, send to:

Thank you for giving back to an organization that gave so much to the marijuana movement. Now we are in need, and we hope we have support in the world wide Cannabis community. Please notify me at [email protected] or [email protected] if you receive the DEA letter.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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Hyperspatial Maps FIRST VOYAGES WITH SALVIA DIVINORUM I took Salvia divinorum as leaves smoked in a water pipe, in the evening at a friend’s apartment. I sat cross-legged on the floor. We both meditated for ten minutes before beginning. The room was quiet and almost dark. My friend prepared the pipe and told me to take one lungful and then relax. He said he would then offer me a second hit, which I should accept or refuse according to how strong the initial effects were. I took the first hit at about 10:15 pm. Nothing happened for a few seconds and then whoosh. I disintegrated very rapidly into an extraordinary state in which any normal sense of self was gone. I seemed to be (dreamlike) involved in some situation in which lots of people were in the streets and observing what I did, which seemed to be important. I remember thinking (and saying?) that possibly there were only the two of us in his room, that this was due to a drug, and the other people did not exist. Meanwhile I had become like a thin sheet or film lying between two worlds; one the world of streets with these people in it, and the other the world I could see in front of me, which was not three-dimensional but multidimensional. It was mostly stunningly beautiful mixtures of yellow and white in typical psychedelic patterns that bubbled up in many dimensions. There were hints of streams and forests and other natural scenes, but the yellow and white predominated for some time. If I tried to move at this point, my arms seemed to break the skin and make unpleasant crackling noises, as though tearing crackly paper. After a while all this subsided and I wanted to move. I crawled around the floor and lay down, stretched and stood up before sitting down again. Then we began to talk and I learned that I had apparently been offered the second hit and had accepted it in a tiny high voice. I remembered absolutely nothing of this and found it worrying that my memory could be so totally blank.

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I had the overwhelming sense that I was not up to this drug; that it was a very important and powerful drug and that I was not capable of appreciating it properly. I felt inadequate and ill-prepared. I had been told I should have a question, but did not have one. I could not see the spirit of the drug and did not know how to look for her. I considered that possibly I had not had enough (although looking back, I probably had). I did not want to leave the experience with the feeling that I had not given it my best attempt, so I asked for some more. This was possibly about half an hour after the first two hits. I took one large lungful, felt very strange and could not take more. The effects were similar to those before, I think, and wore off smoothly, as before. There then followed another phase in which we talked. I realized then that although the hallucinations had gone away the drug effects had not. This was a most special and interesting state. I realized that I was, if anything, the spirit of the drug. It was I who could answer questions, rather than asking them. My companion had his own question which he talked briefly about and we sat there saying little, with the question between us. I stopped feeling inadequate and just loved the slow and gentle communication. My companion (who has a lot of training in this kind of thing) said he could see my aura as blue and my whole body glowing. I could feel his aura but not see it clearly. We discussed what this was, both being scientifically interested, as well as just enjoying and exploring. I saw him as hovering above the ground and was convinced that I could put my hands under his floating body—though I could not. At some point I settled down to wonder whether I could still enjoy hallucinations and, more mildly, they returned. I thought that I could fly (though well aware that physically I could not). I sprouted magnificent wings, lots of them. I said “I’ve got wings, lots of wings, and legs, lots of legs.” It reminded me of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. I was a dragonfly with huge compound eyes, sitting in a human living room. I am sure there is lots more that I could write about, but my memory for the experience is rather more hazy than with most other drugs and I find it difficult to recall more with any clarity.

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The most amazing thing about this drug was the long, gentle continuing effects. That night (about two and a half hours after taking it) I had a hot bath and enjoyed a very open and spacious feeling, and carefully reminded myself of the various effects. I felt a great need to integrate all this into my life and to let the effects continue to work through me, which they did. I am writing this nearly four days later and I believe I am still feeling the effects. Last night a smoke of homegrown grass had hallucinatory effects quite unlike its usual effect—much nicer and more interesting. This morning I woke still feeling spacious and open. I have enjoyed these aftereffects very much, although I do not know what, if anything, they are teaching me. Salvia divinorum was a scary and challenging drug but I am very glad that I took it. — Susan Blackmore, England

SALVIA DIVINORUM ON TOP OF ARGYREIA NERVOSA EXTRACT: A TRIP IN LAUGH LAND I had been in the habit of making an extract of Argyreia nervosa via a method using petroleum naptha and isopropyl alcohol. I cannot tell a lie, the experiences with this stuff were often “slightly less than beautiful,” with a lot of neck scrunching and a disconnected feeling. But at the time (back in the summer of 1995), it was all that I had that was potent, so I made do with it. Anyway, one night I took a whopping (for me) dose of about 15 mg (eyeballed) of the pure yellow crystals. The experience progressed, and about 3.5 hours into it, I wasn’t doing very well. My body ached and I wasn’t really getting high the way I wanted to. I was actually fairly burned out on the stuff, so I decided to smoke some Salvia divinorum. I went downstairs and loaded up my trusty bowl and smoked one hit: nothing much. So two, three, four hits, and wham! There was an old fluorescent light fixture box sitting against the basement wall, and this box was leaning into the wall in a hilarious way. I began to laugh like a loon. The box just went right on leaning (even though by this time I was howling), and I finally had to turn my face away from it. When I did, I saw these giant partially peeled bananas with a red and white checkerboard pattern on the peels and pearly white bananas inside. This was even funnier than the box against the wall. Part of me was nearly in hysterics, while the other part was looking down on me and smiling at my own antics. I was nearly




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falling off my chair and I could hardly catch my breath. “Get a hold of yourself!” I mentally scolded, and I burst out laughing again. While I tried again to regain my composure, I turned my head to the left and saw this little creature/robot thing, not two feet away from me. It was about 3–4 feet tall and seemed to be comprised of a collection of pipes with a bend in the end of each of them: like old mufflers arranged in a circle with all the “pipeholes” facing me like eyes. The pipes were of various lengths, with the longest in the back and the shortest in the front, and they seemed to be covered in blue chrome. There was also some weird little doo-hickey on the top of them. As this “thing” was sitting there watching me, it made a small sound, and I again cracked up. There were mechanical noises coming from it, and every time I heard these, I would begin to howl with laughter. I sensed at this point that the thing was getting impatient with me for laughing, and I tried to stop, but it was no use. It began to turn itself in halfcircles on what had to be (and sounded like) some sort of turntable-like thingie. I understood that this motion indicated that the entity was increasingly irritated by my hilarity. It moved back and forth, back and forth, as if it wanted to communicate with me and I was simply incapable of getting the message. I threw my head backwards and went into more gales of laughter for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the laughter started drying up, and when I looked back to my left, the little thing was gone. I was alone in my basement again. Although I tried smoking some more, I was unable to establish contact again. A decade later, I still wonder what it was trying to tell me. — Dr. Wily

ARE YOU BACK YET? for details and ordering information see www.zoe7.com

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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Galbulimima belgraveana, “Agara” Bark by Benjamin Thomas

In 1957, the Australian dietician Lucy Hamilton (Mrs.  J. Reid) conducted an experiment at Okapa in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea to observe the effects of eating a substance called “agara” bark, identified as the species Galbulimima belgraveana (F. Muell.) Sprague (Hamilton 1960). The French ethnobotanist Jacques Barrau was also present at Okapa to observe this experiment (Barrau 1958). A local man called Ogia volunteered to do the bioassay. Seven or eight pieces of “agara” bark about the “size of a penny” were chewed and swallowed. While Ogia masticated the bark, he also smoked some tobacco, chewed some ginger, and additionally ate the dried leaves of a plant called “ereriba” (an unidentified Homalomena species). Following consumption of all this, Ogia waited for the effects, which began shortly thereafter: […He] began to tremble, as they say, “like a kuru meri.” His arms and body trembled, but not his legs. After a few minutes of this, he suddenly became quite violent. He swept all the things off the table and would have done quite a bit of damage if I hadn’t had a policeman standing by to detain him. I was very thankful for this forethought as I was the only European on the station at the time… He was put in handcuffs and let go outside. He picked up a stick and chased several people with it. He tried to take a bush knife from a workman in the garden. The station women were warned to keep their children inside. I am convinced that his behavior was not an act, as from a pleasant mild little man, he had suddenly become a crazed being. He neither spoke or smiled, and at first did not appear to hear. The pupils of his eyes were mere pinpoints. At the onset of violence the trembling had ceased (Hamilton 1960).

Ogia’s destructive frenzy was followed by calmness, euphoria, drowsiness, and finally a deep sleep that lasted for several hours (Hamilton 1960). It has been suggested that, after eating “agara” bark, one experiences visions while asleep (Schultes & Hofmann 1979; Hamilton 1960). For this reason, the bark has been called “dream man” among the Fore people (Hamilton 1960), although several other substances used by the Fore to produce visions are also known by this term, including the “ereriba” that Ogia had eaten, as well as “maraba” (Kaempferia galangal) (Hamilton 1960). However, Ogia reported no visions related to his experience. He later

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told Hamilton that the reason he did not experience any visions was because he did not want to. It was also suggested to Hamilton that in this experiment, Ogia had eaten “agara” bark in the morning and not in the evening, which was thought to be the proper time to eat “dream man.” The only aftereffect reported by Ogia was a stomach ache (Hamilton 1960).

MY OWN EXPERIENCE On September 21, 2003, at 7:15 pm, I bioassayed dried and powdered “agara” bark. Below is the chronology of effects. 7:15 pm • Begin chewing 10 grams of “agara” bark 7:16 pm • Intensely bitter taste 7:20 pm • Strong alkaloidal after taste, similar to quinine 7:25 pm • Bark is swallowed 7:55 pm • First alert, becoming drowsy 7:57 pm • Dilated pupils 8:00 pm • Difficulty in concentration 8:05 pm • Increased pulse and heart rate 8:10 pm • Pleasant drowsiness, similar to 0.3 mg dose of hyoscine (scopolamine) hydrobromide, but without changes in perception 8:15 pm • Dizziness 8:20 pm • Lying down with eyes closed, no eidetic images 8:25 pm • Relaxation 8:30 pm • Hypnagogic state with no dreams 9:55 pm • Drowsiness wearing off 10:05 pm • Afterglow, euphoria 10:25 pm • Baseline, no aftereffects The effects that I got from eating “agara” bark could be characterized as a “plus two” on the “Degree of Intensity Scale” (Shulgin et al. 1986), also known as the “Quantitative Scale of Potency” (Shulgin & Shulgin 1991); that is, “There is an unmistakable effect, and both the duration and the nature of the effect can be stated.”

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CHEMISTRY & PHARMACOLOGY

NOTES

Twenty-eight alkaloids have been isolated from “agara” (Thomas 2005). One of these alkaloids, himbacine, is known to have muscarinic receptor (M2) antagonist activity (Broadley & Kelly 2001), but it is still unknown whether the effects of “agara” are produced due to this activity. In large doses, hibacine might also exhibit some M1 antagonist (atropine-like) activity, and produce agitation, excitement, and hallucinations (Thomas 2005). It is possible that larger doses of “agara” bark may be visionary.

1) Around 150–160 species of Homalomena have been identified worldwide (Herscovitch 2005; Hay 1999; Hay et al. 1995), yet chemical and pharmacological studies are largely lacking. The fact that the specific species called “ereriba” is unknown makes nailing down any activity quite difficult. The East Indian species Homalomena aromatica has been used as an aphrodisiac (Hirschfield & Linsert 1930). In Vietnam, essential oil distilled from the root is used in perfume, and the dried root is used in medicines to treat skin diseases (de Beer 1993). Essential oil from H. aromatica—containing 39 chemicals (many of which are terpenoids), with the major component being linalool, at 62.1%—has been shown to exhibit antifungal and insecticidal properties (Sung 1992; Singh 2000). Under the name Qian Nian Jian, H. occulta is used in traditional Chinese medicine to relieve rheumatic conditions and strengthen the tendons and bones; extracts of the dried rhizome are available commercially, and chemical investigations turned up thirteen unique compounds (Hu et al. 2003). H. occulta has also shown insect-repellency (Chen 1999). In New Guinea, H. cordata is said to be used for “rain magic,” and H. versteegii [= H. lauterbachii] is said to be used for “love magic” (Telban 1988).

CONCLUSION My bioassay did not confirm the observations made by Hamilton (1960) that the effects of eating “agara” bark include violent tremor, miosis, and a destructive frenzy. (It remains possible, however, that the “ereriba” leaves reported to have concurrently been consumed contributed to those effects.1) Rather, what I observed were dilated pupils, increased pulse and heart rates, drowsiness, difficulty in concentration, dizziness, relaxation, and a hypnagogic state followed by euphoria.

Galbulimima belgraveana: 1) Branch with flower and bud, 2) opening bud, 3) stamen, 4) cross cut of stamen, 5) fruit. Scanned from Zhisn’ rastenij (“Life of Plants”), 1980. Vol. 5, Part 1. Moscow.

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Absinthe Not Absent… “Absence” Anyone? by Jon Hanna

Legend has it that the infamous alcoholic beverage absinthe was first created in 1792 in Switzerland—from a mixture of distilled wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and anise (Pimpinella anisum)—by the French doctor Pierre Ordinaire. Following popular outrage related to a couple of murders that were said to be “absinthe inspired,” the beverage was first banned in Belgium in 1905. Switzerland’s canton of Vaud banned it on May 15, 1906, Geneva followed shortly thereafter, and on February 2, 1907 the Swiss national legislature similarly chimed in. A July 1908 referendum ratified that vote and solidified the legislature’s decision in the Swiss Constitution under Article 32, and the national ban finally went into effect on October 7, 1910. A few other European countries later similarly restricted it, and in America the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued Food Inspection Decision 147 on July 25, 1912, which “prohibits the manufacturing or marketing of ‘absinthe’ (an alcoholic beverage flavored with absinthe or wormwood) because it is injurious to health” (Vogt 1995). Since the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 passed authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate food additives, I am unclear whether or not anyone today could be prosecuted for violating an (obsolete?) 1912 USDA decision.

THE SWISS CHANGE THEIR MINDS On June 14, 2004 the Swiss Parliament voted to lift the ban on absinthe. By March 1, 2005 it was once again legal to produce absinthe in Switzerland, so long as the thujone content is within The European Community Codex Committee on Food Additives restrictions: Annex II of Directive 88/388/EEC on flavourings sets the maximum levels for thujone in food and beverages to which flavourings or other food ingredients with flavouring properties have been added: 0.5 mg/kg in foodstuffs and beverages with the exception of 5 mg/kg in alcoholic beverages with not more than 25% volume of alcohol; 10 mg/kg in alcoholic beverages with more than 25% volume of alcohol; 25 mg/kg in foodstuffs containing preparations based on sage; 35 mg/kg in bitters. Pure thujone may not be added as such to food (EEC 1988). These restrictions are the same as previous recommendations by the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Additives except for the “25 mg/kg in foodstuffs containing preparations based on sage,” which is a new addition (Codex Alimentarius Committee 1979).

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Countless web sites state that thujone is banned as a food additive according to Section 801A of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of August 1972. However, as far as I can tell this section, titled “Congressional Findings and Declarations: Psychotropic,” is merely a statement of general policy related to psychoactive compounds, which does not mention thujone specifically. According to the National Toxicology Program’s Summary of Data for Chemical Selection: Alpha-Thujone 546-80-5 (accessed on 8/9/05 http:// ntp.niehs.nih.gov/index.cfm?objectid=03DB8C36-E7A19889-3BDF8436F2A8C51F): “The use of thujone as a food additive has been banned in the United States (Rogers, 1981; Galli et al., 1984),” but neither of the sources that they cite to back this statement are federal regulations. At the same time, this article also notes that: “Thujone was identified through a review of direct food additives given ‘GRAS’ [Generally Recognized As Safe] status by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although thujone has known toxicity that has caused it to be banned from some products, 24 direct food additives in the FDA Priority-Based Assessment of Food Additives (PAFA) database contain thujone.” [Emphasis added.] This appears to contradict the statement saying that thujone is banned from food. Even if it was the case that pure thujone is banned as an additive, this would not necessarily mean that herbs containing thujone are banned. The FDA pattern has clearly been to specifically mention those herbal additives that they require to be “thujone free,” while other thujone-containing herbs do not have such a restriction. Some of these “24 direct food additives” are common spices, such as thyme (Thymus species) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), which contain slight amounts of thujone, and sage (Salvia officianalis), which one source claims can contain nearly six times the thujone content of Artemisia absinthium itself (Duke 2005), although other sources site comparable amounts of thujone (on the low end), up to only about three times more (on the high end) (Pinto-Scognamiglio 1967; Lawrence 1995). All of these herbs are listed as GRAS and there is no restriction in the Code of Federal Regulations on their inclusion in any quantities in food or alcohol (21CFR182.20). Other thujone-containing herbs—such as white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), oak moss (Evernia prunastri, E. furfuracea, and

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other lichens), tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), and yarrow (Achillea millefolium)—are allowed to be used in food or beverages when that herb has been first rendered “thujone free” (21CFR172.510). But this is clearly not the case with all thujone-containing herbs, as noted above. The species name Artemisia absinthium is not mentioned in the regulations, just “Artemisia spp.” (although it is also referred to as “wormwood”). While this appears to indicate that any thujone-containing Artemisia is only allowed in food if it is “thujone free,” elsewhere the Code of Federal Regulations seemingly contradicts this by specifically stating that tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) can be used in food, and there is no “thujone free” requirement listed (21CFR182.20). Despite FDA regulation of Artemisia absinthium’s use in food or alcohol, it is still sold for consumption in herbal tinctures as a “traditional parasites cleanse” (e.g, Clarkia Extra Strong), apparently since the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act limited FDA control over products labeled as “dietary supplements.” However, this seems to make little sense, since that ruling was devised to treat “dietary supplements” more like foods than drugs, and since the FDA has banned thujonecontaining wormwood from use in food. Weird. Considering that sage might have more thujone in it than wormwood, and yet it need not be thujone-free as an additive, I e-mailed the FDA and asked: 1) Is there a citable regulation that bans thujone from food, and 2) Is there some specific “cut off ” level of the amount of thujone that is acceptable to be included in food. Robert  I. Merker, PhD, of the FDA Office of Food Additive Safety, Division of Biotechnology and GRAS Notice Review, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, responded to my query by noting: As a general principle, ingredients are generally recognized as safe only for particular intended uses and not just for any purpose or at any level. Thus, [not] only the amounts of the ingredients, but the forms of the ingre-




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dients and how they are consumed may factor into their safety determinations. …In the appropriate forms (plant parts, fluid and solid extracts, concretes, absolutes, oils, gums, balsams, resins, oleoresins, waxes, and distillates) they consist of one or more of the following, used alone or in combination with flavoring substances and adjuvants generally recognized as safe in food, previously sanctioned for such use, or regulated in any section of this part. Moreover, if it is use as spices that you are interested in, rather than extracts from the spices, 182.10 is probably the relevant section, not 182.20. The levels… of the substances used in 172.510 (wormwood, etc.), are probably quite small, because they are used for flavoring only. We have no particular acceptable levels of thujone that would be considered safe, but obviously the amounts used in spices or spice oils and extractives would likely be very low. Moreover, the levels in spices would probably not be very high, because the amounts of spices consumed are quite low in general (Merker 2005).

According to the Food Safety Research Information Office’s National Toxicology Program—Year 2000 Current Directions and Evolving Strategies, thujone is one of several components of “Herbs and Active or Toxic Ingredients under Study by the NTP.” Other herbs (and some chemicals they contain) noted include golden seal, comfrey, echinacea, ginkgo biloba, milk thistle, pennyroyal, aloe vera, ginseng, and kava kava. The minutes from a committee meeting of the Department of Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) board of scientific counselors (September 10–11, 2003) mentioned that the National Institute of Environmental Health Services’ Dr. Thomas Burka “discussed the studies that have started or are complete on kava, ginseng, pulegone (active ingredient of pennyroyal), thujone (active ingredient in wormwood), gingko, black cohosh, senna, bladderwrack, green tea, ephedra and two non-herbal dietary supplements, namely

“ABSENTE” LEGAL? An absinthe-like product sold in the United States, called ABSENTE, is said to be legal because it is made from “a less-bitter cousin herb called southern wormwood,” which is Artemisia abrotanum. While A. abrotanum can contain thujone, it is said to be naturally lower in thujone than Artemisia absinthium. The only way that this product would be legal in America—according to FDA regulations regarding any Artemisia species—is if all of the thujone had been removed from it. MICHEL P. ROUX of CRILLON IMPORTERS LTD., who manufacture ABSENTE, states that his product does contain enough thujone “to produce mild psychoactive effects,” but that “it’s thujone-free by the standards of the government” (FODERARO n.d.). These remarks don’t coincide with actual regulations; it would be interesting to see GC/MS results on this product. The thujone content of southern wormwood may depend on where it is sourced from; tests of Moroccan plants showed relatively high thujone content, while plants from the Pacific Northwest had no detectable thujone at all (PAPPAS & SHEPPARD-HANGER n.d.)! THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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chromium picolinate and androstenedione.” And indeed, tests have been and are being run on thujone(s) by Michelle Hooth of the NTP. Early analysis checks to see if a substance is mutagenic in Salmonella typhimurium; if so, it is likely to be a carcinogen in laboratory animals (and could present a risk of cancer to humans). Two-week tests completed in the year 2000 using S. typhimurium, as well as tests on mice and rats, showed no evidence of alpha-thujone being mutagenic/ carcinogenic. Later studies completed in the year 2002 on an alpha- beta-thujone mixture similarly showed no evidence of it being mutagenic/carcinogenic in a two-week study. A further 13-week study, to look for numerical or structural chromosome damage by using a peripheral blood micronucleus test, showed a negative result for male mice, but a positive result for female mice. The studies’ dose range, administered via gavage, was 6.25 mg/kg, 12.5 mg/kg, 25 mg/ kg, 50 mg/kg, and 75 mg/kg. At the higher doses, mice began to exhibit seizures. In females, the first mouse seizure was at 55 days into the study, at the 25 mg/kg dose. For the male mice it was nine days into the study, at 50 mg/kg. (No male mice were observed having seizures at a dose lower than this.) Both male and female mice given 25 mg/kg survived for the entire 13-week study. At 50 mg/kg, mice started to die. A further two-year toxicological study is currently underway; results should eventually be posted for this study at the same web site that the above data came from: http:// ntp.niehs.nih.gov, which also provides additional specifics on when seizures were first seen in each of the mice (if they occurred), and at what point the mice either died or were “humanely” killed during the experiments. In Pharmako/Poeia, author Dale Pendell points out: Mild convulsions in rats begin at around thirty milligrams of injected thujone per kilogram of body weight (the LD50 for mice is 134 mg/kg). I weigh eighty kilograms. Therefore, a minimally toxic dose of thujone for me is 2.4 grams, or fifty bottles of absinthe. One glass of absinthe (forty milliliters of absinthe plus two hundred milliliters of water) contains less than two milligrams of thujone, 1/1200 of a minimally toxic dose. For a substance to be classified as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) by the Food and Drug Administration, their safest category, the nominal serving must be at least 100 times smaller than the minimum toxic quantity. It appears from my arithmetic that absinthe is GRAS by a factor of twelve (Pendell 1995).

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The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food noted that “the consumption of as much as 1 litre of an alcoholic beverage containing 5 mg/l, the maximum permitted level of thujone in alcoholic beverages with up to 25% alcohol, would result in an intake of about 0.08 mg thujone/kg bw for a 60 kg adult. This intake is about 100 times lower than the NOEL [No Observable Effect Level] derived from a 14 week study in rats” (SCF/CS/FLAV/FLAVOUR/23 ADD2 Final, 6 February 2003, from http://europa.eu.int/comm/ food/fs/sc/scf/out162_en.pdf ). While the production and/or sale of an alcohol containing Artemisia absinthium (with thujone) and made for consumption may be prohibited by the FDA, there is speculation that it is not illegal to buy or consume absinthe. The FDA rarely prosecutes the end-user (see www.erowid.org/ask/ ask.cgi?ID=2693), or so it is thought. If one can persuade someone in a foreign country to import absinthe into America, one may be unlikely to get charged with a crime (although Customs could possibly seize the booze). Another approach that has been taken in the United States is to create a high-proof wormwood-based mouthwash, which is not sold for consumption. Since wormwood has a long tradition in herbal medicine as an antiseptic (Wren 1907; Dobelis 1986) and is currently used as such in the Absorbine brand of liniments, such a product is not without legitimate merit, and this should be a legally viable context for the production of an “absinthe-like” product. Absent any specific regulation banning all thujone-containing herbs from food or alcohol, and with an agency currently investigating toxicity issues, it appears as though it would be possible—for the moment—to commercially produce a consumable absinthe-like alcohol in America using the common cooking sage, Salvia officianalis. Considering that the flavor sage imparts to food is somewhat less bitter than wormwood, a more palatable alcohol might even be created. And what with the potential higher thujone content of sage, one might be able to use less herb by weight to concoct a beverage of equal or greater strength. Keeping the thujone content within E.C. Codex Committee on Food Additives restrictions, would largely allow export to Europe. One could also produce a more potent version as a bitter, in order to legally boost the thujone content by over three times; after all, people interested in feeling thujone’s unique psychoactive effects shouldn’t necessarily be forced to get hammered on booze. I propose that such a sage-based beverage be called “Absence,” to denote its lack of the traditional ingredient. 

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Network Feedback CORRECTING ERRORS I received ER 13(2) and am happy to see that you are keeping up the good work. I doubt anybody will complain overmuch, that you again passed over an issue, so long as it keeps coming out (on the other hand, as Henry Thoreau observed: «The fault-finder would find faults even in Paradise»). I write to remark some trivial errors, one involving my own work. p. 46: Justin Case, et alii [nice bum, F. Gal!] must have got my papers mixed up in an enematic way, inasmuch as they state that: «[I] found rectal administration of 5-MeO-DMT uninteresting». In a way that is true, so much so that I didn’t even try it, certainly not again with «a trivial amount of harmala alkaloids» (which, even were’t true, is blatheringly vague: which? and how much?). It would have been uninteresting, since there were no reports known to me, of any Virola-enema, which plausibly might have 5-MD as major visionary principle! I did try bufotenine intrarectally, insofar as Anadenanthera-seed-extract-enemas have been reported, and any psychopticity must hinge on 5-HO-DMT [bufotenine], which was what I modeled. Perhaps we need a bit more T&A in ER, from the preponderance of positive comments regarding that “backside” cover. Apologies for the sloppy fact-checking on the count of your Journal of Psychoactive Drugs paper that discussed 5-MeO-DMT. In this case, the requisite paper was missing from our files, and TROUT was going from memory. Thanks for the kick in the ass. — DAVID AARDVARK K. Trout responds: With regard to traditional ethnographic enemas, the closest would have been Anadenanthera seeds, which can/may have DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and/or bufotenine. While bufotenine is often the primary one, DMT and 5-MeO-DMT show up frequently enough, and are sometimes the only alkaloid or alkaloids.

p. 48: This is not directly your bailiwick (perhaps it should be, and that is my point) and I have written directly to [the Botanical Preservation Corps] about it, but the advert for BPC is far too vague in re the ingredients of the «medicinal chocolate». You say «caveat emptor» with which I fully agree, but not many people dispose of a library such as mine, and how the hell are they to know what [the fuck] drug-plants

be clavohuasca, guayusa [that, f.i., it can be one of the richest sources of caffeine known], iporuru, chuchuhuasi and maca? Besides, like so many vulgar plant-names, a couple of these have multiple botanical referents, not to say orthographical pseudosynonyms [¿pseudosyns?]. I suggest you post an advert-policy: that prospective advertisers must clearly label all herbal ingredients, at minimum, with unambiguous scientific binomials. The black-shirts are forever itching to prohibit «self-medication» and the «food-supplement» medicinal herbal market, and they have one very valid point. Absent legal obligation, the vast bulk of manufacturers DO NOT label their products even marginally well (rather with coyness, to be charitable; FRAUDULENCE, to be un-)… most importantly they throw in all sorts of meaningless buzzwords like «spagyric», «synergized», «balanced» «optimum formula» and the like, when all any sensible person wishes to know (and the law ought mandate) be: 1) precisely WHAT does the nickel-bag nostrum contain?; and 2) in what amounts?—we wish to know HOW MUCH OF WHAT PART OF THE HERB is in the minuscule bottle which, of course, crackpot manufacturers are loath to mention, because the amounts are usually trifling, else they use the chaff, not the wheat. All good points; note that the current BOTANICAL PRESERVATION CORPS advertisement has been updated. On the other hand, we presume that many (if not most) ER readers do have access to the Internet, where information about common names and their Latin correspondences can usually be found fairly easily. And specifically in the case of the BPC offerings, their own site’s “Exotic Botanicals” section contains a bounty of additional details—including Latin binomials—for each of the ingredients in their chocolate bars. — DAVID AARDVARK

p. 55: K. Trout I assume means 20% potassium iodiDe, not iodiNe. Moreover, he vaguely states a purported reduction of several orders of magnitude [emphasis his] in overall volume of solvents required. Now, several = at least 3 [whereas a couple = 2], and 10 to magnitude 3 = 1,000. Absent any hard data here, does he expect us to believe one can reduce the scale, say, from 2 liters to 2 milliliters? Das kann nicht sein! K. Trout responds: You most certainly are right on, regarding the potassium iodide typo. Thanks very much for pointing out the error. But you seem to have misunderstood chemist/author RICHTER

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GIDEON’S point to reach your next conclusion. This suggests that other readers might have missed the point too? GIDEON was dealing with huge amounts of ergot broth produced on an industrial scale, and not two liters. The reduction is in the solvent required to be used in the process of the extraction/manipulation of these huge amounts. Say a person had several hundreds of gallons of broth (or even several hundred liters). This would need to be extracted with a correspondingly huge amount of solvent. The same thing would happen if we did an extraction of 100 pounds of dry star jasmine using a dilute aqueous acid. There would be some grammage of raw alkaloid recovered but the extraction would in the process generate seriously large volumes of aqueous liquid. And a correspondingly large volume of solvent would be required to extract this. Even taking a reduction of volume for the aqueous solution into account, one can only reduce it “so far” before it gets too thick to extract well. Thickness of the starting liquid was already a problem for RICHTER GIDEON, so for him further reduction was not feasible. He described his fermentation broth as being as thick as potato soup. The resulting precipitation on the other hand requires far less solvent since it is not being used to extract the alkaloid from the aqueous solution. This is where the reduction in organic solvent volume is accomplished. Basically all the solvent that will be needed at that point is simply enough to dissolve and be able to physically handle the material for regeneration of the base since the precipitation permits said raw base to be initially recovered directly from the aqueous solution by simple vacuum filtration. And this can, in fact, easily represent a reduction of literally several orders of magnitude for the amount of organic solvent required. Perhaps you misunderstood where and why the reduction in required volume was happening? In any case, this “vaguely” stated “purported” claim is not mine, but was one of RICHTER GIDEON’S core reasons for patentability, as stated in the original patent.

p. 75: Note that there are in all 19 species of Erythroxylum known to contain cocaine in their leaves (including E. coca and E. novogranatense, each of which has two distinct varieties, var. coca and var. ipadú; and var. novogranatense and var. truxillense, respectively—all four commercial varieties, plus five other Erythroxylum species, also contain cis- and/or transcinnamoylcocaine [in reality, cinnamoyl-ecgonine])… there are at least 55 species used in ethnomedicine, some as stimulants, but only the 19 cocaine-species, and one other species, all Neogæan, contain any ecgonine-alkaloids [cocaine is methylbenzoyl-ecgonine]). Vide: C. Rätsch & J. Ott 2003. Coca und Kokain: Ethnomedizin, Kunst und Chemie, AT Verlag, Aarau, Switzerland; Abhang Taffeln [Appendix Tables]: pp. 230–232 «Erythroxylaceæ Cocainæ»; and pp. 233–236 «Pharmacopœia Erythroxyli Non-Cocæ». Jon Hanna responds: This was indeed my bad, as I was just parroting data from the DBOTANY web site. However, of the 19

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species that contain cocaine, how many of these contain amounts that make them functionally useful? (I don't know the answer to that, and alas don’t read German.) When is your Coca book coming out in English?

As soon as I get my Hacker up here to correct some maddeningly capricious problems with both my G3 and G4 PowerBooks…I shall endeavour to cull-out a small handful of unpublished pieces which remain yet fallen through the cracks, so to do my part to keep TER fat and happy and off the skids. Best. — Jonathan Ott, Mexico

PUBLISHING ERRORS? Thanks for hipping me to the enema thing (Summer 2004), and also for Fun Gal’s nice photo. I dislike snorting stuff (and worse, shooting stuff ). I tried both ways with ketamine. I liked the ketamine, but still totally hate hurting my nose or letting anyone go poke needles in me. I used a 1CC syringe with no needle, filled with ketamine, pushed it all of the way in (up to the handles), and squirted 100 mg up my butt. Wow! It did not come on as fast as when I tried shooting it, but it also seemed to wear off a lot slower. It sure works though. I never imagined I’d be sticking dope up my butt, but when it comes to ketamine, I found my route! — Ima B. Leever A few weeks after the account above was sent to ER, K. TROUT made the following remarks: “Something said to me by a friend recently suggests that the ketamine enema account forwarded to ER was fictional, based solely on the data that we published in the Summer 2004 issue. While I doubt that it would not work as described, I also have reason to doubt that the writer ever tried it. It was claimed that I was sent this to see what would be published without questioning. In response, two evaluations of it by JUSTIN CASE went as described, except that he noted a persistent discomfort of the rectum the day after these experiments. He claimed that this route was significantly less effective than IM, but more effective than insufflation.” With regard to the idea of hoaxing ER, this may not be new ground. (See for example ER 6(1): 12–13 and the speculations that followed in ER 6(4): 4.) However, it is somewhat surprising that anyone would take the time to send in such a boring and believable hoax. I mean, come on, if you are going to see what would be “published without questioning,” get a bit more creative and at least send something that we might question. The enema is a tried-and-true approach, using pharmacist-compounded ketamine pain relief cream. These creams are created for transdermal application, and as such usually contain pluronic lecithin organogel (see ER 12(1): 23 for a discussion of this compound), although they may sometimes instead contain DMSO, depending on what the compounding pharmacist decides to do. Those chemicals that assist absorption through the skin would likely make the compound cream version of ketamine more effective in an enema. It is worth noting that ketamine pain creams

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are often also compounded with other drugs as well, a few of which include ketoprofen/Orudis/Oruvail (an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic that inhibits cyclo-oxygenase), and/or gabapentin/ Neurontin (an anticonvulsant in this application used for treating nerve pain), and/or clonidine/Catapres (a centrally acting antihypertensive in this application used to treat neuropathic pain and/or opioid detoxification), and/or amitriptyline/Elavil (a tricyclic antidepressant in this application used to treat pain). We suspect that the ketamine enema enthusiast might wish to obtain a pain cream that was free of anything other than ketamine and perhaps something that had topical analgesic properties like lidocaine (considering JUSTIN CASE’S remarks). To date, we know of perhaps a dozen or more folks having confirmed that ketamine cream via enema is effective without question. And the “straight ketamine” approach has now been replicated and confirmed active as well. While we could have refrained from publishing this report entirely, it brings up an important point (whether or not it is a hoax). There really isn’t any way to tell in many cases if the data submitted by ER readers is factual or not. ER has existed for thirteen years as a “network newsletter,” generally relying on the idea that people sending in their experiences and questions are sincere in their communications. It seems somewhat pathetic that a person would have nothing better to do than culture jam a small circulation publication whose purpose is to shed some light on the frequently confusing and largely taboo topic of contemporary psychonautical ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology. In any case, I suppose that this incident gives us reason to suggest that all readers revisit our disclaimer on the inside front cover of each issue. We do our best, but we are subject to human error and susceptible to being mislead just like everyone else. — DAVID AARDVARK




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At this point Mr. K. Trout informed me that “it was wellknown” that acidic extractions of Mimosa were inactive without an MAOI, and that both Ott and Aardvark had extracted with neutral water. While it is difficult to see how a lowered pH could inactivate something that was bound for the stomach, I tried another experiment. I followed the procedure of Ott and Aardvark as closely as possible, and prepared 25 grams of well-proven bark with neutral cold water, and drank on an empty stomach—close to four times my usual dose. Again, I experienced no visionary effects. I retched at +30 minutes. There was, however, one small difference between my preparation and that of Aardvark. Aardvark had used a French coffee plunger to strain his brew, I had used filter paper. I stared at the brown mud on the paper. “I wonder . . .” I put 100 mg of the dried filter cake in a spoon and held it over an alcohol lamp. Sure enough, inhaling the vapors produced clear tryptamine effects—nothing overwhelming, but exciting and pleasant. And I couldn’t have inhaled more than a few milligrams of the smoke. I first thought of 5-MeO-DMT, just from the nature of the effects and the strength, but 5-MeO-DMT has never been found in Mimosa tenuiflora. The fine powder might make a good snuff. This, of course, relates little to the question of oral activity. —D.P., CA

MORE CORRECTIONS? Both Jonathan Ott and David Aardvark have reported that the root-bark of Mimosa tenuiflora (Wildenow) Poiret is active without an MAOI (TER 8(1): 22–24). I have been unable to replicate this activity. There are lots of explanations for negative findings, but, as negative findings often tend to remain unreported, I’m hoping that this note will prompt other ER readers to add some data points to this interesting issue. My first experiment was with a group of eight experienced volunteers, all familiar with Mimosa extractions drunk with harmel (Peganum harmala). The bark was extracted with cold water and lemon juice over several weeks. Volunteers drank 150 to 200 percent of their usual dose, but without the harmel. While some felt that there might be “something” there, the general consensus was “all of the nausea, none of the fun.” In fact, most agreed that a previous experiment, of drinking just the harmel without the Mimosa, was more visionary.

In early February of 2004, we were told that a very potent, possibly novel tryptamine had been extracted from Mimosa tenuiflora rootbark via a process described in a later issue of The Entheogen Review (ER 13(2): 49–50). The person who made this report had a reasonable amount of experience smoking DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and bufotenine, and felt certain—due to the potency and the nature of the effects—that what he had ingested was not any of these. (The effect was so dramatic, that it sounded as though it may have scared this person off from performing a second bioassay.) We suggested that the isolate be sent to a lab for GC/MS analysis, and were told that this was planned. We have not heard anything more regarding this. Another sample of M. tenuiflora root-bark extract that was sent for GC/MS analysis recently was shown to be exceptionally pure DMT only—almost as pure as the reference standard. Considering your report above, I decided to attempt smoking filter cake residue. 25 grams of Mimosa tenuiflora was powdered and soaked for 90 minutes in about 16 oz cold water. This was then crudely filtered through a pasta strainer (to remove the bulk of the fiber and particulates), then poured through a coffee filter. The residue was dried, scraped off the filter, and 100 mg was placed into a clean (never used) DMT pipe. Although you reported an effect from only “a few milligrams of the smoke,” I figured that I would take one inhalation and see how things progressed (ultimately

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vaporizing the whole 100 mg, if needed). After the first inhalation with no effects, I continued to hit the pipe until no more vapor was produced. Aside from a mild light-headed feeling, there were no effects. My next attempt was made with 600 mg of the material, placed into a VOLCANO vaporizer unit (which had previously been successfully used with pure DMT). I sucked down two bagfuls of vapor processed in this manner, to no effect (other than lightheadedness again). When I looked at the powder residue in the chamber, about 50% of it was clearly toasted (almost charred), and the remaining 50% looked reasonably fresh still. So it is quite possible that there was uneven heating going on in the chamber, and it may be that more bags could have been filled. However, generally with volatilized tryptamines, one wants to get the entire dose from one bag within three or four inhalations, so this material did not seem concentrated enough to use in this device (on the presumption that it may not have all been spent and if it would have been active had it all been consumed). Alas, while you can offer no confirmation of Mimosa tenuiflora being orally active via cold-water extraction consumed with no added MAOI, I am unable to offer any confirmation of filter cake residue being active when heated and inhaled. (I wish that I could.) Since the initial publication of positive bioassays of cold-water extracted Mimosa tenuiflora, we have only received a single correspondence on this topic, which stated that 25 grams gave “very mild but quite pleasant results” and “It seems for me that a much larger amount than 25 grams of root-bark is required” (ER 8(4): 135). OTT has also remarked that “the two times with a few subjects that I have since repeated this, and it did work, the amounts were a bit higher: 30–35 grams of root-bark/dose, if memory serves me” (OTT 2005). We are somewhat bewildered that we have not received more bioassay reports regarding this process. A possible explanation might be that many people did not receive positive results, and folks are less likely to write in and say, “I tried this, and it didn’t work.” In any case, we appreciate hearing about your own results. Why it works is still anyone’s guess. Independent GC/MS analysis reported finding the β-carboline 2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroβ-carboline in Mimosa tenuiflora earlier this year (MOECAT 2005), but this could have been an isolation artifact. Previously, this compound has been found in Virola barks (HOLMSTEDT et al. 1980). However, this β-carboline is speculated to produce only trivial MAOI action (MCKENNA 2005; CALLAWAY 2005). JACE CALLAWAY has discovered a new phytoindole from Mimosa tenuiflora—one that is in an entirely new class of compounds; the activity of this chemical is un-




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known, but it could possibly act as a MAOI. CALLAWAY has also remarked that from his observations, “there are at least a handful of indoles in this species, aside from DMT, and many of them are quite large and unstable” (CALLAWAY 2005); experiments with known doses of these isolated chemicals might prove valuable in nailing down some of the discrepancies. (We are eager to read CALLAWAY’S paper, which has been accepted for future publication by Planta Medica.) OTT has speculated that there may be some new tryptamine or DMT adduct contained in it, and the scant data reported above related to some potent compound producing effects when vaporized and inhaled may suggest that there is indeed a highly active novel tryptamine in it. More recent GC/MS was done this year, which did not show the presence of any novel tryptamines, but they might have been lost in the isolation process (see article related to this pp. 116–117) or not present in this particular sample of the root-bark. Why it doesn’t work can also only be speculative at this point, and could be based on one or more of a number of factors, including: ALKALOID PROFILE: Different individual trees may contain different alkaloid profiles depending on several factors including genetics and environment. SOURCE: Material from Brazil may have fewer alkaloids than material from Mexico, but more analysis needs to be done. PREPARATION: Variation in extraction procedures may affect results. POTENCY: Some material may simply be more potent than other material, with regard to any “mystery alkaloid(s).” For DMT content, OTT has reported a range of 1% to 11% (although practically speaking, it seems unlikely that the higher end reported is the norm), and any other alkaloids present might also have an equally wide range of concentration. MISIDENTIFICATION: OTT has pointed out that Mimosa tenuiflora “does look like any number of chaparral-type, mesquite-type, Mimosas or Acacias and superficially could be mistaken for Acacia farnesiana” (OTT 2005). In recent years mis-identified “Argyreia nervosa” seed, “Lagochilus inebrians” seed/flower/ herb, and “Mitragyna speciosa” herb/extract have all been offered commercially. [In the case of DP, CA, misidentification is unlikely, since the bark was “well-proven” when taken wth a MAOI.] DIFFERENCES IN INDIVIDUAL BIOCHEMISTRY: Some folks may have higher or lower amounts of gastric MAOI in their systems, and this could have some effect on the activity of any “mystery alkaloid(s).” AGE OF MATERIAL: Although the DMT content of M. tenuiflora is reasonably stable when stored for long periods, it is possible that the “mystery alkaloid(s)” degrade faster. It may be that root-bark needs to be fresher in order to be orally active sans MAOI. PLACEBO EFFECT: Although unlikely, it is possible that those people who reported positive results were only having a placebo effect. — DAVID AARDVARK

N E W !

Trout’s Notes on San Pedro & Related Trichocereus Species The single best-selling title at the recent MIND STATES VI conference, this work contains 312 pages and nearly 900 black and white photos. Covering San Pedro and its horticultural relatives, with details on botany, chemistry, and history of these beautiful and sometimes gigantic cacti. TROUT’S latest offering is the single most comprehensive review and reference compendium that exists concerning Trichocereus pachanoi and its relatives. Available for $34.00 (USA), $39.00 (foreign) from The Entheogen Review, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Or order online with a credit card from www.entheogenreview.com.

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HPLC-MS Analysis of Acacia obtusifolia by Mulga

The serendipitous discovery by the current author around a decade ago of a previously unreported species of Australian Acacia being used as a probable source for simple entheogenic tryptamine alkaloids due to previous misidentification was based on bioassays amongst a range of the authors’ associates and acquaintances (Mulga 1996). There are no published studies concerning the alkaloid profile of the species identified as Acacia obtusifolia, despite people’s use of various extracts of Acacia species for entheogenic purposes in more recent times. A sample of simple alkaloidal extract from A. obtusifolia bark was subjected to HPLC-MS analysis in order to help identify the constituents.

MATERIALS AND METHODS A sample of alkaloid stem-bark extract from Acacia obtusifolia was obtained. Although no specimens of the particular plant were gathered or submitted for formal identification, the author is confident that the material came from A. obtusifolia. A few milligrams (based on sight, not accurately weighed) of golden crystalline alkaloidal extract was dissolved in 2 ml of methanol and subjected to HPLC-MS analysis with an Agilent series 1100 HPLC, using a reverse phase solvent system of water and acetonitrile (both containing 0.005% triflouroacetic acid), running a gradient of 10-95% acetonitrile over 35 minutes through a Phenomenex C18 – 5 mm column (150 x 4.6 mm), at 40°C. Only fragmentation ions over 100 were included in Mass Spectra (MS).

RESULTS Figure 1 shows a HPLC chromatogram of the extract, with UV absorption at 210 and 280 nm using Diode Array Detector (DAD), which appears to consist primarily (90% or more) of one substance with a retention time of 5.3 minutes in the system used, and some traces of other related alkaloids. The Mass Spectra of the major constituent is shown in Figure 2. It shows a base fragment peak m/z 144, a parent peak at 189, and secondary fragment peak at 130. This suggests a molecule of atomic mass 188 (M+) and corresponds somewhat with published MS values reported for N,N-dimethyltryptamine (Trout 2002).

The three smaller peaks at around 4.9–5 minutes and at 6.5 and 7.3 minutes respectively appear initially to be tryptamine, and simple β-carboline alkaloids respectively. A single fragment on the MS at m/z 144 for the peak with retention time of 4.9–5 minutes, was assumed to be the same fragment as appears in the previous MS (Figure 2) and corresponds in weight to cleaving the amine group from a simple tryptamine molecule. This suggests either tryptamine or perhaps N-methyl-tryptamine, though a parent fragment for neither was detected on the MS. The MS of the peak at 7.3 minutes (Figure 3) had a base peak at m/z 158, with fragment peaks at 130, 144, 170, 183 and apparent parent peaks at 199 and 201. A similar MS (Figure 4) was obtained from HPLC-MS analysis of Acacia complanata leaf extracted in methanol. This species has previously been reported to contain simple β-carboline alkaloids, mainly N-methyl-tetrahydroharman or “leptocladine” (Johns et al. 1966) with a molecular mass of 200. Within these later peaks of the Acacia obtusifolia extract chromatogram, there appear to be traces of some closely related alkaloids.

DISCUSSION Previous reports of simple tryptamine and β-carboline alkaloids from Australian species of Acacia, and related species from the SW Pacific (Poupat et al. 1976) and Asia (Liu et al. 1977) (Table 1), have been more widely referenced during the last ten to fifteen years (Trout 2002). Although two Australian species—Acacia maidenii and A. phlebophylla—were reported in the 1960s to contain simple methylated tryptamine alkaloids (Fitzgerald & Sioumis 1965; Rovelli & Vaugan 1967), there has been little information concerning the constituents of other species, or possible variation between different populations of the same species. The results of this HPLC-MS analysis supports the occurrence of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) as the major base of Acacia obtusifolia stem-bark, with traces of related compounds such as tryptamine (or NMT) and β-carbolines.

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Figure 1

Figure 3

Acacia obtusifolia was identified serendipitously as an active and potent DMT source after successful extraction of alkaloids from the stem-bark. That 1994 isolation had been done under the assumption that the specimens were thought to be A. maidenii in 1994.

Figure 2

can be seen in a review of reports shown in Table 1. As the sample analyzed was a crude alkaloid extract, there are quite likely to be some differences between the whole plant (or other plant parts) alkaloid profile and this sample.

The complexity of a genus of over 1100 species in a vast continent like Australia and correct identification of plant material is no small matter. Many active local varieties—in form, or chemistry, or even species—may yet come to light with further studies. It is possible that other specimens or species may produce similar or related alkaloids, as

There was no indication of any 5-substituted tryptamine alkaloids as reported from related genera, such as Anadenanthera, Desmodium, Virola, and others (Trout 2002), and they have not yet been reported from members of Acacia subspecies Phyllodinae (Racosperma) in the scientific literature, which is not to say that they are not present. Their tentative occurrence is

Despite numerous attempts over the years, it has taken nearly a decade for a sample to finally see analysis, even though extracts of this plant were already being used as an entheogen due to misidentification. Such analysis is important, if only to help secure the identity and relative safety of any previously unknown plant or extract.

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reported in several Acacia species elsewhere based on TLC (Trout 1998, 2002) and also via GC/MS (see Figure 5, although a second analysis of the same material showed no bufotenine, but instead found a compound suspected—but not confirmed— to be 1,2dimethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobetacarboline). Acacia obtusifolia is closely related to A. phlebophylla, and it is not surprising, at least in the author’s experience, to find a similar alkaloid profile. A. obtusifolia is far more common and widespread, with A. phlebophylla considered vulnerable to endangered, with a total population on Mt. Buffalo thought to number around 6000, prior to wild fires in January 2003 (Walsh et al. 2000).

Given the lack of control for weight of extract and original source material and no internal standard to compare or calibrate equipment with, these tests were unable to determine quantitatively the alkaloid content of Acacia obtusifolia stem-bark. Previous work has suggested between 0.1% and 0.7% dry weight as the yield of total alkaloids from A. obtusifolia stem-bark. A single reference to 0.15% yield of alkaloid has been reported under the name A. intertexta (= A. obtusifolia), but no further details are available (Collins et al. 1990). At least some specimens of Acacia obtusifolia appear to have relatively high levels of DMT and traces of related alkaloids in the stem-bark (and probably other plant parts), based on these results and the author’s previous studies.

TABLE 1 Tryptamine and β-carboline Alkaloids Reported in Literature from Acacia subsp Phyllodinae (Racopserma)

Figure 4

SPECIES

PLANT PART ALKALOIDS REPORTED

REFERENCE

A. complanata

Phyllodes

N-methyl-tetrahydroharman tetrahydroharman

Johns et al. 1966

A. confusa

Root-bark

DMT, NMT

Liu et al. 1977

A. maidenii

Stem-bark

DMT, NMT

Fitzgerald & Soumis 1965

A. phlebophylla

Phyllodes

DMT

Rovelli & Vaughan 1967

A. simplex

Phyllodes & Twigs

DMT, NMT, N-methyl-tetrahydro-β-carboline Poupat et al. 1976

Stem-bark

DMT, NMT, Poupat et al. 1976 N-methyl-tetrahydro-β-carboline, N,N-formyl,methyl-tryptamine

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SOME THOUGHTS ON ANALYSIS and Comparisons of Extracts and Synthetic DMT by K. Trout When interpreting plant analysis results, it is important to understand there are several potential reasons for the variations in alkaloid expression that one may encounter. Sometimes this is the result of differences in alkaloid content and/ or composition. Other times it may instead hinge on a lack of comparability between samples. Often, people read an analysis in the literature and then attempt to apply it to the material they have in their hands, as if alkaloid content is a static and stable feature of plants. In reality, while an analysis may say something about the material being analyzed, it says less beyond that. More to the point, when a plant has published results that show a single alkaloid composition and content rather than a range, it is probable that the plant had one sample analyzed one time only.

ACACIA OBTUSIFOLIA TOP TWO PHOTOS BY ZARIAT BOTTOM TWO PHOTOS BY K. TROUT

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Within most populations there often can be found individuals that can vary substantially from the rest of that population. Different harvest times, environmental conditions, and nutrient availability can all create quite disparate yields, and/ or even variable compositions for the isolated alkaloid fraction. Different preparation approaches creating the sample tested can also produce very different outcomes. If these details are not known about the materials being looked at in an analysis, the comparison of samples can have relatively little meaning. For example, when isolated material from Acacia obtusifolia gets more white or light (or crystalline) from people trying to clean it up by recrystallization, further acid/base partitioning, or preparative chromatography, there is often little else remaining except for the major alkaloid. This means that in the case of plant isolates, the more purified the product, the less likely it is to actually represent the alkaloid profile of its plant source. Some alkaloids, such as bufotenine and β-carbolines, are readily separated from DMT during the recrystallization process, so they can be absent from the final product even if present in substantial amounts in the plant.

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We were fortunate enough to have access to four samples of Acacia obtusifolia extract, along with a small bit of harvest or preference data, and a friend willing to run GC/MS. These samples were chosen for comparison due to having been isolated with an intention of preserving the intact alkaloid content of the plant; all were crude, semi-solid, and fairly oily. Colors ranged from orange to reddishbrown, and were sometimes quite dark. It was common for people to express a perception of the darker material producing heavier, “darker,” and more intense trips. On the other hand, the orange “resin” was frequently described as being much “friendlier” and more colorful. Many who preferred the orange material felt it to be closer in effect to pure DMT. A significant number of those who preferred the brown material felt that it was more useful in their spiritual practices. One friend commented that the brown material held more serious lessons, and hence more valuable learning opportunities. These sorts of preferences may be influenced to various degrees by many factors including set and setting, and even the psychological effect of certain colors—although in this case it appears there may be some chemical/pharmacological foundation behind the preferences, as not all people expressing these opinions knew what color of resin they ingested.

Figure 5

In all four samples, DMT was vastly the major alkaloid. Trace amounts of alkaloids other than DMT and bufotenine were also present in all samples, but none of these were identified. Seemingly in keeping with what was suggested by bioassays, the brightest orange-colored material (said to be a summer extract) had almost no bufotenine, while the darkest brown sample (said to be a winter extract) had the most bufotenine. The other two samples had small but intermediate levels of bufotenine; one of these was somewhat darker, although it was said to be a summer extract. Bufotenine (see Figure 5) does not appear to have ever previously been formally reported from any Acacia species; however, suspicions of its presence have been voiced for more than ten years by Acacia extract consumers in Australia. We approached another chemist in order to double-check the results noted above. When GC/MS was run on the darkest sample, this time it did not show bufotenine, and instead showed what might have been 1,2-dimethyl-1,2,3,4tetrahydrobetacarboline or something similar. DMT was, as expected, the major alkaloid. The chemist performing analysis for us commented that due to its polarity, bufotenine might not have been discernible in the test columns used, and more work with this in mind would be required to prove its absence. Another consideration related to the alkaloid composition of Acacia is the potential impact of crude approaches to obtaining the resin. If large masses of material sit for extended periods during the act of solvent removal, these can form distinctly colored zones ranging from light to dark within the same mass. Differences in effects between these zones have been reported by users, with the lighter areas most often associated with purer DMT effects. It is reasonable to think that alkaloids will at least partially segregate within these zones during the crystallization process, so that even within one large lot there may be substantial differences in alkaloid composition for the portions that are distributed from within them.

ACACIA OBTUSIFOLIA SEEDLINGS ABOVE BY K. TROUT TREE BELOW BY FLOYD DAVIS

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We have heard comments of Mimosa tenuiflora extracts being perceived of as “friendlier” than Acacia, and the orange Acacia being perceived of as “friendlier” than pure DMT. While this might involve the action of some other alkaloids, it is probably also in part a function of dosage. The Acacia extract tends to be a semi-solid to solid, oily and often semi-crystalline mass that can readily be shown to contain large amounts of insoluble material. This means that, at best, the “resin” is far from being pure alkaloid, much less pure DMT. Any given chunk of pure DMT will therefore be more potent than the same weight chunk of Acacia extract. A similar picture exists for the Mimosa extract but for a different reason. While Mimosa extract may be extremely pure, quite dry, and solid, it tends not to be used as lumps or powder, but rather as small and irregular (often curving) flakes or chunks. These take up more room than either

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Acacia or pure DMT, which can lead people to over-estimate (and thereby “underdose”) the amount being used as their dose unless weighing it. Visually, a gram of Mimosa extract can occupy nearly twice the volume of a lump of orange waxy synthetic or oily Acacia resin, easily leading people to erroneous conclusions when comparing eyeballed amounts. It is important to keep in mind that we did not have access to enough samples where known details were available, so the data presented is still insufficient to firmly establish any predictable trends. However, it is enough to indicate a need for more work. A rigorous survey examining the potential of 1) variations in the alkaloid content and composition of different local populations, strains, or clones, and 2) fluctuations in individual plants based on season, time of day, and environmental factors such as stress, would be of great benefit to the whole community, so long as samples are chosen that can permit a direct comparison. 

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Seeds & Stems DANCE PATRONS ARRESTED

“On March 20 in Flint, Michigan, a nightclub was raided by 60 officers from four different local law enforcement groups. The officers arrested 17 people on felony drug charges, but cited more than 100 with misdemeanor drug possession charges or, for those who did not have any drugs, charges of ‘frequenting a known drug establishment.’ ‘Frequenting a known drug establishment’ is a misdemeanor charge that carries a potential 90 days in jail or $500 fine. […S]ome attendees were subjected to strip searches and full cavity searches.” [Posted 3/24/05 to www.drugpolicy.org/news/ 032405flint.cfm; see URL for full story.] ENTHEOGEN: AWAKENING THE GOD WITHIN www.maps.org/avarchive/igwana/Entheogen.mov

A film that blends several styles of documentary storytelling in a sensory-overload/free-association collage, attempting to recreate the psychedelic experience. Features many noteworthy researchers. It is planned for release at next year’s Sundance Film Festival. A trailer for the movie can be viewed at the URL listed above. ECSTASY TESTING PROJECT OUT OF FUNDS

As of August 1, 2005, the Ecstasy Testing Program at www.ecstasydata.org has run out of funds. Testing costs $1,500 a month in laboratory fees for 15 pills per month (with a $30 co-pay). The program is seeking a professional grant writer to help them apply for appropriate grants to fund the project. If you qualify, please e-mail [email protected]. FREE TO PLANT SEEDS? www.freedomthroughjustice.com

Follows Ron Kiczenski’s upcoming trial on the question of whether or not human beings have the natural-born right to grow any plant. This question has never before been brought to a federal court, and the government is said to be having major difficulties attempting to explain the justification for this type of over-reaching jurisdiction. Pleadings, transcripts, and the December 9, 2004 findings and recommendations by the magistrate can be read at the URL listed above. Pre-trial conference is set for September 19, 2005, and the trial is set for November 2, 2005.

IBOGAINE ART www.gammalyte.com

Dave Hunter’s beautiful collection of ibogaine-inspired art. PALENQUE NORTE www.matrixmasters.com/pn

A favorite spot to hang out at the Burning Man Festival (www.burningman.com) is the Palenque Norte lecture tent. Talks from this year’s entheogen-related presentations, featuring RafaelO Aisner, Sheelo Bohm, Bruce Damer, Erik Davis, Rick Doblin, Frank Echenhofer, John Halpern, Jon Hanna, Matthew  W. Johnson, Sandra Karpetas, Leah Martin, Valerie Mojeiko, Tony Moss, Michael Nickel, Daniel Pinchbeck, Brian Richards, Marcelino Sepulveda, Andrew Sewell, Stasia, and Sobey Wing, should be posted to the web site at some point following Burning Man. The site also features talks from past years, as well as audio from Palenque conference favorites like Terence McKenna and Christian Rätsch. THE CANNABIS EXPERIENCE AND EVERYDAY FUNCTIONING STUDY www.thecannabisexperience.info

An anonymous online survey that takes 30 minutes to complete, attempting to help judge whether Cannabis use is harmful, completely harmless, or somewhere in between. The study aims to explore the nature of the relationships between individual and environmental factors associated with patterns of Cannabis use, and their impact on everyday functioning in terms of psychological well-being and cognitive functioning. Survey acceptence ends June 30, 2006. MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART THE GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY “ECSTASY: IN AND ABOUT ALTERED STATES” OCTOBER 9, 2005 – FEBRUARY 20, 2006 www.moca-la.org/museum/moca_geffen.php

This exhibit features works from 1990 through the present by 30 artists whose works experiment with transcending everyday physical and mental conditions, creating “a heightened sensory experience for the viewer that elicits myriad responses, including awe and surprise, humor and delight, even confusion and sublime contemplation.”

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LUKE BROWN AND ISIS INDRIYA

REVIEWED BY CLEAR • DAY ONE: Visual decadence, mindful flavors of alternative nutrition, sound, and healing. A gaggle of freaks, all generations, all stripes (and polka dots and plaid). All ages the web site said, kid friendly. I’d bring my kids if I had any. • I was sitting in the chill-out space listening to some delicious ambient music, electronic and soothing. A painting up on the wall, a galactic Mayan motif, higher realms and higher planes. • I smelled some oils, flowery, fruity, lemon I think, cleansing. There were a lot of “Oms” and crystals. • Oh, there, I saw my first child, a young boy 8 or 9, blonde with a green fuzzy turtle back pack. • And another, fist full of trail-mix for me. Snack-snack. • Joan said to say high to a man named Frank and his black bag of magic goodies. • Old heads and new heads, young heads and dead heads. People came from all around the world to attend, to immerse and learn and network. • Susan Blackmore on memes, such a head opener. But what about the smallest meme or the memetization of experience? • Sasha and Ann Shulgin Q & A, Yea! Questioned from lunatics. Such a gradient from the chemists geeks to the party freeks; and no, 2CB/T... will not show up in a standard urine test. • Accosted, entertained, and seduced by a flirty photographer with no pockets. She’s out on a yang tip of the Art world, business of photography down in So-Cal. Synchronistic wedged in for her as her sister was a vendor of fine wares there at Mind States: tinctures, balms, oils. • I saw Jon, the organizer, whirling on stage with children, a boy and a girl. His long blonde hair was straight and shining. • Charles Hayes, author of “Tripping,” on memory. I really tried to keep up, I was fascinated, but so much, so fast, so good. • Michael Shermer on skepticism, a meme-busting meme. • The mushroom panel: Linda Corazon talked of the native use and the adventures of Salvador Roquet. Mike Crowley spoke of the Buddhist connections with psychedelic mushrooms, blue stemmed parasols. Charlie Grob spoke of his science and psyche practice, extemporaneously as the PowerPoint projector was out. Tom Reidlinger spoke of the 50 year anniversary of the advent of the mushroom into the life of Western Consciousness. • DAY TWO: It takes me one-and-a-half hours to get sitting down in the convention center’s theater. I caught the tail end of the first lecture. “He’s sponsored by DARPA, I don’t like that intention,” a fellow participant said to me. “If you take it out all the way we’re all dead, aren’t we?” I responded. Blech, it doesn’t take anything to just listen, does it? The speaker was talking about cognitive science and neurostimulation, long distance thought projection, 2 monkeys in 2 different rooms. • Mark Pesce had quite an elaborate presentation with neato abstract video playing, a bit of a Terence McKenna lecture (again preaching to the choir), and a didgeridoo. He spoke of BitTorrent, Wiki, the Outfoxed plug-in, Cellphedia, trust, and the need for a health regimen of media exercise. In the Q & A someone remarked that the psychedelic sections of Wikipedia are a bit sparse and we should be doing a better job of getting the info out. I agree. • After the lecture I went to make a call and was accosted by A., a young enthusiastic woman, who mistook me for a fellow poster on entheogen.com. • Piers Bizony: “Scientists are from Mars, Artists are from Venus.” Spoke of the aesthetics of Science and scientists as they experiment. It seems so simple of an idea, but so profound (as is much in the symposium) that Scientists are not the cold-hearted archetypes of lore. He spoke of the pinning down of our universe by black holes, the instruments of galactic evolution. • I was invited by a speaker to a post-Mind States party out in Marin on Monday. She was one of the speakers (the only woman) on the mushroom panel last night. She holds traditional ceremonies down in Mexico. She obviously loves what she does. • I skipped the multimedia lecture/ dance. They spoke of a global dance culture, Burning Man and such. Been there, done that. I don’t want to be cocky, and it’s not like I yelled out some obscenities. I just left the auditorium when the chunky translating slides of galaxies slid by as a backdrop of the strains of some generic tribal electronic music came on with a couple of dreadlocked dancers. • The visionary artists panel: Donna Torres and her garden of visionary plants. A soft-spoken woman relying heavily on her notes, nervous. Jim Woodring (my personal favorite) spouted a lucid treatise on his work “Lazy Robinson.” Donna Tracy a texture artist talked of digital waste “digitritus,” fractals, ascetic transcendence, and the palette for evolution. Robert Forman, a genuine New Yorker, a yarn worker, and psychedelicist. His travels to the Huichol and Guadalupe. Vibrata and her evolution from dualism to interdependence. • I wish that Sue was able to MC the panel because they ran out of time and there was no Q & A. I think the whole introductory factual/lecture download could have been skipped in its entirety and we could have had 2 hours of Q & A, YES! • DAY 3…??? • Excerpted/adapted from posts at http://mindstates.tribe.net.

PIERS BIZONY AND SASHA SHULGIN

PHOTOS BY GENEVA BUMB & B. RAD

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Events Calendar AYAHUASCA HEALING RETREAT SEPTEMBER 20–28, 2005

A DOPE DEALER OCTOBER 4, 2005

Ceremonies in Bahía, Brazil with ayahuasca, meditation, lectures, transpersonal exercises, and excursions. Staff includes Sue Minns, Gary Reich, Silvia Polivoy, and Zoe Seven. A second retreat is scheduled for October 4–12, 2005. See www.ayahuasca-healing.net for more information.

Confessions of a Dope Dealer author and actor Sheldon Norberg presents a lecture at Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey. Check www.adopedealer.com for more details.

MINDS WIDE OPEN SEPT. 24 — NOV. 29, 2005 Held at the Light Space Gallery at 1732 Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice, CA 90921, this visionary art show features work from Luke Brown, Dean Chamberlain, J Garcia, Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, Paul Laffoley, Kenny Scharf, Carey Thompson, Stacy Valis, Oliver Vernon, Robert Williams, and Susan Williams. For more information, see www.lightspacegallery.com. From December 15 through January 11, this show moves to the east coast MicroCOSM Gallery. See http://microcosmgallery.com.

SYMBIOSIS GATHERING SEPT. 30 – OCT. 2, 2005 Symbiosis is an arts, music, and lifestyle gathering held at Big Basin State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Three days of dancing, camping, exchanging ideas and creativity, holistic medicine exploration, spirituality, nutrition, and communal networking. Featuring visionary art from Carey Thompson, J Garcia, Kris Davidson, Mark Henson, Zariat, and more, presented by Zoetic Art. With a tribal bazaar, veggie food, DJs and live music performances, workshops, and lectures. Early-bird tickets are $55.00 each for the whole three days. For more information, see www.SG05.com.

SACRED ELIXIRS OCTOBER 22–23, 2005 A conference on the role of drug plants in the history of religion. Speakers include Mike Crowley, Marlene Dobkin  de  Rios, Paul Devereux, Clark Heinrich, Michael Horowitz, Robert Jesse, James Kent, Ralph Metzner, Cynthia Palmer, Dale Pendell, Tom Riedlinger, Alexander Shulgin, and Ann Shulgin. Plus poetry, workshops on breathwork, meditation, psychotronic devices, and vendors of books, artwork, and entheogenic plants. Single day tickets are $55.00 each, or a two-day pass is $90.00. Tickets can be purchased online at www.sacredelixirs.com or by sending payment to: Narthex, Inc., 2530 Berryessa Road, PMB 60, San Jose, CA 95132.

ECSTASY & EXPERIENCE OCTOBER 29, 2005 Presented by MOCA and the New Center for Psychanalysis, and held at the MOCA Grande Avenue, Ahmanson Auditorium, speakers will discuss the exhibition Ecstasy: In and Out of Altered States (see page 119), within the context of ongoing research into psychoactive drugs such as MDMA and psilocybin. Presenters include Charles Grob, Ralph Metzner, Thomas Brod, and others. $30.00. For more info call (213) 621-1745 or e-mail [email protected].

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Sources by Jon Hanna

www.pondman.nu A May 17, 2005 press release from the

RESEARCH CHEMICAL UPDATE

Department of Justice stated that “DAVID

As reported in the Summer 2004 issue of The Entheogen Review, several online vendors of so-called “research chemicals” (R.C.) were busted on July 21 of that year by the DEA. Sentences related to some of those arrests, handed down earlier this year, are noted in the sidebar to the left.

WILLIAM LINDER, a/k/a Dr. BENWAY…was sentenced…to life imprisonment…[and] an additional combined 410 years imprisonment, to be served concurrently” for crimes related to his research chemical sales. In this situation, the overdose death from AMT consumption of an 18-year-old man no doubt contributed to the severity of the sentence. www.americanchemicalsupply.com MICHAEL BURTON pled guilty on March 21, 2005, to “distribution and possession with intent to distribute Controlled Substance Analogs which resulted in the death of JAMES DOWNS,” and he is facing a sentence of 20 years to life in prison (DUGAS 2005). www.racresearch.com APRIL CURTIS told The Entheogen Review in early August that she was sentenced to 37 months (hoping to serve only 12–18 months), and fined $100 (CURTIS 2005). www.duncanlabproducts.com RAYMOND DUNCAN got two years in prison plus three years probation (EROWID 2005).

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The DEA used R.C. companies’ credit card records from Internet and phone purchases to contact some previous customers and threaten to take action against them if they did not cooperate with the investigation. Concern was expressed to me by a consultant to the DEA that these records may have retained details regarding the sizes of purchases that customers made. The feeling was expressed that those who had ordered a gram or two of something were unlikely to have problems, but those who had ordered large quantities might be flagged with “dealer” status, and could run into trouble in the future. While over a year has passed with no busts reported being directly tied to these investigations (other than the company owners), one wonders how long the DEA might “sit on” such data for use at a future date. While R.C. company customers may feel as though they are “doing nothing wrong” by the letter of the law in ordering non-scheduled chemicals, it nonetheless strikes me as being prudent to take a few precautions when placing orders for items that may have “questionable” legality. (This includes virtually anything that could be used as a drug or considered “drug paraphernalia.”) Obtain information about a company’s products and prices by surfing the web at a public library, then place the order via snail-mail. Pay with a money order, preferably purchased from a small town’s post office where one is not a regular customer. (Convenience stores and large post offices frequently have a surveillance camera pointed at their customers.) Use an alias and a non-traceable mail drop. (Consider too that one who repeatedly uses the same mail drop might be easier to target through surveillance.) A friend who occasionally visited D.M. Turner to exchange various “questionable” items once mentioned to me that Turner always donned a pair of gloves before making any transactions. Considering that evidence which helped nail Casey Hardison to the wall (see page 94) included his fingerprints on a package of intercepted contraband, Turner’s protocol seems to be basic common sense. The R.C. market temporarily turned into a ghost town after the 2001 bust of Mark Niemoeller of JLF Poisonous Non-consmumables. But as time passed, various companies opened up and again provided R.C. offerings. After the 2004 “Operation Web Tryp” busted several R.C. distributors, some

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other companies with similar offerings shut down completely, or removed those items from their catalogs. For a while the scene was quieter, although not all such companies completely disappeared. An oft-asked question sent to me in care of The Entheogen Review these days is, “What R.C. companies are currently in business, and which companies are trustworthy?” I have had no personal interactions with any of the companies listed below, and I have been unable to locate much data on any of them, whether first-hand, second-hand, or mere rumor. Dealing with such companies, even in the safest manner possible, is a risk that I would not take myself. However, I encourage those bolder than me to report back with their experiences. AMS RESEARCH http://ams-research.com/english

A Japanese company with a good selection that is willing to sell to any country except for the United States. BRAVO TRADING LTD. www.bravo-trading.com

Located in Hong Kong, this company has one of the widest selections currently available. As an example of their prices, they offer 2C-I for $320 per gram and 5-MeO-DMT for $230 per gram. While they will sell R.C. to U.S. addresses, they won’t ship 1,4-butanediol into the United States. They won’t ship R.C. to Canada or the United Kingdom. GBL CLEANERS www.gblcleaners.com

Sells gamma-butyrolactone; ships from Canada and claims that shipping is guaranteed. See web site for prices. JMAR CHEMICAL www.jmarchem.com/main3.html

No idea if these folks are actually still in business, but it seems unlikely. Their web site is somewhat squirrely, with major pages not displaying and others not connecting. The page listed above was last updated on July 25, 2004, and an e-mail asking if they were still accepting orders went unanswered. LEGAL DRUGS CANADA www.legaldrugs.ca

Offers 2C-I for $200 per gram and 5-MeO-DMT for $300 per gram; their web site mentioned pre-ordering available for 2C-T-2 and 2C-E, to be shipped in late July, but this had not been updated as of early August. Some web forums have listed both complaints and compliments for this company.




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LEGAL HIGHS www.legalhighs.org

This appears to be the same company reviewed in ER 12(3): 105 under the slightly different name “yourlegalhighs.com.” Their advertising is sensationalistic and sometimes inaccurate, and remarks in R.C. web forums suggest that they are a rip-off. NANO STYLE www.nano-style.com

A Japanese R.C. company that offers a large selection of chemicals. If you don’t read Japanese, you can Google “nano style” and use the page translation service to gain some idea of what they offer. Placing an order, however, is likely to require sending them an e-mail to sort it out, presuming that someone at their company can read English. Prices are listed in yen. QRB RESEARCH www.qrbresearch.com

I know people personally who ordered from this company back when they primarily showcased R.C. offerings. Following Operation Web Tryp, this company was reworked, and they now focus mainly on botanical extracts. However, they do still list 2C-I as being available at $300 per gram, with a two-week wait noted for delivery time. TRANS HUMAN CHURCH OF ENLIGHTENMENT www.thespice.ca

The Trans Human Church of Enlightenment was set up in Canada to declare the use of “spice” as a religious sacrament in that country, and also to sell “spice” to their members. (As of January 2005, they were selling “spice” for $180 CAN per gram.) By placing an order, you automatically become a member of the church. “Spice” is not currently scheduled in Canada, and this approach is being taken in order to solidify “spice” as a religious sacrament so as to exempt it from any future legislation. The web site doesn’t state what, exactly, “spice” is, perhaps to avoid being easily targeted for prosecution. (Ironically, I found this web site by doing a Google search for the term “erowid,” as they were using Google’s AdWords advertising in order to announce themselves to the world; not particularly subtle advertising!) Their web site said that anyone who e-mailed could ask what the identity of “spice” was, and they would get an e-mail back letting them know. (Really, what is the point in all this— maybe just to collect a good e-mail SPAM list?) So I sent off a

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query, and got no response. I asked someone from a Canadian entheobotanical business if he had heard of this organization, and what “spice” might be. He said that it was 2C-I, and that he had “spoken to people in BC who have dealt with them,” and he was “pretty sure it’s not a scam.” More recently, in early August when I visited their URL, the bulk of the site had been removed and replaced by a notice (dated May 2005), which said that they were still in operation and still processing orders and working on a new site. Considering that the site no longer provides any ordering information, they must only currently be processing orders from past customers. One can read a bit of their previous web site by searching for their name at Google and using the “Cached” feature. I don’t have much confidence in this group.

THE LEGAL EDGE After a five-year break, entheogen attorney Richard  Glen Boire has returned to his law practice, specializing in criminal appeals, expungements and other relief for allegations concerning Cannabis, psychedelics, research chemicals, and other forbidden substances. Consultations are available. He has also reworked his ’zine The Entheogen Law Reporter as an e-mail newsletter, which can be signed up for from www.convictionfree.com/subscribe.htm. The first issue

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that I saw was merely a short blip providing links to a news story about a New Mexico court decision stating that growing psilocybin-containing mushrooms is not a state crime (www.freenewmexican.com/news/29120.html) and another news story related to New York legislators targeting Salvia divinorum (www.longislandpress.com/ ?cp=162&show=article&a_id=4377). Hopefully future issues of “TELR 2.0” will have more in-depth legal commentary by Boire.

IN OTHER LEGAL NEWS www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/ streamdocument.asp?did=318544

In Louisiana, Act No. 159 went into effect on August 15, 2005, making it illegal to possess, manufacture, or distribute a laundry list of various plants, if they are intended for human consumption. From the look of the list, it would appear as though the people who compiled it have little real knowledge of the activity of some of the plants that they are banning. Those found guilty of possession could face up to five years in prison and/or up to a $5,000 fine. Those guilty of manufacture or distribution face 2–10 years and a fine of up to $20,000. For the text of the law, see the URL posted above.

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Book Reviews More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement by Ramez Naam. 2005, (Broadway Books/Random House, Inc., 1747 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, www.broadwaybooks.com), Hardcover 0-7679-1843-6. $24.95. [6.5" x 9.5"], 276 pp.

Psychonauts throughout the years have often used the phrase “consciousness expanding” to describe the effects of psychedelic substances. It seems implicit to some people that the alchemical mystery which unfolds when a person’s nervous system encounters drugs like LSD and DMT is a dissolution of the typical constraints of human awareness; we temporarily enhance our understanding, our empathy, even, potentially, our capacity for serenity and peace. Arguments can be made that the psychedelic experience is not inherently expanding or enhancing anything, let alone consciousness, but that’s not really the point; on a person by person basis, the experience is so subjective and ephemeral that who can truly arbitrate the question? Well, as it turns out, science is rapidly catching up to that question; with every passing year, we learn more and more about the inner workings of the brain. The quest begins with the desire to heal, but then quickly moves past healing the sick to enhancing the healthy. What would you do, then, in a future world where a single pill might produce beneficial effects to your mood—your consciousness—for months at a time, by altering an aspect of your genetic make-up? How would you react if you learned that technology existed to reliably trigger psychedelic experiences simply by delivering a precisely targeted electrical impulse to your brain—and what would you do if you knew that experience could be recorded and transmitted via the Internet to a pal in Kuala Lumpur who intended to play it back and experience it, just as you experienced it? How much more expanded would your consciousness be in a world like that? In his remarkably entertaining new popular science book, More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, software engineer Ramez Naam walks us through a giddying array of possible futures, all of which have very real and very clear roots in the science of the present day. In chapters such as “Choosing Our Bodies,” “Choosing Our Minds,” and “A Child of Choice,” Naam offers case study

after case study demonstrating how techniques originally intended to heal will eventually be used to enhance the human experience. For instance, in the quest to slow the onset of Alzheimer’s, researchers have learned that implanting modified neurons into the brain of a 60-year-old woman successfully stimulated overall neuron growth. There is a continuum here all the way to faster learning and augmented memory in the healthy. Naam points out that “smart drugs”—and he means reliably, measurably effective “smart drugs” like Ritalin and Adderall—are already incredibly common in our society; he quotes psychologist Ken Livingston, who says, “Even if you have never been diagnosed as having a problem paying attention, many of these drugs will improve your focus and performance.” What if we could engineer the same “performance enhancing” experiences without any of the nasty side effects, by using gene therapy to mimic the useful actions of these drugs in our brains? As we continue learning about the genes involved in personality, Naam notes, “This accumulated knowledge base could be used to create new drugs that sculpt or alter any aspect of human behavior: infatuation, pair bonding, empathy, appetite, spirituality, thrill seeking, arousal, even sexual orientation.” Try that on for consciousness expanding. While unlocking the mysteries of the human genome and deciphering the topology of the brain, we see tantalizing hints that we may someday be able to expand our lifespans and at the same time “compress morbidity”—meaning we’ll live to be 150 or more and won’t be bed-ridden and miserable for the last 75 years of it. Drugs that mimic caloric restriction might someday truly fulfill the promise of making us thin and young-looking without really working at it. (Look, they’ve done this to some very interesting mice, so it could someday happen to you.) Paralyzed individuals are already controlling computers with nothing more than their thoughts—did you see that coming so fast even just five years ago? Blind people now have limited vision thanks to brain implants; devices called “deep-brain stimulators” can help treat the tremors of Parkinson’s, and maybe treat previously untreatable depression.

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Naam’s important leap is that it’s inevitable that healthy people will want access to these technologies as well, especially if they prove safe and reliable. He never ignores the current risks and downsides (hey, turns out it might be dangerous to drill holes in your head), and he clearly admits when he is speculating about the future evolution of these techniques. But the sanest examples—cosmetic surgery, Botox, the rise of anti-depressants—make clear that he is on to something when it comes to how market forces will react. By the time he got to describing “digital video input interfaces” displaying “neural video format” in my head, I was completely hooked; I want eyes that can zoom and a brain with wireless satellite access. I want a thought-controlled skip button on the media player in my brain, I want 24/7 IMDB access to settle trivial disputes, I want pills that make me young and sexy and feel like I’m on MDMA for two months at a time (marketed, perhaps, as “Spring Break”). And what Naam makes especially, crucially clear is that use of these technologies should be your choice. You should have the freedom to do these things to your consciousness. You should have the ability to research and understand the risks and implications, and you should be allowed to make your own decisions. Sounds unfortunately familiar, no doubt. The title of Naam’s book proudly announces his optimism. In Naam’s worldview, the overarching story of history is the way we have pulled ourselves out of the muck of evolution and built for ourselves a world of increased intelligence, longer life, and more luxury for everyone. He sees the technological and medical advances described in his book as continuing evidence that the world is on a path to improving its state, one nervous system at a time. His arguments face stiff competition in today’s world; some biomedical ethicists see grave risks in increasing the human lifespan, for instance, or allowing in vitro genetic manipulation to select for desirable traits in a human child. But as Naam points out, there was a time when blood transfusions and organ transplants raised the ire of ethicists and laypeople alike, and few would now questions the value of these techniques. Some argue that only the rich will benefit, but Naam offers convincing evidence to the contrary, showing that over time, technologies that improve the quality of life almost inevitably spread to the places where they can continue to do the most good. In the end, the arguments against these enhancements sound like the voice of an irate grandfather seeing your mohawk and nose piercing for the first time. While the more conservative agenda shouts, “You kids get off my lawn!” the rest of the world—notably Asia, where support for these

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approaches is considerably higher than in the West—is going to get on with its transhuman self, producing competitive, economic advantages that the West will eventually have to respond to. Naam states early on that moving to ban these technologies—and in some cases, the bans are already with us—will eventually produce a black market. And, well, we all know how effective the black market can be. Perhaps most importantly, Naam’s book is just a damn good read. Whether you agree with or fear his conclusions, he offers an eloquent tour of the current state of these technologies, and that in itself is worth the price of admission. — Scotto

NEW & FORTHCOMING WORKS The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications by Christian Rätsch. Foreword by Albert Hofmann. 2005, (Park Street Press, One Park Street, Rochester, VT 95767, www.InnerTraditions.com), hardcover 0-89281978-2. $125.00 [8.5" X 11.25"], 942 pp.

Jonathan Ott previously reviewed the original 1998 German edition of this book (TER 8(2): 81–83). The layout of the new English translation is nearly identical to the German version, although the publisher did remove the erroneously labeled photo of a Cereus peruvianus (as Ott pointed out), and corrected it with a Trichocereus peruvianus photo. Also worth also mentioning from Ott’s review is his speculation that when a translation of this book eventually appeared in English, it would be “doubtful the book [would] see a commensurate quality of production this side of the Atlantic,” which is not the case. The Park Street Press offering is actually better than the original. Page quality is excellent, photographic images seem a tad sharper, and while the German book was 7.75" X 10.75", the American edition is a larger 8.5" X 11.25", and sewn-and-glued with a higher number of signatures. In short, this beautiful book is the ultimate reference volume on psychoactive plants. While the cost is high, it is worth every penny. — David Aardvark Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Powers and the Poison Path by Dale Pendell. 2005 tba. (Mercury House, POB 192850, San Francisco, CA 94119-2850, www.mercuryhouse.org), paperback 1-56279130-3. $21.95 [7" X 9"], 304 pp.

The final volume of Pendell’s plantastic trilogy, Pharmako/ Gnosis is squarely focused on the entheogens. It should be available in October of 2005. — David Aardvark

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Bibliography 21CFR182.20. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Volume 3. [Revised as of April 1, 2004.] 21CFR172.510. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Volume 3. [Revised as of April 1, 2004.] Allen, R.F. & B. Holmstedt 1980. “The Simple β-carboline Alkaloids,” Phytochemistry 19: 1573–1582. Barrau, J. 1958. “Nouvelles observations au sujet des plantes hallucinogènes d’usage autochtone en Nouvelle-Guinéa,” Journal d’Agriculture Tropical et de Botanique Appliqueé 5: 377–378. Broadley, K.J. & D.R. Kelly 2001. “Muscarinic Receptor Agonists and Antagonists,” Molecules 6: 142–193. Callaway, J. 2005. Personal communication. Chen, J. et al. 1999. “A preliminary study of two Chinese herbs protective tablets on some Chinese traditional medicines,” Zhong Yao Cai 22(11): 566–569. Codex Alimentarius Commission 1979. Report of the 13th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Additives. Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, Codex Alimentarius Commission, 11–17th September 1979, Alinorm 79/12-A. Collins, D.J. et al. 1990. Plants for Medicines: A Chemical & Pharmacological Survey of Plants in the Australian Region. CSIRO Publishing. Coste, J. et al. 1990. “PyBOP: A New Peptide Coupling Reagent Devoid of Toxic Byproduct,” Tetrahedron Letters 31: 205–208. Curtis, A. 2005. Personal communication.

EEC 1988. “Council Directive 88/388/EEC of 21 June 1988 on the Approximation of the Laws of the Member States Relating to Flavourings for use in Foodstuffs and to Source Materials for their Production,” Official Journal of the European Communities, 15.7.1988, L184/61–67. Epling, C. & C. D. Játiva-M. 1962. “A new species of Salvia from Mexico,” Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 20(3): 75–76. Erowid 2005. DEA Announces Arrests and Investigation into Sale of Psychoactive Research Chemicals to the Public (www.erowid.org/ psychoactives/research_chems/research_chems_info1.shtml). Fitzgerald, J.S. & A.A. Simounis 1965. “Alkaloids of the Australian Leguminosae,” Aust. J. Chem. 18: 433–434. Foderaro, T.J. no date. “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder; Thus, Absinthe is Making a Comeback,” New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger Newspaper, High Spirits Section, posted to www.crillonimporters.com/Absente/media/abs-starledgercomeback.htm. Hamilton, L. 1960. “An Experiment to Observe the Effect of Eating Substances Called Ereriba Leaves and Agara Bark,” Transactions of the Papua and New Guinea Scientific Society 1: 16–18. Hay, A. 1999. “Revision of Homalomena (Araceae-Homalomeneae) in New Guinea, The Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands,” Blumea 44: 41–71. Hay, A. et al. 1995. “Checklist of the Araceae of Malesia, Australia and the tropical western Pacific region,” Blumea Suppl. 8: 1–161. Herscovitch, C. 2005. Personal communication. Hirschfield, M & R. Linsert 1930. Liebesmittel—Eine Darstellung der geschlechtlichen Reizmittel (Aphrodisiaca). Man Verlag.

de Beer, J.H. 1993. Non-wood Forest Products in Indochina —Focus: Vietnam, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (www.giaodiem.com/docbao-vn/ nonwood_forest-vn.htm accessed 8/4/05).

Hofmann, A. (Translation by J. Ott.) 1983. LSD: My Problem Child— Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism, and Science. J.P. Tarcher.

Dobelis, I.N. (Ed.) 1986. Magic and Medicine of Plants. Reader’s Digest.

Holmstedt, B. et al. 1980. “Indole Alkaloids in Amazonian Myristicaceae: Field and Laboratory Research,” Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 28(3): 215–234.

Duke, J. 2005. Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. Agriculture Research Service. www.ars-grin.gov/duke.

Hu, Y.M. et al. 2003. “Studies on the constituents in rhizome of Homalomena occuta,” Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi 28(4): 342–344.

Dugas, D.R. 2005. United States Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Louisiana (www.usdoj.gov/usao/lam/press/ press0501.html#burton accessed 8/10/05).

Johns, S.R. et al. 1966. “Alkaloids of the Australian Leguminosae. VII. Nb-Methyltetrahydroharman from Acacia complanata A. Cunn. ex Benth.,” Aust. J. Chem. 19: 1539–1540.

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Johnson, J.B. 1939. Some Notes on the Mazatec. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropologicos 3(2): 142–156.

Schultes, R.E. & A. Hofmann 1979. Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use. McGraw-Hill.

Lawrence, B.M. (Ed.), 1995. Natural Flavor and Fragrance Materials. “Perfumer & Flavorist,” Essential Oils 1992–1994. Allured Publishing Corp., pp 11–14.

Shulgin, A.T. et al. 1986. “A Protocol for the Evaluation of New Psychoactive Drugs in Man,” Methods and Findings in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology 8(5): 313–320.

Leonard, I.A. 1942. “Peyote and the Mexican Inquisition, 1620,” American Anthropologist. 44(2): 324–326.

Shulgin, A.T. & A. Shulgin 1991. Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved: A Chemical Love Story. Transform Press.

Liu, K-C. et al. 1977. “Studies on the constituents of the root-bark of the ‘Thoughtful Tree’ (Acacia confusa),” Journal of the Chinese Chemical Society (Taiwan). 1: 15–16.

Siebert, D. J. 1994. “Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A: New Pharmacologic Findings,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 43: 53–56.

McKenna, D. 2005. Personal communication. Merker, R.I. 2005. Personal communication. moecat 2005. “Interesting Compound in Mimosa,” posted 1/13/05 at The New Bluelight web site (www.bluelight.nu/vb/ showthread.php?s=&threadid=177688 accessed 8/6/05). Mulga 1996. “Report of Discovery of Acacia obtusifolia as Source of Entheogenic Alkaloids,” posted at http://mulga.yage.net/ acacia/obtuphy.html, online January 2004. Nichols, D.E. et al. 2002. “Lysergamides of Isomeric 2,4Dimethlyazetidines Map the Binding Orientation of the Diethylamide Moiety in the Potent Hallucinogenic Agent N,NDiethyllysergamide (LSD),” J. Med. Chem., 45: 4344–4349. Ott, J. 2005. Personal communication. Pappas, R. & S. Sheppard-Hanger no date. “Artemisia arborescens Essential Oil of the Pacific Northwest: A High-chamazulene, Lowthujone Essential Oil with Potential Skin-care Applications (www.essentialoils.org/a_arborescens.htm accessed 8/9/05 ). Pendell, D. 1995. Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft. Mercury House. Pinto-Sconamiglio, W. 1967. “Effetti del tujone sullâ’attività spontanea e sul comportamento condizionato del ratto,” Bull. Chim. Farm. 107: 780–791.

Singh, G. et al. 2000. “Studies on essential oils, part 28: Chemical composition, antifungal and insecticidal activities of rhizome volatile oil of Homalomena aromatica Schott,” Flavour and Fragrance Journal 15(4): 278–280. Sung, T.V. et al. 1992. “Sesquiterpenoids from the roots of Homalomena aromatica,” Phytochemistry 31(10): 3515–3520. Telban, B. 1988. “The Role of Medicinal Ethnobotany in Ethnomedicine: A New Guinea Example,” Journal of Ethnobiology 8(2): 149–169. Thomas, B. 2005. “Psychoactive Properties of Galbulimima Bark,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 37(1): 109–111. [See also Benjamin, T. 1999. “Psychoactive Card XI: Galbulimima belgraveana (F. Muell.) Sprague,” Eleusis: Journal of Psychedelic Plants and Compounds 2: 82– 88.] Trout, K. 1998. Acacia Species Reported to Contain Tryptamines and/or β-Carbolines. Better Days Publishing. Trout, K. 2002. Some Simple Tryptamines—A Brief Overview & Resource Compendium. Mydriatic Productions/Better Days Publishing. Vogt, D.U. 1995. Food Additive Regulations: A Chronology from http:// digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/data/1995/upl-meta-crs-203/95857_1995Sep13.html accessed 8/3/05. Walsh, W. et al. 2000. Ecological Management Plan for the Buffalo Sallow Wattle, Acacia phlebophylla. Royal Botanic Gardens, p. 21.

Poupat, C. et al. 1976. “Alkaloids of Acacia simplicifolia,’ Phytochemistry. 15: 2019–2020.

Wasson, R.G. 1962. “A New Mexican Psychotropic Drug from the Mint Family,” Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University 20(3): 77– 84.

Rovelli, B. & G.N. Vaughan 1967. “Alkaloids of Acacia,” Aust. J. Chem. 20: 1299–1300.

Weitlaner, R.J. 1952. “Curaciones Mazatecas,” Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (México) 4: 279–285.

Sahagún, B. (Translation and editing by C.E. Dibble and A.J.O. Anderson.) 1950–1969. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. Twelve volumes. University of Utah Press. The original work was completed in 1569.

Wren, R.C. 1907. Potter’s New Cyclopaedia of Botanical Drugs and Preparations. Saffron Walden, The C.W. Daniel Company Limited.

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The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Design & Layout Soma Graphics Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819, USA Web www.entheogenreview.com Front Cover Albert Hofmann photo by Rolfe Verres Back Cover Father of LSD courtesy of Mark McCloud In celebration of Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday, one in every hundred issues is a lucky winner. Are you feeling lucky?

The Entheogen Review’s Publishing Schedule Albert Hofmann Speaks Novel Condensation of d-LA into d-LSD via PyPOB Shhh… Salvia divinorum and Secrecy Marc Emery Busted Five Things You Can Do To Help Marc Hyperspatial Maps First Voyages with Salvia divinorum Salvia divinorum on top of Argyreia nervosa Extract: A Trip in Laugh Land Galbulimima belgraveana, “Agara” Bark Absinthe Not Absent… “Absence” Anyone? Network Feedback Correcting Errors Publishing Errors? More Corrections? HPLC-MS Analysis of Acacia obtusifolia Some Thoughts on Analysis and Comparisons of Extracts and Synthetic DMT Seeds & Stems Mind States Conference Review Events Calendar Sources Book Reviews Bibliography

81 83 94 95 96 97 102 102 103 104 106 109 109 110 111 113 116 119 120 121 122 125 127

Audio CDs of past Mind States conference presentations are now available featuring lectures and original interviews with presenters such as: Pablo Amaringo, Susan Blackmore, Crystal & Spore, Erik Davis, Rick Doblin, Earth & Fire Erowid, Alex & Allyson Grey, Charles Grob, Stan Grof, Charles Hayes, Sandra Karpetas, Mark McCloud, Ralph Metzner, David Nichols, Mark Pesce, Nick Sand, Zoe Seven, Sasha & Ann Shulgin, and many others. For details, see:

www.musqaria.com/mindstates

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2005 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

Know your Body Know your Mind Know your Substance

KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE

Contributors Albert Hofmann Rick Doblin Charles Grob John Halpern Michael Mithoefer Andrew Sewell Casey William “Freeblood” Hardison Daniel J. Siebert Dana Larsen Susan Blackmore Dr. Wily Benjamin Thomas Jon Hanna Jonathan Ott K. Trout Ima B. Leever D.P., CA Mulga Clear Scotto David Aardvark

CONTENTS

Know your Dose

Know your Source

EROWID www.erowid.org

A library of information about psychoactive plants and drugs.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XIV, Number 1




Autumnal Equinox 2005




ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XIV, Number 2




Winter Solstice 2005




ISSN 1066-1913

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Robert Forman Sue Supriano Peter Gorman NOIA, CA J.S., OR Michael Acevedo, FL Fork!, CA Justin Case BRT, Belgium P. Freely, CA K.H., CA S.E.T., UT K. Trout Jon Hanna

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover Nierica (detail) by Robert Forman

Robert Forman Speaks

129

Ayahuasca Healing and an Inkling of Darkness: Part One

134

Hyperspatial Maps

144

MDMA Heals Relationship Divide

144

Network Feedback

146

Mimosa tenuiflora Active by Itself

146

Prisoner Seeks Pen Pal

146

Lack of Effects from Nitrous Oxide while on MDMA

146

Justin Case’s Thoughts on No Effects from Nitrous

147

A Few Questions

147

Methyone Dosing & Prostate Problems

147

Catha edulis Wine & 5-MeO-DMT Availability

149

CCK Potentiation & Cactus Scale

151

Events Calendar

152

Pscrewtopia: The Unraveling of the Psytopia Conference

153

2004 & 2005 Index

159

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back Cover Nierica by Robert Forman

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2005 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS POB 27048 BARRIE, ONTARIO, L4M 6K4 CANADA TEL: (01) 705-322-6614

FAX: (01) 705-322-6615

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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2




WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

Robert Forman Speaks… interviewed by Sue Supriano

I started what I called my “string paintings” in 1969, gluing thread to board. I later went to the Cooper Union College of Art. I’m a New York artist, showing in galleries. I thought that I’d invented the medium. But one time with my wife, we found a Greenwich Village flea market where a man was selling Huichol yarn paintings. I bought one. I was amazed to think, “This guy does the same thing that I do every night.” Even though the Huichol use wax, and I use glue, it was similar enough. So I started to read about the Huichol, as I only had a vague idea of who they were at that point. Around that time, I went to a party with a bunch of scientists and artists in attendance. Something that these two groups of people have in common is that they both apply for grants. So one of these scientists asks me, “What grants have you gotten?” And I reply, “Well, I’ve had a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a New Jersey state grant…” “How about the Fulbright ?” he inquires. And I respond, “Why would I get a Fulbright grant? You have to go somewhere. All I want to do is stay in my studio and work.” So he remarks, “I’ve seen your work. Doesn’t someone else do something similar?” I said, “Yes, there are the Huichol Indians.” And he replies, “That’s a Fulbright grant.” Well, it had never occurred to me. The next day, with my wife pushing me, I called Washington. They said, “That sounds like a legitimate project. Write it up, get someone to sponsor you, and maybe you’ll get the

grant.” And I did. So I went and lived in Mexico for five months. It was interesting, because most people who visit the Huichols are anthropologists or “trippers” who want to eat peyote with them. In preparation for my travels, I contacted every anthropologist I could and asked them what to expect. These scientists were pretty open to me, and they expressed the feeling that, while I might be able to go into the cities and meet some Huichols, I would never be able to go into the mountains to really meet the Huichols, because they are very private people. But maybe the Huichols thought that I was sorta entertaining. I had made little pictures to bring with me, along with my bad Spanish (mostly English). I was in Mexico for only about a month, and I had already travelled to Santa Caterina, San Andreas, and to the Pochotita settlement. Huichols now come to my house regularly, in Hoboken. And it’s because there’s this connection—we do the same sort of pictures. There’s a family in Guadalajara who I visit, and I help them do the borders on their paintings while I stay there. This connection opened up a new world to me, and it has changed my own art a bit. My paintings are more colorful now. So our independently coming to this approach toward art and then meeting up is kind of a coincidence, but I don’t know… At that time, did you participate in any peyote ceremonies with the Huichol?

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I did. And that’s the other funny coincidence. As a high schooler in the ’60s and ’70s, of course I did LSD. And I always thought that those psychedelic experiences contributed to my idea to create thread paintings. I didn’t talk about it back in high school, but out of all the people in the world who did thread paintings, it was interesting that the Huichol were the one people whose religion is based on peyote. And they asked me about that too. It was fascinating talking about psychedelic experiences with the Huichol, and the connection to the yarn paintings, and just “talking thread.” I actually did what I set out to do: I talked shop. It was fun to talk about the different paintings. I had a peyote experience with a very well-known Huichol artist, Francisco  Bautista Carrillo. The effect that the peyote had on me was that it was the only time in my life that I have spoken fluent Spanish! Francisco sat there with his cousin, and in Huixárica (the name for their language in Spanish), explained to him the meaning of all of my paintings as they flipped through my book of art. He had such an understanding of it, and it was because he does the same stuff. I think that in the end, I have more in common with the Huichol artists than I do with a lot of the New York artists. Just because of the technique. Because it comes from a certain place, you work in a certain way, and you’re used to certain things. Much of the contemporary focus on the Huichol deals with their religious beliefs. What is your own thought on what God is? I don’t think that I can define what God is. But an interesting thing happened with Francisco while we were doing peyote. They asked me—and I read in the literature that they don’t usually do this, but I’m an outsider—“What did you see?” They see Grandfather Fire, Grandmother Growth, and so forth. And I have to admit, I saw Ezekiel’s Chariot. I guess it’s because I’m Jewish. So that’s the Jewish psychedelic experience. Ezekiel’s vision was that he saw God’s Chariot, which was carried on by some kind of beings who have heads on every side, and just with a thought, God can move them in any direction. And in my previous psychedelic experiences, there had usually been a sexual aspect to them. So when I saw this vision, it reminded me of that aspect very much: He has this consort, and they’re copulating. But it’s a religious thing, it’s not a pornography thing. There’s the heads on every side, and all the arms. It just embodied for me a combination of the Ezekiel’s Chariot and my previous psychedelic visions. I thought that there seemed to be a connection between these types of visions. That folks call them different things, but they look similar.

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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2

When I used to go to Terence McKenna’s lectures, he talked about self-transforming machine elves—these little gnomes who danced around. His description has that same kind of character, but coming from a different culture, Terence had a different way of looking at it. The Tibetans see it in another way. Later in life, when I saw a Tibetan thangka painting, I thought, “That’s it! That’s what I saw.” But culturally, the thing I thought of at the time the Huichols asked, was Ezekiel’s Chariot. It seems like when we see something, we physically describe it in similar ways, but we give it different meanings. You don’t really make a living at art, but some pretty exciting coincidences can happen as an artist. After I finished Nierica [see the front and back covers of this issue of TER], I thought about how it had been received. People looked at it, they liked it, the galleries all wanted to show it, and I had a lot of success with it. But none of the viewers in a New York context knew who any of the people depicted were. And one of the things that I am proudest of with that piece of art is that these are real people, and that they could see it. So a couple of years after this, I got a second grant. The dream would have been to bring these people to Hoboken, but I didn’t think that that was going to happen. So I had a lot of pictures taken of my art, and I went back to Mexico to hand them out to show the respect that I felt for these people. They had treated me very well—better than I had realized at the




WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

time, when I think about a stranger who comes in with poor Spanish. They took me into their homes. I went up to the mountains with my wife, who wasn’t very comfortable there, but they kept an eye on her. So I went back to show them this picture—that was my goal, to hand out photographs. But when I got to Mexico City, somebody I didn’t know came up to me and said, “You’re the guy who is going to the Huichols. We were up in Pochotita, and we helped them build a bridge. It was designed by somebody from the Brooklyn Bridge Authority. We got back to Mexico City and contacted K.L.M.—who was giving out money on their anniversary with their “bridging the world” grant—and we applied, saying that we should bring these Huichols who built this bridge to New York City to visit the Brooklyn Bridge, as their ‘sister’ bridge. Would you go to Pochotita please and deliver the news? They don’t know about the contest. See if they want to come. Convince them to come.” Well, the final outcome was that twenty-two Huichols came to my loft in Hoboken and looked at my picture. I crossed the bridge in Pochotita, they crossed the bridge in Brooklyn. It was almost like someone had written a novel that you wouldn’t believe—it’s too much of a stretching of fact. But since then, they’ve been coming in and out. I get Huichols showing up all the time. So I have been able to extend my hospitality to them as well, which feels good. It’s nice to be able to give something back. The picture you’re describing is large—five feet in diameter, right?

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Yes. It depicts the landscape of Santa Caterina, where I spent most of my time. I incorporated portraits of all of the Huichols that I met, along with their own art—yarn paintings and beaded work. I called the piece Nierica, which means “door to the otherworld.” Huichols sometimes refer to their paintings as nierica. But this painting of mine is really based on the jícara, which are the carved-out gourds. They clean out a gourd and they bead it, and there’s a bump in the center, so the bump is usually peyote, or a sun, with a landscape around it. So this was my version of what they did. I don’t only do Huichol-influenced art, of course. My grandfather was from—it was Russia at the time, but now Poland— out of Bialystok, a weaving town. He and his family came straight from Bialystok to Paterson, New Jersey, and worked in the mills. And I did this picture based on him, worked with thread. It depicts my family, my greatgrandfather, my grandfather and his work tools… His Chesterfield cigarettes, in very different colors than used in your painting of the Huichols… Yes. He told me that he would sit around all day at work, and when a machine broke the person operating it would put a cigarette on it, as a bonus incentive for him to get to work repairing it. So he’d go and light the cigarette, and fix the loom. Thanks for sharing your inspiring story about the possibilities for human connection and art. 

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PHOTO on page 129 by GENEVA BUMB. ART: page 130, Tree; page 131 (top) Street Fair, (bottom) View; page 132 Grandpa Amel. The preceding interview took place at the MIND STATES VI conference in May 2005. It has been edited and adapted for publication. For audio CDs of this and other interviews and presentations from MIND STATES VI, see www.musqaria.com/mindstates. Interviewer SUE SUPRIANO produces the radio show Steppin’ Out of Babylon. See www.suesupriano.com. For more about ROBERT FORMAN and his art, see www.glueyarn.com.

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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2

WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

Since April 19, 1943 ,

PROBLEM CHILD & WONDER DRUG JANUARY 13–15, 2006 Held at the Convention Center in Basel, Switzerland

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Dr. Albert Hofmann (January 11th, 2006), the Gaia Media Foundation presents an international symposium dedicated to the most well known and controversial discovery of this outstanding scientist.

the day that Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychoactive effects of LSD, millions of people all over the world have experienced a higher reality with profound psychological insights and spiritual renewal; created innovative social transformation, music, art, and fashion; were healed from addiction and depression; and experienced enlightened insights into human consciousness. At this symposium, experts will present an indepth review of all aspects of this unique phenomenon: informing and discussing the history, experiences, and implications, as well as assessing the risks and benefits of this most potent of all psychoactive substances. Lectures • Panels • Seminars • Workshops Concerts • Exhibitions • Parties Many of the presentations will be simultaneously or consecutively translated into German or English.

ALL CURRENTLY CONFIRMED PRESENTERS ARE LISTED BELOW. MANY NEW PRESENTERS — INDICATED WITH A STAR ✪ — HAVE RECENTLY BEEN ADDED.

THIS MAY BE THE LARGEST PSYCHEDELIC GATHERING IN HISTORY! Albert Hofmann

John Halpern

✪ Dale Pendell

Stephen Abrams

✪ Matthias Hamburger

✪ Werner Pieper

Guenter Amendt

✪ Jon Hanna

Christian Rätsch

✪ Rudolf Bauer

Felix Hasler

Micky Remann

✪ John Beresford

✪ Martina Hoffmann

✪ Béatrice Rubli

✪ Rudolf Brenneisen

Ulrich Holbein

Carl P. Ruck

Mathias Broeckers

John “Hoppy” Hopkins

✪ Luc Saner

✪ Brummbär

Michael Horowitz

Manuel Schoch

✪ Rael Cahn

✪ Thomas Kessler

Andrew Sewell

Hans Cousto

✪ Thomas Klett

Alexander T. Shulgin

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Ayahuasca Healing and an Inkling of Darkness: Part One by Peter Gorman Of all the people who had ever been with me drinking ayahuasca, I have always known that I’ve been the most frightened. I would keep an eye on them as best I could, watch them as they cleansed themselves—bent over a railing or crumpled on a raised platform hut’s flooring absolutely giving themselves over to the powers that held them, unable to control the simplest body movements—and even then knew they were less terrified than me. It was an awful feeling to be able to explain things about ayahuasca to people, yet know that each time I drank I had less control over what would happen to and with me, not more. My experience wasn’t a shield, it was a door that opened wider and wider to allow bigger and bigger monsters through. They weren’t real monsters coming through, of course. They were the monsters that were me, or the visualization of the monsters that dwell in the horror men do one another. But the doorway was a real doorway. Not something one could grasp or see, just a kind of opening that allows one to glimpse what exists on other levels. All of it filtered through humanness: our vision needing to see a shape to grasp the isness of something, our hearing allowing us to imagine sounds in order to give meaning. My guests would sometimes ask if what they had seen while drinking ayahuasca was a hallucination or a vision. I only knew how to answer for myself. Years earlier I’d gone through a terrible blackness in search of my dead mother at the behest of my father, who’d come to me in a dream. And after an eternity of that empty black space, I’d come on a wall of white gauze, which seemed to me to be the wall beyond which lay the world of the dead. Out of it, my mother’s figure formed like a computer graphic in a movie—ten years before computer graphics like that were even imagined. When she came together she said, “You’ve got to stop calling me like this. It’s so hard to come together in a shape you recognize as me.” Later I realized, that had I been given endless time to make a list of ten thousand things I might imagine my mother saying on seeing me for the first time since she’d died, that would not have been on it. So this became my rule for discerning

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between a hallucination and a vision: if something seen or heard or felt would not have been on a list of 10,000 possibilities, if it were nothing I’d ever dreamt or imagined or read or seen, then it was a vision. I don’t know how to prove my definition to be true, or if I need to, but that’s how I see it.

The Doctors and the Heart Healing In the time since I’d first tasted ayahuasca more than 15 years ago, it had become an important part of my life. But at age 49, with a marriage that was still falling apart two years into its collapse, a couple of teenage boys who wondered what I’d done to make mom leave, and a three-year-old girl who wondered why she didn’t live with her brothers, I was wondering more and more if there was any point. I knew the power of ayahuasca. I knew that the curandero with whom I drank whenever possible, Julio Jerena, was an impeccable man with a generosity I admired tremendously. But Julio’s women had left him as well, and his kids, all grown, had their own problems. So what was the point of it all? Was there another side to come out on? Was it just a process? Had I learned anything I wouldn’t have without spending all those nights in the jungle? Did I get any magic tricks yet? Not at all. Maybe I’m just a lousy student. Maybe there are no tricks to get. But then maybe I’ve gotten much more than super powers, and just have to tilt my head and life a little to see it. Damned if I knew. But there I was again, out on the Ucayali river at night, dead center of Peru’s Amazon with a dazzling sky overhead, traveling on a riverboat. With me were five new friends, clients who’d paid to come to the jungle to see things they’d only imagined from movies, and to drink ayahuasca. There would be the experience of the river system around Iquitos, travel on an overcrowded flat-bottomed riverboat with the locals, views of river towns, night fishing, and hiking through the jungle muck. There would be glorious sunsets, the wonder of the bromeliads and wild orchids, the danger of falling from a canoe into rivers where caiman lived, the possibility of being nipped by vampire bats, and a visit with Julio, about whom most had read. There were

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a thousand other things that would occur—some fantastic, some quite scary—but then that’s probably why they’d come. I rarely if ever asked them, thinking they’d come because they were drawn by some childhood fantasy of the jungle, just like the rest of us who spent time there. That, and the possibility that when they drank ayahuasca they would glimpse something that gave their lives a deeper meaning, something that justified them being here. It was a question that generally came up only obliquely. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me return to where I left off. I had been living in Iquitos for a couple of years in the late 1990s. My wife was from there, as were our two older kids from her first marriage. We’d lived in New York and visited Peru frequently for the first five years of our marriage, then decided to turn it around and live in Peru for a while. When we arrived it was agreed that I would take guests out to the jungle periodically as a means to make a living, and we opened up a joint called The Cold Beer Blues Bar as a family base while in town. After years of not drinking alcohol during our time in New York, I’d slipped back into it. And with my work at the bar, the slip became a serious thing. My wife Chepa, while physically staying in our home, had decided to emotionally leave, and I grew surly over it. The more I pushed, the more she fled, the more I drank and pushed harder. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t pretty, and one day I joked to one of my ex-pat friends over a beer at the bar that with all the damned healing my tourists were getting from drinking ayahuasca, it was me who really needed it. The next time I drank ayahuasca, I was visited by little creatures who called themselves “the doctors.” They said they’d heard me and that they’d come to work on me. All they needed to do was take my heart out and get rid of the bad stuff, which would kill the “me” of me, and then I’d be cured. Naturally I panicked, and did my clinging best to interfere with their work. Over the years since then, they had repeatedly returned when I drank ayahuasca. And despite my fear, they always managed to get some work done. I always felt better afterward, and would swear to myself that I would try to be more open the next time. But each next time, when they arrived like the rustling of grass, I froze. It finally came to a head when one night, just as the initial effects of ayahuasca began to show themselves in green iridescent points of light that would connect into a great cathedral ceiling, I simply left the ceremony and spent the night staring into a light




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to prevent their arrival. We moved back to New York shortly after that trip. It was months before I had a chance to return to Peru and be with Julio again. The next time I drank was the time my son Marco drank as well, and the focus on him allowed me to sort of skim through things. The time after that was when I brought the five guests up to see Julio. They were a terrific group, open to Iquitos, to the overcrowded riverboat, to the filth of the marketplaces, to everything I loved. Among them was a former captain in the U.S. Rangers who exuded strength of a kind most people don’t possess. His presence alone pushed me to promise that I would not panic this time when the doctors appeared. I’d not be so cowardly in the face of such a man. Unfortunately, I caved in almost the instant that Julio blew out the last of the coffee-tin kerosene lanterns that lit the unwalled area of the hut where we sat. It was a black night with the hint of rain in the thick clouds overhead. In the darkness, the twinkle of green lights appeared. I tried to stay calm. The lights connected into beams, and the beams connected into a great arched cathedral ceiling. I opened my eyes: the lights didn’t go away. I knew I was there again, headed to the other worlds where things out of the ordinary happened, where the doctors worked. And I knew I was not ready for them. I made my way over to a railing by the platform’s edge and stood. Julio was less than five feet away, shaking his maroella-leaf chacapa in time with the icaro he sang. I clung to the sounds like a lifeline, breathing deeply to try to get past my fear. I opened my eyes and looked out at the jungle past Julio’s living space and saw that everything was alive and moving and ominous. I tried to keep myself grounded but knew it was useless: Julio had called a lot of spirits to join us and they were coming in droves. It was going to be a long night if I could not control myself. I couldn’t, of course. And when a few minutes later I began that wonderful and violent retching that precedes the ayahuasca dream, I was relieved to have something tangible to cling to. Up from my stomach came the residue of the ayahuasca we’d drunk. Then up from deep within myself came the bile of my life: my fears, my anger, my disappointments, all of them bursting out of me like great chunks of something filthy I’d been carrying for too long. From places past where I existed, places I didn’t know existed, came pain I’d hidden years ago and forgotten about. I spewed like a waterfall, roaring like a lion into the jungle night while Julio sang. Again and again I roared, eliminating junk I’d accumulated over time.

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There was nothing to see on the physical level. No real vomit to speak of, since I’d fasted all day. But with ayahuasca eyes, it looked like a pile of bad things at my feet that grew with each violent retch. What a fantastic feeling to eliminate so much so effortlessly, what a gift from the medicine to clean another closet in my personal wasteland. When I finished, I sat back down where I was and made my way over to my original spot on the hut floor. The others were in the throes of their own cleansings, and I hoped they enjoyed them as much as I. My joy at momentarily forgetting what I’d come to learn quickly dissolved as I heard the rustling of tall grass. The world began to change from green to the familiar red in which the doctors worked, and I knew they were on their way. I panicked and lit a cigarette, hoping to keep them at bay. It didn’t work. The rustling became louder than Julio’s singing. Perhaps it was Julio calling them. I opened my eyes: no help. The rustling sound was filling me up. I crawled across the floor and stood against the railing, facing the jungle again. The rustling grew still louder, until I thought my head would burst, then abruptly stopped. The sudden silence was deafening. “We’re here again,” one of them said. Yage.Net specializes in the development and hosting of entheogen-related web sites with an emphasis on ethnobotanical suppliers. We’re also home to the largest collection of ayahuasca resources on the web. ▼ ▼ ▼

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“I know,” I heard my inner voice answer. “There is still work to do, and not much time.” “I don’t know how to let you work. I want you to, but I can’t do what you want. I’m terrified to let go.” “Would it be easier to work on you if we looked like this?” they asked, suddenly transforming themselves from the tiny creatures I’d never really seen into a young woman. I couldn’t see her face, but felt she was lovely. “Is this better?” she asked, chiding me. “It’s just a trick. You’re still the doctors,” I said. “I’m just me,” she said plainly. “It’s a trick. If I relax you’re going to turn back into the doctors and tear me to pieces.” “Not this time. It’s not going to hurt a bit,” she laughed.

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“Bullshit. I can’t do it. I don’t trust you.” “Oh, come on. It’s not going to hurt at all. It might even tickle.” She didn’t wait for an answer. She just reached into me and grabbed my heart and began to massage it. “You really don’t have a choice this time. I’ve got to get this work done.”

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I didn’t know if I was talking out loud or not, but I knew I was moving around and disturbing the others, so I made my way down the three-step ladder to the clay earth outside the hut. “Bien?” Julio asked as I left the platform. “Los doctores,” I replied. “Yah!” he laughed. We’d never really spoken about them, but Julio seemed aware of them anyway. “Not that far,” he cautioned in Spanish when I began to step outside of the immediate area of his voice. Outside was as frightening as it was inside, but I had no place else to go. So I lay on the ground and listened to Julio singing as I looked up at the red world around me. Years earlier, I’d drunk from a red flower and been covered in a syrupy red liquid that took me into my veins and blood vessels and heart. Later the red world appeared again and again, and it was in that world—what’s called red magic—that healing with ayahuasca is apparently done. That was the world where the doctors were and when I was there, everything, even in our own world, was tinted a darkish red. Once with my oldest son Italo, I’d even been graced with going into a cavernous red room where all the world’s pain settles as solids, like the bile from ayahuasca retching, and which the doctors somehow transformed into healing things. Except for the doctors themselves, everything about the red world was fantastic. “That’s much better,” the woman laughed, taking out my heart and beginning to reshape it. Her voice startled me, but her demeanor was so open and light-hearted that, even though I knew she was just the doctors pretending to be a woman, I didn’t fight her. And in not fighting her, she worked easily. She didn’t provoke fear. She just seemed to be tickling me. Up came the question I’d been asking for years: How can I make my wife happy? What does she want? And the old follow up: to make her happy you must be her. I still didn’t know the answers, and asked the woman.




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Images of things I’d done in anger, or wished to do, came pouring out. The sourest moments of pain from my marriage came back to life and I was forced to relive them in wretched detail. A hundred things, a thousand moments or hours I wish I’d never experienced, were all relived horribly. But something about this nurse, this woman, and the joy with which she worked, let me allow her to dredge all those things up—things I’d fought the doctors over reliving for years. I don’t know how long she worked. I remember that it started to rain and my wonderful assistant Corina told me to come into the hut, but I told her I was fine. I was more than fine. I was singing something, an ayahuasca song was coming out of me effortlessly, and I was singing it and laughing and anyone seeing me would have surely thought I was crazy, but I knew better. I was letting some of that stuff go, some of that stuff that was keeping me locked in a sour place, and I was getting lighter and more giddy with each bad memory I relived and threw away. Finally, she said she’d done enough for one night and put my heart back into my chest. I tried to see what she looked like, but as I did she crumbled back into a thousand little doctors, all of them laughing at me. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?” they asked. “You should have done that years ago,” I said. “We couldn’t. You weren’t ready.” Then the rustling of the leaves began and they disappeared, taking the sound with them, until only Julio’s singing and the che-che-che of the chacapa remained. I lay where I was for a long time, until I realized what I must have looked and sounded like to my guests, then stood on ayahuasca drunken legs and made my way to them one by one to see if they were all right. They were. In the morning, after we’d all gone to the river to bathe— Julio insisted that we put our heads in the river to seal the opening ayahuasca had created, so that uninvited spirits wouldn’t come in—I found out that only one of the group actually got it. The others all did before they left Peru, but only one did that night.

“This isn’t the time for that,” she answered. “I’ve still got a lot of anger to take out.”

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The Man Who Tells Me Things It was six months before I visited Peru again, and this time I managed to bring Chepa and our baby Madeleina, who was nearly four. I thought that things were getting better with Chepa, and that a return to the scene of our worst crimes would be good. She had been saying that living with me in New York was not her life anymore, but she had stayed and I thought things were progressing well. We fought sometimes, maybe often, but we drank beer every night and so managed to get a lot of laughter into the mix as well. In any event, I flew one of her sisters in from Fort Worth, Texas, to watch the boys for a few weeks, so that Chepa, Madeleina, and I could go to Peru. To my delight, Chepa wanted to help with the group. She made them a great party at our bar, took them out dancing, and even came along on the river to help me cook and attend to things. Julio was delighted to see her (we’d left Madeleina back in Iquitos with Chepa’s mom), though he did note that she would be leaving soon and that I shouldn’t fight it since she had no control over it. Another impossible challenge I would fail miserably, but at the time I hoped he was wrong and might take a moment to see what it was she needed to make herself happy, so that I could provide it for her. I didn’t actually ask him to do it; I just thought he would know. After we said hello and I’d introduced everyone to Julio— he always stands very erectly for introductions and formally announces his full name to everyone he meets—Corina and Chepa went about catching some fish for dinner. While they did, my boatman, Mauricio, and a couple of assistants set up hammocks and mosquito nets for my guests at Julio’s son’s home and I did the same for Corina, Chepa, and myself, on Julio’s porch. That night, Chepa and my assistant Juan, who lives near Julio on the Auchyaco river, took my guests out night fishing under the starlit Amazon sky. They didn’t catch anything except those fish that leapt into the dugout canoes, but catching fish wasn’t important. What was important was that by being on the river in those uncomfortable little canoes that tip so easily, they had all been forced to be perfectly still. And in the silence of that motionlessness, the presence of the jungle makes itself known in a way they could not otherwise grasp. The dark shapes of the trees overhanging the riverbanks and the dead yellow eyes of cayman reflected in a

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flashlight’s glare conjure up childhood fears and excitement; the sounds of fish breaking water, the kingfishers crashing into things, or the whistle of bat wings near your face, all call on you to summon up your courage. There could be jaguars on the banks, after all, or boas in the water. And those shapes and sounds of the jungle will never leave you. It’s as if they find a way into your blood and become part of you, a rich and wonderful and slightly frightening part of your landscape. The canoes returned late, well past midnight. Corina gave my guests something warm to drink and a bite to eat, then sent them off to bed. I got them up much earlier than they would have liked, so that they could go along with Julio to collect the vine and other plants he would need to make the ayahuasca for that night’s ceremony. I always brought the chacruna, the leaves, with me from Iquitos, as I never knew whether there would be any nearby. But collecting the vine was part of the preparation for drinking. Julio waited graciously, as he always did, for the gringos to finish brushing their teeth and taking care of their other essentials. When everyone was ready, he headed out on a path that took us past his own small fields of yucca and plantain, behind his son’s house and the soccer field there, past the new blue-painted one-room schoolhouse the locals had built, and finally up a hill onto a hunter’s path. That path took us to where the jungle looks like the jungle of our dreams: towering trees whose crowns joined in a full, closed canopy, through which only dappled sunlight shone; fifty-foot strands of wild orchids growing side-by-side with lianas, vines, as thick as a man’s leg. Bromeliads so old they’d dropped root-strands nearly eighty-feet. This was a glimpse of ancient things. Julio led, and even at eighty-two years old, he still had to walk slowly to make certain we didn’t fall behind. When he came upon something that might give one of us trouble—a plant or tree branch he thought might hurt us—his machete cleared the path. He didn’t swing his machete, or hack with it. He flicked it. Walking with Julio in the jungle is like watching a karate master at work: his movements are so economical, they’re more like a suggestion to the plants to clear the way than an actual cutting of them. And the plants seem to simply separate for him, as if they’ll put themselves together again once we’re gone. It was nearly an hour before we reached the ayahuasca vine he worked with. Before collecting, he lit a black-tobacco

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mapacho cigarette and blew smoke all around the vine. Then he chanted softly and cut foot-long sections, laying them on the ground. Julio worked meticulously, slicing several sections of vine for each of us. When he was satisfied that he had enough—perhaps three pounds of vine for each—he smoked the bag we’d brought to carry them back in, then allowed me to fill it and tie it shut. Before we left, he placed several mapacho cigarettes at the vine’s base to thank it for being so generous and to help its spirit grow quickly again. On the way back to Julio’s we stopped at a huge and vibrant lupuna negra tree, one side of which is in relative perpetual light, the other in relative perpetual darkness. Julio asked me if we ought to include just a little for the ceremony, but he already knew my answer. For Julio, adding a four-inch square section of the bark from the dark side of “the tree of light and darkness” to the ayahuasca was an invitation to the spirits of that tree to come teach us those things we too often keep hidden in the dark parts of ourselves. “Let’s put the darkness in the light,” he has often said. It was nearly 8:00 am by the time we’d reached his home. While we all enjoyed a breakfast feast Corina had prepared, Julio directed his sons in where he wanted the ayahuasca cooking fire and which tree he wanted used as the primary fire logs. While his sons set off to do as he said, Julio cut a small section of catawa bark from a nearby tree and added it to the bag of vine. Then he sat on a log, laid out the contents of the bag, and began crushing the vine sections with a hardwood root that served as his mallet. When all the vine was crushed, he began to layer his pot with the leaves I’d brought and the vine he’d cut, putting pieces of the barks he’d cut in among the layers. By 9:00 am the fire was burning, ten gallons of water had been brought from the river to fill the pot, and Julio was standing near the ayahuasca as it heated up, chanting softly and blowing smoke from the mapachos he lit one after the other into the mix. All day Julio tended the fire, sometimes chanting, sometimes talking with the neighbors on the river who came by to say hello, but always smoking mapachos and infusing the ayahuasca with their smoke. When the water had been reduced to a couple of quarts, Julio took a piece of old T-shirt and stretched it across the pot’s top, then strained the essence into another pot sitting on the ground in the shade. Then he filled the brew pot with water again and resumed cooking. When that too was reduced to almost nothing, he strained it off as well, and filled the pot a third time.




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Not long after breakfast, I’d sent my guests out with Juan for a good hike in the hills. They came back at about 4:00 pm, ravenous, but unable to eat, as a minimum of an eight- or ten-hour fast was necessary to make sure their stomachs were empty for ayahuasca that night. Julio, however, does what he likes, and he ate a good meal of boiled river fish and plantains with coffee, once the three essences had been combined and cooked down to just under a quart of the medicine. At about 8:00 pm my guests and crew assembled on Julio’s porch, where a number of locals had joined us as well. While we were in what we thought was a proper reverential state of preparedness, Julio and the locals chatted and joked for an hour or more, before everyone but the several of us were left alone with Julio. The only extra people there were Corina, who would stay in the kitchen area unless she thought one of the guests needed something, and Juan, who would help anyone who needed the bathroom to maneuver the little three-step ladder from the porch to the ground, and to make sure that no one left the area where Julio’s voice could be heard.

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My five guests, Chepa, and myself, formed a circle on the floor, while Julio sat on a low stool with his back against the porch railing next to the ladder. On a piece of blue plastic sheeting in front of him, Julio had placed the things he needed for the ceremony: the old bottle half-filled with ayahuasca, his plastic serving cup, his chacapa, a clear bottle filled with aguardiente, camphor and garlic cloves, a bottle of Florida water, a plastic bag of mapachos, his book of the saints, and the old Inca stone hatchet-head he’d found as a young man in the foothills of the Andes. When Julio was satisfied the time was right to start the ceremony, he began to speak in a mix of Spanish and Quechua, calling on the spirits to join us, guide us, teach us. He also called on those spirits he had not invited to stay away from the sound of his voice, to let us learn what we’d come to learn unmolested.




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minutes he began to chant in tune with them. I knew that the first few people who drank were probably already beginning to feel the effects of the ayahuasca; they might already be seeing the patterns of light that would connect like the dots of a children’s puzzle to make a picture. I hoped they would all be all right. What couldn’t be explained to them, or what I couldn’t effectively explain, was that those first images, whatever they might be, were just the “welcome to the funhouse” sign. The real images, the absolutely three- and four-dimensional rock-solid images and landscapes that they would learn from, would come much later in the dream, long after the neon hallucinations were gone. But to get from the hallucinations to the visions would require the death of their egos. It’s such an easy phrase to write, “the death of the ego,” but for me at least, such an impossible and terrifying thing to go through. And while most of my clients had read about ayahuasca, and some had done their share of visionary substances, I didn’t know anything that could explain the abruptness with which the you of “you” was snatched by the spirit of ayahuasca when it was your turn to learn. Past that point, once you gave up, then ayahuasca could be a wonderful and joyful teacher. But the giving up part was hard, and in the darkness of Julio’s, I could feel that nearly everyone was beginning to regret having come here, having trusted me enough to convince them to trust Julio.

I watched my children vomit out of me, not understanding why I wasn’t good enough or strong enough to hold onto them and keep them together.

When finished, he reached for the ayahuasca and the cup, then lit a new mapacho and blew smoke into it three times. He asked me for the name of the first person who was going to drink and I gave it to him. He poured perhaps two ounces of the ayahuasca into the cup, then began to quietly say a prayer, using the name of the person I’d given him while he called on the spirits to help them in their work. When the prayer was completed, he handed me the cup to pass along. I did, and when my client had finished drinking, I passed her the bottle of aguardiente and told her to put it to her nostrils and inhale deeply. When she had, I passed her the bottle of fragrant Florida water and told her to sprinkle some in her hands, then wipe her face with it. I also gave her a lemon drop to suck on to help her keep the thick, foul tasting, stillwarm ayahuasca down. The simple ritual was repeated with each of us until Julio himself drank, after which he stood with his book of the saints, made one more invocation, and then had Juan put out the kerosene lamps. The little platform where we sat was in utter darkness. Next to me I could hear Chepa breathing. Julio picked up his chacapa, lit a fresh mapacho, and began to shake the leaf fan—che-che-che, che-che-che, the sound of the leaves was rhythmical and comforting. In a few

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For my part, thinking these things allowed me to stave off my own dissolution for a while, but not long enough. It probably wasn’t twenty minutes after Julio started chanting when the green sparkling lights began to appear and my familiar panic set in. I opened my eyes, hoping I would find myself on Julio’s floor in simple jungle darkness, but it didn’t help. The lights were still there, and they were connecting into the rich green cathedral ceiling as they’d done so often. I felt Chepa’s hand on mine and squeezed it, hoping she was all right, but already watching the cathedral shift shapes into a broad endless twisting strand of DNA sparkling in the darkness, inviting me to climb its ladder-like structure either up or down. It wouldn’t matter which direction I took; as I grabbed hold of one of the rungs, it changed from green to the dark red hue of the world of red magic.

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Surprisingly, my panic didn’t overwhelm me. Perhaps it was Chepa’s presence, or how gently the doctors had treated me the last time they’d visited, or that the ayahuasca and Julio were so powerful tonight that there was little time to indulge in trying to hold onto myself. Whatever the reason, I seemed to pass into another space so quickly that I didn’t realize it had happened. One moment I was squeezing Chepa’s hand and hoping she was all right, in the next I found myself leaning out over the platform railing to Julio’s right, beginning the familiar ayahuasca cleansing. Up came the bile of my life, up came the weaknesses and failures for me to see once again; up came my anger at my ruined family, my anger with myself for having taken on a family and then not being able to maintain it as one. I watched my children vomit out of me, not understanding why I wasn’t good enough or strong enough to hold onto them and keep them together. I watched my baby come tumbling out in a heap of questions she wasn’t old enough to ask. All of it came rumbling up from the deepest places in me which I didn’t know existed, bursting from me in a lion’s roar, spewed into the jungle night. I was still standing by the doorway to Julio’s ladder when the doctors arrived, the rustling of the tall grass preceding them by only an instant this time, not giving me enough time to let my fear well up within me. “We’ll make it quick this time,” they said. “We know you have to take care of people tonight.” Standing where I was, they showed me Chepa and my Madeleina. “We’ve taught you how to give to them,” they said. “Now you have to work at that. You have to learn to do it freely, with no expectation of return.” “How?” I asked. “Just keep giving. There’s no end to it. And nothing will come back, but keep giving. No return. No investment. Just keep giving like we’ve taught you.” “Will that bring them back to me?” “No. But you must still do it. You must give freely, or it isn’t giving.” I felt a rush of immense sadness begin to wash over me, but the doctors didn’t give me time to indulge in it. “You also have to learn how to receive love. To get love.




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Love and be loved,” they instructed. They didn’t say anything for a minute, and I wondered if there was more. I hadn’t asked it, just felt the question, but they answered anyway. “Yes.” “Will it hurt?” “No. It will be even better than that. Something special.” I felt that they were about to show me how to be loved, but I suddenly began to grow very afraid of what that lesson would entail. They, in turn, transformed into the young woman they’d been the last time, the one who tickled me while she worked on my heart. They must have been tired of me, tired of teaching me the same lessons they’d started so long ago. I was glad they’d changed their shape into the woman, but I still kept my eyes open, afraid of what would happen if I closed them. Then, unexpectedly, another voice started talking. A man’s voice. I don’t remember what he said, but he showed me my sons Marco and Italo. I loved them when I saw them. “You’ve been a father to them,” the voice said. “But now it’s time to learn to be more of a father to them.” Again I realized how second-rate and inadequate I’d been. Even to my boys. I felt wholly useless to everyone now. “Do you ever ask them what they’d like to do sometimes? Like for whole days? Do you ever ask: ‘Yo, guys, what would you like to do today?’ So they could have a whole day without hearing you say, ‘I’ve got to do this or that?’ Just to give them the day with you as a father, and not as the father? Not as the father figure?” I had to admit I’d never thought of that. It made such perfect sense that fathers ought to do that, that I couldn’t believe I never had. I didn’t have much time to mull it over, as the doctors interrupted and said it was time for them to go. It was a simple announcement, followed by their getting into an open-ended capsule of some kind. Brilliant colors began to glow around them like an aurora borealis and they told me they were leaving. I realized what they meant, and my stomach dropped out from under me.

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“Leaving for how long?” I asked. “Leaving,” they answered. “We’ve worked with you and spent time with you, and now we have to get on with other people.” I began to panic, realizing at once how much they’d taught me over the past few years and simultaneously knowing, without knowing how, how much more they’d tried to teach me but which was lost because of my fear. It occurred to me that I’d been taught the lessons of red magic, one of the four colors of magic Julio sings about, and that I wouldn’t get any more. They really wouldn’t be back.

Historic Huichol Art For Sale by Cresencio Perez Robles one of the founders of Modern Huichol yarn painting Master artist Cresencio Perez Robles’ work was included in the book Art of the Huichol Indians, which accompanied an Exhibition of Huichol Indian Art organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. This exhibition, which traveled in 1978 from San Francisco to Chicago and New York, first introduced Huichol yarn painting to the general public. Robles’ art was also featured in the exhibit Living Traditions Mexican Popular Arts in 1992 at the University Art Museum at Albany State University of New York, and the accompanying book of the same title. These pictures were made in the 1970s of wool yarn pressed onto wax spread on a wooden board. (Today’s yarn paintings are made of acrylic yarn.) On the back of each piece, the artist wrote the meaning of the art in both Huichol and Spanish, and it is signed by the artist. The paintings are in pristine condition and measure 24” X 24”. They are attached to a sturdy poplar brace and wired for hanging. To see more images visit www.glueyarn.com and follow the Huichol link to Cresencio Perez Robles. The paintings are $800.00 each, plus shipping. Questions? E-mail: [email protected]

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For a moment I glimpsed the red room, the cavernous room I’d once visited where it seemed to me all the pain and evil of the world accumulates, and which the doctors then re-form and shape into good and positive things. I knew at that instant that if I hadn’t been so afraid of them and spent so much of our time fighting the work they needed to do with me, they would have shown me how to work with that pain to heal. But they were leaving for real. I called for them to stay. Odd, no? I would have reverted to my utter panic if they stopped and said, “Okay, we’ll stay, but we are going to work on you like we need to.” Still, the idea of my world without them seemed bleak. Those doctors who were still in the shape of the young woman called back to me and told me not to be so afraid of The Man Who Tells Me Things (the name they gave the voice), as I had been of them. They told me I missed so much of what they’d come to teach, that I’d only learned a smidgen of what they’d intended, and I should try to do better with my new teacher. The last thing they said as they closed their capsule was that I’d missed the colors they’d meant to teach me. I shouted back that I didn’t know what colors they meant, or what they planned to teach me about them. They answered that they knew that, and they were sad for me because of it. And then they sort of blasted off and flew away. Their capsule ship was really more like an upside down bottle cap than any other shape I knew. As it flew it grew smaller—not from the distance it was traveling, it was just that my perception shifted and I saw their ship as tinier and tinier until it disappeared, absorbed into a liquid like a droplet, with a slight splash. The liquid was red, like the thick nectar of the red flower I’d drunk years ago to start the red medicine sessions.

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The thought of it coming full circle like that hit me sharply— a crack on my consciousness. Is it really like that? Is that all for red magic learning? I wanted to shout, “But I don’t know anything yet!” But I knew it was no use. They were not coming back, at least not then, if ever. Silence and sadness engulfed me. In the distance I could hear the che-che-che of Julio’s chacapa and the sound of his voice. They pulled me like a rope from a far place back to the railing of his hut where I stood.




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It was a place not of pain, but of fears. A place where fear and the malice that creates it are born. It was overwhelmingly horrible. “I am not fooling. I am stuck here teaching you and I don’t have time for games,” the voice said, bringing me back to Julio’s hut. “I’ll try,” I said, shaken at the power he’d unveiled. “Good. I’ll be back soon.”

I had no idea how long my visit with the doctors had lasted. When my eyes grew accustomed to the dark, I saw that my guests all seemed to be either in the midst of their ayahuasca dreams or sleeping. I made my way past Julio to my spot on the floor next to Chepa. She was huddled up in a fetal position and shaking. I leaned close to her and asked if she was all right. She didn’t answer so I asked again. Corina heard me from the kitchen area and came over to gently shake her, also asking if she were all right. Chepa seemed lifeless, until she suddenly turned her head and told us to leave her the heck alone and to stop interrupting her dream. I sat back, embarrassed, and lit a cigarette. Just then the voice of The Man Who Tells Me Things spoke: “I can teach you some things. But I’m not as patient as the doctors. If you lie to me or hide things, I will take you to hells you never imagined. You will wish the doctors were merely tearing your heart out.”

And with that, the voice vanished and didn’t reappear that night. I spent the remainder of the ceremony keeping an eye on my guests as they came out of their dreams. After they were all awake and moving, Julio lit a kerosene lamp, gathered up his things, and said good night. Juan walked the guests to Julio’s son’s house where the mosquito nets were. I stayed awake and listened to the jungle for a long time, the image of the doctors disappearing like a drop into a bowl of soup fresh in my mind, as was the sadness I felt at their leaving. A week later, after my guests had all returned to their homes, I was preparing to return to New York as well. Chepa had said she’d stay for a couple of weeks with Madeleina, as she needed to take her mother to the cancer clinic in Lima for a checkup. She never did return, and it was nearly six months before I saw either her or my Madeleina again.

“I won’t hide from you,” I said, lying.  TO BE CONTINUED… Faster than an instant, I found myself in a place so wretched, so awful, so full of the stink of things so evil that even the doctors couldn’t reshape them into something worthwhile.

N E W !

Trout’s Notes on San Pedro & Related Trichocereus Species The single best-selling title at the recent MIND STATES VI conference, this work contains 312 pages and nearly 900 black and white photos. Covering San Pedro and its horticultural relatives, with details on botany, chemistry, and history of these beautiful and sometimes gigantic cacti. TROUT’S latest offering is the most comprehensive review and reference compendium that exists concerning Trichocereus pachanoi and its relatives. Available for $34.00 (USA), $39.00 (foreign) from The Entheogen Review, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Or order on-line with a credit card from www.entheogenreview.com.

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Hyperspatial Maps MDMA HEALS RELATIONSHIP DIVIDE Psychonaut: Male, age 40, ~200 lbs. Materials: dried San Pedro powder in four packed 000 gel caps, onset 30–45 minutes; also MDMA at 110–125 mg, onset 30–45 minutes, declining after four hours. 1:00 pm starting time, with no food ingested that day. Background: When I began my long-term relationship with my partner “Z” a few years ago, it was with the intention to explore ourselves and our relationship using medicines as tools for insight and transformation. Shortly after moving in together though, an unplanned pregnancy set a number of obstacles in our course. First—and certainly foremost for her—was my reticence to have a child. Although I had finally allowed for the possibility, I thought that a couple years would allow us to be where we needed to be in our careers and our relationship to handle it. It seems, however, that you can never really be prepared to have a child. Clear about her own intention, Z gave me an unspoken ultimatum: I could be in or out of the relationship, which now held double for our child. Having a bit more karmic awareness than I did in my youth, and wanting to hold onto this relationship, I signed on. But I felt that Z always held my original reticence against me, no matter what I did to earn her respect or parent our son responsibly. Over the 1,000 days since then, she has not wanted to partake in the medicine, as she is nursing. I have respected that, although I’ve gotten some fantastic work done on my own. My ventures into journey-space are always accompanied by some resentment from her for the time I “abandon” her with our son “G” to get my work done. While it’s clear to me that I’m making great personal changes, the stress of dealing with the boy for a week alone seems to make these changes invisible to her; and when I invite her to join me there, I’ve been met with the “parent’s mother’s responsibility” diatribe. This has been an added strain for me, as one of the things we shared at the outset of our relationship was an interest in and enjoyment of the medicines and internal work, and I miss that. It’s been clear to me for some time that MDMA would be the only way to step out from our defended spaces and

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discuss the issues that were dragging us down, as my truths would be perceived as hurtful, and cause her to recoil more. I knew we couldn’t afford that, since we were already in a place I was dreading. No one in my peer group wants to think they’ll keep their dissatisfactory relationship going for the “sake of the children,” but even as egomaniacal as I am, I love that boy more than myself, and couldn’t imagine losing him. I’ve mowed through dozens of women at this point, and been crushed by a few too. So I can see the loss of a partner in a clear, calculated, go-on-with-your-life kind of way. But lose my child? No. Particularly not if there was work for me to undertake. It was apparent to me that Z and I were both in love with him, and that our relationship had become a dual orbital: an intersecting Venn diagram with G in the middle, which didn’t really serve us (or me, at least) anymore. The question was how to resolve this situation. I set out one Saturday to convince Z of the importance of doing a session together. She countered by asking whether there was some problem that demanded it right now. I had to admit there was, and we sat down and started talking about it. This was the last thing I wanted, because I could feel our defenses coming up and the difficulty of staying calm increasing. I was also very aware of G’s behavior, as he danced around and between us, buried himself on us, and used every preverbal method he could to deflect the tension that was rising. In no way do I want to make him the responsible party for our relationship issues, and after pointing this out to Z, she relented. Intention: After hours of discussion about where to go (which felt like an interminable onset), we finally drove into town and parked at a park where we could leave the car and walk around town easily. We consumed our cactus—a very small amount—as a grounding layer, as I have found that a subthreshold dose adds a certain steadiness to my state. We sat in the car while G napped, and we began our ceremony, calling the directions and spirit forces to our aid. After half an hour, when the cactus was beginning to work, we ingested our MDMA, with the expressed intention of resolving and recommitting our relationship.

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The Day: 45 minutes later the effects had set in and G woke up, so we began walking. It was a particularly beautiful day and we covered quite a bit of ground, talking over all our points, which were easy to remember and to phrase in exacting yet sensitive terms. We spent time looking at the flowers and trees, animals and insects, architecture and people, being subtly reminded that we had called the aid of all things in our ceremony. Amidst intensive discussion, it was also easy to focus on G’s questions, to stop, look, and listen to the world around us, and to consider his experience. Taking G to the playground (where we seemed to magnetically attract other people’s children as well) was delightful, and a tremendous reminder of how joyful it can be to parent. After about five hours and some decline in effect, we drove to the water and watched an amazing sunset. We’ve always been committed to our own psychological upkeep, as well as relational dialogue, but we had definitely each mapped private territories in the last few years. Among the things that we discussed, observed in ourselves, and (hopefully) resolved, without anger, judgment, reaction, or fear: • The fact that we ourselves never had time to establish our own relationship or determine its course, and that our primary relationships were now with G and not each other. • That I had accepted being a father, but always rather at Z’s expense. I wordlessly indicated to her when things were difficult that the decision to have a child was essentially hers, and attempting to make her see how much I sacrificed to have a child with her, made things more difficult at times. • That I was still attempting to hold onto my prior life, rather than fully commit to who I must become. • That Z had closed herself off from me in self-defense to my original negativity around having a child, and defaulted to that position in our relationship. • That my agreement to enter into a monogamous relationship with her at the outset had now been placed in a lifelong context, without examination or negotiation. • That I’d become more driven in my work worlds, leaving little time that I wasn’t thinking about or available to work. • That Z and I now referred to each other as “mommy” and “daddy” rather than by our names, and we had come to talk mostly from a side-by-side position, avoiding eye contact, safe from the intrusion of exposing ourselves.




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• That we hadn’t come to a clear definition of our roles in parenting, and constructing time schedules that respected all of our relationships and values. We also hadn’t acknowledged or investigated who we were to each other in a long time. • That we were both harboring pain and resentment, and had been thinking about our options should we have to leave the relationship and go it alone. • That our sex life had become detached at best. Fortunately, we have been pretty responsible parents, and it was also easy to remember as we looked upon our son how much we respected each other’s ways of being with him and commitment to loving him. At one point Z pointed out to me that she really does enjoy being with me, too, when I’m present. My recent work overload and upgraded responsibility as family provider had definitely lessened our time together. I had to agree, with a similar inflection, as to her presence with me. Looking at the issue of how we divide time (or don’t) was critical to really seeing each other, and seeing how we’re committed to the relationship from our own scale of values. At the end of the day as sun set, we smoked a little Cannabis. While we were watching the play of light on the clouds and water, G took both of our hands and, having only possibly learned to speak these words in the week prior, said: “I love you.” It was a heart-meltingly deep reminder of who I am now, and my need to stay focused—not on all the things I think I have to do to keep it together for my family, but simply on being with them. The medicines are a tremendous reminder of my own spirit connection. I asked the setting sun to grant me the things I need from my work, so that I could focus more on my family. And I must say, the spirit has been provident. I’ve started carving out time each week specifically for Z and myself to hang out, which has been a great thing. I also seem to have a lessened sense of aggravation with any bumpy patches. Despite my fighting against the calendar for a lifetime, I’m using it and making it work for me, fairly painlessly. (Perhaps my neurons have been trimmed.) I give MDMA the highest recommendation for any couple needing to resolve relationship issues, and specifically for parents, who by the very nature of parenting can become separated from each other by the third party love relationship they are having with their child. Of course, dosage, set, setting, and intention make all the difference. — NOIA, CA

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Network Feedback MIMOSA TENUIFLORA ACTIVE BY ITSELF The last issue of TER mentions persons having trouble experiencing any effect from Mimosa tenuiflora without concurrent use of a MAOI. Sans MAOI, it takes 2–4 ounces of ground root-bark, soaked in water for two to eight hours. Stirring it once or twice during the soaking probably wouldn’t hurt. Jurema processed in this manner creates the closest thing that I have ever experienced to “pure” hallucinogenic effects, with no depressant effects and no stimulation effects. Jurema causes effects that “wax and wane” every 90 minutes or so, giving a peak/baseline about three times in a 4.5–5 hour experience. The Dutch group, Friends of the Forest, uses either jurema or ayahuasca. Some participants prefer the natural body space with less CNS depression of jurema, while others prefer the more sedated space of ayahuasca. On another note, I was reading something new and interesting by James Kent on-line; but later, when attempting to find it again, I was unable. It seems like I originally found it via some link at yage.net. Any ideas? — J.S., OR Thanks for your thoughts on the activity of Mimosa tenuiflora without a MAOI. As a caution to would-be experimenters, it is worth noting that the low end of the dose range that you suggest is about twice the amount that has been suggested in past reports of activity without a MAOI. And if that high of a quantity of M. tenuiflora was used in conjunction with a MAOI, one could create approximately 5–16 doses from it. Although we are not sure about the link via yage.net, JAMES KENT (of Trip magazine fame), is currently working on a book titled Psychedelic Information Theory: Shamanism in the Age of Reason. He has pre-published many of the chapters from this book on-line at http://tripzine.com/pit, in order to get feedback from the community, and it is likely one of these chapters that you came across. One area in particular that he is looking for input on is his “Signal Theory Overview,” which suggests a possible means toward a unified theory of psychedelic action, and which can be read at http://tripzine.com/pit/Signal_Theory.htm. — EDS.

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PRISONER SEEKS PEN PAL Could you print my name and address for anyone willing to correspond? I have been locked in “the hole” for quite a while, and appreciate anyone who takes the time to write. I hope all of you at TER are doing well, and thank you for the good work. — Michael Acevedo POW #35909-004, FCC Coleman (Med), POB 1032, Coleman, FL 33521.

LACK OF EFFECTS FROM NITROUS OXIDE WHILE ON MDMA A few years ago I went camping with a friend with the intention of doing some entheogens. While the second night was reserved for a high-dose mushroom voyage, the first night was a lighter “bonding” experience with MDMA, punctuated by occasional hits of nitrous oxide. Interestingly, while on the MDMA, neither of us was able to achieve any effects from the nitrous, regardless of how many attempts we made at it. I have found the combination of nitrous and other entheogens, particularly 2C-B, to be quite wonderful. It really kicks the visuals into gear, and I actually feel these days as though it is a waste of nitrous to take it without concurrently being high on a visionary plant or drug. I am repeatedly amazed at how many people I meet in the psychedelic community who have never done nitrous with LSD, or mushrooms, or cactus, or other strong psychedelics. It is a “must try” for all psychonauts. Since the lack of effects from nitrous that my friend and I felt while high on MDMA, another friend has told me that when he took 2C-T-4 (12 mg, split as 8 mg taken first, with 4 mg taken three hours later), followed by MDMA (120 mg, taken an additional three hours later), that three attempts with Whip-It! nitrous oxide cartridges had absolutely no effects of any type: “No tinnitus, no sounds, no nothing, just a sweet taste.” I wonder if anyone else has experienced this sort of lack of effects when taking nitrous oxide on top of MDMA? Or, can anyone report that they have obtained nitrous oxide effects while on MDMA? In any case, it seemed worth mentioning. — Fork!, CA

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JUSTIN CASE’S THOUGHTS ON NO EFFECTS FROM NITROUS Nitrous oxide can have effects just fine on MDMA, or not. 2C-B can be absolutely astounding with nitrous, but there have been times for me when nitrous has also had no effect when used on top of 2C-B. I have also occasionally experienced a flat nothing when combining nitrous with LSD or ketamine, whereas most times it has been immensely amazing in either combo. I’ve experienced it being both boring and amazing in combo with 5-MeO-DIPT (during separate assays, of course). Nitrous can have no or almost no effects combined with all sorts of things, or even when taken by itself. I therefore do not think this phenomenon is MDMArelated. So far, the time for me when nitrous has been most effective has been late in a trip, or at least after the peak has passed. And the times with the least impact have been during the peak or while still on the way up. That said, I have not been able to discern a reliably predictable pattern, as there have been exceptions. Simply stated, sometimes nitrous does something profound, about as many times it does absolutely nothing, but most of the time it does something somewhere in between. — Justin Case

A FEW QUESTIONS Do you have any word about Snu Voogelbreinder’s book The Garden of Eden: A Compendium about Psychoactive Fauna and Flora? Is it available yet? According to SNU, the book is currently in the stage of being formatted, and he is hopeful that it will be available in early 2006. To be put onto a notifications list, folks can e-mail him at [email protected].

Is there any data about the interaction between Trazodone HCl and the major entheogens: potential dangers? Synergy? Without knowing whether or not there are any specific contraindications, we would recommend avoiding the combination of psychiatric drugs (whether antipsychotics, antidepressants/MAOI/SSRI drugs, or tranquilizers) with any of the psychedelics unless there is some understanding about how they may interact. There are two reasons for this. First, such combinations are frequently bad, or at least counterproductive, for someone wanting a normal experience from a psychedelic. Second, people are prescribed these drugs to regulate brain chemistry that has been causing them some type of problem with thinking, emotions, stress, and/or some other psychological aspect of their being. When human research with psyche-




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delics was largely still legal, most psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists agreed that these drugs are contraindicated for any such person, unless that person was under close professional supervision. The use of psychedelics was often noted in the psychiatric literature as negatively impacting progress that had been previously made by psychotics or neurotics during the course of psychotherapy.

I find many references about the efficacy of Lophophora williamsii to care for rheumatism and arthritis pains. Do you know of any sources for information about the mechanism(s) of action, or the pharmacology of the different alkaloids in this plant that might be relevant? — BRT, Belgium We are not aware of whether or not this has ever been formally investigated. Anecdotal comments have also noted that a topical application of several Ariocarpus species, or an ethanolic extract of the same, is used in Mexico for these purposes. There have been no specific alkaloids from any of these cacti that have been reported as having this manner of palliative properties. Perhaps one of the contained triterpenes contributes to this activity [see Kinshita, K. et al. 1998. “Antinociceptive Effect of Triterpenes from Cacti,” Pharmaceutical Biology 36(1): 50–57], but more work is needed. — EDS.

METHYLONE DOSING & PROSTATE PROBLEMS Having been told that methylone doses are “about 200 mg, the same as MBDB,” I took a 200 mg dose. Although I found the effect pleasant enough, it lacked the truly euphoric quality of MDMA. There weren’t any rushes of ecstasy—just an entirely content feeling. For myself, MBDB is a much closer analog to MDMA than methylone. I also read on-line where

ARE YOU BACK YET? for details and ordering information see www.zoe7.com

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one could create an even better analog to MDMA by combining 100 mg of methylone with 100 mg of MBDB. The idea was that MDMA works on both serotonin and dopamine receptors, while MBDB works more on serotonin, and methylone works more on dopamine. But from my own single experience, the combination of 100 mg of each was actually less effective than 200 of either one of them alone.

The first time I tried this approach, I did so with a friend. Both of us really enjoyed it. However, it is worth noting that we had foregone the alarm clock, and hence only ended up remembering to take two of the three re-doses. It is not like cocaine, in that there is no compulsion to take another dose. Indeed, it was hard enough for us to remember to take the first two re-doses that we took.

Then while I was in Mexico at a seminar, I ran into a medical doctor familiar with methylone, which he was very enthusiastic about. He described a different way to take it—the method with which he had had so much success. Start out with 220 or 230 mg. Then re-dose every 60–65 minutes with an additional 100–130 mg. You could re-dose at least three times, up to perhaps five or six re-doses. He strongly suggested that I weigh the doses out beforehand and use an alarm clock to remind myself to take the re-doses. He felt that the inebriated condition was not one in which people are going to want to weigh out new doses, and also that one is likely to feel so good that one forgets to take the supplements without the alarm reminder. Considering how expensive methylone can be, and how this dosing technique burns through material, it might not be the best for everyone. My wife remarked that the strategy seemed similar to the approach taken by many to snorting cocaine.

The effect is different than MDMA. It is more subtle, and yet in many ways I like it more. Because it isn’t so pushy, it allows a calm and centered state of being, where one is just happy being/doing whatever. It isn’t particularly “social” in the way that MDMA can be: one doesn’t necessarily feel like talking a lot or hugging strangers. And yet there is a unique magic to the mind state it generates. I’ve found it good for walks in nature. The second time that I took methylone using this re-dosing approach, I was with another friend, Jor-El, who was visiting from out-of-town. We either did two or three re-doses on this occasion, I can’t recall. At one point Jor-El told me about his tantric sexual practice, as he was curious if I thought that withholding his orgasms might cause him to have trouble peeing. This had been a problem for him recently, and more specifically, it seemed to be an ongoing problem that day. We ended up taking some 2C-B when the effects from our last doses of methylone were waning, and went out to dinner with our wives and my daughter (none of whom had taken any drugs) at a favorite Thai restaurant. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t too hungry. On 25 mg of 2C-B, the confined and stuffy restaurant environment seemed to be contributing to some mild nausea on my part. Jor-El—who had taken a similar dose—wasn’t noticing any effects from the 2C-B at all. (Based on limited data regarding his consumption of 2Ccompounds, he may be a hardhead with these.) However, he spent most of our time at the restaurant in their bathroom, unsuccessfully attempting to piss. I had been encouraging him earlier in the day to drink more liquids, thinking that eventually “nature will take care of itself.” I know that there have been times on psychedelics when I myself needed to pee, and felt foolish standing at a urinal holding my dick with no liquid forthcoming. Maybe there is some manner of psychological block that pops up on occasion during a voyage? On the car ride home, I had fun “communicating” with my young daughter. I was talking to her without opening my mouth at all, but still making sounds. She quickly picked up on what I was attempting and responded in kind. I was quite surprised by the quality of conversation that we seemed to

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be able to hold via this limited method of communication, although I have no real idea how much of what I interpreted her as “saying” in response to my own “remarks” (which she seemed to understand) was just a figment of my druginspired brain. Once at home, I hit a bit of nitrous oxide, and suggested to Jor-El that he do the same. The 2C-B effects were definitely on the downslope for me. But he was preoccupied with his increasingly pressing need to pee. His wife finally convinced him to stop drinking liquids—advice I now agreed with, seeing the pain in his face. We encouraged him to take a soak in the hot-tub, with the hope that this might relax him. After about an hour at home, it became clear that his pain was only getting worse, as still no piss was flowing. My wife had put our daughter to bed, and by this time I was completely down from the 2C-B. (Thank goodness it lasts for only five hours, like clockwork, for me.) It was a twenty-minute drive into the city, and we only had about twenty-one minutes to make it there before the clinic closed. And although by the clock we made it in time, the clinic had already closed their glass doors. I motioned through the glass to a nurse inside that we had an emergency. In the meantime, Jor-El was standing in the parking lot, pants unzipped, with his giant wang dangling above an empty plastic cranberry juice jug. But still, no piss was flowing. In discussing my friend’s problem with a nurse through the glass door, I learned that even if they had still been open, they weren’t set up to insert a catheter. We needed to go to an emergency room. (By going to the clinic first, I had been hoping to save Jor-El the expense of an emergency room visit, as he didn’t have medical insurance.) Meanwhile, another young nurse poked her head out of a side door for a moment, then the door closed again. Seconds later, it reopened, with her head and a friend’s popping out. Were they giggling? The door closed again and reopened several times, as various sets of young nurses snatched peeks of Jor-El’s dick hanging large on the scene. Eventually, an older Nurse Ratched–type pops her head out and puts an end to the fun, explaining to my buddy that he really can’t just stand around in their parking lot with his pants at his ankles. “No, no, it’s okay,” Jor-El insisted, “I have my own plastic jug. I wouldn’t be peeing onto the ground.” She relates that this is not her concern, that he obviously has to get a catheter since nothing is coming out, and that he is only prolonging the inevitable and extending his pain. He needs to get into the car and be driven to the hospital where they can help him. Eventually, with additional coaxing from his wife, Jor-El submits.




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It takes a while for the folks at the emergency room to help Jor-El. He gets a few more half-smiles from young nurses, before another older nurse at this new facility explains that he really can’t be walking around with his dick hanging out. His response, “But it’s okay, I have a plastic jug,” falls on equally deaf ears. Pain trumps social graces for most people, but it was hard not to laugh a bit at my buddy, tempered with my concern for his discomfort. Eventually Jor-El is seen by a doctor, who repeatedly asks him if he has taken any drugs, which he denies having done, other than some OTC and herbal cold medicines. After a rough anal finger-probing, the doctor explains that Jor-El has an enlarged prostate, which is cutting off his urine flow. They insert a catheter, which Jor-El later relates was an intensely blissful experience once it was completed. “It felt like I was peeing for the first time!” he waxed effusively. Once back in his own home city, Jor-El had the catheter removed and started on a treatment of the alpha-blocker Uroxitrol, which relaxed the muscles of his prostate. He now takes this drug whenever he first notices difficulty in urinating, and has correlated such a problem in at least one additional instance with MBDB consumption. According to his doctor, some drugs can exacerbate swollen prostates that have already been somewhat problematic. Prostate troubles run in Jor-El’s family, so now that he is getting older himself, it was not that surprising for him that this issue came up. In any case, it seemed like something that readers of The Entheogen Review might want to know about. Sometimes when you are standing waiting to pee while on a psychedelic, it might not be a psychological problem, and drinking lots of liquids to force the issue may not be the best idea. — P. Freely, CA

CATHA EDULIS WINE & 5-MeO-DMT AVAILABILITY In the Winter 2002 issue of ER you published a little ditty I wrote on Catha edulis (aka mira, qat, khat) and the purification of cathinone, along with the synthesis of cathinone from phenylpropanolamine. You were rather harsh on the fact that my reports of my use of mira in Kenya lacked specifics, like how many grams of plant matter were consumed. That’s fine editorializing. I felt my description of consuming 440 mg of pure cathinone, and my description of the purification of it from the plant, were more relevant. These days my annual

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harvest—from one small plant, fit to make a few people happy every year—has been used to make wine. After a friend described Yemeni wine soaked in qat, I figured this was an easy way to make use of the annual trimmings, since purifying the compound involves work with solvents. The wine I’ve produced has been a phenomenal success, and the gallon or so that is produced each year is served at my friends’ “hip” parties. Everybody gets 75–100 ml or less, and the party kicks up a notch. The wine itself is made thusly:

character of qat, to produce a very dry but pleasant drink. If leaves are used, the wine has a touch of “green” flavor.

Chop leaves and stems into bits. If desired leaves and stems can be used separately to make two batches of wine. While the stems produce a drier wine, nobody has reported a difference in inebriation between the two. The plant matter is then soaked in wine in the refrigerator for at least a week. It has stayed palatable sitting in the fridge mixed with the plant matter for over a month. Once filtered and re-bottled, it is good in the fridge for at least six months—although it rarely lasts that long. I prefer to use Big House Red. It is robust and hearty, and combines well with the dry but slightly sweet

As far as 5-MeO-DMT goes, despite its being potentially a Controlled Substance Analogue, it has not yet been specifically controlled in the United States under federal law. On the level of state legislation, however, the EROWID 5-MeO-DMT Vault lists it as being Schedule I in Nebraska and South Dakota, and that site also notes that it is restricted in some manner in Denmark, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, Sweden, and possibly Switzerland.

On a completely different topic, has 5-MeO-DMT been criminalized? And if not, is there any place that it can be acquired from? — K.H., CA Thanks for the qat wine recipe, although again, it would have helped to know how much dry or wet weight of leaves was used per what volume of liquid.

While there are still a variety of “research chemical” companies that offer 5-MeO-DMT and other chemicals (see the “Sources” column of the Fall 2005 issue of TER), we have not heard any recommendations about which companies might be reliable. Purchasing from

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such companies may entail various sorts and levels of risk. On the other hand, 5-MeO-DMT has been available for years to legitimate researchers via mainstream chemical supply companies, such as SIGMA (www.sigmaaldrich.com). A few years ago a set of audio tapes was circulating of a wonderful lengthy lecture given by JONATHAN OTT—titled something like “Chem Lab”—which provided a number of salient details for the newbie researcher setting up his/her lab. Alas, we have not recently been able to locate this tape set for sale anywhere on the web. — EDS.

CCK POTENTIATION & CACTUS SCALE Within the interview “Jonathan Ott Speaks… Part Two” in TER (8)2, 1999, Mr. Ott described the use of cholecystokinin (CCK) inhibitors to potentiate opiates, specifically mentioning proglumide. On page 69 he said, “…there are other CCK inhibitors that are known, but [proglumide] is the cheapest, most readily available one.” So, now I’m wondering, what are the “other” CCKI drugs that Ott was referring to? And, are there any naturally occurring sources for any CCKI that could be of use? Could CCKI potentiation of opiates be significant enough to elicit psychoactive effects from a simple poppy seed preparation or extraction? Are there some dietary restrictions or other cautions for using CCKI drugs, as there are with MAOI drugs? Has anyone successfully ordered proglumide from Farmacie Petrone S.R.L. (mentioned in the Autumn 1999 issue of TER) or elsewhere for that matter? Can anyone besides Ott relate any experiences with CCKI drugs and opiates? Also, when preparing cactus for tea, is much concern given to removing scale, if present? I don’t think anyone would worry about a few specks here and there, but what about large patches? May love reign. — S.E.T., UT There are an increasing number of on-line pharmacies these days, and proglumide (brand name MILID) isn’t something that should particularly raise any eyebrows if it is ordered. MAC PHARMA NETWORK (www.macdrugs.ws) offers 120 400 mg tablets for $51.20. Perhaps worth mentioning is a web post titled “BRENT’S Guide to Proglumide Therapy” (a search engine should locate the document). It describes a five-week process using proglumide to kick hydrocodone addiction, but mentions that tolerance can be built up to proglumide as well, and it explains a dosing strategy to avoid this problem. Cholecystokinin (CCK) is a gastrointestinal and nervous system hormone involved in digestion. It also acts as a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator in the brain. Some of the chemicals that can




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inhibit CCK (CCK receptor antagonists) that have been discovered— such as MK-329, Bt2CGMP, T-0632, and loxiglumide—have primarily been used in research, and/or they may be hard to come by and of unknown safety. Phencyclidine (aka PCP) is known to inhibit CCK release, but that certainly is unlikely to be easier to get than proglumide, and has its own psychoactivity in any case. Some benzodiazepine drugs have CCK antagonist effects—Xanax (alprazolam) is said to be one that has this action, but it too is psychoactive in its own right. Asperlicin, a metabolite isolated from Aspergillus alliaceus fungus, has about 300–400 times more CCK antagonist action than proglumide. A “one-pot synthesis” has recently been published for the combination of sclerotigenin (55% yield), circumdatin (32% yield), and asperlicin (20% yield); see LIU, J-F et al. 2005. “MicrowaveAssisted Concise Total Syntheses of Quinazolinobenzodiazepine Alkaloids,” Journal of Organic Chemistry 70(25): 10488–10493. We have no idea if asperlicin is safe for human consumption, nor what the right dose might be for possible opiate potentiation. Studies have indicated that CCK increases release of the amino acid/neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), but that GABA inhibits CCK release. It is possible then, that oral consumption of GABA might act as a CCK inhibitor, but we have no idea how many grams of GABA would need to be consumed, nor if it actually works. You asked about naturally occurring sources for CCK inhibitors. CCK release is thought to correlate with the feeling of fullness following a meal. This may make the investigation of plant-based CCK agonists (rather than antagonists) more commercially attractive. There is already an appetite suppression product called “Feel Full” being marketed that contains L-phenylalanine, phosphatidylcholine, and Phaseolus vulgaris, all of which increase the body’s CCK release. Lectin from raw wheat germ, soybeans, and peanuts, also all release CCK in humans. Although we are not aware of any dietary cautions for people using CCKI drugs to potentiate opiates, it might be a good idea to avoid consumption of the above-mentioned list of items when trying to inhibit CCK, as they could possibly negate some of the antagonist effects. Opium poppy seeds have been reported as being active on their own, when made into a tea with lemon juice. We have heard reports of no effects, all the way up to highly sedated nauseous puke-fests, from poppy seed tea. Variables in seed potency, preparation methods, and psychonautical constitutions no doubt play a part. It seems reasonable to think that CCK inhibition could potentiate poppy seed tea. Like yourself, we are interested to hear from any of our readers who have experimented with CCK inhibition to potentiate opiates. However, it is worth noting that the web site http://poppyseedtea.com relates an overdose death from poppy seed tea; interestingly, along with some other drugs, Xanax was detected in this person’s blood at therapeutic levels, and we wonder if its CCKI effects contributed to the death. Caution is advised! As far as your cactus scale question goes, K. TROUT responds: “I’d remove it, but that’s just because I don’t care for eating masses of insects and exoskeletons. The stuff scrubs off fairly easily with a toothbrush and water. This is suggested for treating plants intended for eating, not for the treatment of scale infection on living plants, as the process both crushes the outermost layer of the plant somewhat and it is ineffectual at total removal of scale insects. I would not stress-out at all about the occasional patch of scale, though. It’s just eating bugs, which we all do a bit of anyway.” — EDS.

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Events Calendar LSD IN BASEL JANUARY 13–15, 2006

MINDS WIDE OPEN MARCH 3 — APRIL 8

Celebrating the 100th birthday of Dr. Albert Hofmann, this conference promises to be the most amazing gathering of psychedelic luminaries and aficionados in many years. Featuring 16 previous contributors to The Entheogen Review, plus many other presenters. See www.lsd.info for more details.

Held at Around the Coyote on 1935 1/2 North Avenue in Chicago, IL, this psychedelic art show features works by Luke Brown, Dean Chamberlain, J Garcia, Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, Paul Laffoley, Kenny Scharf, Carey Thompson, Stacy Valis, Oliver Vernon, Robert Williams, and Susan Williams. For more information, see www.aroundthecoyote.org.

SUBCULTURE ECSTASY JANUARY 14, 2006 “A Subculture in Ecstasy: How the Psychedelic Revolution Marked Our Culture” will be held from 9:30 am until 4:15 pm at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s auditorium, 250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA. Presenters include Thomas  M. Brod, Marlene Dobkin  de  Rios, James Fadiman, Robert  W. Fink, Julie Holland, and Fred Tomaselli. Although admission is free, advance reservations are strongly recommended. Call (213) 621-1745 or e-mail [email protected]. There will be an after-program tour for all attendees of the “Ecstasy” exhibit currently showing at the Geffen Contemporary MOCA, 152 North Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA.

WASIWASKA – VISIONARY ART FEBRUARY 12–23, 2006 Featuring art lectures and workshops with Luis  Eduardo Luna, Martina Hoffmann, and Robert Venosa, plus a visit to the museum and atelier of Eli Heil, an extraordinary Brazilian artist. As in past seminars, no salt, refined sugar, red meat, or alcohol will be available. However, there will be plenty of vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, and seafood. Other attractions include a beach, coastal rainforest, and the event is timed to coincide with the infamous Brazilian “Carnival.” Space is limited to thirteen participants. For more info, see www.wasiwaska.org/seminarworkshops.htm.

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AYAHUASCA HEALING RETREAT MARCH 24–31, 2006 Ceremonies in Bahía, Brazil with ayahuasca, meditation, lectures, transpersonal exercises, and excursions. Staff includes Sue Minns, Gary Reich, Alistair Appleton, Silvia Polivoy, and Zoe Seven. A second retreat is scheduled for April 2–9, 2006. See www.ayahuasca-healing.net for more information.

TOWARD A SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS APRIL 3–8, 2006 One of our favorite conferences, this year will feature presentations from Paul Davies, Peter DeWeerd, John Dunne, Ralph Freeman, Walter Freeman, Temple Grandin, J.  Allan Hobson, Douglas Hofstadter, Uriah Kriegel, Steve Laureys, Steven Lehar, Antoine Lutz, Susana Martinez-Conde, David Rosenthal, Nicholas Schiff, Marilyn Schlitz, John Searle, Dan Simons, Mark Solms, Marie Sanchez-Vives, and many others. And of course we expect to join in on a few rounds of the “Zombie Blues,” as well as drink heavily at the traditional “End of Consciousness” party. For more information, see http://consciousness.arizona.edu/Tucson2006.htm.

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Pscrewtopia The Unraveling of the Psytopia Conference by Jon Hanna In March of 2003, I was looking to get some blotter art perforated. I had commissioned artist Stevee Postman to create a piece commemorating 60 years since the discovery of the psychoactive effects of LSD by Albert Hofmann. Dr. Hofmann kindly autographed some of the art to be sold as a fundraiser for MAPS and Erowid. Needing to get the pieces perfed led me to contact Alex Pearlstein. Alex had recently started the on-line blotter art business Tripatourium, selling newly-designed “vanity” prints. He helped me out by having my own project perforated; in turn, I comped him into the Mind States IV conference I produced that May. I liked Alex. He was quite enthusiastic about having attended my conference, describing it as “an amazing adventure I intend on revisiting for many years to come.” He was also generous with offers to assist me on future conferences in any way that he could. Then in late November of that year, I was surprised to learn that Alex was planning his own conference. It would happen in Jamaica, the same place I had held my 2002 Mind States event. It would feature a half-dozen of the speakers whom I’d scheduled for my 2003 conference: names tossed around included Earth and Fire Erowid, Alex Grey, Mark McCloud, Zoe Seven, and even Owsley  “Bear” Stanley (who was a “no show” at Mind States, due to his fear that terrorists might bomb the Laurence Livermore Nuke Lab over that same weekend). Ram Dass’ name was also dropped. Alex’s event was planned to be held in May of 2005, the same weekend that I’ve traditionally held Mind States in California. A vision of Frankenstein’s monster flashed through my mind, as I contemplated an enthusiasm transmogrified into someone parroting my own creative efforts. I explained to Alex that his holding a gathering the same month as myself wouldn’t be great for either of us, and he quickly agreed, postponing his event until August 17–23, 2005. And despite the first-blush similarity to my own conferences, Alex assured me that his event would be different. First off, he would form a non-profit organization: The Coalition for Cosmic Consciousness. Under this umbrella organization, his own event—called Psytopia—was envisioned as a fundraiser, with 100% of the profits after expenses

going to The Albert Hofmann Foundation, The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, The Drug Policy Alliance, MAPS, and NORML. And in addition to drug-related presentations and workshops, there would also be music: lots of it. The new vision described to me was one of a week-long non-stop sonic party, to which Alex had high hopes of selling 1,000 tickets. Let me digress a moment into some personal history. The decade prior to producing conferences, I worked in the area of concert production. Our team put on small shows (100– 600 attendees) with bands who later went on to larger fame: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Tool, Deftones, Cake, No Doubt, and many others. Producing live music shows can be financially risky; along with the successes, there were quite a few shows that lost money. While I have a good idea of the sort of work that goes into producing a conference, I have an even better idea of the different sort of work required to produce live music events. Alex had never produced either sort of event, and he was also a bit green in the psychedelic scene. So I offered him some concrete suggestions: 1) Don’t hold it in Jamaica. I was myself only able to draw about 70 attendees to Mind States Jamaica. I couldn’t fathom how Alex thought he could get over fourteen times as many people to his event. Add to that my strong feeling, following my own conference, that Jamaica was at times an unpleasant place to be (at best), and downright dangerous (at worst). Many dirt-poor Jamaicans see tourists as a meal ticket or a mark. Aggressive begging and hucksterism is relentless. Jamaica makes Tijuana look like a cake walk, and those “working the tourists” don’t easily take “no” for an answer. One can remain relatively unmolested by spending one’s entire vacation confined to a posh resort, but in that environment the class disparity can seem even more exaggerated and depressing. Although Alex kindly invited me to be his guest at Psytopia, I declined, explaining that I had no interest in returning to Jamaica. “Why not choose an alternate location? Costa Rica, perhaps?” I suggested. “It’s also tropical and Cannabis-friendly.” 2) Since you have no experience producing conferences or concerts, why not either: A) Curb your ambition and cut your

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teeth with a smaller event that won’t have such a high risk of losing—rather than raising—money. “Do a one-night concert or rave with talks somewhere in the United States, before you try to persuade a thousand people to fly to another country,” I suggested. Or, B) “Why not exploit an area that you already have some experience with: blotter art?” Alex had told me that he’d been working on a charity blotter art project for MassCann, a Massachusetts Cannabis law reform organization, stating: “If this goes as it looks like it will, I should be able to raise them about 75K.” (On August 6, 2003, I e-mailed asking Alex, “How did your MassCann benefit blotter go?” The question went unanswered, and I have no idea if any money was actually raised for the group, much less $75,000.) Yet considering the blotter art business that Alex owned, a fundraiser using that angle seemed like a better approach. “Since the whole point of Psytopia is to raise funds, doesn’t it make sense to start small with low-risk ventures and grow larger following your successes?” I asked. Despite my suggestions, Alex’s enthusiasm could not be dampened. He had never even been to Jamaica himself, but he said he’d check the place out prior to his event. With stars in his eyes, he rapidly listed the musicians and bands that he planned to have perform. Although I hadn’t heard of most of them, they could have been quite famous for all I knew. (After years of producing music events, I’d burned out on keeping up with the latest sounds.) My final advice to Alex was a simple enough strategy that had served me well, both with concerts and conferences: “Set your break-even point at 50% or less of the venue’s capacity and do an event that you feel super-confident will draw that number as the bare minimum.” Psytopia would be held at two resorts, Hedonism III and Breezes, as the crowd that Alex planned to bring would be too big for either of these hotels alone to hold. Along with the accommodations, attendees who ponied up $950 to share a two-bed room would have their food (“all you can eat, all the time”) and alcohol consumption included in the ticket price. The line-up for musical talent and speakers shifted a bit over the course of the event’s planning, but it was generally hyped as having a couple dozen bands and DJs, and nearly two dozen speakers. There would be laser light shows, sampling of mind machine technology, tattoo artists, comedians, a visionary art panel, and vendors of psilocybincontaining mushrooms, Salvia divinorum extracts, and other wares. Why, there’d even be a Psytopia T-shirt; free with attendance, or available to wannabes via mail order for a few

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bucks. Workshops were promised on diverse topics such as “circus school” and “glass blowing.” Included-in-the-price activities from the resorts offered golfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, sailing, tennis, and swimming. Attendees would be shuttled back and forth between resorts at no cost, to enjoy the amenities at either location. Now, I was somewhat skeptical that Psytopia would happen from the start. It seemed a massive and costly undertaking, even for the most experienced event/concert producer. In late September of 2004, the Psytopia web site was up but had not “gone live” yet. There were still two weeks before any public announcements advertising the event would be made, and yet a counter at the site showed that 125 tickets had already sold. This seemed hard to believe, and I commented to Alex that I was amazed at how well the event had sold without even being promoted yet. In pointing me to the site, Alex had remarked that Psytopia was “moving forwards wonderfully.” Then on March 12, 2005, I got an e-mail from Owsley Stanley, who asked me: “Do you know anything about the lame mob who claim to be putting on the ‘Psytopia’ conference supposedly happening in Jamaica—in, get this—August? I was approached last year and asked to participate. In spite of my surprise at their chosen time of year in this notorious tropical sweatbox, I gave them my requirements and they readily agreed… However, a year has passed and no action on their part to get me the tix in good time to plan and book the limited seats available on the discounted tickets— it is now too late for me to do it, and yet they are still advertising me as if I were a bonafide speaker.” I mentioned to Alex that Owsley was wondering what was up, and suggested that more communication might be in order. Alex assured me he’d told Owsley that the plane tickets would indeed be purchased. Later in March, I again spoke with Alex on the phone. I was incredulous when he told me that he had sold over 50% of the available tickets. Had more than 500 tickets really been sold? Why, I hadn’t sold that many tickets to my own (much less expensive) Mind States VI conference, which would happen over two months earlier than Psytopia. How could Alex have possibly done it? He wasn’t really using any direct-mail or flyer advertising (two of my own staple approaches). He claimed that he was reaching hundreds of thousands of people on-line via targeted e-mail advertisements, largely by exploiting the lists of the charities that the

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event was geared toward supporting. In addition to this, his more specific targeting of Cannabis users appeared to be paying off. Those things, combined with the stated huge fan bases of the bands that were being featured, seemed to be making the difference. And of course there was the fact that the drinking age in Jamaica is only 18 (and practically speaking, they don’t really check ID). Maybe a lot of tickets were being sold to younger folks primarily just looking to party? I was blown away. Bowled over. Yahoo’s news page later picked up the event’s press release as if it was a news story, as did several other web locations. Was Psytopia’s creator a promotions genius, whom I had underestimated? Alex even had a table at my Mind States VI conference in May, selling his blotter art and hyping his event. Everything appeared to be going fantastically, although a nagging feeling in my gut remained: was all too good to be true? A couple of weeks before Psytopia was to take place, Zoe Seven contacted me. As one of the scheduled speakers, he was concerned because he did not yet have his plane tickets, and Alex was non-responsive to his e-mails. It struck me as quite strange that his tickets wouldn’t have been purchased many months before the event, in order to get the best price on airfare. On Zoe’s behalf, I called Alex and asked him what was up. “No worries,” he assured me. For some reason Alex’s e-mails to Zoe had not been getting through to him, but there was no cause for concern. Everything was taken care of. In fact, Alex informed me that there were only 50 tickets left available for sale to the event. When I expressed my astonishment, Alex promised to provide me with a “press list” of everyone whom he had contacted to promote the event. He was very excited about it all, but short on the phone due to being so busy, which I certainly could understand. Then two days before Psytopia was to kick off, I again heard from Zoe, who still hadn’t received his plane tickets. Alex had written to him to say: We’ve had a major issue arise which we are working like crazy to rectify. I am still hopeful that this will be resolved shortly, but since Friday this has taken a dreadful turn. I’m awaiting more information, but at this point all I can say is that I’m awaiting some calls back and I do hope to have some information quite soon. I do hope you’ll understand and can forgive my lack of positive information at this second but, I promise to update you right away.

Aside from vague implications of doom, this message said precious little. I decided to contact some other friends who




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were presenters at Psytopia. Through the grapevine, I learned that Nemo, the psychedelic artist who created all of the event’s advertising, didn’t yet have his plane ticket to the event. Neither did Valerie Mojeiko of MAPS. But strangely, Earth, Fire, and Spoon from Erowid did have their tickets. (For more on the Erowids’ experiences, see www.erowid.org/ general/conferences/conference_psytopia1.shtml.) I called Alex Grey, who informed me that he too didn’t yet have his plane ticket. But he had a bit of additional information: apparently a sponsor said to be a major source of production funds for the event had pulled out at the last minute. According to his most recent conversation with Alex Pearlstein, the event would still happen, but it wouldn’t be able to raise any funds for the charities. I then called Mark McCloud, to see if he had his plane ticket yet. He didn’t. “Dawg, I knew that Psytopia wasn’t gonna happen the moment I looked into Pearlstein’s eyes at Mind States,” he said. I decided to call Alex myself. Alas, he didn’t pick up his phone, and the message I left has never been returned. Then, the day before Psytopia was to happen, an official notice from Alex was sent out via e-mail and posted to the web site. (The notice can be read at the Erowid URL provided above.) It informed presenters and attendees alike that the entertainment aspects of the event were cancelled. Most presenters, who still did not have their plane tickets, would not be flown to the event. But paid attendees would have rooms waiting for them at the hotels. Alex claimed that due to some 21 attendees who only made partial payments for their tickets or who cancelled at the last minute, as well as due to a sponsor who pulled out at the last minute, he would lose $30,000 if the entertainment aspect was kept. If one considers all 21 people a full (not partial) loss (21 X $950 = $19,950), this means that the sponsor would have ponied up ten thousand dollars. Considering a sold-out event as 1,000 paid, and that Alex had told me he was 50 people from selling out a couple of weeks before the event, then at least 950 tickets should have been sold. Subtract 21, and that leaves 929 tickets. With an average profit per person of $2261, this equals $209,954. If the event were actually held, and the production expenses removed, then about $121,000 should be subtracted from this, leaving a profit of $88,954. Note again that this figure subtracted the 21 partial payments as full payments. So, with nearly 89k dollars in reserve, why would the sponsorship for 10k pulling out have any impact? If Alex had sold the number of tickets he claimed to have sold, there would have been no need for sponsorship, and the event could have happened regardless of a couple dozen last-minute attendee cancellations.

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It was clear to me that Alex had not been entirely honest regarding how many tickets had sold to his event. This fact was made extremely obvious when reports from those who went to the event related their estimates of the number of attendees they felt were in attendance, which ranged from around 50 to 150 people. In theory, if Alex sold 50 tickets, he would net around $11,300; if he sold 100 tickets, he would net around $22,600, and if he sold 150 tickets, he would net around $33,900. It is not hard to believe that some of this money went out to advertising and pre-production expenses. But since he had very few day-of-show production expenses due to the cancellation, with no staff to fly in, no hotel rooms for the staff, etc., did all of the money that he net from selling tickets really get spent in advance?




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7) There were no free shuttles between resorts; travel cost $5.00 per trip. And some attendees were not admitted access to parties at the resort they were not staying at. Other complaints made by attendees include rip-offs of hundreds of dollars, violent arguments and physical fights, double-charging for rental vehicles, and personal items stolen from hotel rooms. In contrast, some people have described how they made the best of things and enjoyed their time in Jamaica, even though they did not get what they paid for. By far, the most unforgivable (in)action taken by Alex was that he did not even show up in Jamaica for his own event!

A number of additional points need to be made: 1) Tickets were still being sold to the event virtually up until the time that the entertainment cancellation was announced. 2) Some attendees arrived to find no hotel reservations, despite Alex stating that these would all still be held. Other attendees who had been told that they had reservations in Hedonism III had been relocated to Breezes. 3) One attendee reported that three hours before she flew to Jamaica she had spoken with Alex, who did not at that time mention the fact that he would be cancelling the event in a few hours. 4) Some attendees were placed three-to-a-room, rather than the two-per-room that had been promised. 5) Most attendees had no idea about the cancellation until they arrived at the resorts, due to Alex waiting until the day before to make the announcement. 6) Staff at both hotels told one attendee that the entire resorts had never been contracted by Alex, as he claimed. Resort staff told another attendee that Alex had originally reserved 100 rooms at each hotel (which would have been an expected attendance of about 400 people, not 1,000). However, due to slack registrations, these rooms did not fill up. Hence, the management at Hedonism III, the more expensive of the two “sister resorts,” moved a number of attendees over to the cheaper Breezes resort. It is all about making a buck in Jamaica, in any way possible.

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Following Alex’s cancellation notice, I heard from one presenter who voiced his opinion that the entire event must have been a swindle from the start. I also heard from several pissedoff attendees. One of them, who’d learned of the event through MAPS, wrote to ask: Who is Alex Pearlstein? How did he get endorsed by MAPS? Now that we have proof that he never did what he claimed to do—reserving the entire resorts for the event—what are the groups that endorsed the event going to do to prevent him from perpetuating another fraud on this community and to assure that future events promoted by MAPS and the other organizations that endorsed Psytopia are reliable? Is Alex Pearlstein going to continue promoting events through his High Falootin Trading Company and Tripatourium? Does he now have access to our e-mail addresses and mailing lists from MAPS and CoSM and ??? I sincerely hope that the organizations who endorsed him—including Jon Hanna and Mind States where Alex Pearlstein had a table and was promoting Psytopia—will support those of us who were defrauded by this scam.

This attendee was not only upset at the event producer, but also at those charities who gained no benefit from the event, and even at someone such as myself, who had only provided a vendor table to Alex so that he could sell Tripatourium’s blotter art! Ah, the taint of association. One of the very few presenters who actually had a plane ticket purchased for him to attend Psytopia was Michael Landgraf, publisher of the AVS Journal (on the topic of mind machines). Though Michael wouldn’t have his hotel costs covered as had been promised, he made the decision to go to

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Jamaica anyway. He didn’t stay at either of the hotels where Psytopia had been scheduled to take place, so he doesn’t have any first-hand reports about what went down at those places. But he did recently write up his thoughts about the event for his journal (see the Fall 2005 issue of AVS at www.mindmachines.com). Michael’s article gives Alex the benefit of the doubt that the event was not a scam from the start. But what that article doesn’t relate is that, upon returning from Jamaica, Michael offered Alex space in his journal to be interviewed, so as to provide some explanations about the last-minute cancellation. Alex readily agreed to do the interview. The two of them spoke a couple more times on the phone and batted a few e-mails back and forth, which culminated in Michael sending Alex ten interview questions. It strikes me as pretty damn accommodating of Michael to donate such a forum for Alex to clear the air. But after e-mailing the interview questions, Michael never heard back from Alex. All future calls and e-mails went unanswered. When it became painfully obvious that the space he’d freely offered to Alex was not going to be filled, and with a publishing deadline rapidly approaching, Michael was pressured to scramble and locate another subject to interview, to fill the blank pages. In my opinion, this was not a reasonable way for Alex to treat the talent from his event, even if the event didn’t happen, and especially when Michael was generous enough to offer Alex a way to tell his side of the story. I do not think that Alex set out to defraud anyone in producing Psytopia. I think that he had a bad idea, that he talked a lot of hype, and ultimately—as the situation looked increasingly grim—that he hoped against hope that he could somehow pull the thing off. I think that he was fooling himself from the start all the way until the bitter end. But at the same time, he clearly was not truthful about some aspects of the event. Because of my Psychedelic Resource List and “Sources” column in The Entheogen Review, I have some small notoriety as a “psychedelic consumer advocate” of sorts. And yet, I was not initially sure about writing this article. I felt sorta bad for Alex. He bit off more than he could chew, didn’t have enough selfconfidence to admit it, and ultimately ended up in upsetting the very community he had hoped to help. Although several people asked me, either directly or indirectly, to write a piece that exposed the whole debacle, doing so seemed somewhat self-indulgent: a big “I told you so,” which perhaps didn’t need to be said in a public forum. Other people have already posted their feelings on-line about the incident (a web search




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for “Psytopia” can turn up some accounts). What good would it do—really—to further rake Alex over the coals? I changed my mind about this recently, when attending the Synergenesis gathering in San Francisco. This was the second of a wonderful yearly event produced by LadyApples and ExploreSpirit, which focuses on visionary art and culture. At this celebration, I spoke with the psychedelic artist Nemo, who had designed all of the web page graphics, advertisements, and the T-shirt for Psytopia. Because Alex had promised to pay him back, Nemo even fronted $350 of his own money to print 300 event posters, which Alex wanted to sell at the conference. Nemo didn’t get paid for any of his work: his remuneration was to be airfare, hotel, and a ticket to attend the event. Since the event’s cancellation, Alex has not returned any of Nemo’s phone calls or e-mails, nor has he reimbursed Nemo for his money spent on posters. And Alex is still using Nemo’s art at the Psytopia web site, which surprisingly retains a home page even though the event was a wash. Even if Alex incurred a lot of debt from “the event that never was,” and didn’t have the funds to pay back Nemo right away, at least Nemo deserved the courtesy of having his phone calls returned. Nemo’s art remaining posted to Alex’s site is essentially a theft: an echo that adds insult to injury. And if Alex was dishonest in his Psytopia business dealings, what is to say that he might not be equally dishonest with his blotter art business Tripatourium? I had been under the impression that the artists who created blotter for Tripatourium, were compensated for their efforts; Alex had told me that his artists were paid on a “per sale” basis. But who’s to say if the artists are really getting paid? Or getting paid what they should be getting paid? Just like those presenters, musicians, charities, and attendees who got screwed by Psytopia, so too it is at least possible that Tripatourium’s artists are being ripped off. And folks who know of Alex because of Psytopia, may quite reasonably decide not to frequent Tripatourium. This negatively impacts those artists who work with Alex as well, since his stink rubs off and affects their livelihood. Looking further into the business practices of Alex via his blotter art company, I contacted a half-dozen of the artists featured at Tripatourium. I asked them each eight questions about their experiences in getting paid. One artist’s response may sum it up best: “Rip off to all eight questions! Will gladly pay a portion to break his arms!” A second artist mentioned not having been paid in over a year, despite the fact that sales

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appear to be ongoing at the web site. A third artist said that he hadn’t heard from Alex in about three years. A fourth artist, whose web site sale statistics over the past year seem to indicate that he should have been paid a total of $1,867.50, received only a single paycheck from Alex, about eight months ago, in the amount of six dollars! Another artist had only been paid a total of nine dollars in over a year. I suspect that Tripatourium’s best-selling artist is Alex Grey. Grey told me that he has been paid multiple times for sales in the past, with Pearlstein even making donations to his Chapel of Sacred Mirrors project. However, Grey has not received any payments for sales since before the time that Psytopia fell through. It is hard to imagine that none of Grey’s blotter offerings have sold in over four months. So what might Alex Pearlstein do now? 1) Since people who attended Psytopia got none of the entertainment, nor most of the activities promised, it seems reasonable to refund the portion of their attendance fee that did not go toward the accommodation cost. People who stayed at Breezes should get about $307 back; those who stayed at Hedonism III should get about $145 back. 2) The actual number of tickets sold and the event’s budget and expenses should be posted at a web page, so that both the attendees and the charities can see what went wrong, and also see where the approximately 11K to 34K (above actual hotel costs) that was collected was spent. 3) Discrepancies should be explained. Why would Alex indicate that he had sold more tickets than he had? If he was lying or exaggerating, he needs to admit it. Why would he continue to sell tickets even when he must have known that the event would be cancelled? Why would he have spoken to someone on the phone just before they left for Jamaica, pretending that everything was okay, only to post a cancellation notice a few hours later? Why would the resorts say that he had never contracted to rent out their entire facilities? Why has he ignored phone calls and e-mails? Why didn’t Alex show up in Jamaica himself?

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4) If Alex is unable to pay those artists who have created images for his blotter business in cases where he has already collected money from selling their art, he should at the least provide them with some of the art that remains to cover any debts owed. This article is another open invitation for Alex to explain himself and own up to his responsibilities. The community deserves better treatment. Until some answers are forthcoming and a sincere effort to improve the situation is made, I encourage folks to boycott Tripatourium, and purchase their blotter art elsewhere. 

FOOTNOTE 1) At the time of the conference, room rates (per person per night in a double room) were $149 at Hedonism III and $119 at Breezes. For six nights, this equals $714–$894 per person, although Alex certainly should have gotten at least a 10% discount for bulk bookings, placing the actual price at more like $643–$805 per person for the week. With each resort holding about 500 people, this averages to $724 per person in hard accommodation costs, or $226 per person in “profit” that would be needed to cover all of the event’s additional expenses, with the remainder going to the charities. Conceived of as a charity event, Alex persuaded the presenters and musicians to donate their time. But he’d still have to pick up their travel and accommodation expenses. Counting up all the individual band members, speakers, and other assorted workers, there may have been about 84 people as staff. At an average plane ticket price of perhaps $600, flights add up to $50,400. Presenters sharing a double-occupancy room for six nights is $60,816 or so. Advertising, sound gear rental, phone bills, etc., could tack on another $10,000 in production costs. All totaled, expenses might have been just over $121,000. At a sell-out, money left over from ticket sales would be about $226,000, after accommodations are subtracted. Deducting the above additional expense approximations, if the event had sold out, $105,000 would have been made in profit. But if the event had only sold 50% (500 tickets), this would have created an $8,000 loss.

Telephone consultations and case representation nationwide by attorney Richard Glen Boire. [email protected]

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2004 & 2005 INDEX 1,2-dimethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobetacarboline 115, 117 12-hydroxyibogamine 10 1,4-butanediol 123 18-methoxycoronaridine 10 2-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-βcarboline 112 24-epi-pterosterone 54 2C-B 46, 120, 146, 147, 148, 149 2C-E 123 2C-I 123, 124 2C-T-2 123 2C-T-4 146 2C-T-7 94 5-HO-DMT (also see bufotenine) 109 5-MeO-AMT 27 5-MeO-DALT 27, 28 5-MeO-DIPT 46, 147 5-MeO-DMT 46, 57, 109, 111, 123, 149, 150, 151

A Aguirre, Rodolfo Tinoco 21 “A Framework for Action” 11 Aardvark, David 81, 109, 111, 112, 126 “Absence” (hypothetical sage-based liquor) 106, 108 Absente (U.S.-produced absinthe) 107 absinthe 106, 108 Absorbine 108 abstinence 25 Acacia species 35, 112, 113, 114, 115, 117, 118 Acacia complanata 113, 115 Acacia confusa 115 Acacia farnesiana 112 Acacia intertexta 115 Acacia maidenii 113, 114, 115 Acacia obtusifolia 113, 114, 115, 116, 117 Acacia phlebophylla 113, 115 Acacia simplex 115 acetonitrile 113 Acevedo, Michael 146 Achillea millefolium 107 acid, citric 50 acid, hydrochloric 50 acid, muriatic 50 acupuncture 62 Adderall 125 addiction 1 addicts 11 Adorno, Theodor 37 agara (also see Galbulimima belgraveana) 104, 105




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Agilent series 1100 HPLC 113 aguardiente 140 Aisner, RafaelO 119 al-Uzza 35 Alatriste, Pedro 21 Albert Hofmann Foundation 153 alcohol 10, 42, 46, 49, 53, 57, 107, 108 aldose-reductase-inhibitor 54 alebrijes 66, 67 Alex 62 Alice in Wonderland 70 Alipieva, K.I. 54 aloe vera 107 alpha-beta-thujone (also see “thujone”) 108 alpha-thujone (also see “thujone”) 108 Altoid 25 Alzheimer’s disease 23 Amaringo, Pablo 29 Amazon 29, 30 American Chemical Supply 58 amitriptyline 111 amphetamine 23, 54, 84 AMS Research 123 AMT 27, 122 Anadenanthera species 41, 46, 53, 57, 109, 114 Anadenanthera colubrina 26, 27, 53, 57 Anadenanthera peregrina 55 Anadenanthera seed-enema 109 analgesic 54, 111 androstenedione 108 angels 61 animism 35 anise 106 Anonymous, IN 27 anthropomorphism 35 anti-inflammatory 111 antibacterial 54 anticonvulsant 111 antidepressant 6, 111, 126, 147 antifeedant 54 antifungal 105 antihepatotoxic 54 antihypertensive 54, 111 antiinflammatory 54 antileukemic 54 antinociceptive 147 antioxidant 54 antipsychotic 147 antipyretic 111 antirheumatic 54 antiseptic 54, 108 antistaph 54 antitumor 54 ants 53 anxiety 88 aphids 53, 56 Aphrodite 37 Appleton, Alistair 152

Aquinas, Saint Thomas 36 argon 94 Argyreia nervosa 103, 112 Ariocarpus species 147 Aromacare (vaporizer) 56 Aromazap (vaporizer) 57 Aromed 29 Arrazola 66, 68 art, blotter 153, 158 art, psychedelic 12 Artemis 37 Artemisia species 107 Artemisia abrotanum 107 Artemisia absinthium 106, 107, 108 Artemisia dracunculus 107 arthritis pain 147 Aspergillus alliaceus 151 asperlicin 151 ass-huasca 46 associated anxiety disorder 86 asthma 2 AT Verlag 110 ataxia 7 Attisani, Dominick 73 aura 102 Australian National University 63 autism/autistic 17, 63, 69, 74 AVS Journal 156 ayahuasca 26, 27, 29, 30, 54, 55, 84, 85, 90, 91, 121, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 140, 141, 146, 152 Ayahuasca Healing Retreat 152 Ayahuasca-Wasi 30 Ayensu, E.S. 54 Aztec sulfur magnets 62

B Baldung, Hans Grien 32 Bautista, Francisco Carrillo 130 β-carboline(s) 113, 115, 116 B. Green, NM 26, 56 B.C. Vaporizer 57 Bächtold-Stäubli, H. 36 Badrak, Beth 59 Bandow, Christine 31 Banisteriopsis caapi 56 Barrau, Jacques 104 Barrett, Deirdre 64, 72 Barron, Frank 18, 19 Basement Shaman, The 26, 55 Bastiaans, Jan 87 Baudelaire, Charles 14 Bauer, Wolfgang 29, 36 BC Marijuana Party 96, 97, 99, 101 Beatles (the band) 27 Beckmesser, Sixtus 34 Behringer, Wolfg. 34 benactizine 16 Benda, Clemens C. 16

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Bender-Gestalt test 15 Benjamin, Walter 14 Benson, Elizabeth 41, 42 benzene 64 benzodiazepine 24, 87, 151 Berger, Markus 29 Beringer, Kurt 12, 13 Berlin, Louis 15 Bernstein, Ilene 54 Bethlem Royal Hospital Archives and Museum 14 Bialynickiego-Birula, Teodora 13 Big Basin State Park 121 Big House Red 150 BitTorrent 120 Bizony, Piers 120 black cohosh 107 Blackmore, Susan 103, 120 bladderwrack 107 Blake, William 63 Blasphemo 37 Bleuler, Manfred 14 Bockbier 32 Bohm, David 74 Bohm, Sheelo 119 Bohnlich, Uriel 36, 37, 38 Bohr, Niels 64 Boire, Richard Glen 29, 124 Bölsche, Wilhelm 36 Bön 35 Boniface, Saint 35, 37 Bonny, Helen 20 Booh Bah 70 Book of Kells 69 BOOM Festival 29 Boon, Marcus 13 Bosch, Hieronymus 63 Botanical Preservation Corps 109 Botox 126 brain damage 9 brain implants 125 brain stimulators, deep- 125 Brandy 69 Bravo Trading Ltd. 123 Brazil 63 Breezes 154, 156, 158 “Brent’s Guide to Proglumide Therapy” 151 brine 94 British Patent #1374343 55 Broadley, K.J. 105 Broadway Books 125 Brod, Thomas M. 121, 152 Brooklyn Bridge 131 Brother John 61, 63, 68 Brown, Joel 3 Brown, Luke 29, 120, 121, 152 Brown University 87 BRT, Belgium 147 Bt2CGMP 151

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Buddha 35 Buddhist 20 bufotenine 57, 109, 115, 116, 117 Bumb, Geneva 120, 132 Bunnell, Sterling 19 buprenorphine 11 Burka, Thomas 107 Burning Man 43, 61, 62, 64, 119, 120 Burton, Michael 58, 122 Bush, George W. 38 Bwiti 8

C C.H., CA 24 cacao 72 caffeine 23, 25, 42, 109 Cake (the band) 153 Calderón, Eduardo 52, 53 California Institute of Integral Studies 73 Callaway, Jace 112 camphor 140 cancer 90, 93 Cané, Ralph E. 42 Cannabis 1, 2, 14, 22, 25, 54, 55, 56, 57, 96, 97, 101, 119, 124, 145, 153, 154, 155 Cannabis Culture magazine 96, 97, 100, 101 Cannabis seeds 99 carcinogen 108 Case, Justin 28, 46, 109, 110, 111, 147 Catapres 111 catawa bark 139 Catha edulis 149 catheter 149 cathinone 149 Catholic 61, 68, 95 caustic potash 50 Cellphedia 120 Center for Educational Research and Development 3 Centre for the Mind 63 century plant 14 Cereus peruvianus 126 CH2Cl2 94 chacapa 135, 137, 140, 143 chacruna 138 Chagall, Marc 64 Chamberlain, Claude 22 Chamberlain, Dean 121, 152 Chapel of Sacred Mirrors 74, 153, 156, 158 Charalampous, K.D. 41 Charley’s Greenhouse 56 Chavin 41 Cheap Vaporizer 57 Chencho 60, 61, 66 Chepa 135, 138, 140, 141, 143

chloroform 55 chocolate 72, 109 cholecystokinin 151 cholecystokinin inhibitor 151 Chonhuber, Lili 36, 37, 38 Chopra, R.N. 54 Christ (also see Jesus) 19 Christian 52, 85 Christianity 35, 37, 51 Chromadoris, Vibrata 120 chromium picolinate 108 chuchuhuasi 109 Chung, Wang 35, 37 Cielo Ethnobotanicals 24, 26 cigarette 139 cinnamoyl-ecgonine 110 circumdatin 151 cis-cinnamoylcocaine 110 City Lights Bookstore 14 Clarkia Extra Strong 107 clavohuasca 109 CLEAN-UP Act (H.R. 834) 30 Clear 120 clonidine 111 cluster headaches 83, 85, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 93 Clusterbusters 83 Coalition for Cosmic Consciousness 153 Coca und Kokain: Ethnomedizin, Kunst und Chemie (by Ott & Rätsch) 110 cocaine 6, 10, 59, 75, 110, 148 cochineal 60 Code of Federal Regulations 106, 107 Codex Alimentarius Committee 106, 108 coffee 96, 139 Cold Beer Blues Bar 135 Collins, D.J. 115 Colombian coca 75 Columbus, Christopher 70 comfrey 107 Comings, Mark 29 Condamine, Charles-Marie de La 41 Confessions of a Dope Dealer (by Norberg) 121 Congress of the International Walter Benjamin Association 14 Conroy, John 101 controlled substance analogue 150 Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act 59 Controlled Substances Act 59 Cooper Union College of Art 129 coramine 84 Corazon, Linda 120 Corina 137, 138, 139, 143 CoSM: Journal of Visionary Culture 74

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CosmiKiva Sanctuary 29 Coste, J. 94 Cotler, Irwin 97 Cousto, Hans 29 creativity 18, 19 Crillon Importers Ltd. 107 Cristian 62 Crowley, Mike 120, 121 curandera 69, 72, 96 curandero 53, 64, 66, 67, 68, 134 Curtis, April 58, 122 Cybele 37 cyclo-oxygenase 111 cytotoxic 54

D D.P., CA 111 Da Paz, Gamo 73 Da Vinci, Leonardo 63 Dactylopius coccusa 60 Dadd, Richard 14 Damer, Bruce 68, 69, 119 DARE 3 Davidson, Kris 121 Davies, Paul 152 Davis, Erik 70, 72, 119 Davis, Floyd 117 Dbotany 75, 110 De Onorato, A.C. 17 De Keijzer, Fred 21 De Beer 105 DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) 58, 59, 84, 93, 94, 96, 99, 100, 101, 122 death 8, 61, 151 “Degree of Intensity Scale” 104 DeKorne, Jim 41, 81 demons 36 depressant 146 depression 125 Der Meskalinrausch 12 Descartes, René 35 designer drugs 58 DeSmet, Peter A.G.M. 41, 42, 46, 47 Desmodium 114 devas, pea 36 Devereux, Paul 121 DeWeerd, Peter 152 Di Leo, Franco 7 Diamond, Jared 45, 46, 47 Diana 37 diaphoretic 54 Die christliche Mystik (by Von Görres) 34 dietary restrictions 54 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (1994) 107 digitritus 120 dilated pupils 104, 105




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dimenhydrinate 7 dimethyltryptamine (see DMT) Diode Array Detector 113 Diogenes of Apollonia 35, 37 dipropyltryptamine (see DPT) DIPT 59 Disney, Walt 70 dizziness 104, 105 DMSO 110 DMT 27, 46, 55, 56, 57, 89, 92, 94, 109, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 125 DNA 140 Dobelis, I.N. 108 Dobkin de Rios, Marlene 17, 121, 152 Doblin, Rick 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 119 Doc, IN 27 doctors, the 135, 137, 141, 143 Donar (the god of thunder) 35 dopamine 10, 148 Downs, James 122 DP, CA 112 DPT 46, 57, 91, 92 Dr. Benway 122 Dr. Wily 103 Dramamine® 7 Draw-A-Man / Draw-A-Person 15, 20 dream man 104 dream symbolism 64 drowsiness 104 Drug Policy Alliance 30, 73, 153 Dryer, Donna 86 Dugas, D.R. 122 Duke, J. 54, 106 Duke University Lecture Series 21 Dumbo 70 Duncan Lab Products 58 Duncan, Raymond 58, 122 Dunne, John 152 Dürer, Albrecht 32 dwarfs 38 dying 92

E Evans, Richard Schultes 21 E.B., Berlin 23 EA 2233 19 ecgonine 110 Echenhofer, Frank 119 Echinacea 54, 107 Ecstasy (also see MDMA) 59 Ecstasy & Experience 121 Ecstasy Awareness Act (H.R. 2962) 30 Ecstasy Testing Program 119 Ecstasy: In and Out Altered States 119, 121 Edgewood Arsenal 19 Edison, Thomas 64

EEG 7 Eggers, Eberhard 20 ego death 140 eidetic imagery 17 Eisner, Betty 10, 21 Elavil 111 elder tree 31 Eleusis 84 elves 38 emergency room 149 Emery Direct Seeds 96, 99, 100, 101 Emery, Marc 1, 3, 4, 11, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101 empathogenic 28 Empedocles 35 Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants (by Rätsch) 126 enema 41, 42, 45, 46, 48, 110 Enlightenment, anti- 36 Entheogen Law Reporter, The 124 Entheogen Review, The 41, 55, 56, 57, 81, 94, 111, 122, 123, 149, 157 Entheogen: Awakening the God Within 119 Entheogene Blätter 29, 31 Entheogenesis 96 EntheoVision 2 29 EnthogenUK 46 ephedra 107 Epling, C. 95 ereriba 104, 105 ergot 34, 54, 83 Eric (rip off vendor) 55 Erowid 27, 122, 123, 150, 153, 155 Erowid, Earth 153, 155 Erowid, Fire 153, 155 Erythroxylum species 75, 110 Erythroxylum coca 51, 75, 110 Erythroxylum coca var. coca 110 Erythroxylum coca var. ipadú 110 Erythroxylum novogranatense 75, 110 Erythroxylum novogranatense var. novogranatense 110 Erythroxylum novogranatense var. truxillense 110 Esalen Arts Center 74 Eterra (vaporizer) 57 ethanol 49, 57 ether 12 EtOAc 94 euphoria 23, 104, 105 euphoric 16, 25 European College for the Study of Consciousness 86 European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food 108 European Community Codex Committee on Food Additives 106 Eve&Rave Berlin 29 Evernia furfuracea 106

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Evernia prunastri 106 evil 143 excitant 54 Experimentální Psychosy (by Roubícek) 16 ExploreSpirit 157 Ezekiel’s Chariot 130, 131

Fun Gal 41, 109, 110 fungicide 54 Fungophile 29 Furst, Peter 41, 53 Fürst von Hochdorf 33

F

G 144, 145 GABA 151 gabapentin 111 Gabriel (archangel) 32 Galbulimima belgraveana 104, 105 Gallery One 22 Galli 106 gamma-butyrolactone 123 Garcia, J 121, 152 Garden of Eden: A Compendium… (by Voogelbreinder) 147 Garden of Gethsemane 35 Garstka, Manfred 20 Gartz, Jochen 29 Gautama (also see Buddha) 35 GBL Cleaners 123 Geffen Contemporary, The 119, 152 Geiges, Leif 21 GEL Propagator 56 Generally Recognized As Safe 106, 108 genetic manipulation 126 Geneviève 35 Gestalt 13 GHB 24 Gideon, Richter 55, 109, 110 Gillin, J. 51 ginger 104 ginkgo biloba 107 ginseng 107 Glass-Coffin, Bonny 53 Glick, Stanley 10 gnosis 35 Gnostic 61 God 130 Goethe, J.W. 35, 36, 37 Goetz, C.O. 20 Golden Calf 37 Golden Rule 37 golden seal 107 Golowin, Sergius 29 Goodman, Felicitas 32 Google 123, 124 Gorman, Peter 134 Goutarel, Robert 7 Grandfather Fire 130 Grandin, Temple 152 Grandmother Growth 130 grasshoppers, fried 70 Gravol® 7 Greek mythology 68 green tea 107

F.W.M 51 Fadiman, James 152 Fantastic Planet 70 Farmacie Petrone S.R.L. 151 Fate magazine 22 Faust (by Goethe) 35, 36 FCC Coleman (Med) 146 FDA (also see Food and Drug Administration) 86, 88, 89, 93, 107, 108 Fear Factor 72 febrifuge 54 Fechner, Gustav Theodor 31 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 106 Feel Full 151 Felix the Cat 70 Fialho, Jorge 29 Figuier, Louis 12 Fink, Robert W. 152 Finn, Jayson 74 fish-flakes 56 Fitzgerald, J.S. 113, 115 Fleet (enema bottle) 43 Flora 37 Florida water 140 Foderaro, T.J. 107 Food and Drug Administration (also see FDA) 1, 8, 106, 108 Food Inspection Decision 147 106 Food Safety Research Information Office 107 Fore 104 Fork!, CA 28, 146 Forman, Robert 120, 129, 132 N,N-formyl,methyl-tryptamine 115 Four-Pillars Drug Strategy 11 Fox, Matthew 74 Foxy Methoxy (also see 5-MeO-DIPT) 59 Frank 120 Fränkl, Fritz 14 Freeman, Ralph 152 Freeman, Walter 152 Freud, Sigmund 64 Friedrichs, Hans 15 Friends of the Forest 146 Fuchs, Ernst 63 Fulbright grant 129 Fuller, John 34

162




G

Grey, Alex 63, 67, 68, 74, 120, 121, 152, 153, 155, 158 Grey, Allyson 64, 67, 121, 152 Grey, Zena 64, 74 Grob, Charles S. 83, 84, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, 120, 121 Grof, Stanislav 20, 21, 88, 89, 91, 92 Guadalupe 120 guayusa 109 Guttmann, Eric 14

H H2O 94 Hacienda de la Noria 71 Häfner, Thomas 20 Hagezussen (witch) 36 Halley’s Comet 32 Hallucinogen Rating Scale 7 Hallucinogens and Culture (by Furst) 41 Halpern, John 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 93, 119 Hamilton, Lucy 104, 105 Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (by RächtoldStäubli) 36 Hanna, Helen 31 Hanna, Jon 1, 29, 30, 41, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 72, 74, 81, 83, 106, 110, 119, 120, 122, 153, 156 Harbor UCLA Medical Center 90 Hardison, Casey William  “Freeblood” 94, 122 Hartmann, Richard P. 20 harmala 109 harmaline 27 harmel 111 harmine 27 Harrison, Kathleen 73 Harvard 64, 83, 86, 93 Harvard University Press 14 hashish 14 Hassler, Ivania 73 Hauslexikon (by Leipzig) 31 Hay, A. 105 Hayes, Charles 120 Hedonism III 154, 156, 158 Heffter Research Institute 90, 93 Heil, Eli 152 Heim, R. 19 Heinrich, Clark 121 Heller, Shawn 73 Hemp BC 96 henbit 54 Henson, Mark 121 hepatitis C 6 Herbal-Shaman 26 Hermes 37 heroin 6, 11, 25, 59

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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2

Herscovitch, C. 105 Hertel, C. 17 Hexen und Hexenprozesse in Deutschland (by Behringer) 34 Hexenhammer (by Kramer) 34 Hexenmedizin (by Rätsch et al.) 31 High Falootin Trading Company 156 High Performance magazine 63 High Times magazine 56 Higher Knowledge Network 3 himbacine 105 Hindu 20 Hirschfield, M. 105 Hitler, Adolph 37 Hive, The 94 Hobson, J. Allan 152 Hoehman, Gerd 20 Hoffmann, Martina 29, 152 Hofmann, Albert 21, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 96, 104, 126, 152, 153 Hofstadter, Douglas 152 Holbein, Ulrich 29, 36, 38 Holland, Julie 152 Holmstedt, B. 112 Holocaust, the 87 Holotropic Breathwork 20, 73 Holy Office of the Inquisition 95 Homalomena species 104, 105 Homalomena aromatica 105 Homalomena cordata 105 Homalomena lauterbachii 105 Homalomena occulta 105 Homalomena versteegii 105 Hooth, Michelle 108 Horowitz, Michael 121 Hotel Misión de los Angeles 62 Hrdlicka, Alfred 20 Huautla de Jiménez 72 Huichol 41, 120, 129, 130, 131, 132 Huixárica 130 Hundertwasser, Friedensreich 20 Hunter, Dave 119 Hurley, Joseph 94 Hussein, Saddam 38 Huxley, Aldous 21, 91 hydergine 84 hyoscine 104 hypertensive 54 hypnagogic 17, 104, 105 hypomanic 16

I Iboga Therapy House 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11 ibogaine 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 55, 92, 119 Ibogaine Association 11 icaro 135




WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

Ima B. Leever 110 immunosuppressant 54 imps 36 Inca 140 Indra extract (Tabernanthe iboga) 5 Indriya, Isis 120 Inner Traditions International 31 Insatiability (by Witkiewicz) 13 Insect Surfer Dave 61, 63 insecticidal 105 insomnia 23 Institoris, Heinrich 34 Institute for Psychedelic Research 18 Institute of Personality Assessment and Research 19 insufflation 52, 53, 110 International Foundation for Advanced Study 18 iodine precipitates 54 iporuru 109 Irenaeus of Lyons, Bishop 35 isopropanol 49 Italo 137, 141

J J.E., AZ 56 J.S., OR 146 Jacaranda 53 Jainism 35 Jakimowicz, Irena 13 Jaladu-D-Din, Maulana 35 Jalapa de Díaz 96 Jamaica 153, 154, 155, 156, 158 Janiger, Oscar 17 Jansen, Karl 9 Játiva-M. 95 java coca 75 Jehovah 61, 68 Jerena, Julio 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143 Jericho 35 Jerusalem 35 Jesse, Robert 121 Jesus (also see Christ) 32, 33, 35 jícara 132 Jiménez, Manuel 64, 65, 66, 67, 68 JLF Poisonous Non-consmumables 122 JMAR Chemical 123 Joan 120 Joel, Yale 17 Johns, S.R. 113, 115 Johns Hopkins 9 Johnson, J.B. 95 Johnson, Gary 73 Johnson, Matthew W. 119 Jor-El 148, 149 Joralemon, D. 53

Joseph 32 Journal of Ethnopharmacology 41, 95 Journal of Organic Chemistry 151 Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 109 Juan 138, 139, 140, 143 Juchitan 69 Judaism, pseudo- 68 Jung, Carl 64 jurema 146

K K.H. 150 K.L.M. 131 Kaempferia galangal 104 Kafka, Franz 102 Kant, Immanuel 37 Karpetas, Sandra 1, 11, 29, 119 Kasper, Joseph 59 Kasper, Thomas 59 Kast, Eric 91, 92 Kauffmann-Doig, Federico 42 kava 55, 107 Kekulé, Friedrich A. 64 Kellogg, Joan 20 Kelly, D.R. 105 Kemp, Richard 94 Kent, James 121, 146 ketamine 24, 46, 48, 89, 110, 111, 147 Ketchum, James 19, 20 ketoprofen 111 khat (also see Catha edulis) 149 Kiczenski, Ron 119 Kinshita, K. 147 Kipphoff, P. 1969 20 Klapp, Edzard 34, 36, 37, 38 Klarwein, Mati 63 Knauer, A. 14 Koan Brothers, The 29 Kramer, Heinrich 34 kratom (also see Mitragyna speciosa) 24, 25, 26, 55, 56 Kriegel, Uriah 152 Krippner, Stanley 20 Kucinich, Dennis 73 Kunstrausch (inebriation art) 20 kuru meri 104

L La Barre, Weston 41 LaBerge, Stephen 73 LadyApples 157 Laffoley, Paul 74, 121, 152 Lagochilus inebrians 112 Lake Chimay 52 Lamium amplexicaule 54 Landgraf, Michael 156, 157 Lang Art Gallery at Claremont College 17 Laotse 37

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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2

Larsen, Dana 97 Lassa 32 Lauer, Bernd 29 Laureys, Steve 152 Lawrence, B.M. 106 laxative 54 “Lazy Robinson” (by Woodring) 120 Leary, Timothy 18, 19, 21, 61, 91 Legal Drugs Canada 123 Legal Highs 123 Lehar, Steven 152 Leipzig 31 Leonard, I.A. 95 leptocladine 113 Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique (by Heim & Wasson) 19 Les Merveilles de la Science (by Figuier) 12 Lessing, Theodor 36 Leuner, Hanscarl 17, 20 levo-alpha-acetyl-methadol 11 lidocaine 111 Life magazine 17 Light Space Gallery 121 Lilly, John 21 lily 42 linalool 105 Lincoff, Gary 29 Linder, David William 58, 122 Linsert, R. 105 lipoxygenase-inhibitor 54 Liu, K-C. 115 Livingston, Ken 125 Löns, Hermann 36 Lophophora williamsii 53, 147 Louisiana, Act No. 159 124 love 141 loxiglumide 151 LSD 2, 4, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 27, 44, 55, 59, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 125, 130, 147, 153 LSD, My Problem Child (by Hofmann) 93 LSD Psychotherapy (by Grof) 21 Lumbini 36 Luna 37 Luna, Luis Eduardo 29, 73, 152 lupuna negra 139 Luther, Martin 32 Lutz, Antoine 152 lye 49, 50 lysergamides 94 lysergic acid 84, 94 lysergic acid amide 55 lysergic acid monoethylamide 15

164







WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

M Maclay, Walter S. 14 M.H, TN 56 Mac Pharma Network 151 maca 109 Machine, The (vaporizer) 57 Madeleina 138, 141, 143 Madonna 34 Mahavira 35 mail drop 122 Mambo Pachano 49 Mammon 37 Man Who Tells Me Things, The 142, 143 mandala 20 MAO inhibitor (MAOI) 46, 111, 112, 146, 147, 151 mapacho 139, 140 MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) 11, 29, 93, 153, 156 MAPS Bulletin 11, 94 maraba 104 Marco 135, 141 marijuana 2, 101 Marijuana News Global Report 101 marijuana seeds (also see Cannabis seeds) 97, 100 Marinesco, G. 14 Markus, Mario 17 Martin, Leah 119 Martine 60, 62, 65 Martinez-Conde, Susana 152 Martini, F.H. 47 Mary (the mother) 32, 35 Maryland Psychiatric Research Center 20, 21 Mash, Deborah 8 MassCann 154 Mátéfi, Lászlo 17 matriarchy 69 matrix 10, 11 Matrix, The 71 Maudsley Hospital 14 Mauricio 138 Max Planck Institute 17, 20 Maya 42 Mayan 120 Mazatec 95, 96 MBDB 71, 147, 148, 149 McCloud, Mark 41, 96, 153, 155 McKellar, P. 17 McKenna, Dennis 73, 112 McKenna, Terence 119, 120, 131 McLean Hospital 89 MDMA 4, 24, 46, 71, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 121, 126, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148 meditation 121, 152

Medline 89 Medusa 95 memantine 23 meme 120 memory lapses 59 Men In Green 56 Merck 13, 41 Mercury House 126 Merker, Robert I. 107 mescal 14 mescaline 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 84, 88, 91, 92 Metamorphosis (by Kafka) 102 methadone 6 methanol 113 methedrine 15 methylbenzoyl-ecgonine 110 methylene chloride 50 methylone 147, 148 N-methyl-tetrahydro-β-carboline 115 N-methyl-tetrahydroharman 113, 115 N-methyl-tryptamine 113 Metzner, Ralph 29, 121 mezcal 72 mice 108 Michaux, Henri 22 MicroCOSM Gallery 121 Microsoft 37 Milid (proglumide) 151 milk thistle 107 Mimosa hostilis 49, 55 Mimosa tenuiflora 49, 50, 111, 112, 118 Mind Body Love 3 Mind Books 31 Mind States (conferences) 61, 66, 120, 132, 153, 154, 155, 156 Minds Wide Open 121, 152 Minns, Sue 121, 152 miosis 105 mira (Catha edulis) 149 Miranda, Felipe 96 Mithoefer, Annie 93 Mithoefer, Michael 83, 88, 89, 90, 93 Mitragyna speciosa (also see kratom) 24, 55, 56, 112 MK-329 151 MK-801 10 Moche 41, 42 moecat 112 Mojeiko, Valerie 11, 119, 155 Möller, A. 41 Molliver, Mark 9 Montanari, C. 15 Monte Albán 70 More Than Human (by Naam) 125 morning glory seeds 45 morphine 23 Moses 33, 35, 36, 37

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2

Moss, Tony 119 Muhammad 35 mulberry 60 Mulga 113 Müller-Ebeling, Claudia 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (see MAPS) Mundheim, Marie-Elizabeth 74 muscarinic receptor antagonist 105 Museum of Anthropology 20 Museum of Contemporary Art 119, 152 mushroom(s), psilocybin-containing 45, 84, 85, 124, 146, 154 mutagenic 108 muxes 69 mysticism 37

N Naam, Ramez 125, 126 Naasko 29 Nadelmann, Ethan 73 NaHCO3 94 Nakkach, Silvia 73 Nano Style 123 Naranjo, Claudio 19 narcotic(s) 90, 92 Narcotics (by Witkiewicz) 13 Narthex, Inc. 121 NASA 68 National Endowment for the Arts 129 National Institute of Environmental Health Service 107 National Toxicology Program 106, 107, 108 Native American Church 84, 88, 90 Native American(s) 12, 45, 46, 95 Native Habitat 26 Natural History 45 nausea/nauseated/nauseous 7, 23, 24, 25, 45, 47, 111, 151 Navajo 88 Naval Criminal Investigative Service 58 Nazi(s) 14, 33 Nemo 155, 157 neuronal growth 54 Neurontin 111 neuropathic pain 111 neurotoxic 9 New Center for Psychoanalysis 121 New York Police Department 58 Newsweek 21 Newton, Isaac 64 Nichols, David E. 94 Nickel, Michael 119 nicotine 42




WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

nicotinic acid diethylamide 84 NIDA 94 Niemoeller, Mark 122 Nierica 131, 132 Nirvana (the band) 153 nitrous oxide 146, 147, 149 NMDA-receptor complex 10 NMT 115 No Doubt (the band) 153 No Observable Effect Level 108 NOIA, CA 145 nopales 60 Norberg, Sheldon 121 noribogaine 6, 8 NORML 153 Nurse Ratched 149

O Offray de la Mettrie, Julien 35 O-desmethylibogaine 10 oak moss 106 Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative 57 Oaxaca City 60, 68, 70, 72 Ogia 104 Ohana Keauhou Beach Resort 73 Okapa 104 Old Testament 61 ololiuqui 84 Omagua 41 Omega Fine Chemicals 59 Omega Institute 74 Oneiric Vision: Ayahuasca, Lucidity, and Dreaming 73 Operation Julie 94 Operation Web Tryp 58, 122, 123 opiate potentiation 151 opiate-like 25 opiates 10, 25, 151 opioid detoxification 111 opioid receptor, kappa 10 opioid receptor, mu 10 opium 55 opium poppy seeds 151 Ordinaire, Pierre 106 Orudis 111 Oruvail 111 Osmond, Humphry 21 Ospedale Psichiatrico “L. Lolli” 15 Oster, Gerald 17 Ott, Jonathan 46, 53, 72, 110, 111, 112, 126, 151 Outfoxed 120 overdose 58, 59 overdose death 122 oxycontin 28

P P. Freely, CA 149 pagan 96 paganism 35, 36, 37 Pahnke, Walter 92 pain 87, 90, 92, 149 Palenque Norte 64, 119 Palmer, Cynthia 121 Pan 38 Pandorama Sandoz 20 panpsychism 35 pantheism 35 Pappas, R. 107 paraphernalia 53 Park Street Press 126 Parkinson’s 125 Pars, Harry 20 Peak Experience Profile 7 Pearl Jam (the band) 153 Pearlstein, Alex 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158 Peganum harmala 26, 27, 46, 111 Pendell, Dale 95, 96, 108, 121, 126 Pennacchio, M. 54 pennyroyal 107 Perry, W. 54 Pesce, Mark 120 pesticide 54 peyote 13, 25, 41, 45, 53, 54, 55, 90, 129, 130 péyotl (also see peyote) 53 Phalaris species 27, 56 Phalaris stenoptera 56 Pharmaceutical Biology 147 Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Powers and the Poison Path 126 Pharmako/Poeia 108 Phaseolus vulgaris 151 phencyclidine 151 Phenomenex C18 113 phenylalanine 151 phosphatidylcholine 151 phytoalexin 54 Pimpinella anisum 106 Pinchbeck, Daniel 119 Pinto-Scognamiglio 106 Piper methysticum 55 piperazines 59 pixies 38 PKC-inhibitor 54 placebo 112 Planetary Art Network 29 Plants in Human Affairs 73 Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogenic Use (by Schultes & Hofmann) 21 Pliny 37 pluronic lecithin organogel 110 Pochotita 129, 131

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PoeTRee Ladies 73 Polivoy, Silvia 29, 121, 152 polytheism, neolithic 35 Pomona 37 Porsche 38 Posada de Chencho 60 post-traumatic stress disorder 88, 93 Postman, Stevee 153 Pot-TV 96, 97, 101 potassia 50 potassium hydroxide 50 potassium iodide 109 potassium iodine 55 Poupat, C. 115 PowerBook G3 / G4 110 preanimism 35 Presbyterian 52 proglumide 151 prostate 147, 149 Protestants 68 Psilocybe species 2 Psilocybe cubensis 18, 23, 55 psilocybin 17, 18, 19, 25, 45, 83, 85, 86, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93 Psy-I Network 31 Psychedelic Information Theory (by Kent) 146 Psychedelic Intelligence 31 Psychedelic Resource List (by Hanna) 157 psychoanalysis 87 Psychologischen Institut der Universität Bonn 15 psychotherapy 88, 89, 90, 93, 147 psychotic 16 Psychotria viridis 27 Psytopia 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158 puking 27 pulegone 107 pulque 14 pulse rate (increase) 104 PyBOP 94

Ramirez, Rocio 68 Random House, Inc. 125 Ranke-Heinemann, Uta 34 rats 108 Rätsch, Christian 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 110, 119, 126 Rauner, Michael 72 RAVE Act 30 Rechschaffen, Stephen 74 Red Devil Lye 50 red magic 140, 142 Redon, Odilon 22 Reich, Gary 121, 152 Reid, Mrs. J. 104 Reidlinger, Tom 120 research chemical(s) 58, 122, 124, 150 rheumatism 147 rhizotoms 36 Rhodium 94 Richards, Brian 119 Riedlinger, Tom 121 Rinkle, Max 16 Ritalin 125 Ritual Enemas and Snuffs in the Americas (by DeSmet) 41 Rogers 106 Rognan, Lloyd N. 22 Roitman, M.F. 54 Rolevink, Werner 32 Roquet, Salvador 21, 120 Rosa, Natividad 96 rosemary 106 Rosenthal, David 152 Rosmarinus officinalis 106 Roth, Gabrielle 74 Roubícek, Jirí 16 Rouhier, Alexandre 13 Roux, Michel P. 107 Rovelli, B. 113, 115 Royal Canadian Mounted Police 99 Rutgers University 121 Rymland, Lizbeth 74

Q

S

qat 149, 150 Qian Nian Jian 105 QRB Research 123 Quantitative Scale of Potency 104 Quechua 140

S. Bear, CA 53, 81 S.E.T., UT 151 Sabina, María 72 Sacred Elixirs (conference) 121 Safe Injection Site 11 Safford, William Edwin 41, 46 sage 106, 107, 108 Sahagún, B. 95 Salmonella typhimurium 108 Salón de la Plástica Mexicana 21 salt depletion 54 Salvia divinorum 24, 29, 46, 48, 54, 56, 57, 71, 72, 95, 96, 102, 103, 124, 154

R R.E.M. 7 RAC Research 58, 112 Rad, B. 120 Raffauf, R.F. 54 Rainey, Michelle 97, 101 raising 52 Ram Dass 153 Rambo 71

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Salvia Divinorum and Salvinorin A: The Best of The Entheogen Review 81 Salvia officianalis 106, 108 salvinorin A 57, 95 Salzman, Emanuel 29 San Francisco State College 18 San José Tenango 96 San Pedro (also see Trichocereus pachanoi) 28, 41, 51, 52, 53, 144 Sanchez-Vives, Marie 152 Sandoz 18, 20, 83, 86, 87, 89 Santa Claus 71 Sativex® 96 Saurí, J.J. 17 scale 151 Scharf, Kenny 121, 152 Schiff, Nicholas 152 schizophrenic 15, 16, 17 Schlesinger, David 29 Schlitz, Marilyn 152 Schroib, Werner 20 Schultes, R.E. 104 Scientific American 19 sclerotigenin 151 scopolamine 104 Scotto 126 Searle, John 152 Sebastian 62 Sector 16 29 sedated 146, 151 sedative 55 seizures 59 self-transforming machine elves 131 senna 107 Sepulveda, Marcelino 119 serotonin 84, 148 Serro, João 60 Seven, Zoe 29, 121, 152, 153, 155 Sewell, Andrew 83, 84, 86, 87, 90, 93, 119 sexual abuse 88 shamanism 35 Sharon, Douglas 52, 53 Sheppard-Hanger, S. 107 Shermer, Michael 120 Shulgin, Ann 29, 68, 71, 72, 104, 120, 121 Shulgin, Alexander T. “Sasha” 27, 29, 54, 71, 72, 104, 120, 121 Siebert, Daniel J. 12, 46, 48, 49, 51, 60, 71, 72, 95, 97 Sigma-Aldrich 94 silk worms 60 Simons, Dan 152 Singh, G. 105 Sioumis, A.A. 113 Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses, The 33 Sklar-Weinstein, Arlene 18 Skoruppa, Michael 32 sleeping pill 84

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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2

smart drugs 125 snuff 41, 46 Snyder, Allan 63 sodium hydroxide 49, 50, 55 sodium thiosulfate 55 soil bacteria inoculations 56 Solms, Mark 152 soothsayer 36 Soumis, J.S. 115 South American Botanicals 55 speed 25 spice 123 spider mites 53, 56 Spitzweg, Carl 35 Spoon 155 Spring Grove 21, 92 SSRI 147 Stachurskiej, Neny 13 Stafford, Peter 19 Stamets, Paul 29 Stanford University 18 Stanley, Owsley “Bear” 153, 154 star jasmine 110 Stark, Alex 74 Stasia 119 Steinel HG® 3002LCD heat gun 57 Sterneck, Wolfgang 29 Stiener, George 14 stimulant 10, 54, 55, 84 stimulation 146 Stolaroff, Myron 75 Stoll, Werner 15 Stone Age 36 Storl, Wolf-Dieter 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38 Strassman, Rick 7 Stuart, R. 12, 41, 51 Students for Sensible Drug Policy 73 Subculture in Ecstasy 152 Summa Theological (by Aquinas) 36 Summary of Data for Chemical Selection: Alpha-Thujone 106 Summer of Love 12 Sundance Film Festival 119 Sung, T.V. 105 Supriano, Sue 129, 132 Swedenborg, Emanuel 37 sylphs 38 Symbiosis (gathering) 121 Synergenesis (conference) 157 synesthesia 17 Szuman, Stefan 13

T Tandy, Karen P. 58 T-0632 151 Tabernanthe iboga 4, 5, 8 Tanacetum vulgare 107




WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

tannins 49 tansy 107 tarragon 107 Tate Gallery 22 techno-shamans 62 Telban, B. 105 Teletubbies 70 Telluride Mushroom Festival 29 Tertullian, Q.S.F. 35, 36, 37 tetrahydroharman 115 Thanatos to Eros (by Stolaroff) 75 thangka painting 131 THC analogue 19 “The Enchanted Loom: LSD and Creativity” 17 The Mochica: A Culture of Peru 41 Theatrum Botanicum 26 Theocritus 37 theopanism 35 Thomas, Andy 29 Thomas, Benjamin 104, 105 Thompson, Carey 120, 121, 152 Thompson, Doug 58 Thompson, Hunter S. 13 Thompson, Scott J. 12, 14 Thoreau, Henry 109 thread paintings 130 Thuja occidentalis 106 thujone 106, 107, 108 thyme 106 Thymus species 106 Ticket-master 71 Tijuana 153 Time Bandits 63 tinnitus 146 Tinoco, Aguirre 21 Toad 46 tobacco 42, 53, 104, 138 Toledo, Francisco 69 Toledo, Martha 69 tolerance 10 toluene 50 Toluol 50 Tomaselli, Fred 152 Tonini, Giuseppe 15 Tool (the band) 153 toothache 31 Torres, Donna 120 Tousaw, Kirk 101 Toward a Science of Consciousness 152 Toyota 37 Tracy, Donna 120 tranquilizers 147 Trans Human Church of Enlightenment 123 trans-cinnamoylcocaine 110 transdermal 110 transvestites 69 Traumkraft 29

Trazodone 147 tree huggers 37 tremor 105 Triangle 20 Trichocereus species 41, 45, 48, 56 Trichocereus bridgesii 44 Trichocereus macrogonus 44 Trichocereus pachanoi 44, 51 Trichocereus pallarensis 44 Trichocereus peruvianus 44, 126 Trichocereus puquiensis 44 Trichocereus scopulicola 44 triflouroacetic acid 113 trigeminal autonomic cephalgia 83 Trip magazine 146 Tripatourium 153, 156, 157, 158 Tripping (by C. Hayes) 120 Trokes, Heinz 20 Trout, K. 54, 55, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 151 Trout’s Notes 31 tryptamine(s) 57, 59, 113, 114, 115 Tulip (vaporizer) 57 Turner, J.M.W. 32 Turner, D.M. 122

U U.S. Department of Agriculture 106 União do Vegetal 84, 85, 90 University of Applied Sciences 29 University of California, Berkeley 19 University of Creation Spirituality 74 University of Heidelberg 15 University of Sydney 63 University of Washington 54 Uroxitrol 149 Use of Mandalas in a Case of Psychedelic… 20 Utah Creativity Research Conference, Fifth 19

V Valis, Stacy 121, 152 Valium™ 25 Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users 3 Vaughan, G.N. 113, 115 Venosa, Robert 29, 63, 152 Venus of Lespugue 34 verbascoside 54 Verein Für Drogenpolitik 29 Vernon, Oliver 121, 152 vertigo 24, 25 Villalobos, Elaine 59 Virola 112, 114 Virola-enema 109 Visionary State, The (by Davis) 72

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vitamin C 47 Vogt, D.U. 106 Voigt, Gottfried Christian 32, 33, 34 Volcano (vaporizer) 57, 112 vomit 45, 141 Von Linné, Carl  35 Von Görres, Joseph 34 Voogelbreinder, Snu 147 Vox Mundi Project 73

W Wadi Nakhla 35 Wagner, Richard 34 Wain, Louis 63 Walsh, W. 115 Warrior of Hirschlanden 33 Warszawskim Towarzystwie PsychoFizycznym 13 Wasson, R. Gordon 19, 96 Waters, Lindsey 14 Weitlaner, R.D. 96 Wertham, Frederic 14 Wertheimer, Max 13 Wesenheiten (essences) 36 Western Union 100 Whip-It! nitrous oxide cartridges 146




WINTER SOLSTICE 2005

white cedar 106 Wiechert, Ernst 36 wijsseggher 36 Wikipedia 120 Wille, Bruno 36 Williams, Greg 97 Williams, Kenji 74 Williams, Robert 121, 152 Williams, Susan 121, 152 willow 31 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 70 wine 150 Wing, Sobey 119 Wired magazine 17 witch 31, 33, 34, 36 Witchcraft Medicine 31, 34, 36, 38 withdrawal 25 Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy  13 Woodring, Jim 120 World Congress of Psychiatry, Fifth 20 Worldspirit 74 wormwood 106, 107, 108 wormwood, southern 107 wormwood-based mouthwash 108 Wren 108

X Xanax (alprazolam) 28, 44, 151 xylene 49, 50 Xylol 50

Y Yahoo 155 yantras 20 yarn paintings 130 yarrow 107 Yassi 51, 52, 53 Yellow Submarine 70 Yensen, Richard 7, 21, 86 Yoda 60

Z Z 144, 145 Zariat 121 Zegans, Leonard S. 18 Zhisn’ rastenij (“Life of Plants”) 105

KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE

Know your Body Know your Mind Know your Substance Know your Dose Know your Source

EROWID

www.erowid.org

A library of information about psychoactive plants and drugs.

168




THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Robert Forman Sue Supriano Peter Gorman NOIA, CA J.S., OR Michael Acevedo, FL Fork!, CA Justin Case BRT, Belgium P. Freely, CA K.H., CA S.E.T., UT K. Trout Jon Hanna

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover Nierica (detail) by Robert Forman

Robert Forman Speaks

129

Ayahuasca Healing and an Inkling of Darkness: Part One

134

Hyperspatial Maps

144

MDMA Heals Relationship Divide

144

Network Feedback

146

Mimosa tenuiflora Active by Itself

146

Prisoner Seeks Pen Pal

146

Lack of Effects from Nitrous Oxide while on MDMA

146

Justin Case’s Thoughts on No Effects from Nitrous

147

A Few Questions

147

Methyone Dosing & Prostate Problems

147

Catha edulis Wine & 5-MeO-DMT Availability

149

CCK Potentiation & Cactus Scale

151

Events Calendar

152

Pscrewtopia: The Unraveling of the Psytopia Conference

153

2004 & 2005 Index

159

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

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Back Cover Nierica by Robert Forman

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2005 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XIV, Number 2




Winter Solstice 2005




ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XV, Number 1




Vernal Equinox 2006




ISSN 1066-1913

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors João Serro Jon Hanna Rick Doblin Peter Gorman P.H., NM Pappa Keeper Trout Andrea Sciarnè W.H., IL Rev. MeO Benjamin Thomas, Australia C.R., F.C.I., NJ Loring Bard Greene The Salvia Divinorum Observer Justin Case, TX Tristan J. Whitrock

Design & Layout Soma Graphics Photos by Jon Hanna unless indicated otherwise

Reflections on Basel

1

Halperngate

9

Ayahuasca Healing and an Inkling of Darkness: Part Two

17

Network Feedback

27

Pedicularis Species

27

Ambíl

27

Gamma-OH?

29

Alcohol Pretreatment to Phenethylamines

29

AMP

29

Kæmpferia galanga Atropa belladonna

30 31

Natural Rights and Amnesty Act

32

Salvia Legal Update

33

DOC Report

33

Favorite Rolling Mixtures

34

Events Calendar

35

Sources

36

In Memoriam: Carla Annette Higdon

39

Bibliography

40

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover Work No. 250, Li I, 1974 © HR Giger Courtesy of www.HRGigerMuseum.com

share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

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Back Cover (top) Interior of Giger Bar, photo by Wolfgang Holz (bottom) Alchemical gear at Paracelsus Museum

Copyright © 2006 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS POB 27048 BARRIE, ONTARIO, L4M 6K4 CANADA TEL: (01) 705-322-6614

FAX: (01) 705-322-6615

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 1




VERNAL EQUINOX 2006

Reflections on Basel I recently attended a conference in Switzerland celebrating the 100th birthday of Dr. Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD. The good doctor is still ticking after a century on this planet—youthful spirit, funny, sharp as a whip, and overall a damn good spokesmodel for LSD. I want to take the drugs that will make me live to a happy hundred. The conference allowed for fantastic opportunites to learn about recent research. Scientists from around the world discussed various plantderived medicines. For example, one study reported on old ladies in nursing homes who were given small sacks filled with Cannabis to wear around their necks at bedtime—the aroma alone helped to provide a restful night’s sleep. In another study, Amazonian plants showed remarkable promise in attacking soft-tissue tumors. German researchers are working with computer models to search out complex molecule combinations from 36 thousand plants. Of course, Albert Hofmann was the superstar of the event. Slowly moving through the throngs, Hofmann could have been Madonna or Britney Spears, surrounded by a wall of fans, paparazzi, and security. I stood beside him for a long time, while we both examined the multitude of cabinets displaying 1960s memorabilia: out-of-print books on LSD, early research papers from the CIA and Harvard, blacklight posters with the typical liquid-flowing lettering style from that era. I didn’t want to disturb his delighted voyage down memory lane as just another groupie spewing the same drippy drivel he’s heard for the last sixty-plus years. (“Thank you, Dr. Hofmann. You changed my life forever!”) So we soaked it all in together in silence.

At one point, a friend who was videotaping some of the conference found himself sitting directly behind Albert. The Swiss are fastidiously tidy and always impeccably dressed. So my buddy was dismayed when he noticed a short white hair on Dr. Hofmann’s shoulder. He was about to noninvasively brush it off, when a wicked thought crossed his mind: eBay! Like the relics of old Christian saints, surely this stray strand of DNA might at least be seen as having a powerful symbolic spiritual value? But my friend had creeped himself out from his initial base desire for monetary gain, and he let the hair remain where it lay. (On hearing this story, someone later remarked that a profitable industry could be set up by rummaging through Dr. Hofmann’s trash each week on garbage collection day.) If I had been there, I would have snatched the hair in a heartbeat and created some conceptual art from it. Or maybe in the future, a clone… Being a Californian, I always carry a bottle of water wherever I go—especially on planes, since they never give you enough liquids to compensate for the throat-parching pressurized-cabin environment. I arrived at my hotel late and jet-lagged, and awoke very early to make the conference’s opening ceremonies. Not having time to refill my bottle (I still had about a cup of water remaining), I consumed what was left in the first fifteen minutes of Dr. Hofmann’s remarks. So I stepped into the lobby to locate some more water. Basel has a dry high-altitude winter atmosphere; add to that the conference center’s artificially heated air, and I was beginning to feel like I was in a desert. Yet search as I might, I was unable to locate any tables with glasses and pitchers of ice water (a staple at American conferences), nor even a single drinking fountain.

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The cost of everything in Switzerland is through the ceiling. There’s seemingly no unemployment, and salaries must be as high as their very comfortable standard of living indicates. At lunch one afternoon, the German anthropologist Christian Rätsch remarked that you simply can’t think about the cost of food while you are visiting Switzerland; if you did, you wouldn’t ever eat anything. Could a simple sandwich really be fifteen dollars? And a thimble-sized bottle of water demand ten bucks?

his mind around the fact that Swiss water might pour out of their taps dirty. So in that very sweet, polite manner of the Swiss—while simultaneously realizing the humor in what he was about to say—he asked, “Yes, but maybe… your bottle… was dirty?”

Perplexed, I asked both the hotel staff and several Swiss conference attendees where I might find a drinking fountain. Everyone I asked responded that I could fill my bottle in the restroom. “Really? The restroom?” I balked, shuddering from the image of an American men’s room that flashed across my mind. But the Swiss didn’t even glance up at my question—they just went about their business. So I walked into the bathroom, and sure enough there was a sink with a tall curving stainless steel spigot rising up from a spotless and gleaming black porcelain sink. My face reflected off of every surface inside the restroom, including the floors and urinals. Nary a scrap of toilet paper sullied the floor, nor even a single drop of pee. Immaculate. It could have passed with an “A” under any restaurant’s kitchen inspection code.

Swiss trains run on time to the second. Stations have clocks that count down the minutes until the next train will arrive. The trains fly at high velocities and stop with military precision at a thin red line painted along the shiny marble tiles. Little metal plates attached to the train cabin walls near the exits express an unusually authoritative attitude: “Emergency Operations, All Abuses Will Be Punished.” And somehow the Swiss have also mastered the external environment to comply with their orderly life-styles, commanding the snow to fall only in designated areas. I was in Basel ten days, and not once did it snow in the city. The surrounding countryside was thickly blanketed in snow: roof tops, parked cars, and roads were barely visible beneath the white canopy. But not a single snowflake landed inside Basel, and no snow banks were shoveled to the sides of the streets like any normal city in winter would display.

So I filled up my bottle and exited the restroom. But lifelong conditioning is hard to break, even for those whose mental facilities have been made more flexible via the use of psychedelics. Before I actually drank my bathroom-sourced water, I decided to ask a couple more conference staff and attendees what they thought. “Are you absolutely sure it is okay to drink water from the tap of the bathroom sink?”

It turns out that the conference hall lighting was casting a yellow tint on everything, including the white table cloths, making them appear cream-colored. The water was delicious.

“B-b-but…” I stammered, holding the bottle up to the light, “It looks a little… yellow.” Without skipping a beat, each person responded, “This is because your bottle is from America, and it is probably dirty.”

Departing from Basel, we rode the train for about an hour. Our destination was Europe’s first absinthe bar, opened shortly after the Swiss lifted their hundred-year ban on this booze. (Funny that the ban was within the same time frame as Albert Hofmann’s life.) What a delicious drink! I don’t usually like alcohol, but this beverage has a very pleasant inebriating effect. We were first introduced to absinthe at the conference, where Roger Liggenstorfer—the Swiss owner of the drug book publishing house Nachtschatten Verlag—had set up a small “outpost” bar. Following the conference, Roger kindly invited us to his full Absinthe-Bar & Bistro, Die Grüne Fee (The Green Fairy), located at Kronengasse 11 in Solothurn. The train ride’s view was breathtaking, with its quaint old farmhouses and tiny postcard villages covered in snow.

I was recounting this bathroom water story to my friend Jon Hanna and to Dieter Hagenbach, the organizer of the conference. Jon was laughing his head off, but Dieter—who is Swiss—kept scratching his head with a puzzled look on his face. Again, even psychedelics may not be enough to soften long-held cultural conceptions. Dieter just couldn’t wrap

Culturally important beverages tend to be ritualistically prepared : Japanese tea ceremonies, ayahuasca circles, frothy Salvia divinorum potions served up by virgins. Absinthe is no different. A large, sensually shaped glass-and-metal container is filled with water and ice. (Roger explained that absinthe should never be served “on the rocks,” as direct con-

“Of course it is okay,” they responded proudly and somewhat insulted, again not looking up from their work. “This is Switzerland, not America. You can drink the water from anywhere, anytime.”

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Top to bottom: Absinthe spoons hanging on wall at DIE GRÜNE FEE; lighting sugar cubes; flaming sugar; water drips from the fountain into glasses; JOÃO’S first taste.

tact causes the essential oils to cling to the ice cubes.) Narrow silver tubes protrude from the container like spokes. Tiny faucets capping each tube slowly release the chilled water: drip, drip, drip. Drop after drop splashes onto a sugar cube held by a perforated silver spoon laid on top of a glass that contains a shot of absinthe. Absinthe spoons come in many different styles, decorated with perforation patterns as unique as the snowflakes that never fall in Basel. There are several approaches to serving absinthe. The first drink that Roger made for us was a non-traditional offering called a “Bohemian.” The sugar cube was saturated with absinthe and lit on fire, allowing the sugar to melt and caramelize slightly. Once it had burned out, water dripping commenced, dissolving the sugar through the spoon’s holes into the glass of absinthe below. Sugar adds a crisp sweet flavor that intermingles well with the slightly bitter taste of the wormwood in absinthe. As the water mixed with the absinthe, the resulting liquid turned milky white. (I remarked that the color reminded me of Pernot, a French liqueur that is also mixed with water. Roger responded that, apart from their similarity in color, Pernot is a castrated absinthe; it contains no wormwood.) Despite it being known as “the green fairy,” straight Swiss absinthe is traditionally clear. The herbs used to create a greenish alcohol were first introduced to absinthe produced in France. The proportion of water ultimately added can range anywhere from 2–4 parts water to 1 part absinthe. However, I preferred the absinthe without any water added at all, because I enjoyed the stronger taste. (But then again, I like very dark chocolate too.) Die Grüne Fee serves eleven different brands of absinthe distilled from the Val des Travers region, the area where absinthe was illegally bootlegged during its prohibition. Each brand has its own unique flavor: some are more bitter, some more creamy, some have a stronger anise taste. After a few drinks, we took a short and snowy car ride to the Nachtschatten Verlag warehouse, where all of their books are stored. There is a special room dedicated solely to the Sandoz LSD and psilocybin archives. Nearly every research paper and article published from 1943 (when the psychoactive effects of LSD were discovered), until 1986 (when collecting was discontinued), has been retained and catalogued: there are thousands of documents. (The few dozen articles I skimmed appeared to demonstrate the generally benign nature of LSD, and its lack of physical harm when ingested in the microgram doses at which it’s psychoactive.) Like leather-bound books in a rustic library, hardcover binders were neatly shelved and labeled: LSD 1943–1953, LSD 1953–1963, etc. But all of their contents had been stripped and reinserted into black vinyl three-ring binders, aligned on the shelf below. During 2001–2002, while preparing the papers for scanning and posting to the web (see www.erowid.org/references/hofmann_collection.php), the Erowids painstakingly removed the papers from their decaying original binders. When I opened one of the empty hardback binders, all that was left were these long oneinch strips that had previously held the papers in place, as if a stack of blotter papers had gone missing. A friend yelled out, “Look! Somebody ate all the acid!” Later that evening we went to a private dinner party at an amazing traditional Swiss restaurant. I found Swiss food to be divine. It’s a cross between the German heavy meat-and-potatoes plate and the sauce-oriented French dishes, but artfully presented like California cuisine. They kept serving unique courses on oddly shaped THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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platters all night. One dish was a savory horsemeat appetizer. Now I know what happens to Swiss horses when they go out to pasture. On the last night of the conference, a group of us sat around the hotel lobby until 4:00 am; too tired to talk, but unwilling to say farewell. We get to see this smart group of people once or twice a year, so none of us wanted to miss spending any moments together. Who knew when we’d be together again in one place; Burning Man, perhaps? My travelling companion and I were among the last ones to leave Basel, staying on a few days past the end of the conference. It was sad to say good-bye to everyone and watch the numbers dwindle down to the two of us. I wanted to spend my final evening as a tribute to Dr. Hofmann’s famous bicycle ride in 1943. So on a dose of about 100 micrograms each, we watched the Alps melt and we painted the town red… and yellow, and purple paisleys. — João Serro

 With a sort of “car wreck/rubberneck” mentality, I am always fascinated by security procedures when crossing borders. Flying into the Miami airport, on my return from Jamaica, there was an escalator stretching down into the baggage claim area. From the top I could see a cop with a dog at the bottom. I don’t know if he was trained to sniff for bombs or for drugs, but that lengthy escalator ride sure could cause any mule to break out in a sweat. I made sure to pet the pooch in a friendly manner—“Gooood doggie!”—as I passed by (thankfully, without anything illegal on my person). On my way to Switzerland, my first customs stop was in Germany. Stepping through the metal detector, the heavy zippers on my boots set off the alarm, and I was gruffly scuttled aside for the most personal frisking I can recall ever having experienced by a stranger. (The same thing happened on my return through Germany.) But in Switzerland itself? I can’t say that I have ever entered a more laid-back country in my life.

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The thing is, everybody loves the Swiss. The cheese! The chocolate! The finely crafted watches! Not to mention their handy Army knives! As a landlocked country surrounded by mountainous barriers, with a tradition of being a neutral safehaven (while wars exploded around them), people just aren’t going to fuck with the Swiss. Plus, military duty is obligatory for all male citizens 18–40, which means that every home is likely to have a gun in it somewhere. I mean seriously, even a criminally inclined person isn’t going to wreak havoc on a country that houses much of the world’s ill-gotten loot. God bless anonymous Swiss bank accounts. And so, when travelling into what may well be the safest country in the world, there was no one at all who seemed to want to search my bags. My passport was only given a cursory flip open and shut, and the security person didn’t even glance up to look at my face or ask me anything. (On my way out of the country, the person checking my passport merely released a grunt and didn’t even open it—I’m not kidding.) Ah, to live somewhere where there is no fabricated fear of terrorism! Crossing the border back into the United States took me at least fifteen minutes, as security x-rayed my boots and bags, pawed through my photography and computer gear (requiring me to turn on everything), swabbed my belongings with explosive-powder-detecting wipes, patted me down and wanded me, and then made me stand in a tiny room where jets of air were blown onto me with the surrounding air then analyzed to determine if any traces of explosive powder might be on my clothes. (I hate to think what sort of treatment I might have gotten if I was wearing an Emi Koyama “Suspected Terrorist” button.) As all this was happening, a wave of grief washed over me as I saw a mother explaining to her daughter—who looked about the same age as my own sixyear-old girl—why it was that the strange security man would be touching her body to keep America safe. Both of my mom’s parents hailed from Switzerland. Mom, however, was born here in the United States. Alas, she never applied to retain her Swiss citizenship before she turned twenty-two, leaving me with little choice but to remain an

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Top to bottom: (left to right) Dr. HOFMANN, EARTH EROWID, ROBERT FORTE, CHARLES S. GROB, JON HANNA (photo by FIRE EROWID); CHRISTIAN RÄTSCH, WOLF-DIETER STORL; H.R. GIGER, Dr. HOFMANN, STAN GROF; (photo by CARMEN SCHEIFELE); WERNER PIEPER.

American. Prior to the conference, the last time I was in Switzerland I was seven years old, visiting relatives. It hasn’t changed much. I got to Basel a few days before the conference, in order to attend a birthday party for Albert Hofmann held at the Museum of Cultures. Late night, the evening before the party, I walked the mostly deserted city streets with some friends, stoned and silly, to make sure that we wouldn’t have any trouble finding the museum the next day. When we reached the venue’s door, I suddenly wished that I had brought a few sheets of vanity blotter with me. Broken into single hits, I could have scattered them over the cobblestones at the museum entrance as celebratory confetti. Would those opening the museum in the morning smile, or would they head for a broom? The official ceremony the next day was a who’s who of the entheocognoscenti, with over 200 guests. Even Stanislav Grof— whom Hofmann has called “the godfather of LSD”—made an appearance, despite the fact that he was unable to attend the conference itself. A representative from Novartis (the company created from a 1996 merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy) described the various pharmaceuticals that Hofmann had invented for Sandoz over the years. Several other people gave presentations as well. Alas, the talks were all in German, so I have no idea what was being said. However, I was told later that Albert was touched and surprised when a letter from the head of the Swiss Federal Council was read; President Moritz Leuenberger apparently congratulated Dr. Hofmann on his longevity, thanking him for his contributions that allowed artistic, philosophical, and religious questions to remain alive in the realm of science, and saluting him as a “great researcher of human consciousness.” (It would be hard to imagine Sasha Shulgin ever getting such a letter from President Bush!) Albert said a few words himself—to a standing ovation—and the formal portion of the party ended, leaving us to head over to a larger room for cocktails and socializing. I am happy that I got a chance to meet Dr. Hofmann, who had the patience of a saint and the endurance of a marathon runner to smile and chat with such a long line of old and new friends. When the birthday party wound down, a group of us headed to lunch. Not being able to read the menu, nor knowing what the best regional dish to order might be, I asked a German couple dining with us— Claudia and Christian—what they recommended, and we all ordered the same thing: Zürcher Geschnetzeltes. It turned out to be veal in a white wine cream sauce with mushrooms, and it acted as the first time-travel portal that I would step through via various meals during my stay in Basel. Now, I haven’t eaten veal since—well, I can’t recall since when; perhaps since my older brother described how baby calfs are kept caged in tiny pens. Was that twenty-five years ago? Thirty? In any case, the food in Switzerland repeatedly caused my mind to be flooded with memories from childhood dinners at my THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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From top: PARACELSUS museum: Datura plant depicted in book; Human skull; SYLVIA absorbed (via PHOTOSHOP) into The Spell II (detail; 1974; acrylic on paper/wood); Bottom: Li Room H.R. GIGER MUSEUM (photo by WOLFGANG HOLZ).

grandparents: the bratwurst (alas, probably also made from veal), the rösti (fried potatoes), the cheese fondue with a shot of kirsch. Each meal made me think of things I hadn’t remembered for decades. It was fairly surreal. With our bellies full, we were off to another museum—this one dedicated to Paracelsus. Born about 400 years before Albert Hofmann, Paracelsus was the original Swiss alchemist and pharmacologist. He is known for his famous quote, “All things are poison and nothing without poison; only the dose makes that a thing is not poison.” He is also credited for reintroducing opium into European medicine. The museum was a hodgepodge collection: countless vials of white powders, dried insects, a narwhal horn, a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling, chemistry glassware, books, paintings, and even some human skulls—one of which looked like it had been trepanned. The following day, Alex Grey kindly offered to rent a car and drive some of us to the H.R. Giger Museum. The museum is a few hours from Basel, between Fribourg and Lake Geneva in the town of Gruyères. The ride was filled with enjoyable conversation, learning more from Allyson and Alex about the latest going’s-on with their Chapel of Sacred Mirrors project. The museum is located at the top of a hill, where no cars are allowed to drive. With its snow-covered chalets and breathtaking view of the Alps, the town looked as though it could have been straight out of a Heidi story-book. It was hard to imagine that Gruyères could actually be topped with a building housing the nightmarish visions of the Swiss bad boy of the art world. Did I mention that Dr. Hofmann’s birthday party had a lot of cool folks in attendance? H.R. Giger there. I tapped his shoulder at one point and told

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him, “Nice job with the art,” and he smiled back at me. Rock stars don’t turn me into a giddy schoolgirl, but get me around certain psychedelic chemists or visionary artists, and the suppressed groupie in me starts to surface.

Top to bottom: SYLVIA & ALEX in GIGER BAR; window views from GIGER BAR (photos by WOLFGANG HOLZ).

Without a doubt, Giger is one of the world’s most impressive, innovative, and influential living artists. Perhaps best known for his design work on the Alien movies, Giger’s dark “biomechanical” style has been appropriated as the look for an entire genre of dystopian sci-fi flicks: Star Trek’s borg, I, Robot, and The Matrix, to name just a few. Giger’s art is a perennial favorite among tatoo enthusiasts— one area in which Giger doesn’t mind being ripped off, since these “collectors” are truly dedicated fans. The museum was incredible. Giger has technical mastery over a wide variety of art mediums, equally comfortable with drawing, airbrushing, painting, or sculpting. He’s produced thematic concepts for film, created furniture and architecture, made fashionable watches for Swatch, cast jewelry, and even designed a microphone stand for Jonathan Davis, the singer for Korn. He recently licensed his art for use on a series of Ibanez guitars. Much of Giger’s work is extremely large, and the museum went on and on. It was quite a visual treat to have such an amazing scope of Giger’s work collected in one place. The museum had four levels, with the top floor consisting of Giger’s personal art collection of other incredible artists. (Some of my favorite pieces included works by Arman Armand, Ernst Fuchs, and Joe Coleman.) After being thoroughly blown away, we crossed the street to the Giger Bar—suitably designed with skeletal chairs and ceiling arches—where my friend Sylvia and I had our first taste of Swiss absinthe from a bottle distilled right there in Gruyères. It was somewhat amusing watching the locals, charming little old men, sitting in this hellish watering hole having their afternoon nips. THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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The following day the conference kicked off—and what a conference it was! Undoubtedly the largest psychedelic symposium that has ever been held, it drew attendees and presenters from all over the world, including a large American contingent. Over 2000 folks were present at what Michael Horowitz has described as “the ‘Woodstock’ of psychedelic conferences.” And indeed, there was a palpable sense of being present at a history-making event. Along with putting us speakers up in the swankiest hotel I have ever had the pleasure to stay in, the hotel was directly connected to the humongous conference center. Concurrent presentations were held in multiple rooms, forever too much to soak in or possibly see, but a wonderful assortment of choices to sample. Many of the speakers were oldsters from the 1960s, sharing humorous personal anecdotes and whimsical stories about interactions with famous bands like Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead. The main lobby was filled to the brim with visionary art, cultural memorabilia, a smart bar, and a bounty of vendor booths. (One booth was selling sealed glass ampoules—reminiscent of the vials that Sandoz LSD used to come in—filled with ergot. An attached booklet explained that LSD was produced from this starting material. It was the ultimate conference memento for the drug geek schwag collector.) No conference that I have ever been to (including my own), has been as well-produced as this event was. Everything ran on schedule. The latest conference tech was available to presenters and attendees alike. I was pleased to notice a screen monitor for presenters next to the podium, negating the need to strain my neck to view images from the gigantic screen in the main hall while I was giving my presentation on hallucinatory animation. And that screen, that screen, that wonderful screen! Split images were projected onto it, so that folks could see a presenter’s PowerPoint slides along with a towering live head-shot of the presenter, which was being filmed and projected simultaneously. With the real-time movie-style presentation, there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. Many (if not most) of the presentations given in the main hall had concurrent translations into either English or German, which were made available on radio-controlled headsets to anyone in the audience. I was pleased to see that—with the headphone attachment removed—a simple mini-jack cord allowed the translator unit to be plugged into my video camera, letting me record the translation for those talks presented in German. (Unfortunately, the organization officially recording the event didn’t tape any of the translations, making me even happier that I had discovered the tech-hack for those German talks that I taped.)

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During the opening ceremonies, two nuns flanked the entrance to the main hall, handing out religious literature. Sister Sara Tonin of the Perpetual Cosmic Disorder and Church of Trick slapped a small Chemical Salvation? booklet into the hand of a friend as we passed into the auditorium. The booklet, a history of LSD with a spiritual bent, was a parody of Jack Chick’s Christian comic tracts. A stack of these came in handy later, when my buddy João and I went outside the conference hall to engage a group of Scientologists who were protesting the event. Following a short interview (see www.entheogenreview.com/cchr.html), there was a literature exchange. They gave us their propaganda; we gave them ours. Psychedelic researcher Charles S. Grob, M.D. remarked to me later that if Scientologists are protesting LSD enthusiasts, then that surely must be evidence that we’ve practically become “the establishment.” As usually is the case for me at such events, I ended up spending much more time catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, than I did attending talks. Additionally, being sucked into the Halperngate controversy (see page 9) consumed an abundance of my time. So I am perhaps not the best source for details about who said what in the official program. Thankfully, many of the talks are available for purchase on CD or DVD (see www.lsd.info), so I hope to someday catch a bit of what I missed. There is really no way that I could say enough good things about this conference, which was presented with elegance and style. Knowing how stressed out and short-tempered I can get at my own events, I was even more impressed with the smiling, calm, unharried, always-attentive conference producer Dieter Hagenbach. His demeanor will forevermore be the mental example I’ll call upon when I begin to freak out under the pressures of Mind States productions. The other Wonder Drug producers, Lucius Werthmüller and Michael Gasser, and their assistant Angela Consigli, were equally composed and gracious hosts. Lucius interviewed doc Hofmann at several points during the event, and Michael orchestrated the massive conference bookstore, which was a central hub for the 2000+ customers who attended the event. Angela quickly and cheerfully answered any questions that I had throughout the event, and even asked that my animation presentation be shown a second time for those who might have missed the first screening, which I was happy to oblige. Congratulations to everyone at the Gaia Media Foundation for a job amazingly well done. I can’t imagine that Dr. Hofmann has ever before had a birthday party quite like this one. — Jon Hanna

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Halperngate by Jon Hanna

On January 13, 2006, at the LSD conference in Basel, Mark McCloud interrupted a lecture by John Halpern, accusing him of acting as a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, and revealing that Halpern was an informant on multiple occasions during investigations for the case of United States of America vs. William Leonard Pickard and Clyde Apperson (i.e., the Kansas “missile silo bust”). The following article attempts to address some salient points in what has been called “Halperngate”: the widening circle of shock and recrimination following the incident in Switzerland. Dr. Halpern is the associate director of substance abuse research at Harvard University’s McLean Hospital. He has had a strong interest in psychedelic drugs since the early 1990s. He worked under Dr. Rick Strassman on the University of New Mexico Medical School’s infamous DMT study. He’s published on the topics of psychedelics in addiction treatment, the beneficial uses of peyote by Native American Church members, and the effects of MDMA on memory. Future studies he hopes to spearhead at Harvard include the use of MDMA to treat anxiety related to terminal cancer, and the use of LSD or psilocybin to treat cluster headaches. His work in this field has been supported in part by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Before the LSD conference, John Halpern’s role as a “Cooperating Witness” for the DEA in the missile silo bust was not common knowledge in the wider psychedelic community, despite it having been peripherally mentioned in a couple of mainstream news articles. For reasons that are both understandable and problematic, neither Halpern nor Rick Doblin of MAPS made any public statement regarding Halpern’s role in the case. However, according to Doblin, all of MAPS’ major donors were aware of Halpern’s past

cooperation with the DEA. (Accordingly, one such donor restricted his funds to non-Halpern-related research.) And some individuals took it upon themselves to let other community members know, on an informal basis, that Halpern had acted as a snitch. While Doblin’s viewpoint was that most people who needed to know about Halpern’s past had been informed, the volatile reaction erupting in Basel when this news was more widely spread suggests that the larger community does not share Doblin’s opinion. With McCloud’s address, the ad hoc containment of Halpern’s sordid past was shattered. Emotions are surging, rumors are roiling, and a few falsehoods have been flying about. The only solution is a public acknowledgment of the truth, at least as much as is possible for fuzzyheaded humans. Other than some terse comments in Basel, Halpern JOHN HALPERN has not said anything in public about this situation. He may not have spoken of the matter because his agreement with the DEA may require him to remain silent; perhaps he may be re-interviewed in the future to provide additional information related to the bust (particularly if there is another appeal hearing). Doblin has said that Halpern has been unwilling to publicly address the topic on the advice of his attorneys. Had Halpern’s role as a Cooperating Witness for the DEA been dealt with in a more forthright manner at an earlier date, the drama in Basel and afterwards might have been avoided.

THE BUST On November 6, 2000, Clyde Apperson was arrested, and the following day William Leonard Pickard was arrested. Both men were charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, and dispense LSD (Travis 2000). Regardless of the extent to which these men were involved with the set-up

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of an LSD laboratory or any actual LSD production, it is clear that the owner of the missile silo where the lab equipment was stored—Gordon Todd Skinner—set them up for a fall. As a DEA “Confidential Source” (a.k.a. “Confidential Informant”), with immunity from prosecution despite his own involvement in illegal drug production, Skinner ratted out Apperson and Pickard, spending nine days on the stand testifying against the two men (Fry 2003). Apperson and Pickard were found guilty on March 31, 2003. On November 25, 2003, Apperson was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment without parole and Pickard was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole (DEA 2003).




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Pharmacology of Hallucinogens,” featuring talks by John Halpern, David E. Nichols, and Alexander T. Shulgin. At this event, Halpern approached Nichols and Shulgin and made a vague and general apology to them. Neither Nichols nor Shulgin was clear at the time what it was that Halpern was sorry about (Doblin 2006-b; Nichols 2006). Another one of Halpern’s friends from the late 1990s and year 2000, Alfred Savinelli, was also at least peripherally involved in the missile silo operations. Via his incense business, Savinelli supplied solvents and glassware to Pickard in order to repay a business loan. Shortly after the bust, Savinelli and his girlfriend each received phone calls from Halpern. At the time, Savinelli suspected that the phone calls were being recorded, and this feeling was later bolstered by information regarding Halpern’s cooperation with the DEA that Savinelli received. However, Savinelli has told The Entheogen Review that he has no hard evidence that the calls were taped. Around this same time, Savinelli also received a suspicious call from Gordon Todd Skinner, whom he hadn’t spoken with for several years (Savinelli 2006).

Part of Halpern’s cooperation with the DEA required him to surreptitiously tape-record phone conversations…

Prior to the bust, John Halpern and Leonard Pickard were friends; Halpern considered Pickard to be a “father figure” (Unattributed 2000; Rosenfeld 2001). The extent of Halpern’s involvement in any LSD production scheme—if he was involved at all—is unknown. What is known is that Halpern accepted at least $319,000 [$20,000 in Summer 1996; $100,000 in January 1998; $50,000 in February 1999; $49,000 in May or June 1999; $100,000 between September and October 1999] in cash from Pickard (Unattributed 2000; Fry 2003; Halpern 2006). There has been speculation that Pickard may have been paying Halpern for his involvement in helping to have money laundered (Unattributed 2000; Rosenfeld 2001). Whether due to his own involvement in the lab, laundering money, DEA threats of conspiracy charges, or simply from a fear of losing his medical license and/or his standing at Harvard, Halpern chose to cooperate with the DEA’s investigation. He made himself available for ongoing interviews, signing a total of nine DEA reports from December 4, 2000 through May 17, 2002 (Nora Lyon & Associates, Inc. n.d.). The DEA is said to have seized some of Halpern’s past e-mails (Doblin 2006-a); the names that were on any seized correspondence are unknown, although the accusation made in Basel stated that Albert Hofmann and Sasha Shulgin were among those whose e-mails were obtained by the DEA. On May 16, 2001 (post-bust, but pre-trial), the MIT Faculty Club produced a “Mini-Symposium on the Chemistry and

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In January of 2001, Savinelli got an anonymous phone call directing him to a local coffee shop. Savinelli arrived to find only a cup of coffee and a sealed envelope with his name written on it. Inside the envelope were two documents: summaries of the initial interview that Halpern had with the DEA, and an interview that a Confidential Source (presumably Skinner) had with the DEA. An anonymous cover letter suggested that it would be best for Savinelli if he left the country. Savinelli speculates that the information came via an agent of Pickard. In viewing the transcript summaries, Savinelli concluded that, far from being a peripheral actor in Pickard’s doings, he was being set up by Halpern as the fall guy. Shortly after obtaining these documents, Savinelli received a subpoena dated January 18, 2001, ordering him to appear in San Francisco before the grand jury on February 22, 2001. Concerned that he was being fingered for a level of involvement that he did not possess, Savinelli cooperated by providing approximately four hours of testimony for the prosecution during the trial.

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Part of Halpern’s cooperation with the DEA required him to surreptitiously tape-record phone conversations with some of his associates who were suspected of having some involvement in the missile silo case. Presumably this occurred at one or more points during the near year-and-a-half that he was signing interview reports for the DEA. According to Doblin, Halpern has stated that no aboveground researchers were ever recorded, and none of the people recorded were ever charged with crimes (Doblin 2006-a). Who was recorded, and the number of recordings made, has not been revealed. How damning was Halpern’s cooperation with the DEA? This is impossible to determine without having access to his signed statements and without knowing the terms of his agreement with the DEA. To date, no one has been willing to provide that information. When art historian Mark McCloud addressed Halpern in Basel, he read from a seven-point list that he had been anonymously given at the event. Describing how Halpern had cooperated with the DEA’s case against Pickard, the list disturbingly implied the possibility that Halpern might currently be leaking information to the DEA. Since McCloud had not heard about Halpern’s past before receiving the document, he checked with several other people at the conference before going public. Was the information on the seven-point list true? The answer he got from those who knew about Halpern’s past was that the list was more-or-less accurate. One problem in attempting to nail down which parts are “more” accurate, and which parts are “less” accurate, is that John Halpern has largely remained quiet on the issues, other than appearing to use the presumably inaccurate parts and his recent unrelated aboveground research as a blanket denial for everything. At the conference, Halpern stated: “If half of what was said was true, probably—if half of it was even true—I’d bet there would be a lot of people who actually did know this. I’m doing work.” (To which someone in the audience scathingly quipped, “They’re doing life!”) Unfortunately, it seems as though more than half of what the list presents is true. But it is also now clear that some of the points made on the list are incorrect. (A video clip depicting a portion of the exchange in Basel between Mark McCloud, John Halpern, and Rick Doblin, and related documents, can be located via a link at www.erowid.org/halpern_john.)




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THE LIST AND COMMENTARY ON ITS POINTS Re: John Halpern 1.) Within 2 weeks of the 2000 laboratory seizure, Halpern had negotiated complete immunity from prosecution in exchange for his cooperation with the government. This immunity agreement extends through any time in the future where his services or testimony may be required, e.g. at retrial. Exactly when Halpern made his deal with the DEA is unknown, but since the bust was November 6 and Halpern’s first signed statement was December 4, it happened in less than a month. Halpern apparently received a “proffer agreement” from the government, due to his help as a Cooperating Witness (Savinelli 2006). A proffer agreement is not nearly as comfortable as a total “immunity agreement.” (For more on the distinction between a proffer agreement and an immunity agreement, see: http://library.findlaw.com/2005/ Feb/21/138691.html.) While Halpern has stated that he currently has no immunity from future prosecution (Halpern 2006), Doblin has indicated that this would only be true if Halpern refuses to cooperate in the unlikely event of any future trial related to the missile silo case. If that were the situation, then Halpern would risk being charged for any past crimes for which he had secured immunity from prosecution due to his cooperation (Doblin 2006-c). 2.) After receiving complete immunity and agreeing to act as a government witness at trial, Halpern was interviewed at length by DEA, personally signing his interview reports at the conclusions of at least nine meetings with DEA in Boston and San Francisco on December 4, 2000; December 8, 2000; February 26, 2001; March 28, 2001; April 17, 2001; July 31, 2001; September, 2001; May 31, 2001; and May 17, 2002 (see attached transcript, p. 1389–1390, quoting the prosecutor and defense counsel). Halpern did provide signed interview reports in cooperation with the DEA and he agreed to take the stand if called. It also appears that he was not charged with any crime himself. 3.) The government forced the defense attorneys to photograph the reports of Halpern rather than providing photocopies (p. 1390 ln 17).

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This seems true based on the conversations reflected in the court transcripts (Nora Lyon & Associates, Inc. n.d.). 4.) At the interviews, Halpern cooperated in great detail, even to the point of discussing a shoplifting episode by his wife some years earlier and referring DEA agents to other researchers and individuals. In copies provided to The Entheogen Review by Savinelli of a summary transcript from Halpern’s first interview report, nine individuals were mentioned by name (Unattributed 2000). We have no idea if the salacious, irrelevant point of a shoplifting episode by his wife was brought up to the DEA, but it is clear that Halpern did cooperate in great detail. 5.) During this period, according to reports released by the government, Halpern also: a.) privately tape-recorded his telephone conversations with numerous individuals about the seizure and provided these tape-recordings to his controlling DEA agents. According to Rick Doblin, Halpern has admitted that he surreptitiously taped some phone conversations. b.) complained to DEA agents about not being reimbursed for the cost of the tape recorder.




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any DEA review of the grant would meet with no objection as long as he continues to cooperate under the terms of his immunity agreement. It is true that the extent of Halpern’s continuing cooperation remains unknown. Halpern did not receive a government grant for LSD research; presumably this point meant to refer to his $1.8 million grant for MDMA research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). It is highly unlikely (and counter to the safeguards established to prevent political interference in the awarding of NIDA research grants) that any agreement that Halpern had/has with the DEA would influence what grants are awarded by NIDA. 7.) Halpern was not required to testify at trial, although subpoenaed by the government to be on notice to testify. Some months after the defendants were sentenced to life and 30-year sentences, Halpern received his LSD grant from the government. It is true that Halpern did not testify at the trial. On May 29, 2003—two days before Pickard and Apperson were found guilty—Halpern submitted his grant application to study MDMA (not LSD) to NIDA. The grant was approved by NIDA in late September of 2004 (Doyle 2004), about ten months after Pickard and Apperson were sentenced. While the chronology in point #7 is correct, the implication that Halpern’s cooperation with the DEA influenced his receiving a grant from NIDA is, again, highly unlikely.

No idea if this is true, but it is perhaps not relevant either way. c.) provided DEA with all emails between himself and Albert Hofmann, Sasha Shulgin, and other researchers. It has been suggested by Dieter Hagenbach, producer of the LSD conference in Basel, that Albert Hofmann has no e-mail address (Doblin 2006-a), so that portion of the assertion made above must be incorrect. The statement has been made that the DEA seized Halpern’s e-mails (Doblin 2006-a); if such a seizure happened against Halpern’s will, then it must have occurred prior to him agreeing to cooperate with the DEA. In any case, the DEA did obtain some of Halpern’s e-mails, and that correspondence may have included messages with some researchers. 6.) The extent of his continuing cooperation remains unknown at this time, but he is still under the immunity agreement and will be indefinitely. It is unknown if his grant for LSD research was influenced by these events, although

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WHY DOES MAPS SUPPORT HALPERN? Following Mark McCloud’s outburst in Basel, Rick Doblin justified his decision to have MAPS work with Halpern, remarking to the crowd gathered at the conference: “I had an opportunity to speak to Leonard from inside prison. And I spoke to him on the phone and I said, ‘Leonard, what do you think about MAPS working with John, working to try and develop psychedelic research?’ And he said that he understood what we were trying to do and that he was supportive of our efforts. So that, for me, was sufficient.” Doblin has expressed his hope that folks, particularly those involved with the psychotherapeutic community, might give Halpern a second chance and consider the good work that he is currently doing. Yet even if it is true that Pickard publicly supports a MAPS/Halpern collaboration, and despite

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Doblin’s admirable stance on the possibilities of forgiveness and redemption, it is clear that the larger community still has problems with this arrangement. First, it was not only Pickard who was hurt by Halpern’s cooperation with the DEA; there are others who feel personally burned by Halpern, even though they did not end up in prison. One person affected clearly does not want to revisit this situation, yet he remarked, “It’s a long road from hubris through humiliation to humility.” Halpern’s former friend, Alfred Savinelli, was willing to speak up in more detail, despite the obvious pain that discussing his memories caused him. Savinelli has stated that his own son basically had a nervous breakdown due to Halpern’s actions. And as for himself, Savinelli has remarked, “John Halpern ruined my life.” (For more about the effect that Halpern’s cooperation with the DEA had on Savinelli, see Erik Davis’ “The Bad Shaman Meets the Wayward Doc” at www.tripzine.com/listing.php?id=650.) Second, it is clear that one way in which underground societies protect themselves is by maintaining specifically tailored ethical norms. Such norms provide a basis for the society to remain healthy. Within a society focused on illicit drugs, it might be said that the golden rule is “thou shalt not snitch.” Snitching is a big deal, and a snitch’s actions in the past have consequences in the future. Any person’s total emotional rejection of a snitch, which is clearly a commonplace reaction, is an entirely fair initial response when one considers the need to sustain subcultural mores. Third, there is the concern that Halpern could still be providing the DEA with information that results in future arrests. Even if this concern is unwarranted, there is the worry that history could repeat itself; if Halpern’s past response under pressure was to protect himself at the expense of others, he might do the same again in the future. Those involved in underground activities should always practice discretion in their conversations. But without knowing about Halpern’s past work as a Cooperating Witness for the DEA, and only knowing of him through his association with the pro-psychedelic organization MAPS, some lessthan-cautious individuals could implicate themselves or others in Halpern’s presence. Such opportunities have been more likely during those times when Halpern has intimately mingled with the underground community, such as at the recent LSD conference in Basel, or at Burning Man, where Halpern has worked in the Sanctuary psychedelic crisis tent.




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Among those members of the psychedelic community who have now heard of Halpern’s checkered past, there has been a wide range of responses. A minority have expressed their support for Doblin’s decision to work with Halpern. Many feel they need to withhold judgment until they learn more details about what Halpern told the DEA, and the extent to which he may still be required to report back to that agency. Some have expressed the feeling that, before they would even consider forgiving Halpern’s past and supporting his present or future work, they would need him to personally admit to exactly what he did do. Or at the very least, they would need him to actually ask to be forgiven—something that to date has not happened, and which appears unlikely to happen. Still others are entirely opposed to MAPS’ association with Halpern. Those who have had their own legal trouble—or who have been close to people who have had legal trouble—have characteristically been less forgiving of snitchery. Some have stated that they will not renew their MAPS memberships, in protest of the Halpern connection. In a community of outlaws who know that their safety could be tripped up at a moment’s notice by one “friend” who wishes to save his or her own skin, trust is the most precious commodity. Undoubtedly there are some people who feel that Doblin/MAPS has broken that trust by not being more forthcoming about Halpern’s past. So far as the issue of funding goes, Doblin has stated: “If anyone who has donated to MAPS wants their money back because they feel I violated their trust because of our work with John, they can have it. Just ask me” (Doblin 2006-d). Doblin is clearly trying to do the right thing with regard to MAPS’ supporters, although some may feel as though money is not the main issue at hand. Doblin’s stated position about why he has not more widely spread the details of Halpern’s past is that such an action could be detrimental to the prospect of getting approval for future research involving Halpern. There’s no good way of informing the larger underground psychedelic community without also notifying those organizations opposed to such research, or those mainstream media sources who could stir up bad publicity. Doblin also considers Halpern to be a friend, and he does not view him as being a current threat to anyone in the underground community. Of course, many (if not most) people are not comfortable with Doblin making that call for them. Two questions have repeatedly come up from those opposed to MAPS working with Halpern: 1) Why can’t some other researcher at Harvard do these studies? and 2) Why must

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this research happen at Harvard? To the first question, Doblin has answered, “I know of no other Harvard doctors interested in conducting psychedelic research.” As far as the second question goes, the answer involves the prestige gained by having this work conducted at the oldest institute of higher learning in the United States. It would also be a symbolic triumph for the psychedelic movement to restart such studies at Harvard, which hasn’t hosted psychedelic research since 1965. It would signal what Doblin calls “the beginning of the post-Leary era.” Considering the concerns of the larger psychedelic community, Doblin’s controversial choice to work with Halpern has been hotly debated over the past three months. Many feel that MAPS should cut all ties to Halpern, particularly if no additional information on the topic is forthcoming. Not one who likes being told what to do, Doblin dug in his feet and strongly defended his decision to work with Halpern in several messages posted to a clandestine e-mailing list.

In order for the MDMA treatment of anxiety from terminal cancer study and the LSD/psilocybin treatment for cluster headache study to go forward, MAPS had two options: 1) Move the studies to another university, which would likely require finding different researchers to run them, or 2) Withdraw MAPS’ official support for the studies, allowing them to continue at Harvard, pending Gorman’s approval and necessitating other sources of funding.




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Doblin’s decision was to withdraw MAPS as the funding organization and attempt to persuade Gorman that the studies should be continued at Harvard without MAPS’ involvement (provided that funding can be raised from some less controversial source). This approach seems to have worked: Gorman has agreed to allow Halpern to continue his psychedelic work at Harvard sans MAPS. Although an unintended consequence, this approach also appears to largely get Doblin “off the hook” from those who feel that MAPS should not associate with Halpern.

If Halpern wishes to continue research in this field, he owes it to everyone on both sides to cut his ties to the underground.

Ironically, the underground community may have found an unlikely ally who also supports a split between MAPS and Halpern—albeit not for reasons related to protecting the future of those involved with illicit activities. The new president of McLean Hospital, Dr. Jack M. Gorman, recently decided that he would not allow any psychedelic research to go forward at Harvard if it was funded by MAPS. Gorman, author of The Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs (among other publications), is apparently not a fan of Doblin, and he objects to MAPS’ pro-legalization stance.

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Slogging through the various opinions, misunderstandings, and emotional responses to this charged topic has not been easy for me. It has repeatedly revealed the difficulty and frustrations that can be involved in effective communication. Although I do not agree with Doblin’s choice to work with Halpern, I do admire his commitment to the ideal of redemption and his loyalty to his friend.

With Halpern conducting research at Harvard, it may be that—at some point in the future—his past actions will still have a negative impact on how this work is viewed in the court of public opinion. When results from his controversial studies are published, mainstream news media may again dig into the salacious details of Halpern’s history, casting a shadow on the research results.

Halpern’s past association with figures in the underground had a high price when he decided to cooperate with the DEA. To keep his job at Harvard, and/or to stay out of prison, Halpern betrayed his friends. This incident shows how important it may be for responsible aboveground researchers to limit their contact with the underground. If Halpern wishes to continue research in this field, he owes it to everyone on both sides to cut his ties to the underground. Without any knowledge of illicit activities, he poses little threat. A single positive result from recent discussions is that Halpern will not be attending Burning Man in 2006. At a time when MAPS plans to celebrate its 20-year anniversary

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by holding a psychedelic conference at Burning Man, there are speakers who have decided that they wouldn’t present talks at this event if Halpern was in attendance. Many members of the underground community are not yet willing to extend their trust to Halpern, regardless of the actual risks (or lack thereof ) that he may pose. If Halpern continues to keep his distance from those in the underground, if he can realize how important it is to this community that he doesn’t frequent events geared toward heads, maybe someday he might regain their respect for his aboveground work.  My sincere thanks go out to ERIK DAVIS, EARTH EROWID, ALFRED SAVINELLI, MARK MCCLOUD, WILL BEIFUSS, and BLAKE HANNA, for their support and input on this article. For more details on the missile silo bust, see the articles: ROSENFELD, S. 2001. “William Pickard’s Long, Strange Trip: Suspected LSD trail leads from the Bay Area’s psychedelics era to a missile silo in Kansas,” San Francisco Chronicle (June 20); WILKINSON, P. 2001. “The Acid King,” Rolling Stone Magazine (Issue 872, July 5); as well as the many articles that appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal, locatable via a web search; and the book Lysergic by K.A. COLE (DOG EAR PUBLISHING, 2005).

I shared a draft of this article with Rick Doblin and John Halpern, inviting them to comment. Halpern was unwilling to provide any written response for publication. Doblin’s March 22, 2006 response is printed below. In this response, Doblin suggests the possibility that my article may have factual errors, and that the individuals cited in my article “have their own biases and agendas.” It is true that everyone has their own biases and agendas, including Doblin and Halpern. However, while it is possible that some data presented is in error, I have done my best to report the facts of this tale as accurately as possible. Both Doblin and Halpern were given every opportunity to correct any errors of fact. The remaining disputes about content primarily relate to whether the article leaves the wrong impression about Halpern’s past actions or downplays the involvement of others in the missile silo case. This article was never meant to be a deep investigation of that case. Rather, it looks at the issue of a key MAPS-supported researcher who was accused of cooperating with the DEA, betraying his friends to save himself, and then essentially remaining silent on the issue. — Jon Hanna

RICK DOBLIN RESPONDS I’m writing to respond to criticisms of my decisions to have MAPS 1) work with Dr. John Halpern at all, and 2) work with John yet not publicize the fact that he cooperated with DEA in the missile silo case, and 3) work with John “in the field” at Burning Man and other events, thereby causing




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some people to feel that they were put at personal risk of being informed upon to legal authorities. I will briefly respond to these criticisms, concluding by mentioning the research that MAPS and John have worked on together, so that my decision to work with John can be more comprehensively evaluated. To begin, I believe in the principle of accepting whatever punishment may unfortunately come one’s way for being involved in any way with the manufacture, distribution, and/or use of illegal drugs, rather than cooperating with the authorities and giving them information about others. Clearly, John did not act according to this principle. However, I also believe in the principles of forgiveness and redemption. We should not all be defined by what we have done during our weakest moments; to be so limited would be a tragic waste of human potential. After John’s cooperation with DEA began, I saw that he was motivated even more than before to work to end the suppression of scientific research with psychedelics, despite such research potentially being met with disapproval by DEA. John is a highly trained physician/researcher with a healthy measure of courage. I saw that he was committed to proceeding with integrity and an unwavering allegiance to the scientific method, to designing research with rigorous methodologies and then following the data wherever it leads. Also, John was uniquely positioned at Harvard to make progress that nobody else was willing to even attempt. I therefore decided that MAPS would begin working closely with John on trying to pull back the veil of ignorance related to psychedelics that DEA and the Prohibitionists seek to sustain to maximize the effectiveness of their fear-based messages, exaggerating risks and denying benefits. In retrospect, I continue to believe this decision to work together was correct, as evidenced by John’s expanding research. Did MAPS have a responsibility to highlight, promote, or publicize John’s prior cooperation with DEA? At first, this was common knowledge, or so it seemed after the media articles came out. But, as time went by, many people came into this field who had no knowledge of John’s history, and some people whom I thought would have known all along informed me that they had missed the media articles and ensuing discussions, or had forgotten about them. Since I knew that John’s involvement with DEA was limited to some of the people associated with Pickard, I didn’t feel it was my responsibility to proactively let everybody else

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know about John’s past. I realize that other people had fewer windows into John’s activities than I did, and I should have taken that more fully into account. I also feared that the more such information was publicly available on an ongoing basis, the more that it could be used by opponents of John’s research to create controversy to try to stop us from conducting our studies. Unfortunately, I was correct that this information would be used in that way, since an opponent of John’s recently wrote to the McLean administration in what seemed to be an attempt to damage John’s career (regardless of whether that stopped the research). Fortunately, John has always been open about his situation with the McLean administration. As a result, this issue had already been addressed and John’s research is still moving forward. I now see that my fear of the consequences of having this information be more available to all concerned was mistaken, and that much fear, misinformation, and distrust could have been avoided if I had emphasized transparency, which is a guiding principle for MAPS. Did MAPS place other people at legal risk when John participated with the support of MAPS at Burning Man and other events? John is not a DEA agent or source for any investigative agency. Nevertheless, some people say that they will always consider John a risk. I do not. My evidence is that nobody who John has encountered at Burning Man or other conferences or events has gotten in trouble as a result of these encounters. Nor do I think anyone ever will. Yet reasonable people can have differing opinions. To encourage a period of calm reflection, I have asked John not to join us this year at Burning Man. I first invited John to Burning Man to have the substantial benefit of his medical expertise, and to offer him the training of peers and mentors also working at Sanctuary. I feel his presence working at Sanctuary has been instrumental in helping to make our efforts there a success and has been of substantial benefit to him personally. Nevertheless, I realize that other people who knew about John’s past—but were without the multiple sources of information that I had available—felt more at risk, and that some people who learned recently of John’s history feel they should have been made aware at a sooner date. To those of you who feel this way, I apologize. This report by Jon Hanna provides information that will now be permanently available. However, I would caution people to not automatically conclude that the report is accurate in all respects, since the sources for Jon’s report also have their own biases and agendas.

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MAPS is proud to have supported the research efforts of Dr. John Halpern over the past five years, having donated over $94,500 to date to McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School. The work that MAPS and John have collaborated on includes: 1) Research into the neuropsychological consequences of the use of peyote by members of the Native American Church (no neurocognitive problems were found), 2) Research into the neuropsychological consequences of the use of Ecstasy (supposedly but frequently not MDMA) that has led to a $1.8 million five-year NIDA grant to Dr. Halpern for the most methodologically well-designed study ever conducted into this issue (a pilot study found no effects in subjects with 50 exposures or fewer, minimal effects in heavier users), 3) A fully-approved study of the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in subjects suffering from anxiety associated with advanced-stage cancer (study to start soon), and 4) In association with Dr. Andrew Sewell, who John arranged to work at McLean Hospital, a case report series of people who have used LSD or psilocybin to treat cluster headaches (a paper about the case report series has been accepted for publication and the protocol for a planned clinical trial has been developed). MAPS has now ended all further direct financial support for John’s research, although this has not occurred because I feel it is important for MAPS to sever connections with John. Rather, it is because McLean Hospital administrators feel that it is important for them to sever connections with MAPS, in part because of our stance against Prohibition, and in part so that the research that John and Andrew are conducting won’t be dismissed as biased. This strikes me as incredibly ironic. I hope over time that MAPS’ scientific integrity will enable the McLean administration to feel comfortable with MAPS renewing its formal support for John’s research. I also hope that the psychedelic community will come to see that the risks from MAPS’ working with John that have been feared have not materialized and will appreciate the benefits that flow from John’s research. What is even more difficult to assess are the risks of not trying boldly to restart psychedelic research in these turbulent times. Those are the risks that I am unwilling to accept. — Rick Doblin, PhD, MAPS

Editor’s Note: On March 28, 2006, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sentences against Leonard Pickard and Clyde Apperson. See www.cjonline.com/ stories/032906/loc_lsd.shtml.

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 1




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Ayahuasca Healing and an Inkling of Darkness: Part Two by Peter Gorman

Healing and a Hint of Evil On the home front back in New York, things were hard. The building we had all lived in was being torn down to make room for a luxury apartment house, and we’d moved just two months prior to our trip to Peru. My boys were already adjusting to a new space in a new neighborhood when I returned without their mom. And when, a couple of weeks later, she called to say she’d changed her ticket and moved to Fort Worth to start a new life near her three sisters there, things got really difficult for them. They never dwelt on it, but I’m sure they wondered what I’d done this time to make mom move so far away. At first Marco told me that mom always did this, but would soon return because she couldn’t live without us. But after a couple of months he was wondering if this time was the exception. I did the best I could, but lived with the damned failure every minute of the day. I’d thought that when I’d given up hard liquor two years earlier, that things would change. By this time, with the exception of sheer stupidity that occurred maybe once a week, I was avoiding getting drunk on beer (and when I did, I did my best not to let my Irish temper catch me yelling needlessly). I was working hard at both my family and my writing. I was producing some of the best political material I’d ever done, had new and good connections deep within the U.S. government that supplied me with information no one else had. I was loving my kids to death and calling Madeleina nearly every day. But since I didn’t really know what it was I’d done wrong this time, I couldn’t give my boys an answer or even change anything to make things better for them. That Julio had told me this would happen and that there was nothing I could do was no consolation. That the doctors had told me to give and keep giving and not to expect return was something I worked at, but which didn’t provide me any consolation either. In my mind, and in our lives, I’d just fucked things up to that awful point, and nothing made it easier to bear or understand. In April, four months after she left, I sent the boys out to visit her over their Spring break. In June, out of desperation, I filed a custody suit for my little girl, which forced Chepa to

return to New York for a few days for the hearing. There, it was as if she’d never left and we’d never argued, as if the past three years had never occurred. For three days we laughed and played. There was no animosity at the hearing and we came to terms easily. Madeleina was in heaven with her brothers, as they were to be with her and their mom. But when the weekend was over she didn’t stay. I just wasn’t her life anymore. At the end of July I had a trip lined up. I invited Chepa to come stay with the kids, but she was working and couldn’t, so I brought one of her sisters out again. I hated leaving my boys, but I had to work and was determined to do it well. I arrived three days before my guests, reassembled my crew, and hustled furiously to get things ready. Hammocks were washed and hung out to dry in the Amazon sun. Several new ones were bought in place of those that had gotten a bit shabby. Foam matting, blankets, mosquito nets, jungle boots, kitchen equipment and everything else we’d need was scrutinized and either scrubbed or replaced. Corina, my right-hand man Jonny, and my mother-in-law Lydia, who did the scrutinizing, were also the beneficiaries of what was tossed. So nearly everything had to be purchased new. Halfa-dozen day laborers scrubbed down my bar, since it had been closed for several months. Corina saw to stocking the bar’s fridge with food, and I took care of beer and exotic jungle liquors my guests might want to try. The group that assembled for this trip and the party at my bar that night included Larry, an accountant, who was ready to take on the world; Alan, a seaman looking for an adventure; Brian, a young fellow searching for himself; Angelica, an artist and visionary who was caught between living in France and the southwestern United States; Bonnie, a counselor and a healer in her own right, and Lynn, a former NASA scientist whose software still graces our space shuttles and who had come as a last ditch effort to save his marriage. Over cold beers at the bar we discussed our itinerary and I answered some questions, but before long the gringos in

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Iquitos began to make their appearances. There were several ex-pats, a couple of DEA boys, some oil men, and two DynCorp pilots working coca crop dusting as part of Plan Colombia. Also present were Duke, a former SEAL still wired from Vietnam, and Jake, a former Navy captain living off and on in Iquitos to get healed from incurable kidney cancer. He’d stayed alive years longer than the docs had given him. There were also a dozen tourists who’d heard there was free beer and food, some working girls, a couple of dozen of my Peruvian friends, and most of my crew. The party lasted a long time. Stories flew, music blared, folks danced, ate, and drank beer. I stayed in the only safe place I knew, behind the bar, and took it all in joyfully. Despite the lateness of the night’s festivities, I got everyone up early the next morning for a trip to the teeming marketplace of Belen, where we picked up mapachos for Julio, the chacruna leaves I’d ordered from an herb seller a couple of days earlier and a number of other things—shotgun shells, flashlights, fishing line and hooks—we’d need to bring as presents to the river. By late morning I’d had everyone in my group (including the vegetarians) taste salt-dried wild boar, drink a glass or two of aguardiente—hard cane liquor—and generally get the smell of jungle goods in their souls. We walked in muck near the riverbank where local boats brought in those goods, and where the stench is overwhelming. Starting with the party the previous night, we’d begun the process of stopping their worlds so that they could be open to the experience they’d come to have. By noon I’d taken them to the far end of Iquitos, where the Nanay river meets the Amazon, for something to eat and a cold beer in the bar built for the movie Fitzcarraldo. I didn’t usually run into anyone I know there, but that day I was surprised to find Jake at a corner table with his new girl and her mother. He joined us briefly, and as I was sitting he noticed a small growth in the center of my scalp. “How long have you had that?” he asked “I don’t know. Couple of months, I think.”




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he insisted I come over to his table to tell his girl’s mom that he really was a chiropractor. I did, but she didn’t believe me, and Jake wanted me to stay and insist that he was until she did. I begged off, wanting to get back to my group and he complained that I always treated him in a second-rate fashion. When I told him I didn’t mean to do that, but that I had guests to attend to, he asked why my guests should be more important than my friends. After lunch, I set the group free with a plan to meet up at the town center in a couple of hours for a sunset canoe ride. All but Angelica agreed. She said she had made plans with Duke the night before to go see a healer he wanted her to meet. I said okay, but inside I seethed a little. Duke and I had a bit of history. When I was moving to Peru I invited my friend Larry to pitch in for a year or two. Larry had mentioned that his friend Duke would like to be part of the team and I’d said okay. Unfortunately, our personalities clashed incessantly, and I decided it would be better for me to do the tours without him after the first one. Since then, I always felt he was trying to one-up me, and his inviting one of my guests away from a planned event seemed like just another incidence of that. But Angelica was capable of making her own choices, so I let it go. Still, I thought it was rude of Duke to do that. The evening trip went calmly, and I sent the group out dancing later that night, with a meeting called for the next morning. But at the morning meeting time, Duke was there with Jake and announced that both women on the tour, Angelica and Bonnie, would miss what I’d planned because they were all going to the university to meet someone important. Again I rankled a bit because this was not the way to get a group interacting. But the women wanted to go, so I let them. Our boat was scheduled to leave at 5:00 pm, so Corina took the four remaining members of our group on a day trip while I shopped for food supplies. They were due at the bar at 2:00 pm with packs ready. All arrived on time but the two women, who appeared an hour later. With them were Duke, Jake, and a middle-aged Peruvian man I’d never met.

“Have it looked at.” Since he’d left the navy, Jake had become a chiropractor and was sort of the resident doc among the gringos in Iquitos. He was bright and funny, but he could irk me with his pushiness. So, while we were friends, we’d never gotten close. And sure enough, just after his impromptu medical examination,

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Duke asked for a bottle of beer and a couple of glasses. I told him to help himself as I was busy, but he insisted that out of respect for his friend I bring them myself. I stopped what I was doing and did as he asked. When I arrived at the table, Duke presented his Peruvian friend as a shaman. He was dark complexioned, thick and strong with a good handshake.

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I told him I was glad to meet him then excused myself to go back to my preparations. While my team and I packed, halfa-dozen friends showed up, and in no time an impromptu party commenced. At some point Jake came over to look at the small growth on my scalp again, then showed it to the healer he and Duke had brought in, who made a comment I didn’t hear over the din. I thanked Jake for his concern and assured him I’d have it looked at first thing in New York. Angelica commented that she’d had a great time with Duke and his curandero and hoped that Julio would be as powerful a man. I laughed and said I hoped her experience with him was good too. Duke leaned in and remarked that he was confident that Angelica would bring the angels to the ceremony, and that he’d be there with us in spirit. “I’ll be there with you, brother,” he said. By 4:00 pm, my boat man, Mauricio, and his son had taken the hammocks across the street and down the long steep stairway to the boat we’d be taking, secured a space, and began setting them up. Not long after, I hired several dock hands to carry the rest of our stuff over. Just before 5:00 pm, I locked the bar and we all headed over. It was mayhem, as usual. The eighty-foot-long, eight-footwide stairway was crammed with people headed to the two large riverboats leaving from that port that evening. Each boat held about 300 passengers and a couple hundred tons of cargo, and everything was being loaded by way of the stairway. Additionally, there were family members saying goodbye to their loved ones and dozens of vendors selling food, soda, gum, crackers, and anything else they could carry, crammed onto the stairway with the boats anchored at its foot. Our boat sounded its whistle, and fifteen minutes later we were on the Amazon river. The boat was a spider web of hammocks and lines, and to reach the area Mauricio had secured, one had to crawl on hands and knees. I recommended we all head for the roof, which would be windy and cold at night but glorious for the next several hours. It was. There is something magical about sitting on the roof of a riverboat traveling on the Amazon, gliding past the jungle at river’s edge. I have never grown tired of seeing the villages or the fields of plantains and yucca interspersed with the trees, the canoes anchored in the river at the base of steps




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carved by machete into the vertical banks, fishermen and slash-and-burn farmers bathing with their children on balsa rafts tethered to stakes buried in red clay that underlies much of the area. It really is the Amazon jungle, the way it has probably been for as long as man has lived there. The hours passed easily. Overhead, the sky was ablaze with stars. We all just laughed and laughed until it was time to head down and brave the uncomfortable crawl to the hammocks. We arrived at Genero Herrera by 9:00 am in the morning and transferred to my friend Hernan’s thirty-foot dugout with a nine-horsepower motor for the next leg of the trip, which was off the main river, onto the much smaller Supay river, fed by the glorious Supay lake, home of several families of pink and grey river dolphins. Beyond the lake, the feeder river, the Auchyako, was even smaller, with tall jungle hanging over the banks. Colorful kingfishers flew about; pairs of macaws flew overhead; monkeys we’d disturbed with the peque-peque sound of our motor yelled at us; and an occasional sleeping turtle slid off a sun-drenched log and into the river at our approach. We arrived at Julio’s by three to find that he wasn’t yet home from his chacra, his field. But one of his daughters-in-law who

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was staying there welcomed us warmly. I sent Mauricio off to set up the hammocks for our guests at the nearby home of another of Julio’s sons, while Corina began to go through the food supplies collecting things for dinner. Julio arrived home, carrying a machete and an arm of plantanos, to find me, half-a-dozen people he’d never met, and two or three of my assistants having taken over his home. He acted as though it were a normal occurrence. Handing the green plantanos to his daughter-in-law, he disappeared into his bedroom, emerging with a clean shirt and a laugh in his eyes. “Ah, ya. Pedro,” he smiled, hugging me. I introduced my guests, gave him a bag of mapacho cigarettes and a couple of lighters, then told him I hoped we hadn’t disturbed him but that we’d come hoping he might have time to make us ayahuasca. “Yah. Yah, Pedro. Yah. Bien.” I don’t know what my guests thought of the visual of Julio. If you look at him objectively, he’s a frail old man with a light shock of white hair, huge ears, and a head much too big for his four-foot, eight-inch frame. His clothes are always clean but ragged and hand-patched, and he always wears a pair of oversized jungle boots. But to me, he is an immense human being, with eyes that seem to know everything you are going to ask, as well as most of the answers. He is so clear that he has become almost see-through over the years. When he finally goes, I imagine he will just vanish rather than die. He’s simply magnificent, and it didn’t take long for most of my guests to get that. Simply from shaking his hand on being introduced, Bonnie remarked that she’d already gotten some of the answers she’d come for. Both Bonnie and Angelica asked me if I would translate some questions they had for Julio. I told them I never actually talked much to him, because he didn’t understand my Spanish—maybe a few sentences a day—and didn’t think it would work. We seemed able to communicate very well wordlessly, but on the regular talking level, he simply didn’t understand me and I didn’t understand him. At their insistence I tried, but after a few minutes of trying to ask about the spirits of ayahuasca, about other realms and such things, it became clear to them Julio had no idea what I was talking about. I assured them that all their questions

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would be answered, just not in a Q & A session. They let it go and simply enjoyed being in his presence in his rickety house in the beautiful jungle. That night I sent them out fishing, and in the morning we went with Julio to collect the ayahuasca and other barks he wanted to add. The walk was glorious as always. When we returned, Julio began to prepare the ayahuasca while my guests went out for a hike with Juan. That evening we gathered in a circle on the platform flooring. Julio took his seat on his stool. I thought that as usual Juan and Corina would help people navigate the little ladder from the platform to the jungle floor to use the bathroom, but when Juan surprised me by saying he needed to drink as well, I switched my place to one near the door so that I’d be available to help. Because of my position I was first to drink that night, and because I thought I might be needed to help out the others, I had him pour me a small portion. Nonetheless, before he’d finished the circle and served himself, I could feel the first waves of the medicine washing over me. Neon-green lights appeared like iridescent fireflies and I felt the usual panic begin. I had a moment when I could have vomited the ayahuasca out before it had taken full effect, but decided not to do that. Instead I concentrated on Julio and looked around the space at my guests to see if they were beginning to feel it as well. Julio finished his prayer, moved the bottles to the corner, then flicked out the kerosene lamp with his chacapa. The darkness was sudden and utter, but in moments it all seemed lit up to me as the green lights intensified. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before I found myself in a landscape that seemed to be constructing itself from what looked like cartoonish Lego® blocks. The sidewalk where I seemed to be was maybe two bricks higher than the street being built to my right. To my left a wall was going up about five bricks higher than the sidewalk, as was another across the street. Everything was coming together for me it seemed, in a slow, syrupy fashion, as though the bricks were not quite solid yet, still undulating and distorted as they found their spots. Accompanying the construction was a loud grating of gears ringing in my ears in time with the movement of the blocks. I was terrified and wanted out, but couldn’t leave. I tried to tell myself that it was all right that I was there, but I had a hard time letting go. The colors of the bricks—red, blue, and white—were more solid than the bricks themselves. I recog-

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nized them as the colors of the funhouse of desires and fears, but the funhouse had never appeared this way before. Faces came out of the landscape and floated by—some changing grotesquely as they did, others breaking into broad grins. Time passed in the real world—a world in which I felt myself unable to move. When I could, it was to head off the platform to the bathroom area. There, I was tempted to simply sit on the ground near the kerosene lamp in the hopes of running away from the experience. But I chose to return. I convinced myself that I was needed in the circle as I’d told Julio to pour large portions for my guests, and I didn’t want them to feel like I’d abandoned them. Julio was singing beautifully. The speed of the moving landscape changed as his songs changed, and I decided not to be too afraid of the experience this time out. Chepa appeared in the carnival atmosphere and I watched her change horribly and saw how rotten she’d treated me. I threw that out as fast as I could. I didn’t want to go there at all. Suddenly the voice of The Man Who Tells Me Things asked, “Do you remember you were told you couldn’t really love Chepa and Madeleina because you’re giving them things you think they need, and not what they really need?” “Yes,” I answered. “Do you remember you were told you can’t love them until you are them?” “Yes.” “Do you want to know how to love Chepa?” “Yes. I want to know how to do that more than anything.” “Then come with us,” The Man said. Instantly the sidewalk I was on began to slide up the street toward a dark bend. The street and wall on either side of it and me simply undulated where they were, so that the sidewalk seemed like a conveyor belt. The colored blocks passed like pouring molasses, and The Man told me, “First you have to learn to accept unconditional love,” but the way he said it didn’t sound like a joyful experience was about to occur. It had more of the ring of the doctors telling me they just had to take my heart out and cut away the bad parts, so I got petrified again.




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The Man ordered me to relax. “It’s just love you have to get,” he said. But the thing was, he wasn’t a man. It was just a voice, a man’s voice, but not quite human. More like something allowing me to hear an idea in the form of a voice. I heard the voice like a man’s voice, but knew it wasn’t really that at all. “Are you going to play tricks?” I asked? “I won’t trick you. I am asking if you want the answer to the question you asked years ago. Do you want to know how to love Chepa and your baby?” I felt silly because she didn’t love me, but the voice continued. “It might be the next Chepa. We can’t promise to bring her back. But she might come back, or there might be another, and at least you will know how to love her.” It was a very sad thing to hear, but it was also so honest that I began to really relax, even though I was still afraid. We’d been moving up the street and around the dark corner during the whole conversation and continued to move further into the dark spaces. Still, I was ecstatic because I believed that I was finally going to learn how to love Chepa and Madeleina in a way they needed to be loved. Then suddenly, out of the blue, I felt something land on my right shoulder, toward the back. It startled me completely. It was like a baby’s puke that simply pops out of its mouth without warning. It was just suddenly there and spreading and when I looked I could see a mouth sort of spitting it from the real world into the ayahuasca world. It was brown and full of hatred and horror. A splooch of something evil, intended, and wretched. The ayahuasca world was instantly gone. This stuff, this awful stuff that was splooched on me, was meant to destroy the ayahuasca world for me and it did. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I’d never even heard of anything like that happening. All of that was seen, felt, and experienced several times over in a series of rapid replays, and it terrified me. I sat bolt upright on the platform and knew I’d been attacked. Someone purposefully spit a glob of hatred on me from the real world. I turned to see who it was and there was Jake, looking cold and jokerish. He was so clearly there I felt I could have touched him. I realized he had done it and asked him why. He just grinned in a horrible way, then said, “Because I can.”

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I wondered what I’d done to make him do that, but he’d already answered all he was going to. It was so frightening, his line: “Because I can,” because I knew instantly that yes, he could do that, and he could have done it anytime he wanted, and that scared me. And then Duke leaned in over my left shoulder and said, “I’m here too, brother,” and smiled coldly. The realization that they wanted to harm me was awful. I wanted to get away, but there was no place to get away to, so I skittled next to Julio, opened the platform’s gate, and sat with my back to my group, facing the jungle, with my feet on the first step of the little ladder. I wanted to grab onto Julio’s legs to have something to hold on to, but didn’t dare. I wished he would sing loudly and get that awful icky stuff off me. I was reeling from what Jake and Duke had done and how cold it was. I thought maybe it was a game people who used ayahuasca and learned to do tricks did to each other, but I didn’t play that game. I didn’t know it existed. Here they’d spit evil on me, and I suddenly saw demonic things with sharp edges like strangely shaped thorns starting to go into me. I realized that they had mixed virotes—magic, invisible darts that ayahuasqueros talk about sometimes—in with the splooch, and I could hardly breathe. But I made myself keep breathing, fast and heavily, lit a cigarette, and noticed that Julio had stopped singing and was snapping his chacapa leaves like a whip while shouting, “Bete! Bete! No moleste este hombre! El es bueno hombre! No mas moleste. Bete!” He was shouting to the space between and around us; I knew he’d seen what happened, and I was grateful. But at the same time I knew I had to do something to get rid of the ick and the virotes. And even as I knew that, I saw more and more virotes in my arms and hands and legs and stomach and heart—thick thorns and nails sticking into me, or into the spirit me where I sat. I started to try to pull them out but each one that came out went in again as soon as I let it go. So I started singing softly, the first simple song I ever got from ayahuasca, the song to be less afraid. I was singing to give myself courage, and I lit another cigarette off the first to smoke myself, hoping that would somehow help. But I felt lost, since I knew nothing about this. What did it mean? Was it real? Was I crazy? Was it a game? Or was I going to die? It seemed like I was going to die, so even though I felt silly, I took it seriously. I heard Julio telling me over and over to keep smoking, not to let the cigarettes go out. While it was comforting to hear him—though I’m sure he was talking silently—it also meant that he was taking it seriously, which meant I wasn’t terrified for nothing.

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I started to sing out loud. I was sitting with my back to the group and singing out toward the jungle, and hoped they wouldn’t hear me. Or if they did, that they wouldn’t be too disturbed. I had never interfered with Julio’s ceremony before, but didn’t feel I had a choice. I gave up any guilt about it pretty quickly, and decided to do whatever I needed to do. I lit a third cigarette off the second, and saw the faces of Jake and Duke in front of me while I pulled out the virotes. I began to see other people as well: some I’d never cared for and some who were friends of mine, like my worker Jonny, in Iquitos, even family. I realized that they were all contributors to this, though it was Jake who could do it and did actually do it. I sang louder and began to bounce a knee in rhythm with the notes coming out of me. The virotes were easier to pull out the more courage I had, and the louder I sang the more courage I got. I lit another cigarette and smoked myself. I smoked my hands and held them to my body to get the smoke everywhere. I smoked the brown evil splooch, my shoulders, my face, my head, my arms and legs, my feet and heart. I was scared but getting stronger. I knew I didn’t know what I was doing, but had to keep doing it. Some of the virotes were shaped like talons and hooked into me. I was pulling them out and coughing them up and wondering what to do to get rid of them. I heard Julio saying over and over, “No mas moleste! No mas! Bete!” He kept telling me not to let the cigarettes go out, no matter what. Suddenly my feet started jumping up and down like a nervous kid, only they were moving in unison and with purpose. My song was getting faster and stronger than it had ever been. And out of the top of my head, I felt something coming. None of it was my doing that I knew of: I couldn’t move my legs that way or sing that song so powerfully and with so many variations, and I certainly had no control over the thing that came out of my head. It was like a monster, all limbs, and it somehow took the virotes I’d removed from myself and went straight to Jake to begin putting them in him. And when it did, I felt the doing of it, and the satisfaction of inflicting the pain they caused him, so I knew the monster was connected with me, or was me, I just didn’t know how. The “me” of me was just sitting on Julio’s porch, uncontrollably bouncing my feet in time to an impossibly fast rhythm of a song that had taken on a life of its own. Still, I enjoyed the feeling of putting those sharp things into Jake. And as I did, I heard myself saying, “Here. Do you want these?” The monster that had climbed out of me was getting stronger and I put some the virotes in Duke as well, in his arms and legs. I felt like I was strong enough to kill them, strong enough to push the virotes in one side of

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them and out the back. I wanted to do that, and my song was strong enough to give my monster the power to do that, and my legs were moving fast enough to let me do that, and it seemed like something I was going to do. But then I heard Jake saying, “Go ahead. Then you’ll be one of us.” I knew what he meant, and stopped everything instantly. He wanted me to do it. He wanted me to be as mean as he was, to inflict pain as joyfully as he’d splooched me. But I didn’t want to do that or be that. Which left me in the awkward position of wondering what to do. Then I felt the doctors near me, and remembered that in the red room the doctors turn the evil to good. And as I thought that, I saw the room to my left and reached in and grabbed a handful of the red gloopy clay there and put it on Jake. I started piling him with it to stop him from coming back without having to kill him and becoming like him. I began to push more virotes into him but only half-way and then covered them with clay so he couldn’t take them out. I did the same with Duke and then put clay on me as well, all the while lighting cigarette after cigarette and smoking myself, and tapping furiously, and singing loudly with power. In the distance I heard Julio yelling at me, ordering me to close myself. “Cierra, Pedro, cierra.” I turned and saw him motioning for me to call back the monster, to put it back inside and seal the opening. He was commanding, and I did as told. I smoked my head and back, and my head again, and hoped what I was doing would work. I thought that I felt the monster returning through the opening and back inside, and I felt myself closing the gaping space in my head. Just as I finished, Jake smiled and said he wasn’t done yet. Out of the dark night, birds of prey started swooping down, talons out, tearing at me. I grabbed for their talons and turned them in on themselves until the birds screamed. I told Jake not to send any more, or I would turn them back onto him and Duke. I don’t think I’d ever felt as strong and wanted to revel in it. But I realized that Jake could do this anytime he wanted, so I could never win a war like this, a war that an hour or a lifetime earlier I never knew could even occur. I started singing faster and more clearly, to push the image of Jake away and make him flee—at least for the night. I don’t know how long it took, but finally Jake was gone. It was over and I knew he wouldn’t be back. I waiting a little while longer, still singing, to make sure I wasn’t premature, and then turned to tell Julio it was over. As I did I saw that he was already turning away from me and back to my guests to sing for them again.




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I lit another cigarette, then stopped singing and was quiet. I felt beat up and dirty but wonderful and glad that I didn’t kill anyone or become like them. Proud, scared, and exhausted, I stared out into the pitch of the jungle. Then, from the far right at maybe thirty yards, my oldest sister Pat appeared and said, “Hey, Peter. I want you to know I was keeping an eye on you.” A flush of warmth came over me. From behind Pat, her husband Steve, with whom I’d traveled to the jungle fifteen years earlier, appeared and chimed in, “So was I.” And the warmth grew. Then from my direct left, my baby sister Regina appeared, remarking, “I don’t even know what I’m doing here but I guess I am,” and she hugged me. And then my brother Mike was there saying, “Hey, Baldy,” and my sister Barbara and her husband Paul came. “Hey Peter, it’s Barbara,” she said, and Paul added, “How are you?” From straight in front of me came my other sister, Peggy, with her husband George, and Peg said, “We’re here too.” Then came their kids, and their kids’ kids, and I was being hugged by everybody. And then came my Madeleina, who snuck up in the crowd to grab onto my chest and she said, “I love you, daddy.” Chepa was behind her and I felt her warmth, but couldn’t see her face, so I knew she loved me but couldn’t be with me. And behind them were Marco and Italo. Even Jonny, my right-hand man who had been in the background among the faces backing Jake and Duke, appeared. He was pretending to hug me, but he had a sharp virote with him and I turned it back on him. He cried out, and I told him he shouldn’t treat me like that anymore. And then my mother-in-law, mama Lydia, who “loves me but hates me” came, and I asked her why she does brujheria on me, and she shrugged. I told her not to do it anymore or I’d turn it against her, and it would hurt. She agreed, so I hugged her. I was laughing and feeling this intense love coming at me—a feeling of unconditional love from so many people, even some people I don’t make time for. I was so complete and rich, and I realized that Duke and Jake could never get me, could never have gotten me with that many people loving and surrounding me. It occurred to me that if the red room was around and available, maybe the red flower syrup would be too. So I put out my hands, got some drops and smoked them, and put them on all my family, including my mother and father, both dead, who were in the space above everyone else. I blew the smoked nectar drops into a red healing mist that rained out over them all. Then I lit another cigarette and wondered if, in that second of love, I had any access to healing power. Hoping I did, I reached over to my assistant Corina and blew smoke into

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her head for an easier life. Then I opened my sister Pat’s head, put some drops in there, told them to heal her physical ailment, and then tried to close her up. But her head was too full to close, so I looked inside and saw that a red viscous gelatin had surfaced. It looked like what my first teacher, Bertha Grove, a Ute healer, had talked about taking out of people to heal them. I wondered if I could do it, if it would do any good, then just reached in and removed the phlegmy stuff. I held it in my hands and wondered what the hell to do with it. Bertha had always said you couldn’t just take a sickness out and throw it away because it would land on someone else. It had to be neutralized. So I smoked it and put it in the red room so the doctors could turn it into something good, then shut Pat’s head again and closed it tight. I did the same with mama Lydia, trying to take her cancer away. I put some drops in my heart and lungs and on Madeleina and on Italo and Marco. I realized Chepa had been hurt too and put some on her as well. Then I blew some more on everyone and they all said goodbye and disappeared, until only Chepa and my kids were left. I tried to turn Chepa to me and blew smoke on her. She turned toward me a little. I did it again and she turned a little more, then again, but she still wouldn’t turn to me fully so I took her head in my hands and turned her until she was looking me in the eyes. “Chepa,” I said. “I love you and will take care of you and protect you from Duke and Jake and everything even if you are not with me.” And in that instant I realized that that was what she needed all along, even if she didn’t recognize it. She needed to feel that protected all the time, and when I was drunk she didn’t. The answer to the question was that she never felt protected, since her own family fell apart when she was a youngster. Her father had lost everything by an accident of fate, and it tore everything apart. And if this could happen to her father, her immensely powerful father, it could also happen to me. And my drinking was a constant reminder to her of how weak I was, how little protection I had to offer, how little chance I had to satisfy that need in her. The awareness of that simple truth was almost unbearable. I simply had to protect her unconditionally and love her unconditionally. That was the answer to the question all along of how to love her. I started to laugh out loud in the real world, like something was tickling my soul and I couldn’t help myself. I told her she could go and she suddenly smiled a little and called me a nickname I hadn’t heard her use in years. Madeleina hugged me, saying, “I love you, daddy, but I have to go now.” Then

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she and Chepa were gone, and Marco followed them. But before he disappeared he turned and said, “Don’t worry dad. She can’t live without us forever.” And Italo added, “Now you know what to do, you just have to do it, dad.” And then they were all gone and I was spent, spent, spent. And right in the middle of all that love and exhaustion, Jake popped up again. “Or,” he grinned, “we could go after Madeleina.” Suddenly I let go, and found myself coming out of my head again. I heard myself roaring like a lion, letting him know not to dare touch my family. That I wouldn’t stop my monster next time, that I’d let my monster kill him on the physical plane. I started to smoke the whole universe furiously, white smoke bursts of power that I hoped carried my message to Jake and Duke and anyone else. “Don’t you dare touch my family!” I roared, sure no one would defy me. But Jake reappeared, smiling and nonchalant, to signify that he could do what he liked. He was just so arrogant, so secure in his power, that it utterly disarmed me. Unexpectedly, my feet quit moving, but my left hand began beating my thigh in a fast straight rhythm: bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. I didn’t know why my hand was moving like that, I didn’t seem to be in control of it at all, but the bang, bang, bang, kept up until I recognized it as the sound of the beating of birds’ wings—birds I was sending to Jake and Duke. Thousands of birds’ beating their wings around them, slapping the air around them to my hand’s rhythm like thunderclaps until both of them were cowering from the power of the birds, and Julio was again entreating me to close my head. “Cierra! Cierra!” he ordered. I kept up the beating but softened it and took some red drops and smoked them and sent them to Jake and Duke to heal their hatred, or at least neutralize it. When it touched them, they vanished. I knew the fight was over, at least for the time being, so I smoked the air and laughed. I realized that the birds my monster sent were the same bird (multiplied a thousand times) that I’d flown with the very first time I’d ever taken ayahuasca, nearly twenty years earlier. I knew too that what The Man Who Tells Me Things said I’d get, I had gotten. I found out how to love Chepa and Madeleina after I had gotten unconditional love and accepted it—even though I suspected that perhaps the way it happened wasn’t the way The Man intended it to happen.

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I could still feel the horror of that glob of pain and hatred being spit on me, that awful splooch of wretchedness. But I knew I would make it for the night, that Jake and Duke would not come back that night, so I closed myself again as best I could, smoked some more, and listened as Julio turned his attention back to the others. I was sure I’d ruined everything for everyone, what with all the noise I’d made. But when I turned around to look at my guests, they were all still lying down, not yet out of their ayahuasca dreams. I took a moment to smoke Julio, and then it was over.

Afterward Later, when all of my guests but Lynn had gone back to Julio’s son’s house to sleep, we stayed awake and talked awhile. I was glad he was there, as I needed to relate some of what had occurred to someone. Had the whole thing happened, as Jake had said, simply “Because I can,” like a prank of challenge? Was it someone else who really disliked me, who used Jake and Duke’s faces so that I wouldn’t see who really was behind the attack? It could have been a million things. Whatever or whomever had done it, I knew it was real because it wasn’t on any list of 10,000 possibilities I could have imagined. I was just glad that with Julio’s help, I’d been strong enough to fight it off. And I was really happy to finally have an answer to the question of how to love Chepa and my baby. For all the depth of my experience that night, Lynn said that he’d gotten nothing. “It was fantastic to be in the ceremony with Julio, but I didn’t get anything. Well, hardly anything. There was one point where I was sitting there thinking ‘Come on, Julio. Show me something, anything,’ and he turned to me and shook his leaves at me and the whole darned hut filled with colored lights, and he grew to about twenty feet tall and he was glowing. Then the lights started flying all over the room, so I knew what he could do. But it just seemed he had to work with the girls tonight, and with you, so he didn’t have time for me.” “Sorry.” “Oh, there was this one vision I had for just a minute, where I saw Julio take my heart out and put it in Corina’s breast, and take her heart and put it in me. Then I saw myself getting married to Corina and she was dressed in a beautiful




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white gown. I know it’s silly, but that’s all I got. I guess ayahuasca just didn’t want to teach me anything tonight.” Eight months later, Lynn married Corina. As always, ayahuasca didn’t give him what he wanted, but it did give him what he needed. I think it gave the others what they needed as well, though the particulars never came up. When we returned to Iquitos, I made a point of running into both Jake and Duke and asked them about the incident. Both denied any part in it, though I didn’t know whether to believe them or not. I do know that Jake went through something difficult just after that, and for months was too frightened to leave his hotel room. While Duke, who’d planned on staying in Iquitos a while, changed his ticket and left the day we returned. Shortly after going home, his house burned to the ground. I have no idea whether there was any connection with that night to those events, or whether it was just coincidence. There was no e-mail from Chepa when I returned saying that she’d had a dream and wanted to put our marriage back together. And though I didn’t expect one, I was heartbroken that none awaited me. A couple of weeks later I returned home to New York, and shortly thereafter Italo and Marco made it clear that if I wanted to be around Madeleina I would have to move us to Fort Worth, where Chepa had settled in her new life. Six months later we did, buying a small house just outside the city. A few months after that, thinking I could do better, I quit alcohol. Not long after I renewed my abstinence, I was lying in bed one night feeling lousy that I hadn’t been able to fix things. They were so bad, in fact, that I was considering taking legal action to get full custody of Madeleina. That would mean getting Chepa declared an unfit mother, which I didn’t really think she was, but I didn’t see another route to get Madeleina back into my life. While I mulled those things over, the image of Julio suddenly popped into my mind. It was nice to see him. He smiled at me and the phrase “More Joy, Less Pain” came into my head. I repeated it over and over, trying to get his meaning. It took some days, but when I got the message, it was simple and clear: do whatever I had to do, but whatever I did should cause more joy and less pain for all involved than anything else I might do. Which meant dropping the legal action. But

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that would probably mean never having Madeleina live with her brothers or me again, which was horrible. Still, that seemed like the first step, and I did it. I was secretly hoping that that was the final test, and that since I’d obviously passed I could now have my family back together. But it didn’t happen. And so a couple of night later, again lying in my bed I called to Julio and asked him what was up. Unexpectedly, a new ayahuasca song came out of me. A song with words. I’d never received a song with words before. It was plain and beautiful and I sang it as though I’d known it my whole life. The words were in Spanish, but translated to English they read: One family, my family My family, one family, Mama Chepa, Papa Pedro, Italo and Marco And my Madeleina. Help me help me Fix my broken family Yage.Net specializes in the development and hosting of entheogen-related web sites with an emphasis on ethnobotanical suppliers. We’re also home to the largest collection of ayahuasca resources on the web.

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Help me help me Fix my broken family. It took me a little while to come to terms with the idea that, although I was asking in the song to fix my family, it wasn’t going to be fixed like in my fantasy. But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be fixed some. And though it’s not perfect, though we don’t live together, we do visit often and are still a family. We are healing the best we can. 

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Network Feedback PEDICULARIS SPECIES Some years ago I paid to take an herb walk with a local herbologist in northern New Mexico. The person leading the walk pointed out some betony (a Pedicularis species), and described its medicinal uses. Since then, I’ve only found a single report of this plant in Michael Moore’s Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, which corroborates the herbologist’s remarks. Numerous searches on the Internet have turned up nothing more. I found out through trial and error that the time of year it is harvested has a great influence on its potency. This year I harvested in June, prior to it blooming, and I found that to be the most potent material yet. By mid-July, the plant usually has orange and black spots on it, and its potency is almost nil. For my first experiments with betony, I made tea from the dried herb. With low-potency material, 15 or more grams was required for a single dose. With material collected this season, about 5 grams brewed into enough water to make two 12 ounce mugs of tea was enough. It required about an hour after ingestion before I felt that I could discern effects that I might not have otherwise attributed to placebo. The effects were mild, never going beyond a plus-2. It was very pleasant, something like a cross between Valium® and pain killers. I was slightly giddy and had a bit of a nodding-off feeling. After this, I made an extract by soaking the powdered material in grain alcohol for a day, then pouring distilled water into the soaking mix. Afterwards, the mash was all strained off and the liquids were allowed to evaporate. The final evaporation took place in an oven heated to around 200° F. First I tried some questionable material that had burned a little during the heated evaporation. I stuffed 3+ grams of this into 00 gelatin capsules and ate it. Again, about an hour passed before I noticed any effects. They were very similar to the effects of the tea. A couple of days later, I took slightly less than 2 grams of material that hadn’t burned; it was more oily and less charcoal like in appearance. And this material

was definitely more potent: within ten minutes I began to notice pleasant effects, which gained in strength for about a half an hour. Full effects were about a plus-2.5. This experiment constituted the strongest effect that I’d experienced from betony. Moore cautions it is “often confused, both in herb books and usage, with the Wood Betony (Stachys betonica) of Europe, an unrelated member of the mint family.” When working with betony, he suggests that one might wish to “test a particular collection before administering freely, since the potency of the various species is variable.” —P.H., NM

AMBIL I’d like to relate my preparation of ambíl, the South American lickable tobacco preparation. I followed a method reported in the Johannes Wilbert’s book Tobacco and Shamanism in South America (a tour de force of information on the subject, if you’re into this sort of thing). I took approximately ten medium-sized tobacco leaves (perhaps 20 cm in length) from my Nicotiana tabacum plants, chopped them into strips and put them in a large pan with enough water to cover them. I brought the water to a boil and simmered it for two hours, adding more water after about 90 minutes to keep it from boiling dry. While this was simmering, I tried to prepare alkaline ashes from Banisteriopsis caapi bark—by burning it with a blowtorch. Unfortunately, they were converted to charcoal rather than white ash, and the resulting water steeped in them was pH neutral. I then prepared some ash from chillum charcoal and obtained a pH 9 alkaline solution. (This alkaline ash solution is not necessary, as you can use sodium bicarbonate, but I was interested in attempting to produce it using a more traditional method.) Back to the leaves. I left the pan to cool and then removed the tobacco leaves, squeezing all of the liquid from them into the pan and discarding the leaves. The tobacco water was transferred to a smaller pan and boiled vigorously until there was only a 6 millimeter depth of liquid in the pan. The heat

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was turned down and the liquid gently simmered and blown on, to aid evaporation. Eventually only about 30–40 milliliters of very dark brown liquid was left in the pan. While holding the pan at a 45° angle, approximately 30 mg of alkaline ash solution was added to the liquid, and then a 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder (not baking soda) was also added, which made the liquid froth immediately. After frothing, much of the liquid had coagulated on the angled bottom of the pan and was thick and dry, with the remaining bit still being in liquid form. After very gentle heating of the liquid, and much scraping of the coagulated stuff, a 1/2 teaspoon of very thick, sticky, marmite-like stuff was put into a snuff box. The final result was a little thicker than I would have liked, but from what I have read, it was well within the bounds of what can be described as “genuine ambíl.” A while later, myself and two others tried the ambíl, using amounts about the size of two grains of rice. One person said




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that she felt nothing more than a strange tingling in her hands and a slightly restless feeling. Myself and the other person both agreed we could feel a pronounced sense of restlessness and a slightly amphetamine-like stimulation. I could also feel my heart pounding, and definitely felt “on edge.” For me, the whole experience seemed a bit like an adrenaline surge, fairly mild and more-or-less pleasant. Subjectively, it lasted about thirty minutes. It certainly felt nothing like a “first cigarette of the morning” tobacco rush. — Pappa Thanks for the report. I don’t understand your choice of baking powder rather than baking soda. Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), but it also includes an acidifying agent (cream of tartar or sodium aluminum sulfate) and a drying agent (usually corn starch). It is the combination of the baking soda with the acidifying agent, when coming in contact with a liquid, that causes the frothing. Using simple baking soda probably would not cause as much frothing. Also, the creation of charcoal requires inadequate oxygen, which likely was not the case in the situation that you describe. You probably created black ashes rather than charcoal. Some types of ash are simply less basic than other types. Finally, while it is clear that the product you produced had activity, it seems probable that the high temperatures achieved through “vigorous boiling” of the liquid during reduction caused a significant loss of nicotine. Using lower heat for a longer period could produce a more potent product. (Be cautious of toxicity though.) — KEEPER TROUT

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GAMMA-OH? Reading an old issue of the Italian psychedelic yearbook Altrove, I came across an article written by Claude Rifat about modified states of consciousness and sexuality. He describes his experiences with several substances (MDMA, psilocybin-containing mushrooms, yohimbine, captopril, and opioids) and their effects on his libido. At a certain point, he is very enthusiastic about a (for me) mysterious compound called Gamma-OH. He states that Gamma-OH: • Stimulates tenderness and affection • Stimulates desire of the other • Stimulates the desire of touching the other (physically and psychologically) • The partner becomes incredibly attractive (similar to a deity) • Stimulates the sensuality of the clitoris • Has strong aphrodisiac properties • Has strong empathogenic properties Do you and/or your subscribers have any further information about this promising-sounding substance and its possible availability on the underground market? Thanks. — Andrea Sciarnè, Italy Gamma-OH is a European name for gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Because of its demonization as a “date rape” drug, it has become harder to obtain worldwide in recent years. Many people do find it a pleasurable adjunct to sexual experiences. Interestingly, we have even heard of cases where the GHB was only taken by one partner, and the straight partner reported better sexual gratification as well. Nevertheless, the above-provided description seems as though it is waxing a bit overly rhapsodic. — EDS.

ALCOHOL PRETREATMENT TO PHENETHYLAMINES ER correspondent W.H., IL wrote in describing nine bioassays using several phenethylamines (2C-C, 2C-E, 2C-I, 2C-T-2, and DOI) in combination with a pretreatment of various amounts of alcohol (beer or wine). Although the experimental design was fairly loose, a general trend was nonetheless reported. The Entheogen Review has previously heard claims of potentiated effects from 2C-B taken after the consumption of a few beers, and we have also heard others make similar claims related to their consumption of alcohol prior to taking assorted tryptamines.




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W.H., IL remarked that “interactions between phenethylamines and alcohol are under-researched, considering the pattern of us at functions such as raves and parties, where alcohol consumption is common.” W.H., IL feels that there is a powerful interaction between certain phenethylamines and ethanol, and that pretreatment (not post-treatment) leads to an exaggerated general effect of the phenethylamine, including an increased incidence of hypothermia, increased sensitivity to bodily sensations, an improved use of language, and an increase in behavioral disinhibition. The length of the trips seemed somewhat extended as well. However, there was a decrease in both closed-eye and open-eye visuals. (This clearly would not be a bonus for many psychonauts.) W.H., IL writes, “Simply put, alcohol pretreatment to phenethylamine administration increases the effects of the phenethylamine two- to four-fold.” A severe headache that developed during the last experiment caused the research to be abandoned, due to concerns that the combination of phenethylamines and alcohol may have some unknown neurotoxic effects. Keeper Trout notes that he has never experienced any results similar to those reported by W.H., IL when combining phenethylamines with ethanol, other than the diminishment of visual effects when active doses of ethanol are ingested. In his youth, David Aardvark routinely drank 12 to 24 beers while already high on LSD, without achieving any sort of noticeable buzz from the booze. — Eds.

AMP A United States supplement company called Ergopharm released an interesting stimulant last year called AMP, which features ingredients with the vague, trademarked names Geranamine™ and Chocamine™. The former is said to be a component of geranium oil, and it is thought to be the most active element in AMP. The latter seems to be a base for the capsule and comes from Theobroma cacao. It also has a healthy dose of caffeine, which is said to provide a pleasant synergy with the Geranamine. The stimulant effect is unlike the majority of such supplements—it’s much more mental than physical. In fact, physical side effects common to many stimulants—such as jitters, severe dry mouth, tense muscles, anorexia, teeth grinding and a racing heart—are almost entirely absent from AMP.

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Two capsules taken in the morning, with or without food, will provide mental stimulation and a level of physical stimulation throughout most of the day. This stuff seems to last quite a long time. Ninety to one hundred twenty minutes after taking the capsules, a cooling sensation develops (in contrast to physical heating one may feel from other stims) and breathing becomes much deeper. For anyone with asthma, this is a welcomed result. MDMA is the only thing I’ve ever consumed that makes breathing feel this deep and this good. And then there’s the empathogenic effects. Smiling, talkative, a greater warmth in your heart. Hug someone. Pet a kitty. Sadly, this element of AMP doesn’t last for the duration, but at best it can last for a few hours, weakening after the twohour point. In response to some requests for an identification of Geranamine that I sent out, a chemist suggested that it might be 2amino-4-methylhexane, a compound identified in 1944 as having activity similar to ephedrine. This chemist works at a custom synthesis lab, which had been presented with a request to produce that compound, and it had been identified by both the chemical name and by the “Geranamine” name. AMP is some really great stuff, providing stimulation when needed, with a very clean feel. In my opinion, this is far preferable to Adderall® and similar amphetamines, and it completely outshines ephedrine as a legal herbal stimulant.




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Ergopharm’s web site is at http://ergopharm.net, and you can request a free sample. It’s not very expensive stuff, either. Since my initial inquiry, at least one copycat supplement has appeared: Stimulant X (www.anabolicx.com/ stimx). — Rev. MeO We are unable to locate anything that suggests that 2-amino-4methylhexane is a component of geranium oil, but perhaps we’re not looking in the right places. There’s a lot of hype around Geranamine, a proprietary ingredient developed by PATRICK ARNOLD of ERGOPHARM. Chocamine is a proprietary blend produced by RFI INGREDIENTS, composed of a variety of compounds extracted from Theobroma cacao. PAUL ALTAFFER, holder of the Chocamine patent, has told us that it contains anandamide, caffeine, magnesium, phenethylamine, phenylalanine, theobromine, theophylline, tryptophan, tyramine, tyrosine, natural spices, and flavonoids. When this product was first introduced in 2000, it also included extracts of guarana (Paullinia cupana), which provided caffeine, and bitter orange (Citrus aurantium), which provided synephrine. Synephrine, in particular, is the weightloss industry’s new “little darling” replacement for Ephedra as a thermogenic chemical with mild stimulant properties. However, the most recent formulation of Chocamine no longer contains extracts from guarana or bitter orange (ALTAFFER 2006). We were intrigued to note that ERGOPHARM is also selling a product called PSYCHOTROPIN™, which contains a variety of chemicals hyped to enhance mental functioning, as well as the “anti-anxiety” compound PHENIBUT (beta-phenyl-gamma-aminobutyric acid), which appears to have some GHB-like effects. — EDS.

KÆMPFERIA GALANGA

ARE YOU BACK YET?

Maraba is a local name for the plant Kæmpferia galanga in the Papua New Guinea highlands. In their book Plants of the Gods, Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hofmann suggested that there are vague reports that maraba rhizome is employed in New Guinea for “Hallucinogenic intoxication (?).” Modern experimentation with maraba was stimulated from the 1973 book Legal Highs by Adam Gottlieb, and a decade later via the 1983 book The Magical & Ritual Use of Herbs by Richard Alan Miller.

for details and ordering information see www.zoe7.com

The rhizome is used as a condiment, similar to ginger, in parts of Asia. It is highly aromatic and contains several essential oils. Chemical constituents include: borneol, camphene, carene, ethyl-p-methoxycinnamate, methyl-p-cumaric acid, cinnamic acid ethyl ester, pentadencane, and cinnaminic aldehyde (Beckstrom-Sternberg & Duke 1992). A related Asian species, Kæmpferia rotunda, contains cyclohexane

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diepoxides of unknown pharmacology (Pancharoen et al. 1996). Data from clinical studies on the pharmacology of extracts of maraba rhizome indicated toxicity in animals and humans (Mokkhasmit 1971; Choochote et al. 1999; Kanjanapothi et al. 2004). The chemical ethyl cinnamate was recently demonstrated in clinical studies to have vasorelaxant effects on the smooth muscles of the rat aorta (Othman et al. 2002). Another pharmacological study found that extracts of maraba rhizome have monoamine oxidase inhibitor activity (Noro et al. 1983). A couple of years ago, I conducted an experiment, chewing 15 grams of fresh maraba rhizome. The following documents the chronology of its effects: 9:27 pm 9:28 pm 9:30 pm 9:32 pm 9:33 pm 9:42 pm 9:45 pm 9:50 pm 9:52 pm 10:10 pm 10:15 pm 11:20 pm 11:35 pm 11:50 pm

Begin chewing maraba rhizome Hot, spicy, pungent taste Tears in eyes Attempt to swallow rhizome Gagging due to plant fiber; washed it down with a glass of water First alert, mild CNS stimulation, no changes in perception Increased heart rate Dizziness No eidetic images with eyes closed Buoyant feelings, similar to a 5-gram dose of nutmeg Euphoria with a sense of well-being and elevated mood Lying down with eyes closed, no perceptual changes Sleep disturbance and restlessness Insomnia

Despite that the maraba rhizome did indeed seem psychoactive, at no point in my bioassay did I experience any visionary effects. However, it is possible that a larger dose may be needed to produce such effects. — Benjamin Thomas, Australia Over the years, we’ve heard of several attempts to achieve visionary effects from Kæmpferia galanga, none of which have resulted in any positive reports. This has also been the case with both of the editors of The Entheogen Review; we haven’t obtained any psychoactive effects at all ourselves. There could be all manner of reasons for lack of activity/effects, and we don’t entirely write off this plant. Whether the reports are positive or negative for activity, we’re interested in hearing experience reports from more people. — EDS.




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ATROPA BELLADONNA I met an Indian man in California years ago who gave my friends and I three trumpet flowers from his Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade) plant. We were told to each orally ingest one whole flower. He highly recommended we have some “babysitters” around to keep an eye on us. We did not heed that suggestion. I ate my flower. However, when my friends each took one bite of their flowers, they could not stand the taste. So as to not waste them, I ate theirs too. Maybe not a good idea. The Indian man had told me I might see trees and bushes in their gnome/troll form. He also said I might have an entourage of people with me, who could only be seen at the outer edges of my peripheral vision. He said if I tried to look at them directly, I wouldn’t be able to do so. He added that I would have an extremely dry mouth, that my depth perception would be way out-of-whack, and that my vision would be blurred for several days after my experience was over. Well, all the things he foretold came to pass. At the first signs of an effect, I became drowsy and napped for about a half hour. When I awoke, I felt slightly disoriented and dreamy. Shortly after waking, I caught a quick glimpse of a small shrub in its “gnome/troll” form. The vision was so fleeting that I couldn’t even be sure that I had seen it. About twenty minutes later, I noticed my depth perception going funny. I would see some things several feet above the ground. When I went to touch them, I couldn’t. So I’d grab a little closer, yet still I wouldn’t be able to touch it. This would occur several times before I finally was able to touch the objects. Textures were very surreal. I became extremely parched—even with a mouth full of water, my thirst was totally unquenchable. I eventually saw the “tree people.” At first I saw a six-foot evergreen that had a white sage colored face, completely smooth with a long pointy nose, large solid black eyes, a crown of evergreen boughs, and branch arms. At first I thought it was a person wearing a costume. It did not move, other than the movement provided by a slight breeze. Since I remembered that I might see something like this, due to what I had been told, I approached it and stared at it. I spoke to it, but it only stood still. I walked closer and tried to touch it but experienced that depth perception problem again. I kept getting closer and closer to it, until I eventually walked right through it. Right through it! Talk about weird.

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I turned around, and it was still standing there. I moved along, and began to spot several other bushes and trees that I could see in their “tree people” form. I didn’t touch their faces out of respect for them. (I know I don’t much care for people poking their hands in my face.) I later disrobed and was completely naked when my “entourage” appeared. They were just outside my peripheral vision, both to the left and the right, just like I’d been told. I had entire conversations with them, but I was not sure whether or not my mouth was moving. As best as I could tell, they appeared to be human. The Indian told me that I’d speak with them, and I did. And my vision was blurred for several days after the trip. At no point during my journey was I scared or even nervous, just in awe. I’ve never had such a realistic experience on any amount of LSD, mushrooms, MDMA, DMT, phenethylamines, tryptamines, or any other psychedelics It took me a good year to piece together what had happened over those two days (I forgot to mention I ate more flowers the following morning). I figured that it was just the power of suggestion that caused me to have the sort of visions that the Indian described. However, when I later researched Atropa belladonna experiences as much as I could, I found that, historically, these same sorts of visions are frequently reported. Could this plant be a key of some sort that opens a different dimension, which the everyday brain ignores or can’t see? Atropa belladonna is the source of atropine and scopolamine. It sports six- to seven-inch white/lavender trumpet flowers and has highly poisonous berries. It’s well known in the realm of witchcraft, and it usually causes amnesia. I feel I have unfinished business in the realm of the tree people, and want to have another experience in a more controlled manner. If you can provide any references, I’d be grateful. These days, my LSD conviction has my hands tied. Thank you for your efforts and services. Proper education is vital. — C.R., Federal Correctional Institution, N.J.




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The Entheogen Review recently received the following conceptual document, which of course we wholeheartedly support. This approach does not mention synthetic chemicals, which humans clearly should also have the legal right to consume. The author avoids these because of the can of worms that their inclusion opens, with regard to regulation, prescription, the pharmaceutical industry, and public opinion; he feels it may be easier to garner support from the larger population when pointing out the absurdity of prohibiting natural “God given” herbs from the earth. — EDS.

NATURAL RIGHTS AND AMNESTY ACT by Loring Bard Greene Congress shall allow for and protect the rights of all persons twenty-one years or older to possess, grow, cultivate, harvest, prepare, and distribute to other consenting adults, in whatever way seen fit, any and all forms of flora, fungi, cacti, etc. that emanate naturally from our planet Earth. Said botanicals must be used in their natural unrefined forms. As a result, Congress shall respect the use of plants as sacraments. Congress shall respect the religious rights of all individuals, native and non-native, to formulate their own thoughts, opinions, and/or spiritual paths. Congress shall allow all individuals to govern themselves accordingly under the rights protected to them by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of these United States of America. All non-violent interns, convicted for possession or use of any natural, unrefined botanicals—regardless of quantity— currently incarcerated in penal institutions owned, operated, or sanctioned by federal or state municipalities shall be pardoned and released without surety to reclaim their lives and property seized “under the flag of authority” by those government agencies who would deny our natural rights protected by this Amendment. Said interns of this former oppression shall be processed under protections of the 5th and 6th Amendments of the Bill of Rights. Amnesty shall be afforded to all at large, in exile, and those held in suspicion. The spirit of this Amendment shall not be denied. No municipality of these United States of America shall abridge from this Amendment. These rights and protections shall be considered inalienable to all humankind.

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SALVIA LEGAL UPDATE On Thursday, March 23, 2006, The Salvia Divinorum Observer 4(4) reported the following: Delaware Bill Seeks to Make Salvia Divinorum Illegal Delaware Senate Bill 259 seeks to add Salvia divinorum to that state’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. The bill only mentions Salvia divinorum. It does not mention its primary active constituent, salvinorin A. The text of the bill is available at: http://tinyurl.com/quoos. This bill was introduced in reaction to the death of Brett Chidester, a 17-yearold boy who committed suicide on January 23 by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide. Although there is no clear link between the boy’s use of Salvia divinorum and his decision to commit suicide, his parents believe that there was some connection, and they are urging law makers to ban it. For more about this story, see today’s article [3/23/06] in The News Journal (Delaware) at: http://tinyurl.com/hfcbd. For more info on The Salvia Divinorum Observer, an e-news service related to Salvia divinorum, see www.sagewisdom.org. — Eds.

DOC REPORT Two friends and myself split 7 mg of 2,5-dimethoxy-4chloroamphetamine, or “DOC” for short. It appeared to have been provided as the free-base as it was not water soluble until we added some fruit acid. Once it was dissolved, we split it into thirds and drank it, getting approximately 2.33 mg each. The onset was LSD-like, with exquisite body sensations and spinal rushing. My ideation and thought processes were not simply stimulated or expanded into a state of wondrousness—as might be the case from acid—but the material also left me with a very clear centeredness of my mind, reminiscent of mescaline. Conversation proved easy and relaxed; in many ways DOC seems superior to acid for social tripping. Overall it felt very much like LSD, with excellent euphoria and mental stimulation. The visuals were nice but not as pronounced as with acid. From reading about the molecule in PIHKAL, we had all anticipated a long duration. Yet all three of us were back in 11–12 hours. If I had any idea of where to obtain it, I would do a slightly higher dose next time. In early March 2006, a DOC vault was created on-line: see www.erowid.org/chemicals/doc. — Justin Case, TX

NEW! A complete electronic collection of

The Entheogen Review 1992 — 2005 Fourteen years!

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Low Price! If purchased individually in printed form these issues would cost over $275 (USA) or over $400 (foreign). However, the discs are only $40.00 (USA) $45.00 (foreign) postpaid. Send cash, check, or money order to:

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FAVORITE ROLLING MIXTURES Two blending substrates are offered for consideration as superior to either Cannabis or tobacco as a base for smoking DMT (or other tryptamines). 1) Two parts mullein, one part spearmint, one part raspberry leaf, and one part shredded Banisteriopsis caapi leaf and/or vine bark. Thoroughly mix these ingredients. 2) Dried Banisteriopsis caapi leaf, shredded into pieces small enough for rolling (but don’t reduce to a powder). Equal amounts of the herb and DMT can be used, producing a 50% blend. But if using option #2, a concentration as low as 30%, with 70% Banisteriopsis caapi leaf might be acceptable, due to the pharmacological contribution of the B. caapi. In both cases, proportioning should be by weight not volume. Blend #2 is more powerful in its synergy, but blend 1 is easier on the lungs due to the mullein. As an example: Place 1 gram of well-crushed DMT in a small glass bowl. Add a few milliliters of either 95% ethanol or 99% isopropanol. Mash and stir until the DMT is completely

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dissolved. Use the smallest amount of alcohol necessary— just enough to create a slurry that could be poured. Ideally, this will provide an amount of DMT-laden alcohol that can be soaked up by the dry herb. A weighed gram of the herb is now dumped into the liquid and the mass stirred together very thoroughly in order to evenly distribute the tryptamine solution onto the herb. The dish should then be placed someplace dark and warm to dry. During drying it should be stirred often and repeatedly. We would suggest using no heat during this process. If too much alcohol was used, the herb mixture will be sopping or even soupy. If this is the case, the mass will need to be well stirred more frequently throughout the drying process, to avoid uneven distribution. When rolling into joints, a backstop of rolled cardstock should be used as a faux filter. This prevents the tryptamine from contacting the smoker’s lips and also aids in passing the joint. If using 1 gram of DMT and 1 gram of herb, this should yield two good joints that no one will Bogart. Thanks to anonymous friends in Oz for the suggestion of using pure Banisteriopsis caapi leaf as a smoking blend base. The degree to which this can prolong the effects of DMT must be experienced to be believed. — Justin Case, TX

HERBAL-SHAMAN A premier source for countless herbs, seeds, and a bounty of shamanic accessories for the past decade… NOW AVAILABLE, HIGH QUALITY

Mitragyna speciosa

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25 grams, $30 • 50 grams, $50 • 100 grams, $85

Herbal-Shaman POB 8892 (Dept. ER), Wichita, KS 67208, USA Orders, Toll Free: (877) 685-9199 Questions & Tracking: (316) 685-9199

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Events Calendar UNHOOKED THINKING APRIL 19–21, 2006

SHE SHAMANS & MAGIC MAMAS JUNE 23–25, 2006

Unhooked Thinking is “an unusual, international and multi-disciplinary conference enquiring into the nature of addiction,” which will be held April 19–21, 2006 at The Assembly Rooms, Bath, Somerset in the United Kingdom. It will feature presentations by Bruce Alexander, Susan Blackmore, David Clarke, Peter Cohen, David  T. Courtwright, John B. Davies, Kathelin Gray, Dawn Hart, Stefan Janikiewicz, Danny Kushlick, Tim Leighton, Gillies MacKinnon, Yaqub P. Murray, Marian Naidoo, Jim Orford, Stanton Peele, William Pryor, Andrew Rawlinson, Alan Rayner, Harry Shapiro, Julien Temple, Richard Velleman. For more information, see www.unhookedthinking.com.

Held at the Isis Oasis retreat center in Geyserville, CA, this is a conference by and about woman psychonauts. “Within our invisible tribe, women hold a unique set of insights into our worlds. Come together for a weekend of revelations presented by women who explore the vastness of inner space with friends and allies.” Presenters include Susie Bright, Jacqui Carroll, Linda Rosa Corazon, Valerie Corral, Diane Darling, Adele Getty, Kathleen Harrison, Alan Mason, Lou Montgomery, Cynthia Palmer, Jane Straight, Amanda Taylor, Scott Taylor, Jeff Winters, Patricia Winters, and Rev. Anne Zapf. Featuring two days of presentations and networking, with all-night music on Saturday, performances, fire circles, and a catered vegetarian meal plan. Camping is included in an all-weekend ticket; limited indoor accommodation is also available. See www.sheshamans.com for more information.

SCIENCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS APRIL 21–26, 2006 With the theme “Consciousness Exploring Itself,” this event in Santa Fe, NM, will include presentations from Cleve Backster, Don Beck, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Greg Braden, Carmen Brocklehurst, Helen Caldicott, Don Campbell, John Cogswell, Gabriel Cousens, Holly Curtis, Debra Davis, Michael Gelb, Jonathan Goldman, Peter Gorman, David Ray Griffin, Susan Hale, Joyce Hawkes, Shelley Kaehr, Alexandra Katehakis, Gayle Kimball, Daniel Kinderlehrer, J.Z. Knight, Konstantin Korotkov, Vasant Lad, Joe Miguez, Zachary James Miller, Dan Millman, Richard Moss, Liviu Nuteanu, James O’Dea, Onye Onyemaechi, Christine Page, Sharon Porter, John Reid, Ashley Rowan, Lydia Rowan, Peter Russell, Robert Sapien, Freddy Silva, Tim Simmerman, Libby Smith, Maboud Swierkosz, Tara Andrea Swierkosz, Greg Tamblyn, Russel Targ, Jeffrey Thompson, William Tiller, Paul Von Ward, and Fred Alan Wolf. Conference tickets are $745, which does not include hotel cost. For more information, see www.bizspirit.com.

WASIWASKA JUNE / JULY / AUGUST, 2006 Wasiwaska is located in the biologically diverse Atlantic Costal Forest area. At these conferences, Luis Eduardo Luna will present the latest news from the scientific study of ayahuasca, addressing the ethnography of ayahuasca and other psychointegrator plants. Join us for a combination of lectures, films, excursions, and other activities together with an experiential program. We have space for a maximum of twelve participants, double occupancy. There is a broadband Internet connection in every room. The June 12–25 seminar will feature Dennis McKenna and Ede Frecska; the July 4– 17 seminar will feature Graham Hancock, Santha Faila, and Clark Heinrich; the July 25 through August 7 seminar will feature Michael Winkelman and Mihály Hoppal; the August 14–25 seminar will feature Christos Daskalakos and Karen Helle Grue. For more information on the presenters and topics of their lectures, see www.wasiwaska.org or e-mail [email protected].

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Sources by Jon Hanna

THE BICYCLE RIDE www.normal-design/bicycle-ride.html

A short animation by artist David Normal created to celebrate Dr. Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday. I was pleased to be able to close out my animation clips collection shown in Basel at the LSD conference by screening the world premier of this work. It can be downloaded from the URL above. The animation is 3.47 minutes long, about 19MB, and is available in mpeg4 format. Check it out.

CANNABIS SEEDS Stephen Long POB 3066 Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 8WB UNITED KINGDOM [email protected] [email protected] www.cannabisseeds.com

Just what you would expect. They offer 60 different varieties of Cannabis seeds at quite reasonable prices, and will mail their seeds to the United States, as well as other countries.

LOOMPANICS UNLIMITED POB 1197 Port Townsend, WA 98368 (800) 380-2230 (360) 385-2230 voice (360) 385-7785 fax [email protected] www.loompanics.com

I recently learned that Loompanics, publisher and distributor of “underground” books, is going out of business.

And I learned about drugs. One title they distributed, The Anarchist’s Cookbook, contained one of the earliest trip reports on peyote that I remember reading as a kid. Their book Psychedelic Shamanism, by Jim DeKorne, renewed my interest in visionary plants and drugs later in life. They probably had some subtle influence on my future work as writer and selfpublisher. When their catalog supplement would arrive in the mail, I would stop whatever I was doing and read it coverto-cover. Some of their books are low-budget, low-quality efforts, so it can be a bit of a crap shoot to order books on-line. But other titles are quite good. For example, I really enjoyed Jim Hogshire’s Opium for the Masses, as a concise guide to that plant. In any case, they are liquidating their remaining stock with a 75% discount on all remaining titles. An alphabetical list of the titles that they offer (noting which ones are low in stock) is updated daily at their web site. Since some of the books Loompanics sells were published by them, those titles are likely to go out of print. For folks who like to speculate on such things, OOP drug books can sometimes command absurdly high prices. For example, D.M. Turner’s slim book Salvinorin: The Psychedelic Essence of Salvia Divinorum, OOP a decade ago, is now priced at $145 to $200 via sellers at Amazon.com. Loompanics is the only company I have ever placed a phone order with whose helpful staff member asked, “Would you like me to check the box where it says that you would prefer that we don’t sell your name and address to other companies?” I am sad to see them vanish from the scene. Scavenge their remaining stock while it lasts, as they will only be around as long as it takes to sell off what they still have.

I was perhaps fourteen years old when I first discovered Loompanics, and their books had a strong influence on my developing mind. From their titles, I learned how to pick locks, make pipe bombs, and create fake IDs. I learned about mail drops and phone phreaking and credit card scams.

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NEMO’S UTOPIA www.nemo.org

This site features the transformative art of Nemo (Justin Page). Vibrant color splashes through imagery that conveys the fresh, immediate feeling one gets when looking at the paintings of children or “primitive” cultures. Nemo’s works are simple, but not simplistic; complex, but not complicated; with a bit of an “outsider art” vibe. But Nemo’s Utopia isn’t limited to a gallery filled to the gills with his own cool work. It also features an eBay-based marketplace showcasing countless posters, prints, books, original paintings, stickers, clothing, CDs, and more from an expanding collection of visionary artists, designers, musicians, and writers. As he continues to add new offerings to the merchandise aspect of the site, Nemo may well end up creating a bizarre bazaar that acts as a central hub for collectors of psychedelia. Check it out.

PHYTOEXTRACTUM POB 2073 Boise, ID 83701 (866) 519-7083 (208) 639-9496 fax [email protected] www.phytoextractum.com

I like the variety of strange extracts that this company offers, many of which I was not familiar with and had to research. Along with a 70% alkaloidal extract of Picralima nitida and a 15X extract of Mitragyna speciosa, they have 5X extracts of all of the following: Buddleia officinalis flower bud, Salvia divinorum, Salvia miltiorrhiza root, Sophora subprostrata root, and Vitex agnus-castus berry powder. And they have unspecified concentration extracts from Corydalis yanhusuo rhizome powder, Laurelia novae-zelandiae, Leonitis leonurus resin, and Mitragyna javanica. Dried whole herbs for many of the same plants that they offer extracts of are available, and they also carry dried Lactuca virosa, Mitragyna parvifolia, Mitragyna

ENTHEOGEN LEGAL DEFENSE




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stipulosa, Tabernaemontana pachysiphon, and Voacanga africana root-bark, plus a very small selection of seeds and live plants. None of their products are sold for consumption.

PLOT55.COM 76 Queen Street Barry Vale of Glamorgan, CF62 7EE UNITED KINGDOM [email protected] www.plot55.com

Unfortunately, sometimes it is right when you learn about a cool company, that the company is going out of business. Plot55.com looks like it has been an outstanding entheobotanical business, offering most of the sorts of things that one might be interested in: from live peyote plants to ayahuasca analogue herbs, from the dried outer skin of Trichocereus peruvianus to an assortment of betel nut chews. On March 20, 2006, I heard that they were closing down their shop, and offering up all of their stock at very low prices until it can be sold off. Check them out soon, to see what remains available. They are only accepting checks (from the United Kingdom) or international money orders as payment at this time. Before setting up a shop, Plot55.com was run for 3–4 years as an information site, so there is still a lot of great data at the web site on the growing and use of entheogens, as well as a small, choice selection of links.

PSYCHONAUT.COM www.psychonaut.com

A reasonably new non-commercial on-line community for drug-related information, news, trip reports, a photo gallery, a forum, a Wiki-style encyclopedia, and links. With pages in English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese,

Telephone consultations and case representation nationwide by attorney Richard Glen Boire. [email protected]

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although this site is currently not huge, it has an international cast of contributors. From their web page description they note: “We’re not pretending to be smart asses knowing everything and [telling] you how stuff works. No, you tell us and everyone around…” I really like the clean design of this site, and their photo selection is so far dominated by high quality images.

SALVIA ZONE NAP & Associates, LLC POB 4077 Ithaca, NY 14852 1-888-SAL-ZONE [email protected] www.salviazone.com

A vendor of Salvia divinorum extracts who has taken an interesting approach to their products, by offering them as “meditation supplements” and associating the different strengths with various colors. “Green” is 16 mg of salvinorin A per gram of leaf, “Yellow” is 28 mg per gram, “Red” is 40 mg per gram, and “Purple” is 80 mg per gram. If one were to consider an average gram of S. divinorum might have 2.5 mg of salvinorin A in it, then Salvia Zone’s Green could be considered a 6.4X, their Yellow a 11.2X, their Red a 16X, and their Purple a 32X product. Strangely, they incorrectly call the psychoactive ingredient “salvinorum” instead of “salvinorin.”

BOOK OF NOTE I can’t really write a proper review for the following book, as I am currently only about halfway through reading it. However, I feel that it is important enough to recommend to ER subscribers anyway. The book has nothing to do with entheogens, but don’t let that stop you from picking up a copy. It is a mustread for anyone who has concerns about privacy.

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SPIRITGARDEN ETHNOBOTANICALS POB 111 Plymouth, PL7 4WW UNITED KINGDOM [email protected] www.spiritgarden.co.uk

Offering a selection of the major entheogens including ayahuasca and its analogues; peyote plants and seeds; a few Trichocereus, including dried samples of T. cuzcoensis; kratom and Salvia divinorum extracts; a few herbs, and seeds for a small assortment of plants. Their web site also has a forum, chat room, and links page.

TRAVELLER’S GARDEN Postbus 58339 1040HH Amsterdam THE NETHERLANDS +31 (0)20 4889886 +31 (0)84 7407122 Fax [email protected] www.travellersgarden.com

This looks to be a very well-stocked entheogen supply store that will ship worldwide (with the customer responsible for checking the laws in his or her country). They have spore prints for numerous Psilocybes, tons of mycological growgear, live cacti (various Lophophora and Trichocereus species, among others), a selection of the most desirable entheobotanical seeds, a good bookstore (with offerings in various languages), assorted entheo-tchotchke, and a respectable collection of links. Their web site is easy to use, and they appear to have done an excellent job targeting the exact products that readers of The Entheogen Review would be interested in. I’m impressed.

Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID, written by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre [ISBN 15955-5020-8; Nelson Current; $24.99] explains the inner workings of the “internet of things.” Radio Frequency IDentification is not some sci-fi future technology. It is currently available and being utilized in commercial products. If the corporate marketers

and government snoops have their way, computer chips the size of a grain of sand will be installed into every manmade object created, allowing them to be tracked in real time. Albrecht and McIntyre provide disturbing quotes from the actual patents and business plans, painting a dark future indeed, unless consumer advocates and protestors can put a stop to it. Buy this book immediately. — Jon Hanna

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XV, NUMBER 1




VERNAL EQUINOX 2006

In Memoriam Carla was a beacon of light who appeared to me when I was lost on a dark sea.

Photo taken at MIND STATES OAXACA, 2004.

She opened windows from this place to a sunny world. When I pointed to the farthest peak, she said, “We can go there.” When I dove to the farthest depths, I found her hand was in mine. When I was falling, she called out, “Open your wings.” Carla was a playful candle flame which warmly burned the most beautiful shades, adding color to all her light touched. Now she is farther away, on another journey. Yet when I look to her, her light is no less bright. Carla will forever be a compass point to that which is best in this world. I loved her. — Tristan J. Whitrock

Carla Annette Higdon August 24, 1963 — January 30, 2006 Carla Higdon was a dear friend to The Entheogen Review, a contributor to our Network Feedback forum, and a staunch supporter of our publication over the years. She worked within the psychedelic community for many years, lending her talents to both MAPS and the Mind States conferences. Most recently, she was involved with the Channel G media company, which promotes a variety of non-profit environmental, social, and health-related organizations. She will be sorely missed. 

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 1




VERNAL EQUINOX 2006

Bibliography Altaffer, P. 2006. Personal communication. Beckstrom-Sternberg, S.M. & J.A. Duke 1992. Phytochemical Database. USDA - ARS - NGRL. Choochote, W. et al. 1999. “Lavicidal, Adulicidal and Repellent Effects of Kæmpferia galanga,” Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 3: 470–476. DEA 2003. “Pickard and Apperson Sentenced on LSD Charges; Largest LSD Lab Seizure in DEA History,” Drug Enforcement Administration News Release, www.dea.gov/ pubs/states/newsrel/sanfran112403.html. Doblin, R. 2006-a. “Re: [vpl] Rick replies to Rev. MeO,” e-mail on 1/24/06, 5:16 pm.

Nora Lyon & Associates, Inc. n.d. Court transcription pages 1389–1392 from the case of United States of America vs. William Leonard Pickard and Clyde Apperson. Noro, T. et al. 1983. “Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor from the Rhizomes of Kæmpferia galanga L.,” Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin 31: 2708–2711. Othman, R. et al. 2002. “Vasorelaxant Effects of Ethyl Cinnamate Isolated from Kæmpferia galanga on Smooth Muscles of the Rat Aorta,” Planta Medica 68(7): 655–657. Pancharoen, O. et al. 1996. “Cyclohexane Diepoxides from Kæmpferia rotunda,” Phytochemistry 43: 305–308.

Doblin, R. 2006-b. “Re: [vpl] No apology given to psychedelic elders for wire,” e-mail on 1/26/06, 12:16 pm.

Rosenfeld, S. 2001. “William Pickard’s Long Strange Trip: Suspected LSD trail leads from the Bay Area’s psychedelics era to a missile silo in Kansas,” San Francisco Chronicle, 6/10/01.

Doblin, R. 2006-c. Personal communication.

Savinelli, A. 2006. Personal communication.

Doblin, R. 2006-d. “Re: [vpl] Rick replies to Rev. MeO,” e-mail on 1/24/06, 8:01 pm.

Travis, J. 2000. “Missile site LSD lab dismantled,” Topeka Capital-Journal, 11/19/00.

Doyle, B. 2004. “MAPS News 10/8/04: A time to celebrate!,” e-mail.

Unattributed 2000. This document appears to be a synopsis transcript of a 12/6/00 DEA interview of John Halpern. An attorney who examined these for The Entheogen Review was of the opinion that they are summaries prepared by a member of Leonard Pickard’s defense team.

Fry, S. 2003. “Skinner Accused of Perjury,” Topeka CapitalJournal, 3/7/03. Halpern, J. 2006. Personal communication. Kanjanapothi, D. et al. 2004. “Toxicity of Crude Rhizome Extract of Kæmpferia galanga L. (Proh Hom),” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 90: 359–365. Mokkhasmit, M. et al. 1971. “Study on Toxicity of Thai Medicine Plants,” Bulletin of the Department of Medical Sciences 12: 36–65. Nichols, D.E. 2006. Personal communication.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors João Serro Jon Hanna Rick Doblin Peter Gorman P.H., NM Pappa Keeper Trout Andrea Sciarnè W.H., IL Rev. MeO Benjamin Thomas, Australia C.R., F.C.I., NJ Loring Bard Greene The Salvia Divinorum Observer Justin Case, TX Tristan J. Whitrock

Design & Layout Soma Graphics Photos by Jon Hanna unless indicated otherwise

Reflections on Basel

1

Halperngate

9

Ayahuasca Healing and an Inkling of Darkness: Part Two

17

Network Feedback

27

Pedicularis Species

27

Ambíl

27

Gamma-OH?

29

Alcohol Pretreatment to Phenethylamines

29

AMP

29

Kæmpferia galanga Atropa belladonna

30 31

Natural Rights and Amnesty Act

32

Salvia Legal Update

33

DOC Report

33

Favorite Rolling Mixtures

34

Events Calendar

35

Sources

36

In Memoriam: Carla Annette Higdon

39

Bibliography

40

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover Work No. 250, Li I, 1974 © HR Giger Courtesy of www.HRGigerMuseum.com

share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices.

Back Cover (top) Interior of Giger Bar, photo by Wolfgang Holz (bottom) Alchemical gear at Paracelsus Museum

Copyright © 2006 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS POB 27048 BARRIE, ONTARIO, L4M 6K4 CANADA TEL: (01) 705-322-6614

FAX: (01) 705-322-6615

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XV, Number 1




Vernal Equinox 2006




ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XV, Number 2




Summer Solstice 2006




ISSN 1066-1913

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Andrew Sewell et al. (see page 42 for complete list) John Beresford et al. (see page 49 for complete list) R. Stuart Earth Erowid H.D.V., Germany C.A.P., MN J.S., OR Jon Hanna Castor Pollux

CONTENTS Different Researchers, Different Approaches So Your Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher Halperngate II: Voices from Behind Bars Circuitous Routes of Administering Trichocerei: Enemas, Urine Drinking, and Urine Enemas Comments on the New State Laws Controlling the Consumption of Hallucinogenic Plants Network Feedback AMP Update Wrong Plant! Effective Drug Control Essential Oil Sources Mimosa scabrella Seeds and Stenocereus Hystrix DOC Revisited Recent Articles of Interest SheShamans & Magic Mamas: Women’s Entheogen Conference • June 23–25, 2006 Events Calendar Ten Post-1980s Psychedelic Non-Electronica Instrumental CDs For Neo-Shamanic Use That You Should Know About Bibliography

41 42 49 56 60 62 62 63 63 64 64 65 66 67 71 72 75

Errata: On page 5 of the Vernal Equinox 2006 issue we accidentally misidentified the gentleman photographed with Christian Rätsch as Wolf-Dieter Storl; this is actually Wolfgang Ohlhäuser. Our apologies for the error.

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover The Dance/Interdepend-dance (detail) by Vibrata Chromodoris

Back Cover Warrior by Vibrata Chromodoris For more information about the art of Vibrata Chromodoris: www.vibrata.com

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2006 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS POB 27048 BARRIE, ONTARIO, L4M 6K4 CANADA TEL: (01) 705-322-6614

FAX: (01) 705-322-6615

www.ethnogarden.com • [email protected] Accepting: Amex, Visa, Mastercard, and Money Orders

VOLUME XV, NUMBER 2




SUMMER SOLSTICE 2006

Different Researchers, Different Approaches by David Aardvark

Andrew Sewell’s article kicking off this issue of The Entheogen Review discusses a number of approaches available to people interested in doing aboveground research on psychedelics. Following that—in a response to the “Halperngate” article that ran in our last issue—John Beresford questions the validity of “the medicalization of psychedelics” approach taken by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. MAPS’ mission statement is indeed “to sponsor scientific research designed to develop psychedelics and marijuana into FDA-approved prescription medicines.” And it’s possible, whether or not one believes it is ultimately beneficial, that this goal may never be realized. Yet while MAPS has been working at it for the last twenty years, there have been countless other beneficial results along the way. Particularly in recent years, the “multidisciplinary” aspect of this organization has truly flowered. MAPS has examined the cultural use of psychedelics and how they can influence creativity, spirituality, sexuality, and families. MAPS has sponsored gatherings, provided hands-on harm reduction at festivals, funded and published topical books and produced calendars emblazoned with the work of contemporary psychedelic artists, served as a fiscal sponsor for other organizations, and generally acted as a hub for the community. In the end, it may be a case where MAPS’ stated goal is not nearly as important as the voyage taken attempting to reach that goal. Different approaches toward studying psychedelics can clearly be complementary—there is no “one correct path.” For the last fourteen years, The Entheogen Review has acted as a network newsletter showcasing underground discoveries. For the last thirteen years, The Heffter Research Institute has pointedly funded scientific inquiries into psychedelics. And for the last twelve years, the Council on Spiritual Practices has examined the mystical arenas. Sponsored in part by the Council on Spiritual Practices, an amazing study was recently written up in the journal Psychopharmacology: “Psilocybin Can Occasion Mystical-type Experiences Having Substantial and Sustained Personal Meaning and Spiritual Significance,” by Griffiths et al. The article is available on-line at www.hopkinsmedicine.org/

Press_releases/2006/GriffithsPsilocybin.pdf and four commentaries, along with an additional editorial on the article, can be found at www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/ 2006/GriffithsCommentaries.pdf. This study provided further support for the 1962 “Good Friday Experiment” run by Walter Pahnke. The work conducted by Griffiths’ team is inspiring to me for three reasons: First, the study—performed on “hallucinogen naïve” subjects—was incredibly well conceived. It is worth reading the paper just to admire how thoughtfully the study’s design was constructed—with regard to truly disguising the doubleblind framework, with regard to medical concerns, with regard to testing procedures, and with regard to follow-up. Second, the investigators are to be commended for keeping their work quiet while it was in progress. By taking this approach, sensationalistic protests were avoided and a powerful media punch occurred all at once. Coverage appeared in nearly two dozen mainstream sources, and a recent Google search for the paper’s title turned up 178 hits—not bad in less than a month. Amazingly, the research was also sponsored in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Yet the press storm was too much for NIDA to weather: Director Nora Volkow responded with government warnings discouraging the use of hallucinogens due to their “well-known adverse effects”: profound distortions of reality, psychosis, paranoia, and extreme anxiety (see www.nida.nih.gov/about/welcome/messagepsilocybin 706.html). It is interesting to compare Volkow’s remarks to the scientific findings reported in the title of the paper by Griffiths et al.! Third, and perhaps most impressive, this study was not designed with a medical approach. There was no illness that psilocybin was supposed to treat or cure. It was the simple psychological investigation of an entheogen with a long history of ethnographic use for spiritual purposes. The resultant positive effects on the study’s participants were profound and unquestionable. The fact that the study happened at all might be evidence that there is some higher power looking over us! Kudos to those involved with this research—and with all ethical research, regardless of the approach taken. 

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SUMMER SOLSTICE 2006

So You Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher? by R. Andrew Sewell, M.D. • McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School with contributions from Matt Baggott, Ph.D. (candidate) • Nicholas V. Cozzi, Ph.D. • Rick Doblin, Ph.D. • Robert Forte • Marc Franklin Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. • Paul Goodwin, Ph.D. • Casey Guillot, Ph.D. (candidate) • Jon Hanna • Jordan Holmes Ilsa Jerome, Ph.D. • Sameet Kumar, Ph.D. • Christopher D. Lovett, Ph.D. (candidate) • Dan Merkur, Ph.D. Julia Onnie-Hay • Erik Peden, Ph.D. • Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. • Michael Allan Ruderman • Kevin Sachs, Ph.D. and Tobias C. van Veen, Ph.D.

Introduction With the current renaissance in psychedelic research, after a forty-year moratorium, undergraduates interested in the topic are increasingly starting to ask: “How can I get involved?” Unfortunately, psychedelics are still heavily stigmatized, and there is as yet no obvious infrastructure into which enthusiasts can channel their energy. There are no psychedelic research graduate programs, no psychedelic student groups, no psychedelic scholarships, and few professors willing to provide mentorship or funding agencies willing to sponsor such research. This leaves undergraduates inspired by psychedelics frustrated and uncertain about what they should be doing in order to most help the cause. Here are some suggestions and guidance for those so perplexed. First, examine your motives for entering psychedelic research? Is it because psychedelics are novel and “cool”? If so, you are apt to find psychedelic research disappointing. While Dr. Timothy Leary, perhaps the most famous of the psychedelic researchers, found it a route to enduring fame and hot sex with large numbers of young women, he did this primarily though his showmanship rather than his scientific research. If such a lifestyle is appealing to you, there are shorter routes to this goal than decades of scholarly study. Or is it because you have had a mystical or life-changing experience on a psychedelic? You do not need to become a psychedelic researcher in order to continue your selfexploration; you do not even need to continue to take psychedelics, as there are many other methods of changing one’s own consciousness, from yoga to meditation to Holotropic Breathwork™. Such a path may prove profoundly self-altering—however, it is unlikely to change society.

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Or is it because you are frustrated living in a culture that tramples individual freedoms, discourages introspection and insight, substitutes lies and half-truths for genuine science, encourages people to self-censor and conform to that which they know is harmful and wrong, and that you wish instead to change society for the better? You do not need to be a scientific researcher in order to be an activist. Ultimately, scientific research is only useful as a tool in the hands of the activist, for it is the activist who compels society to improve. Or is it because you are motivated by a genuine curiosity about these peculiar substances, and wish to apply the tools of modern inquiry toward understanding their properties? Perhaps you appreciate that scientists such as Ralph Abraham, Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, Andrew Weil, and Nobel Prize winners such as Francis Crick, Richard Feynman, and Kary Mullis have found psychedelics valuable tools in formulating their great discoveries, and wonder how this can be so? Maybe you know that the discovery of LSD was what sparked interest in the serotonin system and prompted the explosive growth of modern psychopharmacology that continues today? Possibly you contemplate what other wonders may lie hidden in the closed box of psychedelic science? And are you willing to accept that your unconventional interests may lead to professional isolation or even ostracism, and that the time-consuming navigation of the layers of red tape endemic to psychedelic research will inevitably slow your publication rate and consequently promotions compared with your peers? And are you aware that the total lack of government or corporate support for such endeavors means that you will never be rich, and you may in fact eventually land in jail on trumped up charges of one sort or another? If such considerations do not trouble you, then read on.

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 2




As An Undergraduate Get Your Degree! Lie Low & Infiltrate the System The undergraduate years are a difficult time for the nascent psychedelic researcher because of the stigma that these drugs still hold. Many undergraduates come to realize that broadcasting their unconventional views at this time could potentially harm their future careers, and thus indirectly harm psychedelic research. Sometimes we have to conform to others’ expectations in order to establish a solid base of credibility, and wait for a time when we can be more independent in our pursuits. The book Why Shrooms Are Good by Joe Schmoe is likely to be ignored; Therapeutic Benefits of Psilocybin by Dr. Joe Schmoe considerably less so, even if both books say exactly the same thing. Incidentally, OE this was the path I followed; I didn’t breath a word of my interests until I was already on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Be warned, however—conformity for too long can corrode the soul. And in retrospect, you are freer as an undergraduate than you may think you are.

SUMMER SOLSTICE 2006

Alternately, design your own independent study course for credit in psychedelics. Use Dr. Roberts’ syllabus as a basis. Paul Goodwin is starting a web site aimed at interested students offering links and short descriptions of courses relevant to psychedelic studies. This should be on-line by the fall of 2006 (www.psycomp.org.uk). Keep current with the literature in your area of interest, and start thinking about ideas for your own research project. Another graduate student writes:

The book Why Shrooms Are Good by J SCHMOE is likely to be ignored…

Educate Yourself About Psychedelics Read what scientific literature does exist regarding psychedelics, not just the material that draws popular attention. If possible, take a course in psychedelics. Dr. Stacy B. Schaefer teaches a class on “Indigenous People of Latin America” at California State University, Chico, dealing in part with the peyote-using Huichol Indians. Dr. Constantino Manuel Torres teaches an “Art and Shamanism” course at Florida International University, exploring traditional cultures that use psychedelics. Northern Illinois University offers regular courses by Dr. Thomas Roberts. Invite him to be a guest lecturer at your own school! Dr. Roberts writes: If your department or another would like to offer either course—“Foundations of Psychedelic Studies” or “Entheogens—Sacramentals or Sacrilege?” to students (graduate or undergraduate), it might be possible for me to travel every now and then and meet with a class, say over long weekends or for a day or two every couple of weeks. The rest we can do by Internet.

I completed an honors thesis as an undergraduate, which basically was a literature review, and it ended up resulting in my first publication a few years later. It also led up to my master’s thesis (a quasi-experimental study) and a few other papers in press. The best thing undergraduates can do to help is to prepare themselves, I believe. Be persistent about being a part of psychedelic research, if that is truly where your heart lies. I may not be able to do exactly what I want right now, but I still can keep it in mind for the future.

“The Implications of Psychedelic Research for XXX” often makes a good term paper topic. Rephrasing a title as a question is one tactic to use when encountering skeptical professors: “Do Psychedelics Have Implications for XXX?” or “How Should We Evaluate Psychedelic Claims of XXX?” Also, consider requesting that your local and school libraries acquire psychedelic books. Not only does this help spread knowledge, it also helps authors and encourages publishers to accept more psychedelic titles. In the meantime, attend a convention! There’s quite a bit of psychedelic research presented at the yearly Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts conferences (http:// slsa.press.jhu.edu). Similarly, the Toward a Science of Consciousness conferences held in Tucson, Arizona every other year also always have some presentations dealing with psychedelic research (www.consciousness.arizona.edu). And more specifically focused on psychedelics and altered states are the yearly Mind States conventions, where aboveground researchers and underground psychonauts congregate to discuss their latest discoveries. The monthly Mind States e-mailing list provides updates on similar events that happen worldwide (www.mindstates.org).

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 2

Underground publications often present cutting-edge discoveries in the arenas of psychedelic chemistry, botany, and pharmacology. The Entheogen Review, for example, was the first place to discuss the extraction of tryptamines from Phalaris grasses for ayahuasca analogues and the first to confirm the psychoactivity of Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) without coadministration of a monoamine oxidase inhibitor. These days, countless web sites and discussion forums carry first-person reports of the latest synthetic psychedelics and botanical preparations. Amateur science flourishes in our current legal situation, in which professional science is so difficult to perform that most discoveries have to be made underground. Remember, though, that the rigorous controls present in aboveground science are usually lacking in underground efforts, rendering many results questionable at best. Start a Psychedelic Student Group While one undergraduate is easy to intimidate, large groups of them have a history of occupying administration buildings to facilitate societal change. Fish travel in schools for a reason! Another strategy, therefore, is to start a student group. One possibility would be to form a chapter of a national organization such as the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), or Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). This approach would be similar to student chapters of Greenpeace, Amnesty International, or Students for a Free Tibet. One notorious troublemaker writes: I took out an ad in the school’s newspaper, “Come to the first meeting of the University of Chicago Psychedelic Education Society.” We met at the spot that marked the beginning of the Atomic Age, a Henry Moore sculpture called The Nuclear Egg. About a hundred people showed up…. We shared stories, brought speakers to town, dreamed of a saner world, and labored to manifest one.

At Harvard, where I work, there is no recognized undergraduate student organization focused on psychedelic research. The procedure for creating such an organization can be found on-line at: www.college.harvard.edu/student/ handbook.pdf. The advantages of forming a recognized student organization are many. Not only can recognized groups get permission to use campus facilities and assembly halls for events and symposia, they are also eligible to apply for funding from the student government. A student organization focused on psychedelic research could engage in out-

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SUMMER SOLSTICE 2006

reach with other student groups and academic departments encompassing most of the physical, biological, and social sciences, as well as those pertaining to the arts, humanities, and civil liberties. Events could be held on campus to educate and inform, and university funds could be used to bring in speakers and arrange conferences. Such events could draw participants from all over the world. While these activities do not necessarily amount to actual “psychedelic research,” they could be fashioned in a manner to do so, if—for example—a faculty member were enlisted to supervise a survey-based study. More importantly, student organizations spread awareness, generate understanding, and de-stigmatize psychedelics, thereby helping to set the stage for actual research when the time and place are right. SSDP and the student ACLU group helped sponsor the ethnopharmacology society’s seminar on the co-evolution of plants and humans. We also were awarded a grant from the student organization office—raising more than a thousand bucks!—and were able to bring in Dennis McKenna as the outside speaker. It was a splendid event, with Dennis giving a great talk examining plant chemical communication signals that may be driving the interesting side of human evolution. It was followed by a panel discussion that included some of University of Washington’s botany professors, a classics scholar, and an Incan medicine man.

Volunteer Numerous organizations exist that appreciate people who offer to do volunteer work. MAPS needs help with their online psychedelic bibliography, creating abstracts for many of the articles that are listed. The Erowid web site also sometimes uses volunteers (see www.erowid.org/general/about/ about_volunteers.shtml). Find an organization with which you resonate and contact them to see what sort of help they need. Write Letters Without government approval, psychedelic research will stagnate as it has for the last forty or so years. Government politicians, agencies, and organizations need to understand that people interested in psychedelics are not thoughtlessly promoting drug use, but are sincerely searching for personal and scientific truths. Write letters and share how you feel! Nobody can arrest you for an opinion—yet. Donate Money to Psychedelic Organizations This is by far the easiest way to get involved. With no support from government or industry, that means that funding

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for psychedelic research is going to come from one place only—you! See the listing below for the web sites of psychedelic organizations.

As a Graduate Student Your first stop should be the Heffter Research Institute’s Scientific Advisory Panel, which is a list of psychedelic allies in the international academic world. The locations where these individuals work are areas where there is possible support for psychedelic research.   Failing this, Dr. Alexander Shulgin’s recommendation is to get as strong a foundation in graduate school as possible. Work in a highly respected institution with good people doing solid, reputable research, pick up as many skills as you can along the way (for you never know which will ultimately be useful) then pursue what it is that you genuinely want to do, which you might not even know until after graduate school anyway. Learn solid methodology and techniques, gain as much knowledge as you can, hone your analytic skills—while keeping sight of the “big picture”—and then apply all these resources to psychedelic research when the time comes. The more rigorous and stringent your research and its interpretation, the harder it will be for people to argue with it, reject it, or not take it seriously—and that can make all the difference. If you try to get as much as you can out of graduate or medical school, you’ll always have those tools, analytical skills, and knowledge of sound techniques available to do excellent research in whatever field you choose. In addition, it is important to have proficiency and credibility in a field other than psychedelic research, to serve as a fallback position when changing political winds make times tough. My own path was one of going to medical school and becoming a medical doctor, which I figured was a necessity if I ever wanted to actually give these drugs to people, which I do. Furthermore, I believe that an M.D. sometimes has more credibility than a Ph.D. or politician when it comes to telling people what’s good and bad for them. My grant proposals can afford to be a little more daring because if they’re all turned down, I won’t be living on the street—seeing patients for money is always an option. One disadvantage, of course, is the length of training—which in my case (neurology/psychiatry) was ten years after college. Another disadvantage is the large loans and consequent temptation to specialize in something more profitable than psychedelics (and ample opportunities to do so). But I have no regrets about the path I have chosen to follow.




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If you wish to follow the Ph.D. route, however, pure neuroscience or neuropharmacology is extremely valuable, as it is much easier politically to give psychedelics to animals or tissue cultures than it is to humans, and there is a large amount of funding available in areas indirectly applicable to the study of psychedelics, such as the pharmacology and physiology of serotonin. This sort of research builds the credibility necessary to apply for funding to study psychedelics directly. Unfortunately, much of the research done in these fields is on animals and never directly examines higher-order thought and cognition—the levels at which psychedelics engage human consciousness in the most fascinating way. And sadly, there are few academics in these fields willing to serve as mentors for students interested in psychedelics. Experimental psychology, the study of the human mind, is also valuable, but psychonaut psychologists have given graduate-level psychology study mixed reviews. Today’s experimental psychology Ph.D. programs reportedly involve working in very restricted domains, performing tightly controlled experiments that rarely resemble real-world conditions, focus primarily on outward “behavior” (as opposed to studying “mind”), and interpreting data in ways that are inevitably constrained by how well they fit with currently accepted theories. Clinical psychology will allow you to build the skills necessary in any multidisciplinary team researching the psychotherapeutic value of psychedelics. When psychedelics are ultimately approved as a treatment modality, a clinical psychologist will undoubtedly be part of any such treatment team. And as a clinical psychologist, you’ll be able to design clinical trials sensitive to “set and setting,” which are largely ignored in contemporary psychedelic research. Clinical psychology graduate students report that the most prominent psychological perspective today is cognitive-behavioral, an approach more balanced between observable behavior and cognition. Less mainstream, transpersonal graduate schools such as the California Institute of Integral Studies, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, or the Saybrook Institute provide an alternative to the prevailing cognitive-behavioral paradigm. Collectively, these institutes are the central hubs of clinical psychology wisdom, knowledge, and experience from the sixties, largely due to the influx of faculty such as Ralph Metzner, Stanislav Grof, Richard Tarnas, Stanley Krippner, and other veterans of the psychedelic science community.

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Also consider psychoanalytic training, which is not just for M.D.s any more—learning to navigate the subconscious is a valuable skill for anyone doing psychedelic psychotherapy! A dream is not so different from a trip, and dream analysis skills translate directly. But if you’re interested in research, make sure that you get a Ph.D. rather than a Psy.D. Cognitive science is a pure “science of the mind,” drawing from a variety of disciplines, including computer science. (Cognitive science was largely founded as an attempt to model and imitate the human mind on a computer system.) There are far fewer such programs than comparable psychology programs, which are ubiquitous, yet cognitive science differs from experimental psychology in that it relies strongly on theoretical and empirical work done in other fields (such as ethnographic research), especially philosophy, neuroscience, and linguistics, but also sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies. These data are then used in an integrative way to better understand and modify theoretical foundations, rather than looked at as orthogonal data from a “different field.” The boundaries between disciplines often dissolve, resulting in integration that is necessary in order to understand the psychedelic experience and consciousness in general. Cognitive science, as the science of higher order conceptual structure and thought, will permit you to broadly study the mind itself, its cognitive components, how it is manifested in neural tissue, and how meaning is created, organized, modified, and communicated by humans in the real ecological, social, and cultural environment that we inhabit. Many cognitive science programs emphasize computational modeling, which is unfortunately still in its infancy. One cognitive scientist writes: Here, in a cognitive science program, I am able to work in labs doing both brain-imaging (fMRI) as well as electrophysiological (EEG/ERP—brainwave) research, but at the same time study in rigorous detail theories from philosophy and linguistics while attempting to form a coherent picture of how the mind works, what “thought” is, and how we comprehend “reality.”

Ultimately, when deciding on a graduate program that will nurture your growth and refine your skills, your decision should be based on the professors under whom you will be working, the type of research that is carried out in their labs, the resources available to you, and the fit of your questions and ideas with those of your advisor. Whatever route you

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follow, learn as much as you can and keep your mind, eyes, and ears wide open. Absorb and integrate what you are studying with your own interests and ideas, but never shy away from something because it seems too rigid or intuitively “wrong” or entrenched within illusory modes of thought. Decide what you think is accurate and what is not, know why what you think is wrong is wrong, then envision a better way to understand and explain the phenomenon. There are many paths to becoming a psychedelic researcher. Like the Internet, science views censorship as a system failure and routes around it; psychedelic research, which has long lain fallow, is slowly germinating once again. You may end up studying the biochemical and neural basis for the psychedelic experience, psychedelic psychotherapy, religious and contemplative approaches to the ecstatic experience, the nature of consciousness, law reform and public policy, going on ethnographic and anthropological expeditions, or designing and running clinical trials. You may become a strong voice in the media. But what matters most in the end is that you attain success and satisfaction on a personal, professional, and spiritual level, while at the same time remaining true to yourself and your beliefs.  Recommended resources for self-education adapted from Thomas Roberts’ “Foundations of Psychedelic Studies” course:

Books & Magazines Earleywine, Mitch ▼ Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence Forte, Robert (editor) ▼ Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences ▼ Entheogens and the Future of Religion Grinspoon, Lester and James B. Bakalar ▼ Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered Grof, Stanislav ▼ LSD Psychotherapy ▼ Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research Hanna, Jon and Sylvia Thyssen (editors) ▼ MAPS Bulletin, Vol. X, No. 3— Psychedelics and Creativity Hayes, Charles (editor) ▼ Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures Hofmann, Albert ▼ LSD: My Problem Child Huxley, Aldous ▼ The Doors of Perception

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Ott, Jonathan ▼ Pharmacotheon Pellerin, Cheryl ▼ Trips: How Hallucinogens Work in Your Brain Pendell, Dale ▼ Pharmako/Poeia: Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herbcraft ▼ Pharmako/Dynamis: A Guide for Adepts of the Poison Path ▼ Pharmako/Gnosis: Plant Teachers and the Poison Path Roberts, Thomas ▼ Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion ▼ Brainstorm: A Psychological Odyssey ▼ Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy, www.csp.org/chrestomathy Shulgin, Alexander and Ann Shulgin ▼ PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story ▼ TIHKAL: The Continuation Smith, Huston ▼ Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Enthogenic Plants and Chemicals Stevens, Jay ▼ Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream Stolaroff, Myron ▼ The Secret Chief: Conversations with a Pioneer of the Underground Psychedelic Therapy Movement ▼ Thanatos to Eros: Thirty-five Years of Psychedelic Exploration Walsh, Roger and Charles S. Grob ▼ Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics Wolfe, Tom ▼ The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Zimmer, Lynn and John Morgan ▼ Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence

Articles Huxley, Aldous ▼ “Drugs that Shape Men’s Minds” www.csp.org/practices/entheogens/docs/huxley-drugs.html Jansen, Karl ▼ “Comments on BBC’s Psychedelic Science” www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n2/07221bbc.html Nichols, David ▼ “From Eleusis to PET Scans: the Mysteries of Psychedelics” www.maps.org/news-letters/v09n4/09450nic.html Powell, Simon G. ▼ “On the Crest of a Wave: A Brief Review of the BBC’s Horizon Special Psychedelic Experience” www.maps.org/news-letters/v07n2/07220bbc.html




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Roberts, Thomas B. ▼ “Entheogens: Sacramentals or Sacrilege?” www.cedu.niu.edu/epf/edpsych/faculty/roberts/ index_roberts.html Vaughan, Frances ▼ “A Question of Balance: Health and Pathology in New Religious Movements” www.csp.org/communities/docs/vaughan-balance.html Wasson, R. Gordon ▼ “Seeking the Magic Mushroom” www.imaginaria.org/wasson/life.htm

Internet Field Trips The Albert Hofmann Foundation ▼ www.hofmann.org Association for Transpersonal Psychology ▼ www.atpweb.org Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics ▼ www.cognitiveliberty.org Drug Policy Alliance ▼ www.drugpolicy.org DrugSense – Media Awareness Project ▼ www.drugsense.org Erowid ▼ www.erowid.org Grof Transpersonal Training, Inc. ▼ www.holotropic.com Heffter Research Institute ▼ www.heffter.org The Ken Kesey Site ▼ www.key-z.com Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies ▼ www.maps.org Pot-TV ▼ www.pot.tv The Psychedelic Library ▼ www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/lsdmenu.htm The Psychedelic Sixties: Literary Tradition & Social Change ▼ www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/sixties Spiritual Traditions and Communities ▼ www.csp.org/communities/communities U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ▼ www.usdoj.gov/dea

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Author Contact Information All authors have agreed to serve as resources for aspiring psychedelic researchers. Nicholas V. Cozzi, Ph.D., Pharmacology [email protected]

N REVIEW

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SUM 2 BER VII, NUM VOLUME

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Public Policy [email protected]

THE ENTHE

OGEN REVIE

The Journ al of Unau thorized Research VOLUME XII on Vision , NUMBER ary Plant 2
s and Dr SUMMER SOLS ugs TICE 20 03
ISSN 1066 -1913

Robert Forte, Master of Arts, Religious Studies (AMRS) [email protected] Marc Franklin, Photographer [email protected] Paul Goodwin, Neuroscience and Pharmacology [email protected] Casey Guillot, Ph.D. candidate, Clinical Psychology [email protected] Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D., Social/Environmental Psychology [email protected] Jon Hanna, Roustabout, Ne’er-do-well [email protected] Ilsa Jerome, Ph.D., Social Psychology [email protected] Sameet Kumar, Ph.D., Clinical Psychology [email protected] Christopher D. Lovett, B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, M.S. Cognitive Science, Ph.D. candidate, Cognitive Science [email protected] Dan Merkur, Ph.D., Comparative Religion [email protected]

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 2




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Halperngate II Voices from Behind Bars by John Beresford, M.D. • Committee on Unjust Sentencing with contributions from Malakkar Vohryzek • G. Walter Dash • Joe Rufra • Anonymous • Amy Ralston • Casey Hardison

We are all indebted to Jon Hanna for his “Halperngate” report on the scandal that erupted on Friday January 13, 2006, during the presentation of MAPS-sponsored psychedelic research at the symposium in honor of Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday in Basel. As Jon recounted, Mark McCloud interrupted the talk delivered by John Halpern, M.D., with the brassy question: Was Halpern an agent of the DEA? To some of those present at the event, Halpern’s “No… no DEA” seemed excruciatingly lame. When Mark persisted, stating that he had papers showing the existence of some form of DEA connection, the game appeared to be up. After presentations by Andrew Sewell on the neurological features of the cluster headache syndrome, Charles S. Grob on the medical significance of mystical experience, and others, Rick Doblin concluded the session with what to some in the audience felt like an ultimatum: If we wanted psychedelic research done, it was Halpern or nothing—take it or leave it. Mark was glad he interrupted Dr. Halpern’s talk; the buzz was, “Now everybody knows.” Considering that Mark has twice been targeted by the DEA in the most ruthless fashion imaginable, that his framed blotter collection was ripped from the walls of his house, and that he escaped conviction by a Kansas City jury by a hairsbreadth on the strength of testimony to his artistic interest in blotter history (as he told the audience in Basel, “they spent a million dollars trying to kill me”), Mark’s outrage at the perfidy he detected in Halpern’s behavior is understandable. I would like to address two areas related to the controversy Mark’s intervention started. One has to do with the function of the kind of research MAPS promotes. The other has to do with the ethical obligations that one who undertakes public “aboveground” research should assume. I will keep short what I have to say, to leave room for remarks by prisoners incarcerated for the use of psychedelic agents, to whom I circulated copies of the “Halperngate” article.

The first point is practical. Few may agree, but I question the premise under which MAPS operates. That is, the idea that medicalizing the use of psychedelic agents is a worthwhile pursuit. Is it a smart move to put psychedelic agents in the hands of the medical profession? There are three objections I can think of. Suppose Halpern (or better, Sewell) succeeds in demonstrating a part-solution to the otherwise intractable problem of cluster headaches. Are we to imagine general practitioners or neurologists rushing to write prescriptions for LSD? That seems far-fetched. LSD is not the kind of agent you pick up from a pharmacy, with perhaps a package insert warning: “May cause hallucinations.” MAPS’ interest, however, is directed chiefly to the therapeutic application of MDMA, dispensed in occasional doses under the supervision of a doctor who is experienced with the effects of the drug. I can envision that as a possibility. And I can even foresee a time when the use of MDMA could be handled by a physician who is not intimately acquainted with its effects, nor with the “consciousness expanding” features of a true psychedelic compound. Nevertheless, there are two more considerations. Suppose the medical profession is entrusted with the use of psychedelic agents for the purpose of treating medical pathology. Patient A has a diagnosis of condition B and is treated with psychedelic agent C. Reduction or elimination of symptoms follows. That may be all very well, but what does it tell us about the intrinsic effect of agent C on the human mind or brain? Precisely nothing, as far as I can tell. Although well-intentioned, such an approach has no scientific merit. We are back in the age when foxglove tincture helped the patient with edema, without any understanding of the impact of digitalis on the myocardium. Knowledge of the therapeutic efficacy of an agent may leave us in the dark as to the underlying nature of the effect exerted. Such “research” is primitive, not fundamental. The third objection that springs to mind is this: Suppose MAPS posts a list of brilliant successes in the treatment field.

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Psychedelic agents find a place in the United States pharmacopoeia. Where does this leave the rest of us? Rick Doblin views the reinstatement of psychedelic research at Harvard as a “symbolic triumph,” with Harvard putting the bad old Leary days behind it. What bad old Leary did, however, was free the use of psychedelics from the control of fusty academic know-nothings. As Robert Forte related in his Basel presentation “Let’s Save Democracy,” Tim pulled America out of its pre-LSD doldrums. Many of us know stories of the lifesaving effect of LSD when it was popularly available in the 1960s and 1970s. Inherently conservative, the medical profession played no part in popularizing the use of LSD then. I don’t see EARY the American Medical Association behaving differently today. For the foreseeable future, LSD use remains underground, where it belongs—in the hands of the intellectual avant garde and freaks who honor and appreciate it. Is MAPS to say who takes LSD?

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controller, having been informed of the latter’s appearance, proper name, and pseudonyms) may—for all one knows— include a provision that at some future time the doctor’s cooperation will be required not only in relation to the Leonard Pickard case but in relation to some other investigation. The soothing denial put forward by Rick Doblin when he says that he is confident of Halpern’s harmlessness is of little comfort here. For suppose research with MDMA gets under way in Salt Lake City, and community talk about the rave scene there is looser than it should be. The surreptitious recordings that Dr. Halpern made on previous occasions could be similarly made in the future. Liabilities accrue.

What bad old L did, however, was free the use of psychedelics from the control of fusty academic know-nothings.

So much for a practical critique of MAPS’ approach. Closer to the bone is the uncomfortable feeling any user of psychedelics should have who gets too close to Halpern. Rick chooses to ignore the potentially negative impact of a laying-on-of-hands by Halpern. Rick thinks it perfectly in order for his friend to man a crisis tent at events like Burning Man, where psychedelic or other drug use may occur. But why does Rick promote Halpern’s presence at such events? Here’s the rub: Halpern apparently needs the “training” that his “peers and mentors” can provide. Halpern needs help in acquiring the know-how to handle a bad trip? Perhaps… but in that case, what are his credentials for running sessions in the first place? What is Halpern’s competence to handle LSD? Suppose that running sessions for Halpern is a piece of cake. A more weighty consideration cautions against entering into an intimate relation with him. The man is a presumptive snitch. Here we come to technicalities. Rick is right in saying that his friend is not an “agent,” by that meaning that he is not in the employ of the DEA. Nor is he, so far as one can tell, a Confidential Informant, running errands for an agent proper, gathering evidence to turn over to a prosecutor. Nevertheless, the terms of Halpern’s association with his “controller ”(I have it on good evidence that he does have a DEA

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For all that, Rick has a point when he says we should not be too hard on Dr. Halpern. I think he means that no one can imagine the mental torture involved in a DEA investigation. Who is to say they would not crack under the circumstances? The name Halpern is tainted with the label snitch. That does not mean he should give up his position at Harvard and retire from academic life. The decent thing, I’d have thought, would be to retire from psychedelic research—not embrace it with the unseemly gusto he is wont to. There are plenty of fields a Harvard faculty member can enter. Halpern could busy himself in a profitable yet inoffensive field such as medical statistics.

 Below are excerpts from a letter by Malakkar Vohryzek, who is doing time at Federal Prison Camp, Lompoc, for LSD distribution. He writes on the subject of the snitch from the viewpoint of an insider. As a MAPS member and subscriber to The Entheogen Review I am in the middle of two approaches, as well as being a POW in the drug war. So I have a unique perspective with several different angles, all of which color my points: 1. MAPS’ research is important. 2. MAPS’ trying to legitimize research through the U.S. government is an important process with a desirable goal.

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3. The process of legitimization is always through “the man.” 4. This doesn’t make the use of government snitches acceptable. It is not a question of, “Once with the man, always with the man,” but rather a deeper question. They found his breaking point. When a bone breaks once, it is easy to break it a second time. Halpern presents a danger because it is unclear if he is still a government package, and even if he is not he could become one with coercion. On an existential level the goal of psychedelic research is to help humanity. To use someone who has harmed another to win self-protection or seek favors from the man is to go against the principles on which the psychedelic community is founded. Where on the slippery slope does the evil stop? Halpern’s assistance could have been the linchpin to Pickard’s life sentence. How does that differ from experimenting on live victims, in terms of moral choice? I have not yet seen a snitch agreement that promised nondisclosure of status (and I’ve seen many snitch agreements, doing jailhouse lawyer work). Most snitches do not reveal their status because they are aware of the wrongness of their act. The unspoken theme in drug transactions is that snitching is wrong, no matter what the drug is or who is involved. More than likely, Halpern has not revealed the full extent of his agreement. He hides the liability he brings to his “research.” Can you in fact trust his research to be objective when a government gun is pointed at his back? The psychedelic community is armed with one weapon only: integrity. That’s why psychedelics remain in production. The money involved is pennies compared with the megabucks of other items in the illicit drug trade. True story from the vaults: December 2002. I got some diesel therapy. While signing a form to get my property returned (I had won in court but the prosecutor wanted to ruin the holidays for me) the DEA, in another attempt to get me to snitch, said: “Look, you’re a smart guy. Why LSD? There’s no money in it. Just help us out and you’ll be home in no time.” I remember thinking: “If I believed that drugs were a real problem, or that what you are doing helped humanity, I would assist you in a heartbeat. But you and I both know that what you are doing is futile, barbaric, and wrong. In thirty years your war on drugs has brought nothing but misery. I will never help you.”




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So long as people like me are around, so will the psychedelic community survive outside the gulags. So long as the Halperns are around, the psychedelic community has its defense against the man compromised. I cannot speak for all prisoners, but a majority of those who stand strong would agree with me. I don’t bear animosity towards the guy who implicated me. I knew what his breaking point was. He told me before going to the authorities, “I can’t do ten years for you, bro.” I will, however, not trust him again. He broke. I am not trying to judge Halpern or Doblin. I am basing my opinion as a former member of an isolated Central Valley California psychedelic community. I was an LSD distributor, and yes, they tried to give me life in prison. I still wouldn’t talk. I refused to sell my integrity. I make no Faustian deals. That is my choice though. Halpern made his. Give my best to Jon Hanna, whose publication I have loved since I was on the streets and whose publication other psychedelic troopers in here love too, and to anyone on the right side of the drug war. Take care. — Malakkar Vohryzek

 G. Walter Dash, sentenced to 30 years for LSD manufacture with 11 years left, takes a more sanguine look at the snitch question. I received your letter tonight and read the “Halperngate” article with much interest. The allegations against Halpern are somewhat vague in that there is no actual supporting documentation. Obviously, the primary “rat” was Skinner, without whom the silo bust might never have occurred. In my experience there are two kinds of DEA agents: those on a mission for God, who truly hate drugs, view themselves as warriors of Righteousness, and believe that ends justify the means. The others are crooks with badges who will bust you for selling a lid and then pinch half of it for their own stash before they turn it in to the evidence custodian. The latter function with no moral compass at all, while the compass of the former points in the same direction no matter where they are. Both will do whatever is necessary to put you in jail, including forging DEA-6s. (DEA-6s are summary reports of interviews between DEA agents and persons being interviewed.)

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It would be interesting to see what Halpern’s DEA-6s actually say. The real question, though, is what does Pickard say about Halpern? The article indicates that they were friends. I myself have on more than one occasion instructed friends to tell the DEA whatever they wanted to hear because they already had more than enough to get me. I never allowed any of my friends to jeopardize their lives, careers, or families in a pointless attempt to protect me. It may very well be that Pickard instructed Halpern to do the same. Has anyone consulted Pickard? It is my experience that if what Halpern told them was at all incriminating, he would have been required to testify at Pickard’s trial.

I don’t know if what I’ve said helps. I am rather sensitive to allegations of snitching. I was nearly killed because someone falsely accused me of being a rat. It is all too easy to put the jacket on someone, but if it is undeserved, it is difficult for the falsely accused to remove. Just find out the whole story, okay? And let me know.

It is very easy for one to say they would never talk to the DEA when they have not been subjected to the psychological torture of a rabid, self-righteous agent. They threaten all you love; this is their standard operating procedure. If Pickard and Halpern were indeed friends, then it is reasonable to assume that he instructed Halpern to say whatever they wanted. Such statements are inadmissible as evidence at trial. I never had a “friend” testify against me in court!

JON HANNA responds: Also for the record, due to a protective order (Doc. #196) granted by the court, PICKARD and his attorney are prohibited from disclosing any discovery materials covering HALPERN’S signed statements and/or immunity agreements to anyone. And the defense counsel was required to return those materials at the conclusion of the trial. [Noted in United States of America, Plaintiff, vs. William Leonard Pickard and Clyde Apperson, Defendants, Case No. 00-40104-01/02-RDR, United States District Court for the District of Kansas, 2002 U.S. Dist. Lexis 21712, August 15, 2002, Decided.] So far as I can tell, HALPERN does not have a court order prohibiting him from sharing the details of his agreement with the DEA; however, he is unwilling to do that.

A case in point: I once had a friend in his sixties who the DEA had been after for years. He was involved in international smuggling and had a much younger partner. His partner finally was arrested for sales to an undercover agent, but my friend remained unimplicated. The U.S. Attorney called my friend and told him that if he didn’t voluntarily admit to involvement, they were going to throw away the key on his partner. If he would agree to testify in front of a grand jury, the U.S. Attorney guaranteed that both would receive 18month sentences. This was in the mid-1980s, when I was serving a ten-year sentence for a distribution conspiracy. Since I could suffer no more harm, I instructed my friend to testify that I was the ringleader. Since the U.S. Attorney had no evidence to the contrary, my friend served a year with his partner. While he “cooperated” with the authorities, he was not a rat! Halpern appears to have had a lot at stake when he was approached by the DEA, so until you contact Pickard, or read actual signed statements or immunity agreements, do not be too quick to judge. It would be a shame to jeopardize the potential benefit of Halpern’s work. Contact Pickard’s attorney, for he will have any documentation as part of the discovery materials released to him by the government before trial. Most importantly, ask Pickard. He’s the one to make the final call.

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You bring light into my life. — Dash JOHN BERESFORD responds: For the record, LEONARD PICKARD and I have been corresponding for the past nine months. He has not so far committed himself to a public statement about his dealings with JOHN HALPERN.

 The terrible feelings that come over one who has been betrayed by a trusted friend pour out in the following words from Joe “Stoney” Rufra, a Deadhead. Because he is hoping for pen-pals, his address is included at the end of his letter. As I sit in my cell, 12 years into my 35-year sentence for acid (3322 doses), I ponder the letter I got today, along with a copy of Jon Hanna’s “Halperngate” article. I am incarcerated because of a snitching “friend,” so please allow me to expound on my position on snitches, and on bringing their evil deeds to light, as Mark McCloud did (on my birthday, no less). Even from a young age, most of us learn not to be “tattletales.” Not only is this because nobody likes a rat, but because it is important to accept responsibility for your actions and their consequences. Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t snitch. Be nice to people and animals. Respect. Simple values that I guess Halpern didn’t pay attention to. Through the learned doctor’s silence, he is admitting he is a snitch. For any individual (Doblin, for instance) to allow Halpern to continue functioning as a part of the psyche-

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delic community—in any capacity—is, at minimum, negligent. Halpern’s integrity has already proven itself to be non-existent; and once a rat, always a rat. Some of my brothers in here subscribe to the philosophy that, “When you deal with a poisonous snake, you must hold it by the back of the head, or it will bite you.” But I say, “If you deal with a snake, it will eventually bite you regardless. And the damage done will be your own fault, as you knew that it was poisonous to begin with.” Furthermore, if you see a snake, as Mark McCloud did, it is your duty and obligation to let everyone know. Like their reptilian counterparts, the two-legged snakes among us are good at camouflaging themselves; so not only your brothers and sisters, but anyone who might encounter the snake should be warned. Kudos to you, Mr. McCloud—your actions were honorable. And shame on you, Dr. Doblin. If anybody gets bit by the viper because of your silence, your sheltering of the snitch, it is as if you, yourself, were the rat. I believe that Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me.” If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. If you are not against the rat, you are for the rat and condone his actions. Doblin evidently condones the ratlike qualities of his “friend” and, even knowing he is a rat, Doblin still attempts to put Halpern in a place where he can do harm. The dude is a known snitch. Leopards don’t change their spots and rats don’t change their whiskers. When I followed the Grateful Dead, I recall a newsletter handed out at every show, which always had a note from Bobby relating something to the effect of, “Everyone you meet is NOT your friend. Do not buy/sell/trade drugs with people you don’t know.” Very sound advice. Looking back on the camaraderie and trust in the “family,” the psychedelic brotherhood, I feel that I was pretty naive. I now know that discretion (and stashing my acid in my butt) would have prevented me from spending a third of my life (so far) in a cesspool full of snitches. Even those you know and trust can sell you out. Heck, Halpern is said to have snitched on his wife—what a loving gesture. I had better quit writing before I get into my thoughts on what the punishment should be for snitching, betrayal, and other traitorous, treasonous activities. So, brothers and sisters, please be careful. — Joe Rufra #0354668, Pasquotank Correction Institution, 527 Commerce Drive, Elizabeth City, NC 27909.




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 The following is from a prisoner with whom I have been corresponding for the last eight years. He prefers to remain anonymous, not wanting to potentially “rock the boat” after recently being accepted into the Residential Drug Abuse Program where he is incarcerated. His remarks on the sociology of snitching put it in as clear a light as one could want. In the 1960s, when I participated in a number of “ventures” (or “adventures,” if you like) concerning substances that later became “controlled substances,” we (me and my circle of nationally located “friends”) loved the good karma of being responsible for assisting another person in his or her quest to achieve a higher state of consciousness—a quest that, more often than not, we were on ourselves. Back then, it wasn’t so much about the money (although making money was required in order to allow us to continue to provide the “fuel”). We did multi-million dollar deals on handshakes, and there was never a gun at any “get togethers” we had. It wasn’t necessary, as only our intimate friends were in on the gathering and outsiders weren’t welcome. We were very tight. In my own circle of friends, we only once had a situation where law enforcement intruded on us, and five people spent a couple of days in the local jail. We had the resources to get them the best attorneys, and they were soon out. When they were eventually sentenced, no one went to jail/prison. And the local citizens got the benefit of a hospital wing that our several millions put onto their formerly decrepit medical center. It wasn’t until later, with prohibition, that the money (and risk) became the magnet for degenerates of the ghetto— “play-yahs,” gang-bangers, and bikers, who wanted to rob the smugglers and dealers like myself. By then, I was already out of the biz. But as long as I was on the wrong side of the law, we didn’t tell on each other because we knew that getting pinched was what “came with the territory.” By agreeing to participate, we were also agreeing that we wouldn’t betray our comrades as we wouldn’t want them to betray us—something Dr. Halpern has apparently done. By betraying his friends he thusly killed any good things anyone had to say about him as a professional and/or trusted comrade. His reputation is nil, his credibility a thing of the past. Anyone would be a fool to trust him now, as he is forever a “compromised” individual, a man who can’t be trusted to come through. If we don’t stand for our convictions, why should we expect anyone else to? Especially since his betrayal is directly related to the work he was engaged in, I would

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be leery of his fidelity to anything he purported to be committed to. Many thousands of people are incarcerated because of individuals like Halpern. Halpern is the “poster boy” for most American rats/snitches/informants/cooperating witnesses, and he is now a member of the majority, the mundane, the ordinary. Here in America, through programs like witness protection, the government has eradicated the old school honor requirement that a person not be a snitch. There was a time when the government trumpeted that our soldiers were indoctrinated to only divulge their name, rank, and serial number: it was treasonous to “tell.” Now, everyday, I meet inmates who shamelessly brag, “I did what I had to do.” It’s repugnant. They tell on their once friends, acquaintances, and their own family. They don’t want to hear anything about wars and history. They’re only interested in “what’s in it for me?” Americans have become soft. In the legal profession, those of us versed in post-conviction law call people like Halpern “upsiders,” because they believe they are special and entitled to only the “upside” of life, like the Leona Helmsleys of the world, and only the “little people” go to jail, not themselves. FYI: Absent a “cap” on the extent of cooperation, a cooperating individual actually becomes a government (or law enforcement) minion for the balance of his or her days on terra firma. People with plea agreements with substantial assistance stipulations to “provide cooperation in the conviction of another” are on the hook for life. If they refuse to comply, they are brought back to the sentencing court for “breach” of the terms of the agreement, and they usually face receiving the balance of the sentence they would have initially received had they not cooperated. There are two kinds of immunity the government commonly uses. Transactional and Use immunity. Transactional usually only covers one instance, whereas Use can immunize a person from prosecution from all offenses, unless the government can prove their case “derivatively” (prove the elements to a jury’s satisfaction). Even though I paid a horrible price, if I had to do it over again, I still wouldn’t snitch, especially because the government is so corrupt and arrogant. Best wishes. — Anonymous



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Bill Kelly is serving 15 years on LSD conspiracy charges in Ohio. Bill was riding in a car that was stopped at traffic light; a search turned up the LSD in the trunk. The driver and passenger said that Bill knew about it, and they got time off for saying so. Bill was convicted in effect for knowing: i.e., conspiracy. Because he’s a state offender, Bill is eligible for parole in August. (No parole is available for federal POWs.) Thank you for sharing the info about John Halpern. I feel that the extent of what a person is willing to sacrifice for what he believes in is what truly measures a person. If Dr. Halpern truly believes in psychedelics and what he says, I feel that he wouldn’t have compromised his integrity. This leads me to the thought that he’s possibly in it not for the evolution of awareness but for himself and his glory. And while him doing research for selfish reasons may contribute to the greater good, it also compromises the integrity of the mission, which in the future will leave a scar on the greater picture. Dr. Halpern’s actions are nothing short of total betrayal. It would be one thing if he were a regular law abiding citizen, but his connections and the trust and respect people have invested in him put his deeds in a whole new different light. That’s how I feel. Now that he’s exposed, he’s much less of a danger. All that’s left is to remove him and his name, any correlation, which links him to the positive evolution of the mind. Best wishes. — Bill Kelly

 Amy Ralston was arrested in 1990 for conspiracy to distribute MDMA, which her estranged husband was manufacturing in Germany while she lived in Los Angeles. Her involvement amounted to collecting bail money at her husband’s request. Some of this money consisted of proceeds from the sale of MDMA, involving Amy in a “conspiracy.” Sentenced to 24 years in prison, she served over 9 years before President Clinton granted her clemency in July of 2000. I feel as if I have a lot to offer on this subject. I tend to see things that others cannot or will not or simply don’t. It doesn’t matter one iota that a Cooperating Witness doesn’t testify. I’ve noticed that this is commonly used as some kind of evidence or defense that Halpern (and/or others, for that matter) never actually harmed anyone. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sandy (the kingpin and ex-husband in my case) didn’t testify either; but in cooperating, he gave the gov’t permission to proceed and literally bust into the lives/doors of other-

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wise minor participants or people who were ancillary or even innocent. Sandy later said that the gov’t took many things he said and twisted the truth, even turned the truth into lies or filled in the information as they wished. Well, YES, this is what they do. Once you agree to cooperate, you can never control what they will do with the information you provide. It takes a very strong person to stand up to the gov’t and refuse to cooperate, and these are the people who often end up doing 10 to LIFE. Rather than being respected for, at the very least, refusing to implicate others in order to save their own skin, they are often vilified further by people who assume that anyone who gets that much time must be a bad person, deserving of a long sentence. People who cooperate often get the benefit of the doubt and get to move on with their lives, as Halpern has done. However, if he’d had the least amount of backbone, maybe the gov’t would have never amassed the information they needed to proceed. The DOJ asked for these devices, knowing it would enable them to blackmail American citizens by threatening them with long mandatory sentences UNLESS people cooperate. The most disgusting reality to all of this—including Halperngate—is that it works. This is why history repeats itself and is the darkest side of the human race. People will turn in their friends and even family members to the gov’t if it will ease their fears and potential suffering. Any way you want to slice it or justify it, Halpern should be ashamed of his cowardice. That’s the bottom line. Today, I am happily married and living a productive life in Malibu, CA, trying to advocate clemency for many of the women I left behind. If anyone is interested they can review the stories of these female POWs at www.candoclemency.com. Most of these harmless women are serving 10 to LIFE because someone was offered a plea bargain if they would help convict those who refused to cooperate. In struggle until this horror is over. — Amy Ralston

 Casey Hardison, a longtime friend of The Entheogen Review, is serving 20 years in a British prison for manufacturing LSD, 2C-B, DMT, etc. My friends, I write this from within the prison walls. I was arrested as a result of a “common informer” who, chastised




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by the DEA, realized the significant liberty interest that was at stake for himself. I forgive him and indeed will always love him. Whilst I could not ever visualize myself in his position, I can empathize. Rick Doblin recently wrote, “…our studies are likely to come under attack from all sides…” Disinformation is the single most effective memetic weapon. It is the surefire way to get a loose confederacy of individuals from disparate backgrounds working toward common goals to implode from within and be their own demise. In the Council on Spiritual Practices’ 1997 book Entheogens and the Future of Religion, Eric E. Sterling had the following to say in his essay “Law Enforcement Against Entheogens: Is it Religious Persecution?”: …those who are most trusting, such as those who are peaceful and spiritually inclined. Those who make, cultivate, or distribute entheogens have become the training targets for the heavy artillery of “the war on drugs.”

It is ever so important, and I plead as I am certain other chemist prisoners of the war on drugs do, that we must remember what these molecules have shown us. In the words of a dear, dear friend, they have shown me “the land without evil.” We must be vigilant amongst ourselves to not let our individual personalities or fear of the behemoth Pharmacratic Inquisition and its unintended consequences get in the way of the progress we have been steadily making to realize the goal of a reintegration of society and entheogens, entactogens, and their chemical cousins. In the words I remember from the Alcoholics Anonymous rooms of my youth… “ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.” We must do everything in our power to carry the light, the lamp, the vision forward toward this Age of Entheogens. Fiat lux, fiat amor, fiat pax! — Casey “William Ezekiel Freeblood” Hardison John Beresford is a psychiatrist who founded the Agora Scientific Trust in 1961 to research the effects of LSD. Thirty years later, he founded the Committee on Unjust Sentencing, a support group for drug war prisoners.

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Circuitous Routes of Administering Trichocerei: Enemas, Urine Drinking, and Urine Enemas by R. Stuart Mescaline-containing Trichocereus cactus can produce visionary effects when consumed by clysma (enema), recycled urine, or as a urine enema. There is historical precedent for the use of psychoactive enemas and urine drinking, both of which are sometimes also practiced by a minority of contemporary psychonauts. This article is the first to provide details regarding a urine enema bioassay.

Cactus Enemas An ancient Egyptian medical text, the Ebers Papyrus (1500 bc), contained a description of the enema. Clysma generally are of two types. The first is a clyster, which is a rectal injection of water used to wash and purge. This lavative process is said to have originated from Egyptians observing the ibis counteracting constipation by taking water into its long curved beak and inserting it as a rectal syringe to clean out decaying material (Doyle 2005, citing Porter 1997). The second type of clysma is the retention enema, useful for administering drugs or food. Medicinal enemas are used around the globe. New World tribes employed the rectal route for psychoactive drugs used as medications, religious sacraments, and recreational inebriants. The Maya left ceramic artifacts documenting the ritual use of enemas that possibly contained alcohol and plant preparations such as tobacco and water lily (DeSmet 1983; DeSmet & Hellmuth 1986). Mezoamerican aborigines took Agave enemas containing alcohol, various Amazonian tribes had Anadenanthera enemas containing short-acting tryptamines (DeSmet 1983; DeSmet & Rivier 1985), and the Shuar used Brugmansia enemas containing scopolamine and related alkaloids (DeSmet 1995). Ilex guayusa was found bundled in association with what may be enema syringes in a pre-Columbian grave in Bolivia (Schultes 1972). Although reportedly fairly rare, tobacco enemas have been used by some South American Indians (Wilbert 1987). The Aguarunas of Peru made enemas of tobacco syrup, either alone or mixed with Banisteriopsis caapi (Schultes & Raffauf 1990), and this approach was also used recently by a Shuar shaman of Ecuador, possibly contributing to the death of an elderly Canadian woman.1 Tobacco clysters have been used in Western medicine to fight

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intestinal worms since 1762 (Wilbert 1987). Tobacco enemas and rectal fumigation with tobacco smoke are used in folk medicine (Kravetz 2002, Satya-Murti 2005) and acute poisoning has resulted from the unskillful application of a tobacco enema (Bele-Binda 1975). The recent use of medicinal coffee enemas (Margolin & Green 1984; Reed & Sikora 1990; Green 1992; Brown 1993; Ernst 1997; Watts 2000; McBryde 2000–2001) has also sometimes lead to death (Eisel & Reay 1980). Women use Cannabis as an enema and as a pessary (vaginal suppository) in contemporary Camaroon (Wansi et al. 1996). In the United States, a minority of users of MDMA (EVI 2001), 2C-B (Galloway 2002), ketamine (Case 2004), and methamphetamine (Baggott 2002) have reportedly practiced rectal administration. The possibility of Native American use of Lophophora williamsii was discussed by Peter DeSmet (1985): The use of a peyote enema among the Huichols has been reported by the enthnographer Knab who was shown an enema syringe by an elderly female shaman in the community of Santa Catarina (Furst and Coe 1977). In a personal communication (1982) to me, Knab detailed the following: ‘Old men and women use a mixture of either fresh ground peyote with its juice or dried peyote mixed with water. Among the Huichols an enema is applied through a short piece of deer bone tied to a bladder. The mixture is applied by filling the bladder, tying the bone to it and sitting on the bladder’. As it is unclear whether the enema will be easily retained this way, it is unfortunate that actual use has not been witnessed. At one time, Furst (1976a) suggested that the practice probably has a deeper symbolic meaning, as the sacred cactus is equated with and identified as the deer by the Huichols. On reconsideration, he suspects the reported event to have been idiosyncratic and not something to be generalized to Huichol culture, as the practice would be atypical of known Huichol behaviour (Furst, pers. comun. 1982). This view is shared by Negrín (pers. commun. 1983) who seriously questions the truthfulness of the enema story, since the Huichols are very puritanical and would not give such delicate information to a visitor known for only a few weeks. Negrín adds that the Huichols like to reverse things (vis. rectal instead of oral administration) and like to tell scabrous jokes.

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There are no indications that peyote has ever been taken rectally north of Mexico (Aberle, pers. commun. 1982; Stewart, pers. commun. 1982).

Nevertheless, in his 1977 book Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti, author Adam Gottlieb provided instructions on how modern enthusiasts can make peyote enemas: A method which avoids both the bitterness and the nausea is the rectal infusion. 8–16 grams of dried peyote is ground to a fine powder and boiled in a pint of water for 30 minutes. It is then strained and further boiled to reduce its volume to 1/2 pint. After cooling, this is taken as an enema using a small bulb syringe and retained for at least two hours. If there is any fecal matter in the lower bowel, a small cleansing enema should be taken and thoroughly expelled before having the peyote infusion. Otherwise much of the drug may be taken up by the feces and later voided.

A web site describing cactus enemas advised that individual enemas should be used in a group situation, to reduce the chance of disease spread (Trenary 1997). It is also conceivable that overly frequent cactus enemas might cause irritation due to pH changes. The scant ethnographic reports regarding Trichocereus enemas were previously mentioned in the pages of The Entheogen Review (Case et al. 2004). Some modern Californians use San Pedro enemas to avoid the bitter taste and the nausea that can accompany oral ingestion. The author, R. Stuart, interviewed and observed participants in a series of informal enema experiments. One woman took an enema of 120 ml of Trichocereus extract and had a “12-hour +2 Shulgin scale experience.” In another informal experiment, four subjects took equal doses of Trichocereus macrogonus extract, two orally and two rectally. They all experienced an equally mild reaction. However in a later experiment using a higher dose, the oral route produced noticeably stronger results.

Urine Drinking The popular canard that urine drinking is unhealthy has been reinforced by official government pronouncements. In 2003, Urbain Olanguena Awono, the Minister of Public Health in Cameroon, Central Africa, went so far as to ban urine drinking, warning: “Given the risks of toxicity associated in the short, medium and long term with ingesting urine, the health ministry advises against the consumption of urine and invites those who promote the practice to cease doing so forthwith or risk prosecution” (BBC News 2003). And




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advice from a United States military survival manual states: “By all means don’t drink urine—the waste material in it will make you sick” (U.S. Army 1957, 1970). Yet this superstition is dispelled by both the ancient ethnic traditions of urine drinking (e.g., urine fermented with fruit juice is recommended as a tonic in the ordination liturgy for Theraveda Buddhist monks), and the modern urine drinkers who believe the practice to be beneficial: consider that the Xinhua news agency recently reported that more than three million Chinese drink their own urine, due to their belief that this keeps them healthier (Expressindia.com 2001). Contemporary Westerners have been introduced to the idea of quaffing a daily glass of urine by at least fifteen popular books on the topic. It is probably not particularly toxic for healthy people to drink their own urine if it is fresh out of the bladder. If a prospective urine drinker has been fasting, then the urine should be largely free of impurities. Nevertheless, there may be a concentration of pharmacologically active agents from any medications taken in the previous days. Because urine contains urea (uric acid), urine drinking is contraindicated for patients with gout. Additionally, the Chinese Association of Urine Therapy warns that urine drinking can commonly induce symptoms such as “diarrhea, itch, pain, fatigue, soreness of the shoulder, and fever. Each episode typically lasts three to seven days, but rarer incidents have reported lasting side effects for over six months” (Bouaravong 2002). Urine can be recycled as a method of consuming various drugs. In 1730, Philipp Johann von Strahlenberg reported that urine becomes psychoactive after the ingestion of Amanita muscaria (Strahlenberg 1730), and the practice of drinking A. muscaria urine by Koryak in Siberia has been confirmed (Salzman et al. 1996). R. Gordon Wasson identified the “second form” of the Vedic sacrament Soma as “the urine of the person who has ingested the flyagaric in the First Form” (Wasson 1968). In the United States, psychedelic users occasionally prolong their trips by drinking their own urine after consuming various drugs, such as mescaline, Psilocybe mushrooms, or MDMA (the latter being inadvisable, due to the consumption of potentially neurotoxic metabolites such as MDA, 3,4-dihydroxyamphetamine, and 3,4-dihydroxymethamphetamine). [Note: The editors of ER have no concerns that any functional neurotoxicity might result from the occasional consumption of “MDMA urine.”] It does not appear that Native Americans recycled urine after ingesting peyote. However, one Quechua curandera ceremonially drank her own urine after orally ingesting

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Trichocereus. In addition to fasting for at least 24 hours, she did not drink fluids for most of the day before consuming the cactus (Torelli 1990). Restricting fluid intake in this manner ensures that when the urine is expelled many hours after ingestion, it is as condensed and potent as possible, emitting the cactus’ characteristic pungent fragrance. One anonymous subject reported:

although it might have been acetylmescaline, which has the same molecular weight and might have the same fragment. Additionally, there were two small peaks, each comprising about 5% of the total, on the higher edge of the parent mescaline peak, but a record of their spectra was lacking so they remain unidentified. Thus, this T. macrogonus clone seems to have three alkaloids besides mescaline.

In 1990, I began using “huachuma” (Trichocereus) regularly in the manner of a Quechua curandera who was the grandmother of my friend. So I fasted for a day, abstained from water for a few hours prior to ingesting the “meat” (flesh) and “blood” (juice) of the huachuma, and recited the traditional liturgy. Midway through the session, I imbibed my mescaline-containing urine immediately after being voided from my bladder, to prolong the visionary state. I found that the cactus produces “mellower” effects upon being consumed the second time in urine.

It is possible that some alkaloids are inactive when the cactus is orally consumed because they are too polar to cross the blood brain barrier. However, such a compound, if conjugated as glucuronide or sulphate during metabolism, might become psychoactive if bound to another molecule that could actively transport it across the blood brain barrier. Conversely, an active compound in a cactus might be inactive or have different activity when conjugated. Also, the combination of metabolites might produce a synergistic interaction that subtly alters the nature of the experience produced by cactus consumed in recycled urine. This might cause the subjective experience of urine to be different from that produced by the original cactus extract.

Were the subjective effects of the urine “mellower” because because the amount of mescaline being consumed was substantially smaller, and hence the effects were less? Or is there some pharmacological difference due to the urine containing active metabolites of mescaline (or other compounds) in the cactus? One study reported that “35 to 58 per cent of an administered dose of mescaline determined chemically is recoverable in urine over a twenty-four-hour period, with an average of 30 per cent in the first eight hours” (Hollister 1968). The main pharmacological effect of drinking urine after ingesting mescaline is probably due to mescaline that was excreted unchanged. Other studies have noted that humans given oral mescaline excrete and metabolize an average of 81.9% of the dose in urine within the first 12 hours, 87% during the first 24 hours, and 92% during the first 48 hours. 55– 60% of this dose is reported to be unchanged mescaline and the rest is approximately one dozen mescaline metabolites (Charalampous et al. 1964; 1966). It has also been speculated that some mescaline metabolites may be active (Mokrasch & Stevenson 1959). Not all of these metabolites have been identified or pharmacologically characterized. Actual cactus chemistry might play a part as well. Different Trichocereus have varying alkaloid profiles. For example, GC/ MS on T. macrogonus strain RS0004 showed that the major peak was mescaline, and a minor peak—comprising about 10% of the total—had a molecular weight of 253 and a neat mass 43 lost fragment (Shulgin 2005). This latter alkaloid was probably norweberine (also found in Pachycereus weberii),

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The exact chemical composition within even a particular strain of cactus may vary according to cultivation conditions, season and time of day, watering history and length of time since harvest (potency seems to increase if a cutting has been detached for years), and may differ according to preparation method. Some potent species, such as Trichocereus terscheckii and T. werdermannianus, also produce a mild hangover. This could indicate that they contain compounds other than mescaline that are possibly psychoactive, more toxic, or both.

Urine Enemas The following procedure was used to determine if a mescaline-containing urine enema would produce effects comparable to an oral dose of Trichocereus extract. The spines and clear outer epidermis was removed from three fresh tip cuttings of the RS0004 strain of Trichocereus macrogonus. The woody core was also discarded into the compost. This left 856.75 grams of green and white meat, which was chopped into small pieces and boiled in water. After straining out the liquid, the solid material was composted. The liquid was reduced to 75 ml. The subject fasted for 38 hours before ingesting the extract, and did not imbibe water for 12 hours prior to ingestion. Eleven hours after ingestion, the subject produced 300 ml of brownish urine. (The subject then drank copious amounts of water to counteract the dehydration due to abstinence from fluids for the preceding 23 hours.) This urine was stored in a freezer but never completely froze

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because urine has a lower freezing temperature than water. After waiting four days so that tolerance to mescaline would be overcome, the urine was thawed and reduced by boiling to about an ounce of fluid. The condensed extract was rectally injected into the subject and retained until it was completely absorbed. This enema produced subjective effects that were essentially the same as the original beverage, although the inebriation was not quite as strong, undoubtedly because it probably only contained approximately 45–49% of the mescaline ingested in the original extract. The subject commented that the urine enema produced an inebriation that seemed “more sparkling and pleasurable” than what he usually experience from cactus. Further tests on multiple subjects would be necessary to determine if this “sparkling” quality was merely a coincidence. This demonstrates that urine enemas are an effective method of consuming Trichocereus. A further area for future research would be the administration of a Trichocereus pessary. A previous report of psychoactive pessaries was made by a group of women who vaginally consumed LSD, MDMA, ketamine, 2C-B, and alprazolam, with various degrees of effect (Scribe 2003). Additionally, one man reported intensely pleasurable inebriation after using a syringe sans needle to inject a methamphetamine solution directly into his urethra prior to receiving erotic massages (Scott 2002). The urethral route for males is not advised in the case of Trichocereus due to the excessive volume for a dose of cactus juice.  1. In 2003 a Shuar shaman and his son plead guilty to administering a noxious substance to Jane Maiangowi, a 71-year-old woman who died in 2001 during the ayahuasca ceremony they were holding. The brew contained tobacco as an admixture, and in addition to being consumed orally, it was offered in enema form to those who wanted them. From mainstream news reports, it is unclear whether or not Ms. Maiangowi (who was diabetic, and who stopped taking her prescription Diamicron® and fasted in preparation for the ceremony) partook of any enemas during the three-day “healing” ceremony. Her autopsy cited nicotine poisoning as the cause of death. See www.religionnewsblog.com/3132-_Woman_dies _in_healing_ritual;_shaman_guilty.html.




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EDITORIAL MUSINGS JUSTIN CASE reported to us that he has also consumed “most of a large glass of cactus urine while already under the influence.” This occurred around or just after the middle point of the trip, therefore enhancing the ongoing results of the initial oral dose of cactus (rather than the urine being evaluated on its own at a later time). The additive effects occurred within twenty minutes after drinking the urine, which seems too soon for an additional oral dose to have actually had any effects. Nevertheless, CASE expressed: “It caused the inside of my head to explode with colors (the first time that this had occurred during that particular event), and produced a huge rushing surge in effects that seemed to be well in excess of what should have resulted.” Several things could be involved with this result, but CASE’S report suggests that this subject needs study. The “sparkle” reported may be a result of the actual chemically altered material yielded via metabolism by that route, rather than the route of ingestion. CASE remarked that the taste, aftertaste, and sensation of drinking strongly flavored warm piss (experienced while in a tripping state) left him not wanting to ever repeat another urine bioassay. We’ve heard several junkies claim that the effects from morphine containing urine is better than morphine. The glucuronic acid conjugate of morphine is believed to be stronger, milligram-per-milligram, than morphine. So despite there being less, if it is more potent, then the levels of results may be similar. This is one reason oral cactus urine needs evaluation alone rather than being added to an existing cactus trip. The missing element from this article is a first-person account of an oral evaluation of cactus urine while not already high. Those wishing to freeze urine should try decreasing the temperature as much as possible. Interestingly, a correspondent recently sent a report describing the successful bioassay an isolated extract of Trichocereus peruvianus urine: “I did an extraction from urine collected in the first 12 hours of an experience with 60 grams of dried Trichocereus peruvianus. Two weeks later, that extract produced results similar in effect to 35–40 grams of dried cacti, so this is approximately a 60% recovery. “Of course, there may be some +/- 10–20% error in my final estimation, or even more (due to the inevitable little variability in set and setting), and the recovery rate maybe even vary from one experience to another for the same person. “In the future, whenever it is convenient for me to collect urine, I will have the opportunity to recycle, with the human part of the extraction process—this first bio-step—already done. — R., Serbia” This report reminds us of an idea, we suspect proposed in jest, by our departed friend BOB WALLACE. He suggested that a large group of psychedelic heads have a big new year’s eve party where everyone shared a communal pot to piss into. The blended urine would later be extracted, with the resulting powder stored in a freezer, ultimately being dosed out a year later for the next new year’s celebration. — EDS.

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Comments on New State Laws Controlling the Consumption of Hallucinogenic Plants by Earth Erowid Tennessee’s law banning Salvia divinorum went into effect on July 1, 2006. This law, which was initially proposed as a nearly identical copy of a law passed by Louisiana in 2005, specifically carves out an exception to this new Class A misdemeanor for the “planting, cultivation, growing, and harvesting” of the plant itself when “strictly for aesthetic, landscaping, or decorative purposes.”

The list of plants Louisiana banned in 2005 seems to have been largely obtained from the Schultes monograph. Lawmakers did exclude a few common ornamentals, such as Coleus spp., Nepeta cataria, and Trichocereus pachanoi, as well as the spice nutmeg (Myristica fragrans), described in that article. They also excluded those plants Schultes mentions that are already scheduled by the federal government.

The first version of the Tennessee bill, as well as Louisiana’s 2005 anti-hallucinogenic-plant law, dodged the problem of pissing off gardeners everywhere by declaring that the plants are only controlled when they or products made from them are “intended for human consumption.” With obvious parallels to the U.S. Federal Analogue Act, these laws use new methods of criminalizing psychoactive plants that sidestep some of the reasons why the general population would object to prohibiting plants.

It is curious that today’s lawmakers would use a 35-year-old monograph as their botanical reference standard, considering that changes in taxonomy have occurred since then. For example, Schultes’ paper describes Cannabis sativa as belonging to the mulberry family, Moraceae. Since then, it has been reclassified into the Cannabaceae family. Mimosa hostilis is now largely accepted to be M. tenuiflora. And although it wasn’t mentioned in the Schultes article, Vinca rosea—named as being prohibited by the lawmakers—is now known by the binomial Catharanthus roseus.

The actual law eventually passed and signed into law in Tennessee does not require intent for human consumption and eliminates the longer list of plants banned in Louisiana as “hallucinogenic,” only specifically naming Salvia divinorum. The Tennessee law changed “intended for human consumption” to “intent to produce… the active chemical ingredient in… Salvia divinorum.” There is no indication in the bill’s history or news stories as to what led to this change.

Typos and Uninformed Lawmakers The first version of the Tennessee bill was obviously a cutand-paste of the Louisiana law including the typo “Lagoehilus inebrians.” This plant name should be Lagochilus inebrians (with a “c,” not an “e”). There are other documents on the web that have this same mistake, but its source appears to be an OCR error or typo in a 1969–1970 Richard Evans Schultes monograph titled “The Plant Kingdom and Hallucinogens, Parts I—III,” published on-line in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Bulletin on Narcotics, where the error occurs only once and the correctly spelled name occurs several times. One must assume that none of the legislators noticed the misspelling of this plant in any of the readings of the bill in Louisiana or Tennessee.

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Furthermore, Schultes provided only minimal ethnographic details for several of the plants he mentioned, which have unknown chemistry and are not necessarily confirmed to even be hallucinogens. Nevertheless, by being included in the list, the law now defines each of these as “a hallucinogenic plant.” It is also contrafactual to designate an entire genus, “Stropharia spp.” for example, as “hallucinogenic,” when wellknown members of that genus simply can not be considered “hallucinogenic” and some are even choice edibles. It is objectionable that Louisiana passed a criminal law with sub-standard review. Such errors, and the fact that the text was simply copied from one state’s laws to a bill in another state’s legislature, highlight how little legislators actually know about the matters they legislate.

Not Completely Banned Louisiana now has a structure in place to designate plants as “hallucinogenic,” and more plants may be added to this list over time. It is easy to imagine this list as a different kind of

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“schedule.” The designated “hallucinogenic plants” are illegal to cultivate, possess, or process into products when they are intended for human consumption. Tennessee’s law is less obviously amenable to adding additional plants, since just a single plant was controlled, but the conceptual structure is in place: growing this one “hallucinogenic” plant with the intent to produce the “active chemical ingredient” is a crime. Both the Tennessee and Louisiana laws also make it clear that growing or possessing the plants for other purposes is legal: “(d) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the possession, planting, cultivation, growing, or harvesting of a hallucinogenic plant strictly for aesthetic, landscaping, or decorative purposes.” The text of this subsection remains effectively identical between the two states. So not only are the laws specific that they are only criminalizing the plants under certain conditions, but they also explicitly carve out that the law does not cover the plants when they are grown for ornamental purposes. The Tennessee law additionally excludes from this prohibition any product “recognized” by the FDA as a “homeopathic drug.”

Tennessee’s Sloppy Law Making Interestingly, many of the mentions of the Tennessee law in on-line documentation still refer to the passed law as covering “Hallucinogenic plants,” clearly a carry over from the earlier versions including the text of the actual signed law that states the act is to amend the Tennessee code “relative to certain hallucinogenic plants,” the catalog of passed laws, which gives the law’s title as “Hallucinogenic plants,” the fiscal review note accompanying the law in the legislative

ENTHEOGEN LEGAL DEFENSE

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record, which appears to only have been conducted for the initial version of the bill, and the law’s abstract published on the legislature’s web site, which also mis-states the crime’s severity: “Drugs – Creates Class D felony offense of producing or distributing a material intended for human consumption that contains a hallucinogenic plant and the Class E felony of possessing a material intended for human consumption that contains a hallucinogenic plant. – Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 4.” (See www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/ currentga/BillCompanionInfo.aspx?billnumber=SB3247.)

Closing Thoughts In many ways, these laws strike a balance between completely outlawing these plants and no controls whatsoever. Simply growing morning glories for their plentiful flowers should not, under the Louisiana law, be considered a crime. It seems likely that, if other states increasingly ban Salvia divinorum, Tennessee and Louisiana could end up being the states where S. divinorum is the least controlled. Other states (Missouri and Delaware, as of August 2006) have prohibited that member of the mint family completely, no matter what purpose the gardener has in mind. In Tennessee and Louisiana, heirloom gardeners and ethnobotanical gardens can continue to grow this plant without requiring special licenses or running afoul of the law. It will be interesting to see whether other states adopt similarly patterned laws.  Text of Tennessee Law w w w. l e g i s l a t u r e . s t a t e . t n . u s / b i l l s / c u r r e n t g a / BillCompanionInfo.aspx?billnumber=SB3247 Text of Louisiana Law www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=288583

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Network Feedback AMP UPDATE After the Net-Feed article appeared in the last issue of The Entheogen Review, describing the AMP product made by Ergopharm, which was purported by the manufacture to contain some mystery component of geranium oil in it, I decided to look into the issue a bit further. First off was a bioassay of a couple of the free capsules that Ergopharm sent me, which arrived after the spring issue had already gone to press. For the most part, I was underwhelmed from the experience. I did get a certain sort of “itchy scalp” expansive feeling at the top of my head. I also noticed that my breathing was easier. I didn’t particularly notice much of an emotional lift—certainly nothing that could be described as “euphoria.” Maybe a mild mood lift, but it was too subtle for me to feel comfortable ascribing anything to it, other than I definitely felt as though I was not at baseline. A companion, who also took two of the capsules, said it made her feel edgy, nxious, and out-of-it for a while—similar to the feeling one gets after a cocaine high wears off. It was not fun for her. However, this is sometimes her reaction to a large dose of caffeine by itself. Since my initial bioassay, I have tried it again on several occasions—at doses of between two and four capsules—and it mostly just strikes me as having “caffeine effects.” I sent three e-mails to Ergopharm/Patrick Arnold, who developed the AMP product, based on addresses I was able to locate at the company’s web site and elsewhere on the web. Each of these e-mails bounced back to me, and Ergopharm’s web-based e-mail submission form was on the fritz when I tried it. While Ergopharm’s communications department clearly could use some help, and while their ethics of selling products with shifty labeling aren’t the greatest, their customer service is top-notch—they shipped my order rapidly and included a number of samples of some of their other products, along with a 70-page perfect-bound book filled with descriptions hyping their wares.

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Ergopharm is located in Illinois, and while I was searching for more information about methylhexaneamine, I found a May 2005 posting from a Chicago-based company looking for a supplier who could provide 20 to 25 kg per month of methylhexaneamine to them (see www.bizeurope.com/bsr/ leads/archive/may2005.htm). Of course, that posting could easily be unrelated to Ergopharm, and the fact that both companies are located in Illinois a coincidence. A half-dozen or so psychonauts posting to an underground entheogen-related e-mailing list I belong to largely had positive things to say about the AMP product. Several people felt that only one capsule was strong enough for an all-day lift, mild appetite suppression, mild euphoria, and strength enhancement, with little to none of the bodyload that they had experienced with many other stimulants. Some folks cautioned that it might not be wise to use it too frequently. One user warned that tolerance builds when it is used daily or even with a few days between use. Someone expressed that people better get it while the getting is good, as it would likely be scheduled at some point in the future. Then on May 8th of this year, Amy Shipley’s Washington Post article came out: “Chemist’s New Product Contains Hidden Substance” (see www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/07/AR2006050700913.html). Apparently the creator of AMP, Patrick Arnold, is currently awaiting sentencing for his role in a steroid scandal. Perhaps because of this notoriety, The Post decided to subject his AMP product to chemical analysis: sure enough, it contains methylhexaneamine. Shipley’s somewhat sensationalistic article goes on to describe this compound as being “a littleknown amphetamine-like substance that would be undetectable in current sports drug tests.” One of Arnold’s representatives told The Post that methylhexaneamine is a component of geranium oil. (The scientific journal article that apparently supports that contention, which Shipley did not specifically cite by name, is: Zang, P. et al. 1996. “A Study on the Chemical Constituents of Geranium Oil,” Journal of Guizhou Institute of Technology 25(1), 82– 85. Guizhou Gongxueyuan Xuebao Bianjibu.) And because methylhexaneamine is a natural product, Arnold’s

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company argues that it is legal to include in their a dietary supplement. However, there are a variety of FDA regulations that restrict how natural products can be included in dietary supplements. One of which, Shipley claims, is that the FDA determined in 2001 that synthetically produced ephedrine could not be legally added to dietary supplements. If the same approach holds for Ergopharm’s methylhexaneamine, and their chemical is synthetically produced, it may be that they could be facing troubles down the line. [As an aside, from April of 2004 through April of 2005, the federal government had banned the use of naturally sourced ephedrine in dietary supplements. And yet during that time, one could still purchase over-the-counter pharmaceutical products that contained synthesized ephedrine. In April of 2005, the government lifted the ban on naturally sourced dietary ephedrine, specifically with products containing a 10 mg dose. It is interesting that a naturally sourced product must be extracted to a purity that allows for standardized, measured doses—but if the same chemical was created synthetically, it could not be included in a dietary supplement and it would be considered a “drug” by the FDA.] The potential benefits, drawbacks, psychopharmacology, and physiological effects of methylhexaneamine are currently being debated on several web based body building discussion forums. I placed my own order for AMP directly from the Ergopharm web site on June 21, over a month after Shipley’s article came out. As recently as August 9, just before we went to press with this issue, Ergopharm was still up-and-running. As well, a Google search for “Ergopharm AMP” turned up many other retail companies who were also offering the product for sale. — David Aardvark




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The description presented in ER of “six-to-seven-inch white/ lavender trumpet flowers” is fully incorrect for Atropa belladonna! Enclosed is a flower from a wild plant, so you can see. Datura flowers fit the description from ER, and they are native to the Americas, while A. belladonna doesn’t grow wild in the United States. Best regards. — H.D.V., Germany Thank you for pointing out the error; you are entirely correct that the person who wrote the report undoubtedly had the wrong identification of the plant that he had consumed. All of the three editors of ER have expressed embarrassment for not catching this! However, it is worth noting that Atropa belladonna, while not native to the United States, has naturalized in several states here. — EDS.

EFFECTIVE DRUG CONTROL In reading one of those prison organization papers last year, I came across something that ER readers might want to be made aware of. Since it is such a sincere piece of work coming from the Bar Association of King County in the state of Washington (I’m just so shocked that they actually give a

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damn), I want to create greater exposure for it. It is called Effective Drug Control: Toward A New Legal Framework—StateLevel Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the War on Drugs. It is an updated second edition, done in 2005, and they send it out free to anyone;. It’s a nice spiral-bound publication, with lots of references, and a lot of free-thinking talk enclosed. It is also posted to their web site atwww.kcba.org; start at page 36 for some good stuff under the heading “Innovations Within the Prohibition Model.” This whole publication is well worth the time to look over, and since they put it out free to those who are interested, it is worth calling them and asking for a copy. They can be reached at (206) 267-7100 or by fax at (206) 267-7099. That’s all that I have for now; I’ll be in touch when I get out of hell. — C.A.P., MN, prohibition P.O.W.




SUMMER SOLSTICE 2006

In November of 2005, the DEA’s Microgram Bulletin 38(11) (reprinting from the 2005 NATIONAL DRUG INTELLIGENCE CENTER’S Narcotics Digest Weekly 4(41):1) specifically noted that, “Law enforcement advisories regarding safrole and essential oils rich in safrole typically have not yet specified Ocotea cymbarum.” This article, then, may be the blip on the radar that may leads to further scrutiny for that Ocotea species (see www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/forensicsci/ microgram/mg1105/mg1105.html). The common spice gumbo “file” (for thickening that soup) is made from powdered sassafras leaves. Bulk orders of this herb may not raise any eyebrows, although one would have to do one’s own steam distillation to obtain the essential oil. Powdered root-bark of sassafras is also available from some vendors, and could similarly be steam distilled by someone not wishing to raise any red flags. Other potentially useful plants—and ones that can be sustainably harvested —include Piper hispidinervum (see www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ proceedings1999/v4-479.html) and Piper auritum. For additional information related to List 1 chemicals, see www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/2110cfrt.htm.

ESSENTIAL OIL SOURCES We’ve been doing a little studying and have become interested in extracts of Atherosperma moschatum, Ocotea pretiosa, and Brazilian or Chinese sassafras. We know that there are great big companies out there that would sell tanker trucks of this extract. But what we’d like to find, if possible, would be some small hippie stores, counter-culture operations, or mom-and-pop type businesses located in Brazil or Australia that we could perhaps purchase an ounce or two from to add to candle wax prior to pouring the wax into the mold. Do you know of any? Thanks in advance. — B. We don’t know of anyone specifically in Brazil or Australia offering the oils that you are looking for. Interestingly, Australia seems to have a ban on any such products entering their country. And within the United States, these products are considered “List 1,” which means that the seller is required to report back to the DEA with details regarding what has been sold to whom. With many (but not all) List 1 chemicals there is a quantitative threshold or cumulative amount for multiple transactions within a month that requires the seller to report buyer information back to the DEA. With safrole, the cut-off is 4 kilograms. And while there are several companies in the United States that legally sell this oil, some seem to be pretty severe about their ordering restrictions, even with regard fairly small quantities. We’d imagine that someone placing an order for such oil for their candle-making would want to order only very small amounts and at the same time add several other oil scents to their order. Some overseas specialty entheobotanical businesses may sell you small quantities of sassafras oil, which could be preferable to ordering it in the United States, since there is no “list” that such an order triggers. Nevertheless, it might be good to have the product sent to a mail drop, and/or request that the product be labeled in another manner—for example, as some other essential oil.

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As an aside, the issue of Microgram mentioned above also published a photograph of some oversized 2C-C blotter seized by Oregon police, which featured the recipe for that compound taken straight from PIHKAL on one side, and the designator “2C-C” in a bold font on the other side. — EDS.

MIMOSA SCABRELLA SEEDS, AND STENOCEREUS HYSTRIX In The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, author Christian Rätsch mentions Mimosa scabrella seeds as being a DMT source for ayahuasca analogues, yet he does not provide any reference to seed analysis reports. Do you know whether or not these seeds actually can be used as a DMT source for ayahuasca analogues? Also, what the heck is Stenocereus hystrix? I saw somewhere that this is supposedly fairly high in mescaline. — J.S., OR It may be that you have misinterpreted the data that RÄTSCH presents in his book. On page 365 of the English version, a photograph is shown with the caption: “The seeds of Mimosa scabrella, a DMTcontaining species.” And the main text on that same page discusses the bark (not seeds) of M. scabrella, noting that the bark contains both DMT and a beta-carboline, and that it is “presumably suitable for making ayahuasca analogs.” This seems to imply that the author is not actually aware of any first-hand psychonautical bioassays with the plant, but it also clearly is talking about the bark (despite the fact that a photograph of the seeds is presented). Stenocereus hystrix appears in the analytical literature only under the more commonly encountered synonym: Lemaireocereus hystrix. Material obtained from Jamaica was analyzed by CARL DJERASSI in the 1950s and was reported to be devoid of alkaloids. It was found

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to contain an uncharacterized triterpene lactone that he termed the “hystrix lactone.” This also showed up in several other species of Lemaireocereus. The cactus being sold under this name as live cuttings and dried outer flesh first appeared labeled Trichocereus cuzcoensis. It then was renamed as a T. peruvianus variety, and then as a T. peruvianus hybrid, before the identification was finally settled on as Stenocereus hystrix. When I asked a representative of ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS (who introduced this material) about the final identification assignment he said it was a name provided by a botanist who examined vegetative material. ETHNOGARDEN related that, so far as is known, only material growing in a single stand on the Dominican Republic was active and not the others growing elsewhere on the island. How this was determined, how it was discovered to be active, or why it was suspected of being a hybrid (and with what), is unknown. The cutting I obtained does resemble the Stenocereus hystrix that is growing in the arid greenhouse at the HUNTINGTON BOTANICAL GARDENS. The HUNTINGTON material was collected from Puerto Rico. While the initial thought was that this material is active at 20 grams of dried material, it has since been expressed that too much rain reduced the potency in at least one harvest. So the current overall dosage range has been described as 20–40 grams. As far as I am aware, this specific material has not seen any published analysis. — KEEPER TROUT

SUMMER SOLSTICE 2006

DOC REVISITED We recently corresponded with an individual who had obtained and tried some material that he was told was DOC. Having no access to chemical analysis, this person could not state definitively that the material actually was DOC. It was provided to him as a liquid in a dropper-bottle, where each drop was said to be 1.2 mg of DOC. He tried the material several times in ranges from one to three drops. His experience of this material was that it was indeed longer lasting, causing an inability to get sleep (and a lack of need for it) for over 24 hours at the highest dose that he took. He reported a residual stimulated feeling the day after the experiment, noting that he drove all the way from Burning Man to the Bay Area without stopping to rest at any point. The main thing that we found interesting about this person’s account was that he felt certain that, over the years, he had actually done this material previously—but that it had been sold to him as LSD. There were times in the past when his LSD trips lasted much longer than he would have expected them to. One underground chemist who he spoke with opined that this indeed was probably likely; that material sold as LSD was perhaps 25% of the time actually LSD, and 75% of the time it was either DOB, or DOC, or DOI, or some other high-

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potency phenethylamine. While the percentages of those figures seems suspect, it is at least possible that DOC or one of its “relatives” has, in the past, been misrepresented as LSD on the underground market. Certainly that was the feeling of this correspondent. One underground chemist has told one of us that he once mixed a fairly light amount per dose of DOM into a solid amount per dose of LSD, and put that out onto the market. — EDS.

RECENT ARTICLES OF INTEREST The Entheogen Review appreciates it when our subscribers send us journal articles for our reference files; and while we may not have the opportunity to comment on each of these articles in print, or even the space to provide abstracts, it occurred to us that knowledge that these pieces had been published might be of interest to all of our readers as well. At minimum, abstracts for such articles are usually posted on-line and can be found via a web search; occasionally, the entire papers can be found on-line as well; and sometimes journals can also be obtained via your local university’s library. We encourage all readers of ER to forward this sort of material, and offer thanks to those who have done so for years. For some additional abstracts relating to recently published and older toxicity data regarding MDMA, see: www.neurotransmitter.net/mdmametabolites.html — Eds.




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McNamara, R. et al. 2006. “Caffeine Promotes Hyperthermia and Serotonergic Loss Following Co-administration of the Substituted Amphetamines, MDMA (“Ecstasy”) and MDA (“Love”),” Neuropharmacology 50(1): 69–80. (This study was done on rats.) Ott, J. 2006. “Obviation of Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome by Concomitant Administration of Naltrexone in Microgram Doses: Two Psychonautic Bioassays,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 38(1): 101–105. Sewell, R.A. et al. 2006. “Response of Cluster Headache to Psilocybin and LSD,” Neurology 66: 1920–1922. Terry, M. et al. 2006 “Lower Pecos and Coahuila Peyote: New Radiocarbon Dates,” Journal of Archaeological Science 20: 1–5. Zarate, C.A. 2006. “A Randomized Trial of an N-methyl-Daspartate Antagonist in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression,” Archives of General Psychiatry 63(8): 856–864. (This study was done using ketamine.) Zhang, L. et al. 2006. “Protective Effects of Minocycline on 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-induced Neurotoxicity in Serotonergic and Dopaminergic Neurons of Mouse Brain,” European Journal of Pharmacology 544(1-3):1–9.

Barbosa, R.C. et al. 2006. “Intoxication by Ipomoea sericophylla and Ipomoea riedelii in Goats in the State of Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil,” Toxicon 47: 371–379. Beauregard, M. and V. Paquette 2006. “Neural Correlates of a Mystical Experience in Carmelite Nuns,” Neuroscience Letters [in press]. De Haro, L. and P. Pommier 2006. “Hallucinatory Fish Poisoning (Ichthyoallyeinotoxism): Two Case Reports From the Western Mediterranean and Literature Review,” Clinical Toxicology 44: 185–188.

ANNOUNCING THE RETURN OF

Trout’s Notes on

Sacred Cacti (part a) third

& Some Simple Tryptamines second

Haraguchi, M. et al. 2003. “Alkaloidal Components in the Poisonous Plant, Ipomoea carnea (Convolvulacea),” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 51: 4995–5000. Herraiz, T. and C. Chaparro 2006, “Human Monoamine Oxidase Enzyme Inhibition by Coffee and β-Carbolines Norharman and Harman Isolated from Coffee,” Life Sciences 78: 795–802.

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edition

Now available as limited edition hardcovers in full color. (Soon to be released on CD.) for

more

information

see

www.troutsnotes.com

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SheShamans & Magic Mamas Women’s Entheogen Conference • June 23–25, 2006 reviewed by Jon Hanna

Held at the Isis Oasis, a lush and spacious retreat center in Geyserville, California, SheShamans & Magic Mamas celebrated women’s contributions to the fields of psychoactive plants and drugs, shamanism, alchemy, addiction treatment, paganism, thanatology, theatre, sexuality, spirituality, and more. The all-women cast of presenters included Susie Bright, Linda Rosa Corazon, Valerie Corral, Adele Getty, Kathleen Harrison, Sandra Karpetas, Lou Montgomery, M. Macha NightMare, Micah Nilsson, Julia Onnie-Hay, Cynthia Palmer, Jane Straight, Karen Vogel, Patricia Winters, and Anne Zapf.

Not that you would have been able to actually see more than two of the six, of course; but regardless, it was a shame. No concurrent sessions!

The best thing about this sort of conference is the extended amount of time that one can spend with friends. It is like a giant protracted slumber-party, where you’re able to connect on a deeper level than would be possible by simply going out to dinner with your buddies. The opportunity to meet and really get to know new people is also better. And entheogen conferences attract some of the most interesting people that I have had the good fortune to know.

Since I was unable to attend a majority of the presentations, I have decided to focus the bulk of this review on the one speaker who most impressed me: Valerie Corral. Valerie is a medical marijuana user, activist, and true hero of the Cannabis community. As a co-founder of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (www.wamm.org) in Santa Cruz, California, she helps indigent patients gain access to free pot. During the course of her work, Valerie has been arrested several times. In 2002, she saw the medicine garden that she helps tend destroyed by federal agents with chainsaws. This, despite the fact that she was breaking no state laws due to California’s Proposition 215, which Valerie helped to draft. Valerie was featured in the recent excellent film Waiting to Inhale, produced and directed by Jed Riffe, examining the debate over legalizing medical marijuana.

The largest flaw in the construction of SheShamans was the fact that there were either two or three concurrent sessions running most of the time. This meant that, by design, attendees and presenters were forced to miss between one-half and two-thirds of the talks. Several times I overheard various presenters lamenting about how they “really wanted to see so-and-so speak, but she is scheduled at the same time as I will be speaking.” And I was in a similar position of hoping to see a number of women who were presenting concurrently. If there is anything that really must change, should SheShamans re-materialize in the future, it is the concurrent sessions. As someone who produces and attends a lot of conferences, I have repeatedly seen that more time needs to be allotted to simply allowing folks to congregate and converse. If an attendee skipped two hours of the scheduled programming in order to meet new friends or hang out with old ones, then he or she might sacrifice seeing a couple of the speakers at one of my own conferences. But at SheShamans, such an approach knocked out as many as six presentations.

As I live in a fairly remote area and don’t get to visit with friends as often as I would like—particularly those from out-of-state or out-of-country—I did skip out on “a coupleor-six talks.” And then my being a night owl, staying up into the wee hours chatting, was not conducive to getting much sleep, due to the conference’s early morning schedule. (It was clear that my night owl habit was a minority approach; some people were up before 6:00 am doing yoga!)

When I saw Valerie listed as one of the presenters, I expected that she might address the topic of Cannabis politics and the legal struggles that she has faced. However, her “Death as a Lover” talk didn’t really touch on those areas. Rather, as someone who frequently works with terminally ill medical marijuana patients, she discussed her experiences of being close to so many people in the process of dying. This topic has a universal importance, since we all will lose loved ones during the course of our lives, and ultimately give up the ghost ourselves.

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Over the last thirteen years, 168 WAMM members have died, so Valerie has a lot of experience to speak from. Although people initially come to WAMM to get pot, once they are there, they recognize the challenges that face those struggling with illness and death. Valerie pointed out that most people don’t want to go into hospice, because it means that there are no longer any options. She talked about the plans of WAMM to “build a place where everybody can come to die,” but that almost nobody wanted to come to such a place. Dying people want to stay in their own homes. She emphasized that the process of someone else dying wasn’t about her, noting that Ram Dass had quipped, “Val, don’t take your expectations to somebody else’s death.” (She then joked that she had thought that he was going to tell her something like, “Wow, you’re really far out,” but that he hasn’t yet made that sort of remark.) Ram Dass’s point was that she should listen to what the dying person has to say. And sometimes if she isn’t listening, she gets told off: “Get the hell out of my way. You’re stopping me.” She explained that somebody else’s process is not about her feelings, that she is honored to simply sit and bear witness in service. If she is very quiet, she can observe something profound at the moment of death. As a person providing medicine to some elders of the psychedelic community, Valerie has gotten to know a few of our best souls during their final years. She mentioned Nina Graboi, Elizabeth Gips, and others. In speaking about her relationship with Robert Anton Wilson, she reminded everyone of his remark, “End every sentence with ‘maybe’.” She said that Bob is dying; well, maybe. That, at least “last week,” he thought that he was dying; well, maybe. And that he was writing poetry and doing all of the “final things” that he wanted to do before he died. She characterized Robert as a philosopher who is interested in observing the ways in which humans think about things, and that he does this with a sense of humor. He is having fun while he is dying, which is a great approach to take.

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Along with humor, Valerie expounded on other approaches that people can take toward their own death: treating death as an ally, or courting death—taking it on as a lover. She explained how changing one’s language was the most obvious step available to make one more comfortable. And she noted that, while this approach may not be for everybody, that death is, in any case, for everybody. So we would be better off if we found a path that we resonated with. A portion of her presentation was dedicated to practical matters. When she first started helping medical marijuana patients, she spent about three months learning how to get everything straight for someone who was dying. She provided the tip that all of the financial info that a loved one needs to know Valerie Corral should be on the dying person’s pay stub. She noted that it really takes someone who is not sick to handle all of the details, and pointed out that dying in America can be a costly project, especially when there is a protracted illness. One of the things that WAMM has done to help out is hold garage sales. They’ve gone door-to-door collecting donations, explaining that they have a friend who is dying. She mentioned that one day they made over $1,000 in four hours using this method of fundraising. Along with relating her own impressions, Valerie led an interactive exercise that surprised audience members into facing the sort of unexpected loss that happens to all of us during our lifetimes. The idea was that we should spend a bit of time practicing for death. Valerie then further involved attendees by opening up a good portion of her allotted time to discussion. Of all of the presentations I went to at SheShamans, Valerie’s was the most successful in creating a group conversation that allowed for a lot of valuable sharing of experiences and data among the people in attendence. Mentioning how it is important for dying people to be allowed to “get out of their heads” via some positive distraction, one attendee described an all-woman “threshold choir” that performs at the bedsides of people who are dying.

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A representative of Erowid at the conference, Sylvia Thyssen, brought up the Funeral Consumers Alliance (www.funerals.org), a non-profit organization geared toward increasing public awareness of death-related options. She described their end-of-life planning kit, Before I Go, You Should Know, which folks are encouraged to fill out in pencil (so that changes can be made) and store in their freezer—a protected space in case of a house fire. The FCA even provides a refrigerator magnet that says “matters of life and death inside” to post on the outside of one’s freezer. Regardless of your age, it seems like a good idea to fill out one of these booklets. Sylvia admitted that she has not yet filled out her own, but that she nonetheless looks forward to contemplating her own death at times when she takes plane flights. Someone mentioned the bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in California; a vote on this was just around the corner at the time of the conference. (The fourth time such a bill has been proposed in California, it unfortunately failed to pass by a single vote.)




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winter, the family had to start digging her hole in their yard before the woman had passed away. “Oh, is that Jorge out there with the backhoe digging my grave now? Is that Ramon nailing together my casket?” she would ask. As she wanted to be buried sitting upright facing east, they had to excavate a huge hole. Ultimately, they used seat belts to strap her into the coffin, because rigor eventually leaves the body and her’s wasn’t keeping its seated shape. After that experience, the family decided on a “rule” that anyone they buried in the future had to be lying down. Another one of the conference presenters, Linda Rosa Corazon, described some of the ways in which death is treated differently in Mexico. An aphorism from that country is that, “Death is always over your left shoulder, and one day it’s going to come over your right shoulder.” She remarked how this viewpoint adds to the preciousness of life—it helps you value what you love and know that it could go at any time. She related a bit about the psychotherapy work that she had been a part of years ago with the Mexican psychiatrist Salvador Roquet, who held psychedelic sessions (and later “convivials” without the use of drugs) and caused people to confront their own deaths by having them fill out their last will and testament before the session. Linda suggested that because our own culture tends to repress and sanitize death, this reinforces our materialistic viewpoint of wanting to hold onto everything. She contrasted this to the Mexican approach, where there is an active relationship with one’s ancestors that is honored each year during the “Day of the Dead” ceremonies. Mexicans know that the spirits are there, and they can ask them for help and guidance.

…you can bury dead loved ones in your back yard, so long as you get the proper permit…

Someone else spoke about the services offered by the Final Passages organization (www.finalpassages.org), which provides information about creating one’s own family-run or home funeral, and offers details related to the legal landscape that needs to be traversed to make it happen. One woman brought up the fact that in California, you can bury dead loved ones in your back yard, so long as you get the proper permit and have the appropriate zoning clearance. Valerie confirmed this, noting that it was perfectly legal and reasonable to keep a dead, non-embalmed body in a cool room for up to three days. Several people voiced that a dead person who hasn’t been embalmed looks beautiful. Another woman, mentioning that it was similarly legal to bury your own dead in New Mexico, described how her family built a casket from $40 worth of materials, which the dying’s loved ones then painted. She told of how the instructor from a “Death and Dying” course had brought a class to visit her terminal loved one. The sick woman was polite to the students, but after they left she was worried that she might have disappointed the class. “Did they want me to die in front of them?” she asked. As they were heading into

One of the women in attendance described how, at the age of six, she had accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills. She was believed to be dead for about a minute. During this time, she had a phenomenal experience, where other-worldly beings spoke to her. She saw her whole life: all the things that had happened, and all the things that would happen. She felt the sense of an intelligent creator behind everything. When the beings told her that she had to return to the living, she replied, “I don’t think so!” But, eventually agreeing, she asked them if she could leave a little portion of herself in their realm, and they said, “Yes.” For several years after that

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experience, she kept being drawn back into that realm at times. This was an incredibly powerful and life-defining experience for this woman. She also shared an idea I found to be quite inspired: She suggested that every person might create a “symbol” for themselves. She talked about her mother, a priestess who had passed away after a protracted illness. Her mother always wore orange, and so they decided that her symbol would be the robin, in honor of the redorange breast of this bird. Now that her mother has died, whenever this woman sees robins she thinks of her mom— and she reported seeing robins in unusual places where she didn’t feel that they normally should have been. In any case, the idea of designating a symbol that represents yourself, and sharing this with others before you die, seems like a great way to allow you to be remembered by friends and family when they later encounter that symbol. M. Macha NightMare, another one of the conference presenters, gave a plug for the tome that she co-wrote with Starhawk, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over, mentioning that the book covered many of the resources that had been brought up during Valerie’s presentation. The other presenters I was able to hear included the inspiring Anne Zapf, who provided a heartfelt history of the Peyote Way Church, the beautiful Jane Straight, who spoke about her relationship stewarding entheogenic/ medicinal plants and told a few amazing tales of healing, and the wise-and-wonderful Cynthia Palmer, who regaled us with an image-packed PowerPoint slideshow of the history of women in shamanism and psychonautical exploration. Undoubtedly the most fun of the conference was Lou Montgomery’s one-woman theatrical presentation “Pachamama Rides Again,” an over-the-top comedic description of her experience of ayahuasca tourism in a program that she described as a sort of “psychedelic Outward Bound.” Lou’s expressive stage presence combined the sensibilities of Carol Channing and Lucille Ball on a stiff dose of la purga. Her performance is definitely worth catching in the future, if you are able. The venue had a number of places to congregate—a camping area or a few small rooms for rent at an additional fee, a clothing-optional pool (a welcome feature at a conference predominated by women), a theatre, a dining room, a speaker’s alcove, an upstairs “nest/harem” (or at least in my own drug-addled fantasies), and strangely, a zoo with a whole lot of caged animals: mostly birds and cats. The tension of

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the juxtaposition of predator and prey side-by-side in toosmall cages was not lost on many of the vegetarian attendees. Time and again I heard whispered jests of freeing the beasts. “First we’ll let the birds go, then—an hour later— the cats. Gotta give the birds a head start.” It did seem painfully ironic to gather a mass of hippie PETA types in such an environment, although thankfully no one was off-kilter enough to follow through on plans for liberating the animals. A friend mentioned to me that one of the retreat center’s goats had mysteriously turned up dead, which I hope was just an unfortunate coincidence rather than some sort of late-night Satanic sacrifice. The opening and closing ceremonies were simple and thankfully not overly new-agey. I had never previously taken part in a “spiral dance,” which was what closed out the event. It was a hoot, since I repeatedly caught the eye of a friend who I suspected thought that I wasn’t taking the whole thing seriously, and this kept me on a continual high of internalized laughter. SheShamans was created as a response to the perception that women have consistently been given short shrift at psychedelic events. While I am not aware of any previous psychedelic conference ever produced where the stated goal was to exclude one gender as presenters (such as was the case with this event), I was nonetheless glad to have the opportunity to hear a few speakers—regardless of their gender— whom I had never heard before. I was also pleased that attendance wasn’t restricted to “women only.” If that were the case, I might not have had a chance to hear what these women had to say. Of the approximately 100 people present over the course of the event, perhaps 20 of these were men. Conference producer Diane Darling made a great point during her statements the first day at SheShamans: In the “publish or perish” world of academia, or in the realm of “needing to show efficacy in order to get government approval for research,” men are frequently positing arguments in defense of psychedelics. Women, on the other hand, don’t tend to bother with such mental gymnastics. They know that the medicine works—the proof is in the pudding. The event acted in part as a fundraiser for the Women’s Entheogens Fund, and more than $1,000 was raised as a donation. All-in-all, Diane did a wonderful job with her conference. A great variety of speakers, a relaxing location, and an overall positive vibe. I look forward to any similar productions in the future. 

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Events Calendar MUSHROOM FESTIVAL AUGUST 18–19, 2006 Although we thought that plans to hold the longest-running shroom fest had been discarded this year, nevertheless just before this issue went to print we learned of a last-minute push to make it happen. The price for the Telluride Mushroom Festival is dramatically discounted from years past, perhaps due to having only “tastings” and a “chef cook-off,” but no actual meal plans provided. Nevertheless, there will still be the traditional mushroom parade, gathering forays, help with identification, cultivation demonstrations, and presentations/panel discussions by folks such as Kathleen Harrison, Gary Lincoff, Jim Gouin, Christopher Hobbs, and others. For more information, call (970) 708-0289 or e-mail [email protected]. Tickets are $45 per day, or $80 for both days, available at www.tellurideticket.com/ displayevent.html?ev_id=439.

BURNING MAN AUG. 28 — SEPT. 4, 2006 Although Burning Man is always an intensely psychedelic experience, this year will undoubtedly be even more psychedelicious than anything in the past. Entheon Village at “4:00 and Esplanade” will host the Palenque Norte lectures and MAPS 20th anniversary celebrations, featuring talks by Rafael Aisner, Matthew Baggott, Preet Chopra, Ginger Cloud, Jag Davies, Erik Davis, Carla Detchon, Rick Doblin, Earth Erowid, Fire Erowid, Amanda Feilding, John Gilmore, George Greer, Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, Jon Hanna, Charles Hayes, Martina Hoffmann, Rob Kampia, Sandra Karpetas, Seabrook Leaf, Dan MacCombie, Michael Mithoefer, Valerie Mojeiko, Ethan Nadelmann, Sheldon Norberg, Julia Onnie-Hay, Dale Pendell, Daniel Pinchbeck, Rakefet Rodriguez, Marsha Rosenbaum, Andrew Sewell, Nick Sand, Ann Shulgin, Sasha Shulgin, Robert Venosa, and Sobey Wing. There

will also be the opportunity to take part in Holotropic Breathwork™ sessions run by Sheelo Bohm. See the link to the 2006 lecture topics at www.matrixmasters.com/pn. Across the street on the playa itself, a 60-foot dome will house Alex Grey’s CoSM, featuring replicas of the Sacred Mirrors and other examples of his art. Alex and Allyson will be providing art instruction over the course of the week (bring some paints). Nearby will be other structures featuring the work of a collection of amazing contemporary visionary artists that may include Luke Brown, Dean Chamberlain, Vibrata Chromodoris, Kris D, J Garcia, Mark Henson, David Heskin, Martina Hoffmann, Eric Nex, Carey Thompson, Robert Venosa, Oliver Vernon, Roman Villagrana, Ian Welling, Xavi, and others. Down the block at “4:30 and Anxious” will be The Oracle at Erowid (the Oracular Madness tent and the Erowid.org dome), featuring formal presentations and casual conversation and about the complex relationship between humans and psychoactives, along with musical musings. See www.burningman.com.

TRANSPERSONAL PSYCH SEPTEMBER 7, 2006 Celebrating 100 years of transpersonal psychology, this event will be held at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. Featuring presentations from James Fadiman, Christina Grof, Stanislav Grof, Stanley Krippner, Charles Tart, Frances Vaughan, and others. For more info, see www.atpweb.org.

AYAHUASCA HEALING SEPTEMBER 19–26, 2006 Ayahuasca retreats held by the ocean, in Bahia, Brazil. Along with ayahuasca ceremonies, the opportunity to sample Salvia divinorum and Silene capensis (a dream-inducing herb), and discuss lucid dreaming techniques, remote viewing, and other psychic modalities may also be featured. For more information, see www.ayahuasca-healing.net.

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Ten Post-1980s Psychedelic Non-Electronica Instrumental CDs For Neo-Shamanic Use That You Should Know About by Castor Pollux

The very description “psychedelic music” is as subjective as the psychedelic state itself, and can be discussed for hours. If one defines it simply as “music that one listens to in an altered mental state,” then anything really goes—from trance to the Grateful Dead to industrial noise music to ragas to Bach. For this article, however, I will use my own narrow and biased viewpoints, and concentrate on (1) some relatively recent (post-1980s) instrumental music that (2) overall does not rely on electronic drumbeats and (3) has been field-tested (“bio-sonically-assayed”) by yours truly—a musician since 1974, part-time record store employee since 1990, faithful reader of The Entheogen Review since 1994, and Burning Man attendee since 1995. Throughout history, the shaman has relied on sound and rhythm to accompany him on his voyages to the spirit and healing worlds. Most of these CDs have a “pulse” that manifests to move one’s visions along. However, in an entheogenically altered state, electronic drums can sometimes be too harsh or mechanical sounding to relate to; so for these reviews I have concentrated on music with “natural” percussion or no drums at all. While I personally can really, really enjoy electronica, there is absolutely no shortage of writing and exposure to it—it’s been covered to death! As for the instrumental slant here, I find that music with no lyrics provides a more “open playing field” for one to meditate upon, without being guided by the message of the words. The final musical biases I’ve embraced are that a lot of this music tends toward the minimal, and it often involves the guitar as an instrument. With all that said, let’s go! I’m enthusiastic about sharing this stuff with you.

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Tristeza Dream Signals in Full Circles TigerStyle Records, 2000 www.trstz.com Two shimmering, chiming, and “rhyming” echo-laden guitars picking arpeggios—along with subtle keyboard washes, bass, and drums—make this an all-time masterpiece. The first song is called “Building Peaks.” Need I say more? Sink deep into the sound. Friends have compared this to music from Pink Floyd and Mike Oldfield, but there is a very modern sensibility here. Some folks I know have even used it for massage. Also don’t miss their amazing first CD, Spine and Sensory, and their latest melodic release, A Colores.

Colleen The Golden Morning Breaks The Leaf Label, 2005 www.theleaflabel.com Meditative yet fascinating, Colleen (whose real name is Celine) is a French artist who uses tape loops to layer cello, flute, acoustic guitar, wind chimes, music boxes, etc., in her delicately crafted compositions. There’s some great intellectual and heartfelt female power here; this CD was originally described to me as “like Bjork’s Vespertine without the vocals.” While I never thought that I would enjoy listening to a CD with a unicorn on the cover, this has just enough of an “experimental” edge to keep it from being “new age” music. Also check out her first CD, Everyone Alive Wants Answers, which is a little more electronica-sounding and features the ambient voice of a child on one cut.

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Japancakes The Sleepy Strange KinderCore Records, 2000 Despite their name, there is nothing specifically Japanese here. What we do get is an ensemble of musicians working riffs and themes with a lazy country feel—violins and steel guitars float over keyboards and rhythm section down a hypnotic rural pathway. (D’oh! I was trying to avoid the word “hypnotic” in this article.) Is this instrumental “hypno/trance/country?” Beauty. Also check out their If I Could See Dallas and Waking Hours CDs.

Scenic Acquatica Independent Project Records, 1996 www.parasol.com This is my soundtrack for approaching and entering the playa at Burning Man. The band Scenic uses a guitar-and-keyboard sound somewhere between the spaghetti western soundtracks of Ennio Morricone and the spacey atmospherics of Pink Floyd to conjure the open spaces of the desert. Their first CD, Incident At Cima, is a minimalist masterpiece dedicated to the Mojave area. Their second release, Acquatica, has more varied instrumentation with short percussion and musical interludes between some of the cuts—very cinematic stuff. And their awesome latest effort, The Acid Gospel Experience, got a deservedly spectacular write-up in Rolling Stone magazine!

Lanterna Lanterna Independent Project Records, 1998 www.parasol.com




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voice is so hushed and muted that it becomes another instrument. More “landscape” music (and I mean that in a good way). His subsequent releases have not been quite as interesting, but this is some great stuff here.

Tortoise TNT Thrill Jockey Label, 1998 www.trts.com This Chicago-based ensemble of five or six players makes innovative compositions, combining elements of jazz, world beat, techno, and more into a fascinating blend. TNT is an odd name, as nothing is “explosive” on this CD, but there are so many textures and grooves that I never tire of it. Punk/ indie-rockers striving to play like Weather Report come up with some successful and satisfying results. The tune “10 Day Interval,” with its three (!) xylophones, reminds me of Peter Gabriel’s cut “San Jacinto.” Don’t leave home without this CD! You heard me! Also great are their CDs Millions Now Living Will Never Die and It’s All Around You.

Brokeback Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table Thrill Jockey, 1999 www.thrilljockey.com A solo project from Tortoise’s six-string bassist, this is a bit sparser but still beautiful—a sonic expressionist painting with the twang of a baritone guitar and field recordings of lakebirds and other natural sounds. The girl from Stereolab provides a wordless vocal on one cut here and on his also great third CD, Looks at the Bird. Three thumbs up!

Essentially a one-man band (with occasional back-up help), Lanterna features echo-laden guitars on 17 cuts ranging from abstract sounds to the aforementioned Morricone stylings—some spooky, all atmospheric. Okay, there is one vocal cut here, but the THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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The Mermen Food For Other Fish Mesa/Blue Moon, 1994 www.mermen.net If some of these CDs evoke desert landscapes, this ensemble evokes the deep blue majesty of the Big Sur coastline. The trio delivers an instrumental surf sound as much as a Pink Floyd/Sonic Youth sound. Deep, deep reverb, tribal drums, and an equal measure of fast and slow tempos make this a keeper. All of their six or so CDs are excellent, but this is their most consistent. A perennial favorite at the Burning Man festival, this San Francisco act ended up scooping a lot of Deadheads into their long live sets. “The Silly Elephant” is almost African-sounding at times, and the ballad “Raglan” is wistfully beautiful. The real tour-de-force here, though, is the 8 1/2 minute “Pull of the Moon,” a Neil Young-like workout.




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Tucker Martine Broken Hearted Dragonflies: Insect Electronica from Southeast Asia Sublime Frequencies, 2004 www.sublimefrequencies.com The subtitle “Insect Electronica” is a joke—these are completely unaltered field recordings of insects in Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos. Sure you’ll hear some crickets… but at different points you will wonder, “What the hell is making that flying saucer sound? And is that somebody playing a synthesizer over there? How can all those critters make that sound all at the same time? Honey, is someone trying to beam us up?” You never knew that our lil’ six-legged pals could come up with such rich tones. Four cuts featuring 39 minutes from Mother Nature’s finest! Recorded by Tucker Martine.

Tom Verlaine Warm and Cool Thrill Jockey, 2005 originally on RykoDisc, 1992 www.thrilljockey.com Formerly of the legendary New York band Television, Verlaine and drummer Billy Ficca (plus a bassist) unfold a series of instrumentals that progress from a noir/spy soundtrack mode, to impressionistic picking, to out-and-out freeform jazz à la Albert Ayler. Verlaine has gone on to do performances where he plays along to films, and this CD is the aural equivalent of scenes passing by in the night. Some have compared his style to John Cipollina of Quicksilver. The 2005 edition of this CD has a few more cuts on it than the original RykoDisc release.

ARE YOU BACK YET? for details and ordering information see

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Bibliography Baggott, M. 2002. Personal communication. BBC News, Thursday, 13 March, 2003. “Cameroon bans urine ‘health drink’,” posted to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/africa/2847557.stm. Accessed 7/18/06. Bele-Binda, M.E. 1975. “A Case of Acute Tobacco Poisoning by Enema,” Annales de l’Anesthesiologie Française 16(2): 97–100. Bouaravong, N. 2002. “Urine Therapy: Drinking Urine— An Ancient Therapeutic Practice Revisited,” Issues: Berkeley Medical Journal, posted to: www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~issues/ fall02/urine.html. Accessed 7/18/06. Brown, B.T. 1993. “Treating Cancer with Coffee Enemas and Diet,” Journal of the American Medical Association 269(13): 1635–1636. Case, J. 2004. Personal communication. Case, J. et al. 2004. “The Enema Project: Taking it Past the Limit?” The Entheogen Review 13(2): 41–48. Charalampous, K.D. et al. 1964. “Metabolic Fate of β(3,4,5trimethoxyphenyl)-ethylamine (mescaline) in Humans: Isolation and identification of 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenylacetic acid,” Journal Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 145: 242–246. Charalampous, K.D. et al. 1966. “Metabolic fate of Mescaline in Man,” Psychopharmacologia 9: 48–63.

DeSmet, P.A.G.M. 1995. “Considerations in the Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Ritual Hallucinogenic Plants,” Ethnobotany: Evolution of a Discipline Dioscorides Press. R.E. Schultes and S. Von Reis (eds.). pp. 369–382. DeSmet, P.A.G.M. and L. Rivier 1985. “Intoxicating Snuffs of the Venezuelan Piaroa Indians,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 17(2): 93–103. DeSmet, P.A.G.M. and N.M. Hellmuth 1986. “A Multidisciplinary Approach to Ritual Enema Scenes on Ancient Maya Pottery,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 16(2–3): 213–262. Doyle, D. 2005. “Per Rectum: A History of Enemata,” J. R. Coll. Physicians Edinb. 35: 367–370. Citing Porter, R. 1997. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind. Collins. Eisel, J.W. and D.T. Reay 1980. “Deaths Related to Coffee Enemas,” Journal of the American Medical Association 244(14): 1608–1609. Ernst, E. 1997. “Colonic Irrigation and the Theory of Autointoxication: A Triumph of Ignorance over Science,” Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology 24(4): 196–198. EVI 2001. Ecstasy/MDMA Facts. Educating Voices, Inc. www.educatingvoices.org/Ecstasy.asp. Accessed 7/18/06. Expressindia.com 2001 (June 1). “Three Million Chinese Drink Their Own Urine,” www.expressindia.com/news/ june1/world5.html. Accessed 7/18/06. Galloway, G. circa 1995. Personal communication.

DeSmet, P.A.G.M. 1983. “A Multidisciplinary Overview of Intoxicating Enema Rituals in the Western Hemisphere,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 9: 129–166. DeSmet, P.A.G.M. 1985. Ritual Enemas and Snuffs in the Americas. Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns Amerika, pp. 37–38, citing: Furst, P.T. and M.D. Coe 1977. “Ritual Enemas,” Natural History 86(3): 88–91, and Furst, P.T. 1976a. Hallucinogens and Culture. Chandler & Sharp, Publishers, Inc.

Green, S. 1992. “A Critique of the Rationale for Cancer Treatment with Coffee Enemas and Diet,” Journal of the American Medical Association 268(22): 3224–3227. Gottlieb, A. 1977. Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti. Kistone Press; The Twentieth Century Alchemist. Hollister, L.E. 1968. Chemical Psychoses: LSD and Related Drugs. Charles C. Thomas.

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Kravetz, R.E. 2002. “Tobacco Enema,” American Journal of Gastroenterology 97(9): 2453. La Barre, W. 1979. “Peyotl and Mescaline,” Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 11(1–2): 33–39.




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translation in 1736: An Historico-Geographical Description of the North and Eastern Parts of Europe and Asia. Cited in: Wasson, R.G. 1968. Soma: The Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Torelli-Delgado, K. 1990. Personal communication.

Margolin, K.A. and M.R.Green 1984. “Polymicrobial Enteric Septicemia from Coffee Enemas,” Western Journal of Medicine 140(3): 460. McBryde, B. 2000–2001. “Anyone for a Coffee Enema?” Nursing Times 96(50): 27–28. Mokrasch, L.C. and I. Stevenson 1959. “The Metabolism of Mescaline with a Note on Correlations between Metabolism and Psychological Effects,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 129: 177–183. Reed, A. et al. 1990. “Juices, Coffee Enemas, and Cancer,” Lancet 336(8716): 677–678. Salzman et al. 1996. “In Search of Mukhomor, The Mushroom of Immortality,” Shaman’s Drum 41: 36–47. Satya-Murti, S. 2005. “Rectal Fumigation: A Core Rewarming Practice from the Past,” Pharos Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society 68(1): 35–38.

Trenary, K. 1997. Visionary Cactus Guide, “Methods of Ingestion,” posted to: http://users.lycaeum.org/~iamklaus/ ingest.htm. Accessed 7/18/06. U.S. Army. 1957, 1970. Survival: Department of the Army Field Manual FM-21-76. Headquarters, Department of the Army. Wansi, E. et al. 1996. “Rapid Assessment of Drug Abuse in Cameroon,” Bulletin on Narcotics 1: 79–88. United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention, posted to: www.undcp.org/odccp/bulletin/bulletin_1996-0101_1_page007.html. Accessed 9/5/02. Watts, J.C. 2000. “Not such Distant Mirrors: Coffee Enemas May be Effective Shock Treatment,” British Medical Journal 320(7231): 383. Wilbert, J. 1987. Tobacco and Shamanism in South America, Yale University Press.

Schultes, R.E. and R.F. Raffauf 1990. The Healing Forest: Medicinal and Toxic Plants of the Northwest Amazonia. Dioscorides Press. Schultes, R.E. 1972. “Ilex guayusa from 500 AD to the Present,” Etnologiska Studier 32: 115–138. Scott, Dr. 2002. “Slam and Glow: Methamphetamine,” Erowid, www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=5878. Accessed 7/18/06. Scribe 2003. “Cunt Odyssey: Search for Vaginal Datapoints: LSD, MDMA, 2C-B, Ketamine, & Alprazolam,” Erowid, www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=26033. Accessed 7/18/06. Shulgin, A.T. 2005. Personal communication. Strahlenberg, P.J. von 1730. Das Nord—und Östliche Theil von Europa und Asia, in so weit solcher das ganze Russische Reich mit Siberien und der grossen Tartary in sich begreiffet. English

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper of the Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Andrew Sewell et al. (see page 42 for complete list) John Beresford et al. (see page 49 for complete list) R. Stuart Earth Erowid H.D.V., Germany C.A.P., MN J.S., OR Jon Hanna Castor Pollux

CONTENTS Different Researchers, Different Approaches So Your Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher Halperngate II: Voices from Behind Bars Circuitous Routes of Administering Trichocerei: Enemas, Urine Drinking, and Urine Enemas Comments on the New State Laws Controlling the Consumption of Hallucinogenic Plants Network Feedback AMP Update Wrong Plant! Effective Drug Control Essential Oil Sources Mimosa scabrella Seeds and Stenocereus Hystrix DOC Revisited Recent Articles of Interest SheShamans & Magic Mamas: Women’s Entheogen Conference • June 23–25, 2006 Events Calendar Ten Post-1980s Psychedelic Non-Electronica Instrumental CDs For Neo-Shamanic Use That You Should Know About Bibliography

41 42 49 56 60 62 62 63 63 64 64 65 66 67 71 72 75

Errata: On page 5 of the Vernal Equinox 2006 issue we accidentally misidentified the gentleman photographed with Christian Rätsch as Wolf-Dieter Storl; this is actually Wolfgang Ohlhäuser. Our apologies for the error.

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

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Front Cover The Dance/Interdepend-dance (detail) by Vibrata Chromodoris

Back Cover Warrior by Vibrata Chromodoris For more information about the art of Vibrata Chromodoris: www.vibrata.com

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2006 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XV, Number 2




Summer Solstice 2006




ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XV, Number 3




Autumnal Equinox 2006




ISSN 1066-1913

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark

Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Rick Strassman Jon Hanna David Normal, CA Dr. Wily D.M. Turner Bruce Rimell Noman G.T., Italy J.S., OR Fork! S.A., RI G.A.R., SC Otto Snow W.P., Löhrbach C.G., ID Bill Kelly Markus Berger Mirko Berger

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front and Back Cover art by actual contact www.actualcontact.com

CONTENTS The Inner Work Security Issues in the Underground Hyperspatial Maps Asmodeus Tripping in Public The Substance of Memory: Early Salvinorin Voyages DMT For The Masses An Obscure Oneirogenic: Silene capensis Network Feedback Get Political Easy MAOI Extraction Piptadenia gonoacantha Epiphyllum oxypetalum and Checking Citations Mushroom Stones Collecting Spore Prints GHB Dangers Vitex Agnus-castus Halperngate II Correction Desmanthus Dust Mask Out-of-print Resources Robert Forman Art Show Recent Articles of Interest Entheogens in Video Games Events Calendar Sources Bibliography

77 81 83 83 83 88 91 93 95 95 95 95 95 96 97 97 98 98 99 99 99 99 100 105 106 108

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues).

ETHNOGARDEN BOTANICALS POB 27048 BARRIE, ONTARIO, L4M 6K4 CANADA

Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2006 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

TEL: (01) 705-322-6614

FAX: (01) 705-322-6615

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 3




AUTUMNAL EQUINOX 2006

The Inner Work by Rick Strassman, M.D.

In “So You Want to be a Psychedelic Researcher?” [see TER XV(2):42–48], Dr. Andrew Sewell provides a thorough review of the academic training necessary for performing above-board research with psychedelic drugs. I am often asked to don my career counselor hat when responding to e-mails from people interested in this type of work. Now I have an article to which I can refer future inquiries. Despite all my academic preparation, however, once beginning our Albuquerque DMT studies, I soon discovered it was a case of “now for the hard part”—actually administering psychedelics to people, and relating with them while they were under the influence. This realization many years ago leads me to supplement Dr. Sewell’s article with some comments regarding the personal training and background which I believe are also necessary. This training addresses the following fundamental issues regarding your role and effectiveness as a psychedelic researcher: 1) Your motivation; 2) How you supervise sessions; and 3) Your understanding of the nature of the psychedelic experience. There are several overlapping paths of personal development by which you can ready yourself to do the most good and the least harm. These include: 1) Personal psychotherapy; 2) Religious/spiritual training; 3) Academic/intellectual study. This personal development should begin early on, and will help you develop your “psychedelic self.” That is, how you carry yourself in the universe of the psychedelic experience— your understanding of the nature, source, significance, meaning, utility, and applicability of psychedelic consciousness. How you approach and integrate these phenomena will ultimately determine how you relate to your psychedelicized volunteers. Let me state from the outset my belief that your psychedelic self constitutes the most important aspect of the setting of your subjects’ psychedelic experiences.

Setting refers to the environment in which a psychedelic experience takes place. The other two elements are drug and set, the latter referring to the volunteer’s expectations; previous experience; and mental, spiritual, and physical health. We usually think of setting as the physical circumstances of one’s trip: indoors or outdoors, weather, lighting, noise, and smells. However, the relationship between the participant and the other people in his/her vicinity is, in most situations, the most important determinant of setting. Within a traditional psychiatric context, I support and would like to extend Dr. Sewell’s suggestion to “consider [personal] psychoanalytic training.” Freud’s great discovery, as promulgated in his establishment of psychoanalytic principles and practices, was the unconscious. This term refers to mental processes and contents that for whatever reason the mind keeps out of awareness, no matter how hard we try to access them. The unconscious usually generates and maintains our most destructive self-defeating, self-deluding, and anxiety-provoking patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We all have an unconscious, as do our volunteers. It is in the realm of the unconscious—the area where we “hide” certain aspects of our mental lives—that fruitful, valuable, and even crucial questions must be addressed. These are the issues I raised above: motivation for doing this work, how you supervise sessions, and your over-arching understanding of the psychedelic experience. Our motivations for how we make complex decisions are never simple—a phenomenon Freud labeled “overdetermined.” Many reasons converge onto a single act, thought, or feeling. Our more conscious motivations for becoming a psychedelic researcher are, of course, admirable, healthy, and altruistic. We want to help others, contribute to the benefit of society, increase knowledge and wisdom. However, there may be other factors at play behind the conscious scene. While these less beneficent motivations I’m about to discuss rarely dominate one’s decision to perform psychedelic research, denying the possibility of their presence is a dangerous sign. It suggests a less-than-fully

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examined and acknowledged awareness of the existence of our own unconscious, particularly regarding the psychological reality of ambivalence. Ambivalence refers to the fact that our motivations never are all good, just as they never are all bad. It is only through becoming aware and accepting of our ambivalence, and working through it, that we can avoid being surprised and hobbled when faced with our own powerfully contradictory feelings and thoughts, particularly regarding such unusual and controversial work as psychedelic research. Refusing to accept the truth of ambivalence often leads to potentially dangerous acting out. Instead of feeling and thinking things we don’t want to acknowledge as our own, we behaviorally play them out, usually in our relationships, and then we blame others for the problems that arise when people respond to our mixed messages.




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In any of these or similar cases, what should you say when the volunteer wonders if you’re angry at, or want to hurt, him or her? A casual, “Of course not, how could you think such a thing?” will not help. While it is better to have worked on your own self well enough in advance to preclude such a scenario, be assured that you will fail at preventing every leakage of your negative unconscious. In this case, an honest, “I don’t know,” “I don’t think so,” “Let me mull on that for a bit,” or, “Perhaps, but I’m not aware of it,” can do a lot to militate against worsening an already tense and confusing situation for everyone in the room.

How much of our motivation to study psychedelics is tied up with our desire to be uniquely “special,” or our need to “triumph” over the authorities?

For example, unconscious sadism may play a role in how we approach this work. Rather than reflexively refusing to entertain the possibility that (unconscious) sadism plays such a role, it is better to wonder if sadism is involved when, for example we note, however fleeting, an uncomfortable sense of pleasure or satisfaction during someone’s bad trip. Then we can wonder how or why sadism may be operative in our dealings with psychedelicized research volunteers. Healthy introspection, and consultation with others (be it a supervisor or therapist) will make it that much easier to understand and remedy both our and our research volunteers’ confusing reactions to any particular psychedelic session.

A denied fragment of ourselves may desire inflicting pain on a psychedelic research volunteer. For example, we might give a too high dose of a drug to punish a volunteer we may not like, or to show them “who’s boss.” We might wear visually jarring clothes, or overwhelming perfume or cologne, or ask too many or too sensitive questions when a volunteer is still unable to get his/her bearings. We might abandon a volunteer in their time of need, either psychologically, emotionally, or physically. We might bring into the room particular books or magazines, which could overwhelm or confuse a psychedelicized volunteer.

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Voyeurism involves gratification by looking. It is an attempt to identify with someone else’s experience in place of your own. Voyeurism may play a role in your decision to perform clinical psychedelic research. For example, it may be an unconscious attempt on our part to resolve our inability to experience pleasure, up to and including a full mystical experience; or to achieve resolution of one’s own psychological conflicts, depression, or anxiety. These factors may be partly involved in your desire to elicit healing, transformative, or ecstatic experiences in others. What, then, do you say when a volunteer comments that you seem so happy when their trip goes well, or so disappointed when it goes poorly? In other words, whose trip is it—theirs or yours?

Unconscious attempts to deal with pathological narcissism may also influence one’s choice of career with psychedelic drugs, and how one sits for sessions. These issues deal with attempts to bolster fragile self-worth by expecting and/or demanding others’ positive responses to you in any and all circumstances; and conversely, reacting with hurt, anger, or even rage, when others don’t respond as you’d like. Even before you give your first dose of a drug, narcissistic factors may come into play. For example, it is quite difficult to obtain permits and funding to do this work. How much of our motivation to study psychedelics is tied up with our desire to be uniquely “special,” or our need to “triumph” over the authorities? Will your interest in performing this work sustain you after the initial glow of your “victory” fades? The “victory” is never final—funding, permits, and research vol-

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 3

unteers may vanish at any moment. And you may get bored when the hard work of doing the research actually begins. Once you do begin your studies, there are many pitfalls into which our unhealthy narcissism may cause us to stumble. It is easy to accept the adulation of a highly psychedelicized volunteer, who, coming out of a deeply healing or mystical experience, exclaims, “You changed my life!”, “I can’t believe how much I owe you!”, “You are responsible for the most wonderful experience I’ve ever had!” In response to such adoration, it’s natural to feel, “Yes, I certainly am amazing, aren’t I?” But it can be harder to view one’s temporarily inflated ego within a healthier perspective. On the other hand, how do we react when someone complains that you’ve ruined their life, or are responsible for the most horrifying experience they’ve ever had? Do we fall back on the not-so-funny saying that some therapists like to offer: “When the patient does well, it’s because we’re so good. When they do poorly, it’s a sign that they were too sick and no one could have helped them.” Reacting in this way blames your volunteer, distancing yourself and preventing you from looking at areas in which you could improve your skills. When their trips are not all you or they hoped for, do you find yourself wondering, in the direction of the volunteer, “How could you do this to me?” (aloud, or not). At some level, you are bound to be disappointed by at least a few of your volunteers’ trips. The more you push away those feelings in yourself, the greater the chances are that your volunteers will feel what you are disavowing. Another example of unconscious narcissism spilling over into our work is our feeling superior to our volunteers, by virtue of them “being so stoned” or “out of it,” while we are so powerful and together. We may be more comfortable when they are helpless and dependent upon us, than when we find ourselves dealing with them on a more equal footing.




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Our shaky self-esteem, manifested in pathological narcissism, also may drive us to desire “belonging” to the psychedelic subculture. We may unconsciously reject our overly rigid and authority-identified sense of self (obtained from our upbringing and fortified by our professional training), and wish to prove to ourselves and others that we are cool and easy-going. We may be lonely, with few friends, and using our volunteers to make up for our lack of a social network. A particularly malignant outcome of this scenario is to take or procure drugs with or through your volunteers, to show you’re “one of them.” Even more pernicious is when you overtly abuse this sense of trust, violating volunteers sexually or by taking their money. Psychedelics drugs, both as a concept and as a reality, powerfully magnify our feelings of self-worth, being “right,” and having special knowledge and status. Upon closer examination, most of these feelings are illusory and deceptive. Thus, our own “healthy” narcissism must rest upon less ephemeral factors, such as a deep and broad mix of social, psychological, and spiritual supports and accomplishments. There are spiritual aspects of doing such research that also require a great deal of preparatory work. In addition to psychological effects the psychedelics elicit in your volunteers, and in you by virtue of working with these drugs, psychedelics also may generate deeply spiritual experiences. And you need to be ready to respond appropriately when volunteers have them. For example, how do you reply when a volunteer who has had an “encounter with God,” asks you if you believe in God? Or, if s/he is an atheist or agnostic, do you couch your response to their mystical experience in God-related concepts and language that the volunteer cannot relate to? What if your volunteers ask you about your own spiritual experiences and understanding of spiritual realities, or inquire about how to deal with questions of good, evil, and

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free will? Is there life after death? Is Satan real? Do you have a spiritual practice; if not, why not? What is the nature of your practice? Have you had a spiritual teacher—that is, have you been a disciple? Can you certify someone’s experience as genuine enlightenment—if so, what is your authority to do so? If not, why haven’t you worked to obtain such authority since you are working with drugs that can elicit “enlightenment-like” experiences? Hesitant, uncertain answers to these questions don’t help. Neither do glib, academic, detached, or overly psychological/interpretive responses. Rather, you must personally provide a safe and trustworthy context in which you can support and guide deep and potentially transformative spiritual sessions. You owe it to your volunteers to have a depth of background, training, understanding, and experience to contend with these issues. This background ought not be a dogmatic fundamentalist one. Such a model usually will not gain the trust of most of your volunteers because of its implied judgmental reactions. Better for your volunteers, and for you, if your spirituality is of mature quality. It should be one in which you are a humble player, not a haughty overlord. Nevertheless, you remain strong, healthy, and open to new ideas and experiences that continue to further your spiritual growth. As is usual in this work, honesty is the best policy. If you don’t know something, say so—and never deny that you could be wrong. Finally, there are ontological issues—ones dealing with the nature of reality—that may predominate a psychedelic session. These questions used to fall mostly under spiritual/religious auspices, but now with the tendency to separate those things known by science and believed by faith, it’s more difficult to respond with beliefs, rather than scientific theories. Examples of these sorts of phenomena are entity contact, space and time travel, past lives, and other far-out experiences with which you may have absolutely no first-hand knowledge, or training to handle. Can your world view accept such reports by your volunteers as not just being the product of a “brain on drugs”? Where can you even begin to start developing a world view that incorporates such phenomena into its purview? Academically, the fields of religious studies and anthropology (particularly within the cross-disciplinary field of shamanism) discuss these types of experiences from the “outside looking in.” You may read about how other people

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understand and utilize some of these more unusual and difficult to contextualize phenomena. Intellectual preparation may make it easier not to get too nervous when you hear volunteer reports of this nature. If your own religious/spiritual training included these topics, you may have even less of a knee-jerk rejection regarding their “validity” when you hear about them from your research subjects. On the other hand, there is nothing like first-hand knowledge of what your volunteers are describing to you. If you’ve had your own “contact,” near-death, or past-life experience, you may be more open to believing, at face value, your volunteers’ reports. However, you may have disregarded the validity of your own experience, complicating your reaction to hearing about others’—particularly in an academic setting, where there is a high premium placed upon “propriety.” My own way of dealing with these reports was at first to use the most palatable scientific models: brain chemistry and psychological interpretations. However, neither the volunteers nor I found these approaches intuitively appealing or satisfying. As a result, more or less reluctantly, I engaged in a “thought experiment,” treating these reports, if nothing else, as “true.” In other words, this is what the volunteers experienced. They felt, saw, heard what they did—it was not “something else.” What forced me to take this approach was the intensely held conviction by volunteers that these experiences were “more real than real,” and in fact, were not very “psychedelic” at all. As someone in the study remarked, “It’s not a drug as much as a new technology.” Either I was to nominally get on board, or I would lose access to a lot of valuable information. While the scientific bases of taking such an approach are highly speculative, one of the results of this thought experiment was that it allowed volunteers, and me, more ease in discussing very unusual sessions. It also provided a springboard for my own investigations of how current scientific models of reality might account for some of these reports. Finally, while Dr. Sewell’s suggested reading list is extensive, anyone interested in clinical research with psychedelics also might find useful my book, DMT: The Spirit Molecule (Park Street Press, 2001). In it, I describe in great detail how I prepared for doing this research, got ready for supervising sessions, and dealt with our psychedelicized volunteers during the University of New Mexico studies in the 1990s. 

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 3

AUTUMNAL EQUINOX 2006

Security Issues in the Underground by Jon Hanna

This year at a large week-long outdoor alternative arts and culture festival I spoke at and moderated a harm reduction panel in a psychedelic-oriented theme camp. My own primary message during these lectures was the concept of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” I encouraged audience members to cultivate the meme of purposeful ignorance surrounding drug trafficking. If you don’t know anything, this should make it much harder for the government to pressure you into providing information that could harm others. And while many people understand the wisdom of camouflaging their own illegal activities, I suggested that people should wrap their heads around the idea that they don’t have the right to reveal information about the illegal activities of someone else. Think about it: Does the person who you bought an MDMA tablet from really want you mentioning her name to anyone else when discussing the transaction? Do the people who you sold LSD to want you to mention them by name when discussing those transactions?

to this sort of security issue. Someone may attempt to justify such poor form by saying that the person being talked about is a friend, and the person one is talking to is a friend, and since we are all friends or friends-of-friends and everyone is “cool,” there really isn’t any problem. And it actually is quite likely that nothing bad will ever happen in most such cases. Nevertheless, let me be straight: If you are my friend, you will not mention my name to anyone else while describing any illegal activity that you believe I may have been involved with. That strikes me as a good standard to hold for a friend, and it strikes me as a good way to treat your own friends. It should be the default mode of operation.

It may seem hugely obvious to readers of The Entheogen Review that it is bad form to name names in casual conversation of illegal activities. But humans are story-telling creatures. We have been raised to understand that such tales are more compelling when chock-full of details. Sometimes, “name dropping” makes the storyteller seem important. As a hypothetical example, if someone ingested a psychedelic with Albert Hofmann, it might be difficult to suppress the good doctor’s name when relating the experience. Unfortunately, people aren’t always vigilant, or even aware that there may be a problem with what they are saying, when it comes

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Two older respected members of the psychedelic community mentioned that someone at the gathering was offering sessions with a particular exotic drug combination. One of these people mentioned the name of this person, and the other one of them described having partaken in a session.

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Someone told me about meeting a young stranger at the event, who mentioned working as an underground chemist manufacturing controlled substance analogues, and then gifted this person with some samples.

ENTHEOGEN LEGAL DEFENSE

I left this festival with the feeling that my comments at the harm reduction panel might as well have been postcards to God. Over the course of the week, I was repeatedly disturbed to hear more information than I cared to hear. Just a few examples of the sort of things that I am talking about:

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Someone else told me about meeting a person who claimed to have access to hundreds of thousands of dollars of precursor chemicals, and who was hoping that it could be arranged that these might be donated to a specific elder chemist in the community.

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While volunteering one day at the event’s crisis tent, I got into a conversation with a visitor who had stopped by. Our conversation appeared to be a general one related to the manufacture of LSD, and precursors that might be used. I tend to view such discussions as being purely hypothetical, stemming from intellectual curiosity rather than any real world plans. However, after exchanging a bit of banter, this person then told me about a sizeable personal stash of a particular LSD precursor chemical lying in wait. I changed the subject quickly, and thankfully I don’t know the individual’s name or even recollect what the person looked like any more. Within the span of about 30 minutes, I thrice heard (and overheard) the same story about some tabs of MDMA, “the last of the stash,” being delivered to a named person. I would guess—because the enthusiastic storyteller viewed this transaction as being symbolically relevant—that the information was additionally repeated to even more people.

The organization that produces this arts and culture festival is forthcoming about the fact that there are undercover cops and DEA agents at their event. With the concretization of a large psychedelic theme camp at the 2006 gathering, as well increasing awareness of the event’s crisis tent (which sometimes deals with folks undergoing difficult psychedelic trips), more than ever it smacks of potential that can be characterized as “shooting fish in a barrel.” While not hugely commonplace, busts are not unheard of. Due to his sloppy behavior, even the government informant Gordon Todd Skinner was arrested at this event in 2003 for drug trafficking, with nearly ten ounces of MDMA found in his vehicle. My comments are not meant to inspire fear. It seems reasonable to think that a number of people attending alternative culture gatherings may do something that is in some way illegal while they are at such events. The lion’s share of these people will not be arrested. My point is only that, for someone on an information-gathering mission, within the current state of the community, it seems painfully easy to glean damning data. We can make it less easy, by being more cautious about the words that come out of our mouths. 

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Hyperspatial Maps ASMODEUS An Account of a Vision Had While Under the Influence of Copelandia cyanescens In the Spring of 2002 at the onset of the monsoon season I lived on the isle of Koh Mook (Emerald Island), off the coast of Thailand’s Trang Province in the Andaman Sea. This was a period of retreat for me, during which I lived completely alone by the ocean in a bamboo hut. Along the path from the village to my hut I found a mushroom that I believed to be Copelandia cyanescens growing wild. I prepared a handful of these mushrooms as a tea and ingested this in my hut one night. The following is the account I wrote as soon as the effects of the psilocybin had subsided enough that I could write; it has not been edited. I am stronger now than I was in former times. A dark figure came before my view and I did not turn away, but asked, “What is your name?” “Asmodeus,” was the reply. “So you are the devil then?” “One of them…” I held my gaze fast into the radiating shadow which threatened to engulf me. At last I said, “You cannot enter this way, you know you cannot.” The shadow subsided. I was shown the seven ethers that are aligned to the seven colors of the rainbow, and commensurate to the virtues and vices. Each “sin” exists on a continuum with its complimentary “virtue.” Each continuum is like a string on a guitar, and the notes of joy and sorrow produced at each intersection of life and fate express essences of being that the gods dine upon.

This “refined essence” is of value to the higher spirits and also to the fallen ones. The devils manipulate man’s weaknesses to produce conflagrations of passion that are infernal banquets. The devils feast upon the passions, and seek to establish systems of enslavement that enforce suffering ultimately and they harvest the essence produced thereby. The essence so obtained is of a lower order and cannot facilitate the creation of sustainably evolving cosmos. Hence the lower “realms” are illusory and ephemeral—dependant on a continuing influx of essence for their persistence. High essence is only given voluntarily through acts of devotion. This essence enables the creation of reality. The great temples of the world are fountains where the blessed may slake their thirst for essence in the material world and upon more subtle planes. They are well guarded against the intrusions of demons who would siphon off the high essence for their own purposes. Nonetheless, it can happen that the devils obtain a supply of the higher essence, and there is actually a ceaseless battle between the angels and the devils for possession of the higher essence. I saw a temple tower with a spiral interior, similar to the interior of a seashell. The center was the fusing essence of many individual souls acting in devotion and thereby ascending to higher states of being, of liberty. The spirits could be seen as different ethereal strata bearing different colors. — David Normal, CA

TRIPPING IN PUBLIC I’m not sure how valuable this report will be, because sometimes I think I’m the only psychedelic person dumb enough to find myself living almost entirely among the straight. But, there are lots of us now, so maybe it might be useful to someone. The voyages that I will be describing took place back in the winter of 2004/2005.

The doctrines of religion are designed to orchestrate the production of human feeling and refine it to a nobler form.

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I chose Trichocereus peruvianus for my experiments because of the slow onset of mescaline, figuring that this would make it easier to deal with straight people without freaking out, which turned out to be true. But also, I just like taking mescaline, heh. The original idea came when I had taken 12 mg 2C-T-7—my last dose of that fine chemical. My girlfriend had been working late, so I naturally thought that she would go to bed relatively quickly. However, it turned out she was ill, and sick enough to need medical attention. Ultimately, I ended up spending my whole trip in the presence of straight people—my girlfriend included—and I got through it okay. For the sixteen experiments I undertook to examine my response to dealing with the straight while inebriated on a psychedelic, I consumed only the powdered outer layer of skin from a potent Trichocereus peruvianus strain. I’m not going to describe all of the trips in detail. Rather, I will just mention a few of the highlights (and lowlights).

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On the first excursion, my girlfriend came home about ten minutes after I had dosed, informing me that we were going to have some company coming over, and then we would all be headed out to dinner. The company arrived and we socialized for 90 minutes, during which time I felt the mescaline starting to come on. On our drive to the restaurant, I noticed the trees we passed by mildly strobing against the evening light, and I was a tad queasy. Once outside the restaurant, looking in through the windows, I felt apprehensive and not a bit hungry. Luckily, it was a steam-table kind of thing, so I didn’t have to force down a load of food I didn’t want; I had a salad. I began to really feel altered after eating. Faces of the other customers in the restaurant became rubbery and there were funny little colored patterns moving in the shadows of the room. “Jeezly crow,” I thought, “I’m blasting off in front of two hundred people and they’re none the wiser.” Then someone tossed a conversational gambit my way and I fumbled it, watching it shatter on the floor. “Sorry,” I said with a grin, “I couldn’t hear because of all the noise.” The guy’s face was streaming toward me, and I felt uncomfortable, so I excused myself and went outside for a smoke (which didn’t help a God damn thing). By the time I returned, everyone was ready to split. But it was not the end of my ordeal. It turned out that my girlfriend needed me to help her at work, so she handed me her car keys. Not feeling comfortable admitting to my private inner voyage, I found myself driving while blasted out of my ever-lovin’ gourd! The road was whipping around like a bridge about to be destroyed in a windstorm. Yet somehow I held it steady, and got not so much as a rude comment about my driving. While I only had to drive for about ten miles, secretly, I was utterly freaked out. Once we arrived, I had to hide for a few minutes in the bathroom to get over the shakes! Luckily, I didn’t have to drive back. On the whole, the experiment was a huge bummer, although I did finally relax later on, after smoking some pot. I seriously considered stopping this series of investigation right there and then, as it seemed as though there were potentially too many things that could arise to ruin the setting of these voyages. But then again, that was what the whole experiment was about: to see if I could have interesting and/ or profound psychedelic experiences in insecure settings. So I pushed onwards.

ARE YOU BACK YET?

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The next three trips followed a similar pattern, except that I didn’t have to drive. By the fourth trip, I was feeling confident about the experiments. By this point I had discovered

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that the straight really can not tell when I was on a trip, at least in the first several hours. However, I noticed that after about five hours, I would start to get very irritable with straight people. Hence, I began to time my trips so that I wouldn’t have to deal with anyone after the five hour point. Out of the remaining trips that I took, there were three of them that really stood out.

THE THANKSGIVING TRIP I had gone to Thanksgiving at my girlfriend’s family’s place. Except for the younger family members, they are all very straight. I was looking rather sharp, in a new outfit and with my hair freshly trimmed into a Beatles-style haircut. I was feeling pretty good, and dinner wasn’t until 6:00 pm, so I downed my dose around 5:45 pm. At dinner, I ate only a spoonful of everything because I didn’t want to worry about getting sick. After my meal, as the cleaning up was underway, I began to feel the first teeniest bit of a flash that effects were coming on. The only rules at my girlfriend’s family’s house are: no drinking, no smoking indoors, and no dope. I waited another half hour, and then went to the alley to smoke the little “bullet” I had brought along for the occasion. Here is where the plot thickens. After then smoking a cigarette to cover the smell, I went back inside and sat at the kitchen table along with some others. I noticed straight away that the tablecloth was strobing and throbbing to the beat of everyone’s conversations. A trace of panic tweaked my neck and groin, but it was gone as soon as it came. I conversed with several people, and I guess I did pretty well. No one noticed that I was seeing bright colors flowing from all around them. My hands seemed to fade off my body, which started to kind of worry me. I felt like my hands were big, fat, warm white birds that were flying off into the gray November night. When I looked down again, they were just my hands, although one of them was now holding a cup—where did it come from? It was interesting, how white my hands were, and the way they instinctively knew how to hold the cup that had magically appeared—how clever! Someone began to express how great it was that Bush got re-elected. “What kind of world would we have had if Kerry had won?” someone asked. “What kind of world will it be with Bush,” I thought. Bleakular—that’s what kind of world, bleakular. Yeah, just so bleeeeaaakkular. I played with the new term in my head. I probably had a goofy grin on my face, but on one noticed. Bleakular. A perfect word for our times. Like the sizzling of atomic lightning in my




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sinus cavities; hot fire like the towers burning on September 11th; like two hundred Reichstag buildings in the volatile gasfilled regions in between my ears; blleeeeeeaaaakkkuullarrr… heh. Finally it was time to leave. We got into the car and drove home. I sat on a cloud of air as the landscape melted by under the cold winter sky. All along the way, heads (I assume they were heads) had left their porch lights on to create a light show for me. “How nice,” I thought, “Just for me!” I smiled. Once at home, my girlfriend went straight to bed. I smoked some more pot and was completely blown out of my gourd for the rest of the night.

I’LL BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR… It’s Christmas time. I had taken my dose around two hours before my girlfriend mentioned that she’d run out of wrapping paper. And since we didn’t want to pay five bucks for a lousy three feet of wrapping paper, around a half hour later we arrived at The Dollar Tree. Anything in the store is only $1.00. By the time I was sent inside to get the paper, I was already at a plus-2. As the store was about to close, there was a wait in the checkout line. I mean a long wait! The people directly ahead of me in the queue were sort of, um… grotesque. I tried not to notice, but it was hard, as their faces were all rubbery and sickly looking. The men had longish hair, and I “knew” they all smoked pot behind their old ladies’ backs (a common practice here). The women were yer typical Indiana rednecks, and I “knew” they had all voted for Bush. An awful, swamp-like, cancerous green light emanated from them. I felt disgusted and came very close to telling them what I thought of them—that they were dumb as stone boats—but then my “rational” mind stepped in and stopped me. My neck began to feel prickly, and my upper back and shoulders broke out in a sweat. I was cracking up. The line hadn’t moved a God damn inch. The store lights were way too bright (they really were), and they began to strobe. I felt somewhat queasy, and wondered whether or not I might upchuck while standing in line. But after a moment, the nausea passed. One of the disgusting couples ahead jumped over to another line, supposing that it would move faster. But they were wrong. Could I have stepped into a time warp? Maybe I slipped through a crack in time. Now how was I gonna get out of this horrible place? The smell of cheap candy from

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next to the resister produced another wave of nausea in me. I could be stuck here forever. Cold fingers of panic ran up my back… Finally the line started to move. I gathered myself mentally and paid for the goods. But alas, I thought that I must still be the victim of some unholy trick; as I attempted to make my way to the door, it now looked to be about five miles away and wasn’t getting any closer. I broke out in a sweat again. It was a long walk, but finally I made it, pushed the door’s handle, and it opened. Escape! The cold wind spit snow on my face. Ahhh… I’m free!

THE DOLLAR TREE REVISITED The Parking Lot. It’s one week later; same store, same purpose, quite a different trip. When we get there, my girlfriend asks if I want to go in. (No fucking way!) After I state that I would rather sit in the car, she goes in without me. I was already at plus-3—high as a kite, having also smoked some pot. The snow fell light and steady, forming pretty geometric patterns in my mind. “What about some music?” I mused to myself. Opening the jam-packed tape compartment, I thought some Buffalo Springfield might be nice, so I grabbed what I thought was it. But it was actually The Association. Ehhh. So I kept looking for Buffalo Springfield for a while, but finally considered that I may have found The Association first, because I was supposed to listen to The Association! And anyway, their music seemed non-threatening enough. But I had never really listened to them, other than “Windy.” What the hell? I popped in the tape and the first tune was pleasant enough. I watched the snow forming swirls of little stars—crystalline sparkles of Lucy in the sky with diamonds. The song ended and something else came on. It sounded so mid-1960s, that I felt like a kid again, what with the throbbing McCartney-style bass line. I kept watching the snowfall, while grinning. It was great! Suddenly the orange sun broke through the clouds of that snowy night and shone on me in a single ray. Wow! Plus-4? You are of gracefulness. You are of happiness. You are what I would guess to be most like, What I’ve been singing of.

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I laughed! At that point, I was sure that at least some of these guys were taking LSD. It wasn’t a plus-4. but it came close. You show the feel Of everything that touches you. Color washed into my world suddenly. As I watched people coming in and out of the stores, I could see their “colors,” which is rare for me; some folks radiated green and red flecks, as if celebrating the season (and maybe they were). Most people were just a dull orange. It seemed as though I had been sitting there for years, but I could not have been because the tape was only on the third song. I’m sooo stoned, I thought. The snow was coming down now in pink streaks and melting on the pavement like blood… Blood? Oh, fuck—away with that thought! I concentrated again on the music… Why is it wrong if I get high Just thinking of you? I laughed again. Talk about mood swings! I felt myself getting lighter, and the snow was now coming down harder. I felt the need to be in it, so I turned off the stereo and stepped out to smoke a cigarette. The falling snow felt good, but it was cold and windy; about halfway through the smoke, I tossed it; shivering, I got back in the car; I cranked the heat and turned the stereo back on. Closing my eyes, I drifted through the alleyways and hallways behind the stores, then between the new housing additions on the other side, where mom and dad were going through Bud’s and Sis’s dresser drawers (while they were out bowling, or whatever they told their parents they were out doing, heh…). Yer just too God damn funny for yourself, I thought… Who’s trippin’ down the streets of the city Smiling at everybody she sees? Everyone knows its me. I cracked up at myself. I remembered the old days, before all the hassles, when mom took care of everything and all I had to worry about was my next high. (I was allowed to do dope, by the way.) I looked into the snow, which was now coming at me dead on, and saw a vision of myself on a highway, hitchhiking in a snow just like this one, knowing someone would come along. And if they didn’t? Well, I’d just walk then. (But someone always came along.)

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Well, I’m a day at a time I’m a day at a time. Well, I’m a seeker and knower In a six man mind. I looked at the store and saw my girlfriend was standing at the register. I had maybe one-and-a-half minutes to get myself together somewhat. So I went about it. Well, I’m a California man. my instrument in hand. I’m electrified On a fast flying trip. She came to the car and never had a clue that anything was amiss. Once back at home, I took out the dogs and smoked my trusty bowl while I was at it. This was by far my favorite trip out of the whole series of experiments, perhaps because it didn’t actually entail much interaction with straight people. All of my subsequent trips were disappointing, and ultimately I brought an end to my experiments. I had sucked up whopping amounts of cactus. I discovered that I could indeed trip in the presence of the straight without them being aware of it, mostly without freaking out, and that sometimes it could even be fun. On the other hand, once I reached a certain point in any given trip, I clearly needed some time alone. Unfortunately, it was rare on the days after my experiments that I had the time to mull over what I had experienced. Usually I had to jump straight up and do something. When I eventually checked my cactus supply and was appalled to see how much it had dwindled, Post Trip Depression (PTD) become a major problem for me. By February, I wondered if maybe I should just sniff the pipe and say “fuck it.” But no. There were bills to pay, and taxes, and all that rot, and I wouldn’t wanna stick anybody with that horror. I decided to just hang in there awhile. That fucking election really kind of set the tone for the winter. But I’m feeling a bit better these days. In the end, while the experiment was instructive and I learned some new tricks, it really wasn’t worth it. I think it might be easier for a younger person to pull it off better, but I’m not sure. In retrospect, I wish I’d just saved the cactus for special occasions, or taken it with Peganum harmala at least, to extend the supply. While the experiments were all interesting, they were also potentially dangerous from a psychological standpoint; at any moment during an experiment, I could have ended up in an argument with my girlfriend. Perhaps the only reason this didn’t happen




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was because I was in no mental shape to participate in an argument. But the risk was there, in any case. If you are unfortunate enough to be living with and around the straight, my advice is to trip alone. If you feel that you have no choice but to occasionally find yourself stoned amongst the straight, stand strong and always remember that chances are very good that they don’t know. You might wonder how I got myself in such a position. It’s quite common where I live for doper men to live with straight women. Maybe it’s different where you reside—I haven’t been to California since I was a little kid, so I can’t really say. The doper women ’round these parts seem to mostly be rebelling against their families; they tend towards drugs like speed, and they want daddy to stop them from their naughty behavior. The only “daddy” who tends to ever really do it is the police! Responsible drug-using men aren’t usually attracted to these women (unless they’re desperate, and a guy does get lonely). So this leaves the straight women who want to make a doper man “happy” and “help” him. It looks pretty attractive at first… And finally there actually are doper women who mostly smoke pot, but they are supremely unavailable. And they always have a guy (the faces change, but it’s the same guy) who is six feet tall and “full of muscle.” If he finds out you’re messing around with his woman, he will breaketh your face! Well, so much for all that. — Dr. Wily This letter brought back memories of my childhood in California. Because of my age, I usually had to trip in public and hide what I was doing (which occasionally became hard, if a bad trip started to materialize). Such experiences were valuable later in life, when I had to unexpectedly deal with straights while quite high—once when a landlord came over to chat, and another time when the police came by due to a roommate’s troubles. It is true that despite how much you might feel as though everyone has to know that you are flying on drugs, it seemed in my experience quite rare that anyone actually did ever suspect that this was the case. (Other than the occasional knowingly telepathic smile from some other head, of course.) This letter also inspired feelings of gratitude that I do live in California and am surrounded by a supportive community of likeminded friends. It is easy to forget that much of America is not as comfortable for psychonauts. — DAVID AARDVARK

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The Substance of Memory: Early Salvinorin Voyages by D.M. Turner • art and poetry by Bruce Rimell (www.salviaspace.org) On December 17, 1994, D.M. Turner experienced his first two salvinorin A voyages. On December 19, he experienced his third and fourth trips. To commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the 1996 publication of his book Salvinorin: The Psychedelic Essence of Salvia Divinorum, we’re printing three never-beforepublished entries from Turner’s trip diaries. Due to space considerations, these accounts were only described via a condensed overview in his book. We are pleased to be able to remember D.M. Turner by sharing his reflections on a drug experience that he believed to be intimately tied to the process of memory itself.

SECOND JOURNEY • DECEMBER 17, 1994 At 10:10 pm, I smoked the vapor of approximately 800 micrograms of salvinorin A. For my second experience, I wanted to try a smaller dose than my first [1.2–1.3 mg], so that I could compare the differences and hopefully maintain awareness throughout the experience. As the effects began to take place, they were slightly slower and less forcefully intense than before—although still more powerful than the onset of DMT. The resemblance to the onset of DMT was even more pronounced than on my first excursion, and I was distinctly aware of a colorful DMT-like matrix that I saw as I was quickly going under. The most distinct sensation I recall was the feeling of being firmly in the grip of DMT’s bodily anesthetic qualities. I experienced this as being similar to the intense needle-like sensation that can occur if one tries to too quickly “wake up” an arm or leg that has “fallen asleep.” However, in this instance, as with DMT, the sensation permeated my entire body. I’ve occasionally experienced something similar with high doses of LSD at times when I would lie down, letting my awareness leave my body and journey through the realms of the mind. It seemed that I was continually aware of this anesthetic sensation throughout the experience and never lost continuity of consciousness. However, judging by the time on the clock, I probably did loose awareness for several minutes, as I can not account for the ten minutes or so that I was lying down.

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At a certain moment, I was aware that I was a human body lying on a bed that was under the control of tryptamine-like anesthesia sensations. I must have willed myself to move and felt these anesthesia sensations gripping me firmly, with an almost cutting sensation. It was not exactly painful. It felt as if I was tightly gripped by millions of sharp fingernails applying minimal pressure—but if I moved, I would be cut to shreds. The thought “cutting tryptamine anesthesia” came to my mind, and I tried to voice it. I was unable to, and had to search for the correct word of “diterpene” before I could voice “cutting diterpene,” which was short for the thought of “cutting diterpene anesthetic force” (which is what I was perceiving). What occurred next was really bizarre. I became this anesthetic force that I had been aware of. As this happened, I was easily able to formulate the thought, “I am the cutting diterpene anesthetic force that is keeping Joe from getting up.” I felt totally comfortable in this new identity. I was a force, not a person. And I understood that when one takes salvinorin A, they become what they are normally aware of, that the observer and the observed switch places. This reminded me of a space I come to in many ketamine journeys, in which this occurs with the feeling of passing through the center of a black hole. However, with ketamine this takes place in a cosmic and intricately psychedelic multiverse; with salvinorin A, it takes place in a universe which is nearly identical to my regular consensus reality. This makes it seem amazingly bizarre and surreal, like some science fiction night gallery theme of being trapped in a parallel dimension! I had a sensation that, in this moment, I knew that I was not my body, but was that which I was aware of. I felt that—as with ketamine—I could experience this sensation while high, but would never be able to feel or remember it once I was embodied. It seemed that some cosmic law of balance prevented bodily awareness from existing simultaneously with disembodied awareness. And I felt that even if this body’s mouth was moving, that words were not actually being uttered into the space-time dimension which it normally calls the waking state. And I could feel, as consciousness slowly

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moved or shifted back to bodily awareness, that awareness of my existence as a force was fading. However, I knew that this body’s awareness and memory were present in this “forbidden realm,” and felt that memory of this impossible state could be grasped and brought back. I began chanting the words “I am cutting diterpenes” in an attempt to hold onto the perspective of being a force and not a body, and bring this perception back. Finally, I got the idea of writing this down as a way of solidifying it in consensus reality. I stood up and got out of bed. I picked up a piece of paper sitting next to the bed. Then, as I reached for the pen that I normally keep with a writing pad in the drawer in my trip room, I realized I’d taken it upstairs after my first experience of the evening. I walked out the door of my trip room, into my garage to get a pencil off my workbench, stepping on some small items on the floor as I walked. As I approached the workbench, still repeating “I am cutting diterpenes,” there was the thought that I might have removed all my writing implements from this location as well, and would not be able to find an implement until I’d forgotten the perspective I’d captured. But a pencil was on the workbench, and I went back to my trip room and began scribbling notes. My notes interestingly took a third person perspective, referring to myself as “he,” instead of “I.” After writing several sentences, I looked at the clock. It was 10:26 pm. I estimate that I spent nine to eleven minutes in bed prior to getting up.

THIRD JOURNEY • DECEMBER 19, 1994 At 3:00 pm, I smoked the vapor of approximately 600 micrograms of salvinorin A. I felt the anesthesia sensation coming on as before, a bit less forceful, but still completely overtaking me even at this lower dosage. I felt as though I’d remained conscious the entire time, and at 3:05 pm I sat up and wrote the words “became diterpene powder consciousness.” However, I can not account for the five minutes of time, and I still mostly draw a blank as to how it was spent. What I recall of the experience was that I became the material I smoked, and experienced the consciousness belonging to the salvinorin A powder. And it became me. It seemed that we had switched places, and then we slowly blended together into one being. I could also describe this as the smoker absorbing the consciousness of the substance smoked. During the sudden onset of this substance, the smoker’s consciousness is temporarily separated from his body and former self and feels that its identity is the salvinorin powder’s consciousness.

LINE (LIFE) ENERGIES Standing still In the midst of besagement, I feel the lines of life, The line energies of my body And the world become apparent,

FOURTH JOURNEY • DECEMBER 19, 1994 At 10:19 pm, I smoked the vapor of approximately 400 micrograms of salvinorin A. Prior to beginning this experience, I sat and meditated for a few minutes, and repeated the words, “I will remain conscious and retain memory of this entire experience.”

The connection between them both becomes clear...

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As I took my hit and let out my breath, the now somewhat familiar feelings of the electric, needle-like anesthesia and consciousness shift began to come over me. The force with which these sensations came on was less than with the larger doses. However, I found that it still came over me entirely, and felt my body losing tactile awareness. I was not concerned with the anesthesia of the body. I focused my mind to remain alert, conscious, and able to remember. I retained this state of alert consciousness as I made an approximately 180 degree shift in my identity. I became consciousness and memory, which was inclusive of the substance just smoked by the body lying on the bed. I was no longer the person lying on the bed. I was conscious of being, and retained memory of being, the “substance of memory,” which existed inside a particular body. There was a mental understanding of what I was experiencing and a translation into words. My body began voicing, “Becoming the substance that your memory is made out of.” As the voice repeated its finding, I found myself identifying with my body once again. I sat up to write this discovery down. The time was 10:23 pm. I’d spent four minutes lying down.




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I know that DMT is a neurotransmitter present in the brain, and many other psychedelics are extremely similar to neurotransmitters. It seems that when salvinorin A is smoked, it is absorbed by the brain and merges with the physical substance that is responsible for memory. It seems that the absorption of salvinorin A into the brain matter is so abrupt that it jolts the memory, which temporarily loses its link to bodily awareness. Whether salvinorin A actually becomes more of the element in the brain that is responsible for memory, or just affects the part of the brain responsible for memory, will need to be determined by further research. During the process of becoming the substance of memory, once could possibly become aware of the subconscious realm, or virtually any other type of experience that could be “remembered” during a psychedelic experience. I felt I’ve had glimpses of this awareness during all of my salvinorin A experiences. I’ve also become vaguely aware of the subconscious in previous times in my past when I’d briefly passed out. It seems that in nearly all the experiences with salvinorin A that have been described to me, memory was affected in a peculiar way or somehow central to the experience. Since this substance is metabolized so quickly within the brain, there is a possibility that it has an old and close link with the brain’s molecular structure, as Terence McKenna suggests of DMT. DMT and other substances which are known neurotransmitters in the human brain have been extracted from plants. The human body presumably contains some material within the brain which is responsible for our memory and individual consciousness. Could the identical substance exist within a plant and be extracted? 

MORE REAL THAN UNREAL

While writing, there was only a trace of the anesthetic feeling left in the body. The first ideas I wrote down included: Salvinorin A is absorbed in the brain and becomes the substance that memory is made out of. This white powder is a material that exists inside the human brain and is responsible for memory. It seems that memory is linked nearly synonymously with identity, and also very closely with consciousness. Salvinorin A seems to be a material counterpart to memory or individual identity and awareness.

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DMT For The Masses by Noman

The intent of this tek is to simplify the extraction procedure as much as possible, so that the average person can complete it in a kitchen in one evening. While I think that I have accomplished this goal, experimentalists must still do their homework. It is a good idea to read a few different teks before deciding which one to use, and to research safe handling procedures for the chemicals and equipment required. I don’t provide instructions for decanting, siphoning, and filtering, for example, because I assume that those interested in performing kitchen chemistry will educate themselves on such basic procedures.

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Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) root-bark A coffee grinder or heavy-duty blender (one that will crush ice) A wide-mouthed glass mixing jar with a tight-fitting lid (a quart jar can do 50 grams of bark, a gallon pickle jar can do 200 grams) Water Lye (sodium hydroxide) A bottle of vinegar A dust mask, safety goggles, and rubber gloves Naptha (VM&P, not lighter fluid) Four wide-mouthed 8-ounce glass collection jars with lids (canning or jelly jars work well) A separatory funnel or gear to siphon or decant Coffee filters A rubber spatula A freezer set to a very cold temperature (it should freeze ice cream rock-hard)

PROCESS 1) Snap the Mimosa tenuiflora root-bark into small pieces and run it through the coffee grinder or blender at high speed. You may need pruning shears to cut the root-bark small enough to grind properly. Pulverize it until it is just fiber and pink/purple dust—it needs to be completely broken down. The dust produced is very fine and astringent to one’s respiratory tract. Unless you dig big cakey purple boogers, wear a dust mask.

2) Combine the lye and the water in the mixing jar. Use 15 ml water and 1 gram of lye for every gram of powdered rootbark that will later be added into the mixing jar. For example: 50 grams of root-bark powder would require 750 ml water and 50 grams of lye. One level tablespoon of lye weighs about 15 grams. Note: Lye is dangerous. Blind-you-forever dangerous. Have a bottle of vinegar handy as an acid to neutralize the caustically basic lye when cleaning up any spills that occur, and wear eye protection and rubber gloves when working with lye. Add the lye to the water, while slowly and constantly stirring until it has completely dissolved. [Note: Always add the lye to the water, and not the other way around. Adding water to lye may cause a volcano-like reaction.] 3) Add the powdered root-bark into the lye/water solution in your mixing jar. Cap and shake the jar, then let it sit for about an hour. 4) Now add to the mixing jar 1 ml of naptha for each 10 ml of water used to create the lye solution. Turn the jar end-overend. Do not shake or splash; simply roll the naptha around in the root-bark powder and solution to mix it. Gently do this for one minute, and then let the jar stand until the naptha has mostly separated and is floating on top. Repeat this agitation process three more times. 5) After the final agitation, allow enough time to pass for the naptha to again float on top, and then separate the two layers. The naptha goes in one of the collection jars, everything else stays in the mixing jar. A separatory funnel is the easiest means to accomplish separation of the two layers, but various techniques of siphoning or decanting could also be employed. None of the dark (lower) solution should be allowed into the collection jar—just the naptha. 6) Repeat steps 2–5 above three more times, but do not add any new powdered root-bark. You will be reprocessing the same original root-bark material, in order to thoroughly extract the DMT from it. When you have finished, place all four collection jars into your freezer and go to bed. You will have four “snow globes” waiting for you in the morning.

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7) Pour the naptha from each jar through a coffee filter, saving the naptha. A lot of paste will stick to the jar, so use a small rubber spatula to scrape this paste from the jar’s sides down into the filter as well. Spread out each filter to dry. There will still be some residue in the jars; a bit of Salvia divinorum or Cannabis can be used to scrub them out, providing an enhanced aspect to those herbs.

RECRYSTALLIZATION

8) The paste must be allowed to dry thoroughly; chop and stir it a couple of times to make sure that this is the case. Once it seems to be dry, crush up any lumps.

Place a glass container holding the DMT and a glass container filled with the recrystallization solvent together in a pan of hot water. Shot glasses in a saucepan work well for a gram or two. The fumes from your solvent are extremely flammable, so only use a contained electric heating source. (Electric ranges with coilstyle elements can ignite fumes, as can the heat coils in electric ovens. Gas ranges or any sort of open flame, obviously, must be avoided.) The DMT will already be melting if the water is hot enough. Add the hot solvent little by little while agitating the DMT, until all of the material has dissolved. Use 20–30 ml of solvent (or less) per gram of powder; you want to use as little solvent as possible. When all of the material has gone into solution, the solvent will be a clear yellow. Leave the pan of water with the DMT container to cool down to room temperature. Then remove the DMT container and place it into your refrigerator. Later, move it into your freezer. This step-wise process allows for gradual cooling and the precipitation of crystals. You will end up with DMT crystals of varying purity on top of a pellet of slag, which still contains quite a bit of DMT. Do the coffee filter bit again to dry the material, and then separate the crystals from the slag. The crystals can be further refined, through one or two more recrystallizations, into pure clear DMT. The slag can also be further refined or redissolved into the next batch. The naptha can be reused or evaporated down, with the residue scraped and cleaned. And don’t forget to scrub those jars and utensils with some of your favorite smoking herb. 

9) [Note: If you intend to recrystallize your material in order to further purify it, you can skip this step.] Combine all of the dried material into one coffee filter. Wash this material by pouring freezer temperature non-sudsy ammonia over it and through the coffee filter. If you can get 10% ammonia (“janitor strength”) all the better. But it is imperative that the ammonia you use is of the non-sudsy variety. You can shake the bottle to tell; if it creates suds, get a different kind. Rinsing won’t take much ammonia, about 4 ounces for a 200 gram batch. Stir the powder around while rinsing to make sure that all of it is thoroughly wetted. A good bit of the mass will wash away—perhaps 25– 45%—but it’s nothing you want to be smoking anyway. You should be left with about 0.5% of the weight of the rootbark in DMT powder. When dried, it is perfectly smokable at this point, but it can be refined further by recrystallization. Although recrystallization inevitably results in some product loss, once you’ve had a hit of DMT that left absolutely nothing behind in the pipe, you won’t want to use anything else.

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For our current purposes, the idea behind recrystallization is that the chosen solvent holds more DMT when hot than when cold, and that some impurities remain more easily within cold solvent. While naptha will work for recrystallization, a far better solvent to use at this point is heptane. Heptane is available as Bestine®, a rubber cement remover.

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An Obscure Oneirogenic: Silene capensis by G.T., Italy

Generally speaking, an oneirogen is a drug that produces or enhances dreams or hypnagogic imagery—in particular, the hypnagogic phenomena pertaining to drowsiness, preceding sleep, or during the light, early stage of sleep (Ott 1995). Among the different plants, mushrooms, and animals classified as oneirogens (Ott 1996), we find Silene capensis Otth. (Caryophyllaceae) [synonymous with S. undulata and Melandrium undulatum].

ETHNOBOTANY Ethnobotanical data on this plant is reported by Manton Hirst, in his article “Root, Dream & Myth: The Use of the Oneirogenic Plant Silene capensis Among the Xhosa of South Africa” (Hirst 2000). This ethnographic account deals with the Xhosa diviners living in the Eastern Cape, where S. capensis is considered as a medicinal root (ubulawu) under the name of undlela ziimhlophe, which means “white ways” or “white paths.” The root is considered a gift of the ancestors and it plays a part in the offerings for the initiation rites of the diviners. The plant is used as an emetic medicine and also to cure madness. The crushed root is put into water and given to the mad person to drink, whereupon he will become calm and start talking to you. But the most important use of this plant’s powdered root is as an oneirogen in the training of the novice diviners and healers, most of whom are females. The main effect claimed is the production of lucid and even prophetic dreams, which are told by the novices to the diviner who initiates them. In particular, there are two kinds of dream experiences reported. The first is characterized by symbolic elements related to problems in the daily life of the dreamer. The second is more distinctly prophetic, with a direct relationship to some elements of the dreamer’s life that

later manifest themselves. All of the varieties of ubulawu that are ingested to produce lucid dreams are thought to differ in the sort of dream imagery they induce based on the geographic locations where they grow; for example, those growing near a river, in the grassland, or in the forest, should respectively induce dreams associated with the river, the grassland, or the forest. The ingestion of the root is the only true means by which to establish whether or not a person has been called by the ancestors to become a diviner. Only a “chosen one” will dream, while a normal person could ingest the root—even in great quantity—yet it would induce no dreams for such a person. Xhosa diviners (amagqirha) are the only people allowed to identify, harvest, and utilize the plant. The particular location where a plant should be picked is shown to the diviner in a dream wherein the whole plant is surrounded by a white light; the next morning, the diviner will harvest the plant from the place foretold in the dream. Until recently, the use of Silene capensis has not been widely known, and the available pharmacological data are scarce. Some members of the family to which S. capensis belongs produce anthocyanins, pinitol, and triterpenoid saponins. Preliminary chemical analysis by thin layer chromatography did not show any known psychoactively relevant compounds (Appendino 2003).

BIOASSAY REPORTS As for bioassays, some data is reported by Hirst (2000). During an afternoon, he ingested some 200–250 mg of powdered root in water, without having eaten all day. The taste was said

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to be faintly bitter, but apart from this there were no other physical side effects. After about 20 minutes, he saw wavy lines of light in front of him, reminiscent of luminous reflections on the surface of the moving water of a river, with no additional effects happening over the next 40 minutes. At this point his wife came home, and his experiment was forgotten. In the early hours of the next morning, he awoke suddenly, trembling and panting. He reported having had the most vivid dream of his life, remembered clearly even over twenty-five years later, with a mythical content and a prophetic meaning. Subsequent experiments with the plant’s root produced no waking alterations of perception, but vivid dreams were reported. Hirst relates one particularly prophetic dream, wherein a friend whom he had not seen in a long time came to inform him of the death of the father of a mutual friend. Just after the dream ended, Hirst awoke to a knock on the door, to find his friend standing there, bearing the very news that his dream had presaged. Hirst also reports that a professor of Pharmacy at the University of Rhodes experienced mild effects after chewing a small piece of root, with perception of abstract shapes and colors, and that in the 1970s, two post-graduate psychology students ingested large quantities of root obtained from a Xhosa diviner, but in none of various attempts did they succeed in producing any effects on their dreaming. Currently, there is only a single “experience report” (from 2006) that mentions several Silene capensis experiments posted to the Erowid web site. Three attempts at using the plant (a half teaspoon in warm water) by itself produced no results; a fourth attempt— which involved snorting a line of about 1/16th of a teaspoon of powdered material, and which took place some hours after smoking a few leaves of an unidentified Coleus species— ended with an “extremely vivid, powerful” dream that was “completely memorable, down to the most minute detail. …The dream itself was involving, intriguing, at times very frightening, and prophetic.” (See www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=55459.) I carried out four bioassays myself, ingesting the pulverized root in different weighed quantities, either in the afternoon or immediately before sleeping. Summer 2004 • 100 mg ingested in the afternoon The taste was a little bitter. After 15–20 minutes, I noticed shadows appearing at the edges of my visual field, followed by phosphenes (brilliant points rapidly emerging from the sky). Then I perceived something like a slowly vanishing azure mist in the distance. The total duration lasted about one hour, and during the night I did not have any remarkable dreams.

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Summer 2004 • 100 mg ingested in the afternoon Again, after 15–20 minutes, I perceived some phosphenes, similar to what I’ve described above. Again, the total duration was about one hour, with no remarkable dreams. Spring 2005 • 60 mg ingested before sleeping After a half an hour, I perceived some vague brilliant points and some luminous straight lines. During the first stage of sleep, the mental imagery seemed a little more intense than usual, with perception of geometric patterns, some of which were colored or in motion. The next morning, I didn’t remember any particular dream. Spring 2005 • 200 mg ingested before sleeping After a half an hour, I perceived some undulating discrete luminous lines and some vague shadows, along with some little variations in the intensity of reflected light. There was a slight intensification of the mental imagery before drifting off to sleep—a perception of unusual forms and reticles— but no significant dreams.

CONCLUSIONS The practical evaluation of the activity of an oneirogen is not simple, as the dream state itself is an elusive phenomenon (Ott 1996). An example can be found in a study on Calea zacatechichi in humans (Mayagoitia et al. 1986), this plant being the standard dream-inducing species, employed by the Chontal Indians of Mexico (Ott 1996). In this case, the subjective reports of dreams and EEG results were principally taken into account, along with the evaluation of different sleep phases; number of dreams, the recall capacity, and the hypnagogic imagery described, were also considered. Factoring in such limitations, as well as my own scant bioassay results, I will offer some tentative speculations: The root might be considered to be a mild psychedelic, without any physical side effects. From a biochemical point of view, the potentially psychoactive principle(s) remain unknown, but any such might hypothetically be some triterpenoid saponin. On the other hand, most saponins are poorly absorbed from the alimentary tract (Basu & Rastogi 1967). My own bioassays produced no remarkable dreams—only a slight increase in hypnogogic imagery when the root was ingested just before sleeping. With the exception of the personal bioassays reported by Hirst (2000), and one of the four attempts mentioned in the experience report on Erowid, none of the other very few bioassay reports available mention any particularly strong effect on dreaming. To increase the available data pool, more experiments must be conducted, with the results—whether positive or negative—published. Hopefully this article will inspire ER readers to action on that count. 

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Network Feedback GET POLITICAL I would like to see a large number of ER readers belong to any of the following organizations: Marijuana Policy Project, Drug Policy Alliance, MAPS, FAMM, or NORML. The percentage of subscribers who belong to such organizations should be at least 25%, in my opinion. I encourage subscribers to focus some of their money in a direction that supports positive change. — J.S., OR

EASY MAOI EXTRACTION Earlier this year a visionary plants e-mailing list posted a simple method for Peganum harmala extraction. Apparently harmaline is soluble in hot water, but not in cold water. The idea is to boil up a strong tea using ground seeds, filter out the marc, chill the liquid overnight in a refrigerator, and then remove the waxy orange flakes in the morning and discard the remaining liquid. An amount the size of a pea is supposed to be the minimum effective dose for MAO inhibition. — Fork!

PIPTADENIA GONOACANTHA Piptadenia gonoacantha has previously been called P. communis and Acacia gonoacantha. Both Ott in Pharmacotheon, and Torres & Repke in their recent book Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America, cite a published “alkaloid positive” analysis of P. communis by M.S. Fish as having been reported in Siri von Reis Altschul’s 1964 “A Taxonomic Study of the Genus Anadenanthera,” Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University 193: 3–65. In Shamanic Snuffs and Entheogenic Errhines, Ott cites Domingos Sávio Nunes et al.’s 1987 paper “Alcalóides triptamínicos de Piptadenia gonoacantha (Mart) Macbre de Anadenanthera falcata (Benth) Speg” as reporting that the seed of P. gonoacantha contained 1.2% alkaloids, with only DMT (53 parts) and 5-MeO-DMT (11.8 parts). If the quantity and quality of this reported analysis is typical for P. gonoacantha seeds, then these seeds may be of interest to those wishing

to avoid the bufotenine present in the seeds of many allied species. Piptadenia gonoacantha appears to be fairly common in parts of Brazil. — J.S., OR The 1987 NUNES et al. paper you mention is believed by OTT to be an unpublished manuscript; presumably it is in Portuguese. An e-mail to professor NUNES went unanswered. Hopefully some enterprising entheobotanical business will offer Piptadenia gonoacantha seeds in the future. — DAVID AARDVARK

EPIPHYLLUM OXYPETALUM AND CHECKING CITATIONS I saw a mention of “night-blooming Cereus,” Epiphyllum oxypetalum, as being psychoactive. We have a few of these beautiful monsters and I’d like to know more about them. — S.A., RI Numerous additional cacti share the common name “night-blooming Cereus,” including Hylocereus undatus, Peniocereus johnstonii, P. marianus, and P. greggii (= Cereus greggii), C. jacamaru, C. peruvianus, and C. grandiflorus (= Selenicereus grandiflorus). I will return to the last of these in a moment. Despite its common name, Epiphyllum oxypetalum is obviously not a Cereus, as it does not require dirt. It is also sometimes commonly called an “orchid cactus,” although again it is clearly not related to orchid plants. Depending on what reference one believes, the genus contains between 12 and 24 species. The plants are flat-stemmed and branching, with large flowers, not looking like a typical cactus. DR. DUKE’S PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ETHNOBOTANICAL DATABASES [www.arsgrin.gov/duke] state that Epiphyllum oxypetalum has been used for “longevity” (citing BURKILL, J.D. 1966. A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. ART PRINTING WORKS). A Chinese paper has been published which apparently attributes some manner of pharmacological effects to E. oxypetalum (CHOW et al. 1977), but unfortunately I have not yet been able to have this translated. It is also mentioned in LEMMENS and BUNYAPRAPHATSARA (Eds.) 2003 book PROSEA: Plant Resources of South-East Asia 12; (3) Medicinal and Poisonous Plants; but again, I have not seen what this book has to say on the matter. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate any additional information regarding the consumptive uses of this cactus. Only vague ethnobotanical data, with uncertain (or uninteresting) chemical profiles, is known for other Epiphyllum. An Epiphyllum species has been used as an ayahuasca admixture (PINKLEY 1969; RIVIER & LINDGREN 1972); according to SCHULTES and RAFFAUF (1990), “The

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Sharanahua add only one leaf (sic) [of an unidentified species of Epiphyllum] to the Banisteriopsis drink or else drink the unboiled juice of the cactus with ayahuasca.” Epiphyllum species that have tested out as alkaloid-positive, with no identification of the chemicals they contain, include E. ackermannii (HEFFTER 1898) and E. phyllanthus (TROUT 1999, citing SHULGIN 1995). Epiphyllum phyllanthus and E. truncatum are both listed in a “Peyote Coyote’s Visionary Cacti” compendium on SHAMAN-AUSTRALIS.COM, where it states that they contain “unspecified alkaloids,” but no citation is provided nor is there any suggestion as to why they might be considered “visionary.” Epiphyllum truncatum (as Zygocactus truncatus) contains betacyanins, betaxanthins, and caffeic acid; traces of kaempferol along with several organic acids are known from E. angulifer (SCHULTES & RAFFAUF 1990). These chemicals are basically color compounds and flavinoids, and have not been reported to have any psychoactive effects (TROUT 2006). In Costa Rica, Epiphyllum phyllanthus was recently compared to several other plants (including a blend of Banisteriopsis caapi and Virola sebifera) in an inconclusive study using mice to test for antidepressant effects in plants. The researcher chose to use this cacti based on its being indicated by a Guaymí Indian informant as being traditionally used for the treatment of bad dreams, witchcraft, or madness, which were all seen as possible manifestations of depression (ANDERSON 2004-A). An Epiphyllum species is also used as an appetite stimulant (ANDERSON 2004-B). Further details regarding chemical studies of Epiphyllum oxypetalum, and/or additional analyses, seem prudent prior to any bioassay attempts. A subscriber wrote in previously to The Entheogen Review [see TER 6(2):12], stating that a water extract of Epiphyllum oxypetalum was reported to have been used as an aphrodisiac, with high doses being known to cause hallucinations, citing the book Mastering Herbalism as the source for a recipe. Although not specifically noted in the previous issue of ER, the author of this book is PAUL HUSON. Checking the initial source is always a good idea, and in this case we learned an important bit of data. The cactus mentioned in the book is actually Cereus grandiflorus (= Selenicereus grandiflorus), and not E. oxypetalum. I am unsure as to how the incorrect Latin binomial found its way into the past issue of ER. Perhaps editor JIM DEKORNE added in an incorrect species name when he was presented with only a common name. Perhaps the author of the original submission was working from memory, and recalling only the common name, filled in the wrong species. In any case, this serves to show the importance of actually obtaining the source material that is referenced. Of course, it is not always possible to do so— particularly with ancient journal articles, obscure publications in a foreign language, or out-of-print texts. HUSON states: “The cereus flowers and stems contain resins and a powerful cardiac stimulant partially similar in action to digitalis, the derivative of young foxglove leaves. In large doses it has been known to produce gastric irritation and hallucinations.” HUSON—who doesn’t provide any indication that he has partaken of the plant himself—appears to have gleaned most of his information on the plant from M. GRIEVE’S A Modern Herbal, a book first written in 1931. The web site BOTANICAL.COM, where one can find much of GRIEVE’S text posted, wisely cautions readers to: “Bear in mind ‘A Modern Herbal’ was written with the conventional wisdom of the early 1900’s. This should be taken into account as some of the information may now be considered inaccurate, or not in accordance with modern medicine.”

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Cereus grandiflorus is described as having “cardiotonic action” and a novel drug was reported as having been discovered in this plant (ROBIOLA 1955), but unfortunately I have not yet been able to locate a copy of the Italian paper reporting this information. One “serious user” of Trichocereus pachanoi apparently reported using C. grandifloris to “make a stronger San Pedro brew” (TROUT 2006). Nevertheless, its effectiveness as an entheogen is clearly not established and its safety for use in such a capacity is unknown. — DAVID AARDVARK

MUSHROOM STONES Enclosed are photos of “saddle stones” I have created in cooperation with nature. If you’ve travelled in England, you may have seen mushroom-like stones decorating gardens. Once they were used to hold up granaries, to protect them from rodents. You can find the real thing, imported by certain antique stores, for about $1,000 each. Or, keep a keen eye out for a base stone and a cap stone, and make your own for free. They’re perfect for any entheo-enthusiasts garden. — G.A.R., SC Thanks for sending the photos and the idea. There’s a painting of an old granary at BELLINGHAM FARM (c. 1925) on-line at www.idealhomes.org.uk/lewisham/bellingham/old-granary.htm, for anyone who wants to see a depiction of such stones in action. — DAVID AARDVARK

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COLLECTING SPORE PRINTS While living in New England, I enjoyed picking wild mushrooms when the opportunity arose. I was fortunate to have a professor of mycology at the local university as a friend. Without him, they all looked like toadstools to me. The professor would pull out a jeweler’s eye piece and examine the gills of each mushroom in order to identify it. I would then take a culture and make a spore print. The professor was most intrigued when we found “little brown mushrooms” (or LBMs), as our discovery might be a new species. In most cases, what we found was small and frequently unidentifiable. Now that I live in Florida, mushrooms once again all look like toadstools and LBMs remain unidentifiable to me. Yet, I still enjoy collecting spore prints. And I have found that small Petri dishes are extremely handy for collecting LBM prints. First, clean and dry the Petri dishes thoroughly. Then wrap them in aluminum foil, place them on a tray in the oven, and dry-heat sterilize them at 350° F for 2.5 hours. The dishes are allowed to cool for a couple of hours, and then they are ready to be used for collecting spore prints. During early summer, the rains come and several different LBMs start to pop up. After measuring what I have found, I take a few photographs, and then slice the cap from the stem. While on site, I take out a sterilized Petri dish, place the cap inside, and replace the cover. I toss a few leaves over my collection dish, use a stick for a marker, and return the next day. Prints are left in a very fine condition. With a toothpick,




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I removed the dried piece of mushroom cap and toss it. I let the prints dry thoroughly, and then they are ready for microscopic examination. The small Petri dishes are excellent storage containers, as their closed, sterile environment avoids the sort of contaminates that can occur when taking prints onto typing paper. I was recently able to obtain a few cases of 60 mm (in diameter) by 15 mm (in height) Pyrex brand Petri dishes. (Corning catalog number 3160-60.) These are flat, clear dishes that will handle repeated wet or dry sterilization. They are cute little gems, helpful for various science projects, and useful to children as well as adults. I have them available in dozen packs for $30.00 (Florida residents add 6.5% sales tax). Please include $6.00 for S&H per dozen pack. Make checks out to Thoth Press, POB 6081, Spring Hill, Fl 34611. My supply of Petri dishes is limited; first come, first served. Sales to the contiguous United States; no sales to minors; we do not sell or retain mailing lists. Happy spore collecting! — Otto Snow

GHB DANGERS In the Vernal Equinox 2006 issue of The Entheogen Review there is a mention of Gamma-OH, or GHB. There have been some deaths in recent weeks/months here in Germany related to GHB, including that of Richi Moscher, the author of the self-help manual Too Much: First-aid for Drug Poisonings. Moscher was a multitoxicoman; he did every drug imaginable over the course of twenty years, always with a set time-span for using each drug. He would stop as planned, and get on with the next one. Spent his winters in Asia. Three days before he died last August, he told his girlfriend (a doctor), “GHB is the first drug I can’t get off.” He knew what he was taking, he knew his doses, but still… GHB seems like something that we shouldn’t promote. — W.P., Löhrbach While some people have no troubles with occasional or even regular, responsible use of GHB, it is clear that many people run into trouble at least once with this drug. The dose-response curve is steep, and the same dose taken at two different times can vary in strength based on how recently and how much someone has eaten. Products available on the market are frequently mixed at different concentrations, which can also cause complications in dosing. Passing out in dangerous situations is unfortunately all too common. I have known three people who have wrecked automobiles while on GHB, and one person who set fire to his apartment. GHB exaggerates the effects of alcohol and other downers. I have known several people who have been hospitalized, some repeatedly, due to GHB overdoses. GHB is unquestionably addictive for some people. GHB in

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aqueous form is susceptible to microbial growth, which could cause illness, and hence liquid GHB should be stored in a freezer or refrigerator, and not at room temperature. It is clear that, overall, GHB can be a more problematic drug than traditional psychedelics. — DAVID AARDVARK

VITEX AGNUS-CASTUS I have been researching plant compounds that have analgesic effects, such as matrine—a kappa-opioid and partial muopioid agonist contained in Sophora subprostrata (Kamei et al. 1997), Nigella sativa seed oil—in which thymoquinone is suspected to be the primary active compound, but which doesn’t act via opioid receptors (Ghannadi et al. 2005), and Picralima nitida alkaloids—which possess varying degrees of agonist and antagonist activity at opioid receptors (Menzies et al. 1998) and which one friend has suggested has a “mild iboga-like stimulation.” But what I am most excited to bring to your attention relates to diterpene isolates that I had extracted from some chaste tree berries. I noticed that Dale Pendell’s new book Pharmako/Gnosis mentions that the Kariri-shocó have three plants in their jurema complex: Mimosa hostilis, M. verrucosa, and also, surprisingly, Vitex agnus-castus Linn., the “chaste-berry.” Pendell doesn’t relate any other information; but based on my own experiences of consuming commercial extracts of chaste tree (as well as the various preparations that I made myself ), I feel that there may be some merit to using this plant as an admixture, or even by itself for its own psychoactive purposes. In any case, I sent two pounds of chaste tree berries off to a chemist who isolated 85 milligrams of a reddish resin that he quantified as being “a diterpene complex.” My thought was that this material might display potent opioid/ dopamine activity when vaporized and inhaled. It is worth mentioning that I am a regular opiate user, consuming on a daily basis poppy pods, kratom, and Catuama®—an herbal extract containing Paullinia cupana, Ptychopetalum olacoides, Trichilia catigua, and Zinziber officinalis, which acts on the opioid receptors (Zulma 1997). On the night of my first experiment with vaporizing the resin isolate, I had consumed a small dose of pods about an hour beforehand, mainly so that I didn’t feel shitty. I vaporized what I eyeballed to be about a milligram of the material, but as I don’t have a scale that measures small amounts, my estimation of the dosages should be suspect of being very

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“approximate.” I didn’t feel much from this small amount, so I then prepared what I thought looked like about 5–8 mg of material. Around 20 seconds after first inhaling, noticeable effects commenced, which definitely seemed dopaminergic in quality. My hands and feet became sweaty, my pupils were slightly dilated, and there was an expansive feeling of excitement in my body. The material appeared to provide a smooth rush of stimulation and a few feelings/thoughts that I can’t quite explain. I tried slightly higher doses, and these confirmed my feeling that compounds in this plant are indeed psychoactive. The effects are short-acting, lasting 10– 30 minutes. The chaste tree has a rich history of use in folk medicine, and a Swiss study researching the pharmacological effects of the diterpene compounds in this plant reported potent binding inhibition at the dopamine and opioid receptors (Berger et al. 2000). My other experiments were with what I estimated might have each been about a 10 mg dose, and these seemed to elicit a mind-expanding, floating, “immersive” mental and somatic effect, as well as—very excitingly—euphoria. At times I felt that the material even had some mild ketamine-like mental effects, perhaps similar to a small 10 mg IV shot of ketamine. Further experiments, particularly those completed by other people, should help determine whether the “euphoric” and “mind-expanding” effects are indeed due to the substance’s innate pharmacology, or were merely from my body’s own emotional response rewarding me with a pulse of endorphins. I have subsequently taken Herb Pharm’s liquid extract of chaste tree berry and evaporated off the alcohol/water. I know this product to be potent when taken orally, resulting in obvious stimulation, and sometimes Cannabis-like mental effects. So I was hoping that this extract, which reduces into a gooey, oily mass of brownish-blackness, might have some effects when vaporized. Sadly, I noticed no intense rush from this material; slight effects, yes—but comparable to perhaps only a couple of milligrams of the other isolated material that I had (after taking three or four rather harsh lungfuls). — C.G., ID

HALPERNGATE II CORRECTION I liked the way the second article on “Halperngate” came out. But there are mistakes with regard to my case in the introduction as John Beresford presented it [see TER 15(2): 54].

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My co-defendants never told on me or implicated me. They are both serving 1 1/2 years longer than I am because of their prior records. They are both still brothers of mine, are 100% respected family, and have never sacrificed one smidgen of their personal records by uttering a word to any official. We could all have walked clear if they had. Please publish this to clear their reputation. By the way, I heard from the parole board on November 8th and have an on-or-after date of January 2, 2007. It’s pretty freaky, but I feel I can breathe a sigh of relief for the first time in more than a decade. Best wishes. — Bill Kelly

DESMANTHUS DUST MASK I have tried grinding Desmanthus root-bark in a mortar, and the fine dust results in my having a severe asthmatic response. I suggest wearing a dust mask or respirator. — R.D., MO

OUT-OF-PRINT RESOURCES Back in the 1990s, I remember the company Rosetta being a source for photocopies of ethnobotanical journal articles, as well as some entheogen related books. Are they still around? — J.S., OR In 2003, ROSETTA’S remaining books and photocopied reprints (presumably, along with the rights to resell any such) were sold to the incipient company AMBROSIA BOOKS. Ultimately, AMBROSIA seems to have been absorbed by ENTHEOMEDIA, who produced their last issue of Entheos: The Journal of Psychedelic Spirituality back in 2002. ENTHEOMEDIA appears to primarily be operating these days as an EBAY store rather than a publisher per se, selling off the back-stock of ROSETTA’S holdings. See http://stores.ebay.com/EntheoMedia. With regard to out-of-print journal articles or books, it is the hope of The Entheogen Review that people will take the time to scan copies and make them available via on-line libraries such as EROWID. — DAVID AARDVARK

ROBERT FORMAN ART SHOW ER readers might be interested to know that Robert Forman, the artist interviewed in the Winter Solstice 2005 issue of TER, will be having a solo show in NYC January 12 through February 28, 2007 (reception at 6:00 pm on opening night), in the Francis M. Nauman Gallery at 22 East 80th Street. It should be a good chance to check out some of his amazing pieces. — Fork!




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RECENT ARTICLES OF INTEREST De Win, M.M.L. 2006. “A Prospective Cohort Study on Sustained Effects of Low-Dose Ecstasy Use on the Brain in New Ecstasy Users,” Neuropsychopharmacology (2006), 1–13. [Published on-line September, 2006.] Available at http:// www.maps.org/w3pb/new/2006/2006_de_22871_1.pdf. Erowid, E. 2006. “DEA Moves to Expand Schedule I,” Erowid Extracts 11: 2. Hazenkamp, A. et al. 2006. “Evaluation of a Vaporizing Device (Volcano®) for the Pulmonary Administration of Tetrahydrocannabinol,” Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 95(6): 1308–1317. [Published on-line April 24, 2006.] Available for a fee at http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/jps.20574. Jensen, N. et al. 2006. “Aeruginascin, a Trimethylammonium Analogue of Psilocybin from the Hallucinogenic Mushroom Inocybe aeruginascens,” Planta Medica 72(7): 665–666. [Published on-line April 28, 2006.] Available at h t t p : / / w w w u s e r. g w d g . d e / ~ u c o c / l a a t s c h / 168_Aeruginascin_col.pdf. Reneman, L. et al. 2006. “Memory Function and Serotonin Transporter Gene Polymorphism in Ecstasy (MDMA) Users,” Journal of Psychopharmacology 20(3): 389–399. Available at http://www.maps.org/w3pb/new/2006/ 2006_Reneman_22748_1.pdf. Roiser, J.P. et al. 2006. “The effect of polymorphism at the serotonin transporter gene on decision-making, memory and executive function in ecstasy users and controls,” Psychopharmacology 188(2): 213–227. [Published on-line August 29, 2006.] Available for a fee at http://www.springerlink.com/ content/y15236tx42m86771. Singh, N. et al. 2006. “A Combined Ligand-Based and Target-Based Drug Design Approach for G-Protein Coupled Receptors: Application to Salvinorin A, a Selective Kappa Opioid Receptor Agonist,” Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design. [ePublished ahead of print, September 29, 2006.] Available at http://sagewisdom.org/singhetal.pdf.

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Entheogens in Video Games by Markus Berger & Mirko Berger

If Pac-Man had affected us as kids we’d be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music. — MARCUS BRIGSTOCKE The inspiration for this article came from my son Mirko. When he was seven years old he told me that he had educated his teacher and friends at school about the pharmacological properties of Amanita muscaria. While playing a video game on my computer one day, he remarked, “Daddy, look here—a lot of fly agarics!” Over the years, I have become acquainted with various writings discussing the appearance of entheogens in art and music. Yet it took Mirko’s comment for me to realize that I had never seen anyone discuss video games from the point of view of the magical foods that some of them contain. As I looked into it further, I discovered that symbolic representations of visionary plants have indeed sprouted within these virtual worlds. Video game content has evolved within the context and progression of other popculture media formats, and the role of psychoactive substances has long been depicted in literature, film, and television. In 1865, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland led the title character through a trippy world where the magical food and drink she consumed had profound effects. (The story has been adapted around a dozen times for film and television.) In 1958, Belgian cartoonist Peyo first introduced les schtroumpfs in printed format, but it was the 1980s Hanna-Barbera TV series that brought The Smurfs widespread attention. (The first installment of a 3-D computer-animated smurf film trilogy is planned for release by Paramount Pictures in 2008.) The smurfs—with bodies reminiscent of blue-staining Psilocybes, and red or white clothing evocative of Amanita muscaria—reside in mushroom houses that comprise a forest village. Created in 1959, the French comic book characters Astérix and Obélix received their super strength via a secret psychoactive potion. Each of these well-known stories has, in recent years, been adapted for video games. TOP: Detail from horror video game box for American McGee’s Alice. MIDDLE: Screen shot from smurf video game. BOTTOM: Astérix and Obélix video game images; note the mushroom launchpad in the last image.

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Pac-Man has been gobbling power pills and Super Mario has bulked up from eating fly agaric for over twenty-five years. Could entheogens have had a bigger influence on the world of video game design than has been accounted for to date? The proof may be in the pudding—by simply looking at some of these games, it seems quite possible that their trippy visuals were created by those who had first-hand experience with visionary plants and drugs. If true, might the game designers have left behind some clues relating to their inspiration? Let’s consider a few examples.

Super Mario Brothers Some believe that author Lewis Carroll had read about the effects of Amanita muscaria, inspiring his book’s inclusion of a mushroom that induced shapeshifting (Lincoff 2005; Emboden 1979). It has even been suggested that Carroll ate these mushrooms himself, experiencing his own visions of macroscopia, microscopia, and an altered perception of the flow of time (Beug 2000). I am unaware of the truth of these ideas. Nevertheless, the magic charm that transforms the plumber Mario into Super Mario is unquestionably A. muscaria. Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, has stated that his inspiration for using a “Super Mushroom” ( below, left ), which changes the character’s size, originated from concepts presented in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (O’Connell 2005). In a similar vein, a bottle with a curious potion, which causes a door to magically appear, is featured in the game Super Mario Bros. 2. Mario was first introduced in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong, and he has been the hero of many spin-offs since then. His goal in most games is to rescue the damsel in distress, who is usually Princess Peach, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom (she was originally called Princess Toadstool). Starting with the version Super Mario Bros., the game introduced a character called Toad ( below, center )—a humanoid mushroom who is a particularly good friend and assistant to Mario. Other games also have a female counterpart to this character, called Toadett ( below, right ). These characters feature the typical colors and spots of fly agaric mushrooms. In recent game versions (e.g. Super Mario Sunshine), the landscapes are full of mushrooms that look like enormous Psilocybe semilanceata and P. azureszens. Other characters include a variety of the small ghosts that chase Mario, called the Boohoos. I like to entertain the far-out speculation that their name might be a veiled tribute to Arthur Kleps, founder of the Neo-American Church, which used LSD as its sacrament. (Kleps, who referred to himself as the Chief Boo Hoo, penned The Boo Hoo Bible.)

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In the game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island the player comes to a level where white puffballs are flying around. If Mario’s dinosaur steed Yoshi ends up touching one of these balls, the screen psychedelically blurs and Yoshi’s eyes become dilated. An enemy in this game is one that Mario frequently faces— the Piranha Plant—a green vine sporting a big-mouthed red globe with white spots, entirely reminiscent of Amanita muscaria. Another occasional opponent of Mario is a character called Wario, who comes into increased contact with mushrooms in Yoshi’s Island. It has been speculated that in the 2007 release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wario may use the stench of his release of a mushroom-shaped cloud of fart-gas for a weapon (Wikipedia 2006).

Sonic the Hedgehog To compete with Nintendo’s character Mario, the Sega video game company responded a decade later by creating a super-fast teenage hedgehog character named Sonic. Sonic does not eat the fly agarics that sometimes fill the environment he rips through at lightning speed. However, he does use them as trampolines, and can thusly reach any height necessary, which can be seen as a metaphor for transcendence.

LEFT, TOP TO BOTTOM: Screen shot from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, showing white puffballs. Notice the appearance of an Amanita muscaria– like Piranha Plant in the top right-hand corner. Advertisement for Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3, featuring a Piranha Plant. Super Mario’s opponent Wario, chasing Toad and some mushrooms. Screen shot from Sonic the Hedgehog. Screen shot from Bomberman. RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM: Screen shot from Kirby. Screen shot from Super Troll Islands. Centipede image used on arcade games.

Jazz Jackrabbit On the second level of this game there is an interpretation of a well-known Wonderland scene. Sporting a 1970sstyle afro hairdo, a yellow caterpillar perched on an Amanita muscaria tokes from a waterpipe. If the hero Jazz contacts the smoke rings, typical hallucinogenic effects overtake him: the external world becomes multicolored, the scene moves in a dizzying circle, and the game’s music sounds distorted.

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A Myriad Mushrooms In Bomberman, the player has to remove all mushrooms from the playing field. In Speedy Gonzales, fly agarics serve as mighty jump ramps. In Kirby, however, these mushrooms represent deadly enemies. On the adventurous Super Troll Islands, Amanita muscaria and another undefined botanical symbolize sacred plants. In the Atari classic Centipede, a gnome shoots through mushrooms in order to destroy the insect. In Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, various Psilocybe species and some A. muscaria are presented merely for decorative purposes. The mushroom is undoubtedly the most frequently depicted visionary plant in contemporary video games. And while it occasionally plays a negative role, symbolizing pain, suffering, or death, it more often serves to offer some benefit to the player, providing a new magical/ functional power. Viva la entheogenic reformation! 

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NOTES Although a video game called Psychonauts was released in 2005, it has nothing to do with entheogenic voyages. Rather, its “psychonaut” characters are “special psychic operatives with powers they use in service to the world’s governments.” “Entheogens in Video Games” was translated and expanded from “Psychedelische Artefakte in der modernen TechnikGesellschaft: Entheogene in Video- und Computerspielen,” which first appeared in Entheogene Blätter, Ausgabe 19— Dezember/2003, pp. 613–616.

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Events Calendar PSYCHOPTICON ANIMATRIS DECEMBER 22, 2006

BRAIN MEETING JANUARY 19–22, 2007

Less than fifty years after the invention of the motion picture, the first animated movie was produced. Cartoonist Émile Cohl’s 1908 film Fantasmagorie depicted a stick figure dancing across the screen, encountering a multitude of morphing objects. Could a wine bottle transformed into a flower symbolize the transcendent potential of inebriation? One of the earliest animated film stars, created in 1919, was Otto Messmer’s Felix the Cat. In 1928, Felix’s mug was the first image ever to be broadcast on television, heralding an era of hypnotic trance states in viewers ever since. Yet it was a few years earlier that Felix himself spaced out on film. Soused on moonshine, the cat hallucinates malevolent demons and flying elephants. Beginning from the 1920s, and with at least one clip per decade since then, this 90-minute collection—compiled by Jon Hanna—showcases diverse hallucinatory content and inspiration in pop culture animation. Whether induced by alcohol or other drugs, dreams, meditation, or mental illness, these psychedelic depictions of crossing liminal boundaries are frequently beautiful, often humorous, and always entertaining. Starts at 7:30 pm; $10 includes popcorn and bottled water. Held at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, 540 West 27 Street, 4th Floor, NYC. For advance tickets, see www.cosm.org.

The Futurehealth Winter Brain, Optimal Functioning & Positive Psychology and StoryCon meeting will be held in Palm Springs, CA. Presenters include Thomas M. Brod, M.D., who recently organized and chaired two conferences for the MOCA in Los Angeles tied to their “Ecstasy: In and About Altered States” exhibition. He will chair a symposium on psilocybin research at this year’s American Psychiatric Association meeting, and at this event will be addressing “Healing Mysticism: New Approaches to the Study of Psychedelic Drugs.” For more information about other presenters, see http://brainmeeting.com. Cost is $549.

AMAZON PLANT TEACHERS JANUARY 1–8, 2007 An eight-day retreat to Espiritu d’Anaconda in the Peruvian Amazon. Attendees will observe the traditional ayahuasca dieta while receiving guidance and healing from master shaman Kesten Betsa. Through ayahuasca ceremonies and icaros, participants gain insight into their physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual worlds. This retreat is limited to a maximum of seven participants, to provide for the most personalized attention. For more info, e-mail [email protected].

SHAMANISM CONFERENCE JANUARY 19–23, 2007 The Sixth International Conference on Shamanism will be held at the historic La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This conference provides the opportunity to investigate the space between ordinary and non-ordinary reality, to expand personal awareness, explore indigenous wisdom traditions, and learn ways to access personal power. Presenters include Lynn Andrews, Sandra Ingerman, Nicki Scully, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Hank Wesselman, Jill Kuykendal, Maria Teresa Valenzuela, Robert Moss, and many others. Cost is $645, which does not include lodging. For more information, see www.bizspirit.com.

AYAHUASCA HEALING MARCH 30 – APRIL 7, 2007 Experience ayahuasca ceremonies in a beautiful and relaxing environment in Bahia, Brazil. Learn about the history and uses of this ancient brew. Participate in workshops and hear lectures on how to heal the “child within.” Cost is 1,900 euros, which includes room & board. For more information, see www.ayahuasca-healing.net.

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Sources by Jon Hanna

THE BECKLEY FOUNDATION Beckley Park Oxford UNITED KINGDOM OX3 9SY +44 (0) 1865 351 209 +44 (0) 1865 351 219 fax [email protected] www.beckleyfoundation.org www.internationaldrugpolicy.net

Is a sane re-evaluation of prohibitionist laws possible? One might come to such a conclusion after reading the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee report Drug Classification: Making a Hash of It? (released 7/31/06). This report describes the United Kingdom’s approach toward drug scheduling as showing “a regrettable lack of consistency in the rationale used to make classification decisions” and it concludes “that the current classification system is not fit for purpose and should be replaced with a more scientifically based scale of harm…” Out of the twenty drugs investigated, the report described alcohol as the fifth most harmful drug, amphetamine as the eighth most harmful drug, tobacco as the ninth most harmful drug, Cannabis as the eleventh most harmful drug, LSD as the fourteenth most harmful drug, and MDMA (Ecstasy) as the eighteenth most harmful drug. Within the era of such a positive publication, I can think of no better time to draw attention to The Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust created by Amanda Neidpath in the United Kingdom that promotes the investigation of consciousness and its modulation from a multidisciplinary perspective. It supports research into the science, health, politics, and anthropology of altered consciousness—ranging from meditation to the ingestion of psychoactive substances. Unlike some organizations with a narrow focus, The Beckley Foundation embraces a holistic approach that centers on three main areas: science, policy, and education. In the scientific arena, The Beckley Foundation funds research into the processes that underpin consciousness, studying the biological changes that can occur during pathologically, naturally, or chemically altered states; Beckley is also concerned with evaluating the therapeutic potential and

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medicinal benefits that altered states of consciousness may have. Toward these ends, The Beckley Foundation investigates changes in cerebral blood flow, electrical current, and magnetic field variations underlying different states of consciousness, neurotransmitter concentrations, neural immune function, cognition and mood ratings. In the policy arena, The Beckley Foundation created an International Drug Policy Consortium—a worldwide network of non-governmental and professional organizations. They have also established an International Network for Drug Policy Analysis, a group of academic experts who have produced notable work on the subject of drug policy evaluation. Beckley commissions the publication and distribution of reports and briefing papers on international drug policy issues, and hosts topical seminars that bring together law makers, academics, and practitioners for discussion. The Beckley Foundation’s Drug Policy Programme (see the second URL above) is a new project dedicated to providing a rigorous, independent review of global drug policy. It was set up to promote rational consideration of sensitive policy issues at an international level—aiming to inform policy makers, substance abuse professionals, academics, and the general public about drug policy. In the education arena, The Beckley Foundation organizes a seminar series, titled “Society and Drugs: A Rational Perspective,” in order to address drug use from a wide range of disciplines. Their December 2006 invitational seminar, “UNGASS and the Contribution of Civil Society” was arranged to review the preparations for the forthcoming global review of the international drug control system, under the auspices of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The Beckley Foundation also sponsors a series of “Trialogues on Consciousness.” In the vein of those infamous discussions that took place between Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake, and Ralph Abraham, these current musings on the nature of the mind explore different aspects of contemporary leading-edge consciousness research. They take place in the intimate setting of Beckley Park, without an audience. They are recorded and transcribed, and The Beckley Foundation hopes to publish them at some future date. The first trialogue discussed “The Location of the

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Mind,” and included the late Professor Jeffrey Grey (at that time Editor in Chief of Behavioral and Brain Sciences), professor Max Velmans (of Goldsmiths College, London University), and the biologist Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. The second trialogue focused on the question of “The Survival of Consciousness,” and included Professor Gary Schwartz (of the University of Arizona, who has researched mediums and information purportedly received from deceased people), Dr. Peter Fenwick (of the Maudsley Hospital in London, an expert on near-death experiences), and Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. The third trialogue looked at “Consciousness and Psychedelics,” and featured Professor Ralph Abraham (chaos math and dynamic systems pioneer), Amanda Feilding (Director of The Beckley Foundation), and Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. Forthcoming planned trialogues include an exploration of the role of quantum physics on conscious phenomena and the evolution of consciousness.

WE BE HIGH www.WeBeHigh.com [email protected]

As a teenager in high school, I remember going out one night with some friends who were trying to score a dime-bag of pot. Their technique was to drive to the Oak Park area (the “bad part” of town), spot someone hanging around on a corner, and ask them if they had any weed for sale. This particular evening, after seemingly getting lucky and parting with $10.00, my buddy opened his tiny Ziploc® only to discover that—through the rapid transaction in the dark of night—he had ended up with a baggy full of pine needles. He may have tried to smoke them anyway. Hey, we were kids—we had scraped the inside of banana peels and smoked those once. There are times in life when scoring dope is not so easy. And one of those times can be when travelling. Thankfully, WeBeHigh.com may be able to offer a bit of help to stoner globe-trotters. The site describes itself as “a traveller’s guide to getting high,” and its primary function is to act as a “city guide” for purchasing information and attitudes about Cannabis. As of November 2006, they had posted reviews of 487 cities worldwide. Cities reviewed have a “smoking tolerance level” rating, from 1 to 5, where 1 = “very illegal” and 5 = “virtually legal.” Other information that may be presented includes detailed comments on legal issues, specific ideas of where to score and how available pot is, what the range of quality is (with some cities even listing the




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“name brand strains” you are likely to come across), and what the dope will cost you. Many reviews post the date when they were last updated, so that one can judge how potentially stale the data may be. The site could be improved if there was a means by which to sort the data presented. As it stands, data is listed alphabetically by country and city. If it could be reordered, for example, so that it was presented in order of most recent to least recent posting (to determine the freshest data), or in order of highest tolerance level to lowest tolerance level (to determine the safest places to score), this would make the site more useful. Nevertheless, I suspect that this site is most often consulted when someone plans a trip to some specific locations, and the alphabetical construction works just fine for that use. Alas, such a guide can’t be overly specific. They aren’t going to provide the name, phone number, and address of a dealer, since this could result in untoward attention from law enforcement. But they do frequently provide specifics related to what areas in any given city are better and worse options. In late September this year, NBC reported on a story where some Philadelphia police departments were upset about “a web site” that described the easiest and safest ways to obtain marijuana worldwide. Ironically, even though NBC neglected (or purposefully avoided) including the salient detail that many of those watching might have liked to hear—the URL for the web site—within a week WeBeHigh.com had received about ten new reports for locations to score in the Phily area, and traffic to the site increased enormously. The site also contains various articles, a monthly e-mail newsletter you can subscribe to, an events calendar, a selection of links, and even a “language translator” where you can learn to ask for Cannabis in a variety of tongues. Visitors to the site who have information about where to score in various cities are encouraged to submit reports. Presumably as a means to fund the site’s existence, they also sell a wide selection of vaporizers. What with the absurd amount of security at United States airports these days, smuggling Cannabis when leaving the country is increasingly less attractive. Knowing good spots to score once one arrives at one’s destination can be handy. And others can potentially benefit from travelers writing up their experiences. Kudos to this web site for acting as a useful information hub.

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Bibliography Anderson, B. 2004-a. “Antidepressant Effects of Ethanolic Plant Extracts on Mice,” Ethnobiology, Cost Rica. Organization for Tropical Study Abroad Program. Anderson, B. 2004-b. “Searching in the Dark Jungle for Answers to Dark Times: An Ethnobiological Investigation into Therapies for Mental Illness,” Ethnobiology, Cost Rica. Organization for Tropical Study Abroad Program. Appendino, G. 2003. Personal communication. Basu, N. & R.P. Rastogi 1967. “Triterpenoid saponins and sapogenins,” Phytochemistry 6: 1249–1270. Beug, M.W. 2000 (revised). Poisonous and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms. The Evergreen State College. Section cited posted at www.evergreen.edu/mushrooms/phm/s32.htm. (Accessed 11/28/06.) Chow, S.Y. et al. 1977. “Pharmacological studies of Chinese herbs (6): Pharmacological effects of Epiphyllum oxypetalum Haw,” Journal of the Formosan Medical Association, 76(12): 916–925. Emboden, W.A. 1979. Narcotic Plants, second edition. Macmillan Publishing Co. Ghannadi, A. et al. 2005. “An Investigation of the Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Nigella sativa Seed Polyphenols,” Journal of Medicinal Food 8(4): 488–493. Heffter, A. 1898. “Ueber Cacteenalkaloïde. (III. Mitteilung.),” Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft 29: 216–227. Hirst, M. 2000. “Root, Dream & Myth: The Use of the Oneirogenic Plant Silene Capensis Among the Xhosa of South Africa,” Eleusis: Journal of Psychoactive Plants and Compounds n.s. 4: 121–149. Kamei, J. et al. 1997. “Antinociceptive effects of (+)-matrine in mice,” European Journal of Pharmacology 337(2–3): 223–226.

Meier, B. et al. 2000. “Pharmacological Activities of Vitex agnuscastus Extracts in Vitro,” Phytomedicine (5): 373–381. Menzies, J.R.W. et al. 1998. “Opioid activity of alkaloids extracted from Picralima nitida (fam. Apocynaceae),” European Journal of Pharmacology 350(1): 101–108. O’Connell, P. 2005. “Meet Mario’s Papa: Legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto talks how he aims to bring the family together around Nintendo’s new console,” BusinessWeek Online, November 7. Posted at www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_45/ b3958127.htm (Accessed 11/28/06.) Ott, J. 1995. The Age of Entheogens & The Angels’ Dictionary. Natural Products Co. Ott, J. 1996. Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, their Plant Sources and History. Natural Products Co. Pinkley, H.V. 1969. “Plant Admixtures to Ayahuasca, the South American Hallucinogenic Drink,” LLoydia 32(3): 305–314. Rivier, L. & J.-E. Lindgren 1972. “‘Ayahuasca,’ the South American Hallucinogenic Drink: An Ethnobotanical and Chemical Investigation,” Economic Botany 26(1): 101–129. Robiola, P.F. 1955. “A New Drug Compound with Cereus grandiflorus Mill., a Mexican Cactus with Cardiotonic Action,” Minerva Medica 46(103):1975–1976. Schultes, R.E. & R.F. Raffauf 1990. The Healing Forest: Medicinal and Toxic Plants of the Northwest Amazonia. Dioscorides Press. Trout, K. 1999. Sacred Cacti: Botany, Chemistry, Cultivation & Utilization, second edition. Better Days Publishing. (Citing Shulgin, A. 1995. THIQ/PEA Appendix 12/26/95—Cactus Species Tabulation. A lecture handout.) Trout, K. 2006. Personal communication.

Lincoff, G. 2005. Is the Fly-Agaric (Amanita muscaria) an Effective Medicinal Mushroom? Presented at The Third International Medicinal Mushroom Conference, Port Townsend, WA, October, 2005. Posted at www.nemf.org/files/various/muscaria/ part1.html. (Accessed 11/28/06.) Mayagoitia, L. et al. 1986. “Psychopharmacologic Analysis of an Alleged Oneirogenic Plant, Calea zacatechichi,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 18(3): 229–243.

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Wikipedia 2006. Wario. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wario. (Accessed 11/28/06.) Zulma, R. et al. 1997, “Analgesic Effect of the Herbal Medicine Catuama in Thermal and Chemical Models of Nociception in Mice,” Phytotherapy Research 11(2): 101–106.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark

Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Rick Strassman Jon Hanna David Normal, CA Dr. Wily D.M. Turner Bruce Rimell Noman G.T., Italy J.S., OR Fork! S.A., RI G.A.R., SC Otto Snow W.P., Löhrbach C.G., ID Bill Kelly Markus Berger Mirko Berger

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819 USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front and Back Cover art by actual contact www.actualcontact.com

CONTENTS The Inner Work Security Issues in the Underground Hyperspatial Maps Asmodeus Tripping in Public The Substance of Memory: Early Salvinorin Voyages DMT For The Masses An Obscure Oneirogenic: Silene capensis Network Feedback Get Political Easy MAOI Extraction Piptadenia gonoacantha Epiphyllum oxypetalum and Checking Citations Mushroom Stones Collecting Spore Prints GHB Dangers Vitex Agnus-castus Halperngate II Correction Desmanthus Dust Mask Out-of-print Resources Robert Forman Art Show Recent Articles of Interest Entheogens in Video Games Events Calendar Sources Bibliography

77 81 83 83 83 88 91 93 95 95 95 95 95 96 97 97 98 98 99 99 99 99 100 105 106 108

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues).

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XV, Number 3




Autumnal Equinox 2006




ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XV, Number 4




Winter Solstice 2006




ISSN 1066-1913

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Erik Davis Jon Hanna Michael Rauner Alembic 23 Mambo Pachano H. Mano Keeper Trout Leah Martin Jason Pawlett, Vancouver S.A.D., CA Solkin Mimosame Karen D.D., CA N.B., NY Noah Juan Juneau Resident, USA P.H., NM C. and M., KS Spridle, CA

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CONTENTS Erik Davis Speaks… Consumer Advocacy, Peer Review, and Fictional Figures in a Journal Article Quantifying Salvia divinorum Products Mescaline For The Masses This is Not Coca Ibogaine Visions Interactions in the Iboga Spirit Realm Ibogaine: Spirit and Recovery From Lightness to Darkness and Back Again Revealing the Shadow Network Feedback Placating Delusions Entheopodcasts Juul’s Giant Update Set & Setting Big Brother Goes Postal Lime and Lye Obtaining Diethyl Ether Thanks for the DMT Events Calendar Book Review Bibliography Index for all 2006 Issues

109 117 120 123 124 124 125 127 128 131 131 132 133 134 135 137 138 139 140 141 142 143

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Web www.entheogenreview.com

Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices.

Front and Back Covers and photographs on pages 112 & 114 by Michael Rauner • www.michaelrauner.com

Copyright © 2006 & 2007 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

VOLUME XV, NUMBER 4




WINTER SOLSTICE 2006

Erik Davis Speaks… interviewed by Jon Hanna

ERIK DAVIS was once described by astrology guru ROB BREZSNY as “the next TERENCE MCKENNA.” While some author-lecturers in the psychedelic community might actively vie for that title, when I mentioned it to ERIK, he just laughed. It is unquestionably true that, on one fundamental level, ERIK is nothing at all like TERENCE. You won’t find him pimping Chicken Little theories about the world ending in 2012, he shies away from selfpromotion, and he clearly has no interest in acting as the leader of a ragtag band of drug enthusiasts looking for guidance. On the other hand, there is a level on which BREZSNY’S comparison fits like a glove. ERIK finds “the oddball” engaging—worthy of study and commentary. As a lecturer, he is well-informed on a myriad of arcane topics, has a keen grasp of history and pop culture, and is never at a loss for words. He speaks extemporaneously, without needing to consult notes, employing a well-honed wit and sharp insight. He has worked as a contributing writer for WIRED, and has written prolifically on the topics of art, music, technoculture, and contemporary spirituality. His articles have appeared in countless magazines and anthologies, and his books include Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, and Led Zeppelin IV. ERIK and I recently spoke about his current offering, the sumptuous hardcover coffee-table book The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape, featuring the photography of MICHAEL RAUNER. Ranging from televangelism to Neopaganism, UFO cults to Zen bootcamps, The Visionary State weaves together the threads of the Golden State’s rich and eccentric spiritual history into a strange and vivid tapestry E RIK calls “California Consciousness.”

What inspired you to look at California spirituality through the eyes of its geography and architecture? Was it a situation where you frequently traveled around the state, and after going to a lot of interesting places, you decided to present those in the format of a book? No, not at all. After 9/11, for a couple of years, I was pretty freaked out. I like to think I have a decent zeitgeist radar, that I can tap into the spirit of the times. I can see the way in which a certain detail illuminates a whole world view. So this was not a particularly fun time to be tuned into the global mind-frame. And part of what I went through during that time was feeling extremely rootless, and buffeted around by all sorts of factors in my life. I really wanted to have a sense of rootedness—knowing where I was, knowing my identity, knowing what my goals were. At this same period of time, I had a friend who was going through some big changes in his life, and he got back into Judaism. Although he was raised a Jew, he had not been a practicing Jew; so he started going to temple. Now, it was a very Bay Area hipster affair, with a lesbian rabbi, and they did a lot of dancing and kaballah meditation. But it was still Judaism. And I was really envious. I didn’t have any annoying religion that I could turn back to as some way of understanding where I came from! You were envious that you didn’t have some annoying religion?

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I mean it’s like something you have to wrestle with. It’s like a family: however you want it, your parents are your parents. And they’re still around, and they’re probably annoying sometimes, but they also provide a sense of continuity; where did they come from, what is their story, what’s their parents’ story? This all gives us a sense of identity and helps us organize who we are, even if it can be kind of annoying. This is something that Americans in general may struggle with, since we don’t have a long lineage behind us—we’re a relatively young country. Which could also be why there is so much spiritual experimentation in the United States. Exactly. I think that is very true. And it is particularly true of the west, of California, even more so than the east coast. I think that those things are related, and they’re why there are so many wacky experiences out here. And so I was thinking about my own upbringing, which involved very, very little Christianity. I grew up in southern California in the 1970s. My mom knew people who were Moonies. It was a weird time. And finally it hit me that, for better or worse, that is my tradition. My tradition is California’s rootless, restless, experimental, countercultural, proto–New Age; whatever you want to call it, that’s what I get. It’s not going to be any more than that.




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I started writing what was going to be a conventional history book, with maybe a few black and white photographs, 300 pages, etc. But it wasn’t working out too well. I couldn’t quite fit it all together. I was trying to organize it, to get the big picture, and to sell the book to people in New York, and it just wasn’t really happening. As I was doing the research, I started to visit the places that I was writing about. I’d be reading about the first Hindu temple in San Francisco, the old Vedanta temple on Webster and Filbert; even though I live in San Francisco and had driven by it, I had never been to check it out. So I went to check it out. And I discovered that there was something that these places were communicating to me that wasn’t just a history or a story—there was some kind of atmosphere, or vibe, or even a sort of teaching. The thing about sacred architecture is that it embodies ideas and cosmologies and religious principles in the actual building. So when you visit, and put your body in the space, checking out the details of how it is arranged, you learn something visceral about the religion. So I started to do this with all of the places.

My tradition is California’s rootless, restless, experimental, countercultural, proto–New Age; whatever you want to call it, that’s what I get.

Of course, nobody thinks about that as a “tradition,” the way that they talk about Judaism or Christianity or whatever. And this caused me to ask, “Well, where did all this come from? Let’s find out where it started. Who are the people who carried the tradition? Who are the ancestors? Who are the great names? And what are its key points?” I was driven by the intuition that there was something shared about all of these different kooky sects, psychedelics, New Age philosophies, the Grateful Dead… there was something bringing it all together—something about California. So that was what got me going. It was a personal quest, as well as an intellectual one, to understand the history, the major players, and to come up with a sense of how it all fit together.

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It provided a reason to travel around California, which I hadn’t done much. I’m kind of an urban dweller, I don’t go out cruising all over the country that often. I’m a traveler, and I like to travel, but I hadn’t really seen very much of California. So it gave me a great excuse to do that. I really fell in love with these places. They intrigued me. There’s something about the architecture, and a lot of them are quite beautiful, and some of them are very strange, and no one had really ever dealt with it. It seemed like typical California stuff, and even though there is so much attention given to California culture and it has been so important—especially in the 20th century—to the United States and the world, nobody had really ever looked at all of this weird spirituality as an aspect of this bigger cultural force. So it all kind of came together. There was this one specific night where I realized, “I know how I will do it. I’ll present it as a photography book, where there are pictures of all of the places, and then I’ll tell the story about the places shown in the photographs, and that’s

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how the big story will be conveyed.” I wouldn’t attempt to make it into a single narrative, but instead it would document my traveling around the state, looking at these places and finding out the stories of what happened there. So that was how the book developed. I had some real questions regarding the history and origins of the counterculture in California, and why stuff happened here, and how long it had been happening, and where did it start. But the book was also really driven by my personal quest to understand the place that made me. I’m a fifth-generation Californian, I absorbed a lot of this stuff in my youth, I went to Zen places, and chanted Hari Krishna. In seventh grade my English teacher was some weird kind of white light occult guy who read my aura. And a former EST guide taught a class in my public high school called Epistemics. I had just picked up all of this weird shit about California. So working on the book was a way for me to start to understand where I came from, as an attempt to create roots in a very rootless place.

fascinating story. California is a microcosm of the modern world, so all of this spiritual stuff has a larger resonance— it’s not just about the fact that a buncha wackos made their way out to the west coast. There’s an experimental, exploratory edge to the culture here, that is trying to deal with— consciously or not—larger problems of the modern soul and society. California offers a playground with which to experiment, but the things that are being experimented with reverberate outward.

I grew up in California, too. And in reading your book, I realized how little I know about California’s history. This struck me as a great failing of the public education system. I had maybe one class, or only half of a year in one class, that dealt with state history. I got The Gold Rush and some basic stuff, but not much else. And here you’ve put together this immense, dense, thick volume of history that doesn’t even deal with the primary story—it’s the story of spiritual niches, and it features very little that one might come across in any regular history book. To think that this much exists when focusing on a fairly narrow topic of California’s culture, one has to be blown away by how many other things must exist in California’s history that we have never been made aware of.

When I flashed on how I was going to tell the story, part of that insight was realizing that if all I did was capture a bunch of images of these nifty places—and people see the range of the architecture and get a visual sense of the locations—then I had done half of the job. So I needed a photographer, and that happened fairly synchronistically. It made sense for a San Francisco publisher to produce the book, and Chronicle produces attractive books, which are fairly inexpensive, and which feature lots of photographs. So I spoke with a friend of mine who is an editor at Chronicle Books, and he said, “Yeah, I know this guy, Michael Rauner.”

I know what you mean. I was in the same boat. While I’ve always enjoyed reading history casually, I had never really looked at a single place over a 200 year period. And there was no way to understand my story without understanding all of these other things about California, and politics, and technology, and race relations. So all of this stuff suddenly became part of a story, which was kind of overwhelming. But it wasn’t so huge that I couldn’t get some sort of a handle on it. There are books that we are blessed in California to have; there’s this series of books by the former state librarian—a guy named Kevin Starr—who has an encyclopedic ability to coalesce huge amounts of data. He’s written six or seven of these fat books that start in the middle of the 19th century and peter out around the end of the 1940s. These books are great. Starr is kind of a conservative guy, so he doesn’t really understand the countercultural stuff, but otherwise his books helped me put state history into context. It is such a

The Visionary State can be enjoyed in two different ways. The first way is as a coffee table art book, where one is not reading much of the text, but simply paging through to see the incredible photographs. And then the deeper way to enjoy it is to actually read the history and learn about what is being depicted. But strictly from an artistic standpoint, the book’s images are beautiful, and moving, and strong. How did it come about that you got so many great pictures?

I met with Michael, who is primarily a portrait photographer, and when he heard about the project he got excited. He’s a native Californian. He had done earlier photographic projects about the missions and about amateur bullfighting in California, which he sees as a sort of residue of a sacred ritual. So he was sympatico in a lot of ways. And when he heard about the project he went out and took a bunch of photographs of places just to get the gig. It ended up being a great collaboration. I went to most of the locations before he did, and chose which ones would work. But he had tons of input and introduced the idea of including interior spaces. Many of the places that ended up being featured in the book are there because they are visually interesting. If there was a story that was good, but there wasn’t a good building associated with it, then we didn’t put it in. We put in stuff that looked cool. Because there was so much stuff to say, so many different things to talk about, why not put in the things that looked interesting? When we discussed the

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strategy of how to do the photography, we were both really interested in the idea of not depicting any people in the book. This gave the images a more enchanted, spooky quality, with all of these empty places, and it also presented a bit more of the character of each building. When you see a person in a photograph, you don’t pay so much attention to the building, because you are drawn to look at the person. It is an interesting choice. It allows the book to work much better on an artistic level. It inspires great ease in flipping through, to get a sense of the incredible locations depicted. But then when I actually started reading the book, it is clearly a book about people—the people who were at these locations, who built them, who inhabited them, who interacted with them. And on that level, the sole focus on architecture and geography started getting a bit weird for me. Because I wanted to see what the people I was reading about looked like. That’s true. But I loved the idea of working with one photographer—someone who was going to capture everything and be consistent about it. And since at least half of the people discussed in the book are dead, that makes including photographs of individuals somewhat harder. I mean, you want to see a picture of Yogananda, right? You don’t want to see a picture of some guy in a robe who is his disciple, simply because he is the only person available for a photograph. So if the people were to be included, that would mean accessing archival photography, and that would have ended up being an entirely different sort of book. But I appreciate the criticism. It was a weird choice in some ways. It may have put people off from the book a little bit. Photographs of people might have more easily drawn in those readers interested in the story of people, whereas they might now look at the book and presume that the text focuses on architecture—and maybe that’s not their thing.




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was all they wanted, great. But if they were intrigued, they would do more reading. Did you visit any of the places more than once? Yeah, there are a couple of places that I went to a bunch, mostly those places that were my favorites. I loved the Integratron, which is this building/alien technology that was built in Landers, which is near Joshua Tree. In that high desert area around Joshua Tree there’s a lot of intense energy. There’s a bunch of artists there, and assorted UFO enthusiasts, and it’s got a kind of magical feeling. I had never been there before I did the book—I had been to Joshua Tree, but not to the places surrounding it. It was a great spot. It’s this weird rotunda designed to create an electrostatic field that was supposed to somehow retard aging. The plans to build it were “given” to a guy named George van Tassell by some alien he met. It is a well made, beautiful building, with attractive wood construction. So there’s something about the conjunction of this goofy, crackpot origin story with a space that feels like a special atmosphere, like a temple. The aliens are pretty good architects.

I don’t think that the presentation could possibly put people off, because the photographs are so beautiful that they do draw the viewer into the book. That was the whole idea. People would be drawn in by the images. And if that

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In this case, yes, they did a pretty good job. So that’s a nifty place. And like a lot of the buildings, the Integratron now has a different purpose to it. One of the things that I was interested in with the photographs was to show how traces of these stories and experiences still remain, even if the founding members and the whole sect are gone. The buildings live on, housing enchanted stories. In the book you describe the boon of interest in Spiritualism in the later half of the 19th century. You talk about the Fox sisters in upstate New York and their communication with the dead, and the pianist Jesse Shepard who claimed to channel music, and how the Winchester mansion was designed to baffle angry ghosts. And one of the things you mentioned, which I wanted to bring up in order to tie it into an idea associated with traditional shamanism, is the founding of Stanford University. You said that the inspiration to build this school came to Leland Stanford through a dream, or via communication with the Stanford’s dead son. And you describe how in 1911, Thomas Welton Stanford— Mrs. Stanford’s younger brother—donated fifty thousand dollars to the University for psychical research. And what caught my eye was that some of the “paranormal items” he donated to the Stanford library were physical objects that were supposed to have mysteriously materialized out of thin air. Right. They’re called “apports.” So that’s magical. It’s incredible. And it reminded me of that part in True Hallucinations, where Terence and Dennis McKenna were in the Amazon. Dennis had wigged out, and at one point Terence claimed that Dennis had been talking about some old music box they had as kids—one of those boxes whose little sliding wood pieces conceal a hidden compartment holding a key that will open the box. And then, as Terence told it, Dennis opened his hand and the key from this music box from their past was right there in his hand. The idea being that Dennis had magically materialized this key out of thin air. Which blew Terence’s mind. In questioning the reality of what he was presented with, he had a hard time believing that Dennis would have carried this key from their childhood all the way to the Amazon, simply to pretend that he had pulled it out of thin air. But within reports from traditional shamanism, the purported practice of being able to materialize some object, or a fluid, or something that has particular metaphysical powers, isn’t unheard of. Spiritualism was a huge thing all over the western world in the late 19th century. While it was ripe for California’s style, it was also pretty pervasive. It often attracted wealthy, educated people, a fair number of whom were scientists. A lot of




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people were draw in to this thing that now is very hard for us to wrap our heads around. But one way of describing Spiritualism is that it was a way of rediscovering particular aspects of the shamanic world view within this weird context of Victorian industrialism. It arose right at the point at which we entered the modern, urban, media-saturated, mechanical, factory-infused world. It even has a similar mixture that you find in shamanism, of tricks and hucksters and spooky things—the uncanny, synchronicities, marvels. If you look at a shaman in a tribe, on some level you might think that he’s just learned a lot of tricks and has the ability to manipulate social reality in order to create certain effects— because he is interested in keeping the tribe going, and healing people. But it’s not like he is actually pulling quartz crystals out of the physical body of a person he is treating, even though it looks like that. It’s a trick, right? Well, in a way, the Spiritualists were full of tricks. The whole dynamic around Spiritualism became focused on whether or not it was true. You would have scientists going in and trying to measure what these mediums were doing. And they were doing really outlandish stuff. They would have instruments playing out of nowhere, for example. Another one of the things that they did was to have these objects coming out of their bodies, similar to the quartz crystals in a shamanic healing situation, except that they would be composed of ectoplasm or threads. When you see photographs of this stuff, most of it looks totally fake. But it is hard to tell. If it was that fake, how could anybody believe it? Clearly tons of people believed it—really smart people believed it. So you start getting close to that weird place where reality seems to have gotten a bit bent, and these occult practices can open up the possibilities of other dimensions—even if we stay in a rational world. Spiritualism was the classic old occult world view returning during an era of electronic technology and machines and science. The rise of science allowed for the discovery of new powers—new hidden waves: radio waves or X-rays. We were moving into a world of invisible media— media that these days we take for granted. But when they were first discovered, there was a kind of magical residue to them, and Spiritualism played with that ambiguity of science and the paranormal. A lot of Spiritualists presented themselves as being scientific, and a lot of scientists were attracted to Spiritualism. It acted as almost a rival to fundamentalist Christianity, but still answered some of the topics that religion deals with, like death, and the horrible fear that you’re never going to speak with your mom again. They had an answer for death, because now you could talk to your dead mom.

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And it continues today—that same sort of… That TV show with that guy, who talks about how he is feeling the presence of dead relatives… Right, Crossing Over. But even more than that. I recently saw a TV news program discussing these mysterious itchy fibers that people claim to have infecting their skin. The mother of a child who supposedly had the problem ended up coining the name “Morgellons disease” for it. Most dermatologists write it off as Delusional Parasitosis—the sort of thing that we might call “crank bugs” when a meth-head has scratched sores into his arms due to the insects crawling under the skin. There’s that great scene at the start of the animated version of A Scanner Darkly, right? But some people who have the problem won’t be so easily placated with the answer, “It’s all in your head.” The TV news story claimed that someone had some of the fibers subjected to analytical testing, and they apparently were not composed of any known physical elements. Could it be a case of technology from another dimension? Whoa! (laughs) Indeed, it is still going on today. Alien implants are another manifestation. Shifting gears, clearly one of the things that strongly impacted California spirituality has been the use of psychedelics. Your book presents photographs of Sasha Shulgin’s lab (shown below and

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on the front and back covers of this issue), and the Fillmore, and Esalen, and Burning Man—which started as a California event—and in various chapters you talk about Ram Dass, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, Alan Watts, and others. It’s no accident that California became ground zero for modern psychedelic culture. Even though individuals were exploring, and scientists were taking things, and little bohemian scenes were growing up around psychedelics in other places early on, it wasn’t really until California in the 1950s that a modern psychedelic culture began forming—one where there was a richness of different kinds of people with different kinds of ideas of how to take these drugs and move forward collaboratively. It makes total sense. It fits in perfectly with California’s profile. One of the things about California spirituality, which I talk about in the book, is that tremendous emphasis is placed on personal experience. Religion is not about a belief structure, following a dogma, mindlessly aping a ritual, it is about having experiences—unusual, powerful, altered experiences—and that these are the source of your insight, of your faith, of your further practice. And that gets emphasized from John Muir to the Zen guys—it’s one of the major themes, and it carries on today in all sorts of ways. Your book mentions the impact that Yosemite had on Fitz Hugh Ludlow.

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Exactly. There’s a visionary quality to that landscape, and there’s a direct consciousness-altering experience that it makes accessible. And that quality can also come through meditation, through dreams, and through psychoactive drugs. So there is already that tendency, and there is a sort of openness to experimentalism and an embrace of novelty. California is a place driven by novelty, in terms of culture, in terms of technological development—a huge amount of technology came out of here. And there’s a relationship between technology and synthetic psychedelics like LSD—there’s a kind of shared spirit of using the technology created by our brains in order to hack material reality, to create little machines or media units that are able to change our perceptions or open up new dimensions. All of these things laid the foundation for the particular histories that happened with Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and the Merry Pranksters, and everything that made psychedelic culture so important. I wanted to show that it didn’t just “happen”—that there were all of these people who were taking a lot of psychedelics and culture moved forward from that point; I wanted to show that the groundwork was already laid—it was already part of the story of the place before Huxley took mescaline in the Hollywood hills. California culture was already in that kind of space, so it made sense that it became so huge here—that the Pranksters happened here, and that the Grateful Dead happened here… My friend Lorenzo Hagerty commented to me last year about the possibility of bringing Myron Stolaroff, who’s 86 years old, and Sasha Shulgin, who’s 81 years old, and Ann Shulgin, who’s 75 years old, out to Burning Man. He wanted to show our elders this incredible visionary landscape that resulted largely as a product of psychedelic thinking, even in an environment where psychedelics have been proscribed and repressed. Wouldn’t it be amazing for these pioneers to see what the kids are doing these days, right? And then, how cool it was that Sasha and Ann actually made it to the playa—and Ann even drove their behemoth rented R.V. all the way from the Bay Area to make the trip! Absolutely. Burning Man, more than any other contemporary phenomenon that I talk about in the book, is the fruition of many of the threads that run throughout the book: the emphasis on personal experience, the emphasis on psychedelic culture, the use of architecture to create enchantment and humor and sacred temple environments, the sort of D.I.Y. quality, the sense that it’s one grand experiment— that spirituality and experimentation actually go hand-inhand. Whereas, with a lot of religions, it is the opposite: spirituality exists only within the realm of old school tradition.




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But in California, our tradition is to pull the rug out from under tradition—which is what people here have been doing for well over a century. Your original impetus for the book was your sense of lack with regard to a personal historical tradition to fall back on and wrestle with. Did completing the book help to fill that void for you? Yes it did, in the sense that history can add density. When you know about a place, when you know about the people who lived there before, about why they came there, even if they are not directly in your life, there’s a kind of extra thickness that the place takes on—even as you experience the place in your normal day-to-day life. When you know more about local history and about how the area developed, this adds a richness to your experiences. So in that way, it helped very much. Now when I go to Burning Man, I can see all of these layers—I can see all of these things that led up to our current time in history. Even though it’s in many ways a frivolous thing, or a goofy thing, or a hacked together thing, it makes more sense to me because I can see where it comes from. It becomes something that has more of a sense of continuity. People have been out here for generations—literally—exploring this edge, trying to find a new way, or an individual way. And because it is always changing, it’s not like you get a tradition that you can follow. But it’s more like there’s a wider circle of peers, and a wider circle of elders, who maybe can’t give the answers exactly that you need, but they can show you how their questions were answered, or the way that their lives developed. So I think that it did help me in that way, and I hope that this comes through in the book. I hope that readers themselves will start to better understand, “Oh, that’s why I like that place.” I studied art in college—that’s what I got my degree in. Once while visiting the New York MOMA with my wife, she had the typical knee-jerk response to some of the art that “our seven year old daughter could do better paintings.” It may only be by knowing why some piece of art made a profound difference in the world, that you gain appreciation for a work that doesn’t speak to you on an aesthetic level. Like you said, such knowledge adds a density to your life’s experiences. Otherwise you’re only skating through life, and the surface level doesn’t provide a lot of satisfaction. Right. Knowing history is good. Buy my book.  The Visionary State: A Journey through California’s Spiritual Landscape can be explored and purchased at www.visionarystate.com. ERIK DAVIS’ web site is www.techgnosis.com.

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JOE

COLEMAN ERIK

DAVIS EARTH

EROWID FIRE

EROWID

mind states

STAN

COSTA RICA

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JOIN US IN BEAUTIFUL COSTA RICA for stimulating lectures and discussions, and marvel at the diversity this country has to offer—from its cloud forest mountain tops, to the warm and sandy ocean settings,

LIZ

MCINTYRE

and everything amazingly green in between. The eco-resort where Mind States Costa Rica will be held blends the vibe of the Chan-Kah hotel in Palenque where the BPC Entheobotany seminars were held, with the architecture of Negril Cabins where the Mind States Jamaica conference was held, and the jungle river pousada environment from the Brazilian

MARK

Ayahuasca Healing Retreats. In short, it is the best of all worlds. The

PESCE

virgin rainforest—set at the juncture of two rivers. Ancient volcanic rocks

resort is located on a 2,000 acre private nature reserve—a sanctuary of provide the foundation for natural waterfalls and pristine pools of water. There is a lake with paddle boats, a swimming pool, hot tub, air-condi-

SASHA

tioned conference room, bar and dancing area, yoga studio, internet

SHULGIN

access, hiking trails, bird/butterfly watching, and botanical gardens. The resort can also arrange zip-line canopy tours, horseback riding, white water rafting trips, and massages in their wellness spa for a nominal extra charge. Price includes admission to lectures and workshops (in-

ANN

SHULGIN

cluding a Holotropic Breathwork® session), one spot in a spacious double occupancy room, and all meals (vegetarian and vegan available). Airfare and transport to the resort is not included. Space is limited— purchase your ticket soon. Cost is $1,400 per person. Send payment to:

MARGARET

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Mind States, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Or purchase tickets on-line with a credit card. For more information, see:

www.mindstates.org

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 4




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Consumer Advocacy, Peer Review, and Fictional Figures in a Journal Article Quantifying Salvia divinorum Products by Jon Hanna The September 2006 issue of Pharmacotherapy [26(9): 1269– 1272] published a paper by William R. Wolowich, Pharm.D., Alisha M. Perkins, M.D., and John J. Cienki, M.D., titled “Analysis of the Psychoactive Terpenoid Salvinorin A Content in Five Salvia divinorum Herbal Products.” The analytical results reported were intriguing. However, an obvious error in the construction of their study caused the researchers to fabricate product claims, and then complain that the products did not live up to these claims! The researchers conclude by warning that the dangers of mislabeled products may “pose a potential risk of both misuse and overdose.” Frankly, I am shocked that a paper that so clearly manufactured the figures it presents, ever made it into publication. The paper begins with a brief, well-informed history of the ethnographic and contemporary use of Salvia divinorum, followed by a description of the plant’s pharmacology. A couple of minor errors are presented: when comparing the potency of salvinorin A to other entheogens, they give the dose of mescaline as “100 mg.” Mescaline doses generally start at two to four times that much. As the source for their dosage information, they strangely cite a paper (Kalant 2001) that primarily deals with the topic of MDMA, and which never mentions any dosage amount for mescaline. Wolowich et al. similarly low-ball the “5 mg” dose they give for psilocybin. Ott describes psilocybin as “psychoptic above 10 mg” (Ott 1996), while the Shulgins list a dose range of “10–20 mg” (Shulgin & Shulgin 1997). Strangely, again, the dose– response study that they cite (Hasler et al. 2004) doesn’t ever describe research done with a “5 mg” dose of psilocybin; rather, it presents a range moving from placebo (0 µg/kg body weight) to “very low dose” (45 µg/kg), “low dose” (115 µg/kg), “medium dose” (215 µg/kg), and “high dose” (315 µg/kg). For a person weighing 70 kilograms (154 pounds), the doses of psilocybin used would have ranged from about 3 mg to about 22 mg. It is impossible to determine how the authors obtained the “100 mg” and “5 mg” doses that they present. And while these dose errors are minor and not particularly relevant to the research being reported on, they are nevertheless the sort of thing that should have been caught in a peer-review process.

Wolowich et al. mention how another research paper described a rat model, used to screen for efficacy of antidepressant drugs, that suggested salvinorin A produced depressant effects. Wolowich et al. then segued this into a mention of “the case of a salvia user who committed suicide,” noting that the “potential for depression caused by salvia consumption must…be considered and needs further investigation.” While it is possible that Salvia divinorum use might contribute to or cause depression (and rats aren’t really talking about it), it seems worth mentioning that humans have anecdotally reported that S. divinorum can have antidepressant effects (Hanes 2001; Hanes 2003; Siebert 2002; Siebert 2007). The stated objective of their study was to “determine the content of the hallucinogen salvinorin A in a variety of Salvia divinorum herbal products and to compare the content with the label claims of potency and purity.” The researchers ran five commercially available products through high performance liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromatography–gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy. Two of the samples were found to be adulterated with vitamin E, and one sample was adulterated with caffeine. And while each of the samples contained salvinorin A, the levels they contained were surprisingly low. The paper claims that: “The purveyors of salvia use nomenclature intended to imply standardization; 1x is the potency of the natural product.” The paper then further cites an Internet users forum claim that 1x is “equivalent to a salvinorin A content of 2.5 mg/g.” And it also cites a salvia users guide explaining that “10x means 10 times the potency of 1x.” Using these figures, the paper’s authors then manufacture a specific amount of salvinorin A that they misleadingly propose should be present in assorted commercial products, either plain dried leaf, or fortified leaf marked 5x, 10x, or 20x. (Fortified leaf products are created by using a solvent to create a liquid extract of the leaf material, then depositing that liquid onto some smaller amount of non-extracted leaf material and allowing it to dry.) The trouble is that the “X” nomenclature used by many purveyors of Salvia divinorum products is not intended to imply

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standardization. Rather, it only claims to present information about how potent the product is relative to the potency of the product’s starting material. The potency of natural products can vary dramatically; in some cases a correctly identified botanical may contain virtually none of the chemical targeted for medicinal or recreational use. This is a well known issue in the herbal medicine industry. The authors of this paper were unquestionably aware of the fact that the salvinorin A content of Salvia divinorum, specifically, can be highly variable. Why? Because the very analytical method that they cited as having used to extract and quantify the salvinorin A from their samples (Gruber et al. 1999) reported finding a salvinorin A content in botanical samples ranging from 0.63 mg/g to 3.70 mg/g—they mention these figures in their own paper. (The low-end figure, which was actually “ FeSO4 (sulfuric acid –> iron sulfate) as per the book Purification of Laboratory Chemicals [ISBN 0-75067571-3] (to remove explosive peroxides) then dried with calcium chloride (CaCl2), which is commonly used to melt sidewalk ice 5) Oil bath to provide uniform heating 6) Hot plate 7) Temperature controller to keep oil at 85º C 8) ~10" fractionating column 9) Distillation head 10) Mercury (Hg) thermometer (0.5 degree C increments) 11) ~50 cm West condenser 12) Ice H2O in to cool #11 above

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13) Receiver flask adaptor for #14 14) Receiver flask 15) 3/8-inch inner diameter tubing from hardware store (1/2-inch outer diameter) 16) Gast® pump 17) Lawn leaf bag taped to Gast pump exit methods We cleaned and dried the starter fluid from four cans; again, see Purification of Laboratory Chemicals for the steps involved. Unfortunately, over 10% of the gross material was lost in the cleaning and drying processes. But these steps are crucial, since ether peroxides are dangerous/explosive. We then put one liter of the cleaned/dried material into the distillation flask. The lawn leaf bag (#2 in diagram) was inflated. Using the Gast pump, we then pumped the inert gas through the system to the second lawn leaf bag, to reduce the presence of oxygen and possible peroxide formation during distillation. (Note: The pump was on for less than a minute.) We then heated the oil to 85º C and collected the fraction coming over at ~32–36º C. (The boiling point of ET2O is 34.5º C.) We marked the 300 ml level on the distillation flask, as we didn’t want to distill further, potentially concentrating possible remaining peroxides and creating an explosion. results & discussion The forerun that came over below 32º C was approximately 80 ml of lord knows what. Then we collected ~325 ml of ET2O coming over at ~32–36º C. We measured ~475 ml of tails. The residue was assumed to be heptane/hexane/whatever. conclusion If you need ET2O, the suggestion on several web sites of shaking starting fluid with distilled H2O ain’t gonna cut it. ET2O obtained from starting fluid really must be distilled. If you look up ET2O + heptane (and hexane) in Hawley’s Condensed Chemical Dictionary, you’ll find that ET2O is slightly soluble in distilled H2O and heptane is insoluble. Hence, if one were to try to clean up starting fluid via repeatedly shaking with distilled H2O and then separating the layers, you not only don’t end up with very good ET2O, but you are actually reducing the amount of ether that you have.




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The “simple separation process” described at various web sites has been used by some people to produce ether which was then directly huffed; see, for example, www.erowid.org/experiences/ exp.php?ID=3015. We are not suggesting that this is a effective or safe approach to take. While the authors of this text clearly had the gear and knowledge required to pull off the process, it would be irresponsible for us not to point out that ether distillation is best left to people who have the appropriate training in the requisite lab procedures. Heck, with the proper training, one could almost as easily make ether from sulfuric acid and ethanol. Back when alcohol was banned in England, exploding ether labs became a problem in Ireland. While it is a fairly low-tech process, it has the potential to be explosive. — EDS.

THANKS FOR THE DMT After the publication of “Extreme Condition Extraction of Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) Root-bark” in the Summer Solstice 2004 issue of The Entheogen Review, I noticed a lot more DMT available on the underground market. When I asked around, a few friends admitted that they had tried the extraction process and had good luck with it. One of them smoked me out last year at Burning Man, while I was already on ketamine. More recently at a gathering of seasoned psychonauts, I again noticed DMT flowing around in beefy quantities. Catching an eyeful of some of the material, it was the cleanest, sparkling white powder I have seen in ages. It has probably been since the mid-1990s that I have seen such pristine material (and that was likely synthetic). Upon inquiring, I discovered that this material had been made using the “DMT for the Masses” tek, published in the last issue of ER. Since several loaded “machine” pipes (described in the Vernal Equinox 2003 issue of ER) were being freely passed around, I decided to have a go. I inhaled a few surprisingly pain-free lungfuls. Now, I had almost given up smoking DMT, due to the abrasive quality it has on my lungs; so I attribute the current difference to both the outstanding material and the method of delivery. After my astonishment wore off, I thought of writing to say thanks for helping the DIY crowd (and friends of the same) to benefit from this once hard-to-find molecule. As Alexander T. Shulgin noted in TIHKAL, “DMT is everywhere,” and it is in part due to the fine work that ER has done over the years. — Spridle, CA

ET2O should be stored in well-sealed brown glass bottles in a cool, dark, dry place, away from pilot lights and other sources of flame. Thank you guys for all of your work and for fighting the good fight. — C. and M., KS THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA




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Events Calendar WESAK MAY 4–6, 2007 Join us at Mount Shasta during the week-long holiday of Wesak—the Buddha’s birthday—for this great festival of the New Age movement. Featuring presentations by Jen Ambrose, Erik Berglund, Joanna Cherry, Diana Cooper, Dawn Fazende, Gentle Thunder, Michael Langevin, Anton Mizerak, Robert Ray, Patricia Resch, Faith Rivera, Craig Russel, Sahadev, Master Zhi Gang Sha, Dyan Stein, Michael Tamura, Terry Cole Whittaker, Aluna Joy Yaxk’in, and Amorah Quan Yin. Tickets are $300. For more info see http://wesak.us.

AYAHUASCA HEALING MAY 14–21, 2007 Join Robert Venosa and Martina Hoffmann and learn how to put your ayahuasca visions on canvas. Participants can partake in three ayahuasca ceremonies in the relaxing environment of Bahia, Brazil. The 1,900 euro cost includes a single space in a double occupancy room, all activities and excursions, workshops, and meals. Airfare not included. For more info see www.ayahuasca-healing.net.

SHESHAMANS MAY 18–20, 2007 Returning to Isis Oasis in Geyserville, CA, SheShamans invites you to come together for a weekend of revelations presented by women psychonauts. Presenters include: Angela Blessing, Linda Rosa Corazon, Valerie Leveroni Corral, Max Dashu, Adele Getty, Lou Montgomery, Micah Nilsson, Cynthia Palmer, Mariela de la Paz, Celestine Star, Suzanne Sterling, Jane Straight, Marilyn Walker, and Patricia Winters. Attendees are also invited to offer presentations as scheduled sessions. Featuring discussions, films, networking, relaxing, viewing visionary art, all-night music on Saturday, performance, fire circles,

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vegetarian food, a swimming pool, spa, a crafts faire, camping, and more. People of all genders are welcome at SheShamans. For more info see www.sheshamans.com.

CONSCIOUSNESS & NATURE SPIRITS MAY 24–31, 2007 JUNE 2–9, 2007 Heart of the Initiate tours to Bahia, Brazil, help people make sacred inner journeys through an intensive workshop experience that incorporates ayahuasca ceremonies. Staff includes Ralph Miller and Warinei Wanare. The 2,000 euro cost includes a single space in a double occupancy room, all meals, three evenings of ayahuasca ceremony plus lectures and sharing sessions, and local transportation. Airfare not included. For more info see www.heartoftheinitiate.com.

TRIP TO DAMANHUR MAY 27–JUNE 2, 2007 Visit one of the wonders of the world with visionary artists Alex and Allyson Grey. The Damanhur community is situated in the Valchiusella Valley in the Alpine foothills of northern Italy. They have been building their Temples of Humankind deep within a mountain for nearly two decades. The Greys have recently published the book, Damanhur: Temples of Humankind (see next page). Join them to walk the valley, discovering its past magical history; hike the ancient Celtic initiation Path of the Souls; and visit the Temples to engage in exercises intended to widen perceptions: sacred dance, inner harmonizing, walking meditation in the stone circuits, and contemplation with the Selfic paintings. Attendees can also participate in art workshops and engage in a full moon Ritual of the Oracle at the Open Temple. $1,722 includes a single space in a double occupancy room, transportation from Turin, and dinners. Airfare not included. For more info see https://www.wisdomuniversity.org/turinitalty-pilgrimage.html.

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Book Review

Damanhur: Temples of Humankind by Esperide Ananas (Silvia Buffagni). Foreword by Alex Grey. Introduction by Rob Calef. Poetry by Oberto Airaudi. Edited by Allyson Grey. 2006 (CoSM Press, 542 W. 27th Street, New York, NY 10001, www.cosm.org), ISBN 1-55643-557-0 [13.75" X 10.75" hardback, $50.00], 121 pages, full-color photographs by Roberto Benzi throughout.

I am building a “tree house” for my daughter, as a present for her forthcoming eighth birthday. (Since there is no actual tree to speak of, the structure will be built on a 12' X 24' platform, raised 6' off the ground.) Of needs, I have been teaching myself basic home construction techniques, while harvesting architectural inspiration from tree house books, Erik Davis’ The Visionary State, and—most recently— Damanhur: Temples of Humankind. A particular twist to tree house construction, which was first suggested to me by my friend Will Beifuss, but then reinforced through reading the Damanhur book, is the inclusion of various secret hiding places. These will be revealed slowly to my daughter, over time, if she doesn’t happen to stumble on them herself in the course of exploring her new nook. The design and construction of physical abodes ties one into a creative energy as old as humanity itself. Located near Turin, Italy, the Federation of Damanhur is a spiritually based intentional community in the “mystery school” vein, where over 800 men, women, and children

focus their existence on the arts, environmental stewardship, and sustainable living. In late summer of 1978, Oberto Airaudi and a group of ten friends first began their work— using only hand tools—digging into the side of a mountain to begin building an amazing collection of sacred spaces: the Temples of Humankind. The work that the early Damanhurians did was kept secret for sixteen years. In 1991, under the ruse of investigating alleged tax evasion, uniformed men with guns and drug-sniffing dogs descended upon the community. The entrance to the Temples remained undiscovered, no charges were ever filed, and no proper explanation for the raid was ever provided. Then again, in 1992, another assault on the community occurred—this time due to an anonymous letter claiming that there were illegally built temples hidden at Damanhur. Armed police threatened to dynamite the mountain if they were not shown the location of the temples. Under such duress, the Damanhurians revealed what they had kept hidden for so long: An hour later, tearful and overcome by the profound beauty of the Temples, the group [of officials] emerged. The prosecutor put his hand on the shoulder of Damanhur’s founding member, Oberto Airaudi, saying simply, ‘We must do something to save the Temples.’ In Italy, there were no laws to govern or protect such an underground structure, erected without planning or permission.

When news got out that existence of the Temples had been confirmed, the Catholic Church immediately demanded that the government destroy them. Legal battles were fought, international support for the Temples was gained, and ultimately the Italian government changed the laws to legalize past and future construction efforts at Damanhur. Although Damanhur: Temples of Humankind contains some history of the community, touching briefly on the spiritual ideas of its members, the book is primarily an exposition of the incredible art and architecture that they have created. Damanhurians use widely diverse media to adorn their subterranean structures—painted murals, mosaic tiling, sculpture, and a myriad of stained glasswork constructed in various styles. Secret doorways and hidden passageways are abundant throughout the Temples, and the walls are covered

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in countless cryptic ideogrammatic messages written in over a dozen ancient texts. The gestalt of their construction is overwhelming—it is amazing that it exists at all, much less that it was created in secret for so long. And according to the Damanhurians, only about ten percent of their planned construction has been completed. An attractive map at the beginning of the book provides a diagrammatic sense of the numerous rooms and chambers, and an excellent job is done throughout the book of explaining the symbolic meanings of the art depicted. One thing that struck me strongly while immersed in this book was the similarity between the art of the Damanhurians and that of other spiritually inspired visionary artists. At times the work presented reflects the styles of Alex and Allyson Grey (it is obvious why they decided to focus on Damanhur for the first book published by their CoSM Press), Martina Hoffmann, Ernst Fuchs, Paul Laffoley, and Andy Lakey. Although psychedelics are not explicitly discussed as having acted as any sort of influencing factor on the Damanhurians, it is clear—even if they played no part in the inspiration of their art—that the artists of Damanhur are entering into and being inspired by similar mental realms. As a collection of images conveying the majesty of this community, this book succeeds in spades. The only area where I was left wanting a bit more was in the presentation of the history and philosophical ideas behind the Damanhur community. A more in-depth investigation on those counts can be found in the book Damanhur: The Story of the Extraordinary Italian Artistic and Spiritual Community by Jeff Merrifield. Readers will appreciate the oversized format of Damanhur: Temples of Humankind, which includes several sections that fold out to reveal even larger panoramic images. The book was designed such that it mirrors the dimensions of Alex Grey’s two coffee-table art books, thusly providing a comfortable indication of where it belongs on the visionary art aficionado’s bookshelf.




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Bibliography Gruber, J.W. et al. 1999. “High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Quantification of Salvinorin A from Tissues of Salvia divinorum Epling and Játiva-M,” Phytochemical Analysis 10(1): 22–25. Hanes, K.R. 2001. “Antidepressant Effects of the Herb Salvia Divinorum: A Case Report,” Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 21: 634–635. Hanes, K.R. 2003. “Salvia divinorum: Clinical and Research Potential,” MAPS Bulletin 13(1): 18–20. Hasler, F. et al. 2004. “Acute Psychological and Physiological Effects of Psilocybin in Healthy Humans: A Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Dose–Effect Study,” Psychopharmacology 172(2): 145–156. Kalant, H. 2001. “The Pharmacology and Toxicology of “Ecstasy” (MDMA) and Related Drugs,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 165(7): 917–928. Ott, J. 1996. Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, their Plant Sources, and History (second edition, densified), Natural Products Co. Shulgin, A. & A. Shulgin 1997. TIHKAL: The Continuation. Transform Press. Siebert, D. 2002. “A Prominent Salvia divinorum Researcher Speaks Out: Letter to Congress.” Posted at www.cognitiveliber ty.org/dr ug_policy/ Daniel_Siebert_salvia_letter.html (accessed 3/23/07). Siebert, D. 2007. “Re: Assembly Bill 259.” Posted at http:// sagewisdom.org/lettertocsa.pdf (accessed 3/23/07).

Exploring this book is a delight, with jewel-like bursts of color surprising the viewer down every passageway and excavated chamber. Like ineffable experiences of the Godhead, so too the impact of the art and architecture that make up the Temples of Humankind can not be adequately expressed in the words of any review. Quite simply, Damanhur: Temples of Humankind belongs in every entheoart lover’s library. — Jon Hanna

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Index Symbols 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 16 2-amino-4-methylhexane 30 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl 125 2,5-dimethoxy-4-chloroamphetamine 33 2C-B 29, 55, 56, 59 2C-C 29, 64 2C-E 29 2C-I 29 2C-T-2 29 2C-T-7 84 3,4-dihydroxyamphetamine 57 3,4-dihydroxymethamphetamine 57 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine 66 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenylacetic acid 75 5-MeO-DMT 95 9/11 109

A A Colores 72 A Modern Herbal 96 “A Question of Balance: Health and Pathology in New Religious Movements” 47 Aardvark, David 29, 41, 63, 87, 95, 96, 98, 99, 122, 137 Aberle 57 Abraham, Ralph 42, 106, 107 absinthe 2, 3, 7 Absinthe-Bar & Bistro 2 Acacia gonoacantha 95 acetylmescaline 58 Acid Gospel Experience, The 73 Acquatica 73 Adderall® 30 addiction 124, 125, 127, 128, 130 addiction treatment 67 addictive 97 aeruginascin 99 Agave 56 Age of Entheogens & The Angels’ Dictionary, The 108 agnostic 79 Agora Scientific Trust 55 aguardiente 18 Airaudi, Oberto 141 Aisner, Rafael 71 Alan 17 Albert Hofmann Foundation 47 Albrecht, Katherine 38




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Alchemical Solutions 122 alchemy 67 alcohol 3, 29, 56, 106, 121, 122, 135 Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau 122 Alcoholics Anonymous 55 alcoholism 125 Alembic 23 120 Alexander, Bruce 35 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 100, 101 Alien 7 aliens 112, 131 alprazolam 59 Altaffer, Paul 30, 40 Altrove 29 amagqirha 93 Amanita muscaria 57, 100, 101, 102, 103, 108 ambíl 27, 28 ambivalence 78 Ambrose, Jen 140 Ambrosia Books 99 American Civil Liberties Union 136 American Journal of Gastroenterology 76 American McGee’s Alice 100 American Medical Association 50 American Psychiatric Association 105 ammonia 92 amnesia 32 Amnesty International 44 AMP 29, 30, 62, 63 amphetamine(s) 30, 106 amphetamines (substituted) 66 Anadenanthera 56, 95 Anadenanthera falcata 95 Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America 95 analgesic 98, 108 Ananas, Esperide 141 anandamide 30 Anarchist’s Cookbook, The 36 Anderson, B. 96, 108 Andrews, Lynn 105 anesthesia 88, 89, 90 Angelica 17, 18, 19, 20 angels 19, 83 Annales de l’Anesthesiologie Française 75 Anonymous 49, 54 antidepressant 108 anxiety 9, 14, 16, 129 anxious 62 aphrodisiac 29, 96 Appendino, G. 93, 108 Apperson, Clyde 9, 10, 12, 16, 40 appetite suppression 62 apports 113 Archives of General Psychiatry 66 Armand, Arman 7

Arnold, Patrick 30, 62 ash 138 Asmodeus 83 Association for Transpersonal Psychology 47 Association, The 86 Astérix 100 astral projection 124 Atari 103 ataxia 126 atheist 79 Atherosperma moschatum 64 Atropa belladonna 31, 32, 63 atropine 32 Awono, Urbain Olanguena 57 ayahuasca 2, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 71, 96, 105, 108, 140 ayahuasca admixture 95 ayahuasca analogues 64 Ayahuasca Healing Retreat 140 ayahuasqueros 22 Ayler, Albert 74

B B. 64 Bach 72 Backster, Cleve 35 Baggott, Matthew 42, 56, 71, 75 Bakalar, James B. 46 baking powder 28 baking soda 28, 138 Ball, Lucille 70 Banisteriopsis caapi 27, 34, 96 Bar Association of King County 63 Barbosa, R.C. 66 Basu, N. 94, 108 BBC News 57, 75 Beauregard, M. 66 Beck, Don 35 Beckley Foundation 106, 107 Beckley Park 106 Beckstrom-Sternberg, S.M. 30, 40 Before I Go, You Should Know 69 Behavioral and Brain Sciences 107 Beifuss, Will 15, 141 Bele-Binda, M.E. 56, 75 Bellingham Farm 96 Benzi, Roberto 141 Beresford, John 41, 49, 52, 55, 98 Berger 98 Berger, Markus 100 Berger, Mirko 100 Berglund, Erik 140 Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft 108 Bestine® 92 beta-carboline 64, 66 beta-phenyl-gamma-aminobutyric acid 30

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betacyanins 96 betaxanthins 96 betel nut 37 Betsa, Kesten 105 Better Days Publishing 108 Beug, M.W. 101, 108 Bicycle Ride, The 36 Bill of Rights 32 bitter orange 30 Bjork 72 Blackmore, Susan 35 Blessing, Angela 140 Bobby 53 Bohm, Sheelo 71 Bolen, Jean Shinoda 35 Bomberman 102, 103 Bonnie 17, 18, 20 Boo Hoo Bible, The 101 Boohoos 101 borneol 30 Botanical.com 96 Bouaravong, N. 57, 75 Braden, Greg 35 Brainstorm: A Psychological Odyssey 47 Brezsny, Rob 109 Brian 17 Bright, Susie 35, 67 Brigstocke, Marcus 100 British Medical Journal 76 Brocklehurst, Carmen 35 Brod, Thomas M. 105 Brokeback 73 Broken Hearted Dragonflies: Insect Electronica from Southeast Asia 74 Brown, B.T. 56, 75 Brown, Luke 71 Brugmansia 56, 63 Buddhist 57 Buddleia officinalis 37 Buffagni, Silvia 141 Buffalo Springfield 86 bufotenine 95 Bulletin of the Department of Medical Sciences 40 Bulletin on Narcotics 60, 76 Bunyapraphatsara 95 Burning Man 4, 13, 14, 15, 16, 50, 65, 71, 72, 73, 74, 114, 115, 133, 139 Bush, George W. 5, 85 BusinessWeek Online 108 Bwiti 124, 125, 127

C C-Realm 133 C. and M., KS 139 C.A.P., MN, prohibition P.O.W. 64 C.G., ID 98 C.R., Federal Correctional Institution, N.J. 32

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cactus 121, 130 caffeic acid 96 caffeine 29, 30, 62, 66, 117, 118 calcium carbonate 138 calcium chloride 138 calcium hydroxide 137, 138 calcium oxide 138 Caldicott, Helen 35 Calea zacatechichi 94, 108 Calef, Rob 141 California 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115 California Institute of Integral Studies 45 California State University, Chico 43 California State University, Hayward 125 Campbell, Don 35 camphene 30 Canadian Medical Association Journal 142 cancer 9, 14, 16, 75, 76 Cannabaceae 60 Cannabis 1, 34, 56, 67, 92, 106, 107, 122, 133 Cannabis sativa 60 Cannabis Seeds (business) 36 Cannabis-like 98 captopril 29 carene 30 Carroll, Jacqui 35 Carroll, Lewis 100, 101 Case, Justin 33, 34, 56, 57, 59, 75 Catharanthus roseus 60 Catuama® 98, 108 Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics 47 Centipede 102, 103 Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns Amerika 75 Cereus grandiflorus 95, 96, 108 Cereus greggii 95 Cereus jacamaru 95 Cereus, “night-blooming” 95 Cereus peruvianus 95 chacapa 20, 22 chacra 19 chacruna 18 Chamberlain, Dean 71 Chandler & Sharp, Publishers, Inc. 75 Channel G 39 Channing, Carol 70 Chaparro, C. 66 Chapel of Sacred Mirrors 6, 71, 105 Charalampous, K.D. 58, 75 Charles C. Thomas 75 chaste tree berries 98 Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin 40

Chemical Psychoses: LSD and Related Drugs 75 Chemical Salvation? 8 “Chemist’s New Product Contains Hidden Substance” 62 Chepa 17, 21, 24, 26 Cherry, Joanna 140 Chick, Jack 8 Chidester, Brett 33 Chief Boo Hoo 101 Chinese Association of Urine Therapy 57 Chocamine™ 29, 30 chocolate 4 Chontal Indians 94 Choochote, W. 31, 40 Chopra, Preet 71 Chow, S.Y. 95, 108 Christianity 110, 113, 134 Chromodoris, Vibrata 71 Chronicle Books 111 Church of Trick 8 CIA 1 Ciba-Geigy 5 Cienki, John J. 117 cinnamic acid ethyl ester 30 cinnaminic aldehyde 30 Cipollina, John 74 Citrus aurantium 30 Clarke, David 35 Cleansing the Doors of Perception 47 Clear Springs™ 122 Clinical Toxicology 66 Clinton, Bill 54 Cloud, Ginger 71 clysma 56 coca 18, 123, 138 cocaine 62, 123, 138 Coe, M.D. 56, 75 coffee 56, 66 Cogswell, John 35 Cohen, Peter 35 Cohl, Émile 105 Cole, K.A. 15 Coleman, Joe 7 Coleus species 60, 94 Colleen 72 “Comments on BBC’s Psychedelic Science” 47 Committee on Unjust Sentencing 55 consciousness 90 Consigli, Angela 8 Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University 95 Cooper, Diana 140 Copelandia cyanescens 83 Corazon, Linda Rosa 35, 67, 69, 140 Corina 17, 20 corn starch 28 Corral, Valerie 35, 67, 68, 70, 140

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Corydalis yanhusuo 37 CoSM Press 141, 142 Council on Spiritual Practices 41, 55 Courtwright, David T. 35 Cousens, Gabriel 35 Cozzi, Nicholas V. 42, 48 cream of tartar 28 Crick, Francis 42 Crossing Over 114 curandera 57, 58 Curtis, Holly 35 cyclohexane diepoxides 30, 40

D D, Kris 71 D.D., CA 132 Damanhur 140, 142 Damanhur: Temples of Humankind 140, 141, 142 Damanhur: The Story of the Extraordinary Italian Artitic and Spiritual Community 142 Darling, Diane 35, 70 Das Nord 76 Dash, G. Walter 49, 51 Dashu, Max 140 Daskalakos, Christos 35 Datura 63 Davies, Jag 71 Davies, John B. 35 Davis, Debra 35 Davis, Erik 13, 15, 71, 109, 115, 141 Davis, Jonathan 7 Day of the Dead 69 De Haro, L. 66 de la Paz, Mariela 140 De Win, M.M.L. 99 DEA 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 40, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, 64, 82, 99 death 56, 67, 68, 69, 75, 127 death and rebirth 124 DeKorne, Jim 36, 96 Delaware Senate Bill 259 33 Delusional Parasitosis 114 demon(s) 127, 128 Department of Justice 55 depression (treatment) 66 Desmanthus 99 DeSmet, P.A.G.M. 56, 75 Detchon, Carla 71 devils 83 diabetic 59 Diamicron® 59 diarrhea 57 Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula 95 Die Grüne Fee (The Green Fairy) 2, 3




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dietary supplement 63 diethyl ether 138 digitalis 49, 96 Dioscorides Press 75, 76, 108 disinhibition 29 distillation 139 diterpene complex 98 diviners, Xhosa 93 dizziness 31 Djerassi, Carl 64 DMT 9, 32, 34, 55, 64, 77, 88, 90, 91, 92, 95, 132, 139 DMT: The Spirit Molecule 80 DNA 125 DOB 65 Doblin, Rick 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 40, 42, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 71 DOC 33, 65, 66 Dog Ear Publishing 15 DOI 29, 65 Dollar Tree 85 DOM 66 Domestic Mail Manual 300 137 Donkey Kong 101 Doors of Perception, The 46 Dopecast 133 Doyle, Brandy 12 Doyle, D. 56, 75 Dr. Wily 87 Dream Signals in Full Circles 72 dreams 94 dreams (bad) 96 dreams (lucid) 71, 93, 124 dreams (prophetic) 93 drug (in reference to set & setting) 77 Drug Classification: Making a Hash of It? 106 Drug Enforcement Administration News Release 40 drug policy 106 Drug Policy Alliance 47, 95 Drug Policy Programme 106 “Drugs that Shape Men’s Minds” 47 DrugSense – Media Awareness Project 47 Duke 18, 19, 22, 24 Duke, J.A. 30, 40 Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases 95 DynCorp 18

E Earleywine, Mitch 46 Ebers Papyrus 56 Economic Botany 108 Ecstasy (see MDMA) 16, 66, 99, 106, 142 Ecstasy/MDMA Facts 75

“Ecstasy: In and About Altered States” 105 edema 49 Educating Voices, Inc. 75 EEG 46, 94 Effective Drug Control: Toward A New Legal Framework 64 Eisel, J.W. 56, 75 Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The 47 Eleusis: Journal of Psychoactive Plants and Compounds 108 Emboden, W.A. 101, 108 emetic 93 empathogenic 30 Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants 64 enema 56, 57, 59, 75, 76 Entheogen Review, The 75, 119 Entheogene Blätter 103 Entheogens and the Future of Religion 46, 55 “Entheogens: Sacramentals or Sacrilege?” 47 EntheoMedia 99 Entheon Village 71 entheopodcasts 132 Entheos: The Journal of Psychedelic Spirituality 99 Ephedra 30 ephedrine 30, 63 Epiphyllum ackermannii 96 Epiphyllum angulifer 96 Epiphyllum oxypetalum 95, 96, 108 Epiphyllum phyllanthus 96 Epiphyllum truncatum 96 Ergopharm 29, 30, 62, 63 ergot 8 Ernst, E. 56, 75 Erowid 44, 47, 69, 71, 76, 94, 99, 125 Erowid, Earth 3, 15, 60, 71, 99 Erowid Extracts 99 Erowid, Fire 3, 71 Erythroxylum catuaba 123 Erythroxylum coca 123 Esalen 114 Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs, The 14 EST 111 ethanol 34, 120, 122, 139 ether 139 Ethnobiology, Cost Rica 108 Ethnobotany: Evolution of a Discipline 75 Ethnogarden Botanicals 65 ethyl cinnamate 31, 40 ethyl-p-methoxycinnamate 30 Etnologiska Studier 76 Euphorbiaceae 123 euphoria 31, 33, 62, 98 European Journal of Pharmacology 66, 108 Everclear™ 122

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Evergreen State College, The 108 Everyone Alive Wants Answers 72 EVI 56, 75 expansive feeling 98 Expressindia.com 57, 75 extraction, kitchen 120

F Fadiman, James 71 Faila, Santha 35 FAMM 95 Fantasmagorie 105 fatigue 57 Fazende, Dawn 140 FDA 61, 63 Feilding, Amanda 71, 107 Felix the Cat 105 Fenwick, Peter 107 fever 57 Feynman, Richard 42 Ficca, Billy 74 Field Recordings from the Cook County Water Table 73 Fillmore, The 114 Final Passages 69 Fish, M.S. 95 Fitzcarraldo 18 Florida International University 43 fly agaric 101, 103, 108 fMRI 46 Food For Other Fish 74 Fork! 95, 99 Forman, Robert 1, 9, 36, 49, 99 Forte, Robert 42, 46, 48, 50 Fox sisters 113 foxglove 49, 96 Francis M. Nauman Gallery 99 Franklin, Marc 42, 48 Frecska, Ede 35 Freud 77 “From Eleusis to PET Scans: the Mysteries of Psychedelics” 47 Fry, S. 10 Fuchs, Ernst 7, 142 Funeral Consumers Alliance 69 Furst, P.T. 56, 75 Futurehealth Winter Brain, Optimal Functioning & Positive Psychology and StoryCon 105

G G.A.R., SC 96 G.T., Italy 93 Gabriel, Peter 73 Gaia Media Foundation 8 Galloway, G. 56, 75 gamma hydroxybutyrate (see GHB) 29 Gamma-OH (see GHB) 29, 97

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Garcia, J 71 Gasser, Michael 8 Gast® pump 139 Gelb, Michael 35 Genero Herrera 19 Geranamine™ 29, 30 geranium oil 29, 30, 62 Getty, Adele 35, 67, 140 Ghannadi, A. 98, 108 GHB 29, 97, 98 GHB-like 30 Giger Bar 7 Giger, H.R. 6, 7 Giger Museum 6 Gilmore, John 71 ginger 30 Ginsberg, Allen 114 Gips, Elizabeth 68 gnome/troll 31 God 79, 125, 127, 129, 132 Golden Morning Breaks, The 72 Goldman, Jonathan 35 Goldsmith, Neal M. 42, 48 Goldsmiths College, London University 107 Good Friday Experiment 41 Goodwin, Paul 42, 43, 48 Google 63 Gorman, Jack M. 14 Gorman, Peter 17, 35 Gottlieb, Adam 30, 57, 75 Gouin, Jim 71 Gould, Stephen Jay 42 gout 57 Graboi, Nina 68 Grateful Dead 8, 53, 72, 110, 115 Gray, Kathelin 35 Greatest Benefit to Mankind, The 75 Green, M.R. 56, 76 Green, S. 56, 75 Greene, Loring Bard 32 Greenpeace 44 Greer, George 71 Grey, Alex 6, 71, 140, 141, 142 Grey, Allyson 6, 71, 140, 141, 142 Grey, Jeffrey 107 Grieve, M. 96 Griffin, David Ray 35 Griffiths, Roland R. 41 Grinspoon, Lester 46 Grob, Charles S. 8, 47, 49 Grof, Christina 71 Grof, Stanislav 5, 45, 46, 71 Grof Transpersonal Training, Inc. 47 Grove, Bertha 24 Gruber, John W. 118, 142 Grue, Karen Helle 35 guarana 30 Guillot, Casey 42, 48

gumbo “file” 64

H H.D.V., Germany 63 Hagenbach, Dieter 2, 8, 12 Hagerty, Lorenzo 115 Hale, Susan 35 hallucinations 96 Hallucinogens and Culture 75 Halpern, John 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 40, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55 Halperngate 8, 9, 41, 49, 51, 52, 55, 98 Halperngate II 49, 98 Hancock, Graham 35 Hanes, K.R. 117, 142 Hanna, Blake 15 Hanna, Jon 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 38, 42, 46, 48, 49, 51, 52, 67, 71, 81, 105, 106, 109, 117, 142 Hanna-Barbera 100 Haraguchi, M. 66 Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 76 Hardison, Casey 49, 55 Hari Krishna 111 harm reduction 81 harmaline 95 harman 66 Harner, Michael 132 Harrison, Kathleen 35, 67, 71 Hart, Dawn 35 Harvard 1, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 42, 43, 44, 50 Hasler, F. 117, 142 Hawkes, Joyce 35 Hawley’s Condensed Chemical Dictionary 139 Hayes, Charles 46, 71 Hazenkamp, A. 99 headache, cluster 9, 14, 16, 66 Headquarters, Department of the Army 76 Healing Forest, The 76, 108 Heart of the Initiate 140 Heffter, A. 96, 108 Heffter Research Institute 41, 45, 47 Heinrich, Clark 35 Hellmuth, N.M. 56 Helmsley, Leona 54 Henson, Mark 71 heptane 92, 139 Herb Pharm 98 Herbal-Shaman 135, 136 Hernan 19 heroin 125 Herraiz, T. 66 Heskin, David 71 hexane 139

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Higdon, Carla Annette (1963–2006) 39 Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics 47 Hirst, Manton 93, 94, 108 Hobbs, Christopher 71 Hoffmann, Martina 71, 140, 142 Hofmann, Albert 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 30, 36, 46, 49, 81 Hogshire, Jim 36 Hollister, L.E. 58, 75 Holmes, Jordan 42 Holotropic Breathwork™ 42, 71 homeopathic drug 61 Homo erectus 126 Homo sapiens 126 Hoppal, Mihály 35 Horowitz, Michael 8 House of Commons Science and Technology Committee 106 Hsin Hsin Ming 134 huachuma 58 Huichol 56, 130 Huntington Botanical Gardens 65 Huson, Paul 96 Huxley, Aldous 46, 47, 115 Hylocereus undatus 95 hyperthermia 66 hypnagogic imagery 94 hypothermia 29 hystrix lactone 65

I I, Robot 7 Ibanez guitars 7 iboga 125, 127, 128 Iboga Therapy House 124, 125, 127, 128 ibogaine 124, 125, 127, 128, 130 Ibogaine Dossier 125 icaros 105 ichthyoallyeinotoxism 66 identity 90 If I Could See Dallas 73 Ilex guayusa 56, 76 Incident At Cima 73 Independent Project Records 73 Indra extract (Tabernanthe iboga) 127 industrial noise 72 Ingerman, Sandra 105 Inocybe aeruginascens 99 insomnia 31 Institute of Transpersonal Psychology 45, 71 Integratron 112, 113 International Conference on Shamanism 105




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International Drug Policy Consortium 106 International Network for Drug Policy Analysis 106 Ipomoea carnea 66 Ipomoea riedelii 66 Ipomoea sericophylla 66 Iraq 136 iron sulfate 138 Ish 134 Isha 134 Isis Oasis 35, 67, 140 Islam 134 Issa 127 Issues: Berkeley Medical Journal 75 Italo 24, 26 itch 57 It’s All Around You 73

J J. R. Coll. Physicians Edinb. 75 J.S., OR 64, 95, 99 Jake 18, 19, 21, 22, 24 Janikiewicz, Stefan 35 Jansen, Karl 47 Japancakes 73 Jazz Jackrabbit 102 Jensen, N. 99 Jerome, Ilsa 42, 48 Jesus 53 Jonny 17, 22 Jorge 69 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 66 Journal of Archaeological Science 66 Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology 75 Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 142 Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design 99 Journal of Ethnopharmacology 40, 75, 108 Journal of Guizhou Institute of Technology 62 Journal of Medicinal Food 108 Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 76 Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 99 Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 76 Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 66, 75 Journal of Psychopharmacology 99 Journal of the American Medical Association 75 Journal of the Formosan Medical Association 108 Journal Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 75 Juan 20 Judaism 109, 134

Julio 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26 jurema 98 Juul, Tom 133

K kaballah 109 Kaehr, Shelley 35 Kæmpferia galanga 30, 31, 40 Kæmpferia rotunda 30, 40 kaempferol 96 Kalant, H. 117, 142 Kamei, J. 98, 108 Kampia, Rob 71 Kanjanapothi, D. 31, 40 kappa-opioid agonist 98, 99 Karen 130 Kariri-shocó 98 Karpetas, Sandra 67, 71, 125 Katehakis, Alexandra 35 Kelly, Bill 54, 99 Kerry, John 85 Kesey, Ken 47, 114 ketamine 56, 59, 66, 88, 98, 139 ketamine-like 98 Kimball, Gayle 35 KinderCore Records 73 Kinderlehrer, Daniel 35 Kirby 102, 103 Kistone Press; The Twentieth Century Alchemist 75 Kleps, Arthur 101 Knab 56 Knight, J.Z. 35 Korn 7 Korotkov, Konstantin 35 Koyama, Emi 4 kratom 38, 98 Kravetz, R.E. 56, 76 Krippner, Stanley 45, 71 Kumar, Sameet 42, 48 Kushlick, Danny 35 Kuykendal, Jill 105

L La Barre, W. 76 Lactuca virosa 37 Lad, Vasant 35 Laffoley, Paul 142 Lagochilus inebrians 60 Lakey, Andy 142 Lancet 76 Langevin, Michael 140 Lanterna / Lanterna 73 Larry 17, 18 Laurelia novae-zelandiae 37 Leaf Label, The 72 Leaf, Seabrook 71 Leary, Timothy 14, 42, 50, 115 Led Zeppelin IV 109

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Legal Highs 30 Leighton, Tim 35 Lemaireocereus 65 Lemaireocereus hystrix 64 Lemmens 95 Lennon, John 135 Leonitis leonurus 37 Leuenberger, Moritz 5 Life Sciences 66 Liggenstorfer, Roger 2, 3 lily, water 56 lime 137, 138 lime (citrus) 138 Lincoff, Gary 71, 101, 108 Lindgren, J.-E. 95, 108 List 1 64 LLoydia 108 Long, Stephen 36 Looks at the Bird 73 Loompanics Unlimited 36 Lophophora 38 Lophophora williamsii 56 Love (as slang for MDA) 66 Lovett, Christopher D. 42, 48 LSD 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 29, 32, 33, 40, 42, 49, 50, 51, 54, 55, 59, 65, 66, 81, 82, 86, 101, 106, 115 LSD Psychotherapy 46 LSD-like 33 LSD: My Problem Child 46 Ludlow, Fitz Hugh 114 Luna, Luis Eduardo 35 Lydia 17, 24 lye 91, 137 Lynn 17 Lysergic 15

M MacCombie, Dan 71 MacKinnon, Gillies 35 Macmillan Publishing Co. 108 macroscopia 101 Madeleina 17, 21, 24, 26 madness (cure for) 93 madness (treatment) 96 Madonna 1 Magical & Ritual Use of Herbs, The 30 magical foods 100 magnesium 30 Maiangowi, Jane 59 Man Who Tells Me Things 21, 24 Mano, H. 120 mapacho 18, 20 MAPS (see Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 39, 44, 49, 71, 95 MAPS Bulletin 46, 142

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maraba 30, 31 Marco 17, 24, 26 Margolin, K.A. 56, 76 marijuana, medical 67 Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts 47 Marijuana Policy Project 44, 95 Mario 101, 102, 108 Martin, Leah 124 Martine, Tucker 74 Mason, Alan 35 Mastering Herbalism 96 matrine 98 Matrix, The 7 Maudsley Hospital 107 Mauricio 19, 20 Maya 56, 75 Mayagoitia, L. 94, 108 McBryde, B. 56, 76 McCartney, Paul 86 McCloud, Mark 9, 11, 12, 15, 49, 52, 53 McIntyre, Liz 38 McKenna, Dennis 35, 44, 113 McKenna, Terence 90, 106, 109, 113, 133 McLean Hospital (Harvard) 9, 14, 16, 42 McNamara, R. 66 MDA 57, 66 MDMA (see Ecstasy) 9, 12, 14, 16, 29, 30, 32, 49, 50, 54, 56, 57, 59, 66, 81, 82, 99, 106, 117, 142 Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West 27 meditation 42 Mehl-Madrona, Lewis 105 Meier, B. 108 Melandrium undulatum 93 memory 88, 89, 90, 129 Menzies, J.R.W. 98, 108 Merkur, Dan 42, 48 Mermen, The 74 Merrifield, Jeff 142 Merry Pranksters, The 115 Mesa/Blue Moon 74 mescaline 33, 56, 57, 58, 59, 75, 76, 117, 120, 121, 122 Messmer, Otto 105 methadone 125, 127 methamphetamine 56, 59, 76 methyl-p-cumaric acid 30 methylhexaneamine 62, 63 Metzner, Ralph 45 Microgram Bulletin 64 microscopia 101 Miguez, Joe 35 Miller, Ralph 140 Miller, Richard Alan 30 Miller, Zachary James 35

Millions Now Living Will Never Die 73 Millman, Dan 35 Mimosa hostilis 44, 60, 91, 98, 139 Mimosa scabrella 64 Mimosa tenuiflora 44, 60, 91, 139 Mimosa verrucosa 98 Mimosame, Solkin 128 Mind States 8, 39, 43, 133 Minerva Medica 108 minocycline 66 MIT Faculty Club 10 Mithoefer, Michael 71 Mitragyna javanica 37 Mitragyna parvifolia 37 Mitragyna speciosa 37 Mitragyna stipulosa 37 Miyamoto, Shigeru 101, 108 Mizerak, Anton 140 MOCA 105 Mojeiko, Valerie 71 Mokkhasmit, M. 31, 40 Mokrasch, L.C. 58, 76 MOMA 115 monoamine oxidase inhibitor 31, 40, 44, 66, 95 Montgomery, Lou 35, 67, 70, 140 Moore, Henry 44 Moore, Michael 27 Moraceae 60 Morgan, John 47 Morgellons disease 114 morning glories 61 morphine 59 Morricone, Ennio 73 Moscher, Richi 97 Moss, Richard 35 Moss, Robert 105 mu-opioid agonist 98 Muir, John 114 Mukhomor 76 mulberry family 60 mullein 34 Müller-Ebling, Claudia 5 Mullis, Kary 42 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (see MAPS) 9, 41, 44, 47, 125 Murray, Yaqub P. 35 Museum of Cultures 5 mushrooms 32 mushrooms, psilocybin-containing 29 myocardium 49 Myristica fragrans 60

N N.B., NY 132 Nachtschatten Verlag 2, 3 Nadelmann, Ethan 71 Naidoo, Marian 35

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naltrexone 66 naptha 91, 92 narcissism 78, 79 Narcotic Plants 108 Narcotics Anonymous 125 Narcotics Digest Weekly 64 NASA 17 National Drug Intelligence Center 64 National Institute on Drug Abuse 12, 16, 41 Native American Church 9, 16 Natural History 75 Natural Products Co. 142 Natural Rights and Amesty Act 32 nausea 57 NBC 107 near-death 80 Neidpath, Amanda 106 Nemo 37 Nemo’s Utopia 37 Neo-American Church 101 Nepeta cataria 60 Neurology 66 Neuropharmacology 66 neuropharmacology 45 Neuropsychopharmacology 99 Neuroscience Letters 66 neurotoxicity 66 NeverEnding Story, The 129 New Age 110, 140 Nex, Eric 71 Nichols, David E. 10, 40, 47 Nicotiana tabacum 27 nicotine 28 Nigella sativa 98, 108 NightMare, M. Macha 67, 70 Nilsson, Micah 67, 126, 140 Nintendo 102, 108 Noah Juan Juneau 135 Noman 91 Nora Lyon & Associates, Inc. 10, 12, 40 Norberg, Sheldon 71 norharman 66 Normal, David 36, 83 NORML 95 Noro, T. 31, 40 Northern Illinois University 43 norweberine 58 Novartis 5 Nuclear Egg, The 44 Nunes, Domingos Sávio 95 nuns 66 Nursing Times 76 Nuteanu, Liviu 35 nutmeg 60




WINTER SOLSTICE 2006

O Obélix 100 O’Connell, P. 101, 108 Ocotea cymbarum 64 Ocotea pretiosa 64 O’Dea, James 35 Oldfield, Mike 72 “On the Crest of a Wave: A Brief Review of the BBC’s Horizon Special Psychedelic Experience” 47 oneirogen 93, 108 Onnie-Hay, Julia 42, 48, 67, 71 Onyemaechi, Onye 35 opiate 125, 127 opioid 29, 108 opioid withdrawal syndrome 66 opioid/dopamine activity 98 Opium for the Masses 36 Oracle at Erowid 71 Oracular Madness 71 orchid cactus 95 Orford, Jim 35 Organization for Tropical Study Abroad Program 108 Othman, R. 31, 40 Ott, Jonathan 47, 66, 93, 94, 95, 108, 117, 142 out-of-body experience 124 over-determined 77 overdose 97

P P.H., NM 27, 137 Pac-Man 100, 101 Pachano, Mambo 120 Pachycereus weberii 58 Pagan Book of Living and Dying, The 70 paganism 67 Page, Christine 35 Page, Justin 37 Pahnke, Walter 41 pain 57 Palenque Norte 71, 133 Palmer, Cynthia 35, 67, 70, 140 Pancharoen, O. 31, 40 Pappa 28 Paquette, V. 66 Paracelsus 6 parallel dimension 88 Paramount Pictures 100 paranormal 113 Park Street Press 80 Pasquotank Correction Institution 53 past-life 80 Pat 24 Paullinia cupana 30, 98 Pawlett, Jason 124

Peden, Erik M. 42, 48 Pedicularis species 27 Pedro 20, 26 Peele, Stanton 35 Peganum harmala 87, 95 Pellerin, Cheryl 47 Pendell, Dale 47, 71, 98, 118 Peniocereus greggii 95 Peniocereus johnstonii 95 Peniocereus marianus 95 pentadencane 30 Perkins, Alisha M. 117 Pernot 3 pessary 56, 59 Peyo 100 peyote 9, 16, 56, 57, 66, 130 Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti 57, 75 Peyote Way Church 70 peyotl 76 Phalaris 44 Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, their Plant Sources and History 47, 95, 108, 142 Pharmacotherapy 117 Pharmako/Dynamis 47 Pharmako/Gnosis 47, 98 Pharmako/Poeia 47, 118 Pharos Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society 76 phenethylamine(s) 29, 30, 32, 66 Phenibut 30 phenylalanine 30 phosphenes 94 physics, quantum 107 Phytochemical Analysis 142 Phytochemical Database 40 Phytochemistry 40, 108 Phytoextractum 37 Phytomedicine 108 Phytotherapy Research 108 Pickard, William Leonard 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 40, 50, 51, 52 Picralima nitida 37, 98, 108 PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story 33, 47, 64 Pinchbeck, Daniel 71, 125 Pink Floyd 8, 72, 73, 74 Pinkley, H.V. 95, 108 Piper auritum 64 Piper hispidinervum 64 Piptadenia communis 95 Piptadenia gonoacantha 95 Piranha Plant 102 placebo 27, 117 Planta Medica 40, 99 plantanos 20 Plants of the Gods 30 Plot55.com 37 poisonous 123

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Poisonous and Hallucinogenic Mushrooms 108 Pollux, Castor 72 Pommier, P. 66 poppy pods 98 Porter, R. 56, 75 Porter, Sharon 35 pot 84, 85, 136 Pot-TV 47 Powell, Simon G. 47 Princess Peach 101 Princess Toadstool 101 Proposition 215 (California) 67 PROSEA: Plant Resources of South-East Asia 95 Pryor, William 35 Psilocybe(s) 38, 57, 100, 103 Psilocybe azureszens 101 Psilocybe semilanceata 101 psilocybin 3, 9, 14, 16, 41, 43, 66, 117, 125, 142 psilocybin analogue 99 Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered 46 Psychedelic Library 47 Psychedelic Salon 133 Psychedelic Shamanism 36 Psychedelic Sixties: Literary Tradition & Social Change 47 Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion 47 psychoanalytic 77 psychology 45 Psychonaut.com 37 Psychonauts 103 Psychopharmacologia 75 Psychopharmacology 41, 99, 142 psychotherapy 77 Psychotropin™ 30 Ptychopetalum olacoides 98 puffballs 102 Purification of Laboratory Chemicals 138, 139

Q quicklime 138 Quicksilver 74

R

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Rauner, Michael 109, 111 Rawlinson, Andrew 35 Ray, Robert 140 Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc 103 Rayner, Alan 35 Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research 46 Reay, D.T. 56, 75 recrystallization 92 Reed, A. 56, 76 Reid, John 35 Reis Altschul, Siri von 95 religion 109, 134 Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy 47 remote viewing 71 Reneman, L. 99 REO Speedwagon 129 Repke, David 95 Resch, Patricia 140 Resident, USA 136 Rev. MeO 30, 40 RFI Ingredients 30 Rifat, Claude 29 Riffe, Jed 67 Rimell, Bruce 88 rite-of-passage ceremonies 124 Ritual Enemas and Snuffs in the Americas 75 Rivera, Faith 140 Rivier, L. 56, 95, 108 Roberts, Thomas B. 42, 43, 46, 47, 48 Robiola, P.F. 96, 108 Rodriguez, Rakefet 71 Roiser, J.P. 99 Rolling Stone 15, 73 Roquet, Salvador 69 Rosenbaum, Marsha 71 Rosenfeld, S. 10, 15, 40 Rosetta 99 Rowan, Ashley 35 Rowan, Lydia 35 Ruderman, Michael Allan 42, 48 Rufra, Joseph “Stoney” 49, 52, 53 Russel, Craig 140 Russell, Peter 35 RykoDisc 74

S

R., Serbia 59 R.D., MO 99 radio frequency identification 38 Raffauf, R.F. 56, 76, 95, 96, 108 ragas 72 Ralston, Amy 49, 54, 55 Ram Dass 68, 114 Ramon 69 raspberry leaf 34 Rastogi, R.P. 94, 108 Rätsch, Christian 2, 5, 64

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S.A., RI 95 S.A.D., CA 127 Sachs, Kevin 42, 48 sacrament 134 Sacred Cacti: Botany, Chemistry, Cultivation & Utilization 108 Sacred Elixirs 133 Sacred Mirrors 71 saddle stones (mushroom stones) 96 sadism 78

safrole 64 Sagan, Carl 42 Sahadev 140 Salvia divinorum 2, 33, 37, 38, 60, 61, 71, 92, 117, 118, 119, 133, 142 Salvia Divinorum Observer, The 33 Salvia miltiorrhiza 37 Salvia Zone 38 salvinorin A 38, 88, 89, 90, 99, 117, 118, 119, 142 Salvinorin: The Psychedelic Essence of Salvia Divinorum 36, 88 Salzman, E. 57, 76 San Francisco Chronicle 15, 40 San Pedro 57, 96 Sanctuary 13, 16 Sand, Nick 71 Sandoz 5 Sandoz LSD 8 Sandoz LSD and Psilocybin Archives 3 Sandy 54, 55 Santa Claus 129 Sapien, Robert 35 sassafras 64 Satan 80 Satya-Murti, S. 56, 76 Savinelli, Alfred 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 40 Saybrook Institute 45 Scanner Darkly, A 114 Scenic 73 Schaefer, Stacy B. 43 schtroumpfs, les 100 Schultes, Richard Evans 30, 56, 60, 75, 76, 95, 96, 108 Schwartz, Gary 107 Sciarnè, Andrea (Italy) 29 Scientologists 8 scopolamine 32, 56 Scopolia 63 Scott 59, 76 Scribe 59, 76 Scully, Nicki 105 Secret Chief, The 47 Seeking the Magic Mushroom 47 Sega 102 Selenicereus grandiflorus 95, 96 Seng-ts’an 134 serotonergic loss 66 serotonin transporter gene polymorphism 99 Serro, João 4, 8 set 77 setting 77 Sewell, Andrew 16, 41, 42, 48, 49, 66, 71, 77, 80 sexuality 67 Sha, Master Zhi Gang 140 shaman 18, 56, 59, 132 Shaman-Australis.com 96

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VOLUME XV, NUMBER 4

Shamanic Extracts 122 Shamanic Snuffs and Entheogenic Errhines 95 shamanism 67 Shaman’s Drum 76 Shapiro, Harry 35 Sharanahua 96 Sheldrake, Rupert 106, 107 Shepard, Jesse 113 SheShamans 35, 67, 68, 70, 140 Shipley, Amy 62, 63 Shuar 56, 59 Shulgin, Alexander T. “Sasha” 5, 10, 12, 45, 47, 58, 71, 76, 96, 108, 114, 115, 117, 133, 139, 142 Shulgin, Ann 47, 71, 115, 117, 142 Shulgin scale 57 Siebert, Daniel 117, 142 Sikora 56 Silene capensis 71, 93, 94, 108 Silene undulata 93 Silva, Freddy 35 Simmerman, Tim 35 Singh, N. 99 Sister Sara Tonin of the Perpetual Cosmic Disorder 8 sitter 131, 132 Skinner, Gordon Todd 10, 40, 51, 82 slaked lime 138 sleeping pills 69 Sleepy Strange, The 73 Smith, Huston 47 Smith, Libby 35 Smurfs, The 100 snitch 50, 51, 53, 54 Snow, Otto 97 snuffs 75 Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts 43 sodium aluminum sulfate 28 sodium bicarbonate 27 sodium carbonate 137 sodium hydroxide 91, 137 Soma 57 Soma: The Divine Mushroom of Immortality 76 Sonic the Hedgehog 102 Sonic Youth 74 Sophora subprostrata 37, 98 soul 127, 130 Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 40 spearmint 34 Spears, Britney 1 speed 87 Speedy Gonzales 103 Spine and Sensory 72 Spiritgarden Ethnobotanicals 38 Spiritual Traditions and Communities 47




WINTER SOLSTICE 2006

spiritual training 77, 80 Spiritualism 113 spirituality 67 spore print 97 Spridle, CA 139 Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID 38 Stachys betonica 27 standardization 117, 118 Stanford, Leland 113 Stanford, Thomas Welton 113 Stanford University 113 Star, Celestine 140 Star Trek 7 Starhawk 70 Starr, Kevin 111 starter fluid 138 Stein, Dyan 140 Stenocereus hystrix 64, 65 Stereolab 73 Sterling, Eric E. 55 Sterling, Suzanne 140 steroid 62 Stevens, Jay 47 Stevenson, I. 58, 76 Stewart 57 stimulant(s) 30, 62, 96 Stimulant X 30 stimulation 28, 31, 98 Stolaroff, Myron 47, 115 Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream 47 Strahlenberg, P.J. von 76 Straight, Jane 35, 67, 70, 140 Strassman, Rick 9, 77, 131, 132 Stropharia species 60 Stuart, R. 56, 57 Students for a Free Tibet 44 Students for Sensible Drug Policy 44 Sublime Frequencies 74 Sudberg, Elan M. 119 Sudberg, Sidney 119 sulfuric acid 138, 139 Super Mario 101, 102 Super Smash Bros. Brawl 102 Super Troll Islands 102, 103 Supriano, Sue 9, 36, 49 Survival: Department of the Army Field Manual FM-21-76 76 Swatch 7 Swierkosz, Maboud 35 Swierkosz, Tara Andrea 35 Swiss Federal Council 5 Synadenium grantii 123 synephrine 30

T Tabernaemontana pachysiphon 37 Tabernanthe iboga 124, 125 Tamblyn, Greg 35 Tamura, Michael 140 Targ, Russel 35 Tarnas, Richard 45 Tart, Charles 71 Taylor, Amanda 35 Taylor, Scott 35 Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information 109 Television 74 Telluride Mushroom Festival 71 Temple, Julien 35 Terry, M. 66 tetrahydrocannabinol 99 thanatology 67 Thanatos to Eros 47 THC 122 “The Plant Kingdom and Hallucinogens, Parts I—III” 60 Theobroma cacao 29, 30 theobromine 30 theophylline 30 therapeutic 130 thermogenic 30 THIQ/PEA Appendix 12/26/95— Cactus Species Tabulation 108 Third International Medicinal Mushroom Conference 108 Thomas, Benjamin 31 Thompson, Carey 71 Thompson, Jeffrey 35 Thoth Press 97 Thrill Jockey 73, 74 Thunder, Gentle 140 thymoquinone 98 Thyssen, Sylvia 7, 46, 69 TigerStyle Records 72 TIHKAL: The Continuation 47, 139, 142 Tiller, William 35 Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In 46 TNT 73 Toad 101 Toadett 101 tobacco 27, 34, 56, 59, 75, 76, 106 Tobacco and Shamanism in South America 27, 76 Too Much: First-aid for Drug Poisonings 97 Topeka Capital-Journal 15, 40 Torelli-Delgado, K. 58, 76 Torres, Manolo 43, 95 Tortoise 73 Toward a Science of Consciousness 43 Toxicon 66 trance 72

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Transform Press 142 Traveller’s Garden 38 Travis, J. 9, 40 tree people 31, 32 Trenary, Klaus 57, 76, 136 “Trialogues on Consciousness” 106 Trichilia catigua 98 Trichocereus species 38, 56, 57, 58, 59, 120, 121, 122 Trichocereus cuzcoensis 38, 65, 122 Trichocereus cv Juul’s Giant 133 Trichocereus macrogonus 57 T. macrogonus strain RS0004 58 Trichocereus pachanoi 60, 96 Trichocereus peruvianus 37, 59, 65, 84 Trichocereus terscheckii 58 Trichocereus werdermannianus 58 Tripping: An Anthology of True-Life Psychedelic Adventures 46 Trips: How Hallucinogens Work in Your Brain 47 Tristeza 72 triterpene lactone 65 Trout, Keeper 28, 29, 65, 96, 108, 123, 133, 138 True Hallucinations 113 tryptamine(s) 29, 32, 34, 56 tryptophan 30 Turner, D.M. 36, 88 tyramine 30 tyrosine 30

U ubulawu 93 UFO 112 unconscious 77 Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence 46 undlela ziimhlophe 93 Unhooked Thinking 35 United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention 76 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 60, 106 United States Army 57, 76 United States Federal Analogue Act 60 United States Postal Service 135, 136, 137 University of Arizona 107 University of Chicago Psychedelic Education Society 44 University of New Mexico 9, 80 University of Rhodes 94 urea (uric acid) 57 urine 56, 57, 58, 59, 75

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V Valenzuela, Maria Teresa 105 Valium 27 van Tassell, George 112 van Veen, Tobias C. 42 vaporizer 107 vaso-relaxant 31 Vaughan, Frances 47, 71 Velleman, Richard 35 Velmans, Max 107 Venosa, Robert 71, 140 Verlaine, Tom 74 Vernon, Oliver 71 Vespertine 72 video games 100 Villagrana, Roman 71 Vinca rosea 60 vinegar 91 Virola sebifera 96 virotes 22 vision (blurred) 63 Visionary Cactus Guide 76 Visionary State, The 109, 111, 115, 141 vitamin E 117, 118 Vitex agnus-castus 37, 98, 108 Voacanga africana 37 Vogel, Karen 67 Vohryzek, Malakkar 49, 50, 51 Volcano® 99 Volkow, Nora 41 Von Reis, S. 75 von Strahlenberg, Philipp Johann 57 Von Ward, Paul 35 voyeurism 78

W W.H., IL 29 W.P., Löhrbach 97 Waiting to Inhale 67 Waking Hours 73 Walker, Marilyn 140 Wallace, Bob 59 Walsh, Roger 47 Wanare, Warinei 140 Wansi, E. 56, 76 Wario 102, 108 Warm and Cool 74 Washington Post 62 Wasson, R. Gordon 47, 57, 76 waterpipe 102 Watts, Alan 114 Watts, J.C. 56, 76 Weather Report 73 Weil, Andrew 42 Welling, Ian 71 Werthmüller, Lucius 8 Wesak 140 Wesselman, Hank 105

Western Journal of Medicine 76 Whitrock, Tristan J. 39 Whittaker, Terry Cole 140 Wikipedia 102, 108 Wilbert, Johannes 27, 56, 76 Wilkinson, P. 15 Wilson, Robert Anton 68 Winchester mansion 113 Wing, Sobey 71 Winkelman, Michael 35 Winters, Jeff 35 Winters, Patricia 35, 67, 140 WIRED 109 wisdom tradition 134 witchcraft 32, 96 Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana 67, 68 Wolf, Fred Alan 35 Wolfe, Tom 47 Wolowich, William R. 117, 118 Women’s Entheogens Fund 70 Woodstock 8 wormwood 3

X Xavi 71 Xhosa 94, 108

Y Yale University Press 76 Yaxk’in, Aluna Joy 140 Yin, Amorah Quan 140 yoga 42 Yogananda 112 yohimbine 29 Yosemite 114 Yoshi 102 Young, Neil 74

Z Zang, P. 62 Zapf, Anne 35, 67, 70 Zarate, C.A. 66 Zariat 123 Zen 114, 132, 134 Zhang, L. 66 Zimmer, Lynn 47 Zinziber officinalis 98 Zulma, R. 98, 108

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XVI, Number 1



Vernal Equinox 2008



ISSN 1066-1913

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors David Luke Dale Pendell Ibo Nagano Castor Pollux Crankcase, CA B. Cautious Benjamin Thomas Kernel FunGal Jon Hanna Otter Leonard Pickard

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819, USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover Myristica fragrans fruit Photo by Krisztian, © 2006 Erowid.org

Back Cover Myristica fragrans (nutmeg) Photo by Erowid, © 2005 Erowid.org

Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters

1

Green Flames: Thoughts on Burning Man, the Green Man, and Dionysian Anarchism, with Four Proposals

10

Myristica fragrans: An Exploration of the Narcotic Spice

15

Network Feedback

25

Insectoid Sphinx Entities

25

ML-2C-E

26

Mislabeled DIPT

27

“DMT for the Masses” Erratum

27

New Data on the Entheogenic Mushroom Psilocybe kumænorum

28

Events Calendar

30

Conference Review

31

Book Reviews

34

Remembering John Beresford

37

Bibliography

38

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

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VOLUME XVII, NUMBER I



VERNAL EQUINOX 2008

Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters by David Luke

And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Virus 025 • Naoto Hattori • www.naotohattori.com

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan (1816)

All that glitters is not gold. Such a maxim might well serve any psychic voyager on a journey into the weirder realms that psychedelics can serve up. After all, out here on the edges there is seldom firm evidence that the beatific or hellish visions beheld whilst chemically neurohacking your wetware have any basis in consensus reality. Indeed these visions are often so extravagantly strange and terrifyingly ineffable that reminding yourself they are not real can serve to keep your sanity on a short leash when madness looms. Nevertheless, as John Lilly put it, how does one recognize one’s in-sanity from one’s out-sanity? And in any case, how would one even begin to try and prove the ontological credibility of the psychedelic experience of visiting some other world or meeting some alien entity? No one has yet put forward a solid method for testing these supposed realities within the domain of science, despite some admirable attempts recently (e.g., Rodriguez 2007)1, so all we have left to rely on is anecdote and phenomenology. This story lies somewhere between the two, but it also takes on a new dimension that has urged me to depart momentarily from the fruits of science into the “foamy custard” of folklore and myth, cultural studies and related disciplines.2 Yet it seemingly has enough semblance of objectivity to warrant a whisper of truth—whatever that may be. I’d taken a full DMT dose (~ 50 mg smoked) about forty or fifty times, but always with some trepidation and reverence for its power. True to form, I met a variety of extraordinary entities on these excursions. (As Terence McKenna3 once said, “You get elves, everybody does.”) Sometimes I saw unknown god-like beings, sometimes shape-shifting

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mischievous imps—but increasingly I kept getting the feeling I was intruding upon a cosmic gathering to which I wasn’t invited. Occasionally the effects failed to go any further than an ego-dissolution and a swim through a fractal explosion of pulsing light with the usual wild array of colors. Yet I often felt as though I was being blocked from whatever lurked beyond these multiple geometric dimensions, as well as not being allowed to revisit places to which I had been previously. A couple of times I felt so uninvited and intimidated by the entities I met that I did not wish to return, regardless of my curiosity. On my last DMT session I was determined to return to the mystic bliss I had once known. I travelled to a secluded beach on the banks of the River Ganges. I prepared myself with an improvised ritual, hoping to gird against whatever lay beyond, and I inhaled a pipe-full of vapors from the foul plastic-tasting resin. Sucked into the space between the pipe and my brain, I found myself breaking through the veil like a gatecrasher into a party of swirling, smiling eyeballs all attached to snake bodies, which were as startled to see me as I was to be there. The whole ordered assortment of eyes and snakes acted as one being. In the brief moment before it reacted to my arrival, I managed to catch a glimpse over what might loosely be described as “the shoulder” of this strange entity and instantly realized that I had seen something I should not have—a brief glance at the truly forbidden. Afterwards I could not remember what this was exactly, having somehow blocked it out. I only recall that it was a scene that seemed both ineffable and highly illegal for mortal minds. Then the multitudinous eyes of the being before me suddenly and quite deliberately blocked my curious consciousness’s further explorations by mesmerizing me with its squirming, rhythmic eyeball hypnosis. I mean, this thing really scared me! It had acted with utter surprise at my being there; and then, alarmed, the ominous numinous proceeded to let me know that I should not be there and that I should certainly not be peering into the hallowed space beyond it, which it clearly guarded. I opted against defying this terrifying entity and attempted to remain as passive as possible while it pulsed and

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gyrated intimidatingly at me for the next ten minutes (though it seemed like an aeon). I finally came out of it all—a bit shell-shocked—and decided that this would be my last DMT experience… for a long time, at least. Like many of my psychedelic encounters with seemingly discarnate beings, I didn’t know quite what to make of this experience, which had rocked me to the core. Yet some time later, after a few years had passed, I began to piece it together with some other visionary fragments. In a dream once, quite naively, I had a mind-blowing encounter with Azrael—the Islamic angel of death. The angel told me its name (which I hadn’t heard before), but unfortunately it never showed itself. Among Muslims the archangel Azrael is considered to have ten thousand eyes and it is the holy psychopomp who ushers souls into the realm of the dead. A similar character, Azrail—the god of death—belongs to the Huasa people of western Africa (Besmer 1983). I also stumbled across Ezekial’s vision of the cherubim guarding a throne in the bible (Ezekial 10:12). They, too, were covered in a multitude of eyes, all over their hands, backs, wings, etc., much like the multi-eyed beasts guarding the throne of God in heaven mentioned in Revelations (4:6). These descriptions struck a cord of recognition, although the being I had met on DMT had not seemed quite so angelic. It wasn’t until several years later that I made a surprising discovery when I accidentally came across a reference in a book on Tibetan magic to an ancient deity, by the name of Za (or gza’), who is known to appear with half the body of a snake, no less, and is covered in a thousand eyes. Interestingly, like the cherubim guarding the throne, the Tibetan Za functions as a “protector of the law” and is a guardian deity belonging to a class of demongods called Lu or Lhamayin (associated with the Indian n‹agas), who appear with snake bodies. The author, Beyer (1978), wrote: “These lu are undisputedly the spirits of the [underworld], found in those places where their realm impinges upon ours, such as in springs, wells, and rivers…” This struck an even greater chord when I realized that on the last occasion I had smoked DMT, I was on the banks of the River Ganges near the Tibetan

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VERNAL EQUINOX 2008

The “ancient” protector Za. From an iconographic sketch by Tendzin yongdü (Beyer 1978).

Tibetan image of Za (Rahu). From the collection of Mike Crowley.

border, which in retrospect would seem like a sure way to meet this Tibetan deity.

guest list. Knowing I shouldn’t be there, I clearly recall spending the duration of the trip trying to keep my tryptamined mind inconspicuous. And so I focused on the mesmeric rhythmic eyes and nothing more, realizing that I’d stolen a glance at some holy grail when I had burst through the veil. The entity responded quickly and I couldn’t have been more compelled to not mess with it. This feeling was further corroborated by Beyer (1978) who wrote that, in relation to Za and the other fierce protector gods, they:

The idea that I had been interloping into the sacred realm of the dead, the underworld, and was blocked by a powerful guardian spirit sat well with my experience, which had me wishing I hadn’t turned up unexpected and obviously not on the

A peaceful lu and a fierce lu. From a sketch by Tendzin yongdü (Beyer 1978).

…are the powerful deities who symbolize currents of cosmic force to be tampered with only at one’s peril. They constitute the monastic cult [of the Nyingma yogin—the oldest Tibetan sect] because they are best left to the ritual experts. It is not that their cult is particularly secret, just as there is nothing esoteric about the workings of a television set; but in both instances the forces involved are too potent to be played with by a layman, and in both instances the same warning applies.

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But these few coincidences barely constitute enough to convince most folks of the objective reality of DMT entities or Tibetan deities. Nor should they, particularly those folks like James Kent (2004), who argue that these entities are merely the imaginary output of our neurochemical meddlings. Others have suggested that these entities cannot be considered either real or fictitious but are better thought of as just a part of ourselves (Turner 1995). It might have ended there but, soon after, I discovered that my “unique” experience was not so unique after all. And this discovery threatened to bolster the tentative argument that our particular DMT entity, who we could call Za, might have some objective reality—and then so too might all those other beings we encounter along the way to Chapel Perilous, be they mischievous dwarves, machine elves, ancient gods, or praying mantis aliens. Sketch of red-colored gtor ma propitiatory dough cake dedicated to Za (Nebesky-Wojkowitz 1956).

The same sentiment was echoed by the noted scholar of Tibetan demons, Nebesky-Wojkowitz (1956) who offered that the Nyingmapa consider the planetary god Za (Rahu) to belong in the highest trinity of deities and that he “guards the religious teachings, and his thousand eyes watch the happenings in the three worlds.” Worryingly, Nebesky-Wojkowitz indicates that the elaborate propitiatory cake (gtor ma) made to honor Rahu (Za) is constructed of a large red serpentine pyramid dotted geometrically with numerous eyes and bearing stakes “arranged around the base of the ‘gtor ma’ on which dough effigies of men and animals have been impaled as offerings.” (Strangely, this eyed-pyramid bears some resemblance to the be-tentacled pyramidal monster of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea’s Illuminatus! Trilogy, the Leviathan). Beyer (1978) even submits that a lama led him to believe that Nebesky-Wojkowitz died accidentally before his time because of his careless interest in these fierce protector deities. Reading Beyer’s account made me feel particularly alarmed that there had been some objective reality to my encounter and that, seemingly, I had actually run into this Tibetan underworld guardian.

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Only a few days after reading about Za, I chanced across an article by Meyer (1994) titled “Apparent Communication with Discarnate Entities Induced by Dimethyltryptamine (DMT),” in which the following account appeared: I noticed what seemed to be an opening into a large space, like looking through a cave opening to a starry sky. As I approached this I saw that resting in the opening was a large creature, with many arms, somewhat like an octopus, and all over the arms were eyes, mostly closed, as if the creature were asleep or slumbering. As I approached it the eyes opened, and it/they became aware of me. It did not seem especially well-disposed towards me, as if it did not wish to be bothered by a mere human, and I had the impression I wasn’t going to get past it, so I did not try. [Emphasis added.]

That this creature was also quite intimidating and appeared to be guarding the way to something beyond matched my own experience; but it doesn’t end there. I was conducting a web survey of paranormal psychedelic experiences at the time (Luke & Kittenis 2005) and found that one of my respondents also had a similar experience, but with psilocybin rather than DMT:

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I was convinced I was [dying], I saw another dimension, one filled with eyes in a fibonacci vortex/dome… I’ve explained this to so many people and regardless of how many things I see, be it in art or biblical references, they all say I’m nuts.

Encouraged by finding these chance reports, I began searching through psychedelic journals and on the Internet for similar stories and found a few more corresponding accounts. This first one occurred with psilocybin-containing mushrooms and appeared in The Entheogen Review (Owl 1995): I began seeing a peculiar phenomenon during low dose mushroom sessions: a pattern of threatening eyeballs. I intuited that the mushroom was trying to scare me, and I marveled at the workings of the mind, feeling humored rather than frightened. … In spite of my scientifically-orientated worldview, I was being visited by a spirit which seemed to be anticipating a deeper encounter. …I took about five grams… This is when I felt the strange spirit enter me: the many-eyed apparition that had already been haunting my consciousness. The difference was that this time the “creature” seemed to be inside of me. …I instinctively began questioning its intentions— who was it, what did it want, and was it a demon? I received no answer, and so, not being certain it belonged in my head, [I] forcefully commanded it to leave, which it apparently did. …I had the creepy feeling that I was either going crazy or was infected with a spooky denizen of hyperspace. …Perhaps, like an insect under a magnifying lens, I have difficulty fathoming this mysterious being of a thousand eyes. Interestingly enough, one of my companions later commented that at one point he perceived my forehead to be covered with eyes.

This next one, posted to Erowid.org, occurred on LSD (Trip333 2007): Countless numbers of eyeballs were looking at me. They were the most evil things I have ever seen. They were all on these snakelike bodies that were weaving back and forth. I reopened my eyes and saw the eyes and the worms all over me and on the ground.



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Although I only found these three isolated reports on LSD and psilocybin, I found numerous DMT reports that mentioned eyeball-riddled snake entities in variously weird or disturbing sequences. I needn’t quote them all, as this last one offers some kind of “radical empirical”4 mystical triangulation of my own experience and a tentative interpretation of it (Pup 2006): I remember the veil, like rubber, or the surface of jelly stretched in front of me. …I leaned forward to touch the surface of the membrane and then what happened next I swear nearly killed me from its sheer bizzarity. …A creature emerged. It was not a happy, smiley elf. …It had [innumerable] tentacles, like a cross between some weird octopus or jellyfish…and the EYES! OH MY GOD THE EYES!!! I froze on the spot thinking shit that’s it. I’ve gone and done it now. I’m fucking toast. I never believed. I should have believed. And now. Now I am at the mercy of [something] much, much, bigger and complex, and clever and definitely [more] malevolent than myself. I asked it [its] name. I wish I had not asked. [Its] voice utterly destroyed me. It was like being caught in a storm of [psychic] noise—a whirlwind of deadly electrical shrapnel. …With its innumerable eyes, It gazed at me steady and extended a tendril. At the same moment it fired a beam of light directly between and above my eyes. The alien laser was pinkish-green. It hurt. I begged it to stop. I whimpered. please stop. you’re hurting me. I’m fragile. Please be careful—I am sentient and mean you no harm… It seemed to consider this; the laser was withdrawn but the tendrils (there were more now) still held me in place. I was trying to make out details of its shape or structure but the closer I looked, the more it slipped away from me. It seemed to tell me in some weird non-verbal fashion not to struggle and to stop making noise with my eyes. I took this to mean ‘be calm. do not struggle. clear your head. See but don’t look’. Then it became a little clearer. It seemed to be cloaked in some way—some sort of organic hood and covering was wrapped around it— some sort of armour or protection. The tentacles had no substance as we know it and the eyes

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were the most awe-inspiring/terrifying thing I have ever beheld. They defied counting. They defied reason. The whole thing was [too] much and I felt myself losing my mind. I…JUST…LOST…IT…goooooooooonnnnnne

I guess this account really did it for me. There seemed to be at least a degree of objective reality to all these reports (including mine), because they had historical precedent, shared experience, and— most importantly—some apparent meaning. On a level playing field of explanation, where all theoretical perspectives hold equally convincing—or perhaps equally unconvincing—positions, the notion of meaning can provide the greatest intuitive appeal to one’s understanding. For instance, a physiological or neurotheological explanation might suggest that the highly similar visions are due to similar neurochemical reactions; but this will be seen by some to devalue the complexity and cultural significance of the experience, and it also extends itself much further than the current

Dying by Alex Grey, 1990; www.alexgrey.com.

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explanatory power of neuroscience. Alternatively, a parapsychological explanation might suggest that these similar visions all belong to a particular morphogenetic field (a field of consciousness that contains imprints of past experiences which can be accessed by others) activated by chemically-induced near-death-type experiences. Yet there is little understanding of or evidence for morphogenetic fields of this kind, even if they may be possible in principle (Sheldrake 1988). Any number of other theories might be put forward. But with all such explanations appearing as equally uncompelling, the possibility of this entity somehow being real as an independently sentient discarnate being—whatever that may be—has comparable explanatory power. However, beyond other ontological speculations this level of explanation—an acceptance of the experience at face value—also has esoteric and cultural meaning because it fits with a mystical understanding of the universe in which the existence of supernatural beings is accepted. That said, I have little problem, then, assuming that entities—be they dream angels, DMT encounters, or mythical beings—have at least the possibility of independent sentience or some kind of objective reality, because I ultimately don’t confine myself to any one ontological perspective. So, as clearly as I can make sense of it, it seems that smoking DMT can lead temporarily to some kind of death realm— an idea championed by Rick Strassman (2001) and supported by shamanic concepts of ayahuasca states—and in such a place the traveler might encounter one of the (archetypal) guardian deities of the underworld. One such guardian is the angel of death, who appears with thousands of eyes, much like Alex Grey’s painting called Dying.5 Yet it seems that sometimes this multi-eyed being also assumes the tentacled or snake-bodied appearance of Za. And like a guardian of the underworld no doubt should be, this being is not to be trifled with. It holds those who encounter it in the grip of utter fear, compelled to obey its hypnotic glare—to just “see but don’t look”—because it seemingly guards the sacred way on after death. On reflection, my encounters with both Za and Azrael have resonance with each other and possibly represent the same psychic atavism or Jungian

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archetype (albeit an archetype that may have independent sentience), which may become activated by tryptamines such as DMT, or by dreaming or other altered states. This entity is the archetype of the guardian of the realm of death and the doorway to occult knowledge. In considering this, I was lucky enough to find a book by two occultists (Jackson & Howard 2000) who offer an argument that the Islamic Azrael, the angel of death, is synonymous with the Hebrew Azazel, the fallen angel of light and the serpent of the Tree of Knowledge (who, as the Promethean prototype, stole the Gnostic fire from God and gave it to man—in much the same way that psychedelics can). They also associate the Persian fallen angel Azza, or Shemyaza with the Luciferian Azazel, who in similar Promethean style swapped the name of God for sexual favors with the mortal Ishtahar, thereby making her immortal. Jackson and Howard likewise associate Azazel, the great watcher, with the Persian dragon serpent Azhadaha, the black serpent of light and leader of the Inri, the fallen angels known—appropriately— as the watchers. Interestingly, they link the etymology of the common root az with the Hebrew

Azazel appearing with numerous eyes, from The Sandman (Gaiman et al. 1991).



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letters ayin (or ain in Arabic) meaning eye, and zayin (zain in Arabic) meaning sword, which represent the all-seeing eye, and the flaming sword of initiation (the guardian of the Garden of Eden in biblical and cabalistic tradition). Jackson and Howard (2000) suggest that, “The secret significance of the Zayin Sword is typified by Azazel as Master of Metals and Lord of the Forge” because smithcraft and fireworking were the crafts first taught to humans by the watchers, much like the myth of Prometheus. They note that:

z

The Hebrew letter-form of Zayin, , the sword blade, is the supracosmic fire that, like a shining lightning flash or thunderbolt, “cuts” through the veil of material nescience.

Assembling all these links, it didn’t take a huge cognitive leap to also associate the Tibetan eyeballed serpent of my DMT encounter, Za, with these anarchic archangels of other cultures. Without making any great claims to the exclusive resemblance of any of these myths to each other— for these legends have both similarities and differences—further comparisons to Za and Azrael from elsewhere can also be made, such as the Persian Zahh‹ak, also known in Iranian mythology as A¸¸zi Dah‹aka the serpent or dragon, who was struck down by the divine Fr‹ed‹on and snakes issued forth from the wounds (Boyce 1975). Like Prometheus he was condemned to be chained to the side of a mountain for eternity. The likely etymological link here between the interchanged ayin (a) and zayin (z) of za and az is itself compelling, especially in the case of the Zahh‹ak/A¸¸zi Dah‹aka, but the myth story of Za himself has further resonance with the other fallen archangel and Promethean myths. In Tibetan mythology, Za (known as Rahu in the Indian tradition) features in the Dri Med Zhel Phreng version of the Buddhist “churning of the oceans” story about the origins of the original entheogenic ambrosia par excellence, amrita, or soma (Crowley 1996). Having been left in charge of the Buddha’s newly made water of life (the amrita) before its supposed dissemination to humanity, Vajrapani (associated with the great soma-fiend Indra) carelessly left the sacred amrita unguarded and returned to find the demon Za, the Lhamayin, had drunk it. In

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further offence to the gods, Za urinated what remained of the processed amrita back into the vessel. As penance, Vajrapani was made to drink what had now become poisonous, permanently turning blue as a consequence. The similarities here between the methods of enjoying amrita and psychedelic Amanita mushrooms have not gone unnoticed (Crowley 1996), and furthermore the link here between the psychedelic and the Promethean features of the myth is clear. As just punishment, Vajrapani finally caught up with Za, wounded him many times, and then sliced him in two with his vajra, the lightning bolt. But because Za had drunk the amrita, the water of life, he survived; “amrita” translates from Sanskrit as “deathlessness,” and it seems appropriate that this guardian of the underworld himself should become “deathless.” As further punishment, the Buddha replaced Za’s severed legs with the tail of a serpent or dragon (much like the Iranian A¸¸zi Dah‹aka above) and fixed eyeballs upon his numerous wounds, giving him his unique appearance. It’s here that I saw a further transcultural myth emerging with the legend of the Greek Lamia, the serpentine daimon and prophetess. The Lamia is somewhat similar in character to the Lhamayin, the class of Tibetan serpent spirits to which Za belongs. However there is some contention, not least from the Tibetan scholar, psychedelicist, and etymologist, Mike Crowley (2005), that the Tibetan language has no roots in Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean languages because it is uniquely related to Mongolian. Nevertheless, in the same vein with which Robert Graves (who tipped off Wasson to entheogenic mushrooms) makes more poetic than precise associations between cultural myths, there is a resonance between the legend of Za—the Tibetan serpentine Lhamayin—and the Greek serpentine Lamia, whom we may also associate with Python, the serpentine prophetess of Delphi. Accordingly, Python was responsible for maintaining the secret of prophecy and the wisdom of the underworld (similarly to Za), was struck down by the sun god Apollo, heralding what Graves (1961) describes as the usurpation of the goddess for the rights over divinatory power, and henceforth

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recasting Python in the role of demon. Something similar also resounds in the Greek myth of the Medusa and Perseus, and perhaps with the Luciferian Norse Loki and the Assyrian-Babylonian Zu (or Azu) too—Zu was struck down by a lightning bolt for stealing the tablets of destiny from Tiamat the dragon queen (but that’s another story). With the dawning of the age of patriarchal theism that occurred two to three thousand years ago, the Promethean-type tale of Python retells the same story of the divine maverick: a chthonic being betwixt this world and the underworld, the allseeing serpent divinity holding the key to man’s enlightenment, who steals that wisdom or shares it with mankind and then becomes re-branded as a demon, a fallen angel, a trickster or a deceiver, much like Za, Azazel, and the rest. The Aryan demon Rahu (Za) had once been a Dravidian god and it’s clear that an old culture’s gods often become a dominating culture’s demons, and the archaic tools with which the old culture accessed their divine, be they psychedelic or otherwise, become heretical. Subsequently, the old chthonic sacramentals, such as amrita, or henbane—called “pythonian” by the ancient Greeks in honor of Python (Rudgley 2000)—fell out of grace as easily as Lucifer fell from heaven, or Adam and Eve fell from the Garden of Eden. But like poor old Frank Olsen,6 did they fall, or were they pushed? The identity of amrita was completely lost, and remains a matter of debate. Although few soma hunters have proposed tryptamines as the culprit—save perhaps McKenna (1992), who championed psilocybin-containing champignons—what the Tibetan lama Chögyam Trungpa says about it fits happily with the various tryptamine visions mentioned above: …amrita is the principle of intoxicating extreme beliefs, belief in ego, and dissolving the boundary between confusion and sanity so that coemergence can be realized.

Perhaps a report of a multi-eyeballed Za-like entity being induced by Amanita muscaria might say something more for the favored identity of amrita; and yet, even though there’s some certainty that the ancients of the East never smoked DMT, perhaps any old entheogen will do.

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But is there anything that can be found in this wayward meandering through myth and vision that offers a case for the genuine reification of “the other” encountered in psychedelic spaces on the far side of the psyche? Knowing that speculation is the vice of the precise and the virtue of the poetic, I have no doubt that those wearing their left brain today will already have departed company with me somewhere along the line here. As a scientist myself, I have deeply questioned this temporary departure from so-called rational thought. But as an explorer of the weirder realms of the mind, I have also been forced occasionally to leap the fence at the edge of my field of expertise and traverse unknown territory. I don’t offer any of this as “fact” beyond the phenomenological, but merely as “possibility” in a psychic landscape as “off the map” as that provided by DMT. Indeed, here be dragons. And yes, beware that among the dragon’s treasure, all that glitters is not gold. Yet who can resist occasionally inspecting a few gems in case they are of any real value? 



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FOOTNOTES 1. Grossly simplified, Rodriguez proposes obtaining from the entities solutions to complex mathematics puzzles that the DMT experient does not know. Regrettably, this ingenious method for testing the reality of DMT entity encounters is subject to a number of flaws, such as the huge assumptions involved in expecting our supposed entities to be hyper-intelligent and/or have the desire to cooperate. The most crippling problem for his test, however, is what is known as the superpsi hypothesis—an issue long-proven difficult to surmount in parapsychological attempts to validate the existence of discarnate entities considered to be spirits of the dead (e.g. those apparently communicating via trance mediums). The problem is that, because clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition (collectively called psi) have no theoretical (or even apparent) limits, it always remains a possibility that any information provided by ostensibly discarnate entities may actually be due to the super-psi of the person (e.g., the medium) receiving the information (see Braude 2002 for a comprehensive discussion). However, such an issue doesn’t carry quite as much currency with my perspective on investigating entities in this manuscript. 2. Acronym (folklore and mythology, cultural studies and related disciplines) courtesy of foamy custard chef, Bob Trubshaw. For information, see www.indigogroup.co.uk/ foamycustard. 3. “You get elves, everybody does.” Audio remix at Trip Receptacles, www.nvo.com/cd/trip. 4. By “radical empirical” I refer to the term as championed by William James (2003/1912), which posits that standard scientific empiricism tries to reduce experience to bare sensations at the expense of prior reasoning, intuition, revelation, or meaning. James argued that we see the world in terms of meaning and the actual connections made between phenomena, so introspection of experience is as legitimate a scientific enterprise for studying one’s experience and the contents of one’s own mind as is the mere observation of the sensation of experience (i.e., empiricism). 5. Incidentally, when Alex Grey was asked about the prevalence of disembodied eyes in psychedelic visions he merely said that they represent infinite awareness. However, he recalled that a woman who had seen his Dying painting had reported once traveling down a tunnel of eyes during a neardeath experience (Hanna 1998).

Many-eyed dragon drawn by a psilocybin subject in Paris. (Note the similarity to the depiction of Azazel on page 7.) Image taken from Heim & Wasson’s 1965–1966 book Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique.

6. Frank Olsen was a U.S. Army officer who was unwittingly dosed with LSD by the CIA in 1953. A few days later—under CIA supervision—he plummeted to his death from a hotel window. It was alleged that he jumped, and the drugging incident was covered up for over twenty years as part of the secret MKULTRA operation. Forensic evidence from 1994 added a new twist, strongly suggesting that Olsen was pushed: a murder, rather than a suicide.

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Green Flames: Thoughts on Burning Man, the Green Man, and Dionysian Anarchism, with Four Proposals by Dale Pendell

The TAZ is like an uprising which does not engage directly with the State, a guerilla operation which liberates an area (of land, of time, of imagination) and then dissolves itself to re-form elseThe End of the True where/elsewhen, before the State can crush it. TAZ? Hakim Bey

BURNING MAN AS A “TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS ZONE” Burning Man was born in free and visionary revelry, and matured on the Black Rock Desert into a great gathering of the tribes, from the cyberfreaks to the lushy rednecks to the altered-consciousness pentathletes to the nasty punks to the fuckin’ hippies. And everything in between. This alone, from a historical perspective, is a matter for rejoicing and wonder. There was another big event, not as big as Burning Man in numbers, but also historically important, in Golden Gate Park, forty years ago, that was called “Gathering of the Tribes.” Gary Snyder spoke at that event, as did Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Alan Watts, and others.

Other forces besides the State can quell a temporary autonomous zone: it can be co-opted by the market; it can exhaust its imagination and good will; or it can compromise itself into a more acceptable form. All of these forces continue to exert tremendous pressure on Burning Man.

Many burners feel that the “true TAZ” aspect of Burning Man peaked in the mid-1990s, circa 1996 and has declined ever since. Others, of course, say “stop complaining and party.” Whatever the truth, Burning Man is still a vibrant force with far-reaching social, political, and artistic poSuch gatherings often take place in what Hakim tential. Bey calls a “temporary autonomous zone,” in cracks and hidden openings overlooked by the guardians of the State. Bey was careful to refrain from rigor- DIONYSIAN ANARCHISM ously defining TAZ, but it is clear that TAZ is There has been a debate going on in philosophy applicable to the free spirit and the festive excesses for 2500 years about human nature. In fact, it is the only really crucial question of philosophy. At of Burning Man: stake is the rationalization for a hierarchical, oppressive state. Before philosophers, religion im-

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puted that human society should be like that of the gods, usually with a top god, and with the others doing their respective parts. These early state religions stressed that the kings on earth, if not divine themselves, were reflections of the order of heaven. Plato, in the Republic, introduced the “Noble Lie”: that the wise should tell the commoners lies and myths to keep them in their place. A corollary is that if you don’t assist this process, you are not one of the wise, and you will be punished, if not with death or imprisonment, at least with marginalization. Thomas Hobbes said that people were rapacious beasts, who would start killing and eating each other if it weren’t for an armed police force. Our mainstream culture seems desperate to maintain this viewpoint. During Hurricane Katrina, while the self-organizing cooperative efforts of tens of thousands of citizens to help each other went largely unreported, a scene of looting was replayed over and over. The clear message is “see, people can’t be trusted. We need the police.” In fact, police (or private security goons) broke up, and even fired on, the emerging cooperatives. So who is on the other side? Many, actually. First off, we have the evidence of anthropology and human prehistory, which is overwhelmingly cooperative. We have the core teachings of deep mystical traditions. Jean Jacques Rousseau offered that much of the sickness, the antisocial, and criminal behavior in society was not the result of our intrinsic natures, but of the society itself. Many are quick to dismiss Rousseau with a put-down—“ahh, the Noble Savage.” Rousseau never talked about any noble savage. The term was invented by a mid-nineteenth century pro-slavery American anthropologist, and has been an astoundingly effective little lie to cut off discussion on this topic. Dionysian anarchism sides with the mystics and with anthropology. It sides with the way that people carry on their affairs most of the time: that is, cooperatively, and generally with a sense of good



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will. It sides with the spirit of DIY: do-it-yourself. Dionysian anarchists stress that means and ends have to be in accord, and if we can just stop things from getting worse, society will spontaneously realign itself towards freedom. That is our nature. As long as we have free horizons, as long as we are headed towards freedom and not away from it, we can relax a little with a long-term view. Forty years ago poet Gary Snyder, in answer to those who say that cooperative, non-coercive living is against human nature, wrote that we must patiently remind such people that they must know their own true natures first, before they can say that; those who have gone furthest into deep mind, into deep nature—mystics, meditators, and visionary explorers—have been reporting for several thousand years that we have nothing to fear. Gary’s solution included Buddhism and other introspective spiritual traditions, working within the context of tribal community, and opening to the radical teachings of the wild: wild places, wild animals, and wild plants—the true sources of our culture from our earliest beginnings. Timothy Leary stressed psychedelic visioning. Alan Watts talked about a philosophical sensualism. Ginsberg modeled the ecstatic spontaneity of the dancing bhakti. But let’s look briefly at where we are. Despite the pervasive rhetoric of progress from our politicians and media, for most people in the United States, for most plant and animal species, things are not getting better. Real wages have been declining for over a generation. Measures of the quality of life have been declining. How much someone has to work to get by has been increasing. Infant mortality has been increasing. The percentage of the population in poverty has been increasing. Both the number of people and the percentage of the population in prison has risen dramatically. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, both in numbers and by percentage. Plants, animals, and habitat are being consumed at an ever increasing rate by global corporations which, by their definition and legal charter, can never have enough.

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There is of course an upside—for those near the top of the heap, things are better than ever. There is sort of a choice here, aristos vs. demos. You can get with the program, stop complaining, and with some smarts and a good birth you can join the winners. The Aztecs had a pathway for the commoners to gain entrance to the elite by becoming warriors and capturing sacrificial victims in the “flower wars”—wars maintained not for conquest of territory but for just that reason of providing victims. (One had to capture five victims to gain the highest ranking, with its attendant privileges, such as the right to drink chocolate.)

FREEING THE IMAGINATION The first anarchist act is to free the imagination, to cut through our years of conditioning about what is “unthinkable.” By imagination, we do not mean mere reverie, but our imaging of the world, our mental picturing of who we are and the fundamental nature of existence, of reality. This is imagination in the sense that Blake used the word: the fire of consciousness, the fire of mind. Freeing the imagination means that you can act spontaneously in the world, not only artistically but in all of your interactions. This is not as easy as it sounds. How to do that? For poets, artists, musicians, dancers, meditators, and visionaries, it is a matter of continuing practice: plumbing the depths of mind, learning how to listen, and then sharing our insights through performance. This is the ancient wisdom of all gift economies.

ECOLOGY AND DEEP ECOLOGY The Black Rock Desert was one of Gary Snyder’s favorite places to come and camp long before Burning Man ever went there, and it is one of the major inspirations for his poem “Mountains and Rivers without End.” On the Black Rock, the environment is impossible to ignore: it fills our eyes and tents and drinking cups with every dust storm. It roasts us or freezes

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us. On the Playa, the spirit of place is never far away, even for newbies who have never heard of Lake Lahontan. At first glance, Burning Man, with its penchant for fire, excess, inebriation, celebration, sexuality, radical self-expression, and generators, hardly seems a candidate for greenness. But there is a connection—a connection in mythopoesis—at a deeper level than our laudable efforts at recycling and solar electricity and “leave no trace.” This connection relates to the difference between management ecology and deep ecology. Management ecology we need, desperately, but deep ecology we need even more. The Green Man is deep ecology—his leafy speaking is animistic. Plant intelligence—with its sense of place and wild intelligence, with its sense of freedom—speaks through his mouth. The Green Man is the bridge, and the Green Man is madness. Ecstatic madness. Madness that recognizes that the earth is alive. What do we mean by that? Not that the earth is composed of cells with a DNA library, but that the earth is not a separate thing, distinct from our own living minds. Buddhists state that, ultimately, the seeming objectivity of the “external” world is an illusion, that our own true nature and the salt of the Playa are not separate. This is the message that mystics and yogis and shamans have maintained for millennia. Once this is realized, the problems don’t go away, but cutting away a hillside, building a house or factory, putting explosives into the earth, are all recognized as having a transgressive nature. We then have a tendency to try to ask permission—what does the earth have to say about what we are doing, the hillside, the animal that we are going to eat? And then we try to make things right, with a sense of gratitude and perhaps a bit of shame, or even guilt, to bring things back into harmony with the spirits. We recognize that we are being gifted, that countless generations of effort, sacrifice, and imagination make possible our birth and our sustenance. So we want to give something back. In Snyder’s words: “Performance is currency in the deep world’s gift economy.”

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THE GREEN MAN, DIONYSUS, AND DIVINE MADNESS In his last published essay, “Dionysus in 1990,” philosopher Norman O. Brown extended ideas of Georges Bataille and Marcel Mauss and others to invert the Marxist focus on production to that of consumption—more to the point, “wasteful consumption.” The idea of wasteful consumption is anathema to conservationists (and to all sane and rational people). The idea is, frankly, madness. Brown bets all with Socrates that if the madness is inspired by a god, that is, divine madness, it is the source of our greatest blessings. We might say that divine madness is the “wild” of consciousness. The name of the god, for Brown, is Dionysus. Iconographically, it is easy to recognize Dionysus in the Green Man, the one whose very speech is wild nature. Now Brown is not expecting people to actually bow down and worship Dionysus. For Brown, Dionysus is shorthand for an irrepressible wild and joyful energy. The opposite of this energy is the Grand Inquisitor, with his benevolent lies. Success or failure seems to pivot on the issue of passive entertainment—Blake’s “spectral enjoyment.” The Inquisitor is betting that circuses will satisfy the masses. The Dionysian bets he is wrong. That is the idea behind “no spectators.” The traditional manifestation of Dionysian energy has always been through festivals. Barbara Ehrenreich points out that in medieval Spain a third of the days of the year were holidays for festivals. There was a backwards day, a Feast of Fools when a donkey was led into the cathedral and the bishop’s miter placed on his head. Blasphemies were uttered, echoes of the Dionysian festivals of Greece. The Greeks were wise enough to recognize that although Dionysus meant trouble, the suppression of Dionysus was even worse—that trying to suppress the Dionysian spirit entirely, to end all licentiousness, all blasphemy, all risk, led to false madness, profane madness, and the sacrifice of children. Moloch. That is the true idolatry, when the blasphemies of art are petrified into literalism. The Romans, by the way, an Apollonian people,



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suppressed the Bacchanalia with much bloodshed—perhaps the first “War on Drugs.” The church made occasional attempts to suppress the festivals—these moves mostly coming from Rome. The local priests generally resisted this suppression, saying that without the festivals they would have no congregation. Festivals, it should not surprise us, were sometimes the springboards for political rebellion. A hardier force against the festival was the Enlightenment, along with mercantilism, and the Industrial Revolution. “Reason,” remember. Lenin even went so far as to praise the capitalists for disciplining the working classes. We must remember that any time large groups of people can get together cooperatively, it puts the lie to the Hobbesian thesis that people are innately irresponsible and dangerous. That is the real reason that the government insists on police presence—even though they are clearly unnecessary. Free festivals are a threat to the whole rationalization for the existence of the armed, coercive forces of “internal security.” Such a free festival would be a light to the world for centuries: proof that cooperative living, free from armed coercion, is not “unthinkable,” but the way things should be. Free the imagination! In Brown’s system (which I go into more deeply in my Inspired Madness, The Gifts of Burning Man, published in 2006 by North Atlantic Books), the rites of Dionysus, with their attendant licentiousness, danger, fire, blasphemy, and wasteful consumption (combustion for its own sake), must be seen as prophylactic: they protect us from calamity—the Greeks certainly understood them thus. I like to joke that in a more enlightened age Burning Man would be given a grant from the Defense Department, in gold. The alternative worship, as Brown clearly stated, is war. There is, alas, no proof for this thesis. The mythopoetic foundation is very strong, but in the end it comes down to a wager. Everyone must choose a square.

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A FEW PROPOSALS FOR BURNING MAN, LLC 1. Stop the undercover stings by police. If you can’t stop them, at least speak out against them, LOUDLY and PUBLICLY. This violation of trust and goodwill is the opposite of everything that Burning Man stands for. Smoking Cannabis may be illegal, but lying and violating another’s trust—“hey man, you got any weed you can share?”—is immoral and despicable. It is a poison that spreads distrust and division. It is the worst model of civic behavior. In the face of such behavior for Burning Man to state “we have an excellent relationship with law enforcement” amounts to collusion. Personally, I believe that all police presence should be reduced. And reduced again. Let’s free our imaginations and not dismiss this possibility as “impossible.” Why do we let police strut through the dance clubs? It’s time to push back. Tell the BLM we’ll take the festival somewhere else—see what they say then. (The High Sierra Music Festival had some remarkable success with this tactic.) 2. Stop the car searches. This one is easy. It’s wrong that the very first encounter upon arriving at Burning Man is someone demanding to search one’s car, someone who tells me, “I can’t take your word for it.” That’s “spectator” thinking. How big a problem would it be if a few people who can’t afford a ticket sneak in? Maybe they should be there. Maybe they have something important to contribute. How many would there be? Three percent? Five percent? I’ll pay five percent more to cover them, until they can get their acts together. Isn’t our way to educate by example? Let’s see if we can make it work through the peer pressure of responsibility and good citizenship. Spirit of giving, anyone?



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4. Wouldn’t “Dreaming America” or just “Dreaming” be a better theme for 2008 than “The American Dream.” Consider the contradictions in the theme announcement posted at burningman.com. Beneath a background of red, white, and blue (originally the flag of the East India Company, the English-speaking world’s first transnational corporation), Burning Man has announced that the 2008 theme will be “about patriotism.” While one might pledge some allegiance to “the soil of Turtle Island,” the Burning Man theme is presented entirely in a nationalistic context. This kind of patriotism is one of the greatest diseases of civilization, responsible not only for the deaths of many millions of persons, but for wide scale scorching of the earth. While waving a flag, Burning Man says this theme is not about flag worship (and, as well, that “flag burning [will] play no part in this year’s theme,” a rather ironic proscription). Presenting us with ideology, they say “leave ideology at home.” They seem to think that politics has to do with “the blue states and the red,” politics only in its most myopic and degenerate condition. Astonishingly, beneath this banner of patriotism and the American Dream, we are given a (misquoted) fragment of Robinson Jeffers’ poem “Shine, Perishing Republic.” Jeffers, a wise man, is not turning in his grave, but, rather, “sadly smiling.” The point is the next line of the poem (not quoted on the Burning Man web page): But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption Never has been compulsory.

Time for a regional? 

3. Consider dropping charges against Paul Addis (the man who set fire to the Man on Monday night in 2007). Perhaps such a benevolent act of clemency could bring him back into the fold. Make him do community service at Camp Arctica to cool him off and help him make some new friends. At least talk to the guy—he clearly wants to say something.

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MYRISTICA FRAGRANS: An Exploration of the Narcotic Spice by Ibo Nagano

Nutmeg, now a common household spice, comes from the tree Myristica fragrans, which originates from the Indonesian Banda Islands (also known as the Spice Islands). The name nutmeg comes from Latin, nux muscat, meaning musky nut. Legend has it that when M. fragrans sets seed, the musky smell of the nutmegs is so overpowering that it causes birds of paradise to fall to the ground (Krieg 1964). This may have more to do with the narcotic properties of nutmeg than with its characteristic scent, but it is this musky quality that has made nutmeg a popular flavoring for both sweet and savory dishes. While the inhabitants of the Banda Islands apparently made no use of nutmeg as a condiment, it is known to have been used as a spice and medicine in India and the Middle East as early as 700 b.c.e. (Kalbhen 1971), while its therapeutic applications have been recorded by Arab physicians since the seventh century c.e. (Weil 1967). Nutmeg did not appear in Europe until the Middle Ages and reports conflict regarding whether it was introduced by Arab traders or by returning crusaders, although it was probably a little of both. While introduced to Europe in the Middle Ages, nutmeg was likely a rare commodity until the sixteenth century when the Portuguese discovered that the Banda Islands were the hitherto concealed source of nutmeg (Stein et al. 2001). After this discovery, nutmeg became a major European commodity. Trade was monopolized by the Portuguese and the Dutch, but eventually came under sole control of the Dutch after an extended military campaign in 1621 that left most of the Islands’ inhabitants dead. The Dutch ran the Islands like a plantation and mounted regular expeditions to eradicate sources of nutmeg outside of their con-

trol. At the height of its value, nutmeg was carried by Europeans as a display of wealth. Nutmeg graters became fashionable accoutrements, and diners would grate their own nutmeg at fancy restaurants. The Dutch continued to dominate the trade in nutmeg until the nineteenth century when the British took temporary control of the Banda Islands during the Napoleonic Wars and were able to break the monopoly by successfully cultivating nutmeg in the West Indies. Nutmeg has subsequently become a major export product in the West Indies and is now featured on the national flag of Grenada. By the twentieth century, the popularity of nutmeg as a spice subsided and stabilized. Around this time it became rumored that nutmeg was an effective abortifacient. This use offered the West its first glimpses into the narcotic properties of nutmeg, as a number of young women became delirious after using large quantities of nutmeg to induce miscarriages (Kalbhen 1971). It may have been these turn-of-the-century reports that led to the use of nutmeg in American prisons by the 1940s or earlier. Despite the length of time that nutmeg’s properties have been recognized, fairly little is understood about the actions of this mysterious nut. This article is an attempt to compile the existing information about nutmeg into one place and to provide the reader with a more comprehensive understanding of nutmeg and its peculiar properties.

NUTMEG AS SPICE Of course, nutmeg is most well-known as a spice. Nutmeg also produces the spice “mace,” which is made from the red membrane, or aril, that covers the nutmeg seed. Mace is not as sweet as nutmeg, but has a more delicate flavor, although both are

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used similarly in cooking. Mace contains the same oils that make nutmeg psychoactive. The popularity of the two spices peaked in England in the eighteenth century. The English used nutmeg to spice a wide array of dishes, including roast mutton, stewed pork, pies, puddings, and cordials. Nutmeg and mace have been used to flavor many other foods, such as soups, gravies, milk products, fruit juices, sweet sauces, gelatins, alcoholic beverages, snack foods, and breakfast cereals; they have also been used as general condiments. Sometimes nutmeg was used quite liberally in cooking. One seventeenth century cake recipe calls for six nutmegs to two pounds of sugar (Wilson 1999). Although nutmeg was once used widely to flavor a variety of dishes, and while it remains a component of most spice cabinets, its use has dwindled to the occasional flavoring of pies, cookies, and eggnog.

NUTMEG AS MEDICINE Since the time that nutmeg became popular as a spice, it has also been used in medicine. Nutmeg has been employed for healing purposes from the Middle East, to India, to China. After being introduced to Europe, many of these medicinal applications were then adopted by European physicians. While nutmeg was put to use for an assortment of medical purposes, several applications merit particular mention due to their persistence and widespread acceptance. Nutmeg has been used to treat rheumatism in Indonesia, Malaysia, England, and China. The essential oil is used externally to treat rheumatic pains, limb pains, general aches, and inflammation. In England, far into the twentieth century, a nutmeg was simply carried in one’s pocket to ward off the pains of rheumatism (Rudgley 1998). Nutmeg has been used for its sedative effect to treat nervous complaints and to promote sleep in Malaysia and India. The inhabitants of the Moluccas would mix nutmeg with milk or a banana drink to give to children as a sleep aid (Rätsch 2005). In Europe, older women would carry nutmegs with them in silver graters to promote sound sleep (Krieg 1964). Nutmeg has also been widely used as an analgesic.

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Nutmeg is probably most widely used to treat stomach complaints. It has been used in South East Asia, India, the Middle East, and Europe to treat stomach aches and cramps, to aid digestion, and to dispel gas. Perhaps the most infamous medical use of nutmeg, as mentioned earlier, is as an abortifacient. It is not clear how far back this use dates, but it was a popular—albeit ineffective—“remedy” at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century. While there doesn’t appear to be any traditional use of nutmeg as a mood elevator, several individuals have noted that it does indeed have such properties. The German writer Georg Meister noted nutmeg’s uplifting effects in his 1692 work Der Orientalisch-Indianische Kunst- und Lust-Gärtner (Oriental-Indian Art and Pleasure Gardener) commenting that “it can greatly refresh even the ill and cheer them up with fresh spirits” (Rätsch 2005); and the twelfth century mystic Hildegard von Bingen had this to say: When a human being eats nutmeg it opens his heart, and his sense is pure, and it puts him in a good state of mind. Take nutmeg and (in the same amount) cinnamon and some cloves and grind them up. And then, from this powder and some water, make flour—and roll out some little tarts. Eat these often and it will lower the bitterness of your heart and your mind and open your heart and your numbed senses. It will make your spirit happy, purify and cleanse your mind, lower all bad fluids in you, give your blood a good tonic, and make you strong (Rätsch & Müller-Ebeling 2006).

I have personally noted that nutmeg taken regularly in small amounts helps elevate mood, while reducing stress and anxiety. Nutmeg is still used in Arabic and Indian folk medicine today, but its use as an herbal remedy in Europe is long forgotten. Use as a medicine never seems to have caught on in the United States, with the exception of its use as an abortifacient in the nineteenth century.

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NUTMEG AS APHRODISIAC One little-known application of nutmeg is its traditional use as an aphrodisiac. In India, nutmeg has been added to curry dishes and also to betel quids for its aphrodisiac effect (Rätsch 2005). Nutmeg is recognized as an aphrodisiac in Malaysia and in Arab countries, and its counterpart, mace, is prescribed by physicians in the Near East as an aphrodisiac (Forrest & Heacock 1972). While the use of nutmeg as an aphrodisiac in Europe does not appear to have been well-known or widespread, several examples exist. William Salmon, a seventeenth century Englishman writing in 1693, described a self-experiment in which nutmeg oil rubbed on the genitals produced sexual excitation (Rudgley 1998, citing Salmon 1693). Most peculiar, perhaps, is an old German folk tradition in which a girl would swallow a nutmeg whole, collect the intact nut after it passed, and then powder and mix it in the food of her beloved. Doing such was supposed to cause the man in question to fall deeply in love with the girl (Rätsch 2005). The traditional use of nutmeg as an aphrodisiac was recently put to the test by researchers at the Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India. Their findings strongly support such an application. Their study was conducted by orally administering a 50% ethanol extract of nutmeg to male rats and monitoring changes in mating behaviors and sexual function. The extract was shown to significantly increase the frequency of erections and the mounting frequency, to decrease the amount of time between sexual episodes, and to significantly delay ejaculation in the test animals. In an earlier study on male mice, conducted by the same group, four of the six mice mated three females each while the remaining two mated five females each. This is in comparison to the control group, where two mice mated two females each and the remaining four mated only one female a piece. In order to test the purely libido-enhancing effects of nutmeg separately from the effects on physical sexual function, the research group anesthetized the genitals of the test animals and monitored the mounting behavior. While the rats could not properly perform, their attempts to mount were significantly higher than



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those in the control group. In addition, the research group conducted testing to determine the toxicity of the 50% ethanol extract, and found that doses up to eight times the active dose in the test animals displayed no signs of short-term toxicity (i.e., no mortality and no gross behavioral changes). The findings of these studies strongly corroborate the traditional uses of nutmeg to improve sexual function and enhance the sex drive, and suggest that nutmeg may be a safe and effective herbal remedy in treating sexual disorders (Tajuddin et al. 2003; Tajuddin et al. 2005).

NUTMEG FOR DREAM ENHANCEMENT There is not much written about the effect of nutmeg upon dreaming. Many experimenters have described the effects of nutmeg as having a dreamlike quality and of promoting vivid daydreams. Many users also report increased dream recall as well as an increase in the vividness and lucidity of their dreams. From my own experiences, as well, I have found that nutmeg increases dream recall. The most complete report of the effects of nutmeg on dreams comes from Paul Devereaux, who ingested two teaspoons of ground nutmeg and sprinkled essential oil of nutmeg on his pillow and sheets as part of a self-experiment. Devereaux reported becoming fully self-aware during a dream where he was flying through a tunnel at high speed. Devereaux also found that his tactile senses were partially operational while dreaming. When flying over a landscape of sorts, Devereaux described snatching at the leaves of a passing tree and reported feeling “the pull of the branches and the foliage digging into my hand” (Rudgley 1998). Devereaux’s report reinforces the contention that nutmeg may have an effect on the lucidity of dreams and on dream recall; however, more definite support is lacking.

NUTMEG AS INEBRIANT Nutmeg has historically been used in Egypt as a surrogate for hashish. It has also been used in India, either chewed, or snuffed with tobacco, or added to betel chew, but little information is available on these practices (Schultes & Hofmann 1992).

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Nutmeg was introduced first as a spice into Europe, and later as a medicine. The Europeans remained ignorant of the inebriating properties of this most popular of spices for several centuries. The first nutmeg inebriation on record was reported in 1576 when a pregnant English woman became delirious after eating between ten and twelve nutmegs (Stein et al. 2001). Had it not been for the rumors of nutmeg’s efficaciousness as an abortifacient, the psychoactive properties of nutmeg may have remained unknown for a long time. Occasional case notes of nutmeg poisoning were published subsequently, but nutmeg’s inebriating qualities remained largely obscure and unexplored. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, nutmeg again became popular as an abortifacient. The tales of nutmeg poisoning increased, and many more case studies were reported. This helped to paint a clearer picture of the actions and effects of nutmeg. It is not certain how nutmeg came to be a recreational drug, but it appears to have its origins in the early twentieth century when its use emerged in United States’ prisons as an alternative to marijuana and other illicit substances. Some authors suggest that use of nutmeg as a narcotic didn’t emerge until after World War II. However, the report by Malcolm X that there was a nutmeg culture at Charlestown State Prison in 1946 suggests that prisoners had already been keen to the properties of nutmeg for some time. Malcolm X described his experiences with nutmeg in his autobiography, published in 1965: I first got high in Charlestown on nutmeg. My cellmate was among at least a hundred nutmeg men who, for money or cigarettes, bought from kitchen worker inmates penny matchboxes full of stolen nutmeg. I grabbed a box as though it were a pound of heavy drugs. Stirred into a glass of cold water, a penny matchbox full of nutmeg had the kick of three or four reefers (Haley 1965).

Malcolm X’s autobiography sparked interest in nutmeg’s narcotic properties within the counterculture—interest that has carried through to the present day. The use of nutmeg in prisons eventu-

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ally became so widespread that nutmeg was ultimately removed from prison kitchens. The fact that nutmeg was cheap and legal made the narcotic popular among prisoners, seamen, soldiers, and struggling musicians. Jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker reportedly knew about the narcotic properties of nutmeg, and would take the ground spice in Coca-Cola or milk (Rudgley 1998). While many have experimented with nutmeg since the 1960s, it remains viewed as a second-class drug, deserving of little attention.

EFFECTS OF NUTMEG Physiological effects include dry mouth, nausea, tachycardia, cutaneous flushing, paresthesia, hypotension, euphoria, detachment, CNS excitation, hallucinations, and dyspnea. Nutmeg does not cause any obvious effect on pupil size. Nutmeg is perhaps best described as a deliriant. In low doses nutmeg inebriation shares characteristics of the combination of alcohol and marijuana. In higher doses the effects are more similar to those of the tropane alkaloids, causing confusion, disorientation, and hallucinations. The effects of nutmeg come on and dissipate in waves. One moment there may be a feeling of inebriation, while the next moment the feeling has passed. As the effects subside, the veil between ordinary and non-ordinary reality remains thin, allowing the user some control to switch back and forth between states of consciousness. One reason why the effects of nutmeg remain mysterious to so many is that nutmeg inebriation follows a unique time-line. This is also the cause of much animosity towards nutmeg. People approach nutmeg expecting effects to come on within an hour as they do with traditional psychedelics like psilocybin-containing mushrooms or LSD. When it does not, people—believing they have not taken enough—will increase their dose and inadvertently become much more inebriated than planned. To best describe the effects of nutmeg inebriation, and to avoid mishaps, I have broken them down into stages and summarized the effects that one might experience during each phase of inebriation.

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THRESHOLD STAGE (hours 1–4): The major effects of nutmeg generally do not take effect until the fourth hour after ingestion. However, nutmeg produces subtle effects within the first hour, and the effects rise in waves over the next three hours until inebriation takes hold. These effects are often written off as placebo due to their mild nature, but the changes are noticeably distinct. Generally these threshold effects are experienced as a combination of feeling energetic and yet markedly relaxed at the same time. One may perceive changes in pressure in the head, changes which are usually interpreted as either light-headedness or the beginnings of a headache. The effects experienced in this stage are otherwise similar to those caused by a pint or two of good beer, depending on dosage. INITIAL INEBRIATION (hours 4–8): The truly inebriating properties of nutmeg generally take hold within the fourth or fifth hour following consumption. By this time cotton mouth has set in and the eyes have become bloodshot. The inebriation takes on a strong alcohol/marijuana-like buzz, which continues to rise in waves, and concentration becomes difficult. The senses become enhanced and hilarity tends to set in. This is followed by the onset of closed-eye visuals, time distortion, and the beginnings of slurred speech. Reality may take on a dream-like nature during this stage.



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RESIDUAL INEBRIATION (hours 19–25): By hour nineteen the main inebriating effects of nutmeg have generally worn off. The user will probably still feel moderately stoned for the next seven or eight hours. Some report feeling weak and tired by this point in the trip. Those who sleep during this stage may find their dreams to be exceptionally vivid and easy to recall upon waking. Hangover effects may set in for those who forget to remain hydrated. FINAL STAGE–BASELINE (hours 26–32): By hour thirty-two most users will be more or less back to baseline. The user will likely continue to feel relaxed, perhaps slightly stoned, and may continue to experience difficulty concentrating for another day or two.

DOSAGE The potency of nutmeg can vary significantly from sample to sample; one should be aware of how potent one’s material is before taking a large dose. Nutmeg from the East Indies is said to be more potent than that produced in the West Indies, and freshly ground nutmeg is reputed to be more potent than pre-ground. Nutmeg is not very conducive to adjustment of dose since onset may take up to six hours, making familiarity with potency quite important.

PEAK INEBRIATION (hours 8–12): The peak generally sets in around the eighth or ninth hour following ingestion and usually continues for three or four hours. At this point the user may experience auditory hallucinations, closed-eye visuals and possibly mild open-eye visuals, including walls breathing and disturbances in the peripheral vision. The user’s speech may become slurred and he or she may experience loss of coordination similar to drunkenness.

The following information on dosage is based on my own experiences and on an analysis of 176 experience reports posted on-line at Erowid.org.

END OF PEAK (hours 13–18): Around the thirteenth hour it usually becomes apparent that the peak is over and the user might feel a slight letting up in the effects. The effects decrease slowly, and usually do so in waves, much like the onset.

LOW—MODERATE (6–10 grams or 1.5–3 tsp) A low–moderate dose of nutmeg will produce a more distinct effect than a threshold dose, and may cause visual distortions, closed-eye visuals, and auditory hallucinations. Short-term memory may become impaired and speech may become slightly slurred during the peak of a low–moderate dose.

THRESHOLD (3–5 grams or 1–1.5 tsp) A threshold dose of nutmeg is marked by euphoria, relaxation, mood elevation, hilarity and enhancement of the senses. Baseline is around hour eighteen. Some people will not experience effects at this level.

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MODERATE (11–15 grams or 1–1.5 Tbsp) A moderate dose of nutmeg can cause slurred speech, disorientation, and loss of coordination. Previously stated effects increase and the user may experience mild visual phenomenon.

the juice will be thick, if not chunky. A good way to test the potency of nutmeg is to insert a darning needle (or similar device) one centimeter into the flesh of the nut; if a drop of oil bubbles up after pulling the needle out then the nutmeg is good.

MODERATE–HIGH (16–20 grams or 1.5–2 Tbsp) A moderate–high dose may produce a waking dream-like state. One individual sought emergency room services after ingesting 15–20 grams of nutmeg. The user reported experiencing trouble breathing, blackouts, delusions, and panic (Marquis 2006).

Karlos Fandango reports on Erowid.org that the active principle can be extracted by boiling nutmeg and collecting the waxy film that collects on top of the pot as the water cools (Fandango 2001). What Fandango has described is a way of extracting the fixed oil of nutmeg, otherwise known as nutmeg butter. Nutmeg butter has limited medicinal or cosmetic use, and does not contain the suspected active components of nutmeg, which are primarily myristicin, elemicin, and safrole (while myristicin alone has been shown to be psychoactive, it does not appear to completely replicate the inebriation caused by nutmeg). Nutmeg butter does contain trimyristin, which may have slight sedative effects. However, my attempts to repeat Fandango’s recipe produced no sedation nor any other psychoactive effects.

HIGH (20–25 grams or 2–2.5 Tbsp) A high dose may increase the perception of being in a dream world. Users may begin experiencing stomach pain. NOT RECOMMENDED (25+ grams or 2.5+ Tbsp) Doses this high usually will not increase the psychoactive effects of nutmeg, but will likely increase the length of the trip and thus will take longer to recover from. Physical discomforts such as stomach pain, abnormally rapid heartbeat, nausea, and dizziness tend to increase. Vomiting seldom occurs. User may experience trouble breathing or trouble urinating. Users may also become delusional. Out of sixty-six individuals who reported taking more than 25 grams of nutmeg, 17% reported having a difficult experience and 45% of these sought emergency room care. The average dose for those reporting negative effects was between 29 and 30 grams, though the median dose was only 25 grams. The average dose for those seeking ER care was 47.5 grams, while the median dose was 52.5 grams. With the variability in potency of nutmeg, some samples might require a high dose to produce a moderate effect, but one should be extremely familiar with the potency of his or her material before taking a high or not-recommended dose.

PREPARATION The easiest way to take nutmeg is to grind whole nutmegs and add them to juice. Freshly ground nutmeg is the best, because powdered nutmeg soon loses the oils that give it its distinct flavor and unique properties. I find the flavor goes with orange juice quite well—one just has to accept that

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Another preparation floating around the Internet is a recipe for “space paste” (Me 2001). The recipe is as follows, where one “part” equals a tablespoon. 4 parts nutmeg (ground from whole nutmeg) 4 parts almonds (soak overnight and rinse) 4 parts raw pistachios 2 parts cinnamon 1 part cumin 1 part tarragon 1 part oregano 1 part basil 1 part turmeric 1 /2 part cayenne pepper 1 /2 part black pepper maple syrup (to taste) One Internet poster, identifying himself as “Me,” compared eating two tablespoons of space paste to eating marijuana brownies and reported that this dose produced mild hallucinations (Me 2001). Two tablespoons of paste would contain less than one teaspoon of nutmeg—a threshold dose at best. However, a quick search of the Internet demonstrated that “Me” was not the only individual to

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have success with this recipe. The following question was submitted to a medical web site: Mother brings 14 y.o. female to emergency room. Initial exam is exceptional for elevated respiration and BP, nausea, moderate perspiration, and child complaining of colorful hallucinations. A typical LSD case, or maybe an exotic hallucinogen? Nope. Kids made a concoction out of the following ingredients: Nutmeg, almonds, raw pistachios, cinnamon, cumin, tarragon, oregano, basil, turmeric, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and Maple Syrup, mixed into a vanilla milkshake. Nice coating for pork chops, but is there anything here that would explain the patient’s condition? — Houston, TX (Houston 2006).

The questioner was advised that nutmeg was the likely culprit. However, given the low levels of nutmeg, other ingredients likely play a synergistic role in the inebriating effect. The author, “Me,” declares that the recipe will not work unless all ingredients are included. Black pepper also contains high levels of myristicin, and the Winter 2003 issue of The Entheogen Review commented on how the chemical piperine from black pepper inhibits the metabolism of some drugs/chemicals, leading to an increase in their effects [TER 12(4): 134]. Capsaicin, a chemical found in cayenne pepper, is also a mild inhibitor of cytochrome P450 2E1, which is a mixed-function oxidase involved in metabolism that mediates some drug interactions. It could be that one or both of these peppers is the reason why lower doses of nutmeg seem to have stronger effects when taken via this preparation. While few inebriating plant preparations are palatable for the average person, there are some lowdose nutmeg preparations useful as aphrodisiacs or mood-elevators that are quite agreeable. Add 1 /4 to 1/2 tsp of nutmeg to a cup of hot chocolate and let it simmer until the surface of the drink becomes oily. This makes for a spicy drink that helps to allay anxiety and imbues confidence and a positive outlook. Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling (2006) offer the following recipe for “Cookies for Preventing Sadness” in their book Pagan Christmas:



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The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide. The recipe is slightly modified for purposes of American baking measurements. 2 Tbsp ground nutmeg 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon 1.5 tsp ground cloves 3 cups flour 3 /4 cup sugar 2 sticks of butter 2 eggs pinch salt 3 /4 cup chopped almonds Mix ingredients and bake cookies at 350˚F for five to ten minutes. The cookies are sweet, spicy, and they lift the spirits. Perfect for the holidays.

PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICITY Nutmeg consists of 45–60% cellulose and solid matter, 24–40% fixed oils and 5–15% volatile oils. The fixed oil (or “butter”) of nutmeg is an orangecolored waxy substance. The butter contains 70– 85% trimyristin, which has been shown to have a sedative effect on chickens, and it also contains myristic acid. The real power of nutmeg, however, is contained within the volatile (or essential) oil. The volatile oil of nutmeg is a pale-yellow, nearly colorless liquid, with a distinct smell of nutmeg. The volatile oil contains 80% monoterpenes and 5% monoterpene alcohols with the remainder made up by aromatic ethers and miscellaneous compounds (Forrest & Heacock 1972). The aromatic ether fraction contains myristicin, elemicin, and safrole, along with other alkyl-benzene derivatives, such as estragole, eugenol, iso-elemicin, isoeugenol, methyl-eugenol, methyl-isoeugenol, and methoxy-eugenol (Kalbhen 1971; Forest & Heacock 1972; Shulgin 1967; Shulgin et al. 1967; Duke 2008), and it is believed to be responsible for the psychoactive effects of nutmeg. It has been speculated that the psychoactivity of myristicin, elemicin, and safrole is due to their metabolizing into known psychoactive compounds. Alexander Shulgin proposed in 1967 that the compounds would metabolize in the body as follows: myristicin to MMDA; elemicin to TMA; and safrole

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into MDA (Shulgin 1967). However, studies that have tried to confirm this process were unable to detect amphetamine-type compounds in the urine of rats that were administered myristicin and safrole (Forest & Heacock 1972, citing Oswald et al. 1971). The psychoactive effects of nutmeg are still not well understood, and only myristicin has been tested on human subjects. Myristicin, or methoxysafrole, is a benzodioxole with slight MAO-inhibiting properties. Myristicin is a colorless oil that generally does not crystallize, even at extremely low temperatures (i.e., -30°C). Myristicin is mostly stable upon storage, but still subject to gradual changes in composition. Myristicin is insoluble in water and only slightly soluble in ethanol. The best solvents for extracting myristicin are benzene and diethyl ether. Myristicin generally makes up 4–8% of nutmeg’s volatile oil and has been found in concentrations as high as 1.3% of nutmeg by weight (C.E.F.S. 2005). The myristicin content in mace is generally double that of nutmeg, making it potentially more potent than nutmeg. Myristicin is active at the 5-HT receptors in the brain, and has been shown to have hypotensive, sedative, anti-depressant, anesthetic, hallucinogenic, and serotonergic properties (Sangalli & Chiang 2001). Large doses generally cause hyperexcitability, followed by CNS depression. Myristicin is fairly unique as a hallucinogen (if it may be classified as such), because it lacks a nitrogen atom. It is also rare for a compound lacking a nitrogen group to show activity at the brain’s 5-HT receptors. Myristicin’s psychoactive properties were confirmed by a study on ten human participants in 1961 (Hallstrom & Thuvander 1997, citing Truitt et al. 1961). Each of the participants was administered 400 mg of myristicin, or approximately 6–7 mg/kg by body weight. Only four of the participants experienced psychoactive effects, including euphoria, anxiety, and trouble concentrating.1 That only four participants experienced psychoactive effects at this level suggests that 400 mg or (6–7 mg/ kg) is a threshold effective dose for nearly half of

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the population. Time of onset was between two and three hours after ingestion. Interestingly, 400 mg of myristicin is around twice the amount of myristicin that would be present in a moderate– high psychoactive dose of nutmeg, suggesting that myristicin is not the sole psychoactive agent in nutmeg. Myristicin is found elsewhere in nature, notably in black pepper, carrots, celery, dill weed, parsley, and parsnip. Myristicin is almost completely processed in the body within 48 hours of ingestion. This long processing period may help to explain the extraordinary length of nutmeg’s effect. Because of myristicin’s close relationship with safrole, it has long been considered a “suspected carcinogen.” However, scientific data is lacking on this point. Several studies indicate possible carcinogenicity, but the results have been statistically insignificant. Myristicin has shown mild DNA binding properties, an indicator of carcinogenicity, but has not been found to be genotoxic (Hallstrom & Thuvander 1997). In one study, twelve rats were administered 10 mg/ kg of myristicin per day for twenty-six days. After this period, no differences in body weight were discernible from the control group and no abnormalities were detected in the liver or kidneys. The LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of the population) in rats was shown to be greater than 1000 mg/kg (Hallstrom & Thuvander 1997). For comparison sake, the threshold effective dose in humans stands around 6–7 mg/kg. Myristicin has also been suspected as a potential hepatotoxin, but the studies available suggest that rather than being hepatotoxic, myristicin may in fact be hepatoprotective (Morita et al. 2003). One study consisted of injecting mice with LPS (lipopolysaccharide) and d-GaIN (d-galactosamine), both liver toxins, and measuring the changes in levels of ALT (alanine aminotransferase) and AST (aspartate aminotransferase), both enzymes that indicate liver injury. A single oral dose of myristicin at quantities of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg was shown to inhibit serum elevations of both ALT and AST

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in the injected mice (Morita et al. 2003). Further, DNA fragmentation generally caused by the liver toxins LPS and d-GaIN was effectively suppressed by a single oral dose of 200 mg/kg of myristicin (Morita et al. 2003). Several studies on mice suggest that myristicin may reduce the frequency of and inhibit the growth of tumors. One study showed that myristicin significantly reduced tumor formation in the lungs and forestomachs of mice with benzo(a)pyrene-induced carcinogenicity (Hallstrom & Thuvander 1997). Myristicin has also been shown to be an inducer of GST (glutathione S-transferase), a substance that inhibits tumorigenesis. Myristicin was shown to cause a fourfold increase in GST activity in the liver and a threefold increase in the small intestine (C.S.W.G. 1997). Studies on other animals have been less promising. Cats orally administered 400 mg/kg of myristicin experienced fatty degeneration of the liver while rabbits and guinea pigs administered myristicin subcutaneously experienced both brain and liver lesions (Forrest & Heacock 1972). Studies on chronic and reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity of myristicin are still lacking. Further studies on myristicin’s hepatoprotective and tumor-inhibiting properties are also needed. Elemicin, one of the other suspected psychoactive components of nutmeg, is similar to myristicin in that it lacks a nitrogen group and is also active at the brain’s 5-HT receptors. Elemicin has displayed anti-depressant, hallucinogenic, anti-histamine, hypotensive and anti-serotonergic properties (Sangalli & Chiang 2000). There is some evidence of DNA binding and genotoxicity with elemicin (C.E.F.S. 2005). Studies on hepatocarcinogenicity have been inconclusive. Safrole is also suspected of contributing to the psychoactive properties of nutmeg, but there is sparse evidence to support this theory. Safrole makes up 75–80% of oil of sassafras, which has been used medicinally for hundreds of years and has never been reported to be hallucinogenic (Forrest & Heacock 1972). The FDA considers safrole to be



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carcinogenic—a finding that some herbalists take issue with based on its long history of safe use by various Native American groups (Buhner 1998). The terpenes are generally not suspected of contributing to the psychoactivity of nutmeg. However, many compounds from the terpenic fraction of nutmeg are structurally similar to known CNS stimulants. Overdoses on some terpene-containing medicines have also been reported to produce similar reactions to those caused by nutmeg (Forrest & Heacock 1972). Whether psychoactive or not, the terpenes may still contribute to the effect of nutmeg by irritating the gastrointestinal tract and thus facilitating absorption of the suspected psychoactive compounds (Kalbhen 1971). While the toxicity of nutmeg is still in question, there are numerous reports of accidental poisonings and emergency room visits that help provide some extra information. In poisoning cases vitals are taken and organs are checked and monitored for abnormalities. Several case studies merit brief mention. The Journal of Internal Medicine reported on the case of a thirty-two-year-old man who sought emergency room care after ingesting seven grams of ground nutmeg (Sjoholm et al. 1998). The hospital ran tests on the man and found that his blood count, electrolyte levels, calcium and liver enzymes were all within normal ranges. The Journal of Clinical Toxicology also reported on a nutmeg poisoning case involving a thirteen-year-old who had ingested 15–25 grams of nutmeg (Sangalli & Chiang 2000). Tests conducted on the boy showed that electrolyte levels, renal and liver function, urinalysis, hematology, and a pelvic ultrasound all returned without abnormality. Almost all cases of nutmeg poisoning are resolved without note and most emergency room visits are accounted for by accidental poisonings or by panic reactions. There are two recorded deaths involving nutmeg poisoning. The first case involved an eight-yearold boy who ingested fourteen grams of nutmeg, or the equivalent of 560 mg/kg of myristicin by body weight (Stein et al. 2001). The boy fell into a coma and died twenty-four hours after ingestion. There do not appear to be any other explanations beyond nutmeg poisoning for the boy’s death. The

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second case involved the death of a fifty-five-yearold woman (Stein et al. 2001). The woman was found with toxic, but not fatal, concentrations of flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) in her blood. Blood tests also showed the presence of myristicin, with a speculated dose of between 560 and 840 mg/kg of myristicin by body weight. While the myristicin levels in the two fatal cases are comparable, it is believed that the combination of a high dose of nutmeg and a toxic dose of flunitrazepam was the cause of death. Other instances from emergency rooms and poison control centers report that cases of nutmeg poisoning involving up to eighty grams of nutmeg (or up to 1100 mg/kg of myristicin by body weight) have occurred without the presence of life-threatening symptoms (Stein et al. 2001).

CONCLUSIONS Nutmeg has been used for thousands of years for multiple purposes. It appears to have a fairly large safety margin for use, although the long-term effects of nutmeg use on the body are not well understood. The biggest known danger from experimentation is dehydration, and the biggest discomfort the resulting hangover. By keeping non-alcoholic/non-caffeinated fluids handy, and drinking often, this hangover (which can otherwise last several days) can likely be avoided.

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The most promising aspects of nutmeg seem to be its potential as an anti-depressant and as an aphrodisiac when used in small doses. I have felt improvements in mood and decreases in anxiety with as little as 1/4 tsp in a cup of chocolate, or with one or two cookies from the recipe above. With knowledge of nutmeg’s mood-elevating properties going back a thousand years or more, further investigation into the potential of nutmeg as an antidepressant seems merited. All in all, nutmeg is a well-rounded little nut. It may be used to brighten your day, to spice up your love life, to flavor your food, to induce vivid dreams, or to just get plain stoned. This seed has been overlooked and misunderstood by many entheophiles, but once one is privy to her secrets she can become a valuable ally. 

Footnotes 1. Another secondary source (Shulgin et al. 1967) also citing Truitt et al. 1961, claimed symptoms from 400 mg of myristicin “at least suggestive of psychotropic effects in 6 out of 10 subjects.” The original paper by Truitt et al. states that there was a “definite reaction” in each of 4 subjects, and that 2 subjects each had a “questionable reaction.”

Trout’s Notes on Some Simple Tryptamines was out of print for a while, but it is once again available in a completely updated edition. At 304 pages, with over 400 illustrations, including more than 300 full-color photographs, Some Simple Tryptamines is an invaluable reference tool for those interested in psychoactive plants containing tryptamines, as well as assorted synthetic tryptamines. Some Simple Tryptamines is the most comprehensive and detailed overview that exists concerning this subject. Softcover, printed on high quality acid-free paper, with a sturdy sewn-andglued binding. It’s a book that belongs in every serious psychonaut’s library, and the addition of color photographs for this expanded edition is tremendously helpful for the purpose of identifying botanicals. The book is $50 (USA), $55 (foreign), from www.entheogenreview.com/ somesimpletrypta.html

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Network Feedback INSECTOID SPHINX ENTITIES A few years back I read Ecstatic Body Postures by Belinda Gore. The premise of this book is how doing yoga-like poses and forms based on body positions of sculptures and figurines from various cultures of antiquity can help induce altered mind states. I got the idea (it seemed like a good one at the time) to take mushrooms and go to the spa I work out at regularly, to try out these “ecstatic positions.” Inspired by the article “Mushroom Ayahuasca” by James Kent in the then-recent issue of Psychedelic Illuminations magazine (“…your mushroom trip will be twice as strong and ten-times [weirder]”), I decided to try the fungus with Syrian rue seeds. I ate three 1.5–inch Psilocybes with six gel-caps of rue seed, and motored over to the health club (in clear violation of Erowid’s very conscientious “don’t drive on drugs” guidelines, which this story predates). I’m starting to “come on” while driving; once there, I quickly get my gym clothes on and sit down at the quadriceps/thigh-strengthening machine. I close my eyes and BAM! Suddenly I’m in an M.C. Escher-type world of endlessly unfolding silver mirrors, realizing that I have grievously erred with regard to Leary’s “set and setting” protocol. Well, the set was good-intentioned, but the setting was way off! To further compound the situation, I don’t have the musical “cocoon” of my walkman—in typical psychedelic unsynchronicity, this is the only time I’ve ever inadvertently left it at home. So I am being subjected the entire time to a horrible Top40 urban “slow-jam” radio station. This is not good. I managed to get in a cursory workout while fighting off the effects, and then bee-lined the hell home. I went straight to my bedroom, lay down, and soon became aware of two entities in the room with me! They were absolutely alien, resembling giant yellowish cicadas with the “paws-outstretched” pose of a sphinx. They had scores of eyes and had wings

folded over their humped backs. These chimeras would have been horrific to behold if not for their radiant aura of sacredness and impeccability. They seemed to be reposing on pedestals just underneath a tented roof. Their regal and solemn gaze penetrated my thoughts and emotions, exposing my every behavioral flaw and the facade of my thencurrent relationship (the one place I wasn’t being truthful with myself at the time). I practically writhed under their stern scrutiny. They eventually faded away into their prismatic ultraviolet dimension. A few weeks later, from the safety of my home, I tried the same combination. There were some other friends over, and I was meditating in a separate room. I could sense the presence of several of the aforementioned entities, but picked up that they were not “showing” themselves due to my friends being there. I somehow got the impression that they were “stationed” under their cover of white peak-domed tents. A year later, I used the same “two Syrian rue caps per mushroom” combination at a very sparsely peopled all-night fishing pier on the Atlantic. I felt the tangible presence of the insectoid energy again—a seeming cluster of prismatic-hued humpbacked moth-like entities in my closed-eye hyperspace. “Meditate with us,” they entreated me, and I did. After a while I got a message akin to, “He has arrived,” as if they were acknowledging the entrance of one of their elders. In an early issue of The Entheogen Review, a Frenchman related the tale of doing mushrooms in a park, and seeing scores of transparent sphinx-like beings descend. Those first beings that I encountered definitely had a sphinx-like energy and demeanor. In Gracie and Zarkov’s “A Tryptamine Expedition… A Note from Underground” (viewable on the net), Zarkov describes an encounter (on five grams of mushrooms and DMT) with “a stadium full of hos-

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tile giant insect creatures that he was familiar with from previous mushroom trips.” DMT creatures then floated by and said, “Aren’t they a dull and pompous bunch! But don’t worry, they can’t get at you because we are here.” Perhaps this reference to “dull and pompous” reflects the solemn nature of the hyperspace bugs that I experienced (although no exact physical description of them is given by G & Z). I have checked the Erowid experience reports for psilocybe/rue experiences, but nothing involving insectoid entities shows up. In fact, I have used the same combination several times in the past few years, and have had no comparable experiences. Anyone out there in ER-land have any hyperspatial “mush-rue-m” entity encounters? — Castor Pollux

ML-2C-E I recently had the opportunity to take some 2C-E. I think. I had been wanting to try it for a while, having heard positive reports about it over the years from the few friends who were lucky enough to obtain it. I also recalled it being highly regarded in the Shulgins’ book PIHKAL (one of the “magical half-dozen”) and in Myron Stolaroff’s Thanatos to Eros. For many years 2C-B was the primary phenethylamine that I enjoyed. But in each of the last three or four times I have taken it, I was plagued by an uncharacteristically heavy body load: flu-like symptoms with nausea, sweating, chills, and a general feeling of being stuck and not getting anywhere on the mental level. I had some mild anxiety before taking the 2C-E, concerned that it might provoke a similar less-than-pleasant experience. However, since the opportunity to try 2C-E had never come before (and I couldn’t know when it might come next), I decided to go for it. Some male friends who had taken 16 mg of the same material I was getting said that it became a pretty heavy trip for them, while some female friends thought that 16 mg was a great dose (and they might have even done a bit more). Being male, I therefore decided to be a tiny bit cautious, and I ate 15 mg. Before I took it, my friend told me that the identity of the drug was not 100% certain. It turned out that this

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friend had placed an order via an on-line research chemical company—one of the few such companies that is still around, alas I don’t recall their name—for some 2C-T-2. As a precaution when the drug arrived, my friend asked a chemist to run a GC/MS analysis on the chemical. It turned out that the substance was definitely not 2C-T-2. It was uncertain what it was, but it seemed highly likely based on the test results that it was 2C-E. We ended up calling it “ML-2C-E” (with the “ML” standing for “most likely”). It took about two hours to come on. We spent time walking in the park, where I noticed how the repeated drastic pruning of some trees had caused a bulbous knot to form at the end of each of their branches. In most cases, the gardeners who had pruned the trees had left one thin branch intact for about five or six inches, before cutting that one off as well. (All of the other branches were trimmed flush to the knobby swollen branch-ends.) This gave the impression of a tree full of fists, flipping-off the gardeners who had pruned them over the decades. I was bouncing along as we walked, my body feeling lighter and full of energy, just laughing and enjoying the day. By the time we caught a city bus to go home, I was headed up to the peak effects. Being more psychically sensitive, my friend and I both easily picked up on the intense sorrow of a number of the bus passengers; we were glad when we finally got back to the house where we were spending the night, surrounded by friends. I was feeling good, but the effects were pretty strong, and I realized that I hadn’t actually read anything about 2C-E for a while (for example, I was surprised that it took so long to come on). I grabbed a copy of PIHKAL off the bookshelf and sat down to do a bit of reading, wondering how many other eyes had flitted across these pages while stoned—probably more people have read PIHKAL while high than any other single book, I imagined. It turned out that I was in for a long day: the duration was listed as eight to twelve hours. I couldn’t complain though, and had a wonderful time—no body load, no dark thoughts, just a great day of insights and camaraderie. I would definitely do ML-2C-E again. I want to state in closing that people need to be careful to be at least fairly sure about the ID of what they are taking. The dose range in PIHKAL for

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2C-E is given as 10–25 mg, and the dose range for 2C-T-2 is 12–25 mg, so in this particular case of mislabeling, it is unlikely that too much could go wrong. 2C-T-2 comes on faster though, so if someone didn’t feel any effects after about an hour they might up their dose in an unwarranted manner. And 2C-E lasts longer, which might be troublesome for someone who only had time for a shorter trip. I’m glad that my friend had access to chemical testing. — Crankcase, CA

MISLABELED DIPT In October of 2007 a friend mentioned that a research chemical being sold as DIPT in Hawaii, which had come from California (but which probably originated from China) was incorrectly identified. The mainland source for the material was asked repeatedly if it might not be 5-MeO-DIPT (or “foxy” as the kids call it) rather than plain DIPT, but the source insisted that it was DIPT. This led my acquaintance to believe that there may have been a labeling error somewhere at the manufacturer. Consequently there could be more of this mystery substance floating around in the future. After checking descriptions online and in TIHKAL, my friend felt fairly confident that the material was actually 5-MeO-MIPT (or “moxy” as the kids call it). The fact that the drug was misidentified caused fairly serious differential dosage issues among a few of the people who had taken it. My friend is worried that someone might end up in a hospital from overdosing on a misidentified chemical. The substance was described as having induced an extremely intense experience at the purveyor-recommended 30 mg with little to no audio distortion (an effect attributed to DIPT). There was red/ orange enhancement coupled with a visual effect that could be typified as “viscous ether.” The males who took it all experienced extreme increases in libido. However, the most significant effects didn’t seem to be easy to qualify. Perhaps it could be best described as agitated emotional disorientation. Both of the people who had difficult experiences had cumulative lifetime exposure to 5-MeO-DIPT in excess of a gram (including some unpleasant high



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dose experiences), and both were certain that this was not 5-MeO-DIPT. While my friend realizes that foxy can be highly variable, he accepted their judgment because of their past experience and because these effects occurred in a stable, mundane setting. His inclination that it was 5-MeO-MIPT, based upon post-baseline reports, was reinforced when one of the people who had a difficult experience commented, “It was superficially sort of like foxy but with a very unique vibe that included all these strange, almost 5-MeO-DMT, undertones.” A couple of seasoned psychonauts freaked out to the point where they endangered themselves and the people around them. Hence, my friend is concerned about what sort of reaction a run-of-themill yokel might have to the “recommended” 30 mg dose. (5-MeO-MIPT is active at 4–6 mg, and DIPT is active at 25–100 mg). I suggested to my friend that someone should send in a sample of the material for testing, but I have not heard anything back on that count. Labeling mistakes can clearly happen—just ask George Ricaurte! (Although in that case, the “mistake” may have been made after the chemicals had left the manufacturer, and not before.) — B. Cautious

“DMT FOR THE MASSES” ERRATUM It has been pointed out that part of the “DMT for the Masses” article by Noman in TER 15(3): 91– 92 was less-than-clear as presented. This happened during a re-write of the piece, and was entirely our fault. In step #6 we stated that one should: “Repeat steps 2–5 above three more times, but do not add any new powdered root-bark.” What it should have said was to: “Repeat steps 4–5 above three more times…” That is, you are reusing the same lye solution and only adding new naptha. Our apologies for the error. Also, since we ran the piece, an improvement was noted. For the non-polar extraction (step 4) one should use 1 ml of naptha for each 15 ml of water used to create the lye solution (not for every 10 ml, as originally stated). — David Aardvark

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New Data on the Entheogenic Mushroom PSILOCYBE KUMÆNORUM by Benjamin Thomas Psilocybe kumænorum R. Heim is a bluing agaric belonging to Section Zapotecorum Guzmán of the genus Psilocybe (Guzmán 1983). It was first collected by Heim and Wasson in 1963 (Heim & Wasson 1964; 1965) in the southern Wahgi Valley, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea and described later by Heim (Heim 1967a; 1967b). They were looking for information on the reports of Reay (Reay 1959; 1960) about the Kuma, regarding their probable use of visionary fungi. This fungus is known as koull tourroum, kougltourroum or koobl tourroum in the Yuwi or Yoowi language of the Kuma people. However, the Kuma people used these common names for a variety of different mushrooms (Heim 1967b), so they are possibly of little use in distinguishing Psilocybe kumænorum from other mushroom species found in the southern Waghi Valley.

ochre (K.157’162) or greenish (±K.245) at the peak of the mamilla; at the edges marked with not very thick but clear stripes of a very dark violet (K.544 dark); very hygrophanous, blanching quickly (cream), as demonstrated by the desiccation of little whitish spots. STIPE [stem] reaching 2.7 cm, 1.3 mm width, 2.5 mm at the base which is lightly but clearly bulging; at first white and marked with fine, very straight longitudinal furrows, of greyish brown, silvery at the top where there are fine remnants of a delicate, silky, white cortina; at the bottom: hollow, with a violet-red cortex, light green on the exterior (K.303 C) or grey tending slightly towards blue (K.325); flesh orange yellow (K.137). LAMELLÆ [gills] firstly cream, then ochre, then mauve/mallow or pale orange-mauve (K.109 light), finally violet with purple tint (±K.105), at the edges white and remaining so; adnexed. FLESH brownish, with the scent of flour (Heim 1967a).

MATERIALS & METHODS

NEW DESCRIPTION

New mushroom specimens of Psilocybe kumænorum were collected from grassy areas at the Hill Tops Lodge near the town of Minj in the southern Wahgi Valley, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea (lat. 5.55, long. 144.40), during the wet season in late January. Microscopic study was made with slides mounted in KOH 5% reagent and with a scanning electron microscope (Hitachi S-405a).

Psilocybe kumænorum R. Heim var. wahgiensis Thomas = P. kumænorum (R. Heim) Guzmán & Thom.

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION PILEUS [cap] 5–7 mm in diameter, peak mamillate and punctate, but not papillate, flattened and very irregular, with an edge largely lobed/notched, often fairly roughly, rolling up tightly at the beginning; at first campanulate and entirely black-brown, then darkish crimson/purple around the circumference (K.65) with a center of flesh colored cream (128C/153C) or orange color; sometimes with subtle greenish tones; orange-yellow, cream or light

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PILEUS 5–7 mm diameter, campanulate to mamillate punctate and convoluted in age, dark purple to black brown, hygrophanous with white spots. LAMELLÆ adnexed, firstly cream then ochre to mauve, finally violet-purple, edges white. STIPE (10) 22.5–27 ✕ 1.2 (-2.5) mm, white, straight greyishbrown longitudinal furrows, silver at top, hollow, bluing. VEIL as white cortina. CONTEXT fleshy, cream-colored in the pileus, brownish in the stipe, odour farinaceous; easily bluing when bruised or cut. SPORE PRINT dark purplish-brown. Spores 5.5– 7.6 (8.5) ✕ 3.5–4.2 μ . BASIDIA 5–6.5 μ cylindrical. PLEUROCYSTIDIA absent. CHEILOCYSTIDIA 3.5–4 μ fusiform [see Figure 1].

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Figure 1. Psilocybe kumænorum R. Heim.

HABITAT: Scattered on soil in small groupings on grass (Themeda australis L.). DISTRIBUTION: Known only from the type locality. Guzmán and Watling (1978) suggested that it is possible that Psilocybe kumænorum may also occur in Australia (Gold Coast, SE Qld.). This species may also be found in New Zealand as reported by Ott (1993). DOCUMENTED LOCATION: Hill Tops Lodge, Minj, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Mean maximum temperature: 78.5˚F. Mean minimum temperature: 59.0˚F. Rainfall (January): Ten inches.

ETHNOBOTANICAL DATA The use of Psilocybe kumænorum for visionary effects has not been confirmed among the Kuma people (Heim 1967b; Heim & Wasson 1964; Heim & Wasson 1965). P. kumænorum is classified by Kuma folk taxonomy as “inedible,” and Kuma consider these mushrooms to be poisonous. It is unknown whether or not the Kuma were aware of the mushroom’s psychoactive effects. William Emboden has argued that “…it seems unlikely that given the broad use of mushrooms, the presence of Psilocybe with its potent intoxicating psilocin and psilocybin would be ignored by native inhabitants only to be discovered by a nonnative visiting the area” (Emboden 1979). It was recently suggested by Gastón Guzmán that there are probably some tribes in Papua New Guinea that use Psilocybe kumænorum for “religious purposes” (Guzmán 2005).



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Fitz John Porter Poole has reported that a species of mushroom known as ’nemeyaap has been used with other species of mushrooms among the BiminKuskusmin people of the West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea in a ritual that purportedly produces visionary effects; Poole believes Psilocybe kumænorum are used in these rituals. The male initiation rituals of the Bimin-Kuskusmin involve twelve successive stages that honor the androgynous ancestral being Afek. These rituals are based on the use of sacred plants known as “waraang,” which means “heart palpitations” and refers to the physiological effects of these plants. The mushroom is regarded by the Bimin-Kuskusmin as a “twelfth-stage mushroom” and it is considered to be extremely powerful and dangerous. It is only used by senior elders in the final stage of the male initiation ritual, and its use represents the pinnacle of entitlement, ritual strength, knowledge, and power. These mushrooms are considered so powerful and dangerous that if they were to be eaten in any other context, even by a senior elder, they would be poisonous.

ANALYSIS A presumptive microcrystalline color reagent test (Keller Reaction) was used by dissolving a few milligrams of air-dried mushroom powder in 1 ml ferric chloride containing acetic acid and stratifying with 1 ml concentrated sulfuric acid. This reagent test was positive for psilocybin (violet). Further reagent tests were also positive for psilocybin including Van Urk’s reagent (purple) and Fast Blue B (red). HPLC analysis identified indole compounds in MeOH extracts of three samples of dried Psilocybe kumænorum fruit bodies. Sample 1 had 0.36% psilocybin and 0.14% psilocin; Sample 2 had 0.54% psilocybin and 0.11% psilocin; Sample 3 had 0.39% psilocybin and 0.18% psilocin.

CULTIVATION Heim (1967a) cultivated Psilocybe kumænorum mycelia from spores, under artificial conditions on malted agar-agar medium to produce a flaky, cotton-like pure white mycelial culture very slowly developing and forming sticky flakes distinguished as very straight, almost filiform and with uncolored filaments of size about 0.6–0.7 μ. These methods were successful for sterile cultivation of myce-

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lia using malt extract agar-agar and nutrient mixture to obtain fast fruiting without casing of a Psilocybe kumænorum strain.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

PHARMACOLOGY: SUBJECTIVE EFFECTS1

Footnotes

Initial effects after twenty minutes included nausea, light-headedness, muscle aches, and stomach pain. This was followed by mild visual effects including blurred vision, brighter colors, after-images, and visual (eidetic) patterns with eyes closed after one hour. There were increased visual effects after two hours, with a distorted sense of time and mood changes lasting for about three-and-a-half hours. The total effect lasted for nearly six hours with no residual effects after eight hours. This is consistent with the early clinical studies on the pharmacological effects of psilocybin.

The author is indebted to Dr. Gastón Guzmán from Mexico for comments, criticisms, and revisions. 

1. Caveat: These preliminary notes are based on experimental data from scientific research conducted in the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, where psilocybin and psilocin are not classified as psychotropic substances under international control in accordance with the national Dangerous Drugs Act, but are instead scheduled as poisons in the Poisons Act.

Events Calendar AYAHUASCA HEALING RETREAT • APRIL 2–12, 2008 Experience ayahuasca in an Eden-like environment in Bahia, Brazil. Both ayahuasca and Salvia divinorum are used to attain higher states of consciousness and psychospiritual healing. Participants partake in four ayahuasca ceremonies and three Salvia divinorum explorations. The retreats are held in a private eco-center on 39 acres of lush preserved area within Mata Atlantica, the second largest rainforest in Brazil. Located seven miles from the coastal town of Itacar, and only minutes away from pristine beaches. For more info see www.ayahuascahealing.net.

TOWARD A SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS • APRIL 8–12, 2008 Incredible biennial conference in Tucson, AZ, dealing with consciousness from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives. There are always some presentations on entheogens and altered states. For more info see www.consciousness.arizona.edu/tucson2008.htm.

SHESHAMANS • MAY 16–18, 2008 Held in Calistoga, CA, this conference celebrates women’s contributions to the fields of entheogens and ritual magic (but men are welcome to attend, too). For more info see www.sheshamans.com.

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SHAMANISM, VISIONARY ART, AND THE DARK SIDE OF PSYCHEDELICS • APRIL 10, 2008 A trialogue with Jeremy Narby, Alex Grey, and J.P. Harpignies. Held in NYC at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. For more info see www.cosm.org.

VISIONARY PRACTICE: RITUAL AND RESHAPING THE CONSCIOUSNESS • JUNE 13–15, 2008 The Ojai Foundation presents a weekend retreat led by Erik Davis, Dale Pendell, Laura Pendell, and David Presti. Traditional spiritual disciplines usually involve a daily practice. Shamanic and visionary traditions often involve “extraordinary” practice. Both approaches use ritual to shape and contain deep changes in consciousness. In this weekend workshop, we will explore traditional rites of practice and celebration, as well as contemporary improvisations. $435 includes the retreat, lodging, and all meals. $385 includes the retreat, a campsite, and all meals. $345 (for commuters) includes the retreat and all meals. The Ojai Foundation is located on forty acres of beautiful semi-wilderness at the foot of the Los Padres Mountains in the upper Ojai Valley, ninety minutes’ drive northwest of Los Angeles. To download the flyer: http://www.ojaifoundation.org/ Images/Flyers/Visionary06_08.jpg. To register, call the Ojai Foundation at (805) 646-8343 ext. 111.

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Conference Review Six years ago, in an effort to escape what I saw as an ongoing attempt by corporations and the media to manipulate my thoughts, I turned off my television set, permanently. In addition, I began to filter billboards, magazine ads, and Internet banners from my consciousness, simply by attentively not paying attention. I would shield myself from the evils of manipulative marketing forever! However, when I found myself wondering whether I should attend the Mind States conference in 2007, with trembling fingers and bated breath I checked out the advertisement for the event on YouTube. The marketing scheme was brilliant. Alongside ethereal, angelic tones, a commanding ’50s style voice rang out, “Well son, a funny thing about regret is, that it’s better to regret something you have done, than to regret something you haven’t done.” Succumbing to the pressure of that insidious remark, I hopped on a plane, hardly able to contain myself—headed towards Costa Rica for Mind States 2007. Arriving to the usual chaos and sweltering heat of a small tropical airport, we were picked up by the pre-arranged tour bus, packed in like sardines, and hustled along the twists and turns leading to the resort where we would spend the week. Paying homage to the third world, we were held up for about ten minutes in front of a suspension bridge leading to the property, in order to allow maintenance workers to replace one of the bridge’s roadway sections that had been removed

for a much needed painting. From there, a simple thatched entry way led to the resort, which was rustic and gorgeous. Costa Ricans (Ticos) are a beautiful people, pleasant and welcoming. The resort staff always seemed to be nearby, discretely and unassumingly waiting in the wings to see if they could make our stay more comfortable in any way. My days began with quiet, early walks to the restaurant to have my morning brew, and then I’d stroll pool-side where I sometimes met with a few guests to share in the rising sun. Most of the others were still resting at this time, so it was a perfect opportunity for peaceful moments listening to the awakening jungle. Then, after spirited conversation around the breakfast table, where fried plantains, crispy bacon, and fresh papaya were served on colorful platters, the days were spent attending lectures, with ample opportunity to enjoy the grounds in between. The speakers and lectures were well-organized, thoughtfully chosen, and almost always began on time, which was amazing given the laid back atmosphere and sleepy summer weather! Although there was an odd power outage and the din of evening rain to contend with, the air-conditioned lecture hall provided respite from the heat. I tried to attend all of the talks, but missed a few because there was too much to see and do in the six days I had available. I never tire of listening to Sasha and Ann Shulgin in discussion, and found myself giggling as I watched them interact. Sasha, the brilliant and sometimes mad scientist, occasionally burst forth with an outrageous remark, while Ann sat, jaw agape, staring sideways. (At one point, though, she did ask him aloud whether he had lost his mind!) The two of them are captivating, and display a love and respect for each other that is both rare and magical. The Erowids, too, display a sense of oneness as they speak together, seamlessly trading

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sentences throughout their lectures, their individual contributions melding together into one cohesive passage. I found myself pondering these magical couples; there is perhaps nothing quite so beautiful and inspiring as the union of two psychedelic minds. I had the tremendous pleasure of being able to sit one-on-one with some of the speakers in more casual settings. Mark Pesce—who’s ferociously driven, yet tongue-incheek rants on the future of technology left me both amused and bemused—took the time to help me get my laptop hooked up to the Internet one day, while he excitedly previewed the contents of his lecture like a young boy eagerly awaiting Christmas morning. Taking the group on an evolutionary journey from the tuberculosis mycobacteria to the forming of modern, militant terrorist groups, he left my brain gleefully fried like eggs dropped into a hot cast-iron pan. Another compelling individual was Joe Coleman, the apocalyptic visionary painter from New York City. In the darkened room, with a small lamp pointed across his face in a classic macabre pose, he discussed the tortured past that underpins his life as a painter, while slides of his art flashed behind him on the screen. Later, sitting quietly at pool-side with him and his wonderful mate Whitney, this twisted, dark mind was revealed to me as having a kind, gentle, and childlike soul. Meeting Joe and Whitney, and sharing in their warmth and reflective conversation, was a highlight of my stay.

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Erik Davis and Mark Pesce

Whitney Ward and Joe Coleman

The most unsettling lecture of the week was delivered by Jonathan Ott, who waxed prophetic on the imminent destruction of the planet and the assured demise of the human race. Peppered with commentary about the lifeboat he is in the process of building with his friends in the Mexican jungle, I was left feeling rather unprepared, alone, and wishing I had gone for a stroll in the jungle instead.

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Apart from the people and the lectures, perhaps the greatest highlight of the conference was a cultural festival and rodeo that was put on by the property owners as a treat for the guests. Tico dancers graced the stage, twirling about one another in a flirtatious courtship ritual. Cowboys demonstrated the amazing grace of their faithful steeds that hopped along in a comic portrayal of a horse’s trot. I sat watching and smiling, drinking margaritas and dining on some of the finest beef I have ever tasted, while reveling in the magical evening that had befallen me. How deeply lucky I felt that night, pining only for my love, whom I had unfortunately left behind at home to tend to her studies.

Jon Hanna

There was more to the gathering than just the lectures, however. One day we rode horseback into the jungle to have an outstanding zip-line tour through the rainforest canopy. Surrounded by lush foliage and colorful flowers, occasional glimpses of exotic birds and bright green lizards gave every moment the potential for communion with nature. We visited a butterfly garden, where wings of dramatic hues fluttered about the smiling, bedazzled guests holding digital cameras and hoping to capture the perfect shot. This breathtaking excursion culminated in a picnic luncheon beside cascading waterfalls and a tastefully designed bathing pool carved into the jungle’s edge. The following day, I joined in a lazy float down a tropical river where I was accosted by a fist-sized spider while brushing up against the river bank.

The conference came to a screaming climax on Sunday night when the group convened to celebrate the 82nd birthday of the nothing-short-of-heroic Sasha Shulgin. Everyone gathered around as the king sat upon his throne flanked by the lovely Ann, and received a birthday cake adorned with a frosty yellow icing 2C-B molecule! Even the resort owners joined the fun: dressed in traditional clothing, they served a second cake and sang their own rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Various guests stood up to give their warmest wishes, and the evening erupted into silliness and gratitude. Jon Hanna, the organizer of this event, was forever rushing to and fro, putting the finishing touches on the next lecture or event and fielding questions. Always helpful, and going above and beyond the

Sasha and Ann Shulgin

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call of duty, it was clear that these events are an act of love for him. His positive energy and zeal was appreciated by everyone lucky enough to have attended, I’m sure. I felt more and more indebted to him throughout the conference, for providing so much more than I had given up to be there. If there is one common characteristic shared among the attendees and the speakers of Mind States, it is the propensity to dream, think, and wonder. Indeed, this was an event populated by guests each worthy of being speakers themselves. This made for conversation that was exciting, and which also proved to be pleasantly exhausting at times. One could scarcely hold idle chit-chat simply because everyone had so many compelling ideas to share.



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At one point during a presentation, Ann Shulgin sat back and remarked, “I think this room is full of some of the most interesting people in the world.” I pondered that statement for a while. And although I questioned whether I was deserving of sharing in such an accolade, I couldn’t help agreeing that the group was infinitely interesting. I really can’t convey the pleasure and enjoyment I experienced spending time with everyone there, and wouldn’t hesitate to attend another Mind States conference in the future. I don’t have to regret what I didn’t do. Mind States 2007 will remain in my memory as a special time for me, and something in which I am very glad I participated. — Kernel

Book Reviews Psilocybin Mushroom Handbook: Easy Indoor & Outdoor Cultivation by L.G. Nicholas and Kerry Ogamé. Illustration by Kat Harrison. 2006 (Quick American, www.quicktrading.com), ISBN 978-0932-55171-9 [6" ✕ 9", paperback, $19.95], 209 pages.

The Psilocybin Mushroom Handbook is an excellent resource for those interested in indoor and outdoor psychoactive mushroom cultivation; it appears to be the most elaborate and thorough text on the subject since Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide, written by Oss and Oeric. Although this 1976 classic is still reliable, there have been many advances in the realms of Psilocybe mushroom cultivation, necessitating an updated manual. This new, 2006 publication complements the methods described by Oss and Oeric, and includes overviews on more recent methods, including the PF Tek and outdoor cultivation approaches for Psilocybe species not even known to exist three decades ago. Oss and Oeric were pseudonyms for Dennis and Terence McKenna, and the authors of this tome follow in the McKenna brothers’ footsteps, simi-

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larly choosing to write from the shadows. (Mycophiles are clued in to this pseudonymous approach since “karyogamy” [= Kerry Ogamé], a term listed in the book’s glossary, refers to the process when two fungal nuclei fuse during sexual reproduction, which must occur for mushroom fruit body to develop.) The depth of the current authors’ knowledge makes me wonder who L.G. Nicholas and Kerry Ogamé actually are? In any case, it’s obvious from reading their elaborate instructions that the authors are passionate about the topic; they are well-qualified and clearly have a diverse background and experience using these techniques. They even describe improvements to current methodologies. It felt good to open the book and immediately read: The material offered in this book is presented as information that should be available to the public. The Publisher does not advocate breaking the law. However, we urge readers to support the secure passage of fair and sane drug legislation.

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This statement sets the stage for what is about to be described. The book touches on all aspects of growing Psilocybe mushrooms. In addition to the chapters on various cultivation methods and their associated techniques, this handbook also contains information on the history of psychoactive mushroom cultivation, their biology, chemistry, physiological effects, and mushroom ingestion techniques. It also provides appendices including a glossary, details on building your own equipment, web resources for supplies, and references. And let’s not forget the 32 pages of color photos in the center of the book, many of which give a good visual representation to what is described in the text. At present, details on outdoor Psilocybe mushroom cultivation are limited. In this chapter, the authors note what species are best to experiment with outdoors, explain protocols, and give tips on controlling your beds in an outdoor setting. This was my favorite section of the book because it provides information on creating and restoring outdoor beds, as well as preparing beds for winter dormancy. The term “easy” in the title is a little misleading. Nevertheless, this book takes a good stab at explaining this difficult topic to the general person. A few parts of the book might be either dry or overwhelming to the non-scientist; however, the science behind commercial mushroom production in general can be tedious as well. Potential buyers and readers of the book should be aware beforehand that there are no simple approaches to growing these mushrooms. Many of the processes are detailed and require persistence through trial and error, as well as a long list of materials and supplies. It’s a commitment to read the entire book from front cover to back, but I would recommend this time investment to those interested in cultivation of psychoactive mushrooms. Compared to some other resources available, this book is well-organized, descriptive, full of good photos, tips, and improvements, making it a valuable reference guide for any psychedelically inclined mycophile. It definitely spawned my enthusiasm for the topic. — FunGal



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Inspired Madness: The Gifts of Burning Man by Dale Pendell. Illustrations by Just Freeman Pope. 2006. (Frog, Ltd./North Atlantic Books, www.northatlanticbooks.com), ISBN 978-158394-172 [5.5" ✕ 8", paperback, $15.95], 110 pages.

A gem from my favorite poet-author, Inspired Madness: The Gifts of Burning Man by Dale Pendell offers an excellent introduction for the curious virgin, while providing enough insight to stir a longing desire for pilgrimage in the most jaded, dustencrusted veteran burner. Pendell immediately nods to the challenge associated with characterizing the event: “Oh it’s… kind of an arts festival, Mom.” But his first person account—punctuated with humor, philosophy, and assorted vignettes— does as much descriptive justice as any one man could possibly do. As a “trip report,” Pendell’s tale starts long ago with some history of geography; when hunkered down during dust storms, it’s easy to forget that the Black Rock “desert” where the festival takes place was once the lush Lake Lahontan. But hey, that was millions of years ago, right? Fast-forward to any year in the last eighteen years, and the experience of passing through Burning Man’s gates. When handed a map of events and theme camps, one is immediately infused with the assortment of sexual flavors that charge this gathering, as well as its DIY vibe. (When Pendell rattles off a short list, one presumes that they are all real camp names from past incarnations of the event.) There’s the sense that anyone can create an almost pompous and quite official-sounding organizational title with a strong undercurrent of absurdity. But that’s the easy part—there’s still the chore of setting up camp in this inhospitable climate. Pendell provides a general description of the event’s layout and assorted camp structure styles, the history of potlatch, Dionysian debauchery, and the gathering’s “leave no trace” motto, which bores into the consciousness of attendees (from both the event producers and through peer-pressure by fellow attendees) like an eco-transcendentist’s psychological drill tip. “[‘Leave No Trace’] is the single most radical and revolutionary ethic of Burning Man, even more far-reaching than the absence of corporate commerce. After Burning Man, slag heaps,

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stumped mountainsides, poisoned rivers, and polluted air are as ugly ethically as they are visually.” While this is true, and attendees generally do a great job of keeping the playa clean, the myth that there are no public garbage cans at Burning Man must needs be pointed out. Practically speaking, the city is lined with (unspoken) public garbage cans, viewable every time you need to relieve yourself. (Is this the corrupting influence of commerce on the event? Perhaps since a business is getting paid to clean up the crap, some attendees feel more comfortable with littering inside the porta-potties. And that fact of payment may also deter those attendees who diligently pick up moop from other locations to stop short of cleaning someone else’s trash from the bathrooms. Apparently “radical selfreliance” has limits.) But what the BMorg really doesn’t want to discuss publicly is that, as Pendell says, “Trippers are still the soul of the Playa.” In “The Pharmacology of Burning Man,” Pendell explains, in a general sense, who takes what drugs and when. Detailed nightby-night (dare I call them?) recommendations are brought to life through the retelling of assorted escapades and interactions on the playa. It is a refreshingly honest portrayal of the chemical fuels responsible for firing a huge amount of the creative “radical self-expression,” as well as the hedonistic enjoyment, that are uniquely synthesized in this event. And after all, “Part of the art of partying on the Playa is choosing the right art car to jump onto. If you’re a tripper, you don’t want to end up with a bunch of drunks.” Pendell also points out the increased presence of cops and undercover sting operations in recent years, which is another area downplayed by the event’s producers. Although there is more to Burning Man than could ever be covered in one book (or even countless books), Pendell does an admirable job in conveying the je ne sais quoi that makes the event special: fire dancers, Critical Tits bicycle rides, refrigerator trucks, white-outs, orange trash fences, spanking booths, ice vendors, and the rest. His classic tale of playa mail delivery and the nature of IDentity had me in tears of laughter (as someone who went through the same thing one year, when trying to collect a piece of mail).

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Burning Man is a photographer’s wet dream, and Pendell hips his readers to some of the amazing collections of images that have been published in books and on-line. Indeed, most books about Burning Man don’t even attempt to describe the event without including photographs. Which brings up another unique and endearing quality of Inspired Madness: it contains no photographs, but is sprinkled instead with whimsically potent line drawings—art that captures the heart of the event like no other art I have seen. Visualize a fusion between the sketches of Ralph Steadman and Edward Gorey, and you’ve got the work of Just Freeman Pope, a Californian artist (with degrees in experimental psychology) who passed away in 2000. Amazingly, despite how appropriate Pope’s art seems (helped along by the occasional caption from Pendell), his biography at the end of the book relates that he never made it to Burning Man himself. In “Coda 2006,” Pendell notes of that year that there were “more kids than ever. The thirty-ish generation are raising families and taking them to the Playa.” I brought my own eight-year-old daughter to Black Rock City for the first time in 2007, an incredible experience for both of us, which provided an insane adrenaline shot of the event’s “gift giving” ethos. (Attendees are happy to see kids; it feels natural giving them presents, and the enthusiastic pulse of pure joy released from a child receiving a gift provides a natural contact high.) Hey kids, Burning Man is better than Christmas! Despite its warts, challenges, and flaws, Pendell primarily paints a vision of Burning Man that is idealistic and hopeful (fuckin’ hippie). By the end of the book—and this, my second reading—I found empathic tears of joy welling up again, responding to the beautiful, transcendent experience Pendell relates when describing an evening at one year’s Temple Burn. Like Pendell, I am both astonished by the miracle and inspired by the madness that is Burning Man—that it could even possibly exist at all. “Hope,” says Pendell, “It gives me hope. That tolerance and self-reliance have a chance in a world that seems headed in the opposite direction.” I couldn’t agree more. — Jon Hanna

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Photo 1989, 2007 Marc Franklin

Remembering John Beresford

John Spencer Beresford March 28, 1924 — September 2, 2007

“John dedicated his life to creating a better world. He was an inspirational light of hope for many who felt abandoned in darkness. In thinking about the work that was John’s passion, an image of Dr. Seuss’ Lorax—lifted by the seat of his pants through a smoggy hole in the sky, glancing backwards at a placard on a small pile of rocks with the one word ‘UNLESS’—springs to my mind. ‘UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.’ John Beresford was someone who cared a whole awful lot. He will be missed, not forgotten.” — Jon Hanna

. “Dearest John, I foolishly presumed, I guess as we all do, that the loves will remain much longer in our lives than they do. I only hope that I thanked you enough, made you feel appreciated enough—truly beloved—while you were in our presence. For myself and others who were exiled to cages for years or decades, you brought the light of a kindred soul to our darkness and despair. You were a true friend in the purest sense.” — Otter, who dreams of lightning, ex-pharmacopolitical prisoner, R. D. Milcher

. “In loving memory of John Beresford, M.D. Friend, mentor, visionary… John, your heart of compassion, bright and warm, full of energy, taught me many things. I will hold you in my heart and mind. Forever.” — Leonard Pickard THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA



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Bibliography Besmer, F.E. 1983. Horses, Musicians, and Gods. The Hausa Cult of Possession-Trance. Greenwood. Beyer, S. 1978. The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet. University of California Press.

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C.E.F.S. (Committee of Experts on Flavouring Substances) 2005. Active Principles (Constituents of Toxicological Concern) Contained in Natural Sources of Flavourings. Council of Europe. On-line at www.coe.int. Crowley, M. 1996. “When the Gods Drank Urine: A Tibetan Myth May Help Solve the Riddle of Soma, Sacred Drug of Ancient India,” Fortean Studies 3. Crowley, M. 2005 (Dec. 5). Personal communication. C.S.W.G. (Chemical Selection Working Group) 1997. Summary of Data for Chemical Selection: Myristicin CAS NO. 607-91-0. Duke, J. 2008. “Chemicals in: Myristica fragrans Houtt. (Myristicaceae)—Mace, Muskatnussbaum (Ger.), Nutmeg, nogal moscado (Sp.), nuez moscada (Sp.),” Dr. Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. Posted at www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/ duke/farmacy2.pl, accessed 2/24/08. Emboden, W.A. 1979. Narcotic Plants, second edition. MacMillan Publishing Co.

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Guzmán, G. 2005. “The Known Hallucinogenic Species of Psilocybe (Agaricomycetideae) in the World: Traditional Uses and Distribution,” International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms 7(3): 411– 412. Guzmán, G. and R. Watling 1978. “Studies in Australian Agarics and Boletes. 1. Some Species of Psilocybe,” Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden [Edinburgh, Scotland] 36: 179–210. Haley, A. and M. X 1965. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Grove Press. Hallstrom, H. and A. Thuvander 1997. “Toxicological Evaluation of Myristicin,” Natural Toxins 5: 186– 192. Hanna, J. 1998. “Alex Grey Speaks…” The Entheogen Review 7(4): 17–22. Heim, R. 1967a. “Brèves Diagnoses Latine Novitatum Genericarum Specificarum que Nuper Descriptarum,” Revue de Mycologie 32(2): 302–210.

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Heim, R. 1967b. “Les Psilocybes Cérulescents de Nouvelle-Guinée,” in Heim, R. et al. (eds.) Nouvelles Investigations sur les Champignons Hallucinogènes. Muséum Nationale d’Histoire Naturelle, pp. 186– 188. Heim, R. and R.G. Wasson 1964. “Note Préliminaire sur la Folie Fongique des Kuma,” Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires de Séances de l’Académie des Sciences 258: 1593–1598.



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Me 2001. “Exactly Like Pot,” Erowid. Posted at www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=1619, accessed 11/3/07. Meyer, P. 1993. “Apparent Communication with Discarnate Entities induced by Dimethyltryptamine (DMT),” in T. Lyttle (ed.), Psychedelic Monographs & Essays 6: 28–67. PM&E Publishing Group.

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Houston, TX 2006. “Question and Answer Session,” Traditional and Herbal Remedies: Toxicology and Laboratory Concerns. Posted at www.aacc.org/AACC/ events/expert_access/2006/toxlab/qanda.htm, accessed 11/3/07.

Nebesky-Wojkowitz, R. 1956. Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities. Oxford University Press.

Jackson, N. and M. Howard 2000. The Pillars of Tubal Cain. Capall Bann Publishing. James, W. 2003 Essays in Radical Empiricism. Dover. (Originally published in 1912.) Kalbhen, D.A. 1971. “Nutmeg as a Narcotic,” Angewandte Chemie International Edition 10(6): 370– 374. Kent, J. 2005. “The Case Against DMT Elves,” in C. Pickover, Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves. Smart Publications. pp. 102–105. Krieg, M.B. 1964. Green Medicine. Rand McNally & Co. Luke, D.P. and M. Kittenis 2005. “A Preliminary Survey of Paranormal Experiences with Psychoactive Drugs,” Journal of Parapsychology 69(2): 305–327. Marquis 2006. “The Little Tripper Who Couldn’t,” Erowid. Posted at www.erowid.org/experiences/ exp.php?ID=29953, accessed 11/3/07.

Oswald, E.O. et al. 1971. “Urinary Excretion of Tertiary Amino Methoxy Methylene-dioxy Propiophenones as Metabolites of Myristicin in the Rat and Guinea Pig,” Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 244: 322–328. Ott, J. 1993. Phamacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History. Natural Products Co. Owl 1995. “A Mushroom Entity,” The Entheogen Review 4(2): 5–6. Poole, F.J.P. 1987. “Ritual Rank, the Self, and Ancestral Power: Liturgy and Substance in a Papua New Guinea Society,” in L. Lindstrom (ed.) Drugs in Western Pacific Societies: Relations of Substance. Asao Monograph Series, No. 11. University Press of America, pp. 149–19. Pup 2006. DMT Trip Accounts. Posted on February 10, 2006, at dmt.tribe.net/thread/9e832018-5fbc4ff6-b4e5-e314184f687c, number 246. Rätsch, C. 2005. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications. Park Street Press.

McKenna, T. 1992. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge. Bantam.

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Rätsch, C. and C. Müller-Ebeling 2006. Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide. Inner Traditions. Reay, M. 1959. The Kuma: Freedom and Conformity in the New Guinea Highlands. Melbourne University Press. Reay, M. 1960. “Mushroom Madness” in the New Guinea Highlands,” Oceania 31(2): 137–139. Rodriguez, M.A. 2007. “A Methodology for Studying Various Interpretations of the N,N-dimethyltryptamine-induced Alternate Reality,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 21(1): 67–84. Rudgley, R. 1998. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Griffin. Rudgley, R. 2000. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances. Thomas Dunne. Salmon, W. 1693. Selapsium—The Compleat English Physician: Or, The Druggist’s Shop Opened. Matthew Gilliflower/George Sawbridge. Sangalli, B. C. and W. Chiang 2000. “Toxicology of Nutmeg Abuse,” Clinical Toxicology 38(6): 671–678. Schultes, R.E. and A. Hofmann 1992. Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers. Healing Arts Press. Sheldrake, R. 1988. The Presence of the Past. Fontana/ Collins. Shulgin, A.T. 1967. “The Separation and Identification of the Components of the Aromatic Ether Fraction of Essential Oils by Gas–Liquid Chromatography,” Journal of Chromatography 30: 54–61. Shulgin, A. et al. 1967. “The Chemistry and Psychopharmacology of Nutmeg and of Several Related Phenylisoproplamines,” in D.H. Efron (ed.) Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs, pp. 202–214. Sjoholm, A. et al. 1998. “Acute Nutmeg Intoxication,” Journal of Internal Medicine 243: 329–331.

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Stein, U. et al. 2001. “Nutmeg (Myristicin) Poisoning—Report on a Fatal Case and a Series of Cases Recorded by a Poison Information Centre,” Forensic Science International 118(1): 87–90. Strassman, R. 2001. DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. Park Street Press. Tajuddin et al. 2003. “Aphrodisiac Activity of 50% Ethanolic Extracts of Myristica fragrans (Nutmeg) and Syzygium aromaticum (Clove) in Male Mice: a comparative study,” BMC Complementary Alternative Medicine 3: 6. Tajuddin et al. 2005. “An Experimental Study of Sexual Function Improving Effect of Myristica fragrans Houtt. (Nutmeg),” BMC Complementary Alternative Medicine 5: 16. Trip333 2007. “A Choice Between Worms and Stars,” Erowid. Posted at www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=6217, accessed 1/8/07. Truitt, Jr., E.B, et al. 1961. “The Pharmacology of Myristicin, A Contribution to the Psychopharmacology of Nutmeg,” Journal of Neuropsych. 2(4): 205–210. [Note: Hallstrom and Thuvander (1997) cite the year of this paper as 1960; while we have not seen a copy of the paper, multiple other references—including one in another article by E.B. Truitt—give the year as 1961.] Turner, D.M. 1995. “Exploring Hyperspace,” The Entheogen Review 4(4): 4–6. Trungpa, C. 1982. “Sacred Outlook: The Vajrayogini Shrine and Practice,” in D.E. Klimburg-Salter (ed.), The Silk Route and the Diamond Path. UCLA Art Council. Weil, A.T. 1967. “Nutmeg as a Psychoactive Drug,” in D.H. Efron (ed.) Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs, pp. 188–201. Wilson, B. 1999 (Jan. 29). “Old Spice,” New Statesman 128.

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors David Luke Dale Pendell Ibo Nagano Castor Pollux Crankcase, CA B. Cautious Benjamin Thomas Kernel FunGal Jon Hanna Otter Leonard Pickard

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819, USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover Myristica fragrans fruit Photo by Krisztian, © 2006 Erowid.org

Back Cover Myristica fragrans (nutmeg) Photo by Erowid, © 2005 Erowid.org

Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters

1

Green Flames: Thoughts on Burning Man, the Green Man, and Dionysian Anarchism, with Four Proposals

10

Myristica fragrans: An Exploration of the Narcotic Spice

15

Network Feedback

25

Insectoid Sphinx Entities

25

ML-2C-E

26

Mislabeled DIPT

27

“DMT for the Masses” Erratum

27

New Data on the Entheogenic Mushroom Psilocybe kumænorum

28

Events Calendar

30

Conference Review

31

Book Reviews

34

Remembering John Beresford

37

Bibliography

38

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2008 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XVI, Number 1



Vernal Equinox 2008



ISSN 1066-1913

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XVI, Number 2



Summer Solstice 2008



ISSN 1066-1913

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors Sasha Shulgin Ann Shulgin Earth Erowid Fire Erowid Jason W.A. Tucker J.T., CA Fork, CA Mr. Zoom, Basel Lux Jon Hanna Castor Pollux David Aardvark

Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Ann & Sasha Shulgin Speak… in discussion with Earth and Fire Erowid

41

Beyond Prophecy: Or How I Learned that the Language of Transformation is Already in Motion

48

Hyperspatial Maps

54

Salvia and Consciousness

54

Ketapoetics

55

Network Feedback

62

4-Flouroamphetamine Produced Headache

62

Psilocybin and Mystical Experience: 14-Month Follow-up

64

Events Calendar

66

Sources

67

Book Reviews

68

Albert Hofmann: January 11, 1906 — April 29, 2008

71

Bibliography

72

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819, USA

about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to

Front Cover Ketamine HCl Photo by Shadow, © 2006 Erowid.org

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues).

share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are Back Cover Ketamine Cream Photo by Fork, © 2008

available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2008 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

VOLUME XVII, NUMBER 2



SUMMER SOLSTICE 2008

Ann & Sasha Shulgin Speak… in discussion with Earth and Fire Erowid Adapted from an interview recorded at Mind States Costa Rica, June 15, 2007

Earth: What question do you get asked most often? Ann: We were just remembering that—the one we have heard too often: What is your favorite material?

Fire: But your favorite substance doesn’t change every time people ask, so… Ann: Well, I don’t really have one. Fire: Oh. Even worse.

Sasha: Probably a moderately inexpensive Zinfandel. Fire: Is that question asked both in interviews and by people who just come up to you at conferences? Ann: Yeah, over and over again. I would ask it myself. Yet by the two-hundredth time, I wish that I could come up with something really clever and different in response…

Ann: Right! Earth: Do you like caffeine? Sasha: Yes, except that it makes me urinate too much. So I drink decaffeinated coffee. Do you know how they get caffeine out of coffee? Ann: Oh my God, no… (audience laughter)

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Earth: Let’s hear it. Sasha: Many people say, “Oh they extract with super-heated water,” or solvent, or something like that. While that would remove the caffeine, it would also remove the flavor of the coffee. So suddenly you are standing over here with a little beaker filled with caffeine and coffee flavor, and you still have to separate them. After looking for it for years, I finally got the answer a couple of years ago. You remove the caffeine before you roast the coffee, so there is no flavor. Then having removed the caffeine, you roast the coffee and generate the flavor. It’s so simple. Earth: We interact with a lot of people through our web site, many of whom are younger. When you were young, what were the social pressures or the constraints around drug use? Were you worried about getting arrested? Your first time trying peyote/mescaline/goop, or whatever, were you concerned about your parents finding out? What was it like back then?

Fire: Was there a sense that it was somehow socially unacceptable, even though it wasn’t illegal? Sasha: No, it was socially unknown—almost unknown at that point. Some people had heard of peyote. But there are areas in Mexico where peyote



SUMMER SOLSTICE 2008

is grown, where the “peyote” has no mescaline. They call it peyote, because in Tarahumara, “peyote” is any small cactus that has a medical use. Our peyote is one of those, but there are many others. The term, even there, is ambiguous. So I had no concern about the legal situation, as there was no law to be concerned about.

Among your peer group at the time, was there any hesitation to talk about those experiences? Did you think that there would be any judgment against them?

Sasha: My interest in the area of drugs was psychoactive, not psychedelic, because there really were very few psychedelics back then. But I tried all sorts of things that were known to affect your attitude and your feelings, from yohimbe—presumably giving you an erotic point of view, to amphetamine—presumably making things go faster. Then I had my experience with mescaline, and that was what really directed me in this way. It was about 1955 or so, and it was not illegal.

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Fire: Among your peer group at the time, was there any hesitation to talk about those experiences? Did you think that there would be any judgment against them?

Sasha: I was working for Dow Chemical Company at the time as a research chemist. I had the good fortune of having seen that they were working on an interesting compound. The person in whose lab I was working at Dow had found a very easy way of making an almost unknown compound. They said, “We’d like to find some use for this,” and I said, “Gee, if you added a methyl group on this side instead of on this side, as well as on this side, and put an amine down there and make the carbamate, you’d probably have an insecticide.” “Oh?” So they put the methyl group over here, and put an amine down here—a dimethylamine— and a carbamate, and it became a commercial insecticide. And the attitude there was, “Gee, if you can predict things like that, you can just go do whatever you want to do!” That was about the time I had first tried mescaline, and I knew what I wanted to do. So I started synthesizing new compounds like mescaline, and patenting some of them. They paid not quite a dollar for your patent. You could technically get a dollar with your patent. But the patent officer would flip a coin; if it came up the way you called it, you would get an extra dollar, and if it came up wrong, he got the dollar. So it averaged out to a dollar. Eventually, they were a little bit disturbed by the fact that I kept publishing

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all of this information, and they said, “We don’t like you publishing with the Dow return address in the literature.” “Okay, I’ll use my home address,” which I did. When I left Dow to go back to medical school, I decided that since I had already been using my home address, I might as well make my lab there as well, and I did. I still publish from my home address, but it is my lab. Fire: So even though you were working at Dow doing the synthesis work for them, you were publishing without the Dow address. Sasha: Well if you get a patent, then you are free to publish it. I just kept publishing the early stuff that I did on psychedelics in the 1950s. Earth: Did you mention your mescaline experience at work? Sasha: Oh yeah, they were quite interested in it. I think I helped probably half a dozen people duplicate the experiment. Fire: Is there any different answer for you Ann, so far as your social group at the time? Ann: When I was growing up, you got faint noises about narcotics and people getting into very strange places. I don’t think anyone talked about the law. It was just something that some people did, and they got “addicted,” whatever that meant. When I was a young working woman, I mostly worked in hospitals, and the first I ever heard or read about psychedelic drugs was in the famous LIFE magazine article by Gordon Wasson. Everything that I had always been interested in—why people were the way they were, and certain kinds of experiences that had happened to me when I was small— all of a sudden this whole psychedelic world seemed to promise some answers. I had never even conceived that drugs could be involved with these sorts of things, and I thought, “Wow, that’s what I want to find out about.” My great ambition in life was to test out telepathy and different forms of psi, with or without psychedelic drugs. It never happened. Well, I think it did happen, but other people did it.



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With the first psychedelic I ever had—I think it was DMT, given to me by two friends, one of whom read from The Book of the Dead before I launched— I don’t remember the experience. So I don’t think it was much of an experience. But no one mentioned the law. I don’t think that anybody knew about the law. Nobody cared. This was just experience, and life opening up, and no one talked about legalities. However, I think most of us knew, intuitively at least, that you don’t broadcast inner experiences of any kind unless you know your audience very, very well. People sometimes described strange, weird stuff that had happened to them, and you didn’t tell too many people about that. So nope, there was no concern about legality at all. Earth: That seems very different than people’s experiences today. Ann: I’m not too sure. I’ll make you a bet that any high school kid who wants to have a psychedelic experience never thinks about the law either. They may, if they have had a DARE class, know that there are certain people whom one doesn’t tell. But I don’t think the illegality concerns them that much. Most people don’t know half as much about the laws as they should, and so they get trapped very easily. One of the great attractions for very young people is that, if they find out something is illegal, then it’s worth exploring. Earth: Right. Fire: So Sasha, obviously you had been publishing in peer-reviewed journals for many years before you guys wrote PIHKAL. How did the idea first come about for that book? Was it a project that you had been thinking about for a long time? How did you decide to include the narrative content with the chemistry, and put it together in the way that you did? Sasha: One of the things that convinced me that I should do a book like PIHKAL was… what was the name of that fellow? Ann: Wilhelm Reich.

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Sasha: Right. He was the one who could shoot bullets at clouds and make it rain… Ann: And he invented the orgone box, I think… Sasha: The orgasm box?



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is a lot of chemistry in there, none of the chemistry has ever gone into Chem Abstracts. I sent a copy to Chem Abstracts and they sent it back saying, “This is fiction.” Many times people have to refer to the book as the source of the chemical information, as they can’t have a Chem Abstracts number.

Ann: Orgone. Sasha: Orgone box, that’s right. I get things mixed up. But he was arrested for some reason or other in New York. He was being held in jail, preliminary to a trial, and he died. The New York authorities went to his house, took all of his notes and papers and burned them in the 103rd Street incinerator. They destroyed all of his records. It occurred to me that if I were ever to get into that situation myself, I would want those things indestructible. The answer was a book like PIHKAL—put in both the background and the actual wet chemistry information.

…he was asking me, “Who are the members of your research group?” I said, “Mr. So-and-so, the research group is total fiction.”

Fire: When did that idea come about? Sasha: In the later part of the 1980s. The book was published in 1991, I believe. Ann: I’m trying to remember exactly when we came up with the idea. Or was it always sort of floating there? I mean it was pretty obvious that we should write a book. Sasha: We decided to write it together. We both have names that begin with an “A,” so “A. Shulgin and A. Shulgin” works very well. Ann: And I asked my older daughter if I could borrow her name, so I’m “Alice” in the book. Sasha: By changing the names of people you know here and there, the book becomes totally fiction. We call it a fictional book, and from the government’s point of view, it is fiction. Although there

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Ann: I was very glad on the day that the invasion happened, which is described in the first chapter of the second book. I looked the agent straight in the face; he was asking me, “Who are the members of your research group?” I said, “Mr. So-and-so, the research group is total fiction.” He looked at me with a look that said, “I do not believe you, lady,” and remarked, “Well, that may be, ma’am, but if we ever find out who is in your research group, we would really like to have a long talk with them.” I replied, “It has never existed.” That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Earth: Was PIHKAL the first time that you put your name, Ann, on a document published about psychoactives, fictional or not?

Ann: Yes, absolutely. I wrote interesting letters before that, but nothing else. Earth: How big a decision was that for you? How much anxiety did it produce? Ann: Writing was something I knew I wanted to do all of my life, except that I hadn’t found the right subject, and this was the right subject. No, I was not nervous about that. We did have visions of black-masked men coming in the middle of the night with baseball bats to destroy the lab. But nothing happened for about four years. Washington, DC did not discover PIHKAL for about four years. Fire: They’re kinda slow.

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Ann: Thank God. And then everything hit the fan. Fire: So you did predict, or think, that you might attract legal attention. Sasha: Oh yes.



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Fire: It is illegal to import into Australia. I thought it was illegal to sell in Australia. I don’t think that it is illegal to buy, and I don’t think that it is illegal to possess. But I know that it is illegal to import. Is there anywhere else that you know of where that’s the case?

Fire: As we have gotten to know you guys, Ann, in some ways you are a more private person, a quieter person than Sasha.

Sasha: I don’t know. I have not kept track of that.

Sasha: She doesn’t have the same sense of humor.

Ann: I know Japan has a very active psychedelic underground. But I don’t know how much reading they do, whether it has to be in Japanese, or whether they are familiar enough with English.

Fire: Did you expect the level of cultural attention to the book that it got? Obviously you expected some legal attention, but did you expect as much of being invited to conferences, interviews… Ann: No, I don’t think that you ever quite expect that. PIHKAL was not the first thing written about psychedelics for sure, but it was certainly the first book written with the second part as recipes for psychedelics. I mean, that was sort of asking for trouble. But we felt that such a presentation would make the book more interesting, and that if we did not separate them—in other words, story in one volume, recipes in the second—it would be much harder for any government, anywhere in the world, to censor one of the volumes and allow the other. You either took the whole thing, or nothing. We felt that if we wrote it well, it would be meaningful to a lot of people. But we had no idea how much. That was pure guessing. And the greatest satisfaction is in how many other people who had been wanting to write about psychedelics decided that if we could do it, they could have the courage to do it, too. So a lot of writing started after that. Sasha: That was quite a nice compliment. Fire: Do you know of any place other than Australia where the books are specifically banned? Well, that’s not exactly correct about Australia, but it is close. Sasha: It may be banned in Australia, but the last time we were in Sydney I went into a bookstore and it was on a shelf.

Fire: I wonder about Asia…

Sasha: I was just transcribing the title of a Japanese book on MDMA to go in my new book, the Psychedelic Index, and it had a five-syllable slang word for MDMA meaning “to jiggle the head.” They had the Japanese term in English, so I am putting that in the book as a synonym. Ann: China may or may not have a psychedelic subculture, but they do a heck of a lot of the cooking of drugs that are scheduled in this country. Fire: One person we’ve talked to went to China and said that there was an active rave culture with MDMA being taken by large groups of people. Ann: I wish we knew more about Asia in general. Earth: How difficult has the transition to being interviewed in TIME magazine, and on national television, and international media been? Has that worked out for you okay? Sasha: It’s worked out fine, but the trouble is that it takes lots of time. When you’re talking to journalists and they’re writing things about it, you don’t get any writing done yourself. That’s annoying. Ann: It’s very seductive. You keep being invited to places, and your way is paid. All you have to do is give a talk, which is always a little hard for me. But it’s so easy to say “yes.” Because you don’t know if any other invitations are going to come along and you’d like to see that country anyway. We have done

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far too much traveling in the last few years. We’ve seen some interesting places, but Book Three has only got a few chapters written, and travel is part of the reason. Earth: Are there particular places where you would like someone to invite you to speak? Countries you would like to travel to? Ann: I’d like to see New Zealand. I was born there, and I haven’t seen it since. Sasha: We are glad to see Costa Rica. We hadn’t been here before. So these events are little treasures, in their own way. Ann: And the other seductive thing is seeing people we know, and other people we haven’t met before who have the same interests. I really believe that the psychedelic network contains the most interesting people in the entire world. They are people interested in consciousness, and psychedelics, hypnosis, psychic experience—these are people with open minds and they’re fun to talk with. A lot of them are doing very important work in the world. I’m so glad to be part of that. That’s a really nice thing. My feeling has been, if I get on the other side—after death—and I discover that I was totally wrong, and what I did was really bad, so I go “down” instead of “up,” or whatever, that I will still be happy that I did it (laughs). Fire: Are there any particular visionary or wisdom traditions that you have wanted to participate in, but haven’t had the right opportunity for. Have you wanted to participate in an iboga ceremony, or a sweat lodge?

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Sasha: Well, we had always wanted to go to Burning Man, and we did last year. Earth: As wisdom tradition, it’s long-standing (laughs). Ann: We’re going again this year, as a matter of fact. I can’t imagine why. Earth: Can you say a few words about your experience at Burning Man last year? Ann: It’s interesting. A lot of people we know are really scared of Burning Man. They want to experience it, but they’re afraid somehow, that it’s going to be… I dunno, shocking. Or afraid that they are going to see things they don’t want to see. It’s the great unknown. First of all, the artwork is amazing. It’s five miles in some direction, on an ancient lake bed. The one great negative, which you learn to live with—it’s not really dust, it’s like powder: like fine baby powder. It rises from the lake bed all of the time, and it gets into everything: every camera, every R.V. motor, all of your hair. It’s very discouraging. You wash your hair, and it is all nice and healthy looking, and then… Sasha: …and then you comb it the next day and the comb is filled with hair. Ann: The artwork is sometimes in big yurts around the outside of the lake bed. Then in the middle of the lake bed, scattered across it, there are art installations. There are these marvelous pieces of work that belong in museums, every one of them. There are two burns: one Saturday night, which is the burning of the Man—a great big electrical blue thing that sits on top of a building that itself is

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filled with artworks. But those artworks are taken out before they burn the Man. The burning of the Man is a big revelry. People get a little drunk, a little stoned. Not everyone uses psychedelics at Burning Man—just about a third of the people, I gather.

Fire: Are there other non-Burning Man traditional ceremonies or wisdom traditions that you have not had a chance to but would like to participate in?

The second night, Sunday, is the burning of the Temple. The Temple is different every year. It is made, I think, of plywood. It is very delicate, like a Siamese, Burmese, or Thai pagoda. There are 37,000 people seated in a huge circle around this Temple, and they are absolutely silent. When the Temple was set on fire and began burning, we were with Etienne Sauret, who’s a documentary filmmaker, and I told him, “Look to the back of you.” All the faces were turned to the Temple, and all of them were absolutely serious—a sort of daydreaming, focused on the fire. Not a word was said. Not a sound. Somebody started to whoop, and somebody else must have clobbered him on the head immediately. It was the most moving thing I have seen in a long time. 37,000 people is a lot.

Ann: A traditional peyote ceremony? No. I think that would be wonderful. We did try ayahuasca…

Fire: So you didn’t expect that.

Earth: Ayahuasca, peyote ceremonies… have you participated in those?

Sasha: …in a ceremonial way, but not in South America. Ann: That was a funny experience. Sasha: It had its good and its bad. The second day, the fourth time that I had it, I went into a strange place in which, with my eyes closed, I would have almost no color. Then I would have a very deep blue, becoming a red, becoming an orange, becoming a yellow, becoming a white—blinding white. I would open my eyes and vomit into the little vomit bucket, then sit back and close my eyes and go through it again. And again. And again. And I said, “I don’t really think I’m advancing in this manner.” That was my last ayahuasca experience.

Ann: No. Earth: That sounds lovely. Earth: Burning Man is a big space, it’s extremely tiring for me to walk around. How did you guys get around? Ann: You have to have a golf cart. Without a golf cart, you have to have… youth. But the one thing that everyone has to have is lots of lights to put on everything. It is so much fun at night.

Ann: I would like to try Holotropic Breathwork. I don’t really think that I will have the time to do it here. But I would really like to experience that. And a native peyote ceremony would be just great—that would be wonderful. TO BE CONTINUED…

JOIN EROWID and receive a copy of the 24" x 36" Visionary Synthesis poster depicting Sasha Shulgin’s lab, exclusively available as a membership gift. Tendrils of ivy frame the lab’s window to the left, counterposed on the right with the laboratory door ajar to its alchemical interior. The pair of photos, taken by Michael Rauner, evoke the balance between the plant world and the world of chemistry. For more information, see www.erowid.org/donations.

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Beyond Prophecy: Or How I Learned that the Language of Transformation is Already in Motion by Jason W.A. Tucker If you’ve ever considered your experiences on consciousness would come in the form of a new psychedelics to be something more than just drug anecdotes, you’ve probably been inclined to research those who have been there before you. At which point you will have discovered a short list of charismatic psychedelic pundits whose goals have shifted over the years. Instead of selling you on a particular psychedelic, these days such folks are proselytizing about an approaching collective shift in consciousness connected to the long count end-date of the Mayan calendar: December 21, 2012. The end-date of the Mayan calendar has always been the end-date of the Mayan calendar, but why this date is currently considered by some as significant to global transformation stems from the minds of José Argüelles and Terence McKenna. Therefore it is of interest to know that—aside from their 2012 prophecies—the beginnings of their ideas concerning an impending global shift in consciousness intersect largely around a synthesis of language, art, alchemy, and the ritual use of psychedelics.

TRANSFORMING LANGUAGE Before embracing the Mayan calendar, José Argüelles once espoused that a collective shift in

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archetypal language. In one of his earliest books, The Transformative Vision: Reflections on the Nature and History of Human Expression, he connects this shift to the realization of a “language of renewed archetypal significance”: Symbols may be described as compressed information… Because the language of the new vision is symbolic, it is capable of conveying immediately through simple forms a multiplicity of meaning; because it is androgynous, it evokes the marriage of heaven and hell, the physical and the psychic, man and woman, the archaic and the evolving, the terrestrial and the celestial, the sacred and the profane. What is coming into being is a language of renewed archetypal significance based on a profoundly religious orientation (Argüelles 1975).

Terence McKenna made similar connections. In a 1988 interview published in Mavericks of the Mind he proposed that, “Consciousness can’t evolve any faster than language. …we have thousands and thousands of words about rugs, and widgets, and this and that, so we need to create a much richer language of emotion. …[P]lanned evolution of language is the way to speed it toward expressing the frontier of consciousness” (McKenna 1993).

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McKenna and Argüelles are reasoning that it is specifically a new medium of communication that brings about a change in consciousness, and that unless we fundamentally transform the way we communicate, there can be no shift in consciousness. Language and consciousness are inextricably tied to one another. The premise is that the language we use dictates our reality, so in expanding our definition of language we are in effect expanding our consciousness. Think of the alphabet as a technology that has enabled us to record, read, and speak to one another. The medium of the alphabet, or the form of the alphabet, is linear. Thus our view of consensus reality is linear. Usurp the linear and you kick the pace at which language and consciousness evolve into overdrive.

St. Luke United Methodist Church, San Angelo, Texas.

WHAT IS BEGINNING TO HAPPEN In The Transformative Vision, Argüelles makes a compelling case that the beginnings of a collective shift in consciousness, or a significant “change in the medium,” came with the arrival of the Impressionists. The visionary dreamscapes of artists such as William Blake and Hieronymus Bosch foreshadowed the modern upheavals in artistic conventions, but it was the Impressionists who solidified a pioneering social movement that spawned “modern art.” This was the first time in art history that artists collectively and deliberately moved away from representing objective reality, toward expressing the inward experience of the mind and spirit. Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan said, “I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it” (McLuhan 1969). With this in mind, considering the profusion of developments in art over the last century, a collective transformation has already been conceived. But McLuhan didn’t stop there; he also aptly stated, “The affairs of the world are now dependent upon the highest information of which man is capable. The word information means pattern, not raw data” (McLuhan & Nevitt 1972).

NATURAL PROCESS, PRACTICAL PROCESS When I was young I was captivated by an abstract mosaic that was displayed above the doors of a modern Protestant church in my hometown (see photo above right). Though it was called art, I recall seeing it clearly as a pattern of nature, just as organic as a pattern found on a leaf. The difference, of course, was the human connection. Having made this distinction I soon felt a deep urge to participate and to experience art as information coming from within. Over time, drawing became a natural process, consisting of several stages of development. I started with symbols and abstract patterns (see images to the right), discovering the beauty and meaning connected to the form and function of a line. This encounter with creation opened

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my eyes to the actuality of an art in which expression is not a consciously creative act but an impulse. For me, drawing had become an automatic physical engagement geared only toward concentrating on hand–eye coordination. The sensation that arises during this process is a transformative one of having made contact with something other than myself, or quite possibly my future self, or myself from a distant past. Argüelles wrote, “At its most primary level, art is not a thing done but a dissolution of the ego; nor is anything ‘created.’ Whereas the materialistic view is that creation is an addition to reality, from the point of view of internal technology, creation is actually a dissolution of duality and a merging into a unitive state, producing a transformation of reality….” This “dissolution of duality” evokes alchemy and the drive to unify opposites. Perhaps at the core of Argüelles’ (and McKenna’s) message is an earnest attempt to make sense of the writer’s psychedelic experiences in relation to his knowledge of alchemy. Psychedelics are a technology of the psyche, not just another dogma. To a person educated in the liberal arts—steeped in an academic world—a psychedelic experience could easily be understood as the realization of the alchemist’s dream to concoct the elixir vitae—and this dream quite possibly illuminates a path toward a healthy future for the species. Alchemy is synonymous with the Great Work, the search for the philosopher’s stone, and the unification of opposites. In Alchemy, The Great Secret, Andrea Aromatico notes that its early practitioners in Europe “did not draw fine distinctions between science and magic,” they claimed it as an art, “by which they meant something similar to a technology, or practical science.” The necessary metallurgical research was also a quest for spiritual purification, “That a practical process should be part of this form of knowledge is key…”

BIRTHING THE COLLECTIVE CHILD In Mysterium Coniunctionis, Carl Jung intuited that a new Anthropos figure is forming in the collective unconscious, a kind of figure like the “round or square man” or “true man” of the alchemists, a more complete Christ figure, containing the opposites of the one and the many, male and female,

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good and evil, spirit and matter. In a lecture titled Light of the 3rd Millennium, Terence McKenna expands on Jung’s vision with a provocative call to action, suggesting that: [A] collective over-soul exists, dispersed, through all of us… and if we seek to produce a reasonable simulacrum of it, it will come to be… we will summon it out of ourselves… and I think at a certain point, we will understand the nature of the enterprise. The alchemists dream of something like this… the summoning into existence of the cosmic Anthropos (1996).

When I heard McKenna relate the visionary experience to the twenty-fourth fragment of Heraclitus: “The Aeon is a child at play with colored balls,” I was truly taken aback at the synchronistic connection to the anthropomorphic entities that had been pouring out of me at the time through my paintings. It literally intersected with my own direct experience, which is why I am moved to explore these ideas in the first place.

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It is important to consider that Heraclitus—alive between 535 and 475 BCE—was living during a time of major transformation in human communication. In a remarkable essay on the history of language, “Alphabet, Mother of Invention,” authors Marshall McLuhan and R.K. Logan state: The Greek alphabet first came into use around 700 B.C. Within 300 years the Greeks had developed from dependence on an oral tradition based on myths, to a rationalistic, logical culture which laid the foundations for logic, science, philosophy, psychology, history, political science, and individualism (McLuhan & Logan 1977).

Heraclitus was pre-Socratic. He came up with the idea of the logos as the controlling principle in the universe, proclaiming that all originates from it: “He who hears not me but the logos will say: All is one.” Perhaps this source unity was interrupted as the phonetic alphabet took hold and paved the way for us to divide and separate nature: In addition to serving as a paradigm of abstraction and classification, the alphabet also served as a model for division and separability. With the alphabet every word is separated into its constituent sounds and constituent letters. …The Greek capacity for divisiveness and separation extends way beyond their atomicity of matter (McLuhan & Logan 1977).

This understanding of the phonetic alphabet and how the logos preceded it is revelatory when you relate it to the definition of alchemy. In alchemy, “it was necessary to separate, distribute, and bring out the diverse natures of which matter was formed, and then conjoin them once more into a harmonious whole. This was the definitive spiritual act that transformed matter into the Philosopher’s Stone” (Aromatico 2000). By this description of alchemy, our immersion into the alphabet looks a lot like an alchemical process, enabling us to master “divisiveness and separation.” But the endgame in alchemy is always to recombine this division and separation—to unify opposites. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung cited Heraclitus as preceding his own understanding of the correlation of opposites: “Just as all energy proceeds from opposition, so the psyche too possesses its inner polarity, this being the indispensable prerequisite for its aliveness, as Heraclitus realized long ago” (Jung 1963). Like Heraclitus, Jung understood that within the conflict of opposites there is harmony because both positive and negative naturally orbit one another. Jung based his theory of individuation on this principle, relating that a higher state of consciousness is achieved by an individual’s capacity to carry opposites.

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COLLECTIVE HARMONY José Argüelles emphasizes that a unifying process begins with the individual artist embracing a holistic approach: Beyond merely pointing out the present stagnation in the human condition, the responsibility of the artist of renewed awareness is personally to bring about a new harmony beginning with his own organism. In other words, the internal technologist has the potential of becoming a center by coordinating his own organism’s physical, emotional, and mental functions. Since the human species itself is potentially a network of centers, and hence an organism whose rhythmic and harmonious order depends on the rhythm and harmony of its individual centers, the artist as internal technologist has a definite role to play in human survival (Argüelles 1975).

In his book 2012: The Return Of Quetzalcoatl, Daniel Pinchbeck covers the ideas of José Argüelles extensively. Pinchbeck exhorts that, “It was clear from meeting [Argüelles] that he was not a lunatic, but he operated at the extreme edge of the cultural imagination, where signal meets static.” My feeling is that Argüelles’ “signal” was at its strongest in The Transformative Vision, where he clearly advocates a new archetype—not borrowed from another culture, but borne out of an individual’s disciplined use of psychedelics. Argüelles remarks: The initial use of drugs to reacquaint Faustian man with the reality of this wisdom acts as a stick of dynamite to break up the logjam of materialistic confusion and error. But used continually without an appropriate ritual prescription, psychedelics can only be a poison. More important is the development of the discipline—the internal technology—that an understanding of the inner realm demands. We are in a unique evolutionary position, and when I speak of tradition and the necessity of developing an internal technology, I am by no means advocating the thoughtless or wholesale embrace of the traditions of another culture. Yet to begin at the beginning, to begin again, is to embark on an archaic path. Though the shamans and the yogis of the existing archaic traditions may offer the post-Faustian refugee essential help, the point is not to become them but to become ourselves. The vision of what we are to become is already within us, awaiting the proper discipline through which it might be appropriately expressed (Argüelles 1975).

Argüelles’ essential idea is to not make use of an archetype from another culture but to create something new: the point is not to become them but to become ourselves. I have made numerous psychedelic journeys over the last decade, duly advancing the “appropriate ritual prescription” which Argüelles describes. This prescription has led me to many stages of conscious-

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ness, including multiple visions of the human collective consciousness whereby a simulacrum has manifested itself through my art. I don’t consider the patterns I draw—this information, in McLuhan’s verbiage—as a part of my own psychotherapy. I’ve come to view my art as a pattern reflecting the language of the Self living as deeply in the past and as far into the future as one can live, a Self that is one step away from the dualisms that separate us from the planet and from one another. The “cellular” nature of the mandala is a well-known symbol of wholeness. I see my drawings as a transmutation of this archaic image coupled with an anthropomorphic entity that can transform itself infinitely. An aesthetic discovery of a composite psyche made up of many entities. In an interview with information artist Michael O’Callaghan, the late Jungian psychiatrist Dr. John Weir Perry remarked on the mandala as a potent symbol for the emerging collective shift in consciousness: [R]egarding the current cultural upheaval in the world today, I think we must be prepared…for a change in world outlook, that is, a new world view or mandala. The original mandalas were conceived and designed as world-images, meaning that they are condensed compact versions, in symbol form, of a way of perceiving the world. Simply put, the new world view will become explicit when its symbol moves into consciousness (O’Callaghan 1982).



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Novel patterns are not so much created as they are discovered or seen. Seeing the mandala in terms of wholeness is a matter of consciousness. The phonetic alphabet and our current notion of a linear history are intertwined. Given that our immersion into the alphabet has been an alchemical process empowering us to divide and separate nature, when do we begin the collective process of conjoining all this into a harmonious whole? If you think, even for a second, that 2012 could mark a transformation in human consciousness, then you’re eventually faced with the awkward question: What will the world look like when that time comes? Since it’s impossible to really know, maybe it’s best to find meaning in the question itself, a question that compels us to view human history in terms of a process embedded in the deeply transformative matrix of nature’s cycles. Y2K had a meaning far beyond the year 2000 that was attached to it. Wasn’t it really about raising our awareness of how connected to and dependent on technology we’ve all become? Perhaps the meaning of 2012 is to raise our awareness that a collective transformation is an essential feature of human nature. 

Jason W.A. Tucker is a painter, writer, and film editor living in Marin County, California. He currently works as the Supervising Editor on George Lucas’ forthcoming CGanimated feature film and television series, Star Wars:

If language defines our way of seeing the world— our reality—by operating as a code for us to navigate through the particular dimension of space in which we exist, if we expand our definition of language, we are expanding our consciousness.

The Clone Wars. His art was previously featured on the cover of the Fall 2006 issue of The Entheogen Review. For more images, see www.actualcontact.com.

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Hyperspatial Maps SALVIA AND CONSCIOUSNESS I have twenty-five years of experience with psychedelics and other drugs including Cannabis, mescaline, psilocybin, LSD, cocaine, amphetamine, opium, Salvia divinorum, etc. I purchased some “20x” reinfused Salvia leaf from a recommended online vendor. Salvia divinorum is legal in the state of California where I live. I was slightly high on medicinal marijuana when I decided to try the “20x” to test its quality. I am an experienced Salvia user, having taken it over twenty-five times during the last five years. I put a small amount, about one hit’s worth, in my bong. I had my wife with me as a sitter. I explained to her that I might act weird for about ten minutes, but she shouldn’t worry. I fired it up and deeply inhaled, holding the smoke for about thirty seconds, while sitting on the carpeted floor of my home studio. The onset occurred shortly after exhalation. Within the first minute, I had entered what I think of as “Salvia space.” But my voyage didn’t stop there. I experienced this particular Salvia high as follows: The Salvia was a conscious entity. My own individual consciousness was transformed to the point where I was simply a small component of the larger Salvia entity. I perceived that all users of Salvia temporarily become components of the Salvia entity. That doesn’t mean that my individual consciousness was destroyed, just that a shift in focus/ attention/consciousness occurred in which my individual consciousness was transformed into a part of this larger entity. However, identifying with the entity in some way made me actually share its identity/consciousness/space. So my consciousness wasn’t subsumed, but rather altered and then incorporated.

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About three minutes after smoking, I was trying to explain this to my wife. She started laughing despite herself and I joined in. It was quite funny to try to explain this bizarre concept to someone who hadn’t experienced such an alteration of consciousness. The humor and laughter temporarily returned my consciousness to something closer to normalcy, but I could still see the altered state of Salvia entity-hood, and I quickly moved back into it. Externally, I was saying something like, “Oh my God,” while lying on the floor. Internally, I was undergoing a series of revelations. The main one was that if my consciousness could be transformed so completely by this experience that I identified with a larger consciousness/entity, a number of things logically followed: 1. Entities are composed of consciousness. 2. Consciousness is utterly transmutable. If I can go from being me to being the Salvia entity/space so quickly, and then come back, this means my consciousness is capable of radical reorganization. 3. Consciousness can be liberated from normal constraints, which most obviously includes consensus reality, but also perhaps embodiment. 4. For the Salvia entity/consciousness, its reality is utterly real and our normal consensual reality is a complete mirage—and a very hollow one. 5. Salvia consciousness is a specific state, and one that can be shared by other people on Salvia. It is not an individual effect, it is a collective effect. 6. Consciousness itself is like a buzzing electrical current. It is “thin” in the sense of being a moving sensor; however, it deals with levels of experience and reality, phenomena that are “thick.” (Thus helping move toward a resolution of the “thin” vs.

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“thick” views of consciousness that are debated between philosophers.) 7. Consciousness can be turned on or off, like a light switch or a computer. Since we all are composed of consciousness, this simply means that we travel between states of activation and deactivation. Consciousness cannot be lost or gained, since like electricity, it exists even when in an “off” state. Deactivated consciousness is still consciousness. 8. Essentially, we are the buzzing electrical energy called consciousness. Although we identify with entities, such as our Selves, this is only a temporary identification, which will eventually be transmuted into identification with other entities (or non-entities, as the case may be). These realizations all came to me rather quickly, but not without effort, because I had to—while tripping—ponder the nature of consciousness and how this experience altered my perceptions of it. But focusing my attention briefly on this issue led to these revelations, which occurred over perhaps five more minutes. At about the ten-minute mark, I was beginning to approach normal reality. I tried to integrate my experience in a mellow way, since I wanted to be social with my wife and we had planned on spending time together watching videos. I ate something sweet, which helped ground me. I came back down with an excellent recollection of the trip and the conclusions that I had reached on it. I had a sort of dreamy, relaxed evening, falling asleep on the couch for a bit before going to bed at my normal bedtime. The next morning I felt fine—perfectly clear, with no adverse effects whatsoever. As I wrote up these notes the next day, I realized that I was not some sort of lucky beneficiary of world-shaking new information. Any of my Salvia “revelations” may have occurred to others, and many probably have been transmitted to me previously by books or other sources. And any of them, in fact, may not be true. After all, I was on drugs at the time. Still, it was an interesting experience, and one that gave me some new questions to ponder the next time I enter Salvia space. — J. T, CA



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KETAPOETICS Ketamine taste: Like a soup made out of your face. While on ketamine, I occasionally channel unusual phrases and robotic stutterings. These strange bits of prose or poetry can be humorous, and they usually convey certain insights about the state of mind that I am adrift in. I call such ramblings “ketapoetics,” a term I coined for them while under the influence of ketamine. I have had ketamine experiences that were pleasant, I have had ketamine experiences that were disturbing, and not infrequently my experiences are both pleasant and disturbing. The above poem, which came to me during a ketamine experience, aptly describes how I have come to feel about the drug. Like soup, it is warm, it is flavorful, it is comforting and familiar. But it then becomes too familiar, as I realize that what I am slurping down consists of chunks of my own lips and nose, or bits of my cheeks and eyebrows. Horrific. Frightening. Yet it is a damn tasty soup, and I am compelled to keep eating. Ketamine frequently provides me with the sense of having a disembodied vantage point. This is often an aerial perspective, above some textured topography. I might be viewing fields of grass, flying over hills and valleys, soaring up and down over the landscape. These visions tend toward the monochromatic: sepia-toned dreams. I can be travelling at a fast clip, then target some specific area to focus on, and suddenly shift into a hyper-slow-motion Matrix-like examination of the tiniest section of the landscape, viewing it in incredible richness. My speed slows dramatically and the details become intensely macroscopic. For example, I might be soaring above an industrial city, with smokestacks belching filth into a muddy sky. Then I will hone in on, zoom up to, and move through tiny bright orange burning embers surrounded by a river of feathery dark ashen soot—all of the particulate matter that makes up the wafting smoke. Although I can retard the motion to a crawl and check out the details, a driving force behind my “vision” keeps

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me moving along, scanning more and more landscape. During my very first IM trip, which happened in 1996 at Burning Man, I found myself floating above the playa, looking down at the tents, the Black Rock citizens, and the art installations. Later that night while I was walking through the city, I was amazed when I twice recognized certain areas that I had not previously been to, and I realized that this was because I had “seen” these spots “from above” during my ketamine voyage.



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Frequently the landscapes I see are somewhat barren—like the cracked surface of the Black Rock Desert—and/or monotonous. The sense of motion incorporates a repetitive “piling up” of images, like bales of beige cotton candy filling in a landscape until there is no more space at all. Then when I zoom into the smallest super-fine detail of the cotton candy fiber, that too will be comprised of layers building on top of layers building on top of layers, with the entire visual field smothered in successive images. Sometimes the imagery is organic in nature; other times it is artificial and mechani-

As an aside, my favorite “paranormal ketamine tale” comes from a former colleague, the late D.M. Turner. In his book The Essential Psychedelic Guide (available online), Turner notes that he had been addicted to ketamine. He mentions that “…DMT proved to be a strong ally, teaching me to be a dragon, and offering encouraging glimpses of what my experiences could be like if I defeated the addiction,” but he does not provide any specific details about the visions that DMT provided to help him. A memorial appearing in TRP magazine stated that, “DMT conveyed to [Turner] that ketamine was a sort of ‘Frankenstein molecule’ that didn’t obey the shamanic rules, and he was given several warnings to drop it from his program.” A mutual friend later told me the following specifics: One night during the period when Turner was struggling with ketamine addiction, he was leaving a Bay Area nightclub via a back door that opened into a sketchy alleyway, and he was mugged at knifepoint. Although scared and shaken, he escaped with his life—if not his wallet—intact. Some days later, while smoking DMT, Turner was propelled back in time and he found himself with his hand on the exit door at the nightclub, pushing his way again into the alleyway. Overwhelmed with déjà vu, he knew exactly how it was going to play out. There were no bright colors, no self-transforming machine elves, no psychedelic visuals of any sort. He remembered that he had just smoked DMT, and yet for all intents and purposes he appeared not to be high on a drug, but rather to have been pushed through a wormhole and physically returned to a time and place from his recent past. Feeling totally lucid, not believing that what appeared to be happening could actually be taking place, and unable to stop himself in any case, he pushed through the door and was confronted by the mugger, who again held a knife to his throat. “This can’t be possible,” Turner thought to himself, as his pulse quickened. Yet it all seemed much too real. Then the scene froze as time stopped. Turner heard a voice in his head, which he recognized as belonging to the spirit of DMT. It explained to him that it had brought him back in time to re-experience his recent brush with death as a warning. “Continue to use ketamine, and it will kill you,” the voice insisted. After this, Turner found himself returned to his trip room, still holding his DMT pipe, entirely sober without any residual tryptamine effects at all. Although Turner severely restricted his ketamine use from then on and kicked his addiction, he ultimately died from drowning after injecting ketamine in a bathtub on New Year’s Eve in 1996. While this tale might more accurately be said to describe the paranormal effects of DMT, rather than the paranormal effects of ketamine, it is nevertheless a spooky story, and one that I have not yet seen mentioned anywhere in print.

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cal, compounded from Borg-like nanobots, evoking Eric Drexler’s apocalyptic grey goo scenario. There can be a sense that I am getting a behindthe-scenes look at fabric and forces binding the entire universe—a microscopic view at the chasms of space between atoms and the vibrational qualities that hold everything together. Could this be a vision of the monumental motion, the ongoing dance of matter and energy, that is required for the constant process of creation? At times, the landscapes I visit are populated. Sometimes I appear to be viewing real-world geographies, like the people on the playa at Burning Man described previously. Other times I catch glimpses of lifeforms that are entirely alien, such as giant translucent beings with skeletal humanoid bodies and heads like jellyfish. Occasionally the environments are brightly colored and feel sacred. But more often they are in darker, muted colors, and it seems as though I am underground. Largely, I have the sense that I have moved into the place where all consciousness resides when it is not inhabiting a material form. Part of this realm includes the idea, at least, of a resting place for souls who have departed. Yet I have never met any dead relatives or friends (even when that has been a goal of my trip), so I don’t have anything more than a vague sense of the possibility that unique personal consciousnesses might reside in an area within this realm. The experience, as I have had it, is more like uniting with a larger pool of disembodied consciousness that remains outside of the physical world until it chooses to (re)incarnate into some material life form. D.M. Turner has done an excellent job describing various aspects of the ketamine experience. After characterizing the bulk of a typical trip, Turner writes: Some 30 minutes to an hour into the experience I come to an apex. At this point I have felt that my will determines whether or not I exist, and whether or not the universe exists. And I could toggle between existence and non-existence many times within a second. I’ve even had



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the impression that I could cause the universe (which is quite fluid in the moment) to crystallize in whatever format I desired, although I haven’t had the impetus to actually try this. After this comes the return to regular consciousness, which begins with one perception out of each million seeming like it’s within my familiar perceptual structure. These “personal perceptions” increase in frequency, one every 100,000, one every 10,000. Soon I remember my previous identity. … Although there is a feeling that the ride’s almost over, this part of the experience is quite interesting, with part of my mind still running circles around the cosmos, and another part reintegrating with my identity (Turner 1994).

Turner’s description of the “come down” from a ketamine trip provides a framework for interpreting one aspect of my difficult ketamine trips. As I regain some memories of my personal existence in the material realm, cycling back and forth between what feels like a larger disembodied consciousness and a more focused and limited individual incarnated consciousness, I get the strong sense that a myriad of parallel dimensions exist, any of which I could ultimately end up in. These dimensions range from being very similar to the one that I left behind, to being quite a bit different. For example, on one trip where this was happening, I focused on the ceiling of the room that I was in. In “real” reality, the room had a natural-colored wooden ceiling. But during the waves when I was momentarily “returned” to a physical form, before shifting back over into the disembodied realm, on one occasion the ceiling was made of metal, on another occasion it was white stucco, on another occasion it was grey tiles, and so forth. Physical objects in the room appeared different with each return cycle as well: a painting on the wall was larger in one cycle, smaller in another cycle, and entirely missing in several cycles. At first I am intrigued by the possibility of returning to a different dimension. And frankly, I am not really sure that I remember enough details to actually know which dimension is the correct one to inhabit. Eventually I become worried about possibly returning to a dimension that doesn’t contain

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my most important loved ones—the friends and family who make my life worth living. Furthermore, I somehow know that once I have made the choice to return to a particular dimension, to a specific version of “me,” I will be convinced that it was the one that I departed from even if it is not the same one. I will entirely forget about anyone who I hold dear if that person is not a part of my life in the new parallel world. Things may have happened quite differently in that world—both good and bad things. Maybe in the new world, my father hasn’t died yet. Or perhaps I never met my wife; or we did meet, but didn’t have a child. Or we had a different child. Or several children. By this point, numerous specifics about what I believe to be my “real” life have returned to me, but reality nevertheless seems malleable enough that the fear of not getting back to the “right” dimension becomes a paramount concern. I was inspired to write this report (and typed out the bulk of it) immediately after coming down from a ketamine session that included the sort of experience described above. A few other aspects of that voyage have also happened to me previously—once when taking ketamine cream as an enema, a process described in a previous issue of The Entheogen Review. These aspects are particularly prone to occur with the combination of ketamine and nitrous oxide, which is what I was on during the trip in question. (I’d also taken MDA earlier in the day, but that had largely worn off by the time of the ketamine/nitrous experience.) Nitrous oxide, either by itself or in conjunction with various psychedelics, has catalyzed some amazing experiences for me. At times while on it, I have felt as though I comprehended a complete understanding of everything. But the feeling is fleeting, and I must inhale more gas to get it back. Eventually while redosing, the voice of some Other—who seems to be controlling the show— mocks my futile attempts at retaining (or even glimpsing) the big picture. “Ha, ha, sucker. You’re back again. Nothing to see here at all, but I don’t expect that you will learn. This is the cosmic joke: you, and your feeble attempt at understanding. When you truly understand, you will laugh along with me at what you are trying to do. You will

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realize that you are just deluding yourself. The material realm is a game you only keep playing because the rules require you to forget the true nature of reality. Whatta chump. But I’m sure that you will take another hit, grasp only some small part of it, and believe that you are getting a complete understanding. Keep playing, sucker. All That Is will keep laughing at you and will enjoy the show.” Such an experience doesn’t make up the lion’s share of my nitrous trips; if it did, I would be less inclined to use the drug. Sometimes nitrous just boosts the intensity, motion, and color of closedeye visuals produced by some other psychedelic, providing little in the way of insight or emotion. I nevertheless appreciate such experiences from an aesthetic/artistic perspective, and would continue using nitrous in conjunction with various psychedelics for this reason alone. But on other occasions, the effects are truly joyous and celebratory. My wife describes such trips as voyaging to a place where every favorite memory that you have from your life is combined into one simultaneous experience: all of the fun times as a kid at the state fair, all of the parties that you went to, spending time with family members, playing with your friends, falling in love, engaging in intense late-night philosophical discussions, all of the countless bliss-filled highs that you have ever had. A portion of the mind state that I am trying to characterize is touched on in the forthcoming book Tryptamine Palace (Inner Traditions, 2009) by Oroc. Although the author is talking about an effect that he achieves from smoking 5-MeO-DMT, his description strongly resembles the initial stage of my recent ketamine/nitrous experience. In a draft of his manuscript, Oroc provides an analogy describing how 5-MeO-DMT affects him: Suppose that G/D [God] wanted to talk to you in an indirect and yet totally effective way. Imagine that you are dropped in on your favorite party ever, a party that is more than just a party: a hedonic Garden of Eden, blissful Norse heaven of Valhalla, and the Islamic version of Paradise, all rolled into one. Every person you know is present—your friends, your family, and those whom you love and admire. They are wearing fine costumes and appearing as archetypal im-

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ages. Everyone is there. Now imagine that with each conversation you have that night, every interaction with friends and strangers alike, you are actually talking to G/D. And these variations, these millions of permutations, are only a small fraction of the forms in which G/D can appear. This idea is one of the cornerstones of mythology: the intervention of the divine disguised amongst the physical workings of the mortal world. Can you imagine how effective such a strategy would be? There’s G/D with a cold beer, G/D with a joint in his hand, G/D talking to you in a thousand loving voices, G/D dressed in silk, feathers, and lingerie—wiggling her tight little ass in your lap as she whispers eternal wisdoms in your ear…

It is worth pointing out that 5-MeO-DMT can be similar to both ketamine and nitrous with regard to the “disembodied” state that it sometimes produces. In any case, my own recent experience on ketamine and nitrous resulted in me being propelled into a space not unlike the one described by Oroc above.

THE KETAMINE & NITROUS TRIP I find myself in a thumping den of iniquity—the party of all parties. There’s an expensive, glamorous, tinge to it, resembling the private “back rooms” of nightclubs as depicted in hip-hop music videos. Everything is soaked in bling and excess, champagne flowing, lines of coke laid out, scantily clad babes dancing seductively. It is not particularly the sort of party that I am used to attending, but “when in Rome…” There is a sense of every one of my friends being there. They all are present in some way, even if I don’t actually see each of their faces. There are several specific friends whom I acknowledge and interact with. (Those people are not present in my real-world environment, although two female friends are lying next to me on a large bed in reality, and they are also voyaging on ketamine and nitrous.) The overall vibe of my vision is a pulsating mass of ecstasy and temptations. This place exists, these people are tangible. It is a true hallucination. I am there. Somehow the swirling good times slow to a point where I can see the overlapping of several realities. Most of these realities seem to have an incredibly solid physicality and they present a selection of very palatable options.



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With eyes open, my actual reality bleeds into the vision, and I am flanked by a couple of hot chicks. We’re reclining on a large bed/booth in the club. Eventually the scene reaches a point where it is clear that some decision needs to be made by me in order to sustain the party. Other people are waiting on that decision. It is like a roulette wheel that has come to a stop (the whole thing has a Casino vibe). There is a girlfriend to my left holding out a loaded ketamine needle, and another to my right offering a nitrous dispenser. I have to decide what to do next. And I get a strong suspicion of the following: Time has basically stopped. A choice needs to be made. I am the one who is being asked to make the choice. Another spin of the wheel? At this point, despite the hyper-realism of the world that I am in at the moment, I start to become aware that I am at a place where various timelines in alternate realities cross. Some situations in some alternate realities will have better outcomes, some will have worse outcomes. The familiar worry begins to plague me: I might make a choice where I would not have the people whom I love the most in my life any more. By simply taking another spin at this wheel, I could end up choosing a different reality to go back to. A wave of realization hits me like a ton of bricks: I have been here before many times. A number of similar, parallel realities are coming so close that I can decided to jump into another one. And again, two things seem certain: once I make the decision, I can’t go back. And once I make the decision, I will forget my previous reality, forget all of the people who were the most important to me, and incarnate into the new life, which will be constructed so that I believe I had come from that one. At the moment, in this place between, I feel as though I understand the mind of God; I know how the universe works, and I can chose from a seemingly unlimited number of options. But strangely, making any choice is starting to feel like a trap. I begin to realize that I have already made every single choice that is and ever has been possible. Not only have I already done all of them, but I have

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done many of them multiple times. I’ve repeatedly forgotten that they were all illusions. Perhaps I repeatedly wanted to forget the constrictions and the boredom imposed by the total knowledge of an eternal disembodied consciousness—like the angel Damiel in the movie Wings of Desire, who longed for the fleeting, intense richness of a temporal existence. But now, finally (and once again), I knew that I had done it all before, and that reality creation was a lie. Neitzsche’s cyclical description of time, the idea of “eternal recurrence,” makes perfect sense. If there is a finite amount of matter, and an infinite amount of time, then eventually every action in physical reality will happen over and over again. And countless variations—from the slight to the grand—will also all happen over and over again. The multiple dimensions postulated by quantum physics make perfect sense. The never-ending expansion and contraction of the universe as described by Hindu religious writings makes perfect sense. I flash on a scene from Waking Life, where the protagonist, who can’t seem to wake up from the lucid dream he is having, finally starts to worry aloud that he might be dead. Richard Linklater makes his cameo in the film, playing pinball while describing Philip K. Dick’s idea that a demon created the illusion of time to make us forget that Christ was about to return, and that we are all actually stuck in 50 a.d. Linklater then begins describing a dream wherein the corpse of Lady Gregory remarks: “Let me explain to you the nature of the universe. Now, Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he’s wrong that it’s 50 a.d. Actually, there’s only one instant, and it’s right now. And it’s eternity. And it’s an instant in which God is posing a question. And that question is, basically, ‘Do you want to, you know, be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?’ And we’re all saying, ‘No, thank you. Not just yet.’ And so time is actually just this constant saying ‘no’ to God’s invitation. I mean, that’s what time is. I mean, it’s no more 50 a.d. than it’s 2001, you know? I mean, there’s just this one instant, and that’s what we’re always in.”

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And then she tells me that actually this is the narrative of everyone’s life. That, you know, behind the phenomenal difference, there is but one story, and that’s the story of moving from the “no” to the “yes.” All of life is, like, “No, thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you.” Then ultimately it’s, “Yes, I give in. Yes, I accept. Yes, I embrace.” I mean, that’s the journey. I mean, everyone gets to the “yes” in the end, right?

Then I get the sense that by deciding whether or not to take another dose, I am not just dealing with a “more drug effect” or “less drug effect” result. I suspect that am actually making the choice between living and dying. And my ties to my family and friends are too strong. I don’t want to die. I want to stay with them. Why did I come to be faced with this choice again, after so conveniently forgetting how it all works? All of my friends are now with me there. They are smiling and laughing. “Yeah,” they say, “We all do it over and over. We all forget and go back in for a run. But don’t you want to really get off the wheel now for good, maybe?” The room becomes palpably warmer, as my vision shifts in hue toward more burgundy, chocolate brown, and black-ash char. Beads of sweat form as the environment takes on a slightly sour smell. I begin to taste the unpleasant flavor of remnants of food stuck in my teeth that had previously gone unnoticed. Images of fiery hell realms whisper across my mind, along with a clear memory of the first of Buddha’s four noble truths. The room now seems uncomfortably warm. The illusion of material reality is shown for what it is: a facade. Ethereal sky writing—at one time edged with golden light—is now clearly seen to be held up by hooks and wire. The words solidify, turning into jello. The wire pulls through, and the letters cascade onto the bed in a jumbled Cronenbergian heap of fetid waste. (As the increase in temperature melts the jello, I realize that it was comprised of vomit.) The attractive woman’s hand that I was holding pulls off—it turns out to be a poorly made prosthetic. Chunks of the nightclub’s ceiling start falling down. I look at the other woman

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next to me. Where there was a beautiful face earlier, now lies a bearded lady, who then transforms into a man in drag, voice suddenly becoming husky. He calls me “Hon,” asking me for help disconnecting his garters and getting him out of his heels, croaking: “These dogs are barking!” The nightclub’s bartender—a man who previously had the appearance of Adonis, with a body sculpted from marble— turns, and I see that he is actually a dwarf standing on a fake prop body resting on a short, dirty plaster replica of a Greek column. He hops down in the awkward way that little people move, and scurries off. The stark, tangible, physicality of the illusion, the cheap waste that I am adrift in, becomes a leaden albatross. Fuck, do I really want to participate in an illusion? Maybe I need to “choose” God. Maybe I need to “wake up!” But if not, what if I don’t pick the right reality to return to? Is it possible that I will get stuck here in what is rapidly becoming a cesspool? Will I have to start cleaning up all of the crap that is congealing in this bullshit “real” material universe. The party’s over… “Make a choice.” I shake my head, shake it off, and look again. Now my friends’ faces are slightly different. Yet they are the same people. Sort of. We always seem to find each other—drawn together somehow, even in different lifetimes, even in alternate dimensions. Things look a little better at that moment, but for



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how long? I now know how it is all fake and how it can all melt so quickly into duct-tape and fishing line. And I don’t want to be left in some junky back alley on a cockroach infested mattress wondering what the hell happened. The illusion of the material world going bad, and the assorted alternates that my drug-induced vision is ponying up—the “reality” of those alternates—is incredibly high-def. I don’t feel stoned, or happy, or cloudy, or confused. I am experiencing a moment of crystal clarity where everything has slowed but is disintegrating, a point between shifts, and I am being asked to make a choice. The nagging feeling that there are actually two choices before me remains. One is simply whether or not to do more drugs. Do I send the roulette wheel around again and get to have more experiences? But the deeper choice seems to involve my hand on death’s door. Do we ultimately “wake up” into an all-knowing state of disembodied collective consciousness? If so, is that a good thing? Or is it a trick—the last resort of a God so weary from being everywhere and everyone at all times, that he just wants to get some rest himself? Perhaps death is when God finally sleeps. Banging a needle into my leg, I relax and drift off once again, hoping that I made the right decision. — Fork, CA

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Network Feedback 4-FLOUROAMPHETAMINE PRODUCED HEADACHE I have taken 4-fluoroamphetamine approximately 20–25 times. All of the experiences have been extremely pleasurable for the most part. I find it to be qualitatively similar to MDMA, but milder. Whereas MDMA is much more emotionally forceful, 4-fluoro is comparatively relaxed, while still being euphoric. I have found it great for socializing and dancing in a party environment. There is not quite the drive to enter into a deep confessional conversation space, but it would probably be easy to do so if desired. Generally I have taken 120– 200 mg. With 200 mg, it feels approximately equivalent in intensity to 125–130 mg MDMA— but again, with less of the emotional push of the latter substance. I’ve found the lower range (120– 140 mg) to be pleasurable as well, in contrast to half doses of MDMA, which I have found unsatisfying. The high lasts 1–2 hours longer than MDMA, the comedown is not as precipitous, and the hangover the next day is usually not nearly as unpleasant or lethargic as from MDMA. However, there was one evening in particular where, within the first hour after reaching the peak, I developed the most excruciating headache I have ever experienced. It felt like an entirely different category of what I had previously known as “headache.” It may very well have been a migraine, but I had never experienced one before (although my mother used to have migraines). The pain built and built over the course of five minutes, ultimately reaching a peak where I became concerned for my safety. The best way I can describe it is to say that there were waves of pain rising from the back of my neck and moving to the front of my head where there was a strange combination of dull, throbbing pain and fiery stabbing pain that pulsed to its own rhythm.

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I was at a small electronic music event where I would have ordinarily felt perfectly comfortable. I did not notice any particular correlation with light or sound and the intensity of pain, but I did feel inclined to curl up while sitting, and to close my eyes. After 20–30 minutes, the pain was not abating, and I wondered if I was having a stroke. I urged my two friends to accompany me to an emergency room, and the three of us got in a cab. At the ER, I was able to communicate coherently without assistance from my friends and fill out the initial paperwork. I told the hospital worker that I had taken “some amphetamines” and I was worried I was having a stroke. It was not a busy night, thankfully, and within five minutes I was moved to a bed. A nurse took my blood pressure and said it was a “little high,” but no one seemed at all alarmed. They gave me a stiff dose of benzodiazepines, which made me nauseated and for the next hour or so I threw up and dry heaved. The pain remained relatively steady during this time. I received some antinausea medication. After about three hours in the hospital, the pain began to abate, and then within the next 10–15 minutes it completely evaporated without a trace. In fact, I felt quite nice—relaxed and at peace, obviously due in part to the benzodiazepines. I said I was tired of being there, got a lecture from the nurse, then left with my friends and we returned to the party. My friends were amazed at my sudden change in condition, as was I. They had been incredibly supportive of me during my time in the ER. I have absolutely no idea what precipitated this headache, but it scared me to such an extent that I did not try this substance again for over a year—and then at the relatively low dose of 100 mg. Since that experience, I have taken it 5–6 times, but never again at 200 mg, and I am not inclined to repeat that dose level in the foreseeable future. The most I have taken since then was 160 mg (after creeping my way up with smaller doses), and I did not feel threatened by a repeat of the headache. The

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experience that night was quite frightening, although I retained my wits for the entire time. I have racked my brain to come up with an explanation for what happened, to no avail. I was not on any other meds at the time. I may have taken a single capsule of Schizandra herb earlier that day, as I was experimenting with this herb around that time as an agent to induce mental focus. I believe I was reasonably hydrated that evening (but perhaps not as much I should have been?). I drank a full cup of water in conjunction with the dose. I really enjoy 4-fluoroamphetamine, and were it not for my headache experience I would give it an enthusiastic thumbs–up without any reservations. I could almost chalk it up as being a totally anomalous experience, since I personally have known 30– 40 people who have tried the drug, many at the 200 mg dose level, and the responses have been hugely positive. However, I do know another male who, since my experience, had a similar headache response. It was his first time taking the drug, he consumed 180 mg, and his weight is close to 200 pounds. His headache was of shorter duration and perhaps less intense—it lasted only 45–60 minutes. To my knowledge, he was not taking any other medications or herbs. At the peak of his experience, this man climbed into a hot tub—something I would not have recommended—and while he was in there the pain abated as it had done with me. He is not inclined to try it again at all. His description of the peculiar quality of the pain matched mine completely, and he also had never before experienced a headache of this nature. Based on these two experiences, I would recommend the utmost caution in experimenting with 4-fluoroamphetamine. The dose should be weighed accurately. I suggest to any chemists that the freebase amphetamine be distilled or run through a column and the salt recrystallized to achieve the highest purity possible, because I cannot rule out that the headaches were due to some trace impurities in the material. Even 1% impurity at this dose level amounts to many millions of molecules of the impurity(ies), so it is in everyone’s best interest to have this substance as pure as possible. I am greatly saddened to have had this headache experience, and even more so to know someone else to have had it



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too, because I would otherwise have remained completely enamored with this compound. I thought I had found a wonderful substitute for MDMA, which I still love but cannot take very often anymore, due to the comedown. If anyone else has had an experience of this sort or feels that he/she may have some insight into the nature of what transpired physiologically to result in such a headache, please write to The Entheogen Review or post a report online at Erowid. — Mr. Zoom, Basel Unfortunately there is rarely a way that most consumers can have any assurances related to the purity (or even the identity) of assorted research chemicals available on the grey market these days, and few people seem to be actively publishing analysis of materials. Preliminary results from an underground analysis described in 2003, which is posted at www.maps.org/pipermail/maps_forum/2003-July/ 005542.html, found most of the chemicals tested to be fairly pure, but remarked of the 4-fluoroamphetamine: “‘What a mess.’ Contains about a dozen impurities, at least one of which is a major component of the sample. Chemist is unable to identify the impurities exactly.” These days research chemical companies are sometimes only open for a short window of time, making it even harder to find reliable sources of pure chemicals. We encourage anyone with the ability to test samples to post their results on the web. — Eds.

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Psilocybin and Mystical Experience 14-Month Follow-up by Lux In 2006, Griffiths et al. published the results of their study focusing on the subjective effects of guided psilocybin sessions provided to a carefully screened population: drug-naive, mentally healthy adults with an ongoing spiritual practice. Volunteers were led through two or three guided sessions: one with psilocybin, and the other one(s) with the active placebo methylphenidate (Ritalin). Neither the session guides nor the volunteers knew which drug had been administered. Near the end of each session, the guides were asked to speculate whether they thought the volunteer had received psilocybin or some other drug (the specific chemical that was the active placebo was not revealed). The double-blind was highly effective, as the guides guessed incorrectly 23% of the time. The study’s primary goal was to determine whether psilocybin experiences resembled spontaneous mystical experiences. Volunteers were given a battery of assessments measuring their states of consciousness, mood, and behavior. Follow-up testing two months later measured the persistence of the sessions’ effects related to mysticism, spirituality, and personality. Psilocybin produced mystical experiences as measured by the study’s instruments in nearly 60% of the volunteers: 22 of the total group of 36 volunteers had a “complete” mystical experience after psilocybin…while only 4 of 36 did so after methylphenidate” (Griffiths et al. 2006).

Considering the effectiveness of the double-blind, the fact that mystical experiences were measured in many psilocybin sessions but very few Ritalin sessions provides powerful evidence that the ex-

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perience was due to psilocybin’s effects, and not just due to expectancy or suggestion by the guides.

ROBUST LONG-TERM RESULTS In July 2008, the Journal of Psychopharmacology published results of the follow-up evaluations conducted 14 months after the volunteers’ psilocybin sessions. The main finding of this follow-up study is that the remarkable gains in several domains are robust and are still reported or measured a year later. The paper notes: The most striking finding from this 14-month follow-up evaluation…is that a large proportion of volunteers rate their ‘psilocybin experience’ as among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives. Fifty-eight per cent and 67% of volunteers, respectively, rated the experience as being among the five most personally meaningful experiences of their lives, and the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives; 11% and 17%, respectively, indicated that it was the single most meaningful experience, and the single most spiritually significant experience. Furthermore, 64% of the volunteers also indicated that the psilocybin experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction moderately or very much, and no volunteer rated the experience as having decreased well-being or life satisfaction (Griffiths et al. 2008).

Of the 22 subjects who were originally scored as having a complete mystical experience during their psilocybin session, 21 subjects continued to fulfill the criteria. In addition:

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as people are notoriously bad judges of long-term changes in their own behavior.

Compared with methylphenidate, the psilocybin session experience produced significant increases in ratings of positive attitudes, moods, social effects and behavior when rated retrospectively at both 2 months and at 14-month follow-up…. The ratings at the 14-month follow-up did not differ significantly from those at 2 months (Griffiths et al. 2008).

A significant correlation was found between whether or not a mystical experience was scored during the psilocybin sessions and the high or low ratings of personal meaning and spiritual significance during the follow-up. This provides evidence that the mystical-type experience itself was strongly related to the sense of meaning felt during the event. High ratings of personal meaning or spiritual significance were not correlated with several other factors, including monitor-reported levels of drug effect, anxiety, fearfulness, distance from ordinary reality, tearing/crying, joy/intense happiness, or peace/harmony (Griffiths et al. 2008). Unlike the original study, the 14-month follow-up is limited by a lack of objective corroboration for the self-described improvements of the study participants. In the 2006 study, each volunteer was matched with three community observers, and everyone’s accounts were compared. The community observers are not mentioned in the follow-up study. It may not have been possible to gather data from the observers over such a long period—people move, relationships change over time, etc. This is a significant limitation to the follow-up study,

ENTHEOGEN LEGAL DEFENSE

Nevertheless, the follow-up study represents an important extension of the original findings from 2006. The authors provide evidence that the perceived significance and gains related to the psilocybin sessions persist over time. It is extremely noteworthy that an intervention occurring over only seven to eight hours would produce longlasting effects that are so highly valued by a majority of study participants. Some critics have said, “I could have told you forty years ago that mushrooms produce mystical experiences!” While that may be true, it misses the point. The question is not what an entheophile would find to be compelling evidence, but what a prospective future director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or a potential Circuit Court Judge, would find persuasive. This series of studies sets a new precedent with their excellent design and their impressive results.  Note: For an expanded version of the current article, see www.erowid.org/chemicals/psilocybin/ psilocybin_article2.shtml. For a more detailed treatment of the original 2006 study, see Lux 2006. “Psilocybin, Science, and Sacrament: A Look at the Research of and Response to the Johns Hopkins Study on Psilocybin and Mysticism,” Erowid Extracts. 11: 4–9, online at www.erowid.org/ chemicals/psilocybin/psilocybin_article1.shtml.

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Events Calendar VISIONARY HOLLYWOOD OCTOBER 4, 2008 An “esotouric” bus adventure hosted by Erik Davis and inspired by his book The Visionary State. Join Erik on a journey of exploration through the mystic realms of Los Angeles, visit five extraordinary religious sites, meet followers of their respective faiths and explore the fascinating history of alternative spiritual practices in Southern California. The tour will visit: The Aetherius Society, founded in 1955 by UFO contactee George King; Krotona Apartments, a former Theosophical retreat founded in 1914; the Parsonage of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson—a museum of her life and work; The Philosophical Research Society, a non-denominational repository for the wisdom of the world founded in 1934; and The Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded in 1930 to bring Hindu philosophy to the West. $64 tour cost includes a coffee break, snacks, and a seat on a luxury coach class bus equipped with monitors, air conditioning, and restroom. Tour meets at 10:30 am, departs at 11:00 am, and runs until 3:30 pm. For more information see the link at www.techgnosis.com.

WOMEN’S VISIONARY CONGRESS OCTOBER 10–12 (13), 2008 Held at Wilbur Hot Springs October 10–12 (with a special event on October 13th), the Women’s Visionary Congress supports women healers, scholars, educators, and artists involved with the expansion of consciousness. $425 admission includes all lectures, meals, camping, and access to the mineral hot springs. A limited number of rooms at the Wilbur Hotel are available at an additional cost. Presenters include Valerie Corral, Carolyn Garcia, Annie Harrison, Mariavittoria Mangini, Ann and Sasha Shulgin, and more. To purchase tickets, e-mail Sarah at [email protected] or call (831) 252-0023. For more info see www.visionarycongress.org.

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AYAHUASCA HEALING RETREAT OCTOBER 21–28, 2008 An experiential introduction to the sacred vine in the Eden-like environment of Bahia, Brazil. Participants partake in three ayahuasca ceremonies, workshops, guided meditations, and lectures dealing with the topics of consciousness expansion and healing. The retreat is held in a private eco-center on 39 acres of lush preserved area within Mata Atlantica, the second largest rainforest in Brazil. Located seven miles from the coastal town of Itacar, and only minutes away from pristine beaches. For more information see www.ayahuasca-healing.net.

VOYAGE BEYOND OCTOBER 22 — NOVEMBER 1, 2008 Spend thirteen days on the shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, exploring a syncretization of neurofeedback psychotherapy and shamanic ayahuasca ceremonies with Australian psychologist Muriel Turner, Peruvian shaman Percy Garcia, and American physicist Lincoln Stoller. The $2,900 fee includes bus transport (La Paz—Copacabana—La Paz), eleven nights accommodation and most meals in a newly built eco-lodge, English speaking interpreters, plus two days and one night visiting the Island of the Sun, three traditional night-time ayahuasca ceremonies with a shaman, and mesa ceremonies with other native healers. Explore the Bolivian cultures near the snow-capped Andes Mountains. There will be time to visit the local artisan markets to purchase hand made craftworks and products. You may also like to take some extra time to visit the sacred Incan sites such as Macchu Picchu and other ruins scattered throughout Peru and Bolivia. If you wish, we can provide details for reliable travel agents and/or guides. Travel to and from La Paz not included. For more information see www.tengerresearch.com/grow.

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Sources by Jon Hanna MINDPAPERS http://consc.net/mindpapers David Chalmers’ massive annotated bibliography on the philosophy of consciousness, MindPapers consists of 18,416 entries. Both online and offline material is included, and there’s even an extensive list of names of individuals who have made their philosophical writings available online, with links to learn more whenever possible. Categories include: Philosophy of Consciousness, Intentionality, Perception, Metaphysics of Mind, Miscellaneous Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, and Science of Consciousness. Within that final category is the subsection Drugs and Consciousness, which lists a mere seventeen entries. Despite the lack of citations related to mind-altering chemicals, the site is an excellent resource for those interested in mind/brain/consciousness issues.

PSYCHONAUT CHANNEL www.youtube.com/profile?user=psychonautchannel In a previous “Sources” column I mentioned the web site Psychonaut.com as a fun spot to surf on occasion, checking out news items and forum posts. Late last year they started the Psychonaut Channel on You Tube, and to date they have thirty-three videos available. Several of the more recent postings are clips from the World Psychedelic Forum that happened earlier this year in Basel; if you weren’t able to attend or didn’t catch all of the talks that you wanted to see, the Psychonaut Channel is a good place to get a taste of what was presented at that event. There is an ever-increasing number of videos related to entheogens available online these days, ranging from hoovered clips of archival news reels, to sometimes disturbing depictions of teenage drug use, to amateur music video slideshows, to interviews and conference clips. Simply surfing You Tube via keyword can turn up some gems, but it can also result in a lot of crap, and separating the

wheat from the chaff requires real-time viewing. Starting at the Psychonaut Channel is a good way to narrow the field down to some videos that may be more worthwhile.

REALITY SANDWICH 151 1st Avenue, Apt # 136 New York, NY 10003 www.realitysandwich.com Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordon’s web-based magazine/blog, which has been around for over a year now, isn’t entirely—or even mostly—related to entheogens. There’s eco-cheerleading, doom-andgloom end time predictions, new age spirituality, alternative pop culture, conspiracy theories, crop circles, art, humor, and a myriad of other topics. However, the site also features a peppering of psychedelic articles, interviews, and video clips. Recent postings include a written interview of Rick Strassman by Martin Ball, a video interview of Jeremy Narby about the dark side of psychedelics, some commentary on the 14-month follow-up of the Johns Hopkins psilocybin and mysticism study, and an interview with Rocky Caravelli about his work with the Dream House ibogaine addiction treatment center. Definitely worth checking out.

WATCHFUL EYE DESIGNS PO BOX 980007 Park City, UT 84098 (800) 948-9433 www.watchfuleyedesigns.com Some years ago a friend who had a Cannabis grow operation explained that the oven roasting bags used for cooking turkeys were an indispensable tool for transporting pot. These bags are much more odor proof than standard zip-lock bags or garbage bags, and my friend claimed that doublebagging a kilo of buds in them went a long way toward keeping suspicious smells at bay when

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several kilos were locked up under a truck bed’s camper-shell on a long, warm day of moving the goods. The bags should be equally useful when transporting any other drugs, even small personal amounts, since no one wants to have a drug-sniffing dog “alert” on their belongings if they have the bad luck to come across such a beast. In particular, DMT and some tryptamine research chemicals, as well as a few of the phenethylamines, can put off quite a stink. Odor-proof bags are something that every reader of The Entheogen Review should be aware of, and this fact occurred to me when another friend recently told me about an option now available that is even better than oven roasting bags: bear bags. Sold online by Watchful Eye Designs, their new barrier bag O.P. SAK is a resealable element-proof storage bag. It comes in several sizes, is transparent, flexible, airtight, watertight, puncture resistant, and odor proof (they claim it is “100% odor proof”)—perfect for keeping the bears away when camping, and the cops away when transporting Cannabis and/or other illicit drugs. The O.P. SAK is certified waterproof to 60 meters, it can withstand cold to -40 degrees F and heat to 165 degrees F, and it will only allow trace amounts of oxygen transmission. You can even pour boiling water into the O.P. SAK to rehydrate or cook food. Watchful Eye Designs also sells a product called Shieldsak, which protects against unauthorized RF ID scanning of passports, credit cards, and mobile phones. In the likely future when surreptitious scanning for RFID data becomes commonplace, the Shiedsak could be a valuable tool for those wishing to protect the privacy of their information. Along with being available online from the web site listed, the O.P. SAK can be purchased at your local REI camping supply store.

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Book Reviews Sage Spirit: Salvia Divinorum and the Entheogenic Experience by Martin W. Ball. 2007. (Kyandara Publishing, www.lulu.com/content/939768) ISBN: 978-0-6151-5708-5 [6" 5 9", paperback, $14.95], ISBN: 978-06151-5708-4 [e-book, $10.00], 140 pages.

Martin Ball’s Sage Spirit: Salvia Divinorum and the Entheogenic Experience is a milestone, both for shamanic and entheogenic circles. The book explores the use of Salvia divinorum extracts in the author’s contemporary shamanic practices, and serves as a practical guide for creating one’s own ritual Salvia journeys. Prevailing attitudes regarding Salvia extracts often suggest that their effects are too bizarre and discomforting to be useful as sacramental tools. Undeterred by such nay-sayers, the author has courageously and systematically established a new approach for the modern shaman. I first saw mention of Martin Ball in the pages of Shaman’s Drum magazine. Ball originally studied with the Arapahoe and Apache tribes in New Mexico, as a student of native culture. Though neither tribe uses entheogens, Ball has been able to draw upon this past experience and training, grounding his personal shamanistic approach with a knowledge of established ceremonial practices. Much of the book is comprised of journal-style descriptions of the author’s Salvia voyages: from his first experience at Burning Man, to the later development of his ritual approaches. At various times, Ball uses rattling, singing, didjeridoo, and drumming to facilitate a workable shamanic space. His most intriguing results, however, come from the combination of a rattle and his own take on Tuvan-style throat singing. His descriptions of the effect of sonic variations while journeying are compelling and beg further investigation.

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Ball has also written some fantasy fiction over the past few years that has clearly been inspired by his entheogenic experiences. He incorporates a few passages from these writings to flesh out some of his ideas, and to draw analogies between the realms of the mythic and the realms of altered mind states. This is a novel (pardon the pun) approach, and it works pretty well, depending on your tolerance for mystical fiction.

Peopled Darkness: Perceptual Transformation through Salvia divinorum by J.D. Arthur. 2008. (iUniverse, 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512, (800) 288-4677, www.iuniverse.com) ISBN: 9780-595-45583-6 [5" 5 8", paperback, $11.95], ISBN: 978-0-595-89884-8 [e-book, $6.00], 88 pages.

The book concludes with a short section providing thoughtful guidelines on how to conduct a Salvia ceremony, mixing common sense advice with not-always-apparent truisms (for example, just because someone has opened his eyes, doesn’t necessarily mean that he is “finished” with his experience). Some good tips related to understanding the dynamics between participants and a group leader are also described.

Cataloging one’s psychonautical experiences is a long-standing tradition in Western writing—from Thomas de Quincey’s struggles with laudanum addiction detailed in his 1822 biography Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Fitz Hugh Ludlow’s philosophical flights of fancy conveyed in his 1857 book The Hasheesh Eater, to Henri Michaux’s poetic 1956 grumblings about the Miserable Miracle of mescaline, which Aldous Huxley more favorably characterized as a “gratuitous grace” a couple of years earlier in The Doors of Perception. There’s a laundry list of published authors tackling the topic in more recent years, and the advent of the web has inspired thousands to post trip reports online. Indeed, the easy access to computers, word processing software, and on-demand publishers means that anyone can sell their writing these days. (The previous book reviewed and this one were both produced by web-based publishers, with the e-book options, allowing instant access to virtual copies at a reduced price.) With his new book Peopled Darkness: Perceptual Transformation through Salvia divinorum, James D. Arthur has made a thoughtful contribution to this legacy of literature.

I really enjoyed this book, and extracted a number of usable concepts from it. Ball’s last book, Mushroom Wisdom, was a little too “Metaphysics 101” (“You will notice patterns in everything”) for an entheo-geek like me. But he has definitely covered previously unwritten ground in his discussion of Salvia. This is a significant contribution, which helps flesh out Terence McKenna’s oft-repeated urgings for us all to “map out hyperspace.” I applaud the many authors who have braved the seas of the ineffable, sharing their personal insights through the written word. Along with old school names such as Tim Leary, Terence McKenna, and the Shulgins, as well as the latest flavors like Zoe Seven, Daniel Pinchbeck, and Oroc, we can now add Martin Ball. With all the easy talk of entheogenic shamanism this past decade or so, Ball steps up to the plate and provides concrete examples and structures to work with. — Castor Pollux

I should point out from the get-go that this author is not the same James Arthur known to some in the entheomycological community for his poorly referenced speculations regarding Amanita muscaria and Christianity. That James Arthur hung himself in 2005 while in jail facing his latest round of pedophilia charges. It would be unfortunate if anyone got the two authors mixed up. There are already a number of books that deal with Salvia divinorum in a general way, and there is a vast amount of historical, botanical, chemical, and cultural data available online at Daniel Siebert’s Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center

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(sagewisdom.org). Hence, Arthur wisely chose to focus Peopled Darkness entirely on his own firstperson experiences with the plant, and the philosophical questions that those experiences raised. While many people try any given drug once or twice, and can write up spectacular trip reports or even hit the lecture circuit as “experts,” relating riveting tales of their limited encounters, it is much more difficult to take the time to develop a longterm relationship with a single plant ally, like Arthur has done with Salvia divinorum. His first few experiences smoking the plant were chaotic and disorienting: The visions…were meaningless, repulsive images…. Cartoon characters, crooning trios from the ’40s, roller-skating carhops—all made their appearance in a maddening swirl of nonsense. …I was being sucked into this cacophonous vortex, while trying desperately to hold onto my sanity.

In the face of such effects, it is admirable that Arthur stuck with his trials. But he comes to notice a few consistencies. Each trip seems somehow connected to the previous one. He begins to feel that the space that he is visiting has a level of psychological and physical “reality.” And he has a vague but increasing sense that this realm is populated with other consciousnesses. Eventually Arthur visits other people during his journeys into the Salvia space. The environments to which he is transported seem both foreign and familiar. He starts to remember his own existence in this other realm, while at the same time he forgets his existence in consensual reality. At points he even strongly feels that the Salvia world “is the real world, not the contrived world of personality, ideas, and thoughts, that insulates us from the



VERNAL EQUINOX 2008

infinite—that coddles us into clinging desperately to the known.” He senses that he is being taught something about how to act while in that realm. Sometimes the people he meets seem a bit put off by the fact that he has arrived and they have to deal with him. Occasionally they are disturbed that he is there at all, and a few times they make remarks that lead him to believe that the space he is visiting is populated by dead people. One young woman in the Salvia realm, who at first was laughing and joking around, recoils on getting a closer look at him, exclaiming, “You’re not dead!” Using examples taken from his tripping journal, Arthur makes some intriguing comparisons between Salvia space and dreaming consciousness. He presents ideas about the different sort of language that seems to be employed in Salvia space. And he characterizes particular sorts of somatic reactions that he has to the drug. Arthur’s experience with Salvia divinorum is vast. He has a keen ability to describe the states of consciousness to which the plant allows access, and his musings about the ontological challenges posed by such mind states are well considered while remaining humble. Arthur is not telling anyone how it is, but rather he is questioning aloud how it might be, and proposing some challenging answers. More than any other entheogenic plant, Salvia divinorum seems to provide the greatest evidence that there is more to the universe than meets the skeptical eye of our serotonin-soaked view of “reality.” Despite its slim size, Arthur has written a comprehensive treatment of the phenomenological effects of Salvia divinorum. It is an insightful book, which I highly recommend. — David Aardvark

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Albert Hofmann January 11, 1906 — April 29, 2008

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Bibliography Argüelles, J.A. 1975. The Transformative Vision: Reflections on the Nature and History of Human Expression. Shambhala. Aromatico, A. 2000. Alchemy: The Great Secret. Harry N. Abrams. Griffiths, R.R., Richards, W.A., Johnson, M.W., McCann, U.D., Jesse, R. 2006. “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance,” Psychopharmacology 187(3): 268–283. Griffiths, R.R., Richards, W.A., Johnson, M.W., McCann, U.D., Jesse, R. 2008. “Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later,” Journal of Psychopharmacology 22(5): 1–12.

O’Callaghan, M. 1982. “A Conversation with Dr. John Weir Perry,” When The Dream Becomes Real: The Inner Apocalypse in Mythology, Madness and the Future. Global Vision Corporation. Oroc 2009 (forthcoming). Tryptamine Palace: A Personal Journey Towards Understanding. Inner Traditions. (Quote taken from a 2008 manuscript draft.) Pinchbeck, D. 2006. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Tarcher. Turner, D.M. 1994. The Essential Psychedelic Guide. Panther Press.

Jung, C.G. and A. Jaffé 1963. Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Erinnerungen Träume Gedanken). Pantheon Books. McKenna, T.K. 1993. “Mushrooms, Elves and Magic, with Terence McKenna,” in D.J. Brown and R. McClen Novick’s Mavericks of the Mind: Conversations for the New Millennium. The Crossing Press. McKenna, T.K. 1996. Light of the 3rd Millennium — Part Two, Chicago (Part One was at the Whole Life Expo in Austin, TX). Audio recording of a lecture. McLuhan, M. 1969. The Distant Early Warning. Card deck published as an adjunct to The Marshall McLuhan DEW-Line Newsletter. McLuhan, M. and B. Nevitt 1972. Take Today: The Executive as Dropout. Harcourt Brace Jovanovic. McLuhan, M. and R.K. Logan 1977. “Alphabet, Mother of Invention,” Et Cetera 34: 373–383.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XVI, Number 3



Autumnal Equinox 2008



ISSN 1066-1913

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors James Oroc Fire Erowid Ann Shulgin Earth Erowid Sasha Shulgin Entropymancer Keeper Trout David Arnson David Aardvark

Where is God in the Entheogenic Movement?

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Ann & Sasha Shulgin Speak… in Discussion with Earth and Fire Erowid, Part Two

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“Jungle Spice” Mystery Alkaloid(s) of Mimosa Root-bark

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Cactus Updates

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Book Review

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Events Calendar

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Remembering Thomas Lyttle

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Bibliography

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Errata: In the previous two issues of The Entheogen Review, a mistake was made within the header information, and the issues were presented as Volume XVII (17), when they should have been presented as Volume XVI (16). (The correct volume number was, however, included on the front covers of those two issues.) We are sorry for the mistake.

Disclaimer: Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from Design & Layout Soma Graphics

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Web www.entheogenreview.com

many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Statement of Purpose: This journal is a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. Think of it as a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications are kept in strictest confidence—published material is identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). The mailing list (kept encrypted) is not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Submissions: Your input is what keeps this journal alive. Don’t hesitate to Front Cover Mimosa tenuiflora root-bark from Mexico Photo by Fork, © 2008

share your experiences, inspirations, and questions. Confidentiality respected; after transcription, all correspondence is shredded and recycled or incinerated. Although we may edit for brevity or clarity, keep those fascinating letters coming in!

Subscriptions: $25.00 (USA), $35.00 (foreign) for one year (four issues). Cash, check or money order made out to The Entheogen Review should be sent to TER, POB 19820, Sacramento, CA 95819. Please notify us if your address changes.

Back Cover Mimosa hostilis in flower, Maui, Hawaii Photo by dcopeland, © 2003 Erowid.org

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review are available. See www.entheogenreview.com for descriptions and prices. Copyright © 2008 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

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Where is God in the Entheogenic Movement? by James Oroc

Ironically, I have discovered that the greatest problem that this investigation presents is what to do with my conclusions, now that this book is nearing its natural end. For I have come to realize that I am writing about the most difficult and controversial subject in the history of humankind: the existence of God, and our ability as humans to be able to know or directly experience God. As I have enthusiastically expounded my ideas over the last few years to those close to me, I have come to realize that the whole concept makes a lot of people very uncomfortable, even hostile. The word “God” creates such immediate emotions, often negative, in this modern age. I can remember back to my pre–5-MeODMT days how skeptical and derisive I would have been, if I had been blindly presented with the bulk of these ideas. “Direct experience is the highest of all ways of gaining knowledge.” So said Swami Rama, and I have to agree with him. Experience is the only path to understanding. Explanations just won’t do. — James Oroc Tryptamine Palace: 5-MeO-DMT and the Bufo alvarius Toad forthcoming June 2009, Park Street Press

In recent years I have slowly but steadily reimmersed myself in what some might call “the entheogenic movement.” Now, I’m not exactly sure that this is what it should be called; it’s a movement that doesn’t have an official name. Nevertheless, I have noticed one curious thing common to all of the different facets—scientific, social, and even spiritual—of this enigmatic movement. You hear a lot of interesting facts and speculations about chemistry, cluster headaches, ayahuasca shamans, neurobiology, aliens, elves, and the impending End of Time. But you hardly ever hear any mention of the word “God.”

This seems rather strange to me when considering that the word entheogen means “God generated within.” So we have the word God used within the definition of the movement, but near silence about God from within the movement itself. The reason for this seems obvious; as I noted in the quote that starts this essay, the word God can make people uncomfortable. It is one of the few words left that still has any power. But thanks to medieval Christianity and modern science, it mostly has a negative connotation amongst society’s intellectual community. I believe this presents a problem for the entheogenic movement, because it makes it harder to discuss (or even know) what it is that the movement is trying to achieve. But I should back up a bit. I have spent a good part of the last four years writing Tryptamine Palace. Writing this book has largely been my reaction to an overwhelming spiritual epiphany that I had the first time I smoked 5-MeO-DMT. Despite being a confirmed atheist at the time, during this voyage I came to believe that I connected with a force that I can only describe as the transcendental experience of God. This was not the Christian God, of course, but rather the God perennial to mysticism: the void that is a plenum of conscious, omniscient love. I can assure you I most definitely was not expecting such an encounter at the time. Tryptamine Palace is the story of my quest for a firmer understanding of what it was that I experienced, and how I was able to experience it. During my search, I read a vast number of books on psychedelics, Eastern religion, philosophy, and anything else that might help provide some clues. It was within the literature on quantum physics that I discovered the concept of an underlying energetic

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scaffolding for the universe called the zero-point field. I traveled to Burning Man, to India, and even went to the Sonoran desert in search of Bufo alvarius. By the time I finished my book, I had managed to find a lot of answers that satisfied me, allowing me to believe that there is both a spiritual and a scientific explanation for God.

sure that I would have been interested in their points of view. But the intellectual and moral aversion I have for the Christian Church is so overpowering, that it kept me at arm’s length from these individuals, despite the fact that we were presumably there as a result of the same phenomena: our direct experiences of God.

My spiritual epiphany on 5-MeODMT directed me back into the entheogenic movement. What I have found is that this movement paradoxically consists of a large number of people embracing assorted New Age philosophies in an attempt to explain their psychoactive drug experiences, and a much smaller backbone of scientists, chemists, and pharmacologists engaged in research that is often counter-productive to their mainstream careers. While there are a smattering of ayahuasca and peyote churches, as well as the Council on Spiritual Practices1 (which is dedicated to promoting the idea that direct experience of the sacred can be accessed through the use of entheogens), such organizations are rarities; they appear to me to be regarded almost as “throw-backs” within an otherwise “modern movement.” Even mysticism itself, comes off as some kind of dirty word, despite the fact that our current use of entheogens is clearly a continuation of this historically ancient philosophy.

Thus, I have come to realize that the face of our entheogenic community is not so different from that of mainstream society; the choice appears to lie between conventional science (the cult of reductionist materialism) and a steep dive into unproven New Age philosophies. We seem to have become more interested in how many psychoactive drugs can be invented or experienced, than we are in defining which ones can truly be characterized as entheogens. I hear a lot of compounds being called “entheogens” that I personally feel don’t warrant such a classification. By my definition, an entheogen should be able to produce the mystical result of a transcendental unionwith-God. (This is not merely feeling “close to God,” or having a heightened appreciation of one’s humanity or of the natural environment.) If a compound can’t do that, then it’s not a true entheogen. And the more often it is able to allow this transcendence, the more powerful an entheogen it is. The problem with this point of view is the simple fact that not many compounds can consistently produce such a result, and none are guaranteed to do so.

Even mysticism itself, comes off as some kind of dirty word, despite the fact that our current use of entheogens is clearly a continuation of this historically ancient philosophy.

These days, God is often dismissed as an antiquated idea. Our inherited intellectual resistance to the word “God” is so great, that the closest some people will come to addressing it is by calling themselves agnostic. I am no more immune to these inherited prejudices than anyone else. For example, at the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, there were a small number of priests and nuns in attendance. During the course of the week, I had the opportunity to speak to many of the people there, but I didn’t bring myself to approach this singular group—a fact that I now greatly regret, for I am

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But a lot of people are still interested in “psychedelic” drugs, so perhaps we should admit that the “entheogenic movement” is actually only a splinter group of the “psychedelic movement.” One likely reason that “entheogen” has been so widely adopted by proponents of such drugs is the fact that it throws a cloak of obscurity over the taboo topic of psychedelics: enthusiasts may not be as interested in finding God as they are in staying out of jail.

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Furthermore, once the term is understood by mainstreamers, it can add an air of respectability to the dialog. Images of freaked-out 1960s youth are less likely to spring to mind, when the discussion appears to focus on community-based spiritual groups making positive changes in the world. Mainstream respectability is clearly a goal for some people in the movement, who put a great deal of effort into obtaining government approval for their activities. Yet within such a matrix, science still trumps spirituality. For example, in 2008 I was told that the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies would only allow lecturers to speak on topics related to scientific studies about psychoactive compounds in its dome at Burning Man. No mystics allowed. Apparently mystics can know only about God, but nothing about science. Maybe Entheon Village, where the MAPS camp is based, should consider changing its name! Burning Man as a whole isn’t much better. We build a temple in the middle of the playa each year, but if you search the hundreds of thousands of words on the Burning Man web site, you’ll find scant appearance of the word “God.” (Although there are various religious groups represented at Burning Man, they largely keep to themselves.) So it seems that even at Burning Man, which many participants would argue is one of the most open-minded places in the world, you can’t talk about God without freaking people out. What is going on here? I don’t believe this has always been the case in the entheogenic movement, but I think one has to go back to a time when they were all called “psychedelics” for this to be true. Aldous Huxley had no fear of discussing the transcendental experience of God even before he discovered mescaline and LSD, because that’s what he was looking for; his last book, Island, wholeheartedly embraces the spiritual use of entheogens. Albert Hofmann mentions his relationship with God in his book LSD: My Problem Child, and he presents his scientific argument for God’s existence more directly in his book Insight Outlook. R. Gordon Wasson, Huston Smith, Alan Watts, and other old-school authors in the field had no aversion to eloquently expounding on the meat of the matter: the transcendent unionwith-God.



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Perhaps it’s a generational thing. The psychedelic authors that followed these elder statesmen have largely avoided any direct mention of God. Selftransforming machine elves, alien abductions, plant teachers, the Mayan calendar, even the absurd idea that smoking DMT is somehow going to bring about a fundamental change in the nature of reality—such concepts are fair game; but avoid talking about God, because you end up sounding odd, old fashioned, and will generally weird people out. This situation results in the paradox of one of the foremost champions of the word “entheogen,” Jonathan Ott, stating in an interview for The Entheogen Review that he has no belief nor disbelief in God. Or Sasha Shulgin describing himself in an interview as “agnostic,” despite the following statement that kicks off the book PIHKAL: I deem myself blessed, in that I have experienced, however briefly, the existence of God. I have felt a sacred oneness with creation and its Creator, and—most precious of all—I have touched the core of my own soul.

Even the Peyote Way Church, a devout statesanctioned religious group in Arizona since 1978, recently removed the “of God” that appended their church’s name, in order to make agnostics and atheists also feel welcome (Hanna 2008). If nothing else, such situations illustrate the strange contradictions that can pop up, when one chooses whether or not to use the word “God.” Contemporary conventional scientists have the same issues. Albert Einstein, Sir Arthur Eddington, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg all had their mystical sides, but discussion about the nature of God among scientists virtually stopped after World War II. Maybe it was due to the unholy slaughter of the two “great” wars only about twenty years apart, and the sustained genocides by Stalin and Hitler. Or maybe it was due to the fact that the United States unleashed the forces of hell into the world at Hiroshima and Nagasaki—acts of terrifying aggression (made possible through scientific “advances”) that our society has never really processed. I think there can be no doubt that those tragedies severely affected our confidence in God— for if there was a God, why would it allow such

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things? As the next generation grew up knowing that they were just one itchy trigger finger away from annihilation, science became the more powerful concept. In a post-WWII society, the twin towers of Science and Industry were whole-heartedly accepted as substitutes for Religion. But ironically, that same science was responsible for reintroducing experiential spirituality back into the Western world, since with the invention of LSD, millions of people could now have direct knowledge of transcendent states. When just a few years later humanity saw the first photographs of the earth floating in space, the realization began to solidify that we are all indeed one. Issues like human rights, sexual equality, ecology, and world peace dominated a generation. But our own spirituality was too damaged—fraught with propaganda and contradiction—to be of much use to us. After John Lennon pointed out that the Beatles were more popular than God, they went off to India and sat at the Maharishi’s feet. Our new society invested itself in a thousand different philosophies, turning its back not only on mainstream religion, but also, to a degree, on mainstream science. A New Age dawned: one where the channeled missives from Pleiades became as credible to some people (and were received with more interest) as the results from the Hubble telescope. Mainstream science and the entheogenic movement both ended up suffering the same predicament: they no longer have much room left in their ranks for a discussion of God. Existentialism has come to reign so supreme, that some in our own entheogenic movement will explain away transcendent union-with-God experiences as a “by-product of consciousness.” And science tells us that consciousness is just “a by-product of matter.” So it goes. We break the sacred compounds down, looking at molecules and receptor sites in search of an answer based on the “scientific” belief that the physical nature of the compounds causes their entheogenic effects. Most scientists give little attention to the possibility that entheogens, rather than producing particular states of consciousness, may instead operate by allowing us to access a broader band of consciousness. (And virtually no scientists are willing to discuss the possibility that they can

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allow us to access God.)2 It’s no wonder that people today are more interested in MDMA than 5-MeODMT—they just want to get high so they can escape their random, pointless lives. There seem to be very few people willing to go out on a limb within the entheogenic movement to tell anyone that they can find God. I belong to a group of scientists who do not subscribe to a conventional religion but nevertheless deny that the universe is a purposeless accident. Through my scientific work I have come to believe more and more strongly that the physical universe is put together with an ingenuity so astonishing that I cannot accept it merely as a brute fact. There must, it seems to me, be a deeper level of explanation. Furthermore, I have come to the point of view that mind—i.e., conscious awareness of the world— is not a meaningless and incidental quirk of nature, but an absolutely fundamental facet of reality. — Paul Davies The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World (1992)

Yet this position is beginning to change in the mainstream sciences. It is changing because we are undergoing a massive paradigm shift in our knowledge of the universe. And the cause of this paradigm shift is exactly where mainstream science and the entheogenic community meet. It is changing, because the new scientific paradigm that will come to dominate the direction of knowledge in the twenty-first century is one that no longer recognizes the primacy of matter as the stuff of our reality. Rather, it recognizes that consciousness and information are the precursors of existence. Or as the astrophysicist Sir James Jeans wrote in The Mysterious Universe “the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.” This revelation is not news to the mystics, for this has been a perennial intuition in mysticism since the beginning of language. And the primacy of consciousness clearly lies at the heart of the entheogenic movement. But there is no doubt that this is a revolutionary transformation of scientific belief, as it opens up some obvious spiritual possibilities: for if consciousness is primary, then

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human consciousness is not its only form. Some form of consciousness must have been around since the beginning of time, long before we arrived on the scene. So perhaps our consciousness is simply a limited form of that consciousness, after all. There are a host of other factors in this scientific reappraisal of the possibility of God (or some form of higher consciousness): the zero-point field, the speculation that we occupy a flat universe, the increasing awareness of universal constants, the understanding of how finely tuned for the creation of life our universe really is—discoveries like these are challenging reductionist materialism, 4 and there are too many to detail here. Science is increasingly at war with itself, as the old guard of the old paradigm dig in their heels and try to shield themselves from an avalanche of data that is proving them wrong, just as those who believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth came up with increasingly complicated attempts to explain away the data that confirmed Copernicus’s hypothesis.



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the mind on a journey through some amazing new scientific discoveries and important transcendental concepts. I find it interesting that this shift in the mainstream sciences seems to be coming at about the same time as I have been witnessing a shift within the entheogenic community. People I have met clearly welcome the return of experiential spirituality to their lives, but they want to be able to believe in the validity of it, and science currently forms the foundation for much of our belief system. Nevertheless, a number of people are beginning to have faith-based transformations of their lives due to their experiences with entheogens like 5-MeO-DMT, DMT, and ayahuasca. These experiences are so powerful, that the people who have them no longer fear the social stigma of talking about their personal relationship with a transcendental God. These experiences are so real, that those who have them are willing to take the promotion of divinity back into their own hands. I know, because I am one such person, and I have been meeting more and more of us as I travel the globe.

Nevertheless, a number of people are beginning to have faith-based transformations of their lives due to their experiences with entheogens like 5-MeO-DMT, DMT, and ayahuasca.

This fact is neatly demonstrated by the recent publication of a couple of books by two scientists who offer radically different points of view. In 2006, noted biologist Richard Dawkins released his book The God Delusion. The same year, respected astrophysicist Bernard Haisch took the polar opposite approach in his book The God Theory: Universes, Zero-Point Fields, and What’s Behind It All. Dawkins’ book has been by far the more popular, with worldwide reviews and over a million copies sold. Haisch’s book received much less fanfare. But if you compare the two, you quickly realize that Dawkins’ book is full of tepid ideas, surprisingly little hard science (other than extrapolated Darwinism), and a tone that is brimming with righteous anger. In contrast, Haisch’s book quietly and soberly takes

The driving force behind this transformation is described within the concept of “liberation theology,” which explains that a true faith-based spiritual epiphany creates a social and political transformation in an individual that cannot be ignored. This transformation creates a contemplative activist; Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Dalai Lama are all examples of contemplative activists. These contemplative activists have been “some of the most effective agents for encouraging the liberation of individuals and systems in all of human history,” (Cairns 2001) since in liberation theology, “[t]here is not first the mystical and then the political…. The political is of the substance of the mystical.”

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(Lee and Cowan 1986, in Cairns 2001). By experiencing the full reality of God, these individuals have found the inner strength to set about changing the world. So perhaps there is still hope for our society to rediscover God. As science turns toward an understanding of the primacy of consciousness, I think there is one area where both society and science can agree: the use of entheogens is a very effective tool for both exploring consciousness and for reappraising mystical states. The realization of God based on a scientific understanding of “how-thiscould-be-possible” would be a radical transformation of our own understanding, and it could produce enough contemplative activists to bring about the massive societal shift in awareness that humanity may need to survive the twenty-first century. But to do this we must confront our own prejudices about the word “God,” and we must rescue it from the tyrannies of its recent history. If there is one group in our modern society that should be able to embrace a new concept of God, it is those within the entheogenic movement. It is high time for us to open up both our hearts and our minds, to let God back in. 



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1. The Council on Spiritual Practices published two of my favorite books on this topic: Entheogens and the Future of Religion and Psychoactive Sacramentals. The CSP was also one of the sponsors of the John Hopkins psilocybin study, which provided scientific evidence that psilocybin can produce complete mystical experiences that can have profoundly positive life-changing effects. 2. Rick Strassman is somewhat of an exception on this count, in that he has suggested that it may be the process of DMT being released by the pineal gland that allows the human soul to enter and leave the body (Strassman 2001); however, this does not relate directly to God—it only relates to the idea of a soul. 3. Stanislav Grof’s work is the main exception to this, though his revelations are often cloaked in heavy psychiatric jargon. Alex Grey also champions this idea, but because he is an artist, scientists may be inclined to explain away his views as artistic metaphor. 4. Reductionist materialism is the belief that things can be broken down into smaller and smaller parts to explain how they operate, and that matter forms the basis of reality.

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Ann & Sasha Shulgin Speak… in discussion with Earth and Fire Erowid, part two Adapted from an interview recorded at Mind States Costa Rica, June 15, 2007

Fire: Have you ever done a sweat lodge?

Fire: It’s an endurance ceremony. There’s a practice of sitting with the heat…

Ann: No, I’d love that. Earth: It’s really, really hot. Earth: You people are from Northern California, right? Ann: (laughs) Have you done that?

Fire: It’s very interesting. Earth: And they don’t let you leave. Theoretically you could leave, but you’d be a big wimp.

Fire: We’ve done two sweat lodges. Fire: (laughs) It’s peer pressure. Ann: How is it different from an ordinary peyote experience? Earth: Well, without the peyote. We did just the sweat lodge, with the heat, and the unpleasantness, and the singing… (laughter)

Earth: Yeah, I think that it is a lot of peer pressure. Sweating, like in a sauna, but for two hours… Fire: …three hours. Earth: It felt like forever.

Sasha: You can probably use your imagination for the rest of it.

Ann: But what does it do to you?

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Earth: You sweat. Fire: It’s a bit of a meditation. In the way that sitting for three hours anywhere, not reading or entertaining yourself in some other way is a bit of a meditation. Then add in changing physical circumstances.



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Earth: There was a beat. It might have just been clapping, but there may have been a drum. It has been a while. Ann: I remember a didgeridoo performance in Jamaica, where I really had my consciousness altered, just listening to that. Do you think that the rhythm is the reason that you have the alteration?

Ann: How do you feel when you come out? Earth: Very soft. Like jelly or something, poured into… whatever I was. For four or five hours, until I went to sleep that night after my sweat lodge experiences—I felt like I was on MDMA. Ann: Really?

I remember a didgeridoo performance in Jamaica, where I really had my consciousness altered, just listening to that.

Earth: I felt love for the world. I felt so good. “Everyone’s so great!” It was very pleasant, except that the experience was not pleasant. However, it was more than just the feeling of being glad to be done with something unpleasant, definitely. I felt cleansed, and moved, and tired, and… Fire: …connected to the people who had been part of the ceremony. Ann: Wow! Earth: The ceremonies that we took part in, which were both led by the same person, included content that was part of his tradition. There was often singing, and the person led chanting. Fairly innocuous Native American stuff. Ann: Was it rhythmical? Earth: Very rhythmic. Ann: Was there any drumming?

Fire: I think that it is a combination. The ceremony itself, the focus, and the physical conditions are clearly playing into it, the chanting… Earth: It felt like entering into a waking dream state. In a lot of ways I think of visionary substances as catalyzing waking dream states—a kind of softening or breaking of the veil between consciousness and the subconscious in some ways. Ann: Yeah, okay, right. A little bit of a sort of telepathic feeling?

Earth: It definitely felt as though the group had merged in some way. Like I was aware of the people around me, yet it was dark—totally dark. Ann: Which gives you a good clue that you don’t need drugs to get into that sort of a state. One day I met a lady standing in line to get tickets for something. She had just come back from the Peace Corps. We got into a discussion—it was a long, slow line— about different cultures. I remarked, just casually, that every culture in the world seemed to have a plant that could be used for alteration of consciousness. She had been, I think, in Kenya—wherever the Watusi live. So I asked, “What do they use?” She said that it’s pretty well desert and there’s no plant. But if you’ve seen them in documentaries, they are tall and thin, and they leap up and down, and the hair on their headdresses sort of swirls around—and she said that’s the way that they go into an altered state. I said, “Oh my God.”

Fire: I can’t actually remember. Fire: That sounds like a lot of work.

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Ann: But that’s the way that they do it. If you haven’t got a plant, you use what you’ve got. It was very interesting. Earth: There are definitely quite a lot of traditional dances that intentionally create an altered state through physical duress, exhaustion… Ann: Yes. Fire: Are there any classic visionary states of consciousness that you haven’t ever had, which you wish that you had had? Out-of-body experiences, or… Earth: …entity encounters, auditory hallucinations… Sasha: People often say, you should have tried this, you should have tried that. But my main interest is not in exploiting a drug and getting all of the possible effects out of it; rather, it is keeping my liver in reasonably good shape and making new drugs. That’s my main contribution: new things. Earth: How is your liver, by the way? Have you had it tested? Sasha: It’s in good shape. Ann: It’s a Zinfandel color.



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Sasha: There’s only a couple of things wrong with the Carlo Rossi $7.99 per four-liter thing. That’s less than $2.00 a liter, which is okay. The thing is, if you get the Cabernet, or you get the Merlot, or something, it’s yuck. But if you get just the plain Burgundy, which doesn’t mean much other than the fact that it is red, then it is rather okay. I had a nice experience at the Bohemian Grove a couple or three years ago. A very good wine expert came out with some $30 or $50 bottles of wine to have them tasted and compared, and I just happened to have a little bit of the Carlo Rossi $7.99 per fourliter thing there. While he was preparing something else, but he had one sample ready to go, I switched glasses with him. He came back to try this, and made a comment. His face went into a strange place, and with a hint of curiosity he said, “This particular bottle has a slightly different bouquet than the one I am familiar with.” Then he gave quite a complimentary series of comments, and I decided not to tell him that I had switched wines, as a courtesy. But the other disadvantage of the Carlo Rossi is that, usually when you buy a case of wine, you get 10% off. A case of four-liter bottles is four bottles, and you don’t get 10% off. So you lose a little bit there. Fire: Back to any other types of effects that you haven’t had… Earth: Alien/entity encounters? Have you ever met a DMT elf? One of Terence’s friends?

Sasha: That’s why I stick to inexpensive Zinfandels. Actually, what’s that thing with the five-letter last name that I get the Burgundy of? Carlo Rossi. Marvelous stuff. I’ve been following that now for several years. Four liters used to cost you $12.99. Four liters is now $7.99. Gas prices are going up per gallon, wine prices are coming down, and I am kind of interested to see…

Sasha: DMT is not a warm thing to me. I’ve tried it about half-a-dozen times. I find myself lying back in bed, completely stoned, completely in a strange place, asking myself, “Why am I doing this?” I mean, it is a ridiculous statement, but I don’t get positive feedback, as many people do. I just don’t get that, and I have not explored it any more since.

Fire: Wine-powered vehicles?

Fire: I assume that you get visuals.

Sasha: No, what do you call this thing—2012— the Armageddon day, Timewave, whatever it is. The price of gasoline and wine may become the same.

Sasha: Oh yes. But so what? They’re not exciting visuals. They’re not interesting. They’re just there. I would rather use my energies and time on new things.

Earth: The heralding of the Apocalypse.

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Fire: Is there a particular material that you feel has the most interesting visuals? Sasha: What are the visual situations with the flies? How many people have experience with 2CB-fly, for example?



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in the four position, and all of the compounds would probably be comparably active, and new, and as dragon-flies could very well be active in the microgram level. It’s a whole area to be explored that has not even been touched—I love it! Ann: As soon as he has finished the book he is working on now, we are going to put him in the lab and lock the door.

Ann: None? Fire: Nobody raised a hand. Sasha: This is a series of compounds that were worked out in Purdue by David Nichols’ group. How many people have even heard of flies? Okay, quite a few. They have flies, which are two rings, one up, one down, on either side of the benzene ring with a bromine down here and a two-carbon chain up there. Then there are what I call the pseudoflies and the semi-flies. So you have semi-flies, pseudo-flies, flies, and dragon-flies. They are all simple compounds with a little ring plastered onto the side, looking like the wing of a fly. Another with a ring plastered on the side here and on the other side, but they are plastered at eight-o’clock and at four-o’clock, so they are opposite one-another, and those are the pseudo-flies. You have one with the ring plastered here and here, so they are opposite one another, so they are the regular flies. And if they are made aromatic by taking out a couple of hydrogen bonds, you call them dragonflies. The ones that were most explored by Nichols at Purdue are the flies and dragon-flies. They are more active than the bare 2C-B itself. 2C-B-fly is about twice the potency of 2C-B, perhaps of comparable duration in time, and the erotic is every bit the same—even better. But the dragon-flies have not been talked about much. They are apparently quite a bit more potent. The potency is less than a milligram—you are down in the multi-microgram levels. So this is a weird little simple molecular structure that has the potential for a great deal of exploratory research. I can see putting a trifluromethyl group in the four position, putting a nitro group in the four position, all kinds of neat things

As soon as he has finished the book he is working on now, we are going to put him in the lab and lock the door.

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Sasha: They’ll bring over food twice a day… I think. Of course, if I am experimenting with new things, I don’t need food, do I? Earth: Leg irons. He’s a tricky one. Locking the door might not be enough.

Ann: Two or three months in the lab, I think it’s about time. A lot of stuff needs to be worked on. By the way, I would like to make a request of anybody who would really like to be of tremendous help to Sasha—and especially people who know how to get onto Internet medical sites. I think that the only real hope—and I think that it is a real hope for the macular degeneration that he is suffering from, which is what they call the “dry” type, for which there is no present medical help—is stem cell research. I think that stem cell research is going to be the answer. I know that it is starting with eyes, because there is some sort of retinal work that, at least in animals, has been successful. If you find or hear of any research involving eyes and stem cells, please let us know, so that we can see if we can sign up for it. Otherwise, this is a very annoying thing to have happen. Sasha: It is so maddening not to be able to hit letters on the typewriter—to miss them by about two inches. Ann: It’s not good for lab work. Fire: Two inches, here or there, how important can that be, really? (laughs) Switching gears a bit, are there any decisions that you have made about psychoactives in the past, that in retrospect, you

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thought were very bad decisions that you regretted making, which you think that other people could learn from? So not just, “I shouldn’t have tried that 4-acetoxy-MJP-something” that no one else would ever try. Are there ways of using psychoactives that you have learned are better or worse? Sasha: I have to kind of skirt around the question a little bit, because I don’t really look for ways to use psychoactives. My dream is still creating new ones, and letting others work out the combinations and the set-up. The one thing that I have done is put a lot of the ideas where I have made two or three things here, and I would love to make twelve more around the outer edge there, and I have not done it—because there are other things that I want to do also. But in writing up the commentaries for the books, I often tell what I have done and where I would have gone if I had had the time. And other people have exploited that nicely. For example, the whole 2,4,5-world, I’m pretty convinced is paralleled by a 2,4,6-world. Of the ones I’ve explored, some were potent, some less potent, but all interesting. There’s been dozens in the 2,4,5-world, but maybe only a half-a-dozen in the 2,4,6-world. I think that whole area could be explored very richly, and there are a lot of things to be found out there. This is the value of the commentaries in the last part of the second half of the books. Fire: So you are aware of a few substances that other people have made because of commentaries in PIHKAL or TIHKAL. How many would you say that there have been? Sasha: Well, there have been a lot of them. For example the whole 2C-T world. I took it up to 2C-T22 or -23. It’s now been taken, in Europe and on the East Coast, up into the 30s. People just kept going up, adding different marvelous groups on the sulfur and giving these creations the next numbers. But this is your territory. You probably have a lot of the 2C-Ts up on your web site, don’t you? Fire: Yes, but nothing in the 30s. Sasha: They exist out there. If folks want their name attached, that can be done. But if they don’t want their name attached, it could be posted anonymously.



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Fire: Certainly. Sasha: But the information should be up there. Fire: Although there is hesitation on the part of some people to want things published if they are not yet illegal, if those people are intending to market them. Sasha: That’s right. Earth: Do you have any hard lessons that you have learned, Ann? Ann: The more I hear about people experimenting, the more I believe in “sitters.” Having a sitter is very, very important. There’s so many people who have taken a lot of drugs, and they feel that they can handle anything. But you don’t know what might be around the corner. Anything might be unexpectedly rough, or worse than unexpectedly rough. Like the ayahuasca experience I had. It’s really funny looking back. You go to a special place where they do ayahuasca, you have an evening experience, then you sleep, and then you have an experience in the daytime. I think that’s usually the way it goes. Sasha and I had a perfectly nice experience the first and second time. I think we decided it was not going to be the greatest thing in the world for us, but it was pleasant enough. Six months later, we did not hesitate when we were invited to come and do it again. We knew the people conducting the ceremony—they were among our best friends. We knew a lot of the people who were in the group. It was a small group. And the second time, with the same people conducting the ceremony, just the sound of the dry palm leaves rattling was the most amazing experience—sort of holophonic. But the second time, we were very cautious about the level we took, because we tend to be very cautious anyway—even if we’ve taken something before. So we took a low amount. I think it was the same as we had taken before. We were not going to go higher. And this time, I had to try not to get run over by a fast-moving train. It was all lights and noise and it was coming at me. This was the first time in a long time that I began to be scared. I think of myself as pretty experienced. But holding on for dear life, trying to not get run over,

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was not a very pleasant thing to go through. I didn’t have any of the vomiting, or diarrhea, for that matter. That was perfectly fine. But the train just wouldn’t stop. Then a voice came into my head and said, “Don’t come here again.” And I thought, “Oh, I can see why you might suggest that.” (laughter) Sasha was having an equally bad time, but with a completely different kind of visuals, and he mentioned a little bit of that. We both agreed that was not pleasant to go through. But we were with friends, and we decided the next day, when everyone was having their daytime experiences, that we would take a teeny little tiny bit—less than half of what we had taken the night before—so that we could at least participate with the group. And here came the train again. It was just as nasty, and I was just as occupied with trying to stay alive. Earth: Maybe you should have listened to the voice? (laughter) Ann: Wait a minute. The only difference is that it was a shorter duration. Sasha was having, I think, an equally bad time. So the voice came back, and it asked, “Didn’t you hear me the first time!?” I have not taken ayahuasca since, and I am not going to. So I think you have to be careful. There are some psychedelic drugs that are not your ally. It’s your own chemistry. 2C-B-fly, to me, is one of the greatest things that has ever happened in the psychedelic world. But I do not know a single other person who has had the same results that I have had. So I have stopped explaining why it’s the greatest drug in the world, because I think I may be one of the only people who has that reaction to it. Fire: Because of something in your brain. Ann: You just can not forget that drugs are different in everybody, with the possible exception of MDMA. Sasha: We had a somewhat similar “negative in some people” thing with the Pachycereus pringlii. We got a sample from Baha, California. The extract of the cactus had been put into four containers. There were twelve of us at the experiment. By threes, we took the contents of each container. All of the

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people who had the contents of the second and the third container had to go downstairs because they were violently ill. Fortunately only one of them had diarrhea, and he locked himself into the bathroom. Each of us had different medical problems. The other six people had marvelous experiences. It all came from the same cooking of the same cactus. So we decided that maybe something had gotten into those two containers, that was not in the other two. I took a sample from residues in each of the good and the bad containers, to run mass specs on them. One of the people there was a biochemist—a bacteriologist—and he took samples to run bacterial growths, to see if something was growing in one of them and not in the other. We both came up with blanks. No explanation at all. I’ve looked at the contents of the Pachycereus pringlii, and there’s no trace of mescaline in there at all. But there are a lot of isoquinolines, and there are a lot of interesting small and not-active phenethylamines. So I’m pretty convinced that—I’ll call it cactuhuasca maybe—the isoquinolines inhibit the destruction of the phenethylamines that are otherwise not active, and that the cactus is active but none of its individual components are. So that’s still being explored. Ann: That brings up another cautionary thought. Wherever you are taking a drug, whether you have taken it before or not, make sure that there is a doctor on call—somebody who knows about psychedelics and who can come over pretty fast. And make sure there is some kind of sedative on hand. For instance with this cactus thing, I had an extremely rapid heartbeat, which was a little scary, and it happened to be in a house where there were no sedatives I could use. There was a Chinese herb, which didn’t do that much. You need something that can smooth down the body if it is overreacting. You need something for the stomach, in case you have unexpected cramps or nausea. Be sure that there are the basic remedies available. It doesn’t matter if it is the most familiar material to you or not. Because sometimes things happen that you don’t expect. Fire: Agreed. When you said “having a sitter,” one of the things that occurred to me is that it is surprisingly difficult to describe—obviously not to the

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people who are here, but to the eighteen-year-olds who make up a not insignificant portion of the people who visit Erowid, for example—that it is worth their while to have somebody not be tripping. How do you describe to them that having a sitter is useful enough that somebody should be missing out on the fun? It’s tough. It’s like a designated driver, which is also difficult to adequately convey the importance of to eighteen-year-olds. Ann: If not, then natural selection comes in again. You don’t want it to be your kid who is selected out. Earth: Here’s a thought experiment for Sasha… Fire: …given two piles of 2C-B. Let’s just imagine this in a world where it was legal, although that doesn’t matter for the question. One pile you made, and one pile was commercially produced by a lab somewhere. They have been tested and identified as both being pure 2C-B. Do you have a connection to the one that you synthesized? Do you feel some sort of bond, an emotional connection…



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Ann: I know there are a lot of people who have taken MDMA that they thought was made by Sasha and not by someone else, and they felt that it had an extra something-or-other. I think out of politeness, I might take the Sasha-made one. Fire: You don’t want to make him feel bad. Ann: Well, I mean, you know… loyalty. (laughs) But I wouldn’t worry about there being any real difference. Except I don’t put down people who’d think that there is a difference. Because there is something in the spirit of the person—Sasha would never say this—who makes something, and some of that spirit does, perhaps, go into the material that emerges. In a lab, the people who make materials very often don’t care—it’s just part of their job. And you could argue that maybe there is something that is missing from that, which is present in the other. Sasha: This answer has absolutely no scientific merit whatsoever, but it’s believable. (laughs)

Earth: …a preference?

Earth: It sounds like the two of you have a little difference there.

Ann: A fatherly glow?

Ann: Oh yeah, sure.

Sasha: Well, I know how I assayed its purity and its identity.

Sasha: Not serious.

Fire: Let’s say that you assayed the purity of both of them, but one of them was the one that you made. Is a pure chemical a pure chemical, and you don’t care at all? Sasha: It definitely would not matter. I can not see where it would matter if it went through my criteria of identity and purity. They would be interchangeable. Earth: And for you Ann? If you had two piles of 2C-B, one that had been produced by Sasha, and one that had been produced by Sigma. Sasha verified that they were both identical. Do you have a feeling about that?

Ann: Well, I don’t know… (laughter) We manage to tolerate each other’s idiosyncrasies. Earth: Are there visionary artists, or particular psychedelic artists, whom you like? Ann: Mati Klarwein is my favorite. He died a few years ago, and he is amazing. There’s a little book called Inscapes: Real-Estate Paintings. He paints bushes, and rocks. In one bush you can see the Buddha face emerging. I stare at one of those paintings, and I go into what we call a “plus-two.” It’s just extraordinary. Looking at the Klarwein paintings is an inexpensive way of turning on. That’s my feeling about it. What about you? Sasha: Very much so, but also I’d mention Martina Hoffmann.

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Ann: Martina Hoffmann, and Robert Venosa. Terrific work. But also the art of Van Gogh—take a look at his paintings and you will see the psychedelic experience without question. Sasha: As he got older in age, they became quite different. Ann: Yeah. The trouble is, it was an agonizing experience for him. But his consciousness was definitely… he was seeing the energy in trees. He couldn’t have painted them that way if he hadn’t seen them, or felt their life energy. And there are some other artists who were living during our time. Morris Graves, who did strange birds and strange trees. I remember the title of one of his paintings is Little-Known Bird of the Inner Eye. He was a pretty turned-on artist, too. Earth: If you could pick one currently Schedule I drug to make legal, where would you start?



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of young people—usually between seventeen and twenty-one, somewhere—they are publishing paper after paper after paper of lethality in the scientific literature. And this is an inventory of things that it would be very hard to have to battle against. These papers often start with the phrase, “This is a drug that has a general attitude amongst the users in the street of being without risk, but in truth it has very serious risks, and some of them lethal. Here’s another example.” Then they present their paper. I can give you a dozen examples. Earth: But you get to be God in this little fantasy world, so you can just choose which one to make legal. You don’t have to worry about all of that. Fire: Let’s imagine that you’ve finished the Psychedelic Index, and you magically have the time and energy for some other really large project—it could take twenty years. What else would you do? Maybe that’s to go off and do something completely unrelated to chemistry, I don’t know…

Sasha: Just one? Or can I have the whole works? Fire: Just one, but who knows what happens from there. Maybe the choice would be because that drug would then break down the legal system into something more rational. A lot of people would pick Cannabis, because there are so many people who already use it. Sasha: I think the idea of Cannabis may be a good one, because there is increasing understanding of its medical validity, and it is more widely accepted in state law than any other drug. I wonder if that might not be an easy way of breaking the tight lock on all drugs by the federal government—to take one that has already some body of approval. That would be my guess offhand. Ann: Without question, MDMA. Because that, as far as I’m concerned, has proven itself to be an extraordinary therapeutic drug. There’s nothing like it. So that would be my choice. Sasha: On the other hand, with the MDMA… I have just been reading over some of the reports of death due to this, death due to that, death due to the other… probably ten or twelve causes of death

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Sasha: If I could get this book done and get that out of the way and I had a number of years ahead of me, I would be back locked in that lab that entire length of time. I want to get back into really creative work. Ann: I used to paint a great deal. I’d like to take up painting again, if I had the energy and the time. And I’d like to get Book Three done. And I’d like to go horseback riding and learn hula dancing. Earth: Are there any questions or issues that you think are really important that never come up in interviews? Ann: No. I think some of the best questions that we’ve ever had have been asked today. We haven’t been asked once, “What’s your favorite drug?” That’s so nice. Earth: Let that be a warning. Fire: And thank you very much! 

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“Jungle Spice” Mystery Alkaloid(s) of MIMOSA Root-bark by Entropymancer The following has been edited, condensed, and annotated by The Entheogen Review. Although the resulting article remains much longer than anything we have previously published in a single issue of ER, the information within it is representative of several categories of content regularly featured in any given issue. From questions and speculations about chemistry, to hyperspatial maps, to network feedback, extraction processes, analysis reports, and botanical musings, there’s something here for almost everyone, including a mystery that we are hopeful some ER readers might help to solve in the future. We first heard about the isolation of what was thought to be a potent novel tryptamine from Mimosa tenuiflora root-bark from an informant in Canada in February of 2004. This informant had experience smoking pure DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and bufotenine, and he felt certain—due to the potency and dramatic quality of effects he experienced—that it was none of these compounds; but he did describe the effects as being “tryptamine-like.” We were therefore very excited to discover the article reprinted below, and be made aware of the latest findings in this area. Although we feel that the information in this article is fascinating and begs further investigation, we are unsure that the explanation for the variety of experiences reported is due to some novel chemical(s) in every case presented. Most people who have smoked pure DMT a hundred times know that they can have 80–90 “similar” experiences, with the remaining 10–20 of them being all over the board: entirely lacking colors, becoming threatening/terrifying, insanely intense, strangely realistic, or presenting most of the other aspects attributed in this article to “jungle spice.” Several of the accounts included below are contradictory in describing the effects of jungle spice. And comparing effects without knowing weighed dose amounts is also problematic. Many of the texts used in this article were sourced from web postings; as such, the finer details of linguistic expression were often ignored in the originals. We therefore made the choice to substantially edit these texts for clarity, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and length. We feel confident that we have retained the relevant content and flavor of the original accounts, but have placed these texts within • paraquote marks • to make it clear that they are not direct quotes. Those unfamiliar with web-based psychonautic acronyms will benefit from knowing that SWIM stands for “someone who is not me.” It is also worth pointing out that the term “spice” by itself is frequently used on-line as a synonym for DMT. Due to the large number of web-based texts included, we have employed a superscript numbering system to cite these, and one can refer to the bibliography to locate URLs where most of the verbatim accounts can be found on-line. The original version of this entire article, which includes a couple more extraction techniques, some TLC specs, and several useful color photographs, can be found at: entheogenreview.com/junglespice.html. — Eds.

“Jungle spice” is one of several names applied to an intriguing and potent psychoactive extract that can be isolated from some Mimosa spp. root-bark. 2,3,11 Synonyms include jungle DMT, red spice, red DMT, dark spice, and dark DMT. It is the alkaloid fraction obtained from the aqueous basic phase of an extraction by pulling with xylene or toluene after DMT largely ceases to be pulled by an aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent (naphtha, heptane, etc.). This product usually also contains at least some DMT, in addition to one or more alkaloids of apparently novel psychoactivity; some extractors choose to remove the DMT in a hot naphtha wash to obtain a pure “jungle” experience, while others use the jungle spice/DMT mixture as it is.

Several compounds can be isolated by extracting the aqueous basic phase with xylene or toluene. 9,15 Which compounds are isolated may depend on the source and botanical identity of the root-bark, conditions of cultivation/harvest, and various pH, temperature, and airflow considerations throughout the extraction process. 2,3,18,20 Based on their physical properties, we can classify three distinct types of material that can result from the xylene/ toluene pull: a red/brown crystalline goo, a tan waxy material, and a yellow oil. Some have suggested that the mysterious psychoactive component may be yuremamine, a novel phytoindole isolated from Mimosa tenuiflora stem-

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bark (Vepsäläinen et al. 2005). 13,18 However, this speculation appears unlikely based on yurema-mine’s instability at lower pH and its speculated instability when exposed to heat (Vepsäläinen et al. 2005). 18

behind a red solid that is insoluble in the naphtha. This red material has been isolated both by acid/ base extraction and by straight-to-base extraction (Noman 2008). 6,15,16,18,20

On-line threads discussing jungle spice contain posts claiming that the chemical kokusaginine is likely responsible for jurema’s reported oral activity. 1,8,11,18 These posters generally (mis)cite an issue of The Entheogen Review (J.S., OR et al. 1999) to back their claims. Based on physical descriptions as well as reports of its effects, it appears that the compound that some people have wrongly called kokusaginine is identical to the tan waxy material, which is usually described as being very hard. 11,12 Particularly with this fraction, it’s been reported that as the chemical ages, the stuporous effects dissipate, and are replaced by a novel and fully psychedelic activity profile (Delafonze19 2008; Toresten 2008).14,15,19

The crude extract is a mixture of compounds. In most cases, pulling the alkaline aqueous phase with xylene extracts a bright yellow color into the solvent, and the red pigment isn’t seen until the solvent is evaporated. 18,22 When the DMT and other impurities are removed from the crude extract via a warm wash in an aliphatic hydrocarbon (naphtha, heptane, etc.), several extractors report that the recovered DMT crystals remain stained yellow. 11,14 This yellow fraction of jungle spice that is soluble in warm naphtha could be several different things (see Yellow Oils).

Red/Brown Crystalline Goo After doing two pulls with naphtha I did two pulls with toluene, evaporated the toluene, and washed the solids with naphtha, which made them dark red. • — Entheogenist 6 •

The jungle spice I got is just like a piece of a red crayon. After evaporating off the solvent, it looked like crystals on the dish. But when scraped up, it all stuck together to make this waxy homogenous stuff. It has a strong smell of indole when burned, but otherwise it has an odor similar to DMT, but with a fruity kind of a smell. • — QuantumBrujo 6 •

SWIM succeeded in pulling the red spice. It’s a dark, deep crimson color, almost the color of dried blood. • — Spicemeister 11

However, some people obtain an explicitly brown goo from the xylene pull, with no indication of red coloration whatsoever. 11,16,18 Although this may appear similar to the crude red/brown goo on initial inspection, exclusively brown extracts appear to yield a different product, distinct from the red material (see Tan Waxes). Lighter tan waxy specimens have been obtained after a brown goo was washed with hot naphtha. 18 While the red material may be a mixture of multiple alkaloids, it also seems plausible that the red material might have essentially the same chemical composition as the tan waxes, with the addition of a small amount of a red pigment that’s responsible for the differences in color and consistency between the red and tan materials.

Tan Waxes

•

The red/brown crystalline goo that one can find pictures of on-line are what I think of as jungle spice, but washing this goo can yield a diversity of products. As the above quotes indicate, in some cases washing the dark gunk with naphtha leaves

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A xylene pull of a basified acidic extract of this material yields a crystalline slightly orange waxy substance that smells of tryptamines and glows orange under a blacklight. • — Archaea 11 •

Ended up with tan waxy non-oily stuff that is stronger than hell (10–20 mg) and terrifying. It’s not just residual DMT, its too strong for that. • — Noman 18 •

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The tan waxes are obtained in the same way as the red material above: an aqueous hydroxide solution containing Mimosa root-bark alkaloids is extracted with several volumes of naphtha until no more DMT is pulled. The spent solution is then extracted with a few volumes of xylene or toluene to obtain the crude jungle spice. Washing this crude material with hot naphtha yields a waxy solid, that ranges widely in color from extraction to extraction (Noman 2008), appearing light yellow/orange to tan to brown. 9,11,16,18 This material has also been isolated from both acid/base and straight-to-base procedures (Noman 2008). 11,18 The reported pharmacological activity of this material suggests that there may be more than one compound here. Tan waxes are the fraction of jungle spice that are most frequently reported to change in psychoactive effects over time, indicating that some chemical reaction (presumably oxidation) is occurring. 5,9,19

Yellow Oils The material that was evaporated out of the filtered xylene defat of the powdered root-bark was a yellow creamy color prior to purification, and a translucent orange, almost oily residue, which would not dry to a hard substance. • — Lycaeum Member 20 •

It’s yellowish. Even a yellow crystal. Smells the same as DMT, with a musty overtone. • — Heyoka 10 •

After two recrystallizations on the DMT that came out with the jungle spice, SWIM tells me it is irretrievably stained yellow and resembles egg yolk. • — Spicemeister 11 •

This is by far the most ambiguous fraction that comes out of the xylene/toluene pull. Some yellow oils isolated from Mimosa spp. have been speculated to be plant fats, and another fraction is suspected of being an oxidation product of DMT. 1,4,10,18 When DMT is extracted with xylene/toluene or diethyl ether (without using naphtha first), it also tends to come out with a bright yellow-orange discoloration. 5,9,11,18,22



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The most substantial evidence that there is more than one compound in the yellow oil is the ambiguous solubility of the material. Yellow oil is separated from jungle spice based on its solubility in naphtha, while at the same time a yellow oil can be removed from DMT (extracted by standard straight-to-base methods), due to its insolubility in hot naphtha. Clearly these must be different yellow oils. To further complicate the issue, it’s difficult to isolate the yellow oil on its own. Many people doing otherwise normal extractions report obtaining a yellow product when the naphtha pulls are performed using heat. 1,10,18 The resultant yellow crystals are sometimes reported to be qualitatively “better” in effect than pure DMT (delafonze19 2008). 10.22 Also, when washing the crude jungle spice extract with warm naphtha, some extractors report that any DMT they recover from this process is strongly yellow-colored, and that this pigment seems impossible to remove by typical purification methods. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any experience reports using such yellowstained DMT that specifically resulted from this process. 11,18 Investigating the possibility of the yellow oil being DMT-N-oxide, I found a paper reporting the isolation of this compound from a methanol extract of Acacia confusa (Buchanan et al. 2007). However, the paper didn’t provide any description of the physically observable characteristics of the compound (such as color), it only gave the measured NMR data. Someone with access to proton NMR spectroscopy who obtains a sample of yellow “oxidized” DMT could use this NMR information to conclusively establish or refute the identity of this material as DMT-N-oxide. TLC analysis mentioned on the web of whole and purified extracts of Mimosa root-bark described DMT-N-oxide as a yellow oil, but I have been unable to corroborate this description in the published literature. 4 Looking at Radio879’s LC/MS of a crude xylene pull of jungle spice reveals a peak at 205.1 m/z, which corresponds to the expected molecular ion of DMTN-oxide, 15 so it seems like a pretty good bet that

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this chemical is generated as a side-product of the extraction process, although it may exist in the rootbark as a trace component, as there is a barely perceptible peak at 205.1 m/z in the paper reporting the characterization of yuremamine from stem-bark (Vepsäläinen et al. 2005). It’s also possible that this trace peak was an artifact of the isolation process as well. [DMT-N-oxide certaily could be psychoactive when smoked (Shulgin 2008), and it should be simple enough for experimentalists to make some and try it. DMT-N-oxide forms by the action of hydrogen peroxide on DMT: 50 mg of DMT dissolved in 2 ml of ethanol is treated with 2 ml of hydrogen peroxide; after two hours at room temperature, crystallization is induced by adding ether and chilling; the granular DMT-N-oxide is removed and recrystallized from ethanol-ether. — Eds.]

General Comments on Colored Spice The old-school heads at the festivals keep talking about red or orange DMT from back in the day, and how strong it was. I’m wondering if that oldschool DMT was actually just a mixture of the two spice alkaloids in one product, because as far as I can tell, pure DMT is white or clear crystals. • — Anonymous 18 •

I have had the orange DMT that Terence McKenna and old heads speak of. It was different than the snow white DMT people extract these days. • — Anonymous 18 •

No. They’ve never had the current forms of colored DMT back then. These new forms are the most ridiculously potent DMT SWIM has ever smoked. Since 1999, there have been the red (also called purple by some), yellow, orange, and white spices available at music festivals. These have been kept underground until recently. At the last SCI shows in Red Rocks, CO, all colors were available, being offered quite openly. You could smell that sweet plastic smell every few thousand feet while walking the lot. • — Anonymous 18 •

There has been a great deal of discussion about “yellow DMT” and “orange DMT,” some of which has been reported to produce effects different than

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white DMT. 3,5,10,11,18,21,22 These colored materials are reported by some to be more potent than regular DMT, and by others to be less potent. There are several factors that can lead to yellow or orange DMT. The discussion will be organized based on the reported origins of the colored crystals.

Old Spice The yellow oils oxidize to a ruddy-orange color when stored at room temp for a month in a metal container. This is not good to let go any further. It’s degrading as the color goes yellow to orange. I have thought that this “aged” yellow DMT, which becomes orange, looks how McKenna’s DMT must have: a reddish and smelly mix of oils and clear crystals. But beware! It keeps oxidizing and definitely goes “off.” It becomes blackish-rusty-red and smells different. When this happens, it does not launch you—you get dragged behind the hyperspace shuttle. Bleah! • — El Ka Bong 9 •

The simplest form of colored DMT may come from samples that were originally white. As these samples age, they turn yellow, then apricot, and eventually become orange and waxy over time. 10,12 There is substantial disagreement over the amount of time it takes for this process to occur. 10 Some people report a change in color after several weeks to a month, while others have samples over a year old that remain without discoloration. 10,12 One potential variable is the type (and amount) of impurities present in a sample. This is corroborated by differences in the DMT’s shelf-life positively correlating with differences in the clean-up process used when extracting it; multiple samples that turned color rapidly with age had not been washed with ammonia or bicarbonate, while the samples that remained white for over a year had. 10 This may indicate that either residual hydroxide from the extraction, or perhaps some trace phytochemical that the alkaline polar wash removes, is responsible for the change in DMT as it ages. Anecdotal reports indicate that higher temperatures speed discoloration. 5,12 It is unknown whether other environmental factors, such as exposure to oxygen or moisture, also play a role in the rate of degradation.

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Since white DMT can turn orange over a period of time, it is tempting to consider the discoloration an oxidation product of little consequence. Unfortunately, it may not be quite that simple, since we’ve already fingered a yellow oil as the most likely candidate for the simplest DMT oxidation product (DMT-N-oxide). The orange color must come from something else. When stored at room temperature for a long period of time, a small amount of the DMT may begin breaking down into DMT-N-oxide. This DMTN-oxide is now also being exposed to environmental conditions for a long period of time, and it may begin breaking down into another degradation product, which is either deep orange or red. This should mean that starting with a crystal containing a trace amount of DMT-N-oxide will more rapidly lead to the material turning orange. This explanation is consistent with observations that have been made on yellow oil, but it remains a speculation. It is also possible that the orange/red degradation product forms independent of the yellow oil; there isn’t enough information to draw any hard conclusions. (Anyone want to run TLC, GC/MS, or LC/MS on old orange DMT that started out white?) To the people smoking it, what any discoloration does is a more important issue than what it is. Combing through anecdotal reports on the issue, there largely seems to be a consensus that as the DMT turns orange over time, it becomes qualitatively “different” in terms of the experience, but it is not any less potent at first. Then gradually, the sample loses potency and it eventually becomes qualitatively unpleasant in effect. 12,18 Smoking very old DMT has been compared to smoking the residue that collects inside of the DMT free-base pipe. 5 [Dark DMT (including pipe residues) can have a more threatening feel, but this could be reflective of an increase in pain from smoking breakdown products like skatole, which is demonstrably harmful to lung tissues; the oppressive feelings that can arise may simply be due to ingesting something that the body recognizes as a poison while coming on to a sensitive altered mind state. — Eds.]



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Synthetic vs. Extracted When talking about DMT from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, it’s important to recall that we’re likely not talking about the beautiful snowflakes of DMT that any Joe Blow can extract these days from Mimosa tenuiflora/M. hostilis root-bark. It was only in 1996, within a review of a Botanical Preservation Corps seminar in Palenque (which appeared in the summer issue of The Entheogen Review), that dosing specifics for M. hostilis root-bark as an ayahuasca analogue were first reported in print (Forbidden Donut 1996), although Jonathan Ott had hinted that the roots of this plant might be a good choice for such purposes a couple of years earlier in Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangæan Entheogens. And most extraction processes posted to the Internet in the mid-1990s were geared toward obtaining a smokable DMT-containing goop. There isn’t a lot of clear information on whether the DMT circulating in previous decades was of synthetic or extracted origin. [While this is true, one can speculate from the preponderance of published synthesis procedures in the underground literature (Brown & Associates 1968; Superweed 1969; Darth 1977; Smith 1981) and the dearth of published extraction methods in the underground literature, that most DMT available between the 1960s and the 1980s was synthetic. Our discussions with underground chemists support the contention that the vast majority of commercial DMT prior to the 1990s was synthetic, as does the fact that the vending of DMT-containing botanicals to the psychonautic market only began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. — Eds.] These are important considerations, as the initial purity and the chemical properties of the contaminants may be key factors in determining how the material ages. The discussion within this article assumes that most of the currently available DMT has been obtained via extraction processes published in the last decade.

Evaporated Material Another common form of colored material results from people evaporating off their nonpolar solvent instead of freeze-precipitating. 1,22 The yellow pigment contained in DMT that has been extracted with an aliphatic hydrocarbon and collected by evaporation is most likely inconsequential trace impurities, such as plant fats. It is reportedly

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harsher to smoke, but roughly the same potency as white DMT. 1,22 This yellow fraction can be removed by recrystallization. 18 There is no indication that this sort of discolored DMT contains any unidentified psychoactive chemicals. However, it appears that there is another form of yellow material that can be obtained by evaporating off the solvent, depending on the evaporation conditions. People report a much more oily yellow product when the solvent is evaporated with high airflow from a fan, particularly at warmer temperatures. 1,18 Others have obtained yellow crystals by melting off-white DMT in an attempt to do a “solvent-less recrystallization” (see Preparation of Yellow Spice). Yellow crystals obtained in this fashion are reported to be qualitatively different than plain DMT, and slightly more potent (Delafonze19 2008). 1,22 Based on this information, it sounds like these methods are producing DMT that contains the type of yellow oil that may be DMT-N-oxide.

Alternate Solvents Heptane and naphtha have not always been the solvents of choice in DMT extraction. Some older extraction processes recommend ether or dichloromethane (DCM), or aromatics like xylene and toluene 18,22 (and decades ago, extractors might have used benzene as their nonpolar solvent). All of these are effective for pulling DMT, but they are less specific and also pull other fractions. All have been reported to yield yellow or orange DMT. 3,11,18,22

Xylene and Toluene Both of these solvents are known to pull a mixture of DMT and jungle spice when used on a nonpolar soup that’s been largely exhausted of DMT, which was extracted with an aliphatic hydrocarbon. 6,15,18 It’s therefore reasonable that they could be used as the primary extraction solvent to pull a similar mixture that contains a great deal more DMT. 15,22 One experimenter did just that: SWIM decided to extract 100 grams of Mimosa hostilis root-bark (MHRB) with xylene and evaporate, just to see the difference between this process and a naphtha/freezer precipitation. After collecting three xylene pulls he had about 130 ml of piss •

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yellow xylene. He evaporated it off to leave a circular pattern of yellow spiky crystals. • Oh… my… god! SWIM just finally sampled this batch and for the first time in almost a year, it’s the real deal. He has been searching and searching for this. SWIM tried just about every known vendor of MHRB and it was all the same: not what DMT should be like. So he e-mailed a little-known vendor asking for a sample, and received 100 grams. He finally got a chance to extract, and holy shit is he satisfied. Entities, geometry, self-transforming machine-flowers. Blown away. • He will always extract the same way from now on: pull with xylene and evaporate all the way down, wash with ammonia, and blast-off. • 22

Although we can’t rule out the possibility that there may have been something idiosyncratic to the specific root-bark used in the above description, this report supports trying xylene as an extraction solvent if you’re looking for an orange material that may have something that white DMT lacks. Another extractor also obtained an orange material using xylene as the extraction solvent, and had a sample analyzed by LC/MS, which allowed for some discussion of the identity and abundance of other compounds extracted by this solvent 15 (see Mass Spectrometry Analysis).

Ether or Ether/Heptane Extracting with ether, or a binary solvent of ether/ heptane (8:1), invariably leads to product with a yellow discoloration. 11,18 Since the ether is evaporated off, it’s not surprising that the product is yellow, as one might expect plant fats or other impurities to extract into the ether. On the other hand, ether/heptane is known to extract a brown waxy compound along with the DMT, so it’s possible that the yellow color in ether extracts is a trace amount of the jungle spice fraction. Based on reports of ether extracts smelling “strongly floral,” it’s also possible that ether is extracting some skatole (see GC/MS Analysis). While ether, dichloromethane, and aromatic solvents have all been reported to pull jungle spice, ether is the only one of these solvents not reported to produce orange crystals when used alone as an extraction solvent. This is particularly interesting when one considers that ether is also

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the solvent associated with the hard tan wax extract, and has never been reported to extract a red product when used as a solvent to obtain jungle spice. 11,18

Dichloromethane (DCM) Recommended by some older extraction techs, recent literature suggests that using DCM as a defatting solvent may allow for the formation of N-chloromethyltryptamine, a chemical of unexplored pharmacology (Brandt et al. 2008; Buchanan et al. 2007). It is possible that this compound might form when using DCM as an extraction solvent. Orange crystals that result from the use of DCM could be colored for the same reason that the orange crystals result when DMT is extracted by xylene. There’s also the possibility that the color results from a pigment pulled specifically by the DCM. DMT has been found to be reactive toward DCM, either during work-up or long-term storage therein, which led to the formation of the quaternary ammonium salt N-chloromethyl-DMT chloride (Brandt 2008). N-chloromethyl-DMT chloride is unlikely to be psychoactive based on its presumed low bioavailability; potential toxicity concerns are unknown. One extractor decided to perform some experiments to establish whether the orange color was extracted from the plant, or whether it might be the rearranged N-chloromethyl derivative. After obtaining an orange material from a Mimosa root-bark extraction with DCM, he tried extracting Psychotria viridis leaves by the exact same process, and found the result in the latter case to be pure white DMT. 1 This result strongly indicates if N-chloromethyltryptamine and/or N-chloromethyl-DMT chloride do form via the use of DCM as an extraction solvent, that they are not responsible for the resultant color when Mimosa spp. rootbark is extracted, and that the color is due to the solvent’s lower selectivity (as compared to typical alkane solvents), resulting in the extraction of some colored compound from the root-bark.

Odds and Ends As the mention of Psychotria viridis above alludes to, other plants are commonly used as DMT sources. DMT-containing Acacia spp. can yield an orange



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crystalline product on extraction, for example. While some of this color could be due to plant fats, Acacias have a diverse chemistry, so it is possible that some of this color could come from other alkaloids (Buchanan et al. 2007). 18 Some of the color might even come from 5-MeO-DMT, which is substantially more potent than DMT by weight. Further, a colleague recently encountered some bright red DMT that had been extracted from a species of Phalaris grass (Anonymous 2008). I have seen two unrelated references to a “purple spice.” One was accompanied by a blurry photograph showing unmistakably purple material. I cannot conceive of this coloration having come from any of the botanicals discussed above. Until some experiences are reported with such material, it’s probably best to recrystallize any such spice one happens to run across. Infrequent references to “green spice” are a mystery I think that I can solidly put to rest. It is only known to have been isolated by evaporating the solvent to collect the material, and it has only been reported in cases where the extractor used unsavory brands of naphtha (like Sunnyside). In one of these circumstances, the extractor evaporated a from-the-can sample of the solvent and discovered that it left a blue residue. Thus, it appears that green spice comes from yellow material plus a blue nonvolatile solvent additive. Long story short: avoid “green spice” like the plague.

Experiences Below is a collection of experiences that people have had consuming jungle spice. The reports do not allow us to paint a conclusive picture about the activity of the materials, but they have value in providing evidence that there appears to be an as-yetunidentified psychoactive compound (or compounds) at work here. The sheer volume of reports detailing different or more potent effects at lower dosages than are used with ordinary DMT is strong evidence that there is an unsolved piece in this puzzle.

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Smoked Red Crystalline Goo •

Easy does it; 10–15 mg of

this stuff is insanely potent and just a bit more scary/intense than DMT. • 18   

I took three full tokes from the red oil. The effects were a lot like regular DMT, but there was something different. It seemed to be missing the loving presence. The “other place” hallucination was there, but the colors were not—or at least they were very dark and dull. My friend and I both felt like we would much rather stick to the regular, definable, loving, white DMT (WarrenSaged 2008). •

•

  

There is a distinct difference between DMT and the red spice for me. When smoking DMT, I want to smoke as much as possible. But after a few puffs of the red spice, I was completely revolted. The anxiety and intensity of DMT was not present, but it was very odd and frightening. It’s flavor was a spicy barbecue sauce, which was tolerable. The effects of it were much more subtle with an “easing in” instead of a blast-off. The room became twisted, grotesque version of itself, something out of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It felt like a graveyard that I was alone in (in a bad sense), but then some beings started to appear. They were black, fuzzy balls of energy, about one-and-a-half feet tall and one •

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foot wide. They were very friendly, and investigated me like children might do. However, the experience made me draw up into myself, and I was quite dissatisfied with the feelings. Subsequent DMT use, about a half-hour later, brought me to a bad part of the “city,” with clown beings of intense negative emotions and ideas who did not like me at all. (They were in no way jester- or joker-ish.) They also beat up my Guardian, when he tried to protect me from them. • 16   

This red jungle spice is the best thing I have ever seen. Terence McKenna must have been smoking the jungle spice thinking it was DMT. I’ve smoked a lot of DMT and read a lot of Terence McKenna, and I had never seen anything like what he describes. But from two tokes of this red jungle spice, I had his trip word for word. This stuff is so much better, stronger, deeper, more meaningful, and more pleasant to use than DMT. I smoked it with my eyes open while watching Shpongle. The stage began to morph, and suddenly a self-transforming machine elf ripped the stage in half and jumped out to dance on top of the ravers. He was made out of what appeared to be glossy molded plastic (like a kid’s toy), and he was extremely colorful, changing shapes and dancing. This was with my eyes open. I had my rational mind intact; I knew I was at a Shpongle show smoking jungle spice. Yet I could not believe my eyes. I even squinted at the stage in disbelief,

•

trying to make things return to normal. If you smoke it with your eyes open, it completely transforms reality before your eyes. This is absolutely the most amazing chemical I have ever encountered. I passed out about three grams of the stuff in individual doses at the show, and everyone agreed that it blows DMT out of the water. • The second time I smoked it, I closed my eyes. I was shot like a laser beam into God-consciousness. I was God. I created the universe and spawned life on earth. I saw the beginning, the end, and everything in between. I beheld every thought that had ever existed in one instant. Then I returned to reality and was back at the rave. But I still thought I was God. I was walking around telling people I was the reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha, Terence McKenna, and Tim Leary rolled into one. I truly believed this at the time. I felt omnipotent. I knew everything. But this began to fade and I started to feel stupid for walking around claiming I was Jesus and believing it. So then I started experiencing karma. I left the concert area and hid in the dark to meditate. I thought the people at the rave were going to crucify me. I thought they had already killed my son and were coming for me. I accepted this though, and embraced my imminent death. I knew I was going to die that day, and it was okay. It took about thirty minutes for the jungle spice to wear off, and by that time I was a new man. My ego had been lifted up to the point of thinking I was a walking God,

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and then it was crucified. This stuff makes DMT look downright boring. • 16 [From what we know of the DMT market, it is very unlikely that the DMT accounts Terence McKenna wrote about were describing extracted DMT. — Eds.]



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It is active in tiny smoked doses like 5-MeO-DMT is, and there are no visions: just that crazy “tryptamine look” to everything. SWIM was not prepared for what was coming and the trip was indeed dark and scary. SWIM will try again once the negative vibes have abated. • 3

On my first attempts to extract DMT (which were barely successful) I used chloroform, and I would get this red DMT extract. I smoked the lot. I was dosing low, because I didn’t know what to expect. Almost all the experiences were fantastic, like an enhanced mushroom trip condensed into five minutes, although I never had a breakthrough at these low doses. Once I smoked a saltprecipitated Syrian rue extract and then smoked a very low dose of this red extract, and I was in pure ecstasy. I had never felt like that before (not even once). It was like a spiritual orgasm. I think what you expect from the trip influences it a lot. I say this because when I tried it, I knew nothing about red or jungle DMT. I had never read it could be a dark or scary trip, and I am sure that is why it wasn’t (although it was a bit shocking). Anyway, free your minds, don’t be afraid, and you should be all right. • 18

  

  

  

The reddish oil was not as visually overwhelming as the white crystals but was far more intrusive on my psyche. I usually did not go back for more at a sitting. I’d get almost a nervous hangover from it, whereas DMT leaves a pleasant afterglow. • 15 •

   •

•

I’m traveling through their

world now. I cannot interact with them and they are not aware of me, but I can affect their environment. They are solitary, lonely beings, living out their existence. They are oddballs. One being is a floating bust of an angry man, another is a pastel red colored “cat” with a bejeweled back. This land was not overtly unfriendly, but definitely an uncomfortable place to be in. The experience was short-lived, due to my purposeful grounding. • 16

•

•

Start with a small dose.

Try between 5 and 10 mg. I think that 15 mg is probably as much as I would do, if I was to do it again. I wouldn’t recommend doing over 25 mg of this stuff, whatever it is. It definitely feels like a tryptamine. • 6    •

SWIM once extracted a

batch of a reddish-brown DMT from MHRB. It was qualitatively different from the white-yellow

extract from the subsequent batch. At first it was her favorite color to smoke (over white or yellow). But as it aged and became darker red, the effects became “evil,” opening only to black, twisted hyperspaces. It was as though the DMT in the red spice had deteriorated and oxidized, leaving mostly mystery alkaloids that were having a greater effect. • 9    •

The effects of the red spice

were on the body only, no visuals. However SWIM found it very nice to put a chunk of the red behind the DMT in the pipe. Two large hits of DMT, with the third being the red. It seems to make the DMT extremely more potent, and much longer lasting. • 11

Smoked Tan Waxes For the amount smoked, not that much at all, the effects were outstanding. I’m not sure if it was a “breakthrough” or not (or even if that term has any relevance for dark DMT goo), but I was traveling—with no control—through a strange, slightly blurry landscape with subdued colors. I can’t remember that much, but I do recall that at the end (although I didn’t have the concept of “I”), I came to a brown box or door, but couldn’t go any further. When I woke up/opened my eyes, I was still getting some visual effects: very bright colors, the greenest plants ever, and my walls were incredibly yellow. The patterns on my ceiling were mov•

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ing about, and the angles and distances in my room appeared distorted too. This continued over about 5–10 minutes, lessening in effect. • 8   

The material is tan and has the consistency of wax without being oily. A friend was over and wanted to try it. Not wanting to yuck up my DMT pipe (and thinking that the stuff was shit anyway), I threw a few crumbs on top of a bowl of bud: 20 mg max. I figured that it would mostly just taste bad. My friend took a hit, and then passed it to me. The bud was still burning so I just flamed the top, figuring that he had gotten most of it… • PUT IT DOWN, PUT IT DOWN, PUT IT DOWN!!!!!! • Fuck, I couldn’t get rid of the pipe fast enough. I leaned back in my chair. Why did I do that? Fuckfuck-fuck-fuck-fuck. NO-NO-NO, I DO NOT WANT THIS; I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THIS! Please just let me out. I’ll never come back. Just make this stop. • I don’t know what I was reacting to. I was aware of no sensory input, hallucinogenic or otherwise, just that horrible feeling of NO-NO-NO. It went on forever and an instant. Then I started to become aware again of my body and myself and I opened my eyes trying to pull out of that horrid fuckhole. Nope. Horrid fuckhole out there too. I had that crazy DMT vision where everything is fuzzy and lit from within and exists standing apart in its own dimension. But rather than •

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the jewel-like beauty of each atom, I was aware of the ugliness and nastiness of every line, shape, color, and texture. Everything was made of puss and overlapping and falling and oozing and suffocating and vomiting on me. I closed my eyes again and I became the ugliness. I opened them and settled for just being suffocated by it.

Everything was made of puss and overlapping and falling and oozing and suffocating and vomiting on me. Around this time my hearing came back on line and I realized that the Tool album that we were listening to was no ordinary Tool album, but a direct communication to me to reaffirm just how rotten and horrible every aspect of existence is. This came not as a paranoid flash of conspiracy like on marijuana or acid, but just as a fundamental understanding, like info gained from mushrooms. How can this be? How? How did they know that I’d be listening to this exact song right now? Despair washed over me as I realized just how horrible and squalid everything that I’d ever known or loved was. • The psychoactive was wearing off. I white-knuckled it back, said •

good night to my friend, and went to bed. The next day, the feeling was still there. Nothing overt—I was just wearing a wet blanket of sorrow and despair. Beautiful things made me sad because I now knew what a lie they were. Nothing was nice. Everything had sharp teeth and wanted to bite. • The feeling faded over the day, and now—two days later—I have to think about it to bring it back. But it’s still there. This could merely be a DMT trip gone bad. The substance was definitely used with inadequate preparation, but I’ve used DMT under less than ideal circumstances before and never had it go that sideways. Such a small dose too—I’m sure that the total quantity in the bowl was less than 25 mg. My friend hit it first, I only had one toke, and in the morning I discovered that there was still some in the bowl. Twenty-five mg of pure DMT doesn’t get me as high as that shit did. It seems like it lasted longer than a DMT hit too, but I couldn’t say for sure, as I was too out of my mind to take note. • 19    •

SWIM once extracted

some stuff using limonene and everclear that had no real psychedelic effect worth mentioning, but it did produce a long-lasting body high that felt really good, kinda like rolling or maybe a 10,000-X blue lotus extract or something. He smoked it with two chicks. He and one of the girls ended up falling asleep, while the other girl stayed awake for about five hours and contin-

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ued to feel it the whole time. It felt good, but to use her words, it was like a “sinking spell.” • 9

Smoked Colored DMT There don’t appear to be any experience reports by folks who have extracted, purified, and smoked a yellow oil. However, there are some reports available with yellow or orange colored DMT.



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In terms of the subjective effects, breakthroughs could routinely be achieved with 30– 35 mg. I never noticed any of the dirty visuals or other unpleasant effects that seem to be plaguing most of the commercially available Mimosa hostilis root-bark extracts these days. • 21 •

Oral Activity of Jungle Spice I have eaten capsules packed full of this extract and its definitely active without an MAOI— seems those other alkaloids in there will work as MAOI enough to activate the DMT for an hour or so: it just feels like DMT and nothing else. But if I ate some a MAOI beforehand, those other alkaloids do work orally and they really ruin the DMT experience. • 15

• •

SWIM melted his big hunk

of red/orange waxy xylene extract in hot naphtha and then freezer-precipitated what he could out of it: yellow crystals. He’s smoked the yellow crystals three times now. It worked so well that after three or four pulls on the pipe, he found himself in a different house, with different furniture, trim, etc., but the plant spirits in the yard were the same! Holy mother of God! He’s pretty sure that something else came through in the naphtha, hence the yellow color. In any case, it’s almost prohibitively strong. • 22   

Twenty mg of the mysterious crystal was smoked, and a very strong, powerful body load came on quickly. There were basically no visuals: no light, darkness behind closed eyes. Yet the exterior world was altered and distorted, with black outlines, more definition, and distance and size were screwed. • 24 •

  

   •

It does make DMT orally

active. I can put 200–300 mg in a capsule and eat it, and it will feel like a weakish dose of DMT, not last that long, and I don’t feel the other alkaloids. But if I do take harmaline, it tends to activate these nasties and make the experience, well, suck completely. • 13   

SWIM informs me that he has just taken an oral dose of 150 mg to see if this is orally active without the use of an MAOI. This was taken on an empty stomach, no additives, and he is on no medications prescription or otherwise. SWIM knows this is probably a very large dose, if •

active and as potent as people say, but SWIM couldn’t measure it very well. When he tried to scrape it up, it turned into dark orange goo; he could not put that shit on a scale, so he weighed an empty capsule and then dabbed some in and weighed it again, at first it was 300+ mg. SWIM took out as much as he could, but only got it down to about 150 mg. At this point he said, “Fuck it,” and popped the capsule. It has been nearly three hours since SWIM consumed the capsulated dose. SWIM reports minimal results: slight body buzz, mental cloudiness, and very slight visual disturbances. • 11

Changes in Activity with Age and Heat Since most samples of jungle spice appear to contain some residual DMT, it will be useful to first address changes in activity over time observed in “pure” (white) DMT. Discussion below will be confined to the drastic change in activity that seems to occur when mild to moderate environmental heat is involved. After that, we’ll consider the reports of changing effects over time as they pertain to the jungle spice. No reports could be found on the red crystalline form of jungle spice changing in effect over time, but the phenomenon was reported several times with the tan waxy fraction. 3,11,18

Experiences with Old Spice SWIM left a vial of DMT in an automobile for about a halfhour while inside the bank. It

•

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was a pretty hot day out. When SWIM returned home, he decided to take a hit. To his dismay, he found that the vial previously full of white DMT crystals was now half-full of brownish beige shit that had melted together and onto the inside of the vial. He used a poker to scrape all the shit out, and then chopped it back up with a razor blade. It was much dryer than before. The same weight looked like half as much as it did before. • SWIM decided to smoke it anyway, and found the effects to be more akin to Salvia divinorum than DMT. The “coming up” and “after effects” were all but nonexistent. The experience rendered the room unrecognizable and SWIM was definitely somewhere else instantly—then returned to normal just as quickly with no residual visuals or euphoria. He later tried a smaller dose, and before he could get well into the second hit, objects in the room began to bounce back and forth as if being tossed around by an unseen force. He heard chuckling and had to stop his hit and just stare at what was happening. It was not DMT-like. SWIM knows DMT, and this came on much too quickly and was very bizarre, but in a different way than DMT. Literally, there was no “coming up.” He hit the pipe once, held the hit for maybe twenty seconds, went to take another hit, and maybe two seconds into it everything was pingponging. (Well, not everything, but the alarm clock, the lizard cage, etc. Other things remained the way they originally were.) This happened much too fast for

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DMT, and the absence of any after effects leads him to believe that the crystals left in the car somehow transformed into something else that, while very interesting, is not DMT. SWIM didn’t care too much for it by itself, but mixed with a new batch of DMT, about 70% new, 30% changed, it is quite interesting; this brings back the colors/richness and euphoria, but keeps some of the weirdness. • 12

   •

Take some white/clear

crystals and gently melt them down to form a nice little rock. It will probably turn off-white if not yellow. Start with yellow, and you’ll likely end up with something orange-ish that, while probably harsh, will blow your top off.• 24   

  

SWIM had a few days break from DMT and when he came back to it, it had become multi-colored, non-formatted crystals. So he thought to himself that it would be a good time to recrystallize it to make it nice and uniform. SWIM did a reextraction, and wound up with significantly less material than he did when he began. • The DMT put into the reextraction was good: very nice, fully visual, etc. Now SWIM isn’t a chemist, so he has no idea what happened; that’s why he is putting this out there. Perhaps someone can shed some light. Ammonia was added to some solvent of diethyl ether and heptane, shaken vigorously, and this made a nasty looking layer between the solvent and ammonia. The solvent was removed and was supposed to be cleaner than before. The smell of the solvent was not changed by the ammonia. Over low heat, SWIM dissolved his extract into the solvent, placed it in the freezer, and precipitated a beautiful yield of uniform, slightly yellow crystals, which he laid out to dry. •

effects of DMT are most certainly affected if the material is exposed to light and heat. I won’t waste time speculating on why, but it absolutely does happen. To preserve the quality of your spice, keep it in the freezer in an amber vial when it is not in use. SWIM even has a little zipper lunch sack with two ice packs for when he brings it to a remote location, to help prevent its degradation. • 12 •

The subjective

   to hide about 0.75 of a gram of spice contained in an airtight glass vial under the hood of his car. He thought, “The engine is cold and its less than two miles, the spice will survive.” The spice melted and turned to rock. Its effects were different. Very abrupt onset and downfall. Straight to almost unconsciousness without the lucidity. SWIM has melted and heated, and played around with spice many times since and yes, he thinks something is going on. Certainly degradation, but not limited to just that. • 12

•

SWIM once decided

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SWIM now thinks the crystals were not fully dry. A situation arose, where everything had to be put up quickly. They were placed in a lightproof, snap-top tube and placed in the freezer. There they sat for five or six days; when the tube was opened, the extract reeked of ether, so the tube was left open for about twenty hours and then returned to the freezer for another day or so. • SWIM then removed the crystals (which were entirely dry, with no ether smell) and prepared to smoke some. SWIM works alone on top of a mountain guarding heavy machinery all night. SWIM breaks out his pipe, loads a small amount of the stuff and proceeds to toke. SWIM almost pukes! The stuff nearly ripped the tissue from SWIM’s chest, it was so harsh. SWIM thinks, “What the hell?” and tries again, with the same result. It is much more plastic tasting, like smoking some horrible chemical from the abyss of Hades. SWIM manages to hold the second toke, at a cost of tasting blood after he blows it out. SWIM feels nothing. Damn, what happened to his spice?! There are no visuals, there’s no body load, nothing. • SWIM waits a couple of minutes, then rises to grab his cigarettes and curse under his breath while turning his headlights on, and what does he see? Why two yellow demons copulating on top of a bulldozer! SWIM is dumbfounded. He has never had a hallucination with such texture. He steps out of the truck, completely sober—except for the vision of these two copulating demonoid •



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creatures—and approaches them. When he gets within about ten feet, one of them looks at him and screams in this horrible voice, “Go back from whence thee came and mind not us slugs!” SWIM looks all around: no visuals whatsoever of anything, no shapes, odd colors, no movement of objects, nothing. Then lights kick on, as does all this machinery around SWIM: the stereo starts making this horrible static noise,

Damn, what happened to his spice?! There are no visuals, there’s no body load, nothing. his cell phone makes a loud popping sound and goes dead (and it will still not power on). SWIM hears engines starting up all around him. SWIM is terrified and jumps back into his vehicle. SWIM watches the lights continue to go on and off all around him, and still—these demons are now fighting each other, and one appears to be trying to eat the other… it does eat the other. The moment it consumed the other, the lights went off, the sounds of the engines died, and the creature faced toward SWIM. Then it simply took its hand, drew/cut a hole in the air, and climbed through it. And the trip was over.

No strange tryptamine landscape. Nothing. Not that there ever was any tryptamine landscape, because their wasn’t. SWIM is dumbfounded. He realizes his nose is running, as well as his eyes, and when he reaches up to dry the moisture, he discovers there must be half a quart of liquid running from every orifice on his face. SWIM tastes blood in his throat, and his chest hurts horribly. He does not understand what he saw. He knows of no such effect on mucous membranes by any tryptamine. This was not DMT. What the fuck happened to SWIM’s spice? What the fuck happened to SWIM?! • 24 •

Experience with Tan Waxes Over Time •

The effects of the tan waxy

extract are amazing to say the least. SWIM has pulled it several times and every time it has been the same. It changes radically with oxidation, becoming way more potent and qualitatively different as time passes. If smoked within the first few days of pulling it, it produces a heavy body load that feels like you’ve been shot with elephant tranquilizer, and lasts about fifteen minutes. There are no pronounced mental effects of any kind. However, upon repeated exposure to air over a few weeks, this extract becomes the most “trippy” substance that he has ever encountered. It produces wild hysterical laughter, massive size distortion in objects, and insane colorful hallucinations of things like cot-

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ton candy, pink clouds, puffy pink dragons, and giant blue marshmallows. I know this sounds like total bullshit. I probably wouldn’t believe it either, but it is true. It is very easy to find out—I highly suggest everyone try the oxidized tan wax at least once. • 24    SWIM pulled carried only a heavy body load. After several weeks the substance got increasingly harder, darker in color, and it changed in

•

The rock stuff

The original version of this article contained a few additional isolation techniques, including “Critical Switch’s Tek,” which was the first process posted on-line (on Vovin’s boards) that described a method for obtaining jungle spice. However, as that tech was both overly long and lacked useful details related to pH (making it harder to replicate), it has not been included here. For space reasons, we have limited the number of extraction processes included to three that will return the three different sorts of material discussed in the article. — Eds.

Red Jungle Spice Tek18 by Entheogenist • This process will not only produce very potent jungle spice, but it will also pull out any DMT that has been left behind in the basified solution. After you have done your nonpolar extraction (see the Marsofold Tek or the Noman Tek at entheogenreview.com/dmt.html), save your basified solution. For 500 grams of root-bark, use 500 ml of toluene. Heat it in a water bath until it’s steaming. Add the toluene to your basified jug and tilt for five minutes. It’s best to divide the toluene into three or four pulls. While waiting for the layers to separate, put the toluene jar back in the water bath to keep it hot. After you have siphoned off

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smell. SWIM smoked it maybe five times during the first seven to ten days after pulling it, producing only a heavy body load with no trippy head effects whatsoever. • SWIM tried it again when he was bored after a couple of weeks and found that it had gone through some serious changes in the effects it produced, aside from the change in texture and color. It became really trippy. No real mental breakthrough or extreme DMT visuals or anything like that were produced, but it carried this insanely pleasant laughing/sing-

Isolation Techniques

•



ing. There were no more heavy body effects. SWIM smoked five hits on his bed, and had difficulty getting the last one because he was laughing so hard. The next thing SWIM knows, he is raising up and down off the bed like Linda Blair in The Exorcist, laughing his ass off in this incredible very “tryptamine-like” state that lasted at least a half an hour. SWIM wound up smoking about twenty hits over a four-hour period and it was great! SWIM smoked all he had left the next night. Whatever it was, it was phenomenally wonderful! • 11

the toluene layers, evaporate the toluene and let the solids dry. This material contains the jungle spice, but there is usually quite a bit of DMT in there also. Scrape up this material and put it in a test tube. • Now heat some heptane in a water bath and fill up the test tube with hot heptane and agitate the mixture until the heptane clouds up and an oily layer forms in the bottom of the tube. Let this mixture cool for a minute or two so the oily layer will thicken a bit. Now quickly pour off the heptane onto a plate for evaporation, making sure the oily layer stays in the test tube. When the heptane evaporates you should be left with DMT (you will want to recrystallize this product). Add more hot heptane to the test tube, then pour it off and evaporate one or two more times until no more DMT is being pulled out. • You should be left with a thick, deep red oil in the bottom of the test tube. This is your jungle spice. To get it out of the test tube, place the test tube in a hot water bath. This will cause the oil to pour more easily, and evaporate any remaining toluene. When it’s nice and hot, remove the tube from the bath and immediately pour it out on a plate. (Some oil will still stick to the test tube, which you can rinse out with a very small amount of hot toluene and pour out for evaporation on a different plate.

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It will yield slightly less pure jungle spice.) The oil you poured off will slowly harden into a waxy solid. It takes quite a while to dry out, but you can speed the process by smearing it around with a razor blade, then scraping it up and smearing it around again, and so on. Make sure all the toluene has evaporated before you bag this stuff, or it will turn to oil again in the bag. • As to the water bath temperature, heptane boils at 98.42• C, so as long as the water bath is not boiling, you’ll have no problem. It won’t ignite in a water bath. Just be sure to “burp” your test tube periodically so the pressure doesn’t build up. It needs to be hot so it will melt the insoluble jungle spice and pull out any DMT that is trapped inside the insoluble solids. Shake up the test tube so the red oil goes all through the solution and then settles again at the bottom. At this point I would set the test tube in the water bath for a moment to help the layers separate, then pour off the heptane on one plate and the red oil on another plate. The heptane will evaporate very quickly since it is hot, leaving white DMT. The oil will slowly harden into pure red jungle spice. This jungle spice is very potent; 25 mg is comparable to 50 mg of DMT! •

Isolation of Tan Wax24 by an unknown author This isolation process is fairly unique in its use of a binary extraction solvent. From the available evidence, it seems reasonable to assume that this heptane/diethyl ether solvent is pulling a fraction that is also pulled by xylene or toluene, though there is some evidence it may leave behind the red material that aromatic solvents will pull. 11,18 Extracting the tan wax is trickier; it requires the use of a solvent blend of roughly eight parts diethyl ether to one part heptane. It also employs naphtha and acetone. • One follows a normal DMT extraction process (see the Marsofold Tek or the Noman Tek at entheogenreview.com/dmt.html), except one uses the diethyl ether/heptane blend as the solvent instead of naptha. Freeze precipitation for crystallizing is a must here. Your material will be very yellow. Some of this yellow tint is natural plant fats, some is oxidation caused by the extraction •



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process, and more still is the targeted mystery alkaloid(s). The yellow you would have seen if you had used only naphtha, would have been only the former two—none of the mystery alkaloid(s) come(s) out unless you use diethyl ether. • Pull all of your extract from the root-bark, allow it to dry, and you’ll have a nice big pile of yellow material. Next you will recrystallize in the freezer and get your tan wax. Pour all of your extract powder into a glass container for recrystallization. The container needs to have an absolute flat bottom. Place it on an electric stove or hot-plate at the lowest setting, cover your powdered extract with a measured amount of naphtha (use increments of 10 ml for the amount of naptha added) and proceed to dissolve it into the naphtha. Use enough naptha to entirely dissolve the extract, but try to keep the amount on the lower side of things (adding 10 ml more at a time as needed). After the extract has dissolved, add one drop of acetone for each 10 ml increment of naphtha you used. You should note a thick yellow oil coat the bottom of the container. This is your mystery alkaloid. Use a glass eyedropper to remove all of the liquid solvent (this contains your DMT), and place that solvent in a separate container for freeze precipitation. • Now you have a glass in which the bottom is coated with your mystery alkaloid(s). It takes forever to dry, so before it does you should clean it a little further. Drop some more naphtha on it while it is still hot (return it to the electric hot-plate if needed). Don’t add any acetone this time. Stir this up a bunch, and traces of DMT should come out of the oil at this point and migrate to the naphtha. If you don’t mind yellow DMT, put this naptha into the container with the rest of the DMT that you just removed. Then let the material in the bottom of the container dry. Scraping it around a bunch while it is drying helps tremendously. In the end, you should wind up with something hard as a rock. •

Preparation of Yellow Spice by Delafonze19 • After freeze-precipitating DMT, the naphtha is poured off and the solids are allowed to dry in a jar. Hot water is then run over the outside of jar, melting the DMT. This process promotes the conversion of the white crystals into yellow oily crys-

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tals, which are reported to be more enjoyable than white spice. If the yellow oily crystals are left out with moderate exposure to air for a week, the process appears to proceed further toward “completion,” turning the material into a yellow goo (Delafonze19 2008).•

The Hard Data Attempts have periodically been made to shed light on the nature of jungle spice by use of GC/MS, LC/MS, or TLC. 4,5,8, 15,23 While the evidence is limited at this point, preliminary data substantiates the idea that some people are isolating DMT-Noxide, and possibly a degradation product of yuremamine. 5,15 The other major conclusion that seems to have come out of these attempts is establishing that no unique chemicals besides DMT can typically be seen in GC/MS analyses, while LC/MS shows a wider range of compounds (Vepsäläinen et al. 2005). 8,15

Mass Spectrometry Analysis Let’s first consider the case of a “clean” extraction. In The Entheogen Review 13(2): 49–50, Mambo Pachano presented an “Extreme Condition Extraction of Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) Root-bark.” The initial extraction was done with aqueous ethanol acidified to pH 1 with citric acid. The extract was evaporated, taken up in warm water, and defatted with xylene (presumably removing any jungle spice). The water was basified to pH 14 with sodium hydroxide, extracted with toluene and the spice recovered by evaporation. “This method has reliably produced a pale yellow, waxy-crystalline solid that crushed to white powder” (Pachano 2004). GC/MS was performed on the resulting product alongside a DMT reference standard (see tinyurl.com/6od8qm). On the standard, there’s an abundant molecular ion at 189.1 m/z, and a less abundant peak at 144.1 m/z indicating the loss of the dimethylamine moiety. I’m curious what the trace just above 400 m/z is, since the same trace appears on the analysis of the extracted sample, but it’s likely of no particular consequence. The extracted sample appears to be extremely clean, especially when we consider that it was collected by evaporation instead of freeze-precipitation or

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recrystallization, and using toluene, which is known to be less selective than the usual alkane solvents. There is a small impurity (abundance ~2) at 205.1 m/z, which could easily be accounted for by DMT-N-oxide. This helps to substantiate the idea that the yellow oil is DMT-N-oxide, since the product was collected by evaporation, and was described as “pale yellow, waxy-crystalline” material. Next we consider a crude extract of the “jungle” alkaloids. This analysis was communicated by Radio879 from the Nook, who remarked, • I think this was the one where I used xylene instead of naphtha, but I did not wash it with naphtha. […] In that sample it looks like there’s 86% DMT, then four other unknown compounds.•21 There actually only appear to be three unidentified compounds in this spectrum. I assume that the “fourth compound” is the peak at 144.1 m/z, which is generated from DMT. For all three of the unidentified peaks, I believe I can propose some reasonable assignments.

130.1 M/Z This peak had me mystified for a long time. It’s too small to be a tryptamine, and barely large enough to be an indole. But reading through Ayahuasca: Alkaloids, Plants & Analogs by K. Trout, I saw that one concern related to the extraction process was the elimination of an indole called “skatole.” While large amounts of skatole smell like shit, lower concentrations of it have a flowery smell (it is actually a component of several flowers and essential oils). The Mimosa root-bark extract discussed by Trout “had only a faint floral smell indicating substantial purity and lack of skatole. […] Alkali solutions of pH 14 will destroy skatole (the strong smelling compound that many people mistakenly think is the smell of DMT…)” (see tinyurl.com/6od8qm). This description may shed some light on the floral aroma that has been reported when using less selective solvents. Skatole, or 3-methylindole, is a white crystalline compound that turns brown over time, and has been described as “mildly toxic.” It has been shown to cause pulmonary edema in some lower mam-

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mals, apparently targeting Clara cells, which are the major site of cytochrome P450 enzymes in the lungs. These enzymes convert skatole to a reactive intermediate, 3-methyleneindolenine (Miller et al. 2003), which damages cells by forming protein adducts. I have been unable to find any source that explicitly verifies skatole as a known compound in Mimosa spp., but it certainly seems conceivable. It could explain why people sometimes get a material that looks like DMT and “smells like DMT,” but lacks the effects of DMT when smoked. The 130.1 m/z molecular ion corresponds perfectly with a methylated indole. While this issue requires further analysis to confirm the identification, it seems entirely plausible. Especially if a source identifying skatole as a component of Mimosa spp. root-bark can be located, I would be satisfied with the identification of this peak as 3-methylindole.

205.1 M/Z This is the same peak that was seen as a trace component of the “clean” extract’s GC/MS. Being exactly 16 m/z higher than DMT’s molecular ion immediately suggests that this could be an oxide of DMT (the most reasonable place being at the tertiary amine). Since the sample was obtained by evaporation and not cleaned with alkanes, we would expect some of the yellow oxidation product to be present. The issue requires further study: specifically someone running GC/MS and NMR on the purified yellow oil. But until then, I am fairly comfortable with the assignment of this peak as DMT-N-oxide.

350.1 M/Z This one is a doozy, and is the primary clue suggesting that people may have been isolating a breakdown product of yuremamine. The peak is substantial: less abundant than the proposed 3-methylindole, but more abundant than the DMTN-oxide. It’s heavier than DMT, and lighter than yuremamine. In any case, it hardly seems possible that yuremamine could survive the extraction process (Vepsäläinen et al. 2005). 13,18,20 But when yuremamine is degraded during an extraction (presuming that it is present in root-bark),



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it’s not as though it would just disappear. Unless it loses the ethylamine moiety, the breakdown product still ought to be amenable to acid/base extraction. Some quick calculations indicated that the loss of either hydroxylated phenyl group could get the molecular mass in the ballpark of 350 m/z. And there’s that handy hydroxyl adjacent to each of them that could participate in the degradation chemistry. In the end, I came up with two plausible degradation products that would give rise to a molecular ion at 350.1 m/z. Unfortunately, the peak is not abundant enough to analyze its fragmentation pattern. I should also note that I’m not particularly qualified to suggest a mechanism to either proposed 350.1 m/z compound, so it’s difficult to tell how reasonable my assignment may be. Nevertheless, it would not be surprising if the molecule giving rise to this peak turns out to play a critical role in the psychoactivity of the jungle spice. It’s also worthwhile at this point to discuss what we would expect to see if the jungle spice were in fact yuremamine, which to date has only been reported from the stem-bark of Mimosa tenuiflora. Yuremamine has a molecular ion at 477.2 m/z (Vepsäläinen et al. 2005). This peak has been clearly absent from every known analysis of the jungle spice. It also was not seen in any of the analytical work on M. hostilis root-bark or jurema conducted during the 20th century. This has led to the speculation that yuremamine is subject to degradation under most extraction conditions, particularly under high temperatures or alkaline environments (Vepsäläinen et al. 2005). 13,18,20 Finally, we have a more recent account of GC/MS analysis run on the red spice that reportedly came from either a toluene or a diethyl ether pull of an acid/base extraction: GC/MS and GC/FID indicate that the main compound is DMT (nothing else showed up in the GC/MS, but there were minor additional peaks in GC/FID). This is curious, because the whole reason SWIM has this stuff is because it was not soluble in hexane. • 8 •

This is a confounding result. The material was a red crystalline solid isolated based on its insolu-

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bility in hexane, which certainly sounds like jungle spice. 15,18 We would expect very little of the material to be DMT due to the hexane wash, but DMT was still the primary peak in the sample. 8 [Hexane is a somewhat lousy solvent for DMT; while it most certainly can work, it tends to be used for crystallization and not extraction for just this reason. — Eds.]



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Thin Layer Chromatography Analysis 4 To view color photographs of some of the TLC plates described below, and to obtain more specific information about the processes used to run the plates, see the original version of this article, posted at entheogenreview.com/ junglespice.html. — Eds. I did some TLC tests recently that showed at least three compounds in a Mimosa hostilis root-bark extraction. #1 was DMT, and at first I thought that #2 might be 5-MeO-DMT, and that #3 might be either DMT-N-oxide or 5-MeO-DMT-N-oxide. None of the spots showed up as what I would consider trace amounts. • Further TLC runs on this same extract (after four days) failed to show the blue spots in #2. This is not 5-MeO-DMT, as I thought that it might have been. In the solvent system I used, it showed the same Rf and color reaction to xanthydrol as 5-MeODMT. However, the compound on the plate is unstable and disappears. A recent post on the Ayahuasca Forum leads me to believe that this may be yuremamine. • To obtain the extract, I used a standard acid/ base extraction for the first lane in my TLC, and toluene for the third lane. I’m interested in the red/ pink/purple coloration that is common to many tryptamine-bearing plants. It comes from tannins (lots in this case) and I also believe an oxidized tryptamine. Its the oxidized compounds that are tricky… • After the blue spots no longer showed up, I ran some other tests on this same extract. I used a different developer for the plates (one that resolves 5-MeO-DMT and DMT better). There was no blue spot (as expected), but the one trace in the original plate remains. I ran this against an oxidized sample of the initial extraction, and the trace is not DMT-N-oxide (it shows as a very different Rf); it’s yet another trace compound. Not sure what yet. The oxidized sample, when left to evaporate, yielded a yellow oil that smells very floral and did not want to crystallize. • Yuremamine shows up in methanol extractions, and it seems not to show up in a standard acid/ base extraction. Yuremamine decomposes under alkali conditions, and these decomposition prod•

While it’s possible that the sample analyzed was not the same material that others are calling jungle spice, this seems unlikely since it matches the same physical description and was isolated in the same fashion. The material was also reportedly stored for several months prior to analysis, 8 so it’s possible that the compound(s) of interest degraded during that time. Or, for whatever reason, the red component may not be amenable to GC/MS; based on the presence of more diverse peaks in LC/MS spectra, I tend to lean toward this possibility. [It is worth noting that it has been claimed that tryptamine N-oxides readily degrade in the injection port of the gas chromatograph, apparently making them undetectable via GC/MS (Kamata et al. 2006). — Eds.] There are two other possibilities, if we take the spectra at face value and assume that DMT is overwhelmingly the main component in the red spice. The first of these possibilities is that the red coloration comes from a biologically inactive tannin, and the activity of the red spice is solely the result of DMT. I don’t consider this possibility to be very likely, based on the wealth of experience reports reporting breakthroughs on significantly smaller doses than DMT could provide. The other possibility, assuming that DMT is overwhelmingly the main component in the red spice (which I’m not necessarily convinced of), is that the trace impurity responsible for the red discoloration is biologically active and accounts for the reported effects of smoking red jungle spice. If this is the case, it could either be acting as an agonist in its own right (adding its effects to those of the DMT), or it could be potentiating the DMT in some fashion. Since no trace components were identified in this particular analysis, it is impossible to speculate further.

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ucts are likely to be the “jungle spice,” which I will refer to here as “yuremamine degradation product,” or “YDP.” Bioassays published in The Entheogen Review indicate that cold water extracts of Mimosa hostilis root-bark sans additional MAOI are orally active; yuremamine is suspected as the reason for the oral activity. [The author of this analysis report is presuming that one chemical he has found is yuremamine, and the text that follows states this as though it is a fact. The idea that other chemical(s) are degradation products of yuremamine is also a presumption. Although either or both of these presumptions may be true, either or both also may not be true, and the identification of yuremamine was not verified with a reference standard so far as we can tell. — Eds.] • Two grams of ground Mimosa hostilis root-bark were extracted for an hour in 10 ml of room-temperature water. This was done twice, with the extractions combined. These extractions were spotted directly on the plates. The first lane was the control: a standard acid/base extraction completed earlier. Visualization was done with the bare plate, and xanthydrol. • Plate #14 was run in an acid environment, so as not to degrade the yuremamine. Lane 1 is the control showing DMT (Rf @ B) and a YDP (Rf @ A). Lane 2 is the water extract and Lane 3 is the methanol extract both showing DMT (B) and very likely yuremamine (C). Lanes 4 and 5 are lanes 2 and 3 before visualization with xanthydrol. What’s interesting here is that the pre-viz lanes show the C spots as blue and the spots as purple after visualization. The YDP does not show up in lanes 2–5 (the pencil lines on the right just indicate all Rf positions). • Plate #12 was run in an alkali environment. The layout of lanes 1–3 remains the same, but we see a reversal of yuremamine and the YDP Rf values in relation to DMT. However, since this is run in an alkali environment, we see the YDP showing up in lanes 2 and 3 as the spots travel up the plate and degrade the yuremamine, which now only shows as a smaller trace component. By the time the plate was fully developed the blue spots on the plate before visualization had disappeared. They remained for about half of the run and then were gone by the time the plate finished. • In Plate #18, the reference is in lane 1, the visualized methanol extraction in lane 2 and the pre-



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visualized methanol extraction in lane 3 run in an alkali environment for half of the plate (half of the distance to reduce the time spent in the alkali environment). Here A is DMT, B is the YDP, C is yuremamine, D and E I believe are yuremamine being broken down and have not had a chance to settle into a true Rf value as the plate run has been shortened. [The blue E spot in lane 3 is a tannin. — Entropymancer] • My conclusions are thus: both methanol and room-temperature water will extract both DMT and yuremamine, and a trace component found in standard acid/base extractions is a YDP. Yuremamine seems to be visible on the plate without a visualization agent, and I suspect that it fluoresces (but I have not checked). The oral activity of a cold water extraction could very well be due to yuremamine acting as an MAOI making the DMT orally active (since DMT is being extracted), and/ or it could be active by itself. Also, while water will extract DMT, methanol seems to be a little more efficient. Lastly, the tannins are hard to deal with, and reading the plates would be easier without them present (they are the red streaking).•

Botanical Confusion Mimosa tenuiflora has been accepted by many as the correct taxonomic orthography (considered synonymous with M. hostilis) since the 1991 publication of Sensitivae Censitae: A Description of the Genus Mimosa Linnaeus (Mimosaceae) in the New World by Rupart C. Barneby. While Barneby noted that the leaves of Brazilian M. hostilis were slightly different from those on the M. tenuiflora of Venezuela, he based his decision to lump them on the fact that within a population of either one, an individual could be found that was identical to another individual that could be found within a population of the other one. He never stated that the larger populations could not be told apart (just the opposite), but rather he simply lumped them based on the idea that the range of expression within both didn’t merit each one being described as a unique species. Further study may show that M. hostilis is deserving of being awarded subspecies status within M. tenuiflora, and it is certainly possible that the chemistry of these plants may vary, regardless of what one calls them. — Eds.

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I’m not satisfied with the extent to which Mimosa tenuiflora and M. hostilis are identical. Nevertheless, it is well-established in the literature that these Latin binomials are synonymous (they will be used interchangeably in the text below) and they are both legitimate names to apply to the white-flowering tree from which root-bark available on the entheobotanical market is theoretically being harvested. But to complicate matters, there are indications that the M. tenuiflora name is sometimes being applied to another Mimosa tree, which does not have white blooms. 7,151 Following some catastrophic events in Mexico in the 1980s, M. tenuiflora stem-bark—under the name tepescohuite—was hailed as a miracle-treatment for burns when applied as the active ingredient in a topical ointment (Camargo-Ricalde 2000). This gave rise to a proliferation of tepescohuite throughout southern Mexico, which may have resulted in two problems. First, it seems possible that some sources claiming to sell Mexican root-bark to the entheogen-interested market are actually distributing stem-bark, due to it being already widely available. The second problem is that I’m not convinced that everything harvested from the “tepescohuite tree,” whether stem-bark or root-bark, is actually coming from M. tenuiflora. There are several vendors peddling tepescohuite ointments, soaps, and skin products, whose advertising depicts a tree with either bright yellow or bright pink flowers; in both cases it’s claimed to be Mimosa tenuiflora (search Google Images for “tepescohuite” to see some pictures). Since there has been a high demand for these products, and since several Mimosa species have similar appearances, someone may have unknowingly or unscrupulously begun propagating another species as tepescohuite. On the other hand, some kitchen chemists claim that the commercially available Mexican root-bark has a higher alkaloid content,28 so the possibility of misidentification doesn’t necessarily mean an inferior product for extracting purposes. And since it is common for web-based vendors to hoover photographs and illustrations from other sites, these errors in flower color could be

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largely due to ignorance and sketchy web-site creation morals on the part of advertisers, rather than on misidentified botanicals. However, another factor casting doubt on the identity of the root-bark relates to some of the seeds that have been made available on the entheobotanical market. Consider what Torsten of Shaman Australis had to say a couple years ago: Mimosa species can contain some nasty alkaloids, which is why correct identification is paramount in my opinion. That is why I am so appalled at the callous nature of Mimosa hostilis root-bark farmers, distributors, and retailers. I am also a little surprised at the ignorance of the customers. I mean seriously, you folks seem to only care about the fact that a plant contains DMT regardless of what else you might consume along with it. • So is there a conspiracy to supply dodgy material? I don’t know. All I know is that two of the largest Mimosa hostilis root-bark farmers also supply seed from their plantations to various wholesalers and retailers. I have purchased plenty of this seed for my own shop and have bought seed from most major retailers. None of it has turned out to be from M. hostilis.• 15 •

More recently, Torsten remarked: My remarks above are a few years old and things change. There are now reliable bulk seed sources in Brazil and all around the world from collectors who got some good seed. However, I think it will still be years before the seed trade could be regarded as reliable. For the moment, most retailers still have the seed that grows into pink-flowered plants. • As for root-bark, I don’t think much has changed. The main sellers are still those who have pink-flowered plants. Some of them know they have the wrong species, but don’t care because they just sell for the effect and Mimosa verrucosa works well. Some of them insist that M. hostilis has pink flowers and hence their material is accurately labelled as far as they are concerned. • Retailers by-and-large don’t care as long as the root-bark works. But even if they did care, I doubt they would get much reliable info for the reasons •

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outlined above. I only got these admissions because I grew their seed and proved to them that they were wrong.• 23

The seeds that have been distributed in the past as Mimosa hostilis usually produced plants that are of the genus Mimosa, but which are definitely not M. hostilis (Torsten 2008). 13,15 At present, while at least one vendor has begun selling seeds that actually give rise to a M. hostilis tree, most of what’s available produces other Mimosa species, particularly M. verrucosa (Torsten 2008). 7 Mimosa verrucosa as “jurema branca,” is used by some indigenous South American populations, and Mimosa tenuiflora is known by some as “jurema preta.” However, nomenclature appears to be variable among indigenous populations, with both names (and others) being applied to both species, depending on which tribe is discussing the plants. 14 Consider the following from an issue of the MAPS Bulletin: After interviewing many people, and participating in different Jurema rituals with the Indians, I also realized that the Jurema they drink in their brew is not Mimosa hostilis, but the root bark from Mimosa verucosa (sic). Different tribes will call M. hostilis, the Jurema Negra and M. verucosa (sic), the Jurema Branca, as well as other tribes call M. verucosa (sic), the Jurema Negra. That means that when they say that they drink Jurema Negra, it does not necessarily mean they are drinking M. hostilis, but M. verucosa (sic) which is called both: Jurema Branca and Jurema Negra (Silveira Barbosa 1998).

Jonathan Ott has pointed out that assorted indigenous groups employ “one or another type of jurema branca, of which some 10 species have been reported from 4 genera,” citing references for Acacia jarnesiana, A. piauhyensis, Mimosa burgonia, M. pudica, M. verrucosa, Pithecellobium acacioides, P. diversifolium, P. dumosum, P. tortum, and Vitex agnus-castus (Ott 2000). In years past, commercially available misidentified seeds produced Mimosa pudica or Mimosa scabrella,34 but these appear to have faded from the market-



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place. Sometimes genuine seeds have been acquired through trades with people in possession of genuine specimens. Properly identified live plants are also sometimes traded amongst the entheobotanical community. The scarcity of genuine seeds and the concurrent abundance of misidentified seeds begs the question: Have imported root-bark samples been similarly misidentified? After all, it doesn’t make much sense that a vendor would be able to acquire legitimate Mimosa tenuiflora root-bark, but unable to acquire legitimate seeds from the same source. 13 On top of this, Torsten of Shaman Australis has reported seeing a photo of the Mimosa plantation from which a major vendor obtained its root-bark, and the flowers on the trees were pink. 14,15 And none of the vendors I contacted had any idea what color flowers were produced by the trees that their rootbark was obtained from. Mimosa tenuiflora has whitish or greenish-white flowers. It does not have pink flowers or yellow flowers. Theorizing about a pink- or yellow-flowering subspecies of M. tenuiflora (as some forum members have), is inconsistent with the established botanical definitions. This leaves us with a jumbled picture that casts a significant shadow of doubt over the botanical identity of the root-bark that’s being imported. I have a hard time imagining that 100% of the vendors have been selling misidentified product, so I’d wager that at least some of them have been selling legitimate Mimosa hostilis root-bark. But considering the scarcity of genuine seeds, I’d be hesitant to speculate that authentic M. hostilis root-bark is prevalent on the market. 13,15 Further, it seems likely that some of the root-bark available on-line comes from M. verrucosa. Unfortunately, unless vendors can find out what color flowers their suppliers’ trees produce, it is impossible to speculate on the degree to which M. verrucosa is being sold as M. hostilis (Torsten 2008). 13 [It is worth noting that Mimosa verrucosa root-bark looks quite different than M. tenuiflora/ M. hostilis root-bark; see www.entheogenreview.com/root-bark — Eds.]

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Yet despite all of the indications that some commercially available root-bark may not be from M. hostilis, I’ve only heard a few reports, some years ago, of alkaloid-free batches of root-bark being sold. Extractions of these would yield a clean white material with the physical appearance of DMT, which produced no effects when smoked (possibly indicating that the root-bark was from another species). 13,15 There are still periodic reports of lowyielding root-bark from various vendors, but these samples contain at least some DMT. It is worthwhile to note here that at least one former vendor, JLF, openly advertised that the product they sold was the stem-bark from Mimosa hostilis, which is of a different chemical composition than the rootbark, and likely contains much lower quantities of DMT (Meckes-Lozoya et al. 1990). For those concerned solely with isolating DMT, it probably doesn’t matter whether the available root-bark is actually Mimosa tenuiflora. Whatever it is, it has for the most part been reported as an effective source of DMT. There has been some speculation about the possible dangers of a misidentified root-bark. The most frequent concern is that the unknown root-bark may contain mimosine, a toxic clastogen (chromosome-breaking chemical). First discovered in Mimosa pudica (Renz 1936), mimosine has been found in several leguminous trees (Soedario et al. 1994), and it could possibly be a component of other Mimosa species. Although stem-bark of M. verrucosa has been analyzed for antioxidant chemicals (Desmarchelier et al. 1999), no analysis of M. verrucosa root-bark has yet been formally conducted or published (Ott 2000; Trout 2007), so it remains unknown if mimosine is present in commercially available root-bark. If, for safety’s sake, one assumes that it is present in the root-bark, it appears easy to make certain it doesn’t end up in the final chemically isolated product. Mimosine is much more polar than DMT, and is practically insoluble in higher alcohols, ether, benzene, chloroform, etc. This means that very little mimosine is apt to end up in the nonpolar pulls when one extracts the DMT free-base. Since mimosine is substantially more soluble in water than in nonpolar

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solvents, a sodium carbonate wash ought to remove any residual mimosine. [While we agree that possible toxins from unknown root-bark are not too worriesome for those who are isolating DMT, there is a greater potential risk for those who are merely doing a cold-water extract of jurema, or who are using the root-bark as an ayahuasca analogue via a tea brewed with a MAOI plant. — Eds.] That’s all well and good for the average DMT isolator, but what about the folks pulling jungle spice? It is tempting to speculate that some of the variability among jungle spice extractions may be a result of root-bark from different species of Mimosa being sold. Unfortunately, until someone runs extractions of jungle spice using confirmed samples of M. tenuiflora and M. verrucosa, we simply don’t know. There is also the possibility that variation in jungle spice extracts may be accounted for by differences in environment or harvesting conditions. 2 Maybe the tree needs ample access to a particular soil nutrient to produce a good portion of jungle spice. Maybe the quantity of this alkaloid fraction varies with the time of year, or even with the time of day. Maybe the tree must reach a certain age before it begins producing it. Or maybe the variability of extracts has to do with unrecognized nuances in the extraction process. Set, setting, and dose could also contribute to the variation in reported effects. Finally, it is worth mentioning that confusion over the botanical identity of available root-bark may explain why a few people have been unsuccessful in verifying Jonathan Ott’s claims that jurema is orally active without an added MAOI (J.S., OR et al. 1999). The individuals who were unsuccessful may have been using M. verrucosa, while Ott was using M. tenuiflora. Clearly there are a lot of loose ends that need to be wrapped up. It is my hope that this article will spark further investigations that may someday provide more answers to the mystery alkaloid(s) of Mimosa root-bark. 

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Cactus Updates by Keeper Trout

Trichocereus cuzcoensis

Petrified Peyote?

As previously mentioned in The Entheogen Review, there is substantial variation in what one may encounter as Trichocereus peruvianus, both in terms of appearance and psychoactivity. A number of growers have come to the conclusion that the commercial cacti vendor Karel Knize has sold a substantial amount of T. cuzcoensis mislabelled as T. peruvianus (including some of his KK242 Matucana, f. Ancash, KK338, blue form, etc.). The true extent of these mislabelled plants still stands in need of actual study (based on wild populations), but recent analytical forays published in the journal Quepo may provide some insight into possible misidentifications. In contrast to Stig Agurell’s account reporting small amounts of mescaline in European grown T. cuzcoensis (Agurell 1969), Carlos Serrano analyzed wild specimens collected from four populations in southern Peru and he did not find mescaline in any of them (Serrano 2008). This meshes with information from Peruvians around Cuzco telling friends that the plant is used locally as a hair wash, and the only people eating it hoping for psychoactive effects are ill-informed tourists.

The first mention of “petrified peyote” was apparently a misnomer; it appeared in reference to the unique find of peyote effigies approximately 6,000 years old recovered from a non-funerary context in the Shumla Caves near the mouth of the Pecos River in Texas (Taylor 1956; Bruhn et al. 2002; Terry et al. 2006). These were recently found by Martin Terry’s group to not be actual peyote buttons; rather, they were crafted items that had been shaped to resemble the crown of a living peyote plant (Terry et al. 2006). They were assumed by Jan G. Bruhn’s group to be peyote based on the identification of mescaline within them (Bruhn et al. 2002).

Serrano did find significant levels of mescaline in both Trichocereus puquiensis and in T. schoenii. T. puquiensis is known to contain mescaline based on bioassays of its monstrose form, but it lacked any published analysis. Serrano looked at four T. puquiensis populations from Ayacucho and found mescaline concentrations ranging from 0.11% to 0.50%. He also analyzed three populations of T. schoenii from Arequipa and reported mescaline values from 0.14% to 0.22%. T. schoenii is now considered to be lumped into T. cuzcoensis (= Echinopsis cuzcoensis) by David Hunt and the International Cactaceae Systematics Group (Hunt et al. 2006). We cannot help but wonder if this perhaps underlies the occasional report of entheogenic activity for T. cuzcoensis. (While rare, such reports do exist.) The need for more work is clearly indicated.

Intriguingly, Terry’s group determined that these effigies contained not only tissues from C4 plants (i.e., from a crassulacean acid plant like a cactus) but also C3 plant tissues (i.e., from plants with normal photosynthesis). Terry’s observation above, combined with the Bruhn group’s assertion that the effigies contained 2% mescaline and no other detectable alkaloid (Bruhn et al. 2002; El Seedi et al. 2005) suggests that these may be the earliest known prepared form of a psychedelic drug. However, the Bruhn group’s report has been challenged by Sasha Shulgin as being implausible. Shulgin’s main point concerned the claim that 2% mescaline persisted after more than 5,000 years; however, the lack of any other peyote alkaloids being reported by Bruhn et al. (some of which are known to be more stable than mescaline) also seems unusual. Questions directed to Bruhn about his group’s findings have not received any response. Sadly, the radiocarbon and analytical work done to date has consumed most of the available material, so there may never be more answers available, as this was the only find of its kind. From the original specimens, only one still exists, and it is now a hollowed out shell of its former self (see Terry et al. 2006 for more details).

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In the last several years “petrified peyote buttons” have been appearing for sale at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show and elsewhere. Recently I had the good fortune to meet a person who had purchased one of these ersatz petrified peyote buttons (for $50), and I had opportunity to closely examine it. It appeared at first glance to vaguely resemble a dried peyote button, but without any doubt it is simply either an agate or another form of chalcedony with a fine drusy quartz coating on one side. It was absolutely not a petrified peyote button, as it lacked all of the critical features (such as ribbed or tuberculate divisions, areoles, or the distinctive apex) that are typically preserved in peyote buttons. While a beautiful natural creation, it was clearly not of botanical origin and was either sold deceptively or ignorantly. It seems likely that all “petrified peyote buttons” sold commercially are similarly misidentified. 



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Book Review

Four and twenty birds of Maya Baked into an atom you Polarized into existence Magnet heart from red to blue […] If your limbs begin dissolving In the water that you tread All surroundings are evolving In the stream that clears your head Find yourself a caravan like Noah must have led And slip inside this house as you pass by. from “Slip Inside This House” Tommy Hall and Roky Erickson (1967) EYE MIND: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound by Paul Drummond. Foreword by Julian Cope. 2007. (Process, POB 39910, Los Angeles, CA 90039, (323) 666-3377, http://processmediainc.com) ISBN: 978-0-9760822-6-2 [6" x 9", paperback, $22.95], 421 pages, 120 photos.

TOP: So-called petrified peyote. Photo by K. Trout. BOTTOM: Dried peyote button. Photo by Justin Case.

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In the early 1960s, several years before the LSDfueled psychedelic culture bloomed in San Francisco, students at the University of Texas in Austin were already experimenting with peyote and mescaline. Marijuana was in common use, but possession was a felony that could automatically land one two to five years in prison, or up to a life sentence for a second-time offender. The years 1962–1965 saw students, proto-hippie beatniks, and intellectuals congealing into a hipster underground, which

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included the likes of Janis Joplin, Chet Helms (who promoted the first psychedelic concerts in San Francisco), and Gilbert Shelton (author of the underground comic The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers). Among this group was one Tommy Hall, a brilliant philosophy and psychology major. When LSD hit the Austin scene in 1964, Hall became enamored with its mind-expanding possibilities. He began to formulate an elaborate multi-layered approach to life, inspired by such luminaries as Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Hesse, Huxley, Ginsberg, Kerouac, and famed semioticist Alfred Korzybski. Meanwhile, the hottest rock ’n’ roll band in town was The Spades, led by guitarist Roky Erickson, who was blessed with an astounding and mighty howl of a voice that many locals say influenced Janis Joplin. Eye Mind recounts in elaborate detail the rise and fall of the 13th Floor Elevators, the band formed from the union of these two amazing and eccentric characters. It is a tale almost Shakespearean in its ascent and downward trajectory, from the formation of the psychedelic scene and their first hit record, to label mismanagement, police harassment, mental and drug problems, busts, and the dissolution of the band and their dream. Documented as the very first self-professed “psychedelic” band, the Elevators were a true cultural phenomenon. The liner notes for their debut LP expound Hall’s theories, including passages about “Man’s quest for knowledge,” and how, by the use of “certain chemicals” one can pursue the “quest for pure sanity…” The Elevators saw some success with their song “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” an impassioned garagerocker distinguished by Roky’s howling vocals and what would become their signature sound (for better or worse): a burbling, hooting background noise produced by Tommy Hall scat-singing into an “electric jug.” (ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons had a band in Austin at this time, The Moving Sidewalks, who were totally influenced by the Elevators’ sound.) The Elevators even made it onto Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. When Clark asks the band, “Who is the head of the band here?” Hall replies, “Well, we’re all heads…”



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Band leader Hall’s insistence that the band trip on psychedelics like LSD and DMT at rehearsals, performances, and recordings invariably led to some very intriguing music, and ultimately some notso-intriguing mental health problems. Drummond’s exposé contains great descriptions of the Elevators playing the Texas teen club scene, mixing standard dance classics of the time with their new “psychedelic message” songs. In 1966, the band also frequently played the California Bay Area, to supportive and receptive audiences who were totally in tune with their sounds. They shared bills with artists such as Janis Joplin, Big Brother, Quicksilver, and Grace Slick’s Great Society; they even ended up living in San Francisco for a while. One interesting speculation made in the book is that if the Elevators had stayed in San Francisco, they might very well have gone on to become as successful as their kindred Bay Area bands. At over 400 pages, Eye Mind is a fascinating book, written by an obviously loving fan. Regardless of your taste for their music, this is an invaluable account of not only a seminal American band, but of the very roots of the psychedelic counter-culture itself. The book is full of priceless anecdotes on what it was like to be a head in the then-hostile Texas environment, as well as insights into the West Coast musical and cultural scenes. Innumerable punk, new wave, and psychedelic bands have counted the 13th Floor Elevators as an influence. Busted for a miniscule amount of marijuana in 1969, Roky Erickson was incarcerated One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest–style in a psychiatric hospital for several years, where he received shock therapy against his wishes. Yet between various mental conditions since that time, Erickson has continued his career in music to this day. He remains one of my favorite American songwriters. Eye Mind is an unforgettable read about an unforgettable time. — David Arnson

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Events Calendar ENTHEOGENESIS AUSTRALIS DECEMBER 6, 2008 The Entheogenesis Australis Symposium will take place at the University of Melbourne’s Copland Theatre on Saturday, December 6th, from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm (two tea breaks and a one-hour lunch break). There will be nine lectures and one panel discussion. Featuring Michael Bock (on absinthe and toot), David Caldicott (on psychoactive mushrooms), Deva Daricha (on shamanism), Twix Elbert (on ketamine and schizophrenia), Anna Kokavec (on wine), Tim Payne (on drug consumption), Julian Raxworthy (on psychoactive books), Des Tramacchi (on Ephedra), and Torsten Wiedemann (on iboga). With Martin W. as MC and Kath Williamson as panel moderator. Tickets are $95 (Australian) available via international money order sent to: Entheogenesis Australis, POB 118, Mitcham, Vic 3132, Australia. For more details, see: www.entheo.net.

COSM NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY DECEMBER 31, 2008 This New Year’s Eve party will feature the final tour of the New York City CoSM Gallery with Alex Grey, as the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors will be relocating during 2009. From 6:30 pm until 4:00 am. Space is limited; advance tickets are available for $100 from www.cosm.org.

HOW TO SURVIVE THE APOCALYPSE JANUARY 16 & 17, 2009 Join us for the first incarnation of How to Survive the Apocalypse, a Burning Man–inspired event that combines rock opera, vaudeville, and freaky cult ritual. The evening will feature talks, performances, and, as its centerpiece, a Rock Operetta that explores the early days of the festival and the perils and possibilities that grace the event to this day. Music by Mark Nichols, lyrics by Erik Davis.

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Tickets are $20 general, $15 student or in costume.  Advance ticket purchase is recommended. 8:00 pm at Stagewerx, 233 Sutter, San Francisco, CA. For more information see www.burningopera.com and www.Stagewerx.org.

CONFERENCE ON SHAMANISM JANUARY 23–27, 2009 The Seventh International Conference on Shamanism will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Featuring presentations by David Cumes, Deborah Davis, Jorge Luis Delgado, Chalise Brooke Medicine Eagle, Philip H. Farber, Ohki Simine Forest, Raven Hicks, Sandra Ingerman, Kahuna Harry Uhane Jim, Stanley Krippner, Kristin Madden, Joe Miguez, Ernesto Ortiz, Medicine Story, Tina de Souza, Maboud & Tara Andrea Swierkosz, Barbara Tedlock, Dennis Tedlock, and Alberto Villoldo. Tickets are $595 before December 29, and $645 after. For more information, see www.bizspirit.com/shamanism/ sh_index.html.

MAGICKAL PLANTS FEBRUARY 2009 Entheo-Educational Experience presents eleven classes/workshops, to be held at Joshua Tree on February 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, and 22, which feature discussion of Amanita muscaria, Anadenanthera peregrina, Argyreia nervosa, ayahuasca and its analogues, Heimia salicifolia, Leonurus spp., Nelumbo nucifera, Nymphaea caerulea, Psilocybe mushrooms, Salvia divinorum, Sceletium tortuosum, and Trichocereus cacti. Historical shamanic applications, contemporary medicinal uses, plant chemistry, first-hand reports, processing procedures, availability and access, and the laws will be discussed. All eleven classes are $200, any six classes $125, any three classes $75, individual classes $30. Payment can be sent to K.J. Berman, 3753 Piper Trail, Yucca Valley, CA 92284. For info, e-mail [email protected] or call (415) 686-2805.

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Remembering Thomas Lyttle

Thomas

Lyttle

May 5, 1955 — September 5, 2008

Thomas Lyttle was best known as the editor of the periodical Psychedelic Monographs and Essays, and as the first person to have blotter art autographed by psychedelic luminaries, dramatically increasing the value of and interest in this unique form of visionary art. He was interviewed by Jim DeKorne for an early issue of The Entheogen Review (Spring 1994), and over the years he contributed his own interviews and book reviews to the publication. Tom was a valuable sounding board for us, as well as being a fan of The Entheogen Review—he is the only person I know of who went to the trouble and expense of having his back issues of The Entheogen Review hardbound in library cases. Although we didn’t always agree, we nevertheless had mutual respect and admiration for one another, and I will miss the spirited e-mail discussions that we shared. — David Aardvark

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Bibliography Agurell, S. 1969. “Cactaceae Alkaloids I,” Lloydia 32(2): 206–216.

DeKorne, J. 1996. “Mimosa hostilis: A Potent New Ayahuasca Analogue.” The Entheogen Review 5(4): 9.

Anonymous. 2008. Personal communication, Jun 15.

Delafonze19 2008. Personal communication, Mar 17.

Barbosa, Y-W.M. da S. 1998. “Jurema Ritual in Northern Brazil,” MAPS Bulletin 8(3): 27–29.

Desmarchelier C. et al. 1999. “Antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities in extracts from medicinal trees used in the ‘Caatinga’ region in northeastern Brazil,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 67(1): 69–77.

Brandt, S.D. et al. 2008. “N,N-Dimethyltryptamine and dichloromethane: Rearrangement of quaternary ammonium salt product during GC–EI and CI-MS–MS analysis,” Journal Pharm Biomed Anal 47(1): 207–212. Brown, R.E. and Associates 1968. The Psychedelic Guide to Preparation of the Eucharist in a Few of its Many Guises. Linga Sharira Incense Co. Bruhn, J.G. and P.A.G.M. DeSmet 2003. “Ceremonial Peyote Use and its Antiquity in the Southern United States,” HerbalGram 58: 30–33.

El-Seedi, H.R., et al. 2005. “Prehistoric Peyote Use: Alkaloid Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating of Archaeological specimens of Lophophora from Texas,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 101(2005): 238–242. Forbidden Donut 1996. “Report from the Palenque Conference,” The Entheogen Review 5(2): 2–3. Hanna, J. 2008. Personal communication, Oct 17.

Bruhn, J. et al. 2002. “Mescaline Use for 5700 Years,” Lancet 359(9320): 1866.

Hunt, D. et al. 2006. The New Cactus Lexicon. DH Books.

Buchanan M.S. et al. 2007. “NMR spectral assignments of a new chlorotryptamine alkaloid and its analogues from Acacia confusa,” Magn Reson Chem 45(4): 359–361.

J.S., OR et al. 1999. “Mimosa Active Without MAOI?” The Entheogen Review 8(1): 22–24.

Cairns, G.F. 2001. “A Theology of Human Liberation and Entheogens: Reflections of a Contemplative Activist,” in Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion, edited by T. Roberts. CSP. Camargo-Ricalde, S.L. 2000. “[Description, distribution, anatomy, chemical composition and uses of Mimosa tenuiflora (Fabaceae-Mimosoideae) in Mexico]” [Article in Spanish], Rev Biol Trop 48(4): 939–954. Darth, C. 1977. The Whole Drug Manufacturers Catalog. Prophet Press.

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Kamata, T. et al. 2006. “Metabolism of the psychotomimetic Tryptamine Derivative 5-methoxy-N,Ndiisopropyltryptamine (5-MeO-DIPT) in Humans: Identification and Quantification of its Urinary Metabolites,” Drug Metabolism and Disposition Fast Forward 34(2): 281–287. Lee, B.J. and M.A. Cowan 1986. Dangerous Memories: House Churches and our American Story, cited in Psychoactive Sacramentals: Essays on Entheogens and Religion (2001), edited by T. Roberts. CSP. Meckes-Lozoya et al. 1990. “N,N-Dimethyltryptamine Alkaloid in Mimosa tenuiflora bark (Tepescohuite),” Archivos de Investigación Medica 21: 175–177.

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Miller, M. et al. 2003. “3-Methylindole Induces Transient Olfactory Mucosal Injury in Ponies,” Vet Pathol 40(4): 363–370. Noman 2008. Personal communication, Feb 26. Ott, J. 2000. “Pharmahuasca, Anahuasca, and Vinho da Jurema: Human Pharmacology of Oral DMT Plus Harmine,” Yearbook for Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness 6/7 (1997/1998): 251–271. Pachano, M. 2004. “Extreme Condition Extraction of Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) Root-bark,” The Entheogen Review 13(2): 49–50. Renz, J. 1936. “Mimosine,” Z Physiol Chem 244, 153–158. Serrano, C.A. 2008. “Avances en la Fitogeografía Química del género Trichocereus en el sur del Perú,” Quepo 22: 29–35. Shulgin, A.T. 2006. Personal communication. Shulgin, A.T. 2008. Personal communication. Smith, M.V. 1981. Psychedelic Chemistry. Loompanics Unlimited. Soedario, M. et al. 1994. “Mimosine, a Toxin Present in Leguminous Trees (Leucaena spp.), Induces a Mimosine-Degrading Enzyme Activity in Some Rhizobium Strains,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology 60(12): 4268–4272. Strassman, R. 2001. DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Park Street Press. Superweed, M.J. 1969. Drug Manufacturing for Fun and Profit. Chthon Press. Taylor, W.R. 1956. “Some Implications of the Carbon-14 dates from a cave in Coahuila, Mexico,” Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 27: 215– 234. Terry, M. et al. 2006. “Lower Pecos and Coahuila Peyote: New Radiocarbon Dates,” Journal of Archaeological Science 33(7): 1017–1021.



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Torsten 2008. Personal communication, Feb 24. Trout, K. 2007. Ayahuasca: Alkaloids, Plants & Analogs, www.erowid.org/library/books_online/ ayahuasca_apa/aya1.shtml. Vepsäläinen et al. 2005. “Isolation and characterization of yuremamine, a new phytoindole,” Planta Med 71(11): 1053–1057. WarrenSaged 2008. Personal communication, Feb 24.

WEB CITATIONS 1. Anima (@ Entheogen.com Forums). 2007. “MHRB, Yellow Oil and DMT-N-oxide,” w w w. e n t h e o g e n . c o m / f o r u m / showthread.php?t=12542. 2. Doctorcito (@ Ayahuasca Forums). 2006. “Yuremamine: Solving the Mystery of Jurema Preta?” http://forums.ayahuasca.com/phpbb/ viewtopic.php?t=9912. 3. DonPeyote (@ Drugs-Forum). 2006. “Jungle DMT?” www.drugs-forum.co.uk/forum/ showthread.php?t=26468. 4. Dozuki (@ Entheogen.com Forums). 2006. “MHRB H2O/Methanol Extraction & TLC,” w w w. e n t h e o g e n . c o m / f o r u m / showthread.php?t=6617. 5. Dravidian (@ Entheogen.com Forums). 2006. “DMT Melted?!” www.entheogen.com/forum/ showthread.php?t=6381. 6. Entheogenist (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2007. “So I Extracted the Red DMT…” www.dmtnexus.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=254. 7. Entropymancer (@ The Corroboree Forums). 2008. “Concerning the Identity of Commercial Mimosa Root-bark,” www.shaman-australis.com/ forum/index.php?showtopic=17525. 8. Entropymancer (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2008. “‘Jungle Spice’—Mystery Alkaloids of Mimosa Root-bark,” www.dmt-nexus.com/forum/ default.aspx?g=posts&t=1115. [Note: This post is an html version of the original article that has been edited, condensed, and annotated in the current issue of The Entheogen Review.] 9. Fuego (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2007. “Doing Xylol Extraction,” dmt-nexus.com/forum/ default.aspx?g=posts&t=398.

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10. Heyoka (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2007. “Yellow Oil—DMT-N-Oxide?” www.dmtnexus.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=454. 11. Lemmiwinks (@ Entheogen.com Forums). 2007. “Red Spice?” www.entheogen.com/ forum/showthread.php?t=11191. 12. Lemmiwinks (@ Entheogen.com Forums). 2007. “DMT possibly changing?” www.entheogen.com/ forum/showthread.php?t=11309. 13. Marsofold (@ Drugs-Forum). 2005. “The Other Alkaloid in Mimosa hostilis,” www.drugsforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=13507. 14. Marsofold (@ Mycotopia Forums). 2005. “False Mimosa hostilis Being Sold?” http:// forums.mycotopia.net/dmt-spice/6258-falsemimosa-hostilis-being-sold.html. 15. Marsofold (@ Mycotopia Web Forum). 2006. “How to Extract an Alternate Alkaloid from Mimosa; Red ‘Jungle’ DMT [Not],” http:// forums.mycotopia.net/dmt-spice/7902-howextract-alternate-alkaloid-mimosa-red-jungledmt-not.html. 16. MisterGypsy (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2007. “Red Spice Experiences,” www.dmt-nexus.com/ forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=754.



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17. Napolean Blownapart (@ Ayahuasca Forums). 2003. “Hummingbirds Brew—Phosphoric Tec,” h tt p : / / f o r u m s . aya h u a s c a . c o m / p h p b b / viewtopic.php?t=851. 18. Noman (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2006. “Dark DMT—the Other Alkaloid,” www.dmtnexus.com/forum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=90. 19. Noman (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2006. “Dark DMT,” www.dmt-nexus.com/phpBB2/ viewtopic.php?t=78. 20. Noman (@ The Lycaeum Forums). 2006. “Dark DMT,” http://forums.lycaeum.org/index.php/ topic,17215.0.html. 21. Salvia_Antics (@ DMT-Nexus Forums). 2007. “Dark DMT Extraction?” www.dmt-nexus.com/ phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=12003. 22. TheAngryGolfer (@ Entheogen.com Forums). 2006. “Orange Spice?” www.entheogen.com/ forum/showthread.php?t=7041. 23. Torsten 2008. Posted at www.shaman-australis.com/ forum/index.php?showtopic=17525&hl=farmers. 24. With these citations the web reference was either noted as having been lost in the original article, or else it simply was not included in the original article.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XVI, Number 4



Winter Solstice 2008



ISSN 1066-1913

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors R. Andrew Sewell Otto Snow Thomas Lyttle Zhah Dr. Mercury Dr. Feelodd J. Cocktoasten Justin Case Jon Hanna Keeper Trout Plastinate, CA Fork, CA The Salvia Divinorum Observer The Discovery Channel Will Beifuss

Unauthorized Research on Cluster Headache

117

Otto Snow Speaks…

126

Lost in Jonathan Ott’s Footsteps: Acetone Tinctures of Salvia divinorum

132

First Look at a New Psychoactive Drug: Symmetry (salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether)

137

Old Hair and Tryptamines

146

Keep that Mimosa Mud!

150

Lamid

151

I Need a Miracle

152

Network Feedback

155

Armatocereus Again?

155

Trichocereus pachanot

155

Takini: Identification & Chemistry

157

Extracting Plastics

157

Deprenyl & Phenethylamine

158

Peyote Harvests

160

California Bans Salvia Sales to Minors

160

Buy Some Gloves!

160

Sources

161

Book Reviews

165

Farewell and Thanks!

169

Bibliography

170

Index for All 2008 Issues

174

Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Disclaimer: Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819, USA

Web www.entheogenreview.com

Front Cover (detail) & Back Cover Gifts from Pachamama 1 Watercolor, pencil, conté, and charcoal on Arches paper, 47 x 28 inches ©2004 by Donna Torres www.donnatorres.com

Statement of Purpose: From 1992 through 2008, this journal served as a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. It was the voice of a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications were kept in strictest confidence—published material was identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). After transcription, all correspondence was shredded and recycled or incinerated. The mailing list (kept encrypted) was not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

Back-issues: A limited supply of back-issues of The Entheogen Review is available from our web site, where you can also purchase a CD containing PDFs of every issue published (1992–2008, although we took a year off from publishing in 2007). We also sell a few topical books at our web site; see www.entheogenreview.com. Copyright © 2008/2009 by The Entheogen Review. Nothing in this journal may be reproduced in any manner, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the editors. All rights reserved. All advertising and advertised products void where prohibited.

Readers of The Entheogen Review can get a 10% discount off any products on our web site (excluding ibogaine and peyote), by using the following coupon code:

ERXXX

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Unauthorized Research on Cluster Headache by R. Andrew Sewell, M.D. […] I was going crazy; I have a ghastly memory of hammering on a wall with my cast in impotent anguish as a continuous white-hot blade of agony sliced through my brain for two consecutive hours, only to begin again two hours later. I screamed and wept; I prayed to a God I wasn’t sure I believed in to forgive sins I wasn’t sure I’d ever committed. My wife could do nothing except stand helplessly by while I went nuts. There was no painkiller that could touch this affliction; all that resulted from multiple-capsule doses of Seconal was that I was unpleasantly, stupidly stoned while left to cope with the undiminished torment in my head. — Jim DeKorne, founding editor of The Entheogen Review (DeKorne 1994)

Perhaps the greatest triumph of unauthorized research on visionary plants and drugs to date is the discovery that small doses of LSD, psilocybin, and LSA (lysergic acid amide) are more effective than any conventional medication in treating the dismal disorder, cluster headache. Five years ago, no one other than cluster headache patients or neurologists had ever heard of cluster headache. Now, treatment of cluster headache is routinely listed among potential therapeutic uses for psychedelics, and has even penetrated popular culture to the point that the character Gregory House, M.D. has used a psychedelic drug to treat headache on the TV show House not once, but twice (Kaplow 2006; Dick 2007)! The first mention of therapeutic effect from a psychedelic on headache comes from Drs. D. Webster Prentiss and Francis P. Morgan, professors of medicine and pharmacology at Columbian University (now George Washington University), who began to conduct animal and human experiments with peyote in 1894 in order to determine whether or not it had any valuable medicinal properties. Two years later, their report concluded: “The conditions in which it seems probable that the use of mescal buttons will produce beneficial results are the following: In general ‘nervousness,’ nervous headache, nervous irritative cough… [etc.].” In their account are a number of cases, including #5: “The same

gentleman reports that his wife formerly used to take the tincture [anhalonium1] for nervous headaches and that it always relieved her. She has them so seldom now that she does not use it” (Prentiss & Morgan 1896). Intrigued by Prentiss and Morgan’s reports of mescaline’s psychological properties, the psychologist, sexologist, and women’s rights champion Havelock Ellis decided to try peyote (“a decoction of three mescal buttons”) himself the following year, taking it for the first time on Good Friday at 2:30 pm. His 1897 trip report states: “The most noteworthy, almost immediate, result of the first dose was that a headache which for some hours had shown a tendency to aggravation was somewhat relieved.” He continues: “At 3 began to feel drowsy. At 3:30 took another third of the infusion. My headache was speedily still further lightened, and I now felt a certain consciousness of energy and intellectual power.” Strangely, the report ends with: “I have myself never felt hopeful about mescal as a therapeutic agent […] it is not easy to see in what diseased conditions the crude drug itself is indicated,” and Ellis never investigated headache further (Ellis 1902). Ultimately, the use of mescaline to treat headache never caught on, perhaps because most of the early American and European peyote users complained

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What is Cluster Headache? Everyone’s had a headache, much to the chagrin of cluster headache sufferers, who find scant sympathy for their torment. Unlike your average hangover, a cluster attack is considered the most painful condition known to man, and has been compared to having a lit cigarette held to the side of one’s face, or “giving birth through the eyesocket.” Men who have experienced both kidney stones and cluster headache rate the cluster attacks more painful. Women with cluster headache who have given birth without anaesthesia rate the pain of a cluster attack worse. Cluster headache is about a thirtieth as common as migraine, and is five times more common in men. Unlike migraine pain, which is described as dull and throbbing, the pain from cluster headache is sharp, steady, and intense. Also unlike migraine, which feels better if one lies down in a dark room, cluster headache patients are restless and agitated, compelled to pace around, press their temples, and sometimes even bang their heads on walls and doors. Perhaps the most striking feature of cluster attacks is their periodicity, which is the cardinal feature of the disease. At peak, there can be between one and eight attacks per day, usually at the same times each day, especially about ninety minutes after going to sleep, with the onset of REM sleep. This association with sleep frequently leads to sleep deprivation or “sleep fear.” The first cluster period usually lasts four to eight weeks and recurs thereafter once or twice a year, but the pattern is strikingly consistent for a given patient. Ten percent of cluster headache patients get no remission period. The attacks never go away. These are the ones who kill themselves, leading to the nickname “suicide headache” for this disorder. One morning I returned to the house, the pain undiminished, and decided that I’d had enough. I was loading my shotgun to kill myself when my housemate came downstairs and took the gun away from me. He said: “Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme? Why don’t you go down to the clinic and have them shoot you up with morphine, knock you out, or something?” — Jim DeKorne (DeKorne 2006)

that peyote caused headache (Perrine 2001). The pharmacologist Arthur Heffter’s trip report of June 5, 1887 reads: “Nausea, occipital headache, intense dizziness, and clumsiness in moving began about half an hour after the last dose” (Heffter 1898). Prentiss and Morgan reported that one of their experimental subjects experienced a three-day headache following a dose of mescaline, severe enough to be debilitating on the second day (Perrine 2001). Investigations all but ceased when anhalonium was removed from the U.S. Pharma-

copeia, and by 1938, when Richard Evans Schultes published his summary of peyote’s therapeutic effects, headache does not even rate a mention (Schultes 1938). The torch then passed to psychiatry. The first modern-day observations of the psychedelic treatment for headache came from psychotherapists who were using LSD to treat neurosis in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They observed some startling remissions. “Case 1—Mrs. M., aged 51.

TABLE ONE

DRUG AVERAGE CLINICAL DOSE LSD-25 50 to 100 mg BOL-148 (2-bromo-LSD) 2 to 4 mg LAE-32 (D-lysergic acid ethylamide) 1 to 3 mg PML-146 (1-methyl-d-lysergic acid propanolamide) 1 to 3 mg UML-491 (1-methyl-lysergic acid butanolamide) 2 to 6 mg * RESULTS OF THERAPEUTIC EXPERIMENTS BASED ON 390 CASES OF HEADACHE OF VARIOUS ORIGINS (SICUTERI 1963).

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EFFECT* ++ + + +++ ++++

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A happily married drama teacher who had complained of a severe migraine since age 9 […]. She had six weekly sessions of LSD in doses of 40 to 90 micrograms. Eight months since her last treatment, she has had no more attacks of migraine,” reads one account of psycholytic psychotherapy. “LSD is particularly suitable for anxiety states with accompanying tension…. We have been particularly successful with migraine” [emphasis added] (Ling & Buckman 1960). Jay Stevens refers to this in his book, Storming Heaven: “A number of therapists talked about the serendipitous side effects that they sometimes saw in their patients. They would be in the middle of a postsession interview, perhaps two or three weeks after the original LSD session, and the patient would suddenly say, ‘Oh and the headache is gone too.’ What headache?, they’d ask. Why, the headache I’ve had for ten or fifteen years, would be the answer” (Stevens 1987). In every case, however, resolution of the headache was attributed to resolution of the underlying psychodynamic conflicts. Not one person suggested that it might be a direct pharmacologic effect of the drug itself. It was a near miss, scientifically speaking—the answer was in plain sight, but nobody asked the right question. The first mention of LSD specifically to treat cluster headache can be credited to Dr. Federigo Sicuteri in 1963. A giant in the field of headache medicine, Dr. Sicuteri founded the first headache center in Europe, introduced the serotonin theory of migraine—which formed the basis for all subsequent experiments with lysergic acid derivatives, from the early ones with LSD to the most recent development of sumatriptan (Imitrex™)—and developed the first prophylactic drug for migraine, methysergide. Methysergide, which is basically LSD with one of the ethyl groups changed to a methoxy, is—like LSD—also psychotropic in supratherapeutic doses (Abramson & Rolo 1967; Bender 1970). This “safe,” legal version of LSD was marketed as Sansert™ for many years, but removed from the U.S. market in 2002 because of its unpredictable propensity to cause “retroperitoneal fibrosis”—an uncontrollable growth of scar tissue that chokes the internal organs, leading to death. Dr. Sicuteri died in April of 2003, and was honored by the entire world of headache specialists. “Sicuteri has changed the life of a million sufferers,” wrote Donald Price (Puca 2003).



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PATIENT ZERO This 34-year-old Scottish man had his first onset of episodic cluster headache at the age of 16, with headaches recurring regularly every seven months. They consisted of one month of four to six left orbital attacks per day that lasted from 30 minutes to three hours and were precipitated by alcohol and stress. At worst, he rated the pain of the attacks as being 10 out of 10 in intensity, and they occurred almost continually for five days in the third week of each cluster period. He was prescribed the histamine receptor blocker pizotifen, which was ineffective. In January 1993, at the age of 22, he took LSD recreationally and was surprised when his anticipated February attack did not occur. Over the next two years, he took LSD three or four times and missed his next four consecutive cluster periods. In April 1995, at 24, following a 12-month abstinence from LSD, he experienced another attack and was prescribed propranolol and amitriptyline, both of which were ineffective. Suspecting that his use of a psychedelic drug had prevented his cluster periods from recurring, he ingested psilocybincontaining mushrooms the following October and did not experience his anticipated November cluster period. After that, until December 1996, he consumed 10 to 12 fresh “liberty cap” mushrooms (Psilocybe semilanceata) every three months—about a quarter of the usual recreational dose required for psychedelic effects—suffering no attacks whatsoever until he discontinued his use of the mushrooms in order to test whether there was a correlation between their use and the absence of cluster periods. He was right: in January 1998, his next cluster period began, and he was again prescribed propranolol, which mitigated some of his attacks but which he was unable to tolerate because of an overly slowed heart rate. His first post to the Internet on this subject was on July 28, 1998. From then on, he ingested liberty caps every six months, and has since been almost pain-free on this regimen, with two exceptions. The first was in 2001 when he had destroyed his supply because he feared being discovered by the police, and as a result took a smaller than usual dose, which resulted in a seven-day cluster period. He was prescribed oxygen, but the episode ended before his insurance approved this treatment. Another cluster period occurred in April 2003 when he deliberately took a smaller dose as an experiment and again suffered a week of attacks, which he then aborted with a second dose of psilocybin-containing mushrooms.

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Table 1 (see page 118) is reproduced from Dr. Sicuteri’s summary of the effects of lysergic acid derivatives other than methysergide on 390 headache patients (Sicuteri 1963). Standards for scientific reporting were somewhat more lax forty years ago than they are now; we can tell from his paper that 25 of the 238 patients treated with methysergide had cluster headache, but there is no indication that Sicuteri thought to treat the cluster attacks acutely, measured whether the LSD had any cluster-period–terminating effects, or followed the patients to see if they skipped their next cluster period. Moreover, he referred to cluster headache by the archaic term “histamine cephalgia” (cluster headache was not formally defined using modern nomenclature until 1980), so there is no guarantee that what he considered cluster headache is what we would consider the same thing today. Needless to say, Sicuteri saw much more promise in methysergide than he did in LSD, and spent a considerable portion of his career developing it as a medication. The true potential of LSD in treating cluster headache was thus unfortunately overlooked. The next scientist to investigate the use of visionary plants to treat headache was Dr. Ethan Russo, who later went on to found the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics and is well-known for his interest in migraine. In the early 1990s, Dr. Russo made two expeditions to Peru’s remote Manu National Park (in the same fashion as Schultes’ Amazonian research fifty years earlier), researching the use of medicinal plants by members of the Machiguenga tribes, about whom he had written earlier (Russo 1992). “Sometimes they crush leaves or flowers which they drip into their eyes to treat migraine or enhance their hunting prowess,” he writes; in a later work, he described the use of several psychedelics by the natives to treat headache, including Brugmansia arborea. Apparently, longitudinal cuts were made in the stems or branches of this small tree and these branches were then applied to the skin; an anesthetic and soporific effect became apparent after fifteen minutes. Over fifteen years later, Russo’s manuscript, An Ocelot for a Pillow: Researching Headaches, Hallucinogens, and Hunting Magic Among the Machiguenga of Manu remains unpublished, unfortunately, so it is unclear what else he discovered. He has since devoted his career to exploring the therapeutic use of Cannabis. Although Cannabis appears to have utility in the treatment of

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CASE CH037 Authorized Research This 46-year-old man with restless legs syndrome began to have cluster headaches at age eight. He was taken to many doctors and suffered severe disruptions of his schooling owing to his need for frequent hospitalization. His headaches came without warning, were described as being “like a red hot poker being poked through my eye,” and were associated with runny nose, drooping eyelid and teary eye on one side, and whole-body perspiration. The pain was overwhelming and rendered him incapable of speaking or doing anything. He often screamed, flailed around, pounded his head with his fists and banged against anything he could find without regard for his personal safety. He described these episodes as “degrading” and “exhausting” (he was woken two or three times a night by an attack) and distressing for his companions. Until his mid-20s, his cluster periods were regular—twice a year—and lasted six to eight weeks, but as he grew older, the cluster periods gradually lengthened, and 15 years ago, they became secondary chronic, at which point he had to stop working and was classified as disabled, not leaving his home for months on end. In 1998, he participated in a functional imaging study that demonstrated, for the first time, hypothalamic perfusion changes during a cluster attack (May et al. 1998; Kaplow 2006). FIGURE ONE:

Brain of CH037 clearly shows hypothalamic activation during experimentally induced cluster attack.

Unauthorized Research Unfortunately, amitriptyline, propranolol, and lithium were ineffective in controlling his headaches. Verapamil was partially effective, and oxygen and sumatriptan worked well as abortives; prednisone was also effective. In November 2004, he took a two-gram dose of psilocybincontaining mushrooms but did not note any change in his headaches. After a second dose a week later, however, his headaches remitted completely and have not returned as of July 2008. He is now able to sleep through the night and has resumed a “normal life,” completely without medications. He currently uses tea, coffee, cigarettes, and Cannabis daily, but no other drugs except for a sub-psychedelic maintenance dose of mushrooms every two or three months.

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migraine, there is no evidence—anecdotal or otherwise—to suggest that it is helpful in treating cluster headache. In 2003, Otto Snow published a book, LSD, in which he describes his extraordinary results in treating migraine with psychedelics. Although headache terminology can sometimes be confusing (the term “cluster migraine” always makes me shudder), the symptoms that Snow describes—double vision, unsteady gait, right arm and leg numbness, difficulty speaking—localize to the brainstem, not the hypothalamus, which is where cluster headache originates (Snow 2003). These symptoms are consistent with a rare form of migraine called basilar-type migraine, or Bickerstaff Syndrome; if this is the case, then ergotamine, triptans, and beta-blockers such as propranolol can be dangerous and should not be used. His experiences with LSD treating migraine are interesting, and conform with the observations of other researchers; but cluster headache is not migraine! In 1998, unauthorized research on cluster headache stepped in where authorized research had drawn a blank. Scotsman Craig Adams,3 proprietor of The Moorings Bar in Aberdeen (an unusual profession, given that alcohol reliably triggers cluster attacks)—also known as “Patient Zero”—made a remarkable post to the Internet in which he described his use of psilocybin to treat his cluster headache. He was vilified by the cluster headache community, which was generally unwilling to hear about the new treatment,4 but he persisted. The 38th person he persuaded to try psilocybin for cluster headache was a Midwesterner named Bob Wold.3 Mr. Wold (Figure 2) was a tough case. His cluster headaches had started as episodic, but his cluster periods had grown longer and longer until eventually they ran together, and nothing seemed to help. When I obtained copies of Mr. Wold’s medical records from his neurologist, Dr. Freitag, I counted no fewer than sixty-five medication trials, all of which had failed (except for two of his four weeklong inpatient admissions to the Diamond Headache Clinic). Faced with a choice of trying psilocybin or undergoing gamma-knife brain surgery, he figured that it was likely to be brain damage either way, so he took the psilocybin. And it worked! The first dose gave him only 24 hours of relief, but subsequent doses broke the cluster headache cycle altogether. Livid that none of the neurologists he had seen had shared with him this simple, effective treatment for his terrible malady, he founded a group called the Clusterbusters (www.clusterbusters.com) in 2001. Clusterbusters is dedicated to bringing the attention of the medical establishment to this new medicine, promoting clinical trials, and turning psilocybin into a prescribable drug. After the Clusterbusters’ membership topped 100, Bob Wold approached MAPS, and MAPS approached Harvard Medical School, where I was conducting research, with a proposal—were we inter-

FIGURE TWO:

Bob Wold, unauthorized researcher on visionary drugs and cluster headache; founder of the Clusterbusters.

ested in a potential new treatment for a terrible disease? For a young neurologist who was new to research, it seemed like a gift from heaven. With the help of Earth and Fire Erowid, who graciously agreed to develop and host it, we put a “dummy questionnaire” on the Internet that asked a number of innocuous questions about quality of life with cluster headache, followed by a “money” question asking permission to contact the respondent to ask more questions about cluster headache. Those who checked the box, I phoned, e-mailed, and quizzed about their use of psychedelic drugs. This gave me 242 cases; I combined these with the 120 provided by the Clusterbusters and 21 cluster headache patients who—having heard that I was researching cluster headache—e-mailed me out of the blue, to yield a large database that I was able to search for evidence of therapeutic effect from psychedelic drugs. The final step was to require medical records documenting the diagnosis (since Internet identities are notoriously unreliable).

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What is LSA? LSA, also known as “ergine,” is an ergoline alkaloid that—unlike LSD—occurs in nature in a number of plants, two of which can be found in the United States (Argyreia nervosa, or Hawaiian baby woodrose, and Ipomoea violacea, morning glory), and one of which grows in Mexico (Turbina [= Rivea] corymbosa, or ololiuhqui). Hawaiian baby woodrose is a perennial climbing vine that was native to the Indian subcontinent but now is present worldwide. Knowledge of its psychedelic properties started to spread in the 1960s, after a paper detailing its chemistry was published (Hylin & Watson 1965), and after it was noticed that poor people in Hawaii would consume the seeds for a cheap buzz (Emboden 1972). Seven or eight seeds will cause a four- to twelve-hour trip similar to LSD but with fewer visual effects, and with occasional nausea, flatulence, and vomiting. Morning glory is another climbing vine whose seeds contain LSA, and was originally used by Aztec shamans in Mexico to commune with their gods.



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How many people would send documentation of illegal activity to a faceless authority figure over the Internet? So many, in fact, that I cut the study off at 50, reasoning that more cases than that would not necessarily be more convincing; three more medical records arrived after the cutoff point. The results were extraordinary! (Figure 3) Psilocybin and LSD appeared to be at least as effective as the conventional medication at aborting an acute attack, and appeared to be able to terminate cluster periods and even prevent them from reoccurring, a characteristic not shared by any conventional medication. I published the results in the journal Neurology with my colleague Harrison Pope, Jr., a renowned professor of psychiatry at McLean Hospital, and my former colleague John Halpern (Sewell et al. 2006). The study suffered from several methodological flaws, unfortunately. First—what was the dose? “One big one and two small ones,” would be a typical answer. “Three stems and two caps.” Not too useful for constructing a dose–response curve. Second, what about selection bias? Unfortunately, it’s probably possible to find fifty people on the Internet who would swear that rubbing cow manure in their hair cures cluster headache; cyberspace is a big place.

Ololiuhqui was likewise used by South American healers in shamanic healing ceremonies, and is thought to have been the most common visionary plant consumed by indigenous people throughout the continent. It is still used by the Mazatecs, who live in the southern mountains of Mexico. The constituent LSA was identified in 1960 by Albert Hofmann. Because LSA is generally an unpleasant trip, few recreational users take it twice, and perhaps because of its low “abuse” potential, it is categorized in Schedule III, the same class as buprenorphine and anabolic steroids, not in Schedule I as are most other psychedelics.

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FIGURE THREE:

Authorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs: Efficacy of LSD and psilocybin indicated here is likely higher than would be seen in a clinical population for two reasons: 1) the population of cluster headache patients willing to resort to taking psychedelic drugs is by definition one for which conventional medications are not that effective, and 2) patients are more willing to share success stories than failures. Still, holey moley!

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The solution came from England. A group called the Organization for Understanding Cluster Headache (OUCH-UK) had noticed that seeds of the Hawaiian baby woodrose and morning glory plants, when ground up, seemed to be just as effective as LSD or psilocybin in treating their cluster headache. Even better, morning glory seeds can be ordered over the Internet, overnight-delivered, and consumed immediately without the need for a sixweek delay while spores germinate and mushrooms grow. Better still, lysergic acid amide (LSA), the active ingredient in the seeds, is only Schedule III, so being caught with it is unlikely to result even in prosecution, much less a stiff prison sentence. News of the discovery spread like wildfire and quickly jumped the pond, presenting me with a unique opportunity. Given that I had a database of 383 cluster headache patients, none of whom had taken LSA at the time they had enrolled in the study,5 how many—two years later—had taken it? Sixty-eight, it turned out. This was no longer a retrospective case series, which is scientifically unconvincing, but rather a prospective cohort study (which, while considerably more compelling, is still not up to the level of a randomized clinical trial). Not only that; since seeds come as discrete units, it occurred to me that all I had to do to arrive at a dose was 1) analyze a seed, 2) ask each subject how many seeds they had taken, and 3) multiply the two values to arrive at the dose.



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Concentration of Total Alkaloids in Seeds

Total Alkaloids % wt

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Argyreia nervosa avg = 0.445% wt 4.45 mg/g

Turbina corymbosa avg = 0.080% wt 0.80 mg/g

Sample FIGURE FOUR:

Authorized research into visionary plants and drugs: alkaloid content of Argyreia nervosa and Turbina (= Rivea) corymbosa.

LSD

LSA

methysergide

sumatriptan

FIGURE FIVE:

This idea proved to be a dead end, unfortunately. Preliminary analysis of the seeds revealed that there was an over ten-fold variation in alkaloid content from batch to batch—some seeds being complete duds, containing no LSA whatsoever (Figure 4). The only solution was to have patients mail me whatever seeds they had left over after they treated themselves, so I could see exactly what they had taken (Figure 6, next page). Disclosure of the results will have to await peer review, but a preliminary poster presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Headache Society can be viewed on the Erowid web site (erowid.org/chemicals/lsa/ lsa_article2.pdf). As one might expect, sub-hallucinogenic doses of LSA appear to be effective in treating cluster attacks, terminating cluster periods, and extending remission periods in cluster headache.

Structural homologies between authorized and unauthorized treatments for cluster headache. Changing an ethyl group on LSD to a methoxy yields methysergide (Sansert™). Sumatriptan (Imitrex™) is dimethyltryptamine (DMT) with a methanesulfonamide in the 5-position, and is therefore potentially illegal under the Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act.

And so it came to pass that modern science could have stumbled upon this discovery several times, but unfortunately asked the wrong questions, drew the wrong conclusions, or simply looked the other way. It was not a cadre of smart Ivy League doctors drawing chemical diagrams on chalkboards or running complicated structural computer simulations who discovered that psychotropic indoles treat clus-

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Unauthorized Research

Authorized Research

Hawaiian baby woodrose seeds obtained via mail-order. Husks removed.

Seeds ground with mortar and pestle in lemon juice.

Sample of seeds (1 g) sent to Dr. Sewell’s lab.

Seeds weighed, measured, and counted.

Seeds dried…

…and placed in a teabag to make “lysergic acid tea.”

Lysergic acid and other alkaloids absorbed orally and sublingually.

Silica gel Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) analysis of Argyreia nervosa extract (10% methanol/chloroform); development with Ehrlich’s reagent. LSA exists in tandem with an isomer that is inactive and the two convert rapidly back and forth between one form and the other, equiliberating at a ratio of 4 LSA to 5 iso-LSA. The same is true of LSD.

FIGURE SIX: Unuthorized research into visionary plants and drugs combined with authorized research on visionary plants and drugs.

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Alas, I doubt if I could provide any scientifically useful data. [… My diaries were] shredded when I left New Mexico in 2003. (I’d accumulated 16 tons of stuff during my 37 year residence there, but when we moved to Hawaii everything had to fit into a shipping container—triage time.) I now regret all that ruthless shredding because I’m writing a sequel to Psychedelic Shamanism and wish I had access to some of the old diaries.

There you have it. Even as Jim DeKorne cranked out the first photocopies of The Entheogen Review, irrefutable scientific evidence of the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic drugs lay buried in his files, not ten feet away, unexamined, only to be thrown out a decade later. Any number of conclusions can be drawn from this. I prefer to surmise the following: First, the truth wins out eventually; and second, the universe has a sense of humor. FIGURE SEVEN:

Kyle Reed, authorized researcher.

ter headache. Rather, it was a dedicated patient group, testing different psychedelic compounds through trial and error, much as the shamans of old honed their healing techniques through observation and iteration. Unauthorized research made the discovery, leaving authorized research merely to confirm it and refine it. Which brings us back to Jim DeKorne, former editor of The Entheogen Review. Compulsive about documentation, he recorded the date of every one of the fifteenor-so occasions (October 25, 1964; February 21, 1965; February 18, 1979, etc.) that he took LSD over three decades (DeKorne 1994). It should be a simple matter, I thought, to cross-reference these occasions with the timing of his cluster periods—which he also recorded in excruciating detail— and show that his infrequent use of LSD corresponded with a skipping of each subsequent cluster period. I was dismayed to receive the following e-mail:

And with that thought in mind, on behalf of Jim DeKorne, David Aardvark, and the cast and crew of The Entheogen Review, I bid you all good night, and good luck. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks go to Ethan Russo, M.D. and Nicola Schilling, L.C.S.W. for their comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Special appreciation goes to Kyle Reed (Figure 7), the analytic chemist who performed all the seed analyses in the study mentioned above in his laboratory at Harvard. When I calculated how much I would have had to pay to extract the alkaloids from all those seed samples using a commercial laboratory, the figure exceeded $30,000. However, Kyle refused to allow me to even reimburse him for the cost of the raw materials used in the analysis. Thanks also to MAPS and Seth Hollub, for sponsoring and funding the authorized LSA research, and to Miles Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D., for the use of his laboratory.

FOOTNOTES 1. Anhalonium lewinii (= Lophophora williamsii) was standardized to a 10% tincture by a process described in the U.S. Pharmacopeia and given at a dose of 4–8 grams. 2. Dr. Arthur Heffter was the first Chairman of the German Society of Pharmacologists, wrote the first Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, and was the first to isolate mescaline from peyote. It is meaningless to ask whether Heffter’s or Havelock Ellis’ self-experimentation was authorized or unauthorized; a century ago scientists were free to “authorize” themselves. 3. Real name used with permission. 4. It is my observation that cluster headache patients appear to be unusually lawabiding. The existence of a particular personality type that accompanies cluster headache has been commented upon many times but never formally verified. 5. And yes, that was one of the things I had checked. They may not have heard of LSA, but I had!

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Otto Snow Speaks… Interviewed by Thomas Lyttle

nity were harmed—physically and psychologically—by the physicians who “treated” them. The government would do nothing to investigate or stop it. Prescription drugs kill more people then street drugs. So if national security begins at home, one needs to learn about all drugs. Most drugs have the potential to cripple or kill you, whether they’re available via prescription, over-the-counter, or off the street. Personal responsibility demands that you take what is safe and works for you; in some cases, personal responsibility has to trump legal restrictions. In my quest for knowledge on the topic, I visited university libraries and read through all of the journal articles I could find on any specific drug. After which, I read through the drug patents. This is why my books are so well referenced, more so than any other synthesis books on the market. The real science is in the journal articles. I did my library research on psychedelics from 1973 to 1985. Why focus primarily on psychedelics, rather than government-approved psychoactive drugs? Prior to his death in September of 2008, Thomas Lyttle completed the following interview with Otto Snow. Lyttle met Snow in the early 1990s, and they quickly became friends due to their shared interest in entheogens. A chemist and independent researcher, Snow is the author of the books Amphetamine Syntheses (1998, 2002), OXY (2001), LSD (2003), THC & Tropacocaine (2004), and Love Drugs (2005).

What sparked your interest in drug chemistry? Environment. I grew up in a world of high technology, and prescription drugs were everywhere. The city where I lived had many script doctors, and unfortunately my parents became a couple more statistics in the quagmire. My father worked in the defense industry, and many people in this commu-

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My library searches on prescription and OTC psychoactive drugs indicated that these pharmaceuticals tend to be toxic. They don’t work for some people, can have severe adverse effects, and in many cases must be taken chronically. They essentially create disease in patients. Don’t get me wrong, some conventional psychoactive drugs are useful and safe. Psychedelics probably follow a similar pattern with regard to utility: some are useful, many are not. But psychedelics are rarely taken chronically, and they generally have low toxicity. My primary interest was studying the so-called “psychotomimetics,” in a search for the endogenous causes of mental illness. Although ultimately, I am a strong advocate of good nutrition, exercise, and socialization—these are much safer than drugs.

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In your book LSD, you mentioned using acid as a cure for your migraine headaches as a teenager. Can you tell us a little about that? When I was fifteen years old, I was diagnosed with migraines. Half of my body goes numb when I get them, and they last for weeks at a time. Prescription ergot alkaloids, barbiturates, and narcotics were the standard treatments. None of these worked very well. However, by binding to serotonin receptor subtypes 5, 6, and 7, LSD appears to stop the sequence of neurochemical events that causes migraines. LSD also seems to allow the individual to psychologically transcend what is causing the migraines, via the mind-brain connection. Your book discussed other people with migraines who took LSD too, right?

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For a few years it was obtained from the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. Later, I found a laboratory that supplied patients in the area. I will call the source “Dr. Lysergic.” He had produced LSD prior to it being scheduled, and he quietly continued to do so after it became illegal. He would be in his eighties by now, if he is still around. It has been many years since I have been in contact with him. Tell us more about the sessions. The primary objective of the session was to dissolve the headache. If the LSD is taken as soon as a headache starts coming on, it is effective. For many people, the fact that a migraine is developing may be signaled by an increased sensitivity to light, or by seeing auras. I know that a migraine is coming on because I start feeling numb in my pinky finger and my arm. Sessions started at 9:00 am, after breakfast, and all sessions were guided. There were no real distortions with the experience. Colors may have been a little brighter, but not nearly so much as when the drug is taken at night. When the medication kicked in, it was important to let go and relax. During the peak drug effects, we would be in the mountains or in a field somewhere, lying on our backs looking up through the forest at white clouds against a blue sky. The point was to actively release the headache.

When I was fifteen years old, I was diagnosed with migraines. …LSD appears to stop the sequence of neurochemical events that causes migraines.

There were a few of us. The friends I hung out with were ten to forty years older then me. Many had initially obtained LSD legally, prior to the moratorium in 1965. Alcoholics and people with neuroses also found LSD to be an effective medication. Don’t get me wrong, LSD is not a panacea. But I know that it worked for our migraines. These people taking LSD for medicinal purposes were white-collar folks. The drug was not being abused. No one partied with it. Sessions were set up several days in advance, and they were carefully controlled to make sure that individuals received the maximum benefit. Over time, people suffering from migraines do not need to take LSD as often. What was the dose? The usual amount was 100 micrograms, but some individuals needed 200 mics. Who provided the LSD?



What role do the guides play in this treatment? The guides must have a lot of experience. They should know the people they are working with, and be familiar with their life situations. It is an intimate psychological relationship, not a drivethru therapy. At various times, we all acted as guides for each other. In LSD you also mentioned an alcoholic friend who used LSD to keep her addiction at bay. Could you tell us a little about that?

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Jasmine was in her sixties. She originally supplied us with LSD, back before we purchased it from the Brotherhood or Dr. Lysergic’s associates. Jasmine was administered LSD in a series of legal sessions at a clinic, before the drug was scheduled. Her clinic doses were rather large. But after that, she only took low doses of about 50 micrograms, a couple of times per week, and these kept her free from the addiction. Do you think that LSD will be used legally in the future for migraines or alcoholism? Prohibition hasn’t stopped its use for such purposes. It’s currently being used for these conditions around the globe. Wherever there is high technology, and people with brains, some of those brains are going to get aches. These people are smart enough that they’re going to take something that works, not something that they’ll have to consume chronically, which they might become addicted to, or which has toxic side-effects. Although we need more pharmaceutical development in this nation, simply raising general awareness about the risks and benefits of drugs that are already available— sometimes on the black market—could dramatically reduce suffering. Not everyone who takes LSD is going to be helped by it. Of course, for those it can help, there should be legal access to pharmaceutical quality LSD of a standardized dose. But I don’t know how much hope there is that this will happen anytime soon. What about the recent study showing the effectiveness of psilocybin in treating cluster headaches? My own experiences were with LSD, and those were three decades ago. I’d love to see new, controlled studies that explore the potential of LSD as a headache medication. Your career was shaped early on by your independent scientific research into brain chemistry, with an eye toward understanding and treating mental illness. Tell us a bit about the environment in which you were raised. My mother was born in Montreal, and my father was from Boston. For over twenty years, my father worked on electronic intelligence, information, and

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electronic warfare systems. My mother was office manager for a chain of medical and pharmaceutical supply companies. So I inherited a deep respect for science and technology from my father, as well as an understanding of pharmaco-economics from my mother and the pharmacists she worked with. I was given old copies of the Physicians’ Desk Reference, when the new ones came out. Back then, it was generally perceived that the knowledge to understand these books was the sole purview of physicians. Sadly, even with this attitude, those copies of the PDR contained only scant overviews of the meds. Some have expressed their opinion that the PDR should be viewed as more of a drug catalog than a prescription guide. In any case, most physicians only take a couple of semesters of chemistry classes in school. Years later, due to the horrific medical care my parents were subjected to, I found out that the physicians in the community where I lived were either script doctors or cowards. I moved my folks to Maine to get them proper treatment. My mother had basically been tortured by a New Hampshire physician, and my father was recovering from cancer. In 1985, a gang of Maine state troopers broke into your home, traumatizing you and your family. Would you recount those events for us? At the time, I was starting up a research company. My attorney had incorporated the company. I was going to be developing neurochemicals. Late one evening, a half-dozen officers unexpectedly forced themselves into my family’s home. The officer in charge had lied on the affidavit, in order to get a warrant. He lied so that they didn’t need probable cause for the home invasion. It was orchestrated in such a way to conceal the fact that what they were really trying to pull off was a shakedown for money. When one orders chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of scheduled drugs, suppliers are required to notify the DEA. Then the DEA either asks the drug unit from local law enforcement to look into the purchase, or they will stop by themselves and ask questions. Someone might come to

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your door and inquire why you need a listed precursor chemical. Or a surveillance investigation might be instigated, to determine if anything illegal is happening. But processing countless legal molecules requires specific lab equipment along with many chemicals, some of which are listed precursors. In my case, I was never questioned and there was no investigation. At midnight, officers pounded their flashlights on the outside of the house, waking us up and forcing us to let them in. They threatened my family in an attempt to get us to cough up money, and I was physically assaulted by an officer. There was no lab, there were no illegal drugs, and there were no immediate precursor chemicals. My family was terrorized throughout the early morning. I was falsely arrested on two counts. I was not allowed to have access to my research papers. In simple terms, I wasn’t allowed to defend myself or assist my attorneys. It was two years before the situation was resolved. Does the DEA really advocate or endorse this sort of terrorism against scientists or chemists? The number of students in the United States studying mathematics and science has been declining in recent years, and this has been determined to be a risk to national security. I have a letter from the DEA relating that they want drugs to be developed, and they want people to determine which drugs can effectively treat medical conditions. Of course, chemists must follow the appropriate protocols, and refrain from dumping controlled substance analogues on the street. But America is a democracy, and the DEA is a law enforcement agency. Interference with scientific investigation is more akin to socialism than democracy. Although I grew up in an area dominated by the development and production of electronics, explosives, and chemicals for warfare, such interests were not my calling. I was studying psychoactive drugs, not weapons. I had been into the Boston DEA Office, where they gave me books and offered pointers on chemical families that they were having problems with, such as PCP analogues. So I steered clear of those chemicals.



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The federal prosecutor objected to the court about my attorneys questioning DEA chemists, and— outrageously—the judge went along with it! Nevertheless, the DEA is not against research, to my knowledge. What happened with the case? The case was not processed. The FBI ended up going after the officers in charge, and my journal articles and research papers were returned. That must have been a terrible experience for your family. Yes it was. Because of the stress, my father’s cancer returned; it metastasized and killed him. And I was disabled as a result of it. Terrorism by government officials against citizens is a horrible thing. All Americans should be protected from such terrorism. When the checks and balances fail, terrorists are given authority in the government. The action taken against my family and me was not something new for these officers. A year before, they had handcuffed a man behind his back and terrorized him with an attack dog. They were never prosecuted for that. But eventually, these officers were found to have committed perjury, had sex with informants, stolen money, lied on affidavits, etc.; it was truly terrible. The corrupt officers were all fired. It’s called taking out the trash. I had—and still have—friends in local, state, and federal law enforcement. They are honorable people. There are lots of good officers in the state of Maine. Many people were on my side through the whole ordeal, including folks in law enforcement. It just goes to show that sometimes the system does work, at least in part. Science is important. The books that I have written are used by students, law enforcement, and attorneys. Some folks may not have heard of the second chemical in the title of your book THC & Tropacocaine. This could act as a substitute for cocaine, right? In the 1980s, when the United States was being hit with the cocaine blizzard, there was a company that was easy to do business with. They stocked

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tropacocaine, and a salesman said that they had a kilo available. He later told me that he grabbed the kilo for himself, and I never got the scoop on what happened with it. In any case, a major pharmaceutical company could produce tropacocaine and addicts could get the drug from clinics. This would make cocaine addiction more manageable, and remove the profit from the illicit cocaine trade. Although, honestly, cocaine addicts might benefit from some of the newer antidepressant drugs that release dopamine. People I knew years ago who were addicted to coke for many years are dead today. Cocaine can be toxic to the heart. You were legally prescribed Marinol, synthetic THC, for a long-standing illness. How does it compare to Cannabis?

I’m interested in hearing more about the fatty acid amides that you talk about in the book. Will these replace THC and Cannabis? Eventually they may. There are people who have tested them, but who have not “gone public” for fear that the fatty acid amides will be placed into Schedule I before further research can take place. However, in most cases, specific drugs are scheduled only when substantial abuse is determined. Consider, for example, how long MDMA was available before it was restricted. We didn’t see pharmaceutical companies going through the appropriate protocol to develop it as a medication, but it



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was legally manufactured and sold in large amounts for quite a while. So far as the fatty acid amides go, I believe that anandamide was the first to be tested by humans. I’ve been told that its effect is like THC. Was it smoked, snorted, or taken orally?

Oleamide, which I describe the synthesis of in my book, is a CB-1 agonist. It is a cannabinoid that naturally occurs in the brain, like anandamide does.

Uncle Sam and several physicians helped me to assess Marinol over a period of two years. It’s an interesting medication, but overpriced. The sesame seed oil carrier for the THC can cause gastrointestinal problems and severe diarrhea in some patients. The drug could be reformulated and improved, but THC—whether from Marinol or marijuana—is effective for treating many medical conditions.

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The researcher did not go into details, but I speculate that it is active by all routes. Oleamide, which I describe the synthesis of in my book, is a CB-1 agonist. It is a cannabinoid that naturally occurs in the brain, like anandamide does. Oleamide is also called cerebrodiene. What’s a CB-1 agonist? It’s a molecule that binds to the THC receptor site. Oleamide is made from oleic acid, a component of olive oil, by cooking it with urea. Other CB-1 agonists use different oils, such as coconut oil. It’s simple chemistry: cooking oil and fertilizer. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Has any human testing of oleamide happened yet? It has been patented for use in humans. They did not describe the human testing of it. But as we well know, people don’t go to the expense of patenting applications for medicines unless someone has given the drugs a taste test. Oleamide has been found to be approximately one third as active as anandamide in rats. What that equates to in humans remains to be determined. Interestingly, oleamide is an appetite suppressant in lab animals. We may see many of the fatty acid amides available in the next few years. This is the hottest research going. They might be mixed with an inert carrier such as ground alfalfa leaves and pressed into tablets by pharmaceutical firms. I’m speculating though, because they would have to obtain Investigational New Drug status through the FDA.

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Or be pressed by underground chemists into bricks of designer hash. And there are thousands of possibly synergistic combinations of psychoactive fatty acid amides that await discovery. It very well could be the new designer frontier. No one is even talking about the research that has been done with these compounds in humans yet. You describe the synthesis of a few of them in THC & Tropacocaine, right? Yes, and there are many more to investigate, should readers take the initiative to explore further in university libraries. We are at the dawn of a psychedelic revolution for motivated chemists. It’s in America’s hands now. And they’re made from common oils used in the kitchen, wow! Moving from cannabinoids to opioids, tell us about your book OXY. While reviewing the United Nations’ documents on narcotics, I discovered that if there is any sort of national catastrophe, in short order there could be very few effective painkillers available to the masses, since the United States prohibits the production of opium poppies, the raw material used to synthesize strong painkillers. So I put together OXY. Everyone should grow scarlet poppies, Papaver bracteatum, just in case. Unlike P. somniferum, the scarlet poppy is legal to grow; it contains thebaine, which my book OXY explains how to extract, purify, and convert into several potent painkilling chemicals. People can usually get narcotics from a physician if they are in pain. But with terrorism and natural disasters at our doorsteps, rural Americans must have the capacity to produce their own narcotics. It is important.



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ration of nitroalkanes, reductions, and such. Oodles of new reactions. The chemistry is easy and extensive. Of course, in the United States, research into entactogens was essentially banned by the Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act of 1986. This is unfortunate, since entactogens are such a promising category for drug development. What is the future of the independent neuroscientist or chemist? Can someone who is not connected to the university system or the medical profession actually conduct experiments and design new compounds, without repercussions? In theory, yes. But even the researchers in universities are not releasing their findings for fear of repercussions, such as the loss of their funding or the scheduling of the molecules they are investigating—either of which would block their ability to continue working in this arena. Unfortunately, the present political agenda does not support progress. Finally, where can people find your books? FS Book Company (fsbookco.com) and the Homestead Book Company (homesteadbook.com) keep all my titles in stock. Many bookstores also carry my books. If they’re not on the shelf, stores are usually happy to order them for you, to make the sale, and buying from your local bookstore saves you the shipping cost. Most of my books are first editions, and most will not be reprinted. So along with being valuable references, they are an investment for collectors. You can also check out a few of my blogs on-line at myspace.com/ottosnow. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 

Love Drugs is your most recent book. What’s it about? Love Drugs is a sequel to Amphetamine Syntheses. I didn’t have enough room in Amphetamine Syntheses, so Love Drugs contains additional formulas. I include multiple sources for precursors of not only MDMA, but also of numerous other entactogens. Obscure reactions. From-scratch reactions. PrepaTHE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA



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Lost in Jonathan Ott’s Footsteps: Acetone Tinctures of SALVIA DIVINORUM by Zhah

This isn’t the article I was hoping to write. I was hoping to report on an easy-to-make, easy-to-dose, and highly effective Salvia divinorum tincture. But the looming end of The Entheogen Review has prompted me to relate the curious null-results of my attempts as they stand. The most common Salvia divinorum tinctures are ethanol-based. This, despite the poor solubility of salvinorin A in ethanol—1.28 mg/ml in 200 proof ethanol rapidly becoming less soluble with declining proof (Sphere 2006a)—the extreme irritation to mucus membranes by high-proof ethanol, and the perhaps unwanted additional buzz that can accompany an ethanol tincture for those sensitive to the effects of alcohol. My thought on this was: Why bother with the ethanol at all, if it’s problematic? I recalled that acetone has a low toxicity, and it seemed to me that one could simply extract with acetone and evaporate down to saturation, to quickly and easily make an acetone tincture. With a solubility of 23 mg/ml for salvinorin A in acetone (Sphere 2006a), only ~50 microliters (ml) of acetone tincture would be needed to deliver a 1 mg dose as compared to approximately 1 ml for an ethanol tincture. Measuring this small amount of liquid reliably may seem problematic, but in the age of e-Bay, used volumetric micropipettes, which retail for several hundred dollars, are available for $20–70.1 Since micropipettes are highly accurate, even down to the order of < 1 ml, micropipetting acetone tinctures should be an easy and economical way to accurately measure extremely small amounts of salvinorin A without having to invest a thousand dollars or more in an analytical balance. This led me to my second idea: anybody wanting to work directly with vaporizing or smoking salvinorin A could micropi-

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pette the appropriate amount of acetone tincture directly into the elbow of a slightly bent glass tube or onto a square of blotter, let the acetone evaporate, and then micro-torch the elbow while inhaling through the tube or simply smoke the blotter. Scroogle.org revealed to me that I was not the first to consider acetone tinctures of Salvia divinorum. Jonathan Ott (1995a) conjectured that excessive salivation due to the irritation of mucus membranes by ethanol may reduce absorption or even cause the salvinorin A to precipitate out while in the mouth when using alcohol-based tinctures, hence decreasing their efficacy. Ott expected rapid absorption with much less irritation and salivation, and hence better efficacy, from an acetone-based tincture. Ott bioassayed a 10 mg/1.0 ml solution of salvinorin A in acetone and found it to be even more potent than vaporized salvinorin A, obtaining threshold activity at 100 mg, definite psychoactivity at 250–500 mg, and visionary activity above 1 mg; he also reported similar success from using a 10 mg/1.0 ml solution in DMSO2 (Ott 1995b). This sounded promising! People are reluctant to consume acetone, although with an oral LD50 of 5800 mg/kg in rats (Oxford University 2008a), this chemical has relatively low toxicity. Acetone is a natural metabolic by-product in the human body and is present in blood and virtually every organ and tissue, as well as in other plants, animals, and insects (CCOHS 2008a). The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety reports no or only minor effects in people ingesting up to 20 grams per day (!) for several days (CCOHS 2008b). With an oral LD50 of 7060 mg/kg in rats (Oxford University 2008b), ethanol is not much less toxic than acetone, but this particular mind-numbing poison enjoys the grace of

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social acceptance, so few people really think twice about drinking it. Like ethanol, acetone is highly irritating to mucus membranes; but, as mentioned above, due to the much greater solubility of salvinorin A in acetone, approximately 18 times less solvent is required to deliver a dose in acetone than in ethanol, and correspondingly less irritation of mucus membranes is expected. Acetone can, however, be a life-threatening aspiration hazard, so great care must be taken not to breathe the liquid into the lungs, whatever one is attempting (CCOHS 2008b).

Procedure I based my approach on Sphere’s Salvia divinorum Extractions Using Chilled Acetone tek (Sphere 2006b), which extracts three times for 3 minutes each with -10• C acetone, the idea being that the chilled acetone leaves more of the gunk behind while still getting the salvinorin A, due to its high solubility even in subzero acetone. The extracts are combined and filtered to remove sediments, evaporated, and the resulting residue is washed several times with naphtha to remove remaining chlorophyll and plant lipids. The result is a greenish-white crystalline powder. Sphere also suggests optional water washes to remove tannins, and several isopropyl alcohol (IPA) washes to get rid of the remaining chlorophyll. Sphere reports that you can wash all the way to white with IPA, losing more and more of your yield with each wash due to solubility of salvinorin A in IPA. Extraction #1: 10.1 grams of dried whole Salvia divinorum leaf (sourced from a reliable Mexican vendor) were powdered and extracted three times with 50 ml of -8• C acetone in a pre-chilled vessel nested in an ice and salt water slurry, maintaining a temperature of < -5• C during the extraction. The extracts were combined and evaporated. (This evaporation was unplanned. Due to time constraints, the combined extract was simply left standing instead of being filtered first, and the solvent evaporated on its own.) The residue was redissolved in 20 ml of 20• C acetone, filtered through a coffee filter to remove sediment, and again evaporated. True to my initial idea of simply “extracting with acetone and reducing,” I skipped all the washes.



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The emerald-green residue was scraped up and dissolved in 2 ml of pharmaceutical grade acetone. Bioassay #1: Assuming approximately 2–3 mg/g leaf based on average leaf potency (Gruber et al. 1999) and a maximal yield, I calculated that a 50 ml dose would contain approximately 500–750 mg salvinorin A, while a 20% yield would correspond to 100–150 mg, Ott’s reported threshold dose. 50 ml were applied sublingually and held in the mouth for 25 minutes. The solution burned slightly and was unpleasant. No activity was noted. Bioassay #2: 100 ml, assumed to correspond to a dose of 200 mg–1.5 mg, was similarly bioassayed. Again no activity was noted. After these disappointments, I decided that a more quantitative approach was required to provide proof-of-concept. The remaining 1.85 ml were evaporated, washed four times with 2–3 ml naphtha and evaporated, producing 34 mg of light green powder. Sphere reports yields of 2 mg/g and higher (Sphere 2006b).3 Based on this, and in order to set an approximate lower limit for the dosing, I assumed a yield of at least 1 mg/g, which would mean that the extract should contain at least 10 mg of salvinorin A. This was dissolved in 0.5 ml of pharmaceutical grade acetone, which should have produced an almost saturated solution. Bioassay #3 & #4: Teeth, gums, tongue, and mucus membranes below tongue were brushed thoroughly and rinsed with the menthol-containing mouthwash “One Drop Only” for 15 minutes. Then 25 ml of tincture were applied sublingually and held below my tongue for 20 minutes with the tongue slightly elevated to reduce salivation. This should have corresponded to a dose of at least 500 mg. Only very mild threshold effects were perceived, which easily might have been placebo effects due to set and expectations. An additional 50 ml assumed to correspond to 1 mg salvinorin A was applied sublingually and held under tongue for 30 minutes. A deep meditative state was reached, which may indicate psychoactivity, but it was sub-psychedelic and not reminiscent of Salvia space. Are there immediate tolerance effects for salvinorin A?

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Extraction #2: At this point the problems arising from not knowing the purity of my extract became painfully obvious. At any rate, my initial hopes of a quick and easy tincture were dashed. The lack of definite psychoactivity puzzled me, however, and I decided to proceed with the proofof-concept experiments. I again extracted 10 grams of dried, crushed Salvia divinorum leaves three times in chilled acetone, washed two times in water, numerous times in naphtha (until it stopped taking on color), and four times in IPA. The result was approximately 20 mg of crystalline white powder with only a slight green tinge, which I assumed to be relatively pure salvinorin A. This was dissolved in 2 ml of pharmaceutical grade acetone. Bioassays #6–10: A series of bioassays was performed with 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 ml of acetone tincture, assumed to correspond to doses of approximately 100 mg, 200 mg, 500 mg, 1 mg, and 2 mg respectively, applied sublingually as above. At no time were perceived psychoactive effects greater than sub-psychedelic, which might also just have been placebo effects of set and expectations. Salvia space, familiar to me from the quid method using fresh leaves, was never perceived. Bioassays #11–13: 50, 100, and 200 ml were micropipetted into the middle of a glass tube and allowed to evaporate. The glass tube was heated with a micro-torch while I inhaled through it. No effect other than burnt fingers was perceived.

Discussion These results were very disappointing, especially in light of Ott’s description of the remarkable efficacy of acetone tinctures. I contacted Daniel Siebert. He reported having had previous personal success with acetone tinctures, but with a much lower efficacy than Ott reported, obtaining only mild effects from a 1 mg dose (Siebert 2007). In addition, David Aardvark reported to me having no effects at all from sublingual application of 2 mg dissolved in acetone (Aardvark 2008). Siebert asked if I’d had any previous success with quids, ethanol tinctures, or smoked leaf. Having a problem with smoke in my lungs and also having

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an extremely low tolerance for and dislike of ethanol, I had never smoked Salvia divinorum [but see Epilogue] nor used an ethanol tincture; however, I have always entered Salvia space easily using the quid method with fresh leaves. I did experience excessive salivation during the bioassays, even from just 50 ml of acetone, so maybe Ott’s conjecture regarding a drop in solubility and the resulting precipitation in ethanol tinctures also applies to acetone tinctures. Bioassays #11–13 make me seriously question the purity of my extract, and without access to gc/ms, I had no way of knowing how much salvinorin A was actually in my tinctures. However, each step of the extraction corresponded visually very well to the images and descriptions posted on-line (Sphere 2002–2006; Sphere 2006b). I had based my extractions on Sphere’s Salvia divinorum Extractions Using Chilled Acetone tek to reduce the amount of “contaminants,” so that I could try to work with roughly estimable doses of fairly pure salvinorin A. However, Siebert and Sphere have both noted that some leaf components appear to actually facilitate sublingual absorption (Siebert 2008; Sphere n.d.). Yet bioassays #1 and #2 should have covered this possibility, if the acetone tincture had been as effective for me as for Mr. Ott.

Epilogue After submitting a draft of this article to The Entheogen Review, David Aardvark and I puzzled over possible causes of my null results. We concluded that there were three possibilities: the leaf was inactive (it hadn’t otherwise been bioassayed); the extraction process went awry; or the acetone tincture wasn’t working for me, at least not in whatever doses I had taken it. This meant that to clinch this experiment we must: assay the leaf, analyze the extract, and repeat the bioassays with known doses of a verified sample of salvinorin A. Bioassaying the leaf was easy. Despite my aversion to smoking, I purchased a $10 bong at the local head shop, crumbled a single dried leaf of approximate 0.25 g mass into the bowl, micro-torched it,

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inhaled, and blasted off. I was launched into a Shulgin “plus four”/Salvia Level 5 state of colorful mystical union with The Ultimate Reality. The shocking abruptness of this experience reminded me of Alan Watts’ comment regarding his DMT experience as “being struck by noetic lightning.” I concluded that the leaf was active. Analyzing the extract posed greater difficulties. At the conclusion of my experiments last year, I had dumped the remaining 0.1–0.2 ml of tincture onto a watch glass, put it in the chemicals cabinet and forgot about it, as I routinely “dispose” of solvents by simply letting them evaporate, and because my own attempts to arrange an analysis hadn’t panned out. When David told me six months later that he could arrange for a reference standard and a lab analysis, and asked me if I had any extract left to analyze, I cringed inwardly. I checked the cabinet and found the residue of the tincture on the watch glass, which consisted of a tiny speck of white crystal in the middle surrounded by green residue, greener than I remembered it being in my cleaned extract. I thought hard: had I dumped the tincture onto a clean watch glass? Was this the remnant of the extract? While I couldn’t be sure that the glass had been clean, I was fairly certain that those last ~0.2 ml had landed on that watch glass, so I decided to “give it a whirl.” I scraped up all the residue (approximately 5 mg total) and mailed it off, along with the comment that I wouldn’t want to bet my life on this one. Disappointingly, the lab didn’t find any salvinorin A detectable in the sample that was sent; they only found traces of three other unidentifiable compounds.4 (Interestingly, the major unidentifiable compound of the three was also present in the 98+% pure reference standard; it may be one of the other salvinorins found in the plant.) This meant that I could no longer definitely conclude that the acetone tinctures weren’t working for me. But because of the uncertain condition and quality of the sample being analyzed, I also couldn’t conclude for certain that the extraction had gone awry either. That question remains open. Nevertheless, the lab results did mean that our third task of repeating the bioassays with known material was that much more important.



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I contacted Daniel Siebert and ordered 20 mg of 98+% pure salvinorin A, which Daniel kindly provided at a discount and shipped immediately, due to the deadline for this article. The material was dissolved in 1.0 ml of pharmaceutical grade acetone and a new series of bioassays was performed. Bioassay #14: 50 ml of acetone tincture, corresponding to 1 mg of salvinorin A, were applied sublingually and held under the tongue with my tongue slightly elevated for 5 minutes. At that point I spread the accumulated saliva around my cheeks and gums with my tongue and waited another 10 minutes. No effects were noted. Bioassay #15: 100 ml of tincture, corresponding to 2 mg of salvinorin A, were applied as above. While I thought a slight shift within the first minute of application might be the start of psychoactivity, no further effects were noted. Bioassay #16–17: 200 ml of tincture, corresponding to 4 mg of salvinorin A, were applied as above. After 10 minutes and no effects an additional 400 ml were applied, again with no notable psychoactivity after 20 minutes. However, making a curious tale curiouser and curiouser, I felt quite certain that I did obtain low-level psychoactivity two hours later over a period of two hours while I lay awake, futilely trying to sleep. The combined 0.6 ml of acetone damaged my sublingual tissues to the extent that the top layer of tissue fell off and left the area under my tongue sore for several days. I wouldn’t want to assay this amount of acetone tincture again. Bioassay #18: 50 ml of tincture, corresponding to 1 mg of 98+% pure salvinorin A, were micropipetted into a glass tube identical to the one I had used previously, but new and clean. I micro-torched the glass tube while inhaling through it. No effects. I weighed the tube on a milligram scale before and after heating and there was no change in weight. Bioassay #19: 50 ml of tincture, corresponding to 1 mg of 98+% pure salvinorin A, were pipetted onto a piece of aluminum foil and allowed to evaporate. The foil was micro-torched from beneath while I

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inhaled the vapors through the tube. Blast off. Same experience as with the dried leaf. I concluded from this that I hadn’t been able to heat the residue sufficiently to vaporize it in the glass tube. This means that bioassays #11–13 wouldn’t have worked regardless of whether my extract was active or not. Unfortunately, it didn’t originally occur to me to bioassay my extract using aluminum foil. Bioassays #16 and #17, in particular, are of special interest. This combined dose of 12 mg salvinorin A was completely ineffective for me within the normal time frame and showed unexpected low-level activity much later. I have gotten good results within 20 minutes using the quid method with 10–50 g of fresh leaf, which would contain roughly 3–16 mg of salvinorin A, assuming that 10 g fresh are roughly equivalent to 1.3 g dried. This dose is around the order of the 12 mg of salvinorin A assayed in the acetone tincture. When doing 50 g amounts of fresh leaf, I have split the material into two 25 g quids and replaced the first quid at 10 minutes, similar to the procedure for bioassays #16 and #17 above. When using quids, I have excessive salivation, but get results nevertheless, so the salivation I experienced with the acetone tinctures isn’t necessarily the problem. I did, however, experience substantial irritation of the mucus membranes with acetone tincture that I don’t with quids. Perhaps this prevented absorption? Also, fresh-leaf quids contain all the other substances in the leaves, which, as mentioned, seem to aid absorption. Regardless, it is now quite certain that the acetone tinctures are basically ineffective for me, even at very high doses. Incidentally, all of the new developments reported on in this Epilogue occurred during the one week before this article went to press.



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Acknowledgments The author and The Entheogen Review express their thanks to Mireia Ventura of the Spanish harm reduction group Energy Control (energycontrol.org) for conducting a gc/ms analysis of the extracted material, and to Daniel Siebert (sagewisdom.org) for kindly donating and rapidly mailing 98+% pure salvinorin A to Ventura’s lab for use as a reference standard. 

Footnotes 1. You never know what was previously drawn into a used micropipette (e.g. blood for AIDS tests), so when acquiring one inquire as to how it has been used; and whatever the case, autoclave the disassembled pipette in the steam insert of a pressure cooker before use! This won’t damage the micropipette, they are made to be autoclaved. Be sure to also acquire and use the disposable tips. 2. Difficulties in replicating Ott’s results are not restricted to acetone tinctures. Just before this article went to print, I was forwarded the following bioassay report from a researcher who wished to remain anonymous: Your article seems consistent with anecdotal experiences using DMSO. Up to 8 mg pure salvinorin A (in 2 ml of a 25% DMSO solution), held in the mouth for a bit over ten minutes, was modestly psychoactive (felt physically off-balance, pressure on chest, somewhat stoned feeling), but certainly not psychedelic like smoking Salvia divinorum. 3. Sphere’s “2 mg/g or higher” figure was inferred based on a statement in Salvia Divinorum Salvinorin Extraction and Refinement FAQ relating that from 250 grams of crushed leaf you get 1 g of extract which is “at least 50%” salvinorin A. Although Sphere washed his material until it was white, there is no report of any quantitative (or qualitative) analysis having been done on it. Sphere’s presumption appears to be that the totally white crystals are nearly pure salvinorin A. 4. This might be interesting in itself, because it would mean that the extraction procedure hadn’t worked for me, and I generally have good laboratory technique. The question, therefore, would also remain as to what, in fact, had been extracted.

I conclude this strange tale by relating the first “normal” thought I had back on planet Earth after smoking the dried leaf (pardon the vulgarities, but they accurately capture what I thought): “Fuck the acetone tinctures… just get a bong and smoke the shit.” Which is a wisdom, it seems, that everyone else figured out long ago.

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First Look at a New Psychoactive Drug: Symmetry (salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether) by Dr. Mercury and Dr. Feelodd

Abstract: Background: Salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether (Symmetry) is a novel and unusually potent salvinorin that has not previously been tested in humans. Methods: Symmetry was synthesized and given in doses of 10 mg to 400 mg to four test subjects. Effects were measured through semi-structured interview and administration of the Peak Experience Profile. Results: Symmetry was extraordinarily potent, psychoactive at the minimum doses taken. It produced geometric visions and ego loss at higher doses, and also induced a feeling of foreboding. Conclusions: Symmetry is a salvinorin derivative of unusual potency that is worthy of further investigation but nevertheless is unlikely to become popular.

INTRODUCTION Many readers of The Entheogen Review will be familiar with the largely legal psychedelic Salvia divinorum, an entheomedicinal sage originally used by the Mazatec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico. This plant’s active compound, salvinorin A (Ortega et al. 1982), is the most potent naturally occurring psychedelic known, producing clear effects at doses of one milligram or less when vaporized (Siebert 1994). Salvinorin A acts at the kappa opioid receptor (Roth et al. 2002), and since most previously known potent opioids have been alkaloids, not diterpenoids, this discovery has excited scientists considerably. In recent years, over a hundred derivatives of salvinorin A have been synthesized in hopes of producing new medicines (Prisinzano & Rothman 2008). A few of these derivatives have had interesting properties, but most are simply disappointing, less-potent imitations of salvinorin A itself. Other salvinorins and related compounds have also been extracted from the plant (Shirota et al. 2006), but again, these compounds are less potent at opioid receptors than salvinorin A. Our attention was therefore caught by a report of a derivative that was actually more potent: salvinorin B methoxymethyl ether (Lee et al. 2005). This in vitro result was later confirmed in mice studies, which also showed that the drug appeared to last longer than salvinorin A (Wang et al. 2008). Then came another report that a slight modification to

FIGURE ONE

this compound made an even stronger drug, salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether (Munro et al. 2008), which appeared to be about ten times as potent as salvinorin A in vitro (Figure 1). If this turned out to be true in humans as well, it would make salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether (henceforth referred to as “Symmetry”) one of the most potent known psychedelics, comparable to the legendary LSD. Now thoroughly intrigued, we decided to find out for ourselves.

METHODS Four subjects (Alpha through Delta) were recruited to participate in the bioassay. All were free of comorbid medical and psychiatric conditions, had extensive prior experience with psychedelic drugs, and were not allergic to salvinorin A. Set: As with other visionary plants and drugs, users of Salvia divinorum and salvinorin A sometimes report contacting “plant spirits,” “teachers,” or “entities”

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when under the influence (see, for example, Kathleen Harrison’s encounter with the spirit of La Pastora; Harrison 2000). One of our subjects felt strongly that the Symmetry needed to be “honored” before she took it, so we went along with this approach because there seemed no harm in it, and we were also curious if such psychological suggestion might increase the chance of some sort of entity encounter. Participants were instructed that they would be taking a new derivative of the “plant teacher” salvinorin A, with which everyone was familiar. In order to prepare, each participant was instructed to: 1) Rent two nature documentaries and watch them over the two days prior to the experiment, in order to increase awareness of and appreciation for the natural world; 2) View old photo albums, paying particular attention to pictures of family; 3) Write an autobiography (not for sharing) of no more than two pages, in order to promote introspection; 4) Read two FAQs from Erowid (Gnosis et al. 1996; Salvia Authors 2006); and 5) Think of two questions for any potential Symmetry “entity” to answer. Setting: A living room with windows, a carpet, sofa, chairs, and many plants. Candles were lit, in addition to diffuse incandescent lighting, and soft ambient music was played. Participants had been asked to bring toys to share and drums to play, although none were subsequently used. Standard rules applied: respect absolute confidentiality, ask before changing any aspect of the environment, respect each participant’s veto power over activities, and no hitting, sex, or co-ingestion of other inebriants. Drug: Salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether (Symmetry) was synthesized from salvinorin B by the published procedure (Munro et al., 2008; see reference for URL). This should only be attempted by trained chemists in well-equipped labs. The reagent used, chloromethyl ethyl ether, can give you cancer not only if it touches your skin, but also if you breathe the fumes. For dosing, a 10 mg/ml solution of the compound in acetone was prepared. The desired doses were added to small pieces of cigarette paper by microsyringe and allowed to dry in a warm airflow.

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Measures: Subjects were interviewed the next day via an openended format that elicited details of their experience in a nondirective manner. The interview also included questions about the nature of their visionary experiences, what the positives and negatives were, whether contact with any “entities” had occurred, and what they would change about the experimental design in order to improve the experience. A one-month follow-up was conducted that consisted of two questions: 1) “Are you glad you had the experience?” and 2) “Would you do it again?” The Peak Experience Profile (PEP) is a 180-item selfadministered questionnaire originally developed by Walter Pahnke in 1962 for his “Good Friday” experiment and revised over the years by Pahnke, Franco Di Leo, Stanislav Grof, A.A. Kurland, J.C. Rhead, William Richards, and Richard Yensen (Richards et al. 1977; Doblin 1991). It has been used in many psychedelic drug studies to assess the degree and quality of visionary experiences. Each subject completed the PEP within a week of the experience. Alpha 400

Beta 350

Gamma 1150–1350

Delta 150

Aesthetic Experience Personal Psychodynamic Experience Negative BPM-I Positive BPM-I BPM-II BPM-III BPM-IV Nadir Internal Unity External Unity Sense of Sacredness Objectivity and Reality Transcendence of Time and Space Deeply Felt Positive Mood Ineffability Other Transpersonal Experience

7 0 10 3 9 5 0 25 67 23 34 38 90 0 76 25

30 0 25 13 26 8 1 46 60 40 40 3 40 3 56 12

30 23 5 18 9 2 17 26 30 13 40 35 75 26 64 22

10 0 0 0 8 2 2 20 0 0 0 0 35 9 20 5

PEQT Reactivity

51 46

34 45

45 48

11 12

Subject Total Dose (mg) PEAK EXPERIENCE PROFILE

TABLE ONE: Peak Experience Profile (PEP) by subject. BPM = “Basic Perinatal Matrix,” a Grofian analysis. PEQT = “Peak Experience Quotient Total,” the average of the shaded subscales.

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consistently exceeded positive effects at all doses. There appeared to be little experience of personal insight despite otherwise dramatic effects (Table 1). Subjective results of bioassays were as follows: Alpha Written down the next day based on notes.

FIGURE TWO :

PEP subscales by dose. Reactivity was fairly constant between subjects, except at the lowest dose; this measures a subject’s tendency to exaggerate responses in a nonspecific manner. Negative, or “nadir” experiences consistently exceeded positive mood changes. [Note: The apparent “heart” symbol on #10 line is merely a superimposition of a square and “x” symbol.]

Bioassay: After a light meal, at a predetermined time, the room was “smudged,” and subjects participated in a modified version of the “Four Winds Ceremony,” each subject taking one of the four compass points, honoring the drug and the experience they were about to have. The cigarette paper containing the Symmetry was then smoked using the flame from a butane lighter. Bioassay structure was based largely on the protocol popularized by Alexander Shulgin (Shulgin et al. 1986; Shulgin & Shulgin 1991), but for logistical reasons, a day was not left between successive doses.

RESULTS Despite instructions to the contrary, none of the participants had watched nature videos or written his or her autobiography, although all brought questions to ask any potential entity that they might encounter. The drug was quite potent, with one subject “alerting” at 10 mg, another at 50 mg, and the other two experiencing undeniable psychoactive effects at 50 mg. Psychedelic effects increased rapidly and linearly by dose (Figure 2), with the exception of one subject who appeared unusually tolerant to its effects. The unpleasantness of the experience appeared unrelated to dose, and

(T:0:00 min) 10 mg As this is the first time this drug has been tried, and we suspect based on mouse studies that it may be even more potent than the already potent salvinorin A, I opt to start with a low dose. Within seconds of smoking, an undeniable shift in my consciousness occurs, a slight “trippy” feeling, but without any noticeable alteration in perception, thought content, or process. (T:0:05 min) 20 mg (30 mg total) The “trippy” feeling intensifies. With closed eyes, the dark behind my eyelids roils suggestively, like sea creatures struggling beneath the oily surface of a swamp, but fails to coalesce into any particular patterns. Communication and mentation remain unaffected. (T:0:10 min) 20 mg (50 mg total) A deepening and intensification of the “trippy” feeling, but again, nothing particularly noteworthy. A temporal course becomes apparent—the feeling peaks in a minute or two, then wanes slowly. I feel hot. (T:0:15 min) 50 mg (100 mg total) I am sweating profusely—when I run my fingers through my hair, they come away wet. There is a mild sensation of—not heaviness—but being “pulled down” into my chair. I feel a slight mental fog, as can occur with alcohol, but no temporal lapses or difficulties communicating. There are no noticeable effects on music perception or tactile sensation, but closed-eye visuals are now undeniable, albeit frustratingly indistinct—fragmented, colored spoke-like patterns. (T:0:20 min) 100 mg (200 mg total) Again, a deepening and intensification of all previous phenomena, but no qualitative shift. Open-eye visuals are now apparent: sharp colored

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borders to objects with a suggestion of palinopsia (visual echoes). I am starting to wonder if I am somehow inhaling wrong and not getting the full effects of the drug, or else leaving too much time between successive doses, as the effects appear to peak within a minute then diminish rapidly. (T:0:25 min) 200 mg (400 mg total) According to observers, I commented on the intensity of the trip, laughed uproariously, and conversed—coherently at first, but rapidly incorporating nonsense words and syllables. Then I paused, leaned forward and asked, apropos of nothing, “Did you say something… symmetry?” It seemed as if I had meant it in the sense of “symmetrical.” (It was decided on the basis of this first communication from the beyond to name the drug “Symmetry.”) Later sentences rapidly degraded into complete babble. My head was observed to retract, and my face froze into a frighteningly blank expression as if I were having a stroke. My hand adopted a strange pose and waved around very slowly, alternately creepily awkward and graceful. I remembered none of this.



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line can wiggle or ululate or assume configurations other than a knife-edge, so technically it is not onedimensional, but the line doesn’t know that. Now add two to every dimension—I was perceiving all three-dimensional objects in my world as fourdimensional surfaces contouring a five-dimensional object (or objects) that I could not directly perceive. Except that I wasn’t actually perceiving any objects in my environment, it was my mind that I was perceiving, as a manifestation of the movement of a five-dimensional object through a four-dimensional membrane. Except, there was no “movement”; that’s the term for the intersection of threespace with four-space, not four-space through fivespace. It was completely atemporal. Hopes, dreams, fears, memories, habits, all the things that define us are creations of time; remove time and you remove everything that comprises the “me” of each of us—the ego is obliterated.

BLAM! I am trapped like a fly in amber, in a geometric space that is so different from ordinary reality as to be indescribable. The overall feeling is one of “stuckness,” together with slow and inexorable grinding. As I come to, I realize that my perspective is arbitrary and that I can shift it at will to different points in the cavitating matrices in which I am embedded. With that comes the realization that the presence of a perspective implies an “I” to have that perspective. This is a new change; in fact, I have just emerged from an indeterminable period of total ego loss. The experience was ineffable, but I will attempt to describe it using crude analogies in the blunt tool that we call language.

If that analogy makes no sense—and it cannot— then alternately, imagine two viscous and immiscible liquids in a clear cylindrical container, one denser than the other so that a distinct interface is visible between them. Trapped at that interface is a blob of food coloring. Now, spin the top layer of fluid. The blob elongates, grows thinner and thinner, less and less visible; eventually it is a layer only a molecule thick and cannot even be seen by the naked eye. Now stop the top layer, and spin it the other way. The blob re-coalesces—first visible as a long colored line that slowly grows thicker then abruptly retracts from both directions until the original blob is visible as a unitary sphere for a split second; then, as the liquid layer continues to spin, it elongates, thins, and disappears in the other direction (which, although opposite, looks exactly as it did when elongating in the first direction).

Imagine a sheet of sand going over a cliff, or rather a rapidly receding ledge under sand such that the sand drops in a sheet as the ground vanishes under it. It is impossible to determine whether the sand is moving forward over the edge, or if the edge is moving backward under the sand, but either way the edge itself is a one-dimensional line defined by a two-dimensional surface moving over the contour of an unseen three-dimensional object. That

Now, imagine that this cylinder contains an infinite number of layers of immiscible liquids, all spinning, each layer containing one or more blobs in various stages of coalescence. By arranging the blobs correctly, and timing the spinning of the layers, one could make it seem as if one blob was moving up and down and right and left through the layers, in an arbitrarily complicated path, rather than many different blobs coalescing and de-

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coalescing in pattern. These blobs are everything we see in the three-dimensional world, and in our consciousness as well. Again, the analogy is inadequate, because the geometry is no longer there, and spinning implies movement, which assumes time, which didn’t exist, but I am at a loss to find words to express such atemporality since time is so embedded in our thoughts and language. The eternal moment in which I was trapped seemed to be passing. As a sphere passing through a plane appears from a two-dimensional perspective to be a point that rapidly expands into a circle, slows, reverses course, shrinks rapidly to a point, and disappears forever, so it seemed that the moment I was in was rapidly constricting as it moved out of the four-dimensional plane I was in. Fleetingly, it occurred to me that I might be left in a grey, timeless limbo. But to my surprise another moment followed, rapidly expanding, somewhat overlapping the first one; more moments followed in steadily quicker succession (again the “time” implied here is a metaphor, as they weren’t really “quicker”) and I rejoined the stream of time. It was now hard for me to remember what had happened to me during the period of ego loss, but I did remember the thoughts I’d had about it in the atemporal period I had just left. The room reformed around me, three expectant faces looking at me. The initial comedown was rapid—like a sphere passing though a plane—followed by a slow decline. I ate half a bunch of juicy green grapes and enjoyed them. Slight confusion remained; I was unable to keep track of dose and timing for the other participants with nearly the precision that I had planned. I was still experiencing mild visuals until two hours later. I had no difficulty sleeping, woke up feeling normal the next morning, and did not remember my dreams. I was shaken by the experience and had no desire to re-dose. There had been no sense of a “presence” or guiding spirit; there were no answers to the questions that I had formulated—in fact, they seemed completely irrelevant given the experience that I had just been through.



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Beta Written approximately 14 hours later. (T:0:02 min) 50 mg Slight physical sensation of heaviness and tingly skin. Borderline closed-eye visuals. (T:0:04 min) 100 mg (150 mg total) Intensified physical sensations. Open-eye visuals. A vague sense of foreboding. (T:0:06 min) 200 mg (350 mg total) Objects replicate over surrounding surfaces. All visible surfaces, including other people, seem to be connected parts of the same object, like a textured blanket thrown over reality. Replication continues until my entire visual field is filled with repetitive motifs, resembling vast bookshelves of books bound in fresh skin. The geometry of the room has changed and contracted. My awareness of my body as a separate entity is gone, but I feel a strong physical rush, accompanied by growing paranoia. Someone is monitoring me, and I must act sober. But this is clearly impossible—the real world is now invisible; I have no idea where I’m looking, what posture I’m in, what I’m saying. This intensifies the paranoia. I attempt to sit still and remain silent, but don’t know if I’m succeeding. The geometry of the room slowly expands to normal. I hear voices; distinct objects appear. Normality returns, but I am definitely confused and physically clumsy. (T:0:30 min) Slight hallucinations are still apparent. (T:2:00 hours) Sober but shaken. One wonders who would see anything in this experience. Gamma Recorded the day after the trip, then transcribed. This protocol was similar to the preceding one— starting with 50 mg, then at two-minute intervals, 100 mg, 200 mg, 400 mg, then between two and four

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more doses of 200 mg, the precise number of which eluded the recollection of all of us later, for a total dose of 1150–1550 mg. In the beginning, the first thing I noticed with eyes closed were these whirling, snowflake-like things; they were very cool— they were in the pattern of the “Tree of Life,” the flower pattern—they were laughing. I know this makes no sense, but I started laughing because they were laughing because I knew what they were: an underlying structural pattern. Then I noticed feeling as if I was disoriented as to which direction was up, and that’s when I knew that it was going to be very interesting if I took more. It felt as if I was holding on to a monkey bar, but I couldn’t tell if I was upside-down or… I don’t know, it was as if there was a space in front of me. Then there was a space that I don’t remember very well, in which I felt confused but knew that I wanted to smoke more. I was given more to smoke, but I can’t remember too much about it.

FIGURE THREE: Visual depiction of Symmetry experience.

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Then the patterns became more colorful, but not like… they were geometric. Well, they weren’t really geometric, they were somewhat irregular, but they were patterning. There seems to be some break in time during which I can’t remember what happened. But something that I heard in the music gave me a clue as to… I don’t know… it’s kind of personal—it’s more like certain experiences I’m trying to create more of in my life, and how to do that. I definitely remember feeling confused on the way up, incapable of communicating with any of you. I remember I was laughing because that kid in the video, Alex [the star of some witless YouTube Salvia selfadministration videos that we had watched earlier] said that the more you smoke Salvia, the easier it is to hold it in your lungs—and I completely got what he was saying. The more high I was, the easier it was to smoke more, which was useful because I’m not very good at smoking anything! Did I have a four-hundred mic dose? No! That was in that incomprehensible period… as soon as you told me something, it immediately left my brain. If I said “yes” right away then that was fine, but if I didn’t say “yes” right away then I probably forgot what you asked. Did you have to repeat questions to me? Then it segued into this weird snail-shell of a space—that’s what I was talking about. It was like being in an Escher-like space, with arches that vaulted up overhead and could connect different points in time across my life. That’s what I saw. It wasn’t as if I was watching a movie seeing things; I was re-experiencing them. But mostly experiences like walking along the street I lived on as a child, looking up at the sky and the trees overhead that I could see. I never think about this now, but I could actually see what it looked like at that age, like it was a memory I never think to recall, because it seems trivial. I felt that there was a presence of my brother’s best friend’s father! It’s somehow related to [Alpha] too (laughs)—I felt that over where you were located was somehow related to where he was located in the space. I remember thinking about you at that moment, thinking that your description of this experience was pretty… er… even though I was not experiencing it quite the same way you were, it made a lot of sense, what you were saying, how you were describing it. There’s a lot more, but it’s all details. Like what? Well, when I was laughing at the snowflakes, it wasn’t my complete visual field; there was a jagged edge running though the vision and everything to the right side of the jagged edge was black space [see Figure 3]. And I had the sensation that everything on that side of my body was… there was nothing going on over there. But everything to the left side was very patterned and interesting. Was it a line? No, it was off to the right; it was completely irregular; it wasn’t geometric at all; it didn’t have a pattern; it was kind of uncomfortable. I remember thinking, “Why is there this line? Why is this vision incomplete?” It seemed very odd.

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And then there were a lot of strange body sensations; a feeling like I was just an outline of myself. The cat touched me at one point; it felt really weird! I knew it was the cat, but it didn’t feel very cat-like! The texture was like touching silk but getting cotton. It felt a little more coarse. At any point on my body that was touching something else in the room, like the couch or the floor or itself, there was an uncomfortable amount of pressure, which is why I think that the next time I do it I’ll try to change how I’m sitting. I think I may have said this when I came out of it, but it would be ideal to be floating. That would be amazing. A sensory deprivation tank? That would be great! That would be fascinating. Wow, I’d love to check that out. I had questions but I forgot about them until afterwards. No answers came. I had a question about what form the [deleted] should take, and although I didn’t get an answer, afterwards when I was thinking about it—still “salvia’d up” but not tripping hard—I thought about some of the concepts, and that the idea of toruses might be something worth pursuing. It was my own mind thinking about it, but it was inspired by the form of the wrap-around space. I didn’t get the sense of an entity outside. I got the sense of curtains parting, delivery into an idea. I don’t know where ideas come from, they just seem to arrive. But there wasn’t a sense of, “Okay, impart to meee…” They just sort of appeared. I’ve had a lot of experiences with Salvia, and many of them have been good, but some of them have not been very good. In those experiences I’ve had the experience of an entity, something pointing out to me what’s going on. I feel a discomfort in my body unless I sit exactly right, and these “corrections” are very precise—make a tiny little adjustment here, and so on, until everything is right. There definitely feels like there is an outside entity that needs to be appeased with Salvia. There was a lot more closed-eye stuff with Symmetry. Would I be able to tell which is which? I suspect yes, because this “posture correction” is so reproducible with Salvia. That’s why I sat down on the floor, because I knew that if I wanted to sit up straight then I wasn’t going to be able to do it on the couch. I expected that this was going to happen, and that I would have to sit up straighter, but that feeling was completely not there at all. I told you that I still wanted to change my position, that I wasn’t perfectly happy with how I was oriented; I could feel my hands on my knees, and it didn’t feel quite right, but I knew that if I put them on the floor then it wasn’t really going to help. There was no way to get right! I’d like there to be a way to feel right. What would I change going into it? I would probably take something to make my body intensely comfortable no matter what happened.

Delta Recorded the day after the trip, then transcribed. (T:0:02 min) 50 mg The first thing I noticed was a bit of general light-headedness, a little tingling everywhere; I couldn’t differentiate it from being mildly stoned—something like that. I couldn’t tell if it was placebo. “Am I feeling something, or am I not?” (T:0:04 min) 50 mg (100 mg total) Then it was more—I definitely got some effects; the shadows were very strong and the walls… the spaces between the shadows were more orange—very orange, much more so than they normally were. Now that I can see this picture that’s difficult to describe on the wall, the “Hope and Fear” picture (see Figure 4); the blue stuff looked more like a hologram, the blue bits look more silver and had a degree of depth, like a hologram jutting. And it was by far the most interesting thing on the wall! The rest just looked like shadows. And the tea mugs looked more orange. The glow seemed to have spread further.

Map of 2006 Burning Man by Lisa Hofmann www.studioninedesign.com

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FIGURE FOUR:

“Difficult to describe.”

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(T:0:06 min) 50 mg (150 mg total) It was a feeling of… it was not unpleasant, but I guess “foreboding” was the word you used. It was a sense that I didn’t necessarily want it to be more. But because the effects were so relatively mild, I felt that even if the next one was worse, it probably wouldn’t be worse to the point that I’d, I don’t know, “freak out.” And then it really was just a linear increase on everything I had before. The shadows became more exaggerated; the hologram thing looked more like that. Then I remember looking around and realizing that everyone was here, and that I had entirely forgotten what was actually happening, and it was kind of amusing to realize that I’d been entertainment for other people. Very hallucinogenic because I’d completely forgotten that anyone was present! But I had the experience that I’ve had a couple of times on mushrooms—especially inside a room— that it was quite hard for me to imagine the room connected to an external space. Out through the windows looked very surreal, as if that was just a painting, and that there wasn’t really anything outside that room. I didn’t have any strong feelings of time distortion, but had you asked me to make any kind of judgment about future or past, I would have struggled. The room was spatially and temporally separated from anything else—forward or back, inside or outside—but not in an intense way. When I closed my eyes I saw some small patterns— actually even when I went to sleep about an hour later, I had some small patterns, but only very minor, nothing with any shape. You then asked if I wanted more, and I really didn’t (laughs). At the same time, I wasn’t having a bad experience, but there was a sense of caution, like, “I really don’t want more.” It’s hard to know whether that was the drug or whether that was something that I brought with it, because what you guys were reporting didn’t sound very good. So in my mind I was thinking that if I took more and got into this next state, then that would be a disaster. “I want to try to avoid that so let’s just stay here.” Things weren’t really jumping out at me crazy; I wasn’t getting any massively vivid effects, just these discontinuities: “What was I doing again? Where’s

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outside?” I felt like I was holding it together pretty well, but I was disoriented. And with the visuals and all the effects, I felt like a little bit more might be enough to lose my “grip,” and the thought of that didn’t appeal at all. I didn’t have any questions, but I didn’t get a sense that if I’d had any questions… If anything there was less information rather than more information in the experience—a dulling and disconnect. So I feel like if I’d asked a question, the answer would either have made no sense or seemed even further disconnected. How would I prepare differently? I don’t know. I had some… not really bad paranoia experiences, but definitely in that dimension, when I was coming down. I remember looking at you all and thinking that you must think I’m crazy, that everyone was looking at me weird, and that I must look really weird. So I was somewhat hyper-self-aware. Had it been a higher dose, it would have been very unpleasant. But I knew to think, “Well, this is a drug state. Maybe it’s true, but if so, I’ll worry about it in five minutes’ time.” So it was okay. There weren’t any positive vibes coming from the experience. The general emotional experience wasn’t positive. Slightly unpleasant. So I don’t know. This was a comfortable environment. I certainly wouldn’t ever take Symmetry in an uncomfortable environment. Anything you could do to make yourself physically comfortable. Perhaps a more closed space—okay, this is a closed space. Something more safe then. More soft things. It’s hard to say, but I wouldn’t want to do it in a sterile laboratory environment, that’s for sure.

DISCUSSION Symmetry is a salvinorin derivative of extraordinary potency—threshold dose when smoked between 10 mg and 50 mg, with marked effects at 150 mg to 300 mg, potency rivaled only by a few synthetic compounds such as LSD and carfentanyl. By comparison, Jonathan Ott has noted threshold effects from vaporized salvinorin A to occur at 500 mg, while Daniel Siebert reported a threshold of 200 mg; in both reports, notable effects required more than one milligram (Ott 1995a; Siebert 1994). Effects from smoked Symmetry became noticeable

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within seconds, peaked in about a minute, and started to diminish rapidly after about five minutes, as with salvinorin A. However, unlike salvinorin A, a residual alteration in consciousness was still noticeable at 30 minutes; all subjects were back to baseline by two hours. At low doses of 100 mg to 200 mg, spoked geometric closed- and open-eye visions, alterations in perspective, palinopsia, and foreboding predominated, and at higher doses, mental confusion, derealization, and more vivid geometric visions occurred. At 400 mg, one participant had a full “plus-four” experience (Shulgin et al. 1986), although another took three times that amount without the same effect. The reason for this disparity is unclear,

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although interestingly, that subject considered salvinorin A to be her “drug of choice” and had much more experience with it than the rest of us put together. No subjects experienced any sort of “entity” contact or even sensed a presence of such entities, despite suggestions that they might, reporting instead a vague sense of foreboding, as if venturing beyond a door marked “Do Not Enter.” All participants at one-month follow-up reported “enjoying the experience” and being “willing to take it again.” Symmetry may be of particular interest to mathematicians or theoretical physicists; nonetheless, if this first look is any guide, it is unlikely to gain enduring popularity as either a recreational drug or spiritual sacrament. 

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Old hair and Tryptamines by Keeper Trout

In recent years there have been an increasing number of investigations of mummy hairs for possible evidence of early drug use; these now include a couple of searches for tryptamines. It was with great excitement that I encountered two papers by Juan P. Ogalde, Bernardo T. Arriaza, and Elia C. Soto, asserting they had found evidence of ayahuasca consumption in an ancient snuff-using population from northern Chile (Ogalde et al. 2007, 2009). Previous analysis of six South American snuff samples by Bo Holmstedt and Jan-Erik Lindgren reported tryptamines in five of them, one of which also contained harmala alkaloids, and the sixth sample contained only harmala alkaloids. Speculating that the harmala alkaloids may have come from Banisteriopsis caapi, Holmstedt and Lindgren proposed that the MAO-inhibiting harmala alkaloids could potentiate the action of the simple indoles, noting that the “combination of b-carbolines and tryptamines would thus be advantageous” (Holmstedt & Lindgren 1967). While this combination later became known as the “ayahuasca effect,” with regard to making DMT orally active within that shamanic brew, it has been suggested that the origins of this pharmacological combination may lie within the use of snuffs, with its application in ayahuasca being a recent derivation (Ott 1996). Although Anadenanthera peregrina is considered the primary plant source for snuff used by the Piaroa of southern Venezuela, due to their snuff testing positive for bufotenine, one Piaroa snuff sample analyzed was also found to contain harmine (Smet & Rivier 1985, in Torres & Repke 2006). In their book Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America (see page 167), authors Manuel Torres and David Repke remark: There is no ethnographic evidence for use of Banisteriopsis species as a snuff admixture; the Piaroa did not seem to be familiar with ayahuasca potions (Smet and Rivier 1985). However,

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in light of the well-documented Guahibo practice of chewing Banisteriopsis bark in conjunction with taking snuff, we cannot dismiss the possibility that the Piaroa might have added it to their snuffs (Torres & Repke 2006).

However, readers of The Entheogen Review may recall mention in the Winter Solstice 2002 issue (page 139) of an aspiring anthropology doctoral candidate who observed the preparation of a snuff by the Piaroa that contained fresh shoots of Banisteriopsis caapi pounded into a paste along with Anadenanthera peregrina seeds; his bioassay reports of this snuff described enhanced and prolonged activity (Rodd 2002), echoing the results from previous insufflation experiments using the pure chemical form of assorted tryptamines in combination with harmine or harmaline (Ott 2001). The snuffing implements from northern Argentina and Chile are quite fine, delicate and small in both the equipment and the apparent snuff aliquot size, at least in comparison to the blowpipe technology found farther north. This difference has long been a point of curiosity; a common explanation proposed has been that the snuffs from northern Argentina and Chile were substantially more potent, permitting activity from relatively tiny amounts of material. While this certainly could be the case, the use of a tryptaminic snuff on top of oral consumption of Banisteriopsis caapi would also be expected to enable a more robust perception of the tryptamines in the snuff. (For anyone skeptical of this claim, it can be easily evaluated by ingesting an active dose of B. caapi or Peganum harmala seeds, waiting until full onset of the MAOI effects—approximately 30 to 60 minutes—and then insufflating or smoking a known and familiar dose of 5-MeO-DMT.) It could even be that the use of tryptamine snuffs concurrent with the oral consumption of Banisteriopsis

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caapi, such as is documented with the Guahibo, may have been what inspired the addition of tryptamine-containing plants to ayahuasca brews to begin with. Alas, my excited anticipation of possible support for the idea that the ayahuasca effect was first discovered via the potentiation of snuffs by Banisteriopsis caapi was about to be rudely dashed on the rocks. As I read further, I discovered that, while the authors did claim to find harmine in at least one adult mummy believed to be a snuff user, as well as in the mummy of a one-year-old infant (suspected of not being a snuff user), they found no tryptamines in any of their mummies. The Ogalde group made three noteworthy comments: […]samples tested from individuals in the Azapa Valley showed that they did not consume [Anadenanthera], despite archaeological evidence of snuffing implements. This negative finding is important because a lack of tryptaminic alkaloids indicates the absence of hallucinogenic compounds during the Middle Period of the Azapa Valley.

and The results of 32 mummies’ hair samples showed that none of the samples tested positive for 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine alkaloid. This information is extremely useful, because it shows the snuffing kits used in Azapa Valley were not related to Anadenanthera consumption.

and Here we present chemical evidence suggesting Banisteriopsis consumption during the Tiwanaku Middle Period.

Due to the lack of requisite standards related to detection times for tryptamines, and no known proof that tryptamines actually are detectable in hair, the first two statements are entirely unsubstantiated. The most that currently can be said with accuracy, based on a hair analysis showing negative results for 5-MeO-DMT in a mummy’s hair, is that the hair analysis performed did not detect



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5-MeO-DMT. Further, the Ogalde group’s assumption that only Banisteriopsis caapi could have served as a harmine source needs questioning, despite the immensely fascinating line of conjecture that it raises concerning possible ancient networks of drug traders at an early date. Oddly, the Ogalde group did not analyze snuff, seeds, or residues in their mummies’ snuffing equipment. Instead, they only cited work published by the Torres group concerning materials recovered from a different archaeological site. Details from the Torres group’s analysis may be helpfully illuminating here. When analyzing snuff samples dated circa 780 c.e. (about 1,230 years old)1 from Solcor-3, the Torres group was able to detect 5-MeO-DMT, DMT, and bufotenine (Torres et al. 1991). What they found was present only in small amounts, although the material probably contained a decent percentage of alkaloids when it was fresh. Their finding was not surprising, since degradation of Anadenanthera alkaloids in storage, within even shorter time frames, has previously been reported (Schultes et al. 1977). The oxidation of DMT, even when pure, is a wellknown phenomenon to anyone who has possessed a sample of high quality DMT for a few years. While the potency may not be diminished much, samples take on a yellow color and pungent skatole smell, both of which increase with age. Several years ago, J. Case had the good fortune to physically examine some synthetic DMT that had been legally produced in the mid-1960s by a French pharmaceutical contractor. He reported the interior of the strong-smelling material was nicely crystalline and nearly white with light peach overtones, but the exterior of the sample was intensely orange and very waxy in appearance (Case 2002). According to one underground chemist, even high-purity, colorless, and almost odorless DMT crystals are said to take on a yellow color over time (Anonymous 2008). While I have been unable to locate any studies concerning the degradation rate for DMT or 5-MeO-DMT, I did find a study involving another

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dimethylated tryptamine: psilocybin. In an analysis of dried Psilocybe semilanceata preserved as herbarium specimens, it was discovered that the psilocybin level had dropped below detectable levels before the samples reached a century and a half in age (Ohenoja et al. 1987). DMT and 5-MeODMT should be expected to be more stable than psilocybin, and bufotenine to be even more stable, but all will have some finite ceiling of detection. It seems reasonable to believe that tryptamines can stay potent for many years, and remain detectable for even longer, but it is also beginning to appear likely that the upper limit of detection is on the order of some centuries. The age of the mummies tested by the Ogalde group was not given; only a date range for archaeological evidence during the Tiwanaku empire expansion along the Atacama Desert of Chile was noted—circa 500–1000 c.e.— implying that the mummies may be somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 years old.1 Among the conclusions made by the Ogalde group, two are in need of a closer look: 1) Concerning Anadenanthera snuffs: […] samples tested from individuals in the Azapa Valley showed that they did not consume [Anadenanthera…] […] Our research revealed that the snuffing paraphernalia was not directly associated with Anadenanthera in the Azapa Valley.

Strangely, despite these claims, and despite the observation of extensive chronic snuffing-related injury in the perinasal areas within the skulls of the mummies they examined, the Ogalde group offered no suggestion as to what snuff they thought was in use. 2) Concerning ayahuasca: We believe this plant [Banisteriopsis caapi] was not used to prepare hallucinogenic drinks in Azapa Valley because we did not find tryptaminic alkaloids and harmine is not hallucinogenic in its pure form […]

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[…] we believe the consumption of Banisteriopsis was part of a medicinal practice, perhaps as [an] Ayahuasca [Banisteriopsis only] infusion. It is possible that Banisteriopsis consumption, an Amazonian plant, coincided with snuffing kits as elements of social differentiation.

Wow. The authors seem willing to go to great lengths of speculation regarding the use of Banisteriopsis neat, based on their inability to detect tryptamines in the mummies’ hair samples. A few years earlier Castro et al. (2003)—working with mummies from northern Chile that were older than those that the Ogalde group examined—produced similar results. The hair samples they analyzed were obtained from mummies dated around 100 b.c.e. to 140 c.e. (or about 1,870 to 2,110 years old).1 But along with being unable to find any tryptamines, the Castro group also failed to detect any harmala alkaloids. Their wide range of speculation for the lack of such alkaloids included almost everything, except for the possibility that the alkaloids had degraded and were no longer detectable! The Ogalde group was similarly operating on the assumption that snuff alkaloids would show up in their mummies, if those mummies had used the snuff. Based on their negative findings, and in order to explain the tryptamine-positive findings of the Torres group, the Ogalde group proposed that: While the chemical analysis suggested the Solcor-3 people were familiar with this type of drug, it does not necessarily indicate ingestion.

Several elements about this proposal are strangely lacking though, only one of which is the fact that no one seems to have actually done an analysis of any hair or soft tissue from the Solcor-3 population. 1) Neither the Ogalde group nor the Castro group performed analysis on modern hair from a known user of tryptamines, and they did not otherwise establish that drug testing of hair for tryptamines is even possible or had been done previously. While it seems likely that DMT and 5-MeO-DMT would be detectable in hair, this should not simply be

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presumed to be the case. In addition, since DMT and 5-MeO-DMT are endogenously produced in humans, and what with hair being believed to help protect alkaloids from degradation for long periods, one might suspect that DMT and/or 5-MeODMT would always be present in every human hair sample (see Clarke 1986 and Davis 1989). Despite this, I have been unable to locate any analysis on ancient or modern hair that reported a positive for DMT or 5-MeO-DMT. Certainly, DMT has good oil solubility, suggesting it could successfully get into the sebum (this is believed to be the route for nonpolar alkaloids to physically enter the hair before it leaves the follicle). However DMT is also extensively degraded in humans by the well-known deaminating action of MAO, and also by the action of red blood cells, which open the indole ring (see Hryhorczuk et al. 1986). 2) As mentioned earlier, at no point did the Ogalde group test the actual snuff or snuffing implements buried with their mummies to determine if alkaloids could be detected on them after so many years and, if so, what the alkaloids might be. The Castro group commented that the porosity of their mummy hair added an undesirable permeability; so this, too, may have been a factor in their negative results. In the course of asking as many pharmacologists, toxicologists, and analytical chemists as I was able to contact about the Ogalde group’s



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results, their data’s integrity was brought into question even further. Analytical chemist Steven Barker commented that the Ogalde group’s data appeared to be “overworked,” misinterpreted, and did not support the presence of harmine in their hair samples (Barker 2008). While the Ogalde group’s work is fascinating, in order for it to have more meaning, appropriate standards and additional rigor must be applied to their studies. An important missing element, that needs to be established, is determining how long ayahuasca and Anadenanthera alkaloids remain detectable. Next, and just as importantly, it must be established that these alkaloids actually can be detected in the hair of modern ayahuasca and snuff users. If either of these points is lacking, then the negative analysis of a mummy’s hair can offer nothing of meaning other than the outcome of that one test. 

Footnotes 1. Dates presented within this paper should only be considered rough approximates, as there was not enough information included within the published accounts to understand how they were determined. Radiocarbon dating produces a range, not a set date, and should be expressed this way (or should include a numeric degree of +/- uncertainty). Also, most researchers do not perform their own dating, and mistakes in publishing dates can happen if a researcher doesn’t understand or indicate that the raw figures provided by the lab are usually reported in radiocarbon years. Raw dates can be corrected to give calendar dates, but this is not always done.

Trout’s Notes on Some Simple Tryptamines is now available in a completely updated second edition. At 304 pages, with over 400 illustrations (including more than 300 full-color photographs), Some Simple Tryptamines is an invaluable reference tool for those interested in psychoactive plants containing tryptamines, as well as assorted synthetic tryptamines. Some Simple Tryptamines is the most comprehensive and detailed overview that exists concerning this subject. Softcover, printed on high quality acid-free paper, with a sturdy sewn-and-glued binding. It belongs in every serious psychonaut’s library, and the addition of color photographs in this expanded edition is tremendously helpful for the purpose of identifying botanicals. The book is $50 (USA), $55 (foreign), from www.entheogenreview.com.

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Keep that MIMOSA Mud? by J. Cocktoasten

I was cleaning out my kitchen cabinets a while back, and ran across a one-gallon jug containing an aqueous basified Mimosa tenuiflora solution, on which I had performed a DMT extraction the previous year using Noman’s “DMT for the Masses” tek (see www.entheogenreview.com/ dmt.html). That extraction had yielded 0.946 of a gram of recrystallized material from only 100 grams of root-bark—almost a full 1.0%. Not bad. Since I’d exceeded my yield expectations at the time that the original extraction was performed, I had little hope that the solution I found would produce any additional DMT. However, I was reluctant to dispose of it without running another naphtha pull, just for the hell of it. I was amazed to open my freezer the next morning and see my precipitation vessel adorned with a significant amount of fluffy crystals. I decided a second pull was in order. Combining material from the first and second pulls, I was left with a total 0.921 grams of additional unrefined extract! How was this possible? I discussed my findings with a chemist friend who questioned whether or not I had determined this extract to be DMT, suggesting that it might contain a mix of other substances. He asked if I had sampled it. Unfortunately, I’d combined the material with another stash, so I could no longer perform a bioassay solely on the new isolate. The only solution was to repeat the experiment.

FOLLOW-UP EXPERIMENT I performed the Noman tek on a kilogram of Mimosa tenuiflora root-bark, resulting in 9.1 grams of recrystallized DMT. The “spent” solution was then shelved for six months. I would have preferred to wait a full year, but I intended on publishing the results in this final issue of ER, which presented an unavoidable time constraint. The first pull yielded 3.14 grams, and a second pull yielded 0.82 grams, for a total of roughly 4 grams of unrefined

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extract. This material was slightly more yellow and waxy than the original extract. A portion of this unrefined extract was further refined via recrystallization; however, that process yielded less pure white crystal than expected, with more “dirty material” than usual clumped to the bottom of the vessel.

TESTING The unrefined extract was rolled into a joint of dried mullein leaf and smoked by a group of test subjects who were all familiar with the effects of DMT. Subjects reported the material to be of lesser strength than expected, but said that it definitely had DMT effects. One subject felt that it was slightly harsher than other unrefined extracts he had smoked. The refined crystals were later smoked by one test subject, who found their effects to be consistent with DMT.

CONCLUSION There is little doubt that re-extracting the Mimosa solution after waiting several months resulted in a significant additional yield of DMT. The experiments also suggest that waiting one year results in a greater additional yield than waiting six months. However, subjective testing indicated the unrefined extract was of lesser purity than material from the original extraction, and the lower recrystallization yield supported this finding. Finally, I’d like to recommend a significant improvement to the Noman tek. The tek describes using glass collection jars, but I’ve found that DMT has a tendency to bond aggressively to glass surfaces. It does not however, bond to plastic surfaces, particularly high-impact plastics like Nalgene. Using plastic collection jars promotes easy removal of the extract (it simply pours out), and avoids tedious scraping of surfaces and the inevitable waste of some material. [NOTE: See comments regarding the use of plastics on pages 157–158. — Eds.] Have fun, and hold onto that Mimosa mud! 

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Lamid by Justin Case

After my third bioassay of methylisopropyllysergamide (aka lamid) as a known substance, I now believe it is the same mysterious drug that my friends and I encountered in a small run in the 1990s, which was provided to us as “another sort of acid” by my primary acid dealer. We all also had LSD during the same time, and it was clearly not the same molecule. My dealer called it “the beauty kind,” but soon most of us were referring to it as “candy acid.” It might be synonymous with the similarly curious “acid lite” that appeared in limited quantities during the late 1990s in England under the name “bliss.” I bioassayed candy acid a couple dozen times during those years, and was left both wanting more and wondering what the fuck it had been. Unlike LSD, lamid does not appear to become fully psychedelic even with increased dosages. Its effects were largely the same with 200 mics as with 100 mics, except for a relatively minor increase in euphoria and stimulation, with a significant increase in body load. Friends in the 1990s attempting to get stronger visual effects by taking far larger doses (well into the low milligrams) generally reported falling asleep. It does not appear capable of ever reaching colorful and geometric levels. The known material, provided on blotter paper, tasted like some sort of acetate. But otherwise the “taste”—more a feeling than a flavor—was distinctly acid-like. First alerts appeared within 15 minutes, with onset around 40 minutes. There was lots of rushing euphoria, delicious radiant body sensations, altered perception, and a nicely magical glow to the world, but with maybe a tenth as much mental alteration and almost no introspection, as compared to LSD. Nevertheless, the introspection that was there was gentle and clear-minded, compared to the sometimes pushy self-analytical character of acid. Socializing was easy and comfortable, even when a surprise visitor dropped by.

The body load was similar to LSD. Around onset, there was a bit of edginess with some minor cramping, and abdominal discomfort was intermittent throughout the experience. Movement took more effort than normal; but, overall, walking was no problem and enjoyable. Hot tubbing was fine, although I overheated fairly rapidly. While there were not many visuals, anything showing any movement looked odd and exaggerated. Especially outdoors, everything appeared to be hyper-real, as if there was too much contrast or as if the auto level command in Photoshop had been applied to an overly dark digital photo. Sex required focus, with minor difficulty maintaining an erection. Tactile senses were elevated, and the erotic/sensuousness aspects were really sweet. It showed less than a three hour peak, and the effects had largely faded by the sixth hour, with only minor residuals for several more hours. This is a really nice molecule if one can resist viewing it as an “acid substitute.” It’s a wonderful thing on its own: euphoric, stimulating, and mind altering in an open, expansive way that permits easy contact with other people and one’s surroundings. If a person wanted to ingest acid, he or she probably would be disappointed with lamid, consider it boring, or maybe not even like it, since it largely lacks visuals and is missing most of the mental aspects of acid (preserving only around 10% of them), yet it retains many of acid’s somatic discomforts, such as the inability to comfortably regulate one’s temperature and significant elements of body load. However, if someone wanted to visit a museum, participate in an interactive public situation, or go out and socialize, lamid could be an ideal molecule. I suspect that it will find a place of great value if judged on its own merits, rather than being thought of as a replacement for LSD. 

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I Need a Miracle by Jon Hanna

When travelling in Costa Rica for the 2007 Mind States conference, I had the great pleasure to visit the Ark Herb Farm, run by Tommy Thomas, one of the conference speakers. The grounds at Ark are covered in countless species of plants, including many medicinals and a healthy selection of psychoactives. One of the more interesting psychoactive plants on site was Synsepalum dulcificum (Richardella dulcifica), an unassuming little African shrub covered with small fruits commonly referred to as “miracle berries.” This fruit has the amazing ability to alter one’s perception of sour flavors, changing them to taste sweet. Those with a flair for the dramatic, like our guide at Ark, will insist that folks sampling a miracle berry first suck some juice from a lime, in order to have a fresh memory of what sour tastes like. After which, one takes a berry, crushes it in one’s mouth, and spreads the juice around on one’s tongue, coating as much of the surface as possible. One’s next suck on that same lime is pure sugar candy. One has to experience it, in order to believe it. It is truly incredible. The miracle berry could be a great way to introduce the topic of psychoactive plants into discussion with normals, since the effect that it has is so specific and nonthreatening. Some people throw “miracle berry parties,” providing assorted sour foods to sample while under the influence. The sour-to-sweet effect is caused by a glycoprotein contained in the berries called miraculin. One might quickly speculate that miraculin could be of great help to dieters with a sweet tooth. (Indeed, after trying the berries myself, I envisioned a bottled beverage that has a shot of miracle berry juice housed in a two-part screw cap, and lemon water contained in the bottle: low-cal lemonade.) Unfortunately, while there are a few issues with stability and production,1 the bigger stumbling block may be the FDA, who in 1974 effectively shut down the efforts of Robert Harvey, the first person who made a concerted attempt to get miraculin-

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based products onto the U.S. market (Fowler 2008). Nevertheless, two products containing miracle berries have appeared in recent years. The plant is legal to grow and use, if you can obtain one. However, one vendor of plants, Logee’s Greenhouses, has had a hard time keeping them in stock; a friend who ordered a plant in May of 2008 had his money refunded six weeks later with no comment, and then was informed via e-mail in October that they had the plants back in stock (although they had never mentioned the fact that they were out of stock in the first place). Demand for the plants went through the roof, after Logee’s was mentioned as a source on The Martha Stewart Show. Another vendor who offers fresh berries “as they are available” was swamped with orders after an article in The New York Times mentioned his company; his order fulfillment similarly slowed to a crawl. Fresh berries are desirable because dehydration breaks down the miraculin during the drying process. However, freeze-drying preserves the potency of freshly picked. A friend who attempted a homemade freeze-dry on berries (using desiccant in his refrigerator’s freezer compartment) didn’t have much luck in preserving potency. However, his approach was likely hampered by his having merely refrigerated the berries for the first few days he had them, rather than immediately freezing them, which is said to preserve their potency. (The berries were quite potent on the day they arrived, and still fine after two days in the refrigerator. But after further refrigeration for five days, and then ten days in the freezer, their potency was dramatically reduced.) The two products that are more consistently available are freeze-dried extracts pressed into pills, and a freeze-dried powdered crude extract. I’ve found the fresh fruit to be the most potent, with the pills

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ranking second, and the powder coming in third.2 Maximum contact with the tongue increases efficiency. The pills can be skated around on top of the tongue as they slowly dissolve, to make more contact with the tastebuds. The powder tends to quickly get displaced by saliva and swallowed. Using a small hash press to compress the powder might make it more effective. I weighed one of the pills, and it was 344 mg. The pills are made from miracle fruit powder and corn starch. The freeze-dried powder is clearly a crude extract (it’s quite pink and sticky); because it is an extract, one might presume that it would be more potent by weight than the pills, especially since there is no corn starch diluting it. Yet strangely, vendors of the powder say that a dose is 1 gram (or about three times as much material as the pills). From the cheapest suppliers I could find, pills cost $1.20 each, fresh-frozen fruits cost $3 each, and freeze-dried crude extract costs $3–5 per gram. (These companies have required minimum order amounts, ranging from $12 for pills to $60 for fresh-frozen fruits.) Even for the “miraculin hardhead” who takes two pills, the pills are still the most cost-effective approach. It’s been suggested that one start with a clean mouth (rinse it out with water), and particularly if one is a smoker, one might want to brush one’s tongue first. After coating one’s tongue with the material, consider these recommendations from the pill’s manufacturer on how to prolong the effects as much as possible: As for extending the duration of the miracle fruit experience and making it more effective, the less liquids the better. Also, the more time the tablet has to dissolve on the tongue, and the more surface area the protein can coat, the better. Hot things are no good, and I assume fatty foods, which create their own layer on the tongue would also not be ideal. Basically, use the tablets as a “before meal” mint and stick with food (Boko 2008a).

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could probably extend the effect by laying off the liquids. The main fresh-frozen fruit vendor claims that the effect from his fruits lasts 30–90 minutes. Although the miracle fruit, when potent, unquestionably makes sour flavors sweet, there have been scattered reports of it also making bitter flavors sweet. This has not been the case in my mouth, nor in the mouths of most fruit-heads I’ve spoken with, but I can not dismiss the possibility that some people’s taste buds are affected differently. When describing the use of miracle fruit before consuming Trillium brand absinthe, one reviewer remarked: [Trillium] can be quite bitter if you don’t hit it with ice water and a smidge of sugar, but under the influence of Miracle Fruit, it’s all anise, all the time. It’s kinda like choking on the strongest black liquorish rope you’ve ever put in your mouth (Coleman 2008, emphasis in original).

Another “bitter-to-sweet” bioassay was recently posted on-line in a trip report where someone had mixed a gram of the powdered crude miracle berry extract into a San Pedro smoothie. This psychonaut claimed that the extract made the drink palatable (see www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread. php?t=53883). It is usually the bitter aspect of cacti that puts people off, not their sour side. But turning any sour present into sweet may still counter the bitter somewhat. I decided to conduct an experiment of my own. I cut off a chunk of a Trichocereus pachaNOT (to use Trout’s neologism) plant that I have had for over a decade. This particular plant has never shown rapid growth, so I speculated that it should have had plenty of time to sequester bitter alkaloids. I washed and despined it, peeled off the waxy cuticle, and cored it. Indeed, chewing up a mouthful was quite bitter. Then I popped a couple of miracle berry pills and let them slowly dissolve and coat my tongue. There seemed to be a slightly sweet taste in my mouth. Could this have been the result of an alteration of flavors left over in my mouth from the first taste? Alas, when I ultimately chowed down on another fresh piece of cactus, it was still very bitter. It might

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have been less offensive than the first piece in an overall sense. Perhaps somewhere from zero to 25% less offensive. That is, it seemed slightly less offensive, but I do not feel absolutely sure that it was. I probably wouldn’t use my pills in the future on pre-dosing before consuming bitter brews. On the other hand, if entheogenic plant extractions were conducted using lemon juice, the berries might then add some more welcome sweetness.

Miracle Fruit Man www.miraclefruitman.com Sells fresh-frozen fruits. Since I last visited his clunky and mundane web site, it has gotten a dramatic makeover, giving the business a much more professional look. I’ve had some friends tell me they waited forever to get their fruits, and others who told me that their fruits were shipped promptly. It wouldn’t hurt to make sure that he has some in stock before placing an order.

My results don’t necessarily negate the results reported with the San Pedro smoothie. I did not actually attempt to replicate that experiment as it was conducted. It could be that the larger amount of crude miracle berry extract might overwhelm the taste buds more completely, and bitter gets lost as well. Or, as mentioned previously, it could just be that different individuals’ taste buds are affected differently.

Miracle Fruit USA www.miraclefruitusa.com Sells freeze-dried miracle fruit extract granules, plants (currently in stock), seeds, and fruits (out-of-stock when I looked, but you can get on a notification list; however, their minimum order is $10 more than the Miracle Fruit Man for the same quantity).

My own favorite post-berry foods are limes, soft cheeses, and plain yogurt. The effect on beer is odd, but not unpleasant (particularly with a creamy stout beer). Several people I have spoken with don’t like the effect on wine (it causes the wine to become too sweet, like a wine cooler). A friend’s favorites include chilled mango, grapefruit, pomegranates, and a berry “ice cream” produced from equal parts of frozen blue-/black-/rasp-berries, a banana, and enough soy or dairy milk to get the materials to blend. I look forward to trying that. Finally, it has been pointed out to me by a fruithead with friends in the porn industry that the vaginal environment is quite acidic, at a pH of 3.8– 4.5 (roughly equivalent to the acidity of wine), as compared to the normal pH of 7.4 found in most body tissues. Since miraculin can affect the flavor of anything acidic, “it can lend a ‘fruity icing’ flavor to your favorite person’s nether-regions. I kid you not, folks” (Boko 2008b). Just another application that some people might want to investigate. Who needs a miracle? 

RESOURCES Logee’s Greenhouses, Ltd. www.logees.com Sells plants, but they appear to be continually back-ordered.

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r6xx.com Sells pills made from freeze-dried miracle fruits. Lowest “per dose” price and fast service.

FOOTNOTES 1. Production of commercial quantities of miraculin has been set back somewhat by the need to grow a large number of Synsepalum dulcificum plants into fruit production, then harvest the tiny fruits to extract and purify the chemical. However, scientists at the University of Tsukuba’s Gene Research Center in Japan recently genetically altered lettuce, so that the plants produced miraculin (Sun 2006). This work may someday lead to greater availability and lower cost of miraculin-containing products. 2. It is worth noting that other people have reported the exact opposite regarding potency, finding the crude extracted powder the most potent, the pills second best, and the fruits the least potent. One vendor of pills claims that each tablet contains the miraculin content of three fruits; so in theory, the pills should be more potent than the fruits. In the case of the fruits, freshness is paramount to potency. Similarly, in the case of the powder, it could be a situation where some powder has decreased in potency due to the length of time it has spent in storage, while other powder may have been extracted more recently. (One vendor of powdered extract states, “Freeze-dried miraculin is stable at 4• C for several months.”) Differences in the quantity of saliva produced by different individuals may also affect potency of various materials.

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Network Feedback ARMATOCEREUS AGAIN? Some of our readers may be familiar with Wade Davis’ claim concerning Armatocereus laetus being employed by Peruvian shamans as a Trichocereus pachanoi substitute called pishicol (Davis 1983). Unfortunately, the one published analysis of this cactus showed no evidence of psychoactive chemicals (Djerassi et al. 1955). Recently, friends traveling in Peru encountered an Armatocereus [bottom photo, left] that was claimed by locals to sometimes be used as a T. pachanoi substitute, or used in combination with T. pachanoi. It was said to be “strong,” yet no one our friends encountered had actually consumed it. The photo showing the “Five San Pedros” employed by Peruvian shamans [top photo, left] also includes a cutting of this plant (it’s the tip on the far right). Although we were able to acquire a cutting [middle photo, left], the plant died from rot soon after arrival. The cutting was identified by our friends as Armatocereus matucanensis, and images within David Hunt’s New Cactus Lexicon (2006) support this ID. As it presently lacks chemical analysis and ethnopharmacological study, we’ve mentioned it here in the hope of stimulating one of our readers into looking at this further. — Eds.

TRICHOCEREUS PACHANOT

TOP:

“Five San Pedros” Photo by Anonymous

MIDDLE:

Armatocereus matucanensis Photo by Martin Terry

BOTTOM:

Armatocereus matucanensis Photo by Grizzly

One of the more interesting errors I’ve discovered in my own belief system concerns the plant most of us know and love as Trichocereus pachanoi. You’ve seen the plant I’m talking about, that self-same clone—it’s everywhere: from Bay Area botanical gardens, to America’s Target and Home Depot gardening sections, where it is commonly sold as a potted plant. The thing I once gullibly swallowed (if you will pardon the pun), is that these specimens were all produced via cuttings propagated from Backeberg’s clone. However, as astutely observed by Michael Smith, this plant does not match its published description. Amazingly, taxonomists overall don’t want to even hear this observation, and it’s the same story with the horticulturists I know. It’s not even that they shoot down the argument; rather, they don’t want the conversation to begin in the first place! Nevertheless, Smith is right on this one. The plant lacks a black wooly ovary (Britton & Rose 1920). In short, it is not a bona fide T. pachanoi. People can argue about descriptions, or debate over ranges of variations they consider permissible within the context of making a solid identification, but in this case, our plant does not match the botanical description, whereas T. pachanoi from South America does match.

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What we want to target is the plant preferred by shamans in Peru [figures 1, 4, and 5]. Now look at Backeberg’s (1959) view of Trichocereus pachanoi in Peru [figure 2], Ritter’s (1981) view of T. pachanoi in Peru [figure 3], and some other T. pachanoi from Peru [figures 4–6]. I have no trouble thinking that these plants are the same species, and those that are in various states of flowering show dark wooly hairs. And this species is far more potent than our ersatz T. pachanoi with its white wooly hairs [figure 7], which may be why we can still purchase ours today.

1

When the first contemporary laws scheduling psychedelics were created, truly potent Trichocereus cacti were largely unknown. In fact, until fairly recently—within the last fifteen years or so—it was damn hard to even find anything other than the common “San Pedro” clone, unless one grew cacti from seed. (I have to wonder whether we would still have access to Trichocereus species, if this had not been the case?)

2

Other differences in flower morphology between these plants exist as well. For a more detailed photo comparison and discussion, see www.accurateinformation media.com/pedro/pedro.html. — K. Trout

3

4

5

6

7

FIGURES ONE, FOUR, AND FIVE:

San Pedro from a Peruvian shaman’s garden • Photo by Geneva Photography Trichocereus pachanoi from Peru as depicted in Backeberg 1959 FIGURE THREE: Trichocereus pachanoi from Peru as depicted in Ritter 1981 FIGURE SIX: Trichocereus pachanoi from Matucana, Peru • Photo by Grizzly FIGURE SEVEN: Commonly available “San Pedro” clone in the USA (Trichocereus pachanot) • Photo by K. Trout FIGURE TWO:

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TAKINI: IDENTIFICATION & CHEMISTRY Readers of The Entheogen Review may be interested in tracking down a copy of Moretti, C. et al. 2006. “Identification of 5-hydroxy-tryptamine (Bufotenine) in Takini (Brosimum acutifolium Huber subsp. acutifolium C.C. Berg, Moraceae), A Shamanic Potion used in the Guiana Plateau,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 106: 198–202. The information below is mostly condensed from that article. Takini (aka takweni and tauni) is an entheogenic plant used by shamans in Suriname, French Guiana, and the region east of Pará in Brazil. Novice shamans are said to drink its frothy red latex and smoke its bark, in order to tame the protecting spirit of the tree. Later in life, the shamans drink the latex to reinforce their alliance with the spirits that they have tamed. The drink reportedly produces visionary effects and unconsciousness. Takini was originally misrepresented in 1968 by the anthropologist P. Kloos as Helicostylis tomentosa and/or Helicostylis pedunculata (Moraceae). Four years later, takini was properly identified by C.C. Berg as being Brosimum acutifolium Huber subsp. acutifolium C.C. Berg (Moraceae), following his examination of herbarium specimens (Berg 1972). When the tree is tapped, it first exudes a milky translucent latex, followed by a red latex. The milky latex is traditionally discarded, and only the red latex is used. Recently conducted chemical analysis of both kinds of latex (Moretti et al. 2006) showed that the milky material contained bufotenine at a concentration of only 0.7 mg/ml, while the red material had a substantially higher amount of bufotenine: 23.4–25 mg/ml. Bufotenine was concluded to be the sole psychoactive component, even though a total of only 12.5 mg was present in a 500 ml portion of red latex, the volume that is typically consumed. Bufotenine was not detected in the bark. As Jonathan Ott only reported mild effects from an oral dose of 100 mg of bufotenine free-base (Ott 2001), it is hard to believe that an oral dose of



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merely 12.5 mg would have much, if any, effect on its own. We suspect that more work is needed to assess the possible impact of other components of the plant, particularly with respect to any effect(s) produced by smoked bark. Some flavonoid phenols have been isolated from Brosimum acutifolium, and it seems possible that one or more of these might exert a MAOI effect, since several other flavonoids (isolated from Artemisia vulgaris) have been shown to act as MAO inhibitors in mice brains (Lee et al. 2000). — Eds.

EXTRACTING PLASTICS? Some months back I was visiting a friend who showed me his DMT extraction efforts. Basing his approach on Noman’s “DMT for the Masses” tek, it was a fairly simple kitchen set-up. I noticed that the plastic mixing containers he was using (which held the powdered root-bark, lye/water solution, and naphtha) appeared to be bulging at the sides. When I pointed this out, he remarked that the containers got thinner with use over time, and that he replaced them every so often when he became worried that the sides were weak enough that they might burst. Not only did this strike me as a potential mess in the making, but I also worried out loud about chemicals leaching out of the plastic containers and ending up in the final product. After hearing my concern, my buddy agreed that his approach could be improved and he switched to using large glass wine jugs. (An added benefit, he later remarked, is that the extracting Mimosa liquid now just looks like an innocuous bottle of red wine sitting on his kitchen counter.) I’m not sure what sort of plastic container he had been using, and I know that there are some plastics, specifically used in legitimate chemistry labs, that are supposed to be able to withstand exposure to solvents. Nevertheless, it seems safer to me for kitchen chemists to use glass whenever possible. DMT already has enough of a “plasticky” vibe to it; consumers don’t need to be smoking any actual plastics. — Plastinate, CA The widespread use of plastics, particularly with regard to containers used for cooking, freezing, or storing food and beverages, is an issue that has been getting a lot of attention in

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recent years. This attention has included several e-mail hoaxes presenting exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims about assorted dangers (for example, despite what some e-mail might say, freezing water in plastic containers does not release dioxin carcinogens, which aren’t present in these containers in the first place). Heating plastics—such as in a microwave—would be more likely to potentially cause them to leach unwanted chemicals; those people concerned about such a possibility should avoid nuking their Tupperware. Plastics are commonly identified by a number contained within a triangle-shaped recycling symbol. Non-chlorinated plastics that use polyethylene (#1, #2, and #4) and polypropylene (#5) are currently thought to be safer, while those that use polyvinyl chloride (#3), polystyrene (#6), and polycarbonate (#7), are thought to be less safe. Generally, the softer the plastic, the more potentially dangerous it is. If it adds any taste or smell to the materials stored within it, then it probably isn’t a great choice. Most plastics aren’t going to just dissolve; if anything, they will grow slightly more rigid or become cloudy or hazy (rather than transparent). The more a plastic gets used, or the more harsh washings it endures, the more it may leach—it’s a cumulative thing. Chemicals used in plastic food packaging such as the estrogen-like compounds N-butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) and bisphenol A (BPA) have been shown in animal studies to alter gene expression. With BPA, levels equivalent to those that cause alterations in animals are far beneath the “safe exposure” level (50 mg/kg) currently established for humans in the United States (vom Saal & Hughes 2005), and a urine analysis study detected BPA in 95% of the 394 Americans whose piss was tested (Calafat et al. 2005)! This finding suggests that a large number of Americans are regularly (or almost continuously) exposed to BPA, due to the fact that it is completely metabolized within approximately 24 hours. Health concerns related to BPA include the speculation that it may increase the risk of developing certain types of cancer. When one considers the additional environmental impact of the huge quantity of plastic polluting the Pacific Ocean, covering an area twice the size of Texas (Casey 2007), it seems clear that we might want to start thinking about alternatives to plastic. While many people (including folks at the FDA) believe that hard plastics and nonreactives are safe, “safer” could end up being a better way of describing them; according to a friend at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, it seems that just as soon as people develop assays for detecting plasticizers, they start finding them leached from plastics (including from the so-called “nonreactives”).

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Particularly when employing solvents other than tepid or cold water, it may be a good idea to avoid using plastic extraction vessels, and one of ER’s editors pointedly refused to sample a friend’s hash, after watching it being produced in a PVC bucket using a paint stirrer on an electric drill to pound the pot (and the inside of the bucket) with ice and water. If one is aware of what it tastes like, the flavor of plastic may be discernible when it is tainting an extract. One can often taste it in hash oil that was extracted with butane using a plastic container. That oil so often tastes strongly of plastic, that we would recommend avoiding it entirely unless one explicitly knows how it was produced. Harsh solvents do tend to weaken some plastics and would cause them to leach into the extraction, as you witnessed with your friend’s DMT processing. On page 150, author J. Cocktoasten recommends using Nalgene plastic collection jars (rather than glass) during the freezer precipitation phase of the process, for ease of collecting the DMT. Because this part of the process targets a precipitate, and because the naphtha only remains in the plastic collection containers overnight, we are somewhat less concerned about the possibility of trace amounts of plasticizers ending up in the final product if this approach is taken. (It would obviously be more concerning if plastic extraction containers were used in a process where the solvent was simply allowed to evaporate off, in order to collect the extract.) Readers should be made aware that in April of 2008, Nalgene began to phase out production of BPA-containing polycarbonate containers. However, since some Nalgene on the market may still contain BPA, be certain to obtain the newer containers that are manufactured with Eastman’s Tritan™ copolyester. New plastic containers should be washed with a mild detergent solution prior to first use, and plastics showing wear or any change in appearance should be discarded. Although it may be a pain in the ass for some applications, glass is usually a safer choice. — Eds.

DEPRENYL & PHENETHYLAMINE On and off for a number of years I have taken the “smart drug” Deprenyl, which is easily obtained from overseas mail-order pharmacies. Quite a number of positive actions have been claimed for Deprenyl; along with making one’s brain sharper (it’s used in treating Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s) and extending one’s life-span, some users also find it to enhance sex and/or exert antidepressant effects.

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It has been suggested that healthy people using Deprenyl should take 5–10 mg, once a week, or every third day, or every other day, or daily, with one’s age determining frequency and dose (younger people don’t need as much as often). At 5–10 mg, Deprenyl acts as a selective MAO-B inhibitor, which means that one need not worry about the dietary restrictions required for MAO-A inhibitors or mixed MAO-A/B inhibitors. However, at higher doses (around 60 mg), Deprenyl inhibits both forms of MAO, in which case dietary restrictions should be followed. Although I have heard some people claim that Deprenyl is stimulating for them, this has never been the case for me, even when I have taken 10 mg, which is twice my normal dose. (One of Deprenyl’s metabolites is l-methamphetamine; although this isomer isn’t particularly psychoactive, and would be even less-so in the small amount produced by a dose of Deprenyl, there’s definitely enough of this metabolite to show up on a urine test.) About a decade ago, I heard tell of a psychonaut surprised to find himself on a much-extended smoked DMT trip. He later speculated that his expanded voyage was due to his consumption of Deprenyl, which he had taken earlier in the day and forgotten about. Interestingly, animal studies have found that the effects of 5-MeO-DMT are not increased by Deprenyl, indicating that 5-MeO-DMT is metabolized by MAO-A, rather than MAO-B; DMT, on the other hand, is suspected of being a substrate for both forms at lower concentrations, but having a greater affinity for MAO-B at higher concentrations (Squires 1975; Suzuki et al. 1981). I also have a vague recollection of hearing from someone who reported obtaining enhanced effects while on one of the 2C- compounds combined with Deprenyl. Alas, I was told both of these dope tales so long ago that I can’t remember them in much detail. Recently during a point of low energy, when I was struck by that “I need a new drug” feeling, my mind clicked back to these tales of potentiation, and I flashed on a bit of text from PIHKAL. I remembered Sasha had commented that doses of phenethylamine up to 1,600 mg had “no effects.” But he had also said, “Phenethylamine is intrinsically a stimulant, although it doesn’t last long



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enough to express this property. In other words, it is rapidly and completely destroyed in the human body.” Perhaps the combination of phenethylamine and Deprenyl might produce a useful stimulant? Hopping on the Internet, I saw mention of rat studies indicating that Deprenyl did indeed potentiate phenethylamine, producing stimulant effects. Further searching turned up a number of web site forums with people reporting the effects of their bioassays combining these two. One psychonaut opined, “Good lord, it’s meth. Weaker than the real thing, and the rushes are a bit too brief for my taste.” Several others compared the effects to MDMA, and most accounts seemed pretty positive. Could a beneficial “new drug” really be so simple to produce? I still had a bottle of Deprenyl on my shelf, and I easily located a supplement web site offering pure phenethylamine, so I placed an order and it arrived in a couple of days. Based on reading all of the trip reports I could find on-line, I decided to take 10 mg of Deprenyl and 1,000 mg of phenethylamine. This was, perhaps, a bold level to start off at. However, my goal was to avoid the dreaded underdose; I didn’t want to be left wondering whether or not I was actually feeling anything. But if I had not read reports of others taking this dose (and higher), I definitely would have started much lower and slowly worked up. The phenethylamine was beautifully crystalline, reminding me of mescaline sulfate in appearance. It tasted horrible, nasty and bitter, so I capped up my dose. At 4:30 pm I took the Deprenyl, and at 5:05 I took the phenethylamine (figuring that by then, the MAO-B inhibition probably would have kicked in). By 5:30 pm I was awash in waves of rushes that felt very strong, but which were not particularly enjoyable in nature. Sort of like if you took the physical feeling of coming on to MDMA, but entirely removed the blissful aspect. I was getting tingles along my scalp, and I wrote “STRONG!” in my notebook. I was also feeling a mild bit of nausea. I was somewhat surprised that the effects were so pronounced: this from a legal chemical and an easy-to-obtain pharmaceutical? Hard to believe. On the other hand, it wasn’t particularly fun. I was concerned that my blood pressure might be spik-

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ing, but I hadn’t thought to take my pressure before dosing (and I have no recollection what my normal pressure is), so I didn’t bother checking it. Also, by the time I started having concerns about my health, the rushes were already abating. By 5:50 pm, the effects were much less intense. By 6:15 pm, I was left feeling somewhat anxious and “off,” but was fairly near baseline. A low-level crappy feeling lasted for perhaps another hour. At no point did I feel any positive stimulation like methamphetamine, cocaine, or even caffeine would have given me. The effects didn’t lend themselves to getting a manic amount of work accomplished. It’s possible that I got to sleep a bit later that night than usual, but it certainly didn’t seem as though the materials kept me awake. I don’t particularly see ever wanting to take it again. The effects were short-lived and lacking any feeling of euphoria, while producing very mild nausea. Imagine the rush one gets from eating Chinese hot mustard or Japanese wasabi, minus any actual flavor enhancement. What’s the point? I can’t recommend that anyone try this combination, although for those inclined to do so anyhow, I would suggest using a lower dose of phenethylamine: maybe 700 mg. — Fork, CA

PEYOTE HARVESTS Readers may be interested in reviewing results from the first study of peyote regrowth following deliberate conscientious harvesting using good collection techniques. Initial results from what will be a four-year study can be found on-line at www.cactusconservation.org/Regrowth_2008.html.

CALIFORNIA BANS SALVIA SALES TO MINORS “Beginning January 1, 2009, it will be illegal to sell or distribute Salvia divinorum or salvinorin A, or any substance or material containing Salvia divinorum or salvinorin A, to any person under 18 years of age in California.” (Quoted from The Salvia divinorum Observer on yahoogroups.com, Dec. 27, 2008.)

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BUY SOME GLOVES! The following information is excerpted from a December 10, 2008 story on the Discovery Channel titled “Fingerprints Can Reveal Drug Use, Medical History” (see http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/12/10/fingerprint -drugs.html). “A careless touch could be all police or insurance companies need to determine not only your identity, but also your past drug use, if you’ve fired a gun or handled explosives, even specific medical conditions. “‘A fingerprint is only good to identify a criminal if you already have their fingerprint on file,’ said David Russell, a professor at the University of East Anglia, who, along with Pompi Hazarika, helped developed [a new analytical] technique. ‘This will give police new tools to help discover that identity.’ “For decades forensic scientists have dusted fingerprints with magnetic particles to reveal the hidden swirls and curls that differentiate each person on the planet. The iron oxide particles attach themselves to the tiny bits of water, minerals, and oils that accumulate on the fingers as they touch various objects and other parts of the body. “The new technique attaches the iron oxide particles to antibodies and suspends them both in a liquid solution, which is then drizzled over a fingerprint. If the chemical that a specific antibody targets is present, the molecules latch onto it and glow. “So far the scientists can detect five different drugs: THC (marijuana), cocaine, nicotine, methadone and a derivative of methadone. Other drugs, particularly opium-based drugs like [heroin] or morphine, should also be detectable, since antibodies already exist for them as well. […]” There’s more to the article on-line, but no information is provided regarding how long drug traces left in fingerprints remain detectable. — Eds.

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Sources by Jon Hanna and Will Beifuss I was surprised to hear from my friend and old coauthor Will Beifuss, shortly before the deadline to turn in the final “Sources” column, asking whether or not I could use some help in generating content. Being the lazy son-of-a-bitch that I am, I was happy to agree to such a reunion—signing off as the same team that we started out as. Happy, that is, until I started having to pester him to get something written. “I need to get to bed, my brain is shutting down,” Will bemoaned at only 2:30 am. What a baby! Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading Will’s contribution related to organizations involved with ayahuasca tourism. (His list is not comprehensive, since numerous similar organizations have been mentioned in previous columns; he’s only covered operations that are new or have escaped mention in past issues.) Thanks, Will, for showing up at the retirement party. — J.H.

DONNA TORRES [email protected] www.donnatorres.com Donna Torres is the brilliant visionary artist whose work is featured on the cover of this issue of ER. Her paintings have appeared on the covers of Jonathan Ott’s books and within the pages of the new edition of Schultes & Hofmann’s classic Plants of the Gods; but until recently, the only web-based collection of her work available was from the 1999 Visions that the Plants Gave Us exhibition at the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, posted at http:// web.stlawu.edu/gallery/dtorres.htm. Thankfully, more access to her images is now available via her own web site. In contrast to the swirling geometric abstractions that dominate the work of many artists inspired by psychedelics, Torres takes a narrative approach in much of her art. She has traveled the world, extensively studying ancient and contemporary shamanic cultures, and she uses these ethnographic influences as inspiration, allowing her to examine

the relationships developed through the use of inebriating plants. Torres’ work showcases her fierce command of color. She contrasts bright pure colors with equally saturated but muted colors, producing results that are vivid but in no way garish (like some psychedelic art can be). Torres currently teaches botanical illustration at Fairchild Tropical Garden. In addition, through the Indigenous Botanical Illustration Project, she sporadically holds botanical illustration classes for students in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. During August 5–18, 2009—in Florianópolis, Brazil—Torres will be presenting a lecture about her work in Chile titled “Preserving Indigenous Plant Traditions: Botanical Illustration in the Atacama Desert.” She will also be leading an art workshop titled “Visualizing Nature: Capturing the Human/Plant Connection in Graphite and Watercolor. The lecture and workshop are part of a gathering titled “Psychoactive Substances and Art Through History.” Other presenters include Christian Rätsch, Claudia Müller-Ebeling, and Manuel Torres, and the event will be held at the Wasiwaska Research Centre for the Study of Psychointegrator Plants, Visionary Art, and Consciousness. For more information, see www.wasiwaska.org.

GARDEN OF EDEN Snu Voogelbreinder [email protected] http://trout.yage.net/sc/snu.html Garden of Eden is a long-awaited compendium of psychoactive plants and animals, describing their use in shamanism and other forms of therapy. Author Snu Voogelbreinder discusses hundreds of genera in varying levels of detail, covering ethnobotanical uses, chemical content, taxonomic synonyms, botanical and zoological descriptions, cultivation techniques, methods of collecting, process-

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ing and consuming plant material, and more. Additional information is presented in related areas such as endogenous neurochemistry, and the nature of psychedelic experiences. Numerous black & white illustrations and an extensive bibliography round out this book, which makes a fine complement to other classics of the genre, such as Christian Rätsch’s Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, Jonathan Ott’s Pharmacotheon, and the various Trout’s Notes. Garden of Eden is expected to be available in early 2009 (it should be at the printer by the time you are reading this) and will be produced as a hardcover limited edition volume. Unfortunately, the price was not yet determined when this preview was written, but it looks to be a massive tome. Until a dedicated web site has been set up to handle orders, those interested in the book can send an e-mail to the address listed above to be notified of its release date, and more information can also be found at the URL listed.

SCROOGLE www.scroogle.org Many people, readers of The Entheogen Review included, have concerns about retaining their privacy during the increasingly invasive digital age. Cameras attach a myriad of traceable data to each photo taken, iTunes timestamps the last moment you played a song, and cell phone forensic specialists can lock-down your mobile and make it regurgitate information about every call and text it has ever made or received (even if you have trashed the original files). If it isn’t already being done, it doesn’t seem paranoid to think that ATM check scanners could be configured to record the serial numbers of any cash deposited in them, allowing for the tracking of specific bills. (“Where did you say you got this $20 again, Mr. Beifuss?”) And don’t get us started on RFID.



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might make folks seriously consider not sending e-mail to anyone using a Gmail account.) One common concern is all of the data collected when one uses a search engine. The über cautious web surfer may visit a library or cyber café to perform their searches (but don’t think that someone else hanging out in a public place might not remember your face). Ultimately, it is probably safe to assume that at some point, if they have enough interest, the government will be able to get access to many of the digital fingerprints you’ve carelessly left around for businesses to collect. Which brings us to Scroogle.org. We only just learned about this web site by seeing it mentioned in Zhah’s article on page 132. Created by Google critic Daniel Brandt, Scroogle ponies up the first 100 responses to your search term(s) from Google, while stopping Google from downloading any cookies and blocking them from seeing your IP address. Google can no longer tell that multiple searches were conducted by the same person. As the interface between you and Google, Scroogle parses the file and sends you the results, sans cookies, minus advertisements, and without saving a record of search terms. Hit results are retained for less than an hour, and all of their logs are deleted within 48 hours. According to their site, “Every day Scroogle crumbles 200,000 cookies and blocks a million ads.” While we applaud the tool (and believe it to be legit), a streak of paranoia did strike us when first reading about the service: What if “Daniel Brandt” is just a fiction, and this site is actually run by a government agency that cleverly figured out a way to quickly concentrate search engine results on people who felt like they had something to hide? Such a thought might send some people back to those library computers. As a funny side-note, be sure to use the “org” ending for Scroogle, as “Scroogle.com” will land yer ass at a soft-core pornography site.

A friend using Gmail occasionally forwards the list of content-targeted advertisements generated by Gmail’s scanning of our discussion for keywords. It’s fucking scary. Mention DMT, and adverts pop up enticing you to purchase Mimosa hostilis. (Which

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SPICE: CHEMISTRY AND BANS In June 2007 I had the opportunity to try a new commercially available herbal smoking blend called “Spice” (no relation to the slang term “spice” used for DMT). The product is sold in a regular strength and a “gold” variety, supposed to be more potent. It claims to be composed of the herbs baybean, blue lotus, dwarf scullcap, Indian warrior, lion’s tail, maconha brava, marshmallow, pink lotus, red clover, rose, Siberian motherwort, vanilla, and honey. The effects were said to be “Cannabis-like,” yet none of the ingredients listed strike me as being very likely to produce such effects. When I smoked some of the “gold” variety, I found the high to be extremely similar to Cannabis. However, while I consider Cannabis to have many subtle “notes” to its effects, Spice was predominantly a single-note product. It was not unpleasant at all, but I’ve only used it a few times (mainly while introducing others to it, to elicit their opinions on its effects), and the foil sack containing the product remains mostly full. For some years there has been speculation that the laundry list of herbs is a ruse, and the product’s actual active ingredient is some synthetic cannabinoid that the herbs have been dosed with. This theory was supported by the fact that the product manufacturer created a selfimposed ban prohibiting sales to the United States, where the product might be considered illegal under the controlled substance analogue laws. (However, some retailers of Spice have ignored this ban, selling to folks in the United States.) An Erowid-sponsored analysis of Spice, conducted by Drug Detection Labs, turned up no positive hits for any known controlled substance; nevertheless, any analogue could have slipped past unnoticed. Since Spice obtained rave reviews after entering the market, a few other herb vendors have produced copycat products, basing their blends on Spice’s listed ingredients. Interestingly, the manufacturer of Spice has repeated the same story to several people, stating that he is not worried about copycat products, because it took him so long to learn how to grow one of the Spice ingredient plants in such a way that it produced high enough amounts of a particular psychoactive chemical. While that could be true, it also could be a disinformation myth “explaining” why competitors’ products don’t work, with the real reason being



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because the competitors aren’t spiking their Spice with a synthetic cannabinoid. In one case, a disgruntled ex-partner of Spice’s manufacturer (who said that he had been told by the manufacturer that the product was laced with a synthetic cannabinoid) voiced the idea of marketing his own product that would also be sold using the name Spice, to both exploit and undermine the newly created market for Spice (since his product would not have any synthetic cannabinoid on it), thereby exacting his revenge on the manufacturer. On the one hand, we applaud the makers of Spice for producing the only reasonably effective Cannabis substitute I have ever tried. On the other hand, if the product is mislabled and contains some untested synthetic chemical, then every Spice user has become an unwitting guinea pig. The other huge drawback related to Spice is its cost, as it basically sells for the same price that Cannabis does. Since, for me at least, the effects are somewhat less enjoyable than actual Cannabis, due to the lack of complexity to the high, I am less likely to use this product. However, the fact that it isn’t explicitly illegal means that one could travel with it, or even smoke it in public, and have little fear of being arrested. Particularly if one is not able to score any Cannabis, Spice seems like a simple solution. So there are definitely some benefits to Spice. Three recent analyses of Spice identified three different synthetic chemicals, resulting in two countries banning the product and U.S. Customs seizing a shipment. A December 15, 2008 news article states that a German pharmaceutical company identified the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-018 in a sample of Spice. Responding to this finding, a December 18 article says that Austria banned Spice. A January 15, 2009 article says that U.S. Customs agents seized more than 100 pounds of Spice, and that the product contained the synthetic chemical HU-210, which is said to be 100 to 800 times more potent than THC. Most recently, a January 21 article titled “Germany Bans Cannabis-Like Drug Spice” says that analysis found that Spice contains the synthetic cannabinoid CP-47,497, which the article implies is up to four times stronger than THC. It would appear as though the manufacturer

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of Spice has been rotating the use of different synthetic THC-like chemicals in different batches of their product. (No tests so far have shown more than one such chemical in any batch tested.) Links to the above articles and additional info about Spice is now available on Erowid; see www.erowid.org/ spice. Interestingly, the URL found on my package of Spice, www.thepsychedeli.co.uk., no longer connects to the manufacturer.

After a few bum batches, I developed an insurance policy against weak brew. I made sure to always bring my trusty DMT pipe with me, so that if I found myself on a low earth orbit a couple of hours after imbibing, a toke or two would instantly transport me across the universe. It would probably be more prudent to orally ingest the DMT, so as to have a more gradual lift-off. But after sitting around in the dark for a few hours waiting for the floor show to begin, my impatience was understandable.

AYAHUASCA TOURISM

There is no way to be certain that the brew used at any of the following retreats is strong, unless you know someone who has attended one of them and they can vouch for it. As with all things, caveat emptor.

Ah yes, ayahuasca tourism; I have mixed feelings about these endeavors. On the one hand, you are not going to leave a very polite carbon footprint traveling so far to ingest your yagé. But these trips are about a lot more than the actual ceremonies, and if you return as a less crass, venal, and materialistic person, then they are certainly worthwhile. Terence McKenna once said to me, “It’s all about the brew. If it is potent, you are good to go. If it isn’t, all you are left with is a weird social experiment.” I couldn’t agree more. Regardless of how nice a group of participants you may have fallen in with at a retreat, you don’t want to find yourself sitting around in a circle at night expecting a Pablo Amaringo painting to materialize in front of your eyes, and getting little more than a woozy feeling and leaky anus, with no visuals from a brew that is heavy on the b-carbolines and light on the DMT. Sadly, this is the case with bad brew; they use plenty of Banisteriopsis caapi and far too little Psychotria viridis. I think some shamans do this in order to make their jobs easier: a room full of gringos loaded on b-carbolines is a pretty sedate, easy-to-babysit bunch. But if the brew has plenty of chacruna in it, things can get dicey as the less experienced voyagers get into deeper psychic water than they are used to swimming in. I have attended ceremonies where the brew was practically devoid of DMT, but packed a soporific punch from plenty of vine. Yet even so, some of the novice participants shared fantastical voyages the next day that would make Fitz Hugh Ludlow proud—just another example of the power of the placebo effect.

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Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism [email protected] www.shamanism.co.uk (415) 508-3975 One of their more compelling retreats features the well-known artist Pablo Amaringo, and will take place within the Allpahuayo Mishana Nature reserve in the Amazon. During the days, Pablo will lead a hands-on art workshop where participants can learn Pablo’s techniques for visionary painting. Every night there will be an ayahuasca ceremony led by Shipibo shamans. Check out the YouTube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=beOOZqPDcgA. Strangely, on one spot of their web site they say this event will be held July 25—August 5, 2009 and at another spot they say it will be held August 1–12. Those interested in attending should e-mail them to resolve this discrepancy. El Mundo Magico Flat 5, 8 Queen’s Road, Lexden, Colchester, Essex, CO3 3NP UNITED KINGDOM [email protected] www.ayahuasca-shamanism.co.uk Offers ayahuasca ceremonies in the Amazon and San Pedro rituals in the Andes. You can schedule a visit any time you want, to either the Peruvian Andes or the Amazon. Their ceremonies are on-

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going regularly. One week is the minimum stay, sixteen weeks is the maximum. Cost for the Amazon is $846 per week; check their web site for the cost in the Andes. Heart of the Initiate Bahia, Brazil (702) 966-1260 www.heartoftheinitiate.com/workshops/brazil/ ayahuasca Offers one- and two-week workshops along the coast of Bahia, about 700 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. Each workshop includes three ayahuasca ceremonies. Dates are March 21–28 and March 31—April 7, 2009. Cost is $2,582 per week, not including airfare. From their web site photos, the accommodations appear to be of a higher quality than those offered by the other retreat centers. Refugio Altiplano Raimondi 171 Iquitos PERU U.S. contact: John Welch [email protected] www.refugioaltiplano.org This place has ayahuasca front and center in their activities. They have ceremonies five nights a week, and you can participate as often as you like. Accomadations are rustic, but you’re not going to the Amazon to stay in a Holiday Inn. On their web site they claim, “From extensive experience in participating in ayahuasca ceremonies in areas throughout the Amazon, we believe one cannot find a more consistent and powerful medicine than that produced at the Refugio.” You can visit anytime, at a cost of $160 per night, but they ask that you try to make a reservation a couple of months in advance. SpiritQuest [email protected] www.biopark.org/peru/ayahuasca-spiritquest.html SpiritQuest offers ten-day retreats at their property on the Rio Momon outside Iquitos, Peru. Their next event will be held June 14–24, 2009. Retreats are limited to twelve people. 



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Book Reviews Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten by James S. Ketchum. M.D. 2006. (ChemBooks, 2304 Fairbanks Drive, Santa Rosa, CA, 95403, forgottensecrets.net) ISBN 978-1-42430080-8 [8.5" x 11" hardcover $59.95; PDF $24.95], 360 pages with many color photographs.

This is a quirky book. People looking for a continuation or closure of the stories spun in Acid Dreams or Storming Heaven may be disappointed with its honest candor, and its lack of sensationalism or apologies. But for myself, as a longtime fan of psychopharmacology and its history, Chemical Warfare was an eye-opener that steadily corrected a huge number of misconceptions that I had long held about the Edgewood Arsenal and its nonlethal incapacitating weapons program. The picture Ketchum paints is exciting, entertaining, and—perhaps most remarkably—very human. It’s a picture that doesn’t focus solely on the test subjects; it also introduces the intriguing individuals involved with designing the test programs. For example, Ketchum’s boss, Van M. Sim, consistently expresses his eager willingness to ingest seemingly every drug or poison they experiment with (including nerve gas), simply to be able to fully understand them and their actions. This curiosity, this need to learn through first-hand experience, shows that Sim possesses the rare character of a great scientist. Perhaps most important as historical correction is the author’s insistence that not only were his participants fully informed volunteers, but they actually enjoyed their experiences to such a degree that many of them expressed a desire to participate again in more experiments in the future. Ketchum ex-

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plains that the commonly used phrase “unwitting guinea pig” in no way applied to the brave soldiers who chose of their own free will to take part in the Army’s drug tests; guinea pigs don’t have any choice in their situation. Over the years, “government experiments” on soldiers have frequently all been lumped under the same umbrella by the popular media, who imply an abuse of human rights. Ketchum draws a brightline distinction between the work he was conducting at Edgewood, and the unethical CIA activities involving entirely uninformed subjects—activities that Ketchum was willing to testify against to the United States Congress. After filling readers in with some details of his personal background, we are treated to an engaging story—illustrated with photos from Ketchum’s archives—that colorfully reflects an insider’s view of life at Edgewood. Beginning with an intimate history of the site, Ketchum then moves into detailed descriptions of the structure of its research projects: from their inception through their implementation, covering their targeted objectives and the challenges they encountered. Along the way, Ketchum provides fascinating peeks at several important contributors to modern psychopharmacology, such as George Aghajanian, who discovered the mechanism by which LSD produces its psychoptic effects. One noteworthy service of the book is to dispel the mythology that our fear-mongering culture spins around nerve gases. Ketchum points out these are not gases; rather, they are aerosols, which are poorly delivered under field conditions. He is no doubt right that this underlies the infrequency of their actual use. Should you ever be in a nerve gas attack and find yourself alive, Ketchum’s advice is not to panic. If you aren’t already dead, you very likely aren’t going to die. (His recommendation to those who get VX on themselves is to scrape it off promptly and go wash with soap and water. He even offers an amusing suggestion that VX is an ideal antidote to use medicinally for scopolamineinduced delirium, commenting that, “The bottom line is that nerve-agent type drugs are effective antidotes for BZ-like drugs, and vice versa!)

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A wry sense of humor is peppered throughout. For instance, with regard to Albert Hofmann’s first acid trip, Ketchum remarks: “Although this event is periodically celebrated by his admirers, prefacing great historic events with the consumption of 250 mcg. of LSD would probably be a bad idea.” Ketchum could have taken the easy way out and focused entirely on the data produced by Edgewood’s programs: test results; trip reports; activity, pharmacology, toxicity, and duration profiles of the chemicals they studied; their merits as incapacitating agents; potential antidotes; descriptions of experimental designs; performance abilities while inebriated; the structure of their staff support; drug ward design; etc. And while, in reality, he does include all of those things, they are presented within a framework of the human forces and motivations shaping and driving his world—not simply within Edgewood, but also within the complex larger body of politics surrounding the Vietnam War era. Most notably, this is shown through the manner in which public sentiment and society’s negative view of the military interest in chemical warfare played a role that led to the end of Ketchum’s programs at Edgewood. Despite all that Ketchum covered, I was surprised to discover how intensely this book left me wanting to learn more. Due to the secrecy still surrounding this subject, even with everything left unsaid, I suspect that Chemical Warfare probably contains about as much as most of us will ever be able to learn. Sadly, “the whole story” will likely never be told. But we are lucky to at least have the glimpse that Ketchum provides us. — K. Trout

Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America by Constantino Manuel Torres and David B. Repke. 2006. (The Haworth Press, Inc., part of the Taylor & Francis Group, Ltd., taylorandfrancis.com) ISBN 978-0-78902641-5 (hc), 978-0-7890-2642-2 (pb) [6" x 8.5" hardcover $95.00, paperback $39.95], 256 pages.

Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America by Constantino Manuel Torres and David B. Repke is an exhaustive overview detailing the

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botany, geography, history, mythology, archeology, chemistry, and pharmacology of this widely used entheogen. Although there has been some debate regarding the nature of the effects of bufotenine (the primary constituent in Anadenanthera-based snuffs), as Sasha Shulgin remarks in his foreword, “This book neatly summarizes all [the] earlier published data and brings it up to date. The inescapable conclusion—bufotenine is indeed a psychoactive alkaloid.” Following a taxonomic overview, presenting botanical synonyms and indigenous names for the genus Anadenanthera (which contains two species and two subspecies), Torres and Repke jump into the history of Anadenanthera preparations. They draw from early colonial writings chronicling entheobotanical rituals and/or recording assorted cultures’ myths related to such use, paraphernalia (snuff tubes and trays, pipes, enema syringes, and vessels still containing snuff powder), and artistic depictions of snuffing implements or of Anadenanthera plants. An appendix provides references related to archeological evidence for 57 indigenous groups who have used Anadenanthera, mostly as a snuff, occasionally smoked, and rarely as an enema or potion. Specifics for numerous groups known or believed to have used Anadenanthera seeds are discussed, relating geographic details where each group resided. (Since my knowledge of geography is lacking, I appreciated the four maps that the authors included.) The book is considerably enhanced by 59 highquality black & white plates, 41 of which contain photographs. Many of the remaining plates are attractive pen-and-ink drawings by Donna Torres. The plates are collected together in the center of the book, and this arrangement (while no doubt practical for printing reasons) provokes my first minor complaint. References to the images were so frequent throughout the text, that I was forever flipping back and forth to view what was being discussed. Nevertheless, the inclusion of so many wonderful images was particularly appreciated during the speculations related to how specific iconography and mythos could have transfered between groups in different geographic areas that may have traded in snuffs or seeds.



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One ethnographic tale explained how the Taíno (living on the north cost of Hispaniola) were instructed, by taking snuff, on the proper manner in which to carve wooden idols of zemís, the supernatural beings central to their spiritual lives. Certainly, when one sees some of the imagery decorating the paraphernalia and sculpture of the cultures who used tryptaminic snuffs, it is easy to suspect that the visionary states they entered impacted the art they produced. Some of the weird little dudes and patterns depicted seem to be straight out of my own DMT visions (or those of the psychedelic artist Keiichi Tanaami). Near the end of the book, a trip report from Christian Rätsch echoes this idea. Regarding his bioassay of a snuff made from Anadenanthera colubrina var. cebil, Rätsch remarks: A rushing tumult of patterns poured across my visual field. Every point was the source of streams and rivers of braided ropes of light. These braided and unbraided themselves in a vast tangle. All this took place at breakneck speed. A panorama of flowing designs—the exact patterns depicted in the nimbus surrounding the head of the Chavín deity! I marveled for minutes at the interlocking tessellation of these geometric shapes. They possessed a multiple interlocking penetrated arrangement which matched the characteristic style of Tiahuanaco artwork. At that moment I was convinced that the Tiahuanaco artists used this snuff to inspire their work.

Some accounts of ethnographic use quaintly reflect the biases of their authors, such as this excerpt from La Condamine, who explored the Amazon in 1743, and described snuff use by the Omagua. Discussing the ground, roasted Anadenanthera seeds, Condamine remarked: They cause inebriation lasting 24 hours, during which it is pretended that [the Omagua] have strange visions. […The snuffing], followed by a violent inspiration, causes them to make diverse grimaces.

Similarly, I smiled on reading the following words written by the Jesuit priest Pedro Lozano, sometime in the early 1700s, who described the use of cebil by the Lule:

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…these powders are so potent, that [they] deprive [the Lule] of their judgment, inebriated they begin to jump and bounce in an open space, screaming and howling, and singing with dissonant voices…

The book presents a brief accounting of commercial applications for Anadenanthera (the bark and seed pods contain tannins used for treating leather, and the tree itself is a source of lumber), and then moves into a discussion of the difficulties inherent in chemotaxonomy. The reader is presented with the history of chemical analyses of the plant, the sometimes conflicting findings, and speculations related to the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in plants (and the challenges of precursor loading and radiolabeling techniques in determining routes of biosynthesis). Torres and Repke close out their presentation of this genus with an in-depth look at the pharmacology of bufotenine, starting with animal experiments. I was intrigued to learn that a study of assorted psychedelics on rats and mice showed that bufotenine reduced aggression, while ibogaine increased muricide (rat murder). I was also surprised to learn that bufotenine is one of several compounds produced in the leaves of the mandarin orange that contribute to egglaying behavior in swallowtail butterflies, who feed on this plant’s leaves. This situation seems to fly in the face of the idea that plants might create bufotenine as an antifeedant, which is one theory as to why plants produce alkaloids in the first place. Many other animal studies related to bufotenine are covered, and the problems of extrapolating data from rat studies to humans are explained, before the authors move on to describe the known human pharmacology of bufotenine. Within a discussion of the evolution of receptor site theory, Torres and Repke caution that the same problem of synonymy encountered in botany can be found with names of receptors. They also remark that, “Although receptor-mediated events may be part of the spectrum of the action of these drugs, it is more likely that they precipitate a series of neurochemical events that might be called a neuronal cascade.” Then they pony up some evidence supporting such a viewpoint.

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Roles that bufotenine may have within mental disease are noted. Although I had previously read about the theory regarding bufotenine’s possible role in schizophrenia (due to it being excreted in the urine of schizophrenics), I had somehow missed more recent work from 1995, that reported bufotenine being consistently found at higher levels in the urine of autistic patients. Past and recent human bioassays are described, including the ethically dubious experiments conducted on prisoners and mental patients. The authors muse over the impact that such studies, as well as the speculation that bufotenine could be an indigenous psychotoxin, had on the public perception of bufotenine (describing bufotenine as the “‘black sheep’ of the tryptamine family”). In their conclusions, they mention Jonathan Ott’s bioassays of bufotenine free-base. And a description of the effects that Torres obtained from snuffing 100 mg of this compound confirms, without question, the psychoactive nature of bufotenine. I’ll admit that my eyes glazed over a bit while reading that part of the text dealing with receptor site binding. And I suppose that I wouldn’t have minded seeing a few photographs of the assorted indigenous people in South America who still employ visionary snuffs, to add some human faces to the groups being discussed. Yet, as I look out my office window at the Anadenanthera tree in my front yard—only five feet tall, thin and bent, struggling to survive in a too-cold climate—perhaps the only thing that I really felt was missing in Torres and Repke’s otherwise comprehensive book was a map that presented the natural habitat for each of the Anadenanthera species. All in all, this is as solid a reference book as I can possibly imagine, and one which should grace the shelves of every entheophile’s library. — Jon Hanna

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Farewell and Thanks! by David Aardvark and Keeper Trout

There are many ways in which to learn about the world. To crib a turn of phrase from Dale Pendell, we’ve taken the “poison path.” Gazing out through the window of psychoactive drugs, we’ve encountered a myriad of disciplines—anthropology, history, botany, chemistry, pharmacology, sociology, public policy, psychology, spirituality, religion, law—and we’ve ended up with a pretty wellrounded education. “Drugs” did that. Drugs taught us. Intrigued by their effects on our minds, we became more inspired to use our minds to learn as much as we could. As many times as we may have considered producing The Entheogen Review to be a labor of love over the course of the last decade, now that the end has come, another viewpoint on it comes into sharp focus. Subscribers and contributors to The Entheogen Review have given us an incredible gift. By supporting our work on this project, you’ve helped to educate us. Ten years in the underground college. (And still no degrees to show for it!) If you are reading this, thank you. When discussing with Trout what he might want to say in our final remarks, he responded: I’m unclear what to say in a farewell commentary, as most of my thanks would be to you. Not just for making anything I did for ER better, but for constantly improving what I did outside of ER, due to the feedback received on ER projects. It’s been a seriously fun ride.

Right back at ya, Trout. I can’t count the number of times that Trout saved my bacon on some point that I had gotten entirely wrong, or contributed the facts necessary to flesh out an editorial remark or article, or provided the perfect citation to support the data that we published. Through our collaboration, Trout’s love of learning rubbed off on me. But much more valuable than gaining an education, I gained a friend. On reading these comments, Trout assured me that the feeling was mutual.

Over the years, the countless letters and notes of appreciation from subscribers fed our spirits; the trip tales, tried-and-true teks, questions, and answers, filled our pages. We greatly appreciate the myriad experts in the field, who took the time to answer questions when we were lost. Particular thanks are due to a few individuals who went out of their way for the project. We are extremely grateful for the financial support of the late Bob Wallace, who helped bring The Entheogen Review to a larger audience via his company Mind Books, and who donated $5,000 to keep the project afloat during financially lean times. Similar thanks go to John G., for donating $2,000 toward the purchase of some much-needed new office equipment. And to all of the other subscribers, who gave extra when possible, from $5 to $1,000, thank you for your generosity. Those who wrote semi-regular columns or repeatedly contributed articles over the years— Will Beifuss, Richard Glen Boire, Gwyllm, Jon Hanna, R. Stuart, and Toad—you had our backs. The late Carla Higdon was a tireless champion of ER; we miss her terribly. Friends and colleagues who offered encouragement and inspiration over the years: Earth and Fire Erowid, Rick Doblin, FunGal, Alex Grey, Tania, Munko, Jonathan Ott, Nick Sand, Sasha and Ann Shulgin, and Sylvia Thyssen. Our copy editor, E.V. Love, whose sharp eyes, good grammar, and topical knowledge improved the publication in countless ways. Special thanks are due to Helen, for mail forwarding, processing, and financial support, and to Melissa Irwin, who David loves best. Finally, a tall glass of kudos to Jim DeKorne, the visionary who started it all. This is far from being an ending for us. Rather, it represents new beginnings. There is so much more literature available on the topic of entheogens today than when ER began in 1992, and there is no shortage of high-quality information posted on the Internet. In many ways, things are looking up. Viva la Entheogenic Reformation! 

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Dick, L. 2007. “The Jerk,” House M.D. Heel and Toe Films, NBC Universal Television. Djerassi, C. et al. 1955. “Terpenoids. XI. Investigation of Nine Cactus Species. Isolation of Two New Triterpenes, Stellatogenin and Machaeric Acid,” Journal of the American Chemical Society 77(5): 1200– 1203. Doblin, R. 1991. “Pahnke’s ‘Good Friday Experiment’: A Long-term Follow-up and Methodological Critique,” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 23(1): 1–28. Ellis, H. 1902. “Mescal—The Divine Plant,” Popular Science Monthly 51(1): 52–71. Emboden, W.A. 1972. Narcotic Plants. The Macmillan Co. Fowler, A. 2008 (April 28). “The Miracle Berry,” BBC News Magazine on-line, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ uk_news/magazine/7367548.stm.



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Holmstedt, B. and J-E. Lindgren 1967. “Chemical Constituents and Pharmacology of South American Snuffs,” pp. 339–373 in D.H. Efron et al. (eds.) Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (Proceedings of a Symposium held in San Francisco, CA, January 28–30, 1967). Public Health Service Publication No. 1645, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Hryhorczuk, L.M. et al. 1986. “A New Metabolic Pathway for N,N-dimethyltryptamine,” Biological Psychiatry 21(1): 84–93. Hunt, D. 2006. New Cactus Lexicon (two volumes). International Cactaceae Systematics Group. Hylin, J.W. and D.P. Watson 1965. “Ergoline Alkaloids in Tropical Wood Roses,” Science 148(3669) 499–500. Kaplow, L. 2006. “Distractions,” House M.D. Heel and Toe Films, NBC Universal Television.

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Kloos, P. 1968. Becoming a Pïyei: Variability and Similarity in Carib Shamanism. Caribe de Antropologia y Sociologia de la Fundacion La Salle de Ciencias Naturales.

Gruber, J.W. et al. 1999. “High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Quantification of Salvinorin A from Tissues of Salvia divinorum Epling & JátivaM,” Phytochemical Analysis 10: 22–25.

Lee, D.Y. et al. 2005. “Synthesis and in vitro Pharmacological Studies of New C(2) Modified Salvinorin A Analogues,” Bioorg Med Chem Lett 15: 3744– 3747.

Harrison, K. 2000. “The Leaves of the Shepherdess,” in C. Palmer and M. Horowitz (eds.) Sisters of the Extreme: Women Writing on the Drug Experience. Park Street Press.

Lee, S-J. et al. 2000. “Phenolics with Inhibitory Activity on Mouse Brain Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) from Whole Parts of Artemisia vulgaris L (Mugwort),” Food Science and Biotechnology 9(3): 179–182.

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Ling, T.M. and J. Buckman. 1960. “The Use of Lysergic Acid in Individual Psychotherapy,” Proc R Soc Med 53: 927–929. May, A. et al. 1998. “Hypothalamic Activation in Cluster Headache Attacks,” Lancet 352(9124): 275– 278.

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Munro, T.A. et al. 2008. “Standard Protecting Groups Create Potent and Selective Kappa Opioids: Salvinorin B Alkoxymethyl Ethers,” Bioorg Med Chem 16: 1279–1286, www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ articlerender.fcgi?artid=2568987. Ohenoja, E. et al. 1987. “The Occurrence of Psilocybin and Psilocin in Finnish Fungi,” Journal of Natural Products 50(4): 741–744. Ogalde, J.P. et al. 2007. “Prehistoric Psychotropic Consumption in Andean Chilean Mummies,” Nature Precedings. Posted Dec. 3, 2007, http:// precedings.nature.com/documents/1368/version/1. Ogalde, J.P. et al. 2009. “Identification of Psychoactive Alkaloids in Ancient Andean Human Hair by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry,” Journal of Archaeological Science, 36(2): 467–472. Ortega, A. et al. 1982. “Salvinorin, a New Transneoclerodane Diterpene from Salvia divinorum (Labiatae), J Chem Soc, Perkin Trans 1: 2505–2508. Ott, J. 1995a. “Ethnopharmacognosy and Human Pharmacology of Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A,” Curare 18(1): 103–129. Ott, J. 1995b. “Salvia divinorum Epling et Játiva (Foglie della Pastora / Leaves of the Shepherdess),” Eleusis 4(April / April): 31–39. Ott, J. 1996. Personal communication with Jon Hanna. Oxford University 2008a. Safety Data for Propanone. The Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University, http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/PR/ propanone.html. Oxford University 2008b. Safety Data for Ethyl Alcohol, Absolute (200 Proof). The Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University, http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/ET/ethyl_alcohol.html. Perrine, D. 2001. “Visions of the Night—Western Medicine Meets Peyote, 1887–1899,” The Heffter Review of Psychedelic Research 2: 6–52.

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Prentiss, D.W. and F.P. Morgan. 1896. Mescal Buttons: Anahalonium Lewinii—Hennings (Lophophora Williamsii Lewinii—Coulter). The Publisher’s Printing Co. Prisinzano, T. and R. Rothman 2008. “Salvinorin A Analogs as Probes in Opioid Pharmacology,” Chem Rev 108: 1732–1743. Puca, F. 2003. “In Memory of Professor Federigo Sicuteri,” The Journal of Headache and Pain 4(2): 98. Richards W.A. et al. 1977. “The Peak Experience Variable in DPT-assisted Psychotherapy with Cancer Patients,” Journal of Psychedelic Drugs 9: 1–10. Ritter, F. 1981. “Peru,” Kakteen in Südamerika, Vol. 4. F. Ritter/Selbstverlag. Rodd, R. 2002. “Snuff Synergy: Preparation, Use and Pharmacology of Yopo and Banisteriopsis caapi Among the Piaroa of Southern Venezuela,” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 34(3): 273–279. Roth, B.L. et al. 2002. “Salvinorin A: A Potent Naturally Occurring Nonnitrogenous Kappa Opioid Selective Agonist,” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99(18): 11934–11939. Russo, E.B. 1992. “Headache Treatments by Native Peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Preliminary Cross-disciplinary Assessment,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 36(3): 193–206. Salvia Authors 2006. The Community Salvia divinorum FAQ, Version 1.3, www.erowid.org/ plants/salvia/salvia_faq.shtml. Schultes, R.E. et al. 1977. “De Plantis Toxicariis e Mundo Novo Tropicale Commentationes XVIII. Phytochemical Examination of Spruce’s Ethnobotanical Collection of Anadenanthera peregrina,” Botanical Museum Leaflets. Harvard University 25(10): 273– 287. Sewell, R.A. et al. 2006. “Response of Cluster Headache to Psilocybin and LSD,” Neurology 66(12): 1920–1922.

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Shirota, O. et al. 2006. “Neo-clerodane Diterpenes from the Hallucinogenic Sage Salvia divinorum,” Journal of Natural Products 69: 1782–1786. Shulgin, A.T. and A. Shulgin 1991. PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. Transform Press. Shulgin, A.T. et al. 1986. “A Protocol for the Evaluation of New Psychoactive Drugs in Man,” Meth and Find Exptl Clin Pharmacol 8(5): 313–320. Schultes, R.E. 1938. “The Appeal of Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) as a Medicine,” American Anthropologist 40(4, part 1): 698–715. Sicuteri, F. 1963. “Prophylactic Treatment of Migraine by Means of Lysergic Acid Derivatives,” Triangle 67: 116–25. Siebert, D. 1994. “Salvia divinorum and Salvinorin A: New Pharmacological Findings,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 43: 53–56. Siebert, D. 2007. Personal communication.



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Sphere 2006b. Salvia divinorum Extractions Using Chilled Acetone, http://photos.imageevent.com/ sphere/salvinorincrystals/9Chilled_acetone_ extraction.pdf. Squires, R.F. 1975. “Evidence that 5-methoxy-N, Ndimethyl-tryptamine is a Specific Substrate for MAO-A in the Rat: Implications for the Indoleamine Dependent Behavioural Syndrome,” J Neurochem 24(1): 47–50. Stevens, J. 1987. Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream. Harper and Row. Sun, H.J. et al. 2006. “Functional Expression of the Taste-modifying Protein, Miraculin, in Transgenic Lettuce,” FEBS Lett 580(2): 620-626. Suzuki, O. et al. 1981. “Characterization of Eight Biogenic Indoleamines as Substrates for Type A and Type B Monoamine Oxidase,” Biochem Pharmacol 30: 1353–1358.

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Wang, Y. et al. 2008. “2-Methoxymethyl-Salvinorin B is a Potent Kappa Opioid Receptor Agonist with Longer Lasting Action in Vivo Than Salvinorin A,” J Pharmacol Exp Ther 324: 1073–1083, www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi? artid=2519046.

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Index Symbols 13th Floor Elevators 110, 111 2C-B 26, 33, 82, 85 2C-B-fly 82, 84 2C-E 26, 27 2C-T-2 26, 27 2C-T-22 83 3-methyleneindolenine 103 3-methylindole 103 4-fluoroamphetamine 62, 63 5-HT 22 5-HT receptors 23 5-MeO-DIPT 27 5-MeO-DMT 58, 59, 73, 74, 76, 77, 87, 93, 95, 104, 146, 147, 148, 149, 159 5-MeO-DMT-N-oxide 104 5-MeO-MIPT 27 A Aardvark, David 27, 70, 113, 125, 134, 135, 170 Abramson, H.A. 119, 170 absinthe 112 Acacia confusa 89 Acacia jarnesiana 107 Acacia piauhyensis 107 Acacia spp. 93 acetone 132, 133, 134, 135, 138 Acid Dreams 165 acid lite 151 Adam (and Eve) 8 Adams, Craig 121 Addis, Paul 14 Adonis 61 Aetherius Society 66 Aghajanian, George 166 agnostic 74, 75 Agurell, S. 109, 114 ain 7 alanine aminotransferase 22 alchemy 50, 51 Alchemy, The Great Secret 50 alcohol 18, 19, 121, 132, 139 alcohol, isopropyl 133, 134 alcoholic/alcoholism 127, 128 alien(s) 73, 75, 81 Aligarh Muslim University 17 Alpha 137, 138, 139, 142 alphabet 49, 51 Amanita muscaria 8, 69, 112 Amaringo, Pablo 164 American Headache Society 123 amitriptyline 119, 120 ammonia 92, 98 amphetamine 54 Amphetamine Syntheses 126, 131 amphetamine-type compounds 22 amrita 7, 8 An Ocelot for a Pillow: Researching Headaches… 120

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Anadenanthera 147, 148, 149, 167, 168 Anadenanthera colubrina var. cebil 167 Anadenanthera peregrina 112, 146 Anadenanthera: Visionary Plant of Ancient South America 146, 166 anandamide 130 anesthetic 22, 120 angel, fallen 7 angel of death 2, 6, 7 anhalonium 117 Anhalonium lewinii (= Lophophora williamsii) 125 Anima 115 Anonymous 90, 93, 114, 147, 155, 170 Anthropos 50 anti-depressant 22, 23, 24, 130 anti-histamine 23 anti-serotonergic 23 anxiety 16, 26, 65 aphrodisiac 17, 24 Apocalypse 81 Apollo/Apollonian 8, 13 Archaea 88 Argüelles, J. 48, 49, 50, 52, 72 Argyreia nervosa 112, 122, 123, 124 Ark Herb Farm 152 Armatocereus laetus 155 Armatocereus matucanensis 155 Army 9, 166 Arnson, David 111 Aromatico, A. 50, 51, 72 Arriaza, B.T. 146 Artemisia vulgaris 157 Arthur, J.D. 69, 70 aspartate aminotransferase 22 autistic 168 ayahuasca 6, 30, 47, 66, 73, 77, 83, 84, 112, 146, 147, 148, 149, 164, 165 Ayahuasca Analogues: Pangæan Entheogens 91 Ayahuasca Forum 104 Ayahuasca Healing Retreat 30, 66 ayahuasca tourism 161, 164 Ayahuasca: Alkaloids, Plants & Analogs 102 ayin 7 az 7 Azazel 7, 8, 9 Azhadaha 7 A¸¸zi Dah‹aka 7, 8 Azrael 2, 6, 7 Aztec(s) 12, 122 Azu 8 Azza 7 B b-carbolines 146, 164 B. Cautious 27 Bacchanalia 13 Backeberg, C. 155, 156, 170 Ball, M. 67, 68, 69 Banisteriopsis caapi 146, 147, 148, 164 barbiturates 127

Barker, Steven 149, 170 Barneby, R.C. 105 Basic Perinatal Matrix 138 Bataille, Georges 13 baybean 163 Beatles, The 76 Beifuss, Will 161, 162, 169 Bender, L. 119, 170 benzene 22, 92 benzodiazepine 62 Beresford, John Spencer (March 28, 1924—September 2, 2007) 37 Berg, C.C. 157, 170 Berman, K.J. 112 Besmer, F.E. 2, 38 Beta 138, 141 betel 17 Bey, Hakim 10 Beyer, S. 2, 3, 4, 38 Bickerstaff Syndrome 121 Big Brother 111 Bimin-Kuskusmin 29 Bingen, Hildegard von 16 bisphenol A 158 Black Rock Desert 10, 12, 35, 56 Blair, Linda 100 Blake, William 12, 13, 49 bliss 151 Bock, Michael 112 Bohemian Grove 81 Bohr, Niels 75 Boire, R.G. 169 Boko, N. 153, 154, 170 BOL-148 (2-bromo-LSD) 118 Book of the Dead 43 Book Three 46, 86 Bosch, Hieronymus 49 Botanical Preservation Corps 91 Boyce, M. 7, 38 Brandt, Daniel 162 Brandt, S.D. 93, 114 Braude, S.E. 9, 38 Britton, N. 155, 170 Brosimum acutifolium 157 Brotherhood of Eternal Love 127, 128 Brown, Norman O. 13 Brown, R.E. 91, 114 Brugmansia arborea 120 Bruhn, J.G. 109, 114 Buchanan, M.S. 89, 93, 114 Buckman, J. 119, 171 Buddha 60, 85, 94 Bufo alvarius 74 bufotenine 87, 147, 148, 157, 168 Buhner, S.H. 23, 38 buprenorphine 122 Burning Man 10, 12, 13, 14, 35, 36, 46, 56, 57, 68, 74, 75, 112 butane 158 N-butyl benzyl phthalate 158 BZ-like drugs 166

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C C.E.F.S. 23, 38 C.S.W.G. 23, 38 cactuhuasca 84 caffeine 41, 42, 160 Cairns, G.F. 77, 78, 114 Calafat, A.M. 158, 170 Caldicott, David 112 Camargo-Ricalde, S.L. 106, 114 Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety (CCOHS) 132, 133, 170 candy acid 151 cannabinoid 130, 131, 163 Cannabis 14, 54, 67, 68, 86, 120, 130, 163 capsaicin 21 carcinogen/carcinogenicity 22, 23, 158 carfentanyl 144 Carlo Rossi 81 Case, J. 147, 151, 170 Casey, S. 158, 170 Castro, M.M. 148, 149, 170 CB-1 agonist 130 cebil 167 cerebrodiene 130 chacruna 164 Chalmers, David 67 Chapel of Sacred Mirrors 30, 112 Charlestown State Prison 18 Chavín 167 Chem Abstracts 44 Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten 165, 166, 171 Chiang, W. 22, 23, 40 chloroform 95 N-chloromethyl-DMT chloride 93 chocolate 12, 24 Chögyam Trungpa 8 Christ 50, 60 Christian/Christianity 69, 73, 74 CIA 9 cigarettes 120 citric acid 102 clairvoyance 9 Clark, Dick 111 Clarke, E.C.G. 149, 170 clover, red 163 Clusterbusters 121 CNS depression 22 CNS excitation 18 CNS stimulants 23 cocaine 54, 129, 130, 160 Cocktoasten, J. 150, 158 coffee 42, 120 Coleman, Joe 32 Coleman, P.A. 153, 170 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 1 Columbian University 117 Condamine, La 167 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater 69 consciousness 54, 55, 57, 60, 77, 78, 86



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Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act 123, 131 Cope, Julian 110 Copernicus 77 Corral, Valerie 66 Council on Spiritual Practices 74, 78 Cowan, M.A. 78, 114 CP-47,497 163 Crankcase, CA 27 Crowley, M. 3, 7, 8, 38 Cumes, David 112 cytochrome P450 21, 103 D Dalai Lama 77 Dangerous Drugs Act 30 DARE 43 Daricha, Deva 112 Darth, C. 91, 114 Darwinism 77 Davies, Paul 76 Davis, B.A. 149, 170 Davis, Deborah 112 Davis, Erik 30, 32, 66, 112 Davis, W. 155 Davis, W.E. 170 Dawkins, Richard 77 DEA 128, 129 death 6, 7, 23, 24, 46, 94 December 21, 2012 48, 53, 81 DeKorne, Jim 113, 114, 117, 118, 125, 169, 170 Delafonze19 88, 89, 92, 101, 102, 114 Delgado, Jorge Luis 112 Delphi 8 Delta 137, 138, 143 demon(s) 4, 99 Deprenyl 158 Der Orientalisch-Indianische Kunst- und Lust-Gärtner 16 Desmarchelier, C. 108, 114 Devereaux, Paul 17 Di Leo, F. 138 Diamond Headache Clinic 121 dichloromethane 92, 93 Dick, L. 117, 171 Dick, P.K. 60 diethyl ether 22, 89, 98, 101 Dionysian 13, 35 DIPT 27 Discovery Channel 160 disembodied 55, 60 dizziness 20, 118 Djerassi, C. 155, 171 DMSO 132, 136 DMT 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 25, 26, 43, 56, 68, 75, 77, 78, 81, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 108, 111, 123, 135, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 157, 158, 159, 162, 163, 164, 167

“DMT for the Masses” (also see “Noman Tek”) 27, 150, 157 DMT-N-oxide 89, 90, 91, 92, 102, 103, 104 DNA 23 Doblin, R. 138, 169, 171 Doctorcito 115 dog, drug-sniffing 68 DonPeyote 115 Doors of Perception, The 69 Dow Chemical Company 42, 43 Dozuki 115 Dr. Feelodd 137 Dr. Lysergic 127, 128 Dr. Mercury 137 Dream House (ibogaine addiction treatment center) 67 Drexler, Eric 57 Dri Med Zhel Phreng 7 Drug Detection Labs 163 Drummond, Paul 110 Duke, J. 21, 38 Dying (Grey) 6, 9 E e-Bay 132 E.V. Love 169 Eagle’s Wing Centre for Contemporary Shamanism 164 Ecstatic Body Postures 25 Eddington, Sir Arthur 75 Edgewood Arsenal 165, 166 Efron, D.H. 171 Ehrenreich, Barbara 13 Einstein, Albert 75 El Ka Bong 90 El Mundo Magico 164 El-Seedi, H.R. 109, 114 Elbert, Twix 112 elemicin 20, 21, 23 elf/elves 1, 5, 9, 73, 81 Ellis, Havelock 117, 125, 171 Emboden, W.A. 29, 38, 122, 171 enema 58 Energy Control 136 Enlightenment, the 13 Entheo-Educational Experience 112 entheogen 73 Entheogenesis Australis 112 Entheogenist 88, 100, 115 Entheogens and the Future of Religion 78 Entheon Village 75 entities/entity 4, 5, 9, 25, 54, 137, 145 Entropymancer 87, 105, 115 Ephedra 112 ergine 122 ergot alkaloids 127 ergotamine 121 Erickson, Roky 110, 111 Erowid.org 5, 19, 20, 25, 26, 63, 85, 138, 163, 164 Erowid, Earth 31, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 79, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 121, 169

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Erowid Extracts 65 Erowid, Fire 31, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 121, 169 Escher, M.C. 25 Essential Psychedelic Guide, The 56 estragole 21 ethanol 17, 132, 133, 134 ether 92 eugenol 21 euphoria 18, 98, 151 Eve (and Adam) 8 everclear 96 Existentialism 76 eye/eyes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 25 EYE MIND: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators 110, 111 Ezekial 2 F Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, The 111 Fairchild Tropical Garden 161 Fandango, K. 20, 38 Farber, Philip H. 112 FBI 129 FDA 23, 130, 152, 158 fingerprint 160 flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) 24 Forbidden Donut 91, 114 Forest, Ohki Simine 112 Fork, CA 61, 160 Forrest, J.E. 17, 21, 22, 23, 38 Fowler, A. 152, 171 foxy 27 Franklin, Marc 37 Fr‹ed‹on 7 Freitag 121 Frog, Ltd. 35 FS Book Company 131 Fuego 115 FunGal 35, 169 G G., John 169 Gaiman 7 d-galactosamine 22 Gamma 138, 141 Garcia, Carolyn 66 Garcia, Percy 66 Garden of Eden 7, 8, 58 Garden of Eden (Voogelbreinder) 161, 162 Geneva Photography 156 George Washington University 117 German Society of Pharmacologists 125 Ghandi 77 Gibbons, Billy 111 Ginsberg, Allen 10, 11, 111 glutathione S-transferase 23 Gmail 162 Gnosis 138, 171 God 2, 7, 58, 59, 60, 61, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 86, 94, 117

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God Delusion, The 77 God Theory, The 77 Google 162 Gore, Belinda 25 Gorey, Edward 36 Gracie (and Zarkov) 25 Graves, Morris 86 Graves, R. 8, 38 Great Society 111 Green Man 10, 12, 13 Gregory, Lady 60 Grey, Alex 6, 9, 30, 78, 112, 169 Griffiths, R.R. 64, 65, 72 Grizzly 155, 156 Grof, S. 78, 138 Gruber, J.W. 133, 171 gtor ma 4 Guahibo 146, 147 guardian 4, 6, 7, 94 Gurdjieff 111 Guzmán, G. 28, 29, 30, 38 Gwyllm 169 gza’ 2 H hair testing 146, 147, 148, 149 Haisch, Bernard 77 Haley, A. 38 Hall, Tommy 110, 111 Hallstrom, H. 22, 23, 38 hallucinations 18, 19, 21 hallucinogenic 22, 23, 144, 147 Halpern, John 122 (also see TER 15(1): 9–16, and TER 15(2): 59–55) Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology 125 Hanh, Thich Nhat 77 Hanna, Jon 9, 33, 36, 37, 38, 67, 75, 114, 152, 161, 168, 169 harmala alkaloids 146, 148 harmine 147 Harpignies, J.P. 30 Harrison, Annie 66 Harrison, Kat 34, 138, 171 Harvard 121, 125 Harvey, Robert 152 hash/hasish 17, 69, 131 hash oil 158 Hasheesh Eater, The 69 Hawaiian baby woodrose 122, 123, 124 Haworth Press, Inc. 166 Hazarika, Pompi 160 Heacock, R.A. 17, 21, 22, 23, 38 headache 62, 63, 117, 120 headache, cluster 73, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 128 Heart of the Initiate 165 Heffter, Arthur 118, 125, 171 Heim, R. 9, 28, 29, 38, 39 Heimia salicifolia 112 Heisenberg, Werner 75 Helen 169 Helicostylis pedunculata 157

Helicostylis tomentosa 157 Helms, Chet 111 henbane 8 hepatocarcinogenicity 23 hepatoprotective 22 hepatotoxic 22 heptane 87, 92, 98, 100, 101 Heraclitus 51 heroin 160 Hesse, H. 111 hexane 104 Heyoka 89, 116 Hicks, Raven 112 Higdon, Carla 169 High Sierra Music Festival 14 Hitler, A. 75 Hobbes, Thomas 11 Hoffmann, Martina 85, 86 Hofmann, A. 17, 40, 75, 122, 161 Hofmann, Albert (January 11, 1906— April 29, 2008) 71 Hofmann, Lisa 143 Holmstedt, B. 146, 171 Holotropic Breathwork 47 Home Depot 155 Homestead Book Company 131 honey 163 Horowitz, M. 171 Houston, TX 21, 39 How to Survive the Apocalypse 112 Howard, M. 7, 39 Hryhorczuk, L.M. 149, 171 HU-210 163 Hughes, C. 158, 173 Hunt, D. 109, 114, 155, 171 Hurricane Katrina 11 Huxley, A. 75, 111 hydrogen peroxide 90 Hylin, J.W. 122, 171 hypotension/hypotensive 18, 22, 23 I Illuminatus! Trilogy 4 Imitrex™ 123 Indian warrior 163 Indigenous Botanical Illustration Project 161 Ingerman, Sandra 112 Inner Traditions 58 Inscapes: Real-Estate Paintings 85 Insight Outlook 75 Inspired Madness: The Gifts of Burning Man 13, 35, 36 International Cactaceae Systematics Group 109 Ipomoea violacea 122 Irwin, Melissa 169 Ishtahar 7 Island 75 iso-elemicin 21 iso-eugenol 21 iso-LSA 124

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VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 4



WINTER SOLSTICE 2008

J

L

J.S., OR 88, 108, 114 J.T., CA 55 Jackson, N. 7, 39 Jaffé, A. 72 James, W. 9, 39 Jasmine 128 Jeans, Sir James 76 Jeffers, Robinson 14 Jesse, R. 72 Jesus 94 Jim, Kahuna Harry Uhane 112 JLF 108 Johns Hopkins 67, 78 Johnson, M.W. 72 Joplin, Janis 111 Jordon, K. 67 Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 120 Journal of Clinical Toxicology 23 Journal of Ethnopharmacology 157 Journal of Internal Medicine 23 Journal of Psychopharmacology 64 Jung, C. 50, 51, 72 Jungian 6 jungle spice 87, 88, 89, 93, 94, 97, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 108 jurema 88, 103, 107, 108 jurema branca 107 jurema negra 107 jurema preta 107 JWH-018 163

La Pastora 138 LAE-32 (D-lysergic acid ethylamide) 118 Lamia 8 lamid 151 language 48, 49, 53 laudanum 69 Lawrence Livermore National Lab 158 Leary, Timothy 10, 11, 25, 69, 94 Lee, B.J. 78, 114 Lee, D.Y. 137, 171 Lee, S-J. 171 Lemmiwinks 116 Lenin 13 Lennon, John 76 Leonurus spp. 112 Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique 9 Leviathan 4 Lhamayin 2, 7, 8 Light of the 3rd Millennium 50 Lilly, John 1 limonene 96 Lindgren, J-E. 146, 171 Ling, T.M. 119, 171 Linklater, Richard 60 lion’s tail 163 lipopolysaccharide 22 lithium 120 Little-Known Bird of the Inner Eye 86 Logan, R.K. 51, 72 Logee’s Greenhouses 152, 154 logos 51 Loki 8 lotus, blue 96, 163 lotus, pink 163 Love Drugs 126, 131 Lozano, Pedro 167 LSA 117, 122, 123, 124, 125 LSD 5, 9, 18, 21, 54, 75, 76, 110, 111, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127, 128, 137, 144, 151, 166 LSD (Snow) 121, 126, 127 LSD: My Problem Child 75 lu 2, 3 Lucas, George 53 Lucifer 8 Ludlow, F.H. 69, 164 Luke, D.P. 1, 4, 39 Lule 167, 168 Lux 64, 65 Lycaeum Member 89 lye 27 lysergic acid amide 117, 123 Lyttle, T. 126 Lyttle, Thomas (May 5, 1955—September 5, 2008) 113

K Kalbhen, D.A. 15, 21, 23, 39 Kamata, T. 104, 114 Kaplow, L. 117, 120, 171 karyogamy 34 Kent, J. 4, 25, 39 Kernel 34 Kerouac, J. 111 ketamine 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 112 Ketchum, J.S. 165, 166 King, George 66 King, Jr., Martin Luther 77 Kittenis, M. 4, 39 Klarwein, Mati 85 Kloos, P. 157, 171 Knize, Karel 109 Kokavec, Anna 112 kokusaginine 88 koobl tourroum/kougl-tourroum/koull tourroum 28 Korzybski, Alfred 111 Krieg, M.B. 15, 16, 39 Krippner, Stanley 112 Krotona Apartments 66 Kubla Khan 1 Kuma 28, 29 Kurland, A.A. 138

M Maboud 112 mace 15, 16, 17, 22 Machiguenga 120

maconha brava 163 Madden, Kristin 112 Maharishi 76 Malcolm X 18, 38 Mangini, Mariavittoria 66 Manu National Park 120 MAO (monoamine oxidase) 149 MAO-A inhibitor 159 MAO-A/B inhibitor 159 MAO-B inhibitor 159 MAOI (MAO inhibitor) 22, 97, 105, 108, 146, 157 MAPS Bulletin 107 marijuana 18, 19, 20, 96, 110, 130, 160 Marinol 130 Marquis 20, 39 marshmallow 163 Marsofold 116 “Marsofold Tek” 100, 101 Mauss, Marcel 13 Mavericks of the Mind 48 May, A. 120, 171 Mayan calendar 48, 75 Mazatec(s) 122, 137 McCann, U.D. 72 McKenna, Dennis 34 McKenna, Terence 1, 8, 34, 39, 48, 49, 50, 69, 72, 81, 90, 94, 95, 164 McLuhan, M. 49, 51, 53, 72 McPherson, Sister Aimee Semple 66 MDA 22, 58 MDMA 45, 62, 63, 76, 80, 84, 85, 86, 130, 131, 159 Me 20, 39 Meckes-Lozoya 108, 114 Medicine Eagle, Chalise Brooke 112 Medusa 8 Meister, Georg 16 Memories, Dreams, Reflections 51 mental illness 128 menthol 133 mescaline 42, 43, 54, 69, 75, 109, 110, 117, 118, 125, 159 methadone 160 methamphetamine 159, 160 l-methamphetamine 159 methanol 89, 104, 105 methoxy-eugenol 21 methoxysafrole 22 methyl-eugenol 21 methyl-isoeugenol 21 methylisopropyllysergamide 151 methylphenidate (Ritalin) 64, 65 methysergide 119, 120, 123 Meyer, P. 4, 39 Michaux, H. 69 migraine 62, 118, 119, 120, 121, 127, 128 Miguez, Joe 112 Milcher, R.D. 37 Miller, M. 103, 115 Mimosa burgonia 107 Mimosa hostilis 92, 97, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 162

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Mimosa pudica 107, 108 Mimosa root-bark 89, 93 Mimosa scabrella 107 Mimosa tenuiflora (= M. hostilis) 87, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 150 Mimosa verrucosa 106, 107, 108 mimosine 108 Mind Books 169 Mind of God, The 76 Mind States 31, 34, 41, 79, 152 MindPapers 67 miracle berries 152, 153, 154 Miracle Fruit Man 154 Miracle Fruit USA 154 miraculin 152, 154 MisterGypsy 116 MKULTRA 9 ML-2C-E 26 MMDA 21 Moretti, C. 157 Morgan, F.P. 117, 118, 172 Morita, T. 22, 23, 39 morning glory 122, 123 morphine 160 morphogenetic field 6 Mother Teresa 77 Moving Sidewalks, The 111 moxy 27 Mr. Zoom, Basel 63 Müller-Ebeling, C. 16, 21, 40, 161 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) 75 mummy 146, 147, 148, 149 Munko 169 Munro, T.A. 137, 138, 172 Mushroom Wisdom 69 mushrooms, psilocybin-containing 5, 18, 25, 65, 112, 119, 120, 123, 144 Myristica fragrans 15 myristicin 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Mysterious Universe, The 76 Mysterium Coniunctionis 50 mystical experience 64, 65, 67, 78 mysticism 73, 74 N Nagano, Ibo 15 n‹agas 2 Nalgene 150, 158 naphtha 27, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 97, 101, 102, 133, 157 Napolean Blownapart 116 Narby, J. 30, 67 National Institute on Drug Abuse 65 nausea 18, 20, 21, 26, 30, 62, 84, 118, 122 Nebesky-Wojkowitz, R. 4, 39 Neitzsche 60 Nelumbo nucifera 112 nerve gas 166 Neurology 122 Nevitt, B. 49, 72 New Cactus Lexicon 155

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New York Times, The 152 Nicholas, L.G. 34 Nichols, D. 82 Nichols, Mark 112 nicotine 160 nitrous oxide 58, 59 Noble Lie 11 Noble Savage 11 Noman 27, 88, 89, 115, 116, 150, 157 “Noman Tek” (also see “DMT for the Masses”) 100, 101 Nook, the 102 North Atlantic Books 13, 35 nutmeg 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 Nyingma yogin 3 Nymphaea caerulea 112 O O.P. SAK 68 O’Callaghan, M. 53, 72 Oeric 34 Ogalde, J.P. 146, 147, 148, 149, 172 Ogamé, Kerry 34 Ohenoja, E. 148, 172 Ojai Foundation 30 oleamide 130 ololiuhqui 122 Olsen, Frank 8, 9 Omagua 167 One Drop Only 133 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 111 opioids 137 opium 54, 69, 131 Organization for Understanding Cluster Headache 123 orgasm, spiritual 95 orgone box 44 Oroc 58, 59, 69, 72, 73 Ortega, A. 137, 172 Ortiz, Ernesto 112 Oss 34 Oswald 22 Ott, Jonathan 32, 39, 75, 91, 107, 108, 115, 132, 133, 134, 136, 144, 146, 157, 161, 162, 168, 169, 172 Otter, who dreams of lightning 37 Ouspensky 111 oven roasting bags 67 Owl 5, 39 Oxford University 132, 172 OXY 126, 131 oxygen 119, 120 P Pachano, Mambo 102, 115 Pachycereus pringlii 84 Pagan Christmas 21 Pahnke, W. 138 pain 118 painkiller(s) 117, 131 Palmer, C. 171

panic 20 Papaver bracteatum 131 Papaver somniferum 131 Paradise 58 paranoia 141 paranormal 56 Parker, Charlie 18 Patient Zero 121 Payne, Tim 112 PCP 129 Peak Experience Profile 138, 139 Peganum harmala 146 Pendell, Dale 10, 30, 35, 36, 169 Pendell, Laura 30 Peopled Darkness 69, 70 pepper, black 20, 21, 22 pepper, cayenne 20, 21 Perrine, D. 118, 172 Perry, J.W. 53 Perseus 8 Pesce, Mark 32 peyote 42, 47, 79, 110, 117, 118, 125 peyote, petrified 109, 110 peyote regrowth 160 Peyote Way Church 75 “PF Tek” 34 Phalaris grass 93 phenethylamine 158, 159 philosopher’s stone 51 Philosophical Research Society 66 Physicians’ Desk Reference 128 Piaroa 146 Pickard, Leonard 37 PIHKAL 26, 43, 44, 45, 75, 83, 159 Pinchbeck, D. 52, 67, 69, 72 pineal gland 78 piperine 21 pishicol 155 Pithecellobium acacioides 107 Pithecellobium diversifolium 107 Pithecellobium dumosum 107 Pithecellobium tortum 107 pizotifen 119 placebo 64, 133 plant spirits 137 plant teachers 75 plastics 150, 157, 158 Plastinate, CA 157 Plato 11 PML-146 (1-methyl-d-lysergic acid propanolamide) 118 Poisons Act 30 police 11, 14 Pollux, Castor 26, 69 polycarbonate 158 polyethylene 158 polypropylene 158 polystyrene 158 polyvinyl chloride 158 Poole, F.J.P. 29, 39 Pope, Jr., Harrison 122 Pope, Just Freeman 35, 36 poppies 131

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 4

precognition 9 prednisone 120 Prentiss, D.W. 117, 118, 172 Presti, David 30 Price, Donald 119 Prisinzano, T. 137, 172 Process (publisher) 110 Promethean/Prometheus 7, 8 propranolol 119, 120, 121 psi 9, 43 Psilocybe 25, 26, 28, 35 Psilocybe kumænorum 28, 29, 30 Psilocybe semilanceata 148 psilocybin 5, 9, 30, 54, 64, 65, 67, 78, 117, 121, 122, 123, 128, 148 Psilocybin Mushroom Handbook 34 Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower’s Guide 34 Psychedelic Illuminations 25 Psychedelic Index 45, 86 Psychedelic Monographs and Essays 113 Psychedelic Shamanism 125 Psychoactive Sacramentals 78 “Psychoactive Substances and Art Through History” 161 Psychonaut Channel (YouTube) 67 psychotherapy, neuro-feedback 66 psychotomimetic 126 Psychotria viridis 93, 164 Puca, F. 119, 172 Pup 5, 39 Python 8 Q QuantumBrujo 88 Quepo 109 Quick American 34 Quicksilver 111 Quincey, Thomas de 69 R r6xx.com 154 Radio879 89, 102 Rahu 3, 4, 7, 8 Rama, Swami 73 rats 17 Rätsch, C. 16, 17, 21, 39, 40, 161, 162, 167 Raxworthy, Julian 112 Reality Sandwich 67 Reay, M. 28, 40 reductionist materialism 74, 77, 78 Reed, Kyle 125 Refugio Altiplano 165 REI 68 Reich, Wilhelm 43 Renz, J. 108, 115 Repke, D.B. 146, 166, 167, 168, 173 Republic 11 research chemical 26, 68 Return of Quetzalcoatl, The 52 RFID 68, 162



WINTER SOLSTICE 2008

Rhead, J.C. 138 Ricaurte, George 27 Richard F. Brush Art Gallery 161 Richardella dulcifica 152 Richards, W.A. 72, 138 Ritalin (methylphenidate) 64 Ritter, F. 156, 172 Rivier, L. 146 Rodd, R. 146, 172 Rodriguez, M.A. 1, 9, 40 Rolo, A. 119, 170 rose 163 Rose, J.N. 155, 170 Roth, B.L. 137, 172 Rothman, R. 137, 172 Rousseau, Jean Jacques 11 Rudgley, R. 8, 17, 40 Russell, David 160 Russo, E.B. 120, 125, 172 S safrole 20, 21, 22, 23 Sage Spirit: Salvia Divinorum and the Entheogenic… 68 Salmon, W. 17, 40 Salvia 142, 143 Salvia Authors 138, 172 Salvia divinorum 30, 54, 55, 68, 69, 70, 98, 112, 132, 133, 134, 137, 160 Salvia divinorum Extractions Using Chilled Acetone 133, 134 Salvia divinorum Observer, The 160 Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center 69 Salvia Divinorum Salvinorin Extraction… 136 Salvia_Antics 116 salvinorin A 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 160 salvinorin B 138 salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether 137, 138 salvinorin B methoxymethyl ether 137 San Pedro 153, 154, 156, 164 Sand, Nick 169 Sandman, The 7 Sangalli, B.C. 22, 23, 40 Sansert™ 119, 123 sassafras 23 Sauret, Etienne 47 Sceletium tortuosum 112 Schilling, Nicola 125 Schizandra 63 schizophrenia/schizophrenic 112, 168 Schultes, R.E. 17, 40, 118, 147, 161, 172, 173 scopolamine 166 Scroogle.org 132, 162 scullcap, dwarf 163 Seconal 117 sedative 22 self-transforming machine elves 75, 94

Sensitivae Censitae: A Description of the Genus Mimosa 105 serotonergic 22 serotonin 119 Serrano, C.A. 109, 115 set and setting 25 Seven, Zoe 69 Seventh International Conference on Shamanism 112 Sewell, R. Andrew 117, 122, 124, 172 Shaman Australis 106, 107 Shamanism, Visionary Art, and the Dark Side 30 Shaman’s Drum 68 Shea, Robert 4 Sheldrake, R. 6, 40 Shelton, Gilbert 111 Shemyaza 7 SheShamans 30 Shiedsak 68 Shipibo 164 Shirota, O. 137, 173 Shpongle 94 Shulgin, A.T. (also see Shulgin, Sasha) 21, 22, 24, 40, 115, 139, 145, 173 Shulgin, Ann 26, 31, 33, 34, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 66, 69, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 139, 169, 173 Shulgin, Sasha 26, 31, 33, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 66, 69, 75, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 109, 167, 169 Siberian motherwort 163 Sicuteri, F. 119, 120, 173 Siebert, D. 69, 134, 135, 136, 137, 144, 173 Sigma 85 Silveira Barbosa, Y-W.M. da 107, 114 Sim, V.M. 165 sitter 83, 84, 85 Sjoholm, A. 23, 40 skatole 102, 103 Slick, Grace 111 Smet, P.A.G.M. de 114, 146, 173 Smith, H. 75 Smith, M. 155 Smith, M.V. 91, 115 Snow, Otto 121, 126, 173 snuff 146, 149, 167 Snyder, Gary 10, 11, 12 Socrates 13 Soedario, M. 108, 115 Solcor-3 147, 148 soma 7, 8 Soto, E.C. 146 Souza, Tina de 112 Spades, The 111 Sphere 132, 133, 134, 136, 173 sphinx 25 Spice (synth. cannabinoid) 163, 164 spice, green (tryptamine) 93 spice, purple (tryptamine) 93 spice, red (tryptamine) 94, 104 Spicemeister 88, 89

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SpiritQuest 165 Squires, R.F. 159, 173 Stagewerx 112 Stalin 75 Steadman, Ralph 36 Stein, U. 15, 18, 23, 24, 40 steroids, anabolic 122 Stevens, J. 119, 173 Stolaroff, Myron 26 Stoller, Lincoln 66 Storming Heaven 119, 165 Story, Medicine 112 Strassman, R. 6, 40, 67, 78, 115 Stuart, R. 169 sumatriptan 119, 120, 123 Sun, H.J. 173 Superweed, M.J. 91, 115 Suzuki, O. 159, 173 sweat lodge 79, 80 Swierkosz, Tara Andrea 112 Symmetry 137, 138, 139, 140, 143, 144, 145 Synsepalum dulcificum 152, 154 Syrian rue 25, 26, 95 T Tabernanthe iboga 46, 112 Taíno 167 Tajuddin 17, 40 takini/takweni/tauni 157 Tanaami, Keiichi 167 Tania 169 Tarahumara 42 Taylor & Francis Group, Ltd. 166 Taylor, W.R. 109, 115 tea 120 Tedlock, Barbara 112 Tedlock, Dennis 112 telepathic/telepathy 9, 80 temporary autonomous zone 10 Tendzin yongdü 3 tepescohuite 106 Terry, M. 109, 115, 155 Thanatos to Eros 26 THC 130, 160, 163, 164 THC & Tropacocaine 126, 129, 131 TheAngryGolfer 116 Themeda australis 29 Thomas, Benjamin 28 Thomas, Tommy 152 Thuvander, A. 22, 23, 38 Thyssen, Sylvia 169 Tiahuanaco 167 Tiamat 8 TIHKAL 27, 83 time 59, 60, 141 TMA 21 Toad 169 tobacco 17 toluene 87, 88, 89, 92, 100, 101 Torres, C.M. 146, 147, 148, 161, 166, 167, 168, 173

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Torres, Donna 161, 167 Torsten 88, 106, 107, 115, 116 Toward a Science of Consciousness 30 Tramacchi, Des 112 Transformative Vision, The 48, 49, 52 Tree of Knowledge 7 Tree of Life 142 Trichocereus 112 Trichocereus cuzcoensis (= Echinopsis cuzcoensis) 109 Trichocereus pachanoi 155, 156 Trichocereus pachanot 153, 155 Trichocereus peruvianus 109 Trichocereus puquiensis 109 Trichocereus schoenii 109 Trillium (absinthe) 153 trimyristin 20, 21 Trip333 5, 40 Tritan™ 158 tropacocaine 130 tropane alkaloids 18 Trout, Keeper 102, 108, 115, 146, 153, 156, 166, 169 Trout’s Notes 162 TRP (The Resonance Project) 56 Trubshaw, Bob 9 Truitt, Jr., E.B. 22, 24, 40 Trungpa, C. 40 tryptamine 88, 99, 100 tryptamine N-oxides 104 Tryptamine Palace 58, 73 tryptamines 146, 148 Tucker, Jason W.A. 48, 53 Tucson Gem & Mineral Show 110 Turbina (= Rivea) corymbosa 122, 123 Turner, D.M. 4, 40, 56, 57, 72 Turner, Muriel 66 U U.S. Pharmacopeia 118, 125 UFO 66 UML-491 (1-methyl-lysergic acid butanolamide) 118 United Nations 131 University of East Anglia 160 University of Tsukuba’s Gene Research Center 154 V Vajrapani 7, 8 Valhalla 58 Van Gogh 86 vanilla 163 Vedanta Society of Southern California 66 Venosa, Robert 86 Ventura, Mireia 136 Vepsäläinen 88, 90, 102, 103, 115 verapamil 120 Villoldo, Alberto 112 Visionary Hollywood 66

Visionary Practice: Ritual and Reshaping… 30 Visionary State, The 66 Visions that the Plants Gave Us 161 Vitex agnus-castus 107 vom Saal, F. 158, 173 vomiting 84, 122 Voogelbreinder, Snu 161 Vovin’s boards 100 Voyage Beyond 66 VX 166 W W., Martin 112 Wallace, Bob 169 Wang, Y. 137, 173 War on Drugs 13 Ward, Whitney 32 WarrenSaged 94, 115 Wasiwaska Research Centre 161 Wasson, R.G. 8, 9, 28, 29, 39, 43, 75 Watchful Eye Designs 67, 68 Watling, R. 38 Watson, D.P. 122, 171 Watts, Alan 10, 11, 75, 135 Watusi 80 Weil, A.T. 40 Welch, John 165 Wiedemann, Torsten 112 Wilbur Hot Springs 66 Williamson, Kath 112 Wilson, B. 16, 40 Wilson, Robert Anton 4 wine 112, 154 Wold, Bob 121 Women’s Visionary Congress 66 World Psychedelic Forum 67, 74 World War II 18, 75 X xanthydrol 104, 105 xylene 87, 88, 89, 92, 97, 101, 102 Y Y2K 53 Yensen, R. 138 yoga 25 YouTube 142 yuremamine 87, 88, 90, 103, 104, 105 Z Za 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 Zahh‹ak 7 zain/zayin 7 Zarkov (and Gracie) 25 zemís 167 zero-point field 74, 77 Zhah 132, 162 Zinfandel 41, 81 Zu 8 ZZ Top 111

THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW, POB 19820, SACRAMENTO, CA 95819-0820, USA

CONTENTS

The Entheogen Review The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Editor: David Aardvark Technical Editor: Keeper Trout Copy Editor: E.V. Love

Contributors R. Andrew Sewell Otto Snow Thomas Lyttle Zhah Dr. Mercury Dr. Feelodd J. Cocktoasten Justin Case Jon Hanna Keeper Trout Plastinate, CA Fork, CA The Salvia Divinorum Observer The Discovery Channel Will Beifuss

Unauthorized Research on Cluster Headache

117

Otto Snow Speaks…

126

Lost in Jonathan Ott’s Footsteps: Acetone Tinctures of Salvia divinorum

132

First Look at a New Psychoactive Drug: Symmetry (salvinorin B ethoxymethyl ether)

137

Old Hair and Tryptamines

146

Keep that Mimosa Mud!

150

Lamid

151

I Need a Miracle

152

Network Feedback

155

Armatocereus Again?

155

Trichocereus pachanot

155

Takini: Identification & Chemistry

157

Extracting Plastics

157

Deprenyl & Phenethylamine

158

Peyote Harvests

160

California Bans Salvia Sales to Minors

160

Buy Some Gloves!

160

Sources

161

Book Reviews

165

Farewell and Thanks!

169

Bibliography

170

Index for All 2008 Issues

174

Information presented in The Entheogen Review comes from many different sources and represents the opinions and beliefs of a highly diverse group of individuals. The Entheogen Review’s editors assume no responsibility for the accuracy of any claims or representations presented in the text, illustrations, or advertisements of this journal, nor do they encourage illegal activities of any type. Manufacture, possession, or sale of a controlled substance is a crime that can result in a lengthy prison term and significant fines.

Disclaimer: Design & Layout Soma Graphics

Address The Entheogen Review POB 19820 Sacramento, CA 95819, USA

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Front Cover (detail) & Back Cover Gifts from Pachamama 1 Watercolor, pencil, conté, and charcoal on Arches paper, 47 x 28 inches ©2004 by Donna Torres www.donnatorres.com

Statement of Purpose: From 1992 through 2008, this journal served as a clearinghouse for current data about the use of visionary plants and drugs. It was the voice of a community of subscribers seeking and sharing information on the cultivation, extraction, and ritual use of entheogens. All communications were kept in strictest confidence—published material was identified by the author’s initials and state of residence (pseudonym or name printed on request only). After transcription, all correspondence was shredded and recycled or incinerated. The mailing list (kept encrypted) was not for sale, rent, or loan to anyone for any reason.

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THE ENTHEOGEN REVIEW The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs

Volume XVI, Number 4



Winter Solstice 2008



ISSN 1066-1913